American Quotations by William J. Federer 2024

George Wythe (1726-June 8, 1806) was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He was a member of the Continental Congress, a member of the House of Burgesses and the Mayor of Williamsburg. He served as the attorney general of the Virginia Colony and established the first law professorship in the United States at the College of William and Mary. In February of 1776, George Wythe, Roger Sherman and John Adams, comprised a committee responsible for establishing guidelines for an embassy bound for Canada. Their instructions stated: <You are further to declare that we hold sacred the rights of...

John Newton (July 24, 1725-December 21, 1807) was the captain of a slave trading ship, who later converted to Christianity and spent the rest of his life fighting slavery. He is best known for writing the hymn, Amazing Grace. After his mother died, John Newton went to sea at age 11. His rebellious attitude caused him to lose his job and subsequently be caught by a press-gang from the H.M.S. Harwich in 1744. He was put in irons, flogged and eventually put on a slave ship. The slave-trader and his African mistress made John Newton a slave on a plantation, as...

James Otis (February 5, 1725-May 23, 1783) was a colonial lawyer, statesman and brother to the American poet Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1814). He graduated from Harvard College and in 1756, became the King's advocate-general of the vice-admiralty court at Boston. In 1761, he was elected as a representative of Boston to the Massachusetts General Court. His efforts led to the Stamp Act Congress of 1765. In 1764, James Otis cited the reason for government in "The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved": <The first principle and great end of government being to provide for the best good of all...

George Mason (December 11, 1725-October 7, 1792) was an American Revolutionary statesman and delegate from Virginia to the Constitutional Convention. He was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, a lawyer, judge, political philosopher and planter. The richest man in Virginia, George Mason owned 15,000 acres in Virginia and 80,000 acres in the Ohio area. He was the author of the Virginia Constitution and the Virginia Bill of Rights. Although a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, George Mason refused to sign the United States Constitution as it did not abolish slavery and did not sufficiently limit the Federal Government's power...

Immanuel Kant (April 22, 1724-February 12, 1804) was a German philosopher, whose major philosophical work, Critique of Pure Reason, published in 1781, is comparable to the works of Plato or Aristotle in importance. His later works include Critique of Practical Reason, 1788, and Critique of Judgment, 1790. Born in Kaliningrad, Immanuel Kant stated: <The existence of the Bible, as a book for the people, is the greatest benefit which the human race has ever experienced. Every attempt to belittle it is a crime against humanity.> 1724IK001 <In the life and the Divine doctrine of Christ which are recorded in the Gospel,...