When the Holy Trinity Court described America as a
“Christian nation,” it did so because, as it explained: This is historically
true. From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a
single voice making this affirmation. These are not individual sayings,
declarations of private persons: they are organic utterances; they speak the
voice of the entire people. These and many other matters which might be
noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic
utterances that this is a Christian nation. According to the Court, it was the
“organic utterances” which proved that America was a “Christian nation.” “Organic
utterances” are the bulk of historical documents and previous legal rulings
that comprise what is called the “common law.”
The previous chapter examined several legal precedents
which formed part of the “common law”; this chapter will survey some of its
historical components. These historical precedents will be presented in the
same chronological order noted by the Court: “from the discovery of the
continent to the present hour.” The records from each period will sample the
“volume” and “mass of organic utterances” which prompted the Court’s
declaration that “this is a Christian nation.” America’s Discovery the Court’s
allusion to the “discovery of this continent” immediately evokes an image of
Christopher Columbus. Although Columbus clearly was not the first European to
visit the “New World” Vikings had traveled here centuries earlier, he first
widely publicized, and thus “discovered” its existence to the Europeans.
Columbus undertook his first voyage facing the prospect
of great danger. The professional opinion of that day not only assured him of
the impossibility of his proposed endeavor, but it also warned him that dragons
and death awaited him beyond the charted waters. With such advice coming from
the intellectual leaders, his decision to embark on this answered that question
in his own writings: Our Lord opened to my understanding I could sense his hand
upon me so it became clear to me that it the voyage was feasible.
All those who heard about my enterprise rejected it with
laughter, scoffing at me. Who doubts that this illumination was from the Holy
Spirit? I attest that He the Spirit, with marvelous rays of light, consoled me
through the holy and sacred Scriptures they inflame me with a sense of great
urgency. No one should be afraid to take on any enterprise in the name of our
Savior if it is right and if the purpose is purely for His holy service. And I
say that the sign which convinces me that our Lord is hastening the end of the
world is the preaching of the Gospel recently in so many lands.
