The Founding Fathers: An Inspiring Group, or Just Lucky?.....

Around Independance Day I naturally think about the Founding Fathers. I am fascinated by the American Revolution. I have known the names Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and others, as long as I can remember. I have visited places like Williamsburg and Yorktown, Virginia and enjoyed it more than I expected. Listening to the historical interpreters at those places give a detailed insight into those times is great. When I'm in a room at a historic building, or at the Yorktown Battlefield I can imagine conversations of excitement or regret taking place among those famous people.

Those guys not only changed history, they changed millions of lives. Including eventually yours and mine. We now live in a world where democracy is the norm. We hold elections and live with the results. In the 18th century, monarchy was the norm. Kings or Queens ruled the people. So would their kids. The Founding Fathers thought the time was right, and the place was here, to try a new way. To try things like liberty, freedom, and democracy. What a concept!

Keep in mind though, these guys also had their own interests in mind. Most of them were successful and somewhat wealthy. They didn't like the idea of sharing their wealth with the mother country. A country that offered little support, and had little understanding of life in the colonies. Of the 56 signers of the Declaration, 25 were lawyers. The rest were merchants and plantation owners. All of them had plenty of property. The plantation owners even had property that could walk and talk.

Nevertheless, talking independance from England was considered high treason at the time. One of my favorite quotes of those times was from Ben Franklin, saying, "We must all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately." These guys would be in big trouble if we lost the Revolutionary War. "Huge trouble", as our President would say. Vegas would've made England heavy favorites at the time.

During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, The U.S. led military coalition developed a deck of playing cards with the most wanted Iraqi leaders on it. Saddam Husayn was the ace of spades. I wonder who would of been the ace of spades had the British developed such a set of cards for the revolutionaries? But as it turned out, not one Founding Father was executed, or even captured during the war. Just lucky I guess.

Historical marker at Yorktown Battlefield.

Now imagine recruiting for the Continental Army. Recruiting farmers, and asking them to leave their farms to become soldiers. The pay? Uhh, don't worry about that. So how did it happen? How does a rag-tag Army defeat the greatest military nation of the 18th century? They did it with cleverness, determination of will, a home field advantage, and luck. (The French helped a great deal too!) But they also did it with inspiration from the words of the Founding Fathers.

So this holiday weekend, when you pull out a dollar to pay for that Snickers bar, take a look at the picture on that dollar. That guy wasn't the greatest general, but he did accept the surrender of over 7,000 officers and soldiers at Yorktown, Virginia. He also had wooden teeth, so reconsider that Snickers!