John Quincey Adams, sixth President of the United States and son of Founder John Adams provided a striking comparison of ancient Israel and modern America.

“When the children of Israel, after forty years of wanderings in the wilderness, were about to enter the promised land, their leader, Moses…commanded that when the Lord their God should have brought them into the land, they should put the curse upon Mount Ebal, and the blessing upon Mount Gerizim. This injunction was faithfully fulfilled by his successor Joshua. Immediately after they had taken possession of the land, Joshua built an altar to the Lord, of whole stones, upon Mount Ebal. And there he wrote upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written in the presence of the children of Israel…

Fellow citizens, the ark of your covenant is the Declaration of independence. Your Mount Ebal, is the confederacy of separate state sovereignties, and your Mount Gerizim is the Constitution of the United States…

Lay up these principles, then, in your hearts, and in our souls…teach them to your children…cling to them as to the issues of life—adhere to them as to the cords of your eternal salvation. So may your children’s children…[celebrate the] Constitution…in full enjoyment of all blessings recognized by you in the commemoration of this day, and of all the blessings promised to the children of Israel upon Mount Gerizim, as the reward of obedience to the law of God.”*

*John Quincey Adams, “The Jubilee of the Constitution: A Discourse,” delivered at request of New York Historical Society, April 30, 1839.