On
July 4, 1837, some sixty-one years after the Declaration of Independence, at
the invitation of the townspeople of Newburyport, Massachusetts, John Quincy
Adams delivered a powerful oration that stands today as a fascinating and
underutilized source when looking at the founders’ beliefs about God’s providence
in the founding of the nation. Adams makes the ultimate connection between the
founding documents and Christianity. Not only does he draw a connection to
Christianity, he makes bold and profound pronouncements about the connection
between the nation’s founding and the scriptures, Christ,
the Declaration of Independence, emancipation, and American liberty and its connection to
divine providence.
From the outset of the address, John Quincy Adams makes a powerful statement that reveals his deep personal belief in the providential hand of God in the founding of the nation:
Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Saviour of the World, your
most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day? —And why is it
that, among the swarming myriads of our population, thousands and tens of
thousands among us, abstaining, under the dictate of religious principle, from the
commemoration of that birthday of Him, who brought life and immortality to
light, yet unite with all their brethren of this community, year after year, in
celebrating this, the birthday of the nation? Is it not that, in the chain of
human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the
birthday of the Saviour? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the
gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first
organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon
earth? That it laid the corner stone of human government upon the first
precepts of Christianity, and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge of
the fulfilment of the prophecies, announced directly from Heaven at the birth
of the Saviour and predicted by the greatest of the Hebrew prophets six hundred
years before?[1]
Adams begins by asking a question that on the surface might seem heretical to the Christian, because he connects the founding of the nation with the birth of Christ. He then answers the question with an explanation of his meaning. He suggests the birth of the nation is “indissolubly” linked to the birth of Christ and he uses the phrase “chain of human events” to refer to what Christians call the providential hand of God. He goes on to stake the claim that the founding of the United States of America forms a primary or beginning event in the “gospel dispensation.” Adams could not possibly know how prescient his words would be, but his statements bear witness to his deep-felt belief in the guiding providential hand of God in the affairs of men and particularly in the affairs of the men who were part of the nation’s founding. The United States would become the largest liberty promoting nation in the history of the world. The liberty produced under the American system of government would propel the nation to one day become the largest exporter of Christian missionaries and Christian thought for the next two centuries, and thus become a powerful force in the “dispensation” of the gospel.[2]
The American Church stands in history as among the most blessed of all of Christ's Church down through history, yet has squandered its inheritance through gross ignorance and failure to connect the dots. Let us take up the mantle bequeathed to us once again and labor to rescue our inheritance from the brink of destruction. Pray to the God of the nations to lend us His powerful hand once again so that American liberty can continue to be exercised for the furtherance of the gospel and the good of the civil society!
[1] John Quincy Adams, An Oration Delivered Before the Inhabitants
of the Town of Newburyport, at Their Request: on the Sixty-First Anniversary of
the Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1837 (Newburyport, MA: Morss and
Brewster, 1837), 5-6.
[2] George Thomas Kurian and Mark A. Lamport, Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States, (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2016), 2370.
Read the entire Newburyport Address here: https://bit.ly/3hqwfGq
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