America's Christian heritage is thoroughly documented throughout history, expressed in the writings of our Founding Fathers and our statesmen past and present. Our laws are based on Judeo-Christian principles. Even the Supreme Court has acknowledged that America is a Christian nation. The evidence is presented here.

"The Christian religion, as I understand it, is the brightness of the glory and the express portrait of the character of the eternal, self-existent, independent, benevolent, all powerful and all merciful creator, preserver, and father of the universe, the first good, first perfect, and first fair. It will last as long as the world. Neither savage nor civilized man, without a revelation, could ever have discovered or invented it. Ask me not, then, whether I am a Catholic or Protestant, Calvinist or Arminian. As far as they are Christians, I wish to be a fellow-disciple with them all."
-- President John Adams, from A Letter to Benjamin Rush. Quincy, 21 January, 1810, published in The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. Boston, 1850-1856. 659 pp. Volume 9 of 10.

Math professor and college president. Read more about Adams here.

• The Relation of Christianity to Civil Government in the United States: A Sermon, preached in St. Michael's Church, Charleston, February 13th, 1833, before the convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of South-Carolina / by J. Adams. 2nd edition. Charleston: A.E. Miller, 1833. 64 pp.; 24 cm. Adams's Notes (Source repository: William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan), p. 10: "Thomas S. Grimke, Esq. has written to the author 10 pages of foolscap, containing comments on the text-notes of this sermon. Some of these comments are somewhat severe but they were written with the most friendly intentions. They have aided me considerably in revising the Sermon for the second edition. Mr. Grimke has also aided me in other ways in [?] to it. He is the legal friend mentioned at p. 38. With Judge Richardson, he has offered me $20 towards an [?] edition, and has also requested me to have 100 additional copies printed for him."
  Note: Adams erroneously ascribes The Study and practice of the law considered in their various relations to society in a series of letters to Sir James Mackintosh, a common misconception according to the Dictionary of National Biography. The work was actually written by attorney John Raithby.

  Adams's Notes, pp. 2-3(Source repository: William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan). Chief Justice John Marshall, May 9, 1833:
  

  Reverend Sir,
  I am much indebted to you for the copy of your valuable sermon on the relation of Christianity to civil government preached before the convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Charleston, on the 13th of Feby. last. I have read it with great attention & advantage.
  The documents annexed to the sermon certainly go far in sustaining the proposition which it is your purpose to establish. One great object of the colonial charters was avowedly the propagation of the Christian faith. Means have been employed to accomplish this object, & those means have been used by government.
  No person, I believe, questions the importance of religion to the happiness of man even during his existence in this world. It has at all times employed his most serious meditation, & had a decided influence on his conduct. The American population is entirely Christian, & with us, Christianity & Religion are identified. It would be strange, indeed, if with such a people, our institutions did not presuppose Christianity, & did not often refer to it, & exhibit relations with it. Legislation on the subject is admitted to require great delicacy, because fredom [sic] of conscience & respect for our religion both claim our most serious regard. You have allowed their full influence to both.
  With very great respect,
  I am Sir, your Obedt.,
  J. Marshall.

  Adams's references for this essay include the following:
  • John Almon. The Charters of the British colonies in America. London, [1774?]. 144 pp.
  • John Almon. A Collection of interesting, authentic papers, relative to the dispute between Great Britain and America: shewing the causes and progress of that misunderstanding, from 1764 to 1775. London, 1777. 286 pp.
  • Brougham and Vaux, Henry Brougham, Baron. An Inquiry into the colonial policy of the European powers. Edinburgh, Printed by D. Willison for E. Balfour, Manners & Miller [etc.], 1803. 2 v. 22 cm.
    
    Volume 1 of 2. "The first settlers of all the colonies, says he, were men of irreproachable characters. Many of them fled from persecution; others on account of an honourable poverty; and all of them with their expectations limited to the prospect of a bare subsistence in freedom and peace. All idea of wealth or pleasure was out of the question. The greater part of them viewed their emigration as a taking up of the cross, and bounded their hopes of riches to. the gifts of the spirit, and their ambition to the desire of a kingdom beyond the grave. A set of men more conscientious in their doings, or simple in their manners, never founded any Commonwealth, It is, indeed, continues he, the peculiar glory of North America that with very few exceptions, its empire was originally founded in charity and peace." -- p. 59.
    Volume 2 of 2. Also here.
  • The Charter of Dartmouth College. December 18, 1769. Also here. [§10] KNOW YE THEREFORE, that We considering the Premises and being willing to encourage the laudable & charitable design of spreading Christian Knowledge among the Savages of our American Wilderness and also that the best means of Education be established in our province of New Hampshire for the benefit of said province, DO of our special grace certain knowledge and mere motion by and with the advice of our Council for said Province by the Presents Will, ordain, grant & constitute that there be a College erected in our said Province of New Hampshire by the name of DARTMOUTH COLLEGE [§11] for the education & instruction of Youth of the Indian Tribes in this Land in reading, writing & all parts of Learning which shall appear necessary and expedient for civilizing & christianizing Children of Pagans as well as in all liberal Arts and Sciences; and also of English Youth and any others, ...
  • Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen. Speech of Mr. Frelinghuysen, on the Subject of Sunday Mails. In the Senate of the United States -- May 8, 1830. From Register of debates in Congress: comprising the leading debates and incidents of the first session of the Twenty-first Congress: together with an appendix, containing important state papers and public documents, and the laws enacted during the session: with a copious index to the whole. Vol. VI. United States Congress (21st, 1st session: 1829-1830); Washington [D.C.]: Printed and published by Gales and Seaton, 1830. 2 v. ; 26 cm. Half-title: Debates in Congress./ Running title: Gales & Seaton's Register of debates in Congress./ Printed in two columns./ Part I: [4], 664, xiv p.; part II: [4], 665-1148, 18 p., 144 columns, ix-li, [i], 4, xiv pp. Extract, Appendix, pp. 1-4.
    
  • "Signs of the Times" and "Sunday Schools." Extract from Gospel Messenger and Southern Episcopal Register, v. 10, n. 166, August 1833, p. 253.
  • "American Bible Society," "The Theatre" and "Ecclesiastical Statistics." Extracts from Gospel Messenger and Southern Episcopal Register, v. 5, n. 55, July 1828; pp. 216-217.
  • Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859). Jewish Disabilities. April 17, 1833 speech before the House of Commons. The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, Volume IV. 456 pages. Also here.
  • Population of the English Colonies, and of the United States, at Various Periods, pp. 118-121. Also, "History of Revivals of Religion, from the Settlement of the Country to the Present Time, First Period: or the time included from the settlement of the Colonies, to the year 1662," pp. 122-135. From The Quarterly Register, v. 4, n. 2. November 1831.
  • History of Revivals of Religion, from the Settlement of the Country to the Present Time, Second Period: From 1662 to 1720; 58 years, pp. 198-213. Also, "Historical View of Roman Catholic Missions," pp. 213-221. From The Quarterly Register, v. 4, n. 3. February 1832.
  • History of Revivals of Religion, from the Settlement of the Country to the Present Time, Period Third: From 1720 to 1750; thirty years, pp. 291-306. From The Quarterly Register, v. 4, n. 4. May 1832.
  • History of Revivals of Religion, from the Settlement of the Country to the Present Time, Period Fourth: From 1750 to 1790; forty years, pp. 210-218. From The Quarterly Register, v. 5, n. 3. February 1833. In the first part, the author mentions a Period 5, from 1790 to the Present Time, but coverage of this part remained unpublished in this magazine.
  • John Raithby. The Study and practice of the law considered in their various relations to society in a series of letters. 2nd edition. London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1816. xv, 461 pp.; 22 cm.
  • Sir Walter Scott. Life of Napoleon Buonaparte: With a Preliminary View of the French Revolution. Published by R. Cadell, 1843. Volume 1 of 2. 867 pages.
  • Jared Sparks. The Life of Gouverneur Morris, with selections from his correspondence and miscellaneous papers: detailing events in the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and in the political history of the United States. Boston: Gray & Bowen, 1832.
    
    Volume 1 of 3. 533 pp. Darlington Digital Library Edition. University of Pittsburgh. Text-searchable.
    Volume 2 of 3. 533 pp. Darlington Digital Library Edition. University of Pittsburgh. Text-searchable.
    Volume 3 of 3. 516 pp. Darlington Digital Library Edition. University of Pittsburgh. Text-searchable.
    
  • Stansbury, Arthur J. Report of The Trial of James H. Peck, Judge of The United States District Court for The District of Missouri, Before The Senate of The United States, on an impeachment preferred by the House of Representatives against him for high misdemeanors in office. Boston: Hilliard, Gray and Co., 1833. 602 pp. Extract. Documentation of statements by Governor Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, New Orleans, favoring Catholics and prohibiting Protestants in the province.
  • Joseph Story. A Discourse pronounced at the request of the Essex Historical Society on the 18th of September, 1828: in commemoration of the first settlement of Salem, in the state of Massachusetts. Boston: Hilliard, Gray, Little, and Wilkins, 1828. 90 pp.
  • William Tudor. The Life of James Otis, of Massachusetts: containing also, notices of some contemporary characters and events, from the year 1760 to 1775. Boston, 1823. 532 pp.

American President. Read more about President Adams here. Disclaimer: Adams shifted from Congregationalist to Unitarian.

• 1798 National Fasting and Prayer Proclamation. Brief commentary by David Barton.
• The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. Boston, 1850-1856. 553 pp. Volume 2 of 10. Preface and Diary. Includes diary entries for February 15-28, March 1-7, 12-26, August 1, September 10, October 17, 1756. Extracts.

  February 18. Wednesday. ..."The following questions may be answered some time or other, namely,--Where do we find a precept in the Gospel requiring Ecclesiastical Synods? Convocations? Councils? Decrees? Creeds? Confessions? Oaths? Subscriptions? and whole cart-loads of other trumpery that we find religion encumbered with in these days?"

  February 22. Sunday. "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 heats. What a Utopia; what a Paradise would this region be!"

  March 2. Tuesday. "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."

  March 17. Wednesday. "A fine morning. Proceeded on my journey towards Braintree. Stopped to see Mr. Haven [The Reverend Jason Haven, then just ordained as pastor of the first parish in Dedham.], of Dedham, who told me, very civilly, he supposed I took my faith on trust from Dr. Mayhew, and added, that he believed the doctrine of the satisfaction of Jesus Christ to be essential to Christianity, and that he would not believe this satisfaction unless he believed the Divinity of Christ." ...

• The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. Boston, 1850-1856. 553 pp. Volume 2 of 10. Autobiography.
• The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. Boston, 1850-1856. 579 pp. Volume 3 of 10. ON SELF-DELUSION.
• The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. Boston, 1850-1856. 579 pp. Volume 3 of 10. ON PRIVATE REVENGE.
• The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. Boston, 1850-1856. 579 pp. Volume 3 of 10. Diary. Extracts.

  "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."

  ... "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 of 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."

• The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. Boston, 1850-1856. 546 pp. Volume 6 of 10. Four Letters: Being an Interesting Correspondence Between Those Eminently Distinguished Characters, John Adams, Late President of the United States; and Samuel Adams, Late Governor of Massachusetts.

  "The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If 'Thou shalt not covet,' and 'Thou shalt not steal,' were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society, before it can be civilized or made free."

• The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. Boston, 1850-1856. 546 pp. Volume 6 of 10. Chapter I. Marchamont Nedham. The Right Constitution of a Commonwealth Examined.
• The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. Boston, 1850-1856. 659 pp. Volume 9 of 10. TO ZABDIEL ADAMS. Philadelphia, 21 June, 1776. Also here. Zabdiel Adams (1739-1801), Lunenburg, Mass., minister, was a cousin of John Adams. Shipton, Harvard Graduates, 14:377-83. Zabdiel's June 9 letter to John is in Adams, Family Correspondence (Butterfield), 2:6-8.

  "I assure you, sir, that your Employment, in investigating the Moral Causes of our Miseries, and in pointing out the Remedies, is devoutly to be wished. There is no station more respectable; nor any so pleasant and agreable. Those who tread the public Stage, in Characters the most extensively conspicuous, meet with so many Embarrassments, Perplexities, and Disappointments, that they have often reason to wish for the peacefull Retreats of the Clergy.... Who would not wish to exchange the angry Contentions of the Forum, for the peacefull Contemplations of the Closet. Where Contemplations prune their ruffled Wings and the free Soul looks down to pitty Kings? Who would not Exchange the discordant Scenes of Envy, Pride, Vanity, Malice, Revenge, for the sweet Consolations of Philosophy, the serene Composure of the Passions, the divine Enjoyments of Christian Charity, and Benevolence?

  "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. They will only exchange Tyrants and Tyrannies. You cannot therefore be more pleasantly, or usefully employed than in the Way of your Profession, pulling down the Strong Holds of Satan. This is not Cant, but the real sentiment of my Heart. Remember me with much respect, to your worthy family, and to all Friends."

• The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. Boston, 1850-1856. 659 pp. Volume 9 of 10. TO THE OFFICERS OF THE FIRST BRIGADE OF THE THIRD DIVISION OF THE MILITIA OF MASSACHUSETTS. 11 OCTOBER, 1798. Extract.

  "While our country remains untainted with the principles and manners which are now producing desolation in so many pats of the world; while she continues sincere, and incapable of insidious and impious policy, we shall have the strongest reason to rejoice in the local destination assigned us by Providence. But should the people of America once become capable of that deep simulation towards one another, and towards foreign nations, which assumes the language of justice and moderation while it is practising iniquity and extravagance, and displays in the most captivating manner the charming pictures of candor, frankness, and sincerity, while it is rioting in rapine and insolence, this country will be the most miserable habitation in the world; because 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."

• The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. Boston, 1850-1856. 659 pp. Volume 9 of 10. TO BENJAMIN RUSH. Quincy, 21 January, 1810. A discussion of Thomas Paine.

  "I have not seen, but am impatient to see, Mr. Cheetham's life of Mr. Paine. His political writings, I am singular enough to believe, have done more harm than his irreligious ones. He understood neither government nor religion. From a malignant heart he wrote virulent declamations, which the enthusiastic fury of the times intimidated all men, even Mr. Burke, from answering as he ought. His deism, as it appears to me, has promoted rather than retarded the cause of revolution in America, and indeed in Europe. His billingsgate, stolen from Blount's Oracles of Reason, from Bolingbroke, Voltaire, Berenger, &c., will never discredit Christianity, which will hold its ground in some degree as long as human nature shall have any thing moral or intellectual left in it."

• The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. Boston, 1850-1856. 659 pp. Volume 9 of 10. TO THE GRAND JURORS OF THE COUNTY OF HAMPSHIRE, MASSACHUSETTS. 3 OCTOBER, 1798.
• The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. Boston, 1850-1856. 528 pp. Volume 10 of 10. TO F. A. VANDERKEMP, 27 DECEMBER, 1816.
• The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. Boston, 1850-1856. 528 pp. Volume 10 of 10. Letter To Samuel Miller, July 8, 1820.
• The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. Boston, 1850-1856. 528 pp. Volume 10 of 10.TO THOMAS JEFFERSON. Quincy: letters dated 17 July, 18 July, and 25 December 1813 .
• The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private, Published by the order of the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library, from the original manuscripts, deposited in the Department of State. With explanatory notes by the editor, H.A. Washington. Washington, D.C.: Taylor and Maury, 1854. Volume 6 of 9. John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, Quincy, 25 December, 1813. John Adams: "Philosophy looks with an impartial eye on all terrestrial religions. I have examined all, as well as my narrow sphere, my straightened means and my busy life would allow me, and the result is, that the Bible is the best book in the world. It contains more of my little philosophy than all the libraries I have seen; and such parts of it as I cannot reconcile to my little philosophy, I postpone for future investigation."
• The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1856. 528 pp. Volume 10 of 10. Letter to Jefferson, 28 June, 1813. Also in The Writings of Thomas Jefferson Washington D. C.: The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1904, Vol. XIII, pp. 292-294.

  "The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence, were the only principles in which that beautiful assembly of young men could unite, and these principles only could be intended by them in their address, or by me in my answer. And what were these general principles? I answer, the general principles of Christianity, in which all those 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 believed 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. I could, therefore safely say, consistently with all my then and present information, that I believed they would never make discoveries in contradiction to these general principles."

• The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. Boston, 1856. 659 pp. Volume 10 of 10. Letters on John Otis. "Mr. Otis reproached the nation, parliaments, and kings, with injustice, ungenerosity, ingratitude, cruelty, and perfidy in all their conduct towards this country, in a style of oratory that I never heard equalled in this or any other country."
• John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776. From Letters of Delegates to Congress: Volume 4 May 16, 1776 - August 15, 1776.

  "Yesterday the greatest Question was decided, which ever was debated in America, and a greater perhaps, never was or will be decided among Men. A Resolution was passed without one dissenting Colony "that these united Colonies, are, and of right ought to be free and independent States, and as such, they have, and of Right ought to have full Power to make War, conclude Peace, establish Commerce, and to do all the other Acts and Things, which other States may rightfully do." You will see in a few days a Declaration setting forth the Causes, which have impell'd Us to this mighty Revolution, and the Reasons which will justify it, in the Sight of God and Man. A Plan of Confederation will be taken up in a few days.

  When I look back to the Year 1761, and recollect the Argument concerning Writs of Assistance, in the Superiour Court, which I have hitherto considered as the Commencement of the Controversy, between Great Britain and America, and run through the whole Period from that Time to this, and recollect the series of political Events, the Chain of Causes and Effects, I am surprised at the Suddenness, as well as Greatness of this Revolution. Britain has been fill'd with Folly, and America with Wisdom, at least this is my Judgment. Time must determine. 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, dishonour, and destroy Us. The Furnace of Affliction produces Refinement, in States as well as Individuals. And the new Governments we are assuming, in every Part, will require a Purification from our Vices, and an Augmentation of our Virtuesor they will be no Blessings. The People will have unbounded Power. And the People are extreamly addicted to Corruption and Venality, as well as the Great. I am not without Apprehensions from this Quarter. But I must submit all my Hopes and Fears, to an overruling Providence, in which, unfashionable as the Faith may be, I firmly believe."

• John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776 [second letter]. From Letters of Delegates to Congress: Volume 4 May 16, 1776 - August 15, 1776.

  Philadelphia July 3d. 1776 -- "Had a Declaration of Independency been made seven Months ago, it would have been attended with many great and glorious Effects. (1) We might before this Hour, have formed Alliances with foreign States. We should have mastered Quebec and been in Possession of Canada.... You will perhaps wonder, how such a Declaration would have influenced our Affairs, in Canada, but if I could write with Freedom I could easily convince you, that it would, and explain to you the manner how. Many Gentlemen in high Stations and of great Influence have been duped, by the ministerial Bubble of Commissioners to treat.... And in real, sincere Expectation of this Event, which they so fondly wished, they have been slow and languid, in promoting Measures for the Reduction of that Province. Others there are in the Colonies who really wished that our Enterprise in Canada would be defeated, that the Colonies might be brought into Danger and Distress between two Fires, and be thus induced to submit. Others really wished to defeat the Expedition to Canada, lest the Conquest of it, should elevate the Minds of the People too much to hearken to those Terms of Reconciliation which they believed would be offered Us. These jarring Views, Wishes and Designs, occasioned an opposition to many salutary Measures, which were proposed for the Support of that Expedition, and caused Obstructions, Embarrassments and studied Delays, which have finally, lost Us the Province.

  "All these Causes however in Conjunction would not have disappointed Us, if it had not been for a Misfortune, which could not be foreseen, and perhaps could not have been prevented, I mean thePrevalence of the small Pox among our Troops.... This fatal Pestilence compleated our Destruction. It is a Frown of Providence upon Us, which We ought to lay to heart. But on the other Hand, the Delay of this Declaration to this Time, has many great Advantages attending it. The Hopes of Reconciliation, which were fondly entertained by Multitudes of honest and well meaning tho weak and mistaken People, have been gradually and at last totally extinguished. Time has been given for the whole People, maturely to consider the great Question of Independence and to ripen their Judgments, dissipate their Fears, and allure their Hopes, by discussing it in News Papers and Pamphletts, by debating it, in Assemblies, Conventions, Committees of Safety and Inspection, in Town and County Meetings, as well as in private Conversations, so that the whole People in every Colony of the 13, have now adopted it, as their own Act. This will cement the Union, and avoid those Heats and perhaps Convulsions which might have been occasioned, by such a Declaration Six Months ago.

  "But the Day is past. The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

  You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not."(2)

  RC (MHi). Adams, Family Correspondence (Butterfield), 2:29-31.
  1 Suspension points in MS, here and below.
  2 For the provenance and publication history of this celebrated letter, see Adams, Family Correspondence (Butterfield), 2:31n.9.

• John Adams to Abigail Adams, October 26, 1777. From Letters of Delegates to Congress: Volume 8, September 19, 1777 - January 31, 1778.

  "Congress will appoint a Thanksgiving, and one Cause of it ought to be that the Glory of turning the Tide of Arms, is not immediately due to the Commander in Chief, nor to southern Troops. If it had been, Idolatry, and Adulation would have been unbounded, so excessive as to endanger our Liberties for what I know.

  "Now We can allow a certain Citizen to be wise, virtuous, and good, without thinking him a Deity or a saviour."

• Inaugural Address of John Adams. Inaugural Address in The City Of Philadelphia, Saturday, March 4, 1797.

  "When it was first perceived, in early times, that no middle course for America remained between unlimited submission to a foreign legislature and a total independence of its claims, men of reflection were less apprehensive of danger from the formidable power of fleets and armies they must determine to resist than from those contests and dissensions which would certainly arise concerning the forms of government to be instituted over the whole and over the parts of this extensive country. Relying, however, on the purity of their intentions, the justice of their cause, and the integrity and intelligence of the people, under an overruling Providence which had so signally protected this country from the first, the representatives of this nation, then consisting of little more than half its present number, not only broke to pieces the chains which were forging and the rod of iron that was lifted up, but frankly cut asunder the ties which had bound them, and launched into an ocean of uncertainty.

  ... "if elevated ideas of the high destinies of this country and of my own duties toward it, founded on a knowledge of the moral principles and intellectual improvements of the people deeply engraven on my mind in early life, and not obscured but exalted by experience and age; and, with humble reverence, I feel it to be my duty to add, if a veneration for the religion of a people who profess and call themselves Christians, and a fixed resolution to consider a decent respect for Christianity among the best recommendations for the public service, can enable me in any degree to comply with your wishes, it shall be my strenuous endeavor that this sagacious injunction of the two Houses shall not be without effect.

  "With this great example before me, with the sense and spirit, the faith and honor, the duty and interest, of the same American people pledged to support the Constitution of the United States, I entertain no doubt of its continuance in all its energy, and my mind is prepared without hesitation to lay myself under the most solemn obligations to support it to the utmost of my power.

  "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 blessing upon this nation and its Government and give it all possible success and duration consistent with the ends of His providence."

• Barker, David. An Address in commemoration of the Independence of the United States: delivered at Rochester, July 4, 1828. Dover, [N.H.], 1828. 28 pp. Also here.
  

  "There is one fact immediately connected with this subject, which ought to be more generally known. At one moment, during the discussion of this momentous question in the Continental Congress, some of the most ardent friends of liberty conscious of its overwhelming importance began to hesitate and incline to timid perhaps it might be better said to prudent counsels. As a just tribute to the memory of John Adams, it should be told to every American citizen, that in this important exigency, he urged the adoption of the measure with all the energies of his mind and with all the powers of his eloquence. After stating fully the reasons of policy in favor of the declaration, he is said to have concluded his argument in language of the following animated and intrepid character.

  "Sir, I know the uncertainty of human affairs, but I see, I see clearly, through this day's business. You and I, indeed may rue it. We may not live to the time, when this declaration shall be made good. We may die; die, colonists; die, slaves; die, it may be, ignominiously and on the scaffold. Be it so. Be it so. If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready, at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may. But while I do live, let me have a country, or at least the hope of a country, and that a free country.

  "But whatever may be our fate, be assured that this declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, it may cost blood; but it will stand, and it will richly compensate for both. Through the thick gloom of the present, I see the brightness of the future as the sun in the Heavens. We shall make this a glorious, an immortal day. When we are in our graves, our children will honour it. They will celebrate it with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires, and illuminations. Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judgment 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 begun, 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 forever."

  "His bold and determined counsel prevailed. The Declaration of Independence, as presented by Mr. Jefferson, the chairman of the committee, to which duty he was appointed on the nomination of Mr. Adams, was unanimously accepted by Congress.

  "To no one individual is this country more largely indebted, than to John Adams, for his ardent and patriotic zeal in the crisis of its destiny. This tribute of just acknowledgement should be the more cheerfully given, at this lime, as the malignity of party feeling, to accomplish its despicable purposes, has attempted to detract from his well earned fame, as a sincere and devoted friend of civil liberty. The means which are employed for this purpose, are well worthy of the object to be effected, and fully illustrate the character of his accusers. Soon after the peace of 1783, while Mr. Adams was in England, as the minister of the Confederated States, for the instruction of his countrymen in the principles of republican government he published a commentary on the constitutions of the several States. This work which contained copious historical details of most of the ancient and modern Republics, with sagacious reflections upon their excellencies and defects, was received with universal praise by the worthiest men of the time. It was not even suspected to contain a single maxim or comment inconsistent with the great principles of freedom, in support of which the contest had just ceased."

Sixth American President. Note: Bill Haymin, "Letters of John Quincy Adams to His Son." American Chronicle, January 12, 2008. "In his later years Adams was associated with the Unitarian Church, yet, Unitarianism at this time was much different than it is today. For one, it was firmly rooted in the Bible. Adams believed in the divine nature of the Holy Scriptures and the assertion that Christ was God. Unitarians were described in the Theological Dictionary of 1823 in these words:
"In common with other Christians, they confess that He [Jesus] is the Christ, the Son of the Living God; and in one word, they believe all that the writers of the New Testament, particularly the four Evangelists, have stated concerning him." Entry by Rev. Charles Buck, A Theological Dictionary Containing Definitions of All Religious Terms. Philadelphia: Edwin T. Scott, 1823, p. 582. See here for more about Adams's faith. Read more about President Adams here, here and here.

• Letters of John Quincy Adams to His Son on the Bible and Its Teachings. Auburn: James M. Alden, 1850.

  "There are three points of doctrine the belief of which forms the foundation of all morality. The first is the existence of God; the second is the immortality of the human soul; and the third is a future state of rewards and punishments. Suppose it possible for a man to disbelieve either of these three articles of faith and that man will have no conscience, he will have no other law than that of the tiger or the shark. The laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy."

  ..."The law given from Sinai was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code; it contained many statutes adapted to that time only, and to the particular circumstances of the nation to whom it was given; they could of course be binding upon them, and only upon them, until abrogated by the same authority which enacted them, as they afterward were by the Christian dispensation: but many others were of universal application -- laws essential to the existence of men in society, and most of which have been enacted by every nation which ever professed any code of laws."

• An Oration pronounced July 4th, 1793: at the request of the inhabitants of the town of Boston in commemoration of the anniversary of American Independence. Boston, 1793. 19 pp.
• With Worthington Chauncey Ford. Writings of John Quincy Adams. 16 volumes. The Macmillan Company, 1913-1917. Volume 1 of 16. Volume 2 of 16. Volume 3 of 16. Volume 4 of 16. Volume 5 of 16. Volume 6 of 16. Volume 7 of 16. Volume 7 of 16. Volume 8 of 16. Volume 9 of 16. Volume 10 of 16. Volume 11 of 16. Volume 12 of 16. Volume 13 of 16. Volume 14 of 16. Volume 15 of 16. Volume 16 of 16.
  Extract from Volume 6, 1916. 508 pages. Original from the University of California.
  "Now in the sermon upon the mount much is said about the kingdom of Heaven, and those who alone shall enter it. The preacher of that sermon announced himself as a being superior at least to human nature. If you say that he was a mere ordinary man, you include him also in the class of those who are not competent to dogmatize upon the system of the universe. You, or at least I, can by no possible process of reasoning consider him as a mere man, without at the same time pronouncing him an Impostor. You ask me what Bible I take as the standard of my faith? the Hebrew, the Samaritan, the old English translation, or what? I answer, the Bible containing the sermon upon the mount? any Bible that I can read and understand. The New Testament I have repeatedly read in the original Greek, in the Latin, in the Genevan protestant, and in Sacy's Catholic French translations, in Luther's German translation, in the common English protestant, and in the Douay English Catholic (Jesuitical) translations. I take any one of them for my standard of faith. If Socinus or Priestley had made a fair translation of the Bible, I would have taken that, but without their comments. I would also give up all the passages upon which any sound suspicion of interpretation can be fastened. But the sermon upon the mount commands me to lay up for myself treasures, not upon earth, but in Heaven. My hopes of a future life are all founded upon the Gospel of Christ, and I cannot cavil or quibble away, not single words and ambiguous expressions, but the whole tenor of his conduct, by which he sometimes positively asserted, and at others countenanced his disciples in asserting that he was God. You think it blasphemous to believe that the omnipotent Creator could be crucified. God is a spirit. The spirit was not crucified. The body of Jesus of Nazareth was crucified. The Spirit whether eternal or created was beyond the reach of the cross. You see my orthodoxy grows upon me, and I still unite with you in the doctrine of toleration and benevolence." pp. 134-135.
• An Oration, delivered at Plymouth, December 22, 1802: at the anniversary commemoration of the first landing of our ancestors, at that place. Boston, 1802. 29 pp.
• American Principles: A review of Works of Fisher Ames.Boston, 1809. 55 pp.
• An Address delivered at the request of a committee of the citizens of Washington: on the occasion of reading the Declaration of Independence, on the Fourth of July, 1821. Washington, 1821. 30 pp. Also here.
• "Inaugural Address" (March 4, 1825).
  In compliance with an usage coeval with the existence of our Federal Constitution, and sanctioned by the example of my predecessors in the career upon which I am about to enter, I appear, my fellow-citizens, in your presence and in that of Heaven to bind myself by the solemnities of religious obligation to the faithful performance of the duties allotted to me in the station to which I have been called.
  Fellow-citizens, you are acquainted with the peculiar circumstances of the recent election, which have resulted in affording me the opportunity of addressing you at this time. You have heard the exposition of the principles which will direct me in the fulfillment of the high and solemn trust imposed upon me in this station. Less possessed of your confidence in advance than any of my predecessors, I am deeply conscious of the prospect that I shall stand more and oftener in need of your indulgence. Intentions upright and pure, a heart devoted to the welfare of our country, and the unceasing application of all the faculties allotted to me to her service are all the pledges that I can give for the faithful performance of the arduous duties I am to undertake. To the guidance of the legislative councils, to the assistance of the executive and subordinate departments, to the friendly cooperation of the respective State governments, to the candid and liberal support of the people so far as it may be deserved by honest industry and zeal, I shall look for whatever success may attend my public service; and knowing that "except the Lord keep the city the watchman waketh but in vain," with fervent supplications for His favor, to His overruling providence I commit with humble but fearless confidence my own fate and the future destinies of my country.
• "First Annual Message to Congress" (December 6, 1825).
  Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
  In taking a general survey of the concerns of our beloved country, with reference to subjects interesting to the common welfare, the first sentiment which impresses itself upon the mind is of gratitude to the Omnipotent Disposer of All Good for the continuance of the signal blessings of His providence, and especially for that health which to an unusual extent has prevailed within our borders, and for that abundance which in the vicissitudes of the seasons has been scattered with profusion over our land. Nor ought we less to ascribe to Him the glory that we are permitted to enjoy the bounties of His hand in peace and tranquillity -- in peace with all the other nations of the earth, in tranquillity among our selves. There has, indeed, rarely been a period in the history of civilized man in which the general condition of the Christian nations has been marked so extensively by peace and prosperity.
  ...The spirit of improvement is abroad upon the earth. It stimulates the hearts and sharpens the faculties not of our fellow citizens alone, but of the nations of Europe and of their rulers. While dwelling with pleasing satisfaction upon the superior excellence of our political institutions, let us not be unmindful that liberty is power; that the nation blessed with the largest portion of liberty must in proportion to its numbers be the most powerful nation upon earth, and that the tenure of power by man is, in the moral purposes of his Creator, upon condition that it shall be exercised to ends of beneficence, to improve the condition of himself and his fellow men.
  While foreign nations less blessed with that freedom which is power than ourselves are advancing with gigantic strides in the career of public improvement, were we to slumber in indolence or fold up our arms and proclaim to the world that we are palsied by the will of our constituents, would it not be to cast away the bounties of Providence and doom ourselves to perpetual inferiority? In the course of the year now drawing to its close we have beheld, under the auspices and at the expense of one State of this Union, a new university unfolding its portals to the sons of science and holding up the torch of human improvement to eyes that seek the light. We have seen under the persevering and enlightened enterprise of another State the waters of our Western lakes mingle with those of the ocean. If undertakings like these have been accomplished in the compass of a few years by the authority of single members of our Confederation, can we, the representative authorities of the whole Union, fall behind our fellow servants in the exercise of the trust committed to us for the benefit of our common sovereign by the accomplishment of works important to the whole and to which neither the authority nor the resources of any one State can be adequate?
  Finally, fellow citizens, I shall await with cheering hope and faithful cooperation the result of your deliberations, assured that, without encroaching upon the powers reserved to the authorities of the respective States or to the people, you will, with a due sense of your obligations to your country and of the high responsibilities weighing upon yourselves, give efficacy to the means committed to you for the common good. And may He who searches the hearts of the children of men prosper your exertions to secure the blessings of peace and promote the highest welfare of your country.
• "Second Annual Message to Congress" (December 5, 1826).
  Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
  The assemblage of the representatives of our Union in both Houses of the Congress at this time occurs under circumstances calling for the renewed homage of our grateful acknowledgments to the Giver of All Good. With the exceptions incidental to the most felicitous condition of human existence, we continue to be highly favored in all the elements which contribute to individual comfort and to national prosperity. In the survey of our extensive country we have generally to observe abodes of health and regions of plenty. In our civil and political relations we have peace without and tranquillity within our borders. We are, as a people, increasing with unabated rapidity in population, wealth, and national resources, and whatever differences of opinion exist among us with regard to the mode and the means by which we shall turn the beneficence of Heaven to the improvement of our own condition, there is yet a spirit animating us all which will not suffer the bounties of Providence to be showered upon us in vain, but will receive them with grateful hearts, and apply them with unwearied hands to the advancement of the general good.
  ...In closing this communication I trust that it will not be deemed inappropriate to the occasion and purposes upon which we are here assembled to indulge a momentary retrospect, combining in a single glance the period of our origin as a national confederation with that of our present existence, at the precise interval of half a century from each other. Since your last meeting at this place the 50th anniversary of the day when our independence was declared has been celebrated throughout our land, and on that day, while every heart was bounding with joy and every voice was tuned to gratulation, amid the blessings of freedom and independence which the sires of a former age had handed down to their children, two of the principal actors in that solemn scene -- the hand that penned the ever memorable Declaration and the voice that sustained it in debate -- were by one summons, at the distance of 700 miles from each other, called before the Judge of All to account for their deeds done upon earth. They departed cheered by the benedictions of their country, to whom they left the inheritance of their fame and the memory of their bright example.
  If we turn our thoughts to the condition of their country, in the contrast of the first and last day of that half century, how resplendent and sublime is the transition from gloom to glory! Then, glancing through the same lapse of time, in the condition of the individuals we see the first day marked with the fullness and vigor of youth, in the pledge of their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the cause of freedom and of man-kind; and on the last, extended on the bed of death, with but sense and sensibility left to breathe a last aspiration to Heaven of blessing upon their country, may we not humbly hope that to them too it was a pledge of transition from gloom to glory, and that while their mortal vestments were sinking into the clod of the valley their emancipated spirits were ascending to the bosom of their God!
• "Third Annual Message to Congress" (December 4, 1827).
  Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
  A revolution of the seasons has nearly been completed since the representatives of the people and States of this Union were last assembled at this place to deliberate and to act upon the common important interests of their constituents. In that interval the never slumbering eye of a wise and beneficent Providence has continued its guardian care over the welfare of our beloved country; the blessing of health has continued generally to prevail throughout the land; the blessing of peace with our brethren of the human race has been enjoyed without interruption; internal quiet has left our fellow citizens in the full enjoyment of all their rights and in the free exercise of all their faculties, to pursue the impulse of their nature and the obligation of their duty in the improvement of their own condition; the productions of the soil, the exchanges of commerce, the vivifying labors of human industry, have combined to mingle in our cup a portion of enjoyment as large and liberal as the indulgence of Heaven has perhaps ever granted to the imperfect state of man upon earth; and as the purest of human felicity consists in its participation with others, it is no small addition to the sum of our national happiness at this time that peace and prosperity prevail to a degree seldom experienced over the whole habitable globe, presenting, though as yet with painful exceptions, a foretaste of that blessed period of promise when the lion shall lie down with the lamb and wars shall be no more.
• "Fourth Annual Message to Congress" (December 2, 1828).
  Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
  If the enjoyment in profusion of the bounties of Providence forms a suitable subject of mutual gratulation and grateful acknowledgment, we are admonished at this return of the season when the representatives of the nation are assembled to deliberate upon their concerns to offer up the tribute of fervent and grateful hearts for the never failing mercies of Him who ruleth over all. He has again favored us with healthful seasons and abundant harvests; He has sustained us in peace with foreign countries and in tranquillity within our borders; He has preserved us in the quiet and undisturbed possession of civil and religious liberty; He has crowned the year with His goodness, imposing on us no other condition than of improving for our own happiness the blessings bestowed by His hands, and, in the fruition of all His favors, of devoting his faculties with which we have been endowed by Him to His glory and to our own temporal and eternal welfare.
• "Unsigned essays dealing with the Russo-Turkish War, and on Greece: Christianity -- Islamism". Originally published in The American Annual Register for 1827-28-29 (New York, 1830), Chapters X-XIV: 267-402. Reprinted in The United States Democratic Review, Volume 36, No. 5 (November, 1855), pp. 375-380.

  "In the seventh century of the Christian era, a wandering Arab of the lineage of Hagar, the Egyptian, combining the powers of transcendent genius, with the preternatural energy of a fanatic, and the fraudulent spirit of an impostor, proclaimed himself as a messenger from Heaven, and spread desolation and delusion over an extensive portion of the earth. Adopting from the sublime conception of the Mosaic law, the doctrine of one omnipotent God; he connected indissolubly with it, the audacious falsehood, that he was himself his prophet and apostle. Adopting from the new Revelation of Jesus, the faith and hope of immortal life, and of future retribution, he humbled it to the dust by adapting all the rewards and sanctions of his religion to the gratification of the sexual passion. He poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of polygamy; and he declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind. THE ESSENCE OF HIS DOCTRINE WAS VIOLENCE AND LUST: TO EXALT THE BRUTAL OVER THE SPIRITUAL PART OF HUMAN NATURE."

• An Oration addressed to the citizens of the town of Quincy, on the Fourth of July, 1831, the fifty-fifth anniversary of the Independence of the United States of America. Boston, 1831. 39 pp.
• An Eulogy on the life and character of James Madison, Fourth President of the United States: delivered at the request of the mayor, aldermen, ... Boston, 1836. 90 pp.
• An Oration delivered before the inhabitants of the town of Newburyport, at their request, on the sixty-first anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Newburyport, Mass., 1837. 68 pp. Also here. "Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day [the Fourth of July]? Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity??
• The Jubilee of the Constitution: a discourse delivered at the request of the New York historical society. New York, 1839. 135 pp.
• The Social Compact: exemplified in the Constitution of the commonwealth of Massachusetts: with remarks on the theories of divine right of Hobbes and of Filmer, and the counter theories of Sidneym, Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau, concerning the origin and nature of government. Providence, 1842. 31 pp.
• Address of John Quincy Adams, to his constituents of the Twelfth congressional district, at Braintree, September 17th, 1842. Boston, 1842. 63 pp.
• The New England confederacy of MDCXLIII: a discourse delivered before the society, on the twenty-ninth of May, 1843: in celebration of the Second Centennial Anniversary of that Event. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1843. 48 pp.
• An Oration delivered before the Cincinnati Astronomical Society: on the occasion of laying the corner stone of an astronomical observatory. Cincinnati, 1843. 72 pp.
• Lives of Celebrated Statesmen. New York, 1846. 105 pp.
• The Abolition of slavery: the right of the government under the war power. Boston, 1862. 23 pp.
• Life and public services of John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States. With the eulogy delivered before the Legislature of New York. Auburn [N.Y.] Derby, Miller and Company, 1849 edition.
  "The hope of a Christian is inseparable from his faith. Whoever believes in the Divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures must hope that the religion of Jesus shall prevail throughout the earth. Never since the foundation of the world have the prospects of mankind been more encouraging to that hope than they appear to be at the present time. And may the associated distribution of the Bible proceed and prosper till the Lord shall have made 'bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God' [Isaiah 52:10]." p. 248
• The Lives of James Madison and James Monroe, fourth and fifth presidents of the United States. Boston, 1850. 426 pp.
• Gentz, Friedrich von. The Origin and Principles of the American Revolution, compared with the origin and principles of the French revolution. Philadelphia, 1800. 73 pp.

American patriot. Read about Samuel Adams here.

• Harry Alonzo Cushing, editor. The Writings of Samuel Adams. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1907), Volume III, p. 236-237, to James Warren on November 4, 1775. "Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust be men of unexceptionable characters. The public cannot be too curious concerning the character of public men."
• Samuel Adams to Elizabeth Adams on December 26, 1776. From Letters of Delegates to Congress: August 16, 1776-December 31, 1776. "I pray God to continue your Health and protect you in these perilous times from every kind of Evil. The Name of the Lord, says the Scripture, is a strong Tower, thither the Righteous flee and are safe [Proverbs 18:10]. Let us secure his Favor, and he will lead us through the Journey of this Life and at length receive us to a better."
• Proclamation for a Day of Public Fasting -- see also 1795 Massachusetts Fasting and Prayer Proclamation.
• Samuel Adams to Samuel P. Savage and James Warren, October 26, 1777. From Letters of Delegates to Congress: Volume 8, September 19, 1777 - January 31, 1778.

  "I heartily congratulate you on the entire Victory obtained by General Gates over Burgoin. This is a Striking Instance of the Truth of the Observation in Holy Writ "Pride goeth before a Fall." Our sincere Acknowledgments of Gratitude are due to the supreme Disposer of all Events. I suppose Congress will recommend that a Day be set apart through out the United States for solemn Thanksgiving.

  "I rejoyce that my Friend General Gates, after what had happend, is honord by Providence as the Instrument in this great Affair."

  Samuel Adams to James Warren: "I hope our Countrymen will render the just Tribute of Praise to the Supreme Ruler for these signal Instances of his Interposition in favor of a People struggling for their Liberties. Congress will, I suppose recommend the setting apart one Day of publick Thanksgiving to be observd throughout the united States."

• Samuel Adams to James Warren, October 29, 1777. From Letters of Delegates to Congress: Volume 8 September 19, 1777 - January 31, 1778.

  "I believe my Country will fix their Eyes and their Choice on a Man of Religion and Piety; who will understand human Nature and the Nature and End of political Society-who will not by Corruption or Flattery be seducd to the betraying, even without being sensible of it himself, the sacred Rights of his Country.

  "The Success of the present Campain hitherto has been great beyond our most sanguine Expectation. Let us ascribe Glory to God who has graciously vouchsafd to favor the Cause of America and of Mankind."

• Harry Alonzo Cushing, editor. The Writings of Samuel Adams. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1907), Volume IV, p. 256, in the Boston Gazette on April 16, 1781. "Before this will reach you, your Countrymen will have finished the important business of electing their Legislators, Magistrates and Governors for the ensuing year. I hope they have made a wise choice. At least, from the opinion I entertain of their virtue, I am persuaded they have acted with all that deliberation and caution which the solemnity of the transaction required. They may then reflect, each one on his own integrity, and appeal to the Monitor within his breast, that he has not trifled with the sacred trust reposed in him by GOD and his country 'that he has not prostituted his honor and conscience to please a friend or a patron' that he has not been influenced with the view of private emolument to himself and his family, but has faithfully given his vote for the candidate whom he thought most worthy the choice of free and virtuous citizens."
• Daniel Foster. A Sermon Preached Before His Excellency John Hancock, Esq., Governour [sic]; His Honor Samuel Adams, Esq., Lieutenant-Governour; The Honourable The [sic] Council, Senate, and House of Representatives, of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, May 26, 1790. An election sermon.
• Harry Alonzo Cushing, editor. The Writings of Samuel Adams. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1908), Vol. IV, p. 361,Proclamation for a Day of Fasting and Prayer, February 19, 1794.
  ... "we may with one heart and voice humbly implore His gracious and free pardon through Jesus Christ, supplicating His Divine aid ... [and] above all to cause the religion of Jesus Christ, in its true spirit, to spread far and wide till the whole earth shall be filled with His glory."
• Harry Alonzo Cushing, editor. The Writings of Samuel Adams. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1908), Vol. IV, p. 385, from his proclamation of October 14, 1795. A Proclamation For a Day of Public Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer, given as the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, from an original broadside in our possession.
  ... "the peaceful and glorious reign of our Divine Redeemer may be known and enjoyed throughout the whole family of mankind."
• Proclamation for a Day of Fasting and Prayer, March 15, 1796.
  ... "And I do exhort the People of all Religious Denominations, to assemble in their respective Congregations on that Day, and with true contrition of Heart, to confess their Sins to God, and implore forgiveness through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Saviour ..."
• Harry Alonzo Cushing, editor. The Writings of Samuel Adams. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1908, Vol. IV, p. 407, from his proclamation of March 20, 1797. From a Fast Day Proclamation issued by Governor Samuel Adams, Massachusetts, March 20, 1797.
  "I conceive we cannot better express ourselves than by humbly supplicating the Supreme Ruler of the world that the rod of tyrants may be broken into pieces, and the oppressed made free; that wars may cease in all the earth, and 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 Savior Jesus Christ may be everywhere established, and the people willingly bow to the scepter of Him who is the Prince of Peace."
• William V. Wells, editor. The Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams, being a narrative of his acts and opinions, and of his agency in producing and forwarding the American Revolution. With extracts from his correspondence, state papers, and political essays. Boston: Little, Brown & Co, 1865. Volume 1 of 3. Volume 2 of 3. Volume 3 of 3. LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF SAMUEL ADAMS.
  In the name of God, Amen. I, Samuel Adams of Boston, in the County of Suffolk, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Esquire, being, through Divine goodness, of sound and disposing mind and memory, and considering the uncertainty of human life, do make and ordain this to be my last will and testament, in manner and form following, viz.: Principally and first of all, I recommend my soul to that Almighty Being who gave it, and my body I commit to the dust, relying on the merits of Jesus Christ for a pardon of all my sins; and as to such worldly estate as God hath been pleased to bestow upon me, I give, devise, and dispose of the same in the following manner ..." p. 379.

Minister and college president.

• Christianity and Civil Government: A Discourse delivered on Sabbath evening, November 10, 1850. By Rev. William Adams. New York, C. Scribner, 1851. 48 pp. 22 cm.
• A Discourse on the life and services of Professor Moses Stuart. New-York: J. F. Trow, printer, 1852. 71 pp. 23 cm. Also here.

Pastor.

• Moral View of Rail Roads. A Discourse, delivered on Sabbath morning, Feb. 23, 1851, on the occasion of the opening of the Cleveland and Columbus rail road. Cleveland, Press of Harris, Fairbanks & Co., 1851. 30 pp. 20 cm. with commentary by David Barton.
• Moral View of Rail Roads. A Discourse, delivered on Sabbath morning, Feb. 23, 1851, on the occasion of the opening of the Cleveland and Columbus rail road. Cleveland, Press of Harris, Fairbanks & Co., 1851. 30 pp. 20 cm.

Scottish bookbinder. Read more about Aitken here

• Aitken Bible David Barton: "Prior to the American Revolution, the only English Bibles in the colonies were imported either from Europe or England. Robert Aitken's Bible was the first known English-language Bible to be printed in America, and also the only Bible to receive Congressional approval." Notice.
• Congressional resolution, September 12, 1782, endorsing Robert Aitken's Bible Page 468 and Page 469. Philadelphia: David C. Claypoole, 1782 from the Journals of Congress. Text here. The war with Britain cut off the supply of Bibles to the United States with the result that on Sept. 11, 1777, Congress instructed its Committee of Commerce to import 20,000 Bibles from "Scotland, Holland or elsewhere." On January 21, 1781, Philadelphia printer Robert Aitken (1734-1802) petitioned Congress to officially sanction a publication of the Old and New Testament which he was preparing at his own expense. Congress "highly approve the pious and laudable undertaking of Mr. Aitken, as subservient to the interest of religion . . . in this country, and . . . they recommend this edition of the bible to the inhabitants of the United States." This resolution was a result of Aitken's successful accomplishment of his project.
• The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: Newly translated out of the Original Tongues. . . . . Philadelphia: printed and sold by R. Aitken, 1782. Aitken published Congress's recommendation of September 1782 and related documents (Item 115) as an imprimatur on the two pages following his title page. Aitken's Bible, published under Congressional patronage, was the first English language Bible published on the North American continent.

Modern author.

• "Christianity and the Constitution". Simon Greenleaf Law Review, v. 7. 1987. pp. 235-237.

Presbyterian clergyman.

• Princeton College During the Eighteenth Century. New York, A. D. F. Randolph, 1872. xv, 326 pp.

• An Oration on the beauties of liberty, or The Essential rights of the Americans. Delivered at the Second Baptist-Church in Boston, upon the last annual thanksgiving, Dec. 3d, 1772. Dedicated to the Right Honourable the Earl of Dartmouth. Published by the earnest request of many. By a British Bostonian. The fourth edition, carefully corrected by the author, in which are many additions, particularly those four pages which were left out of the last editions. With some strictures on the eternal right of mankind, liberty of conscience. And remarks on the rights and liberties of the Africans, inserted by particular desire. xxix, 30-80 p. 19 cm. (4to)

Clergyman. Read more about Allen here.

• The American Biographical Dictionary: Containing an account of the lives, characters, and writings of the most eminent persons deceased in North ... . 3rd edition. Boston, 1857. 914 pp.
• Strength out of Weakness, or, a Glorious Manifestation of the further progress of the Gospel among the Indians in New England. New York; (New York), 1865. 82 pp.
• An Address, delivered at Northampton, Mass., on the evening of Oct. 29, 1854, in commemoration of the close of the second century since the settlement of the town. Northampton, 1855. 55 pp.

Statesman. Read more about Allen here.

• Speech of Hon. William Allen of Ohio, on confiscation and emancipation: delivered in the House of Representatives of the United States, April 24, ... . Washington, D.C, 1862. 15 pp.

Educator. Read more about Allen here.

• Our Country's Mission in History: An address delivered at the anniversary of the Philomathæan society of Pennsylvania college, September 19, 1855. Philadelphia, 1855. 37 pp.

Illinois U. S. Representative. Read about Allen here and here.

• Speech of Hon. William J. Allen of Illinois upon the President's message, Delivered in the House of Representatives, January 27, 1864. Washington, 1864. 14 pp.

Lawyer. Editor of the Missouri Republican. Read about Allen here.

• An Oration, delivered in Newburyport, on the fifty-fourth anniversary of the Declaration of American Independence. Newburyport [Mass.], 1830. 20 pp.

French Protestant divine. Read more about Allix here.

• A Discourse concerning penance: shewing how the doctrine of it, in the Church of Rome, makes void true repentance. London: Printed for Ric. Chiswell, 1688. 45, [1] pp.
• Animadversions on Mr. Hill's book entituled, A vindication of the primitive fathers, against the imputations of Gilbert, Lord Bishop of Sarum: in a letter to a person of quality. London: Printed for Ri. Chiswell ..., 1695. [4], 65, [3] pp.
• A Discourse concerning the merit of good works. London: Printed for Richard Chiswell, 1688. [4], 32 pp.
• An Examination of the Scruples of those who refuse to take the oath of allegiance by a divine of the Church of England. London: Printed for Richard Chiswell, 1689. [4], 34, [2] pp. Yale University Library.
• An Historical Discourse concerning the necessity of the ministers intention in administring the sacraments. London: Printed for Richard Chiswell, 1688. [2], 68, [2] pp. Union Theological Seminary (New York, N. Y.) Library.
• The Judgement of the ancient Jewish church, against the Unitarians. in the controversy upon the holy Trinity, and the divinity of our Blessed Saviour : with A table of matters, and A table of texts of scriptures occasionally explain'd / by a divine of the Church of England. London: Printed for Ri. Chiswell, 1699. [2], xxii, 460, [16] pp.
• A Letter to a friend concerning the behaviour of Christians under the various revolutions of state-governments. London: Printed for Rich. Chiswell, 1693. [5], 28 pp.
• A Preparation for the Lord's Supper: to which are added Maxims of true Christianity / written originally in French, by P. Allix; Englished by P. Lorrain Published/distributed: London: Printed for Brab. Aylmer, 1668. [12], 116 pp.
• Reflections upon the opinions of some modern divines concerning the nature of government in general, and that of England in particular: with an appendix relating to this matter, containing I. the seventy fifth canon of the Council of Toledo II. the original articles in Latin, out of which the Magna charta of King John was framed III. the true Magna charta of King John in French ... / all three Englished. London: Printed for R. Chiswell, 1689. [12], 248 [i.e. 148] pp.
• Reflexions upon the books of the Holy Scriptures to establish the truth of the Christian religion. Volume I: in two volumes. London: Printed for Richard Chiswell, 1688. [19], 323 pp.
• Remarks upon the ecclesiastical history of the antient churches of the Albigenses. London: Printed for Richard Chiswell, 1692. [20], 256 pp.
• Some Remarks upon the ecclesiastical history of the ancient churches of Piedmont. London : Printed for Richard Chiswell, 1690. [23], 331 pp. Union Theological Seminary (New York, N. Y.) Library.

English journalist and writer. Read about Almon here.

• The Charters of the British colonies in America. London, [1774?]. 144 pp.
• A Collection of interesting, authentic papers, relative to the dispute between Great Britain and America: shewing the causes and progress of that misunderstanding, from 1764 to 1775. London, 1777. 286 pp.

Read more about the American Anti-Slavery Society here.

• The Legion of Liberty! and Force of Truth: Containing the thoughts, words, and deeds of some prominent apostles, champions and martyrs. Second edition. New York, 1842. 418 pp.

• American State Papers 01, Foreign Relations Volume 1; 3rd Congress, 1st Session, Publication No. 81. France. Communicated to the Senate, February 26, 1794. United States, February 26, 1794.
• American State Papers 028, Public Lands Volume 1; 5th Congress, 2nd Session, Publication No. 40. Progress of surveys northwest of the Ohio. Communicated to the Senate, May 3, 1798.
• American State Papers 028 Public Lands Volume 1, p. 263-284: tables; 9th Congress, 1st Session Publication No. 126, March 18, 1806. Land titles in Michigan Territory. Communicated to the House of Representatives, the 18th of March, 1806.
• American State Papers 038, Miscellaneous Volume 2; 13th Congress, 2nd Session, Publication No. 364. Application of the Moravian Society of United Brethren for indemnity for the destruction of the Indian village on the river Thames, by the American Army. Communicated to the Senate, February 18, 1814.
• American State Papers 030 Public Lands Volume 3, p. 423-426; 16th Congress, 1st Session, Publication No. 311; February 24, 1820. Claim of the Stockbridge Indians to lands in Indiana. Communicated to the House of Representatives, February 24, 1820.
• American State Papers 08, Indian Affairs Volume 2; 16th Congress, 2nd Session, Publication No. 168. Expenditures for the Indian department since the declaration of independence. Communicated to the Senate, December 7, 1820.
• American State Papers 021, Military Affairs Volume 6; 24th Congress, 1st Session, Publication No. 651. On the want of moral and religious instruction in the Army. Communicated to the Senate, February 25, 1836.
• American State Papers 02, Foreign Relations Volume 2, p. 240-244, 6th Congress, 1st Session, Publication No. 154; December 5, 1799. France. Communicated to Congress, December 5, 1799. Tallyrand on Thomas Paine.

The American's guide: The Constitutions of the United States of America, with the latest amendments: also the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, with the federal Constitution, and acts for the government of the territories. New-York: Evert Duyckinck, 1813; G. Long. 392 pp. 15 cm.

• The American's Own Book, containing the Declaration of Independence, with the Lives of the Signers: The Constitution of the United States, The inaugural addresses and first annual messages of all the presidents from Washington to Pierce, the farewell addresses of George Washington and Andrew Jackson, with a portrait and life of each president of the United States, to the present time. New York, 1855. 495 pp.
• John Reynolds Bigelow. The American's Own Book, or, The Constitutions of the several states in the Union: embellished with the seals of the different states. New-York, 1849. 566 pp.

U. S. Representative. Read more about Ames here, here and here.

• The Speech of Mr. Ames, in the House of Representatives of the United States, when in committee of the whole, on Thursday, April 28, 1796, in support of the following motion: Resolved, that it is expedient to pass the laws necessary to carry into effect the treaty lately concluded between the United States and the King of Great Britain. Boston, Printed by Jno. & J.N. Russell, Quaker-Lane, sold by them; at Nancrede's book-store, Marlborough-Street, and of the other booksellers in town. (Price 25 cents.), [1796]. 52 pp. 22 cm. (8vo)
• Pelham W. Ames, editor. Speeches of Fisher Ames in Congress, 1789-1796 . Boston, 1871. 164 pp.
• Seth Ames, editor. Works of Fisher Ames: with a selection from his speeches and correspondence. Second edition. Boston, 1854. 422 pp. Volume 1 of 2.
• Seth Ames, editor. Works of Fisher Ames: with a selection from his speeches and correspondence. Second edition. Boston, 1854. 444 pp. Volume 2 of 2.
• Works of Fisher Ames, compiled by a number of his friends; to which are prefixed notices of his life and character. Boston: T.B. Wait, 1809. xxxi, 519 pp.: port.; 24 cm. Notices of His Life and Character.
• Works of Fisher Ames, Boston, 1809. School Books, first published in the Palladium, January 1801.

  "It has been the custom, of late years, to put a number of little books into the hands of children, containing fables and moral lessons. This is very well, because it is right first to raise curiosity, and then to guide it. Many books for children are, however, injudiciously compiled: the language is too much raised above the ideas of that tender age; the moral is drawn from the fable, they know not why; and when they gain wisdom from experience, they will see the restrictions and exceptions which are necessary to the rules of conduct laid down in their books, but which such books do not give. Some of the most admired works of this kind abound with a frothy sort of sentiment, as the readers of novels are pleased to call it, the chief merit of which consists in shedding tears, and giving away money. Is it right, or agreeable to good sense, to try to make the tender age more tender? Pity and generosity, though amiable impulses, are blind ones, and, as we grow older, are to be managed by rules, and restrained by wisdom.
  "... Why then, if these books for children must be retained, as they will be, should not the bible regain the place it once held as a school book? Its morals are pure, its examples captivating and noble. The reverence for the sacred book, that is thus early impressed, lasts long; and, probably, if not impressed in infancy, never takes firm hold of the mind. One consideration more is important. In no book is there so good English, so pure and so elegant; and by teaching all the same book, they will speak alike, and the bible will justly remain the standard of language as well as of faith. A barbarous provincial jargon will be banished, and taste, corrupted by pompous Johnsonian affectation, will be restored."

• Works of Fisher Ames. Boston, 1809. Eulogy on Washington. Delivered, at the request of the legislature of Massachusetts, February 8, 1800. "Our liberty depends on our education, our laws, and habits, ... it is founded on morals and religion, whose authority reigns in the heart, and on the influence all these produce on publick opinion, before that opinion governs rulers."
• A Sketch of the character of Alexander Hamilton. Boston: Printed at the Repertory office, 1804. 15 pp.; 21 cm.
• The Influences of Democracy on liberty, property, and the happiness of society considered. London: 1835. 226 pp.
• An Oration on the sublime virtues of Gen. George Washington: Pronounced at the Old South Meeting-House in Boston, before his Honor the lieutenant-governor, the Council, and the two branches of the legislature of Massachusetts. At their request, on Saturday, the 8th of February, 1800. / By Fisher Ames. New-York: Printed for Charles Smith and S. Stephens, 1800. 31, [1] pp.; 20 cm. (8vo)
• John Quincy Adams. American Principles: A review of Works of Fisher Ames. Boston, 1809. 55 pp.

• An Oration, delivered in St. Paul's Church, Augusta, on the Fourth of July, eighteen hundred and one. Augusta [Ga.]: Printed by William J. Bunce., 1801. [6], [3]-23, [1] pp.; 21 cm. (8vo)

United States Major, commander of Fort Sumter at the start of the Civil War. Read about Anderson here and here.

• Lawton, Eliza McIntosh Clinch (Anderson), 1848-1919. Major Robert Anderson and Fort Sumter, 1861. New York: The Knickerbocker press, 1911. Also here. Text-searchable.
  "To all children of the present day, I commit this brief sketch of the services rendered by Major Anderson to his country during the bombardment of Fort Sumter. Let his example of devotion as a Christian, as a soldier, and as a patriot be for you a guide and incentive. Never forget that this Christian soldier loved his country next to his God."
• In God is our Trust. From Cleveland Daily Herald, May 25, 1861. Second column.
  "The pupils of the district free schools in Cincinnati, numbering one thousand children, called upon Major Anderson. As the Major entered the reception room the whole force struck up the Star Spangled Banner. Major Anderson, in response to the song, said: 'I call your attention, children, to one expression in the song you have just sung, 'In God is our trust.' To be successful in this life, we must put our trust in God. If you will obey his commands, you will be good men, good citizens, and good soldiers. At Fort Sumter I placed my trust in God, and through Him I obtained my safe deliverance. Trust in God, children, while you live'."
• In God is our Trust. From Daily National Intelligencer, June 19, 1861.

Influential early church writer. Read more about Aquinas here.

• The Summa Theologica, here and here.
• "Treatise on Law," from The Summa Theologica.
• Works at ccel.org.
• Gelinas, Elmer. "The Natural law according to Thomas Aquinas." Simon Greenleaf Law Review, n. 2. 1982. pp. 13-36.
• Archibald Alexander. "Thomas Aquinas and the Encyclical Letter.". The Princeton Review. / Volume 1, Jan Jun 1880, pp. 245-261.

Congregational clergyman.

• Religion the Glory of a Community, A Sermon preached on the day of general election at Montpelier, October 10, 1816, before the honorable legislature of Vermont. Montpelier, Vt.: Printed by Walton and Goss, 1816. 27 pp.; 21 cm.

Baptist preacher. Delegate to the First Continental Congress. Founded Rhode Island College, later Brown University. Learn about Backus here.

• A History of New-England, with particular reference to the denomination of Christians called Baptists. Containing the first principles and settlements of the country; the rise and increase of the Baptist churches therein; the intrusion of arbitrary power under the cloak of religion; the Christian testimonies of the Baptists and others against the same, with their sufferings under it, from the begining [sic] to the present time. Collected from most authentic records and writings, both ancient and modern. By Isaac Backus, Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Middleborough. [Four lines of quotations]. Vol. 1 of 3. Boston, 1777[-1796]. 575 pp.
• A Church history of New-England, with particular reference to the denomination of Christians called Baptists. Containing the first principles and settlements of the country; the rise and increase of the Baptist churches therein; the intrusion of arbitrary power under the cloak of religion; the Christian testimonies of the Baptists and others against the same, with their sufferings under it, from the begining [sic] to the present time. Collected from most authentic records and writings, both ancient and modern. By Isaac Backus, Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Middleborough. [Four lines of quotations]. Vol. 2 of 3. Extending from 1690, to 1784. Boston, 1777[-1796]. 447 pp.
• A Church history of New-England. Extending from 1783 to 1796. Vol. III. By Isaac Backus, Boston [Mass.], 1796. 336 pp. Vol. 3 of 3.
• A Seasonable plea for liberty of conscience, against some late oppressive proceedings; particularly in the town of Berwick, in the county of York. Boston, 1770. 46 pp.
• Spiritual ignorance causeth men to counter-act their doctrinal knowledge. A discourse from Acts xiii. 27. By Isaac Backus, Pastor of a church of Providence, in New-England, M.DCC.LXIII. [1763]. 31 pp.
• True faith will produce good works. A discourse, wherein are opened the nature of faith, and its powerful influence on the heart and life; Boston, 1767. 93 pp.
• A Fish caught in his own net. An examination of nine sermons, from Matt. 16. 18. published last year, by Mr Joseph Fish of Stonington; wherein he labours to prove, that those called standing churches in New-England, are built upon the rock, and upon the same principles with the first fathers of this country: and that Separates and Baptists are joining with the gates of hell against them. In answer to which; many of his mistakes are corrected; the constitution of those churches opened; the testimonies of prophets and apostles, and also of many of those fathers are produced, which as plainly condemn his plan, as any Separate or Baptist can do. By Isaac Backus. Pastor of a church of Christ in Middleborough. [Six lines of quotations]. Boston, MDCCLXVIII. [1768].
• An Appeal to the public for religious liberty, against the oppressions of the present day. [Three lines from Galatians]. Boston, MDCCLXXIII. [1773]. 62 pp.
• An Appeal to the Public for Religious Liberty Against the Oppressions of the Present Day.

  The true liberty of man is, to know, obey and enjoy his Creator, and to do all the good unto, and enjoy all the happiness with and in his fellow-creatures that he is capable of; in order to which the law of love was written in his heart, which carries in it's nature union and benevolence to being in general, and to each being in particular, according to it's nature and excellency, and to it's relation and connexion to and with the supreme Being, and ourselves. Each rational soul, as he is a part of the whole system of rational beings, so it was and is, both his duty and his liberty to regard the good of the whole in all his actions. To love ourselves, and truly to seek our own welfare, is both our liberty and our indispensible duty; but the conceit that man could advance either his honor or happiness, by disobedience instead of obedience, was first injected by the father of lies, and all such conceits ever since are as false as he is.

• Government and liberty described: and ecclesiastical tyranny exposed. Massachusetts-state: Boston, [1778]. 19 pp.
• Policy, as well as honesty, forbids the use of secular force in religious affairs. Massachusetts-state: Boston, 1779. 25 pp.
• An Address to the inhabitants of New-England, concerning the present bloody controversy therein. Boston: Printed and sold by S. Hall, 1787. 6 pp.; 19 cm.
• Hovey, Alvah. A Memoir of the life and times of the Rev. Isaac Backus, A.M.. Boston, 1858. 381 pp.

• Barnes vs. Inhabitants of the First Parish in Falmouth. N.p., c.1810. 16 pp. Contained in 6 Mass. Reports, p. 404, &c.
  "The object of a free civil government is the promotion and security of the happiness of the citizens. These effects cannot be produced, but by the knowledge and practice of our moral duties, which comprehend all the social and civil obligations of man to man, and the citizen to the State. If the civil magistrate in any State, could procure by his regulations an uniform practice of these duties, the government of that State would be perfect.
  "To obtain that perfection, it is not enough for the magistrate to define the rights of the several citizens, as they are related to life, liberty, property and reputation, and to punish those by whom they may be invaded. Wise laws, made to this end, and faithfully executed, may leave the people strangers to many of the enjoyments of civil and social life, without which their happiness will be extremely imperfect. Human laws cannot oblige to the performance of the duties of imperfect obligation; as the duties of charity and hospitality, benevolence and good neighbourhood; as the duties resulting from the relation of husband and wife, parent and child; of man to man as children of a common parent; and of real patriotism, by influencing every citizen to love his country, and to obey all its laws. These are moral duties, flowing from the disposition of the heart, and not subject to the control of human legislation.
  "Neither can the laws prevent by temporal punishment, secret offences committed without witness, to gratify malice, revenge, or any other passion, by assailing the most important and most estimable rights of others. For human tribunals cannot proceed against any crimes unless ascertained by evidence; and they are destitute of all power to prevent the commission of offences, unless by the feeble examples exhibited in the punishment of those who may be detected.
  "Civil government, therefore, availing itself only of its own powers, is extremely defective; and unless it could derive assistance from some superior power, whose laws extend to the temper and disposition of the human heart, and before whom no offence is secret; wretched indeed would be the state of man under a civil constitution of any form.
  "This most manifest truth has been felt by legislators in all ages; and as man is born not only a social but a religious being, so in the pagan world, false and absurd systems of religion were adopted and patronized by the magistrate, to remedy the defects necessarily existing in a government merely civil.
  "On these principles tested by the experience of mankind, and by the reflections of reason, the people of Massachusetts, in the frame of their government, adopted and patronized a religion, which by its benign and energetic influences, might co-operate with human institutions, to promote and secure the happiness of the citizens, so far as might be consistent with the imperfections of man.
  "In selecting a religion, the people were not exposed to the hazard of choosing a false and defective religious system; Christianity had long been promulgated, its pretensions and excellencies well known, and its divine authority admitted. This religion was found to rest on the basis of immortal truth; to contain a system of morals adapted to man in all possible ranks and conditions, situations and circumstances, by conforming to which he would be ameliorated and improved in all the relations of human life; and to furnish the most efficacious sanctions, by bringing to light a future state of retribution. And this religion as understood by Protestants, tending by its effects to make every man, submitting to its influences, a better husband, parent, child, neighbour, citizen and magistrate, was, by the people, established as a fundamental and essential part of their Constitution.
  "The manner in which this establishment was made, is liberal, and consistent with the rights of conscience on religious subjects. As religious opinions, and the time and manner of expressing the homage due to the Governor of the Universe, are points depending on the sincerity and belief of each individual, and do not concern the public interest, care is taken in the second article of the Declaration of Rights, to guard these points from the interference of the civil magistrate; and no mall can be hurt, molested or restrained in his person, liberty or estate, for worshipping God in the manner and season most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience, or for his religious profession or sentiment, provided he does not disturb the public peace, or obstruct others in their religious worship; in which case he is punished, not for his religious opinions or worship, but because he interrupts others in the enjoyment of the rights he claims for himself, or because he has broken the public peace.
  "Having secured liberty of conscience, on the subject of religious opinion and worship for every man, whether Protestant or Catholic, Jew, Mahometan or Pagan, the Constitution then provides for the public teaching of the precepts and maxims of the religion of Protestant Christians to all the people. And for this purpose, it is made the right and duty of all corporate religious societies to elect and support a public Protestant teacher of piety, religion and morality; and the election and support of the teacher depend exclusively on the will of a majority of each society incorporated for those purposes. As public instruction requires persons who may be taught, every citizen may be enjoined to attend on some one of those teachers, at times and seasons stated by law, if there be any on whose instructions he can conscientiously attend.
  "In the election and support of a teacher, every member of the corporation is bound by the will of the majority; but as the great object of this provision was to secure the election and support of public Protestant teachers by corporate societies, and some members of any corporation might be of a sect or denomination of Protestant Christians different from the majority of the members, and might choose to unite with other Protestant Christians of their own sect or denomination, in maintaining a public teacher, who by law was entitled to support, and on whose instruction they usually attended; indulgence was granted, that persons thus situated might have the money they contributed to the support of public worship, and of the public teachers aforesaid, appropriated to the support of the teacher, on whose instructions they should attend.
  "Several objections have at times been made to this establishment, which may be reduced to three: that when a man disapproves of ally religion, or of any supposed doctrine of any religion, to compel him by law to contribute money for public instruction in such religion, or doctrine, is an infraction of his liberty of conscience;--that to compel a man to pay for public religious instructions, on which he does not attend, and from which he can, therefore, derive no benefit is unreasonable and intolerant; -- and that it is anti-Christian for any State to avail itself of the precepts and maxims of Christianity to support civil government; because the founder of it has declared, that his kingdom is not of this world.
  "These objections go to the authority of the people to make this Constitution, which is not proper nor competent for us to bring into question. And although we are not able, and have no inclination to assume the character of theologians, yet it may not be improper to make a few short observations, to defend our Constitution from the charges of persecution, intolerance and impiety.
  "When it is remembered, that no man is compellable to attend on any religious instruction, which he conscientiously disapproves; and that he is absolutely protected in the most perfect freedom of conscience in his religious opinions and worship; the first objection seems to mistake a man's conscience for his money, and to deny the State a right of levying and of appropriating the money of the citizens, at the will of the Legislature, in which they are all represented. But as every citizen derives the security of his property, and the fruits of his industry from the power of the State; so, as the price of this protection, he is bound to contribute in common withhis fellow-citizens for the public use, so much of his property and for such public uses, as the State shall direct. And if any individual can lawfully withhold his contribution, because he dislikes the appropriation, the authority of the State to levy taxes would be annihilated; and without money it would soon cease to have any authority. But all monies raised and appropriated for public uses by any corporation, pursuant to powers derived from the State, are raised and appropriated substantially by the authority of the State. And the people in their Constitution, instead of devolving the support of public teachers on the corporations by whom they should be elected, might have directed their support to be defrayed out of the public treasury, to be reimbursed by the levying and collection of state taxes. And against this mode of support, the objection of an individual disapproving of the object of the public taxes, would have the same weight it can have, against the mode of public support through the medium of corporate taxation. In either case, it can have no weight to maintain a charge of persecution for conscience sake. The great error lies in not distinguishing between liberty of conscience in religious opinions and worship, and the right of appropriating money by the State. The former is an unalienable right, the latter is surrendered to the State as the price of protection.
  "The second objection is, that it is intolerant to compel a man to pay for religious instruction, from which, as he does not hear it, he can derive no benefit. This objection is founded wholly in mistake. The object of public religious instruction is, to teach and to enforce by suitable arguments, the practice of a system of correct morals among the people, and to form and cultivate reasonable and just habits and manners; by which every man's person and property are protected from outrage; and his personal and social enjoyments promoted and multiplied. From these effects every man derives the most important benefits, and whether he be or be not an auditor of any public teacher, he receives more solid and permanent advantages from this public instruction, than the administration of justice in courts of law can give him. The like objection may be made by any man to the support of public schools if he have no family who attend; and any man who has no law suit may object to the support of judges and jurors on the same ground; when if there were no courts of law, he would unfortunately find that causes for law suits would sufficiently abound.
  "The last objection is founded upon the supposed anti-Christian conduct of the State, in availing itself of the precepts and maxims of Christianity, for the purposes of a more excellent civil government. It is admitted that the founder of this religion did not intend to erect a temporal dominion, agreeably to the prejudices of his countrymen; but to reign in the hearts of men by subduing their irregular appetites and propensities, and by moulding their passions to the noblest purposes. And it is one great excellence of his religion, that not pretending to worldly pomp and power, it is calculated and accommodated to ameliorate the conduct and condition of man under any form of civil government.
  "The objection goes further, and complains that Christianity is not left for its Promulgation and support, to the means designed by its author, who requires not the assistance of man to effect his purposes and intentions. Our Constitution certainly provides for the punishment of many breaches of the laws of Christianity; not for the purpose of propping up the Christian religion, but because those breaches are offences against the laws of the State; and it is a civil, as well as religious duty of the magistrate, not to bear the sword in vain. But there are many precepts of Christianity, of which the violation cannot be punished by human laws; and as the obedience to them is beneficial to civil society, the State has wisely taken care that they should be taught and also enforced by explaining their moral and religious sanctions, as they cannot be enforced by temporal punishments. And from the genius and temper of this religion, and from the benevolent character of its author, we must conclude that it is his intention, that man should be benefited by it in his civil and political relations, as well as in his individual capacity And it remains for the objector to prove, that the patronage of Christianity by the civil magistrate induced by the tendency of its Precepts to form good citizens, is not one of the means, by which the knowledge of its doctrines was intended to be disseminated and preserved among the human race.
  "The last branch of the objection rests on the very correct position, that the faith and precepts of the Christian religion are so interwoven that they must be taught together; whence it is inferred, that the State by enjoining instruction in its precepts, interferes with its doctrines, and assumes a Power not entrusted to any human authority.
  "If the State claimed the absurd power of directing or controlling the faith of the citizens, there might be some ground for the objection. But no such power is claimed. The authority derived from the Constitution extends no further than to submit to the understandings of the people, the evidence of truths deemed of public utility, leaving the weight of the evidence and the tendency of those truths, to the conscience of every man.
  "Indeed this objection must come from a willing objector; for it extends in its consequences, to prohibit the State from providing for public instruction in many branches of useful knowledge which naturally tend to defeat the arguments of infidelity, to illustrate the doctrines of the Christian religion, and to confirm the faith of its professors.
  "As Christianity has the promise not only of this, but of a future life; it cannot be denied that public instruction in piety, religion and morality by Protestant teachers, may have a beneficial effect beyond the present state of existence. And the people are to be applauded, as well for their benevolence as for their wisdom, that in selecting a religion, whose precepts and sanctions might supply the defects in civil government, necessarily limited in its power, and supported only by temporal penalties, they adopted a religion founded in truth; which in its tendency will protect our property here, and may secure to us an inheritance in another and a better country."
  
• Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In the House of Representatives, Feb. 8th, 1811. Ordered, that the reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Judicial Court be requested to lay before this House a copy of the report of the case of Thomas Barnes, plaintiff against the First Parish in the town of Falmouth. Boston, February 14, 1811. Sir, I enclose, herewith a copy of the report ... Dudley A. Tyng, reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Judicial Court. . At the Supreme Judicial Court, May term, 1810, in Cumberland. 18 pp.

Army officer and politician.

• Colonel Barré's Speech in the British Parliament, 1765, on the Stamp-Act Bill. Published in The Columbian Orator, 1797 (This is the 15th Edition, April 1812).

• Lives of Illustrious Men of America, distinguished in the annals of the republic as legislators, warriors, and Philosophers. Cincinnati, W. A. Clarke, 1859. 934 pp. Also here.

American physician and statesman. Delegate to the Continental Congress for New Hampshire. Signer of the Declaration of Independence. Later, Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court of Judicature and Governor of New Hampshire. Read about Bartlett here, here and here.

Proclamation for a Day of Fasting and Prayer, March 17, 1792. "... I do ernestly recommend it to Ministers and People of all denominations, to assemble on that day in their usual places of public worship, and with true contrition of heart, to confess before God their aggravated transgressions and to implore his pardon and forgiveness through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ ... And above all, that the knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ may be made known to all nations, pure and undefiled religion universally prevail, and the earth be fill with the glory of the Lord."

Founder of Wallbuilders. Read about Barton here.

• Affidavit in Support of the Ten Commandments Footnoted version, PDF file: here.
• Is America No Longer a Christian Nation? Posted April 2009. Topics covered: Defining a Christian Nation; American Presidents Affirm that America is a Christian Nation; The U. S. Congress Affirms that America is a Christian Nation; The Judicial Branch Affirms that America is a Christian Nation; American Jewish Leaders Agree with History.
• Five Judicial Myths. Posted February 2009. 1. The Judiciary is not a Co-Equal Branch of Government. 2. The Judiciary is not to Be an Independent Branch of Government. 3. The Judiciary is not the Sole Branch Capable of Determining Constitutionality. 4. Federal Judges do not Hold Lifetime Appointments. 5. The Purpose of the Supreme Court is not to Protect the Minority from the Majority, And Congress is a Better Protector of Minority Rights than is the Judiciary.
• John Locke: Deist or Theologian?
• Franklin's Appeal for Prayer at the Constitutional Convention .
• Was George Washington a Christian?
• Christmas With the Presidents. Posted December 2008.
• Letters Between the Danbury Baptists and Thomas Jefferson.
• The Founders as Christians.
• The Founders on Gambling.
• The Founders and Public Religious Expressions.
• The Founders on Public Religious Expression.
• The Founding Fathers on Jesus, Christianity and the Bible.
• The Founding Fathers and Slavery.
• George Washington, Thomas Jefferson & Slavery in Virginia.
• Confronting Civil War Revisionism: Why The South Went To War. Posted December 2008.
• 4th of July Article.
• Importance of Morality and Religion in Government.
• The Importance of Voting and Christian Involvement in the Political Arena.
• Republic v. Democracy.
• Thanksgiving in America. Posted November 2002.
• Celebrating Thanksgiving In America. Posted November 2008.
• Treaty of Tripoli.
• Was the American Revolution a Biblically Justified Act?
• The Practical Benefit of Christianity.

Vicar of Whaplode.

• The Necessity and advantage of religious principles in the soldiery. A military sermon, preached before Sir George Savile's regiment of Yorkshire. London, 1778. 18 pp.

Puritan divine. Learn more about Baxter here and here.

• A Call to the unconverted to turn and live and accept of mercy while mercy may be had, as ever they would find mercy in the day of their extremity. From the living God. By his unworthy servant Richard Baxter. To be read in families where any are unconverted. London: printed for N. Simmons at the Princes Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard, 1678. [38], 188, 38 pp. Folger Shakespeare Library. Welsh version -- see also here.
• Causes and Danger -- see also here.
• Practical Works (ZIP file) -- see also here.
• Christian Biography -- Part 1; Part 2

• A Sermon delivered before His Excellency Jonas Galusha, Esquire, governor of the state of Vermont, at Montpelier on the day of general election, Oct. 8, 1812. Montpelier, Vt.: Wright and Sibley, 1812. 24 pp.
• Election Sermon (1812). Introduction by David Barton.

Read about Bedford here and here. Disclaimer: He served as Grand Master of the Delaware Masonic Lodge.

• Funeral Oration Upon the Death of General George Washington. Wilmington: James Wilson, 1800.
  "To the triune God - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost - be ascribed all honor and dominion, forevermore - Amen." p. 18.

Massachusetts governor. Read more about Governor Belcher here, here and here.

• Governor Jonathan Belcher's Proclamation for Day of Thanksgiving (1730).
• By His Excellency Jonathan Belcher, Esq, ... A proclamation for a publick thanksgiving: ... Thursday the twelfth of November next ... Given at the Council chamber in Roxbury the fourteenth day of October 1730.
• "November Thanksgiving Thursday": Origins of Fourth Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day (includes Governor Jonathan Belcher's Proclamation for Day of Thanksgiving (1749)).
• Governor Jonathan Belcher's Proclamation for Day of Prayer (1731).
• By His Excellency Jonathan Belcher Esq; ... A proclamation for a general thanksgiving: ... Thursday the twenty-eighth of this instant October ... Given at the Council chamber in Boston the fifth day of October 1731.
• Governor Jonathan Belcher's Proclamation for Day of Prayer (1734).
• By His Excellency Jonathan Belcher, Esq; ... A proclamation for a publick thanksgiving ... Thursday the seventh day of November next.
• Governor Jonathan Belcher's Proclamation for Day of Prayer (1735).
• By His Excellency Jonathan Belcher, Esq; ... A proclamation for a publick fast : ... Thursday the twenty-seventh day of March next ... Given at the Council chamber in Boston, the twenty-fifth day of February 1734 [1735 N.S.]
• Governor Jonathan Belcher's Proclamation for Day of Thanksgiving (1730).
• Governor Jonathan Belcher's Proclamation Concerning International Peace Treaty (1730) .
• By His Excellency Jonathan Belcher, Esq; ... A proclamation: Whereas a treaty of peace, union, friendship & mutual defence between the crowns of Great Britain, France & Spain was concluded at Seville on the ninth day of November one thousand seven hundred & twenty-nine ... Given at the Council chamber in Boston the [illegible] day of August 1730.
• Governor Jonathan Belcher's Proclamation for Declaratory Judgment for Restitution to Victims of Pirates (1731).
• By His Excellency Jonathan Belcher, Esq; ... A proclamation: Whereas His Majesty hath received repeated complaints, that the trade of his subjects in the West-Indies, and else-where, suffers much damage and molestation from piratical vessels ... Given at the Council chamber in Boston, the sixth day of April, 1731.
• Governor Jonathan Belcher's Proclamation for Bringing a Criminal to Justice (1733).
• By His Excellency Jonathan Belcher, Esq; ... A proclamation for apprehending Gyles du Lake Tidmarsh
• By His Excellency Jonathan Belcher, Esq; ... A proclamation for a publick thanksgiving: ... Thursday the twenty-sixth of October next ... Given at the Council chamber in Boston the twenty-sixth day of September 1732.
• By His Excellency Jonathan Belcher, Esq; ... A proclamation for a general fast: ... Thursday the sixth day of April next ... Given at the Council chamber in Boston the third day of March 1731 [new style, 1732].
• By His Excellency Jonathan Belcher, Esq; ... A proclamation for a general fast: ... Thursday the twenty-sixth day of February next ... Given at the Council chamber in Boston, the thirty-first day of January 1740 [1741 N.S.].
• By His Excellency Jonathan Belcher, Esq; ... A proclamation for a general fast: ... Thursday the twenty-third of April next ... Given at the Council chamber in Boston, the twenty-seventh day of March 1741.
• By His Excellency Jonathan Belcher, Esq; ... A proclamation for a publick thanksgiving: ... Thursday the twenty-second of November next ... Given at the Council chamber in Boston, the thirtieth day of October 1733.
• By His Excellency Jonathan Belcher, Esq; ... A proclamation for a publick thanksgiving: ... Thursday the thirteenth day of November next ... Given at the Council chamber in Boston, the eighth day of October 1735.
• By His Excellency Jonathan Belcher Esq; ... A proclamation for a publick thanksgiving: ... Thursday the seventeenth day of November next ... Given at the Council chamber in Salisbury, the eighteenth day of October 1737.
• By His Excellency Jonathan Belcher Esq; ... A proclamation for a general thanksgiving: ... Thursday the twenty-third day of November next ... Given at the Council chamber in Boston, the twenty-eighth day of October 1738.
• By His Excellency Jonathan Belcher, Esq; ... A proclamation for a Publick Thanksgiving. : ... Thursday the thirteenth day of November next.
• By His Excellency Jonathan Belcher, Esq; ... A proclamation for a general fast: ... Thursday the first day of April next ... Given at the Council chamber in Boston, the twenty-sixth day of February, 1735 [new style, 1736].
• By His Excellency Jonathan Belcher Esq; ... A proclamation for preventing disorders on the Lord's-Day: ... Given at the Council chamber in Boston, the twenty-fifth day of August 1739.
• By His Excellency Jonathan Belcher, Esq ... A proclamation: Whereas the establishment of peace and friendship between His Majesty's subjects, and the Shawanese and Delaware Indians, have been earnestly sought by the government of Pennsylvania, and negociations were actually carrying on for bringing about those salutary purposes, ... Given under my hand and seal, at arms, at the borough of Elizabeth, this twenty-third day of July ... annoque Domini, one thousand seven hundred and fifty-six.
• Governor Jonathan Belcher Promotes Christianity and Morality. "In this speech, Governor Jonathan Belcher called upon government to promote Christianity and to encourage the people to reform their lives and morals. This shows that in Colonial times, an American governor could encourage and promote Christianity! The following excerpt of Governor Belcher's speech of December 16, 1730 is from A Journal of the Honourable House of Representatives, At a Great and General Court of Assembly of His Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England,... (Boston: Thomas Fleet, 1730)."
• Journal of the Honourable House of Representatives, of His Majesty's province of the Massachusetts-Bay, in New-England: begun and held at Cambridge in the county of Middlesex, on Wednesday the twenty-seventh day of May, annoq; Domini, 1730. Boston: Printed by Thomas Fleet, printer to the Honourable House of Representatives, 1730 [i.e., 1730-1731]
• Governor Jonathan Belcher
• Jonathan Belcher: Christian Governor
• The First Biography of Governor Jonathan Belcher
• About Biographies of Governor Jonathan Belcher
• About the Portraits of Governor Jonathan Belcher
• A Good Ruler in the Emerging Trilateral Center
• The Knighthood of Governor Jonathan Belcher
• The King Commissions Governor Jonathan Belcher
• Celebration of Governor Jonathan Belcher's Appointment
• The Arrival of Governor Jonathan Belcher
• Ministers' Address to Governor Jonathan Belcher
• Governor Jonathan Belcher: Founder of Princeton University
• Governor Jonathan Belcher and Harvard College
• Belchertown, Massachusetts: Namesake of Governor Jonathan Belcher
• Governor Jonathan Belcher, Champion of Civil and Religious Liberty
• Belcher Foundation. A research organization focusing on topics including history, education, law, and public policy.

  The Belcher Foundation is named for Governor Jonathan Belcher (1682-1757), a dedicated Christian leader who was the colonial governor of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New Jersey, and the founder of Princeton University at Princeton, New Jersey. The name Belcher is composed of the English/French words "bel" and "cher", which means "good cheer."

  The mission of the Belcher Foundation is to research and educate, to publish the results of this research in a variety of formats, and in general, to promote the Christian worldview espoused by leaders such as Governor Jonathan Belcher. Belcher Foundation also engages in other events and activities to support and promote the work of the Foundation.

• Christian Law Library.
• Christian History Library.
• Historical Biographies.

Lawyer. Read about Benedict here.

• The Beginning of America: A Discourse delivered before the New-York historical society on its fifth-ninth anniversary, Tuesday, November 17, 1863. New-York: Printed by J.F. Trow, 1864. 64 pp.; 25 cm.
• Religion in public schools, A Paper read before the American Association for the Advancement of Education at their third session, held at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, August, 1853. Newark, N.J.: A. Stephen Holbrook, printer, 1854. 26 pp.; 23 cm.

Legal scholar. Learn more about Berman here. Our thanks to Dr. Berman for his permission to offer the items below.

• Love for Justice: The Influence of Christianity upon the Development of Law [PDF -- the Oklahoma Law Review grants permission for non-profits to reproduce this, provided the author and journal is named and notice of copyright is offered]
• Religious Foundations of Law in the West: An Historical Perspective," The Journal of Law And Religion, Volume 1 (1983), pp. 3-43.
• The Western Legal Tradition in a Millennial Perspective: Past and Future," The Edward Douglas White Lecture, Louisiana State University, Louisiana Law Review, Volume 60 (2000), pp. 739-763.

• The Relation of the Sunday-school system to our Christian patriotism: Annual sermon in behalf of the American Sunday-School Union: delivered at Philadelphia, May 16, 1847. Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union, 1847. 25 pp.

Textbook writer. Read about Bingham here.

• The American Preceptor; being a new selection of lessons for reading and speaking: designed for the use of schools. By Caleb Bingham, A.M. Author of the Columbian orator, Child's companion, etc. The first New-York (from the fifth) edition, 1800. iv, [1] 6-228 p. 18 cm. (12mo)
• The Columbian Orator, containing a variety of original and selected pieces; together with rules; calculated to improve youth and others in the ornamental and useful art of eloquence. By Caleb Bingham, A.M. author of The American preceptor, Young lady's accidence, etc. [Three lines from Rollin] Published according to act of Congress. Third edition. 300 p. 18 cm. (12mo)
• The Columbian Orator. 15th edition. Boston, 1812. 287 pp.

  Frederick Douglass: When I was about thirteen years old, and had succeeded in learning to read, every increase of knowledge, especially anything respecting the free states, was an additional weight to the almost intolerable burden of my thought--"I am a slave for life." To my bondage I could see no end. It was a terrible reality, and I shall never be able to tell how sadly that thought chafed my young spirit. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I had earned a little money in blacking boots for some gentlemen, with which I purchased of Mr. Knight, on Thames street, what was then a very popular school book, viz., "The Columbian Orator," for which I paid fifty cents. I was led to buy this book by hearing some little boys say they were going to learn some pieces out of it for the exhibition. This volume was indeed a rich treasure, and every opportunity afforded me, for a time, was spent in diligently perusing it. Among much other interesting matter, that which I read again and again with unflagging satisfaction was a short dialogue between a master and his slave. The slave is represented as having been recaptured in a second attempt to run away; and the master opens the dialogue with an upbraiding speech, charging the slave with ingratitude, and demanding to know what he has to say in his own defense. Thus upbraided and thus called upon to reply, the slave rejoins that he knows how little anything that he can say will avail, seeing that he is completely in the hands of his owner; and with noble resolution, calmly says, "I submit to my fate." Touched by the slave's answer, the master insists upon his further speaking, and recapitulates the many acts of kindness which he has performed toward the slave, and tells him he is permitted to speak for himself. Thus invited, the quondam slave made a spirited defense of himself, and thereafter the whole argument for and against slavery is brought out. The master was vanquished at every turn in the argument, and appreciating the fact he generously and meekly emancipates the slave, with his best wishes for his prosperity. It is unnecessary to say that a dialogue with such an origin and such an end, read by me when every nerve of my being was in revolt at my own condition as a slave, affected me most powerfully. I could not help feeling that the day might yet come, when the well-directed answers made by the slave to the master, in this instance, would find a counterpart in my own experience. This, however, was not all the fanaticism which I found in the Columbian Orator. I met there one of Sheridan's mighty speeches, on the subject of Catholic Emancipation, Lord Chatham's speech on the American War, and speeches by the great William Pitt, and by Fox. These were all choice documents to me, and I read them over and over again, with an interest ever increasing, because it was ever gaining in intelligence; for the more I read them the better I understood them. The reading of these speeches added much to my limited stock of language, and enabled me to give tongue to many interesting thoughts which had often flashed through my mind and died away for want of words in which to give them utterance. The mighty power and heart-searching directness of truth penetrating the heart of a slaveholder, compelling him to yield up his earthly interests to the claims of eternal justice, were finely illustrated in the dialogue, and from the speeches of Sheridan I got a bold and powerful denunciation of oppression and a most brilliant vindication of the rights of man. Here was indeed a noble acquisition. If I had ever wavered under the consideration that the Almighty, in some way, had ordained slavery and willed my enslavement for his own glory, I wavered no longer. I had now penetrated to the secret of all slavery and all oppression, and had ascertained their true foundation to be in the pride, the power, and the avarice of man. With a book in my hand so redolent of the principles of liberty, with a perception of my own human nature and the facts of my past and present experience, I was equal to a contest with the religious advocates of slavery, whether white or black, for blindness in this matter was not confined to the white people. I have met many good religious colored people at the south, who were under the delusion that God required them to submit to slavery and to wear their chains with meekness and humility. I could entertain no such nonsense as this, and I quite lost my patience when I found a colored man weak enough to believe such stuff.

• The Columbian Orator. 1832 edition. Electronic edition: Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Digital Research Library, 1999.
• The Influence of The Columbian Orator.

English Jurist. Knighted in 1770. Read more about Blackstone here and here and here.

• Commentaries on the laws of England: in four books. From the last London edition, with the last corrections of the author. / by Edward Christian. Volume 1 of 4. New-York, 1822. Extracts: Introduction, "On the Study of Law" and "Of the Nature of Laws in General".
  • Commentaries on the laws of England: in four books. From the last London edition, with the last corrections of the author. / by Edward Christian. Volume 1 of 4. New-York, 1822. Extract: The Rights of Persons: Of the Clergy.
  • Commentaries on the laws of England: in four books. From the last London edition., with the last corrections of the author. / by Edward Christian. Volume 4 of 4. New-York, 1822. Extracts: Contents, "Of Offenses Against God and Religion".
  • Commentaries on the laws of England: in four books. From the last London edition, with the last corrections of the author. / by Edward Christian. Volume 4 of 4. New-York, 1822. Extracts: Contents, "Of the Benefit of Clergy".
• Christian, Edward. Preface and "Life of the Author," from Blackstone, William, Commentaries on the laws of England: in four books: with an analysis of the work.. From the 19th London edition. / with a life of the author and notes by Edward Christian, plus Chitty, Lee, Hovenden, and Ryland, and also references to American cases by a member of the New-York Bar."/ Includes bibliographical references and index. New York: W.E. Dean, 1853. Vol. 1 of 2. Analysis of Blackstone's work here.

  "The Commentaries of Blackstone continue to be the text book of the student and of the man of genereal reading, notwithstanding the alterations in the law since the time of their author. The great principles which they unfold remain the same, and are explained in so simple and clear a style, that, however much the details of the law may be changed, they will always be read with interest. It is no small commendation of Blackstone, that many of the modern improvements adopted in England and in the United States were suggested by him: and that the arrangement which he used in treating the different subjects, has been followed in a great degree by the Revisers of the Statutes of New-York.

• William Carey Jones, editor. Commentaries on the Laws of England. San Francisco, Bancroft-Whitney, 1915-1916. Volume 1 of 2. 1598 pp. Volume 2 of 2. 1354 pp.
• Samuel F. Mordecai. Law lectures; a treatise, from a North Carolina standpoint, on those portions of the first and second books of the Commentaries of Sir William Blackstone which have not become obsolete in the United States. Volume 1 of 2. 774 pp. Volume 2 of 2. 760 pp.
• A Reply to Dr. Priestley's Remarks on the fourth volume of the Commentaries on the laws of England. By the author of the Commentaries. London, 1769. 27 pp.
• The Palladium of Conscience; or, The Foundation of religious liberty displayed, asserted, and established, agreeable to its true and genuine principles, above the reach of all petty tyrants, who atempt to lord it over the human mind. Containing Furneaux's Letters to Blackstone. Priestley's Remarks on Blackstone. Blackstone's Reply to Priestley. And Blackstone's Case of the Middlesex-elections; with some other tracts, worthy of high rank in every gentleman's literary repository, being a necessary companion for every lover of religious liberty. And an interesting appendix to Blackstone's Commentaries on the laws of England. 1773. pp. [6], iv, [1], 6-119, [1], xii, 155, [1] p. 23 cm. (8vo and 4to)

Biographer. Learn more about Blake here.

• A Biographical Dictionary Comprising a summary account of the lives of the most distinguished persons of all ages, nations, and professions; including more than two thousand articles of American biography. By the Rev. John L. Blake. 13th edition, revised and enlarged. Philadelphia, H. Cowperthwait & co., 1856. 1366 pp., 28 cm. Includes data on prominent Christians of Blake's era.

Attorney. Read about Booth here.

• Henry E. Dwight, 1832-1908. (Henry Edwin). The Life and character of Edwin Gilliam Booth, a prominent lawyer, legislator and philanthropist. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1886. 76 pp.: port.; 24 cm.

Lawyer-statesman. Read more about Boudinot here.

• The Age of Revelation, or, The Age of reason shewn to be an age of infidelity / by Elias Boudinot. Dickins ed. Philadelphia: Asbury Dickins, 1801 (Philadelphia: Hugh Maxwell) 232 [i.e. 332] pp.; 22 cm.

  "God, in his infinite wisdom, has given us sufficient evidence, that the revelation of the gospel is from him. This is the subject of rational inquiry, and of conviction, from the conclusive nature of the evidence: but when that fact is established, you are bound, as a rational creature, to show your full confidence in his unchangeable veracity, and infinite wisdom, by firmly believing the great truths so revealed; although he has wisely kept from your knowledge, some things which may be mysterious in their nature. In this, his design, amongst others, may be, that thereby the pride of the human heart might be subdued; the human will brought to submit to the will of God; the character of Jehovah magnified and honoured; and his unstained veracity perfectly confided in, and trusted to, while at the same time, the amiable humility of the Christian character, is promoted in the firm believer of his word."

  ... "Far near half a century, have I anxiously and critically studied that invaluable treasure; and I still scarcely ever take it up, that I do not find something new-that I do not receive some valuable addition to my stock of knowledge; or perceive some instructive fact, never observed before. 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. Were you to ask me for one, affording the most rational and pleasing entertainment to the inquiring mind, I should repeat, it is the Bible: and should you renew the inquiry, for the best philosophy, or the most interesting history, I should still urge you to look into your Bible."

• A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875. Letters of Delegates to Congress: Volume 19 August 1, 1782 - March 11, 1783. Elias Boudinot to Susan Boudinot "You have been instructed from your Childhood in the knowledge of your Lost State by Nature--the absolute necessity of a Change of Heart, and an entire renovation of Soul, to the Image of Jesus Christ--of Salvation, thro' his meritorious Righteousness only--and the indispensable necessity of personal Holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. You are well acquainted that the most perfect & consummate Doctrinal Knowledge, is of no avail, without it operates on & sincerely affects the Heart--Changes the Practice--and totally influences the Will--and that without the almighty Power of the Spirit of God, enlightening your Mind, subduing your Will, and continually drawing you to himself--you can do nothing."
  ... "And 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 greatly 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!"
  ... "For nearly half a century have I anxiously and critically studied that invaluable treasure [the Bible]; and I still scarcely ever take it up that I do not find something new - that I do not receive some valuable addition to my stock of knowledge or perceive some instructive fact never observed before. 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. Were you to ask me for one affording the most rational and pleasing entertainment to the inquiring mind, I should repeat, it is the Bible; and should you renew the inquiry for the best philosophy or the most interesting history, I should still urge you to look into your Bible. I would make it, in short, the Alpha and Omega of knowledge."
• An Answer to the Objections of the Managers of the Philadelphia Bible-Society against a meeting of delegates from the Bible societies in the union: to agree on some plan to disseminate the Bible in parts without the United States. Burlington, N.J.: Printed by David Allinson, [1815]. 14 pp.
• An Address delivered before the New-Jersey Bible Society on Tuesday, 27th August, 1811. / by the president of said board. Burlington, N.J.: Printed for the New-Jersey Bible Society by D. Allinson & Co., 1811. 12 pp.
• An Oration, delivered at Elizabeth-Town, New-Jersey, agreeable to a resolution of the state Society of Cincinnati, on the Fourth of July, M.DCC.XCIII. Being the seventeenth anniversary of the independence of America. / By Elias Boudinot, L.L.D.; [Three lines in Latin from Lactantius] Elizabeth-Town [N.J.] Printed by Shepard Kollock, at his printing-office and book-store, 1793. iv, [1], 6-32 pp.; 20 cm. (4to)
  "Do you, my worthy fellow-citizens of every description, wish for more lasting matter of pleasure and satisfaction in contemplating the great events brought to your minds this day? Extend, then, your views to a distant period of future time. Look forward a few years, and behold our extended forests (now a pathless wilderness) converted into fruitful fields and busy towns. Take into view the pleasing shores of our immense lakes, united to the Atlantic States by a thousand winding canals, and beautified with rising cities, crowded with innumerable peaceful fleets, transporting the rich produce from one coast to another.
  "Add to all this, what must most please every humane and benevolent mind, the ample provision thus made by the God of all flesh for the reception of the nations of the earth, flying from the tyranny and oppression of the despots of the Old World,* and say, if the prophecies of ancient times are not hastening to a fulfillment, when this wilderness shall blossom as a rose the heathen be given to the Great Redeemer, as his inheritance, and these uttermost parts of the earth for his possession.
  "Who knows but the country for which we have fought and bled may hereafter become a theatre of greater events than yet have been known to mankind.
  "May these invigorating prospects lead us to the exercise of every virtue, religious, moral, and political. May we be roused to a circumspect conduct to an exact obedience to the laws of our own making to the preservation of the spirit and principles of our truly invaluable constitution to respect and attention to magistrates of our own choice; and, finally, by our example as well as precept, add to the real happiness of our fellow-men, and the particular glory of our common country.
  "And may these great principles, in the end, become instrumental in bringing about that happy state of the world, when, from every human breast, joined by the grand chorus of the skies, shall arise with the profoundest reverence, that divinely celestial anthem of universal praise 'Glory to God in the highest--Peace on earth--Good will towards men.'"

  * It is worthy the attention of every serious mind, who carefully traces the secret footsteps of Divine Providence, that if the late Revolution had not taken place, and America had still continued under the dominion of Great Britain, the unhappy sufferers in the cause of Freedom, both in Europe and the West Indies, would not now have had a spot on tlie globe to which they could, with propriety and safety, have retired, m case of a failure of their exertions in favor of Universal Liberty. Neither can any European nation afford so complete an asylum as the United States for the opposition, in case they should finally be driven from a country which might conceive itself essentially injured by their hostile conduct in the day of her distress.

• United States. Continental Congress. Proclamation. 1783, Apr. 11. By the United States of America in Congress assembled. A proclamation, declaring the cessation of arms, as well by sea as by land, agreed upon between the United States of America and His Britannic Majesty; and enjoining the observance thereof. Done in Congress, at Philadelphia, this eleventh day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty three. Richmond: Printed by James Hayes, printer to the Commonwealth., [1783]. Signed: Elias Boudinot, president. Attest, Charles Thomson, sec'ry. Followed by a proclamation of Benjamin Harrison, governor of Virginia, affirming the proclamation of the Continental Congress. Text in two columns.
• J. J. Boudinot, editor. The Life, Public Services, Addresses, and Letters of Elias Boudinot, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1896, Vol. I, Speech in the First Provincial Congress of New Jersey.
  "Let us enter on this important business under the idea that we are Christians on whom the eyes of the world are now turned" [L]et us earnestly call and beseech Him, for Christ's sake, to preside in our councils. . . . We can only depend on the all powerful influence of the Spirit of God, Whose Divine aid and assistance it becomes us as a Christian people most devoutly to implore. Therefore I move that some minister of the Gospel be requested to attend this Congress every morning . . . in order to open the meeting with prayer." pp. 19, 21.
• J. J. Boudinot, editor. The Life, Public Services, Addresses, and Letters of Elias Boudinot: president of the Continental congress, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1896, Vol. II .

Statesman.

• John D. Adams and John Hallum. Elias Cornelius Boudinot, born August 1, 1835, died September 27, 1890. Chicago: Rand, McNally, 1890. 78 pp.: port.; 20 cm. Signed by John D. Adams./ "Biographical" [sketch / by John Hallum]: pp. 15-32./ Reproduction of original from Harvard Law School Library.

Clergyman. Read more about Bouton here

• Christian Patriotism: An address delivered at Concord, July the fourth, 1825. Concord [N.H.], 1825. 23 pp.

Lawyer, legislator, railroad president.

• Henry Edwin Dwight (1832-1908). The Life and Writings of Hon. Vincent L. Bradford, LL.D., D.C.L., an eminent lawyer, legislator and railroad president. Philadelphia: Printed for private distribution, 1885. vi, 297 pp.: port.; 21 cm.

Plymouth founder. Read more about Bradford here.

• Bradford's History "Of Plimoth Plantation". From the original manuscript. With a report of the proceedings incident to the return of the manuscript to Massachusetts. Printed under the direction of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, by order of the General Court. Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co., State Printers, 1898. lxxvii, 555 pp. front., ports., facsims. 25 cm. Also in Word, PDF

  "I may not here omite how, notwithstand all their great paines & indnstrie, and ye great hops of a large cropp, the Lord seemed to blast, & take away the same, and to threaten further & more sore famine unto them, by a great drought which continued from ye 3. weeke in May, till about ye midle of July, without any raine, and with great heat (for ye most parte), insomuch as ye corne begane to wither away, though it was set with fishe, the moysture wherof helped it much. Yet at length it begane to languish sore, and some of ye drier grounds were partched like withered hay, part wherof was never recovered. Upon which they sett a parte a solemne day of humilliation, to seek ye Lord by humble & fervente prayer, in this great distrese. And he was pleased to give them a gracious & speedy answer, both to their owne, & the lndeans admiration, that lived amongest them. For all ye morning, and greatest part of the day, it was clear weather & very hotte, and not a cloud or any signe of raine to be seen, yet toward evening it begane to overcast, and shortly after to raine, with shuch sweete and gentle showers, as gave them cause of rejoyceing, & blesing God. It came, without either wind, or thunder, or any violence, and by degreese in yt abundance, as that ye earth was thorowly were and soked therwith. Which did so apparently revive & quicken ye decayed Corne & other fruits, as was wonderfull to see, and made ye Indeans astonished to behold; and afterwards the Lord sent them shuch seasonable showers, with enterchange of faire warme weather, as, through his blessing, caused a fruitfull & liberall harvest, to their no small comforte and rejoycing. For which mercie (in time conveniente) they also sett aparte a day of thanksgiveing. This being overslipt in its place, I thought meet here to inserte ye same."

Supreme Court Justice. Read more about Bradley here.

• Miscellaneous Writings of the late Hon. Joseph P. Bradley, associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, with a sketch of his life by his son, Charles Bradley, and a review of his "judicial record" by William Draper Lewis, and an account of his "dissenting opinions" by A.Q. Keasbey. Newark, N.J., 1901. 432pp.

  "Whatever may be our own views, and however well settled and grounded, we cannot, without danger to society and its dearest interests, turn our backs upon the religious institutions which play so important a part in humanizing and refining mankind. No other religious belief, or disbelief, could have done so much for the elevation and refinement of the human race as Christianity has done during the last eighteen hundred years."

• Gilbert Clarke's profile of Bradley

Abolitionist. Read more about Breckinridge here.

• The Nation's Success and Gratitude. Philadelphia, 1864. 23 pp.
• Address to the Colonization Society of Kentucky.
• Our Country--its peril--its deliverance: State of the country. Discourse, delivered on the day of national humiliation, Jan. 4, 1861, at Lexington, Ky.; three articles on the state of the country.

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1890 to 1910. Read about Brewer here and here and here. See also The Supreme Court Historical Society.

• The United States a Christian nation. Philadelphia, Winston, 1905. 98 pp. 20 cm. Haverford library lectures. Contents: The United States a Christian nation.--Our duty as citizens.--The promise and the possibility of the future. Also here.
  ..."I could go on indefinitely, pointing out further illustrations both official and non-official, public and private; such as the annual Thanksgiving proclamations, with their following days of worship and feasting; announcements of days of fasting and prayer; the universal celebration of Christmas; the gathering of millions of our children in Sunday Schools, and the countless volumes of Christian literature, both prose and poetry. But I have said enough to show that Christianity came to this country with the first colonists; has been powerfully identified with its rapid development, colonial and national, and to-day exists as a mighty factor in the life of the republic. This is a Christian nation ..."
  ... "By these and other evidences I claim to have shown that the calling of this republic a Christian nation is not a mere pretence but a recognition of an historical, legal and social truth."
• The Pew for the Pulpit. New York [etc., etc.] Fleming H. Revell co., 1897. 76 pp. 1897. "The substance of the monograph was originally given as an address to the students in the Divinity Department of Yale University ... on April 2d, 1897."
• American Citizenship. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press, 1914. 131 pp.; 20 cm. Yale lectures on the responsibilities of citizenship.

  Still again, this is a Christian nation. Not that the people have made it so by any legal enactment or that there exists an established church, but Christian in the sense that the dominant thought and purpose of the nation accord with the great principles taught by the founder of Christianity. Historically it has developed along the lines of that religion. Its first settlements were in its name, and while every one is welcome, whether a believer in christianity or in any other religion, or in no religion, yet the principles of Christianity are the foundations of our social and political life. It needs no judicial decision to determine this fact.

  The first charter of Virginia, in 1606, recited that it was granted in hopes of the "propagating of christian religion to such people as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge edge and worship of God." The Mayflower compact declared that its colonial settlement was " for the glory of God and for the advancement of the christian faith." The fundamental orders of Connecticut recited that they were established " to maintain and preserve the liberty and the purity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus which we now profess." Running through other colonial charters, in the Declaration of Independence, in the Constitutions of the various States, in the proceedings in courts, and in those official declarations which are the manifestations of the organized will of the nation, there is the constant recognition of the fact that christianity is the underlying thought of our national life.

  We enforce no religion; but the voice of the nation from its beginning to the present hour is in accord with the religion of Christ. Now, whatever else may be said of Christianity one thing is undisputed and indisputable, that christian nations manifest the highest forms of civilized life, and that among professedly christian nations those in which the principles of Christianity have the utmost freedom and power occupy the first place. And surely nowhere has Christianity such freedom and power as in this Republic.

• The Mission of the United States in the Cause of Peace. Boston, International School of Peace, 1910. 23 p. 21 cm. Address before the New Jersey State Bar Association at Atlantic City, N.J., June 12, 1909.

• An Oration, on the propriety of introducing the Science of Jurisprudence into a course of classical education: Pronounced in the Baptist Meeting-House in Providence, at the anniversary commencement of Rhode-Island College, September 6th, A.D. 1797. By Samuel W. Bridgham, a candidate for the degree of Master in the Arts. Published at the request of the students. Providence, Printed by Carter and Wilkinson, 1797. 7 pp. 23 cm. (8vo) Also here.
• An Oration, delivered in the Benevolent Congregational Meeting-House in Providence, on the fourth of July, A.D. 1798, in commemoration of American independence. By Samuel W. Bridgham, A.M.; [Two lines in Latin from Horace]; Published by request Providence: Printed by Carter and Wilkinson, and sold at their book-store, 1798. 12 pp.; 22 cm. (8vo)

Minister.

• America saved, or Divine glory displayed, in the late war with Great Britain: A thanksgiving sermon, preached in Lebanon, Second Society, and now offered to the public, at the desire of a number of the hearers. / By Thomas Brockway, A.M. Pastor of the church in said society. [Five lines of quotations] Hartford: Printed by Hudson and Goodwin., 1784. 24 pp.; 19 cm. (12mo)

Politician. Read about Broom here.

• Jacob Broom Letter.
• William W. Campbell. Life and Character of Jacob Broom. Wilmington, Del.: Historical Society of Delaware, 1909. [24] pp.; 28 cm. Note: "Read before the Historical Society of Delaware, December 21, 1908."

Attorney. Representative from Pennsylvania. Read about Broom here.

• An Address delivered at Castle Garden, Feb. 22, 1854, before the Order of United Americans, on the occasion of their celebration of the one hundred & twenty-second anniversary of the birthday of Washington. New York: Chancery O.U.A. State of New York, 1854. 19 pp.

Lord Chancellor of England. Read about Lord Brougham here.

• A Discourse of Natural Theology: Showing the nature of the evidence and the advantages of the study / by Henry Lord Brougham. London: Charles Knight, 1835. vii, 296 pp.
• An Inquiry into the colonial policy of the European powers. Edinburgh, Printed by D. Willison for E. Balfour, Manners & Miller [etc.], 1803. 2 v. 22 cm.
  
  Volume 1 of 2.
  "The first settlers of all the colonies, says he, were men of irreproachable characters. Many of them fled from persecution; others on account of an honourable poverty; and all of them with their expectations limited to the prospect of a bare subsistence in freedom and peace. All idea of wealth or pleasure was out of the question. The greater part of them viewed their emigration as a taking up of the cross, and bounded their hopes of riches to. the gifts of the spirit, and their ambition to the desire of a kingdom beyond the grave. A set of men more conscientious in their doings, or simple in their manners, never founded any Commonwealth, It is, indeed, continues he, the peculiar glory of North America that with very few exceptions, its empire was originally founded in charity and peace." -- p. 59.
  Volume 2 of 2. Also here.

Baptist minister, Fresno, California.

• Says Executive Should Shine as at [sic] Example; Rev. A. P. Brown Points Out Elevating Influence of Citizenship and Religious Convictions of the Presidents. Fresno Morning Republican, November 5, 1908, p. 2.

American political leader. Read about Bryan here, here, and here.

• Men and Religion Foreward Movement; Young Men's Christian Association. Messages of the men and religion foreward movement ... including the revised reports of the commissions presented at the Congress of the men and religion foreward movement, April, 1912, together with principal addresses delivered at the Congress. 7 vol. New York: Association Press, 1912.
  • Volume 1 of 7. I. Congress Addresses.
  • Volume 2 of 7. II. Social Service.
  • Volume 3 of 7. III. Bible Study -- Evangelism.
  • Volume 4 of 7. IV. Christian Unity -- Missions.
  • Volume 5 of 7. V. Boys Work in the local church.
  • Volume 6 of 7. VI. Rural Church.
  • Volume 7 of 7. VII. The Church and the Press -- Index.
• Bryan on Belief. Christian Observer, June 19, 1907, p. 8.
  "I do not understand all the mysteries of the Bible, but if we live up to all the things in the Bible we can understand we will be kept so busy that we will not have time to worry over the mysterious. My observation is that the people who are all the time worrying about the mysterious things are mighty little concerned about the plainest things in the Bible, that they could apply with profit to themselves. Living in the midst of mystery, I shall not for that reason refuse to accept a religion that will mould our lives for good."
• Miracles, Atonement, and the Fact of Christ. Christian Observer, November 27, 1907, pp. 5-6.
• The menace of Darwinism. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1922. 64 pp.; 19 cm. A reissue of chapter four from the author's volume "In His image," together with comments on the importance of its appeal, reasons for its separate publication and an abstract of the remaining chapters.
• The Second battle or, The new declaration of independence, 1776-1900; an account of the struggle of 1900. Chicago, Ill., 1900. 575 pp. incl. maps. front., plates, ports. 24 cm.
• Speeches of William Jennings Bryan. New York, London, Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909. 2 vol. fronts. (ports.) 18 cm. v. 1. Speeches on taxation and bimetalism. v. 2. Political speeches. Speeches on foreign lands. Educational and religiouus speeches. Miscellaneous speeches. Rev. and arranged by himself. With a biographical introduction by Mary Baird Bryan, his wife.
• The Price of a soul. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1914. 72 pp.; 19 cm.

15th President of the United States. Disclaimer: Buchanan was a Grand Master in the Freemasons. Read about Buchanan here and here.

• "Inaugural Address" (March 4, 1857).
  Fellow-Citizens:
  I appear before you this day to take the solemn oath "that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."
  In entering upon this great office I must humbly invoke the God of our fathers for wisdom and firmness to execute its high and responsible duties in such a manner as to restore harmony and ancient friendship among the people of the several States and to preserve our free institutions throughout many generations. Convinced that I owe my election to the inherent love for the Constitution and the Union which still animates the hearts of the American people, let me earnestly ask their powerful support in sustaining all just measures calculated to perpetuate these, the richest political blessings which Heaven has ever bestowed upon any nation. Having determined not to become a candidate for reelection, I shall have no motive to influence my conduct in administering the Government except the desire ably and faithfully to serve my country and to live in grateful memory of my countrymen.
  ... I shall now proceed to take the oath prescribed by the Constitution, whilst humbly invoking the blessing of Divine Providence on this great people.
• First Annual Message (December 8, 1857).
  Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
  In obedience to the command of the Constitution, it has now become my duty "to give to Congress information of the state of the Union and recommend to their consideration such measures" as I judge to be "necessary and expedient."
  But first and above all, our thanks are due to Almighty God for the numerous benefits which He has bestowed upon this people, and our united prayers ought to ascend to Him that He would continue to bless our great Republic in time to come as He has blessed it in time past.
• Second Annual Message (December 6, 1858).
  Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
  When we compare the condition of the country at the present day with what it was one year ago at the meeting of Congress, we have much reason for gratitude to that Almighty Providence which has never failed to interpose for our relief at the most critical periods of our history.
• Third Annual Message (December 19, 1859).
  Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
  Our deep and heartfelt gratitude is due to that Almighty Power which has bestowed upon us such varied and numerous blessings throughout the past year. The general health of the country has been excellent, our harvests have been unusually plentiful, and prosperity smiles throughout the land. Indeed, notwithstanding our demerits, we have much reason to believe from the past events in our history that we have enjoyed the special protection of Divine Providence ever since our origin as a nation. We have been exposed to many threatening and alarming difficulties in our progress, but on each successive occasion the impending cloud has been dissipated at the moment it appeared ready to burst upon our head, and the danger to our institutions has passed away. May we ever be under the divine guidance and protection.
  ...Self-preservation is the first instinct of nature, and therefore any state of society in which the sword is all the time suspended over the heads of the people must at last become intolerable. But I indulge in no such gloomy forebodings. On the contrary, I firmly believe that the events at Harpers Ferry, by causing the people to pause and reflect upon the possible peril to their cherished institutions, will be the means under Providence of allaying the existing excitement and preventing further outbreaks of a similar character. They will resolve that the Constitution and the Union shall not be endangered by rash counsels, knowing that should "the silver cord be loosed or the golden bowl be broken at the fountain" human power could never reunite the scattered and hostile fragments.
  ... For a period of more than half a century there has been no perceptible addition to the number of our domestic slaves. During this period their advancement in civilization has far surpassed that of any other portion of the African race. The light and the blessings of Christianity have been extended to them, and both their moral and physical condition has been greatly improved.
  ... But we are obliged as a Christian and moral nation to consider what would be the effect upon unhappy Africa itself if we should reopen the slave trade. This would give the trade an impulse and extension which it has never had, even in its palmiest days. The numerous victims required to supply it would convert the whole slave coast into a perfect pandemonium, for which this country would be held responsible in the eyes both of God and man. Its petty tribes would then be constantly engaged in predatory wars against each other for the purpose of seizing slaves to supply the American market. All hopes of African civilization would thus be ended.
  On the other hand, when a market for African slaves shall no longer be furnished in Cuba, and thus all the world be closed against this trade,we may then indulge a reasonable hope for the gradual improvement of Africa. The chief motive of war among the tribes will cease whenever there is no longer any demand for slaves. The resources of that fertile but miserable country might then be developed by the hand of industry and afford subjects for legitimate foreign and domestic commerce. In this manner Christianity and civilization may gradually penetrate the existing gloom.
  
• Fourth Annual Message (December 3, 1860).
  Many a matron throughout the South retires at night in dread of what may befall herself and children before the morning. Should this apprehension of domestic danger, whether real or imaginary, extend and intensify itself until it shall pervade the masses of the Southern people, then disunion will become inevitable. Self-preservation is the first law of nature, and has been implanted in the heart of man by his Creator for the wisest purpose; and no political union, however fraught with blessings and benefits in all other respects, can long continue if the necessary consequence be to render the homes and the firesides of nearly half the parties to it habitually and hopelessly insecure. Sooner or later the bonds of such a union must be severed. It is my conviction that this fatal period has not yet arrived, and my prayer to God is that He would preserve the Constitution and the Union throughout all generations.

Author. Read more about Bunyan here and here

• The Advocateship of Jesus Christ: clearly explained, and largely improved, for the benefit of all believers. by John Bunyan. London: Printed for Dorman Newman, 1688. [14], 208 pp.
• The Doctrine of the law and grace unfolded: or, a discourse concerning law and grace: shewing their distinct nature as two different covenants, by John Bunyan. Boston: Printed and sold by Manning & Loring, 1806. 176 pp.
• Grace abounding to the chief of sinners: or, A brief and faithful relation of the exceeding mercy of God in Christ, to his poor servant John Bunyan. Wherein is particularly shewed, the manner of his conversion, his sight and trouble for sin, his dreadful temptations; also, how he despaired of God's mercy, and how the Lord at length, through Christ, did deliver him from all the guilt and terror that lay upon him. All which was written by his own hand, and now published for the support of the weak and tempted people of God. [Three lines from Psalms] Second New-York edition. New-York: Printed by J. Tiebout, 358 Pearl-Street, for Evert Duyckinck, & Co. booksellers and stationers, 1797. 108 pp. 14 cm. (12mo) Notes: Error in paging: p. 61 misnumbered 66.
• Grace abounding to the chief of sinners, or, A brief and faithful relation of the exceeding mercy of God in Christ, to his poor servant John Bunyan. 1st Hudson edition, 1805. 120 pp. 15 cm.
• Christian Behaviour, or, The Fruits of True Christianity: shewing the ground from whence they flow in their godlike order in the duty of relations, as husbands, wives, parents, children, masters, servants &c.: with a word of direction to all backsliders / by John Bunyan. London: Printed for F. Smith, [1663?] 140 pp.
• The Pilgrim's Progress from this world to that which is to come. . New edition, divided into chapters, with the life of the author. To which are added, explanatory and practical notes. Newark, 1818. 445 pp.
• The Jerusalem sinner saved; or, Good news to the vilest of men: Being an help for despairing souls: shewing, that Jesus Christ would have mercy in the first place offered to the biggest sinners: To which is added, an answer to those grand objections that lie in the way of them that would believe: for the comfort of those that fear they have sinned against the Holy Ghost. Printed at Amherst [N.H.], by Samuel Preston., United States; New Hampshire; Amherst. 1798. iv, [1], 6-176 pp.; 14 cm.
• A Confession of my faith and a reason of my practice, or, With who, and who not, I can hold church-fellowship, or the communion of saints. London: Printed for Francis Smith, 1672. [10], 130 pp. Union Theological Seminary (New York, N. Y.) Library.
• Some Gospel-truths opened according to the Scriptures, or, The divine and humane nature of Christ Jesus, his coming into the world, his righteousness, death, resurrection, ascension, intercession, and second comming to judgment, plainly demonstrated and proved and also answers to severall questions, with profitable directions to stand fast in the doctrine of Jesus the son of Mary, against those blustring storms of the Devils temptations, which do at this day, like so many scorpions, break loose from the bottomless pit, to bite and torment those that have not tasted the vertue of Jesus by the revelation of the spirit of God / published for the good of Gods chosen ones by that unworthy servant of Christ John Bunnyan. London: Printed for J. Wright the younger, 1656. [84], 216 pp. Magdalene College (University of Cambridge) Library.
• A Vindication of the book called, Some Gospel-truths opened; according to the Scriptures, and the opposition made against it by Edward Borrough, a professed Quaker, (but proved an enemie to the truth) examined and confuted by the word of God. And also, the things that were then laid down, and declared to the world by me, are a second-time born witness to, according to truth: with the answer of Edward Burrough to the quaeries then laid down in my book reproved. And also, a plain answer to his quaeries, given in simplicitie of soul; and is now also presented to the world, or who else may read, or hear them; to the end (if God will) that truth may be discovered thereby. London: Printed by Matthias Cowley, book-seller in Newport, Anno Dom. 1657. [14], 54 [i.e. 56] pp. Friends' Library (London, England).
• Works.
• Autobiography of John Bunyan.
• Edmund Venables. The Life of John Bunyan.

• An Election Sermon, Preached at Hartford, on the Day of the Anniversary Election, May 12, 1803. Hartford: Printed by Hudson & Goodwin, 1803, pp. 27-28.

  "... Consider well the important trust and distinguishing privileges which God and nature have put into your hands. To God and posterity you are accountable for them. See that you preserve them inviolate and transmit them to posterity unimpaired. Let not your children have reason to curse you for giving up those rights and prostrating those institutions which your fathers delivered to you as a sacred palladiuim, and which by the blessing of God have been peculiarly beneficial to the order, peace and prosperity of this State, amid all the vicissitudes and convulsions of other states and kingdoms round. And that this happy state of things may continue, look well to the characters and qualifications of those you elect and raise to office and places of trust. In this momentous concern, let the wise counsel of Jethro, tho' a priest, be your guide. Choose ye out from among you able men, such as fear God, men of truth and hating covetousness and set them to rule over you. Think not that your interests will be safe in the hands of the weak and ignorant; or faithfully managed by the impious, the dissolute and the immoral. Think not that men who acknowledge not the providence of God nor regard His laws will be uncorrupt in office, firm in defense of the righteous cause against the oppressor, or resolutely oppose the torrent of iniquity. Their own emolument, ease or pleasure, will at any time induce them to connive at injustice and iniquity, or join with the oppressor. Watch over your liberties and privileges - civil and religious - with a careful eye."

Read more about President Bush here.

• Message on the Observance of Christmas, December 11th, 1991.

  "At Christmas, we celebrate the promise of salvation that God gave to mankind almost 2,000 years ago. The birth of Christ changed the course of history, and His life changed the soul of man. Christ taught that giving is the greatest of all aspirations and that the redemptive power of love and sacrifice is stronger than any force of arms. It is testimony to the wisdom and the truth of these teachings that they have not only endured but also flourished over two millennia."

• Message on the Observance of Christmas, December 8th, 1992
• George Bush Presidential Library and Museum.

American political leader. Read about Carroll here and here.

• Charles Carroll Letter. Written to Dr. Charles Wharton, an Episcopal clergyman, 27th September 1825: "Too much of my time & attention have been misapplied on matters to which an impartial Judge, penetrating the secrets of hearts, before whom I shall soon appear, will ascribe merit deserving recompense. 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, for even these, I fear, a fallacy a mixture will render unavailing, and cause to be rejected."
• Bernard C. Steiner. The Life and Correspondence of James McHenry, Secretary of War under Washington and Adams. Cleveland: The Burrows Brothers, 1907. 660 pp. Letter to James McHenry of November 4, 1800, p. 475.
  "Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime & pure, [and] which denounces against the wicked eternal misery, and [which] insured to the good eternal happiness, are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments."

Attorney General of Pennsylvania. Read about Carson here.

• The Supreme Court of the United States: its history: and its centennial celebration, February 4th, 1890; prepared under the direction of the Judiciary Centennial Committee. Philadelphia, 1891.
• The History of the Supreme Court of the United States: with biographies of all the chief and associate justices. Philadelphia, c. 1902-1904. Vol. 1 of 2. 378 pp. Vol. 2 of 2. 359 pp.
• The Hampton L. Carson Collection of engraved portraits of Gen. George Washington. Philadelphia, Press of W.F. Fell Company, 1904.

Agricultural science pioneer. Read more about Carver here, and here.

• Raleigh H. (Raleigh Howard) Merritt, From Captivity to Fame, or, The Life of George Washington Carver. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Library. [Chapel Hill, N.C.]: Academic Affairs Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Electronic edition, 2000. Birth and early childhood -- Early schooling and struggles -- Working his way through college -- First twelve years at Tuskegee -- Discovers possibilities of native products -- The Tuskegee Farmers' Conference -- His creative ability -- The Carver School Farm Club -- Still achieving and helping people -- Views and comments -- Supplement: 105 different ways to prepare the peanut for the table -- The sweet potato and various ways to prepare it -- How to make and save money on the farm -- How to raise pigs with little money -- Poultry raising -- The tomato -- The cow pea -- Three delicious meals every day -- 43 ways to save the wild plum crop -- Alfalfa -- The pickling and curing of meat in hot weather.
• Gary R. Kremer, editor.George Washington Carver in his Own Words. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1987.

  "I am not interested in science or any thing else that leaves God out of it." p. 131

  "My beloved friend, I do not feel capable of writing a single word of counsel to those dear young people, more than to say that my heart goes out to every one of them, regardless of the fact that I have never seen them and may never do so.
  "I want them to find Jesus, and make Him a daily, hourly, and momently part of themselves.
  "O how I want them to get the fullest measure of happiness and success out of life. I want them to see the Great Creator in the smallest and apparently the most insignificant things about them.
  "How I long for each one to walk and talk with the Great Creator through the things he has created." p. 135.

  "I love to think of nature as unlimited broadcasting stations, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in and remain so." p. 143.

• George Washington Carver: His Life & Faith in His Own Words William J. Federer. Amerisearch (January 2003) "The secret of my success? It is simple. It is found in the Bible. 'In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.'" p. 66.

Methodist preacher. Read more about Cartwright here and here.

• W.P. Strickland, editor. Autobiography of Peter Cartwright, the backwoods preacher. New York, Carlton & Porter, 1857. 525 pp. See pages 192-194 for anecdotes on Andrew Jackson.

Clergyman. Read more about Cheever here.

• God's Hand in America. New-York, 1841. 167 pp.
• The Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, in New England, in 1620: reprinted from the original volume: with Historical and local illustrations. New York, 1848. 370 pp.
• Defence of Capital Punishment
• Right of the Bible in our public schools. New York: 1854. xii, [13]-303 pp.; 17 cm.
• God against slavery. Cincinnati: 1857. viii, [9]-272 pp. ; 20 cm.
• Online works.

Baptist preacher, author and educator. Read more about Christian here (From Ben M. Bogard, Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith, 1900). Disclaimer: Christian was a noted Freemason.

• A History of the Baptists. Volume 1 of 2.
  • CHAPTER XXI. The Origin of the American Baptist Churches.
• A History of the Baptists. Volume 2 of 2.
  • I. The Colonial Period. CHAPTER I. The First Baptists in America. First Settlers -- Separatists and Puritans -- The Difference in the Parties -- The Puritan a Church of England Man -- Reformed -- Character of the Puritans -- Religious Intolerance -- Frothingham -- Neal -- Ruffini?The Theocracy?The First Baptists?Their Character?Statistics.
  • I. The Colonial Period. CHAPTER X. The Great Awakening. Baptists in Massachusetts -- Position of the Puritans -- Reaction Against the Standing Order -- Thirteen Evils -- The Account of Jonathan Edwards of Conditions -- A Minister in New Hampshire -- The Historian Trumbull -- The Drink Habit -- The Half Way Covenant -- The Burning of Witches -- The Awakening in Northampton -- The Sermons of Edwards -- The Revival Begins -- The Effects of the Revival -- George Whitefield -- The Estimate of Benjamin Franklin -- Manner of Preaching of Whitefield -- Calvinism -- The Baptists Calvinistic -- Disorders -- Persecutions of the Standing Order -- Edwards Ejected from His Church -- The Boston Gazette -- Opposition of the Episcopalians -- Action of the Connecticut Legislature -- The New Lights -- The New Lights Become Baptists -- Bacon's Account -- Great Growth of the Baptists.
  • II. The Period of the American Revolution. CHAPTER I. The Baptists in the American Revolution. The Thirteen Colonies -- The Policy of England -- The Discovery of the Valley of the Ohio -- The Population of the Country -- The Social, Political and Religious Conditions -- Political and Religious Freedom -- The Forces Against America -- George Ill -- The Attitude of Pope Pius VI -- John Adams on the situation -- The Position of Canada -- The Quebec Act -- The Roman Catholics of Great Britain -- The Attitude of America Toward the Roman Catholics -- The Mercenaries from Germany -- The Roman Catholics of Ireland -- Of America -- The Clergy of the Established Church of England -- Rev. Charles Inglis -- Foreign Born Citizens -- A Conspiracy Against Washington -- William Pitt -- The Baptists of England -- Dr. Rippon -- The Baptists of America -- The Warren Association -- The Philadelphia Association -- An Appeal to the Continental Congress -- Rhode Island Favors Independence -- The Baptists of Virginia -- A Memorial to Congress -- Soldiers -- Chaplains in the Army -- Oliver Hart -- John Hart.
  • II. The Period of the American Revolution. CHAPTER II. The Baptists and the American Constitution. The Constitution -- The Ratification -- Two Objections to the Constitution -- Liberty not Sufficiently Guarded -- Massachusetts -- James Manning -- Virginia -- James Madison and John Leland -- J. S. Barbour -- Governor Briggs on Leland -- Patrick Henry Against the Constitution -- John Adam -- And Religious Liberty -- Thomas Jefferson -- First Amendment to the Constitution -- The Baptists of Virginia Propose the Amendment -- The Forces Working for Liberty -- Leonard Bacon -- Ruffini.
  • II. The Period of the American Revolution. CHAPTER III. The Period of Imprisonment and Strife in Virginia. The Persecutions in Virginia -- Imprisonments -- Spotsylvania -- Lewis Craig -- Letter of John Blair -- Waller forty -- three Days in Jail -- The Members of the Establishment Enraged -- Others Imprisoned -- William Fristoe on Persecutions -- The Baptists Greatly Increase in Number -- James Madison Writes Letters -- The Action of the House of Burgesses -- The Baptists Present Petitions -- The Baptists Attack the Establishment.
  • II. The Period of the American Revolution. CHAPTER IV. The Baptists and the Destruction of the Establishment. The Evils of the Establishment in Virginia -- The Baptists Render Service to the Country -- Dr. Hawks on the Situation -- The Convention at Williamsburg -- Petition of the Clergy -- Terrible Charges Against the Baptists -- The Statement of Fristoe -- The Tax Law Suspended -- Counter Memorials -- The Law Repealed -- The Statement of Rayner -- The Historians Speak -- The Glebe Lands -- The General Assessment Proposed -- The Presbyterians -- The Reasons the Baptists Opposed the Measure -- The Bill Examined and Rejected -- The Bill of Thomas Jefferson -- Bishop Perry on the Baptists -- Jefferson and the Baptists -- The Union of the Regular and Separate Baptists -- The Terms of The Union -- The Revival.
  • III. The Period of Growth and Organization. CHAPTER IV. The Great Revival of 1800. The Deplorable Conditions of the Country -- Low State of Morals -- Terrible Practices -- Deistical Opinions of the French and Indian Wars -- Alliance of America and France -- The Effects of French Infidelity -- Thomas Paine -- Infidel Clubs -- Illuminism -- Want of Religious Instruction -- Baptist and Presbyterian Ministers -- Dull Preaching -- Conditions in the Colleges -- Kentucky and Tennessee -- Logan County -- The Great Revival -- James McGready -- His Sermons -- The Camp Meeting at Casper River -- The Account of McGready -- The Meeting Described -- Barton W. Stone -- Other Meetings -- Extravagance -- Lorenzo Dow -- The Jerks and Other Violent Exercises -- Disorders -- Such Meetings Continued for Years -- The Revival Did Great Good -- Testimonies -- Results Among the Baptists -- Effects Felt Throughout the United States.
• Baptist History Vindicated. 1899 essay. With introduction by T. T. Eaton.
• John T. Christian Library. New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

English bookseller and politician.

• With John Churchill. A Collection of voyages and travels some now first printed from original manuscripts: others translated out of foreign languages and now first publish'd in English: to which are added some few that have formerly appear'd in English. London: Printed for Awnsham and John Churchill, 1704. 4 volumes, [110] leaves of plates (some folded): ill., maps, charts. Note: "With a general preface giving an account of the progress of navigation, from its first beginning to the perfection it is now in, &c."
  
  Volume 1 of 4. 929 pp. An account of the empire of China, historical, political, moral, and religious / written in Spanish by the R.F.F. Dominic Fernandez Navarette.
  • With John Churchill. A Collection of voyages and travels some now first printed from original manuscripts. Volume 2 of 4. 893 pp. Mr. John Nieuhoff's remarkable voyages and travels into Brazil and the best parts of the East-Indies / translated out of Dutch.
  • With John Churchill. A Collection of voyages and travels some now first printed from original manuscripts. Volume 3 of 4. 953 pp. Sir William Monson's Naval tracts. A true and exact description of the most celebrated East-India coast of Malabar and Coromandel, and of the island of Ceylon, with all the adjacent countries / by Philip Baldaeus, translated from the High Dutch.
  • With John Churchill. A Collection of voyages and travels some now first printed from original manuscripts. Volume 4 of 4. 882 pp. A voyage round the world / by Dr. John Francis Gemelli Careri, translated from the Italian. Volume 4 has imprint: London: Printed by H.C. for Awnsham and John Churchill, 1704.

• Life Sketches of Eminent Lawyers: American, English, and Canadian: to which is added thoughts, facts and facetiae. Kansas City, Mo.: Lawyers' International Pub. Co., 1895. 2 vol.: ports.; 20 cm.
  • Abraham Lincoln
  • Benjamin Butler
  • Daniel Webster
  • David Schenk
  • Horace Binney
  • James Campbell
  • John Campbell
  • Joseph Bradley
  • Joseph Brown
  • Joseph Story
  • Lord Erskine
  • Morrison Waite
  • William Evarts
  • William Wirt

• Sermon on the Death of William Patterson.
• Evidences of the Christian religion, designed chiefly for the rising generation. Compiled by Joseph Clark. [One line from John]. [4], 118, [2] pp. 18 cm.

22nd and 24th President of the United States. The First Democrat elected after the Civil War. Read about President Cleveland here, here, and here.

• Inaugural Address, March 4, 1885.
  Our duties are practical and call for industrious application, an intelligent perception of the claims of public office, and, above all, a firm determination, by united action, to secure to all the people of the land the full benefits of the best form of government ever vouchsafed to man. And let us not trust to human effort alone, but humbly acknowledging the power and goodness of Almighty God, who presides over the destiny of nations, and who has at all times been revealed in our country's history, let us invoke His aid and His blessings upon our labors.
• Executive Mansion, February 16, 1887. To the House of Representatives.

  ...I am willing to-believe that, notwithstanding the aid already furnished, a donation of seed grain to the farmers located in this region, to enable them to put in new crops, would serve to avert a continuance or return of an unfortunate blight.

  And yet I feel obliged to withhold my approval of the plan, as proposed by this bill, to indulge a benevolent and charitable sentiment through the appropriation of public funds for that purpose.

  I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit. A prevalent tendency to disregard the limited mission of this power and duty should, I think, be steadfastly resisted, to the end that the lesson should be constantly enforced that though the people support the Government the Government should not support the people.

  The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow-citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood.

• Inaugural Address, March 4, 1893.
  In obedience of the mandate of my countrymen I am about to dedicate myself to their service under the sanction of a solemn oath. Deeply moved by the expression of confidence and personal attachment which has called me to this service, I am sure my gratitude can make no better return than the pledge I now give before God and these witnesses of unreserved and complete devotion to the interests and welfare of those who have honored me.
  ... It can not be doubted that our stupendous achievements as a people and our country's robust strength have given rise to heedlessness of those laws governing our national health which we can no more evade than human life can escape the laws of God and nature.
  ... Above all, I know there is a Supreme Being who rules the affairs of men and whose goodness and mercy have always followed the American people, and I know He will not turn from us now if we humbly and reverently seek His powerful aid.
• Henry Franklin Graff. Grover Cleveland. Published by Macmillan, 2002. 154 pp. Limited preview.

U. S. Senator, Governor of New York, advocate of the 12th Amendment, "Father of the Erie Canal." Many places have been named for Clinton. The state of Illinois named two counties after him, the only instance in the United States of two counties in the same state being named after the same person.
* Clinton County, Illinois
* DeWitt County, Illinois, the county seat of which is Clinton, Illinois
* Clinton, Indiana
* Clinton, Arkansas
* DeWitt, Iowa
* Clinton County, Iowa, the county seat of which is Clinton, Iowa
* DeWitt Clinton High School, Bronx, NY
* Clinton, Massachusetts
* Clinton County, Michigan
* DeWitt, Michigan which is located in Clinton County
Read more about Clinton here, here and here.

• William W. Campbell. The Life and Writings of DeWitt Clinton. New York: Baker and Scribner, 1849. 418 pp.: port.; 23 cm. Contents: Sketch of the family of Clinton -- Address to the alumni of Columbia College -- Internal improvements -- Private canal journal -- Address before the New York Historical Society on the Iroquois or Six Nations -- Speech in the Senate of the United States on the Mississippi question -- Address before the American Bible Society -- Address before the Free School Society in the city of New York -- Address before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Union College -- Appendix, Indian speeches [from Smith's History of New York]. Also here.
• From The Life and Writings of DeWitt Clinton, pp. 297-308. Address before the American Bible Society. "On Thursday, May 8th, 1823, was held at the City Hotel, New York, the Seventh Anniversary of the American Bible Society. The Hon. JOHN JAY, President of the Society, by reason of his advanced age and infirmity, not being able to be present, the chair was taken by Gen. Matthew Clarkson, senior Vice President, who was supported by the Hon. De Witt Clinton and Richard Varick, Esq., Vice Presidents."

  "Christianity may be contemplated in two important aspects. First, in reference to our destiny in the world to come. And whatever may be intimated to the contrary by the sneers of infidelity, or the cavils of scepticism, it may be asserted boldly, and can be demonstrated conclusively, that to its celestial influence we are indebted for the blessings of civilization, the elevation of the female character, and enjoyment of domestic happiness, the successful cultivation of knowledge, the establishment of free government, and the dominion of good order and peace, wherever they prevail in the great communities of mankind."

• The Religious Intelligencer. Volume 10, n. 1, June 4, 1825. The 9th annual report of the American Bible Society. Includes address by Governor De Witt Clinton.
  "That Christianity has elevated the character of man and blessed him in his domestic connexions and in his social relations, cannot be denied by the most obdurate scepticism. We must indeed shut our eyes against the light of truth, if we do not yield implicit faith to the exalting and ameliorating virtues of our divine religion. We can perhaps form a striking estimate of its blessings, by supposing that it had never shed its effulgence upon the nations. What then would have been the state of the world? In all probability, the Gothic darkness which benighted mankind on the breaking up of the Roman Empire, would have been perpetuated. Man would have lost his recuperative energies, and the revolutions of ages would have witnessed his torpid inactivity and hopeless debasement."
  

Boston clergyman. Read more about Colman here.

• Ebenezer Turell.The Life and Character of the Reverend Benjamin Colman, D.D.: late Pastor of a church in Boston New-England, who deceased August 29th 1747. Boston, 1749. 256 pp.
• Government the pillar of the earth: A Sermon preached at the lecture in Boston, before His Excellency Jonathan Belcher, Esq; captain general and commander in chief, &c. August 13th 1730.
• Government the Pillar of the Earth: A Sermon preached at the lecture in Boston, before His Excellency Jonathan Belcher, Esq, captain general and Commander in Chief, &c. Boston, in New-England, 1730. 21 pp.

  3. Are rulers the pillars of the earth; are they the Lord's? And has He set the world upon them? Let all that are in public offices consider their obligations to be PILLARS in the places wherein Providence has set them.

  Let rulers consider what they owe to God, who has reared and set them up, and to the public which God has set upon them. Let them seek wisdom and strength, grace and conduct from God, that they may answer the title given them in my text. Let them stand and bear and act for God, whose they are and who has set them where they are. Let the public good be their just care, that it may be seen that God has set the world in their hearts as well as laid it on their shoulders. Let them act uprightly, that they may stand secure and strong. Let them fear God and rule by His Word, that they may be approved by God and accepted always by men with all thankfulness.

  As government is the pillar of the earth, so religion is the pillar of government. Take away the fear of God's government and judgment, and human rule utterly falls or corrupts into tyranny. But if religion rules in the hearts and lives of rulers, God will have glory, and the people be made happy.

  FATHERS of our country, let me freely say to you that the devotion and virtue [morality] of our humble, but illustrious ancestors (the first planters [settlers] of New England), laid the foundation of our greatness among the provinces: And it is this that must continue and establish it under the Divine favor and blessing. Emulate their piety and godliness and generous regards to the public, and be acknowledged the pillars, the strength and ornament of your country!

• Dr. Benjamin Colman, Christ Standing for an Ensign of the People (1738).
• Christ standing for an ensign of the people: A Sermon preached at the Honourable and Ancient Artillery Company in Boston, June 5, 1738. Boston, 1738. 35 pp.
• The Credibility of the Christian doctrine of the resurrection: A Sermon preached (in part) at the publick lecture in Boston, July 24th 1729. Boston, 1729. 37 pp.
• The Government & improvement of mirth according to the laws of Christianity: In three sermons. I. Of civil & natural II. Of carnal & vicious mirth III. Of spiritual & holy joy.
• A Devout Contemplation on the meaning of Divine Providence, in the early death of pious and lovely children . Preached upon the sudden and and lamented death of Mrs. Elizabeth Wainwright. Who departed this life, April the 8th. 1714. Having just compleated [sic] the fourteenth year of her age. Boston, 1714. 35 pp.
• A Brief dissertation on the three first chapters of Genesis. Giving some of the evident signatures of the inspiration of God in those first pages. Boston, 1735. 65 pp.
• The Rending of the vail of the temple at the crucifixion of our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ. Consider'd in a sacramental discourse had in Boston. The second edition. Boston [Mass.], 1722. 32 pp.
• The fast which God hath chosen: A Sermon preached at the lecture in Boston, March 21, 1734, preparatory to an appointed day of publick fasting. Boston, 1734. 25 pp.
• The Religious Regards we owe to our country and the blessings of heaven assured thereunto: A Sermon preached before His Excellency Samuel Shute, Boston, 1718. 62 pp.
• A Sermon preach'd at Boston in New-England on Thursday the 23d. of August, 1716. Being the day of publick thanksgiving, for the suppression of the late vile and traiterous rebellion in Great Britain. Boston, 1716. 27 pp.
• A Sermon preach'd at the ordination of Mr. William Cooper, in Boston, N.E. May 23. 1716. By Benjamin Colman. Boston, 1716. 66 pp.

American clergyman. Learn more about Colton here.

• History and character of American revivals of religion. London: F. Westley and A. H. Davis, 1832. 294 pp. Also here.
• Tour of the American lakes and among the Indians of the North-West territory in 1830: disclosing the character and prospects of the Indian race. London: 1833. Volume 1 of 2. 347 pp. Volume 2 of 2. 393 pp.
• Manual for Emigrants to America. London: 1832. 213 pp.
  "Those, who do not respect the Christian religion, in its own proper garb, and in the legitimate administration of its ordinances, will be little welcome, and find little sympathy in the United States. Christianity there has found its own proper basis in the respect and affections of the respectable portion of the community -- and the enemyof the country, and will in vain assert his claims to respect and confidence, so long as such is known to be his character. And the Christian religion is every day acquiring a stronger hold on the mind of the American public; -- and he who does not like such an atmosphere may be warned before-hand to keep away. He will not be esteemed an acquisition to American society.
  "In a word--he, who loves liberty without licentiousness--who indulges reasonable and chastened expectations--who is as willing to be industrious, as he is to be rich--whose virtue is equal to his desire of respectability--and who is resolved to maintain a good conscience in the sight of God, as well as of man--such a person, from whatever part of the world, would be welcomed in the United States,--and would be likely to prosper and be happy there. And so far as the Author is concerned, he can neither desire, nor recommend any others to go."

Clergyman and educator. Read about Converse here.

• The relation of Christianity and of the several forms of Christianity to the republican institutions of the United States: A Sermon preached ... Burlington [Vt.]; ([Burlington, Vt.?], 1833. 32 pp.

Clergyman.

• The True Principles of Civil Government. A Sermon Preached at Cambridge, in the Audience of His Honor Thomas Hutchinson, Esq; Lieutenant-Governor and Commander in Chief; The Honorable His Majesty's Council, and the Honorable House of Representatives, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, May 30th, 1770. Being the Anniversary for the Election of His Majesty's Council for the Said Province. (Boston: Edes and Gill, Printers to the Honorable House of Representatives, 1770).

  " From this [2 Sam. 23:3, 4] and many other passages in the sacred oracles, it is evident that the Supreme Ruler, though he has directed to no particular mode of civil government, yet allows and approves of the establishment of it among men. "The ends of civil government, in divine revelation, are clearly pointed out, the character of rulers described, and the duty of subjects asserted and explained; and in this view civil government may be considered as an ordinance of God, and, when justly exercised, greatly subservient to the glorious purposes of divine providence and grace: but the particular form is left to the choice and determination of mankind."

American President. Read more about President Coolidge here and here.

• Inaugural Address of President Coolidge March 4, 1925. "America seeks no earthly empire built on blood and force. No ambition, no temptation, lures her to thought of foreign dominions. The legions which she sends forth are armed, not with the sword, but with the cross. The higher state to which she seeks the allegiance of all mankind is not of human, but of divine origin. She cherishes no purpose save to merit the favor of Almighty God."
• Presidential speech in Philadelphia commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 5, 1926. Also here (scroll half-way down the page). Also published in San Antonio Express, July 6, 1926 and Indiana Evening Gazette, July 8, 1926.
  "We meet to celebrate the birthday of America. The coming of a new life always excites our interest. Although we know in the case of the individual that it has been an infinite repetition reaching back beyond our vision, that only makes it the more wonderful. But how our interest and wonder increase when we behold the miracle of the birth of a new nation. It is to pay our tribute of reverence and respect to those who participated in such a mighty event that we annually observe the fourth day of July. Whatever may have been the impression created by the news which went out from this city on that summer day in 1776, there can be no doubt as to the estimate which is now placed upon it. At the end of 150 years the four corners of the earth unite in coming to Philadelphia as to a holy shrine in grateful acknowledgement of a service so great, which a few inspired men here rendered to humanity, that it is still the preeminent support of free government throughout the world.
  ... "About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.
  "In the development of its institutions America can fairly claim that it has remained true to the principles which were declared 150 years ago. In all the essentials we have achieved an equality which was never possessed by any other people. Even in the less important matter of material possessions we have secured a wider and wider distribution of wealth. The rights of the individual are held sacred and protected by constitutional guaranties, which even the Government itself is bound not to violate. If there is any one thing among us that is established beyond question, it is self-government--the right of the people to rule. If there is any failure in respect to any of these principles, it is because there is a failure on the part of individuals to observe them. We hold that the duly authorized expression of the will of the people has a divine sanction. But even in that we come back to the theory of John Wise that 'Democracy is Christ's government.' The ultimate sanction of law rests on the righteous authority of the Almighty."
• Address at the Unveiling of the Equestrian Statue of Bishop Francis Asbury, Washington, DC, October 15th, 1924. "Our government rests upon religion. It is from that source that we derive our reverence for truth and justice, for equality and liberty, and for the rights of mankind. Unless the people believe in these principles they cannot believe in our government. There are only two main theories of government in the world. One rests on righteousness, the other rests on force. One appeals to reason, the other appeals to the sword. One is exemplified in a republic, the other is represented by a despotism. The history of government on this earth has been almost entirely a history of the rule of force held in the hands of a few. Under our constitution, America committed itself to the practical application of the rule of reason, with the power held in the hands of the people."
• Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum.
• Supplement to the Messages and Papers of the Presidents Covering the Second Administration of Calvin Coolidge, March 4, 1925 to March 4, 1929. New York: Bureau of National Literature. Extracts.

• Consolation to the mourner, and instruction both to youth and old age, from the early death of the righteous: in two discourses by Samuel Cooper. Yarmouth, 1786. 184 pp.
• A Sermon preached before His Excellency John Hancock, Esq; governour, the Honourable the Senate, and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth. Boston: Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1780. 59 pp.
• William Allen. Biographies of William Cooper and His Son Samuel Cooper (includes William Cooper's Preface to Jonathan Edwards' Work The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God which describes the Great Awakening). From American Biographical and Historical Dictionary [...] and a Summary of the History of the Several Colonies and the United States (William Hilliard, 1809), pp. 223-226 (slightly edited and abridged).]

Clergyman. Read more about Cooper here.

• The Honours of Christ demanded of the Magistrate: A sermon preach'd in the audience of His Excellency the governour, the honourable the Council and Representatives, of the province of Massachusetts-Bay, in New-England, May 28. 1740. The day for the election of His Majesty's Council there. / By William Cooper, A.M. Pastor of a church in Boston.; [Two lines from John] Boston: N.E. : Printed by J. Draper, printer to His Excellency the governour and Council, for J. Edwards and H. Foster, in Cornhil, 1740. 55 pp.
• Christ the true messiah. A Sermon, preached, at Sion-Chapel, Whitechapel, to God's ancient Israel, the Jews, on Sunday, August 28, 1796. The second edition. [London], 1796. 36 pp.
• Daniel's seventy weeks. A sermon preached at Sion-Chapel, on Sunday afternoon, September 18, 1796, to the Jews. The fourth edition. London, 1798. 32 pp.
• The Genuine and correct sermon, as preached to the ancient people of God, the Jews, at Sion Chapel, Union Street, Whitechapel. London, 1796. 31 pp.
• The Promised seed. A sermon, preached to God's ancient Israel, the Jews, at Sion-Chapel, Whitechapel, on Sunday afternoon, August 28, 1796. . The fourth edition. London, [1796?]. 41 pp.
• The Wisdom and necessity of the Mosaic revelation, a sermon preached at the cathedral church of York, June 20, 1772. Cambridge, 1773. 14 pp.

Author.

• Edward Currier. The Political Textbook: containing the Declaration of Independence, with the lives of the signers; the Constitution of the United States; the inaugural addresses and first annual messages of all the Presidents, from Washington to Tyler; the farewell addresses of George Washington and Andrew Jackson; and a variety of useful tables, etc. Worcester, Mass, W. Blake, 1842. 512 pp. tables. 19 cm.

British divine and author. Read more about Croly here.

• A Memoir of the political life of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke: with extracts from his writings. Volume 1. Edinburgh; (Edinburgh), 1840. 345 pp. 2 vols.

Author.

• The importance of virtue and piety as qualifications of rulers, a discourse delivered March 31, 1805, by Daniel Dana. 27 pp.

American revolutionary. Professor of Greek and Latin Languages 1780-1782 Professor of History 1782-1784. Presbyterian clergyman. President of Dickinson College. Read about Davidson here.

• A Sermon, On the freedom and happiness of the United States of America preached in Carlisle, on the 5th Oct. 1794. And published at the request of the officers of the Philadelphia and Lancaster troops of light horse. Philadelphia: printed by Samuel H. Smith for Robert Campbell., 1794. 28 pp.; 18 cm. (8vo)

Fourth president of Princeton University. Presbyterian minister. Read about Davies here.

• The Curse of cowardice. London: printed for J. Buckland; J. Ward; and T. Field, 1758.
• Little children invited to Jesus Christ; A Sermon preached in Hanover County, Virginia; with an account of the late remarkable religious impressions among the students in the College of New-Jersey. The 5th edition. Boston: Printed by Z. Fowle, for A. Barclay next door but one to the Sign of the Three Kings, in Cornhill, 1765. 24 pp.; 15 cm. (8vo)
• Religion and patriotism the constituents of a good soldier. A Sermon preached to Captain Overton's Independant Company of Volunteers, raised in Hanover County, Virginia, August 17, 1755. By Samuel Davies. Philadelphia, 1755. 24 pp.
• Religion and public spirit: A Valedictory address to the Senior Class, delivered in Nassau Hall, September 21, 1760. The Sunday before commencement. [New York]: Printed and sold by James Parker and Co., at the new-printing-office in Beaver-Street, 1761. [2], 18 pp.; 20 cm. (8vo)

Historian. Read about Derby here.

• With James Terry White. A Conspectus of American Biography: Being an Analytical Summary of American History and Biography, Containing Also the Complete Indexes of the National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Compiled by George Derby. New York: J. T. White, 1906. 752 pp. Original from the New York Public Library.
  Notable Sayings and Sentiments of Famous Americans.

French political thinker. Read more about de Tocqueville here and here.

• [De la démocratie en Amérique -- English] Democracy in America. Cambridge: Sever and Francis, 1862. 2 vols.; 23 cm. Translated by Henry Reeve. Edited, with notes, the translation revised and in great part rewritten, and the additions made to the recent Paris editions now first translated, by Francis Bowen, Alford Professor of Moral Philosophy in Harvard University.
  Volume 1 of 2. 582 pp.
  Volume 2 of 2. 512 pp.

  "It must never be forgotten that religion gave birth to Anglo-American society. In the United States, religion is therefore mingled with all the habits of the nation and all the feelings of patriotism, whence it derives a peculiar force. To this reason another of no less power may be added: in America, religion has, as it were, laid down its own limits. Religious institutions have remained wholly distinct from political institutions, so that former laws have been easily changed whilst former belief has remained unshaken. Christianity has therefore retained a strong hold on the public mind in America; and I would more particularly remark, that its sway is not only that of a philosophical doctrine which has been adopted upon inquiry, but of a religion which is believed without discussion. In the United States, Christian sects are infinitely diversified and perpetually modified; but Christianity itself is all established and irresistible fact, which no one undertakes either to attack or to defend. The Americans, having admitted the principnl doctrines of the Christian religion without inquiry, are obliged to accept in like manner a great number of moral truths originating in it and connected with it. Hence the activity of individual analysis is restrained within narrow limits, and many of the most important of human opinions are removed from its influence." pp. 5-6.

  ... I think then that the species of oppression by which democratic nations are menaced is unlike anything which ever before existed in the world: our contemporaries will find no prototype of it in their memories. I am trying myself to choose an expression which will accurately convey the whole of the idea I have formed of it, but in vain; the old words "despotism" and "tyranny" are inappropriate: the thing itself is new; and since I cannot name it, I must attempt to define it.

  I seek to trace the novel features under which despotism may appear in the world. The first thing that strikes the observation is an innumerable multitude of men all equal and alike, incessantly endeavoring to procure the petty and paltry pleasures with which they glut their lives. Each of them, living apart, is as a stranger to the fate of all the rest; his children and his private friends constitute to him the whole of mankind; as for the rest of his fellow-citizens, he is close to them, but he sees them not; he touches them, but he feels them not; he exists but in himself and for himself alone; and if his kindred still remain to him, he may be said at any rate to have lost his country. Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications, and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent, if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks on the contrary to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness: it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances; what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living? Thus it every day renders the exercise of the free agency of man less useful and less frequent; it circumscribes the will within a narrower range, and gradually robs a man of all the uses of himself. The principle of equality has prepared men for these things: it has predisposed men to endure them, and oftentimes to look on them as benefits.

  After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp, and fashioned them at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a net-work of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided: men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting: such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to be nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd. I have always thought that servitude of the regular, quiet, and gentle kind which I have just described, might be combined more easily than is commonly believed with some of the outward forms of freedom; and that it might even establish itself under the wing of the sovereignty of the people. Our contemporaries are constantly excited by two conflicting passions; they want to be led, and they wish to remain free: as they cannot destroy either one or the other of these contrary propensities, they strive to satisfy them both at once. They devise a sole, tutelary, and all-powerful form of government, but elected by the people. They combine the principle of centralization and that of popular sovereignty; this gives them a respite; they console themselves for being in tutelage by the reflection that they have chosen their own guardians. Every man allows himself to be put in leading-strings, because he sees that it is not a person or a class of persons, but the people at large that holds the end of his chain. By this system the people shake off their state of dependence just long enough to select their master, and then relapse into it again. A great many persons at the present day are quite contented with this sort of compromise between administrative despotism and the sovereignty of the people; and they think they have done enough for the protection of individual freedom when they have surrendered it to the power of the nation at large. This does not satisfy me: the nature of him I am to obey signifies less to me than the fact of extorted obedience.

  I do not however deny that a constitution of this kind appears to me to be infinitely preferable to one, which, after having concentrated all the powers of government, should vest them in the hands of an irresponsible person or body of persons. Of all the forms which democratic despotism could assume, the latter would assuredly be the worst. When the sovereign is elective, or narrowly watched by a legislature which is really elective and independent, the oppression which he exercises over individuals is sometimes greater, but it is always less degrading; because every man, when he is oppressed and disarmed, may still imagine, that whilst he yields obedience it is to himself he yields it, and that it is to one of his own inclinations that all the rest give way. In like manner I can understand that when the sovereign represents the nation, and is dependent upon the people, the rights and the power of which every citizen is deprived, not only serve the head of the State, but the State itself; and that private persons derive some return from the sacrifice of their independence which they have made to the public. To create a representation of the people in every centralized country, is therefore, to diminish the evil which extreme centralization may produce, but not to get rid of it. I admit that by this means room is left for the intervention of individuals in the more important affairs; but it is not the less suppressed in the smaller and more private ones. It must not be forgotten that it is especially dangerous to enslave men in the minor details of life. For my own part, I should be inclined to think freedom less necessary in great things than in little ones, if it were possible to be secure of the one without possessing the other. Subjection in minor affairs breaks out every day, and is felt by the whole community indiscriminately. It does not drive men to resistance, but it crosses them at every turn, till they are led to surrender the exercise of their will. Thus their spirit is gradually broken and their character enervated; whereas that obedience, which is exacted on a few important but rare occasions, only exhibits servitude at certain intervals, and throws the burden of it upon a small number of men. It is in vain to summon a people, which has been rendered so dependent on the central power, to choose from time to time the representatives of that power; this rare and brief exercise of their free choice, however important it may be, will not prevent them from gradually losing the faculties of thinking, feeling, and acting for themselves, and thus gradually falling below the level of humanity. *

  I add that they will soon become incapable of exercising the great and only privilege which remains to them. The democratic nations which have introduced freedom into their political constitution, at the very time when they were augmenting the despotism of their administrative constitution, have been led into strange paradoxes. To manage those minor affairs in which good sense is all that is wanted; the people are held to be unequal to the task, but when the government of the country is at stake, the people are invested with immense powers; they are alternately made the playthings of their ruler, and his masters; more than kings, and less than men. After having exhausted all the different modes of election, without finding one to suit their purpose, they are still amazed, and still bent on seeking further; as if the evil they remark did not originate in the constitution of the country far more than in that of the electoral body. It is, indeed, difficult to conceive how men who have entirely given up the habit of self-government should succeed in making a proper choice of those by whom they are to be governed; and no one will ever believe that a liberal, wise, and energetic government can spring from the suffrages of a subservient people. A constitution, which should be republican in its head and ultra-monarchical in all its other parts, has ever appeared to me to be a short-lived monster. The vices of rulers and the ineptitude of the people would speedily bring about its ruin; and the nation, weary of its representatives and of itself, would create freer institutions, or soon return to stretch itself at the feet of a single master.

  * Appendix Z

  It cannot be absolutely or generally affirmed that the greatest danger of the present age is license or tyranny, anarchy or despotism. Both are equally to be feared; and the one may as easily proceed as the other from the selfsame cause, namely, that "general apathy," which is the consequence of what I have termed "individualism": it is because this apathy exists, that the executive government, having mustered a few troops, is able to commit acts of oppression one day, and the next day a party, which has mustered some thirty men in its ranks, can also commit acts of oppression. Neither one nor the other can found anything to last; and the causes which enable them to succeed easily, prevent them from succeeding long: they rise because nothing opposes them, and they sink because nothing supports them. The proper object therefore of our most strenuous resistance, is far less either anarchy or despotism than the apathy which may almost indifferently beget either the one or the other.

  • [De la démocratie en Amérique -- English] Democracy in America. Introduction. Cambridge: Sever and Francis, 1862. 2 vols.; 23 cm.
  • Chapter XVII. Principal Causes Which Tend to Maintain the Democratic Republic in the United States. Democracy in America. Translated by Henry Reeve; edited, with notes, the translation revised and in great part rewritten, and the additions made to the recent Paris editions now first translated by Francis Bowen. Volume 1. Cambridge, 1862. 2 vols.

    'The sects which exist in the United States are innumerable. They all differ in respect to the worship which is due to the Creator; but they all agree in respect to the duties which are due from man to man. Each sect adores the Deity in its own peculiar manner; but all sects preach the same moral law in the name of God. If it be of the highest importance to man, as an individual, that his religion should be true, it is not so to society. Society has no future life to hope for or to fear: and provided the citizens profess a religion, the peculiar tenents of that religion are of little importance to its interests. Moreover, all the sects of the United States are comprised within the great unity of Christianity, and Christian morality is everywhere the same.'

  • Chapter IX. That The Americans Apply the Principle of Interest Rightly Understood to Religious Matters. Democracy in America. Translated by Henry Reeve; edited, with notes, the translation revised and in great part rewritten, and the additions made to the recent Paris editions now first translated by Francis Bowen. Volume 2. Cambridge, 1862. 2 vols.
• Biographical Notice of de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. Translated by Henry Reeve; edited, with notes, the translation revised and in great part rewritten, and the additions made to the recent Paris editions now first translated by Francis Bowen. Volume 2. Cambridge, 1862. 2 vols.

American clergyman and author. Read about Dexter here and here.

• Memoranda, historical, chronological, &c.: prepared with the hope to aid those whose interest in Pilgrim memorials, and history, is freshened by this jubilee year, and who may not have a large historical library at hand. Boston: Printed (but not published) for the use of Congregational ministers, 1870. 39 pp.; 24 cm. Contents: Chronological glance at prominent facts of interest, in connection with the Pilgrim fathers, and their history.--Various extracts, etc. illustrating the rise, conduct, history, opinions, trials and influence, of the Plymouth movement, and men. Published by the Jubilee executive committee of the convention held in New York March 2, 1870, to take action concerning the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims./ An edition of 25 copies was issued the same year with title: Pilgrim memoranda./ A digital reproduction made from a copy held by the University of Michigan is available from the University of Michigan's Making of America Web site here.
• As to Roger Williams, and his "banishment" from the Massachusetts Plantation; with a few further words concerning the Baptists, the Quakers, and religious liberty: a monograph. Boston Congregational Publishing Society, 1876. Also here. Text-searchable.
• Our National condition, and its remedy: A Sermon, preached in the Pine Street Church, Boston, on Sunday, June 22, 1856. Boston, J.P. Jewett, 1856. 44 pp.
• The England and Holland of the Pilgrims. Boston, New York, Houghton, Mifflin and company, 1905. xii, [5], 4-673, [1] p. front., illus., 5 pl., map. 23 cm. bk. I. The England of our fathers.--bk. II. The Protestantism of our fathers.--bk. III. The birthplace of the Pilgrim church.--bk. IV. The Pilgrims themselves and how the conflict developed them.--bk. V. The Pilgrims in Amsterdam.--bk. VI. The Pilgrims in Leydon.--Appendix.

Presbyterian minister and President of College of New Jersey. Read more about Dickinson here and here.

• Familiar letters to a gentleman upon a variety of seasonable and important subjects in religion. Newark, New-Jersey: Printed by John Woods, 1797. 406 pp.

• Law, Lawyers and Honesty. Bridgeport, Conn., 1922. 153 pp. "With the unfortunate exceptions of notable departures, it may be assumed that the structure of the civil laws is founded entirely on the laws of God."

English historian. Read about Doyle here.

• English colonies in America. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1882-1907. 5 vol.: ill., plates, maps (fold.); 23 cm.
  Volume 1 of 5.
  Volume 2 of 5. Also here. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, Digital Research Library.
  Volume 3 of 5.
  Volume 4 of 5.
  Volume 5 of 5.

Anglican clergyman of Christ Church, Philadelphia. Read more about Duché here.

Stained glass and lead, from The Liberty Window, Christ Church, Philadelphia, after a painting by Harrison Tompkins Matteson, c. 1848 Courtesy of the Rector, Church Wardens and Vestrymen of Christ Church, Philadelphia.

"O Lord our Heavenly Father, high and mighty King of kings, and Lord of lords, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers on earth and reignest with power supreme and uncontolled over all the Kingdoms, Empires and Governments; look down in mercy, we beseech thee, on these our American States, who have fled to thee from the rod of the oppressor and thrown themselves on Thy gracious protection, desiring to be henceforth dependent only on Thee, to Thee have they appealed for the righteousness of their cause; to Thee do they now look up for that countenance and support, which Thou alone canst give; take them, therefore, Heavenly Father, under Thy nurturing care; give them wisdom in Council and valor in the field; defeat the malicious designs of our cruel adversaries; convince them of the unrighteousness of their Cause and if they persist in their sanguinary purposes, of own unerring justice, sounding in their hearts, constrain them to drop the weapons of war from their unnerved bands in the day of battle! "Be Thou present, O God of wisdom, and direct the councils of this honorable assembly; enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation. That the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that order, harmony and peace may be effectually restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety, prevail and flourish amongst The people. Preserve the health of their bodies and vigor of their minds; shower down on them and the millions they here represent, such temporal blessings as Thou seest expedient for them in this world and crown them with everlasting glory in the world to come. All this we ask In the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and our Savior. Amen."--The First Prayer offered in Congress, September 7th, 1774 by Jacob Duché in Carpenters Hall, Philadelphia.
• John Adams. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 16 September 1774.

  When the Congress first met, Mr. Cushing made a Motion, that it should be opened with Prayer. It was opposed by Mr. Jay of N. York and Mr. Rutledge of South Carolina, because we were so divided in religious Sentiments, some Episcopalians, some Quakers, some Aanabaptists, some Presbyterians and some Congregationalists, so that We could not join in the same Act of Worship.-Mr. S. Adams arose and said he was no Bigot, and could hear a Prayer from a Gentleman of Piety and Virtue, who was at the same Time a Friend to his Country. He was a Stranger in Phyladelphia, but had heard that Mr. Duché(Dushay they pronounce it) deserved that Character, and therefore he moved that Mr. Duché, an episcopal Clergyman, might be desired, to read Prayers to the Congress, tomorrow Morning. The Motion was seconded and passed in the Affirmative. Mr. Randolph our President, waited on Mr. Duché, and received for Answer that if his Health would permit, he certainly would. Accordingly next Morning he appeared with his Clerk and in his Pontificallibus, and read several Prayers, in the established Form; and then read the Collect for the seventh day of September, which was the Thirty fifth Psalm. -You must remember this was the next Morning after we heard the horrible Rumour, of the Cannonade of Boston.-I never saw a greater Effect upon an Audience. It seemed as if Heaven had ordained that Psalm to be read on that Morning.

  After this Mr. Duché, unexpected to every Body struck out into an extemporary Prayer, which filled the Bosom of every Man present. I must confess I never heard a better Prayer or one, so well pronounced. Episcopalian as he is, Dr. Cooper himself never prayed with such fervour, such Ardor, such Earnestness and Pathos, and in Language so elegant and sublime-for America, for the Congress, for The Province of Massachusetts Bay, and especially the Town of Boston. It has had an excellent Effect upon every Body here.

  I must beg you to read that Psalm. If there was any Faith in the sortes Virgilianae, or sortes Homericae, or especially the Sortes biblicae, it would be thought providential.

  It will amuse your Friends to read this Letter and the 35th. Psalm. to them. Read it to your Father and Mr. Wibirt.-I wonder what our Braintree Churchmen would think of this?-Mr. Duché is one of the most ingenious Men, and best Characters, and greatest orators in the Episcopal order, upon this Continent-Yet a Zealous Friend of Liberty and his Country.

  I long to see my dear Family. God bless, preserve and prosper it.

  Also published in The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. Boston, 1850-1856. 553 pp. Vol. 2 of 10. Preface and Diary.

• The Duty of standing fast in our spiritual and temporal liberties: A Sermon, preached in Christ-Church, July 7th, 1775. Before the First Battalion of the city and liberties of Philadelphia; and now published at their request. Philadelphia: Printed and sold by James Humphreys, Junior, the corner of Black-Horse Alley, Front-Street, 1775.
• Sermon on Liberty. Introduction by David Barton.
• The American vine: a sermon, preached in Christ-Church, Philadelphia, before the Honourable Continental Congress, July 20th, 1775. Being the day recommended by them for a general fast throughout the united English colonies of America. Philadelphia: Printed by James Humphreys, Junior, 1775.
• Washington at Valley Forge, together with the Duché correspondence. Philadelphia: J.M. Butler, 1858. 91 pp., [5] leaves of plates: ill., ports.; 21 cm.
  JACOB DUCHE TO GEORGE WASHINGTON.
  Asylum, Lambeth, 2 April, 1783.
  SIR,
  Will your Excellency condescend to accept of a few lines from one, who ever was and wishes still to be your sincere friend, who never intentionally sought to give you a moment's pain, who entertains for you the highest personal respect, and would be happy to be assured under your own hand, that he does not labor under your displeasure, but that you freely forgive what a weak judgment, but a very affectionate heart, once presumed to advise? Many circumstances, at present unknown to you, conspired to make me deem it my duty to write to you. Ignorance and simplicity saw not the necessity of your divulging the letter. I am convinced, however, that you could not, in your public station, do otherwise. I cannot say a word in vindication of my conduct but this, that I had been for months before distressed with continual apprehensions for you and all my friends without the British lines.
  I looked upon all as prone; or that nothing could save you, but rescinding the Declaration of Independency. Upon this ground alone I presumed to speak; not to advise an act of base treachery, my soul would have recoiled from the thought; not to surrender your army, or betray the righteous cause of your country, but, at the head of that army, supporting and supported by them, to negotiate with Britain for our constitutional rights.
  Can you then join with my country in pardoning this error of judgment? Will you yet honor me with your great interest and influence, by recommending, at least expressing your approbation of the repeal of an act, that keeps me in a state of banishment from my native country, from the arms of a dear aged father, and the embraces of a numerous circle of valuable and long-loved friends? Your liberal, generous mind, I am persuaded, will never exclude me wholly from your regard for a mere political error; especially, as you must have heard, that, since the date of that letter, I have led a life of perfect retirement, and since my arrival in England have devoted myself wholly to the duties of my profession, and confined my acquaintance to a happy circle of literary and religious friends.
  I have written to my father and many of my friends largely on this subject, requesting them to make such application to the State of Pennsylvania in my behalf, as may be judged necessary and expedient. Should this application be honored with success, I know of nothing that would more effectually satisfy my desires in a matter of such importance to myself and my family, as a line or two from your Excellency, expressive of your approbation of my return. Temporal emoluments are not wanting to induce me to remain for life on this side of the Atlantic. I have been most hospitably received and kindly treated by all ranks of people, and I should be ungrateful not to acknowledge in the strongest terms my obligation to those, who have placed me in the easy and comfortable situation I now enjoy. It is not necessity, therefore, but unalterable affection to my native country, that urges me to seek return. With every good wish and prayer for your best felicity, and my most hearty congratulations on the happy event of peace, I have the honor to be your Excellency's most obedient and humble servant,
  JACOB DUCHÉ.

  GEORGE WASHINGTON TO JACOB DUCHÉ.
  Head Quarters, 10 August, 1783.
  SIR,
  I have received your letter of the 2d of April, and, reflecting on its contents, I cannot but say that I am heartily sorry for the occasion which has produced it. Personal enmity I bear none to any man. So far, therefore, as your return to this country depends on my private voice, it would be given in favor of it with cheerfulness. But, removed as I am from the people and policy of the State, in which you formerly resided, and to whose determination your case must be submitted, it is my duty, whatever may be my inclination, to leave its decision to its constitutional judges. Should this be agreeable to your wishes, it cannot fail to meet my entire approbation. I am, &c.
  GEORGE WASHINGTON.
  

• The Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. New York, 1851. 378 pp.

Congregationalist minister, President of Yale. Read more about Dwight here.

• America, or, A poem on the settlement of the British Colonies: addressed to the friends of freedom, and their country. New Haven, 1780. 11 pp.
• A Sermon, preached at Northampton, on the twenty-eighth of November, 1781: occasioned by the capture of the British army, under the command of ... . Hartford, 1781. 33 pp.
• Virtuous rulers a national blessing: A Sermon, preached at the general election, May 12th, 1791. Hartford, 1791. 41 pp.
• A Discourse, on the genuineness and authenticity of the New-Testament: delivered at New-Haven, September 10th, 1793, at the annual lecture. New-York: 1794. 77 pp.
• The True Means of establishing public happiness. A sermon, delivered on the 7th of July, 1795, before the Connecticut Society of Cincinnati, and published at their request. New-Haven, 1795.
• The Nature and Danger of Infidel Philosophy, exhibited in two discourses, addressed to the candidates for the baccalaureate, in Yale College. Bristol: 1799. 92 pp.
• A Discourse, deliverd [sic] at New-Haven, Feb. 22, 1800: on the character of George Washington, esq. at the request of the citizens. New Haven, 1800. 54 pp.
• A Sermon on duelling: preached in the chapel of Yale college, New-Haven, September 9th, 1804, and in the Old Presbyterian church, New-York . New York, 1805. 37 pp.
• A Discourse occasioned by the death of His Excellency Jonathan Trumbull, esq., Governor of the State of Connecticut. New Haven, 1809. 27 pp.
• Theology explained and defended: in a series of sermons. Volume 1. Middletown, Conn, 1818-1819. 620 pp. 5 vols.
• Theology explained and defended: in a series of sermons. Volume 2. Middletown, Conn, 1818-1819. 610 pp. 5 vols.
• Theology explained and defended: in a series of sermons. Volume 3. Middletown, Conn, 1818-1819. 538 pp. 5 vols.
• Theology explained and defended: in a series of sermons. Volume 4. Middletown, Conn, 1818-1819. 565 pp. 5 vols.
• Theology explained and defended: in a series of sermons. Volume 5. Middletown, Conn, 1818-1819. 603 pp. 5 vols.
• President Dwight's decisions of questions discussed by the senior class in Yale College, in 1813 and 1814. New York, 1833. 330 pp.

Lawyer and statesman. Read more about Dyer here.

• Eliphalet Dyer to Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., April 12, 1783. From Letters of Delegates to Congress: Volume 20 March 12, 1783 - September 30, 1783. "May God who has Caused the Warrs to Cease from abroad, restore & Confirm internal Peace, order, & harmony, & dispose us all to a Gratefull Acknowledgement of His Abundant goodness to a sinfull & undeserving People, & to that repentance, obedience, and Righteousness which will Exalt & Establish a Nation."

American clergyman and author.

• The Patriotism of Illinois: A Record of the civil and military history of the state in the war for the Union, with a history of the campaigns in which Illinois soldiers have been conspicuous, sketches of distinguished officers, the roll of the illustrious dead, movements of the sanitary and Christian commissions. Volume 1 of 2. 619 pp. Volume 2 of 2. 714 pp. Chicago, 1865-1866.
• Abraham Lincoln: A Memorial discourse, delivered at a union meeting, held in the Presbyterian Church, Waukegan, Illinois, Wednesday, April 19, 1865, the day upon which the funeral services of the President were conducted in Washington, and observed throughout the loyal states as one of mourning. Chicago, Printed at the Methodist Book Depository, 1865. 22 pp. Also here.

Influential preacher. Read more about Edwards here

• The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners. A Discourse delivered at Northampton, at the time of the revival of religion there, in the year 1734. / By Jonathan Edwards, A.M. Pastor of the Church of Christ in Northampton, and afterwards president of Princeton College. Hartford: Printed by John Babcock, 1799. 132 pp.; 17 cm.
• An Account of the Life of the Reverend Mr. David Brainerd: Minister of the Gospel; missionary to the Indians from the Honourable Society, in Scotland, for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge; and Pastor of a church of Christian Indians in New-Jersey. Who died at Northampton in New-England, Ooctober [sic] 9th, 1747, in the 30th year of his age.
• The Great Christian doctrine of original sin defended; Evidences of it's [sic] truth produced, and arguments to the contrary answered. : Containing, in particular, a reply to the objections and arguings of Dr. John Taylor, in his book, intitled, "The Scripture-doctrine of original sin proposed to free and candid examination, &c."
• Jonathan Edwards on the Great Awakening View of Enlightenment. This edited and slightly abridged version is from: The Works of President Edwards. In Four Volumes. A Reprint of the Worcester Edition., Volume 4 (New York: Leavitt and Company, 1851), pp. 1, 3-15. The original sermon "A Thorough Knowledge of Divine Truth" was dated 1739, during the time period of Jonathan Belcher's governorship of Massachusetts and New Hampshire (1730-1741). This sermon was also written on the eve (1739) of the Great Awakening's greatest height--the year before George Whitefield visited New England in 1740.
• Jonathan Edwards' Great Awakening View of Religious Secularism, as Contrasted with Christianity. Jonathan Edwards refutes religious secularism (deism and paganism) and contrasts it with Christianity. Excerpts from: The Works of President Edwards (London 1817 edition, Volume 8), "Miscellaneous Observations on Important Theological Subjects, Original and Collected" (excerpted and slightly edited).

  18. The being of God is evident by the scriptures, and the scriptures themselves are an evidence of their own divine authority, after the same manner as the existence of a human thinking being is evident by the motions, behavior, and speech of a body animated by a rational mind. For we know this no otherwise, than by the consistency, harmony, and concurrence of the train of actions and sounds, and their agreement to all that we can suppose to be in a rational mind. These are a clear evidence of understanding and design, which are the original of these actions. There is that universal harmony, consent, and concurrence in the drift, such an universal appearance of a wonderful and glorious design, such stamps every where of exalted wisdom, majesty, and holiness, in matter, manner, contexture, and aim; that the evidence is the same, that the scriptures are the word and work of a divine mind--to one that is thoroughly acquainted with them--as that the words and actions of an understanding man are from a rational mind. An infant, when it first comes into the world, sees persons act, and hears their voice, before it has so much comprehension as to see something of their consistency, harmony, and concurrence. It makes no distinction between their bodies, and other things; their motions and sounds, and the motions and sounds of inanimate things. But as its comprehension increases, the understanding and design begin to appear. So it is with men that are as little acquainted with the scriptures, as infants with the actions of human bodies. They cannot see any evidence of a divine mind, as the original of it; because they have not comprehension enough to apprehend the harmony, wisdom, etc.

• A Godly Chief Justice: A Biography of John Stoddard (Jonathan Edwards, God's Awful Judgment in the Breaking and Withering of the Strong Rods of a Community (1748)) .
• A Strong Rod broken and withered: A Sermon preach'd at Northampton, on the Lord's Day, June 26. 1748. On the death of the Honourable John Stoddard, Esq; often a member of His Majesty's Council, for many years chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas for the county of Hampshire, judge of the probate of wills, and chief colonel of the regiment, &c.: Who died at Boston June 19. 1748. in the 67th year of his age.
• The Distinguishing marks of a work of the spirit of God. Extracted from Mr. Edwards, Minister of Northampton, in New-England. By John Wesley, M.A. Late Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxon.
• A Divine and supernatural light, immediately imparted to the soul by the spirit of God, shown to be both a scriptural and rational doctrine. Boston, 1734. 23 pp.
• A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton, and the Neighbouring Towns and Villages of the Country of Hampshire, in the Province of the Massachusettts-Bay in New-England: In a letter to the Reverend Dr. Benjamin Colman, of Boston. / Written by the Revd Mr. Edwards, Minister of Northampton, Nov. 6. 1736; Published with a large preface by the Rev. Dr. Watts and Dr. Guyse of London: to which a shorter is added by some of the reverend ministers of Boston; Together with an attestation from some of the reverend ministers of Hampshire. The third edition. Boston: N.E., Printed & sold by S. Kneeland [and] T. Green, over against the prison in Queen-Street, 1738. 94 pp.
• The Injustice and Impolicy of the slave trade, and of the slavery of the Africans: illustrated in a sermon preached before the Connecticut Society for the Promotion of Freedom, and for the Relief of Persons Unlawfully Holden in Bondage, at their annual meeting in New-Haven, September 15, 1791. / By Jonathan Edwards, D.D. Pastor of a church in New-Haven. [New Haven], Printed by Thomas and Samuel Green, 1791. 39 pp.
• Some Account of the conversion and experiences of the late Rev. Jonathan Edwards, of New-England, President of New-Jersey College, &c. . Boston, 1765?. 20 pp.
• Some Remarkable Narratives of the success of the gospel, in America, in the beginning of this century. Written by the late Rev. Jonathan Edwards. Huddersfield, 1791. 84 pp.
• A Careful and Strict enquiry into the modern prevailing notions of that freedom of will, which is supposed to be essential to moral agency. Glasgow, 1790. 458 pp.
• History of Redemption, on a plan entirely original: exhibiting the gradual discovery and accomplishment of the divine purposes in the salvation. New-York,1793. 601 pp.
• A History of the Work of Redemption: Containing the outlines of a body of divinity, in a method entirely new. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, [between 1840 and 1849?]. 359 pp.
• A Treatise concerning religious affections. In three parts. . Part I. Concerning the nature of the affections, and their importance in religion. Part II. Shewing what are no certain signs that religious affections are gracious, or that they are not. Part III. Shewing what are distinguishing signs of truly gracious and holy affections. London, 1796. 458 pp.
• The Works of President Edwards. Volume 1 of 8. Memoirs of the late Rev. Jonathan Edwards. Farewell sermon. Result of a council at Northampton. Humble inquiry concerning the qualifications for membership in the visible Christian church. Reply to Williams. 1st American ed. Worcester [Mass.]: Isaiah Thomas, Jun., 1808-1809: Isaac Sturtevant. 8 Volume; 21 cm. 52,007 KB.
• The Works of President Edwards. Volume 2. Work of redemption. Dissertation on the nature of virtue. Observations concerning the mysteries of Scripture. 51,289 KB.
• The Works of President Edwards. Volume 3. A narrative of many surprising conversions. Thoughts on the revival of religion in New England. An humble attempt to promote explicit agreement in prayer. Life of Rev. D. Brainerd and reflections upon it. 60,252 KB.
• The Works of President Edwards. Volume 4. A treatise concerning religious affections. Observations concerning faith. Reasons against Dr. Watts's notion of the preexistence of Christ's human soul. 70,824 KB.
• The Works of President Edwards. Volume 5. Inquiry into the modern prevailing notions of freedom of will. Miscellaneous observations concerning the divine decrees in general and election in particular. Concerning efficacious grace. 67,974 KB.
• The Works of President Edwards. Volume 6. Dissertation concerning the end for which God created the world. Doctrine of original sin defended. Observations upon particular passages of Scripture. Theological questions. 69,106 KB.
• The Works of President Edwards. Volume 7. Fifteen sermons on various important subjects, doctrinal and practical. 71,525 KB.
• The Works of President Edwards. Volume 8. A continuation of sermons on various and important subjects. 68,283 KB.

Legal Counsel for the Foundation for Moral Law and teacher of Professional Responsibility for the Oak Brook College of Law. Ordained pastor with the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations; teacher of Apologetics and other subjects for the Free Lutheran Seminary. Colonel, Alabama State Defense Force. Read more about Eidsmoe here. Website here.

"I am committed to the belief that the Bible is God's inspired and inerrant word, that the Bible is relevant to the issues of today, and that one of today's greatest needs is for the articulation of a comprehensive biblical view of current issues and a comprehensive biblical view of law. I am further committed to the belief that America's constitutional heritage is based on solid biblical principles and that an understanding of this constitutional heritage is essential to the preservation of American freedom. Christianity and the Constitution . . . [is] a detailed study of the religious beliefs of the founders of this nation and the role the United States of America plays in the plan of God. I urge writers in every field of academic discipline to think through their positions carefully, in the light of God's word, the Bible." --Contemporary Authors Online, Thomson Gale, 2007.

• Warrior, Statesman, Jurist for the South: The Life, Legacy and Law of Thomas Goode Jones. From Jones Law Review, v. 5, n. 1. 2001. Presented by permission of the author. A revised version in hardcover was published in 2003 by Sprinkle Publications. Buy this book here.
• A Call to Stand with Chief Justice Moore. PDF version.
• The Federalist Papers: The Key to Restoring Our Constitutional Republic.
• What Congress Can Do for This American. January 21, 2008.
• With D. James Kennedy. Christianity and the Constitution: The Faith of Our Founding Fathers. Baker Publishing Group, August 1995. 473 pp. Buy this book here.
• Other works.

34th President of the United States. Read more about Eisenhower here and here and at The Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum Homepage.

• First Inaugural Address of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Tuesday, January 20, 1953.

  My friends, before I begin the expression of those thoughts that I deem appropriate to this moment, would you permit me the privilege of uttering a little private prayer of my own. And I ask that you bow your heads:

  Almighty God, as we stand here at this moment my future associates in the executive branch of government join me in beseeching that Thou will make full and complete our dedication to the service of the people in this throng, and their fellow citizens everywhere.

  Give us, we pray, the power to discern clearly right from wrong, and allow all our words and actions to be governed thereby, and by the laws of this land. Especially we pray that our concern shall be for all the people regardless of station, race, or calling.

  May cooperation be permitted and be the mutual aim of those who, under the concepts of our Constitution, hold to differing political faiths; so that all may work for the good of our beloved country and Thy glory. Amen.

  My fellow citizens:

  The world and we have passed the midway point of a century of continuing challenge. We sense with all our faculties that forces of good and evil are massed and armed and opposed as rarely before in history.

  This fact defines the meaning of this day. We are summoned by this honored and historic ceremony to witness more than the act of one citizen swearing his oath of service, in the presence of God. We are called as a people to give testimony in the sight of the world to our faith that the future shall belong to the free.

  ... Yet the promise of this life is imperiled by the very genius that has made it possible. Nations amass wealth. Labor sweats to create--and turns out devices to level not only mountains but also cities. Science seems ready to confer upon us, as its final gift, the power to erase human life from this planet.

  At such a time in history, we who are free must proclaim anew our faith. This faith is the abiding creed of our fathers. It is our faith in the deathless dignity of man, governed by eternal moral and natural laws.

  This faith defines our full view of life. It establishes, beyond debate, those gifts of the Creator that are man's inalienable rights, and that make all men equal in His sight.

  In the light of this equality, we know that the virtues most cherished by free people--love of truth, pride of work, devotion to country--all are treasures equally precious in the lives of the most humble and of the most exalted. The men who mine coal and fire furnaces and balance ledgers and turn lathes and pick cotton and heal the sick and plant corn--all serve as proudly, and as profitably, for America as the statesmen who draft treaties and the legislators who enact laws.

  This faith rules our whole way of life. It decrees that we, the people, elect leaders not to rule but to serve. It asserts that we have the right to choice of our own work and to the reward of our own toil. It inspires the initiative that makes our productivity the wonder of the world. And it warns that any man who seeks to deny equality among all his brothers betrays the spirit of the free and invites the mockery of the tyrant.

  It is because we, all of us, hold to these principles that the political changes accomplished this day do not imply turbulence, upheaval or disorder. Rather this change expresses a purpose of strengthening our dedication and devotion to the precepts of our founding documents, a conscious renewal of faith in our country and in the watchfulness of a Divine Providence.

  The enemies of this faith know no god but force, no devotion but its use. They tutor men in treason. They feed upon the hunger of others. Whatever defies them, they torture, especially the truth.

  ...These basic precepts are not lofty abstractions, far removed from matters of daily living. They are laws of spiritual strength that generate and define our material strength. Patriotism means equipped forces and a prepared citizenry. Moral stamina means more energy and more productivity, on the farm and in the factory. Love of liberty means the guarding of every resource that makes freedom possible--from the sanctity of our families and the wealth of our soil to the genius of our scientists.

  ...This is the hope that beckons us onward in this century of trial. This is the work that awaits us all, to be done with bravery, with charity, and with prayer to Almighty God.

• Remarks Recorded for the "Back-to-God" Program of the American Legion, February 20, 1955. Also here.

  THE FOUNDING FATHERS expressed in words for all to read the ideal of Government based upon the dignity of the individual. That ideal previously had existed only in the hearts and minds of men. They produced the timeless documents upon which the Nation is founded and has grown great. They, recognizing God as the author of individual rights, declared that the purpose of Government is to secure those rights.

  To you and to me this ideal of Government is a self-evident truth. But in many lands the State claims to be the author of human rights. The tragedy of that claim runs through all his­tory and, indeed, dominates our own times. If the State gives rights, it can-and inevitably will-take away those rights.

  Without God, there could be no American form of Govern­ment, nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first-the most basic-expression of Americanism. Thus the Founding Fathers saw it, and thus, with God's help, it will continue to be.

  It is significant, I believe, that the American Legion-an organization of war veterans-has seen fit to conduct a "Back to God" movement as part of its Americanism program. Veterans realize, perhaps more clearly than others, the prior place that Almighty God holds in our national life. And they can appreciate, through personal experience, that the really decisive battle­ground of American freedom is in the hearts and minds of our own people.

  Now, if I may make a personal observation-you, my fellow citizens, have bestowed upon my associates and myself, ordinary men, the honor and the duty of serving you in the administration of your Government. More and more we are conscious of the magnitude of that task.

  The path we travel is narrow and long, beset with many dangers. Each day we must ask that Almighty God will set and keep His protecting hand over us so that we may pass on to those who come after us the heritage of a free people, secure in their God-given rights and in full control of a Government dedicated to the preservation of those rights. I can ask nothing more of each of you-of all Americans-than that you join with the American Legion in its present campaign.

• Second Inaugural Address of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Monday, January 21, 1957.

  THE PRICE OF PEACE

  Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice President, Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. Speaker, members of my family and friends, my countrymen, and the friends of my country, wherever they may be, we meet again, as upon a like moment four years ago, and again you have witnessed my solemn oath of service to you.

  I, too, am a witness, today testifying in your name to the principles and purposes to which we, as a people, are pledged.

  Before all else, we seek, upon our common labor as a nation, the blessings of Almighty God. And the hopes in our hearts fashion the deepest prayers of our whole people.

Clergyman. Read more about Eliot here.

• The Harmony of the Gospels: in the holy history of the humiliation and sufferings of Jesus Christ, from his incarnation to his death and burial. Published by John Eliot, teacher of the church in Roxbury. Boston; 1678. [4], 131, [1] pp.; 19 cm.
• Convers Francis (1795-1863). Life of John Eliot: The apostle to the Indians. New-York: Harper & Bros., 1844. xii, 357 pp., [1] leaf of plates: facsim; 18 cm.
• Nehemiah Adams. The Life of John Eliot: with an account of the early missionary efforts among the Indians of New England. Boston, 1847. 322 pp.

American statesman and jurist. Read more about Ellsworth here.

• William Garrott Brown. The Life of Oliver Ellsworth. New York: Macmillan, 1905. ix, 369 pp., [4] leaves of plates: ill.; 23 cm.
• To the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut. Published in The Courant, August 11, 1818, p. 2. Present on the committee: Oliver Ellsworth, David Daggett, Pliny Hillyer, Eliphalet Terry, Abraham Vanhorne DeWitt, Noah Webster, George Colfax, David F. Sill, David Burr, Lewis B. Sturges, Shubael Abbe, John Parish, James Morris, Elijah Sherman, Jonathan Law, Nathan Wilcox, John T. Peters, and Jonathan Burns. Report presented June 3, 1818.
  ... "In the opinion of the committee, no legislative aid is necessary on any of the grounds of complaint specified in the Petition. This opinion however is formed on the principle recognized that every member of society should, in some way, contribute to the support of religious institutions. In illustration of this principle, it may be observed, that the primary objects of government, are the peace, order, and prosperity of society. By their preservation, individuals are secured in all their valuable interests. To the promotion of these objects, particularly in a republican government, good morals are essential. Institutions for the promotion of good morals, are therefore objects of legislative provision and support; and among these, in the opinion of the committee, religious institutions are eminently useful and important. It is not here intended that speculative opinions in theology and mere rites and modes of worship, are the subjects of legal coercion, or indeed the objects of legislation; but that the legislature, charged with the great interests of the community, may and ought to countenance, and protect religious institutions -- institutions wisely calculated to direct men to the performance of all the duties arising from their connection with each other, and to prevent or repress those evils which flow from unrestrained passion."
  Also on this page, Extract from "A series of Letters on the Establishment of the Worship of the Deity is Essential to National Happiness, Published in 1789," published from The Salem Gazette. "It is the influence of religion, and of Christianity above all other systems, which has raised the civilized nations of the earth from darkness to light, from brutes to men."

• The Story of Byfield. Boston: George E. Littlefield, 1904. Also in Word, PDF

Clergyman. Read more about Ely here.

• The Duty of Christian freemen to elect Christian rulers: A Discourse delivered on the Fourth of July, 1827, in the Seventh Presbyterian Church. Philadelphia, 1828. 32 pp.
• The Migration of the Pilgrims, and of their posterity: considered in an address, read before the New England Society of Philadelphia, on the 22d of December, 1817 / by Ezra Stiles Ely. Philadelphia: Printed at the office of the United States Gazette, 1818. 26 pp.

Educator. Read about Emerson here.

• The Evangelical primer, containing a minor doctrinal catechism, and a minor historical catechism to which is added the Westminster Assembly's Shorter catechism with short explanatory notes and copious Scripture proofs and illustrations by Joseph Emerson. Boston: 1831. 72 pp. ill.
  RECOMMENDATIONS.
  Having been informed by the Rev. Mr. Emerson of Beverly of his plan for publishing a book, called the Evangelical Primer, and seen a considerable part of the work, we cheerfully approve both of the design, and, so far as we are acquainted with it, of the manner, in which it has been executed; and do accordingly recommend the book for the use of Families and Schools.
  1809. Timothy Dwight, President of Yale College.
  Moses Stuart, Pastor of the First Congregational Church in New Haven.
  Noah Webster, jun. N. Haven.
  Samuel Merwin, Pastor of the United Congregational Church in New Haven.
  Benjamin Trumbull, Pastor of the Congregational Church in North Haven.
  Krastus Ripley, Pastor of the Congregational Church in Meriden.
  Nehemiah Prudden, Pastor of the Congregational Church in Enfield.
  Edward D. Griffin, Andover.
  Leonard Woods, Andover.
  Daniel Dana, Newburyport.
  William F. Rowland, Exeter.
  W. Hollinshead, one ot the Pastors of the Independent or Congregational churoh in Charleston, S. Carolina.
  

Scottish theologian.

• The Influence of religion on national happiness. A Sermon preached before the Society for propagating Christian Knowledge, on January 5. 1756. By John Erskine, To which is annex'd, The present state of the said Society. Edinburgh: printed in the year, 1756. [2], 46 pp.; 80.

Lord Chancellor of England. Read about Erskine here.

• Christianity Vindicated: in the admirable speech of the Hon. Tho. Erskine, in the trial of J. [i.e., T.] Williams, for publishing Paine's "Age of Reason.": 24th June, 1797. From the twelfth London edition. Philadelphia: Printed by J. Carey, no. 83, N. Second-Street, for G. Douglas, no. 2, South Third-Street, 1797. 15, [1] pp.; (8vo)
• Extract from Snyder's Great Arguments and Speeches by Eminent Lawyers.
• Gilbert Clarke profile of Erskine.
• The Speeches of the Hon. Thomas Erskine, in the Court of King's Bench, June 28, 1797: before the Right Hon. Lloyd Lord Kenyon, and a special jury, on the trial the King versus Thomas Williams, for publishing The age of reason, written by Thomas Paine; together with Mr. Stewart Kyd's reply, and Lord Kenyon's charge to the jury. Philadelphia: Printed for, and sold by William Cobbett, opposite Christ Church, Nov. 1797. 23, [1] pp.; 20 cm. (8vo)

American author and diplomatist. Read about Everett here.

• An Address delivered at Charlestown, Mass.: at the request of the young men, without distinction of party, in commemoration of the Battle of Bunker Hill . Boston: Beals & Greene.
• Critical and Miscellaneous Essays. Boston: J. Munroe & Co., 1845. 563 pp.; 21 cm.
  Religion expands the intellect, by familiarizing us with the most interesting questions in the philosophy of matter and mind. It enlarges the heart, by repressing the selfish, and encouraging the social and benevolent feelings. It checks our pride in prosperity, and our depression in adversity, by impressing upon us the trifling importance of our present interests, when compared with those that belong to us as candidates for a higher state of existence. It consoles us under the agony of parting from those we love, by the reflection, that we shall meet them again in scenes of permanent happiness. In a word, it changes the universe from a chaos of confusion and misery, to a grand and beautiful creation, the fit residence and temple, of the High and Holy One that inhabiteth eternity.
  It is not in nature for those who believe these sublime truths, to hear about them, and think about them, without the strongest excitement. What is there in the most absorbing affairs, the most exquisite entertainments, that can ever claim in any respect to come into competition with them? What is there, for example, in the fable of the most highly wrought and beautifully written romance, which can be compared for deep and absorbing interest with the splendid history of creation and redemption, of which the record is the Bible, the scene the universe, the time eternity, God, superior beings, and ourselves the subjects?

Roman Catholic apologist.

• A Short Essay on the Christian religion: descriptive of the advantages which have accrued to society by the establishment of it, as contrasted with the manners and customs of mankind before that happy period; to which are added a few occasional remarks on philosophers in general, as also on some of the objections started against the Chkistian [sic] religion by the fashionable writers of the present age; the whole proposed as a preservative against the pernicious doctrines which have overwhelmed France with misery and desolation. London: printed by J. P. Coghlan; and sold by Messrs. Booker; Keating; Lewis; Debrett; and Robinsons, 1795. vii, [1], 140 pp.

American statesman. Vice President under Theodore Roosevelt. Read about Fairbanks here and here.

• Fairbanks in Seattle: Addresses the Christian Endeavor Convention--Says Our country Stands for Peace. Galveston Daily News, July 13, 1907, p. 2. Column C.
  "The strength and honor and perpetuity of American institutions depend more upon the influence and teachings of the great Christian churches than upon all other influences combined and many times multiplied. this is and is to be a Christian Nation. Its destiny is to be governed by Christian people. Our fathers walked by Christian faith, and we are guided by that same faith. We are carrying it into business and politics, and the more we put into both the nobler will be our ideals and the more thoroughly we will be inspired by that spirit of righteousness and justice which tends to the welfare of the home, the exaltation of the community and the glory of the State.
  "We love and honor the flag, not because it is a symbol of mighty power, not because it is the emblem of victories in the right upon land and sea, but beyond all else because it stands for the justice and righteousness of a great Christian people.
  "Take out of the Republic the Christian faith, blot out of the hearts of our people love of the Christian religion, tear down the sacred altars from sea to sea where the millions worship, uproot the Christian Endeavor Societies and their allied organizations engaged in promoting Christian work--and night would come. The splendid temple erected by our fathers would totter to its fall and the battle fields made immortal by the blood of our heroes would quicken no generous impulse, would awaken no patriotic sentiment.
  "Our Nation's great leaders (we have no rulers) have been men of simple Christian faith, and whenever storm and stress have come, they have held to that faith as their sheet anchor."

Read about President Fillmore here and here.

• "First Annual Message" (December 2, 1850).
  Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
  

  Being suddenly called in the midst of the last session of Congress by a painful dispensation of Divine Providence to the responsible station which I now hold, I contented myself with such communications to the Legislature as the exigency of the moment seemed to require.
  

  ... Our liberties, religions and civil, have been maintained, the fountains of knowledge have all been kept open, and means of happiness widely spread and generally enjoyed greater than have fallen to the lot of any other nation. And while deeply penetrated with gratitude for the past, let us hope that His all-wise providence will so guide our counsels as that they shall result in giving satisfaction to our constituents, securing the peace of the country, and adding new strength to the united Government under which we live.

Evangelist and preacher. Read The Autobiography of Charles G. Finney here and here. Disclaimer: Finney is said to hold Peleganist views.

• Lectures on Systematic Theology ; Embracing Moral government, the atonement, moral and physical depravity, natural, moral, and gracious ability, repentance, faith, justification, sanctification, &c. By the Rev. Charles G. Finney, Professor of Theology in the Oberlin Collegiate Institute, Ohio, America. The whole work revised, enlarged, and partly re-written by the author, during his late visit to England. Edited and revised, with an introduction, by the Rev. George Redford, D.D., L.L.D, of Worcester. London: William Tegg and Co., 85, Queen Street, Cheapside. 1851 edition. 1878 edition.
• Lectures on Revivals of Religion. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1868, Lecture XV, pp. 281-282. "But the time has come that Christians must vote for honest men and take consistent ground in politics, or the Lord will curse them. They must be honest men themselves, and instead of voting for a man because he belongs to their party, Bank or Anti-Bank, Jackson, or Anti-Jackson, they must find out whether he is honest and upright, and fit to be trusted. They must let the world see that the church will uphold no man in office, who is known to be a knave, or an adulterer, or a Sabbath-breaker, or a gambler, or a drunkard. Such is the spread of intelligence and the facility of communication in our country, that every man can know for whom he gives his vote. And if he will give his vote only for honest men, the country will be obliged to have upright rulers. All parties will be compelled to put up honest men as candidates. Christians have been exceedingly guilty in this matter. But the time has come when they must act differently, or God will curse the nation, and withdraw his spirit. As on the subject of slavery and temperance, so on this subject, the church must act right or the country will be ruined. God cannot sustain this free and blessed country, which we love and pray for, unless the church will take right ground. Politics are a part of religion in such a country as this, and Christians must do their duty to the country as a part of their duty to God. It seems sometimes as if the foundations of the nation were becoming rotten, and Christians seem to act as if they thought God did not see what they do in politics. But I tell you, he does see it - and He will bless or curse this nation according to the course they take."
• Memoirs of Rev. Charles G. Finney. New York, A.S. Barnes & Co. [1876] xii, 477 p. front. (port.) facsim. 20 cm.

American historical, philosophical and scientific writer. Read about Fiske here. Disclaimer: Fiske was a proponent of Darwinism.

• The Discovery of America, with some account of ancient America and the Spanish conquest. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin; Cambridge [Mass.]: Riverside Press, 1892. 2 vols: ill., facsims., maps, plans, port.; 21 cm. Recommended by President Woodrow Wilson. Volume 1 of 2. Volume 2 of 2.
• The beginnings of New England: or, The Puritan theocracy in its relations to civil and religious liberty. Houghton, Mifflin and company, 1889. 296 pp.
• The Historical Writings of John Fiske. Boston, New York, Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1902.
  Volume 1. The Discovery of America, with Some Account of Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest, Vol. 1 of 3.
  Volume 2. The Discovery of America, with Some Account of Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest, Vol. 2 of 3.
  Volume 3. The Discovery of America, with Some Account of Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest, Vol. 3 of 3.
  Volume 4. Old Virginia and Her Neighbours. Vol. 1.
  Volume 5. Old Virginia and Her Neighbours. Vol. 2.
  Volume 6. The Beginnings of New England, or the Puritan Theocracy in Its Relations to Civil and Religious Liberty.
  Volume 7. The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America. Vol. 1.
  Volume 8. The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America. Vol. 2.
  Volume 9. New France and New England.
  Volume 10. The American Revolution, Vol. 1.
  Volume 11. The American Revolution, Vol. 2.
  Volume 12. The Critical Period of American History, 1783-1789.

American President. Read more about President Ford here. Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum.

• Proclamation 4338 - National Day of Prayer, 1974; December 5, 1974.
  Ours is a Nation built upon a belief in a Creator who has endowed all men with inalienable rights, and faith in that Creator permeates every aspect of our way of life.
  With characteristically quiet eloquence, President Dwight D. Eisenhower once described the central role of religion in American life:
  "Without God there could be no American form of government, nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first-the most basic-expression of Americanism. Thus the founding fathers of America saw it, and thus with God's help, it will continue to be."
  Let us pray, each in our own way, for the strength and the will to meet the challenges that face us today with the same profound faith in God that inspired the Founders of this Nation.
  Let us pray, as our Fathers prayed, for the wisdom to know God's way and the determination to follow it.
  Let us pray that God will continue to bless this great and good land as abundantly in the future as He has in the past.
  .In 1952 the Congress directed the President to set aside a suitable day other than a Sunday each year as a National Day of Prayer, in recognition of the profound religious faith on which America is built.
  Now, THEREFORE, I, GERALD R. FORD, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Wednesday, December 18, as National Day of Prayer, 1974.
  I call upon all Americans to pray that day, each after his or her own manner and convictions, for Deity's blessing on our land and for peace on earth, goodwill among all men.
  IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifth day of December, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-ninth.
• Remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast, January 30th, 1975. "On the day that I suddenly became President of the United States, after all the guests had gone, I walked through some of the empty rooms on the first floor of the White House and stopped by that marble mantle in the dining room to read the words carved in it--words that were a prayer of the first President who ever occupied the White House: 'I pray to heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house, and all that shall hereafter inhabit it,' John Adams wrote. 'May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.' "I am grateful to President Adams for leaving that message and to all who have said amen to it for nearly two centuries. "My own prayer is for God's continued blessing and God's continued guidance for our country and all its people whose servants we in government strive to be."
• Remarks at a Christmas Party for the White House Staff, December 15th, 1975
• Remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast. January 29th, 1976
• Remarks at the Combined Convention of the National Religious Broadcasters and the National Association of Evangelicals, February 22nd, 1976 "It is a very special honor for me to address for the third time in as many years this great convention of National Religious Broadcasters. I welcome, of course the participation of the National Association of Evangelicals, and I salute both of you for your outstanding organizations as you follow the great commissions of Jesus, to go into the world and to preach the gospel."
• Remarks at the Lighting of the National Community Christmas Tree, December 16th, 1976

Scottish philosopher. Read about Fordyce here.

• The Elements of Moral Philosophy, in Three Books with a Brief Account of the Nature, Progress, and Origin of Philosophy, Book II. London: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley in Pallmall, 1754. All three books in one volume here. 312 pp.
  "Of all the Relations which the human Mind sustains, that which subsists between the Creator and his Creatures, the supreme Lawgiver and his Subjects, is the highest and the best. This Relation arises from the Nature of a Creature in general, and the Constitution of the human Mind in particular; the noblest Powers and Affections of which point to an universal Mind, and would be imperfect and abortive without such a Direction. How lame then must that System of Morals be, which leaves a Deity out of the Question! How disconsolate, and how destitute of its firmest Support!
  "Therefore verbal Adoration, Prayer, Praise, Thanksgiving, and Confession, are admirable Aids to inward Devotion, fix our Attention, compose and enliven our Thoughts, impress us more deeply with a Sense of the awful Presence in which we are, and, by a natural and mechanical sort of Influence, tend to heighten those devout Feelings and Affections which we ought to entertain, and after this manner reduce into formal and explicit Act.
  "This holds true in an higher Degree in the case of public Worship, where the Presence of our Fellow-creatures, and the powerful Contagion of the social Affections conspire to kindle and spread the devout Flame with greater Warmth and Energy. To conclude: As God is the Parent and Head of the social System, as he has formed us for a social State, as by one we find the best Security against the Ills of Life, and in the other enjoy its greatest Comforts, and as by means of both, our Nature attains its highest Improvement and Perfection; and moreover, as there are public Blessings and Crimes in which we all share in some degree, and public Wants and Dangers to which all are exposed, it is therefore evident, that the various and solemn Offices of public Religion, are Duties of indispensible moral Obligation, among the best Cements of Society, the firmest Prop of Government, and the fairest Ornament of both.

Pastor.

• A Sermon preached before His Excellency John Hancock, Esq. governour; His Honor Samuel Adams, Esq. lieutenant-governour; the Honourable the Council, Senate, and House of Representatives, of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, May 26, 1790: Being the day of general election. Boston, Massachusetts: Thomas Adams, printer to the Honourable, the General Court, 1790: 35, [1] p.; 22 cm.
• Duty of Gospel Ministers
• Sermon upon the ordination of Olivere Dodge
• Election Sermon (1790). Also here. Introduction by David Barton.
• A Brief reply to the grand enquiry, What must I do to be saved?: To which are added, some peculiar doctrines, and observations upon them, in which they are represented as unscriptural.: Also, the proceedings of the ecclesiastical council at the ordination of the Rev. Daniel Foster, in New-Braintree. Massachusetts-Bay: Worcester: Printed by Isaiah Thomas, 1779. 31, [1] pp.; 18 cm.

Author and minister. Read more about Foster here.

• A Sermon, preached 6 November, 1817, in Chauncy-Place Church, Boston, before the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians and Others. Cambridge, 1817. 44 pp.
• A Sermon preached before the Ancient and Honourable Artillery Company, in Boston, June 5, 1809: being the anniversary of their election of officers. Boston: Munroe, Francis and Parker, 1809. 27, [1] pp.
• Artillery Sermon. Introduction by David Barton.
• Infidelity Exposed, and Christianity recommended: in a sermon delivered to the First Society in Cambridge, on Lord's day, April 11, 1802. Published at the request of the hearers. Cambridge, Mass.: Printed by William Hilliard, 1802. 33 pp.; 22 cm.

A Founding Father of the United States of America. Author, printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. While he is considered to be a deist, we include him here because he did promote Christian values. Read more about Franklin here, here, here, and in The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

• Joseph Priestley. Memoirs of Dr. Joseph Priestley to the year 1795. Volume 1 of 2. London, 1825. 499 pp. Extract.
• With William Temple Franklin. The Posthumous and other writings of Benjamin Franklin. Volume 1 of 2. Second editon. London, H. Colburn, 1819. Published from the originals, by his grandson, William Temple Franklin. Extract.
• Two tracts: information to those who would remove to America, and remarks concerning the savages of North America. 2nd ed. London: Printed for J. Stockdale, 1784. 39 pp.; 23 cm.
  "To this may be truly added, that serious Religion, under its various denominations, is not only tolerated, but respected and practised. Atheism is unknown there; Infidelity rare and secret; so that persons my live to a great age in that country without having their piety shocked by meeting with either an Atheist or an Infidel. And the Divine Being seems to have manifested his approbation of the mutual forbearance and kindness with which the different sects treat each other, by the remarkable prosperity with which he has been pleased to favour the whole country."--p. 18.
• The Life of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, written by himself; with essays, humorous, moral and literary. Boston: I. Thomas, Jun.: J.T. Buckingham, (Boston: J.T. Buckingham), 1815. 169 pp.: port. Extracts: Preface. Franklin's epitaph. Franklin's will. The Body
  Of
  Benjamin Franklin, printer,
  (Like the cover of an old book
  Its contents torn out
  And stript of its lettering and gilding)
  Lies here food for worms;
  Yet the work itself shall not be lost,
  For it will (as he believed) appear once more
  In a new
  And more beautiful edition,
  Corrected and amended
  By
  The Author
  
• Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion, in Two Parts.
• Jared Sparks, editor. The Works of Benjamin Franklin: containing several political and historical tracts not included in any former edition, and many letters official. Vol. 1 of 10. Boston, 1840. Extracts: Preface. Contents. Chapter XV, which discusses Franklin's religious beliefs.
• Jared Sparks, editor. The Works of Benjamin Franklin: containing several political and historical tracts not included in any former edition, and many letters official. Vol. 2 of 10. Boston: Hilliard, Gray and Co., 1836. Extracts from "Essays on Religious and Moral Subjects and the Economy of Life," "A Comparison of the Conduct of the Ancient Jews and of the Anti-federalists in the United States of America," "Queries and Remarks Respecting Alterations in the Constitution of Pennsylvania."
• Jared Sparks, editor. The Works of Benjamin Franklin: containing several political and historical tracts not included in any former edition, and many letters official. Vol. 5 of 10. Boston, 1837. Extracts: "Motion for Prayers in the Convention," "Speech in the Convention."
• Jared Sparks, editor. The Works of Benjamin Franklin: containing several political and historical tracts not included in any former edition, and many letters official. Vol. 7 of 10. Boston, Hillard Gray, 1838. Extracts.

  Letter to Mrs. Jane Mecom:
  "I am so far from thinking that God is not to be worshipped, that I have composed and wrote a whole book of devotions for my own use; and I imagine there are few if any in the world so weak as to imagine, that the little good we can do here can merit so vast a reward hereafter."

  Letter to George Whitefield, June 6, 1753:
  "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, the folly to expect it, nor the ambition to desire 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 worship of God is a duty; the hearing and reading of sermons may be useful; but, if men rest in hearing and praying, as too many do, it is as if a tree should value itself on being watered and putting forth leaves, though it never produced any fruit."

  Letter to George Whitefield, June 19, 1764:
  "That Being, who gave me existence, and through almost threescore years has been continually showing his favors upon me, whose very chastisements have been blessings to me; can I doubt that he loves me? And, if he loves me, can I doubt that he will go on to take care of me, not only here but hereafter?

  Letter to Sarah Franklin, November 8, 1764:
  "Go constantly to church, whoever preaches. The act of devotion in the Common Prayer Book is your principal business there, and if properly attended to, will do more towards amending the heart than sermons generally can do. For they were composed by men of much greater piety and wisdom, than our common composers of sermons can pretend to be; and therefore I wish you would never miss the prayer days; yet I do not mean you should despise sermons, even of the preachers you dislike, for the discourse is often much better than the man, as sweet and clear waters come through very dirty earth."

• Jared Sparks, editor. The Works of Benjamin Franklin: containing several political and historical tracts not included in any former edition, and many letters official. Vol. 10 of 10. . Boston, 1836-1840. 558 pp. Extract, pp. 281-282.

  Letter to Thomas Paine:

  DEAR SIR,

  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 reasonings are subtile 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 advantages 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 good deal of regret and repentance. If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it. I intend this letter itself as a proof of my friendship, and therefore add no professions to it; but subscribe simply yours,

  B. Franklin

• David Barton.Benjamin Franklin's Letter to Thomas Paine.
• With William Temple Franklin. The Works of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, in philosophy, politics, and morals: containing, beside all the writings published in former collections, his diplomatic correspondence, as minister of the United States, at the court of Versailles, a variety of articles, and epistolary correpsondence, never before published: with memoirs and anecdotes of his life. Vol. 6 of 6. Philadelphia: William Duane, 1809. ill., map; 22 cm. Extracts.

Catholic clergyman. Read more about Fransioli here.

• Infidelity Exposed, and Christianity recommended: in a sermon delivered to the First Society in Cambridge, on Lord's day, April 11, 1802. Published at the request of the hearers. Cambridge, Mass.: Printed by William Hilliard, 1802. 33 pp.; 22 cm.

Apologist.

• A collection of select biography: or, The bulwark of truth being a sketch of the lives and testimonies of many eminent laymen, in different countries, who have professed their belief in, and attachment to the Christian religion --whether distinguished as statesmen, patriots, philosophers, &c. : --to which are prefixed two letters to Thomas Paine, containing some important queries and remarks relative to the probable tendency of his Age of reason

Attorney-general of New Jersey from 1817 to 1829, was a United States senator from New Jersey in 1829-1835, was the Whig candidate for vice-president on the Clay ticket in 1844, and was Chancellor of the university of New York in 1839-1850 and President of Rutgers College in 1850-1862. President of the American Bible Society, 1845-1862. Read more about Frelinghuysen here, here and here.

• Speech of Mr. Frelinghuysen, on the Subject of Sunday Mails. In the Senate of the United States -- May 8, 1830. From Register of debates in Congress: comprising the leading debates and incidents of the first session of the Twenty-first Congress: together with an appendix, containing important state papers and public documents, and the laws enacted during the session: with a copious index to the whole. Vol. VI. United States Congress (21st, 1st session: 1829-1830); Washington [D.C.]: Printed and published by Gales and Seaton, 1830. 2 vol.; 26 cm. Half-title: Debates in Congress./ Running title: Gales & Seaton's register of debates in Congress./ Printed in two columns./ Part I: [4], 664, xiv p.; part II: [4], 665-1148, 18 p., 144 columns, ix-li, [i], 4, xiv pp. Extract, Appendix, pp. 1-4.
  
• Speeches of Messrs. Webster, Frelinghuysen and others at the Sunday School Meeting in the city of Washington, February 16, 1831. Philadelphia, 1831. 24 pp.

Disclaimer: American Unitarian clergyman.

• Christian Patriotism: a sermon, on occasion of the death of John Adams, preached in Chauncy-place, Boston, July 9th, 1826. Boston, 1826. 18 pp.

British governor and general. Read more about Gage here.

• The History of Rowley. Boston: Ferdinand Andrews, 1840. Also in Word, PDF

Bishop. Read about Galloway here.

• Christianity and the American Commonwealth ; or, The Influence of Christianity in making this nation. Nashville, Tenn., Pub. House Methodist Episcopal church, South, Barbee & Smith, agents, 1898. 213 pp. 19 cm. Delivered in the chapel at Emory college, Oxford, Ga., March, 1898.

Minister. Disclaimer: Reputed to be Unitarian. Read more about Gannett here.

• Thanksgiving for the Union. A Discourse delivered in the Federal-Street Meetinghouse in Boston, on Thanksgiving-day, November 28, 1850. Boston, 1850. 22 pp.
• The State of the Country. A Discourse preached in the Federal Street Meetinghouse in Boston, Sunday, June 8, 1856. Boston, 1856. 20 pp.

Attorney, minister, educator, soldier. 20th President of the United States. Read about President Garfield here, here and here.

• James Garfield Letter, Feb. 16th 1858.
• Burke Hinsdale, editor. The Works of James Abram Garfield. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1883, Volume 1 of 2; Volume 2 of 2.
• A Century of Congress. Published in The Atlantic Monthly, July 1877.

  Just now, too, the day of sentimental politics is passing away, and the work of Congress is more nearly allied to the business interests of the country and to "the dismal science," as political economy is called by the "practical men" of our time. The legislation of Congress comes much nearer to the daily life of the people than ever before. Twenty years ago, the presence of the national government was not felt by one citizen in a hundred. Except in paying his postage and receiving his mail, the citizen of the interior rarely came in contact with the national authority. Now, he meets it in a thousand ways. For merely the legislation of Congress referred chiefly to our foreign relations, to indirect taxes, to the government of the army, the navy, and the Territories. Now, a vote in Congress may, any day, seriously derange the business affairs of every citizen.

  And this leads me to say that now, more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand those high qualities to represent them in the national legislature. Congress lives in the blaze of "that fierce light which beats against the throne." The telegraph and the press will to-morrow morning announce at a million breakfast-tables what has been said and done in Congress to-day. Now, as always, Congress represents the prevailing opinions and political aspirations of the people. The wildest delusions of paper money, the crudest theories of taxation, the passions and prejudices that find expression in the Senate and House, were first believed and discussed at the firesides of the people, on the corners of the streets, and in the caucuses and conventions of political parties.

  The most alarming feature of our situation is the fact that so many citizens of high character and solid judgment pay but little attention to the sources of political power, to the selection of those who shall make their laws. The clergy, the faculties of colleges, and many of the leading business men of the community, never attend the township caucus, the city primary, or the county convention; but they allow the less intelligent and the more selfish and corrupt members of the community to "make the slates" and "run the machine" of politics. They wait until the "machine" has done its work, and then, in surprise and horror at the ignorance and corruption in public office, sigh for the return of that mythical period called the "better and purer days of the republic." It is precisely this neglect of the first steps in our political processes that has made possible the worst evils of our system. Corrupt and incompetent presidents, judges, and legislators can be removed; but when the fountains of political power are corrupted, when voters themselves become venal and elections fraudulent, there is no remedy except by awakening the public conscience and bringing to bear upon the subject the power of public opinion and the penalties of the law.

  ***

  The Constitution guarantees absolute religious freedom. Congress is prohibited from making any law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The Territories of the United States are subject to the direct legislative authority of Congress, and hence the General Government is responsible for any violation of the Constitution in any of them. It is therefore a reproach to the Government that in the most populous of the Territories the constitutional guaranty is not enjoyed by the people and the authority of Congress is set at naught. The Mormon Church not only offends the moral sense of manhood by sanctioning polygamy, but prevents the administration of justice through ordinary instrumentalities of law.

  In my judgment it is the duty of Congress, while respecting to the uttermost the conscientious convictions and religious scruples of every citizen, to prohibit within its jurisdiction all criminal practices, especially of that class which destroy the family relations and endanger social order. Nor can any ecclesiastical organization be safely permitted to usurp in the smallest degree the functions and powers of the National Government.

  ... I shall greatly rely upon the wisdom and patriotism of Congress and of those who may share with me the responsibilities and duties of administration, and, above all, upon our efforts to promote the welfare of this great people and their Government I reverently invoke the support and blessings of Almighty God.

• Inaugural Address of James A. Garfield. Friday, March 4, 1881.
  "I shall greatly rely upon the wisdom and patriotism of Congress and of those who may share with me the responsibilities and duties of administration, and, above all, upon our efforts to promote the welfare of this great people and their Government I reverently invoke the support and blessings of Almighty God."

• With John Quincy Adams. The Origin and principles of the American Revolution, compared with the origin and principles of the French Revolution. Philadelphia: Published by Asbury Dickins, opposite Christ-Church. H. Maxwell, printer, Columbia-House, 1800. 73, [1] pp.; 21 cm. (8vo)

• The Influence of Biblical texts upon English law: address before the Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi societies, June fourteenth 1910. Philadelphia: 1910. 32 pp.

Bible expositor. Read about Gill here.

• The Law established by the gospel. A Sermon preached March the 22d, 1738-9. at a monthly exercise of prayer, at the Reverend Mr. Wilson's ... The second edition. London, 1756. 37 pp.
• The Law in the hand of Christ. A Sermon preached at Broad-Mead, in Bristol, May 24, 1761. By John Gill, ... London, 1761. 39 pp.
• The Prophecies of the Old Testament, respecting the Messiah, consider'd; and prov'd to be literally fulfill'd in Jesus. Containing an answer to ... London, 1728. 235 pp.
• The Scriptures the only guide in matters of religion. A Sermon preached at the baptism of several persons in Barbican, November 2, 1750. By John ... The third edition. London, 1751. 43 pp.
• The Doctrine of the trinity, stated and vindicated. Being the substance of several discourses on that important subject; reduc'd into the form of ... London, 1731. 207 pp.
• The Doctrine of the resurrection. Stated and defended; in two sermons, preached at a lecture in Lime-Street, and published at request. The second edition. London, 1750. 80 pp.
• The Agreement of the Old and the New Testament. A Farewell sermon preached to the society that support the Wednesday's evening lecture in Great ... London, 1756. 38 pp.
• An Exposition of the New Testament, in three volumes. London, 1746-48. 802 pp. Volume 1 of 3.
• An Exposition of the New Testament, in three volumes . London, 1746-48. 800 pp. Volume 2 of 3.
• An Exposition of the New Testament, in three volumes. London, 1746-48. 819 pp. Volume 3 of 3.
• An Exposition of the Old Testament. Volume I. Containing, I. Genesis. II. Exodus. III. Leviticus. IV. Numbers.. London, 1763-65. 828 pp. Volume 1 of 4.
• An Exposition of the Old Testament, ... Volume II. Containing, I. Deuteronomy. II. Joshua. III. Judges. IV. Ruth. V. I.. London, 1763-65. 794 pp. Volume 2 of 4.
• An Exposition of the Old Testament, ... Volume III. Containing, I. I Chronicles. II. II Chronicles. III. Ezra. IV. Nehemiah. V. .... London, 1763-65. 776 pp. Volume 3 of 4.
• An Exposition of the Old Testament, ... Volume IV. Containing, Psalms, the latter part, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. By John Gill, D.D. . London, 1763-65. 648 pp. Volume 4 of 4.
• Exposition of the entire Bible.
• John Gill's Archive.

Compositor of the Independent Chronicle in Boston. Read about Gleason here.

• An Oration, pronounced on the thirtieth anniversary of American independence, before the Young Democratic Republicans of the town of Boston: July 4, 1806. Boston: Printed by Oliver & Munroe, 1806. 24 pp.; 24 cm.

Professor of law at the University of Michigan. Read about Goddard here.

• The Law in the United States in its Relation to Religion. From Michigan Law Review, v. 10, n. 3. January 1912, pp. 161-177. Cited in Appellee's Brief, People of the State of Illinoi Ex Rel. Vashti McCollum v. Board of Education of Schooll District no. 71, Champaign County, Illinois (Appellees).
  "It has often been suggested that this provision of the Constitution [Article VI, Section 3] grew out of the influence of French atheism, especially upon Franklin and Jefferson, and through them upon the whole Constitutional Convention. but Jefferson was not a member of that convention, being in Europe as Ambassador to France at that time. Every one of its members was a believer in God, and in future reward and punishment, and most of them, including the presiding officer, Washington, were church members."

Church of England clergyman and "radical Protestant thinker."

• How Superior Powers Ought To Be Obeyed By Their Subjects: And Wherein They May Lawfully By God's Word Be Disobeyed And Resisted. Wherin also is declared the cause of all this present miserie in England, and the onely way to remedy the same. By Christopher Goodman. Printed at Geneua: By Iohn Crispin, 1558. 234, [6] pp. Also here.

Read about Goodrich here and here.

• Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence: with a sketch of the life of Washington. Hartford, 1849. 502 pp.

Editor. Read about Goodwin here.

• The Pilgrim Fathers: A Glance at their history, character and principles, in two memorial discourses, delivered in the First Congregational Church, Rockford, Ill., 1870. 37 pp. "I propose to speak of our obligations to the Pilgrim Fathers, and to show these by considering
  I. Who the Pilgrims were, and what they did and suffered inthis world, for the cause of God and humanity.
  II. Their character, faith and polity, and the influence of these upon the character of the Nation.
  III. The duty we owe to their memory and principles.
  ... In this historical sketch I shall avail myself of such published documents and memorials as are at hand, and will best illustrate the subject before us."

  ... "New England was settled by two classes of Englishmen, who founded distinct and separate colonies. The Pilgrim Fathers who founded the Plymouth Colony, and who planted and gave type to our institutions, were not Puritans, but Separatists, men of larger and freer and more catholic spirit, than the Puritans who came after, and settled in Salem and Boston. They were not persecutors either of the Baptists or Quakers. The Old Colony men, the men of Plymouth Rock were not Episcopalians or Presbyterians, but Congregationalists, as the Puritans afterwards became. They wre not proselytes from the Church of England, but Congregationalists from the start, bringing their principles and their Church with them, and so were the true Fathers of our ecclesiastical and civil polity, as we shall see hereafter."

Independent minister. Read about Gordon in The Dictionary of National Biography by Stephen Leslie.

• The History of the rise, progress, and establishment, of the independence of the United States of America; including an account of the late war, and of the thirteen colonies, from their origin to that period. New York: Printed by Hodge, Allen, and Campbell, 1789. 3 volumes: 2 folded maps. Volume One. Volume Two. Volume Three.
• The Separation of the Jewish tribes, after the death of Solomon, accounted for and applied to the present day in a sermon preached before the General Court, on Friday, July the 4th, 1777. Being the anniversary of the declaration of independency. Boston: Printed by J. Gill, printer to the General Assembly, 1777. 37, [3] pp.; 23 cm. (8vo)
• A Sermon preached before the Honorable House of Representatives: on the day intended for the choice of counsellors, agreeable to the advice of the Continental Congress. / By William Gordon, Pastor of the Third Church in Roxbury. Watertown [Mass.]: Printed and sold by Benjamin Edes, MDCCLXXV. [1775]. 29, [1] pp.; 21 cm. (8vo)
• The Doctrine of final universal salvation examined and shewn to be unscriptural: in answer to a pamphlet entitled Salvation for all men illustrated and vindicated as a Scripture doctrine. / By William Gordon, Pastor of the Third Church in Roxbury. Boston: Printed and sold by T. and J. Fleet, at the Bible and Heart in Cornhill, 1783. [2], ii, 96 pp.; 21 cm. (4to)
• Mr. Gordon's Thanksgiving Discourse. A Discourse Preached December 15th, 1774, Being the Day Recommended by the Provincial Congress; and Afterwards at the Boston Lecture. Boston: Printed for, and sold by Thomas Leverett, in Corn-Hill, 1784. 31 pp. Text: Lamentations 3:22.

[Charleston, S.C.: A.E. Miller], Vol. 4, no. 37 (Jan. 1827)-v. 12, no. 133 (Jan. 1835).; 8 v. ; 23 cm. Other Titles: Gospel messenger, and Protestant Episcopal register; v. 12. Preceding Title: Gospel messenger, and Southern Christian register; (DLC)sf 88091485; (OCoLC)6168705. Succeeding Title: Gospel messenger, and Protestant Episcopal register; (DLC)sf 88091489; (OCoLC)6177663.

• "Signs of the Times" and "Sunday Schools." Extract from Gospel Messenger and Southern Episcopal Register, v. 10, n. 166, August 1833, p. 253.
• "American Bible Society," "The Theatre" and "Ecclesiastical Statistics." Extract from Gospel Messenger and Southern Episcopal Register, v. 5, n. 55, July 1828; p. 216.

College president, Baltimore, MD. Read about Goucher here and here.

• Christianity and the United States. New York: Eaton & Mains; Cincinnati: Jennings & Graham, 1908. Electronic edition: Carlisle, Pa.: Dickinson College, 2003.
  Also here and here. John Franklin Goucher attends the Tokyo Conference of the World's Student Christian Federation in March 1907 and gives the keynote speech on the role of Christianity in the rise of the United States.
  "Their Own Words is a digital collection of original monographs, essays, documents and letters from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century that reflect[s] the history of the United States of America in general and, specifically, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania."/ "This project was supported in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in association with Dickinson College and the Dickinson Electronic Initiative in the Liberal Arts (deila)." Includes page images and OCR transcriptions of the original text, and an original biographical sketch of the author."

  The vital, uplifting, organizing, and expanding power of Christianity is the adequeate cause of these extraordianry results. A broad distinction is to be made between Christianity and the Church. Live is the spirit of Christianity, while the Church is its more or less immature, and at times distorted, body. Christianity is not a series of mandatory or prohibitive enactments, neither is it a form of worship, nor a system of doctrine. Christianity is a life, satisfying all essentially human relations by interpreting God, the Father of us all, in terms of human living. It is the embodiment of God in human personality--the extension of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. God is love, and he said, "If ye have love one to another all men shall know that ye are my disciples." So Christianity is the embodiment of the vital, transforming, uplighting power of love working toward righteousness, which inhibits cruelty, oppression, injustice, selfishness, ignorance, and all low-spirited activities. Liberty is a concomitant of its growth,and helpfulness is its normal manifestation.

  Christianity accounts for the discovery and settlement of America, it determined our governmental organization, and has been the dominating influence in our national development.

  ...Evangelical Christianity, so patient and persistently constructive, so essentially educative and uplifting, has been the potential cause of our growth and transformation. By the gentle persuasion of loving ministry, by the inherent energy of the simple truths concerning God and man as revealed in Christ Jesus, by the living force of consecrated lives, the wilderness has been made to blossom as the rose; a world power has developed where there were no people; loyalty to Christian principles has evolved an unprecedented wealth of resources, and the fundamental conviction of the American people is that "righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people."

  • William V. Kelley, editor. Christianity and the United States. Methodist Review, v. 90, n. 6. November-December 1908, pp. 1004-1006. "THIS is a book of information, crammed with facts and figures bearing on its subject, in compact and orderly form. In less than fifty tightly packed pages it presents impressively a large and often-debated subject of intense interest and of immense practical importance. If anybody says that ours is not a Christian nation, there is enough here to correct his error and enlighten his ignorance. If anyone desires to show that the United States is a Christian nation and to set in battle array a compact column of facts for the discomfiture of the deniers, here is sufficient ammunition."

18th U.S. President. Read about President Grant here and here.

• First Inaugural Address of Ulysses S. Grant. Thursday, March 4, 1869.
  In conclusion I ask patient forbearance one toward another throughout the land, and a determined effort on the part of every citizen to do his share toward cementing a happy union; and I ask the prayers of the nation to Almighty God in behalf of this consummation.
• Second Inaugural Address of Ulysses S. Grant. Tuesday, March 4, 1873.
  Under Providence I have been called a second time to act as Executive over this great nation. It has been my endeavor in the past to maintain all the laws, and, so far as lay in my power, to act for the best interests of the whole people. My best efforts will be given in the same direction in the future, aided, I trust, by my four years' experience in the office.
  ... I say here, however, that I do not share in the apprehension held by many as to the danger of governments becoming weakened and destroyed by reason of their extension of territory. Commerce, education, and rapid transit of thought and matter by telegraph and steam have changed all this. Rather do I believe that our Great Maker is preparing the world, in His own good time, to become one nation, speaking one language, and when armies and navies will be no longer required.

• An Oration, delivered July 5, 1790: at the request of the inhabitants of the town of Boston, in celebration of the anniversary of American Independence. Boston, 1790. 15 pp.

• An Oration, pronounced on the Fourth of July, 1822, at the request of the inhabitants of the citizens of the city of Boston: in commemoration of the anniversary of national independence, by John C. Gray, Esq. Boston: Published by Charles Callender, 1822.

Bishop. Learn more about Gray here.

• Discourses on various subjects, illustrative of the evidence, influence, and doctrines of Christianity. London, 1793. 378 pp.

• A History of Oregon, 1792-1849: drawn from personal observation and authentic information. Portland, Or., 1870. 626 pp. Also here.

• The Development Of Religious Liberty In Connecticut. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, 1905. xiii, 552 p. 20 cm. Project Gutenberg edition.
• Review. The American Historical Review, Volume 11, No. 3 (Apr., 1906), pp. 687-688.

American editor and clergyman. Read about Greene here.

• Christianity a national law. Boston: Wright & Potter, 1874.

Legal apologist. Learn more about Greenleaf here. See the endorsement of Greenleaf's work by Abraham Lincoln here and by Henry Dawson here. Disclaimer: Greenleaf is known to have been associated with Freemasonry.

• A Discourse pronounced at the Inauguration of the author as Royall Professor of Law in Harvard University, August 29, 1834.

  "Christianity founds its claim to our belief upon the weight of the evidence by which it is supported. This evidence is not peculiar to the department of theology; its rules are precisely those by which the law scans the conduct and language of men on all other subjects, even in their daily transactions. This branch of the law is one of our particular study. It is our constant employment to explore the mazes of falsehood, to detect its doublings, to pierce its thickest veils; to follow and expose its sophistries; to compare, with scrupulous exactness, the testimony of different witnesses to examine their motives and their interests; to discover truth and separate it from error. Our fellow-men know this to be our province; and perhaps this knowledge may have its influence to a greater extent than we or even they imagine. We are therefore required by the strongest motives, by personal interest, by the ties of kindred and friendship, by the claims of patriotism and philanthropy, to examine, and that not lightly, the evidences on which Christianity challenges our belief; and the degree of credit to which they are entitled.

  "The Christian religion is part of our common law, with the very texture of which it is interwoven. Its authority is frequently admitted in our statute-books; and its holy things are there expressly guarded from blasphemy and desecration. If it be found, as indeed it is, a message of peace on earth and good will to men; exhibiting the most perfect code of morals for our government, the purest patterns of exalted virtue for our imitation, and the brightest hopes, which can cheer the heart of man; let it receive the just tribute of our admiring approval, our reverential obedience, and our cordial support. I would implore the American lawyer unhesitatingly to follow in this, as in the other elements of the law, the great masters and sages of his profession; and while with swelling bosom he surveys the countless benefits rendered to his country by this his favorite science, let him not withhold from the Fountain and Source of all Law the free service of undissembled homage."

• The Testimony of the Evangelists. New York: 1874. HTML version of his primary essay, with hyperlinks to his references.
  (TM): We are indebted to Simon Greenleaf (1783-1853), professor of Law at Harvard University, for one of the most interesting in the series of apologetic works by lawyers; a tradition that stretches back to Hugo Grotius's Truth of the Christian Religion. Greenleaf's work begins with a short, thought-provoking monograph on the application of the rules of evidence to the gospel accounts, stressing the canons of the ancient document rule and the principles of cross-examination in the evaluation of the testimony of the witnesses to the resurrection. Following this, and filling the bulk of the book in the online editions, there is a very extensive harmony of the gospels, drawn up according to the scheme of Edward Robinson's Harmony of the Four Gospels in Greek, with running commentary in the footnotes dealing with various skeptical objections and doubtful points in the narratives. The book is rounded out with Greenleaf's abridgment of Robinson's essay on the harmonization of the resurrection narratives and an examination of the trial of Jesus. A translation of M. Dupin's response to the critical arguments of Salvator is contained in all editions from the second onward. The copy of the second edition linked here contains Greenleaf's signature.
• An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists, by the Rules of Evidence Administered in Courts of Justice with an Account of the Trial of Jesus. London, Second edition, 1847.
  Notes on the Resurrection.
  • On Literary Dependence.
  • On Presumptive Evidence.
  • Joseph Salvador. The Jewish Account of the Trial of Jesus, plus "The Trial of Jesus Before Caiaphas and Pilate" by M. Dupin, translated by John Pickering, LL.D., Counselor-at-Law, and President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
  • Description of Persia -- Part 1, Part 2 by J. Chardin.
  • David Jennings. Appeal to Reason and Common Sense.
  • David Jennings. Jewish Antiquities -- Part 1, Part 2.
  • Sully, Maximilien de Béthune, duc de. The Memoirs of the Duke of Sully, prime-minister to Henry the Great . A new edition, revised and corrected, with additional notes, some letters of Henry the Great, and a brief historical introduction. Volume 1. London, 1810. 547 pp. 5 vols.
  • ART. X.-ROYAL MEMOIRS,-containing 1. A Narrative of the Journey to Varennes. Quarterly review, v. 28, n. 56. January 1823. London. pp. 464-474. Review.
  • M. le Comte Laplace, Essai Philosophique sur les Probabilites. Par M. le Comte Laplace, Chancelier, etc., Edinburgh Review, 23:46, September 1814.
  • Posthumous Works of Sir Henry Spelman
  • Sumner's Evidence of Christianity Derived From Its Nature and Reception -- ch. 10 extract.
  • Horne's Introduction to the Scriptures -- extract
  • See also Simon Greenleaf's Harmony of the Resurrection Accounts . Adapted by W.R. Miller.
• Letter, written May 4, 1839. Published in North American, v. 1, n. 56. May 29, 1939, p. 1. "The Bible is the only faithful picture of real life; the only true history of man; the only unvarnished narrative of his sins, and of the just retribution of his holy Sovereign. It is the only historical book which gives a true account of the human family in all its relations, and its motives of conduct. Man falsifies his own history, -- God has written it with the pen of truth. Its fidelity is evinced in the fact that it has never become obsolete. The man delineated in the Bible, is the man of every age of the world, from the creation to our own days, and will be such to the end of time. And if it is important to man to learn the moral nature of his race, and to learn it early, let him be taught it in his youth, among the rudiments of his education, from the fountain of all truth, the Bible."
  "Our country is a Christian country. The Christian religion is acknowledged, more or less directly, as that of the people, in the laws and usages of every State in the Union."
  "Children who have been taught God's word from the Bibles of strangers, will not easily be induced, in maturer age, to make war upon their benefactors. When Sweden was compelled by Napoleon, to declare war against England, and a form of prayer for the success of their arms was sent to the several churches, the Delecarlians refused to read it, saying it was a mistake; for the English who had sent them bread in their famine, and Bibles too, could not be their enemies!"
• "The Bible in Schools" Published from The Indiana Journal.June 23, 1839, p. 1. Also published in the Cincinnati Daily Gazette.
• Letter by C. T. S. The Wisconsin State Register. December 15, 1883, p. 1. 'Paine's Age of Reason.' Quote from Greenleaf and list of prominent Christians: Greenleaf, Story, Marshall, Jay, Seward, Waite, Chase, Gladstone, Burke, Senator George F. Edmunds of Vermont, Thomas Hendricks of Indiana, Columbus Delano and Genreal J. H. Devereux of Ohio, J. W. Stevenson of Kentucky, Judge Andrews of Ohio, S. Corning Judd of Chicago, Judge Sheffey of Virginia, Professor Coffee of Pennsylvania, Robert C. Winthrop of Massachusetts.
  "My object in this writing is to show any one who may thoughtlessly conclude that Paine's and Ingersoll's arguments are either sound or smart; that by that conclusion they put many names of eminence for sound reason and worth into the category of fools, and elevate men of very superficial attainments into the position of judges."
• A Discourse commemorative of the life and character of the Hon. Joseph Story, LL.D., an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States . Boston, 1845. 47 pp.

• Christianity and Politics

• Equality of Right for All Citizens, Black and White, Alike; A Discourse delivered in the Fifteenth street Presbyterian church, Washington, D.C., March 7, 1909.
  "If the time ever comes when we shall go to pieces, it will not be from any desire or disposition on the part of the States to pull apart, but from inward corruption, from the disregard of right principles, from the spirit of greed, from the narrowing lust of gold, from losing sight of the fact that "Righteousness exalteth a nation, but that sin is a reproach to any people" [Proverbs 14:34]. It is here where our real danger lies -- not in the secession of States from the Union, but in the secession of the Union itself from the great and immutable principles of right, of justice, of fair play for all regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. The fact that the Union has been saved, that these rebellious States have been brought back into it, will amount to nothing unless it can be saved from this still greater peril that threatens it. The secession of the Southern States in 1860 was a small matter with the secession of the Union itself from the great principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, in the Golden Rule, in the Ten Commandments, in the Sermon on the Mount. Unless we hold, and hold firmly to these great fundamental principles of righteousness, of social, political, and economic wisdom, our Union, as Mr. Garrison expressed it, will be 'only a covenant with death and an agreement with hell.' If it continues to exist it will be a curse, and not a blessing."

  Reprinted in Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence; the best speeches delivered by the Negro from the days of slavery to the present time, edited by Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson. New York, The Bookery Publishing Company, c. 1914. New York: Johnson Reprint Corp., 1970. 512 pp. front. (port.) 23 cm.

Jurist. Read more about Grotius here and here.

• [Christus patiens. English.] Christ's Passion: a tragedy, with annotations. London: Printed and are to be sold by Jos. Blare, MDCXCVIII [1698] [14], 107, [5] pp., [1] leaf of plates: ill.
• The Law of War and Peace.
• On the Law of War and Peace. De Jure Belli ac Pacis, translated by A. C. Campbell. London, 1814.
• de Jure Belli.

  Justice Joseph Story. A Discourse pronounced upon the inauguration of the author as Dane Professor of Law in Harvard University: on the twenty-fifth day of August, 1829. Boston; (Cambridge), 1829: "... Upon the general theory of the law of nations much has been written by authors of great ability and celebrity. At the head of the list stands that most extraordinary man, Grotius, whose treatise de Jure Belli et Pacis was the first great effort in modern times to reduce into any order the principles belonging to this branch of jurisprudence, by deducing them from the history and practice of nations, and the incidental opinions of philosophers, orators, and poets. His eulogy has been already pronounced in terms of high commendation, but so just and so true, that it were vain to follow, or add to his praise.*
  *Sir James MacKintosh, in his Introductory Discourse."

• de Jure Praedae.
• Hugo Grotius, his Discourses: I. Of God and his providence, II. Of Christ, his miracles and doctrine : with annotations and the authors life: an appendix concerning his judgment in sundry points controverted. London: Printed by James Flesher for William Lee, 1652. [14], 116 pp., [1] leaf of plates: port.
• [Baptizatorum puerorum institutio. English.] The Whole Duty of a Christian, both in faith and practice: succinctly explain'd in familiar verse: by way of question and answer: with exact references to the texts of scripture. Done into English from the Latin catechism of Hugo Grotius. London: printed and sold by John Morphew, 1711. 16 pp.
• Grotius, His Arguments for the Truth of Christian religion. London: Printed for Jonathan Robinson, 1686. [16], 168 pp. Translation of: De veritate religionis Christianae. "Virgil's fourth eclogue faithfully translated": p. 137-141./ "Imprimatur, Dec. 16, 1685, Z. Isham"/ Errata on p. [16]./ Reproduction of original in Huntington Library./
• Clement Barksdale, translator. The Magistrate's Authority in matters of religion asserted. Or The right of the state in the Church. A discourse written in latine by Hugo Grotius: Englished by C.B. M.A.London: printed for Joshua Kirton at the Kings Armes in St. Paul's Church-yard, 1655. [8], 316, [34] pp.
• Notes on Philemon.
• Rights of War and Peace.
• Defence of the Christian Religion.
• [De veritate religionis Christianæ. English.] Clement Barksdale, translator. Against paganism, Judaism, Mahumetism. Londoni: Printed for the author, and are to be sold by John Barksdale, 1676. [4], 95, [3] pp.
• Against Paganism, Judaism.
• Confutation of Judiasm and Islam and other religions.
• [De veritate religionis Christianæ. English.] Truth of the Christian Religion in Six Books: translated into English. By the Rev. Spencer Madan. Birmingham: re-printed by E. Piercy, 1797. 201,[1] pp. -- Preface by Spencer Madan -- Testimonies.
• [De veritate religionis Christianæ. English.] The Truth of the Christian Religion in Six Books. The Fifth edition corrected. London: Printed by J.L. for Luke Meredith, 1700. [28], 242, [8] pp. in French at Project Gutenberg. English alternate.
• Two Discourses.

Theologian, reformer. Read more about Gurney here, here and here.

• Four Lectures on the evidences of Christianity: delivered in Southwark, 1834, to the junior members of the Society of Friends. 2d American ed. Philadelphia: Henry Longstreth, 1859. 176 pp.; 16 cm. OCLC: 21617189
• Hints on the Portable evidence of Christianity. Boston: James Loring, 1833. 220 pp.; 16 cm.
• Substance of an address, on the right use and application of knowledge: lately delivered to the mechanics of Manchester, at their institution in that town. Providence: H.H. Brown, 1833. [1]-20 pp.; 20.8 cm. OCLC: 3453829
• Substance of a speech delivered at a public meeting of the inhabitants of the city and county of Norwich on the subject of British colonial slavery. [England: s.n., 1824?, Norwich: Burks and Kinnebrook, 1824. 31 pp.
• Substance of a speech delivered by John Joseph Gurney, Esq., at a public meeting of the inhabitants of Norwich, on the 28th January, 1824, on the subject of British colonial slavery. [England: s.n., 1824?] London: Ellerton and Henderson. 17 pp.; 20 cm.
• Memoirs of Joseph John Gurney: with selections from his journal and correspondence. 4th edition. Philadelphia, 1854. 1163 pp.

• Edmund Goldsmid, editor. The Principal navigations, voyages, traffiques and discoveries of the English nation.
  Volume 1 of 12. 1885. Volume 2 of 12. Volume 3 of 12. 1907. Volume 4 of 12. 1907. Volume 5 of 12. Volume 6 of 12. Volume 7 of 12. Volume 8 of 12. 1904. Volume 9 of 12. Volume 10 of 12. 1914. Volume 11 of 12. Volume 12 of 12. 1905.

• A narrative of the life of Mrs. Hamilton. The following is a true account of the dealings of God with the widow Sarah Hamilton, who was born and educated in the Romish religion, and afterwards converted to the Christian faith, as will appear in this narrative.

Major name American founder. Read about Hancock here.

• Massachusetts Provincial Congress. In Provincial Congress, Concord, April 15, 1775. Whereas it has pleased the righteous Sovereign of the Universe, in just indignation against the sins of a people ... Resolved ... that Thursday the eleventh day of May next be set apart as a day of public humiliation, fasting and prayer. Also here. Boston: Printed by Edes and Gill, 1775. 1 sheet ([1] p.); 38 x 30 cm.
  "In circumstances as dark as these, it becomes us, as Men and Christians, to reflect that whilst every prudent measure should be taken to ward off the impending judgments, 'at the same time all confidence must be withheld from the means we use; and reposed only on that God rules in the armies of Heaven, and without His whole blessing, the best human counsels are but foolishness' Resolved; "Thursday the 11th of May, to humble themselves before God under the heavy judgments felt and feared, to confess the sins that have deserved them, to implore the Forgiveness of all our transgressions, and a spirit of repentance and reformation and a Blessing on the Union of the American Colonies in Defense of their Rights [for which hitherto we desire to thank Almighty God] That the people of Great Britain and their rulers may have their eyes opened to discern the things that shall make for the peace of the nation for the redress of America's many grievances, the restoration of all her invaded liberties, and their security to the latest generations."
• Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A Proclamation for a Day of Public Thanksgiving, November 27, 1788. Proclamation dated October 29, 1788.
• Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A Proclamation for a Day of Public Thanksgiving, November 26, 1789. Proclamation dated October 14, 1789.
• Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A Proclamation for a Day of Public Thanksgiving, November 17, 1791. Proclamation dated October 5, 1791. Printed at Boston: By Thomas Adams, printer to the honorable General Court of the commonwealth of Massachusetts., 1791. 1 sheet, 1 p.: ill. (relief cut); 51 x 40 cm.
• Daniel Foster. A Sermon Preached Before His Excellency John Hancock, Esq., Governour [sic]; His Honor Samuel Adams, Esq., Lieutenant-Governour; The Honourable The [sic] Council, Senate, and House of Representatives, of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, May 26, 1790 An election sermon.
• Daniel Foster. A Sermon preached before His Excellency John Hancock, Esq. governour; His Honor Samuel Adams, Esq. lieutenant-governour; the Honourable the Council, Senate, and House of Representatives, of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, May 26, 1790: Being the day of general election. Boston, Massachusetts: Thomas Adams, printer to the Honourable, the General Court, 1790: 35, [1] p.; 22 cm.

Boston, Massachusetts.

• B----n, Dec. 8. 1713. To the Honourable the Society for Propogating [sic] the Gospel in Foreign Parts. The representation and request of the ministers, church wardens and vestry of the Church of England in B----n. We are informed by the Honourable G-----l N-------n ... that your Honourable Society have laid before Her Majesty, a particular scheme of settlement for bishops in these American parts ... . 1 sheet, 1 p. Note(s): Includes also an address to the Queen, requesting that a bishopric be established in America, and statements by Samuel Myles and Henry Harris regarding the relations of Governor Dudley and other government officials with the Church of England. Cf. Foote, H.W. Annals of King's Chapel, 1882, v. 1, p. 224-225./ Bristol and Ford assign an imprint date of 1713; however, Samuel Myles' statement is dated Feb. 17. 17-- [i.e. 1714, New Style]

23rd President of the United States. Read about President Harrison here, here, here, and here.

• Inaugural Address of Benjamin Harrison, Monday, March 4, 1889.

  "My promise is spoken; yours unspoken, but not the less real and solemn. The people of every State have here their representatives. Surely I do not misinterpret the spirit of the occasion when I assume that the whole body of the people covenant with me and with each other to-day to support and defend the Constitution and the Union of the States, to yield willing obedience to all the laws and each to every other citizen his equal civil and political rights. Entering thus solemnly into covenant with each other, we may reverently invoke and confidently expect the favor and help of Almighty God--that He will give to me wisdom, strength, and fidelity, and to our people a spirit of fraternity and a love of righteousness and peace.

  "... If in any of the States the public security is thought to be threatened by ignorance among the electors, the obvious remedy is education. The sympathy and help of our people will not be withheld from any community struggling with special embarrassments or difficulties connected with the suffrage if the remedies proposed proceed upon lawful lines and are promoted by just and honorable methods. How shall those who practice election frauds recover that respect for the sanctity of the ballot which is the first condition and obligation of good citizenship? The man who has come to regard the ballot box as a juggler's hat has renounced his allegiance.

  "...No other people have a government more worthy of their respect and love or a land so magnificent in extent, so pleasant to look upon, and so full of generous suggestion to enterprise and labor. God has placed upon our head a diadem and has laid at our feet power and wealth beyond definition or calculation. But we must not forget that we take these gifts upon the condition that justice and mercy shall hold the reins of power and that the upward avenues of hope shall be free to all the people."

Read more about President Harrison here, here, and here.

• Inaugural Address of William Henry Harrison, Thursday, March 4, 1841.

  "... We admit of no government by divine right, believing that so far as power is concerned the Beneficent Creator has made no distinction amongst men; that all are upon an equality, and that the only legitimate right to govern is an express grant of power from the governed. The Constitution of the United States is the instrument containing this grant of power to the several departments composing the Government. On an examination of that instrument it will be found to contain declarations of power granted and of power withheld. The latter is also susceptible of division into power which the majority had the right to grant, but which they do not think proper to intrust to their agents, and that which they could not have granted, not being possessed by themselves. In other words, there are certain rights possessed by each individual American citizen which in his compact with the others he has never surrendered. Some of them, indeed, he is unable to surrender, being, in the language of our system, unalienable. The boasted privilege of a Roman citizen was to him a shield only against a petty provincial ruler, whilst the proud democrat of Athens would console himself under a sentence of death for a supposed violation of the national faith--which no one understood and which at times was the subject of the mockery of all--or the banishment from his home, his family, and his country with or without an alleged cause, that it was the act not of a single tyrant or hated aristocracy, but of his assembled countrymen. Far different is the power of our sovereignty. It can interfere with no one's faith, prescribe forms of worship for no one's observance, inflict no punishment but after well-ascertained guilt, the result of investigation under rules prescribed by the Constitution itself. These precious privileges, and those scarcely less important of giving expression to his thoughts and opinions, either by writing or speaking, unrestrained but by the liability for injury to others, and that of a full participation in all the advantages which flow from the Government, the acknowledged property of all, the American citizen derives from no charter granted by his fellow-man. He claims them because he is himself a man, fashioned by the same Almighty hand as the rest of his species and entitled to a full share of the blessings with which He has endowed them. Notwithstanding the limited sovereignty possessed by the people of the United Stages and the restricted grant of power to the Government which they have adopted, enough has been given to accomplish all the objects for which it was created. It has been found powerful in war, and hitherto justice has been administered, and intimate union effected, domestic tranquillity preserved, and personal liberty secured to the citizen. As was to be expected, however, from the defect of language and the necessarily sententious manner in which the Constitution is written, disputes have arisen as to the amount of power which it has actually granted or was intended to grant.

  "Unpleasant and even dangerous as collisions may sometimes be between the constituted authorities of the citizens of our country in relation to the lines which separate their respective jurisdictions, the results can be of no vital injury to our institutions if that ardent patriotism, that devoted attachment to liberty, that spirit of moderation and forbearance for which our countrymen were once distinguished, continue to be cherished. If this continues to be the ruling passion of our souls, the weaker feeling of the mistaken enthusiast will be corrected, the Utopian dreams of the scheming politician dissipated, and the complicated intrigues of the demagogue rendered harmless. The spirit of liberty is the sovereign balm for every injury which our institutions may receive. On the contrary, no care that can be used in the construction of our Government, no division of powers, no distribution of checks in its several departments, will prove effectual to keep us a free people if this spirit is suffered to decay; and decay it will without constant nurture. To the neglect of this duty the best historians agree in attributing the ruin of all the republics with whose existence and fall their writings have made us acquainted. The same causes will ever produce the same effects, and as long as the love of power is a dominant passion of the human bosom, and as long as the understandings of men can be warped and their affections changed by operations upon their passions and prejudices, so long will the liberties of a people depend on their own constant attention to its preservation. The danger to all well-established free governments arises from the unwillingness of the people to believe in its existence or from the influence of designing men diverting their attention from the quarter whence it approaches to a source from which it can never come. This is the old trick of those who would usurp the government of their country. In the name of democracy they speak, warning the people against the influence of wealth and the danger of aristocracy. History, ancient and modern, is full of such examples. Caesar became the master of the Roman people and the senate under the pretense of supporting the democratic claims of the former against the aristocracy of the latter; Cromwell, in the character of protector of the liberties of the people, became the dictator of England, and Bolivar possessed himself of unlimited power with the title of his country's liberator. There is, on the contrary, no instance on record of an extensive and well- established republic being changed into an aristocracy. The tendencies of all such governments in their decline is to monarchy, and the antagonist principle to liberty there is the spirit of faction--a spirit which assumes the character and in times of great excitement imposes itself upon the people as the genuine spirit of freedom, and, like the false Christs whose coming was foretold by the Savior, seeks to, and were it possible would, impose upon the true and most faithful disciples of liberty. It is in periods like this that it behooves the people to be most watchful of those to whom they have intrusted power. And although there is at times much difficulty in distinguishing the false from the true spirit, a calm and dispassionate investigation will detect the counterfeit, as well by the character of its operations as the results that are produced. The true spirit of liberty, although devoted, persevering, bold, and uncompromising in principle, that secured is mild and tolerant and scrupulous as to the means it employs, whilst the spirit of party, assuming to be that of liberty, is harsh, vindictive, and intolerant, and totally reckless as to the character of the allies which it brings to the aid of its cause. When the genuine spirit of liberty animates the body of a people to a thorough examination of their affairs, it leads to the excision of every excrescence which may have fastened itself upon any of the departments of the government, and restores the system to its pristine health and beauty. But the reign of an intolerant spirit of party amongst a free people seldom fails to result in a dangerous accession to the executive power introduced and established amidst unusual professions of devotion to democracy.

  "... I deem the present occasion sufficiently important and solemn to justify me in expressing to my fellow-citizens a profound reverence for the Christian religion and a thorough conviction that sound morals, religious liberty, and a just sense of religious responsibility are essentially connected with all true and lasting happiness; and to that good Being who has blessed us by the gifts of civil and religious freedom, who watched over and prospered the labors of our fathers and has hitherto preserved to us institutions far exceeding in excellence those of any other people, let us unite in fervently commending every interest of our beloved country in all future time."

Baptist preacher during the American Revolution. Read about Hart here.

• Dancing exploded. A Sermon, shewing the unlawfulness, sinfulness, and bad consequences of balls, assemblies, and dances in general. Delivered in Charlestown, South-Carolina, March 22, 1778. By Oliver Hart, A.M. [Six lines from Ecclesiastes] 32 pp. 18 cm. (8vo) This essay is included in The Patriot Preachers of the American Revolution, with Biographical Sketches, 1766-1783, edited by Frank Moore. New York, 1860. 368 pp. Disclaimer: We don't necessarily agree with Hart's position on dancing; However, this essay is included here for historical purposes only. Whether his argument is convincing is up to the individual to decide.

Hartford, Connecticut. Connecticut Courant, No. 1 (Nov. 19, 1764)-no. 492 (May 31, 1774). Published as: Connecticut courant and the weekly advertiser; Nov. 10, 1766-Apr. 6, 1767. The Connecticut courant and Hartford weekly intelligencer. No. 493 (June 7, 1774)-no. 681 (Feb. 10, 1778).; Connecticut Courant; No. 682 (Feb. 17, 1778).; The Connecticut courant, and the weekly intelligencer, No. 683 (Feb. 24, 1778)-no. 1364 (Mar. 14, 1791).; Daily courant, Vol. 1, no. 1 (Sept. 12, 1837)-v. 3, no. 308 (Dec. 31, 1839).; Hartford daily courant, Vol. 4, no. 1 (Jan. 2, 1840)-v. 51, no. 160 (July 8, 1887).; 57-77 cm. The Hartford Courant, Vol. 50 [i.e. 51], no. 161 (July 9, 1887)- present.

• Honors Its Heroes; Barkhamsted Dedicates an Imposing Shaft. Sons and Daughters Welcomed Back to the Old Town. Names of the Patriots Honored--the Day Celebrated with a Parade. Address, oration and Poem--Governor Cooke Praises the National Guard. From The Hartford Daily Courant, September 11, 1897, pp. 8, 11. Oration by Walter S. Carter. "It was an eloquent and able paper, and was handled in a masterly manner. Beginning away back at the time of the discovery of this country he followed the events of time as far as this country was concerned up to the present. He declared the coming of the world's Redeemer and the landing of the Pilgrims, which was the birth of a Christian republic as the second grandest December event in the world's history, the landing of the Pilgrims, which was the birth of a Christian republic as the second grandest December event in the world's history, the landing of the Pilgrims being the bravest of all the world's deeds, and it is from such stock gthat the settleres of Connecticut came. The birthplace of American freedom was not in Independence Hall but in the Boston convention, when James Otis uttered his fierce denunciation of British writs of assistance, and in the house of burgesses, in Virginia, where Patrick Henry thundered forth his opposition to the nets of oppression of the crown."

Preacher.

• Christian Patriotism.

Read more about President Hayes here, here and here.

• Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes. Volume 1. CHAPTER VI, STUDYING LAW, 1842-1845 -- AT COLUMBUS AND AT THE HARVARD LAW SCHOOL. Cambridge, August 28, 1843, p. 112.

  After having studied law for ten months under friend Sparrow in Columbus, it was deemed best that I should enter the Law School of Harvard University, where I could receive the instructions of those eminent jurists and teachers, Story and Greenleaf. In accordance with this opinion of myself and friends, I came here and entered the Law School last week. The term commences today. Whatever reso-lution and ability I have shall now be brought out. I have much lost time to regain and my mind to discipline. The institution, teachers, and students I like.

  Cambridge, August 29, 1843.--Read Blackstone again and again--incomparable for the beauty and chasteness of its style, the amount and profundity of its learning.

• Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes. Volume 1. CHAPTER VI, STUDYING LAW, 1842-1845 -- AT COLUMBUS AND AT THE HARVARD LAW SCHOOL. September 1, 1843, p. 113.

  I have now finished my first week in the Law School. I have studied hard and am confident that my real gain is as great as I should have had in two weeks in an office. Our lectures have all the advantages of recitations and lectures combined, without their disadvantages. We have no formal lectures. Professors Story and Greenleaf illustrate and explain as they proceed. Mr. Greenleaf is very searching and logical in examination. It is impossible for one who has not faithfully studied the text to escape exposing his ignorance; he keeps the subject constantly in view, never stepping out of his way for the purpose of introducing his own experience.

  Judge Story, on the other hand, is very general in his questions so that a person well skilled in words affirmative and negative shakings of the head need never more than glance at the text to be able to answer his interrogatories. He is very fond of digressions to introduce amusing anecdotes, high-wrought eulogies of the sages of the law, and fragments of his own experience. He is generally very interesting, often quite eloquent. His manner of speaking is almost precisely like that of Corwin. In short, as a lecturer he is a very different man from what you would expect of an old and eminent judge; not but that he is great, but he is so interesting and fond of good stories. His amount of knowledge is prodigious.

• Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes. Volume 1. CHAPTER VI, STUDYING LAW, 1842-1845 -- AT COLUMBUS AND AT THE HARVARD LAW SCHOOL. February 26, p. 145.

  The summer session of the Law School commenced today. One hundred and six students made their appearance. Professor Greenleaf made the opening address. The only thing in it worthy of remark was his idea of a lawyer. "A lawyer is engaged in the highest of all human, pursuits, the application of the soundest reason and purest morality to the ordinary affairs of life. He should have a clear head and a true heart always acting at his fingers' ends."

• Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes. Volume 1. CHAPTER VI, STUDYING LAW, 1842-1845 -- AT COLUMBUS AND AT THE HARVARD LAW SCHOOL. February 27, p. 146.

  Heard Mr. Greenleaf's introductory lecture in Kent and Cruise. In addition to the writers on the laws of nations mentioned by Mr. Kent, he spoke of Wheaton as one of the best compilers of the true doctrines who has yet treated of the subject. The great English writer he said was a mere case lawyer who seldom ventured into the water, but hugged the shore, sailing from headland to headland. The style of Kent, I have heard, was vague and general; such as to leave no clear and distinct ideas upon the mind. I do not find it so. From one day's acquaintance, I have ventured to form a favorable opinion of the "Commentaries."

• Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes. Volume 1. CHAPTER VI, STUDYING LAW, 1842-1845 -- AT COLUMBUS AND AT THE HARVARD LAW SCHOOL. May 26, p. 151.

  I heard Dr. Walker preach this morning from the text, "Faith without works is dead." Luther found so much in the Epistle of James which conflicted with his own favorite doctrines, that he pronounced it "strange." And others have thought it of little worth because Christ is mentioned but once or twice and then coldly; because the doctrines of the resurrection and regeneration are scarcely noticed; and because it treats so much of the principles of mere morality. But these are not good reasons for putting up one inspired writer above another--Paul above James. It would rather seem to be wise to adopt views by which passages apparently conflicting may be harmonized and discrepancies explained and reconciled.

  The great controversy concerning faith and works depends, in a great measure, for its origin and continuance on the ambiguity of the two words, faith and works. If by works is meant the mere outward act, there may be salvation without works, as a man may have great generosity without the opportunity or means of exhibiting it. So, on the other hand, the acts of generosity may be performed without merit. If by faith is meant only the intellectual acts of belief and approval of what is true and good, this without works is dead. But if by faith is meant the internal disposition, which will manifest itself in outward acts whenever opportunity occurs, this faith is essential to salvation. So that while Paul and James use different language, their doctrines are the same; they view the subject from different positions, but their views are the same. Paul looks to the origin of the act, James to the consummation of the disposition. It is interesting in this connection to trace the differences between the Jewish and the Christian dispensation. That was a dispensation of works, this of faith. In that, the external rites and observance were the all important. In this, the feelings, the heart is regarded. In another aspect, the difference appears striking. The religion of the Bible is one of obedience and progress. The Old Testament contains a system of rules to be strictly followed in forms and ceremonies, suited to the childhood of our race in this respect. The New Testament looks to principles of action; if these are right all is right. But rules may be outgrown, while principles are eternal. So that while the Jewish dispensation, being temporary, has passed away, the Christian is eternal and must remain.

  Now, in the use of the writings of the two apostles, we must consider the crying sin of the age in which we live and the people before whom we appear. If it is to speculation and mysticism, then the efficacy of works, as appears in the Epistle of James, should be preached; if to outward observances, pompous ceremony, rites, etc., then justification by faith as declared by Paul should be proclaimed.

• Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes. Volume 1, Chapter 7. BEGINNING LAW PRACTICE--LOWER SANDUSKY, 1845-1848. April 15, 1845, p. 163.

  [According to] D'Aubigne's "History of the Reformation," Christianity has two features which especially distinguish it from all human systems: (1) That the only mediator between God and man is Jesus Christ. (2) That salvation is a gift of God--a matter of grace. . . . D'Aubigne constantly affirms that, in his opinion, the Reformation was the immediate work of the Divine hand.

  Now, it seems to me that Providence interferes no more in the greatest affairs of men than in the smallest, and that neither individuals nor nations are any more the objects of a special interposition of the Divine Ruler than the inanimate things of the world. The Creator gave to every creature of his hand its laws at the time of its creation and whatever can happen in accordance with those laws He doubtless foresaw, and it cannot be supposed that his laws are so imperfect that special interpositions are necessary to render them capable of fulfilling their design, nor that it is possible for them to be violated. The Reformation like other revolutions was agreeable to principles which have existed since the world began.

• Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes. Volume 1, Chapter 7. BEGINNING LAW PRACTICE--LOWER SANDUSKY, 1845-1848. May 7, 1845, p. 164.

  I am now fairly settled. Let me see how I will arrange my plans for study and business. Read Greenleaf's "Evidence" and Story's "Agency" so as to finish them both in six weeks. Read a chapter in the Testament (German); one case a week in Smith's "Leading Cases" touching some topic of "Agency" or "Evidence." Read a little Bacon and Burke; study Livy an hour in the morning, and logic at night. Poetry and light literature Sunday. Attend church regularly, and do all my business promptly.

• Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes. Volume 1, Chapter 9. ESTABLISHING PRACTICE IN CINCINNATI, 1850. February 10, p. 281.

  Finished Starkie on "Evidence" yesterday. Shall tomorrow begin Greenleaf, reading it in connection with the Ohio Reports. During the last week have read pretty diligently with friend Herron Story's "Promissory Notes," in connection with Ohio Reports. Shall continue it next week. Shall also add logic and to speak German to my list of studies. I have called on Dr. Schmidt, and from my conversation with him think a little brushing up of my German may be well "worth my while."

  This forenoon heard Dr. Humphrey, of Louisville, son of old President Humphrey of Amherst, preach in the First Presbyterian Church. He is a graceful, animated, and entertaining speaker, without much depth or strength.

• Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes. Volume 3, Chapter 27. GOVERNOR OF OHIO -- FIRST TERM, 1868-1869. COLUMBUS, OHIO, November 13, 1869, p. 72.

  I have the Thanksgiving proclamations of twenty-seven States--all recognizing religion, nearly all the religion of the Bible, and several the Divinity of Christ. More are coming, doubtless. Our Legislature for many years has passed a joint resolution annually authorizing a thanksgiving and frequently in terms which recognized the religion of the Bible. The last Legislature omitted to do so by a mere accident this year, but in [the] Sixty-fifth volume Ohio Laws, page 306, passed one last year. If you wish to borrow my bundle of Thanksgiving proclamations I will send them to you. All state institutions have religious exercises, some of them chaplains paid under state laws. The meetings of the two houses of the General Assembly are always opened with prayer in accordance, sometimes, with resolutions (passed unanimously usually), and sometimes by common consent. The inaugurations of governors are prefaced by religious exercises.

• Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes. Volume 3, Chapter 27. GOVERNOR OF OHIO -- FIRST TERM, 1868-1869. COLUMBUS, OHIO, November 10, 1869, p. 70.

  I take the Bible side, largely because this war on the Good Book is in disguise a war on all free schools.

• Inaugural Address, March 5, 1877.

  ... Looking for the guidance of that Divine Hand by which the destinies of nations and individuals are shaped, I call upon you, Senators, Representatives, judges, fellow-citizens, here and everywhere, to unite with me in an earnest effort to secure to our country the blessings, not only of material prosperity, but of justice, peace, and union--a union depending not upon the constraint of force, but upon the loving devotion of a free people; "and that all things may be so ordered and settled upon the best and surest foundations that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established among us for all generations."

• Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes. Volume 3, Chapter 36. PRESIDENT - SECOND YEAR - CIVIL SERVICE REFORM - POTTER INVESTIGATION - RESUMPTION OF SPECIE PAYMENTS - VETO OF CHINESE EXCLUSION BILL. March 18, 1878, p. 469. Hayes lists his daily agenda.

  I rise at about 7 A. M.; write until breakfast, about 8:30 A. M. After breakfast, prayers - i. e., the reading of a chapter in the Bible, each one present reading a verse in turn, and all kneeling repeat the Lord's Prayer; then, usually, write and arrange business until 10 A. M. ... My health is now, and usually, excellent. I have gone to church at least once every Sunday since I became President.

• Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes. Volume 4, Chapter 40. REVIEW OF ADMINISTRATION--ITS MANY ACHIEVEMENTS--PARTICIPATION IN LOCAL INTERESTS--ATTITUDE TOWARD NEWSPAPER ABUSE -- FIRST MEETING OF SLATER TRUSTEES -- INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION - GREAT FLOODS IN OHIO -- DECEMBER, 1881-FEBRUARY, 1883. April 30, p. 75.

  In the afternoon Lucy and I attended the laying of the corner-stone of the large new Catholic church--the St. Joseph's Church. We were much interested in the ceremonies. Bishop Gilmore delivered a strong and interesting address on the topic, "The public has a right to know what doctrines will be taught in the building whose corner-stone we have just laid." It was liberal and fair. For the most part it would have been approved by Christians generally. He said among other things that our institutions were founded by earnest Christian people; especially was this the case in New England and Maryland. Although freedom of conscience as to forms and sects is secured in our Constitution, yet the Christian religion is at the foundation.

• Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes. Volume 4, Chapter 41. GARFIELD'S CHARACTER -- PROGRESS IN THE SOUTH--LIBERALITY TO THE CHURCH -- DEVOTION TO THE CAUSE OF EDUCATION -- PRESIDENT NATIONAL PRISON ASSOCIATION -- PAYNE'S ELECTION TO SENATE BAD POLITICS -- INTEREST IN WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY -- THE CINCINNATI RIOT -- NOMINATIONS OF BLAINE AND CLEVELAND -- 1883-1884. October 15, p. 168

  Our County Bible Society holds its yearly meeting soon. As one of the vice-presidents of the general society of the county, as a non-church member, a non-professor of religion, I may say why men of the world, friends of their country and of their race, should support the religion of the Bible--the Christian religion. To worship -- "the great Creator to adore" -- the wish to establish relations with the Omnipotent Power which made the universe, and which controls it, is a deeply seated principle of human nature. It is found among all races of men. It is well-nigh universal. All peoples have some religion. In our day men who cast off the Christian religion show the innate tendency by spending time and effort in Spiritualism. If the God of the Bible is dethroned the goddess of reason is set up. Religion al- ways has been, always will be. Now, the best religion the world has ever had is the religion of Christ. A man or a community adopting it is virtuous, prosperous, and happy.

  Byron has said, "If our God was man -- or man, God-- Christ was both"; and continuing he said, "I never arraigned his creed, but the use--or abuse--made of it."

  What a great mistake the man makes who goes about to oppose this religion! What a crime, if we may judge of men's acts by their results! Nay, what a great mistake is made by him who does not support the religion of the Bible!

• Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes. Volume 4, Chapter 43. THE DEATH OF GENERAL GRANT -- ACTION IN BEHALF OF NATIONAL MONUMENT -- REUNION OF OLD REGIMENT -- REGRETS CONTINUED WAVING OF "BLOODY SHIRT" -- FORAKER ELECTED GOVERNOR -- DEATH OF HENDRICKS -- DANGERS OF VAST FORTUNES -- 1885-1886. November 9, p. 247.

  I must sometime maintain my proposition that a non-professor of religion - "a mere man of the world"--who wishes well to his country and his fellow men ought actively to aid in the circulation of the Bible, and in adding to its influence. The general course of my argument is this: All peoples will have some religion. Death leads the mind to consider the future, to a contemplation of Deity. Hence religion, or this is religion. Now, the best religion the world has ever known is the religion of the Bible. It builds up all that is good. It suppresses or diminishes all that is bad. With it men are happy and nations are prosperous. Where it is not found vice and crime prevail.

• Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes. Volume 4, Chapter 50. VISIT TO BERMUDA -- THE MANY COURTESIES RECEIVED--RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS--PRESIDES AT FIRST MOHONK NEGRO CONFERENCE -- SPEAKS AT OTTAWA, KANSAS -- PIONEER MEETING AT DELAWARE -- INTEREST IN WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY -- DEATH OF GENERAL NOYES -- APRIL-OCTOBER, 1890. May 17, 1890, p. 574.

  Writing a few words for Mohonk Negro Conference, I find myself using the word Christian. I am not a subscriber to any creed. I belong to no church. But in a sense, satisfactory to myself and believed by me to be important, I try to be a Christian, or rather I want to be a Christian and to help do Christian work.

• Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes. Volume 4, Chapter 51. LOYAL LEGION ACTIVITIES -- MRS. DAVIS'S "IN MEMORIAM" -- VISIT TO CHICAGO -- STANLEY AT TOLEDO -- DEATH OF DOCTOR JOHN DAVIS -- REVIEW OF MRS. HAYES'S LIFE -- DEATH OF GENERAL DEVENS -- WEALTH AND POVERTY -- DEATH OF GENERAL SHER- MAN -- EXPENSES IN WHITE HOUSE -- OCTOBER 1890-APRIL 1891. November 24, p. 615.

  The religion of the Bible is the best in the world. I see the infinite value of religion. Let it be always encouraged. A world of superstition and folly have grown up around its forms and ceremonies. But the truth in it is one of the deep sentiments in human nature.

• Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes. Volume 5, Chapter 54. PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATIONS 1892 -TRIP TO NEW ENGLAND, ADDRESS AT FRAMINGHAM - G. A. R. ENCAMPMENT AT WASHINGTON, MARCHES IN PROCESSION - THE LESSON OF SEVENTY YEARS -- MOHONK INDIAN CONFERENCE- AT CHICAGO FOR COLUMBIAN FAIR DEDICATION - DEATH OF MRS. HARRISON - ELECTION OF CLEVELAND - LAST ACTIVITIES - 1892-1893. January 8, p. 143.

  I am a Christian according to my conscience in belief, not of course in character and conduct, but in purpose and wish;-- not of course by the orthodox standard. But I am content, and have a feeling of trust and safety.

• Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. HayesThe Sketch, p. 96.

  Rutherford Birchard Hayes was born in Delaware, Ohio, October 4, 1822. He began to prepare for college in the law office of Sherman Finch in Delaware in 1834. He continued his preparatory studies at Norwalk Seminary 1835-1836, and at the school of Isaac Webb in Middletown, Connecticut, 1837-1838 and entered Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, in October or November 1838. He graduated August 3, 1842. He began the study of law at Columbus, Ohio, October 1842, and completed his preparation for the bar at the law school of Harvard College 1843-1845 under Justice Story and Professor Greenleaf. He was admitted to the [bar] at Marietta, Ohio, in 1845--March 10--and began the practice of his profession at Lower Sandusky, Ohio (now Fremont, Ohio). ...

• Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center.

Pastor.

• The Baptist Denomination: Its History, Doctrines and Ordinances. New York, 1857.

Writer. Historian. Read about Headley here.

• The Chaplains and Clergy of the Revolution. New York, 1864. 402 pp.

American Founding Father. Read more about Henry here.

• "Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death". Patrick Henry's stirring speech with scripture references added. Introduction by David Barton.
• Speech delivered July 4, 1776. Includes footnote on the history of the Liberty Bell, inscribed with the verse from Leviticus 15:10.
• Samuel Greene Arnold. The Life of Patrick Henry of Virginia. Auburn [N.Y.]: Miller, Orton and Mulligan, 1854, [c1845]. 269 pp. Henry's letter to his daughter Betsy on August 20, 1796, p. 250.
  "What is there in the wit or wisdom of the present deistical writers or professors that can compare themwith Hume, Shaftsbury, Bolingbroke and others; and yet these have been confuted, and their fame is decaying, insomuch that the puny efforts of Paine are thrown in to prop their tottering fabric, whose foundations cannot stand the test of time."
• George Morgan. The True Patrick Henry: With Twenty-four Illustrations. Lippincott, 1907. 492 pages. Original from the New York Public Library.
  * In William Meade's "Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia," vol. ii, p. 12, the Rev. Mr. Dresser says that Patrick Henry had " a very great abhorrence of infidelity, and actually wrote a reply to 'Paine's Age of Reason,' but destroyed it before his death." "This," comments Edward Fontaine, "is certainly true. My father, Colonel Patrick H. Fontaine, was the oldest grandson of Patrick Henry. He was living with his grandfather when he wrote the reply to Paine mentioned by Mr. Dresser." But Patrick Henry, having read Bishop Watson's "Apology for the Bible," and deeming it a sufficient answer to Paine, decided not to publish his own manuscript."--p. 366 n.
  • Bishop William Meade. Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1857), Vol. II, p. 12.

American minister and schoolmaster.

• The Cause of God and his people in New-England: as it was stated and discussed in a sermon preached before the Honourable General Court of the ... Cambridg [sic, i.e., Cambridge, Mass.], 1663. 27 pp.
• Our Dying Saviour's legacy of peace to his disciples in a troublesome world: from John 14. 27. My peace I give unto you, &c.

Lawyer. Learn more about Hoffman here

• Legal Outlines: being the substance of the first title of a course of lectures delivered in the University of Maryland. New York, 1848.
• A Course of legal study: addressed to students and the profession generally. 2nd edition, rewritten and much enlarged. Volume 1. Baltimore, 1836. 2 vols. Volume 1 and Volume 2. 1846 edition, Two Volumes in One. Philadelphia: Thomas, Cowperthwait & Co., 862 pp.

  "The purity and sublimity of the morals of the Bible have at no time been questioned; it is the foundation of the common law of every christian nation. The christian religion is a part of the law of the land, and, as such, should certainly receive no inconsiderable portion of the lawyer's attention. In vain do we look among the writings of the ancient pliilosophers for a system of moral law comparable with that of the Old and New Testament. How meagre and lifeless are even the 'Ethics' of Aristotle, the 'Morals' of Seneca, the 'Memorabilia' of Xenophon, or the 'Offices' of Cicero, compared with it. 'From the Bible,' says Soame Jenyns, 'may be collected a system of Ethics, in which every moral precept founded on reason, is carried to a higher degree of purity and perfection than in any other of the wisest philosophers of preceding ages. Every moral precept founded on false principles, is totally omitted, and many new precepts added, particularly corresponding with the new object of this religion.'

  "So also, Mr. Locke remarks, that in morality there have been books enough written, both by ancient and modern philosophers, but that the morality of the Gospel so exceeds them all, that to give a man a complete knowledge of genuine morals, he would send him no other book but the Testament. These opinions are zealously corroborated by Sir William Jones, who thus expresses himself. 'I have carefully and regularly perused these Holy Scriptures, and am of opinion that the volume, independently of its divine origin, contains more sublimity, purer morality, more important history, and finer strains of eloquence, than can be collected from any other book, in whatever language it may have been written."' On another occasion he repeats, but with a slight variation, the same opinion. 'I cannot refrain from adding,' says he, 'that the collection of tracts, which we call from their excellence the Scriptures, contain, independently of a divine origin, more true sublimity, more exquisite beauty, purer morality, more important history, and finer strains both of poetry and eloquence, than could be collected within the same compass, from all the other books that were ever composed in any age or in any idiom.' 'The two parts of which the Scriptures consists,' continues this distinguished writer, 'are connected by a chain of compositions, which bear no resemblance in form or style to any that can be produced from the stores of Grecian, Indian, Persian, or even Arabian learning. The antiquity of those compositions no man doubts, and the unrestrained application of them to events long subsequent to their publication, is a solid ground of belief that they are genuine compositions, and consequently inspired.'

  "If treatises on morals should be the first which are placed in the hands of the student, and the structure of his legal education should be raised on the broad and solid foundation of ethics, what book so proper to be thoroughly studied with this view, if no other, as the Bible?"

• A Course of Legal Study. Review published in The Portico, a Repository of Science & Literature, March 1, 1817.
• A Circular to students at law in the United States. Baltimore, 1844. 12 pp. In this circular, Hoffman is recommended by Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Baltimore Patriot, The Philadelphia Daily Sun, and The Philadelphia United States Gazette.

Baptist minister.

• The Eighty-second anniversary of American independence: being a full report of the events of the day in the city of Boston, together with the revised orations of Rufus Choate and John S. Holmes, and the speeches at the Faneuil hall and Revere House banquets. July 5, 1858. Boston: Boston Courier, 1858. 127 pp.; 24 cm.
• PUNISHMENT GOD'S LAST RESORT; Sermon by the Rev. John S. Holmes at the East Baptist Church. Printed in Boston Daily Globe. Boston, Mass.: May 8, 1876. p. 2.

Clergyman. Read about Holyoke here.

• Foreshadowing the American Revolution: Edward Holyoke States That the Form of Government Originates from the People --- But That Theory Only Works If the People Have Integrity and Religion.
• Integrity and Religion to be Principally Regarded By Such as Design Others to Stations of Publick Trust: A Sermon preach'd before His Excellency, Jonathan Belcher, Esq; His Majesty's Council, and the Assembly of the province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England, on the anniversary for the election of counsellors for said province, May 26. 1736. Boston: Printed by J. Draper, printer to His Excellency the Governour and Council, for J. Eliot, 1736. 55 pp. "The man of true integrity acts always under a sense of his duty to God."
• The Duty of ministers of the Gospel to guard against the Pharisaism and Sadducism, of the present day. Shewed in a sermon preach'd to the ... Boston, 1741. 38 pp.

American President. Read more about President Hoover here and here.

• Message to the National Federation of Men's Bible Classes, May 5th, 1929.
  "THERE IS no other book so various as the Bible, nor one so full of concentrated wisdom. Whether it be of law, business, morals, or that vision which leads the imagination in the creation of constructive enterprises for the happiness of mankind, he who seeks for guidance in any of these things may look inside its covers and find illumination. The study of this Book in your Bible classes is a postgraduate course in the richest library of human experience....As a nation we are indebted to the Book of Books for our national ideals and representative institutions. Their preservation rests in adhering to its principles."
• Radio Address to the Nation on Unemployment Relief, October 18, 1931. Also here.
  "Our country and the world are today involved in more than a financial crisis. We are faced with the primary question of human relations, which reaches to the very depth of organized society and to the very depth of human conscience. This civilization and this great complex, which we call American life, is builded and can alone survive upon the translation into individual action of the fundamental philosophy announced by the Savior nineteen centuries ago. Part of our national suffering today is from failure to observe these primary yet inexorable laws of human relationship. Modern society can not survive with the defense of Cain, 'Am I my brother's keeper'?
  "No governmental action, no economic doctrine, no economic plan or project can replace that God-imposed responsibility of the individual man and woman to their neighbors. That is a vital part of the very soul of the people. If we shall gain in this spirit from this painful time, we shall have created a greater and more glorious America. The trial of it is here now. It is a trial of the heart and conscience, of individual men and women."
• Message, to the American Bible Society on Universal Bible Sunday, October 30th, 1932.
  "Universal Bible Sunday once a year brings to all our people simultaneously a concerted stimulus to study the Bible and to ponder its inexhaustible wealth of inspiration and example. The spiritual life is enriched by the annual observance of this day."

Theologian. Read more about Hopkins here.

• The American Citizen: His rights and duties, according to the spirit of the Constitution of the United States. New York, 1857. 454 pp.

Theologian. Read more about Hopkins here.

• A Dialogue concerning the slavery of the Africans: shewing it to be the duty and interest of the American States to emancipate all their African Slaves. New York, 1785. 71 pp.
• Sketches of the life of the late, Rev. Samuel Hopkins, D.D., pastor of the First Congregational church in Newport. Hartford, 1805. 236 pp.
• An Inquiry concering [sic] the future state of those who die in their sins: Wherein the dictates of Scripture and reason, upon this important subject, are carefully considered; and whether endless punishment be consistent with divine justice, wisdom and goodness: in which also objections are stated and answered. By Samuel Hopkins, A.M. Pastor of the First Congregational Church in Newport. [Two lines of Scripture text]. Newport, Rhode-Island: Printed by Solomon Southwick. 1783. [4], vi, 194 p. 19 cm. (4to)
• An Address to the people of New-England. Representing the very great importance of attaching the Indians to their interest; not only by treating them justly and kindly; but by using proper endeavors to settle Christianity among them. By Samuel Hopkins, A.M. Pastor of a church in Springfield. [Three lines of Scripture text] Printed in Boston, 1753. Being a conclusion to the Historical memoirs relating to the Housatunnuk Indians; with an account of the methods used for the propagation of the Gospel amongst the said Indians, by the late Reverend Mr. John Sergeant. Now recommended to the serious consideration of the inhabitants of Pennsylvania, and the other colonies. Philadelphia: Reprinted by B. Franklin, and D. Hall, 1757. 27, [1] pp.; (8vo)
• A Discourse upon the Slave-trade, and the slavery of the Africans. Delivered in the Baptist meeting-house at Providence, before the Providence Society for Abolishing the Slave-Trade, &c. At their annual meeting, on May 17, 1793. Providence, Rhode Island; printed by J. Carter, 1793. 22, [6] pp.; 20 cm. (8vo)

English divine. Read more about Horne here.

• Influence of Christianity
• Providence of God Manifested in the rise and fall of empires. A Sermon preached at St. Mary's, in Oxford, at the assizes. Oxford, 1775. 32 pp.
• The Duty of contending for the faith. A sermon preached at the visitation of the most reverend John Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, ... on Saturday, July 1, 1786. By George Horne, To which is subjoined a discourse on the trinity in unity. A new edition London, 1788. 52 pp.

Scientist, physician, historian and first chief of the United States Division of Forestry. Read more about Hough here and here.

• Hough, Franklin Benjamin, 1822-1885. Proclamation for Thanksgiving, issued by the Continental Congress: Pres't Washington, by the national and state governments on the Peace of 1815, and by the governors of New York since the introduction of the custom; with those of the governors of the several states in 1858. Munsell & Rowland, 1858. 183 pp.
  • Hough, Franklin Benjamin, 1822-1885. In press and will be published early in November, the Thanksgiving Proclamations of the revolutionary period, of Washington's administration, and of the national and New York state governments at the close of the last war with Great Britain; together with Those of the Governors of New York, from 1795 to 1858, and of the Governors of the several States for 1858, with an Historical Introduction and Notes.. Albany, 1857. The edition will be limited to 200 copies.

Congressman. Read more about Howell here.

• David Howell to William Greene, December 24, 1783. From Letters of Delegates to Congress: Volume 21 October 1, 1783 - October 31, 1784.

  "As there is no public worship in this place & Congress has at present no Chaplain, I have been witness to no act of public devotion since I have been here. The second night after my arrival being Saturday night, in the Edge of the evening the Servant brought into the room & set on the Table two candles & two packs of Cards. Some of the company soon spread around the Table & went to playing for money. I left the room & was shewed to another. After which I sent for Mr Ellery & we spent the Evening by ourselves. In conversation I observed to the Company that in N. England the Table would have been furnished with a bible & Psalm book instead of two packs of Cards.

  "I was told the next day that they had played for ten to twenty guineas a game--and that one man had lost 200 guineas. Gentlemen here boast of such adventures. So widely different are the customs & manners of the people here from those of N. England.

  "The older I grow the more I am impressed with the persuasion that religion is for the good of Society. If in this World only it had a reward, that reward would be sufficient to induce a reasonable man to become seriously religious: and the advantages Government would receive from the prevalence of some religion among the people are sufficient, in my opinion to induce every patriot, or good politician to countenance & encourage it by precept & example.

  "I therefore cordially join you in wishing that we may 'build our future empire on the basis of religion, virtue & justice.'"

Washington D.C. attorney.

• Charles E. George, editor. Rights of Religion and the Bible in Public and Private Schools. From The Lawyer and Banker and Central Law Journal, v. 20, n. 5, September/October 1927, pp. 285-297; v. 20, n. 6, November/December 1927, pp. 354-367. These essays cite many legal precedents supporting the Christian nation claim.
  "...In conclusion, it seems clear that from every standpoint--educational, literary, historical, professional, legal, business, financial, social, mental, moral and spiritual--the Bible and the principles enunciated therein are helpful and beneficial as well to the young pupil as the adult and the teaching of same in the public and private schools is not only not prohibited by the Federal Constitution, but on the other hand, that document as construed by the Supreme Court, denounces as invalid any State constitution, statute, or regulation, attempting to prevent or restrict such teaching in the public and private schools of the Word of God."

Historian.

• Pilots of the Republic: The Romance of the pioneer promoter in the Middle West. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co., (Cambridge [Mass.]: University Press), 1906. 368 pp.: ill., ports.
  "Yet against what human motive may not the accusation of self-interest be cast? It has been hurled against almost every earnest man since Christ was crucified in ignominy nineteen centuries ago. Scan the list of men herein treated, and you will not find a single promoter of the Central West who was not accused of harboring' an ulterior motive, if not of downright perfidy. Some of the best of these leaders of the expansion movement were most bitterly maligned; the heroic missionaries who forgot every consideration of health, comfort, worldly prosperity, home, and friends were sometimes decried as plotting ambassadors of scheming knaves."

American clergyman and the first Protestant Episcopal bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York. Read about Huntington here.

• Christian citizenship and honest legislation: A Sermon delivered before His Excellency Henry J. Gardner, His Honor Henry W. Benchley, the honorable Council, and the legislature of Massachusetts, at the annual election, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 1858. Boston: W. White, 1858.

President. Read more about President Jackson here and here.

• "First Inaugural Address" (March 4, 1829).
  ...As long as our Government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of person and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending; and so long as it is worth defending a patriotic militia will cover it with an impenetrable aegis.
  ...A diffidence, perhaps too just, in my own qualifications will teach me to look with reverence to the examples of public virtue left by my illustrious predecessors, and with veneration to the lights that flow from the mind that founded and the mind that reformed our system. The same diffidence induces me to hope for instruction and aid from the coordinate branches of the Government, and for the indulgence and support of my fellow-citizens generally. And a firm reliance on the goodness of that Power whose providence mercifully protected our national infancy, and has since upheld our liberties in various vicissitudes, encourages me to offer up my ardent supplications that He will continue to make our beloved country the object of His divine care and gracious benediction.
• "Second Annual Message to Congress" (December 6, 1830).
  Fellow Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
  The pleasure I have in congratulating you upon your return to your constitutional duties is much heightened by the satisfaction which the condition of our beloved country at this period justly inspires. The beneficent Author of All Good has granted to us during the present year health, peace, and plenty, and numerous causes for joy in the wonderful success which attends the progress of our free institutions.
  With a population unparalleled in its increase, and possessing a character which combines the hardihood of enterprise with the considerateness of wisdom, we see in every section of our happy country a steady improvement in the means of social intercourse, and correspondent effects upon the genius and laws of our extended Republic.
  ... In conclusion, fellow citizens, allow me to invoke in behalf of your deliberations that spirit of conciliation and disinterestedness which is the gift of patriotism. Under an over-ruling and merciful Providence the agency of this spirit has thus far been signalized in the prosperity and glory of our beloved country. May its influence be eternal.
• "Farewell Address" (March 4, 1837).
  But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing. It behooves you, therefore, to be watchful in your States as well as in the Federal Government.
  ... While I am thus endeavoring to press upon your attention the principles which I deem of vital importance in the domestic concerns of the country, I ought not to pass over without notice the important considerations which should govern your policy toward foreign powers. It is unquestionably our true interest to cultivate the most friendly understanding with every nation and to avoid by every honorable means the calamities of war, and we shall best attain this object by frankness and sincerity in our foreign intercourse, by the prompt and faithful execution of treaties, and by justice and impartiality in our conduct to all. But no nation, however desirous of peace, can hope to escape occasional collisions with other powers, and the soundest dictates of policy require that we should place ourselves in a condition to assert our rights if a resort to force should ever become necessary. Our local situation, our long line of seacoast, indented by numerous bays, with deep rivers opening into the interior, as well as our extended and still increasing commerce, point to the Navy as our natural means of defense. It will in the end be found to be the cheapest and most effectual, and now is the time, in a season of peace and with an overflowing revenue, that we can year after year add to its strength without increasing the burdens of the people. It is your true policy, for your Navy will not only protect your rich and flourishing commerce in distant seas, but will enable you to reach and annoy the enemy and will give to defense its greatest efficiency by meeting danger at a distance from home. It is impossible by any line of fortifications to guard every point from attack against a hostile force advancing from the ocean and selecting its object, but they are indispensable to protect cities from bombardment, dockyards and naval arsenals from destruction, to give shelter to merchant vessels in time of war and to single ships or weaker squadrons when pressed by superior force. Fortifications of this description can not be too soon completed and armed and placed in a condition of the most perfect preparation. The abundant means we now possess can not be applied in any manner more useful to the country, and when this is done and our naval force sufficiently strengthened and our militia armed we need not fear that any nation will wantonly insult us or needlessly provoke hostilities. We shall more certainly preserve peace when it is well understood that we are prepared for War.
  In presenting to you, my fellow-citizens, these parting counsels, I have brought before you the leading principles upon which I endeavored to administer the Government in the high office with which you twice honored me. Knowing that the path of freedom is continually beset by enemies who often assume the disguise of friends, I have devoted the last hours of my public life to warn you of the dangers. The progress of the United States under our free and happy institutions has surpassed the most sanguine hopes of the founders of the Republic. Our growth has been rapid beyond all former example in numbers, in wealth, in knowledge, and all the useful arts which contribute to the comforts and convenience of man, and from the earliest ages of history to the present day there never have been thirteen millions of people associated in one political body who enjoyed so much freedom and happiness as the people of these United States. You have no longer any cause to fear danger from abroad; your strength and power are well known throughout the civilized world, as well as the high and gallant bearing of your sons. It is from within, among yourselves--from cupidity, from corruption, from disappointed ambition and inordinate thirst for power--that factions will be formed and liberty endangered. It is against such designs, whatever disguise the actors may assume, that you have especially to guard yourselves. You have the highest of human trusts committed to your care. Providence has showered on this favored land blessings without number, and has chosen you as the guardians of freedom, to preserve it for the benefit of the human race. May He who holds in His hands the destinies of nations make you worthy of the favors He has bestowed and enable you, with pure hearts and pure hands and sleepless vigilance, to guard and defend to the end of time the great charge He has committed to your keeping.
  My own race is nearly run; advanced age and failing health warn me that before long I must pass beyond the reach of human events and cease to feet the vicissitudes of human affairs. I thank God