by David Barton
Q. How is war divided?
A. Into offensive and defensive.
Q. What is the general object of an offensive war? …
A. [F]or the most part, it is undertaken to gratify the ambition of a prince, who wishes to subject to his arbitrary will a people whom God created free, and to gain an uncontrolled dominion over their rights and property….
Q. What is defensive war?
A. It is to take up arms in opposition to the invasions of usurped power and bravely suffer present hardships and encounter present dangers, to secure the rights of humanity and the blessings of freedom, to generations yet unborn.
Q. Is even defensive war justifiable in a religious view?
A. The foundation of war is laid in the wickedness of mankind …. God has given man wit to contrive, power to execute, and freedom of will to direct his conduct. It cannot be but that some, from a depravity of will, will abuse these privileges and exert these powers to the injury of others: and the oppressed would have no safety nor redress but by exerting the same powers in their defence: and it is our duty to set a proper value upon and defend to the utmost our just rights and the blessings of life: otherwise a few miscreants [unprincipled individuals] would tyrannize over the rest of mankind, and make the passive multitude the slaves of their power. Thus it is that defensive is not only justifiable but an indispensable duty.
Q. Is it upon these principles that the people of America are resisting the arms of Great Britain, and opposing force with force?
A. Strictly so…. And may Heaven prosper their virtuous undertaking!55
Quite simply, the American Revolution was not an act of anarchy. In fact, throughout the course of the struggle, the conflict was often described by the Americans as a civil war rather than a revolution; and a chronological survey of the acts before, during, and after America’s separation from Great Britain provides numerous examples illustrating the Americans’ consistent reliance on spiritual principles.
For example, in the early 1770s when English oppression had been steadily mounting and injustices increasing, there had been no reliable source from which the Colonists could receive either accurate news reports or patriotic inspiration. To meet this need, Samuel Adams of Massachusetts and Richard Henry Lee of Virginia formed the Committees of Correspondence – an early pony-express style news service. The original Committee in Boston had a threefold goal: (1) to delineate the rights the Colonists had as men, as Christians, and as subjects of the crown, (2) to detail how these rights had been violated, and (3) to publicize throughout the Colonies the first two items.56
Samuel Adams assumed personal responsibility for the first goal of the Committees, and his resulting work, “The Rights of the Colonists,” was first circulated on November 20, 1772. In that work, Adams urged Americans to study the Scriptures to understand the basis of the struggle to preserve their God-given rights. He declared:
The Rights of the Colonists as Christians. These may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutes of the great Law Giver and Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament.57
In fact, the spiritual nature of the American resistance became so clear that even in the debates of the British Parliament:
Sir Richard Sutton read a copy of a letter relative to the government of America from a [Crown-appointed] governor in America to the Board of Trade showing that…. If you ask an American, “Who is his master?” He will tell you he has none, nor any governor but Jesus Christ.58
On March 5, 1774, in an oration commemorating the Boston Massacre of 1770 in which British troops had opened fire on the Americans, John Hancock proclaimed:
I have the most animating confidence that the present noble struggle for liberty will terminate gloriously for America. And let us play the man for our God, and for the cities of our God; whilst we are using the means in our power, let us humbly commit our righteous cause to the great Lord of the Universe, who loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity. And having secured the approbation of our hearts by a faithful and unwearied discharge of our duty to our country, let us joyfully leave our concerns in the hands of Him who raiseth up and pulleth down the empires and kingdoms of the world as He pleases; and with cheerful submission to His sovereign will, devoutly say, “Although the fig tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive shall fail and the field shall yield not meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls, yet we will rejoice in the Lord, we will joy in the God of our salvation” [HABAKKUK 3:17-18].59
As a consequence of the Colonists expressing their frustration at the “Boston Tea Party” following eight years of rejected appeals by the Crown, Parliament passed the Boston Port Bill to blockade Boston harbor. That bill, designed to eliminate all trade to or from that key port, was to take effect on June 1, 1774. How did the American Colonists respond? News accounts in Great Britain reported:
[T]he province of Virginia appointed the first of June, the day on which the Boston Port Bill took place, to be set apart for fasting, prayer, and humiliation, to implore the Divine interposition to avert the heavy calamity which threatened destruction to their civil rights with the evils of a civil war; and to give one heart and one mind to the people firmly to oppose every injury to the American rights. This example was either followed or a similar resolution adopted almost every where and the first of June became a general day of prayer and humiliation throughout the continent.60
Mercy Otis Warren, one of the first historians of the American Revolution and the wife of a patriot, reported that not only did the Colonists pray, but they also began to organize relief for the Bostonians.61 For example, the citizens of Pepperell, Massachusetts, sent many loads of grain to Boston; and their leader, William Prescott, must have summed up the feelings of a great many Americans when he wrote the Bostonians:
We heartily sympathize with you and are always ready to do all in our power for your support, comfort and relief; knowing that Providence has placed you where you must stand the first shock…. Our forefathers passed the vast Atlantic, spent their blood and treasure that they might enjoy their liberties both civil and religious, and transmit them to their posterity…. Now if we should give them up, can our children rise up and call us blessed? … Let us all be of one heart and stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free; and may He of His infinite mercy grant us deliverance out of all our troubles.62
The other Colonies recognized that the British might continue their offensive tactics beyond Massachusetts and saw the need for a united strategy. Revolutionary surgeon and historian David Ramsay of South Carolina reported that:
It was a natural idea that for harmonizing their measures a Congress of deputies from each province should be convened.63
This call for a joint “harmonizing of measures” resulted in America’s first national Congress as leaders gathered in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774. The next day, they officially convened and:
Resolved, That the Rev’d. Mr. Duché be desired to open the Congress tomorrow morning with prayers, at the Carpenter’s Hall, at 9 o’clock.64
The records for the following day reported:
Wednesday, September 7, 1774, 9 o’clock a. m. Agreeable to the resolve of yesterday, the meeting was opened with prayers by the Rev’d. Mr. Duché. Voted, That the thanks of Congress be given to Mr. Duché … for performing Divine service and for the excellent prayer which he composed and delivered on the occasion.65
John Adams, in a letter to his wife Abigail, provided additional detail on that time of prayer:
When the Congress first met, Mr. [Thomas] Cushing [of Massachusetts] made a motion that it should be opened with prayer…. [Mr. Samuel Adams] moved that Mr. Duché, an Episcopal clergyman, might be desired to read prayers to the Congress tomorrow morning. The motion was seconded and passed in the affirmative…. Accordingly next morning he appeared with his clerk and in his po
ntificallibus [robes] and read several prayers…. After this Mr. Duché, unexpected to everybody struck out into an extemporary prayer which filled the bosom of every man present. I must confess I never heard a better prayer or one so well pronounced…. with such fervor, such ardor, such earnestness and pathos, and in language so elegant and sublime – for America, for the Congress, for the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and especially the town of Boston. It has had an excellent effect upon everybody here.66
Several of those who attended were greatly affected by Duché’s prayer and commented upon it, including Samuel Adams,67 Joseph Reed,68 and Samuel Ward.69 Silas Deane recorded:
The Congress met and opened with a prayer made by the Revd. Mr. Duché which it was worth riding one hundred mile to hear. He read the lessons of the day [Scriptures] which were accidentally extremely applicable, and then prayed without book about ten minutes so pertinently, with such fervency, purity, and sublimity of style and sentiment, and with such an apparent sensibility of the scenes and business before us, that even Quakers shed tears.70
In fact, so strong and compelling had been the prayer that:
Mr. Ward of Rhode Island moved that the thanks of the Congress be give to him [Rev. Duché] for his services which was unanimously agreed to; & Mr. Cushing & Mr. Ward were appointed a Committee for the purpose. It was then moved that he should be requested to print the prayer.71
However, for reasons noted by delegate James Duane, Congress decided against printing and distributing the prayer because:
It being objected that as this might possibly expose him [Rev. Duché] to some disadvantage, it was out of respect to him waived.72
Congress felt that the prayer had such a strong pro-American flavor that if a transcript of its words fell into British hands, Duché could be in danger.
Notice, however, that according to the delegates’ records, not only the prayer, but also the “lessons” had strongly impacted the Congress. The “lessons” were the daily Scripture reading from the Psalter which, in the high-church tradition, had been selected years – actually, centuries – in advance. Yet the one for that day was unusually relevant. As John Adams had described it to Abigail:
[Rev. Duché] then read the [lesson] for the seventh day of September, which was the thirty-fifth Psalm. You must remember this was the next morning after we heard the horrible rumor of the cannonade of Boston. I never saw a greater effect upon an audience. It seemed as if Heaven had ordained that Psalm to be read on the morning…. I must beg you to read that Psalm…. [R]ead this letter and the 35th Psalm to them [your friends]. Read it to your father.73
As Adams noted, the morning Congress read the 35th Psalm was the very morning that it had been informed that Great Britain had landed armed troops; that is, British citizens in Boston were now under attack by their own army and navy. Since Psalm 35 contained the prayers and pleadings of an innocent and defenseless person who had been attacked by one much stronger, it is easy to understand why that Psalm had such an impact on the delegates. Silas Deane had called it “accidentally extremely applicable”;74 and John Adams said that it “was most admirably adapted, though this was accidental, or rather Providential.”75
The Massachusetts legislature was concerned that the British use of force might spread beyond the Boston area. It therefore urged its inhabitants to band together as minutemen into local militias so that they might protect themselves from the British “so thirsty for the blood of this innocent people.”76 In its call, the Massachusetts legislature somberly reminded its citizens that:
You are placed by Providence in the post of honor because it is the post of danger: and while struggling for the noblest objects, the liberties of your country, the happiness of posterity, and the rights of human nature, the eyes not only of North America and the whole British empire, but of all Europe, are upon you. Let us be therefore altogether solicitous that no disorderly behavior, nothing unbecoming our characters as Americans, as citizens, and Christians, be justly chargeable to us.77
Here was a governmental charge to the militias and minutemen to remember their Christian witness during this struggle. This would thus preclude any opportunity to lodge accusations of misbehavior against Christianity in the United States. Such a charge was not incompatible with the nature of the minutemen, however, for they were often the men from a local church; and it was frequently a deacon, or sometimes a pastor, who was responsible for conducting their military drills. In fact, the editor of the Boston Post noted, “On the days of drill the citizen soldiers sometimes went from the parade-ground to the church, where they listened to exhortation and prayer.”78 And elsewhere:
In Danvers, Massachusetts, the deacon of the parish was elected captain of the minutemen and the minister his lieutenant. The company, it is said, after its field exercise would sometimes repair to the “meetinghouse” to hear a patriotic sermon, or would partake of an entertainment at the town-house where the zealous “sons of liberty” would exhort them to fight bravely for God and their country. At Lunenburg, Massachusetts, the mute company, after drill, marched in procession to the “meeting house” where a sermon was delivered. Nor was the First Church, Boston, at all behind in patriotism. It voted to melt up the lead weights upon the church clock for bullets and use other metal in their stead.79
Although many loyalist voices urged calm and absolute submission, others – like Patrick Henry – cried for action. In his fiery speech before the Virginia House on March 23, 1775, Henry proclaimed:
Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years…. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances [complaints] have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned with contempt from the foot of the throne…. An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us! They tell us, sir, that we are weak – unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be next week, or next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? … Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people armed in the holy cause of liberty and in such a country as that which we possess are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave…. Gentlemen may cry peace, peace – but there is no peace! The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!!!80
On April 15, 1775, John Hancock, witnessing the growing and ominous storm clouds of full scale war, called Massachusetts to a day of prayer and fasting, explaining that:
In circumstances dark as these, it becomes us as men and Christians to reflect that whilst every prudent measure should be taken to ward off the impending judgments … all confidence must be withheld from the means we use and reposed only on that God who rules in the armies of heaven and without whose blessing the best human councils are but foolishness and all created power vanity.
It is the happiness of his church that when the powers of earth and hell combine against it … then the throne of grace is of the easiest access and its appeal thither is graciously invited by that Father of mercies who has assured it that when His children ask bread He will not give them a stone….
That it be, and hereby is, recommended to the good people of this colony … as a day of public humiliation, fasting and prayer … to conf
ess the sins … to implore the forgiveness of all our transgressions … and especially that the union of the American colonies in defence of their rights, for which, hitherto, we desire to thank Almighty God, may be preserved and confirmed…. and that America may soon behold a gracious interposition of Heaven.81
Only three days later, Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Samuel Prescott made their famous ride; and the next morning, April 19, the British began their march against Lexington and Concord which resulted in the “shot heard ‘round the world.’ ”
The following day, British troops commenced military action in Virginia, seizing both public supplies and the Colonists’ gunpowder stored in Williamsburg. Patrick Henry, unwilling to allow the British action to go unchecked, gathered the local militia, and on May 2 addressed them in an impassioned speech which …
… inflamed their patriotism by calling up before them the fields of Lexington and Concord still warm with the blood of their brethren; he showed them that the object of the [British] ministry was to render the colonies powerless by seizing their military stores; that the late plunder of the magazine at Williamsburg was only part of the general system of warfare that the moment had come when they must decide whether they would assert their freedom or basely submit to be slaves. He reminded them of the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire which guided the children of Israel; of the water gushing from the rock at Horeb; of the miraculous passage of the Red Sea, and then, with his eye uplifted, his arms aloft, and his whole soul burning with inspiration, declared that the same God still ruled in the heavens; that he was watching from his throne the oppressions of His people in America and that He was still strong to deliver and mighty to save.82