America's Founding Fathers, Fourth of July Trivia, Patriotic Fun Facts, Fourth of July Fun Facts, July 4th Fun Facts

John Adams

John Adams
_{2nd U.S. President and Signer of the Declaration of Independence}

"The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God."

_{Adams wrote this on June 28, 1813, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson.}

"Suppose a nation in some distant Region should take the Bible for their only law Book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God ... What a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be."

_{--Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, Vol. III, p. 9.}

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson
_{3rd U.S. President, Drafter and Signer of the Declaration of Independence}

"I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ."

_{The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, p. 385.}

"God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever; That a revolution of the wheel of fortune, a change of situation, is among possible events; that it may become probable by Supernatural influence! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in that event."

_{Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII, p. 237.}

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin
_{Signer of the Declaration of Independence and Unites States Constitution}

"Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, the Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by His Providence. That He ought to be worshipped.

"That the most acceptable service we render to him is in doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them.

"As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, is the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see;

_{Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin}

John Jay

John Jay
_{1st Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and President of the American Bible Society}

The Bible will also inform them that our gracious Creator has provided for us a Redeemer, in whom all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; that this Redeemer has made atonement "for the sins of the whole world," and thereby reconciling the Divine justice with the Divine mercy has opened a way for our redemption and salvation; and that these inestimable benefits are of the free gift and grace of God, not of our deserving, nor in our power to deserve."

_{In God We Trust—The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers, p. 379.}

"In forming and settling my belief relative to the doctrines of Christianity, I adopted no articles from creeds but such only as, on careful examination, I found to be confirmed by the Bible."

_{American Statesman Series, p. 360.}