campconstitution

The Weekly Sam: The Gangster Regime in Washington By Samuel L. Blumenfeld

Published May 13, 2026 | By campconstitution

A gangster is a member of a gang of individuals who are guilty of crimes. A crime, as
we all know, is an act violating a law that prohibits it. Most of our prohibitions are
based on the Ten Commandments. But many more prohibitions have been added by our
statist government such as failure to use a seatbelt or talking on a cellphone while
driving. But true gangsters are guilty of major crimes: murder, extortion, kidnapping,
theft, etc.

The problem with the regime in Washington is that the man in the White House refuses to
reveal his birth certificate or education records. Why? What is he hiding? Is he in
violation of the law requiring the a presidential candidate to prove that he is a natural
born American? And is he surrounded by a gang in the White House who are
accomplices in this great deception?
All of these accomplices in the White House and in Congress are clearly violating the
Constitution of the United States, which they have all sworn to uphold. That in itself is a
crime.

Furthermore, there is nothing in the Constitution that permits the gang in
Washington to bail out banks and insurance companies, take ownership of automobile
companies, impose a national health care plan, enact draconian restrictions on commerce
and industry in the name of global warming, or indoctrinate children in the public
schools.

Those who now occupy the White House believe that they are a law unto themselves and
no longer have to uphold the Constitution of the United States, which limits what the
federal government can do. The socialist gang in the White House believes in unlimited
government, capable of doing anything it wants. And those in Congress who agree with
the principle of unlimited government are equally guilty of violating their oaths of office.
And our national media, to its shame, casts a blind eye to all of the criminality now
taking place in Washington in the guise of “government.” That is the most disappointing
aspect in all of this: the news media of a free country which is supposed to be the
citizens’ watchdog, becoming an accomplice in the promotion of unconstitutional
government.

Not a single one of the well-paid talking heads will question the
constitutionality of what the White House is doing.
Because our mechanisms of government are now run by a gang, the entire system has
become corrupt from top to bottom. All of the departments ruled by the executive
branch are now run by Gangster Number One. He calls the tune, whether it be the
department of education, or of defense, commerce, or foreign affairs. The corruption
starts at the top and filters its way down to the bottom.

These are the facts of life that Americans must now confront. The Declaration of
Independence states that “all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to
suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to
which they are accustomed.“ In other words, the present situation, as bad as it is, has not
gotten bad enough to justify physical revolution. There is still the ballot box, and

Americans will be able to get the gangsters out of Washington in the Congressional
election in 2010. It is then we shall know to what the degree the American people have
become as corrupt as their government, or whether they still believe in the Constitution of
the United States.

What is particularly disheartening and somewhat startling is the sight of elected
American lawmakers, so-called Democrats, finally showing their true socialist colors.
These enemies of the American system now occupy the halls of Congress and many state
legislatures, doing all in their power to transform the nation our founding fathers gave us
into one resembling any number of decrepit socialist utopias spreading misery around the
world. Our legislators and leaders have brought us to this precipice, using trillions of
taxpayer’s dollars to finance all of their criminal projects. But only the American people
can set things right again. And let’s pray that they do.

Editor:  The above article comes from the Blumenfeld Archives:  http://blumenfeld.campconstitution.net/main.htm

 

The Blumenfeld Archives

The Weekly Sam: HOME SCHOOLING AND THE EDUCATIONAL CRISIS by Samuel L. Blumenfeld

Published May 9, 2026 | By campconstitution

 

Home schooling is now the fastest growing educational phenomenon in the United States. For example, in April of this year, Massachusetts had its first home-school convention and more than 600 registries showed up, many with babes in arms preparing for the future. These are young Christian families who have decided that their children will never see the inside of a public school. No one knows exactly how many children are being educated at home. Estimates vary from 200,000 to a million. What we do know is that there are now home-school associations in every state and more home-school conventions, conferences, seminars, workshops, and book fairs than anyone family can attend.

Why is the home-education movement attracting so many new young families? Much of it has to do with the renewal of the Christian family and the desire to adhere to Biblical principles in child rearing. The growing knowledge among Christians that the public schools are aggressively proselytizing Christian children into humanism via such programs as values clarification, sensitivity training, globalism, multiculturalism, evolution, sex education, and death education is perhaps the most compelling reason why parents are turning to home schooling as the preferred alternative. Also, many families are disappointed in the lukewarm religious content of many Christian schools that seem to adopt too much from  the public schools in curriculum and general practice.

What the parents want is a strong, radical shift in orientation toward the Bible. They seek its moral and spiritual security in a world inundated by pornography, drugs, violence, abortion. political corruption and pagan depravity. The home school is being recognized as perhaps the only sure safe haven for children growing up in an increasingly dangerous society. Meanwhile, the education establishment has become quite concerned with the growth of the Horne-education movement, which is contributing to the exodus from the public school. In fact, in its 1988 convention, the National Education Association virtually declared war on home education with its Resolution C-34:

“The National Education Association believes that home-school programs cannot provide the child with a comprehensive education experience. “The Association believes that, if parental preference home-school study occurs, students enrolled must meet all state requirements. Instruction should be by persons who are licensed by the appropriate state education licensure agency, and a curriculum approved by the state department of education should be used. The Association further believes that such home-school programs should be limited to the children of the immediate family, with all expenses being borne by the parents.”

While the NEA deprecates the home school as an educational institution, the home schoolers are proving that their children are indeed getting a “comprehensive education experience” far superior to the academic junk-food that public schoolers are fed for twelve years and result in declining test scores and increased functional illiteracy. All of this has led to an education reform movement which is costing the taxpayers additional billions without any visible improvement to date. In addition, wherever home schoolers have been tested~ they’ve done better than their public-school counterparts. For example, in Tennessee, where about 900 home schoolers were registered with the state in 1989 — even though it is estimated that about 4,000 Tennessee children are being taught at home — home schoolers did quite well.  The Chattanooga News-Free Press of Dec. 11, 1989, reported:

“State tests show that second graders are about equal to their classroom-educated counterparts. But by the fifth grade, home schoolers have passed their classroom peers in reading, and by the seventh grade home schoolers excel in both math and language, scores show.”

In 1987, the performance of homeschoolers in Tennessee was equally impressive. Of the 561 homeschoolers tested, 213 outscored 245,000 of their public school counterparts. Fifty-nine homeschool second graders were among the nation’s top 16 percent in reading ability and in the top 10 percentile in math. In the eighth grade, 30 homeschoolers scored 89 percent in reading and 79 percent in math. The 61,518 public school students scored 82 percent in reading and 72 percent in math. (Chattanooga Times, 8/13/87).

The reason why home schoolers do so well is because one-on-one tutoring is far superior to the classroom situation where children who need help get lost in the crowd. In tutoring you get immediate feedback, immediate correction, and thus the child is less likely to develop bad academic habits. Also, home-schooling parents are more apt to teach their children to read by intensive phonics than by the discredited, inefficient look-say or whole-word method. This makes an enormous difference when the goal is academic excellence.

Another reason why home schoolers excel is because home educators are highly motivated, dedicated parents, committed to providing their children with the best education possible. They want their children to become the best that America has to offer. The home-educated youngster represents the finest expression of the American Christian character; moral in behavior, peer independent, self-confident, respectful of elders, self-disciplined, inventive, freedom loving, patriotic, enterprising, God fearing. These are the youngsters who will become the leaders of tomorrow. It is symptomatic of our corrupt, paganized society that it is the finest Christian families, who have accepted their responsibility to educate and rear their children in a Godly manner, who are being , harassed and prosecuted by educational bureaucrats and state attorneys in Iowa, Michigan and elsewhere, determined to impose an atheistic sovereignty over God’s children. There will be many trials and tribulations in the days ahead, but in Christ, victory is ultimately assured.

(The above article is from the Sam Blumenfeld Archive:

http://blumenfeld.campconstitution.net/main.htm

 

The Blumenfeld Archives

CAMP CONSTITUTION LADIES’ 2026 SPRING FLING/ADVANCE REPORT OF ACTIVITIES by Mrs. Edith Craft

Published May 8, 2026 | By campconstitution

May 1, 2026  –  May 3, 2026  –  Sixth Annual Spring Fling/Advance –  Alton Bay Christian Center, Alton, NH

Camp Constitution  Ladies started the weekend on Friday night with a Potluck that was so generously, abundantly supplied with Main Dishes, Salads, Breads, Desserts, and Beverages, etc.  There was much more food than our group of Ladies could possibly eat.  Special Treat:  Ever Sweet Shop (cookie decorating) with Lacey Lounsbury.  Here was a ‘craft’ you could eat!! There was great fellowship while eating, getting to know first-timers, greeting returning friends, and enjoying singing at an indoor ‘campfire!’   (Noted:  warm and dry!)

We had a full Agenda of speakers, sharing God’s Word, sharing encouraging words with each other, crafts to be assembled, beautiful Camp Constitution shirts to purchase, and an array of books for purchase, just to mention a portion of our continuous activities.

Guests Presenters/Speakers and their topics or gifts were:  Pat Palmer, first-time music presenter with piano and songs; Morning Chair Yoga, first-time attendee, Priscilla Feeney; Devotions:  “Prayer” Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 with Priscilla Terry; Michelle Gallagher spoke on “The Forefathers Monument” (using a fact-filled PowerPoint presentation and presenting the book she authored); and Deb Roux spoke on the Guide to the Forefathers Book Project and reminded us to join in the celebration of America’s 250 Anniversary, attending activities in Plymouth, MA.  Our very own Roberta Stewart spoke on “What to Do When I’m Gone,” complete with guide books to aid the process of connecting with family and loved ones.  All of the beautiful, ingenuous crafts were presented by Maura Shurtleff who is uniquely gifted in the area of craft-making.  What a line-up of activities!

One great, effective activity was to Pray Every Hour on the Hour which was started years earlier by a precious prayer warrior, Sapphire Giminez.   Every Lady was encouraged to participate just by praying whatever was on their heart.  What an enriching and emboldening activity!

Every meal from the Dining Hall was delicious, plenteous, and well-presented by a friendly and accommodating staff.  No one could leave a meal without being full and satisfied.

CC Ladies’ Sixth Annual Spring Fling/Advance was made possible and successful by hard-working, dedicated organizers:  Roberta Stewart, Maura Shurtleff, Kathy Mickle, and Hal Shurtleff.  We had our very own RN on site, Kathy Mickle.   Special Thanks! To ALL hands-on organizers and sponsors.

Every attendee was abundantly blessed by all the gifts and special treats that were provided and covered in one inclusive fee.  The generosity of this group far exceeds most gatherings of ladies’ groups.

As you read the above Blessings experienced this May, 2026, please consider our next Advance!

 

The Most Honorable Work in the World Culture spent fifty years convincing women it wasn’t. by Alexander J. Destino Jr.

Published May 5, 2026 | By campconstitution

 

 

 

Is there a greater honor or more important job in the world than being a wife and mother?

God designed women for this calling and equipped them for it — nurturing, strength, instinct, and love. No man can replace what they do. It is the foundation of the family — where faith is first formed and where civilization begins.

“She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.” — Proverbs 31:25

Being a wife and mother — there is nothing more feminine, more powerful, or more purposeful a woman can do. It is exactly what God created her for. But generations of women have been told by the culture that fulfillment is found somewhere else. It never was.

“She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.” — Proverbs 31:27

This is not a small calling. This is world-shaping work. The fruit of a faithful mother lasts forever.

“Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her.” — Proverbs 31:28

Convincing women that motherhood is somehow “less than” is one of the greatest lies ever told. The progressive feminist movement promised liberation. What it delivered was a second full-time job — and the American family paid the price.

Most mothers today aren’t choosing between career and home. The choice was made for them. There was a time in this country when a family could have a home, a car, two or three children — and do it on one income. That wasn’t a fairy tale. That was America. When the culture told women the home was beneath them, it also helped engineer an economy that made sure they couldn’t afford to stay there. Then it called that progress.

The women who worked full-time and came home to be mothers anyway — they are not the failure of this story. They are the strength of it. They did what they had to do. The failure belongs to the culture that put them there.

“Train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind.” — Titus 2:4–5

This calling was never meant to die with one generation. It was meant to be passed down.

Any political movement that builds a serious economic framework to allow families to thrive on one income again will have the support of the American people for generations. The family vote is the most powerful vote in this country. When families can survive on one income, families will flourish — and this nation will properly raise its children again.

The resources are there. The billions wasted on fraud, bloated bureaucracy, and programs that have done nothing to strengthen the American family could be redirected toward the people doing the most important work in the world — raising the next generation.

God did not make a mistake with His design for marriage and motherhood. The mistake was abandoning His design.

And it is never too late to find our way back.

(Reposted with permission from the author. )

The Weekly Sam: How to Dumb Down a Nation By Samuel L. Blumenfeld

Published April 22, 2026 | By campconstitution

It’s easy. Destroy its literacy, and you’ve dumbed it down. And once dumbed down, it
becomes the potential victim of any power that wants to dominate it.
If you look at the most illiterate nations on the planet, you find that they are ruled by
despots, their people live in abject poverty and have no hope for a better future. That
doesn’t mean that literate nations, like Germany, can’t produce monsters. But when they
do, we know that satanic influences are behind it.

America, from its beginning, was the most literate nation on earth, and the result was
positive in every respect. Why was it so literate? Because the people and their leaders
were governed by the precepts of the Bible, and biblical literacy was paramount in the
education of the country’s children.

But once we got a government schooling system, which was taken over by atheist
progressive educators, the God of the Bible was removed from the schools. It then
became possible to introduce a new socialist curriculum with teaching methods
calculated to reduce American literacy. The Bible was now relegated to an hour of study
in church on Sundays. And because it was no longer part of the curriculum, children no
longer considered it important to life.

A blatant, anti-biblical morality was introduced in the schools through such programs as
values clarification, sensitivity training, transcendental meditation, sex education, death
education, drug education, multiculturalism, psychotherapy, evolution, secular
humanism, and other such programs. Moral degeneration has been the inevitable result.
The result is that America has been greatly dumbed-down.

(The above was written by my late friend and mentor Sam Blumenfeld about twenty-five years ago.  Sam offered

a solution and that was his “Alpha-Phonics.”  We have his “Alpha-Phonics” with all 128 lessons in audio or video free or charge

here:  http://blumenfeld.campconstitution.net/main.htm or a hardcopy available from our on-line shop:

 

https://campconstitution.net/product/alpha-phonics-by-sam-blumenfeld/

 

April 19, 2026 Marks the 251st Anniversary of the Battle of Concord and Lexington-The Shot Heard Around the World

Published April 19, 2026 | By campconstitution

Today, April 19, 2026 is the anniversary of the Battle of Concord and Lexington.

This video begins with a narration of the event, and then we see the Lexington Militia, led by Captain John Parker, mustering on the green, taking roll call.   Shortly thereafter, the British, led by Major James Pitcairn, demanded that the “rebels’ lay down their arms, and then the “shot that was heard about the world “rings out.  The brief battle ends with the loss of eight militiamen including Jonathan Harrington who crawled across the road and died in his wife’s arms, and ten wounded including Prince Estabrook, a slave who eventually got his freedom.  Only one British soldier wounded during the short battle.  The British went on to Concord where they met stiff resistance and were driven back to Boston.

Camp Constitution provides tours of Concord and Lexington.  To schedule a tour, please call Hal Shurtleff 857-498-1309 or E-mail him at campconstitution1@gmail.com

 

 

 

American Minute with Bill Federer Patriots’ Day: Lexington & Concord, and Ri “To Disarm the People is the Best Way to Enslave Them” George Mason Right to Bear Arms –

Published April 18, 2026 | By campconstitution

 
Read American Minute

The sun never set on the British Empire.

It was the largest empire in world history … continue reading …

Download as PDF …

Miracles in American History-Vol. TWO: Amazing Faith that Shaped the Nation
Out of nearly 200 countries in the world, only 22 were never controlled, invaded or attacked by Britain.
In April of 1775, the British Royal Military Governor of Massachusetts, General Thomas Gage, sent 800 British Army Regulars, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith, on a preemptive raid to seize guns from American patriots at Lexington and Concord.
George Mason of Virginia stated:

“To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”
A warning was sent from Boston’s Old North Church that the British were coming, as recounted in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride”:

“Listen my children and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the 18th of April, in 75;

Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year.
… He said to his friend, ‘If the British march

By land or sea from the town to-night,

Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch

Of the North Church tower as a signal light …

One if by land, and two if by sea;

And I on the opposite shore will be,

 

Ready to ride and spread the alarm

Through every Middlesex village and farm,

For the country folk to be up and to arm …

Through the gloom and the light,

The fate of a nation was riding that night;

And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight.”
Paul Revere was captured along the way, but William Dawes and Dr. Samuel Prescott continued the midnight ride.

Revere wrote:

“About 10 o’clock, Dr. Warren sent in great haste for me, and begged that I would immediately set off for Lexington, where Messrs. Hancock & Adams were …

I got a horse of Deacon Larkin … (and) set off … It was then about 11 o’clock … After I had passed Charlestown Neck … I saw two men on horseback … When I got near them, I discovered they were British officers.

One tried to get a head of me, and the other to take me. I turned my horse very quick, and galloped … to Medford Road.

The one who chased me, endeavoring to cut me off, got into a clay pond, near where the new tavern is now built. I got clear of him …

I went through Medford, over the bridge, and up to Menotomy … I alarmed almost every house, till I got to Lexington …”
Revere continued:

“I … mentioned, that we had better alarm all the inhabitants till we got to Concord; the young Doctor much approved of it …

We had got nearly half way.

Mr. Dawes and the Doctor stopped to alarm the people of a house: I was about one hundred rods a head, when I saw two men … in an instant I was surrounded by four …

The Doctor being foremost, he came up; and we tried to get past them; but they being armed with pistols and swords, they forced us in to the pasture; -the Doctor jumped his horse over a low stone wall, and got to Concord …

Six officers, on horseback … ordered me to dismount … He asked me if I was an express? I answered in the affirmative. He demanded what time I left Boston …

Major Mitchel, of the 5th Regiment, clapped his pistol to my head … and told me he was going to ask me some questions, and if I did not give him true answers, he would blow my brains out.”
In a related story, four months earlier, on December 13, 1774, two British warships set sail for Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to seize gunpowder and weapons patriots had taken from Fort William and Mary.

Riding all night to warn the citizens of Portsmouth that the British were coming were Paul Revere and 29-year-old African American Wentworth Cheswell.

Cheswell was constable of Newmarket, New Hampshire, being considered the first African American elected to public office in U.S. history.
Paul Revere also described a spy, Dr. Benjamin Church, who leaked patriot plans to British General Gates before the Battle of Lexington:

“Dr. Church … appeared to be a high son of Liberty. He frequented all the places where they met …

I came across Deacon Caleb Davis. … He told me, that the morning Dr. Church went into Boston … General Gage and Dr. Church came out of a room, discoursing together, like persons who had been long acquainted.

He appeared to be quite surprised at seeing Deacon Davis there …

I was told by another person … that he saw Church go in to General Gage’s House … that he got out of the carriage and went up the steps more like a man that was acquainted …

He did not doubt that Church was in the interest of the British; and that it was he who informed Gen. Gage … that a short time before the Battle of Lexington … Church had no money … (and) all at once, he had several hundred New British Guineas.”

A “guinea” was a British coin containing one quarter ounce of gold.
On April 19th, “Patriots’ Day,” the British continued their march to Lexington and Concord intent on seizing arms and arresting Tea Party leader Samuel Adams and Massachusetts Provincial Congress president John Hancock.
On the way, the British passed through Arlington, Massachusetts.

They stormed the inn where lodged the patriots Elbridge Gerry, Azor Orne and Jeremiah Lee, who was America’s largest colonial ship owner and the wealthiest man in Massachusetts.

Jeremiah Lee was using his ships to smuggle in supplies to the patriots.

When the British stormed the inn, Gerry, Orne and Lee fled wearing only their night clothes and hid, laying on the cold ground in a wet cornfield for hours.

Jeremiah Lee caught a pneumonia and died a few weeks later.
John Hancock had previously experienced British tax collectors confiscating his merchant ship Liberty in 1768

Hancock had declared to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, April 15, 1775:

“In circumstances dark as these, it becomes us, as men and Christians, to reflect that, whilst every prudent measure should be taken to ward off the impending judgments …

(a day) … be set apart as a Day of Public Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer … to confess their sins … to implore the Forgiveness of all our Transgression.”
Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull, whom Washington called ‘the first of the patriots’, was the only colonial governor at the start of the Revolution to support the patriot cause.

Trumbull proclaimed a Day of Fasting, April 19, 1775, that:

“God would graciously pour out His Holy Spirit on us to bring us to a thorough repentance and effectual reformation that our iniquities may not be our ruin;

that He would restore, preserve and secure the liberties of this and all the other British American colonies, and make the land a mountain of Holiness, and habitation of righteousness forever.”
As the sun rose, April 19, 1775, there were 800 British regulars approaching Lexington’s town green.

To their surprise, they were met by Lexington’s militia, comprised of 77 men who were mostly members of the Church of Christ, pastored by Rev. Jonas Clark, whose wife was a cousin of John Hancock.
Patriot captain John Parker told the militia:

“Stand your ground; don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have War, let it begin here!”

It is disputed who fired first, but the British opened fire and killed or wounded eighteen of Captain Parker’s men.
In his sermon preached a year later, April 19, 1776, Pastor Jonas Clark described:

“Under cover of the darkness, a brigade of these instruments of violence and tyranny, made their approach …

They enter this town … like murders and cut-throats … without provocation, without warning, when no war was proclaimed, they draw the sword of violence, upon the inhabitants of this town,

and with a cruelty and barbarity, which would have made the most hardened savage blush, they shed INNOCENT BLOOD! …”
Pastor Clark continued:

“And the names of Munroe, Parker, and others, that fell victims to the rage of blood-thirsty oppressors, on that gloomy morning …

And from the nineteenth of April, 1775, we may venture to predict, will be dated, in future history, THE LIBERTY or SLAVERY of the AMERICAN WORLD, according as a sovereign God shall see fit to smile, or frown upon the interesting cause, in which we are engaged.”
The American militia retreated, growing to number 400, and took a stand at Concord’s Old North Bridge.

The British fired first, wounding four and killing two.

Militia commander John Buttrick yelled:

“Fire, for God’s sake, fellow soldiers, fire!”

Taking many casualties, the British began a hasty retreat 20 miles back to Boston, being ambushed along the way by John Parker’s militia in “Parker’s Revenge.”

Tragically, in the anger of their retreat, the British shot or bayoneted almost everyone in the town of Menotomy.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow continued his poem:

“You know the rest. In the books you have read

How the British Regulars fired and fled,—

How the farmers gave them ball for ball,

From behind each fence and farmyard wall,

Chasing the redcoats down the lane,

Then crossing the fields to emerge again

Under the trees at the turn of the road,

And only pausing to fire and load.”
Longfellow ended:

“So through the night rode Paul Revere;

And so through the night went his cry of alarm

To every Middlesex village and farm,—

A cry of defiance, and not of fear,

A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,

And a word that shall echo for evermore!

For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,

Through all our history, to the last,
… In the hour of darkness and peril and need,

The people will waken and listen to hear

The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,

And the midnight message of Paul Revere.”
Though it took eight long years, Americans won their independence.

A century later, on April 19, 1875, at that same Old North Bridge, patriots were honored by the dedication of the “Minute Man Statue” designed by Daniel Chester French.
On the statue’s base is a stanza of the poem The Concord Hymn, written Ralph Waldo Emerson, April 19, 1860:

“By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled;

Here once the embattled farmers stood;

And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;

Alike the conqueror silent sleeps,

And time the ruined bridge has swept,

Down the dark stream that seaward creeps.
… On this green bank, by this soft stream,

We place with joy a votive stone,

That memory may their deeds redeem,

When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

O Thou who made those heroes dare,

To die, and leave their children free,

Bid time and nature gently spare,

The shaft we raised to them and Thee.”
Two months after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the Continental Congress, under President John Hancock, declared, June 12, 1775:

“Congress … considering the present critical, alarming and calamitous state … do earnestly recommend … a Day of Public Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer,

that we may with united hearts … confess and deplore our many sins and offer up our joint supplications to the All-wise, Omnipotent and merciful Disposer of all Events, humbly beseeching Him to forgive our iniquities …

It is recommended to Christians of all denominations to assemble for public worship and to abstain from servile labor and recreations of said day.”
The Revolutionary War began with an attempt by government officials to seize citizens’ guns.

Patriots had prepared for this with the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, October 26, 1774, organizing their defenses with one-third of their regiments being “Minutemen,” men who were ready to fight at a minute’s notice.
This idea came from the Bible, where in Ancient Israel every man was armed and ready to defend his family and community:

David B. Kopel wrote in “Ancient Hebrew Militia Law” (Denver University Law Review, July 15, 2013):

“New Englanders intensely self-identified with ancient Israel … Thus, ancient Hebrew militia law is part of the intellectual background of the American militia system, and of the Second Amendment …

Every male ‘from the age of twenty years up, all those in Israel who are able to bear arms’ … were obliged to fight, to go forth ‘armed to battle.’

Men who failed this duty ‘sinned against the Lord.'”
E.C. Wines wrote in Commentaries on the Laws of the Ancient Hebrews (NY: Geo. P. Putnam & Co., 1853):

“Moses’ constitution made no provision for a standing army …

The whole body of citizens … formed a national guard.”
  • “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side” (Exodus 32:27);
  • “They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh” (Song of Solomon 3:8);
  • “Every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side (Nehemiah 4:17-18).
James Madison wrote (Letters & Writings of James Madison, 1865, p. 406):

“The advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation … forms a barrier against the enterprise of ambition …

Kingdoms of Europe … are afraid to trust the people with arms.”
Noah Webster wrote in An Examination into the leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, October 10, 1787:

“Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe.

The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword because the whole body of the people are armed.”
Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story wrote in Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, 2nd Edition, 1833, p. 125):

“The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium (safeguard) of the liberties of a Republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers.”
Machiavelli wrote in The Prince (trans. L. Ricci, 1952, p. 73, 81):

“An armed republic submits less easily to the rule of one of its citizens.”
Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Cooley wrote in The General Principles of Constitutional Law (2nd Ed., 1891, p. 282):

“The Second Amendment … was meant to be a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers …

The people … shall have the right to keep and bear arms, and they need no permission or regulation of law for the purpose.”
Patrick Henry wrote (Elliott, ed., The Debates in the Several State Conventions, 1836, 1941, p. 378):

“Let him candidly tell me, where and when did freedom exist when the sword and the purse were given up from the people?

No nation ever retained its liberty after the loss of the sword and the purse …

The great object is, that every man be armed … Everyone who is able may have a gun.”
Joel Barlow, U.S. Consul to Algiers and France, wrote in Advice to the Privileged Orders in the Several States of Europe, Resulting from the Necessity and Propriety of a General Revolution in the Principle of Government (1792, 1956, p. 46):

“The foundation of everything is … that the people will form an equal representative government … that the people will be universally armed …

A people that legislate for themselves ought to be in the habit of protecting themselves.”
Jeffrey R. Snyder, esq., wrote in “A Nation of Cowards” (The Public Interest, 1993, no. 113):

“Classical republican philosophy has long recognized the critical relationship between personal liberty and the possession of arms by a people ready and willing to use them.”
Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote (Cicero, Selected Political Speeches, trans. M. Grant, 1969, p. 222):

“There exists a law … inborn in our hearts … that if our lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies, any and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right.”
Montesquieu wrote in The Spirit of the Laws (trans. T. Nugent, 1899, p. 64):

“It is unreasonable … to oblige a man not to attempt the defense of his own life.”
Machiavelli wrote in The Prince (trans. L. Ricci, 1952, p. 73, 81):

“It is not reasonable to suppose that one who is armed will obey willing one who is unarmed.”
Cesare Beccaria wrote in On Crimes and Punishment (trans. H. Paolucci, 1963, p. 87-88):

“False is the idea … that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it …

The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature.

They disarm those only who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.

Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most scared laws of humanity, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can be violated with ease and impunity …

Such laws … serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”
Thomas Paine wrote (Writings of Thomas Paine, Conway, ed., 1894, p. 56):

“The peaceable part of mankind will be continually overrun by the vile and abandoned while they neglect the means of self defense.

The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms, like laws, discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order.”
Aristotle wrote in Parts of Animals (trans. A. Peck, 1961, p. 373):

“Animals have just one method of defense and cannot change it for another …

For man, on the other hand, many means of defense are available, and he can change them at any time …

Take the hand: this is as good as a talon, or a claw, or a horn, or again, a spear, or a sword, or any other weapon or tool it can be all of these.”
Aristotle wrote in Politics (trans. T. Sinclair, 1962, p. 274):

“Those who possess and can wield arms are in a position to decide whether the constitution is to continue or not.”
Thomas More wrote in Utopia (trans. R.M. Adams, 1975, p. 71):

“Men and women alike … assiduously exercise themselves in military training … to protect their own territory or to drive an invading enemy out of their friends’ land or, in pity for a people oppressed by tyranny, to deliver them by force of arms from the yoke and slavery of the tyrant.”
Roman historian Livy wrote (trans. B. Foster, 1919, p. 148):

“Formerly (in the reign of Rome’s 6th king, Servius Tullius, 578-535 BC) the right to bear arms had belonged solely to the patricians (ruling class).

Now plebeians (common citizens) were given a place in the army …

All the citizens capable of bearing arms were required to provide their own swords, spears, and other armor.”
Machiavelli wrote in On the Art of War (trans. E. Farnsworth, 1965, p. 30):

“Citizens, when legally armed … did the least mischief to any state …

Rome remained free for four hundred years and Sparta eight hundred, although their citizens were armed all that time, but many other states that have been disarmed have lost their liberty in less than forty years.”
Machiavelli wrote in Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius (trans. L. Walker, 1965, p. 492):

“If any city be armed … as Rome was … all its citizens, alike in their private and official capacity … it will be found they will be of the same mind …

But, when they are not familiar with arms and merely trust to the whim of fortune … they will change with the changes of fortune.”
Adam Smith wrote in The Wealth of Nations (ed., Cannan, p. 309):

“Men of republican principles have been jealous of a standing army as dangerous of liberty …

The standing army of Caesar destroyed the Roman Republic.

The standing army of Cromwell turned the Long Parliament out of doors.”
Earl Warren wrote in The Bill of Rights and the Military (37N.Y.U. L. Rev. 181, 1962):

“Our War of the Revolution was, in good measure, fought as a protest against standing armies …

Thus we find in the Bill of Rights, Amendment 2 … specifically authorizing a decentralized militia, guaranteeing the right of the people to keep and bear arms.”
Jeffrey R. Snyder, esq., wrote in “A Nation of Cowards” (The Public Interest, 1993, no. 113):

“Political theorists as dissimilar as Niccolo Machiavelli, Sir Thomas More, James Harrington, Algernon Sidney, John Locke, and Jean Jacques Rousseau all shared the view that the possession of arms is vital for resisting tyranny, and that to be disarmed by one’s government is tantamount to being enslaved by it.”
The Texas Declaration of Independence, March 2, 1836, stated:

“The late changes made in the government by General Antonio Lopez Santa Anna, who having overturned the constitution of his country, now offers, as the cruel alternative, either abandon our homes acquired by so many privations, or submit to the most intolerable of all tyranny …

It has demanded us to deliver up our arms, which are essential to our defense – the rightful property of freemen — and formidable only to tyrannical governments.”
Theodore Brantner Wilson described in The Black Codes of the South (Univ,. of Alabama Press, 1965, p. 56) laws passed by Democrat Legislators:

“Mississippi quickly passed one law … outlawing possession of weapons by Negroes. The militia proceeded to disarm the Negroes in such a brutal fashion as to cause much criticism.

Alabama Negroes were disarmed by similar methods with like results.”
Frederick Douglass, the African-American advisor to President Abraham Lincoln, stated:

“A man’s rights rest in three boxes: The ballot box, the jury box and the cartridge box.”
Mahatma Gandhi wrote in An Autobiography of the Story of My Experiments with the Truth (trans. M. Desai, 1927):

“Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.”
Islamic sharia law forbids non-Muslims from possessing arms, swords or weapons of any kind.
Adolph Hitler acted similarly with his Edict of March 18, 1938:

“The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subjected people to carry arms;

history shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subjected people to carry arms have prepared their own fall.”
German Firearm Act of 1937 stated:

“Firearm licenses will not be granted to Jews.”
Richard Munday reported in “The Monopoly of Power,” presented to the American Society of Criminology, 1991, the Nazi order regarding arms, SA Ober Führer of Bad Tolz:

“SA (Storm Troopers), SS (para-military Gestapo), and Stahlhelm … Anyone who does not belong to one of the above-named organizations and who unjustifiably keeps his weapon … must be regarded as an enemy of the national government and will be brought to account without compunction and with the utmost severity.”
Democrat Vice-President Hubert Humphrey was quoted by David T. Hardy in The Second Amendment as a Restraint on State and Federal Firearms Restrictions (Kates, ed., Restricting Handguns: The Liberal Skeptics Speak Out, 1979):

“The right of citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible.”
Jefferson wrote to George Washington, 1796 (The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia, John P. Foley, ed., New York & London, Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1900, No. 2138, iv, 143; Paul Leicester Ford, ed., vii. 84):

“One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.”
Similar to the midnight ride of Paul Revere, when Jefferson was Governor of Virginia, British Colonel Tarleton led his cavalry to Charlottesville to capture him.

Jefferson barely escaped, June 3, 1781, thanks to 27-year-old Jack Jouett, Jr., the “Paul Revere of the South,” who rode all night to warn to warn him.
Jefferson wrote in the Declaration on the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, July 1775:

“We … most solemnly, before God and the world declare

that … the arms we have been compelled to assume we will use with perseverance, exerting to their utmost energies all those powers which our Creator hath given us, to preserve that liberty which He committed to us in sacred deposit.”

—

Downlaod as PDF … Lexington & Concord, and the Right to Keep & Bear Arms “To Disarm the People is the Best Way to Enslave Them”-George Mason

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  Camp Constitution Report for the First Quarter of 2026

Published April 17, 2026 | By campconstitution

 

             The first three months, even with some bad weather that forced us to cancel a few events, was very productive for us.

 

                                                                               Info Table Homeschoolers of Maine’s Annual Convention

For the first time since the Covid lockdown, this event returned to its Rockport venue with a three-day event for vendors.  There were close to 400 attendees at the event.   Victoria Buckland helped work the table giving Civics Savey tests to young people who visited the table.  We donated numerous copies of “Alpha-Phonics” to young families and a quantity of books to a homeschool family starting a lending library in Thomaston, Maine.

 

                                                                             Information Tables at Other Venues

 

We had information tables at two New Hampshire Education Options Fairs in Dover and Dummer.  This group, founded by Dr. Jody Underwood, helps parents find alternatives to public schools as well as extracurricular activities.  We promote the Sam Blumenfeld Archive, and of course, our annual family camp.  We also donate copies of “Alpha-Phonics to families with small children who are ready to learn how to read.

 

                                                                   Keynote Speaker at Constitution Party of New Hampshire

 

Hal Shurtleff was the keynote speaker at the Constitution Party of  New Hampshire’s state conference which took place on the birthday of George Washington.  The topic:  The Presidents of the United States and the Constitution

On George Washington’s Birthday, we were the keynote speaker at the

YouTube and Rumble

 

Our channel had 177,000 views, giving us a total of 2.3 million.  229 new subscribers giving us a total of 17,500. We uploaded 84 videos on our YouTube channel this quarter.    Our Rumble channel received 7,371 views and uploaded 19.

 

                                                                   Camp Constitution Report Podcast

 

We did seven shows this quarter including interviews of authors Dr. Chase Spears and Dr. Owen Anderson.  Due to our show being listed by FeedSpot as one of the top 15 best Constitution based podcasts, we have received a number of invitations to interview authors and activists.

 

                                                              Podomatic

This is our platform for podcasts, our former radio show and classis and historical recording that included the Dan Smoot Report, Sam Blumenfeld’s lectures and many speeches by Gary Allen.

We received 71 plays and 790 downloads.  May of our audios and videos have been embedded on websites. And we remain in the top ten for the category of conservative/right.

 

                                                               Website

 

We received 6.9 thousand views and 5.4 thousand visitors.  While the vast majority of the visitors are from the U.S, a good 20% come from around the world.  We had forty articles posted on the site.  We are always looking for writers.  Readers who would like to have their articles posted, please contact Hal Shurlleff at campconstitution1@gmail.com

 

Camp Constitution Media

In January, we made a video of an Education Option Fair in Dover, NH.  In early March, we attended the Rhode Island First Rally where we videotaped presentations by Ramona Bessinger, a public school teacher whistleblower, and Matt Light, former player for the New England Patriots.

 

                                                              Facebook

We had 4,155 views with 3.6 thousand follower

                                                              Camp Constitution Press

We published a batch of 17″ x 11″ frameable Dunlop Broadside version of the Declaration of Independence.

 

   Sam Blumenfeld Archives

 

350,000 hits, 95 GB 150 Workbooks  and75 Instruction Manuals downloaded.
We had a 6′ floor banner made to promote the archive at our information tables.

The Blumenfeld Archives

 

                                                                                Special Projects

 

We have been working with the Matrix Coalition; a New Hampshire group whose goal is to get copies of  Guidebook to the Forefathers Monument and a framed poster of the monument into schools and libraries.  This quarter, we donated copies of each to the Cornerstone Christian School in Ossipee and Prospect Mountain High School in Alton, NH.

 

We have been donating copies of James Perloff’s book Tornado in a Junkyard  which refutes evolution to Christian youth groups.

 

Like last year, Freedom Project Academy will offer an essay with winners getting their fees for our annual family camp paid.

We got permission from the New Hope Chapel in Alton, NH to use a sizeable room in the church both to house the hard copy filed of the Sam Blumenfeld Archives but more importantly to start a literacy center using Sam’s “Alpha-Phonics.”  Our plan is to have the room ready for reading classes in the fall

 

 

                                                                                                                                           Van Fund Raising:

In late February, we had to scrap our 2019 Van.  We had over 180,000 miles and it needed a new transmission and other repairs that would have cost us well over $7,00. We expect to spend $30,000  Since early March, we have raised $7,000.  Thank you to all those who donated.

 

                                                                                                                                        Looking into the 2nd Quarter:

We will return to the annual Mass HOPE Homeschool Convention later this month.  Our ladies retreat in the first weekend in May takes place at the Alton Bay Christian Conference Center May 1-3.

We are co-sponsoring Patriot Camp in June in Rockport, Maine run by Mrs. Jessica Whitwotth and Mrs. Victoria Buckland, and will have info tables and numerous event some for the first time.

 

And our 18th Annual Family Camp

 

Camp Constitution will hold its 18th Annual Family Camp at the Singing Hills Christian Camp https://www.singinghills.net/ Plainfield, NH. from Sunday July 12 to Friday July 17, 2026

Returning instructors include Pastor David Whitney of the Institute on the Constitution, Catherine White of The Constitution Decoded, Alex Newman, author and host of the Sentinel Report, Kurt Hyde, retired U.S. Air Force Lt, Col, and Rev. Steve Craft, Camp Constitution’s chaplain.

Guest instructors include Mr. Rich Howell, historian, and Revolutionary War reenactor. In addition to the classes, the camp will offer marksmanship courses, martial arts, hiking, basketball, volleyball, wiffleball, and optional field trip and swimming, chess, gaga and corn hole tournaments.  Campers and staff end the day with an evening campfire.

Our theme:  Celebrating our nation’s 250th Birthday

Camp Constitution’s annual camp is a family camp open to entire families, unaccompanied minors, and adults. The cost for the week, which includes lodging, meals and class handouts is $300 for those 13 and over. $200. For campers 12 and under, and three and under with parents are free.  The camp offers an “Early Bird” discount of $50, per person by registering by May 1.   A link to the camp registration:  https://campconstitution.net/camp-registration/

For more information contact Hal Shurtleff (857) 498-1309  campconstitution1@gmail.com

    How You Can Help

Pray for our Nation

Pray for Camp Constitution

Consider becoming a Camp sponsor for your business or like-minded non-profit.

Volunteer at some of our events.

Donation to our Van fund raiser.

Share our videos and blog articles everywhere.

Sponsor a camp speaker.

Thank you for all you do to make Camp Constitution possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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