For the American experiment to work, George Washington said it needed a foundation set in religion and morality. Without these indispensable supports, he warned, it was destined to fail.
Other founders expressed similar sentiments. Washington’s successor as president, John Adams, said that for the principles of freedom to securely stand, it would rest on religion and morality alone. Even the religiously challenged Thomas Jefferson believed America’s liberties were firmly based in the reality that they came from God.
