. Form of Government: Republic, Not Pure Democracy
- Opens with Noah Webster’s 1828 definition: a republic is a commonwealth in which sovereign power is exercised by elected representatives; it differs from a pure democracy in which the people exercise power directly.
- Cites Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution: “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government…”
- Notes the Pledge of Allegiance’s reference to “the Republic for which it stands.”
- Quotes Noah Webster (via Hall & Slater) that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible, especially the New Testament.
- Benjamin Rush (signer of the Declaration) argues that the only way to establish and perpetuate republican government is universal education of youth in the principles of Christianity through the Bible; he links biblical teaching to equality, respect for just laws, and the “sober and frugal virtues” that form the soul of republicanism.
- Jedediah Morse (“Father of American Geography”) asserts that civil freedom and political/social happiness derive from Christianity; if its genuine effects diminish, freedom recedes, and republican government itself will fall.
- Rush further contrasts “simple democracy” with a balanced republican system, citing Fisher Ames’s comparison of pure democracy to a volcano containing the materials of its own destruction, and recounting a Swiss citizen’s rejection of pure democracy as “the devil’s own government.”
2. The Revolution, Independence, and Christianity
- 1854 House Judiciary Committee report (Rep. No. 124): Every colony sustained religion in some form before the Revolution; had the people suspected an attack on Christianity, the Revolution “would have been strangled in its cradle.”
- On the same day Washington’s army fought (and lost) at Brandywine (Sept. 11, 1777), the Continental Congress voted to import 20,000 Bibles from Scotland and Holland because their use was “so universal and important.”
- John Quincy Adams (1837 oration) links the Fourth of July to the birth of the Savior: the nation’s birthday is “indissolubly linked” with the Redeemer’s mission; the Declaration organized the social compact on the foundation of Christianity and fulfilled biblical prophecy.
- Declaration of Independence language: “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.”
- William Blackstone (Commentaries, 1765): Man is subject to the laws of his Creator (the law of nature); the revealed or divine law is found only in the Holy Scriptures; these two foundations (nature and revelation) undergird all human law, and no human law should contradict them. The document presents this as the intellectual basis for the Founders’ separation from England.
3. The First Amendment and “Separation of Church and State”
- Quotes the actual text: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
- Emphasizes that the phrase “a wall of separation between church and State” does not appear in the Constitution. It originates in Jefferson’s 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists.
- Cites a New York court (Baer v. Kolmorgan) declining to treat Jefferson’s metaphor as constitutional text and insisting on the plain language of the First Amendment and state constitutions.
- 1852–53 Senate Judiciary Committee report: The Amendment was intended to prohibit an establishment like the English church, not to create an irreligious people or to impose “atheistical apathy.” The Revolution and Continental Congress had been conducted with continual appeals to the Supreme Ruler of the world.
- 1854 House Judiciary Committee report: At the adoption of the Constitution and amendments, the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encouraged (not any one sect). Attempts to level or discard all religion would have been met with universal indignation. The goal was to prevent rivalry among Christian sects, not to substitute Judaism, Islam, or infidelity.
- References Runkel v. Winemiller (1799, Maryland): “By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion,” with all Christian sects placed on equal footing and entitled to protection of religious liberty.
4. Religion, Morality, and the Health of the Republic
- Poses the practical question: What does moral failure (crime, drugs, family breakdown, white-collar crime, etc.) cost society economically and psychologically?
- James Madison is quoted (via secondary sources) as saying the future of American civilization is staked on the capacity of the people to govern themselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.
- George Washington’s Farewell Address (1796): “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports.” No one who labors to subvert them can claim the tribute of patriotism.
- U.S. Supreme Court, Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States (1892): After surveying numerous precedents, the Court declared “this is a Christian nation.”
- Supporting citations include preambles and clauses from the Illinois, Massachusetts, Mississippi, and Delaware constitutions requiring or presupposing belief in God, public worship, or Christian profession for office-holding.
- State cases (Updegraph, People v. Ruggles, Vidal v. Girard’s Executors) affirming that general Christianity is part of the common law of Pennsylvania and New York, and that the Bible (especially the New Testament) may properly be taught for its moral principles.
- Benjamin Franklin’s famous speech at the Constitutional Convention (June 28, 1787): After weeks of deadlock, he urged daily prayer, noting that the Convention had forgotten the “Father of lights,” that God governs in the affairs of men, and that “except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.” He recalled the daily prayers of the Continental Congress and the “superintending Providence” that had aided the Revolution.
5. Education, Public Schools, and Public Religion
- Columbian History of Education in Kansas (1893, compiled by Kansas educators for the Columbian Exposition): Free public schools grew out of the parochial and pastoral schools of Puritan New England. If the Bible and Christian principles are excluded from state schools, “the good of the State would be better served by restoring all schools to church control.”
- Continental Congress proclamations (multiple years, 1777–1784) routinely invoke “Almighty God,” seek forgiveness “through the merits of Jesus Christ,” ask for the spread of the knowledge of Christianity, and request blessing on schools and the gospel of peace.
- Patrick Henry is quoted: the nation was founded “not by religionists, but by Christians… not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
- John Jay (first Chief Justice and co-author of The Federalist): “It is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”
- 1780 Continental Congress resolution recommending that the states take measures to print correct editions of the Old and New Testaments and regulate printers to prevent misprints.
Overall Character and Purpose of the Document
The document presents a sustained historical and legal argument that:
- The American form of government is a republic, not a pure democracy, and that republicanism historically depended on Christian moral formation.
- Christianity (understood non-sectarianly) was the assumed moral and cultural foundation of the founding generation, the Revolutionary Congress, early state constitutions, and 19th-century judicial understanding.
- The First Amendment was designed to prevent a national established church of the English type and to protect free exercise, not to secularize public life or treat Christianity as constitutionally irrelevant.
- Religion and morality remain practical necessities for self-government, social order, and economic health.
It relies heavily on primary sources (Webster, Rush, Morse, Washington, Franklin, Blackstone, congressional reports, early court cases, and state constitutions) while also drawing on secondary compilations. The tone is didactic and apologetic—intended to recover what the compiler regards as the original, biblically informed understanding of the American constitutional order.
