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J-

,,-Mini-FACS~nother Fundamental for American Christians

The so-called "Politically Correct" insist

the United tates never was a Christiannation. Is that historically accurate? Or,is it plain old revisionist prop88anda? InPart Two of this Mini-FAC, here aresome truths from the national archives.The record speaks for itself

1 8 11"The people of this State, in common with thepeople of this country, profess the generaldoctrine of Christianity, as the rule of theirfait h and practice .... We are a C hristianpeople, and the morality of the country isdeeply engrafted upon Christianity , and notupon the doctrines or worship of those im -postors (other religions) .... Christianity in itsenlarged sense, as a relig ion revealed and

taught in the Bible, is part and parcel of thelaw of the land . ... ." Chief Justice James Kent,Supreme Court of New York, The People v. Ruggles.

Ju ly 4 , 1 8 2 1John Quincy Adams, sixth president of theUnited States: "The highest glory of theAmerican Revolution was this: it connected,in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles ofChris --

tianity." 1 8 2 4"Chrstianity, general Christianity, is and al-ways has been a part of the common law of Pennsylvania ; ... not Christianity with anestablished church and tithes and spiritualco urts; but Christianity with liberty of con-science to all men ." Updegraph v. the Common-wealth 11s & R . 394 ,400

November, 1 8 2 8

Noah Webster publishes the first edition of his Ameriam Dictionary of the English Lan-guage. It contains the greatest number of Bib -lical definitions given in any secular volume;thus demonstrating" the degree to which theBible was Ameri ca's basic text book in allfields ." Webster believed" edu cation uselessw ithout the Bib le."

1 8 3 3Noah Webster: ". ..the religion which hasintroduced civil liberty, is the religion of Christ and His apostles ... This is genuineChristianity, and to this we owe our free con-stitutions of government ... the moral prin -ciples and precepts contained in the Scrip -tures ought to form the basis of all of our civilconstitutions and laws."

1 8 3 6William McGuffey publishes the first editionof his McGuffey's Reader . Between 1836 and1920,122 million copies are sold. Millions of American children learn to read and writefrom that reader . In his foreword, McGuffeywrote: "The Christian religion is the religionof our country. From it are derived our preva-lent notions of the character of God, the greatmoral governor of the universe. On its doc -trines are founded the pecul iarities of our freeinstitutions ."

"I have long been convinced that ou rEnemies have made it an Object toeradicate from the minds ofthe Peoplein genera l a Sense oftrue Religion andVirtue." Samuel Adams

1 8 4 1Philosopher and historian Alexis de Tocquev-

ille (Democracy in America): "In the UnitedStates of America the sovereign authority isreligious." " .. . there is no country in the worldin which the Christian religion retains a great -er influence over the souls of men than inAmerica."

June 8, 184 5President Andrew Jackson asserted: "TheBible is the rock on which our Republic rests ."

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Justice Joseph Story (US Supreme Court, 1811-1845; professor, Harvard Law School), wrotein his Commentaries on the Constitution of theUnited States: "Probably at the time of theadoption of the Constitution, and of the firstamendment to it ... the general if not the uni-versal sentiment in America was, that Chris --tianity ought to receive encouragement by the

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state so far as was not incompatible with theprivate rights of conscience and the free-dom of religious worship. Any attempt tolevel all every colony did sustain religion in

some form . lt was deemed peculiarly prop-er that the religion of liberty should be up-held by a free people. Had the people, dur-ing the Revolution, had a suspicion of anyattempt to war against Christianity, thatRevolution would have been strangled in itscradle. At the time of the adoption of theConstitution and the Amendments, the uni-versal sentiment was that Christianityshould be encouraged - not anyone sect .

Any attempt to level or discard all religionwould have been viewed with ui1iversalindignation. The object was not to substituteJudaism or Mohammedanism, or infidelity,but to prevent rivalry amoIlg the sects to theexclusion of others."

February 11, 1861Abraham Lincoln, farewell at Springfield,IL: "In regard to this Great Book (The Bible),I have but to say , it is the best gift God has

given to man. All the good The Saviour gaveto the world was communicated throughthis book . But for it, we would not knowright from wrong. All things most desirablefor man's welfare, here and hereafter, are tobe found portrayed in it ." (George L . Hunt,Calvinism and The Political Order, Westmin-ster Press, 1965, p. 33)

March 30, 1863Presidential Proclamation for a day of fast -ing , humiliation and prayer : "We have beenthe recipients of the choicest bounties of H eaven. We have been preserved, thesemany years, in peace and prosperity . Wehave grown in numb ers, wealth and power ,as no other nation has ever grown. But wehave forgotten God. We have forgotten thegracious hand which preserved us in peace,and multiplied and enriched and strength-ened us; and we have vainly imagined, inthe deceitfulness of our hearts, that all theseblessings were produced by some susperiorwisdom and virtue of our own . Intoxicatedwith unbroken success, we have become tooself-sufficient to feel the necessity of re -deeming and preserving grace, too proud topray to the God that made us."

1864Maryland Constitution requires citizens de-siring to hold public office must have de-clared "belief in the Christian religion, of the

existence of God, and in a future state of rewards and punishments."

March 3, 1865Secretary of the Treasury, Samuel Chase,instructs U .s. mint to prepare a "device" toinscribe UScoins with the motto, "In God wetrust ." Congress gives its approval .

1884U .s. Supreme Court in reference to the indi-vidual's God-given rights: "These Inherent

rights have never been more happily ex-pressed than in the Declaration of Inde-pendence, 'we hold these truths to be self-evident' - that is, so plain that their tru th isrecognized upon their mere statement -'that all men are endowed' - not by edictsof emperors, or decrees of parliament, oracts of Congress, but 'by their Creator withcertain inalienable rights and that amongthese are life, liberty and the pursuit of hap-

piness , and to secure these' - not grcfntthem but secure them - 'governments areinstituted among men .' "

1892U .S. Supreme Court, Church of the Holy Trin-ity v. United States (143 US 457, US 457-458 ,465-471,36 L ed 226, Justice JosiahBrewer): "Our laws and ourinstitutionsmustnecessarily be based upon and embody theteachings of the Redeemer of mankind . It isimpossible that it should be otherwise; andin this sense and to this extent our civiliza-tion and our institutions are emphaticallyChristian ." (In 1931 , in United States v. MacIntosh, Supreme Court Justice GeorgeSutherland reviews the 1892 decision andreiterates that Americans are a "Christianpeople .")

1896"There is a hearty Puritanism in the view of human nature that pervades the instrument(U .s. Constitution) of 1787. It is the work of men who believed in original sin and wereresolved to leave open to the transgressorsno door they could possibly shut ."

1909President Theodore Roosevelt : " After a week on perplexing problems ... it does so rest my

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soul to come into the house of The Lord andto sing and mean it, 'Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty' ...(my) great joy and glorythat, in occupying an exalted position in the

nation, I am enabled to preach the practicalmoralities of The Bible to my fellow-coun-trymen and to hold up Christ as the hopeand Savior of the world." (FerdinandC . Iglehart,Theodore Roosevelt - The ManAs I Knew Him,A. L .Burt, 1919)

1913President Woodrow Wilson: " America wasborn to exemplify the devotion to the ele-ments of righteousness which are derived

from the Holy Scriptures."1930

"We are a Christian people .... The right of religious freedom demands acknowledge-ment, with reverence, of the duty of obedi-ence to the will of God." U.S. v. McIntosh.

M ar ch 3 , 1 93 1U .s. Congress adopts "The Star SpangledBanner" as our National Anthem: "(4thstanza) Praise the Power that hath made and

preserved us as a nation. Then conquer we must,when our cause it is just. And this be our motto... "In God is our Trust .' "

1943Statement issued by Herbert Hoover, AlfredSmi th, Alfred Landon, Mrs. Calvin Coolidge,Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, James M . Cox,John W . Davis, Mrs. William H . Taft , Mrs.Benjamin Harrison, Mrs. Grover Cleveland:"Menaced by collectivist trends, we must

seek revival of our strength in the spiritualfoundations which are the bedrock of ourrepublic . Democracy is the outgrowth of thereligious conviction of the sacredness of ev-ery human life. On the religious side, itshighest embodiment is The Bible; on thepolitical side, the Constitution."

1947"This is a Christian nation" President HarryS. Truman in conversation with Pope Plus

XII . "The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings we getfrom Exodus and S1 0Matthew, from Isaiah and PauL"

1952"... we are a religious people and our insti-

tutions presuppose a Supreme Being." "Noconstitutional requirment makes it necess -

sary for government to be hostile to rel igionand to throw its weight against the efforts towiden the scope of religious influence . T hegovernment must remain neutral when it

comes to competition between sects .. . TheFirst Amendment, however, does NOT saythat in every respect there shall be a separa-tion of ChurchandState ."USSupreme Court(Zorach v. Clauson,343 US 307 313, Justice W.O . Douglas):

1954President Dwight D. Eisenhower: " ... thepurpose of a devout and united people wasset forth in the pages ofThe Bible ... (1) to live

in freedom, (2) to work in a prosperous land... and (3) to obey the commandments of God .... This Biblical story of the Promisedland inspired the founders of America. Itcontinues to inspire us ...."

"... as an eyewitness of governmen-tal and other public actions through-out those years (1933-1967), I have

formed the opinion that the UnitedStates merits the dubious distinctionof having discarded its past and itsmeaning in one of the briefest spansof modern history. II NYTimes colum-nist, Arthur Krock

1958Charles Malik, Ambassador to the United

Nations from Lebanon (President of theGeneral Assembly of the UN) : "Whoevertries to conceive the American word with-out taking full account of the suffering andlove and salvation of Christ is only dream-ing. I know how embarrassing this matter istopoliticians, bureaucrats, businessmen andcynics; but, whatever these honored menthink, the irrefutable truth is that the soul of America is at its best and highest, Chris-

tian ."1956

Congress adopts Joint Resolution provid-ing that the national motto shall be "In Godwe trust ."

1973. "Secularism is unconstitutional ... prefer-

ring those who do not believe over those

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M ini-FACS : Truths About America 's Christian Heritage/Page 8

ruption ever since that early s ession of Con -gress."

William Foxwell Albright once ob-

s e rved th at the writing of Amer ica nhist ory in the 20 th' Ce ntury wasmostly "a mea ns of libe ral prop a-ganda" (W. F. Albrigh t, F r om T he Stone Age to Christiani t y). J a mesC. Ma lin put it in stronge r terms (therev isio nists are) "debasi ng hi st oryto the level of vicious pr op aga nd a insupport of a social p rog ram beingimposed upon a nation" ( J .C . Malin,On The Nature of Histo r y).

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Associate Justice William Rehnquist, Us .Supreme Cou rt, Wallace v. fafree, 472 U.s .,38,991985: "I t is impossible to build soundconstitutional doctrine upon a mis takenunderstanding of Const itutional history ...The establis hment clause h as been express -ly freighted with Jefferso n's m isleadingmetaphor for nearly for ty years ... . There issimp~y no historical foundation for the pro -pOSition that the framers int ended to build awall ofseparation [be tWeen church and state].. . The recent court decisions are in no waybased on either the language or intent of theframers ."

May 3, 199 0President George Bush, National Day of Prayer : "The great faith that led our Na tion 'sF,ounding Fathers to pursue this bold expe-nen ce in self ~governmentmhas sustainedus in uncertain and perilous t imes; it hasgiven us strength and inspiration to the ve ryday. Like them, we do very well to recall ou r'irm reliance on the protection of DivineProvidfence ,' to give thanks for the freedomand prosperity this Nation enjoys , and topray for continued help and guidance fromour wise and lOV ing Creator ."

For copies of this M iniFACS or for a list ofsuggested reference texts and sources con-cerning America 's Chr ist ian Heri tage, writeor call the Plymouth Rock Foundation , FiskMill on Water Street , Marlborough NH 034551 800.21 0-1620