American Quotations by William J. Federer 2024

Michigan (January 26, 1837) was the 26th State admitted to the Union. On August 7, 1789, President George Washington signed into law an Act of Congress which prohibited slavery from entering the territory, titled: <An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States, North-West of the River Ohio, Article VI.> 1837MI001 Congress enabled the establishment of the government of Illinois, provided it followed the general tenets of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. The Northwest Ordinance stated: <SECTION 13. And, for extending the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty, which form the basis whereon these republics, their laws...

John William Jones (September 25, 1836-March 17, 1909) was a Confederate Chaplain during the Civil War, serving in Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. He was instrumental in the numerous revivals that swept through troops, resulting in over 100,000 conversions. Chaplain J. William Jones had been ordained a Baptist missionary and was preparing to leave for China when the war broke out. He enlisted as a private in the Confederate Army and within a year began serving as a chaplain. His reports of the ongoing revival that he had witnessed among the Confederate troops are recorded in his work, Christ...

Wesley Merritt (June 16, 1836-December 3, 1910) was a Major General in the Union Army during the Civil War. He was the superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, 1882-87, and Commander of the first Philippine expedition to occupy Manila in August of 1898. He expressed: <The principles of life as taught in the Bible, the inspired Word, and exemplified in the matchless Life of Him "who spake as never man spake," are the rules of moral action which have resulted in civilizing the world. The testimony of great men, like Gladstone and his fellow statesmen; like Havelock and...

Arkansas (June 15, 1836) was the 25th State admitted to the Union. The Constitution of the State of Arkansas, adopted October 30, 1874, stated: <Preamble. We, the people of the State of Arkansas, grateful to Almighty God for the privilege of choosing our own form of government, for our civil and religious liberty, and desiring to perpetuate its blessings and secure the same to ourselves and posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution.> 1836AR001 <Article II, Section 24. All men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences.> 1836AR002 <Article II,...

William Henry Venable (April 29, 1836-July 6, 1920) in Johnny Appleseed, st. 25, wrote: <Remember Johnny Appleseed, All ye who love the apple; He served his kind by word and deed, In God's grand greenwood chapel.> 1836WV001 -- American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement. Endnotes: 1836WV001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). William Henry Venable, in Johnny Appleseed, st. 25. John Bartlett, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 765.