26 Oct. 1781: Congress recommended “a day of Thanksgiving and Prayer” and urged “the people…to offer up our most fervent supplications to...God..., that it may please Him to…cause the knowledge of God to cover the earth, as the waters cover the seas [cf. Isa. 11:9; Hab. 2:14].”

25 Oct. 1776: “That the Beauty of the LORD our GOD may be upon us, & that HE would establish the Work of our Hands [Ps. 90:17]: That HE would … fill the Universe with the Display of HIS glorious Perfections, in & through JESUS CHRIST our Lord & Saviour.” Connecticut PROCLAMATION

25 October 1639: “thatt the worde of God shall be the onely rule to be attended vnto in ordering the affayres of gouernment in this plantatio[n].” New Haven General Court, first organization of civil government in the colony. Hoadly, ed., Records of the Colony of New Haven, 21.

24 October 1776: “Neither can it be made appear that the Gospel needs any such civil aid. We rather conceive that when our Blessed Saviour declares his kingdom is not of the world, he renounces all dependence upon State power....” Memorial of the Presbytery of Hanover, Virginia.

24 October 1776: “Certain it is that every argument for civil liberty gains additional strength when applied to liberty in the concerns of Religion....” Memorial of the Presbytery of Hanover, Virginia. #ReligiousLiberty #CivilLiberty

“For my own part, I sincerely esteem it [the system of government under the ‘New Constitution’] a system, which, without the finger *of God*, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests.” Cæsar, [New-York] Daily Advertiser, October 17, 1787.

“Our government rests upon religion. It is from that source that we derive our reverence for truth & justice, for equality & liberty, and for the rights of mankind. Unless the people believe in these principles they cannot believe in our government.” Calvin Coolidge, 15 Oct. 1924

“It is of a great deal of significance that the generation which fought the American Revolution had seen a very extensive religious revival…. By calling the people to righteousness they were a direct preparation for self government.” #POTUS #CalvinCoolidge, October 15, 1924.

“Francis Asbury came to America to preach religion… He came to bring the gospel to the people, to bear witness to the truth and to follow it where so ever it might lead. Wherever men dwelt, whatever their condition,…to him they were souls to be saved.” Coolidge, Oct. 15, 1924.

🧵 15 October 1924: an equestrian statue of #Methodist Bishop Francis Asbury (1745-1816) was unveiled at 16th & Mt. Pleasant Streets, NW, #WashingtonDC. Asbury "is entitled to rank as one of the builders of our nation,” #POTUS #CalvinCoolidge remarked at the dedication ceremony.

11 Oct. 1798: “we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality & religion.... Our Constitution was made only for a moral & religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” #JohnAdams to Mass. Militia

11 October 1782: Congress appointed “a day of solemn THANKSGIVING to GOD for all his mercies” and recommended “a cheerful obedience to [God’s] laws” and “the practice of true and undefiled religion, which is the great foundation of public prosperity and national happiness.”

9 Oct. 1780: “When a Religion is good, I conceive that it will support itself; & when it cannot support itself, & God does not take care to support, so that its Professors are oblig’d to call for the help of the Civil Power, ’tis a Sign…of its being a bad one.” #BenjaminFranklin

6 October 1536: William Tyndale, English Protestant Reformer, Bible translator, & father of modern English, was martyred circa this day in 1536. He labored, John Foxe wrote, to prepare a Bible in vernacular English accessible to commoners, even the “boy that driveth the plough.”

“keep religion&gov’t independant of each Other. Were it possible for St Paul to rise from his grave..., he would say to the Clergy...so active in...the political Affairs of the World: 'Cease from your political labors your kingdom is not of this World.'” #BenjaminRush, 6 Oct 1800

“It is the nature of man to pursue his own interest, in preference to the public good….” #FoundingFather James Wilson, commenting on #HumanNature in “State House Yard Speech,” October 6, 1787. @JamesWilsonInst