America

Forsaken

By

Prophet T. E. Deckard

 

 

CHAPTER 6

The Men and Their Beliefs

These men who had carried out the mandate that they themselves had made were men of incredible fortitude. They believed that God was divinely guiding this nation to His will.

We are going to take a look at some of these men and examine exactly what they did believe. We are going to add to our listing those men who came after our forefathers through the Civil War up to modern times. It is interesting to watch the change of dedication toward God as the time of remembrance fades. Because we were not there in the days of Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, Franklin, Washington, and the rest of the great men of that time, it becomes very easy to forget what they must have gone through.

They and only they, knew exactly how important the principles of God's Word were to their success or failure. The later leaders of this nation, for the most part, have long forgotten the importance of Christ being the head of this nation. Maybe through this, we can have a better understanding of what being an American is really all about. To understand a people and their culture, one must go back to the beginning and understand the heart that establishment.

John Locke (1632-1704), was an English philosopher whose writings had a profound influence on our Founding Fathers, and in turn, the writing of the Constitution. Of nearly 15,000 items of the Founding Fathers which were reviewed; including books, newspaper articles, pamphlets, monographs, etc., John Locke was the third most frequently quoted author. In his Two Treatises of Government, 1690, he cited 80 references to the Bible in the first treatise and 22 references to the Bible in the second.

John Locke elaborated on fundamental concepts such as unalienable rights, government by consent, the social compact (a constitution between the people and the government), a separation of powers, parental authority, private property and the right to resist unlawful authority.

Thomas Jefferson was strongly influenced by John Locke, to the extent that his ideas can be seen in the Declaration of Independence. Locke wrote in The Second Treatise on Civil Government, 1690:

Thus the Law of Nature stands as an eternal rule to all men, legislators as well as others. The rules that they make for other men's actions, must... Be conformable to the Law of Nature, i. E. To the will of God... No human sanction can be good, or valid against it.

Laws human must be made according to the general laws of Nature, and without contradiction to any positive law of Scripture, otherwise they are ill made.

In 1689, Locke published his treatise Of Civil Government in which he asserted:

[The] great and Chief End, therefore, of Mens uniting into Commonwealths, and putting themselves under Government, is the preservation of their property....

For Men being all the Workmanship of one Omnipotent, and infinitely wise Maker: all the Servants of one Sovereign Master, sent into the World by his Order, and about his Business, they are his Property, whose Workmanship they are, made to last during his, not one another's Pleasure....

Those Grants God made of the World to Adam, and to Noah, and his Sons... Has given the Earth to the Children of Men, given it to Mankind in common....

God, who hath given the World to Men in common, hath also given them reason to make use of it to the best Advantage of Life and Convenience.

In addition to writing paraphrases of the books of Romans, First and Second Corinthians, Galatians and Ephesians, John Locke wrote a seldom mentioned book titled A Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity. In it he writes:

He that shall collect all the moral rules of the philosophers and compare them with those contained in the New Testament will find them to come short of the morality delivered by our Saviour and taught by His disciples: a college made up of ignorant but inspired fishermen....

Such a law of morality Jesus Christ has given in the New Testament, but by the latter of these ways, by revelation, we have from Him a full and sufficient rule for our direction, and conformable to that of reason. But the word and obligation of its precepts have their force, and are past doubt to us, by the evidence of His mission.

He was sent by God: His miracles show it; and the authority of God in His precepts can not be questioned. His morality has a sure standard, that revelation vouches, and reason can not gainsay nor question; but both together witness to come from God, the great Lawgiver.

And such a one as this, out of the New Testament, I think, they would never find, nor can anyone say is anywhere else to be found....

To one who is persuaded that Jesus Christ was sent by God to be a King and a Saviour to those who believe in Him, all His commands become principles; there needs no other proof for the truth of what He says, but that He said it; and then there needs no more but to read the inspired books to be instructed.

Locke stated:

"The Bible is one of the greatest blessings bestowed by God on the children of men. It has God for its author; salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture for its matter. It is all pure, all sincere; nothing too much; nothing wanting."

Peter Bulkeley (1583-1659), the Puritan leader who founded the city of Concord, Massachusetts, stated in 1651:

"We are as a city set upon a hill, in the open view of all the earth.... We profess ourselves to be a people in covenant with God, and therefore... The Lord our God... Will cry shame upon us if we walk contrary to the covenant which we have promised to walk in. If we open the mouths of men against our profession, by reason of the scandalousness of our lives, we (of all men) shall have the greater sin."

Sir William Phipps (1651-1695), the Governor of Massachusetts and American colonial administrator, professed:

"I have divers times been in danger of my life; and I have been brought to see that I owe my life to Him who has given His precious life for me. I thank God He has led me to see myself altogether unhappy without an interest in the Lord Jesus Christ, and to close heartily with Him, desiring Him to execute all His offices on my behalf. I have now, for some time, been under serious resolution, that I should avoid whatever I knew to be displeasing to God, that I should serve Him all the days of my life....

I knew that if God had a people anywhere, it was here, and I resolved to rise or fall with them; neglecting very great advantages for my worldly interests, that I might come and enjoy the ordinances of the Lord Jesus here."

Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780), was the renowned English jurist who played a leading role in forming the basis of law in America. Blackstone lectured at Oxford, and between 1765 and 1770 published his highly influential work, Commentaries on the Laws of England, which by 1775 sold more copies in America than in England.

His Commentaries, which almost served as the "Bible" of American Lawyers, set the foundation for our great legal minds, including Chief Justice John Marshall. When scholars examined nearly 15,000 items written by the Founding Fathers between the years 1760 and 1805, (including books, newspapers articles, monographs, pamphlets, etc.), It was found that Sir William Blackstone was quoted more than any other author except one.

James Madison, the "Chief Architect of the Constitution," endorsed Blackstone, saying: "I very cheerfully express my approbation of the proposed edition of Blackstone's Commentaries."

Blackstone expressed the presuppositional base for law:

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 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.

These laws laid down by God are the eternal immutable laws of good and evil.... This law of nature 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...

The doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and they are to be found only in the holy scriptures... [And] 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.

Blasphemy against the Almighty is denying his being or providence, or uttering contumelious reproaches on our Savior Christ. It is punished, at common law by fine and imprisonment, for Christianity is part of the laws of the land.

If [the legislature] will positively enact a thing to be done, the judges are not at liberty to reject it, for that were to set the judicial power above that of the legislature, which would be subversive of all government.

To deny the possibility, nay, actual existence, of witchcraft and sorcery, is at once to contradict the revealed Word of God in various passages both of the Old and New Testament.

The preservation of Christianity as a national religion is abstracted from its own intrinsic truth, of the utmost consequence to the civil state, which a single instance will sufficiently demonstrate.

The belief of a future state of rewards and punishments, the entertaining just ideas of the main attributes of the Supreme Being, and a firm persuasion that He superintends and will finally compensate every action in human life (all which are revealed in the doctrines of our Savior, Christ), these are the grand foundations of all judicial oaths, which call God to witness the truth of those facts which perhaps may be only known to Him and the party attesting;

All moral evidences, therefore, all confidence in human veracity, must be weakened by apostasy, and overthrown by total infidelity.

Wherefore, all affronts to Christianity, or endeavors to depreciate its efficacy, in those who have once professed it, are highly deserving of censure.

Roger Sherman (1721-1793), was an American Revolutionary patriot, politician and jurist, who was the only one of the Founding Fathers to sign all four of the major founding documents: The Articles of Association 1774, The Declaration of Independence 1776, The Articles of Confederation 1777, and The Constitution of the United States 1787.

He served on the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence, was a member of the Continental Congress and made 138 speeches at the Constitutional Convention. Roger Sherman was also a U.S. Congressman, 1789-91, a U.S. Senator, 1791-93, (elected at the age of 70), a state senator, a self-taught lawyer, superior court judge, as well as having served as a judge in Connecticut for fourteen years. Prior to his political career he was a surveyor, merchant and shoe cobbler.

During the almost fatal crisis at the Constitutional Convention, Thursday, June 28, 1787, Sherman seconded the motion to have Dr. Benjamin Franklin's famous request, that Congress be opened with prayer every day, enacted. (A practice which continues to this day.)

The extremely heated dispute which arose at the Constitutional Convention, was over how Congress would insure that the smaller states would be equally represented in comparison with the larger states. This debate grew so serious that it began to threaten the convention itself, as some delegates had already left.

Shortly after Franklin's call for prayer, Roger Sherman made the suggestion that state representation in the Senate be equal and that state representation in the House be based on population. This historic proposal, which came to be called the "Connecticut Compromise," was adopted and is the system in use today.

Roger Sherman was also on the committee which decided the wording of the First Amendment. He was originally opposed to the First Amendment, considering it unnecessary, since Congress had no authority delegated from the Constitution in such areas.

In February 1776, Roger Sherman, along with Adams and George Wythe of Virginia, were on the committee responsible to create instructions for the embassy headed for Canada. The instructions directed:

You are further to declare that we hold sacred the rights of conscience, and may promise to the whole people, solemnly in our name, the free and undisturbed exercise of their religion. And... That all civil rights and the right to hold office were to be extended to persons of any Christian denomination.

Roger Sherman also successfully worked to have President Washington officially declare a national Thanksgiving Day holiday. His remarks were recorded in the Journals of Congress:

Mr. Sherman justified the practice of thanksgiving, on any signal event, not only as a laudable one in itself, but as warranted by a number of precedents in Holy Writ: for instance, the solemn thanksgivings and rejoicings which took place in the time of Solomon, after the building of the temple, was a case in point. This example, he thought, worthy of Christian imitation on the present occasion.

In 1788, as a member of the White Haven Congregational Church, Sherman was asked to use his expertise in revising the wording of their creed. In his own handwriting, he wrote the following:

I believe that there is one only living and true God, existing in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the same in substance equal in power and glory.

That the scriptures of the old and new testaments are a revelation from God, and a complete rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.

That God has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, so as thereby he is not the author or approver of sin.

That he creates all things, and preserves and govern all creatures and all their actions, in a manner perfectly consistent with the freedom of will in moral agents, and the usefulness of means.

That he made man at first perfectly holy, that the first man sinned, and as he was the public head of his posterity, they all became sinners in consequence of his first transgression, are wholly indisposed to that which is good and inclined to evil, and on account of sin are liable to all the miseries of this life, to death, and to the pains of hell forever.

I believe that God having elected some of mankind to eternal life, did send his own Son to become man, die in the room and stead of sinners and thus to lay a foundation for the offer of pardon and salvation to all mankind, so as all may be saved who are willing to accept the gospel offer:

Also by his special grace and spirit, to regenerate, sanctify and enable to persevere in holiness, all who shall be saved; and to procure in consequence of their repentance and faith in himself their justification by virtue of his atonement as the only meritorious cause.

I believe a visible church to be a congregation of those who make a credible profession of their faith in Christ, and obedience to him, joined by the bond of the covenant....

I believe that the souls of believers are at their death made perfectly holy, and immediately taken to glory: that at the end of this world there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a final judgement of all mankind, when the righteous shall be publicly acquitted by Christ the Judge and admitted to everlasting life and glory, and the wicked be sentenced to everlasting punishment.

Samuel Adams (1722-1803), was known as the "Father of the American Revolution." Along with his cousin John Adams, Samuel Adams labored over 20 years as a patriot and leader. He instigated the Boston Tea Party, signed the Declaration of Independence, called for the first Continental Congress and served as a member of Congress until 1781.

He helped draft the Massachusetts Constitution, and served as Lieutenant Governor, under Governor John Hancock. He later became the Governor of Massachusetts.

Samuel Adams formed the Committees of Correspondence, which were largely responsible for the unity and cohesion of the Colonists preceding the Revolution. The original Committee, formed in Boston, had three goals: (1) To delineate the rights of Colonists as men, (2) To detail how these rights had been violated, (3) To publicize these rights and the violations thereof throughout the Colonies. His reports were spread like fire through the towns and parishes, many times by an early pony express system.

His work, The Rights of the Colonists, was circulated in 1772:

The right to freedom being the gift of the Almighty...

The rights of the colonists as Christians... May be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institution of The Great Law Giver and Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament.

On September 7, 1774, on the second day of the congressional session, it was Samuel Adams who proposed that the meeting be opened with prayer, in spite of the various Christian sects represented:

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.

As the Declaration of Independence was being signed, 1776, he declared:

"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."

He further stated:

"A general dissolution of 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 when they lose their virtue they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader... If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security.

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

He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man.... The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy this gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people."

On October 4, 1790, Samuel Adams wrote to his cousin, John Adams, who was then the Vice-President:

Let divines and philosophers, statesmen and patriots, unite their endeavors to renovate the age, by impressing the minds of men with the importance of educating their little boys and girls, of inculcating in the minds of youth the fear and love of the Deity and universal philanthropy, and, in subordination to these great principles, the love of their country; of instructing them in the art of self-government without which they never can act a wise part in the government of societies, great or small; in short, of leading them in the study and practice of the exalted virtues of the Christian system.

Samuel Adams, in 1794, while serving as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, addressed the state legislature upon the death of Governor John Hancock:

In the supposed state of nature, all men are equally bound by the laws of nature, or to speak more properly, the laws of the Creator: They are imprinted by the finger of God on the heart of man. Thou shall do no injury to thy neighbor, is the voice of nature and reason, and it is confirmed by written revelation.

Adams declared:

"I conceive we cannot better express ourselves than by humbly supplicating the Supreme Ruler of the world....

That the confusions that are and have been among the nations may be overruled by the promoting and speedily bringing in the holy and happy period when the kingdoms of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ may be everywhere established, and the people willingly bow to the sceptre of Him who is the Prince of Peace."

In addressing the young man whom his daughter intended to marry, Adams remarked:

"I could say a thousand things to you, if I had leisure. I could dwell on the importance of piety and religion, of industry and frugality, of prudence, economy, regularity and even Government, all of which are essential to the well being of a family. But I have not time. I cannot however help repeating piety, because I think it indispensable. Religion in a family is at once its brightest ornament and its best security."

Samuel Langdon (1723-1797), the president of Harvard University, was a member of the New Hampshire Convention to ratify the U.S. Constitution in 1788, as well as an original member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In May of 1775, Harvard President Langdon was invited to give an address to the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts. In it he stated:

"We have rebelled against God. We have lost the true spirit of Christianity, though we retain the outward profession and form of it.... By many, the Gospel is corrupted into a superficial system of moral philosophy, little better than ancient Platonism....

My brethren, let us repent and implore the divine mercy. Let us amend our ways and our doings, reform everything that has been provoking the Most High, and thus endeavor to obtain the gracious interpositions of providence for our deliverance....

May the Lord hear us in this day of trouble.... We will rejoice in His salvation, and in the name of our God, we will set up our banners!"

William Livingston (1723-1790), one of the signers of the Constitution of the United States of America, being 61 years old at the time, was also a member of the first and second Continental Congresses. He served as the first Governor of New Jersey, and was re-elected for fourteen years. Livingston had previously held the rank of a brigadier general in the militia.

Growing up on the frontier around Albany, Livingston grew up with missionaries among the Mohawks. He graduated first in his class from Yale and went on to study law. While living in New York, he published articles defending the faith, many of which were published in The Independent Reflector, such as No. 46:

I believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, without any foreign comments or human explanations... I believe that he who feareth God and worketh righteousness will be accepted of Him.... I believe that the virulence of some... Proceeds not from their affection to Christianity, which is founded on too firm a basis to be shaken by the freest inquiry, and the Divine authority of which I sincerely believe without receiving a farthing for saying so.

In 1768, he said:

"The land we posses is the gift of heaven to our fathers, and Divine Providence seems to have decreed it to our latest posterity."

On March 16, 1776, as recorded in the Journal of Congress, General William Livingston presented this resolution in Congress, which passed without dissent:

"We earnestly recommend that Friday, the 17th day of May next, be observed by the colonies as a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer, that we may with united hearts confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and by a sincere repentance and amendment of life appease God's righteous displeasure, and through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ obtain His pardon and forgiveness."

In a letter, Livingston wrote:

If the history (New Testament) be not true, then all the whole laws of nature were changed; all the motives and incentives to human actions that ever had obtained in this world have been entirely inverted; the wickedest men in the world have taken the greatest pains and endured the greatest hardship and misery to invent, practice, and propagate the most holy religion that ever was.

William Linn on May 1, 1789, was elected by the United States House of Representatives as its chaplain and was appropriated five hundred dollars from the Federal treasury to pay his salary. Being a respected minister in New York City, and the father of the famous poet John Blair Linn (1777-1804), William Linn alleged:

Let my neighbor once persuade himself that there is no God, and he will soon pick my pocket, and break not only my leg but my neck. If there be no God, there is no law, no future account; government then is the ordinance of man only, and we cannot be subject for conscience sake.

George Mason (1725-1792), was a famous American Revolutionary statesman and delegate from Virginia to the Constitutional Convention. He was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, a lawyer, judge, political philosopher and planter. He was the richest man in Virginia, owning 15,000 acres in Virginia and 80,000 acres in the Ohio area. George Mason was the author of the Virginia Constitution and the Virginia Bill of Rights.

He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of the United States, but refused to sign the Constitution as it did not sufficiently limit the government's power from infringing on the rights of citizens. George Mason disapproved strongly of the slave trade and mortally hated paper money. He disliked the idea of a strong federal government as he feared it would usurp the sovereignty of the individual states.

He is called the "Father of the Bill of Rights," as he insisted that Congress add the Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments), to the Constitution. His influence has gone worldwide, as virtually all succeeding constitutions have incorporated the pattern he set forth.

The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, limiting the power of the government, are practically his and may be found expressed in the Virginia Bill of Rights of June 12, 1776, in which he wrote:

Article XVI That Religion, or the Duty which we owe our Creator, and the Manner of discharging it, can be directed only by Reason and Convictions, not by Force or Violence; and therefore all Men are equally entitled to the free exercise of Religion, according to the Dictates of Conscience; and that it is the mutual Duty of all to practice Christian Forbearance, Love, and Charity towards each other.

Mason, stated before the General Court of Virginia that "The laws of nature are the laws of God, whose authority can be superseded by no power on earth."

On August 22, 1787, Mason, one of the largest plantation owners in Virginia, stated his views on national accountability during the debates of the Constitutional Convention:

"Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgement of heaven upon a country. As nations can not be rewarded or punished in the next world, they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins, by national calamities."

William Samuel Johnson (1727-1819), one of the signers of the Constitution of the United States, was a distinguished lawyer, having received an honorary doctorate in civil law from Oxford in 1766. He was a delegate to the Stamp Act Convention, a Commissioner to England and a member of the Continental Congress. He also served as a state representative, a U.S. Senator and a Connecticut Supreme Court Justice.

He was the son of the well known Anglican minister, Samuel Johnson, President of Columbia College from 1787-1800. Johnson's great grandfather, Robert Johnson, came to America in 1638, in order To assist in founding a "Godly Commonwealth" at New Haven.

William Samuel Johnson, as president of Columbia University, (formerly King's College), gave these profound remarks to the first graduating class after the Revolutionary War:

"You this day, gentlemen, assume new characters, enter into new relations, and consequently incur new duties. You have, by the favor of Providence and the attention of friends, received a public education, the purpose whereof hath been to qualify you the better to serve your Creator and your country....

Your first great duties, you are sensible, are those you owe to Heaven, to your Creator and Redeemer. Let these be ever present to your minds, and exemplified in your lives and conduct.

Imprint deep upon your minds the principles of piety towards God, and a reverence and fear of His holy name. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and its consummation is everlasting felicity. Possess yourselves of just and elevated notions of the Divine character, attributes, and administration, and of the end and dignity of your own immortal nature as it stands related to Him.

Reflect deeply and often upon those relations. Remember that it is in God you live and move and have your being, that in the language of David He is about your bed and about your path and spieth out all your ways, that there is not a thought in your hearts, nor a word upon your tongues, but lo! He knoweth them altogether, and that he will one day call you to a strict account for all your conduct in this mortal life.

Remember, too, that you are the redeemed of the Lord, that you are bought with a price, even the inestimable price of the precious blood of the Son of God. Adore Jehovah, therefore, as your God and your Judge. Love, fear, and serve Him as your Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Acquaint yourselves with Him in His word and holy ordinances.

Make Him your friend and protector and your felicity is secured both here and hereafter. And with respect to particular duties to Him, it is your happiness that you are well assured that he best serves his Maker, who does most good to his country and to mankind.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) was an outstanding orator, author and leader in Great Britain during the time of the Revolutionary War. In his work, Reflections on the Revolution in France, he wrote in 1790:

People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors.

On January 9, 1795, in a letter to William Smith, Burke made the famous statement:

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

Edmund Burke also wrote:

What is liberty without wisdom and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without restraint.

Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites....

Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without.

It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.

Richard Stockton (1730-1781), a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was a member of the Continental Congress, 1776, an associate justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, 1774-76, as well as a member of the Executive Council of New Jersey, 1768-76.

His son, Richard, was a U.S. Senator, 1796-99, and a U.S. Congressman, 1813-15. Another son, Robert, served with prominence as a U.S. Naval officer in the War of 1812, helped freed slaves found the country of Liberia, West Africa in 1821, and conquered California, proclaiming it a U.S. Territory, on August 17, 1846. Robert also served as a U.S. Senator, 1851-53, and was honored when Stockton, California, was named after him.

In his will, the elder Richard Stockton wrote:

As my children will have frequent occasion of perusing this instrument, and may probably be peculiarly impressed with the last words of their father, I think proper here, not only to subscribe to the entire belief of the great leading doctrine of the Christian religion... But also in the heart of a father's affection, to charge and exhort them to remember "that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794), a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was also a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, a delegate to the First Continental Congress and a U.S. Senator. On November 1, 1777, as recorded in the Journals of Congress, Richard Henry Lee along with the committee of Samuel Adams and General Daniel Roberdeau, recommended a resolution setting apart:

Thursday, the 18th of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise, that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their Divine Benefactor; and that, together with their sincere acknowledgments and offerings, they may join the penitent confession of their manifold sins, whereby they had forfeited every favor, and their humble and earnest supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remenberance.

John Dickinson (1732-1808), was not only a signer of the Constitution of the United States of America, but was a member of the Continental Congress and the writer of the first draft of The Articles of Confederation. He served as the President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, in addition to being an accomplished lawyer, planter and state legislator.

He was the founder of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1773, and known for giving generously to the Friends (Quakers) in Philadelphia for their educational pursuits.

Dickinson wrote persuasive letters regarding the soundness of Christian evidences and the authority of Scripture. He campaigned for the passage of the Constitution by writing a series of letters which he signed "Fabius." This greatly contributed to Delaware and Pennsylvania being the first two states to ratify the Constitution.

John Dickinson is best remembered as "The Penman of the Revolution." His popular pamphlets gained wide circulation and became very influential in the cause of freedom. Some of his most famous ones were: Petition to the King, 1771, The Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress, 1774, and The Declaration of the cause of taking up arms, 1775. His most stirring pamphlet was his Letter from a Farmer in Pennsylvania. Within it, he states:

But while Divine Providence, that gave me existence in a land of freedom, permits my head to think, my lips to speak, and my hand to move, I shall so highly and gratefully value the blessing received as to take care that my silence and inactivity shall not give my implied assent to my act, degrading my brethren and myself from the birthright, wherewith heaven itself "hath made us free."...

I pray GOD that he may be pleased to inspire you and your posterity, to the latest ages, with a spirit of which I have an idea, that I find a difficulty to express.

I express it in the best manner I can, I mean a spirit that shall so guide you that it will be impossible to determine whether an American's character is most distinguishable for his loyalty to his Sovereign, his duty to his mother country, his love of freedom, or his affection for his native soil....

But, above all, let us implore the protection of that infinitely good and gracious Being [Proverbs 8: 15] "by whom kings reign, and princes decree justice...."

A communication of her rights in general, and particularly of that great one, the foundation of all the rest that their property, acquired with so much pain and hazard, should be disposed of by none but themselves or to use the beautiful and emphatic language of the sacred scriptures [Micah 4: 4] "that they should sit every man under his vine, and under his fig-tree, and NONE SHOULD MAKE THEM AFRAID...."

But whatever kind of minister he is, that attempts to innovate a single iota in the privileges of these colonies, him I hope you will undauntedly oppose; and that you will never suffer yourselves to be cheated or frightened into any unworthy obsequiousness.

On such emergencies you may surely, without presumption, believe that ALMIGHTY GOD himself will look upon your righteous contest with gracious approbation.

In the Continental Congress of 1776, John Dickinson courageously bid farewell to the government of England:

The happiness of these Colonies has been, during the whole course of this fatal controversy, our first wish; their reconciliation with Great Britain our next: ardently have we prayed for the accomplishment of both.

But if we must renounce the one or the other, we humbly trust in the mercies of the Supreme Governor of the universe that we shall not stand condemned before His throne if our choice is determined by that law of self-preservation which his Divine wisdom has seen fit to implant in the hearts of His creatures.

John Dickinson met with the other delegates from Pennsylvania less than two months before the Declaration of Independence was signed to suggest requirements for the members of the Convention to subscribe to before being seated. One of the recommended stipulations was the following declaration:

I do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ his Eternal Son the true God, and in the Holy Spirit, one God blessed for evermore; and I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be given by Divine inspiration.

John Adams (1735-1826), was the 2nd President of the United States of America and the first president to live in the White House. He had also served as the Vice-President for eight years under President George Washington. The Library of Congress and the Department of the Navy were established under his presidency.

A graduate of Harvard, he became a member of the Continental Congress and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He is distinguished for having personally urged Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration, as well as having recommended George Washington as the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. He was the main author of the Constitution of Massachusetts in 1780.

Adams was the U.S. Minister to France, and, along with John Jay and Benjamin Franklin, helped negotiate the treaty with Great Britain ending the Revolutionary War. Later he was U.S. Minister to Britain. During this time he greatly influenced the American states to ratify the Constitution by writing a three volume work entitled, A Defense of the Constitutions of the Government of the United States.

In his diary entry dated February 22, 1756, Adams wrote:

Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God... What a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be.

Adams wrote in his notes for, A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, February of 1765:

I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence for the illumination of the ignorant, and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.

In his diary, Sunday, February 9, 1772, John Adams wrote:

"If I would go to Hell for an eternal moment or so, I might be knighted" Shakespeare.

A Master requires of all who seek his favour an implicit resignation to his will and humor, and these require that he be soothed, flattered, and assisted in his vices and follies, perhaps the blackest crimes that men can commit.

The first thought of this will produce in a mind... A soliloquy, something like my [Shakespeare] motto as if he should say The Minister of State or the Governor would promote my interest, would advance me to places of honour and profit, would raise me to titles and dignities that will be perpetuated in my family, in a word would make the fortune of me and my posterity forever, if I would but comply with his desires and become his instruments to promote his measures....

We see every day that our imaginations are so strong and our reason so weak, the charms of wealth and power are so enchanting, and the belief of future punishments so faint that men find ways to persuade themselves to believe any absurdity, to submit to any prostitution, rather than forego their wishes and desires. Their reason becomes at last an eloquent advocate on the side of their passions, and [they] bring themselves to believe that black is white, that vice is virtue, that folly is wisdom and eternity a moment....

I dread the consequences. [A master] requires of me such compliances, such horrid crimes, such a sacrifice of my honour, my conscience, my friends, my country, my God, as the Scriptures inform us must be punished with nothing less than Hell fire, eternal torment. And this is so unequal a price to pay for the honours and emoluments in the power of a minister or Governor, that I cannot prevail upon myself to think of it. The duration of future punishment terrifies me. If I could but deceive myself so far as to think eternity a moment only, I could comply and be promoted.

On July 4, 1774, Adams wrote to his wife Abigail from Patten's at Arundel:

We went to meeting at Wells and had the pleasure of hearing my friend upon "Be not partakers in other men's sins. Keep yourselves pure..."

We... Took our horses to the meeting in the afternoon and heard the minister again upon "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." There is great pleasure in hearing sermons so serious, so clear, so sensible and instructive as these...

That same year, Adams wrote a commentary titled, Novanglus: A History of the Dispute with America, from its Origin, in 1754, to the Present Time. In it, he admonished the clergy to speak out regarding public errors, saying:

It is the duty of the clergy to accommodate their discourses to the times, to preach against such sins as are most prevalent, and recommend such virtues as are most wanted. For example, if exorbitant ambition and venality are predominant, ought they not to warn their hearers against those vices? If public spirit is much wanted, should they not inculcate this great virtue?

If the rights and duties of Christian magistrates and subjects are disputed, should they not explain them, show their nature, ends, limitations, and restrictions, how much soever it may move the gall of Massachusetts.

On June 21, 1776, he wrote:

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 in a greater Measure, than they have it now, they may change their Rulers and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty.

On July 1, 1776, he profoundly spoke at the Continental Congress to the delegates from the Thirteen Colonies:

"Before God, I believe the hour has come. My judgement 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 for ever!"

On July 3, 1776, the day following the approval by Congress of the Declaration of Independence, Adams wrote to his wife Abigail regarding the gravity of the decision:

It is the will of heaven that the two countries should be sundered forever. It may be the will of heaven that America shall suffer calamities still more wasting and distresses yet more dreadful. If this is to be the case, it will have this good effect, at least: it will inspire us with many virtues which we have not, and correct many errors, follies and vices, which threaten to disturb, dishonor and destroy us... The furnace of affliction produces refinements in states, as well as individuals.

On June 2, 1778, John Adams made this journal entry while in Paris:

In vain are Schools, Academies, and Universities instituted, if loose Principles and licentious habits are impressed upon Children in their earliest years.... The Vices and Examples of the Parents cannot be concealed from the Children. How is it possible that Children can have any just Sense of the sacred Obligations of Morality or Religion if, from their earliest Infancy, they learn their Mothers live in habitual Infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as constant Infidelity to their Mothers?

In concern for his sons, he advised his wife Abigail to "Let them revere nothing but Religion, Morality and Liberty."

John Adams, in a letter written from Holland on July 12, 1782, twice referred to politics as "A divine science."

In retorting Thomas Paine's assertions on July 26, 1796, then Vice President Adams stated in his diary:

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. Let the Blackguard Paine say what he will; it is Resignation to God, it is Goodness itself to Man.

On March 4, 1797, in his Inaugural Address, President John Adams declared:

"And may that Being who is supreme over all, the Patron of Order, the Fountain of Justice, and the Protector in all ages of the world of virtuous liberty, continue His blessings upon this nation."

On October 11, 1798, President Adams stated in his address to the military:

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

On March 6, 1799, President Adams called for a National Fast Day:

"As no truth is more clearly taught in the Volume of Inspiration, nor any more fully demonstrated by the experience of all ages, than that a deep sense and a due acknowledgment of the growing providence of a Supreme Being and of the accountableness of men to Him as the searcher of hearts and righteous distributer of rewards and punishments are conducive equally to the happiness of individuals and to the well-being of communities....

I have thought proper to recommend, and I hereby recommend accordingly, that Thursday, the twenty-fifth day of April next, be observed throughout the United States of America as a day of solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer;

That the citizens on that day abstain, as far as may be, from their secular occupation, and devote the time to the sacred duties of religion, in public and in private;

That they call to mind our numerous offenses against the most high God, confess them before Him with the sincerest penitence, implore his pardoning mercy, through the Great Mediator and Redeemer, for our past transgressions, and that through the grace of His Holy Spirit, we may be disposed and enabled to yield a more suitable obedience to his righteous requisitions in time to come; that He would interpose to arrest the progress of that impiety and licentiousness in principle and practice so offensive to Himself and so ruinous to mankind;

That He would make us deeply sensible that 'righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people.' (Proverbs 14: 34)"

On November 2, 1800, Adams became the first president to move into the White House. As he was writing a letter to his wife, he composed a beautiful prayer, which was later engraved upon the mantel in the state dining room:

"I pray Heaven to bestow THE BEST OF BLESSINGS ON THIS HOUSE and All that shall hereafter Inhabit it, May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof."

In a letter to Judge F. A. Van der Kemp, February 16, 1809, he wrote:

The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation.... [God] ordered the Jews to preserve and propagate to all mankind the doctrine of a supreme, intelligent, wise, almighty sovereign of the universe.... [Which is] to be the great essential principle of morality, and consequently all civilization.

He penned these words on August 28, 1811:

Religion and virtue are the only foundations, not only of republicanism and of all free government, but of social felicity under all governments and in all the combinations of human society.

In a letter to a Mr. Warren, Adams expounded:

[This] Form of Government... Is productive of every Thing which is great and excellent among Men. But its Principles are as easily destroyed, as human nature is corrupted.... A Government is only to be supported by pure Religion or Austere Morals. Private, and public Virtue is the only Foundation of Republics.

In another letter to Judge Van der Kemp, December 27, 1816, he said:

As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation.

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were on the opposite sides of several major political issues, many times in heated debates. John Adams, the 2nd President, was succeeded in office by Thomas Jefferson, who became the 3rd President. So strong were his feelings against Jefferson at the time, that Adams even left Washington, D. C. To avoid being at Jefferson's Inauguration.

Later in life, though, the two became the best of friends. Their correspondence reveals, not only their faith, but also their friendship.  Adams and Jefferson both died on the same day -- July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after they both had signed the Declaration of Independence. Once hardened political opponents, John Adams' last words were: "Thank God, Jefferson lives!"

On June 28, 1813, in a letter to Jefferson, Adams wrote:

The general principles, on which the Fathers achieved independence, were the only Principles in which that beautiful Assembly of young Gentlemen 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, in which all those young Men United, and which had United all Parties in America, in Majorities sufficient to assert and maintain her Independence.

Now I will avow, that I then believe, 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.

In another letter to Thomas Jefferson, he wrote:

Have you ever found in history, one single example of a Nation thoroughly corrupted that was afterwards restored to virtue?... And without virtue, there can be no political liberty.... Will you tell me how to prevent riches from becoming the effects of temperance and industry?

Will you tell me how to prevent luxury from producing effeminacy, intoxication, extravagance, vice and folly?... I believe no effort in favour of virtue is lost...

In a letter to Jefferson, December 25, 1813, Adams wrote:

I have examined all religions, as well as my narrow sphere, my straightened means, and my busy life, would allow; and the result is that the Bible is the best Book in the world. It contains more philosophy than all the libraries I have seen.

In a letter dated November 4, 1816, he said:

The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount contain my religion...

On April 19, 1817, he wrote to Jefferson saying:

Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company...

...The most abandoned scoundrel that ever existed, never yet wholly extinguished his Conscience and while Conscience remains, there is some religion.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), one of America's most instrumental statesman in forming our nation, was also an author, scientist and printer. He served as a diplomat to France and England, was the President (Governor) of Pennsylvania and founded the University of Pennsylvania, in addition to having signed the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation.

Benjamin Franklin was the 15th of 17 children and, because his father's profession of candle-making did not provide enough funds for a formal education, he began his apprenticeship as a printer at the age of twelve.  He initially gained wide acclaim as a literary genius through the annual publication of his book, Poor Richard's Almanac (from 1732-1757).

In 1748, as Pennsylvania's Governor, Franklin proposed Pennsylvania's first Fast Day:

It is the duty of mankind on all suitable occasions to acknowledge their dependence on the Divine Being... [That] Almighty God would mercifully interpose and still the rage of war among the nations... [And that] He would take this province under His protection, confound the designs and defeat the attempts of its enemies, and unite our hearts and strengthen our hands in every undertaking that may be for the public good, and for our defence and security in this time of danger.

On June 6, 1753, Franklin wrote from Philadelphia to Joseph Huey:

I can only show my gratitude for these mercies from God, by a readiness to help his other children and my brethren. For I do not think that thanks and compliments, though repeated weekly, can discharge our real obligations to each other, and much less those to our Creator.

You will see in this my notion of good works, that I am far from expecting to merit heaven by them. By heaven we understand a state of happiness, infinite in degree, and eternal in duration. I can do nothing to deserve such rewards.... Even the mixed, imperfect pleasures we enjoy in this world, are rather from God's goodness than our merit; how much more such happiness of heaven!

For my part I have not the vanity to think I deserve it... But content myself in submitting to the will and disposal of that God who made me, who has hitherto preserved and blessed me, and in whose fatherly goodness I may well confide, that he will never make me miserable; and that even the afflictions I may at any time suffer shall tend to my benefit.

The faith you mention has certainly its use in the world. I do not desire to see it diminished, nor would I endeavor to lessen it in any man. But I wish it were more productive of good works, than I have generally seen it; I mean real good works; works of kindness, charity, mercy, and public spirit; not holiday-keeping, sermon-reading or hearing; performing church ceremonies, or making long prayers, filled with flat