Memorial Day –Honoring American Heroes of Courage, Sacrifice, & Faith – American Minute with Bill Federer

Published May 25, 2026 | By Hal Shurtleff

 

Memorial Day in America, as an annual observance, can be traced back to the end of the Civil War, a war in which over a half-million died.
Southern women scattered spring flowers on graves of both northern Union and southern Confederate soldiers.

Many places claimed to have held the original Memorial Day, such as:
  • Warrenton, Virginia;
  • Columbus, Georgia;
  • Savannah, Georgia;
  • Gettysburg, Pennsylvania;
  • Boalsburg, Pennsylvania;
  • Waterloo, New York.

One such place was Charleston, South Carolina, where a mass grave was uncovered of 267 Union soldiers who had died in a prison camp.
On May 1, 1865, former slaves organized a parade, led by 2,800 singing black children, in which they prayed, read Bible verses, sang spirituals, and reburied the soldiers with honor as an act of gratefulness for their ultimate sacrifice which gave them freedom.

In 1868, General John A. Logan, commander of the Civil War veterans’ organization “The Grand Army of the Republic,” called for a Decoration Day to be observed annually on May 30. 

An estimated 180,000 Black soldiers served in the Union Army during the Civil War.
Republican abolitionist Frederick Douglass gave a Decoration Day address at Arlington National Cemetery in 1871:
“We must never forget that the loyal soldiers who rest beneath this sod flung themselves between the nation and the nation’s destroyers.”
President James Garfield’s only executive order was in 1881 where he gave government workers May 30th off so they could decorate the graves of those who died in the Civil War.

In 1921, President Warren Harding had the remains of an unknown soldier killed in France during World War I buried in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery.

Inscribed on the Tomb is the phrase:
“HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY AN AMERICAN SOLDIER KNOWN BUT TO GOD.”
Since 1921, it has been the tradition for Presidents to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which is guarded 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The number 21 being the highest salute, the sentry takes 21 steps, faces the tomb for 21 seconds, turns and pauses 21 seconds, then retraces his steps.

 

The number 21 is explained on the U.S. Army Center of Military History website (history.army.mil/index.html):

 

“Warriors … demonstrated their peaceful intentions placing their weapons in a position that rendered them ineffective …

 

Rendering a salute by cannon originated in the 14th century as firearms and cannons came into use. Since these early devices contained only one projectile, discharging them once rendered them ineffective.

 

Originally warships fired seven-gun salutes–the number seven probably selected because of its astrological and Biblical significance … The Bible states that God rested on the seventh day after Creation, that every seventh year was sabbatical and that the seven times seventh year ushered in the Jubilee year.

 

Land batteries, having a greater supply of gunpowder, were able to fire three guns for every shot fired afloat, hence the salute by shore batteries was 21 guns …

 

Early gunpowder, composed mainly of sodium nitrate, spoiled easily at sea, but could be kept cooler and drier in land magazines. When potassium nitrate improved the quality of gunpowder, ships at sea adopted the salute of 21 guns.

 

The 21-gun salute became the highest honor a nation rendered …

 

Great Britain, the world’s preeminent seapower in the 18th and 19th centuries, compelled weaker nations to salute first …

 

Eventually, by agreement, the international salute was established at 21 guns, although the United States did not agree on this procedure until August 1875.”

On Decoration Day, 1923, President Calvin Coolidge stated:
“There can be no peace with the forces of evil. Peace comes only through the establishment of the supremacy of the forces of good.
That way lies through sacrifice … ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.'”

The Memorial Day poem, “In Flanders Fields,” was composed during World War I, by a Canadian Expeditionary gunner and medical officer named John McCrae, who fought in the Second Battle of Ypres near Flanders, Belgium.

Describing the battle as a “nightmare,” as the enemy carried out one of the first chlorine gas attacks, McCrae wrote:
“For seventeen days and seventeen nights none of us have had our clothes off, nor our boots even, except occasionally. In all that time while I was awake, gunfire and rifle fire never ceased for sixty seconds …
And behind it all was the constant background of the sights of the dead, the wounded, the maimed, and a terrible anxiety lest the line should give way.”

Finding one of his friends killed, McCrae helped bury him along with the other dead in a field.
Noticing the field covered with poppy flowers, he wrote:
“In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.”

Notable individuals who fought in World War I include:

  • Sergeant Alvin York, who single-handedly took out 35 machine guns and captured 132;
  • John J. Pershing, General of the Armies;
  • Douglas MacArthur, Brigadier General;
  • George S. Patton, tank commander;
  • Leonard Wood, future Army Chief of Staff;

  • Harry S Truman, artillery officer and future 33rd President;
  • Eddie Rickenbacker, commander of 94th Areo Squadron;
  • Quentin Roosevelt, a pilot, son of President Theodore Roosevelt, was shot down and died;
  • Charles Whittlesey, commander of the “Lost Battalion” behind lines;
  • Frank Luke -“balloon buster”;

  • Irving Berlin, composer of “God Bless America”;
  • Edouard Izac, naval office captured on a U-Boat, who escaped;
  • Henry Johnson of the “Harlem Hellfighters”;
  • Dan Daly, Marine Sergeant charged and captured machine gun nests;
  • Ernest Hemingway, author of A Farewell to Arms;
  • J.R.R. Tolken, British author of The Lord of the Rings;
  • C.S. Lewis, British author of The Chronicles of Narnia.

One soldier was Orval William Epperson.

Born on a rugged Ozark farm near Anderson, Missouri, he fought in France, being assigned to the 338th Machine Gun Battalion 88th Division.
Upon returning to America, he married Therese DeBrosse, and had three children: Joan, Orval Wilford, and Tirzah, the mother of the author of this article.

Orval and Therese’s only son was Orval Wilford “Billy” Epperson.
He served in World War II as a bombardier on a B17 Flying Fortress, 525th Squadron, 379 Bomb Group A.P.O. 550 (#0-768946).

23-year-old “Billy” Epperson flew from Camp Crowder in southwest Missouri to Kimbolton, England.

He had written a Mother’s Day note to his mom, tied it with a handkerchief to a small weight and dropped it from the plane as it flew over his hometown of Neosho, Missouri.
A neighbor got it and brought to his mother, who lived at 344 S. Hamilton.

Little did either know that that would be the closest they would be again, as Billy was shot down by the Nazis over the English Channel near Holland on July 9, 1944.
His name is on the monument near Omaha Beach, at the Cimitière Amèrican de Normandie (in Colleville-sur-Mer, France) at the Killed in Action Wall (“Tablet of the Missing”).
On June 6, 1944 President Franklin Roosevelt offered a D-Day Prayer, which is now part of the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., thanks to the effort led by Chris Long of the Ohio Christian Alliance, as documented in his book For Their Honor:

“My fellow Americans: … I ask you to join with me in prayer:

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 …

Give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith. They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces …

We know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph … Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.”

In 1958, President Eisenhower placed soldiers in the tomb from World War II and the Korean War.

In 1968, one hundred years after the first observance, Decoration Day was moved to the last Monday in May.
In 1971, Decoration Day was renamed “Memorial Day.”
In 1984, President Ronald Reagan placed a soldier from the Vietnam War in the tomb.
DNA test later identified him as pilot Michael Blassie, whose A-37B Dragonfly was shot down near An Loc, South Vietnam.
He had graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1970, and prior to that, graduated from St. Louis University High School in 1966, ten years before the author of this article.

In 1998, Michael Blassie’s remains were reburied at Jefferson Memorial Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri.

In 2000, Congress passed The National Moment of Remembrance Act (Public Law 106-579), whereby on each Memorial Day, at 3:00pm, citizens should pause for a moment of prayer:
“Congress finds that … it is essential to remember and renew the legacy of Memorial Day … to pay tribute to individuals who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to the United States …
Greater strides must be made to demonstrate appreciation for those loyal people … whose values, represented by their sacrifices, are critical to the future of the United States …
and to encourage citizens to dedicate themselves to the … principles for which those heroes of the United States died …
A symbolic act of unity … to honor the men and women of the United States who died in the pursuit of freedom and peace … as a day of prayer for permanent peace.”

Memorial Day grew to honor over 1.3 million service men and women who gave their lives defending America’s freedom in every war, including:
  • Revolutionary War (1775-1783) 25,000;
  • Barbary Wars (1801-1805; 1815) 45;
  • War of 1812 (1812-1814) 20,000;
  • Mexican-American War (1846-1848) 13,283;
  • Civil War (1861-1865) 625,000;
  • Spanish-American War (1898) 2,446;
  • World War 1 (1917-1918) 116,516;
  • World War 2 (1941-1945) 405,399;
  • Korean War (1950-1953) 36,516;
  • Vietnam War (1955-1975) 58,209;
  • Persian Gulf War (1990-1991) 258;
  • Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan (2001-2014) 2,356;
  • Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003-2012) 4,489; and
  • subsequent wars against Islamic terrorism, securing our borders, and in Ukraine.

At the Memorial Day Ceremony, May 31, 1993, President Bill Clinton remarked:
“The inscription on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier says that he is ‘Known but to God.’
But that is only partly true. While the soldier’s name is known only to God, we know a lot about him.
We know he served his country, honored his community, and died for the cause of freedom. And we know that no higher praise can be assigned to any human being than those simple words …
In the presence of those buried all around us, we ask the support of all Americans in the aid and blessing of God Almighty.”

Charles Michael Province, U.S. Army, wrote the poem:
“It is the Soldier, not the minister
Who has given us freedom of religion.
It is the Soldier, not the reporter
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the Soldier, not the poet
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer
Who has given us freedom to protest.
It is the Soldier, not the lawyer
Who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the Soldier, not the politician
Who has given us the right to vote.
It is the Soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.”

Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary stated in its definition of “MEMORIAL”:
“That which preserves the memory of something … A monument is a memorial of a deceased person, or of an event. The Lord’s supper is a memorial of the death and sufferings of Christ.”

Memorials are important in Scripture. The Lord told Moses in Exodus 12:
“Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel …
In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house … Your lamb shall be without blemish … And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day … and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses … For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and … execute judgment … and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you …
And this day shall be unto you for a MEMORIAL … throughout your generations … an ordinance for ever.”
Memorial is mentioned in Joshua, chapter 4:
“When all the people were clean passed over Jordan … Joshua called the twelve men … out of every tribe …
And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder …

… That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?
Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan … and these stones shall be for a MEMORIAL unto the children of Israel for ever.”

In his Memorial Day Address, May 31, 1923, President Calvin Coolidge said:
“Settlers came here from mixed motives … Generally defined, they were seeking a broader freedom.
They were intent upon establishing a Christian commonwealth in accordance to the principle of self-government …
It has been said that ‘God sifted the nations that He might send choice grain into the wilderness.'”

Coolidge was citing an Election Sermon given in Boston, April 29, 1669, by Massachusetts Governor Judge William Stoughton, who described the Puritans fleeing persecution in England to settle in the New World:
“God sifted a whole nation that he might send choice grain over into this wilderness.”
Henry W. Longfellow used a similar line in his classic Courtship of Miles Standish:
“God had sifted three kingdoms to find the wheat for this planting.”

This was explained further in Benjamin Franklin Morris’ classic The Christian Life and Character of The Civil Institutions of The United States (1864):
“The persecutions of the Puritans in England for non-conformity, and the religious agitations and conflicts in Germany by Luther, in Geneva by Calvin, and in Scotland by Knox, were the preparatory ordeals for qualifying Christian men for the work of establishing the civil institutions on the American continent.
‘God sifted’ in these conflicts ‘a whole nation that He might send choice grain over into the wilderness’; and the blood and persecution of martyrs became the seed of both the church and the state …
It was in these schools of fiery trial that the founders of the American republic were educated and prepared for their grand Christian mission …
They were trained in stormy times, in order to prepare them to … establish the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty and of just systems of civil government.”

Concluding in his Memorial Day Address that America’s republic is worth preserving, President Calvin Coolidge stated May 31, 1923:
“They had a genius for organized society on the foundations of piety, righteousness, liberty, and obedience of the law …
Who can fail to see in it the hand of destiny? Who can doubt that it has been guided by a Divine Providence?”

Douglas MacArthur told West Point cadets, May 1962:
“The soldier, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training-sacrifice.
In battle and in the face of danger and death, he discloses those Divine attributes which his Maker gave when He created man in His own image …
No physical courage and no brute instinct can take the place of Divine help which alone can sustain him.
However horrible the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country is the noblest development of mankind.”
—
American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate.
—
Image Credits: Public Domain; Description: A soldier assigned to the Army’s 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, “The Old Guard,” guards the Tomb of the Unknowns after the U.S. Army’s senior leadership laid a wreath in tribute to the Army’s 233rd birthday at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia; Date: June 14, 2008; Source: U.S. Department of Defense photo essay; Author: D. Myles Cullen ; This image was released by the United States Army with the ID 080614-A-0193C-015; This image is a work of a U.S. military or Department of Defense employee, taken or made as part of that person’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain in the United States; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Defense.gov_photo_essay_080614-A-0193C-015.jpg

In Flanders Fields by John McCrae

Published May 24, 2026 | By Hal Shurtleff

On Memorial Day Weekend, members of Veterans groups distribute  red poppies which have come to symbolize sacrifice in battle.

The tradition goes back to World War I and the Battle of Flanders in Belgium where despite, death of 87,000 Allied soldiers, and destruction, the red poppies still bloomed.  Canasdian Amry surgeon Colonel John McCrae who was on hand during the battle, wrote the poem.  He didn’t survive the war, however. He died of pneumonia in 1918.

On September 27, 1920, the first chapter of The American Legion made the poppy its official flower to memorialize those who fought and died. A few years later, the Veterans of Foreign Wars  began national distribution programs around the country to support the cause, and in 1924, the American Legion did as well.

We, at Camp Constitution in keeping with our motto “Honoring the Past…Teaching the Present…Preparing the Future” recite the poem during our evening campfires at our annual family camp.

 

“In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row

That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

 

 

 

 

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

Mother’s Day: American Minute with Bill Federer

Published May 10, 2026 | By Hal Shurtleff

 

Listen (text to speech)

After the Civil War, abolitionist Julia Ward Howe, writer of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic, led a Mother’s Day for Peace in New York on June 2, 1872, to promote peace, national healing and reconciliation.
She composed a proclamation to “appeal to womanhood throughout the world.”

Julia Ward Howe personally sponsored a Mothers’ Day celebration in Boston for the next ten years till interest faded.
In the following decades, churches and schools observed special days.
Protestant churches had a Decision Day for committing to Christ, a Roll Call Day for church membership, a Missionary Day to raise support, a Children’s Day, and a Temperance Sunday to encourage abstinence from alcohol.
Numerous efforts arose for observing a Mother’s Day.
Taking the day from a suggestion to a reality was Anna Jarvis.
She is the person most responsible for making Mother’s Day a nationally observed event.
Anna was from Grafton, West Virginia, the granddaughter of a Baptist minister.
She was a member of Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, where she taught Sunday school.
In 1876, after one of her Bible lessons, Anna Jarvis closed with a prayer:
“I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mothers day commemorating her for the matchless service she renders to humanity in every field of life. She is entitled to it.”

 

Similar to Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, Anna Jarvis’ mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis, worked during the Civil War to organize Mothers’ Day Work Clubs to care for wounded soldiers, both Union and Confederate.
Anna’s mother raised money for medicine, inspected bottled milk, and improved sanitation.
She arranged in 1868 a “Mother’s Friendship Day” — “to reunite families that had been divided during the Civil War.”
She hired women to care for families where mothers suffered from tuberculosis.
Anna Jarvis’ mother died on May 9, 1905.
Inspired by her mother’s self-sacrifice and generosity, Anna Jarvis wanted to honor her and all mothers.
On May 12, 1907, Anna persuaded her church, Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, to have a small Mother’s Day service.
The church then agreed to set aside every year the 2nd Sunday in May, the anniversary of her mother’s death, as a day to show appreciation to all mothers — the makers of the home.
The next year, May 10, 1908, Anna organized a Mother’s Day event in two places:
  • Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, where she sent a telegram; and
  • in Philadelphia, where she gave a moving speech in the auditorium of the 12-story Wanamaker Department Store.
John Wanamaker was a retail pioneer and founder of one the first department stores.
Wanamaker, who had paintings of Christ throughout his store, stated:
“There is a power in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep uppermost the profound conviction that it is the Gospel that is to win the heart and convert the world.
The things that were sweet dreams in our childhood are now being worked out. The procession is being made longer and longer; the letters of Christ’s name are becoming larger and larger.”
With the financial backing of John Wanamaker and H.J. Heinz, maker of “57 varieties” of ketchup, Anna Jarvis began a letter-writing campaign to ministers and politicians to establish a “national” Mothers’ Day.
In support of honoring motherhood was University of Notre Dame’s first athletic director, Frank Hering.
In 1904, Hering observed a Notre Dame professor passing out penny postcards to students, with the instructions to write:
“Anything. Anything at all as long as it’s to their mothers. We do this every month in this class. One day a month is mother’s day.”
Hering proposed “setting aside one day in the year as a nationwide memorial to the memories of mothers and motherhood,” stating:
“Throughout history the great men of the world have given their credit for their achievements to their mothers. The Holy Church recognizes this, as does Notre Dame.”
Due to the overwhelming support of pastors and churches, by 1909, forty-five states observed Mother’s Day.
People wore white and red Carnations on Sunday to pay tribute to their mothers.
On May 8, 1914, Congress designated the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.
On May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first National Mothers’ Day as a:
“public expression of … love and reverence for the mothers of our country.”
President Reagan said in his Mother’s Day Proclamation, 1986:
“A Jewish saying sums it up: ‘God could not be everywhere – so He created mothers.'”
 
English Poet Robert Browning wrote:
“Motherhood: All love begins and ends there.”
Mothers have the role of imparting values into children, as American poet William Ross Wallace wrote:
“The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.”
Dr. James Dobson addressed the National Religious Broadcasters, Feb. 16, 2002:
“If they can get control of children … they can change the whole culture in one generation.”
This was echoed by historians Will and Ariel Durant in The Lessons of History, 1968:
“Civilization is not inherited; it has to be learned and earned by each generation anew;
if the transmission should be interrupted … civilization would die, and we should be savages again.”
Reagan stated:
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream.
It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy (2 Timothy 1:5):
“I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.”
Abraham Lincoln’s mother, Nancy, died with he was nine years old.
The Life of Abraham Lincoln, by J. G. Holland (Springfield, IL, Gurdon Bill, 1866) recorded:
“(Lincoln’s father Thomas) … married Nancy Hanks in 1806 …
He took her to the humble cabin he had prepared for her … and within the first few years of her married life, she bore him three children.
The first was a daughter named Sarah, who … died … the third was a son (Thomas) who died in infancy.
The second was Abraham, who, born into the humblest abode, under the humblest circumstances … under the blessing of a Providence which he always recognized …
Mrs. Lincoln, the mother, was evidently a woman out of place among those primitive surroundings.
She was five feet, five inches high, a slender, pale, sad and sensitive woman, with much in her nature that was truly heroic.”
Holland’s The Life of Abraham Lincoln (1866) continued:
“Those who knew the tender and reverent spirit of Abraham Lincoln later in life, will not doubt that he returned to his cabin-home deeply impressed by all that he had heard. It was the rounding up for him of the influences of a Christian mother’s life and teachings.
It recalled her sweet and patient example, her assiduous efforts to inspire him with pure and noble motives, her simple instructions in divine truth, her devoted love for him, and the motherly offices she had rendered him during all his tender years.
His character was planted … by this Christian mother’s love.”
The Life of Abraham Lincoln (1866) recounted:
“Providence began at his mother’s knee, and ran like a thread of gold through all the inner experiences of his life ….
A great man never drew his infant life from a purer or more womanly bosom than her own; and Mr. Lincoln always looked back to her with an unspeakable affection.
Long after her sensitive heart and weary hands had crumbled into dust … he said to a friend, with tears in his eyes: ‘All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother!'”
Lincoln wrote:
“I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.”
On February 3, 1983, at the annual National Prayer Breakfast, President Ronald Reagan stated:
“I have a very special old Bible.
And alongside a verse in the Second Book of Chronicles there are some words, handwritten, very faded by now.
And believe me, the person who wrote these words was an authority. Her name was Nelle Wilson Reagan. She was my mother.”
Quotes by unknown authors are:
“Mothers hold their children’s hands for a short while, but their hearts forever.”
“A mom’s hug lasts long after she lets go.”
On Mother’s Day, May 8, 2020, President Donald J. Trump proclaimed:
“We celebrate the exceptional mothers in our lives …
Whether they became mothers through birth, adoption, foster care, or other means, these women are deserving of our unending gratitude and praise this day and every day.
The intuition and wisdom passed from mother to child strengthens the fabric of our Nation and preserves generations of wisdom and familial values.
In our earliest days, our mothers provide us with love and nurturing care.
They often know our talents before we do, and they selflessly encourage us to use these God-given gifts to pursue our biggest dreams …
I encourage all Americans to express their love and respect for their mothers … whether with us in person or in spirit, and to reflect on the importance of motherhood to the prosperity of our families, communities, and Nation.”
—
American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate.

Barbary Pirates, Slave Markets, and Ransomers – American Minute with Bill Federer

Published May 10, 2026 | By Hal Shurtleff

For centuries, tens of millions of Africans were sold at Islamic slave markets from Timbuktu on the Niger River, where the canoe meets the caravan, to Khartoum, to the Zanzibar coast on the Indian Ocean.
In addition, over a million Europeans were captured and sold at Muslim slave markets in Morocco, Algiers, Tunisia and Libya.
Catholic Orders, such as the “Trinitarians” or “Mathurins,” would collect alms and ransom slaves.
Notable ransomed were in 1607, St. Vincent DePaul, and in 1580, Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote de La Mancha, 1605, who wrote:
“They put a chain on me … I passed my life in that bano with several other(s) … marked out as held to ransom … We suffered from hunger and scanty clothing …
Nothing distressed us so much as … seeing … unheard of cruelties my master inflicted upon the Christians …
Every day he hanged a man … all with so little provocation … Turks acknowledged he did it merely for the sake of doing it.”
Modern-day charities ransoming Christians from slavery in Africa and South Asia include Exodus 51 and Christian Solidarity International, supported by Eric Metaxas.
In 1588, English and Dutch privateers defeated the invincible Spanish Armada.
Privateers captured Spanish ships of gold and brought their treasures back to Queen Elizabeth’s England.
In 1604, King James I made a peace treaty with Spain banning English piracy, issuing a “Proclamation to Repress All Piracies and Depredations upon the Sea.”
This essentially left privateers unemployed.  Some became lawless pirates, finding ports for their stolen goods along the Barbary coast.
A few even became accursed “renegado,” or Christians turned Turk, sharing their superior sailing skills with Muslim maritime marauders and directing ships, called corsairs, to attack North Atlantic trade.
 In 1617, 800 corsairs took 1,200 captives from Madeira, Portugal.
In 1625, corsairs sailed up the Thames River and raided England.
Giles Milton wrote White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and North Africa’s One Million European Slaves, 2004, describing how Pellow was captured at age 11 and escaped 23 years later.
The coast of Cornwall was raided with 60 villagers captured at Mount’s Bay and 80 at Looe.
They attacked Lundy Island in Bristol Channel and raised the standard of Islam.
By the end of 1625, over 1,000 English subjects were taken to the slave markets of Morocco.
That same year, Pilgrims in Massachusetts sent beaver skins and dried fish back to England for trade, but their ship was captured by Turkish pirates.
Governor William Bradford wrote in History of the Plymouth Settlement, 1650:
“They … were well within the English channel, almost in sight of Plymouth. But … there she was unhapply taken by a Turkish man-of-war and carried off to Saller, Morocco, where the captain and crew were made slaves …
Now by the ship taken by the Turks … all trade was dead.”
In 1627, Ottoman Algerian pirate Murat Reis the Younger raided Iceland and carried away 800.
One captured girl was made a concubine in Algeria but was ransomed by Denmark’s King Christian IV.
In 1631, Algerian pirates herded “The Stolen Village” of Baltimore, Ireland, onto ships. Only two ever returned.
Thomas Osborne Davis wrote in “The Sack of Baltimore,” 1895:
“The yell of ‘Allah!’ breaks above the shriek and roar; O’ blessed God! the Algerine is lord of Baltimore.”
Des Ekin wrote in The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates (2008):
“Here was not a single Christian who was not weeping and who was not full of sadness at the sight of so many honest maidens and so many good women abandoned to the brutality of these barbarians.”
The History of Barbary and its Corsairs, 1637, recorded that in 1634, Trinitarian priest Pierre Dan went to Algeria and witnessed “piteous” Irish families split apart at slave markets, never to see one-another again.
Joseph Wheelan wrote in Jefferson’s War: America’s First War on Terror, 2004: 
“As soon as Europeans fell into the raiders’ hands, the captives were stripped of their clothes, given rags to wear, and either were put in irons or made to work the ship …
Handsomest male slaves were usually chosen as palace pages, and the prettiest women were sent to Constantinople as gifts to the sultan.
The rest were auctioned in the slave mart … Buyers examined the prisoners … as they would any domestic animal.”
Kidnapped Englishman Francis Knight wrote in A Relation of Seven Years of Slavery under Turks of Algiers, 1640:
“I arrived in Algiers, that city fatal to all Christians and the butchery of mankind.”
The Sultan of Morocco was Moulay Ismail.
He had a harem of 500, mostly captured European women, who bore him a record 1,042 children.
He had 25,000 white slaves build him a palace at Meknes.
Moulay Ismail was described by John Windus in A Journey to Mequinez, 1825: 
“His trembling court assemble, which consists of … blacks, whites, tawnies and his favorite Jews, all barefooted … He is … known by … the color of the habit that he wears, yellow being observed to be his killing color; from all of which they calculate whether they may hope to live twenty-four hours longer …
He (rides) out of town … attended by fifteen or twenty thousand blacks … with whom he … diverts himself — by throwing — the lance … knotted cords for whipping.”
Abolitionist Republican Senator Charles Sumner wrote White Slavery in the Barbary States, 1853:
“The Saracens, with the Koran and the sword, potent ministers of conversion, next broke from Arabia, as the messengers of a new religion, and pouring along these shores …
Algiers, for a long time the most obnoxious place in the Barbary States of Africa, the chief seat of Christian slavery … the wall of the barbarian world.”
In November 12, 1644, the Massachusetts General Court, as recorded in The Pirates of the New England Coast, 1630-1730, stated:
“Turkish pirates … meaning the Algerines … were a constant danger to shipping trading with Spain.”
In 1669, Captain William Foster sailed the Dolphin out of Charlestown, Massachusetts, and was captured by Barbary pirates.
John Hull, first mint-master of Massachusetts Bay, recorded:
“October 21, 1671. We received intelligence that William Foster, master of a small ship, was taken by the Turks as he was going to Bilboa, Spain, with fish.”
Cotton Mather wrote in Magnalia Christi Americana, 1702:
“There was a Godly gentleman of Charlestown, one Mr. Foster, who with his son, was taken captive by Turkish enemies.”
Rev. John Eliot of Roxbury, “the Apostle to the Indians,” led his congregation in prayer that Moroccan Prince Moulay Rashid would release Foster.
Mather wrote:
“Much prayer was employed, both privately and publicly, by the good people here, for the redemption of that gentleman …
But we were at last informed, that the bloody Prince, in whose dominions he was now a slave, was resolved that in his lifetime no prisoner should be released …
The distressed friends of this prisoner now concluded, our hope is lost! …  Upon this, Rev. Eliot, in some of his next prayers, before a very solemn congregation … begged …
“Heavenly Father, work for the redemption of thy poor servant Foster … and if the Prince which detains him will not … dismiss him as long himself lives, Lord, we pray thee to kill that cruel Prince … and glorify thy self upon him.”
Shortly after, April 9, 1672, Prince Moulay Rashid fell from his horse and died in Marrakesh at the age of 42.
Cotton Mather added:
“The poor captive gentleman – Foster — quickly returns to us that had been mourning for him as a lost man, and brings us news, that the Prince which had hitherto held him, was come to an untimely death, by which means he was now set at liberty.”
—

American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate.
American Minute is teaming up with
Seth Gruber and The White Rose Resistance
to defend the unborn and the value of human life.
(Reposted with permission from American Minute.)

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. )

Designed by Eric Conover.