Founders Had Very Religious Background

In a follow-up to yesterday's post about our religious roots as a country, here is a list of our Founders' religious background. I listed as many as I could find in a full day of research. There may be others, but this is a pretty compelling list (98 Founders!). The Founders listed below were taken from the signers of the Declaration of Independence, delegates to the Constitutional Convention, and signers of the U.S. 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)
• Baldwin, Abraham - Chaplain in the American Revolution (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• Bartlett, Josiah - Bartlett was a Congregationalist. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)
• Bassett, Richard - Participated in writing the Constitution of Delaware, which states: "Every person who shall be chosen a member of either house, or appointed to any office or place of trust... shall... make and subscribe the following declaration, to wit: 'I, ____, do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, an din the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for evermore; and I do acknowledge the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration.'" (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• Bedford, Gunning - Funeral oration on the death of Washington: "Now to the triune God, The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be ascribed all honor and dominion, forevermore." (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• Blair, John - Member of the Episcopal Church (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• Blount, William - Member of the Presbyterian Church. Helped draft the Tennessee Constitution, which said, “No person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this State.” (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• Braxton, Carter - Braxton was a member of the Episcopal church. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)
• Brearly, David - A warden of St. Michael's Church, a compiler of the Protestant Episcopal Prayer Book, and a delegate to the Episcopal General Convention in 1786 (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• Broom, Jacob - Writing to his son: "[D]on't forget to be a Christian. I have said much to you on this head and I hope an indelible impression is made. " (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• Butler, Pierce - Member of the Episcopal Church (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• 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)
• Carroll, Daniel - A Catholic who studied under the Jesuits at the College of St. Omer in Flanders (one of two Roman Catholics to sign the Constitution) (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• 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)
• Davie, William Richardson - Member of the Presbyterian Church (Delegate to Constitutional Convention)
• Dayton, Jonathan - Member of the Episcopal Church (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• Dickinson, John - From his will: "To my Creator I resign myself, humbly confiding in His goodness and in His mercy through Jesus Christ for the events of eternity." (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)
• Ellsworth, Oliver - Studied in theology at Princeton University. Became a religious leader in Connecticut during his later years. (Delegate to Constitutional Convention)
• Few, William - Few was a devout Methodist and was known to donate generously to philanthropic causes. (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• Fitzsimons, Thomas - Member of the Roman Catholic Church (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• Floyd, William - Floyd was a Presbyterian. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)
• Franklin, Benjamin - Considered much more a Deist than a Christian. He was nonetheless a follower of the Bible, and said: "I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- God Governs in the Affairs of Men, And if a Sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, Is it possible that an empire can rise without His aid?...Except the Lord build the house, They labor in vain who build it." (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• Gerry, Elbridge - Gerry was an Episcopalian. Promoted Massachusetts' Religious Freedoms Act. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)
• Gilman, Nicholas - Gilman was a Congregationalist. (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• Gorham, Nathaniel - A Congregationalist who helped write the Massachusett's Constitution, which required this in the oath for office: "...I believe the Christian religion, and have a firm persuasion of its truth." (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• 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)
• Hamilton, Alexander - Proposed formation of the Christian Constitutional Society to spread Christian government around the world. After the Constitutional Convention of 1787, he stated: "For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests." - from Diffine, D.P., One Nation Under God - How Close a Separation? (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• 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)
• Houston, William Churchill - Member of the Presbyterian Church (Delegate to Constitutional Convention)
• 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)
• Ingersoll, Jared - Member of the Presbyterian Church (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• 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)
• Johnson, William Samuel - Speaking as President of Columbia University to the first graduating class after the Revolutionary War: "Remember, too, that you are the redeemed of the Lord, that you are bought with a price, even the inestimable price of the precious blood of the Son of God." (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• King, Rufus - Selected as manager of the American Bible Society. In a speech made before the Senate at the time Missouri was petitioning for statehood, he said: "I hold that all laws or compacts imposing any such condition [as involuntary servitude] upon any human being are absolutely void because contrary to the law of nature, which is the law of God." (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• Langdon, John - Vice President of the American Bible Society (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• Lansing, John - Member of the Dutch Reformed Church (Delegate to Constitutional Convention)
• 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)
• Livingston, William - Said, "I believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, without any foreign comments or human explanations... I believe that he who feareth God and worketh righteousness will be accepted of Him..." (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• 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)
• Martin, Alexander - Member of the Presbyterian and Episcopal Churches (Delegate to Constitutional Convention)
• Martin, Luther - He described himself as being devoted to: "The sacred truths of the Christian religion." (Delegate to Constitutional Convention)
• Mason, George - Called the 'Father of the Bill of Rights' because he insisted they be written to clarify what the federal government was not allowed to do. He also said "The laws of nature are the laws of God, whose authority can be superseded by no power on earth." (Delegate to Constitutional Convention)
• McHenry, James - President of the first Bible Society in Baltimore. In soliciting funds for distribution of Bibles, he wrote: "...Consider also, the rich do not possess aught more precious than their Bible, and that the poor cnnot be presented by the rich with anything of greater value." (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• McKean, Thomas - McKean was a member of the Presbyterian Church. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)
• Mercer, John Francis - An Episcopalian who said, "Civil and religious liberty are inseparably interwoven..." (Delegate to Constitutional Convention)
• Middleton, Arthur - Member of the Episcopal Church (Signer of Declaration of Independence)
• Mifflin, Thomas - Known as both a Quaker and a Lutheran (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• Morris, Gouverneur - [T]he most important of all lessons [from the Scriptures] is the denunciation of ruin to every State that rejects the precepts of religion (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• 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)
• Paterson, William - Supreme Court Justice and a signer of the Constitution, declared that `Religion and morality ... [are] necessary to good government, good order, and good laws'; (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• Penn, John - Penn was a member of the Episcopalian church. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)
• Pierce, William Leigh - Member of the Episcopal Church (Delegate to Constitutional Convention)
• Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth - President of the Charleston Bible Society; Vice President of the American Bible Society (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• Randolph, Edmund Jennings - Member of the Episcopal Church (Delegate to Constitutional Convention)
• 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)
• Rutledge, John - Member of the Episcopal Church (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• Sherman, Roger - (Signer of all 4 of our founding documents). When asked by his church, White Haven Congregational, to help revise the wording of their creed: "I believe that there is one only living and true God, existing in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. That the Scriptures of the old and new testaments are a revelation from God and a complete rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him." (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• 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)
• Spaight, Richard Dobbs - Member of the Episcopal Church (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• 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)
• Strong, Caleb - Vice President of the American Bible Society (Delegate to Constitutional Convention)
• Taylor, George - Taylor was a Presbyterian and the son of a clergyman. (Signer of Declaration of Independence)
• Thomson, Charles - Made the first translation of the Greek Septuagint into English. (Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Secretary of the Continental Congress - 1774 to 1781)
• 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)
• Washington, George - Member of the Episcopal Church. In his prayer at Valley Forge he said, "Almighty and eternal Lord God, the great Creator of heaven and earth, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; look down from heaven in pity and compassion upon me Thy servant, who humbly prorate myself before Thee." (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• 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)
• Wilson, James - Wilson was an Episcopalian and a Presbyterian. Supreme Court Justice. He declared that "Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is Divine ... Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants" (Delegate to Constitutional Convention, Signer of Constitution)
• 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)
• Yates, Robert - Member of the Dutch Reformed Church (Delegate to Constitutional Convention)

(More documentation on the religious affiliations, including the more authoritative sources of the information, can be found on this site: www.adherents.com)