Christian Republicanism and the Declaration of Independence

 

Christian Republicanism and the Declaration of Independence 

The ideals behind the American Republic have long been associated with the enlightenment. However, this tends to ignore the strong link the to ideas of the Protestant Reformation which contributed much to the discourse of the American Revolution. In fact, many of the founders used Scripture as guide for direction and inspiration. For most Americans of the time the Bible was the cornerstone of their understanding, and the founders would have grown up listening to elders read and relate stories of the from the bible and would have looked to the bible for guidance.[1]

For them the very idea of Republicanism was linked to their understanding of Christianity, and this can be seen in the Declaration of Independence, which has become the foundation of the ideals for the American Republic. In the Declaration, Jefferson writes, and the founders approved, several references to God; The “Creator,” “Natures’ God,” and “Supreme Judge of the World.” From the very outset, they linked Christianity with the founding of the country.

John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the United States, son of the second President, was witness to many of these events. As exceptional statesmen and leader himself, made this view very clear in his speech to the town of Newburyport on July 4^th 1837, the 61^st anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of independence. The Fourth of July, of course has long been a celebration of the birth of the United States and has become a time of reflection for, what is considered by many to be the foundation of the promise of the United States; the Declaration of Independence.

From the start of his oration, John Quincy Adams makes his feelings very clear, “…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…”[2] Linking Christmas and the Independence Day, the birth of Jesus with the birth of the United States, Christianity, and republicanism; for JQA the two are forever linked. He does even further to say.

“Is it that the Declaration of independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemers mission upon earth? That it laid the corner stone of human government upon the first of Christianity, and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge of the fulfilment of the prophecies, announced directly from heaven at the birth of the Savior and predicted by the greatest of the Hebrew prophets six hundred years before…these fifty five men, on that day, unanimously adopt and publish to the world a state paper under the title of A DECLARATION. The object of this Declaration was twofold. First to proclaim the people of the thirteen United Colonies one people…Secondary to assume in the name of this one people of the thirteen United Colonies, among the powers of the Earth, the separate and equal station, to which the Laws: of nature and of natures’ God, entitled them.”[3]

John Quincy Adams saw the Declaration as both a statement and a promise, they were proclaiming a God given right to live by the rules God created. They were also a people united under Gods guidance, and filling prophecy.  The founders had intentionally and deliberately created a nation with Christ as the cornerstone and ruled by the laws of God.

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[1] Glenn A Moots, “Revolutionary Spirits: The Enlightened Faith of America’s Founding Fathers/God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution/Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World/Wellspring of Liberty: How Virginia’s Religious Dissenters Helped Win the American Revolution and Secured Religious Liberty/The First Prejudice: Religious Tolerance and Intolerance in Early America,” Anglican and Episcopal History 81, no. 3 (September 2012): 334–339.

[2] John Quincy Adams, An Oration Delivered before the Inhabitants of the Town of Newburyport, at Their Request, on the Sixty-First Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1837, Book, Whole (Newburyport [Mass.], n.d.),.

[3] Ibid,.