Words from the wise: reflections on our nation

"The citizens of the United States are responsible for the greatest trust ever confided to a political society. If justice, good faith, honor, gratitude, and all the other qualities which ennoble the character of a nation, and fulfill the ends of government, be the fruits of our establishments, the cause of Liberty will acquire a dignity and lustre which it has never yet enjoyed; and an example will be set which cannot but have the most favorable influence on the rights of mankind. [new paragraph] If, on the other hand, our government should be unfortunately blotted with the reverse of these cardinal and essential virtues, the great cause which we have engaged to vindicate will be dishonored and betrayed; and the last and fairest experiment in favor of the rights of human nature will be turned against them; and their patrons and friends be exposed to be insulted and silenced by the votaries of tyranny and usurpation, storm of battle, and sprinkled with the blood of falling comrades." -James Madison

"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 our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." James Madison

"Should the states reject this excellent Constitution, the probability is that an opportunity will never again offer to make another in peace--the next will be drawn in blood." George Washington

Many people have been saying that the Republican party needs to loosen it's stand on gay marriage and abortion, but listen to what Washington had to say about compromise: "If, to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair. The event [drafting of a constitution] is in the hands of God."

"The Scriptures were intended by God to be the guide of human reason. The Creator of man established the moral order of the universe; knowing that human reason, left

without a divine guide or rule of action, would fill the world with disorder, crime, and misery. A great portion of mankind, ignorant of this guide or rejecting its authority, have verified the fact; and the history of three thousand years is a tissue of proof that human reason left to itself can neither preserve morals nor give duration to a free government. Human reason never has been, and unquestionably never will be, a match for ambition, selfishness, and other evil passions of man. On the other hand, opposed to force of these passions, the constitution and laws are generally found to be mere cobwebs and gossamer. [new paragraph] The principles of all genuine liberty, and of wise laws and administrations are to be drawn from the Bible and sustained by its authority. The man therefore who weakens or destroys the divine authority of that book may be accessory to all the public disorders which society is doomed to suffer. [new paragraph] In my view, there are two powers only which are sufficient to control men, and secure the rights of individuals and a peaceable administration; these are [1] the combined force of religion and law, and [2] the force or fear of the bayonet...[new paragraph] The Bible is the chief moral cause of all that is good, and the best corrector of all that is evil, in human society; the best Book for regulating the temporal concerns of men, and the only Book that can serve as an infallible guide to future felicity." -Noah Webster

"When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonoured fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and honoured throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, not a single star obscured, bearing for its motto, no such miserable interrogatory as 'What is all this worth?' nor those other words of delusion and folly, 'Liberty first and Union afterwards'; but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart--Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!" -Daniel Webster

"In the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior. The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity." -John Quincy Adams

"The great, vital, and conservative element in our system is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and divine truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ." -Congress, 1854

"Had the people, during the Revolution, had a suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, that Revolution would have been strangled in its cradle...In this age, there can be no substitute for Christianity...That was the religion of the founders of the republic and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants." -Congress, U.S. House Judiciary Committee, 1854