The answer is so obvious, in Tom's opinion, he is sometimes bewildered by the way no one seems to get it. Take out a dollar bill and study that figure in the fright wig, with the uneven, uncertain mouth. What modern man or women can identify with that uncomfortable, sleepy-eyed oldster?
A bit of history is needed to explain how this Washington got into circulation. In 1932, when we were celebrating the 200th anniversary of his birth, a committee of capital bureaucrats, messing up in classic government-by-committee style, selected this late painting by Gilbert Stuart as the official image of Washington. ``Get rid of this atrocity, and I guarantee that Washington will undergo a resurrection,'' Tom declares
What shall we put in place of the current $1.00 disaster? Easy. Charles Willson Peale's 1779 portrait of the Washington who won the Revolution. Tom made it the centerpiece of his book, Liberty! The American Revolution, He has shown it to dozens of audiences in his lecturing around the country. Invariably there is a gasp of surprise. No one can believe it is the same man they have been accustomed to seeing -- and ignoring.
If you look at the other founding fathers on the currency, you will be struck by the difference between them and Washington's image. Most of the others are real. Lincoln on the five dollar bill emanates a sorrowful dignity, in keeping with his identity as a liberator and martyr. On the $20.00 bill Andrew Jackson practically crackles with the intensity that won the crucial battle of New Orleans and made him the most popular president of his era. Even Alexander Hamilton on the ten looks like the shrewd tough thinker who redeemed America's financial reputation.
As historian Gordon Wood put it recently, Washington was an extraordinary man who created a nation and a government that permitted ordinary men to succeed him. He is too important to obfuscate behind a work of art that sends us all the wrong messages. ``Put the real Washington on the dollar bill and he'll soon be first in our hearts -- and in our heads -- again.
``Write to your congressman. Send him this message,'' Tom pleaded. He promises xerox copies of the Peale portrait to anyone who wants them. Send the message to our website, or to him at TFlem37048@Aol.com
One item that stirred lively discussion was the possibility of a field trip. Peter Ford, who functions as Colonel of the Royal Welch Fusileers in his reenactor's life, proposed a visit to the Monmouth battlefield next June. It is a magnet for reenactors, and Garry Stone would make sure we had a hearty welcome. Best of all, it could all be accomplished in a day. Anyone interested? Contact the website or Chairman Dave Jacobs at 6 Grovedale Road
Niantic Ct. 06357. Or call Jim Davis, whose number appears in the meeting notice.
Former Chairman Ed Mills sent us the last of his remarkable library of books on the Revolution in June. They were auctioned off and brought in almost $200. Among the gems was a 1784 edition of a diary from the 1782 siege of Gibraltar and a first edition of a 1902 life of John Andre.
Thanks Ed! You've been a loyal friend for too many years to count.
Our Maximum Leader, aka Dave Jacobs, has asked the editors to list the following books as a bit overdue by those who have received them. The Lamp of Experience by Trevor Colbourn, Jefferson's Declaration of Independence by Allen Jayne, If Men Were Angels by Richard Matthews, Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary Hero by James Martin. We won't list the derelict reviewers for the nonce. But their names may be in the next issue!
Benjamin Franklin, the classic American overachiever, would surely be proud of The Electric Ben Franklin (www.ushistory.org/franklin). Not only does it include full texts of his autobiography and his contributions to the New England Courant and the Declaration of Independence, it also features a few electronic liberties. Visitors get a BF impersonator expounding on what Franklin might have thought about the Internet. Another page applies animation to the image of Ben on the $100 bill. His mouth moves as he tosses off some of his better lines. (Tom Fleming says if they do that to Washington, he's leaving the country.)
In a recent strip, Charles Schulz has Snoopy and his little pale, Tweetie Bird, shivering at Valley Forge. General Washington gives Snoopy a message for Tom Paine, asking him for his thoughts. Paine replies: ``These are the times that try men's souls.'' Snoopy decides it's too depressing. He rewrites it: ``No problem. Have a nice day.'' It makes Washington feel a lot better.
Last year a New Jersey Republican state senator proposed a bill, requiring public school students to recite the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, ``We hold these truths, etc'' each day. Democrat Nia Gill of Essex County objected. She wanted to substitute ``all people'' for ``all men'' and wanted the students to also recite the 13th amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery, and the 19th, establishing woman suffrage. Another Democrat found Jefferson's reference to the ``creator'' distressing. She said it was an attempt to introduce prayer into the public schools. When last heard from, the bill was languishing.
The word is out that Mel Gibson, star of Braveheart and other hits, has hired the screenwriter of Saving Private Ryan to do a script starring him as a peaceful family man who goes off to fight the British in 1775. Titled The Patriot, Gibson hopes to get it on the nation's screens in the summer of 2000. He promises only one thing. Like Braveheart, it will be ``uncompromising.'' Let's hope it will also be a little more accurate, historically, than Saving Private Ryan.
Several issues back, while reviewing the Washington Exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York, this observer noted the display of a lock of the General's hair and wondered if anyone wished to perform DNA tests. Little did he realize he was being prophetic.
In the July 7, 1999, New york Times, three descendants of West Ford, the son of Venus, a slave on Bushfield, the estate of John Augustine Washington, the president's brother, claim that West Ford's mother, Venus, told family members that her son's father was George Washington.
A portrait of West Ford made in 1858 shows a fairskinned man. But no proof exists that GW and Venus ever met. Bushfield was a two day ride from Mount Vernon. Ford seems to have been born in June, 1784 or November 1785. Washington's diary reveals a visit to Bushfield in April 1784 for the funeral of a 17 year old nephew. This does not jibe with either birth date.
This has not prevented the Ford descendants from consulting Dr. Eugene Foster (of Jefferson DNA fame) Dr. Foster wants DNA from males of the Ford and Washington lines. They're presently discussing this with descendants of a Washington nephew, Corbin. The Ladies of the Mount Vernon Association refuse to provide hair samples and the FBI has been unable to collect enough certified DNA from four museums where locks of GW's hair repose.
If not George, who is West Ford's father? As with Jefferson, there are plenty of other candidates, such as one of John Augustine's sons, possibly Bushrod, the future Supreme Court justice. After GW's death he lived at Mount Vernon and brought Ford with him. He left him a tract of land in his will. Another son was named George Augustine Washington. Some speculate the middle name got lost as Venus's story passed through the generations.
Where this will finally lead is anyone's guess, but descendants of Madison might begin looking over their shoulders.
Our favorite watering place will be presenting the last but certainly not the least Washington show of 1999. Entitled ``Washington in Glory, America In Tears,'' the exhibit will run from October 8, 1999 through April 2nd, 2000. Your revolutionary culture vulture will review it in our next newsletter.
June's answers: John Barry's ship was named Lexington. John Paul Jones' ship, Bonhomme Richard was originally named Duc de Duras. Benedict Arnold's Valcour Island flagship was Congress. John Peck Rathbun's flagship at Nassau, where the Stars and Stripes first flew over a captured foreign post, was Providence. Admiral De Grasse's flagship at Yorktown was Ville de Paris.
This month we celebrate the 225th anniversary of the First Continental Congress. Hence the following brain-strainers.