Is this statement true or false?

Question

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

-John Adams

I have one word for most of your answers. . .Scary

Charlooch

I'm sorry that answer is incorrect but thanks for playing.

Wikiquote - John Adams
Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.

Answer 1

true

Answer 2

Evidently but you should have the whole quote as out of context it is not the same.
" We have no government armed in power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality of religion. Our Constitution was made only for moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." When you quote you need to use the whole thing. OK?

Answer 3

True. You would need so much more if the people could not be depended on to want and to be good. If the people did not have the desire for the pursuit of higher purposes you would have to structure the constitution to compensate and build measures to keep people directed towards the common good. I can't imagine what those would be because religion or belief in a higher power do keep people directed as a whole. Of course there are people who are not religious or believe in God and they are still good people. I'm just not sure that the majority would be. I think the key word is "moral". People have to be moral for it to work.

Answer 4

I disagree with it. The Constitution certainly was not made for a religious purpose. It was made in order to establish a form of government which it was hoped would work better than the Articles of Confederation which were in use at the time. In this, it appears to have been successful. There was a lot of debate about the Constitution before it was adopted, read the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist papers to get a feel of the issues that were being considered.

Answer 5

Its true because a democracy is made to have the people govern and elected by its own the people but morality and ethics must come into play so the constitution has guidelines to serve people who has knowledge of those qualities.

Answer 6

This is true of any form of government. Governments exist through the consent of the governed. A wholly immoral populace would not support any sort of government because it would, by nature, limit them. Whether it be a republic, monarchy, or direct democracy, it would fail without a populace that wished (for whatever reason, religious or otherwise) to be civilized.

Answer 7

true. the us constitution was made for the people of the us and their culture at the time. back then they had different values of morals and religious rights than we do now. If you apply our constitution to other world governments, it wouldn't work. (ie the right for free speech is repressed in many countries, or the right to bare arms is also not allowed etc)

Answer 8

It is very false......it's just political bullshit. Ask those Slaves what they thought old Johnnys' statement. Ask some women who got beaten. All in name of God. Any country has to have a strong religious and moral foundation. That's just common sense. Our particluar Constitution is one that does not stress these ideals....It leaves a lot of room for stupid people....Or for good people depending how you look at it.

Answer 9

Yes, it is true. Very true. The Constitution was written by Christian men, for Christian men. Without the Christian influence, it will fall apart. I know people now think the founders were atheists and deists, but just take a look, even a glance will do, at what they themselves wrote, and you will see that is not true. Here are some more quotes that show that, and that support the quote you gave.


"Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to polictical prosperity, Religion, and Morality are indespensable supports.In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connexions with private and public felicity. Let it simply e asked where is security for property, for reputation, for life, if all sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure. reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."
-George Washington, in his Farewell Address. Try telling me that a deist said that, and I will give you some reasons to doubt that idea.

"We have staked the whole future of American civilization not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-givernment; upon the capacity of each and all of us to government ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."
-James Madison, fourth president of the U.S. and principal author of the Costitution and the First Amendment.

"God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever."
-Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, upon which this country was built.

"The virtue which had been infused into the Constitution of the United States...was not other than...those abstract principles which had been first proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence--namely the self-evident truths of the natural and unalienable rights of man...and the soverignty of the people, always subordinate to the rule of right and wrong, and lways responsible to the Supreme Ruler of the universe for the rightful exercise of theat power. This was the platform upon which the Constitution of the United States had been erected."
-President John Quincy Adams

"...this is a Christian nation...This is historically true. From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation...=These are not individual sayings, declarations of private persons: they are organic utterances: they speak the ovoice of the entire people...These and many other matters...adda volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation."
-U.S. Supreme Court, 1892, in Church of the Holy Trinity v. U.S.

"I have examine all religions, as well as my narrow sphere, my straightened means, and my busy life will allow; and the result is that the Bible is the best Book in the world."
-John Adams

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not be religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
-Patrick Henry


There are many more where those came from, but I don't have time to type them all. So if people really want to know, they can look it up themselves. Read the writtings of the Founders, look at the early rulings from the courts, and find the original meanig for the Constitution. You will see that the quote that was asked about is very true.


Edit:
olderandwiser, that is still not the whole quote, and it still means that same thing. And to someone else, it doesn't matter who said the quote. Someone still said it, and either way, that persons name was John Adams and he was a founder of the country. And one of the original presidents. I think either way he knows what he is talking about.

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Answer 10

It sounds plausible to me regarding morality. A constitution with the rights it contains would not survive in an immoral country.

I'm not sure the religious part is necessary.

Answer 11

False. A person can be moral without being religious. By the way, Adams was a Unitarian -- whcih is practically nonchristian.