Your search for "indepedence day" returned 10 results from 7 Founders.
John Quincy Adams:"America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the inextinguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government."source: July 4 Address, July 4, 1821.freedom, liberty, rights, indepedence day, government
George Washington:"It having pleased the Almighty Ruler of the universe propitiously to defend the cause of the United American States...by raising up a powerful Friend among the Princes of the Earth to establish our liberty and Independence upon lasting foundations, it becomes us to set apart a day for gratefully acknowledging the divine Goodness, and celebrating the important Event which we owe to his benign interposition. (William H Wibur, The Making of George Washington, Patriot Education Inc. 1973, p.198.)"source: After the treaty of alliance had been signed with Paris, on February 5, 1778, Wahington wrote to his troops a reminder of the part heaven was playing in this war: Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Day, George Washington, Revolutionary War, Victory in War, Washington's Letters, Patiot graditude
George Washington:"For heaven's sake, who are Congress? Are they not the creatures of the people, amenable to them for their conduct and dependent from day to day on their breath?"source: To William Gordon, July 8, 1783role of congressmen, power of people, congressional responsibility
John Adams:"I do not curse the day when I engaged in public affairs [...]. I cannot repent of any thing I ever did conscientiously and from a sense of duty. I never engaged in public affairs from my own interest, pleasure, envy, jealousy, avarice, or ambition, or even the desire of fame. If any of these had been my motive, my conduct would have been very different. In every considerable transaction of my public life, I have invariably acted according to my best judgment, and I can look up to God for the sincerity of my intentions."source: Ibid., pp. 208-9.honesty, integrity, duty, motive, service, patriotism
Nathanael Greene:"If you would know any man's affection towards you, consult his behavior; that is the best evidence of a virtuous mind. Though a person's professions be ever so voluminous, and his zeal ever so noisy, yet he is not entitled to our esteem, but only civility; for profession is but the shadow of friendship, and saying is not proving. If a person would be considered in the character of a friend, let it appear by generous and friendly actions; for that is the only testimony upon which we may safely ground our esteem. If a man professes friendship one day and proves himself an enemy the next, why should I give credit to one who so effectually contradicts himself?"source: To Samuel Ward, Jr., 1772.friendship, friends, companionship, loyality, trustworthiness
John Adams:"The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding generations, as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shews, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward forevermore."source: Letter to Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776, (The Declaration of Independence was voted upon July 2, but signed on July 4).independence, our nation's holiday, God, national freedom, liberty
Thomas Paine:"If there must be trouble let it be in my day, that my child may have peace."source: The Crisis, 1776.posterity, rearing children, peace
Daniel Webster:"Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered."source: Address (These words are also incised in marble on the wall of the U.S. House of Representatives chamber), June 17, 1825.posterity, legacy
John Quincy Adams:"Why is it that next to the birthday of the Savior of the World, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day [the 4th of July]? Is is not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth? That is laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity?"source: "An Oration Delivered Before the Inhabitants of the Town of Newburyport at their Request on the Sixty-First Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence", July 4, 1837, (Newburyport: Charles Whipple, 1837), p. 5Christianity, U.S. - Christian Nation, Separation of Church and State
Archibald MacLaine:"The gentlemen who framed it were not the representatives of the people; they [...] were delegated by states [...]. They did not think that they were the people, but intended it for the people, at a future day [...]. It was to be submitted by the legislatures to the people; so that, when it is adopted, it is the act of the people."source: Elliot, 4:16constitution, adoption, framers, ratification

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