Pilgrims and
Puritans: A Theocracy in Colonial New
England
In 1797, U.S. President John Adams signed the Treaty
of Peace and Friendship between the United States of America and the Bey and
Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary.
Better known as the Treaty of Tripoli the agreement between
the United States and Tripoli (now Libya) was intended to secure commercial
shipping rights and to protect American ships in the Mediterranean Sea from
Barbary pirates. But today the treaty is
remembered for its Article 11: The
Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the
Christian religion...
The supposed purpose of Article 11 was to assure North African
Muslims that the United States was a secular state and that its intentions were
not the same as that of earlier Christian nations that took part in the
Crusades. But Article 11 quickly raised
dissenting voices. For instance, Adams's
Secretary of War, James McHenry, wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury, Oliver
Wolcott, Jr. (1800):
The Senate … ought never to have
ratified the treaty alluded to, with the declaration that “the government of
the United States, is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
What else is it founded on? This act always appeared to me like trampling upon
the cross.
This contemporary-sounding argument over the founding nature
of the United States began with the ink barely dry on the U.S. Constitution’s amendment
prohibiting Congress from passing any legislation “respecting an establishment
of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
The notions of secular government and freedom of religion
were novel in the 18th century—and not generally accepted by either the
European nations or the British colonies in North America. National identity, patriotic loyalty, and
unity were thought to be achieved and maintained only through conformity of
thought and behavior as defined by the ruler.
The idea that individuals have a right to their own thoughts and beliefs
was subversive, treasonous, and a threat to national security.
Consequently, each of the British colonies in
North America attempted to enforce strict religious observance through both
colonial governments and local town rules.
Most of the colonies had established churches with the salaries of
ministers of those established churches paid through taxation. The colonies also had some sort of religious
test requirement for officeholders.
Strict limits were place on members of other churches, including
prohibitions on their public religious services and at times even prohibiting them
from even entering the colony. Virginia,
for instance, banned the public celebration of the Catholic Mass until Catholic
soldiers from France arrived to fight in the American Revolution. Nowhere in the colonies were state and church
more enmeshed than in New England, the land of the Pilgrims and the Puritans—and
their spiritual heirs, the Congregationalists—who envisioned building a
Protestant Christian theocracy in the New World.
As usual, my plan for this series is to take the long view
on the history of the relationship between government and religion. Starting with some ancient history, we will work
our way up to the questions of who were the Pilgrims and Puritans, what was the
basis for their vision of a North American Protestant Christian theocracy, and what
did they do about it when they got to New England? And then we grapple with the novel thinking some
of America’s founders like of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison that turned a
rebellion into a revolution—and thwarted the Pilgrim and Puritan ambitions for
a Calvinist theocracy.
