John Adams (October 30, 1735-July 4, 1826) was the 2nd President of the United States, 1797-1801, being the first president to live in the White House.
John Adams established the Library of Congress and the Department of the Navy; Vice-President under George Washington, 1789-97; a member of the First and Second Continental Congress, 1774, 1775; a signer of the Declaration of Independence, 1776; distinguished for having personally urged Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration, as well as for having recommended George Washington as the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army; authored the Constitution of Massachusetts in 1780; U.S. Minister to France, 1783, having signed the Treaty of Paris, along with John Jay and Benjamin Franklin, which officially ended the Revolutionary War; U.S. Minister to Great Britain, 1784-88, during which time he greatly influenced the American states to ratify the Constitution by writing a three-volume work titled, A Defense of the Constitution of the Government of the United States; married Abigail Smith, 1764; admitted to bar 1758; and graduated from Harvard College, 1755.
On February 22, 1756, John Adams made the entry in his diary:
<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.> 1735JA001
On March 2, 1756, John Adams made the entry in his diary:
<Began this afternoon on my third quarter. The great and Almighty author of nature, who at first established those rules which regulate the world, can as easily suspend those laws whenever his providence sees sufficient reason for such suspension. This can be no objection, then, to the miracles of Jesus Christ.
Although some very thoughtful and contemplative men among the heathen attained a strong persuasion of the great principles of religion, yet the far greater number, having little time for speculation, gradually sunk into the grossest opinions and the grossest practices.
These, therefore, could not be made to embrace the true religion till their attention was roused by some astonishing and miraculous appearances. The reasoning of philosophers, having nothing surprising them, could not overcome the force of prejudice, custom, passion, and bigotry.
But when wise and virtuous men commissioned from heaven, by miracles awakened men's attention to their reasonings, the force of truth made its way with ease to their minds.> 1735JA002
On May 1, 1756, John Adams made the entry in his diary:
<The stupendous plan of operation was projected by Him who rules the universe, and a part assigned to every particle of matter, to act in this great and complicated drama. The Creator looked into the remotest futurity, and saw his great designs accomplished by this inextricable, this mysterious complication of causes.> 1735JA003
On August 29, 1763, John Adams wrote:
<We electors have an important constitutional power placed in our hands: we have a check upon two branches of the legislature....
It becomes necessary to every [citizen] then, to be in some degree a statesman; and to examine and judge for himself...the...political principles and measures. Let us examine them with a sober...Christian spirit.> 1735JA004
In February of 1765, John Adams wrote in his notes on A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law:
<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.> 1735JA005
On February 9, 1772, Sunday, John Adams made the entry in his diary:
<"If I would go to Hell for an eternal moment or so, I might be knighted"-Shakespeare.
By a courtier I mean one who applies himself to the passions and prejudices, the follies and vices of great men in order to obtain their smiles, esteem and patronage, and consequently their favours and preferments....
A Master requires of all who seek his favour an implicit resignation to his will and humor, and these require that he be soothed, flattered, and assisted in his vices and follies, perhaps the blackest crimes that men can commit. The first thought of this will produce in a mind...a soliloquy, something like my
[Shakespearean] motto-as if he should say-The Minister of State or the Governor would promote my interest, would advance me to places of honour and profit, would raise me to titles and dignities that will be perpetuated in my family, in a word would make the fortune of me and my posterity forever, if I would but comply with his desires and become his instruments to promote his measures....
We see every day that our imaginations are so strong and our reason so weak, the charms of wealth and power are so enchanting, and the belief of future punishments so faint that men find ways to persuade themselves to believe any absurdity, to submit to any prostitution, rather than forego their wishes and desires. Their reason becomes at last an eloquent advocate on the side of their passions...bring[ing] themselves to believe that black is white, that vice is virtue,
that folly is wisdom and eternity a moment....
I dread the consequences. [A master] requires of me such compliances, such horrid crimes, such a sacrifice of my honour, my conscience, my friends, my country, my God, as the Scriptures inform us must be punished with nothing less than Hell fire, eternal torment. And this is so unequal a price to pay for the honours and emoluments in the power of a minister or Governor, that I cannot prevail upon myself to think of it. The duration of future punishment terrifies me. If I could but deceive myself so far as to think eternity a moment only, I could comply and be promoted.> 1735JA006
On July 4, 1774, from Patten's at Arundel, John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, the daughter of Reverend William Smith:
<We went to the meeting at Wells and had the pleasure of hearing my friend upon "Be not partakers in other men's sins. Keep yourselves pure."...
We...took our horses to the meeting in the afternoon and heard the minister again upon "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." There is great pleasure in hearing sermons so serious, so clear, so sensible and instructive as these.> 1735JA007
On September 7, 1774, John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, describing the effects of the prayer which opened the first session of the Continental Congress:
<When the Congress met, Mr. Cushing made a motion that it should be opened with Prayer. It was opposed by Mr. Jay of New York, and Mr. Rutledge of South Carolina because we were so divided in religious sentiments, some Episcopalians, some Quakers, some Anabaptists, some Presbyterians, and some Congregationalists, that we could not join in the same act of worship.
Mr. Samuel Adams arose and said that he was no bigot, and could hear a Prayer from any gentleman of Piety and virtue, who was at the same time a friend to his Country. He was a stranger in Philadelphia, but had heard that Mr. Duche' deserved that character and therefore he moved that Mr. Duche', an Episcopal clergyman might be desired to read Prayers to Congress tomorrow morning.
The motion was seconded, and passed in the affirmative. Mr. Randolph, our president, vailed on Mr. Duche', and received for answer, that if his health would permit, he certainly would.
Accordingly, next morning [Reverend Mr. Duche'] appeared with his clerk and in his pontificals, and read several prayers in the established form, and read the collect for the seventh day of September, which was the thirty-fifth Psalm. You must remember, this was the next morning after we heard the horrible rumor of the cannonade of Boston.
I never saw a greater effect upon an audience. It seemed as if heaven had ordained that Psalm to be read on that morning. After this, Mr. Duche', unexpectedly to every body, struck out into an extemporary prayer, which filled the bosom of every man present. I must confess, I never heard a better prayer, or one so well pronounced.
Episcopalian as he is, Dr. Cooper himself [Adams' pastor] never prayed with such fervor, such ardor, such earnestness and pathos, and in language so elegant and sublime, for America, for the Congress, for the province of Massachusetts Bay, and especially the town of Boston. It has had an excellent effect upon everybody here. I must beg you to read that Psalm.> 1735JA008
On October 9, 1774, John Adams wrote from Philadelphia to his wife, Abigail:
<This day I went to Dr. Allison's meeting in the afternoon, and heard the Dr. Francis Allison...give a good discourse upon the Lord's Supper....
I had rather go to Church. We have better sermons, better prayers, better speakers, softer, sweeter music, and genteeler company. And I must confess that the Episcopal church is quite as agreeable to my taste as the Presbyterian....I like the Congregational way best, next to that the Independent...> 1735JA009
In 1774, in his commentary titled, Novanglus: A History of the Dispute with America, from its Origin, in 1754, to the Present Time, John Adams wrote:
<It is the duty of the clergy to accommodate their discourses to the times, to preach against such sins as are most prevalent, and recommend such virtues as are most wanted. For example, if exorbitant ambition and venality are predominant, ought they not to warn their hearers against those vices? If public spirit is much wanted, should they not inculcate this great virtue? If the rights and duties of Christian magistrates and subjects are disputed, should they not explain them, show their nature, ends, limitations, and restrictions, how much soever it may move the gall of Massachusetts.> 1735JA010
On July 12, 1775, in a letter to his wife explaining the Continental Congress' decision to declare a Day of Public Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer, John Adams wrote:
<We have appointed a Continental fast. Millions will be upon their knees at once before their great Creator, imploring His forgiveness and blessing; His smiles on American Council and arms.> 1735JA011
In October of 1775, in a letter to his wife, Abigail, after receiving news of her mother's death, John Adams wrote:
<God almighty grant to you and to every Branch of the Family, all the Support that you want! You and I, my dear, have Reason, if ever Mortals had, to be thoughtful-to look forward beyond the transitory Scene.> 1735JA012
In October of 1775, in a letter to his wife, Abigail, John Adams wrote:
<My opinion of the Duties of Religion and Morality, comprehends a very extensive Connection with society at large, and the great Interest of the public. Does not natural Morality, and much more Christian Benevolence, make it our indispensable Duty to lay ourselves out, to serve our fellow Creatures to the Utmost of our Power, in promoting and supporting those great Political systems, and general Regulations upon which the happiness of Multitudes depends.
The Benevolence, Charity, Capacity and Industry which exerted in private Life, would make a family, a parish or a Town Happy. Employed upon larger Scale, in Support of the great Principles of Virtue and Freedom of political Regulations, might secure whole Nations and Generations from Misery, Want and Contempt. Public Virtues, and political Qualities therefore should be incessantly cherished in our Children.> 1735JA013
In January of 1776, at the request of George Wythe of Virginia, John Adams created a plan to aid the colonies in their transition to a new form of government:
<All sober inquires after truth, ancient and modern, pagan and Christian, have declared that the happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue....If there is a form of government, then, whose principle and foundation is virtue, will not every sober man acknowledge it better calculated to promote the general happiness than any other form?
Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it.
Honor is truly sacred, but holds a lower rank in the scale of moral excellence than virtue. Indeed, the former is a part of the latter.> 1735JA014
On June 21, 1776, John Adams wrote:
<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 inspired into our People in a greater Measure, than they have it now, they may change their Rulers and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty.> 1735JA015
In contemplating the effect that separation from England would mean to him personally, John Adams wrote:
<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!> 1735JA016
On July 1, 1776, in speaking to the delegates of the Thirteen Colonies at the Continental Congress, John Adams stated:
<Before God, I believe the hour has come. My judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it. And I leave off as I began, that live or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration. It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment. Independence now, and Independence for ever!> 1735JA017
On July 3, 1776, the day following Congress' approval of the Declaration of Independence, John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail Adams:
<It is the will of heaven that the two countries should be sundered forever. It may be the will of heaven that America shall suffer calamities still more wasting and distresses yet more dreadful. If this is to be the case, it will have this good effect, at least: it will inspire us with many virtues which we have not, and correct many errors, follies and vices, which threaten to disturb, dishonor and destroy us...The furnace of affliction produces refinements in states, as well as individuals...
You will see in a few days a Declaration setting forth the Causes, which have impell'd Us to this mighty Revolution, and the Reasons which will justify it in the Sight of God and Man.> 1735JA018
On July 3, 1776, John Adams wrote again to his wife, Abigail Adams, reflecting on what he had shared in Congress and, with prophetic insight, declaring the importance of that day:
<The Delay of this Declaration to this Time, has many great Advantages attending it. - The Hopes of Reconciliation, which were fondly entertained by Multitudes of honest and well meaning tho weak and mistaken People, have been gradually and at last totally extinguished.
Time has been given for the whole People, maturely to consider the great Question of Independence and to ripen their judgments, dissipate their Fears, and allure their Hopes, by discussing it in News Papers and Pamphletts, by debating it, in Assemblies, Conventions, Committees of Safety and Inspection, in Town and County Meetings, as well as in private Conversations, so that the whole People in every Colony of the 13, have now adopted it, as their own Act. This will cement the Union, and avoid those Heats and perhaps Convulsions which might have been occasioned, by such a Declaration Six Months ago. But the Day is past.
The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shews, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this time forward forever more." John Adams continued: "You will think me transported with enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure, that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is more than worth all the means. And that Posterity will triumph in that Days Transaction, even although we should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.> 1735JA019
John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail, from Philadelphia, on Saturday evening, April 26, 1777:
<I have been lately more remiss than usual in writing to you. There has been a great dearth of news. Nothing from England, nothing from France, Spain or any other part of Europe, nothing from the West Indies nothing from Howe and his banditti, nothing from General Washington. There are various conjectures that Lord Howe is dead, sick, or gone to England, as the proclamations run in the name of Will. Howe only, and nobody from New York can tell any thing of his lordship.
I am wearied out with expectations that the Massachusetts troops would have arrived, ere now, at Head Quarters. Do our people intend to leave the continent in the lurch? Do they mean to submit? or what fatality attends them? With the noblest prize in view that ever mortals contended for, and with the fairest prospect of obtaining it upon easy terms, the people of the Massachusetts Bay are dead. Docs our state intend to send only half, or a third of their quota - Do they wish to see another crippled, disastrous and disgraceful campaign, for want of an army? I am more sick and more ashamed of my own countrymen, than ever I was before. The spleen, the vapors, the dismals, the horrors seem to have seized our whole state. More wrath than terror has seized me. I am very mad. The gloomy cowardice of the times is intolerable in New England.
Indeed I feel not a little out of humor from indisposition of body. You know I cannot pass a spring, or fall without an ill turn, and I have had one these four or five weeks. A cold as usual. Warm weather and a little exercise with a little medicine, I suppose, will cure me, as usual. I am not confined, but mope about and drudge, as usual, like a galley slave. I am a fool, if ever there was one, to be such a slave. I won t be much longer. I will be more free in some world or other. Is it not intolerable, that the opening spring, which I should enjoy with my wife and children, upon my little farm, should pass away, and laugh at me for laboring, day after day, and month after month, in a conclave, where neither taste, nor fancy, nor reason, nor passion, nor appetite can be gratified?
Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it.> 1735JA220
In 1777, Dr. Benjamin Rush wrote his comments regarding John Adams:
<He was a stranger to dissimulation, and appeared to be more jealous of his reputation for integrity than for talents or knowledge. He was strictly moral, and at all times respectful to religion. In speaking of the probable issue of the war he said to me in Baltimore in the winter of 1777, "We shall succeed in our struggle, provided we repent of our sins, and forsake them," and then he added, "I will see it out, or go to heaven in its ruins."> 1735JA020
On September 11, 1777, John Adams, along with Daniel Roberdeau and Jonathan Bayard Smith, were on a Committee that reported to the Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia that they:
<...conferred fully with the printers, etc., in this city and are of the opinion, that the proper types for printing the Bible are not to be had in this country, and that the paper cannot be procured, but with such difficulties and subject to such casualties as render any dependence on it altogether improper.> 1735JA120
The Committee recommended:
<The use of the Bible is so universal and its importance so great that your committee refers the above to the consideration of Congress...The Committee recommends that Congress will order the Committee of Commerce to import 20,000 Bibles from Holland, Scotland, or elsewhere, into the different parts of the States of the Union. Whereupon it was resolved accordingly to direct said Committee of Commerce to import 20,000 copies of the Bible.> 1735JA121
On June 2, 1778, while in Paris, John Adams made the entry in his diary:
<In vain are Schools, Academies, and Universities instituted, if loose Principles and licentious habits are impressed upon Children in their earliest years....The Vices and Examples of the Parents cannot be concealed from the
Children. How is it possible that Children can have any just Sense of the sacred Obligations of Morality or Religion if, from their earliest Infancy, they learn their Mothers live in habitual Infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as constant Infidelity to their Mothers?> 1735JA021
In 1780, in An Address of the Convention for Framing A New Constitution of Government For the State of Massachusetts-Bay to the Constituents, John Adams stated:
<The debates were managed by persons of various denominations....[and the] delegates did not conceive themselves to be vested with power to set up one denomination of Christians above another.> 1735JA022
In advising his wife, Abigail, concerning their sons, John Adams wrote:
<Let them revere nothing but Religion, Morality and Liberty.> 1735JA023
On July 12, 1782, in a letter written from Holland, John Adams twice referred to politics as:
<A divine science.> 1735JA024
On September 3, 1783, John Adams, along with Benjamin Franklin and John Jay, signed the Treaty of Paris, ratified by Congress January 14, 1784, which officially ended the War with the British:
<In the name of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity. It having pleased the Divine Providence to dispose the hearts of the most serene and most potent Prince George the Third, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith,...and of the United States of America, to forget all past misunderstandings and differences....Done at Paris, this third day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three.
D. Hartley John Adams
B. Franklin
John Jay.> 1735JA025
On December 11, 1795, Vice-President John Adams, as President of the Senate, addressed President Washington:
<Circumstances thus every way auspicious demand our gratitude and sincere acknowledgements to Almighty God.> 1735JA026
On July 26, 1796, retorting Thomas Paine's assertions, Vice-President John Adams made the entry in his diary:
<The Christian religion is, above all the Religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of Wisdom, Virtue, Equity, and Humanity. Let the Blackguard Paine say what he will; it is Resignation to God, it is Goodness itself to Man.> 1735JA027
On August 14, 1796, Vice-President John Adams made the entry in his diary:
<One great advantage of the Christian religion is that it brings the great principle of the law of nature and nations-Love your neighbor as yourself and do to others as you would that others should do to you,-to the knowledge, belief, and veneration of the whole people...
No other institution for education, no kind of political discipline, could diffuse this kind of necessary information, so universally among all ranks and descriptions of citizens. The duties and rights of the man and the citizen are thus taught from early infancy to every creature.
The sanctions of a future life are thus added to the observance of civil and political, as well as domestic and private duties. Prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude, are thus taught to be the means and conditions of future as well as present happiness.> 1735JA028
John Adams made the entry in his diary entry:
<[Investigation is] the proper business of mankind in this life....I am resolved not to neglect my time as I did last year. I am resolved to rise with the sun and to study the Scriptures on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings, and to study some Latin author on the other three mornings, Noons and nights. I intend to read English authors.> 1735JA029
On December 10, 1796, Vice-President John Adams, as President of the U.S. Senate, addressed President George Washington:
<We thank you, sir, for your faithful and detailed exposure of the existing situation of our country, and we sincerely join in sentiments of gratitude to an overruling Providence for the distinguished share of public prosperity and private happiness which the people of the United States so peculiarly enjoy.> 1735JA030
On Saturday, March 4, 1797, in his Inaugural Address, given in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, President John Adams stated:
<Relying, however, on the purity of their intentions, the justice of their cause, and the integrity and intelligence of the people, under an overruling Providence which had so signally protected this country from the first, the representatives of this nation, then consisting of little more than half its present number, not only broke to pieces the chains which were forging and the rod of iron that was lifted up, but frankly cut asunder the ties which had bound them, and launched into an ocean of uncertainty....
If a love of science and letters and a wish to patronize every rational effort to encourage schools, colleges, universities, academies, and every institution for propagating knowledge, virtue and religion among all classes of the people, not only for their benign influence on the happiness of life in all its stages and classes, and of society in all its forms, but as the only means of preserving our Constitution from its natural enemies, the spirit of sophistry, the spirit of party, the spirit of intrigue, the profligacy of corruption, and the pestilence of foreign influence, which is the angel of destruction to elective governments...
With humble reverence, I feel it to be my duty to add, if a veneration for the religion of a people who profess and call themselves Christians, and a fixed resolution to consider a decent respect for Christianity among the best recommendations for the public service, can enable me in any degree to comply with your wishes, it shall be my strenuous endeavor that this sagacious injunction of the two Houses shall not be without effect....
And may that Being who is supreme over all, the Patron of Order, the Fountain of Justice, and the Protector in all ages of the world of virtuous liberty, continue His blessings upon this nation and its Government and give it all possible success and duration consistent with the ends of His Providence.> 1735JA031
On May 16, 1797, in a Special Session Message to Congress, President John Adams stated:
<We have still abundant cause of gratitude to the Supreme Dispenser of National Blessings for general health and promising seasons, for domestic and social happiness, for the rapid progress and ample acquisitions of industry through extensive territories, for civil, political, and religious liberty....
To enable me to maintain this declaration I rely, under God, with entire confidence on the firm and enlightened support of the National Legislature and upon the virtue and patriotism of my fellow-citizens.> 1735JA032
On May 23, 1797, the U.S. Senate, led by Vice-President Thomas Jefferson, addressed President John Adams:
<And the Senate can not suffer the present occasion to pass without thus publicly and solemnly expressing their attachment to the Constitution and Government of their country; and as they hold themselves responsible to their constituents, their consciences, and their God, it is their determination by all their exertions to repel every attempt to alienate the affections of the people from the Government, so highly injurious to the honor, safety, and independence of the United States.> 1735JA033
On May 24, 1797, in a reply to the U.S. Senate, President John Adams stated:
<In a humble reliance on Divine Providence we may rest assured that while we reiterate with sincerity our endeavors to accommodate all our differences with France, the independence of our country can not be diminished, its dignity degraded, or its glory tarnished by any nation or combination of nations, whether friends or enemies.> 1735JA034
On November 22, 1797, in his First Annual Address to Congress, President John Adams stated:
<We have, nevertheless, abundant cause of gratitude to the Source of Benevolence and influence for interior tranquillity and personal security, for propitious seasons, prosperous agriculture, productive fisheries, and general improvements, and, above all, for a rational spirit of civil and religious liberty and a calm but steady determination to support our sovereignty, as well as our moral and our religious principles, against all open and secret attacks....
Nothing, in the meantime, will contribute so much to the preservation of peace and the attainment of justice as a manifestation of that energy and unanimity of which on many former occasions the people of the United States have given such memorable proofs, and the exertion of those resources for national defense which a beneficent Providence has kindly placed within their power....
Whatever may be the issue of the negotiation with France, and whether the war in Europe is or is not to continue, I hold it most certain that permanent tranquillity and order will not soon be obtained. The state of society has so long been disturbed, the sense of moral and religious obligations so much weakened, public faith and national honor have been so impaired, respect to treatise has been so diminished, and the law of nations has lost so much of its force, while pride, ambition, avarice, and violence have been so long unrestrained, there remains no reasonable ground on which to raise an expectation that a commerce without protection or defense will not be plundered.> 1735JA035
On November 27, 1797, the U.S. Senate addressed President John Adams:
<We have abundant cause of gratitude to the Great Disposer of Human Events for interior tranquillity and personal security, for propitious seasons, prosperous agriculture, productive fisheries, and general improvement, and above all, for a rational spirit of civil and religious liberty and a calm but steady determination to support our sovereignty against all open and secret attacks.> 1735JA036
On Friday, March 23, 1798, President John Adams issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer:
<As the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God, and the national acknowledgement of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to Him, but a duty whose natural influence is favorable to the promotion of that morality and piety without which social happiness can not exist nor the blessings of a free government be enjoyed;
And as this duty, at all times incumbent, is so especially in seasons of difficulty or of danger, when existing or threatening calamities, the just judgments of God against prevalent iniquity, are a loud call to repentance and reformation;
And as the United States of America are at present placed in a hazardous and afflictive situation by the unfriendly disposition, conduct, and demands of a foreign power, evinced by repeated refusals to receive our messengers of reconciliation and peace, by depredations on our commerce, and the infliction of injuries on very many of our fellow-citizens while engaged in their lawful business on the seas-under these conditions it has appeared to me that the duty of imploring the mercy and benediction of Heaven on our country demands at this time a special attention from its inhabitants.
I have therefore thought fit to recommend, and I do hereby recommend, that Wednesday, the 9th day of May next, be observed throughout the United States as a day of solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer;
That the citizens of these States, abstaining on that day from their customary worldly occupations, offer their devout addresses to the Father of Mercies agreeably to those forms or methods which they have severally adopted as the most suitable and becoming;
That all religious congregations do, with the deepest humility, acknowledge before God the manifold sins and transgressions with which we are justly chargeable as individuals and as a nation, beseeching Him at the same time, of His infinite grace, through the Redeemer of the World, freely to remit all our offenses, and to incline us by His Holy Spirit to that sincere repentance and reformation which may afford us reason to hope for His inestimable favor and heavenly benediction;
That our civil and religious privileges may be preserved inviolate and perpetuated to the latest generations;
That our public councils and magistrates may be especially enlightened and directed at this critical period;
That the American people may be united in those bonds of amity and mutual confidence and inspired with that vigor and fortitude by which they have in times past been so highly distinguished and by which they have obtained such invaluable advantages;
That the health of the inhabitants of our land may be preserved, and their agriculture, commerce, fisheries, arts, and manufactures be blessed and prospered;
That the principles of genuine piety and sound morality may influence the minds and govern the lives of every description of our citizens, and that the blessings of peace, freedom, and pure religion may be speedily extended to all the nations of the earth.
And finally, I recommend that on the said day the duties of humiliation and prayer be accompanied by fervent thanksgiving to the Bestower of Every Good Gift, not only for His having hitherto protected and preserved the people of these United States in the independent enjoyment of their religious and civil freedom, but also for having prospered them in a wonderful progress of population, and for conferring on them many and great favors conducive to the happiness and prosperity of a nation.
Given under my hand and the seal of the United States of America, at Philadelphia, this 23d day of March, A.D. 1798, and of the Independence of the said States the twenty-second. John Adams.
By the President: Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State.> 1735JA037
On October 11, 1798, President John Adams stated in a letter to the officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts:
<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.> 1735JA038
On December 8, 1798, in his Second Annual Address to Congress, President John Adams stated:
<While with reverence and resignation we contemplate the dispensations of Divine Providence in the alarming and destructive pestilence with which several of our cities and towns have been visited, there is cause for gratitude and mutual congratulations that the malady has disappeared and that we are again permitted to assemble in safety at the seat of Government for the discharge of our important duties....
While we think on this calamity and sympathize with the immediate suffers, we have abundant reason to present to the Supreme Being our annual oblations of gratitude for a liberal participation in the ordinary blessings of His providence.> 1735JA039
On December 11, 1798, the U.S. Senate addressed President John Adams:
<The Senate of the United States join you in thanks to Almighty God for the removal of the late afflicting dispensations of His providence and for the patriotic spirit and general prosperity of our country.> 1735JA040
On December 13, 1798, the U.S. House of Representatives addressed President John Adams:
<While with you we recognize our abundant cause of gratitude to the Supreme Disposer of Events for the ordinary blessings of Providence, we regard as of high national importance the manifestations in our country of a magnanimous spirit of resistance to foreign domination....
Disdaining a reliance on foreign protection, wanting no foreign guaranty of our liberties, resolving to maintain our national independence against every attempt to despoil us of this inestimable treasure, we confide under Providence in the patriotism and energies of the people of these United States for defeating the hostile enterprises of any foreign power.> 1735JA041
On Wednesday, March 6, 1799, President John Adams issued a Proclamation of a National a Day of Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer:
<As no truth is more clearly taught in the Volume of Inspiration, nor any more fully demonstrated by the experience of all ages, than that a deep sense and a due acknowledgment of the growing providence of a Supreme Being and of the accountableness of men to Him as the searcher of hearts and righteous distributer of rewards and punishments are conducive equally to the happiness and rectitude of individuals and to the well-being of communities;
As it is also most reasonable in itself that men who are made capable of social acts and relations, who owe their improvements to the social state, and who derive their enjoyments from it, should, as a society, make their acknowledgments of dependence and obligation to Him who hath endowed them with these capacities and elevated them in the scale of existence by these distinctions;
As it is likewise a plain dictate of duty and a strong sentiment of nature that in circumstances of great urgency and seasons on imminent danger earnest and particular supplications should be made to Him who is able to defend or to destroy;
As, moreover, the most precious interests of the people of the United States are still held in jeopardy by the hostile designs and insidious acts of a foreign nation, as well as by the dissemination among them of those principles, subversive to the foundations of all religious, moral, and social obligations, that have produced incalculable mischief and misery in other countries;
And as, in fine, the observance of special seasons for public religious solemnities is happily calculated to avert the evils which we ought to deprecate, and to excite to the performance of the duties which we ought to discharge, by calling and fixing the attention of the people at large to the momentous truths already recited, by affording opportunity to teach and inculcate them by animating devotion and giving to it the character of a national act:
For these reasons I have thought proper to recommend, and I hereby recommend accordingly, that Thursday, the twenty-fifth day of April next, be observed throughout the United States of America as a day of solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer;
That the citizens on that day abstain, as far as may be, from their secular occupation, and devote the time to the sacred duties of religion, in public and in private;
That they call to mind our numerous offenses against the Most High God, confess them before Him with the sincerest penitence, implore His pardoning mercy, through the Great Mediator and Redeemer, for our past transgressions, and that through the grace of His Holy Spirit, we may be disposed and enabled to yield a more suitable obedience to His righteous requisitions in time to come;
That He would interpose to arrest the progress of that impiety and licentiousness in principle and practice so offensive to Himself and so ruinous to mankind;
That He would make us deeply sensible that "righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people"[Proverbs 14:34];
That He would turn us from our transgressions and turn His displeasure from us;
That He would withhold us from unreasonable discontent, from disunion, faction, sedition, and insurrection;
That He would preserve our country from the desolating sword;
That He would save our cities and towns from a repetition of those awful pestilential visitations under which they have lately suffered so severely, and that the health of our inhabitants generally may be precious in His sight;
That He would favor us with fruitful seasons and so bless the labors of the husbandman as that there may be food in abundance for man and beast;
That He would prosper our commerce, manufactures, and fisheries, and give success to the people in all their lawful industry and enterprise;
That He would smile on our colleges, academies, schools, and seminaries of learning, and make them nurseries of sound science, morals, and religion;
That He would bless all magistrates, from the highest to the lowest, give them the true spirit of their station, make them a terror to evil doers and a praise to them that do well;
That He would preside over the councils of the nation at this critical period, enlighten them to a just discernment of the public interest, and save them from mistake, division, and discord;
That He would make succeed our preparations for defense and bless our armaments by land and sea;
That He would put and end to the effusion of human blood and the accumulation of human misery among the contending nations of the earth by disposing them to justice, to equity, to benevolence, and to peace;
And that He would extend the blessings of knowledge, of true liberty, and of pure and undefiled religion throughout the world.
And I do also recommend that with these acts of humiliation, penitence, and prayer, fervent thanksgiving to the Author of All Good be united for the countless favors which He is still continuing to the people of the United States, and which render their condition as a nation eminently happy when compared with the lot of others. Given, etc.> 1735JA042
On December 3, 1799, in his Third Annual Address to Congress, President John Adams stated:
<The flattering prospects of abundance from the labors of the people by land and by sea; the prosperity of our extended commerce, notwithstanding interruptions occasioned by the belligerent state of a great part of the world; the return of health, industry, and trade to those cities which have lately been afflicted with disease, and the various and inestimable advantages, civil and religious, which, secured under our happy frame of government, are continued to us unimpaired, demand of the whole American people sincere thanks to a benevolent Deity for the merciful dispensations of His Providence.> 1735JA043
On December 9, 1799, the U.S. Senate addressed President John Adams:
<We devoutly join you in offering our thanks to Almighty God for the return of health to our cities and for the general prosperity of the country.> 1735JA044
On December 9, 1799, the U.S. House of Representatives addressed President John Adams:
<While the House of Representatives contemplate the flattering prospects of abundance from the labors of the people by land and by sea, the prosperity of our extended commerce notwithstanding the interruptions occasioned by the belligerent state of a great part of the world, the return of health, industry, and trade to those cities which have lately been afflicted with disease, and the various and inestimable advantages, civil and religious, which, secured under our happy frame of Government, are continued to us unimpaired, we can not fail to offer up to a benevolent Deity our sincere thanks for these the merciful dispensations of His protecting Providence....
We offer up our fervent prayers to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe for the success of their embassy, and that it may be productive of peace and happiness to our common country. The uniform tenor of your conduct through a life useful to your fellow-citizens and honorable to yourself gives a sure pledge of the sincerity with which the avowed objects of the negotiations will be pursued on your part, and we earnestly pray that similar dispositions may be displayed on the part of France.> 1735JA045
On December 10, 1799, in a reply to the U.S. House of Representatives, President John Adams stated:
<We may be sure, under the smiles of Divine Providence, that we shall effectually promote and extend our national interest and happiness.> 1735JA046
On December 19, 1799, in a message to Congress, President John Adams stated:
<The letter herewith transmitted will inform you that it has pleased Divine Providence to remove from this life our excellent fellow-citizen, George Washington, by the purity of his character and a long series of services to his country rendered illustrious through the world. It remains for an affectionate and grateful people, in whose hearts he can never die, to pay suitable honors to his memory.> 1735JA047
On December 23, 1799, the U.S. Senate addressed President John Adams:
<The Senate of the United States respectfully take leave, sir, to express to you their deep regret for the loss their country sustains in the death of General George Washington....
Our country mourns her father. The Almighty Disposer of Human Events has taken from us our greatest benefactor and ornament. It becomes us to submit with reverence to Him....
Favored of Heaven, he departed without exhibiting the weakness of humanity. Magnanimous in death, the darkness of the grave could not obscure his brightness. Such was the man whom we deplore. Thanks to God, his glory is consummated. Washington yet lives on earth in his spotless example; his spirit is in Heaven.> 1735JA048
On December 23, 1799, in an address to the U.S. Senate, President John Adams stated:
<Among all our original associates in that memorable league of the continent in 1774, which first expressed the sovereign will of a free nation in America, he was the only one remaining in the General Government. Although with a constitution more enfeebled than his at an age when he thought it necessary to prepare for retirement, I feel myself alone bereaved of my last brother....For his fellow-citizens, if their prayers could have been answered, he would have been immortal....Trusting, however, in the wise and righteous dominion of Providence over the passions of men and the results of their councils and actions, as well as over their lives, nothing remains from me but humble resignation.> 1735JA049
On January 8, 1800, in a message to Congress, President John Adams stated:
<In compliance with the request in one of the resolutions of Congress of the 21st of December last, I transmitted a copy of these resolutions, by my secretary, Mr. Shaw, to Mrs. Washington, assuring her of the profound respect Congress will ever bear to her person and character, of their condolence in the late afflicting dispensation of Providence, and entreating her assent to the interment of the remains of General George Washington in the manner expressed in the first resolution. As the sentiments of that virtuous lady, not less beloved by this nation than she is at present greatly afflicted, can never be so well expressed as in her own words, I transmit to Congress her original letter.> 1735JA050
On December 31, 1799, from Mount Vernon, Martha Washington wrote to President John Adams:
<Sir: While I feel with keenest anguish the late dispensation of Divine Providence, I can not be insensible to the mournful tributes of respect and veneration which are paid to the memory of my dear deceased husband; and as his best services and most anxious wishes were always devoted to the welfare and happiness of his country, to know that they were truly appreciated and gratefully remembered affords no inconsiderable consolation.
Taught by the great example which I have so long had before me never to oppose my private wishes to the public will, I must consent to the request made by Congress, which you have had the goodness to transmit to me; and in doing this I need not, I can not, say what a sacrifice of individual feeling I make to a sense of public duty.
With grateful acknowledgments and unfeigned thanks for the personal respect and evidence of condolence expressed by Congress and yourself, I remain, very respectfully, sir, your most obedient, humble servant. Martha Washington.> 1735JA051
On November 1, 1800, John Adams became the first U.S. President to move into the White House. The following day he wrote a letter to his wife, a portion of which was inscribed on the mantlepiece of the State Dining Room by President Franklin D. Roosevelt:
<I pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.> 1735JA052
On November 22, 1800, in his Fourth Annual Address to Congress, which began the first session of Congress in the new Capitol of Washington, in the District of Columbia, President John Adams stated:
<It would be unbecoming the representatives of this nation to assemble for the first time in this solemn temple without looking up to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe and imploring His blessing. May this territory be the residence of virtue and happiness! In this city may that piety and virtue, that wisdom and magnanimity, that constancy and self-government, which adorned the great character whose name it bears be forever held in veneration! Here and throughout our country may simple manners, pure morals, and true religion flourish forever!> 1735JA053
On November 25, 1800, the U.S. Senate addressed President John Adams:
<Sir: Impressed with the important truth that the hearts of rulers and people are in the hand of the Almighty, the Senate of the United States most cordially join in your invocations for blessings upon the Government and people of this Union. We meet you, sir, and the other branch of the National Legislature in the city which is honored by the name of our late hero and sage, the illustrious Washington, with sensations and emotions which exceed our power of description....
Great indeed would have been our gratification if his sum of earthly happiness had been completed by seeing the Government thus peaceably convened at this place; but we derive consolation from a belief that the moment in which we were destined to experience the loss we deplore was fixed by that Being whose counsels can not err, and from a hope that since in this seat of Government, which bears his name, his earthly remains will be deposited, the members of Congress, and all who inhabit the city, with these memorials before them, will retain his virtues in lively recollection, and make his patriotism, morals, and piety models for imitation.
And permit us to add, sir, that it is not among the least of our consolations that you, who have been his companion and friend from the dawning of our national existence, and trained in the same school of exertion to effect our independence, are still preserved by a gracious Providence in health and activity to exercise the functions of Chief Magistrate....
And we trust that, under the protection of Divine Providence the wisdom and virtue of the citizens of the United States will deliver our national compact unimpaired to a grateful posterity.> 1735JA054
On November 26, 1800, in an address to the U.S. Senate, President John Adams stated:
<With you I deplore the death of that hero and sage who bore so honorable and efficient a part in the establishment of both. Great indeed would have been my gratification if his sum of earthly happiness had been completed by seeing the Government thus peaceably convened at this place, himself at its head; but while we submit to the decisions of Heaven, whose councils are inscrutable to us, we can not but hope that the members of Congress, the officers of Government, and all who inhabit the city or the country will retain his virtues in lively recollection and make his patriotism, morals, and piety models for imitation....
With you I trust that under the protection of Divine Providence the wisdom and virtue of our citizens will deliver our national compact unimpaired to a free, prosperous, happy, and grateful posterity. To this end it is my fervent prayer that in this city the foundations of wisdom may be always opened and the streams of eloquence forever flow.> 1735JA055
On January 24, 1801, in a letter to George Churchman and Jacob Lindley regarding slavery, John Adams stated:
<My opinion against it has always been known....Never in my life did I own a slave.> 1735JA056
On February 16, 1809, in a letter to Judge F.A. Van der Kemp, John Adams wrote:
< I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations. If I were an atheist of another sect... I should still believe that chance had ordered the Jews to preserve and propagate for all mankind the doctrine of a supreme, intelligent, wise almighty sovereign of the universe, which I believe to be the great essential principle of all morality, and consequently of all civilization… They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this earth. The Romans and their Empire were but a bauble in comparison to the Jews. They have given religion to three quarters of the globe and have influenced the affairs of mankind more, and more happily than any other nation, ancient or modern.> 1735JA057
On January 21, 1810, in a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush, John Adams wrote:
<The Christian Religion, as I understand it, is the brightest of the glory and the express portrait of the eternal, self-evident, independent, benevolent, all- powerful and all-merciful Creator, Preserver and Father of the Universe, the first good, first perfect, and first fair. It will last as long as the world. Neither savage nor civilized man could ever have discovered or invented it. Ask me not then whether I am a Catholic or Protestant, Calvinist or Arminian. As far as they are Christians, I wish to be a fellow disciple of them all.> 1735JA058
On August 28, 1811, in a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush, John Adams wrote:
<Religion and virtue are the only foundations, not only of republicanism and of all free government, but of social felicity under all governments and In all the combinations of human society.> 1735JA059
In a letter to Mr. Warren, John Adams stated:
<The Form of Government, which you admire, when its Principles are pure is admirable, indeed, it is productive of every Thing which is great and excellent among Men. But its Principles are as easily destroyed, as human Nature is corrupted....A Government is only to be supported by pure Religion or Austere Morals. Private, and public Virtue is the only Foundation of Republics.> 1735JA060
On June 28, 1813, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, John Adams wrote:
<The general principles, on which the fathers achieved Independence, were the only principles in which that beautiful assembly of young gentlemen could unite, and these principles only could be intended by them in their address, or by me in my answer. And what were these general principles? I answer, the general principles of Christianity in which all these sects were united: and, the general principles of English and American liberty, in which all these young men united, and which had united all parties in America, in majorities sufficient to assert and maintain her Independence.
Now 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 and our terrestrial, mundane System.
I could therefore safely say, consistently with all my then and present information, that I believed they would never make discoveries in contradiction of these general principles. In favour of these general principles in philosophy, religion and government, I could fill sheets of quotations from Frederick of Prussia, from Hume, Gibbon, Bolingbroke, Rousseau and Voltaire, as well as Newton and Locke: not to mention thousands of Divines and philosophers of inferiour fame.> 1735JA061
John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson in 1819:
<Have you ever found in history, one single example of a Nation thoroughly corrupted that was afterwards restored to virtue?...And without virtue, there can be no political liberty....Will you tell me how to prevent riches from becoming the effects of temperance and industry?
Will you tell me how to prevent luxury from producing effeminacy, intoxication, extravagance, vice and folly?...I believe no effort in favour of virtue is lost.> 1735JA062
On September 14, 1813, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, John Adams wrote:
<My adoration of the author of the Universe is too profound and too sincere. The love of God and his creation-delight, joy, triumph, exultation in my own existence-though but an atom, a molecule organique, in the Universe-these are my religion.> 1735JA063
On December 3, 1813, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, John Adams wrote:
<Allegiance to the Creator and Governor of the Milky-Way, and the Nebulae, and benevolence to all his creatures, is my Religion.> 1735JA064
John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson, December 25, 1813, ridiculing the theology of Joseph Priestley:
<Priestley ought to have done impartial justice to philosophy and philosophers, philosophy which is the result of reason, is the first, the original Revelation of the Creator to his creature, man. When this Revelation is clear and certain, by intuition or necessary induction, no subsequent Revelation supported by prophecies or miracles can supercede it.
Philosophy is not only the love of wisdom, but the science of the universe and its cause. There is, there was and there will be but one Master of philosophy in the universe. Portions of it, in different degrees are revealed to creatures. Philosophy looks with an impartial eye on all terrestrial religions.
I have examined all religions, as well as my narrow sphere, my straightened means and my busy life would allow me; and the result is, that the Bible is the best book in the world. It contains more of my little philosophy than all the libraries I have seen...
Priestley ought to have given us a sketch of the religion and morals of Zoraster, of Sanchoniathon, of Confucius, and all the founders of religions before Christ, whose superiority would from such a comparison have appeared the more transcendent. Priestley ought to have told us that Pythagoras passed twenty years, in his travels in India, in Egypt, in Chaldea, perhaps in Sodom and Gomorrah, Tyre and Sidon.
He ought to have told us that in India he conversed with the Brahmans and read the Shasta, 5000 years old, written in the language of the sacred sanscrists with the elegance and sentiments of Plato. Where is to be found theology more orthodox or philosophy more profound that in the introduction to the Shasta?
'God is one, creator of all, universal sphere, without beginning, without end. God governs all the creation by a general providence, resulting from his eternal designs. - Search not the essence and the nature of the Eternal, who is one; your research will be vain and presumptuous. It is enough, that, day by day, and night by night, you adore his power, his wisdom and his goodness, in his works.'
'The Eternal willed, in the fullness of time, to communicate of his essence and of his Splendor, to beings capable of perceiving it. They as yet existed not. The Eternal willed, and they were. He created Birma, Vitsnow, and Sib.'
These doctrines, sublime if ever there were any sublime, Pythagoras learned in India and taught them to Zalecus and his other disciples. He there learned also his Metempsychosis, but this never was popular, never made much progress in Greece or Italy, or any other country besides India and Tartary, the region of the grand immortal Lama:
And how does this differ, from the possessions of demons in Greece and Rome, from the demon of Socrates, from the worship of cows and crocodiles in Egypt and elsewhere. After migrating through various animals from elephants to serpents according to their behaviour, souls that at last behaved well became men and women, and then if they were good, they went to heaven. All ended in heaven if they became virtuous. Who can wonder at the Widow of Malabar. Where is the Lady, who, if her faith were without doubt, that she should go to heaven with her husband on the one, or migrate into a toad or a waspe on the other, would not lay down on the pile and set fire to the fuel?
Modifications and disguises of the Metempsychosis had crept into Egypt and Greece and Rome and other countries...> 1735JA065
In 1814, in letter number 16 of a thirty-two letter series refuting John Taylor's critical book against Adams' policies, John Adams wrote:
<Religion, however, has been so universally associated with government, that it is impossible to separate them in this inquiry.> 1735JA066
On January 13, 1815, in a letter to Judge F.A. Van der Kemp, John Adams stated:
<I have searched after truth by every means and by every opportunity in my power, and with a sincerity and impartiality, for which I can appeal to God, my adored Maker.
My religion is founded on the love of God and my neighbor; in the hope of pardon for my offenses; upon contrition; upon the duty as well as the necessity of supporting with patience the inevitable evils of life; in the duty of doing no wrong, but all the good I can, to the creation, of which I am but an infinitesimal part. I believe, too, in a future state of rewards and punishments....> 1735JA067
On June 20, 1815, John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson:
<The question before the human race is, whether the God of nature shall govern the world by His own laws.> 1735JA068
On May 6, 1816, John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson:
<Grief drives men into habits of serious reflection, sharpens the understanding, and softens the heart; it compels them to rouse their reason, to assert its empire over their passions, propensities and prejudices, to elevate them to a superiority over all human events, to give them the ‘felicis animi immotam tranquilitatem’ (‘the imperturbable tranquility of a happy heart’): in short, to make them stoics and Christians.> 1735JA168
On August 9, 1816, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, John Adams wrote:
<Let us then wish for immortality at all hazards, and trust the Ruler with his skies. I do; and earnestly wish for his commands, which to the utmost of my power shall be implicitly and piously obeyed.> 1735JA069
On November 4, 1816, John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson:
<Conclude not from all this that I have renounced the Christian religion. Far from it. I see in every page something to recommend Christianity in its purity, and something to discredit its corruptions...The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount contain my religion.> 1735JA070
On December 27, 1816, in a letter to Judge F.A. Van de Kemp, John Adams wrote:
<As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation....Let it once be revealed or demonstrated that there is no future state, and my advice to every man, woman, and child, would be, as our existence would be in our own power, to take opium. For, I am certain there is nothing in this world worth living for but hope, and every hope will fail us, if the last hope, that of a future state, is extinguished.> 1735JA071
On April 19, 1817, John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson:
<Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company...The most abandoned scoundrel that ever existed, never yet wholly extinguished his Conscience and while Conscience remains, there is some religion.> 1735JA072
On October 7, 1818, John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson:
<Now, sir, for my griefs! The dear partner of my life for 54 years as a wife and for many more as a lover, now lies in extremis, forbidden to speak or to be spoken to...If human life is a bubble, no matter how soon it breaks, if it is, as I firmly believe, an immortal existence, we ought patiently to wait the instructions of the great Teacher.
I am, Sir, your deeply afflicted friend, John Adams.> 1735JA073
John Adams wrote:
<That you and I shall meet in a better world I have no doubt than we now exist on the same globe; if my reason did not convince me of this, Cicero's Dream of Scipio, and his Essay on Friendship and Old Age would have been sufficient for that purpose. But Jesus taught us that a future state is a social state, when He promised to prepare places in His Father's house of many mansions, for His disciples.> 1735JA074
<The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God...anarchy and tyranny commence. Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist.> 1735JA075
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were on opposite sides of several major political issues, and many times engaged in heated debates. John Adams, the 2nd President, was succeeded in office by Thomas Jefferson. So strong were his feelings against Jefferson at the time, that Adams even left Washington, D.C., to avoid being at Jefferson's Inauguration.
Later in life, though, the two became the best of friends. Their correspondence reveals, not only their faith, but also their friendship. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on the same day, July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after they had signed the Declaration of Independence. Once a hardened political opponent of Jefferson's, John Adams' last words were:
<Thank God, Jefferson lives!> 1735JA076
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1735JA001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. February 22, 1756, in a diary entry. L.H. Butterfield, ed., Diary and Autobiography of John Adams (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard Press, 1961), Vol. III, p. 9. L.H. Butterfield, The Earliest Diary of John Adams (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1966), Vol. 1, p. 9. Life and Works of John Adams, Vol. XI, pp. 6-7. Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, OR: American Heritage Ministries, 1987; Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas, 78163), p. 2. D.P. Diffine, Ph.D., One Nation Under God-How Close a Separation? (Searcy, Arkansas: Harding University, Belden Center for Private Enterprise Education, 6th edition, 1992), p. 6.
1735JA002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. March 2, 1756, in a diary entry. Norman Cousins, In God We Trust-The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1958), p. 81.
1735JA003. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. May 1, 1756, in a diary entry. Norman Cousins, In God We Trust-The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1958), p. 83.
1735JA004. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. August 29, 1763. Taylor, ed., The Papers of John Adams, Vol. 1, p. 81.
1735JA005. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. February 1765, in his notes for A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law. Benjamin Franklin Morris, The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States (Philadelphia: George W. Childs, 1864), p. 109. John Bartlett, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 380. Norman Cousins, In God We Trust-The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1958), p. 84. Earnest Lee Tuveson, Redeemer Nation, (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1974), p. 25. Gary DeMar, God and Government-A Biblical and Historical Study (Atlanta, GA: American Vision Press, 1982), p. 117. John Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution-The Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, A Mott Media Book, 1987; 6th printing, 1993), p. 266. Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Glory of America (Bloomington, MN: Garborg's Heart'N Home, Inc., 1991), 2.1.
1735JA006. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. February 9, 1772, Sunday, in a diary entry. David Barton, "The WallBuilder Report" (Aledo, TX: WallBuilder Press, Fall 1993), pp. 3-4.
1735JA007. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. July 4, 1774, in a letter to his wife, Abigail Adams, from Patten's at Arundel. Charles Francis Adams (son of John Quincy Adams and grandson of John Adams), Familiar Letters of John Adams with his wife Abigail Adams-during the Revolution (NY: Hurd and Houghton, 1876), p. 10.
1735JA008. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. September 7, 1774, in a letter to his wife Abigail, relating the events of the Continental Congress. First Prayer in Congress-Beautiful Reminiscence (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress). John S.C. Abbot, George Washington (NY: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1875, 1917), p. 187. Gary DeMar, God and Government-A Biblical and Historical Study (Atlanta, GA: American Vision Press, 1982), Vol. I, p. 108. John and Abigail Adams, Vol. I, pp. 23-24. Charles Francis Adams (son of John Quincy Adams and grandson of John Adams), ed., Letters of John Adams-Addressed To His Wife (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1841), Vol. I, pp. 23-24. Edmund Fuller and David E. Green, God in the White House-The Faiths of American Presidents (NY: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1968), pp. 21-22. L.H. Butterfield, Marc Frielander, and Mary-Jo King, eds., The Book of Abigail and John-Selected Letters of The Adams Family
1762-1784 (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: Harvard University Press, 1975), p. 76. Phyllis Lee Levin, Abigail Adams (NY: St. Martin's Press, 1987), p. 55.
1735JA009. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. October 9, 1774, in a letter to his wife, Abigail Adams, sent from Philadelphia during the First Continental Congress. Charles Francis Adams (son of John Quincy Adams and grandson of John Adams), Familiar Letters of John Adams with his wife Abigail Adams-during the Revolution (NY: Hurd and Houghton, 1876), p. 46.
1735JA010. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. 1774, in his commentary titled, Novanglus: A History of the Dispute with America, from its Origin, in 1754, to the Present Time. Norman Cousins, ed., 'In God We Trust': The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958), pp. 89-90. John Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution-The Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, A Mott Media Book, 1987; 6th printing, 1993), p. 296. Gary DeMar, "Why the Religious Right is Always Right-Almost" (Atlanta, GA: The Biblical Worldview, An American Vision Publication- American Vision, Inc., November 1992), p. 5. Gary DeMar, America's Christian History: The Untold Story (Atlanta, GA: American Vision Publishers, Inc., 1993), pp. 96-97.
1735JA011. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. July 12, 1775, in a letter to his wife, Abigail Adams, regarding the Continental Congress' decision to declare a Day of Public Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer. Charles Francis Adams (son of John Quincy Adams and grandson of John Adams), Familiar Letters of John Adams with his wife Abigail Adams-during the Revolution (NY: Hurd and Houghton, 1876), p. 66. Anson Phelps Stokes and Leo Pfeffer, Church and State in the United States (NY: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1950, revised one-volume edition, 1964), p. 83.
1735JA012. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. October 1775, in correspondence to his wife, Abigail Adams, after receiving news of her mother's death. Edmund Fuller and David E. Green, God in the White House-The Faiths of American Presidents (NY: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1968), p. 22.
1735JA013. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. October 1775, in a letter to his wife, Abigail Adams. Edmund Fuller and David E. Green, God in the White House-The Faiths of American Presidents (NY: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1968), p. 23.
1735JA014. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. January 1776, in a plan to aid the colonies in their transition to a new form of government, created at the request of George Wythe of Virginia. Charles Francis Adams (son of John Quincy Adams and grandson of John Adams), ed., Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, 10 vols. (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1850-56), IV:193. The Annals of America, 20 vols. (Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1968), Vol. 4, p. 410.
1735JA015. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. June 21, 1776. Charles Francis Adams (son of John Quincy Adams and grandson of John Adams), ed., The Works of John Adams-Second President of the United States (Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1854), Vol. IX, p. 401. "Our Christian Heritage," Letter from Plymouth Rock (Marlborough, NH: The Plymouth Rock Foundation), p. 3. Russ Walton, One Nation Under God (NH: Plymouth Rock Foundation, 1993), p. 115.
1735JA016. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. In contemplating the personal effect that separation from England would produce. Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris, eds., Spirit of Seventy-Six (New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., 1958), p. 26. Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Glory of America (Bloomington, MN: Garborg's Heart'N Home, Inc., 1991), 6.5.
1735JA017. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. July 1, 1776, in speaking to the delegates of the Continental Congress. Daniel Webster, "Speech of John Adams," William H. McGuffey, McGuffey's Eclectic Fifth Reader (Cincinnati and New York: Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co., revised edition, 1879; NY: American Book Company, 1907; revised 1920), lesson LXVI, p. 199. Charles Fadiman, ed., The American Treasury (NY: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1955), p. 369. Dan Smoot, America's Promise (Dallas, TX: The Dan Smoot Report, 1960), p. 6. Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Light and the Glory (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1977), pp. 307-308. Lucille Johnston, Celebrations of a Nation (Arlington, VA: The Year of Thanksgiving Foundation, 1987), p. 83. Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Glory of America (Bloomington, MN: Garborg's Heart 'N Home, 1991), 7.1. William Safire, ed., Lend Me Your Ears-Great Speeches in History (NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1992), p. 163. D.P. Diffine, Ph.D., One Nation Under God-How Close a Separation? (Searcy, Arkansas: Harding University, Belden Center for Private Enterprise Education, 6th edition, 1992), p. 7. 1735JA018. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. July 3, 1776, in a letter to his wife, Abigail Adams, following Congress' approval of the Declaration of Independence. L.H. Butterfield, ed., Adams Family Correspondence (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963), Vol. II, p. 28-31. Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Light and the Glory (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell, 1977), pp. 310-311. L.H. Butterfield, Marc Frielander, and Mary-Jo King, eds., The Book of Abigail and John-Selected Letters of The Adams Family 1762-1784 (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: Harvard University Press, 1975), p. 139.
1735JA019. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. July 3, 1776, in a letter to his wife Abigail Adams, in relation to the state of the Cause of Independence. Charles Francis Adams (son of John Quincy Adams and grandson of John Adams), ed., Letters of John Adams-Addressed to His Wife (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1841), Vol. I, p. 128. Old South Leaflets (Boston: Directors of the Old South Meeting House, 1902). John Bartlett, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 381. The World Book Encyclopedia, 18 vols. (Chicago, IL: Field Enterprises, Inc., 1957; W.F. Quarrie and Company, 8 vols., 1917; World Book, Inc., 22 vols., 1989), Vol. 9, p. 3683. Charles E. Kistler, This Nation Under God (Boston: Richard T. Badger, 1924), p. 71. Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris, eds., The Spirit of 'Seventy-Six (NY: Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., 1958; NY: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1967), p. 321. L.H. Butterfield, ed., Adams Family Correspondence (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963), Vol. II, p. 28-31. L.H. Butterfield, Marc Frielander, and Mary-Jo King, eds., The Book of Abigail and John-Selected Letters of The Adams Family 1762-1784 (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: Harvard University Press, 1975), p. 142. Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Light and the Glory (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell, 1977), pp. 310-311. Lucille Johnston, Celebrations of a Nation (Arlington, VA: The Year of Thanksgiving Foundation, 1987), p. 87. D.P. Diffine, Ph.D., One Nation Under God-How Close a Separation? (Searcy, Arkansas: Harding University, Belden Center for Private Enterprise Education, 6th edition, 1992), p. 6.
1735JA220. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams, April 26, 1777, from Philadelphia to his wife Abigail. L.H. Butterfield, ed., The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975; Massachusetts Historical Society, Northeastern University Press, 2002, foreword by David McCullough), p. 173. Charles Francis Adams, Volume I, 1841. Letters of Mrs. Adams: The Wife of John Adams (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1840). Robert Flood, The Rebirth of America (Philadelphia: Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation, 1986), p. 16.
1735JA020. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. 1777, Dr. Benjamin Rush's comments regarding John Adams. George W. Corner, ed., Autobiography of Benjamin Rush-His "Travels Through Life" together with His Commonplace Book for 1789-1813 (Princeton, N.J.: Published for The American Philosophical Society by Princeton University Press, 1948), pp. 139-156. Henry Steele Commager, ed., The Great Declaration- A Book for Young Americans (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., 1958), p. 25. Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris, eds., The Spirit of 'Seventy-Six (NY: Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., 1958; reprinted, NY: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1967), p. 275.
1735JA120. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams, September 11, 1777, on a Committee of the Continental Congress with Daniel Roberdeau and Jonathan Bayard Smith, regarding the shortage of Bibles in America due to the Revolutionary War.
1735JA121. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams, September 11, 1777, on a Committee of the Continental Congress with Daniel Roberdeau and Jonathan Bayard Smith, regarding the shortage of Bibles in America due to the Revolutionary War.
1735JA021. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. June 2, 1778, in a diary entry made while in Paris, France. L.H. Butterfield, ed., Diary and Autobiography of John Adams (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1961), Vol. IV, p. 123.
1735JA022. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. 1780. John Adams and John Bowdoin, An Address of the Convention for Framing A New Constitution of Government For the State of Massachusetts- Bay to the Constituents (Boston: White and Adams, 1780), p. 17.
1735JA023. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. In writing to his wife Abigail Adams, regarding their sons. Philip Greven, The Protestant Temperament: Patterns of Child-Rearing, Religious Experience, and Self in Early America (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977), p. 346. Gary DeMar, America's Christian History: The Untold Story (Atlanta, GA: American Vision Publishers, Inc., 1993), p. 96.
1735JA024. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. July 12, 1782, in a letter regarding politics, written from Holland. W. Cleon Skousen, The Making of America (Washington: The National Center for Constitutional Studies, 1985), p. 195. Tim LaHaye, Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., 1987), p. 89-90.
1735JA025. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. September 3, 1783, signed the Treaty of Paris, officially ending the Revolutionary War with Great Britain; ratified by Congress January 14, 1784, under the Articles of Confederation. William M. Malloy, compiler, Treaties, Conventions, International Acts, Protocols and Agreements between the United States of America and Other Powers, 1776-1909, 4 vols. (New York: Greenwood Press, 1910, 1968), 2:1786. Charles W. Eliot, LL.D., ed., American Historical Documents 1000-1904 (New York: P.F. Collier & Son Company, The Harvard Classics, 1910), Vol. 43, pp. 185-191. Gary DeMar, America's Christian History: The Untold Story (Atlanta, GA: American Vision Publishers, Inc., 1993), p. 84. W. Cleon Skousen, The Making of America (Washington: The National Center for Constitutional Studies, 1985), 139. Tim LaHaye, Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., 1987), p. 115.
1735JA026. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. December 11, 1795, in an address to President George Washington, while serving as Vice-President and President of the Senate. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789-1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, p. 186.
1735JA027. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. July 26, 1796, writing in his diary a disapproval of Thomas Paine's assertions. Norman Cousins, In God We Trust-The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1958), p. 99. L.H. Butterfield, ed., The Diary and Autobiography of John Adams (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1962), Vol. 3, pp. 233-234. Edmund Fuller and David E. Green, God in the White House-The Faiths of American Presidents (NY: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1968), p. 25. Christopher Collier, Roger Sherman's Connecticut (Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1971), p. 185. John Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution-The Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, A Mott Media Book, 1987; 6th printing, 1993), p. 277. Gary DeMar, "Why the Religious Right is Always Right-Almost" (Atlanta, GA: The Biblical Worldview, An American Vision Publication-American Vision, Inc., November 1992), p. 12. Gary DeMar, America's Christian History: The Untold Story (Atlanta, GA: American Vision Publishers, Inc., 1993), p. 95.
1735JA028. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. August 14, 1796, in a diary entry. Norman Cousins, In God We Trust-The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1958), pp. 99-100.
1735JA029. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. In a diary entry. Edmund Fuller and David E. Green, God in the White House-The Faiths of American Presidents (NY: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1968), p. 20.
1735JA030. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. December 10, 1796, as Vice-President and President of the United States Senate, in an address to President George Washington. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789-1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, pp. 204-205.
1735JA031. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. March 4, 1797, Saturday, in his Inaugural Address, given in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789-1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, pp. 228-232. Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States-From George Washington 1789 to Richard Milhous Nixon 1969 (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office; 91st Congress, 1st Session, House Document 91-142, 1969), pp. 7-11. Charles E. Rice, The Supreme Court and Public Prayer (New York: Fordham University Press, 1964), pp. 178-179. Proclaim Liberty (Dallas, TX: Word of Faith), p. 1. J. Michael Sharman, J.D., Faith of the Fathers (Culpeper, Virginia: Victory Publishing, 1995), p. 22.
1735JA032. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. May 16, 1797, in a Special Session Message to Congress. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789-1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, p. 233-239.
1735JA033. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. May 23, 1797, the United States Senate, led by Vice-President Thomas Jefferson, addressed President John Adams. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789-1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, p. 241.
1735JA034. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. May 24, 1797, in a reply to the United States Senate. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789-1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, p. 242.
1735JA035. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. November 22, 1797, in his First Annual Address to Congress. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789-1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, p. 250.
1735JA036. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. November 27, 1797, the United States Senate addressed President John Adams. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789- 1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, p. 254.
1735JA037. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. March 23, 1798, in a Proclamation of a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789-1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, pp. 268-270. Benjamin Franklin Morris, The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States (Philadelphia: George W. Childs, 1864), pp. 545-546. Stephen McDowell and Mark Beliles, "The Providential Perspective" (Charlottesville, VA: The Providence Foundation, P.O. Box 6759, Charlottesville, Va. 22906, January 1994), Vol. 9, No. 1, p. 6.
1735JA038. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. October 11, 1798, in a letter to the officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts. Charles Francis Adams (son of John Quincy Adams and grandson of John Adams), ed., The Works of John Adams- Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, Notes, and Illustration (Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1854), Vol. IX, pp. 228-229. Charles E. Rice, The Supreme Court and Public Prayer (New York: Fordham University Press, 1964), p. 47. Senator A. Willis Robertson, "Report on Prayers in Public Schools and Other Matters, Senate Committee on the Judiciary (87th Congress, 2nd Session), 1962, 32. Richard John Neuhaus, The Naked Public Square (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdman Publishing Company, 1984), p. 95. War on Religious Freedom (Virginia Beach, Virginia: Freedom Council, 1984), p. 1. A. James Reichley, Religion in American Public Life (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institute, 1985), p. 105. Pat Robertson, America's Dates With Destiny (Nashville, TN: 1986), pp. 93-95. Charles Colson, Kingdoms in Conflict (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1987), pp. 47, 120. Tim LaHaye, Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., 1987), p. 194. John Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution-The Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, A Mott Media Book, 1987; 6th printing, 1993), pp. 273, 292, 381. Gary DeMar, "Is the Constitution Christian?" (Atlanta, GA: The Biblical Worldview, An American Vision Publication-American Vision, Inc., December 1989), p. 2. Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Glory of America (Bloomington, MN: Garborg's Heart 'N Home, 1991), 8.11. Kerby Anderson, "Christian Roots of the Declaration" (Dallas, TX: Freedom Club Report, July 1993), p. 6. Rush H. Limbaugh III, See, I Told You So (New York, NY: reprinted by permission of Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc., 1993), pp. 73-76. Stephen McDowell and Mark Beliles, "The Providential Perspective" (Charlottesville, VA: The Providence Foundation, P.O. Box 6759, Charlottesville, Va. 22906, January 1994), Vol. 9, No. 1, p. 4.
1735JA039. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. December 8, 1798, in his Second Annual Address to Congress. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789-1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, p. 271.
1735JA040. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. December 11, 1798, the United States Senate addressed President John Adams. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789- 1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, p. 275.
1735JA041. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. December 13, 1798, the United States House of Representatives addressed President John Adams. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789-1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, p. 279. 1735JA042. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. March 6, 1799, in a Proclamation of a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789-1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. 1, pp. 284-286. Benjamin Franklin Morris, The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States (Philadelphia: George W. Childs, 1864), pp. 547-548. Gary DeMar, The Biblical Worldview (Atlanta, GA: An American Vision Publication-American Vision, Inc., 1992), Vol. 8, No. 12, p. 9. Gary DeMar, America's Christian History: The Untold Story (Atlanta, GA: American Vision Publishers, Inc., 1993), p. 78. Stephen McDowell and Mark Beliles, "The Providential Perspective" (Charlottesville, VA: The Providence Foundation, P.O. Box 6759, Charlottesville, Va. 22906, January 1994), Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 4, 6.
1735JA043. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. December 3, 1799, in his Third Annual Address to Congress. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789-1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, p. 289.
1735JA044. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. December 9, 1799, the United States Senate addressed President John Adams. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789- 1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, p. 292.
1735JA045. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. December 9, 1799, the United States House of Representatives addressed President John Adams. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789-1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, pp. 293-295.
1735JA046. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. December 10, 1799, in a reply to the United States House of Representatives. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789- 1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, p. 297.
1735JA047. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. December 19, 1799, in a message to Congress. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789-1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, p. 297.
1735JA048. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. December 23, 1799, the United States Senate addressed President John Adams. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789- 1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, p. 298.
1735JA049. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. December 23, 1799, in an address to the United States Senate. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789-1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, p. 299.
1735JA050. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. January 8, 1800, in a message to Congress. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789-1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, pp. 300-301.
1735JA051. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. December 31, 1799, from Mount Vernon, Martha Washington wrote to President John Adams. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789-1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, p. 301. 1735JA052. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. November 1800, in a letter to his wife, Abigail Adams. John John Adams Adam's Prayer (Washington, D.C.: White House Collection). John Bartlett, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 382. Charles Fadiman, ed., The American Treasury (NY: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1955), p. 317.
1735JA053. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. November 22, 1800, in his Fourth Annual Address to Congress, which began the first session of Congress in the new Capitol of Washington, D.C. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789-1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, p. 305.
1735JA054. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. November 25, 1800, the United States Senate addressed President John Adams. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789- 1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, pp. 308-309.
1735JA055. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. November 26, 1800, in an address to the United States Senate. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1789-1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. I, pp. 309-310.
1735JA056. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. January 24, 1801, in a letter to George Churchman and Jacob Lindley regarding slavery. John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1854), Vol. IX, pp. 92-93.
1735JA057. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. February 16, 1809, in a letter to Judge F.A. Van der Kemp. Norman Cousins, ed., 'In God We Trust': The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958), pp. 102-103. Russell Kirk, Roots of American Order (LaSalle, IL.: Open Court, 1974), p. 17. Charles Colson, Kingdoms in Conflict (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1987), p. 228. Gary DeMar, America's Christian History: The Untold Story (Atlanta, GA: American Vision Publishers, Inc., 1993), p. 96. Allan Gould, What Did They Think of the Jews, (New Jersey, 1997), pp. 71-72.
1735JA058. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. January 21, 1810, in a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush. Norman Cousins, In God We Trust-The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1958), p. 101. Edmund Fuller and David E. Green, God in the White House-The Faiths of American Presidents (NY: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1968), p. 25.
1735JA059. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. August 28, 1811, to Dr. Benjamin Rush. Charles Francis Adams (son of John Quincy Adams and grandson of John Adams), ed., The Works of John Adams- Second President of the United States (Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1854), Vol. IX, p. 636. Norman Cousins, In God We Trust-The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1958), p. 101. 1735JA060. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. In a letter to Mr. Warren. Warren-Adams Letters (Boston, MA: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1917), Vol. I, p. 222. Verna M. Hall, The Christian History of the American Revolution-Consider and Ponder (San Francisco: Foundation for American Christian Education, 1976), p. 615. Philip Greven, The Protestant Temperament-Patterns of Childrearing, Religious Experience, and Self in Early America (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977), p. 346. Gary DeMar, America's Christian History: The Untold Story (Atlanta, GA: American Vision Publishers, Inc., 1993), p. 96. Stephen McDowell and Mark Beliles, "The Providential Perspective" (Charlottesville, VA: The Providence Foundation, P.O. Box 6759, Charlottesville, Va. 22906, January 1994), Vol. 9, No. 1, p. 5.
1735JA061. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. June 28, 1813, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson. Norman Cousins, In God We Trust- The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1958), p. 230. Lester J. Capon, ed., The Adams-Jefferson Letters, 2 vols. (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1959), Vol. 2, pp. 339-340. Gary DeMar, The Biblical Worldview (Atlanta, GA: An American Vision Publication-American Vision, Inc., 1992), Vol. 8, No. 12, p. 9. Gary DeMar, America's Christian History: The Untold Story (Atlanta, GA: American Vision Publishers, Inc., 1993), pp. 78, 121.
1735JA062. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. 1819, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson. Richard K. Arnold, ed., Adams to Jefferson/Jefferson to Adams-A Dialogue from their Correspondence (San Francisco: Jerico Press, 1975), pp. 330-31.
1735JA063. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. September 14, 1813, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson. Norman Cousins, In God We Trust-The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1958), p. 238. Edmund Fuller and David E. Green, God in the White House-The Faiths of American Presidents (NY: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1968), p. 25.
1735JA064. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. December 3, 1813, John Adams, in correspondence with Thomas Jefferson. Norman Cousins, In God We Trust-The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1958), p. 253.
1735JA065. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. December 25, 1813, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson. Norman Cousins, In God We Trust-The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1958), p. 256. L.J. Capon, ed., The Adams-Jefferson Letters (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1959), 2:412. Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, OR: American Heritage Ministries, 1987; Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas), p. 2. Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Glory of America (Bloomington, MN: Garborg's Heart 'N Home, 1991), 7.10. D.P. Diffine, Ph.D., One Nation Under God-How Close a Separation? (Searcy, Arkansas: Harding University, Belden Center for Private Enterprise Education, 6th edition, 1992), p. 6. Gary DeMar, America's Christian History: The Untold Story (Atlanta, GA: American Vision Publishers, Inc., 1993), p. 58.
1735JA066. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. 1814, number 16 of a series of thirty-two letters to refute John Taylor. Norman Cousins, In God We Trust-The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1958), p. 106.
1735JA067. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. January 13, 1815, in a letter to Judge F.A. Van der Kemp. Norman Cousins, In God We Trust-The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1958), p. 104.
1735JA068. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. June 20, 1815, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson. Paul Wilstach, ed., The Correspondence of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, 1812-1826 (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Publishers, 1925), p. 112.
1735JA168. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams, May 6, 1816, to Thomas Jefferson. Courtesy of Joshua Charles.
1735JA069. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. August 9, 1816, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson. Norman Cousins, In God We Trust-The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1958), p. 279.
1735JA070. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. November 4, 1816, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson. Paul Wilstach, ed., The Correspondence of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, 1812-1826 (Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Publishers, 1925), p. 112. Norman Cousins, In God We Trust-The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1958), p. 280.
1735JA071. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. December 27, 1816, in a letter to Judge F.A. Van de Kemp. Norman Cousins, In God We Trust-The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1958), pp. 104-105. John Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution-The Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, A Mott Media Book, 1987; 6th printing, 1993), p. 286. Gary DeMar, "Why the Religious Right is Always Right-Almost" (Atlanta, GA: The Biblical Worldview, An American Vision Publication- American Vision, Inc., November 1992), p. 6. Gary DeMar, America's Christian History: The Untold Story (Atlanta, GA: American Vision Publishers, Inc., 1993), p. 95.
1735JA072. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. April 19, 1817, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson. Norman Cousins, In God We Trust-The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1958), p. 282. Edmund Fuller and David E. Green, God in the White House-The Faiths of American Presidents (NY: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1968), p. 26. Richard K. Arnold, ed., Adams to Jefferson/Jefferson to Adams-A Dialogue from their Correspondence (San Francisco: Jerico Press, 1975), p. 25.
1735JA073. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. October 7, 1818, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, regarding the impending death of his wife, Abigail Adams. Richard K. Arnold, ed., Adams to Jefferson/Jefferson to Adams-A Dialogue from their Correspondence (San Francisco: Jerico Press, 1975), p. 27.
1735JA074. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. Life and Works of John Adams, Vol. X, p. 390. Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, Oregon: American Heritage Ministries, 1987; Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas), pp. 2-3.
1735JA075. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. David Stedman and LaVaughn Lewis, ed., Our Ageless Constitution (Asheboro, NC: W. David Stedman Associates, 1987). Stephen McDowell and Mark Beliles, "The Providential Perspective" (Charlottesville, VA: The Providence Foundation, P.O. Box 6759, Charlottesville, Va. 22906, January 1994), Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 2-3.
1735JA076. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Adams. July 4, 1826, his last words. James H. Huston, "John Adams," The World Book Encyclopedia, 22 vols. (Chicago, IL: World Book, Inc., 1989; W.F. Quarrie and Company, 8 vols., 1917), Vol. 1, p. 39. Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Glory of America (Bloomington, MN: Garborg's Heart'N Home, Inc., 1991), 7.12.