American Quotations by William J. Federer 2024

Maryland Constitution (1864): <PREAMBLE: We, the People of the State of Maryland, grateful to Almighty God for our civil and religious liberty, and taking into our serious consideration the best means of establishing a good Constitution in this State for the sure foundation and more permanent security thereof, declare... ARTICLE 24. That hereafter, in this State, there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except in punishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; and all persons held to service or labor as slaves, are hereby declared free... ARTICLE 36. That as it is the duty of every...

George Santayana (December 16, 1863-September 26, 1952) was an American philosopher, poet and essayist. He taught philosophy at Harvard University for 23 years. His works include: The Sense of Beauty, 1896; The Life of Reason, 1905-06; Character and Opinion in the United States, 1920; The Realm of Truth, 1920-40; The Last Puritan, 1935; Persons and Places, 1945; and The Idea of Christ in the Gospels, 1946. George Santayana wrote in Reason in Common Sense, volume I of The Life of Reason (1905): <Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.> 1863GS001 In his Dialogues in Limbo, 1926, George...

Proclamation of Amnesty (December 8, 1863) was issued by President Abraham Lincoln, and again on May 29, 1865 by President Andrew Johnson, to pardon and restore the rights of citizenship to those who participated in the Confederate rebellion. This plan for Southern Reconstruction included a statement to be sworn to by those receiving pardon for activities during the Civil War: <I,          , do solemnly swear, in the presence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Union of the States thereunder, and that I will...

Edward William Bok (October 9, 1863-January 9, 1930) was a Dutch-born American journalist. He was the editor of The Ladies' Home Journal, 1889-1919, and won the Pulitzer Prize for his autobiography, The Americanization of Edward Bok, 1921. In the September 1894 issue of The Ladies' Home Journal, Edward Bok wrote: <There are myriads of people on this earth who believe in the divinity of Christ; people of the finest minds and the greatest learning. It is not a mark of intelligence to question divine things. The divinity of Christ is a question of the heart. No one who studies the Life...

United States Congress (October 3, 1863) passed an Act of Congress designating an annual National Day of Thanksgiving and Praise, proclaimed by President Abraham Lincoln: <The year that is drawing to its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever- watchful Providence of Almighty God. In...