This document contains quotes from several prominent historical figures discussing the importance of religion and morality for a free and just government. Some key points made include: - George Washington stated that religion and morality are "indispensable supports" for political prosperity. He warned against subverting these "great pillars of human happiness." - John Adams said that our constitution was made for a "moral and religious people" and is "wholly inadequate" without morality and religion. - Benjamin Rush argued that the only foundation for a useful education in a republic is religion, and without virtue from religion there can be no liberty. - Many founders expressed that a republic requires a virtuous and moral citizenry for freedom to

2. “People get the
government they
deserve.”

3. "When the lawless, vicious
men are the government,
where do the people go for
help? They must feel like a
little child who flees from a
bully into the arms of his
father, only to have his
father hold him while the
bully beats him."

4. ”Government, even in
its best state is but a
necessary evil, in its
worst state an
intolerable one."
Journalist,
Common Sense (1776)

5. "Government is not
reason. Government is
not eloquence. It is
force. And, like fire, it
is a dangerous servant
and a fearful master."
(Source: George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, John
C. Fitzpatrick, editor (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office,
1932), Vol. XXX, p. 432 n., from his address to the Synod of the Dutch
Reformed Church in North America, October 9, 1789.)
"Father of Our Country"

6. Righteousness exalts a nation,
but sin is a reproach to any people.

7. Until the Spirit is poured upon us from
on high, and the wilderness becomes a
fruitful field, and the fruitful field is
counted as a forest. 16 Then justice will
dwell in the wilderness, and
righteousness remain in the fruitful field.
17 The work of righteousness will be
peace, and the effect of righteousness,
quietness and assurance forever.

8. 18 My people will dwell in a peaceful
habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet
resting places, 19 though hail comes down
on the forest, and the city is brought low in
humiliation. Where the
is
there is
FREEDOM.

9. 31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who
believed Him, “If you abide in My word,
you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you
shall know the truth, and the truth shall
make you free.”
36 Therefore if the Son makes you free,
you shall be free indeed.

10. For you, brethren, have been called to
liberty; only do not use liberty as an
opportunity for the flesh, but through
love serve one another.

11. Hebrew: ‫ָה‬‫ק‬ָ‫ְד‬‫צ‬ (tsedaqah)
Greek: δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosune)
2. The righteousness of God is imputed or credited to
them who have faith in Him (Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:1-5).
1. Righteousness refers to moral behavior based on
the expectations God declared in the Law.
1. Legal meaning = conformity to a right standard
according to God
2. Relational meaning = faith in God

13. Hebrew: ‫ָא‬‫ט‬ָ‫ח‬ (chata)
Greek: ἁµάρτηµα (hamartia)
= missing the mark or goal
= missing the mark
or goal
Romans 3:23 . . . all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God,

14. = shame and misery‫ד‬ֶ‫ס‬ֶ‫ח‬ (ḥě·sěḏ)

15. • Removed from school textbooks after US until WW II
• 12 Warnings to maintain our Nation’s Freedoms
• 4 of those Warnings were Religious

16. The Maine Scholar’s Manual
1820
• Constitution
• Declaration of Independence
• The First Prayer in Congress
• Washington’s Farewell Address
Test Items:

17. "Of all the dispositions and habits
which lead to political prosperity,
religion and morality are
indispensable supports. In vain
would that man claim the tribute
of patriotism who should labor to
subvert these great pillars of
human happiness, these firmest
props of the duties of man and
citizens. The mere politician,
equally with the pious man, ought
to respect and to cherish them. "
(Source: George Washington, Address of George Washington, President of the United States
. . . Preparatory to His Declination (Baltimore: George and Henry S. Keatinge), pp. 22-23. In
his Farewell Address to the United States in 1796.)
"Father of Our Country"

18. "And let us with caution indulge the
supposition that morality can be maintained
without religion. Whatever may be conceded
to the influence of refined education on minds
of peculiar structure, reason and experience
both forbid us to expect that national morality
can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. It
is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a
necessary spring of popular government. The
rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to
every species of free government."
(Source: George Washington, Address of George Washington, President of the United States
. . . Preparatory to His Declination (Baltimore: George and Henry S. Keatinge), pp. 22-23. In
his Farewell Address to the United States in 1796.)

19. “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.”
(Source: John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of
the United States, Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Little,
Brown, 1854), Vol. IX, p. 401, to Zabdiel Adams on June 21, 1776.)
Signer of the Declaration of
Independence & 2nd President
of the United States

20. “We have no government
armed with power capable of
contending with human
passions unbridled by morality
and religion. . . . Our
constitution was made only for
a moral and religious people.
It is wholly inadequate to the
government of any other.”
(Source: John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States,
Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co. 1854), Vol. IX, p. 229,
October 11, 1798.)
Signer of the Declaration of
Independence & 2nd President
of the United States

21. (Source: John Quincy Adams, Letters of John Quincy Adams, to His Son, on the Bible and
Its Teachings (Auburn: James M. Alden, 1850), p. 61.)
“The law given from Sinai
was a civil and municipal as
well as a moral and religious
code; it contained many
statutes . . . of universal
application-laws essential to
the existence of men in
society, and most of which
have been enacted by every
nation which ever professed
any code of laws.”6th President of
the United States

22. John Quincy Adams
(Source: John Quincy Adams, Letters of John Quincy Adams to His Son on the Bible and
Its Teachings (Auburn: James M. Alden, 1850), pp. 22-23.)
“There are three points of doctrine the belief of which
forms the foundation of all morality. The first is the
existence of God; the second is the immortality of
the human soul; and the third is a future state of
rewards and punishments. Suppose it possible for a
man to disbelieve either of these three articles of faith
and that man will have no conscience, he will have no
other law than that of the tiger or the shark. The laws
of man may bind him in chains or may put him to
death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or
happy.”

23. (Source: William V. Wells, The Life and Public Service of Samuel Adams (Boston: Little,
Brown, & Co., 1865), Vol. I, p. 22, quoting from a political essay by Samuel Adams
published in The Public Advertiser, 1749.)
“Neither the wisest
constitution nor the
wisest laws will secure the
liberty and happiness of a
people whose manners are
universally corrupt.”
Signer of the Declaration
of Independence

24. (Source: Fisher Ames, An Oration on the Sublime Virtues of General George Washington
(Boston: Young & Minns, 1800), p. 23.)
“Our liberty depends on our
education, our laws, and
habits . . . it is founded on
morals and religion, whose
authority reigns in the heart,
and on the influence all
these produce on public
opinion before that opinion
governs rulers.”Framer of the
First Amendment

25. (Source: Bernard C. Steiner, The Life and Correspondence of James McHenry (Cleveland:
The Burrows Brothers, 1907), p. 475. In a letter from Charles Carroll to James McHenry
of November 4, 1800.)
“Without morals a republic cannot
subsist any length of time; they
therefore who are decrying the
Christian religion, whose morality
is so sublime & pure, [and] which
denounces against the wicked
eternal misery, and [which] insured
to the good eternal happiness, are
undermining the solid foundation
of morals, the best security for the
duration of free governments.”Signer of the Declaration
of Independence

26. (Source: Benjamin Franklin, The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, Jared Sparks, editor
(Boston: Tappan, Whittemore and Mason, 1840), Vol. X, p. 297, April 17, 1787.)
“Only a virtuous people
are capable of freedom.
As nations become
corrupt and vicious, they
have more need of
masters.”
Signer of the Declaration
of Independence & the
Constitution

27. (Source: Benjamin Franklin, The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, Jared Sparks, editor
(Boston: Tappan, Whittemore and Mason, 1840), Vol. X, p. 297, April 17, 1787.)
“I concur with the
author in considering
the moral precepts
of Jesus as more
pure, correct, and
sublime than those
of ancient
philosophers.”Signer of the Declaration
of Independence and 3rd
President of the United
States

28. "God who gave us life gave
us liberty. Can the liberties of
a nation be secure when we
have removed a conviction that
these liberties are the gift of
God? Indeed I tremble for my
country when I reflect that God
is just, that His justice cannot
Northeast Portico
of Jefferson Memorial
sleep forever. Commerce between master and slave is
despotism. Nothing is more certainly written in the
book of fate than that these people are to be free.
Establish a law for educating the common people. This
it is the business of the state and on a general plan."

29. "It cannot be emphasized
too much or repeated too
strongly that America was
founded not by
religionists, but by
Christians. Not upon
religions, but upon the
gospel of Jesus Christ."
1st Governor of Virginia
Attorney, Orator

30. (Source: Pennsylvania Supreme Court, 1824. Updegraph v. Commonwealth; 11 Serg. & R.
393, 406 (Sup.Ct. Penn. 1824).)
“No free government now
exists in the world, unless
where Christianity is
acknowledged, and is the
religion of the country.”

31. (Source: Benjamin Rush, Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical(Philadelphia: Thomas
and William Bradford, 1806), p. 8.)
“The only foundation for a
useful education in a
republic is to be laid in
religion. Without this
there can be no virtue, and
without virtue there can be
no liberty, and liberty is the
object and life of all
republican governments.”
Signer of the Declaration
of Independence

32. Benjamin Rush
(Source: Benjamin Rush, Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical (Philadelphia: Printed
by Thomas and William Bradford, 1806), pp. 93-94.)
“We profess to be republicans, and yet we
neglect the only means of establishing and
perpetuating our republican forms of
government, that is, the universal education of
our youth in the principles of Christianity by
the means of the Bible. For this Divine
Book, above all others, favors that equality
among mankind, that respect for just laws, and
those sober and frugal virtues, which constitute
the soul of republicanism.”

33. Benjamin Rush
(Source: Benjamin Rush, Letters of Benjamin Rush, L. H. Butterfield, editor (Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, 1951), p. 936, to John Adams, January 23, 1807.)
“By renouncing the Bible, philosophers swing
from their moorings upon all moral subjects. . . .
It is the only correct map of the human heart
that ever has been published. . . . All systems of
religion, morals, and government not
founded upon it [the Bible] must perish, and
how consoling the thought, it will not only
survive the wreck of these systems but the world
itself. "The Gates of Hell shall not prevail
against it." [Matthew 1:18].”

34. (Source: Robert Winthrop, Addresses and Speeches on Various Occasions(Boston: Little,
Brown & Co., 1852), p. 172 from his "Either by the Bible or the Bayonet.")
“If we and our posterity reject
religious instruction and
authority, violate the rules of
eternal justice, trifle with the
injunctions of morality, and
recklessly destroy the political
constitution which holds us
together, no man can tell how
sudden a catastrophe may
overwhelm us that shall bury all
our glory in profound obscurity.”
Congressman, Senator,
U.S. Secretary of State

35. “Give me the minds of the children, and in one
generation I will give you the Fascist super state.”
Adolf Hitler, 1920
“The battle for humankind’s future must be
waged and won in the public school classroom by
teachers who correctly perceive their role as the
proselytizers of a new faith. The classroom must
and will become the arena of conflict between the
old and the new, the rotting corpse of Christianity
and the faith of humanism.”
The Humanist 1983

36. Proverbs 29:2 When the righteous are in
authority, the people rejoice; but when a wicked
man rules, the people groan.

37. “A nation which does
not remember what it
was yesterday, does not
know what it is today, nor
what it is trying to do. We
are trying to do a futile
thing if we do not know
where we came from or
what we have been about.”President of Princeton University
& of the United States

38. Judges 2:7 So the people served the LORD
all the days of Joshua, and all the days of
the elders who outlived Joshua, who had
seen all the great works of the LORD
which He had done for Israel.

39. Judges 2:2–4 But you have not obeyed My
voice. Why have you done this? 3 Therefore I
also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you;
but they shall be thorns in your side, and their
gods shall be a snare to you.’ ” 4 So it was, when
the Angel of the LORD spoke these words to all
the children of Israel, that the people lifted up
their voices and wept.
Judges 2:10 When all that generation had been
gathered to their fathers, another generation
arose after them who did not know the LORD
nor the work which He had done for Israel.

40. Judges 17:6 In those days there was no king in
Israel; everyone did what was right in his own
eyes.
Abington v. Schempp
(1963)
Engel v. Vitale
(1962)

41. "[T]he [federal] government .
. . can never be in danger of
degenerating into a monarchy,
and oligarchy, an aristocracy, or
any other despotic or
oppressive form so long as
there shall remain any virtue
in the body of the people."
(Source: George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, John C. Fitzpatrick,
editor (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1939), Vol. XXIX, p. 410. In a letter to
Marquis De Lafayette, February 7, 1788.)
"Father of Our Country"

42. (Source: Robert Winthrop, Addresses and Speeches on Various Occasions (Boston: Little,
Brown & Co., 1852), p. 172 from his "Either by the Bible or the Bayonet.")
“Men, in a word, must
necessarily be controlled
either by a power
within them or by a
power without them;
either by the Word of
God or by the strong
arm of man; either by
the Bible or by the
bayonet.”
Speaker of the US House
of Representatives
(1850-51)

43. "Men are inherently evil,
governed by greed and
lust and love of power
and a host of even less
endearing passions."

44. (Source: William V. Wells, The Life and Public Service of Samuel Adams (Boston: Little,
Brown, & Co., 1865), Vol. I, p. 22, quoting from a political essay by Samuel Adams
published in The Public Advertiser, 1749.)
“We have staked the whole
future of American
civilization not upon the
power of government. Far
from it. We have staked the
future upon the capacity of
each and all of us to govern
ourselves and to sustain
ourselves according to the
Ten Commandments of
God.”
4th President of the
United States

45. 31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who
believed Him, “If you abide in My word,
you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you
shall know the truth, and the truth shall
make you free.”
36 Therefore if the Son makes you free,
you shall be free indeed.

46. Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth;
but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be
seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be
thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

47. Matthew 5:14–16 “You are the
light of the world. A city that is
set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15
Nor do they light a lamp and put
it under a basket, but on a
lampstand, and it gives light to
all who are in the house. 16 Let
your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good
works and glorify your Father in
heaven.

48. For you, brethren, have been called to
liberty; only do not use liberty as an
opportunity for the flesh, but through
love serve one another.

49. Ephesians 6:10–15 Finally, my brethren, be
strong in the Lord and in the power of His
might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that
you may be able to stand against the wiles of
the devil. 13 Therefore take up the whole
armor of God, that you may be able to
withstand in the evil day, and having done all,
to stand. 14 Stand therefore . . .”

50. Matthew 28:18–20 And Jesus came and
spoke to them, saying, “All authority has
been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19
Go therefore and make disciples of all the
nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all things that I
have commanded you; and lo, I am with
you always, even to the end of the age.”
Amen.

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