could not pay for a chaplain.[144] Franklin's motion was therefore tabled.[145] (However; individual delegate accounts suggest that prayer did occur at some point during the Convention.[146]) Delegate Edmund Jennings Randolph of Virginia also proposed:

[T]hat a sermon be preached at the request of the Convention on the Fourth of July.[147]

To accommodate that proposal, on Monday, July 2, the Convention adjourned until Thursday, July 5, so that, as James Madison explained, "time might be given ... to such as chose to attend to the celebrations on the anniversary of independence."[148] On July 4, many delegates attended that special service. For example, George Washington noted in his diary:

[W]ent to hear [at the Calvinist Church] an oration on the anniversary of independence.[149]

After the oration (delivered by a young law student), the Rev. William Rogers, minister of the Calvinist Church, concluded with this prayer:

[W]e fervently recommend to thy fatherly notice . . . our federal convention... . [F] avor them, from day to day, with thy inspiring presence; be their wisdom and strength; enable them to devise such measures as may prove happy instruments in healing all divisions and prove the good of the great whole;... that the United States of America may form one example of a free and virtuous government... May we... continue, under the influence of republican virtue, to partake of all the blessings of cultivated and Christian society.[150]

The men who formed the Constitution neither precluded nor limited public or official religious acknowledgments. In fact, George Washington, President of the Convention, later told the Baptists of Virginia that:

If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the Constitution framed in the Convention where I had the honor to preside might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society; certainly I would never have placed my signature to it.[151]

However; not only did religious activities accompany the drafting of the federal Constitution, they also accompanied its ratification. This was evident throughout the various State conventions which gathered to approve that document. For example:

On motion of the Hon. Mr. [John] Adams, Voted, That the Convention will attend morning prayers daily, and that the gentlemen of the clergy, of every denomination, be requested to officiate in turn.[152] MASSACHUSETTS

After appointing the proper subordinate officers, and having ordered that the doors should be kept open ... the business of the Convention opened every morning with prayer.[153] NEW YORK

On the recommendation of Mr. Paul Carrington, the Rev. Abner Waugh was unanimously elected chaplain, to attend every morning to read prayers immediately after the bell shall be rung for calling the Convention.[154] VIRGINIA

Furthermore, in some States the ratification convention was held in a church.[155] Clearly, the proceedings of both the Constitutional Convention and the ratification conventions provide further organic utterances that the Framers not only supported, but even participated in both public religious activities and public endorsements of religion.

145. James Madison, The Papers of James Madison, Henry D. Gilpin, editor (Washington: Langtree and O'Sullivan, 1840), Vol.II, p. 986, June 28, 1787.

146. Luther Martin, The Genuine Information (Philadelphia: Eleazer Oswald, 1788), pp. 56-57. See also The Debates in the Several State Conventions; Jonathan Elliot, editor (Washing-ton, D. C.: Printed for the Editor, 1836), Vol.1, p. 373, from Luther Martin's "Letter on the Federal~Convention of 1787,"January 27, 1788, delivered to the Maryland State Legislature.

147. Madison, Papers (1840), Vol.11, p. 986, June 28, 1787.

148. Madison, Papers (1840), Vol.11, PP. 1023-1024, July 4, 1787.

149. George Washington, The Diaries of George Washington, John C. Fitzpatrick, editor (New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1925), Vol.111, p. 226, July 4, 1787.

150. Morris, pp.253-254.

151. Washington, Writings (1932), Vol. XXX, p. 321 n., May 10, 1789.

152. The Debates in the Several Conventions, on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Jonathan Elliot, editor (Washington: Printed for the Editor, 1836), Vol.11, p.2, Massachusetts Convention,January 9, 1788.

153. Elliot, Debates, Vol.11, p.207, New York Convention, June 17, 1788.

154. Elliot, Debates, Vol.111, p.1, Virginia Convention, June 2, 1788.

155. Elliot, Debates, Vol. IV, p.1, North Carolina Convention, July 21, 1788. See also Vol.11, p.2, Massachusetts Convention, January 9, 1788.