Simon Greenleaf (1783 – 1853)

Greenleaf was the Royall Professor of Law at Harvard and succeeded Justice Joseph Story as Dane Professor of Law. Greenleaf is considered as one of the paramount legal minds of Western history. The rise of Harvard Law School to its eminent position among law schools in the United States is attributed to Story and Greenleaf.

Greenleaf’s work A Treatise on the Law of Evidence is considered to be the greatest single authority on evidence of all writings on legal practice.

Furthermore, Chief Justice Fuller of the United States Supreme Court described Simon Greenleaf:

“He is the highest authority in our courts.”

On November 6, 1852, Simon Greenleaf wrote to the American Bible Society of Cambridge:

“Of the Divine character of the Bible, I think no man who deals honestly with his own mind and heart can entertain a reasonable doubt. For myself, I must say, that having for many years made the evidences of Christianity the subject of close study, the result has been a firm and increasing conviction of the authenticity and plenary inspiration of the Bible. It is indeed the Word of God.”

Simon Greenleaf declared in A Treatise on the Law of Evidence:

“If a close examination of the evidences of Christianity may be expected of one class of men more than another, it would seem incumbent upon lawyers who make the law of evidence one of our peculiar studies. Our profession leads us to explore the mazes of falsehood, to detect its artifices, to pierce its thickest veils, to follow and expose its sophistries, to compare the statements of different witnesses with severity, to discover truth and separate it from error.”

“The religion of Jesus Christ…not only solicits the grave attention of all, to whom its doctrines are presented, but it demands their cordial belief as a matter of vital concernment. There are no ordinary claims; and it seems hardly possible for a rational being to regard them with even a subdued interest; much less to treat them with mere indifference and contempt.”

“If not true, they are little else than the pretensions of a bold imposter…but if they are well founded and just they can be no less than the high requirements of heaven, addressed by the voice of God to the reason and understanding of man…such was the estimate taken of religion, even the religion, even the religion of pagan Rome, by one of the greatest lawyers of antiquity, when he argued that it was either nothing at all or everything. Aut undique religionem tolle, aut usquequa que conserva.”

Simon Greenleaf speaks of the Apostles:

“They had every possible motive to review carefully the grounds of their faith, and the evidences of the great facts and truths which they asserted…And their writings show them to have been men of vigorous understandings. If then, their testimony was not true, there was no possible motive for this fabrication.”

Consider this statement from Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence Administered in Courts of Justice with an Account of the Trial of Jesus:

“The character they portrayed is perfect. It is the character of a sinless Being – One supremely wise and supremely good…”

“The doctrines and precepts of Jesus are in strict accordance with the attributes of God, agreeable to the most exalted ideas which we can form of them, from reason or revelation. They are strictly adapted to the capacities of mankind, and yet are delivered with a simplicity wholly Divine. ‘He spake as never man spake.’ He spake with authority, yet addressed Himself to the reason and understanding of men, and He spake with wisdom which men could neither gainsay nor resist.”

Simon Greenleaf examined the evidence for the Resurrection and came to the conclusion that it happened. After rigorously applying the rules and precepts of law; he became a believer in Jesus Christ.

Testimony of the Evangelists

“The religion of Jesus Christ aims at nothing less than the utter overthrow of all other systems of religion in the world; denouncing them as inadequate to the wants of man, false in their foundations, and dangerous in their tendency.”

“These are no ordinary claims; and it seems hardly possible for a rational being to regard them with even a subdued interest; much less to treat them with mere indifference and contempt. If not true they are little else than the pretensions of a bold imposture, which not satisfied with having already enslaved millions of the human race, seeks to continue its encroachments upon human liberty, until all nations be subjected under its iron rule”

“But if they are well-founded and just, they can be no less than the high requirements of heaven, addressed by the voice of God to the reason and understanding of man, concerning things deeply affecting his relations to his sovereign, and essential to the formation of his character and of course to his destiny, both for this life and for the life."

President William McKinley Jr.

 President William McKinley Jr. was born to a Methodist family in Ohio on January 29, 1843. At the age of ten, he went forward at a revival meeting and trusted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. At the age of sixteen, William McKinley became a full-fledged member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He continued to be active in the Methodist Episcopal Church throughout his life. Although his mother had hoped he would become a minister; he pursued a different course in history.

He joined the Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment when he was eighteen at the outbreak of the Southern War for Independence. At the climax of the war, William McKinley attained the rank of major. He considered the possibility that he may be killed on the battlefield and wrote In his diary a contemplative attitude:

“Fall in a good cause and hope to fall in the arms of my blessed Redeemer. This record I want left behind, that I not only fell as a soldier for my Country, but also as a Soldier of Jesus. [His family and friends would be comforted with the solace] that if we never meet again on earth, we will meet around God’s throne in heaven. Let my fate be what it may, I want to be ready and prepared.”

After the cessation of the war, he became a lawyer in Canton, Ohio and married Ida Saxton. Ida was a Sunday school teacher and a temperance worker. Tragically, the couple was stricken with various hardships. They lost two young children and eventually Ida succumbed to a nervous malady becoming a semi invalid. McKinley remained a faithful husband devoted to his wife and cared for her throughout his life.

He held various political offices within local and state government. He was elected as a congressman to the House of Representatives and became a leader within the Republican Party. In 1891, McKinley was elected as Governor of Ohio.

As governor, William McKinley addressed the Baptist Young People’s Union in Lakeside, Ohio on July 4, 1892:

“Lincoln, like Washington, illustrated in his administration faith in God. On March 4, 1861, he said, ‘Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance upon Him who has never forgotten this favored land are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulties.”

The governor of Ohio spoke to the First International Convention of the Epworth League in Cleveland on June 29, 1893:

“We live to make our Church a power in the land while we love every other Church that exalts our Christ. That broad Christian liberality lies at the basis of your work…Every organization of this kind demonstrates that Christian character is helpful in every avenue or emergency of life…The demand of the time is the young man thoroughly grounded in Christianity and its Book.”

On June 14, 1894 Governor William McKinley declared to the Christian Endeavor’s International Convention meeting in Cleveland Ohio:

“There is no currency in this world that passes at such a premium anywhere as good Christian character…The time has gone by when the young man or the young woman in the United States has to apologize for being a follower of Jesus Christ…No cause but one could have brought together so many people, and that is the cause of our Master.”

In 1896, William McKinley spoke of Abraham Lincoln’s attributes:

“The purposes of God, working through the ages, were, perhaps, more clearly revealed to him than to any other…He was the greatest man of his time, especially approved of God for the work He gave him to do.”

In 1896, he successfully ran for the Presidency and was elected. William McKinley was inaugurated as the twenty-fifth president of the United States.

After taking the prescribed oath of office, he kissed his Bible which was opened to Solomon’s prayer:

“Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people: for who can judge this thy people, that is so great?” (2 Chronicles 1:10 KJV) 

He proclaimed to his fellow citizens that he would be:

“...relying upon the support of my countrymen and invoking the guidance of Almighty God. Our faith teaches that there is no safer reliance than upon the God of our fathers, who has so singularly favored the American people in every national trial, and who will not forsake us so long as we obey His commandments and walk humbly in His footsteps.”

In his inaugural address of March 4, 1897 he declared:

“Let me repeat the oath administered by the Chief Justice: ‘I will faithfully administer the office of the President of the United States…” This is the obligation I have reverently taken before the Lord this day. To keep it will be my single purpose and my prayer.”

His Christian faith was often reflected in his political policies. In 1898, America seized control of the Philippine Islands from Spain. McKinley prayed for divine guidance as American politicians were unsure of what to do. He felt guided to annex the Philippine Islands making sure to educate and evangelize the Filipino people whom he considered “our fellowmen for whom Christ also died.”

America became a world power during McKinley’s administration after achieving victory during the Spanish-American War. Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippine Islands were annexed as territories. Through his administration, the United States was given a permanent lease of Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Plans for the Panama Canal were being made and the Boxer Rebellion in China was subdued.

William McKinley publically forgave the assassin who shot him on September 6, 1901. He courageously held to life for a week with dignity but his condition worsened as infection spread through his body. His doctors kept him alive by administering oxygen and heart stimulants. Finally, he realized their attempts to save his life were futile proclaiming:

“It is useless, gentlemen, I think we ought to have prayer.”

President William McKinley bid his wife a loving goodbye and to his friends he weakly declared:

“It is God’s way. His will, not ours, be done”

The last words he was heard to murmur were from his favorite hymn, “Nearer My God to Thee.”

He was assassinated at the beginning of his second term in office and mourned throughout America.

President William McKinley declared:

“The Christian religion is no longer the badge of weaklings and enthusiasts, but of distinction, enforcing respect.”

In reference to the Holy Bible, McKinley declared:

“The more profoundly we study this wonderful Book, and the more closely we observe its divine precepts, the better citizens we will become and the higher will be our destiny as a nation.”

Samuel Colgate (1822 - 1897)

Samuel Colgate was the son of William Colgate who created a soap business. Samuel expanded his father’s business creating one of the largest institutions of its kind. William was known to give at least a tenth of his net income to various charities. He helped to organize the American Bible Society and the Foreign Bible Society. Samuel Colgate became the benefactor and trustee of Madison University located in Hamilton, New York which was renamed in 1890 to Colgate University. William and Samuel Colgate were the American manufacturer philanthropists who created the Colgate Palmolive Company. 

Samuel Colgate declared:

“The only spiritual light in the world comes through Jesus Christ and the inspired Book; redemption and forgiveness of sin alone through Christ. Without His presence and the teachings of the Bible, we would be enshrouded in moral darkness and despair."

"The condition of those nations without Christ, contrasted with those where Christ is accepted, reveals so marked a difference that no arguments are needed. It is an object lesson so plain that it can be seen and understood by all. May ‘the earth be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.’”

 

John Wanamaker (1838 - 1922)

The founder of John Wanamaker and Company, originally a men's clothing business, was a pioneer businessman who established one of the largest department stores in the United States.  Wanamaker became the U.S. Postmaster general between 1889 and 1893. This financier pioneer businessman made numerous advancements in the retail industry. He ran full page mercantile advertisements in a leading American newspaper. Wanamaker was the founder of two magazines carrying advertising copy which became the forerunner to the mail-order catalog. 

Each year during the Easter holiday his Philadelphia store would display two magnificent paintings of Christ. He purchased a 33,000 pipe organ that played every business day.

John Wanamaker was the founder and senior elder of the Bethany Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. He personally led a John Wesley Class Meeting.  Wanamaker was an active Sunday school superintendent for 65 years in which the attendance grew from 27 to over 5,000 persons.

At a prayer meeting John Wanamaker declared:

“I like to be present at the meeting, in the middle of the week, feeling, as I sit among the people gathered, some of them deaf, hearing hardly a spoken word and others with failing sight, that as the Lord passed around amongst them He might give me a blessing too.”

John Wanamaker prayed:

"Ever-living God, our Father, we have come into Thy house again through Thy mercy which has kept us alive. We would worship Thee with reverence. We hallow Thy name, O God, our Father, the name which is above every other name. We worship Thee, O Christ, God manifest in the flesh."

"We hear Thee speak, O Christ, who walked the pathways of this very earth and talked and did things like a man, and left the earth richer for the charity of thy words and the work of Thy dear, kindly hands. Thou hast written Thy name on so much of daily life that we cannot walk or talk or open the doors of our homes without thinking of Thee and Thy ways in Galilee."

"Oh Lord, Thou hast told us how to pray. Help us to shut the door, shutting out the world, and the enemy and any fear or doubt which spoils prayer. May there be no distance between our souls and Thee."

“Our Father, we have come to sit down together to rest, after a busy week, and to think. We are not satisfied with ourselves for we all, like sheep, have gone astray. What we have done is what we ought not to have done. We are stung to the quick with disappointment, sorrow and desolation. It seems as though there were a cankerworm eating at the core of our hearts, and there is no rest for our souls day or night. Have pity on us, Lord, and cut us not down in Thy displeasure. We confess our sin and bring it to Thee. Let our prayers prevail in heaven and do Thou heal and help us to a new life in Christ Jesus. Amen.”

He fervently declared:

“I cannot to greatly emphasize the importance and value of the Bible study – more important than ever before in these days of uncertainties, when men and women are apt to divide questions from the standpoint of expediency rather than of the eternal principles laid down by God Himself.”

The Eighth Annual Conference of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor met in Philadelphia on July 9-11, 1889. John Wanamaker proclaimed the statement that follows:

“I came only to salute you, as one working with you, and as one in sympathy with you. Whatever skepticism of the day may say, there is a power in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep uppermost the profound conviction that it is the Gospel that is to win the heart and convert the world. The things that were sweet dreams in our childhood are now being worked out. The procession is being made longer and longer; the letters of Christ’s name are becoming larger and larger.”

Lew Wallace (1827 - 1905)

Lew Wallace was a Major General in the Union Army during the Civil War. He became the governor of New Mexico between 1878 - 1881. Furthermore, he became the U.S. Minister to Turkey in 1881 - 1845. Major General Lew Wallace became the author of the infamous book Ben Hur.


He wrote in the "Youth Companion" on February 2, 1893.

"At that time (1875), speaking candidly, I was not in th least influenced by religious sentiment. I had no conviction about God and Christ. I neither believed nor believed them..."

"I had been listening to a discussion which involved such elemental points as God, Heaven, life hereafter, Jesus Christ, and His Divinity. Trudging on in the dark, alone, except as one's thoughts may be company, good or bad, a sense of the importance of the theme struck me for the first time with a force both singular and persistent. I was ashamed of myself, and make haste now to declare that mortification of pride I then endured, or, if it be preferred, the punishment of spirit, ended in a resolution to study the whole matter, if only for the gratification there might be in having convictions of onekind or another."

"Forthwith a number of practical suggestions assailed me. How could I conduct the study? Delve into theology? I shuddered...There were the sermons and commentaries. The very thought of them overwhelmed me with an idea of the shortness of life. No, I would read the Bible and the fourt Gospels. A lawyer of fifteen or twenty years of practice attains a confidence peculiar in his mental muscularity, so to speak..."

"The manuscript in my desk ended with the birth of Christ; why not make it the first book of a volume, and go on to His death? I halted - there was light!...I had my opening; it was the birth of Christ. Could anything be more beautiful? As a mere story, the imagination of man has conceived nothing more crowded with poetry, mystery, and incidents, pathetic and sublime, nothing sweeter with human interest, nothing so nearly a revelation of God in person."

"So, too, I saw a fitting conclusion. Viewed purely and professionally as a climax or catastrophe to be written up to, the final scene of the last act of the tragedy, what could be more stupendous than the Crucifixion?...Wanting a connecting thread for the whole story - that given to Christ the Child and that given to Christ the Savior, I kept Beltshasar alive to the end..."

"I determined to withhold the reappearance of the Saviour until the very last hours. Meanwhile, He should always be coming - today I would have Him, as it were, just over the hill yonder - tommorow He will be here, and then tomorrow...Finally when He was come, I would be religiously careful that every word He uttered should be a literal quotation from one of His sainted biographers..."

"The name "Ben-Hur" was chosen because it was biblical, and easily spelled, printed and pronounced."

"As this article is the nature of confessions, here is one which the readers of the Youth's Companion may excuse, and accept at the same time as a fitting conclusion: Long before I was through with my book I became a believer in God and Christ."

Democracy in America - Alexis de Tocqueville

Selections from Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 – 1859) was the author of the renowned study Democracy in America. His book became the means through which he became famous as a social philosopher and historian. This French statesman of noble birth grew up with a profound sense of the epochal, transitional character of his era. His aunt and grandfather were guillotined during the French Revolution and his father imprisoned during the bloody reign of terror. His father’s hair had gone completely white although he was only twenty-four years old when released from prison.

In May of 1831, Alex de Tocqueville with his companion and friend Gustave de Beaumont arrived in New York. Officially, the twenty-five year old French statesman was on a government mission to examine the prisons in America. Their families paid for the trip and not the French government. Hence, their real purpose on this adventure was to analyze the fledgling American nation as a framework for proposals for the advancement of liberty in France. These two companions traveled seven thousand miles in nine months. They conducted hundreds of interviews and compiled fourteen notebooks of information before returning to France. Among the illustrious men whom they interviewed was Charles Carroll secretary of the Continental Congress – the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. John Quincy Adams was also among the celebrated men whom they interviewed. Upon returning to France, the first volume of Democracy in America was published in1835 while the second volume was published in 1840.

Democracy in America has been described as “the most comprehensive and penetrating analysis of the relationship between the character and society in America that has ever been written.”

These two books are among the most quoted books written about America. They are among the best most accurate penetrating comprehensive studies of the fledgling nation of the America. De Tocqueville, a Roman Catholic, visited America during a deeply devout era of a nation which was predominantly Protestant. His personal testimony of the importance of faith and freedom in American democracy is compelling and most fascinating. His personal observations are not merely descriptions of American democracy. His book is a tribute to ‘democracy as destiny’ but also a most observant warning. Democratic freedom is both unstable and volatile and is inclined to collapse into statism or individualism.

The framers of the American Republic were not unanimous about precisely how faith and freedom were to be well-arranged in the public arena. It is extraordinary that a unity between faith and freedom emerged which was observed and recorded by de Tocqueville. The order between faith and freedom, as de Tocqueville saw it, was decisive and distinctive.

Freedom needs to be constrained and channeled through the influences of education, family, associational life and the precepts of the Christian religion. The vitality and stability of democracy is nurtured through the important relationship between faith and freedom.

Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America is a yardstick of how the fledgling republic grew and developed 50 years after the ratification of the Constitution.

Separation of Church and State

“It was religion that gave birth to the English colonies in America. One must never forget that. In the United States religion is mingled with all the national customs and all those feelings which the word fatherland evokes. For that reason it has peculiar power.”

“There is another circumstance equally potent in its influence. In America religion has, if one may put it so, defined its own limits. There the structure of religious life has remained entirely distinct from the political organization. It has therefore been easy to change ancient laws without shaking the foundations of ancient beliefs…”

“On my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more I perceived the great political consequences resulting from this new state of things. In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America I found they were intimately united and that they reigned in common over the same country. My desire to discover the causes of this phenomenon increased from day to day. In order to satisfy it I questioned the members of all the different sects; I sought especially the society of the clergy, who are the depositories of the different creeds and are especially interested in their duration. As a member of the Roman Catholic Church, I was more particularly brought into contact with several of its priests, with whom I became intimately acquainted. To each of these men I expressed my astonishment and explained my doubts. I found that they differed upon matter of detail alone, and that they all attributed the peaceful dominion of religion in their country mainly to the separation of church and state. I do not hesitate to affirm that during my stay in America I did not meet a single individual, of the clergy or the laity, who was not of the same opinion on this point…”

“I have said enough to put the character of Anglo-American civilization in its true light. It is the result (and this should be constantly kept in mind) of two distinct elements, which the Americans have succeeded in incorporating to some extent one with the other and combining admirably. I allude to the spirit of religion and the spirit of liberty."

Influential Because Indirect

“The imaginations of the Americans, even in its greatest flights, is circumspect and undecided; its impulses are checked and its works unfinished. These habits of restraint recur in political society and are singularly favorable both to the tranquility of the people and to the durability of the institutions they have established. Nature and circumstances have made the inhabitants of the United States bold, as is sufficiently attested by the enterprising spirit with which they seek for fortune. If the mind of the Americans were free from all hindrances they would shortly become the most daring innovators and the most persistent disputants in the world. But the revolutionists of America are obliged to profess an ostensible respect for Christian morality and equity, which does not permit them to violate wantonly the laws that oppose their designs; nor would they find it easy to surmount the scruples of their partisans even if they were able to get over their own. Hitherto no one in the United States has dared to advance the maxim that everything is permissible for the interests of society, an impious adage which seems to have been invented in an age of freedom to shelter all future tyrants. Thus, while the law permits the Americans to do what they please, religion prevents them from conceiving, and forbids them to commit what is rash or unjust.”

“Religion in America takes no direct part in the government of society, but it must be regarded as the first of their political institutions; for it does not only impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of it. Indeed, it is in this same point of view that the inhabitants of the United States themselves look upon religious belief. I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion – but I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions. This opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or to a party, but it belongs to the whole nation and to every rank of society…”

“For the Americans the ideas of Christianity and liberty are so completely mingled that it is almost impossible to get them to conceive of the one without the other; it is not a question with them of sterile beliefs bequeathed by the past and vegetating rather than living in the depths of the soul…”

“I have remarked that the American clergy in general, without even excepting those who do not admit religious liberty, are all in favor of civil freedom; but they do not support any particular political system. They keep aloof from parties and from public affairs. In the United States religion exercises but little influence upon the laws and upon the details of public opinion; but it directs the customs of the community, and by regulating domestic life, it regulates the states…”

“I have just pointed out the direction of religion on politics in the United States. Its indirect action seems to me much greater still, and it is just when it is not speaking of freedom at all that it is best teaches the Americans the art of being free.”

“There is an innumerable multitude of sects in the United States. They are all different in the worship they offer to the Creator, but all agree concerning the duties of men to one another. Each sect worships God in its own fashion, but all preach the same morality in the name of God. Though it is very important for man as an individual that his religion should be true, that is not the case for society.’ Society has nothing to fear or hope from another life; what is most important for it is not that all citizens should profess the true religion but that they should profess religion. Moreover, all the sects in the United States belong to the great unity of Christendom, and Christian morality is everywhere the same…”

“I do not doubt for an instant that the great severity of mores which one notices in the United States has its primary origin in beliefs. There religion is often powerless to restrain men in the midst of innumerable temptations which fortune offers. It cannot moderate their eagerness to enrich themselves, which everything contributes to arouse, but it reigns supreme in the souls of the women, and it is women who shape mores. Certainly of all countries in the world America is the one in which the marriage tie is most respected and where the highest and truest conception of conjugal happiness has been conceived…”

“Despotism may be able to do without faith, but freedom cannot. Religion is much more needed in the republic they advocate than in the monarchy they attack, and in democratic republics most of all. How could society escape destruction if, when political ties are relaxed, moral ties are not tightened? And what can be done with a people master of itself if it is not subject to God?”

“By their practice Americans show that they feel the urgent necessity to instill morality into democracy by means of religion. What they think of themselves in this respect enshrines a truth which should penetrate deep into the consciousness of every democratic nation.”

Religious Freedom and American  Democracy

"Every religion has some political opinion linked to it by affinity. The spirit of man, left to follow its bent, will regulate political society and the City of God in uniform fashion; it will, if I dare put it so, seek to harmonize earth with heaven."

"Most of English America was peopled by men who, having shaken off the pope's authority, acknowledged no other religious supremacy; they therefore brought to the New World a Christianity which I can only describe as democratic and republican; this fact singularly favored the establishment of a temporal republic and democracy. From the start politics and religion agreed, and they have not since ceased to do so..."

"Religion perceives that civil liberty affords a noble exercise to the faculties of man and that the political world is a field prepared by the Creator for the efforts of the mind. Free and powerful in its own sphere, satisfied with the place reserved for it, religion never more surely establishes its empire than when it reigns in the hearts of men unsupported by aught beside its native strength."

"Liberty regards religion as its companion in all its battles and its triumphs, as the cradle of its infancy and the divine source of its claims. It considers religion as the safeguard of morality, and morality as the best security of law and the surest pledge of the duration of freedom."

"When a religion seeks to found its sway only on the longing for immorality equally tormenting every human heart, it can aspire to universality, but when it comes to uniting itself with a government, it must adopt maxims which apply only to certain nations. Therefore, by allying itself with any political power, religion increases its strength over some but forfeits the hope of reigning over all."

Habits of the Heart

"I have previously remarked that the manners of the people may be considered as one of the greatest general causes to which the maintenance of a democratic republic in the United States is attributable. I here use the word customs with the meaning which the ancients attached to the word mores; for I apply it not only to manners properly so called - that is, to what might be termed the habits of the heart - but the various notions and opinions current among men and to the mass of those ideas which constituted their character of mind..."

"The customs of the Americans of the United States are then, the peculiar cause which renders that people the only one of the American nations that is able to support a democratic government; and it is the influence of customs that produces the different degrees of order and prosperity which may be distinguished in the several Anglo-American democracies. Thus the effort which the geographical position of a country may have  upon the democratic institutions is exaggerated in Europe. Too much importance is attributed to legislation, too little to customs. These three great causes serve, no doubt, to relegate and direct American democracy, but if they were to be classed by their proper order, I should say that physical circumstances are less efficient than the laws, and the laws infinitely less so than the customs of the people. I am convinced that the most advantageous situation and the best possible laws cannot maintain a constitution in spite of the customs of a country; while the latter may turn to some advantage the most unfavorable positions and the worst laws. The importance of customs is a common truth to which study and experience incessantly direct our attention. It may be regarded as a central point in the range of observation, and the common termination of all my inquiries. So seriously do I insist upon this head that, if I have hitherto failed in making the reader feel the important influence of the practical experience, the habits, the opinions, in short, the customs of the Americans upon the maintenance of their institutions, I have failed in the principal object of my work."

Further observations which de Tocqueville declared:

“In the United States the sovereign authority is religious,…there is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America, and there can be no greater proof of its utility and of its conformity to human nature than that its influence is powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth.”

“In the United States the influence of religion is not confined to the manners but it extends to the intelligence of the people…Christianity, therefore reigns without obstacle, by universal consent, the consequence is, as I have before observed, that every principle of the moral world is fixed and determinate.”

“The safeguard of morality is religion and morality is the best security of law as well as the surest pledge of freedom.”

“Christianity is the companion of liberty in all its conflicts-the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its claims.”

“They brought with them…a form of Christianity, to which I cannot better describe, than by styling it a democratic and republican religion…From the earliest settlement of the emigrants, politics and religion contracted an alliance which has never been dissolved.”

Alex de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont traveled through Chester County, New York in 1831. There, they observed a court case in which de Tocqueville wrote:

“While I was in America, a witness, who happened to be called at the assizes of the county of Chester (state of New York), declared that he did not believe in the existence of God or in the immortality of the soul. The judge refused to admit his evidence, on the ground that the witness had destroyed beforehand all confidence of the court in what he was about to say. The newspapers related the fact without any further comment. The New York Spectator of August 23d, 1831, relates the fact in the following terms:

“The court of common pleas of Chester County (New York), a few days since rejected a witness who declared his disbelief in the existence of God. The presiding judge remarked, that he had not before been aware that there was a man living who did not believe in the existence of God; that this belief constituted the sanction of all testimony in a court of justice: and that he knew of no case in a Christian country, where a witness had been permitted to testify without such belief.”

Excerpts from "The Energy Non Crisis"

By Chaplain Lindsey Williams

Lindsey Williams, chaplain to the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline quoted Senator of the State of Colorado Hugh M Chance.

"After only one week on the North Slope of Alaska, Senator Chance said to me, 'Almost everything said to me about the energy crisis by those briefers from Washington, D.C. was a lie.'"

There is as much oil beneath the North Slope of Alaska as there is in Saudi Arabia according to the estimation of Atlantic Richfield executives. The United States government has allowed only one 100 square mile area in the vast North Slope to be developed. The North Slope of Alaska is the region of land north of the Brooks Mountains. Prudhoe Bay is a small region of a vast expanse of land.

Mr. R. H. King, personnel relations officer with Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, gave Lindsey Williams authorization to work directly under the auspices of APSC. Lindsey Williams became the chaplain to the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline. The information which I present in this essay is gleaned from Chaplain Williams’ book The Energy Non Crisis.

Permafrost is ground which is permanently frozen all year round. Permafrost north of the Brooks Mountains is frozen for 1,900 to 2,100 feet beneath the surface of the earth. Approximately 8,700 feet is the depth at which oil is produced; the oil comes out of the ground at 136 F. Oil will be produced at natural artesian pressure for twenty years. Oil companies will then inject water into the pool of oil to continue producing oil at natural artesian pressure. The Prudhoe Bay field will continue to produce oil without artificial means at a rate of 2 million barrels of oil every twenty hours for many years without any decrease in production.

Oil companies have been permitted to produce only 100 square miles of the North Slope of Alaska. There are many hundreds of square miles of land north of the Brooks Mountains. An area of 160 to 180 miles slopes gradually to sea level at Prudhoe Bay. Gull Island is on the edge of the 100 square mile territory from which ARCO was permitted to produce.

Wells on the North Slope have come in and have been proven (‘proven’ is the method which determines the quality and quantity of an oil field). A ‘burn’ the method of proof used when an oil field is brought in. One can tell what the field is going to produce by the burn as well as the quantity, pressure, and depth.

Williams declared, 

"I was to watch that day what is probably one of the most phenomenal bits of intelligence information that has ever been discovered at Prudhoe Bay. However, this was also to be one of the most devastating things that the government of the United States has done to Americans in relation to the energy crisis."

The pool of oil beneath Gull Island is one of the richest fields of oil on earth. The oil comes out of the earth at 136F, with 1600 pounds of natural pressure. ARCO and BP have ‘proven’ many other pools of oil on the North Slope and can be produced as easily as the Prudhoe Bay field. An August 11, 1980 analysis of Prudhoe Bay crude oil flowing through the Trans-Alaska oil Pipeline indicates the following results:

Sulphur content – 0.9%

Flash point of the oil - 35F

Wax content – 6%

Asphalt content – 2%

Crude oil freeze temperature (known as pour point) - 15F

 The sulphur content of Prudhoe Bay oil is relatively low when compared to other sources within the United States and foreign wells.“The Alaskan Prudhoe Bay oil can be refined by any major refinery in America without damage to the ecology.”

An ARCO executive made the declaration that follows to Chaplain Williams. 

“Gull Island is marginal. We have been allowed to drill there, but we know that of any angle of drilling whatsoever to the north would mean that it would be out of bounds of the oil field from which we have been given permission to produce. I guess you know, Chaplain, that this one pool of oil right here on the north side of Alaska from which we are presently producing can produce oil at the rate of two million barrels every twenty four hours, for the next twenty years, without any decrease in production. Not only that, but it will produce at artesian flow for the next twenty years.”

 Angled drilling can be performed when an oil field is drilled. Often, they drill so many feet beneath the surface then angle off drilling many miles at an angle. Therefore, many different wells can be drilled from the same pad. The wells are often called ‘Christmas Trees’ because that is what they would look like above ground. ARCO drilled straight down beneath Gull Island because they would be out of the area from which they were permitted to drill. The discovery of oil beneath Gull Island is on the outskirts of the field.

“Chaplain, we have just discovered and proven another pool of oil bigger than the Prudhoe Bay field. This is phenomenal beyond words.” He again said, “There is no energy crisis. Now we can build a second pipeline - now we can produce not only 2 million barrels of oil every twenty four hours. Chaplain, this is what we as oil company officials have been waiting for.”

“Chaplain, if this is allowed to be produced, we can build another pipeline, and in another year’s time we can flood America with oil – Alaskan oil, our own oil, and we won’t have to worry about the Arabs. We won’t be dependent on any nation on earth. Chaplain, if there are two pools of oil here this big, there are many, many dozens of pools of oil all over this North Slope of Alaska.” He went on to say, Chaplain, “America has just become energy independent.”

Gull Island proved and authenticated by seismographic testing which indicated there is as much oil on the North Slope of Alaska as in Saudi Arabia. Chaplain Williams declared,

 “…let me first re-emphasize that the government permitted the oil companies to drill and prove many sites (subsequently making them cap the wells and keep secret the proof of the finds), but they do not allow them to produce from the wells. This is why I have referred (below) to a number of wells having been drilled (after I left the North Slope.)The only production is permitted from the small area of the North Slope.”

Gull Island is five miles north from the shore of Prudhoe Bay in the Beaufort Sea. The chemical structure of oil beneath Gull Island is different from the Prudhoe Bay field which indicates that it is an independent field. The pressure is different which indicates that it is an entirely different field from the Prudhoe Bay field.

The Gull Island burn produced 30,000 barrels of oil a day through a 3 ½ inch pipe at 900 feet. Three wells have been drilled and capped at Gull Island. The East Dock well also hit the Gull Island pool which is verified by the chemical structure of the oil. There hasn’t been a dry hole drilled for forty miles east of Gull Island which indicates the immensity of the oil field. The Gull Island field is actually larger than the Prudhoe Bay field. In 1980, the Prudhoe Bay field produced more than two million barrels of oil every twenty four hours.

The Kuparuk oil field has been drilled west of Gull Island and is a different independent field. The chemical makeup and pressure of the field indicate that it is a separate field independent of the other fields. It is also found in a different region of the 100 square mile area of the Prudhoe Bay field. Kuparuk is approximately 60 miles along by 30 miles wide and contains approximately the same amount of oil as the Prudhoe Bay field.

The oil in the Kuparuk field is at a depth of 6,000 feet and there is 300 feet of oil sand. The pressure of the field is 900 lbs. at well head and tests have flowed at 900 barrels of oil a day. It is projected that 800 to 1400 wells would be drilled at the Kuparuk field.

We are continually being told that America was in an energy crisis from 1973 through 1980. In that span of time no oil production was permitted from the Kuparuk field. In 1981, permission was finally granted for production of the Kuparuk field.

Field - Prudhoe  

Pay Zone Oil (average depth of oil pool) - 600 ft.  of Pay Zone

Area of Field - 100 square miles

Field - Kuparuk

Pay Zone Oil (average depth of oil pool) - 300 ft. of Pay Zone

Area of Field - Twice the size of Prudhoe Gull Island

Field - Gull Island

Pay Zone Oil (average depth of oil pool) - 1,200 ft. of Pay Zone

Area of Field - At least four times the size of Prudhoe… Estimates are that it is the richest oil field on the face of the earth!

Former Senator of the State of Colorado Hugh Chance endorsed the content of the information which I have reported found in Lindsey Williams’ book The Energy Non Crisis (expanded and enlarged):

 “The honesty, integrity, and therefore the credibility, of the authors of this book is unquestionable to the limit of their combined facts and knowledge.”

 “I can personally attest too many of the facts and certainly many of the conversations quoted in the book, as I spent a week with Chaplin Lindsey on the North Slope of Alaska during the construction of the Trans-0Alaska pipeline. I was privileged to talk with high officials of the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company.”

Pastor Lindsey Williams spoke of Gull Island in his book The Energy - Non Crisis. Today the island is known as Liberty Island. Liberty field lies beneath the shallow waters of the Beaufort Sea and is about five miles from land. Although the gravel island is five miles from shore, some of the wells of Liberty will be located eight miles from Endicott. Hence, it requires BP to extend over world record horizontal distances of 34,000 to 44,000 feet to reach the field reservoir which is 11,000 feet beneath the sea floor.