From Whence We Came: Who Encouraged, Educated, Mentored Our Founding Fathers?

56 signatures…

Placing 56 families into a commitment they had to win — or face imminent death….

56 signatures on the document that eventually would be the foundation for the Constitution of our government.

We know these 56 as our Founding Fathers.

There’s a lot behind each signature, but who inspired our Founding Fathers to place themselves into such a commitment?

It is important to know who inspired them as their teachings, mentoring, conversations have blessed America exceptionally.

About  Our Exceptionalism

Because of those that inspired our Founding Fathers, and because of their words with our Founding Fathers, we have as a nation adopted certain principles that God was able to bless, and as long as we adhere to those principles then God was going to continue His blessings.

This is what became part of what Alexis de Tocqueville called ‘American Exceptionalism’, after spending some time traveling our country in 1830’s.

Tocqueville was an ardent supporter of liberty.

“I have a passionate love for liberty, law, and respect for rights”, he wrote.

“I am neither of the revolutionary party nor of the conservative…Liberty is my foremost passion.”

He wrote of “Political Consequences of the Social State of the Anglo-Americans” by saying…

“But one also finds in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to want to bring the strong down to their level, and which reduces men to preferring equality in servitude to inequality in freedom“.

His view on government reflects his belief in liberty and the need for individuals to be able to act freely while respecting others’ rights.

Of centralized government?  de Tocqueville wrote that it “excels in preventing, not doing.”

He continues to comment on equality by saying…

“Furthermore, when citizens are all almost equal, it becomes difficult for them to defend their independence against the aggressions of power.

“As none of them is strong enough to fight alone with advantage, the only guarantee of liberty is for everyone to combine forces.

“But such a combination is not always in evidence.”

[Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocqueville — Democracy in America]

Nearly every country — before and now — has experienced some sort of war or change internally every 30 or 40 years…

This instability is even noted by Christ in his words, in Matthew 24:6…

“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet”

Yet America has experienced a stability like no other nation — however, the shift of beliefs, support and focus from the right to the left since the 1960’s have those in the know questioning the wisdom of our current status.

There is some Biblical relevancy to this as well…

“A wise man’s heart is at his right hand; but a fool’s heart at his left.”  ~  Ecclesiastes 10:2

Given the incredible accuracy of the 2000 miracles shared in the Bible, they are justified questioning the direction in which we are going (there are still 500 more miracles to occur and it is believed these are supposed to occur in quick fashion once started).

American Exceptionalism is far from being about pride as many on either side of the aisle will falsely, and vehemently so at times, claim — especially Obama.

American Exceptionalism is about our planting our seeds into the Judeo-Principles God has placed into the Bible and reaping the benefits thereof.

Plain and simple…

Granted, there will be many that will want to muddy the water about this claim but in the long run of it all, they end up losing focus on how our nation was really founded while focusing elsewhere on their need to be right.

The guilty are always the least affected by their actions, aren’t they…

The back bone of my claim is this and it based upon both secular and biblical history:

God is not a respecter of people nor a respecter of nations — He will however bless those that embrace and apply His Principles.

This is evident throughout the Bible and even those claiming luck on the part of the recipient can’t argue the point that order never, ever arises from chaos.

As President Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States, so succinctly said…

“The Bible is the rock on which our Republic rests.”

All this being said, here’s my question…

Who Encouraged, Educated, Mentored Our Founding Fathers?

Whose voice or voices would the Founding Fathers listen to?

Whose counsel would the Founding Fathers seek?

If you asked them, who would they say gave them inspiration? reflection? wisdom?

Who would they credit for being responsible for the seed of American independence?

Unlike most leaders and Congressmen today, the Founding Fathers without a doubt, would spend some time alone in counsel with the Bible, some more so than others.

But they also talked with one another, debated, wrote to one another…

Who was their support system?

And where did our Founding Fathers get their ideas outside of the Bible?

When you stop and think about it, it is the voices and counsel our Founding Fathers sought that are really our cornerstones to our country…

The names of the more prominent voices and counsel sought by our Founding Fathers were people like…

• James Otis – lawyer
• Oxenbridge Thacher — lawyer
• Samuel Adams – statesman, political philosopher
• John Hancock – merchant, smuggler, statesman
• Reverend Samuel Cooper
• Dr. Reverend Jonathan Mayhew
• Reverend George Whitefield
• Reverend Charles Chauncy

Lawyers, Statesmen and Reverends…

Most of the names on this list can be found in a letter John Adams penned to Hezekiah Niles on February 13, 1818.

While reiterating the frustrations of the Acts of Trade that weren’t enforced in full until the French dominion was annihilated in the Colonies, Adams noted the first 5 in his response, noting that this revival started in 1760 and continued to 1775…

“This [referring to the annihilation of the French dominion] produced, in 1760 and 1761, an awakening and a revival of American principles and feelings, with an enthusiasm which went on increasing till in 1775 it burst out in open violence, hostility, and fury.

“The characters the most conspicuous, the most ardent and influential in this revival, from 1760 to 1766, were first and foremost, before all and above all [naming first 5 names above]”

So why are Whitefield and Chauncy come from?

The Colonies States Needed a Common Focus

George Whitefield

Of the reverends listed, the only reverend some may have heard of is Reverend George Whitefield (sometimes spelled Whitfield) — the rest are unfamiliar to most.

George Whitefield was the glue to the Colonies — the 13 Colonies were essentially 13 church states, each state being dominated by one particular church.

And as such it was difficult to get them to agree on declaring independence — until Benjamin Franklin heard Whitefield giving a sermon, that is.

Whitefield’s ability to unify the separate churches via the Great Awakening and  through his sermons was important in unifying the colonies — add to this the bad blood between England and the Colonies,  the unification of the churches in the States meant the talks and thoughts about Independence were being given a new life, new focus and greater possibilities.

Whitefield would give his sermons, which drew large crowds (Franklin estimated Whitefield give a sermon to 30,000 and be heard by all) — and Franklin printed them, increasing the reach of Whitefield’s words.

None of these people are mentioned in what is taught in our schools today and hasn’t been for the last 50+ years — if anything, Reverend George Whitefield may be mentioned in the some education systems, but usually very fleetingly.

Charles Chauncy

Though an opponent of the Great Awakening, Chauncy was a firm believer in the colonial cause and was principle in setting forth the political philosophy of the American Revolution in sermons and pamphlets during the period.

Chauncy focused on keeping the Church of England out of the colonies and as a result of many of his works, he become  one of the leading intellects of 18th-century America.

Of the 7 listed, Chauncy appears not to have too much direct contact, if any, with any of the Founding Fathers, however his support and drive to keep the Church of England out of the Colonies as well as being a leading advocate for liberal religion in the Colonies.

Without his presence and efforts during this time, it is hard to say if the outcome would have been different with the Colonies but it is definite he had an impact on the churches of the Colonies as well as the founding of the United States.

Why isn’t his story in our school’s textbooks? Perhaps the misconstrued interpretations of the 1st Amendment?

The 27 Rights Noted in Our Declaration

Now what most do not know is the Declaration of Independence is a summary of the 27 rights that the Founding Fathers felt people were entitled to — it is the complaint section of our Declaration.

Everything complaint they filed were rights to which they felt either inalienable or entitled… or both.

Many of the complaints can be found in the sermons the pastors presented to their parishes as well as in publications that have already been shared by the Colonists themselves.

In other words, our Declaration of Independence is a collection of sermons and publications from the decades before it was written — when it comes to the sermons, no other government nor founding document was formed this way…

These 27 complaints were carried over into our Constitution (a study for later).

With this background then, the root, the seed, the germination of our Declaration of Independence is from faith and the Bible… We can’t say religion as the Colonies were 13 separate churches that didn’t unite until after the Declaration was written.

What else don’t most know about our Independence?

Blacks Have Been Eliminated from Our Studies

How many films, books and talks depict the black person as ignorant, stupid and/or a slave?

In reality, when you start becoming familiar with the original source documents available through archive.org, you discover many were indeed here due to enslavement yet there were a percentage that were educated, intelligent, wise as well as wealthy…

And some were even slave owners…

So how come none of this was taught or is being taught?

What about black preachers of the time — why don’t we know anything about them?

Blacks played in integral part of our country’s formation, even the first American slave owner was black — but you will find none of this is in today’s history books…

Perhaps it is because Woodrow Wilson rewrote the textbooks used in the school systems in 1913 and had them all replaced with his version of U.S. history.

Wilson was a bigot by the purest form of its definition, not by the slanted definition waved around like a flyswatter by many today.

Woodrow Wilson’s racial bias was very obvious long before he was elected to the White House.

As president of Princeton University, a student from a Baptist college in his home state of Virginia applied to Princeton and Wilson refused his entry, answering his application by saying straight out “that it is altogether inadvisable for a colored man to enter Princeton.”

And if you did’t know already you do know now — Wilson is regarded as the father of today’s Progressive movement and is highly regarded by the likes of the Clintons and many others on the left.

Many of Wilson’s viewpoints are still being practice today, and though ‘Political Correctness’ has watered down the definition of those practices, they still remain destructive nonetheless.

To test this one only has to obtain an surviving copy of the textbook used in our schools before Woodrow Wilson — they are not abundant in number but they are guarded and valued.

There were also the tightening of laws during the 18th century by states that seemed to forget our Declaration that all men are create equal…

Black Preachers Were Educated, Wealthy, Sought

As for some of the black preachers that were influential at the time of the formation of our country were…

• Bishop Richard Allen
• Reverend Absalom Jones
• Reverend John Marrant
• Lemuel Haynes

Another black leader of the time was Wentworth Cheswell — he was elected into office in New Hampshire in 1768 and was re-elected into office for the next 45 years thereafter in 9 different political offices, as well as being a leader in his church.

Doesn’t sound like your Hollywood stereotyped black person nor the type of black person we were taught existed back then now does it?

Don’t get me wrong, there just as well may have been — but why is our education system focused on those that didn’t contribute much as opposed to those that contributed greatly?

Did I mention something about Woodrow Wilson?

Allen West just published a post that shares some stats most if not all liberals will not talk about that reflect the agenda since Wilson…

“The illegitimacy rate in the black community [is] now 75 percent.

“The fact is that most of the social pathology seen in poor black neighborhoods is entirely new in black history. Let’s look at some of it. Today the overwhelming majority of black children are raised in single female-headed families. As early as the 1880s, three-quarters of black families were two-parent. In 1925 New York City, 85 percent of black families were two-parent. One study of 19th-century slave families found that in up to three-fourths of the families, all the children had the same mother and father.”

More Colonial blacks of note….

Battle of Bunker Hill…

Peter Salem was born about 1750 to a slave mother in Framingham, Massachusetts. His master was Jeremiah Belknap, who later sold him to Lawson Buckminster, who used him in a variety of ways. When Buckminster became a major in the Continental Army, he gave Salem his freedom in 1775 so he could enlist in the patriot militia in what soon became the American Revolution.

About a dozen other free African Americans took part in the battle, including Barzillai Lew, Salem Poor, Titus Coburn, Alexander Ames, Cato Howe, and Seymour Burr.

Three black patriots (among many) that served under General George Washington during the Revolution…

Prince Whipple was an African-American slave and later freedman who accompanied his former owner, General William Whipple of the New Hampshire militia, during the American Revolutionary War.

Oliver Cromwell was an African-American soldier, who served in the American Revolutionary War. He was born a free black in Black Horse (now the Columbus section of Mansfield Township, Burlington County, New Jersey), and was raised as a farmer. Private Cromwell served in several companies of the 2nd New Jersey Regiment between 1777 and 1783, seeing action at the battles of Trenton(1776), Princeton (1777), Brandywine (1777), Monmouth (1778), and at the final siege of Yorktown (1781). After Yorktown, Cromwell left the army. Commander-in-Chief George Washington personally signed Cromwell’s discharge papers and also designed the Badge of Military Merit, which he awarded to Cromwell.

James Armistead was an African American slave who served the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War as a double agent. He served under Marquis de Lafayette, reporting on the activities first of Benedict Arnold – after he had gone over to the British – and then Lord Cornwallis during the run-up to the Battle of Yorktown. He also fed false information to them.

The Bible Was An Integral Part of Education

Most today are oblivious to this fact — that is, until June 1963 when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of removing the Bible from school classes.

The case was Abington School District v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203 (1963) and the decision was 8–1 in favor of the respondent, Edward Schempp, and declared school-sponsored Bible reading in public schools in the United States to be unconstitutional.

Until then the Bible was an intricate part of school…

Serving as Justices at the time were…

The lone dissenting decision cam from Justice Potter Stewart (the entire case and decisions can be read here).

The problem then is the same problem today — the misconstrued interpretations of the 1st Amendment.

They fail to discern that it is the government which is supposed to be kept from forming any form of  church, and not keeping  the people from practicing their faith wherever they want, including in a public building of any sort.

Without this discernment, every case that is ruled against the Bible’s presence as it was since our founding will only be more stupid than any form of ignorance…

That is not an opinion — that is a statement based upon the results of our Founding Fathers actions as well as our nation up to 1963.

Today, many schools are throwing out (or requesting they be removed) any Bibles they find on the premises as well as anyone caught carrying the Bible.

Now here’s a discerning question…

If the Founding Fathers wanted
to keep Bibles out of the schools,
to keep minorities permanently ignorant,
wanted only part of their own history to be known…

Wouldn’t they have done so at the time?

Again, anyone that studies our history through original source documents (OSDs) will discover that our nations’s history started changing in the 1960’s — the same time God was being removed from schools, from public places, from any proclamation of His Divine presence in our lives, publicly or privately.

OSDs are the documents written by the people at the time of the event. This would include personal notes, letters written to others, decrees and declarations made by entities to enforce a change. This would not include books written to give an author’s perspective on an event, person, group of people, whatever – even if the author was alive at the time of the event. OSDs do not filter based upon a writer’s perspective, they do – however – provide a perspective into the decision makers of the time.

Will have more on this shortly…