An Appeal to Heaven
One nation under God
It was September 30th, 1777. Not three weeks prior, the Continental Army suffered a devastating defeat at Brandywine Creek, about 25 miles southwest of Philadelphia. The British had routed Washington’s army and captured the majority of its artillery before marching into Philadelphia unopposed, causing the Continental Congress to flee with such haste that at least one delegate, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, left behind all of his extra clothes. With New York and Philadelphia under English control, the Continental Congress—with now only 20 members remaining of the 56 who had signed the Declaration of Independence a year prior—convened in York, Pennsylvania, questioning whether or not there was any hope left for the American cause.
John Adams noted in his diary that "The prospect is chilling, on every Side: Gloomy, dark, melancholly, and dispiriting." But it was at this meeting in York that John’s cousin Samuel Adams, the chief rabble-rouser of the Americans and their spiritual leader—whom Thomas Jefferson later remarked that, if there was a leader of the Revolution, “Samuel Adams was the man.”— gave perhaps his most important speech:
If we despond, public confidence is destroyed, the people will no longer yield their support to a hopeless contest, and American liberty is no more. Through the darkness which shrouds our prospects the ark of safety is visible. Despondency becomes not the dignity of our cause, nor the character of those who are its supporters. Let us awaken then, and evince a different spirit, -- a spirit that shall inspire the people with confidence in themselves and in us -- a spirit that will encourage them to persevere in this glorious struggle, until their rights and liberties shall be established on a rock. We have proclaimed to the world our determination "to die freemen, rather than to live as slaves." We have appealed to Heaven for the justice of our cause, and in Heaven we have placed our trust. Numerous have been the manifestations of God's providence in sustaining us. In the gloomy period of adversity, we have had "our cloud by day and pillar of fire by night." We have been reduced to distress, and the arm of Omnipotence has raised us up. Let us still rely in humble confidence on Him who is mighty to save. Good tidings will soon arrive. We shall never be abandoned by Heaven while we act worthy of its aid and protection.
Good tidings arrived not three weeks later in Saratoga, New York where General Gates surrounded and secured the surrender of over 6,000 redcoats and almost triple the number of artillery pieces lost at Brandywine.
The Americans’ appeal to Heaven and Samuel Adams use of the phrase is generally considered a reference to John Locke’s “Second Treatise of Government” wherein Locke more or less states that when a government fails to uphold its end of the social contract, and those under its rule have no more possibility of earthly appeal, those under such a government can make an appeal to Heaven and take up arms in rebellion—and God will hear their appeal and judge whether or not their cause is just and, if so, see them through. This idea is related to the ancient Chinese notion of the “mandate of Heaven” whereby a government is said to rule only so long as it does so justly—and when it ceases to be just, Heaven rescinds its mandate leading to all sorts of natural disasters and rebellions leading to the overthrow of said government.
I am not so sure that these ideas are precisely what Samuel Adams had in mind, however. Known as “the last Puritan” and a man who lived and thought by the Good Book, there is another possible sense in which Adams conceived of this American appeal to Heaven. Having already likened his countrymen to the Israelites being led out of Egypt by God, going before them as a “cloud by day and pillar of fire by night”, Adams was surely aware of the very first appeal to Heaven made by His people in relation to government:
4 Then all the ancients of Israel being assembled, came to Samuel at Ramatha.
5 And they said to him: Behold thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: make us a king, to judge us, as all nations have.
6 And the word was displeasing in the eyes of Samuel, that they should say: Give us a king, to judge us. And Samuel prayed to the Lord.
7 And the Lord said to Samuel: Hearken to the voice of the people in all that they say to thee. For they have not rejected thee, but me, that I should not reign over them.
1 Samuel 8
It was never God’s plan for His people to have an earthly king to rule over them like all of the other nations on Earth; the Israelites themselves went to Samuel the prophet to appeal to Heaven for an earthly king. That this was never God’s plan for His people is evidenced not only by His conveyance to Samuel that “they have not rejected thee, but me, that I should not reign over them” but also His foretelling of their request in Deuteronomy 17:14:
When thou art come into the land, which the Lord thy God will give thee, and possessest it, and shalt say: ‘I will set a king over me, as all nations have that are round about’
It is abundantly clear that this was Israel’s request—not God’s plan nor intention for them. Israel rejected God as their Sovereign, and appealed to Him instead for an earthly king and doubled down on that appeal even after He informed them exactly what having a king over them would entail:
8 According to all their works, they have done from the day that I brought them out of Egypt until this day: as they have forsaken me, and served strange gods, so do they also unto thee.
9 Now therefore hearken to their voice: but yet testify to them, and foretell them the right of the king, that shall reign over them.
10 Then Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people that had desired a king of him,
11 And said: This will be the right of the king, that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and put them in his chariots, and will make them his horsemen, and his running footmen to run before his chariots,
12 And he will appoint of them to be his tribunes, and centurions, and to plough his fields, and to reap his corn, and to make him arms and chariots.
13 Your daughters also he will take to make him ointments, and to be his cooks, and bakers.
14 And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your best oliveyards, and give them to his servants.
15 Moreover he will take the tenth of your corn, and of the revenues of your vineyards, to give his eunuchs and servants.
16 Your servants also and handmaids, and your goodliest young men, and your asses he will take away, and put them to his work.
17 Your flocks also he will tithe, and you shall be his servants.
18 And you shall cry out in that day from the face of the king, whom you have chosen to yourselves. and the Lord will not hear you in that day, because you desired unto yourselves a king.
19 But the people would not hear the voice of Samuel, and they said: Nay: but there shall be a king over us.
20 And we also will be like all nations: and our king shall judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles for us.
21 And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord.
22 And the Lord said to Samuel: Hearken to their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said to the men of Israel: Let every man go to his city.
1 Samuel 8
God told them that an earthly king would enslave them, enslave their sons and their daughters, take their fields and vineyards, tax all of their livestock and produce, etc. He told them that they would regret their appeal for an earthly king and cry out to God from under their king’s dominion—and yet they ignored Him and doubled down.
And many centuries later, the spiritual leader of the American Revolution would make another appeal to Heaven, an appeal to reverse this earlier request of the Israelites. It is not just coincidence or rhetoric that he repeatedly likened Americans to the Israelites and framed the American Revolution as a Biblical endeavor. On August 1st, 1776, the day before the Declaration of Independence was signed, Samuel Adams delivered his most famous speech, “American Independence”, from the steps of the State House in Philadelphia. An excerpt:
We have explored the temple of royalty, and found that the idol we have bowed down to, has eyes which see not, ears that hear not our prayers, and a heart like the nether millstone. We have this day restored the Sovereign, to whom alone men ought to be obedient. He reigns in Heaven, and with a propitious eye beholds his subjects assuming that freedom of thought, and dignity of self-direction which He bestowed on them. From the rising to the setting sun, may His kingdom come.
Adams clearly recognized earthly kings and royalty as a false idol that people have been bowing down to, idols without eyes that see and ears that hear. His proclamation that American independence was a restoration of the Sovereign, to whom alone men ought to be obedient, who reigns in Heaven, is the absolute clearest indication that that is precisely what America as a nation was always intended to be:
One nation under God.
This is the American appeal to Heaven: that God will once more be our Sovereign rather than men. Of course, this requires that we obey Him. If we thereby rise to the occasion of self-governance under God, there is no need for an earthly government to rule over us as they do other nations. Indeed, with the success of the Revolution it would seem that God granted America its appeal. It is now our responsibility to live up to it:
America was conceived of as not just an experiment, but as an aspiration. Samuel Adams envisioned America as a Christian Sparta, Boston as a city on a hill: a light for the rest of the world, a place where men rose to the occasion of self-governance, where people obeyed the Commandments and statutes of God and were responsible for their own affairs. As his cousin John Adams famously said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” The very limited form of government drawn up could only stand as it was on a foundation of a moral, Christian citizenry.
Voting Away the American Dream
America was conceived as a great experiment: Can a nation of men be moral and upright enough to by-and-large govern themselves?
America’s appeal to Heaven having been granted, it is not our duty to vote and wrap ourselves up in the business of an earthly government—it is our duty to live up to our status as a nation under God. It is our duty to take responsibility for ourselves and act in accordance with our Sovereign’s Commandments and statutes, not to reduce ourselves once more to the slaves of men, whether they be royalty or “elected officials.”
One nation under God.