A Nation Like No Other by Newt Gingrich Page B

demonstrated that he saw the institution of family as the cornerstone of a free society, and marriage as the fundamental building block of the family. He also believed that the family was inextricably linked to economic prosperity.
    Family is the most basic social unit, and for the Founders, the model for all society and the locus of work, education, religion, love, discipline, and national memory. The Pilgrim settlers described the family as “a little commonwealth” whose constituent members had deep and abiding obligations to themselves and to each other for their mutual prosperity, safety, and happiness. These values, developed in the home, extended to society at large. According to Adams, “The foundation of national morality must be laid in private families.”
    Strong and healthy families created strong and healthy citizens and taught those citizens their responsibilities to society. A mid-eighteenth-century Protestant preacher explained, “As the Civil State, as well as the Churches of Christ, is furnished with members from private families: if the governors of these little communities, were faithful to the great trust reposed in them, and family-religion and discipline were thoroughly, prudently and strictly, maintained and exercised . . . the Civil State would prosper and flourish from Generation to Generation.” 7 The preacher’s assertion implied that if the family ever faltered, the colonists’ virtues could be erased in one generation.
    Experience had taught the colonists the value of extended families as a stabilizing force in society. After the disaster at Roanoke and early stumbling at Jamestown, the colonies were settled not by individuals, but almost exclusively by family units that were stable, productive, and self-sustaining. 8 The division of responsibilities among family members created mutual dependence within the family but independence from the outside community, allowing families to raise children to be free and self-sufficient citizens.

    Both liberty and family life derived from something greater than their constituent parts. In 1813, looking back on his life, Thomas Jefferson observed, “The happiness of the domestic fireside is the first boon of Heaven; and it is well it is so, since it is that which is the lot of the mass of mankind.”
    The Founders viewed liberty as a special privilege from God that was inextricably tied to their family and their faith. George Whitefield, the renowned preacher of the Great Awakening and close friend of Benjamin Franklin, summed up why Americans should be thankful: “Your situation in life, every one must confess, is one of great blessing: the providence of God has given you a wonderful heritage, above many of your fellow-creatures.” 9 Faith and family both secured and gave meaning to the blessings of liberty.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND THE HABIT OF WORK
    The colonies’ first settlers were adventurers and frontiersmen who established an American tradition of pursing fortune and knowledge through work. Labor, whether manual or intellectual, increased man’s dignity and liberty as he became self-sufficient and availed himself of self-made opportunities. Ever since John Smith introduced the “Law of Work” at Jamestown, a strong work ethic was more than a moral maxim—it was a necessity for survival and a route to prosperity.
    Benjamin Franklin stands out among the Founders as the embodiment of this ethic of work, industry, and innovation. For Franklin, the key to prosperity lay in his Thirteen Virtues, among them Industry and Frugality. Industry, as Franklin defined it, was to “lose not time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.” 10
    Franklin lived that ethic of work and encouraged his countrymen to do the same. As a young man, he became a successful printer and author, writing Poor Richard’s Almanack at the age of twenty-six. He became the celebrated