In case you missed it, on July 4th Josh Hawley, the conservative populist U.S. senator from Missouri, tweeted some words on Twitter that he claimed belonged to Virginia revolutionary Patrick Henry:
The problem with Hawley’s tweet is that Patrick Henry never said this. Even David Barton, the Christian Right activist who cherry-picks from the past to advance his right-wing political agenda, admits that it is fake and has stopped using it.
So where did Hawley find this quote?
The fake Henry quote has been circulating in Christian Right circles for decades. It appears in William Federer’s 1994 Christian Right quote book America’s God and Country: Encylopedia of Quotation. (To be fair, Federer says that the quote has been “attribued” to Henry). Mark Beliles and Stephen McDowell’s America’s Providential History introduced the quote with the phrase “Patrick Henry stated…” The fake quote is “attributed” to Henry in Dr. Richard Lee’s American Patriot’s Bible. Franklin Graham used the quote in his 2004 book The Name and James D. Kennedy used it in his 2008 What if Jesus Had Never Been Born? And, of course, Barton used it often in the early years of his propoganda campaign.
The origins of the quote, as Barton correctly notes on the Wallbuilders website, is a 1956 issue of the magazine The Virginian.
I’ll let historian Seth Cotlar take it from here:
The fake Henry quote is very popular among people who write letters to the editors of newspapers arguing that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. Here is a small selection (there are hundreds and hundreds more) of letters that employ the quote:
“Consistent with labeling,” Lewiston (ME) Sun-Journal, October 7, 2017
“Our country was founded on Christianity,” Reno Gazette-Journal, July 14, 2011
“U.S. was indeed created with religion ‘indispensable’,” Bradenton, FL Herald, October 13, 2010
“Our founding fathers were clearly Christians,” The Idaho Statesman, September 3, 2010
“Quotes of founders taken out of context,” Rapid City (SD) Journal, August 5, 2010
“Why has our nation deserted God,’ Arlington Heights (IL) Daily Herald, September 29, 2009
“Left rewrites history on America’s Christian origins,” Tallahasse Democrat, January 5, 2005
“The righteous should stand up and be counted,” The Belleville (NJ) Times, June 30, 2005
“Liberals have been trying to take God from society,” Clarksville (TN) Leaf-Chronicle, November 8, 2005
“Christians after all,” The Lexington Herald-Leader, July 20, 2004
“History shows country was built on faith,” The Council Bluffs (IA) Daily Nonpareil, July 18, 2004
“Nation must not bend the knee to barbarism,” The Greenville News, July 12, 2004
“Freedom of religion,” Abilene Reporter-News, November 26, 2003
“Christian heriage,” El Paso Times, June 18, 2000, Newport News Daily Press, August 8, 2002
“Freedom to worship,” Franklin (IN) Daily Journal, April 5, 2002
“The age-old argument about religion,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, March 24, 2002
“Concerned about ignorance,” Chico (CA) Enterprise-Record, March 14, 2002
“God’s role in America,” Lancaster (PA) Intelligencer Journal, February 14, 2001
“Few founding fathers were non-Christians,” Muncie (IN) Times, January 21, 2000
“Christian nation,” The Idaho Statesman, January 13, 2000
“Bible influential throughout history,” Chillicothe (OH) Gazette, December 17, 2000
“Believers,” Quincy (CA) Feather River Bulletin, August 4, 1999
“United States was founded as a Christian nation,” Decatur Herald & Review, May 12, 1999
“It’s time to make ‘moral’ stock investments,” Longview (TX) News-Journal, July 24, 1998
“O, ye blind faith,” Wichita Falls (TX) Times Record News, July 11, 1998
“Constitution compatible with Christianity…,” The Macon (GA) Telegraph, September 22, 1997
“Food for thought on Fourth of July,” Kosciusjo (MS) Star-Herald, June 26, 1997
“Christian government,” The Anniston (AL) Star, March 5, 1997
“The U.S. Constitution has deep biblical roots,” The Grand Junction (CO) Daily Sentinel, March 10, 1995
“How the founders really felt about God,” Morristown (NJ) Daily Record, May 9, 1995
“Religion paramount in country’s start,” The Stuart (FL) News, April 8, 1995
“Founding Fathers based writings on Christianity,” Murfreesboro (TN) Daily News-Journal, December 15, 1994
“Christians can participate,” The Greenville (OH) Daily Advocate, October 26, 1994
“Religion intertwined with nation’s history,” St. Clould (MN) Times, August 9, 1994
“Know thy founding fathers’ religion,” The Orlando Sentinel, June 15, 1994
“We need a return to nation under God,” Florida Today (Cocoa, FL), April 25, 1994
“ACLU scored,” Johnson City (TN) Press, April 8, 1994
“Christianity woven into the nation,” The Twin Falls Idaho Sun Times, March 7, 1994
“Boy Scouts reaffirm founding fathers’s belief,” Lansing (MI) State Journal, February 25, 1994
“Pluralism is distructive,” Camden (NJ) Courier Post, January 2, 1994
“Public has become ignorant of its constitutional rights,” Shreveport Times, November 3, 1993
“Silvering errs on founding fathers,” Chippewa (WI) Herald-Telegram, September 29, 1993
“Founding fathers were Christian,” Carlisle (PA) Sentinel, June 19, 1993
“Unborn are not parasites,” Fremont (OH) News-Messenger, March 19, 1993
“Christians and state,” The Napa Valley Register, December 25, 1992
“Christian nation,” Kingsport (TN) Times-News, June 26, 1992
“Great blessing,” Briston (TN) Hearld Courier, June 24, 1992
“Nation founded on Christian truth,” Albuquerque Journal, October 14, 1991
“Secular nation claim rebutted,” Victoria (TX) Advocate, April 24, 1991
We only found one reference to the fake Henry quote in newspapers published before 1991. (It was an op-ed from 1987). I wonder where these letter-to-the-editor writers found this quote? And why did they suddenly start using it after 1991? We need to dig deeper for solid answers to these questions, but I would begin with the fact that David Barton’s Wallbuilders organization was founded in 1987 and Federer’s quote book was published in 1994. By 2000, the quote was ubiquitous in Christian Right circles.
I love how people like Hawley claim to be Constitutional originalists and then cherry pick anti-federalists as precedent. Even if Henry did say it, and we accept Hawley’s originalism, Henry’s opposition to the Constitution would arguably disqualify it as being illustrative of founding intent.