July 4, 1774
"We went to meeting at Wells and had the pleasure of hearing my friend upon
"Be not partakers in other men's sins. Keep yourselves pure.
"We...took our horses to the meeting in the afternoon and heard the
minister again upon "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you." There is great pleasure in
hearing sermons so serious, so clear, so sensible and instructive as these
...."
October 9, 1774
"This day I went to Dr. Allison's meeting in the afternoon, and heard the
Dr. Francis Allison . . . give a good discourse upon the Lord's Supper .... I
had rather go to Church. We have better sermons, better prayers, better
speakers, softer, sweeter music, and genteeler company. And I must confess that
the Episcopal church is quite as agreeable to my taste as the Presbyterian.... I
like the Congregational way best, next to that the Independent...."
1754
"It is the duty of the clergy to accommodate their discourses to the times,
to preach against such sins as are most prevalent, and recommend such virtues as
are most wanted. For example, if exorbitant ambition and venality are
predominant, ought they not to warn their hearers against those vices? If public
spirit is much wanted, should they not inculcate this great virtue? If the
rights and duties of Christian magistrates and subjects are disputed, should
they not explain them, show their nature, ends, limitations, and restrictions,
how muchsoever it may move the gall of Massachusetts."
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."
July 1, 1776
"Before God, I believe the hour has come. My judgement approves this
measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and
all that I hope in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it. And I leave
off as I began, that live or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration.
It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying
sentiment. Independence now, and Independence for ever!"
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."
July 3, 1776
"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 ofthis continent to the other, from
this time forward 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 posterity will triumph in that day's transaction,
even though we [may regret] it, which I trust in God we shall not."
In concern for his sons, John Adams advised his wife Abigail to:
"Let them revere nothing but Religion, Morality and Liberty."
Oct. 11, 1798 (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 ofany 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 a deep
sense and a due acknowledgement of the growing providence of a Supreme Being and
of the accountableness of men to Him as the searcher of hearts and righteous
distributer of rewards and punishments are conducive equally to the happiness
ofindividuals 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)"
On November 2, 1800, John Adams became the first president to move into
the White House. As he was writing a letter to his wife, he composed a beautiful
prayer, which was later 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."
August 28, 1811
"Religion and virtue are the only foundations, not only of all free
government, but of social felicity under all governments and in all the
combinations of human society."
June 28, 1813
"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 a 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 favor is lost..."
In a letter dated November 4, 1816, John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson:
"The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount contain my
religion..."
December 27, 1816
"As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a
revelation."
"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the
people, who have...a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine
right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean the character
and conduct of their rulers."
"Duty is ours; results are God's."
September, 1811, in a letter to his son:
"I have myself, for many years, made it a practice to read through the
Bible once ever year.... My custom is, to read four to five chapters every
morning immediately after rising from my bed. I employs about an hour of my
time...."
July 4, 1821
"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."
July 4, 1837
"Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the World, your
most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day. Is it not that, in
the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked
with the birthday ofthe Savior? That it forms a leading event in the Progress of
the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first
organized the social compact on the foundation ofthe Redeemer's mission upon
earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts
of Christianity and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge of the
fulfillment of the prophecies announced directly from Heaven at the birth of the
Saviour and predicted by the greatest of the Hebrew prophets 600 years
before."
"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 in small portions of
one or two chapters every day, and never to be intermitted, unless by some
overruling necessity."
"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."
February 27, 1844
"The Bible carries with it the history of the creation, the fall and
redemption of man, and discloses to him, in the infant born at Bethlehem, the
Legislator and Savior of the world."
"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude
greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home and leave us in peace.
We seek not your council, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that
feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our country men."
"Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to
life; second, to liberty; third, to property; together with the right to support
and defend them in the best manner they can. These are evident branches of ...
the duty of self-preservation, commonly called the first law of nature. All men
have a right to remain in a state of nature as long as they please; and in case
of intolerable oppression, civil or religious, to leave the society they belong
to, and ernter into another.... Now what liberty can there be where property is
taken away without consent?" (Nov 20, 1772)
"The rights of the colonists as Christians...may be best understood by
reading and carefully studying the institution of The Great Law Giver and Head
of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated
in the New Testament." (From The Rights of Colonists, 1772)
As the Declaration of Independence was being signed, 1776, Samuel Adams
declared:
"We have this day restored the Sovereign to Whom all men ought to be
obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let
His kingdom come."
"He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of this 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."
"He who is void of virtuous attachments in private life is, or very soon
will be, void of all regard for his country. There is seldom an instance of a
man guilty of betraying his country, who had not before lost the feeling of
moral obligations in his private connections." --in a letter to James
Warren, Nov. 4, 1775--
"The said constitution shall never be construed to authorize congress to
prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping
their own arms."
Samuel Adams wrote in his Will:
"Principally, and first of all, I resign my soul to the Almighty Being
who gave it, and my body I commit to the dust, relying on the merits of Jesus
Christ for the pardon of my sins."
(Blackstone's Commentaries on the Law was the
recognized authority on the law for well over a century after 1776)
"Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws
of his Creator, for he is entirely a dependent being....And, consequently, as
man depends absolutely upon his Maker for everything, it is necessary that he
should in all points conform to his Maker's will...this will of his Maker is
called the law of nature. These laws laid down by God are the eternal immutable
laws of good and evil...This law of nature dictated by God himself, is of course
superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all
countries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity if contrary to
this...
"The doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and
they are to be found only in the holy scriptures...[and] are found upon
comparison to be really part of the original law of nature. Upon these two
foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human laws;
that is to say, no human laws should be suffered to contradict these.
"Blasphemy against the Almighty is denying his being or providence, or
uttering contumelious reproaches on our Savior Christ. It is punished, at common
law by fine and imprisonment, for Christianity is part of the laws of the land.
"If [the legislature] will positively enact a thing to be done, the
judges are not at liberty to reject it, for that were to set the judicial power
above that of the legislature, which should be subversive of all
government."
"The preservation of Christianity as a national religion is abstracted
from its own intrinsic truth, of the utmost consequence to the civil state,
which a single instance will sufficiently demonstrate.
"The belief of a future state of rewards and punishments, the
entertaining just ideas of the main attributes ofthe Supreme Being, and a firm
persuasion that He superintends and will finally compensate every action in
human life (all which are revealed in the doctrines of our Savior, Christ),
these are the grand foundations of all judicial oaths, which call God to witness
the truth of those facts which perhaps may be only known to Him and the party
attesting; all moral evidences, therefore, all confidence in human veracity,
must be weakened by apostasy, and overthrown by total infidelity.
"Wherefore, all affronts to Christianity, or endeavors to depreciate its
efficacy, in those who have once professed it, are highly deserving of
censure."
"They that would give up essential liberty for a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Congressional Congress, 1787
"I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more
convincing proofs I see of this truth--that God Governs the affairs of men. And
if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that
an empire can rise without His aid?
"We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that "except
the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it." I firmly
believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall
succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: We
shall be divided by our partial local interests; our projects will be
confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future
ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance,
despair of establishing Governments by Human wisdom and leave it to chance, war
and conquest.
"I therefore beg leave to move--that henceforth prayers imploring the
assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this
Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of
the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service."
In 1748, as Pennsylvania's Governor, Benjamin Franklin proposed
Pennsylvania's first Fast Day:
"It is the duty of mankind on all suitable occasions to acknowledge
their dependence on the Divine Being... [that] Almighty God would mercifully
interpose and still the rage of war among the nations...[and that] He would take
this province under his protection, confound the designs and defeat the attempts
of its enemies, and unite our hearts and strengthen our hands in every
undertaking that may be for the public good, and for our defense and security in
this time of danger."
"I never doubted, for instance, the existence of the Deity; that he made
the world, and governed it by his Providence; that the most acceptable service
of God was the doing good to man; that our souls are immortal; and that all
crime will be punished, and virtue rewarded either here or hereafter.
"Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that
belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.
"The pleasures of this world are rather from God's goodness than our own
merit."
Benjamin Franklin, in July of 1776, was appointed part of a committee to
draft a seal for the newly united states which would characterize the spirit of
this new nation. He proposed:
"Moses lifting up his wand, and dividing the Red Sea, and Pharaoh in his
chariot overwhelmed with the waters. This motto: 'Rebellion to tyrants is
obedience to God."
"A Bible and a newspaper in every house, a good school in every
district--all studied and appreciated as they merit--are the principal support
of virtue, morality, and civil liberty."
Ben Franklin wrote a pamphlet called, "Information to Those who would
Remove to America." It was intended to be a guide for Europeans who were
thinking of relocating in America. In it he said:
"Hence bad examples to youth are more rare in America, which must be
comfortable consideration to parents. To this may be truly added, that serious
religion, under its various denominations, is not only tolerated, but respected
and practiced.
"Atheism is unknown there; Infidelity rare and secret; so that persons
may live to a great age in that country without having their piety shocked by
meeting with either an Atheist or an Infidel.
"And the Divine Being seems to have manifested his approbation of the
mutual forbearance and kindness with which the different sects treat each other;
by the remarkable prosperity with which he has been pleased to favor the whole
country."
"Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, the Creator of the Universe.
That He governs it by His Providence. That he ought to be worshipped."
Benjamin Franklin wrote his own epitaph:
"THE BODY of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN Printer
Like the cover of an old book,
Its contents torn out,
And stripped of its lettering and gilding
Lies here, food for worms;
Yet the work itself shall not be lost,
For it will (as he believed) appear once more,
In a new,
And more beautiful edition,
Corrected and amended
By the AUTHOR"
"Self-love . . . is the sole antagonist of virtue,
leading us constantly by our propensities to self-gratification in violation of
our moral duties to others."
(If a) people (are) so demoralized and depraved as to be incapable of
exercising a wholesome control, thier reformation must be taken up ab incunablis
(from the beginning). Their minds (must) be informed by education what is right
and what wrong, (must) be encouraged in habits of virtue and deterred from those
of vice by the dread of punishments, proportioned indeed, but irremissible. In
all cases, (they must) follow truth as the only safe guide and eschew error
which bewilders us in one false consequence after another in endless succession.
These are the inculcations necessary to render the people a sure basis for the
structure of order and good government."
In a letter to John Adams in 1819
"He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do
it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies
without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This
falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and it time depraves all its
good dispositions." (1785)
"I never ... believed there was one code of morality for a public and
another for a private man."
In a letter to Don Valentine de Feronda, 1809
"The only foundation for useful education in a republic is to be laid in
religion."
"God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation
be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in
the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they
are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when
I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever."
"To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed, opposed; but not to
the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian in the only sense in
which he wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines in preference
to all others..."
"I consider the doctrines of Jesus as delivered by himself to contain
the outlines of the sublimest system of morality that has ever been taught but I
hold in the most profound detestation and execration the corruptions of it which
have been invented..."
As President, Thomas Jefferson not only signed bills which appropriated
financial support for chaplains in Congress and in the armed services, but he
also signed the Articles of War, April 10, 1806, in which he:
"Earnestly recommended to all officers and soldiers, diligently to
attend divine services."
In a letter to Horatio G. Spafford, dated March 17, 1814, Thomas
Jefferson wrote:
"Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not
constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their
gains."
"A more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never seen; it is
a document in proof that I am a real Christian; that is to say, a disciple of
the doctrines of Jesus."
"I have always said, I always will say, that the studious perusal of the
sacred volume will make better citizens, better fathers, and better
husbands."
Jefferson declared that religion is: "Deemed in other
countries incompatible with good government and yet proved by our experience to
be its best support."
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of
civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
"No free man shall ever be de-barred the use of arms. The strongest
reason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is as a last
resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood
of patriots and tyrants."
"In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man,
but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."
Jefferson's "separation of church & state letter written to
the Baptists in Danbury, Connecticut on January 1, 1802
"Gentlemen:
The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which are so good to
express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Association, give me the highest
satisfaction. My duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests
of my constituents, and in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to
those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man
and his God; that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship;
that the legislative powers of the government reach actions only, and not
opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American
people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, of prohibiting the free excercise thereof,' thus
building a wall of separation between church and state. Adhering to this
expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of
conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those
sentiments which tend to restore man to all of his natural rights, convinced he
has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.
I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessings of the
common Father and Creator of man, and tender you and your religious association,
assurances of my high respect and esteem."
