“From all that I had read of History of Government, of human life and manners, I had drawn the conclusion, that the manners of Women were the most infallible barometer, to ascertain the degree of morality and virtue in a nation. All that I have since read and all the observations I have made in different nations, have confirmed me in this opinion. The manners of women, are in the surest criterion by which to determine whether a Republican government is practicable, in a nation or not. The Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, the Swiss, the Dutch, all lost their public spirit, their Republican Principles and habits, and their Republican forms of Government, when they lost the modesty and domestic virtues of their women…
The foundations of national morality must be laid in private families. In vain are schools, academies, and universities instituted, if loose principles and licentious habits are impressed upon children, in their earliest years. The mothers are the earliest and most instructors of youth….The vices and examples of the parents cannot be concealed from the children. How is it possible that children can have any sense of the sacred obligation of morality or religion if, from their earliest infancy, they learn that their mothers live in habitual infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as constant infidelity to their mothers?”
John Adams
Autobiography, IV: 123
