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Quotations
from Early American Presidents
What did the founding fathers and other formers of
the government say regarding government and Christianity?
George Washington: It is impossible to rightly
govern the world without the Bible.
John Adams. June 21, 1776 "Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for
liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the
Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of
a free Constitution is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into
our People in a greater Measure, than they have it now, they may change
their Rulers and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a
lasting liberty."
Thomas Jefferson: The Bible makes the best people
in the world.
James Madison "We've staked our future on our ability
to follow the Ten Commandments with all our heart."
Thomas Jefferson: "The God who gave us life gave us
liberty... Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we
have removed their only firm basis, a conviction... That these
liberties are the gift of God? The bible is the cornerstone for
American liberty."
John Quincy Adams: "The highest glory of the American
Revolution was this; it connected in one indissoluble bond the
principles of civil government with the principles of
Christianity."
George Washington: "You can't have national morality apart
from religious principle."
Abraham Lincoln: "The philosophy of the schoolroom in one
generation will be the philosophy of the government of the next."
John Adams: (In a July 1, 1776 letter to Archibald Bullock, former
member of the Continental Congress from Georgia, Adams wrote): "The object is great
which we have in view, and we must expect a great expense of blood to
obtain it. But We should always remember that a free Constitution of
civil Government cannot be purchased at too dear a rate as there is
nothing, on this side (of) the New Jerusalem, of equal importance to
Mankind."
John Adams: (In concern for his sons, advised his wife
Abigail to): "Let them revere nothing but Religion, Morality and
Liberty."
Andrew Jackson (in
response to a critic of the bible) "That Book, sir is the rock on
which our Republic rests."
John Adams: (Address
to the military, Oct. 11, 1798, years after the constitution was
established): "We have no government armed with power
capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and
religion. (Human Passions left unchecked) Avarice, ambition, revenge, or
gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our constitution as a
whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and
religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any
other."
Abraham Lincoln: But for this book we could not know right
from wrong. I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to
man.
John Adams: (In a letter dated November 4, 1816,
Adams wrote to
Thomas Jefferson, summing up what made up his personal constitution): "The
Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount contain my
religion..."
Abraham Lincoln: "I
know there is a God...If He has a place and a work for me, and I think
He has, I believe I am ready. I am nothing, but truth is everything. I
know I am right, because I know that liberty is right, for Christ
teaches it, and Christ is God.”
Thomas Jefferson:
‘The genuine and simple religion of Jesus will one day be restored;
such as it was preached and practiced by Himself. Very soon after His death it became muffled up in mysteries,
and has been, ever since, kept in concealment …” Jefferson Spoke this in 1820,
the year of Joseph Smith’s first vision.
(The first act of congress was to print 20,000 bibles for
distribution among the Indians.)
George Washington
Inaugural Address: ..Such being the impressions
under which I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the
present station; it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this
first official Act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who
rules over the Universe, who presides in the Councils of Nations,
and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that his
benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the People
of the United States, a Government instituted by themselves for these
essential purposes: and may enable every instrument employed in its
administration to execute with success, the functions allotted to his
charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and
private good I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less
than my own; nor those of my fellow-citizens at large, less than either.
No People can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand,
which conducts the Affairs of men more than the People of the United
States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an
independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of
providential agency.
Having thus imported to
you my sentiments, as they have been awakened by the occasion which
brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without
resorting once more to the benign parent of the human race, in humble
supplication that since he has been pleased to favor the American
people, with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquility, and
dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of
Government, for the security of their Union, and the advancement of
their happiness; so his divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in
the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures
on which the success of this Government must depend.
Read more quotations by
America's Founding Fathers (and Mothers!)
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