271. What Can Laws Do Without Morals?

A very important principle of Confucian moral philosophy is to educate the leaders to rule according to the belief--governing according to morality and promotion according to talents. In 1778, two years after the colonists declared their independence; Benjamin Franklin addressed the significance of the morality’s role.

Franklin pointed out the necessity of introducing the notion of governing with morals, especially for the leaders of the United States. He told his fellow Americans, laws were not enough for the new nation; "What the political struggle I have been engag’d in for the good of my compatriots, inhabitants of this bush; or my philosophical studies for the benefits of our race in general! For in politics, what can laws do without morals? Our present race of ephemeras will in a course of minutes become corrupt like those of other and older bushes, and consequently as wretched."