“Posterity, You will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.” – John Quincy Adams
“What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a price upon its goods, and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.” – Thomas Payne
“For the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of the Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” – Declaration of Independence
“Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of The Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian…This is a religious people. This is historically true. From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation…we find everywhere a clear recognition of the same truth…These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation.” – Supreme Court Decision, 1892, Church of the Holy Trinity V. United States
“My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!” - Thomas Jefferson
Ben Franklin via Wikipedia
In the summer 1787, representatives met in Philadelphia to write the Constitution of the United States. After they had struggled for several weeks and had made little or no progress, 81 year old Benjamin Franklin rose and addressed the troubled and disagreeing convention that was about to adjourn in confusion:
“In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for Divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor…Have we now forgotten this powerful Friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance?”
“I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth: that God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice,m is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this…I therefore beg leave to move that, henceforth, prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven and its blessing on our deliberation be held in this assembly every morning.” – Benjamin Franklin
“All the good from the Saviour of the world is communicated through this Book; but for the Book we could not know right from wrong. All the things desirable to man are contained in it.” – Abraham Lincoln
Although hardly a Founder, President Calvin Coolidge could nearly qualify as a prophet with this quote: “The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country.”
”Everyone shall consider the main end of his life and studies to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life. Seeing the lord giveth wisdom, every one shall seriously by prayer in secret seek wisdom of Him. Every one shall so exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day that they be ready to give an account of their proficiency therein, both in theoretical observations of languages and logic, and in practical and spiritual truths…”
“O thus be it ever when free men shall stand, between their loved homes and the war’s desolation; Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n rescued land praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just; and this be our motto “In God is our trust!” – Francis Scott Key, 2nd Verse of the “Star Spangled Banner”
- “The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His apostles…to this we owe our free constitutions of government.” – Noah Webster
“Can the liberties of a nation be secure, when we have removed the conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?” – Thomas Jefferson
[All quotes except the "Star Spangled Banner" from "The Rebirth of America", Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation, 1986]