ARTICLES & COMMENTARY: TOC: The Rise of Church-State Alliances: Imperial Edicts & Church Councils between 306-565: Emperors Constantine through Justinian: The Rise of Protestant Alliances of Church and State: Martin Luther and the German Reformation The Rise of Protestant Alliances of Church and State: Ulrich Zwingli and the Swiss Reformation The Constitution and the Commandments The Classical Temple Architecture of Washington, DC A History of Religious Tests: 312 to 1961 American Founders on Church-State Alliances The Bible and the Quran: A Scriptural Comparison Religion and Women's Suffrage Religious Tradition and Interracial Marriages The Slaves of Jefferson and Washington and the 1782 Virginia Law of Manumission Slavery and the Churches Gays & Social Conservatism as a Coercive Tool of the State Einstein's Religion The Changing Religious Identification of America Moral Hypocrisy in the Bible Belt Ring Species, Evolution and why Intelligent Design isn't science. Who am I : Why this project? : Contact me INFO & EYE OPENERS FROM OTHERS: Court Holdings on Church and State Historical Revisionism: On David Barton's Christian Nation Biblical Archeology Review Special: Captivity, Exodus, and Conquest Sexual Orientation in Nature The Biological Basis of Morality by Edward O. Wilson | Legally, is the United States a Christian Nation? In 1797 the United States Senate ratified the Treaty of Tripoli which involved making peace with the Barbary Coast of North Africa (Morocco to Libya). The treaty specifically notes the religious character of the Barbary peoples as Muslim. It was ratified by the full Senate - unanimously. This is important because by this ratification it is clear that the President and the Senate of the founding era, of the American Enlightenment, had a very different philosophical view of our foundation than Christian conservatives generally do. Article 11 of the treaty reads: "As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion -- as it has itself no character of enmity against the law, religion or tranquility of Musselmen, and as the said states never have entered into an war or act of hostility against any Mohametan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce." Not in any sense founded on the Christian religion? No pretext arising from any religious opinion? Why would the President of the United States and a unanimous Senate say such a thing if it were not true? In the alternate universe of the religious right's Senate chamber of 1797, Christian voices would raise a clamoring charge that this was not so! But the legally Christian nation was not fact to the founding generation that ratified this treaty; every senator ratified the entire treaty. A large part of the answer to this apparent contradiction to the Christian nation doctrine lies in the prevalence of enlightenment thought in the intellectual circles of both Europe and America. The enlightenment was all the rage in coastal, educated America, complete with an abundance of classical and renaissance literature, Newtonian science, and a sprinkling of deism. Like the Reformation period, which sprang from the the liberal nature of the renaissance period, the enlightenment was a political, scientific, and cultural revolution that changed all of western society. It is important to notice that Article 11 of the Treaty isn't speaking of heritage, tradition, or culture; it is speaking of the government of the United States. That government, with all its codes and statutes, from the smallest town to the federal government, must be pursuant to the Constitution, a clearly secular and non-religious document. It is not anti-religion or pro-religion; it is religion-neutral. So now, what is the place of treaties in the Constitution? This is set down in no uncertain terms, as are the limits on states rights, in Article 6, Section 2. The section reads: "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the Supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every state shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding." Even if one is to dispute any high place for treaties under the Constitution, it is hard to dismiss what the United States Senators and the President agreed that the Government of the United States was not in any sense founded on the Christian religion. And it would be a false premise because if one looks at the Federalist Papers, the Anti-Federalist Papers, and the state ratification conventions after the signing of the Constitution in Philadelphia, you will notice that this was an issue that was debated in regards to the power of the Senate. Many did complain but in the end the Senate's authority in matters of treaties was ratified by all the parties. The Treaty was read aloud on the floor and published for all the Senators and every one voted in the affirmative. The treaty was signed into law by President John Adams only six years after the ratification of the Bill of Rights. The treaty testifies unequivocally against the historical revisionists. Here is President John Adams final say on the treaty: "Now be it known, that I, John Adams, President of the United States of America, having seen and considered the said treaty do, by and within the consent of the Senate, accept, ratify and confirm the same, and every clause and article thereof." Every clause and article. The separation of church and state is not a myth and invention of liberals, nonbelievers and activist judges in the 1960s as some claim. Note this ruling by the United States Supreme Court in an 1860 case, Melvin V. Easley. "Christianity is not established by law, and the genius of our institutions requires that the Church and the State should be kept separate....The state confesses its incompetency to judge spiritual matters between men or between man and his maker ... spiritual matters are exclusively in the hands of teachers of religion".  Just who were these men of the United States Senate who unanimously voted that the government of the United States was not in any sense founded on the Christian religion? David Barton and his Wallbuilders yahoos like to act as if the founders supported the concept of the Christian Nation but their arguments are based in their own wishful, evangelical thinking. Fundamentalist Christians project their own beliefs on to founders as if these founders were the same type of Christians as them. Most were sons of the Enlightenment. Church members or not, it is clear by the Senate's ratification of the treaty that they believed the government of the United States is not a Christian one. So who were these men? Were they lesser men than the signers of the Declaration, the Articles of Confederation and the Federal Constitution? I think you will be surprised. As it was with the founding fathers were are most familiar with, these were not ordinary men. From the Treaty Minutes the Journal of the executive proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America, 1789-1805 Monday, May 29, 1797 Bloodworth, from the Committee to whom was referred the consideration of the treaty of peace and friendship, between the United States of America and the Bey and subjects of Tripoli, of Barbary, made report, that it be adopted; and the report being amended, |
A wealthy and influential shipping merchant from Portsmouth, John Langdon served as the US Senator for the State of New Hampshire from April 6, 1789 to March 4, 1801. He was a signer of the United States Constitution in Philadelphia and became New Hampshire's first US Senator. He was the very first President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate. This position in the Senate is the highest rank other than the Vice President of the United States who is the President of the Senate. As a supporter of the revolution he served in the forces that seized the British munitions at Fort William and Mary in 1774 and was New Hampshire's delegate in the First Continental Congress of 1775-1776. After that he superintended the building at least three warships for the Continental forces, fought at the Battles of Bennington and Rhode Island, and commanded Langdon's Company of Light Horse Volunteers at the Battle of Saratoga. Before and after his tenure in the US Senate he was the Governor of NH. He also served several years in the NH Legislature. He was probably a member of the Congregationalist Church.
The son of a judge, Senator Theodore Foster was the first United States Senator for the State of Rhode Island. He served from June 7, 1790 to March 4, 1803. Foster was classically educated at the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, which became Brown University. As the protege of Stephen Hopkins, Brown's first chancellor, Chief Justice of Rhode Island, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, he studied law and became a lawyer. He served in the Rhode Island legislature, the state's Council of War, and was a judge in the court of admiralty while a naval officer. As a naval officer, he played a part in the Gaspee Affair, a naval chase incident in 1772 which involved attacking, looting and destroying the HMS Gaspee after it ran aground while enforcing extremely unpopular trade regulations against the colonies. Foster was a strong supporter of the Federalist cause of Washington, Hamilton and Madison and backed his state's ratification of the federal Constitution. See also Theodore Foster's minutes of the convention held at South Kingstown in March of 1790 which failed to adopt the Constitution at Google books. After his terms in the US Senate, he returned to the state legislature from 1812 to 1816. His religion is unknown.
New Jersey's Senator at the time was the Federalist John Rutherfurd. His tenure at the Senate lasted from March 4, 1791 to December 5, 1798. He was New Jersey's second US Senator. He studied law at Princeton and began his practice in New York City. Returning to New Jersey, he was served in the New Jersey general Assembly 1788-1790. Rutherfurd also served as a Presidential Elector in 1788. He was then elected to the US Senate. After his service in the US Senate, Rutherfurd remained very active in New Jersey politics. His religion is unknown but he was buried in his family vault at Christ Church Cemetery in Belleville, NJ.
The Democratic-Republican Senator from Kentucky in the Fifth Congress was a US Representative for Virginia in the First and Second Congress. Senator John Brown is known as the Founding Father of the fourteenth state, Kentucky. As a representative of Virginia in the infancy of the United States', it was John Brown who introduced the Bill which led to Kentucky statehood. Virginia at the time included wide expanses of land that included Kentucky and West Virginia. They also laid claims to the northwest of there. When Kentucky became a State on June 1, 1792, John Brown was elected by Kentucky and served from June 18, 1792 to March 3, 1805.
During the Eighth Congress he served as the Senate's President Pro Tempore. John Brown was the son of Irish immigrants. His father was a Presbyterian preacher and a learned schoolmaster. First educated at Liberty Hall Academy (now Washington and Lee College), Brown began his collegiate studies at the College of New Jersey (Princeton) and furthered them by studying law at The College of William and Mary. Due to his years at Princeton and William and Mary being interrupted at times by British military intrusions, Brown served war until its end. After his studies at William and Mary, Brown taught for a while and then went on to study law and work in the law office of Thomas Jefferson. After being admitted to the bar, Brown moved to Frankfurt to build a practice.
A community leader, he was elected by the Kentucky District in 1784 to serve in the Virginia State Senate. That body soon elected him to be the district of Kentucky's delegate to the Congress of the Confederation in 1787 and 1788. Under the nation's first ratified Constitution - called The Articles of Confederation, the Continental Congress became the Congress of the Confederation on March 1, 1781. His Frankfurt, Kentucky home called Liberty Hall, is a National Historic Landmark. William Bradford was the US Senator for the State of Rhode Island from March 4, 1793 to October of 1797. He was Senate President Pro Tempore of the Fifth Congress from July 6, 1797 until his resignation in October 1797 at the age of 68. Bradford was educated as a physician in Hingham, Massachusetts, then moved to Rhode Island where he began his practice. There he was elected to Rhode Island's colonial assembly in in 1761.
Finding he preferred law and public service, he switched gears, began studying law, and was admitted to the bar in 1767 at the age of 38. Bradford served in the Rhode island legislature before and after his term in the US Senate until 1803. Bradford also served as Deputy Governor of Rhode Island during the initial years of the revolution and was elected to be the state's delegate to the Continental Congress in 1776 which he did not attend. His home was destroyed by the British naval bombardment of Bristol on October 7, 1775 after which he was part of the cease-fire negotiating aboard a British vessel.
New Hampshire's other US Senator was Samuel Livermore. Supporting Washington as a Federalist he served in the Senate from March 4, 1793 to his retirement on June 12, 1801. He was also the President Pro Tempore of the Senate during the Fourth and Sixth Congresses. Educated at the College of New Jersey Princeton, he was admitted to the Bar in 1756. Dedicated to public service, he served in the New Hampshire Legislature, was a legal advocate in the Admiralty Court, and then became New Hampshire's Attorney General from 1769 to 1774. Elected to both the Continental Congress 1780-1782 and the Congress of the Confederation 1785-1786. He was at the same time the Chief Justice of the NH Superior Court from 1782 to 1789.
Not one to slow down, he was also a delegate to New Hampshire's ratification convention of the federal Constitution in 1788. After the ratification of the United States Constitution, New Hampshire elected Livermore to the US House of Representatives for the First and Second Congresses of the United States. serving from March 4, 1789 to March 4, 1793. There he was chairman of the House Committee on Elections in the Second Congress. At the same time he presided over NH's Constitutional Convention in 1791 & 1792. His grave is at Trinity Churchyard in Holderness.
The son of a Presbyterian minister, Senator Alexander Martin represented the state of North Carolina. He served from March 4, 1793 to March 4, 1799. As an anti-Federalist he opposed many of the Washington and Adams policies. He received his education at The College of New Jersey / Princeton, being awarded a B.A. in 1756 and an M.A. in 1759. He moved to North Carolina around 1761 and became a Justice of the Peace, a practicing attorney, and a judge in Guilford County. The years 1773 and 1774 were spent as a representative in the State house of Commons. As the war neared, he then served in the provincial congress in 1775 and then as an officer in the Revolutionary War. After the war, he served in the North Carolina Senate during periods from 1778 to 1782, in 1785, and from 1787 to 1788. He was acting Governor in 1781 then the General Assembly elected him North Carolina Governor for three consecutive terms. In 1786 Martin was selected to be a delegate to the Confederation Congress but resigned without attending a session. He was also elected as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, but he left before the document was signed. The years of 1789, 1790, and 1791 found him thrice again in the Governor's chair. A strong advocate for education like Jefferson, Martin served on the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1790 until his death in 1807.
Delaware's Senator Henry Latimer wore more than one hat from the start. Son of a wealth merchant family, at the College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania), he sought a strong classical liberal education and then studied medicine, graduating in 1773. He furthered his studies in medicine with a degree in 1775 from Edinburgh Medical College in Scotland. Returning home at a time when the revolution was commencing, he was appointed Surgeon General of the Northern Division of the Continental Army. He operated the "Flying Hospital", which was a mobile surgical unit that served outside battles whenever possible. Latimer was elected to Continental Congress in Annapolis but never attended. Strongly Federalist, he served in Delaware House of Representatives from 1787 through the 1791 session. He was the Speaker of the House during the 1790-1791 session. At this time Latimer ran for the US House of Representatives and lost initially.
Challenging the outcome, the Federalists in charge were able to disqualify enough votes to hand Latimer his victory over his opponent Patton. After being seated in the US House, he resigned after a year of service and his state legislature elected him to fill the US Senator seat vacated by George Read's resignation. He served from February 7, 1795 to February 28, 1801, when he resigned due to his frustration with the successes of his opponents, the Jeffersonian Democrati- Republicans. His constituents were increasingly Irish and Democratic-Republican and the never let him forget the "stolen election" and his negative attitude towards the laboring classes and the Irish. According to historians he said "the laboring classes lived too well to be happy and should be reduced to the fare of the Irish.". Latimer was not one to lay down even if he did seem to leave many of his assignments unfinished. Latimer served at the highest levels of the Wilmington Academy board, the Bank of Delaware, the First Agricultural Society of New Castle County, and was the President of the Board of Trustees of Newark College. He was a charter member of the Delaware Medical Society. He died in Philadelphia on December 19, 1819; his grave is in his denomination's Presbyterian Cemetery of Wilmington, Delaware.
Pennsylvania's Federalist Senator William Bingham served from March 4, 1795 to March 4, 1801. Bingham graduated from the College of Philadelphia (University of PA) in 1768 and went into the trading and land development. He also founded the first bank in America, the Bank of North America. By the start of the revolution, he was considered the richest man in Philadelphia. During the war he was an agent then a consul in the West Indies for the Continental Congress. Bingham also had his hand in the Privateering business in which the government authorized private ships to attack foreign shipping. The strategy cost the government nothing and brought arms and goods into the Continental forces all the while profiting the private merchants.
After the war he was elected by Pennsylvania to represent it in the Congress of the Confederation from 1786 to 1788. He then served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1790 and 1791, and as its very first Speaker of the House in 1791. Bingham then made the jump to the State Senate from 1793 through 1794. Bingham was then elected to the US Senate by Pennsylvania's legislature to succeed Robert Morris, the wealthy man who is sometimes called the Financier of the American Revolution. Senator Bingham served from March 4, 1795 to March 4, 1801 and was President ProTtempore during the Fourth Congress but was not at all liked by the Jeffersonian politicians, who lambasted him for, "extravagance, ostentation and dissipation".
North Carolina's Senator Timothy Bloodworth served from March 4, 1795 to March 4, 1801. It can be said that he was not educated in any way similar to most of the other Senators. He rose from a 'jack of all trades' commoner from the country to a United States Senator by way of the strengths of his beliefs. He was one of the first working class politicians of his time. The North Carolina History Project states: "Bloodworth had little formal education, but he pursued a variety of careers. He farmed, taught school, kept a tavern, and operated a ferry. At one point, he practiced medicine and preached occasionally. He also worked as a wheelwright and watchmaker, but he was probably best known as a blacksmith. Bloodworth’s many services to his neighbors won him a large following even if, in the words of nineteenth-century North Carolina historian Griffith McRee, his learning was so ill-digested as sometimes to excite ridicule, and expose him to the charge of quackery."
During the revolution he produced guns and bayonets for the Continental forces and had a seat in the state House of Commons 1778-1779. His service there actually began in 1758. At the close of the war he served as Treasurer of the Wilmington District and then was appointed in 1783 as Commissioner of Confiscated Property. He was radical about how the loyalists should be treated and how debt to Britain was to be handled. He wished to keep all the loyalist's confiscated properties and to tell England we owed them nothing. He wanted to continue punishing loyalists even after the war. He was considered ruthless. In 1786 North Carolina elected him to the Congress of the Confederation then he ran and won a seat 1788-1789. At this time he returned to North Carolina to fight the ratification of the Constitution which to him meant the federal government would overwhelm the states. The state finally did ratify the Constitution when the Bill of Rights was sent to the states but he still fought it without any political consequences whatsoever. As a Democratic-Republican he was very popular. He was then elected to the US House of Representatives but then again returned to local politics in the North Carolina House of Representatives 1793-1794. He then ran and won a term in the United States Senate. After his term in the Senate he once again returned to public service at home as a Customs officer in Wilmington.
An interesting fellow to say the least. Preacher, teacher, gunsmith, blacksmith, tavern owner, slaver, radical anti-federalist and then member of the Federalist Constitution's Congress which he fought tooth and nail. A preacher who affirmed the government of the United States was not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.
Elijah Paine was Vermont's first United States Senator. He served from March 4, 1795 to September 1, 1801. As a young man he served in the Continental Army in 1776 and 1777 and then studied at Harvard, graduating with an A.B. in 1781. After studying at Harvard Law school he was admitted to the bar in 1784. While still a farmer, he practiced law in his home state. It was Paine that began the settlement in Williamstown and Paine who established a saw mill, a cloth factory and grist mill in Northfield, Vt. He served in the state constitution's convention of 1786 and then became a Probate Judge from 1788 to 1791. Concurrently, he served in the Vermont House of Representatives from 1787 to 1790. From 1791 to 1794 Paine was the Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court. In his final year he was elected by the Vermont legislature to be the US Senator to represent the new State of Vermont. He was re-elected in 1801 but when nominated and confirmed by that same Senate, he took a judgeship on the US District Court in Vermont. There he remained for the next forty years, retiring just a month before his death.
Born at Hobcaw Plantation, Senator Jacob Read represented the State of South Caroline from March 4, 1795 to March 4, 1801. While in the Senate he served a short time in the Fifth Congress as Senate Pro tempore from November 22, 1797 to December 12, 1797. Growing up, he was educated in the classical liberal tradition, went on to study law and became a lawyer. In 1773 and 1774 he continued his law studies in England. As the conflict approached, Read joined other Americans in London who petitioned against British sanctions against the Boston Port. Returning to South Carolina he served in both civil and military positions during the war. As a prisoner of war, he spent 1780 and 1781 in St. Augustine.
When the war ended he was free and soon thereafter was elected to the State Assembly and he also served in the Governor's Privy Council. Using his background and skills he was elected to the Congress of the Confederation for three terms in 1783, 1784, and 1785. His political career continued in the South Carolina House of Representatives where he was the Speaker of the House until he was elected as a Federalist to the US Senate. He lost his re-election bid to the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican John Colhoun. He died on July 17, 1816 and was buried in the family plot at Hobcaw. The United Senator for Georgia in the Fifth Congress was Josiah Tattnall. He served in the Senate from February 20, 1796 to March 4, 1799. Having a prep school's classical education he continued his studies at Eaton College in England when the revolutionary war broke out. It is possible his father was a loyalist because he slipped away in secret back to America and joined the Continental Army in 1782. Kids those days!
Continuing in a military career, he was a soldier in the Georgia State Troops in 1793, promoted to Colonel in 1793. He must have been a skillful leader because he ran for and was elected for a term in the Georgia House of Representatives for the term of 1795-1796. Evidently an impressive man, he was elected by Georgia to represent them in the United States Senate. All this time he retained his military status and even was promoted to Brigadier General in 1801 when he was elected Governor of Georgia. At the same time, he was a wealthy planter and was able to retire to the West Indies where he died in 1803.
Connecticut's second US Senator was James Hillhouse and he served from December 6, 1796 to June 10, 1810. He was a staunch Federalist and while serving in the Jefferson years, opposed many of Jefferson's policies, including the Louisiana Purchase. Growing up in the New Haven area, he attended what is now the nation's third oldest educational facility, the Hopkins School. A prep school, Hopkins' classical liberal education readied Hillhouse for his college education at Yale, where he ended up studying law and was admitted to the bar in 1775. After graduation, Hillhouse began his practice in New Haven but when the revolution began he joined the war effort. As a Captain in the Governor's Foot Guards, he fought the British when they invaded New Haven. From his military leadership he then served in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1780 to 1785. The years of 1789 and 1790 found him in the State Council. An man of impressive strengths, he was chosen to serve in the Congress of the Confederation but never attended a session.
He then served in the Second, Third, and Fourth Congress of the United States in the US House of Representatives. Due to a resignation an election was held and he won the US Senate seat. A strong leader, he was President Pro Temp of the Senate during the Sixth Congress of the United States. Although he believed the Government of the United States was not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion, he held a deep resentment for Jefferson and suggested Connecticut's secession from the Union. Hillhouse resigned his seat in 1810.
The Massachusetts Senator Benjamin Goodhue was a fierce Hamiltonian Federalist who served in the Senate from June 11, 1796 to November 8, 1800. Educated at Harvard, he became a wealthy merchant and also entered the political arena just as John Langdon of NH did. His career seems to have started with a bang as he was chosen as a delegate to the state's constitutional convention in 1779 and 1780. He then served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives for three terms. In 1783 and 1786 through 1788 he served in the State Senate. After the ratification of the Federal Constitution, he was elected to the US House of Representatives, serving from March 4, 1789 to June of 1796. During the Fourth Congress he was the Chairman of the Committee on Commerce and Manufactures. He then progressed to the US Senate, filling ma vacancy due to the resignation of George Cabot.
In these days, the state legislatures elected their state's Senators so one had to be highly esteemed by the legislature, not the constituents. Senator Goodhue had a radical streak in him; he was part of the Essex Junto. This was a pro-Hamilton, anti-Jefferson coalition that sought to secede and form a northeastern Confederacy based in New England. They were so against Jefferson's second revolution and displacement of all things federalist that they sought radical solutions.
Massachusetts' other Senator was the Federalist, Theodore Sedgwick. He served from June 11, 1796 to March 4, 1799. His initial education was at Yale where he studied law and theology but he left Yale to devote his studies solely to law in the office of Colonel Mark Hopkins, French and Indian War hero and Great Barrington's first lawyer (1761). Sedgwick was admitted to the Bar in 1766 and began his practice in Great Barrington but moved to Sheffield. His career was interrupted by the Revolutionary war so he joined the Continental Army, and served as a Major. At the time Sedgwick entered the political arena as a legislative representative, his career involved one of the most famous freedom suites in the history of the nation. Known at the time as Brom & Bett v. J. Ashley Esq., two slaves sued for their freedom based on the Massachusetts Constitution which declared all men are born free and equal. The slaves won as did another at the Supreme Court level in a different case (Caldwell v. Jennison) so slavery was just about dead in Massachusetts after the courts sided with the slaves on Constitutional grounds. See The Slave Who Sued For Freedom. (Note that Massachusetts was first state to ban laws against interracial marriage in 1843 and first state to institute gay marriage. Bravo for the free and equal Massachusetts)
Sedgwick was first elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1780 and served there or in the State Senate until 1788. During this time has was also a delegate to the Congress of the Confederation during 1785, 1786, and 1788. At the time he was also elected to represent his constituents at the Massachusetts convention to consider the adoption of the Federal Constitution. Sedgwick went on to serve in the US House of Representatives from March 4, 1789 to June 1796. He then resigned and was elected by the Massachusetts legislature to fill the seat vacated by Senator Caleb Strong, also a Massachusetts delegate and signer at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. During his term he also served for a time as the Senate's President Pro Tempore in 1798. After the end of his Senatorial term, Sedgwick went back to the US House of Representatives where he served as Speaker of the House. The day his term ended in the Senate, his term began in the House. In 1802, he was appointed to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts where he served until the time of his death in 1813.
Tennessee became the 16th State on June 1, 1796. Its first two US Senators were William Blount and William Cocke. Both were Democratic-Republicans and they were sworn in on August 2nd of that year. Born of a wealthy merchant/planter family in North Carolina, Blount was raised as a member of the Presbyterian Church. He received a classical liberal education by way of private tutoring in New Bern, a town settled by Swiss Immigrants which became the state's first capital after the revolution. Blount served as a paymaster in the Continental Army and went on to become chief paymaster of North Carolina's armed forces. He is also credited with organizing local militias on short notice and to fight with them. Afterward he served in the state's House of Commons from 1780 to 1784. At the same time he was elected as a delegate to the Congress of the Confederation in 1782, 1783, 1786, and 1787.
Blount is one of the framers of the Constitution. In 1787 Blount attended the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia as a delegate for North Carolina; in the famous picture of the convention, Blount is the next person in line to sign the document. Blount was a major voice for the Federal Constitution in North Carolina's ratification convention. From there, he went to the State Senate until 1790 when he was nominated by the President Washington and confirmed by the Senate to serve as Governor of the Southwest Territories. These are the lands that North Carolina ceded which would soon become the State of Tennessee. Blount was at the same time appointed head of the region's Indian Affairs department. Four major tribes inhabited the territory; the Cherokees, the Creeks, the Choctaws, and the Chickasaws. Blount led Tennessee to Statehood, served as chairman of Tennessee's first constitutional convention and then became one of Tennessee's first two US Senators. That didn't last. Blount was an adventurer, an expansionist, and a land speculator and was caught in an alleged plot with a British agent to use Indians to undermine Spain's control of western Florida, Louisiana, and the Mississippi River. He was expelled from the Senate on July 8, 1797 for "a high misdemeanor, entirely inconsistent with his public trust and duty as a Senator". It was never proven but it is noteworthy that the Southwest territory that became Tennessee bordered the Mississippi so Blount was indeed a leader who might act against any hindrances to his visions, national or economic. Only a bump in the road to Tennesseans, Blount was elected - during his trial - to the Tennessee Senate where he served as its speaker and President until his death in 1800. Now that's gratitude!
Tennessee's other Senator, William Cocke, was a Democratic-Republican who served from August 2, 1796 to September 26, 1797, when Andrew Jackson was elected by Tennessee to fill the seat. He also served in the other Senate Seat from March 4, 1799 to March 4, 1805. Born in Virginia, Cocke received a classical liberal education before studying law. More of a frontiersman than a lawyer, his law practice was minimal because he preferred the adventures of the new frontier. In fact, he worked with Daniel Boone in exploring and setting the foundation for the statehood of Kentucky and Tennessee. One of his projects was the statehood of Franklin, a small region in eastern Tennessee. Before moving to Tennessee, Cocke was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses and also served as a colonel in the militia. Cocke is known for successfully defeating hostile Indian raids. When Tennessee joined the Union, Cocke joined Blount in framing Tennessee's first Constitution in the convention of 1796. After his second term in the US Senate, Cocke was appointed a judge in the First Circuit Court of the United States.
During the War of 1812, Cocke joined his Tennesseean comrade in arms, Andrew Jackson. Forever an adventurer even at his age of 64, Cocke then moved to Mississippi where he was again elected to a legislature in 1813. Noting his vast experience in the frontier and with Indians, President James Madison appointed Cocke as Indian Agent for the Chickasaws Nation. Sadly, these same people would be driven west to designated Indian lands by the Indian Removal policies of Andrew Jackson which were set in place years before his Presidency. The Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Marshall ruled his ethnic cleansing order unconstitutional but Jackson defied the court, allegedly stating, "let him enforce it". Cocke's religion is unknown.
Senator Uriah Tracy was Connecticut's senior Senator at the time. As a Federalist, he served from October 13, 1796 until his death on July 19, 1807. After a classical liberal education he entered Yale where he studied law. After being admitted to the bar in 1781, Tracy moved to northwest Connecticut where he served as the Litchfield County Attorney. Having served in the Continental Army during the revolution, he remained a Major General in the state militia. Tracy's legislative career began with his election to the state legislature in 1788 where he served until 1793, when he was the speaker of that body. He was then elected to the US House of Representatives where he served from April 8, 1793 to October 13, 1796. At that time, Connecticut's US Senator Jonathan Trumbull resigned, so Tracy was elected to replace him. Tracy later became President Pro Temnpore of the Senate during the Sixth Congress. After the Presidential election of 1800, Tracy joined with those New Englanders that strongly opposed President Jefferson's policies, including the Louisiana Purchase. The Purchase, these New Englanders feared, would further diminish the power of the north. His religion is unknown. He was the first member of Congress buried at the Congressional Cemetery.
Isaac Tichenor was the Senator for Vermont from October 18, 1796 until he resigned October 17, 1797 after being elected Governor of Vermont. Being born in New Jersey, Tichenor received a classical liberal education before entering the College of New Jersey (Princeton). Following his years at Princeton, he studied law in Schenectady, NY. His life of public service began in that region of upstate New York when he was appointed Assistant Commissary General in 1777. After being stationed in Bennington, Vt, he moved there and began is law practice. Falling in love with Vermont, he entered local politics and served in the State House of representatives from 1781 to 1785, being its speaker in 1783 and 1784. At the same time, Tichenor was Vermont's agent to the Congress of the Confederation and point-man making Vermont's case for statehood.
The next five years he served as State Councilor and then was appointed an Associate Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court where he served until he became Chief Justice, succeeding Justice Paine. After his year in the US Senate, Tichenor served as Governor of Vermont for all but one year until 1809. After being defeated in the gubernatorial race of 1809 it seems as if Tichenor took a break from politics. The great statesman from Vermont was not finished, though. Running for the US Senate, he was elected and served from March 4, 1815 to March 3, 1821. Afterward, he returned to his law practice in Bennington. Most of Vermont's politicians were Democratic-Republicans but Tichenor was nonetheless a uniquely successful Federalist. He was beaten several times over the decades by the Jeffersonians but he always bounced back in a big way.
Senator Richard Stockton was a Federalist that represented New Jersey from November 12, 1796 to March 4, 1799. Born in Princeton, he was privately tutored in the classical liberal tradition and continued to the College of New Jersey where he went on to study law. After being admitted to the bar in 1784, Stockton set up his practice there in his hometown of Princeton. His political life began when he became the very first United States Attorney for New Jersey. He served in that office 1789 to 1791. After returning to his law practice for a few years, Stockton re-entered the political arena when US Senator Frederick Frelinghuysen resigned and he was elected as his successor. Declining to run when his term was up, Stockton once again returned to his practice in Princeton for an extended period of time. In 1813, he was elected to a term in the US House of Representatives. Again, in 1815 after his term ended, he declined to run for re-election. A staunch Federalists when the Federalist Party was on life support, Stockton entered the fray again and ran for the Vice-Presidency in 1820 but lost.
John Eager Howard was the Senator from Maryland. As a Federalist, he served in the Senate from November 30, 1796 until March 3, 1803. John Howard was born into the planter elite society of slaveholding Maryland at his family's plantation "Belvedere". His family was a member of the legally established church of the Chesapeake Bay colonies which was the Anglican Church. His education consisted of a top notch classical liberal education from private tutors. As a young man, he joined the Freemasons of Baltimore and eventually became a Brother. When the Revolutionary War broke out, the young man in his early 20s immediately joined the Continental Army as a Captain and rose through its ranks. A decorated Colonel by the end of the war, he fought in the battles of White Plains, the Monmouth, and Cowpens, in which he was the commanding officer of the 3rd Maryland Regiment.
He began his political career in 1788 when he was elected by Maryland to represent the state in the Congress of the Confederation. The next year he became the 5th Governor of Maryland, serving three terms that ended in November of 1791. From there, he served in the Maryland Senate through 1795 being also a Presidential Elector in the election of 1792. Howard entered the Senate when he was chosen to fill the seat after the resignation of Richard Potter. At gthe end of that term, Hpoward ran successfully and served another six years in the Senate.
As a recognized military man, Presidents Washington and Adams offered him appointments as Secretary of War and later, Brigadier General to help lead us against France in the Quasi-War. Senator Howard clearly preferred the office of a statesman over that of a soldier and rose to President Pro Tempore in the 6th Congress. After his term expired in 1803, Howard returned to Baltimore as a leading public servant, statesman, and philanthropist. He did not seek any elected office until the 1816 Presidential election when he is said to have ran as Rufus King's running mate. The records are not clear on this matter but the King ticket did receive 22 electoral votes. The third Democratic-Republican party candidate in a row secured the Presidency and so began the presidency of another protege of Jefferson and Madison; James Monroe.
The records of these men speaks for themselves. At one time or another, seventeen of the twenty-three Senators were delegates to the Continental Congress or the Congress of the Confederation. Three of them attended the Philadelphia Convention of which two signed the Constitution (Martin-NC left early). One signed the Declaration of Independence twenty-one years previous and most of them served in some important way in the Revolutionary War. Nearly all of them served in their state legislatures. Five of them helped frame their own state's Constitution and four help drive for the ratification of the Federal Constitution. Blount signed the US Constitution, framed his state's Constitution and was a driving force behind the ratification of the new Federal Constitution. In the ratification convention, Livermore urged NH to affirm the Federal Constitution and was later a framer of the second and third State Constitutions. Most were attorneys educated at either Harvard, Yale, Princeton, the College of Philadelphia (now U of PA), Brown or the College of William and Mary. All of these school were bastions of liberal thinking during the American Enlightenment. One was a physician and some were wealthy shipping merchants or planters. Those with elite university education were steeped enlightenment thought and in the writers of classical antiquity; Cicero, Tacitus, Livy, Plato, Aristotle, Cato, Gaius, and many more. A Six were judges of which five became the Chief Justices of their State Supreme Courts. Two of them served also as US District Court Judges. One was also a Probate Judge and another a Naval Admiralty Judge. One of them (Paine-VT) served as Chief Justice and then as Justice of the US Circuit Court. One was part of his state's War Council, one was Deputy Governor and Six became Governors of their states.
(The strong current of classical antiquity in the enlightenment accounts for the fact that the writers of the Federalist Papers went by the Roman name Publius while the anti-federalists went by Cato, Agrippa, Cincinnatus, Brutus, and Centinel. These were the men and this was the era that predominated the thinking of the founders. Washington, DC is a collection of buildings based upon classical Rome and Greece. Washington patterned his life after the Roman General Cincinnatus and Adams, Cicero.)
Let nobody ever doubt the legal authority, sophistication and patriotism of the Fifth Congress.
Let's move on to a survey of religious laws in colonial charters and state constitutions prior to the constitution's ratification in 1789. This story tells us, bit by bit, how after nearly two centuries we arrived at a constitution very different than the colonial laws in matters of religious liberty and equality. In fact, we arrive in a position that was clearly antithetical to colonial ideas on liberty and religion, church and state. In this study I will highlight most of the pre-constitutional religious laws based in the medieval traditions of those times. In doing so I will demonstrate that the old legal order of religious lawmaking was antithetical in principle to the view upon religion in the Federal Constitution. A European colonial epoch ended with the ratification of the US Constitution; a new beginning after fifteen centuries of codified religious intolerance. By carefully citing the religious laws in British North America we will see that the colonial religious temperament is not continued in word or principle in the Constitution. Although tradition and heritage desperately held on, they held on to laws no longer in effect. The clock had run out. The tank was empty yet the religious right and the cultural conservatives of the tea party still think the medieval order still exists. It is plain to see that nothing in the Constitution is based upon any religion. While the colonial charters and early constitutions are clearly Christian and evangelical, there is not a trace of these in the Constitution. The argument from the conservatives is that the Constitution is based on Christian principles yet there is not one clause or article that can be used to support this argument. Believe me, I have asked over and over and not one example has been offered. The Constitution is clearly neutral concerning religion. Where it does mention religion, they are actually sanctions against the religious tests and establishments the religious right seek.
What the supporters of church and state entanglements use as support for their arguments is exactly what I use to refute it. They have misinterpreted the historical currents and don't understand that our Constitution signaled the end of a very long epoch. While appraising each colonial religious law, ask yourself which of these colonial religious demands and religious partnerships with government are in the Federal Constitution? And ask, why aren't the religious demands and acknowledgments of God in the Constitution if that was its intent?
See: THE COLONIAL RELIGIOUS PARADIGM (coming soon)
