PrC (DLC); at foot of text: “Gideon Granger esq.” Enclosure: TJ to Elbridge Gerry, 28 Aug. 1802.

Jonathan Hastings was the POSTMASTER at Boston (Stets, Postmasters description begins Robert J. Stets, Postmasters & Postoffices of the United States 1782–1811, Lake Oswego, Ore., 1994 description ends , 145).

BISHOP’S NEW PAMPHLETS: on 20 Aug., the National Intelligencer printed a few extracts from the pamphlet recently published at Hartford, Connecticut, entitled Proofs of a Conspiracy, Against Christianity, and the Government of the United States; Exhibited in Several Views of the Union of Church and State in New-England, by Abraham Bishop (see Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, Washington, D.C., 1952–59, 5 vols. description ends No. 3277). In the concluding numbers of his 166–page work, Bishop contrasted the policies of the Adams administration with those of the first year of the Jefferson administration. He derived his report on the achievements of the recent session of Congress from the National Intelligencer. He noted that the main force of federalism, concentrated in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut, “would instantly have perished” under the new administration “were it not for the nursing care of the political clergy” who ridiculed republican principles. With their vision of right, Bishop contended, “we are not to wonder at their abuse of the president, their abhorrence of Mr. Gallatin, their zeal for taxation and their vengeance against republicans.” Bishop concluded: “The political clergy are the worst enemies of the church. The federal leaders are the worst enemies of our revolution, and both are enemies to the common people” (Bishop, Proofs of a Conspiracy, 148–66).