Daniel Webster said:

Addressing the New York HistoricalSociety, 1852, Daniel Webster stated: "If we and our posterity live always in the ear of God and shall respect His Commandments...we may have the highest hopes of the future fortunes of our country. But if we...neglect religious instruction and authority; violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity."