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- GLC#
- GLC00180
- Type
- Letters
- Date
- September 19, 1816
- Author/Creator
- Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826
- Title
- to James Fishback, Lexington, KY
- Place Written
- Monticello, Virginia
- Pagination
- 1p. : address ; Height: 25 cm, Width: 20 cm
- Primary time period
- The New Nation, 1783-1815
- Sub-Era
- The Age of Jefferson & Madison
Jefferson denies a statement attributed to him that he had heard atheism discussed by French bishops at a table. Fishback, a Kentucky minister and politician, maintained that "by corruption in religion" all of Europe had "gravitated into atheism." Jefferson denies having declared that, "in Paris, atheism was the common table-talk of the French bishops." He admits having perhaps said "'I had heard the doctrines of atheism maintained at table in mixed company,'" but adds "never by a bishop nor even in presence of a bishop." Some letters lost when opening the letter. Ink on the letter is slightly fading.
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