The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
MORAL PRINCIPLES / PRIESTCRAFT
A coalition of sentiments is not for the interest of the printers.
They, like the clergy, live by the zeal they can kindle, and the
schisms they can create. It is contest of opinion in politics as well
as religion which makes us take great interest in them, and bestow our
money liberally on those who furnish food to our appetite. The mild
and simple principles of the Christian philosophy would produce too
much calm, too much regularity of good, to extract from its disciples
a support from a numerous priesthood, were they not to sophisticate
it, ramify it, split it into hairs, and twist its texts till they
cover the divine morality of its author with mysteries, and require a
priesthood to explain them. The Quakers seem to have discovered this.
They have no priests, therefore no schisms. They judge of the text by
the dictates of common sense and common morality. So the printers can
never leave us in a state of perfect rest and union of opinion. They
would be no longer useful, and would have to go to the plough.
to Elbridge Gerry, 29 March 1801