American Quotations by William J. Federer 2024

Georgia Constitution (1777): <ARTICLE 6: The representatives shall be chosen out of the residents in each county...and they shall be of the Protestant religion. ARTICLE 14. Every person entitled to vote shall take the following oath or affirmation, if required, viz: "I, A B. do voluntarily and solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that I do owe true allegiance to this State, and will support the constitution thereof; So Help Me God." ARTICLE 15. Any five of the representatives elected, as before directed, being met, shall have power to...administer the oath to all other members that attend,...

Articles of Confederation (November 15, 1777) proposed by the Continental Congress, constituted the government in America prior to the writing of the United States Constitution. It was signed July 9, 1778, and finally ratified by the states March 1, 1781: <Preamble. Whereas the delegates of the United States of America in Congress assembled did on the fifteenth day of November in the Year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy seven, and in the second year of the independence of America agree on certain Articles of Confederation and perpetual union between the States...> 1777AC001 <Article I. The style...

Continental Congress (November 1, 1777) issued from its temporary headquarters in York, Pennsylvania, (as the British occupied the national capital of Philadelphia) the first national Proclamation of Thanksgiving and Praise to all colonies, as a result of the victory at Saratoga. Originally written by Samuel Adams, the final version adopted by Congress stated: <Forasmuch as it is the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending Providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to Him for benefits received and to implore such further blessing as they stand in need of; and it having pleased Him in...

Continental Congress (October 6, 1777) meeting in York, Pennsylvania, appointed a third Chaplain, the Congregationalist Timothy Dwight, to serve a brigade of Connecticut troops. In a 1777 sermon, Timothy Dwight stated: <Nothing obstructs the deliverance of America but the crimes of its inhabitants...Independence and happiness [are] fixed upon the most lasting foundations, and that Kingdom of the Redeemer...[is] highly exalted and durably established on the ruins.> 1777CC103 -- American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement. Endnotes: 1777CC103. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Timothy Dwight, 1777, Sermon. Continental Congress. Introduction to book...

Continental Congress (October 1, 1777) meeting in York, Pennsylvania, appointed two Chaplains of Congress: Anglican, William White, and Presbyterian, George Duffield, to succeed the first Chaplain, Jacob Duché, returned to England. William White (1748-1836), was Duché's successor at Christ Church, Philadelphia, and George Duffield (1732-1790), was pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. An example of the preaching of Rev. William White can be seen in his Sermon delivered in Christ Church, Philadelphia, on June 21, 1786, at the opening of the Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States (Reprinted in London by John Rivington and...