Letters of Delegates to Congress

A blogger at Positive Liberty makes this claim in a criticism of California's Proposition 8 (which defines the sacred civil institution of marriage God's way):

But when you impose your religious beliefs on the rest of society or on any unwilling part of society outside your religious community, then we get to judge your politics on purely secular grounds. Then we get to say, for example, that it doesn’t matter in the slightest whether your racism stems from your religious beliefs, you’re still a racist.... It doesn’t matter why your faith leads you to oppose affording the same civil status to homosexuals that you afford to heterosexuals, you’re still a bigot, plain and simple.

And please don’t even bother with the “sanctity of marriage, foundation of civilization” bullsh*t. If marriage is sacred, it is sacred as a religious institution. There is no such thing as a sacred civil institution.

It's hard to imagine America's Founders using such coarse language to describe marriage or other sacred civil institutions.

This blogger advocates the "separation of sacred and civil." Such a separation did not exist in the minds of any of America's Founding Fathers.

"Sacred" and "Civil" appear hundreds of times in the acts and writings of America's Founders.

Letters of Delegates to Congress: Volume 7 May 1, 1777 - September 18, 1777 John Adams to Abigail Adams: Discipline in an Army, is like the Laws, in civil Society.
There can be no Liberty, in a Commonwealth, where the Laws are not revered, and most sacredly observed, nor can there be Happiness or Safety in an Army, for a single Hour, where the Discipline is not observed.

Government itself was a sacred institution:

[Civil government] "'seems to me to be a part of religion itself . . . a thing sacred in its institutions and ends.'"
Constitutional Government: William Penn, Preface to the Frame of Government 1682

Civil Freedom depends upon sacred morality

Franklin referred to "the sacred writings" in the Constitutional Convention.

Another such sacred civil institution is that of the oath:

George Washington, Farewell Address: Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
George Washington, June 10, 1777, General Orders: It is with inexpressible regret the Commander in Chief has been driven to the necessity of doing a severe, but necessary act of Justice, as an example of what is to be expected by those daring offenders, who, lost to all sense of duty, and the obligations they owe to their Country, and to mankind, wantonly violate the most sacred engagements, and fly to the assistance of an enemy, they are bound by every tie to oppose. A spirit of desertion is alone the most fatal disease that can attend an army, and the basest principle that can actuate a soldier; Wherever it shews itself, it deserves detestation, and calls for the most exemplary punishment. What confidence can a General have in any Soldier, who he has reason to apprehend may desert in the most interesting moments ? What, but the want of every moral and manly sentiment, can induce him to desert the cause, to which he has pledged his faith, even with the solemnity of an oath, and which he is bound to support, by every motive of justice and good will to himself, and his fellow creatures ? When such a character appears, it may almost be said in reference to it, that forbearance is folly; and mercy degenerates into cruelty.
Letters of Delegates to Congress: Volume 7 May 1, 1777 - September 18, 1777 John Adams to Nathanael Greene: Dear Sir. Phyladelphia June 2d. 1777 Yours of the 28 Ult. is before me.(1) It is certain that Religion and Morality have no less obligations upon Armies, than upon Cities and contribute no less to the Happiness of Soldiers than of Citizens. There is one Principle of Religion which has contributed vastly to the Excellence of Armies, who had very little else of Religion or Morality, the Principle I mean is the Sacred obligation of oaths, which among both Romans and Britans, who seem to have placed the whole of Religion and Morality in the punctual observance of them, have done Wonders.
It is this alone which prevents Desertions from your Enemies. I think our Chaplains ought to make the Solemn Nature and the Sacred obligation of oaths the favourite Subject of their Sermons to the Soldiery. Odd as it may seem I cannot help considering a serious sense of the Solemnity of an oath as the corner Stone of Discipline, and that it might be made to contribute more, to the order of the Army, than any or all of the Instruments of Punishment.

Public Papers of the Presidents, Hoover, 1929, p.1 Inaugural Address. March 4, 1929: My countrymen:
This occasion is not alone the administration of the most sacred oath which can be assumed by an American citizen. It is a dedication and consecration under God to the highest office in service of our people. I assume this trust in the humility of knowledge that only through the guidance of Almighty Providence can I hope to discharge its ever-increasing burdens.

Marriage was widely regarded as a sacred civil institution. Quakers appealed for an end to slavery based on this assumption:

Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, 1823-1824 WEDNESDAY, December 10, 1823: Mr. Long presented a memorial adopted at a yearly meeting of the society of Friends, held at New Garden, in Guilford County, North Carolina, on the 6th of November, 1823, representing that they hold the marriage covenant the highest civil engagement amongst men; that it ought to be held sacred and inviolable; notwithstanding which, the masters of slaves are tolerated, by the laws of the land, in breaking this most solemn contract, by separating husbands and wives; and praying Congress to adopt such measures, as may be best calculated to meliorate the condition of slaves within its jurisdiction, at least, within the District of Columbia; which memorial was referred to the Committee for the District of Columbia.

Marriage in the courts, 1600-1940.

Our blogger's concept of the separation of civil and sacred is without precedent.

Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, 1789-1873 SATURDAY, March 4, 1837. The President of the United States, ex-President, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Heads of Departments, and Foreign Ministers, having entered the Senate Chamber, the Senate proceeded with them to the eastern portico, where the President of the United States delivered the following Address:: Position, and climate, and the bounteous resources that Nature has scattered with so liberal a hand--even the diffused intelligence and elevated character of our people--will avail us nothing if we fail sacredly to uphold those political institutions that were wisely and deliberately formed with reference to every circumstance that could preserve or might endanger the blessings we enjoy.
From a small community we have risen to a people powerful in numbers and in strength; but with our increase has gone, hand in hand, the progress of just principles; the privileges, civil and religious, of the humblest individual are still sacredly protected at home; and while the valor and fortitude of our people have removed far from us the slightest apprehension of foreign power, they have not yet induced us, in a single instance, to forget what is right.

George Washington to Henry Lee, October 20, 1794: There is but one point on which I think it proper to add a special recommendation. It is this, that every officer and soldier will constantly bear in mind that he comes to support the laws and that it would be peculiarly unbecoming in him to be in any way the infractor of them; that the essential principles of a free government confine the provinces of the Military to these two objects: 1st: to combat and subdue all who may be found in arms in opposition to the National will and authority; 2dly to aid and support the civil Magistrate in bringing offenders to justice. The dispensation of this justice belongs to the civil Magistrate and let it ever be our pride and our glory to leave the sacred deposit there unviolated.

George Washington, March 6, 1776, General Orders: Thursday the seventh Instant, being set apart by the Honourable the Legislature of this province, as a day of fasting, prayer, and humiliation, "to implore the Lord, and Giver of all victory, to pardon our manifold sins and wickedness's, and that it would please him to bless the Continental Arms, with his divine favour and protection"--All Officers, and Soldiers, are strictly enjoined to pay all due reverance, and attention on that day, to the sacred duties due to the Lord of hosts, for his mercies already received, and for those blessings, which our Holiness and Uprightness of life can alone encourage us to hope through his mercy to obtain.

John Adams made an official proclamation of a Day of Prayer on March 6, 1799 based on "the Volume of Inspiration. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1833 asked rhetorically,: Where can the purest principles of morality be learned so clearly or so perfectly as from the New Testament? Where are benevolence, the love of truth, sobriety, and industry, so powerfully and irresistibly inculcated as in the sacred volume?
The Court approved the teaching of the Bible by the City of Philadelphia:: Why may not the Bible, and especially the New Testament, without note or comment, be read and taught as a divine revelation in the college -- its general precepts expounded, its evidences explained, and its glorious principles of morality inculcated?
The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Volume 3 Congress.^†: "Reposing ourselves upon that Almighty Power, whose interposition in our behalf we have often seen and adored, confident of the unanimity and zeal of our fellow citizens throughout these States, assured of the assistance and support of our great ally, relying that the good and brave everywhere regard our cause with interested attention, we firmly repeat what we have already declared, that no offer of advantage, however great and alluring, no extremes of danger, however alarming, shall induce us to violate the faith we have given and the resolutions we have adopted, for the observance of which we have solemnly pledged our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Volume 2 H. Laurens to Congress.^*: The intentions of Great Britain, derogatory at once of all the sacred rights of humanity and of the honor of God and of the established laws of civilized nations, are thus declared in the manifesto:

Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, 1789-1873 MONDAY, April 21, 1834.: "That the communication of a paper of such a character, with the declaration that accompanied it, is a plain and open breach of the constitutional rights and privileges of the Senate; and that it cannot be received by the body without a surrender of the just powers confided to it by the constitution, in trust, to secure the liberty and promote the prosperity of these States, and which the members are bound to maintain under the sacred obligations of an oath."

Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, 1789-1873 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1800.

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Senate:

For this excellent address, so respectful to the memory of my illustrious predecessor, which I receive from the Senate of the United States, at this time, and in this place, with peculiar satisfaction, I pray you to accept of my unfeigned acknowledgments. With you, I ardently hope, that permanence and stability will be communicated as well to the government itself, as to its beautiful and commodious seat. With you I deplore the death of that hero and sage who bore so honorable and efficient a part in the establishment of both. Great indeed would have been my gratification, if his sum of earthly happiness had been completed by seeing the government thus peaceably convened at this place, himself at its head. But, while we submit to the decisions of Heaven, whose councils are inscrutable to us, we cannot but hope, that the members of Congress, the officers of government, and all who inhabit the city or the country, will retain his virtues in lively recollection, and make his patriotism, morals, and piety, models for imitation.

I thank you, gentlemen, for your assurance that the several subjects for legislative consideration, recommended in my communication to both Houses, shall receive from the Senate a deliberate and candid attention.

With you, gentlemen, I sincerely deprecate all spirit of innovation which may weaken the sacred bond that connects the different parts of this nation and government; and with you I trust, that, under the protection of Divine Providence, the wisdom and virtue of our citizens will deliver our national compact unimpaired to a free, prosperous, happy, and grateful posterity. To this end it is my fervent prayer, that, in this city, the foundations of wisdom may be always open, and the streams of eloquence forever flow. Here may the youth of this extensive country forever look up without disappointment, not only to the monuments and memorials of the dead, but to the examples of the living, in the members of Congress and officers of government, for finished models of all those virtues, graces, talents, and accomplishments, which constitute the dignity of human nature, and lay the only foundation for the prosperity or duration of empires.

JOHN ADAMS.

City of Washington, November 26, 1800.

The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 [Farrand's Records, Volume 3] XLV. Joseph Varnum to General Washington.¹: Their paper money System, founded in oppression & fraud, they are determined to Support at every hazard. And rather than relinquish their favorite pursuit the trample upon the most sacred obligations.

Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, 1789-1873 THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 1813.: Mr. Leib presented the memorial of the managers of the Bible Society of Philadelphia, stating that, to enable them to promote the object of the institution, the gratuitous distribution of the sacred Scriptures, they had ordered, in the year 1809, a set of stereotype plates from England, and praying that these plates may be exonerated from the additional duties since imposed on British manufactures; and the memorial was read.
On motion, by Mr. Leib,
Resolved, That it be referred to a select committee, to consider and report thereon by bill or otherwise.
Ordered, That Messrs. Leib, Robinson, and Gregg, be the committee.

Letters of Delegates to Congress: Volume 5 August 16, 1776 - December 31, 1776 John Hancock to Certain States: If Nothing was at Stake but your own Peace and Security, I should not be so earnest on the Occasion. It is the Fate of Posterity (which depends on our Conduct) that stamps a Value on the present Cause. I beseech you therefore by all that is sacred-by that Love of Liberty and your Country, which you have always manifested- by those Ties of Honour which bind you to the Common Cause- by that Love of Virtue and Happiness which animates all good Men, and finally-by your Regard for succeeding Generations, that you will, without a Moment's Delay, exert yourselves to forward the Troops for Ticonderoga from your States agreeably to the enclosed Requisition of Congress.

Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1778

By the Congress of the United States of America.
MANIFESTO.

These United States having been driven to hostilities by the oppressive and tyrannous measures of Great Britain; having been compelled to commit the essential rights of man to the decision of arms; and having been at length forced to shake off a yoke which had grown too burthensome to bear; they declared themselves free and independent.

Confiding in the justice of their cause; confiding in Him, who disposes of human events; although weak and unprovided, they set the power of their enemies at defiance.

In this confidence they have continued through the various fortunes of three bloody campaigns, unawed by the power, unsubdued by the barbarity of their foes.

Their virtuous citizens have borne, without repining, the loss of many things which make life desirable. Their brave troops have patiently endured the hardships and dangers of a situation fruitful in both, beyond former example.

The Congress considering themselves bound to love their enemies, as children of that Being who is equally the Father of All; and desirous, since they could not prevent, at least to alleviate the calamities of war, have studied to spare those who were in arms against them, and to lighten the chains of captivity.

The conduct of those serving under the king of Great Britain hath, with some few exceptions, been diametrically opposite. They have laid waste the open country, burned the defenceless villages, and butchered the citizens of America.

Their prisons have been the slaughter-houses of her soldiers, their ships of her seamen; and the severest injuries have been aggravated by the grossest insult.

Foiled in their vain attempt to subjugate the unconquerable spirit of freedom, they have meanly assailed the representatives of America with bribes, with deceit, and the servility of adulation. They have made a mock of humanity by the wanton destruction of men. They have made a mock of religion by impious appeals to God, whilst in the violation of his sacred commands: They have made a mock even of reason itself, by endeavouring to prove that the liberty and happiness of America could safely be entrusted to those who have sold their own, unawed by the sense of virtue or of shame.

Treated with the contempt which such conduct deserved, they have applied to individuals. They have solicited them to break the bonds of allegiance, and imbue their souls with the blackest of crimes. But fearing that none could be found through these United States equal to the wickedness of their purpose, to influence weak minds they have threatened more wide devastation.

While the shadow of hope remained that our enemies could be taught by our example, to respect those laws which are held sacred among civilized nations, and to comply with the dictates of a religion which they pretend in common with us to believe and revere, they have been left to the influence of that religion and that example. But since their incorrigible dispositions cannot be touched by kindness and compassion, it becomes our duty by other means to vindicate the rights of humanity.

We, therefore, the Congress of the United States of America, do solemnly declare and proclaim, that if our enemies presume to execute their threats, or persist in their present career of barbarity, we will take such exemplary vengeance, as shall deter others from a like conduct. We appeal to that God who searcheth the hearts of men, for the rectitude of our intentions: and in his holy presence we declare, that as we are not moved by any light and hasty suggestions of anger or revenge, so, through every possible change of fortune, we will adhere to this our determination.

Done in Congress, by unanimous consent, the thirtieth day of October, 1778.

H. L.President.

Letters of Delegates to Congress: Volume: 3 January 1, 1776 - May 15, 1776 Samuel Adams to Joseph Palmer: I heartily congratulate you upon the sudden and important Change of our Affairs, in the Removal of the Barbarians from the Capital. We owe our grateful Acknowledgments to him who is, as he is frequently stifled in sacred Writ, "The Lord of Hosts." We have not yet been informd with Certainty what Course the Enemy have steerd.

Some appeals to the sacred are less worthy of adulation:

Letters of Delegates to Congress: Volume 21 October 1, 1783 - October 31, 1784 John Francis Mercer to the Public: Liberty! thou emanation from the all-beauteous and celestial mind! to Americans thou hast committed the guardianship of the darling rights of mankind, leaving the Eastern world where indolence has bowed the neck to the yoke of tyranny; in this Western hemisphere hast thou fixed thy sacred empire; whilst the sons of Europe shackled with the manacles of oppression, sigh for thy safety, and pant for thy blessings; the band of patriots who are here thy votaries, cemented by thy invisible power, will be bound to the partners of their toil and dangers, by ties more close than those of kindred, more sacred than those of friendship. Inspired by the virtuous nations, who are now the pride, and will be ever the boast of America, will instill this holy truth into the infant minds of their children, and teach them to hold it sacred, even as the divine aphorisms of religion, that the SAFETY of AMERICA will be found in her UNION.

Reprinted from the Pennsylvania Journal, October 8, 1783.

The Debates In The Convention Of The State Of New York, On The Adoption Of The Federal Constitution. In Convention, Poughkeepsie, June 17, 1788.: He would agree with the honorable gentlemen that perfection in any system of government was not to be looked for. If that was the object, the debates on the one before them might soon be closed. But he would observe, that this observation applied, with equal force, against changing any system, especially against material and radical changes. Fickleness and inconstancy, he said, were characteristic, of a free people; and, in framing a constitution for them, it was, perhaps, the most difficult thing to correct this Spirit, and guard against the evil effects of it. He was persuaded it could not be altogether prevented without destroying their freedom. It would be like, attempting to correct a small indisposition in the habit of the body, fixing the patient in a confirmed consumption. This fickle and inconstant spirit was the more dangerous in bringing about changes in the government. The instance that had been adduced by the gentleman from sacred history, was an example in point to prove this. The nation of Israel, having received a form of civil government from Haven, enjoyed it for a considerable period; but, at length, laboring under pressures which were brought upon them by their own misconduct and imprudence, instead of imputing their misfortunes to their true causes, and making a proper improvement of their calamities, by a correction of their errors, they imputed them to a defect in their constitution; they rejected their divine Ruler, and asked Samuel to make them a king to judge them, like other nations. Samuel was grieved at their folly; but still, by the command of God, he hearkened to their voice, though not until he had solemnly declared unto them the manner in which the king should reign over them. "This (says Samuel) shall be the manner of the king that shall reign over you. He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and for his horsemen, and some shall run before his chariots; and he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties, and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your olive-yards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers and to his servants, and he will take your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your sheep; and ye shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in that day, because of your king which ye have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day!" How far this was applicable to the subject, he would not now say; it could be better judged of when they had gone through it. On the whole, he wished to take up this matter with candor and deliberation.; What clause in the Constitution, except this very clause itself, gives the general government a power to deprive us of that great privilege, so sacredly secured to us by our state constitutions?

The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If "Thou shalt not covet" and "Thou shalt not steal" were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free.
J.Adams: A Defense of the Constitution of Government of the United States of America (Phila: Wm Young, 1797) III:217, from "The Right Constitution of a Commonwealth Examined," Letter VI.

He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivatng and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither.
Jefferson's Draft of the Declaration of Independence

Our blogger at Positive Liberty continues his assault on the sacred:

Any culture that already ‘enjoys’ a 50% “no-fault” divorce rate and that really believes that heterosexual marriage should last only so long as both partners are enjoying themselves long ago lost the standing to worry about how gay couples being able to make next of kin decisions for their partners or get social security survivor benefits would undermine society.

He's saying anti-homosexual forces are inconsistent in their defense of sacred civil institutions, but instead of encouraging them to become more consistent with religion and morality, he urges them to become completely inconsistent, something America's Founding Fathers would never do.