Government Is Not Enough To Contain Human Nature

"We have no government, armed with power, capable of contending with
human passions, unbridled by morality and religion."


                      -John Adams, signer of the Declaration of independence and
                      second President of the United States, in a letter "To The Officers
                      of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts",
                      11 October, 1798


Printed in "Revolutionary Services and Civil Life of General William Hull"
by Maria Campbell and James Freemen Clarke (New York, 1848), pp. 265-266

Also in "The Works Of John Adams" by Charles Francis Adams; authorship
also attributed to John Adams (Boston, 1854 edition), page 229, published
twenty-seven years after the death of John Adams.  Can be found at the following:

1.  https://books.google.co.in/books?id=43oEAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Revolutionary+Services+and+Civil+Life+of+General+William+Hull&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiu9Ij3vajiAhUJSN8KHTJiCbAQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=Revolutionary%20Services%20and%20Civil%20Life%20of%20General%20William%20Hull&f=false

2.  https://books.google.co.in/books?id=kI08AAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:hgFo_DGR1dEC&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiL04qY1KjiAhWQZd8KHdm6BcoQ6AEIYjAJ#v=onepage&q&f=false