One Nation Under God

by John D. Guandolo

In times such as these, as America struggles to find its soul, it is worth remembering that America’s law and government were founded on the principles of morality and governance revealed in God’s creation and in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible – “The Law of Nature and of Nature’s God.”

Here are some words out of the mouths of some of our greatest American leaders which may serve to remind America where our liberty and prosperity truly originate.

“IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience.”

Mayflower Compact, November 11, 1620

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“Duty to God and Our Neighbour

LOVE God with all your soul & strength, With all your heart and mind; And love your neighbour as yourself, Be faithful, just and kind.  Deal with another as you’d have Another deal with you:  What you’re unwilling to receive, Be sure you never do.”

New England Primer, 1688. The first and most widely used school text book for children in America until the mid-1800’s.

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“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. 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…We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions…And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

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“And Whereas it hath pleased the Great Governor of the World to incline the hearts of the legislatures we respectively represent in congress, to approve of, and to authorize us to ratify the said articles of confederation and perpetual union.”

Articles of Confederation, November 15, 1777

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“While we are zealously performing the duties of good Citizens and soldiers we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of Religion. To the distinguished Character of Patriot, it should be our highest Glory to add the more distinguished Character of Christian. The signal Instances of providential Goodness which we have experienced and which have now almost crowned our labours with complete Success, demand from us in a peculiar manner the warmest returns of Gratitude & Piety to the Supreme Author of all Good.”

George Washington, Commander in Chief, General Orders to Troops, May 2, 1778

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“Sensible of the importance of Christian piety and virtue to the order and happiness of a state, I cannot but earnestly commend to you every measure for their support and encouragement.”

Alexander Hamilton, General in the American Revolution, Signer of the Constitution, Author of the Federalist Papers, Secretary of the Treasury. Independent Chronicle on November 2, 1780

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“Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”

Northwest Ordinance, July 13, 1787 [signed by George Washington]

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“The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts.”  (Letter to Peter Augustus Jay, April 8, 1784)

“Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.” (Letter to John Murray, Jr., October 12, 1816)

John Jay, President of Congress, Author of Federalist Papers, Original Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Governor of New York

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“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

United States Constitution, September 17, 1789 [signed]

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“As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and His religion as He left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see.”

Benjamin Franklin, Signer of the Declaration, First Postmaster General, Diplomat, Inventor & Scientist. Letter to Ezra Stiles, March 9, 1790

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“It is the duty of all to acknowledge that the Divine Law which requires us to love God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves, on pain of eternal damnation, is Holy, just, and good…The revealed law of God is the rule of our duty.”

Roger Sherman, Signer of the Declaration & Constitution, Judge, U.S. Senator, Framer of the Bill of Rights. Letter to Samuel Hopkins June 28, 1790

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“The great pillars of all government and of social life [are] virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone, that renders us invincible.”

Patrick Henry, General in the American Revolution, Governor of Virginia. Letter to Archibald Blair, January 8, 1799

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“The only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government is the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible.”

Benjamin Rush, Surgeon General of the Continental Army, Signer of the Declaration, Treasurer of the U.S. Mint. A Defence of the Use of the Bible as a School Text, 

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“I verily believe that Christianity is necessary to support a civil society and shall ever attend to its institutions and acknowledge its precepts as the pure and natural sources of private and social happiness.”

Joseph Story, Congressman, Supreme Court Justice, “Father of American Jurisprudence.” Letter dated March 24, 1801

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“We all agree in the obligation of the moral precepts of Jesus…the practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, he (God) has taken care to impress it’s precepts so indelibly on our hearts, that they shall not be effaced by the whimsies of our brain….(I) think it enough to hold fast to those moral precepts which are of the essence of Christianity…no where are these to be found in greater purity than in the discourses of the great reformer of religion whom we follow (Jesus).”

President Thomas Jefferson, Letter to James Fishback, September 27, 1809

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“The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence, were … the general principles of Christianity…Now I will avow, that I then believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God; and that those principles of liberty are as unalterable as human nature and our terrestrial, mundane system.”

Letter from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, June 28, 1813

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“The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His apostles…This is genuine Christianity and to this we owe our free constitutions of government…The moral principles and precepts found in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws.”

Noah Webster, Soldier, Teacher, Textbook pioneer, “Father of American Scholarship and Education.”  Webster’s Dictionary is named after Noah Webster

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O! thus be it ever when free men shall stand

Between their loved homes and the foe’s desolation;

Bless’d with victory and peace, may our Heaven-rescued land

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation

Then conquer we must, for our cause it 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.

The Star Spangled Banner, Francis Scott Key, September 14, 1814

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“Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained…Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered – that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses for it must needs be that offenses come but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which in the providence of God must needs come but which having continued through His appointed time He now wills to remove and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him. Fondly do we hope – fervently do we pray – that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword as was said three thousand years ago so still it must be said ‘the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'”

President Abraham Lincoln, 2nd Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865

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“No man, educated or uneducated, can afford to be ignorant of the Bible.”

President Theodore Roosevelt, History of the American West, 1918

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“The fundamental basis of this Nation’s law was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings which we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul.”

President Harry S. Truman, Public Messages, Speeches, and Statements of the President, 1945-53

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“From this day forward, the millions of our school children will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural school house, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty. To anyone who truly loves America, nothing could be more inspiring than to contemplate this rededication of our youth, on each school morning, to our country’s true meaning…Over the globe, mankind has been cruelly torn by violence and brutality and, by the millions, deadened in mind and soul by a materialistic philosophy of life. Man everywhere is appalled by the prospect of atomic war. In this somber setting, this law and its effects today have profound meaning. In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource, in peace or in war.”

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Remarks Made After Signing Law Adding “Under God” to Pledge of Allegiance, June 14, 1954

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“Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.”

President Ronald Reagan, Remarks at the Annual Convention of the the National Association of Evangelicals, delivered 8 March 1983

“If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”

President Ronald Reagan, Remarks at Dallas Ecumenical Prayer Breakfast, August 23, 1984