items of interest

with contributions from Spencer Perkins

"Religion was the salt that flavored life in 17th-century British North America," writes James Hutson. He is curator of an exhibit called "Religion and the Founding of the American Republic," on display this summer in Washington, D.C. Dr. Huston is also chief of the Library of Congress's manuscript division. The exhibit will travel to several United States cities later.

In those days, people drew a connection between virtue and morality. To them, Huston explains, the government of a free republic required virtue and morality. The expression of those qualities required the religious thought that is their foundation. It followed, then, that religion was essential if one was to have a republican government.

Reported in the
Los Angeles Times
July 25, 1998

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