"The motto In God We Trust was placed on United States coins largely because of the increased religious sentiment existing during the American Civil War. Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase received many appeals from devout Christians throughout the country, urging that the United States recognize God on United States coins. From Treasury Department records, it appears that the first such appeal came in a letter dated November 13, 1861. It was written to Secretary Chase by Rev. M. R. Watkinson, Minister of the Gospel from Ridleyville, Pennsylvania, and read:
...This would place us openly under the Divine protection we have personally claimed. From my heart I have felt our national shame in disowning God as not the least of our present national disasters.
As a result, Secretary Chase instructed James Pollock, Director of the Mint at Philadelphia, to prepare a motto, in a letter dated November 20, 1861:
Dear Sir: No nation can be strong except in the strength of God, or safe except in His defense. The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins.
You will cause a device to be prepared without unnecessary delay with a motto expressing in the fewest and tersest words possible this national recognition
Is there such thing as a "perfect" President? When I was reading 1 Sammuel 12....
Samuel said to all Israel, I have listened to everything you said to me and have set a king over you.
Now you have a king as your leader. As for me, I am old and gray, and my sons are here with you. I have been your leader from my youth until this day.
Here I stand. Testify against me in the presence of the Lord and his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe to make me shut my eyes? If I have done any of these, I will make it right.�
�You have not cheated or oppressed us,� they replied. �You have not taken anything from anyone's hand.�
Samuel said to them, �The Lord is witness against you, and also his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand.�
�He is witness,� they said.
Then Samuel said to the people, �It is the Lord who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your forefathers up out of Egypt.
Now then, stand here, because I am going to confront you with evidence before the Lord as to all the righteous acts performed by the Lord for you and your fathers.
�After Jacob entered Egypt, they cried to the Lord for help, and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your forefathers out of Egypt and settled them in this place.
�But they forgot the Lord their God; so he sold them into the hand of Sisera, the commander of the army of Hazor, and into the hands of the Philistines and the king of Moab, who fought against them.
They cried out to the Lord and said, �We have sinned; we have forsaken the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths. But now deliver us from the hands of our enemies, and we will serve you.�"-
1 Sammuel 12
about how the Israelites were asking God for a "king"-just like other nations (e.g. we always want the same thing our neighbors have), which we don't look at the future consequences; I notice that we as "human beings" are never contented. We want what others have! As you read more of the story after 1 Sammuel 12, one finds out the corruption of "kings"-just like Presidents!
"...Of Irish descent, he was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917. Graduating from Harvard in 1940, he entered the Navy. In 1943, when his PT boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, Kennedy, despite grave injuries, led the survivors through perilous waters to safety. ...Winning by a narrow margin in the popular vote, Kennedy became the first Roman Catholic President. ...His Inaugural Address offered the memorable injunction: "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country." As President, he set out to redeem his campaign pledge to get America moving again. His economic programs launched the country on its longest sustained expansion since World War II; before his death, he laid plans for a massive assault on persisting pockets of privation and poverty. ... Responding to ever more urgent demands, he took vigorous action in the cause of equal rights, calling for new civil rights legislation. His vision of America extended to the quality of the national culture and the central role of the arts in a vital society.
He wished America to resume its old mission as the first nation dedicated to the revolution of human rights. With the Alliance for Progress and the Peace Corps, he brought American idealism to the aid of developing nations. But the hard reality of the Communist challenge remained. ...
The months after the Cuban crisis showed significant progress toward his goal of "a world of law and free choice, banishing the world of war and coercion." His administration thus saw the beginning of new hope for both the equal rights of Americans and the peace of the world. "
Related Sites: Wikipedia
Legacy "Many of Kennedy's speeches (especially his inaugural address) are considered iconic; and despite his relatively short term in office and lack of major legislative changes during his term, Americans regularly vote him as one of the best presidents, in the same league as Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan. Some excerpts of Kennedy's inaugural address are engraved on a plaque at his grave at Arlington....
Assassination "President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on November 22, 1963, while on a political trip to Texas. He was shot twice in the neck and head, and was pronounced dead at 1:00 p.m. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested at a movie theater at about 1:50 p.m. He denied shooting anyone, claiming he was a patsy, and was killed by Jack Ruby on November 24, before he could be indicted or tried.
President Johnson created the Warren Commission�chaired by Chief Justice Earl Warren�to investigate the assassination. It concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin, but this remains disputed by some scholars and eyewitnesses. Conspiracy theories about the assassination and supposed cover-up have been put forward and have become commonplace in popular culture."
-Great Speeches
Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You!
"The inaugural address of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. "
-20th President
"...His nature, always religious, was at this period profoundly stirred in that direction. He was converted under the instructions of a Campbellite preacher, was baptized and received into that denomination. They called themselves �The Disciples� condemned all doctrines and forms and sought to direct their lives by the Scriptures, simply interpreted, as any plain man would read them. This sanction to independent thinking given by religion itself had great influence in this young man that kept his earnest nature out of the ruts of bigotry.... James A. Garfield
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "...Garfield was a minister and an elder for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), making him the first�and to date, only�member of the clergy to serve as President.[20] He is also claimed as a member of the Church of Christ, as the different branches did not split until the 20th century. Garfield preached his first sermon in Poestenkill, New York.."
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