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.
The Declaration of Independence together with the United States Constitution created a government never before seen by man on this earth. It is a government of the people and by the people. The people have a mandate to chose their own leaders. To vote!
Some things have slipped through history with a little fiction attached or some important details omitted. One, of course, is Paul Revere’s ride. Despite that beautiful Longfellow poem, Paul Revere was captured by the British before he could reach Concord and sound the alarm. But it’s a wonderful way to teach history.
George Washington had the looks and stature of a President. He was tall, nearly 6’4” and strong of build. He was a great horseman and a victorious soldier. He had a strong moral compass and great character. Plus, he had been front and center in all the major events in the creation of the new nation.
When Ben and John were sent by Congress to try to talk reason with the British generals at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, travel wasn’t like it is today. No interstate highways, no automobiles, no large hotels to spend the night in. John and Ben had to spend the night at an inn with only one room and with one bed available.
One of my other heroes, and Founding Fathers, Patrick Henry, was also an inventor of sorts. Patrick served for a while in his youth as a “bartender” at his father’s General Mercantile Store and Country Inn. He didn’t like it much. He saw first hand how much damage liquor did to the common man. Some people he served lost their money, their families, their wives, their homes, and even their lives to that vile habit—drinking.
I finished the book “The Washington Hypothesis” with an even greater admiration for George Washington. The hypothesis included the question whether or not George knew that he was in the middle of something big. Did he know that he was creating essentially a new exodus from the promised land, or creating a new promised land, like Moses?