WE THE PEOPLE - IN GOD WE TRUST

In 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail in August on a mission commission by the King and Queen of Spain. He was determined to find a westerly passage to India in order to discover its riches. Leading the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria he took a new southern route to the Canary Islands and then sailed westward. Landing on October 12th, 1492, Columbus christened the island San Salvador, meaning Holy Savior, an island in the Bahamas. He thought that he had reached India and named the inhabitants Indians.

On Columbus’s second voyage, a Spaniard by the name of Ponce De Leon sailed with him and was the first European to explore the land. Discovering Florida in 1513 on his quest to find the Fountain of Youth. In 1565, St Augustine, Florida became the first European settlement in America. Using St Augustine, missionaries spread Christianity to the Native American Indians. The first gathering of Thanksgiving on North American soil was actually celebrated by the Spanish with the Timucuan Indians from the Seloy village in attendance on September 8, 1565 in St. Augustine and this became the first parish in America.

Religious freedom and the lure of economic gain were the primary reasons for migration to America. Four of the original 13 English colonies were specifically chartered for religious freedom, as a refuge from religious persecution in England at the time.

- William Bradford and the Pilgrim Congregationalists at Plymouth in 1620.

- Calvinist John Winthrop and the Puritan Protestants at Massachusetts in 1629.

- Lord Baltimore Cecil, his brother Leonard Calvert and the Catholics at Maryland in 1632.

- Roger Williams and the Baptists at Providence in 1644.

- William Penn and the Quakers at Pennsylvania in 1682. Mennonites also moved to Pennsylvania in 1683 at the invitation of William Penn, for Pennsylvania was established for universal religious toleration.


Early American writings reflect this belief in God, such as the Mayflower Compact, which allowed for the first time consent by the governed people. The Model of Christian Charity, the premium expression of the covenant theology of the Puritans, which warned of the dangers of seeking pleasure and profits over virtue, and also The Toleration Act of Maryland for toleration of all Christian religions.

Typically, freedom of religion meant one had freedom of religion as long they practiced the religion of the majority. Not much different that what was going on in Europe, Quakers suffered persecution at the hands of the Puritans in Massachusetts, exemplified by the hanging of the Quaker Mary Dyer on June 1, 1660. The theocracy, a society where the State is ruled by the Church, of the Puritans eventually gave way to religious excess, exemplified by the Salem witch trials of 1692; the Salem witch trials led to a tension between Church and State.

Christianity was becoming a big part of the American culture, this was seen by churches built for religious worship throughout the colonies of the eastern coast. The oldest church still standing in the United States is the Protestant Old Brick Church, today it is the Historic St. Luke's Church on the Isle of Wight near Smithfield, Virginia, the church was originally built in 1632. The oldest Catholic Church still holding services is St. Ignatius Church at Chapel Point in St. Mary's County, Maryland, this church was built in 1641.

On the evening of April 18, 1775, the church sexton Robert Newman climbed the steeple of what is known as the Old North Church in Boston and held high two lanterns as a signal to Paul Revere that the British were heading to Lexington and Concord by sea and not by land. Known today as the Christ Episcopal Church, it was originally built in 1723 and is the oldest church in Boston. The oldest church in Washington D.C. our nations capitol and still with continuous service is the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Old Georgetown, it was built in 1794.

Our Founding Fathers were men of religious conviction. Thomas Jefferson was a Christian Deist and believed that God created the universe. He believed that once set in motion, it would run itself on the rational laws of nature. He further believed the highest moral code for man existed in the Ten Commandments of God and the Beatitudes of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. As for the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson believed that man received natural rights from God, the Creator. "All men are created equal with certain unalienable rights, among them Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

On July 8th, 1776, the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, Pa rang, proclaiming the very first public reading of the Declaration of Independence. The Liberty Bell has inscribed on it a scripture from the bible coming from the book of Leviticus, it states: "Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof - Lev. XXV:X".

The Father of our Constitution, James Madison was a leading proponent on the freedom of conscience and religion. He said, "We maintain therefore that in matters of Religion, no man's right is abridged by the institution of Civil Society, and that Religion is holly exempt from its cognizance."

Architecture of the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., our nations capitol shows this biblical foundation used by our founding fathers. At the center of the sculpture over the east portico there is a image of Moses holding the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are also engraved over the chair of the Chief Justice and they are also located on the bronze doors of the Supreme Court. Although ridiculed much today, the Ten Commandments of God were the foundation of the moral code and legal system of justice for Western civilization.

Our founding fathers wanted to prevent any state controlled religion, unlike those seen under the absolute monarchies of Europe in the Anglican Church in England or in the Holy Roman Empire throughout Europe. They wanted to protect religious freedom and freedom of speech, two of the major reasons for migration to America. This was one of the reasons for the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights to be included in the Constitution of the United States. It reads as follows:


Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;
or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,
and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

George Washington also had a strong belief in God when it came to our country. Once the Revolutionary War was won, he sent the following message to the Governors of the 13 colonies, that he would "make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection." President George Washington stated it was impossible to rightly govern without God and the Bible. In his 1796 Farewell Speech following his second term as President, a speech noted for establishing and sustaining our great nation, he said, "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports."

Through the years of our heritage, the United States has always shown that we place our trust in God. Francis Scott Key wrote the song “The Star Spangled Banner” which become our National Anthem. He wrote the song following a long British attack on Fort McHenry in Baltimore on September 14, 1814. He was so moved to the see the American Flag still flying that he wrote the song. The conclusion of the final stanza in the song is:

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
Over the land of the free and the home of the brave!

As the frontier expanded, so did the freedom of religion. John Wesley of the newly formed Methodists named Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke in 1784 as the first superintendents of the Methodist Church in America. Francis Asbury and the Methodist circuit riders were effective missionaries in spreading the Christian faith in the South and expanding West during the Second Great Awakening of 1790-1835.

African Americans from Southern plantations began joining mainstream Christian churches, because they were allowed to attend outdoor revivals known as camp meetings, where Methodist circuit riders would arouse the religious passions of the audience. The plantation work songs of the Negro slaves became Spiritual Hymns infused with Christian themes, that often conveyed a longing for freedom and deliverance from their lives of hardship. The Revivalist Charles Finney mobilized the North in promoting abolition of slavery. The Second Great Awakening also dramatized the moral issue of slavery, which led to the American Civil War of 1861-1865.

The Civil War was fought for freedom, freedom for all. In a tribute to the 52,000 Americans that had been killed, injured or lost in the 3 day battle of Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln in his 1863 Gettysburg Address declared that

"this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

After the Civil War, the Thirteenth through Fifteenth Amendments were added to the Constitution. The Thirteenth is 1865 to end slavery, the Fourteenth in 1868 to provide equal protection to all that were defined as citizens, and the Fifteenth in 1870 that granted the right to vote to former slaves. The belief and expression "Nation under God" preceded and later was incorporated into our Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America.

President Abraham Lincoln appointed Salmon Chase as Secretary of the Treasury. During the Civil War, Chase wrote the US Mint on November 20, 1861 that "the trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins." James Pollock, the Director of the Mint, first placed "God our Trust" and other phrases on coins from 1861 to 1863. The two-cent coin of 1864 was the first circulating US coin to bear the phrase “In God We Trust“. George T. Morgan designed the beautiful Liberty Silver Dollar series, produced from 1878 through 1904 and again in 1921, it was the first complete silver dollar set to include the inscription. Since that time, all of our coins and dollar bills have the inscription “In God We Trust“. “In God We Trust” became our national motto on July 30, 1956 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower.