In 1778, two of America’s Founding Fathers predicted when America would collapse.

By: James L. Coster, Esquire

For several years before the 1775 firing of the “shot heard around the world” starting the Revolutionary War between the American Colonies and King George III of England, various leaders and “learned citizens” of New England debated and discussed what would be required of “a new nation.”

The “Founding Fathers” who organized the American revolt against English rule were local businessmen, academics, and Ministers. Two of the most renowned were John Adams and James Madison.

John Adams was born into a family of physicians and entered Harvard College at age 16 and at age 23, graduated from Harvard’s law school. He went on to become a prominent lawyer and political activist in Boston. His initial “claim to fame” was as a local lawyer opposing England’s imposition of the Stamp Act of 1765 which was a significant tax imposed upon the Colonies for any “official filed document.” This tax angered the colonists because the British Parliament passed this tax without any consultation with the Colonies and the Americans knew that the tax was primarily for supporting the war Britain was waging with France. Adams went on to become deeply involved in organizing the movement for independence from England. After the Revolution, Adams became the second President of the United States after George Washington left office.

James Madison grew up in the Virginia Colony and his father was one of the largest landowners in the Colony. Madison was “home-schooled” by a learned Scottish instructor in mathematics, geography, and modern and classical languages – with Latin being Madison’s favorite subject. At age 18, Madison entered Princeton College where he completed the school’s three-year B.A. degree in just two years graduating in 1771. Madison then pursued a graduate degree at Princeton in Hebrew and political philosophy. As an adult, Madison joined in the debates of the “pre-Revolution” Continental Congress and in Virginia, was a member of the pro-Revolution group Committee of Safety that oversaw the militia in Virginia. Madison went on to participate in the writing of Virginia’s first Constitution.

After the Revolution, Madison was involved in the drafting of the pre-Constitution Articles of Confederation. Then in 1787, Madison helped draft the fundamental structure of the Federal Government becoming the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial independent branches. Madison’s efforts and ideas also essentially created the Bill of Rights in the Constitution. James Madison went on to become the fourth President of the United States serving from 1809 to 1817. He is known as the “Father of the Constitution” for his pivotal role in drafting and promoting the Constitution of the United States and its Bill of Rights.

Both Adams and Madison were “religious” men who believed in God. Both believed strongly that the new American nation had to maintain a firm foundation on spiritual beliefs and moral behavior. Reflecting those views, John Adams wrote in 1778: ““Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

James Madison also understood that the new nation could only endure if its citizens remained “virtuous”. He observed that, “Our Constitution requires sufficient virtue among men for self-government, otherwise, nothing less than the chains of despotism can restrain them from destroying and devouring one another.”

The present COLLAPSE of American government, law and justice, and our social fabric is a DIRECT consequence of the COLLAPSE of the “moral center and foundation” of this nation. Both Adams and Madison knew 244 years ago that if America lost its “moral center”, our Constitution and the structures and guidelines it established would be “wholly inadequate” to govern a morally corrupt and evil populace. Americans now face a very stark choice – Either find a way to return morality to our people and their governments or watch this nation self-destruct and take its justly earned place among other “failed nations” on the “ash heap of history.”