This is a collection of quotations from the Founding Fathers of our country. This is meant to give a more personal understanding of the views of our Founding Fathers towards Religion, Morality, and the roles they play in the foundation of the United States. If the people of the United States are not a moral people, than this country will fall. You will find this idea throughout the minds of these great men.
Before beginning, I would like to express my appreciation of "America's God and Country, Encyclopedia of Quotations," from which I gathered this information. It is a grand addition to any library, giving the reader a greater understanding of God in the history of America. From the Founding Fathers, to Scientist, to Musicians, to Authors, to Presidents, to Inventors, this book gives quotes from some of the greatest men and women in History.
It is truly a fine book, and I highly recommend it!
Everything which follows is taken from the pages of this book. I have researched, and selected quotations which give a greater understanding of these men, and how they felt about God. For more of the writings of these, and others, read, "America's God and Country."
And now, the Founding Fathers ...
John Adams(1735-1826), was the 2nd President of the United States of America and the first president to live in the White House. He had also served as the Vice-President for eight years under President George Washington. The Library of Congress and the Department of the Navy were established under his presidency.
A graduate of Harvard, John Adams became a member of the Continental Congress and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He is distinguished for having personally urged Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration, as well as for having recommended George Washington as the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. He was the main author of the Constitution of Massachusetts in 1780.
In his diary entry dates February 22, 1756, John Adams wrote:
"Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God ... what a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be.”
In his diary, Sunday, February 9, 1772, John Adams wrote:
"We see every day that our imaginations are so strong and our reason so weak, the charms of wealth and power are so enchanting, and the belief of future punishments so faint that men find ways to persuade themselves to believe any absurdity, to submit to any prostitution, rather than forego their wishes and desires. Their reason becomes at last an eloquent advocate on the side of their passions, and [they] bring themselves to believe that black is white, that vice is virtue, that folly is wisdom and eternity a moment ....
"I dread the consequences. [A master] requires of me such compliances, such horrid crimes, such a sacrifice of my honour, my conscience, my friends, my country, my God, as the Scriptures inform us must be punished with nothing less than Hell fire, eternal torment. And this is so unequal a price to pay for the honours and emoluments in the power of a minister or Governor, that I cannot prevail upon myself to think of it. The duration of future punishment terrifies me. If I could but deceive myself so far as to think eternity a moment only, I could comply and be promoted."After the first day of the first session of the Continental Congress, September 7, 1774, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail, and described the effect that the opening prayer had on Congress. (Note: the first act of the Continental Congress was a call for prayer.)
"When the Congress met, Mr. Cushing made a motion that it should be opened with Prayer. It was opposed by Mr. Jay of New York, and Mr. Rutledge of South Carolina because we were so divided in religious sentiments, some Episcopalians, some Quakers, some Anabaptists, Some Presbyterian, and some Congregationalists, that we could not join in the same act of worship.
"Mr. Samuel Adams arose and said that he was no bigot, and could hear a Prayer from any gentleman of Piety and virtue, who was at the same time a friend to his Country. He was a stranger in Philadelphia, but he heard that Mr. Duche', an Episcopal clergyman might be desired to read Prayers to Congress tomorrow morning.
"The motion was seconded, and passed in the affirmative. Mr. Randolph, our president, vailed on Mr. Duche', and received for answer, that if his health would permit, he certainly would.
"Accordingly, next morning (the Rev. Mr. Duche' appeared with his clerk and his pontificals, and several prayers in the established form, and read the collect for the seventh day of September, which was the thirty-fifth Psalm. You must remember, this was the next morning after we heard the horrible rumor of the cannonade of Boston.
"I never saw a greater effect upon an audience. It seemed as if heaven had ordained that Psalm to be read on that morning. After this, Mr. Duche', unexpectedly to every body, struck out into an extemporary prayer, which filled the bosom of every man present. I must confess, I never heard a better prayer, or one so well pronounced.
"Episcopalian as he is, Dr. Cooper himself [Adam's personal pastor prayed with such fervor, such ardor, such earnestness and pathos, and in language so elegant and sublime, for America, for the Congress, for the province of Massachusetts Bay, and especially the town of Boston. It has had and excellent effect upon everybody here. I must beg you to read that Psalm.”On June 21, 1776, John Adams wrote:
"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 now, they may change their Rulers and the forms of Government , but they will not obtain a lasting liberty.”In contemplating the effect that separation from England would mean to him personally, John Adams wrote:
"If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready, at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may. But while I do live, let me have a country, and that a free country!"
On July 3, 1776, the day following the approval by Congress of the Declaration of Independence, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail regarding the gravity of the decision:
"It is the will of heaven that the two countries should be sundered forever. It may be the will of heaven that America shall suffer calamities still more wasting and distressing yet more dreadful. If this is to be the case, it will have this good effect, at least: it will inspire us with many virtues which we have not, and correct many errors, follies and vices, which threaten to disturb, dishonor and destroy us ... The furnace of affliction produces refinements in states, as well as individuals." On July 3, 1776, John Adams wrote again to his wife, Abigail, reflecting on what he shared in Congress:
"The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forever.
"You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is worth more than all the means; that prosterity will triumph in that day's transaction, even though we [may regret] it, which I trust in God we shall not." On June 2, 1778, Adams made this journal entry while in Paris:"In vain are Schools, Academies, and Universities instituted, if loose Principles and licentious habits are impressed upon Children in their earliest years ... The Vices and Examples of the Parents cannot be concealed from the Children. How is it possible that Children can have any just Sense of the sacred obligations of Morality or Religion if, from their earliest Infancy, they learn Mothers live in habitual Infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as constant Infidelity to their Mothers?"
In retorting Thomas Paine's assertions, John Adams stated in his diary, July 26, 1796:
"The Christian religion is, above all Religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of Wisdom, Virtue, Equity, and Humanity. Let the Blackguard Paine say what he will; it is Resignation to God, it is Goodness itself to Man-" On March 4, 1797, in his Inaugural Address, President John Adams declared:
"And may that Being who is supreme over all, the Patron of Order, the Fountain of Justice, and the Protector in all ages of the world of virtuous liberty, continue His blessings upon this nation."
October 11, 1798, President Adams stated in his address to the military:
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. 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." On March 6, 1799, President John Adams called for a National Fast Day:
"As no truth is more clearly taught in the Volume of Inspiration, nor any more fully demonstrated by the experience of all ages, than that deep sense and due acknowledgment of the growing providence of a Supreme Being and of the accountableness of men to Him as the searcher of hearts and righteous distributor of rewards and punishments are conductive equally to the happiness of individuals and to the well-being of communities ...
"I have thought proper to recommend, and I hereby recommend accordingly, that Thursday, the twenty-fifth day of April next, be observed throughout the United States of America as a day of solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer;
"that the citizens on that day abstain, as far as may be, from their secular occupation, and devote the time to the sacred duties of religion, in public and in private;
"that they call to mind our numerous offenses against the most high God, confess them before Him with the sincerest penitence, implore his pardoning mercy, through the Great Mediator and Redeemer, for our past transgressions, and that through the grace of His Holy Spirit, we may be disposed and enabled to yield a more suitable obedience to his righteous requisitions in time to come; that He would interpose to arrest the progress of that impiety and licentiousness in principle and practice so offensive to Himself and so ruinous to mankind;
"that He would make us deeply sensible that "righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people" (Proverbs 14:34)." A poem John Adams wrote to his wife, was engraved upon the mantel in the state dining room:"I pray Heaven to bestow THE BEST OF BLESSINGS ON THIS HOUSE and All that shall hereafter Inhabit it, May none but Honest and Wise men ever rule under This Roof." On August 28, 1811, John Adams wrote:
"Religion and virtue are the only foundations, not only of republicanism and of all free government, but of social felicity under all governments and in all the combinations of human society." In a letter to Mr. Warren, he expounded:
"[This] Form of Government ... is productive of every Thing which is great and excellent among men. But its Principles are as easily destroyed, as human nature is corrupted...A Government is only to be supported by pure Religion or Austure Morals. Private, and public virtue is the only Foundation of Republics.” On June 28, 1813, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, John Adams wrote:
"The general principles, on which the Fathers achieved independence, were the only Principles in which that beautiful Assembly of young Gentlemen could Unite ... And what were these general Principles? I answer, the general Principles of Christianity, in which all these Sects were United: And the general Principles of English and American Liberty, in which all those young Men United, and which had United all Parties in America, in majorities sufficient to assert and maintain her Independence.
"Now I will avow, that I then believe, and now believe, that those general Principles of Christianity, are as eternal and immutable, as the Existence and Attributes of God; and that those Principles of Liberty, are as unalterable as human Nature and our terrestrial, mundane System." In another letter to Thomas Jefferson, John Adams wrote:"Have you ever found in history, one single example of a Nation thoroughly corrupted that was afterwards restored to virtue? ... And without virtue, there can be no political liberty ... Will you tell me how to prevent riches from becoming the effects of temperance and industry?
"Will you tell me how to prevent luxury from producing effeminacy, intoxication, extravagance, vice and folly? ... I believe no effort in favour of virtue is lost ... “ In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, December 25, 1813, John Adams wrote:"I have examined all religions, as well as my narrow sphere, my straightened means, and my busy life, would allow; and the result is that the Bible is the best Book in the world. It contains more philosophy than all the libraries I have seen."
John Quincy Adams(1767-1848), was the 6th President of the United States, and son of John Adams, the 2nd President. At the age of eleven, his mother, Abigail Adams, sent him to be with his father who was serving as the U.S. Minister in France. He became so adept, that in three years, at the age of fourteen, he received the Congressional appointment to the Court of Catherine the Great in Russia.
He was a U.S. Senator, U.S. Minister to France and U.S. Minister to Britain, where he negotiated the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812. He was Secretary of State for President James Monroe and in that position obtained Florida (1819) and promulgated the 'Monroe Doctrine.' John Quincy Adams, the only President to re-enter politics after having served as President, became a Congressman in 1831, where he adamantly opposed slavery. Being nicknamed the "Hell-Hound of Slavery," he single-handedly led the fight to lift the 'Gag Rule' which had prohibited discussion of the slavery issue in Congress. When asked why he never seemed discouraged or depressed over championing such an unpopular fight, John Quincy Adams replied:
"Duty is ours; results are God's." In September, 1811, John Quincy Adams wrote a letter to his son from St. Petersburg, Russia, while serving for the second time as an ambassador to that country:
"It is in the Bible, you must learn them, and from the Bible how to practice them, Those duties are to God, to your fellow-creatures, and to yourself. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thy self." On these two commandments, Jesus Christ expressly says, "hang all the law and the prophets"; that is to say, the whole purpose of Divine Revelation is to inculcate them efficaciously upon the minds of men...
"Let us, then, search the Scriptures ... The Bible contains the revelation of the will of God. It contains the history of the creation of the world, and of mankind; and afterward the history of one peculiar nation, certainly the most extraordinary nation that has ever appeared upon the earth.
"It contains a system of religion, and of morality, which we May examine upon its own merits, independent of the saction it receives from being the Word of God... “ On July 4, 1821, John Quincy Adams declared:"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.
"From the day of the Declaration ... they (the American people) were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of the Gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledge as the rules of their conduct." In 1838, in a speech before Congress, John Quincy Adams spoke:"Sir, I might go through the whole of the sacred history of the Jews to the advent of our Saviour and find innumerable examples of women who not only took an active part in politics of their times, but who are held up with honor to posterity for doing BO. our Savior himself, while on earth, performed that most stupendous miracle, of raising of Lazarus from the dead, at the petition of a woman." John Quincy Adams revealed his convictions and philosophy in the following quotations:
"The first and almost the only Book deserving of universal attention is the Bible.,,
"I speak as a man of the world to men of the world; and I say to you, Search the Scriptures! The Bible is the book of all others, to be read at all ages, and in all conditions of human life; not to be read once or twice or thrice through, and then laid aside, but to be read in small portions of one or two chapters every day, and never to be intermitted, unless by some overruling necessity."
"In what light soever we regard the Bible, whether with reference to revelation, to history, or to morality, it is an invaluable and inexhaustible mine of knowledge and virtue."
"It is no slight testimonial, both to the merit and worth of Christianity, that in all ages since its promulgation the great mass of those who have risen to eminence by their profound wisdom and integrity have recognized and reverenced Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of the living God."
"Posterity--you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it." On December 3, 1844, after nearly eight years of anti-slavery effort, John Quincy Adams' motion succeeded to rescind the infamous 'Gag Rule,' which had forbidden the discussion of slavery in the Congress. His recognition as a national hero after a long, lonely and unpopular struggle against powerful slavery interests. He wrote in his diary:
"Blessed, forever blessed, be the name of God!"
Samuel Adams(1722-1803), cousin of John Adams, was known as the "Father of the American Revolution." He instigated the Boston Tea Party, signed the Declaration of Independence, called for the first Continental Congress and served as a member of Congress until 1781.
Samuel Adams stated:
"A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when they lose their virtue they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader ... if virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security."
"Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt."
"He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man ... The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy this gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people." Samuel Adams, 1794, while serving as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, addressed the state legislature upon the death of Governor John Hancock:"In the supposed state of nature, all men are equally bound by the laws of nature, or to speak more properly, the laws of the Creator:--They are imprinted by the finger of God on the heart of man. Thou shall do no injury to thy neighbor, is the voice of nature and reason, and it is confirmed by written revelations Samuel Adams declared:
"I conceive we cannot better express ourselves than by humbly supplicating the Supreme Ruler of the world...
"that the confusions that are and have been among the nations may be overruled by the promoting and speedily bringing in the holy and happy period when the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ may be everywhere established, and the people willingly bow to the sceptre of Him who is the Prince of Peace.”
