Endowed by Their Creator

Endowed by Their Creator

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed . . .

250 years ago today, members of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia put their names to the Declaration of Independence. A theological assertion grounds the document. It declares not just that the state is subservient to God. God has given “unalienable rights” to the individual citizens, and the state exists merely to secure those rights. The people enjoy God-given sovereignty, and the state is their servant.

This post looks at a related argument: the founders believed that only those who subject themselves to the rule of God are capable of successfully directing the government of a republic.

The Great Experiment

“It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force.”  –Alexander Hamilton, Federalist #1

The Publication of the American Declaration of Independence on July 4^th, 1776, marks the formal beginning of a great experiment.  As Alexander Hamilton put it a decade later during the debate over adopting the new constitution, the question was whether free men, exercising “reflection and choice,” were up to the job.  The founders of the new republic, as Hamilton’s quote above suggests, also saw the new republic that they inaugurating as not simply a matter of local interest. They knew it would serve as an example to the rest of the world that such an arrangement could succeed. The conventional wisdom at the time held that republics and democracies were doomed to fail. The unchecked passions and appetites of the populace would devour them.  That, they said, was the verdict of history.

Dispositions Which Lead to Political Prosperity

     We might reasonably ask what it was that led Hamilton and the other founders to believe that this republic would not similarly fall victim to the baser motives of its citizens.  It wasn’t education, as important as that might be, because the founders understood the difference between knowledge and wisdom, as so many of us today do not.  George Washington put it very directly in his Farewell Address [bold mine]:

…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 . . .  Let it simply be asked where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice? 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.

Freedom Under God

Washington was most emphatically not referring to a national religion or state church. First Amendment to the US Constitution explicitly ruled that out. The current conventional wisdom is that the founders were “all deists.” There is only an element of truth to that. In fact, most were Protestants of various stripes. Some, such as Jefferson, did hold to rather idiosyncratic mixtures of Christianity and deism. A very few were Catholic, including only one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. That was Charles Carroll, one of the most prominent Catholics in the colonies.

Despite their differences, Christianity shaped the founders’ way of looking at the world. Even the deists among them shared a firm conviction that human dignity demanded that men have freedom under God to conduct their own lives. The polity they devised would necessarily embrace religious tolerance.

This arrangement was amenable to the flourishing not only of Protestant Christians, but also favorable to a growing Catholic population as well. This, in spite of sometimes very real prejudice on the part of their non-Catholic fellow citizens.  The result was an inversion of the usual political order, in which ordinary citizens occupied the lowest position, with a governing elite above, and God over all. The American model still had God at the apex. Directly below him, however, were not the rulers. Instead, the citizens themselves, each one shaped and informed by his faith, would direct the government.

A New and Different Experiment

For its first two centuries the American experiment seemed to be proving the doubters wrong. It had a few significant rough spots along the way, of course. The stretch from 1861-1865 comes to mind, for instance, and the long struggle of which it was a part to free the slaves and extend the full benefits of citizenship to them and their descendants. Nevertheless, the United States has grown and prospered. With all its failings it has often served as the example its founders hoped it still would be. Witness the prominence of American flags in pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong a few years ago.

Material success, however, often leads both individuals and nations to lose sight of their radical dependence on the Grace of God. That would seem to be the case in the United States today.  It appears that a new and very different experiment is under way, in which religion and morality are no longer guiding principles. The indulgence of appetites and passions has become a virtue. Those who object must be harassed and silenced. Oaths of the Courts of Justice, as Washington called them, are no more than empty words, if some recent judicial decisions are any indication. History and reason suggest that experiments of this sort do not end well. Remember that Thomas Jefferson, deist though he might have been, had the wisdom to say: “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.”

A New Birth of Freedom

God is indeed just, but he is also merciful. This country has seen several “Great Awakenings” of religious faith in the past. I believe with Alexander Hamilton that people around the world are watching the “conduct and example” of the American experiment with great interest. The failure of that experiment in Liberty under God would be a loss not just for Americans but for people everywhere. Please join me in praying that we rediscover the reliance on our Creator that animated the signers of the Declaration of Independence, which we celebrate today. Please join me in echoing one of our great presidents, Abraham Lincoln. At perhaps the darkest juncture of our national history he prayed “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

N.B. Lincoln’s quote comes from his “Gettysburg Address.” which he delivered at the dedication of a cemetery to inter the dead from the Battle of Gettysburg, the largest and most destructive battle in the history of North America.  It took place on July 1-3 1863, 158 years ago this week.