Words of Freedom / Quotes From List of Words A - Z

A

Jun 14, 1777 – The American Flag

THE ORIGINAL STAR SPANGLED BANNER, 34 FEET WIDE AND 30 FEET HIGH, IS PRESERVED AT THE SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM.

B

The Big Red One

“No mission too difficult.  No sacrifice too great.  Duty first.” – motto, The Big Red One

C

Congress

“RESOLVED:  that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field representing a new constellation.” – Congress, Jun 14, 1777

THE CONTINENTAL COLORS, 1775-77

“DON’T TREAD ON ME.” – MOTTO OF THE FIRST OFFICIAL AMERICAN FLAG, THE CONTINENTAL COLORS, 1775-77

The Constitution of the United States – Ratified Jun 21, 1788

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish the CONSTITUTION for the United States of America.” – Preamble, U.S. Constitution, Sep 15-17, 1787

“The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.” – U.S. Constitution, Article. IV. Sec. 2.          

“…no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” – U.S. Constitution, Article VI.

The Bill of Rights (Amendments 1-10) (Ratified Dec 15, 1791)

Amendment 1  Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment 2  A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Amendment 3  No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Amendment 4  The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment 5  No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Amendment 6  In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

Amendment 7  In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Amendment 8  Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment 9  The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment 10  The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Amendment 13

Amendment 13  (Ratified Dec 6, 1865) Sec. 1.  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.

Amendment 14

Amendment 14  (Ratified Jul 9, 1868) Sec. 1.   All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Amendment 15

Amendment 15  (Ratified Feb 3, 1870) Sec. 1.  The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.

Amendment 16          

Amendment 19  (Ratified Aug 18, 1920)  The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Amendment 21

Amendment 21  (Ratified Dec 5, 1933) Sec. 1.  The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

Amendment 24

Amendment 24  (Ratified Jan 23, 1964) Sec. 1.  The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.

Amendment 26

Amendment 26  (Ratified Jul 1, 1971) Sec. 1.  The right of citizens of the United States, who are 18 years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.

D

The Declaration of Independence – July 4, 1776

IN CONGRESS.  July 4, 1776 – The Unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.  We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.  That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.  That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.  Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.  But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.  Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.  The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.  To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.  He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.  He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.  He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.  He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.  He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.  He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.  He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.  He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.  He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.  He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.  He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies, without the Consent of our legislatures.  He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.  He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to the Acts of pretended Legislation:  For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:  For protecting them by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:  For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:  For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:  For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:  For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:  For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:  For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:  For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.  He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.  He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.  He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.  He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.  He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers; the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.  In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms:  Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.  A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.  Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren.  We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us.  We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here.  We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.  They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.  We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by authority of the good People of these Colonies solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.  And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Declaration of Sentiments

“We hold these truths to be self-evident:  that all men and women are created equal. …”

– Declaration of Sentiments, First Women’s Rights Convention, Seneca Falls, New York, Jul 19-20, 1848

I

Inscription on The Liberty Bell

Proclaim Liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof Lev. XXV X – Inscription on The Liberty Bell

P

‘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.” – ‘The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag’

S

The Supreme Court – Since 1789

“EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW” – INSCRIPTION ON THE SUPREME COURT BUILDING

U

United States Army Service Forces

“The difficult we do immediately.  The impossible takes a little longer.” – Slogan of United States Army Service Forces

U.S. Air Force – 1947

“Off we go into the wild blue yonder, climb-ing high into the sun. …” – Air Force Song    

U.S. Marine Corps – Nov 10, 1775

“Semper Fidelis” (Always Faithul) – motto of U.S. Marines

U.S. National Motto since 1956

“In God We Trust” – U.S. National Motto since 1956

INTRODUCTION TO U.S. RADIO SERIES, JUN 1938

“…A NEVER ENDING BATTLE FOR TRUTH, JUSTICE AND THE

AMERICAN WAY

!” – INTRODUCTION TO U.S. RADIO SERIES, JUN 1938

U.S. Navy – Since Oct, 15, 1775

“…I represent the fighting spirit of the Navy and those who have gone before me to defend freedom and democracy around the world. …” – The Sailor’s Creed

V

Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S.

“The U.S. Flag…should always be allowed to fall free…” – Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S., Etiquette of the Stars and Stripes, 1934