The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were … the general principles of Christianity…. Now I will avow, that I then believed, and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.
~ John Adams, in The Works of John Adams: Second President of the United States, vol. 10 (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1856), page 43.
Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
~ John Adams, in a message on October 11, 1798, to the officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts
The first and almost the only book deserving of universal attention is the Bible.
~ John Quincy Adams
Let divines and philosophers, statesmen and patriots, unite their endeavors to renovate the age, by impressing the minds of men, with the importance of educating their little boys and girls, of inculcating in the minds of youth the fear and love of the Deity… in short, of leading them in the study and practice of the exalted virtues of the Christian system.
~ Samuel Adams, in a letter to John Adams, 1790. In Four Letters: Being an Interesting Correspondence Between Those Eminently Distinguished Characters, John Adams, Late President of the United States; and Samuel Adams, Late Governor of Massachusetts. On the Important Subject of Government. (Boston: Adams and Roads, 1802), pages 90
Let us not trust to human effort alone, but humbly acknowledge the power and goodness of Almighty God who presides over the destiny of nations, and who has at all times been revealed in our country’s history, let us invoke His aid and His blessings upon our labors.
~ Grover Cleveland, 22nd President of the United States
The strength of a country is the strength of its religious convictions.
~ Calvin Coolidge
We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.
~ Justice William O. Douglas, in a Supreme Court decision, March 1952
When England grew corrupt, God brought over a number of pious persons and planted them in New England, and this land was planted with a noble vine.
~ Jonathan Edwards, in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 1.
The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this Truth–that God governs in the Affairs of Men.
~ Benjamin Franklin, addressing the Constitutional Convention on June 28, 1787
In the year of Chist, 1755, This building was piously founded,
for the relief of the sick and miserable.
May the God of mercies bless the undertaking.
Whoever shall introduce into public affairs the principles of Primitive Christianity will change the face of the world.
~ Benjamin Franklin, composed for a cornerstone inscription for the Pennsylvania Hospital, 1751
The Bible is the anchor of our liberties.
~ Ulysses S. Grant
The Bible is the cornerstone of American liberty. A student’s perusal of this sacred volume will make them a better citizen.
~ Thomas Jefferson. According to Daniel Webster, Jefferson said this to him in regard to why the Bible was foundational in the educational plan he helped program for the school system in Washington D.C. Daniel Webster to Professor Peace, June 15, 1852 in The Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster, edited by Edward Everett, (Boston: Little, Brown, & Co. 1903).
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 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, and that His justice cannot sleep forever.
~ Thomas Jefferson
Almighty God … hath diffused the glorious light of the Gospel, whereby, through the merits of our gracious Redeemer, we may become the heirs of His eternal glory.
~ Thomas Jefferson, November 11, 1779, in a Day of Prayer proclamation while Governor of Virginia. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 3, 18 June 1779 – 30 September 1780. ed. Julian P. Boyd (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1951), pages 177-179
Let us look forward tot he time when we can take the flag of our country, and nail it below the Cross, and there let it wave as it waved in the olden times, and let us gather around it and inscribe for our motto, “Liberty and Union, one and inseparable, now and forever,” and exclaim, Christ first, our country next!
~ Andrew Johnson, America’s 17th President
The Bible is worth all other books which have ever been printed.
~ Patrick Henry
The general diffusion of Christian knowledge hath a natural tendency to correct the morals of men, restrain their vices, and preserve the peace of society.
~ Patrick Henry
It is announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.
~ Abraham Lincoln, March 30, 1863, in his Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day. In the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln.
We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, int he deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace too proud to pray to the God that made us.
~ Abraham Lincoln, proclaiming a National Day of Prayer, March 30, 1863.
We have staked the whole future of American civilization not upon the power of government. Far from it. We have staked the future on the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, control ourselves, and to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.
~ James Madison
The Bible is the Constitution of Christian civilization.
~ Gordon Palmer, in By Freedom’s Holy Light (NY: Devin-Adair Co., 1964), page 4
Those people who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants.
~ William Penn,
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation. Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just. And this be our motto – “In God is our Trust.”
~ The Star Spangled Banner
I believe that no one can read the history of our country, without realizing the Good Book, and the Spirit of the Savior, which have, from the beginning, been our guiding genius. Whether we look at the first Charter of Virginia, or the Charter of New England, or the Charter of Massachusetts Bay, or the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, the same objective is present, a Christian land governed by Christian principles. I believe the entire Bill of Rights came into being because of the knowledge our forefathers had of the Bible and a belief in it. Freedom of Belief, of expression, of assembly, of petition, the dignity of the individual, the sanctity of the home, equal justice under the law, and the reservation of the people, I would like to believe that we are living today in the Spirit of Christian religion. I would also like to believe long as we do, no great harm can come to our country.
~ Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren. In an interview with Time Magazine, February 14, 1954.
I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion. But I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of public institutions.
~ Alexis de Tocqueville
Whatever makes a person a good Christian makes him a good citizen.
~ Daniel Webster
If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we or our prosperity neglect its instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity.
~ Daniel Webster
Let us not forget the religious character of our origin.
~ Daniel Webster
The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His apostles…to this we ow our free constitutions of government. The Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government, ought to be instructed. No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.
~ Noah Webster, in the preface to Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828
America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scriptures.
~ Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States, on May 7, 1911 in a speech delivered in Denver, Colorado
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(NY: HarperCollins, 1972), page 194.
