Signers of the Declaration of Independence - Christian Background

Many question whether our Founders really were Christians. Here are some facts about the signers of the Declaration of Independence. (See also the post from 10/25 about signers of the Constitution.)

• Adams, John - Congregationalist and later a Unitarian (he did not accept the Trinity). He said, "To enable me to maintain this declaration I rely, under God, with entire confidence on the firm and enlightened support of the national legislature and upon the virtue and patriotism of my fellow citizens." (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Adams, Samuel - Congregationalist. "We have this day restored the Sovereign to Whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come." Also: "The rights of the colonists as Christians...may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutes of the Great Law Giver and Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament." (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Bartlett, Josiah - Bartlett was a Congregationalist. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Braxton, Carter - Braxton was a member of the Episcopal church. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Carroll, Charles - Roman Catholic. Carroll said, "Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure...are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments." (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Chase, Samuel - Chase was an Episcopalian. As a Supreme Court Justince he said, "Religion is of general and public concern, and on its support depend, in great measure, the peace and good order of government, the safety and happiness of the people. By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion; and all sects and denominations of Christians are placed upon the same equal footing, and are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty." (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Clark, Abraham - Clark was a Presbyterian, and said once, ""Nothing short of the Almighty Power of God can Save us-it is not in our Numbers, our Union, or our Valour that I dare trust." (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Clymer, George - Was both a Quaker and an Episcopalian (Signer of Declaration of Independence, Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)


• Ellery, William - Ellery was known as a Congregationalist and a devout Christian. From Lossing's "Signers of the Declaration of Independence" we hear, "As a patriot and a Christian, his name will ever be revered." (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Floyd, William - Floyd was a Presbyterian. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Gerry, Elbridge - Gerry was an Episcopalian. Promoted Massachusetts' Religious Freedoms Act. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Gwinnett, Button - Gwinnett was an Episcopalian and a Congregationalist. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Hall, Lyman - Hall was a Congregationalist and served as a minister in Connecticut. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Hancock, John - Hancock was a Congregationalist. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Harrison, Benjamin - Harrison was a member of the Episcopal church. He professed that religion was necessary to society and that government should support it. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Hart, John - Hart was a Presbyterian. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Hewes, Joseph - Hewes was a Quaker and an Episcopalian. He was the son of a pious and well-to-do Quaker farmer and received a strict religious upbringing. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Heyward, Thomas - Heyward was a member of the Episcopal church. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Hooper, William - Hooper was an Episcopalian. He was trained at Harvard as a minister. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Hopkins, Stephen - He was a Quaker with an active interest in the church. He believed in the divinity of the Christian religion. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Hopkinson, Francis - Hopkinson was an Episcopalian. He became a Church music director and edited a hymnal that set all of 150 psalms to music. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Huntington, Samuel - He was a Congregationalist. According to B. J. Lossing's “Signers of the Declaration of Independence,” it is known that “Governor Huntington lived the life of the irreproachable and sincere Christian... as a devoted Christian and a true patriot, he never swerved from duty...” (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Jefferson, Thomas - Jefferson was probably best called a Deist, but he is also claimed by Unitarians and some Christian denominations. He was the one who penned the idea that our rights come from God (“Creator”) (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Lee, Francis Lightfoot - Lee was an Anglican and a devout Christian. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Lee, Richard Henry - Lee was an Anglican and known as a sincere Christian. He professed that religion was necessary to society and that government should support it. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Lewis, Francis - Lewis was an Episcopalian. His father was an Episcopal clergyman, his mother was a clergyman's daughter. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Livingston, Philip - Livingston was a Presbyterian and belonged to an eminent Christian family. He followed the Christian religion. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Lynch, Thomas - Member of the Episcopal Church (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Madison, James - Member of the Episcopal Church. He said, "The belief in a God, all powerful, wise, and good, [is] essential to the moral order of the world, and to the happiness of man." (Signer of Declaration of Independence, Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)


• McKean, Thomas - McKean was a member of the Presbyterian Church. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Middleton, Arthur - Member of the Episcopal Church (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Morris, Lewis - Morris was an Episcopalian. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Morris, Robert - Member of the Episcopal Church (Signer of Declaration of Independence, Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)


• Morton, John - Member of the Episcopal Church. In his will he said, “...for the settling of such temporal estate as it hath pleased God to bless me with in this life...” (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Nelson, Thomas Jr. - Nelson was a member of the Episcopal church. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Paca, William - Paca was an Episcopalian and a consistent Christian. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Paine, Robert - Paine left Calvinism to become a Unitarian. He served as a military chaplain. He said, "I am constrained to express my adoration of . . . the Author of my existence . . . [for] His forgiving mercy revealed to the world through Jesus Christ, through whom I hope for never ending happiness in a future state." (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Penn, John - Penn was a member of the Episcopalian church. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Read, George - Read was an Episcopalian. (Signer of Declaration of Independence, Signer of Constitution)


• Rodney, Caesar - Rodney was an Episcopalian. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Rush, Benjamin - Rush was a Presbyterian. He was founder and manager of the Philadelphia Bible Society (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Ross, George - Ross was an Anglican. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Rutledge, Edwards - Rutledge was an Anglican. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Smith, James - Smith was a Presbyterian. He was quite strick that those in his presense should not speak ill of Christianity. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Stockton, Richard - Stockton was a Presbyterian. He said, "I think it proper here not only to subscribe to . . . doctrines of the Christian religion . . . but also, in the bowels of a father's affection, to exhort and charge them [my children] that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, that the way of life held up in the Christian system is calculated for the most complete happiness." (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Stone, Thomas - Stone was an Episcopalian. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Taylor, George - Taylor was a Presbyterian and the son of a clergyman. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Thornton, Matthew - Thornton was a member of the Presbyterian Church and known as a devout Christian. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Walton, George - Walton was an Episcopalian. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Whipple, William - . (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Williams, William - Williams was a Congregationalist and a devout Christian. He studied for the ministry. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Witherspoon, John - Witherspoon was a Presbyterian. He said, "[S]hun, as a contagious pestilence,... those especially whom you perceive to be infected with the principles of infidelity or [who are] enemies to the power of religion" (Signer of Declaration of Independence, Signer of Constitution)


• Wolcott, Oliver - He was a Congregationalist and a devout Christian. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)


• Wythe, George - Wythe was a member of the Episcopal church. He helped draft instructions for an embassy in Canada, which said, "You are further to declare that we hold sacred the rights of conscience, and may promise to the whole people, solemnly in our name, the free and undisturbed exercise of their religion. And...that all civil rights and the right to hold office were to be extended to persons of any Christian denomination." (Signer of Declaration of Independence)