American Quotations by William J. Federer 2024

Jonathan Mayhew (October 8, 1720-July 9, 1766) was a Congregational minister of West Church in Boston. In 1747, he graduated with honors from Harvard and in 1765, he was given the distinguished position of Dudlein Lecturer at Harvard. In 1765, reflecting the colonists' feelings toward King George III's hated Stamp Act, Jonathan Mayhew state in a sermon: <The king is as much bound by his oath not to infringe the legal rights of the people, as the people are bound to yield subjection to him. From whence it follows that as soon as the prince sets himself above the law, he...

Ebenezer Bridge (1716-1792) a well-known clergyman in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, delivered an "Election Sermon" in 1767, in which he stated: <The Supreme ruler and governor of the universe hath so adjusted things in the moral world, that order and government are necessary for advancement his own glory, and promoting the good of his rational, intelligent creatures. And it is very obvious that anarchy and confusion must terminate in the destruction of men's lives, as well as of their liberty and property.> 1716EB001 -- American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement. Endnotes:  1716EB001. William...

Robert Carter Nicholas (January 28, 1715-September 8, 1780) representing James City, was a member and treasurer of the Virginia House of Burgesses. The grandson of wealthy Virginia landowner, Robert "King" Carter, he was appointed Judge of the High Court of Chancery and Court of Appeals. In 1775, he served as President Pro-tem of the Continental Convention. He was a member of the Virginia Assembly and served on the Virginia Court of Appeals. Robert Carter Nicholas was a member of Virginia's Committee of Corresphodence, which helped unify the American colonies. The idea of Committees of Corresspondence was proposed by Samuel Adams in...

George Whitefield (December 16, 1714-September 30, 1770) was an evangelist of the Great Awakening in the American colonies prior to the Revolutionary War. He attended Oxford with John and Charles Wesley, who began the Methodist movement. He confronted the established churches, resulting in doors being closed to him. He resorted to preaching out-of-doors, and the colonial population responded with crowds sometimes over thirty thousand. Benjamin Franklin wrote in his autobiography that he was able to hear Whitefield's voice nearly a mile away. George Whitefield's preaching throughout the Eastern seaboard, greatly contributed toward the thirteen individualistic colonies melding into one country. Benjamin...

Jonathan Shipley (1714-December 6, 1788) was the bishop of St. Asaph Anglican Church in London, and a friend of Benjamin Franklin. In 1774, he appealed in the House of Lords: <At present we force every North American to be our enemy....It is a strange idea we have taken up, to cure their resentments by increasing provocation....That just God, whom we have all so deeply offended, can hardly inflict a severer national punishment than by committing us to the natural consequences of our own conduct.> 1714JS001 <I look upon North America as the only great nursery of freeman left on the face...