Daniel Webster, a great American politician and orator, visited Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1820, two centuries after the Pilgrims landed there. In commemoration of that great event, Webster said:
“Our ancestors established their system of government on morality and religious sentiment. Moral habits, they believed, cannot safely be trusted on any other foundation than religious principle, nor any government be secure which is not supported by moral habits.”
The founding fathers of the United States agreed that a strong spiritual foundation is essential to build a strong country:
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports … Let it simply be asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion…Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
- George Washington
“I thank God that I have lived to see my country independent and free. She may long enjoy her independence and freedom if she will. It depends on her virtue.”
- Samuel Adams
“The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy the gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people; then shall we both deserve and enjoy it. While on the other hand, if we are universally vicious and debauched in our manners, though the form of our Constitution carries the face of the most exalted freedom, we shall in reality be the most abject slaves.”
- Samuel Adams
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
- John Adams
“The first and only book deserving of universal attention is the Bible.”
- John Adams
“If we separate morality from politics, we imperil our nation and threaten self-destruction. Imperial Rome was not defeated by an enemy from without; it was destroyed by moral decay from within. Mighty God, over and over again You warned Your people … that righteousness is essential to national health.”
- Dr. Richard Halverson,
Chaplain of the U.S. Senate
