A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign

Although the spring was an intense political season in 1800, the summer months were much quieter: “Even Adams and Jefferson settled into something akin to their customary summer routines at home. With no critical elections scheduled for the summer, observers and participants had time to assess the state of play” (164). These political assessments produced a new season of the election, in which “issues of extraordinary concern to select groups of voters rose through to the fore. One issue that gained particular attention was the supposed scandal regarding Jefferson’s religion” (165). The debate was famed in terms of whether he was a Deist or an atheist—whether or not he believed in God.

Jefferson, long vocal on civil liberties in general, was a particularly strong advocate of the freedom to worship, enshrined in the mandated separation between Church and State. He “never publicly professed either Deism or atheism, even though critics regularly accused him of holding such views” (171). The basis for the attacks were his publications supporting the separation of church and state: “Notes on the State of Virginia, written by Jefferson nearly two decades earlier, provided most of the fodder for his opponents” (171). Jefferson was caught in a bind when it came to dealing with this smear campaign “Although Jefferson privately denounced the ‘lying pamphlets’ and ‘absolute falsehoods’ of his Christian critics, he feared the responding to them publicly would make matters worse” (173).