My Bookshelf: Washington’s Secret War by Thomas Fleming
Washington’s Secret War: The Hidden History of Valley Forge is the first book I’ve read by Thomas Fleming. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I learned a lot from reading it and found it was more than simply a story about survival during the winter of 1776-1777. Behind that story is the story of the political machinations of men. You had a faction of Congress that believed that a weak federal government was the best course for the states and worked toward this goal behind the scenes. George Washington was seen as a symbol of a strong federal government and because of this Congress worked to weaken his position. Washington found himself fighting a secret war to maintain his position and his army while he fought the public war against the British. I also have to say I was surprised at how Read more…
Lawyers find that the Declaration of Independence was legal
That’s nice to know, isn’t it…235 years after the fact. Also, quite honestly, when you’ve got lawyers talking law, I half expected the decision to be that it wasn’t legal and that the United States still belongs to the British. I ran across this article yesterday and have been thinking about it since then. You’ve got British barristers and American lawyers debating the legality of Declaration of Independence. If the United States had tried to win its freedom in the courts, we would probably still be tied up in appeals. A couple of points hit me in this article: It is assumed that the British were the rightful owners of the country when the Declaration of Independence was written. If the group had found the Declaration of Independence illegal, then there probably would have needed to be a follow-up debate Read more…
Becoming American "citizens" in the Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson was a thinker. He knew that words mean things and he always tried to capture the best word to represent the message the was trying to send. Recently, scientists at the Library of Congress found that in writing his most-famous work, the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson “even in the act of declaring independence from England, had trouble breaking free from monarchial rule,” reported the Associated Press. While drafting the Declaration, Jefferson initially called Americans “subjects.” Then apparently he realized the implications of the word. He was crafting a statement of freedom while at the same time saying the free people were still subject to someone’s rule. He wisely struck the word and chose the more-appropriate “citizens” instead. “It shows the progress of his mind. This was a decisive moment,” James Billington, Librarian of Congress, said. “We recovered a Read more…
We won the Revolutionary War because we’re better shots.
I found this article in American Rifleman and it caught my attention. After the Revolutionary War, it was believed that one of the advantages of the Continental Army was that, on average, Americans were better shots than their British counterpart. That belief held until WWII when it began to come under fire (pun intended). In recent years, the argument against American marksmanship has even taken on a political tone with pro- and anti-Second Amendment advocates trying to make their case. It should also be noted that the American Rifleman is the National Rifle Association’s magazine. It is an accepted fact on both sides of the argument that the musket was an inaccurate weapon, at least compared to today’s weapons. Among the British, it was considered that anyone who could hit a three-foot-wide target from 100 yards one out of Read more…
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