Just think of how much things have changed since the beginning cases in the Supreme Court. I believe our Founding Fathers would be chagrined and amazed at the convolutions that the modern Justices go to in order to declare their new “findings” in the Constitution.

One of the Supreme Court Justices nominated by James Madison was Joseph Story. Now remember, Madison was the most learned man when it came to the U.S. Constitution. He sheparded it through to approval, including writing many of the “Federalist Papers”.

Joseph Story’s father had been one of the colonists dressed up as an Indian in the Boston Tea Party. Joseph himself graduated from Harvard law school, a part of the college that he helped to create, 2nd in his class. Smart man! At age 32 he was appointed to the Supreme Court where he served for 34 years. He wrote many remarkable decisions for the Court.

Some of the things he said may not be very well received today. For example:

“There never has been a period of history, in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundation.”
In 1833, Joseph Story commented on the pamphlet ” The Relation of Christianity to Civil Government in the United States” written by Rev. Jasper Adams, President of the College of Charleston,South Carolina:

“I have read it with uncommon satisfaction. I think its tone and spirit excellent.

“My own private judgment has long been (and every day’s experience more and more confirms me in it) that government can not long exist without an alliance with religion; and that Christianity is indispensable to the true interests and solid foundations of free government.”