American Minute

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The Panama Canal Zone was acquired by the U.S. for ten million dollars on FEBRUARY 23, 1904. Planned by President McKinley, construction on the canal began under President Theodore Roosevelt. President Taft stated in his Address to Congress, December 6, 1912: "Our defense of the Panama Canal, together with our enormous world trade and our missionary outposts on the frontiers of civilization, require us to recognize our position as one of the foremost in the family of nations, and to clothe ourselves with sufficient naval power to give force to our reasonable demands, and to give weight to our influence in those directions of progress that a powerful Christian nation should advocate." President Wilson, in his Thanksgiving Proclamation, October 23, 1913, stated: "We have seen the practical completion of a great work at the Isthmus of Panama which not only exemplifies the nation's abundant capacity of its public servants but also promises the beginning of a new age...of co-operation and peace. 'Righteousness exalteth a nation' and 'peace on earth, good will towards men' furnish the only foundation upon which can be built the lasting achievements of the human spirit."

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"Remember the Alamo!" The battle began FEBRUARY 24, 1836, when General Santa Ana's 3,000 troops attacked 189 Texans and Tejanos at San Antonio. In 13 days, all defenders were dead, including William Travis, Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie. Only Susanna Dickenson, her baby, and Travis' servant survived. Fifteen years earlier, Mexico won independence from Spain and set up a democratic Federal Constitution. In 1833, Santa Ana rejected the Constitution, became dictator and suppressed Federal States who rebelled: San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, Durango, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Yucatán and Jalisco. In Zacatecas, Santa Ana defeated Francisco Garcia, took 3,000 prisoners and let his army ransack the city 48 hours. Federal General José Antonio Mexía marched from New Orleans to Tampico to fight Santa Ana, but was defeated. Every prisoner was executed. The Texas Declaration of Independence stated "General Antonio Lopez Santa Ana...having overturned the constitution of his country, now offers, as the cruel alternative, either abandon our homes...or submit to the most intolerable of all tyranny...He denies us the right of worshipping the Almighty according to the dictates of our own conscience."

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"Our institutions reflect the belief of our founders that all men were endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights...They believed that human institutions ought primarily to help men develop their God-given possibilities," thus stated Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, who was born FEBRUARY 25, 1888, in the home of his Civil War general grandfather. A graduate of Princeton, John Foster Dulles studied law at George Washington University, was an Army Major in WWI and a U.S. Senator. He was advisor to Truman and Secretary of State for Eisenhower. A Presbyterian pastor's son, Dulles negotiated the Peace Treaty with Japan and was U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C., is named for him. Speaking on Communism, John Foster Dulles remarked at the Jesuit Alumni Dinner, April 11, 1955: "Man, we read in the Holy Scriptures, was made a little lower than the angels. Should man now be made little higher than domesticated animals which serve the purpose of their human masters? So men face the great dilemma of whether to use force to resist aggression which imposes conditions which violate the moral law and the concept that man has his origins and his destiny in God."

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"God is behind everything, but everything hides God," wrote Victor Hugo in his classic Les Miserables, Book 5, Chapter 4. Born FEBRUARY 26, 1802, Victor Marie Hugo was hailed as the greatest of the Romanticists poets. He is best know for writing Cromwell, 1827, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1831, and Les Miserables, 1862, an epic story of redemption set in Paris during the French Revolution. Hugo's father was a general in Napoleon's army, and Hugo supported his heir, until he turned out to be a tyrant. Hugo opposed him and was forced into exiled for 19 years. Over 3 million people attended Hugo's funeral in Paris. In his Preface to Cromwell, 1827, Victor Hugo wrote: "Lastly, this threefold poetry flows from three great sources-The Bible, Homer, Shakespeare...The Bible before the Iliad, the Iliad before Shakespeare." Victor Hugo stated: "England has two books, the Bible and Shakespeare. England made Shakespeare, but the Bible made England." George H.W. Bush stated at the Dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Dallas, Texas, November 11, 1989: "Victor Hugo said 'Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come.' Well, my fellow veterans, the idea is democracy."

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"Listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere...Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch...One if by land, two if by sea..." These lines are from the poem, Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, born FEBRUARY 27, 1807. An American poet and Harvard Professor, Longfellow wrote such American classics as: The Song of Hiawatha; The Courtship of Miles Standish and Evangeline, in which he penned: "Man is unjust, but God is just; and finally justice triumphs." In A Psalm of Life, 1838, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote: "Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul...In the world's broad field of battle, In the bivouac of Life, Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife! Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant! Let the dead Past bury its dead! Act,-act in the living Present! Heart within, and God o'erhead! Lives of great men all remind us, We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us, Footprints on the sands of time;-Footprints, that perhaps another, Sailing o'er life's solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again."

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His grandson, Robert, was the U.S. Navy Commodore who helped freed slaves found Liberia, West Africa, and in 1846 captured California-the city of Stockton named for him. His brother-in-law, Elias Boudinot, was a Continental Congress President and founder of the American Bible Society. His daughter married Declaration Signer Benjamin Rush. His name was Richard Stockton. After he signed the Declaration of Independence, the British invaded New Jersey forcing him to move his family for safety. Richard Stockton was betrayed, dragged from his bed at night and imprisoned in New York. His farm was pillaged and his library, one of the best in the country, was burned. His health broken from over a year in the British prison, Richard Stockton died bankrupt at age 51, FEBRUARY 28, 1781. New Jersey placed his statue in the U.S. Capitol Statuary Hall. Richard Stockton wrote in his Will: "As my children...may be peculiarly impressed with the last words of their father, I think proper here, not only to subscribe to the entire belief of the great leading doctrine of the Christian religion...but also in the heart of a father's affection, to exhort them to remember 'that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.'"

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FEBRUARY 29 is Leap Day. In 45 B.C., Julius Caesar replaced the calendars used throughout the Roman Empire based on the moon's cycles with a calendar based on the sun, having 365 days and a "leap" day every 4th year. It was modified by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 to omit leap days in years divisible by 100 but not divisible by 400. This was a closer approximation to a tropical year-the time the Earth takes to orbit the Sun. Protestant Europe did not adopted the Gregorian reform till the 1700's. England and its colonies waited till 1752, but by that time the calendar trailed the seasons by 11 days. When America finally adjusted its calendar and the day after September 2 became September 14, there were riots. Another interesting event occurred on this day during Christopher Columbus' last voyage. Driven by storms around the Caribbean Sea, two of his ships were abandoned and the remaining two were worm-eaten and sinking. Columbus was shipwrecked on Jamaica. Indians brought food for a while, but then became hostile. Columbus predicted a lunar eclipse on FEBRUARY 29, 1504, and the frightened Indians quickly made peace. Columbus wrote: "My hope in the One who created us all sustains me: He is an ever-present help in trouble."

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What was the government in the United States before the U.S. Constitution was written? It was the Articles of Confederation, ratified by the States MARCH 1, 1781. Signed by such statesmen as Ben Franklin and Roger Sherman, it was an attempt to loosely knit the thirteen States together. The Articles of Confederation declared: "Whereas the delegates of the United States of America in Congress assembled did on the fifteenth day of November in the Year of Our Lord 1777, and in the second year of the independence of America agree on certain Articles of Confederation and perpetual union between the States...The said states hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other, against all force...or attacks made upon them...on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense." The Articles end with the line: "It has pleased the Great Governor of the World to incline the hearts of the Legislatures we respectively represent in Congress, to approve of and to authorize us to ratify the said Articles of Confederation."

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The Alamo mission at San Antonio was in its 7th day of being assaulted by thousands of Santa Ana's troops. By the 13th day, Santa Ana's "take-no-prisoner" policy had all 189 defenders killed, including Jim Bowie and former U.S. Congressman Davy Crockett. The only Texas army left in the field was Col. James Fannin's. It departed Goliad to rescue the Alamo but was surrounded in open ground and captured. Santa Ana ordered all 350 prisoners executed. When the Mexican officer hesitated, Santa Ana sent another officer who carried out the order. Had Fannin's troops been left in prison, Texas would have been disheartened, but instead Santa Ana's cruelty aroused world outrage. The Texas Declaration of Independence, signed MARCH 2, 1836, stated: "General Antonio Lopez Santa Ana...demanded us to deliver up our arms, which are essential to our defense-the rightful property of freemen-and formidable only to tyrannical governments...has, through its emissaries, incited the merciless savage, with the tomahawk and scalping knife, to massacre the inhabitants of our defenseless frontiers...We fearlessly...commit the issue to the...Supreme Arbiter of the destinies of nations."

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"O thus be it ever when free men shall stand, Between their loved home and the war's desolation; Blest with victory and peace, may the Heaven-rescued land, Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just; And this be our motto IN GOD IS OUR TRUST! And the Star Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave Over the land of the free and the home of the brave!" This 4th verse of the National Anthem inspired Congress, MARCH 3, 1865, to place the motto on the nation's coins. House Speaker Schuyler Colfax noted: "The last act of Congress ever signed by President Lincoln was one requiring that the motto...'In God We Trust' should hereafter be inscribed upon all our national coin." Truman stated October 30, 1949: "When the U.S. was established...the motto was IN GOD WE TRUST. That is still our motto and we still place our firm trust in God." JFK stated February 9, 1961: "The guiding principle of this Nation has been, is now, and ever shall be IN GOD WE TRUST." Reagan stated March 19, 1981: "Our Nation's motto...reflects a basic recognition that there is a divine authority in the universe to which this nation owes homage."

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Until 1937, MARCH 4th was Inauguration Day. Each President acknowledged faith upon assuming office, for example, John Adams in 1797 gave: "Veneration for the religion of a people who profess and call themselves Christians...to consider a decent respect for Christianity among the best recommendations for the public service." In 1809, James Madison referred to the: "Guidance of that Almighty Being." John Quincy Adams stated in 1825: "'Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh in vain.'" In 1841, William Harrison said: "I deem the present occasion sufficiently important...in expressing to my fellow citizens a profound reverence for the Christian religion." Franklin Pierce, in 1853, stated: "There is no national security but in the nation's humble, acknowledged dependence upon God." President James Buchanan, 1857, said: "Cultivate peace...with all nations...in a spirit of Christian benevolence." In 1861, Abraham Lincoln wrote: "Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty." President Calvin Coolidge said in 1925: "America...cherishes no purpose save to merit the favor of Almighty God."

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Colonists were forced to house British soldiers. On MARCH 5, 1770, a crowd protested and in the confusion British soldiers fired, killing five, one being Crispus Attucks, the most famous African America who participated in the Revolution. Paul Revere's popular engraving of the Boston Massacre fanned flames of anti-British sentiment. Joseph Warren, the President of the Massachusetts Congress who sent Paul Revere on his midnight ride, stated on the 2nd anniversary of the Massacre, 1772: "If you perform your part, you must have the strongest confidence that the same Almighty Being who protected your pious and venerable forefathers...will still be mindful of you...May our land be a land of liberty...until the last shock of time shall bury the empires of the world in one common undistinguishable ruin!" John Hancock, first to sign the Declaration of Independence, stated on the 4th anniversary of the Boston Massacre, 1774: "Let us play the man for our GOD, and for the cities of our GOD...By a faithful discharge of our duty to our country, let us joyfully leave her important concerns in the hands of HIM who raiseth up and putteth down empires and kingdoms of the world as HE pleases."

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MARCH 6, 1776, General Washington ordered: "Thursday...being set apart by the Legislature of this Province as a day of fasting, prayer and humiliation, 'to implore the Lord and Giver of all victory to pardon our manifold sins and wickedness, and that it would please Him to bless the Continental army with His divine favor and protection,' all officers and soldiers are strictly enjoined to pay all due reverence on that day to the sacred duties of the Lord of hosts." Colonel Henry Knox moved 59 cannons from Fort Ticonderoga 300 hundred miles to a position overlooking Boston Harbor, wrapping wagon wheels with straw so the British would not hear. Amidst a violent storm, British General Howe was forced on March 17, to evacuate his ships and 3,000 men from Boston. General Washington wrote his brother, John Augustine Washington, March 31, 1776: "Upon their discovery of the works next morning, great preparations were made for attacking them; but not being ready before the afternoon, and the weather getting very tempestuous, much blood was saved, and a very important blow...was prevented. That this most remarkable Interposition of Providence is for some wise purpose, I have not a doubt."

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On MARCH 7, 1774, the British passed the Boston Port Act, closing the harbor to all commerce to punish the colonists for the Boston Tea Party. Surrounding towns rallied by sending food. William Prescott, commander at Bunker Hill, wrote: "Providence has placed you where you must stand the first shock...If we submit to these regulations, all is gone." Prescott continued: "Our forefathers passed the vast Atlantic, spent their blood and treasure, that they might enjoy their liberties, both civil and religious, and transmit them to their posterity...Now if we should give them up, can our children rise up and call us blessed?" Upon hearing of the Boston Port Act, the Virginia House of Burgesses stated May 24, 1774: "This House, being deeply impressed with apprehension...from the hostile invasion of the city of Boston in our Sister Colony of Massachusetts Bay, whose commerce and harbor are, on the first day of June next, to be stopped by an armed force, deem it highly necessary that the said first day of June be set apart, by the members of this House, as a Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer, devoutly to implore the Divine interposition, for averting the heavy calamity which threatens destruction to our civil rights."

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The three-masted frigate USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned ship in the world still afloat. It fought the Muslim Barbary Pirates of North Africa in 1803, sailed against the British in the War of 1812, and caught slave traders off the coast of Africa in the 1850's. The U.S.S. Constitution was saved from being broken into scrape by a poem titled "Old Ironsides," written by Oliver Wendell Holmes. "Her deck, once red with heroes' blood, Where knelt the vanquished foe, When winds were hurrying o'er the flood, And waves were white below..." Holmes' son, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., was born MARCH 8, 1841. A graduate of Harvard, he fought in the Civil War, edited the American Law Review and was a Harvard Law professor before becoming Chief Justice of Massachusetts' Supreme Court. In 1902, Theodore Roosevelt appointed him to the U.S. Supreme Court. Known as "The Great Dissenter" for of his unconventional opinions, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., served over 30 years, to a more advanced age than any other Justice. He replied to a reporter, on his 90th birthday, MARCH 8, 1931: "Young man, the secret of my success is that at an early age I discovered I was not God."