America is the world's most generous Nation, and has been for a very long time.

I am not sure how many readers might be familiar with HiLLSDALE College out of Hillsdale, Michigan. Just by chance I got a free subscrption to their Monthly magazine "Imprimis" and have never regretted it one bit. The topics and writers they use are top deck, True conservative, religious values are always in the articles. They are easy to read and understand. Politics, economics, international affairs, military, science, humanity and more are all topics of articles I have read in Imprimis. Hillsdale College is one of the very few in the United States that forgoes any state and federal government financial support. Hillsdale is completely supported through private support, gifts and foundations. Quite remarkable in these trying times. Below the fold you find an article by Adam Meyerson. This gentleman was VP for Educational Affairs for the Heritage Foundation, and was Editor in Chief of Policy Review. He also wrote editorails for the WSJ and was managing Editor of the American Spectator. He is writing about "The Generosity of America"


We know how generous our country has been and still is today. Just witness our giving to Haiti after the devasting earthquake of last month. Our troops have fought, died, given the ultimate sacrifice so that other countries would be freed and remain free from Dictators, Totalitarian rule, Fascism, Communism, even radical Islamofacism. We have poured out aid for almost all the modern day world's disasters and usually much more than all the other countries combined. Read how Meyerson explains the roots of this unique gift we have. What I call "AMERICAN GENEROSITY.
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The Generosity of America.

Adam Meyerson

Imprimis/Hillsdale College


The following is adapted from a speech delivered in Washington, D.C., on January 8, 2010, in the “First Principles on First Fridays” lecture series sponsored by Hillsdale College’s Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship.



In 1853, a professor and preacher named Ransom Dunn set off on a two-year journey to raise funds for Hillsdale College, a young institution of higher learning in southern Michigan. Ransom Dunn would ride on horseback for 6,000 miles through the farm communities of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and altogether he raised $22,000—the equivalent of about $500,000 today. The rural families then populating the upper Midwest were not rich. They were braving the winters and struggling to make a living on what was then the American frontier. But these families were willing to part voluntarily with $10, $50, $100 apiece—the highest contribution was $200—to support Hillsdale’s mission—a mission set forth in the College’s Articles of Association, whose authors proclaimed themselves “grateful to God for the inestimable blessings resulting from the prevalence of civil and religious liberty and intelligent piety in the land, and believing that the diffusion of sound learning is essential to the perpetuity of these blessings.”


We can learn several lessons from the horseback rides of Ransom Dunn. To begin with, charitable giving in America has never been the exclusive province of wealthy people. Throughout our history, Americans from all walks of life have given generously for charitable causes. Indeed, the most generous Americans today—the group that gives the most to charity as a proportion of their income—are the working poor.


Second, unlike many of those seeking donations in the charity world today, Ransom Dunn did not raise funds for Hillsdale by appealing to donors’ guilt, or by urging them to “give back” to society. Instead, he appealed to their ideals and aspirations, their religious principles, and their desire to create an institution of learning in the upper Midwest. Hillsdale was also an important center of anti-slavery teaching, and Dunn appealed to the convictions of people who sought an end to this great evil in our nation.


Third, the tradition of private generosity in America has always been central to our free society. Voluntary donations from the farm families of the Midwest made it possible for Hillsdale to be independent, which in turn gave Hillsdale the freedom to challenge prevailing cultural and political wisdom. Following another private institution, Oberlin, Hillsdale was the second American college to grant four-year liberal-arts degrees to women. Founded at a time when Michigan public schools were officially segregated by race, Hillsdale was also the first American college to prohibit in its charter any discrimination on the basis of race, religion or sex. Without the independence that comes from private support, Hillsdale would not have been able to provide this leadership. Continue Reading

Hillsdale College

https://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis.asp