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One of the most notable observations when studying the great figures of the Revolution is the number of almost unbelievably talented and educated people in America that decided to separate from Britain and today are known as the founding fathers. It is almost unfathomable that such a small population as the American colonies could have produced the number of talented, deeply thoughtful individuals to lead their Revolution. Many were amazingly well educated, but one noted scholar enphasizes that they were not sophistcates in the sence of the British political and military leaders they faced. HBC has developed biographies on some of the individuals involved in the Revolution. The early American presidents were involved (Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison). Another president (Jackson) fought in the War as a boy. Two important monarchs (George III and Louis XV). Also surprisingly a leading Roman orator (Cicero) was amazingly influential, especially in devising the Constitution which followed the War.
One of the most notable observations when studying the great figures of the Revolution is the number of almost unbelievably talented and educated people in America that decided to separate from Britain and today are known as the founding fathers. These were for the most part, posperous, succesful men. We have to wonder why they would have risked everything everthing. In the 18th century, traitors to the Crown hanged. One hefty member of Congress even jocked that while it would be over swiftly for him, his lighter weight colleague would sance for some time on the end of the rope. All must have questiond what chance of success they had against the military might of the British Empire. It is almost unfathomable that such a small population as the American colonies could have produced the number of talented, deeply thoughtful individuals to lead their Revolution. Many were amazingly well educated, but one noted scholar enphasizes that they were not sophistcates in the sence of the British political and military leaders they faced. The founding fathers were creative men, but except for Franklin were unknown outside of their own Colony, living at the time of the margins of European culture. Why was it that these men were to lead the march of Western civilization from aristocratic rule and monarchy toward republican government. The America that they created was to "prove that was to demonstrate that "republicanism and popular sovereighty promoted the general welfare." [Bailyn] It may well be because thee men ere on the perifery that they developed the ideas they did. They were self-made men living, in comarison to European leaders, in modest homes. They were also free of the "corruption and corrosive cynicism" that so prevailed in Britain and Continental Europe. [Bailyn] Not only did the idea of challengung the British militarily sem the height of folly, but even if successful and that was a big if, the founding fathers were launching onto the political abyss. Many of the founding fathers had read classical history, authors like Ciscero. They were aware of the dangers of republican government. The very idea was a very radical proposition at the time. Fear of popular rule was to be well demonstrated in the Contitution that followed independence. This was an issue that was not finally resolved even in America until the Civil War. It was he issue Lincoln addressed in the Gettyburg Address. These issues were not fully resloved even in the 20th century. Winston Chuchill was no alone i thinking that the 20th century totalitarians (Communists, Fascists, and NAZIs) resulted from the break-up of the European empires and the principles of popular government promoted by Wlson and other Americans. [Caradine]
HBC has developed biographies on some of the individuals involved in the Revolution. The early American presidents were involved (Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison). Another president (Jackson) fought in the War as a boy. Two important monarchs (George III and Louis XV). Also surprisingly a leading Roman orator (Cicero) was amazingly influential, especially in devising the Constitution which followed the War.
John Adams was the second American president. He was a giant of the Revolution. He is, however, now the least remembered of the early presidents. There is no monument to Adams in the Mall in Washington. Most Americans cannot name a single accomplishment of Adams. Yet there has been a reconsideratin of Adams in recent years and his reputation has grown,
especially his role in moving America toward Revolution and his diplomatic
triumphs. Perhaps his greatest accomplishment as President was in keeping the young nation from declaring war on Revolutioinary France which would have pribably ended disaterously and may have made Jefferson's Louisana Purchase difficult. Adams also played an important role in the development of the political party ststem in America. An important role of an American president is as leader of his party. It was Adams' failure here that was to doom his presidency an reelection.
Benedict Arnold was one of the greatest military commanders in American history and the greatest traitor.
Daniel Boone is such a remarkable figure in American history that he often is viewed as more of a fictional folk hero than a historical figure. In fact his exploits are even more remarkable than fictional accounts. He was born in Pennsylvania to a family of English Quakers (1734). We know very little about his early childhood. His father moved their large family to Virginian when Daniel was a teenager and then on to the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina. Still a teen ager, Daniel developed a reputation as a skilled trapper and hunter and particularly as an expert markesman. He married at age 19 to Rebecca Bryan who was 15. Rebecca is surely one of the most notable backwoods American women. The marriage resulted in a deep and lasting attachment and a number of children. Boone led the first small party through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky (1769) at at a time that the British Government was trying to restrict the colonists to the Eastern Seabord. This is widely seen as the beginning of the American western movement. Boone is often associated with the Scotts-Irish because so many of the families he led into Kentucky were of Scotts Irish ancestry. He founded Boonesborough and helped lead the resistance to Native Americans backed by the British.
Charles was the son of King Philip V by his second marriage with Queen Isabella Elizabeth (Farnese) and was a grandson of French King Louis XIV. He was not initially in line to become king of Spain. This Parma and Piacenza in Italy were obtained for him as a youth to gratify the ambitions of his mother. Still a young prince, in 1734 he invaded the two Sicilies which at the time belonged to Austria. Charles succedded to the Spanish throne in 1759 on the death of his childless half-brother, Ferdinand VI. He allied Spain with France against Britain in the Seven Years War. Spain was forced to ceed Florida. Spain again joined France to assist the American colonies against the British. Efforts to take Gibralter in 1781 and 1782 failed. Some domestic reforms proved more succesful. The Jesuits wre expelled (1767). Major progress was made in restricting the reach of the Inquisition. He also made profress in reducing bringandage and piracy. He supported commerece, the arts, and science.
Benjamin Franklin is perhaps the most intriguing of the Founding Fathers and among the key individuals who made the Revolution. He was atually an unlikely revolutionary. Franklin at the time of the Revolution was an acclaimed scientist with an international reputation. He also loved England. He spent several years in London as aoung man and came to love it. Had his wife been more encouraging, he might well have settled permanently in England. Franklin felt that the British Empire was the height of political developmnt. He saw America maturing and becoming an equal partner with England. Here he proved wrong. The British Government was not prepared for America to develop along those lines. The British were determined to control developments in America. Franklin's second trip to England was less felicitous. He has become a spokesman for the Colonies. He worked in England before the onset of the War to prevent it. was called before the Star Chamber and castigated. It was a turning point for Britain and France. If Britain could not command the loyalty of Franklin, it meant it has lost the loyalty of a substantial part of the Colonial elite. Franlin returned to the Colonies a revolutiinary. After the War began, the Coninental Congress appointed him commissioner (ambassador) to France. He was aensation in France and milked his popularity for all it was worth. He was more than any other individual responsible for the successful negotiation of the treatly with France which was critical for the success of the Revolution.
George III (1738-1820) was one of the longest reigning British monarchs--reining for an incredible 60 years. He is one of the best known English kings to Americans as he was king at the time of the American Revolution and played an important role in it. He is also well known for the mental illness he suffered in the later years of his reign.
General Nathanael Greene was one of the most important coomanders in the Continental Army. He rose from Rhode Island militia private to Continental Army General in less than a year. He played an important role at Valley Forge. After the British destroyed the Southern Army under Horatio Gates, Washington sent Greene south. His performance at Guilford Court House (March 1981) showed the revival of the Continental's Southern Army. He destoyed a third of Cornwallis' army. This set in motion a retreat to Yorktown where Cornwallis hoped to be resupplied and reinforced by the Royal Navy. As good a generakl as Greene was, he was anxious to leave the army and go into business supplying it. This of course was where the money was.
Alexander Hamilton is one of the least discussed of the founding father's, but after Washinton, perhaps the most important. He was a war hero and perhaps the leading voice for the ratification of the Constitution. In the new Federal Government it was Hamilton who devised a plan to establish the credit of the government and a sound fiscal system. It is Jefferson who has a momunent on the Mall and who is often seen as founding spirit of the nation with his image of an agrarian utopia. Hamilton it turned out was usually correct in his many debates with Jefferson. It was Hamilton who conceived of a new nation people with the woken an Europe and financed wih European capital.
Another future president was a boy at the time of the Revolution. He remembers having dinner on the family plantation with General Washington while the seige guns at Yorktown could be heard. [Green]
Andrew Jackson was just a boy during the Revolution. His father had died. Like many of the Scotts-Irish he and his brothers joined the Patriots. A brother died in battle. He an his brother were captured. An English officer slashed him with his saber when he refused to polish his boots. His mother rescuded Andrew and another brother from a diseased prison ship. His brother died and so did his mother. By the end of the Revolution, his entire family was dead. Andrew was left with an abiding hated of the British and desore to meet them in battle again.
Thomas Jefferson is one of the greatest of American presidents. By a stoke of a pen he made America a continental power when he approved the Louisana Purchase. But he is perhaps best known for the force of his ideas and eloquence uin expressing them. Jefferson is perhaps is also the most enigmatic of all presidents. No American president wrote so eloquently about liberty and yet relied on slave labor his entire life for his livelihood and unlike fellow Virginia planter George Washington--never freed them. Many American presidents owned slaves, but none wrote so eloquantly about liberty and the natural rights of man. He has been described as the conceiving spirit of the Ameican Republic.
John was born in Scotland to gardener father. His prospects as a son of a commoner were limited. Without money or an education there was little more to which he could aspire. [Thomas] At the age of 13 in 1760 he went to sea, hoping to advance in life. Jones in 1774 fled to America facing legal problems after hanging a mutionous sailor. The Continental Congress in 1775 the Continental Congress desperately needing naval officers commissined Jones. He became the leading American naval officer of the Revolutionary War--bedelving the Royal Navy throughout the War. He was not rewarded with the rank of admiral and never received the public acclaim of other important Revolutionary War leaders. He died in Paris largely forgotten by the American public.
Louis XVI was born in 1710 at Versailles, the famed palace of Louis XIV. Like his great grandfather, he became king at an very young age. He began his reign as "Louis the well beloved", but when he died he was unmourned. Serious failures in his upbringing and character prevented him from ruling effectively. He became king in 1715 when he was only 5 years old. He was France's longest serving monarchs. His ineffectual rule contributed to the decline of royal authority that led to the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789.
Louis was born at Versailles in 1710, the son of the Duke of Burgandy, who died only 2 years later in 1712. Because of the death of his parents and only surviving brother in 1712, he became King at the age of 5 years on the death of Louis XIV (Sept. 1, 1715). Until he attained his legal majority in 1723, France was governed by a regent, Philippe II, duc d'Orleans. I have no information at this time on Louis' childhood or how he was dressed as a boy. Louis' tutor Cardinal Fleury was to become his head of government.
Neither Louis' education nor his character prepared Louis for the task of ruling France, This was critical at Louis XIV had centered French Givernment in the person of the king. A weak king meant a weak goverrnment. Louis was handsome and an imposing figure. He was also intelligent. This potential was spoiled by an inadequate education that taight him that he was the center of his country's life, but failed to inspire in him any real concern for the welfare of his subjects. Court life at Versailles served to emphasize his personal importance and cut him off from contact with his subjects. Boored by court life, Louis let his personal pleasure govern his life.
James Madison was the 4th president, another in a long line of Virginian born
presidents. He was not an imposing man and in our modern world of
mass-media, he would certainly have never become president. It was his mind
that set Madion apart an his colleagues recognized this. Madison was a close
associate of Thomas Jefferson. Madison is best known for his role in creating
the Constitution.
James Monroe was a dashing junior office in the Revolutiinary War. A young James Monroe joined the Continental Army. He was the only president of the Revolutionary War generation to be a certified war hero. The Revolution was for Monroe the great struggle of his age and after the War he would consciously use the Revolution as a great symbol on national unity. His first action was with a group of school friends at William and Mary College. They raided the govenor's mansion and turned arms held them there over to the local militia (1775). He was commisioned a lieutenant in the 3rd Virginia Infantry. He then went ith the Regiment to join Washington's Continental Army in New York. He fought at Harlan Heights and White PLains. And then retreated south with the Army. He destinguished himself at arguaably the key battle of the War--Trenton. He was a part of the advanced guard that crossed the Deleware before the Army, securing the roads to Trenton. Duting the actual battle in Trenton he was severly wounded while attacking the Hessians, taking a musket ball in the chest. He almost died. The ball was so deeply embeded, he lived with for the rest of his life. He was promoted to captain and returned to Virginia to recover and help recruit. When he rejoined the Continental Army, he was promoted again to major. He fought at Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. He spent the winter at Valley Forge. The Continental Army had more officers than men to command. Monroe got a staff appointment which he did not like. He returned to Virginia which was organizing four new regiments to protect the state as the fighting shifted south. Monroe was appointed colonel to command one of the regiments, but Virgini was able to affird to arm four regiments or recruit the men. Monroe never got his command. He liked the title and for the rest of his like was often called Colonel Nonroe. This was essentially the the end of his military career. Jeffereson sent him to North Carolina as an observer and he served with the Virginia militia, but he saw no further action.
George Washington was the military commander of the Revoluntionary armed
forces. In a very real way Washington was the Revolution. Although not
perhaps a brilliant tactician, it is very unlikely that the Colonists would have
precailed without him. Washington was also the first president of the United
States. Argueably our greatest president because of the standards and
precedents he set. A republic governed by an elected president and congress
was in the late 18th Century a radical experiment in democracy. Most doubted that it could exceed. The character and integrity of Washington played a key role in
the suceess of the young Republic, a Republic that would in the 20th Century save Britain, France, and indeed western civilization itself.
Bailyn, Bernard. To Begin the World Anew: The Genius and Ambiguities of the American Founders (Knopf: 2002), 185p.
Caridine
Green, James A. William Henry Harrison: His Life and Times (Garrett and Massie: Richmond, Virginia, 1941), 536p.
Thomas, Evan. John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy (Simon & Schuster, 2003), 383p.
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