---
title: The 1800 election:"Jefferson and no God" and "squints at monarchy"
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/us-election-1800-adams-jefferson/
description: in 1800 a Federalist daily told readers the only question was whether to stay loyal to "GOD—AND A RELIGIOUS PRESIDENT" or "impiously declare for…
section: Case studies
---

![Illustration: a pre-1914 imperial intelligence-dossier collage of colonial telegraph logs, sepia field photography and empire maps.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/detail/hero-pre1914.jpg)

[Case studies](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/)

# The 1800 election:"Jefferson and no God" and "squints at monarchy"

At a glance

In 1800 a Federalist daily told readers the only question was whether to stay loyal to "GOD—AND A RELIGIOUS PRESIDENT" or "impiously declare for JEFFERSON—AND NO GOD!!!"…

- **When:** 1800
- **Actor:** Federalist press and pamphleteers backing John Adams…
- **Target:** U.S. voters and the state legislators who chose most presidential electors in 1800…
- **Confidence:** **documented** Primary documents, court records, official disclosures
- **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Testimonial](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/testimonial/) [Identity fusion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/identity-fusion/) [Narrative laundering](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/narrative-laundering/)

Full details

- **Actor:** Federalist press and pamphleteers backing John Adams (Gazette of the United States, Connecticut Courant, the anonymous etching The Providential Detection); Democratic-Republican press and pamphleteers backing Thomas Jefferson (James Thomson Callender, The Prospect Before Us), with Jefferson's own payments to Callender
- **Target:** U.S. voters and the state legislators who chose most presidential electors in 1800; John Adams and Thomas Jefferson as the named targets

On this page

- [What happened](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/us-election-1800-adams-jefferson/#what-happened)
- [How it works](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/us-election-1800-adams-jefferson/#how-it-works)
- [Then and now](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/us-election-1800-adams-jefferson/#then-and-now)
- [Positions on the record](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/us-election-1800-adams-jefferson/#positions-on-the-record)
- [Same-method test](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/us-election-1800-adams-jefferson/#same-method-test)
- [How to spot it](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/us-election-1800-adams-jefferson/#how-to-spot-it)
- [Images](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/us-election-1800-adams-jefferson/#images)
- [Sources](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/us-election-1800-adams-jefferson/#sources)

On this page

> *Content note. This page quotes 1800 campaign material that names rape and incest as the promised result of a vote, uses a gendered insult against a president, and refers to an 1802 newspaper charge about an enslaved woman. The quotes are the partisans' words, not findings.*

**In one line:** in 1800 a Federalist daily told readers the only question was whether to stay loyal to "GOD—AND A RELIGIOUS PRESIDENT" or "impiously declare for JEFFERSON—AND NO GOD!!!", while a pamphleteer whom Jefferson had paid called President Adams a "hideous hermaphroditical character" and put "IT SQUINTS AT MONARCHY!" on his title page; both presses were openly partisan, and only one side's writers were being jailed under a federal law passed by the other.

## What happened

- **14 July 1798.** John Adams signs the Sedition Act. It makes it a crime to publish "any false, scandalous and malicious writing" against the government, Congress or the President "with intent to defame" them, with fines up to $2,000 and prison up to two years. Truth is allowed as a defence. The Act expires on 3 March 1801, the day before the next presidential term begins. The National Archives notes that the only journalists prosecuted under it were editors of Democratic-Republican papers.
- **The press both sides used.** The Library of Congress counts U.S. newspapers growing from 92 in 1790 to 329 by the end of Jefferson's presidency, "all but 56" tied to a party. Jefferson and James Madison had given Philip Freneau "encouragement, money and a position" in Jefferson's State Department in 1791 to start the Republican *National Gazette*.
- **6 September 1799.** Jefferson writes to James Thomson Callender, unsigned and in the third person, that his agent will "pay you 50 dollars, on account of the book you are about to publish."
- **6 October 1799.** Jefferson writes to Callender again: "I thank you for the proof sheets you inclosed me. Such papers cannot fail to produce the best effect." He adds that he is leaving the letter unsigned because of "the curiosity of the post offices."
- **Early 1800.** Callender's *The Prospect Before Us*, Volume I, appears in Richmond, "printed for the author". Its title page carries the epigraph "BUT, SIR! IT HAS AN AWFUL SQUINTING! IT SQUINTS AT MONARCHY! P. HENRY." The library catalogue note on the book quotes its stated design as exposing federal corruption, "and more especially the misconduct of the president, Mr. Adams."
- **24 May to June 1800.** A federal grand jury in Richmond indicts Callender for sedition over the book. Justice Samuel Chase presides at the trial, which opens on 3 June. Callender is sentenced to nine months in prison, a $200 fine and a two-year good-behaviour bond (Encyclopedia Virginia; Federal Judicial Center). He goes on writing from jail. The House later cites Chase's conduct of this trial in its 1804 articles of impeachment.
- **10 September 1800.** A letter in the Federalist *Gazette of the United States* (Philadelphia) praises the pamphlet *Serious Considerations*, says "the Jacobin prints" have attacked it, and states that Jefferson "is an avowed DEIST, an ENEMY to pure morals and religion, consequently an enemy to his country and his God. Whoever, therefore, furthers the election of this man to the Presidency of the United States, insults his maker, and redeemer, and boldly defies omnipotence to arms!"
- **11 September 1800 onward.** The *Gazette* prints "THE GRAND QUESTION STATED": the only question for "every American, laying his hand on his heart" is "shall I continue in allegiance to GOD—AND A RELIGIOUS PRESIDENT; Or impiously declare for JEFFERSON—AND NO GOD!!!" A scan of the Library of Congress's digitized issues for this page finds it repeated in at least a dozen issues up to 13 October. (Secondary sources date the first printing to 10 September; the digitized 10 September issue does not show it.)
- **September 1800.** An essay signed "Burleigh" in the *Connecticut Courant* (Hartford) warns that under Jefferson "murder, robbery, rape, adultery, and incest" will be taught and practised, and that "the soil will be soaked with blood, and the nation black with crimes" (as quoted by Monticello and later historians; the issue itself was not opened for this page).
- **Late 1800 to early 1801.** The later parts of *The Prospect Before Us*, written partly in jail, include the passage calling Adams "that strange compound of ignorance and ferocity, of deceit and weakness" and a "hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman" (wording as given by Monticello's research staff).
- **c. 1797 to 1800.** An etching by an unknown artist, *The Providential Detection*, shows Jefferson kneeling at an "Altar to Gallic Despotism" fed by the writings of Thomas Paine and French philosophers. The eye of God and the American eagle snatch the "Constitution & Independence" from his hand. A paper marked "To Mazzei" falls from him. The Library of Congress summarises the Federalist charge: that Jefferson's "intoxication with the religious and political extremism of the French Revolution disqualified him from public office."
- **Result.** The electors' votes are Jefferson 73, Aaron Burr 73, Adams 65, Charles C. Pinckney 64, John Jay 1. The tie goes to the House, where 10 state delegations vote for Jefferson, 4 for Burr and 2 make no choice. Adams hands over power in March 1801.
- **Aftermath.** In 1802 Callender turns on Jefferson. The *Richmond Recorder* prints his charge that Jefferson "keeps and for many years has kept, as his concubine, one of his slaves. Her name is Sally." Jefferson then tells James Monroe (17 July 1802) that he paid Callender two sums of $50, and that he and other Republicans "contributed to the fines of Callander himself" and to papers "struggling under the Sedition law." In February 1803 President Jefferson writes to Pennsylvania's governor that "a few prosecutions of the most prominent offenders" among "the tory presses" under state law "would have a wholesome effect."

## How it works

- [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/): both sides. Federalist writers use "Jacobin", "avowed DEIST" and "enemy to his country and his God" for Jefferson and his papers. Callender uses "hideous hermaphroditical character" and "strange compound of ignorance and ferocity" for Adams. In each case the label arrives before, or instead of, the evidence.
- [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/): both sides, with different threats. The "Burleigh" essay promises murder, rape and blood-soaked soil if Jefferson wins. The *Gazette* letter warns that a vote for him "defies omnipotence" and invites "the just vengeance of insulted heaven". Callender's title page warns of monarchy. Each offers one remedy: vote the other man out, or keep him out.
- [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/): *The Providential Detection* borrows the eye of Providence and the national eagle to stand with the Federalists, and pastes French "Gallic Despotism" and Paine onto Jefferson. "GOD—AND A RELIGIOUS PRESIDENT" ties the incumbent to God by placing them in one phrase.
- [Testimonial](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/testimonial/): Callender's title page signs its monarchy charge "P. HENRY", borrowing the Revolutionary orator's name. The page gives no date or context for the line, and it does not show that Henry said it about Adams.
- [Identity fusion](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/identity-fusion/): the "Grand Question" makes a vote a test of "allegiance to GOD", and the 10 September letter says that anyone who helps elect Jefferson "insults his maker". Weighing the candidate becomes a religious betrayal. This page found no Republican item from 1800 built as the same loyalty test, so the tag is scored for the Federalist side only.
- [Narrative laundering](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/narrative-laundering/) (Republican side, in part): Jefferson's money reached Callender through an agent and a friend, and his letters went unsigned. Readers saw a pamphlet "printed for the author", not one partly funded by the Vice President, who was himself a candidate in the race. Jefferson's side of this is documented in his own letters; he later described it as ordinary party support for Republican printers.

## Then and now

No gallery poster in this archive fits a newspaper campaign from 1800, so the comparison here is with the campaign it repeated. The 1796 election had the same two leading men, Adams (71 electoral votes) and Jefferson (68). What changed by 1800 was the legal setting: the Sedition Act made printed attacks on the President, but not on the Vice President, a federal crime, and it was enforced against Republican editors. Callender's book was prosecuted; the "Grand Question" and the "Burleigh" essay, aimed at Jefferson, were not. After 1801 the pattern ran the other way: Jefferson, in office, privately urged state prosecutions of Federalist printers. The method of the campaign press stayed the same whichever party held power; what changed was which side's printers faced the courts.

![Etching: a kneeling man in a long coat drops a paper marked "To Mazzei" while an eagle takes a scroll marked "Constitution and Independence" from his hand, above an altar labeled "Altar to Gallic Despotism" with books and papers burning on it; an eye looks down from clouds](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/images/us-election-1800-providential-detection.jpg)

*"The Providential Detection", etching by an unknown artist, c. 1797 to 1800, Federalist print attacking Jefferson. Copy of the Library Company of Philadelphia, as reproduced in the Library of Congress exhibition "Religion and the Founding of the American Republic". Public domain (published about 1800).*

![The Grand Question Stated, Gazette of the United States, Philadelphia, 11 September 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/images/us-election-1800-gazette-grand-question.jpg)

*"The Grand Question Stated", Gazette of the United States (Philadelphia), 11 September 1800, page 2. Library of Congress, Chronicling America. Public domain (published 1800).*

![Title page of The Prospect Before Us, Volume I, by James T. Callender, Richmond, 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/images/us-election-1800-prospect-before-us.jpg)

*Title page of* The Prospect Before Us, *Vol. I (Richmond, 1800), with the epigraph "It squints at monarchy! P. Henry." Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.*

## Positions on the record

- **Federalist writers' stated position:** Jefferson's religious views and his sympathy for revolutionary France made him unfit, and electing him would endanger religion, morals and order. The *Gazette* letter says his deism has been "proved".
- **Republican writers' stated position:** Adams's government was corrupt and leaned toward monarchy, and the Sedition Act was being used to silence critics. Callender's book says it aims to expose "the misconduct of the president, Mr. Adams."
- **Jefferson's own account of the payments:** he says he gave money "on account of the book" and to help printers and writers "suffering under" the Sedition Act, as "most other republicans" did, and that it is unfair to "impute" to him "every thing which was ever published in those papers or by those persons."
- **Critics and historians:** the Library of Congress states that Callender's attacks "had been secretly funded by Jefferson and Republican allies." Monticello notes that the "hermaphroditical" line is often wrongly quoted as Jefferson's own words; it was Callender's.
- **This archive's reading:** documented: the *Gazette* text and its repetition, Callender's title page, the Sedition Act and Callender's conviction, Jefferson's letters about the $50 payments and the proof sheets, the electoral result. Not shown: that Jefferson read or approved the "hermaphroditical" passage before it was printed; that any Federalist leader paid for the "Grand Question" or the "Burleigh" essay; that either set of charges changed a known number of electors. Whether Jefferson was a deist, or Adams a monarchist, is outside what this page scores.
- **Difference in scale:** both sides used the same labels and threats. Only one side controlled a federal law under which the other side's writers were prosecuted and jailed in 1798 to 1800.

## Same-method test

A campaign paper that told readers a vote for the incumbent was a vote against God, and a paid pamphleteer who called the incumbent a "hermaphroditical character" under a borrowed famous quote, would be scored the same way here, whichever party they served. A government that jailed only its rivals' printers under a speech law would be recorded the same way whichever party passed it.

## How to spot it

- Replace the label with the claim underneath it. "Avowed DEIST" and "hermaphroditical character" each stand in for an argument about a record in office.
- Check who paid. A pamphlet "printed for the author" may still have a sponsor; in 1800 the sponsor's letters surfaced two years later.
- Watch for a vote framed as loyalty to God or nation. The question stops being which candidate, and becomes which side you are on.
- Look at who the law reaches. A speech law that is only enforced against one party's printers is itself part of the campaign's setting.

## Images

| Image | Source | Licence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| "The Grand Question Stated", *Gazette of the United States*, 11 Sept. 1800 (crop of page 2) | [Library of Congress, Chronicling America](https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84026272/1800-09-11/ed-1/) | Public domain (U.S. newspaper, 1800) |
| *The Providential Detection*, etching, c. 1797 to 1800 (Library Company of Philadelphia copy) | [Library of Congress exhibition](https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel06-2.html) | Public domain (published about 1800) |
| *The Prospect Before Us*, Vol. I, title page (1800) | [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Prospect_Before_Us_title_page_by_James_T_Callender_1800.jpg), Beinecke Library, Yale | Public domain |

### Image gaps

- **The Providential Detection (c. 1797 to 1800).** Now shown, from the Library Company of Philadelphia's copy as reproduced by the Library of Congress. The image is a small web-resolution reproduction; a high-resolution copy from either holding library (Library Company; American Antiquarian Society) would be better and is **fillable**.
- **The "Burleigh" essay in the Connecticut Courant.** The Library of Congress has no digitized Courant issues for September 1800. **Fillable** from another newspaper archive.
- **Portraits of Adams and Jefferson.** Public-domain portraits exist on Commons; they were left out so the page's images stay the campaign material itself.

## Sources

- [Gazette of the United States, 10 September 1800 (letter on Jefferson as "an avowed DEIST"), Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84026272/1800-09-10/ed-1/)
- [Gazette of the United States, 11 September 1800 ("The Grand Question Stated"), Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84026272/1800-09-11/ed-1/)
- [Thomas Jefferson to James T. Callender, 6 September 1799, Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/mtjbib009216/)
- [Thomas Jefferson to James T. Callender, 6 October 1799, Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/mtjbib009222/)
- [Thomas Jefferson to James Thomson Callender, 6 October 1799, Founders Online](https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-31-02-0169)
- [Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 17 July 1802, Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/mtjbib011557/)
- [Thomas Jefferson to Thomas McKean, 19 February 1803, Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/mtjbib012161/)
- [The Prospect Before Us, title page, Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Prospect_Before_Us_title_page_by_James_T_Callender_1800.jpg)
- [Monticello: "Hideous hermaphroditical character" (spurious quotation)](https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/hideous-hermaphroditical-character-spurious-quotation/)
- [National Archives: Alien and Sedition Acts (1798), with transcript](https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/alien-and-sedition-acts)
- [National Archives: 1800 Electoral College results](https://www.archives.gov/electoral-college/1800)
- [National Archives: 1796 Electoral College results](https://www.archives.gov/electoral-college/1796)
- [Library of Congress exhibition: Thomas Jefferson, Establishing a Federal Republic (partisan press, Callender, The Providential Detection)](https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/jefffed.html)
- [Library of Congress exhibition: Religion and the Founding of the American Republic, "Jefferson Attacked as an Infidel"](https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel06-2.html)
- [Encyclopedia Virginia: James Thomson Callender](https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/callender-james-thomson-1757-or-1758-1803/)
- [Federal Judicial Center: The Sedition Act Trials, by Bruce A. Ragsdale](https://www.fjc.gov/sites/default/files/trials/seditionacts.pdf)
- [Monticello / Google Arts & Culture: A Nation Divided, The Election of 1800 ("Burleigh" quote)](https://artsandculture.google.com/story/a-nation-divided-the-election-of-1800-thomas-jefferson-foundation-at-monticello/wgURxDCU-6gaJA?hl=en)