Benjamin Franklin learned self-discipline from Cotton Mather.
"Adam was never called Master Adam. We never read of Noah Esquire, Lot Knight and Baronet, nor of the Rt Hon. Abraham, Viscount Mesopotamia, Baron of Cannan."
"He who spits in the wind, spits in his own face."
"If men are wicked with religion, what would they be without it."
Franklin and Washington constantly brought providence into their utterances, especially when talking of America. They may not have thought of Americans as the chosen people, like the Pilgrims Fathers, but they certainly believed that America was under some kind of divine protection. Madison held exactly the same view, and even Jefferson would have endorsed it. All these men believe strongly in education as essential to the creation of a workable republic and the churches were to supply the moral education. The Founding Fathers saw education and religion going hand in hand. That is why they wrote, in the Northern Ordinance of 1787: "Religion, morality and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, Schools and the means of education shall forever be encourage."
Benjamin Franklin, far-sighted as always, thought about treating religion as one of the main subjects in the school and college curriculums and related it with character-training.
