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America's Republic Foundation
“That book, sir, is the rock on which our republic rests.”
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” --Psalm 33:12
The Declaration of Independence is the very basis of our freedoms.
Established upon God's Design of the Ultimate Law: "The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God," the foundation of God-given "Rights."
"They define a republic to be a government of laws, and not of men." --John Adams (1775)
A Constitutional Republic is a representative government by consent, of the people, by the people, and for the people, and as Benjamin Franklin warned: "A Republic, if you can keep it," which requires a devotion of each American to remain vigilant in elections.
"Natural rights [are] the objects for the protection of which society is formed and municipal laws established." --Thomas Jefferson (1791)
Contents:
"The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God"
Biblical Influence of
America's Founding Fathers
Proclaiming the
Declaration of Independence
Let the American Youth Never Forget
Declaration of Independence Opening Paragraphs:
o In a Quiet Room in 1776 Philadelphia Thomas Jefferson Changed the World
o Of the Declaration signers: 17 served in the military; 12 had their homes destroyed; 5 were hunted down and imprisoned; 9 died before the end of the war. Wives & sons were imprisoned...
o A Constitutional Republic, not a pure Democracy "A Republic, if you can keep it"
o Test Yourself: 10 Questions About America’s Spiritual Roots
o How the Bible Shaped America's Founding (YouTube) - In the Museum of the Bible & Library of Congress
o Supreme Court, 1892 - America a "Christian Nation" - American Minute with Bill Federer
George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, & Benjamin Franklin
In their own words on devotion to God and American Liberty of just four of the Founders
George Washington: "The hand of Providence The Hand of providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations."
James Madison: The belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man..."
Thomas Jefferson: The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them."
Benjamin Franklin: I have lived, Sir, a long time; and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this Truth, that God governs in the Affairs of Men. And if a Sparrow cannot fall to the Ground without his Notice, is it probable that an Empire can rise without his Aid?
Recommended Videos
1. Historian William J. Federer provides how early Americans relied upon a
Biblical Foundation of Judeo-Christian roots which led to how and why our Republic (not a pure Democracy) was established.2. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on the principals of the Declaration of Independence that provided the foundation of freedom and liberty of all men and the basis of our Constitutional Republic, and how "progressivism" insist "Rights" come from government, not God.
"The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God."
"A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate." --Thomas Jefferson (1774)
"It is the duty of all men in society, publicly, and at stated seasons, to worship the SUPREME BEING, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe." --John Adams
"The laws of nature are the laws of God, who's authority can be superseded by no power on earth." --George Mason September 25, 1789, (1725-1792), "The Father of the Bill of Rights," author of the Virginia Constitution and the Virginia Bill of Rights. This phrase of Mason's was mirrored in the Declaration of Independence as "the laws of nature and nature's God."
Natural Law: The Ultimate Source of Constitutional Law - Natural law is the basis for Jefferson's assertions in the Declaration of Independence. - "Man ... must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator.. This will of his Maker is called the law of nature.... This law of nature...is of course superior to any other.... No human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this: and such of them as are valid derive all their force...from this original." - Sir William Blackstone (Eminent English Jurist)
The Founders DID NOT establish the Constitution for the purpose of granting rights. Rather, they established this government of laws (not a government of men) in order to secure each person's Creator endowed rights to life, liberty, and property. Only in America, did a nation's founders recognize that rights, though endowed by the Creator as unalienable prerogatives, would not be sustained in society unless they were protected under a code of law which was itself in harmony with a higher law. They called it "natural law," or "Nature's law." Such law is the ultimate source and established limit for all of man's laws and is intended to protect each of these natural rights for all of mankind. The Declaration of Independence of 1776 established the premise that in America a people might assume the station "to which the laws of Nature and Nature's God entitle them.."
The very first act of the first U.S. Congress was to hold a worship service while in session. As noted by the Senate Historical Office: Three days before George Washington took the oath of office as the first president of the United States, Congress passed the following resolution: Resolved, That after the oath shall have been administered to the President, he, attended by the Vice President and members of the Senate and House of Representatives, shall proceed to St. Paul’s Chapel, to hear divine service. Accordingly, the Right Rev. Samuel Provoost (1742–1815), newly appointed chaplain of the United States Senate and first Episcopal bishop of New York, officiated at a service in St. Paul's Chapel on April 30, 1789, immediately following Washington’s inauguration, with the newly inaugurated President and members of Congress present.
"
Among the objects of the Constitution of this Commonwealth, Liberty & Equality stand in a conspicuous light. It is the first article in our declaration of rights, all men are born free & equal, & have certain natural, essential & unalienable rights. In the supposed state of nature, all men are equally bound by the laws of nature, or to speak more properly, the laws of the Creator: They are imprinted by the finger of God on the heart of man." Samuel Adams (1722-1803) Father of the American Revolution, Patriot and Statesman
"The law of nature, being coeval with mankind and dictated by God Himself,
is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the
globe, in all countries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity, if
contrary to this; and such of them as are valid derive all their force, and all
their authority, mediately or immediately, from the original."
--William
Blackstone's 1753 treatise "Commentaries on the Laws of England"
"Every human law has just so much of the nature of law as
is derived from the law of nature. But if at any point it deflects from the law
of nature, it is no longer a law but a perversion of the law." --Thomas
Aquinas.
"There is God's Law from which all equitable laws of man
emerge and by which men must live if they are not to die in oppression, chaos
and despair." --Cicero
Understanding this Foundation of applying God's Laws of
Nature provides insight to the "progressive moral compass" of
Democrats in undermining the premise for determining how "Rights"
are to be "entitled." Depraved "reprobate minds" (Romans 1) ignore the science of
biology, a law of nature to satisfy sinful pleasures that "goes
against nature."
Martin Luther King Jr. - Excerpts from his Letter from the Birmingham Jail April 16, 1963: "How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law."
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. also understood the colorblind nature of America's founding documents and in this same speech he challenged America, not to dispense with her founding documents, but to live up to them. He said, "When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the 'unalienable Rights' of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." (Hyatt, Abolitionist Founding Fathers, 54).
"[A]ll are subject by nature to equal laws of morality, and in society have a right to equal laws for their government, yet no two men are perfectly equal in person, property, understanding, activity, and virtue, or ever can be made so by any power less than that which created them, all are subject by nature to equal laws of morality, and in society have a right to equal laws for their government." --John Adams, Discourse on Davila
"The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" vs. the love of counterfeits of the "god of this age." (2 Corinthians 4:4)
Standing on Natural Law is "Sinking Sand" - By Gary DeMar - ...The framers believed that "the laws of nature and of nature's God," a phrase found in the Declaration of Independence, were almost universally accepted. This is why Clarence Thomas could write: "We look at the Natural Law beliefs of the founders as a background to our Constitution."[2] When the left-leaning members of the committee heard this, they went on the attack. Thomas was saying that there are fixed moral laws written into the created order that even the Constitution and its interpreters are bound to follow.
During the Thomas hearings when he was being considered as a Supreme Court Justice, Biden wrote an article that appeared in the Washington Post. He claimed the following for his version of natural law:
o It does not "function as being a specific moral code regulating individual behavior."
o It is not "a static set of unchanging principles."
o It is "an evolving body of ideals."
And that's the problem with Natural Law. Who gets to define what's natural? According to Biden, natural law is whatever the courts say it is or isn't. A Supreme Court Justice doesn't have to believe in fixed moral principles unless, of course, it means giving women the legal right to kill unborn babies or to redefine "gender." If there were ever fixed natural laws, the right to abortion and gender fluidity would be first in line. Of course, abortion, homosexuality, and transgenderism are against even Darwinism.
Biblical Influence of America's Founding Fathers
“That book, sir, is the rock on which our republic rests.”
"From one man He made every nation of men to settle upon all the face of the
earth, after He determined fixed times and the boundaries of their habitations."
(Acts 17:26)
The Biblical precept that sovereign nations have boundaries (Numbers 20:14-21),
dictate permission to enter, assimilation (Exodus 20:10 - Leviticus 16:29 -
Deuteronomy 5:14-15), to righteously protect and defend that nation's
inhabitants, for the same reason personal property has boundaries, as the walls
and fences around the properties of Soros & Pelosi do. 
"After
reviewing an estimated 15,000 items, including newspaper articles, pamphlets,
books, monographs, etc., written between 1760-1805 by the 55 men who wrote the
constitution, Professors Donald S. Lutz and Charles S. Hyneman, in their work
'The Relative Influence of European Writers on Late Eighteenth-Century American
Political Thought' revealed that the Bible, especially the book of Deuteronomy,
contributed 34% of all quotations used by our Founding Fathers."2 "Additional
sources the founders quoted took 60% of their quotes from the Bible. Direct and
indirect citations combined reveal that the majority of all quotations
referenced by the Founding Fathers are derived from the Bible."3
1. Florida v. City of Tampa, 48
So. 2d 78 (Fla. 1950); see also Commissioners of Johnson County v. Lacy, 93 S.E.
482, 487 (N.C. 1917) ("Our laws are founded upon the Decalogue).
2. William J. Federer, The Ten Commandments & their Influence on American Law (Amerisearch
Inc. St. Louis, MO. 2003) p.19.
3. Ibid; p.19. Federer's sources are as follows: Donald S. Lutz and Charles S.
Hyneman, "The Relative Influence of European Writers on Late Eighteenth-Century
American Political Thought." American Political Science Review 189 (1984):
189-197. (Courtesy of Dr. Wayne House of Dallas Theological Seminary.) John
Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution -The Faith of Our Founding Fathers
(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, A Mott Meida Book, 1987; 6th printing,
1993), pp. 51-53. Origions of American Constitutionalism, (1987). Stephen K.
McDowell and Mark A. Beliles, America's Providential History (Charlottesville,
VA: Providence Press, 1988), p. 156.
What Founders had to say about the Bible:o "The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the word of God.... Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts." John Jay (1784)
o "Religion is the only solid basis of good morals; therefore education should teach the precepts of religion and the duties of man towards God." Gouverneur Morris (1791)
o "[W]here is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation deserts the oaths...?" George Washington (1796)
o "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams (1798)
o "[T]he only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments." Benjamin Rush (1806)
52 of the 55 signers of the Declaration of Independence were orthodox, deeply committed Christians? The other three believed in the Bible as the divine truth, in the God of Scripture, in His personal intervention. Of the fifty-six signers: 17 lost their fortunes, 12 had their homes destroyed, 9 fought and died, 5 were arrested as traitors, and 2 lost sons in the War.
Immediately after creating the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress voted to purchase and import 20,000 copies of the Scripture for the people of this nation.
Blackstone's Commentaries of Laws of England, Charles Finney's
Gospel Revival, & "another gospel"--Liberation Theology Social
Justice - ...Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries on the
Laws of England had a great influence on America's founders.
...Blackstone drew upon a long tradition of earlier documents
highlighting Creator-given rights, which eventually crystallized
into America's Declaration of Independence.
...GOVERNMENT has the shortest command, namely, protect the
innocent and punish the guilty. There is no Biblical command for
government to help the poor, take care of the sick, dispense
healthcare, operate schools, provide jobs, or other
entitlements. Many churches have neglected responsibilities only
to have government usurp them. Just because something needs to
be done does not mean it is the governments job to do it.
...[Primary author of the U.S. Constitution] James Madison
explained to Congress, 1794: "The government of the United
States is a definite government, confined to specified objects
...Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government."
"Not Yours To Give": ...Davy Crockett served 3 terms in the U.S. Congress between 1827 and
1835, before dying at the Texas Alamo. When Congress was
debating whether to use taxes collected from citizens to
redistribute to someone in need, Davy Crockett gave a speech
"Not Yours to Give": "Congress has not the power to appropriate
this money as an act of charity. Every member on this floor
knows it. We have the right as individuals, to give away as much
of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of
Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public
money, as charity ... The power of collecting and disbursing
money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be
entrusted to man ... Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right
to give as much money of our own as we please. I am the poorest
man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give
one week's pay to the object, and if every member of Congress
will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks."
...President Grover Cleveland opposed Federal welfare, vetoing of the
Texas Seed Bill in 1887: "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."
...Charles Finney warned:
"If immorality prevails in the land, the fault is ours in a
great degree.
If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for
it.
If the public press lacks moral discrimination, the pulpit is
responsible for it.
If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is
responsible for it.
If the world loses its interest in religion, the pulpit is
responsible for it.
If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is
responsible for it.
... If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations
of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is
responsible for it. Let us not ignore this fact, my dear
brethren; but let us lay it to heart, and be thoroughly awake to
our responsibility in respect to the morals of this nation."
...Charles Finney: "Do not suppose, now, that I am going to preach
a political sermon, or that I wish to have you join and get up a
Christian party in politics. No, I do not believe in that. But
the time has come that Christians must vote for honest men, and
take consistent ground in politics, or the Lord will curse them
..."
There Is No Limited Government Without Individual Virtue. "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” --James Madison
These sentences have been erased from our textbooks. The following year, 1776, Henry wrote this: "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded the freedom of worship here."
[Democrats in 2025: The Left Has No Respect for God, Country, or History, Including Patrick Henry - By Hans von Spakovsky - ...Overall, it was a great day to be in Richmond on the 250th anniversary of Henry's speech. ...Unfortunately, there was also a horde of rude, uncivil protesters... ...Despite their attempt at disruption, the pathetic protesters just looked foolish. If they thought they would persuade anyone there to support them, they did the exact opposite by rudely injecting rancorous politics into a celebration of American patriotism. ...But their antics clearly revealed their opinion of the almost 80 million Americans who voted for the man they want deported.]
Consider these words Thomas Jefferson wrote in the front of his well worn Bible: "I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus. I have little doubt that our whole country will soon be rallied to the unity of our Creator." Jefferson was also the chairman of the American Bible Society, which he considered his highest and most important role.
On July 4, 1821, President John Adams said, "The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of government with the principles of Christianity."
Calvin Coolidge, our 30th President, reaffirmed this truth when he wrote, "The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically in our country."
President John Adams - "From the day of the Declaration . . .they [the American people] were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of the Gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledge as the rules of their conduct." ...And, "[This] Form of Government is productive of every Thing which is great and excellent among Men. But its Principles are as easily destroyed, as human nature is corrupted. A Government is only to be supported by pure Religion or Austere Morals. Private and public Virtue is the only Foundation of Republics." -- John Adams, 2nd president of the United States of America (Warren-Adams Letters, Massachusetts Historical Society, 1917, Vol. 1, p. 222)
Did America's Founding Fathers believe in God? (PragerU) Were they Christians? Or were they just Deists? And why is it important? In this video, Joshua Charles, author and researcher at the Museum of the Bible, explains that, while men like Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Franklin each took different approaches to religion, all of them were steeped in the traditional Judeo-Christian values found in the Bible. But did their beliefs influence how they thought America should be governed? Watch the video at the link to find out.
List of Resources:
o
What Leading Americans Have Said about the Bible
o The Bible and America’s Presidents
o
Liberty: What Did the Founders Mean?
Our Founding Fathers established the constitutional Union as a voluntary
agreement among the several states, subordinate to the Declaration of
Independence, which never mentions the nation as a singular entity, but instead
repeatedly references the states as sovereign bodies, unanimously asserting
their independence. Our Constitution's author, James Madison, in an 1825 letter
to our Declaration of Independence's author, Thomas Jefferson, asserted, "On the
distinctive principles of the Government of the U. States, the best guides are
to be found in The Declaration of Independence, as the fundamental Act of
Union of these States." --Mark
Alexander - Lincoln's Legacy
"We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of
government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political
institutions upon the capacity of mankind of self-government; upon the capacity
of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain
ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." James Madison (1751-1836)
Father of the Constitution, 4th President of the United States
o "Cursed be all that learning that is contrary to the
cross of Christ." --James Madison, Primary Author of the U. S. Constitution and
4th U.S. president. America's Providential History, p. 93
o "The belief in a God All Powerful wise and
good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of
man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources nor
adapted with too much solicitude to the different characters and capacities
impressed with it."
(In a letter to Frederick Beasley.)
o "The equal right of every citizen to the free exercise of his Religion
according to the dictates of conscience" is held by the same tenure with all our
other rights." (
"Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments"
)
o "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government
are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are
numerous and indefinite." --James Madison (1788)
The
Most Important Founding Father You May Not Remember
- By Rep. Mark Green ...It's because of James Madison's foresight that our
nation has been able to guard against centralized power for over 200 years. And
today, as we face an ever-growing federal government seeking to control the
lives of Americans from cradle to grave, the best thing we can do for our nation
is go back to Madison's original system of constitutional government. To figure out
what that means, we can read what Madison wrote himself. He laid out a new
"science of politics" in both the
ninth and
10th
Federalist Papers. Here we learn that we have his idea of an extended republic
to thank for convincing skeptical Americans that republican government is
possible.
...Unfortunately, today, that freedom is under attack.
Radical leftist ideologies seek to tear down the institutions and systems put in
place by the Founding generation and replace them with a dystopian nightmare.
On July 3, 1776, Founding Patriot John Adams wrote to his beloved wife, Abigail: Yesterday, the greatest question was decided, which ever was debated in
America, and a greater, perhaps, never was or will be decided among men. You
will see in a few days a Declaration setting forth the causes which have
impelled us to this mighty revolution, and the reasons which will justify it in
the sight of God and man. ... 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 triumph in
that Day's Transaction.
"Only a virtuous people
are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have
more need of masters." ...
"The worship of God is a duty...Freedom is not a
gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws
of God and nature, I never doubted the existence of the Deity, that he made
the world, and governed it by His Providence...The pleasures of this world are
rather from God's goodness than our own merit... Whoever shall introduce into
the public affairs the principles of primitive (essential) Christianity will
change the face of the world... Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God."
--Benjamin
Franklin
The American Bible
Society was started by an act of Congress and John Adams, our second president,
served as its first leader.
Twelve of the original 13 colonies incorporated the entire
Ten Commandments into their civil and criminal codes.
Understanding the Difference Between Freedom and Liberty
o The history of
the drafting of the Declaration of Independence.
o
Creating the Declaration of Independence - A Time Line
o Religious
Affiliation of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America
o
Did You Know? Learn what you have not been taught and/or mislead about
America's Heritage
o The
Bible and Government Biblical Principles: Basis for America's Laws
o
Pastors in Politics during Revolution and Constitutional Influence
o
Heritage's Guide to the Constitution - This interactive website offers a
clause-by-clause analysis of the entire Constitution and each amendment. These
expert insights allow you to confidently defend the principles of freedom that
we all hold dear.
o What Is The
Electoral College? This fun kids' video is meant to simplify this Electoral
College. Children are the future of our nation. They need to know the truth.
Watch the video with your kids and grandkids.
o Electoral
College vs. National Popular Vote (NPV) Mob Rule
o
The Three Branches of the United States Government - The three branches of
government. Easy for middle school and high school students to understand.
o
What
is the Federal Reserve?
o Teaching
Your Kids The Bill of Rights | A Parents Guide- Learning about the Bill of
Rights is essential for kids because it helps them understand their freedoms as
Americans.
At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, James Madison proposed the plan to
divide the central government into three branches: a) JUDICIAL, b) LEGISLATIVE,
and c) EXECUTIVE. He discovered this model of government from the Perfect
Governor, as he read Isaiah 33:22; "For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our
lawgiver, the LORD is our king; He will save us."
James Madison also declared:
o "Before any
man can be considered as a member of Civilized Society, he must first be
considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe." 
Calvin Coolidge, July 5, 1926,
Philadelphia, PA - "No other theory is adequate to
explain or comprehend the Declaration of Independence.
It is the product of the spiritual insight of the
people. We live in an age of science and of abounding
accumulation of material things. These did not create
our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The
things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to
that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though
it may appear, will turn to a barren scepter in our
grasp. If we are to maintain the great heritage which
has been bequeathed to us, we must be like-minded as the
fathers who created it. We must not sink into a pagan
materialism. We must cultivate the reverence which they
had for the things that are holy. We must follow the
spiritual and moral leadership which they showed. We
must keep replenished, that they may glow with a more
compelling flame, the altar fires before which they
worshiped." 
James Wilson was one of six founding fathers to sign both the Declaration of
Independence and the Constitution. President Washington appointed him to
the Supreme Court. Born in Scotland, he was an active delegate at the
Constitutional Convention, speaking 168 times. His name was James Wilson
and he died AUGUST 21, 1798. The first law professor of the University
of Pennsylvania, James Wilson wrote in his Lectures on Law, 1789-91:
"Law...communicated to us by reason and conscience...has been called
natural; as promulgated by the Holy Scriptures, it has been called
revealed...But it should always be remembered, that this law, natural or
revealed...flows from the same divine source; it is the law of God."
James Wilson continued: "Human law must rest its authority, ultimately,
upon the authority of that law, which is divine."
The Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania records in Updegraph v. Commonwealth, 1824: "The late Judge
James Wilson, of the Supreme Court of the United States, Professor of
Law in the College in Philadelphia...for our present form of government
we are greatly indebted to his exertions...In his Course of Lectures (3d
Vol. of his Works, 122), he states that...'Christianity is part of the
common-law.'"
October 12, 1816 John Jay, America's 1st
Supreme Court Justice set forth in clear and concise terms his belief that
America's leaders must be first and foremost, Christian: "Providence has given
to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the
privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians
for their rulers."
"The day of our nation's birth in that little hall in
Philadelphia, [was] a day on which debate had raged for hours.
The men
gathered there were honorable men hard-pressed by a king who had flouted the
very laws they were willing to obey. Even so, to sign the Declaration of
Independence was such an irretrievable act that the walls resounded with the
words 'treason, the gallows, the headsman's axe,' and the issue remained in
doubt. [On that day] 56 men, a little band so unique we have never seen their
like since, had pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. Some
gave their lives in the war that followed, most gave their fortunes, and all
preserved their sacred honor... In recent years, however, I've come to think of
that day as more than just the birthday of a nation. It also commemorates the
only true philosophical revolution in all history. Oh, there have been
revolutions before and since ours. But those revolutions simply exchanged one
set of rules for another. Ours was a revolution that changed the very concept of
government.
Let the Fourth of July always be a reminder that here in this
land, for the first time, it was decided that man is born with certain God-given
rights; that government is only a convenience created and managed by the people,
with no powers of its own except those voluntarily granted to it by the people.
We sometimes forget that great truth, and we never should."
--Ronald Reagan
"May it be to the world, what I believe it will be,
(to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of
arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition
had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security
of self-government." --Thomas
Jefferson
American Minute with Bill Federer George Mason - Father of the Bill of
Rights 
Bill of Rights: "Congress shall make no law
respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof." Thus began the first of the Ten Amendments, or Bill
of Rights, which were approved SEPTEMBER 25, 1789. George Mason, known
as "The Father of the Bill of Rights," wrote the Virginia Declaration of
Rights from which Jefferson drew to write the Declaration of
Independence. George Mason was one of 55 founders who wrote the U.S.
Constitution, but was also one of sixteen who refused to sign it because
it did not abolish slavery and did not limit the power of the Federal
Government. George Mason joined with Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams to
prevent the Constitution from being ratified, as the abuses of King
George III's concentrated power were still fresh. It was largely through
George Mason's insistence that in the first session of Congress ten
limitations or amendments were put on the new Federal Government.