George Washington Quotes
The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves.
Washington, George. "General Orders, 2 July 1776." The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799, edited by John C. Fitzpatrick, vol. 5, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1932, p. 211.
The glorious spectacle of eighteen millions of people, struggling to burst their chains and be free.
The entire speech was translated into Spanish and read to great applause to Latin American revolutionary regiments.
The Kandahar region of Afghanistan was occupied by the Persians under Gurgin Khan. The Persians at the time were Shiite Muslims while the Afghans were Sunnis. Gurgin Khan forced all the Sunnis to convert to become Shia under threat of death. Mirwais Hotak led a force of freedom fighters, and defeated the Persians, killing Gurgin Khan in the process. There were some Afghan people who by collaborating with the Persians had done very well for themselves. They were anxious about their liberator and some were thinking about sneaking away and joining up with the Persians. He then made this speech, remarkable for any time, and especially so at the early 18th century. Notice, that unlike most other peoples of the Middle East, the Afghan’s placed a high value on freedom, and were willing to fight for it. In that sense, Afghanistan was culturally and politically different from the rest of the Islamic world.
Marion was the initiator of Guerilla Warfare and he and his men traveled lightly spending much time in the South Carolina swamps. They had few supplies and when chased by the British could not stop to hunt. The British called him the “Swamp Fox”. The American colonists at this point still thought of the British as “their countrymen.”
George Washington was the first President of the United States (1789-97), the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He presided over the convention that drafted the current United States Constitution and during his lifetime was called the "father of his country".
