An Appeal to Heaven at America’s 250th

Franklin’s rising sun, Washington’s kneeling image, and the covenant habits that keep freedom from drifting into appetite.

Benjamin Franklin spent much of the Constitutional Convention studying a sun carved into the back of George Washington’s chair.

He could not tell whether it was rising or setting.

The Convention had been long, and the arguments had been hard. The delegates brought wisdom into the room, but they also brought pride, fear, local interests, ambition, and plain human weakness. They were attempting something extraordinary: a constitutional frame for ordered liberty.

On the final day, Franklin said he had “the happiness to know” that the sun was rising. [1]

At America’s 250th, the question comes back around.

Is the sun rising or setting?

The humility behind Franklin’s hope

Franklin’s answer was not naïve optimism. He was eighty-one years old. He had lived long enough to change his mind, distrust easy certainty, and recognize the limits of even brilliant people.

In his closing speech, he admitted that he did not approve of every part of the proposed Constitution. But age had taught him to doubt his own judgment and to respect the judgment of others. He urged the delegates to “doubt a little of [their] own infallibility.” [2]

That humility was not weakness. It was one of the moral conditions that made union possible.

Franklin understood that when people gather for the advantage of their combined wisdom, they also bring into the room their prejudices, their passions, their errors, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly, perfection could not be expected. And yet the proposed Constitution came close enough to astonish him. [2]

Then came the warning. A general government might remain a blessing if well administered, he said, but it could descend into despotism when the people themselves became too corrupted to sustain any other form. [2]

That warning still speaks.

The Book of Mormon recorded the same warning centuries earlier. When King Mosiah gave his people a government of judges chosen by the voice of the people, he told them, “it is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right.” Then came the warning: “if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you” (Mosiah 29:26–27).

Two founders. One warning.

Liberty does not collapse only when enemies attack from outside. It can collapse when a people lose the habits required to carry it. Freedom gives people the power to choose. Liberty asks whether they can choose with wisdom, restraint, responsibility, and regard for God and neighbor.

Freedom without formation becomes appetite.

Appetite eventually becomes bondage.

The printer learned to appeal

In our first Journal article, Franklin measured how far George Whitefield’s voice could carry. He studied the reach of a preacher, and he helped extend that reach through print.

At the Convention, Franklin measured something harder: the limits of human judgment.

On June 28, with the delegates divided and “groping… in the dark,” Franklin asked why they had not applied to “the Father of lights” for help. He recalled the prayers offered during the struggle with Britain and proposed that prayer accompany the Convention’s work. The motion was never brought to a vote, but the appeal survives in Madison’s notes. [3]

The preacher’s warning had not vanished. The printer remembered enough to look upward.

Original production: A Great Awakening, Sight & Sound Films. Theatrical distributor: Roadside Attractions. Excerpt distribution: The Covenant Project’s official YouTube channel. Watch “Give All the Glory to God”. Also watch: God Knows What You Need Most. Explore the complete film.

That does not make Franklin an orthodox Christian, and it does not turn the Convention into a revival meeting. It does show that one of America’s most practical founders believed human intelligence alone was not equal to the work in front of him.

Every anniversary becomes a mirror

America’s 250th anniversary is not merely a date. It is a mirror.

Past anniversaries reflected different national conditions: confidence, grief, reunion, anxiety, celebration, and unfinished work. The point is not to romanticize the past. It is to ask what this anniversary reveals about us.

Can we celebrate freedom while recovering the habits that make liberty possible?

Can we remember national blessings without turning the nation into an idol?

Can we tell the truth about failure without surrendering gratitude?

Can we give children more than slogans — something sturdy enough to become responsibility?

Washington’s kneeling image returns. Franklin’s rising sun returns. So does the question beneath both:

Will strength remain answerable to God?

Covenant as the remedy for drift

Human beings drift. Families drift. Churches drift. Institutions drift. Nations drift. Even people who begin with deep conviction can slowly lose contact with the source of that conviction.

We have watched a version of this in our work with new tools: artificial intelligence hallucinates when it is disconnected from its source documents. Human beings drift when they are disconnected from scripture, covenant, memory, and God.

The answer, in both cases, is return.

Return to source. Return to scripture. Return to covenant. Return to God.

Covenant is not nostalgia, and it is not merely national memory. It is a sacred relationship with God the Father — relationship before contract, belonging before performance, transformation before obligation — the relationship scripture shows reaching its center in Jesus Christ. It carries obligation. It turns memory into responsibility, freedom into disciplined liberty, and story into purpose.

A nation can celebrate its founding and forget the Giver. A family can love its children and still fail to give them a path. A generation can inherit liberty and lose the habits that sustain it.

That is why an appeal to Heaven matters.

What the flag means — and what it does not

The Revolutionary-era pine-tree flag bearing the words “An Appeal to Heaven” was associated with early American naval forces and became known as Washington’s Cruiser Flag. [4]

For The American Covenant Project, the phrase is not a claim of political ownership, a partisan signal, or proof that God endorses every national choice. It is a confession of dependence.

Human strength is not enough.

Earthly institutions matter, but they cannot save a people who refuse truth, responsibility, repentance, and restraint. A flag can remind. It cannot replace the slow work of becoming the kind of people who can carry liberty.

The Book of Mormon records what happens when a people truly answer an appeal to Heaven. They came running, “rending their garments in token, or as a covenant, that they would not forsake the Lord their God” (Alma 46:21). Then they cast those garments at their commander’s feet and said, “We covenant with our God” (Alma 46:22).

A flag can call. Only a covenant can bind.

Heaven is the appeal.

The American Covenant Project does not exist to make America an object of worship. It exists because we believe God still works through scripture, covenant, family, sacrifice, remembrance, and prepared souls.

We begin not because we hold every answer, but because Franklin’s warning should cure us of pretending that we do.

Where families and churches can begin

The 2026 National Day of Prayer theme used 1 Chronicles 16:24: “Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples.” Its official artwork featured Arnold Friberg’s image of Washington kneeling at Valley Forge. [5]

The verse gives the invitation its words. Washington’s image gives it a posture.

But a public theme becomes meaningful only when it enters actual homes, congregations, and communities.

Begin with four movements:

Remember. Name the blessings you did not create and cannot sustain on your own.

Humble. Admit where certainty, appetite, resentment, or fear has crowded out wisdom.

Pray. Ask for God’s direction — not merely His endorsement of what you already prefer.

Act. Choose one responsibility the prayer places before your family, church, or community.

The National Day of Prayer Task Force offers official resources for family, church, and community prayer. Start there. [5]

Then open scripture. Read 1 Chronicles 16, 2 Chronicles 7, Joshua 24, and Jeremiah 6. Ask what a covenant people remembers, chooses, and walks.

Parents and grandparents can ask their children a few simple questions. What blessings have we inherited? What does freedom require of us? What voices are forming our home? Where have we drifted? What would return look like this week?

This is where the appeal comes home: prayer becoming belonging, memory becoming conversation, and covenant becoming a way of life.

Is the sun rising?

America officially marked 250 years on July 4, 2026. The anniversary has passed as a date, but its question has not. [6]

The sun carved into Washington’s chair did not guarantee the future. Franklin’s hope did not excuse the country from the work of virtue, justice, union, and self-government.

A rising sun is not a permanent possession.

It is a stewardship.

Washington’s kneeling image asks whether strength will bow. Franklin’s speech asks whether wisdom will doubt its own infallibility. Scripture asks whether a people will remember God’s works and tell of His glory across generations.

At 250 years, we should ask again — not as spectators, but as parents, grandparents, believers, citizens, builders, and stewards.

Is the sun rising or setting?

The answer will not be found in slogans.

It will be revealed in what we remember, what we worship, what we teach, and how we walk.

Before we asked anyone to walk with us, we appealed to Heaven.

Now the appeal must become a way of life.

Source Notes

[1] Yale Law School, Avalon Project, “Madison Debates — September 17, 1787” — Verifies Franklin’s rising-or-setting sun observation at the close of the Constitutional Convention.
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_917.asp

[2] National Constitution Center, “Benjamin Franklin Closing Speech at the Constitutional Convention,” and Yale Law School, Avalon Project — Verify Franklin’s comments on his own fallibility, the imperfections of assembled men, the Constitution’s near-perfection, and the danger of despotism when a people becomes too corrupted for self-government.
https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/historic-document-library/detail/benjamin-franklin-closing-speech-at-the-constitutional-convention
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_917.asp

[3] Yale Law School, Avalon Project, “Madison Debates — June 28, 1787” — Verifies Franklin’s proposal that the Convention seek divine assistance and use prayer in its proceedings; Madison’s notes show the motion was not brought to a vote before adjournment.
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_628.asp

[4] Naval History and Heritage Command — Identifies the 1775–1776 pine-tree “Appeal to Heaven” flag as Washington’s Cruiser Flag and documents the motto’s use by early American floating batteries.
https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/USN-900000/USN-900259.html
https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/heritage/banners/usnavy-jack.html

[5] National Day of Prayer Task Force, “2026 Theme” — Verifies the May 7, 2026 observance, the 2026 theme and 1 Chronicles 16:24 verse, its David/Ark context, and use of Friberg’s The Prayer at Valley Forge in the official artwork.
https://www.nationaldayofprayer.org/2026_theme

[6] America250 — Official site of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission; verifies the national 250th-anniversary commemoration.
https://america250.org/