First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen. This describes George Washington. In war he was a Christian soldier. In peace he was unanimously elected president of the constitutional convention where he said, "Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair." As first president of the United States he said "No people can be bound more to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seem to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency." Upon his death in 1799, he was praised as "a sincere believer in the Christian faith and a truly devout man."

Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. He also negotiated the Treaty of Paris which formally ended our war of revolution in 1783. He was also an inventor, a scientist, an author and a city planner. The Franklin stove, Poor Richard's Almanac, bi-focals, the lightning rod, the postal service and the public library are all Franklin's achievements. During the Constitutional Convention in 1787, it was Franklin who proposed that prayers be offered to open each day's meetings - a custom that still opens both houses of Congress. To summarize his views on society, Franklin said, "A Bible and a newspaper in every house, a good school in every district - all studied and appreciated as they merit - are the principal support of virtue, morality and civil liberty."

Although born a slave, Fredrick Douglas discovered that reading and learning were the keys to becoming free. He escaped to the North, traveled through Great Britain, settled in Rochester New York and became the publisher of a newspaper, "The North Star." As a well-known abolitionist speaker, Douglas gained political influence. President Lincoln said he valued Douglas' opinion more than anyone else he knew. After the war, Douglas held numerous government positions, including U.S. Minister to Haiti and U.S. Marshal of the District of Columbia. Until his death in 1895, he championed civil rights for freed slaves. Quoting Daniel Webster, he said "The time to assert a right is when it is called into question."

Early in her life, Clara Barton learned that next to Heaven, our highest duty is to love and serve our country. From her soldier father, Clara learned military skills and traditions, so when war came in 1861, she was not about to stay at home. Constantly supplied with food, medicine and clothes by a network of friends, Clara served at the hospitals in many major battles, earning her the title the "Angel of the Battlefield." Many veterans named their daughters after Clara. After the war, Clara founded the American Red Cross and continued to serve on battlefields around the world, even serving in Cuba during the Spanish-American war at the age of seventy seven.

"I tell what I have seen," Dorothea Dix said in her reports about the inhuman conditions in the jails, poor-houses and asylums she had visited. Her manners were those of cultured, old-money, Bostonian upper crust, but she was America's guide to hell. She not only raised public awareness, but also insisted that medical welfare for the insane poor was a right that should be supported by the government. Applying the moral and religious ideals of our Founding Fathers, and following the example of Christ, she went about doing good: tirelessly visiting, writing and politicking for asylum reform. When the Civil War diverted public attention from her primary cause, she was appointed Superintendent of Nurses for the Union Army. Here she applied the same principles of cleanliness, order, clean water and fresh air to the military hospitals that she campaigned for in asylums in America, England and Europe.

I have sworn upon the alter of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. Thomas Jefferson, Ambassador to France, Governor of Virginia, President of the United States, Jefferson saw his greatest achievements to be: (1) author, Declaration of Independence which revolutionized the concept of government, (2)author, Statutes for Religious Freedoms in Virginia, God had created the mind free in matters of belief and man could not be compelled to support any religious worship, (3) founding the University of Virginia where religion, morality and knowledge necessary to good government could be pursued. In his often quoted separation of church and state letter, Jefferson was assuring the Danbury Connecticut Baptists that Congress would not choose any state denomination. Jefferson believed in one perfect God who rewards and punishes, that Jesus’ command to love God and your neighbor as yourself is the path to happiness.

In 1955, Rev King became president of the Montgomery Alabama Improvement Association, by December 1956, segregation on Montgomery buses ended. As President of the Southern Christian Leaderships Conference, King adopted the principles of non-violence in the struggle for equal civil rights for the Negro in America. In 1963, standing by the Lincoln Memorial, he delivered his speech in which he said, "I have a Dream... that one day this nation will arise and live out the true meaning of it’s creed", ‘We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal.’ His efforts to establish his dream of a beloved community brought him worldwide attention leading to a Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. His anti-Viet Nam war statements increased controversy surrounding him in 1966-67, April 1968, he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. His vindication came in 1983 when, by an act of Congress, his birthday was established as a national holiday.

This nation cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. Abraham Lincoln entered a political campaign that gained him national recognition and eventually, the presidency of the United States. During four years of civil war, Lincoln bore the burden of trying to preserve the Union which had begun so nobly four-score and seven years earlier. On January 1, 1863 Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery in the entire country, and changed the character of the war. With the Southern states being overwhelmed by Union forces, Lincoln was looking forward to healing the nation’s wounds with malice towards none and charity towards all. On April 9, 1865 General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant, ending the war. Five days later, on April 14, 1865 Lincoln was assassinated.

No one represents the Indians of the American plains better than Sitting Bull, chief of the Hunkpapa Soiux. He remained uncompromisingly true to his principles. No threats, bribes or peace overtures could sway him from defending his land, his people and his way of life. "God made me an Indian, not an agency Indian", he said. During the period from 1865 to 1890 their traditional way of life was restricted to reservations, however, from the Indian we can learn the proper respect for our natural resources. The twin concepts of dominion over and stewardship of God's creation that are taught in the Bible, were lived out by our Native Americans.