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 for the government of any other. Those people who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants.
Character is much easier kept than recovered.
Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters. If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security. He is the best friend to American liberty, who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion, and who set himself with the greatest firmness to bear down on profanity and immorality of every kind.