2nd
Principle
A free people cannot survive under a
republican Constitution unless they remain
virtuous and morally strong.
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It is only in this historical context that the modern
American can appreciate the profound degree of anxiety
which the Founders expressed concerning the quality of
virtue and morality in their descendants. They knew that
without these qualities, the Constitution they had written
and the republican system of government which it provided
could not be maintained.
Virtue has to be earned and it has to be learned. Neither
is virtue a permanent quality in human nature. It has to be
cultivated continually and exercised from hour to hour and
from day to day. The Founders looked to the home, the
school, and the churches to fuel the fires of virtue from
generation to generation. Since the quality of virtue and morality in the character
of a nation is the secret to its survival.
