Daniel Webster on Religion's Importance to the Nation

"...our ancestors established their system of government on morality and religious sentiment. Moral habits they believed, cannot safely be trusted on any foundation other than religious principle, nor any government be secure which is not supported by moral habits... Let the religious element in man's nature be neglected, let him be influenced by no higher motives than low self interest, and subjected to no stronger restraint than the limits of civil authority and he becomes the creature of selfish passion and blind fanaticism... On the other hand, the cultivation of the religious sentiment represses licentiousness... inspires respect for law and order, and gives strength to the whole social fabric at the same time that it conducts the human soul upward to the Author of its being."

From The Rebirth of America by Robert Flood
(St Davids, PA: The Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation 1986)

Chief Justice William Rehnquist on Separation of Church and State

Chief Justice William Rehnquist (1924-2005) has said:

It is impossible to build sound constitutional doctrine upon a mistaken understanding of Constitutional history... The establishment clause had been expressly freighted with Jefferson's misleading metaphor for nearly forty years...

There is simply no historical foundation for the proposition that the framers intended to build a wall of separation (between the Church and state) ... The recent court decisions are in no way based on either the language or intent of the framers...

Kansas Constitution (1858)

The Kansas Constitution said: "Religion, morality, and knowledge, however, being essential to good government, it shall be the duty of the legislature to make suitable provision...for the encouragement of schools and the means of instruction."

After passing the Northwest Ordinance, Congress later required that all territories becoming states must have Constitutions that were "not repugnant to the Northwest Ordinance." That is why the language of so many state constitutions contains phrases similar to the above. Notice the tie-in between schools and religion. Keep in mind that the Northwest Ordinance was passed by the same folks who approved the First Amendment.

Ohio Constitution (1802)

The Ohio Constitution said in Article VIII, Section 3: "Religion, morality, and knowledge being essentially necessary to the good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of instruction shall forever be encouraged by legislative provision."

This is in parallel with the Northwest Ordinance, one of our country's four founding documents. Notice that it says schools are necessary partly to promote religion. That's obviously not what is happening today, perhaps appropriately enough, but it shows what the founding fathers thought that the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment did NOT prohibit.

New Jersey Constitution (1844)

The New Jersey Constitution declared: "We, the people of the State of New Jersey, grateful to Almighty God for the civil and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing upon our endeavors to secure and transmit the same unimpaired to succeeding generations, do ordain and establish this Constitution."