Like every great river, the American Republic owes its existence to its headwaters. Three mighty currents of moral, legal, and political thought flowed through the English colonies for nearly 170 years before converging in the Declaration of Independence. Biblical Christianity, English Common Law, and Enlightenment political philosophy each contributed essential ideas, but it was their convergence that wove the intellectual fabric of the American Republic. The Constitution did not create the American idea. It transformed the principles proclaimed in the Declaration into the operating manual of the American Republic.
The first current was Biblical Christianity.
From the founding of Jamestown in 1607 until independence in 1776, the English colonies were shaped by a biblical understanding of man, morality, and government. The earliest settlers came from many Christian traditions, seeking the freedom to worship according to conscience rather than under government-controlled churches. They often disagreed over doctrine, but they largely agreed that every human being possesses inherent dignity because he is created by God, that moral law exists above civil law, and that rulers are accountable to a higher authority.
The Mayflower Compact, the first written framework of self-government in what would become the United States, began with the words βIn the name of God, amen.β It established the principle that legitimate government rests upon the voluntary agreement of the governed β a concept that would later find its fullest expression in the Declaration of Independence. Colonial education was rooted in Scripture, and the First Great Awakening (1730β1740) helped forge a shared American identity among colonies that otherwise differed in geography, economics, and religious tradition.
"If God be for us, who can stand against us".
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