American Quotations by William J. Federer 2024

Massachusetts Constitution (June 15, 1780) written by John Adams: <We, therefore, the people of Massachusetts, acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the goodness of the Great Legislator of the Universe, in affording us, in the course of His Providence, an opportunity, deliberately and peaceably, without fraud, violence or surprise, of entering into an original, explicit, and solemn compact with each other; and of forming a new constitution of civil government, for ourselves and posterity; and devoutly imploring His direction in so interesting a design, do agree upon, ordain and establish the following Declaration of Rights, and Frame of Government, as the Constitution...

Delaware Approved Articles of Confederation (1779): <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... ARTICLE 1. The style of this confederation shall be "The United States of America." ARTICLE 2. Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the...

Virginia Proclamation (November 11, 1779) Governor Thomas Jefferson issued a Proclamation appointing a day of Thanksgiving and Prayer: <Whereas the Honourable the General Congress, impressed with a grateful sense of the goodness of Almighty God, in blessing the greater part of this extensive continent with plentiful harvests, crowning our arms with repeated successes, conducting us hitherto safely through the perils with which we have been encompassed and manifesting in multiplied instances his divine care of these infant states, hath thought proper by their act of the 20th day of October last, to recommend to the several states that Thursday the...

Joseph Story (September 18, 1779-September 10, 1845) was a Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, appointed in 1811 by President James Madison ("The Chief Architect of the Constitution"). He was the youngest person ever to serve in that position and continued on the bench for 34 years, until his death. He had been a U.S. Representative, 1808-09, and son of one of the Boston Tea Party "Indians." He was instrumental in establishing federal supremacy in Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, 1816; and in establishing the illegality of the slave trade in the Amistad case. The founder of Harvard Law School, 1821-45,...

Benjamin Silliman (August 8, 1779-November 24, 1864) was an American physicist, chemist and geologist. He was a professor at Yale College, and in 1818, founded and edited the American Journal of Science and Arts. He also was an original member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1863. Benjamin Silliman published his research on the potential uses of crude oil in his respected Silliman Report, 1855, which was of significant importance in establishing the American oil industry. The mineral sillimanite, a form of aluminum silicate (Al2SiO5) is named for him. In 1807, Benjamin Silliman was the first in the United...