President Roosevelt with the Dutch Bible upon which he took the oaths of office both as Governor of New York and as President of the United States.

The Bible has been an integral part of American life since the United States was founded, and American leaders have long acknowledged the important role of the Bible — many through roles with American Bible Society.

Elias Boudinot, a founding father and President of the Continental Congress, served as the first president of American Bible Society. John Quincy Adams (sixth President of the United States), John Jay (Chief Justice of the Supreme Court) and Francis Scott Key (Writer of The Star Spangled Banner) also played important roles in American Bible Society.

In 1939, then president Franklin Delano Roosevelt continued this legacy when he wrote the following message to American Bible Society, affirming the relevance of the Bible's message to the lives of American citizens.

“Never before in nineteen hundred years did men more need the emancipation from error promised in the simple declaration: ‘Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.'

“Those of us who believe in the democratic way of life therefore take heart and courage from the fact that the Bible, after centuries of circulation still holds its place as the world's best seller. I believe that all of the differences that rend the world today would find speedy solution if men and nations would but return in all humility to the plain teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. There indeed are the truths that set men free.”

-Franklin Delano Roosevelt