Stephen McDowell looks at the five most influential early Americans on America's podcast

>> Stephen McDowell: Welcome to America's Providential History Podcast where we talk about the real story of America and explore the hand of God in our history. Now here's your host, Steven McDowell. Hello. Glad you're joining us for this edition of America's Providential History Podcast. Now I began to look at a five part series on these podcasts dealing with the five most influential early Americans. As I mentioned earlier, I was asked at one time to give a talk on this subject. And it's very difficult to come up with the five most influential and we certainly could argue who some of those individuals may be. And so I sought in dealing with the five most influential early Americans to deal with people who were involved in different spheres of life and different times in early American, history. Certainly there's some individuals with could add that I've not covered that are the most influential, but number five, we looked at William Penn, William Penn who was the founder of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, but much more than that because he helped to change the view of religious liberty in the English speaking world to end persecution for the sake of conscience and so many other things. Then last week we look Cyrus Hall McCormick and how he invented a machine that transformed the world and he invented the business of making and selling reapers and implemented so many new things that successful businesses will use, today as well. And then number three, the third gentleman that I want to take a look at today. You probably all heard his name, Noah Webster. At least we've heard his name associated with the dictionary, Webster's Dictionary. But Noah Webster lived, in the later part of the 1700s, well into the 1800s. He was known as the schoolmaster of the Republic. Now today I'm going to just give you a brief introduction to one of my heroes. This man, one of the most influential people certainly in the 1800s, in our nation. In a future podcast, I want to look more in depth, more detail about this, about Noah Webster. Noah Webster was a prolific, productive individual. His life reflected great productivity, and he's great industry and great fruit. Now one of the books that Noah Webster wrote, fact it was his best selling book, and I'm sure you've probably heard of it, is what was called Webster's Blueback Speller. Now this was an American spelling book, elementary spelling book. Now this was first published in 1783 and for the next hundred years it was sold over a hundred million copies. Now Webster had a biblical understanding of what was necessary to build a free republic. America just gained her independence in 1783 when this was first published and Noah Webster recognized, if we are going to remain a free independent nation, we need to educate people to know how to live in liberty. By the way, a new film that we've put out, Educated for Liberty, touches on this same subject. And you can view it for [email protected] encourage you to go there, take a look at it, use that to share with others. But Noah Webster understood that the free nation of America needed to have tools in order to equip Americans to know how to maintain, to live in and maintain this great liberty that was purchased at a great cost. And so as a way to help fulfill this vision, he began to put out a lot of different textbooks to help make Americans self educated. The most famous and best selling of those textbooks was his American spelling book known as the Blue Back Speller. It was called that because when it was published it was covered with blue color. The COVID of it, hardcover of that was in blue. So it was affectionately referred to as the Blue back speller. And so this went with all early Americans as they headed west. After we became a free nation, won our independence, established the United States Constitution, people began to gradually move westward, settle new lands to the west, go over the Appalachian mountains into the Midwest and on from there. And as people went they all carried with them the Bible. And most every one of them would also have a blue back speller because it enabled every individual to be self taught. Because Webster understood that free people must be educated people, not just being able to read and write, but educated in the principles that enable them to live free. And so this blueback speller, as I said it sold a hundred million copies. That's about 1 million a year on the average. That's a phenomenal number of books for the nation of America, considering of course the population then was, was just in the order of millions of people and then grew rapidly during the 1800s and 1900s. But he not only wrote a blueback speller, a speller. Webster also wrote many other textbooks. A grammar, a reader, a United States history book, which by the way he taught a providential view of history, recognizing God as the author of history. And his, his history book, he wrote a history of deadly pestilences and diseases. He wrote a manual of useful studies. He himself was a school teacher, taught many different situations and scenarios and they even was interviewed to teach George Washington's kids at one time and another one of his well known books. And many people today associate Webster with this was his dictionary, Webster's dictionary. Now Noah Webster wrote the first exhaustive English dictionary. He worked over 26 years on his an American dictionary of the English language. Again, as I say, it's the first exhaustive English dictionary that we had. Dictionaries, maybe 5,000 words. His when it was completed and published in 1828 at over 70,000 words. And he was the first guy to do a in depth study of the etymology of words. What were the origin of these English words? And those are contained in his dictionary as well. During the time of his study to produce m a dictionary, he mastered over 26 languages. And his dictionary was unique. One, his dictionary contains thousands of scriptural references. So he gives a definition. And by the way, his definitions were biblical. Today dictionaries, modern dictionaries define words humanistically. Noah Webster's dictionary defined words biblically and it reflected the worldview of the early founders of America. This is how they understood these words to be mean. Whether the words are law or education or religion, they reflect a biblical view. You know, for example, Noah Webster, when he defined the word moral or immoral, he said any action that contravenes divine precepts, that was immoral action. Immoral. What immoral was to him. So if any action is contrary to divine precept, if it's contrary to the Bible, if it's contrary to God's word, then that he God's word declares what is immoral behavior. This is in great contrast to modern dictionaries. I have a dictionary in my library. I think it's from the 1960s. On the COVID it says, Webster's new world dictionary. Noel Webster would not recognize that dictionary, might, have his name on it. But everything inside has been changed because over time, after Webster passed away and his children no longer governed, the content of the dictionary began to gradually be secularized and these Bible verses were taken out and the definitions were changed. So today in that dictionary, immoral is defined as any behavior contrary to accepted norm. So the standard for immoral behavior today is accepted norm. So if a majority of people, or some people accept a certain behavior as okay, then it's okay. But that's not the biblical view. That's not Webster's view Because he recognized people are not the source of what is right and wrong. That the creator of the universe has written into the fabric of the universe a standard of right behavior that's revealed to us in the Bible. The word of God. Noah Webster and The founder generation certainly believe that to be the case in his original dictionary. And its definitions are, are a testimony of their biblical worldview. You can get copies of this. Today the foundation for American Christian Education has republished his original dictionary. You can buy hard copies. It's also available, online I believe. So I would encourage you to go do a little study, get his dictionary, look up some words, compare it to modern dictionaries and you can see how our philosophy of education and life and morality has been changed so that today Americans are indoctrinated in a secular philosophy of life even when they look up words in the dictionary. So it's a marvelous tool. And so he gave biblical definitions. He used thousands of scriptural references. After defining it, using the word as an example, he often used scripture. Scripture, as I mentioned, he did a 10 year side study on the etymology of words. But part of the reason he wrote this dictionary, he said, look, we've gained independence from Britain, but to assure independence we need to make sure that certain words that we use here, mean, the context of our worldview. Some words had a different understanding in Europe.

Noah Webster helped secure copyright legislation for American books

And with the birth of free America, we wanted to make sure that terms regarding government and freedom and liberty reflected the American philosophy of life and government. And so he thought, here's a tool. I'm going to make sure that we preserve our understanding of so many important words. That was another motivation for why he worked so hard on his in American Dictionary, the English language. Now by the way, when Webster published his Blue Back Speller, remember it sold 100 million copies and something that Webster also was involved in with the birth of the new nation of America. Noah Webster, having a biblical understanding of property, recognized the product of a man's mind is property, just like the product of his labor or of his hands. And so he went about helping to secure copyright legislation. So if you produced a book, for example, like Webster's Blueback Speller, then you should benefit from the fruit of your labor and not let people steal your intellectual property any more than they would steal your physical property. So he helped secure copyright legislation throughout the states and on the national level. And so, people couldn't steal his Blue Back speller and print it and take all the profits. And he reaped nothings. And so these, blueback spellers sold for 14 cents. And for every book that was sold, he got one penny in royalties. And it was that money produced from the massive sale of his books that supported him during those 20 plus years he was working on his American dictionary, the English, language. So thankfully, because he had a biblical view of property and helped secure those, copyright laws in our nation, that he was able to do this very influential work of production of the Webster's Dictionary. And so Webster, as I'm telling you, he lived a prolific, productive life. So he wrote all kinds of textbooks. Just imagine working 26 years on an American dictionary, the English language. Working day and day on these things is, a testament to his industry. but he also, during his life wrote on a great variety of topics. He wrote in different pamphlets and books and papers. He wrote on religious issues, on political matters, educational things, musical, economic, commercial, medical, social scientific. He wrote on all kinds of, subjects. He, founded America's first magazine in 1787. He also started a newspaper in 17, 93. When the Constitutional Convention approved the US Constitution in September 1787 and sent it to the states to be ratified. He raised, wrote a paper that, in support of the Constitution, encouraging people all throughout to get behind it, to support it, to ratify it. So he wrote on those issues. and even before the Constitution, he was one of the first people to promote a constitutional convention. We operated under the Articles of Confederation during the American revolution up till 1787. There's great deficiencies. Webster early on recognized that. So he, wrote papers and talked to individuals to promote the fact that we need a new form of government. So he promoted the new form of government. When the Constitution came out, he gave a defense of that, writing on it. He secured copyright legislation under the new constitutions of the states. And on the national level. He also helped to found a college, Amherst College. He is one of the founders of Amherst College. Its motto reflects, his motive behind helping to start this. Let them give light to the world was its motto. And so the training of ministers, training of biblical men to go out and fulfill their calling, to give light to the world, the light of truth to the world that came forth from, the Bible. And approaching all of knowledge from a biblical perspective. Noah Webster wrote in one of his letters in 1836, he said, in my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children under a free government ought to be instructed. No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a, free people. So the motto of Amherst College, Let them give light to the world. Webster in his writings, makes clear the source of light to the world is the Christian faith. It's the Christian faith is the most important, really one of the first things. All children under a free government ought to be instructed because the Christian faith gives the character and worldview necessary to live in a free nation. No truth is more evident to my mind, Webster wrote, than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the right, rights and privileges of a free people. So Christianity is the source of liberty and is the foundation that's absolutely necessary to support a free people. And certainly this is a lesson we need to learn today in America are, in any nation, if we want to live free, continue to live free to preserve our liberty and pass it on in the future. And every American or majority or lots of them need to be educated in the Christian faith. Given the Christian character, self government and honesty and diligence and all the other great attributes that come from the Christian faith and a Christian worldview, understanding what the Bible has to say about all spheres of life, of family and property and government and business and economics and industry and everything else. So Noah Webster did all kinds of things, prolific in his production. So in addition to writing all these books and starting newspapers and magazines and colleges, writing in so many different areas, he also served in civil government. He recognized we have a God given duty and obligation to be involved in one way or another in those who govern us. And many of us may be called to serve directly. Certainly we're all served to select godly men who are going to represent us in the seat of government, local, state and national level. And so he, did this. He served as a councilman of NewSong Haven, Connecticut. And he lived in Connecticut from 1799 to 1804. He was a member of the Connecticut General assembly from 1800 to 1807. He served as an Alderman from 1806 to 1809. He was a Judge of the County Court. From 1806 to 1810, he was a member of the General Court of Massachusetts, that's the legislature of Massachusetts, Massachusetts in 1818, 14, 1815, 1817. And he was a selectman of Amherst, Massachusetts as well. So he not only spoke and wrote about the importance of involvement in government, he was involved. He served in so many different, capacities. Noah Webster was also a social reformer. He early on wrote, and spoke against slavery and other social evils. As we've covered in past podcasts. America, after becoming a free nation, led the way among the nations of the world to deal with this evil that had plagued mankind since the Fall of Man. They began many states to take action to end slavery. And Webster is one of those who wrote about it and spoke about it and took action to end it. He also was a religious reformer as well as, like most every American, Noah Webster was raised in the church and had a great knowledge of the scripture. But he was not converted to the Christian faith until he was 50 years old in 1808. So he was born in 1858. He, of course, during those first 50 years that I mentioned, he attended, church, was very respectful of the Christian faith, would have nominally declared himself a believer in the Christian faith. But in 1808, this was an early phase of the Second Great Awakening that was impacting so many of the states. And that year, there's many revival meetings that were taking place in Connecticut. And his wife and daughter went to one of these meetings and were impacted. And they went home and said, told Noah, said, you need to come and listen, to these preachers. So he went and was impacted by the word of God. He repented of his sins at night, gave his life to the Lord. In fact, the next morning, to show you something of the industry of this man, he got his family together after the night before committing his life to the Lord. And he said, look, I'm, m sorry that I've neglected one of the most, the most important thing I could as a leader of this family of having daily devotions. He started that morning to have daily devotions, leading his family into daily devotions. And he did that for the rest of his life. For, 35 years or so, the rest of his, life. He then, began to his eyes were enlightened, to be able to see more clearly the Christian faith. In fact, before he had this encounter, he was more knowledgeable of Scripture than most all Christians are today. but now he had a living faith. And providentially this is really at the beginning phase of his very extensive study and production of is an American dictionary, the English language. His Webster's 1828 dictionary, referring to the year in which it was, published.

Webster produced his own edition of the Bible in 1833

And so God made sure that these definitions and that important work would reflect a living faith that Webster had experienced. Now Webster also in 1833, produced his own edition of the Bible. He called the Bible the great source of all the truths by which men are to be guided in government as well as their own personal conduct. One thing that motivated Webster to have this Bible, we refer to it commonly as the Webster Bible, is because he understood that the word of God needs To be, communicated in a way that people understand the intent of the original languages. Of course, he knew the original languages. He knew Greek and Latin. M and he, knew that the Authorized Version, the King James Version, but at this time was used by many people, had some archaic language in it. A lot of that language today in modern King James has been changed, but it had some archaic language that the people of the Americans in that time, the early 1800s, didn't understand. They could have read it, but they didn't grasp the meaning of what is intended by those original writers and the Holy Spirit who were inspiring them. So he said, I want to correct. To make sure that when people read the Bible, they're really understanding the intent. So that's what the Webster Bible is. It's mostly the King James version of the Bible, but with a lot of, corrections and clarity, produced by some of this archaic English language that was used 200 years before when the Bible was produced, but no longer. Those many, phrases and words were not understood. And so this, by the way, this Webster Bible, it's been republished. You can probably find, copies of that. But again, another product of this man who recognized, I want Americans to have all the tools necessary to live in liberty. So here it was. He wrote all kinds of textbooks, dictionaries, first magazine a newspaper, promoted a constitutional convention, gave a defense of the Constitution, secured copyright legislation, served in civil government, was a social and religious reformer. He produced his own version of the Bible. And during all this time, he lovingly raised seven children, not neglecting that very important duty to prepare that greatest weapon that God has given us to transform culture and shoot into the future. And he did that with his own children. So, you know, after spending 26 years on, his first exhaustive English dictionary, mastering, As I said, 28 languages, he wrote in the preface of this book. Now just imagine, here it is. He's taken all this time of his life for the average person today, more than half your productive period of your life working on this colossal work. And in the preface, he ends his introduction by saying, and if the talent which God entrusted to my care, it has not been put to the most profitable use in his service, I hope it has not been kept laid up in a napkin, and that any misapplication of it may be graciously forgiven. He committed so much of his life to produce this work, his cry, his prayer to God, as he wrote in the preface to the dictionaries. Lord, I hope I haven't misused the talent. You've given me. Remember when I started this series, I looked at the parable of the Talents and how God gives each of us talents, that he wants us to multiply and use them to advance the kingdom, to use them to further, God's purposes in the earth, to provide needed good or served good goods and services to mankind. And so he's referencing that when he said, I hope he has not. In fact, he quoted, kept, laid up in a napkin. Because the unfaithful servant in the parable of the talents in Luke 19 was the one that was afraid and knew his master was an exacting man, reaping where he did not sow. So he buried his talent. He took his talent and rolled it up in a napkin and put it away, hid it so he wouldn't lose it. So, Webster's saying here, after producing this marvelous work that still is of great benefit today. In fact, to understand the worldview and thinking of the founders, we need to use Webster's Dictionary to define words because they meant something different with so many words than we mean today. So we can't even understand the founding Father fathers, most Americans and most educators, because they don't have a biblical worldview. They don't have a biblical understanding of law, government, education, morality, or so many other things. And so this dictionary is vital to do that, to give us that proper understanding. And so after exerting so much influence for so much work over decades, he. He's then saying, lord, I hope I haven't misused the talents that you've given me, and that any misapplication of it may be graciously forgiven. That reveals something of the heart and humility of this man. One of my heroes, Noah Webster, certainly the most influential educator, I think, in our history, certainly in the 1800s through the textbooks that he produced. But he's still having influence today from the fruit of the seeds that he planted over a very productive lifetime. So Noah Webster lived a life of amazing productivity while remaining a humble servant of God. So when we look at the five most influential early Americans, Noah Webster, with a doubt, is one of those who influenced certainly the field of education, but so many other areas as well. And it was his influence that helped assure, ah, that America maintained the liberty our founding fathers gave us throughout the 1800s into the 1900s. And still his good seeds impact many people today. Now, if you want to learn more about Noah Webster, I've written a little booklet about him. You can get a copy of it at our website, providencefoundation. Dot com. And as I said in future podcasts, I want to take a lot more time, take a number of podcasts to look much more deeply at Noel Webster and a lot of things that he said and more things that he has done because, his life and his action is an example for us today. So much that we can learn practically from him to help renovate our age, to help bring godly transformation to America. And that's why I want to cover that, story more in the future. But here's an introduction to this influential man, Noel Webster, and if you're interested, you can get copies of his dictionary. You can go and there's lots and lots of copies of his blue back speller because they underwent many, many, many different publications over the years. And by the way, it's thoroughly biblical the lessons and ideas that he taught in his blueback speller. So you can find, copies of that at used bookstores and other places if you're interested in buying one. And, there's probably some reprints, new reprints that are available today as well. And many of his other books, that he produced, you can get copies of and read and use. So Noah Webster put him number three of the five most influential early Americans. Well, I hope you join us next week as we look at, the second, what I put put as the second most influential early American. We might argue about the order and who are 2, 3, 4 and 5. But the week after next we're going to look at the number one most influential early America American. And I don't think there's going to be argument, any argument here about who, who that would be. So I hope you can join us, next week and the week after that so you can learn about these five individuals. Well, God bless you. Visit our website, providencefoundation.com Go take a look at our film Educated for Liberty for [email protected] and share that with everyone you know. Contains ideas that Noel Webster would heartily approve of and, support. Well, God bless you.