The American Civil Religion's Sacred Scriptures

• The Declaration of Independence

• The U.S. Constitution

• The Gettysburg Address

  
  

• The original draft of the Declaration of Independence.

• The "Tree of Liberty" letter. From Thomas Jefferson to William Smith.

• The "Adam and Eve" letter. From Thomas Jefferson to William Short.

• An Excerpt of Query XIV from the Notes on the State of Virginia (1781).

  
  

• Jefferson and Religious Freedom, by Merrill D. Peterson (1994)
  Peterson asserts that Jefferson's Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom is "one of the main pillars of American democracy and a beacon of light and liberty to the world."

• Thomas Jefferson and the Character Issue, by Douglas Wilson (1992)
  As the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth approaches, a Jefferson scholar reflects on Jefferson's life -- and in particular on the enigma at its core: that a slave holder should be the nation's most eloquent champion of equality. To understand how this could be so, the author explains, is to appreciate the perils of "presentism " and the difficulties that may impede the historical assessment of motive and character.

• The Art of Being President, by James Parton (1873)
  James Parton examines "the leading traits of Mr. Jefferson's administration, with a view to getting light upon the question, whether he satisfied the people of his time by doing right, or by adroitly pretending to do right."

• Jefferson and Slavery, by A. D. White (1862)
  Through examination of Jefferson's public writings and personal letters, White makes a case for the image of Jefferson as both an abolitionist and a champion of human rights.