Huckabee: Most founding fathers were "clergymen"
Posted October 25, 2007
During Sunday's GOP presidential debate in Florida, Mike Huckabee claimed that "most" signers of the Declaration of Independence had been "clergymen." The claim left historians and bloggers shaking their heads.
At the debate, Huckabee reportedly said this: "When our founding fathers put their signatures on the Declaration of Independence, those 56 brave people, most of whom, by the way, were clergymen, they said that we have certain inalienable rights given to us by our creator, and among these life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, life being one of them. I still believe that." [source www.mikehuckabee.com]
Actually, most signers of the Declaration were Christians -- a majority being members of the Anglican Church or Congregationalists. Most were merchants or lawyers. One, John Witherspoon, was an active clergyman and president of the College of New Jersey -- now known as Princeton University. Another, Lyman Hall, served briefly as a minister before becoming a physician. William Williams of Connecticut was a Congregational Church deacon, according to Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence, by the Rev. Charles Augustus Goodrich (1834). Philip Rush of Pennsylvania was a founder of the Philadelphia Bible Society. Several were preacher's kids. But I can't find any historical evidence to support the claim that a majority were clergymen.