Paul Revere’s Ride

Paul Revere's famous ride as learned by most elementary school kids in the U.S. is exciting, breathtaking stuff.  He rides his horse frantically through the town, alerting Bostonians to the imminent arrival of “the British” (ignoring the fact that most colonists thought of themselves as British).  The lanterns are hung in the Old North Church and the day is saved.  I loved the story as a kid.  I loved visiting the old church when I had a chance to take a trip to Boston.  The story was one that helped bring history to life and wasn’t hard for a kid to imagine and to wish to emulate.

 
Paul Revere’s Ride by David Hackett Fischer (ISBN: 0-19-509831-5) is an in-depth biography of the man whose famous horse ride and plan to warn the colonists of impending danger has largely withstood the test of time and has been passed down to the present day through prose, poetry, and visual art.  Paul Revere’s father was a poor French boy when he arrived in the New World, but hard work allowed him to establish himself and provide a solid foundation for his family.  Revere followed in his father’s footsteps by learning to silversmith.  He added engraving to his repertoire along with being unafraid to try his hand at other things, including dentistry (not exactly the science we know today).  He was also a master networker and communicator who felt and filled a large civic duty.  He was a part of multiple civic organizations and participated fully in various local boards and commissions.  People up and down the Massachusetts coast knew and trusted him.  He did undertake his famous nighttime ride, but he was not alone, and it didn’t involve only the Old North Church.  Revere rode one route while two other men took a different route.  Revere’s was arguably more successful, as he made contact with more people than the other riders, but both played an important role.  As they made contact in the towns and villages near Boston, other riders then carried the warning farther inland or farther north.  Wildly, Revere was actually apprehended briefly by a British patrol, but they let him go after questioning.  Ultimately, the other Massachusetts towns were warned in time to prepare for the coming of the British army.  After the famous ride, Revere went on to continue his involvement in American politics, including making engravings that told the colonists’ side of the story and helped organize them around the revolutionary cause.  Revere made many contributions above and beyond his famous ride to the revolutionary effort.

 
I thought the book was really good.  I was a little worried when, at the beginning, the author noted that he would tell a bit about British General Thomas Gage as well, but it turned out that didn’t distract from Revere’s story.  Given the role Gage played in British efforts, it probably helped to know some of this background.  There were a number of illustrations throughout the book, which I thought were interesting.  The true story of Paul Revere’s ride, of course, doesn’t exactly match the famous poem; it’s likely better and doesn’t change at all the inspiration that the story provides us, encouraging us to sacrifice for a good cause.  Revere provides an excellent example of what an involved citizen should be.  He participated in local formal and informal bodies, contributing time, effort, skill, and means to the cause of freedom.  He was willing to contribute himself to liberty’s cause.

 

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John Adams

“To be good, and to do good,

is all we have to do.” — John Adams

I’ve always looked at the American Founding Fathers with a lot of respect, but I also have often fallen into the common trap of thinking of them as George Washington, Tomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin.  There were fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence.  There were thirty-nine signers of the U.S. Constitution.  Both of those documents were inspired documents, and there was a lot of inspiration and many miracles that went into them both, contributing to and guiding the creation of the United States of America, which has thenceforth been a blessing for so many people.  I figured 2026, the 250th anniversary of America’s birth, would be great time to get to know some of the other Founding Fathers a little better.

 
John Adams by David McCullough (ISBN: 0-684-81363-7) provides a deep and broad look at the second president and a man who is often credited as being the voice of independence.  The book starts just a little before John Adams was born, telling the reader about his parents and lineage before getting into the details of the future president’s life.  McCullough tells the Founder’s life story in great detail, in part because Adams left extensive diaries and letters to draw from.  One learns about his schooling, his law practice, his family life, his farm in Massachusetts, and his ascendency onto the national stage, where he flourished.  One learns about his shortcomings as well, including a propensity to get down on himself, a willingness to let others’ opinions of him matter (vanity), and a sometimes quick temper.  Once Adams makes to Philadelphia to advocate for independence, the book goes into great detail, explaining his thinking and his actions and then follows his career.  He was a diplomat, helping Benjamin Franklin in France and forging his own path in the Netherlands, where he, on his own, secured loans to help the American cause as the Revolutionary War dragged on.  He was the new country’s first ambassador to England and then the country’s first vice president.  In all of his positions, he advocated for what he thought was right.  He didn’t back down and wasn’t afraid to take a little heat sometimes.  The book paints him as a man of strong moral convictions based on a faith in God.  During his time as president, he successfully kept America out of a war with France, which greatly helped America, a weak and fledgling nation, find its wings.

I thought the book was masterfully written, which is not a surprise, considering it’s written by the author of another great work, 1776.  I got to know John Adams quite well over the course of the book.  His letters and diaries are woven tightly into explanatory prose.  The book was well balanced, noting where Adams had personal and professional shortcomings or hiccoughs.  Like most of us, life tended to knock off a few of the rough edges, and he grew and improved throughout his life.  I was impressed by his strong sense of morality and how that guided him in all that he did.  His role in America’s early years was grand, and he liked to think of himself as grand, but also realized that he was happiest when surrounded by a few good books and the daily labor of running a farm.  He made the most of the opportunities presented to him, sacrificed time, money, and even his family for the callings he had, and left the world a better place.

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Founding Father

There’s never been a time when the Revolutionary War hasn’t been interesting to me.  The concept of people standing up for what they believe to be right and being willing to sacrifice everything for that is always inspiring.  The Americans who fought in the Revolutionary War had a set of beliefs and rights that they believed were given by God and being infringed upon by the English government.  They sacrificed intangible things like their names and reputations as well as treasure and the proverbial blood, sweat, and tears.  Their sacrifices resulted in a country that has provided incredible opportunity like nowhere else for generations and generations.  Whether it was regular soldiers suffering on cold battlefields or commanders trying to inspire their men against what was the world’s premier fighting force at the time, there were many sacrifices being made, inspiring both the people of that time and people like me hundreds of years later.

Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington by Richard Brookhiser (ISBN: 0-684-82291-1) provides a short overview of the original father of the country, George Washington.  The book starts with an interesting discussion of modern history, which is history that often looks to break down the heroes of the past, find fault with them, and discount the stories that have been handed down for generations.  Brookhiser claims he’s not looking to disparage Washington like other modern historians while being willing to set aside legend (“I cannot tell a lie,” for example) in order to give a clearer picture of the first president.  The book then provides a basic overview of the major parts of Washington’s life, war, overseeing the writing of the Constitution, and his time as President, plus a review of the ideals and morals that drove Washington or that Washington chose to drive himself to achieve, as the case may be.  A rather significant amount of time was spent relating Washington’s largely successful attempts at controlling his temper, other emotions, and tongue.  The book finished with an interesting and very modern, despite the book being published in 1996, review of Washington’s patriarchal role.  Brookhiser notes that fathers are not the rocks in people’s lives that they once were, and calling someone the father of a nation or a founding father may not really inspire anyone in modern America like it may have previously.  Washington’s role as the father of his country and the strong, guiding presence behind many early American events is examined before the book ends with his death.

Overall, I thought the book was fine.  I think I didn’t find it as amazing as many reviewers did is because I didn’t need to rediscover Washington.  I didn’t need to be disabused of any notions of Washington being a failure or some insufferable hypocrite who didn’t live up to lofty ideals he professed.  The Founding Fathers were mortal and had shortcomings.  That is why they are so inspiring.  Like Washington, who spent his life striving to be better by controlling himself, many of the Founders strove to live on a higher plane and provide that for others.  Washington, despite many efforts, has survived deconstruction rather well.  For those who may be questioning the greatness of the heroes of the Revolutionary War, Brookhiser’s work is a worthy addition to that of the more based authors finding the good in the men and women who were willing to put it all on the line and sacrifice for a better life for themselves and their posterity.  I was appreciative of the chance to re-acquaint myself, even if just briefly (the book barely makes it to page 200), with this great man and the great example he provides for us.

   

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Miracle at Philadelphia

I have always appreciated the American Founding.  It is full of amazing stories (maybe even a bit of legend thrown in there) of amazing people that sacrificed greatly, including their very lives, for a vision, an idea, that had the potential to bring them and their posterity the great blessings of liberty.  The stories of Lexington and Concord, Valley Forge, and New York and Boston were both captivating and inspiring.  History can be dry, but the lessons learned from greats like Washington, Nathan Hale, Jefferson, Franklin, Paul Revere, and others were obvious and applicable.  I haven’t always appreciated the thin margin that these heroes were operating on.  I have always believed that God had a hand in establishing the United States of America, but have only more recently come to realize that there were so many miracles involved.  The writing and ratification of the Constitution is one of those miracles.

Miracle at Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention May to September 1787 by Catherine Drinker Bowen (ISBN: 978-0-316-10378-7) takes an intimate look at the coming into being of the Constitution.  The book starts by acknowledging that the Constitution is the result of a miracle.  That is not necessarily the author’s conclusion — although it is; it is what those who attended the Constitutional Convention themselves asserted it to be.  The case for that is then made by simply recounting the events of the convention and providing a detailed look at the circumstances surrounding the Constitution’s inception.  Bowen relies heavily on James Madison’s notes since they were the most comprehensive, but also incorporates the notes and other writings of other Founding Fathers.  The picture painted is thorough, deep, and intricate.  The account focuses on the major arguments and compromises, which help show how the birth of the Constitution was a miracle.  Many delegates wanted nothing to do with a federal government, some leaving early or protesting every vote.  Slavery was famously a contentious issue.  The nature of the executive branch and whether or not the legislative branch should be mono- or bicameral were fought over tenaciously by men who held deep-rooted positions based on experience or strong philosophical convictions.  America itself, a newborn nation only eleven years old at the time of the convention, was already rapidly changing with internal and external forces influencing it course.  Finally, once the Constitution was drafted, there was still a high chance of failure since the document had to be ratified, and there were still many convention delegates as well as everyday citizens who were strongly opposed to what the Constitution proposed.  Ultimately, it was successfully ratified and has stood the test of time.

The book, widely considered a history classic, was very interesting and well worth the read.  It covered all the major issues that presented roadblocks to the adoption of the Constitution as well as the personalities that worked both for and against its enactment.  I thought it was interesting to learn more about some of the lesser-known delegates.  Not all went on to be presidents, vice presidents, or otherwise famous people.  Some, like their idol Washington, simply returned to their farms, estates, and businesses to carry on with their daily lives.  Just like the heroes of the Revolutionary War (some of the convention delegates had fought in the war), many of these men set aside their other duties, some at great sacrifice, to do what was right for the nation.  That example of selflessness is one that makes itself clear over and over again and was a miracle in and of itself.

 

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The Forgotten Founding Father

I don’t know that I can say that I’ve always been interested in languages, but ever since I served a mission in Russia for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and learned Russian, I’ve had an interest in languages.  I took German in junior and high school, but never made any real progress.  In high school, when they started teaching us about accusative and dative cases, my brain lost it.  I remember doing a homework assignment dealing with those and asking my native German-speaking grandmother and my German-speaking father for help and still just having brain cramps.  Learning Russian was also very difficult, but I was able to overcome my problem with cases, and it’s been fun to attempt to keep some of these language skills from earlier in my life up since then.  Learning foreign languages like German and Russian also helped me understand things like English grammar and the etymology of English words a little better.  As a really young kid, I remember a copy of the Merriam-Webster dictionary on our shelf and sometimes asking my mom why we never read “the big, red book.”

The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster’s Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture by Joshua Kendall (ISBN: 978-0425-24545-3) tells about how that “big, red book” came to be thanks to another person who was very interested in words and language.  The book chronicles Webster’s life from boyhood to death, taking a very detailed look at the parts of his life that led to his creation of the famous dictionary, part of Webster’s desire to make America its own unique country.  Somewhat unusual for his day, Webster went to college even though he came from a farmer’s family.  He then pursued a career tied to literature.  He wrote extensively, including many essays, letters, and pamphlets in support of American independence and then in support of a federal republic.  While his writings are not as well known today as those of others like Hamilton, at the time, there were many leading Americans who believed Webster’s efforts were essential parts of swaying public opinion.  Webster initially made his name by publishing a speller, a book that helped schoolchildren learn to read and write.  This book provided him with a foundational income throughout his life.  He also worked as a lawyer, editor, and publisher.  What he realized he loved doing, though, was more similar to the speller: compiling, organizing, and ordering information.  This led to his interest in dictionaries.  He found flaws in extant dictionaries and decided to improve on them by publishing his own.  One motivation he had for this was that he believed a uniquely American language would help create and uphold a uniquely American culture, one that was needed to help the nascent nation maintain its distance from its former imperial overlords and move forward.  While his ideas on government changed over the course of his life, his belief in America did not.  The dictionary took much more time and money than he thought it would, but it was eventually published and created a new standard as well as codifying much of what was then a unique American language with new words expressing the new ideas embodied by the new nation.

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book and found it interesting and informational.  Reading of the American Founding and those who played integral roles in those events is always interesting.  I found some of the discussion of early American literature and the academic scene to be less intriguing, but understand that it helped set the stage for Webster’s work and may be a necessary part of telling his story.  It seemed the author wanted to diagnose Webster with some kind of mental disorder (OCD, autism, etc.), but never really came out and said it, just approached it tangentially.  That constant repetition of that theme was a little distracting.  The dictionary itself is only the last quarter of the book, so there’s a lot of other material to get through, but I thought the case for Webster’s role in America becoming its own entity, separate from Great Britain, was made convincingly.  Those interested in the Revolution and the Founding, not just nerdy linguistic things will find the book of interest.

 

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Democracy in America

I have always appreciated what America’s Founders did.  George Washington, Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Patrick Henry, Nathan Hale, and others were childhood heroes of mine (and remain so today).  They were people that sacrificed much, in some cases their lives, for liberty.  They did so with a lot of uncertainty swirling around them.  They knew they were fighting for the right thing, freedom, but there were so many questions about whether or not the revolution would be won, then whether or not their new country would survive, and whether or not the untried system of government they set up in the U.S. Constitution would work or not.  Would such a government be able to protect the rights of its citizenry?  In other countries, many were anxiously watching to see how the American experiment would turn out.  Many in Great Britain hoped it would fail.  Others watched with hope or out of curiosity.

Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville (ISBN: 978-0-553-21464-2) are the results of the aristocrat’s observations of the fledgling United States.  He and a companion were assigned by the French government to learn about the prison system in the U.S., which they did, but de Tocqueville came home with extensive notes on all aspects of life in America and wrote about the unique American take on democracy, a subject that was always of interest to de Tocqueville.  The book consists of two volumes and does, in fact, cover just about every aspect of American life.  The author’s discussion includes the following non-exhaustive list of topics: socio-economic upward mobility, sense of community, belief in God, history of the American Indians (especially interesting to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since de Tocqueville’s sources point to all the Indian languages coming from one source), the arm of Providence in the American founding, religion as the foundation of morality, the importance of a judiciary that can be recalled (impeached), the inability of a central power (government) to control every aspect of its citizenry’s lives, centralization’s tendency to promote stagnation, government’s purpose being to secure the welfare of the people and not to establish order and regularity, executive authority’s tendency to abuse power, the negatives of re-elecction being a possibility for politicians, the importance of sound men being appointed to the Supreme Court because of the court’s inherent power, the dangers of political parties (de Tocqueville shared this observation with many of America’s Founders), freedom of the press working best when the media is characterized by a wide variety in sources, the role of individualism and how politics work best when one does not look to the government for solutions of one’s problems, government is a necessary evil, laws’ tendency to prevent wealth, the importance of a strong middle class, lawyers’ negative impact on society, how when one loses one’s religion, one tends to try to take it from others, the pursuit of happiness, the importance of common foundations for society and community to exist, and the relative importance of freedom relative to the opinion of others. 

This book is often touted as being must-read stuff for political scientists, historians, and those interested in early American politics or history.  It lived up to its billing and, in my view, more.  This edition that I read is a mass-market paperback, so tiny print and over 1,000 pages.  It never felt like slogging through even with the old-fashioned language and heavy subject matter.  The book was fascinating.  I made a dozen pages of notes with quotations from the book.  As mentioned above, it touched on just about every aspect of American political life and made a few trips off to the side to talk about some of the social aspects of America, too.  What was particularly interesting was the book’s relevance to today.  The Founders live large in American life not only because they founded a country, but because that country remains today, having withstood almost 250 years, which isn’t too bad for an experiment.  It helps that the experiment was divinely inspired, but it’s not too shabby, nonetheless.  The book’s relevance is heightened because of the adroit commentary provided by de Tocqueville.  It’s not just observations, but also analysis.  I noticed that I didn’t always agree with the analysis provided, but I usually did.  De Tocqueville’s analysis more often than not seemed to agree with a more traditional American approach to government: small, local, by and for the people, and based on a belief in God.  Maybe it was easier for him to see since he wasn’t an American and had less of a stake in it, but de Tocqueville noted on a few occasions in the book that he thought much of the American governmental experiment would be wise to apply elsewhere, even in spite of his self-described Leftist beliefs.  We today would be wise to heed such advice.

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The Original Argument

Politics and history seem to have always interested me.  I’m not sure when or how that interest began.  My guess is that it has something to do with reading the newspaper as a kid.  To be honest, the comics were the main draw, back when they had two full pages and each strip was printed at a size that didn’t require a magnifying glass to read the print.  Classics like Calvin and Hobbes and the Far Side are what I cut my teeth on.  To get there, though, since they were in the C section of the Deseret News, one had to work one’s way through the national, state, and local news, including the editorial pages.  I read a lot of the stories.  I am sure that I also heard my parents discussing elections and politics.  We had this Dodge minivan as a kid, and I usually sat on the middle seat behind the driver.  Back in the day when rear seats only had a lap belt, though, I would often extend it pretty much as far as it would go so I could sit on the edge of the seat, thereby having my head right up with the front seats, where I could hear my parents’ discussions.  I learned a lot and probably said plenty of dumb things (and now think that those conversations and my parents’ willingness to let me be a fly on the wall are something I could learn from as my own kids get to those same ages).  As for history, it has really just been inherently interesting, but things like war, exploration, and rebellion capture the mind of a young boy.  It was always easy to put myself in the place of the famous patriots fighting the British or as a Union supporter and an abolitionist.  Reading the news and wanting to understand politics showed me early on how history is necessary to understanding the situations we face today.

In The Original Argument: The Federalists’ Case for the Constitution, Adapted for the 21st Century by Glenn Beck with Joshua Charles (ISBN: 978-1-4516-5061-7), an attempt is made at making history more accessible to the modern reader.  The book is essentially a translation of the majority of the famous Federalist Papers from the archaic language of the XVIII century to more en vogue English.  It’s still very high-level stuff, but it is simplified.  A good comparison might be a King James Bible and a New English Bible.  Glenn Beck has inserted some explanatory material at the beginning of each section (the papers are not presented chronologically, but in groups based on their major theme(s)) and in an infobox-like page for each paper.  The Federalist Papers were written, mostly by Alexander Hamilton, but also by James Madison and John Jay, in an effort to support the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, which provided for a stronger central (federal) government than what the Articles of Confederation had.  They are considered to be invaluable because of the insight they provide into just what the Founding Fathers thought when they wrote the Constitution. 

The book was a great read, although not something that was necessarily easy to get through.  The reader’s brain really must be fully engaged to get through the argumentation of the concepts that were so basic to America’s beginnings.  It’s really a book that one studies more than simply reads.  The commentary was interesting, but, for me, quite secondary to actual text of the papers.  I checked on a few occasions how closely what I was reading aligned with the originals, and it seemed to be good, but there is no way I can guarantee that for the entire, rather thick, book.  I thought the principles behind the Constitution were brilliantly argued.  As I read, there were a couple instances where I didn’t think I agreed, but there were plenty of those for the people in the U.S. at the time, so I am really no different.  Many of those who were in favor of the Constitution had reservations, but they recognized that it was as close as it was going to get to being perfect and did provide a solid, inspired foundation for our country.  In the vast majority of cases, I agreed with the arguments.  It was interesting to note, though, how different the Founding Fathers’ vision of government was from what we have now.  The federal government’s roles and powers were severely limited.  National-level bureaucracies like the Department of Education, the Social Security Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency were not part of the plan.  The Founders abhorred taxes.  They recognized them as a necessary evil to pay for the recognized powers of the government, but otherwise they hated taxes.  They were religious men, who recognized the hand of God in our affairs (and those few who weren’t had no problem with those who were expressing those views and living according to their consciouses, even in the public arena).  They valued the rights of local governments.  Most people at that time saw themselves as citizens of their states first and citizens of America second.  That local government was perceived, rightfully so, as more responsive to the voters, so the Founders saw that as where more governmental powers should be.  It was all written in plain English, and even though these kinds of updated-language books really just make me want to go back to the originals, I thought the book provided a very clear idea of the way the writers of the Constitution thought.  Were people in better tune with these ideas from history, I think, some of today’s political questions might not be so big and today’s politically driven contention might not be so intense.

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Visions of Freedom

Growing up as a Mormon in Utah, especially back before the advent of what are often called in Mormon culture “small temples,” the Salt Lake Temple reigns supreme.  It is photographed endlessly.  It is the crown jewel of Temple Square even though most visitors cannot enter it.  It is the subject of both the state’s and the Church’s history and the stories that involve the Salt Lake Temple intertwine the two.  As a result of that situation, some of the state’s other temples are a bit lesser known to the general populace, myself included.  The fact that I always have to stop and think and remind myself that the St. George Temple was the Church’s third temple, not the Salt Lake Temple, proves that point.  I first heard, from my parents during a visit to Southern Utah as a kid, that the Founding Fathers appeared to President Wilford Woodruff in the St. George Temple.  The story was amazing and one I always remembered.

Visions of Freedom: Wilford Woodruff and the Signers of the Declaration of Independence by Michael de Groote and Ronald L. Fox (ISBN: 978-1-60861-227-7) is a book about Wilford Woodruff’s visions (he had two of them on this subject) and the men that appeared to him.  The first part of the book discusses the history behind modern vicarious ordinances in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (anciently, the Bible contains one passage discussing baptism for the dead, and scholarly literature discusses a few others).  The next major theme of the book is how Wilford Woodruff’s preaching about his visions and the work he did in the St. George Temple for the men who appeared to him, as well as for some other famous people throughout history, changed, to a significant degree, the Mormon outlook on work for the dead in the temple.  Before President Woodruff’s visions, the vast majority of temple work was done only for ancestors or very close friends.  What that meant was that once a person had traced his genealogy as far as he could, he didn’t have much of a reason to attend the temple.  President Woodruff’s work for the Founding Fathers and others taught that temple work was necessary for all who had ever lived, which also gave faithful saints a reason to come to the temple again and again.  The majority of the book, though, consists of short biographies of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.  Each signer gets at least one page, although most have more than that.  There are some appendices that discuss the actual temple work and various accounts of President Woodruff’s visions.

I am not normally attracted to reading about Church history.  The history of the United States fascinates me.  I’m sure this overlap helped this book be of interest, but I think it had more to do with the fact that the story was one that was of interest to me as a kid.  I found the discussion of baptisms for the dead in the early Church quite intriguing.  What I missed in the discussion of Wilford Woodruff’s dream was the actual sermons in which he talked about it.  I found them, later, in the appendices.  I thought that was an unnatural place for them.  They should’ve been front and center.  Finally, the biographies were interesting.  They were just snippets and, usually, not very long, providing highlights of government service and the thoughts of other Founding Fathers on the person in question.  I enjoyed learning about how they came to be involved in the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  Many of them were what would be called “flip-floppers” in today’s toxic political environment (although maybe not necessarily since that term, at its purest, refers to those who change positions for political expediency, not because of any deeply held personal belief).  Many were British supporters until things just got too out of hand (it was almost always taxes that bothered them, but property rights and religion played a role, too).  The wide cross section of society was interesting, too.  Most of the signers were from the upper or upper middle class.  Not all, though.  There were guys who had worked their way up from being the apprentices of tradesmen to being judges.  There were merchants, clergymen, lawyers, and others.  What they had in common was a desire for themselves and their fellow countrymen to be free.  The book typically pointed out when one of the signers owned slaves or not.  This is a fascination that modern history has, but I thought it was dealt with admirably by the authors, who noted, at the end, that, unfortunately, many of our Founding Fathers were slave owners, but that was a burning issue then, and most of those who owned slaves struggled with it, later freeing some or all of their slaves or helping to write laws that hampered the slave trade in the U.S., but the important thing was that the founding documents (many signed not just the Declaration, but the Constitution as well) made it possible to later eliminate slavery in America.  Ultimately, that’s why they came to President Woodruff: they wanted to be free, free from spiritual prison in the afterlife.  It was an interesting historical and theological read that made me think about my amazing national heritage as well as my testimony in a loving God that has provided a way for all men to return to him and experience salvation.

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George Washington's Sacred Fire

In about first grade or so, every kid in America learns that George Washington was the first president of the United States of America, is on the $1.00 bill and the quarter, and "could never tell a lie."  Later, by about fifth grade or so, most American kids are being told by the same schools that George Washington was a backwards slave owning white man that was something or other called a deist, which is typically presented to mean something akin to atheist, and that the cherry tree story was a lie.  I guess it is always somewhat inconsistent to make broad generalizations, but for the 90–100 kids in fifth grade at the same school I was in for fifth grade, the above story is true, and I can't help but assume it holds for many, many others.  That early attempt at indoctrination didn't totally grab hold of me, and I always thought George Washington most definitely deserved his place on Mt. Rushmore as one of the greatest presidents in American history.  For me, he was a man most daring and intrepid as he led the troops across the Delaware River to surprise the British-allied Hessian forces in New Jersey.  He was also an incredibly humble and grounded man who should figure larger in our modern-day politicians' worldviews: he refused to become king and wanted nothing more than to return to his family and estate at Mt. Vernon.  Finally, Washington was a great spiritual leader.  His prayer at Valley Forge was always truly inspiring and reminded me of great leaders in ancient times such as Helaman and Captain Moroni.

In his very thoroughly researched work, George Washington's Sacred Fire (ISBN: 978-0-9786052-6-8), Peter A. Lillback (with Jerry Newcombe), attacks the revisionist history of my fifth grade class.  The book is a very careful examination of the case that has been made and widely accepted regarding Washington's deism.  Lillback explains the arguments that writers, including a Paul Boller that seems to have written the standard in Washington religion-related books up to this point, have used to cast our founding father as a deist.  He then picks those arguments apart one by one.  He does this largely based on Washington's own words.  He claims that this concept has received the short end of the stick throughout time.  One prominent example is that it is often claimed Washington never or almost never used the name of Deity.  Lillback found, after carefully combing through everything Washington ever wrote, that he not only used the name of Jesus Christ, he used hundreds upon hundreds of other names and titles for God, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.  Similar research and proof were conducted and presented regarding other arguments against Washington being a Christian including topics as varied as communion, service attendance, other religiously-motivated behavior, knowledge of the Bible, and library holdings (Washington collected, signed, and sometimes commented on religious books, including compendiums of sermons).  Lillback carefully establishes that Washington communed, attended services and participated in his church community, knew the Bible inside and out, owned many Christian books (and no deist ones), and, arguably most importantly, lived a Christian life.  That final bit is important, because even though Lillback amply proves through Washington's own words (the main text of the book is over 700 pages; the appendices, including hundreds of excerpts from Washington's written prayers or communications where he indicates he is praying, are a couple hundred more), one must always remember with Washington, it was "deeds, not words."

I enjoyed the book immensely.  (As a short aside before explaining that in a little more detail, the book didn't always flow as easily as I might've liked, there were a distracting number of typos, and there were a couple sections that seemed slightly redundant.)  I think I would've enjoyed even if it had not satisfied me with regard to Washington's Christianity.  First, truly understanding the beliefs and positions of the founding fathers helps us think about and understand the way we should look at government today.  Government based on Christian principles and executed to encourage not just a Christian lifestyle, but a fully Christian life and faith, is quite a bit different from what many claim the founders wanted and what the government should be doing.  Second, the man was simply amazing!  He was one of the rare men who practice what they preach, and of said preaching do very little.  While Lillback admits that the cherry tree story is hard to verify (he, though, does not discount it completely), Washington did not lie.  Washington was the humble man I learned about in kindergarten.  He was a great general, a wonderful statesman, and a moral giant.  I found myself over and over noting how important it was to be more like Washington in my everyday life.  He was known to have a terrible temper, but very few people knew that because of his incredible self-control.  That talent was present in other aspects of his personality, too.  Washington understood morality and its bearing on the kind of people and the kind of society we create.  Washington always strove to forgive and to improve himself so he, too, could be forgiven.  Most often, he succeeded.  He was thrifty and abhorred debt.  He was fair, positive, and worked hard to bring others up.  He was a man of prayer who knew where to look for answers he couldn't find on his own.  He knew Whom to thank for any and all answers.  While the book set out to explain Washington's Christianity and succeeded, it also ended up inspiring.

This work, including all text, photographs, and other original work, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 3.0 License and is copyrighted © MMXI John Pruess.