Welcome to July 4th week on the Eagle’s Quill. This is my other favorite holiday (the other being jingle bells and all that), and it is a time for me to reflect on the amazing history of our country. In our homeschool, we talk a lot about the “world stage”, using our historical timelines to see when certain important figures entered the stage (were born) and exited the stage (died) in the grand live performance of world history. For us, this points out God’s hand in history in bringing certain discoveries, explorations, inventions, and accomplishments to the earth with carefully calculated precision.
Nowhere is this more evident to me than in the miraculous placement of the American Founding Fathers during the beginnings of our country. Benjamin Franklin was one of the first to enter the stage, being born in 1706, followed by George Wythe in 1726. Wythe was not only a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a member of the Constitutional Convention, but served as a teacher and mentor for many other leaders, including Thomas Jefferson. George Washington, John Adams, and Patrick Henry were born in 1732, 1735, and 1736 respectively. In 1743 Thomas Jefferson took his place on the stage, with James Madison following in 1751 and Alexander Hamilton in 1755. These are just a few of the many who worked hard to form a new nation.
It’s no mistake that these infants were born at the time and in the place they were, or that they were brought together at the appropriate time to fulfill their destiny. Having accomplished their noble task, they began exiting the stage in the late 1700s. And here’s a bit of remarkable trivia for you. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both passed away on the same day–July 4, 1826, the 50th birthday of the United States of America. Shakespeare could not have written a better play.
Said John Adams in a letter to his wife Abigail, May 12, 1780, “I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.”
They certainly knew and played well their parts on the world stage.
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