There’s been a overwhelming amount of vitriol in the voice of the people and the media these days. Who would have thought it could ever be this bad about a man who just wants to make America great. Even if Donald Trump just makes it better, wouldn’t that be great?
Abraham Lincoln had a similar problem in his presidency. The Civil War was fought on the battlefields and in the press. At that time the newspapers were also full of descriptions of the feats of a well-known tight rope walker named Blondin.
After reviewing some things I have in common with John Adams, I had to remember why I started studying the Founding Fathers anyway. As a young lawyer I was appointed by the mayor of Phoenix, Arizona, to be a member of his “Citizens Crime Commission,” a group of volunteers who met monthly and discussed methods the Mayor could use to alleviate crime in the City.
For years I have presented classes, speeches, and presentations about the Founding Fathers of our United States of America. I love to do it. I suppose during one of my speeches, I had become a little too enthusiastic and bombastic. One attendee came up to me afterwards to tell me as much!
Benjamin Franklin wrote the book “The Art of Virtue” to help others understand that being true to oneself is being virtuous. Of course he also wrote this Autobiography, “Poor Richard’s Almanac”, and his book about Electricity. Several times he describes his “project for moral perfection, which he worked on all his life to improve his own character.
Groan. I just read this:
After the Constitution was ratified by the U. S. Constitutional Convention, it went to the States for their own State Conventions. Would the States accept it and approve of it? No one knew for sure.
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.
One of my heroes is Benjamin Franklin. I have found that he is likewise the hero to many Americans. As I have spoken to many different groups over the past 25 or 30 years about our Founding Fathers, I have found that the people’s favorite is hands down Benjamin Franklin.