American Minute with Bill Federer
Rev. John Witherspoon-Signer of Declaration of Independence "A Republic must either preserve its Virtue or lose its Liberty"
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John Witherspoon
was born in
Scotland
on February 5, 1723.
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A descendant of Protestant Reformer
John Knox, Witherspoon
was educated at the
University of Edinburgh,
Scotland, and afterwards served as a
Presbyterian pastor.
His writings brought him to the attention of the trustees of the
College of New Jersey,
who sent
Benjamin Rush
and
Richard Stockton
to
Scotland
to persuade him and his wife,
Elizabeth,
to come to the American colonies.
Benjamin Rush
and
Richard Stockton
later joined
John Witherspoon
in signing the
Declaration of Independence.
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Sailing to America in 1768,
John Witherspoon
became the President of the
College of New Jersey,
which was later renamed
Princeton University.
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There,
Witherspoon
taught 12 members of the Continental Congress, and 9 of the 55 writers of the U.S. Constitution, including
James Madison.
Witherspoon's
other
Princeton students
included:
1 U.S. Vice-President,
3 Supreme Court Justices,
10 Cabinet Members,
13 Governors,
28 U.S. Senators,
49 U.S. Congressmen,
37 judges, and
114 ministers.
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John Witherspoon
was elected as a delegate from
New Jersey
to the
Continental Congress.
He declared:
"Gentlemen,
New Jersey
is ready to
vote for independence
... The country is not only ripe for independence, but we are in danger of becoming rotten for the want of it!"
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On note, is that
John Witherspoon,
a
clergyman,
signed the
Declaration of Independence.
Clergymen
were often
the most educated individuals
in their communities.
Whereas most
Church of England ministers
held
allegiance to the King
and left for England when the Revolution began,
patriot pastors
supported the American cause.
Pastors preached on the topics of:
- self-government;
- government from the consent of the govern;
- purpose of government to secure God-given rights;
- rights of conscience;
- equality before the law;
- freedom to speech;
- freedom to assemble;
- freedom of press;
- self-defense;
- the right to possess and bear arms;
- taxation without representation; and
- trial by a jury of peers, rather than a partisan, king appointed judge.
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President Calvin Coolidge
acknowledged in his address at the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, in Philadelphia, July 5, 1926:
"The principles of human relationship which went into the
Declaration of Independence
... are found in the
texts,
the
sermons,
and the
writings
of the early colonial
clergy
who were earnestly undertaking to instruct their congregations in the great mystery of how to live.
They preached
equality
because they believed in the
fatherhood of God
and the
brotherhood of man.
They justified
freedom
by the text that we are
all created in the divine image,
all partakers of the divine spirit ...
Placing every man on a plane where he acknowledged no superiors, where
no one possessed any right to rule over him,
he must inevitably
choose his own rulers
through a system of
self-government
...
In those days
such doctrines
would scarcely have been permitted to flourish and spread
in any other country
...
In order that they might have
freedom to express these thoughts
and opportunity to put them into action,
whole congregations
with their
pastors
had migrated to the colonies ..."
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Coolidge
added:
"Rev. Thomas Hooker
of Connecticut as early as 1638, when he said in a sermon before the General Court that:
'The foundation of authority is laid in the
free consent of the people
... The
choice of public magistrates
belongs unto
the people
by God's own allowance.'
This doctrine found wide acceptance among the
nonconformist clergy
who later made up the
Congregational Church.
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... The great apostle of this movement was the
Rev. John Wise
of Massachusetts.
He was one of the leaders of the revolt against the royal governor Andros in 1687, for which he suffered imprisonment ...
His works were reprinted in 1772
and have been declared to have been nothing less than
a textbook of liberty
for our Revolutionary fathers ...
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... That these ideas were prevalent in Virginia is further revealed by the
Declaration of Rights,
which was prepared by
George Mason
and presented to the general assembly on May 27, 1776.
This document asserted
popular sovereignty
and
inherent natural rights,
but confined the doctrine of
equality
to the assertion that
'All men are created equally free and independent.'
It can scarcely be imagined that
Jefferson
was unacquainted with what had been done in his own Commonwealth of Virginia when he took up the task of drafting the
Declaration of Independence
..."
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Coolidge
continued:
"These thoughts can very largely be traced back to what
Rev. John Wise
was writing in 1710. He said ...
'Democracy
is
Christ's government
in
church
and
state.'
Here was the doctrine of
equality,
popular sovereignty,
and the substance of the theory of
inalienable rights
clearly asserted by
Wise
at the opening of the eighteenth century, just as we have the principle of the consent of the governed stated by
Hooker
as early as 1638.
When we take all these circumstances into consideration, it is but natural that the first paragraph of the
Declaration of Independence
should open with a reference to
Nature's God
and should close in the final paragraphs with an appeal to the
Supreme Judge of the world
and an assertion of a firm reliance on
Divine Providence
..."
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Coolidge
concluded:
"In its main feature the
Declaration of Independence
is a great
spiritual document
...
Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man
- these are not elements which we can see and touch ... They have their source and their roots in the
religious convictions
...
Unless the faith of the American in these
religious convictions
is to endure, the principles of our
Declaration
will perish. We cannot continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause ...
If anyone wishes to deny their truth
... the only direction in which he can proceed ... is ...
backward
toward the time when there was
no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people
...
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... The duly authorized
expression of the will of the people
has a
divine sanction
... The ultimate sanction of law rests on the
righteous authority
of the
Almighty
...
It was in the contemplation of
these truths
that the fathers made their
Declaration
and adopted their
Constitution
...
Their intellectual life centered around the
meeting-house.
They were intent upon
religious worship
... While scantily provided with other literature, there was a wide acquaintance with the
Scriptures
...
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... We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create the Declaration. Our Declaration created them.
The things of the spirit come first.
Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren sceptre in our grasp ... We must not sink into a pagan materialism.
We must cultivate the
reverence
which they had for the things that are
holy.
We must follow the
spiritual
and
moral
leadership which they showed.
We must keep replenished, that they may glow with a more compelling flame,
the altar fires
before which they
worshipped."
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Because of the activism of
Rev. John Wise,
his hometown of
Ipswich, Massachusetts,
calls itself
"The Birthplace of American Independence."
Through his wife,
John Wise
was a great-uncle of
John Adams.
Rev. John Wise
stated in a sermon at Chebacco Parish of Ipswich (Essex), circa 1700:
“The first human subject and original of civil power is
the people
… and when they are
free,
they may set up what species of government they please.
The end of all good government
is ... the good of
every man
in all his
rights, his life, liberty, estate.
"
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Many of the founders were
children of ministers
or
deacons.
Many graduated from institutions founded as
seminaries
to train
clergy
and
missionaries.
Numerous
founders
were both
political leaders
and, at some time in their career,
chaplains, ministers or preachers,
such as:
- Abraham Baldwin (Georgia);
- John Peter Muhlenberg (Pennsylvania);
- Frederick Muhlenberg (Pennsylvania)
- Robert Treat Paine (Massachusetts);
- Hugh Williamson (North Carolina);
Many founders supported
Bible organizations, societies for the propagation of the faith,
and
abolitionist societies.
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Often
overlooked by secular scholars
is that when the founders set up
state governments:
- nine of the original state constitutions required all officeholders to be Protestant,
- three required officeholders to just be Christian,
- and one, Rhode Island, had no religious requirement, as it was thought that unscrupulous politicians would be tempted to say they believe just to be elected, and that would be hypocritical.
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Since
religion
was under
states' jurisdiction,
the founders placed
a restraining order
on the power of the
Federal government
- the
First Amendment.
Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story
wrote in
Commentaries on the Constitution,
1833:
"The
whole power over the subject of religion
is left exclusively to the
State governments,
to be acted upon according to their own sense of justice and the
State Constitutions."
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In the
Continental Congress, John Witherspoon
served on
120 Congressional Committees.
He was
a primary proponent
of the
separation of powers,
insisting that since man had a fallen, selfish, human nature, there needed to be
checks
be placed on
the power of government.
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Rev. Witherspoon
explained:
"The corruption of our nature ... is the foundation-stone of the doctrine of redemption.
Nothing can be more absolutely necessary to
true religion,
than a clear conviction of
the sinfulness of our nature
and state ..."
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He continued:
"Men of lax and corrupt principles
take great delight in
speaking to the praise of human nature,
and extolling its dignity, without distinguishing what it was at its first creation from what it is in
its present fallen state
...
The
evil of sin
appears from every page of ... the history of the world ...
Nothing is more plain from
Scripture
... than that man by nature is in fact incapable of recovery without the power of
God
specially interposed."
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The same day the
Continental Congress
declared a
Day of Fasting,
May 17, 1776,
Rev. Witherspoon
told his
Princeton students:
"If
your cause
is just, if
your principles
are pure, and if
your conduct
is prudent,
you need not fear
the multitude of opposing hosts.
He is the
best friend to American liberty,
who is most sincere and active in promoting
true and undefiled religion,
and who sets himself with the greatest firmness to
bear down profanity and immorality
of every kind.
Whoever is an avowed
enemy of God,
I scruple (hesitate) not to call him an
enemy of his country
..."
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Witherspoon
added:
"It is in the
man of piety
and
inward principle,
that we may expect to find the
uncorrupted patriot,
the
useful citizen,
and the
invincible soldier
...
God grant that in America true religion and civil liberty may be inseparable
and that the unjust attempts to destroy the one, may in the issue tend to the support and establishment of both."
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Witherspoon's sacrifice
for the
patriotic cause
was personal, as he
lost two sons
in the Revolutionary War.
When peace was made with Britain,
John Witherspoon
exhorted all in his "Thanksgiving Sermon" to live for:
"... the Glory of God, the
public interest of religion
and the good of others, as
civil liberty
cannot be long preserved without
virtue.
A
Republic
must either
preserve its virtue
or
lose its liberty."
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John Witherspoon
resisted "tyranny of conscience," citing:
"There is
not a single instance
in history, in which
civil liberty was lost,
and
religious liberty preserved
entire ...
If therefore we yield up our ...
property,
we at the same time deliver the
conscience
into bondage ...
Governments
are to
defend
and
secure rights of conscience."
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In his Pastoral Letter,
Rev. John Witherspoon
explained:
"Universal profligacy (immoral behavior) makes a nation ripe for divine judgments
and is the natural means of bringing them to
ruin;
Reformation of manners
is of
the utmost necessity
in our present distress."
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In his
Lectures on Divinity,
Rev. John Witherspoon
stated:
"Religion
is the grand concern of us all ... the
salvation of our souls
is the one thing needful."
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After his wife died in 1789,
John Witherspoon
headed up a committee in the New Jersey legislature to
abolish slavery.
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John Witherspoon
died near
Princeton, New Jersey,
on NOVEMBER 15, 1794.
John Adams
he described
Rev. Witherspoon
as:
"A true
son of liberty
... but first, he was a
son of the Cross."
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Schedule Bill Federer for informative interviews & captivating PowerPoint presentations: 314-502-8924
wjfederer@gmail.com
American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission is granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate, with acknowledgment.
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