John Adams was America's second President, George Washington's Vice President, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a member of the Continental Congress. He also authored the classic three-volume work titled, A Defense of the Constitutions of the Government of the United States. It was Adams who urged Thomas Jefferson to draft the Declaration of Independence. It was Adams who recommended that Congress appoint George Washington to be Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. And it was Adams who negotiated the final treaty with Great Britain ending the Revolutionary War.
In his diary entry dated February 22, 1756, John Adams wrote:
Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love and reverence toward Almighty God...What a Utopia, what a Paradise would this region be.
On July 1, 1776, John Adams declared before the Continental Congress, as the 13 colonies were getting ready to sever ties from Great Britain:
Before God, I believe the hour has come. My judgement approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it. And I leave off as I began, that live or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration. It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment. Independence now, and Independence for ever!
On July 3, 1776, John Adams made this statement, regarding America's decision the previous day to declare independence from Great Britain:
The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America, to be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival, commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty from one end of the Continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.