It is but natural that the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence should open with a reference to Nature's God and should close in the final paragraphs with an appeal to the Supreme Judge of the world and an assertion of reliance on Divine Providence...No one can examine this record and escape the conclusion that in the great outline of its principles the Declaration was the result of the religious teachings of the preceding period...The Declaration is a great spiritual document.
— President Calvin Coolidge, Declaration's 150th Anniversary
We've spawned a new race here — rougher, simpler, more violent, more enterprising and less refined. We're a new nationality, Mister Dickinson. We require a new nation.
— Benjamin Franklin, 1776