James Madison who wrote that the Constitution said it requires “sufficient virtue among men for self-government”. Known as the “Father of the Constitution,” he emphasized the essential role of virtue among the populace in sustaining the U. S. Constitution.
In the Virginia Ratifying Convention on June 20, 1788, he articulated: “Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks—no form of government can render us secure.”
He further argued that the effectiveness of any government relies fundamentally on the virtue and intelligence of its people: “To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.”
These and other statements below underscore Madison’s belief that the Constitution’s success that depends not solely on its structural design but also on the moral character and civic responsibility of the citizens.
"But I go on this great republican principle, that the people will have virtue and intelligence to select men of virtue and wisdom. Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks -- no form of government can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea. If there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men. So that we do not depend on their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them." -- James Madison (1751-1836), Father of the Constitution for the USA, 4th US President. Source: Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788
"The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust." -- James Madison (1751-1836), Father of the Constitution for the USA, 4th US President Source: Federalist #57
Other founders agreed.
[T]here is no more truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between duty and advantage, between genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity . . . . – George Washington, First Inaugural Address [April 30, 1789]
"I, however, place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared." -- Thomas Jefferson Source: letter to William Plumer, July 21, 1816
“Happiness is the aim of life. Virtue is the foundation of happiness.” Thomas Jefferson
“That no free government, or the blessing of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue, and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.” George Mason, Virginia Declaration of Rights [1776]
“Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” John Adams
"Elections, especially of representatives and counselors, should be annual, there not being in the whole circle of the sciences a maxim more infallible than this, “where annual elections end, there slavery begins.” These great men ... should be (chosen) once a year—Like bubbles on the sea of matter bourne, they rise, they break, and to the sea return. This will teach them the great political virtues of humility, patience, and moderation, without which every man in power becomes a ravenous beast of prey." -- John Adams (1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President
"[D]emocracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man's life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable cruelty of one or a very few." -- John Adams (1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President. Source: An Essay on Man's Lust for Power, August 29, 1763
"It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue. If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives." - John Adams
"Human nature itself is evermore an advocate for liberty. There is also in human nature a resentment of injury, and indignation against wrong. A love of truth and a veneration of virtue. These amiable passions, are the "latent spark"... If the people are capable of understanding, seeing and feeling the differences between true and false, right and wrong, virtue and vice, to what better principle can the friends of mankind apply than to the sense of this difference?" -- John Adams (1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President Source: Novanglus, 1775
“Without Virtue there can be no liberty.” Dr. Benjamin Rush (Jefferson’s friend and a signer on the Declaration of Independence)
"He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man...The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy this gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people." -- Samuel Adams
"No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803), was known as the "Father of the American Revolution." Source: letter to James Warren, 4 November 1775. Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett (261)
"Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is impossible that a nation of infidels or idolaters should be a nation of freemen. It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom. No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles." -- Patrick Henry (1736-1799) US Founding Father
