"History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster." General MacArthur

"[D]emocracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man's life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable cruelty of one or a very few." John Adams (An Essay on Man's Lust for Power, 29 August 1763) Reference: Original Intent, Barton (338); original The Papers of John Adams, Taylor, ed., vol. 1 (83)

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." Abraham Lincoln

Abigail Adams wrote to Mercy Otis Warren, NOVEMBER 5, 1775: "A patriot without religion in my estimation is as great a paradox as an honest Man without the fear of God. Is it possible that he whom no moral obligations bind, can have any real Good Will towards Men? Can he be a patriot who, by an openly vicious conduct, is undermining the very bonds of Society, corrupting the Morals of Youth, and by his bad example injuring the very Country he professes to patronize more than he can possibly compensate by intrepidity, generosity and honour? The Scriptures tell us 'righteousness exalteth a Nation.'"

British Statesman Edmund Burke told the National Assembly, 1791: "What is liberty without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils...madness without restraint. Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites."

William McGuffey: Selling a million copies a year for over 100 years, McGuffey's Readers were the mainstay of public education in America. Generations of school children read them, making them some of the most influential books of all time. They were written by William McGuffey, who died MAY 4, 1873. A professor at the University of Virginia and president of Ohio University, he began one of nation's first teachers' associations. In the foreword of McGuffey's Reader, 1836, he wrote: "The Christian religion is the religion of our country. From it are derived our prevalent notions of the character of God, the great moral governor of the universe. On its doctrines are founded the peculiarities of our free institutions." In McGuffey's 5th Eclectic Reader, 1879, is a lesson by William Ellery Channing, titled Religion The Only Basis of Society: "How powerless conscience would become without the belief of a God...Erase all thought and fear of God from a community, and selfishness and sensuality would absorb the whole man. Appetite, knowing no restraint...would trample in scorn on the restraints of human laws... Man would become...what the theory of atheism declares him to be-a companion for brutes."

Calvin Coolidge on September 21, 1924, America's 30th President, addressed the Holy Name Society in Washington, D.C., saying:  "The worst evil that could be inflicted upon the youth of the land would be to leave them without restraint and completely at the mercy of their own uncontrolled inclinations. Under such conditions education would be impossible, and all orderly development intellectually or morally would be hopeless." Coolidge continued: "The Declaration of Independence...claims...the ultimate source of authority by stating...they were...'appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of' their 'intentions.'... The foundations of our independence and our Government rests upon basic religious convictions. Back of the authority of our laws is the authority of the Supreme Judge of the World, to whom we still appeal." President Coolidge concluded: "It seems to me perfectly plain that the authority of law, the right to equality, liberty and property, under American institutions, have for their foundation reverence for God. If we could imagine that to be swept away, these institutions of our American government could not long survive."

J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI: For 48 years, under eight Presidents, he oversaw the Federal Bureau of Investigation, becoming famous for his dramatic campaigns to stop gangsters and organized crime. He established the use of fingerprints in law enforcement and successfully tracked down well-known criminals. FDR gave him the task of investigating foreign espionage and left-wing activist groups. J. Edgar Hoover stated: "The criminal is the product of spiritual starvation. Someone failed miserably to bring him to know God, love Him and serve Him." In the introduction to Edward L.R. Elson's book, America's Spiritual Recovery, 1954, J. Edgar Hoover wrote: "We can see all too clearly the devastating effects of Secularism on our Christian way of life. The period when it was smart to 'debunk' our traditions undermined...high standards of conduct. A rising emphasis on materialism caused a decline of 'God-centered' deeds and thoughts. The American home...ceased to be a school of moral and spiritual education. When spiritual guidance is at a low ebb, moral principles are in a state of deterioration. Secularism advances when men forget God."

"As riches increase and accumulate in few hands, as luxury prevails in society, virtue will be in a greater degree considered as only a graceful appendage of wealth, and the tendency of things will be to depart from the republican standard. This is the real disposition of human nature; it is what neither the honorable member nor myself can correct. It is a common misfortunate that awaits our State constitution, as well as all others." ..."It is an unquestionable truth, that the body of the people in every country desire sincerely its prosperity. But it is equally unquestionable that they do not possess the discernment and stability necessary for systematic government. To deny that they are frequently led into the grossest of errors, by misinformation and passion, would be a flattery which their own good sense must despise." Alexander Hamilton (speech to the Ratifying Convention of New York, June 1788) Reference: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Cabot Lodge, ed., II, 26. & ed., II, 42.

"Independent of its connection with human destiny hereafter, the fate of republican government is indissolubly bound up with the fate of the Christian religion, and a people who reject its holy faith will find themselves the slaves of their own evil passions and of arbitrary power." Lewis Cass, A Brigadier-General in the War of 1812, Cass was Governor of the Michigan Territory where he made Indian treaties, organized townships and built roads. Appointed Secretary of War by President Andrew Jackson, Lewis Cass was a Senator, Secretary of State for President James Buchanan and the 1848 Democrat Presidential Candidate. The State of Michigan placed his statue in the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall.

"It is not in violence and crime that our greatest danger lies. These evils are so perfectly apparent that they very quickly arouse the moral power of the people for their suppression. A far more serious danger lurks in the shirking of those responsibilities of citizenship, where the evil may not be so noticeable but is more insidious and likely to be more devastating." Calvin Coolidge Address Before the Daughters of the American Revolution, Washington, D.C. April 19th, 1926

President Harry S Truman stated in his address to the Attorney General's Conference, February 1950:  "The fundamental basis of this nation's laws was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul. I don't think we emphasize that enough these days. If we don't have a proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except for the State."

"Since private and publick Vices, are in Reality, though not always apparently, so nearly connected, of how much Importance, how necessary is it, that the utmost Pains be taken by the Publick, to have the Principles of Virtue early inculcated on the Minds even of children, and the moral Sense kept alive, and that the wise institutions of our Ancestors for these great Purposes be encouraged by the Government. For no people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffusd and Virtue is preservd. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauchd in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders."  Samuel Adams (letter to James Warren, 4 November 1775) Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett, 261.

"Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say, 'What should be the reward of such sacrifices?' ... If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom...crouch down and lick the hands, which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!" Samuel Adams

Daniel Webster addressing the New York Historical Society, 1852:P   "If we and our posterity...live always in the fear of God and shall respect His Commandments...we may have the highest hopes of the future fortunes of our country.... But if we...neglect religious instruction and authority; violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity."

“You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn. You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man’s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.” Abraham Lincoln

"Those people who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants." William Penn 

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and what never will be." Thomas Jefferson

"God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it." Daniel Webster

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." Thomas Paine

"Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. Our enemies are numerous and powerful; but we have many friends, determining to be free, and heaven and earth will aid the resolution. On you depend the fortunes of America. You are to decide the important question, on which rest the happiness and liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy of yourselves." Joseph Warren