Little Things

"Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but 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, and if this cannot be inspored into our People in a greater measure, than they have it now, they may change their Rulers and forms of Government, but they will not obatin a lasting liberty."

"From the day of the Declaration... they ( the American people) were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of the Gospel, which they nearly all acknowledge as the rules of their conduct."

"The highest glory of the American Revolution was this; it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity."

"He who is void of virtuous attachments in private life is, or very soon will be, void of all regard for his country. There is seldom an instance of a man guilty of betraying his country who had not before lost the feeling of moral obligations in his private connections."

"I have lived Sir, a long time and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of this truth--that God governs the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?"

"We have been assured, Sir, in the Saacred Writings, that "except the Lord build the House they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our partial local intrests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a bye word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments by Human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.

"I therefore beg leave to move--that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service.

"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. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity and freedom of worship here."

"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 gobern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

"If thou wouldst rule well, thou must rule for God, and to do that, thou must be ruled by him... Those who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants."

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

"...it would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplication to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations and whose providential aids can supply every human defect that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes..."