Under God

The Executive Religious Recommendations of Early U. S. Presidents Are Not Legitimate Legal Precedent For “Under God” in the Pledge

The eight executive religious recommendations issued during the first twenty-eight years of the American Republic by three of its first four Presidents are frequently cited as authority for the view that the U. S. Constitution was not intended to prohibit the U. S. Congress from making a law prescribing an affirmation of belief that the people of the United States are “under God”, or as some claim “a nation under the authority of God and subject to God’s natural law.” [Note 1]

The implied logic of this argument is that by issuing executive religious recommendations the Presidents were exercising authority under the Constitution to proclaim the nation as one “under God.” However, the logic fails for several reason including the fact that the Constitution grants no such authority to the President in the first place.

The argument also fails to consider the inconvenient fact that no executive religious proclamation ever claimed its authority came from the Constitution. It also fails to considerer the fact that during the Early Years of the Republic executive religious proclamations were eventually judged to be illegal, or at least improper, and the practice was discarded.

The American people gave President Washington a pass with respect to the single religious recommendation he issued without a request from Congress despite it obvious political objectives. However, ten thousand people took to the streets of Philadelphia when John Adams did the same thing. [Note 2] Adams was turned out of office and replaced by Thomas Jefferson who would have taken a bullet rather than trespassed upon the prerogatives of Jehovah by assuming even the slighest advisory authority over the people’s religion.

In July of 1832 a worldwide cholera epidemic had reached Canada and was headed for New York. President Andrew Jackson refused a request from the Dutch Reformed Church of New York to issue a religious recommendation to the people. His letter of refusal was released to the press and was widely published. [Note 3]

In violation of what many considered the rules of morality and etiquette, the Senate passed and sent to the House a resolution requesting the President to issue a recommendation of fasting and prayer. In the 1830’s many held that a gentleman should never request another gentleman to perform an act that was known to go against the other man’s conscience and convictions. The House took up the matter on June 30, 1832 and again on July 5, 1832.

The champions of the rights of conscience argued that:

· No one could believe that the General or State governments ought to have anything to do with the subject of religion;
· The President of the U. S., unlike the King of England, was not the head of the Established Church;
· The Constitution conferred no authority on the President to appoint a day for religious purposes;
· The President had made it publicly known that he believed he had no power to issue religious recommendations;
· Although it was only a recommendation, it would come to the people clothed in executive authority.

The sponsors of mixing religion and politics argued that that Presidents Madison, Washington and Adams had issued religious recommendations. One supporter advanced the nonsensical argument that the resolution should not be objected to on Constitutional grounds because it was not obligatory. He then argued that was an “extra official act based on upon no claim to legal authority.”

The debate deteriorated into a partisan argument over whether Congress was being intimidated by the President. The statesman of the day was Representative Gulian Verpanck, the future mayor of New York, who urged the House to reject the argument that President Madison’s issuance of religious proclamations during the War of 1812 as legitimate precedent. He recounted that

“I well remember that fact, as well as the other days of political religious observance under State authority during the same eventful period.

That fast, I well remember, was kept, not in that unmixed spirit of humility and innocence enjoined by President Madison in his peculiar style of accurate and condensed eloquence, but (as it will now be allowed on all hands) with to much of the “old leaven of malice and bitterness.” The pulpit was made the rostrum of turbulent and rancorous political declamation. The language of scripture itself was employed by divines in their sermons, and by magistrates in their proclamations, to point political sarcasm and to rekindle political rage.

Such was then, and such will always be, “the inequities of our holy things,” when they have been made subject to political legislation.”[/INDENT]

Verplanck closed with the words, “Let us leave prayer and humiliation to be prompted by the devotion of the heart, and not to the bidding of the State.” The resolution was defeated without even getting an up or down vote.

In law, a valid precedent or authority is something that establishes a principle or rule which may be adopted in subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. The executive religious proclamations did not involve the law making authority of Congress as did the 1954 legislation that inserted in “under God” in the pledge. The precedent established by the early executive recommendations was superseded by the termination of the practice after the War of 1812.

In view of the fact that the Constititution was adopted with the understanding that it granted the national government no authority whatsoever over religion; and the termination of the practice of issuing executive religious recommendations after the War of 1812, the recommendations during the first twenty-eight years of the republic cannot be accepted as legitimate legal precedent for Congressional law making authority over the religious issue of whether the nation is one “under God.”

End Notes

[Note 1] See ‘Under God,’ without doubt by Randy Singer (Mar 25, 2004) at http://www.bpnews.net/bpcolumn.asp?ID=1349

[Note 2] "I have no doubt you were]fast asleep in philosophical tranquility, when ten thousand people, and perhaps many more, were parading the streets of Philadelphia, on the evening of my Fast Day; when even Governor Mifflin himself, thought it his duty to order a patrol of horse and foot to preserve the peace; when Market Street was as full as men could stand by one another, and even before my door; when some of my domestics in frenzy, determined to sacrifice their lives in my defense; when all were ready to make a desperate salley among the multitude, and others were with difficulty and danger dragged back by the others; when I myself judged it prudent and necessary to order chests of arms from the War Office to be brought through by lanes and back doors: determined to defend my house at the expense of my life, and the lives of the few, very few domestics and friends within it." Source of Information: Letter of John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 30 June 1813, in Works of Adams, 10:46-49—p196


[Note 3] Register of Debates, House of Representatives, 22nd Congress, 1st Session, Pages 3833 and 3834.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llrd&fileName=013/llrd013.db&recNum=464

 

The suppression of religion in the name of law goes hand in hand with the ongoing suicide of the West.

Pretty soon the West will become serfs of cultures firmly rooted in religion. As de Tocqueville and the Founding Fathers observed: the only way to survive. What will remain of the West? A few nostalgic people, not unlike the Jews, sitting at the edge of the stream in Babylon, crying about their lost freedoms.

 

Dear ShoeshineBoy:

The men who established our system of government also believed that the best way to see that "true religion" flourished in the American Republic was to establish a system of government that acknowledged the divine natural law of Separation of Church and State ordained by Christ in Matthew 22:21. That is why the U. S. Constitution was adopted in the name of the people and grants the national government no power whatsoever over the duty which we owe to our Creator.

 

How true that statement is! Few people that around one fourth of all latinos in America are evangelical and they tend to be much more passionate about their faith. As far as western europe, well, that whole continent will be completely different in 60 years...

 

I agree and I disagree. You made some pretty complex assertions. It is true that some of the founding fathers vacillated from deism to theism and most were masons.

But, even so, here's one thing to think about: every state at the time had a state denomination of the Christian faith. The great majority of them just wanted each state to be able to decide it's own religious path w/o interference from the federal government. But the states had absolutely no problem with establishing themselves and, as far as I know, the founding fathers never objected the states' assertion thereof...

 

Dear ShoeshineBoy:

What was the official Christian denomination of Rhode Island in 1787?

FS

 

Most of the American people in 1787 believed that they had a natural right to render homage to their Creator as dictated by their conscience and conviction, and that they never surrendered that right to their state governments; and that they couldn't surrender it to their government even if they wanted to; because the natural right of man to obey his conscience in religious matters was to enable him to honor his obligation to God.

The evidence of this is fact that they adopted a Constitution of enumerated and limited powers which granted the national government no authority whatsover over religion.

 

How, as of 1787, was religion established by law in New York?

 

http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendI_religions62.html

While in 1811 it seems that the New York may not have "established" Christianity as a state religion. It was considered part of the common law and the Supreme Court held is was misdemenor offense to utter blasphemy if the statement was not part of a serious religious discourse.

People v. Ruggles see the link above.

Also if you were to review U.S. Supreme Court cases like the well known Trinity case, you will read a history in which the court reviews the all the reasons why it confirmed that the U.S. was a Christian nation. If you were to study the subject you would see at the Constitutional convention many state delegates voted to ensure the Feds could not establish a National Religion because a majority of the states already supported or endorsed their own.

Many of the states constitutions required that a man profess a belief in Christianity or God before they could hold public office. See the old Mass. constitution. Public schools had Christian training and the list goes on.

If you want to see some of the threads type in "christian nation in your search on this site.


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Delaware; Article 22 (1776) "Every person who shall be chosen a member of either house, or appointed to any office or place of trust...shall...also make and subscribe the following declaration, to whit:
'I,_____, do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for evermore; and I do acknowledge the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration'"
Delaware; Article VIII, Section 9 (1792) "...No clergyman or preacher of the gospel, of any denomination, shall be capable of holding any civil office in this State, or of being a member of either branch of the legislature, while he continues in the exercise of the pastoral or clerical functions."
Georgia; Article VI (1777) "The representatives shall be chosen out of the residents in each county...and they shall be of the Protestant religion..."

Georgia; Article LXII (1777) "No clergyman of any denomination shall be allowed a seat in the legislature."

Georgia; Article VI (1777) "The representatives shall be chosen out of the residents in each county,...and they shall be of the Protestant religion..."

Kentucky; Article II, Section 26 (1777) "No person, while he continues to exercise the functions of a clergyman, priest, or teacher of any religious persuasion, society of sect...shall be eligible to the general assembly..."

Maryland; Article XXXII (1776) "...All persons, professing the Christian religion, are equally entitled to protection their religious liberty...the Legislature may, in their discretion, lay a general tax and equal tax, for the support of the Christian religion."

Maryland; Article XXXIV (1776) "That every gift, sale or devise of lands, to any minister, public teacher or preacher of the gospel, as such, or to any religious sect, order or denomination [must have the approval of the Legislature]"

Maryland; Article XXXV (1776) "That no other test or qualification ought to be required...than such oath of support and fidelity to this State...and a declaration of a belief in the Christian religion."

Massachusetts; First Part, Article II (1780) "It is the right as well as the duty of all men in society, publicly, and at stated seasons, to worship the SUPREME BEING, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe..."

Massachusetts; First Part, Article II (1780) "The governor shall be chosen annually; and no person shall be eligible to this office, unless...he shall declare himself to be of the Christian religion."

Massachusetts; Chapter VI, Article I (1780) "[All persons elected to State office or to the Legislature must] make and subscribe the following declaration, viz.

'I,_____, do declare, that I believe the Christian religion, and have firm persuasion of its truth...'"
New Hampshire; Part 1, Article 1, Section 5 (1784) "...the legislature ...authorize ...the several towns ...to make adequate provision at their own expense, for the support and maintenance of public protestant teachers of piety, religion and morality..."
New Hampshire; Part 2, (1784) "[Provides that no person be elected governor, senator, representative or member of the Council] who is not of the protestant religion."

New Jersey; Article XIX (1776) "...no Protestant inhabitant of this Colony shall be denied the enjoyment of any civil right...; all persons, professing a belief in the faith of any Protestant sect...shall be capable of being elected into any office of profit or trust, or being a member of either branch of the Legislature."

New York; Section VIII (1777) "...no minister of the gospel, or priest of any denomination whatsoever, shall, at any time hereafter, under any pretense or description whatever, be eligible to, or capable of holding any civil or military office or place within this State."

North Carolina; Article XXXI (1776) "That no clergyman, or preacher of the gospel, of any denomination, shall be capable of being a member of either the Senate, House of Commons, or Council of State, while he continues in the exercise of the pastoral function,"

North Carolina; Article XXXII (1776) "That no person, who shall deny the being of God or the truth of the Protestant religion, or the divine authority either of the Old or New Testaments,...shall be capable of holding any office or place of trust or profit in the civil department within this State.

Pennsylvania; Declaration of Rights II (1776) "...Nor can any man, who acknowledges the being of a God, be justly deprived or abridged to any civil right as a citizen, on account of his religious sentiments or peculiar mode of religious worship."

Pennsylvania; Frame of Government, Section 10 (1776) "And each member [of the legislature]...shall make and subscribe the following declaration, viz.:

'I do believe in one God, the creator and governor of the universe, the rewarder to the good and the punisher of the wicked. And I do acknowledge the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine inspiration.'"
Pennsylvania; Article IX, Section 4 (1790) "that no person, who acknowledges the being of a God, and a future state of rewards and punishments, shall, on account of his religious sentiments, be disqualified to hold any office or place of trust or profit under this commonwealth."
South Carolina; Article III (1778) "[State officers and privy council to be] all of the Protestant religion."

South Carolina; Article XII (1778) "...no person shall be eligible to a seat in the said senate unless he be of the Protestant religion."

South Carolina; Article XXI (1778) "...no minister of the gospel or public preachers of any religious persuasion, while he continues in the exercise of his pastoral function, and for two years after, shall be eligible either as governor, lieutenant-governor, a member of the senate, house of representatives, or privy council in this State."

South Carolina; Article XXXVIII (1778) "That all persons and religious societies who acknowledge that there is one God, and a future state of rewards and punishments, and that God is publicly to be worshipped, shall be freely tolerated. The Christian Protestant religion shall be deemed...to be the established religion of this State."

Tennessee; Article VIII, Section 1 (1796) "...no minister of the gospel, or priest of any denomination whatever, shall be eligible to a seat in either house of the legislature."

Tennessee; Article VIII, Section 2 (1796) "...no person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this State."

Vermont; Declaration of Rights, III (1777) "...nor can any man who professes the protestant religion, be justly deprived or abridged of any civil right, as a citizen, on account of his religious sentiment...; nevertheless, every sect or denomination of people ought to observe the Sabbath, or the Lord's day..."

Vermont; Frame of Government, Section 9 (1777) "And each member [of the legislature],...shall make and subscribe the following declaration, viz.:

'I do believe in one god, the Creator and Governor of the universe, the rewarder of the good and punisher of the wicked. And I do acknowledge the scriptures of the old and new testament to be given by divine inspiration, and own and profess the protestant religion.'"


http://personal.pitnet.net/primarysources/state.html

 

I started to reply to some nonsense the "ZZZ" character had written when I realized this thread was over two years old! Talk about kicking a dead horse.

-segv