I find that difficult to believe. I don't think it is true. I think someone wrote a book about the subject but I have not read it.
Statements of Prof. J. Rufus Fears of UO.
He breaks down the speech word for word and there is no doubt to the Biblical references—which, of course, EVERYONE in America was very familiar with—Biblical passages in the 1800’s America, since the Bible was the number one book read and kept in homes in America for hundreds of years. It was also documented by Tocqueville.
Funny how the public schools and socialist Dewey totally “transformed” the educational system and made God illegal in the public square (which the Constitution forbids) and turned this society into one very ignorant of Biblical passages —into the moral relativism of the Postmoderns and new age paganism/occultism.
I noticed it particularly in getting my Fine Art degree. The ignorance of the college students when viewing Renaissance art and symbols was staggering. Their lack of knowledge of history was utterly depressing, and, yet, they “felt” so superior, being the “educated” class.