American Quotations by William J. Federer 2024

John Bannister Gibson (November 8, 1780-May 3, 1853) was a jurist and the Chief Justice of Pennsylvania and jurist. He stated: <Give Christianity a common law trial; submit the evidence pro and con to an impartial jury under the direction of a competent court, and the verdict will assuredly be in its favor.> 1780JB001 -- American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement. Endnotes: 1780JB001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Bannister Gibson, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania. Tryon Edwards, D.D., The New Dictionary of Thoughts-A Cyclopedia of Quotations (Garden City, NY:...

Continental Congress (October 18, 1780) issued a Proclamation for a Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer. This came after the revealing and subsequent deliverance from Benedict Arnold's plot to betray General George Washington and his troops to the British: <Whereas it hath pleased Almighty God, the Father of all mercies, amidst the vicissitudes and calamities of war, to bestow blessings on the people of these states, which call for their devout and thankful acknowledgements, more especially in the late remarkable interposition of his watchful providence, in the rescuing the person of our Commander-in-Chief and the army from imminent dangers, at the...

Massachusetts Constitution (June 15, 1780) written by John Adams: <We, therefore, the people of Massachusetts, acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the goodness of the Great Legislator of the Universe, in affording us, in the course of His Providence, an opportunity, deliberately and peaceably, without fraud, violence or surprise, of entering into an original, explicit, and solemn compact with each other; and of forming a new constitution of civil government, for ourselves and posterity; and devoutly imploring His direction in so interesting a design, do agree upon, ordain and establish the following Declaration of Rights, and Frame of Government, as the Constitution...

Delaware Approved Articles of Confederation (1779): <Preamble. Whereas the delegates of the United States of America in Congress assembled did on the fifteenth day of November in the Year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy seven, and in the second year of the independence of America agree on certain Articles of Confederation and perpetual union between the States... ARTICLE 1. The style of this confederation shall be "The United States of America." ARTICLE 2. Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the...

Virginia Proclamation (November 11, 1779) Governor Thomas Jefferson issued a Proclamation appointing a day of Thanksgiving and Prayer: <Whereas the Honourable the General Congress, impressed with a grateful sense of the goodness of Almighty God, in blessing the greater part of this extensive continent with plentiful harvests, crowning our arms with repeated successes, conducting us hitherto safely through the perils with which we have been encompassed and manifesting in multiplied instances his divine care of these infant states, hath thought proper by their act of the 20th day of October last, to recommend to the several states that Thursday the...