Some points to consider on the entire issue. First there is George Washington's
letter to Moses Seixas, in which Washington defended religious freedom for Jews
("For happily, the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no
sanction, to persecution no assistance"
John Adams when he served with the Washington Administration"The government of
the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."
In his, "A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of
America" [1787-1788], John Adams wrote:
"The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of
governments erected on the simple principles of nature; and if men are now
sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture,
hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their
history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at
present little known or regarded either in Europe or in America, it may
hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any
persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any
degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or
houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be
acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason
and the senses.
". . . Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the
natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or
mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole
quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of
mankind."
As for that tired old saw that the US is founded on so called Judeo-Christian
Principles, consider the following, United States law is based on English Law
(as the US was originally a US colony) which was based on Common Law, one of
two types of law common Europe and the world today, the other is Civil Law.
Both Common and Civil Law were based on Roman Law.
It would seem that US Law has more do with being English, European and
descendants of Roman subjects than Christianity, which didn't become the
official religion of Rome until 300 BC long after much of Roman Law was
established independently of Christian influence.
According to the Constitution's 7th Amendment: "In suits at common law. . . the
right of trial by jury shall be preserved; and no fact, tried by a jury, shall
be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States than according to
the rules of the common law."
Thomas Jefferson elaborated about the history of common law in his letter to
Thomas Cooper on February 10, 1814:
"For we know that the common law is that system of law which was introduced by
the Saxons on their settlement in England, and altered from time to time by
proper legislative authority from that time to the date of Magna Charta, which
terminates the period of the common law. . . This settlement took place about
the middle of the fifth century. But Christianity was not introduced till the
seventh century; the conversion of the first christian king of the Heptarchy
having taken place about the year 598, and that of the last about 686. Here
then, was a space of two hundred years, during which the common law was in
existence, and Christianity no part of it.
". . . if any one chooses to build a doctrine on any law of that period,
supposed to have been lost, it is incumbent on him to prove it to have existed,
and what were its contents. These were so far alterations of the common law,
and became themselves a part of it. But none of these adopt Christianity as a
part of the common law. If, therefore, from the settlement of the Saxons to the
introduction of Christianity among them, that system of religion could not be a
part of the common law, because they were not yet Christians, and if, having
their laws from that period to the close of the common law, we are all able to
find among them no such act of adoption, we may safely affirm (though
contradicted by all the judges and writers on earth) that Christianity neither
is, nor ever was a part of the common law."
In the same letter, Jefferson examined how the error spread about Christianity
and common law. Jefferson realized that a misinterpretation had occurred with a
Latin term by Prisot, "*ancien scripture*," in reference to common law history.
The term meant "ancient scripture" but people had incorrectly interpreted it to
mean "Holy Scripture," thus spreading the myth that common law came from the
Bible. Jefferson writes:
"And Blackstone repeats, in the words of Sir Matthew Hale, that 'Christianity
is part of the laws of England,' citing Ventris and Strange ubi surpa. 4.
Blackst. 59. Lord Mansfield qualifies it a little by saying that 'The essential
principles of revealed religion are part of the common law." In the case of the
Chamberlain of London v. Evans, 1767. But he cites no authority, and leaves us
at our peril to find out what, in the opinion of the judge, and according to
the measure of his foot or his faith, are those essential principles of
revealed religion obligatory on us as a part of the common law."
Thus we find this string of authorities, when examined to the beginning, all
hanging on the same hook, a perverted expression of Priscot's, or on one
another, or nobody."
The Encyclopedia Britannica, also describes the Saxon origin and adds: "The
nature of the new common law was at first much influenced by the principles of
Roman law, but later it developed more and more along independent lines." Also
prominent among the characteristics that derived out of common law include the
institution of the jury, and the right to speedy trial.
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