Founding Father Elias Boudinot on the Demise of a People

“Good government generally begins in the family,
and if the moral character of a people once degenerate, their political character must soon follow.”

Elias Boudinot (1740 – 1821)

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Elias Boudinot is one of many of America’s forgotten “founding fathers”. He served as President of the Continental Congress (1782 -1783), the Director of the United States Mint (1795 – 1805), was the first lawyer admitted to the Supreme Court bar, was a trustee of Princeton University, founded the American Bible Society (which is still with us), and supported missions and missionary work.

Boudinot of New Jersey of Huguenot descent,was a devout Presbyterian, who wrote the tract “The Age of Revelation” in response to Thomas Paine’s “The Age of Reason”.

His tract “The Age of Revelation” can be found here

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As we look at the American landscape today we can see beyond a shadow of a doubt that Boudino’s words have proved true.

Yet, his words also tell us that if the demise of a people originates in “the government of the family” and it’s “moral character”, then certainly the converse is true as well. We must remember that the key to rebuilding the “moral character” of a people, begins in the same place, in the home and with “the government of the family”.