Quotes from Other Early Presidents

More Quotes and Background of Our Early Presidents. Readers may wonder why I am focusing so much on quotes from so far back in our history. My reason is simple enough. These people had more of a first-hand understanding of what the Constitution meant and what the First Amendment meant to the people who wrote both and the people who ratified both. See the quote below by Jackson, and then try to think of the reaction if a current President said that the Bible is "the rock on which our Republic rests."

John Adams

• (Inaugural Address) - "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 the nation."


• Other writing: "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."

John Quincy Adams

• Vice President of the American Bible Society, member of the Massachusetts Bible Society: "Duty is ours; results are God's."


• "I have myself, for many years, made it a practice to read through the Bible once every year..."


• Discussing the importance of Bible reading to his son: "... [Y]ou should form and adopt certain rules or principles, for the government or your own conduct and temper... It is in the Bible, you must learn them, and from the Bible how to practice them. Those duties are to God, to your fellow-creatures, and to yourself."

James Buchanan

• "In entering upon this great office I must humbly invoke the God of our fathers for wisdom and firmness to execute its high and responsible duties."

Alexander Hamilton

• (see Signers of the Constitution post)

Andrew Jackson

• "That Book (the Bible) is the rock on which our Republic rests."

Thomas Jefferson

• "The Bible is the cornerstone of liberty...students' perusal of the sacred volume will make us better citizens, better fathers, and better husbands."