Transcript

America's Providential History Podcast explores God's hand in the Constitutional Convention

>> Stephen McDowell: Welcome to America's Providential History Podcast, where we talk about the real story of America and explore the hand of God in our history. Now, here's your host, Stephen McDowell. Hello. I'm glad you're joining us for this edition of America's Providential History Podcast. Today we will be exploring God's hand in the Constitutional Convention. In the last number of podcasts, we looked at God's miraculous hand in the American Revolution and how he moved on the behalf of the Americans in order to give us victory in the American Revolution, assuring us to become a new nation. Now, of course, we declared our independence from Great Britain in 1776. We fought eight years from 1775 to 1783, a war. the last major battle of the war, the Battle of Yorktown, took place in October of 1781. But a peace treaty between the United States and England was not signed until September 3, 1783, almost two years after the last major battle. So fighting had stopped. Yet the new nation of America still faced many difficulties. And a number of the problems that existed were due to the weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation. Articles of Confederation was our national governing document from, in essence, 1777-17, 89. And there were some major weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation. One, Congress had no power to raise money. Two, Congress had no power to enforce any of its decisions. And another problem was there was a lack of supreme authority to lead. There was no executive. So, as a consequence of these things, many times during the American Revolution, the army lacked supplies and received no pay. And this was one reason why the troops suffered so at Valley Forge. And it also contributed to members of the military threatening a coup in 1783. In an earlier podcast about George Washington, I spoke about the attempt or suggestion of making him king, during this time frame. So as time went on, it became evident that something must be done to correct the flaws of the Articles of Confederation. Now, many people were opposing, well, let's amend the Articles. yet some men, like James Madison and George Washington and Noah Webster, felt we needed to draw up a whole new constitution. And so when delegates from the various states met in the State House in Philadelphia in the spring of 1787, most of them were expecting to amend the Articles of Confederation. However, the Virginia delegates were prepared to propose a completely new form of government. Now, it was 13 years earlier, on July 4th, men sat in that very same room, and they put their lives, fortunes and sacred honor on the line when they affixed their signature to that Declaration of Independence. And so the Pennsylvania State House would be renamed Independence hall for that heroic act of declaring their independence. But now a different spirit prevailed among those delegates who had arrived in May of 1787. When they heard of the thorough reform proposed by Madison and Washington, a lot of them began to doubt and certainly expressed hesitancy. They were fearful because many of them believed that. Because they've feared that their, their rights as individual states would be threatened by a strong national government. But many of them believe that half measures would be far more acceptable in the eyes of the people of the United States because of the fact they're unwilling to surrender their state sovereignty, that that would be much better than any complete change and adoption of a completely new constitution. Well, George Washington, who did not want to attend the Constitutional Convention, but the people knew his presence would be essential if there's going to be any kind of success there. So they insisted that he come. Even though he had been ill and bad for. For, months, and was still ill. He said, okay, I'll respond. I will come. And so he was one of those at the Constitutional Convention, and he was selected by all the other members to preside over that convention. And so during the early meetings of that time, he rose and addressed a convention in a very brief speech. And he agreed that it was too probable that no plan we propose will be adopted. And if that were so, then he believed that it was entirely possible that they would have to endure another dreadful war. He went on to say, if to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove. How can we afterward defend our work? And then he concluded by urging them to raise a standard of the best government they could advise and then trust in the fact. As he declared, the event is in the hands of God. And so this direction, this encouragement, this brief speech by Washington was crucial during those first 10 days of the convention. Because Washington was most respected, most well known, most admired citizen in the United States at this time. And his presence there, gave the convention a great amount of authority. And, has chosen to preside over that. This helped assure that they could take up the cause of not just amending the articles, but proposing something brand new that would assure that America would survive as a new nation. And so the framers of the Constitution, and there were eventually 55 men who gathered here from the various states, 55 of the leading citizens of each of those states to take up this issue. But these framers declared that. That the forming of that document was a miracle of God. As they went through the. Those events they recognized that the outcome of it, where they drew together this document we now know as the United States Constitution, was nothing but a miracle. Benjamin Franklin, who by the way, was one of the least orthodox of Christian believers, or orthodox believers, he did not. He attended church and claimed necessarily to be a, regenerated Christian, but he had a biblical worldview. He was a biblical theist. He looked at life primarily through the lens of the Scripture. But here he was even the least orthodox of our founders or one of the least. He would write that our General Convention, when it formed the new federal constitution, was influenced, guided and governed by that omnipotent, and beneficent ruler in whom all live and move and have their being. You know, the Scripture permeated the worldview and thinking of early Americans. And so even those non Christians like Benjamin Franklin were greatly shaped by the Scriptures. Shaped in the worldview, shaped in the moral character because it permeated, the culture. James Madison, who was also a delegate at this Constitutional Convention, he's known as the father of the Constitution because he presented a plan, presented ideas that guided the framework of this document. But writing to Thomas Jefferson in France just a few weeks after the convention, concluded, said, it is impossible to conceive the degree of concord which ultimately prevailed as less than a miracle. And later Washington wrote, it is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it, speaking of the Constitutional Convention, a finger of that almighty hand. so we see here Franklin and Madison, speaking of the formation of the Constitution. The success of this Constitutional Convention, the adoption by the delegates of this new form of government was a miracle, a miracle of God. You could trace the finger of God in all these events. And George Washington spoke of the same thing in a letter to his good friend Governor Jonathan Trumbull of Connecticut. He wrote that the adoption of, the proposed general government disposed him to be of the opinion that miracles have not ceased. For he said, one could trace the finger of Providence through those dark and mysterious events which first induced the states to appoint a General Convention and then led them one after another into an adoption of the system recommended by the, that General Convention. And so it was a miracle when you began to look at the events that took place when they gathered together, in May and the difficulties they faced and the outcome that came about, we would conclude as well as did these leaders in the convention, that it was a miracle of God. Now, on June 28, 1787, the Constitutional Convention was on the verge of complete rupture. First, most People thought, we're just going to amend the articles. But then when a number of people promoted, no, let's take up this concept of forming a whole new constitution, well, because of Washington and others influence, they said, okay, we will look at adopting a whole new constitution. And so they were working through various issues. One of the most contentious issues was how were the states going to be represented based upon population of the state or the state as an entity. And, the large states thought we should be represented in this new Congress based upon population. The small states said, well, no, then the big states would just run over the small states. We need to have equal representation based upon the states. That was one of those issues that was causing. They couldn't come to resolve and said, well, we're just going to walk away and do nothing. So, their patience was running thin and emotions were on edge. So on June 28, 1787, a somber George Washington, who was presiding over the assembly, began to despair of seeing success in the convention. But at this moment, the oldest delegate in attendance, Dr. Benjamin Franklin, asked permission to speak. Now this was unusual since up to this point the 81 year old Pennsylvanian would write out remarks and have someone else read them due to his infirmity, his old age, difficulty in speaking. But this time he was stirred to rise and address the delegates himself. And this is when Franklin delivered, what has become a well known famous address, a famous speech at the Constitutional Convention. James Madison records this in his notes on the Constitution. But here's Franklin words when he stood up speaking to all of these Constitutional Convention delegates when they were about to break up, and he said, here's Franklin's words.

Franklin calls the convention to prayer during the contest with Britain

The small progress we have made after four or five weeks with each other is a melancholy proof of the imperfection of the human understanding in this situation of this assembly, groping, as it were, in the dark to find political truth and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us. How has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the father of Lights to illuminate our understandings? In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending providence in our favor. How have we now forgotten this powerful friend? Or, do we imagine we no longer need his assistance? As you know, in some of our previous podcasts, I have Presented many times that the continental Congress proclaimed days of prayer and fasting and prayer and thanksgiving. They would pray regularly and ask the American people to pray and set aside proclamations to prayer. Franklin records here we had daily prayers in this room. So during that contest, they prayed and prayed. So he's reminding them now we've forgotten to do this. Now, this is interesting because it seems that God was using one of the least Christian of our founders to rebuke the other members to draw attention to the fact that, we need God's aid and assistance on our behalf. We need to cry out to him, or, we will never succeed. Well, Franklin goes on to say in this address, I have lived, sir, a long time. And the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings, that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. And. And I also believe that without his concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel. We shall be divided by our little partial local interests. Our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages. So here it is, Franklin calling the convention to prayer, reminding them we prayed and sought God. He answered us and gave us and delivered us from the oppression of Great Britain. We became a, new nation. And he then declared, look, I'm old. I'm 81 years old. I've lived a long time, and I see more clearly now than ever that God governs in the affairs of men. You know, in this speech, Franklin references many, many scriptures. Founders of America were biblically minded men that the truth of the Bible was, throughout culture. Yes, the pastors preached it on Sunday, but it was part of their educational institutions. It was part of the culture of life. And everyone knew scripture, and they didn't have to quote where the scripture came from. He did reference, sir, in the sacred scriptures that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. This is Psalm 127:1. But there's many other references to scripture from the builders of Babel and many other things that, he referenced. So to those individuals who say, ah, we weren't founded by Christians or as a Christian nation, it didn't have much to do with it at all. Of course, Most of those people have no knowledge of the Scripture. And if they had read Franklin's speech, they would, sure, they'd recognize he quoted one scripture because he reminded them. But it's full of different biblical ideas and scripture verses. This is true of so many of the writings and the speeches and the words and writings of our founding fathers through. They're biblical through and through.

Franklin proposed having ministers in prayer during Continental Congress meetings

Back to Franklin. And he concluded his address to the convention. He said, I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers, employing the assistance of heaven and its blessings on our deliberation, be held in this assembly every morning, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service. So then he called and said, okay, we need to pray, cry out to God, and we need to ask ministers to come and officiate. Because he. If you remember, we mentioned in the past that when the Continental Congress first met in September 1774, the first thing they did was to invite a minister, Reverend Jacob Deshay, to come and open their proceedings in prayer. So they had ministers. They had prayer throughout all the meetings of the Continental Congress. And he said, well, we need that today. A delegate from New Jersey, Mr. Dayton, wrote, what happened after he gave this speech? He wrote, the doctor sat down and never did I behold a countenance at once so dignified and delighted as was that of Washington at the close of the address. Nor were the members of the convention generally less affected. The words of the venerable Franklin fell upon our ears with a weight and authority even greater than we may suppose an oracle to have had had in the. The Roman Senate. Well, after Franklin, proposed having ministers in prayer, Mr. Sherman seconded the motion for prayer, and it was carried with only one negative. But then Mr. Williamson of North Carolina pointed out that they had no funds to pay for a chaplain. So in a sense, it can't be official because we can't make a contribution to the chaplain. And so this part of Franklin's motion, therefore failed to pass. But Mr. Randolph then proposed that they obtain clergy who would volunteer their time as much as possible to lead in prayer, and especially that a sermon be preached at the request of the Convention on the 4th of July, the anniversary of independence. So they certainly apparently were successful in obtaining clergymen. So in other. After you made the request, they had a break, break for the fourth of July. They, maybe not officially, wrote, you know, approved the chaplain, but they unofficially said, well, we're going to go and get some clergy to open in prayer. And they were apparently, were Successful in obtaining clergymen to volunteer on some of the mornings. Because Mr. Dayton refers to one opening the session on the first day after the three day recess. Dayton also notes that every unfriendly feeling had been expelled and a spirit of conciliation had been cultivated which promised at least a calm and dispassionate reconsideration of the representation of issue. So here it was. Franklin called him to prayer on the verge of breaking up, while, Madison records in his journal that they didn't officially adopt it, but others record that, well, they did invite ministers to come, they did have a sermon preached, and they did get ministers to come, as Mr. Dayton records. And then he also talks about how the whole spirit, the whole atmosphere of the convention changed after this had taken place. Because God seemed to immediately begin to answer their prayer, giving them wisdom and understanding and direction of how to deal with the impasse. And so in that sense this speech marked the turning point of the convention because break throughs followed shortly and within a year the constitution was ratified by 11 states to establish the first Christian form of government in history based upon Christian self government. One aspect of the wisdom that came was that they decided, all right, we'll have two branches of the legislature, we'll have the house of Representatives, that will be based upon population, thus appeasing the large population states, and we'll have a senate where every state has an equal number of representatives. each state has two representatives, thus appeasing the small states. And so that was part of the answered prayer, part of the wisdom, part of the ideas that were written into our constitution that helped the delegates here to agree to adopt this document and send it to the states. And so the nation as a whole at this time distrusted any national centralization of power. That was the concern of many, the group of people known as anti Federalists. These are the ones who were very fearful of centralizing power because they understood that in the history of man, when you centralize power of government, it always leads to loss of individual liberty. And so these anti Federalists emphasized the fallen carnal nature of man and fought against a national union under the Constitution. But then there were the Federalists who certainly acknowledged the sinful nature of man, but they emphasized the importance of Christian character, virtue and morality in the rulers of a nation. And so, and that that this constitution could delegate certain limited powers to those who governed on the national level. And in the Constitution it lists, Article 1 of the Constitution, lists the powers of Congress. There's 18 enumerated powers. And, and so here's the power that Congress has. All the other power rests with the states and with the local people. And they set up a series of checks and balances to help keep any national power governing body taking too much authority and control and threatening the liberties of individual, citizens. And so, our Constitution has a delicate balance between unity and diversity. The nation and the state can only be preserved by virtuous and knowledgeable representatives, that will be elected by virtuous and knowledgeable citizens. And so, because the Federalists recognize, yes, there's a great fear in giving too much power to the national government, but if we don't have a stronger national government, we won't succeed as a nation, there's threats potentially from other European powers that might come in and begin to take charge. Britain itself could rise up and come back and take power. They needed one another. They needed a Christian Union among all the states in order to assure that they were going to succeed. And so they did need more authority in the national government, but it needed to be very limited. And, no matter what, it's necessary to have a virtuous people, moral people. Because if the citizens aren't virtuous and moral, then the leaders won't be virtuous and moral. And they will usurp authority, usurp power. They will exercise more authority than they should constitutionally. And that will lead to loss of individual liberty. And so the balance in our constitutional form of government certainly is dependent upon each individual citizen performing their duty and for each family to build Christian character and knowledge within citizens and the church to, teach these ideas as well. And so the struggle between the Federalists and antifellerists was intense because in September 1787, the Constitutional Convention approved this Constitution. But then they had to send it to all the states for, for its adoption. And they say, when two thirds or of the state, when three quarters of the states adopt the Constitution, it will go into effect and our new form of government will operate. And so each state then took the Constitution. They took up the, struggle of, are we going to ratify this or not? And in all the states, there were these forces, the Federalists and anti Federalists, that were arguing their point of view. And so it was only with great difficulty that the states, ratified that now many anti Federalists rejected the Constitution, saying, look, it lacks a bill of rights. There's no listing of the rights and liberties that individuals possess. And if we don't put those in there, some future national government is going to usurp the God given rights and liberties of individuals. Now some others, even Federalists, say, well, they're not listed. But we're kind of fearful of even beginning to list them because if you don't list every one of our God given rights and liberties, then some future leader is going to say, aha, you might have this right, but you don't have this one because it's not listed here. so these debates between the Federalists and anti Federalists were very heated, within most of the states. George Washington wrote that I doubt whether the opposition to the Constitution will not ultimately be productive of more good than evil. They have given the rights of man a full and fair discussion and explained them in so clear and forcible a manner as cannot fail to make a lasting impression. And so Washington even said, hey, look, these debates in each of the individual states as they take up the cause of ratification are going to be good. They're going to help bring to knowledge in the light of the people what's necessary for it to be maintained. Plus, they also are going to bring forth a bill of rights, because a lot of states, before they approved it, had to get the promises from those involved to approve a bill of rights or they were not going to ratify it. So within one month of Washington's statement. I just read, read. Five states ratified the Constitution, and then six more followed. Within six more months, over 50 clergy from various denominations were prominent in the state ratifying conventions. But they were especially numerous in Massachusetts, North Carolina and New Hampshire. Massachusetts, 20 clergy served as delegates in their state convention, and one of them urged ratification on the grounds that this union was the rock of their national salvation. Support of these clergymen was crucial, since the Massachusetts convention ratified the constitution by only 19 votes, 187 to 168. In Connecticut, Reverend William Samuel Johnson preached to his state's convention that the one harmonious system of government that came out of Philadelphia was a sign of God's hand. In South Carolina, celebration broke out when the ratification vote was announced to the state delegates. And when order was restored, the elderly statesman Christopher Gadsden said that he would probably not live long enough to see the happy results, but declared, I shall say with good old Simeon. That's when Simeon saw the Christ child brought into the temple. He said, I shall say with good old Simeon, lord, now let us thou thy servant, depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen the salvation of my country. And just prior to the official ratification of the Constitution by the ninth state, Hampshire, which then made the Constitution official and it would go into effect. George Washington summed up the whole era by again referring to the hand of God. He said, should everything proceed as we anticipate, it will be so much beyond anything we had a right to imagine or expect 18 months ago that it will demonstrate the finger of Providence in human affairs greater than any event in history.

With the birth of the United States Constitution, this was the first Constitution

So here it was again in a very important event, not just in the history of America, but in the history of mankind. Because with the birth of the United States Constitution, this was the first Constitution really, of its nature in history. Constitution people formed for their own government. The formation of their own government based upon Christian self government and biblical ideas had been nothing like it. So ours was really the first constitution that there was. You know, today about 175 nations have constitutions, all directly or indirectly based upon the American Constitution. So a great step forward for civil liberty came forth with the adoption of the U.S. constitution. You see, the Declaration of Independence is our founding covenant. It declares why we were doing what we were doing and how we coveted together under God and we acknowledged his divine providence. And it's full of biblical ideas. It's even the way we resisted Great Britain as a, a biblical Christian method of resisting the tyrant. But that's what the Declaration is, the founding covenant. The U.S. constitution is the bylaws of that covenant. It's the working out. It's okay. Now how are we going to function? What form of government are we going to have? What are the principles that this form of government is based upon? Ah, and there's an earlier podcast that we did that I did on the form of godly government. And you can go back and listen to that. And I give general principles that are part of a biblical form of government, part of America's constitutional, form of government. It's based upon the Christian idea of man and government. So we see the events leading up to the approval of the Constitution, reflection finger of God. We see the power, the principles underlying our Constitution are biblical. And we see that the framework of this Constitution is biblical before. And so our founders recognized and saw the finger of Providence, the finger of the Almighty in all these events. And it's very important that we today sing the finger of the providence of God in the founding of our nation and the formation of our U.S. constitution and the ideas in that document and the great value that they have, to preserve our rights and liberties. Our Constitution has lasted well over 225 years, unlike anything we've seen in history. Constitution's not perfect. Their founders recognize it may need to be, amended. But it was the best form of government the world had seen up until that time. And I believe God gave it to man and brought forth this because he had prepared the people over generations, prepared them with the ideas necessary to build a free government. He had instill the important Christian character in them in order to support that unique, form of government. And so God's hand, you know, as Benjamin Franklin said, God governs in the affairs of men. And because they did cry out to God, he gave them wisdom. And our house began to be built in a way that was necessary to bring forth great liberty. And in future podcasts, we will explore some of the fruit that began to come forth after the birth of the American Christian Constitutional Federal Republic and many other things. I hope you can join us. To learn more, Visit our website, providencefoundation.com, pick up some of our books and materials, especially America's Providential History. Also have a book contending for the Constitution that deals in much more detail with these, events there that took place in 1787. So I, hope to be able to have you with us next week for a brand new America's Providential History podcast. God bless.