American Quotations by William J. Federer 2024

Charles Thomson (November 29, 1729-August 16, 1824) Secretary of the Continental Congress (1774-1789). He, along with Continental Congress President John Hancock, were the two men who signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, the rest mostly signing the engrossed copy on August 2, 1776. Upon retiring from Congress, Charles Thomson researched for 19 years and published his 4-volume "Thomson's Bible" in 1808, which contained the first American translation of the Greek Septuagint. The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament made in 3 B.C., and was the version most quoted by the early apostles. Charles Thomson...

Edmund Burke (January 12, 1729-July 9, 1797) was an English orator, author and leader in Great Britain during the time of the Revolutionary War. On March 22, 1775, in his Second Speech on the Conciliation with America-The Thirteen Resolutions, Edmund Burke addressed Parliament, saying: <Religion, always a principle of energy, in this new people is no way worn out or impaired; and their mode of professing it is also one main cause of this free spirit. The people are Protestants; and of that kind which is the most adverse to all implicit submission of mind and opinion. This is a persuasion...

James Cook (October 27, 1728-February 14, 1779) was a British naval captain, navigator and explorer. In 1759 and again from 1763-67, he explored the coasts and seaways of Canada. He made three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, 1768-71, 1772-75, 1776-79, sailing from the Antarctic to the Bering Strait, from the coasts of North America to New Zealand and Australia. Captain Cook was known for: <not allowing profanity on board.> 1728JC001 He required his men: <to wear clean clothes on Sunday and on occasions he conducted divine service for his crew.> 1728JC002 Cook's wife gave him a Prayer Book, which he seems to...

Mercy Otis Warren (September 14, 1728-October 19, 1814) was America's first female playwright. She was referred to as the 'Conscience of the Revolution' for her correspondence regarding freedom with many of the founders, including: Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Martha Washington, John Adams, Abigail Adams and Hannah Winthrop. The brother of James Otis, Jr., who helped stop the British "writs of assistance," Mercy was wife of James Warren, president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. John Adams wrote to James Warren: <Tell your wife that God Almighty has entrusted her with the Powers for the good of...

Pennsylvania's Oath of Fidelity and Abjuration (1727) was required by the King of England due to the large number of German immigrants to Pennsylvania. (Pennsylvania State Archives, published in Strassburger and Hinke, Pennsylvania German Pioneers: A Publication of the Original Lists of Arrivals in the Port of Philadelphia from 1727-1808, Norristown, PA German Society, 1934): <I A B do solemnly & sincerely promise & declare that I will be true & faithful to King George the Second and do solemnly sincerely and truly Profess Testifie & Declare that I do from my Heart abhor, detest & renounce as impious & heretical...