Question #1:

On Tuesday, March 20, 1781, Congress published one of 16 Proclamations calling for a national day of "humiliation, fasting and prayer." A portion of the text reads as follows:

The United States in Congress assembled, therefore do earnestly recommend, that Thursday the third day of May next, may be observed as a day of humiliation, fasting and prayer, that we may, with united hearts, confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and by sincere repenantance and emendment of life, appease his righteous displeasure, and through the merits of our blessed Saviour, obtain pardon and forgiveness...

Among those who were tasked with writing this Proclamation was...

Question #2:

The Declaration of Independence was more than a list of grievences. It made the point that the colonies were justified in separating from England because of how the monarchy of King George had positioned itself as that which defined the rights of its subjects rather than all men having been created equal and the unalienable rights that belong to every individual are "_________ by their Creator."

Question #3:

The first words of the Treaty that represented Great Britain's surrender to America in 1783 were...

Question #4:

After Lord Cornwallis surrendered, General Washington ordered that all British prisoners of war be pardoned and released, which was an extremely magnanimous gesture given how some members of the British Army were guilty of instances of brutality that were not due so much to the horrors of war as they were the cruelty of certain British officers.

In addition, Washington ordered that Christian worship services be conducted in order to give thanks to God for His having allowed the Continental Army to have triumphed over the Redcoats. 

True of False?

Question #5:

True or False: General Washington ordered and expected his officers to attend Christian worship services every Sunday at 11:00. 

Question #6: Complete this sentence made by John Adams in a letter to Thomas Jefferson:

Question #7: In an effort to relieve the tensions between Catholics and Protestants, in 1559, Queen Elizabeth, with the help of Parliament, passed the "Act of Uniformity" which established a state sanctioned approach to prayer, worship and, later, church government.

By the time of the Revolutionary War, the inconsistency of the Anglican Church with the Word of God, coupled with the spiritual awareness ushered in by The Great Awakening, combined to create a situation that made it virtually impossible to endorse any kind of governmental interference with one's relationship with Christ let alone an exclusively secular approach to the law and individual rights.

Clarence E. Manion, Dean of the College of Law at the University of Notre Dame in 1947 captures this idea when he said:

Question #8: Between 1700 and 1740, an estimated ____  % of Americans were actively attending churches which were, "...being built at a headlong pace."

Question #9:

The war was over. Our Independence had been won and George Washington was getting ready to retire from public service after having, not only commanded the Continental Army, but also having served as our nation’s first president for two consecutive terms.

As he was getting ready to retire, he wrote a circular to be distributed to all the states that would serve as his farewell address on June 8, 1783.

He concluded his letter by saying the following:

I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection that he would incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination & obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large and particularly for their brethren who have served in the field—and finally that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do Justice, to love mercy and to demean ourselves, with that Charity, humility & pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed ______ & without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation.

Question #10:

In addition to the fact that all men are created equal (Gen1:26; Prov 2:22; Gal 3:28) thus invalidating the Divine Right of Kings, a large part of the Presbyterian doctrine pertained to church government. Churches were to be governed by elected elders not Anglican Bishops. By attempting to impose a crown appointed hierarchy to rule over the spiritual affairs of a Presbyterian who believed that leadership should be based on a biblically founded approach, England violated an Absolute documented in Scripture. As a result, Presbyterians were only too willing to oppose the established order and because of the presence they commanded in New England, the Revolution was often referred to as something inspired by a Presbyterian perspective.

David Hartley was Britain’s Minister Plenipotentiary. He had full diplomatic powers and represented the crown when he signed the Treaty of Paris with John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and several others in 1783. Hartley and Franklin were good friends and Hartley frequently spoke against the Revolution in Parliment. After Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown, it was Hartley and Franklin that composed the Treaty of Paris.

On February 3rd, 1779, Franklin responded to Hartley who had written a letter proposing that the United States end their alliance with France. At one point, he says:

The long, Steady, & kind regard you have shown for the Welfare of America, by the whole Tenour of your Conduct in Parliament, satisfies me, that this Proposition never took its Rise with you, but has been suggested from some other Quarter; and that your Excess of humanity, your Love of Peace, & your fears for us that the Destruction we are threatened with, will certainly be effected, have thrown a Mist before your Eyes, which hindred you from seeing the Malignity, and Mischief of it.— We know that your King hates whigs and ________; that he thirsts for our Blood; of which he has already drank large Draughts; that his servile imprincipled Ministers are ready to execute the wickedest of his Orders, and his venal Parliament equally ready to vote them just.