Holy Bible (during the period 1760-1805) was the source for 34 percent of all quotations cited by our Founding Fathers. After reviewing an estimated 15,000 items, including newspaper articles, pamphlets, books, monographs, tracts and sermons, Professor Donald S. Lutz of the University of Houston, with Charles S. Hyneman, in their work "The Relative Influence of European Writers on Late Eighteenth-Century American Political Thought" published in the American Political Science Review (189, 1984: 189-197), revealed that the Bible, especially the book of Deuteronomy, contributed 34 percent of all quotations used by our Founding Fathers. Other sources included:
<Baron Charles Montesquieu 8.3 percent Sir William Blackstone 7.9 percent
John Locke 2.9 percent David Hume 2.7 percent Plutarch 1.5 percent
Beccaria 1.5 percent
Trenchard and Gordon 1.4 percent Delolme 1.4 percent
Samuel von Pufendorf 1.3 percent
Cicero 1.2 percent
Hugo Grotius 0.9 percent Shakespeare 0.8 percent
Vattel 0.5 percent> 1760HB001
These other sources drew 60 percent of their quotations from the Bible.
Direct and indirect citations combined reveal that the Bible was the most referenced source document cited by the Founding Fathers.
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1760HB001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Holy Bible, during the period of 1760-1805, was the source for 34 percent of all quotations cited by our Founding Fathers. Professor Donald S. Lutz of the University of Houston, with Charles S. Hyneman, "The Relative Influence of European Writers on Late Eighteenth-Century American Political Thought," American Political Science Review (189, 1984: 189-197)(Courtesy of Dr. Wayne House of Dallas Theological Seminary.) John Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution- The Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, A Mott Media Book, 1987; 6th printing, 1993), pp. 51-53. Origins of American Constitutionalism, (1987). Stephen K. McDowell and Mark A. Beliles, America's Providential History (Charlottesville, VA: Providence Press, 1988), p. 156.