Webster considered "education useless without the
  Bible" and while he cautioned against too extensive
  use of the Bible in the schools as "tending to
  irreverence" he reiterated...

 "In my view, the Christian religion is the
  most important and one of the first things
  in which all children, under a free
  government ought to be instructed...
  No truth is more evident to my mind than
  that the Christian religion must be the basis
  of any government intended to secure the
  rights and privileges of a free people."

  Preface to Webster's 1828 Dictionary