From his earliest days, Jack Bradford, founder of the Boudinot Agency has been enthralled with family stories, mysteries and memories surrounding the remarkable legacy of his ancestor Elias Boudinot — spymaster, President of the United States before the adoption of the United States Constitution, preacher, and faithful Christian father. The Boudinot Agency is dedicated to promoting his memory, as well as helping others to preserve the documents and legacies of the past which honor the remarkable story of Providence in the life of this nation and its families.
The Legacy of Elias Boudinot (1740-1821)
Good government generally begins in the family, and if the moral character of a people once degenerate, their political character must soon follow.
Elias Boudinot was born May 2, 1740 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, just a few doors from Benjamin Franklin’s house, to a silversmith of Huguenot descent by the name of Elias Boudinot, and his wife Mary Catherine. After receiving his formal education at home, Boudinot was sent to the College of New Jersey (which he would later serve as one of its trustees from 1772 until 1821) to study law in the office of Richard Stockton (future husband to Elias’ sister, Annis Boudinot, and signer of the Declaration of Independence). In November of 1760, he was licensed as a counselor and attorney-at-law, and thus began his practice in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
On April 21, 1762, Elias Boudinot married Richard Stockton’s sister, Hannah, whom Elias was most affectionately devoted to for the rest of his life. Elias and Hannah would have only one child, Susan, who would later marry William Bradford; a man renown for his office of Chief Justice of Pennsylvania and his service as President Washington’s Attorney General.
Elias Boudinot was a member of the Continental Congress and played an invaluable role during the fight for independence. Commander-in-Chief George Washington relied heavily on Boudinot not only for military intelligence about the British, but also for advice on military tactics. In fact, Boudinot became one of the chief focal points for the colonial spy network, which were sent to Staten Island and Long Island to observe and report on movements of specific British garrisons and regiments. Congress even vested Boudinot with the individual authority to change the instructions of the Congressional Board of War that directed the Revolution. In the year 1777, General George Washington requested that Boudinot be made commissary general for prisoners. Congress concurred, and Boudinot was made a Colonel in the Continental Army for this task. In an effort to secure the release of captured American soldiers, Boudinot even expended $30,000 of his own wealth. To this day, much of Boudinot’s involvement in the war remains unknown due to the confidential nature of his occupation.
During the years that Elias Boudinot was a delegate from New Jersey to the Continental Congress, he served as President (one of only fourteen Founders to hold this position) in 1782 and 1783. Upon being elected to this esteemed office, Boudinot wrote to his wife:
God has ever been the director of our Paths and the Guide of our Ways. It is not the first Time that He has led us in the way which we knew not — and set our Feet in a Strong Place. We have embarked in His Service, and it is our part to see that we do His will and act with a single Eye to His Glory, and all will be well.
As President, Boudinot signed the ratification of the treaty, whereby “His Britannick Majesty acknowledge[d] the said United States ... to be free, sovereign, and independent states.” He was thus the chief officer of the United States at the moment its independence was first acknowledged. Additionally, Boudinot issued the congressional proclamation for a national thanksgiving following the peace, and authorized the orders for disbanding the Continental Army.
On November 4, 1782, in a petitioning speech made before Congress, President Elias Boudinot stated the following:
Let us enter on this important business under the idea that we are Christians on whom the eyes of the world are now turned.... Let us in the first place... humbly and penitently implore the aid of the Almighty God whom we profess to serve. Let us earnestly call and beseech Him for Christ’s sake to preside in our councils.
Following the Revolution, Boudinot was a member of the New Jersey convention to ratify the US Constitution and was also elected to the first federal Congress where he helped frame the Bill of Rights. He was made chairman of the committee to conduct the new first President, George Washington, to Congress and his inauguration, and it was Boudinot who initiated the 1789 congressional request to President Washington that resulted in America’s first national day and prayer being declared under the new Constitution.
For six years more he served his country with faithfulness and wisdom; moderating the hot-heads, and with integrity, skill, and sincerity, furnishing guidance for Congressional action. In 1790, Boudinot became the first attorney officially recognized by the US supreme Court and admitted to the Supreme Court bar; and in 1795, President George Washington appointed Boudinot as Director of the US Mint — a position he also held under both John Adam’s and Thomas Jefferson’s presidential administrations. He was scrupulous in his accounting, as reported to Congress, and left the US Mint in excellent order for the future. (Some of the rules he implemented in the mint two centuries ago are still in force today).
Boudinot was renowned for his Christian commitment — a commitment begun early in his life when he was baptized by the reformed evangelist, Rev. George Whitfield during the First Great Awakening. His Christian convictions remained unwavering throughout his life; in fact, nearly half a century after his baptism, Boudinot left public life and his position at the mint, in order to dedicate more time to the study of Scripture. Over the course of his life, Boudinot authored many books of a theological nature including The Age of Revelation (1795) – a direct rebuttal of Thomas Pain’s attack on Christianity in, The Age of Reason. Boudinot also authored The Second Advent, or Coming of the Messiah in Glory, Shown to be a Scripture Doctrine and Taught by Divine Revelation from the Beginning of the World (1815) and A Star in the West, or An Attempt to Discover the Long-Lost Tribes of Israel (1816).
Another aspect of Elias Boudinot’s legacy was his firmly held, life-long commitment to helping the poor and needy. A few examples of this can be seen in his providing assistance for the education of deaf-mutes, funding a hospital to provide medical care for foreigners, giving wooded land to the city of Philadelphia so that the poor could be provided with firewood at low prices, and purchasing spectacles for the aged poor.
Additionally, he was a founder and the first President of the American Bible Society (as well as the New Jersey Bible Society), served on the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, encouraged persecuted Jews to come to America to find freedom to worship God, and was active in efforts to train both Indians and young men for the Gospel ministry. In his letter accepting the office of President, which he esteemed “the greatest honor” that could have been conferred upon him “on this side of the grave,” he wrote:
I am so convinced that the whole of this business is the work of God himself, by his Holy Spirit, that even hoping against hope I am encouraged to press on through good report and evil report, to accomplish his will on earth as it is in heaven...Having this confidence, let us go on and we shall prosper.In a letter to William Jay, dated April 4, 1816, Boudinot explained his reason for founding the society:
I wish to promote a principle of perfect equality of right, universal Brotherly love, founded on Gospel purity, and where we cannot agree to unite, we may agree to differ in peace and good will. I consider the present call to enter into our Lord’s vineyard, as labourers, tho’ at the eleventh hour, to be one of the most encouraging opportunities and imperious calls that ever has been conferred on the Christian professor to promote the glory of God and the best interest of his fellow men.
Amazingly, The American Bible Society is still with us to this day and continues in the work of Bible translation and distribution around the world.
After many turbulent decades in law, politics, and ministry, Elias Boudinot retuned home to recall the metallurgic skill learned in his father’s silversmithy, until the day of his death, October 24, 1821. He was buried in St. Mary’s Episcopal Churchyard on West Broad Street next to his wife, Hannah.