Jedediah Morse (1761-1826) was a pioneer American educator and geographer, and was called the “Father of American Geography.” He was also the father of Samuel F.B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph and the Morse Code. In 1799, Jedediah Morse stated:
“To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. In proportion as the genuine effects of Christianity are diminished in any nation, either through unbelief, or the corruption of its doctrines, or the neglect of its institutions; in the same proposrtion will the people of that nation recede from the blessings of genuine freedom, and approximate the miseries of complete despotism.
All efforts to destroy the foundations of our holy religion, ultimately tend to the subversion also of our political freedom and happiness.
Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all the blessings which flow from them, must fall with them.”
Proverbs 14: 34 “Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a disgrace to any people.”