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Mayflower Compact: 1620
In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, by the Grace of God, of England, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, e&.
Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the General good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord, King James of England, France and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620.

http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/mayflow.html

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Religious Clauses in State Constitutions
Delaware (1776)

• Article 22 "Every person who shall be chosen a member of either house, or appointed to any office or place of trust...shall...also make and subscribe the following declaration, to whit:
  'I,_____, do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for evermore; and I do acknowledge the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration'"
• (1792) Article VIII, Section 9 "...No clergyman or preacher of the gospel, of any denomination, shall be capable of holding any civil office in this State, or of being a member of either branch of the legislature, while he continues in the exercise of the pastoral or clerical functions."

Maryland (1776)

• Article XXXII "...All persons, professing the Christian religion, are equally entitled to protection their religious liberty...the Legislature may, in their discretion, lay a general tax and equal tax, for the support of the Christian religion."
• Article XXXIV "That every gift, sale or devise of lands, to any minister, public teacher or preacher of the gospel, as such, or to any religious sect, order or denomination [must have the approval of the Legislature]"
• Article XXXV "That no other test or qualification ought to be required...than such oath of support and fidelity to this State...and a declaration of a belief in the Christian religion."

New Jersey (1776)

• Article XIX "...no Protestant inhabitant of this Colony shall be denied the enjoyment of any civil right...; all persons, professing a belief in the faith of any Protestant sect...shall be capable of being elected into any office of profit or trust, or being a member of either branch of the Legislature."

North Carolina (1776)

• Article XXXI "That no clergyman, or preacher of the gospel, of any denomination, shall be capable of being a member of either the Senate, House of Commons, or Council of State, while he continues in the exercise of the pastoral function,"
• Article XXXII "That no person, who shall deny the being of God or the truth of the Protestant religion, or the divine authority either of the Old or New Testaments,...shall be capable of holding any office or place of trust or profit in the civil department within this State.

Pennsylvania (1776)

• Declaration of Rights II "...Nor can any man, who acknowledges the being of a God, be justly deprived or abridged to any civil right as a citizen, on account of his religious sentiments or peculiar mode of religious worship."
• Frame of Government, Section 10 "And each member [of the legislature]...shall make and subscribe the following declaration, viz.:
  'I do believe in one God, the creator and governor of the universe, the rewarder to the good and the punisher of the wicked. And I do acknowledge the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine inspiration.'"
• (1790) Article IX, Section 4 "that no person, who acknowledges the being of a God, and a future state of rewards and punishments, shall, on account of his religious sentiments, be disqualified to hold any office or place of trust or profit under this commonwealth."

Georgia (1777)

• Article VI "The representatives shall be chosen out of the residents in each county...and they shall be of the Protestant religion..."
• Article LXII "No clergyman of any denomination shall be allowed a seat in the legislature."
• Article VI "The representatives shall be chosen out of the residents in each county,...and they shall be of the Protestant religion..."

Kentucky (1777)

• Article II, Section 26 "No person, while he continues to exercise the functions of a clergyman, priest, or teacher of any religious persuasion, society of sect...shall be eligible to the general assembly..."

New York (1777)

• Section VIII "...no minister of the gospel, or priest of any denomination whatsoever, shall, at any time hereafter, under any pretense or description whatever, be eligible to, or capable of holding any civil or military office or place within this State."

Vermont (1777)

• Declaration of Rights, III "...nor can any man who professes the protestant religion, be justly deprived or abridged of any civil right, as a citizen, on account of his religious sentiment...; nevertheless, every sect or denomination of people ought to observe the Sabbath, or the Lord's day..."
• Frame of Government, Section 9 "And each member [of the legislature],...shall make and subscribe the following declaration, viz.:
  'I do believe in one god, the Creator and Governor of the universe, the rewarder of the good and punisher of the wicked. And I do acknowledge the scriptures of the old and new testament to be given by divine inspiration, and own and profess the protestant religion.'"

South Carolina (1778)

• Article III "[State officers and privy council to be] all of the Protestant religion."
• Article XII "...no person shall be eligible to a seat in the said senate unless he be of the Protestant religion."
• Article XXI "...no minister of the gospel or public preachers of any religious persuasion, while he continues in the exercise of his pastoral function, and for two years after, shall be eligible either as governor, lieutenant-governor, a member of the senate, house of representatives, or privy council in this State."
• Article XXXVIII "That all persons and religious societies who acknowledge that there is one God, and a future state of rewards and punishments, and that God is publicly to be worshipped, shall be freely tolerated. The Christian Protestant religion shall be deemed...to be the established religion of this State."

Massachusetts (1780)

• First Part, Article II "It is the right as well as the duty of all men in society, publicly, and at stated seasons, to worship the SUPREME BEING, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe..."
• First Part, Article II "The governor shall be chosen annually; and no person shall be eligible to this office, unless...he shall declare himself to be of the Christian religion."
• Chapter VI, Article I "[All persons elected to State office or to the Legislature must] make and subscribe the following declaration, viz.
  'I,_____, do declare, that I believe the Christian religion, and have firm persuasion of its truth...'"

New Hampshire (1784)

• Part 1, Article 1, Section 5 "...the legislature ...authorize ...the several towns ...to make adequate provision at their own expense, for the support and maintenance of public protestant teachers of piety, religion and morality..."
• Part 2 "[Provides that no person be elected governor, senator, representative or member of the Council] who is not of the protestant religion."

Tennessee (1796)

• Article VIII, Section 1 "...no minister of the gospel, or priest of any denomination whatever, shall be eligible to a seat in either house of the legislature."
• Article VIII, Section 2 "...no person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this State."

http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~cofeargh/UShistory_1/handouts/assignment_03.htm
Note: another site with Delaware's article 22 is http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a6_3s2.html

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The US wanted NOTHING to do with God?
Proposed seal for the United States

• On July 4, 1776, Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams "to bring in a device for a seal for the United States of America." Franklin's proposal adapted the biblical story of the parting of the Red Sea (left). Jefferson first recommended the "Children of Israel in the Wilderness, led by a Cloud by Day, and a Pillar of Fire by night. . . ." He then embraced Franklin's proposal and rewrote it (right). Jefferson's revision of Franklin's proposal was presented by the committee to Congress on August 20. Although not accepted these drafts reveal the religious temper of the Revolutionary period. Franklin and Jefferson were among the most theologically liberal of the Founders, yet they used biblical imagery for this important task.

Congressional Fast Day Proclamation - May 17, 1776

• Congress proclaimed days of fasting and of thanksgiving annually throughout the Revolutionary War. This proclamation by Congress set May 17, 1776, as a "day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer" throughout the colonies.

Congress' Committee of Commerce imported 20,000 Bibles - September 11, 1777

• The war with Britain cut off the supply of Bibles to the United States with the result that on Sept. 11, 1777, Congress instructed its Committee of Commerce to import 20,000 Bibles from "Scotland, Holland or elsewhere."

Aitken's Bible Endorsed by Congress - September 12, 1782

• On January 21, 1781, Philadelphia printer Robert Aitken (1734-1802) petitioned Congress to officially sanction a publication of the Old and New Testament which he was preparing at his own expense. Congress "highly approve the pious and laudable undertaking of Mr. Aitken, as subservient to the interest of religion . . . in this country, and . . . they recommend this edition of the bible to the inhabitants of the United States." This resolution was a result of Aitken's successful accomplishment of his project.
• Aitken published Congress's recommendation of September 1782 and related documents (Item 115) as an imprimatur on the two pages following his title page. Aitken's Bible, published under Congressional patronage, was the first English language Bible published on the North American continent.

Christianizing the Delawares

• Responding to a plea from Bishop John Ettwein (1721-1802), Congress voted that 10,000 acres on the Muskingum River in the present state of Ohio "be set apart and the property thereof be vested in the Moravian Brethren . . . or a society of the said Brethren for civilizing the Indians and promoting Christianity." The Delaware Indians were the intended beneficiaries of this Congressional resolution.

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel04.html

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When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776: The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm

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Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those who died here that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have hallowed it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is rather for us the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/4403.html
The Gettysburg Address: Nov. 19, 1863

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Psalms 33:12-22 KJV
12: Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
13: The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men.
14: From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
15: He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.
16: There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.
17: An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.
18: Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;
19: To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
20: Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield.
21: For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.
22: Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.

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