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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 Federer
Called the "Chief Architect of the Constitution," he wrote many of the Federalist Papers which helped convince States to ratify the Constitution.
He introduced the First Amendment in the first session of Congress.
This was James Madison, born MARCH 16, 1751.
During the War of 1812, Madison proclaimed two National Days of Prayer, 1812 and 1813.
Then the British marched on Washington, D.C., citizens evacuated, along with President and Dolly Madison.
On August 25, 1814, as the British burned the White House, Capitol and public buildings, dark clouds began to roll in.
A tornado sent debris flying, blew off roofs and knocked chimneys over on top of British troops.
Two cannons were lifted off the ground and dropped yards away.
A British historian wrote:
"More British soldiers were killed by this stroke of nature than from all the firearms the American troops had mustered."
British forces fled in confusion and rains extinguished the fires.
Madison proclaimed a National Day of Public Humiliation, Fasting & Prayer to Almighty God on November 16, 1814.
Two weeks after the War ended, Madison proclaimed a National Day of Thanksgiving & Devout Acknowledgment to Almighty God, March 4, 1815.
American Minute
with
Bill Federer
James Madison's defense of religious freedom began when he stood with his father outside a jail in the village of Orange and heard Baptists preach from their cell windows.
He wrote of another incident to William Bradford, JANUARY 24, 1774:
"There are at this time in the adjacent Culpepper County not less than 5 or 6 well meaning men in jail for publishing their religious sentiments which in the main are very orthodox."
Madison helped pass the Virginia Bill of Rights, which stated:
"Religion, or the Duty which we owe our Creator, and the Manner of discharging it, can be directed only by Reason and Convictions, 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."
As President, Madison wrote July 23, 1813:
"If the public homage of a people can ever be worthy of the favorable regard of the Holy and Omniscient Being to whom it is addressed, it must be...guided only by their free choice...as proving that religion, that gift of Heaven for the good of man, is freed from all coercive edicts."
"There is not a more important and fundamental principle in legislation, than that the ways and means ought always to face the public engagements; that our appropriations should ever go hand in hand with our promises.
To say that the United States should be answerable for twenty-five millions of dollars without knowing whether the ways and means can be provided, and without knowing whether those who are to succeed us will think with us on the subject, would be rash and unjustifiable.
Sir, in my opinion, it would be hazarding the public faith in a manner contrary to every idea of prudence."
--James Madison, Speech in Congress, 22 April 1790
"Each State, in ratifying the Constitution, is considered as a sovereign body, independent of all others, and only to be bound by its own voluntary act. In this relation, then, the new Constitution will, if established, be a FEDERAL, and not a NATIONAL constitution."
-- James Madison (Federalist No. 39, 1788)
"In forming the Senate, the great anchor of the Government, the questions as they came within the first object turned mostly on the mode of appointment, and the duration of it."
-- James Madison (letter to Thomas Jefferson, 24 October 1787)
"He was certainly one of the most learned men of the age. It may be said of him as has been said of others that he was a "walking Library," and what can be said of but few such prodigies, that the Genius of Philosophy ever walked hand in hand with him."
-- James Madison (on Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Samuel Harrison Smith,
4 November 1826)
"If we resort for a criterion to the different principles on which different forms of government are established, we may define a republic to be, or at least may bestow that name on, a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their offices during pleasure for a limited period, or during good behavior."
-- James Madison (Federalist No. 39)
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