I'm back in time travel mode this holiday weekend, and it's John M Scalzi's fault. His assignment on By the Way... is to write about which of the Founding Fathers we'd like to hang out with. Well, you can't do that without time travel right? You could maybe pull it off with seances or past life regression, but I find those concepts a little far-fetched, don't you?
So let's pile into the TARDIS and go pick up the guests for our little time travelers' picnic:
1. Thomas Jefferson. With all due respect to Washington and Franklin, this guy is the most interesting of the 1776 history makers. As Time magazine pointed out this week (and I'm sure it's not a new insight), he was a a mass of contradictions: a slaveholder and proponent of equality, a shy politician, an advocate of minimalist government who doubled the size of the country in one of the biggest and best land deals ever, scientist and philosopher (in those days not a contradiction), and an advocate of a free press who wanted his newspaper detractors tried for sedition. Yes, I'd like a good, long conversation with him, on any number of subjects. I wonder whether his contradictory life made sense to Jefferson himself.
2. Dolley Madison. Yes, I know that there are snack cakes named after her, which used to be advertised during A Charlie Brown Christmas. That is not the point. She was the unofficial First Lady during Jefferson's presidency, playing hostess because Mrs. Jefferson was dead by then. Later on, in 1814, she reputedly saved a portrait of George Washington from the invading British, who nearly managed to burn the President's House (White House) to the ground. Brave lady. She also was a real First Lady when James Madison was President. My friend Sara tells me that James Madison was a major force behind the Bill of Rights (see her comment below), which makes him my kind of guy. So he's invited, too.
3. The Adams Family. No, I don't mean Gomez and Morticia; anyway their surname is spelled differently. I mean John Adams, his wife Abigail Adams, and his radical cousin Samuel Adams. Back in eighth grade I read a biography of Paul Revere, written by someone who had previously done a biography of the firebrand Boston patriot who later got a beer named after him. This book did cover silversmith Revere's life, but in the background it was always Sam Adams this and Samuel Adams that. I suspect he was too fanatical for me to ever be comfortable around Samuel Adams, but I'd still like to talk to him, once, with other people around so I don't get stuck in a long political harangue with him. Abigail, the famous letter writer, kept things going at home while husband John as off at the Continental Congress. If any woman can be called a Founding Mother, she's at or near the top of the list. And poor John Adams (who according to the 1776 lyrics was "obnoxious and disliked") needs to be there to mediate between all these other people, with most of whom he had strong connections at one point or another.I thought about inviting Alexander Hamilton, too, but I don't want any duels or fistfights to break out. My heart's not really with the Federalists, for the most part. You will notice that George W. is not on the guest list.
Now that we've got everyone on board, let's head for our first stop:
Manlius, NY, Memorial Day 1970. That's the day when the high school band, the scouts, the volunteer fire department, WW I vets and others parade down Fayette Street, cheered on by people with flags and pinwheels and ice cream from Sno Top. Maybe afterward we can play a little badminton in the Funk family back yard before getting back in the TARDIS and proceeding to
Molina Basin, Hitchcock or Rose Canyon picnic area, Mount Lemmon, AZ, 2004. This is a chance for our guests to see a part of the country they barely knew existed (and that wasn't part of America's holdings) circa 1800. There are fire restrictions in Arizona until the monsoon arrives, so we'll just bring sandwiches, salads, Eegee's fruit slushes and diet soda and Popeye's chicken. What's more traditional on the 4th of July than a picnic?
I just hope Tom and his friends like at least some of what we've done with the place since 1776.
Karen
See also:
The Madisons Receive an Invitation
What Would Jefferson Do? Does it Matter?
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4 comments:
Well, I would say that Hamilton and the Federalists would be happier with the current state of affairs than Jefferson and the Republicans. It's been a while since I took history classes now, but I recall that Hamilton's goals included us becoming a major world power and a wealthy nation. And that Jefferson and Madison would probably be appalled at the voter apathy and somewhat lacking sense of civic responsibility of our general population. All of them were upstanding citizens who would probably find us crude, lewd and hedonistic, at least if they had access to any of our media. But, I think they all could take pride in knowing that the government they founded still stands, that human rights have progressed even farther than they had dreamed (I'm sure those who've been mentioned here would approve of abolition, desegregation, women's rights, the ADA, and such advances once exposed to the results), and that a large chunk of the world has been influenced by their ideas and democracratic type governments are everywhere.
Personally, I want to meet James Madison. He was my favorite thinker of the founding fathers, having had a much more significant influence on the drafting of the Constitution than you'd see from watching 1776, and then helped write the Federalist papers, and then he essentially wrote the Bill of Rights, even though he didn't think it was necessary...
When I write my books about the kids travelling through time, their stop in America will be during the war of 1812, with James and Dolly possibly making appearance. Not that I've figured how that will work yet. Got to get the kids through Egypt first.
Sara
Very well-informed. Are you a History teacher?
No, I don't teach anything. I don't even have a good book of American History here. But I do have the History Channel, Internet access, and vague memories if social studies classes, plus I've done a lot of browsing through historical biographies this weekend. Hmm. The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin or the new biography of John Adams? Alexander Hamilton or Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts? Maybe I'd better hold off until I get the homework in this this governmental accounting course under control. - Karen
From the First Lady exhibit I visited in the Smithsonian Museum of American History I visited in D.C. almost exactly a year ago, Abigail Adams would indeed be an enlightening party guest. Almost certain to be more entertaining than Mrs. Lincoln, too.
Happy Fourth to Karen and all! For the third year in a row, I'm hosting the annual barbecue for the South Bay Vegetarian Society. I wonder what our founding mothers and fathers would make of us?
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