Limited Government and the Bill of Rights by Patrick M. Garry

Author:Patrick M. Garry [Garry, Patrick M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History & Theory, Democracy, Political Ideologies, Political Science, General
ISBN: 9780826272720
Google: Ci3tpCTEhPcC
Goodreads: 40995424
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
Published: 2012-05-30T00:00:00+00:00

The Historical View of Religion as a Constraint on Government

To Americans of the constitutional period, religion was an indispensable ingredient to self-government.115 Political writers and theorists emphasized the need for a virtuous citizenry to sustain the democratic process.116 John Adams believed there was “no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.”117 He wrote that “religion and virtue are the only foundations not only of republicanism and of all free government, but of social felicity under all governments and in all the combinations of human society.”118

The constitutional framers “saw clearly that religion would be a great aid in maintaining civil government on a high plane,” and hence would be “a great moral asset to the nation.”119 According to George Washington, religion is inseparable from good government, and “no true patriot” would attempt to weaken the political influence of religion and morality.120 And in his farewell address to the nation at the end of his presidency, Washington warned that “reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”121

Late-eighteenth-century Americans generally agreed that the only solid ground for the kind of morality needed to build a virtuous citizenry was religious observance.122 In early America, churches were the primary institutions for the formation of democratic character and the transmission of community values.123 According to the constitutional framing generation, a “belief in religion would preserve the peace and good order of society by improving men’s morals and restraining their vices.”124

The Bill of Rights was ratified in an age of close and ongoing interaction between government and religion.125 Congress appointed and funded chaplains who offered daily prayers, presidents proclaimed days of prayer and fasting, and the government paid for missionaries to the Indians.126 In the Northwest Ordinance, Congress even set aside land to endow schools that would teach religion and morality.127

Religious beliefs found frequent expression in the acts and proceedings of early American legislative bodies. Five references to God appear in the Declaration of Independence. Early in its first session, the Continental Congress resolved to open its daily sessions with a prayer,128 and in 1782 it supported “the pious and laudable undertaking” of printing an American edition of the Scriptures.129 When the First Congress, which had created the Bill of Rights, reenacted the Northwest Ordinance in 1789, it declared that religion and morality were “necessary to good government.”130 Congress also consistently permitted invocations and other religious practices to be performed in public facilities.131 And on September 26, 1789, the day after Congress adopted the final language of the First Amendment, the House and Senate, feeling a spirit of jubilation over passage of the Bill of Rights, both adopted a resolution asking the president to “recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed, by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of the Almighty God.”132

In the years following ratification of the First Amendment, presidents George Washington and John Adams continued to issue broad proclamations for days of national prayer.

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