Today, some of us football fans especially, think of the Patriots as the New England Patriots football team. You know, they’ve been in the Super Bowl four times in the last few years, and are an amazing fun team to watch play football. I myself am a football fan, and a Patriot fan as well.
However, the original Patriots didn’t play football. Football hadn’t even been invented yet. Those original Patriots played for keeps and they created a new nation. The first one ever to be of the people, by the people and for the people.
Wilford Woodruff, a religious leader in the 1800’s, reflected in his writings about the nature of the leaders of the nation in 1776 as compared to the individual characters of those of only 100 years later. It seemed to him that there was a growing gulf between the character, integrity, and inspiration of the leaders of his time, and that of the leaders in the Revolution and the promulgating of the U.S. Constitution.
–James Madison
Of course you know that James Madison and Thomas Jefferson were both Virginians, and they were great friends. Madison asked Jefferson to send him some books as he was studying how to plan for a new government. Jefferson sent him two trunks of “literary cargo” from France where Jefferson was the Minister.
One of the Supreme Court Justices nominated by James Madison was Joseph Story. Now remember, Madison was the most learned man when it came to the U.S. Constitution. He sheparded it through to approval, including writing many of the “Federalist Papers”.
Tonight I spoke to a group of adults about James and Dolley Madison and the Constitution. The presentation was well received. I enjoyed it.
We (my wife and I) were recently on a trip to Utah to see some old friends. We saw them and had great memories and tales to tell. On the way back I suggested we should go the other route home which would take us trough Monticello, Utah. They, the Utahns, pronounce the name of their city “mont a sell oh,” unlike Thomas Jefferson, who said he liked to pronounce the name of his home the Italian way: Mont a chell o.
Did you know that Dolley Madison was a widow with two children before she married James Madison? That’s right, Dolley had met and married John Todd, a lawyer, who was like Dolley, also a Quaker. After their marriage they had two children together.