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to the idea of extravagance in the erection of the buildings, which has spread far and wide among the mass; and even among a part of the intelligent circle of society."

Mr. Jefferson wrote Dr. Waterhouse, June 26th: "I have received and read with thankfulness and pleasure your denunciation of the abuses of tobacco and wine. I expect it will be a sermon to the wind. You will find it as difficult to inculcate these sanative precepts on the sensualities of the present day, as to convince an Athanasian that there is but one God. The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man: 1. That there is one only God, and he is perfect. 2. That there is a future state of rewards and punishments. 3. That to love God with all your heart and thy neighbor as thyself, is the sum of religion. These are the great points on which he endeavored to reform the religion of the Jews. But compare with these the demoralizing dogmas of Calvin: 1. That there are three Gods. 2. That good works, or the love of our neighbor, are nothing. 3. That faith is everything, and the more incomprehensible the proposition, the more merit in its faith. 4. That reason in religion is of unlawful use. 5. That God, from the beginning, elected certain individuals to be saved, and certain others to be damned; and that no crimes of the former can damn them; no virtue of the latter save.

Now which of these is the true and charitable Christian? He who believes and acts on the simple doctrines of Jesus, or the impious dogmatists, as Athanasius and Calvin? Verily I say these are the false shepherds, mere usurpers of the Christian name, teaching a counter-religion made up of the deliria of many imaginations, as foreign from Christianity as is that of Mahomet. Their blasphemies produce infidels, but had the doctrines of Jesus been preached always as pure as they came from his lips, the whole civilized world would now have been Christian. I rejoice that the genuine doctrine of one only God is reviving, and I trust that there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die an Unitarian." In a letter to Adams, June 27th, he wrote: "I happened to turn to my letter-list some time ago, when I found those received year before last to be twelve hundred and sixty-seven, many of them requiring answers of elaborate research, and all to be answered with due attention and con

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sideration. Is this life? At best it is but the life of a millhorse, who sees no end to his circle but in death. To such a life, that of a cabbage is paradise." Again, November 1st, While in Europe I formed, undoubtedly, the opinion that our government, as soon as practicable, should provide a naval force sufficient to keep the Barbary States in order; and on this subject we communicated together, as you observe. When I returned to the United States and took part in the administration under General Washington, I constantly maintained that opinion, and reported to Congress in favor of a force sufficient to protect our Mediterranean commerce. I thought afterwards, that the public safety might require some additional vessels of strength, to be prepared and preserved in readiness in dry docks, above the level of the tide waters, covered with roofs, but clear of the expense of officers and men. But the majority of the Legislature (Congress) was against any addition to the navy, and the minority, although for it in judgment, voted against it on the principle of opposition."

To this letter Adams replied: "I have always imputed to you the measures of Congress ordering the four ships built and the appointment of their captains, for carrying an ambassador to Algiers to protect our commerce in the Mediterranean. I did this for several reasons: First, because you frequently proposed it to me while we were at Paris, negotiating together for peace with the Barbary powers. Secondly, because I knew that Washington and Hamilton were not only indifferent about a navy, but averse to it. There was no Secretary of the Navy; only four heads of department. I have always suspected that you and Knox were in favor of a navy, but Washington, I am confident, was against it in his judgment, yet his attachment to Knox, and his deference to your opinion, for I know he had great regard for you, might induce him to decide in favor of you and Knox, even though Bradford united with Hamilton in opposition to you. I have always believed the navy to be Jefferson's child, though Knox may have assisted in ushering it into the world. Hamilton's hobby was the army."

CHAPTER VI

THOMAS JEFFERSON-CHAMPION OF FREE-RELIGION AND

GOVERNMENT

Letters to Dr. Cooper and James Smith-religious conditions and ideas; student discipline; denominational schools near the University; letter to Gallatin; ambition for the University-remitting her debts, financial difficulties disappearing; correspondence with Cabell; rotunda begun; letter to Judge Johnson_defining object of the Federalists; letter to Cartwright explaining State and Federal powers; letter to Adams concerning health and the University; letter to President Monroe about Monroe Doctrine"; letters to Lafayette, Cabell, Jared Sparks and Van Buren; Gilmer seeking professors abroad; buildings completed and described; English professors arrive; University opened March 7, 1825.

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MR. JEFFERSON wrote Dr. Cooper, November 2, 1822: "While in Boston Unitarianism has advanced to great strength, with interchange of sectarian pulpits, in Rhode Island no sectarian preacher will permit an Unitarian to pollute his desk. In Richmond there is much fanaticism; in Charlottesville there is a good degree of religion, with a small spice of fanaticism. We have four sects, but no church or meeting house, except the court house, which is the common temple one Sunday in the month to each, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist, where all meet together, join in hymning their Maker, listen with attention and devotion to each other's preachers, and all mix in society with perfect harmony. The ambition and tyranny of the Presbyterians would tolerate no rival if they had power. Systematical in grasping at the ascendency over all other sects, they aim, like the Jesuits, at engrossing the education of the country, are hostile and jealous of different institutions unless under their control. The diffusion of instruction and progress of Unitarianism are the remedies to this fever of fanaticism. In our University you know there is no professorship of Divinity. A handle has been made of this, to disseminate an idea that this is an institution, not merely of no religion, but

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