Thomas Jefferson believed in many things.
He believed in American independence.
He believed that all men were created equal, although he did not necessarily practice it.
He even believed in mammoths and asked Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to find one during their westward expedition.
He didn’t believe in Thanksgiving.
This week we celebrate a holiday officially declared by Congress and proclaimed again, for good measure, by the President.
The Charlottesville elder — and part-time Bedford County resident — would have been horrified.
There was one other thing that Jefferson believed in, perhaps more strongly than anything else: he believed in the separation of church and state. Although Thanksgiving is not technically a religious holiday, the “giving thanks” part struck Jefferson as being far too religious for his tastes. As our country’s third president, he caused controversy by refusing to recognize Thanksgiving.
The football games, the parades, the turkey on the table – we have no idea how Jefferson would have felt about any of that. But we know how he felt about the day itself.
Here’s a little more of the history that some of us never learned, but has helped shape who we are.
First, we must address Jefferson’s views on religion – a subject as touchy then as it is today. Here’s what Monticello says on his website: “Jefferson’s relationship with Christianity was complicated. ” Well yes.
Jefferson believed greatly in a Supreme Being, but “the God he believed in was not the traditional Christian deity. Jefferson rejected the notion of the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus. He rejected biblical miracles, the resurrection, the atonement, and original sin (believing that God could not blame or condemn all humanity for the sins of others, a gross injustice). Later in his life, Jefferson used the razor to cut out all the parts dealing with Jesus’ teachings – but not his miracles – and then glued them together to create his own version of the Bible. “Neither in the 18th century nor today would most people consider a person with these views to be a ‘Christian,’” Monticello says.
Jefferson referred to “the laws of nature and nature’s God” in the Declaration of Independence and to “that infinite power which governs the destinies of the universe” in his first inaugural address, but he also believed intensely that Religion was a private matter in which the government should not interfere. This led him to write the Virginia Statute for Religious Liberty in 1786, which became a precursor to the later First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. He was so proud of this bill that he ordered it placed on his tombstone, without any reference to his service as president.
Because of his “complicated” views on religion, Jefferson was often criticized as a non-believer – or worse – by his political opponents, who were both numerous and vocal. He has been called a “screaming atheist,” a “hardened infidel,” and an “enemy of religion.” The presidential campaign of 1800 – in which Jefferson challenged President John Adams – was particularly contentious. An anti-Jefferson newspaper warned that if he were elected: “Murder, theft, rape, adultery and incest will be openly taught and practiced, the air will be rent with the cries of the afflicted, the ground will be drenched in blood, and the nation black with crimes. Imagine this today on Twitter and in 30-second TV spots. Actually, you don’t have to. Some have already transformed the inflammatory rhetoric of 1800 into in fake television commercials.
All of this provides necessary context for understanding Jefferson’s view of Thanksgiving, but first we need some background on the holiday.
In ancient times, a “thanksgiving” was not an ordinary holiday but one declared whenever it was deemed appropriate. The Continental Congress began declaring an annual Thanksgiving Day in 1777, while the American Revolution was still underway and the outcome was by no means certain. These dates were sometimes in November, more often in December. During his first year as president, George Washington proclaimed on November 26, 1789 “in the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent author of all good that has been, is, or will be.” In 1795, Washington proclaimed February 19 of that year a “day of thanksgiving and public prayer.” His successor, John Adams, declared May 9, 1798, and April 25, 1799 days of “solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer.” His proclamations never mentioned gratitude.
When Jefferson became president, he was expected to do something similar. He does not have. The Library of Congress says that Jefferson did not disagree with his party – alternately called the Anti-Federalists, the Democratic-Republicans, or sometimes simply the Republicans (no relation to today’s Republicans) – which believed that the Fast days were religious acts “during which the civil magistrate, in the American system, had no authority.” However, he didn’t really express that during the presidential campaign.
He was now president and was being criticized by Federalists for not declaring a day of thanksgiving. Then an opportunity presented itself, in the form of a letter from Baptists in Danbury, Connecticut, who were concerned that their state’s constitution said nothing explicitly about religious liberty. They wanted assurance that they would be able to practice their faith without interference. Jefferson sat down to write a response to the Baptists.
In the first first draft of his letter, Jefferson emphasized that “I have refrained from prescribing even occasional manifestations of devotion.” In final versionhe tightened the prose and left that aside but continued by using a more memorable phrase: “Believe with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he is accountable to no one otherwise for its faith or worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach only actions and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign respect this act of the whole American people who declared that their legislature should not “do no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” ‘, thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.
Jefferson served eight years and never declared a day of thanksgiving.
His successor, James Madison, did so for January 12, 1814 and March 4, 1815. Then the tradition fell away, until Abraham Lincoln reinstated it in April 1862, with no specific date for participants other than “the next assemblies weekly in their usual place. places of public worship. The following year, after the July Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, he declared Thanksgiving for August 6, 1863. A few months later, he declared another Thanksgiving Day for “the last Thursday in November,” which which triggered the movement. our modern celebrations.
Things went well until Franklin Roosevelt in 1939 decided to set Thanksgiving a week earlier than usual. He saw it as a way to stimulate a Great Depression-era economy: an extra week between Thanksgiving and Christmas would create an extra week of holiday sales. (It was a simpler time; now Christmas sales no longer follow the traditional Black Friday start date.) Critics dubbed the date “Franksgiving” and 22 states (especially those with Republican governors) refused to honor it. Three states – Colorado, Mississippi and Texas – observed both “Franksgiving” and the traditional date of Thanksgiving. More turkey for everyone!
Now, Thanksgiving is fixed by federal law. And no one seems to have the qualms that Jefferson had about the church-state party.
Jefferson believed in macaroni and cheese, so even if he didn’t believe in Thanksgiving, you can still thank him for the macaroni and cheese on your table this holiday. I wrote about this in last year’s Thanksgiving column.