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Sometimes the rigors of daily life just get too overwhelming, causing me to turn to other less stressful items of interest. So I am now reading, “Benjamin Franklin -- An American Life,” by famed biographer, Walter Isaacson. It is already an amazing story about an amazing man, and I am not half way through its 586 pages --- small type, no pictures! Benjamin Franklin: author, inventor, scientist, politician, raconteur. But he considered himself, first and foremost, to be a printer. And would generally sign his name, “Benjamin Franklin, printer.” For in that Colonial period, a printer was a person of...

Six maps from the American War of Independence, which helped convince George Washington to make a crucial change in strategy, go up for auction in a French chateau next month.

The First Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, being appointed by George Washington, was also President of the American Bible Society. Who was he? John Jay, who died MAY 17, 1829. As President of the Continental Congress, John Jay approved the "Circular Letter from the Congress of the United States of America to their Constituents," September 13, 1779: "Friends and Fellow Citizens... In governments raised on the generous principles of equal liberty... the rulers of the state are the servants of the people, and not the masters of those from whom they derive authority... ...The ungrateful despotism and inordinate...

In a gripping new look at the important relationship between American founders George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, Stephen F. Knott and Tony Williams – authors of the new book Washington and Hamilton: The Alliance That Formed America, tell the story below of the American founding, which would not have been possible without this grand alliance.  While many historians focus on the friendship and alliance of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, Washington and Hamilton reminds us why America would truly not be the prosperous country it is today without this special alliance.Congratulations Stephen & Tony on the paperback release of your new book: Washington and...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – Two state lawmakers have introduced legislation that would require Pennsylvania’s high school students to have a basic understanding of American history and civics before graduating. House Bill 1858 would require that students pass a test on 100 basic facts from the United States Citizenship Civics Test, the test all immigrants must pass when applying for U.S. citizenship.

The wreckage of the Endeavour, the storied British ship that 18th-century explorer Captain James Cook sailed through the uncharted South Pacific, may lie a few hundred feet off Rhode Island’s coast in Newport Harbor, researchers said Wednesday. The 105-foot (32-meter) long, three-masted bark, later renamed the Lord Sandwich, had been hired out by the British Royal Navy as a troop transport when it was one of 13 ships deliberately sunk by the British in 1778 in an effort to blockade the harbor.

On April 8, 2016, military historian and author Patrick K. O’Donnell spoke at the Heritage Foundation to discuss his book “Washington’s Immortals,” a book about the forgotten people and battles in the revolutionary war. The author discusses facts of the war that many schools fail to recognize; these include details of the colonists’ struggles with the loyalists, the soldiers’ shortages of clothing and food, and the sacrifices of many wealthy colonists. The stories in this book of the band of brotherhood and the sacrifices of the colonists are beneficial for students in order for them to fully understand American values....

History came on horseback here early Monday morning, with the breathless cries of a rider warning: “The Regulars are just down the road! They’re massing for battle.” Decked in lobster-red, marching up what’s now Massachusetts Avenue and onto the Common, the British soldiers did come, finding a ragtag band of local militiamen standing their ground, unwilling to disperse. The story of what happened next — the shot of unknown provenance, the lopsided battle, the American Revolution — has been told and retold for 241 years. But it was fresh to some of the thousands of spectators and performers at the...

Sixteen year old Sybil Luddington was a hero of the Revolutionary War.....as revolution number two shapes up, we could learn some lessons from our ancestors.

FAIRFAX, Va. --(Ammoland.com)- The National Rifle Association has selected Marlene Duncan of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, to receive the 2011 Sybil Ludington Women’s Freedom Award. This award recognizes exceptional accomplishments of modern heroines through their legislative activism as well as advocacy, volunteerism, and education of others to the goals of the Second Amendment and the NRA on a national level. For the past 30 years, Duncan’s involvement in and support of the shooting sports and Second Amendment has been invaluable not only to the NRA, but to her community and the many lives that she has touched through her hard...

Revere thoroughly deserves his place in American history, but another courageous American has been ill-served by those who write books about the Revolutionary War. Revere was 40 at the time of his journey, but she was a girl of 16. Born at Patterson, Putnam County, N.Y., on April 5, 1761, she was the eldest of 12 children born to Henry and Abigail Ludington. On the stormy night of April 26, 1777, she is said to have been putting her younger siblings to bed when the family had a visitor. Close to exhaustion, a messenger had come to tell her father...

Paul Revere gets all of the credit, but he never actually finished that famous ride, and in fact warned the British that the Americans were coming. William Dawes and Samuel Prescott were left out of the poem and subsequently most elementary history books: it was actually Samuel Prescott who completed the midnight ride.

There is a line from John Adams of which conservatives, particularly those of a moralistic bent, are fond: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people." The surrounding prose is quoted much less frequently, and it is stern stuff dealing with one of Adams’s great fears - one that is particularly relevant to this moment in our history. John Adams hated democracy and he feared what was known in the language of the time as "passion." Adams's famous assessment: "I do not say that democracy has been more pernicious on the whole, and in the long run,...

Casimir Pulaski Day is a holiday observed in Chicago, Illinois on the first Monday of every March in memory of Casimir Pulaski (March 6, 1745 – October 11, 1779), a Revolutionary War cavalry officer born in Poland as Kazimierz Michał Władysław Wiktor Pułaski. He is praised for his contributions to the U.S. military in the American Revolution and known as "the father of the American cavalry". Casimir Pulaski Day Casimir Pulaski

" . . . Sir, there are two passions which have a powerful influence on the affairs of men. These are ambition and avarice; the love of power, and the love of money. Separately each of these has great force in prompting men to action; but when united in view of the same object, they have in many minds the most violent effects. Place before the eyes of such men, a post of honour that shall be at the same time a place of profit, and they will move heaven and earth to obtain it. The vast number of such...

Today is George Washington’s Birthday. I thought I would post a proofread version of his famous Rules of Civility. George Washington was a product of the time in which he lived, as are we. Grammar and Punctuation were much different 270 years ago than they are today. Periods and commas were not used in places where they are used today, and words that are not capitalized now were capitalized then. In some cases, I have substituted words. In some cases, I have left the original words. Some of these translate well to today, and some don't. For example, the rules...

The great George Washington was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia on February 22, 1732, and served about seventeen years as a delegate in the Virginia colony’s House of Burgesses. He is remembered for many other things as well. The Father of his Country was known as a successful merchant, farmer, and horticulturalist, a prominent frontier soldier and wartime commander, and of course, the first President of these United States. But, oddly, his service as a legislator is largely forgotten. These United States have sent 43 men to the office of the Presidency, so far. Some have been governors, others cabinet...

One thing progressives are very, very good at is omitting facts that they find to be too difficult to deal with. So it goes for all of the black heroes who fought alongside our Founding Fathers during the American Revolution. The progressives continual racial narrative is what it is. I first learned of this book through Founders Fridays, because of the work of David Barton. After I read about 5 or 10 pages, I knew it needed to be made into an audiobook so that more people could consume it. Progressives have controlled the universities, have controlled history; for over...

The General's Eggnog One quart of cream One quart of milk A dozen eggs One pint of brandy A half pint of rye A quarter pint of rum A quarter pint of sherry Christmas of 1826 was snowy, cold and lonely for the cadets of West Point. Though called "men" they were really teenage boys -- some as young as 17 -- and they wanted to celebrate Christmas. Young Jefferson Davis, future president of the Confederate States of America, was amongst them. But West Point then, as it is now, was a house of order and discipline. The military...

For several weeks, an 18th century replica ship has traveled across the Atlantic Ocean from France to the U.S. L'Hermione is an exact copy of the vessel sailed by the Marquis de Lafayette in 1780 to notify his friend, General George Washington, that the French king had agreed to provide troops and resources to the flailing Continental Army. This week, the boat is docked in the Washington, D.C. area, fittingly near Mount Vernon, and various French and American entities are feting the occasion. They have good reason. America's first and longest ally is France, despite occasional variances in political dispositions....