observance of that ridiculous and childish custom of burning the effigy of
the Pope, he cannot help expressing his surprise, that there should be
officers and soldiers in this army so void of common sense, as not to see
the impropriety 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,--