Washington was succeeded by Mr. John Adams, a lawyer of some distinction, who wrote and published an elaborate work on the Federal Constitution. He is the only President of the United States who has, in a public document, so far as the writer recollects, acknowledged Jesus Christ. In his proclamation of a fast, he invites the nation to seek the favor of heaven,
"through the Redeemer."
He sealed his Unitarianism, at the communion table of Dr. Joseph Priestly, the Socinian, in Philadelphia, while he was Secretary of State. He had been a constant hearer and admirer of Priestly, for some time before he ratified, at his Sacrament, the rejection of Messiah’s Godhead.
[7]
Mr. Jefferson, the successor of Mr. Adams, was an avowed infidel, and notoriously addicted to immorality. To the common decency of Washington’s or Adams’ moral deportment, he had no pretensions. His Notes on Virginia contain very satisfactory evidence, that the author, when he composed that work,
was an enemy to revealed religion, and a virulent foe to the Church of God. Had the people of the United States known the immorality of his private life, and the
scorn with which he treated the religion of Jesus; it is surely impossible that he could have been elected to the first office in their gift.
[8]
Mr. Jefferson’s successor, Mr. Madison, was educated by godly parents, with a view to the Ministry of reconciliation. He commenced the study of Theology, under the care of Dr. Witherspoon, President of Princeton College, where he attended a prayer meeting of the pious youth of that Seminary, who were preparing for the Holy Ministry.
When he returned from Princeton to his fathers house in Virginia, Mr. Jefferson was a young village lawyer, who had attracted the notice of the neighborhood, by his regular business habits, in collecting debts, drawing indentures,
&c.
Madison, to the grief of his parents, abandoned the study of Theology, and entered the office of the infidel and libertine Jefferson, as a student of law. Though Mr. Madison has pledged himself neither in public nor private, to the belief of Christianity, yet he is not known to have employed his influence, like Jefferson, in attempts to abolish the Christian Faith. The value of a religious education is strikingly illustrated the private character of James Madison
. Jefferson probably made him a deist, and yet his moral deportment, as it regards the second table of the law, has been respectable. All the influence of the infidel creed, and the profligacy of morals about court, have not been of sufficient force to demolish utterly the fabric of a religious education. For the honor of the country, we may hope that he will not contrive to die on the 4th of July.
Mr. Monroe lived and died like a second rate Athenian Philosopher.
Mr. John Q. Adams and Gen. Jackson are yet in public life. Compare their characters with those of Hezekiah and Josiah,
"fearers of the Lord" who reigned over Israel, and there will be little difficulty in estimating the amount of holiness which they practice in the fear of the Lord. No Federal Cabinet, since the first formed, has given any more evidence of the fear of the Lord, than did that of Washington.
Some state governors have been professors of the Christian religion. But in too many instances, the state Cabinet has resembled, in irreligion, that of the Federal Government.
There have been seven governors of Pennsylvania, and the same number of New York. Their characters have been generally analogous to those of the Presidents. One in Pennsylvania, and two in New York, are believed to have been possessors of religion. The heads of departments in the federal government, have been with very few exceptions, destitute of all pretensions to the character of fearers of the Lord.
In the session of Congress 1829-30, no more than seven out of three hundred and nine members of Congress could be prevailed on to meet and pray together. The Patron of this city [Albany, NY], whose character as an exemplary Christian is well known, informs the writer of these pages, that when he was in Congress the number of praying members was greater; so that there is an increasing degeneracy.
So unusual is practical religion among public men, that to many it would seem ridiculous, for a Governor to pray in his family evening and morning. Can anything have a more malign influence on the cause of vital godliness than that statesmen, and officers of the Army and Navy, who are avowedly irreligious, and even profane swearers, card players, Sabbath breakers and libertines are the constant themes of eulogy? The collision of the factions, indeed, begins to render public men objects of distrust. If we believe one half of what the public journals assert, respecting the baseness of the leading politicians—if but a little of all that is uttered by such men as Berrien, Branch, Ingham,
&c. respecting their compeers is true, there is a most scandalous degradation of moral principle among those who should be emphatically "the fearers of the Lord"—the exemplars of religion, and the conservators of social virtue. Every patriot, who knows how low the state of morals is at the seat of the general government, blushes for his country; while the genuine disciple of Christ,
"sighs and cries for all the abominations that be done," (
Ezek. 9:4) in the City of Washington, and at the capitals of the several states.
How rare are such statesmen as the exemplary Governor Vroom of New Jersey! the late Governor Crafts, and the present Governor Palmer of Vermont! Such Statesmen shine as bright lights amidst the surrounding darkness. They are not ashamed in the private walks of life, nor in public documents, to acknowledge themselves the disciples of Christ Jesus and the subjects of Messiah the Prince.
2. The Unitarian heresy through the influence of Mr. Adams, has prevailed extensively in New England; and Deism in the southern states, through that of Mr. Jefferson.
When Mr. Adams was elected to the Presidency, there was not one of the Congregational ministers of the New England states known to be a Unitarian.
[9] By the connexion of Mr. Adams with Dr. Priestly, the books of Arians and Socinians, were placed in the University of Boston. That the President patronized these heresies, was enough to recommend them to multitudes of thoughtless young men. Harvard University in Boston, with very ample revenues, supports more than twenty professors, who are all Unitarian. It has the command of a printing press, which diffuses Unitarian literature over the whole nation. The counters of the bookstores in Boston groan with heretical publications. The majority of the general court, or legislature of the state of Massachusetts, is believed to have been for several years Unitarian. The officiating chaplains have been Unitarian. We have no statistics of the Unitarian clergy; for they are connected with the Congregational convention of the State of Massachusetts; and found in the associations of the New England states; but we cannot estimate too high their number by setting it down at two hundred.—They are rapidly increasing.
It is no fancy, no idle imagination, to trace this great declension of the Puritan churches of Boston and its vicinity, to the malign influence of a Socinian President. Jeroboam set up calves at Dan and Bethel, and his idolatry continued, until the dispersion of the ten tribes. The New England heretics "have not departed From the sin of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin."
Deism prevailed long, and still prevails in the southern states. As the luxuriant opulence of Boston, derived from her trade with the Indies, prepared her for the reception of Unitarianism; so the demoralizing influence of slavery in the south, paved the way for the spread of Deism from the populace by Mr. Jefferson.
His Notes on Virginia, and the conversations, which a President of his talents and popularity held with his special friends, could not fail to corrupt the southern people. His gross blasphemies which he prepared for posthumous publication, and which his grandson, Mr. Randolph, has published in his life, were retailed from year to year, during his whole life, after his return from France. The power and reputation of the President operated as a premium for embracing infidelity.
It is true that of late years the name of Unitarianism, has been worn as a mask by the infidels of the south. But Deism lives and flourishes under the shade of Jefferson’s name.
3. Other heresies and errors increase in all parts of the nation, producing violent strifes and fierce passions, even in the bosoms of the several denominations of Christians. Those who hold the ancient and pure truths of the gospel, and desire to apply them faithfully as their fathers have done, are reproached as bigots, by those who have adopted more convenient creeds, for the purpose of flattering the depravity of human nature, and of paying court to the ungodly great.
4. The morals of the citizens are becoming more and more corrupt. Boston is nearly as immoral as ancient Tyre was. How are the mighty fallen! The writer of these pages, in the year 1815, in traveling from Albany to Boston, and from Boston to New-Haven, does not recollect to have seen one person in a state of intoxication, nor to have heard more than two or three profane expressions.
In 1821, only six years afterwards, making a tour through New England, from Hartford to Northampton, thence to Boston, and through Rhode Island and Connecticut, he believes that he heard profane swearing, and saw indications of intemperance at every public house, where he called.
The Sabbath is very grossly and scandalously violated in all parts of the United States. It is true, the federal and state legislatures, and the courts of justice, do yet adjourn, on the Lord’s holy day. But how do the officers of the government spend their Sabbaths? Which of them reads the Holy Scriptures, "spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of religion?" [Westminster Confession of Faith, XXI, 8]. The transportation of the mails, the opening of the post-offices, and the diffusion of political and other secular intelligence, profane the Sabbath, and corrupt the public mind. The bustle of steamboats and canal navigation, and traveling by stages and railroad cars, have nearly divested the Lord’s day of the appearance of holiness. Few, very few, hesitate to travel by steamboats and canal packets on Sabbath. Not a few professors of religion, and—O shame!—some ministers of the gospel, with shameless front, travel on the Lord’s day for mere secular objects. But we must not wonder, however much we regret, that those professing Christians who flatter vile men high in places, will copy their example in trampling under foot the holy day, which has been consecrated by the authority of God to religion. During less than fifty years that this government has been in operation, the sin of drunkenness has prevailed and increased, to an extent that has filled with alarm all good men.
To arrest these and other evils, great efforts are made by the friends of Christian morality. Much has been done to instruct the public in relation to the claims of the Sabbath, and other institutions of heaven, upon all classes of the citizens. They have not, however, done much more than to stay a little the progress of irreligion.
5. To support all the immoralities embodied in the United States, and other Constitutions, those who enter on nearly all civil offices, and the Professors in many literary institutions, in Pennsylvania, particularly, take solemn oaths. Where is the man, who believing as perhaps nearly all the citizens of the northern states do, Negro slavery to be a moral evil, would lift up his hand and swear to recognize, and support, and aid men in the commission of this sin? If the nation is chargeable with guilt in this matter, the sin surely rests on all who bind themselves by oaths to support those Constitutions, in which the evil is embodied. The oath comprehends the evil, as well as the good in the instrument.—The moral evils entering into the principles of the fundamental law of the commonwealth, ramify through nearly all the political transactions of the nation.—Thousands commit this sin without a moments reflection. Some, indeed, do reflect, and say, there are immoralities in the Constitution, but it makes provision for its own amendment; therefore, I swear to the evils, intending to procure their reform. But what is this? The thing sworn to is a sin. May anyone swear to support sin for one moment? This is doing "evil that good may come,"—"whose damnation," says God, "is just."
Rom. 3:8. Let all the fearers of the Lord, all who love to honor the Lord Jehovah and his holy law—all who honor and adore Prince Messiah, reflect on the fearful fact, that nearly all the men who enter on the discharge of their official functions, are qualified for those public offices, by swearing an oath that involves what is contrary to the law of God, the rights of man, and the honor and glory of Him who is King of kings and Lord of lords.
The extent of this evil is not a little changed by the consideration that the people who elect them to office choose them as their representatives, to swear in the name of their constituents, these immoral oaths. It is a maxim of law,
"quod facit per alium, facit per se." He that does any act by his delegate, is accountable for the act as his own. The spectacle, then, is presented of a whole nation, at their annual election, choosing men to swear as their representatives, to an instrument that involves moral evils.
