I recall a school field-trip when I was about ten years-old. We traveled to the Princeton Battlefield and saw 'General Mercer oak' the tree being held together with steel supporting rods, and under which Brigadier General Hugh Mercer died on January 3rd, 1777, after being wounded in the battle of Princeton.
We made our way up to Stoney Brook Quaker Meetinghouse which sits on the northern boundary of the battlefield, and our teacher discussed the importance of the battle to the revolutionary war. As I was sitting on a bench near the door, I looked down and saw a number of circular impressions in the very wide floorboards. I asked our teacher what caused them and he explained that it was from British soldiers banging the muzzles of their muskets on the floor as they cleaned them. For some reason that has remained in my mind as one of those moments that has a clarity and 'freshness' that it hardly deserves.
As a children, our mother used to take us to swim in the pool behind a large house in Princeton. We would park around back and use the pool all afternoon. She did mention that the house was called 'Morven' and had once been the home of a distant relative. But, that was about all I knew. I only learned a few years ago that the 'distant relative' was Richard Stockton, b. 1730, d. 1781, aged 50. So, it has only been in later life that I have made an effort to find out who this man was.
Turns out, his most notable accomplishment was that he was nominated to the Continental Congress from New Jersey and signed the Declaration of Independence. But, he had more to his life than what happened on that day in July 1776. He was also a well-respected solicitor and a judge. His father, John Stockton, b. 1701, d. 1758, was a wealthy land-owner who donated the land and was instrumental in bringing the College of New Jersey to Princeton from Newark. That college is now referred to as Princeton University.
 |
| Richard Stockton |
Richard gave up his law practice in Princeton to travel to England in 1766 and 67. He was preceded by his reputation and received by various dukes and lords, but his primary purpose in being there was to convince King George III (widely known to have been mentally-ill during at least the later part of his reign) that the Stamp Act was going to lead to a violent falling out if it was pressed forward without a provision for the colonies to have their own representation. This is the origin of the expression most Americans have at least heard of: "No taxation without representation". The king was unreceptive, however, so Stockton returned to the colonies and was appointed to the Second Continental Congress. As signatories to the Declaration, the men who signed it were considered by the crown to be traitors.
Richard was sent by Congress to see how the Continental Army was faring in Albany, Fort Ticonderoga, and Saratoga. He returned home after an exhausting two months, and was a fugitive. He and a friend, John Covenhoven, were betrayed by loyalists to the British and were arrested in the night, force marched to Perth Amboy where he was put in irons, treated like a common criminal, and held in an un-heated cell during the winter. When he was finally released due to an agreement to trade prisoners, his health was broken. He died at age 50 less than two years later.
It should be noted that approximately 12,000 prisoners of the British died in cells and on prison ships during the revolution. while the total number of combat deaths for the Continental Army was 4,335. That should give you a picture of how the English behaved towards the colonials; i.e. they were beastly.
In learning about my great grandfather, (x6) I was touched by his willingness to sacrifice what turned out to be all of his worldly possession, including a library said to be the best in the colonies, and even his life in order to be a part of and a supporter of the vision that has become America. Yes, he was an oligarch. But, despite having been born into opulent circumstances, he managed to cleave to a vision of what those little colonies could become, a haven for democratic ideals, a place where a person truly could be free to pursue, "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness".
Clearly, it has been a work in progress for all of the 245 years that we have been working towards realizing the ideals set out in the Declaration. And, even more apparently, we have a ways to go. Until we really are a society and a country where people of all colors, faiths and orientations are actually experiencing REAL FREEDOM, we will keep at it.
Donald J. Trump is a national lesson for us to learn from. He models all of the vile characteristics that we so despise....at least those of us who are not lost and wandering in the foggy woods of moral turpitude. We are being challenged to either admit we have failed at the delicate art of creating and maintaining a democratic society, or to rise up and realize that this is yet another test of our resolve to do that. In 20 days we will pass through another portal, and we will come out the other side knowing that we can find our way back to sanity, kindness, compassion and genuine fairness and equality....or that we are not yet done with our national flirtation with grave danger.....the dark future of a society that has embraced lies, deceit, cruelty, greed and violence on all levels. If we do happen to fall off of that precipice...and, it is still and truly possible....things are going to get even a whole lot nastier than what we have been through already.
Therefore, it is up to us. What we need out of this pivotal election season is what is being referred to as a, "Blue Tsunami", a massive and decisive turn-out of our fellow Americans...a vote so overwhelmingly and undeniably clear that the Idiot will be unable to finagle his way around it. I do not subscribe to the notion that the idiots and assholes will succeed in the end.
No! They will not. Not if what we are seeing the first signs of already comes to pass. People, God bless them, are indeed making the effort, to stand in long lines for hours, to do whatever it takes to get their vote counted.
Yes, the GOPs will do all they can to sabotage, undermine and outright steal the election. They have long ago given up the idea that honesty, fairness, honor and integrity matter.....at all. They are behaving according to the rules that guided pirates in the wild and wooly distant past: Grab all you can get and let the devil take the hindmost. In other words, "I want as much as I can get, and to hell with you." They are demonstrating this complete absence of any moral constraints every day and in everything they do, like this business with pushing through Amy Coney Barrett's nomination, despite having denied Obama the same right to choose a justice. Hypocrisy is just fine with them, doesn't matter at all.
So, we have to stay the course and keep focused on getting them out of power. They have done nothing but feather their own nests and those of the very rich, and big corporate interests. Time for them to go.
Thank you, Americans who are standing in line to vote. And, thank you American Heroes who have sacrificed so very much to help us through the pandemic.
ONWARD.
No comments:
Post a Comment