Baltimore Day of Fasting February 3, 1777

Imagine Congressmen Observing a Day of Prayer in Maryland- It Happened Before!

Imagine this happening in Maryland.  From December 20, 1776 to February 27, 1777, Baltimore served as the nation's capital.  According to John Adams (writing to Abigail Adams), Continental Congress recommended (not forced) members of Congress to have a Day of Fasting and Prayer for the nation.  Congress recommended it and Congressmen showed up for it.

Salisbury, Maryland may have received the answer to prayer in that a planned meeting of Tories was thwarted.  Tories already numbered 250 and were getting stronger.  The British ship Roebuck dropped off 3 field pieces/cannon in the area of Parker Mill Pond (Leonard Mill Pond today).  Read my February 24, 2011 article on Parker Mill Pond for details.  

Soak in these words of John Adams about prayer going on in the seat of government in the State of Maryland:

  

John Adams to Abigail Adams (February 3,1777) VI, 199-200.

"This Day has been observed in this Place, with exemplary Decency and Solemnity, in Consequence of an Appointment of the Government, in Observance of a Recommendation of Congress, as a Day of Fasting. I went to the Presbyterian meeting and heard Mr. Allison deliver a most pathetic and animating, as I have seldom been better pleased or more afected with a sermon.

'The Presbyterian meeting House in Baltimore stands upon a Hill just at the Back of the Town, from whence We have a very fair Prospect of the Town, and of the water upon which it stands, and of the Country round it. Behind this Eminence, which is the Bacon [Beacon] Hill of Baltimore."

Instead of pointing fingers at our Congressmen, we need to look at ourselves.  Are we as close to God as   our forefathers?  Hearing about some of this history impacts me and hopefully impacts you the reader.  Several weeks after one presentation about the Christian worldview of the Founders, a woman told my wife that her husband was in the audience.  The presentation had made him think about God again.  Hopefully these entries make all of us return to the service of our Maker.

House of Lords Gallery 1783

 With

 John Jay, John Adams and John Quincy Adams

          In late October 1783, something remarkable happened.  American Peace negotiators John Jay, John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams sat in the gallery of the House of Lords and watched the formal presentation of the Prince of Wales’ at his twenty-first birthday.[1]  It must have been a strange feeling for them to be sitting in the seat of power of their recent former enemy.  Conversely, it may have been unsettling for the members of the House of Lords to know those three former rebels sat in the audience.   There is something else about this meeting of Jay, Adams and Adams.  These men carried a strong Christian worldview with them and along with that a strong conviction against slavery. 

          John Jay became President of the American Bible Society between 1822 and 1825.  John Quincy Adams served as Vice President of the American Bible Society between 1818 and 1848.   John Adams had a strong Christian worldview also as you can see in his writings.  David McCullough on page 19 of John Adams stated:  “John Adams was both an intellectual and a Christian and saw no contradiction between the two.”  Also you can check out John Adams (and Abigail as well) in my book 1776 Faith.  For those who posit that he is a Unitarian, why does he give such strong Trinitarian language in his recommendations for two days of prayer when he served as President under the Constitution?
          In John Adams 1st recommendation (I love and seize upon that word recommend- people did not get guillotined if they did not participate) of a day of prayer  on March 23, 1798.  In that proclamation, Adams mentions the Father of mercies, our blessed Redeemer and the holy spirit.  The "great Unitarian" does it again and talks of the Trinity again in his March 6, 1799 recommendation of a day of prayer.  What I have seen in John Adams while a student, while a young man, while fighting for the American Revolution and while serving as President of the United States under the Constitution, I see a consistent Christian worldview.  He may stray away after 1815 or so but while helping with the American Revolution and helping establish the Constitution and serving under that Constitution, I see a consistent Christian worldview.

          John Quincy Adams defended the Africans in the Amistad court case and was noted as being against slavery.  John Adams did not own slaves and never wanted to get involved in having any slaves.  Horace Greeley attributed the outlawing of slavery in New York to John Jay.  Jay served as President of the Manumission Society.  It is noted that Jay purchased slaves so as to free them.  Let us say that in today’s terms the cost of a slave would be the price of a car.  How many of us would just buy a car and then give it away to a stranger? 

          If my research is correct, I may descend from an indentured servant from Scotland.  If not, I have come across many like William Washington who served as an indentured servant for no less than George Washington himself.  There is a May 1775 Maryland Gazette that states: “William Webster, escaped slave.”  My family is not of the silver spoon variety.  Jay eventually gave them freedom for their limited years of service. 

          It doesn’t end there with Jay.  He helped found an African Free School in New York City in 1787.  In 1788 it started with 56 students and by 1834 had educated over 1,000 students.  The year 1834 is the year that the Manumission Society handed the school over to New York City.[2]  Jay as governor of New York passed An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery in 1799.

          Jay became good friends with William Wilberforce who was the driving force to stop slavery in the British Empire.  You can check out their correspondence in my book Can a Chief Justice Love God?: The Life of John Jay as well as reading John Jay’s Correspondence.

          Please do not tell me that all the Founders were deists and that all the Founders were slave owners.  Look at these guys in the House of Lords gallery.

          John Adams played a large role in the constitution of Massachusetts.  In that state constitution, slavery was outlawed in Massachusetts.

          Frederick Douglass and Dr. King would have some nice things to say about these guys.  In 1854 Horace Greeley stated: "To Chief Justice Jay may be attributed, more than any other man, the abolition of Negro bondage in this [New York] state." Abraham Lincoln seized upon the idea that the Founders passed on to him “four score and seven years” later that we are all created equal in the sight of God.

---

[1] Stahr, Walter.  John Jay: Forgotten Founder.  New York:  Hambleton and London         Press, 2005.  p. Stahr, Walter.  John Jay: Forgotten Founder.  New York:          

[2] http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/07/founders-and-slavery

VIDEO: John Jay Christmas Address Dec. 23, 1776 PART 3

This presentation cannot be reproduced without written permission of Phil Webster.

VIDEO: John Jay Christmas Address Dec. 23,1776 PART 2

This presentation cannot be reproduced without written permission of Phil Webster.

VIDEO: John Jay Christmas Address Dec. 23, 1776 PART I

This presentation cannot be reproduced without written permission of Phil Webster.

VIDEO: John Jay and the Christian Worldview of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence

Phil Webster in character as John Jay 

presenting the Christian worldview of 

the Signers of the Declaration of Independence.  

      John Jay was not a signer of the Declaration of Independence.  New York forbade him to leave as New York was under the threat of attack from the British.  John Jay was familiar with the signers and he with them.  Continental Congress chose him to be President from 1778 to 1779.  His 1776 Christmas Address (available on this blog) mentioned God 33 times.  Continental Congress had the address translated into German and published at Continental Congress expense.  John Jay, the nation's first Secretary of State and Chief Justice served as President of the American Bible Society in his retirement.  Mr. Jay is uniquely qualified to talk about the Christian worldview of the Founding Fathers

This presentation cannot be reproduced without written permission of Phil Webster.

"My friends want me to be able to eat."

When I became a new Christian I was able to be around a gentleman named Mr. Raymond Koffel.  He was around 70 years old and owned an "army surplus" store on Carroll Street in Salisbury, Maryland.  People used to ask him to give them a special discount "as a friend."  His comeback was: "My friends want me to be able to eat."  I picked up a lot of wisdom in my visits with him.
This man picked up a harmonica in his parking lot and said that God had put that harmonica there for him to learn.  Between ages 70 and 75 he had learned about 100 songs to play on the harmonica.  He played in churches.  He was truly young at heart.
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