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!