Adams and Jefferson

I gleaned this from a book that compiles all the letters of Adams and Jefferson, and one can get emotional reading them, especially in light of current events that will compromise what these two individuals set up.

"The general Principles, on which the Fathers Atchieved Independence, were the only Principles in which that beautiful Assembly of young Gentlemen could Unite . . . . And what were these general Principles? I answer, the general Principles of Christianity, in which all those Sects were United: And the general Principles of English and American Liberty, in which all those young Men United, and which had United all Parties in America, in Majorities sufficient to assert and maintain her Independence. Now I will avow, that I then believed, and now believe, that those general Principles of Christianity, are as eternal and immutable, as the Existence and Attributes of God; and that those Principles of Liberty, are as unalterable as human Nature and our terrestrial, mundane System. I could therefore safely say,consistently with all my then and present Information, that I believed they would never make Discoveries in contradiction to these general Principles."

John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 1816