Review of Miles Smith, “Religion & Republic: Christian America from the Founding to the Civil War.” Landrum, SC: Davenant Press, 2024.
This book by an assistant professor of history at Hillsdale College with a Ph.D. from Texas Christian University focuses on the period in U.S. history from the American founding to the Civil War. During this time prior to the 14th Amendment, in which the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights had not yet been applied to the states, author Miles Smith argues that the United States was for all practical purposes a Protestant Republic, which relied heavily upon Protestant institutions for cultivating virtue.
Primary Thesis
Even after the adoption of the establishment clause of the First Amendment, Smith argues that the U.S. was a Protestant and Christian nation not only in the sense that most American identified themselves as Christians but also in the sense that governments supported voluntaristic Protestant institutions. As he summarizes: “[T]he early United States was a republic of Christians committed to what I have termed ‘Christian institutionalism’—that is, they wanted to maintain Christian precepts in their nation’s various social and political institutions without sacralizing those principles or subordinating the American republic to a church” (p. 243).
Smith is highly conversant with a variety of primary and secondary sources, which he cites throughout the book. Although his usage is not always consistent, Smith’s emphasis on Protestants, rather than evangelicals, highlights his view that even before the Great Awakenings brought evangelical denominations into the limelight, there was strong support for broad Protestant principles. Smith is also wary of using the term Christian nationalism because he believes its meaning is too protean. He is also fairly dismissive of Lockean interpretations of early American history, seeming to equate Locke with anti-religion, which is not, in this reviewer’s judgment, the way that most early Americans interpreted him.
In Smith’s account, Thomas Jefferson’s heavy emphasis on rationalism and his efforts to disestablish the church in Virginia were something of an outlier, especially by comparison to northeastern states, where the last established church remained in 1833. Moreover, many southern states continued to require religious oaths for officeholders.
Although Americans opposed state support for specific denominations, there was a broad consensus that governments should support Christianity (and especially Protestantism) in general as long as this support did not elevate one denomination over another or violate individual freedom of conscience.
Smith cites Carl H. Esbeck and Jonathan J. Den Hartog, in noting that “no state modeled its constitution after the First Amendment, or even considered the amendment when making state religion law” (p. 63). Most states continued to require religious tests for holding office, supported Sabbath laws, and based other laws on Christian principles.
Christianity as part of the common law
Especially emphasizing the influence of Federalist judges, who like Federalist politicians believed that public virtue was founded in religious commitment, Smith demonstrates how courts frequently referred to the U.S. as a Christian nation and routinely upheld Sabbath and blasphemy laws. Many judges emphasized (contrary to Jefferson) that the common law incorporated Protestant principles. Smith cites Justice Samuel Chase’s admonition to John Fries, who had been sentenced to death for treason, to repent of his sins and seek God’s mercy (pp. 95-96). He also cites the decision in Terrett v. Taylor (1815), in which the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the divestiture of glebe lands owned by the Episcopal Church in Virginia.
Sunday Mail Delivery
Smith believes that the 19th century controversy over Sunday delivery of mails represented a division within Protestantism as to the role of the Sabbath within Christianity and the government’s role in enforcing it rather than a contest between religion and irreligion.
American Diplomacy
Smith argues that America projected itself abroad as a Protestant nation, with particular emphasis on religious liberty and concern over Roman Catholicism. He notes colonial opposition to the Quebec Act of 1774 and constant references to the idea that Providence had uniquely blessed America and entrusted it with a special destiny. He downplays what he considered to be the gratuitous statement in the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli, which rejected the idea that the U.S. was a Christian nation.
Native Americans
Although the relationship was fraught with ambiguity, including paternalism, Americans viewed Christianity as a force for civilizing Native American Indians and supported Christian education among them. Greed for Indian land often led to conflict not only with Native Americans but also with missionaries who tried to protect them.
Higher Education
One of Smith’s strongest chapters is his chapter on education, in which he demonstrates that early collegiate education in the U.S. was deeply Christian, even in state schools. State colleges and universities typically drew their administrators and professors from the clergy, who often specifically associated their schools with the Christian message, and most held regular chapel services. Jefferson’s University of Virginia was something of an outlier in seeking to be non-sectarian (p. 214).
Application to Modern Times
Smith references many of the cases and incidents that are covered in this First Amendment Encyclopedia. Because the analysis largely ends prior to the adoption of the 14th Amendment and the application of the Bill of Rights to the states, it is not altogether clear how it applies to modern times.
In deciding that a public-school coach could pray at midfield after a game, in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2002), the Supreme Court majority announced that it was abandoning the Lemon Test and would rely more heavily upon historical precedent on matters involving church and state. Readers will want to know what history?
Smith’s admirable chapter on higher education largely leaves elementary and high school education out of the picture. One might assume that early education at that level was even more infused with Christian principles than higher education, but Smith doesn’t specifically make that case. Smith indicates that he thinks the separation language of Justice Hugo Black’s opinion in Everson v. Board of Education (1947) was ahistorical and that the court took a turn when it outlawed public prayer in public schools in Engel v. Vitale (1962). But recent history has arguably further eroded the Protestant dominance that existed in the time period that Smith covers. Smith acknowledges that state adoptions of Blaine Amendments limiting aid to parochial schools in the late 19th century were often targeted against Roman Catholics, and any attempts to reintroduce Bible reading or prayer in public schools might stir similar conflicts.
Smith’s book is highly documented with footnotes conveniently located at the bottom of pages and contains a works cited bibliography, but it does not have an index. Moreover, however unhelpful Smith thinks modern uses of the term Christian nationalism might be, he has arguably missed an opportunity to compare modern variants with their predecessors.
John R. Vile is a political science professor and dean of the Honors College at Middle Tennessee State University.