Welcome to Max Lewis, former Green Beret and now a lawyer. He's one of the contributing authors to The Declaration of Independence series:
Imagine
how the signers of The Declaration of Independence feel while looking
down from heaven and listening to their critics. The thought never
occurred to me until my publisher asked me to write a fictional short
story relating how John Hancock experienced the 4th of July.
Before starting, I read Herbert S. Allan’s even-handed biography of
Hancock. Yes, the founders were all human: Hancock was vain and a
clothes horse, for example. But when you study the founding of America
from the perspective of a founder, the greatness of these men staggers
you.
“But they didn’t free the slaves and women and blacks couldn’t vote!”
Guess
what? No one could meaningfully vote and everyone, everywhere, was in
some form of bondage. The English themselves were “subjects.” Except for
royalty and a small number of men in a handful of tiny Greek city
states, no one had ever controlled their destiny.
Writing
in the first person forces you to see things through the eyes of the
character or historic figure, to imagine what they felt, wanted, and
thought. The founders were operating on uncharted waters, laying the
foundation to free all mankind and making things up as they went. They
were doing it while at war with the most powerful Empire on the face of
the planet. On January 1, 1776, George Washington discovered he had only
8,000 enlistments instead of the 20,000 planned. Georgia and South
Carolina announced they would not sign if slavery were denounced, let
alone outlawed.
As
I imagine Hancock saying, “The hard truth is we will not free the Negro
slaves . . . not because we don’t want to, but because we can’t. The
southerners would revolt . . . freeing the black man will require a war
and the forces of liberty are barely able to fight one war, let alone
two.”
On
July 4, 1776, the founders were almost to the man well-educated,
affluent, and doing quite well as subjects of Britain. In the 18th
century, traitors were hung from a gibbet with their hands tied behind
their back. Rather than breaking their necks, the traitor took about ten
minutes to strangle to death. Traitors’ property was forfeited, so
their families were left impoverished. While the founders were signing
their own death warrant, Benedict Arnold was trying to keep his army
from disintegrating as he retreated from the disastrous Canadian
campaign. "I have often thought how much happier I would have been,"
said Washington, "if, instead of accepting a command under such
circumstances, I had taken up a musket on my shoulder and entered the
ranks.”
They
were great men; yet, consider the petulance with which they were
treated. While reviewing “The Price they Paid” e-mail about the
founders, the left wing site “Snopes” called it part true, part false.
Why? Here’s an example: “Francis Lewis had his home and properties
destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.”
Snopes - “yeah, well . . . she was already sick.” Seriously. I
paraphrase, so check it out for yourselves. Part of the disdain appears
to be petty racism, sexism, and anti-Christianity. The founders were
white male Christians, but there may be something deeper. Writing about
an attack on the the framers, Professor Walter Williams wrote, “If I
believed in conspiracies, I'd say (Time’s) article is part of a leftist
agenda to undermine respect for the founding values of our nation.”
Hancock
might have said, “No doubt, those who hate liberty and embrace hate
amongst the races will use this against us not only now, but far into
the future. We can only trust this and future generations will be wise
enough to detect the charlatan, understand his aim, and reject his
deception. That battle is for another time and will be fought by other
men. We must fight the one in front of us now.”
"This
is a column of opinion and satire" Max Lewis says then adds that he
knows of no undisclosed facts. Contact Lewis, the author of John
Hancock, in Remington Colt's Revolutionary War Series, and visit him at
josephmaxlewis.com then click on Rimersburg Rules. © Joseph M. Lewis
