(May 12, 1809–November 16, 1894), was a U.S. Representative, author and orator. He served as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, 1847–49. He was a descendant of Governor John Winthrop. On May 28, 1849, Robert Charles Winthrop spoke at the Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Bible Society in Boston, stating:
The voice of experience and the voice of our own reason speak but one language. … Both united in teaching us, that men may as well build their houses upon the sand and expect to see them stand, when the rains fall, and the winds blow, and the floods come, as to found free institutions upon any other basis than that of morality and virtue, of which the Word of God is the only authoritative rule, and the only adequate sanction.
All societies of men must be governed in some way or other. The less they have of stringent State Government, the more they must have of individual self-government. The less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private moral restraint.
Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them, or a power without them; either by the word of God, or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet.
It may do for other countries, and other governments to talk about the State supporting religion. Here, under our own free institutions, it is Religion which must support the State.2391
Robert Charles Winthrop stated:
The Bible itself is its own best witness. No evolution produced that Volume, and no revolution of thought, or action, or human will can ever prevail against it. Revisions and new versions may improve or may impair the letter, but they can never change its essential character. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, through which He brought life and immortality to light, like its Divine Author, is the same “yesterday, today, and forever.”2392
In 1866, Robert Winthrop addressed the American Bible Society in New York on its jubilee, saying:
Beyond all doubt, my friends, we are dealing here today with the great enginery of the world’s progress, with the greatest of all instrumentalities for social advancement as well as for individual salvation.2393