"I have sworn eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
This is the famous
quote from the
Jefferson memorial. The full quote, from
Jeffersons letter to Dr.
Benjamin Rush -
Monticello, Sep. 23,
1800 reads:
"I promised you a
letter on
Christianity, which I have not
forgotten. On the
contrary, it is because I have reflected on it, that I find much more
time necessary for it than I can at
present dispose of. I have a view of the subject which ought to
displease neither the rational
Christian nor
Deists, and would
reconcile many to a character they have too hastily rejected. I do not know that it would
reconcile the
genus irritabile vatum who are all in
arms
against me. Their
hostility is on too
interesting ground to be softened. The
delusion into which
the X. Y. Z. plot shewed it possible to push the
people; the
successful experiment made under the
prevalence of that
delusion on the
clause of the
constitution, which, while it
secured the
freedom of the press, covered also the
freedom of religion, had given to
the clergy a very
favorite hope of obtaining an
establishment of a
particular form of
Christianity thro'
the
U. S.; and as every
sect believes its own form the
true one, every one perhaps hoped for his
own, but especially the
Episcopalians &
Congregationalists. The returning
good sense of our
country threatens
abortion to their
hopes, &
they believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes.
And they believe rightly; for
I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
But this is all they have to fear from me: & enough too in their opinion, & this is the cause of their
printing lying
pamphlets against me, forging conversations for me with
Mazzei,
Bishop Madison, &c., which are
absolute falsehoods without a circumstance of
truth to rest on; falsehoods, too, of which I acquit
Mazzei &
Bishop Madison, for they are men of truth.