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A Master Passion ISBN:
1771456744
The story of Alexander Hamilton & of his wife, Elizabeth Schuyler
I happened into the world on
George Washington’s birthday. For many years I took some pride from sharing the
day with the great man. After all, back in the ‘50’s it was still celebrated on
the day on which it fell, which meant that I always had my birthday off from
school. Pretty sweet—even if February in upstate NY meant we were buried in
snow.
Washington and Blue Skin
It was fun to have a party on a school holiday. Friends came to sledding
parties and for snow-fort-buildings, but, by the time I was eight or nine,
costume parties were my favorite. To
have a costume party in the dead of winter was a little outre—remember, this is the ‘50’s in farm country—but everyone got
into the spirit, even if it just meant digging out last autumn’s Halloween
costume again.
Father of Our Country. Think about what it means. It’s
pretty heavy stuff to lay on anybody who used to put his pants on one leg at a
time just like the rest of us. Still, when you take a look at his track record
here’s what you find:
“Washington was
Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army upon whose victory the thirteen
colonies depended to secure their separate and equal station among the powers
of the earth. In the summer of 1787, he presided over America's Constitutional
Convention. His presence lent decisive significance to the document drafted
there, which continues in force in the twenty-first century as the oldest
written constitution in the world. From 1789-1796, he held the highest office
in the land as the first president of the United States of America under this
constitution.”
* The Claremont
Institute via PBS website
More than that, Washington was “the man who would not be King.”
Unlike every other Revolution since, our military hero didn’t become a dictator
imperfectly hidden beneath a variety of pious designations as did so many
others: Augustus Caesar, Hitler, Napoleon,
Kim Il-sung, Stalin, Oliver Cromwell and Mao Zedong. After our American Revolutionary
War was over, he quietly went home, to tend to his plantation. Later, when his two terms as
president were completed, he went home once again.
George Washington was truly the
“Cincinnatus” his contemporaries named him. Like that legendary Roman farmer,
he left plowing his fields to assume leadership of his country in a time of
war; afterward, he went home again. Like the title of historian James Flexner’s
biography, George Washington was The
Indispensable Man, a popular figure who did not use his overwhelming personal popularity
to grab the reins of the new nation and declare himself Emperor, or whatever.
Moreover, Washington did not use his office to enrich himself. As one who'd sat through a sweltering summer in Philadelphia while the Constitution itself had been hammered out, he not only knew what it said, no doubt line by line, but he respected it, too, and intended that it should continue into the future, to serve the cause of liberty and justice for all mankind.
I'll close with two powerful, pertinent quotes by America's great founding father:
"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism."
"If the freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led like sheep to the slaughter."
~~Juliet Waldron
Moreover, Washington did not use his office to enrich himself. As one who'd sat through a sweltering summer in Philadelphia while the Constitution itself had been hammered out, he not only knew what it said, no doubt line by line, but he respected it, too, and intended that it should continue into the future, to serve the cause of liberty and justice for all mankind.
I'll close with two powerful, pertinent quotes by America's great founding father:
"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism."
"If the freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led like sheep to the slaughter."
~~Juliet Waldron
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Historical Novels by JW at Amazon
