The American Revolution was a
Presbyterian Revolt
By Jonathon
Van Maren
First
published at The
Stream for Independence Day.
“There is no
good crying about the matter,” Horace Walpole told the House of Commons when
news of the American Revolution arrived in England. “Cousin America has run off
with the Presbyterian parson, and that is the end of it.”
The parson
Walpole was referring to was John Witherspoon. Witherspoon was the president of
the College of New Jersey, which would later become Princeton. He was a signer
of the Declaration of Independence. He was also a descendant of the founder of
the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, John Knox.
Presbyterians
Made Up Half of the Revolutionary Army, Historian Estimates
Our ignorance
of history has sent much about America’s origins down the memory hole. “John
Calvin,” the eminent historian Leopold von Ranke once observed, “was the virtual
founder of America.” Not long ago, this statement would have seemed
uncontroversial, especially amongst historians. Consider the following:
The
population of the colonies at the time of the Revolution was about three
million. Historian Paul R. Carlson estimates that of that number: “900,000 were
of Scotch or Scotch-Irish origin. 600,000 were Puritan English. [O]ver 400,000
were of Dutch, German Reformed, and Huguenot descent. That is to say, two thirds
of our Revolutionary forefathers were trained in the school of Calvin.”
Presbyterian
clergy joined the Revolution in droves. As Carlson observed: “When Cornwallis
was driven back to ultimate retreat and surrender at Yorktown, all of the
colonels of the Colonial Army but one were Presbyterian elders. It is estimated
that more than one half of all the soldiers and officers of the American Army
during the Revolution were Presbyterian.”
King George
III and Others Called it a “Presbyterian War”
One historian
noted that many Presbyterian pastors led the Revolution from the pulpit. King
George III himself concurred, calling it a “Presbyterian war.” Hearing of the
American rebel leaders, he exclaimed: “Are they not Presbyterians?”
British
historian George Trevelyan stated that “political agitation against the Royal
Government had been deliberately planned by Presbyterians.” Further, the
Revolution “was fostered and abetted by Presbyterians in every colony.”
In fact, in
1776 Tory William Jones announced that this “has been a Presbyterian war … and
accordingly the first firing against the King’s troops [at Lexington Green] was
from a Massachuset [sic] meeting house.”
A Hessian
captain fighting with the British agreed. In 1778, he told a friend “call this
war … by whatsoever name you may. Only call it not an American Revolution. It is
nothing more nor less than an Irish-Scotch Presbyterian Rebellion.”
“Give ‘Em
Watts, Boys!”
There was one
particularly stark example of this. During a five-to-one battle in Springfield,
New Jersey, the colonists were getting pushed back. The battle waxed hot. Then,
they ran out of wadding paper for their gunpowder. Without wadding paper, they
couldn’t shoot. Disaster loomed.
Rev. James
Caldwell sprang into action. He raced on horseback to the church. There, he
grabbed a stack of hymnbooks by Isaac Watts. Racing back, he tossed hymnbooks to
the soldiers. “Give ‘em Watts, boys!” he roared as they ripped out the pages.
“Put Watts into ‘em!” With Watts’ hymns, the Redcoats were beaten back. The
Battle of Springfield was won on June 23, 1780.
To Worship in
Freedom
Famous
American historian George Bancroft summed it up this way:
The
Revolution of 1776, so far as it was affected by religion, was a Presbyterian
measure. It was a natural outgrowth of the principles which the Presbyterianism
of the Old World planted in her sons, the English Puritans, the Scotch
Covenanters, the French Huguenots, the Dutch Calvinists, and the Presbyterians
of Ulster.
Calvin, wrote
Bancroft, was “the father of America.” Bancroft was not a Calvinist, but he was a
historian. “He who will not honor the memory and respect the influence of Calvin
knows but little of the origin of American liberty,” he stated. He pointed to
the Presbyterian synod in Philadelphia in 1775. The synod publicly called for a
break from England and urged prayer for the Congress. Bancroft credits the
Presbyterians with making the first move towards independence.
This
shouldn’t be surprising. Colonial America had been convulsed by Great Awakenings
under George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards and others. These took place just
prior to the Revolution. Many Presbyterians had fled to America to worship in
freedom. As such, as they had little love for the British crown. They believed
in liberty under a sovereign God. They were fiercely independent. And the
American Republic was their gift to the world.
American
Democracy Was Born of Christianity
The Second
American Revolution is being waged by a different sort of people. Those purging
history from our streets are already coming for the Founders. John Witherspoon’s
statue in Washington, D.C. has been left alone — but that’s because they don’t
know who he is. They do not believe in liberty and individual responsibility
under God. Most do not believe in God. They believe in collective
responsibility, not individual responsibility. Comparisons have been made
between the rioters and the Patriots. It is only being made by the staggeringly
ignorant.
American
democracy was born of Christianity. Without that lifeblood sustaining the
Republic, she is living on borrowed time. It is significant that the French
Revolution has gained popularity amongst the rioters. These people seek no
continuity with the past. They do not recognize God’s sovereignty. And they do
not know their own history.