During the 18th century, elements of Enlightenment thinking culminated in the American, French, and Haitian revolutions. By the eighteenth century, as the American colonists began to think of freedom from England, they thought of other freedoms as well. In 1777, Thomas Jefferson drafted the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. In 1789, freedom of religion became the law of the land with the passage of the First Amendment to the Constitution.
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Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman is Published
"Women are told from their infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers, that a little knowledge of human weakness, justly termed cunning, softness of temper, outward obedience, and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety, will obtain for them the protection of man; and should they be ...
Bill of Rights is finally ratified
Following ratification by the state of Virginia, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, become the law of the land. In September 1789, the first Congress of the United States approved 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution and sent them to the states for ratification ...
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Dies, Allegedly Poisoned by the Illuminati for Trying to Expose Them
On 5 December 1784, the freemasons asked the brilliant Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to become a freemason. He joined the lodge Zur Wohltatigkeit (To Charity) on 14 December 1784. He was also a member of another lodge, Zur wahren Eintracht (To True Concord). This was a double lodge. Soon ...
Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of The Treasury, Brings about the Creation of the Nations First, “Bank of The United States”
The history of central banking in the United States does not begin with the Federal Reserve. The Bank of the United States received its charter in 1791 from the U.S. Congress and was signed by President Washington. The Bank's charter was designed by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, modeling ...
Benjamin Franklin on Jesus Christ: “… the System of Morals and his Religion… is the Best the World Ever Saw, or is Likely to See.”
This was Franklin's final and most famous description his personal faith. He offers a concise "creed" and expresses skepticism about the Divinity Jesus. He died the next month, on April 17, at the age of 85. Stiles was President of Yale College. Letter to Ezra Stiles, President of Yale University, ...
George Washington Gives Nations 1st State of the Union Address: “A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined…”
On January 8, 1790, President George Washington delivered to Congress the first State of the Union address in American history. This address presented defense, foreign policy, economic, education, and immigration related topics to gathered representatives and senators in Federal Hall, New York City. Fellow Citizens of the Senate, and House ...
Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation: America’s First Federal Thanksgiving
On October 3rd, 1789, following a resolution of Congress, President George Washington proclaimed Thursday the 26th of November 1789 a day of “public thanksgiving and prayer” devoted to “the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or ...
The Bill of Rights was Passed by Congress to Protect the Civil Liberties of American Citizens and Prevent the Government from Abusing Power
The first 10 amendments to the Constitution make up the Bill of Rights. Written by James Madison in response to calls from several states for greater constitutional protection for individual liberties, the Bill of Rights lists specific prohibitions on governmental power. The Virginia Declaration of Rights, written by George Mason, strongly influenced Madison. One of ...
French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
This document, approved by the National Assembly, codifies the ideals of the French Revolution, strongly influenced by those of the Enlightenment and the American Revolution. The Marquis de Lafayette, with help from Thomas Jefferson, drafted the declaration that would become the preamble of the republic's 1791 constitution. The basic principle of the Declaration ...
A Congressman from Massachusetts, Fisher Ames, Proposes the Wording of the First Amendment
He sat next to George Washington in the pew at St. Paul’s Chapel in New York during the religious service following Washington’s presidential inauguration. He helped ratify the U.S. Constitution. His name was Fisher Ames. He was a Congressman from Massachusetts where, on Aug. 20, 1789, he proposed as the ...
