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| A Word From Our Founding Fathers |
| Upon leaving one of the many sessions of the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia in 1787, Benjamin Franklin, one of the delegates, was asked what type of government was being considered for America. "A Republic, if you can keep it" was his reply. One could argue that we are having a very difficult time "keeping it". The fiber of America seems to be fraying right before our eyes. The value system our founders knew and lived by, indeed the value system that and world view that they based our entire nation on, is barely recognizable in society and government today. The "If you can keep it" radio spots are intended to give voice to our great Founders and their beliefs, in the hope that we can reclaim what is being lost and forgotten in America: "that God governs in the Affairs of man." As a nation, we can choose to ignore this truth, but we do so at our own peril. "There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations". |
Last year, The Providence Forum aired these thought-provoking spots on the airways. Click below to view and hear some of the profound insights into God and His role in our system of governments in the worlds of our nation’s founders and great leaders. |
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Abraham Lincoln
(1809-1865 assassinated)
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, led our nation in its most difficult period. The Civil War impacted every American in many costly and painful ways. By the conclusion of the four year long war in April 6, 1865, over a half million men had died, more than the combined casualties of all wars in which America has participated since. Five days later, after freeing millions of slaves, Lincoln was assassinated. In this era of American anguish, Lincoln called the nation to find spiritual strength through prayer. |
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On March 30, 1863 Lincoln, in his Proclamation for a Day of Prayer and Fasting, he said:
Whereas, it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history: that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord:
And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisement in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness... All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the nation will be heard on high and answered with blessing no less than the pardon of our national sins and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace. |
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Benjamin Franklin
(1706-1790)
Benjamin Franklin is famous for lightning rods, stoves, spectacles, printing, politics and much, much more. Indeed, the eighty-one year old Franklin was the American patriarch at the time of the Constitutional Convention held at Independence Hall in Philadelphia in 1787. In a most remarkable way, he hallowed the Convention with his eloquent call for prayer. Addressing the Convention presided over by none other than George Washington, he reminded the Convention of God's sovereign providence on America's behalf: |
In the beginning of the Contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine protection - Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending providence in our favor.
To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we image we no longer need His assistance?
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 man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured sir, in the Sacred Writings that ‘except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it (Ps. 127:1).’ I firmly believe this, and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builder of Babel. We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages. I therefore beg leave to move that, henceforth, prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven and its blessing on our deliberation be held in this assembly every morning. . .and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service. |
George Washington
(1732-1799)
George Washington was eulogized upon his death as "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." As commanding officer of the Revolutionary Army and as the first President under the newly signed Constitution, George Washington was indeed the "Father of our Country." His personal piety was universally recognized in his day. His deep commitment to the providence of God was frequently manifested in both private and public statements. To him, freedom and moral government were inseparable. Thus, President Washington emphasized the necessity of religion and morality for our Constitutional government. In his Farewell Address written over two hundred years ago on September 17, 1796 he declared: |
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Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity...And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. |
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Patrick Henry
(1736-1799)
Patrick Henry was a successful lawyer and political leader from Virginia. One of his great achievements was advancing the course of religious liberty in the Anglican context of the Virginia Colony. Another of his significant accomplishments was his galvanizing of the movement toward American independence. His most famous line is "Give me liberty or give me death". However, Patrick Henry’s famous line is rarely given in its full context. When that context is read, it is clear that Henry, like the other founders, had a deeply patriotic trust in divine providence. Henry spoke his immortal words in Richmond, Virginia on March 23, 1775. His stirring declaration reveals the Founders’ firm confidence in God’s providential care for America: |
| There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free...we must fight! -I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us!...Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty...are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations; and He will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. . . There is no retreat but in submission and slavery!...Gentlemen may cry, Peace! peace! -but there is no peace...Is life so dear, and peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! |
John Adams
(1735-1826)
John Adams, one of America’s founders, served as Vice President to George Washington for eight years before becoming the second President of the United States. Coming from Massachusetts, he was cousin to Samuel Adams, the leader of the Boston Tea Party. John Adams was a member of the Continental Congress and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. As our second President, he was the first to live in the White House. At the signing of the Declaration of Independence, he said with prophetic insight that the day ought to be annually commemorated by the "Solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty" and "solemnized with pomp, and parade…and illuminations.". As the second President, John Adams declared in his address to the military dated October 11, 1798: |
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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.
Similarly on August 28, 1811, Adams wrote:
Religion and virtue are the only foundations, not only of republicanism and of all free government, but of social felicity under all governments and in all the combinations of human society. |
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James Madison
(1751-1836)
James Madison is best known for his strategic leadership at the Convention called to craft the Constitution of the United States in 1787. He subsequently served as the 4th president of the United States, serving from 1809-1817. Along with Thomas Jefferson, he was of the most influential defenders of religious liberty in both the state of Virginia and in our federal government. He was also the original author and promoter of the Bill of Rights, which placed religious freedom first, among its concerns. In 1778 James Madison said, |
| "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 for self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." |
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