In light of the debate that continues about the status of health care in the United States, I’ve been considering some of the thoughts of our Founding Fathers. They founded this nation on freedom, self-reliance, and accountability. Those are character traits that were important to them. Now we are considering how everyone can have adequate health care at the cost of the whole citizenry.
In my reading this week I came across an article that was printed around 1950. I found it astonishing in light of our current debates. I thought you might enjoy the feelings of our patriots in the 1950’s.
Lincoln was an avid reader. He always kept a book nearby. He read the newspapers voraciously. He loved books. His favorite books included the Bible and books about his beloved George Washington, especially the biography by Reverend Mason Locke “Parson” Weems.
Why did the Colonists win the Revolutionary War? America was not at the center of the world at the time. England was. Great Britain was slow to understand the nature of the threat of war with America and its colonies.
The Founding Fathers of our nation established a republic, a democracy that turned the power to the people. It was a new nation that said that the citizens, the people, would come first and would therefore choose their own leaders for the new nation.
Patrick Henry didn’t like the U.S. Constitution. He spoke out forcefully against its adoption in the Virginia Constitutional Convention. He spoke nearly every day –18 of the 23 days of the Convention, arguing against its adoption. Why didn’t he like it, you ask? It wasn’t because he was not a true patriot. He was known as America’s first patriot.
Looking back on it, many would agree that the two Amendments to the U.S. Constitution which were both ratified in 1913, were the worst Amendments ever adopted (some say they weren’t actually properly ratified). Those were the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments.
Thomas Paine had a great influence in the hearts of early Americans, especially the soldiers serving under General George Washington. George expected obedience and loyalty from his troops. He wanted them to quit the use of foul language, to show respect to others, and to do their duty. The soldiers grew to love their leader.
We learned in our Contracts class, that to understand a contract you had to look into the “four corners” of the document to understand the basic premise. That apparently isn’t the case with the most important document in the establishment of the nation, the Constitution.
Here’s something I didn’t know before. In addition to being the Father of our Country, George Washington also gave America the first “Mammoth Jackass.” Yes, the large donkey. In Washington’s time the donkeys were short in height and lacked the stamina Washington needed them to have for work.