AMERICA'S CHRISTIAN HERITAGE HOMEPAGE
Week 1 - The Founding Fathers
26. On July 4, 1821, President John Adams said, "The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of government with the principles of Christianity."
27. John Adams, Second President of the United States stated on October 11, 1798: �We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.�
28. Thomas Jefferson wrote in the front of his well worn Bible: "I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus. I have little doubt that our whole country will soon be rallied to the unity of our Creator." Jefferson was also the chairman of the American Bible Society, which he considered his highest and most important role.
29. Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd President is credited as the architect of the wall of �separation of Church and State� edict we hear of now. In truth, he attended Church services every Sunday in the Capitol Building and sometimes in the very hall the U.S. Supreme Court held session all 8 years he was President. This obviously was not a violation of that �wall� to him.
30. James Madison, the 4th President of the U.S., member of the 1787 Constitutional Convention and chief architect of the U.S. Constitution said: �We have staked the whole future of American civilization not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capability of mankind for self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.�
31. Benjamin Franklin stated at the Federal Convention in 1787: �I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?
We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that "except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better, than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing governments by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.
I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one of more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service."
32. The Constitution gives Congress ultimate power over raising taxes and spending money. Congress was given the power to impeach the Chief Executive or any Federal Judge. By a simple Majority vote, Congress could set the number of Judges on the Supreme Court. In Total, the framers dedicated 2,700 words in the Constitution to the legislature. Article III, which establishes a federal judiciary contains only 282 words (67 words in section 1, 215 in section 2). The difference in attention to the subjects is a clue to the power the framers intended each group to wield.
33. Article III section 1 of the Constitution states: �The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.�
Further, Article III Section 2 clause 2 states: �In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.�