I respect John Adams and all that he has done. Nethertheless he seems to have forgotten that the Constitutional Convention was not making progress until finally at the suggestion of Benjamin Franklin (with words saying that if a bird cannot fall to earth without God noticing, how can a nation be born without the help of God) all meetings of the Convention were then begun with a prayer to the Almighty for his divine help. After this the Convention began to progress, and did progress to a very successful and great conclusion, our original "Constitution". Perhaps J. Adams said more than in this quote to establish that God was part of the Constitutional endeavor. I hope so! The mistake that kept Moses out of the promised land was to tell the stiff-necked Israelites how he had brought forth water from the rock in the desert, rather than saying the Lord brought forth the water.