Jean
This is a great blog that takes all that truth our Founding Fathers had and applies it to our everyday lives. It's fun, too!
Blog Detail
Meet the Founding Fathers
http://meetthefounders.blogspot.com
This blog explores the little-known facts and aspects of the Founding Fathers, brings to light those who are not as well-known, and brings those somber wig-sporting fellows back to life.
- Added on: Aug 31st, 2008
- Country: United States
- Language: English
- Author: HerculesMulligan
- Listed in: Political History History
- Tags: quotes biography american revolution american history founding fathers
Recent Posts
FFQF: George Mason on Virtue
And we all know who George Mason is! He was that guy who ... uh ... yeah. We didn't test on him in our high school history class. So, here is only a brief introduction to this very essential Founding Father from Virginia.One of his outstanding achiev...
FFQF: John Adams on Virtue
Today's selection on virtue comes from John Adams, who perhaps needs no introduction among the Founding Fathers, except for my prefatory remark that he was more essential to the Founding than several other Founders we seem to know more about and emul...
FFQF: Patrick Henry on Virtue
Today's Founder's quote on VIRTUE comes from Patrick Henry, the great orator of the American Revolution. He is largely remembered for stirring up the zeal of patriots throughout the nation by his impassioned speeches. It was Patrick Henry's action th...
FFQF: George Washington on Virtue
Today is the first Friday of October! (My, how time flies!) Today also marks the beginning of our new theme for Founding Fathers' Quote Friday! Today's theme is VIRTUE. You may not recognize that word from the last TV show you watched, but if you rea...
FFQF: Samuel Adams (and Dan Webster) on Liberty
Since today's post is the last submission on the theme of LIBERTY (at least for this month), I would like to present some of the best, with a very brief challenge. (Please wish me well as I attempt to make this brief but satisfactory!)Today we will h...
FFQF: Alexander Hamilton on Liberty
Again, we take up the discussion of LIBERTY.The following quotation comes from Alexander Hamilton's powerful pamphlet, The Farmer Refuted (1775). It is one of his most fascinating pieces, and I have often called it an expanded form of the Declaration...
Comments & Reviews
This blog is currently rated a 4.86 out of a possible 5 based on 7 comments.
Kevin
Very interesting blog! As a political history buff, your blog is definitely something I enjoy reading and the great layout definitely doesn't hurt.
HerculesMulligan
Thank you all for your kind reviews. I appreciate them very much.
Ray,
It's nice to meet you. I am glad to hear that you dug a little deeper, and that you found some terrific material.
I am also glad to hear that you plan to write a book. Let me know how it turns out! I too am thinking of writing a book as a result of my own personal research.
I don't mind long comments. It was a pleasure to hear your story.
Thanks for your kind review.
Mrs. Mecomber
A jewel of a site! It draws from primary sources- the founding fathers themselves- to educate and promote the seemingly lost ideals and thoughts of American history and her founders. The site makes an excellent resources for students as well as a very enjoyable read.
Ray
Hello:
I have just discovered your site and wanted to let you know that I appreciate your reasoned response to "Anonymous". I have long been interested in the religious beliefs of the FF and am contemplating writing a book on the subject (no real expectation that such an undertaking would ever be published, tho) because I am weary of the numerous posters to the Internet citing the same 4 or 5 Founders as indicative of what ALL FF believed religiously.
I was amazed to see some time ago the statement that "All of the Founding Fathers were either atheists or deists." That statement seemed to contradict everything I thought I knew about the founding of our country and the men who founded it. I was further amazed in reading the comments about that statement to find that many readers agreed with the premise that the FF were atheist and deists.
Those posting a contrary viewpoint--that the FF were Christians, that they followed their Judaic-Christian upbringing in communicating their philosophies, etc.--did not seem to have much definitive data to support their assertions--just their emotions and "feelings". And, unfortunately, they were ridiculed for their beliefs and opinions.
I thought to myself, "Well, maybe I am wrong. Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about." And so I set out to research the religious beliefs of the FF.
I didn't use the 4 or 5 FF always quoted--Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Paine, etc--but I compiled a list of over 200 men who could be classified as FF. 4 or 5 men, no matter how great or talented, did not start or sustain this country. My list included the Signers of the DOI (56), the Signers of the Constitution (39), the Signers of the Articles of Confederation (48), Governors, Military Leaders, Legislators, Judges, Editors, Educators, and the Clergy. Maybe not an all-inclusive list but surely more representative of ALL FF than 4 or 5 of that group.
I have completed the research on the 56 Signers of the DOI and have a draft of what would be the first section of a book. I can speak with some confidence on the religious beliefs of 46 of the 56. There is simply not enough historical data for me to say with assurance what those other 10believed religiously.
And neither can anyone else based on the research material I read. No one can say definitively and with integrity that these 10 men were atheists or deists and back up that assertion with historical attribution. And so the premise that ALL of the FF were atheists or deists fails just on the basis of these 10--we don't know WHAT they were and shouldn't speculate.
But there is a LOT of information on the other 46, enough to say that there was really only 1 deist in the group--Franklin--and NO atheists in the remaining 45. There were no obituaries, no eulogies, no wills, no letters, no speeches, no first-hand accounts by people who knew these 45, no written claims of atheism by the individuals themselves--nothing in the written record that consistently states with attribution that ANY of these 45 were atheists. And so, the proposition that ALL of the FF were deists and atheists fails again.
Well, what were they if not deists or atheists ? If you go man-by-man through the entire 45 you will find a mixture of Christians, Unitarians, and men whose historical record left us enough data to say that they were NOT deists but not enough data to further classify them as Christian, Unitarian, etc. (For the most part their belief in a present, caring God who knew what His creation was doing, interacted with that creation as He willed, answered prayers, guided and directed the Young Nation to victory, created a hereafter, and left his Word in book compiled by men was contrary by defintion to the belief system of a deist.)
If you are interested maybe sometime we could discuss the large percentage of the 45 that were Christians. But on the basis of the Signers of the DOI, the historical record is pretty clear: the FF were not all atheists and deists. I am still working on the other 150 or so FF.
After having spent years of research on this subject I am convinced that the historical record is clear--the FF were NOT deists and atheists and those who in good faith make that statement need to do more research, research on ALL of the FF individually, not just repeat what other people say about 4 or 5men. (As an aside Washington, not a Signer of the DOI but who has been well researched by me and others, was not a deist either.)
There are some who reject Christianity or any religion today, and that's their right-- people have fought and died to pass that right on to them. But it is not proper to ascribe OUR present-day beliefs and philosophies backwards to the FF--they were who they were and we can't change that. The historical record is what it is--these men believed what they believed: about politics, about economics, about the rights of women, about slavery, about government, and, yes, about religion. It doesn't hurt us today that they believed what they did--they could have even been wrong in what they believed. People today may disagree 100% with what they believed and stood for
200 years ago but we cannot change the past. It causes dissension, distrust, and is non-productive to try to re-write the history book.
It is noteworthy that the religious FF (and the religion of the time was Christianity, not Buddhism or Hinduism or Judaism or Islam)did not see it as government's role to dictate to anyone what their religion should be or what denomination they should belong to. They did not want a "state church" having seen the abuses and discord brought about by trying to force people to belong to the Church of England (the Anglican Church). They believed it was up to the individual to be religious or not, to choose a mode of worship that met their needs, or choose no religion. There is a vast differnece between a government sponsoring Freedom OF Religion and a government advocating Freedom FROM Religion. The FF did not advocate, sponsor, or support a society or government that was totally divorced from religion. But that's a discussion for another day.
I am sorry this is so long--couldn't seem to edit it down very much. I would be interested in your comments.
Ray
The Minuteman
HI Hercules,
It's nice to have you as a friend of www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com
The Minuteman
Hercules: I just found your website and its great! I recently visited the homes of our founding fathers and Arlington National Cemetery. If the people of this great nation would either take some time to visit their homes or even brush up on the history of our founding fathers, they would see this country in a whole new light.
Posted: October 30th, 2009 | Report This Comment