Founding Father Says: Honor God and He Will Honor US

So often when you see quotes of the Founders that would seem to point to a desire for a totally non-religious society in public/government life, Thomas Jefferson comes up. There is no doubt that Jefferson was a brilliant and accomplished man and that he was influential. However, there were many other Founders involved in forming our country. In fact, where our Constitution was being debated and ratified, Jefferson was in France (although he corresponded with the men writing the document).

But many of our other Founders are not widely quoted today, and are certainly not quoted in discussions such as mentioned above. Consider Samuel Adams. Here is a Wikipedia excerpt about him:

After Parliament passed the Coercive Acts in 1774, Adams attended the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, which was convened to coordinate a colonial response. He helped guide Congress towards issuing the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and helped draft the Articles of Confederation and the Massachusetts Constitution. Adams returned to Massachusetts after the American Revolution, where he served in the state senate and was eventually elected governor.

Apparently Samuel Adams may be rightly included among our influential Founders. In 1780, the Boston Gazette quoted Adams saying:



May Heaven inspire that Army yet more and more with Military Virtues, and teach their hands to was and their fingers to fight! May every citizen in the army and in the country have a proper sense of the DEITY upon his mind, and an impression of that declaration recorded in the Bible, "Him that honoreth me I will honor, but he that despiseth me shall be lightly esteemed."

Read the Google Books excerpt below:

Google Books, The Writings of Samuel Adams