Revolutionary Reader: Reminiscences and Indian LegendsFoster, Sophie Lee
History
Revolutionary Reader: Reminiscences and Indian Legends
Foster, Sophie Lee
Georgia -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783; Indians of North America; United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Anecdotes
No man or woman can be as good a citizen without some knowledge of this
most interesting subject, nor enjoy so fully their grand country!
Some one has pertinently said "history is innumerable biographies;" and
what child or grown person is there who does not enjoy being told of
some "great person?" Every man, private, military or civil officer, who
took part in the Revolutionary war was great!
It is not generally known that the _executive power_ of the state
rested in those troublesome times in the county committees; but it was
they who executed all the orders of the Continental Congress.
The provincial council was for the whole state; the district committee
for the safety of each district, and the county and town committees for
each county and town.
It was through the thought, loyalty and enduring bravery of the men
who constituted these committees, that we of today have a constitution
that gives us "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"--in whatever
manner pleases us, so long as it does not trespass on another's well
being.
We do not give half the honor we should to our ancestry, who have done
so much for us! We zealously seek and preserve the pedigrees of our
horses, cows and chickens, and really do not _know_ whether we come
from a mushroom or a monkey!
When we think of it, it is a much more honorable and greater thing to
be a Son or Daughter of the American Revolution, than to be a prince
or princess, for one comes through noble deeds done by thinking,
justice-loving men, and the other through an accident of birth. Let
us examine a little into a few of these "biographies" and see wherein
their greatness lies, that they like righteous Abel, "though dead yet
speak."
The number seven stands for completeness and perfection--let us see if
seven imaginary questions can be answered by their lives.
James Edward Oglethorpe was born in 1696, and died in 1785--two years
after the Revolutionary war. He planted the Colony of Georgia, in
which the oppressed found refuge. He had served in the army of Prince
Eugene of Savoy in the war with the Turks. He founded the city of
Savannah, Georgia. He exported to England the first silk made in the
colonies, of which the queen had a dress made. King George II gave
him a seal representing a family of silk worms, with their motto:
"Not for ourselves but for others." He forbade the importation of rum
into the colony. He refused the command of the British forces sent in
1775 to reduce, or subdue the American Colonies. In this life told in
seven questions, or rather answered, we find much--a religious man,
a soldier, an architect (of a city), one versed in commerce, a wise
legislator and a man who had the respect of the king--the head of
England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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