To a creator, a supreme judge, or Divine Providence. He also highlights the importance of the great awaken awakening, a protestant religious revival in the 1740s, that influenced many founding fathers. This class took place at Georgetown University and is an hour and 45 minutes. It was organized by the j madison memorial fellowship foundation. Good morning, everyone. Arent you a smartlooking set this morning. The topic today is religion and the American Revolution. You recall from our last session together, i laid out what i think are some headwaters of early american constitutionalism. Thats what i was calling them. So we looked at classical republicanism, primarily roman, grecoroman, but primarily roman. We looked at enlightenment liberalism, primarily british, which included the common law tradition and some older things. Then i mentioned protestant christianity as the third of those headwaters that i believe feeds into early american constitutionalism. And we deferred that to today. So thats where we are today. You recall this image of the Missouri River and its headwaters. Great rivers main streams have head waters that flow into them and are at some point indistinguishable from one another and the river. These are the headwaters of the Missouri River, the gallatin, the madison, and the jefferson rivers, discovered by lewis and clark. And in a graphic way i just tried simply to illustrate those three headwaters. Classical republicanism to the left there. Enlightenment liberalism. And protestant christianity. Thats where we are, looking at protestant christianity. This is a representation of one of those camp meetings during the first great awakening of the sort of mid18th century. And were going to be looking at that in a little bit. So where i want to go today is make some introductory remarks about the declaration and whether we have an american creed and whether its found in the declaration. In the second section there, well look at some revolutionary characters and their views of religion and its influence on the American Revolution. Id rather hear from their mouths than read a secondary source or some historians interpretation. And i want you to hear what they had to say. Thirdly, well take a very quick tour of what im calling the age of awakening. And well look specifically at the first great awakening that preceded the revolution by several decades. In section 4 well look at what im calling the political theology of the revolution. And there well look back at the declaration. So well return to where we began and well look at a couple of sermons, political sermons of the revolutionary era and finally well sum up at the end. So lets begin with some introductory remarks. The english social critic g. K. Chesterton once said, america is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed. That creed is set forth with dog mat and i can even theological lucidity in the declaration of independence. It does also by inference condemn atheism, it being the declaration, since it clearly names the creator as the ultimate authority from whom these equal rights are derive. Nobody expects a modern political system to proceed logically in the application of such dogmas. In the matter of god and government it is naturally god whose claim is taken more lightly. Chesterton says, though, the point is that there is a creed. If not about divine, at least about human things. And this comes from an essay that he wrote called what is america . And chesterton called america a nation with a soul of a church. A nation with the soul of a church. This was especially true, i think, during the revolutionary period. So how did this nation, or more precisely, this people, to use the language of the declaration itself remember, its one people, not one nation, who separate themselves from great britain. How did this one people with a soul of a church bring off a revolution, the First Successful separation of colonies from the parent stem in the history of the western world . And what effect did religion have on political culture and constitutionalism in our revolutionary period . So lets begin by looking at, as i say, some revolutionary cashes. Youll recognize maybe the title of one of gordon woods more recent books there. Were going to look at individuals, some of whom helped make the revolution, some of whom fought against it, some americans, some britons. I want you to have a full slice of opinion about religions job and the revolution from various vantage points. Lets given with this man, john adams. This is a portrait of him in old age. Toothless. But hes looking back at this time on the revolution of almost 50 years ago, almost half a century before. And adams, who presumably knew something about the causes of the revolution, yes . Adams wrote, the revolution was effected before the war commenced. The revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people. A change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations. This in a letter from adams to Hezekiah Niles in 1818. I want to net in our overarching text and gordon woods revolution on page 3 he has a quotation from adams from this letter, but he leaves out something that has to do with their religious duties and obligations. And im not accusing him, dont hear me accusing him of any sleight of hand. Im just saying that this tends to drop out in the account in the secondary account. This religious emphasis. And so i want to try to underscore that a little bit. What did adams mean by saying the religious sentiments of their duties and obligations . Reflecting back on that revolution of half a century ago, adams wrote, around the same time, 1815, to another correspondent. Who will believe that the apprehension of episcopacy, contributed 50 years ago as much as any other cause to arouse the attention not only of the inquiring mind but of the Common People and urged them to close thinking on the Constitutional Authority of parliament over the colonies. This, nevertheless, was a fact as certain as any in the history of north america. The reasoning was this. If parliament can erect diocese and appoint bishops, they may introduce the whole hierarchy, establish ties, forbid marriages and funerals, establish religions, forbid dissenters, make schism heresy, impose penalties extending to life and limb as well as to liberty and property. I know theres a lot of text there and laden with 18thcentury prose. The apprehension of episcopacy, the fear of bishops, religion governed by bishops. Adams says this fear aroused americans of all kinds, not only inquiring minds that is to say elites but Common People, to close thinking on the Constitutional Authority of parliament over the colonies. So adams thought that religion and politics went together in the revolutionary era. Both in america and abroad. In 1793, during the french revolution, after louis xvi and Marie Antoinette had been beheaded doubted that the french republic will last longer than the english one in the last century. I think there will be a general revolution in religion and government all over europe. Religion and government go together if his mind. In that quotation adams was comparing the shortlived english commonwealth under cromwell to what he correctly predicted would be an equally shortlived republican and postrevolutionary france. Recall that napoleon bonaparte, who claimed to be vindicating the french revolution and its principles, all the while having himself crowned emperor. And you saw that bust of napoleon in jeffersons monticello, recall in the parlor there. And what was the rallying cry of that revolution that napoleon claimed to be protecting and vindicating . You may also know the story of his coronation in notre dame, right . He was so anxious to get that crown he couldnt even wait, he actually took it out of the hands and placed it on his own head, he was so anxious to become a kind of modernday emperor for france. So much, right, for revolution and the people. During that french revolution in which adams doubted that the french could sustain a successful revolution, word came that there had been a massacre of catholic priests touring ss during the terror. Some 200 of them were set afire on barges in the middle of the seine. They were given the exquisite choice of drowning or burning to death. I know not what to make of a nation of 30 million atheists what are he means by this is i dont know how you can have a successful republic, a successful government, based on the people and their will, without some kind of religious base to stabilize it. Revolutionary americans, rather than seeing religion as a necessary enemy of enlightenment as the french did, and their philosophies. By the way, if you want proof of this you should look at the one of the coeditors of the french encyclopedia, denny diderot. There are a variety of national expressions of that and each one sort of leaves behind a kind of artifact. The french leave behind this encyclopedia. The scots leave behind a work thats still with us today, the encyclopedia britannica, which comes out in the middle1760s. Diderot here was famous for big one of the rallying cries of the revolution. Not the more famous one of liberty, equality, fraternity. Let us strangle the last king with the guts of the last priest. This is what diderot says we ought to be embodying. You see how he thinks that sort of religion and monarchy. Aristocracy, privilege, go together. And they have equally to be the field needs to equally be cleared of those of both. What do we do here in this country . Revolutionary americans, rather than seeing it as i say as an enemy of enlightenment, as the french do, they harness the power of religion. And indeed were overwhelmingly religious themselves and drew their arguments for resistance from protestant christian religious sources as professor driesbach laid out for us recently. Also, there was a rumor that diderot, who was tasked off tasked himself with giving the entry for religion in that encyclopedia, wanted to just have one line in which he said, religion is the enemy of the people. Thats all he wanted to say. So this i think is it reveals the hostility that many of the french intellectuals had and revolutionary leaders had for religion. But not so here. Contrast that with the accommodating spirit of the American Revolutionaries. In april of 1776, the Continental Congress sent commissioners to canada, benjamin franklin, samuel chase, and Roman Catholics Charles Carroll of maryland who will become a signer of the declaration of independence. And father john carroll, whose statue is right is right behind through in the turnaround, the founder of this university in 1789, later the first bishop of baltimore. You might recall you saw a bust of father carroll, where . In monticello. Jefferson appreciates it. Or was it in montpelier in montpelier, im sorry. Madison appreciates the contribution the catholics have made. James, youre going to have to keep me honest if i make another. George washington, for example, as president of the newly United States, wrote to a group of catholics. I presume that your fellow citizens will not forget the patriotic part which you catholics took in the accomplishment of their revolution and the establishment of their government or the important assistant which they received from a nation, france, in which the Roman Catholic religion is professed. So adams claim that the American Revolution was tied to fears of an anglican establishment is supported by considerable historical evidence. For example, in 1767, the anglican Thomas Chandler wrote, an appeal on behalf of anglicans in america in which he claimed arguments for sending english bishops to america were never so urgent and forcible as they are at present. A year later in 1768, a cartoon in the political register, an attempt to land a bishop in america showed american colonials driving out an english bishop by pelting him with books. And ive put it up here for you. Pardon me. Its also in the course packet. And i want you to notice some of the book titles which are being hurled at this bishop. You see in this mans hand locke. Then next to him, sydney on government. These are two men named by Thomas Jefferson as sources for his draft of the declaration. He said there are at least four authors of the books of public right people should be familiar with if they want to find the sources of the declaration. Aristotle, cicero, locke, and sydney. You can see two ancients and two moderns. There you have locke and sydney. But theres a third that jefferson left off, perhaps intention intentionally, perhaps sort of naturally. And its the book thats just about to strike that bishop. Can anybody see what that says . Can anyone read that . Its a little tough. It says, calvins works. Calvins works. So back to this sort of protestant resistance literature and so forth as dr. Driesbach pointed out for us. There are a number of they goes going on in this and we dont have time to sort of parse out every one. But i think this is really a marvelous graphic illustration of some of the intellectual ferment that is going on at the time. So you see british enlightenment, liberals being cited there. You see calvin. Theres a little play on words. Where one of the fellows says, no lord spiritual or temporal in new england, which is a reference to the house of lords. They had temporal lords and then they had bishops of the anglican church, who were de facto members of the house of lords. Those were the spiritual lords. Questions are asked like, shall they be obliged to maintain bishops that cannot maintain themselves . In other words, youre already taxing us. For what, for tea, for sugar, for molasses. Now youre asking us to support or potentially asking us to support english bishops as well. So again, a very nice i think graphic illustration of whats going on in the minds of Many Americans. At least new england americans. In 1772, bostonians publish their votes and proceedings which condemn the british for threatening to impose anglican bishops on america. So did 1775 engraving which i put up here. Paul revere titled america in distress, or a certain cabinet junto which appeared in the royal american magazine. The engraving shows a king and his ministers reviewing its on the table there a bill for the total abolition of civil and religious liberty in america. So once again, heres paul revere showing that kind of genius he had for propaganda and for sort of ratcheting up the rhetoric, as he did in that wood cut on the boston massacre. It was he who labeled it a massacre. You can see as well here that in the minds of many, Many Americans, religion and politics go together, right in the king and his ministers have an intention to do what, to suppress liberties. Not merely Civil Liberties but religious liberties also. Because they are integrally related to one another. So lets turn to some more revolutionary characters. And lets step through the years immediately preceding the revolution. And in fact during the revolution. And test adams by listening to what participants had to say about religion and its effects. This man, general thomas gage, the erstwhile friend and colleague during the french and indian war of George Washington, was the military governor of massachusetts. A year later washington of course will be called to massachusetts to oppose his old friend and comrade in arms. Now part of gages proposed solution to rebellious sentiment in the bay state was rather curiously i think for a military man to restrain the congregational churches in and around boston and strengthen the anglican establishment. This comes in a letter that gage wrote to lord dartmouth in 1774. He said in that letter, quote, they, that is congregationalists, have a particular manner in perverting and turning ever to their own purposes. He has zeroed in on these congregationalists, these calvinist ministers who he says are perverting, theyre turning everything, turning every argument to their own purposes. And their purposes are resistance and perhaps even independence. Next, Benedict Arnolds chaplain and the reverend George Whitfield, or what was left of him by 1775. This is the front is piece to a frontispiece to a book of poetry, rather, one poem, by phyllis wheatley, whose name has already come up in our some of our discussions. And i want you to see this because it illustrates the entombment of whitfield. It looks like it should be pronounced whitefield but its whitfield. One of the great leaders of the first great awakening. And it shows his clerical collar there. You see that geneva collar that he has on. You cant see as well but ministers in that tradition wore very prominent cuffs as well, or bands, as they called them. Now you may know that whitfield made many trips, he was english, made many trips across the atlantic, but he died here, died in massachusetts, in 1770, relatively young. And was buried there. So in 1775, which is a year after gages letter that we just looked at, in newberry port, massachusetts, American Forces under the command of Benedict Arnold assembled to begin their ill life fated invasion of canada. And their chaplain led a group of officers to whitfields tomb where they sought rather to enlist his help, even though hed been dead for five years. So what do they do . They dig up his coffin. They pry the lid off. They cut off this clerical collar hes got on. They cut off the cuffs, his bands. They cut them into squares. And the chaplain hands them out, one square to each of the officers, who is about to make this hazard does journey to canada. Now what is the point of that . What is the point of that . Well, they think they, the chaplain and the officers themselves think that these relics have virtue and power in them. They think that theyre like relics, theyre like holy relics, to be carried into battle. And they believe that these relics will aid them in the coming fight. Theyre like relics of saints in the middle ages. Theyre like the ark of the covenant to the children of israel thats carried in front of the troops. Now it didnt work. I know you know it didnt wor