Posts Tagged ‘american revolution’
American Revolution, Part II — Benjamin Rush
Liberty Letters Quote of the Day, 4 July 1787, Benjamin Rush We have changed our forms of government, but it remains yet to effect a revolution in our principles, opinions and manners so as to accommodate them to the forms of government we have adopted. Liberty Letters is a project of The Moral Liberal . Compiled, and edited (with occasional [...]
A Question of Freedom or Slavery — Patrick Henry
American Minute with Bill Federer The Declaration of Independence accused the King of "giving his Assent to their acts of 'pretended Legislation.'" 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 [...]
The Hard Work of Liberty — Thomas Paine
Liberty Letters, Quote of the Day Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered. -- Thomas Paine The Liberty Letters is a project of The Moral Liberal and the Center for Moral Liberalism. Daily Founding Era quotes, with occasional commentary from editor in chief, Steve Farrell. Help support The Moral Liberal with your purchase of Steve [...]
In Hope of Kindling a Fire in Others — Moses Mather
Founding Era Political Sermons, 1775, Moses Mather At a time when we are called upon to surrender our liberties, our religion, and country; or defend them at the point of the sword, against those, that were our friends, our brethren, and allies (whose swords, and ours, till lately were never drawn but for mutual defence; and in joint [...]
Heaven Ordained Prayer At The Continental Congress
American Minute with Bill Federer Jacob Duche' was born JANUARY 31, 1738. An Anglican minister, the Continental Congress had requested he open their first session with prayer. Conscious of impending British attack, Rev. Jacob Duche' read Psalm 35: Plead my cause, Oh, Lord, with them that strive with me, fight against them that fight against me [...]
Declaration of Colonial Rights: Resolution of the First Continental Congress
Liberty Letters, Oct. 14, 1774, First Continental Congress The Congress met according to adjournment, and resuming the consideration of the subject under debate -- came into the following resolutions: ________________________ SULLIVAN'S DRAUGHT ... Whereas, since the close of the last war, the British Parliament, claiming a power of right to [...]
A Plan For Colonial Union — Benjamin Franklin
Liberty Letters, 1754/66, Benjamin Franklin ________________________ LETTER I CONCERNING THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE IN CHOOSING THE RULERS BY WHOM TAXES ARE IMPOSED TUESDAY MORNING SIR: I return return you the loose sheets of the plan, with thanks to your Excellency for communicating them. I apprehend that excluding the people of the colonies [...]
America's Catholic Patriot — Bishop John Carroll
American Minute with Bill Federer JANUARY 23, 1789, John Carroll founded Georgetown University. He was brother of Daniel Carroll, who signed the U.S. Constitution and gave the land where the Capitol is built. He was cousin to Charles Carroll, the wealthiest man in America and the longest living signer of the Declaration of Independence. John's [...]
Albany Plan of Union — Benjamin Franklin
Liberty Letters, 1754, Benjamin Franklin This popular woodcut was seen often during the later colonial era, and urged the colonists to overcome their parochial interests and form a strong union. Not until the Revolution, however, did unity outweigh long-standing suspicions. In the early 1750s, rivalry between England and France over who would [...]
The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved — James Otis
Liberty Letters, 1764, James Otis Of the Political and Civil Rights of the British Colonists Here indeed opens to view a large field; but I must study brevity—Few people have extended their enquiries after the foundation of any of their rights, beyond a charter from the crown. There are others who think when they have got back to old Magna [...]
Virginia Declaration of Rights — George Mason
Liberty Letters, June 1776, George Mason (Principal Author) A declaration of rights made by the representatives of the good people of Virginia, assembled in full and free convention; which rights do pertain to them and their posterity, as the basis and foundation of government. SECTION I. That all men are by nature equally free and independent [...]
The American Crisis 13b — Thomas Paine
Liberty Letters, Sept. 9 1783, Thomas Paine A Supernumerary Crisis IN "Rivington's New York Gazette," of December 6th, is a publication, under the appearance of a letter from London, dated September 30th; and is on a subject which demands the attention of the United States. The public will remember that a treaty of commerce between the United [...]
The American Crisis 13 — Thomas Paine
Liberty Letters, April 19, 1783, Thomas Paine Thoughts on the Peace, and the probable Advantages thereof "THE times that tried men's souls," are over — and the greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew, gloriously and happily accomplished. But to pass from the extremes of danger to safety — from the tumult of war to the [...]
The American Crisis 12 — Thomas Paine
Liberty Letters, Oct. 29, 1782, Thomas Paine To the Earl of Shelburne MY LORD, — A speech, which has been printed in several of the British and New York newspapers, as coming from your lordship, in answer to one from the Duke of Richmond, of the 10th of July last, contains expressions and opinions so new and singular, and so enveloped in [...]
The American Crisis 11b — Thomas Paine
Liberty Letters, May 31, 1782, Thomas Paine A Supernumerary Crisis. To Sir Guy Carleton IT is the nature of compassion to associate with misfortune; and I address this to you in behalf even of an enemy, a captain in the British service, now on his way to the headquarters of the American army, and unfortunately doomed to death for a crime not his [...]
The American Crisis 11 — Thomas Paine
Liberty Letters, May 22, 1782, Thomas Paine On the present State of News SINCE the arrival of two, if not three packets in quick succession, at New York, from England, a variety of unconnected news has circulated through the country, and afforded as great a variety of speculation. That something is the matter in the cabinet and councils of our [...]
The American Crisis 10b — Thomas Paine
Liberty Letters, March 5, 1782, Thomas Paine To the People of America -- On the expenses, arrangements and disbursements for carrying on the war, and finishing it with honor and advantage. WHEN any necessity or occasion has pointed out the convenience of addressing the public, I have never made it a consideration whether the subject was popular [...]
The American Crisis No. 10 — Thomas Paine
Liberty Letters, Thomas Paine On the King of England's Speech OF all the innocent passions which actuate the human mind there is none more universally prevalent than curiosity. It reaches all mankind, and in matters which concern us, or concern us not, it alike provokes in us a desire to know them. Although the situation of America, superior to [...]
The American Crisis No. 9b — Thomas Paine
Liberty Letters, Oct. 4, 1780, Thomas Paine The Crisis Extraordinary. On the Subject of Taxation. IT IS impossible to sit down and think seriously on the affairs of America, but the original principles upon which she resisted, and the glow and ardor which they inspired, will occur like the undefaced remembrance of a lovely scene. To trace over [...]
The American Crisis No. 9 — Thomas Paine
Liberty Letters, June 9, 1790, Thomas Paine HAD America pursued her advantages with half the spirit that she resisted her misfortunes, she would, before now, have been a conquering and a peaceful people; but lulled in the lap of soft tranquillity, she rested on her hopes, and adversity only has convulsed her into action. Whether subtlety or [...]
The American Crisis VIII — Thomas Paine
Liberty Letters, March 1780, Thomas Paine Address to the People of England "TRUSTING (says the king of England in his speech of November last,) in the divine providence, and in the justice of my cause, I am firmly resolved to prosecute the war with vigor, and to make every exertion in order to compel our enemies to equitable terms of peace and [...]
The American Crisis VII — Thomas Paine
Liberty Letters, Nov. 21, 1778, Thomas Paine To the People of England THERE are stages in the business of serious life in which to amuse is cruel, but to deceive is to destroy; and it is of little consequence, in the conclusion, whether men deceive themselves, or submit, by a kind of mutual consent, to the impositions of each other. That England [...]
Betsy Ross Remembered
American Minute with Bill Federer A 3-cent stamp honoring Betsy Ross was issued in Philadelphia, JANUARY 2, 1952, commemorating the 200th anniversary of her birth. Born a day earlier, January 1, 1752, to a Quaker family in Philadelphia, Betsy was the 8th of 17 children. She apprenticed as a seamstress and fell in love with upholsterer John Ross, [...]
The American Crisis VI — Thomas Paine
Liberty Letters, October 20, 1788, Thomas Paine To the Earl of Carlisle, General Clinton, and William Eden, Esq., British Commissioners at New York. THERE is a dignity in the warm passions of a Whig, which is never to be found in the cold malice of a Tory. In the one nature is only heated — in the other she is poisoned. The instant the former [...]
The American Crisis Vb — Thomas Paine
Liberty Letters, March 21, 1778, Thomas Paine To The Inhabitants Of America WITH all the pleasure with which a man exchanges bad company for good, I take my leave of Sir William and return to you. It is now nearly three years since the tyranny of Britain received its first repulse by the arms of America. A period which has given birth to a new [...]
The American Crisis II — Thomas Paine
Liberty Letters, Thomas Paine, 1777 To Lord Howe "What's in the name of lord, that I should fear To bring my grievance to the public ear?" Churchill UNIVERSAL empire is the prerogative of a writer. His concerns are with all mankind, and though he cannot command their obedience, he can assign them their duty. The Republic of Letters is more [...]
Liberty Letters: De Tocqueville on the Christian Influence for Equality
The religion which declares that all are equal in the sight of God, will not refuse to acknowledge that all citizens are equal in the eye of the law. Religion is the companion of liberty in all its battles and all it conflicts; the cradle of its infancy and the divine source of its claims. - Alexis de Tocqueville, as quoted in Edwin Hall's "The [...]
