Note 39 — Chapter XV

Mr. Parton undoubtedly suggested the true reason for this strange refusal to seek divine guidance. He writes,

“I think it not improbable that the cause of this opposition to a proposal so seldom negatived in the United States, was the prevalence in the Convention of the French tone of feeling with regard to religious observances. If so, it was the more remarkable to see the aged Franklin, who was a deist at fifteen, and had just returned from France, coming back to the sentiments of his ancestors.”—Parton’s Franklin Vol. 2, p. 575.