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"The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature; and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or in America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses."
-- , "A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America" (1787-88), from Adrienne Koch, ed., The American Enlightenment: The Shaping of the American Experiment and a Free Society (1965) p. 258
 By: | John Adams (more quotes by John Adams or books by/about John Adams) |
| (1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President |
Source: | "A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America" (1787-88) http://www.constitution.org/jadams/ja1_00.htm |
Categories: | Free Thought, Government, History, Reason, Religion, Republic |
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