Thomas Jefferson: “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free … it expects what never was and never will be”
Monticello Jan. 6. 16. Dear Sir I am favored with yours of Dec. 24. and perceive you have many matters before you of great moment. I have no fear but that the legislature will do on all of them what is wise & just. on the particular subject of our river, in the navigation of which our county has so great an interest, I think the ...
Francis Scott Key Penned the Poem, the ‘Star Spangled Banner’, Later to Become the National Anthem
Francis Scott Key penned the words to the US National Anthem after watching the bombardment for 25 hours and seeing “Bombs bursting in air, missiles, so much debris, he strained to see. Was the flag still there? He couldn’t see a thing. All night long, he couldn’t. At the crack of dawn, he ran out to the banister, and he looked, straining his eyes, but all ...
Percy Bysshe Shelley Publishes ‘Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things’
The acquisition of a unique copy of Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things is a momentous event for scholars and readers of Percy Bysshe Shelley, equally so for the Bodleian Libraries and wider communities interested in poetry and early 19th-century history. Imagine discovering a new set of string quartets by Beethoven or a large canvas by Turner that was thought to be lost. In either case, ...
The Senate Voted to Pass this 13th Amendment by a Vote of 26 to 1
This is Part 2. For the full story visit The Millenial Report: The True Backstory of the Missing 13th Amendment In 1789, the House of Representatives compiled a list of possible Constitutional Amendments, some of which would ultimately become our Bill of Rights. The House proposed seventeen; the Senate reduced the list to twelve. During this process that Senator Tristrain Dalton (Mass.) proposed an Amendment seeking ...
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “None are more Hopelessly Enslaved than Those who Falsely Believe They are Free.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 Aug 1749 – 22 Mar 1832), a German writer and statesman wrote Elective Affinities. The title is taken from a scientific term once used to describe the tendency of chemical species to combine with certain substances or species in preference to others. The novel is based on the metaphor of human passions being governed or regulated by the laws of chemical affinity, and examines whether or not ...
Thomas Jefferson: “For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well organized and armed militia is their best security.”
Quote from the Eighth Annual Message to Congress, delivered by Thomas Jefferson on November 8, 1808: "For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well organized and armed militia is their best security." ...
The Importation of Slaves into the United States was Prohibited
WE Americans live in a society awash in historical celebrations. The last few years have witnessed commemorations of the bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase (2003) and the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II (2005). Looming on the horizon are the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth (2009) and the sesquicentennial of the outbreak of the Civil War (2011). But one significant milestone went strangely ...
Thomas Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address
Thomas Jefferson FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS, Called upon to undertake the duties of the first executive office of our country, I avail myself of the presence of that portion of my fellow-citizens which is here assembled to express my grateful thanks for the favor with which they have been pleased to look toward me, to declare a sincere consciousness that the task is above my talents, and ...
John Adams: “We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion…”
Quincy October 11, 1798 Gentlemen, I have received from Major General Hull and Brigadier General Walker your unanimous Address from Lexington, animated with a martial Spirit and expressed with a military Dignity, becoming your Characters and the memorable Plains, in which it was adopted. While our Country remains untainted with the Principles and manners, which are now producing desolation in so many Parts of the ...
John Adams Issues a Proclamation for a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer for the Protection & Blessings of the Almighty God for the new Nation
A national day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer was issued by President John Adams declaring May 9, 1798 the day of fasting for the nation. The proclamation reads below: AS the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and blessing of Almighty God; and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to ...
