ABSTRACT
In 1822, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to his friend, the noted physician Benjamin Waterhouse, lamenting the irrationality of much of American religious life:
I rejoice that in this blessed country of free inquiry and belief, which has surrendered its creed and conscience to neither king nor priests, the genuine doctrine of only one God is revived, and I trust that there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die an Unitarian.
