BOUDINOT,
ELIAS

(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.1164

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.1165

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.1166