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Don't Give Up The Ship!" commanded 31-year-old Captain James Lawrence, as he lay wounded on the deck of the U.S.S. Chesapeake.
Captain Lawrence fought Muslim Barbary pirates in 1804, and when the War of 1812 began, he commanded the U.S.S. Hornet which captured the privateer Dolphin and the H.M.S. Peacock.
President Madison wrote May 25, 1813:
"The brilliant achievements of our infant Navy, a signal triumph has been gained by Captain Lawrence...in the Hornet sloop of war...
The contest in which the United States are engaged appeals...to the sacred obligation of transmitting...to future generations
that...which is held...by the present from the goodness of Divine
Providence."
On JUNE 1, 1813, Captain Lawrence sailed from Boston and was attacked by the British ship Shannon.
Within an hour, nearly every officer was killed.
Later, Captain Oliver Hazard Perry was inspired to name his flagship on Lake Erie "Lawrence."
Theodore Roosevelt wrote in Hero Tales from American History, 1895:
"Lawrence, dying with the words on his lips, 'Don't give up the ship' and Perry...with the same words blazoned on his banner...won glory in desperate conflicts and left a reputation hardly dimmed."
American Minute
with
Bill FedererJuly 16
Apollo 11 blasted off from Cape Kennedy JULY 16, 1969, being the first mission to walk on the moon.
In Proclamation 3919, President Richard Nixon stated:
"Apollo 11 is on its way to the moon.
It carries three brave astronauts; it also carries the hopes and prayers of hundreds of millions of people...
That moment when man first sets foot on a body other than earth will stand through the centuries as one supreme in human experience...
I call upon all of our people...to join in prayer for the successful conclusion of Apollo 11's mission."
President Richard Nixon spoke to the astronauts on the moon, July 20, 1969:
"This certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made from the White House...
The heavens have become a part of man's world...
For one priceless moment in the whole history of man all the people on this earth are truly one...one in our prayers that you will return safely to earth."
President Nixon greeted the astronauts on the U.S.S. Hornet, July 24, 1969:
"The millions who are seeing us on television now...feel as I do, that...our prayers have been answered...
I think it would be very appropriate if Chaplain Piirto, the Chaplain of this ship, were to offer a prayer of thanksgiving."
American Minute
with
Bill Federer
On APRIL 16, 1859, French historian Alexis de Tocqueville died.
After nine months of traveling the United States, he wrote Democracy in America in 1835, which has been described as "the most comprehensive...analysis of character and society in America ever written."
Alexis de Tocqueville wrote:
"Upon my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention...
In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions.
But in America I found they were intimately united."
De Tocqueville continued:
"The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other...
They brought with them into the New World a form of Christianity which I cannot better describe than by styling it a democratic and republican religion."
In Book Two of Democracy in America, de Tocqueville wrote:
"Christianity has therefore retained a strong hold on the public mind in America...
In the United States...Christianity itself is a fact so irresistibly established, that no one undertakes either to attack or to defend it."
American Minute
with
Bill Federer
He drafted the Declaration of Independence, was Governor of Virginia and founded the University of Virginia.
As the 3rd U.S. President, he approved the Louisiana Purchase and had Lewis and Clark explore it.
He sent the Marines to stop the Muslim Barbary Pirates of Tripoli.
His name was Thomas Jefferson, born APRIL 13, 1743.
Inscribed on the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC are his words:
"God who gave us life gave us liberty.
Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?
Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever."
In his Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, January 16, 1786, Jefferson wrote:
"Almighty God hath created the mind free...
All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments...tend only to begat habits of hypocrisy...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."
In his 2nd Inaugural, Jefferson wrote:
"I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our forefathers, as Israel of old."
American Minute
with
Bill Federer
Noah Webster first published his Dictionary on APRIL 14, 1828.
This 26-year project with 30,000 new definitions, standardized spelling and gave American English its identity.
Proving unprofitable, the rights were purchased after his death by George and Charles Merriam.
In the preface of his original edition, Noah Webster wrote:
"In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed...
No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people."
Noah Webster concluded:
"To that great and benevolent Being...who has borne me and my manuscripts in safety across the Atlantic, and given me strength and resolution to bring the work to a close, I would present the tribute of my most grateful acknowledgments."
Noah Webster's Dictionary defined "Property" as:
"The exclusive right of possessing, enjoying and disposing of a thing; ownership. In the beginning of the world, the Creator gave to man dominion over the earth...It is one of the greatest blessings of civil society that the property of citizens is well secured."
American Minute
with
Bill Federer
Millions of people in 91 countries are helped by The Salvation Army, founded by William Booth, who was born APRIL 10, 1829.
William Booth began by ministering to the poor, drunk and outcast.
He fought to end teenage prostitution in England.
Awarded an honorary degree from Oxford, Booth traveled the United States, met President Theodore Roosevelt and opened a session of the United States Senate with prayer.
William Booth wrote:
"While there is a drunkard left, while there is a lost girl upon the streets, where there remains one dark soul without the light of God-I'll fight! I'll fight to the very end."
Years after his death, William Booth's daughter, Evangeline, became their new leader.
President Franklin Roosevelt sent her a telegram, September 4, 1934, saying:
"Please accept my sincere congratulations on your election as General of the Salvation Army throughout the world.
In these troubled times it is particularly important that the leadership of all good forces shall work for the amelioration of human suffering and for the preservation of the highest spiritual ideals."
FDR concluded
"Your efforts as Commander-in-Chief of the Salvation Army...have earned the gratitude and admiration of millions of your countrymen."
American Minute
with
Bill Federer
Born in a slave hut APRIL 5, 1856, was Booker T. Washington.
In dire poverty after the Civil War, he moved to West Virginia to work in a salt furnace and coal mine. At age 16 he walked 500 miles to attend Hampton Institute in Virginia and later Wayland Baptist Seminary in Washington, DC.
He taught in West Virginia until he founded Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where he recruited George Washington Carver as a professor.
At his death, the school had 1,500 students and a faculty of 200 teaching 38 trades.
The first African American to have his image on a U.S. coin and postage stamp, Booker T. Washington wrote in Up From Slavery, 1901:
"If no other consideration had convinced me of the value of the Christian life, the Christlike work which the Church of all denominations in America has done during the last 35 years for the elevation of the black man would have made me a Christian."
Of his speech in Atlanta, 1895, Booker T. Washington wrote:
"The afternoon papers had forecasts of the next days' proceedings in flaring headlines...I did not sleep much that night...
The next morning...I also kneeled down and asked God's blessing...
I make it a rule never to go before an audience...without asking the blessing of God upon what I want to say."
American Minute
with
Bill Federer
APRIL 6, 1917, the United States entered World War I by declaring war on Germany.
Within the next two years, America enlisted 4 million soldiers and spent 35 billion dollars, resulting in an Allied victory.
In a Day of Prayer Proclamation, October 19, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson stated:
"In view of the entrance of our nation into the vast and awful war which now afflicts the greater part of the world...
I set apart...a day upon which our people should...offer concerted prayer to Almighty God for His divine aid in the success of our arms."
In another Proclamation, May 11, 1918, President Wilson wrote:
"Whereas it has always been the reverent habit of the people of the United States to turn in humble appeal to Almighty God...
I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim...a day of public humiliation, prayer and fasting,
and do exhort my fellow-citizens of all faiths and creeds to assemble on that day in their several places of worship...to pray Almighty God that He may forgive our sins...and purify our hearts...to accept and defend all things that are just and right...
beseeching Him that He will give victory to our armies as they fight for freedom."
American Minute
with
Bill Federer
Henry Opukahai'a was an orphan raised by his uncle to be a pagan priest but he became disillusioned with rituals and chants and left Hawaii for New Englandwith a friend, Thomas Hopu.
They were befriended by Yale students and became the first Hawaiian Christians.
Henry studied Greek and Hebrew and translated parts of the Bible.
In his memoirs, which sold 500,000 copies after his death in 1818, Henry Opukahai'a wrote:
"My poor countrymen, without knowledge of the true God, and ignorant of the future world, have no Bible to read, no Sabbath."
This inspired Thomas Hopu and Hiram Bingham to be the first missionaries to Hawaii, arriving MARCH 31, 1820.
Devising a 12-letter alphabet, they translated the Bible, set up a school, a church, a newspaper and convinced women to wear dresses.
Idolatry and human sacrifice had previously been ended by King Kamehameha II and his Queen mother Ka'ahumanu.
Just prior to her death, Queen Ka'ahumanu, who had helped spread the Gospel in the islands, was presented with the newly completed version of the New Testament in the Hawaiian language.
Her last words were: "I am going where the mansions are ready."
American Minute
with
Bill Federer
During the Civil War, after issuing his Emancipation Proclamation, President Abraham Lincoln set a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer, MARCH 30, 1863, stating:
"It is the duty of nations...to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins...with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy...
The awful calamity of civil war...may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins."
Lincoln continued:
"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven...
We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God.
We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own."
Lincoln concluded:
"Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for...forgiveness."
American Minute
with
Bill Federer
Tenth President John Tyler was born MARCH 29, 1790.
He was the first Vice-President ever to assume the Presidency when William Henry Harrison died after only one month in office.
To mourn Harrison's death, President John Tyler's first act was to proclaim a National Day of Fasting and Prayer, in which he stated:
"When a Christian people feel themselves to be overtaken by a great public calamity, it becomes them to humble themselves under the dispensation of Divine Providence, to recognize His righteous government over the children of men...and to supplicate His merciful protection for the future."
In his 2nd Annual Message to Congress, December 6, 1842, President John Tyler stated:
"The schoolmaster and the missionary are found side by side." In his 4th Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1844, President John Tyler stated:
"The guaranty of religious freedom, of the freedom of the press, of the liberty of speech, of the trial by jury, of the habeas corpus...will be enjoyed by millions yet unborn....
Our prayers should evermore be offered up to the Father of the Universe for His wisdom to direct us in the path of our duty so as to enable us to consummate these high purposes."
American Minute
with
Bill Federer
On MARCH 28, 1885, the Salvation Army was organized in the United States.
It was begun in England by "General" William Booth in 1865, who conducted meetings among the poor in London's East End slums.
Originally named the Christian Mission, he designed uniforms and adopted a semi-military system of leadership.
On December 1, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson remarked to the Salvation Army in New York:
"For a century now, the Salvation Army has offered food to the hungry and shelter to the homeless-in clinics and children's homes, through disaster relief, in prison and welfare work, and a thousand other endeavors.
In that century you have proved time and again the power of a handshake, a meal, and a song.
But you have not stopped there. You have demonstrated also the power of a great idea."
President Lyndon Johnson continued:
"The voice of the Salvation Army has reminded men that physical well-being is just not enough; that spiritual rebirth is the most pressing need of our time and of every time; that the world cannot be changed unless men change.
That voice has been clear and courageous-and it has been heard.
Even when other armies have disbanded, I hope that this one will still be on the firing line."
American Minute
with
Bill Federer
President John Adams' son, John Quincy Adams, was U.S. Minister to Russia.
In September 1811, John Quincy Adams wrote from St. Petersburg to his son, Charles:
"My dear Son...You mentioned that you read to your aunt a chapter in the Bible...every evening. This information gave me real pleasure..."
John Quincy Adams continued:
"So great is my veneration for the Bible, and so strong my belief, that when duly read and meditated on, it is of all books in the world, that which contributes most to make men good, wise, and happy-that the earlier my children begin to read it...the more lively and confident will be my hopes that they will prove useful citizens of their country."
This correspondence was published after his death as Letters of John Quincy Adams to his son, on the Bible and its Teachings.
President John Quincy Adams' grandson was Henry Adams, an American historian.
From his unique perspective of being related to some of America's founders, Henry Adams, who died MARCH 27, 1918, wrote in his 9-volume work, History of the United States:
"The Pilgrims of Plymouth, the Puritans of Boston, the Quakers of Pennsylvania, all avowed a moral purpose, and began by making institutions that consciously reflected a moral idea."
American Minute
with
Bill Federer
Richard Allen was born to slave parents in Philadelphia and sold with his family to a plantation in Dover, Delaware.
With the permission of his master, he began attending the Methodist meetings and learned to read and write.
Richard Allen was converted at age 16 and is said to have worked harder to prove that Christianity did not make slaves worse servants.
Richard Allen then invited a minister to visit and preach to his master, resulting in his master's conversion after hearing that on the Day of Judgment slaveholders would be "weighed in the balance and found wanting."
His repentant master made arrangements for Richard, now 26, to become free.
Richard Allen became a licensed exhorter and founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Their first church building was dedicated in 1794 by America's first Methodist Bishop, the circuit-riding preacher Francis Asbury.
By the time of Richard Allen's death, MARCH 26, 1831, the African Methodist Episcopal Church had grown to over 10,000 members. Richard Allen stated:
"This land, which we have watered with our tears and our blood, is now our mother country, and we are well satisfied to stay where wisdom abounds and Gospel is free."
American Minute
with
Bill Federer
"Old Hickory."
During the Revolution, young Andrew Jackson refused to polish the boots of a British officer and was slashed on the arm with a sword and jailed.
His mother died of prison fever while caring for captured American soldiers.
Jackson carried a bullet in his body from a duel defending his wife's honor.
In the War of 1812, General Andrew Jackson defeated over 2,000 British in the Battle of New Orleans.
On January 30, 1835, President Andrew Jackson survived an assassination attempt when Richard Lawrence fired two pistols at him at point blank range. Davy Crockett, who was with the President, disarmed the assailant.
On MARCH 25, 1835, Andrew Jackson wrote in a letter:
"I was brought up a rigid Presbyterian, to which I have always adhered.
Our excellent Constitution guarantees to every one freedom of religion, and charity tells us (and you know Charity is the real basis of all true religion)...judge the tree by its fruit.
All who profess Christianity believe in a Saviour, and that by and through Him we must be saved."
Andrew Jackson concluded: "We ought, therefore, to consider all good Christians whose walks correspond with their professions, be they Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Baptist, Methodist or Roman Catholic."
American Minute
with
Bill Federer
William Jay, son of the First Supreme Court Chief Justice, helped found New York City's Anti-Slavery Society in 1833.
His son, John Jay, was manager of New York Young Men's Anti-Slavery Society in 1834.
Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story helped establish the illegality of the slave trade in the 1844 Amistad case.
Salmon P. Chase, appointed Chief Justice by Lincoln, defended so many escaped slaves in his career he was nicknamed "Attorney-General of Fugitive Slaves."
Cassius Marcellus Clay, diplomat to Russia for Lincoln and Grant, founded the anti-slavery journal True American in 1845 and helped found the Republican party in 1854.
Rufus King, born MARCH 24, 1755, was one of the youngest signers of the U.S. Constitution, only 32 years old.
A Harvard graduate, Rufus King was an aide to General Sullivan during the Revolutionary War.
Rufus King later served as U.S. Minister to England and was a Senator from New York.
In a speech made before the Senate at the time Missouri was petitioning for statehood, Rufus King stated:
"I hold that all laws or compacts imposing any such condition as slavery upon any human being are absolutely void because they are contrary to the law of nature, which is the law of God."
American Minute
with
Bill Federer
Britain imposed the 1764 Currency Act, 1764 Sugar Act, 1765 Stamp Act, 1765 Quartering Act, 1766 Declaratory Act, 1767 Townshend Act, 1773 Tea Act, 1774 Boston Port Act, 1774 Justice Act, 1774 Massachusetts Government Act, 1774 Quartering Act, 1774 Quebec Act, and 1775 Proclamation of Rebellion.
On MARCH 23, 1775, Patrick Henry spoke to the 2nd Virginia Convention, which was meeting in Richmond's St. John's Church due to British hostilities:
"I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery...
We have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated...We have prostrated ourselves before the throne...
Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence."
Patrick Henry continued:
"There is a just God who presides over the destines of nations...who will raise up friends to fight our battle for us.
The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave...
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God!
I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death."
American Minute
with
Bill Federer
On MARCH 22, 1758, Princeton University President Jonathan Edwards died from a smallpox inoculation.
Valedictorian of his class at Yale, Jonathan Edwards' preaching began the Great Awakening, a revival so widespread history credits it with uniting the colonies prior to the Revolution.
Of the awakening, Ben Franklin wrote:
"It was wonderful to see...From being thoughtless or indifferent...it seemed as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk thro' the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in...every street."
Jonathan Edwards' grandson was Yale President Timothy Dwight.
On July 4, 1798, Timothy Dwight explained how Voltaire's atheism inspired the French Revolution's Reign of Terror, 1793-1794, where 40,000 people were beheaded:
"The...ends proposed by the Illuminati...are the overthrow of religion, government and human society...Murder, butchery and war...are declared by them to be completely justifiable...
No villainy...can be named which was not vindicated...Satanic lips polluted the pages of God...inundated the country with...immorality...
Where religion prevails, Illumination cannot make disciples, a French Directory cannot govern, a nation cannot be made slaves."
Timothy Dwight concluded:
"To destroy us therefore...our enemies must first...seduce us from the house of God."
American Minute
with
Bill Federer
Johann Sebastian Bach was born MARCH 21, 1685.
By age 10 his parents had died.
At 18, Bach was a church organist, followed by positions in royal courts.
Once Bach was imprisoned because a duke did not want him employed elsewhere.
Widowed with 7 children, he remarried and had 13 more.
Considered the "master of masters," Johann Sebastian Bach's works include Passion According to St. Matthew, and Jesus, Meine Freude (Jesus, My Joy!).
Johann Sebastian Bach stated:
"The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul. If heed is not paid to this, it is not true music but a diabolical bawling and twanging."
On February 22, 1990, President George H.W. Bush stated:
"The Bible has had a critical impact upon the development of Western civilization. Western literature, art, and music are filled with images and ideas that can be traced to its pages."
Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson wrote in McCollum v. Board of Education, 1948:
"It would not seem practical to teach either practice or appreciation of the arts if we are to forbid exposure of youth to any religious influences.
Music without sacred music would be incomplete, even from a secular point of view."
American Minute
wiith
Bill Federer
Sir Isaac Newton died MARCH 20, 1727.
With his mother widowed twice, he had been raised by his grandmother before being sent off to grammar school and later Cambridge.
Newton discovered calculus, the laws of gravity and built the first reflecting telescope.
Using a prism, Newton demonstrated that a beam of light contained all the colors of the rainbow.
President of the Royal Society from 1703 till his death, Sir Isaac Newton wrote in Principia, 1687:
"This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent Being...
All variety of created objects which represent order and life in the universe could happen only by the willful reasoning of its original Creator, whom I call the Lord God."
In Optics, 1704, Newton wrote:
"God in the beginning formed matter."
Regarding the Bible, Newton wrote:
"The system of revealed truth which this Book contains is like that of the universe, concealed from common observation yet the labors of the centuries have established its Divine origin."
In A Short Scheme of the True Religion, Sir Isaac Newton wrote:
"Atheism is so senseless and odious to mankind that it never had many professors."
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