VLS Resources
If You Know Mr. Madison’s Constitution, You’ll Want to Preserve It
March 16 was the birthday of a little man who made a huge impact on America. At 5’4” and not much over 100 pounds, James Madison—our fourth President (1809-1817)—was the smallest of America’s Founders. But he was a Constitutional giant. Madison didn’t write the Constitution single-handedly; it was the product of argument and compromise among…
As We Celebrate This July 4th Please Pray for Our Nation
Oh God our creator, from your provident hand we have received our right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. You have called us as your people and given us the right and duty to worship. Through the power and working of your Holy Spirit, you call us to live out our faith…
OUR FLAG – The Stars and Stripes
The Stars and Stripes originated as a result of a resolution adopted by the Marine Committee of the Second Continental Congress at Philadelphia on June 14, 1777. The resolution read: “Resolved, that the flag of the United States be thirteen strips, alternate red and white: that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue…
Celebrating Flag Day June 14, 2023 aka Old Glory, Star-Spangled Banner, Stars and Stripes
“During the night of September 13, 1814, the British fleet bombarded Fort McHenry in the harbor at Baltimore, Maryland. Francis Scott Key, a 34-year-old lawyer-poet, watched the attack from the deck of a British prisoner-exchange ship. He had gone to seek the release of a friend, but they were refused permission to go ashore until…
Benjamin Banneker – America’s First Clock
Known as the first African-American scientist, Benjamin Banneker invented a wooden clock that struck on the hour. He built the clock in 1753 a the age of 22 and scholars believe he modeled it after a borrowed pocket watch, which he studied after taking it apart piece by piece. He built his wood clock entirely…
On This October Day in American History
October 3, 1863 – President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation designating the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. Birthday – October 4 – Artist Frederic Remington (1861-1909) was born in Canton, New York. He studied at Yale Art School then traveled extensively throughout the American West in the late 1800’s sketching cowboys, Native Americans,…
First Official National Decoration Day
Decoration Day dates back to the 1860’s, when local groups from the North and South laid flowers on the graves of the Civil War soldiers who fell in battle. The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), an organization of Union veterans, officially established Decoration Day in 1868. The name Memorial Day was used with, or…
Evacuation Day
“Strike up the band, bring out the oxen…Let’s celebrate! Celebrated in Massachusetts, the day commemorates the evacuation of the British forces holding Boston under siege for 11 months. The British control of the sea and land accesses had stymied the Continental Army under Washington. Boston bookkeeper and artillery genius, Henry Knox engineered “one of the…
The Homestead: Keeping Texas Texan
The first generations of Texans understood this perfectly well: Travis’s famous letter from the Alamo addresses itself to “All Americans in the World,” and the Texas Declaration of Independence asserts that the Texans are making revolution “that they should continue to enjoy that constitutional liberty and republican government to which they had been habituated in…