The third president knew that the whims of nature shaped Americans’ daily lives as farmers and enslavers

Between July 1776 and June 1826, Jefferson recorded weather conditions in 19,000 observations across nearly 100 locations. Illustration by Meilan Solly / Images via Wikimedia Commons under public domain and the Jefferson Weather and Climate Records

The Declaration of Independence was off to the press, so Thomas Jefferson spent July 4, 1776, in search of a decent thermometer. By lunchtime, a breeze ruffled the red brick of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall. Rain clouds tumbled in. A southwest wind swung through the streets, setting tavern signs to wheel and squeak, but the skies held. The city’s brutal summer melted into mild. Jefferson, a citizen scientist who tracked the weather wherever he went, grew eager to get a reliable read.

On Second Street, Jefferson nipped into John Sparhawk’s busy London Book-Store. Crowned with a unicorn and mortar logo, the emporium boasted new medicines, literature and “an assortment of curious hardware.” Continue reading →

US Philippine War cartoon

The following quote from an article published by Aroop Mukharji on October 1, 2023 in the International Security Journal, provides insight to President William McKinley’s handling of the Philippine Islands and military intervention in the late 1890’s. It reads,

“The meddler’s trap denotes a situation of self-entanglement, whereby a leader inadvertently creates a problem through military intervention, feels they can solve it, and values solving the new problem more because of the initial intervention. The inflated valuation is driven by a cognitive bias called the endowment effect, according to which individuals tend to overvalue goods they feel they own. A military intervention causes a feeling of ownership of the foreign territory, triggering the endowment effect.”

According to a simple definition from dictionary.com, “meddle” means “to involve oneself in a matter without right or invitation; interfere officiously and unwantedly.” Meddling defines many US foreign policy decisions where the “meddler’s trap” begins with President McKinley. Continue reading →

February 23, 2021 ~ I remember a German farmer expressing as much in a few words as the whole subject requires; “money is money, and paper is paper.”

All the invention of man cannot make them otherwise. The alchemist may cease his labors, and the hunter after the philosopher’s stone go to rest, if paper can be metamorphosed into gold and silver, or made to answer the same purpose in all cases.

Gold and silver are the emissions of nature: paper is the emission of art. The value of gold and silver is ascertained by the quantity which nature has made in the earth. We cannot make that quantity more or less than it is, and therefore the value being dependent upon the quantity, depends not on man. Man has no share in making gold or silver; all that his labors and ingenuity can accomplish is, to collect it from the mine, refine it for use and give it an impression, or stamp it into coin. Continue reading →

This classic essay privileges the individual over the collective.

“Crossing the Pasture,” 1871–1872, by Winslow Homer. Amon Carter Museum of American Art. In his essay, Ralph Waldo Emerson praises dependence on oneself to get work done.

In 1841, American writer-philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) published “Self-Reliance,” placing the ingenuity of the individual above an unquestioning acquiescence to the collective. Continue reading →

A HISTORY lesson – for yesterday, today and tomorrow. ~ Editor

On May 29, 1935, in the midst of a Great Depression that would not end, the Supreme Court struck down a central piece of legislation of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, the National Industrial Recovery Act. In Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, the Court ruled that the entire scheme violated the U.S. Constitution.

It was a landmark case because the Supreme Court was directly challenging both the executive and legislative branches. It said: They have gone too far and therefore all the legislation and regulation is illegal. As a result, the most elaborate central-planning scheme ever imposed on the U.S. economy was deleted. Continue reading →

The novel traces how a boy learns from examples, good and bad, what is needed to become a good father.

Mentorship from father figures is a guiding force in David Copperfield’s life. “Traddles, Micawber, and David,” by Frank Reynolds, 1910.

Charles Dickens created many memorable stories. The one he loved best was also the one he spoke of from the perspective of a father: “It will be easily believed that I am a fond parent to every child of my fancy, and that no one can ever love that family as dearly as I love them. But, like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name is DAVID COPPERFIELD.” Continue reading →

A new nation: In John Trumbull’s Declaration of Independence, Samuel Adams is seated to the viewer’s right of Richard Henry Lee, whose legs are crossed in the front row. They became friends and political allies. (John Trumbull/Capitol Rotunda)

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the revolutionary army, another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the revolutionary war.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. Continue reading →

The names of 56 men ended up on the Declaration of Independence in the form of their signatures.

The name of one woman appeared on it, too, well – a version of it.

According to the National Park Service (NPS), that woman was Mary Katharine Goddard. Continue reading →

President George Washington had no children of his own, but new research has identified the remains of two of his grandnephews and their mother. ~ Bildagentur-online/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Genetic analysis has shed light on a long-standing mystery surrounding the fates of President George Washington’s younger brother Samuel and his kin. Two of Samuel’s descendants and their mother were recently identified from skeletal remains found in unmarked burials dating back to the 1880s. The investigation also provided the first patrilineal DNA map for the first US president, who had no children of his own. Continue reading →

1958. American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer @Philippe Halsman

NEW YORK, N. Y., Dec. 26, 1954 – J. Robert Oppenheimer, the noted American physicist, drew a dramatic picture tonight of modern man living in an electric world in which virtually all of the traditional theories have become outdated.

While his speech was dramatic in itself as a scholarly foray into a description of the unfolding pages of modern arts and sciences, Dr. Oppenheimer’s appearance had the added edge of the peculiar position in which he stands today, at the age of 50, between greatness already earned to a large degree, and questions of character raised in political circles on the basis of records in political circles on the basis of records that may remain secret through his lifetime.

Earlier this year Dr. Oppenheimer was suspended as consultant to the Atomic Energy Commission for security reasons. Debate that attracted nationwide attention followed this peremptory act by the Commission, particularly since responsible officials reiterated that Dr. Oppenheimer’s personal character is above reproach.

Dr. Oppenheimer also must be remembered as the “architect” of the work that developed the atomic bomb, for he was director of the laboratories in Los Alamos, N. M., where the bomb was perfected. He now holds the post of director of the Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton, N. J., and by today’s invitation the powers at Columbia University showed their opinion of him. Continue reading →

Charleston, South Carolina, is a city steeped in the rich history of the American Revolutionary War, offering a unique blend of historical sites and stories that bring the era of American independence to life. This article delves into several key locations and events that highlight Charleston’s significant role in the Revolutionary War. Continue reading →

“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

This amendment was introduced by James Madison to ensure that the Bill of Rights was not seen as an exhaustive list of the rights of the people. It acknowledges that there are other fundamental rights that exist even though they are not specifically mentioned in the Constitution. The Ninth Amendment serves as a constitutional safety net intended to make clear that individuals have other fundamental rights, in addition to those enumerated in the Constitution. Continue reading →

In 1933, a group on businessmen conspired to unseat President Roosevelt and overthrow the government. One man stopped them…

Still from Universal newsreel footage of Smedley Butler describing his 1934 congressional committee testimony (Wikimedia Commons)

Toward the climax of director and screenwriter David O. Russell’s new historical drama Amsterdam (2022), Dr. Burt Berendsen (Christian Bale) narrates a line that is not only central to the film’s plot and themes, but also one of the most telling quotes in recent American film history. Burt and his friends have begun to uncover the shadowy and sinister plan at the film’s center, a plan by powerful moneyed figures to overthrow the president of the United States and replace him with an unelected dictator. And Burt asks both himself and the audience, in the voiceover narration to which the film returns frequently, “What’s more un-American than a dictatorship built by American business?”
Continue reading →

The Baltimore Washington Monument. Emblazoned on the sides are important dates in the Revolutionary War, including December 23, 1783. At the top, Washington resigns his commission.

In Baltimore, Maryland stands one of the first monuments erected to the memory of George Washington. The 180-foot monument was finished in 1829, before the Washington Monument in D.C. was even begun. The impressive stone pillar is topped with a large statue of the General. Unlike most other statues of George Washington, the statue in Baltimore does not depict the Revolutionary War hero on horseback with his sword drawn, or as the First President of the United States. Instead it shows Washington, in his military uniform, simply extending a hand holding a piece of paper. Despite the simplicity of the scene, it is representative of one of the most important moments in the founding of the American nation: Washington resigning his military commission.

On November 1, 1783, Washington learned that the Treaty of Paris had been signed and the Revolutionary War was over. Continue reading →