President John Quincy Adams knew one book people needed to read to become good citizens
Too few American students know enough about our Constitution. Still, fewer know there is such a thing as "Constitution Day." But this year, it might be worth taking up an assignment our sixth president gave to his son in a remarkable series of letters written while President John Quincy Adams served as minister to Russia.
Adams did not focus on career advice for his son. He did not teach his son how to make money.
Instead, Adams insisted upon this: Read the Bible. Every day.
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Adams believed no education could be complete without it. He wrote to his son that when "duly read and meditated on," the Bible is "of all books in the world, that which contributes most to make men good, wise, and happy."
And here’s where our Constitution comes in: Adams believed children formed by Scripture would become "useful citizens to their country" and "respectable members of society."
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There’s much ado today about civics education. And that’s a good thing. More educators and parents should ask: Should students memorize the Constitution? Learn about the three branches of government? Study the Federalist Papers? All extremely important.
But John Quincy Adams understood something too many have largely forgotten.
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The Constitution details how we, a free people, govern ourselves. But it cannot teach rising generations how to become worthy of that freedom.
That is why Adams spent letter after letter introducing his son to the New Testament and to the Hebrew Bible — to Genesis, Exodus, the Ten Commandments, and to the Law of Moses. He argued the Mosaic Law represented the greatest moral revolution of the ancient world because it united justice with humanity.
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Unlike the legal systems of Greece and Rome, which largely emphasized civic order or individual virtue, Adams believed the Hebrew Scriptures taught something unprecedented: Duties toward other people were also duties toward God. The laws protecting the stranger, the widow, the orphan and even enemies reflect a moral vision unlike anything the secular world had produced.
Adams admired the Hebrew Bible because it did something no human legislature could accomplish.
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It recognized individual merit and responsibility. It legislated for human nature.
Governments can punish theft. They cannot eliminate envy. Governments can outlaw murder. They cannot command honor, gratitude, humility or self-control.
John Quincy Adams’s letters were never simply about raising his own successful children. They were about transmitting civilization itself to all America’s children.
Too many fathers today have outsourced the most important conversations about duty, morality and character to schools, to government institutions, to coaches or even to celebrities. Mothers play an indispensable role in raising virtuous children, but there is no substitute for the unique influence of an engaged father who teaches his son what it means to be an honorable man.
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The consequences of absence are all around us.
Young Americans increasingly struggle to distinguish rights from responsibilities. They know how to demand respect but not always how to earn it. They have been taught self-esteem more often than self-government. They build professional résumés but little aptitude for disappointment, mental resilience or for duty.
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This isn't merely an educational, civic or cultural problem. It's a fatherhood problem.
For centuries, American fathers understood that one of their highest callings was to introduce their children to the moral inheritance that made liberty possible.
Not because government required it. Because freedom required it.
The Hebrew Bible teaches children that human beings are capable of both good and evil. Actions have consequences. Morality matters. And it importantly teaches every person bears the image of God.
The Founders knew constitutions cannot preserve themselves. Republics depend upon citizens capable of governing themselves before they presume to govern others.
John Quincy Adams understood this better than most. His letters to his son were, in many ways, one manual for raising a free citizen.
Perhaps that is the lesson we most need today: If we want stronger schools, we need stronger families. If we want better citizens, we need fathers who teach virtues.
If we want to renew American civics, we should certainly continue teaching the Constitution.
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But we should also recover the book John Quincy Adams believed came first: The Bible.
Because before America can produce good presidents, good judges or good citizens, it must first produce men and women of character.