Presidential Quotations William J. Federer United States Presidents 1st 1789-1797 George Washington (Feb. 22, 1732-Dec. 14, 1799) 2nd 1797-1801 John Adams (Oct. 30, 1735-Jul. 4, 1826) 3rd 1801-1809 Thomas Jefferson (Apr. 13, 1743-Jul. 4, 1826) 4th 1809-1817 James Madison (Mar. 16, 1751-Jun. 28, 1836) 5th 1817-1825 James Monroe (Apr. 28, 1758-Jul. 4, 1831) 6th 1825-1829 John Quincy Adams (Jul. 11, 1767-Feb. 23, 1848) 7th 1829-1837 Andrew Jackson (Mar. 15, 1767-Jun. 8, 1845) 8th 1837-1841 Martin Van Buren (Dec. 5, 1782-Jul. 24, 1862) 9th 1841-1841 William Henry Harrison (Feb. 9, 1773-Apr. 4, 1841) 10th 1841-1845 John Tyler (Mar. 29, 1790-Jan. 18, 1862) 11th 1845-1849 John Knox Polk (Nov. 2, 1795-Jun. 15, 1849) 12th 1849-1850 Zachary Taylor (Nov. 24, 1784-Jul. 9, 1850) 13th 1850-1853 Millard Fillmore (Jan. 7, 1800-Mar. 8, 1874) 14th 1853-1857 Franklin Pierce (Nov. 23, 1804-Oct. 8, 1869) 15th 1857-1861 James Buchanan (Apr. 23, 1791-Jun. 1, 1868) 16th 1861-1865 Abraham Lincoln (Feb. 12, 1809-Apr. 15, 1865) 17th 1865-1869 Andrew Johnson (Dec. 29, 1808-Jul. 31, 1875) 18th 1869-1877 Ulysses Simpson Grant (Apr. 27, 1822-Jul. 23, 1885) 19th 1877-1881 Rutherford Birchard Hayes (Oct. 4, 1822-Jan. 17, 1893) 20th 1881-1881 James Abram Garfield (Nov. 19, 1831-Sep. 19, 1881) 21st 1881-1885 Chester Alan Arthur (Oct. 5, 1830-Nov. 18, 1886) 22nd 1885-1889 Stephen Grover Cleveland (Mar. 18, 1837-Jun. 24, 1908) 23rd 1889-1993 Benjamin Harrison (Aug. 20, 1833-Mar. 13, 1901) 24th 1893-1897 Stephen Grover Cleveland (Mar. 18, 1837-Jun. 24, 1908) 25th 1897-1901 William McKinley (Jan. 29, 1843-Sep. 14, 1901) 26th 1901-1909 Theodore Roosevelt (Oct. 27, 1858-Jan. 6, 1919) 27th 1909-1913 William Howard Taft (Sep. 15, 1857-Mar. 8, 1930) 28th 1913-1921 Thomas Woodrow Wilson (Dec. 28, 1856-Feb. 3, 1924) 29th 1921-1923 Warren Gamaliel Harding (Nov. 2, 1865-Aug. 2, 1923) 30th 1923-1929 John Calvin Coolidge (Jul. 4, 1872-Jan. 5, 1933) 31st 1929-1933 Herbert Clark Hoover (Aug. 10, 1874-Oct. 20, 1964) 32nd 1933-1945 Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Jan. 30, 1882-Apr. 12, 1945) 33rd 1945-1953 Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884-Dec. 26, 1972) 34th 1953-1961 Dwight David Eisenhower (Oct. 14, 1890-Mar. 25, 1969) 35th 1961-1963 John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917-Nov. 22, 1963) 36th 1963-1969 Lyndon Baines Johnson (Aug. 27, 1908-Jan. 22, 1973) 37th 1969-1974 Richard Milhous Nixon (Jan. 9, 1913-Apr. 22, 1994) 38th 1974-1977 Gerald Rudolph Ford (Jul. 14, 1913- ) 39th 1977-1981 James Earl "Jimmy" Carter (Oct. 1, 1924- ) 40th 1981-1989 Ronald Wilson Reagan (Feb. 6, 1911- ) 41st 1989-1993 George Herbert Walker Bush (Jun. 12, 1924- ) 42nd 1993-2001 William Jefferson Clinton (Aug. 19, 1946- ) 43rd 2001- George Walker Bush (July 6, 1946- ) George Washington (February 22, 1732-December 14, 1799), was the first President of the United States, 1789-97; Chancellor of the College of William and Mary, 1788-99; President of the Constitutional Convention, where the United States Constitution was formulated, May 14, 1787-September 17, 1787; Commander in Chief of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, 1775-83; delegate to First and Second Continental Congress, 1774-75; Justice of Fairfax County, 1768; member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, 1758-74; in 1759 married Martha Dandridge Custis (1731-1802), the widowed daughter of Col. John Dandridge; Colonel in the Virginia Militia, 1752-58; aide-de-camp to General Edward Braddock, 1755; Official Surveyor of Culpepper County, 1748-49; and received his surveyor's license from William and Mary College, 1749. George Washington was also an active Episcopalian. Considered the most popular man in the Colonies, George Washington was described by Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee in his now famous tribute, "First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen." The son of Augustine Washington and his second wife, Mary Ball, George Washington was also a descendant of King John of England, and nine of the twenty-five Baron Sureties of the Magna Carta. His great-great grandfather, Rev. Lawrence Washington, was a clergyman in the Church of England. His great-grandfather, John Washington, moved to America in 1657, and helped found a parish in Virginia. 1st President 1789-1797 George Washington (February 22, 1732-December 14, 1799) "The Hon. Continental Congress having been pleased to allow a Chaplain to each Regiment...The Colonels or commanding officers of each regiment are directed to procure Chaplains accordingly...to see that all inferior officers and soldiers pay them a suitable respect and attend carefully upon religious exercises. The blessing and protection of Heaven are at all times necessary but especially so in times of public distress and danger - The General hopes and trusts, that every officer and man, will endeavour so to live, and act, as becomes a Christian Soldier, defending the dearest Rights and Liberties of his country." - GEORGE WASHINGTON, JULY 9, 1776, ORDERS ISSUED FROM NEW YORK HEADQUARTERS UPON RECEIVING A COPY OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 1st President 1789-1797 George Washington (February 22, 1732-December 14, 1799) "The Commander-in-Chief directs that Divine service be performed every Sunday at 11 o'clock, in each Brigade which has a Chaplain. Those Brigades which have none will attend the places of worship nearest to them. It is expected that officers of all ranks will, by their attendance, set an example for their men. While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest Glory to laud the more distinguished Character of Christian." - GEORGE WASHINGTON, MAY 2, 1778, ORDERS ISSUED TO TROOPS AT VALLEY FORGE. 1st President 1789-1797 George Washington (February 22, 1732-December 14, 1799) "It would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations and whose providential aids can supply every human defect....In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own....We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained." - GEORGE WASHINGTON, THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 1789, FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 1st President 1789-1797 George Washington (February 22, 1732-December 14, 1799) "If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the Constitution framed by the Convention, where I had the honor to preside, might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical Society, certainly I would never have placed my signature to it;...for you doubtless remember I have often expressed my sentiments, that any man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience." - GEORGE WASHINGTON, MAY 10, 1789, TO THE GENERAL COMMITTEE OF THE UNITED BAPTIST CHURCHES OF VIRGINIA. 1st President 1789-1797 George Washington (February 22, 1732-December 14, 1799) "You will also be pleased to accept my thanks for the treatise you presented, ("An account of the manner in which the Protestant Church of the Unitas Fratrum, or United Brethren, preach the Gospel and carry on their mission among the Heathen,") and be assured of my patronage in your laudable undertakings....It will be a desirable thing, for the protection of the Union, to co-operate...with the disinterested endeavors of your Society to civilize and Christianize the Savages of the Wilderness. Under these impressions, I pray Almighty God to have you always in His Holy keeping." - GEORGE WASHINGTON, JULY 1789, TO THE DIRECTORS OF THE SOCIETY OF THE UNITED BRETHREN. 1st President 1789-1797 George Washington (February 22, 1732-December 14, 1799) "Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor...we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all...to render our national government a blessing to all the People...to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue." - GEORGE WASHINGTON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1789, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 1st President 1789-1797 George Washington (February 22, 1732-December 14, 1799) "I find myself disposed to consider that fortunate circumstance...resulting from the able support and extraordinary candour of my fellow-citizens of all denominations....Your fellow-citizens will not forget the patriotic part which you took in the accomplishment of their Revolution, and the establishment of their government; or the important assistance which they received from a nation in which the Roman Catholic faith is professed....May the members of your society in America, animated alone by the pure spirit of Christianity, and still conducting themselves as the faithful subjects of our free government, enjoy every temporal and spiritual felicity." - GEORGE WASHINGTON, MARCH 15, 1790, TO THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF AMERICA. 1st President 1789-1797 George Washington (February 22, 1732-December 14, 1799) "The Government of the United States...gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance....May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants - while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the Father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy." - GEORGE WASHINGTON, AUGUST 17, 1790, ADDRESS TO THE HEBREW CONGREGATION, NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND. 1st President 1789-1797 George Washington (February 22, 1732-December 14, 1799) "Gratefully enjoying those blessings of peace which (under the favor of Heaven) have been attained by fortitude in war, they shall conduct themselves with reverence to the Deity and charity toward their fellow-creatures. May the same wonder-working Deity, who long since delivering the Hebrews from their Egyptian Oppressors planted them in the promised land - whose Providential Agency has lately been conspicuous in establishing these United States as an independent Nation - still continue to water them with the dews of Heaven and to make the inhabitants of every denomination participate in the temporal and spiritual blessings of that people whose God is Jehovah." - GEORGE WASHINGTON, WRITING TO THE HEBREW CONGREGATIONS, SAVANNAH, GEORGIA. John Adams (October 30, 1735-July 4, 1826), was the 2nd President of the United States, 1797-1801, being the first president to live in the White House; established the Library of Congress and the Department of the Navy; Vice-President under George Washington, 1789-97; a member of the First and Second Continental Congress, 1774, 1775; a signer of the Declaration of Independence, 1776; distinguished for having personally urged Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration, as well as for having recommended George Washington as the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army; authored the Constitution of Massachusetts in 1780; U.S. Minister to France, 1783, having signed the Treaty of Paris, along with John Jay and Benjamin Franklin, which officially ended the Revolutionary War; U.S. Minister to Great Britain, 1784-88, during which time he greatly influenced the American states to ratify the Constitution by writing a three-volume work entitled, A Defense of the Constitution of the Government of the United States; married Abigail Smith, 1764; admitted to bar 1758; and graduated from Harvard College, 1755. 2nd President 1797-1801 John Adams (October 30, 1735-July 4, 1826) "Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People in a greater Measure, than they have it now, they may change their Rulers and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty." - JOHN ADAMS, STATEMENT, JUNE 21, 1776. 2nd President 1797-1801 John Adams (October 30, 1735-July 4, 1826) "The Christian religion is, above all the Religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of Wisdom, Virtue, Equity, and Humanity. Let the Blackguard Paine say what he will; it is Resignation to God, it is Goodness itself to Man." - JOHN ADAMS, JULY 26, 1796, DIARY ENTRY MADE WHILE VICE-PRESIDENT IN REFLECTION ON THOMAS PAINE'S THE AGE OF REASON. 2nd President 1797-1801 John Adams (October 30, 1735-July 4, 1826) "With humble reverence, I feel it to be my duty to add, if a veneration for the religion of a people who profess and call themselves Christians, and a fixed resolution to consider a decent respect for Christianity among the best recommendations for the public service, can enable me in any degree to comply with your wishes, it shall be my strenuous endeavor that this sagacious injunction of the two Houses shall not be without effect....May that Being who is supreme over all, the Patron of Order, the Fountain of Justice, and the Protector in all ages of the world of virtuous liberty, continue His blessings upon this nation." - JOHN ADAMS, MARCH 4, 1797, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 2nd President 1797-1801 John Adams (October 30, 1735-July 4, 1826) "That the citizens of these States, abstaining on that day from their customary worldly occupations, offer their devout addresses to the Father of Mercies...with the deepest humility, acknowledge before God the manifold sins and transgressions with which we are justly chargeable as individuals and as a nation, beseeching Him at the same time, of His infinite grace, through the Redeemer of the World, freely to remit all our offenses, and to incline us by His Holy Spirit to that sincere repentance and reformation which may afford us reason to hope for His inestimable favor and heavenly benediction." - JOHN ADAMS, FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 1798, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF HUMILIATION, FASTING, AND PRAYER. 2nd President 1797-1801 John Adams (October 30, 1735-July 4, 1826) "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - JOHN ADAMS, OCTOBER 11, 1798, TO THE OFFICERS OF THE FIRST BRIGADE, 3RD DIVISION OF THE MILITIA OF MASSACHUSETTS. 2nd President 1797-1801 John Adams (October 30, 1735-July 4, 1826) "That they call to mind our numerous offenses against the Most High God, confess them before Him with the sincerest penitence, implore His pardoning mercy, through the Great Mediator and Redeemer, for our past transgressions, and that through the grace of His Holy Spirit, we may be disposed and enabled to yield a more suitable obedience to His righteous requisitions in time to come; That He would interpose to arrest the progress of that impiety and licentiousness in principle and practice so offensive to Himself and so ruinous to mankind; That He would make us deeply sensible that "righteousness exalteth a nation." - JOHN ADAMS, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 1799, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL A DAY OF HUMILIATION, FASTING, AND PRAYER. 2nd President 1797-1801 John Adams (October 30, 1735-July 4, 1826) "It would be unbecoming the representatives of this nation to assemble for the first time in this solemn temple without looking up to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe and imploring His blessing. May this territory be the residence of virtue and happiness! In this city may that piety and virtue, that wisdom and magnanimity, that constancy and self-government, which adorned the great character whose name it bears be forever held in veneration! Here and throughout our country may simple manners, pure morals, and true religion flourish forever!" - JOHN ADAMS, NOVEMBER 22, 1800, FOURTH ANNUAL ADDRESS TO CONGRESS, BEGINNING THE FIRST SESSION THE NEW CAPITOL OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 2nd President 1797-1801 John Adams (October 30, 1735-July 4, 1826) "I have examined all religions, as well as my narrow sphere, my straightened means, and my busy life, would allow; and the result is that the Bible is the best Book in the world. It contains more philosophy than all the libraries I have seen." - JOHN ADAMS, DECEMBER 25, 1813, LETTER TO THOMAS JEFFERSON. 2nd President 1797-1801 John Adams (October 30, 1735-July 4, 1826) "The Christian Religion, as I understand it, is the brightest of the glory and the express portrait of the eternal, self-evident, independent, benevolent, all-powerful and all-merciful Creator, Preserver and Father of the Universe, the first good, first perfect, and first fair. It will last as long as the world. Neither savage nor civilized man could ever have discovered or invented it. Ask me not then whether I am a Catholic or Protestant, Calvinist or Arminian. As far as they are Christians, I wish to be a fellow disciple of them all." - JOHN ADAMS, JANUARY 21, 1810, LETTER TO DR. BENJAMIN RUSH. Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743-July 4, 1826), was the 3rd President of the United States, 1801-09; approved the Louisiana Purchase and commissioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1803; Vice-President under John Adams, 1797-1801; Rector of the University of Virginia, 1819; Secretary of State under George Washington, 1789-93; U.S. Minister to France, 1785-89; delegate to the Continental Congress, 1783-85; drafted the Virginia Constitution, 1783; Governor of Virginia, 1779-81; drafted the Declaration of Independence, 1776; alternate delegate to the Second Continental Congress, 1775-76; member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, 1768-79; married Martha Wayles Skelton, 1772; admitted to bar, 1767; graduated from the College of William and Mary, 1762; in addition to being an author, architect, educator and scientist. 3rd President 1801-1809 Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743-July 4, 1826) "Enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter. With all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people? Still one thing more...a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned." - THOMAS JEFFERSON, MARCH 4, 1801, FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 3rd President 1801-1809 Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743-July 4, 1826) "Whilst we devoutly return our thanks to the beneficent Being who has been pleased to breathe into them the spirit of consolation and forgiveness, we are bound with peculiar gratitude to be thankful to Him that our own peace has been preserved through a perilous season....I can not omit recommending a revisal of the laws on the subject of naturalization....Shall we refuse to the unhappy fugitives from distress that hospitality which the savages of the wilderness extended to our fathers arriving in this land? Shall the oppressed humanity find no asylum of this globe?" - THOMAS JEFFERSON, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1801, FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 3rd President 1801-1809 Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743-July 4, 1826) "I know that the acquisition of Louisiana has been disapproved by some from a candid apprehension that the enlargement of our territory would endanger the union, but who can limit the extent to which the federative principle may operate effectively?...In matters of religion I have considered that its free exercise is placed by the Constitution independent of the powers of the General Government. I have therefore undertaken, on no occasion, to prescribe the religious exercise suited to it; but have left them, as the Constitution found them, under the direction and discipline of state and church authorities by the several religious societies." - THOMAS JEFFERSON, MONDAY, MARCH 4, 1805, SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 3rd President 1801-1809 Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743-July 4, 1826) "I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our forefathers, as Israel of old, from their native land and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessities and comforts of life, who has covered our infancy with His Providence and our riper years with His wisdom and power, and to whose goodness I ask you to join with me in supplications that He will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their councils and prosper their measures, that whatever they do shall result in your good, and shall secure to you the peace, friendship and approbation of all nations." - THOMAS JEFFERSON, MARCH 4, 1805, SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 3rd President 1801-1809 Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743-July 4, 1826) "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God....We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights....The Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions....with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." - THOMAS JEFFERSON, JULY 4TH, 1776, DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 3rd President 1801-1809 Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743-July 4, 1826) "God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever." - THOMAS JEFFERSON, 1781, NOTES ON THE STATE OF VIRGINIA, QUERY XVIII, EXCERPTS ENGRAVED ON THE JEFFERSON MEMORIAL, WASHINGTON, D.C. 3rd President 1801-1809 Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743-July 4, 1826) "My views...are the result of a life of inquiry and reflection, and very different from the anti-christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed, opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian in the only sense in which he wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines in preference to all others." - THOMAS JEFFERSON, APRIL 21, 1803, LETTER TO DR. BENJAMIN RUSH. 3rd President 1801-1809 Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743-July 4, 1826) "Almighty God hath created the mind free;...all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burdens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to begat habits of hypocrisy and meanness, 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." - THOMAS JEFFERSON, JANUARY 16, 1786, BILL DRAFTED FOR THE VIRGINIA ASSEMBLY. 3rd President 1801-1809 Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743-July 4, 1826) "We see, too, evident proofs of the necessity of a Superintending Power to maintain the Universe in its course and order....So irresistible are these evidences of an Intelligent and Powerful Agent that, of the infinite numbers of men who have existed thro' all time, they have believed, in the proportion of a million at least to Unit, in the hypothesis of an eternal pre-existence of a Creator, rather than in that of self-existent Universe." - THOMAS JEFFERSON, APRIL 11, 1823, LETTER TO JOHN ADAMS. James Madison (March 16, 1751-June 28, 1836), was the 4th President of the United States, 1809-17; Commander in Chief during the War of 1812, having to flee the White House, with his wife Dolly, before it was captured and burned by the British; Rector of the University of Virginia, 1826-36; Secretary of State under Thomas Jefferson, 1801-09, where he negotiated the Louisiana Purchase, 1803; U.S. Representative, 1789-1801; married Dorothy "Dolly" Payne Todd, 1794; original author and promoter of the Bill of Rights, 1789; penned many of The Federalist Papers, 1788, which were instrumental in convincing the States to ratify the U.S. Constitution; member of the Constitutional Convention, 1787, where he exerted such influence that he became known as the "Chief Architect of the Constitution"; attended the Continental Congress, 1780-83; a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, where he helped to write the Constitution of Virginia, 1776; graduated from Princeton University, 1771, under the direction of Reverend John Witherspoon, one of the nation's premier theologians and legal scholars; and was home-schooled as a child under Reverend Thomas Martin. 4th President 1809-1817 James Madison (March 16, 1751-June 28, 1836) "Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe....Much more must every man who becomes a member of any particular Civil Society, do it with a saving of his allegiance to the Universal Sovereign. We maintain therefore that in matters of Religion, no man's right is abridged by the institution of Civil Society, and that Religion is wholly exempt from its cognizance." - JAMES MADISON, JUNE 20, 1785, RELIGIOUS FREEDOM - A MEMORIAL AND REMONSTRANCE, DELIVERED TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF VIRGINIA. 4th President 1809-1817 James Madison (March 16, 1751-June 28, 1836) "The policy of the bill is adverse to the diffusion of the light of Christianity. The first wish of those who ought to enjoy this precious gift, ought to be, that it may be imparted to the whole race of mankind. Compare the number of those who have as yet received it, with the number still remaining under the dominions of false religions, and how small is the former! Does the policy of the bill tend to lessen the disproportion? No; it at once discourages those who are strangers to the Light of Truth, from coming into the regions of it." - JAMES MADISON, JUNE 20, 1785, RELIGIOUS FREEDOM - A MEMORIAL AND REMONSTRANCE, VIRGINIA GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 4th President 1809-1817 James Madison (March 16, 1751-June 28, 1836) "There is not a shadow of right in the General Government to intermeddle with religion...The subject is, for the honor of America, perfectly free and unshackled. The government has no jurisdiction over it." - JAMES MADISON, JUNE 12, 1788, JOURNAL ENTRY. 4th President 1809-1817 James Madison (March 16, 1751-June 28, 1836) "In these my confidence will under every difficulty be best placed, next to that which we have all been encouraged to feel in the guardianship and guidance of that Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of nations, whose blessings have been so conspicuously dispensed to this rising Republic, and to whom we are bound to address our devout gratitude for the past, as well as our fervent supplications and best hopes for the future." - JAMES MADISON, SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1809, FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 4th President 1809-1817 James Madison (March 16, 1751-June 28, 1836) "I do therefore recommend...rendering the Sovereign of the Universe and the Benefactor of mankind the public homage due to His holy attributes; of acknowledging the transgressions which might justly provoke the manifestations of His divine displeasure; of seeking His merciful forgiveness;...that in the present season of calamity and war He would take the American people under His peculiar care;...that He would inspire all nations with a love of justice and of concord, and with a reverence for the unerring precept of our holy religion, to do to others as they would require that others should do to them." - JAMES MADISON, JULY 9, 1812, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF PUBLIC HUMILIATION AND PRAYER. 4th President 1809-1817 James Madison (March 16, 1751-June 28, 1836) "I should be compelled to shrink if I had less reliance on the support of an enlightened and generous people, and felt less deeply a conviction that the war with a powerful nation, which forms so prominent a feature in our situation, is stamped with that justice which invites the smiles of Heaven on the means of conducting it to a successful termination." - JAMES MADISON, THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1813, SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 4th President 1809-1817 James Madison (March 16, 1751-June 28, 1836) "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, by the impulse of their hearts and the dictates of their consciences; and such a spectacle must be interesting to all Christian nations as proving that religion, that gift of Heaven for the good of man, freed from all coercive edicts, from that unhallowed connection with the powers of this world which corrupts religion...and making no appeal but to reason...can spread its benign influence everywhere." - JAMES MADISON, JULY 23, 1813, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF PUBLIC HUMILIATION AND PRAYER. 4th President 1809-1817 James Madison (March 16, 1751-June 28, 1836) "No people ought to feel greater obligations to celebrate the goodness of the Great Disposer of Events and of the Destiny of Nations than the people of the United States....To the same Divine Author of Every Good and Perfect Gift we are indebted for all those priviledges and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly enjoyed....I now recommend...a day on which the people of every religious denomination may in their solemn assemblies unite their hearts and their voices in a freewill offering to their Heavenly Benefactor of their homage of thanksgiving and of their songs of praise." - JAMES MADISON, MARCH 4, 1815, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 4th President 1809-1817 James Madison (March 16, 1751-June 28, 1836) "The belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the World and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources nor adapted with too much solicitude to the different characters and capacities to be impressed with it." - JAMES MADISON, NOVEMBER 20, 1825, LETTER TO FREDERICK BEASLEY. James Monroe (April 28, 1758-July 4, 1831), was the 5th President of the United States, 1817-25, having served in public office for fifty years; acquired Florida from Spain, 1819; added Maine, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama and Mississippi to the Union; proclaimed the Monroe Doctrine, 1823, which forbade European powers from interfering with the independent nations of the Western Hemisphere; Regent of University of Virginia, 1826-31; Secretary of State under James Madison, 1811-17; Secretary of War, 1814-15; Governor of Virginia, 1811; U.S. Minister to Great Britain and Spain, 1803-07; helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon, 1803, which doubled the size of the United States; Governor of Virginia, 1799-1802; U.S. Minister to France, 1794-96; U.S. Senator, 1790-94; member of the Virginia State Convention, 1788; served in the Virginia Assembly, 1786-88; married Eliza Kortwright, 1786; delegate to the Continental Congress, 1783; Officer in the Continental Army, 1776-79; graduated from the College of William and Mary, 1776; and home-schooled as a child by the Reverend William Douglas, being fellow-students with John Marshall, who became the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. 5th President 1817-1825 James Monroe (April 28, 1758-July 4, 1831) "Who has been deprived of any right of person or property? Who restrained from offering his vows in the mode which he prefers to the Divine Author of his being? It is well known that all these blessings have been enjoyed in their fullest....If we persevere...we can not fail, under the favor of a gracious Providence....I enter on the trust to which I have been called by the suffrages of my fellow-citizens with my fervent prayers to the Almighty that He will be graciously pleased to continue to us that protection which He has already so conspicuously displayed." - JAMES MONROE, MARCH 4, 1817, FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 5th President 1817-1825 James Monroe (April 28, 1758-July 4, 1831) "For advantages so numerous and highly important it is our duty to unite in grateful acknowledgments to that Omnipotent Being from whom they are derived, and in unceasing prayer that He will endow us with virtue and strength to maintain and hand them down in their utmost purity to our latest posterity. - JAMES MONROE, DECEMBER 2, 1817, FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 5th President 1817-1825 James Monroe (April 28, 1758-July 4, 1831) "For these inestimable blessings we can not but be grateful to that Providence which watches over the destiny of nations....When we view the blessings with which our country has been favored, those which we now enjoy, and the means which we possess of handing them down unimpaired to our latest posterity, our attention is irresistibly drawn to the source from whence they flow. Let us then, unite in offering our most grateful acknowledgements for these blessings to the Divine Author of All Good." - JAMES MONROE, NOVEMBER 16, 1818, SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 5th President 1817-1825 James Monroe (April 28, 1758-July 4, 1831) "When, then, we take into view the prosperous and happy condition of our country...it is impossible to behold so gratifying, so glorious a spectacle without being penetrated with the most profound and grateful acknowledgements to the Supreme Author of All Good for such manifold and inestimable blessings....And more especially by the multiplied proofs which it has accumulated of the great perfection of our most excellent system of government, the powerful instrument in the hands of our All-merciful Creator in securing to us these blessings." - JAMES MONROE, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1820, FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 5th President 1817-1825 James Monroe (April 28, 1758-July 4, 1831) "That these powerful causes exist, and that they are permanent, is my fixed opinion; that they may produce a like accord in all questions touching, however remotely, the liberty, prosperity, and happiness of our country will always be the object of my most fervent prayers to the Supreme Author of All Good....With full confidence in the continuance of that candor and generous indulgence from my fellow-citizens at large which I have heretofore experienced, and with a firm reliance on the protection of Almighty God, I shall forthwith commence the duties of the high trust to which you have called me." - JAMES MONROE, MONDAY, MARCH 5, 1821, SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 5th President 1817-1825 James Monroe (April 28, 1758-July 4, 1831) "Deeply impressed with the blessings which we enjoy, and of which we have such manifold proofs, my mind is irresistibly drawn to that Almighty Being, the great source from whence they proceed and to whom our most grateful acknowledgments are due." - JAMES MONROE, DECEMBER 3, 1821, FIFTH ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 5th President 1817-1825 James Monroe (April 28, 1758-July 4, 1831) "The view which I have now to present to you of our affairs, foreign and domestic, realizes the most sanguine anticipations which have been entertained of the public prosperity....For these blessings we owe to Almighty God, from whom we derive them, and with profound reverence, our most grateful and unceasing acknowledgments." - JAMES MONROE, DECEMBER 7, 1824, EIGHTH ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 5th President 1817-1825 James Monroe (April 28, 1758-July 4, 1831) "Having commenced my service in early youth, and continued it since with few and short intervals, I have witnessed the great difficulties to which our Union has been exposed, and admired the virtue and intelligence with which they have been surmounted. From the present prosperous and happy state I derive a gratification which I can not express. That these blessings may be preserved and perpetuated will be the object of my fervent and unceasing prayers to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe." - JAMES MONROE, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1824, EIGHTH ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 5th President 1817-1825 James Monroe (April 28, 1758-July 4, 1831) "The establishment of our institutions forms the most important epoch that history hath recorded....To preserve and hand them down in their utmost purity to the remotest ages will require the existence and practice of the virtues and talents equal to those which were displayed in acquiring them." - JAMES MONROE, STATEMENT. John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767-February 23, 1848), was the 6th President of the United States, 1825-29; one of the few Presidents to re-enter politics after his term; U.S. Representative from Massachusetts, 1830-48, being nicknamed "The Hell-Hound of Slavery," as he singlehandedly led the fight to lift the Gag Rule which had prohibited discussion of slavery on the floor of Congress; Secretary of State for James Monroe, 1817-25, where he promulgated the Monroe Doctrine, 1823, and obtained Florida from Spain, 1819; U.S. Minister to Great Britain, 1815-17, where he negotiated the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812; U.S. Minister to Russia, 1809-14; Professor at Harvard, 1805; U.S. Senator, 1803-08; State Senator of Massachusetts, 1802; U.S. Minister to Prussia, 1797-1801; married Louisa Catherine Johnson, 1797; U.S. Minister to the Netherlands, 1794; admitted to the bar, 1791; graduated from Harvard College, 1788; Secretary to the U.S. Minister in the Court of Catherine the Great, St. Petersburg, Russia, 1781, receiving the Congressional appointment at the age of 14; his political career began at age 11, when he was sent to join his father, John Adams, who was serving as the U.S. Minister in France, 1778. 6th President 1825-1829 John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767-February 23, 1848) "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 steadily they pursue the practice of reading it throughout their lives, the more lively and confident will be my hopes that they will prove useful citizens of their country, respectable members of society." - JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, SEPTEMBER 1811, LETTER TO HIS SON, WRITTEN AS U.S. MINISTER, ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA. 6th President 1825-1829 John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767-February 23, 1848) "You ask me what Bible I take as the standard of my faith-the Hebrew, the Samaritan, the old English translation, or what? I answer, the Bible containing the Sermon on the Mount - any Bible...The New Testament I have repeatedly read in the original Greek, in the Latin, in the Geneva Protestant, in Sacy's Catholic French translations, in Luther's German translation, in the common English Protestant, and in the Douay Catholic translations. I take any one of them for my standard of faith....My hopes of a future life are all founded upon the Gospel of Christ." - JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, DECEMBER 24, 1814, AFTER NEGOTIATING THE TREATY OF GHENT, LONDON. 6th President 1825-1829 John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767-February 23, 1848) "I appear, my fellow-citizens, in your presence and in that of Heaven to bind myself by the solemnities of religious obligation to the faithful performance of the duties allotted to me....Freedom of the press and of religious opinion should be inviolate; the policy of our country is peace and the ark of our salvation union are articles of faith upon which we are all now agreed....and knowing that "Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh in vain," with fervent supplications for His favor, to His overruling providence I commit with humble but fearless confidence my own fate and the future destinies of my country." - JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, MARCH 4, 1825, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 6th President 1825-1829 John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767-February 23, 1848) "There has, indeed, rarely been a period in the history of civilized man in which the general condition of the Christian nations has been marked so extensively by peace and prosperity....Moral, political, intellectual improvement are duties assigned by the Author of Our Existence to social no less than to individual man....The exercise of delegated powers is a duty as sacred and indispensable as the usurpation of powers not granted is criminal and odious....May He who searches the hearts of the children of men prosper your exertions to secure the blessings peace and promote the highest welfare of our country." - JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, DECEMBER 6, 1825, FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 6th President 1825-1829 John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767-February 23, 1848) "Since your last meeting at this place, the fiftieth anniversary of the day when our independence was declared...two of the principal actors in that solemn scene - the hand that penned the ever-memorable Declaration and the voice that sustained it in debate - were by one summons, at the distance of 700 miles from each other, called before the Judge of All to account for their deeds done upon earth....While their mortal vestments were sinking into the clod of the valley their emancipated spirits were ascending to the bosom of their God!" - JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, DECEMBER 5, 1826, SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE, REMARKING ON THE DEATHS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON AND JOHN ADAMS. 6th President 1825-1829 John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767-February 23, 1848) "Savages, whom it was our policy and our duty to use our influence in converting to Christianity and in bringing within the pale of civilization....As brethren of the human race, rude and ignorant, we endeavored to bring them to the knowledge of religion and of letters. The ultimate design was to incorporate in our own institutions that portion of them which could be converted to the state of civilization....We have had the rare good fortune of teaching them the arts of civilization and the doctrines of Christianity." - JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1828, FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 6th President 1825-1829 John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767-February 23, 1848) "Oh, if but one man could arise with a genius capable of supporting, and an utterance capable of communicating those eternal truths that belong to this question, to lay bare in all its nakedness that outrage upon the goodness of God - Human Slavery! Now is the time, and this is the occasion, upon which such a man would perform the duties of an angel upon earth!" - JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM MASSACHUSETTS (1830-1848), BEING THE ONLY PRESIDENT TO REENTER POLITICS AS A CONGRESSMAN, LED THE FIGHT AGAINST SLAVERY FOR NEARLY FOURTEEN YEARS BEFORE SEEING RESULTS. 6th President 1825-1829 John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767-February 23, 1848) "Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the World, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day. Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the Progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth?" - JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, JULY 4, 1837, ORATION ON THE 61ST ANNIVERSARY OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, NEWBURYPORT. 6th President 1825-1829 John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767-February 23, 1848) "I deem myself fortunate in having the opportunity, at a stage of a long life drawing rapidly to its close, to bear at this place, the capital of our National Union, in the Hall of representatives of the North American people...to bear my solemn testimonial of reverence and gratitude to that book of books, the Holy Bible....The Bible carries with it the history of the creation, the fall and redemption of man, and discloses to him, in the infant born at Bethlehem, the Legislator and Saviour of the world." - JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, FEBRUARY 27, 1844, AS U.S. CONGRESSMAN ADDRESSING THE AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, OF WHICH HE WAS CHAIRMAN. Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767-June 8, 1845), was the 7th President of the United States, 1829-37; U.S. Senator, 1823-25; Governor of Florida Territory, 1821; U.S. Army Major General, 1814-21, where he became famous for winning the Battle of New Orleans, 1815, and the Seminole War, 1818; Major General of Tennessee Militia, 1802-12; Tennessee Supreme Court Justice, 1798-1804; U.S Senator, 1797-98; U.S. Representative, 1796-97; credited with proposing the name "Tennessee" at the State's first convention, 1796; married Rachel Donelson Robards, 1791; Judge advocate of Davidson County Militia, 1791; Attorney General of Western District of North Carolina, 1790; admitted to bar, 1787; and served as a messenger in the Revolutionary War, 1780-81. 7th President 1829-1837 Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767-June 8, 1845) "It appears that the unerring hand of Providence shielded my men from the shower of balls, bombs, and rockets, when every ball and bomb from our guns carried with them a mission of death." - ANDREW JACKSON, JANUARY 8, 1815, LETTER TO HIS FRIEND ROBERT HAYS REGARDING THE VICTORIOUS BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS, DURING THE WAR OF 1812. 7th President 1829-1837 Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767-June 8, 1845) "As long as our Government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of person and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending....And a firm reliance on the goodness of that Power whose providence mercifully protected our national infancy, and has since upheld our liberties in various vicissitudes, encourages me to offer up my ardent supplications that He will continue to make our beloved country the object of His divine care and gracious benediction." - ANDREW JACKSON, MARCH 4, 1829, FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS, LESS THAN THREE MONTHS AFTER HIS WIFE DIED. 7th President 1829-1837 Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767-June 8, 1845) "Gentlemen: I respectfully submit to your consideration the accompanying communication from the Secretary of the Treasury, showing that according to the terms of an agreement between the United States and the United Society of Christian Indians the latter have a claim to an annuity of $400, commencing from the 1st of October, 1826, for which an appropriation by law for this amount, as long as they are entitled to receive it, will be proper." - ANDREW JACKSON, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1830, MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 7th President 1829-1837 Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767-June 8, 1845) "Finally, it is my fervent prayer to that Almighty Being before whom I now stand, and who has kept us in His hands from the infancy of our Republic to the present day...that He will so overrule all my intentions and actions and inspire the hearts of my fellow-citizens that we may be preserved from dangers of all kinds and continue forever a united happy people." - ANDREW JACKSON, MONDAY, MARCH 4, 1833, SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 7th President 1829-1837 Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767-June 8, 1845) "The Bank of the United States, a great moneyed monopoly, had attempted...controlling the elections....to control public opinion and....to concentrate in the hands of a body not directly amenable to the people a degree of influence and power dangerous to their liberties....The only ambition I can feel is to acquit myself to Him to whom I must soon render an account of my stewardship....If the Almighty Being who has hitherto sustained and protected me will but vouchsafe to make my feeble powers instrumental to such a result, I shall anticipate with pleasure the place to be assigned me in the history of my country." - ANDREW JACKSON, APRIL 15, 1834, PROTEST MESSAGE TO THE SENATE. 7th President 1829-1837 Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767-June 8, 1845) "A kind of Providence had been pleased to shield me against the recent attempt upon my life, and irresistibly carried many minds to the belief in a superintending Providence." - ANDREW JACKSON, JANUARY 1835, TO THE KING OF ENGLAND, WHO EXPRESSED CONCERN OVER AN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON PRESIDENT JACKSON; (A BEARDED MAN, AT POINT BLANK RANGE, ATTEMPTED TO FIRE TWO PISTOLS AT HIM, BUT FOR SOME REASON THE GUNS FAILED TO DISCHARGE). 7th President 1829-1837 Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767-June 8, 1845) "May He who holds in His hands the destinies of nations, make you worthy of the favors He has bestowed, and enable you, with...sleepless vigilance, to guard and defend to the end of time, the great charge He has committed to your keeping. My own race is nearly run; advanced age and failing health warns me that before long I must pass beyond the reach of human events....I thank God that my life has been spent in a land of liberty and that He has given me a heart to love my country with the affection of a son....I bid you a last and affectionate farewell." - ANDREW JACKSON, MARCH 4, 1837, FAREWELL ADDRESS. 7th President 1829-1837 Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767-June 8, 1845) "My dear children, do not grieve for me; it is true, I am going to leave you; I am well aware of my situation. I have suffered much bodily pain, but my sufferings are but as nothing compared with that which our blessed Redeemer endured upon the accursed Cross, that all might be saved who put their trust in Him....God will take care of you for me. I am my God's. I belong to Him. I go but a short time before you, and...I hope and trust to meet you all in Heaven, both white and black." - ANDREW JACKSON, JUNE 8, 1845, SPEAKING TO HIS FAMILY AND SERVANTS JUST MOMENTS BEFORE HIS DEATH. 7th President 1829-1837 Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767-June 8, 1845) "The bible is true. Upon that sacred Volume I rest my hope of eternal salvation through the merits of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. First, I bequeath my body to the dust whence it comes, and my soul to God who gave it, hoping for a happy immortality through the atoning merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world." - ANDREW JACKSON, IN HIS WILL. Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782-July 24, 1862), was the 8th President of the United States, 1837-41; Vice-President under Andrew Jackson, 1832-36; U.S. Minister to Great Britain, 1831-32; Secretary of State under Andrew Jackson, 1829-31; Governor of New York, 1828-29; U.S. Senator, 1821-28; Attorney General of New York, 1815-21; Regent of the University of New York, 1815; New York State Senator, 1812-15; appointed Surrogate of Columbia County, New York, 1808; married Hannah Hoes, 1807, and admitted to bar, 1803. 8th President 1837-1841 Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782-July 24, 1862) "So sensibly, fellow-citizens, do these circumstances press themselves upon me that I should not dare to enter upon my path of duty did I not look for the generous aid of those who will be associated with me in the various and coordinate branches of the Government; did I not repose with unwavering reliance on the patriotism, the intelligence, and the kindness of a people who never yet deserted a public servant honestly laboring in their cause; and above all, did I not permit myself humbly to hope for the sustaining of an ever-watchful and beneficent Providence." - MARTIN VAN BUREN, SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1837, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 8th President 1837-1841 Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782-July 24, 1862) "I only look to the gracious protection of that Divine Being whose strengthening support I humbly solicit, and whom I fervently pray to look down upon us all. May it be among the dispensations of His Providence to bless our beloved country with honors and length of days; may her ways be pleasantness, and all her paths peace!" - MARTIN VAN BUREN, SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1837, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 8th President 1837-1841 Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782-July 24, 1862) "In the event of my election I would not be able to cooperate in the reestablishment of a national bank....The reestablishment of such a bank...would impair the rightful supremacy of the popular will, injure the character and diminish the influence of our political system, and bring once more into existence a concentrated moneyed power, hostile to the spirit and threatening the permanency of our republican institutions....We can only feel more deeply the responsibility of the respective trusts that have been confided to us, and under the pressure of difficulties unite in invoking the guidance and aid of the Supreme Ruler of Nations." - MARTIN VAN BUREN, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1837, SPECIAL SESSION MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 8th President 1837-1841 Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782-July 24, 1862) "We have reason to renew the expression of our devout gratitude to the Giver of All Good for His benign protection. Our country presents on every side the evidences of that continued favor under whose auspices it has gradually risen from a few feeble and dependent colonies to a prosperous and powerful confederacy." - MARTIN VAN BUREN, DECEMBER 5, 1837, FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 8th President 1837-1841 Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782-July 24, 1862) "These blessings, which evince the care and beneficence of Providence, call for our devout and fervent gratitude. We have not less reason to be grateful for other bounties bestowed by the same Munificent Hand, and more exclusively our own." - MARTIN VAN BUREN, DECEMBER 3, 1838, SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 8th President 1837-1841 Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782-July 24, 1862) "Prosperity which has been heretofore so bountifully bestowed upon us by the Author of All Good still continues.....Abuses as we are now encountering...seek to perpetuate their power....to gain for the few an ascendancy over the many by securing to them a monopoly of the currency...to nourish, in preference to the manly virtues that give dignity to human nature, a craving desire for luxurious enjoyment and sudden wealth, which renders those who seek them dependent on those who supply them; to substitute for republican simplicity and economical habits a sickly appetite for effeminate indulgence and an imitation of that reckless extravagance." - MARTIN VAN BUREN, DECEMBER 2, 1839, THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 8th President 1837-1841 Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782-July 24, 1862) "By ceasing to run in debt and applying the surplus of our crops and incomes to the discharge of existing obligations...we shall see our country soon recover from a temporary depression....Fortunately for us at this moment, when the balance of trade is greatly against us and the difficulty of meeting it enhanced by the disturbed state of our money affairs, the bounties of Providence have come to relieve us from the consequences of past errors....Our surplus profits, the energy and industry of our population, and the wonderful advantages which Providence has bestowed upon our country...will in due time afford abundant means." - MARTIN VAN BUREN, DECEMBER 2, 1839, THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 8th President 1837-1841 Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782-July 24, 1862) "Our devout gratitude is due to the Supreme Being for having graciously continued to our beloved country through the vicissitudes of another year the invaluable blessings of health, plenty, and peace." - MARTIN VAN BUREN, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1840, FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 8th President 1837-1841 Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782-July 24, 1862) "The atonement of Jesus Christ is the only remedy and rest for my soul." - MARTIN VAN BUREN, WHO HAD JOINED THE DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH IN AUTUMN OF 1860, MADE THIS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT DURING HIS LAST ILLNESS. William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773-April 4, 1841), was the 9th President of the United States, 1841, serving only one month before dying; U.S. Minister to Columbia, 1828-29; U.S. Senator, 1825-28; Ohio State Senator, 1819; U.S. Representative, 1816-19; Major General, appointed supreme commander in the Northwest, winning the Battle of Tippecanoe, 1811, and the Battle of the Thames, 1813; and Governor of Indiana Territory, 1800; U.S. Representative from the Northwest Territory, 1799; Secretary of the Northwest Territory, 1798; married Anna Symmes, 1795; enlisted in the U.S. Infantry, 1791; graduated from Hampden-Sidney College, 1790; and the grandson of Benjamin Harrison, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, as well as the father of Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd President of the United States. 9th President 1841-1841 William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773-April 4, 1841) "I know there are some of my political opponents who will be ready to impugn my motives in attending this revival-meeting at this peculiar time; but I care not for the smiles or frowns of my fellow-countrymen. God knows my heart and understands my motives. A deep and an abiding sense of my inward spiritual necessities brings me to this hallowed place night after night." - WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, 1840, COMMENT TO THE PASTOR OF A METHODIST CHURCH IN CINCINNATI JUST PRIOR TO HIS ELECTION. 9th President 1841-1841 William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773-April 4, 1841) "I too well understand the dangerous temptations to which I shall be exposed from the magnitude of the power which it has been the pleasure of the people to commit to my hands not to place my chief confidence upon the aid of that Almighty Power which has hitherto protected me and enabled me....We admit of no government by divine right, believing that so far as power is concerned the Beneficent Creator has made no distinction amongst men; that all are upon an equality, and that the only legitimate right to govern is an express grant of power from the governed." - WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1841, INAUGURAL ADDRESS, DELIVERED ONLY 30 DAYS BEFORE HIS DEATH. 9th President 1841-1841 William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773-April 4, 1841) "The maxim which our ancestors derived from the mother country that 'freedom of the press is the great bulwark of civil and religious liberty' is one of the most precious legacies which they have left us." - WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1841, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 9th President 1841-1841 William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773-April 4, 1841) "Limited as are the powers which have been granted, still enough have been granted to constitute a despotism if concentrated in one of the departments....more particularly...the Executive branch....The tendency of power to increase itself, particularly when exercised by a single individual...would terminate in virtual monarchy....As long as the love of power is a dominant passion of the human bosom, and as long as the understanding of men can be warped and their affections changed by operations upon their passions and prejudices, so long will the liberties of a people depend on their constant attention to its preservation. - WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1841, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 9th President 1841-1841 William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773-April 4, 1841) "The tendencies of all such governments in their decline is to monarchy, and the antagonist principle to liberty there is the spirit of faction - a spirit which assumes the character and in times of great excitement imposes itself upon the people as the genuine spirit of freedom, and, like the false Christs whose coming was foretold by the Savior, seeks to, and were it possible would, impose upon the true and most faithful disciples of liberty. It is in periods like this that it behooves the people to be most watchful of those to whom they have intrusted power." - WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1841, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 9th President 1841-1841 William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773-April 4, 1841) "I deem the present occasion sufficiently important and solemn to justify me in expressing to my fellow citizens a profound reverence for the Christian religion, and a thorough conviction that sound morals, religious liberty, and a just sense of religious responsibility are essentially connected with all true and lasting happiness; And to that good Being who has blessed us by the gifts of civil and religious freedom, who watched over and prospered the labors of our fathers and has hitherto preserved to us institutions far exceeding in excellence those of any other people, let us unite in fervently commending every interest of our beloved country in all future time." - WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1841, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 9th President 1841-1841 William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773-April 4, 1841) "I retired into the presence of my Maker, and implored his gracious guidance in the faithful discharge of the duties of my high station." - WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, 1841, LETTER TO HIS WIFE, ANNA, FOLLOWING HIS INAUGURATION. 9th President 1841-1841 William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773-April 4, 1841) "We shall be happy to see you at any time except on the Sabbath." - WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, STATEMENT TO WHITE HOUSE VISITORS. 9th President 1841-1841 William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773-April 4, 1841) "I think I enjoy religion and delight in the duties of a child of God, and have concluded to unite with the Church of God as soon as my health will permit me to go out." - WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, COMMENT TO THE PRESBYTERIAN PASTOR NEAR HIS HOME IN INDIANA. John Tyler (March 29, 1790-January 18, 1862), was the 10th President of the United States, 1841-45, responsible for the Annexation of Texas, 1844, the city of Tyler, Texas, being his namesake; the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, 1842, ending the border disputes with Canada; joint U.S.-British naval patrols off the African coast to suppress the slave trade; and the United States' first commercial trade treaty with China; Chancellor of the College of William and Mary, 1860; married Julia Gardiner, 1844, after death of first wife; Vice-President under William Henry Harrison, 1841, being the first to assume the Presidency at the death of a President; U.S. Senator, 1827-36; Governor of Virginia, 1825-27; U.S. Representative, 1816-21; elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, 1838, 1823, 1811; married Letitia Christian, 1813; U.S. Army Captain during the War of 1812; admitted to bar, 1809, and graduated from the College of William and Mary, 1807. 10th President 1841-1845 John Tyler (March 29, 1790-January 18, 1862) "For the first time in our history the person elected to the Vice-Presidency...has had devolved upon him the Presidential office....My earnest prayer shall be constantly addressed to the all-wise and all-powerful Being who made me, and by whose dispensation I am called to the high office of President....Confiding in the protecting care of an everwatchful and overruling Providence, it shall be my first and highest duty to preserve unimpaired the free institutions under which we live and transmit them to those who shall succeed me in their full force and vigor." - JOHN TYLER, FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 1841, ADDRESS DELIVERED UPON ASSUMING THE PRESIDENCY AFTER THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT HARRISON. 10th President 1841-1845 John Tyler (March 29, 1790-January 18, 1862) "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, to acknowledge His goodness in time past, as well as their own unworthiness, and to supplicate His merciful protection for the future....to impress all minds with a sense of the uncertainty of human things and of the dependence of nations, as well as individuals, upon our Heavenly Parent." - JOHN TYLER, APRIL 13, 1841, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF FASTING AND PRAYER UPON THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT HARRISON. 10th President 1841-1845 John Tyler (March 29, 1790-January 18, 1862) "In conveying to you, my dear madam...sincere condolences on the late afflicting dispensations of Providence, permit me to mingle my feelings with theirs and tender you my fervent wishes for your health, happiness, and long life." - JOHN TYLER, JUNE 13, 1841, IN A LETTER TO MRS. ANNA SYMMES HARRISON, WIDOW OF THE LATE-PRESIDENT WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. "Dear Sir...I can not sufficiently express the thanks I owe to the nation and its assembled representatives for their condolence...but mingling my tears with the sighs of the many patriots of the land, pray to Heaven for the enduring happiness and prosperity of our beloved country." - MRS. ANNA SYMMES HARRISON, JUNE 24, 1841, IN REPLY TO PRESIDENT JOHN TYLER. 10th President 1841-1845 John Tyler (March 29, 1790-January 18, 1862) "The bill entitled "An act to incorporate the subscribers to the Fiscal Bank of the United States,"...has been considered....I can not conscientiously give it my approval....Under an impressive dispensation of Providence I succeeded to the Presidential office. Before entering upon the duties of that office I took an oath....I could not give my sanction to a measure of the character described without surrendering all claim to the respect of honorable men, all confidence on the part of the people, all self-respect, all regard for moral and religious obligations, without an observance of which no government can be prosperous and no people can be happy." - JOHN TYLER, AUGUST 16, 1841, VETO MESSAGE. 10th President 1841-1845 John Tyler (March 29, 1790-January 18, 1862) "We are in the enjoyment of all the blessings of civil and religious liberty....We are all called upon by the highest obligations of duty to renew our thanks and our devotion to our Heavenly Parent, who has continued to vouchsafe to us the eminent blessings which surround us and who has so signally crowned the year with His goodness. If we find ourselves increasingly beyond example in numbers, in strength, in wealth, in knowledge, in everything which promotes human and social happiness, let us ever remember our dependence for all these on the protection and merciful dispensations of Divine Providence." - JOHN TYLER, DECEMBER 7, 1841, FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 10th President 1841-1845 John Tyler (March 29, 1790-January 18, 1862) "It is true that the succession of the Vice-President to the Chief Magistracy has never occurred before....But I found myself placed in this most responsible station by no usurpation or contrivance of my own. I was called to it, under Providence, by the supreme law of the land and the deliberately declared will of the people." - JOHN TYLER, AUGUST 30, 1842, PROTEST MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 10th President 1841-1845 John Tyler (March 29, 1790-January 18, 1862) "We have continued reason to express our profound gratitude to the Great Creator of All Things for the numberless benefits conferred upon us as a people....Such are the circumstances under which you now assemble in your respective chambers and which should lead us to unite in praise and thanksgiving to that Great Being who made us and who preserves us as a nation....The schoolmaster and the missionary are found side by side, and the remnants of what were once numerous and powerful nations may yet be preserved as the builders up of a new name for themselves and their posterity." - JOHN TYLER, DECEMBER 6, 1842, SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 10th President 1841-1845 John Tyler (March 29, 1790-January 18, 1862) "If any people ever had cause to render up thanks to the Supreme Being for parental care and protection extended to them in all the trials and difficulties to which they have been from time to time exposed, we certainly are that people. From the first settlement of our forefathers on the continent, through the dangers attendant upon the occupation of a savage wilderness, through a long period of colonial dependence, through the War of the Revolution, in the wisdom which led to the adoption of the existing forms of republican government...the superintendence of an overruling Providence has been plainly visible." - JOHN TYLER, DECEMBER 1843, THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 10th President 1841-1845 John Tyler (March 29, 1790-January 18, 1862) "We have continued cause for expressing our gratitude to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe for the benefits and blessings which our country, under His kind providence, has enjoyed....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;...In the progress of time the inestimable principles of civil liberty 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." - JOHN TYLER, DECEMBER 3, 1844, FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795-June 15, 1849), was the 11th President of the United States, 1845-49, won the Mexican War against Santa Anna, 1848, which resulted in California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming being added to the Union; resolved dispute with Great Britain, 1846, fixing the Oregon border at the 49th parallel; Governor of Tennessee, 1839-41; U.S. Representative, 1824-39, being Speaker of the House, 1835-39; married Sarah Childress, 1824; member of the Tennessee Legislature, 1823-25; admitted to the bar, 1820; and graduated from the University of North Carolina, 1818. 11th President 1845-1849 James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795-June 15, 1849) "I fervently invoke the aid of that Almighty Ruler of the Universe in whose hands are the destinies of nations and of men to guard this Heaven-favored land....The Republic of Texas has made known her desire to come into our Union, to form a part of our Confederacy and enjoy with us the blessings of liberty secured and guaranteed by our Constitution....I enter upon the discharge of the high duties which have been assigned to me by the people, again humbly supplicating that Divine Being, who has watched over and protected our beloved country from its infancy to the present hour." - JAMES KNOX POLK, MARCH 4, 1845, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 11th President 1845-1849 James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795-June 15, 1849) "The President of the United States with heartfelt sorrow announces to the Army, the Navy, and the Marine Corps the death of Andrew Jackson....He resigned his spirit to his Heavenly Father....Heaven gave him length of days and he filled them with deeds of greatness....Thrice happy in death, for while he believed the liberties of his country imperishable and was cheered by visions of its constant advancement, he departed from this life in a full hope of a blessed immortality through the merits and atonement of the Redeemer." - JAMES KNOX POLK, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 1845, UPON THE DEATH OF ANDREW JACKSON, GENERAL ORDER NO. 27 TO ACTING SECRETARY OF WAR AND SECRETARY OF THE NAVY, GEORGE BANCROFT. 11th President 1845-1849 James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795-June 15, 1849) "It becomes us in humility to make our devout acknowledgements to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe for the inestimable civil and religious blessings....The late Bank of the United States proved to be faithless....Public money....when it is placed in banks for safe-keeping, it is in effect loaned to them without interest, and is loaned by them upon interest to borrowers from them. The public money is converted into banking capital, and is used and loaned out for the private profit....The framers of the Constitution could never have intended that the money paid into the Treasury should be thus converted to private use." - JAMES KNOX POLK, DECEMBER 2, 1845, FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 11th President 1845-1849 James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795-June 15, 1849) "I do, moreover, exhort all the good people of the United States, as they love their country, as they feel the wrongs which have forced on them the last resort of injured nations, and they consult the best means, under the blessing of Divine Providence, of abridging its calamities." - JAMES KNOX POLK, MAY 13, 1846, PROCLAMATION OF WAR WITH THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO. 11th President 1845-1849 James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795-June 15, 1849) "Our devout and sincere acknowledgments are due to the gracious Giver of All Good for the numberless blessings which our beloved country enjoys." - JAMES KNOX POLK, DECEMBER 8, 1846, SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 11th President 1845-1849 James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795-June 15, 1849) "The success of our admirable system is a conclusive refutation of the theories of those in other countries who maintain that a 'favored few' are born to rule and that the mass of mankind must be governed by force. Subject to no arbitrary or hereditary authority, the people are the only sovereigns recognized by our Constitution....No country has been so much favored, or should acknowledge with deeper reverence the manifestations of Divine protection. An all-wise Creator directed and guarded us in our infant struggle for freedom and has constantly watched over our surprising progress." - JAMES KNOX POLK, DECEMBER 7, 1847, THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 11th President 1845-1849 James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795-June 15, 1849) "It has pleased Divine Providence to call hence a great and patriotic citizen. John Quincy Adams is no more. At the advanced age of more than fourscore years, he was suddenly stricken from his seat in the House of Representatives....He had for more than a half a century filled the most important public stations." - JAMES KNOX POLK, FEBRUARY 24, 1848, EXECUTIVE ORDER. 11th President 1845-1849 James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795-June 15, 1849) "Under the benignant providence of Almighty God the representatives of the States and of the people are again brought together to deliberate for the public good. The gratitude of the nation to the Sovereign Arbiter of All Human Events should be commensurate with the boundless blessings which we enjoy....Invoking the blessing of the Almighty upon your deliberations at your present important session, my ardent hope is that in a spirit of harmony and concord you may be guided to wise results, and such as my redound to the happiness, the honor, and the glory of our beloved country." - JAMES KNOX POLK, DECEMBER 5, 1848, FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 11th President 1845-1849 James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795-June 15, 1849) "Sir, if I had supposed, twenty years ago, that I should come to my death bed unprepared, it would have made me an unhappy man; and yet I am about to die, and have not made preparation. I have not been baptized. Tell me, sir, can there be any ground for a man thus situated to hope?" - JAMES KNOX POLK, JUNE 8, 1849, COMMENT ONLY A WEEK BEFORE HIS DEATH TO THE REV. DR. EDGAR, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, RESULTING IN HIS SUBSEQUENT BAPTISM INTO THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH, AND RECEIVING THE SACRAMENT OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784-July 9, 1850), was the 12th President of the United States, 1849-50, famed as a national military hero; Major General during Mexican War, 1846-48; fought General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna at Buena Vista, 1847; fought at Monterrey, Resaca de la Palma, Palo Alto, Matamoros, 1846; commanded Army of Occupation on Mexican border, 1845; took command of Fort Jesup, 1844; commanded Department of Florida, 1838; Brigadier General in Seminole War, 1836-37, fighting in the Battle of Okeehobee, 1837; Colonel in the Black Hawk War, 1832; took command of Fort Crawford, 1832, Fort Snelling, 1829; established Fort Jesup in Louisiana, 1822; Major during War of 1812; defended Fort Harrison against Indians, 1812; and as a Captain, took charge of Fort Knox, 1811; married Margaret Mackall Smith, 1810; and commissioned a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army, 1808. 12th President 1849-1850 Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784-July 9, 1850) "I accept with gratitude and pleasure your gift of this inestimable Volume. It was for the love of the truths of this great Book that our fathers abandoned their native shores for the wilderness. Animated by its lofty principles they toiled and suffered till the desert blossomed as a rose. The same truths sustained them in their resolutions to become a free nation; and guided by the wisdom of this Book they founded a government." - ZACHARY TAYLOR, FEBRUARY 21, 1849, MESSAGE PRINTED IN THE FRANKFORT COMMONWEALTH ACKNOWLEDGING THE GIFT OF A BIBLE PRESENTED BY A DELEGATION OF LADIES FROM FRANKFURT, KENTUCKY. 12th President 1849-1850 Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784-July 9, 1850) "If there were in that Book nothing but its great precept, "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them," and if that precept were obeyed, our government might extend over the whole Continent." - ZACHARY TAYLOR, FEBRUARY 21, 1849, MESSAGE PRINTED IN THE FRANKFORT COMMONWEALTH ACKNOWLEDGING THE GIFT OF A BIBLE PRESENTED BY A DELEGATION OF LADIES FROM FRANKFURT, KENTUCKY. 12th President 1849-1850 Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784-July 9, 1850) "Our geographical position, the genius of our institutions and our people, the advancing spirit of civilization, and, above all, the dictates of religion direct us to the cultivation of peaceful and friendly relations with all other powers....In conclusion I congratulate you, my fellow-citizens, upon the high state of prosperity to which the goodness of Divine Providence has conducted our common country. Let us invoke a continuance of the same protecting care which has led us from small beginnings to the eminence we this day occupy." - ZACHARY TAYLOR, MONDAY, MARCH 5, 1849, INAUGURAL ADDRESS, DELIVERED A DAY LATER THAN USUAL AS HE REFUSED TO BE SWORN IN ON SUNDAY IN HONOR OF THE SABBATH. 12th President 1849-1850 Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784-July 9, 1850) "At a season when the providence of God has manifested itself in the visitation of a fearful pestilence which is spreading itself throughout the land, it is fitting that a people whose reliance has ever been in His protection should humble themselves before His throne, and, while acknowledging past transgressions, ask a continuance of the Divine mercy. It is therefore earnestly recommended that the first Friday in August be observed throughout the United States as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer." - ZACHARY TAYLOR, TUESDAY, JULY 3, 1849, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER DURING AN EPIDEMIC OF CHOLERA. 12th President 1849-1850 Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784-July 9, 1850) "All business will be sustained in the various branches of the public service on that day; and it is recommended to persons of all religious denominations to abstain as far as practical from secular occupations and to assemble in their respective places of public worship, to acknowledge the Infinite Goodness which has watched over our existence as a nation, and so long crowned us with manifold blessings, and to implore the Almighty in His own good time to stay the destroying hand which is now lifted up against us." - ZACHARY TAYLOR, TUESDAY, JULY 3, 1849, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER. 12th President 1849-1850 Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784-July 9, 1850) "The only ground of hope for the continuance of our free institutions is in the proper moral and religious training of the children, that they may be prepared to discharge aright the duties of men and citizens." - ZACHARY TAYLOR, WEDNESDAY, JULY 4, 1849, ADDRESS DELIVERED AT A SABBATH-SCHOOL CELEBRATION IN THE CITY OF WASHINGTON. 12th President 1849-1850 Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784-July 9, 1850) "During the past year we have been blessed by a kind Providence with an abundance of the fruits of the earth, and although the destroying angel for a time visited extensive portions of our territory with the ravages of a dreadful pestilence, yet the Almighty has at length deigned to stay His hand and to restore the inestimable blessing of general health to a people who acknowledged His power, deprecated His wrath, and implored His merciful protection....It is a proper theme of thanksgiving to Him who rules the destinies of nations." - ZACHARY TAYLOR, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1849, FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 12th President 1849-1850 Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784-July 9, 1850) "With a sedulous inculcation of that respect and love for the Union of the States which our fathers cherished and enjoined upon their children, and with the aid of that overruling Providence which has so long and so kindly guarded our liberties and institutions, we may reasonably expect to transmit them, with their innumberable blessings, to the remotest posterity." - ZACHARY TAYLOR, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1849, FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800-March 8, 1874), was the 13th President of the United States, 1850-53; Vice-President under Zachary Taylor, 1848-50, assuming the Presidency upon Taylor's death; sent Commodore Perry to Japan, opening the trade routes to the Far East; signed the Compromise Act of 1850; admitted California, which had just begun the Gold Rush, into the Union as a free state; when the Library of Congress caught fire, 1851, President Fillmore and his Cabinet formed a bucket brigade to extinguish the flames; president of the Buffalo Historical Society, 1862; married Caroline Carmichael McIntosh, 1858, after death of first wife; Comptroller of New York State, 1847; Chancellor of the University of Buffalo, 1846; U.S. Representative, 1833-35, 1837-45, becoming the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, 1840; member of New York State Legislature, 1828-31; married Abigail Powers, 1826; and admitted to bar 1823. 13th President 1850-1853 Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800-March 8, 1874) "A great man has fallen among us, and a whole country is called to an occasion of unexpected, deep, and general mourning....I appeal to you to aid me, under the trying circumstances which surround me, in the discharge of the duties from which, however much I may be oppressed by them, I dare not shrink; and I rely upon Him who holds in His hands the destinies of nations to endow me with the requisite strength for the task and to avert from our country the evils apprehended from the heavy calamity which has befallen us." - MILLARD FILLMORE, WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 1850, ADDRESS TO CONGRESS, DELIVERED UPON ASSUMING THE PRESIDENCY AFTER THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT TAYLOR. 13th President 1850-1853 Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800-March 8, 1874) "It is plain, therefore, on the face of these treaty stipulations that all Mexicans established in territories north or east of the line of demarcation already mentioned come within the protection of the ninth article, and that the treaty, being a part of the supreme law of the land, does extend over all such Mexicans, and assures to them perfect security in the free enjoyment of their liberty and property, as well as in the free exercise of their religion." - MILLARD FILLMORE, AUGUST 6, 1850, ADDRESS TO CONGRESS. 13th President 1850-1853 Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800-March 8, 1874) "Being suddenly called in the midst of the last session of Congress by a painful dispensation of Divine Providence to the responsible station which I now hold, I contented myself with such communications....Nations, like individuals in a state of nature, are equal and independent, possessing certain rights and owing certain duties to each other, arising from their necessary and unavoidable relations....There are rights and duties, binding in morals, in conscience, and in honor....The great law of morality ought to have a national as well as a personal and individual application. We should act toward other nations as we wish them to act toward us." - MILLARD FILLMORE, MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1850, FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 13th President 1850-1853 Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800-March 8, 1874) "I can not bring this communication to a close without invoking you to join me in humble and devout thanks to the Great Ruler of Nations for the multiplied blessings which He has graciously bestowed upon us. His hand, so often visible in our preservation, has stayed the pestilence...Our liberties, religious and civil, have been maintained, the fountains of knowledge have all been kept open, and means of happiness widely spread and generally enjoyed greater than have fallen to the lot of any other nation. And while deeply penetrated with gratitude for the past let us hope that His all-wise providence will so guide our counsels." - MILLARD FILLMORE, DECEMBER 2, 1850, FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 13th President 1850-1853 Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800-March 8, 1874) "None can look back to the dangers which are passed or forward to the bright prospect before us without feeling a thrill of gratification, at the same time that he must be impressed with a grateful sense of our profound obligations to a beneficent Providence, whose paternal care is so manifest in the happiness of this highly favored land." - MILLARD FILLMORE, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1851, SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 13th President 1850-1853 Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800-March 8, 1874) "Our grateful thanks are due to an all-merciful Providence, not only for staying the pestilence which in different forms has desolated some of our cities, but for crowning the labors of the husbandman with an abundant harvest and the nation generally with the blessings of peace and prosperity." - MILLARD FILLMORE, MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1852, THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 13th President 1850-1853 Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800-March 8, 1874) "Our own free institutions were not the offspring of our Revolution. They existed before. They were planted in the free charters of self-government under which the English colonies grew up, and our Revolution only freed us from the dominion of a foreign power whose government was at variance with those institutions. But European nations have had no such training for self-government, and every effort to establish it by bloody revolutions has been, and must without that preparation continue to be, a failure. Liberty unregulated by law degenerates into anarchy, which soon becomes the most horrid of all despotisms." - MILLARD FILLMORE, MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1852, THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 13th President 1850-1853 Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800-March 8, 1874) "We owe these blessings, under Heaven, to the happy Constitution and Government which were bequeathed to us by our fathers, and which it is our sacred duty to transmit in all their integrity to our children." - MILLARD FILLMORE, MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1852, THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 13th President 1850-1853 Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800-March 8, 1874) "The Sabbath day I always kept as a day of rest. Besides being a religious duty, it was essential to health. On commencing my Presidential career, I found that the Sabbath had frequently been employed by visitors for private interviews with the President. I determined to put an end to this custom, and ordered my doorkeeper to meet all Sunday visitors with an indiscriminate refusal." - MILLARD FILLMORE, STATEMENT AFTER BEING INAUGURATED PRESIDENT, MEMBER OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804-October 8, 1869), was the 14th President of the United States, 1853-57; president of New Hampshire Constitutional Convention, 1850; Brigadier General in Mexican War, 1846-48; U.S. Senator, 1837-42; U.S. Representative, 1833-37; married Jane Means Appleton, 1834; member of the New Hampshire Legislature, 1829-33, being State Speaker of the House, 1831-33; admitted to bar, 1827; and graduated from Bowdoin College, 1824, being friends with Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 14th President 1853-1857 Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804-October 8, 1869) "I have dwelt somewhat more this winter upon the truths of divine revelation than usual and perhaps have struggled somewhat harder to think and act in conformity with the precepts and commands of the New Testament than ever before." - FRANKLIN PIERCE, 1839, WHILE SERVING IN THE U.S. SENATE, TO HIS LAW PARTNER. 14th President 1853-1857 Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804-October 8, 1869) "Our fathers decided for themselves, both upon the hour to declare and the hour to strike. They were their own judges of the circumstances under which it became them to pledge to each other "their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor" for the acquisition of the priceless inheritance transmitted to us. The energy with which that great conflict was opened was under the guidance of a manifest and beneficent Providence." - FRANKLIN PIERCE, FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1853, INAUGURAL ADDRESS, ONLY TWO MONTHS AFTER HIS ELEVEN YEAR ONLY SON, BENNIE, WAS KILLED AS THE CAMPAIGN TRAIN THEY WERE RIDING ROLLED OFF THE TRACKS. 14th President 1853-1857 Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804-October 8, 1869) "The dangers of a concentration of all power in the General government of a confederacy so vast as ours are too obvious to be disregarded. You have a right...to expect your agents in every department to regard strictly the limits imposed upon them by the Constitution....Liberty rests upon a proper distribution of power between the State and Federal authorities....With the Union my best and dearest earthly hopes are entwined. Without it what are we individually or collectively? What becomes of the noblest field ever opened for the advancement of our race in religion, in government, in the arts, and in all that dignifies and adorns mankind." - FRANKLIN PIERCE, FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1853, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 14th President 1853-1857 Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804-October 8, 1869) "The Union has been the source, under Providence, of our prosperity to this time, so it is the surest pledge of a continuance of the blessings....But let not the foundation of our hope rest upon man's wisdom....It must be felt that there is no national security but in the nation's humble, acknowledged dependence upon God and His overruling providence....With all the cherished memories of the past gathering around me like so many eloquent voices of exhortation from Heaven, I can express no better hope for my country than that the kind Providence which smiled upon our fathers may enable their children to preserve the blessings they have inherited." - FRANKLIN PIERCE, MARCH 4, 1853, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 14th President 1853-1857 Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804-October 8, 1869) "Although disease, assuming at one time the characteristics of a widespread and devastating pestilence, has left its sad traces upon some portions of our country, we have still the most abundant cause for reverent thankfulness to God for an accumulation of signal mercies showered upon us as a nation. It is well that a consciousness of rapid advancement and increasing strength be habitually associated with an abiding sense of dependence upon Him who holds in His hands the destiny of men and of nations." - FRANKLIN PIERCE, DECEMBER 5, 1853, FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 14th President 1853-1857 Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804-October 8, 1869) "Recognizing the wisdom of the broad principles of absolute religious toleration proclaimed in our fundamental law, and rejoicing in the benign influence which it has exerted upon our social and political condition, I should shrink from a clear duty if I failed to express my deepest conviction that we can place no secure reliance upon any apparent progress if it be not sustained by national integrity, resting upon the great truths affirmed and illustrated by Divine Revelation." - FRANKLIN PIERCE, DECEMBER 5, 1853, FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 14th President 1853-1857 Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804-October 8, 1869) "The Federal Government has...limited powers conferred on it by the Constitution, chiefly as to those things in which the States have a common interest in their relations to one another and to foreign governments, while the great mass of interests which belong to cultivated men - the ordinary business of life... - rest securely upon the general reserved powers of the people of the several States....Happily, I have no occasion to suggest any radical changes in the financial policy of the Government. Ours is almost, if not absolutely, the solitary power of Christendom having a surplus revenue drawn immediately from imposts on commerce." - FRANKLIN PIERCE, DECEMBER 5, 1853, FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 14th President 1853-1857 Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804-October 8, 1869) "As a nation we are reminded that whatever interrupts the peace or checks the prosperity of any part of Christendom tends more or less to involve our own....We have to...harmonize a sincere and ardent devotion to the institutions of religious faith with the most universal religious toleration....whilst exalting the condition of the Republic, to assure to it the legitimate influence and the benign authority of a great example amongst all the powers of Christendom. Under the solemnity of these convictions the blessings of Almighty God is earnestly invoked to attend upon your deliberations...in humble submission to the divine will." - FRANKLIN PIERCE, DECEMBER 4, 1854, SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 14th President 1853-1857 Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804-October 8, 1869) "I communicate to the Senate herewith, for its constitutional action, a treaty made and concluded at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Territory, on the 16th day of December, 1856, between Indian Agent Benjamin F. Robinson, commissioner on the part of the United States, the principal men of the Christian Indians, and Gottleib F. Oehler, on behalf of the board of elders of the northern diocese of the Church of the United Brethren in the United States of America." - FRANKLIN PIERCE, FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 1857, MESSAGE TO THE UNITED STATES SENATE. James Buchanan (April 23, 1791-June 1, 1868), the 15th President of the United States, 1857-61, attempted unsuccessfully to circumvent the rising tension over slavery; U.S. Minister to Great Britain, 1853-56; Secretary of State under James K. Polk, 1845-49; U.S. Senator, 1834-45; U.S. Minister to Russia, 1832-34; U.S. Representative, 1821-31; the only bachelor President as his fiancee, Ann Coleman, died suddenly when he was a young man, 1820; member of the Pennsylvania Legislature, 1814-16; served in the War of 1812; admitted to bar, 1812; and graduated from Dickinson College, 1809. 15th President 1857-1861 James Buchanan (April 23, 1791-June 1, 1868) "In entering upon this great office I must humbly invoke the God of our fathers for wisdom and firmness to execute its high and responsible duties....We should never forget....those exiles from foreign shores who may seek in this country to improve their condition and to enjoy the blessings of civil and religious liberty....We ought to cultivate peace, commerce, and friendship with all nations, and this not merely as the best means of promoting our own material interests, but in a spirit of Christian benevolence toward our fellow-men, wherever their lot may be cast." - JAMES BUCHANAN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1857, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 15th President 1857-1861 James Buchanan (April 23, 1791-June 1, 1868) "First and above all, our thanks are due to Almighty God for the numerous benefits which He has bestowed upon this people, and our united prayers ought to ascend to Him that He would continue to bless our great Republic in time to come as He has blessed it in time past." - JAMES BUCHANAN, DECEMBER 8, 1857, FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 15th President 1857-1861 James Buchanan (April 23, 1791-June 1, 1868) "The crime well deserves the punishment inflicted upon it by our laws. It violates the principles of Christianity, morality, and humanity, held sacred by all civilized nations and by none more than by the people of the United States....The avowed principle which lies at the foundation of the law of nations is contained in the Divine command that "all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them." Tried by this unerring rule, we should be severely condemned if we shall not use our best exertions to arrest such expeditions against our feeble sister republic of Nicaragua." - JAMES BUCHANAN, JANUARY 7, 1858, MESSAGE TO THE SENATE. 15th President 1857-1861 James Buchanan (April 23, 1791-June 1, 1868) "I have thus performed my duty on this important question, under a deep sense of responsibility to God and my country. My public life will terminate within a brief period, and I have no other object of earthly ambition than to leave my country in a peaceful and prosperous condition." - JAMES BUCHANAN, FEBRUARY 2, 1858, ADDRESS TO CONGRESS. 15th President 1857-1861 James Buchanan (April 23, 1791-June 1, 1868) "We have much reason for gratitude to that Almighty Providence which has never failed to interpose for our relief at the most critical periods of our history....Immediately upon the formation of a new Territory people from different States and from foreign countries rush into it for the laudable purpose of improving their condition. Their first duty to themselves is to open and cultivate farms, to construct roads, to establish schools, to erect places of religious worship." - JAMES BUCHANAN, DECEMBER 6, 1858, SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 15th President 1857-1861 James Buchanan (April 23, 1791-June 1, 1868) "Under the act of January 17, 1858, the courts of inquiry were directed to investigate "the physical, mental, professional, and moral fitness" of each officer who applied to them for relief....In performance of my duty I found the greatest difficulty in deciding what should be considered as "moral fitness" for the Navy....There has been but one perfect standard of morality on earth, and how far a departure from His precepts and example must proceed in order to disqualify an officer for the naval service is a question on which a great difference of honest opinion must always exist." - JAMES BUCHANAN, DECEMBER 20, 1858, TO THE SENATE. 15th President 1857-1861 James Buchanan (April 23, 1791-June 1, 1868) "We are obliged as a Christian and moral nation to consider what would be the effect upon unhappy Africa itself if we should reopen the slave trade....The numerous victims required to supply it would convert the whole slave coast into a perfect pandemonium, for which this country would be held responsible in the eyes both of God and man....When a market for African slaves shall no longer be furnished in Cuba, and thus all the world be closed against this trade, we may then indulge a reasonable hope for the gradual improvement of Africa....In this manner Christianity and civilization may gradually penetrate the existing gloom." - JAMES BUCHANAN, DECEMBER 19, 1859, THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 15th President 1857-1861 James Buchanan (April 23, 1791-June 1, 1868) "My prayer to God is that He would preserve the Constitution and the Union throughout all generations....It is with great satisfaction I communicate the fact that since the date of my last annual message not a single slave has been imported into the United States in violation of the laws prohibiting the African Slave trade....It surely ought to be the prayer of every Christian and patriot that such expeditions may never again receive countenance in our country or depart from our shores." - JAMES BUCHANAN, DECEMBER 3, 1860, FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 15th President 1857-1861 James Buchanan (April 23, 1791-June 1, 1868) "The Union of the States is at the present moment threatened with alarming and immediate danger....To whom shall we resort for relief but to the God of our fathers? His omnipotent arm only can save us from the awful effects of our own crimes and follies....Let our fervent prayers ascend to His throne that He would not desert us in this hour of extreme peril, but remember us as He did our fathers in the darkest days of the Revolution....Let me invoke every individual, in whatever sphere of life he may be placed, to feel a personal responsibility to God." - JAMES BUCHANAN, DECEMBER 14, 1860, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF HUMILIATION, FASTING, AND PRAYER. Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809-April 15, 1865), was the 16th President of the United States, 1861-65, responsible for preserving the Union through the Civil War; supported the 13th Amendment prohibiting slavery, ratified 1865; appointed Ulysses S. Grant as Commander in Chief of the Union forces, 1864; delivered the Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863; issued the Emancipation Proclamation, 1863; U.S. Senate candidate of the newly formed Republican Party, 1858, gaining national attention through his debates against pro-choice incumbent, Stephen A. Douglas; U.S. Representative, 1847-49, having defeated the Methodist Circuit rider, Peter Cartwright; member of the Illinois State Legislature, 1834-42; married Mary Todd, 1842; admitted to bar, 1836; Postmaster of New Salem, Illinois, 1833-36; appointed Deputy County Surveyor, 1833; Captain during the Black Hawk War, 1832; piloted flatboat trips to New Orleans, 1828-31; raised in a log cabin, cleared land, split rails, and earned the reputation of being "Honest Abe." 16th President 1861-1865 Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809-April 15, 1865) "The candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made...the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of the eminent tribunal....Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty." - ABRAHAM LINCOLN, MONDAY, MARCH 4, 1861, FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 16th President 1861-1865 Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809-April 15, 1865) "Whereas when our own beloved country, once, by the blessings of God, united, prosperous and happy, is now afflicted with faction and civil war, it is peculiarly fit for us to recognize the hand of God in this terrible visitation, and in sorrowful remembrance of our own faults and crimes as a nation and as individuals, to humble ourselves before Him and to pray for His mercy - to pray that we may be spared further punishment, though most justly deserved...that the inestimable boon of civil and religious liberty...may be restored." - ABRAHAM LINCOLN, AUGUST 12, 1861, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF HUMILIATION, PRAYER, AND FASTING, ISSUED AFTER THE UNION DEFEAT AT THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN. 16th President 1861-1865 Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809-April 15, 1865) "It has pleased Almighty God to vouchsafe signal victories to the land and naval forces engaged in suppressing an internal rebellion, and at the same time to avert from our country the dangers of foreign intervention and invasion. It is therefore recommended to the people of the United States that at their next weekly assemblages in their accustomed places of public worship...they especially acknowledge and render thanks to our Heavenly Father for these inestimable blessings, that they then and there implore spiritual consolation in behalf of all who have been brought into affliction by the casualties and calamities of sedition and civil war." - ABRAHAM LINCOLN, APRIL 10, 1862, NATIONAL PROCLAMATION, WASHINGTON, D.C. 16th President 1861-1865 Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809-April 15, 1865) "National forces should not suffer nor the cause they defend be imperiled by the profanation of the day or name of the Most High....Adopting the words of Washington in 1776, 'Men may find enough to do in the service of God and their country without abandoning themselves to vice and immorality.' The first general order issued by the Father of his Country after the Declaration of Independence indicates the spirit in which our institutions were founded and should ever be defended: 'The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.'" - ABRAHAM LINCOLN, NOVEMBER 15, 1862, GENERAL ORDER. 16th President 1861-1865 Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809-April 15, 1865) "In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save - or meanly lose - the last, best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just - a way which if followed the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless." - ABRAHAM LINCOLN, DECEMBER 1, 1862, SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 16th President 1861-1865 Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809-April 15, 1865) "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. 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 clemency and forgiveness." - ABRAHAM LINCOLN, MONDAY, MARCH 30, 1863, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF HUMILIATION, FASTING AND PRAYER. 16th President 1861-1865 Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809-April 15, 1865) "It is meet and right to recognize and confess the presence of the Almighty Father and the power of His hand equally in these triumphs and in these sorrows....I invite the people of the United States to assemble on that occasion in their customary places of worship and in the forms approved by their own consciences render the homage due to the Divine Majesty for the wonderful things He has done in the nation's behalf and invoke the influence of His Holy Spirit to subdue the anger which has produced and so long sustained a needless and cruel rebellion." - ABRAHAM LINCOLN, JULY 15, 1863, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING, PRAISE AND PRAYER. 16th President 1861-1865 Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809-April 15, 1865) "Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal....From these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." - ABRAHAM LINCOLN, NOVEMBER 19, 1863, COMMEMORATING THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG, WHERE OVER 50,000 SOLDIERS DIED. 16th President 1861-1865 Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809-April 15, 1865) "Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God....The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. 'Woe unto the world because of offenses'...Yet, if God will that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsmen's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said 'the judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'" - ABRAHAM LINCOLN, MARCH 4, 1865, SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 45 DAYS BEFORE HIS ASSASSINATION. Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808-July 31, 1875), was the 17th President of the United States, 1865-69; Vice-President under Abraham Lincoln, assuming the Presidency upon Lincoln's assassination; continued Lincoln's plan of Reconstruction for the South, pardoned those who had seceded, granted voting rights for all Blacks; acquitted of impeachment accusations, 1868; U.S. Senator, 1874-75; Military Governor of Tennessee, 1862-65; U.S. Senator, 1857-62; Governor of Tennessee, 1853-57; U.S. Representative, 1843-53; Tennessee State Senator, 1841-43; Tennessee State Representative, 1839-41, 1835-37; Mayor of Greenville, 1830-33; Alderman, 1828-30; married Eliza McCardle, 1827; and opened a tailor shop in Greenville, Tennessee, 1826. 17th President 1865-1869 Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808-July 31, 1875) "Duties have been mine; consequences are God's." - ANDREW JOHNSON, APRIL 15, 1865, ADDRESS UPON ASSUMING THE PRESIDENCY FOLLOWING PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION. 17th President 1865-1869 Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808-July 31, 1875) "Whereas our country has become one great house of mourning, where the head of the family has been taken away, and believing that a special period should be assigned for again humbling ourselves before Almighty God,...Now, therefore, in order to mitigate that grief on earth which can only be assuaged by communion with the Father in heaven...I recommend my fellow-citizens then to assemble in their respective places of worship, there to unite in solemn service to Almighty God in memory of the good man who has been removed." - ANDREW JOHNSON, APRIL 25, 1865, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF HUMILIATION AND MOURNING, ISSUED UPON ASSUMING THE PRESIDENCY AFTER THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 17th President 1865-1869 Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808-July 31, 1875) "My proclamation of the 25th instant Thursday, the 25th day of next month, was recommended as a day for special humiliation and prayer in consequence of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln...but whereas my attention has since been called to the fact that the day aforesaid is sacred to large numbers of Christians as one of rejoicing for the ascension of the Savior: Now, therefore, be it known that I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do hereby suggest that the religious services recommended as aforesaid should be postponed until Thursday, the 1st day of June next." - ANDREW JOHNSON, APRIL 29, 1865, RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING THE PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF HUMILIATION AND PRAYER. 17th President 1865-1869 Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808-July 31, 1875) "Whereas it has pleased Almighty God during the year which is now coming to an end to relieve our beloved country from the fearful scourge of civil war...Whereas our Heavenly Father has also during the year graciously averted from us the calamities of foreign war...Whereas righteousness exalteth a nation, while sin is a reproach to any people...I...recommend to the people thereof that they do set apart and observe the first Thursday of December next as a day of national thanksgiving to the Creator of the Universe for these great deliverances and blessings." - ANDREW JOHNSON, OCTOBER 28, 1865, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 17th President 1865-1869 Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808-July 31, 1875) "The House of Representatives answered Washington by the voice of Madison: 'We adore the Invisible Hand which has led the American people, through so many difficulties'...Who of them will not acknowledge, in the words of Washington, that 'every step by which the people of the United States have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency'? Who will not join with me in the prayer that the Invisible Hand which has led us through the clouds that gloomed around our path will not so guide us onward to a perfect restoration?" - ANDREW JOHNSON, DECEMBER 4, 1865, FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 17th President 1865-1869 Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808-July 31, 1875) "Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, has been pleased to vouchsafe to us as a people another year;...I...recommend...a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, with due remembrance that 'in His temple doth every man speak of His honor.'...In offering these national thanksgivings, praises, and supplications we have the divine assurance that 'the Lord remaineth a king forever; them that are meek shall He guide in judgement and such as are gentle shall He learn His way; the Lord shall give strength to His people, and the Lord shall give to His people the blessing of peace.'" - ANDREW JOHNSON, OCTOBER 8, 1866, PRESIDENT ANDREW JOHNSON, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAISE. 17th President 1865-1869 Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808-July 31, 1875) "Nevertheless, that every person who shall seek to avail himself of this proclamation shall take and subscribe the following oath...'I, ____ ____, do solemnly swear (or affirm), in presence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Union of the States thereunder, and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully support all laws and proclamations which have been made during the late rebellion with reference to the emancipation of slaves. So help me God.'" - ANDREW JOHNSON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1867, OATH PRESCRIBED IN THE PROCLAMATION OF AMNESTY AND PARDON TO THE PARTICIPANTS OF THE CONFEDERATE INSURRECTION. 17th President 1865-1869 Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808-July 31, 1875) "We must all acknowledge that the restoration of the States to their proper legal relations with the Federal Government and with one another, according to the terms of the original compact, would be the greatest temporal blessing which God, in His kindest Providence, could bestow upon this nation....Christianity and civilization have made such progress that recourse to a punishment so cruel and unjust would meet with condemnation of all unprejudiced and right-minded men." - ANDREW JOHNSON, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1867, THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 17th President 1865-1869 Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808-July 31, 1875) "The annual period of rest, which we have reached in health and tranquility, and which is crowned with so many blessings, is by universal consent a convenient and suitable one for cultivating personal piety and practicing public devotion. I therefore recommend...a day for public praise, thanksgiving, and prayer to the Almighty Creator and Divine Ruler of the Universe, by whose ever-watchful, merciful, and gracious Providence alone states and nations, no less than families and individual men, do live and move and have their being." - ANDREW JOHNSON, OCTOBER 12, 1868, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF PUBLIC PRAISE, THANKSGIVING, AND PRAYER. Ulysses Simpson Grant (April 27, 1822-July 23, 1885), was the 18th President of United States, 1869-77; Secretary of War under Andrew Johnson, 1867; Union General-in-Chief during the Civil War, receiving General Robert E. Lee's surrender at the Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, April 9, 1865; defeated the Confederate forces in the Wilderness Campaign, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, and the siege of Petersburg, 1864-65; Major General, winning victories at Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga, 1863; Brigadier General, capturing Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, 1862; Colonel of the 21st Illinois Volunteers, 1861; farmer, real estate dealer, clerk in Missouri and Illinois, 1854-61; married Julia Boggs Dent, 1848; Captain, decorated for gallantry in the Mexican War, 1846-48, fighting under both General Zachary Taylor and General Winfield Scott; graduated from West Point, 1843, and assigned as 2nd Lieutenant in the 4th U.S. Infantry at Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis; born Hiram Ulysses Grant, but changed to Ulysses Hiram to avoid the initials "H.U.G.," his name was later incorrectly registered in his West Point appointment by his Representative as Ulysses Simpson Grant, 1839. 18th President 1869-1877 Ulysses Simpson Grant (April 27, 1822-July 23, 1885) "I ask patient forbearance one toward another throughout the land, and a determined effort on the part of every citizen to do his share toward cementing a happy union; and I ask the prayers of the nation to Almighty God in behalf of this consummation." - ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT, THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1869, FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 18th President 1869-1877 Ulysses Simpson Grant (April 27, 1822-July 23, 1885) "It becomes a people thus favored to make acknowledgement to the Supreme Author from whom such blessings flow of their gratitude and their dependence, to render praise and thanksgiving for the same, and devoutly to implore a continuance of God's mercies....to assemble on that day in their accustomed places of public worship and to unite in the homage and praise due to the bountiful Father of All Mercies and in fervent prayer for the continuance of the manifold blessings He has vouchsafed to us as a people." - ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1869, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING, PRAISE AND PRAYER. 18th President 1869-1877 Ulysses Simpson Grant (April 27, 1822-July 23, 1885) "The Society of Friends is well known as having succeeded in living in peace with the Indians in the early settlement of Pennsylvania....They are known for their opposition to all strife, violence, and war, and are generally noted for their strict integrity and fair dealings. These considerations induced me to give the management of a few reservations of Indians to them and to throw the burden of the selection of agents upon the Society itself. The result has proven most satisfactory." - ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT, DECEMBER 6, 1869, FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 18th President 1869-1877 Ulysses Simpson Grant (April 27, 1822-July 23, 1885) "Such religious denominations as had heretofore established missionaries among the Indians, and perhaps to some other denominations who would undertake the work on the same terms - i.e., as a missionary work. The societies selected are allowed to name their own agents, subject to the approval of the Executive, and are expected to watch over them and aid them as missionaries, to Christianize and civilize the Indians, and to train him in the arts of peace." - ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT, MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1870, SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 18th President 1869-1877 Ulysses Simpson Grant (April 27, 1822-July 23, 1885) "It would seem highly desirable that the civilized Indians of the country should be encouraged in establishing for themselves forms of Territorial government compatible with the Constitution of the United States....This is the first indication of the aborigines desiring to adopt our form of government, and it is highly desirable that they become self-sustaining, self-relying, Christianized, and civilized." - ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT, JANUARY 1, 1871, IN WRITING FROM THE EXECUTIVE MANSION TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 18th President 1869-1877 Ulysses Simpson Grant (April 27, 1822-July 23, 1885) "Many tribes of Indians have been induced to settle upon reservations, to cultivate the soil, to perform productive labor of various kinds, and to partially accept civilization. They are being cared for in such a way, it is hoped, as to induce those still pursuing their old habits of life to embrace the only opportunity which is left them to avoid extermination. I recommend liberal appropriations to carry out the Indian peace policy, not only because it is humane, Christianlike, and economical, but because it is right." - ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT, DECEMBER 4, 1871, THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 18th President 1869-1877 Ulysses Simpson Grant (April 27, 1822-July 23, 1885) "I can not doubt that the continued maintenance of slavery in Cuba is among the strongest inducements to the continuance of this strife. A terrible wrong is the natural cause of a terrible evil....It is greatly to be hoped that the present liberal Government of Spain will voluntarily adopt this view. The law of emancipation...was the recognition of right, and was hailed as such, and exhibited Spain in harmony with sentiments of humanity and of justice and in sympathy with the other powers of the Christian and civilized world." - ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT, DECEMBER 2, 1872, FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 18th President 1869-1877 Ulysses Simpson Grant (April 27, 1822-July 23, 1885) "I do believe that our Great Maker is preparing the world, in His own good time, to become one nation, speaking one language, and then armies and navies will no longer be required." - ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT, TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1873, SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 18th President 1869-1877 Ulysses Simpson Grant (April 27, 1822-July 23, 1885) "We should not forget the source from whence they are derived and the extent of our obligation to the Father of All Mercies. We have full reason to renew our thanks to Almighty God....By His continuing mercy civil and religious liberty have been maintained." - ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1875, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING. Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822-January, 17, 1893), was the 19th President of the United States, 1877-81; Governor of Ohio, 1868-72, 1876-77; U.S. Representative, 1864-67; Brigadier General during the Civil War, 1864; Lieutenant Colonel, 1861, wounded in the Battle of South Mountain, 1862; Major in the 23rd Ohio Volunteers, 1861; City Solicitor of Cincinnati, Ohio, 1858-61; delegate to the Ohio Republican Convention, 1855; married Lucy Ware Webb, 1852; graduated from Harvard Law School and admitted to bar, 1845; and graduated from Kenyon College, Ohio, 1842. 19th President 1877-1881 Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822-January, 17, 1893) "Looking for the guidance of that Divine Hand by which the destinies of nations and individuals are shaped, I call upon you, Senators, Representatives, judges, fellow-citizens, here and everywhere, to unite with me in an earnest effort to secure to our country the blessings." - RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES, MONDAY, MARCH 5, 1877, INAUGURAL ADDRESS, WHICH HE DELIVERED A DAY LATER THAN USUAL, REFUSING TO BE SWORN IN ON SUNDAY IN HONOR OF THE SABBATH. 19th President 1877-1881 Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822-January, 17, 1893) "Let us with one spirit and with one voice lift up praise and thanksgiving to God for His manifold goodness to our land, His manifest care for our nation....I earnestly recommend that, withdrawing themselves from secular cares and labors, the people of the United States do meet together on that day in their respective places of worship, there to give thanks and praise to Almighty God for His mercies and to devoutly beseech their continuance." - RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES, OCTOBER 29, 1877, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER. 19th President 1877-1881 Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822-January, 17, 1893) "The Government of the Samoan Islands has sent an envoy...to invite the Government of the United States to recognize and protect their independence, to establish commercial relations with their people, and to assist them in their steps toward regulated and responsible government. The inhabitants of these islands, having made considerable progress in Christian civilization and the development of trade, are doubtful of their ability to maintain peace and independence without the aid of some stronger power." - RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1877, FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 19th President 1877-1881 Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822-January, 17, 1893) "The general prevalence of the blessings of health through our wide land has made more conspicuous the sufferings and sorrows which the dark shadow of pestilence has cast upon a portion of our people. This heavy affliction even the Divine Ruler has tempered to the suffering communities in the universal sympathy and succor which have flowed to their relief, and the whole nation may rejoice in the unity of spirit in our people by which they cheerfully share one another's burdens." - RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES, OCTOBER 30, 1878, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER. 19th President 1877-1881 Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822-January, 17, 1893) "Our heartfelt gratitude is due to the Divine Being who holds in His hands the destinies of nations for the continued bestowal during the last year of countless blessings upon our country." - RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES, DECEMBER 2, 1878, SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 19th President 1877-1881 Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822-January, 17, 1893) "At no recurrence of the season, which the devout habit of a religious people has made the occasion for giving thanks to Almighty God and humbly invoking His continued favor, has the material prosperity enjoyed by our whole country been more conspicuous, more manifold, or more universal....I earnestly recommend that, withdrawing themselves from secular cares and labors, the people of the United States do meet together on that day in their respective places of worship, there to give thanks and praise to Almighty God for His mercies and to devoutly beseech their continuance." - RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1879, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER. 19th President 1877-1881 Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822-January, 17, 1893) "The members of the Forty-sixth Congress have assembled in their first regular session under circumstances calling for mutual congratulations and grateful acknowledgement to the Giver of All Good for the large and unusual measure of national prosperity which we now enjoy." - RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES, DECEMBER 1, 1879, THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 19th President 1877-1881 Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822-January, 17, 1893) "At no period in their history since the United States became a nation has this people had so abundant and universal reasons for joy and gratitude at the favor of Almighty God or been subject to so profound an obligation to give thanks for His loving kindness and humbly to implore His continued care and protection." - RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1880, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 19th President 1877-1881 Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822-January, 17, 1893) "I commit my soul to the mercy of God through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and I exhort my dear children humbly to try to guide themselves by the teachings of the New Testament in its broad spirit, and to put no faith in any man's narrow construction of its letter here or there." - RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES, MARCH 13, 1892, LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT. James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831-September 19, 1881), was the 20th President of the United States, 1881-81; assassinated after serving only four months, being the fourth President to die in office; elected U.S. Senator, 1880, but declined to serve as he was nominated to run for President; U.S. Representative, 1863-80, taking the position at the request of Abraham Lincoln; House Minority Leader, 1876; Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, 1871; Republican Chairman; Major General in the Union Army, 1863, fighting the Confederate forces at Chickamauga; Brigadier General, commanding brigade at Shiloh, 1862; promoted to Colonel, 1861, defeating Confederate forces at Middle Creek, Kentucky, 1862; Lieutenant Colonel in Ohio Volunteers, 1861; Ohio State Senator, 1859-61; admitted to bar, 1860; married Lucretia Rudolph, 1858; successfully debated Englishman John Denton, refuting his evolutionary arguments, 1858, then launched a lecture tour speaking on "Geology and Religion"; President of Hiram College, 1857-61, chosen at the age of 26; graduated from Williams College, 1856; and teacher at the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, 1852. In addition to being strongly anti-slavery, James A. Garfield was a member of the Disciples of Christ, and occasionally preached a sermon for them. 20th President 1881-1881 James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831-September 19, 1881) "Fifty years hence our children will not be divided in their opinions concerning our controversies. They will surely bless their fathers and their fathers' God that the Union was preserved, that slavery was overthrown, and that both races were made equal before the law." - JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD, FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1881, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 20th President 1881-1881 James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831-September 19, 1881) "The emancipated race has already made remarkable progress. With unquestioning devotion to the Union, with a patience and gentleness not born of fear, they have 'followed the light as God gave them to see the light.'...Above all, upon our efforts to promote the welfare of this great people and their Government I reverently invoke the support and blessings of Almighty God." - JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD, FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1881, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 20th President 1881-1881 James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831-September 19, 1881) "Fellow citizens! Clouds and darkness are around Him. His pavilion is dark waters and thick clouds of the skies! Justice and judgment are the establishment of His throne! Mercy and truth shall go before His face. Fellow citizens! God reigns and the Government at Washington still lives!" - JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD, SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 1865, ADDRESS DELIVERED WHILE A U.S. CONGRESSMAN, AFTER OVERCOMING THE SHOCK OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION. 20th President 1881-1881 James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831-September 19, 1881) "If the next centennial does not find us a great nation...it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces." - JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD, TUESDAY, JULY 4, 1876, ADDRESS COMMEMORATING THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, DELIVERED WHILE SERVING AS THE U.S. CONGRESSMAN CHAIRING THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS. 20th President 1881-1881 James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831-September 19, 1881) "The world's history is a Divine poem, of which the history of every nation is a canto, and every man a word. Its strains have been pealing along down the centuries, and though there have been mingled the discords of warring cannons and dying men, yet to the Christian philosopher and historian - the humble listener - there has been a Divine melody running through the song which speaks of hope and halcyon days to come." - JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD, STATEMENT. 20th President 1881-1881 James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831-September 19, 1881) "In the hope of the Gospel, which is so precious in this hour of affliction, I am affectionately your brother in Christ." - JAMES ABRAM. GARFIELD, 1876, CONCLUDING A LETTER TO A FRIEND, SHOWING HIS SUBMISSION TO THE DEATH OF HIS LITTLE SON, EDWARD. 20th President 1881-1881 James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831-September 19, 1881) "I am struck with the fact that Bismarck, the great statesman of Germany, probably the foremost man in Europe today, stated as an unquestioned principle, that the support, the defense, and propagation of the Christian Gospel is the central object of the German government." - JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD, 1871, DESCRIBING OTTO EDUARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK, CHANCELLOR OF THE NEWLY UNITED GERMAN EMPIRE. 20th President 1881-1881 James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831-September 19, 1881) "James A. Garfield, President of the United States, died at Elberon, N.J., last night at ten minutes before 11 o'clock. For nearly eighty days he suffered great pain, and during the entire period exhibited extraordinary patience, fortitude, and Christian resignation. Fifty millions of people stand as mourners by his bier." - JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD, SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1881, AFTER HAVING BEEN IN OFFICE ONLY 4 MONTHS, WAS SHOT IN THE BACK WHILE IN THE WASHINGTON, D.C., RAILROAD STATION AND DIED ON SEPTEMBER 19, 1881. SECRETARY OF STATE JAMES G. BLAINE, WRITING FROM LONG BRANCH, N.J., SENT THIS ANNOUNCEMENT TO JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, U.S. MINISTER IN LONDON. 20th President 1881-1881 James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831-September 19, 1881) "Today I was buried with Christ in baptism and arose to walk in newness of life." - JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD, MARCH 4, 1850, ENTRY IN HIS JOURNAL RECOUNTING HIS CONVERSION AT THE AGE OF EIGHTEEN. Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1830-November 18, 1886), was the 21st President of the United States, 1881-85; Vice-President under James A. Garfield, 1881, assuming the Presidency upon Garfield's assassination; Collector of Customs at the Port of New York, 1871-78, appointed by President Grant; Counsel to the New York City Tax Commission, 1869; Quartermaster General of New York State during the Civil War, 1861-62; Inspector General of Union Troops, 1862; married Ellen Lewis Herndon, 1859; participated in first Republican State convention at Saratoga, 1856; abolitionist lawyer, 1853-61, earning publicity for defending the rights of Blacks; admitted to bar, 1853; Principal in Cohoes, N.Y., 1852; principal and teacher of an academy at North Pownall, Bennington County, Vermont, 1851-52; graduated from Union College, 1848; and son of Rev. William Arthur, a Baptist minister who emigrated from Ireland. Chester Alan Arthur's Presidential term spanned the period when international time zones were set, New York and Chicago were connected by telephone lines, and bank robber Jesse James was killed. 21st President 1881-1885 Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1830-November 18, 1886) "Summoned to these high duties and responsibilities and profoundly conscious of their magnitude and gravity, I assume the trust imposed by the Constitution, relying for aid on Divine Guidance and the virtue, patriotism, and intelligence of the American people." - CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1881, ADDRESS UPON ASSUMING THE PRESIDENCY AFTER PRESIDENT GARFIELD'S DEATH. 21st President 1881-1885 Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1830-November 18, 1886) "It is fitting that the deep grief which fills all hearts should manifest itself with one accord toward the Throne of Infinite Grace, and that we should bow before the Almighty and seek from Him that consolation in our affliction." - CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1881, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF HUMILIATION AND MOURNING, ISSUED UPON ASSUMING THE PRESIDENCY AFTER THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 21st President 1881-1885 Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1830-November 18, 1886) "The countless benefits which have showered upon us during the past twelvemonth call for our fervent gratitude and make it fitting that we should rejoice with thankfulness that the Lord in His infinite mercy has most signally favored our country and our people." - CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1881, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER. 21st President 1881-1885 Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1830-November 18, 1886) "Relations with Russia should be strengthened by proper engagements assuring to peaceable Americans who visit the Empire the consideration which is due to them as citizens of a friendly state. This is especially needful with respect to American Israelites, whose classification with the native Hebrew has evoked energetic remonstrances." - CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1881, FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 21st President 1881-1885 Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1830-November 18, 1886) "For wise and generous provision to effect the intellectual and moral education of our youth; for the influence upon the conscience of a restraining and transforming religion, and for the joys of home - for these and for many other blessings we should give thanks...that the people, ceasing from their daily labors and meeting in accordance with their several forms of worship draw near to the throne of Almighty God, offering to Him praise." - CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR, OCTOBER 25, 1882, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER. 21st President 1881-1885 Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1830-November 18, 1886) "Our long-established friendliness with Russia has remained unshaken. It has prompted me to proffer the earnest counsels of this Government that measures by adopted for suppressing the proscription which the Hebrew race in that country has lately suffered....There is reason to believe that the time is not far distant when Russia will be able to secure toleration to all faiths within her borders." - CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR, DECEMBER 4, 1882, SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 21st President 1881-1885 Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1830-November 18, 1886) "I do therefore recommend that on the day above appointed the people rest from their accustomed labors and, meeting in their several places of worship, express their devout gratitude to God that He hath dealt so bountifully with this nation and pray that His grace and favor abide with it forever." - CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1883, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 21st President 1881-1885 Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1830-November 18, 1886) "General William T. Sherman, General of the Army, having this day reached the age of 64 years, is, in accordance with law, placed upon the retired list of the Army without reduction in his current pay and allowances....The President deems this a fitting occasion to give expression in this manner to the gratitude felt toward General Sherman by his fellow-citizens, and to the hope that Providence may grant him many years of health and happiness in the relief from the active duties of his profession." - CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR, FEBRUARY 8, 1884, FROM HIS EXECUTIVE MANSION IN WASHINGTON, D.C. 21st President 1881-1885 Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1830-November 18, 1886) "The season in nigh when it is the yearly wont of this people to observe a day appointed for that purpose by the President as an especial occasion for thanksgiving unto God...I do recommend that throughout the land the people, ceasing from their accustomed occupations, do then keep holiday at their several homes and their several places of worship, and with heart and voice pay reverent acknowledgement to the Giver of All Good for the countless blessings wherewith He hath visited this nation." - CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR, NOVEMBER 7, 1884, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING. Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837-June 24, 1908), served as both the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, 1885-89 and 1893-97; trustee of Princeton University, 1901; married Frances Folsom, 1886; the Governor of New York, 1882-85; the Mayor of Buffalo, N.Y., 1881-82; Sheriff of Erie County, 1870-73; Assistant District Attorney of Erie County, 1863-70; Ward Supervisor, 1862; admitted to the bar, 1859; and teacher at the New York Institute for the Blind, 1853. He was a direct descendant of Moses Cleveland, the founder of Cleveland, Ohio, whose ancestors came from England to Massachusetts in 1635; and was the son of a Presbyterian minister, Richard Falley Cleveland, who pastored churches in New Jersey and New York, in addition to being the district secretary of the American Home Mission Society. 22nd President 1885-1889 (Stephen) Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837-June 24, 1908) "And let us not trust to human effort alone, but humbly acknowledge the power and goodness of Almighty God who presides over the destiny of nations, and who has at all times been revealed in our country's history, let us invoke His aid and His blessings upon our labors." - (STEPHEN) GROVER CLEVELAND, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1885, FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 22nd President 1885-1889 (Stephen) Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837-June 24, 1908) "The President of the United States has just received the sad tidings of the death of that illustrious citizen and ex-President of the United States, General Ulysses S. Grant....The destined end has come at last, and his spirit has returned to the Creator who sent it forth." - (STEPHEN) GROVER CLEVELAND, JULY 23, 1885, PROCLAMATION AT THE DEATH OF ULYSSES S. GRANT. 22nd President 1885-1889 (Stephen) Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837-June 24, 1908) "Let all secular business be suspended, and let the people assemble in their usual places of worship and with prayer and songs of praise devoutly testify their gratitude to the Giver of Every Good and Perfect Gift for all that He has done for us." - (STEPHEN) GROVER CLEVELAND, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1885, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER. 22nd President 1885-1889 (Stephen) Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837-June 24, 1908) "The mothers of our land, who rule the nation as they mold the characters and guide the actions of their sons, live according to God's Holy Ordinances, and each, secure and happy in the exclusive love of the father of her children, sheds the warm light of true womanhood, unperverted and unpolluted, upon all within her pure and wholesome family circle." - (STEPHEN) GROVER CLEVELAND, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1885, FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 22nd President 1885-1889 (Stephen) Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837-June 24, 1908) "While we contemplate the infinite power of God in earthquake, flood, and storm let the grateful hearts of those who have been shielded from harm through His mercy be turned in sympathy and kindness toward those who have suffered through His visitations. Let us also in the midst of our thanksgiving remember the poor and needy with cheerful gifts and alms so that our service may by deeds of charity be made acceptable in the sight of the Lord." - (STEPHEN) GROVER CLEVELAND, NOVEMBER 1, 1886, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER. 22nd President 1885-1889 (Stephen) Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837-June 24, 1908) "That the office of Presidency of the United States does represent the sovereignty of sixty millions of free people, is, to my mind, a statement full of solemnity; for this sovereignty I conceive to be the working out or enforcement of the divine right of man to govern himself and a manifestation of God's plan concerning the human race." - (STEPHEN) GROVER CLEVELAND, JULY 13, 1887, CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION, CLINTON, NEW YORK. 22nd President 1885-1889 (Stephen) Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837-June 24, 1908) "The goodness and the mercy of God, which have followed the American people during all the days of the past year, claim their grateful recognition and humble acknowledgment....Let all secular work and employment be suspended, and let our people assemble in their accustomed places of worship and with prayer and songs of praise give thanks to our Heavenly Father for all that He has done for us, while we humbly implore the forgiveness of our sins and a continuance of His mercy." - (STEPHEN) GROVER CLEVELAND, OCTOBER 25, 1887, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER. 22nd President 1885-1889 (Stephen) Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837-June 24, 1908) "As we return thanks for all the blessings which we have received from the hand of our Heavenly Father, let us not forget that He has enjoined upon us charity; and on this day of thanksgiving let us generously remember the poor and needy, so that our tribute of praise and gratitude may be acceptable in the sight of the Lord." - (STEPHEN) GROVER CLEVELAND, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1888, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER. 22nd President 1885-1889 (Stephen) Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837-June 24, 1908) "I have always felt that my training as a minister's son has been more valuable to me as a strengthening influence than any other incident in life." - (STEPHEN) GROVER CLEVELAND, WHO HAD MEMORIZED THE WESTMINSTER CONFESSION AND PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, WAS THE SON OF PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER RICHARD FALLEY CLEVELAND, PASTOR OF CHURCHES IN NEW JERSEY, NEW YORK, AND DISTRICT SECRETARY OF THE AMERICAN HOME MISSION SOCIETY. Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833-March 13, 1901), was the 23rd President of the United States, 1889-93; married Mary Scott Lord Dimmick, 1896, after the death of his first wife; U.S. Senator, 1881-87; Chairman of the Indiana delegations to the Republican National Conventions, 1880, 1884; member of the Mississippi River Commission, 1879, appointed by President Hayes; Brigadier General, 1865, during the Civil War; Colonel of the 70th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, 1862, taking part in the Atlanta campaign with General Sherman; appointed elder of the Presbyterian Church, 1861; Indiana State Supreme Court Reporter, 1860-62; Secretary of the Republican State Central Committee of Indiana, 1858; City Attorney, 1857-61; Commissioner for the Court of Claims, 1855; admitted to the bar, 1853; married Caroline "Carrie" Lavinia Scott, 1853; graduated from Miami University, Ohio, 1852; and grandson of the 9th President, William Henry Harrison, and great-grandson of the signer of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Harrison. 23rd President 1889-1993 Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833-March 13, 1901) "Entering thus solemnly into covenant with each other, we may reverently invoke and confidently extend the favor and help of Almighty God - that He will give to me wisdom, strength, and fidelity, and to our people a spirit of fraternity and a love of righteousness and peace....God has placed upon our head a diadem and has laid at our feet power and wealth beyond definition or calculation. But we must not forget that we take these gifts upon the condition that justice and mercy shall hold the reins of power and the upward avenues of hope shall be free to all people." - BENJAMIN HARRISON, MONDAY, MARCH 4, 1889, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 23rd President 1889-1993 Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833-March 13, 1901) "That the joy of the occasion may be associated with a deep thankfulness in the minds of the people for all our blessings in the past and a devout supplication to God for their gracious continuance in the future, the representatives of the religious creeds, both Christian and Hebrew, have memorialized the Government to designate an hour for prayer and thanksgiving." - BENJAMIN HARRISON, THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 1889, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING ON THE CENTENNIAL OF WASHINGTON'S INAUGURATION. 23rd President 1889-1993 Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833-March 13, 1901) "In November, 1862, President Lincoln quoted the words of Washington to sustain his own views...'The President, Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, desires and enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath by the officers and men in the military and naval service. The importance for man and beast of the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiment of a Christian people, and a due regard for the divine will demand that Sunday labor in the Army and Navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity.'" - BENJAMIN HARRISON, FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 1889, GENERAL ORDER ISSUED FROM THE EXECUTIVE MANSION. 23rd President 1889-1993 Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833-March 13, 1901) "A highly favored people, mindful of their dependence on the bounty of Divine Providence, should seek fitting occasion to testify gratitude and ascribe praise to Him who is the author of their many blessings. It behooves us, then, to look back with thankful hearts over the past year and bless God for His infinite mercy in vouchsafing to our land enduring peace, to our people freedom from pestilence and famine, to our husbandmen abundant harvests, and to them that labor a recompense of their toil." - BENJAMIN HARRISON, NOVEMBER 1, 1889, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER. 23rd President 1889-1993 Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833-March 13, 1901) "The recommendations of this international conference of enlightened statesmen will doubtless have the considerate attention of Congress...But while the commercial results which it is hoped will follow this conference are worthy of pursuit and of the great interests they have excited, it is believed that the crowning benefit will be found in the better securities which may be devised for the maintenance of peace among all American nations and the settlement of all contentions by methods that a Christian civilization can approve." - BENJAMIN HARRISON, DECEMBER 3, 1889, FROM HIS EXECUTIVE MANSION IN WASHINGTON, FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 23rd President 1889-1993 Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833-March 13, 1901) "It is therein provided that if any land in said Great Sioux Reservation is occupied and used by any religious society at the date of said act for the purpose of missionary or educational work among the Indians, whether situated outside of or within the limits of any of the separate reservations, the same, not exceeding 160 acres in any one tract, shall be granted to said society for the purposes and upon the terms and conditions therein named." - BENJAMIN HARRISON, FEBRUARY 10, 1890, IN A PROCLAMATION REGARDING THE SIOUX NATION OF INDIANS IN DAKOTA. 23rd President 1889-1993 Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833-March 13, 1901) "By the grace and favor of Almighty God the people of this nation have been led to the closing days of the passing year, which has been full of the blessings of peace and the comforts of plenty....I do invite the people upon that day to cease from their labors, to meet in their accustomed houses of worship, and to join in rendering gratitude and praise to our beneficent Creator for the rich blessings He has granted to us as a nation and in invoking the continuance of His protection and grace for the future." - BENJAMIN HARRISON, NOVEMBER 8, 1890, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING. 23rd President 1889-1993 Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833-March 13, 1901) "This Government has found occasion to express in a friendly spirit, but with much earnestness, to the Government of the Czar its serious concern because of the harsh measures now being enforced against the Hebrews in Russia. By the revival of antisemitic laws, long in abeyance, great numbers of those unfortunate people have been constrained to abandon their homes and leave the Empire by reason of the impossibility of finding subsistence." - BENJAMIN HARRISON, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1891, THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE. 23rd President 1889-1993 Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833-March 13, 1901) "I hope you all remember us at home and that many prayers go up to God daily for my Regiment and for me. Ask Him for me in prayer, my dear wife, first that He will enable me to bear myself as a good soldier of Jesus Christ; second that He will give me valor and skill to conduct myself so as to honor my country and my friends, and lastly, if consistent with His holy will, I may be brought "home again' to the dear loved ones." - BENJAMIN HARRISON, AS COLONEL OF THE 70TH INDIANA INFANTRY REGIMENT DURING THE CIVIL WAR, IN A LETTER TO HIS WIFE, CARRIE. Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837-June 24, 1908), served as both the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, 1885-89 and 1893-97; trustee of Princeton University, 1901; married Frances Folsom, 1886; the Governor of New York, 1882-85; the Mayor of Buffalo, N.Y., 1881-82; Sheriff of Erie County, 1870-73; Assistant District Attorney of Erie County, 1863-70; Ward Supervisor, 1862; admitted to the bar, 1859; and teacher at the New York Institute for the Blind, 1853. He was a direct descendant of Moses Cleveland, the founder of Cleveland, Ohio, whose ancestors came from England to Massachusetts in 1635; and was the son of a Presbyterian minister, Richard Falley Cleveland, who pastored churches in New Jersey and New York, in addition to being the district secretary of the American Home Mission Society. 24th President 1893-1897 (Stephen) Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837-June 24, 1908) "I am sure my gratitude can make no better return than the pledge I now give before God and these witnesses of unreserved and complete devotion to the interests and welfare of those who have honored me....Above all, I know there is a Supreme Being who rules the affairs of men and whose goodness and mercy have always followed the American people, and I know He will not turn from us now if we humbly and reverently seek His powerful aid." - (STEPHEN) GROVER CLEVELAND, SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1893, SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 24th President 1893-1897 (Stephen) Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837-June 24, 1908) "On that day let us forego our ordinary work and employments and assemble in our usual places of worship, where we may recall all that God has done for us and where from grateful hearts our united tribute of praise and song may reach the Throne of Grace. Let the reunion of kindred and the social meeting of friends lend cheer and enjoyment to the day, and let generous gifts of charity for the relief of the poor and needy prove the sincerity of our thanksgiving." - (STEPHEN) GROVER CLEVELAND, NOVEMBER 3, 1893, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAISE. 24th President 1893-1897 (Stephen) Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837-June 24, 1908) "The American people should gratefully render thanksgiving and praise to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe....They should also with humility and faith supplicate the Father of All Mercies for continued blessings according to their needs, and they should by deeds of charity seek the favor of the Giver of Every Good and Perfect Gift." - (STEPHEN) GROVER CLEVELAND, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1894, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER. 24th President 1893-1897 (Stephen) Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837-June 24, 1908) "On that day let us forego our usual occupations and in our accustomed places of worship join in rendering thanks to the Giver of Every Good and Perfect Gift for the bounteous returns that have rewarded our labors...and for the other blessings that have been showered upon us from an open hand. And with our thanksgiving let us humbly beseech the Lord to so incline the hearts of our people unto Him that He will not leave us nor forsake us as a nation, but will continue to us His mercy and protecting care." - (STEPHEN) GROVER CLEVELAND, NOVEMBER 4, 1895, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER. 24th President 1893-1897 (Stephen) Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837-June 24, 1908) "Reported massacres of Christians in Armenia and the development there and in other districts of a spirit of fanatic hostility to Christian influences naturally excited apprehension for the safety of the devoted men and women who, as dependents of the foreign missionary societies in the United States, reside in Turkey....No efforts have been spared in their behalf." - (STEPHEN) GROVER CLEVELAND, MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1895, THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 24th President 1893-1897 (Stephen) Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837-June 24, 1908) "The United States should never be unmindful of the gratitude they owe the God of Nations for His watchful care, which has shielded them from dire disaster and pointed out to them the way of peace and happiness. Nor should they ever refuse to acknowledge with contrite hearts their proneness to turn away from God's teaching and to follow with sinful pride after their own devices. To the end that these thoughts may be quickened it is fitting that on a day especially appointed we should join together in approaching the Throne of Grace with praise and supplication." - (STEPHEN) GROVER CLEVELAND, NOVEMBER 4, 1896, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER. 24th President 1893-1897 (Stephen) Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837-June 24, 1908) "We have been afflicted by continued and not unfrequent reports of the wanton destruction of homes and the bloody butchery of men, women, and children, made martyrs to their profession of Christian faith....I do not believe that the present somber prospect in Turkey will be long permitted to offend the sight of Christendom. It so mars the humane and enlightened civilization that belongs to the close of the nineteenth century that it seems hardly possible that the earnest demand of good people throughout the Christian world for its corrective treatment will remain unanswered." - (STEPHEN) GROVER CLEVELAND, MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1896, EIGHTH ANNUAL MESSAGE. 24th President 1893-1897 (Stephen) Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837-June 24, 1908) "The citizen is a better business man if he is a Christian gentleman, and, surely, business is not the less prosperous and successful if conducted on Christian principles....All must admit that the reception of the teachings of Christ results in the purest patriotism, in the most scrupulous fidelity to public trust, and in the best type of citizenship." - (STEPHEN) GROVER CLEVELAND, THE WRITINGS AND SPEECHES OF GROVER CLEVELAND. 24th President 1893-1897 (Stephen) Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837-June 24, 1908) "Those who manage the affairs of government are by this means reminded that the law of God demands that they should be courageously true to the interests of the people, and that the Ruler of the Universe will require of them a strict account of their stewardship. The teachings of both human and Divine law thus merging into one word, duty, form the only union of Church and state that a civil and religious government can recognize. - (STEPHEN) GROVER CLEVELAND, THE WRITINGS AND SPEECHES OF GROVER CLEVELAND. William McKinley (January 29, 1843-September 14, 1901), was the 25th President of the United States, 1897-1901, assassinated shortly after re-election; won the Spanish-American War, 1898; annexed Guam, Puerto Rico, the Hawaiian Islands, the Philippine Islands, under Admiral George Dewey; defeated the Spanish in Cuba under Colonel Theodore Roosevelt and the "Roughriders"; put down the Boxer Rebellion in China, 1900; arranged the permanent lease of Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, 1901; planned the Panama Canal; Governor of Ohio, 1892-96; Ohio delegate to the Republican National Convention, 1892, 1888, 1884; U.S. Representative, 1876-83, 1885-91, being Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee; married Ida Saxton, 1871; Prosecuting Attorney of Stark County, 1869; President of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), Canton, Ohio, 1868; admitted to the bar, 1867, delivering his first political speeches in favor of Negro suffrage; Acting Assistant Adjutant-General of the 1st Division, 1st Army Corps, on the staff of General Samuel S. Carroll; Major of the U.S. Volunteers, 1865, brevetted by President Lincoln for his gallantry; Captain, 1864, fighting the Confederate forces in the Shenandoah Valley; First Lieutenant, 1863; Commissary-Sergeant, 1862, fighting at Antietam; Private in the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, 1861; and attended Allegheny College, Pennsylvania, 1860. 25th President 1897-1901 William McKinley (January 29, 1843-September 14, 1901) "I assume the arduous and responsible duties of President of the United States, relying upon the support of my countrymen and invoking the guidance of Almighty God. Our faith teaches that there is no safer reliance than upon the God of our fathers, who has so singularly favored the American people in every national trial, and who will not forsake us so long as we obey His commandments and walk humbly in His footsteps....This is the obligation I have reverently taken before the Lord Most High. To keep it will be my single purpose, my constant prayer." - WILLIAM MCKINLEY, THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1897, FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 25th President 1897-1901 William McKinley (January 29, 1843-September 14, 1901) "In remembrance of God's goodness to us during the past year, which has been so abundant, 'let us offer unto Him our thanksgiving and pay our vows unto the Most High.' Under His watchful providence industry has prospered, the conditions of labor have been improved....For these great benefits it is our duty to praise the Lord in a spirit of humility and gratitude and to offer up to Him our most earnest supplications. That we may acknowledge our obligation as a people to Him who has so graciously granted us the blessings of free government and material prosperity." - WILLIAM MCKINLEY, OCTOBER 29, 1897, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER. 25th President 1897-1901 William McKinley (January 29, 1843-September 14, 1901) "Official information was received by me that the latest decree of the Queen Regent of Spain directs General Blanco, in order to prepare and facilitate peace, to proclaim a suspension of hostilities....If this measure attains a successful result, then our aspirations as a Christian, peace-loving people will be realized. If it fails, it will be only another justification for our contemplated action." - WILLIAM MCKINLEY, APRIL 11, 1898, MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 25th President 1897-1901 William McKinley (January 29, 1843-September 14, 1901) "The abhorrent conditions which have existed for more than three years in the island of Cuba, so near our own borders, have shocked the moral sense of the people of the United States, have been a disgrace to Christian civilization, culminating, as they have, in the destruction of a United States battle ship [U.S.S. Maine], with 266 of its officers and crew, while on a friendly visit in the harbor of Havana." - WILLIAM MCKINLEY, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 1898, APPROVING A JOINT RESOLUTION OF CONGRESS. 25th President 1897-1901 William McKinley (January 29, 1843-September 14, 1901) "The 4th of May Commodore Dewey had taken possession of the naval station at Cavite [Manila, Philippine Islands], destroying the fortifications there....Outweighing any material advantage is the moral effect of this initial success. At this unsurpassed achievement the great heart of our nation throbs, not with boasting or with greed of conquest, but with deep gratitude that this triumph has come in a just cause and that by the grace of God an effective step has thus been taken toward the attainment of the wished-for peace." - WILLIAM MCKINLEY, MAY 9, 1898, MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 25th President 1897-1901 William McKinley (January 29, 1843-September 14, 1901) "I walked the floor of the White House night after night until midnight, and I am not ashamed to tell you...that I went down no my knees and prayed Almighty God for light and guidance more than one night. And one night late it came to me...that there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift them and civilize and Christianize them." - WILLIAM MCKINLEY, 1898, STATEMENT OF HIS DELIBERATING THE DECISION TO ANNEX THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 25th President 1897-1901 William McKinley (January 29, 1843-September 14, 1901) "The unprecedented success which attended the operations of the United States fleet in the bay of Manila...are added the tidings of the no less glorious achievements of the naval and military arms of our beloved country at Santiago de Cuba, it is fitting that we should...reverently bow before the throne of divine grace and give devout praise to God, who holdeth the nations in the hollow of His hands and worketh upon them the marvels of His high will, and who has thus far vouchsafed to us the light of His face and led our brave soldiers and seamen to victory." - WILLIAM MCKINLEY, JULY 6, 1898, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 25th President 1897-1901 William McKinley (January 29, 1843-September 14, 1901) "It has pleased the Almighty God to bring our nation in safety and honor through another year....We have been generally exempt from pestilence and other great calamities; and even the tragic visitation which overwhelmed the city of Galveston made evident the sentiments of sympathy and Christian charity by virtue of which we are one united people." - WILLIAM MCKINLEY, MONDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1900, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAISE. 25th President 1897-1901 William McKinley (January 29, 1843-September 14, 1901) "I enter upon its administration appreciating the great responsibilities which attach to this renewed honor and commission, promising unreserved devotion on my part to their faithful discharge and reverently invoking for my guidance the direction and favor of Almighty God." - WILLIAM MCKINLEY, MONDAY, MARCH 4, 1901, SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858-January 6, 1919), was the 26th President of the United States, 1901-09, the youngest man to hold the office; Vice-President under William McKinley, 1900, assuming the Presidency after McKinley's assassination; began construction of the Panama Canal, 1906; established the U.S. Forest Service, 1906, and called a national conservation conference, 1908; awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his arbitration in the Russo-Japanese War, 1905; Governor of New York, 1898-1900; Lieutenant Colonel in the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, known as the "Rough Riders," becoming the hero of the Battle of San Juan Hill, Cuba, July 1, 1898, during the Spanish-American War; Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1897-98; president of New York Board of Police Commissioners, 1895-97; U.S. Civil Service Commissioner, 1889-95; married Edith Kermit Carow, 1886; ranched cattle at the Elkhorn Ranch in the Dakota Territory, 1884-86, following the tragic death of both his mother and first wife on February 14, 1884; member of the New York State Assembly, 1881-84; married Alice Hathaway Lee, 1880; and graduated from Harvard, 1880. 26th President 1901-1909 Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858-January 6, 1919) "President McKinley crowned a life of largest love for his fellow men, of earnest endeavor for their welfare, by a death of Christian fortitude; and both the way in which he lived his life and the way in which, in the supreme hour of trial, he met death will remain forever a precious heritage of our people." - THEODORE ROOSEVELT, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1901, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING AND PRAYER, ISSUED UPON ASSUMING THE PRESIDENCY AFTER THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT MCKINLEY. 26th President 1901-1909 Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858-January 6, 1919) "We need every honest and efficient immigrant fitted to become an American citizen, every immigrant who comes here to stay, who brings here a strong body, a stout heart, a good head, and a resolute purpose, to do his duty well in every way and to bring up his children as law-abiding and God-fearing members of the community." - THEODORE ROOSEVELT, DECEMBER 3, 1901, IN HIS FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 26th President 1901-1909 Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858-January 6, 1919) "We now abundantly enjoy material well-being, and under the favor of the Most High we are striving earnestly to achieve moral and spiritual uplifting. The year that has just closed has been one of peace and of overflowing plenty. Rarely has any people enjoyed greater prosperity than we are now enjoying. For this we render heartfelt and solemn thanks to the Giver of Good; and we seek to praise Him not by words only but by deeds, by the way in which we do our duty to ourselves and to our fellow men." - THEODORE ROOSEVELT, OCTOBER 29, 1902, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 26th President 1901-1909 Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858-January 6, 1919) "During the last year the Lord has dealt bountifully with us, giving us peace at home and abroad and the chance for our citizens to work for their welfare unhindered by war, famine or plague. It behooves us not only to rejoice greatly because of what has been given us, but to accept it with a solemn sense of responsibility, realizing that under Heaven it rests with us ourselves to show that we are worthy to use aright what has thus been entrusted to our care." - THEODORE ROOSEVELT, OCTOBER 24, 1903, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING. 26th President 1901-1909 Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858-January 6, 1919) "I...do recommend that on that day they cease from their ordinary occupations and gather in their several places of worship or in their homes, devoutly to give thanks unto Almighty God for the benefits he has conferred upon us as individuals and as a nation, and to beseech Him that in the future His Divine favor may be continued to us." - THEODORE ROOSEVELT, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1904, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 26th President 1901-1909 Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858-January 6, 1919) "No Christian and civilized community can afford to show a happy-go-lucky lack of concern for the youth of to-day; for, if so, the community will have to pay a terrible penalty of financial burden and social degradation in the to-morrow." - THEODORE ROOSEVELT, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1904, FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 26th President 1901-1909 Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858-January 6, 1919) "It is very desirable that married women should not work in factories. The prime duty of the man is to work, to be the breadwinner; the prime duty of the woman is to be the mother, the housewife. All questions of tariff and finance sink into utter insignificance when compared with the tremendous, the vital importance of trying to shape conditions so that these two duties of the man and of the woman can be fulfilled under reasonably favorable circumstances." - THEODORE ROOSEVELT, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1904, FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 26th President 1901-1909 Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858-January 6, 1919) "It has proved very difficult to secure from Russia the right for our Jewish fellow-citizens to receive passports and travel through Russian territory. Such conduct is not only unjust and irritating toward us, but it is difficult to see its wisdom from Russia's standpoint....If an American Jew or an American Christian misbehaves himself in Russia he can at once be driven out; but the ordinary American Jew, like the ordinary American Christian, would behave just about as he behaves here." - THEODORE ROOSEVELT, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1904, FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 26th President 1901-1909 Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858-January 6, 1919) "No people on earth have more cause to be thankful than ours, and this is said reverently, in no spirit of boastfulness in our own strength, but with gratitude to the Giver of Good who has blessed us....We wish peace, but we wish the peace of justice, the peace of righteousness....If we fail, the cause of free self-government throughout the world will rock to its foundations, and therefore our responsibility is heavy, to ourselves, to the world as it is today, and to the generations yet unborn." - THEODORE ROOSEVELT, SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1905, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857-March 8, 1930), was the 27th President of the United States, 1909-13; Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, 1921-30; Kent Professor of Constitutional Law at Yale University, 1913-21; Joint Chairman of National War Labor Board, 1918; Secretary of War under President Theodore Roosevelt, 1904-08; appointed by President McKinley as Civil Governor of the Philippines, 1901-04; appointed by President McKinley as Commissioner of the Philippines, 1900-01; Dean of Cincinnati Law School, 1896; U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge for the Sixth Judicial Circuit, 1892-1900; appointed by President Harrison as U.S. Solicitor General, 1890-92; Ohio Superior Court Judge, 1887-90; married Helen "Nellie" Herron, 1886; District Collector of Internal Revenue, 1882; Assistant Prosecutor of Hamilton County, Ohio, 1881; admitted to bar, 1880, graduated from Cincinnati Law School, 1880; and graduated from Yale University, 1878. 27th President 1909-1913 William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857-March 8, 1930) "I invoke the considerate sympathy and support of my fellow-citizens and the aid of the Almighty God in the discharge of my responsible duties." - WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT, THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1909, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 27th President 1909-1913 William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857-March 8, 1930) "It is altogether fitting that we should humbly and gratefully acknowledge the Divine Source of these blessings. Therefore, I hereby appoint...a day of general thanksgiving, and I call upon the people on that day, laying aside their usual vocations, to repair to their churches and unite in appropriate services of praise and thanks to Almighty God." - WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1909, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 27th President 1909-1913 William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857-March 8, 1930) "These blessings have not descended upon us in restricted measure, but overflow and abound. They are the blessings and bounty of God....I...in accordance with the wise custom of the civil magistrate since the first settlements in this land and with the rule established from the foundation of this Government...do appoint Thursday, November 24, 1910, as a day of National Thanksgiving and Prayer, enjoining the people upon that day to meet in their churches for the praise of Almighty God and to return heartfelt thanks to Him for all His goodness and loving-kindness." - WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT, NOVEMBER 5, 1910, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER. 27th President 1909-1913 William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857-March 8, 1930) "The Secretary of State...further urges the enactment of the legislation which will control the importation, manufacture, and distribution in interstate commerce of opium, morphine, cocaine, and other habit-forming drugs. I concur in the recommendations made by the Secretary of State and commend them to the favorable consideration of the Congress with a view to early legislation on the subject." - WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT, JANUARY 11, 1911, RECOMMENDATION TO CONGRESS IN RESPONSE TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE'S REPORT: "SINCE 1860 THERE HAS BEEN A 351% INCREASE IN THE IMPORTATIONS AND USE OF ALL FORMS OF OPIUM, AS AGAINST A 133% INCREASE IN POPULATION." 27th President 1909-1913 William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857-March 8, 1930) "A God-fearing nation, like ours, owes it to its inborn and sincere sense of moral duty to testify its devout gratitude to the All-Giver for the countless benefits its has enjoyed. For many years it has been customary at the close of the year for the national Executive to call upon his fellow countrymen to offer praise and thanks to God for the manifold blessings vouchsafed to them." - WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1912, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 27th President 1909-1913 William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857-March 8, 1930) "Our defense of the Panama Canal, together with our enormous world trade and our missionary outposts on the frontiers of civilization, require us to recognize our position as one of the foremost in the family of nations, and to clothe ourselves with sufficient naval power to give force to our reasonable demands, and to give weight to our influence in those directions of progress that a powerful Christian nation should advocate." - WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1912, ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, PART II. 27th President 1909-1913 William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857-March 8, 1930) "No man can study the movement of modern civilization from an impartial standpoint, and not realize that Christianity and the spread of Christianity are the basis of hope of modern civilization in the growth of popular self government. The spirit of Christianity is pure democracy. It is equality of man before God - the equality of man before the law, which is, as I understand it, the most God-like manifestation that man has been able to make." - WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT, 1908, ADDRESS AT A MISSIONARY CONFERENCE. (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856-February 3, 1924), was the 28th President of the United States, 1913-21; married Edith Bolling Galt, 1915, after death of first wife; Governor of New Jersey, 1911-13; president of Princeton University, 1902-10; professor at Princeton University, 1890-02; professor at Wesleyan University, 1888-90; instructor of history at Bryn Mawr College, 1885-88; married Ellen Louise Axson, 1885; graduate student at Johns Hopkins University, 1883-85; admitted to bar, 1882; graduated from University of Virginia Law School, 1882; and graduated from Princeton University, 1879. 28th President 1913-1921 (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856-February 3, 1924) "The feelings with which we face this new age of right and opportunity sweep across our heartstrings like some air out of God's own presence, where justice and mercy are reconciled and the judge and the brother are one....This is not a day of triumph; it is a day of dedication....Men's hearts wait upon us; men's lives hang in the balance; men's hopes call upon us to day what we will do. Who shall live up to the great trust? Who dare fail to try? I summon all honest men, all patriotic, all forward-looking men to my side. God helping me, I will not fail them." - (THOMAS) WOODROW WILSON, MARCH 4, 1913, FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 28th President 1913-1921 (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856-February 3, 1924) "In all things it is our privilege and duty to seek counsel and succor of Almighty God, humbling ourselves before Him, confessing our weakness and our lack of any wisdom....I...request all God-fearing persons to repair on that day to their places of worship there to unite their petitions to Almighty God that, overruling the counsel of men, setting straight the things they can not govern or alter, taking pity on the nations now in the throes of conflict, in His mercy and goodness showing a way where men can see none." - (THOMAS) WOODROW WILSON, SEPTEMBER 8, 1914, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION AT THE ONSET OF WORLD WAR I. 28th President 1913-1921 (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856-February 3, 1924) "The only way your powers can become great is by exerting them outside the circle of your own narrow, special, selfish interests. And that is the reason of Christianity. Christ came into the world to save others, not to save himself; and no man is a true Christian who does not think constantly of how he can lift his brother, how he can assist his friend, how he can enlighten mankind, how he can make virtue the rule of conduct in the circle in which he lives." - (THOMAS) WOODROW WILSON, OCTOBER 24, 1914, "THE POWER OF CHRISTIAN YOUNG MEN," DELIVERED AT THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA. 28th President 1913-1921 (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856-February 3, 1924) "We are a God-fearing people. We agree to differ about methods of worship, but we are united in believing in Divine Providence and in worshipping the God of Nations. We are the champions of religious right here and everywhere that it may be our privilege to give in our countenance and support....Here is the nation God has builded by our hands. What shall we do with it?" - (THOMAS) WOODROW WILSON, NOVEMBER 5, 1915, ADDRESS CELEBRATING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MANHATTAN CLUB, BILTMORE HOTEL, NEW YORK. 28th President 1913-1921 (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856-February 3, 1924) "Whereas in the various countries now engaged in war there are nine millions of Jews, the great majority of whom are destitute of food, shelter, and clothing...Whereas millions of them have been driven from their homes without warning, deprived of an opportunity to make provision for their most elementary wants, causing starvation, disease and untold suffering...I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States...appoint and proclaim January 27, 1916, as a day upon which the people of the United States may make such contributions as they feel disposed for the aid of the stricken Jewish people." - (THOMAS) WOODROW WILSON, JANUARY 11, 1916, PROCLAMATION OF A CONTRIBUTION DAY FOR THE STRICKEN JEWISH PEOPLE. 28th President 1913-1921 (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856-February 3, 1924) "We are being forged into a new unity amidst the fires that now blaze throughout the world. In their ardent heat we shall, in God's Providence, let us hope, be purged of faction and division, purified of the errant humors of party and of private interest, and shall stand forth in the days to come with a new dignity of national pride and spirit....I know now what the task means. I realize to the full the responsibility which it involves. I pray God I may be given the wisdom and the prudence to do my duty in the true spirit of this great people" - (THOMAS) WOODROW WILSON, MONDAY, MARCH 5, 1917, SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 28th President 1913-1921 (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856-February 3, 1924) "The President...following the reverent example of his predecessors, desires and enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath by the officers and men in the military and naval service of the United States. The importance for man and beast of the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiment of a Christian people, and a due regard for the Divine Will demand that Sunday labor in the Army and Navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity." - (THOMAS) WOODROW WILSON, SUNDAY, JANUARY 20, 1918, EXECUTIVE ORDER TO THE ARMY AND NAVY ENJOINING SABBATH OBSERVANCE. 28th President 1913-1921 (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856-February 3, 1924) "The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has clearly established the truth of the reported massacres and other atrocities from which the Armenian people have suffered,...deplorable conditions of insecurity, starvation and misery....The voice of the American people expressing their genuine convictions and deep Christian sympathies and intimating the line of duty which seemed to them to lie clearly before us....The sympathy for Armenia among our people has sprung from untainted consciences, pure Christian faith and an earnest desire to see Christian people everywhere succored in their time of suffering." - (THOMAS) WOODROW WILSON, MONDAY, MAY 24, 1920, SPECIAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS ASKING PERMISSION TO ASSUME THE MANDATE FOR ARMENIA UNDER THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. 28th President 1913-1921 (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856-February 3, 1924) "We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about....The Bible...is the one supreme source of revelation of the meaning of life, the nature of God and spiritual nature and needs of men. It is the only guide of life which really leads the spirit in the way of peace and salvation. America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture." - (THOMAS) WOODROW WILSON, 1911, GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY, ADDRESS AT A DENVER RALLY. Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865-August 2, 1923), was the 29th President of the United States, 1921-23, the sixth president to die in office; first president to speak on radio, 1920, at the Minnesota State Fair; U.S. Senator, 1915-21; Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, 1904-06; Ohio State Senator, 1900-04; married Florence De Wolfe Kling, 1891; editor of the Marion Star, Ohio, 1884-1920; and attended Ohio Central College, 1879-82. 29th President 1921-1923 Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865-August 2, 1923) "I accept my part...and implore the favor and guidance of God in His Heaven. With these I am unafraid, and confidently face the future. I have taken the solemn oath of office on that passage of Holy Writ wherein it is asked: 'What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.' This I plight to God and country." - WARREN GAMALIEL HARDING, FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1921, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 29th President 1921-1923 Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865-August 2, 1923) "Whereas this nation has been conceived in prayer and devotion by men and women who were moved under God to found a nation where principles of right should form the lasting cornerstone; and Whereas there principles purchased at the price of great sacrifice have been fostered by a worthy posterity...I...invite my fellow citizens to pay homage on this day to a noble dead who sleep in homeland, beneath the sea or on foreign field that we who survive might enjoy the blessings of peace and happiness." - WARREN GAMALIEL HARDING, MAY 3, 1921, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY. 29th President 1921-1923 Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865-August 2, 1923) "Whereas, the remains of this unknown American...will be buried in the said Memorial Amphitheatre at Arlington on the eleventh day of November...I...call upon all devout and patriotic citizens of the United States to pause from their accustomed occupations and labors on Friday the eleventh day of November next from twelve o'clock noon to two minutes past the hour for a period of silent prayer of thanks to the Giver of All Good for these valuable and valorous lives and of supplication for His Divine mercy and for His blessings upon our beloved country." - WARREN GAMALIEL HARDING, SEPTEMBER 30, 1921, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL ARMISTICE DAY. 29th President 1921-1923 Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865-August 2, 1923) "In the death gloom of gas, the bursting of shells and rain of bullets, men face more intimately the great God over all....I can sense the prayers of our people, of all peoples, that this Armistice Day shall mark the beginning of a new and lasting era of peace on earth, good will among men. Let me join in that prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread....Amen." - WARREN GAMALIEL HARDING, NOVEMBER 11, 1921, BURYING AN UNKNOWN SOLDIER IN ARLINGTON CEMETERY. 29th President 1921-1923 Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865-August 2, 1923) "All of us demand liberty and justice. There can not be one without the other, and they must be held the unquestioned possession of all peoples. Inherent rights are of God, and the tragedies of the world originate in their attempted denial." - WARREN GAMALIEL HARDING, NOVEMBER 12, 1921, ADDRESS OPENING THE CONFERENCE IN THE CONTINENTAL MEMORIAL HALL, WASHINGTON, D.C. 29th President 1921-1923 Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865-August 2, 1923) "I shall call upon your patriotism. I shall beseech your humanity. I shall invoke your Christianity. I shall reach to the very depths of your love for your fellow man of whatever race or creed throughout the world. I shall speak, as I speak now, with all the earnestness and power of the sincerity that is in me and in perfect faith that God will keep clear and receptive your understanding. I could not do otherwise. My soul yearns for peace. My heart is anguished by the sufferings of war." - WARREN GAMALIEL HARDING, THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 1923, ADDRESS ON THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE, DELIVERED IN ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI. 29th President 1921-1923 Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865-August 2, 1923) "We must recognize that the tendency is to take the modern mother more and more away from the control, the training, the intellectual guidance and spiritual direction of her children....Frankly, I am one of those old-fashioned people who would be glad if the way could be found to maintain the traditional relations of father, mother, children, and home....Mankind never has stood more in need than it does now of the consolations and reassurances which derive from a firm religious faith." - WARREN GAMALIEL HARDING, JUNE 29, 1923, ADDRESS DELIVERED IN HELENA, MONTANA. 29th President 1921-1923 Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865-August 2, 1923) "Never in the history of the world has there been a finer example of civilization following Christianity. The missionaries led under the banner of the cross, and the settlers moved close behind under the star-spangled symbol...To the men and women of that early day whose first thought was to carry the gospel to the Indians - to the Lees, the Spauldings, the Grays, the Walkers, the Leslies, to Fathers DeSmet & Blanchet & DeMars & to all the others of that glorious company who found that in serving God they were also serving their country & their fellowmen - to them we pay today our tribute." - WARREN GAMALIEL HARDING, JULY 3, 1923, OREGON TRAIL MONUMENT, MEACHAM, OREGON. 29th President 1921-1923 Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865-August 2, 1923) "I thank you from my heart for permitting me to participate in doing homage to those brave souls. I rejoice particularly in the opportunity afforded me of voicing my appreciation both as President of the United States and as one who honestly tries to be a Christian soldier, of the signal service of the martyred Whitman." - WARREN GAMALIEL HARDING, TUESDAY, JULY 3, 1923, ADDRESS ONE MONTH PRIOR TO HIS DEATH, HONORING MEDICAL MISSIONARY DR. MARCUS WHITMAN, MEACHAM, OREGON. (John) Calvin Coolidge (July 4, 1872-January 5, 1933), was the 30th President of the United States, 1923-29, during the era known as the "Roaring Twenties"; Vice-President under Warren G. Harding, 1920-23, assuming the Presidency upon Harding's death; Governor of Massachusetts, 1918-20, gaining popularity by refusing to allow the police to join unions and go on strike, which would jeopardize public security; Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, 1915-18, Massachusetts State Senator, 1911-15; Mayor of Northampton, Massachusetts, 1910-11; Massachusetts State Representative, 1906-08; married Grace Anne Goodhue, 1905; Northampton City Solicitor, 1899-1901; Northampton City Councilman, 1899; admitted to bar, 1897; and graduated from Amherst College, 1895. 30th President 1923-1929 (John) Calvin Coolidge (July 4, 1872-January 5, 1933) "They were intent upon establishing a Christian commonwealth in accordance to the principle of self-government. They were an inspired body of men. It has been said that God sifted the nations that He might send choice grain into the wilderness. They had a genius for organized society on the foundations of piety, righteousness, liberty, and obedience of the law. They brought with them the accumulated wisdom and experience of the ages...Who can fail to see in it the hand of destiny? Who can doubt that it has been guided by a Divine Providence?" - (JOHN) CALVIN COOLIDGE, MAY 31, 1923, MEMORIAL DAY ADDRESS ENTITLED "THE DESTINY OF AMERICA." 30th President 1923-1929 (John) Calvin Coolidge (July 4, 1872-January 5, 1933) "I earnestly recommend the people to assemble on that day in their respective places of divine worship, there to bow down in submission to the will of Almighty God, and to pay out of full hearts the homage of love and reverence to the memory of the great and good President whose death has so sorely smitten the nation." - (JOHN) CALVIN COOLIDGE, SATURDAY, AUGUST 4, 1923, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING AND PRAYER. 30th President 1923-1929 (John) Calvin Coolidge (July 4, 1872-January 5, 1933) "The foundation of all progress, all government and all civilization...is religion. Our country is not lacking in...intelligence. But certainly it has need of a greater practical application of the truths of religion....Whatever inspires and strengthens the religious belief and religious activity of the people, whatever ministers to their spiritual life is of supreme importance. Without it all other efforts will fail. With it, there lies the only hope of success. The strength of our country is the strength of its religious convictions." - (JOHN) CALVIN COOLIDGE, SEPTEMBER 1923, LETTER TO THE RIGHT REVEREND JAMES E. FREEMAN, BISHOP OF WASHINGTON. 30th President 1923-1929 (John) Calvin Coolidge (July 4, 1872-January 5, 1933) "It has come to be a legend, and I believe with more foundations of fact than most legends, that Howard University was the outgrowth of the inspiration of a prayer meeting....The accomplishments of the colored people in the United States...can not but make us realize that there is something essential in our civilization which gives it a special power. I think we shall be able to agree that this particular element is the Christian religion, whose influence always and everywhere has been a force for the illumination and advancement of the peoples who have come under its sway." - (JOHN) CALVIN COOLIDGE, JUNE 6, 1924, HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 30th President 1923-1929 (John) Calvin Coolidge (July 4, 1872-January 5, 1933) "America is turning from the things that are seen to the things that are unseen....which we must recognize as the guiding hand of Providence....Unless our material resources are supported by moral and spiritual resources, there is not foundation for progress. A trained intelligence can do much, but there is no substitute for morality, character, and religious convictions. Unless these abide, American citizenship will be found unequal to its task." - (JOHN) CALVIN COOLIDGE, JULY 4, 1924, CONVENTION OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, WASHINGTON, D.C. 30th President 1923-1929 (John) Calvin Coolidge (July 4, 1872-January 5, 1933) "The three fundamentals of scouthood: The first is a reverence for nature....Second is a reverence for law....Third is a reverence for God. It is hard to see how a great man can be an atheist. Without the sustaining influence of faith in a divine power we could have little faith in ourselves....Faith is the great motive power, and no man realizes his full possibilities unless he has the deep conviction that life is eternally important, and that his work, well done, is part of an unending plan." - (JOHN) CALVIN COOLIDGE, JULY 25, 1924, TELEPHONE MESSAGE TRANSMITTED TO THE BOY SCOUTS BOUND FOR AN INTERNATIONAL GATHERING IN COPENHAGEN. 30th President 1923-1929 (John) Calvin Coolidge (July 4, 1872-January 5, 1933) "America seeks no earthly empires built on blood and force. No ambition, no temptation, lures her to thought of foreign dominions. The legions which she sends forth are armed, not with the sword, but with the Cross. The higher state to which she seeks the allegiance of all mankind is not of human, but Divine origin. She cherishes no purpose save to merit the favor of Almighty God." - (JOHN) CALVIN COOLIDGE, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1925, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 30th President 1923-1929 (John) Calvin Coolidge (July 4, 1872-January 5, 1933) "It seems to me perfectly plain that the authority of law, the right to equality, liberty and property, under American institutions, have for their foundation reverence for God. If we could imagine that to be swept away, these institutions of our American government could not long survive....But I know they will continue to stand. We may perish, but they will endure. They are founded on the Rock of Ages." - (JOHN) CALVIN COOLIDGE, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1924, ADDRESS TO THE HOLY NAME SOCIETY, WASHINGTON, D.C. 30th President 1923-1929 (John) Calvin Coolidge (July 4, 1872-January 5, 1933) "Haym Solomon, Polish Jew financier of the Revolution...negotiated...all the loans raised in France and Holland...and personally advanced large sums to...patriot leaders who testified that without his aid they could not have carried....They give due credit to the people among whom the Holy Scriptures came into being. And as they ponder the assertion that 'Hebraic mortar cemented the foundations of American democracy,' they cannot escape the conclusion that if American democracy is to remain the greatest hope of humanity, it must continue abundantly in the faith of the Bible." - (JOHN) CALVIN COOLIDGE, MAY 3, 1925, LAYING THE CORNERSTONE OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER, WASHINGTON, D.C. Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874-October 20, 1964), was the 31st President of the United States, 1929-33; Secretary of Commerce under both Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, 1921-28; served on the council of the American Relief Administration, 1919-21; U.S. Food Administrator during World War I, 1917-19; Commissioner for Belgian Relief, 1915-19; Chairman of the American Relief Committee in London, 1914-15; married Lou Henry, 1899; successful mining engineer, 1895-1914; graduated from Stanford University, 1895. 31st President 1929-1933 Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874-October 20, 1964) "This occasion is...a dedication and consecration under God to the highest office in service of our people. I assume this trust in the humility of knowledge that only through the guidance of Almighty Providence can I hope to discharge its ever-increasing burdens....Knowing what the task means and the responsibility which it involves, I beg your tolerance, your aid, and your cooperation. I ask the help of Almighty God in this service to my country to which you have called me." - HERBERT CLARK HOOVER, MONDAY, MARCH 4, 1929, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 31st President 1929-1933 Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874-October 20, 1964) "If, by the grace of God, we have passed the worst of this storm, the future months will be easy....If we can maintain this courage and resolution we shall have written this new chapter in national life in terms to which our whole idealism has aspired. May God grant to us the spirit and strength to carry through to the end." - HERBERT CLARK HOOVER, MONDAY, APRIL 27, 1931, SPEAKING BEFORE THE GRIDIRON CLUB. 31st President 1929-1933 Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874-October 20, 1964) "If those few thousand men endured that long winter of privation and suffering, humiliated by the despair of their countrymen, and deprived of support save their own indomitable will, yet held their countrymen to the faith, and by that holding held fast the freedom of America, what right have we to be of little faith?" - HERBERT CLARK HOOVER, MAY 30, 1931, ADDRESS AT VALLEY FORGE. 31st President 1929-1933 Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874-October 20, 1964) "American life is builded and can alone survive upon the translation into individual action of that fundamental philosophy announced by the Savior nineteen centuries ago. Part of our national suffering today is from failure to observe these primary yet inexorable laws of human relationship. Modern society can not survive with the defense of Cain, 'Am I my brother's keeper?'" - HERBERT CLARK HOOVER, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1931, ADDRESS WHICH BEGAN A NATION-WIDE DRIVE TO AID THE PRIVATE RELIEF AGENCIES DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION. 31st President 1929-1933 Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874-October 20, 1964) "We maintain the spiritual impulses in our people for generous giving and generous service - in the spirit that each is his brother's keeper....Many a family today is carrying a neighbor family over the trough of this depression not alone with material aid but with that encouragement which maintains courage and faith." - HERBERT CLARK HOOVER, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1932, ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE WHITE HOUSE TO THE LEADERS OF THE "NATIONAL DRIVE" COMMITTEE FOR VOLUNTARY RELIEF AGENCIES. 31st President 1929-1933 Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874-October 20, 1964) "While I can make no claim for having introduced the term, "rugged individualism," I should be proud to have invented it. It has been used by American leaders for over a half-century in eulogy of those God-fearing men and women of honesty whose stamina and character and fearless assertion of rights led them to make their own way in life." - HERBERT CLARK HOOVER, THE CHALLENGE OF LIBERTY, 1934. 31st President 1929-1933 Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874-October 20, 1964) "The vital principles of the American system of liberty....is based upon certain inalienable freedoms and protections which in no event the government may infringe and which we call the Bill of Rights. It does not require a lawyer to interpret those provisions. They are as clear as the Ten Commandments. Among others the freedom of worship, freedom of speech and of the press, the right of peaceable assembly, equality before the law....In them lies a spiritual right of men. Behind them is the conception which is the highest development of the Christian faith - the conception of individual freedom with brotherhood." - HERBERT CLARK HOOVER, SEPTEMBER 17, 1935, SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA. 31st President 1929-1933 Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874-October 20, 1964) "Menaced by collectivist trends, we must seek revival of our strength in the spiritual foundations which are the bedrock of our republic. Democracy is the outgrowth of the religious conviction of the sacredness of every human life. On the religious side, its highest embodiment is The Bible; on the political side, the Constitution." - HERBERT CLARK HOOVER, 1943, IN A JOINT STATEMENT WITH MRS. CALVIN COOLIDGE, MRS. THEODORE ROOSEVELT, MRS. WILLIAM H. TAFT, MRS. BENJAMIN HARRISON, MRS. GROVER CLEVELAND, ALFRED SMITH, ALFRED LANDON, JAMES M. COX, AND JOHN W. DAVIS. 31st President 1929-1933 Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874-October 20, 1964) "Our Founding Fathers did not invent the priceless boon of individual freedom and respect for the dignity of men. That great gift to mankind sprang from the Creator and not from governments....If our youth are rightly instructed in the faith of our fathers...then our power will be stronger than any weapon of destruction that man can devise....God has blessed us with another wonderful word - heritage. The great documents of that heritage are not from Karl Marx. They are from the Bible, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States." - HERBERT CLARK HOOVER, AUGUST 10, 1954, RECEPTION ON HIS 80TH BIRTHDAY, WEST BRANCH, IOWA. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882-April 12, 1945), was the 32nd President of the United States, 1933-45, whose Presidential term spanned over 12 years, the longest of any President; the seventh President to die in office; Governor of New York, 1929-33; stricken with infantile paralysis, 1921; Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1913-20; New York State Senator, 1911-13; admitted to bar, 1907; graduated from Columbia Law School, 1907; married Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, 1905; and graduated from Harvard College, 1904. 32nd President 1933-1945 Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882-April 12, 1945) "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. We face arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values....In this dedication of a nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of us! May He guide me in the days to come." - FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT, SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1933, FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 32nd President 1933-1945 Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882-April 12, 1945) "If I were asked to state the great objective which Church and State are both demanding for the sake of every man and woman and child in this country, I would say that that great objective is 'a more abundant life.'" - FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT, DECEMBER 6, 1933, ADDRESS TO THE FEDERAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES OF CHRIST. 32nd President 1933-1945 Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882-April 12, 1945) "We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a nation, without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic....[W]here we have been the truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts, we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity." - FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT, 1935, RADIO BROADCAST. 32nd President 1933-1945 Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882-April 12, 1945) "While this duty rests upon me I shall do my utmost to speak their purpose and to do their will, seeking Divine Guidance to help each and every one to give light to them that sit in darkness and to guide our feet into the way of peace." - FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1937, SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 32nd President 1933-1945 Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882-April 12, 1945) "Today, thank God, one hundred and thirty million Americans, in forty-eight States, have forgotten points of the compass in our national unity....We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first in freedom of speech and expression....The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way....This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women; and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God." - FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT, JANUARY 6, 1941, FOUR FREEDOMS SPEECH TO CONGRESS. 32nd President 1933-1945 Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882-April 12, 1945) "If the spirit of America were killed, even though the Nation's body and mind, constricted in an alien world, lived on, the America we know would have perished. That spirit - that faith - speaks to us in our daily lives in ways often unnoticed....We do not retreat. We are not content to stand still. As Americans, we go forward in the service of our country by the will of God." - FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT, MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 1941, THIRD INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 32nd President 1933-1945 Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882-April 12, 1945) "To the Armed Forces: As Commander-in-Chief, I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States. Throughout the centuries men of many faiths and diverse origins have found in the Sacred Book words of wisdom, counsel and inspiration. It is a fountain of strength and now, as always, an aid in attaining the highest aspirations of the human soul. Very sincerely yours, Franklin D. Roosevelt." - FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT, JANUARY 25, 1941, PROLOGUE OF A SPECIAL EDITION NEW TESTAMENT, PUBLISHED BY THE GIDEONS, DISTRIBUTED TO THE SOLDIERS DURING WORLD WAR II. 32nd President 1933-1945 Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882-April 12, 1945) "December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan... Our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger. With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph. So help us God." - FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT, DECEMBER 8, 1941, NATIONAL ADDRESS 32nd President 1933-1945 Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882-April 12, 1945) "Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith....And for us at home - fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them - help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice." - FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT, JUNE 6, 1944, ADDRESS UPON THE D-DAY INVASION OF NORMANDY, FRANCE. 32nd President 1933-1945 Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882-April 12, 1945) "In the presence of God - I know that it is America's purpose that we shall not fail....The Almighty God has blessed our land in many ways. So we pray to Him now for the vision to see our way clearly - to see the way that leads to a better life for ourselves and for all our fellow men - to the achievement of His will, to peace on earth." - FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT, SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1945, FOURTH INAUGURAL ADDRESS. Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884-December 26, 1972), was the 33rd President of the United States, 1945-53; Vice-President under Franklin D. Roosevelt, January 20-April 12, 1945; assuming the Presidency upon Roosevelt's death; U.S. Senator, 1934-45; presiding judge for Jackson County Court, Missouri, 1926-34; salesman, manager of building and loan company, 1925-26; judge of the Eastern District; Jackson County Court, Missouri, 1922-24; married Elizabeth "Bess" Virginia Wallace, 1919; Captain during World War I, 1918, in command of Battery D, 129th Field Artillery, fighting at St. Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne, Sommedieu; First Lieutenant in National Guard, 1917; railroad timekeeper, reporter for the Kansas City Star, bank clerk, 1901-06. 33rd President 1945-1953 Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884-December 26, 1972) "At this moment I have in my heart a prayer. As I have assumed my heavy duties, I humbly pray to Almighty God in the words of King Solomon: 'Give therefore Thy servant an understanding heart to judge Thy people that I may discern between good and bad; for who is able to judge this Thy so great a people?' I ask only to be a good and faithful servant of my Lord and my people." - HARRY S. TRUMAN, THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 1945, FIRST ADDRESS TO CONGRESS, DELIVERED UPON ASSUMING THE PRESIDENCY AFTER THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT. 33rd President 1945-1953 Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884-December 26, 1972) "The drastic restrictions imposed on the Jewish immigration by the British White Paper of May, 1939, continue to provoke passionate protest from Americans most interested in Palestine and in the Jewish problem. They fervently urge the lifting of these restrictions which deny to Jews, who have been so cruelly uprooted by ruthless Nazi persecutions, entrance into the land which represents for so many of them their only hope of survival." - HARRY S. TRUMAN, JULY 24, 1945, MEMORANDUM TO WINSTON CHURCHILL. 33rd President 1945-1953 Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884-December 26, 1972) "Q. 'Mr. President, what part has religion played in your advancement from local official to the highest office in tour land?' The President. 'Well, a system of morals is necessary for the welfare of any individual or any nation. The greatest system of morals in the history of the world is that set out in the Sermon on the Mount, which I would advise each of you to study with everything you have.'" - HARRY S. TRUMAN, APRIL 6, 1946, 598TH NEWS CONFERENCE WHILE SPEAKING TO THE KEEN TEEN CLUB OF CHICAGO, SPONSORED BY THE CHICAGO DAILY NEWS, BLACKSTONE HOTEL, CHICAGO. 33rd President 1945-1953 Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884-December 26, 1972) "In this great country of ours has been demonstrated the fundamental unity of Christianity and democracy....Whether it be far or near, the kingdom of this world shall become indeed the Kingdom of God and He will reign forever and ever, Lord of Lords and King of Kings. With that message, I wish my countrymen a Merry Christmas and joyous days in the New Year." - HARRY S. TRUMAN, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1946, ADDRESS AT THE CEREMONY LIGHTING THE NATIONAL CHRISTMAS TREE. 33rd President 1945-1953 Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884-December 26, 1972) "If men and nations would but live by the precepts of the ancient prophets and the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount, problems which now seem so difficult would soon disappear....The Protestant church, the Catholic church, and the Jewish synagogue - bound together in the American unity of brotherhood - must provide the shock forces to accomplish this moral and spiritual awakening. No other agency can do it. Unless it is done, we are headed for the disaster we would deserve. Oh, for an Isaiah or a St. Paul to reawaken a sick world to its moral responsibilities." - HARRY S. TRUMAN, 1946, STATEMENT. 33rd President 1945-1953 Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884-December 26, 1972) "Our common goal is to arouse and invigorate the faith of men to attain eternal values in our own generation - no matter what obstacles exist of may arise in the path....An enduring peace can be built only upon Christian principles. To such a consummation we dedicate all our resources, both spiritual and material, remembering always that 'except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it.'" - HARRY S. TRUMAN, AUGUST 28, 1947, IN AN EXCHANGE OF MESSAGES WITH POPE PIUS XII. 33rd President 1945-1953 Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884-December 26, 1972) "I remember well our conversations about the Negeb, to which you referred in your letter. I agree fully with your estimate of the importance of the area to Israel, and I deplore any attempt to take it away from Israel. I had thought that my position would have been clear to all the world, particularly in the light of the specific wording of the Democratic Party platform....In closing, I want to tell you how happy and impressed I have been at the remarkable progress made by the new State of Israel." - HARRY S. TRUMAN, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1948, NOTE TO DR. CHAIM WEIZMANN, PRESIDENT OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL. 33rd President 1945-1953 Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884-December 26, 1972) "I need the help and the prayers of every one of you....The American people stand firm in the faith which has inspired this Nation from the beginning....We believe that all men are created equal because they are created in the image of God. From this faith we will not be moved....Steadfast in our faith in the Almighty, we will advance toward a world, where man's freedom is secure." - HARRY S. TRUMAN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 1949, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 33rd President 1945-1953 Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884-December 26, 1972) "I surely wish God Almighty would give the Children of Israel an Isaiah, the Christians a St. Paul, and the Sons of Ishmael a peep at the Golden Rule." - HARRY S. TRUMAN, MEMOIRS - VOLUME TWO: YEARS OF TRIAL AND HOPE, PUBLISHED 1956, NOTE WRITTEN AN ASSISTANT. Dwight David Eisenhower (October 14, 1890-March 25, 1969), the 34th President of the United States, 1953-61; Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe, 1950-52; president of Columbia University, 1948-52; U.S. Army Chief of Staff, 1945-48; Supreme Commander of Allied Expeditionary Force, 1944, directing the D-Day invasion of Normandy; Commanding General of Allied Powers in European Theater, 1943, directing invasion of Sicily and Italy; Lieutenant General, Allied Commander in Chief of North Africa, 1942, directing invasion of North Africa; Assistant Chief of Staff to General Marshall, 1942; Brigadier General, 1941; Chief of Staff of Third Division, 1940; assigned to Philippines, 1935-39; attached to staff of General Douglas MacArthur, 1932; worked in office of Assistant Secretary of War, 1929; wrote guide to French battlefields, 1928; attended Command and General Staff School, 1925; assigned to Panama, 1922; commanded tank-training center, 1918; married Mamie Geneva Doud, 1916; commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, 1915; and graduated from West Point, 1915. Dwight D. Eisenhower was a descendent of the Eisenhower family which fled seventeenth century religious persecution in Germany and Switzerland. They belonged to the Brethren in Christ, similar to the Quaker faith, and briefly stayed in Holland, before eventually settling in Pennsylvania in 1735. His grandfather, Reverend Jacob E. Eisenhower, moved the family to Virginia, before his father moved to Denison, Texas, and then finally to Abilene, Kansas. As a child, Eisenhower recalled how every evening, after their chores, he, along with his six brothers and father, would gather and sing hymns, accompanied by their mother Ida Eisenhower on the piano. They would then read the Bible as a part of their daily routine. 34th President 1953-1961 Dwight David Eisenhower (October 14, 1890-March 25, 1969) "You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring...the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe....We will accept nothing less than full Victory! Good luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking." - DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER, JUNE 6, 1944, "D-DAY ORDERS OF THE DAY." 34th President 1953-1961 Dwight David Eisenhower (October 14, 1890-March 25, 1969) "The enemy may give us the chance to turn his great gamble into his worst defeat. So I call upon every man, of all the Allies, to rise now to new heights of courage, of resolution and of effort. Let everyone hold before him a single thought - to destroy the enemy on the ground, in the air, everywhere - destroy him! United in this determination and with unshakable faith in the cause for which we fight, we will, with God's help, go forward to our greatest victory." - DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER, DECEMBER 22, 1944, "ORDERS OF THE DAY" DURING THE "BATTLE OF THE BULGE." 34th President 1953-1961 Dwight David Eisenhower (October 14, 1890-March 25, 1969) "Almighty God, as we stand here at this moment my future associates in the Executive Branch of government join me in beseeching that Thou will make full and complete our dedication to the service of the people in this throng, and their fellow citizens everywhere. Give us, we pray, the power to discern clearly right from wrong." - DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER, TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1953, INAUGURAL ADDRESS, THE FIRST SUCH ADDRESS TO BE TELEVISED. 34th President 1953-1961 Dwight David Eisenhower (October 14, 1890-March 25, 1969) "Each Year the Committee on Religion in American Life reminds us of the importance of faithful church attendance. It urges full support of religious institutions to the end that we may add strength and meaning to the religious virtues - charity, mercy, brotherly love, and faith in Almighty God." - DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1953, NATIONALLY BROADCAST PROGRAM FOR THE COMMITTEE ON RELIGION IN AMERICAN LIFE. 34th President 1953-1961 Dwight David Eisenhower (October 14, 1890-March 25, 1969) "In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource in peace and war." - DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER, JUNE 14, 1954, SIGNED INTO LAW THE CONGRESSIONAL ACT, JOINT RESOLUTION 243, WHICH ADDED THE PHRASE "UNDER GOD" TO THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE. 34th President 1953-1961 Dwight David Eisenhower (October 14, 1890-March 25, 1969) "From this day forward, the millions of our school children will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural school house, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty." - DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER, JUNE 14, 1954, STATEMENT REGARDING THE INCLUSION OF THE PHRASE "UNDER GOD" IN THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE. 34th President 1953-1961 Dwight David Eisenhower (October 14, 1890-March 25, 1969) "All men are born equal, because each is born in the image of his God. Our whole theory of government finally expressed in our Declaration, you will recall, said...'Man is endowed by his Creator.'...Now, any group that binds itself together to awaken all of us to these simple things...is, in my mind, a dedicated, patriotic group that can well take the Bible in one hand and the a flag in the other, and march ahead." - DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1954, ADDRESSING THE FIRST NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. 34th President 1953-1961 Dwight David Eisenhower (October 14, 1890-March 25, 1969) "When questioned, should I become a prisoner of war, I am bound to give only name, rank, service number, and date of birth....I will never forget that I am an American fighting man, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free. I will trust in my God and in the United States of America." - DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER, AUGUST 17, 1955, ORDER TO THE U.S. ARMED SERVICES, TEXT OF CODE OF CONDUCT FOR WAR PRISONERS. 34th President 1953-1961 Dwight David Eisenhower (October 14, 1890-March 25, 1969) "Before all else, we seek upon our common labor as a nation, the blessings of Almighty God. And the hopes in our hearts fashion the deepest prayers of our whole people....We look upon this shaken earth, and we declare our firm and fixed purpose - the building of a peace with justice in a world where moral law prevails....And so the prayer of our people carries far beyond our own frontiers, to the wide world of our duty and our destiny." - DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 1957, SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917-November 22, 1963), was the 35th President of the United States, 1961-63, the youngest man and the first Roman Catholic ever elected to that position; assassinated in Dallas, Texas, November 22, the eighth President to die in office; promoted space program and moon exploration, sent federal troops to quiet race riots in Birmingham, aided peaceful integration of University of Alabama, 1963; resolved the Cuban-Missile Crisis, 1962; attempted the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion intended to end Communist control in Cuba, formed the Peace Corps, 1961; U.S. Senator, 1953-60; published Profiles in Courage, 1956, which won the Pulitzer Prize; undergoes spinal-fusion operation, 1954; married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, 1953; U.S. Representative, 1946-52; employed by International News Service, 1945, covering United Nations conference; undergoes disc operation, 1944; commander of Patrol Torpedo boat PT-109 in the Pacific during World War II, 1943, sunk by Japanese destroyer; assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron, 1942; Ensign in Naval Reserve, 1941; published Why England Slept, 1940; graduated from Harvard, 1940; and attended Princeton University, 1935. 35th President 1961-1963 John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917-November 22, 1963) "The same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe - The belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God....And so, my fellow Americans - ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country....Let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own." - JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY, FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1961, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 35th President 1961-1963 John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917-November 22, 1963) "Once in every twenty years presidential inaugurations in your country and mine occur within days of each other. This year of 1961 is signalized by the happy coincidence. At this time, each of us assumes challenging duties for which he has been freely chosen by his fellow citizens. To each of us is entrusted the heavy responsibility of guiding the affairs of a democratic nation founded on Christian ideals." - JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY, JANUARY 31, 1961, IN A MESSAGE GREETING PRESIDENT QUADROS OF BRAZIL ON THE OCCASION OF HIS INAUGURATION. 35th President 1961-1963 John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917-November 22, 1963) "Let us go forth to lead this land that we love, joining in the prayer of General George Washington in 1783, "that God would...be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with...the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, without an humble imitation of whose example we can never hope to be a happy nation." The guiding principle and prayer of this Nation has been, is now, and ever shall be "In God We Trust." - JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY, FEBRUARY 9, 1961, 9TH ANNUAL PRESIDENTIAL PRAYER BREAKFAST, MAYFLOWER HOTEL, WASHINGTON, D.C. 35th President 1961-1963 John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917-November 22, 1963) "More than three centuries ago, the Pilgrims, after a year of hardship and peril, humbly and reverently set aside a special day upon which to give thanks to God....I ask the head of each family to recount to his children the story of the first New England Thanksgiving, thus to impress upon future generations the heritage of this nation born in toil, in danger, in purpose, and in the conviction that right and justice and freedom can through man's efforts persevere and come to fruition with the blessing of God." - JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY, OCTOBER 28, 1961, PROCLAMATION 3438, NATIONAL THANKSGIVING DAY. 35th President 1961-1963 John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917-November 22, 1963) "This nation was then torn by war. This territory had only the simplest elements of civilization....But a university was one of their earliest thoughts, and they summed it up in the motto that they adopted: 'Let there be light.' What more can be said today regarding all the dark and tangled problems we face than: Let there be light." - JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1961, ADDRESS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON. 35th President 1961-1963 John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917-November 22, 1963) "It has always seemed to me that when we all - regardless of our particular religious convictions - draw our guidance and inspiration, and really, in a sense, moral direction, from the same general area, the Bible, the Old and the New Testaments, we have every reason to believe that our various religious denominations should live together in the closest harmony....The basic presumption of the moral law, the existence of God, man's relationship to Him - there is generally consensus on those questions." - JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY, NOVEMBER 21, 1961, NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF CHRISTIANS AND JEWS, WHITE HOUSE ROSE GARDEN, WASHINGTON, D.C. 35th President 1961-1963 John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917-November 22, 1963) "There is a quotation from Lincoln which I think is particularly applicable today. He said, 'I believe there is a God. I see the storm coming, and I believe He has a hand in it. If He has a part and a place for me, I believe that I am ready.' We see the storm coming, and we believe He has a hand in it; and if He has a place and a part for us, I believe that we are ready." - JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY, MARCH 1, 1962, 10TH ANNUAL PRESIDENTIAL PRAYER BREAKFAST, MAYFLOWER HOTEL, WASHINGTON, D.C. 35th President 1961-1963 John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917-November 22, 1963) "It ought to be possible, in short, for every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race or his color....We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the Scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution....We face, therefore, a moral crisis as a country and as a people." - JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY, THURSDAY, JULY 11, 1963, RADIO AND TELEVISION ADDRESS TO THE NATION. 35th President 1961-1963 John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917-November 22, 1963) "We ask...that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of peace on earth, goodwill toward men. That must always be our goal - and the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago, 'Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.'" - JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1963, UNDELIVERED TEXT OF THE SPEECH HE HAD PLANNED TO DELIVER AT THE DALLAS TRADE MART THE DAY HE WAS KILLED IN AN ASSASSINATION PLOT. Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908-January 22, 1973), was the 36th President of the United States, 1963-69; Vice-President under John F. Kennedy, 1961-63, assuming the Presidency upon Kennedy's assassination; initiated the Great Society program of social legislation, passed the Civil Rights Act, escalated U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, 1964; U.S. Senator, 1949-61, becoming Senate Majority Leader in 1954; Lieutenant Commander, Commander in U.S. Naval Reserve, active duty 1941-45; sent to Pacific as President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Representative, 1942, awarded Silver Star Medal; U.S. Representative, 1937-49; Texas Director of the National Youth Administration, a New Deal program of F.D.R., 1935; married Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor, 1934; secretary for U.S. Representative Richard Kleberg, 1932; attended Georgetown University Law School; taught school in Houston, Texas, 1930; and graduated from Southwest Texas State Teachers College, 1927. 36th President 1963-1969 Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908-January 22, 1973) "This is a sad time for all people. We have suffered a loss that cannot be weighed. For me, it is a deep personal tragedy. I know that the world shares the sorrow that Mrs. Kennedy and her family bear. I will do my best. That is all I can do. I ask for your help - and God's." - LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1963, 6 P.M. EASTERN STANDARD TIME, STATEMENT TO THE PRESS AS HE DISEMBARKED THE AIR FORCE ONE, ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE OUTSIDE WASHINGTON D.C. 36th President 1963-1969 Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908-January 22, 1973) "Let us here highly resolve that John Fitzgerald Kennedy did not live - or die - in vain. And on this Thanksgiving Eve, as we gather together to ask the Lord's blessings and give Him our thanks, let us unite in those familiar and cherished words: America, America, God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good With brotherhood From sea to shining sea." - LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1963, FIRST FORMAL ADDRESS BEFORE A JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS, WITH MEMBERS OF THE SUPREME COURT AND OF THE CABINET IN ATTENDANCE, DELIVERED UPON ASSUMING THE PRESIDENCY AFTER THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY. 36th President 1963-1969 Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908-January 22, 1973) "In the time given me, I did my best. On that fateful day last year I accepted the responsibilities of the Presidency, asking God's guidance and the help of all of the people. For nine months I've carried on as effectively as I could." - LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON, AUGUST 25, 1964, AT ABOUT 3 O'CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON, THOUGHTS PENNED CONCERNING CAMPAIGNING FOR PRESIDENT WHILE IN THE OVAL OFFICE. 36th President 1963-1969 Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908-January 22, 1973) "We have no promise from God that our greatness will endure. We have been allowed by Him to seek greatness with the sweat of our hands and the strength of our spirit....If we fail now, we shall have forgotten in abundance what we learned in hardship: that democracy rests on faith, that freedom asks more than it gives, and that the judgement of God is harshest on those who are most favored." - LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1965, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 36th President 1963-1969 Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908-January 22, 1973) "I wanted, as I once expressed it, to leave to future generations "a glimpse of the world as God really made it, not as it looked when we got through with it." - LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON, 1965, COMMENT ON HIS DESIRE FOR THE WATER QUALITY ACT TO BE PASSED. 36th President 1963-1969 Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908-January 22, 1973) "Every family in America deserves a decent home....I have been criticized for such statements by people who think I raised hopes that can never be fulfilled, but I believe in the wisdom of the Bible - 'Where there is no vision, the people perish.'" - LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON, STATEMENT MADE IN SUPPORT OF THE MODEL CITIES ACT, PASSED BY CONGRESS IN SEPTEMBER OF 1966. 36th President 1963-1969 Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908-January 22, 1973) "O God, Who has bound us together in the bundle of life, give us grace to understand how our lives depend upon the courage, the industry, the honesty, and the integrity of our fellow men; that we may be mindful of their needs and grateful for their faithfulness, and faithful in our responsibilities to them." - LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON, NOVEMBER 2, 1966, AFTER AN ASIAN/ PACIFIC TOUR, ARRIVED IN DULLES AIRPORT WHERE HE RECALLED TO THOSE WAITING A PRAYER OFFERED TEN DAYS EARLIER AT THE SUNDAY SERVICE THEY ATTENDED, CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST. JAMES, TOWNSVILLE, NORTHERN AUSTRALIA. 36th President 1963-1969 Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908-January 22, 1973) "Pat already had his orders for Vietnam. In a matter of days, by his own insistence, he would be with Chuck Robb in action in Vietnam. The good Lord had blessed us with two brave sons-in-law, and no man could have been prouder of them than I. Now, for a year or more, their wives would wait and pray, as other wives across America would, for their husbands to return to them and their babies." - LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON, SUNDAY, MARCH 31, 1968, NOTES CONCERNING HIS SONS-IN-LAW WRITTEN AFTER ATTENDING ST. DOMINIC'S CHURCH, WASHINGTON D.C. 36th President 1963-1969 Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908-January 22, 1973) "In a moment of tragedy and trauma, the duties of this office fell upon me. I asked then for 'your help and God's' that we might continue America on its course, binding up our wounds....America stands ready tonight to seek an honorable peace - and stands ready tonight to defend an honored cause - whatever the price, whatever the burden, whatever the sacrifice that duty may require. Thank you for listening. Good night and God bless all of you." - LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON, 9:01 P.M., SUNDAY, MARCH 31, 1968, ADDRESS BROADCAST FROM THE OVAL OFFICE. Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913-April 22, 1994), was the 37th President of the United States, 1969-74, resigned; his administration U.S. ended involvement in the Vietnam War, 1973; 26th Amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution, 1971, granting 18-years-olds the right to vote; Apollo 11 astronauts took first walk on the moon, July 20, 1969; Republican Presidential candidate, 1960, losing to John F. Kennedy by the smallest margin ever in a presidential election; Vice-President under Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1952-60; U.S. Senator, 1950-52; U.S. Representative, 1946-50; Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy during World War II; married Patricia Ryan, 1940; graduated third in his class from Duke University Law School, North Carolina; graduated second in his class from Whittier College, California, having been president of the student body. 37th President 1969-1974 Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913-April 22, 1994) "Gentlemen, as we all know, it is a custom of the Cabinet to open with a silent prayer. While this has not been the practice of the Security Council, may I propose a moment of silent prayer of thanksgiving for the marvelous record of recovery the President has made up to this hour." - RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON, OCTOBER 1, 1955, AS VICE-PRESIDENT CALLING TO ORDER A MEETING OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL FOLLOWING PRESIDENT EISENHOWER'S HEART ATTACK. 37th President 1969-1974 Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913-April 22, 1994) "No man can be fully free while his neighbor is not. To go forward at all is to go forward together. This means black and white together as one nation, not two. The laws have caught up with our conscience. What remains is to give life to what is in the law: to insure at last that as all are born equal in dignity before God, all are born equal in dignity before man." - RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON, MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 1969, FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 37th President 1969-1974 Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913-April 22, 1994) "I shall consecrate my Office, my energies, and all the wisdom I can summon to the cause of peace among nations. Let this message be heard by strong and weak alike: The peace we seek - the peace we seek to win - is not victory over any other people but the peace that comes 'with healing in its wings'....Let us go forward, firm in our faith, steadfast in our purpose, cautious of the dangers, but sustained by our confidence in the will of God. - RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON, MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 1969, FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 37th President 1969-1974 Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913-April 22, 1994) "Only a few short weeks ago we shared the glory of man's first sight of the world as God sees it, as a single sphere reflecting light in the darkness. As the Apollo astronauts flew over the moon's gray surface on Christmas Eve, they spoke to us of the beauty of earth - and in that voice so clear across the lunar distance, we heard them invoke God's blessing on its goodness." - RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON, MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 1969, FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 37th President 1969-1974 Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913-April 22, 1994) "We have the chance today to do more than ever before in our history to make life better in America -to ensure better education, better health, better housing, better transportation, a cleaner environment - to restore respect for law, to make our communities more livable - and to insure the God-given right of every American to full and equal opportunity....We shall answer to God, to history, and to our conscience for the way in which we use these years." - RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON, SATURDAY, JANUARY, 20, 1973, SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 37th President 1969-1974 Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913-April 22, 1994) "Today, I ask your prayers that in the years ahead I may have God's help in making decisions that are right for America, and I pray for your help so that together we may be worthy of our challenge....Let us go forward from here confident in hope, strong in our faith in one another, sustained by our faith in God who created us, and striving always to serve His purpose." - RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON, SATURDAY, JANUARY, 20, 1973, SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 37th President 1969-1974 Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913-April 22, 1994) "As President, I must put the interest of America first. America needs a full-time President and a full-time Congress, particularly at this time with problems we face at home and abroad....To have served in this office is to have felt a very personal sense of kinship with each and every American. In leaving it, I do so with this prayer: May God's grace be with you in all the days ahead." - RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 1974, TELEVISED ADDRESS ANNOUNCING HIS RESIGNATION. 37th President 1969-1974 Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913-April 22, 1994) "Mistakes, yes. But for personal gain, never. You did what you believed in. Sometimes right, sometimes wrong....Always remember others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself....I can only say to each and every one of you, we come from many faiths...but really the same God...you will be in our hearts and you will be in our prayers." - RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 1974, PRIVATE FAREWELL TO THE MEMBERS OF HIS CABINET, THE WHITE HOUSE STAFF AND FRIENDS. Gerald Rudolph Ford (b.July 14, 1913), became the 38th President of the United States, 1974-77, after Vice-President Spiro Agnew resigned, and President Nixon resigned; the only person to succeed to that office without being elected; U.S. Representative, 1948-73, being elected House Minority Leader in 1964; married Betty Bloomer, 1948; practiced law in Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1945-48; served in U.S. Navy during World War II, 1941-45; graduated from Yale Law School, 1940; coached at Yale University; attended the University of Michigan on a football scholarship, being named Most Valuable Player; the first Eagle Scout President; given the name Leslie Lynch King, Jr. at his birth, his stepfather renamed him Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. 38th President 1974-1977 Gerald Rudolph Ford (July 14, 1913- ) "I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your President by your ballots, and so I ask you to confirm me as your President with your prayers. And I hope that such prayers will also be the first of many....Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a Government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule. But there is a Higher Power, by whatever name we honor Him, who ordains not only righteousness but love, not only justice but mercy." - GERALD RUDOLPH FORD, FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 1974, ADDRESS UPON ASSUMING THE PRESIDENCY AFTER PRESIDENT NIXON'S RESIGNATION. 38th President 1974-1977 Gerald Rudolph Ford (July 14, 1913- ) "As we bind up the internal wounds...let us restore the Golden Rule to our political process, and let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and of hate. In the beginning, I asked you to pray for me....I now solemnly reaffirm my promise I made to you last December 6; to uphold the Constitution, to do what is right as God gives me to see the right, and to do the very best I can for America. God helping me, I will not let you down." - GERALD RUDOLPH FORD, FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 1974, ADDRESS DELIVERED UPON ASSUMING THE PRESIDENCY. 38th President 1974-1977 Gerald Rudolph Ford (July 14, 1913- ) "I am not here to make an Inaugural Address. The Nation needs action, not words. Nor will this be a formal report of the State of the Union. God willing, I will have at least three more chances to do that....I do not want a honeymoon with you. I want a good marriage." - GERALD RUDOLPH FORD, MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 1974, FIRST ADDRESS TO CONGRESS. 38th President 1974-1977 Gerald Rudolph Ford (July 14, 1913- ) "The Constitution is the supreme law of our land and it governs our actions as citizens. Only the laws of God, which govern our consciences, are superior to it. As we are a Nation under God, so I am sworn to uphold our laws with the help of God....I do believe, with all my heart and mind and spirit, that I, not as President, but as a humble servant of God, will receive justice without mercy if I fail to show mercy." - GERALD RUDOLPH FORD, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1974, ANNOUNCING HIS DECISION OF PARDON. 38th President 1974-1977 Gerald Rudolph Ford (July 14, 1913- ) "Without God there could be no American form of government, nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first - the most basic - expression of Americanism. Thus the founding fathers of America saw it, and thus with God's help, it will continue to be." - GERALD RUDOLPH FORD, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1974, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER. James Earl "Jimmy," Carter, Jr. (b.October 1, 1924), was the 39th President of the United States, 1977-81; Governor of Georgia, 1970-75; Georgia State Senator, 1962-66; managed family peanut farm and warehouse, Plains, Georgia, 1953-70; served in the U.S. Navy, 1947-53, electronics instructor and engineering officer aboard atomic-powered submarines; married Rosalynn Smith, 1947; and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, 1947. 39th President 1977-1981 James Earl "Jimmy" Carter (October 1, 1924- ) "Here before me is the Bible used in the inauguration of our first President in 1789, and I have just taken the oath of office on the Bible my mother gave me just a few years ago, opened to the timeless admonition from the ancient prophet Micah: 'He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God'"- JAMES EARL "JIMMY" CARTER, THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 1977, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 39th President 1977-1981 James Earl "Jimmy" Carter (October 1, 1924- ) "Ours was the first society openly to define itself in terms of both spirituality and of human liberty. It is that unique self-definition which has given us an exceptional appeal, but it also imposes on us a special obligation, to take on those moral duties....I join in the hope that when my time as your President has ended, people might say this about our Nation: that we had remembered the words of Micah and renewed our search for humility, mercy, and justice." - JAMES EARL "JIMMY" CARTER, THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 1977, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 39th President 1977-1981 James Earl "Jimmy" Carter (October 1, 1924- ) "We feel that moral decay has weakened our country....It is now a time for healing. We want to have faith again!...We will pray for peace and we will work for peace....Ours was the first nation to dedicate itself so clearly to basic moral and philosophical principles: That all people are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and that the power of government is derived from the consent of the governed." - JAMES EARL "JIMMY" CARTER, THURSDAY, JULY 15, 1976, DEMOCRATIC ACCEPTANCE SPEECH, MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, NEW YORK CITY. 39th President 1977-1981 James Earl "Jimmy" Carter (October 1, 1924- ) "We believe that the first time we're born, as children, it's human life given to us; and when we accept Jesus as our Savior, it's a new life. That's what 'born again' means." - JAMES EARL "JIMMY" CARTER, TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 1976, INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT L. TURNER DURING HIS PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN. 39th President 1977-1981 James Earl "Jimmy" Carter (October 1, 1924- ) "I was particularly impressed when the officers and enlisted leaders of the armed forces visited....More than any other group, they were likely to make some reference to their prayers for us or to say, 'God be with you.' Somehow, this emphasis on their religious faith gave me a good feeling. I experienced a sense of brotherhood with them, and remembered from my own eleven years in the Navy that it was members of the military services who most wanted to maintain peace based on a strong America." - JAMES EARL "JIMMY" CARTER, KEEPING THE FAITH - MEMOIRS OF A PRESIDENT, PUBLISHED 1982. 39th President 1977-1981 James Earl "Jimmy" Carter (October 1, 1924- ) "My most vivid impression of the Presidency remains the loneliness in which the most difficult decisions had to be made....I prayed a lot - more than ever before in my life - asking God to give me a clear mind, sound judgement, and wisdom in dealing with affairs that could affect the lives of so many people in our own country and around the world. Although I cannot claim that my decisions were always the best ones, prayer was a great help to me." - JAMES EARL "JIMMY" CARTER, KEEPING THE FAITH - MEMOIRS OF A PRESIDENT, PUBLISHED 1982. 39th President 1977-1981 James Earl "Jimmy" Carter (October 1, 1924- ) "The Judeo-Christian ethic and study of the Bible were bonds between Jews and Christians which had always been part of my life. I also believed very deeply that the Jews who had survived the Holocaust deserved their own nation, and that they had a right to live in peace among their neighbors. I considered this homeland for the Jews to be compatible with the teachings of the Bible, hence ordained by God. These moral and religious beliefs made my commitment to the security of Israel unshakable." - JAMES EARL "JIMMY" CARTER, KEEPING THE FAITH - MEMOIRS OF A PRESIDENT, PUBLISHED 1982. 39th President 1977-1981 James Earl "Jimmy" Carter (October 1, 1924- ) "God doesn't want us to hide our weaknesses....Remember the end of the story of the bleeding woman: Jesus sought her out in the crowd, told her 'Your faith has healed you,' and urged her, 'Go in peace.' Because she'd found within herself the courage to reach out to Jesus in her need, she was renewed and made whole, not only in body but in spirit, forgiven and freed from her sins, her subterfuge, and her shame. Christ is ready to do the same for us." - JAMES EARL "JIMMY" CARTER, SOURCES OF STRENGTH - MEDITATIONS ON SCRIPTURE FOR A LIVING FAITH, 1997. 39th President 1977-1981 James Earl "Jimmy" Carter (October 1, 1924- ) "Niebuhr urged Bonhoeffer to remain in America, for his own safety. Bonhoeffer refused. He felt he had to be among the other Christians who he knew were being persecuted in Germany. So he returned home....He preached publicly against Nazism, racism, and anti-Semitism....was finally arrested and imprisoned, and...executed....He died a disciple and a martyr....The same Holy Spirit that energized and encouraged the first disciples, and that gave Dietrich Bonhoeffer the strength to stand up against Nazi tyranny, is available to us." - JAMES EARL "JIMMY" CARTER, SOURCES OF STRENGTH - MEDITATIONS ON SCRIPTURE FOR A LIVING FAITH, 1997. Ronald Wilson Reagan (b.February 6, 1911), was the 40th President of the United States, 1981-89; the oldest President elected; survived assassination attempt, March 30, 1981; Governor of California, 1966-74; switched from being a liberal Democrat to the Republican Party, 1962; actor, making over 50 movies in his career; president of the Screen Actor's Guild, 1959-60; married Nancy Davis, 1952, children Patti and Ron; president of the Screen Actor's Guild, 1947-52; Captain in the U.S. Army Air Corp during World War II; first marriage to Jane Wyman, children Maureen and Michael; announcer for radio station in Davenport, Iowa, and WHO Radio, Des Moines, Iowa; and graduated from Eureka College, Illinois, 1932. 40th President 1981-1989 Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911- ) "Your dreams, your hopes, your goals are going to be the dreams, the hopes, and the goals of this administration, so help me God....I am told that tens of thousands of prayer meetings are being held on this day, and for that I am deeply grateful. We are a nation under God, and I believe God intended for us to be free....With God's help, we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us. And after all, why shouldn't we believe that? We are Americans. God bless you, and thank you." - RONALD WILSON REAGAN, JANUARY 20, 1981, FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 40th President 1981-1989 Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911- ) "Our Nation's motto - 'In God We Trust' - was not chosen lightly....Throughout our history, Americans have put their faith in God, and no one can doubt that we have been blessed for it. The earliest settlers of this land came in search of religious freedom. Landing on a desolate shoreline, they established a spiritual foundation that has served us ever since. It was the hard work of our people, the freedom they enjoyed and their faith in God that built this country and made it the envy of the world." - RONALD WILSON REAGAN, MARCH 19, 1981, NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER PROCLAMATION. 40th President 1981-1989 Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911- ) "Do we really think that we can have it both ways, that God will protect us in a time of crisis even as we turn away from Him in our day-to-day life?...We also have His promise...'That if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land.'...To preserve our blessed land, we must look to God." - RONALD WILSON REAGAN, FEBRUARY 9, 1982, NATIONAL RELIGIOUS BROADCASTERS ANNUAL CONVENTION. 40th President 1981-1989 Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911- ) "To those who cite the First Amendment as reason for excluding God from more and more of our institutions and every-day life, may I just say: The First Amendment of the Constitution was not written to protect the people of this country from religious values; it was written to protect religious values from government tyranny." - RONALD WILSON REAGAN, MARCH 15, 1982, ADDRESS TO THE ALABAMA STATE LEGISLATURE. 40th President 1981-1989 Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911- ) "The public expression through prayer of our faith in God is a fundamental part of our American heritage and a privilege which should not be excluded by law from any American school, public or private. One hundred fifty years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville found that all Americans believed that religious faith was indispensable to the maintenance of their republican institutions. Today, I join with the people of this nation in acknowledging this basic truth, that our liberty springs from and depends upon an abiding faith in God." - RONALD WILSON REAGAN, MAY 17, 1982, PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT FOR PRAYER IN SCHOOLS. 40th President 1981-1989 Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911- ) "NOW, THEREFORE, be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President is authorized and requested to designate 1983 as a national 'Year of the Bible' in recognition of both the formative influence the Bible has been for our Nation, and our national need to study and apply the teachings of the Holy Scriptures." - RONALD WILSON REAGAN, MONDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1982, SIGNED JOINT RESOLUTION OF THE 97TH CONGRESS, PUBLIC LAW 97-280. 40th President 1981-1989 Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911- ) "Abraham Lincoln said, '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.' Revived as an annual observance by Congress in 1952, the National Day of Prayer has become a great unifying force for our citizens....This common expression of reverence heals and brings us together as a nation, and we pray it may one day bring renewed respect for God to all peoples of the world." - RONALD WILSON REAGAN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 1983, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER. 40th President 1981-1989 Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911- ) "God bless you and welcome back....I wonder if we could all join in a moment of silent prayer....This is...the 50th time that we the people have celebrated this historic occasion. When the first President, George Washington, placed his hand upon the Bible, he stood less than a single day's journey by horseback from raw, untamed wilderness. So much has changed. And yet we stand together as we did two centuries ago....One people under God determined that our future shall be worthy of our past." - RONALD WILSON REAGAN, MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 1985, SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 40th President 1981-1989 Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911- ) "If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under."- RONALD WILSON REAGAN, AUGUST 23, 1984, ADDRESS AT AN ECUMENICAL PRAYER BREAKFAST, REUNION ARENA, DALLAS, TEXAS, FOLLOWING THE ENACTMENT OF THE "EQUAL ACCESS BILL OF 1984. George Herbert Walker Bush (b.June 12, 1924), was the 41st President of the United States, 1989-93. During his administration the U.S. led the Allies to victory in Persian Gulf War; the Soviet Union was restructured; and the Tiananmen Square demonstration was crushed by Communist Government in Beijing, China. He was the Vice-President under Ronald Reagan, 1981-89; Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, 1976; U.S. Envoy to China, 1974; National Chairman of the Republican Party, 1973; Ambassador to the United Nations, 1971; U.S. Representative, 1967; partner in oil business, Texas, 1948-66; studied at Yale University, 1945-48; married Barbara Pierce, 1945; a Naval Aviator in the Pacific during World War II, 1943-45, receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross; and was the son of Prescott Bush, U.S. Senator from Connecticut. 41st President 1989-1993 George Herbert Walker Bush (June 12, 1924- ) "I have just repeated word for word the oath taken by George Washington 200 years ago, and the Bible on which I place my hand is the Bible on which he place his....My first act as President is a prayer. I ask you to bow your heads." - GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH, FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1989, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 41st President 1989-1993 George Herbert Walker Bush (June 12, 1924- ) "Heavenly Father, we bow our heads and thank You for Your love. Accept our thanks for the peace that yields this day and the shared faith that makes its continuance likely. Make us strong to do Your work, willing to heed and hear Your will, and write on our hearts these words: 'Use power to help people.' For we are given power not to advance our own purposes....There is but one just use of power, and it is to serve people. Help us to remember it, Lord. Amen." - GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH, FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1989, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 41st President 1989-1993 George Herbert Walker Bush (June 12, 1924- ) "There is much to do; and tomorrow the work begins. I do not mistrust the future; I do not fear what is ahead. For our problems are large, but our heart is larger. Our challenges are great, but our will is greater. And if our flaws are endless, God's love is truly boundless....Thank you. God bless you and God bless the United States of America." - GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH, FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1989, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 41st President 1989-1993 George Herbert Walker Bush (June 12, 1924- ) "It was a biblical view of man - one affirming the dignity and worth of the human person, made in the image of our Creator - that inspired the principles upon which the United States is founded....Today the Bible continues to give courage and direction to those who seek truth and righteousness....I invite all Americans to discover the great inspiration and knowledge that can be obtained through thoughtful reading of the Bible." - GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1990, PROCLAIMED 1990 THE INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF BIBLE READING, AS AUTHORIZED BY CONGRESS, SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 164. 41st President 1989-1993 George Herbert Walker Bush (June 12, 1924- ) "The great faith that led our Nation's Founding Fathers to pursue this bold experience in self-government has sustained us in uncertain and perilous times; it has given us strength and inspiration to this very day. Like them, we do very well to recall our 'firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,' to give thanks for the freedom and prosperity this Nation enjoys, and to pray for continued help and guidance from our wise and loving Creator." - GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH, THURSDAY, MAY 3, 1990, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER. 41st President 1989-1993 George Herbert Walker Bush (June 12, 1924- ) "The historic observance of a day of thanksgiving at Plymouth, in 1621, was one of many occasions on which our ancestors paused to acknowledge their dependence on the mercy and favor of Divine Providence... Our "errand in the wilderness," begun more than 350 years ago, is not yet complete. Abroad, we are working toward a new partnership of nations. At home, we seek lasting solutions to the problems facing our nation and pray for a society "with liberty and justice for all,".... I call upon the American people to...gather together in homes and places of worship on that day of thanks to affirm by their prayers and their gratitude the many blessings God has bestowed upon us" - GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH, 1990, PROCLAMATION OF A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING. 41st President 1989-1993 George Herbert Walker Bush (June 12, 1924- ) "Each of us is invited to join in this National Day of Prayer....Although we may find our own words to express it, each of us can echo this timeless prayer of Solomon, the ancient king who prayed for, and received, the gift of wisdom: 'The Lord our God be with us, as He was with our fathers; may He not leave us or forsake us; so that He may incline our hearts to Him...that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other.'" - GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH, 1992, NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER PROCLAMATION. William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (b.August 19, 1946), the 42nd President of the United States, 1993- ; Governor of Arkansas, 1982-92, 1978-80; Arkansas Attorney General, 1976-78; married Hillary Rodham; law instructor at University of Arkansas; attended Yale Law School; studied at Oxford University, England; was a Rhodes Scholar; and graduated from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. In 1998, he became the 2nd president ever to be impeached. His original name was William Jefferson Blythe IV, but at age 15, he took his stepfather's name Clinton. On December 20, 1998, William Jefferson Clinton became the second President in United States history to be impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives. The two counts passed acknowledged that he had provided "perjurious, false and misleading testimony to a grand jury" and committed "obstruction of justice" in an effort to cover-up an immoral sexual relationship with a twenty-one year old intern. 42nd President 1993-2001 William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (August 19, 1946- ) "When our Founders boldly declared America's Independence to the world and our purposes to the Almighty, they knew that America, to endure, would have to change....My fellow Americans, at the edge of the 21st century, let us begin with energy and hope, with faith and discipline, and let us work until our work is done. The Scripture says, 'And let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season, we shall reap, if we faint not.'...With God's help, we must answer the call. Thank you and God bless you." - WILLIAM JEFFERSON "BILL" CLINTON, JANUARY 20, 1993, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 42nd President 1993-2001 William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (August 19, 1946- ) "The First Amendment does not require students to leave their religion at the schoolhouse door....It is especially important that parents feel confident that their children can practice religion....We need to make it easier and more acceptable for people to express and to celebrate their faith." - WILLIAM JEFFERSON "BILL" CLINTON, WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 1995, ADDRESS AT JAMES MADISON HIGH SCHOOL IN VIENNA, VIRGINIA. 42nd President 1993-2001 William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (August 19, 1946- ) "If students can wear T-shirts advertising sports teams, rock groups or politicians, they can also wear T-shirts that promote religion....Religion is too important to our history and our heritage for us to keep it out of our schools....Nothing in the First Amendment converts our public schools into religion-free zones or requires all religious expression to be left behind at the schoolhouse door." - WILLIAM JEFFERSON "BILL" CLINTON, WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 1995, ADDRESS AT JAMES MADISON HIGH SCHOOL IN VIENNA, VIRGINIA. 42nd President 1993-2001 William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (August 19, 1946- ) "While the government may not use schools to coerce the consciences of our students, or to convey official endorsement of religion, the government's schools also may not discriminate against private religious expression during the school day." - WILLIAM JEFFERSON "BILL" CLINTON, WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 1995, ADDRESS AT JAMES MADISON HIGH SCHOOL IN VIENNA, VIRGINIA. 42nd President 1993-2001 William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (August 19, 1946- ) "Our rich texture of racial, religious and political diversity will be a Godsend in the 21st Century....Like a prophet of old, he told of his dream, that one day America would rise up and treat all its citizens as equals before the law and in the heart. Martin Luther King's dream was the American Dream....From the height of this place and the summit of this century, let us go forth. May God strengthen our hands for the good work ahead - and always, always bless our America." - WILLIAM JEFFERSON "BILL" CLINTON, MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 1997, SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 42nd President 1993-2001 William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (August 19, 1946- ) "Reverend Robert Schuller suggested that I read Isaiah 58:12....'Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations, and thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the paths to dwell in.' I placed my hand on that verse when I took the oath of office, on behalf of all American, for no matter what our differences in our faiths, our backgrounds, our politics, we must all be repairers of the breach....God bless you. And God bless America." - WILLIAM JEFFERSON "BILL" CLINTON, FEBRUARY 4, 1997, STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS, FIRST SUCH ADDRESS BROADCAST LIVE OVER THE INTERNET. 42nd President 1993-2001 William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (August 19, 1946- ) "The Festival of Lights is a powerful reminder each year that the age-old struggle for religious freedom is not yet over. From the days of the ancient Maccabees down to our present time, tyrants have sought to deny people the free expression of their faith and the right to live according to their own conscience and convictions. Hanukkah symbolizes the heroic struggle of all who seek to defeat such oppression and the miracles that come to those full of faith and courage. This holiday holds special meaning for us in America, where freedom of religion is one of the cornerstones of our democracy. - WILLIAM JEFFERSON "BILL" CLINTON, DECEMBER 20, 1997, ANNUAL HANUKKAH MESSAGE. 42nd President 1993-2001 William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (August 19, 1946- ) "The coming year will mark the 50th anniversary of the State of Israel, where the story of the first Hanukkah took place so many centuries ago. As families come together in prayer for the eight nights of Hanukkah, to reaffirm their hope in God and their gratitude for his faithfulness to his people, may the candles of the menorah light our way to a true and lasting peace for the people of the Middle East. Hillary and I extend our warmest wishes to all those celebrating Hanukkah, all those who work for religious freedom, and all those who devote themselves to the cause of peace." - WILLIAM JEFFERSON "BILL" CLINTON, DECEMBER 20, 1997, ANNUAL HANUKKAH MESSAGE. George Walker Bush (b July 6, 1946) is the 43rd President of the United States, formerly the 46th Governor of the State of Texas. He grew up in Midland and Houston, Texas; received a bachelor's degree from Yale University; and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School. He served as an F-102 pilot for the Texas Air National Guard before beginning his career in the oil and gas business in Midland in 1975, working in the energy industry until 1986. After working on his father's successful 1988 presidential campaign, he assembled the group of partners that purchased the Texas Rangers baseball franchise in 1989, and served as managing general partner until he was elected Governor on November 8, 1994, with 53.5 percent of the vote. In an historic re-election victory, he became the first Texas Governor to be elected to consecutive four-year terms on November 3, 1998, winning 68.6 percent of the vote. He married to Laura Welch, a former teacher and librarian, and they have twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna. 43RD PRESIDENT 2001- George Walker Bush (July 6, 1946- ) "And this is my solemn pledge: I will work to build a single nation of justice and opportunity. I know this is within our reach, because we are guided by a power larger than ourselves, Who creates us equal in His image....Compassion is the work of a nation, not just a government. And some needs and hurts are so deep they will only respond to a mentor's touch or a pastor's prayer. Church and charity, synagogue and mosque, lend our communities their humanity, and they will have an honored place in our plans and laws....I can pledge our nation to a goal: When we see that wounded traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to the other side." - GEORGE W, BUSH, JANUARY, 20, 2001, INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 43RD PRESIDENT 2001- George Walker Bush (July 6, 1946- ) "After the Declaration of Independence was signed, Virginia statesman John Page wrote to Thomas Jefferson: "We know the Race is not to the swift nor the Battle to the Strong. Do you not think an Angel rides in the Whirlwind and directs this Storm?" Much time has passed since Jefferson arrived for his inaugural... But the themes of this day he would know: our nation's grand story of courage, and its simple dream of dignity. We are not this story's Author, Who fills time and eternity with His purpose. Yet His purpose is achieved in our duty; and duty is fulfilled in service to one another.... This story goes on. And an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm. God bless you, and God bless America." - GEORGE W. BUSH, JANUARY, 20, 2001, INAUGURAL ADDRESS 43RD PRESIDENT 2001- George Walker Bush (July 6, 1946- ) "We will speak up for our principles... the deep American commitment to freedom of religion. That commitment was expressed early and eloquently by our first President, George Washington, in his famous letter to the Touro synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island. He argued for an attitude beyond mere tolerance -- a respect for the inherent and equal right of everyone to worship God as they think best. 'The Government of the United States,' he said, 'which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens.' Over the years, Washington's rejection of religious bigotry has matured from a foundation of our domestic politics into a guiding doctrine of our foreign policy...." - GEORGE W. BUSH, MAY 3, 2001, REMARKS TO THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE. 43RD PRESIDENT 2001- George Walker Bush (July 6, 1946- ) "We view with special concern the intensifying attacks on religious freedom in China... China has made great strides toward freedom in recent decades... But the Chinese government continues to display an unreasonable and unworthy suspicion of freedom of conscience. The Chinese government restricts independent religious expression. We hear alarming reports of the detention of worshippers and religious leaders. Churches and mosques have been vandalized or demolished... religious practices in Tibet have long been the target of especially harsh and unjust persecution. And most recently, adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual movement... China aspires to national strength and greatness. But these acts of persecution are acts of fear - and therefore of weakness. This persecution is unworthy of all that China has been... and is unworthy of all that China should become." - GEORGE W. BUSH, MAY 3, 2001, REMARKS TO THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE. 43RD PRESIDENT 2001- George Walker Bush (July 6, 1946- ) "No one is a better witness to the transience of tyranny than the children of Abraham. Forty centuries ago, the Jewish people were entrusted with a truth more enduring than any power of man. In the words of the prophet Isaiah: "This shall be My covenant with them, said the Lord: My spirit which is upon you, and the words which I have placed in your mouth, shall not be absent from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your children, nor from the mouth of your children's children - said the Lord - from now on, for all time." It is not an accident that freedom of religion is one of the central freedoms in our Bill of Rights. It is the first freedom of the human soul - the right to speak the words that God places in our mouths.... We must speak for that freedom in the world." - GEORGE W. BUSH, MAY 3, 2001, REMARKS TO THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE. 43RD PRESIDENT 2001- George Walker Bush (July 6, 1946- ) "Pastor Mark Craig was telling me that my reelection as the first Governor to win back-to-back four-year terms in the history of the state of Texas was a beginning, not an end.... He talked of the need for honesty in government; that leaders who cheat on their wives will cheat on their country, will cheat on their colleagues, will cheat themselves. The minister said that America is starved for honest leaders. He told the story of Moses... [whose] basic reaction was, "Sorry, God, I'm busy. I've got a family. I've got sheep to tend. I've got a life." "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?" "The people won't believe me," he protested. "I'm not a very good speaker. Oh Lord, send, I pray, some other person," Moses pleaded. But God did not, and Moses ultimately did his bidding, leading his people through forty years of wilderness and wandering, relying on God for strength and direction and inspiration.'" - GEORGE W. BUSH, 2000 CAMPAIGN, ADDRESS "A CHARGE TO KEEP." 43RD PRESIDENT 2001- George Walker Bush (July 6, 1946- ) "Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward, and freedom will be defended... Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror. Pictures of planes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness and a quiet, unyielding anger... America was targeted... because we're the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world. ... I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve... And I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us spoken through the ages in Psalm 23: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for you are with me." - GEORGE W. BUSH, SEPTEMBER 11, 2001, NATIONAL ADDRESSES 43RD PRESIDENT 2001- George Walker Bush (July 6, 1946- ) "On Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, terrorists attacked America in a series of despicable acts of war. They hijacked four passenger jets, crashed two of them into the World Trade Center's twin towers and a third into the Headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense at the Pentagon, causing great loss of life and tremendous damage. The fourth plane crashed in the Pennsylvania countryside... All our hearts have been seared by the sudden and sense-less taking of innocent lives. We pray for healing and for the strength to serve and encourage one another in hope and faith. Scripture says: "Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted." I call on every American family and the family of America to observe a National Day of Prayer and Remembrance... In the face of all this evil, we remain strong and united, "one Nation under God." - GEORGE W. BUSH, SEPTEMBER 13, 2001, NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER AND REMEMBERANCE 43RD PRESIDENT 2001- George Walker Bush (July 6, 1946- ) "Actually, the seeds of my decision had been planted the year before by the Reverend Billy Graham. He visited my family for a summer weekend in Maine. I saw him preach at the small summer church, St. Ann's by the Sea. We all had lunch on the patio overlooking the ocean. One evening my dad asked Bill to answer questions from a big group of family gathered for the weekend. He sat by the fire and talked. And what he said sparked a change in my heart. I don't remember the exact words. It was more the power of his example. The Lord was so clearly reflected in his gentle and loving demeanor. The next day we walked and talked at Walker's Point, and I knew I was in the presence of a great man. He was like a magnet; I felt drawn to seek something different. He didn't lecture or admonish; he shared warmth and concern. Billy Graham didn't make you feel guilty; he made you feel loved. Over the course of that weekend, Reverend Graham planted a mustard seed in my soul, a seed that grew over the next year. He led me to the path, and I began walking. And it was the beginning of a change in my life. I had always been a religious person, had regularly attended church, even taught Sunday school and served as an altar boy. But that weekend my faith took no a new meaning. It was the beginning of a new walk where I would recommit my heart to Jesus Christ. I was humbled to learn that God sent His Son to die for a sinner like me. I was comforted to know that through the Son, I could find God's amazing grace, a grace that crosses every border, every barrier and is open to everyone. Through the love of Christ's life, I could understand the life-changing powers of faith. When I returned to Midland, I began reading the Bible regularly. Don Evans talked me into joining him and another friend, Don Jones, at a men's community Bible study. The group had first assembled the year before in spring on 1984, at the beginning of the downturn in the energy industry. Midland was hurting. A lot of people were looking for comfort and strength and direction. A couple of men started the Bible study as a support group, and it grew. By the time I began attending, in the fall of 1985, almost 120 men would gather. We met in small discussion groups of ten or twelve, then joined the larger group for full meetings. Don Jones picked me up every week for the meetings. I remember looking forward to them. My interest in reading the Bible grew stronger and stronger, and the words became clearer and more meaningful. We studied Acts, the story of the Apostles building the Christian Church and next year the Gospel of Like. The preparation for each meeting took several hours reading the Scripture passages and thinking through responses to discussion questions. I took it seriously, with my usual touch of humor.... Laura and I were active members of the First Methodist Church of Midland, and we participated in many family programs, including James Dobson's Focus on the Family series on raising children. As I studied and learned, Scripture took of greater meaning, and I gained confidence and understanding in my faith. I read the Bible regularly. Don Evans gave me the "One-Year" Bible, a Bible divided into 356 daily readings, each one including a section from the New Testament, the Old Testament, Psalms and Proverbs. I read through that Bible every other year. During the years in between, I picked different chapters to study at different times. I have also learned the power of prayer. I pray for guidance. I do not pray for earthly things, but for heavenly things, for wisdom and patience and understanding. My faith gives me focus and perspective. It teaches humility. But I also recognize that faith can be misinterpreted in the political process. Faith is an important part of my life. I believe it is important to live my faith, not flaunt it. America is a great country because of our religious freedoms. It is important for any leader to respect the faith of others. That point was driven home when Laura and I visited Israel in 1998. We traveled to Rome to spend Thanksgiving with our daughter, who was attending a school program there, and spend three days in Israel on the way home. It was an incredible experience. I remember walking up at the Jerusalem Hilton and opening the curtains and seeing the Old City before us, the Jerusalem stone glowing gold. We visited the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. And we went to the Sea of Galilee and stood atop the hill where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount. It was an overwhelming feeling to stand in the spot where the most famous speech in the history of the world was delivered, the spot where Jesus outlined the character and conduct of a believer and gave his disciples and the world the beatitudes, the golden rule and the Lord's Prayer. Our delegation included four gentile governors-one Methodist, two Catholics, and a Mormon, and several Jewish-American friends. Someone suggested we read Scripture. I chose to read "Amazing Grace," my favorite hymn. Later that night we all gathered at a restaurant in Tel Aviv for dinner before we boarded our middle-of-the-night flight back to America. We talked about the wonderful experiences and thanked the guides and government officials who had introduced us to their country. And toward the end of the meal, one of our friends rose to share a story, to tell us how he, a gentile, and his friend, a Jew, had (unbeknownst to the rest of us) walked down to the Sea of Galilee, joined hands underwater, and prayed together, on bended knee. Then out of his mouth came a hymn he had known as a child, a hymn he hadn't thought about in years. He got every word right: "Now is the time approaching, by the prophets long foretold, when all shall dwell together, One Shepherd and one fold. "Now Jew and gentile, meeting, from many a distant shore, around an altar kneeling, one common Lord adore." Faith changes lives. I know, because faith has changed mine. I could not be governor if I did not believe in a Divine plan that supersedes all human plans. Politics is a fickle business. Polls change. Today's friend is tomorrow's adversary. People lavish praise and attention. Many times genuine; sometimes it is not. Yet I build my life on a foundation that will not shift. My faith frees me. Frees me to put the problem of the moment in proper perspective. Frees me to make decisions that others might not like. Frees me to try to do the right thing, even though it may not poll well...." The death penalty is a difficult issue for supporters as well as its opponents. I have a reverence for life, my faith teaches that life is a gift from our Creator. In a perfect world, life is given by God and only taken by God. I hope someday our society will respect life, the full spectrum of life from the unborn to the elderly. I hope someday unborn children will be protected by law and welcomed in life. I support the death penalty because I believe, if administered swiftly and justly, capital punishment is a deterrent against future violence and will save other innocent lives. Some advocates of life will challenge why I oppose abortion yet support the death penalty; to me it's the difference between innocence and guilt." - GEORGE W. BUSH, 2000 CAMPAIGN, ADDRESS ENTITLED "A CHARGE TO KEEP." 43RD PRESIDENT 2001- George Walker Bush (July 6, 1946- ) "We are here in the middle hour of our grief. So many have suffered so great a loss, and today we express our nation's sorrow. We come before God to pray for the missing and the dead, and for those who love them. On Tuesday, our country was attacked with deliberate and massive cruelty. We have seen the images of fire and ashes, and bent steel. Now come the names, the list of casualties we are only beginning to read. They are the names of men and women who began their day at a desk or in an airport, busy with life. They are the names of people who faced death, and in their last moments called home to say, be brave, and I love you. They are the names of passengers who defied their murderers, and prevented the murder of others on the ground. They are the names of men and women who wore the uniform of the United States, and died at their posts. They are the names of rescuers, the ones whom death found running up the stairs and into the fires to help others. We will read all these names. We will linger over them, and learn their stories, and many Americans will weep. To the children and parents and spouses and families and friends of the lost, we offer the deepest sympathy of the nation. And I assure you, you are not alone. Just three days removed from these events, Americans do not yet have the distance of history. But our responsibility to history is already clear: to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil. War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder. This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others. It will end in a way, and at an hour, of our choosing. Our purpose as a nation is firm. Yet our wounds as a people are recent and unhealed, and lead us to pray. In many of our prayers this week, there is a searching, and an honesty. At St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York on Tuesday, a woman said, "I prayed to God to give us a sign that He is still here." Others have prayed for the same, searching hospital to hospital, carrying pictures of those still missing. God's signs are not always the ones we look for. We learn in tragedy that his purposes are not always our own. Yet the prayers of private suffering, whether in our homes or in this great cathedral, are known and heard, and understood. There are prayers that help us last through the day, or endure the night. There are prayers of friends and strangers that give us strength for the journey. And there are prayers that yield our will to a will greater than our own. This world He created is of moral design. Grief and tragedy and hatred are only for a time. Goodness, remembrance, and love have no end. And the Lord of life holds all who die, and all who mourn. It is said that adversity introduces us to ourselves. This is true of a nation as well. In this trial, we have been reminded, and the world has seen, that our fellow Americans are generous and kind, resourceful and brave. We see our national character in rescuers working past exhaustion; in long lines of blood donors; in thousands of citizens who have asked to work and serve in any way possible. And we have seen our national character in eloquent acts of sacrifice. Inside the World Trade Center, one man who could have saved himself stayed until the end at the side of his quadriplegic friend. A beloved priest died giving the last rites to a firefighter. Two office workers, finding a disabled stranger, carried her down sixty-eight floors to safety. A group of men drove through the night from Dallas to Washington to bring skin grafts for burn victims. In these acts, and in many others, Americans showed a deep commitment to one another, and an abiding love for our country. Today, we feel what Franklin Roosevelt called the warm courage of national unity. This is a unity of every faith, and every background. It has joined together political parties in both houses of Congress. It is evident in services of prayer and candlelight vigils, and American flags, which are displayed in pride, and wave in defiance. Our unity is a kinship of grief, and a steadfast resolve to prevail against our enemies. And this unity against terror is now extending across the world. America is a nation full of good fortune, with so much to be grateful for. But we are not spared from suffering. In every generation, the world has produced enemies of human freedom. They have attacked America, because we are freedom's home and defender. And the commitment of our fathers is now the calling of our time. On this national day of prayer and remembrance, we ask almighty God to watch over our nation, and grant us patience and resolve in all that is to come. We pray that He will comfort and console those who now walk in sorrow. We thank Him for each life we now must mourn, and the promise of a life to come. As we have been assured, neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, can separate us from God's love. May He bless the souls of the departed. May He comfort our own. And may He always guide our country. God bless America." - GEORGE W. BUSH, SEPTEMBER 14, 2001, ADDRESS ON NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER AND REMEMBRANCE AT THE NATIONAL CATHEDRAL 43RD PRESIDENT 2001- George Walker Bush (July 6, 1946- ) "Mr. Speaker, Mr. President Pro Tempore, members of Congress, and fellow Americans, in the normal course of events, presidents come to this chamber to report on the state of the union. Tonight, no such report is needed; it has already been delivered by the American people. We have seen it in the courage of passengers who rushed terrorists to save others on the ground. Passengers like an exceptional man named Todd Beamer. And would you please help me welcome his wife Lisa Beamer here tonight? We have seen the state of our union in the endurance of rescuers working past exhaustion. We've seen the unfurling of flags, the lighting of candles, the giving of blood, the saying of prayers in English, Hebrew and Arabic. We have seen the decency of a loving and giving people who have made the grief of strangers their own. My fellow citizens, for the last nine days, the entire world has seen for itself the state of union, and it is strong. Tonight, we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. Our grief has turned to anger and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done. I thank the Congress for its leadership at such an important time. All of America was touched on the evening of the tragedy to see Republicans and Democrats joined together on the steps of this Capitol singing "God Bless America." And you did more than sing. You acted, by delivering $40 billion to rebuild our communities and meet the needs of our military. Speaker Hastert, Minority Leader Gephardt, Majority Leader Daschle and Senator Lott, I thank you for your friendship, for your leadership and for your service to our country. And on behalf of the American people, I thank the world for its outpouring of support. America will never forget the sounds of our national anthem playing at Buckingham Palace, on the streets of Paris and at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. We will not forget South Korean children gathering to pray outside our embassy in Seoul, or the prayers of sympathy offered at a mosque in Cairo. We will not forget moments of silence and days of mourning in Australia and Africa and Latin America. Nor will we forget the citizens of 80 other nations who died with our own. Dozens of Pakistanis, more than 130 Israelis, more than 250 citizens of India, men and women from El Salvador, Iran, Mexico and Japan, and hundreds of British citizens. America has no truer friend than Great Britain. Once again, we are joined together in a great cause. I'm so honored the British prime minister had crossed an ocean to show his unity with America. Thank you for coming, friend. On September the 11th, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country. Americans have known wars, but for the past 136 years they have been wars on foreign soil, except for one Sunday in 1941. Americans have known the casualties of war, but not at the center of a great city on a peaceful morning. Americans have known surprise attacks, but never before on thousands of civilians. All of this was brought upon us in a single day, and night fell on a different world, a world where freedom itself is under attack. Americans have many questions tonight. Americans are asking, "Who attacked our country?" The evidence we have gathered all points to a collection of loosely affiliated terrorist organizations known as al Qaeda. They are some of the murderers indicted for bombing American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and responsible for bombing the USS Cole. Al Qaeda is to terror what the Mafia is to crime. But its goal is not making money, its goal is remaking the world and imposing its radical beliefs on people everywhere. The terrorists practice a fringe form of Islamic extremism that has been rejected by Muslim scholars and the vast majority of Muslim clerics; a fringe movement that perverts the peaceful teachings of Islam. The terrorists' directive commands them to kill Christians and Jews, to kill all Americans and make no distinctions among military and civilians, including women and children. This group and its leader, a person named Osama bin Laden, are linked to many other organizations in different countries, including the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. There are thousands of these terrorists in more than 60 countries. They are recruited from their own nations and neighborhoods and brought to camps in places like Afghanistan where they are trained in the tactics of terror. They are sent back to their homes or sent to hide in countries around the world to plot evil and destruction. The leadership of Al Qaeda has great influence in Afghanistan and supports the Taliban regime in controlling most of that country. In Afghanistan we see al Qaeda's vision for the world. Afghanistan's people have been brutalized, many are starving and many have fled. Women are not allowed to attend school. You can be jailed for owning a television. Religion can be practiced only as their leaders dictate. A man can be jailed in Afghanistan if his beard is not long enough. The United States respects the people of Afghanistan - after all, we are currently its largest source of humanitarian aid - but we condemn the Taliban regime. It is not only repressing its own people, it is threatening people everywhere by sponsoring and sheltering and supplying terrorists. By aiding and abetting murder, the Taliban regime is committing murder. And tonight the United States of America makes the following demands on the Taliban. Deliver to United States authorities all of the leaders of al Qaeda who hide in your land. Release all foreign nationals, including American citizens you have unjustly imprisoned. Protect foreign journalists, diplomats and aid workers in your country. Close immediately and permanently every terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. And hand over every terrorist and every person and their support structure to appropriate authorities. Give the United States full access to terrorist training camps, so we can make sure they are no longer operating. These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. The Taliban must act and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists or they will share in their fate. I also want to speak tonight directly to Muslims throughout the world. We respect your faith. It's practiced freely by many millions of Americans and by millions more in countries that America counts as friends. Its teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah. The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself. The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends. It is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them. Our war on terror begins with Al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated. Americans are asking "Why do they hate us?" They hate what they see right here in this chamber: a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms: our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other. They want to overthrow existing governments in many Muslim countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. They want to drive Israel out of the Middle East. They want to drive Christians and Jews out of vast regions of Asia and Africa. These terrorists kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life. With every atrocity, they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from the world and forsaking our friends. They stand against us because we stand in their way. We're not deceived by their pretenses to piety. We have seen their kind before. They are the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century. By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions, by abandoning every value except the will to power, they follow in the path of fascism, Nazism and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way to where it ends in history's unmarked grave of discarded lies. Americans are asking, "How will we fight and win this war?" We will direct every resource at our command - every means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement, every financial influence, and every necessary weapon of war - to the destruction and to the defeat of the global terror network. Now, this war will not be like the war against Iraq a decade ago, with a decisive liberation of territory and a swift conclusion. It will not look like the air war above Kosovo two years ago, where no ground troops were used and not a single American was lost in combat. Our response involves far more than instant retaliation and isolated strikes. Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign unlike any other we have ever seen. It may include dramatic strikes visible on TV and covert operations secret even in success. We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation in every region now has a decision to make: Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime. Our nation has been put on notice, we're not immune from attack. We will take defensive measures against terrorism to protect Americans. Today, dozens of federal departments and agencies, as well as state and local governments, have responsibilities affecting homeland security. These efforts must be coordinated at the highest level. So tonight, I announce the creation of a Cabinet-level position reporting directly to me, the Office of Homeland Security. And tonight, I also announce a distinguished American to lead this effort, to strengthen American security: a military veteran, an effective governor, a true patriot, a trusted friend, Pennsylvania's Tom Ridge. He will lead, oversee and coordinate a comprehensive national strategy to safeguard our country against terrorism and respond to any attacks that may come. These measures are essential. The only way to defeat terrorism as a threat to our way of life is to stop it, eliminate it and destroy it where it grows. Many will be involved in this effort, from FBI agents, to intelligence operatives, to the reservists we have called to active duty. All deserve our thanks, and all have our prayers. And tonight a few miles from the damaged Pentagon, I have a message for our military: Be ready. I have called the armed forces to alert and there is a reason. The hour is coming when America will act and you will make us proud. This is not, however, just America's fight. And what is at stake is not just America's freedom. This is the world's fight. This is civilization's fight. This is the fight of all who believe in progress and pluralism, tolerance and freedom. We ask every nation to join us. We will ask and we will need the help of police forces, intelligence service and banking systems around the world. The United States is grateful that many nations and many international organizations have already responded with sympathy and with support - nations from Latin America to Asia to Africa to Europe to the Islamic world. Perhaps the NATO charter reflects best the attitude of the world: An attack on one is an attack on all. The civilized world is rallying to America's side. They understand that if this terror goes unpunished, their own cities, their own citizens may be next. Terror unanswered can not only bring down buildings, it can threaten the stability of legitimate governments. And you know what? We're not going to allow it. Americans are asking, "What is expected of us?" I ask you to live your lives and hug your childen. I know many citizens have fears tonight and I ask you to be calm and resolute, even in the face of a continuing threat. I ask you to uphold the values of America and remember why so many have come here. We're in a fight for our principles and our first responsibility is to live by them. No one should be singled out for unfair treatment or unkind words because of their ethnic background or religious faith. I ask you to continue to support the victims of this tragedy with your contributions. Those who want to give can go to a central source of information, Libertyunites.org, to find the names of groups providing direct help in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The thousands of FBI agents who are now at work in this investigation may need your cooperation and I ask you to give it. I ask for your patience with the delays and inconveniences that may accompany tighter security and for your patience in what will be a long struggle. I ask your continued participation and confidence in the American economy. Terrorists attacked a symbol of American prosperity; they did not touch its source. America is successful because of the hard work and creativity and enterprise of our people. These were the true strengths of our economy before September 11. and they are our strengths today. And finally, please continue praying for the victims of terror and their families, for those in uniform and for our great country. Prayer has comforted us in sorrow and will help strengthen us for the journey ahead. Tonight I thank my fellow Americans for what you have already done and for what you will do. And ladies and gentlemen of the Congress, I thank you, their representatives, for what you have already done and for what we will do together. Tonight we face new and sudden national challenges. We will come together to improve air safety, to dramatically expand the number of air marshals on domestic flights and take new measures to prevent hijacking. We will come together to promote stability and keep our airlines flying with direct assistance during this emergency. We will come together to give law enforcement the additional tools it needs to track down terror here at home. We will come together to strengthen our intelligence capabilities to know the plans of terrorists before they act and to find them before they strike. We will come together to take active steps that strengthen America's economy and put our people back to work. Tonight, we welcome two leaders who embody the extraordinary spirit of all New Yorkers, Governor George Pataki and Mayor Rudolf Giuliani. As a symbol of America's resolve, my administration will work with Congress and these two leaders to show the world that we will rebuild New York City. After all that has just passed, all the lives taken and all the possibilities and hopes that died with them, it is natural to wonder if America's future is one of fear. Some speak of an age of terror. I know there are struggles ahead and dangers to face. But this country will define our times, not be defined by them. As long as the United States of America is determined and strong, this will not be an age of terror. This will be an age of liberty here and across the world. Great harm has been done to us. We have suffered great loss. And in our grief and anger we have found our mission and our moment. Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom, the great achievement of our time and the great hope of every time, now depends on us. Our nation, this generation, will lift the dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter and we will not fail. It is my hope that in the months and years ahead life will return almost to normal. We'll go back to our lives and routines and that is good. Even grief recedes with time and grace. But our resolve must not pass. Each of us will remember what happened that day and to whom it happened. We will remember the moment the news came, where we were and what we were doing. Some will remember an image of a fire or story or rescue. Some will carry memories of a face and a voice gone forever. And I will carry this. It is the police shield of a man named George Howard who died at the World Trade Center trying to save others. It was given to me by his mom, Arlene, as a proud memorial to her son. It is my reminder of lives that ended and a task that does not end. I will not forget the wound to our country and those who inflicted it. I will not yield, I will not rest, I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people. The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them. Fellow citizens, we'll meet violence with patient justice, assured of the rightness of our cause and confident of the victories to come. In all that lies before us, may God grant us wisdom and may he watch over the United States of America. Thank you." - GEORGE W. BUSH, SEPTEMBER 20, 2001, ADDRESS TO JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS 43RD PRESIDENT 2001- George Walker Bush (July 6, 1946- ) "In the Second World War, we learned there is no isolation from evil. We affirmed that some crimes are so terrible, they offend humanity itself. And we resolved that the aggressions and ambitions of the wicked must be opposed early, decisively and collectively before they threaten us all. That evil has returned, and that cause is renewed. A few miles from here, many thousands still lie in a tomb of rubble.... The suffering of September the 11th was inflicted on people of many faiths and many nations.... The terrorists are violating the tenets of every religion, including the one they invoke... The terrorists call their cause holy, yet they fund it with drug-dealing. They encourage murder and suicide in the name of a great faith that forbids both. They dare to ask God's blessing as they set out to kill innocent men, women and children. But the God of Isaac and Ishmael would never answer such a prayer. And a murderer is not a martyr. He is just a murderer. For the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11th. We will remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember every family that lives in grief. We will remember the fire and ash, the last phone calls, the funerals of the children. And the people of my country will remember those who have plotted against us. We are learning their names. We are coming to know their faces. There is no corner of the earth distant or dark enough to protect them. However long it takes, their hour of justice will come. Every nation has a stake in this cause. As we meet, the terrorists are planning more murder, perhaps in my country or perhaps in yours. They kill because they aspire to dominate. They seek to overthrow governments and destabilize entire regions. Last week, anticipating this meeting of the General Assembly, they denounced the United Nations. They called our secretary general a criminal and condemned all Arab nations here as traitors to Islam. Few countries meet their exacting standards of brutality and oppression. Every other country is a potential target. And all the world faces the most horrifying prospect of all. These same terrorists are searching for weapons of mass destruction, the tools to turn their hatred into holocaust. They can be expected to use chemical, biological and nuclear weapons the moment they are capable of doing so. No hint of conscience would prevent it. This threat cannot be ignored. This threat cannot be appeased. Civilization itself, the civilization we share, is threatened. History will record our response and judge or justify every nation in this hall. The civilized world is now responding. We act to defend ourselves and deliver our children from a future of fear. We choose the dignity of life over a culture of death. We choose lawful change and civil disagreement over coercion, subversion and chaos. These commitments - hope and order, law and life - unite people across cultures and continents. Upon these commitments depend all peace and progress. For these commitments we are determined to fight. The United Nations has risen to this responsibility. On the 12th of September, these buildings opened for emergency meetings of the General Assembly and the Security Council. Before the sun had set, these attacks on the world stood condemned by the world. And I want to thank you for this strong and principled stand. I also thank the Arab and Islamic countries that have condemned terrorist murder. Many of you have seen the destruction of terror in your own lands. The terrorists are increasingly isolated by their own hatred and extremism. They cannot hide behind Islam. The authors of mass murder and their allies have no place in any culture and no home in any faith. The conspiracies of terror are being answered by an expanding global coalition. Not every nation will be a part of every action against the enemy, but every nation in our coalition has duties. These duties can be demanding, as we in America are learning. We have already made adjustments in our laws and in our daily lives. We're taking new measures to investigate terror and to protect against threats. The leaders of all nations must now carefully consider their responsibilities and their future. Terrorist groups like al Qaida depend upon the aid or indifference of government. They need the support of a financial infrastructure and safe havens to train and plan and hide. Some nations want to play their part in the fight against terror but tell us they lack the means to enforce their laws and control their borders. We stand ready to help. Some governments still turn a blind eye to the terrorists, hoping the threat will pass them by. They are mistaken. And some governments, while pledging to uphold the principles of the U.N., have cast their lot with the terrorists. They support them and harbor them, and they will find that their welcomed guests are parasites that will weaken them and eventually consume them. For every regime that sponsors terror, there is a price to be paid, and it will be paid. The allies of terror are equally guilty of murder and equally accountable to justice. The Taliban are now learning this lesson. That regime and the terrorists who support it are now virtually indistinguishable. Together they promote terror abroad and impose a reign of terror on the Afghan people. Women are executed in Kabul's soccer stadium. They can be beaten for wearing socks that are too thin. Men are jailed for missing prayer meetings. The United States, supported by many nations, is bringing justice to the terrorists in Afghanistan. We're making progress against military targets, and that is our objective. Unlike the enemy, we seek to minimize, not maximize, the loss of innocent life. I'm proud of the honorable conduct of the American military. And my country grieves for all the suffering the Taliban have brought upon Afghanistan, including the terrible burden of war. The Afghan people do not deserve their present rulers. Years of Taliban misrule have brought nothing but misery and starvation. Even before this current crisis, 4 million Afghans depended on food from the United States and other nations, and millions of Afghans were refugees from Taliban oppression. I make this promise to all the victims of that regime: The Taliban's days of harboring terrorists and dealing in heroin and brutalizing women are drawing to a close. And when that regime is gone, the people of Afghanistan will say, with the rest of the world, "Good riddance." I can promise, too, that America will join the world in helping the people of Afghanistan rebuild their country. Many nations, including mine, are sending food and medicine to help Afghans through the winter. America has air-dropped over 1.3 million packages of rations into Afghanistan. Just this week, we airlifted 20,000 blankets and over 200 tons of provisions into the region. We continue to provide humanitarian aid, even while the Taliban try to steal the food we send. More help eventually will be needed. The United States will work closely with the United Nations and development banks to reconstruct Afghanistan after hostilities there have ceased and the Taliban are no longer in control. And the United States will work with the U.N. to support a post-Taliban government that represents all of the Afghan people. In this war of terror, each of us must answer for what we have done or what we have left undone. After tragedy, there is a time for sympathy and condolence. And my country has been very grateful for both. The memorials and vigils around the world will not be forgotten. But the time for sympathy has now passed. The time for action has now arrived. The most basic obligations in this new conflict have already been defined by the United Nations. On September the 28th, the Security Council adopted Resolution 1373. Its requirements are clear: Every United Nations member has a responsibility to crack down on terrorist financing. We must pass all necessary laws in our own countries to allow the confiscation of terrorist assets. We must apply those laws to every financial institution in every nation. We have a responsibility to share intelligence and coordinate the efforts of law enforcement. If you know something, tell us. If we know something, we'll tell you. And when we find the terrorists, we must work together to bring them to justice. We have a responsibility to deny any sanctuary, safe haven or transit to terrorists. Every known terrorist camp must be shut down, its operators apprehended, and evidence of their arrest presented to the United Nations. We have a responsibility to deny weapons to terrorists and to actively prevent private citizens from providing them. These obligations are urgent and they are binding on every nation with a place in this chamber. Many governments are taking these obligations seriously, and my country appreciates it. Yet even beyond Resolution 1373, more is required and more is expected of our coalition against terror. We're asking for a comprehensive commitment to this fight. We must unite in opposing all terrorists, not just some of them. In this world there are good causes and bad causes, and we may disagree on where that line is drawn. Yet there is no such thing as a good terrorist. No national aspiration, no remembered wrong, can ever justify the deliberate murder of the innocent. Any government that rejects this principle trying to pick and choose its terrorist friends will know the consequences. We must speak the truth about terror. Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of September the 11th, malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists themselves, away from the guilty. To inflame ethnic hatred is to advance the cause of terror. The war against terror must not serve as an excuse to persecute ethnic and religious minorities in any country. Innocent people must be allowed to live their own lives, by their own customs, under their own religion. And every nation must have avenues for the peaceful expression of opinion and dissent. When these avenues are closed, the temptation to speak through violence grows. We must press on with our agenda for peace and prosperity in every land. My country is pledged to encouraging development and expanding trade. My country is pledged to investing in education in combating AIDS and other infectious diseases around the world. Following September 11th, these pledges are even more important. In our struggle against hateful groups that exploit poverty and despair, we must offer an alternative of opportunity and hope. The American government also stands by its commitment to a just peace in the Middle East. We are working toward a day when two states, Israel and Palestine, live peacefully together within secure and recognized borders, as called for by the Security Council resolutions. We will do all in our power to bring both parties back into negotiations. But peace will only come when all have sworn off forever incitement, violence and terror. And finally, this struggle is a defining moment for the United Nations itself, and the world needs its principled leadership. It undermines the credibility of this great institution, for example, when the Commission on Human Rights offers seats to the world?s most persistent violators of human rights. The United Nations depends above all on its moral authority, and that authority must be preserved. The steps I've described will not be easy. For all nations they will require effort. For some nations they will require great courage. Yet the cost of inaction is far greater. The only alternative to victory is a nightmare world where every city is a potential killing field. As I've told the American people, freedom and fear are at war. We face enemies that hate not our policies but our existence, the tolerance of openness and creative culture that defines us. But the outcome of this conflict is certain. There is a current in history, and it runs toward freedom. Our enemies resent it and dismiss it, but the dreams of mankind are defined by liberty, the natural right to create and build and worship and live in dignity. When men and women are released from oppression and isolation, they find fulfillment and hope, and they leave poverty by the millions. These aspirations are lifting up the peoples of Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, and they can lift up all of the Islamic world. We stand for the permanent hopes of humanity, and those hopes will not be denied. We are confident, too, that history has an author who fills time and eternity with his purpose. We know that evil is real, but good will prevail against it. This is the teaching of many faiths. And in that assurance, we gain strength for a long journey. It is our task, the task of this generation, to provide the response to aggression and terror. We have no other choice, because there is no other peace. We did not ask for this mission, yet there is honor in history's call. We have a chance to write the story of our times, a story of courage defeating cruelty and light overcoming darkness. This calling is worthy of any life and worthy of every nation. So let us go forward, confident, determined and unafraid. Thank you very much." - GEORGE W. BUSH, NOVEMBER 10, 2001, ADDRESS TO UNITED NATIONS 43RD PRESIDENT 2001- George Walker Bush (July 6, 1946- ) "In a moment, we will light the National Christmas Tree, a tradition Americans have been celebrating since 1923... Sixty years ago, less than three weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Prime Minister Winston Churchill made an appearance with President Franklin Roosevelt to light the tree. Now, once again, we celebrate Christmas in a time of testing, with American troops far from home. This season finds our country with losses to mourn and great tasks to complete. In all those tasks, it is worth recalling the words from a beautiful Christmas hymn - in the third verse of "Oh Holy Night" we sing, "His law is love, and His gospel is peace. Chains ye shall break, for the slave is our brother. And in His name all oppression shall cease." America seeks peace, and believes in justice. We fight only when necessary. We fight so that oppression may cease. And even in the midst of war, we pray for peace on Earth and goodwill to men." - GEORGE W. BUSH, DECEMBER 6, 2001, PAGENT OF PEACE - LIGHTING NATIONAL CHRISTMAS TREE 43RD PRESIDENT 2001- George Walker Bush (July 6, 1946- ) "Tonight, for the first time in American history, the Hanukkah menorah will be lit at the White House residence... The magnificent menorah before us was crafted over a century ago in the city of Lvov... The Jews of Lvov fell victim to the horror of the Nazi Holocaust, but their great menorah survived. And as God promised Abraham, the people of Israel still live. This has been a year of much sadness in the United States, and for our friends in Israel... But as we watch the lighting of this second candle of Hanukkah, we're reminded of the ancient story of Israel's courage and of the power of faith to make the darkness bright. We can see the heroic spirit of the Macabees lives on in Israel today, and we trust that a better day is coming, when this Festival of Freedom will be celebrated in a world free from terror."- GEORGE W. BUSH, DECEMBER 10, 2001, LIGHTING OF MENORAH AT THE WHITE HOUSE 43RD PRESIDENT 2001- George Walker Bush (July 6, 1946- ) "Evil is real, and it must be opposed. Beyond all differences of race or creed, we are one country, mourning together and facing danger together. Deep in the American character, there is honor... And many have discovered again that even in tragedy - especially in tragedy - God is near. In a single instant, we realized that this will be a decisive decade in the history of liberty, that we've been called to a unique role in human events.... Our enemies send other people's children on missions of suicide and murder. They embrace tyranny and death as a cause and a creed. We stand for a different choice, made long ago, on the day of our founding. We affirm it again today. We choose freedom and the dignity of every life. Steadfast in our purpose, we now press on. We have known freedom's price. We have shown freedom's power. And in this great conflict, my fellow Americans, we will see freedom's victory. Thank you all. May God bless." - GEORGE W. BUSH, JANUARY 29, 2002, STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS 43RD PRESIDENT 2001- George Walker Bush (July 6, 1946- ) "Religious freedom is a cornerstone of our Republic... Many of those who first settled in America, such as Pilgrims, came for the freedom of worship and belief that this new land promised. And when the British Colonies became the United States, our Founders constitutionally limited our Federal Government's capacity to interfere with religious belief... Many miles from home, American service men and women have risked their lives in our efforts to drive the Taliban regime from power, ending an era of brutal oppression, including religious oppression. At home...in quiet prayers offered to God... Americans have shown a deep love for others... I urge all Americans to observe this day by asking for the blessing and protection of Almighty God for our Nation, and to engage in appropriate ceremonies and activities in their homes, schools, and places of worship." - GEORGE W. BUSH, JANUARY 16, 2002, RELIGIOUS FREEDOM DAY PROCLAMATION 43RD PRESIDENT 2001- George Walker Bush (July 6, 1946- ) "All of us here today believe in the promise of modern medicine...And we're also here because we believe in the principles of ethical medicine. As we seek to improve human life, we must always preserve human dignity. And therefore, we must prevent human cloning by stopping it before it starts. ...Advances in biomedical technology must never come at the expense of human conscience. As we seek what is possible, we must always ask what is right, and we must not forget that even the most noble ends do not justify any means....Life is a creation, not a commodity. Our children are gifts to be loved and protected, not products to be designed and manufactured....I believe all human cloning is wrong." - GEORGE W. BUSH, APRIL 10, 2002, NATIONAL ADDRESS ON BANNING HUMAN CLONING Copyright 2002 William J. Federer. All rights reserved. Conditions of Use - No prior permission is necessary to duplicate less than 1,000 words provided acknowledgement is given to: Presidential Quotations, William J. Federer. To duplicate over 1,000 words for purposes of financial involvement, please write or fax: P.O. 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