ePub Montgomery's Civil Heritage Trail: A History Guide (Landmarks) by Site Directors; Friends of the Civil Heritage Trail in History

Description

In 1768; John Witherspoon; Presbyterian leader of the evangelical Popular party faction in the Scottish Kirk; became the College of New Jersey's sixth president. At Princeton; he mentored constitutional architect James Madison; as a New Jersey delegate to the Continental Congress; he was the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence. Although Witherspoon is often thought to be the chief conduit of moral sense philosophy in America; Mailer's comprehensive analysis of this founding father's writings demonstrates the resilience of his evangelical beliefs. Witherspoon's Presbyterian evangelicalism competed with; combined with; and even superseded the civic influence of Scottish Enlightenment thought in the British Atlantic world.John Witherspoon's American Revolution examines the connection between patriot discourse and long-standing debates--already central to the 1707 Act of Union--about the relationship among piety; moral philosophy; and political unionism. In Witherspoon's mind; Americans became different from other British subjects because more of them had been awakened to the sin they shared with all people. Paradoxically; acute consciousness of their moral depravity legitimized their move to independence by making it a concerted moral action urged by the Holy Spirit. Mailer's exploration of Witherspoon's thought and influence suggests that; for the founders in his circle; civic virtue rested on personal religious awakening.