Faiths of the Founders:

Documents on the Religious Beliefs of the Founding Fathers

Introduction:

Is America in some sense a Christian nation?  Was the United States founded on Biblical principles?  Today, many politicians and religious leaders use the Founding Fathers as examples of what an American statesman should be.  Some argue that the Founders were devout Christians who meant to create a Christian republic.   The great builders of our nation almost to a man have been Christians,  proclaims Pat Robertson, leader of the two million member Christian Coalition.[1]  Others claim that the Founders tried to keep religion and politics separate--for the good of both.  This is no mere academic debate, it has profound implications for the kind of nation we are living in today, and the proper roles of faith and government.  For example, the Supreme Court recently banned the public prayer before high school football games, on the grounds that it violated the constitutional separation of church and state.

This chapter presents excerpts from the religious writings of some of the founding fathers.  Discovering just what these men believed proves to be more difficult than you might think. For one thing, the men who led the Revolutionary War effort and created our system of government were a diverse group, and did not all believe the same things.  And almost all of them believed that a person's religious opinions should be kept private, so as not provoke the kind of sectarian rivalries seen in the European wars of religion. (They would be shocked and scandalized by the public professions of faith that are part of some political campaigns today.) But as politicians and public figures most of them did a lot of writing, This chapter presents excerpts from the writings of five men who were pivotal in the creation of the United States: Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and George Washington.

As you read these documents it might be useful to keep a few definitions in mind.  According to the Miriam-Webster dictionary, a Christian is  one who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ.   Many modern Christians would insist, however, that to be a Christian means more than accepting Christ s teachings, but also believing in the divinity of Christ as well.  Another important belief in the late 1700s was deism.  Deists believed in what they called  natural religion.   They believed in God, in a system of morality, and in the existence of an afterlife. But deists did not believe in miracles, or that God listened to human prayers, or that Jesus Christ was the son of God.  Deists were not atheists. So when you read someone writing about God or "the Almighty," do not assume they are a Christian, they might be a deist. Atheists believe that all gods are products of human imagination, and do not really exist.

Your task is to decide: 1) What were the personal beliefs of each man? Did they believe in God?  Were they, so far as you can tell, a Christian?  Did they mean the same thing by  Christian  as Americans do today? 2) What role did they intend for religion to have in the new nation?  It might help to make a chart and take notes as you read.

 Historical Background:

      Religion was one of the chief motivating factors in the conquest and settlement of the Americas.  Every school child knows how the Pilgrims came to Massachusetts to escape religious persecution in England, and how they labored to create a Godly  city upon a hill  that would inspire other Christians the world over.  As the New England Puritans established new towns, the first buildings they erected were often churches, and religion and politics were closely intertwined.  Some of the other colonies had religious roots as well.  Maryland was settled by English Catholics who tolerated Protestants as well. Pennsylvania was founded by William Penn as a refuge where his fellow Quakers could practice their faith.

      But just as many European immigrants came to the New World came for economic motives rather than religious enthusiasm.  Virginia and the other southern colonies were settled largely by fortune hunters, who brought over indentured servants, and then slaves to do the work.  It was fifty years after settlement before the first church was raised in Virginia.  In Pennsylvania, Penn s Quakers were joined by and eventually displaced by English and German indentured servants who were more interested in free land than in God s promises.

      Religious enthusiasm fluctuated during the colonial period.  The descendents of the Puritans tended to be less religious with each passing generation.  By the time of the American Revolution, most churches were in decline.

The Evidence:

1.    Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) is best remembered as the author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States.  But this hugely accomplished man was also Secretary of State, Ambassador to Paris, founder of the University of Virginia, and an accomplished scientist and architect. 

Like many of the Founders, Thomas Jefferson was usually reticent about his religious views.   Our particular principles of religion are a subject of accountability to our god alone.  He once wrote,  I enquire after no man's and trouble none with mine; nor is it given to us in this life to know whether yours or mine, our friend's or our foe's, are exactly the right."[2] But in this letter to his friend, Dr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia, Jefferson explained his religious beliefs, especially regarding Christianity.   I am a Christian  Jefferson proclaims but what does he mean by this?  How is his definition of Christianity different from most Christians today?

DEAR SIR,

      In some of the delightful conversations with you in the evenings of 1798-99, and which served as an anodyne to the afflictions of the crisis through which our country was then laboring, the Christian religion was sometimes our topic; and I then promised you that one day or other I would give you my views of it. They are the result of a life of inquiry and reflection, and very different from that anti-Christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity I am indeed opposed, but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian, in the only sense in which he wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to his doctrines in preference to all others, ascribing to himself every human excellence, and believing he never claimed any other.

 . . . . I am moreover averse to the communication of my religious tenets to the public, because it would countenance the presumption of those who have endeavored to draw them before that tribunal, and to seduce public opinion to erect itself into that inquisition over the rights of conscience which the laws have so justly proscribed. It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others; or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own. It behooves him, too, in his own case, to give no example of concession, betraying the common right of independent opinion, by answering questions of faith which the laws have left between God and himself. Accept my affectionate salutations.

      Th: Jefferson

Jefferson attached a  syllabus  to his letter in which he laid out his position on Jesus and the Bible.

. . . Jesus appeared. His parentage was obscure; his condition poor; his education null; his natural endowments great; his life correct and innocent: he was meek, benevolent, patient, firm, disinterested, and of the sublimest eloquence.

      The disadvantages under which his doctrines appear are remarkable.

      1. Like Socrates and Epictetus, he wrote nothing himself.

      2. But he had not, like them, a Xenophon or an Arrian to write for him . . . On the contrary, all the learned of his country, entrenched in its power and riches, were opposed to him, lest his labors should undermine their advantages; and the committing to writing his life and doctrines fell on unlettered and ignorant men, who wrote, too, from memory, and not till long after the transactions had passed.

      3. According to the ordinary fate of those who attempt to enlighten and reform mankind, he fell an early victim to the jealousy and combination of the altar and the throne, at about thirty-three years of age, his reason having not yet attained the maximum of its energy, nor the course of his preaching, which was but of three years at most, presented occasions for developing a complete system of morals.

      4. Hence the doctrines he really delivered were defective as a whole, and fragments only of what he did deliver have come to us mutilated, misstated, and often unintelligible.

      5. They have been still more disfigured by the corruptions of schismatizing followers, who have found an interest in sophisticating and perverting the simple doctrines he taught, by engrafting on them the mysticisms of a Grecian sophist, frittering them into subtleties, and obscuring them with jargon, until they have caused good men to reject the whole in disgust, and to view Jesus himself as an impostor.

      Notwithstanding these disadvantages, a system of morals is presented to us which, if filled up in the style and spirit of the rich fragments he left us, would be the most perfect and sublime that has ever been taught by man.

      --Thomas Jefferson In a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush may be found in the Memorial Edition of Jefferson s Writings, Vol. 10, pg. 379.

Jefferson s belief that the moral teachings of Jesus had been suffocated beneath the inaccurate descriptions of his own followers led to his to an audacious project to edit the Bible.  Below is an excerpt from Jefferson s Bible, in which he gives his version of the death of Christ.  What did parts of the story did he edit out?

      And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?  Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elijah.  And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.

      The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.  Jesus, when he had cried out again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.  And many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him:  Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee s sons.  The Jews therefore, because it was the day of preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath, (for that sabbath was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.  Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him.  But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:

      But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.  And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.  And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.

      Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen cloths with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.  Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.  There laid they Jesus, And rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.

In 1802 the members of the Danbury Baptist Association wrote to then president Jefferson to ask why he had never proclaimed national days of fasting, as his predecessors Washington and Adams sometimes had. Jefferson wrote this letter is response, which contains his famous phrase about a  wall of separation between church and state. 

Gentlemen

The affectionate sentiments of esteem & approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction. my duties dictate a faithful & zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, and in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more & more pleasing.

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man & his god, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessing of the common Father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves and your religious association, assurances of my high respect & esteem.

Thomas Jefferson
Jan.1.1802.

2.    Thomas Paine

The most radical spirit of a radical age, Thomas Paine (1737-1809) played a key role in the American Revolution.  Paine was an unsuccessful businessman in England in 1774 when he met Benjamin Franklin, who advised him to try his fortunes in America.  He was soon caught in up in the revolutionary movement, and in January of 1776 he published his pamphlet Common Sense, an eloquent plea to Americans to declare their independence.  As to religion,  Paine wrote in Common Sense,  I hold it the indispensable duty of all government, to protect all conscientious professors thereof, and I know of no other business which government have to do therewith. 

This selection from Paine s The Age of Reason (1796) is a good summary of his religious beliefs and the value of the separation of church and state.

I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.

    I believe in the equality of man, and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.

But, lest it should be supposed that I believe many other things in addition to these, I shall, in the progress of this work, declare the things that I do not believe, and my reasons for not believing them.

I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of.  My own mind is my own church.

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.

I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine.  But it is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself.  Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving, it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.

It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society.  When a man has far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.

He takes up the trade of priest for the sake of gain, and in order to qualify himself for that trade he begins with a perjury.  Can we conceive anything more destructive to morality than this?

Soon after I published the pamphlet Common Sense in America, I saw the exceeding probability that a revolution in the system of government would be followed by a revolution in the system of religion.  The adulterous connection of the church and state, wherever it had taken place, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, had so effectively prohibited by pains and penalties, every discussion upon established creeds, and upon the first principles of religion, that until the system of government should be changed, those subjects could not be brought fairly and openly before the world, but that whenever this should be done, a revolution in the system of religion would follow.  Human inventions and priest-craft would be detected; and man would return to the pure, unmixed, and unadulterated belief of one God, and no more.

Source: Philip S. Foner, ed., The Complete Writings of Thomas Paine (New York, 1945), I:464-465.

3. Benjamin Franklin

Ben Franklin (1706-1790) was by far the most famous American of his day.  Scientist, statesman, politician, printer, Franklin was a true child of the Enlightenment.  Though raised in a stern Puritan household, Franklin developed religious ideas that were distinctly his own.  The first selection is from his autobiography:

      I had been religiously educated as a Presbyterian; and tho  some of the dogmas of that persuasion, such as the eternal decrees of God, election, reprobation, etc., appeared to me unintelligible, others doubtful, and I early absented myself from the public assemblies of the sect, Sunday being my studying day, I never was without some religious principles.  I never doubted, for instance, the existence of the Deity; that he made the world, and govern d it by his Providence; that the most acceptable service of God was the doing good to man; that our souls are immortal; and that all crime will be punished, and virtue rewarded, either here or hereafter. 

      These I esteem d the essentials of every religion; and, being to be found in all the religions we had in our country, I respected them all, tho  with different degrees of respect, as I found them more or less mix d with other articles, which, without any tendency to inspire, promote, or confirm morality, serv d principally to divide us, and make us unfriendly to one another.  This respect to all, with an opinion that the worst had some good effects, induc d me to avoid all discourse that might tend to lessen the good opinion another might have of his own religion; and as our province increas d in people, and new places of worship were continually wanted, and generally erected by voluntary contributions, my mite for such purpose, whatever might be the sect, was never refused.

      Tho  I seldom attended any public worship, I had still an opinion of its propriety, and of its utility when rightly conducted, and I regularly paid my annual subscription for the support of the only Presbyterian minister or meeting we had in Philadelphia.  He us d to visit me sometimes as a friend, and admonish me to attend his administrations, and I was now and then prevail d on to do so, once for five Sundays successively.  Had he been in my opinion a good preacher, perhaps I might have continued, notwithstanding the occasion I had for the Sunday s leisure in my course of study; but his discourses were chiefly either polemic arguments, or explications of the peculiar doctrines of our sect, and were all to me very dry, uninteresting, and unedifying, since not a single moral principle was inculcated or enforc d, their aim seeming to be rather to make us Presbyterians than good citizens.

      At length he took for his text that verse of the fourth chapter of Philippians,  Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, or of good report, if there be any virtue, or any praise, think on these things.   And I imagin d, in a sermon on such a text, we could not miss of having some morality.  But he confin d himself to five points only, as meant by the apostle, viz.: 1.  Keeping holy the Sabbath day.  2.  Being diligent in reading the holy Scriptures.  3.  Attending duly the publick worship.  4.  Partaking of the Sacrament.  5.  Paying a due respect to God s ministers.  These might be all good things; but, as they were not the kind of good things that I expected from that text, I despaired of ever meeting with them from any other, was disgusted, and attended his preaching no more.

      I had some years before compos d a little Liturgy, or form of prayer, for my own private use (viz., in 1728), entitled, Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion.  I return d to the use of this, and went no more to the public assemblies.  My conduct might be blameable, but I leave it, without attempting further to excuse it; my present purpose being to relate facts, and not to make apologies for them.

In public, Franklin tended to avoid discussion of his own beliefs, while maintaining friendships with people of all denominations.  Franklin was so hard to pin down that an exasperated John Adams once wrote of him that  the Catholics thought his almost a Catholic. The Church of England claimed him as one of them. The Presbyterians thought him half a Presbyterian, and the Friends thought him a wet Quaker.   Franklin laid out his beliefs in a 1790 letter to Ezra Stiles, written just six weeks before Franklin s death.  How do Franklin s views compare with that of Paine?

      I believe in one God, creator of the universe. That he governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshiped. That the most acceptable service we render to him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental principles of all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them.

      As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals, and his religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England some doubts as to his divinity; tho  it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble. I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as it probably has, of making his doctrines more respected and better observed; especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the unbelievers in his government of the world with any particular marks of his displeasure.

      I shall only add, respecting myself, that, having experienced the goodness of that being in conducting me prosperously thro  a long life, I have no doubt of its continuance in the next, though without the smallest conceit of meriting such goodness. My sentiments on this head you will see in the copy of an old letter enclosed, which I wrote in answer to one from a zealous religionist, whom I had relieved in a paralytic case by electricity, and who, being afraid I should grow proud upon it, sent me his serious though rather impertinent caution.

      P.S.... I confide that you will not expose me to criticism and censure by publishing any part of this communication to you. I have ever let others enjoy their religious sentiments, without reflecting on them for those that appeared to me unsupportable and even absurd. All sects here, and we have a great variety, have experienced my good will in assisting them with subscriptions for building their new places of worship; and as I have never opposed any of their doctrines, I hope to go out of the world in peace with them all.

In 1785 Franklin s friend, Thomas Paine, sent him a draft copy of The Age of Reason (excerpted above). Paine asked his old friend to critique his work. Franklin wrote the following letter in reply.

      I have read your manuscript with some attention. By the argument it contains against a particular Providence, though you allow a general Providence, you strike at the foundations of all religion. For, without the belief of a Providence that takes cognizance of, guards, and guides, and may favor particular persons, there is no motive to worship a Deity, to fear his displeasure, or to pray for his protection. I will not enter into any discussion of your principles, though you seem to desire it. At present I shall only give you my opinion that, though your reasons are subtle, and may prevail with some readers, you will not succeed so as to change the general sentiments of mankind on that subject, and the consequence of printing this piece will be, a great deal of odium drawn upon yourself, mischief to you, and no benefit to others. He that spits against the wind spits in his own face.

      But were you to succeed, do you imagine any good would be done by it? You yourself may find it easy to live a virtuous life, without the assistance afforded by religion; you having a clear perception of the advantage of virtue, and the disadvantages of vice, and possessing a strength of resolution sufficient to enable you to resist common temptations. But think how great a portion of mankind consists of weak and ignorant men and women, and of inexperienced, inconsiderate youth of both sexes, who have need of the motives of religion to restrain them from vice, to support their virtue, and retain them in the practice of it till it becomes habitual, which is the great point for its security. And perhaps you are indebted to her originally, that is to your religious education, for the habits of virtue upon which you now justly value yourself. You might easily display your excellent talents of reasoning upon a less hazardous subject, and thereby obtain a rank with our most distinguished authors. For among us it is not necessary, as among the Hottentots, that a youth, to be raised into the company of men, should prove his manhood by beating his mother.

      I would advise you, therefore, not to attempt unchaining the tiger, but to burn this piece before it is seen by any other person, whereby you will save yourself a great deal of mortification by the enemies it may raise against you, and perhaps a great deal of regret and repentance. If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it?

4.    John Adams

Vain, ambitious, principled, and brilliant, John Adams (1735-1826) was a forceful advocate for independence and the second president of the United States.  As a young man, Adams tried to follow the wishes of his father and become a minister, but he felt no particular calling for the profession and became a lawyer and politician instead.  Adams retained a strong religious faith through his life, and once referred to himself as a  church-going animal.   But Adams also wrote that  My opinions, indeed, on religious subjects ought not to be of any consequence to any but myself. 

These selections from Adam s diary give some insight into his religious views.  Note the dates.  How old was Adams when he composed each entry? Did his views change over time?

FEBRUARY 22, 1756: 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 and frugality and industry; to justice and kindness and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love and reverence towards Almighty God. In this commonwealth, no man would impair his health by gluttony, drunkenness, or lust; no man would sacrifice his most precious time to cards or any other trifling and mean amusement; no man would steal, or lie, or in any way defraud his neighbor, but would live in peace and good will with all men; no man would blaspheme his Maker or profane his worship; but a rational and manly, a sincere and unaffected piety and devotion would reign in all hearts. What a Utopia; what a Paradise would this region be

MARCH 2, 1756: Began this afternoon my third quarter. The great and Almighty author of nature, who at first established those rules which regulate the world, can as easily suspend those laws whenever his providence sees sufficient reason for such suspension. This can be no objection, then, to the miracles of Jesus Christ. Although some very thoughtful and contemplative men among the heathen attained a strong persuasion of the great principles of religion, yet the far greater number, having little time for speculation, gradually sunk into the grossest opinions and the grossest practices. These, therefore, could not be made to embrace the true religion till their attention was roused by some astonishing and miraculous appearances. The reasoning of philosophers, having nothing surprising in them, could not overcome the force of prejudice, custom, passion, and bigotry. But when wise and virtuous men commissioned from heaven, by miracles awakened men s attention to their reasonings, the force of truth made its way with ease to their minds.

JULY 26, 1796: Cloudy . . .  The Christian religion is above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modem 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.

AUGUST 24, 1796: One great advantage of the Christian religion is that it brings the great principle of the law of nature and nations Love your neighbor as yourself, and do to others as you would that others should do to you, to the knowledge, belief, and veneration of the whole people. Children, servants, women, and men, are all professors in the science of public and private morality. No other institution for education, no kind of political discipline, could diffuse this kind of necessary information, so universally among all ranks and descriptions of citizens. The duties and rights of the man and the citizen are thus taught from early infancy to every creature. The sanctions of a future life are thus added to the observance of civil and political, as well as domestic and private duties. Prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude, are thus taught to be the means and conditions of future as well as present happiness.

Adams took a very different tack in his book A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, published in 1788.  Do his published writings contradict the writings in his diary? And if so, why?

The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature; and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history . . .  It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses . . . . Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind.

5. George Washington

A private and even taciturn man, George Washington left no description of his religious beliefs, and after his death even those who were closest to him disagreed about what it was that the first president believed.   His life, his writings, prove that he was a Christian,  wrote his adopted daughter, Nelly Custis-Lewis.  Though she admitted that  I never witnessed his private devotions . . . He communed with his God in secret.  Yet when Washington s close friend, Dr. Abercrombie, was asked about Washington s beliefs he replied, "Sir, Washington was a Deist.   Washington attended church occasionally, and even held the office of vestryman in an Anglican church.  But he was also a lifelong member of the Masons, a group of freethinkers that included many Deists.

Washington's Order on Profanity--1776

The following General Orders were issued to the Continental army at New York in July of 1776, about three weeks before the Battle of Long Island.

That the Troops may have an opportunity of attending public worship, as well as take some rest after the great fatigue they have gone through; The General in future excuses them from fatigue duty on Sundays (except at the Ship Yards, or special occasions) until further orders. The General is sorry to be informed that the foolish, and wicked practice, of profane cursing and swearing (a Vice heretofore little known in an American Army) is growing into fashion; he hopes the officers will, by example, as well as influence, endeavour to check it, and that both they, and the men will reflect, that we can have little hopes of the blessing of Heaven on our Arms, if we insult it by our impiety, and folly; added to this, it is a vice so mean and low, without any temptation, that every man of sense, and character, detests and despises it.

Letter to the United Baptist Churches in Virginia--1789

Gentlemen:

. . . .If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the Constitution framed in the Convention, where I had the honor to preside, might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society, certainly I would never have placed my signature to it; and if I could now conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution. For you, doubtless, remember that I have often expressed my sentiment, that every man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.

While I recollect with satisfaction that the religious society of which you are members, have been, throughout America, uniformly, and almost unanimously, the firm friends to civil liberty, and the persevering promoters of our glorious revolution; I cannot hesitate to believe that they will be the faithful supporters of a free, yet efficient general government. Under this pleasing reflection I rejoice to assure them that they may rely on my best wishes and endeavors to advance their prosperity.

In the meantime be assured, Gentlemen, that I entertain a proper sense of your fervent supplications to God for my temporal and eternal happiness.

Farewell Address--1796

In September of 1796 Washington stepped down from the presidency after serving two terms.  In his Farewell Address to the nation he touched on many themes, including the role of religion in a free society.

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism who should labour to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that National morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

6. Official Documents from the Early Republic

The Constitution of the United States of America

Article VI, Section 3:  The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several State legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

Amendment I:  Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The Treaty of Tripoli

In 1796, during the presidency of George Washington, the United States negotiated a  treaty of peace and friendship  with the city-state of Tripoli, on the coast of North Africa.  The treaty was submitted to the United States Senate in 1797 by then president John Adams.  The Senate approved the treaty without any controversy and it became law. The eleventh article of the treaty show what Adams and others believed was the role of Christianity in the American nation.

Eleven: As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

The Rest of the Story:

      Popular religious enthusiasm continued to decline in the United States after the Revolutionary War.  As the nation expanded westward, and as rural farmers began moving to the cities, many left their churches behind and failed to establish new ones.  By 1800 only about five percent of Americans were members of an established religious congregation. 

      This began to change in the first years of the nineteenth century.  In the western backcountry, beyond the Appalachian mountains, a new religious ferment began to arise.  Historians have named this religious revival the  Second Great Awakening.   Backcountry Americans thronged to outdoor  revivals  where lay preachers set forth a new religious philosophy.  At the Cane Ridge revival in 1801, 10,000 people showed up to hear dozens of competing ministers belt out the word of God.   The noise was like the roar of Niagara,  exulted one observer,  I counted seven ministers, all preaching at  one time, some on stumps, others on wagons . . . some of the people were singing, others praying, some crying for mercy. 

      This backcountry revival moved to the growing American cities of the 1820s and 30s.  Spellbinding preachers like Charles Grandison Finney brought the gospel to street corners and factory floors.  Church membership became a necessity for upwardly shopkeepers and businessmen, and employers they turned to converting their workers.  These new Christians brought their crusade for moral reform into politics, campaigning for temperance, for laws that forced people to honor the Sabbath, and for education and prison reform.  Not a few even became abolitionists. By the mid-1800s most Americans were committed Christians. While Revolutionary War soldiers sang silly ditties and drinking songs like  Yankee Doodle,  their grandsons marched to the Civil War singing  The Battle Hymn of the Republic,  a song that invokes a Christian war god.

      American enthusiasm for religion has continued to rise in fall in the twentieth century, with high points in the 1920s, the 1950s, and the 1990s.  Today, about 40% of Americans report that they attend church regularly.  This is nearly a historic high.