American Quotations by William J. Federer 2024

Oliver Otis Howard (November 8, 1830-October 26, 1909) was a Union General during the Civil War. He served as Superintendent of West Point Academy, and was appointed by President Lincoln to lead the Freedmen's Bureau, assisting former slaves after the war, 1866-72. In 1867, he founded Howard University for freed slaves, serving as its president, 1869-73, and later founded Lincoln Memorial University, Cumberland Gap, Tennessee. General Oliver Otis Howard, whose understanding of the Gospel created controversy when he integrated a church, also served as the Chairman of the American Tract Society. He was known by his soldiers as the "Old Prayer...

James Gillespie Blaine (January 31, 1830-January 27, 1893) was the Secretary of State under Presidents James Garfield and Benjamin Harrison; a U.S. Representative, 1862-75; the Speaker of the House, 1869-75; and elected a U.S. Senator in 1876. James Gillespie Blaine was the Republican Presidential candidate in 1884, and would have been the President instead of Grover Cleveland if he would have received just 1000 more votes in the State of New York. In Columbus and Columbia, a Pictorial History of the Man and the Nation, the Hon. James G. Blaine wrote: <No proverb ever supplanted the patience of Job or the...

Samuel Jackson Randall (October 10, 1828-April 13, 1890) was a U.S. Representative, who served twice as the Speaker of the House. He stated in the Washington Papers: <Gentlemen, Christianity is true. The man who doubts it discredits his own intelligence. I have examined this matter for myself. I know that God has given me influence among my fellow men, and as I have a prospect of recovery I want henceforth to use the influence of my example on the side of Christianity.> 1828SR001 -- American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement....

Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoi (September 9, 1828-November 20, 1910) was a Russian author, playwright and writer. He wrote in War and Peace, 1865- 69, book XIV, chapter 18: <For us, with the rule of right and wrong given us by Christ, there is nothing for which we have no standard. And there is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness and truth.> 1828LT001 Leo Tolstoi wrote: <Christianity, with its doctrine of humility, of forgiveness, of love, is incompatible with the state, with its haughtiness, its violence, its punishment, its wars.> 1828LT002 In describing President Abraham Lincoln after his death, Count Leo...

Lewis "Lew" Wallace (April 10, 1827-February 15, 1905) was a Major-General in the Civil War, a diplomat and the author of the novel, Ben-Hur, 1880. He became the Governor of New Mexico, 1878-81; and served as the U.S. Minister to Turkey, 1881-85. On February 2, 1893, Lew Wallace wrote in the Youth Companion: <At that time (1875), speaking candidly, I was not in the least influenced by religious sentiment. I had no conviction about God and Christ. I neither believed nor disbelieved them.... I had been listening to a discussion which involved such elemental points as God, Heaven, life hereafter, Jesus...