Educational Foundation

"The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object an life of all republican governments."

Benjamin Rush

High Time

"Is it not High Time for the People of this Country explicitly to declare, whether they will be Freemen or Slaves? It is an important Question which ought to be decided. It concerns us more than any thing in this Life. The Salvation of our Souls is interested in the Event: For wherever Tyranny is establish'd, Immorality of every Kind comes in like a Torrent. It is in the interest of Tyrants to reduce the people to Ignorance and Vice. For they cannot live in any Country where Virtue and Knowledge prevail. The Religion and public Liberty of a People are intimately connected; their Interests are interwoven, they cannot subsist separately; and therefore they rise and fall together. For this Reason, it is always observable, that those who are combined to destroy the People's Liberties, practice every Art to poison their Morals. How greatly then does it concern us, at all Events, to put a Stop to the Progress of Tyranny."

Samuel Adams; Boston Gazette October 1772

A Noble Rank

"Let the pulpit resound with the doctrine and sentiments of religious liberty. Let us hear of the dignity of man's nature, and the noble rank he holds among the works of God...Let it be known that British liberties are not the grants of princes and parliments."

John Adams
"Dissertaion on teh Canon and Feudal Law"; 1765

Jurisdiction

"The Opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under it's jurisdiction."

Thomas Jefferson
Virginia Statue of Religious Freedom 1779

Religion: A Solid Base

"Religion is the solid basis of good morals; therefore education should teach the precepts of religion, and the duties of man toward God."

Gouverneur Morris