From: dpage@ra.csc.ti.com (Doug Page)
Subject: A few quotes from a few years ago
Organization: Texas Instruments
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 18:03:53 GMT

Below are several quotes from the history of our nation.  It is often argued
that the US was not founded on Christian principles.  Perhaps the US
has never been a Christian nation, but to deny that it was founded on
Christian principles is ludacrous.  Perhaps Verna Hall said it best,  "The
concept of a secular state was virtually non-existent in 1776 as well as in
1787, when the Constitution was written, and no less so when the Bill of Rights
was adopted.  To read the Constitution as the charter for a secular state is to
misread history, and to misread it radically.  The Constitution was designed
to perpetuate a Christian order."

Prior to the 1776:

	"We submit our persons, lives, and estates unto our Lord Jesus Christ,
	 the King of kings and Lord of lords and to all those perfect and most
	 absolute laws of His given us in His Holy Word."
						Rhode Island Charter, 1683

  The founding of the Ivy League:

  Harvard (1638) - founded by the Puritans just 18 years after they first set
                   foot at Plymouth Rock.  (BTW, The Puritans had SPECIFICALLY
		   set out to establish a government based upon the Bible.)
		   The Puritans were among the most educated people of their
		   day.

		   "After God had carried us safely to New England, and we had
		    built our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood,
		    reared convenient places for God's worship, and settled
		    the civil government; one of the next things we longed
		    for, and looked after was to advance learning, and
		    perpetuate it to posterity; dreading to leave an
		    illeterate ministry to the churches, when our present
		    ministry shall lie in the dust."

					The Harvard record (cornerstone)

		   "Every on shall consider the main end of his life and
		    studies to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal
		    life."
		   "Seeing the Lord giveth wisdom, every one shall seriously
		    by prayer in secret seekd wisdom of Him."
		   "Every one shall so excercise himself in reading the
		    Scriptures twice a day that they be ready to give an
		    account of their proficiency therein, both in
		    theoretical observations of languages and logic, and in
		    practical and spiritual truths ..."

				Harvard's "Rules and Precepts", adopted 1646

  Yale (1701) - created as an alternative to Harvard by Christians in
		Connecticut.  Many thought that Harvard was too far and that
		the spiritual climate at Harvard wasn't what it had once been.

  Princeton (1746) - (originally "The College of New Jersey") Founded by
		evangelicals as a part of the impact of the First Great
		Awakening in the US.

  Dartmouth (1754) - Royal charter, signed by King George III of England,
		specified that Dartmouth's intent was to reach the Indian
		tribes, and to educate and Christianize the English youth as
		well.

  Other Christian colleges:  Columbia (originally "King's College") - served
			     as missionary to America under the English-based
			     "Society for the Porpagation of the Gospel in
			     Foreign Parts."

			     College of William and Mary - founded by the
			     Church of England.

			     Rutgers University (originally Queen's College)
			     founded by Dutch Reformed revivalists.

			     Brown University - started by Baptist churches
			     which were scattered along the Atlantic seaboard.



A few "secular" quotes from the US's founding fathers:


	"For the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the
	 protection of the Divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other,
	 our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

					From the Declaration of Independence

	"Blessed with victory and peace, may this Heav'n rescued land

	 Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!

	 Then conquer we must, when our cause is just;

	 And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust!'

	 And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

	 O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave."

			Francis Scott Key, from The Star Spangled Banner



	"The first and almost the only Book deserving of universal attention
	 is the Bible."

						John Quincy Adams


(There have been reveral references over the past several weeks to some of the
founding fathers making anti-Christian statements.  Among these were
references to Thomas Jefferson.  Jefferson (a Unitarian) could easily be
interpreted as being anti-church (particularly the Catholic Church and its
British decendant, the Church of England).  However, he was neither on atheist
nor an agnostic.  He had clearly noted the abuses by governments and churches
as each had manipulated the other, especially during the middle ages.  He was
not in the "mainstream" of theologians of his day, nor today.  Nonetheless, one
would be hard pressed to prove that he was not a theist.)

A few Jefferson quotes:

	"Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed the
	 conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?"

	"My God! how little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they
	 are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!"


More quotes:

	"No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand
	 which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United
	 States.  Every step by which they have advanced to the character of
	 an independant nation seems to have been distinguished by some token
	 of providential agency ... We ought to be no less persuaded that the
	 propitious smiles of heaven cannot be expected on a nation that
	 disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which heaven itself
	 has ordained."

			George Washington, Inaugural Address to Congress

	"Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence
	 of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits,
	 and humbly implore His protection and favor ..."

				George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation

Some later quotes:

	"Let the religious element in man's nature be neglected, let him be
	 influenced by no higher motives than low self-interest, and subject
	 to no stronger restraint than the limits of civil authority, and he
	 becomes the creature of selfish passion or blind fanaticism.  On the
	 other hand, the religious sentiment represses licentiousness ...
	 inspires respect for law and order, and gives strength to the whole
	 social fabric, at the same time that it conducts the human soul
	 upward to the Author of its being."
							Daniel Webster, 1851


	"The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of
	 Christ and His apostles ...  to this we owe our free constitutions of
	 government."

							Noah Webster

	"Lastly, our ancestors established their system of government on
	 morality and religious sentiment.  Moral habits, they believed,
	 cannot safely be trusted on any other foundation than religious
	 principle, nor any government be secure which is not supported by
	 moral habits."

							Noah Webster


	"Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and
	 embody the teachings of The Redeemer of mankind.  It is impossible
	 that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our
	 civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian... This
	 is a religious people.  This is historically true.  From the
	 discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single
	 voice making this affirmation ... we find everywhere a clear
	 recognition of the same truth ... These, and many other matters which
	 might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass
	 of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation."

				US Supreme Court Decision, 1892
				Church of the Holy Trinity V. United States


	"It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence
	 upon the overruling power of God 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."

							Abraham Lincoln


	"All the good from the Savior of the world is communicated through
	 this Book; but for the Book we could not know right from wrong.  All
	 the things desirable to man are contained in it."

						Abraham Lincoln, re: the Bible

	"Go to the Scriptures ... the joyful promises it contains will be a
	 balsam to all your troubles."

						Andrew Jackson, re: the Bible

	"... the Bible ...  is the one supreme source of revelation of the
	 meaning of life, the nature of God and spiritual nature and need of
	 men.  It is the only guide of life which really leads the spirit in
	 the way of peace and salvation."

						Woodrow Wilson


	"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 universal in
	 our country."

						Calvin Coolidge
Observations from those outside the US:

	"America is great because America is good; and if America ever ceases
	 to be good, America will cease to be great."

						Alex DeTocqueville

	"The good (in the United States) would never have come into being
	 without the blessing and the power of Jesus Christ ... I know how
	 embarassing this matter is to politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen,
	 and cynics: but, whatever these honored men think, the irrefutable
	 truth is that the soul of America is at its best and highest,
	 Christian."

			Charles Malik, Ambassador to the UN from Lebanon


While you may disagree with what they said, the historical fact remains that
they said these things and more.  As Woodrow Wilson said, "A nation which does
not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what
it is trying to do.  We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know
where we came from or what we have been about."

Doug Page

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