by Unknown
Pardon me, my brethren, for insisting so much upon this, which may seem but an immaterial circumstance. It is in my opinion of very great moment. I look upon ostentation and confidence to be a sort of outrage upon Providence, and when it becomes general and infuses itself into the spirit of a people, it is a forerunner of destruction….
You shall not, my brethren, hear from me in the pulpit what you have never heard from me in conversation, I mean railing at the king personally, or even his ministers and the Parliament, and people of Britain, as so many barbarous savages. Many of their actions have probably been worse than their intentions. That they should desire unlimited dominion, if they can obtain or preserve it, is neither new nor wonderful. I do not refuse submission to their unjust claims, because they are corrupt or profligate, although probably many of them are so, but because they are men, and therefore liable to all the selfish bias inseparable from human nature. I call this claim unjust, of making laws to bind us in all cases whatsoever, because they are separated from us, independent of us, and have an interest in opposing us.
Would any man who could prevent it give up his estate, person, and family to the disposal of his neighbor, although he had liberty to choose the wisest and the best master? Surely not. This is the true and proper hinge of the controversy between Great Britain and America….
If your principles are pure—the meaning of this is, if your present opposition to the claims of the British ministry does not arise from a seditious and turbulent spirit, or a wanton contempt of legal authority; from a blind and factious attachment to particular persons or parties; or from a selfish rapacious disposition, and a desire to turn public confusion to private profit—but from a concern for the interest of your country, and the safety of yourselves and your posterity. On this subject I cannot help observing that though it would be a miracle if there were not many selfish persons among us, and discoveries now and then made of mean and interested transactions, yet they have been comparatively inconsiderable both in number and effect. In general, there has been so great a degree of public spirit that we have much more reason to be thankful for its vigor and prevalence than to wonder at the few appearances of dishonesty or disaffection. It would be very uncandid to ascribe the universal ardor that has prevailed among all ranks of men, and the spirited exertions in the most distant colonies, to anything else than public spirit. Nor was there ever perhaps in history so general a commotion from which religious differences have been so entirely excluded….
What follows from this? That he is the best friend to American liberty who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion, and who sets himself with the greatest firmness to bear down profanity and immorality of every kind. Whoever is an avowed enemy to God, I scruple not to call him an enemy to his country. Do not suppose, my brethren, that I mean to recommend a furious and angry zeal for the circumstantials of religion, or the contentions of one sect with another about their peculiar distinctions. I do not wish you to oppose anybody’s religion, but everybody’s wickedness. Perhaps there are few surer marks of the reality of religion than when a man feels himself more joined in spirit to a true holy person of a different denomination than to an irregular liver of his own. It is therefore your duty in this important and critical season to exert yourselves, everyone in his proper sphere, to stem the tide of prevailing vice, to promote the knowledge of God, the reverence of his name and worship, and obedience to his laws.
Perhaps you will ask what it is that you are called to do for this purpose farther than your own personal duty. I answer this itself when taken in its proper extent is not a little. The nature and obligation of visible religion is, I am afraid, little understood and less attended to….
Upon the whole, I beseech you to make a wise improvement of the present threatening aspect of public affairs, and to remember that your duty to God, to your country, to your families, and to yourselves is the same. True religion is nothing else but an inward temper and outward conduct suited to your state and circumstances in Providence at any time. And as peace with God, and conformity to him, adds to the sweetness of created comforts while we possess them, so in times of difficulty and trial, it is in the man of piety and inward principle that we may expect to find the uncorrupted patriot, the useful citizen, and the invincible soldier. God grant that in America true religion and civil liberty may be inseparable, and that the unjust attempts to destroy the one may in the issue tend to the support and establishment of both.
Chief Red Jacket Rejects a Change of Religion
“You say that you are right and we are lost. How do we know this to be true?”
An early defender of the rights of American Indians, the chief of the Seneca tribe was born in 1758 and given the Indian name of Otetiani. When he became chief, his title was Sagoyewatha. But his lasting identification, the colorful name of Red Jacket, came from the bright red coat given him by the British when he supported their side during the American Revolution.
Red Jacket did, however, come to earn the respect and friendship of George Washington. The Indian leader eventually sought peace with the U.S. government and even influenced his followers to support the United States against Britain in the War of 1812, despite his lifelong struggle to maintain native traditions against the introduction of white customs.
In proud and impassioned words, this spokesman for his people’s indigenous culture frequently opposed attempts to bring European values and ideas to his tribe. When Christian missionaries sought to baptize his followers in 1805, Red Jacket rose to speak out against efforts to convert the tribe. His moving appeal gains its effect from rhetorical questions (“How shall we know when to believe, being so often deceived by the white people?”) and anaphora, particularly forceful in repeatedly addressing the missionary as “Brother,” perhaps ironically, and in the refuting of everything that follows “You say….”
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FRIEND AND BROTHER, it was the will of the Great Spirit that we should meet together this day….
Brother, this council fire was kindled by you. It was at your request that we came together at this time. We have listened with attention to what you have said. You requested us to speak our minds freely. This gives us great joy; for we now consider that we stand upright before you and can speak what we think. All have heard your voice, and all speak to you now as one man. Our minds are agreed….
Brother, listen to what we say.
There was a time when our forefathers owned this great island. Their seats extended from the rising to the setting sun. The Great Spirit had made it for the use of Indians. He had created the buffalo, the deer, and other animals for food. He had made the bear and the beaver. Their skins served us for clothing. He had scattered them over the country and taught us how to take them. He had caused the earth to produce corn for bread. All this he had done for his red children because he loved them. If we had some disputes about our hunting ground, they were generally settled without the shedding of much blood.
But an evil day came upon us. Your forefathers crossed the great water and landed on this island. Their numbers were small. They found friends and not enemies. They told us they had fled from their own country for fear of wicked men and had come here to enjoy their religion. They asked for a small seat. We took pity on them, granted their request, and they sat down among us. We gave them corn and meat; they gave us poison in return.
Brother, our seats were once large and yours were small. You have now become a great people, and we have scarcely a place left to spread our blankets. You have got our country, but are not satisfied; you want to force your religion upon us.
Brother, continue to listen.
You say that you are sent to instruct us how to worship the Great Spirit agreeably to his mind; and, if we do not take hold of the religion which you white people teach, we shall be unhappy hereafter. You say that you are right and we are lost. How do we know this to be true?
We understand that your religion is written in a book. If it was i
ntended for us, as well as you, why has not the Great Spirit given to us, and not only to us, but why did he not give to our forefathers the knowledge of that book, with the means of understanding it rightly. We only know what you tell us about it. How shall we know when to believe, being so often deceived by the white people?
Brother, you say there is but one way to worship and serve the Great Spirit. If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about it? Why do not all agree, as you can all read the book?
Brother, we do not understand these things. We are told that your religion was given to your forefathers and has been handed down from father to son. We also have a religion which was given to our forefathers and has been handed down to us, their children. We worship in that way. It teaches us to be thankful for all the favors we receive, to love each other, and to be united. We never quarrel about religion….
Brother, we do not wish to destroy your religion or take it from you. We only want to enjoy our own.
Bishop James Madison Speaks on Divine Providence toward America
“Doth the morning of America break forth refulgent with unclouded glory?”
When Ronald Reagan claimed it was “morning in America,” he was unconsciously drawing on the work of Bishop James Madison, whose cousin James Madison became our fourth president. Bishop Madison was ordained an Anglican priest in 1775 and consecrated the first bishop of Virginia for the Episcopal church in 1790. His eclectic interests, including science and philosophy, also led him to serve as president of the College of William and Mary from 1777 until his death in 1812.
When George Washington in 1795 proclaimed a day of national thanksgiving, Bishop Madison preached a sermon, published later that year under the title Manifestation of the Beneficence of Divine Providence towards America: A Discourse, Delivered on Thursday the 19th of February, 1795, Being the Day Recommended by the President of the United States, for General Thanksgiving and Prayer.
The bishop’s sermon, interspersed with quotations from Psalms and John Milton’s Paradise Lost and ending with a prayer of gratitude, argues for “rational religion,” which is “not that of fanatics or inquisitors,” to form the basis of virtuous behavior. Although the speech’s opening makes use of what we now consider a weak adjective (“interesting”), Bishop Madison shrewdly uses the direct address of “Brethren” and “Fellow citizens” to link the notions of church and state. Employing structural balance of parallel clauses and infinitive phrases, he builds his argument for virtue not so much as its own reward but as the common ground of religion and government.
Only fear the lord, and serve him; for consider how great things he hath done for you.
—I Samuel 12:24
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BRETHREN, THERE ARE few situations more interesting to the human race than that which the people of America this day presents.
The temples of the living God are everywhere, throughout this rising empire, this day, crowded, I trust, with worshipers, whose hearts, impressed with a just and lively sense of the great things, which he hath done for them, pour forth, in unison, the grateful tribute of praise and thanksgiving. Yes, this day, brethren, “the voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous”; and with reason, for the history of nations doth not exhibit a people who ever had more cause to offer up to the great author of every good the most fervent expressions of gratitude and thanksgiving.
Let, my brethren, the sons of irreligion, wrapped in their dark and gloomy system of fatality, refuse to open their eyes to the great luminous proofs of providential government, which America displays; let them turn from a light, which their weak vision cannot bear; but let the righteous, let those who trust in God, who can trace in that good and glorious being the relations of father, friend, and governor, let them with eagle eyes look up to that full blaze of salvation, which he hath vouchsafed to this new world.
Permit me, then, upon this occasion, to turn your attention to those great things which the Lord hath done for us, to those manifold displays of divine Providence, which the history of America exhibits; and let the subject afford an opportunity to revive within us sentiments of lively gratitude, and excite sincere resolutions to fear the Lord, and to serve him—in a word, to increase daily in piety, and in all those noble affections of the soul which dignify the Christian and the patriot.
Who can tell how many ages had been swallowed up in the all-absorbing gulf of time, before the bold navigator first essayed to visit these distant regions of the earth? Who can tell how long this western world had been the habitation of the listless savage, or the wild beasts of the forest? At these questions chronology drops her epochs, as incapable of conducting her to periods so remote, and which have escaped her grasp. The ways of heaven must oft appear to us weak mortals dark and intricate.
But the first suggestion, which here presents itself, is that Providence seems to have thrown a veil over this portion of the globe, in order to conceal it from the eyes of the nations of the East, until the destined period had arrived for the regeneration of mankind, in this New World, after those various other means, which the wisdom of the Almighty had permitted to operate in the Old, had proved ineffectual. In vain had reason, the handmaid of pure religion, long attempted to convince men of the reciprocal duties which equality and fraternity impose. Still there would arise some one,
“of proud ambitious heart, who, not content
with fair equality, fraternal state,
would arrogate dominion undeserved
over his brethren, and quite dispossess
concord and law of nature from the earth.”
In vain had even thy dispensation of love and peace, blessed Jesus, long essayed to disarm ambition of the ensanguined sword, and to diffuse benevolence, equality, and fraternity among the human race. Millions still groaned under the heavy pressure which tyranny imposed. Yes, even thy gospel of love, of universal fraternity, had been, too often, perverted into the most formidable system of oppression; and mankind, instead of seeing it diffuse the heavenly rays of philanthropy, too frequently beheld it as imposing a yoke to degrade and enslave them. The princes of the earth sought not for the sacred duties which it enjoined; but they sought to render it the sanction of their exterminating vengeance, or their deep-laid systems of usurpation. Is not the history of almost all Europe pregnant with proofs of this calamitous truth? If you can point to some small portion where the religion of the blessed Jesus, untrammeled with political usurpations, was left to operate its happy effects upon the passions and the conduct of men; or where toleration extended wide her arms of mercy to embrace the whole family of Christ, the spot appears like a solitary star, which in the midst of night, beams forth alone, whilst clouds and thick darkness obscure the rest of the innumerable host of heaven. Alas, what avails the voice of reason or religion, when the lust of domination has usurped the soul! At the shrine of this fell demon, the human race was sacrificed by thousands. Nay, too many of the sons of Europe are still bound with cords to the altars of ambition, and there immolated, not only by thousands, but by tens of thousands….
But, brethren, important considerations still demand our attention. Has heaven been thus propitious; are we possessed of all those blessings which flow from governments founded in wisdom, justice, and equality; doth the morning of America break forth refulgent with unclouded glory? Then it behooves us, above all things, to inquire how are these blessings to be preserved? How shall we ensure to her a meridian splendor worthy of such a morning? This inquiry immediately resolves itself into another. What is there in this sublunary state that can attract the smiles of heaven, or ensure political happiness, but virtue? Never was there a mortal so depraved, never was there a conscience so deaf to that internal voice, which always whispers truth, but must acknowledge that virtue only gives a title to hope for the favor of that high and lofty one, who inhabiteth eternity.
Fellow citizens, let virtue, then, I entreat you, be the ruling principle, the polar star, which sh
ould influence every sentiment and guide every action, since it alone will conduct us into the haven of felicity. But will you trust, for the diffusion of virtue, to that political morality which a vain philosophy would substitute in the room of those lessons which the heavenly teacher delivered? Shall virtue trickle from the oozy bed of political catechisms, or shall it gush, pure and in full stream, from the rock of our salvation? Ah, brethren, the moment that we drop the idea of a God, the remunerator of virtue but the avenger of iniquity; the moment we abandon that divine system of equality, fraternity, and universal benevolence which the blessed Jesus taught and exemplified; the moment that religion, the pure and undefiled religion, which heaven, in compassion to the infirmity of human reason, vouchsafed to mortals, loses its influence over their hearts—from that fatal moment, farewell to public and private happiness, farewell, a long farewell to virtue, to patriotism, to liberty!
Virtue such as republics and heaven require must have its foundation in the heart; it must penetrate the whole man; it must derive its obligations and its sanctions, not from the changeable ideas of the political moralist, or the caprice of the wisest of human legislators, but from the unchangeable father of the universe, the God of love, whose laws and whose will we are incited to obey by motives, the most powerful that can actuate the human soul. Men must see and feel, that it is God himself, their maker and their judge, who demands obedience to duties which constitute their individual, their social, their eternal happiness. Then, and not till then, will virtue reign triumphant in the hearts of citizens; then will she have her sacrifices in the midst of the deepest obscurity, as well as in the open day, in the most private and secret retirements, as well as upon the house tops….
