Harold K. Lane, Liberty! Cry Liberty! (Boston: Lamb and Lamb Tractarian Society, 1939) 32-3.
"We have staked the whole future of American civilization not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments." David Barton's book The Myth of Separation
This is quotation has been thoroughly discredited. See below.
Phony James Madison Quotations
"We have staked the whole future of American civilization not-- Complete Fabrication; sentiments not found in any known Madison writings and "inconsistent with everything we know about Madison's views on religion and government," say noted Madison historians
upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments."
This is a complete fabrication that dates back to the 1950s. A variation of this fabrication -- and there are several -- was read into the Congressional Record by Representative Dannemeyer on October 7, 1992. Another variation was later read into the Congressional Record by Florida Representative Scarborough on March 5, 1997, in defense of Judge Roy Moore's practice of posting a condensed version of the Protestant variant of the first tables of stone rendition of the Hebrew Decalogue on his courtroom wall, in full view of the Jury Box. Scarborough used this fabrication long after David Barton, its most vehement proponent in modern times, had declared the alleged quotation "false" (see Rob Boston's 1996 article "Mything in Action: David Barton's 'Questionable Quotes'").
The fabrication appears on page 120 of David Barton's stunningly popular book The Myth of Separation. In the footnote, Barton cites:
"Harold K. Lane, Liberty! Cry Liberty! (Boston: Lamb and Lamb Tractarian Society, 1939) pp. 32-33. See also Fedrick Nyneyer, First Principles in Morality and Economics: Neighborly Love and Ricardo's Law of Association (South Holland Libertarian Press, 1958), pp. 31."
Unfortunately for Barton's cause (and for his credibility as a man of truthfulness), John Stagg and David Mattern, editors of The Papers of James Madison issued the following statement concerning this misquotation:
"We did not find anything in our files remotely like the sentiment expressed in the extract you sent us. In addition, the idea is inconsistent with everything we know about Madison's views on religion and government, views which he expressed time and time again in public and in private." (Letter dated November 23, 1993, to which the editors refer all inquirers.)This fabrication appears in Lane's book, say Stagg and Mattern, but only in an article by Nyneyer titled "Neighborly Love and Ricardo's Law of Association" (in Progressive Calvinism vol. 31, 1959), not a book; the article gives as its source the 1958 calendar of Spiritual Mobilization. So this appears to be a fabrication for a motivational calendar, but the trail seems to end here.