15 Things You Don't Know about the Founding Fathers

Since July has become Founding Father month on the expendablenlightenment blog, why not include a potpourri of Founding Father information? What follows are some things that you may and may not know about the Founding Fathers.

1. Three of the first five Presidents died on July 4. James Monroe died on July 4, 1831, and John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826 - the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
2. James Madison was the shortest President, standing only 5' 4". His nickname was "Jemmy". Washington Irving (American author) described him as "a withered little applejohn".
3. The shortest Inauguration speech was given by George Washington. It was only 133 words.
4. When the Declaration of Independence was signed, the members essentially committed an act of treason. The penalty for such an offense was hanging.
5. The only unanimous vote for a President was for George Washington who won all the electoral college votes.
6. Thomas Jefferson's epitaph reads that he was the father of the Declaration of Independence and that he was the father of the University of Virginia, but it mentions nothing about being President.
7. George Washington was born February 11, 1732, but an act of Parliament switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1751. This act added 11 days to the calendar, so he celebrated his birthday in 1752 on February 22.
8. Duels were common at the time. Most people know that Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel in Weehawken, New Jersey in 1804. What most people don't know is that Philip Hamilton (Alexander's son) died in 1801 at the same place.
9. Gouverneur Morris was once given a bet: walk up to George Washington, slap him on the back, and give him a friendly greeting, and in return he'd receive a dinner. Morris took the bet and did it. Morris later said that he wouldn't do it for a thousand dinners after seeing the cold stare from Washington.
10. Thomas Jefferson died broke. He was known to spend $50 a day on groceries ($900 today) for his entertaining of guests, and his wine bill for his tenure as President came to $11,000 ($198,000 today). Congress gave him $25,000 for his books which started the Library of Congress, and his friends auctioned off some of his land, but it didn't take care of all the debt.
11. Benjamin Franklin died on April 17, 1790, and his last words were: "A dying man can do nothing easy." This was a sarcastic response to his daughter who told him to change positions on his bed to help his breathing.
12. James Madison thought that Congressional pay should be based on the average price of wheat during the previous six years of a congressional session.
13. George Washington didn't like to shake hands with people. While he was President, he would always carry a sword and a hat with him so that he could have one hand resting on the sword and the other carrying a hat, that way he could avoid contact with people. Instead, he would bow to them. John Adams did the same thing, mostly because it had become tradition by that time. Thomas Jefferson ended the short-livedtradition by shaking everyone's hand.
14. When George Washington died, his will said that his slaves should be freed upon the death of his wife Martha. When Martha died, she had no such stipulation in her will.
15. Patrick Henry's wife (Sarah Shelton) was insane. She was kept in an 18th Century version of a straightjacket in their basement. She had access to the best kind of medical care at the time, although that included bloodletting and excorcisms (which was better than that insane asylums where she would have surely died of starvation or disease). She died in 1776 and was buried in an unmarked grave on the family's plantation.

There's 15 facts about the Founding Fathers that may come as a surprise to some. When one studies the Founding Fathers in depth, one learns very quickly that there are two sides of them: the one that most people know which the history books teach, and then there's the other side that most don't know but is usually very different than what the history books say. The group of men referred to as the Founding Fathers was a fascinating group of individuals whose attitudes and political views varied wildly, but in the end their dream of independence bound them in a manner that nothing else could.

Bet you didn't know all that!

Friday Song #3 - David Bowie

"Suffragrette City" - David Bowie, from the album "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars"
Released: 1972

Franklin's Gift to the 20th Century

When people think of Benjamin Franklin, they think many things: inventor, diplomat, writer, founding father, politician, etc. etc. etc. But would you have ever thought he was a philanthropist for the future?

Back in the 1700's, Benjamin Franklin published 'Poor Richard's Almanac' which promoted frugal behavior and a way of life that pushed a cheaper way of living. Charles-Joseph Mathon de la Cour, a French mathematician, published a parody of Franklin's classic almanac, and he called it 'Fortunate Richard'. It was the opposite of Franklin's in just about every way by promoting living beyond one's means. In this parody, Fortunate Richard left some money in his will to be used only after 500 years.

Franklin, being the humorous man that he was, chose to do a similar thing. He left 1000 pounds in British money (over $4000 at the time) to both Boston and to Philadelphia. The rule was that it was to accrue interest for 200 years and to be applied to young men of under 26 to help get their businesses started. About 100 years after his death, each city skimmed a little of the accounts, but let most of the money stay. From 1940-90, the Philadelphia fund was loaned to hundreds of individuals, mostly for their mortgages. The remaining amount (which was about $2,000,000) was given as scholarships to high school students. The Boston fund used some of the funds after 100 years to set up the Franklin Institute of Boston. When the fund matured, the rest of the fund (of the $5,000,000 that had accumulated) was used to support the school.

For someone who was known as a writer, statesman, politician, diplomat, inventor, scientist, etc., who knew he was such a generous fellow?

Bet you didn't know that!

Friday Song #2 - Styx

"Castle Walls" - Styx, released on the album "The Grand Illusion".
Released: 1977

The "Reluctant Republic"

When asked the question "what US states were formerly their own country", few people would know the answer. There were parts of the US that were parts of other countries' territories, but a couple states were actually their own country, sometimes officially and sometimes unofficially. However, there have been three official entities that became states. Some people would guess Hawaii, which was a kingdom, and Texas, which was for a short time its own country. But what is the third?

Believe it or not, the answer is Vermont. The track of land between New Hampshire and New York had been partially claimed by both states. The great folk hero Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys (most known for the capture of Fort Ticonteroga) fought hard to make Vermont an independent land that was separate from New Hampshire and New York. In 1777, delegates met and declared their independence from English land and the colonies that had been established by the English. When they settled on their borders and declared their independence, they also abolished slavery, making them the first colony or state to do so.

The citizens of Vermont fought alongside the other colonies against the British and even considered themselves to be American. The Continental Congress did not recognize Vermont as anything, so any sort of favoritism from the Congress would have had to have been earned by Vermont. Ethan Allen chose to try to speed up the process by announcing that Vermont should join Quebec, which was at that time under British rule. It was an attempt to bluff the Congress into dealing with Vermont as equals. The ploy failed however.

From 1777 to 1791, Vermont was referred to by many names. Today, historians call it the Vermont Republic, but many jokingly refer to it as the "reluctant republic". This is mainly because most citizens didn't want to be an independent entity and actually wanted to be a part of the Union. While it was a republic, Vermont called itself the "State of Vermont" and it had a governor (as opposed to a President or a king). By notes left by some of the founding fathers, it was clear by 1787 that Vermont would be a state soon, but the problem was the process (since no new states had been admitted and there were only the 13 original colonies to draw from).

In 1791, Vermont entered the United States as the 14th state, which would make it the first state added to the new country after the original 13. Since Vermont had already abolished slavery, it ushered in the admittance of Kentucky (a slave state) a short time later which furthered the balance of slave and free states. The Vermont state constitution of 1793 changed very little from the republic version of 1777. But for 14 years, Vermont was its own republic which may surprise a lot of people.

Bet you didn't know that!

Friday Song #1 - Blue Oyster Cult

Since it's Friday the 13th, let's enjoy some Blue Oyster Cult!



"Nosferatu" - Blue Oyster Cult, released on the album "Spectres".
Released: 1977

When Was the White House Named?

There is a story about the White House that says the name came about after it burned in 1814. Supposedly, the White House was made of sandstone and when it was rebuilt and painted white was when the name came about. But is this true? Not at all.

When it was finally decided to have the US capital in a special area of land from Maryland and Virginia, it was also decided that the President should get his own special residence. Construction on the house was completed during John Adams's Presidency. There was no official name for the house at that time, but many people called it the President's House. In 1812, war broke out between the US and England. Washington DC fell to the British in 1814, and the President's House and other government buildings were burned. The President's House was rebuilt and a white oil-based paint was used on the building.

Some have pointed to this as being the proof that the name White House came out after the fire, but that isn't true. As early as 1798, the house had been painted in whitewash to protect it from the elements, so it was already white before this point.

And you might say "Well, it was white, but no one called it the White House until after the fire." This is also not true. 'White House' was a name for it in an unnofficial sense before the fire. In 1811, the former British minister to the US wrote in a letter a reference to the White House, and in 1812, a congressman wrote a reference to the White House.

It is true that the name gained prominence after 1817 when the reconstruction was completed, but the name existed before. The name of the house was more commonly called the Executive Mansion by 1850, and it wasn't until 1901 when Theodore Roosevelt issued an executive order naming it the White House that the name became official. However, the name had been around before the burning of Washington DC.

Bet you didn't know that!

A Moment to Breathe

Phew! What a year so far! So many tidbits of information and so much research! Hope that you expendablenlightenment followers have been hanging in there. This blog takes a lot of time and research and sometimes it isn't easy to find topics. With a world as vast and strange and confusing as the one we live in, the truth is usually much stranger than fiction, which is one of my goals to share. I hope to hear from you on topics you are interested in or want to know more about.

The amount of research has been overwhelming at times and in order to maintain an average of two posts a week, I have been getting behind sometimes on keeping that pace. In order to keep things fresh and interesting, I will cut back on the heavy research that I've been doing to just one posting a week, which will be posted on Mondays or Tuesdays. On either Thursdays or Fridays will be a new feature that I'll call Friday Videos. Friday Videos will be all over the place. Sometimes they will be Friday Songs (a Friday Song is a song that is usually older but to really qualify, it has to be a song that not many know. It's a way to share music that's older but from all different genres), goofy videos, and sometimes interesting things. You never know what'll show up on a Friday Video, perfect for the little known facts, trivia, and information that have been provided by the expendablenlightenment blog from Metro Business College.

The school is on vacation and in order for me to catch my breath, so will the blog. Look forward to more unusual information that is at times beyond belief and at others just fascinating or bizarre. The Friday Video will make its debut here in July.

Stay tuned for more expendablenlightenment!