Great Pillars of American Liberty

LIBERTY LETTERS WITH STEVE FARRELL

Not long ago, I watched a noted atheist – an ACLU member – venomously attacked American Christians for daring to stand up for what they called the right of their children to have access to the truth in the classroom about America’s unique founding, a founding centered not just on the triumph of reason, as some wrongfully claim, but on the triumph of reason coupled with faith, particularly the Christian faith.

Coming to this atheists’ defense, one of the interviewers cited as “proof” that America was not founded by Christians – nor upon the principles of Christianity – the 1796 Treaty of Tripoli, which declared in Article XI, “the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” Here we have it, he declared, legal proof under the supremacy clause that this must be and still is the case – but more than that, with key founder President John Adams’ signature on it, a personal, in-your-face testimony against Christians and their incessant claims about God’s hand in founding this nation.

Now hold on there…

Notwithstanding that such a claim contradicts everything in John Adams’ writings to the contrary (we’ll get to that in a minute) – and the rest of the key founders as well – and notwithstanding the contradictory testimony of two centuries before the American founding and the nearly two centuries’ old testimony after the American founding, both of which embracing America’s Christian tradition in Congress, in the courts, in presidential speeches, in private and public classrooms, and in state and local governments, without question—notwithstanding that little sidestep—here’s yet another: The U.S. does not have and has not had the original copy of this treaty for at least two centuries (it was and is lost); while the two originals that do exist (in Italian and Arabic) have no such phrase nor any such clause in the treaty, period.

So what do we have then? A ‘certified copy’ written by a man, Joel Barlow, who brought to publication Thomas Paine’s diatribe against Christianity, “The Age of Reason,” and whose motives might be described as suspect.

The Avalon Project at Yale University, without assigning any motives to Mr. Barlow, notes of the blatant discrepancy:

As even a casual examination of the annotated translation of 1930 shows, the Barlow translation is at best a poor attempt at a paraphrase or summary of the sense of the Arabic; and even as such its defects throughout are obvious and glaring. Most extraordinary (and wholly unexplained) is the fact that Article 11 of the Barlow translation, with its famous phrase, “the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion,” does not exist at all. There is no Article 11. The Arabic text which is between Articles 10 and 12 is in form a letter, crude and flamboyant and withal quite unimportant. . How that script came to be written and to be regarded, as in the Barlow translation, as Article 11 of the treaty as there written, is a mystery and seemingly must remain so. Nothing in the diplomatic correspondence of the time throws any light whatever on the point (1)

These Yale researchers note next:

[E]vidence of the erroneous character of the Barlow translation has been in the archives of the Department of State since perhaps 1800 or thereabouts; for in the handwriting of James Leander Cathcart [the American Consul to Tripoli, at the time] is the statement . that the Barlow translation is “extremely erroneous.” (2)

A “poor attempt at a paraphrase,” “defects throughout,” “obvious and glaring,” “extremely erroneous,” a “famous phrase [that] does not exist at all”; of these I have little doubt. But returning to Mr. Barlow’s motives in penning such a copy upon provisions that did not exist: his connection to the doctrines of the fallen angel Thomas Paine, and his own descent from his former involvement in the ministry into what was then dubbed “liberal Christianity” looms large, and helps unravel “the mystery.” So do a couple of other possible character flaws. A little over a decade after the signing of the Treaty of Tripoli, in an April 24, 1812 letter from James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, we read of Madison’s concerns about Barlow’s fidelity to representing America in yet another land, France:

A letter from Barlow to Granger fills us with serious apprehensions that he is burning his fingers with matters which will work great embarrassment and mischief here, and which his instructions could not have suggested. (3)

Madison was concerned about the man’s fidelity to his American commission and common sense. John Adams had similar concerns. After denouncing the recent works of Tom Paine as “the Ravings and Rantings of Bedlam,” in a July 15, 1813 letter to Jefferson, Adams moved to the subject of Tom Paine’s publisher, Joel Barlow, who was “about to record Tom Paine as the great author of the American Revolution!”—to which Adams retorted, “If he was; I desire that my name may be blotted out forever, from its records.” (4) For Barlow to even consider repeating this outrageous fallacy for the reading of future generations demonstrated his willingness to be the pawn of a man who had turned not only on his faith, but on all of Christianity (including on America’s Founders, many of whom he came to despise, and who would revoke his citizenship over his newfound “Enemy of the Faith” status), and if not that or that alone, then Barlow’s tendency toward delusion or rank dishonesty and fraud – and to what end?, to what end?

Finally, the original Treaty of Tripoli of 1805 that IS in our possession and IS signed by a Founding President has no such Barlow inspired, anti-Christian clause. (5)

The bottom line: If this is the best Founding Era ‘proof’ these historical revisionists can come up with against Christianity (and John Adams) it is pathetic. – An original treaty signed by Adams that is not the original, and in fact is not signed by Adams (on the copy he cites), and is at odds with both of the originals that we do have, and was declared by the then American Consul to Tripoli, Leander Cathcart, to be an “extremely erroneous” copy, one at odds with the follow-on treaty that was signed but a few years later (yet another proof against this lie), and all of this based on a copy written by a man whose motives and judgment were highly suspect. Pathetic indeed.

Equally pathetic is any attempt to attach the noble name of John Adams to a denunciation of America’s godly beginnings.

A small sample of the real John Adams reveals just how deep the fraud of this revisionist account. When Adam’s was asked by an educational group of youth to identify America’s founding pillars, here is what he answered in a document that CAN be authenticated:

Science [the science of government] and Morals are the great Pillars on which this Country has been raised to its present population, opulence and prosperity, and these alone, can advance, support and preserve it.

He then added:

Without wishing to damp the ardor of curiosity, or influence the freedom of inquiry, I will hazard a prediction, that after the most industrious and impartial researches, the longest liver of you all will find no Principles, Institutions, or Systems of Education, more fit, IN GENERAL to be transmitted to your posterity, than those you have received from your Ancestors. (6)

Years later in a letter to Jefferson, Mr. Adams further elaborated on what he meant that day:

Could my Answer be understood, by any candid reader or hearer, to recommend, to all others[:] The general principles, on which the Fathers achieved Independence were the only principles in which that beautiful assembly . could unite. And what were these general principles? I answer, the general Principles of Christianity, in which all these Sects were United: And the general principles of English and American liberty which had united all parties in America, in majorities sufficient to assert and maintain her Independence. 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; and that those Principles of Liberty, are as unalterable as human Nature and our terrestrial, mundane System. 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.” (7)

This is typical John Adams, the same man who laid it on the line quite clearly that “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people,” that it was “wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” (8)

And again from Adams:

Statesmen may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone, which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. (9)

And again:

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.(10)

And, once more, even eleven years before Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence declares John Adams:

[our rights preceded government], rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws – Rights derived from the great Legislator of the Universe. (11)

Well, these are the roots, the Great Pillars that past and future generations of youth ought to frequently refer back to as learning and science move forward, these “eternal and immutable” principles that lay at the foundation of everything good, lest in the name of progress we pass down to posterity nothing more than a high-brow, high-tech house of cards.

But here’s one more vital point: Adams would have nothing to do with the lie that passes around the university and public school system today as so-called solid granite truth, that America’s roots go deep into another soil, that of the amoral, libertine, European ‘Enlightenment, they tell us.  Here is what Adam’s said of that ‘illustrious’ founding group:

[They appear] to me like young scholars from a college of sailors flushed with recent pay or prize money, mounted on wild horses, lashing and spearing, till they would kill the horses and break their own necks. (12)

He wasn’t kidding. And the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, two world wars, the invention and perpetuation of mass murdering, liberty destroying communism and fascism, and now the socialist, world government promoting, secularist European Union on that continent referred to by Adams, proved him prophetic. License is not liberty. The European Enlightenment with all of its anti-God, anti-private property, anti-limited government rhetoric is not the legacy this country’s ancestors passed down to our children. Yet it is to these latter so-called fellow ‘founders’, these atheists who spawned the greatest bloodletting tyranny in history, are they who the ACLU and the revisionist ‘scholars’ young and old (yes, they who have hijacked America’s educational system, and rewritten America’s story to fit their Godless, socialist paradigm) and the very goons they would have you and your kids look back to – look back like Lot’s wife to the polluted, prideful, despotic people and political philosophies our progenitors barely escaped, back to the land where the battle cry ‘Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!” hid a more absolute, more thorough ‘Tyranny!’ Robbery! and Mass Murder!

Adams had it right. One pillar of salt is enough. We don’t need 300 million more. Not on our watch.

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Steve Farrell is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Moral Liberal, one of the original pundits at NewsMax.com (1999-2007), and the author of the highly praised inspirational novel Dark Rose

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Footnotes:

1. Miller, Hunter. “The Avalon Project at Yale Law School: The Barbary Treaties: Tripoli 1796. Found online at: http://www.yale.edu/
lawweb/avalon/diplomacy/barbary/bar1796n.htm

2. Ibid.

3. Madison, James. “Writings of James Madison, Volume 2, 1794-1815,” p. 533.

4. Cappon, Lester J. “The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence between Thomas Jefferson & Abigail and John Adams,” University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill and London, 1959, renewed 1987, p. 358.

5. “Treaty of Peace and Amity, Signed at Tripoli June 4, 1805, online at http://www.yale.edu/
lawweb/avalon/diplomacy/barbary/bar1805t.htm

6. Cappon, Lester J. Quoted from Adams’ answer to “the Address of the Young Men of the City of Philadelphia, the District of South Wark, and the Northern Liberties,” p. 339.

7. Ibid., pgs. 339-340.

8. Adams, John; Adams, Charles Francis, ed.. “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, Volume IX,” Boston: Little Brown, 1854, p. 229.

9. Ibid. p. 401

10. Adams, John; Butterfield, L.H.. “Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, Volume III” Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1961, p. 234, from diary entry for June 21, 1776.

11. Adams, John; Taylor. Robert J., editor. “Papers of John Adams, Volume 1,” Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1977- p. 109, as quoted in Grant, James. “John Adams: Party of One,” Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2005, p. 62.

12. Cannon, Lester. J. Pgs. 357-358.

Author’s Additional note:

There were other factors at play that may have influenced Joel Barlow to insert such ideas in his “extremely erroneous” copy of the original. Read this insightful article by David Barton at http://wallbuilders.com/resources/search/detail.php?ResourceID=5

There’s a Divinity that Shapes Our Ends

John Adams: There’s a Divinity that Shapes Our Ends

LIBERTY LETTERS, 1776

Daniel Webster records that in 1776, while some men vacillated as to Independence, John Adams, the “Voice of the Declaration,” arose and stirred the hearts of his countrymen with these immortal words:

Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote. It is true, indeed, that in the beginning we aimed not at independence. But there’s a Divinity which shapes our ends. . . . Why, then, should we defer the Declaration? . . . You and I, indeed, may rue it. We may not live to the time when this Declaration shall be made good. We may die; die Colonists, die slaves, die, it may be, ignominiously and on the scaffold.

Be it so. Be it so.

If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready. . . . But while I do live, let me have a country, or at least the hope of a country, and that a free country.

But whatever may be our fate, be assured . . . that this Declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood; but it will stand and it will richly compensate for both.

Through the thick gloom of the present, I see the brightness of the future as the sun in heaven. We shall make this a glorious, an immortal day. When we are in our graves, our children will honor it. They will celebrate it with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires, and illuminations. On its annual return they will shed tears, copious, gushing tears, not of subjection and slavery, not of agony and distress, but of exultation, of gratitude and of joy.

Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope, in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it; and I leave off as I began, that live or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration. It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment, Independence now, and Independence forever.

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Source: The Works of Daniel Webster, 4th ed., 1:133–:36 Adams speech was delivered before the Continental Congress.

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Liberty Letters is a project of The Moral Liberal’s, Editor in Chief, Steve Farrell.

“The Father of the American Revolution” – Samuel Adams

American Minute with Bill Federer

Crying “No taxation without representation,” he instigated the Stamp Act riots and the Boston Tea Party.

After the “Boston Massacre,” he spread Revolutionary sentiment with his Committees of Correspondence.

Known as “The Father of the American Revolution,” his name was Samuel Adams, born SEPTEMBER 27, 1722.

Samuel Adams called for the first Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence, stating

“We have explored the temple of royalty, and found that the idol we have bowed down to, has eyes which see not, ears that hear not our prayers, and a heart like the nether millstone.

We have this day restored the Sovereign, to whom alone all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in Heaven…

We have fled from the political Sodom; let us not look back…

We may, with humility of soul, cry out, ‘Not unto us, not unto us, but to thy Name be the praise’…

Providence is yet gracious unto Zion, that it will turn away the captivity of Jacob.”

A cousin of 2nd President John Adams, Samuel Adams wrote in The Rights of Colonists, 1772:

“Among the natural rights of Colonists are: First, a right to life; Secondly, to liberty; Thirdly, to property; together with the right to defend them…

The supreme power cannot justly take from any man any part of his property without his consent.”

In The Rights of the Colonists, section “The Rights of the Colonist as Subjects,” Samuel Adams wrote:

“Government has no right to absolute, arbitrary power over the lives and fortunes of the people;

nor can mortals assume a prerogative…reserved for the exercise of the Deity alone.”

In The Rights of the Colonists, section “The Rights of the Colonist as Men,” Samuel Adams wrote:

“In regards to religion, mutual toleration in the different professions thereof is what all good and candid minds in all ages have ever practiced…

It is now generally agreed among Christians that this spirit of toleration, in the fullest extent consistent with the being of civil society, is the chief characteristical mark of the church.”

In The Rights of the Colonists, section “The Rights of the Colonist as Christians,” Samuel Adams wrote:

“The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, the rights of the Colonists as Christians may best be understood by reading and carefully studying the institutions of The Great Law Giver and the Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament.”

When the Continental Congress first met, September 6, 1774, Samuel Adams proposed that it be opened with prayer, even though the delegates belonged to different Christian denominations which did not always get along:

“…Christian men, who had come together for solemn deliberation in the hour of their extremity, to say there was so wide a difference in their religious belief that they could not, as one man, bow the knee in prayer to the Almighty, whose advice and assistance they hoped to obtain.”

John Adams described this to his wife, Abigail:

“When the Congress met, Mr. Cushing made a motion that it should be opened with Prayer.

It was opposed by Mr. Jay of New York, and Mr. Rutledge of South Carolina because we were so divided in religious sentiments, some Episcopalians, some Quakers, some Anabaptists, some Presbyterians, and some Congregationalists, that we could not join in the same act of worship.

Mr. Samuel Adams arose and said that he was no bigot, and could hear a Prayer from any gentleman of Piety and virtue, who was at the same time a friend to his Country.

He was a stranger in Philadelphia, but had heard that Mr. Duche’ (Pastor of Christ Episcopal Church, Philadelphia), deserved that character and therefore he moved that Mr. Duche’, an Episcopal clergyman might be desired to read Prayers to Congress tomorrow morning.

The motion was seconded, and passed in the affirmative.”

In 1775, when British General Gage tried to intimidate him, Samuel Adams sent the message back:

“I trust I have long since made my peace with the King of Kings. No personal consideration shall induce me to abandon the righteous cause of my country.

Tell Governor Gage it is the advice of Samuel Adams to him no longer to insult the feelings of an exasperated people.”

On April 30, 1776, Samuel Adams wrote to John Scollay of Boston:

“Revelation assures us that ‘Righteousness exalteth a nation.’

Communities are dealt with in this world by the wise and just Ruler of the Universe. He rewards or punishes them according to their general character…

Public liberty will not long survive the total extinction of morals.

‘The Roman Empire,’ says the historian, ‘must have sunk, though the Goths had not invaded it. Why? Because the Roman virtue was sunk.’

Could I be assured that America would remain virtuous, I would venture to defy the utmost efforts of enemies to subjugate her.”

Samuel Adams stated:

“Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.”

Samuel Adams was elected as Governor of Massachusetts, and wrote to James Warren, February 12, 1779, warning:

“A general dissolution of the principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy.

While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but once they lose their virtue, they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.”

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The Moral Liberal contributing editor, William J. Federer, is the bestselling author of “Backfired: A Nation Born for Religious Tolerance no Longer Tolerates Religion,” and numerous other books. A frequent radio and television guest, his daily American Minute is broadcast nationally via radio, television, and Internet. Check out all of Bill’s books here.

John Marshall – Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

American Minute with Bill Federer

“The power to tax is the power to destroy,” wrote John Marshall, 4th Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, who was born SEPTEMBER 24, 1755.

No one had a greater impact on Constitutional Law than John Marshall.

Home schooled as a youth, he served with the Culpeper Minutemen at the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

Marshall joined the Continental Army and served as a captain in Virginia Regiment under General George Washington, enduring the freezing winter at Valley Forge.

John Marshall later described George Washington:

“Without making ostentatious professions of religion, he was a sincere believer in the Christian faith, and a truly devout man.”

John Marshall then studied law under Chancellor George Wythe at the College of William and Mary.

He as a U.S. Congressman from Virginia, and became Secretary of State under President John Adams, who then nominated him to the Supreme Court.

John Marshall swore in as Chief Justice on February 4, 1801, and served 34 years.

Every Supreme Court session opens with the invocation:

“God save the United States and this Honorable Court.”

John Marshall helped write over 1,000 decisions, usually favoring the Federal Government, which put him at odds with President Thomas Jefferson who championed State Governments.

John Marshall decided in favor of the Cherokee Indian nation to stay in Georgia against the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which was hurriedly pushed through Congress by Democrat President Andrew Jackson.

Ignoring John Marshall’s decision, the Federal Government removed over 46,000 Native Americans from their homes and relocated them west, leaving vacant 25 million acres open to the expansion of slavery.

Chief Justice John Marshall commented May 9, 1833, on the pamphlet The Relation of Christianity to Civil Government in the United States written by Rev. Jasper Adams, President of the College of Charleston, South Carolina (The Papers of John Marshall, ed. Charles Hobson, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006, p, 278):

“No person, I believe, questions the importance of religion to the
happiness of man even during his existence in this world…

The American population is entirely Christian, and with us, Christianity and religion are identified.

It would be strange, indeed, if with such a people, our institutions did not presuppose Christianity, and did not often refer to it, and express relations with it.”

According to tradition, the Liberty Bell cracked while tolling at John Marshall’s funeral, July 8, 1835.

A hundred years after John Marshall’s death, the Supreme Court Building was completed in 1935, with Herman A. MacNeil’s marble relief above the east portico featuring Moses with two stone tablets.

Inside the Supreme Court chamber are Adolph A. Weinman’s marble friezes depicting lawgivers throughout history, including Moses holding the Ten Commandments, and John Marshall.

A story was originally published in the Winchester Republican newspaper, and recounted in Henry Howe’s Historical Collections of Virginia (Charleston, South Carolina, 1845, p. 275-276; Albert J. Beveridge, The Life of John Marshall, Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1919, Vol. 4, The Building of the Nation, 1815-1835):

“There is, too, a legend about an astonishing flash of eloquence from Marshall – ‘a streak of vivid lightning’ – at a tavern, on the subject of religion.

The impression said to have been made by Marshall on this occasion was heightened by his appearance when he arrived at the inn.

The shafts of his ancient gig were broken and ‘held together by switches formed from the bark of a hickory sapling’; he was negligently dressed, his knee buckles loosened.

In the tavern a discussion arose among some young men concerning ‘the merits of the Christian religion.’

The debate grew warm and lasted ‘from six o’clock until eleven.’

No one knew Marshall, who sat quietly listening.

Finally one of the youthful combatants turned to him and said:

‘Well, my old gentleman, what think you of these things?’

Marshall responded with a ‘most eloquent and unanswerable appeal.’

He talked for an hour, answering ‘every argument urged against the teachings of Jesus.’

‘In the whole lecture, there was so much simplicity and energy, pathos and sublimity, that not another word was uttered.’

The listeners wondered who the old man could be.

Some thought him a preacher; and great was their surprise when they learned afterwards that he was the Chief Justice of the United States.”

John Marshall’s daughter said her father read Alexander Keith’s “Evidence of the Truth of the Christian Religion derived from the Literal Fulfillment of Prophecy” (Edinburgh: Waugh & Innes, 1826, 2nd ed.).

The Life of John Marshall by Albert J. Beveridge (Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1919, Vol. IV, p. 70), stated:

“John Marshall’s daughter makes this statement regarding her father’s religious views:

‘He told me that he believed in the truth of the Christian
Revelation…during the last months of his life he read Alexander Keith on Prophecy, where our Saviour’s divinity is incidentally treated, and was convinced by this work, and the fuller investigation to which it led, of the supreme divinity of our Saviour.

He determined to apply to the communion of our Church, objecting to communion in private, because he thought it his duty to make a public confession of the Saviour.’”

Albert J. Beveridge continued in The Life of John Marshall (referencing Bishop William Meade’s Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia, 2 Vols., Richmond, 1910, Vol. 2, p. 221-222):

“He attended (Episcopal) services. Bishop William Meade informs us, not only because ‘he was a sincere friend of religion,’ but also because he wished ‘to set an example.’

The Bishop bears this testimony: ‘I can never forget how he would prostrate his tall form before the rude low benches, without backs, at Coolspring Meeting-House (Leeds Parish, near Oakhill, Fauquier County) in the midst of his children and grandchildren and his old neighbors.’

When in Richmond, Marshall attended the Monumental Church where, says Bishop Meade, ‘he was much incommoded by the narrowness of the pews…

Not finding room enough for his whole body within the pew, he used to take his seat nearest the door of the pew, and, throwing it open, let his legs stretch a little into the aisle.’”

John F. Dillon wrote in John Marshall-Life, Character and Judicial Services-As Portrayed in the Centenary and Memorial Addresses and Proceedings Throughout the United States on John Marshall Day, 1901 (Chicago: Callaghan & Company, 1903):

“John Marshall Day, February 4, 1901, was appropriately observed by exercises held in the hall of the House of Representatives, and attended by the President, the members of the Cabinet, the Justices of the Supreme and District courts, the Senate and House of Representatives, and the members of the Bar of the District of
Columbia…

The program, prepared by a Congressional committee acting in conjunction with committees of the American Bar Association and the Bar Association of this District, was characterized by a dignity and simplicity befitting the life of the great Chief Justice…”

After an invocation delivered by John Marshall’s great-grandson, Rev. Dr. William Strother Jones of Trenton, N.J., Chief Justice Fuller made introductory remarks:

“The August Term of the year of our Lord eighteen hundred of the Supreme Court of the United States had adjourned at Philadelphia… However, it was not until Wednesday, February 4th, when John Marshall…took his seat upon the Bench…”

U.S. Attorney General Wayne MacVeagh then stated:

“The centennial anniversary of the entrance by John Marshall into the office of Chief Justice of the United States…

Under his forming hand, instead of becoming a dissoluble confederacy of discordant States, became a great and indissoluble nation, endowed with…the divine purpose for the education of the world…securing to the whole American continent ‘government of the people, by the people, and for the people’…

Venerating the Constitution…as ‘a sacred instrument’…we have lived to see…such generous measures of political equality, of social freedom, and of physical comfort and well-being as were never dreamed of on the earth before…

Let us, on this day of all days…acknowledge that nations cannot live by bread alone…

We have heretofore cherished, the Christian ideal of true national greatness; and our fidelity to that ideal, however imperfect it has been, entitled us in some measure to the divine blessing, for having offered an example to the world for more than an entire generation of how a nation could marvelously increase in wealth and strength and all material prosperity while living in peace with all mankind…

We all believe that the true glory of America and her true mission in the new century…is what a great prelate of the Catholic Church has recently declared it to be: to stand fast by Christ and his Gospel; to cultivate not the Moslem virtues of war, of slaughter, of rapine, and of conquest, but the Christian virtues of self-denial and kindness and brotherly love…

Then we may some day hear the benediction: ‘Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me’…

The true mission of nations as of men is to promote righteousness on earth…

and taking abundant care that every human creature beneath her starry flag, of every color and condition, is as secure of liberty, of justice and of peace as in the Republic of God.

In cherishing these aspirations…we are wholly in the spirit of the great Chief Justice; and…so effectually honor his memory.” (Dillon, Vol. 1, p. 7-42)

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Horace Gray gave an address the same day in Virginia:

“Gentlemen of the Bar of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and of the City of Richmond: One hundred years ago today, the Supreme Court of the United States, after sitting for a few years in Philadelphia, met for the first time in Washington, the permanent capital of the Nation; and John Marshall, a citizen of Virginia, having his home in Richmond, and a member of this bar, took his seat as Chief Justice of the United States…

Chief Justice Marshall was a steadfast believer in the truth of Christianity as revealed in the Bible. He was brought up in the Episcopal Church; and Bishop Meade, who knew him well, tells us that he was a constant and reverent worshipper in that church, and contributed liberally to its support, although he never became a communicant.

All else that we know of his personal religion is derived from the statements (as handed down by the good bishop) of a daughter of the Chief Justice, who was much with him during the last months of his life.

She said that her father told her he never went to bed without concluding his prayer by repeating the Lord’s Prayer and the verse beginning, ‘Now I lay me down to sleep,’ which his mother had taught him when he was a child;

and that the reason why he had never been a communicant was that it was but recently that he had become fully convinced of the divinity of Christ, and he then ‘determined to apply for admission to the communion of our church objected to commune in private, because he thought it his duty to make a public confession of the Saviour and, while waiting for improved health to enable him to go to the church for that purpose, he grew worse and died, without ever communing.’” (Dillon, Vol. 1, p. 42, 47, 88)

New Hampshire Supreme Court Judge Jeremiah Smith gave an address:

“And this brings us to what is…the great distinguishing feature in Marshall s life; the real secret of his extraordinary success…that is his high personal character…

John Marshall was pre-eminently single minded. His whole life was pervaded by an overpowering sense of duty and by strong religious principle. A firm believer in the Christian religion, his life was in accord with his belief.” (Dillon, Vol. 1, p. 162)

Charles E. Perkins, nephew of Harriet Beecher Stowe and President of the Connecticut Bar Association stated:

“As a man, Marshall appears to have been as near perfection in disposition, habits, and conduct as it is possible for a mortal man to be…He had no vices and, I may almost say, no weaknesses.

In spite of his eminent talents, his high positions, and his great reputation, there was no tinge of conceit…

His charities were constant and great. He bore no malice toward those who offended or injured him.

He was a sincere Christian and believed in and obeyed the commands of the Bible.” (Dillon, Vol. 1, p. 330)

U.S. Rep. William Bourke Cockran addressed the Erie County Bar Association, Buffalo, New York:

“Aside from the establishment of Christianity, the foundation of this republic was the most memorable event in the history of man…

And if the foundation of this government be the most momentous human achievement of all the centuries, then clearly the appointment of John Marshall to the Chief Justiceship of the United States was the first event of the last century no less in the magnitude of its importance than in the order of its occurrence.” (Dillon, Vol. 1, p. 404-405)

U.S. Senator and former Maryland Governor William Pinkney Whyte stated:

“Would you not call a man religious who said the Lord’s Prayer every day? And the prayer he learned at his mother’s knee went down with him to the grave.

He was a constant and liberal contributor to the support of the Episcopal Church.

He never doubted the fact of the Christian revelation, but he was not convinced of the fact of the divinity of Christ till late in life.

Then, after refusing privately to commune, he expressed a desire to do so publicly, and was ready and willing to do so when opportunity should be had. The circumstances of his death only forbade it…

He was never professedly Unitarian, and he had no place in his heart for either an ancient or a modern agnosticism.” (Dillon, Vol. 2, p. 2-3)

U.S. Rep. Horace Binney of Pennsylvania stated that Marshall:

“…was a Christian, believed in the gospel, and practiced its tenets.” (Dillon, Vol. 3, p. 325)

Nathan Sargent, former Commissioner of Customs, wrote in Public Men and Events from 1817 to 1853 (Philadelphia, 1875, Vol. 1, p. 299), that Marshall’s “name has become a household word with the American people implying greatness, purity, honesty, and all the Christian virtues.”

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The Moral Liberal contributing editor, William J. Federer, is the bestselling author of “Backfired: A Nation Born for Religious Tolerance no Longer Tolerates Religion,” and numerous other books. A frequent radio and television guest, his daily American Minute is broadcast nationally via radio, television, and Internet. Check out all of Bill’s books here.

287 – Oct. 14 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

Baptists responsible for First Amendment

October 14, 1774 – Dr. James Manning read the petition from the Warren Baptist Association to the representatives from the State of Massachusetts.

The call for the Continental Congress had actually originated in that state and the Baptists had asked that their concerns for religious liberty be heard by their state delegation. The meeting was held in Boston at Carpenters Hall and after the petition was read Rev. Isaac Backus explained it. John Adams, leader of the Mass. delegation, was obviously upset by the plea from the Baptists. Answering the grievances of the Baptists, John Adams gave a lengthy speech, and Samuel Adams spoke as well. Both of them claimed, “There is indeed an ecclesiastical establishment in our province but a very slender one, hardly to be called an establishment.” In their lengthy reply, they attempted to divide the Baptist brethren, but Backus replied, “It is absolutely a point of conscience with me; for I cannot give in the certificates they require [i.e., a complicated exemption certificate], without implicitly acknowledging that power in man which I believe belongs only to God.”

“John Adams closed the four-hour discussion with a promise that the Mass. delegates would do what they could for the relief of the Baptists, then, according to Backus, added these words: ‘Gentlemen, if you mean to try to effect a change in Massachusetts laws respecting religion, you many as well attempt to change the course of the sun in the heavens!” Unfortunately that promise was not kept. “John Adams returned home and reported that Mr. Backus had been to Philadelphia to try to break up the union of the colonies.”

Dr. Dr. Greg J. Dixon from This Day in Baptist History I: Cummins/Thompson, pp. 426-27.

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First Session of Continental Congress was opened with prayer

American Minute with Bill Federer

SEPTEMBER 7, 1774, the First Session of the Continental Congress was opened with prayer in Carpenter’s Hall, Philadelphia.

Threatened by the most powerful monarch in the world, Britain’s King George III, America’s founding fathers heard Rev. Jacob Duche’ begin by reading Psalm 35, the Anglican Book of Common Prayer’s “Psalter” for that day:

“Plead my cause, Oh, Lord, with them that strive with me, fight against them that fight against me. Take hold of buckler and shield, and rise up for my help.

Draw also the spear and the battle-axe to meet those who pursue me; Say to my soul, ‘I am your salvation.’ Let those be ashamed and dishonored who seek my life; Let those be turned back and humiliated who devise evil against me.”

Then Rev. Jacob Duche’ prayed:

“Be Thou present, O God of Wisdom, and direct the counsel of this Honorable Assembly; enable them to settle all things on the best and surest foundations; that the scene of blood may be speedily closed;

that Order, Harmony and Peace may be effectually restored, and that Truth and Justice, Religion and Piety, prevail and flourish among the people…

Preserve the health of their bodies, and the vigor of their minds, shower down on them, and the millions they here represent, such temporal Blessings as Thou seest expedient for them in this world, and crown them with everlasting Glory in the world to come.

All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and our Saviour, Amen.”

That same day, John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, describing the prayer:

“When the Congress met, Mr. Cushing made a motion that it should be opened with Prayer.

It was opposed by Mr. Jay of New York, and Mr. Rutledge of South Carolina because we were so divided in religious sentiments, some Episcopalians, some Quakers, some Anabaptists, some Presbyterians, and some Congregationalists, that we could not join in the same act of worship.

Samuel Adams

Mr. Samuel Adams arose and said that he was no bigot, and could hear a Prayer from any gentleman of Piety and virtue, who was at the same time a friend to his Country.

He was a stranger in Philadelphia, but had heard that Mr. Duche’ deserved that character and therefore he moved that Mr. Duche’, an Episcopal clergyman might be desired to read Prayers to Congress tomorrow morning.

The motion was seconded, and passed in the affirmative. Mr. Randolph, our president, vailed on Mr. Duche’, and received for answer, that if his health would permit, he certainly would…”

Adams continued:

“Accordingly, next morning Reverend Mr. Duche’ appeared with his clerk and in his pontificals, and read several prayers in the established form, and read the collect for the seventh day of September, which was the thirty-fifth Psalm.

You must remember, this was the next morning after we heard the horrible rumor of the cannonade of Boston.

I never saw a greater effect upon an audience. It seemed as if heaven had ordained that Psalm to be read on that morning.

After this, Mr. Duche’, unexpectedly to every body, struck out into an extemporary prayer, which filled the bosom of every man present. I must confess, I never heard a better prayer, or one so well pronounced.

Episcopalian as he is, Dr. Cooper himself never prayed with such fervor, such ardor, such earnestness and pathos, and in language so elegant and sublime, for America, for the Congress, for the province of Massachusetts Bay, and especially the town of Boston. It has had an excellent effect upon everybody here. I must beg you to read that Psalm.”

The Library of Congress printed on an historical placard of Carpenter’s Hall, Philadelphia:

“Washington was kneeling there with Henry, Randolph, Rutledge, Lee, and Jay, and by their side there stood, bowed in reverence the Puritan Patriots of New England…

‘It was enough’ says Mr. Adams, ‘to melt a heart of stone. I saw the tears gush into the eyes of the old, grave, Pacific Quakers of Philadelphia.’”

The Journals of Congress then recorded their appreciation to Rev. Mr. Duche’:

Wednesday, SEPTEMBER 7, 1774, 9 o’clock a.m. Agreeable to the resolve of yesterday, the meeting was opened with prayers by the Rev. Mr. Duche’.

Voted, That the thanks of Congress be given to Mr. Duche’…for performing divine Service, and for the excellent prayer, which he composed and delivered on the occasion.”

Rev. Jacob Duche’ exhorted Philadelphia’s soldiers, July 7, 1775:

“Considering myself under the twofold character of a minister of Jesus Christ, and a fellow-citizen…involved in the same public calamity with yourselves…

addressing myself to you as freemen…’Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty, wherewith Christ hath made us free’ (Galatians, ch. 5).”

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The Moral Liberal contributing editor, William J. Federer, is the bestselling author of “Backfired: A Nation Born for Religious Tolerance no Longer Tolerates Religion,” and numerous other books. A frequent radio and television guest, his daily American Minute is broadcast nationally via radio, television, and Internet. Check out all of Bill’s books here.

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died July 4, 1826

 

American Minute with Bill Federer

Both served in the Continental Congress and both signed the Declaration of Independence.

Both served as U.S. Ministers in France.

One was elected the 2nd President and the other the 3rd.

Once political enemies, they became close friends in later life.

An awe swept America when they both died on the same day, JULY 4, 1826, exactly 50 years since they signed the Declaration of Independence.

Their names were John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

John Quincy Adams, son of John Adams, was the 6th President at the time and told Congress, December 5, 1826:

“Since your last meeting at this place, the 50th anniversary of the day when our independence was declared…

two of the principal actors in that solemn scene – the HAND that penned the ever-memorable Declaration and the VOICE that sustained it in debate –

were by one summons, at the distance of 700 miles from each other, called before the Judge of All to account for their deeds done upon earth.”

John Quincy Adams wrote in an Executive Order, July 11, 1826:

“A coincidence…so wonderful gives confidence…that the patriotic efforts of these…men were Heaven directed, and furnishes a new…hope that the prosperity of these States is under the special protection of a kind Providence.”

Jefferson described Adams as: “the pillar of the Declaration’s support on the floor of Congress, its ablest advocate and defender.”

Defending the Declaration, John Adams told the Continental Congress, July 1, 1776:

“Before God, I believe the hour has come…

All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it…

Live or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration.

It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment. Independence now, and Independence for ever!”

John Adams stated, June 21, 1776:

“Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand.

The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People…they may change their Rulers and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty.”

Inscribed on the Jefferson Memorial on the south banks of Washington D.C.’s Tidal Basin, are Jefferson’s words:

“Almighty God hath created the mind free…

All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens…are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion…

No man…shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion…

God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?

Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever.”

In the last letter Jefferson wrote, he told Roger C. Weightman, June 24, 1826:

“The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them.”

The last words of John Adams were:

“Thank God, Jefferson lives!”

 

 

Declaration of Independence approved July 4, 1776

Declaration of Independence

 

American Minute with Bill Federer

 

The Declaration of Independence was approved JULY 4, 1776.

 

It listed abuses of King George III, age 38, such as:

 

“He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone…

 

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

 

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies…

 

To subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution…

 

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us…

 

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

 

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury…

 

For…establishing…an Arbitrary government…

 

For…altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments…

 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

 

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny…

 

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions…”

 

33-year-old Thomas Jefferson’s original rough draft of the Declaration contained a line condemning slavery:

 

“He has waged cruel war against human nature itself…in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither…

 

suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce determining to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold.”

 

A few delegates objected, and as the Declaration needed to pass unanimously and time was running short with the British invading New York, the line condemning slavery was unfortunately omitted.

 

John Hancock, the 39-year-old President of the Continental Congress, signed the Declaration first, reportedly saying “the price on my head has just doubled.”

 

Next to sign was Secretary, Charles Thomson, age 47.

 

70-year-old Benjamin Franklin said:

 

“We must hang together or most assuredly we shall hang separately.

 

The Declaration referred to God:

 

“Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God…

 

All Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…

 

Appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions…”

 

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”

 

Many of the 56 signers sacrificed their prosperity for their posterity.

 

Of the Signers:

 

17 served in the military,

11 had their homes destroyed;

5 were hunted and captured; and

9 died during the war.

 

27-year-old George Walton signed, and at the Battle of Savannah was wounded and captured.

 

Signers Edward Rutledge, age 27, Thomas Heyward, Jr., age 30, and Arthur Middleton, age 34, were made prisoners at the Siege of Charleston.

 

38-year-old signer Thomas Nelson had his home used as British headquarters during the siege of Yorktown. Nelson reportedly offered five guineas to the first man to hit his house.

 

Signer Carter Braxton, age 40, lost his fortune during the war.

 

42-year-old signer Thomas McKean wrote that he was “hunted like a fox by the enemy, compelled to remove my family five times in three month.”

 

46-year-old Richard Stockton signed and was dragged from his bed at night and jailed.

 

50-year-old signer Lewis Morris had his home taken and used as a barracks.

 

50-year-old signer Abraham Clark had two sons tortured and imprisoned on the British starving ship Jersey.

 

More Americans died on British starving ships than died in battle during the Revolution.

 

53-year-old signer John Witherspoon’s son, James, was killed in the Battle of Germantown.

 

60-year-old signer Philip Livingston lost several properties to British occupation and died before the war ended.

 

63-year-old signer Francis Lewis had his wife imprisoned and treated so harshly, she died shortly after her release.

 

65-year-old signer John Hart had his home looted and had to remain in hiding, dying before the war ended.

 

41-year-old John Adams wrote of the Declaration:

 

“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding generations, as the great anniversary Festival.

 

It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.

 

It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shews, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this time forward forever more.”

 

John Adams continued:

 

“You will think me transported with enthusiasm but I am not.

 

I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure, that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States.

 

Yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is more than worth all the means.

 

And that Posterity will triumph in that Days Transaction, even although we should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.”

 

When 54-year-old Samuel Adams signed the Declaration, he said:

 

“We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come.”

 

Bill FedererThe Moral Liberal contributing editor, William J. Federer, is the bestselling author of “Backfired: A Nation Born for Religious Tolerance no Longer Tolerates Religion,” and numerous other books. A frequent radio and television guest, his daily American Minute is broadcast nationally via radio, television, and Internet. Check out all of Bill’s books here.

 

252 – Sept. 09 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

The Pastor of Firsts

 

1764 – Rev. Samuel Stillman became the sixth pastor of the First Baptist Church of Boston, Mass., which was the fourth oldest church in America. The church had endured persecution, decline and revivals. At age 27, Stillman found around sixty discouraged members. Those of prominence often attended services, including President John Adams. Samuel, a small man weighing less than 100 pounds at the time of his death in 1807 did gigantic exploits for God, many of them firsts. He had to flee during the Revolutionary War but returned to re-gather his flock. He helped establish America’s first Baptist College. He was a leader in the organization of the Warren Baptist Association to assist in the fight against the entanglement of the church and state. In 1802, ten years before the Judson’s and Rice went to Burma he led in starting the Mass. Baptist Missions Society. And First church was the first to install a stove for heat against the bitter New England winters. Alas, what worldliness, (Ha). [Nathan E. Wood, The History of the First Baptist Church of Boston (Philadelphia American Baptist Pub. Society, 1899), p. 242. This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. pp. 494-95.] .]  Prepared by Dr. Greg J. Dixon

 

58 – Feb. 27 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

He was known as the “Patriot Pastor”

Samuel Stillman, known as the “Patriot Pastor” was born in Philadelphia on Feb, 27, 1737.  At age eleven his family moved to Charleston, S.C. where he came under the ministry of Rev. Oliver Hart.  He had been saved as a youth, but it was here that he was immersed, and felt the call to preach and entered into training under his pastor.  Soon after his ordination he took charge of a church on James’ Island.  He received an A.M. degree from both the College of Philadelphia and Harvard.  He pastored the Baptist church at Bordentown, N.J. and then became the Asst. Pastor of the 2^nd Baptist Church of Boston.  From there the First Baptist Church of Boston called him to be their pastor on Jan. 9, 1765, where he spent the remainder of his life.  Boston became the hot-bed of revolutionary activities and Pastor Stillman was right in the middle of it all.  The  historian, Dr. Magoon, called him “that distinguished patriot…the universally admired pastor of the First Baptist Church.  He was small of stature, but great of soul…In the presence of armed foes, he preached with a power that commanded respect.”  Men like John Adams, Gov. John Hancock, and Gen. Henry Knox attended his services regularly.  The British desecrated his church sanctuary when they occupied Boston and mocked him in charcoal drawings…”  His last words were, “God’s government is infinitely perfect.”  He then entered into the Lord’s presence on March 12, 1807.

Dr. Greg J. Dixon, adapted from: This Day in Baptist History III (David L. Cummins), pp. 116 – 118.