Today's American Minute

Inauguration History

January 19, 2025

LISTEN Inauguration History ... click here for video Originally, Presidential inaugurations were held on March 4th, unless that day fell on a Sunday, in which case, out of respect for the Lord's Day, it was moved to Monday, March 5th. This was the case with James Monroe in 1821, Zachary Taylor in 1849, Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877 and Woodrow Wilson in 1917. Unfortunately, there was a problem. The period between the elections in November, after harvests were taken in and before winter storms, and the spring, when politicians could take the long trip to the...

Religious Freedom Day: Jefferson Opposed Censorship, and How Courts Twisted First Amendment - American Minute with Bill Federer

January 16, 2025 • Religious Freedom Day: Jefferson's Virginia Statute & How Courts Twisted Meaning of First Amendment to make Government Hostile to Religious Liberty

Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom: "Almighty God hath created the mind free, and ... all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments ... tend only to begat habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, but to extend it by its influence on reason alone."

"Freedom of Conscience": Rhode Island founder Roger Williams "Wall of Separation," as understood by Jefferson - American Minute with Bill Federer

January 13, 2025 • " as understood by Jefferson • "Freedom of Conscience": Rhode Island founder Roger Williams "Wall of Separation

On January 1, 1802, Jefferson wrote back, agreeing with the Baptists: "Gentlemen ... Believing WITH you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions..."

"So Help Me God": Purpose of an Oath, and Nietzsche's shocking admission - American Minute with Bill Federer

January 11, 2025 • "So Help Me God": What is the Purpose of an Oath?

Democrat Presidential Candidate William Jennings Bryan reasoned, September 17, 1913: "There is a powerful restraining influence in the belief that an all-seeing eye scrutinizes every thought and word and act of the individual ... A religion which teaches PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY TO GOD gives strength to morality”

Fisher Ames "A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction" - American Minute with Bill Federer

January 09, 2025 • Fisher Ames "A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction"

Fisher Ames in his articled "Monitor," (The New England Palladium of Boston, 1804:

"We now set out with our experimental project, exactly where Rome failed with hers. We now begin, where she ended."