American Quotations by William J. Federer 2024

Pennsylvania Supreme Court (1817) in the case of The Commonwealth v. Wolf, 3 Serg. & R. 48, 50 (1817), stated the court's opinion as follows: <Laws cannot be administered in any civilized government unless the people are taught to revere the sanctity of an oath, and look to a future state of rewards and punishments for the deeds of this life. It is of the utmost moment, therefore, that they should be reminded of their religious duties at stated periods....A wise policy would naturally lead to the formation of laws calculated to subserve those salutary purposes. The invaluable privilege of the rights...

Indiana (December 11, 1816) was 19th State admitted to the Union. On August 7, 1789, President George Washington signed into law an Act of Congress which prohibited slavery from entering the territory, titled "An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States, North-West of the River Ohio," Article VI. On April 13, 1816, President James Madison signed The Enabling Act for Indiana, which required the government being formed in that territory to be: <...not repugnant to the [Northwest Ordinance].> 1816IN001 The Northwest Ordinance stated: <SECTION 13. And, for extending the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty, which...

George Hay Stuart (April 2, 1816-April 11, 1890) served as the president of the United States Christian Commission from 1861 to 1865, which was formed in New York, November 14, 1861, as an outgrouwth of the YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association). He was a member of the Board of Indian Commissioners during President Grant's Administration. Through the efforts of women from various religious denominations, the United States Christian Commission raised millions of dollars in private donations, primarily from churches, during the Civil War. This was used to provide comforts, supplies, hospital stores and clothing to the armies and navies of the...

George Gordon Meade (December 31, 1815-November 6, 1872) was a Major-General in the U.S. Army. He led the Union troops to victory at the Battle of Gettysburg, thus turning the tide of the Civil War. Colonel George Meade, the son of General Meade, reported the facts surrounding his father's last days in 1872: <Death came suddenly, with the sound of a foot-fall. There were a few days when friends waited on medical skill, but his heart was on the country whither he was going. He looked to the Saviour, who was the only one in Heaven or earth who could...

Henry Bowen Anthony (April 1, 1815-September 2, 1884) was a U.S. Senator. On January 9, 1872, he delivered a eulogy of Roger Williams in Congress: <He knew, for God, whose prophet he was, revealed it to him, that the great principles for which he contended, and for which he suffered, founded in the eternal fitness of things, would endure forever. He did not inquire if his name would survive a generation. In his vision of the future he saw mankind emancipated from...the blindness of bigotry, from the cruelties of intolerance. He saw the nations walking forth into the liberty wherewith Christ...