Samuel Adams, signer of the Declaration of Independence; “Father of the American Revolution”; ratifier of the US Constitution; Governor of Massachusetts.
“I . . . [rely] upon the merits of Jesus Christ for a pardon of all my sins.”
From the Last Will & Testament of Samuel Adams, attested December 29, 1790; see also Samuel Adams, Life & Public Services of Samuel Adams, William V. Wells, editor (Boston: Little, Brown & Co, 1865), Vol. III, p. 379, Last Will and Testament of Samuel Adams.
Josiah Bartlett, military officer; signer of the Declaration of Independence; judge; Governor of New Hampshire.
He called on the people of New Hampshire to:
“. . .confess before God their aggravated transgressions and to implore His pardon and forgiveness through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ . . .”
Josiah Bartlett, Proclamation for a Day of Fasting and Prayer, March 17, 1792.
Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration of Independence, delegate to the Constitutional Convention; framer of the Bill of Rights; U.S. Senator.
“On the mercy of my Redeemer I rely for salvation and on His merits, not on the works I have done in obedience to His precepts.”
Lewis A. Leonard, Life of Charles Carroll of Carrollton (New York: Moffit, Yard & Co, 1918), pp. 256-257.
Congress, 1854
“The great, vital, and conservative element in our system is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and the divine truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Journal of the House of the Representatives of the United States of America (Washington, DC: Cornelius Wendell, 1855), 34th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 354, January 23, 1856; see also: Lorenzo D. Johnson, Chaplains of the General Government With Objections to their Employment Considered (New York: Sheldon, Blakeman & Co., 1856), p. 35, quoting from the House Journal, Wednesday, January 23, 1856, and B. F. Morris, The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States (Philadelphia: George W. Childs, 1864), p. 328.
John Dickinson, signer of the Declaration of Independence; Governor of Pennsylvania; Governor of Delaware; general in the American Revolution.
“Rendering thanks to my Creator for my existence and station among His works, for my birth in a country enlightened by the Gospel and enjoying freedom, and for all His other kindnesses, to Him I resign myself, humbly confiding in His goodness and in His mercy through Jesus Christ for the events of eternity.”
From the Last Will & Testament of John Dickinson, attested March 25, 1808.
Elbridge Gerry, signer of the Declaration of Independence; fifth Vice President of the United States, serving under James Madison; member of the Constitutional Convention; framer of the Bill of Rights; U.S. Congressman; 9th Governor of Massachusetts.
He called on the State of Massachusetts to pray:
“…for our unparalleled ingratitude to that Adorable Being Who has seated us in a land irradiated by the cheering beams of the Gospel of Jesus Christ . . . let us fall prostrate before offended Deity, confess sincerely and penitently our manifold sins and our unworthiness of the least of His Divine favors, fervently implore His pardon through the merits of our mediator.”
Elbridge Gerry, Signer of the Declaration of Independence; Fifth Vice President of the United States, serving under James Madison; Member of the Constitutional Convention; Framer of the Bill of Rights; U.S. Congressman; 9th Governor of Massachusetts.
John Jay, President of Congress; Diplomat; Author of The Federalist Papers; Original Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; Governor of New York.
“By conveying the Bible to people . . . we certainly do them a most interesting act of kindness. We thereby enable them to learn that man was originally created and placed in a state of happiness, but, becoming disobedient, was subjected to the degradation and evils which he and his posterity have since experienced. The Bible will also inform them that our gracious Creator has provided for us a Redeemer in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed – that this Redeemer has made atonement “for the sins of the whole world,” and thereby reconciling the Divine justice with the Divine mercy, has opened a way for our redemption and salvation; and that these inestimable benefits are of the free gift and grace of God, not of our deserving, nor in our power to deserve. The Bible will also [encourage] them with many explicit and consoling assurances of the Divine mercy to our fallen race, and with repeated invitations to accept the offers of pardon and reconciliation…They, therefore, who enlist in His service, have the highest encouragement to fulfill the duties assigned to their respective stations; for most certain it is, that those of His followers who [participate in] His conquests will also participate in the transcendent glories and blessings of His Triumph.”
John Jay, The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, 1794-1826, Henry P. Johnston, editor (New York: Burt Franklin, 1890), Vol. IV, pp. 494, 498, from his “Address at the Annual Meeting of the American Bible Society,” May 13, 1824.
Thomas McKean, signer of the Declaration of Independence; President of Congress; ratifier of the U.S. Constitution; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania; Governor of Pennsylvania; Governor of Delaware.
John Roberts was sentenced to death after a jury found him guilty of treason in the case Respublica v. John Roberts, 79. Chief Justice McKean then told him:
“You will probably have but a short time to live. Before you launch into eternity, it behooves you to improve the time that may be allowed you in this world: it behooves you most seriously to reflect upon your past conduct; to repent of your evil deeds; to be incessant in prayers to the great and merciful God to forgive your manifold transgressions and sins; to teach you to rely upon the merit and passion of a dear Redeemer, and thereby to avoid those regions of sorrow – those doleful shades where peace and rest can never dwell, where even hope cannot enter. It behooves you to seek the [fellowship], advice, and prayers of pious and good men; to be [persistent] at the Throne of Grace, and to learn the way that leadeth to happiness. May you, reflecting upon these things, and pursuing the will of the great Father of light and life, be received into [the] company and society of angels and archangels and the spirits of just men made perfect; and may you be qualified to enter into the joys of Heaven – joys unspeakable and full of glory!”
Thomas McKean, signer of the Declaration of Independence; President of Congress; ratifier of the U.S. Constitution; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania; Governor of Pennsylvania; Governor of Delaware.
William B. Reed, Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed (Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston, 1847), Vol. II, pp. 36-37.
John Randolph of Roanoke, congressman under Presidents John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson; U.S. Senator; diplomat.
“I am at last reconciled to my God and have assurance of His pardon through faith in Christ, against which the very gates of hell cannot prevail. Fear hath been driven out by perfect love.”
Hugh A. Garland, The Life of John Randolph of Roanoke (New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1853), Vol. II, p. 99, to Francis Scott Key on September 7, 1818.
Roger Sherman, Signer of the Declaration of Independence; signer of the Constitution; “Master Builder of the Constitution”; judge; framer of the Bill of Rights; U.S. Senator.
“I believe that God . . . did send His own Son to become man, die in the room and stead of sinners, and thus to lay a foundation for the offer of pardon and salvation to all mankind, so as all may be saved who are willing to accept the Gospel offer.”
Lewis Henry Boutell, The Life of Roger Sherman (Chicago: A. C. McClurg and Company, 1896), pp. 271-273.
Richard Stockton, signer of the Declaration of Independence; judge.
“[A]s my children will have frequent occasion of perusing this instrument, and may probably be particularly impressed with the last words of their father, I think it proper here not only to subscribe to the entire belief of the great and leading doctrines of the Christian religion, such as the being of God; the universal defection and depravity of human nature; the Divinity of the person and the completeness of the redemption purchased by the blessed Savior; the necessity of the operations of the Divine Spirit; of Divine faith accompanied with an habitual virtuous life; and the universality of the Divine Providence: but also, in the bowels of a father’s affection, to exhort and charge [my children] that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, that the way of life held up in the Christian system is calculated for the most complete happiness that can be enjoyed in this mortal state, [and] that all occasions of vice and immorality is injurious either immediately or consequentially – even in this life.”
Will of Richard Stockton, dated May 20, 1780.
Noah Webster, revolutionary soldier; judge; legislator; educator; “Schoolmaster to America.”
“All the…evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.”
Noah Webster, History of the United States (New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1832), p. 339, “Advice to the Young.”