GEORGE WASHINGTON

It is impossible to reflect on the truly great leadership that has been one of the real blessings of this nation without including the name of George Washington in that list.  In fact, in almost anyone’s “top ten” list of truly great presidents, Washington would almost certainly top the list.  His stature in American history is legendary and the respect Americans have for this their first president borders on adoration of myth.  

The earliest authenticated portrait of George Washington shows him wearing his colonel's uniform of the Virginia Regiment from the French and Indian War. The portrait was painted about 12 years after Washington's service in that war, and several years before he would reenter military service in the American Revolution. Oil on canvas.
 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In fact, there is a lot of myth and some humor about our first president that reflects the love people have for this great leader.  From the many quips about his supposed wooden teeth to the thousands of places around the nation that proclaim “George Washington slept here”, to the mythical story of how he threw a silver dollar across the Potomac as a child or his response when he was caught cutting down a cheery tree and responded to the accusation “I cannot tell a lie”, Washington’s myth is strong in the national memory of this great leader.

Washington never set out to become the greatest president of all time or even to be in a position of leadership in the new country he helped to start.  He was the one who originated the concept of a “citizen president” and he believed so strongly in that concept that he refused to run for a third term because his time as citizen leader was over.  This tradition was sustained with little exception until it was codified into part of our constitution in the form of the 22nd amendment.

But before Washington was a great political leader, he showed his tremendous leadership skills on the field of battle.  He learned the art of warfare serving honorably in the French and Indian war and his influence and the respect he had earned during that conflict netted him the title of commander and chief of the American Army when the continental congress created that role in 1775.  Small wonder when he ascended to the presidency some years later, he carried the responsibility of commander and chief with him to the presidency where it continues to reside today even though few of our modern presidents have the military credentials of Washington.

When commanding the troops during the revolutionary war, a famous incident that has been captured beautifully by artists was his decision to cross the Delaware in New Jersey to stage a surprise attack and win the battle against the British.  It was yet another brilliant maneuver that showed his firm grasp of military strategy and only served to add to his fame and reputation as an outstanding leader of men.

After the war, Washington again was interested in retiring from public life but he was never one to turn away when his nation needed him.  And needed him it did as he presided over the Continental Congress to assure the successful drafting of the US Constitution.  Of the many great accomplishments of his life, his ability to provide leadership and inspiration to that assembly to produce this masterpiece of American political ligature would certainly be ranked as perhaps his finest hour.

George Washington was rewarded for his superior leadership skills when he was given the awesome responsibility of serving as the nations first President of the United States.  His wisdom and insight into what the nation needed at east stage of its early development made him the man of the hour for a struggling republic.  Few recognize that one of his greatest contributions to the presidency was recognizing that the nation was torn and weary of war.  So using his considerable influence and negotiating skills, Washington signed a number of important treaties that resulted in years of peace that were needed to turn the country from thoughts of war to thoughts of building a great nation.

Washington never tired of providing leadership for two terms as the first American president and it was he who decided not to serve a third term and returned once again to private life.  But his impact on the nation and the world was profound and long lasting.  It was the kind of nation shaping influence that truly earned him the title associated to him to this day of “father of the nation.”

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The Scandalous Typhoid Mary

In 1907, Mary Mallon was working as a household cook when an inspector named George Soper knocked on her employer’s door. Soper explained to Mary that he represented the New York City Department of Health. He believed she was a carrier of typhoid and had caused many people to become sick; some had even died. Mallon retorted that she felt healthy. She cursed at this intrusive man, who insisted on collecting blood and urine and stool samples, and she advanced toward him with a carving knife. 

Typhoid Mary in a 1909 was a famous case of a subclinical infection of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi, the infectious agent of typhoid fever
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Soper fled the scene, but the epidemiologist soon pursued Mallon again with the aid of an assistant. The two men followed her to a friend’s tenement house. Again enraged, she frightened the men away. Their next strategy of sending a female doctor was also met with resistance. In the end, the doctor reappeared with police officers, more assistants, and an ambulance. Mallon lunged at her visitors with a kitchen fork and ran away, only to be discovered hours later when her dress poked through a closet door. The resistant Mary Mallon was carted off to a hospital with one aid sitting on her chest! 

At the hospital, suspicions of Mallon’s typhoid carrier status was confirmed. To avoid contaminating other people, health officials banished her to a cottage on a hospital island in New York’s East River. (The property had been designed years ago to quarantine smallpox patients.)

Had Mallon known that she was infecting people with typhoid? During her employment as a cook on Long Island that summer, eleven people in her household came down with typhoid fever. An investigator researching her employment history found that typhoid outbreaks coincided with most of her previous jobs. Between 1900 and 1907, she had taken seven jobs and apparently infected 22 people. Sufferers endured about a month of high fever, upset stomach, headache, and rash. One girl died of fever shortly after Mallon came to work her family. 

Still, Mallon claimed to believe she was unfairly accused. She said she didn’t understand how she could be related to all the sickness surrounding her when she herself seemed healthy. In 1909 – after spending two years on the island -- she sued the health department, saying that stool samples she’d sent to a private lab tested negative. However, the judge ruled in favor of the government, who countered her claim with a series of mostly positive tests. Mallon was returned to the quarantine island with only a dog for companionship. 

Better news came for Mary Mallon in 1910 when a new health commissioner reached a different decision: Mallon would be set free, provided that she did not work as a cook and promised to always take hygienic precautions. Mallon agreed and next found employment laundering clothing. The terms of her release required her reporting to health officials every three months.

Mary Mallon (foreground) in a hospital bed during her first quarantine
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For some reason, however, Mallon did not report to authorities as instructed. She eventually went back to working as a cook! Perhaps she could not survive on lower wages. Maybe she didn’t believe that a healthy person could really infect people, or maybe she had malicious intentions all along. 

In any case, five years after her release from the island, New York's Sloane Hospital for Women suffered a typhoid fever outbreak that resulted in two deaths. Co-workers joked that Typhoid Mary worked among them, but nobody suspected this was truly the case. Investigators turned to a newly-hired cook who called herself Mrs. Brown. Sure enough – Mrs. Brown was the infamous Mary Mallon! 

Mallon was sent once again to the North Brother Island cottage. There she lived for twenty-three more years. She did not live in total isolation; she helped around the hospital and by 1925 was assisting in the hospital’s lab. She was even allowed to visit friends off of the island. In 1932 she suffered a paralyzing stroke. Mallon was then transferred to a ward of the hospital and there remained until her death six years later. 

American INVENTIONS

The history of how America emerged as the premier superpower in the world is about more than just a great military or a homeland so rich in natural resources that we were able to become the breadbasket of the world.  There are many forces that combined in the American experiment that has made this country so great.  One of those great forces is the phenomenal inventive minds that have graced America virtually since its inception.  Starting with the powerful mind of Benjamin Franklin, the history of inventions that started in America and transformed the world is lengthy indeed.

Portrait of Benjamin Franklin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The computer has become so much a part of our lives that we forget that it was once invented.  The history of the development of this “futuristic” device is long and filled with genius.  The actual first prototypes of the computer were developed by the Defense Department, which is oddly the source of a lot of the great innovations in American history.  But it was the early PC developers including Steve Wozniac, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates that took the computer to the level of familiarity we know it to be now and made computers a part of our everyday lives.

Most world changing inventions have a profoundly positive influence on mankind’s quality of life.  But an invention that did not improve life but destroyed it is also an American invention that changed the world.  That invention, of course, is the Atomic Bomb.  Developed by the fabled “Manhattan Project”, this bomb changed everything about war, diplomacy and the way nations relate to one another.  And to find a positive amongst all the death the bombings in Japan brought about, that bomb may be one of the key elements that brought an end to a horrific war, World War II.  And in the long run, that is a conflict that the world breathed a sigh of relief when it came to an end.

There is a joke that makes its rounds frequently during political jesting that “Al Gore invented the internet.”  If he had invented it, he would be a world changing inventor for sure.  But it is not out of line to declare that America invented the internet.  Again, the original primitive retypes for what became our modern internet was the work of the American Defense Department as a measure to insure that America’s computer security was guarded by decentralizing the network.  From this simple goal, the vast World Wild Web has emerged that has transformed everything about how we look at communication, information and knowledge.  We have American ingenuity to thank for that.

But of the thousands of American inventions that have done so much in the fields of medicine, technology, research and communications, none can compare to an invention by a brilliant thinker by the name of Henry Ford.  That invention, obviously, is the automobile.  Just like with some of the other inventions we have talked about, we can hardly imagine a time where there was no such thing as an automobile.  

Mr. Ford’s amazing invention literally transformed society not just in America but around the world.  From it came the freeway system and an overhaul to how cities and towns are organized and linked together.  And while there are downsides to the widespread use of automobiles, it has been a huge leap forward for America and civilization as a whole.  And Mr. Ford, like any of the inventors we have talked about and thousands we have not, would see the betterment of mankind as their greatest calling.  America has hosted this great calling for centuries and will continue to produce brilliant inventors such as these for a long time to come.

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The BILL OF RIGHTS

We as Americans have a tremendous regard and respect for the framers of our Constitution because it was they that laid the foundation stones for the greatest country on earth.  But on top of the many amazing aspects of the Constitution, one stands out as an act of wisdom and foresight that made sure the Constitution would remain a living document for centuries.  That was the provision of the Constitution that allowed for the addition of amendments.

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It was not long after the Constitution was ratified that the first ten amendments were indeed organized and became law.  That those ten amendments have become as central to the American system of government as the Constitution itself.  They have come to be known as the Bill of Rights.

The Bill of Rights are so deeply engrained in the American consciousness that they are often referenced in conversations about issues, how Americans work and live together and our relationship with the government.  The true genius of the Bill of Rights was the work it did to severely limit the ability of the government of the United States to ever interfere with the fundamental rights of its citizens.  This is a stunning achievement at a governmental level when you think in terms of legal systems of governments throughout history and around the world.  

These ten amendments assure that the rights of citizens in this country are forever protected from any move by any administration to take those rights and give them to the government itself.  As such, the government is forever banned from getting too strong and it relegates the government to a servant role in society which so often is not the case in governmental politics elsewhere in the world.

The ten amendments to the Constitution cover the core rights of Americans including…

1. Freedom of Religion, free speech, freedom of the press and the fundamental right of assembly without fear of harassment from the government.  Also the right to petition the government to seek relief for grievances caused by the government.

2. The right to bear arms.

3. Protection from the forced habitation of troops in civilian homes in a time of conflict.

4. Protection from unreasonable search and seizure as part of a criminal investigation.

5. The right to due process when being accused of a crime.

6. The right to a jury trial, to be allowed to cross examine your accusers and other rights of accused to assure Americans cannot be “railroaded” by the legal system.

7. The right to civil trail by jury

8. Protection against cruel and unusual punishment and the right to bail.

9. Protection of rights not specifically spelled out in these ten amendments

10. Protection of states rights.

Of these rights, the ones listed in the first amendment are most often quoted and most cherished by Americans.  The original authorship of the Bill of Rights is credited to James Madison.  These basic rules of order for how the government will respect its own citizenry set in place and entitlement of rights by American citizens that has fundamentally shaped this country and how Americans come to expect its government to behave.  

It endowed the citizenry of the land with an expectation that the rights of the citizens of the country at a very basic level are more important than the rights of the government and that the government “works for us” which is a phenomenal change to the way societies have been organized throughout history.  As such, The Bill of Rights is one of the many reasons that America can be regarded as the most unique country in the world and the country that many citizens of other nations wish their own counties would emulate.

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Related articles

• Bill of Rights' Most Important Liberty: Religion(patriotupdate.com)

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When AMERICA Proved that Anything is Possible

It was one of those moments in American history that the people who were able to watch it for the first time felt like they were in a science fiction movie.  But with televisions cameras on every move, the nation and the world watched on July 20, 1969 as three American astronauts landed on the moon.  

December 7–19: Apollo 17, the last manned Moon mission
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The project had been in the works for years to be sure.  You have to wonder with the phenomenal amount of work, expert engineering and the amazing genius that created the rocket ships and everything that would be needed to make the flight possible, if even those in NASA sat in mute wonder and had goosebumps when “Buzz” Aldren was the first man in history to put his foot on another world and pronounce those famous words –

“That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.”

That phrase, which itself was carefully prepared, has a lot of wisdom in it.  Sure, touching another world for the first time in human history was a tremendous accomplishment for America.  But more than that, it signaled a new era for humankind everywhere.  All of a sudden, the moon wasn’t a far away myth, full of mystery and magic.  All of a sudden, people everywhere felt like they too could touch the stars if they put out their best efforts too.  

It was also a huge moment for the unity of all people.  Few things cause the world population to come together and link arms and be one people, not separate countries.  Most of the time, it’s a terrible global disaster that makes us all bond together.  But this time was different.  This time is was a moment so phenomenal that everybody stopped and watched and everybody knew that this was not just a great accomplishment for three astronauts and scientists that put them there.  This was a great accomplishment for mankind.

American history is populated with tremendous events, both bad and good.  But it’s worth a moment to sit back and reflect on what the first moon landing meant and continues to mean for Americans and the American spirit.  You have to wonder if any other nation would have had the ability, the creative powers, the powerful minds and the collective will to see this kind of amazing accomplishment through to success.  

It’s even more amazing when you remember that just a few years earlier, on September 12, 1962 that President Kennedy challenged American to rise to this challenge in a speech at Rice University.  It takes a lot to make something as historic and earth shaking as landing on the moon a reality and visionary leadership such as Kennedy showed that day was a big part of why this landing made history.

This amazing achievement points out something outstanding about the American spirit.  Americans are a people who dream big.  And to land a man on the moon took big dreams.  But we didn’t just dream to put a man up there, it was not acceptable unless we got everybody home safely as well.  

For the most part the American space program has had a phenomenal history of success in breaking through barriers that nobody had every done before.  Yes, there have been set backs and tragedies along the way.  But Americans are not quitters and through all the struggles we face, we face them together.  But we never forget to look up at the stars and dream of the day that yet again we see an American set foot on another world and plant out flag in that soil to be signal forever that America was here!

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AFFIRMATION ACTION

John F. Kennedy addresses nation on Civil Rights
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The history of the growth of equality for African Americans in America has been one of great accomplishments followed by many small gains and many set backs as well.  The outlawing of slavery did not instantly make all blacks equal with whites in America.  It took many subsequent legal actions as well as hundreds of social efforts, big and small, to slowly make the progress we have seen today.  But even in this day and age, in a new century, there is an ongoing battle against racism.  It seems we need leadership to guide society to true equality as much now as ever in our history.

The abolition of slavery only began the long hard struggle for African American culture to become a true part of what it means to be an American.  That is because even though the legal definition of slavery had been thrown down, the attitudes and cultural systems in place to keep the races separate and to deny black people rights equal with whites had to be addressed one by one.

Slowly over the decades, we have seen big changes but many came at a great cost.  From the legal granting of the right to vote to African Americans to the civil rights movement to school desegregation, each step forward came with resistance, great difficulty and significant sacrifice from leaders and ordinary citizens alike to make each step toward true equality a fact.

Of all the efforts to “level the playing field”, none has been more controversial than the Affirmative Action program.  In its beginning, it was intended to be a supplement to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Over time it had become clear that despite removal of laws that enforced segregation or discrimination, there seemed to be a natural segregation in the work place that was keeping African Americans from getting a fair chance at jobs because of the prejudices of an employer, even if that prejudice was not officially recognized in the company charter.

There were two significant executive orders that made affirmative action a reality.  The first was Executive Order 10925 signed by President Kennedy on March 6, 1965 which was the first law to make mention of the phrase.  This was followed by much more sweeping Civil Rights Act which was signed into law by President Johnson.  Together these laws attempted to correct by legal means the disparity of opportunity that existed in the workplace for people of color by instituting a system of quotas that employers had to meet to satisfy federal affirmative action minority employment levels.

But as is often the case when the government attempts to impose right attitudes via legislation, these laws often created as many problems for minorities as they cured.  Nevertheless as the application of the quota systems began to become widespread, it did open many doors for African Americans that would not have opened due to racial prejudice and silent segregation that was keeping the African American community from reaching its economic potential.

In truth, nobody really liked this kind of imposed fairness system.  For whites, they felt the sting of an artificial system of judgment that was sometimes called “reverse discrimination”.  While there was some justice that the white community got a taste for what it felt like to loose out on opportunity due to the color of your skin, it did not help the country in our goal of growing together to become one “color blind” community.

Affirmative action was a mixed blessing for the African American community.  While it did its job in the short term to opening doors that were closed due to racism, it is not the ideal solution.  That is because it did not fulfill Dr. King’s vision of a world where a man is judged not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character.  We can hope that we will grow to that point as a culture and look back on affirmative action as an unfortunate but necessary provision to help us grow and mature as a truly integrated culture.

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When EVERYTHING CHANGED

Gracie Mansion, Rev. Martin Luther King
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

American history, or really history in general is not always marked with outstanding events, stunning personalities or remarkable speeches.  Much of the history of a great nation is slow steady improvement, set backs and then how a people recovers from those set backs.  But in the context of American history, there are a number of truly phenomenal moments when everything changed.  These are not just one day events, although some are that sudden.  But these are events that once they transpired, Americans thought of themselves, the world and their place in the world completely differently.  And it’s worth noting what those events were and how they changed Americans forever.

Obviously the revolution itself and the founding of the country changed a small group of colonies who thought of themselves as Englishmen far from home.  When the independence of America was done, that vision of ourselves was completely different.  We were now a proud new nation, a new type of nationality that had its own view of the world and its own hopes and dreams as well.

World War II was the kind of event that once we underwent the tremendous trial, struggle and victory that such a war demands of a people, we never could go back to seeing ourselves again in the same way as we thought before the war.  Our victory against Japan, Germany and their allies gave us tremendous confidence that we could affect world history for the better.  But it also gave us a tremendous sense of responsibility.  When we dropped those bombs on Japan, everybody on the planet began to understand the horrible power that was now in the hands of mankind, for a season in the hands of America and the huge responsibility for the fate of mankind that came with that kind of power.

Pearl Harbor while part of World War II deserves its own mention because of the fundamental change to how America viewed itself in relation to the world.  Prior to that attack, America considered itself invulnerable.  Like a teenager that thought they could never be hurt, we had never been attacked on our homeland before.  But Japan proved that they not only could attack us but that they could hurt us very badly.  Yes, we responded with a fury but from that moment forward, we knew that we, like everybody else in the world, were vulnerable and we had to start behaving differently in a world full of both friends and enemies.

Outside of the military world, the famous I Have a Dream Speech by Dr. Martin Luther King at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963 did not just change the black community forever.  Yes, that speech had a mighty impact on the way the African American community saw their future and it gave inspiration and hope to a struggling civil rights movement that spurred it on to victory.  But it also affected all Americans because we started to see ourselves as a community of many cultures, many races and many orientations.  It was the beginning of acceptance in this country.  But that is a process that is far from over.

In modern times, the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 had a drastic effect on the minds and hearts of America and indeed on the world.  We are still learning how that effect will finally show itself as the ripples of shock, fear, anxiety and reprisals are still going on.  But to be sure, as with Pearl Harbor, the effects on our feelings about our place in the world and our vulnerability were certainly be changed forever.

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The Thirteenth AMENDMENT

Looking back on it now, it’s almost amazing to any modern American that we ever needed something like The Thirteenth Amendment.  The very fact that the United States government had to take this step to outlaw slavery in this country once and for all tells us that the more liberated way we think in modern times was not always the way life was viewed just a few hundred years ago.  In light of the long uphill struggle black history in this country represents, it is worthwhile to look back at this simple but powerful amendment which simply states…

13th Amendment of the United States Constitution.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

This amendment to the constitution of the United States, along with the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments represent the most dramatic changes to the fundamental law of this land in regards to civil rights in American history.  And it took strong and courageous leadership by Abraham Lincoln to assure that these provisions were so imbedded into the core definition of what America was and is that there would never be a chance that slavery would rise again inside our borders.

The date to remember of the passage of this history Amendment is April 8, 1864.  It was the end of the civil war and the south lay in defeat, still separated from the north before reconstruction could begin the long task of making this nation one again.  The wisdom President Lincoln had to take action while the sounds of battle were still fresh in the ears of all Americans to set in stone the achievements of this bloody war cannot be overlooked.

Up until the Civil War, slavery was a common part of American life.  It is painful for all Americans, black and white, to look back on a time when most Americans considered it normal for one human being to own another.  While the many great strides for civil rights and equality in the decades to come would stand tall in black history, this very basic restoration of the right of African Americans to be treated as humans had to be a fundamental start to becoming full citizens of this great land.

And so with the guns of the Civil War just recently silenced by the North’s victory, President Lincoln moved swiftly to make slavery a thing of the past forever.  First, in 1863, he issued The Emancipation Proclamation stating in no uncertain terms that…

“all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”

But despite the power of this proclamation, Lincoln knew that The Constitution had to be amended to make the good intent of the Emancipation Proclamation the irrevocable law of the land.  And so he championed The Thirteen Amendment through congress to assure that it was made law and that slavery could never again become a common and accepted part of American life.

It was an important start.  But we all know that true freedom was still had many more battles ahead of it.  When slave owners around the country, released their slaves, African Americans everywhere knew a freedom they had only dreamed of before.  But it was just one step in a long uphill struggle for equality and freedom that continues on to this day. 

Let us all look back on President Lincoln’s vision, forward thinking and courage and let it inspire similar vision and courage in us to find ways to make American society free and equal for all citizens, black, white and for all races, creeds and colors.  If we can achieve that, then we have done our part to join President Lincoln in seeking freedom for all men.

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The Cornerstone of American Law - CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

There are just a few truly great documents that represent the foundation stones upon which the American system of government was built.  One is the Declaration of Independence. Another is The Bill of Rights.  But when it comes to the legal girding that we always go back to in order to test if a law in this land can stand or fall, it is the Constitution of the United States of America that is that backbone that defines right and wrong for us.

Signing the Constitution, September 17, 1787

Indeed you might even say that the sole reason we have a Supreme Court is to have a living body that is here to decide on, interpret and enforce constitutional law.  And what is the worse accusation anyone can make about any act that is in question from a government agency?  “That’s unconstitutional” is that accusation.  That is how powerful this document is in American life, legal definitions and culture.

The historical context of the signing of The Constitution was The Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787 in Philadelphia.  That city witnessed many such historic events which enshrine its place in the history of the country to be sure.  The framers of that Constitution would have to be considered without question the most intelligent and well educated men certainly of their time and maybe of any time.  That document was so well crafted that it has lasted as a legal standard for over 200 years with no signs that its power will diminish for hundreds of years more.  But in that context, the Constitution is the oldest document of its kind in existence in the world and the original is carefully protected but on display in Washington DC.

The Constitution reflected the best of some of the oldest legal documents of similar intent that went back hundreds of years into history.  As such the Constitution includes ideas drawn from the Magna Carta, the French political philosopher Montesquieu, The Code of Hammurabi, the law of the Old Testament, ancient Greek political ideology from such writers as Polybius as well as Common Law from England.  So while the core ideas of the Constitution draw from some of the greatest systems of government and ideologies from history, the outcome is a unique format for governing a people that was so untried that it was considered to be “The Great American Experiment.”

Constitution of the United States, page 1 - Wikipedia

The Constitution is divided into seven “articles” each of which discusses one of the divisions of government.  Articles one through three discuss the three branches of government including the legislative, the executive and the judicial.  Article four goes into depth about the rights and powers reserved to the states.  It is clear to see that the framers knew the importance of leaving much of the power of governing at the local and state level and that those rights needed to be preserved at the foundational document of the society, The Constitution.

Other articles discuss the ratification process and federal power.  But the wisdom of the framers of The Constitution lie in article five which outlines a process of amendments which leaves room for additional work to be done to keep the Constitution up to date to changes that need to be made.  As such the Constitution has remained a living document for all of these years and will continue to be seen in that light for many decades and centuries to come.

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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Sometimes when a country is just getting organized, its citizens are considered to be uneducated, out of touch or primitive.  But exactly opposite was the truth when the great American experiment began to take shape.  The world did not see America as provincial or simple and that is due to a large part to the work of the man many that many have called “The First American”.  That man was Benjamin Franklin.

Benjamin Franklin 1767
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Benjamin Franklin stands out amongst those we would call “The Founding Fathers” because he was neither a military man nor a politician.  He was one of the few we think of a one of our nation’s fathers that never served as president.  But that does not mean that his contributions to the start of this great country were not profound and far reaching.

Benjamin Franklin could easily be described as what was popularly known in his day as a “renaissance man”.  He was truly proficient in many fields of discipline and he had a mind that was fascinated with all areas of study and knowledge.  As such he brought to the discussions with his fellow founding fathers a knowledge of political theory, an awareness of history and an ability to speculate on the perfect union that was crucial to the laying the conceptual foundation of what America would come to be when it blossomed into reality.

For many, we remember Benjamin Franklin as a great scientist and inventor.  And to be sure he qualified in that realm as well.  Every school boy or girl has that image of him flying that kite to capture electricity to test his theories that is so popular in our mythology of his accomplishments.  But these images are no myth for Franklin was truly a great inventor contributing to the world such important innovations as the lightning rod, swim fins, the catheter, the harmonica and bifocals.  In that way, Benjamin Franklin had as much in common with Michelangelo as he did with Thomas Jefferson and indeed he was in good company if listed with either.

But it was a political theorist and a philosopher that Franklin made huge contributions to the development of the American experiment in its early formations.  It was he who was able to envision the concept of a new American nation.  But his talents did not end at his ability to use his powerful mind to envision the future so well.  He was also a talented communicator, writer and teacher so he was able to use his eloquence and magnetic personality to promote the idea of an American nation both within the colonies and internationally.

Benjamin Franklin was truly a citizen of the world as he was as comfortable in the courtyards of France as he was in the pubs of Boston.  In fact, he was so popular on both sides of the Atlantic that he served as America’s first ambassador to France and therein lies one of his greatest contributions to the independence of the new country.  He was able to use his vast popularity and his trained powers of persuasion to cause the French to enter the battle on the side of the colonies against the British which was a major contributor to the success of the revolution to free America from English control and launch the independent American nation.

Franklin’s writings have become treasured documents among the archives of this important time in American history.  But just as much as his written work, his influence as a thinker, an intellectual and an international diplomat set the standard for others to follow after him and truly established America as a member of the international community of nations.

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The UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

Sometimes when a people are under their most oppression, that is when they truly are at their best it seems.  And that adage could certainly be applied to those who operated the Underground Railroad in the 19th century while slavery was still the law of the land in America.

Routes for escaping slaves through western
(West) Virginia on the Underground Railroad
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Underground Railroad was a means by which literally tens of thousands of slaves were able to escape their oppressors and make their way north to free states and a chance for freedom.  It was so secretive that even to speak of it meant discovery and terrible punishment.  But worse that that if it had been discovered by those who would stop slaves from finding their way out, it would have meant the end of hope for thousands of African Americans who were enduring the injustice of slavery.

The term "The Underground Railroad" was itself a code because that actual mechanism for moving slaves to freedom was not a railroad at all.  It was a series of stops, connected by obscure routes that wound their way through the countryside.  The routes were twisted and illogical so those seeking to catch slaves and return them to bondage would be hard pressed to figure out the ways those seeking freedom might travel.

Whole map of the underground railroad
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There was no published route for the Underground Railroad.  "Passengers" made their way from safe house to safe house taking refuge in homes, churches and other out of the way locations that became known as "stations" to those in the know.  Very often, the people who ran the stations along the path had no idea how long the railroad was or anything about the whole route.  They simply knew enough to receive their "passengers", do all they could for their health and care and send them along with instructions on how to reach the next station.

The routes were treacherous and difficult.  Slaves trying to reach freedom usually walked the routes from station to station to avoid public gathering places where slave chasers might find them and send them back to their owners in the south.  And just as there was no real "railroad" to the Underground Railroad, the routes themselves were not actually under the ground.  However many times at the safe houses, the owners will secure their guests in tunnels under the house or under a farm building.  

At one such safe house in Nebraska City, Nebraska, there is a tunnel from the house to the barn so that if the farmer was feeding a needy family, they could quickly "disappear" if slave hunters arrived without notice.  There were also roughly dug out bedrooms and crude accommodations under those houses to provide as much comfort and opportunities to rest and recover as was humanly possible under such difficult conditions.

We cannot leave our consideration of this phenomenal network without recognizing the courage of those who ran the "stations" to take in slaves, harbor them, feed them and care for their needs and help them along the way to try to do what they could to strike back at this inhuman practice of human slavery.  It is a testimony to humanity that people would overcome their prejudices and reach out to strangers, putting their own homes and families at risk to help a downtrodden people in their time of great need.

And we must take a solemn moment and look back on a dark time in American and Black history when such measures were necessary.  But the Underground Railroad spoke loudly that real Americans would not sit idly by and watch their fellow man suffer unjustly.  There is no doubt that tens of thousands of lives were saved by these anonymous heroes who didn't do it for reward or recognition.  They did it because it was the right thing to do and the thing God would expect them to do.  It is an inspiration to us all in this day to lay down our own prejudices and bond together as brothers to resist prejudice, bigotry and mans cruelty to man because of these evils.  If we do that we will know in our hearts, like those slaves on the railroad and the station owners knew, that there would come a better day.

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