(February 5, 1723–November 15, 1794), was an American Revolutionary patriot and clergyman. Born in Scotland, being a descendant of John Knox on his mother’s side, John Witherspoon’s influence as an educator was widely felt in America. He signed the Declaration of Independence and was a member of the Continental Congress. He was a primary proponent of separation of powers insisting on inclusions to check and balance the power of government. He served on over 120 Congressional committees, including: the Board of War, the Committee on Secret Correspondence, or Foreign Affairs, and the Committee on Clothing for the Army.
As president of Princeton University, 1768–94, he graduated 478 students who directly shaped America, including: James Madison, who served eight years as Secretary of State and eight years as U.S. President; Aaron Burr, Jr., who was a U.S. Vice-President; 3 U.S. Supreme Court justices; 10 Cabinet members; 13 state governors; 21 U.S. Senators; 39 U.S. Representatives; and 114 ministers.606 Through his students, John Witherspoon’s views were reflected in our Constitution, as 9 (one-sixth) of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention were graduates of Princeton University: Gunning Bedford Jr. of Delaware; David Brearley of New Jersey; William Richardson Davie of North Carolina; Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey; William Churchill Houston of New Jersey; James Madison of Virginia; Alexander Martin of North Carolina; Luther Martin of Maryland; and William Paterson of New Jersey.607
On May 17, 1776, the same day the Continental Congress declared a National Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer, Reverend John Witherspoon delivered a sermon at Princeton University entitled “The Dominion of Providence over the Passions of Men,” in which he stated:
While we give praise to God, the Supreme Disposer of all events, for His interposition on our behalf, let us guard against the dangerous error of trusting in, or boasting of, an arm of flesh. …
If your cause is just, if your principles are pure, and if your conduct is prudent, you need not fear the multitude of opposing hosts.
What follows from this? That he is the best friend to American liberty, who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion, and who sets himself with the greatest firmness to bear down profanity and immorality of every kind.
Whoever is an avowed enemy of God, I scruple not to call him an enemy of his country.608
It is in the man of piety and inward principle, that we may expect to find the uncorrupted patriot, the useful citizen, and the invincible soldier.—God grant that in America true religion and civil liberty may be inseparable and that the unjust attempts to destroy the one, may in the issue tend to the support and establishment of both.609
John Witherspoon championed against “tyranny of conscience,” citing:
There is not a single instance in history, in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire. … If therefore we yield up our temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into bondage. … [Governments are to] defend and secure rights of conscience in the most equal and impartial manner. … 610
John Witherspoon continually crusaded for freedom, not only by circulating a letter urging ministers to support independence,611 but also by publishing a sermon beseeching Scotsmen to insist on their “ancient rights” against Britain, entitled:
“Address to the Natives of Scotland residing in America.”612
In his “Pastoral Letter,” he explained:
Universal profligacy makes a nation ripe for divine judgements and is the natural means of bringing them to ruin; reformation of manners is of the utmost necessity in our present distress.613
As a convention delegate from the colony of New Jersey, Rev. Witherspoon argued in favor of separation from England, declaring:
Gentlemen, New Jersey is ready to vote for independence. In our judgement, the country is not only ripe for independence, but we are in danger of becoming rotten for the want of it, if we delay any longer!614
After the peace treaty was negotiated with England, John Witherspoon delivered his “Thanksgiving Sermon,” entreating Americans to live for:
The Glory of God, the public interest of religion and the good of others, [as] civil liberty cannot be long preserved without virtue. [A Republic] must either preserve its virtue or lose its liberty.615
An insight into John Witherspoon’s convictions can be gleaned from the sermons he presented while pastor of Laigh Kirk in Paisley, Scotland, from 1757 to 1768, which included:
“The Absolute Necessity of Salvation through Christ.”616;
“Inquiry into the Scripture Meaning of Charity,” which he described as “an ardent and unfeigned love to others and a desire of their welfare, temporal and eternal … [with] the deepest concern for their dangerous state.”617;
“The Trial of Religious Truth by Its Moral Influence,” using the text “By their fruits ye shall know them.”618;
John Witherspoon’s beliefs can be seen in his statements:
The character of a Christian must be taken from Holy Scriptures … the unerring standard.619
Fly also for forgiveness to the atoning blood of the great Redeemer … 620
Press every hearer to a sincere concern for his own soul’s salvation.621
The doctrine of divine Providence is very full and complete in the sacred oracles.622
In his Lectures on Divinity, Witherspoon enumerated:
Religion is the grand concern of us all … the salvation of our souls in the one thing needful.623
In regards to man’s need for redemption, Reverend John Witherspoon explained:
The corruption of our nature … is the foundation-stone of the doctrine of redemption. Nothing can be more absolutely necessary to true religion, than a clear conviction of the sinfulness of our nature and state. …
Men of lax and corrupt principles take great delight in speaking to the praise of human nature, and extolling its dignity, without distinguishing what it was at its first creation, from what it is in its present fallen state. But I appeal from these visionaries’ reasonings to the history of all ages, and the inflexible testimony of daily experience. (C)andid attention, either to past history or present state of the world, but above all, the ravages of lawless power, ought to humble us in the dust. …
The evil of sin appears from every page of the sacred oracles. … The history of the world is little else than the history of human guilt. …
Nothing is more plain from scripture, or better supported by daily experience, than that man by nature is in fact incapable of recovery without the power of God specially interposed.624
In reflecting on “conscience,” Reverend John Witherspoon delineated:
There remains so much of God written on the conscience of even the most profligate. …
It pleased God to write his law upon the heart of man at first. And the great lines of duty, however obscured by their original apostasy, are still so visible as to afford an opportunity of judging what conduct and practice is or is not agreeable to its dictates.
Such authority hath natural conscience still in man that it renders those … inexcusable in the sight of God (Rom. 1:20–2:14). But it is of importance in the present argument to observe, that every one is able to pass a far surer judgement on the moral character of another, than his own. The pollution of the heart brings a corrupt bias on the judgement, in the man’s own case. … In determining the character of others, this bias is less sensibly felt.625
A course advertisement for Reverend John Witherspoon’s classes at Princeton University read:
The President has also engaged to give Lectures twice in the Week, on the following Subjects (1) On Chronology and History, civil as well as sacred; a Branch of Study, of itself extremely useful and delightful, and at present in the highest Reputation in every Part of Europe, (2) Critical Lectures on the Scripture, with the Addition of Discourses on Criticism in general; the several Species of Writing, and the fine Arts, (3) Lectures on Composition, and the Eloquence of the Pulpit and the Bar.626
With prophetic insight as to our country’s growth, John Witherspoon commented to his friend, Rev. Ashabel Green:
Don’t be surprised if you see a turnpike all the way to the Pacific Ocean in your lifetime.627
John Adams, after attending church at the College of New Jersey, wrote:
Heard Dr. Witherspoon all Day. A clear, sensible, Preacher.628
Reverend John Witherspoon, who had lost two sons in the Revolutionary War, was the epitome of a patriot.629 After his wife died in October of 1789, he re-entered politics, heading up a committee in the New Jersey legislature to abolish slavery.630 Following John Witherspoon’s death, John Adams admired him as:
A true son of liberty. So he was. But first, he was a son of the Cross.631