Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
John Adams
Our Constitution
Topic: Justice, Vision, & Leadership
Because We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by… morality and Religion… Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman and Founding Father who served as the first Vice President (1789–97) and second President of the United States (1797–1801). He was a lawyer, diplomat, political theorist, and a leader of the movement for American independence from Great Britain. He was also a dedicated diarist and correspondent, particularly with his wife and closest adviser Abigail and late in life, with his sometime colleague and rival, Thomas Jefferson.
Letter to Massachusetts Militia
Wilson, Andrew, editor. World Scripture II. Universal Peace Federation, 2011, p. 981 [John Adams (Letter to the Officers of the first Brigade of the third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts Quincy October 11. 1798)].
John Adams
Theme: A Vision of America
About This John Adams Quotation [Commentary]
In his 1798 letter to the Massachusetts Militia, John Adams writes plainly: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” This line follows his broader concern that the American government lacks the force to restrain “human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion.” Without this internal restraint, he believed, no constitutional design—no matter how carefully structured—can preserve public order or freedom. For Adams, the success of the Constitution depends on a people who govern themselves first through conscience.
He warns that private passions—“Avarice, Ambition, Revenge or Gallantry”—would tear through constitutional limits “as a Whale goes through a Net.” The image is stark. The Constitution, in this light, is not upheld by legal mechanisms alone but by the moral character of those who live under it. Adams does not call for one form of religion or doctrine, but he sees in morality and religion a necessary check on destructive appetites. His emphasis on “a moral and religious People” speaks to integrity, restraint, and sincerity—qualities without which liberty cannot survive.
In the context of a vision of America, Adams holds a double view: one of real hope and real danger. If the people remain, in his words, “Sincere and incapable of insidious and impious Policy,” the nation may endure. But if they learn to “assume the Language of Justice and moderation while… practicing Iniquity and Extravagance,” the country, he says, “will be the most miserable Habitation in the World.” For Adams, the Constitution is not a self-sustaining machine; it relies on the ethical strength of the people it serves.
John Adams, Letter to Massachusetts Militia, 11 October 1798 [Excerpt]
While our Country remains untainted with the Principles and manners, which are now producing desolation in so many Parts of the World: while she continues Sincere and incapable of insidious and impious Policy: We shall have the Strongest Reason to rejoice in the local destination assigned Us by Providence. But should the People of America, once become capable of that deep simulation towards one another and towards foreign nations, which assumes the Language of Justice and moderation while it is practicing Iniquity and Extravagance; and displays in the most captivating manner the charming Pictures of Candor frankness & sincerity while it is rioting in rapine and Insolence: this Country will be the most miserable Habitation in the World. Because We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition, Revenge, or Gallantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other…
—Adams, John. [From John Adams to Massachusetts Militia, 11 October 1798.] Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3102. The Adams Papers.
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