FOUNDING FATHERS SERIES
George's Busy Life
By GC SMITH
Chompin' cherries with wooden dentures isn't any fun. Red stains on white
painted teeth could make a man blue. Hey, red, white, and blue, great colors
for the new flag. If George was with us he'd say: I'll have Martha talk to
Betsy about that at next week's Mahjong party. Speaking of Betsy, I'm sure,
G.W. would like to sleep there. Ah, to rest his weary head on that lush bosom.
But, if Martha ever found out she'd have his hide and he'd be in for even more
shoeless camping in the snow. He couldn't afford that, not with Lafayette coming
to meet about forming the Escadrille with 'mercan pilots (and more than a
century ahead of it's time). I think he'd better go and powder the wig now
before meeting time. Lord knows a man can never look too good.
FOUNDING FATHERS SERIES
Benjamin Franklin
Busy Ben, a founding father, literally. A common law conjoiner and Pater
familias to an illegitimate son. (Though just how a flesh and blood human
standing before the world could possibly lack legitimacy has always eluded this
chronicler.) But, be that as it may or may not be Ben went on to a continued
shocking life. There were inventions galore and amazing scientific enquires,
chief among which was the kite and string sting.
Our Ben is likely best remembered for his grand misogyny concerning why a young
man should seek the comfort of older women, who were not yet in those days of
yore identified by the cutsey appellation --Cougar. His advice: they don’t
yell, or tell, or swell, and they’re grateful as hell.
Ah, but there were other sides to this most accomplished man. Lest we forget,
despite peccadilloes, Ben also preached virtuousness thereby establishing an
unbroken politician's hypocrisy practiced assiduously from the first days of
the Republic to this very moment. Ah, yes, busy Ben, stage setter extraordinaire.
Ben Franklin, founding father, pride of the new Nation.
FOUNDING FATHERS SERIES
Thomas Jefferson
To truly get a feel for Thomas Jefferson one should take the guided tour of his
ancestral home, Monticello, for it is as an innovator we can actually see the
great man’s mind at work. Inside the front door of Monticello, mounted on the
foyer wall is a clock-calendar. The device not only tells time but it marks the
day. To the device’s winding chain Jefferson attached heavy lead weights that
dropped day by day, which were noted on the wall. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
Oops!
The chain unfortunately hit the floor before the week's final day. Was our
polymath, Jefferson, deterred. Not in the least. Jefferson cut a hole in the
foyer floor so that the weighted chain could continue its decent. Our
Monticello guide remarked, “on Saturday Mr. Jefferson’s balls are in the
basement.”
Bright fellow that he was you’ll find that Jefferson also dabbled in
horticulture, statesmanship, architectecture, archaeology, paleontology,
invention, and, of course, Sally.
So, dear reader, you have in this telling a glimpse into the mind and makeup of
the man who was to become America’s third President. A man who truly represents
this Nations frenetic inventiveness.
FOUNDING FATHERS SERIES
John Adams.
Revolutionary, second President of the United States, Adams came by it
naturally. He cut his teeth as a teacher and lawyer while preparing for public
service. He failed as a farmer. He failed as a malter/brewer (seems Sam did
better). He failed as a tax collector (unless you were a friend). Fouled by
failure, Adams went through life looking as if he was sucking on a sour pickle,
but I suppose you would as well if you were married to Abigail. Rumor has it
she was not an easy woman. Then, of course, there was Jefferson, Adams ally and
later fierce opponent and successor, in 1800, to the throne Presidency.
Now permanently soured, Adams on his Independence Day deathbed, July 4, 1826,
uttered his last words, “Jefferson lives”. He was of course wrong, which had he
known might have sweetened the sour. Jefferson had died at Monticello hours
earlier. But, such is the course of grudges.
FOUNDING FATHERS SERIES
Hamilton & Burr
Post revolutionary American politics, awash in rivalies and argument, precursed
what goes on to this very day.
Then in America it was the Democratic-Republicans and the Federalists having at
one another. It’s tempting to say the arguments were liberal/conservative
contretemps but it’s impossible to sort the muddled political philosophies so
neatly. Let’s simply sat that then as today it all boiled down to “I’m right,
you’re wrong” on the one side and “You’re wrong, I’m right” on the other side.
Arguments became raucous, particularly between Alexander Hamilton (Federalist)
and Aaron Burr (Democratic-Republican). It got loud. It got nasty. One could
say that it got so that Hamilton had a Burr up his … It was a mean standoff.
How else was this stuff to be settled but by duel. Dueling however, as it oft
does, worked out poorly. Hamilton became a literal deader. Burr’s political
ambitions died. Such are the rewards of rancor.
A lesson for today (likely not to be learned) is that we have been reduced to
Republicans on one side Democrats on the other and we’re arguing with
ourselves. A benefit of argument, this writer believes, is that it beats
getting out the guns and shooting.
FOUNDING FATHER SERIES
James Madison
After arguing that a “Bill of Rights” was both unnecessary and dangerous
Madison drafted and fought for the first 10 amendments to the U.S.
Constitution, that is “The Bill Of Rights.” Ah well, consistency, as is well
known, is the hobgoblin of little minds. He went on to become the fourth
President of the fledgling United States, accomplishing such as the Louisiana
purchase and screwing up here and there with little missteps such as the war of
1812.
For all of Madison’s missteps and accomplishments none was so important as his
marriage to Dolley. It was, after all, she who brought ice cream to the White
House and thereby to a hungry America. Hooray for Dolley.
FOUNDING FATHERS SERIES
John Hancock
"When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another,
and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to
which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to
the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which
impel them to the separation.
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 … "
JOHN HANCOCK
He laid it out there for folks. Right up front for King and all. Nothing shy
about this signer.
Did Mr. Hancock ever do anything else?
I dunno! Do you?
FOUNDING FATHERS SERIES
Patrick Henry
Known far and wide as a champion of individual rights Patrick Henry gave the
famous speech with the quotable line.
"Is life so
dear, or peace so sweet,
as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?
Forbid it, Almighty God!
I know not what course others may take; but as for me,
give me liberty, or give me death!"
Ah yes, “give me liberty or give me death.”
Then there was Mrs. Henry, Sarah, who according to Patrick went bats. He kept
her in a straightjacket in the basement of their home. One could imagine Sarah
muttering over and over. “Give me liberty, I’ll give him death."
Perhaps the slave woman assigned to attend Sarah would have helped.
FOUNDING FATHERS
Paul Revere
“Listen my
children and you shall hear
of the midnight ride of …,
of …, of …
Paul Revere and two other guys that Longfellow forgot to mention while
lionizing the Boston Silversmith. Two other guys whose names are lost to
history. Two other guys …
And maybe Revere was at the tea party as well, maybe.
But;
“Hardly a man is
now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year”
So, who knows.
FOUNDING FATHERS
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
A South Carolinian he signed the Declaration of Independence. Whatever else he
may have done is lost to the dust or perhaps buried in dry Heyward family chronicals.
What Thomas Heyward, Jr., South Carolinian, did not do however was:
· Disappear to Argentinia for five days of dalliance.
· Embarrassingly say he would try to fall in love with his wife again.
· Generally make an ass of himself.
That was SC Govenor Sanford.
Nor did he:
· Compare government under President Obama to fascism
· Daily rant against anything proposed by the current Administration
· Generally make an ass of himself.
That was SC Senator Jim DeMint
And he didn’t shout out:
· You lie, or
· Generally make an ass of himself.
That was SC Congressman Joe Wilson.
Ah, it all makes a proud denizen of the Palmetto State wonder just what they're
smoking. This one at least.
FOUNDING FATHERS
Henry Lee
Henry Lee, aka, Light-Horse Harry did some good stuff as a revolutionary
military officer. Skill as a cavalry horseman earned him the light-horse
sobriquet. Later he was to become governor of Virginia. Ligh-horse Harry
eugolized George Washington with the lines which became famous, “First in war,
first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, . . .”
All in all he seemed a pretty accomplished guy albeit with a penchant for
drinking, gambling, and brawling that led to financial ruin and a stay in
debtor’s prison where he wrote his Memoirs of the War in the Southern
Department of the United States, still the standard text on that portion of the
Revolutionary War.
Harry’s son, Robert E. Lee, was offered command of the United States Army by
Abe Lincoln but, true son of the South, he went the other way.
In all, the Lees of Virginia were a pretty good bunch.
Somewhere 'twixt Birth and Death
