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A page of history is worth a volume of logic...
Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
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Declaration of Independence
July 4, 1776
All men are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
According
to a recent survey three out of ten Americans do not know that their
right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"
was set forth in the Declaration of Independence.
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Constitution of Kentucky, Preamble
We, the people
of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, grateful to Almighty God for the
civil, political and religious liberties we enjoy, and invoking the
continuance of these blessings,
do ordain and establish this Constitution. |
The Mayflower Compact
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THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN.
We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our
dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God,
of Great Britain, France, and Ireland,
King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken
for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith,
and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the
first Colony in the northern Partsof Virginia; Do by
these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God
and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together
into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation,
and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof
do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances,
Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall
be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of
the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience.
IN WITNESS whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names
at Cape-Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of
our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France,
and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the
fifty-fourth, Anno Domini; 1620. |
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YEAR OF THE BIBLE - 1983
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HON. PHILLIP M. CRANE
OF ILLINOIS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1983
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Mr PHILLIP M. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, during our colonial period
the Bible was the basic text for American school children.
Today, the Bible is still unsurpassed as a single-volume source
from which a teacher can select a wealth of material including
short stories, poetry, parables, history, philosophy, ethics,
and law.
Recently,
the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed House
Joint Resolution 487 authorizing and requesting the President
to proclaim 1983 m the "Year of the Bible."
H.
J. Res. 287
Resolution
authorizing and requesting the President to proclaim 1983
the "Year of the Bible"
Whereas
the Bible, the Word of God, has made a unique contribution
in shaping the United States as a distinctive and blessed
nation and people;
Whereas
deeply held religious convictions springing frorn the Holy
Scriptures led to the early settlement of our Nation;
Whereas
Biblical teachings inspired concepts of civil government that
are contained in our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution
of the United States:
Whereas
many of our great national leaders-among them Presidents Washington,
Jackson Lincoln and Wilson - paid tribute to the surpassing
influence of the Bible In our country's development, as in
the word of President Jackson that the Bible Is "the
rock on which our Republic rests";
Whereas
the history of our Nation clearly illustrates the value of
voluntarily applying the teachings of the Scriptures in the
lives of individuals, families, and societies; -
Whereas
this Nation now faces great challenges that will test this
Nation as it has never been tested before; and
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Whereas
that renewing our knowledge of an faith in God through Holy
Scripture can strengthen us as a Nation and a people: Now,
therefore, be, it
Resolved
by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled, That the President
is authorized and requested to designate 1983 as a national
"Year of the Bible" in recognition of both the formative
influence the bBible has been for out nation, and our national
need to study and apply the teaching of the Holy Scriptures.
Furthermore,
President Reagan has emphasized how fundamental and important
the Ten Commandments are to any system of just law:
"They
say that man in his entire history has written about four
billion laws, and with all the four billion laws they havenāt
improved on the Ten Commandments one bit."
THE TEN
COMMANDMENTS
1. Thou
shalt have no other gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honour thy father and thy mother:
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
10. Thou shalt not covet.
The historical
importance of the Ten Commandments is even captured in the
architecture of the U.S. Supreme Court Building. Directly
above the bench in the Courtroom is a marble sculpture of
the Ten Commandments tablet between two central figures depicting
Majesty of the Law and Power of Government.
I believe
that it would serve and educational purpose for our citizens
to become familiar with the important role which the Bible
and the Ten Commandments have played in molding our American
traditions and laws.
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Day of Prayer, 1863
By the President of the Untied States of America
A Proclamation
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 the 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 chastisements in this world, may we
not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolated
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 pre- served, 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 views,
of the Senate, I do by this 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. AU "
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 blessings 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 thirtieth day of March, in the year of
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the
independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.
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Last modified: January, 2000
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