Elias Boudinot (May 2, 1740-October 24, 1821) was the President of the Continental Congress, 1782-83. He became a U.S. Representative from New Jersey, 1789-95, and helped frame the Bill of Rights. He was the Director of the U.S. Mint under Presidents George Washington and John Adams, 1795-97. He became a Christian during the Great Awakening, and was baptized by the Rev. George Whitfield. He helped found and served as the first President of the American Bible Society, 1816-21.
On July 4, 1783, in an address given in New Jersey, Dr. Elias Boudinot stated:
<No sooner had the great Creator of the heavens and the earth finished His almighty work, and pronounced all very good, but He set apart...one day in seven for the commemoration of His inimitable power in producing all things out of nothing....
The deliverance of the children of Israel from a state of bondage to an unreasonable tyrant was perpetuated by the Paschal lamb, and enjoining it on their posterity as an annual festival forever....The resurrection of the Savior of mankind is commemorated by keeping the first day of the week....
Let us then, my friends and fellow citizens, unite all our endeavors this day to remember, with reverential gratitude to our Supreme Benefactor, all the wonderful things He has done for us, in our miraculous deliverance from a second Egypt-another house of bondage.> 1740EB001
On July 4, 1793, Elias Boudinot spoke at a Fourth of July celebration in Elizabethtown, New Jersey:
<If the moral character of a people once degenerate, their political character must soon follow....These considerations should lead to an attractive solicitude...to be religiously careful in our choice of all public officers...and judge of the tree by its fruits.> 1740EB002 Elias Boudinot stated:
<"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself"-Let it then (as workmanship of the same Divine hand) be our peculiar constant care and vigilant attention to inculcate this sacred principle, and to hand it down to posterity....Good government generally begins in the family, and if the moral character of a people once degenerate, their political character must soon follow.> 1740EB003
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1740EB001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Elias Boudinot, July 4, 1783, in an address given in New Jersey, made as President of Continental Congress and President of the American Bible Society. Foundation for Christian Self-Government (Roseburg, OR: Foundation for Christian Self- Government, P.O. Box 5191, Roseburg, Oregon, 97479, July 1982). Henry M. Morris, "Sweet Land of Liberty" (El Cajon, CA: Institute for Creation Research, Back to Genesis, No. 91, July 1996), pp. b-c.
1740EB002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Elias Boudinot, July 4, 1793, in an address he delivered at the Fourth of July celebration in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. Elias Boudinot, An Oration, Delivered at Elizabeth- town, New Jersey...on the Fourth of July, pp. 14-15.
1740EB003. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Elias Boudinot, statement made as President of Continental Congress and President of the American Bible Society. George Adam Boyd, Elias Boudinot: Patriot and Statesman 1740-1821 (Princeton University Press, 1952). Verna M. Hall, The Christian History of the American Revolution (San Francisco: Foundation for American Christian Education, 1976), p. xxv. M.E. Bradford, Religion & The Framers: The Biographical Evidence (Marlborough, NH: Plymouth Rock Foundation, 1991), p. 6. Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Glory of America (Bloomington, MN: Garborg's Heart 'N Home, Inc., 1991), 5.2.