Happy Birthday Benjamin Franklin

[scipio]

He would be 300 today.

Fucking genius.

Here are some quotes of his:

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.
He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that's the stuff life is made of.

He would roll over in his grave if he could see the state of us today.

Discuss.

[TomSelis]

My favorite founding father, right after Alexander Hamilton.

[BlackAdder]

Hes rolling in his damned grave right about now....

[flabbybody]

could never deal with the fact that Thomas Jefferson and George Washington created our democracy and wrote our constitution. Truly our founding fathers.

BUT, they owned slaves. Human beings were their property. took another 75 years to deal with that minor glych.

[Edmund]

could never deal with the fact that Thomas Jefferson and George Washington created our democracy and wrote our constitution. Truly our founding fathers.

BUT, they owned slaves. Human beings were their property. took another 75 years to deal with that minor glych.

Well, whatever the glitch, I'm sure it had nothing to do that they lived in the south in the 1700s, where the entire economy was slave-based. Yes, they were horrible people. George Washington wasn't well known for treating his slaves extremely well, and never wrote on his growing unease with what he called the "peculiar institution". He didn't prevent slave families from being separated, he didn't prohibit slavery in all new US territory in his lifetime, and he didn't free all of his slaves immediately upon his death.

"There is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see some plan adopted for the gradual abolition [of slavery]."

Who wrote that? Couldn't be George Washington!

As for Jefferson, like Washington, he kept slaves for some reason other than it being a vital part of southern plantation life. His slaves were, for the most part, neither inherited from his dead wife, nor held as a lien against his considerable debts. He never tried to get slavery abolished in his lifetime, and his harsh condemnation of slavery in the first draft of the Declaration of Independence was taken out for reasons other than pressure from South Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia delegates. As governor of Virginia, he totally didn't end all importation of slaves to that state. And of course, it's well-proven he knocked up Sally Hemings.

[scipio]

could never deal with the fact that Thomas Jefferson and George Washington created our democracy and wrote our constitution. Truly our founding fathers.

BUT, they owned slaves. Human beings were their property. took another 75 years to deal with that minor glych.

WTF?
Benjamin Franklin was a shoo-in for first president of the constitutional convention.
But he wasn't there.
So he wrote a letter recommending George Washington be President. He was extremely popular anyway, of course.

True, Washington and Jefferson were important founding fathers, deserving great respect (along with Thomas Paine, who deserves far more respect and recognition than he gets in the modern age).

But that they were MORE founding father than Franklin? I must disagree.

[Skillet]

You all realize he's dead, right?

[flabbybody]

my vote for favorite founding father is Hamilton. He lived in Manhattan and distrusted slave-owning Southerners. He, more than anyone else, knew the new country needed a strong currency in order to survive. He created the Federal Reserve Bank that regulates money supply and interest rates to this very day. Hamilton was the person that George Washington counted on the most.

his downfall was picking a fight with a guy that had a faster trigger finger.

[Quinn]

my vote for favorite founding father is Hamilton. He lived in Manhattan and distrusted slave-owning Southerners. He, more than anyone else, knew the new country needed a strong currency in order to survive. He created the Federal Reserve Bank that regulates money supply and interest rates to this very day. Hamilton was the person that George Washington counted on the most.

his downfall was picking a fight with a guy that had a faster trigger finger.

He was my favorite founding father for many of the same reasons. Out of their number, he seemed to have the best sense of exactly who he was as a person. Regarding the duel, he knew he was almost certainly going to die, but he went anyway. In preperation, he wrote the following to his wife:

If it had been possible for me to have avoided the interview, my love for you and my precious children would have been alone a decisive motive. But it was not possible, without sacrifices which would have rendered me unworthy of your esteem. ...Adieu best of wives and best of Women.

For him, walking away would have made him into someone other than the man he was; consequently, he made the decision to die as the man he wanted to be rather than live as someone else. Talk about dying with your boots on.

-Quinn

[yourdaddy]

Ben also said, "A stitch in time, saves nine". America is strong enough under the present leader, to try and save you libs from islamic domination. The former regime was absolutely impotent, when it came to confronting the problem. Now the "progressives", would rather berate Christians, because they think it is politically correct.