Jefferson and religion

Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia, in particular what he says on the topic of religion, seems likely partly a political argument and partly like a campaign speech. He spends most of the time criticizing the state's leftover discriminatory laws on religion, but by the last page, it seems like Jefferson has other purposes in mind. Past a certain point, his argument is not even specifically directed on religion at all, but only on the purpose of having just laws in writing. Beginning with "But is the spirit of the people an infallible, a permanent reliance? Is it government?" his argument does not even use any religious terms, but is about government in general.

The main point of what he is trying to say is that old laws that are not enforced should be rewritten even if they pose no danger because no one exists who would or could enforce them in the government at the time. Jefferson is advocating distrust of the government and skepticism about the future in a way that is a little surprising. As a major political figure who later became president, normally any effort to encourage distrust of the government system seems like a bad idea. The negative impact of something like this could be larger the way our modern, image-focused political structure works.

However, the way Jefferson writes this last section makes it sound kind of like a political rally. The thing that sticks out the most is how many short, almost rhetorical questions he throws into his writing in the last 1/3 of the religion essay. Sometimes, he immediately answers his own questions right after he asks them. It is like he is trying to get an audience excited and motivated on this issue, except the issue is not simple or easy to understand. It's hard for me to imagine a crowd applauding and showing support after Jefferson says something like, "It can never be too often repeated, that the time for fixing every essential right on a legal basis is while our rulers are honest, and ourselves united." But yet, because of the questions and the slightly animated, motivating way that it is written, that's the image that somehow pops into my mind.