Nampa Classical Academy
Founders Views on Family
Abigail Adams
John Adams
Samuel Adams
Benjamin Franklin
Thomas Paine
James Wilson
Back to Founders Quotes Abigail Adams
1783 - letter to John Quincy Adams
"What is it that affectionate parents require of their Children; for all their care, anxiety, and toil on their accounts? Only that they would be wise and virtuous, Benevolent and kind" (The Adams Family Correspondence, Richard Alan Ryerson, ed., vol. 5).
1784 - letter to John Adams
"I hope some future day will bring me the happiness of seeing my family again collected under our own roof, happy in ourselves and blessed in each other" (The Adams Family Correspondence, Richard Alan Ryerson, ed., vol. 5).
John Adams
1778 - Diary
"The foundation of national morality must be laid in private families?How is it possible that Children can have any just Sense of the sacred Obligations of Morality or Religion if, from their earliest Infancy, they learn their Mothers live in habitual Infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as constant Infidelity to their Mothers" (The Works of John Adams, C.F. Adams, ed., vol. 3 [171])?
1814 - letter to Thomas Jefferson
"As long as Property exists, it will accumulate in Individuals and Families. As long as Marriage exists, Knowledge, Property and Influence will accumulate in Families" (The Founders Constitution, Website ; original The Adams-Jefferson Letters, Cappon, ed).
Samuel Adams
1780 - letter to Thomas wells
"[T]he importance of piety and religion; of industry and frugality; of prudence, economy, regularity and an even government; all ... are essential to the well-being of a family" (Original Intent, Barton [346]; original The Writings of Samuel Adams, Cushing, ed., vol. 4 [225]).
1780 - letter to Thomas Wells
"Religion in a Family is at once its brightest Ornament & its best Security" (The Writing of Samuel Adams, Harry Alonzo Cushing, ed., vol. 4 [225]).
Benjamin Franklin
Reply to a Piece of Advice
"And as to the Cares, they are chiefly what attend the bringing up of Children; and I would ask any Man who has experienced it, if they are not the most delightful Cares in the World; and if from that Particular alone, he does not find the Bliss of a double State much greater, instead of being less than he expected" (Franklin: Collected Works, Lemay, ed. [249]).
Thomas Paine
1776 - Common Sense
"As parents, we can have no joy, knowing that this government is not sufficiently lasting to ensure any thing which we may bequeath to posterity: And by a plain method of argument, as we are running the next generation into debt, we ought to do the work of it, otherwise we use them meanly and pitifully. In order to discover the line of our duty rightly, we should take our children in our hand, and fix our station a few years farther into life; that eminence will present a prospect, which a few present fears and prejudices conceal from our sight" (Thomas Paine, Common Sense).
James Wilson
1791 - Lectures on Law
"It is the duty of parents to maintain their children decently, and according to their circumstances; to protect them according to the dictates of prudence; and to educate them according to the suggestions of a judicious and zealous regard for their usefulness, their respectability and happiness" (Vindicating the Founders, West [100]; original Works, Wilson).
1792 - Of the Natural Rights of Individuals
"The most important consequence of marriage is, that the husband and the wife become in law only one person... Upon this principle of union, almost all the other legal consequences of marriage depend. This principle, sublime and refined, deserves to be viewed and examined on every side" (The Works of James Wilson, Andrews, ed., vol. 1 [324]).
