Don's Home USA Contact

In 2025 I noticed several of my neighbors were flying their flags all year round. With all the political turmoil, I decided to put a flag pole in my front yard.
I had information about the USA on my web site under various topics, "places, history, politics," and need a place to talk about founding principles which have allowed us to be successful.

I feel a strong connection here. I have many ancestors who were early immigrants.
Joseph Cobb my 11th Great Grandfather came from the Netherlands to the Jamestown Settlement in 1613.
George Soule my 9th Great Grandfather came from England to the Plymouth Plantation on the Mayflower in 1620.
He celebrated the first thanksgiving in 1621 with at least 90 Wampanoag people, the local residents, and 52 English people who celebrated a successful harvest. The colonists had a brutal first year and were saved by the Wampanoag, who taught them how to plant local crops.
It took 150 years and 70 more immigrant ancestors to have a country and a flag.

Several of my early ancestors fought in the American Revolution in New Jersey and New York.
I hope my grandson can be as proud of this country as I had been.

Contents:
Founding Principles | USA Historical Documents & Speeches | U.S. Democracy Rating

A gift of friendship from the people of France to the United States "The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World" in New York Harbor is recognized as a universal symbol of freedom and democracy. It was dedicated by President Grover Cleveland on October 28, 1886 on the 100th anniversary of our constitution. The plaque on the base is the sonnet "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus. The sonnet is a direct address from the statue, presenting it as a "Mother of Exiles" who welcomes those seeking refuge and a new life in America. It concludes. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

The flag raising at the capture of Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945, is an iconic image, captured by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal. It quickly became a symbol of American resilience and resolve during World War II Iwo Jima was a key strategic point in the final stages of the Pacific War at the end of WW II.
It is depicted by a statue in the Marine Corps War Memorial at Memorial Park in Arlington VA.

The U.S. sacrificed over half a million lives in WW I and WW II, to save over 50 countries from the tyrany of a few totalitarian regimes.

United States founding principles

• Democracy - Majority Rule/ Minority Rights, Consent of the Governed
• Liberty - Free speech, freedom of religion, , and freedom of assembly
• Equality - Respecting the rights and dignity of all.
• Justice, Upholding of what is fair and right.

• Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776

  "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."

  The Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America in the original printing, is the founding document of the United States. On July 4, 1776, it was adopted unanimously by the Second Continental Congress, who were convened at Pennsylvania State House, later renamed Independence Hall, in the colonial city of Philadelphia. These delegates became known as the nation's Founding Fathers.
  Congress appointed the Committee of Five (John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman) to draft and present the Declaration. Adams, a leading proponent of independence, persuaded the Committee to charge Jefferson with writing the document's original draft.

• U. S. Constitution June 21, 1788

  The US Constitution was written by 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during the summer of 1787. The delegates were elected by the states to revise the Articles of Confederation, the country's first written constitution, instead they started from scratch. Each state got 1 vote on provisions to be included. While the U.S. Constitution is the result of the work of many individuals, James Madison is often called the "Father of the Constitution" due to his significant role in drafting and advocating for it. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton were other significant contributors.

  Many nominated representatives like Thomas Jefferson decided not to attend.

  The Federalist Papers, is a collection of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay from October 1787 to April 1788, urging the citizens of New York to ratify the new United States Constitution.
  See Federalist Papers: Primary Documents in American History

  Preamble to the US Constitution:
  "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 this Constitution for the United States of America."

• On September 25, 1789, the First Congress of the United States proposed 12 amendments to the Constitution.:
  The 1789 Joint Resolution of Congress proposing the amendments is on display in the Rotunda in the National Archives Museum. Ten of the proposed 12 amendments were ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures on December 15, 1791. Key provisions include the separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism, individual rights, especially in the Bill of Rights (The first 10 Amendments to the Constitution.), and the amendment process. These provisions aim to create a limited government that protects individual liberties and prevents tyranny.
  See: US Constitution Articles and Amendments

• President Thomas Jefferson (1801-09)  
  A few quotes:
  
  • "Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government".
  • "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".
  • "Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost".
  • "To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical".
• President Abraham Lincoln (1861-65)  
  Gettesyburg Address November 1863
  Lincoln delivered the speech, during a formal dedication of Soldiers' National Cemetery, now known as Gettysburg National Cemetery, on the grounds where the Battle of Gettysburg was fought four and a half months earlier, between July 1 and July 3, 1863, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In the battle, Union army soldiers successfully repelled and defeated Confederate forces in what proved to be the Civil War's deadliest and most decisive battle, resulting in more than 50,000 Confederate and Union army casualties in a Union victory that altered the war's course in the Union's favor.
  Total casualties from the war ranged from 620,000 to 750,000 or more; More than 2% of the US Population.

  "Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. "

• President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961)
  fairwell address. 1961  
  In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
  See the complete address in the National Archives.

• President John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)    
  Inaugural Address January 20, 1961
  "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."
  YouTube
  Some accomplishments:
  
  • Ended the 1960-61 Recession
  • Created the Peace Corps
  • The Equal Pay (for women) Act of 1963
  • Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
  • Established the Basis for the Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Martin Luther King Jr (1929-1968)
    "I Have a Dream" Speech 1963
  MLK at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on the steps of the lincoln Memorial with approximately 250,000 people gathered on the National Mall.
  King reached a point in his speach where he did not like his planed remarks and paused. Mahalia Jackson was sitting behind him and spoke up "Tell 'em about the dream, Martin!". He ad libed.

  "So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.

  I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

  I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

  I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

  I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right down in Alabama little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.

  I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together."

  Read Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech in its entirety | NPR,
  Video

• President Ronald Reagan (1981-89) :  
  
  Farewell Address
  " Now, tomorrow is a special day for me. I'm going to receive my gold watch. And since this is the last speech that I will give as President, I think it's fitting to leave one final thought, an observation about a country which I love. It was stated best in a letter I received not long ago. A man wrote me and said: "You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become a German, a Turk, or a Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American."
  "If we ever closed the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost."

  YouTube

The Bill of Rights was the first 10 amendments to the constitution. They were ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures on December 15, 1791
See: US Constitution Articles and Amendments