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After watching a fascinating talk by Michael Chapman from American Heritage Research on TV, I decided to start a thread with examples of early American use of religion within the public (i.e. governmental) sphere. Please add any from sources you know of.
Northwest Ordinance, Art. III (July 13, 1787)
Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.
Washington Farewell Address (1796)
Observe good faith and justice towards all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it?
President Andrew Jackson's Proclamation Regarding Nullification (December 10, 1832)
May the Great Ruler of nations grant that the signal blessings with which he has favored ours may not, by the madness of party or personal ambition, be disregarded and lost, and may His wise providence bring those who have produced this crisis to see the folly, before they feel the misery, of civil strife, and inspire a returning veneration for that Union which, if we may dare to penetrate his designs, he has chosen, as the only means of attaining the high destinies to which we may reasonably aspire.
Bill of Rights, New Mexico Territory, Third Amendment (September 22, 1846)
That all men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own conscience; that no person can ever be hurt, molested or restrained in his religious professions if he do not disturb others in their religious worship; and that all Christian churches shall be protected and none oppressed, and that no person on account of his religious opinions shall be rendered ineligible to any office of honor, trust or profit
More to follow...The Declaration of Independence
When, in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the Causes which impel them to the Separation.We hold these Truths to be self-evident: that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
