John Adams claimed that “the spark that ignited the American Revolution” was set off decades before the muskets fired, in a sermon by the popular and charismatic preacher Jonathan Mayhew on December 31, 1750. It was the underpinning behind the rallying cry, favored by Thomas Jefferson and others, that “rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.”
Mayhew took on Romans 13:1-7 directly, which he quoted at the start:
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render, therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.
Was this a command to tolerate tyranny? Mayhew thought not. He “read between the lines,” as it were, and restated the apostle’s reasoning thus:
Since magistrates who execute their office well, are common benefactors to society, and may, in that respect, be properly styled the ministers and ordinance of God, and since they are constantly employed in the service of the public, it becomes you to pay them tribute and custom; and to reverence, honor, and submit to them in the execution of their respective offices… If it be our duty, for example, to obey our king merely for this reason, that he rules for the public welfare… it follows by parity of reason, that when he turns tyrant, and makes his subjects his prey to devour and to destroy, instead of his charge to defend and cherish, we are bound to throw off our allegiance to him, and to resist…
Fifteen years later, John Adams submitted a lengthy article to the Boston Gazette entitled A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law. In it, he discussed how in England, and even more in America, the spread of knowledge among the common people led to an understanding of “…Rights, that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws – rights, derived from the great Legislator of the universe.”
Adams then quoted from his own diary: “I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence for the illumination of the ignorant, and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.”
(For an account of Adams’ thoughts on this in a fictional setting for young adults, I offer the novel that I co-authored with my wife.)
He noted how very early on, the Puritans who settled in New England made it mandatory for every town to establish a public grammar school. He was referring to the “Old Deluder Act” of 1647, labeled as such because ignorance and illiteracy are tools of that “Old Deluder,” Satan.
At the time of the Revolution, most New Englanders were literate and land-owning, unlike their counterparts in their mother country. In most homes, there were at least two volumes – the King James Bible and Blackstone’s Commentaries Upon the Laws of England. As the clouds of war and rebellion formed, Edmund Burke warned Parliament about the character of the American colonists, especially the New Englanders. He reminded them that the region was settled by “Protestants” of even the English version of Protestantism, and did not look kindly upon the abuse of power, ecclesiastical or otherwise. Of them, he said that they “augur misgovernment at a distance, and snuff the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze.”
When those militiamen opened fire at Lexington and Concord on that long-ago April morning, it was not just a matter of rights, but of faith.
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