Thinking of a career in government? Think again.

What I have been thinking is cut government pay —

THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP

Our public oeconomy also is such as to offer drudgery and subsistence only to those entrusted with its administration, a wise & necessary precaution against the degeneracy of the public servants. In our private pursuits it is a great advantage that every honest employment is deemed honorable.

Source: To Jean Nicholas Demeunier, April 29, 1795

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Patrick Lee’s Explanation

Enterprising leaders should look to the private sector.
Demeunier was a French writer and public official who emigrated to America to avoid the bloodshed sweeping France. He was living in New York and wrote to Jefferson inquiring about employment possibilities. Though Jefferson demurred, saying he was too far away and too unfamiliar to be of much help, he offered some observations about work in America.

1. Top government jobs paid a bare minimum and offered plenty of drudgery. This was both “wise & necessary.” It kept capable people from making a career of public employment, both to their detriment and the government’s.
Demeunier had been part of the King’s court in France and had a very privileged life. Jefferson discouraged him from thinking a similar position here held any value or status.

2. Just the oppposite of public employment, the sky was the limit in private enterprise. All honest work in America was “deemed honorable.” This “great advantage” was as available to the immigrant Demeunier as it was to any other resident of any status.

What about term limits? Part 1 of 2

THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP

To make them [senators] independent, I had proposed that they should hold their places for nine years, and then go out (one third every three years) and be incapable for ever of being re-elected to that house. My idea was that if they might be re-elected, they would be casting their eyes forward to the period of election (however distant) and be currying favor with the electors, and consequently dependent on them.

Source: To Edmund Pendleton, August 26, 1776

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Patrick Lee’s Explanation

Limiting leaders keeps them properly focused.
Written just seven weeks after declaring independence, Jefferson expressed the view that senators should be chosen by popularly-elected representatives and not by direct vote of the people. He would limit a senator’s service to one term of nine years with no possibility of re-election.

Why no re-election? It was to keep the senator’s eyes on the task of governing only and on the people he was elected to serve. If he could be re-elected, he would seek favor with representatives who chose him, becoming dependent on them, because they could choose him again.

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“It is a delight to have speakers like you who make me look good.”
Meetings Administrator, Iowa State Association of Counties

Mr. Jefferson will make you look good to your audience!
Invite him to speak. Call Patrick Lee, 573-657-2739

 

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The Moral Liberal Thomas Jefferson Editor, Patrick Lee, is a professional speaker, actor and writer. Since 1990, he has inspired, entertained and educated audiences from Maine to Hawaii with his authentic, first person leadership presentations as President Thomas Jefferson, Frontiersman Daniel Boone, and Lewis & Clark Co-Leader William Clark. He also appears as himself, The Hopeful Humorist™, with a program of motivational humor, patriotism and inspiration.

His business address is ThomasJeffersonLeadership.com.

Tanasqui, Tanasi, Tennessee

American Minute with Bill Federer

Spanish Explorers Hernando de Soto, in 1540, and Juan Pardo, in 1567, traveled inland from North America’s eastern coast and passed through a Native American village named “Tanasqui.”

A century and a half later, British traders encountered a Cherokee town named Tanasi.

After the Revolutionary War, attempts were made to name it the “State of Franklin,” in honor of Ben Franklin.

At the State’s Constitutional Convention, it is said General Andrew Jackson suggested name “Tennessee.”

In 1796, President George Washington signed Congress’ bill accepting Tennessee as the 16th State.

The wording approved in Tennessee’s Constitution included:

“Article XI, Section III…All men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences.”

Though Article XI, Section IV, of Tennessee’s Constitution stated:

“No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under this State,”

it also stated in Article VIII, Section II:

“No person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this State.”

Tennessee was birthplace of:

Congressman Davy Crockett, who died at the Alamo;
Sam Houston, who helped Texas gain its independence;
Admiral David Farragut, who won the Battle of Mobile Bay;
Matthew Fontaine Maury, U.S. Navy oceanographer; and
Sequoyah, creator of the Cherokee written language.

General Andrew Jackson was a Congressman and Senator from Tennessee, as well as a State Supreme Court Judge.

Elected the 7th U.S. President, Jackson was the founder of the Democrat Party and only President to completely pay off the national debt.

Jackson warned December 5, 1836:

“The experience of other nations admonished us to hasten the extinguishment of the public debt…

An improvident expenditure of money is the parent of profligacy,

and that no people can hope to perpetuate their liberties who long acquiesce in a policy which taxes them for objects not necessary to the legitimate and real wants of their Government…”

Andrew Jackson continued:

“To require the people to pay taxes to the Government merely that they may be paid back again…

Nothing could be gained by it even if each individual who contributed a portion of the tax could receive back promptly the same portion…”

Jackson added:

“Congress is only authorized to levy taxes ‘to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States.’

There is no such provision as would authorize Congress to collect together the property of the country, under the name of revenue, for the purpose of dividing it equally or unequally among the States or the people.

Indeed, it is not probable that such an idea ever occurred to the States when they adopted the Constitution…”

President Jackson cautioned:

“There would soon be but one taxing power, and that vested in a body of men far removed from the people, in which the farming and mechanic interests would scarcely be represented.

The States would gradually lose their purity as well as their independence; they would not dare to murmur at the proceedings of the General Government, lest they should lose their supplies;

all would be merged in a practical consolidation, cemented by widespread corruption, which could only be eradicated by one of those bloody revolutions which occasionally overthrow the despotic systems of the Old World.”

After the Civil War, Tennessee was the first State readmitted to the Union, JULY 24, 1866.

President Johnson issued a Proclamation of Amnesty and Pardon to former Confederates on September 7, 1867:

“Every person who shall seek to avail himself of this proclamation shall take the following oath…

‘I do solemnly swear, in the presence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support…the Constitution of the United States…So help me God.’”

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The Moral Liberal contributing editor, William J. Federer, is the bestselling author of “Backfired: A Nation Born for Religious Tolerance no Longer Tolerates Religion,” and numerous other books. A frequent radio and television guest, his daily American Minute is broadcast nationally via radio, television, and Internet. Check out all of Bill’s bookshere.

Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton in a dual July 11, 1804

American Minute with Bill Federer

He intentionally fired into the air, but his political rival, Vice-President Aaron Burr, took deadly aim and fatally shot him in a duel JULY 11, 1804.

Alexander Hamilton was born in the West Indies on the Island of Nevis.

As his parents were not legally married, he was not permitted to attend the Anglican academy, resulting in him being tutored at a private school by a Jewish headmistress.

Hamilton worked for merchants till, at the age of 17, he sailed to Massachusetts in 1772 to attend Elizabethtown Academy.

He was studying at Columbia College in New York when the Revolutionary War started.

Alexander Hamilton eventually became an aide-de-camp to General George Washington, and fought in the Battles of Trenton and Yorktown.

During the Revolution, Alexander Hamilton wrote “The Farmer Refuted,” February 23, 1775, stating:

“The Supreme Being gave existence to man, together with the means of preserving and beautifying that existence…and invested him with an inviolable right to personal liberty and personal safety.”

Alexander Hamilton continued:

“The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records.

They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the Hand of the Divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.”

Alexander Hamilton concluded:

“Good and wise men, in all ages…have supposed that the Deity, from the relations we stand in to Himself, and to each other, has constituted an eternal and immutable law, which is indispensably obligatory upon all mankind…

This is what is called the law of nature…dictated by God himself.”

Alexander Hamilton helped write the U.S. Constitution, stating at the Constitutional Convention, June 22, 1787:

“Take mankind as they are, and what are they governed by? Their passions.

There may be in every government a few choice spirits, who may act from more worthy motives. One great error is that we suppose mankind is more honest that they are.”

After the Constitution was written, Alexander Hamilton helped convinced the States to ratify it by being one of the authors of The Federalist Papers.

Alexander Hamilton wrote of the Constitution:

“I sincerely esteem it a system which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests.”

Hamilton pushed Congress to have ships, called Revenue Cutters, to guard the coasts from piracy, collect revenue and confiscate contraband, thus beginning of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Opposed to slavery, Hamilton and John Jay founded the New York Manumission Society which successfully helped pass legislation to end New York’s involvement in the slave trade in 1799.

Alexander Hamilton was the first Secretary of the U.S. Treasury – his statue is at the south entrance of the Treasury building in Washington, DC.

He served as Senior Officer of the United States Army during a threatened war with France in 1799.

During the 1800 election, Alexander Hamilton was instrumental in Thomas Jefferson being chosen as President over Aaron Burr.

Before the 1804 election, Alexander Hamilton threatened to withdraw from the Federalist Party if it chose Vice-President Aaron Burr as its Presidential Candidate.

Hamilton began organizing The Christian Constitutional Society.

On April 16, 1802, Alexander Hamilton wrote to James Bayard:

“Let an association be formed to be denominated ‘The Christian Constitutional Society,’ its object to be first: The support of Christian religion; second: The support of the United States.”

Alexander Hamilton warned:

“Liberty is a gift of the beneficent Creator to the whole human race…

Civil liberty…cannot be wrested from any people, without the most manifest violation of justice.”

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The Moral Liberal contributing editor, William J. Federer, is the bestselling author of “Backfired: A Nation Born for Religious Tolerance no Longer Tolerates Religion,” and numerous other books. A frequent radio and television guest, his daily American Minute is broadcast nationally via radio, television, and Internet. Check out all of Bill’s bookshere.

Birth of the Republican Party July 6, 1854

American Minute with Bill Federer

A decade prior to the Civil War there were two major political parties in the United States:

Democrats, who favored freedom of choice to own slaves;

and Whigs, who tried to be a big tent party to stem the loss of members to the Know-Nothing Party.

In Ripon, Wisconsin, anti-slavery activists met for the first time on February 28, 1854, then held their first State Convention in Jackson, Michigan, JULY 6, 1854.

This new political party stood against slavery, taking a moral stand for the value of human life.

Also, because of a movement in Utah to redefine marriage, this new party stood for marriage being between one man and one woman.

They named their party “Republican,” with the chief plank being “to prohibit…those twin relics of barbarism: POLYGAMY AND SLAVERY.”

Those attempting to redefine marriage were denounced by Republican President Ulysses S. Grant, December 4, 1871:

“In Utah there still remains a remnant of barbarism, repugnant to civilization, to decency, and to the laws of the United States…

Neither polygamy nor any other violation of existing statutes will be permitted…

They will not be permitted to violate the laws under the cloak of religion.”

On December 7, 1875, President Grant stated:

“In nearly every annual message…I have called attention to the…scandalous condition of affairs existing in the Territory of Utah, and have asked for definite legislation to correct it.

That polygamy should exist in a free, enlightened, and Christian country, without the power to punish so flagrant a crime against decency and morality, seems preposterous…

As an institution polygamy should be banished from the land…

I deem of vital importance to….drive out licensed immorality, such as polygamy and the importation of women for illegitimate purposes.”

Republican President Rutherford B. Hayes stated, December 1, 1879:

“Polygamy is condemned as a crime by the laws of all civilized communities throughout the world.”

President Hayes stated December 6, 1880:

“The sanctity of marriage and the family relation are the corner stone of our American society and civilization.”

Republican President Chester Arthur stated, December 6, 1881:

“For many years the Executive…has urged the necessity of stringent legislation for the suppression of polygamy…this odious crime, so revolting to the moral and religious sense of Christendom.”

Supreme Court Chief Justice Morrison Waite, appointed by Republican Ulysses S. Grant, rendered the Murphy v. Ramsey, 1885, decision:

“Every person who has a husband or wife living…and marries another…is guilty of polygamy, and shall be punished…

No legislation can be supposed more wholesome and necessary in the founding of a free, self-governing commonwealth…than that which seeks to establish it on the basis of the idea of the family,

as consisting in and springing from the union for life of ONE MAN and ONE WOMAN in the holy estate of matrimony; the sure foundation of all that is stable and noble in our civilization;

the best guaranty of that reverent morality which is the source of all beneficent progress in social and political improvement.”

In the comprehensive annotated John Quincy Adams-A Bibliography, compiled by Lynn H. Parsons (Westport, CT, 1993, p. 41, entry#194), former President John Quincy Adams wrote in Essay on Turks, 1827:

“Mohammed poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of polygamy.”

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Field, appointed by Republican President Abraham Lincoln, rendered the Davis v. Beason, 1890, decision:

“Bigamy and polygamy are crimes by the laws of all civilized and Christian countries…

They…destroy the purity of the marriage relation…degrade woman and debase man…

There have been sects which denied…there should be any marriage tie, and advocated promiscuous intercourse of the sexes as prompted by the passions of its members…

Should a sect of either of these kinds ever find its way into this country, swift punishment would follow.”

Justice Stephen Field concluded:

“The constitutions of several States, in providing for religious freedom, have declared expressly that such freedom SHALL NOT BE CONSTRUED TO EXCUSE ACTS OF LICENTIOUSNESS.”

Republican President Theodore Roosevelt stated to Congress, January 30, 1905:

“The institution of marriage is, of course, at the very foundation of our social organization, and all influences that affect that institution are of vital concern to the people of the whole country.”
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For an in depth comparison of Political Parties-Past & Present, visit: http://www.wnd.com/2012/06/obamacare-decision-todays-dred-scott

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The Moral Liberal contributing editor, William J. Federer, is the bestselling author of “Backfired: A Nation Born for Religious Tolerance no Longer Tolerates Religion,” and numerous other books. A frequent radio and television guest, his daily American Minute is broadcast nationally via radio, television, and Internet. Check out all of Bill’s bookshere.

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died July 4, 1826

 

American Minute with Bill Federer

Both served in the Continental Congress and both signed the Declaration of Independence.

Both served as U.S. Ministers in France.

One was elected the 2nd President and the other the 3rd.

Once political enemies, they became close friends in later life.

An awe swept America when they both died on the same day, JULY 4, 1826, exactly 50 years since they signed the Declaration of Independence.

Their names were John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

John Quincy Adams, son of John Adams, was the 6th President at the time and told Congress, December 5, 1826:

“Since your last meeting at this place, the 50th anniversary of the day when our independence was declared…

two of the principal actors in that solemn scene – the HAND that penned the ever-memorable Declaration and the VOICE that sustained it in debate –

were by one summons, at the distance of 700 miles from each other, called before the Judge of All to account for their deeds done upon earth.”

John Quincy Adams wrote in an Executive Order, July 11, 1826:

“A coincidence…so wonderful gives confidence…that the patriotic efforts of these…men were Heaven directed, and furnishes a new…hope that the prosperity of these States is under the special protection of a kind Providence.”

Jefferson described Adams as: “the pillar of the Declaration’s support on the floor of Congress, its ablest advocate and defender.”

Defending the Declaration, John Adams told the Continental Congress, July 1, 1776:

“Before God, I believe the hour has come…

All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it…

Live or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration.

It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment. Independence now, and Independence for ever!”

John Adams stated, June 21, 1776:

“Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand.

The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People…they may change their Rulers and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty.”

Inscribed on the Jefferson Memorial on the south banks of Washington D.C.’s Tidal Basin, are Jefferson’s words:

“Almighty God hath created the mind free…

All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens…are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion…

No man…shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion…

God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?

Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever.”

In the last letter Jefferson wrote, he told Roger C. Weightman, June 24, 1826:

“The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them.”

The last words of John Adams were:

“Thank God, Jefferson lives!”

 

 

Why I don’t talk about religion, 1 of 5 THOMAS JEFFERSON LEADERSHIP

 

I am moreover averse to the communications of my religious tenets to the public; because it would countenance [“approve or encourage,” Webster’s 7th New Collegiate] the presumption [“audacity,” ditto] of those who have endeavored to draw them before that tribunal, and to seduce public opinion to erect itself into that inquisition over the rights of conscience, which the laws have so justly proscribed [prohibited].

 

Source: To Doctor Benjamin Rush, April 21, 1803

Koch & Peden’s Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson

P. 519 – 522

Patrick Lee’s Explanation

Leaders should keep personal views private.

Jefferson’s language can be hard to follow. Here’s a summary:

1. He does not make his religious views public.

2. Doing so encourages people with bad motives.

– They would make his private views a matter of public debate.

– That debate could lead to an investigation of his beliefs.

– His beliefs, “the rights of conscience,” are no one’s business but his.

3. The Constitution’s 1st Amendment rightly prohibits such meddling in an individual’s personal choices about religion.

 

This post is part of a series of five, all taken from the same letter:

1. Why I don’t talk about religion publicy

2. Why you shouldn’t talk about religion publicly

3. Although I don’t talk about religion publicly

4. Jesus did talk about religion publicly

5. What made Jesus different

 

The Moral Liberal Thomas Jefferson Editor, Patrick Lee, is a professional speaker, actor and writer. Since 1990, he has inspired, entertained and educated audiences from Maine to Hawaii with his authentic, first person leadership presentations as President Thomas Jefferson, Frontiersman Daniel Boone, and Lewis & Clark Co-Leader William Clark. He also appears as himself, The Hopeful Humorist™, with a program of motivational humor, patriotism and inspiration.

 

His business address is ThomasJeffersonLeadership.com.

 

The Constitutional Convention was divinely inspired

 

Ben Franklin

American Minute with Bill Federer

 

The Constitutional Convention was in a deadlock over how large and small states could be represented equally.

 

Some delegates left.

 

Then, on JUNE 28, 1787, 81-year-old Benjamin Franklin spoke and shortly after, the U.S. Constitution became a reality.

 

Franklin stated:

 

“Groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights…

 

In the beginning of the Contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for Divine protection.

 

Our prayers, Sir, were heard and they were graciously answered.

 

All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a Superintending Providence in our favor…

 

And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance?”

 

Franklin concluded:

 

“We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that ‘except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it.’…

 

I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed…no better than the Builders of Babel.”

 

Ben Franklin gave another address at the Constitutional Convention, 1787, titled Dangers of a Salaried Bureaucracy:

 

“Sir, there are two passions which have a powerful influence in the affairs of men…ambition and avarice-the love of power and the love of money…

 

When united…they have…the most violent effects.

 

Place before the eyes of such men a post of honor, that shall, at the same time, be a place of profit, and they will move heaven and earth to obtain it…

 

What kind are the men that will strive for this profitable preeminence, through all the bustle of cabal, the heat of contention, the infinite mutual abuse of parties, tearing to pieces the best of characters?

 

It will not be the wise and moderate, the lovers of peace and good order, the men fittest for the trust.

 

It will be the bold and the violent, the men of strong passions and indefatigable activity in their selfish pursuits.

 

These will thrust themselves into your government and be your rulers…”

 

Franklin explained further:

 

“There will always be a party for giving more to the rulers, that the rulers may be able, in return, to give more to them.

 

All history informs us, there has been…a kind of warfare between the governing and the governed; the one striving to obtain more for its support, and the other to pay less…

 

Generally, indeed, the ruling power carries…and we see the revenues of princes constantly increasing, and we see that they are never satisfied, but always in want of more.

 

The more the people are discontented with the oppression of taxes, the greater need the prince has of money to distribute among his partisans, and pay the troops that are to suppress all resistance, and enable him to plunder at pleasure.

 

There is scarce a king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of Pharaoh-get first all the people’s money, then all their lands, and then make them and their children servants for ever.

 

It will be said that we do not propose to establish kings…But there is a natural inclination in mankind to kingly government…

 

They would rather have one tyrant than five hundred. It gives more of the appearance of equality among citizens; and that they like.

 

I am apprehensive, therefore-perhaps too apprehensive-that the government of the States may, in future times, end in a monarchy…and a king will the sooner be set over us.”

 

Bill FedererThe Moral Liberal contributing editor, William J. Federer, is the bestselling author of “Backfired: A Nation Born for Religious Tolerance no Longer Tolerates Religion,” and numerous other books. A frequent radio and television guest, his daily American Minute is broadcast nationally via radio, television, and Internet. Check out all of Bill’s books here.

 

Constitutional Convention

 

June 28, 1787

This Saturday (June 28), marks the 227th anniversary of Founding Father Benjamin Franklin calling the Constitutional Convention to prayer after several weeks of difficult discussions and frequent impasses. The Founders well understood the need to seek God and the important part that God played both in establishing this nation and in the writing of the Constitution.

 

 

As Alexander Hamilton reported after its completion:

For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system which without the finger of God [Luke 11:20] never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests.

 

James Madison agreed, and reported:

It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it the finger of that Almighty Hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the Revolution.

 

As far as these delegates were concerned, the finger of God – that is, His Divine power – had guided their writing of the Constitution.

 

Benjamin Franklin also believed this to be the case, explaining:

[I] beg I may not be understood to infer that our general Convention was Divinely inspired when it formed the new federal Constitution . . . [yet] I can hardly conceive a transaction of such momentous importance to the welfare of millions now existing (and to exist in the posterity of a great nation) should be suffered to pass without being in some degree influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent, and beneficent Ruler in Whom all inferior spirits “live and move and have their being” [Acts 17:28].

 

George Washington (president of the Convention) similarly attested:

As to my sentiments with respect to the merits of the new Constitution, I will disclose them without reserve. . . . It appears to me then little short of a miracle that the delegates from so many different states . . . should unite in forming a system of national government.

 

Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration from Philadelphia who closely monitored the proceedings, concurred, openly testifying:

I do not believe that the Constitution was the offspring of inspiration, but I am as perfectly satisfied that the Union of the States in its form and adoption is as much the work of a Divine Providence as any of the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament were the effects of a Divine power.

(For more about the Founders’ views of the “finger of God” and what that meant historically, see the article on this in the Founders’ Bible, from Luke 11:20).

 

As we look forward to celebrating America’s 238th birthday next week. Let us remember that God truly has had His hand involved in the formation of our government and let us take time out, as George Washington recommended, “to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor” on America again.

 

THE DAY JAPAN BOMBED BROOKINGS, OREGON

Brookings, Oregon By: Norm Goyer

September 9, 1942, the I-25 class Japanese submarine was cruising in an easterly direction raising its periscope occasionally as it neared the United States Coastline. Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor less than a year ago and the Captain of the attack submarine knew that Americans were watching their coast line for ships and aircraft that might attack our country. Dawn was approaching; the first rays of the sun were flickering off the periscopes lens. Their mission; attack the west coast with incendiary bombs in hopes of starting a devastating forest fire. If this test run were successful, Japan had hopes of using their huge submarine fleet to attack the eastern end of the Panama Canal to slow down shipping from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The Japanese Navy had a large number of I-400 submarines under construction. Each capable of carrying three aircraft.  Pilot Chief Warrant Officer Nobuo Fujita and his crewman Petty Officer Shoji Okuda were making last minute checks of their charts making sure they matched those of the submarine’s navigator.

September 9, 1942: Nebraska forestry student Keith V. Johnson was on duty atop a forest fire lookout tower between Gold’s Beach and Brookings Oregon . Keith had memorized the silhouettes of Japanese long distance bombers and those of our own aircraft. He felt confident that he could spot and identify, friend or foe, almost immediately. It was cold on the coast this September morning , and quiet. The residents of the area were still in bed or preparing to head for work. Lumber was a large part of the industry in Brookings, just a few miles north of the California Oregon state lines.
 

The aircraft carried two incendiary 168 pound bombs and a crew of two.

Aboard the submarine the Captain’s voice boomed over the PA system, “Prepare to surface, aircrew report to your stations, wait for the open hatch signal” During training runs several subs were lost when hangar door were opened too soon and sea water rushed into the hangars and sank the boat with all hands lost. You could hear the change of sound as the bow of the I-25 broke from the depths, nosed over for its run on the surface. A loud bell signaled the “All Clear.” The crew assigned to the single engine Yokosuki E14Ys float equipped observation and light attack aircraft sprang into action. They rolled the plane out its hangar built next to the conning tower. The wings and tail were unfolded, and two 176 pound incendiary bombs were attached to the hard points under the wings. This was a small two passenger float plane with a nine cylinder 340 hp radial engine. It was full daylight when the Captain ordered the aircraft to be placed on the catapult. Warrant Officer Fujita started the engine, let it warm up, checked the magnetos and oil pressure. There was a slight breeze blowing and the seas were calm. A perfect day to attack the United States of America . When the gauges were in the green the pilot signaled and the catapult launched the aircraft. After a short climb to altitude the pilot turned on a heading for the Oregon coast.

Johnson was sweeping the horizon but could see nothing, he went back to his duties as a forestry agent which was searching for any signs of a forest fire The morning moved on. Every few minutes he would scan low, medium and high but nothing caught his eye.

The small Japanese float plane had climbed to several thousand feet of altitude for better visibility and to get above the coastal fog. The pilot had calculated land fall in a few minutes and right on schedule he could see the breakers flashing white as they hit the Oregon shores.

Johnson was about to put his binoculars down when something flashed in the sun just above the fog bank. It was unusual because in the past all air traffic had been flying up and down the coast, not aiming into the coast.

The pilot of the aircraft checked his course and alerted his observer to be on the lookout for a fire tower which was on the edge of the wooded area where they were supposed to drop their bombs. These airplanes carried very little fuel and all flights were in and out without any loitering. The plane reached the shore line and the pilot made a course correction 20 degrees to the north. The huge trees were easy to spot and certainly easy to hit with the bombs. The fog was very wispy by this time.

Warrant Officer Fujita is shown with his Yokosuka E14Y (Glen) float plane prior to his flight.

Johnson watched in awe as the small floatplane with a red meat ball on the wings flew overhead, the plane was not a bomber and there was no way that it could have flown across the Pacific, Johnson could not understand what was happening. He locked onto the plane and followed it as it headed inland.

The pilot activated the release locks so that when he could pickled the bombs they would release. His instructions were simple, fly at 500 feet, drop the bombs into the trees and circle once to see if they had started any fires and then head back to the submarine.

Johnson could see the two bombs under the wing of the plane and knew that they would be dropped. He grabbed his communications radio and called the Forest Fire Headquarters informing them of what he was watching unfold.

The bombs tumbled from the small seaplane and impacted the forests, the pilot circled once and spotted fire around the impact point. He executed an 180 degree turn and headed back to the submarine. There was no air activity, the skies were clear. The small float plane lined up with the surfaced submarine and landed gently on the ocean, then taxied to the sub. A long boom swung out from the stern. His crewman caught the cable and hooked it into the pickup attached to the roll over cage between the cockpits. The plane was swung onto the deck, The plane’s crew folded the wings and tail, pushed it into its hangar and secured the water tight doors. The I-25 submerged and headed back to Japan .

This event ,which caused no damage, marked the only time during World War II that an enemy plane had dropped bombs on the United States mainland. What the Japanese didn’t count on was coastal fog, mist and heavy doses of rain made the forests so wet they simply would not catch fire.