“Nothing is more singular and instructive than the legislation of this period; there above all one finds the password to the great social enigma that the United States presents to the world in our day. Among these memorials, we particularly distinguish, as one of the most characteristic, the code of laws that the little state of Connecticut passed in 1650. The legislators of Connecticut occupied themselves first with penal laws; and, to compose them, they conceived the strange idea of drawing from sacred texts: “If any man, after legal conviction, shall have or worship any other God but the Lord God,” they say to begin with, “he shall be put to death.” There follow ten or twelve provisions of the same nature, borrowed from the texts of Deuteronomy, Exodus, and Leviticus. Blasphemy, sorcery, adultery, and rape are punished by death; insult done by a son to his parents is struck with the same penalty. . . . So one never saw the death penalty laid down more profusely in the laws, or applied to fewer of the guilty.”
- Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America 1.1.2 (37-38)

‘By me kings reign,
and rulers decree what is just;
by me princes rule,
and nobles, all who govern justly’ — Proverbs 8:15

‘How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
With my whole heart I seek you;
let me not wander from your commandments!’ — Psalm 119:9-10