The Evolving of America, I

Memorial Day  *  Country over Party

 The Constitution our Founding Fathers drafted established a framework that would be capable of adhering to fundamental ideals, but also capable of expansion into unforeseen or changing events.  George Washington's election as our first president was indescribably important, for his wisdom and humility established norms not specifically detailed.  For example, he chose to serve for two terms, determined to avoid the possibility of a tradition that presidents would serve for life like kings.  Some later Presidents chose to serve longer than two terms, but ultimately Washington's wisdom regarding limiting presidential service to two terms was adopted.

Try to imagine the responsibility of George Washington as our first president.  He could not look back on what former presidents had done. The entire process of ratification of The Constitution, presidential election, and ratification of the Bill of Rights took place from 1788 to 1791.  It is hard for us to imagine, in our times of immediate transmittal of information and transportation from one side of America to the opposite side, the natural delays of the 1700s.  Yet, this was the environment in which Washington served.  

Not only was the communication and transportation so different from today, he was dealing with a variety of cultures, not only in ethnicity, but in one particular situation, matters of religion.  Washington himself was a devout 18th-century Anglican, following the faith of England, but the split from England had loosened any strict adherence.  Washington wrote, "I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far, that we should never again see their religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of Society."  Even on his own plantation, historians have found evidence that Washington did not oppose the practice of Islam and other traditional African religions at Mount Vernon.

Baptists and Methodists, as well as other new sects, were even less restricted by traditional structures of the old church, and fellow Patriots of George Washington, such as Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, were deeply skeptical of all organized religion.  Our Bill of Rights was not finally ratified until December 15, 1791, but the opening words of that document are:  Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," and Article VI of the Constitution itself provided "The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both in the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

John Winthrop, an English Puritan lawyer who served 18 annual terms as Governor or Lieutenant-governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, said America became a religious "refuge."  However, he, also gave a speech identifying two kinds of liberty: a natural liberty to do as one wished, whether "evil as well as good," vs a restrained liberty intended to do good.  In the Antinomian Controversy, in which Winthrop served as an assistant, the Colony was split by whether following religious laws was required for salvation.  The result was that religious differences proved not to be a refuge for everyone.

President Washington was faced with guiding the new nation through not only the various differences of Christians and Catholics, but other religious beliefs from across the world.  His broad tolerance (his choice of words) for differences is seen in his visit in 1790 to the Touro Synagogue of New Port, Rhode Island, and his letter to that body which clarified his broad view of tolerance.  "It is no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights."

However, perhaps of greater concern to Washington was not religious differences among Americans but rather what he called "the baneful effects of the Spirit of Party." In his farewell address, he emphasized the danger of political parties losing sight of their responsibility to work together for the good of the nation, warning against putting party first.

The Evolving of America, II will be posted in next week's blog.