America's Godly Heritage

Great post. Thanks.

...for my political science class - required reading!

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/artconf.htm

this has a lot of info
theres alot to it
keep digging deeper
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/pre18.htm

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/18th.htm

read washingtons inaugural address ,find any mention of God?
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/inaug/inaug.htm

Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow- citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage.

Thomas jefferson

I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our forefathers, as Israel of old, from their native land, and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life; who has covered our infancy with his providence, and our riper years with his wisdom and power; and to whose goodness I ask you to join with me in supplications, that he will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their councils, and prosper their measures, that whatsoever they do, shall result in your good, and shall secure to you the peace, friendship, and approbation of all nations.

I have always wanted to go back to high school and graduate again at the top of my class. That way I could include these remarks of Benjamine Franklin. Then I would wait for the ACLU, school officials, etc. claim that it in unconstitutional to quote a constitutional author while speaking to the Constitutional Convention.

[whole exerpt]
Benjamin Franklin, Constitutional Convention 1787,"I, Sir, have lived a long time. And the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see that God governs in the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, it is probable that an empire cannot rise without His aid. We've been assured in a sacred writing that, 'Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.' I firmly beleive that. And if we leave God out of this political spectrum, we will fare no better than the builders of the Tower of Babel."

I have a deep personal love for the real American Heritage. Here is some of my favorites taken from the research done by David Barton in his book "Original Intent".

JEFFERSON, Thomas

Gentlemen,-The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me on behalf of the Danbury Baptist Association give me the highest satisfaction….Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God; that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship; that the legislative powers of government reach actions only and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature "make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise "thereof", thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. Adhering to this expression of the Supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties. I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessing of the common Father and Creator of Man, and tender you for yourselves and your religious association assurances of my high respect and esteem.
(Jefferson, Writings, Vol. XVI, pp.281-282, to the Danbury Baptist Association on January 1, 1802)

"[The] liberty to worship our Creator the way we think most agreeable to His will [is] a liberty deemed in other countries incompatible with good government an yet proved by our experience to be its best support"
(Jefferson, Writings (1904), Vol. XVI, p. 291, to Captain John Thomas on November 18, 1801)

American lawyers used Blackstone's Commentaries with the same dedication and reverence that Muslims used the Koran. (Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Albert Ellery Bergh, editor(Washington, D.C.: The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1904), Vol. III, p. 392, to Governor John Tyler on May 26, 1810)

"[N]othing in the Constitution has given to them a right to decide for the Executive more than the Executive to decide for them."
(Jefferson Writings, Vol. XV p. 447, to judge William Johnson on June 12, 1823)

[N]o power over the freedom of religion… [is] delegated to the United States by the Constitution.
(The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia, John P. Foley, editor (New York, Funk and Wagnalls,1900),p.977 see also Documents of American History, Henry S. Commanger, editor (NY:Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc.,1948),p.179)

“In matters of religion I have considered that its free exercise is placed by the Constitution independent of the powers of the general [Federal] Government.”
(Second Inaugural Address, 1805) (Annals of the Congress of the United States (Washington: Gales & Seaton, 1852) Eighth Congress, Second Session, p.78, March 4, 1805)

[O]ur excellent Constitution…has not placed our religious rights under the power of any public functionary.
(Letter to the Methodist Episcopal Church (Jefferson Writings, Vol. XVI, p. 325, to the Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church on December 9, 1808)

I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions…or exercises.
(Letter to Samuel Miller (Thomas Jefferson, Memoir, Correspondence and Miscellanies From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson Randolph, editor (Boston: Gray & Bowan, 1830), Vol. IV, pp. 103-104, to the Rev. Samuel Miller on January 23, 1808))

"When the legislative or executive functionaries act unconstitutionally, they are responsible to the people in their elective capacity. The exemption of the judges from that is quite dangerous enough. I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them [the people] not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power."
(Jefferson, Writings, Vol. XV, p. 278, to William Charles Jarvis on September 28, 1820)

“It had become an universal and almost uncontroverted position in the several States that the purposes of society do not require a surrender of all our rights to our ordinary governors…and which experience has nevertheless proved they [the government] will be constantly encroaching on if submitted to them; that there are also certain fences which experience has proved peculiarly efficacious [effective] against wrong and rarely obstructive right, which yet the governing powers have ever shown a disposition to weaken and remove. Of the first kind, for instance, is freedom of religion.”
(Jefferson, Writings, Vol. VIII, p. 112-113, to Noah Webster on December 4, 1790)

“For if a slave can have a country in this world, it must be any other in preference to that in which he is born to live and labor for another: in which he must lock up the faculties of his nature.... And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure if we have lost the only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath?”
(Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (Philadelphia: Matthew Carey, 1794), Query XVIII, p. 237)

“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 obligation of the moral precepts of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in his discourses."
[The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Albert Ellery Bergh, editor(Washington D.C.: The Jefferson Memorial Association, 1904) Vol. XII, p.315 Letter to James Fishback, Sept. 27, 1809

Jefferson used federal monies to teach the Indians the Gospel of Jesus Christ. he personally authored "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth". He approved funding while president for this. Annual support for the Tribe's Roman Catholic priest and church. The treaty approved stated :
"And whereas, the greater part of the Tribe having been baptized and received into the Catholic Church, to which they are much attached, the United States will give annually for seven years one hundred dollars towards the support of a priest of that religion.. and.. three hundred dollars to assist the said Tribe in the erection of a church"
[Henery S. Randall, The Life of Thomas Jefferson (New York, Derby & Jackson, 1858)
American State Papers, Walter Lowery and Matthew St. Claire Clark, Editors (Washington D.C. Gales & Seaton, 1832)]

"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 text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed"
[Thomas Jefferson, memoir, Correspondence and Miscellanies From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson. (Boston: Gray & Bowan, 1830)

"I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus...very different from the Platonists, who call me infidel and themselves Christians and preachers of the gospel, while they draw all their characteristic dogmas from what its author never said nor saw."" Thomas Jefferson, the Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Albert Ellery Bergh, Editor (Washington D.C.; The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Assoc., 1904 Vol. XIV p 385 to Charles Thompson on Jan 9th, 1816

"The power to prescribe any religious exercise.. must rest with the states"
[Jefferson Memoir, Vol. IV p 104 to the Rev. Samuel Miller, Jan 23, 1808]

to Samuel Miller in 1808 and said:
"I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitutions from intermeddeling with religious institutions..or exercises"

"The clause of the Constitution which, while it secured the freedom of the press, covered also the freedom of religion, had given to the clergy a very favorite hope of obtaining an establishment of a particular form of Christianity through the United States; and as every sect believes it's own form the true one, every one perhaps hoped for his own, but especially the Episcopalians and Congregationalists. The returning good sense of our country threatens abortion to their hopes and they believe that any portion of power confided to me will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly"
[Jefferson, Memoir. Vol. III p.441. Letter to Benjamin Rush, Sept 23, 1800]

Jefferson proposed a picture of the Children of Israel in the wilderness, led by a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night.[John Adams, letters to Abigail Adams on Aug 14,1776]

Letter to John Trumbull, Feb, 15, 1789

The precepts of the philosophy, and of the Hebrew code, laid hold of actions only. [Jesus] pushed his scrutinies into the heart of man, erected his tribunal in the region of his thoughts, and purified the waters at the fountain head.
(Thomas Jefferson, Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellaneous, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, editor(Boston, Gray and Bowen, 1830), Vol. III, p.509, to Benjamin Rush on April 21, 1803, Jefferson’s Syllabus of an Estimate of the Merit of the Doctrines of Jesus, Compared with Those of Others.”)

James T. Callender (1758-1803), the man who made the first accusations of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings, began his career as a political pamphleteer in Scotland. His writings there were so libelous and seditious that being "oftimes called in court, did not appear, [Callender was] pronounced a fugitive and an outlaw." Callender fled to America for refuge where he also resumed his former writing style-- this time against prominent Americans-- thus confirming "his genius as a scandalmonger." In fact, his writings were so baseless and unscrupulous that, even in America, he was taken to court, fined, sentenced, and imprisoned. Ironically, it was Jefferson who secured his pardon. After his release, Callender resumed his previous practices-- This time launching his attacks on Jefferson, accusing him of "dishonesty, cowardice, and gross personal immorality."
Dictionary of American Biography, s.v. "James Thomson Callender"

Thomas Jefferson wrote this phrase, "thus building a wall of separation between church and State...." on January 1, 1802, (11 years after the First Amendment was ratified) in a private letter to the Danbury Baptist Association to assure them that the federal government could not and would not try to establish a national denomination. Jefferson was an ambassador in France during the time of the Constitutional Convention. However, while President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson was also made president of the Washington, DC public school system in which he placed the Bible and the Isaac Watt's hymnal as the two primary reading texts! Jefferson's phrase was used only twice by the U.S. Supreme Court from 1802 to 1947; and it was not until 1947 (Everson case) that it was taken out of context and given a meaning never intended (first use was 1878 in Reynolds case).

“I concur with the author in considering the moral precepts of Jesus as more pure, correct, and sublime than those of ancient philosophers.”
(Source: Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Albert Bergh, editor (Washington, D. C.: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Assoc., 1904), Vol. X, pp. 376-377. In a letter to Edward Dowse on April 19, 1803.)

“The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of mankind.”
(Source: Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Albert Bergh, editor (Washington, D. C.: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Assoc., 1904), Vol. XV, p. 383.)

“Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act. And never suppose that in any possible situation, or under any circumstances, it is best for your to do a dishonorable thing, however slightly so it may appear to you. Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you, and act accordingly. Encourage all you virtuous dispositions, and exercise them whenever an opportunity arises, being assured that they will gain strength by exercise, as a limb of the body does, and that exercise will make them habitual. From the practice of the purest virtue, you may be assured you will derive the most sublime comforts in every moment of life, and in the moment of death.
(Source: Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Albert Bergh, editor (Washington, D.C.: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Assoc., 1903), Vol. 5, pp. 82-83, in a letter to his nephew Peter Carr on August 19, 1785.)

JAY, John

"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 the next. Continue therefore to read it and to *regulate your life* by its precepts"
[John Jay, 'John Jay, the Winning of the Peace. Unpublished Papers 1780-1784, Richard B. Morris, editor, (New York, Harper & Row Publishers,1980) Vol. II, p.709

[It is] the duty of all wise, free, and virtuous governments to countenance and encourage virtue and religion. (Speeches of the Governors of new York, p.66, Governor John Jay on November 4, 1800)

ADAMS, Samuel

Let…statesmen and patriots unite in their endeavors to renovate the age by…educating their little boys and girls…[and] leading them in the study and practice of the exalted virtues of the Christian system.
(Samuel Adams and John Adams, Four Letters: Being an Interesting Correspondence Between Those Eminently Distinguished Characters, John Adams, Late President of the United States, and Samuel Adams, Late Governor of Massachusetts. On the Important Subject of Government (Boston: Adams and Rhoades, 1802), pp. 9-10)

a part of the citizens of the United States. The people of New England, if you will allow me to use a scripture phrase, are fast returning to their first love. Will you excite among them the spirit of angry controversy at a time when they are hastening to amity and peace? I am told that some of our newspapers have announced you intention to publish an additional pamphlet upon the principles of your Age of Reason. Do you think that your pen, or the pen of any other man, can unchristianize the mass of our citizens, or have you any hopes of converting a few of them to assist you in so bad a cause?"
(William V. Wells, The Life and Public Service of Samuel Adams (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1865), Vol. III, pp. 372-373, to Thomas Paine on November 30, 1802)

[I] have a thorough contempt for all men…who appear to be irreclaimable enemies of religion.
(Samuel Adams, The Writings of Samuel Adams, Harry Alonzo Cushing, editor (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1906), Vol. II, p. 381, to William Checkley on December 14, 1772)

Samuel Adams expounded on this Biblical principle when he explained:

He who is void of virtuous attachments in private life is, or very soon will be, void of all regard of his country. There is seldom an instance of a man guilty of betraying his country who had not before lost the feeling of moral obligations in his private connections. . . . [P]rivate and public vices are in reality . . . connected. . . . Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust be men of unexceptionable characters. The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men.

ADAMS, John

The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity, the Blackguard [scoundrel, rogue] Paine say what he will.
(John Adams, Works, Vol. III, p.421, diary entry for July 26, 1796)

Letter to Thomas Jefferson:
"Who composed that army of fine young fellows that was then before my eyes? There were among them Roman Catholics, English Episcopalians, Scotch and American Presbyterians, Methodists, Moravians, Anabaptists, German Lutherans, German Calvinists, Universalists, Arians, Priestleyans, Socinians, Independents, Congregationalists, Horse Protestants, and House Protestants, Congregationalists, Deists, Atheists, and Protestants "qui ne croyent rein". Very few, however, of several of these species; nevertheless, all educated in the general principles of Christianity....Could my answer be understood by any candid reader or hearer, to recommend to all the others the general principles, institutions or systems of education of the Roman Catholics? Or those of the Quakers? Or those of the Presbyterians? Or those of the Methodists? Or those of the Morovians? Or those of the Universalists? Or those of the Philosophers? *NO*. the general principles of which the fathers achieved independence were ..the general principles of Christianity. .Now I will avow that I then believe, that those general principle 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."
John Adams, Works, Vol. X, pp 45-46, to Thomas Jefferson on June 28, 1813

"Twenty times in the course of my late reading have I been on the point of breaking out, 'this would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!!! But, in this exclamation I would have been as fanatical as Bryant or Cleverly. Without religion this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean hell."
John Adams, Papers, Vol. VI. p. 348 to James Warren on August 4, 1778

[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. Religion and virtue are the only foundations…of republicanism and of all free government.
(John Adams, Works, Vol. IX p. 401, to Zabdiel Adams on June 21, 1776 / ALSO p. 636, to Benjamin Rush on August 28, 1811)

The idea of infidelity [ a disbelief in the inspiration of the Scriptures or the Divine origin of Christianity *] cannot be treated with too much resentment or too much horror. The man who can think of it with patience is a traitor in his heart and ought to be execrated [ denounced ] as one who adds the deepest hypocrisy to the blackest treason.
(John Adams, Papers, Vol. VI, P. 348, to James Warren on August 4, 1778)
(*Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (New York: S. Converse, 1828), s.v. “in fidelity

[W]e 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.
(Source: John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co. 1854), Vol. IX, p. 229, October 11, 1798.)

The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If "Thou shalt not covet," and "Thou shalt not steal," were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society, before it can be civilized or made free.
(Source: John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1851), Vol. VI, p. 9.)

ADAMS, Sam

[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.
(Source: William V. Wells, The Life and Public Service of Samuel Adams (Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1865), Vol. I, p. 22, quoting from a political essay by Samuel Adams published in The Public Advertiser, 1749.)

MADISON, James

[Some contend] that wherever its [the Constitution's] meaning is doubtful, you must leave it to take its course until the judiciary is called upon to declare its meaning...But I beg to know upon what principle it can be contended that any one department draws from the Constitution greater powers than another...I do not see that any one of these independent departments has more right than another to declare their sentiments on that point.
(The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (Washington D.C.:Gales and Seaton, 1834), Vol. I, p. 520, June 17, 1789.)

"The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established."
(The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (Washington D.C.: Gales & Seaton, 1834, Vol. I p. 451, James Madison, June 8, 1789)

Madison offered proclamations for national days of prayer, fasting and thanksgiving.
“I do therefore issue this my proclamation, recommending to all who shall be piously disposed to unite their hearts and voices in addressing one and the same time their vows and adoration’s 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”
(James D. Richardson, A Compilation of the Messages and the Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1897 (Published by Authority of Congress, 1899) Vol. I pp. 512-513, 532 June 19, 1812)

"[A] watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest, while we are building ideal monuments of renown bliss here, we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven."
(Madison, Letters, Vol. I, pp.5-6,To William Bradford on November 9, 1772)

"I have sometimes thought there could be no stronger testimony in favor of religion or against temporal enjoyments, even the most rational and manly, than for men who occupy the most honorable and gainful departments and [who] are rising in reputation and wealth, publicly declare their unsatisfactoriness by becoming fervent advocates in the cause of Christ; and I wish you may give you evidence in this way."
(James Madison, The Papers of James Madison, William T. Hutchinson, editor (Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1962), Vol. I, p.66, to William Bradford on September 25, 1773)

It is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other.
(The Proceedings of the Convention of Delegates, Held at the Capitol in the City of Williamsburg, in the Colony of Virginia, on Monday the 6th of May, 1776(Williamsburg: Alexander Purdie, 1776), p. 103. Madison on the Committee on May 16, 1776; the "Declaration of Rights" passed June 12, 1776.)

In 1789, he served on the Congressional committee which *authorized*, approved and selected *paid* congressional chaplains.
(Debates and Proceedings (1834), Vol. I, P. 109, April 9, 1789)

In 1812, President Madison signed a federal bill which economically aided a Bible Society in its goal of mass distribution of the Bible.
(The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (Washington: Gales & Seaton, 1853), Twelfth Congress, Second Session, P. 1325: "An Act for the relief of the Bible Society of Philadelphia. Be it enacted, &c., That the duties arising and due to the United States upon certain stereotype plates, imported during the last year into the port of Philadelphia, on board the ship Brilliant, by the Bible Society of Philadelphia, for the purpose of printing editions of the Holy Bible, be and the same are hereby remitted, on behalf of the United States, to the said society: and any bond or security given for the securing of the payment of the said duties shall be canceled. Approved February 2, 1813)

TREATY OF TRIPOLI

The supposed source for this statement comes from the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli. This was one of several treaties with Tripoli during the Barbary Powers Conflict, shortly after the Revolutionary War, and continued through the administrations of Adams, Jefferson and Madison. The Muslim Barbary Powers (Tunis, Morocco, Algiers, Tripoli and Turkey) were at that time warring against what they claimed to be the "Christian Nations, (England, France, Spain, Denmark and the US). In 1801 Tripoli even declared war against the US, this constituted America's first official war as an established independent Nation. Through this time, the Barbary Powers regularly attacked undefended American merchant ships. Capturing the cargo and enslaving much of the crew for being "Christian" in retaliation for what had been done to them by the "Christians" of previous crusades like the Crusades, as well as Ferdinand & Isabella's expulsion of Muslims from Grenada. In an attempt to get those captured released and a guarantee of unharmed shipping, President Washington sent envoys to negotiate treaties with the Barbary Powers. This they did and made many a treaty of "Peace and Amity" with them. However, the terms of them were very unfavorable to America as they requires the US and others to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of "Tribute". The Treaty of 1797 was one that simply showed that each country signing would officially recognize the religion of the other in their greatest attempt to stop any escalation of a "Holy War" between the Christian and Muslim. So, the Treaty said:

As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen and as the said States have never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

The statement you pull out of it is strictly addressing the Federal Government. Which has been the way it has always been as previously stated by me and others that Congress shall not establish a religion. No state mandated religion, but not that it could not have influence in the government. People who attribute this statement to George Washington make two mistakes. First, it was not his. The treaty did not even arrive here for signing until *after* he left office. Washington never saw the treaty. It was not his work, and no statement can be ascribed to him. The second mistake is to divorce a single clause of the treaty from the whole of it, which provides its context. That being that the US did not have a State religion, and that there is nothing to worry about from us in the way of some US led crusade which was a wrongful and despicable use of religion by elite’s who used it as a weapon.

Naval Documents related to the US was with the Barbary Powers, Claude A. Swanson (Washington Government Printing Office) 1939, Vol. I. p. V.
Glen Tucker, Drawn Like Thunder, the Barbary Wars and the birth of the US Navy.(Indianapolis: Bobbs Merril Co., 1963) p. 50, 127
Ray W. Irwin, the Diplomatic Relations of the United States with the Barbary Powers (Chapel Hill, the University of NC Press, 1931) p.84
Treaty with Morocco, ratified by US Senate, July 18, 1787

FRANKLIN, Benjamin

"And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance?...[W]ithout His concurring aid...we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages.
[Madison, Papers (1840), Vol. I, pp.9-10, April 30 1789

Benjamin Franklin said to him when Paine asked him to review Age of Reason:
"I have read your manuscript with some attention. By the argument it contains against a particular Providence, though you allow general Providence, you strike at the foundation of all religion. For without belief of a Providence that takes cognizance of, guards, and guides, and may favor particular persons, there is no motive to worship Deity, to fear his displeasure, or to pray for his protection. I will not enter into any discussion of your principles, though you seem to desire it. At present I shall only give you my opinion that.. the consequence of printing this piece will be a great deal of odium drawn upon yourself, mischief to you, and no benefit to others. He that spits in the wind, spits in his own face. But were you to succeed, do you imagine any good would be done by it?...[T]hink how great a portion of mankind consists of weak and ignorant men and women and of inexperienced, inconsiderate youth of both sexes who have need of the motives of religion to restrain them from vice, to support their virtue...I would advise you, therefore, not to attempt unchaining the tiger, but to *burn* this piece before it is seen by any other person...If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it. I intend this letter itself as proof of my friendship."
[Works of Benjamin Franklin, Jared Sparks, editor(Boston: Tappan, Whittemore and Mason, 1840), Vol. X, pp281-282, to Thomas Paine in 1790.

"This letter was first published by William Temple Franklin, but without the name of the person to whom it was directed. He probably transcribed it from a rough draft, in which the name was not mentioned. It is supposed to have been written by Thomas Paine, and the circumstances are such as to render this supposition in the highest degree probable. In
the early part of the Revolution, Paine was in the habit of consulting Dr. Franklin about his political writings, and the latter is understood to have aided Paine, as least by his suggestions and advice, in preparing some of his celebrated political essays. Paine was in America when Dr. Franklin returned from France, and often consulted him respecting his private affairs; and, when he went to Europe with his model of a newly invented bridge, in which he thought he had made essential improvements upon former inventions in the art of building bridges, Dr. Franklin gave him letters of introduction to the Duke de la
Rochefoucauld, M.le Veillard, and some of his other friends in Paris. It may be added, moreover, that the remarks in the above letter are strictly applicable to the deistical writings, which Paine afterwards published."

“History will also afford frequent opportunities for showing the necessity of a public religion…and the excellency of the Christian religion above all others, ancient or modern.”
(Benjamin Franklin, Proposals relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania(Philadelphia, 1749), p.22)

Franklin was one of three charged by the delegates to devise a national seal, his proposal was Moses lifting up his wand, and dividing the Red Sea, and Pharaoh in his chariot overwhelmed with the waters. This motto: "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God."
[John Adams, Letters, Vol. I, p.142, to Abigail Adams, Aug 14, 1776]

“The Body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer, like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out, stripped of its lettering, and guiding, lies here, food for worms. But the work shall not be lost; for it will, as he believed, appear once more in a new and more elegant edition, revised and corrected by the Author.”

"I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth-that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, it is 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 labour 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 Franklin at the Constitutional Convention, June 28, 1787.)

[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.
Source: Benjamin Franklin, The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, Jared Sparks, editor (Boston: Tappan, Whittemore and Mason, 1840), Vol. X, p. 297, April 17, 1787.

WASHINGTON, George

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of man and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connexions with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice?
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. It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who, that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?
(Source: George Washington, Address of George Washington, President of the United States . . . Preparatory to His Declination (Baltimore: George and Henry S. Keatinge), pp. 22-23. In his Farewell Address to the United States in 1796.)

[T]he [federal] government . . . can never be in danger of degenerating into a monarchy, and oligarchy, an aristocracy, or any other despotic or oppressive form so long as there shall remain any virtue in the body of the people.
(Source: George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, John C. Fitzpatrick, editor (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1939), Vol. XXIX, p. 410. In a letter to Marquis De Lafayette, February 7, 1788.)

"The power under the Constitution will always be in the people. it is entrusted for certain purposes, and for a certain limited period to representatives of their own choosing; and whenever it is exercised contrary to their interest or not agreeable to their wishes, their servants can, and undoubtedly will be recalled.
(George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, )

Jared Sparks said this of him:
"I should have thought it the greatest heresy to doubt his firm belief in Christianity. His life, his writings, prove that he was a christian.
[George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, Jared Sparks, editor(Boston:Ferdinand Andrews, 1838), Vol.XII, pp.406-407]

"[T]he fundamental principle of our Constitution … enjoins that the will of the majority shall prevail."
[Richardson, Vol. I, p. 164, from the "Sixth Annual Address" of November 19, 1794.]

“While just government protects all in their religious rights, true religion affords to government its surest support.”
(Source: George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, John C. Fitzpatrick, editor (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1932), Vol. XXX, p. 432 n., from his address to the Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church in North America, October 9, 1789.)

"You do well to wish to learn our arts and our way of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ.…Congress will do everything they can to assist you in this wise intention."
(Washington, Writings, (1932), Vol. XV, P. 55, from his speech to the Deleware Indian Chiefs on May 12, 1779)

ALLEN, Ethan

Colonel Ethan Allen was in charge when he took Ft. Ticonderoga, in NY. He went to the Ft. roused Capt. De La Place. Allen then described this meeting.
"[T]he Captain came immediately to the door with his small clothes in his hand-when I ordered him to deliver me the fort, instantly. He asked me by what authority I demanded it. I answered him-"In the name of the Great Jehovah, and the Continental Congress"."
[Hugh More, Memoir of Col. Ethan Allen(Plattsburg, NY:O.R.Cook, 1834),pp.94-95

PATERSON, William

As a signer of the Constitution and a Justice on the Supreme Court, he would remind juries of the following Scripture:

When the righteous rule, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan. Proverbs 29:2
(United States Oracle (Portsmouth, NH), May 24, 1800; See also The Documentary of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789-1800, Maeva Marcus, editor (New York, Columbia University Press, 1988), Vol. III p. 346.)

BALDWIN, Abraham
Signer of the Constitution

[A] free government…can only be happy when the public principles and opinions are properly directed…by religion and education. It should therefore be among the first objects of those who wish to do well to the national prosperity to encourage and support the principles of religion and morality.
(Charles C. Jones, Biographical Sketches of the Delegates from Georgia to the Continental Congress (Boston & New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1891), pp.6-7.)

CARROLL, Charles
Signer of the Declaration

Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion whose morality is so sublime and pure…are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments.
(Bernard C. Steiner, The Life and Correspondence of James McHenry (Cleveland: The Burrows Brothers Company, 1907), p. 475, Charles Carrol to James McHenry on Nov. 4, 1800)

ELLSWORTH, Oliver
Delegate to the Constitutional Convention; U.S. Senator; Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

[T]he primary objects of government are the peace, order and prosperity of society…To the promotion of these objects, particularly in a republican government good morals are essential. Institutions for the promotion of good morals are therefore objects of legislative provision and support: and among these…religious institutions are eminently useful and important.
(Connecticut Currant, June 7, 1802, p.3.)

RUSH, Benjamin

Benjamin Rush in a letter to John Dickinson wrote that Paines Age of Reason was:
“absurd and impious"
(Benjamin Rush, Letters of Benjamin Rush, L. H. Butterfield, editor (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1951), Vol. II, p. 770, to John Dickinson on February 16, 1796)

“I have always considered Christianity as the strong ground of republicanism…It is only necessary for republicanism to ally itself to the Christian religion to overturn all the corrupted political and religious institutions in the world.”
(Rush, Letters, Vol. II, pp. 820-821, To Thomas Jefferson on August 22, 1800)

We profess to be republicans, and yet we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government, that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by the means of the Bible. For this Divine Book, above all others, favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws, and those sober and frugal virtues, which constitute the soul of republicanism.
(Source: Benjamin Rush, Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical (Philadelphia: Printed by Thomas and William Bradford, 1806), pp. 93-94.)

“We profess to be republicans, and yet we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government, that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by the means of the Bible. For this Divine Book, above all others, favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws, and those sober and frugal virtues, which constitute the soul of republicanism.”
(Source: Benjamin Rush, Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical (Philadelphia: Printed by Thomas and William Bradford, 1806), pp. 93-94.)

By renouncing the Bible, philosophers swing from their moorings upon all moral subjects. . . . It is the only correct map of the human heart that ever has been published. . . . All systems of religion, morals, and government not founded upon it [the Bible] must perish, and how consoling the thought, it will not only survive the wreck of these systems but the world itself. "The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it." [Matthew 1:18]
(Source: Benjamin Rush, Letters of Benjamin Rush, L. H. Butterfield, editor (Princeton, NJ:Princeton University Press, 1951), p. 936, to John Adams, January 23, 1807.)

“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.”
(Source: Benjamin Rush, Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical (Philadelphia: Thomas and William Bradford, 1806), p. 8.)

HENRY, Patrick

"the puny efforts of Paine."
(S.G. Arnold, The Life of Patrick Henry of Virginia (Auburn and Buffalo: Miller, Orton and Mulligan, 1854) p. 250, to his daughter Betsy on August 20, 1796)

After reading Bishop Richard Watson's Apology for the Bible, written against Paine, Henry deemed that work sufficient and decided not to publish his reply.
(George Morgan, Patrick Henry (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1929), p. 366 n. See Also, Bishop William Meade, Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1857), Vol. II, p. 12)

[T]he rising greatness of our country…is greatly tarnished by the general prevalence of deism which, with me, is but another name for vice and depravity…I hear it is said by the deists that I am one of their number; and indeed that some good people think I am no Christian. This thought gives me much more pain than the appellation of Tory [ being called a traitor ] , because I think religion of infinitely higher importance than politics…[B]eing a Christian…is a character which I prize far above all this world has or can boast.
(Arnold, pp. 249-250)

HAMILTON, Alexander

The attempt by the rulers of a nation [ France ] to destroy all religious opinion and to pervert a whole people to atheism is a phenomenon of profligacy [ act of moral depravity] …[T]o establish atheism on the ruins of Christianity [is] to deprive mankind of its best consolations and most animating hopes and to make a gloomy desert of the universe.
(Hamilton, Papers, Vol. XXI, pp. 402-404, “The Stand No. III,” New York, April 7, 1798)

MORRIS, Gouverneur

[T]he most important of all lessons [ from the Scriptures ] is the denunciation of ruin to every State that rejects the precepts of religion.
(Collections of the New York Historical Society for the Year 1821(New York: E. Bliss and E. White, 1821), p. 34, from “An Inaugural Discourse Delivered before the New York Historical Society by the Honorable Gouverneur Morris on September 4, 1816”)

BLACKSTONE, Sir William

"Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator, for he is entirely a dependent being...And, consequently, as man depends absolutely upon his Maker for every thing, it is necessary that he should in all points conform to his Maker's will. This will of his Maker is called the law of nature...This law of nature, being coeval with mankind and dictated by God Himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this; and such of them as are valid derive all their force, and all their authority, mediately or immediately, from this original...The doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law and they are to be found only in the holy Scriptures. These precepts, when revealed, are found upon comparison to be really part of the original law of nature...Upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human laws; that is to say, no human laws should be suffered to contradict these."
(Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (Philadelphia: Robert Bell, Union Library, 1771), Vol. I, pp. 39, 41-42)

STORY, Joseph

One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal Jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law…There has never been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as laying at its foundations…I verily believe Christianity necessary to the support of a civil society
(Joseph Story, Life and Letters of Joseph Story, William W. Story, editor(Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1851), Vol. II, pp. 8, 92)

The real object of the [First A]mendment was not to countenance, much less to advance Mahometanism, or Judaism, or infidelity by prostrating Christianity; but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sects and to prevent any national ecclesiastical establishment which should give a hierarchy [a denominational council] the exclusive patronage of the national government.
(Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (Boston: Hilliard, Gray and Company, 1833), Vol. III, p. 728, § 1871)

WEBSTER, Noah

The most perfect maxims and examples for regulating your social conduct and domestic economy, as well as the best rules of morality and religion, are to be found in the Bible. . . . The moral principles and precepts found in the scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. These principles and precepts have truth, immutable truth, for their foundation. . . . All the 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. . . . For instruction then in social, religious and civil duties resort to the scriptures for the best precepts.
(Source: Noah Webster, History of the United States, "Advice to the Young" (New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1832), pp. 338-340, par. 51, 53, 56.)

[T]he religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His apostles…and to this we owe our free constitutions of government.”
(Noah Webster, History, p. 300, 578

"The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His Apostles....This is genuine Christianity and to this we owe our free constitutions of government."
(Noah Webster, History of the United States, 1832, public school textbook.)

"...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 or the Christian religion."
(Noah Webster, History of the United States, 1832, public school textbook.)

While many other Founders made similarly succinct declarations on the necessity of private morality in public officials (to read more of these quotes, see our book Original Intent), in recent weeks I discovered an especially interesting essay on this topic written in 1801 by Noah Webster. In that work, Webster explained why a high level of morality was necessary in the Presidency:

[A]ll history is a witness of the truth of the principle that good morals are essential to the faithful and upright discharge of public functions. The moral character of a man is an entire and indivisible thing-it cannot be pure in one part and defiled in another. A man may indeed be addicted, for a time, to one vice and not to another; but it is a solemn truth that any considerable breach in the moral sense facilitates the admission of every species of vice. The love of virtue first yields to the strongest temptation; but when the rampart [resistance] is broken down, it is rendered more accessible to every successive assailant. . . . Corruption of morals is rapid enough in any country without a bounty [an encouragement] from government. And . . . the Chief Magistrate of the United States [the President] should be the last man to accelerate its progress.

The most perfect maxims and examples for regulating your social conduct and domestic economy, as well as the best rules of morality and religion, are to be found in the Bible. . . . The moral principles and precepts found in the scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. These principles and precepts have truth, immutable truth, for their foundation. . . . All the 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. . . . For instruction then in social, religious and civil duties resort to the scriptures for the best precepts.
(Source: Noah Webster, History of the United States, "Advice to the Young" (New Haven:Durrie & Peck, 1832), pp. 338-340, par. 51, 53, 56.)

ADAMS, John Quincy

“Human legislators can undertake only to prescribe the actions of men: they acknowledge their inability to govern and direct the sentiments of the heart; the very law styles it a rule of civil conduct, not of internal principles…It is one of the greatest marks of Divine favor…that the Legislator gave them rules not only of action but for the government of the heart.”
(John Quincy Adams, Letters to His Son, p. 62)

Diary Entries for October 23rd & October 30th, 1803:
“Attended public service at the Capitol where Mr. Rattoon, an Episcopalian clergyman, from Baltimore, preached a sermon.”
“[R]eligious service is usually performed on Sundays at the Treasury office and at the Capitol. I went both forenoon and afternoon to the Treasury.”
(John Quincy Adams, Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Charles Francis Adams, editor (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott and Company, 1874), Vol. I, p. 265, October 23, 1803)

“To a man of liberal education, the study of history is not only useful, and important, but altogether indispensable, and with regard to the history contained in the Bible…”it is not so much praiseworthy to be acquainted with as it is shameful to be ignorant of it.”
(John Quincy Adams, Letters of John Quincy Adams to His Son on the Bible and its Teachings(Auburn: James M. Alden, 1850), p.34)

“My hopes of a future life are all founded upon the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I cannot cavil or quibble away [evade or object to]…the whole tenor of His conduct by which He sometimes positively asserted and at others countenances [permits] His disciples in asserting that He was God”
(John Adams & John Quincy Adams, The Selected Writings of John and John Quincy Adams, Adrienne Koch and William Peden, editors (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946), p. 292, John Quincy Adams to John Adams, January 3, 1817)

"Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birth-day of the Saviour."
John Quincy Adams, An Oration Delivered Before the Inhabitants of the Town of Newburyport, at Their Request, on the Sixty-first Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1837 (Newburyport: Charles Whipple,1837), p. 5.

The law given from Sinai was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code; it contained many statutes . . . of universal application-laws essential to the existence of men in society, and most of which have been enacted by every nation which ever professed any code of laws.
(Source: John Quincy Adams, Letters of John Quincy Adams, to His Son, on the Bible and Its Teachings (Auburn: James M. Alden, 1850), p. 61.)

"From the day of the Declaration, the people of the North American Union and of its constituent states were associated bodies of civilized men and Christians….They were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of the Gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledged as the rules of their conduct(1). The Declaration of Independence cast off all the shackles of this dependency. The United States of America were no longer Colonies. They were an independent nation of Christians.(2)
((1) John Quincy Adams, Address Delivered at the Request of the Committee of Arrangements for Celebrating the Anniversary of Independence at the City of Washington on the Fourth of July, 1821, Upon the Occasion of Reading the Declaration of Independence (Cambridge: Hilliard and Metcalf, 1821), p. 28)
((2) John Quincy Adams, An Oration…on…July 4, 1837, p. 18)

There are three points of doctrine the belief of which forms the foundation of all morality. The first is the existence of God; the second is the immortality of the human soul; and the third is a future state of rewards and punishments. Suppose it possible for a man to disbelieve either of these three articles of faith and that man will have no conscience, he will have no other law than that of the tiger or the shark. The laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy.
(Source: John Quincy Adams, Letters of John Quincy Adams to His Son on the Bible and Its Teachings (Auburn: James M. Alden, 1850), pp. 22-23.)

James McHenry Signer of the Constitution

[P]ublic utility pleads most forcibly for the general distribution of the Holy Scriptures. The doctrine they preach, the obligations they impose, the punishment they threaten, the rewards they promise, the stamp and image of divinity they bear, which produces a conviction of their truths, can alone secure to society, order and peace, and to our courts of justice and constitutions of government, purity, stability and usefulness. In vain, without the Bible, we increase penal laws and draw entrenchments around our institutions. Bibles are strong entrenchments. Where they abound, men cannot pursue wicked courses, and at the same time enjoy quiet conscience.
Source: Bernard C. Steiner, One Hundred and Ten Years of Bible Society Work in Maryland,1810-1920 (Maryland Bible Society, 1921), p. 14.

James Wilson Signer of the Constitution

Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other. The divine law, as discovered by reason and the moral sense, forms an essential part of both.
(Source: James Wilson, The Works of the Honourable James Wilson (Philadelphia: Bronson and Chauncey, 1804), Vol. I, p. 106.)

WEBSTER, Daniel

“[I]f we and our posterity reject religious instruction and authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the political constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us that shall bury all our glory in profound obscurity.”
(Source: Daniel Webster, The Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster (Boston: Little, Brown, & Company, 1903), Vol. XIII, p. 492. From "The Dignity and Importance of History," February 23, 1852.)

WINTHROP, Robert
Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
“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.”
(Source: Robert Winthrop, Addresses and Speeches on Various Occasions (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1852), p. 172 from his "Either by the Bible or the Bayonet.")

Graduate at the top of your class. Grrr too much work for too little payoff.

Bump

There are many other quotes from the Founding Fathers which show that most were Christians only in the sense that they thought Jesus preached a sound morality which they tried to follow, but they generally dismissed the mystical and miraculous elements of Christianity, such as the divinity of Jesus and the resurrection. Yes, they believed in God, but in a Deistical way, not in a way that would be recognized as Christian today (unless possibly one is talking about Unitarianism). Quotes to support this view are only a click away on the Internet for anyone caring to know the truth about the Founding Fathers' beliefs. Here's just one sample of many:

"And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerve in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors." - Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823

For further reading, please visit this excellent web site

Wall Builders

Thanks for the great post!

That is a very tired and old accusation that falls on the deaf ears of historical accuracy.

The Founders were not agnostics as accused by many, nor were they Diests as you claim they were. Jefferson is one most accused by secularists about this very thing. He authored a Bible for the Indians that emphasized the Words of Christ. Nowadays we know it as a Red Letter Edition. He appropriated Federal Dollars while President for the building of a Catholic Church and more funds for the payment of a Preist to that church for an Indian Tribe. He did not believe in a clockmaker theology as Diests must to be a real diest.

You can not claim that it is reason seeking by providing a single quote that on its face does nothing more than make Jefferson one who simply does not see Jesus as God and then from that make all the founders Diests.

Bookmark BUMP

If Jefferson did not accept the miracle and mystery surrounding Jesus' moral teachings, which he clearly didn't, I don't see how his beliefs are more properly considered Christian than Deist.

Here's Jefferson again regarding his "Red Letter Bible": "But while this syllabus is meant to place the character of Jesus in its true and high light, as no impostor Himself, but a great Reformer of the Hebrew code of religion, it is not to be understood that I am with Him in all His doctrines. I am a Materialist; he takes the side of Spiritualism; he preaches the efficacy of repentance towards forgiveness of sin; I require counterpoise of good works to redeem it, etc., etc. It is the innocence of His character, the purity and sublimity of His moral precepts, the eloquence of His inculcations, the beauty of the apologues in which He conveys them, that I so much admire; sometimes, indeed, needing indulgence to eastern hyperbolism. My eulogies, too, may be founded on a postulate which all may not be ready to grant. Among the sayings and discourses imputed to Him by His biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence; and others, again, of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same Being. I separate, therefore, the gold from the dross; restore to Him the former, and leave the latter to the stupidity of some, and roguery of others of His disciples. Of this band of dupes and impostors, Paul was the great Coryphaeus, and first corruptor of the doctrines of Jesus. These palpable interpolations and falsifications of His doctrines, led me to try to sift them apart. I found the work obvious and easy, and that His past composed the most beautiful morsel of morality which has been given to us by man. The syllabus is therefore of His doctrines, not all of mine. I read them as I do those of other ancient and modern moralists, with a mixture of approbation and dissent..."

Here's another quote from a different Founding Founder that is more specific about Deism:

"My parents had early given me religious impressions, and brought me through my childhood piously in the Dissenting way. But I was scarce fifteen, when, after doubting by turns of several points, as I found them disputed in the different books I read, I began to doubt of Revelation itself. Some books against Deism fell into my hands; they were said to be the substance of sermons preached at Boyle's Lectures. It happened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a thorough Deist." - The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Deist: The belief, based solely on reason, in a God who created the universe and then abandoned it, assuming no control over life, exerting no influence on natural phenomena, and giving no supernatural revelation.

In your reply to me you state that you do not think that Jefferson was a christian as much as he was a deist. even according to a simple definition of deism he could not have been a deist.

regarding Franklin, his own words as to his influences at age 15 hardly represent him as being a deist. What of his statement at the Constitutional convention??

""I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth-that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, it is 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 labour 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 Franklin at the Constitutional Convention, June 28, 1787.)"

This, again, is hardly that of a mindful deist. Moreover, how is it that we have all our founders lumped into this lable as you assert in your first post? Not only is it a weak assumption to brand these two a deist it is worse yet to make all of them appear as such, or am I wrong about your post?

Could you kindly post references to sources when you put up a quote? I am not accusing you of fabrication at all as much as I would like to look at what you post as evidence in their fullest context.

regards.