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976 lines
47 KiB
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Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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**** ****
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The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents
|
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|
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CHAPTER II
|
||
|
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PRESIDENTS WHO WERE PRESBYTERIANS
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|
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ANDREW JACKSON
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Born, March 15, 1767. Died, June 8, 1845. President, 1829-1837.
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The story of the early religious background of the United
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States is of interest 'When we consider the beliefs of its people.
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The wilds of America were early settled by representatives of the
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then most prominent forms of the Christian faith. While a large
|
||
number of them emigrated to find on this western continent
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||
religious liberty, most of them, if strong enough, sought to to
|
||
establish, by law, the Church they brought with them.
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||
|
||
In New England, with the exception of Rhode Island,
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Congregationalism was the State Church. In New York, it was at
|
||
first the Dutch Reformed. Later, the English governors sought to
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||
establish the Church of England but the opposition was so strong
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||
that they were not successful except in theory. In New Jersey, the
|
||
same attempt was made, though there was not an Episcopal church in
|
||
the colony at the time. Pennsylvania granted liberty to all "who
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||
confess and acknowledge the one Almighty and eternal God"; but the
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||
holders of office "shall be such as profess faith in Jesus Christ."
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The constitution of Delaware, formed in 1776, declared that all
|
||
persons professing the Christian religion "ought forever to enjoy
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||
equal rights and privileges," but to hold office the
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||
acknowledgement of the trinity and the inspiration of the
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||
scriptures was mandatory. Maryland was first settled by Catholics.
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||
Then the Puritans arrived, obtained power and persecuted them.
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||
Later the Church of England was established. The so-called freedom
|
||
of conscience law of Maryland is a myth. It granted liberty to
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||
trinitarian Christians only, the Jew, the Unitarian and the
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||
unbeliever being excluded. it punished blasphemy by boring the
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||
tongue with a red-hot iron, The first act favoring absolute
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||
religious liberty passed in America, and, for all we know to the
|
||
contrary, in the modern world, was enacted in Rhode Island. There,
|
||
20 years before Maryland was settled, Roger Williams proclaimed
|
||
freedom to all, Christian, Jew, Pagan and infidel. In 1647, two
|
||
years before the Maryland law, which did not provide freedom at
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||
all, these sentiments of Williams were enacted into a statute.
|
||
|
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In Virginia, the Church of England was established, and the
|
||
penalties for heresy and non-conformity were very severe, even up
|
||
to the Revolution. The same establishment was set up in the
|
||
Carolinas. Georgia, under the benevolent Oglethorpe, had no
|
||
established Church, but Romanists were excluded. When, in 1752, the
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||
colony lost its charter, the Church of England was made the State
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||
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||
Bank of Wisdom
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||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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44
|
||
|
||
The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents
|
||
|
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Church. [NOTE: For a full and accurate history of religious laws in
|
||
the thirteen colonies, see 'The Rise of Religious Liberty in
|
||
America' by Sanford H. Cobb. Published by Henry Holt & Co., New
|
||
York City.]
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||
|
||
Among the early settlers was a large proportion of those
|
||
holding the doctrines of John Calvin. The Puritans of New Engrand,
|
||
the Dutch settlers of New York, the Scotch and the Ulsterites all
|
||
held Presbyterian doctrines, though all did not hold to the
|
||
Presbyterian form of church government. Hence, it is natural that
|
||
this Church should leave its impress upon the people of the United
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||
States and upon some of its statesmen, as it did upon Andrew
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Jackson, the seventh President. His parents emigrated from the
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||
North of Ireland and settled in South Carolina. Although he was not
|
||
a communicant until after he retired from the Presidency, he was a
|
||
believer in the Christian religion, as taught by John Calvin, and
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||
a fairly regular church attendant.
|
||
|
||
Andrew Jackson is one of the most picturesque characters in
|
||
American history. As a boy, he fought in the Revolution, was taken
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||
prisoner, and had his arm cut to the bone by the sword of a British
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||
officer because he refused to clean the oincer's muddy boots. A
|
||
planter, frontier lawyer and judge; a congressman and senator from
|
||
Tennessee immedlately after that State's admission to the Union; a
|
||
militia general, Indian fighter, hero of the Battle of New Orleans,
|
||
he became, after a bitter struggle, President of the United States,
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||
the first "man of the people" to hold this high office. He was so
|
||
accustomed, to the wild life of the frontier that he did not feel
|
||
at home anywhere else. He has been described, when young, as
|
||
"reckless, impetuous, quarrelsome, and passionate in temper;
|
||
thoroughly disinclined to learning of any sort, his favorite
|
||
pursuits being racing, gamins' and cock-fighting; but he was
|
||
Possessed of invincible determination, dauntless courage and
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||
excelled in marksmanship and riding, qualities which later served
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||
him well." He fought during his lifetime two duels, in one of which
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||
he "killed his man," and in the other received a slight wound
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||
himself. His political enemies many times published lists of his
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||
fights and escapades.
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||
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John Parton, one of the best of Jackson's biographers,
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||
describes the circumstances under which he joined the Church, as
|
||
they were related to him by the Rev. Dr. Edgar, who received the
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||
ex-President into the fold:
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||
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"Ere long a 'Protracted meeting, was held in the little
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||
church on the Hermitage farm. Dr. Edgar conducted the
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||
exercises, and the family at the Hermitage were constant in
|
||
their attendance. The last day of the meeting arrived, which
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||
was also the last day of the week. General Jackson sat in his
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||
accustomed Seat, and Dr. Edgar preached. The subject of the
|
||
sermon was the interposition of Providence in the affairs of
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||
men, a subject congenial with the habitual tone of General
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||
Jackson's mind. The preacher spoke in detail of the perils
|
||
which beset the life of man, and how often he is preserved
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||
from sickness and sudden death. Seeing General Jackson
|
||
listening with rapt attention to his discourse, the eloquent
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||
preacher sketched the career of a man who, in adidition to the
|
||
|
||
|
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Bank of Wisdom
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||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
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45
|
||
|
||
The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents
|
||
|
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ordinary dangers of human life, had encountered those of the
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wilderness, of war, and of keen political conflict; who had
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escaped the tomahawk of the savage, the attaeks of his
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||
country's enemies, the privations and fatigues of border
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||
warfare, and the aim of the assassin. How is it, exclaimed the
|
||
preacher, that a man endowed with reason and gifted with
|
||
intellioence can pass through such scenes as these unharmed,
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||
and not see the hand of God in his deliverance? While
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||
enlarging upon his theme, Dr. Edgar saw that his words were
|
||
sinking into the General's heart, and he spoke with unusual
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||
animation and impressiveness."
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We judge from this that Dr. Edgar had learned, his business
|
||
well, as those who are familiar with the psychology of conversions
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||
can testify. The biographer continues:
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"The services ended, General Jackson got into his
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carriage and, was riding homeward. He was overtaken by Dr.
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Edgar on horseback. He hailed the Doctor and said he wished
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||
to, speak with him. Both havinog alighted, the general led the
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||
clergyman a little way into the grove. 'Doctor,' said the
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||
general, 'I want You to come home with me tonight.' 'I cannot
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||
come tonight,' was his reply: 'I am engaged elsewhere.' Dr.
|
||
Edgar said he had promised to visit that evening a sick lady,
|
||
and he felt bound to keep his promise. General Jackson, as
|
||
though he had not heard the reply, said a third time and more
|
||
pleadingly than before, 'Doctor, I want you to come home with
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||
me tonight. 'General Jackson,' said the clergyman, 'my word is
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||
pledged; I cannot break it; but I will be at the Hermitage
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tomorrow morning very early.'
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||
|
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The anxious man was obliged to be contented with this
|
||
arrangement, and went home alone. He retired to his apartment.
|
||
He passed the evening and the greater part of the night in
|
||
meditation, in reading, in conversing with his beloved
|
||
daughter and in prayer. He was sorely distressed. Late at
|
||
night when his daughter left him, he was still agitated and
|
||
sorrowful. What thoughts passed through his mind as he paced
|
||
his room in the silence of the night, of what sins he repented
|
||
and what actions of his life he wished he had not done, no one
|
||
knows or ever will know."
|
||
|
||
Those who have studied the human mind, in relation to the
|
||
emotions will think all of this has a natural interpretation. Many
|
||
a man and woman view their past careers, think of their errors and
|
||
realize they must be corrected or their lives will be failures.
|
||
Many have abandoned their vices and bad habits owing to the fear of
|
||
losing their health and the respect of their neighbor's and
|
||
friends. Some give up their vices through sheer disgust with them.
|
||
Self condemnation is not the exclusive property of supernaturalism.
|
||
Thoughtful people are coming to recognize that the facts of
|
||
religion can be traced to natural causes. The chief aim of the
|
||
religion of General Jackson's day, as represented by Dr. Edgar, was
|
||
to save the soul through faith in the supernatural attributes of
|
||
Christ. It was the teaching of the Presbyterian Church of that day,
|
||
and is yet the teaching of its ereed, that good conduct cannot save
|
||
in lieu of faith. Such has been the teaching of all other orthodox
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
46
|
||
|
||
The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents
|
||
|
||
Churches. They have merely followed the teaching of Paul that faith
|
||
can be counted for righteousness, Martin Luther said, "If any one
|
||
says that the Gospel requires works for salvation, I say flat and
|
||
plain, he is a liar."
|
||
|
||
Jackson's biographer concludes the story of the General's
|
||
conversion:
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||
|
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"In the morning the Rev. Dr. Edgar appeared soon after
|
||
sunrise. General Jackson told the joyful history of the night
|
||
and expressed a desire to be admitted into the Church with his
|
||
daughter that very morning. The usual questions respecting
|
||
doctrine and experience were satisfactorily answered by the
|
||
candidate. Then there was a pause in the conversation. The
|
||
clergyman said at length: 'General, there is one more question
|
||
it is my duty to ask you. Can you forgive all your enemies?'
|
||
The question was evidently unexpected, and the candidate was
|
||
silent for a while. 'My political enemies,' said he, 'I can
|
||
freely forgive; but as for those who abused me when I was
|
||
serving my country in the field, and those who attacked me for
|
||
serving my country -- Doctor, that is a different case.
|
||
|
||
"The Doctor assured him it was not. Christianity, he
|
||
said, forbade the indulgence of enmity absolutely and in all
|
||
cases. No man could be received into a Christian Church who
|
||
did not cast out of his heart every feeling of that nature. It
|
||
was a condition that was fundamental and indispensable.
|
||
|
||
"The Hermitage church was crowded to the utmost of its
|
||
small capacity; the very windows were darkened with the eager
|
||
faces of the servants. After the usual services the General
|
||
rose to make the required public declaration of his
|
||
concurrenre with the doetrines, and his resolve to obey the
|
||
precepts of the Church. He leaned heavily upon his stick with
|
||
both hands; tears rolled down his cheeks. His daughter, the
|
||
fair young matron, stood beside him. Amed a silence the most
|
||
profound the General answered the questions proposed to him.
|
||
When he me was formally pronounced a member of the Church, and
|
||
the clergyman was about to continue the service, the long
|
||
restrained feelings of the congregation burst forth in sobs
|
||
and exclamations which compelled him to pause for several
|
||
minutes. The clergyman himself was speechless with emotion,
|
||
and abandoned himself to the exaultation of the hour. A
|
||
familiar hymn was raised in which the entire assembly joined
|
||
with a fervor which at once expressed and relieved their
|
||
feelings."
|
||
|
||
The conversion of General Jackson gives us an idea of the
|
||
emotional religion so prevalent a century ago, and which still
|
||
linger among us today. Once the question was put to Bishop White,
|
||
one of the pastors of George Washington, "What is your opinion of
|
||
revivals?' The Bishop answered, "They have one great evil, in that
|
||
they cause some to mistake their animal for their spiritual
|
||
nature." Those who want evidence of this should read the chapter in
|
||
Henry A. Wise' 'Seven Decades of the Union,' in which he tells of
|
||
Tangier Island, loceated in Chesapeake Bay, and a part of Virginia,
|
||
where revivals were a regular feature of the island's life, After
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
47
|
||
|
||
The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents
|
||
|
||
a visit from a prominent evangelist the ministers of Pittsburgh met
|
||
and resolved that they would give no more countenance to traveling
|
||
evangelists.
|
||
|
||
It must be remembered that General Jackson was of a very
|
||
emotional nature, and all his life was imbued with strong passions.
|
||
In all his career these prevailed. Sometimes he was desperately
|
||
right, while at other times he was equally desperately wrong. He
|
||
was not a thinker, a student or even a reader, except of the news
|
||
though he had been admitted to the bar, it is sald he never read a
|
||
law book through. He was emphatically a man of action and in that
|
||
sphere he shines in American history. Later he forgot that he had
|
||
agreed to forgive his enemies, and shortly before he died he said
|
||
the greatest mistake he had ever made was when he did not hang John
|
||
C. Calhoun, the leader of the South Carolina nullifiers. To the end
|
||
of his life he delighted to show his friends the pistol with which
|
||
he had killed Charles Dickinson in a duel.
|
||
|
||
It must be remembered that those who have led rough, irregular
|
||
lives in their youth often become fanatically religious in old age.
|
||
"Old Hickory," as he was called owing to his unbending naature,
|
||
except for his military exploits, does not stand as well in history
|
||
as he stood in the estimation of his contemporaries. Yet in his
|
||
commendable qualities many think it would not be an evil to have
|
||
men of his stamp in public life today.
|
||
|
||
JAMES KNOX POLK
|
||
|
||
Born, November 2, 1795. Died, June 15, 1849.
|
||
|
||
President, March 4, 1845 -- March 4, 1849.
|
||
|
||
When James Knox Polk, of Tennessee, was nominated by the
|
||
Democratic party for President, in 1844, after he had been in
|
||
Congress 14 years, Speaker of the House of Representatives for two
|
||
terms and Governor of his own State, he was but little known
|
||
outside of it. His selection was a surprise even to his own party.
|
||
Governor Letcher, of Virginia, exclaimed, "Polk, great God, what a
|
||
nomination!" Stephen A. Douglas remarked, "From henceforth no
|
||
private citizen is safe!" The Whigs sang in a campaign song:
|
||
|
||
"Ha! Ha! Ha! Such a nominee,
|
||
As James K. Polk of Tennessee."
|
||
|
||
He was nominated because the current issues were the
|
||
annexation of Texas and the extension of slavery, two things he
|
||
could be depended upon to accomplish. From 1840 to 1860 is known in
|
||
our history as the era of weak men in the White House. All were
|
||
mere politicians and "trimmers," when a real principle was
|
||
broached. As was the case with a President in our time, the arduous
|
||
duties of his office caused President Polk to break down in health.
|
||
He left Washington an incurably sick man and died within a few
|
||
months after he had returned to his home in Tennessee.
|
||
|
||
The Polk family, like most families of Scotch ancestry, was
|
||
Presbyterian. Mrs. Polk was of the same faith and prohibited
|
||
dancing and card playing in the White House. During the Tyler
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
48
|
||
|
||
The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents
|
||
|
||
administration the Presidential mansion was the scene of gaiety and
|
||
grand entertainments; but on the inauouration of President Polk it
|
||
was said the reign of the Cavalier ended and that of the Puritan
|
||
began. Yet the President was not a member of any Church and had
|
||
never been baptized. While he was an habitual attendant of the
|
||
Presbyterian Church, with his wife, his own private opinions leaned
|
||
toward Methodism. McCormac's 'Life of Polk,' the only one in
|
||
existence so far as we know, on page 721, contains the following
|
||
statement:
|
||
|
||
"The Polk family,, as well as Mrs. Polk, were
|
||
Presbyterians, but the ex-President was not a member of any
|
||
church. He went regularly with his wife to the Church of her
|
||
choice, though his preference was for the Methodist
|
||
denomination. A few days before his death his aged mother came
|
||
from Columbia bringing her own pastor in the hope that her son
|
||
might accept baptism and unite with the Presbyterian Church.
|
||
But the son recalled a promise once given to the Rev. Mr.
|
||
McFerren, of the Methodist Church, that, when he was ready to
|
||
join the Church, the Rev. McFerren should baptise him. Having
|
||
thus formally embraced Christianity, he felt prepared to meet
|
||
the 'great event."'
|
||
|
||
Theodore Parker says that on his deathbed he acknowledged that
|
||
his good works had been as "filthy rags." But he was safely on
|
||
board 'the old ship of Zion before she weighed anchor and spread
|
||
her sails for the Elysian fields.
|
||
|
||
JAMES BUCHANAN
|
||
|
||
Born, April 22, 1791. Died, June 1, 1868.
|
||
|
||
President, March 4, 1857 -- March 4, 1861.
|
||
|
||
James Buchanan was the last of the pre-Civil War Presidents.
|
||
He had been in the House and Senate for 20 years, had been
|
||
Secretary of State and Minister to England. Born in pennsylvania
|
||
and descended, from Scotch emiogrants, he was a Presbyterian by
|
||
inheritance; but like Presidents Jackson and Polk he never joined
|
||
the Church until he retired to private life. All his life, however,
|
||
he had been a regular attendant, and a contributor to all Churches,
|
||
including the Catholic.
|
||
|
||
In August, 1860, his last year in the White House, President
|
||
Buchanan was stopping at Bedford Springs, a summer resort in
|
||
Pennsylvania, where the Rev. Dr. William M. Paxton, pastor of the
|
||
First Presbyterian Church of New York City, was also a guest.
|
||
Having had some previous acquaintance with the reverend doctor he
|
||
one day invited him into his room, where he opened his heart. He
|
||
said:
|
||
|
||
"I think I may say that for 12 years I have 'been in the habit
|
||
of reading the Bible and praying daily. I have never had any one
|
||
with whom I have felt disposed to converse, and now that I find you
|
||
here I have thought you would understand my feelings, and that I
|
||
would venture to open my mind to you upon this important subject,
|
||
and ask for an explanation of some things I do not clearly
|
||
understand."
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
49
|
||
|
||
The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents
|
||
|
||
He then asked Dr. Paxton what a religious experience is, and
|
||
wanted to know how a man might know he was a Christian, to which
|
||
the doctor gave replies that satisfied him, Thereupon the President
|
||
said:
|
||
|
||
"Well, sir, I thank you. My mind is now made up. I hope I am
|
||
a Christian. I think I have had some of the experience which you
|
||
describe, and as soon as I retire from my office as Presiclent, I
|
||
will unite with the Presbyterian Church."
|
||
|
||
Dr. PaxtGn here became excited. It is not often a minister has
|
||
an opportunity to gather a President of the United States into the
|
||
fold. Then he was an old man, and might die, as did President
|
||
Harrison, who so sorely disappointed the Rev. Dr. Hawley. Therefore
|
||
he exclaimed, "Why not now, Mr. President? God's invitation is now
|
||
and you should not say tomorrow." President Buchanan replied with
|
||
deep feeling and a strong gesture: "I must delay, for the honor of
|
||
religion. If I were to unite with the Church now, they would say
|
||
hypocrite. from Maine to Georgia." Here he was different from some
|
||
statesmen of today who seem to take no interest in religion until
|
||
they get into politics, when "the honor of religion" does not
|
||
disturb them.
|
||
|
||
Shortly after the 4th of March, 1861, President Buchanan kept
|
||
his word and was received into the Presbyterian Church of
|
||
Lancaster, Pa., his home city. He was fortunate in living 80 years
|
||
ago instead of today. Now he would not be permitted to serve his
|
||
term in office. He would be compelled to run successfully the
|
||
clerical gauntlet before he could be elected.
|
||
|
||
GROVER CLEVELAND
|
||
|
||
Born, March 18, 1837. Dired, July 24, 1908.
|
||
|
||
President, March 4, 1885 -- March 4, 1889.
|
||
|
||
March 4, 1893 -- March 4, 1897.
|
||
|
||
The first Democratic President to be elected after the Civil
|
||
War was the son of the Rev. Richard Cleveland, a Presbyterian
|
||
minister. Like many other mininsters, the Rev. Mr. Cleveland
|
||
supported a large family on a small salary. His children were
|
||
therefore obliged to work as soon as they were able. Grover worked
|
||
in a store in Fayetteville, N.Y., where his father held his last
|
||
charge before his death. In this place, we are informed by a living
|
||
sister of Mr. Cleveland, he joined the church of which his father
|
||
was the pastor.
|
||
|
||
Later he went to New York City, where he taught for a while in
|
||
a school for the blind. Here he became acquainted with Fanny
|
||
Crosby, the noted hymn writer. He moved from New York City to
|
||
Buffalo, where he studied law, was admitted to the bar, entered
|
||
politics and laid the foundation of his later eminence. While in
|
||
Buffalo, he kept his name on the roll of his father's old church in
|
||
Fayetteville. That he was a member of the Church in Buffalo is
|
||
doubtful. While living there, he had the reputation of being a
|
||
blunt, honest man of the world, whose attendance at the house of
|
||
Bacchus was more regular than his attendance in the house of God.
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
50
|
||
|
||
The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents
|
||
|
||
He loved to play pinochle in favorite salgons, and had he not
|
||
been a drinking man would perhaps not have been elected Mayor of
|
||
Buffalo,' from which office he stepped into the Governor's chair
|
||
and afterwards into the Presidency. He happened to be in a saloon
|
||
drinking a glass of beer and eating a lunch, when in came a number
|
||
of Democratic politicians looking for a candidate for mayor. One of
|
||
them in a joking manner said, "Let us nominate Grover." The joke
|
||
became serious, He was nominated and elected; then nominated and
|
||
elected governor by the greatest majority a governor ever received;
|
||
and in less than four years after he stood in front of the saloon
|
||
bar, was inaugurated President of the United, States.
|
||
|
||
Those who, like the present writer, recall the presidential
|
||
campaign of 1884 between James G. Blaine and Grover Cleveland,
|
||
remember the bitter, abusive, acrid personalities of that year. Mr.
|
||
Blaine had a vulnerable public record, and his opponents flaunted
|
||
the Mulligan letters" with all their strength. His private life,
|
||
however, had been beyond reproach. When he was nominated, Mr.
|
||
Cleveland was an almost unknown man outside of his own State, but
|
||
his public record as sheriff, mayor and governor commended him to
|
||
the people of the United States. His adversaries then launched an
|
||
attack upon his private life. one charge was that he had not done
|
||
his duty to his country during the Civil War by enlisting in the
|
||
army, but had hired a substitute. The fact was that owing to two
|
||
brothers having enlisted, he had to remain home as the sole support
|
||
of his mother and two sisters. When the draft came, he borrowed
|
||
$300 to hire a man to go in his stead.
|
||
|
||
The second charge was not so easily met. A certain Rev. George
|
||
H. Ball, of Buffalo, charged him with seduction and bastardy. This
|
||
preacher of that "charity that thinketh no evil" prayed God not to
|
||
strike him dead because he had voted for Cleveland for governor.
|
||
The friends of Mr. Cleveland prepared to issue a denial, but he
|
||
would not, permit them. He said, "It is true. Tell the truth!" He
|
||
held that while he was willing to defend all his public acts, his
|
||
parivate acts did not concern the public. He was quite justified in
|
||
this view. Another minister, the Rev. Mr. Burchard, in his "Rum,
|
||
Romanism and Rebellion" speech, quite neutralized the attack of the
|
||
Rev. Mr. Ball on the youthful morals of Mr. Cleveland, who was
|
||
elected, the first Democratic President in a quarter of a century.
|
||
The illegitimate child of which so much was said afterwards became
|
||
a prominent professional man and an honored citizen of Buffalo. His
|
||
father was twice elected President of the United States, the Rev.
|
||
Mr. Ball received much free advertising, and when the smoke cleared
|
||
away no one was injured beyond recovery.
|
||
|
||
After Grover Cleveland entered the White House, he gave more
|
||
attention to the Church, as he also did to matrimony, marrying his
|
||
ward, Miss Frances Folsom, a young lady of great personal charm. It
|
||
was not until his second term, on which he entered March 4, 1993,
|
||
that he became prominently religious. A wave of piety swept over
|
||
the country during this year of the great panic, as had happened in
|
||
the two former periods of financial distress, in 1857 and 1873, The
|
||
Churches registered their protests against the inaugural ball,
|
||
which, almost from the foundation of the government, had been an
|
||
occasion of greatl gaiety. The new President was prompt to unite
|
||
with the Churches in voicing his disapproval.
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
51
|
||
|
||
The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents
|
||
|
||
This was also the year of the World's Columbian Exposition in
|
||
Chicago. The Churches had been organizing for three years to
|
||
prevent the doors from opening on Sunday. Religious societies had
|
||
met in conventions and pledged themselves not to attend unless the
|
||
Sabbath was strictly observed. The question was carried into the
|
||
courts. The ministers demanded that Cleveland call out the
|
||
military, if necessary, to shut the gates, but while he sympathized
|
||
with the Sabbatarians he did not go that far.
|
||
|
||
In the fall, he recognized Jesus Christ in his Thanksgiving
|
||
Proclamation, something no other President had ever done. The pace
|
||
for religious legislation having been set during the administration
|
||
of President Harrison, President Cleveland was now looked upon as
|
||
the patron saint of the "National Reformers" and other theocratic
|
||
organizations. During Cleveland's second administration, a Sunday
|
||
law was introduced for the District of Columbia, as was also the
|
||
"Christian amendment," placing God in the Constitution and making
|
||
Christianity the official religion of the State. The late William
|
||
Jennings Bryan was preparing to advocate such an amendment when he
|
||
died.
|
||
|
||
Nor can the sincerity of Mr. Cleveland be doubted. while he
|
||
had not been a "practical Christian" at all times, he seemed to
|
||
revert to the priety, of his youth as he grew older. This happens
|
||
to many who have never given the foundation of religion their
|
||
attention. On January 7, 1904, after the death of his oldest
|
||
daughter Ruth, he wrote to a friend:
|
||
|
||
"I had a season of great trouble in keeping out of my
|
||
mind the idea that Ruth was in the Cold, cheerless grave
|
||
instead of in the arms of her Saviour. It seems to me I mourn
|
||
our darling Ruth's death more and more. So much of the time I
|
||
can only think of her as dead, not joyfully living in heaven.
|
||
God has come to my help and I have felt able to adjust my
|
||
thought to dear Ruth's death with as much comfort as selfish
|
||
humanity will permit. One thing I can Say: not for a moment
|
||
since she left us has a rebellious thought entered my mind."
|
||
|
||
His sister writes that she knew "his boyhood's faith
|
||
brightened his dying hours." The grief of a father for the death of
|
||
a loved child is not a proper subject for discussion, and we can be
|
||
pleased to think that under the circumstances he found consolation.
|
||
We could say the same had he been a Buddhist, a Mohammedan, a
|
||
Mormon or a Confucian.
|
||
|
||
Yet President Cleveland was not a Puritan, and if he were
|
||
alive today, he would not stand well on the Anti-Saloon League's
|
||
card-index. He liked beer, fished on Sunday and kept a store of
|
||
good liquor for himself and his friends.
|
||
|
||
John S. Wise, in his 'Recollections of Thirteen Presidents,'
|
||
says there were two men in American history who above all others
|
||
were attacked by venomous personal abuse, Grover Cleveland and
|
||
Robert G. Ingersoll. This was because of their holding unpopular
|
||
ideas. Fifty years ago, to be a Democrat in some sections was
|
||
synonymous. with being a traitor, an enemy of your country, its
|
||
prosperity and happiness; while to say openly that you did not
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
52
|
||
|
||
The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents
|
||
|
||
accept the orthodox Christian religion was to place yourself
|
||
outside the pale of social recognition and to be looked upon as
|
||
having hoofs and horns.
|
||
|
||
Years ago, I knew an old man in a rural community who was an
|
||
outspoken "Infidel." A woman who knew him remarked: "I do not
|
||
see why some people are so bitter at Mr. ________. He does not
|
||
appear to be any different from other men." Since the partisan
|
||
prejudices that swayed the minds of his contemporaries have become
|
||
extinct, history has been just toward President Cleveland. Now,
|
||
regardless of party, he is considered to have been one of our most
|
||
efficient Presidents.
|
||
|
||
BENJAMIN HARRISON
|
||
|
||
Born, August 20, 1833. Died, March 13, 1901.
|
||
|
||
President, March 4, 1889 -- March 4, 1893.
|
||
|
||
Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd President of the United States,
|
||
waw a great-grandson of Benjamin Harrison, who signed the
|
||
Declaration of Independence, and a grandson of William Henry
|
||
Harrison, the ninth President, at whose house he was born, in 1833.
|
||
He was a Presbyterian, an elder in the Church, and the first
|
||
President who was unquestionably a communicant in an orthodox
|
||
Church at the time he was elected. Grover Cleveland was a
|
||
communicant in his youth and late in life, but there is no evidence
|
||
that he was such when he was first elected.
|
||
|
||
President Harrison was deeply religious, a believer in divine
|
||
providence, and thought himself an object of its particular care.
|
||
Knowing this, during his administration the Churches were
|
||
successful in introducing bills in Congress to promote religion by
|
||
law. On May 21, 1886, Senator Henry W. Blair, of New Hamphire,
|
||
introduced a "National Sunday Rest Bill," the preamble of which
|
||
read, "A bill to secure to the enjoyment of the first day of the
|
||
week, commonly Sunday, as a day of rest, and to promote its
|
||
observance as religious worship." A great outcry was raised against
|
||
this bill as worded, and on December 9, 1889, Senator Blair re-
|
||
introduced it, making the title read, "A bill to secure to the
|
||
people the privilege of rest and religious worship, free from the
|
||
disturbance of others, on the first day of the week." Except that
|
||
it granted exemption from the penalties those "who conscientiously
|
||
believe in and observe any other day than Sunday as the Sabbath or
|
||
day of religious worship," its provisions were not different from
|
||
the first. Not since 1829 had a bill for the enforcement of a
|
||
Sunday law been introduced in the national legislature. As the bill
|
||
entered into the realm of conscience and the field of religious
|
||
controversy, it was not reported from the committee room and died
|
||
a natural death. Similar bills have been since introduced and have
|
||
met the same fate. Four days after introducing his Sunday bill,
|
||
Senator Blair introduced an "Educational Amendment" the
|
||
Constitution of the United States, section 2 of which read: "Each
|
||
State in this Union shall establish a system of public schools,
|
||
adequate for the education of all the children living therein,
|
||
between the ages of six and 16 years inclusive, in the common
|
||
branches of knowledge and in virtue, morality, and the principles
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
53
|
||
|
||
The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents
|
||
|
||
of the Christian religion." This, like his Sunday bill, was very
|
||
deceptive, and, like it, was laid on the table. Senator Blair
|
||
having failed, Mr. W.C.P. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, who was later
|
||
to acquire an unsavory reputation, introduced, on January 6, 1890,
|
||
a Sunday bill for the District of Columbia, which also failed.
|
||
President Harrison's well-known orthodox predilection encouraged
|
||
the sponsors of these bills. Religious legislation has always been
|
||
unpopular, except with the extremists in the Church, yet it is an
|
||
ever present danger.
|
||
|
||
General Harrison had an undistinguished though honorable
|
||
record as an officer in the Civil War, and was Senator from Indiana
|
||
for one term. He was a splendid platform speaker, and publicly had
|
||
a great influence over the masses. In private he had the reputation
|
||
of being cold and distant.
|
||
|
||
WOODROW WILSON
|
||
|
||
Born, December 28, 1856. Died, February 3, 1924.
|
||
|
||
President, March 4, 1913 -- March 4, 1921.
|
||
|
||
Our World War President was Presbyterian through a long line
|
||
of Scotch and Irish ancestors on both his father's and mother's
|
||
side. His father, the Rev. James Ruggles Wilson, was a Presbyterian
|
||
minister who was born in Ohio, of Irish ancestry. His mother's
|
||
father, the Rev. Thomas Woodrow, after whom he was named, came from
|
||
Scotland, and was a graduate of the University of Glasgow. each
|
||
held a high position in the Church, and both are known in its
|
||
history.
|
||
|
||
The father of the future President moved from ohio to Virginia
|
||
early in the 50's. Woodrow Wilson was born at Staunton, Va,; later
|
||
the Wilson family moved to Augusta, Georgia. While in Ohio the Rev.
|
||
Wilson seemed to take no particular interest in the then all-
|
||
absorbing question of slavery. But in 1861, he was a delegate to
|
||
the National Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, held in
|
||
Philadelphia, where a resolution was passed reading out of the
|
||
Church all slave-holders. The Rev. Mr. Wilson at once took up the
|
||
cudgel for his adopted section, and invited southern Presbyterians
|
||
to meet with him in Augusta, where he organized the Southern
|
||
Presbyterian Church. He cast his fortunes with the South during the
|
||
war and became a chaplain in the Confederate Army, while his
|
||
brothers were fighting in the Union Army. After the war, when upon
|
||
a visit to Ohio, he was asked if he was a reconstructed rebel, his
|
||
reply was, "No, only a whipped one." When his son was first
|
||
proposed as a teacher in Princeton University, objection was raised
|
||
against him because of his southern antecedents.
|
||
|
||
The Rev. Joseph Ruggles Wilson was an interesting characte. He
|
||
had all the geniality of the Celt, and was far from being
|
||
puritanical. He loved a good dinner, enjoyed smgking his pipe, and
|
||
sometimes took a nip of "Old Scotch." This, of course, was before
|
||
the crusade for Prohibition had captured the Protestant Churches.
|
||
His Irish wit, combined with his knowledge and interesting
|
||
conversation, made him a social favorite, as those who remember him
|
||
when he passed his latter years at the home of his son will recall.
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
54
|
||
|
||
The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents
|
||
|
||
The maternal uncle of the World War President also had an
|
||
interesting history, which is recorded in the chronicles of his
|
||
adopted country. The Rev. James Woodrow was originally a printer
|
||
and publisher, and sometimes, to hasten work, it was necessary for
|
||
his printers to work nights. He would permit no Sunday work. At
|
||
midnight Saturday he compelled his employes to cease their labors,
|
||
but promptly at two minutes after 12 on Monday morning they
|
||
resumed. In this way the work was accomplished, but the old scotch
|
||
custom of Sabbath keeping was not invalidated. Yet while he was a
|
||
very religious man, and conformed to the standards of the
|
||
Presbyterian Church, he finally got into trouble, and had to leave
|
||
the Church. He believed in and preached Evolution. A minority in
|
||
the Church defended him, but he was ousted from the Presbyterian
|
||
seminary in Columbia, S.C., where he was a teacher of the natural
|
||
sciences. Andrew D. White, in 'The Warfare Between Science and
|
||
Theology in Christendom,' vol. 1, pp. 317-318, thus speaks of his
|
||
case:
|
||
|
||
"This hostile movement became so strong that, in spite of
|
||
the favorable action of the directors of the seminary, and
|
||
against the efforts of a broad-minded minority in the
|
||
representative bodies having ultimate charge of the
|
||
institution, the delegates from the various synods raised a
|
||
storm of orthodoxy and drove Dr. Woodrow from his post.
|
||
Happily, he was at the same time professor in the University
|
||
of South Carolina in the same city of Columbia, and from his
|
||
chair in that institution he continued to teach natural
|
||
science with the approval of the great majority of thinking
|
||
men in that region; hence, the only effect of the attempt to
|
||
crush him was, that his position was made higher, respect for
|
||
him deeper, and his reputation wider."
|
||
|
||
Dr. Woodrow was a real man, and would not compromise as many
|
||
ministers have done. He finally left the Church and became the
|
||
president of a bank. He was a member of a number of learned
|
||
scientific societies both in Europe and America. His trial for
|
||
heresy, in the 1880's, aroused national attention. Nearly 40 years
|
||
later, when his nephew was President of the United States and the
|
||
Fundamentalists had renewed the old battle against Evolution, some
|
||
one wrote to President Wilson asking whether he believed in
|
||
Evolution. He replied: "Of course, like every other man of
|
||
education and intelligence I do believe in organic EvolutiGn. It
|
||
surpises me that at this late date such questions should be
|
||
raised." It is good that while these Scotch Presbyterians are often
|
||
very stubborn in maintaining their opinions, when they change them,
|
||
they are equally stirbborn in defending their new ones.
|
||
|
||
It will, at this point, be pertinent to consider President
|
||
Wilson's views upon the relation of science to certain problems. He
|
||
once said that college instructors could "easily forget that they
|
||
were training citizens as well as drilling pupils"; that a college
|
||
should be "a school of duty." When he was once attacked for being
|
||
hostile to science, he replied:
|
||
|
||
"I have no indictment against what science has done: I
|
||
have only a warning to utter against the atmosphere which has
|
||
stolen from laboratories into lecture rooms and into the
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
55
|
||
|
||
The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents
|
||
|
||
general air of the world at large. Science has not changed the
|
||
nature of society, has not made history a whit easier to
|
||
understand, human nature a whit easier to reform. It has won
|
||
for us a great liberty in the physical world, a liberty from
|
||
superstitious fear and disease, a freedom to use nature as a
|
||
familiar servant, but it has not freed us from ourselves. We
|
||
have not given science too big a place in our education; but
|
||
we have made a perilous mistake in giving it too great a
|
||
Preponderance in method over every other 'branch of study."
|
||
|
||
on the subject of the relation of science to religion, there
|
||
are three sets of opinions: those of the Fundamentalists, who
|
||
reject science; of the Rationalists, who reject the claims of
|
||
religion; of the modernists, of whom President Wilson was one, who
|
||
accept science in the physical world, but will not be bound 'by its
|
||
laws in the spiritual.
|
||
|
||
Mr. Wilson was the first president of Princeton University who
|
||
was not a minister. When he moved there, he found two presbyterian
|
||
Churches, the First and the Second. He thought but one was needed,
|
||
and tried to unite them. He joined the Second and was elected an
|
||
elder, but afterwards left it and gave his support to the First.
|
||
His entire family attended church services, but the children did
|
||
not go to Sunday School. Mrs. Wilson taught them the sunday school
|
||
lesson and the Westminster catechism at home. President Wilson
|
||
often led the chapel exercises in the college, but his talks took
|
||
a practical trend. For instance, he once took as his text a verse
|
||
from Paul's address to Agrippa: "Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was
|
||
not disobedient unto the heavenly vision." (Acts, 26:19.) He then
|
||
enlarged upon the necessity of all having a vision, or a purpose in
|
||
life.
|
||
|
||
President Wilson was not a Puritan. His daughter says that,
|
||
like his father, he was a mixture of dignity and gaiety. He liked
|
||
to play whist, euchre and backgammon, was a remarkable mimic and
|
||
could tell endless dialect stories. Shortly after his entrance into
|
||
the White House, in 1913, his Secretary of State, William Jennings
|
||
Bryan, suggested over the telephone that he make his administration
|
||
a temperance, or white ribbon, affair, and, conforming to the
|
||
custom in President Hayes' day, not serve wine. Mr. Wilson replied
|
||
he would not do this for three reasons: first, it had been the
|
||
custom to serve wine at public dinners, except in one
|
||
administration, since the foundation of the government; second, he
|
||
was not a Prohibitionist, and, third, he liked a drink sometimes
|
||
himself, The Volstead Act was passed and went into effect without
|
||
his signature.
|
||
|
||
Yet anomalies are associated with both Bryan and Wilson. The
|
||
first, an apostle of peace, rests in a military cemetery. The
|
||
second, of the sturdiest Presbyterian stock, found his last resting
|
||
place in a gorgeous Episcopal cathedral.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
56
|
||
|
||
The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER III.
|
||
|
||
PRESIDENTS WHO WERE UNITARIANS
|
||
|
||
In point of numbers the Unitarian Church has always been among
|
||
the minor religious bodies. Yet its influence upon the
|
||
intellectual, moral and literary forces of the united states has
|
||
been far greater Proportionately than its numerical strength. No
|
||
other Church has Contributed to this country so many distinguished
|
||
men and women in all departments of human activity. A few words
|
||
touching the history of this Church, particularly in America, will
|
||
enable us better to comprehend the subject.
|
||
|
||
From the earliest history of the Christian Church there was
|
||
controversy over disputed theological questions. Among these none
|
||
occupied greater attention than the nature of God. Some held to his
|
||
unity, others to the trinity. Those holding the first view were
|
||
almost successful in making it the dogma of the whole Church. They
|
||
were specially strong in the West. They were called Arians, after
|
||
their leader Arius; sometimes Socinians and later Unitarians. The
|
||
Council of Nice" the first ecumenical council of the Church, held
|
||
in the city of that name in southeastern France, was assembled to
|
||
consider two questions: the canon of the Bible, and the "Arian
|
||
controversy," as the question of the Godhead was then called. This
|
||
council sent Arius into exile and condemned his doctrines.
|
||
Afterwards, he died suddenly, and, as his friends maintained,
|
||
through the treachery of his enemies.
|
||
|
||
Wherever Unitarianism penetrated, it was persecuted and
|
||
stamped out. The last two heretics burned at the stake in England
|
||
(in 1612), Bartholomew Legate and Edward Wightman, were put to
|
||
death for denying the trinity. A special law for the punishment of
|
||
this offense by death was passed during the Commonwealth. In the
|
||
toleration act of, 1689 all dissenters except Unitarians were
|
||
granted freedom of worship. In spite of persecution they grew, and
|
||
one of the most distinguished writers on Christian evidence, Dr.
|
||
Nathaniel Lardner, was a Unitarian, and Unitarian views were held
|
||
by John Milton, the poet, Sir Isaac Newton, the scientist, and John
|
||
Locke, the philosopher.
|
||
|
||
In the last quarter of the 18th Century they had two
|
||
distinguished advocates in Richard Price and Joseph Priestley, the
|
||
latter, the discoverer of oxygen. In Birmingham, a mob attacked the
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||
house of Dr. Priestley, burned it to the ground, destroying all his
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||
valuable scientific apparatus. He was driven out of the city and
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||
took refuge in the United States, where he died in Pennsylvania, in
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||
1804. Some of his descendants are still among us. In 1813
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||
toleration was granted the Unitarian Church.
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||
|
||
The invasion of Unitarian thought among the puritanical
|
||
churches of New England began in the last quarter of the 18th
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||
Century, There was an intellectual and moral revulsion against the
|
||
doctrines of origional sin, predeesteination, hell, and the blood
|
||
atonement. King's Chapel, built in 1749, the oldest Episcopal
|
||
church in New England, became Unitarian. James Truslow Adams, in
|
||
his 'New England in the Republic,' p. 220, quotes from G.W. Cooke's
|
||
'Unitarianism in America,' p. 75:
|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
57
|
||
|
||
The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents
|
||
|
||
"In Boston a visitor wrote in 1791 that the ministers
|
||
there were so diverse in their views that they could not agree in
|
||
any one point in theology. Ten years later there was but one
|
||
minister in that city who accepted the doctrine of the Trinity."
|
||
|
||
In 1810 the great controversy upon the subject was still on,
|
||
and by 1,925 Unitarianism had captured a large number of the New
|
||
England
|
||
|
||
@@@@ book p. 54 on to 65 must be scanned again, print does not scan
|
||
well.
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|
||
|
||
|
||
Bank of Wisdom
|
||
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
||
58
|
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