Part 8

Jim Bramlett

[This is Part 8 and last part of the series, America’s Christian Heritage. It is comprised of inspirational quotes from our Founding fathers ad other national leaders of the past. At the end is bibliographical information relevant to this series.]

Below are selected quotes from our Founding Fathers and other national leaders which may be useful when writing articles and letters to the editor. Feel free to use them as needed. Many of them are taken from the book, Red Sky in the Morning, pages 11-14, with the sources found on pages 311-312. This paper cannot provide all the sources, but most of the quotes can be found in an excellent book I highly recommend that is probably the best collection of quotes from American history available anywhere, America’s God and Country, by William J. Federer.

George Washington, "Father of Our Country," first President of the U.S.:

"To the distinguished Character of a Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the most distinguished Character of Christian."

 

"It is impossible to account for the creation of the universe, without the agency of a Supreme Being."

 

"Bless O Lord the whole race of mankind, and let the world be filled with the knowledge of Thee and Thy Son, Jesus Christ."

 

"It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible."

 

"Of all the habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports...Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

Patrick Henry, American Revolutionary Leader:

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States:

"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 a gift from 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." (excerpts are inscribed on the walls of the Jefferson Memorial in the nation’s capital)

 

"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 their liberties are a gift from God?"

 

"The Bible is the cornerstone of liberty . . . students' perusal of the sacred volume will make us better citizens."

 

"I hold the precepts of Jesus as delivered by Himself, to be the most pure, benevolent, and sublime which have ever been preached to man. I adhere to the principles of the first age."

Benjamin Franklin, signer of the Declaration of Independence:

"Whoever shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world."

 

"Here is my creed. I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by His providence. That He ought to be worshiped. That the most acceptable service we render Him is doing good to His other children."

John Adams, second President of the United States:

"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 of any other."

 

"Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God…. What a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be."

 

"I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence for the illumination of the ignorant, and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth."

 

"If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready, at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may. But while I do live, let me have a country, and that a free country!"

James Madison, "Chief Architect of the Constitution"and fourth President:

"[A] watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest, while we are building ideal monuments of renown and bliss here, we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven."

 

"To the same Divine Author of every good and perfect gift we are indebted for all those privileges and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly enjoyed in this favored land."

 

"It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage and such only as he believes to be acceptable to Him. This duty is precedent, both in order of time and degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society. Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe."

 

"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 mankind for self-government; 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."

Alexander Hamilton, Founding Father and first Secretary of the Treasury:

"I have carefully examined the evidences of the Christian religion, and if I was sitting as a juror upon its authenticity I would unhesitatingly give my verdict in its favor. I can prove its truth as clearly as any proposition ever submitted to the mind of man."

 

Samuel Adams, the "Father of the American Revolution":

"That God would be pleased to guide and direct the administration of the Federal government, and those of the several states, in union, so that the whole people may continue to be safe and happy in the constitutional enjoyment of their rights, liberties and privileges, and our governments be greatly respected at home and abroad."

 

"He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his 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."

 

"Principally, and first of all, I resign my souls 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."

John Jay, First Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court:

"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."

 

"Unto Him who is the author and giver of all good, I render sincere and humble thanks for His manifold and unmerited blessings, and especially for our redemption and salvation by his beloved Son…. Blessed be his holy name."

Joseph Story, one of the first Justices of the Supreme Court:

"Probably at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, and of the First Amendment to it, the general, if not universal sentiment in America was that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the state...Any attempt to level all religions and to make it a matter of policy to hold all in utter indifference would have created universal disapprobation, if not universal indignation."

George Mason, famous American Revolutionary Statesman, Delegate from Virginia to the Constitutional Convention, "Father of the Bill of Rights":

"Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgement of heaven upon a country. As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world, they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins, by national calamities."

 

"My soul I resign into the hands of my Almighty Creator, whose tender mercies are all over His works, who hateth nothing that He hath made, and to the justice and wisdom of whose dispensations I willingly and cheerfully submit, humbly hoping from His unbounded mercy and benevolence, through the merits of my blessed Savior, a remission of my sins."

William Penn, Founder of Pennsylvania:

"As I have been traveling, the great work of Christ in the earth has often been presented to my view, and the day of the Lord hath been deeply impressed upon me, and my soul and spirit hath frequently been possessed with an holy and weighty concern for the glory and name of the Lord and the spreading of his everlasting truth."

 

"Men will either be governed by God or ruled by tyrants."

Benjamin Rush, Signer of the Declaration and "Father of Public Schools":

"My only hope of salvation is in the infinite transcendent love of God manifested to the world by the death of his Son upon the Cross. Nothing but his blood will wash away my sins. I rely exclusively upon it. Come, Lord Jesus! Come quickly!"

 

"I have alternately been called an Aristocrat and a Democrat. I am neither. I am a Christocrat."

 

"I do not believe that the Constitution was the offspring of inspiration, but I am as perfectly satisfied that the Union of the States in its form and adoption is as much the work of a Divine Providence as any of the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament."

Roger Sherman, Signer of the Declaration; Signer of the Constitution:

"I believe that there is one only living and true God, existing in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the same in substance equal in power and glory. That the scriptures of the old and new testaments are a revelation from God and a complete rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him…. I believe that the souls of believers are at their death made perfectly holy and immediately taken to glory: that at the end of this world there will be a resurrection of the dead and a final judgment of all mankind when the righteous shall be publicly acquitted by Christ the Judge and admitted to everlasting life and glory, and the wicked be sentenced to everlasting punishment."

John Witherspoon, Signer of the Declaration:

"I shall now conclude my discourse by preaching this Savior to all who hear me, and entreating you in the most earnest manner to believe in Jesus Christ, for "there is no salvation in any other" (Acts 4:12)…. If you are not reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, if you are not clothed with the spotless robe of His righteousness, you must forever perish."

 

"Whoever is an avowed enemy of God, I scruple not to call him an enemy to his country."

Robert C. Winthrop, statesman, Congressman and Senator:

"All societies must be governed in some way or other. They less they may have stringent state government, the more they must have individual self-government. The less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private moral restraint. 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."

John Quincy Adams, sixth President:

"The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: It connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government and the principles of Christianity."

 

"The birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked to the birthday of the Savior . . . the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth . . . it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity."

Samuel Adams, signer of the Declaration of Independence:

"May every citizen in the army and in the country have a proper sense of the Deity upon his mind and an impression of the declaration recorded in the Bible, ‘Him that honoreth me I will honor, but he that despiseth me shall be lightly esteemed’ [1 Samuel 2:30]."

 

"The Supreme Ruler of the Universe, having been pleased in the course of His providence to establish the independence of the United States of America...we ought to be led by religious feelings of gratitude and to walk before Him in all humility according to His most holy law...That with true repentance and contrition of heart we may unitedly implore the forgiveness of our sins through the merits of Jesus Christ and humbly supplicate our heavenly Father." (in proclaiming a Day of Public Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer, 1795)

John Jay, first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court:

"I...recommend a general and public return of praise and thanksgiving to Him from whose goodness these blessings descend. The most effectual means of securing the continuance of our civil and religious liberties, is always to remember with reverence and gratitude the source from which they flow."

 

"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."

Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration of Independence:

"Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure...are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments."

Daniel Webster, statesman, congressman:

"If the power of the Gospel is not felt throughout the length and breadth of the land, anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness will reign without mitigation or end."

 

"Lastly, 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."

 

"If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity."

Noah Webster, statesman, lexicographer:

"In my view, 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."

John Witherspoon, signer of the Declaration of Independence:

"He is the best friend to American liberty, who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion, and who sets himself with the greatest firmness to bear down profanity and immorality of every kind. Whoever is an avowed enemy of God, I scruple not [do not hesitate] to call him an enemy of his country."

Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States:

Referring to the Bible: "That book, Sir, is the Rock upon which our republic rests."

Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States:

"It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow...and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history: that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord."

 

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. 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, in the 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! It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness." (in proclaiming a National Fast Day, March 30, 1863)

 

"Intelligence, patriotism . . . and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land and still competent to adjust in the very best way all our present difficulty." (First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861.)

 

"I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for that day."

Robert E. Lee, Commanding General, Confederate States of America

"Lord, send us anywhere - only accompany us; Place any burden upon us, only sustain us; Sever and tie but that which binds us to thy heart."