Signers of the U.S. Constitution.  How Many Can You Name? 

Published July 2, 2024 | By Hal Shurtleff

 

On July 4th  2009, I was delivering delayed luggage out of Logan Airport.  While waiting for the last flight to arrive, I decided to ask my colleagues how many signers of the Declaration of Independence they could name.  I gave them a monetary incentive of $20.  My past experiences with asking this question convinced me that my money was safe.  I was right.  The most I got from any co-worker was three.   My firsthand experiences over the years show that my suitcase colleagues are on par with most Americans.  However, I recently shared my suitcase story with a group of 5th graders from the Lion Heart Classical Academy in Peterborough who were attending the 1st annual Patriot Youth Program hosted by the New Hampshire Daughters of the American Revolution at the Cathedral of the Pines in Rindge, NH.   I asked the fifth graders the same question, and one young man  said “John Adams, Sam Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Frankin, and John Hancock.”  He then asked  me for $20  I told him I only had two dollars in my pocket but offered  him a week at our annual family camp worth $300.  His dad was in hand and said that he would take us up on the offer.  Meanwhile, retired Army Colonel  Otto Busher, who was part of the program, handed the boy $20.  

 Does it matter if the average American can’t name five signers of the Declaration of Independence?   With the exception of the Cultural Marxists and those they have convinced to hate American and its incredible history, most Americans love to celebrate Independence Day.  Yes, even in Boston where tens of thousands of people of all races come out to the Esplanade and listen to Patriotic music performed by the Boston Pops, wave Old Glory, and watch the fireworks.   So, yes, Americans should know a little about the day they are celebrating and the brave men who made that day and our nation possible.

There were fifty-six men that signed the Declaration of Independence.    They pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor,    Not one defected.  Not one “matured politically.”     While there is some dispute, it is widely believed that John Hancock was the only delegate to sign the Declaration of July 4th.  It wasn’t until August 2 that the majority of the delegates signed the Declaration.   New Hampshire’s Dr. Matthew Thornton   was one of the last signing it on November 4th, 1776.  While I won’t give a biography of all 56, I will give a short bio of our state’s signers and recommend the book Lives of Signers of the Declaration of Independence originally published in 1850 and reprinted by Wall Builders:

New Hampshire had three signers:  Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple and    Matthew Thornton.

(Dr. Josiah Bartlett)

 

Josiah Bartlett was born in Amesbury, MA on November 29, 1729.  He became a doctor at the age of 21 and moved to Kingston, NH.  He and his wife Mary had 12 children.  He was elected to the office of justice of the peace but in 1774, the governor, appointed by the King, had him removed from the position due to his involvement with the Committee of Correspondence.  In 1775, Bartlett became a colonel in the New Hampshire Militia, and became a member of the 2nd Continental Congress that same year. He voted for independence on July 4th, being the first delegate to do so.  He signed the Declaration of Independence on August 2 and may have been the 2nd one after John Hancock.  During the war, he served as a physician treating wounded soldiers. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention, and as a supporter of the new Constitution, he serves as a delegate to New Hampshire’s Ratification Convention.   He became the 1st governor of New Hampshire in 1793.  He passed away in 1795, and is buried in the Plains Cemetery in Kingstown, NH

William Whipple

Born in Kittery, Maine 1730 which was part of Massachusetts at the time, he became a ship captain.  He became a delegate to the 2nd Continental Congress  and signed of the Declaration of Independence.  He served as a brigadier general in the New Hampshire. Militia. He led his soldiers in the Battle of Saratoga.  He freed his slave Prince who served with him during the war.  Prince was depicted in the painting “Washington Crossing the Delaware” by Emanuel Leutze, but it was historically inaccurate since he was not involved with the crossing.  After the war, he became a New Hampshire  judge on the state’s supreme court.  He died in November of 1785 and is buried in North Cemetery Portsmouth, NH.

(Prince Whipple)

 

Matthew Thornton

 

Born in Ireland on 1714, he came to America when he was four.  He and his family settled in Worcester, MA, and he, like Josiah Thornton, became a doctor. He settled in Londonderry, NH.  He and his wife Hannah had five children. In 1745,  he served a surgeon in the Battle of Louisburg in Nova Scotia.  He became a member of New Hampshire’s colonial legislature and in 1775, he became president of New Hampshire’s provincial congress.  He became a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, and while he wasn’t present on July 4, he signed the Declaration on November 4, 1776, being one of the  last to do so.  Like Josiah Bartlett, he became an associate justice on the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Late in life, he published Paradise Lost, or the Origin of the Evil called Sin.  He died in 1803 while visiting his daughter in Newburyport, MA.  He is buried in Thornton Cemetery, Merrimack, New Hampshire.

One of my favorite Founding Father’s was John Adams who was the main driving force behind the Declaration of Independence, prior to the vote for independence, he made this speech:

Sink or Swim, Live or Die, Survive or Perish, I give my heart and my hand to this vote. It is true indeed that in the beginning we did not aim for Independence, but there is a Divinity that shapes our ends. Why then should we defer the declaration? You and I indeed may rue it. We may not live to see the time when this declaration shall be made good. We may die; die Colonists or die Slaves. Be it so, be it so. If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready. But while I do live, let me have a country, or at least the hope of a country, and that a free country.

But whatever may be our fate, be assured that this declaration will stand. It may cost treasure and it may cost blood, but it will stand and richly compensate for both. Through the gloom of the present, I see the brightness of the future, like the sun in heaven. We shall make this a glorious and immortal day. When we are in our graves our children will honor it. They will celebrate it with thanksgiving and festivities, with bonfires and illuminations.

Before God I believe that the hour has come. My judgment approves this measure and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, all that I am, and all that I hope in this life I am now ready to stake on it and leave off as I began. Live or die, survive, or perish, I am for this declaration. It is my living sentiment and by the blessing of God it will be my dying sentiment. Independence now, Independence forever.

May the readers of this blog  have a Happy Independence Day.  Readers who would like a free pocket copy of the U.S. Constitution containing   the Declaration of Independence may send me an E-mail campconstitution1@gmail.com

 

P.S.  Question:  What other countries have a July 4th? Answer:  They all do.

Video: The urban heat island – implications for global warming & climate change by Benjamin Soon

Published July 1, 2024 | By Hal Shurtleff

This video was created by Benjamin Soon, a veteran Camp Constitution camper and son of Camp Constitution instructor Professor Willie Soon.

Most people today live in urban areas, including cities. Cities tend to be hotter than their surrounding rural areas. This means that the local climate change experienced by most people is different from the global climate changes experienced by the rest of the world. City dwellers are experiencing more heat waves, earlier springs, and milder winters than everyone else.

What are the implications of the urban heat island (UHI) effect for our current understanding of global climate change and global warming?
In this video, we compare rural and urban weather station data to explain “urbanization bias” in cities along with possible solutions to urban heating.

 

 

Relevant links

Papers referenced in the video:

  1. W. Soon, R. Connolly, M. Connolly, S.-I. Akasofu, S. Baliunas, J. Berglund, A. Bianchini, W.M. Briggs, C.J. Butler, R.G. Cionco, M. Crok, A.G. Elias, V.M. Fedorov, F. Gervais, H. Harde, G.W. Henry, D.V. Hoyt, O. Humlum, D.R. Legates, A.R. Lupo, S. Maruyama, P. Moore, M. Ogurtsov, C. ÓhAiseadha, M.J. Oliveira, S.-S. Park, S. Qiu, G. Quinn, N. Scafetta, J.-E. Solheim, J. Steele, L. Szarka, H.L. Tanaka, M.K. Taylor, F. Vahrenholt, V.M. Velasco Herrera and W. Zhang (2023). “The Detection and Attribution of Northern Hemisphere Land Surface Warming (1850–2018) in Terms of Human and Natural Factors: Challenges of Inadequate Data”, Climate, 11(9), 179; https://doi.org/10.3390/cli11090179. Open access​.

  2. R. Connolly, W. Soon, M. Connolly, S. Baliunas, J. Berglund, C.J. Butler, R.G. Cionco, A.G. Elias, V. Fedorov, H. Harde, G.W. Henry, D.V. Hoyt, O. Humlum, D.R. Legates, N. Scafetta, J.-E. Solheim, L. Szarka, V.M. Velasco Herrera, H. Yan and W.J. Zhang (2023). “Challenges in the detection and attribution of Northern Hemisphere surface temperature trends since 1850”. Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics. https://doi.org/10.1088/1674-4527/acf18e. (🗄️​​). Supplementary Materials.

  3. R. Connolly, W. Soon, M. Connolly, S. Baliunas, J. Berglund, C. J. Butler, R. G. Cionco, A. G. Elias, V. M. Fedorov, H. Harde, G. W. Henry, D. V. Hoyt, O. Humlum, D. R. Legates, S. Lüning, N. Scafetta, J.-E. Solheim, L. Szarka, H. van Loon, V. M. Velasco Herrera, R. C. Willson, H. Yan and W. Zhang (2021). How much has the Sun influenced Northern Hemisphere temperature trends? An ongoing debate. Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 21, 131. https://doi.org/10.1088/1674-4527/21/6/131. (🗄️)

  4. W. Soon, Ronan Connolly and M. Connolly (2015). Re-evaluating the role of solar variability on Northern Hemisphere temperature trends since the 19th century. Earth-Science Reviews, 150, 409-452. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2015.08.010. (🗄️).

Persecuted Christians in the United States and Around the World, And Slavery is Alive and Well

Published June 30, 2024 | By Hal Shurtleff

 

Camp Constitution Speakers Bureau hosted speaking engagements for William Brown of Save the Persecuted Christians, Philip Zodhiates, author of Innocent The Price One Man Paid For Doing What Is Right, and Getch Dires. Mr. Brown discussed the persecution of Christians around the world and the Biden Administration’s indifference to Chrisitan persecution.  Mr. Zodhiates discussed his ordeal with the Obama Administration’s case against him and his experience serving a three-year jail sentence in a federal prison for the “crime’ of driving a mother and daughter to an airport so the mother could leave the United States to protect her daughter from sexual abuse, and Getch Davis, originally from Ethiopia, discussed how slavery is alive and well in many African nations with the full knowledge of Black leaders in Africa.

Special thanks to Pastor Bob and Pamela Andrews of the First Parish Congregational Church of Lebanon, Maine and Pastor Jared and Noel Cassidy of the Community Church of Alton, NH:

Camp Constitution’s 16th Annual Family Camp Less Than Three Weeks Away: Schedule Posted

Published June 25, 2024 | By Hal Shurtleff

Camp Constituion’s 16th annual family camp is less than three weeks away-July 14-19.  We still have a few rooms available for families and spaces for unaccompanied minors, but we expect to fill up quickly.

 

We posted the general schedule and classes for the teenagers and adults: https://campconstitution.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Camp-Constitution-Schedule-2024.pdf    The schedule for the junior campers should be posted soon.

Since 2010, we have videotaped classes and activities at our annual camps and posted them on our YouTube channel.  Our videographer Mert Melfa does an excellent job uploading them as soon as he can.  Here is a link to last year’s classes:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7jnzBzBiNYCL7qVjIiaEvWVSeA-YMLPO  And don’t forget to subscribe to our channel.  We are closing in on 15k subscribers.

Unable to attend this year’s annual camp?  We have a weekend family camp coming up at Camp Sentinel in Tuftonboro, NH Friday September 27 to Sunday September 29:

The Weekly Sam: Germany 1933, America 2008

Published June 20, 2024 | By Hal Shurtleff

 

Something very eerie is happening in America as we appear to be on the verge of a radical political upheaval. Huge numbers of people are mindlessly following a demagogue who promises us “change,” but is not very specific about the kind of change he is planning. He is a young man whose mother hated American culture so much that she married a Kenyan Muslim, who fathered Barack, returned to Kenya, became a bureaucrat and was killed in a car accident. His mother then married an Indonesian Muslim and they went to live in Indonesia. This young politician, only in his forties, has, with charisma and oratorical bombast, hypnotized multitudes with his promises. In 1933, most Germans voted for a demagogue who promised “change” and seemed to be the answer to their economic and national problems.

He blamed Germany’s ills on the Jews but didn’t say how he would get rid of them. But what they did get from their new leader was religious persecution, a horrendous world war, and destruction. None of those voters in 1933 could have foreseen what they would get only six years later. The young followers of Barack Obama have been well-indoctrinated by our public schools to accept slogans rather than actual substance. They know little history, little geography, and a good portion of them are not book readers. In fact, the National Endowment for the Arts recently issued a report on the precipitous decline in literary reading among young Americans. They respond to Obama because he appeals to their emotions rather than their intellects, which they sorely lack. Of this new generation of non-readers, the Endowment Chairman, Dana Goia, stated: “This is a massive social problem.

We are losing the majority of the new generation. They will not achieve anything close to their potential because of poor reading.” And so we find high emotion running through the crowds that seem to be viewing Barack Obama as some sort of Savior. He will chase the “special interests” out of the Congressional temple. He will bring all of us together. He will end the war in Iraq. Meanwhile, the country is lurching toward recession. But these impressionable and innocent followers are told that they are important and can make a difference by simply voting for the most seductive young demagogue to come down the pike. That he is the most liberal Senator in Congress doesn’t seem to resonate. That he belongs to a liberal Christian church in Chicago that is sympathetic toward Louis Farrakhan, doesn’t bother them. And so, why question him about his religion or his views on Islam? Yes, he did attend an Islamic school as a child while living with his mother and step-father in Indonesia. But so what. Back in Germany in 1933, when the demagogue was elected, the Jews assumed that the good German people would soon get rid of this hateful soul and his followers. They had been so successfully integrated in German cultural and economic life, that it seemed incredible they would be subject to literal extermination. We need not reiterate what that demagogue did until he was brought down by the most powerful armies ever assembled in world history. Of course, America in 2008 is nothing like Germany in 1933. The only similarity is the deep political crisis, a restless, semi-hysterical electorate not knowing what it wants, and the inability to predict what the new leader will do when in the White House. Will there be persecution of Christians? If the new regime passes a hate-crimes bill, which Bush threatened to veto, it will be a crime for a minister to quote the Bible on a number of well known “intolerant” passages. Christians will be required to accept gay marriage and the gay agenda in the public schools. As for future Supreme Court judges, we are likely to get nominees as left-wing as the new President. As for our military security, what kind of Commander-in-Chief will either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton make? Both of them believe in defeat. The word victory will be stricken from our military’s vocabulary. The uncertainty about the future is what is making this election so volcanic. Does John McCain have what it will take to stop the demagogue? Will conservatives vote for him?

“Juneteenth”: Republicans End Slavery, and a pivotal incident 2 days after Lincoln’s Day of Fasting

Published June 19, 2024 | By Hal Shurtleff

The following is reposted with permission from American Minute:

 

American Minute with Bill Federer

“Juneteenth”: Republicans End Slavery, and a pivotal incident 2 days after Lincoln’s Day of Fasting
Read American Minute

During the Civil War, on March 30, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer … continue reading …

Download as PDF …
Lincoln stated:

“Whereas, the Senate of the United States devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations,

has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation; and

… Whereas, it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow

yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history: that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord;
… And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisement in this world,

may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?
… We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity.

We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.
… But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us;

and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.

Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
… Now, therefore, in compliance with the request and fully concurring in the view of the Senate,

I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30TH DAY OF APRIL, 1863, as a Day of National Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer.
… And I do hereby request all the people to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.
… All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the nation will be heard on high and answered with blessing no less than the pardon of our national sins and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace.
… In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 30th day of March, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh. Abraham Lincoln. By the President: William H. Seward, Secretary of State.”
Lincoln’s National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer was observed APRIL 30, 1863.
Two days later, a freak accident occurred which altered the course of the war. One of the South’s best generals was accidentally shot by his own men.
Lt. General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson was considered one of the greatest tactical commanders in history.

He refused to let his men give ground at the First Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, standing there “like a stonewall.”
Often outnumbered, sometimes 2 to 1, Jackson successfully fought the Shenandoah Valley Campaign:

  • Battles of McDowell (May 8, 1862);
  • Front Royal (May 23, 1862);
  • Winchester (May 25, 1862);
  • Port Republic (June 9, 1862);
  • Seven Days Battles (June 25-July 1, 1862);
  • Second Battle of Bull Run (August 28-30, 1862);
  • Antietam (September 17, 1862);
  • Fredericksburg (December 11-15, 1862); and
  • Chancellorsville (April 30-May 2, 1863).
Stonewall Jackson wrote to Colonel Thomas T. Munford, June 13, 1862:

“The only true rule for cavalry is to follow the enemy as long as he retreats.”
Jackson advised General John D. Imboden (Robert Underwood and Clarence C. Buel, eds. Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, 4 vols. New York: Century Co., Vol.2, p. 297):

“Always mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy, if possible; and when you strike and overcome him, never let up in the pursuit so long as your men have strength to follow; for an army routed, if hotly pursued, becomes panic-stricken, and can then be destroyed by half their number.

The other rule is, never fight against heavy odds, if by any possible maneuvering you can hurl your own force on only a part, and that the weakest part, of your enemy and crush it.

Such tactics will win every time, and a small army may thus destroy a large one in detail, and repeated victory will make it invincible.”
The day after Lincoln’s Day of Fasting was observed, April 30, 1863, the Battle of Chancellorsville began, May 1, 1863.
Outnumbered two to one, Stonewall Jackson’s 60,892 Confederate troops successfully attacked the flank of 133,868 Union troops.

The Union suffered a devastating 17,197 casualties to the Confederate 13,303.
At the end of the day, May 2, 1863, Jackson surveyed the field and returned to camp at twilight.

Suddenly, one of his own men shouted, “Halt, who goes there,” and without waiting for a reply, a volley of shots were fired.
Two bullets hit General Jackson’s left arm and one hit his right hand.

Several men accompanying him were killed, in addition to many horses.
In the confusion that followed, Jackson was dropped from his stretcher while being evacuated.

His left arm was mangled, became infected, and had to be amputated.
General Robert E. Lee wrote to Jackson:

“Could I have directed events, I would have chosen for the good of the country to be disabled in your stead.”
General Lee sent the message through Chaplain B.T. Lacy:

“He has lost his left arm but I my right … Tell him that I wrestled in prayer for him last night … as I never prayed for myself.”
Jackson’s injuries resulted in him contracting pneumonia.

Growing weaker, Jackson said, May 10, 1863:

“It is the Lord’s Day; my wish is fulfilled. I have always desired to die on Sunday.”

A few moments before he died, as he was losing consciousness, Jackson said:

“Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees.”
Jackson had previously told General John D. Imboden (“Stonewall Jackson at the Battle of Bull’s Run,” New York Times, May 3, 1885):

“My religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death.

I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready, no matter when it may overtake me. … That is the way all men should live, and then all would be equally brave.”
Many historians speculate what would have happened if Stonewall Jackson had not been shot.

He most certainly would have been at the Battle of Gettysburg two months later, which conceivably would have resulted in a Confederate victory, changing the entire outcome of the war.
Jackson’s death was difficult to reconcile, as he was exemplary in faith and virtue.

He did not fight to defend slavery, but rather he fought to defend his home state of Virginia from the war of Northern Federal aggression.

Jackson was personally against slavery, having arranged to free the slaves he inherited from his wife’s estate.
Beginning in 1855, Jackson participated in civil disobedience every Sunday by teaching a Colored Sunday School class at the Lexington Presbyterian Church.

This was against the law, as a Virginia statue forbade teaching slaves to read, especially after Nat Turner’s rebellion. Nevertheless, Jackson regularly taught both slaves and free blacks, adults and children, to read the Bible.
The Revised Code of the Laws of Virginia (1819):

“Whereas it is common in many places for slaves to meet at religious meeting-houses in the night, or at schools for teaching them reading or writing, which if not stopped may cause considerable evil to the community;

Be it passed: That all meetings of slaves, or free negroes or mulattoes mixing with such slaves, at any meeting-house or school for teaching them reading or writing, either in the day or night, for any reason, shall be deemed an unlawful assembly.

And any officer of the law may have permission to enter the house to arrest or send off such slaves, and to punish them with up to twenty lashes.”
William M. Banks wrote in Black Intellectuals (1996):

“Literacy also threatened the control and surveillance network for slaves in the South …

Literate slaves … could forge the necessary papers and escape to the North …

Some slaveholders … ignored the statutes for economic reasons, realizing that literate slaves could handle record-keeping … Prohibitions were also ignored by pious masters who wanted their slaves to read the Bible.”
The Democrat Party has a history of enslaving blacks.

Democrat Senator Jefferson Davis from Mississippi became the President of the Confederacy. He stated:

“African slavery, as it exists in the United States, is a moral, a social, and a political blessing.”

Democrat state legislatures passed Black Codes and Jim Crow laws, enforcing segregation, intimidating black voters, prohibiting blacks from learning to read and write, making it a crime for blacks to own weapons. Southern Democrats participated in the KKK.
The Republican Party was the first major political party to have abolition of slavery in its party platform, June 18, 1856:

“This Convention of Delegates … are opposed to … the extension of Slavery into Free Territory …

With our Republican fathers, we hold it to be a self-evident truth, that all men are endowed with the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that the primary object and ulterior design of our Federal Government were to secure these rights to all persons …
… Our Republican fathers … abolished Slavery in all our National Territory (with the Northwest Ordinance) …

It becomes our duty to maintain this provision … against all attempts to violate it for the purpose of establishing Slavery … We deny the authority of Congress … to give legal existence to Slavery …

It is both the right and the imperative duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those twin relics of barbarism—Polygamy, and Slavery.”
A Republican, Abraham Lincoln stated in Springfield, Illinois, June 26, 1857:

“Two weeks ago Judge Douglas spoke here on the … Dred Scott decision … He finds the Republicans insisting that the Declaration of Independence includes ALL men, black as well as white …

He boldly denies that it includes Negroes …

I protest against that …

Chief Justice Taney, in his opinion in the Dred Scott case, admits that the language of the Declaration is broad enough to include the whole human family, but he and Judge Douglas argue that the authors of that instrument did not intend to include Negroes …

I think the authors of that noble instrument intended to include all men …

Dred Scott, his wife and two daughters were all involved in the suit … Judge Douglas is delighted to have them decided to be slaves …

How differently the respective courses of the Democratic and Republican parties …

Republicans inculcate … that the Negro is a man; that his bondage is cruelly wrong …

Democrats deny his manhood; deny, or dwarf to insignificance, the wrong of his bondage; so far as possible, crush all sympathy for him, and cultivate and excite hatred and disgust against him.”

 

In 1861, Lincoln became the first Republican to be elected President. He addressed the Indiana Regiment, March 17, 1865:

“Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”
Lincoln proclaimed in his Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863:

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”

 

General Ulysses S. Grant, who later was a Republican President, recalled in 1878 his thoughts when he heard the Civil War had started:

“As soon as slavery fired upon the flag it was felt, we all felt … that slavery must be destroyed. We felt that it was a stain to the Union that men should be bought and sold like cattle.”

 

Booker T. Washington wrote in The Story of My Life and Work, 1901:

“So far as I can now recall, the first knowledge that I got of the fact that we were slaves, and that freedom of the slaves was being discussed, was early one morning before day, when I was awakened by my mother kneeling over her children and fervently praying that Lincoln and his armies might be successful, and that one day she and her children might be free.”
A major turning point in the Civil War was the Battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862, the bloodiest day of fighting in American history with over 23,000 casualties.

The North was able to replace its fallen ranks by drafting European immigrants from crowded northern cities, but the South was agricultural and did not have the population base from which to draw new recruits. It was a war of attrition.

 

Republican President Lincoln met with his cabinet to draft the Emancipation Proclamation. Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Portland Chase recorded Lincoln declaring:

“When asked what he meant, Lincoln replied:

‘I made a solemn vow before God, that if General Lee were driven back from Pennsylvania, I would crown the result by the declaration of freedom to the slaves.'”

 

The Emancipation Proclamation stated:

“I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief … do, on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three … publicly proclaim … that … persons held as slaves … are, and henceforward shall be, free …

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence … and … labor faithfully for reasonable wages …

And upon this act …

I invoke … the gracious favor of Almighty God.”

 

Lincoln rushed to push through Congress the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery before the war ended as his Emancipation Proclamation was issued using Presidential war powers which would eexpire once the war ended.

He also feared that after the war, the southern states readmitted to the Union might block the Amendment’s ratification and re-institute a form of slavery.

 

The 13th Amendment was passed by the U.S. Senate on April 8, 1864.

All 30 Republican Senators voted in favor of it, joined by 4 Democrats.

The U.S. House passed the 13th Amendment on January 31, 1865.

All 86 Republicans voted in favor of it, joined by 15 Democrats, 14 Unconditional Unionists, and 4 Union men.

Voting against the 13th Amendment were 50 Democrat Congressmen, joined by 6 Union men.

The 13th Amendment stated:

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

 

Though not necessary, Lincoln added his signature to the 13th Amendment after the words “Approved February 1, 1865.”

 

Lincoln said in his Second Annual Message, December 1, 1862:

“In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free … We shall nobly save — or meanly lose — the last, best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain … a way which if followed the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless.

 

Nearly a half-million died fighting in the Civil War which freed four million slaves.
To celebrate this victory of Republican abolition policies over the Democrat pro-slavery policies is “Juneteenth,” the day Union Major General Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3 from his headquarters in Galveston, Texas, June 19, 1865, announcing:
“The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves.”

Booker T. Washington was nine years old when the war ended. He remembered:

“There was more singing in the slave quarters than usual … Most of the verses of the plantation songs had some reference to freedom … Some man who seemed to be a stranger (a United States officer, I presume) made a little speech and then read a rather long paper …

After the reading we were told that we were all free and could go when and where we pleased. My mother, who was standing by my side, leaned over and kissed her children, while tears of joy ran down her cheeks.

She explained to us what it all meant, that this was the day for which she had been so long praying but fearing that she would never live to see.”
President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated, September 17, 1937:

“I came into the world 17 years after the close of the war between the states …

Today … there are still many among us who can remember it … It serves us little to discuss again the rights and the wrongs of the long 4-years’ war …
… We can but wish that the war had never been.

We can and we do revere the memory of the brave men who fought on both sides …

But we know today that it was best … for the generations of Americans who have come after them, that the conflict did not end in a division of our land into two nations.

I like to think that it was the will of God that we remain one people.”
At the Confederate Memorial in Arlington Cemetery, President Coolidge said, May 25, 1924:

“It was Lincoln who pointed out that both sides prayed to the same God.

When that is the case, it is only a matter of time when each will seek a common end.
… We can now see clearly what that end is.

It is the maintenance of our American ideals, beneath a common flag, under the blessings of Almighty God.”

Camp Constitution’s 16th Annual Camp Is One Month Away. Your Help is Needed

Published June 14, 2024 | By Hal Shurtleff

Camp Constitution 16th Annual Family Camp is two months away.  We return to the Singing Hills Christian Camp https://www.singinghills.net/ Plainfield, NH. from Sunday July 14 to Friday July 19, 2024.

We are close to a full house but still have a few rooms for families and room for unaccompanied minors.

Due to the fact that one of our largest supporters passed away earlier this year, we need to reach out to you to see if you can help cover the camp fees for a few families and campers.Donations may be made via our PayPal account accessed from our website’s homepage  https://www.campconstitution.net or a check payable to Camp Constitution and sent to Camp Constitution Director Hal Shurtleff 146 Powder Mill Rd. Alton, NH  03809

A full fee for those 13 and over is $300. and 12 and under $200.  Any donation will be greatly appreciated.

As we do every year, we have an excellent line-up of instructors.  Returning instructors include Pastor David Whitney of the Institute on the Constitution; Professor Willie Soon, world renowned astrophysicist and climate realist; Catherine White of The Constitution Decoded; Alex Newman, author and host of the Sentinel Report, and Rev. Steve Craft, Camp Constitution’s chaplain. Guest instructors  Julie Wilkinson who played the abortion nurse in the movie “Unplanned:  The Abby Johnson Story.” author Dr. Felecia Nace, and we are still awaiting confirmation from Tucker Carlson.

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. Camp Constitution’s annual camp is a family camp open to entire families, unaccompanied minors, and, and unaccompanied 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. A link to the camp application:    https://campconstitution.net/camp-registration

Hal Shurtleff, Director
Camp Constitution

P.S.  Happy Flag Day

FLAG DAY “I pledge allegiance to the Flag and to the Republic …” – A Republic is where the citizens are co-kings! – American Minute with Bill Federer

Published June 14, 2024 | By campconstitution

 • FLAG DAY “I pledge allegiance to the Flag and to the Republic …” – A Republic is where the citizens are co-kings!

 Listen (text to speech)

Thirteen Stars and Thirteen Stripes.
It was on JUNE 14, 1777, that the Second Continental Congress selected the FLAG of the United States.
Our founders were in the midst of fighting an eight year long war to come out from under the dominion of the most powerful globalist king in world history.
After the Revolution, on JUNE 14, 1783, General George Washington sent a “Circular Letter” to the thirteen Governors of the newly independent states. He stated:
“I am now preparing to resign …
Before I carry this resolution into effect, I think it a duty … to make this my last official communication, to congratulate you on the glorious events which Heaven has been pleased to produce in our favor …
The Citizens of America are from this period to be considered as the actors of a most conspicuous theater, which seems to be particularly designed by Providence for the display of human greatness and felicity …
Heaven has crowned all its other blessing, by giving a fairer opportunity for political happiness, than any other nation has ever been favored with …”
Washington continued with a warning:
“According to the system of policy the states shall adopt at this moment, they will stand or fall;
and by their confirmation or lapse, it is yet to be decided, whether the Revolution must ultimately be considered as a blessing or a curse …
not to the present age alone, for with our fate will the destiny of unborn millions be involved.”
Washington’s concern for “unborn millions” was indicative of the founders, who sacrificed prosperity for posterity.
This contrasted with later politicians who sacrifice posterity for prosperity, yoking future generations with unpayable debt and lawlessness.
John Adams wrote, April 26, 1777:
“Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it.
If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it.”
Washington concluded with an admonition to follow the example of “the Divine Author of our blessed religion”:
“I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the state over which you preside, in His holy protection;
that He would incline the hearts of the citizens … to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another … and particularly for their brethren who have served in the field;
and finally, that He would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy,
and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.”
In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson designated JUNE 14 as “NATIONAL FLAG DAY.”
“I … call your attention to the approach of the anniversary of the day upon which THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES was adopted by the Congress as the emblem of the Union …
I therefore … request that throughout the nation … the FOURTEENTH DAY of JUNE be observed as FLAG DAY with special patriotic exercises …
to give significant expressions to our thoughtful love of America, our comprehension of the great mission of liberty and justice … for an America which no man can corrupt, no influence draw away from its ideals, no force divide against itself …
Done at the City of Washington … in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and sixteen.”
Speaking of the Flag, President Calvin Coolidge stated May 31, 1926:
“Our condition today is not merely that of one people UNDER ONE FLAG, but of a thoroughly united people who have seen bitterness and enmity which once threatened to sever them pass away, and a spirit of kindness and good will reign over them all.”
President Calvin Coolidge stated May 25, 1924, at the Confederate Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia:

“It is the maintenance of our American ideals, BENEATH A COMMON FLAG, under the blessings of Almighty God … We know that Providence would have it so.”

President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated November 13, 1935:
“OUR FLAG for a century and a half has been the symbol of the principles of liberty of conscience, of religious freedom and equality before the law; and these concepts are deeply ingrained in our national character.”
During World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated on FLAG DAY, JUNE 14, 1942:
“The belief in man, created free, in the image of God – is the crucial difference between ourselves and the enemies we face today …
… We ask the German people, still dominated by their Nazi whip-masters, whether they would rather have the mechanized hell of Hitler’s ‘New’ Order or – in place of that, freedom of speech and religion …
We ask the Japanese people, trampled by their savage lords of slaughter, whether they would rather continue slavery and blood or – in place of them, freedom of speech and religion …
We know that man, born to freedom in the image of God, will not forever suffer the oppressors’ sword …”
Roosevelt continued:
“I am going to close by reading you a prayer …
‘God of the free, we pledge our hearts and lives today to the cause of all free mankind.
Grant us victory over the tyrants who would enslave all free men and Nations …
Grant us patience with the deluded and pity for the betrayed …
Grant us … valor that shall cleanse the world of oppression and the old base doctrine that the strong must eat the weak because they are strong.'”
Mentioning the Flag, Yale President Ezra Stiles explained, May 8, 1783, that America is different from most of the other countries in world history, where people were dominated by power concentrated into the hands of deep state government leaders:
“That symbol of union, THE AMERICAN FLAG with it increasing stripes and stars, may have an equally combining efficacy for ages …
The senatorial constitution and consulate of the Roman Empire lasted from Tarquin — last Roman king, 509 BC — to Caesar — Roman dictator, 49 BC — …
The Assyrian endured without mutation through a tract of one thousand three hundred years from Semiramis — legendary ancient Babylonian queen — to Sardanapalus — alleged last Assyrian ruler, 627 BC — …
… Nor was the policy of Egypt overthrown for a longer period from the days of Metzraim — upper and lower Nile kingdoms, c.3,300 BC —
till the time of Cambyses — Persian conqueror of Egypt, 525 BC — and Amasis — last great Egpytian ruler, 526 BC — …
The Medo-Persian — 550-330 BC — and Alexandrine Empires — 356-323 BC –, and that of Timur — 1370-1405 AD –, who once reigned from Smyrna to the Indus, were … of short and transitory duration …
… Pragmatic sanction … secured the imperial succession in the House of Austria for ages — Habsburgs, 1020-1780 — …
Whatever mutations may arise in the United States, perhaps hereditary monarchy and a standing army will be the last.”

Ben Franklin warned June 2, 1787:
“There is scarce a king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of Pharaoh – get first all the people’s money, then all their lands, and then make them and their children servants forever …
There is a natural inclination in mankind to kingly government … I am apprehensive … that the government of the states may, in future times, end in a monarchy.”
 
Yale President Ezra Stiles continued:
“This great American revolution, this recent political phenomenon … will be … contemplated by all nations …
Navigation will carry THE AMERICAN FLAG around the globe itself; and display the thirteen stripes and new constellation at Bengal and Canton, on the Indus and Ganges, on the Whang-ho and the Yang-tse-kiang; and with commerce will import the wisdom and literature of the east …
That prophecy of Daniel is now literally fulfilling – there shall be a universal traveling to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
This knowledge will be brought home and treasured up in America: and being here digested and carried to the highest perfection, may re-blaze back from America to Europe, Asia and Africa, and illumine the world with truth and liberty …”
Ezra Stiles added:
“John Adams … observes — in letter from Amsterdam, April 28, 1782 — …
‘But the great designs of Providence must be accomplished …
The progress of society will be accelerated by centuries by this revolution …
American ideas of toleration and religious liberty … will become the fashionable system of Europe very soon. Light spreads from the Dayspring in the west — Luke 1:78 — ; and may it shine more and more until the perfect day — Proverbs 4:18 — …'”
Stiles concluded:
“The United States will embosom all the religious sects or denominations in Christendom …
The Presbyterian,
the Church of England …
the Unitas Fratrum … Moravian bishops …
Ancient Bohemian churches …
the Baptists,
the Friends — Quakers –,
the Lutherans,
the Romanists …
the Dutch,
and Gallic,
and German reformed or Calvinistic churches …
There is a Greek church brought from Smyrna …
There are Wesyans, Mennonites … all … who will give the religious complexion to America …
Episcopal … Greek and Armenian patriarchates …
With a most generous benevolence … of a friendly cohabitation of all sects in America, proving that men may be good members of civil society, and yet differ in religion …
Little would civilians have thought ages ago, that the world should ever look to America for models of government.”
President James Buchanan stated March 4, 1857:
“We ought to cultivate peace, commerce, and friendship with all nations … in a spirit of Christian benevolence toward our fellow-men …
The people, under the protection of THE AMERICAN FLAG, have enjoyed civil and religious liberty.”
In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln commented to State Senator James Scovel of New Jersey:
“If God gives me four years more to rule this country, I believe it will become what it ought to be – what its Divine Author intended it to be – no longer one vast plantation for breeding human beings for the purpose of lust and bondage.
But it will become a new Valley of Jehoshaphat — Joel 3:2, 12 –, where all the nations of the earth will assemble together UNDER ONE FLAG, worshiping a common God, and they will celebrate the resurrection of human freedom.”
When Lincoln died, President Andrew Johnson stated April 25, 1865:
“In order to mitigate that grief on earth which can only be assuaged by communion with the Father in heaven …
I … appoint … the 25th day of May next, to be observed, wherever in the United States THE FLAG OF THE COUNTRY may be respected, as a day of humiliation and mourning, and I recommend … citizens … assemble in their respective places of worship, there to unite in solemn service to Almighty God.”
President Rutherford B. Hayes noted in his diary that during the Civil War:
“Archbishop John Baptist Purcell strung THE AMERICAN FLAG, in the crisis of our fate, from the top of the Cathedral in Cincinnati April 16, 1861! The spire was beautiful before, but the Catholic prelate made it radiant with hope and glory for our country!”
When Rutherford B. Hayes died, President Benjamin Harrison described him, January 18, 1893:
“He was a patriotic citizen, a lover of THE FLAG and of our free institutions, an industrious and conscientious civil officer, a soldier of dauntless courage, a loyal comrade and friend, a sympathetic and helpful neighbor, and the honored head of a happy Christian home.”
President Andrew Johnson stated while serving as a Senator from Tennessee (The Life and Public Services of Andrew Johnson-State Papers, Speeches and Addresses, by John Savage, NY: Derby & Miller, 1866, p. 247, appendix p. 87, Jan. 31, 1862):
“Let us look forward to the time when we can take THE FLAG OF OUR COUNTRY and nail it below the Cross, and there let it wave as it waved in the olden times, and let us gather around it and inscribe for our motto: ‘Liberty and Union, one and inseparable, now and forever,’ and exclaim, ‘Christ first, our country next!'”
In dedicating the Oregon Trail, President Warren G. Harding stated July 3, 1923:
“Never in the history of the world has there been a finer example of civilization following Christianity.
The missionaries led under the banner of the Cross, and the settlers moved close behind under the STAR-SPANGLED SYMBOL OF THE NATION.”
 
President Benjamin Harrison stated July 21, 1892
“Let THE NATIONAL FLAG float over every schoolhouse in the country and the exercises be such as shall impress upon our youth the patriotic duties of American citizenship … Let there be expressions of gratitude to Divine Providence.”
On FLAG DAY, JUNE 14, 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower signed Public Law 396 adding the phrase “One Nation Under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance:
“Section 7. The following is designated as the Pledge of Allegiance to THE FLAG: ‘I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’
Such pledge should be rendered by standing with the right hand over the heart. However, civilians will always show full respect to the flag when the pledge is given by merely standing at attention, men removing the headdress. Persons in uniform shall render the military salute.”
President Eisenhower stood on the steps of the Capitol Building and recited the revised Pledge of Allegiance for the first time.
The Pledge of Allegiance was first written in 1892 by a Baptist minister from Boston named Francis Bellamy, who was ordained in the Baptist Church of Little Falls, New York.
Francis Bellamy was a member of the staff of The Youth’s Companion, which first published the Pledge on September 8, 1892, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Public-school children first recited it during the National School Celebration on the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ discovery of America, October 12, 1892, at the dedication of the 1892 Chicago World’s Fair.
The words “under God” were taken from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address:
“… that this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.”
In 1979, a publication approved by and printed under authority of Congress titled “The Capitol-A Pictorial History of the Capitol and of the Congress” (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1979), p. 24, commented regarding the Pledge:
“This Pledge attests what has been true about America from the beginning. Faith in the transcendent, sovereign God was in the public philosophy – the American consensus. America’s story opened with the first words of the Bible, In the beginning God …
… We are truthfully one nation under God ‘and our institutions presuppose a Divine Being,’ wrote Justice William O. Douglas in 1966 …
Only a nation founded on theistic presupposition would adopt a first amendment to ensure the free exercise of all religions or of none.
The government would be neutral among the many denominations and no one church would become the state church.
But America and its institutions of government could not be neutral about God.”

On January 10, 1963, Democrat Congressman Albert Sydney Herlong Jr., of Florida, read into the Congressional Record the 45 communist goals for America, which included:
“… 12. Do away with all loyalty oaths …
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack …
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV …
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible …
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned …
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the ‘common man.’
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the ‘big picture’ …
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use ‘united force’ to solve economic, political or social problems.”
The Founding Fathers, for all their human failings, gave a present to future Americans, namely, each citizen gets to determine their own destiny, in a sense, be the king of their own life, and then all citizens, together, are the king of the country.
The pledge is “to the Flag and to the Republic for which it stands.”
A “republic” is where the people are king, ruling the country through their public servants called representatives.
Kings have subjects, who are subjected to the king’s will.
Republics have citizens. The word “citizen” is Greek for co-ruler, co-sovereign, co-king.
When a person pledges allegiance to the Flag, they are pledging allegiance to us being in charge of ourselves. They are saying that we, the people, are the king, not some power-usurping totalitarian deep state dictator.
When someone protests the flag, they are effectively saying:
“I don’t want to be the king anymore, I protest this system where I participate in ruling myself, I would rather relinquish authority over my life to deep-state government bureaucrats.”
Whether they fully realize it or not, those who dishonor the flag are effectively rejecting:
  • equality before the law,
  • freedom of speech,
  • freedom of conscience,
  • freedom of religion, and
  • inalienable rights from the Creator.
“Kneeling” is the universal sign of surrender.
Old Testament believers, such as Daniel, or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, would rather be thrown into the lion’s den or into the fiery furnace than kneel to something other than God.
Early Christian believers would rather be martyred in the Roman Colosseum than kneel to something other than God.
At the Dodger versus Giants baseball game, July 23, 2020, Giants pitcher Sam Coonrod was to only player not to kneel.

When asked why, Coonrod stated: “I’m a Christian, so I just believe that I can’t kneel before anything besides God.”

The Christian Post reported, August 3, 2020:
“Orlando Magic forward Jonathan Isaac was the lone player to stand during the national anthem …
He cited the Gospel later when asked to explain his reasoning.
‘I don’t think that kneeling … for me, personally, is the answer … For me, black lives are supported through the Gospel, all lives are supported through the Gospel. My life has been supported by the Gospel …
Everyone is made in the image of God and we all share in His glory …'”
Isaac continued:
“We all make mistakes but I think the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that there’s grace for us and that Jesus came and died for our sins, and that we all will come to an understanding of that and that God wants to have a relationship with us.”
The 6’11” NBA Player Jonathan Isaac concluded:
“We all fall short of God’s glory, and at the end of the day, whoever will humble themselves and seek God and repent their sins, then we could see our mistakes and people’s mistakes and people’s evil in a different light,
and that it would help bring us closer together and get past skin color, get past anything that’s on the surface that doesn’t really deal with the hearts of men and women.”
One of the first Gospel songs that nearly all children in America were taught, was:
“Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world.
Red, and yellow, black, and white,
They are precious in His sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
On CNN Tonight with Don Lemon, February 1, 2019, singer Gladys Knight-the Empress of Soul, explained why she was going to sing the National Anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner, at Super Bowl 53:
“As far as this is concerned, I grew up with the national anthem … We used to sing it in school before school started.
We used to say prayers in school before school started, and we just don’t have that anymore and I’m just — I’m just hoping that it will be about our country and how we treat each other and being the great country that we are.”
On the Great Seal of the United States is the Latin phrase E Pluribus Unum, which means “Out of many, one.”
Though there are many sources for this phrase, one is that of Roman statesman Cicero, who, in De Officiis, described basic family and social bonds as the origin of society:
“When each person loves the other as much as himself, it makes one out of many — unum fiat ex Pluribus– .”
Further back, this concept was written in Leviticus 19:17-18:
“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”
 
The opposite of this is the Latin phrase divide et impera, meaning “divide and rule” or “divide and conquer.”
This concept was utilize throughout history, such as: Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, Philip II of Macedon, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars, Niccolò Machiavelli, British in India, Napoleon in Europe, and others.
 
On a biological level, an autoimmune disease is a disease where the body attacks itself.
On a “body politic” level, this is happening in America, a type of cultural autoimmune disease, where citizens are taught to attack their own country.
Eleanor Roosevelt is credited with saying:
“Pit race against race, religion against religion, prejudice against prejudice. Divide and conquer! We must not let that happen here.”
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who spent eleven years in socialist gulag labor camps, warned in a speech titled “Godlessness: the First Step to the Gulag,” May 10, 1983:
“Western societies are losing more and more of their religious essence as they thoughtlessly yield up their younger generation to atheism …
Atheist teachers in the West are bringing up a younger generation in a spirit of hatred of their own society.”
Attorney Chris Banescu, a regular contributor to OrthodoxyToday.org, wrote July 18, 2011:
“As a survivor of the Communist Holocaust I am horrified to witness how my beloved America, my adopted country, is gradually being transformed into a secularist and atheistic utopia, where communist ideals are glorified and promoted, while …
God has been progressively erased from our public and educational institutions …
Those of us who have experienced and witnesses first-hand the atrocities and terror of communism understand fully why such evil takes root, how it grows and deceives, and the kind of hell it will ultimately unleash …
Godlessness is always the first step towards tyranny and oppression!”
Emphasizing America’s dedication to God, President Eisenhower stated on Flag Day, June 14, 1954:
“From this day forward, the millions of our school children will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural school house, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty.

… To anyone who truly loves America, nothing could be more inspiring than … this re-dedication of our youth, on each school morning, to our country’s true meaning …
… In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource, in peace or in war.”
—

Download as PDF …

American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate.
—
Image Credits: Public Domain; Description: 140th U.S. Flag Day poster 1777-1917; The birthday of the stars and stripes, June 14th, 1917, ‘Tis the Star Spangled Banner, oh, long may it wave, o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!” Library of Congress description: “Poster showing a man raising the American flag, with a minuteman cheering and an eagle flying above”; Date: 1917; Source: US-LibraryOfCongress-BookLogo.svg ; United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3g06262 ; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Flag_Day_poster_1917.jpg

The Weekly Sam: Christianity Versus Islam By Samuel L. Blumenfeld

Published June 13, 2024 | By campconstitution

Because we live in such a highly secularized society, we cannot believe that America could ever become involved in a religious war in this day and age. Yet ferocious religious wars have been going on all over the place: in Northern Ireland, in Israel, in the Balkans, in Sudan, in India, in Kashmir, and in Russia. But history is a very harsh taskmaster and refuses to let us Americans escape into our secular fantasies and liberal hot houses for long. Thus, it is vitally important for us to reconnect with the human race’s never ending history of religious struggle. That a group of Islamic terrorists, trained in a remote war-torn, famine ridden, hellhole in Asia, could organize the kind of mind-boggling attack against America that took place on September 11, 2001, means that America is not only not exempt from history, but has been dragged kicking and screaming back into the middle of it.

Back in 1588, Christopher Marlowe, master of historical drama, wrote his famous Tamburlaine. In it there is a fascinating scene in which the Christian King Sigismund of Hungary and Orcanes, the Muslim King of Natolia, both former enemies, decide to establish peace between them in order to join forces to defeat Tamberlaine the Great, the cruel, pagan conqueror of Asia. Both men confirm their commitment with an oath. King Sigismund vows: By Him that made the world and saved my soul, The Son of God and issue of a maid, Sweet Jesus Christ, I solemnly protest And vow to keep this peace inviolable! King Orcanes vows: By sacred Mohamet, the friend of God, Whose holy Alcoran remains with us, Whose Glorious body, when he left the world, Closed in a coffin mounted up the air, And hung on stately Mecca’s temple-roof, I swear to keep this truce inviolable! But as the story goes, it was King Sigismund who later broke the truce and was defeated and killed by the Muslims.

While the history of the struggle between Christians and Muslims for control of Europe was for a time settled after the Muslims were expelled from Spain in 1492 and driven back from the gates of Vienna to Asia and Africa, the Islamic enclaves that remained in the Balkans led to the recent wars in Bosnia and Kosovo. The Serbs had considered themselves as the Christian bulwark against further Islamic incursions in Europe, and therefore could not understand why they were being bombed by fellow Europeans and Americans. You had to know history to understand what Bosnia and Kosovo were all about and what bin Laden’s men were doing in the Balkans. That conflict proved that the war between Christianity and Islam has never ended. Over the ages, it simply took on different forms. The rise of European power put a lid on Islamic ambitions and the Muslim world became the backwater of history until the discovery of oil in the twentieth century. But in the nineteenth century, the Islamic Barbary states of North Africa could still make trouble for the Infidel. They took possession of American and European commercial vessels, held their crews for ransom, and enslaved other Christians. Our first war after independence was fought during the Jefferson administration against the Muslim pirates and kidnappers of Tripolitania. It is known in the history books as the Barbary War, in which U.S. Marines staged their first invasion of foreign soil. Hence, the Marine anthem: “From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli.”

In order to finally put an end to the piracy and barbarism coming out of North Africa, France decided to take over Algeria. During the 1830s and 1840s, the French imposed their rule over the territory, encouraging Europeans to settle there. The result was a flourishing French colony and an end to Barbary piracy. France maintained order in North Africa until the end of World War II, when the anti-colonialist movement got underway. Both liberals and communists joined in forcing the European powers to give up their colonies. In Algeria, however, over a million Europeans had settled in the territory and the coastal departments were considered an integral part of France. However, when Charles de Gaulle gained power at the height of the Algerian uprising, he decided that France should quit Algeria because the Moslems could never become true Frenchmen. And so, France abandoned Algeria, and a million Europeans took to the boats. Today, the invasion has been reversed. Five million Muslims, mostly Algerians, live in France. They make up ten percent of the population and are part of the resurgent Islamic power in Europe. Christianity is now so weak in France that one wonders if it is capable of resisting the assumption of Islamic power. We have been told by our leaders and the media that we are not at war against the Islamic religion. We are at war against terrorism.

But what they all prefer not to recognize is that the spiritual power behind that terrorism, the power that drives otherwise intelligent human beings to undertake suicidal missions against the infidel is the religion of Islam. Of course, there are millions of Muslims who just want to lead normal lives. Unfortunately, after September 11, 2001, nothing is “normal” anymore. In an alarming article in the November issue of Commentary magazine, Daniel Pipes contends that Islamist militants are serious about their plan to conquer America. He writes: The first missionaries for militant Islam, or Islamism, who arrived here from abroad in the 1920’s, unblushingly declared, “Our plan is, we are going to conquer America.” The audacity of such statements hardly went unnoticed at the time, including by Christians who cherished their own missionizing hopes. As a 1922 newspaper commentary put it: To the millions of American Christians who have so long looked eagerly forward to the time the cross shall be supreme in every land and the people of the whole world shall have become the followers of Christ, the plan to win the continent to the path of the “infidel Turk” will seem a thing unbelievable. But there is no doubt about its being pressed with all the fanatical zeal for which the Mohammedans are noted. Pipes writes further: As a teacher at an Islamic school in Jersey City, near New York, explains, the “short-term goal is to introduce Islam. In the long term, we must save American society.” Step by step, writes a Pakistan-born professor of economics, by offering “an alternative model” to Americans, Muslims can transform what Ismail Al-Faruqi referred to as “the unfortunate realities of North America” into something acceptable in God’s eyes. The irony in all of this is stunning.

For years the Christian right has been trying to get Americans to live godly lives, but with very limited success. The fact that 85% of American parents put their children in pagan public schools is an indication of how strong our liberal secular culture is. It controls the curriculum in our schools and universities. It controls most of the print media, the electronic media, and most of what comes out of Hollywood. And American schools are now teaching American children all about Islam. While the Bible has been eliminated from the classroom, apparently the Koran hasn’t. How else can you teach about Islam? Recently, the Reverend Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian relief agency, called Islam “wicked and violent.” He said, “I don’t believe this is a wonderful, peaceful religion. When you read the Koran and you read the verses from the Koran, it instructs the killing of the infidel, for those that are non-Muslim.” As the son of Billy Graham, Franklin is the designated successor to his father’s longtime evangelical ministry. He delivered the benediction at Bush’s inauguration. But now he’s in trouble with the White House, which sponsored a Ramadan dinner for 50 ambassadors from Islamic countries with a traditional meal and prayer. Also, the Muslim chaplain of Georgetown University recently officiated at the opening prayers of the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill.

The moral seems to be that if Islamist terrorists bomb the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and kill 5,000 Americans, other Islamists get invited to the White House for a special dinner prepared to their specifications: no pork. Now that Americans are being invited to be kind to Muslims, where will all of this lead? Graham said, “It wasn’t Methodists flying into those buildings, it wasn’t Lutherans. It was an attack on this country by people of the Islamic faith.” And that’s why the latter are now favored guests at the White House! Of course, the President is doing this to keep the Islamic states in line while we war against the terrorists which these states harbor. But if we are being encouraged by our born-again President to be kind to our Muslim neighbors, shouldn’t Christians see this as a missionary opportunity? Why not introduce Muslims to the loving grace of Jesus Christ? One of the reasons why Americans find it difficult to become friendly with Muslims is because sooner or later their rabid hatred of Israel will surface. Americans in general don’t like to hate anybody, and they are uncomfortable with people who are haters. Christianity preaches love. Islam preaches hate. That is why hatred of Israel fills the psyche of so many Muslims. Abnormal, pathological hatred is not healthy. It requires constant energy to be sustained at the level it exists among Muslims. And that is why life is so miserable in many Islamic countries. And that is why Palestinian refugees have preferred to remain in refugee camps for 50 years rather than do something constructive with their lives. They prefer to live with festering, enduring hatred, and teach it to their children, rather than accept forgiveness and peace.

No true Christian could ever waste his life that way. Yet, the United Nations aid agency accepts these refugee camps as perfectly normal for the Arab Muslims. After World War II, millions of displaced persons found new constructive lives in countries all over the world. But in the Middle East, Palestinian hatred is used to torment the world about Israel. It is to be hoped that one of the first things the new government of Afghanistan might do is recognize Israel and establish diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. It would signal a dramatic change in the attitude of Muslims toward Israel. Indeed, let us be loving and concerned with the well-being of our Muslim citizens, and let us convey to them that Jesus will save them from their sickening hatred and grant them life renewed. Samuel L. Blumenfeld is the author of eight books on education, including NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education, How to Tutor, Alpha-Phonics: A Primer for Beginning Readers, and Homeschooling: A Parent’s Guide to Teaching Children. All of these books are available on Amazon.com

(The above article came from the Sam Blumenfeld Archives http://blumenfeld.campconstitution.net/main.htm

The Blumenfeld Archives 

Christian Flag Case Continues Ripple Effect on Governments News Release from Liberty Counsel

Published June 12, 2024 | By campconstitution
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Since Liberty Counsel’s unanimous victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in Shurtleff v. City of Boston in 2022 where Boston illegally censored Christian viewpoints by denying flying the Christian flag in a public forum open to “all applicants,” the ruling has continued to have a ripple effect throughout the nation regarding flag policies.
Many city governments now are choosing not to make the mistake of favoring one group over another.

In Clearwater, Florida, Mayor Bruce Rector stated that the city will host events and a proclamation for “pride month” but have ended the practice of switching out the city flag at the downtown Municipal Services Building. Rector said that it could create “a slippery slope” with the city making judgment calls on groups that may “ask for the gesture in the future.”

The city council banned the “pride flag” in Hamtramck, Michigan on public property after debate on LGBTQ+ discrimination and religion due to the “beliefs of some members of their faith.” The council voted to display only five flags: the American Flag, the Michigan flag, and the countries of immigrant residents.

In Downey, California, the city council voted 3-2 to adopt a “neutral” flag policy allowing only the United States flag, the state flag, the city flag, and the POW/MIA flag.

Even though Huntington Beach, California had previously flown the rainbow flag during “Pride month” during the last two years, voters approved a measure that restricts all non-government flags from being flown on city property and only allows that the American flag, the State of California flag, the County of Orange flag, the City of Huntington Beach flag, the POW-MIA flag, the six Armed Forces flags and the Olympic flag during the Summer Olympic Games may be flown on government flagpoles.

Mayor Randy Taylor of Salisbury, Maryland decided against the city taking part in raising a rainbow flag, an annual tradition marking the start of “Pride month.” Taylor stated the decision was based on being “fair” and “transparent.” He said, “Neutrality is not to be interpreted as anything else but simply that — being neutral.”

In Boonton, New Jersey, the city council recently approved an ordinance which significantly restricts the types of flags permitted to fly over municipal property. Under the new rules, only the American flag, state and county flags, and military flags or Prisoner of War/Missing in Action flags are allowed.

The city council in Dover, New Jersey also recently voted to restrict flags on city property to just the U.S. flag, state and POW-MIA flags. Major James Dodd stated the city wanted to avoid having to “pick and choose” which community organizations would be permitted to fly flags above Town Hall.

In Enfield, Connecticut, the town council voted 6-5 last January to only allow the American flag, Connecticut state flag, POW/MIA flag, and military branch flags. The interim town’s attorney, Tom Tyler, said the decision protects the town from unnecessary lawsuits from organizations or individuals wanting to fly flags on town owned property and forbids town flagpoles from being used as public forums of free speech.

In Shurtleff v. City of Boston, the High Court stated because the government admitted it censored the Christian flag because it was referred to as a Christian flag on the application, the censorship was viewpoint discrimination, and therefore the government was not taking part in establishing a religion by flying the flag.

The Supreme Court’s decision in Shurtleff focused in part on “government speech” and “ownership of expression.” The ruling stated that when the government opens a forum for expression to the public (such as a flagpole), then the First Amendment prevents viewpoint discrimination.

The Shurtleff and Coach Kennedy cases resulted in the Supreme Court overturning the 1971 Lemon v. Kurtzman case, which for 51 years distorted the First Amendment Establishment, Free Exercise, and Free Speech Clauses.

Liberty Counsel’s Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The clear message from the Supreme Court is that government cannot favor one viewpoint and censor another. To avoid litigation and an unfavorable ruling like the City of Boston received, governments should stick with government flags. If they veer away from government flags, be warned that viewpoint censorship can be a costly mistake.”

For more information on Shurtleff v. City of Boston, visit www.LC.org/flag.

Liberty Counsel provides broadcast quality TV interviews via Hi-Def Skype and LTN at no cost.

 

Designed by Eric Conover.