In the prior posts celebrating Christianity in America, we have seen how it’s initial seed that took root in 1607 at Jamestown and the Plymouth Colony in 1620 grew in influence to guide the colonists toward religious freedom and independence from the tyranny of the British Crown. A great nation was formed grounded in the conviction that individuals possess inherent worth and responsibility, endowed not by the state but by God. Accordingly, of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence between 50 and 55 identified as Christians. The founders had a lot to say about their dependence on God and the role of Christianity in its founding.
In the previous post the Christian faith of George Washingto was emphasized. Here we focus on some additional founders of the country organized by questions.
Did the Founding Fathers Achieve Independence Based on the Principles of Christianity?
- John Adams , the second president in a private letter to Thomas Jefferson.:
“The principles on which the fathers achieved independence were…the general principles of Christianity…Now I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God…I could therefore safely say, consistently with all my then and present information, that I believed they would never make discoveries in contradiction to these general principles.”
- Thomas Jefferson, the third President and the author of the declaration of Independence in private letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signator:
“The precepts of philosophy, and of the Hebrew code, laid hold of actions only. He (Jesus) pushed his scrutinizes into the heart of man; erected his tribunal in the region of his thoughts and purified the waters at the fountain head.”
- John Adams in a private letter to Thomas Jefferson June 28, 1813:J
“The general principles upon which the fathers achieved independence were…. the general principles of Christianity…those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence of God; and that those principles of liberty are as unalterable as human nature.”
- James Madison, the fourth president, on July 9, 1812 during the War of 1812 in the Proclamation of a National Day of Prayer :
“No people ought to feel greater obligations to celebrate the goodness of the Great Disposer of Events and of the Destiny of Nations than the people of the United States…. And to the same Divine Author of every good and perfect gift we are indebted for all those privileges and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly enjoyed in this favored land”.
Is there a Relationship of Christianity to Morality in Government and Society In General?
- George Washingto General Orders July 9, 1776 in New York
The General hopes and trusts, that every officer and man will endeavor so to live, and act, as becomes a Christian Soldier defending the dearest Rights and Liberties of his country.
- George Washington General Orders May 2, 1778 at Valley Forge
The Commander in Chief directs that divine service be performed every Sunday… while we are zealously performing the duties of good soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion.”
- George Washington’s Farewell Address as president in September 19, 1796:
… And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
- Thomas Jefferson in a private letter to Benjamin Rush April 21, 1803:
“The practice of morality being necessary for the well-being of society, He [God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the moral precepts of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in His discourses.”
- James Madison said in a Virginia Legislature debate in June 1785 said:
“Before any man can be considered as a member of civil society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe”.
- Benjamin Rush
“I do not mean to exclude books of history, poetry, or even fables from our schools. They may and should be read frequently by our young people, but if the Bible is made to give way to them altogether, I foresee a day that it will be read only in churches and in a few years will probably be found only in the offices of magistrates and in courts of justice.”
- Benjamin Rush
“The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.”
Christianity, Liberty and Morality?
- Thomas Jefferson 1781
“Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that their liberties are a gift from God?”
- Benjamin Franklin Continental Congress June 28, 1787
“I have lived a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth that God governs the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured in the Sacred Writings that ‘ except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel.”
- Benjamin Rush in an esay titled “Of the Mode of Education in a Republic” dated 1786:
“Without religion, I believe that learning does real mischief to the morals and principles of mankind.”
Did the Christian Religion Influence The Constitution?
- John Adams in a private letter date October 11, 1798 to The Massachusettes Militia Officers:
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion… Our Constitution was made only for a religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
- Noah Webster in his History on The United States published in 1832:
“…it is the sincere desire of the writer that our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible, particularly the New Testament…”
How did the founders feel about prayer?
- George Washington Prayer in his Circular Letter to the States in 1783. Read daily at Mount Vernon.
I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have the United States in his holy protection, that he would incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field, and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristicks of the Devine Author of our blessed Religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation. Amen
- John Jay, the First Supreme Court Justice as governor of New York on October 4, 1810 in the proclamation of a National Day of Prayer:
“National prosperity can neither be attained nor preserved without the favor of Providence”. I recommend a general and public return of praise and thanksgiving to Him from whose goodness these blessings descend. The most effectual means of securing the continuance of our civil and religious liberties is always to remember with reverence and gratitude the source from which they flow.”
- James Madison as President Proclamation odf a Day of Public Humiliation and Prayer, July 9. 1812:
“… recommending to all who shall be piously disposed to unite their hearts and voices in addressing at one and the same time their vows and adorations to the Great Parent and Sovereign of the Universe…to render Him thanks for the many blessings He has bestowed on the people of the United States.”
How did the founders feel about reinterpreting the Constitution aside from its original intent?
- George Washington’s Farewell Address September 19, 1796 in Philadelphia
“Toward the preservation of your government and the permanence of your present happy state, it is requisite that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles… One method of assault may be to effect in the forms of the constitution alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown…”
- Thomas Jefferson in an admonishment of Supreme Court Justice William Johnson September 12, 1816:
“On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”
- James Madison in a private letter to Henry Lee June 24, 1824
“ I entirely concur in the propriety of resorting to the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation. In that sense alone it is the legitimate Constitution. And if that be not the guide in expounding it, there can be no security for a consistent and stable, more than for a faithful, exercise of its powers…What a metamorphosis would be produced in the code of law if all its ancient phraseology were to be taken in its modern sense.”
