Not content to train others or to merely theorize about American independence from the hallowed halls of academia, Witherspoon was elected to the Continental Congress in June of 1776 as part of the New Jersey delegation.
Witherspoon’s arrival in Philadelphia coincided with the publication and distribution throughout the city of a sermon he preached in Princeton on May 17, 1776, the month before his election. The sermon was titled The Dominions of Providence over the Passions of Men. In the sermon, Witherspoon insists – implausibly, it seems – that this is the first time he had ever addressed a political matter from his pulpit. But if that is true, then this sermon was a pretty stout debut.
Witherspoon begins with a text from the Psalms: “Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee; the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.” He paraphrases that passage in this way:
“The fury and injustice of oppressors shall bring in a tribute of praise to thee; the influence of thy righteous providence shall be clearly discerned; the countenance and support thou wilt give to thine own people shall be gloriously illustrated; thou shalt set the bounds which the boldest cannot pass.”
Applied to the then-present and looming crisis with the Crown, Witherspoon argued that if the principles of the colonists were true and just and did not simply arise from a seditious spirit or a wanton contempt of authority, then the colonists could look with absolute confidence to the Lord to plead the cause as His own. He then added, without equivocation:
“I willingly embrace the opportunity of declaring my opinion without any hesitation, that the cause in which America is now in arms, is the cause of justice, of liberty, and of human nature.”
There is no evidence that Witherspoon intended his sermon to be a campaign speech, but he was elected to the Continental Congress only a few weeks later. His confidence in the rectitude of the cause of independence was such that in Philadelphia he gladly voted for the resolution for independence. Then he voted for and affixed his signature to the Declaration of Independence.
One wonders if when King George III read those names he remembered the name of John Witherspoon from the Highlander uprising decades before in Scotland.
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“And for the Support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of DIVINE PROVIDENCE, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honour.”
Witherspoon, as a Christian, a preacher of the Gospel, and a Protestant theologian, knew something about Providence. His famous pre-election sermon was, again, titled The Dominion of Providence over the Passions of Men. Certainly, all of the signers knew something of Providence and had a firm reliance upon it. But, for Witherspoon, reliance upon the goodness and righteousness of God was more than head knowledge. It was his lifeblood. So, when Witherspoon signed and committed himself yet again to this reliance, it meant something.
That’s a good thing, because JohnWitherspoon would be called upon to sacrifice much during the Revolution. During the war, the College of New Jersey was nearly destroyed. His oldest son was killed in battle during the Revolution and another son was captured by the British and later lost at sea. Witherspoon would spend the rest of his life rebuilding the college financially, physically and spiritually and recovering from these deep wounds.
But not all of the Revolutionary War and its aftermath would be bad for the College of New Jersey. Six months after the Declaration of Independence, in January of 1777, the college became the site of a major strategic military victory when Washington surprised Cornwallis’ troops, outmaneuvered them and won the Battle of Princeton. This victory, together with Washington’s brilliant victory at the two Battles of Trenton all but liberated eastern New Jersey. These three battles together mark the first major turning point in the war. The Battle of Princeton was, as Churchill would later say, not the end, or the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning.
After independence was won in 1783, George Washington would return to the campus and meet with the Continental Congress assembled on the campus in Nassau Hall to accept the official thanks of the new nation for the successful conclusion of the Revolutionary War.
The school that Witherspoon had helped to build, then, ultimately gave the Revolution much of its intellectual foundation and its leading advocates, was almost burned to the ground during the British occupation of New Jersey, was ground zero for a battle that began to turn the tide in favor of the colonists, and was finally host to the official victory celebration for the newly independent states. It is doubtful that when John Witherspoon boarded that ship from Scotland to come to America that he anticipated that his school would play such an important role in the history of the world. Such are the workings of Providence.
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Strictly speaking, John Witherspoon was not in Philadelphia in May 1787 to help draft the Constitution of the United States of America. He didn’t really need to be. His students could speak for him. He did, however, serve in the New Jersey state legislature later that year, where he strongly advocated ratification of the U.S. Constitution and it passed unanimously.
But while the delegates worked on the United States Constitution in Philadelphia, Witherspoon was at that time hard at work on a different constitution – the constitution for the Presbyterian Church in America. In 1789, Witherspoon would personally convene the first Presbyterian General Assembly (in Philadelphia, incidentally) which met according to the constitution he helped to write.
Both the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of Presbyterian Church went into effect in 1789. Both constitutions are federal in structure, both limit the authority of government, both protect individuals and the conscience of individuals. And both were, of course influenced by the teaching of the foremost pulpiteer and educator of the era, the Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon.
Some historians have argued that John Witherspoon is the most important educator in the history of America. It would be difficult that stridently refute that assertion. But whatever the case may be, this much is certain. The Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon, signer of the Declaration of Independence, occupies a singularly important role in American history. Few men positively influenced as many realms of culture as John Witherspoon.
His life is truly a national treasure.
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Lives, Fortunes, Sacred Honor: The Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence
