08/04/2026
Abigail Adams makes a fair point.
Can you really trust someone who believes there is no higher power, no eternal standard of right and wrong, and no future judgment beyond whatever consequences can be avoided in this life?
That does not mean every unbeliever is dishonest, or that every person who claims faith is trustworthy. We have all seen religious hypocrites.
Adams was asking a deeper question. If morality is only a personal preference, a social convention, or a rule enforced by government, what ultimately binds someone when lying, cheating, or abusing power becomes profitable?
Abigail Adams was not merely the wife of our second president. She was one of the sharpest political minds of America’s founding generation.
The daughter of a Congregational minister, she was largely educated at home, became John Adams’s closest confidante, managed the family farm during his long absences, and raised John Quincy Adams, who later became our sixth president.
Her surviving correspondence reveals a woman deeply engaged with politics, independence, morality, education, and the future of the new nation. She famously urged John Adams to “remember the ladies” while America’s laws were being written.
This quotation came from a 1775 letter in which she questioned whether someone unconstrained by moral obligation could possess genuine goodwill toward others.
In the fuller passage, she condemned vicious conduct that corrupted young people, damaged society, and injured the country.
Her point was not that saying the right religious words automatically makes someone honorable.
Her point was that freedom requires moral restraints stronger than convenience, ambition, or fear of getting caught.
A person who believes he will someday answer to God has a reason to do what is right even when nobody else is watching.
Our Founders understood that laws alone cannot preserve a republic. Character matters. Conscience matters. Faith matters.
Do you agree with Abigail Adams, can we safely entrust power to people who believe they will never face a judgment higher than their own?
