Download or read book George Mason Forgotten Founder written by Jeff Broadwater and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2009-11-13 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George Mason (1725-92) is often omitted from the small circle of founding fathers celebrated today, but in his service to America he was, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, "of the first order of greatness." Jeff Broadwater provides a comprehensive account of Mason's life at the center of the momentous events of eighteenth-century America. Mason played a key role in the Stamp Act Crisis, the American Revolution, and the drafting of Virginia's first state constitution. He is perhaps best known as author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, a document often hailed as the model for the Bill of Rights. As a Virginia delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Mason influenced the emerging Constitution on point after point. Yet when he was rebuffed in his efforts to add a bill of rights and concluded the document did too little to protect the interests of the South, he refused to sign the final draft. Broadwater argues that Mason's recalcitrance was not the act of an isolated dissenter; rather, it emerged from the ideology of the American Revolution. Mason's concerns about the abuse of political power, Broadwater shows, went to the essence of the American experience.
Download or read book George Mason written by William G. Hyland and published by Regnery History. This book was released on 2019-05-07 with total page 527 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George Mason was a short, bookish man who was a friend and neighbor of athletic, broad-shouldered George Washington. Unlike Washington, Mason has been virtually forgotton by history. But this new biography of forgotten patriot George Mason makes a convincing case that Mason belongs in the pantheon of honored Founding Fathers. Trained in the law, Mason was also a farmer, philosopher, botanist, and musician. He was one of the architects of the Declaration of Independence, an author of the Bill of Rights, and one of the strongest proponents of religious liberty in American history. In fact, both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison may have been given undue credit for George Mason's own contributions to American democracy.
Download or read book George Mason written by Robert A. Rutland and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 1980-04-01 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George Mason of Gunston Hall was a scholarly craftsman of government during America's crucial formative years. His Virginia Declaration of Rights provided a sense of purpose and direction to the rebellious colonies, and his vigorous insistence on the protection of personal liberties in the Constitution is reflected in the document's first ten amendments, the Bill of Rights. Fellow Virginian Thomas Jefferson said of Mason that he "was of the first order of greatness." Few Americans who have served their country, however, have met with as little recognition. Essentially a private person who cared nothing for political prestige, Mason had been overshadowed by the other founders of the Republic -- although most of them had turned to him for advice and direction. In a concise, cogently written biography, a distinguished historian restores the "reluctant statesman" to his proper place in the pantheon of America's greatest citizens.
Download or read book George Mason and George Washington written by Gerard W. Gawalt and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George Mason and George Washington: The Power of Principle is a unique book combining narrative and primary documents to reveal the complex intertwined lives of George Mason and George Washington. Neighboring planters in northern Virginia, Mason and Washington could not have been more dissimilar in appearance and personality. Yet they forged a firm friendship and powerful political partnership. Principle, pride, friendship and courage carried them through the firestorms of the American Revolution. When it became clear in the aftermath of the revolutionary war that the United States needed a new constitution, both men led the way. Their partnership divided on the selection and application of principles to the writing of the new federal constitution and the formation of the new federal government. Ultimately, Mason refused to sign the new constitution or join and support the new federal government. Washington refused to accept his actions. And so their friendship and political partnership floundered on the rocks of principle and pride. All of the personal correspondence and collaborative documents of the two men are also in this book.
Download or read book Never Caught the Story of Ona Judge written by Erica Armstrong Dunbar and published by Aladdin. This book was released on 2020-08-18 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A brilliant work of US history.” —School Library Journal (starred review) “Gripping.” —BCCB (starred review) “Accessible…Necessary.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) A National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction, Never Caught is the eye-opening narrative of Ona Judge, George and Martha Washington’s runaway slave, who risked everything for a better life—now available as a young reader’s edition! In this incredible narrative, Erica Armstrong Dunbar reveals a fascinating and heartbreaking behind-the-scenes look at the Washingtons when they were the First Family—and an in-depth look at their slave, Ona Judge, who dared to escape from one of the nation’s Founding Fathers. Born into a life of slavery, Ona Judge eventually grew up to be George and Martha Washington’s “favored” dower slave. When she was told that she was going to be given as a wedding gift to Martha Washington’s granddaughter, Ona made the bold and brave decision to flee to the north, where she would be a fugitive. From her childhood, to her time with the Washingtons and living in the slave quarters, to her escape to New Hampshire, Erica Armstrong Dunbar, along with Kathleen Van Cleve, shares an intimate glimpse into the life of a little-known, but powerful figure in history, and her brave journey as she fled the most powerful couple in the country.
Download or read book The Life and Times of General Andrew Pickens written by Rod Andrew Jr. and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2017-02-23 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Andrew Pickens (1739–1817), the hard-fighting South Carolina militia commander of the American Revolution, was the hero of many victories against British and Loyalist forces. In this book, Rod Andrew Jr. offers an authoritative and comprehensive biography of Pickens the man, the general, the planter, and the diplomat. Andrew vividly depicts Pickens as he founds churches, acquires slaves, joins the Patriot cause, and struggles over Indian territorial boundaries on the southern frontier. Combining insights from military and social history, Andrew argues that while Pickens's actions consistently reaffirmed the authority of white men, he was also determined to help found the new republic based on broader principles of morality and justice. After the war, Pickens sought a peaceful and just relationship between his country and the southern Native American tribes and wrestled internally with the issue of slavery. Andrew suggests that Pickens's rise to prominence, his stern character, and his sense of duty highlight the egalitarian ideals of his generation as well as its moral shortcomings--all of which still influence Americans' understanding of themselves.
Download or read book The Republican Workers Party written by F.H. Buckley and published by Encounter Books. This book was released on 2018-09-04 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Republican Workers Party is the future of American presidential politics, says F.H. Buckley. It’s a socially conservative but economically middle-of-the-road party, offering a way back to the land of opportunity where our children will have it better than we did. That is the American Dream, and Donald Trump’s promise to restore it is what brought him to the White House. As a Trump speechwriter and key transition advisor, Buckley has an inside view on what “Make America Great Again” really means—how it represents a program to restore the American Dream as well as a defense of nationalism rooted in a sense of fraternity with all fellow Americans. The call to greatness was a repudiation of the cruel hypocrisy of America’s New Class, the dominant 10 percent who deploy the language of egalitarianism while jealously guarding their own privileges. The New Class talks like Jacobins but behaves like Bourbons. Its members claim to support equality and social mobility, but resist the very policies that promote mobility and equality: a choice of good schools for everyone’s children, not just the well-to-do; a sensible immigration policy that doesn’t benefit elites at the expense of average Americans; and regulatory reform to trim back the impediments that frustrate competitive enterprise. It isn’t complicated. What’s been lacking is political will. This book pulls no punches in describing how liberals and conservatives had become indifferent to those left behind. On the left, identity politics offered an excuse to hate an ideological enemy. On the right, a tired conservatism defined itself through policies that callously ignored the welfare of the bottom 90 percent. Trump told us that both Left and Right had betrayed the American people, and his Republican Workers Party promises to renew the American Dream. Buckley shows how it will do so.
Download or read book Roger Sherman and the Creation of the American Republic written by Mark David Hall and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of leading figures of his day, Roger Sherman was a member of the five-man committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence and an influential delegate at the Constitutional Convention. As a Representative and Senator in the new republic, he had a hand in determining the proper scope of the national government's power as well as drafting the Bill of Rights. In Roger Sherman and the Creation of the American Republic, Mark David Hall explores Sherman's political theory and shows how it informed his many contributions to America's founding. A close examination of Sherman's religious beliefs provides insight into how those beliefs informed his political actions. Hall shows that Sherman, like many founders, was influenced by Calvinist political thought, a tradition that played a role in the founding generation's opposition to Great Britain, and led them to develop political institutions designed to prevent corruption, promote virtue, and protect rights. Contrary to oft-repeated assertions that the founders advocated a strictly secular policy, Hall argues persuasively that most founders believed Christianity should play an important role in the new American republic.
Download or read book Martha Jefferson Randolph Daughter of Monticello written by Cynthia A. Kierner and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2012-05-14 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the oldest and favorite daughter of Thomas Jefferson, Martha "Patsy" Jefferson Randolph (1772-1836) was extremely well educated, traveled in the circles of presidents and aristocrats, and was known on two continents for her particular grace and sincerity. Yet, as mistress of a large household, she was not spared the tedium, frustration, and great sorrow that most women of her time faced. Though Patsy's name is familiar because of her famous father, Cynthia Kierner is the first historian to place Patsy at the center of her own story, taking readers into the largely ignored private spaces of the founding era. Randolph's life story reveals the privileges and limits of celebrity and shows that women were able to venture beyond their domestic roles in surprising ways. Following her mother's death, Patsy lived in Paris with her father and later served as hostess at the President's House and at Monticello. Her marriage to Thomas Mann Randolph, a member of Congress and governor of Virginia, was often troubled. She and her eleven children lived mostly at Monticello, greeting famous guests and debating issues ranging from a woman's place to slavery, religion, and democracy. And later, after her family's financial ruin, Patsy became a fixture in Washington society during Andrew Jackson's presidency. In this extraordinary biography, Kierner offers a unique look at American history from the perspective of this intelligent, tactfully assertive woman.
Download or read book Founding Fathers Secret Societies written by Robert Hieronimus and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2005-12-28 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of the influence of secret societies on the formative documents and symbols of the United States • Reveals the Founding Fathers’ spiritual vision for America as encoded in the Great Seal • Traces the influence of the Iroquois League of Nations upon the Constitution • Exposes the deep connections the Founding Fathers had with the Freemasons and other secret societies All children growing up in America learn who the Founding Fathers were. Most, however, never learn of the founders’ connections to the Freemasons, the Rosicrucians, and other esoteric orders. In Founding Fathers, Secret Societies Robert Hieronimus investigates these important connections and how their influence can be traced throughout our most significant national documents and symbols, especially the Great Seal. He reveals in detail how the reverse of the Great Seal--which appears on the back of the one-dollar bill--is a blueprint that conveys the secret destiny of America. By understanding the kabbalistic meaning of the Great Seal’s reverse, he shows how our current era presents unique opportunities for the fulfillment of our Founding Fathers’ spiritual vision.
Download or read book Written Out of History written by Mike Lee and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-05-30 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! Some of America’s most important founders have been erased from our history books. In the fight to restore the true meaning of the Constitution, their stories must be told. In the earliest days of our nation, a handful of unsung heroes—including women, slaves, and an Iroquois chief—made crucial contributions to our republic. They pioneered the ideas that led to the Bill of Rights, the separation of powers, and the abolition of slavery. Yet, their faces haven’t been printed on our currency or carved into any cliffs. Instead, they were marginalized, silenced, or forgotten—sometimes by an accident of history, sometimes by design. In the thick of the debates over the Constitution, some founders warned about the dangers of giving too much power to the central government. Though they did not win every battle, these anti-Federalists and their allies managed to insert a system of checks and balances to protect the people from an intrusive federal government. Other forgotten figures were not politicians themselves, but by their thoughts and actions influenced America’s story. Yet successive generations have forgotten their message, leading to the creation of a vast federal bureaucracy that our founders would not recognize and did not want. Senator Mike Lee, one of the most consistent and impassioned opponents of an abusive federal government, tells the story of liberty’s forgotten heroes. In these pages, you’ll learn the true stories of founders such as... • Aaron Burr who is depicted in the popular musical Hamilton and in history books as a villain, but in reality was a far more complicated figure who fought the abuse of executive power. • Mercy Otis Warren, one of the most prominent female writers in the Revolution and a protégé of John Adams, who engaged in vigorous debates against the encroachment of federal power and ultimately broke with Adams over her fears of the Constitution. • Canasatego, an Iroquois chief whose words taught Benjamin Franklin the basic principles behind the separation of powers. The popular movement that swept Republicans into power in 2010 and 2016 was led by Americans who rediscovered the majesty of the Constitution and knew the stories of Hamilton, Madison, and Washington. But we should also know the names of the contrarians who argued against them and who have been written out of history. If we knew of the heroic fights of these lost founders, we’d never have ended up with a government too big, too powerful, and too unresponsive to its citizens. The good news is that it’s not too late to rememberand to return to our first principles. Restoring the memory of these lost individuals will strike a crippling blow against big government.
Download or read book Long Journey with Mr Jefferson written by William G. Hyland (Jr.) and published by Potomac Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2013 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fascinating life and work of a preeminent presidential biographer
Download or read book Bernardo de G lvez written by Gonzalo M. Quintero Saravia and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2018-03-23 with total page 617 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although Spain was never a formal ally of the United States during the American Revolution, its entry into the war definitively tipped the balance against Britain. Led by Bernardo de Galvez, supreme commander of the Spanish forces in North America, their military campaigns against British settlements on the Mississippi River—and later against Mobile and Pensacola—were crucial in preventing Britain from concentrating all its North American military and naval forces on the fight against George Washington's Continental army. In this first comprehensive biography of Galvez (1746@–86), Gonzalo M. Quintero Saravia assesses the commander's considerable historical impact and expands our understanding of Spain's contribution to the war. A man of both empire and the Enlightenment, as viceroy of New Spain (1785@–86), Galvez was also pivotal in the design and implementation of Spanish colonial reforms, which included the reorganization of Spain's Northern Frontier that brought peace to the region for the duration of the Spanish presence in North America. Extensively researched through Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. archives, Quintero Saravia's portrait of Galvez reveals him as central to the histories of the Revolution and late eighteenth-century America and offers a reinterpretation of the international factors involved in the American War for Independence.
Download or read book Jefferson Madison and the Making of the Constitution written by Jeff Broadwater and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2019-03-27 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, and James Madison, "Father of the Constitution," were two of the most important Founders of the United States as well as the closest of political allies. Yet historians have often seen a tension between the idealistic rhetoric of the Declaration and the more pedestrian language of the Constitution. Moreover, to some, the adoption of the Constitution represented a repudiation of the democratic values of the Revolution. In this book, Jeff Broadwater explores the evolution of the constitutional thought of these two seminal American figures, from the beginning of the American Revolution through the adoption of the Bill of Rights. In explaining how the two political compatriots could have produced such seemingly dissimilar documents but then come to a common constitutional ground, Broadwater reveals how their collaboration--and their disagreements--influenced the full range of constitutional questions during this early period of the American republic.
Download or read book Patrick Henry written by Jon Kukla and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-07-04 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An authoritative biography of founding father Patrick Henry that restores him to his important place in our history and explains the formative influence on his thought and character of Virginia, where he lived all his life."--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book Founding Gardeners written by Andrea Wulf and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2012-04-03 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bestselling author of The Invention of Nature, a fascinating look at the Founding Fathers like none you've seen before. “Illuminating and engrossing.... The reader relives the first decades of the Republic ... through the words of the statesmen themselves.” —The New York Times Book Review For the Founding Fathers, gardening, agriculture, and botany were elemental passions: a conjoined interest as deeply ingrained in their characters as the battle for liberty and a belief in the greatness of their new nation. Founding Gardeners is an exploration of that obsession, telling the story of the revolutionary generation from the unique perspective of their lives as gardeners, plant hobbyists, and farmers. Acclaimed historian Andrea Wulf describes how George Washington wrote letters to his estate manager even as British warships gathered off Staten Island; how a tour of English gardens renewed Thomas Jefferson’s and John Adams’s faith in their fledgling nation; and why James Madison is the forgotten father of environmentalism. Through these and other stories, Wulf reveals a fresh, nuanced portrait of the men who created our nation.
Download or read book American Cicero written by Bradley J. Birzer and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2014-04-22 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aristocrat. Catholic. Patriot. Founder. Before his death in 1832, Charles Carroll of Carrollton—the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence—was widely regarded as one of the most important Founders. Today, Carroll’s signal contributions to the American Founding are overlooked, but the fascinating new biography American Cicero rescues Carroll from unjust neglect. Drawing on his considerable study of Carroll’s published and unpublished writings, historian Bradley J. Birzer masterfully captures a man of supreme intellect, imagination, integrity, and accomplishment. Born a bastard, Carroll nonetheless became the best educated (and wealthiest) Founder. The Marylander’s insight, Birzer shows, allowed him to recognize the necessity of independence from Great Britain well before most other Founders. Indeed, Carroll’s analysis of the situation in the colonies in the run-up to the Revolution was original and brilliant—yet almost all historians have ignored it. Reflecting his classical and liberal education, the man who would be called “The Last of the Romans” advocated a proper understanding of the American Revolution as deeply rooted in the Western tradition. Carroll even left his mark on the U.S. Constitution despite not assuming his elected position to the Constitutional Convention: by inspiring the creation of the U.S. Senate. American Cicero ably demonstrates how Carroll’s Catholicism was integral to his thought. Oppressed because of his faith—Maryland was the most anti-Catholic of the original thirteen colonies—Carroll became the only Roman Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence and helped legitimize Catholicism in the young American republic. What’s more, Birzer brilliantly reassesses the most controversial aspects of Charles Carroll: his aristocratic position and his critiques of democracy. As Birzer shows, Carroll’s fears of extreme democracy had ancient and noble roots, and his arguments about the dangers of democracy influenced Alexis de Tocqueville’s magisterial work Democracy in America. American Cicero reveals why Founders such as John Adams assumed that Charles Carroll would one day be considered among the greats—and also why history has largely forgotten him.
