Jane Austen Says-

Oh my, I am unprepared to be brought into this world of fast and frenzied motion. Please forgive me but I am a simple girl from the country. Your world today could not understand the life I lived more than 200 years ago.

I am humbled that you invited me to converse with you about my stories, but even after all these years, I have no idea why they are considered great novels. Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility are merely stories to me.

I wrote with the simplicity of my rural life. As the daughter of a Reverend in a small village, I saw very little of spectacular living, except on occasion when a relative visited from London or even France.

I remember when my cousin, the widow Madame Fenilade, arrived at our humble lodging to stay for a short visit. It was not a short visit. She stayed until she married my brother.  She was the delight of the household. She taught us to speak French sufficiently. I was saddened that they moved away. It was my father who requested nothing but French be spoken in the household for a period of time. It was not long before we were all conversant in the French language.

 No one knows of my longing to go to France. I dreamed of it as I committed myself to my daily chores. Father would not allow any of us to be idle, with the exception of when I would tarry at the desk with my writing. It was accepted, for in the evening I would read the words I had written to our family and they would comment and offer suggestions.

Some of the suggestions I accepted, including them in the correct places within my rendering or not. My wonderful secret was that I, and I alone could indulge in my fantasy life and write what I pleased.

As I have mentioned, if you will pardon me for repetition, we lived a rural life in a small community. One of my delights, aside from writing, was to accompany my father on his rounds visiting the parishioners. It was when I listened to their tales told to my father, that I sensed a spirit of various identities.

As the men spoke quietly over cups of spiced tea, the baker's wife told me of the young man who first captured her heart.

She had been born into a family of wealth and prestige in London among the social gentry. She fell deeply in love with a handsome young Baron. When it became known she was with child, her parents sent her to our Village of Steventon. The babe was born out of wedlock and sent to be adopted by a family in Yorkshire. She never saw the baron after she had been banished. She never saw the child of their union. She heard from a traveler who had stopped to purchase bread that the baron died in a tragic carriage accident. Leaning towards me, she whispered how she often would imagine he was on his way to find her.

I was awed by her tale. The vivid description of her lover remained with me long after our visit. I wonder now if it might have been the seedling of the birth of one of the characters I fell in love with in my fantasy stories. I certainly do not recall any one of his style and demeanor ever visiting the Parsonage. Was he perhaps the embryo of Mr. Darcy?

I truly cannot say. It was so long ago. It was a time of simplicity and decorum. It was a time to think without distraction. It was simple to go about one’s chores with practiced hands and an imaginative mind. Sweeping the floors of the rectory, I could feel his presence awaiting the turn of my head. Stirring cream to churn butter, I could feel the warmth of his breath upon my neck. I would close my eyes, preparing for his touch. Too often my sister Cassandra would sneak up on me and startle me from my reverie. Upon occasion, the churn would be dashed to the floor. Cassandra would howl with laughter.

I was very young when I began writing, only twenty. I never planned for my stories to be published. My father wrote to several publishers, who informed him they had no desire to read the ramblings of a country girl. It was only after Papa passed that we sent my words to a gentleman who agreed to publish them. A very limited printing I might say. No one was more surprised than I when they were in demand by the public.

Two of my stories were published after I joined my departed Father. Never did I consider I could be a writer of worth. I wrote for myself, to live in a fantasy world, and to amuse my family. I am quite surprised that I have been considered a novelist of some worth.

If I were to live in your fast-paced world, I sincerely doubt that I would know how to be in quietude and retreat to my imagination. The swirling events around everyone and the noise would be intrusive, blocking any meaningful thought. Where could I retreat to capture my ideal life?

No, tis better that I lived in the long-ago time where life was simple. I might not have been in a world of grandeur, a life of splendor, except perhaps when I was at the tiny desk in the parlor. It was there I could live in a fantasy world of my imagination. It was a very good time.

The End

©2013

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My Favorite Philosophers, Writers, Poets, Statesmen!

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Creating this Blog about some of my favorite philosophers, writers, poets, and statesmen, has been a labor of love that began in the late '90's.  Each was written after I read about one in "Little Journeys into the Homes of the Greats". This is a collection of books written by Elbert Hubbard and published monthly starting in 1894.

1856 - 1915 

Creator/Author of Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great.

The biographies were collected and republished in a 14-volume Memorial Edition in 1916, shortly after Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard died during the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, sunk by a German submarine on May 7, 1915.

I am thrilled to have the 1928 Memorial Edition printed by the #Roycrofters. A dear friend, Barbara Jean Rowe, gave me a 14-volume set including the Little Guide Book. Each volume contains photos of the great men and women whose homes Mr. Hubbard visited and whose lives he writes about in his undeniable style.

Near the bottom of the web page is written - "but thoughts being in the air are the possession of whoever can seize them..."

I believe the thoughts of Mr. Hubbard permeated the air and instilled in me the desire to create my personal journey into the lives of the greats.

Click any Link to Read

Confucius Says

Dialog Between Socrates and Plato

Aristotle Student - Teacher

Hypatia - Martyr for Platoism

Swedenberg - Inventor 

Jane Austin - Romance Novelist

Washington - His early years

Ben Franklin - Statesman, Inventor, Bon vivant

Ralph Waldo Emerson - American Essayist, Lecturer and Poet

Henry David Thoreau - Writer - Naturalist

Harriet Beecher Stowe - Creator of Uncle Tom's Cabin

Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning - Lovers - Poets

Lord Byron - English Poet - Traveler

Garibaldi - Hero of Italian Unification - Adventurer

© 2012   M.Bradley McCauley  All Rights Reserved No part of this Blog may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of M. Bradley McCauley, author, publisher. 

All photos of the 'greats' are from Wikimedia Commons unless otherwise specified

Some of the links in this Blog may be affiliate links, which means I may receive compensation from some of the entities listed here for referrals, as their thank you for sending you their way.. 

Confucius Says....

Confucius

First, I must first tell you about my early years. I was born in China in 551 BC. My father, Heih was governor of one of the areas in China. He was in his seventies when I was born, and he died when I was three. My mother,  a beautiful woman, much younger than my father, taught me to work hard, live humbly, and serve my fellow man.

From an early age, I was taught that I was no better than any of the other children in the village. My father's status as governor was an honor he had earned, not mine, and I was made to work in the garden, tend the herds, and bring food and water.

"Let a man's labor be proportioned to his needs, for he who works beyond his strength does but add to his cares and disappointments. A man should be moderate even in his efforts."

Our life was simple. Hard work helped develop my body. Quiet times at work gave me time to think about nature. I loved the beauty of the world, especially music.

I learned to play the lute, which is similar to today's guitar.  Great happiness for me was to play and sing songs that I made up. People would come from far and near to hear my songs, and I thanked heaven for my ability to entertain them.

Because of my father's position, I was considered a 'prince'. I was what today would be called a 'pauper prince'. We owned land but not wealth in monetary terms.

As I got older, my duty was to ride throughout our state and make sure the people were living in harmony and there was no unrest. Numerous times I found herders fighting over cattle, or where the goats were to graze. I would tell them to treat each other as they wished to be treated. Today it is known as "The Golden Rule".  To me, it was a way of life.

Once when I become weary of all the fighting occurring among my people, I painted a symbol of love and friendship on a piece of wood and placed it in front of my tent. It became a flag of peace that people would carry with them in a show of friendship to strangers.

I tried to teach people that quarreling is useless. It tires the body and mind. It causes what you call stress and in the end, no one really wins since each body has been depleted by the friction.

I was considered a teacher in my time. Now I am called a philosopher. I believed that every truth has four corners and as a teacher, I give you one corner, and it is for you to find the other three. When a man has been helped around one corner of a square and cannot manage by himself to get around the other three, he is unworthy of further assistance.

Perhaps some of the things I believed in that long ago time would be useful to the people of today. Some of them I learned from a great Chinese philosopher, Lao-tsze. I present some of those thoughts to you now. Be guided by them, use them in your life, and you will create a world for yourself that brings you great happiness.

"As riches adorn a house, so does an expanded mind adorn and tranquilize the body. Hence, it is that the superior man will seek to establish his motives on correct principles."

"Beware of ever over doing that which you are likely, sooner or later, to repent of having done."

"The men of old spoke little. It would be well to imitate them, for those who talk much are sure to say something it would be better left unsaid."

"A man must reason calmly for, without reason, he would look and not see, listen and not hear."

"We should not search for love or demand it, but so live that it will flow to us."

Perhaps my thoughts and beliefs would be laughed at in your world today. It is indeed a much different world than mine, more complex, industrialized. We lived simply in my time, working the land, tending the cattle and using our hand to build without machinery.

Somehow I feel that the words and ideas can be used anytime, with any people. I hope you will consider them in the context of your world. I also hope that you will find joy in the life you live.

Love the land and all of nature. Be thoughtful of your neighbor, and work so that you feel you have always done your best. Treat yourself with kindness and treat others as you would treat yourself.

Also in this Blog:

Dialog Between Socrates and Plato

M.Bradley McCauley

© 2012 All Rights Reserved

No part of this Blog may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of M. Bradley McCauley, author, publisher.

Click a link to read another.

Confucius Says

Dialog Between Socrates and Plato

Aristotle Student - Teacher

Hypatia - Martyr for Platonism

Swedenborg - Inventor 

Jane Austin - Romance Novelist

Washington - His early years

Ben Franklin - Statesman, Inventor, Bon vivant

Ralph Waldo Emerson - American Essayist, Lecturer, and Poet

Henry David Thoreau - Writer - Naturalist

Harriet Beecher Stowe - Creator of Uncle Tom's Cabin

Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning - Lovers - Poets

Lord Byron - English Poet - Traveler

Garibaldi - Hero of Italian Unification - Adventurer

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All photos of the 'greats' are from Public Domain unless otherwise specified

                  

                                           

 © 2012   M.Bradley McCauley  All Rights Reserved No part of this Blog may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of M. Bradley McCauley, author, publisher. 

All photos of the 'greats' are from Wikipedia Commons unless otherwise specified

Socrates and Plato

     

                                 

Socrates and Plato

   

Plato:

I have no desire to write this communication. Socrates, my teacher, and friend asked that I write for both of us.

Socrates:
"You know me as well as I know myself, dear friend.  I have one desire that you include my major axiom is to know thyself."

Plato:
I am amused that he would say thus. Great were his orations, his lectures, and most of all his interrogation of the Sophists. He rallied wherever there was an ear. Only in the presence of his wife did he remain in a 'dumb' state. Many times she pulled him from a public lecture or debate to accost him not working.

Socrates:
"It is not true what you write, Plato. I was not idle. My work was to teach.  Did I not teach you? You, who became the writer with books read through all these many generations. I have no books, only the statues I sculpted as a young man. Alas, I have no written work."

Plato:
"Yes, Socrates, but you have given more than the written word. You produced the ideas, and you taught great men who were to inscribe the words for posterity."

I am amused. He directs me to relate the information, which I do not wish to do, then he interrupts me with his comments. It is as it was when we were together in the great halls of Athens.   He would bid me to begin the oratory and then proceed to question me until he was conducting the speech.

Socrates:
"I questioned to learn my own thoughts.  The mind is stimulated by debate. Did my questions not stir you to greater thoughts?"

Plato:
"True,  in the ten years we were together you assaulted my mind. You were always the leader, I the follower. Even at your death, I would have followed you, drunk the hemlock with you, but you persuaded me to carry on and write your philosophies."

Socrates:

"Yes my friend, but you left Athens, the center of learning, and went to Syracuse, cursed city of neglected intelligence."

Plato:
"I could not remain in Athens after you were forced to take your life, dear Socrates. I went to Syracuse after leisure travel through Italy to Egypt. Only after repeated requests from Dionysius, the ruler did I feel free to go."

Socrates:
"What did he do? He sold you as a debtor."

Plato:
"I was given my freedom by a faithful benefactor and returned to Athens to continue my work."

"Ahh, do I have silence for a brief moment? Have you no retort, Socrates? Good, then I shall continue the text as I was asked to do."

After my return to Athens, I was allowed to start an academy, where I taught young students among the gardens and trees. Always I attempted to teach them the importance of classifying one's thoughts to think logically. My greatest pupil was Aristotle who became my trusted companion for many years. To him, I handed down your teachings Socrates and my own thoughts about life.

It was my firm belief that an authority that would grant equality to all should govern the State. I felt that people would work well if they were assigned to labor they had a talent for and enjoyed doing. I was fortunate to be born into a family of wealth, which you dear friend Socrates was not. Still, I felt not superior to you or to any human. I might have been gifted by the design of the Creator to learn, write, and teach, but others too are gifted, to carve, build, harvest, and create.

Even a blind many can learn to play the lute and give music to his neighbors. A crippled one can learn to weave and make fine clothes for others. I believed that women were not inferior to men, except perhaps in strength. Your mother, Socrates was a nurse and midwife who supplemented your father's stone cutting income.

In my dialogue, "The Republic", I extolled the virtue of women. I deplored that a woman should be forced into a marriage against her will. To have or not have a child was for her to decide not a husband or ruling authority.

Socrates:

"May I intercede at this point, Plato?"

Plato:
"You will, with or without my approval."

Socrates:
"I owe you a debt of gratitude for preserving my teaching in Athens after I had been labeled a heretic and forced to drink Hemlock. Most of all, I wish to commend you on your expanded consciousness. You took my humble beliefs and combined them with your own. Frequently I have been given credit for philosophies that were yours."

Plato:
"It is of no consequence.  Surely the seed of the idea was planted by you."

Socrates:
"Just as you planted the seeds in your student and friend Aristotle who expanded on them."

Plato:
"There is one major seed of an idea that should be passed on to all generations, Socrates."

Socrates:
"What might that be my friend?"

Plato:
"To know thyself."


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© 2012   M.Bradley McCauley  All Rights Reserved No part of this Blog may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of M. Bradley McCauley, author, publisher. 

All photos of the 'greats' are from Wikipedia Commons unless otherwise specified

Confucius Says

Dialog Between Socrates and Plato

Aristotle Student - Teacher

Hypatia - Martyr for Platonism

Swedenborg - Inventor 

Jane Austin - Romance Novelist

Washington - His early years

Ben Franklin - Statesman, Inventor, Bon vivant

Ralph Waldo Emerson - American Essayist, Lecturer, and Poet

Henry David Thoreau - Writer - Naturalist

Harriet Beecher Stowe - Creator of Uncle Tom's Cabin

Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning - Lovers - Poets

Lord Byron - English Poet - Traveler

Garibaldi - Hero of Italian Unification - Adventurer

©2013 M. Bradley McCauley

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Aristotle, Student of Plato

Aristotle

384 - 322 BC

 I was born in 384 BC in the mountains of Macedonia. My father was a surgeon to Amyntas, King of Macedon. I became good friends with the king's son, Philip.

When my father died in an avalanche of stones, I was taken to the home of a relative, Proxenus. King Amyntas was kind and generous to me in memory of my father. When I was seventeen, he agreed to send me to Athens where I studied with the great master Plato for twenty years.

I found Plato to be elderly, over sixty. Like Socrates, his teacher, he looked younger than his years. The Academy was a wonderful place of learning. We, students, spent much of our time in the garden where we read or talked and listened to lectures by our Master. Plato and I became friends. Mostly he thought of me as a son, which he did not have.

I became a teacher at the Academy. Over the years, I became quite successful. I owned a large library where I studied natural history, plants, animals, and nature in general. I was also interested in economics.

When my beloved teacher died, I encountered great resistance of the people because I was considered a foreigner. I moved away, took a wife, and in time was summoned by King Philip to come to Macedon and be a teacher to his thirteen-year-old son, Alexander.

At that time, I was forty-two, filled with health and vitality. I often rode into the desert and slept under the stars. I loved animals and had what you would call a zoo. Alexander and I trained many animals and we kept a menagerie of all kinds of species. We studied horses and once we made a skeleton of the bones. People believed we were trying to make a living animal and laughed at us.

Alexander became a great military leader in his time. He fought to defend Greece from the Persians and conquered many lands. We corresponded until his death. Again, I was assailed because I was a foreigner. I retreated to my country home where I lived and taught until I died at the age of sixty-two.

I believe that I am best known as a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander. I do not feel that my wisdom was greater than another, or that I excelled at any study, I always believed that people should live in gentleness, moderation, and helpfulness. We are all part of the nature of life and should live accordingly.

Trust yourself, know that wisdom lies within you, and be guided by your intuition.

Happiness itself is sufficient excuse. Beautiful things are right and true; so beautiful actions are those pleasing to the gods.

Wise men have an inward sense of what is beautiful, and the highest wisdom is to trust this intuition and be guided by it.

The answer to the last appeal of what is right lies within a man's breast. Trust thyself.

Comments between Socrates and Plato on Aristotle's Writing

"What say you, Socrates, of these scribblings of Aristotle?"

"I think his modesty is exceeded only by his greatness. Did he not discern that all truth is relative? He contended that things are perceived according to the view. You taught him well, Plato."

"I well recall when he arrived at the Academy. His zeal for learning esoteric principles was overshadowed by his desire to understand physical anatomy. He was a man of science, imbued with the need to understand the physical as well as mental."

"Yes, Plato, he has left future generations much to think of. Perhaps, had he preceded us, we might have clamored to be his students."

"I believe we would have, Socrates. I also believe that the legacy left by Aristotle has been our legacy as well."

"Teacher or student, Plato, who shall say which is greater?"

"None. Each has made worthwhile contributions. Aristotle personified the best of both.

Confucius Says

Dialog Between Socrates and Plato

Aristotle Student - Teacher

Hypatia - Martyr for Platoism

Swedenberg - Inventor 

Jane Austin - Romance Novelist

Washington - His early years

Ben Franklin - Statesman, Inventor, and Bon vivant

Ralph Waldo Emerson - American Essayist, Lecturer and Poet

Henry David Thoreau - Writer - Naturalist

Harriet Beecher Stowe - Creator of Uncle Tom's Cabin

Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning - Lovers - Poets

Lord Byron - English Poet - Traveler

Garibaldi - Hero of Italian Unification - Adventurer

© 2012   M.Bradley McCauley  All Rights Reserved No part of this Blog may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of M. Bradley McCauley, author, publisher. 

All photos of the 'greats' are from Wikipedia  Commons unless otherwise specified

Hypatia - Mathematician, Beauty and Martyr

Hypatia

     

Hypatia

351 AD-415AD

I write of my daughter, Hypatia with great love. Her mother, Theon and I were blessed with her arrival in 351. From her first sounds, I was touched by the wisdom I perceived in her. As a teacher of mathematics and astronomy, I was determined she would be well educated. Her rare beauty was evident when she was still a mere child. Her mother and I admired her beauty and took great pride in her skill at learning.

I cautioned her to refrain from the common belief that a woman should be less than a man. My admonishment to her was to continually utilize her power to think and be able to contrive through her mind that which was right for her.

As she grew in wisdom and beauty, she desired to travel and learn from great teachers. Her capacity to ask questions outdistanced my simple education, thus I allowed her and gave her the means to go. First, she went to Athens, then to Rome. Her letters were filled with the news of the day. She was entertained in the homes of the leading citizens in each city.

In Alexandria, she taught Neo-Platonism. I was not in agreement with this new philosophical thought-form and I wished for her to be with me as I aged. How blessed it might have been for both of us. Unrest in Alexandria between the church and state brought about her eventual demise. This came long after I had passed on. My grief that she was so far distant went with me to my grave.

Hypatia's mind was set against formal religion. She taught freedom of spirit and freedom of thought. This did not sit well with the ruling church. She was accused of trying to start her a religion. In spite of threats, Hypatia stood her ground and taught her philosophy as her followers grew in great numbers. People came from great distances to hear her speak. They were captivated by her beauty, her eloquence, and her thought-provoking rhetoric.

She believed, as did Plato, that the soul of all of mankind is united. She believed in the oneness of all and the universal force of life existing in all that is. She made no individual god or gods, no graven images. Her thought was that all should think with a divine mind, allowing the truth of what is in their nature to be the truth in their lives.

To know oneself and trust his or her intuition was the main facet of her teachings. For this, my daughter suffered great threats and ridicule. In the end, people were told that Hypatia had gone to Athens. Rumors were rampant. The prevalent story was that she was set upon by a frenzied mob, murdered, and her remains set on fire to hide the evidence.

I have no desire to change what has been said. That my daughter lived, learned, and taught is of most importance to me, not how she died. Suffice to say, Hypatia did that which she was born to do. Her beauty and intellect and her philosophy helped others in far-reaching ways.

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© 2012   M.Bradley McCauley  All Rights Reserved No part of this Blog may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, 
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of M. Bradley McCauley, author, publisher. 

All photos of the 'greats' are from Wikipedia Commons unless otherwise specified

George Washington Says Hello

George Washington

https://bit.ly/2NaQc4m

 I am humbled and proud to be called the Father of this great nation. It is an honor bestowed beyond my youthful dreams and simple ambitions. I often think it would have been better served to be placed upon the author of our Declaration of Independence, my friend, and fellow Virginian, Thomas Jefferson, or any of the other framers of the Constitution. Great men all, who would well deserve the honor bestowed upon me. They held my deepest admiration, and I was honored to be among them as they founded the basic ideas for our country.

You know of my involvement as a General of the Army when we fought the British for our freedom. Much has been written of my crossing the Delaware River to do battle with Lord Cornwallis and his troops, but did you know it was the third crossing? Another occurred on Christmas Day.

I am not writing to review my life and times as a General or as the first President of the United States. I have come to give a glimpse of my time before those written in great lengths by historians throughout several generations.

I am here to show you my life, begun in simple trappings in a small community in West Moreland County Virginia. My father, Augustine Washington married my mother after his first wife died, leaving him with two sons. He was not a man of wealth and prestige; he was a simple planter. It would not be said he was a gentleman farmer, nor the lord of a plantation, but a man with some land, which he managed and earned a living for his family.

Born a year after their marriage, I was very fond of my mother, Mary Ball. She was an austere, self-disciplined woman who often seemed to lack sentimentality towards any of her six children. As the eldest, I was quite aware of her sensibility, and also aware of her loving heart, hidden beneath the veneer of her stoic courage.

 We moved from Westmoreland County twice before my father died when I was eleven, eventually settling near Fredericksburg. I am sad to report my education was quite limited. Unlike children of the gentry who could afford tutors, I was taught by my mother and my older, half-brother Lawrence, whom I greatly admired. I had some schooling in the local schoolhouse, but my formal education ended when I was fourteen.

I was not only limited in formal education but in social skills as well. I have a great indebtedness to Lawrence, who was the epitome of social graces and charm and was most anxious to teach me when I visited him at his home, Mt. Vernon.

In spite of my humble and limited education, I was quite good at mathematics and learned some of the basics of surveying. Eventually, at the age of seventeen, I became a surveyor and was quite content in that field. I was able to make a substantial living and even buy some land, hoping to someday become a gentleman farmer.

Alas, I was most saddened when my dear brother and mentor died of tuberculosis. For a long time, I was morose, in deep sorrow, grieving as I had not even grieved with the passing of my father. To ease the pain, I took on a great deal of work, neglected my personal life, and almost became a recluse. That was all turned about in two years when Lawrence’s daughter died and I inherited Mt. Vernon. I vowed I would finish the dream of my brother to embellish the home and lands and make it one of the great plantations in Virginia.

I was not granted much time to fulfill the dream. Because I had also inherited his rank as Major in the Virginia militia. In less than a year I was ordered by Governor Dimwiddle to deliver a message to the French, who were occupying the land near an area that is known today as Pittsburgh. At that time, it was part of the Virginia western frontier. It was a very long and arduous journey of 900 miles during freezing weather and many hazards.

A few months later, the Governor advanced my rank to Lt. Colonel and sent me with 150 men to do battle with the French in the Ohio territory. Sadly, and with great humiliation, I lost the battle. It has been noted in history that this skirmish was what started the French and Indian War.

Unfortunately, it was not my only defeat in battle. I regrettably recall the battle of New York City when General Howe’s army defeated us at Long Island. But, I am not here to speak of my life during those times. Historians have noted it in great detail.

I returned to Mt. Vernon after my defeat by the French, resigned my military position, and again endeavored to become a successful landowner and farmer. It was at this time I met and married Martha Dandridge Custis, a handsome and appealing widow, mother of two children who became very dear to me. The gossip-mongers insisted I married my Martha for her wealth and estate near Williamsburg. I shall give no credence to this tale.

After two defeats, I was finally elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, a group of landowners who met regularly in Williamsburg to form laws that could be approved or not by the Governor, his council of six well-known citizens, or directors in London. At that time, we were still a colony of the English Crown.

While politics was not one of my main concerns of the day, I did enjoy the rapport and idea exchange with the likes of Jefferson and Patrick Henry. Through them, I became concerned about the increasing disputes between the Colonies and Great Britain.

I had mixed emotions. After I had resigned my commission in 1755, I volunteered to be an aide to General Edward Braddock, who was sent by the King to oust the French from the Ohio Country, if you recall, it was the area of my defeat as a military commander.

However, because of my commitment to helping send the French out of the territory, I was given command of Virginia’s entire military force, and, with a few hundred men I was dispatched to protect 350 miles of the frontier. Once the British took full command, I returned to my beloved Mt. Vernon.

It was memories of my time with the British commander that I had hesitant thoughts about breaking with our mother country. Those thoughts were eventually dispelled after I was selected to be one of the six Virginia delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

As unrest increased among the delegates and their constituents at home, the thoughts of breaking with the King and possible war became apparent. At that time, I was commissioned to take command of the Continental Army. It was a frightening position as I had only seen battle along the frontier. Never did I feel worthy to be in this esteemed position; however, my military experience was more than any other who had been considered.

I had written to Martha telling her I did not expect the time away to last too long. It was eight years before I returned to Mt. Vernon and my family for good.

As I said earlier, I’m sure you have read or heard of my time as a military leader, eventually as president of the new United States of America. I caution you, do not believe all that you read.

Did I actually chop down the cherry tree, or was that merely a tale embellished upon by one of my first biographers, Mason Locke Weems?

Did I have wooden teeth? With your modern technology, it has been learned my teeth, which I began losing at an early age, were carved from Hippopotamus ivory.

Was I as austere, straight-laced, and serious as my mother? No, I loved to dance and much to Martha’s annoyance, I liked to pay attention to the ladies. You would call it flirting.

How about throwing the silver dollar across the Potomac? Anyone who has seen that river in our Capital knows it is impossible; however, I had a cousin who swore I threw one across the narrower Rappahannock. Actually, I don’t recall the incident.

I am hesitant to dispel any of the misguided historic tales about my life and times. I would like to leave you with this.

To serve my fellow citizens, to work the land I loved, to keep accounts of my expenditures, to be in the company of great men who formed this country, some who died for their beliefs, and to have lived a good life is what I hope you will most remember about me.

M.Bradley McCauley ã 2012 All Rights Reserved No part of this Blog may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of M. Bradley McCauley, author, publisher. 

All photos of the 'greats' are from Wikipedia Commons unless otherwise specified