tioned; so that if we admit that the States alone could do the former, the General Government might, at least, be competent to the latter, and in this way the harmony of the whole might be preserved.

But this restricted view of the case is not necessary. All that the Constitution does is to restrain Congress from making any law " respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise of the same." Every thing that has no tendency to bring about an establishment of religion, or to interfere with the free exercise of religion, Congress may do. And we shall see, hereafter, that this is the view of the subject taken by the proper authorities of the country.

CHAPTER VI.

WHETHER THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES MAY JUSTLY BE CALLED INFIDEL OR ATHEISTICAL.

BECAUSE no mention of the Supreme Being, or of the Christian religion, is to be found in the Constitution of the United States, some have pronounced it infidel, others atheistical. But that neither opinion is correct, will appear from a moment's consideration of the case. Most certainly, the Convention which framed the Constitution in 1787, under the presidency of the immortal Washington, was neither infidel nor atheistical in its character. All the leading men in it were believers in Christianity, and Washington, as all the world knows, was a Christian. Several of the more prominent members were well known to be members of churches, and to live in a manner consistent with their profession. Even Franklin, who never avowed his religious sentiments, and can not be said with certainty to have been an infidel, proposed, at a time of great difficulty in the course of their proceedings, that a minister of the Gospel should be invited to open their proceedings with prayer. Many members of the Convention had been members also of the Continental Congress, which carried on the national government from the commencement of the Revolution until the Constitution went into effect. Now the religious views of that Congress we shall presently see from their acts.

The framers of that Constitution seem, in fact, to have felt the necessity of leaving the subject of religion, as they left many things besides, to the governments of the several States composing the Union. It was a subject on which these States had legislated from the very first. In many of them the Christian religion had been, and in some it still continued to be, supported by law; in all, it had been

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the acknowledged basis of their liberty and well-being, and its institutions had been protected by legal enactments. Nothing, accordingly, could be more natural in the Convention than to deem the introduction of the subject unnecessary. There is yet another view of the subject.

"On this head," says an able writer, "as on others, the Federal Constitution was a compromise. Religion could not well be introduced into it for any purpose of positive regulation. There was no choice but to tolerate all Christian denominations, and to forbear entering into the particular views of any. Religion was likely to fare best in this way. Men who loved it better than we do nowadays, felt bound in prudence to leave it at once unaided and unencumbered by constitutional provisions, save one or two of a negative character. And they acted thus, not that it might be trodden under foot, the pearl among swine, but to the very end of its greater ultimate prev alence, its more lasting sway among the people."*

There is truth, unquestionably, in these remarks; still I am of opinion that the Convention, while sensible that it was unwise to make religion a subject of legislation for the General Government, thought that this, or even any mention of the thing at all, was unnecessary. The Constitution was not intended for a people that had no religion, or that needed any legislation on the subject from the proposed General or National Government; it was to be for a people already Christian, and whose existing laws, emanating from the most appropriate, or to say the least, the most convenient sources, gave ample evidence of their being favorable to religion. Their doing nothing positive on the subject seems, accordingly, to speak more loudly than if they had expressed themselves in the most solemn formulas on the existence of the Deity and the truth of Christianity. These were clearly assumed, being, as it were, so well known and fully acknowledged as to need no specification in an instrument of a general nature, and designed for general objects. The Bible does not begin with an argument to prove the existence of God, but assumes the fact, as one the truth of which it needs no attempt to establish.

This view is confirmed by what is to be found in the Constitution itself. From the reference to the Sabbath, in Article I., section vii., it is manifest that the framers of it believed that they were drawing up a Constitution for a Christian people-a people who valued and cherished a day associated, if I may so speak, with so large a part of Christianity. Regarding the subject in connection with the circumstances that belong to it, I do not think that the government of the * "An Inquiry into the Moral and Religious Character of the American Government," p. 72.

16

United States can justly be called either infidel or atheistical, on account of its Federal Constitution. The authors of that Constitution never dreamed that they were to be regarded as treating Christianity with contempt, because they did not formally mention it as the law of the land, which it was already, much less that it should be excluded from the government. If the latter was intended, we shall presently see that their acts, from the very organization of the government, belied any such intention.

Should any one, after all, regret that the Constitution does not contain something more explicit on the subject, I can not but say that I participate in that regret. Sure I am that, had the excellent men who framed the Constitution foreseen the inferences that have been drawn from the omission, they would have recognized, in a proper formula, the existence of God, and the truth and the importance of the Christian religion.

I conclude this chapter in the language of one who has ably treated this question: "Consistent with themselves, the people of 1787 meant by the federal arrangement nothing but a new and larger organization of government on principles already familiar to the country. The State governments were not broad enough for national purposes, and the old Confederation was deficient in central power. It was only to remedy these two defects, not of principle, but of distributive adjustment, that the public mind addressed itself: innovation, to any other end, was never thought of; least of all in reference to religion, a thing utterly apart from the whole design. So that, admitting that the Constitution framed on that occasion does not in terms proclaim itself a Christian document, what then? Does it proclaim itself unchristian? For if it is merely silent in the matter, law and reason both tell us that its religious character is to be looked for by interpretation among the people who fashioned it; a people, Christian by profession and by genealogy; what is more, by deeds of fundamental legislation that can not deceive."*

* "An Inquiry into the Moral and Religious Character of the American Government," pp. 84, 85.

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES SHOWN TO BE CHRISTIAN
BY ITS ACTS.

ANY doubts which the Constitution of the United States may suggest as to the Christian character* of the National Government, will be dissipated by a statement of facts.

In the first place, in transacting the affairs of the government, the Sabbath is recognized, and respect for it enjoined; not only so, but it is observed to a degree rarely witnessed in other countries. All public business is suspended, unless in cases of extreme necessity. Congress adjourns over the Sabbath; the courts do not sit; the custom-houses, and all other public offices, are shut, not only for a few hours, or part of it, but during the whole day.

In the second place, the Christian character of the government is seen in the proclamations that have been made from time to time, calling on the people to observe days of fasting and prayer in times of national distress, and of thanksgiving for national or general mercies. Not a year passed during the war of the Revolution without the observance of such days. At the commencement of that war the Congress, in one of these proclamations, expressed its desire "to have the people of all ranks and degrees duly impressed with a solemn sense of God's superintending providence, and of their duty to rely in all their lawful enterprises on His aid and direction." The objects of a general fast are set forth: "That they may with united hearts confess and bewail their manifold sins and transgressions, and by a sincere repentance and amendment of life appease His righteous displeasure, and through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ obtain His pardon and forgiveness." A few months later we find the following language: "The Congress do also, in the most earnest manner, recommend to all the members of the United States, and par

* When I speak of the Christian character of the government of the United States, I mean that it is so far regulated by the Christian religion as to partake of its spirit, and that it is not infidel or opposed to Christianity-Christian as those of England and other parts of Christendom are Christian-not that every act of the government is truly conformable to the requirements of Christianity. Alas! where shall we find a government whose acts are fully conformed to these?

When the day for the adjournment of Congress falls on Saturday, it sometimes happens that, on account of the accumulation of business, the session is protracted through the night into the early morning of the Sabbath; for doing which that body fails not to be severely censured, as it deserves, by the religious, and even by some of the secular journals.

ticularly the officers, civil and military, under them, the exercise of repentance and reformation; and further require of them the strict observance of the articles which forbid profane swearing and all immoralities." And in 1777, Congress called upon the nation "That with one heart and voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their Divine Benefactor; and that, together with their sincere acknowledgments and offerings, they may join the penitent confession of their manifold sins, whereby they have forfeited every favor, and their earnest supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance; that it may please Him graciously to afford His blessing on the governments of these States respectively, and prosper the public council of the whole; to inspire our commanders both by land and by sea, and all under them, with that wisdom and fortitude which may render them fit instruments, under the government of Almighty God, to secure to these United States the greatest of all blessings— independence and peace; that it may please Him to prosper the trade and manufactures of the people, and the labor of the husbandman, that our land may yield its increase; to take schools and seminaries of education, so necessary for cultivating the principles of true liberty, virtue, and piety, under His nurturing hand; and to prosper the means of religion for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." In 1779, among other objects for which they call on the people to pray, we find the following: "That God would grant to His Church the plentiful effusions of Divine grace, and pour out His Holy Spirit on all ministers of the Gospel; that He would bless and prosper the means of education, and spread the light of Christian knowledge throughout the remotest corners of the earth."

Similar language is found in the proclamations of 1780, 1781, and 1782. Such was the spirit which actuated the councils of the nation in the Revolution. And after the Constitution had gone into effect, we find, in the earlier period of its reign, that days of fasting and prayer for similar blessings were observed upon the invitation of Congress. In 1812, when the last war with England broke out, we find Congress using the following language: "It being a duty peculiarly incumbent in a time of public calamity and war, humbly and devoutly to acknowledge our dependence on Almighty God, and to implore His aid and protection, therefore resolved, that a joint committee of both Houses wait on the President, and request him to recommend a day of public humiliation and prayer, to be observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity, and the offering of