(December 10, 1817), was the 20th State admitted to the Union. The U.S. Congress, March 1, 1817, during the administration of President James Monroe, passed The Enabling Act for Mississippi, which required the government being formed in that territory to be:
… not repugnant to the principles of the [Northwest Ordinance].2498
The Northwest Ordinance stated:
Article III. Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.2499
The Constitution of the State of Mississippi, adopted 1817, stated:
Article IX, Section 16. Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government, the preservation of liberty and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged in this state.2500
No person who denies the being of God or a future state of rewards and punishments shall hold any office in the civil department of the State.2501
The Constitution of the State of Mississippi, adopted 1890, stated:
Preamble. We, the people of Mississippi in convention assembled, grateful to Almighty God, and invoking His blessing on our work, do ordain and establish this Constitution.2502
Article XIV, Section 265. No person who denies the existence of a Supreme Being shall hold any office in this state.2503
Fields, James Thomas (December 31, 1817–April 2, 1881), was the editor of the Atlantic Monthly, 1862–70. In The Captain’s Daughter; or The Ballad of the Tempest, written in 1858, he penned the line:
But his little daughter whispered,
As she took his icy hand,
Isn’t God upon the ocean,
Just the same as on the land?2504