Gouverneur Morris: Religion Is Important to Civil Society

Gouverneur Morris was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and it considered an important Founder of the United States. When Gouverneur Morris was elected as the first president of the New York Historical Society. His inaugural address included the following:

"The reflection and experience of many years have led me to consider the holy writings not only as most authentic and instructive in themselves, but as the clue to all other history. They tell us what man is, and they alone tell us what he is. All of private and public life is there displayed"
...
"There must be religion. When that ligament is torn, society is disjointed, and its members perish."

And in suggesting wording for the French constitution, he suggested:

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

As found in the book Christian life and character of the civil institutions of the United States, by Benjamin Franklin Morris, pages 138-9.