Continental Congress (September 11, 1777) a Committee approved and recommended to the people that 20,000 copies of The Holy Bible be imported from sources other than England. This was in response to the shortage of Bibles in America caused by the Revolutionary War interrupting trade with the King's commissioned printers.
The Chaplain of Congress, Patrick Allison, brought the matter to the attention of Congress, who assigned it to a special Congressional Committee, which reported:
<The use of the Bible is so universal and its importance so great that your committee refers the above to the consideration of Congress, and if Congress shall not think it expedient to order the importation of types and paper, the Committee recommends that Congress will order the Committee of Commerce to import 20,000 Bibles from Holland, Scotland, or elsewhere, into the different parts of the States of the Union.
Whereupon it was resolved accordingly to direct said Committee of Commerce to import 20,000 copies of the Bible.> 1777CC001
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1777CC001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Continental Congress, September 11, 1777. Robert Flood, The Rebirth of America (Philadelphia: Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation, 1986), p. 39. Journals of the Continental Congress 1774-1789 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1905), book 146, Vol. VIII, pp. 731-735. Journal of the American Congress, 1774-1788 (Washington: 1823), Vol. II, pp. 261-262. Tim LaHaye, Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., 1987), p. 96. Benjamin Franklin Morris, The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States (Philadelphia, PA: G.W. Childs, 1864), pp. 215-216. Gary DeMar, America's Christian History: The Untold Story (Atlanta, GA: American Vision Publishers, Inc., 1993), pp. 47-48. D.P. Diffine, Ph.D., One Nation Under God-How Close a Separation? (Searcy, Arkansas: Harding University, Belden Center for Private Enterprise Education, 6th edition, 1992), p. 2.