Hi everyone! I love late winter when springs renewal is just around the corner. New beginnings. Hopefully, my new beginning will occur this month. I'm looking forward to it. Yikes, Eckhart Tolle is watching me.....oh well , it will be new and exciting when it happpens. I haven't posted for a while. I have been reading some. Took a break from my "revolutionary war" quest to read the Stieg Larson triology. The first and third book were good, had to trudge thru the second. Got to really pull for Liz Salander thru the series. Went back to my RW quest and read a book on Lafayette..a great story..a love story..when chivalry still mattered. Onto "George Washington", by Ron Chernow. Followed by "James Madison" by Gary Wills. Next came "Tempest at Dawn" by James Best. This was an unusal read. The author took the notes James Madison took at the original Constitutional Convention and wrote a story around them. Interesting read. One of the main characters besides Madison himself was Roger Sherman. He was the mayor to Hartfort Connecticutt in 1783. Most of the story line is around him. He happens to be the driving force behind the Connecticutt Compromise, giving the smaller states equal representation by establishing the Senate. Each state whether large or small gets two senator's. The cast of characters included all of the constitutional convention members. It is amazing how the issue of slavery was one of the top issues of the day and of course this issue would not be settled until 1865 in Lincoln's day. Actually, thinking about it, it wasn't truely settled until the 1960's when civil rights legislation was passed. This is one of the reason, the main reason, I have been reading this history. I needed an answer as to why our founding fathers did not include the slavery issue into the Constitution. The Declaration of Independance" does say "all men are created equal"..".endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights". The Constitution preamble includes; "establish justice" and "secure the blessing of liberty". What I have come away with is that when the founding father's were born, each were born into families that had slaves. George Washington...who truly was the "real" man of the his time, owned about a hundred slaves. He knew that institution was certainly going to die..in due time. All of his RW aids, Hamilton, Lafayette, and Lauren's all distasted slavery. I'm not condoning the founding fathers slave ownership, yet I understand why. The union of the states certainly would not have been possible if the slavery issue were on the table. Southern states would not have participated. At this exact time the states were truly vulnerable to foreign interests. We did not have a Navy, not one warship. ( George Washington did have 5 ships built by a Pennsylvania quaker during his presidency; these ships would be crucial during the war of 1812. One still exists today the US Constitution.) The British Navy of over a 100 war ships controlled the seas. The Spanish and French had to allie to match this war power. We could not have fended off the French, Spanish, British, Russian..and more. I continued reading with "The Chronicles of the American Revoultion." by Joseph Wreen. Aha. This book gives a much broader picture of the events of this time. The RW was but a small part of a world war where foreign interests could have cared less about "liberty" in America. They were all interested in sugar, cotton, spices and other goods. Political strategy of foreign players was first to secure their interests and not what was particularly good for the colonies. Yes, the French came to our aid yet the French government sent military officers to coerce the colonies interests...an inside coup of sorts. GW didn't let it happen. Continuing my reading I took on another book called "The Big Burn". Its about the fire of 1910 the burned from Spokane across the Idaho panhandle, all the way to Missoula ,Montana. It chronicles the beginning of the National Parks system and of the first forest rangers. Of course key players are Teddy Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, and John Muir. It tracks the lives of several people thru the Big Burn. I enjoyed it. Back to the RW time period. Melanie and I agreed to read the Federalist Papers together. I've already started. Will have to reread a bunch...its difficult to read. Wow! I originally logged on to share some pictures , so now I will. Craig.
