Thursday, March 26, 2009

Samuel Adams - Religion and the Family

Today Samuel Adams is known as a brand of beer. But he is also revered as one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and as the man who helped draft the Articles of Confederation and the Massachusetts Constitution. He said:

"I could dwell on the importance of piety and religion; of industry and frugality; of prudence, economy, regularity and an even government; all which are essential to the well-being of a family. But I have not Time. I cannot however help repeating Piety, because I think it indispensable. Religion in a Family is at once its brightest Ornament & its best Security. The first Point of Justice, says a Writer I have met with, consists in Piety; Nothing certainly being so great a Debt upon us, as to render to the Creator & Preserver those Acknowledgments which are due to Him for our Being, and the hourly Protection he affords us."

From a letter to Thomas wells, November 22, 1780. As found in Character for Life: An American Heritage, by Don Hawkinson.

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