The Founding Generation of

America

1760-1790 A.D.

By Christopher Biddle, Raquel Ledesma, and Brittany Martinson

Famous men of this era

George Washington-General of the Continental Army and first President of the United States

John Adams- Second President Thomas Jefferson- Writer of the Declaration of

Independence, Third PresidentJames Madison- Fourth President

Alexander Hamilton- Influential supporter of the U.S. Constitution.

Benjamin Franklin- Named "The First American" for his great efforts towards colonial unity. Also first official

postmaster of the USA

"These men, together with several other key players of their time, structured the American democracy and left a legacy

that has shaped the world"

Quick Timeline of the 1760s.

• February 10, 1763 - French and Indian War ends with peace treaty that cedes Canada and the American midwest to England. This signals and effectively tightens the control of Great Britain's colonial administration of North America.

• April 6, 1764 - The Sugar Act places a duty on various commodities, including lumber, food, molasses, and rum in the British colonies.

• October 7, 1765 - After the establishment of the Stamp Act by the British Government, which required taxes to pay for British troops, nine American colonies hold a Stamp Act Congress in New York and adopted a Declaration of Rights against taxation without representation.

• 1767 - Additional levies are put on goods in American colonies by the British Government when the Townshend Acts are enacted, including levies on glass, painter's lead, paper, and tea. All would be repealed in three years, except for the tax on tea.

Quick Timeline of the 1770's

• June 7, 1776- Richard Henry Lee introduces a resolution to the Congress that declared the thirteen colonies "free and independent states."

• June 12-27, 1776 Thomas Jefferson drafts a declaration. Jefferson’s draft—now in the manuscript collections of the Library of Congress—is reviewed by the committee before being submitted to the Congress.

• July 4, 1776- Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence on the morning of a bright, sunny but cool, Philadelphia day. John Dunlap prints the Declaration of Independence.

• November 2, 1772 - Samuel Adams organizes the Committee of Correspondence, a forerunner of the union of American colonies, that begins the American Revolution.

• December 16, 1773- Patriots fling tea into Boston harbor, creating tension.

Quick Timeline of the 1780s

• April 30, 1789 - The 1st President, George Washington, is inaugurated in New York City. He had been chosen president by all voting electors.

• September 24, 1789 - The Federal Judiciary Act is passed, creating the Supreme Court.

• September 25, 1789 - The Bill of Rights is submitted to the states by Congress.

• August 17, 1786 - American frontiersman David "Davy" Crockett is born.

• July 6, 1785 - The United States adopts a decimal coinage system, with the dollar overwhelmingly selected as the monetary unit, the first time any nation has done so.

• January 14, 1784 - Congress ratifies the final peace treaty between Great Britain and the United States, ending the conflict that would give America its freedom.

• April 15, 1783 - Congress ratifies the preliminary peace treaty, ending the Revolutionary War.

• June 20, 1782 - The Bald Eagle is adopted by Congress as the national bird.

The 1780s has often been termed the "CRITICAL PERIOD" for the new nation.

Quick Timeline of the 1790s• January 8, 1790 - The first State of the Union address is given by first president George Washington.

• February 1, 1790 - The Supreme Court of the United States convenes for the initial session.

• March 1, 1790 - Congress commissions the first U.S. census. When completed, it shows that 3,929,214 people lived in the nascent democracy in 1790.

• April 27, 1791 - Samuel Morse, United States inventor, is born. He would later develop the Morse code for use in the first electric telegraph in the United States.

• March 4, 1797 - John Adams succeeds George Washington as president of the United States

• October 27, 1795 - The Treaty of Madrid is signed, establishing the boundaries between the Spanish Colonies and the United States.

• March 27, 1794 - The U.S. Government establishes a permanent navy and commissions six vessels to be built.

Fun and Games of this Era

Board GamesThe Royall

Most Pleasant Game of the GooseCribbage

Backgammon

Card GamesLoo

Whist

Also popular:Dolls

BillardsTea sets

Scientific Advances

Bifocal Glasses - Benjamin Franklin invented bifocal glasses, because he was tired of switching between two pairs of glasses.

Cotton Gin - Eli Whitney designed a machine that cleans cotton and removes its many seeds. This device revolutionized the cotton industry and it made much of the southern United States very rich.Carbonated Water - Joseph Priestly experimented with putting gasses in liquids, producing the first artificially-produced carbonated water.Battery -Alessandro Volta invented the chemical battery. This provided the first generator of continuous electric current.

Key Event: The Declaration of Independence

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL."

• The moment had finally come. Far too much bad blood existed between the colonial leaders and the crown to consider a return to the past.

• More and more colonists felt deprived by the British not only of their money and their civil liberties, but their lives as well.

• The radical wing of the Continental Congress was gaining strength with each passing day. It was time for a formal break with mother England. It was time to declare independence.

• A subcommittee of five, including Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, were selected to choose the careful wording. The five agreed that Jefferson was the most talented writer.

• The declaration is divided into three main parts. Intent, list of grievances (why independence was appropriate), and the final paragraph that dissolved ties with Britain.

• If the American effort was successful, they would be hailed as heroes. If it failed, they would be hanged as traitors.

Key Event: The U.S. Constitution

• The Constitution amounted to a whole new set of rules for organizing national government and indicates the intensity of political thought in the era

• The proposed national framework called for a strong central government that would have authority over the states.

• The proposed Constitution also centrally involved the people in deciding whether or not to accept the new plan through a process called Ratification: which truly called for united states.

Liberty, republicanism, and independence are powerful causes.

Was the fruit of Independence good? The American Revolution produced a new outlook among its people that would have ramifications long into the future. Groups excluded from immediate equality such as slaves and women would draw their later inspirations from revolutionary sentiments. Americans began to feel that their fight for liberty was a global fight. Future democracies would model their governments on ours. There are few events that would shake the world order like the success of the American patriotic cause.

Culture

The

- Although far from the overwhelming mass-mediated sensual assault we associate with modern popular culture, on the eve of the Revolution an emerging common culture had taken shape throughout the thirteen colonies that would become the United States.

• That popular culture would explode in the years after the Revolution.

• Popular culture requires a population sufficiently large to support widespread distribution of consumer goods, one with enough leisure and income to participate in and enjoy the common culture. Certainly, these conditions were present in North America by the onset of the Revolution.

• More important than the growth of the population were the increasing size of the middle class and the gradual increase in leisure and income.

• To a degree, even the lower levels of society could participate in the growing consumer revolution.

Emergence of Popular Culture

The impact of Christianity inthe new nation of America

Christianity in America was marked by the First Great Awakening together with the expansion of the Spanish and Portuguese empire in the world which spread Catholicism.

1730-1760: The 'Great Awakening' - A revival movement among Protestants in the USA.

1738: John and Charles Wesley converted. They lead an Evangelical revival in England and form the Methodist church.

Introduction to Christianity and AmericaDuring the era of the Founding Generation, one may often question: Was America founded on Christian values and is it a Christian nation?

The sad reality is that although our Founding Fathers professed to be Christian, many were not. They practiced religion rather than a relationship with God.

In fact, “Our founding fathers explicitly and clearly excluded any reference to "God" or "the Almighty" or any euphemism for a higher power in the Constitution. Not one time is the word "god" mentioned in our founding documents. Not one time." (Faith Facts). 

Quotes by the Founding Fathers regarding

Christianity "The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." --John Adams

What has been Christianity's fruits?: Superstition, Bigotry, and Persecution. -James Madison

The United States is not a Christian nation anymore than a Jewish or Mohammedan nation.-John Adams

Christianity neither is nor ever was a part of the common law. -Thomas Jefferson 

I do not find in Christianity one redeeming feature. It is founded on fables and mythology.-Thomas Jefferson

It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible. -George Washington

Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man. -Thomas Jefferson

Religion of the Founding FathersAll were Protestant and originated from three distinct Protestant backgrounds. These were the following:

Anglican: George Washington, John Jay, Edward Rutledge

Presbyterian: Richard Stockton, Rev. John Witherspoon

Congregational: John Adams, Samuel Adams

Often times it is debated whether or not we were founded to be a Christian nation. Whatever the case, our founding generation came from similar religious backgrounds.

Religion of Founding Fathers, ctd.

Most of our founders seemed to be Orthodox Christian, baptized, and practiced church attendees.  However, a school of religious thought opened the door to confusion in an idea called deism. Deism says that human experience rather than religious belief is what determines human belief. God was seen as the "Nature God" completely disconnected from his Creation.   This dominated the beliefs of many of our founding fathers, influencing our government as well as our universities.

American concepts: Original or borrowed from Christianity?

"The notion of the sovereign authority of God (as mentioned in the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, all 50 state constitutions, our currency, etc.)--rather than the sovereignty of the state--is certainly biblical.

The existence of moral absolutes (a biblical concept) is an important idea in our Declaration of Independence--specifically, self-evident truths and unalienable rights from the Creator. Many other aspects of our laws come directly from the Bible--for example the judicial, legislative and executive branches trace to Isaiah 33:22.

American concepts, ctd.

“Fair trials with witnesses have numerous Old and New Testament support. Regarding civil liberty, founding father John Adams (and others) emphasized 2 Corinthians 3:17 as the basis for American civil liberty.

The slogan on the Liberty Bell is “Proclaim Liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” This is from Leviticus 5:10.Kennedy and Newcombe argue that Jesus himself was the greatest civil libertarian of all time (Us history).”

US Constitution

The Constitution of the United States of America makes zero reference to a god or Christianity.

The only reference to religion, found in Article VI, is a negative one: "[N]o religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." And of course we have the First Amendment, which states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." (1).

The reason God was not mentioned in the Constitution is that our Founding Fathers did not believe religion should be associated with the government.

The ConstitutionAmerica's first constitution was the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. The Puritan framers of this document required that each aspect of it be grounded in Scripture. Other constitutions to follow contained many similarities to this one. At least 50 of the 55 signers of the U.S. Constitution were orthodox Christians.

The Constitution ctd.

There is no doubt that the concept of our Constitutional checks and balances system is a direct result of the biblical doctrine of the sinfulness of mankind. All of our founders understood the importance of this doctrine to the social order. America's foundational idea of The Rule of Law rather than the authority of man traces back to the Old Testament, beginning with the Ten Commandments. The idea that all men are created equal as enshrined in the Declaration of Independence is a biblical doctrine (US history)." 

Owning Private Property

Private property rights can be traced to the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:15, 17 (Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet.")--as well as other passages from the Old and New Testaments. Interestingly, there are over 700 references to money in the Bible!

It is noteworthy that Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations was written in 1776, the same year as the birth of America. But many historians credit theologian John Calvin from 200 years earlier as the person who is most responsible for putting together the principles that were always in the Bible into a system adapted by the American founders. For example, the biblical doctrines of self-reliance and self-denial are the foundation of the famous "Protestant work ethic." These doctrines are at the heart of our economic (and political) way of life (Britannica). 

Evangelism and the Great Awakening (1714-1760)

During the late 1700s, evangelism played an incredible role in religious America. Books printed by the Puritans allowed for Christianity to spread. During the Great Awakening of the 1740s, whites were proselytizing to blacks, odd for this time as racism and slavery were in full effect. 

One of the greatest evangelists of the 18th century George Whitfield brought thousands of souls to Christ in one of the greatest conversion experiences called The Great Awakening. 

The Great Awakening, ctd.

Whitefield's preaching tour of the colonies, from 1739 to 1741, was the high-water mark of the Great Awakening there. A sermon in Boston attracted as many as 30,000 people. Whitefield's success has been attributed to his resonant voice, theatrical presentation, emotional stimulation, message simplification and clever exploitation of emerging advertising techniques. Some have compared him to modern televangelists (Britannica)."

The Great Awakening, ctd.

During the Great Awakening, revival was brought to America. Other evangelists such as Jonathan Edwards and Charles Wesley stressed God's divine judgment and punishment to bring the American people to repentance. Jonathan Edward's famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, is seen to be one of the most influential religious works in American history.

 1) God has always been at the center.

The Big ‘Takeaways’ of this period

3) The Constitution brought up the morals we stand by today.

2) Evangelism was welcomed by the Great Awakening.

4) America has and always will be a nation ‘under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

How Christianity affected the Revolutionary War (1775-1783)“Religious beliefs also greatly

influenced the Patriots. In fact, the war might not have been nearly as popular without the influence of preachers, many of whom called for independence from the pulpit” (Larson).

“Most colonists saw themselves as Christians in the Puritan tradition. Baptists also played an important role, with nearly unanimous support for the Patriot cause” (Larson).

“Part of the liberty they wanted to preserve was their religious freedom. Many Americans believed that the English church was sinful and corrupt. If the colonies remained part of Britain, they might someday have to join the Anglican Church. Thus, fighting for independence was fighting against sin and for freedom of religion”(Larson).

How the large events of the 1760s-1790s impacted history

American culture

This was a crucial era in determining what American culture actually was. Without the control of England, the States were free to create the society they wanted.

The Revolutionary War freed the States from overseas control. With this freedom, they expanded rapidly and prosperously.

Christianity

By not specifically including ‘God’ in our Constitution, our government set the precedent for being very religiously tolerant.

Colonial America had a bend toward a moral society, one that might have expected many to go to church and have high standards. This ‘Christian’ or ‘religious’ bend affected society for many generations.

How 1760-1790 impacted history

American culture

The American democracy was created, and the constitution established.

The standards for all future presidents were set with the presidency of the loved George Washington.

Christianity

Many did, as many continue to do, practiced religion instead of a real relationship with Jesus. The founding fathers made it okay for leaders to not necessarily be evangelical Christians.

Set the precedent for leaders with different faiths to work together for the good of the nation.

The impact of an era

American culture

Established the governmental offices of Congress, the Supreme Court, the Navy, the Army and many other national symbols, titles, and jobs that affect daily American life.

Established how influential the government could be versus what role the state could take in the life of the individual.

Christianity

Established the Bible as an important book with wisdom for life, as several key concepts in our government could have come from Biblical concepts.

Established the freedom of religion and did not require governmental office holders to take a test of religion.

How did this era really affect those of us living in America today?

American culture

Even though the founders were not necessarily all believers, this era did see much Christian influence in many aspects of government.

This helped as our new nation strove to be different from England and tolerant of religion, but at the same time a model for brand- new independent nations to follow.

Christianity

Established the oft- debated concept of separation of church and state.

Established how influential religious groups can be in swaying what happens in the government.

Established what revival and ‘tent meetings’ really meant to America.

This era set the precedent for religious toleration

“By the end of the colonial period, people had become more tolerant of religious differences. Many different religious groups existed together in the same communities and people became used to living and working with others who held religious beliefs” ( Hakim ).

Religious Toleration ctd.

“In some of the colonies, most notably in New England, many people had become less strict about their own religious beliefs and were more willing to accept different points of view. Consequently, with an increased tolerance of religious differences there came greater demands for genuine religious freedom…” (Hakim).

“By the time of the ratification of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, there was a widely held belief that the federal government should not be allowed to establish an official church for the nation. Many agreed that an established church was harmful to religion and bad for the nation” ( Hakim ).

The Founding Generation set a precedent that America was to be a nation where every religion was accepted. This has

carried on even until today. Some discrimination still happens, but this is a MAJOR way that the founding generation set up how the country would react for

generations to come of differing religions, viewpoints, ethical backgrounds, etc.

America has always been known as the land of freedom, and this carries on into

the delicate world of religion.

The impact this era had on the Church

1. Allowed for even more freedom to believe differently. The fear of England was gone, and so were any religious

ties to that nation.

2. Morality and Christianity became popular as people fought for religious reasons and created a nation that was

bent towards morality.

3. Did not necessarily encourage widespread church attendance as it

allowed for other faiths to grow as well.

Our Group’s Analysis of the impact of Christianity on the United States of America

America was heavily influenced by Christianity from its people to  its government to its churches to its schools.

 Even though the founders practiced legalism and religiosity rather than a living relationship with God, America was still founded on Christian principles such equality and liberty among many others.

Works Cited

"American History." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 17 June 2015

Bio.com A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 17 June 2015."Declaring Independence: Drafting the Documents Timeline." Timeline.

N.p., n.d. Web. 19 June 2015."Eighteenth Century Inventors and Inventions"

EnchantedLearning.com N.p. N.d. Web. June 17, 2015"Faith Facts." Christian Apologetics, Spiritual, Truth about God -. N.p.,

n.d. Web. 28 June 2015

"Faith Facts." Christian Apologetics, Spiritual, Truth about God -. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 June 2015

History.org The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's Official History and Citizenship Website

N.p. N.d. Web. June 17, 2015Larson, Rachel C., PhD. "Independence for the Colonies."

Introduction. The American Republic. 3rd ed. Greenville, South Carolina: BJU, 2010. 92-93. Print.

Schweitzer, Jeff. "Founding Fathers." Huffingtonpost.com. N.p., n.d. Web.

"The Founding Fathers, Deism, and Christianity." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 28 June 2015

"US History." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 28 June 2015.