which America presents to the world at the present moment. And were it not relieved by some brighter hues of Christian hope, by the spirit of an earnest and patriotic ardor, by the stupendous and heroic sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of men and women who freely lay all they possess on the altar of their country, and, finally, by the consciousness of the rectitude of our cause, our firm reliance on providential direction, and the assurance of the glorious purposes of God to be accomplished through this dreary and dreadful passage of the nation's history, it would be indeed the darkest and the saddest chapter yet recorded in the book of time.

Of what avail, then, is it for the enemies of a spiritual religion. to attempt to delude us with the vain pretence that the true progress of mankind implies the rejection of the Bible as the divinely inspired word of God, and the denial of its authority in the affairs of men, and that in the onward march of civilization the dogmas of the Christian Church have become obsolete, that the human mind has outgrown its restrictions, and can no longer be controlled by its discipline or instructed by its counsels? and of what avail is it, by mocking at the sober habits and simple virtues of a purer age, to prepare society for the frightful scenes of its own dissolution? Here still are the great and solemn realities of life, here are the giant evils with which men have to grapple, and which, in despite of all the levities and impieties of an epicurean philosophy, cannot be treated as idle dreams, the vagrant fancies of a distempered mind. And in the effort to ignore both the mischiefs and the remedy of our subverted moral condition by the scoffing infidelity and the specious skepticism of our times, the nation with all its treasure has already been brought to the verge of destruction.

Every intelligent man knows it; every honest man confesses it. And yet the signals of evil omen are not removed. The spirit that humbles a nation before the God of heaven and supplies the conditions of the Divine interposition for our salvation has been strangely wanting to the people; while men are everywhere found among us who leave no means unused to bring the religion of our fathers into contempt, and to cut the nation loose from all her moorings in the ancient faith of martyrs and apostles. The men that do this, whether in the refuse that reeks from the daily press, or in the more pretentious eloquence of the forum, or in the more elaborate and finished chapters of the pe

riodical, or in the more prurient and high-wrought pages of fiction that curse and corrupt the literature of the day, are the deadly enemies of the human soul not only in its relations to the present life, but also in its aspirations for the life to come. They are likewise the malignant and felonious torch-bearers of infidelity, setting the temple of our American greatness on fire, giving our heritage to the flames, and lighting a mighty people into the abyss of self-destruction.

Whoever, therefore, contributes his labor to raise a barrier against so vast and deplorable a calamity to ourselves and the world, whoever lifts his voice like a trumpet in admonition and warning of the danger, and especially whoever can succeed in recalling the mind of the nation to the Christian annals of the republic, in bringing back to the freshly opened fountains of the early inspiration the weary and exhausted body of the people, that they may once more be refreshed and strengthened, once more commune with the great principles, sentiments, achievements, and characters of former times, and be imbued with a sense of the value and importance of their recognition and imitation, will have rendered a noble service, and may justly be regarded as a public benefactor. For the facts of our past history, inspired by the faith of the Christian religion, authenticated and supported as they are by unquestionable proofs, comprise a body of evidence which no well-regulated mind can resist as to the divinity of the Christian religion itself and the reality of a superintending Providence over all the affairs of men. At the same time, they serve to acquaint us with the very purest and loftiest sentiments of the most illustrious men of America in every generation, and with an unbroken chain of testimony in regard to the influence of Christianity upon our national destiny from the beginning until now. And all this appears in connection with the history of most tragic and trying times, and is put forth in terms of thrilling eloquence, of stirring pathos, and of startling energy, kindling the soul to the sublimest fervor of grand and heroic enthusiasm. We shall find in this story of wellattested occurrences and events all the elements that can move the human heart to its profoundest depths,-the wise and steady counsels of the great and good men that adorned the secular professions and pursuits,-the ringing trumpet-voice of the Christian ministry ever calling the host to the march or the conflict,the beauty and tenderness of woman, roused, amid the sweetness

and charms of her gentler nature, as by some supernatural impulse, to all the high and lofty aims of truth and liberty, and imparting everywhere to the breast of manhood a portion of her own unspeakable endurance and devotion,-the sublime unity of the Christian faith, in which were joined Catholic and Protestant, Churchman and Dissenter, clergyman and layman, the members of all parties and the parties of all creeds, as if animated by one spirit and glowing with one thought, the great idea of civil and religious liberty for all the tribes of men. Surely in these great outlines of essential unity there is enough to gratify and inspirit our generation upon the review of the records of those who have preceded us. It only needs to collect these scattered materials into one volume of available size and proportions to furnish to the American people one of the richest and most useful manuals of political and Christian information ever published in any country.

Such an attempt is made in the present volume, so far as is known the only work of the kind ever prepared for popular use and general circulation. The author and compiler, the Rev. B. F. Morris, a Protestant clergyman, for many years a successful pastor and preacher of the gospel in the great Valley of the West, and during the last year a pastor in Washington City, having mingled largely with all classes of the people and become extensively acquainted with many of the leading minds and most prominent and distinguished men of the nation both living and dead, and being peculiarly qualified also by extensive travel and observation throughout our country, and apparently moved to it by a natural aptitude for such a work and an earnest desire to serve the cause of Christianity and civil liberty, some ten years since conceived the idea of collecting from the national archives, and the various other sources of information in the country, the important and deeply interesting materials relating to Christianity in our history which are presented in this volume. In accomplishing this work he has not sought to express at length any opinions or speculations of his own, except so far as to give order, arrangement, and connection to the rich and copious materials thus brought together. Nor has it been his design, as the title of the work might possibly suggest, to give a complete account of the Christian Church in this country, or even a compendium of American ecclesiastical or theological history (which would properly be a distinct work in itself, and is held in reserve for some powerful pen of future times), but rather

to show how the spirit of Christianity has entered into the foundations and elements of our national existence, and how it has affected our civil and political history and given shape and structure to our institutions,-to exhibit the relations it has borne to the state and the impulse it has given to the actors in the great drama of American colonization and independence, the support it affords to the civil institutions of the American people, and its general influence upon their fortunes and their destiny. The conspicuity and moral grandeur of these great lessons are most powerfully and abundantly illustrated. No man can ponder them as presented here without discovering that they furnish an effectual antidote to the skeptical tendencies and moral laxities of the age, and without breathing an earnest prayer that all the people may become familiar with these great memorials of the past, these solemn and sublime tributes of a mighty nation to the one inspiring principle of their prosperity and greatness, and may learn to cherish it with increasing vigilance and care as the only solid foundation of their present peace or their future hope.

In undertaking a work of this magnitude years ago, how little could the author have anticipated that the period assigned in Providence for the consummation of his labor should be one in which the errors, follies, and sins of the nation have culminated in the awful storm that now desolates the land, and at a time when it may be hoped that the American people, chastened and sobered through so bitter an experience, will be more disposed to avail themselves of the opportunity to review the sacred monuments of the past, to mark their departures from the ways of wisdom, and to return to the only path of safety and of honor! Had the author been gifted with a foreknowledge of the events of the past few years, he could scarcely have set himself to perform a task more fitting to the exigency of the time or better adapted to promote the reformation which the present judgments of God must produce as the only alternative of our sure and swift destruction. No analysis of the book is here required. It will speak for itself in thunder-tones. As the common manual of the people, it should be in the hands of every individual in all our borders, and, if diligently perused and faithfully improved, who can tell but, under the blessing of God, it may become the morning star of the mightiest day of national regeneration the world has yet beheld? B. SUNDERLAND.

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 16, 1863.

THE

CHRISTIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER

OF THE

CIVIL INSTITUTIONS OF THE UNITED STATES.

CHAPTER I.

CIVIL INSTITUTIONS OF THE UNITED STATES-THEIR CHRISTIAN ORIGIN AND CHARACTER-STATEMENT OF THE SOURCES OF PROOF OF THIS FACT-CHRISTIANITY THE PERVADING ELEMENT-OBJECT OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE REPUBLIC-SYMBOLS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENTS-CHRISTIAN CONSTITUTIONS

AND STATE PAPERS-THE REVOLUTION INSPIRED BY RELIGION-CHRISTIAN ANNALS OF THE REPUBLIC-CHRISTIAN FAITH OF THE MEN WHO FORMED OUR CIVIL

INSTITUTIONS-DUTY OF AMERICAN CITIZENS TO STUDY THE CHRISTIAN ORIGIN AND GENIUS OF THEIR CIVIL INSTITUTIONS.

THE history and genius of the civil institutions of the United States must ever be a subject of profound thought and interest to the American citizen. Their establishment and progress to completed forms of government, and their influence and fruits upon thirty millions of people and on the nations of the earth, constitute a new era in the science of civil government and the progress of human liberty, and commend them to the reverent study of the statesman, the patriot, the Christian, and the citizen.

The institutions of the North American republic had their birth and baptism from the free inspirations and genius of the Christian religion. This fact has given to the state its political power and moral glory, and shed new light on the benign nature and adaptation of the Christian system to secure the highest political prosperity to a nation.

"Christianity is the principal and all-pervading element, the deepest and most solid foundation, of all our civil institutions. It is the religion of the people,-the national religion;