Misquoting Our Founding Fathers

Catholic Educator's Newsletter ^ | June 2005

[Coleus]

Misquoting Our Founding Fathers    TO THE SOURCE

---

How many times have your heard that "Our founding fathers were not Christians! They were deists!"? It is an absurd assertion.

---

It conjures up images of clandestine gatherings in Philadelphia's Independence Hall where one by one Washington and Jefferson and Adams et al swear allegiance to some obscure deist creed and pledge to set America on the course of eradicating Biblical belief from all corners of the land.

Sure some of our nation's founders were deists. Consider the grumpy pamphleteer Thomas Paine in The Age of Reason:

"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of...Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all."

But Paine was in the minority of founders that had a genuine antipathy to organized religion. The vast majority went on record to declare that religious faith is essential to the formation of a self-sustaining democracy.

		John Adams in a speech to the military in 1798 warned his fellow countrymen stating, "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 moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
		Benjamin Rush, Signer of the Declaration of Independence said. "[T]he only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be aid 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. Without religion, I believe that learning does real mischief to the morals and principles of mankind."
		Noah Webster, author of the first American Speller and the first Dictionary said, "[T]he Christian religion, in its purity, is the basis, or rather the source of all genuine freedom in government. . . . and I am persuaded that no civil government of a republican form can exist and be durable in which the principles of that religion have not a controlling influence."
		Gouverneur Morris, Penman and Signer of the Constitution. "[F]or avoiding the extremes of despotism or anarchy . . . the only ground of hope must be on the morals of the people. I believe that religion is the only solid base of morals and that morals are the only possible support of free governments. [T]herefore education should teach the precepts of religion and the duties of man towards God."
		Fisher Ames author of the final wording for the First Amendment wrote, "[Why] should not the Bible regain the place it once held as a school book? Its morals are pure, its examples captivating and noble. The reverence for the Sacred Book that is thus early impressed lasts long; and probably if not impressed in infancy, never takes firm hold of the mind."
		John Jay, Original Chief-Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court, "The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts."
		James Wilson, Signer of the Constitution; U. S. Supreme Court Justice, "Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is divine. . . . Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other."
		Noah Webster, author of the first American Speller and the first Dictionary stated, "The moral principles and precepts contained in the scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. . . All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible."

		Robert Winthrop, Speaker of the U. S. House,"Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or by a power without them; either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet."
		George Washington, General of the Revolutionary Army, president of the Constitutional Convention, First President of the United States of America, Father of our nation,"Religion and morality are the essential pillars of civil society."
		Benjamin Franklin, Signer of the Declaration of Independence "[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."

Yet the radical secularists are at it again! Their new strategy is to misrepresent the founders by misquoting them or taking quotes out of context to intentionally distort their original meaning. A good example is this oft cited quote by John Adams:

Twenty times, in the course of my late reading, have I been upon the point of breaking out, "This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!!!"

But this quote fragment distorts the main point Adams was making. Quoting from Adam's letter (shown below) he actually said:

Twenty times, in the course of my late reading, have I been upon the point of breaking out, "This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!!!" But in this exclamatic I should have been as fanatical as (Parson) Bryant or (Pedagogue) Cleverly. Without religion this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean Hell. (emphasis added)

The founders did not want an established national religion. That's it. They allowed for state established religions. They encouraged the expression of religious faith. And they almost universally sought to encourage religious belief as essential for good governance and citizenship.

Madison sums it up nicely. In his letter to Rev. Jasper Adams in the spring of 1832, Madison once again makes his position regarding the government's proper role quite clear:

"(I)t may not be easy, in every possible case, to trace the line of separation between the rights of religion and the Civil authority with such distinctness as to avoid collisions and doubts on unessential points. The tendency to usurpation on one side or the other, or to a corrupting coalition or alliance between them, will be best guarded agst. by an entire abstinence of the Gov't from interfering in any way whatsoever, beyond the necessity of preserving public order, and protecting each sect agst. trespasses on its legal rights by others."

The founding fathers opposed both government suppression and government establishment of religion. Radical secularists who seek to drive all religious expression from the public square join the ranks of the radical sectarians that our founders sought to declaw.

On this Father's Day we should thank God that our founding fathers had the foresight and courage to promote the expression of religious faith in the foundation and maintenance of our nation.

  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

"Misquoting Our Founding Fathers." tothesource (June, 2005).

This article reprinted with permission from tothesource.

Tothesource is a forum for integrating thinking and action within a moral framework that takes into account our contemporary situation. We will report the insights of cultural experts to the specific issues we face believing these sources will embolden people to greater faith and action.

[muir_redwoods]

Mr. Adams was incorrect

[Tailgunner Joe]

Self-government is not an adequate system for those who refuse to govern themselves.

[RightWhale]

One thing for sure: our Founding fathers did not speak with one voice. Debate was in fact hot and heavy all the way through, and continues hot and heavy. It is possible that no gov't system on earth has been so heavily debated as that of the US.

[bayourod]

Deists? I thought the teacher said Dentists. Then what was all that talk about Washington's teeth about?

[mugs99]

"Misquoting Our Founding Fathers."

ROFL!
This article does just that.
Acording to the Reverend Ashbel Green, Presbyterian minister who had known George Washington personally, "that while Washington was very deferential to religion and its ceremonies, like nearly all the founders of the Republic, he was not a Christian, but a Deist."

"The founders of our nation were nearly all Infidels."
The Rev. Bird Wilson, an Episcopal minister and historian (lamented in an 1831 sermon)

There are many, many more quotes from the period. Washington's letters also make it very clear he was a Deist.

This nonsense always ends up with prayer quotes.
FACT: It does not matter what personal religious beliefs the founders held. All of them were secularists!
.

[Archon of the East]

OK, Lets say your correct, how do you explain the quotes to the contrary? Even if they were secularist's it seems clear that they held a high regard for lessons of Christianity and morality, did they not? And doesn't Deism actually state that it is through reason that we discover God thus the acknowledgment of a God? I don't know but this seems like splitting hairs in some regards other than pure philosophical discussion. Interested in your thoughts

[mugs99]

The quotes in the article, adams for example, insinuate these men were Christians. If you read his letters, you know in fact Adams was a Deist.

What is their agenda that requires them to revise history?

Even if they were secularist's it seems clear that they held a high regard for lessons of Christianity and morality, did they not?

Of course they did. Deists respect God and morality. Deists do not try to lead a moral life out of fear of a vengeful God, they do it out of respect for God.

Deists are by nature secular. God gives freedom, man takes it away. Religious history is the history of tyranny. No church has ever given freedom, yet many churches have enjoyed the freedom of religion made possible by our secularist founders.

A Christian. or any other, America would send us back into the dark ages of religious persecution.
.

[Tailgunner Joe]

The early state governments had Republican governments, AND they had state supported churches. You obviously don't know what the definition of the word Republic is. It does not preclude state supported religion.

[thackney]

bump to follow

[TAdams8591]

"The founding fathers opposed both government suppression and government establishment of religion. Radical secularists who seek to drive all religious expression from the public square join the ranks of the radical sectarians that our founders sought to declaw."

Exactly to both of the above points. Great article!

[Tailgunner Joe]

Tomas Jefferson disagreed.

I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling in religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves to the states the powers not delegated to the United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise or to assume authority in religious discipline has been delegated to the General Government. It must rest with the States, as far as it can be in any human authority - Thomas Jefferson, letter to Samuel Miller, Jan. 23, 1808

[Tailgunner Joe]

No he quite clearly understood that since those powers not delegated to the federal government are retained by the states, and since no such power of establishment has been delegated to the federal government, it then rests with the states.

[Matchett-PI]

"Thomas Paine was a "grumpy pamphleteer"? Or an American hero and the most compelling proponent for the cause of freedom in the colonies."

"..Paine was in the minority of founders ..." ~ Coleus

Thomas Paine was not a "Founding Father".

"...Thomas Payne and Ethan Allen, for example, were in no- wise intellectual architects of the Constitution. Rather, they were firebrands of the Revolution. Was that important? Sure, they made an important contribution, but they weren't Founding Fathers. Period. ..."

[tacticalogic]

Self-government is not an adequate system for those who refuse to govern themselves.

Nor for those who demand to govern others.

[Tailgunner Joe]

Government is force.

[tacticalogic]

Yes it is. And government without the consent of the governed is tyranny.