WCF

History, politics, and culture articles and forum discussions.

George Washington

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The Ages of the American Founding Fathers

640px-Committee_of_Five,_1776In honor of the Fourth of July, I decided to write some brief thoughts on the ages of the American Founding Fathers.  My interest in this topic was piqued when I saw a post over at Kottke blog that lists the ages of some of the most important people of the American Revolution.  It is honestly quite shocking when you see that many of these figures would be considered “kids” by today’s standards.

Ages as of July 4, 1776

Here are the ages of some key figures that the site lists:

  • Marquis de Lafayette, 18
  • James Monroe, 18
  • Gilbert Stuart, 20
  • Aaron Burr, 20
  • Alexander Hamilton, 21
  • Betsy Ross, 24
  • James Madison, 25

It is boggling to the mind when you consider the timeless ideals associated with the American Revolution, only to then realize that some of these may have come from the minds of people who would be unable to purchase alcohol today.

But doing some further digging, I found that not all of the American Founding Fathers were on board the youth train.  George Washington was a more “respectable” age of 44 in 1776, Samuel Adams was 54, John Hancock was 39, Thomas Jefferson was 33, Patrick Henry was 37, Robert Morris was 42, John Adams was 41, and Roger Sherman was 55 (as a side note, Sherman has the distinction of being the only person, as far as I can tell, who signed all four of the major founding documents – Continental Association, Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and U.S. Constitution).  Skimming through a number of other Founding Fathers, I noticed that most of them were over the age of 35 by 1776. I think it’s safe to say that the majority of the American Founding Fathers were in middle age and older.

Oh, and one last person who needs to be mentioned is Benjamin Franklin, who was 70 years old at the time of the signing.

A lesson about youth?

independence-day-152032_640During the Roman Republic, one of the characteristics that was esteemed in politicians was age – so much so that portrait busts would intentionally show them as old, wrinkly, and rather ugly.  This would change after the rise of Augustus, but it tells us that age may be perceived quite differently from civilization to civilization.  Is there something that the ages of the American Founding Fathers can teach us?  I don’t think that we can state that the American Revolution was any kind of “youth movement”, even though it did involve some youthful players.  I would have to research the actual roles of the younger figures listed above, but I do know that Alexander Hamilton’s involvement in the formation of the U.S. Constitution in the mid-1780s would have put him closer to 30 years old during the time of his notable contribution.

I think the same general rules hold true today as they did during the time of the Revolution: with age comes wisdom, and with youth comes idealism.  Leadership requires both of these, but in proper balance.  Too much youthful thought can lead to rash decision, while too much elderly thought can lead to excessive caution and inability to act when needed.  I think the best formula requires a heavier dose of older, experienced thought with a smaller dose of youthful idealism in order for leadership to be effective.  And if there’s one thing most historians will likely agree on, it’s that the leadership of the American Founding Fathers was pretty effective.

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George Washington’s “vision” at Valley Forge

I read an email yesterday which contained a reference to an apparition by an unknown being to George Washington at Valley Forge who revealed to him the future course of the new nation, using words like “Son of the Republic, look and learn!”  I had never heard of this account before, so I was intrigued by the idea of such a vision.  I did a search for a longer account discussing the vision, and it seems to have originated in the mid-nineteenth century.  It begins:

This afternoon, as I was sitting at this table engaged in preparing a dispatch, something seemed to disturb me. Looking up, I beheld standing opposite me a singularly beautiful female. So astonished was I, for I had given strict orders not to be disturbed, that it was some moments before I found language to inquire the cause of her presence. A second, a third and even a fourth time did I repeat my question, but received no answer from my mysterious visitor except a slight raising of her eyes.

By this time I felt strange sensations spreading through me. I would have risen but the riveted gaze of the being before me rendered volition impossible. I assayed once more to address her, but my tongue had become useless, as though it had become paralyzed.

You can keep reading the whole account.

The story was apparently told by an old veteran of the American Revolution and recorded by a man named Wesley Bradshaw.  I did a search in Google Books for the earliest reference to this story, and it came in a book published in 1861. I would have put a link to the exact book here but for some odd reason, Google does not want to show me the book I was able to pull up just yesterday(!).

Anyway, the Snopes article puts the vision as purely false.   It says that the story was written by Bradshaw as a kind of “patriotic fiction” (my words, not theirs) and that the author wrote other pieces of a similar type during the Civil War.  It pointed to the references to the Union in the account as helping to essentially place it as a piece of Civil War propaganda.  Here is one such reference in the Washington account:

Then once more I beheld the villages, towns and cities springing up where I had seen them before, while the bright angel, planting the azure standard he had brought in the midst of them, cried with a loud voice: “While the stars remain, and the heavens send down dew upon the earth, so long shall the Union last.” And taking from his brow the crown on which blazoned the word “Union,” he placed it upon the Standard while the people, kneeling down, said, “Amen.”

I did notice that the Snopes story got at least one aspect of the story factually incorrect when it put the age of the veteran storyteller, Anthony Sherman, as being 99-years-old at the time of the telling.  In the source from 1861 that I read just yesterday, it clearly said he was 91-years old.  This is only mildly material but it may suggest that there were some incorrect re-printings of the account somewhere along the line.

Searching around the internet, there seem to be people who give this account credibility.

Anyway, has anyone else come across this account before?

WCF