American Quotations by William J. Federer 2024

Alfred Thayer Mahan (September 27, 1840-December 1, 1914) was a Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy. He came out of retirement to serve in the Spanish-American War. He was a member of the American delegation to the peace conference at The Hague, 1899; and was elected president of the American Historical Association, 1902. He held the position of president of the Naval War College at Newport, R.I., 1886-89, 1892-93, and authored books on naval strategy. His great works, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783; and The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire, 1892, were not...

James Schouler (March 20, 1839-1920) American lawyer, historian and lecturer at Boston University School of Law, the National University Law School, Washington, DC, and at Johns Hopkins University. He was president of the American Historical Association, 1896- 1897. He is best know for writing History of the United States under the Constitution, 1789-1865 (Washington, DC: William H. Morrison, 1887), in which stated: <The Barbary powers were for a time overawed, and the United States thus set the first example among Christian nations of making reprisal instead of ransom the rule of security against these commercial marauders. In this respect Jefferson's conduct...

Pennsylvania Constitution (1838): <SECTION 3. That all men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences; that no man can of right be compelled to attend, erect, or support any place of worship, or to maintain any Ministry, against his consent; that no human authority can, in any such case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience; and that no preference shall ever be given, by law, to any religious establishments or modes of worship. SECITION 4. That no person who acknowledges the being of God and a...

John Milton Hay (October 8, 1838-July 1, 1905) was an ambassador to Great Britain under President McKinley. He served as Secretary of State, 1898-1905; and helped negotiate over fifty treaties. From the Open-Door policy with China, to the Panama Canal, to the Alaskan boundary, to the Philippine policy, he exerted a lasting impact on American foreign policy. In addition to serving as private secretary to President Lincoln, he was a poet and editorial writer for the New York Tribune. John Hay composed the poem: <SINAI AND CALVARY But Calvary stands to ransom The earth from utter loss; In shade than light...

John Wanamaker (July 11, 1838-December 12, 1922) was a U.S. Postmaster General, 1889-93; a financier; and founder of one of the first American department stores. He had served as secretary of the Philadelphia YMCA, 1857-61. In 1861, he formed a clothing business with Nathan Brown; in 1869 he founded John Wanamaker and Company; and in 1875 he purchased the freight depot of the Pennsylvania Railroad to house the store. John Wanamaker made numerous advancements in the field of advertising within the retail industry, having run the first full-page mercantile advertisement in an American paper. In addition, the two magazines he founded...