Our Declaration of Independence from 1776, which sparked the uprising against England’s tyrannous King George III, and the Constitution from 1787, which established the federal government that we currently reside under, are two of America’s two founding records.
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No achievement guarantee was provided to the writers and signatories of either document, but one of the most common traits among these numerous extraordinarily valiant and clever men was a strong belief in the sovereignty of God over the affairs of other countries.
Three men in particular stand out among the countless others who have strong ties to the events and characters that led to the Declaration and played crucial roles in the creation and adoption of the Constitution 11 years after.  ,
Alexander Hamilton of New York, James Madison of Virginia, and John Jay, both of New York, are credited as being the co-authors of” The Federalist Papers,” a beautiful collection of articles that ran across the nation as the state debated the then-proposed Constitution.
This group is rarely given much thought about what, if any, position did religious belief play in their understanding of how crucially important they were to emerging America’s public life is.
In Benjamin Morris ‘” The Christian Life and Characteristics of the Civil Institutions of the United States,” it is clear that faith played a significant role in all three men’s life.
Hamilton’s most significant factor to the country was his fervent support for the passage of the Constitution, particularly the 51 essays he compiled from the 85 Federalist Papers. His career would be ended years afterwards by Aaron Burr, but before that, Hamilton wrote these terms, according to Morris:
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Prior to any other individual establishment, the Supreme Intelligence, who controls the world, has established an eternal law that is required of all people. He gave life to man, provided the means for preserving and beautifying that existence, and gave him the unassailable right to pursue liberty and private safety.
Notice that Hamilton’s allusion to the Supreme Intelligence as” He” indicates that his lord was not some impersonal and distant power, but a deliberate, deliberate Creator, who was the author of what Hamilton called the” divine rights of mankind” and the” Healthy Law”. This is the Christian God, not the far Allah of Islam, the impenetrable Buddha, or something remotely like the Hindu mythology.
Where Hamilton was principally identified with the executive branch of the innovative state, Jay, having served as President of the Continental Congress, was a senator, but he also penned five of the articles in The Federalist Papers, and, after the Constitution’s implementation, he became the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
After the trend was over, Jay advised his fellow citizens to always remember who they ultimately owe their liberty to:
We should always consider that the numerous extraordinary and unexpected means and circumstances that led to our desires being met and our enemies being turned away or restrained are quite powerful and dramatic proofs of the insertion of God, that our being always ascribed to God’s favour as a result of being so enslaved from the affected bondage of Britain, and that, in addition to swelling our breasts with haughty notions of our prowess and importance, ignite in them a flame of gratitude and
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And so we have Madison, who, in my humble opinion, was just as crucial a man as George Washington was to the British defeat. Madison’s memory is crucial to understanding him because he once studied under the Rev. John Witherspoon.
A Presbyterian pastor and scholar, as well as a descendant of the great John Knox, leader of Scotland’s Protestant Reformation, Witherspoon was a tutor to many of the men of the Founding generation.  ,
Madison’s greatest contribution to American liberty, after his writing 29 of the Federalist essays, was his heeding the appeals of Virginia and North Carolina Baptists who insisted upon a Bill of Rights, especially to protect every citizen’s freedom of religion, assembly, and speech, rights that were, and are today, essential to political liberty.
He served as president of the War of 1812. Just before the British landed and burned the White House, the Capitol building, and the Library of Congress, it was he and First Lady Dolly Madison who had fled the nation’s capital. Madison wrote during that conflict:
We have been given the gift of feeling the guardianship and guidance of the almighty Being whose power governs the destinies, whose blessings have been so clearly displayed to this rising republic, and to whom we are bound to express our sincere gratitude for the past, as well as our fervent prayers and best hopes for the future.
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Similar to what Jay and Hamilton did with Jay and Hamilton, Madison and others come away with a belief that the Bible’s supervening authority is the main determining force in the affairs and health of the United States.
One wonders how they would respond to our nation’s obligation to that great Being today.