I read a magazine article recently that elaborated on mistakes and indiscretions made by several of the Founding Fathers. It discussed different selfish motives many of them had; their involvement in slavery, smuggling, and various immoral dealings and what they really meant concerning issues involving civil rights, religion and free speech.
The point they were making was the same as many textbooks are now teaching — these were not particularly extraordinary men and therefore by implication these men could not have been inspired, directed or guided by anything other than self gain.
The claim was also made that most intellectuals at the time were deists and therefore would not have been inclined themselves to believe that they were inspired. The classification of the majority of these men as deists (someone who believes in the existence of a God or supreme being but denies revealed religion, basing his belief on the light of nature and reason) is possible.
Despite the assertions of the magazine article, however, there is no question that the language used by so many of the Founding Fathers in their writings, speeches and recorded conversations, was indicative of a Judeo-Christian belief system. Words such as Supreme Being; Great Lord; Providence; the Creator; and Ruler of Nations, were commonplace.
George Washington
George Washington, for example, repeatedly called his soldiers to prayer, repentance, and thanksgiving. He felt that, though the public course of the war was great, the private actions of the people as a whole are the greatest contributing factor to divine intervention. When the people at large did not acknowledge that intervention and abandoned the cause of liberty they did not merit providential support.
After an American victory at the battle of Monmouth, the General called for a special religious service: “The men are to wash themselves this afternoon and appear as clean and as decent as possible, Seven o’clock this evening is appointed that we may be publicly united in thanksgiving to the Supreme Disposer of human events for the victory which was obtained on Sunday over the flower of the British troops.”
Many of the general orders issued to the troops included references to God and the fact that recognition of indebtedness and gratitude was essential to victory.
“The Colonels or commanding officers of each regiment are directed to procure Chaplains accordingly…To see that all inferior officers and soldiers pay them a suitable respect and attend carefully upon religious exercises. The blessing and protection of Heaven are at all times necessary but especially so in times of public distress and danger — The General hopes and trusts, that every officer and man will endeavour so to live, and act, as becomes a Christian Soldier defending the dearest Rights and Liberties of his country.”
Imagine what the ACLU would say to such a mandate today.
Historians generally credit Washington’s greatest feat as holding together his starving, freezing, rag-tag army at Valley Forge, but Washington himself credited God. All through that cold winter divine services were held by his order, every Sunday. From the inception of his command, he held that, “To the distinguished character of a Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add, the more distinguished character of a Christian.”
Pastor Henry Muhlengerg, of a church near Valley Forge, wrote of Washington, “I heard a fine example today. Namely that his excellency General Washington rode around among this army yesterday and admonished each and every one to fear God, to put away the wickedness that has set in and become so general and to practice Christian virtues. From all appearances, this gentleman does not belong to the so-called world of society, for he respects God’s word, believes the atonement through Christ, and bears himself in humility and gentleness. Therefore, the Lord God has also singularly, yea, marvelously, preserved him from harm in the midst of countless perils. And has hitherto graciously held him in His hand as a chosen vessel.”
While Washington admonished his troops regularly to pray, he himself preferred to pray in private. The Arnold Friburg painting of Washington kneeling in prayer in the snow, while not a specifically documented event, is mentioned in several accounts at various times by others during those long winter months of 1777-78.
According to Michael Novak, co-author of Washington’s God: Religion, Liberty and the Father of Our Country, “ Washington’s God is the God of liberty. He couldn’t imagine God favoring the British. God made the world for freedom. And it was in this belief that the soldiers dared to fight the war of independence against the British, which had one of the greatest armies of the world.”
Other Inspired Contributors
George Washington was not the only man instrumental in the birth of our nation to recognize the intervention of Divine power. Consider the following:
John Adams: “I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scheme and design in Providence for the illumination of the ignorant, and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.”
Benjamin Franklin: “ Providence seems by every means intent on making us a great people. May our virtues public and private grow with us, and be durable, that liberty, civil and religious, may be secured to our posterity, and to all from every part of the Old World that take refuge among us.”
Thomas Jefferson: “I offer my sincere prayers to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, that He may long preserve out country in freedom and prosperity.”
In the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, dated July 6, 1775: “But a reverence for our great Creator, principles of humanity, and the dictates of common sense, must convince all those who reflect on the subject, that government was instituted to promote the welfare of mankind, and ought to be administered for the attainment of that end…”
Ignoring the Evidence of Inspiration
Alexis de Tocqueville, the French jurist and historian who traveled America and wrote Democracy in America, in 1835, said “…there is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America; and there can be no greater proof of its utility and conformity to human nature than that its influence is powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth.”
Today, however, much of the evidence of the dedication of these men to God has been either forgotten or reasoned away by the majority of the academic and political world. But for Latter-day Saints, there can be no question that the spiritual level of these men was elevated.
Founding Fathers in the Temple
On September 16, 1877, Wilford Woodruff, spoke in the Tabernacle concerning the importance of redeeming the dead. At the conclusion of his talk he related that the signers of the Declaration of Independence had recently come to him saying, “You have had the use of the Endowment House for a number of years, and yet nothing has ever been done for us. We laid the foundation of the government you now enjoy, and we never apostatized from it, but we remained true to it and were faithful to God.”
His August 21 st journal entry of the same year reads: “I Wilford Woodruff went to the Temple of the Lord this morning and was Baptized for 100 persons who were dead including the signers of the Declaration of Independence all except John Hancock and [William Floyd]. When Br McAllister had Baptized me for the 100 Names I Baptized him for 21, including Gen Washington & his forefathers and all the Presidents of the United States that were not in my list except Buchanan Van Buren &Grant. Sister Lucy Bigelow Young went forth into the font and was Baptized for Martha Washington and her family and seventy of the Eminent women of the world.” In a later Conference address, as President of the Church, he referred to the instance again.
His journal entries speak not only to the baptism of the Declaration of Independence signers, but that George Washington, John Wesley and Christopher Columbus were all ordained as High Priests. On March 19, 1894, he recorded a dream: “I met with Benjamin Franklin. I thought He was on the Earth. I spent several hours with him and talked over our Endowments. He wanted some more work done for him than had been done which I promised him.”
Honoring the “Wise Men Raised Up”
Section 101 of the Doctrine and Covenants tells us that the Lord had “raised up wise men” for the “very purpose” of writing the Constitution of the United States. This document was created to provide us with a means that “every man may act… according to the moral agency” that we have been given.
We are blessed to live in a land prepared by God where our moral agency is nurtured by the arms of our Constitution. Our right to choose is protected above any other nation’s inhabitants. Section 83 reminds us that, “to whom much is given, much is required.” We have been given much with the divinely inspired structure of our nation.
We must therefore, as President Hinckley has admonished, “speak up for moral standards in a world where filth, sleaze, pornography and their whole evil brood are seeping over us in a flood.” There are many issues, both moral and ethical in today’s troubles, which would never have been considered possible of any reasonable population by those who forged our country’s beginning. It is up to us, in these troubled times as we honor “our God, our religion and freedom, and our peace,” to remember the sacrifices made then and teach our children of the divine direction received as this country was created and built to be one nation under God.
Edmund Burke, a member of the British House of Commons, who supported the American colonies in their initial struggle against King George, once said, “all that is necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing.”
It is this concept, along with the knowledge that the same Guiding hand that established this country so that the Gospel could be restored, will lead us in our righteous efforts to maintain its sacred principles, which must be incorporated in our lives today as it was in those great men and women two and a quarter centuries ago.