American Quotations by William J. Federer 2024

Chester County, New York (August 23, 1831) as related in The New York Spectator, reported that a judge refused to admit the evidence of a man who declared he did not believe in God, on the grounds that the witness had destroyed beforehand all confidence of the court in his testimony. The newspaper explained: <The court of commons pleas of Chester county (New York), a few days since rejected a witness who declared his disbelief in the existence of God. The presiding judge remarked, that he had not before been aware that there was a man living who did not believe...

Virginia Constitution (1830) included: <BILL OF RIGHTS, ARTICLE 16. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience;   and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other... ARTICLE 3, SECTION 11. No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place or Ministry whatsoever, nor shall be...

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....