These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crises shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776.
I have just finished the wonderful new book by David McCullough, 1776. I liked this book as much as I liked John Adams. Mr. McCullough has the wonderful ability to bring history to life and to make the men and women of that long ago era relevant.
As I read the book one thing that struck me time and again was the sense of providence which seemed to hang over that fateful year. In spite of mistakes such as the failure to secure the Jamaica Pass and the loss of New York George Washington managed through sheer tenacity to bring about a much needed victory at Trenton just in time to save the Revolution.
No doubt today George Washington would have been ruined in the early days of the war, and he almost was in his own time, this book makes it plain that winning the war of Independence required great sacrifice. A rabble army with no military experience took on the greatest power in the world and won.
It was nothing short of a miracle.
Read the book.
When I read about the monumental tasks of turning shoemakers and farmers into soldiers I thought of the Iraqis trying to build their country. There was a time when the survival of the United States of America seemed like an even greater long shot.
[Peter UK, no hard feelings]
20 comments:
I read that Condi Rice, the president, and others in the administration were reading the book.
Good choice--the lesson of tenacity and perseverence. And First Principals--meaning success or failure is a subject separate from rightness or wrongness.
I guess to rely on Providence is a bit dated. I sorta miss it. No, I sorely miss it.
Peter:
Martin Van Buren was teh first American president who was not born a British subject.
I was surprised when I read the book to doscover how much debate there was in Parliament as to the advisability of pursuing a military campaign in the Colonies.
In fact it was a Brit who first referred to the Americans as the Sons of Liberty.
buddy:
I am glad to hear they are reading the book in the White House, it will give them all some humility.
Washington's fate [more than anyone's] was dependent on the outcome of the Revolution and he never forgot his responsibility.
When things went well they loved him, when it looked bad he was maligned..in the end he was a legend.
The author of the book stated that while it was true the rebels recieved help from France and even the Netherlands, the real credit for winning went ultimately to Washington and his rag tag army of a few thousand Colonists.
It seems they did not know they could not win and so they did.
I also recommend Joseph Ellis's biography of Washington. He spent some time talking about Washington's view of slavery and the Indians.
He freed his slaves in his will, in fact he educated them and gave them some means of support.
As for the natives he felt it was inevitable that the Colonists would eventually rule the continent...but he said that if it was not done with some sense of fairness we would bear a moral stain on our history. How right he was.
Petr, vot, dere's no Norveegians. O vell, Someboody hass to be bringing herrings vor de peeples.
Ahh, yes, the 18th century loudspeaker...a dunce cap open at both ends....:-)
Argot: "Argot me own way o' tarkin'."
"a dunce cap open at both ends...."
---
Then someone rang a Bell,
added some string 'tween the caps,
and voila!
Der Telephonie.
In comes the telephone, out goes the books, on goes the duncecap!
Buddy: This Brit is a Norwegian ,
and don't you worry yoseff to death:
There'll always be a market for natural gas.
Great article...North sea has been good to the olde home folken.
George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation.
Terrye,
Had Lord North not been such a narrow minded twit we'd still probably be British subjects.
That would sure make the Hanoverian restoration project a lot less complicated.
Hanoverian Restoration Project? Was it bombed out in the war?
Did you know that the "Dunce" (cap) was named for a famous philosopher: Duns Scotus? Them Brits got no respect for learnin'
Hereabouts, we call that a "Kerry".
The homonym-ish "carried dunces" works equally well, or unwell, more pointedly. But, they ain't heavy, they're my bother! (*groan*)
Considering that the Kerrys used to be Cohens, someone may well be thinking the Boston voter a Duns.
Peter, I've got much respect for your Newton. But wasn't the 'fig newton' named after the young king who got frustrated with an overly-enthusiastic teacher: "i don't give a fig for Newton"! the courtiers had to mollify him with more cookies.
On a more serious note, 1776 was indeed a blessed year. If the British (or, more exactly, the British North Americans) had not fought back against the rebels, if they had just let the colonies go, they would have not created the furnace and stage in which was forged the constitutional order that is America's great contribution to mankind.
And I wonder if there would be more or fewer of us freezin our butts off north of 49 and whether there would we one or - probably - many national flags north of the Rio Grande.
Sometimes you wonder how incredibly smart you'd be if you had had the internet since the age of four. THe answer to everything is just minutes away. On the other hand, perhaps this sea of easy answers will mitigate against the development of the mental skills that make a genius like Newton.
I hope the foregoing conversation is merely a fig newton of my imagination.
We can't pay, besides you can't copyright or trademark an alchemical recipe. Access is by proper initiation into the estoteric secrets, not ownership of the exoteric sign. If the Newtons get too pushy, we will rename it Fig Faraday.
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