CHAPTER ONE
âBy the Providence of Almighty Godâ
The red-coated regimental bands played âGod Save the Kingâ as the victorious British army marched into the conquered American capital. It was Friday morning, September 26, 1777, and Philadelphia had fallen to the enemy. Continental forces had engaged in valiant and bloody combat to defend the city, but had been unable to stop the British advance. Now the lead regiments of General William Howeâs fifteen-thousand-man army marched unopposed into Philadelphia on the same cobblestone streets recently abandoned by ragtag American troops. A week earlier, the delegates to the Continental Congress had packed up and left with as much dignity as possible, to reassemble first in Lancaster then farther away in York. Hosts of fearful Philadelphians had also fledâmany with more haste than dignity. âToday many teams loaded with furniture and people [were] flying from Philadelphia,â penned an eyewitness. âCoaches, chaises and wagons loaded with fugitives [were] passing without intermission.â Wrote another: âEvery face you see looks wild and pale with fear and amazement, and quite overwhelmed with distress.â1
Accompanied by their triumphant tunes, the British army filed through Philadelphiaâs streets unopposedâas if on paradeâits ranks broken only when a soldier here and there stepped aside to hurriedly gulp a cup of cider offered by Loyalist bystanders. Accompanying the red-coated British regulars were two battalions of German Hessiansâmercenary troops hired by the British government to help suppress the Revolution. Although recognized on both sides as well-drilled troops, the Hessians were infamous for their brutality. Now they marched down Philadelphiaâs streets âwith the swing and swagger of an invading army.â The British army was experienced and well equippedâarguably the best military force in the worldâand the victorious troops exuded confidence and discipline as they marched through Philadelphia, which was the largest city in America. Upon orders, they kept their battle flags encased and out of sight to avoid needlessly provoking the conquered Philadelphians. Such restraint appeared unnecessary, however: the cityâs patriots were either gone or were staying indoors, and the files of British troops were met by crowds of cheering Loyalists. The American capital appeared thoroughly conquered.2
Two weeks earlier, at the Battle of Brandywine, this same British army had defeated a last-ditch American defense, inflicting almost twice as many casualties as it incurred. Soon afterward, at what would become known as the âPaoli Massacre,â the British army had demonstrated its deadly efficiency with a surprise nighttime bayonet assault on sleeping Continental troops near the town of Paoli, Pennsylvania. Scores of surprised and confused American soldiers had fallen to British bayonets. â[They] were running about, barefoot, and half-clothed, and in the light of their own fires,â a Hessian sergeant would later boast. âWe killed three hundred of the rebels with the bayonet. I stuck them myself like so many pigs, one after another, until the blood ran out of the touch-hole of my musket.â3
Upon his capture of Philadelphia, General Howe established a huge camp at Germantown on the cityâs outskirts, and posted troops in force throughout the city. Artillery batteries were erected on the cityâs riverfront, and infantry were placed at key points. Among these sites was the Pennsylvania State HouseââIndependence Hallââwhere little more than a year before, members of Americaâs Continental Congress had passed the Declaration of Independence. Now one of the delegatesâ worst fears had become reality: the British had captured the seat of the new national government, including the building and chamber where American independence had been debated and declared. Independence Hallâthe new nationâs landmark of freedomâwould soon become a prison hospital for captured American soldiers. In distant Europe, monarchs and military commanders learned of the capture of the American capital and assumed that the Revolution was over. Great Britain, they believed, had won the war.4
They were wrong. Defying all odds, the American cause would survive. Repeatedly, American forces would suffer battlefield calamities that should have ended the Revolution in a British victory. General George Washingtonâs army was repeatedly forced to retreat. Other American armies were defeated and scattered. Principal American seaports and cities fell to the enemy. New York City was occupied by the British for seven years. The national capital was captured and Congress was forced to flee. At various times throughout the war, American forces teetered on the edge of disintegrationâpoorly armed, inadequately equipped, sometimes near starvationâwhile facing the military superpower of the day. Yet Continental forces repeatedly survived, and would eventually prevail against all odds.5
For generations to come, historians would continue to examine the War for Independence, reanalyzing the astonishing events leading to the American victory. Time after time, British leaders were perplexed by Americaâs unexpected survival, and were stunned by the eventual outcome. How did it happen? George Washington had an answer, which he continuously restated in letters and speeches during and after the war. The success of American arms, Washington believed, was due to nothing less than what he called the âastonishing interpositions of providenceââthe sovereign intervention of Almighty God. âTo the Great ruler of events, not to any exertions of mine, is to be ascribed the favorable termination of our late contest for liberty,â Washington would pronounce at warâs end. âI never considered the fortunate issue of any measure adopted by me in the progress of the Revolution in any other light than as the ordering of kind Providence.â6
Washington was not one to make such statements lightly. He was a Virginia low-church Anglican whose expressions of faith were generally quiet, reserved, and carefully reverent. âWe must ⌠place a confidence in that Providence, who rules great events,â he once observed in a typical commentary, âtrusting that out of confusion he will produce order, and, notwithstanding the dark clouds, which may threaten at present, that right will ultimately be established.â The âdark cloudsâ that preceded the American Revolution had gathered largely during Washingtonâs lifetime, and he had been personally involved in a remarkable number of those critical events. They were extraordinary preparation for the singular role of leadership he would assumeâand he did not consider the Revolution or his preparation for it to be accidental.7
Washingtonâs faith in the sovereignty of GodââProvidenceâ in the vernacular of his dayâwas a universal belief in eighteenth-century America. From Massachusetts to Georgia, âthe idiom of religion penetrated all discourse, underlay all thought, marked all observances, gave meaning to every public and private crisis,â according to historian Patricia Bonomi, a twenty-first-century expert on Colonial America. American political thought at the time of the Revolution, twentieth-century Jewish historian Abraham I. Katsh would observe, reflected âthe deeper meaning and higher purpose of a constant regard for principles and religious ideas, based on a profound sympathy for the Scriptures.âŚâ The renowned historian Merle Curti would agree. âThe Christian tradition,â he would note, âwas the chief foundation stone of American intellectual development [in the Colonial era]. Whatever differences in ways of life and whatever conflicts of interest separated the country gentry and great merchants from the frontiersmen, poor farmers, artisans, and small shopkeepers, all nominally subscribed to Christian tenets and at least in theory accepted Christianity as their guide.â8
From the beginning, America was forged in faithâthe Judeo-Christian worldview of the Bible. In 1607, when the first successful English colony in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia, its royal charter declared the colonyâs mission in part to be the âpropagating of Christian Religion.â Although many of Jamestownâs early colonists showed more interest in gold than God, even rowdy Jamestown reflected a biblical faith. A chaplain held services in a crudely constructed church, and settlers were expected to attend prayer services twice daily, two worship services on the Lordâs Day and regular communion. When the colonists fell into near mutiny over Jamestownâs âCommon Storeâ systemâa socialistic policy that equally rewarded those who worked and those who loiteredâCaptain John Smith implemented a compulsory work program based on the New Testament admonition âif any would not work, neither should he eat.â9
A few years later, Virginia governor Thomas Dale enacted a code of laws founded on biblical principles: âI do strictly commaund and charge all Captaines and Officers ⌠to have a care that the Almightie God bee duly and daily served, and that they call upon their people to heare Sermons, as that also they diligently frequent Morning and Evening praier themselves by their owne exemplar and daily life, and dutie herein, encouraging others thereunto.âŚâ Although harshly enforced, Daleâs faith-based laws provided the discipline needed for the colony to survive. In 1619, Virginiaâs newly established House of BurgessesâAmericaâs first legislative assemblyâestablished a precedent with faith-based self-government. The first session of the House of Burgesses was held in Jamestownâs log church, its first official act was an opening prayer, and among its first legislative actions were statutes requiring church attendance on the Lordâs Day, and mandating that Sundays be kept âin holy and religious order.â Two years later, Virginiaâs constitution dedicated the colony to âthe Advancement of the Honour and Service of God, and the Enlargement of His Kingdom.â10
Thirteen years after Jamestown was founded in Virginia, another English colony was established in America with an even stronger faith-based foundation. It was Plymouth Colony, established on the coast of modern Massachusetts by the people who would become known as the Pilgrims. The driving force of the one hundredâplus colonists who landed near Cape Cod in 1620 were thirty-five âSeparatistsââso named because they had separated themselves from the Anglican Church of England, believing that every local church should be independent and self-governing. Early Separatist leaders had been executed in England, and sect members had suffered ridicule, threats, and persecution. After temporary self-exile in Holland, a group of Separatists put together a plan for a colony in the New World, obtained a charter, were joined by a larger group of non-Separatists, and set out across the Atlantic aboard the Mayflowerâbound for the northern reaches of Virginia.11
They missed. Stormy weather drove them far to the north, and thereâin what would become New Englandâthey planted a faith-based colony in the wilderness. âBeing thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land,â Pilgrim leader William Bradford would report, âthey fell upon their knees & blessed the God of heaven, who had brought them over the vast & furious ocean.âŚâ They also immediately drafted a founding document for governing their colonyâthe Mayflower Compact. As the Virginians had done with the House of Burgesses, the Pilgrims based their government on biblical precepts. The opening line of the Mayflower CompactââIn the name of God, Amenââacknowledged the God of the Bible as the authority for law and culture in the Pilgrimsâ New World colony.12
The Compact stated the motivation that had driven the Plymouth colonists to risk all to establish a new life in a new land: âHaving undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts.âŚâ Through this founding document, the Pilgrims pledged to âcovenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick,â and to establish and obey âjust and equal laws ⌠for the general Good of the Colony.â It was a mighty precedent for the construction of American law and culture. While humbly acknowledging fidelity to king and country, the Mayflower Compact clearly recognized the biblical precept that all authorityâeven that of a kingâwas granted by the grace of God, and was subordinate to the âHigher Lawâ of Scripture.13
In 1630, shiploads of English Puritans followed the example set by their Pilgrim cousins and began arriving on the wooded shores of Massachusetts. The Puritans were so named because they wanted to purify the Church of England of what they deemed to be unbiblical doctrines and practices. By the early seventeenth century, England was officially Protestant, and so were most of its people. The Protestant Reformation had come to England during the reign of the mercurial King Henry VIII, who at first persecuted Protestants, then, when it suited his self-serving purposes, turned against the Catholics and established the Protestant Church of Englandâthe Anglican Church.14
In 1517, a century before the Pilgrimsâ journey, Martin Luther, a Roman Catholic priest in Germany, had sparked the Protestant Reformation by calling for the Church to return to key biblical doctrines many Christians believed had been distorted or abandoned in the early Middle Ages. He reaffirmed salvation by faith in Jesus Christ alone rather than by faith and works, and upheld the authority of Scripture over church tradition and church leadership, including papal authority. Church officials in Rome excommunicated Luther, but the Reformation flooded Western Europe with a Bible-centered revivalâand a political transformation. With its emphasis on the authority of Scripture as the Higher Law, the Reformation persuaded countless commoners that every person, whether a prince or a pauper, was of equal value to God. It also spread the belief that Godâs law, as revealed by Scripture, superseded manâs lawâincluding the authority of princes, queens, and kings.15
The Reformation and its emphasis on the authority of Higher Law was suppressed by three of the four leading world powersâSpain, Portugal, and France. In England, however, the Reformation and its biblical doctrines took root and flourished. The first published translation of the Bible in English gave the common people of England personal access to the Scripturesâand the country was transformed. âThe whole moral effect ⌠was simply amazing,â English historian John Richard Green would later conclude. âThe whole nation became a church.â16
By the early 1600s, many people in England weighed everything according to a biblical worldviewâincluding government. Already, they cherished individual rights and a representative form of governmentâthe legacy of the canon law of Christianity and the English Constitution it had inspired. The English Reformation inspired the English people with an even greater commitment to Higher Law and the God-given rights of the individual. Most committed of all were the Puritans, who believed in âcovenant theology.â Scripture revealed that God had established covenants with his people through the ages, they believed, and government therefore should be a contractâa covenantâbetween the governing and the governed. Covenant theology held that even kings and queens were subject to Godâs Higher Law and were biblically obligated to recognize the God-given right to individual life and liberty.17
Covenant theology and the Puritan desire to âpurifyâ the Church of Englandâthe official government denominationâwere not popular with English monarchs. Neither was the Puritan ...