What is our Form of Govt.
Noah Webster's 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language: "Republic: A commonwealth: a state in which the exercise of the sovereign power is lodged in representatives elected by the people. In modern usage, it differs from a democracy or democratic state, in which the people exercise the power of sovereignty in person. Yet the democracies of Greece are often called republics."
The Constitution of the United States of America; Article IV, Section IV: "The United States shall Guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion."
The Pledge of Allegiance: "...and to the republic for which it stands..."
Noah Webster Known as the "America's Schoolmaster" wrote: "The brief exposition of the constitution of the United States will unfold to young persons the principles of republican government, and 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."
ref. [Yerba Hall and Rosalie Slater. The Bible and the Constitution (San Francisco: Foundation for American Christian Education, 1966) p. 29]
Benjamin Rush a Founding Father and a Signer of the Declaration of the Independence stated: "In contemplating the political institutions of the United States, I lament that we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes, and take so little pains to prevent them. 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 means of the Bible, for this Divine Book above all others favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws, and all those sober and frugal virtues which constitute the soul of republicanism..."
ref. [The Bible as a Textbook by Benjamin Rush]
Jedediah Morse earned the title of "The Father of American Geography" stated: "To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. In proportion as the genuine effects of Christianity are diminished in any nation, in the same proportion will the people of that nation recede from the blessings of genuine freedom. Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all the blessings which flow from them, must fall with them."
ref. [Jedediah Morse's Election Sermon given at Charleston, Mass. on April 25, 1799, taken from an original in the Evans collection compiled by the American Antiquarian Society.]
Benjamin Rush: "A simple democracy has been very aptly compared by Mr. Fisher Ames of Massachusetts [a Founder who proposed the wording of the First Amendment and two terms for Congressmen], to a volcano that contained within its bowels the fiery materials of its own destruction. A citizen of one of the cantons of Switzerland, in the year 1776, refused in my presence to drink 'the commonwealth of America' as a toast, and gave as a reason for it, 'that a simple democracy was the devil's own government... In the year 1776 I lost the confidence of the people of Pennsylvania by openly exposing the dangers of a simple democracy and declaring myself an advocate for a government composed of three legislative branches.'
ref. [From the Letters of Benjamin Rush, Vol. I, 1761-1792 to David Ramsay (March or April 1788) p. 454 & 455]
The Fourth of July and the Revolution
Committee on the Judiciary, March 27, 1854. Rep. No. 124 "Down to the Revolution, every colony did sustain religion in some form. It was deemed peculiarly proper that the religion of liberty should be upheld by a free people. Had the people, during the Revolution, had a suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, that Revolution would have been strangled in its cradle."
"On the 11th of September, 1777, a committee having consulted with Dr. Alison printing an edition of thirty thousand Bibles, and finding that they would be compelled to send abroad for type and paper, with an advance of $10,272 10s., Congress voted to instruct the Committee on Commerce to import twenty thousand Bibles from Scotland and Holland into the different ports of the Union. The reason assigned was, that the use of the book was so universal and important. Now, what was passing on that day? The army of Washington was fighting the battle of Brandywine; the gallant soldiers of the Revolution were displaying their heroic though unavailing valor; twelve hundred soldiers were stretched in death on the battlefield; Lafayette was bleeding; the booming of the cannon was heard in the hall where Congress was sitting in the hall from which Congress was soon to be a fugitive; at that important hour Congress was passing an order for importing twenty thousand Bibles, and yet we have never heard that there charged by their generation of any attempt to unite church and State, or surpassing their powers to legislate on religious matters."
(33rd Congress 1st Session: House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, March 27, 1854: Rep. No. 124; Also Journals of the Continental Congress, September 11, 1777)
John Quincy Adams: "Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Saviour of the World, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day? And why is it that, among the swarming myriads of our population, thousands and tens of thousands among us, abstaining, under the dictate of religious principle, from the commemoration of that birth-day of Him, who brought life and immortality to light, yet unite with all their brethren at this community, year after year, in celebrating this, the birth-day of the nation?"
"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? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth? That it laid the corner stone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity, and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge of the fulfilment of the prophecies, announced directly from Heaven at the birth of the Saviour and predicted by the greatest of the Hebrew prophets six hundred years before?"
ref. [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 by John Quincy Adams]
The Declaration of Independence
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitles them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
William Blackstone 5 Commentaries on the Laws of England 1765: "Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws of his creator, for he is entirely a dependent being... And consequently a man depends absolutely upon his maker for everything, 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. For as God, when he created matter, and endued it with a principle of mobility, established certain rules for the perpetual direction of that motion; so when he created man, and endued him with freewill to conduct himself in all parts of life, he laid down certain immutable laws of human nature, whereby that freewill is in some degree regulated and restrained, and gave him also the faculty of reason to discover the purport of those laws."
Blackstone further writes that "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 a part of the original law of nature, as they tend in all their consequences to man's felicity... 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." Again from these two foundations our Founding Fathers were impelled to separate from England.
The First Amendment
The First Amendment reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech."
As you notice, the phrase "a wall of separation between church and State" is not present in the Constitution.
So where is the origin of the phrase?
Baer v. Kolman can cite as 181 N.Y.S. 2d 230: "Much has been written in recent years concerning Thomas Jefferson's reference in 1802 to 'a wall of separation between church and State.' It is upon that 'wall' that plaintiffs seek to build their case. Jefferson's figure of speech has received so much attention that one would almost think at times that it is to be found somewhere in our Constitution. Courts and authors have devoted numerous pages to its interpretation. This Court has no intention of engaging in a dispute among historians as to the meaning of a metaphor. The only language which we are called upon to interpret and apply is the plain language quoted above from the Federal and State Constitution. (I have a transcript of Denbury Baptist letter and Jefferson's reply to their letter at the booth.)
So what is the intent of the First Amendment? Senate Committee on the Judiciary in the years of 1852-53: "They intended, by this amendment, to prohibit 'an establishment of religion' such as the English church presented, or anything like it. But they had no fear or jealousy of religion itself, nor did not wish to see us an irreligious people; they did not intend to prohibit a just expression of religious devotion by the legislators of the nation, even in their character as legislators; they did not intend to send our armies and navies forth to do battle for their country without any national recognition of that God on whom success or failure depends; they did not intend to spread over all the public authorities and the whole public action of the nation the dead and revolving spectacle of atheistical apathy. Not so had the battles of the revolution been fought, and the deliberations of the revolutionary Congress conducted. On the contrary, all had been done with a continual appeal to the Supreme Ruler of the world, and an habitual reliance upon His protection of the righteous cause which they commended to his care."
ref. [Report of Committee of the Senate of the United States for the Second Session of the Thirty-Second Congress, 1852-53. Containing from No. 358 to No. 432, inclusive in one Volume]
House Committee on the Judiciary in the year of 1954: "At the time of the adoption of the constitution and the amendments, the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encouraged, not any one sect. Any attempt to level and discard all religion, would have been viewed with universal indignation. The object was not to substitute Judaism or Mahomedanism, or infidelity, but to prevent rivalry among sects to the exclusion of others."
This wording and thought was voiced in the Runkevs. Winemiller case in Oct. 1799. This reads: "Religion is of general public concern, and its support depend, in great measure, the peace and good order of government, the safety and happiness of the people. By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion; and all sects and denominations of Christians are placed upon the same equal footing, and are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty."
Quotes from our Founding Fathers, Courts and Teachers in reference to Religion and Morality
Why is morality and religion important to our Economy? What does it cost our society for all the abuses: drugs, alcohol, child abuse, women battering, rape, teenage pregnancy, teenage and adult suicide, high divorce rate, white collar crime (S&L scandal etc.), vandalism, murder, all forms of crime, the cost of prisons and the judicial, systems, political scandals, the psychological effects and financial costs, greed etc.?
James Madison is known as "The Chief Architect of the Constitution" and served eight years in Congress, and eight years as Secretary of State, and eight years as President of the United States declared. We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."
ref. (Harold K. Lane, Liberty! Cry Liberty! Boston: Land and Land Tractarian Society, 1939) pp.32-33. See also Fredrick Nymeyer, First Principles in Morality and Economics, Neighborly Love and Ricardo's Law of Association (South Holland: Libertarian Press, 1956), p. 31
George Washington: "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 Men and Citizens: The mere Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them."
ref. [Washington's Farewell Address (1796)]
U.S. Supreme Court: Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 1892: In conclusion the Court after citing some 87 precedents stated: "These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass organic utterances that this is a Christian nation."
A few precedents cited by the Court:
Preamble of the Illinois Constitution 1870: "We, the people of the State of Illinois, grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing upon our endeavors to secure and transmit the same unimpaired to succeeding generations."
Constitution of Massachusetts, 1870: Articles 28-3: "It is the right as well as the duty of all men in society publicly and at stated seasons, to worship the Supreme Being, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe... As the happiness of a people and the good order and preservation of civil government essentially depend upon piety, religion and morality, and as these cannot be generally diffused through a community but by the institution of the public worship of God and of public instructions in piety, religion, and morality."
Constitution of Mississippi, 1832: Article 7, Sec. 58-14: "No person who denies the being of a God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this State... Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government, the preservation of liberty, and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education, shall forever be encouraged in this State."
Constitution of Delaware, 1776: Article 22: "This required all officers, besides an oath of allegiance, to make and subscribe the following declaration: "I.A.B., do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God blessed for evermore; and I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration."
Philegraph v. The Commonwealth, 11 S. & R. 394, 400: "Christianity, general Christianity, is always has been, a part of the common law of Pennsylvania... not Christianity with an established church, antithes and spiritual courts; but Christianity with liberty of conscience to all men."
The people v. Ruggles, 8 Johns. 230, 294, 295: "Chancellor Kent, the great commentator on American law, speaking as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New York, said: 'The people of this State, in common with the people of this country, profess the general doctrines of Christianity, as the rule of their faith and practice... we are a Christian people, and the morality of the country is deeply ingrained upon Christianity."
Trial v. Girard's Executors, 2 How. 127, 198: "It is also said, and truly, that the Christian religion is a part of the common law of Pennsylvania."
ref. cited in [Church at the Holy Trinity v. United States, 143 U.S. 457 (1892)]
Vidal v. Girard's Executors's, 43 U.S. 126 (1844): "Why may not the Bible, and especially the New Testament... be read and taught as a divine revelation in the college its general precepts expounded, its evidences explained, and its glorious principles of morality inculcated? Where can the purest principles of morality be learned so clearly or so perfectly as from the New Testament?"
Benjamin Franklin: "Mr. President, the small progress we have made after four or five weeks' close attendance, and continual reasonings with each other, our different sentiment on almost every question several of the last producing as many noes as ayes is, methinks, a melancholy proof of the imperfection of the human understanding. We, indeed, seem to feel our what of political wisdom, since we have been running about in search of it. We have gone back to ancient history for models of government, and examined the different forms of those republics which, having been formed with seeds of their own dissolution, now no longer exist. And we have viewed modern States all round Europe, but find none of their constitutions suitable to our circumstances. In this situation of this assembly, groping, as it were, in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, now has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understanding? In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor. To that kind Providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance?"
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, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that 'except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.' I firmly believe this, and I also believe that without His concerning aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel! We shall be divided by our little partial local interests, our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and byword down to future ages. And, what is worse, mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing governments by human wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, and conquest."
(Ellicott's Debates, vol. p.253; Also 33rd Congress 1st Session. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, March 27, 1854: Rep. No. 124)
Columbian History of Education in Kansas: "The three public schools of America are outgrowths of the parochial and pastoral schools of puritan New England, which were established by our forefathers to prepare their children for becoming useful members of society and the church. Nurtured in the lap of the church, these schools soon became so necessary to society at large that the church reluctantly relinquished her claim upon the elementary schools, and turned them over to the care of the commonwealths, retaining for herself the higher institutions of learning, the academies and colleges."
Whether this was wise or not it is not my purpose to discuss, further than to remark that, if the study of the Bible is to be excluded from all State schools, if the inculcation of the principles of Christianity is to have no place in the daily programme, if the worship of God is to form no part of the general exercises of these public elementary schools, then the good of the State would be better served by restoring all schools to church control."
(Compiled by Kansas educators and published under the auspices of the Kansas Historical Society for the Columbia Exposition, 1893, commemorating the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America": This was compiled by the State Teachers' Association, school superintendents and teachers)
Proclamation from the Continental Congress: They start out with calling out to "Almighty God." They ask that "their manifold sins, through the merits of Jesus Christ" would be mercifully forgiven, and blotted out of remembrance; "to prosper the means of religion for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost... to cause the knowledge of Christianity to spread over all the earth... that it may please him to pardon our heinous transgression and incline our hearts for the future to keep all his laws," and for God to bless our schools, seminaries of education, "and causing the earth to yield its increase in plentiful harvests; and above all in continuing to us the enjoyment of the gospel of peace."
ref. (Journal of the Continental Congress, index Proclamations, which there are six written on: Nov. 1, 1777; Oct. 18, 1780; Oct. 26, 1781; Oct. 11, 1782; Oct 18, 1783; Aug 3, 1784)
Patrick Henry: "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ!"
ref. [Steve C. Dawson, God's Providence in America's History (Pancho Cordova, CA: Steve C. Dawson, 1988) p. 15]
John Jay: He was one of the three authors of The Federalist Paper and the first Chief Justice of the United States stated: "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."
ref. [The Correspondence and Public Paper of John Jay, Henry P. Johnston, ed. (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1890); Vol. IV, p.293, Oct. 1816.]
Printing of Bible 1780: "A motion was made by Mr. (James) McIene, seconded by Mr. (John) Hanson, respecting the printing of the Old and New Testament Resolved: That it be recommended to such of the States who may think it convenient for them that they take proper measures to procure one or more new and correct editions of the old and new testament to be printed and that such states regulate their printers by law so as to secure effectually the said books from being misprinted."
