Virtue is a word almost forgotten today, but the Founding Fathers considered the existence of virtue essential to liberty. What are we missing, or maybe risking?
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #267 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
I’m not sure I can remember the last time I heard a public leader or even a preacher use the word “virtue.” Culturally, it’s a near-forgotten or antiquated concept. But America’s Founding Fathers used the word a lot and linked virtue with liberty.
Consider these quotes:
George Washington: “Human rights can only be assured among a virtuous people.”
Benjamin Franklin: “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”
Samuel Adams: “Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest friend of the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue.”
John Adams: “Public virtue cannot exist in a Nation without private Virtue, and public Virtue is the only Foundation of Republics.”
What the Founding Fathers meant when they said “virtue” is moral character, self-restraint, honesty, courage, boldness, moderation, independence, public spirit, prudence, reasonableness, civic knowledge, and concern for the common good. In other words, the Founding Fathers meant public or civic virtue without which they did not believe a free society could survive.
Let’s pause for a moment and note that later in the 19th Century and continuing into this day, the word “virtue” took on a narrower focus. It was most often used to refer to women or girls in terms of their chastity or modesty. Phrases like “she was a virtuous woman.” There is nothing wrong with this use of the terms “virtue.” It’s just a more specific application than the Founding Fathers and political theorists of that era like John Locke intended. Again, by virtue, they meant upstanding, self-governed behavior and morality.
America’s Founding Fathers were attempting to establish a government like none that had been tried before. This is why the USA is sometimes called “The First New Nation,” a nation formed by the consent of the governed, of, by, and for the people, and aimed at preserving individual liberty.
Governments of empires and nations prior to America’s founding had functioned with emperors, divine right of kings, and strongman rulers who could enforce desired behavior. The Founding Fathers were attempting to establish a government with no king, no ruler, nothing to rule the people but God and the constitutional republic they established. They did not know if such a government could last. This is why many of them, including George Washington, referred to the new government as “the Great Experiment.”
It’s why, in September 1787, when Benjamin Franklin was leaving Independence Hall in Philadelphia, according to a widely repeated account, a woman named Elizabeth Willing Powel asked him: "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" Franklin famously replied: "A republic, if you can keep it." “If you can keep it.” He was signaling once again what a “Great Experiment” this new nation was.
The Founding Fathers did not set up a democracy, as we so often hear today, but a constitutional republic, one featuring separation of powers and checks and balances. They did this with hope but not naivete about human nature.
It’s why James Madison wrote, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.”
So, the Founding Fathers recognized that the newly minted American citizens were not angels but were people subject to the temptations and foibles of human nature, in other words, sin and maybe even evil. Yet they did not want to establish some tyranny to govern citizens. They wanted citizens to choose to pursue virtue, i.e. self-restraint and moral character, and govern themselves, therefore, enjoying and perpetuating liberty.
This generation of not perfect but amazingly talented people recognized that freedom requires moral self-governance, liberty without virtue becomes license, that character is the foundation of constitutional order, and that national flourishing is tied to moral and spiritual integrity. They understood that cultural decay cannot be solved merely by elections, that liberty cannot be maintained by wealth or weapons, only by character, what they called virtue.
In 1788, John Adams said, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution, as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Adams was not saying that only Christians or only religious believers could be citizens. Rather, he was expressing a common Founding-era belief that the American constitutional system assumed a people capable of governing themselves. Because the federal government was limited and dispersed by checks and balances, Adams believed it depended upon citizens possessing enough moral character and self-restraint that force and coercion would not have to do all the work. For Adams, unchecked passions—greed, lust for power, vengeance, and other desires—could overwhelm any constitutional structure. This reflected the broader Founding-era idea that liberty required both institutions and virtue.
The old King James Version of the Bible, published in 1611 and available to the Founding Fathers, used the term “virtue” more often than contemporary versions today. In 2 Peter 1:5-7, the Apostle says, “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.” Virtue – moral and upstanding life and behavior, exemplary character, this is the kind of citizen the Founding Fathers believed needed to be cultivated to support, preserve, and extend a free society.
“Our Founders (believed) personal self-control is freedom. Government control is tyranny. This is why the Left hates America’s Judeo-Christian heritage. Both religions teach self-control, which means freedom. The Left doesn't want that because the Left wants government totalitarianism. They want promiscuity, they want licentiousness. They want as much sin in society as possible, as much self-indulgence as imaginable, because self-control means freedom. By its very definition, self-control is freedom; we freely choose to do the right things, and thus, don’t need government force to compel us to do them. But the Left is encouraging, glorifying self-absorption in America, decadents who do not control themselves, thus will need government to step in and do it. Growing government ultimately means tyranny.”
“Civilization obviously cannot exist unless there is some restraint on evil. It either comes from within a person—self-control, freely choosing to do the right thing—or it will have to come “from without”—government. Or civilization ceases. And, as government grows, liberty retreats.”
Virtue, self-control equals freedom. But contemporary American society seems to be pursuing the opposite—licentiousness, perversity, “the days of Noah.” But we are at risk. Ben Franklin said, “Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants.” It’s up to us to choose.
The USA is blessed with exceptional founding ideals. Question now is, in our 250th year, will we not just celebrate but embrace these ideals anew—do what is necessary to right our tilting ship—and perpetuate our free society for our children and children’s children? Will we rediscover and pursue virtue? I hope so.
Our progeny’s freedom depends on it.
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best.
If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. For more Christian commentary, see my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com, or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2026
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