APPENDIX THREE
THE CHRISTIAN FAITH OF OTHER FOUNDING FATHERS
An appendix can hardly do justice to the Christian faith of the approximately two hundred people who deserve the title Founding Father.* This brief sampling will cite sufficient evidence of orthodox Christian belief to refute the absurd (and endlessly repeated) untruths that they were all Deists or that they were not Christians. For a few of these leaders, the additional evidence of their Christian faith provided here will supplement that found in the text.
Samuel Adams—Massachusetts
Substantial material revealing the strong Christian faith of the man historians call the Father of the American Revolution appears in the text of this book. But there are several other points of interest. As one of the most outspoken Christians among the Founding Fathers, Adams was disgusted by Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason, a Deistic attack on the Christian faith, the first part of which was published in 1794. When Paine returned to America in 1802, after a fourteen-year absence, rumor had it that he had more to write against Christianity. Adams finally took pen in hand:
When I heard you had turned your mind to a defense of infidelity, I felt myself much astonished and more grieved, that you had attempted a measure so injurious to the feelings and so repugnant to the true interest of so great a part of the citizens of the United States. . . . Do you think that your pen . . . can unchristianize the mass of our citizens, or have you hopes of converting a few of them to assist you in so bad a cause?1
Eighteenth-century Americans often took the occasion of making out their wills to express their Christian convictions to their children and others who would read the document after they were gone. In his, Samuel Adams left no doubts about his faith: “Principally, first of all, I recommend my soul to that Almighty Being who gave it, and my body I commit to the dust, relying upon the merits of Jesus Christ for a pardon of all my sins.”2
Elias Boudinot—New Jersey
Born in 1740, Boudinot studied law under Richard Stockton and became devoted to the Patriot cause. Elected to the Continental Congress in 1777, he served until 1779, and again from 1781 to 1784. One of the most influential members of Congress, he served on more than thirty committees, usually as chairman. In November of 1782 he was chosen as the President of Congress, and as such signed both the treaty of alliance with France and the peace treaty with Great Britain. A strong Federalist, he helped ratify the new Constitution in New Jersey, and the people of that state elected him to the first three Federal Congresses. President Washington appointed him as director of the mint in 1795.3
Boudinot’s correspondence with his daughter Susan reveals a strong Christian faith. His letter of October 30, 1782, written while listening to a debate in the Continental Congress, was occasioned by his fatherly concern that before long she would be leaving home. (Indeed, she would be married two years later). He wrote: “May the God of your parents for many generations past seal instruction to your soul and lead you to Himself through the blood of His too generally despised Son, who, notwithstanding, is still reclaiming the world to God through that blood, not imputing to them their sins, to him be Glory forever.”4
After the second part of Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason appeared in 1795, Boudinot also took pen in hand and wrote a refutation entitled The Age of Revelation, or the Age of Reason Shown to be An Age of Infidelity, which took the form of a pamphlet written to his daughter. In it he wrote:
May that God, who delighteth in the meek and humble temper which trembleth at His word, lead you to the Cross of Christ; and there, by His Holy Spirit, direct you into all truth. May He instruct you in His holy Word, which is able to make you wise unto salvation. . . . In short, were you to ask me to recommend the most valuable book in the world, I should fix on the Bible as the most instructive, both to the wise and ignorant.5
A lifelong Christian, Boudinot helped to found the American Bible Society in 1816 and served as its first President. His involvement in the Bible society was not unique among the Founding Fathers. A strong indicator of their reverence for the Word of God is the fact that about 40 percent of the Founding Fathers were not just members but officeholders in various Bible societies—local, state, or national.
Charles Carroll—Maryland
Elected to the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, Carroll signed the Declaration with other delegates on August 2 in Philadelphia. He worked hard for the adoption of the Constitution after independence and as a member of the Federalist Party was elected as one of Maryland’s senators in 1789. Educated in Jesuit schools in Maryland and in France, he once declared: “On the mercy of my Redeemer I rely for salvation and on His merits; not on the works I have done in obedience to His precepts.”6
John Dickinson—Pennsylvania
Few Patriots argued the case for American rights in the conflict with Great Britain as eloquently as John Dickinson. His Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania earned him the title Penman of the Revolution and led to his election to the both the First and Second Continental Congresses.
In response to the Stamp Acts, he wrote:
Kings or parliaments could not give the rights essential to happiness. . . . We claim them from a higher source—from the King of kings, and Lord of all the earth. They are not annexed to us by parchments or seals. They are created in us by the decrees of Providence, which establish the laws of our nature. They are born with us; exist with us; and cannot be taken from us by any human power, without taking our lives. . . . It would be an insult on the divine Majesty to say that He has given or allowed any man or body of men a right to make me miserable.7
With Thomas Jefferson he wrote the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, though he maintained to the end the hope of reconciliation with the mother country and helped to write the last-ditch Olive Branch Petition appeal to the King of England. Dickinson refused to vote for the Declaration and was the only member of Congress who did not sign the document. But he enlisted in the Pennsylvania militia and fought for the cause of independence.
In spite of being Delaware’s largest slaveholder, Dickinson became convinced of the immorality of slavery and freed his slaves during the war. In 1779 Delaware appointed him to the Continental Congress, and while there he signed the Articles of Confederation, the original draft of which he had written. Two years later the Delaware Assembly elected him president of Delaware, with the only dissenting vote being cast by Dickinson himself. In 1782, because Pennsylvania and Delaware had until recently shared the same governor, he was elected President of Pennsylvania while technically still President of Delaware. He held the office for the constitutional limit of three years. Four years later, Delaware sent him to the Constitutional Convention, and after helping to create the Constitution, he wrote nine essays urging its adoption under the pen name of Fabius.8
As was not uncommon for Christian leaders of the Founding Fathers’ era, John Dickinson wrote a pamphlet entitled “Religious Instruction for Youth,” in which he paraphrased 2 Timothy 3:15: “The Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation through Faith which is in Jesus Christ.”9
In his will Dickinson stated: “Rendering thanks to my Creator for my existence and station among His works, for my birth in a country enlightened by the Gospel and enjoying Freedom, and for all His other kindnesses, to Him I resign myself, humbly confiding in His goodness, and in His mercy through Jesus Christ, for the events of eternity.”
Benjamin Franklin
Americans of the Founding Fathers’ generation considered Franklin to be our nation’s greatest homegrown philosopher, and his counsel on matters both personal and public was deemed practical and sagacious. In France he was celebrated as the quintessential American, but he was just as famous at home as a statesman, writer, printer, inventor, scientist, musician, and all-around genius.
As to his religious views, while it would be impossible to characterize him as a professing Christian, he was nonetheless quite supportive of the Christian faith. In 1747 he wrote a prayer proclamation for Pennsylvania and two years later recommended that Christianity be taught in the colony’s schools.10 Not only did he promote increased church attendance in Pennsylvania,11 but he also hoped to start a model colony in Ohio with his good friend George Whitefield “to facilitate the introduction of pure religion among the heathen.” The intent was to show the Indians “a better sample of Christians than they commonly see in our Indian traders.” About this dream he wrote to Whitefield: “In such an enterprise I could spend the remainder of life with pleasure, and I firmly believe God would bless us with success.”12
Franklin remained ambiguous about his personal relationship with Christ, as revealed by his comment on Whitefield’s efforts to convert him: “He used, indeed, sometimes to pray for my conversion, but never had the satisfaction of believing that his prayers were heard.”
It seems that late in his life Franklin still had doubts about the divinity of Jesus, but it should be noted that while he was America’s ambassador to France he wrote, “He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world.”13
Patrick Henry—Virginia
As previously noted in the text, Patrick Henry was a devoted Christian. His daughter Sarah said that the children’s first contact with their father every morning was his cheery “good morrow” to them from the dining room, where he would sit and read his Bible before breakfast. And every Sunday evening he would read to the family from his penciled study notes on the truths of the Christian faith, after which they would play sacred music together while he accompanied them on the violin.14
After Henry’s death when his will was opened, there was found a copy of his famous resolutions against the hated Stamp Act, dated May 29, 1765. These were sealed and addressed to the executors of his estate, indicating that he valued these most among all the acts of his life of public service. He had written an introduction to the resolutions, describing how they were presented and adopted, at the end of which were found these words:
Whether this will prove a blessing or a curse, will depend upon the use our people make of the blessings which a gracious God hath bestowed on us. If they are wise, they will be great and happy. If they are of a contrary character, they will be miserable. Righteousness alone can exalt them as a nation. Reader! whoever thou art, remember this; and in thy sphere practice virtue thyself, and encourage it in others.15
In composing his will, after parceling out his estate, Patrick Henry was brief and to the point: “This is all the inheritance I can give to my dear family. The religion of Christ can give them one which will make them rich indeed.”16
Francis Hopkinson—New Jersey
A musician, composer, and member of the New Jersey delegation to the Continental Congress, Hopkinson signed the Declaration of Independence. After independence he submitted a design for the first American flag remarkably similar to today’s, and assisted in the design for the Great Seal of the United States. He was appointed by President Washington to the office of Judge of the United States for the District of Pennsylvania.
Prior to the War for Independence, Francis Hopkinson was a church choir director and editor of a 1767 hymnal. He took the psalms of the Old Testament and set them to music, producing one of the first American hymnals.17
John Jay—New York
Few Americans have had a more illustrious career of public service than John Jay. His law practice ended when New York sent him to both the First and Second Continental Congresses. He guided the writing of his state’s constitution and then served as the Chief Justice of New York while helping to organize the antislavery movement in the state.
Jay, along with John Adams and Ben Franklin, negotiated the 1783 peace treaty with Britain that ended the War for Independence, and he was one of the three authors (with Madison and Hamilton) of the Federalist Papers, urging ratification of the new Constitution. President George Washington appointed him as the first Chief Justice of the United States, and he negotiated the Jay Treaty of 1794, which settled problems with Britain that remained from the older treaty. Returning to New York State, he was elected to several terms as Governor.18
A devout Christian, Jay was insistent on regular devotions to begin and end each day at the family home at Bedford, New York. Every morning before breakfast the entire household was summoned to prayers, and they were summoned again every evening promptly at nine o’clock, when Jay would read aloud a chapter in the Bible and then conclude with prayer.19
Not only was he a member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, but he was one of the original officers of the American Bible Society and served terms as both its Vice President and President.
Among his papers was found this prayer in his own handwriting:
O most merciful Father! who desireth not the death of a sinner, but will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, give me grace so to draw nigh unto Thee as that Thou wilt condescend to draw nigh unto me. . . . Above all, I thank Thee for Thy mercy to our fallen race, as declared in Thy holy Gospel by Thy beloved Son, “who gave Himself as a ransom for all.” . . . Let Thy Holy Spirit purify and unite me to my Savior for ever, and enable me to cleave unto Him as unto my very life, as indeed He is. Perfect and confirm my faith, my trust, and hope of salvation in Him and in Him only.20
In his will, he declared: “Unto Him, who is the author and giver of all good, I render sincere and humble thanks for His manifold and unmerited blessings, and especially for our redemption and salvation by His beloved Son . . . blessed be His holy name.”21
As John Jay lay dying, with the family gathered about his bed, someone asked him if he had anything further to say to his children. He replied: “No, they have the Book!”
Thomas McKean—Delaware
An avid promoter of American independence, Thomas McKean was the other Delaware delegate who voted for the Declaration with Caesar Rodney on July 2, 1776. He signed the document and fought as a militia officer in the resulting war. McKean was one of the authors of the Articles of Confederation and served as the second President of the Continental Congress during the Confederation period. Later he served as the Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for twelve years and as Governor of Pennsylvania for nine years after that.
As Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, McKean presided over the case of Republica v. John Roberts, in which Roberts was convicted of treason and sentenced to death. After the sentence was pronounced, McKean preached a Gospel message to Roberts, exhorting him to accept Christ as Savior before his execution.22
Robert Treat Paine—Massachusetts
A member of the Massachusetts delegation to the Second Continental Congress and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Paine was the prosecuting attorney for the colony when the British soldiers who had fired on unarmed civilians in the Boston Massacre of 1770 were put on trial. They were defended by none other than John Adams.
Twenty-one years earlier, while a student at Harvard, Robert Treat Paine had made a confession of faith in Jesus Christ: “God has opened mine eyes . . . to see that out of Christ there was no hope of salvation for me and has been inclining me to accept of Christ as for the pardon of my sins. . . . I believe the Bible to be the written Word of God and to contain in it the whole rule of faith and manners; I consent to the Assembly’s Shorter Catechism [the Westminster Shorter Catechism of 1647] as being agreeable to the revealed will of God and to contain in it the doctrines that are according to godliness.”23
By the time of his death on May 11, 1814, the passage of years had not dimmed his Christian convictions. His will reads: “I am constrained to express my adoration of the Supreme Being, the Author of my existence, in full belief of his Providential Goodness and His forgiving mercy revealed to the world through Jesus Christ, through whom I hope for never ending happiness in a future state.”24
Benjamin Rush—Pennsylvania
At the time of his death in 1813, Dr. Benjamin Rush was considered by Americans to be as prominent a Founding Father as George Washington or Ben Franklin. A signer of the Declaration of Independence, he was a medical doctor and an influential Christian educator. The list of institutions he founded or helped start is impressive. He assisted Presbyterians in starting Dickinson College in 1783 and served as one of its trustees; he founded the Philadelphia School of Medicine, which later became the medical school at the University of Pennsylvania; he created the First Day Society, a precursor of today’s Sunday schools; he started America’s first Bible society—the Bible Society of Philadelphia; and in 1774 he helped to organize the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery.
In July 1776 he became a member of the Continental Congress, and he was appointed Surgeon General of the Armies of the Middle Department. At Valley Forge he helped to vaccinate the army against smallpox.25
At various times he was a member of both the Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches. Though he leaned toward Universalism, he was thoroughly orthodox in regard to his own salvation. In his autobiography he wrote: “My only hope of salvation is in the infinite transcendent love of God manifested to the world by the death of His Son upon the Cross. Nothing but His blood will wash away my sins. I rely exclusively upon it. Come, Lord Jesus! come quickly!26
Roger Sherman—Connecticut
In addition to signing both the Declaration and the Constitution, Roger Sherman was the only Founding Father to also sign the other founding documents of the Republic—the Articles of Association of 1774 and the Articles of Confederation following independence. Sherman belonged to the conservative wing of the Patriots, but along with Jefferson, James Wilson, and George Wythe, he was one of the first ones to deny that Parliament had any jurisdiction in the colonies. Elected to the Continental Congress in 1774, he served until 1781 and was a member of the committee appointed to draft the Declaration. He served in Congress again in 1783 and 1784.
One of the chief framers of both the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, he also served as a judge on Connecticut’s Supreme Court, a Congressman, and a U.S. Senator.
A strong and unwavering Christian, he was referred to by John Adams as “an old Puritan, as honest as an angel and as firm in the cause of American Independence as Mount Atlas.”
As a Congregationalist, his patriotism was boosted by his legitimate fears that the British were bent on establishing Anglican episcopacy in all the colonies.27
Roger Sherman’s Christianity was practical and down-to-earth, but he loved theology, and in his own handwriting wrote a confession of faith for the White Haven Church in New Haven when it changed its creed in 1788: “I believe that there is one only living and true God, existing in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost . . . that God did send His own Son to become man, die . . .in the stead of sinners, and thus to lay a foundation for the offer of pardon and salvation to all mankind . . . that at the end of this world there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a final judgment of all mankind.”28 The following year he published in New Haven a pamphlet entitled “A Short Sermon on the Duty of Self-Examination Preparatory to Receiving the Lord’s Supper.”29
Yale College President Timothy Dwight spoke of Sherman as “profoundly versed in theology” and said that he “held firmly the doctrines of the Reformation,” which in Dwight’s view probably meant that Sherman was a staunch Calvinist. In fact, he was, and he was so concerned about correct Biblical doctrine that he got into a written debate with theologian Samuel Hopkins over the finer points of Calvinism.30
Richard Stockton—New Jersey
A signer of the Declaration of Independence, Richard Stockton was a brilliant lawyer who mentored Founding Fathers Joseph Reed, William Paterson, and Elias Boudinot. During the early years of the struggle with Britain he was a moderate, but when the Stamp Act was passed, he maintained that Parliament had no authority over the colonies.
The people of New Jersey elected Stockton to the Continental Congress on June 22, 1776, and six days later he arrived in Philadelphia in time to attend the last two days of debate on the Declaration. At first he was unsure about the merits of declaring independence, but after listening intently to the speeches, and particularly the conclusive arguments of John Adams, his doubts were resolved, and joining his voice to those urging independence, he voted for the Declaration.
A few months later he received an equal number of votes as Robert Livingston in the election for Governor of New Jersey, but Livingston was chosen. Turning down an immediate election as Chief Justice of the state, he continued to actively represent New Jersey in the Congress, serving on important committees.
When the British army swept down New Jersey, Stockton moved his family to a friend’s house about thirty miles from his home, but there he was captured. His magnificent library was burned, and all his personal property, animals, and estate were either plundered or destroyed. Worse, because he was a signer of the Declaration, the British treated him so abusively in prison that his health was broken. Stockton never recovered, and he died in February 1781. He was fifty-one.31
His will reads:
As my children will have frequent occasion of perusing this instrument, and may probably be particularly impressed with the last words of their father, I think it proper here not only to subscribe to the entire belief of the great and leading doctrines of the Christian religion, such as the Being of God, the universal defection and depravity of human nature, the divinity of the person and the completeness of the redemption purchased by the blessed Savior, the necessity of the operations of the divine Spirit; of divine faith, accompanied with an habitual virtuous life, and the universality of the divine Providence; but also, in the bowels of a father’s affection, to exhort and charge them, that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, that the way of life held up in the Christian system, is calculated for the most complete happiness that can be enjoyed in this mortal state.32
Charles Thomson—Pennsylvania
Called by John Adams “the Samuel Adams of Philadelphia,” Charles Thomson served as the Secretary of the Continental Congress for its entire fifteen years. His signature on the Declaration of Independence, along with that of John Hancock, legalized the document on July 4, 1776, which is why we celebrate independence on that day. Greatly influential in foreign affairs, he was dubbed the Prime Minister of America. He and William Barton designed the Great Seal of the United States, which appears on the back of our dollar bills.
What is less well known is that Presbyterian Charles Thomson spent most of the last years of his life creating the first translation of the Greek Septuagint version of the Bible into English. It took him nineteen years.33
Dr. John Witherspoon—New Jersey
The sixth President of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University), this Scottish emigrant and Presbyterian minister had a profound effect on the founding of our Republic. As an active teacher of political philosophy and civil government while he was president of the college, Witherspoon personally educated thirty-seven future judges (of whom three made it to the Supreme Court), ten Cabinet officers, twelve members of the Continental Congress, twenty-eight U.S. senators, forty-nine U.S. congressmen, one Vice President (Aaron Burr), and one President (James Madison).
He represented New Jersey in the Continental Congress and was a tireless worker, serving on over one hundred committees. He was the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence. Witherspoon helped to draft the Articles of Confederation, served twice in the New Jersey legislature, and strongly supported the Constitution’s adoption by his state.
As an evangelical minister, Witherspoon was always emphatically clear in his preaching. In an address entitled “The Absolute Necessity of Salvation through Christ,” he exhorted:
I shall now conclude my discourse by preaching this Savior to all who hear me, and entreating you, in the most earnest manner, to believe in Jesus Christ, for “there is no salvation in any other.” . . . But whether you acknowledge it or not, I bear from God Himself this message to you all . . . if you are not reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, if you are not clothed with the spotless robe of His righteousness, you must for ever perish.34
*The term Founding Fathers includes members of the First and Second Continental Congress, the Constitutional Convention, the First Congress of the United States, the first Supreme Court, the first Governors of the states, and the early Presidents of the United States.