The Bible has done it sir! Seal up this one Volume and in a half century all these hopes would wither and these prospects perish forever. These sacred temples would crumble or become the receptacles of pollution and crime.... The influence of this sacred Volume alone can achieve it. Let it find its way into every cottage until the whole mass of our population shall yield to its elevating power; and under the benignant smiles of Him who delights to bless the Word, our government, the last hope of liberty, will rest on foundations against which the winds and waves shall beat in vain.
— from a letter written while president of the American Bible Society (1846–1861), Theodore Frelinghuysen
Theodore Frelinghuysen (1787–1862) was an American politician and U.S. senator from New Jersey who ran as vice presidential nominee in the 1844 election, running with fellow Whig Henry Clay. Trained as a lawyer, Frelinghuysen served as New Jersey attorney general and mayor of Newark, NJ. He and Clay lost to James K. Polk and George M. Dallas in the 1844 election, after which he served as president of Rutgers College (now university) from 1850–1862. He was referred to by contemporaries as the “Christian Statesman.”
The Bible has done it sir! Seal up this one Volume and in a half century all these hopes would wither and these prospects perish forever. These sacred temples would crumble or become the receptacles of pollution and crime.... The influence of this sacred Volume alone can achieve it. Let it find its way into every cottage until the whole mass of our population shall yield to its elevating power; and under the benignant smiles of Him who delights to bless the Word, our government, the last hope of liberty, will rest on foundations against which the winds and waves shall beat in vain.
— from a letter written while president of the American Bible Society (1846–1861), Theodore Frelinghuysen
Theodore Frelinghuysen (1787–1862) was an American politician and U.S. senator from New Jersey who ran as vice presidential nominee in the 1844 election, running with fellow Whig Henry Clay. Trained as a lawyer, Frelinghuysen served as New Jersey attorney general and mayor of Newark, NJ. He and Clay lost to James K. Polk and George M. Dallas in the 1844 election, after which he served as president of Rutgers College (now university) from 1850–1862. He was referred to by contemporaries as the “Christian Statesman.”
Comments