Bill Federer recounts amazing predictions in first president's farewell address
William J. Federer is the author of "Change to Chains: The 6,000 Year Quest for Global Control" and "What Every American Needs to Know About the Quran: A History of Islam and the United States."
George Washington kneeling in prayer
“The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolken describes man’s insatiable lust for “the Ring of Power”: “Always remember Frodo, the Ring is trying to get back to its master. It wants to be found.”
Power wants to concentrate.
In a real sense, George Washington held that “Ring of Power” and gave it up … twice. The first time was when Washington resigned his commission as general of the Continental Army in 1783.
The American-born painter Benjamin West was in England painting the portrait of King George III. When the king asked what General Washington planned to do now that he had won the war, West replied: “They say he will return to his farm.”
King George exclaimed: “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”
The King was in disbelief as Washington’s actions were in stark contrast to kings throughout history who killed to get power and killed to keep power.
George Washington gave up power again when, after having served two terms as president, he returned to his Mount Vernon farm. This was similar to Roman leader Cincinnatus, who twice led the Roman republic to victory in battle then returned to his farm, resisting the temptation to be dictator.
The world stood amazed as President Washington delivered his farewell address, which was printed in the American Daily Advertiser, Sept. 19, 1796.
President Andrew Jackson commented on it in 1837: “The Father of his Country in his Farewell Address … Washington … seemed to be … the voice of prophecy, foretelling events and warning us of the evil to come. … It is well known that there have always been those amongst us who wish to enlarge the powers of the General Government … to overstep the boundaries marked out for it by the Constitution.”
In his farewell address, Washington cautioned of dangers:
Marine Stuns the Crowd with 4th Verse of Star Spangled Banner Lyrics Most Americans Have Never Heard
In this classic video, a Marine with a powerful voice stunned a patriotic crowd in 2010 by singing the stirring fourth verse of The Star Spangled Banner, which many Americans have never heard.
A look at Francis Scott Key’s soaring lyrics, first written in 1814 and made our national anthem in 1931, shows it is not just a pleasant ode to our flag that can be sung at sporting events and on the Fourth of July, but is a vision for the United States. Here are the full lyrics:
Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n 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
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Share these beautiful lyrics if you love the full version of our national anthem.
"The augmentation of slaves weakens the states; and such a trade is diabolical in itself, and disgraceful to mankind."
-- George Mason
"It were doubtless to be wished, that the power of prohibiting the importation of slaves had not been postponed until the year 1808, or rather that it had been suffered to have immediate operation. But it is not difficult to account, either for this restriction on the general government, or for the manner in which the whole clause is expressed. It ought to be considered as a great point gained in favor of humanity, that a period of twenty years may terminate forever, within these States, a traffic which has so long and so loudly upbraided the barbarism of modern policy; that within that period, it will receive a considerable discouragement from the federal government, and may be totally abolished, by a concurrence of the few States which continue the unnatural traffic, in the prohibitory example which has been given by so great a majority of the Union. Happy would it be for the unfortunate Africans, if an equal prospect lay before them of being redeemed from the oppressions of their European brethren!"
-- James Madison, Federalist Paper No. 42
"Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, or morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. Education and free discussion are the antidotes of both."
-- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, 1816
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