What the Founders said...

...in their own words:



"The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God; and that those principles of liberty are as unalterable as human nature." --John Adams (letter to Thomas Jefferson on June 28, 1813.)



"I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus." --Thomas Jefferson (letter to Charles Thompson on January 9, 1816.)



"History will also afford frequent opportunities of showing the necessity of a public religion and the excellency of the Christian religion above all others, ancient or modern." --Benjamin Franklin (writing in his "Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania, page 72, 1749.)



"The attempts by the rulers of a nation to destroy all religious opinion and to pervert a whole people to atheism is a phenomenon of profligacy. To establish atheism on the ruins of Christianity is to deprive mankind of its best consolations and most animating hopes and to make a gloomy desert of the universe." --Alexander Hamilton (April 7, 1798.)



"The rising greatness of our country is greatly tarnished by the general prevalence of deism which, with me, is but another name for vice and depravity. I hear it is said by the deists that I am one of their number; and indeed that some good people think I am no Christian. This thought gives me much more pain than the appellation of Tory, because I think religion of infinitely higher importance than politics. Being a Christian is a character which I prize far above all this world has or can boast." --Patrick Henry (A. G. Arnold: "The Life of Patrick Henry of Virginia, 1854, pages 249-250)



"I have a thorough contempt for all men who appear to be the irreclaimable enemies of religion." --Samuel Adams (letter to William Checkley on December 14, 1772.)


“From the day of the Declaration, the people of the North American Union and of its constituent states were associated bodies of civilized men and Christians. They were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of the Gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledged as the rules of their conduct.” –John Quincy Adams (Address on the 4th of July, 1821.)


“Religion and morality are the essential pillars of civil society.” –George Washington (letter to the Clergy on March 3, 1797.)


“You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are. Congress will do every thing they can to assist you in this wise intention.” –George Washington (June 12, 1779 to the Delaware Indian Chiefs.)


“I have sometimes thought there could not be a stronger testimony in favor of religion or against temporal enjoyments, even the most rational and manly, than for men who occupy the most honorable and gainful departments and who are rising in reputation and wealth, publicly to declare their unsatisfactoriness by becoming fervent advocates in the cause of Christ; and I wish you may give in your evidence in this way.” –James Madison (letter to William Bradford on September 25, 1773.)`


"The most important of all lessons is the denunciation of ruin to every State that rejects the precepts of religion." -- Gouverneur Morris, penman and signer of the Constitution (September 4, 1816.)


"Whoever is an avowed enemy of God, I scruple not to call him an enemy to his country." --John Witherspoon, signer of the Declaration (May 17, 1776.)


"I anticipate nothing but suffering to the human race while the present systems of paganism, deism, and atheism prevail in the world." -- Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration (letter to Noah Webster on July 20, 1798.)


“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.” –Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration (letter to James McHenry on November 4, 1800.)


“However gradual may be the growth of Christian knowledge and moral reformation, yet unless it be begun, unless the seeds are planted, there can be no tree of knowledge and, of course, no fruit. The attempt to Christianize the heathen world and to produce peace on earth and goodwill towards men is humane, Christian, and sublime.” –William Ellery, signer of the Declaration (The Library of American Biography, Vol. VI, pp.138-139.)


“The Christian religion is superior to every other…there is not only an excellence in the Christian morals, but a manifest superiority in them to those which are derived from any other source.” –John Witherspoon, signer of the Declaration (lecture IV, “On The Truth Of The Christian Religion.”)


“Only one adequate plan has ever appeared in the world, and that is the Christian dispensation.” –John Jay, original Chief-Justice U.S. Supreme Court (letter to Lindley Murray on August 22, 1794.)


“Let us enter on this important business under the idea that we are Christians on whom the eyes of the world are now turned. Let us earnestly call and beseech him for Christ’s sake to preside in our councils.” –Elias Boudinot, President of the Continental Congress (speech in the First Provincial Congress in New Jersey.)


Regarding the John Adams quote: “This would be the best of all possible words if there were no religion in it.” – he was illustrating something in his letter to Jefferson (April 19, 1817) and followed the remark (taken out of context) with this: “But in this exclamation I would have been as fanatical as Bryant or Cleverly. Without religion this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean hell.”


Regarding the George Washington quote: “The government of the United States is in no sense founded on the Christian religion.” – It is a fragment of a longer sentence within Article XI of the 1797 treaty with Tripoli explaining to Muslims that the Federal government would not go to war against them.


Regarding the the Thomas Paine quote: “I disbelieve all holy men and holy books.” – probably true (but unlocatable) however Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Rush, Charles Carroll, John Witherspoon, John Quincy Adams, Elias Boudinot, and Patrick Henry (among others) all strongly repudiated his other statements of a similar nature.