Madam, - Toby Joyce (Letters, February 14th) is wrong. There is no "historical evidence" that "Washington, Adams, Jefferson and the others" were "all professing Christians".
Thomas Jefferson notably did not believe in the divinity of Jesus, indeed he even wrote a version of the New Testament that removed all reference to Jesus as the Son of God and removed any account of the resurrection. George Washington, like one of Mr Joyce's "others", Benjamin Franklin, acknowledged Providence or the Creator, but only as, in Washington's words, "the Great Author".
I have never come across a belief in the Trinity in any writings of any of these men. In that, they were hardly unusual among the Founding Fathers.
It is notable that the earliest symbols devised for the new United States were ancient Roman or Masonic, and not Christian.
The symbols continue to this day. For example, the federal spread eagle was the symbol of victory in the ancient Roman Republic. On the US dollar bill, the single eye over the pyramid came from Masonic tradition.
- Yours, etc
MARY ELLEN SYNON, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.