As we celebrate America’s 250th birthday this week, most citizens will acknowledge the significance of the country’s founding political document, the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration points us towards the type of government we have—limited and representative, with equally divided branches. But behind these pragmatic political elements were deep-rooted ideas that would not only influence the new nation but also shape higher education and the founding of Howard College sixty-five years later.
Years before Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration in the 1730s and 1740s, ministers preached fiery sermons that emphasized to colonialists that they could approach God directly, and these notions of spiritual equality framed liberty as a divine right rather than a royal favor. These revivals cultivated the independent spirit that would later underwrite the Declaration of Independence. They also nurtured the civic virtue necessary for republican government by encouraging personal discipline, moral character and a commitment to the common good. As Americans increasingly viewed liberty as a gift from God rather than a privilege granted by earthly rulers, they embraced the conviction that legitimate government existed to protect the God-given rights of the people. Rooted in natural law, the Declaration echoed the evangelical language of equality, liberty and accountability before God and affirmed “self-evident truths” that all people were created equal with unremovable rights.
The Declaration of Independence also provided the philosophical foundation for American republicanism by affirming that legitimate government rested upon the consent of the governed rather than the authority of a monarch. In rejecting the rule of the British monarch, the American Revolution became more than a struggle for political independence; it represented a rejection of hereditary monarchy and aristocratic privilege in favor of a republic founded upon liberty, civic virtue, self-government, popular sovereignty and the responsibility of citizens to preserve the common good.
By 1800, American higher education was designed to cultivate both the Christian character and civic virtue necessary for the success of the new republic. The nation's colleges viewed education as more than intellectual training; they sought to prepare ministers, teachers, lawyers and public leaders who would uphold both the moral principles of Christianity and the political ideals of republicanism. Grounded in a classical curriculum and shaped by Protestant theology, colleges emphasized moral philosophy, biblical instruction and the development of virtuous citizenship. Educators believed that republican government could endure only if its citizens possessed moral discipline, religious conviction and a commitment to the common good. They sought to prepare generations of leaders to sustain both the republic and the nation's religious heritage.
At Middlebury College in Vermont, Samuel Sterling Sherman embraced these notions under the guidance of the college president, Joshua Bates, during the revivals of the Second Great Awakening. Following a tenth season of local revivals, President Joshua Bates praised the spiritual awakenings on campus for gathering souls for the kingdom of God and for increasing happiness, liberty and piety. Bates believed that the revivals and the “sanctified learning” at Middlebury compelled students to serve the public good and have a “salutary influence” through teaching and other public professions. In other words, Bates believed that revivals and liberal education at the college produced generations of young men, like Sherman, with “high intellectual and moral character” who served as guardians of free institutions, defenders of republicanism and protectors of the union.
Sherman brought these beliefs to Howard College and established a liberal arts curriculum that emphasized courses in natural philosophy, moral philosophy, metaphysics, history, grammar, mathematics, rhetoric, logic, Latin and Greek—a disciplined study of Greek and Roman thinkers (Homer, Plato, Livy, Cicero, and others), students gained an understanding of Western Civilization’s founding ideas of morality, character, citizenship, democracy and republicanism. In addition, Sherman believed that Howard’s liberal arts curriculum helped students identify and eliminate vice and crime and to discover and embrace virtue, industriousness, uprightness and happiness. The rigorous study of classical texts, he added, served as the guardian of free governments and the one “secure and unfailing hope” of republican institutions.
In 2026, these notions of natural law, evangelical Christianity, and republicanism are cornerstones of the Core Curriculum—especially Core Texts and Biblical Foundations at Samford. Passing these ideas to future generations remains essential to preserving a nation founded on equality, liberty and accountability.
Jonathan Bass is the Samford University Historian and professor of history.
