Faith Of Our Signers P5

Last week I finished talking about some Signers of the Declaration of Independence and their faith. Other Founding Fathers made similar declarations. With such an abundance of pronouncements from so many, it is evident that the Founders, with only a few individual exceptions, were largely a group of Christian men. 

Earlier generations recognized the Founders’ overall piety. The family of Richard Henry Lee, signer of the Declaration, president of the Continental Congress, and a framer of the Bill of Rights clearly illustrates this. When Lee died in 1794, his grandson received his papers and correspondence, including numerous handwritten letters from other leading Founding Fathers. He compiled those documents into a two-volume work published in 1825.

After having studied these personal letters from America’s leading statement, the grandson described the distinguished body of men who founded the nation in these words: The wise and great men of those days were not ashamed publicly to confess the name of our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! On behalf of the people, as their representatives and rulers, they acknowledge the sublime doctrine of His meditation!

Similarly, John Quincy Adams, the son of Founding Father John Adams, personally knew most of the Founders. He, too, recognized that they were predominantly Christian, declaring: 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.

And in 1845, the US House Judiciary Committee similarly affirmed: Christianity….was the religion of the Founders of the republic and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants. The evidence is abundant that those who birthed the United States of America were predominantly Godly and pious Christians. 

More on this next week for another American Moment.

Sourced from The American Story: The Beginnings by David Barton and Tim Barton.