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One of the men who helped to found our nation, but is almost completely unknown today, was Noah Webster.  He wrote our first dictionary, a work of twenty years in the making, which he published in 1828.  He published his Blue Backed Speller, which sold millions of copies over the following 100 years.  It was an entire learning course compacted into a small book, which the pioneers used to educate their children.  In 1832 he published his History of the United States and included a “brief exposition of the U.S. Constitution” because he wanted young people to know early that our nation was a republic, not a democracy; and that our Founders got the ideas for its purpose, structure, and spirit of operation from the Bible.  Keep in mind that when he uses the term republican, he’s not talking about a political party, but rather a particular form of government.

He stated it this way:

“The brief exposition of the constitution of the United States, will unfold to young persons the principles of republican government; and it is the sincere desire of the writer that our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible, particularly the New Testament…”

(Webster, Noah. History of the United States (New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1832), pp. 273-274, 300, paragraph 578 | Verna M. Hall, The Christian History of the American Revolution (San Francisco: Foundation for American Christian Education, 1976), p. 10.)