One June 21, 1788, the U.S. Constitution went into effect when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it. The 55 signers of the U.S. Constitution included:
- 26 Episcopalians;
- 11 Presbyterians;
- 7 Congregationalists;
- 2 Lutherans;
- 2 Dutch Reformed;
- 2 Methodists;
- 2 Roman Catholics;
- 2 Quakers; and
- 1 deist.
The deist was Dr. Franklin, who had called for prayer during the Constitutional Convention, June 28, 1787, in these words:
I therefore beg leave to move—that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning.
The Journal of the U.S. House of Representatives, March 27, 1854, recorded the unanimous vote of the 33rd Congress to print Congressman James Meacham’s report, which stated:
At the adoption of the Constitution, we believe every State—certainly 10 of the 13— provided as regularly for the support of the Church as for the support of the Government. . . . Down to the Revolution, every colony did sustain religion in some form. It was deemed peculiarly proper that the religion of liberty should be upheld by a free people. . . . Had the people, during the Revolution, had a suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, that Revolution would have been strangled in its cradle.
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Adapted from www.AmericanMinute.com
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