Founding Fathers
| John Adams | Benjamin Franklin | Patrick
Henry |
| John Jay | Thomas
Jefferson | James
Madison
|
| George Washington |
The people in America have now the best opportunity and
the greatest trust in their hands that Providence ever committed to so small a
number ... if they betray their trust, their guilt will merit even greater
punishment than other nations have suffered, and the indignation of Heaven ...
— 1787
We have no government armed with the power capable of
contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and true religion. Our Constitution was made only for a
moral and religious people. It is
wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
In free governments, the rulers are the servants, and the
people their superiors and sovereigns ...
An appeal to arms and the God of hosts is all that is left
us. But we shall not fight our
battle alone. There is a just God
that presides over the destinies of nations. The battle sir, is not to the strong
alone. Is life so dear or peace so
sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it almighty God. I know not what course others may take,
but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death.
It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that
this great Nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on
religious, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone, people of other
faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here.
The great object is that every man be armed . . . Everyone
who is able may have a gun.
— Virginia Convention on ratification of the Constitution
John Jay; first Supreme Court Justice
Providence has given to our people the choice of their
rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our
Christian Nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.
The God who gave us life, gave us
liberty at the same time: the hand
of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.
— 1774
The most effectual means of preventing the perversion of
power into tyranny are to illuminate ... the minds of the people at large, and more especially, to give them knowledge of those
facts which history exhibits, that they may ... know ambition under all it shapes,
and ... exert their natural powers to defeat its purposes.
— 1779
History, by apprising the people of the past, will enable
them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other
times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and
designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it
may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views.
— 1782
The boys of the rising generation are to be the men of the
next, and the sole guardians of the principles we deliver over to them.
— 1810
Unless the mass [of people] retains sufficient control
over those intrusted with the powers of their
government, these will be perverted to their own oppression
...
— 1812
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of
civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
— 1816
Lay down true principles, and adhere to them
inflexibly. Do not be frightened
into their surrender...
— 1816
In the maintenance of ... (our) principles ... I verily
believe the future happiness of our country essentially depends.
— 1819
On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to
the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in
the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the
text, or invented against it conform to the probable one in which it was
passed.
— 1823
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can
prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense
of taking care of them.
The true theory of our Constitution is surely the wisest
and best ... When all government ... shall be drawn to Washington as the centre
of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on
another, and will become as ... oppressive as the government from which we just
separated.
Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there
are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual
and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpation ...
— 1788
— Federalist
Paper No. 26
The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive,
and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many ... may justly
be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.
We have staked the whole future of American civilization,
not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our
political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern
ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten
Commandments of God.
Although all men are born free, slavery has been the
general lot of the human race.
Ignorant—they have been cheated; asleep—they have been
surprised; divided—the yoke has been forced upon them. But what is the lesson? ... the people ought to be enlightened, to be awakened, to be
united, that after establishing a government, they should watch over it ... It
is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently
free.
The advantage of being armed . . . the Americans possess
over the people of all other nations . . . Notwithstanding the military
establishments in the several Kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as
the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people
with arms.
It is impossible to govern the world without God and the
Bible. Of all the dispositions and
habits that lead to political prosperity, our religion and morality are the
indispensable supporters. Let us
with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without
religion. Reason and experience
both forbid us to expect that our national morality can prevail in exclusion of
religious principle.
— Farewell Address; 1796
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