opriety of such a step." When trying to secure some servants, too,
he wrote that "if they are good workmen, they may be from Asia, Africa, or
Europe; they may be Mahometans, Jews, or Christians of any sect, or they
may be Atheists." When the bill taxing all the people of Virginia to
support the Episcopal Church (his own) was under discussion, he threw his
weight against it, as far as concerned the taxing of other sectaries, but
adding:

"Although no man's sentiments are more opposed to any kind of restraint
upon religious principles than mine are, yet I must confess, that I am not
amongst the number of those, who are so much alarmed at the thoughts of
making people pay towards the support of that which they profess, if
of the denomination, of Christians, or to declare themselves Jews,
Mahometans, or otherwise, and thereby obtain proper relief. As the matter
now stands, I wish an assessment had never been agitated, and as it has
gone so far, that the bill could die an easy death; because I think it
will be productive of more quiet to the State, than by enacting it into a
law, which in my opinion would be impolitic, admitting there is a decided
majority for it, to the disquiet of a respectable minority. In the former
case, the matter will soon subside; in the latter, it will rankle and
perhaps convulse the State."

Again in a letter he says,--

"Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are
caused by difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most
inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated. I was in
hopes, that the lightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present
age, would at least have reconciled _Christians_ of every denomination so
far, that we should never again see their religious disputes carried to
such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society."

And to Lafayette, alluding to the proceedings of the Assembly of Notables,
he wrote,--

"I am not less ardent in my wish, that you may succeed in your plan of
toleration in religious matters. Being no bigot myself, I am disposed to
indulge the professors of Christianity in the church with that road to
Heaven, which to them shall seem the most direct, plainest, easiest, and
least liable to exception."

What Washington believed has been a source of much dispute. Jefferson
states "that Gouverneur Morris, who pretended to be in his secrets, and
believed himself to be so, has often told me th