Deism of Madison, Washington, Adams, Franklin and Allen
The publicly espoused Deism of Thomas Jefferson is discussed in the essay on Foundational Documents of the United States. Thomas Paine’s lack of belief is discussed in the main document on government.
James Madison is often called the "Father of the Constitution." He was the primary author of the Virginia Constitution and he was heavily involved with the drafting of the federal Constitution at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. He was one of the three authors of the Federalist Papers used to sell the Constitution to the existing states. Madison spoke eloquently and often about the need for a wall of separation between church and state. He was somewhat less public about his personal distrust of Christian religion but there is ample explicit historical proof of his position:
“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprize..”
-- James Madison, in a letter to William Bradford, April 1,1774
“Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity in exclusion of all other religions may establish, with the same ease, any particular sect of Christians in exclusion of all other sects? That the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute threepence only of his property for the support of any one establishment may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever?”
-- James Madison, A Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, addressed to the Virginia General Assembly, June 20, 1785
It should be noted that questionable quotes have a life of their own in modern media. A “Christian Nation” propagandist David Barton admitted in 1996 that he had been using twelve quotes that were either false or questionable. (1) Does this mean that they are no longer used? No! consider just two of these
“We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves ... according to the Ten Commandments of God.”
-- James Madison
This quote was admitted to be false but it is now referenced in over 1,000 locations on the web, in most cases with the complete presumption that it is true.
“It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”
-- George Washington
This highly questionable quote now appears over 500 times on the web according to Google. I am not sure that anyone even knows where or when this is supposed to have been said.
Back to reality, George Washington was quite reticent about his religious views in public. As with all Deists he would freely use “God” or “Providence” on occasion where appropriate in communication both public and private. However, his non-Christianity became painfully visible with his refusal to ever take communion. When excoriated about this in a sermon he then ceased to come to church on any communion Sunday. This did not go unnoticed. The rector of the church Washington attended noted this and fully accepted that he was a Deist.
Two quotes from Reverend Doctor James Abercrombie:
"With respect to the inquiry you make, I can only state the following facts:…he had received a very just rebuke from the pulpit for always leaving the church before the administration of the sacrament; … Accordingly, he never afterwards came on the morning of sacrament Sunday, though at other times he was a constant attendant in the morning."
and:
"Sir, Washington was a Deist."
to The Reverend Bird Wilson, an Episcopal minister in Albany, New York, upon Wilson's having inquired of Abercrombie regarding Washington's religious beliefs. (2)
"In regard to the subject of your inquiry, truth requires me to say that General Washington never received the communion in the churches of which I am the parochial minister. Mrs. Washington was an habitual communicant. I have been written to by many on that point, and have been obliged to answer them am as I now do you."
-- The Right Reverend William White, the first bishop of Pennsylvania, friend of Washington and bishop of Christ's Church in Philadelphia, which Washington attend for about 25 years when he happened to be in that city, in a letter to Colonel Mercer of Fredericksberg, Virginia, on August 15, 1835 (3)
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History of American Government
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