"Statesmen may plan and speculate for liberty, religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand," as John Adams wrote. "The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our people in a greater measure, they may change their rulers and the forms of government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty."
Alexis de Tocqueville, who visited our new country a few years later in 1835, would write that without the habits of the heart, democracy can become a vehicle for a tyranny of the majority or worse. He understood, "The law can only restrain external behavior; culture forms the soul of a nation."
And so, as we gather for Thanksgiving—around tables filled with family, laughter, and the ordinary abundance of American life—we do more than remember the past. We reconnect with the very virtues that sustain a free people: gratitude, humility, self-sacrifice, and faith in a God who has carried our nation through trial and triumph alike.
This Thanksgiving, we give thanks for the gift of this nation, and ask Him to bless its future as we remember with gratitude its past.
Go forward bravely,
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