|
|
======================================================
>May I ask you a question and expect an answer? >Some years ago I heard the following approximate quote by Thomas Jefferson: "The introduction of Catholicism into America is going to be its downfall?" I have not been able to verify this quotation. Is it fair to have you research and/or lead me to its author? Any response would be greatly appreciated. Regards, K.G. Lutter 5/28/98 I have not seen the above quote, and doubt if it is by Jefferson. I just got through reading the 20 vol. set of his writings, and I am sure I would have noted it if it were included there. Of course, even that set (the Memorial Edition) does not include EVERYTHING Jefferson wrote. Evidently, Jefferson did not think highly of the Catholic church, or any established religion, for that matter. For example, he always spoke of the preist along with kings and nobility as part of the forces oppressing the people, as in: "In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own." --Thomas Jefferson to Horatio G. Spafford, 1814. ME 14:119 And: "In Spanish America, I fear the degrading ignorance into which their priests and kings have sunk them, has disqualified them from the maintenance or even knowledge of their rights, and that much blood may be shed for little improvement in their condition." --Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours, 1811. ME 13:40 And also: "History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes." --Thomas Jefferson to Alexander von Humboldt, 1813. ME 14:21 The closest thing to the thought expressed in the quote you inquire about is in the following: "I do not know that it is a duty to disturb by missionaries the religion and peace of other countries, who may think themselves bound to extinguish by fire and fagot the heresies to which we give the name of conversions, and quote our own example for it. Were the Pope, or his holy allies, to send in mission to us some thousands of Jesuit priests to convert us to their orthodoxy, I suspect that we should deem and treat it as a national aggression on our peace and faith." --Thomas Jefferson to Michael Megear, 1823. ME 15:434 Sorry I could not point you to a source for the quote about which you inquire. Best wishes, Eyler Coates