Saluting the Signers

Fifty-six patriots signed the Declaration of Independence that we Americans celebrate on this, our national holiday. They were:

President of the Congress: John Hancock.

For New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, and Matthew Thornton.

For Massachusetts: Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, and Elbridge Gerry.

For Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins and William Ellery.

For Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, and Oliver Wolcott.

For New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, and Lewis Morris.

For New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, and Abraham Clark.

For Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, and George Ross.

For Delaware: George Read, Caesar Rodney, and Thomas McKean.

For Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, and Charles Carroll.

For Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Francis Lightfoot Lee, and Carter Braxton.

For North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, and John Penn.

For South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Thomas Lynch, and Arthur Middleton.

For Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, and George Walton.

Spirit of 76

No, ye socks, yours truly does not refer to the fact that tomorrow will mark 76 days of the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil leak.

I had enough time atop the proverbial soapbox yesterday.

Today, I refer to the revolutionary spirit of our founding fathers and mothers, which will be officially marked tomorrow as Independence Day.

The folks at The History Channel have gotten an early start, however.

They're running a marathon broadcast of their series on the American Revolution.

Compelling stuff.

It is all too easy as we scramble to get to the beach or neighborhood barbecue to overlook the guts it took to stand-up and topple an oppressive government 234 years ago.

The good news is that the guts displayed by our forefathers and foremothers allows us to freely engage in said scrambling.

And, when we feel oppressed by our government, we don't have to pick up our muskets and march off to the tune of fife and drums.

Because of their great sacrifices and those that came later, we can simply "remember in November" and cast our ballots to find the relief we need.

Still, there is something to be said about the accompaniment of fife and drums . . .

How many times can you watch the same movie?

Yours truly finds himself asking this question after staying up WAY past the usual Sunday night bedtime.

Somehow, I suckered myself into watching "Independence Day," for what had to be the millionth time since it hit the theaters back in 1996.

You know the flick with Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Randy Quaid, and a bunch of other easily-recognizable movie stars.

Anyway, at least in my opinion, this is one of those movies that has withstood the test of time, despite the lack of critical acclaim.

Now, I really should get to bed. Gonna be kinda hard to do, though, with all these apocalyptic visions dancing in my head!!

Ford should give Emerson a rest

Well, ye socks, yours truly has finally finished reading Richard Ford's prize-winning novel Independence Day.

Kinda appropriate given the recent holiday, no?

Well, as alluded to in a previous post, it took a lot of effort on my part to get thru this one.

Ford's writing is often disjointed. The best dialogues . . . even monologues . . . are delivered over the phone or answering machines.

It's very hard to like any of these characters.

What's harder to like is Ford's fawning over Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). But, I suppose any apologist for the "great" Transcendentalist is doomed to pratfalls.

Ultimately, Ford suffers the same assessment as his hero, in that he was quite appealing in his youth. But, with age, he became a godless curmudgeon.

I remember thinking a lot of Emerson as a young conservative college student, for a couple of reasons. First, he had a personal connection to Florida, spending his winters in St. Augustine socializing with exiled members of the French imperial family. More importantly, his writings encouraged self-reliance, championed individualism, and dared to see opportunities in adverse situations. He inspired an entire generation of Americans, who deemed his 1837 speech "The American Scholar" to be an "Intellectual Declaration of Independence."

I suppose that's where Ford got the title for this tedious novel, moreso than its actual setting.

Ford was much less-contrived in the prequel The Sportswriter, which somehow managed to speak to me using the same protagonist but with less Transcendentalist clap-trap.

Self-reliance can indeed be a virtue, unless it is taken to extremes. Emerson was an extremist in that he saw no higher power than the individual, and ultimately rejected God. Henry Ware, Jr., pegged him (quite appropriately) for "taking away the father of the Universe" and leaving "but a company of children in an orphan asylum."

This older, bitter, godless Emerson is the figure Ford emulates and celebrates in Independence Day. If ye socks would believe the Pulitzer committee, he evidently succeeded in the former. But, the latter seems more than a bit contrary . . .

Bottom line: skip it.

Mass communication, 1776 style

John Dunlap (1747-1812) is rarely included in lists of America's founding fathers, which is really a shame.

The Philadelphia printer may not have been a decorated military hero.

And, he wasn't a member of the Continental Congress.

But, he did take Thomas Jefferson's handwritten original of our Declaration of Independence, and put it into print.

It was on this date back in 1776 that John Hancock ordered copies of Dunlap's broadsides be distributed to all the political and military leaders in the 13 original colonies, to be read to the general public and our service men.

So, remember, ye socks, Benjamin Franklin wasn't the only printer from Philadelphia to help birth our nation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident . . .

Committees can be productive

As evidence, I submit to ye socks the result of a committee created by the Continental Congress.

On this date back in 1776, they returned a draft of the Declaration of Independence that won congressional approval.

Nowadays, it seems an all-too-often result of committee work is stonewalling, foot-dragging, and indecision. Or, worse, if ye examine the shenanigans of committee chairmen like Barney Frank.

Fortunately, our forefathers had the wisdom to appoint some pretty stellar committee members to handle the task of drafting the famous declaration:

* Thomas Jefferson, who did almost all of the actual writing and generally gets most of the credit (deservedly, so).

* John Adams, who made the first round of revisions.

* Benjamin Franklin, who made the second round of revisions.

* Robert R. Livingston, of whom I must confess that I know almost nothing about.

and, finally

* Roger Sherman (1721-1793) the dandy fellow from Connecticut, pictured here in the dryer today. Jefferson once said of his fellow committee member that he "never said a foolish thing in his life." Oh, how times have changed . . .

So, he was off by a coupla days . . .

On this date back in 1776, the Continental Congress finally put the great debate to rest and adopted a resolution for independence.

The resolution's most ardent supporter, John Adams, would write to his wife about it:

The Second Day of July 1776 will be the most memorable Epocha in the History of America . . . I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary Festival.

Well, I'm with Mr. Adams. Let's kick-off the celebrations today, and just carry them forward thru the 4th and beyond!

The Great Debate

Forget about your Abraham Lincoln.

Forget about your Stephen Douglas.

The greatest debate in American history was the one that transpired on this date back in 1776.

One one side, you had John Adams, the fierly little patriot from Massachusetts, bristling for an immediate declaration of independence.

And, on the other side, you had this much more urbane fellow from Pennsylvania: John Dickinson.

Like the folks from New York, the thought of outright independence made him nervous.

He was not an altogether unpatriotic fellow. A lot of folks forget that he teamed-up with Thomas Jefferson to draft a resolution to "die free men rather than slaves," declaring the causes and necessity of taking up arms. But, he also wanted to take a more measured approach to the British, proposing a confederation of the American colonies rather than outright independence from King George III.

Fortunately for freedom-loving Americans, Adams won the debate. Wish someone in the loyal opposition had his gifts in the current Congress . . .

Defeatism in New York

Continuing the advent to the first Independence Day, it was on this date back in 1776 that New York's provincial assembly disbanded.

Unlike their counterparts in Virginia the preceding day, they failed to declare New York a state instead of a colony.

Furthermore, they instructed their delegates at the Continental Congress to oppose American independence.

To be fair, they were staring down the barrel of a gun. Actually, there were a bunch of guns . . . big ones . . . on the British fleet that Admiral Howe had sailed into New York's harbor before the convention hastily drew to a close. So, I suppose they may be forgiven.

It's always darkest before the dawn. That was as true in 1776 as it is today.

Give us liberty!

In these days leading up to our big national holiday, I've been thinking about how those days leading up to the orginal Declaration of Independence must've been like for our foresocks in the dryer.

According to my handy almanac of American history, I find it was on this date back in 1776 that Virginia ceased being merely a colony by adopting its first state constitution and making the great patriot Patrick Henry its first governor.

Years ago, while visiting the old Morgan family ancestral stomping grounds in Campbell County, Virginia, I took a brief detour to visit Governor Henry's retirement home at Red Hill.

The grounds are a lot more rustic and secluded than those of Mount Vernon or Monticello, allowing visitors to feel a more personal connection to the place.

I suppose that's why Henry remains my favorite among the founding fathers. Kind of an offbeat selection, I suppose. But, I'm known for such . . .