I have often contrasted the French Revolution and the American Revolution and their outcomes.  The French Revolution did not emphasize the depravity of man while the American Founding Fathers had a healthy respect for the biblical teaching of depravity.  Even though all men are made in the image of God, the depravity of the human race is a reality that must be taken into account if government organization is to mimimize the possiblity of corruption.  Hence our Founding Fathers designed a system of checks and balances to make sure that power is not consolidated in one man or one group of men.   This in turn helps to protect the God-given liberties that men possess.  In this regard I ran across a statement by George Washington quoted in Peter’s Lillback’s George Washington’s Sacred Fire:  “the blessed religion revealed in the Word of God will remain an eternal and awful monument to prove that the best Institutions may be abused by human depravity” (see p. 58).  Not only does this show a concern with the biblical doctrine of depravity, it is fairly prescient about what was to come in American life.