F REETHINKERS ALSO BY SUSAN JACOBY Half-Jew Wild Justice The Possible She Inside Soviet Schools Moscow Conversations FREETHINKERS A HISTORY OF AMERICAN SECULARISM SUSAN JACOBY Metropolitan Books Henry Holt and Company, LLC Publishers since 1866 115 West 18th Street New York, New York 10011 Metropolitan Books™ is a registered trademark of Henry Holt and Company, LLC Copyright © 2004 by Susan Jacoby All rights reserved Distributed in Canada by H B Fenn and Company Ltd Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jacoby, Susan, date Freethinkers : a history of American secularism / Susan Jacoby p cm Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 0-8050-7442-2 Secularism—United States—History Freethinkers—United States—History I Title BL2760.J33 2004 211’.4’0973—dc22 2003059294 Henry Holt books are available for special promotions and premiums For details contact: Director, Special Markets First Edition 2004 Designed by Fritz Metsch The image of Thomas Paine is from an engraving in Samuel P Putman, Four Hundred Years of Freethought (New York: Truth Seeker Company, 1984), and is used, along with the picture of Robert Ingersoll’s oration, courtesy of the Center for Inquiry/Council for Secular Humanism The cartoon of “Mad Tom” and the images of Ernestine L Rose, Lucretia Mott, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton appear courtesy of the New York Public Library The image of George E Macdonald and the frontispiece, “The Story of the Truth Seeker,” originally appeared in Volume I, Fifty Years of Freethought (1929), published by the Truth Seeker Company The image of Clarence Darrow originally appeared in Volume II, Fifty Years of Freethought (1931), published by the Truth Seeker Company The photograph of President George W Bush in prayer was taken by Eric Draper and is used with permission of the White House Printed in the United States of America 10 FOR ROBERT AND IRMA BRODERICK JACOBY The most formidable weapon against errors of any kind is reason —THOMAS PAINE, 1794 Contents Introduction : Revolutionary Secularism : The Age of Reason and Unreason : Lost Connections: Anticlericalism, Abolitionism, and Feminism : The Belief and Unbelief of Abraham Lincoln : Evolution and Its Discontents : The Great Agnostic and the Golden Age of Freethought : Dawn of the Culture Wars : Unholy Trinity: Atheists, Reds, Darwinists : Onward, Christian Soldiers 10 : The Best Years of Our Lives 11 : Culture Wars Redux 12 : Reason Embattled Appendix: Robert Ingersoll’s Eulogy for Walt Whitman, March 30, 1892 Notes Selected Bibliography Acknowledgments Index F REETHINKERS National Woman Suffrage Association nativism natural rights natural selection and deity in social world threat to religion translated into social selection Nazi Germany Near v Minnesota Nevins, Allan New Deal New Deal coalition New England New England Committee for the Suppression of Vice New Testament New York City anticommunist activity Catholic leadership center of deism New York Herald New York State New York Times on Ingersoll Newdow, Michael newspapers Nietzsche, Friedrich Nineteenth Amendment nonreligious (the) in civil rights movement North (the) North Star Country (Le Sueur) Northeast Notes on Virginia (Jefferson) obscenity obscenity laws O’Connor, William Douglas O’Donnell, Kenneth Offen, Benjamin Oglesby, Richard O’Hair, Madalyn Murray Old Testament Old World Only Yesterday (Allen) Origin of Species, The (Darwin) Osgood & Company Owen, Robert Dale pacifism/pacifists Paine, Thomas attacks on death of freethought tradition of Garrison and heirs of influence on Lincoln last years in America memory of pamphlets religious views reputation target for conservatives Palmer, A Mitchell Palmer, Elihu Palmer raids Parker, Alison M parochial schools indirect aid to public support for tax money for Pasteur, Louis patriotism Paul (Saint) Pax Americana Peale, Norman Vincent Pearl Harbor Peck, Harry Thurston Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life Pfeffer, Leo Philadelphia Phillips, Wendell Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth (Jefferson) Pius IX, Pope Pius XI, Pope Pius XII, Pope Planned Parenthood Pledge of Allegiance addition of “under God” political freedom political left freethinkers and politics freethinkers and and religion popular culture, secularization of pornography Port Folio (journal) Power of Positive Thinking (Peale) Presbyterians presidents prior restraint Principles of Nature (Palmer) Production Code Administration progress Progressive Era prohibition property rights of women Protestantism/Protestants and abortion and birth control boosterism and Catholics and civil rights movement and Constitution dissenting dominant religion faith-based funding and feminism freethought movement born out of and God in Constitution issue and Kennedy campaign legally entrenched privileges liberal and other religions and school prayer decision science and religion in secularization of as state religion in West Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State public education/schools Catholic schools threat to Catholics and Christianization of emphasis on practical science expansion of religious observance in science in secular public policy issues Catholic Church and public religiosity Purifying America (Parker) Puritanism/Puritans Putnam, Samuel Porter Quakerism/Quakers racial discrimination racial justice racism radicalism/radicals political radicalism/radicals equated with atheism religious infidelity and radio and anticommunism Rankin, Jeanette rational thought, defense of rationalism/rationanlists of Lincoln and evolutionism scientific ties binding see also Enlightenment rationalism/rationalists rationalist movement rationality reactionary religion Reagan, Ronald reason age of embattled Reason the Only Oracle of Man (Allen) Red Scare/Menace and ACLU Jews arrested in religion in second released time religion in American life and Americanism assumption of benign influence of attitudes toward as business challenges to and civil rights movement Enlightenment rationalism and and evolutionary theory and feminism freethinkers fight against Garrison’s views on in/and government harm capable of doing imminent demise of imposing on pluralist society influence in society institutionalization of, in White House Jefferson’s views on Lincoln and marketing of and morality Paine’s view of patriotism equated with and politics power of public discourse on public funding for radical challenge to radio and in Red Scare rejection of religion science and secular and secularism and slavery and status of women and suffragists threat of science and technology to and war effort women’s challenge to religious beliefs differences of religious conservatism/conservatives and civil rights and libertinism opposition to modernism resurgence of religious correctness religious discrimination religious institutions, expansion of religious liberty see also freedom of religion religious minorities see minority religions religious orthodoxy women in religious pluralism religious power, change in balance of religious restrictions religious right and abortion and civil rights struggle effort to vitiate First Amendment and feminism values of see also Christian right religious skepticism/skeptics and civil liberties movement religious symbols and practices religious tests/oaths religiously correct in American history reproductive freedom/rights Republican Party Republicanism of Ingersoll revivalism Riddle, Oscar Rights of Man, The (Paine) Robertson, Pat Rockefeller, John D Roe v Wade Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin D Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt administration Rose, Ernestine L Rossellini, Roberto Rousseau, Jean Jacques Ruins, The (Volney) Rummel, Joseph F Ryan, John A Sabbatarians Sabbath observance Salem, Massachusetts Sanger, Margaret Scalia, Antonin Schilling, George Schlesinger, Arthur, Jr Schlesinger, Arthur, Sr Schneier, Marc school prayer Schwerner, Michael Schwerner, Rita science acceptance of attacks on attitudes toward defense of practical uses of in public schools and religion secularist and secularized morality secularizing influence of and unscientific ideology scientific literacy scientific method Scopes, John T Scopes trial Scribner’s Monthly “Second Great Awakening” Second Vatican Council Second World War secular government first Jews and secular humanism/humanists secularism/secularists and abortion and alliance linking conservatives and anti-Catholicism attitudes toward Catholic hostility to of Constitution and cultural censorship defense against religious right demonization of desacralization in embattlement of as enemy Enlightenment evolution of in feminism France as source of American fundamentalist counterattack Goldman in Ingersoll and and liberal religion number of Palmer in post-Civil War and problem of Catholicism and religion revolutionary and rights of religious minorities Scopes trial in history of and symbolic practices underestimated fundamentalism victories of postwar era as villain winning First Amendment battles and women’s rights struggle term secularist heritage secularist movements secularization of popular culture Sedition Act of 1798 sedition laws segregation Seneca Falls convention separation of church and state absolute accommodationists/separationists ACLU’s defense of American revolution and assault on belief in, and opposition to religion civil libertarians’ defense of in Constitution court decisions strengthening degree and meaning of Democrats and by founders freethinkers and in Garrison importance of Jefferson and Jews and Lincoln and E Roosevelt’s support for states and separationists Seward, William sex interracial sex discrimination in employment sexual morality, double standard of Shakespeare, William Shared Dreams (Schneier) Sheen, Fulton J metamorphosis sixties slavery and Christianity complicity in in Constitution defenders of justification of morality of Paine’s denunciation of religion and solution to problem of southern churches and support for slaves, and Christianity slaves, former enfranchisement Smith, Al social Darwinism social progressivism social reform Bible and Jews in social selection socialism/socialists Society of Friends “Some Mistakes of Moses” (Ingersoll) Sorensen, Theodore South (the) South Carolina Southern Baptist Convention Soviet Union Spanish Civil War Spellman, Francis J Spencer, Herbert spiritualism Stanton, Elizabeth Cady agnosticism and Christian suffragists radicalism rediscovered and religion status in women’s movement tributes to and Whitman’s poetry and Woman’s Bible and women’s inequality and women’s suffrage Stanton, Henry state church/religion Catholicism Protestantism states bound by First Amendment guarantees church/state relations religious restrictions tax subsidies for parochial schools Steinem, Gloria Stiles, Ezra Stone, Harlan Stone, Lucy Sunday mail “Suppressing Walt Whitman” (O’Connor) Supreme Court abortion decision decisions strengthening separation of church and state First Amendment cases flag cases school prayer decision survival of the fittest symbolic public piety Synthetic Philosophy (Spencer) tax assessment for support of Christian churches (proposed) tax breaks for parents sending children to religious schools tax support for religious institutions opposition to television Tennessee law forbidding mention of evolution in public schools terrorist attacks (Sept 11, 2001) Texas textbook censorship theological liberals Thomas, Norman Thoreau, Henry David Thornwell, J H Tilton, Elizabeth Tilton, Theodore “Times That Try Men’s Souls, The” (Chapman) “To a Common Prostitute” (Whitman) tolerance “Triumph of Infidelity, The” (Dwight) Trueblood, Elton Truman, Harry Truth, Sojourner Truth Seeker (newspaper) history of obscenity charge on socialism Tubman, Harriet Twain, Mark (Samuel Clemens) Underwood, B F Underwood, Sara A Unitarianism/Unitarians United Nations United States v Spirit of ‘76 Universalism/Universalists unreason value Enlightenment Vatican and Catholic politicians envoy to Vietnam War Virginia religious freedom act as model for new nation Virginia Declaration of Rights virtue Volney, Constantin Voltaire Warren, Earl Warren Court Washington, Booker T Washington, George birthday deism presidency separation of church and state Watch and Ward Society Webb, Geore E Webb, Richard D West Virginia Board of Education v Barnette White, Ronald C White House Whitehead, Fred Whitman, Walt death of Ingersoll’s eulogy for Willard, Frances Williams, Roger Wilson administration Winchell, Alexander Wolf, Arnold Jacob Wolf, William “woman question” Woman Rebel woman suffrage/suffragists opposition to women’s suffrage amendment “Woman Waits for Me, A” (Whitman) Woman’s Bible (Stanton) women and antislavery convention in antislavery movement in civil rights movement in Goldman’s philosophy ordination of public speaking reproductive freedom status of Whitman’s appeal to Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) censorship activities women’s movement abolitionists’ support for agnostics in culture war in Jews and leadership Rose and split in see also feminist movement women’s rights drive for Garrison and and infidelity renewal of struggle for women’s rights conventions Woodhull, Victoria Wooley, Mary Wright, Frances Yale College Yalta Conference Young, Andrew Zelman v Simmons-Harris About the Author SUSAN JACOBY is the author of six previous books, including Wild Justice: The Evolution of Revenge, a New York Times Notable Book and Pulitzer Prize finalist She has received numerous research grants, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Center for Scholars and Writers of the New York Public Library A contributor to the New York Times , the Washington Post , TomPaine.com, and the AARP Bulletin, among other publications, she lives in New York City ... Jacoby All rights reserved Distributed in Canada by H B Fenn and Company Ltd Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jacoby, Susan, date Freethinkers : a history of American secularism... margins of America’s official version of its history American freethought derived much of its power from an inclusiveness that encompassed many forms of rationalist belief Often defined as a. .. literate Americans of every social background Paine’s polemical pamphlets on behalf of independence, as well as his later antireligious arguments, were composed in the same straightforward language—a