From Rev. Dr. Charles Coffin to President Andrew Jackson in 1829: “Permit me . . . to remark, that from the time it was made clear, what an overwhelming majority of the American people had called you to the high and responsible office of their first magistrate, I have felt an ardent desire to address you by letter on the great good you might do them, and the inward satisfaction and undying honour you might receive, by setting them, in your elevated sphere of action, the precious example of a conscientious observance of the Lord’s day.”

August 28, 2025

Honorable Donald J. Trump
President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

In early 1829, as President-elect Andrew Jackson travelled from his home in Tennessee to Washington City for his inauguration as the nation’s seventh president, a minister of the gospel wrote to encourage him to observe the Christian Sabbath (the Lord’s Day). The warm counsel of fellow Tennessean and former acquaintance, the Rev. Dr. Charles Coffin, originated in the fourth of the Ten Commandments, from the Book of Exodus:

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Coffin wrote to Jackson:

Permit me . . . to remark, that from the time it was made clear, what an overwhelming majority of the American people had called you to the high and responsible office of their first magistrate, I have felt an ardent desire to address you by letter on the great good you might do them, and the inward satisfaction and undying honour you might receive, by setting them, in your elevated sphere of action, the precious example of a conscientious observance of the Lord’s day.

Although Coffin focused on the President’s example, the matter of an individual’s wellness is inseparable from his personal conduct on the Lord’s Day. Today I join those Americans who are increasingly concerned for your well-being, sir; heightened by the apparent physical fatigue they have witnessed in your public appearances at times, undoubtedly exacerbated by the immense burdens of the presidency. But as the Apostle Peter spoke, “God is no respecter of persons.” On the point in question—the weekly rest of the Lord’s Day—all mankind, whether of high or low station, requires the physical and mental refreshment of this day for sustaining their well-being.

An address by another minister, Horace Hooker, on the intellectual benefits of observing the weekly rest day is noteworthy. A New Englander, Hooker described the man of business who habitually disregarded the Sabbath. Let him

. . . fasten his mind on the accomplishment of some plan for increasing his estate—let him revolve it from day to day—let him dwell on it from morning to night, and from night to morning, without the intervening repose of the Sabbath, and he will at length attach a fictitious importance to it, which amounts to an aberration of the intellect, and is in fact partial insanity. His judgment will be warped. . . . An object looked at long from the same point of view, and without interruption, swells to an incredible, and, sometimes, ludicrous magnitude.

Whether one’s business or estate, or national and international matters of far-reaching consequence, are in view, Hooker’s warning of warped judgment—even partial insanity—remains as relevant in 2025 as it was in 1835.

Were you to begin, as Charles Coffin encouraged Andrew Jackson, to silently resolve “in your own mind, with your wonted firmness,” to “be the happy example to a whole nation of keeping the sabbath, as the Lord’s day . . . you will exert an indescribable influence to reform the morals and perpetuate the prosperity of this extensive people. You will in this way give much animation . . . and effect to the prayers of Christians,” that your administration may prove a great “blessing to your beloved [country for] which you have so willingly and so often risqued [sic] [your life].”

Happily, those words apply to you as well, Mr. President. Further, by resting on the Lord’s Day and giving attention to the Bible including its faithful preaching, you will assist in the preservation of your own physical and mental vitality and serve the best interests of your eternal soul. At the same time—as heaven has ordained—you will find yourself able to accomplish more in six days than in seven, while exerting an indescribable influence on the people of the country you so clearly love.

Coffin closed his letter to the President with these words: “I congratulate you on your past usefulness, and pray heaven that your greatest usefulness may be yet to come.”

Yes and amen. May the God of all grace be with you and support you.

Most respectfully yours,

Forrest Marion
Historian
USAF, retired     

Forrest L. Marion is a ruling elder in the First Presbyterian Church (PCA), Crossville, Tennessee.