Several years ago, the King at the time told a friend how he had sent 14 of the brightest young men of Rumania to receive some training for future service in the government. He had sent 7 to England and another 7 to the United States of America, to study the respective political and even economic systems.
“The seven who went to England were very smart,” said the King, “and they now each have an important post in the leading councils of Bucharest.”
“What about the 7 you sent to America?” asked the friend.
Those Founding Fathers who were against the U.S. Constitution included Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry. Both of them thought that the Constitution did not protect the average citizen enough.
In all the political turmoil of late, the conservative editorial writer, George Will, has just declared that he will withdraw from the Republican Party. He says they have left him.
Abraham Lincoln, of course, was a lawyer and a politician. I think he lived by the above instructions, if unknowingly. He was also a great storyteller.
The tale is told of Dave Randall, who was once the Customer Relations Expert for Scribner’s Rare Book Department. Randall had tried relentlessly to obtain one of an old collector’s thirteen copies of Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. The owner stubbornly refused to let go of a single copy. He refused every overture attempted by Dave.
After Benjamin Franklin was sent to France by Congress, John Adams was soon sent to join and assist him in his labors. Adams and Franklin were very different personalities. Ben was very patient, diplomatic, affable and even affectionate.
When Ben Franklin was sent to France to try to obtain an agreement from the French King for support in the Revolutionary War, he knew he would have to get himself noticed. Ben knew he had to make a great first impression! The French expected him to dress like their image of the Colonials. So he dressed that way.
Of course you remember learning about Benjamin Franklin’s Farmer’s Almanac titled “Poor Richard’s Almanac”. As a printer, Ben knew of the business of Almanacs. Farmers relied on them to prognosticate the weather for their planting and harvesting seasons.
And James Madison, known as “The Father of the Constitution” also had no children of his own. He married Dolley Madison, who had children from a prior marriage, and who, like Martha Washington, was a widow when she married James Madison. He helped raise her children, but again they had no children together.