Was America Founded by Rich Old Men?

There is a myth in America today that our country was founded by a bunch of rich old white men who were only trying to protect their riches. This is a lie. There is no other way to say it.

I will address these lies with a selection of facts. It may well be said that this is not a “balanced” historical presentation. That is not my intention. My intention here is to address common misconceptions – all history is a reflection of facts chosen by the author. Each historian makes decisions as to what is important and what is not. It is my contention (similar to Napoleon who said that history is the lies we agree upon,) that some of the facts that have been left out of our nations historical narrative are actually very important in combating the one-sided approach that too many authors have used in the last 75 years. At times it seems to not only border upon but cross over into propaganda. In fairness to many prominent historians, they are following the path well-trodden by their forebears and are only ignoring the same data that historians before them also ignored. I present some of those in my writing.

First lets get the admin stuff out of the way. I am sorry we disappeared for several months. We do not receive monetary support from enough people to guarantee our operation. A recent contribution will keep us going for a little bit but doesn’t allow me to reorganize and recreate the site on a different model that would make it easier to find topics of interest. So for now, Freedom Troopers, we will have to maintain this blog format. If you can help then please do and if you cannot add to our purse I urge you to recommend this site to friends or others whom you believe may be interested. I will be trying to maintain a schedule of publishing on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday to the best of my ability. However, I am only one man doing the research and writing both. If you would like to alert me to something you would like me to address or give encouragement you can write me at Daniel.Saber@sabersedge.online

Ben Franklin was by far the oldest of the rebels born in 1706 he was 69 in 1775 when the fighting at Lexington and Concord started. By contrast John Adams was 40, Thomas Jefferson was 32, and James Madison was 24. George Washington was an ancient, revered, and respected 43. None of these men inherited riches but all became respected and established men of honor.

It was Jefferson, at the age of 33 – not a rich old man, who wrote the initial draft of the Declaration of Independence. When Franklin queried him about his diatribe about the King of England responsible for the “execrable” practice of slavery in the colonies Franklin thought the words to be imprudent and could cost them the support of the Southern states that depended on slavery for their economy. (Jefferson was from the state of Virginia right in the middle of the slave colonies of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas, and Georgia.) The young idealist responded something like, “I was asked to write it. I have written what I have written.” Adams and Franklin said it should be removed and in the final drafts he copied to be read by the assembly he copied his draft (including his opinions on slavery,) and then just put a line through it so that it could be read but it was clear that had been removed from the final draft. The Declaration was debated for three days and Thomas Jefferson became a little protective of his document and what he had written. Which was reasonable considering they were his deep-felt views. This the passage they removed on slavery (Jefferson said they were too protective of English sensibilities.) Here is the passage on slavery that was removed (proving Jefferson was well aware of the implications of what he wrote):

“He [King George] has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither.  This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain.  Determined to keep open a market where Men should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative [veto] for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce.  And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he has obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed again[st] the Liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another. “

(One of the sources I used for this is: https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/declaration-independence-and-debate-over-slavery/) (Also: In his Documents that Changed the World podcast, University of Washington Information School professor Joe Janes explores the meaning of some historical documents including the Declaration of Independence. While I might quibble over some things that he says what I have heard of the podcast seem to be good.)

Years later Jefferson signed into law the bill that made the import of slaves into America illegal and believed that the law would bring about an eventual end to slavery. He wrote about the condemnation of slavery being removed from the declaration much later when he said:

“The clause…reprobating the enslaving the inhabitants of Africa, was struck out in compliance to South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves, and who on the contrary still wished to continue it. Our Northern brethren also I believe felt a little tender under these censures; for tho’ their people have very few slaves themselves, yet they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others.”

It is fashionable to blame slavery on the Southern states but the New England states made considerable money in the rum/slave/sugar trade – which Jefferson’s quote refers to when he mentioned they were “pretty considerable carriers of them to others.”

In the early 1800s, long before the American Civil War it was Great Britain and the United States whose ships patrolled the West Coast of Africa to blockade and interdict the African slave trade which continued in South America and the Middle East long after the American Civil War.

George Washington, a veteran of the Seven Years War (called by Americans the French and Indian Wars because it was against the French and Indians – although the Indians who didn’t like the Indians who were fighting with the French fought with the colonists and British,) was born in 1732 and was 22 at the start of that war. He was only 23 when he was appointed the aide de camp to General Braddock for his heroism, outspokenness, and sharp mind. He saw Braddock’s defeat and commanded the retreat. It was Washington who ordered Braddock burid in an unmarked grave so that the Indians would not dig it up and desecrate it. He cleverly buried Braddock in the middle of the dirt road so that when the retreating army marched over it they would destroy all trace off its existence.

Washington inherited a small farm as the non-biological heir of a rich family that his mom married into after his father died – the biological heirs getting the larger shares. His mother was never happy about how small his share was, but Washington didn’t seem to mind and whatever estates he had he worked for and bought the land on his salary, he originally wanted a military career but didn’t have the connections to get a commission in the British Regulars. It turns out that events would turn him against the actions of England anyway.

Washington later married the Widow Custis who had two children with her former husband that Washington treated as his own. Washington’s trusted friend and audacious cavalry commander Light Horse Harry Lee was the father of later General Robert E. Lee who married George Washington’s great-granddaughter the only surviving child of George Washington Parke Custis. I mention this because the only man Lee ever idolized was “the Great Washington.”

George Washington was later called “the Great Washington” because he had rejected the urging of many to become King of America and turned control of the Army back to the Congress.

General Lee lived with his wife and family in Arlington (the home of George Washington’s son John Parke Custis and then passed down to his son George Washington Parke Custis upon his death, until it was passed into the hands of Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee the wife of General Robert E. Lee before the Civil War. At the of the War Union Generals put a guard around the house because of its connection to the “Great Washington” to preserve its heirlooms at the request of Ms. Lee nee Custis/Washington. (Remember that most of the early generals of the war were all friends because they served together in the small US Army and fought together in the Mexican American War.) Later, out of what can only be called spite, the Union officers began burying Union dead all over the Washington estate so that it could never be lived in again. Further, they looted the house and carried away George Washington’s family heirlooms (only some of which were ever recovered.)

Washington was outspoken in his youth and had a temper. Both of which got him posted to the worst post he could have had in his youth. The Great Washington that we know is the man who learned from these mistakes and who listened attentively and only spoke when he had something significant to say. He is a man of herculean control who was almost never ruffled because he learned to control his temper. Only those closest to him, like his best friend and slave William “Billy” Lee, his valet for twenty years, Washington usually referred to him as William, knew this to be the case. It was William who organized and maintained General Washington’s papers and strove to remain at his side when he was elected President.

Washington often referred to Billy as “my family” and they were always seen together. It was widely said that Washington was the best horseman in the 13 colonies and Billy was second because he was always at Washington’s side (one of the few who could keep up with his master during the fox hunts.) In a particularly grievous battle General Washington’s aides tried to get him to pull back out of range of the musket fire (let alone the artillery,) but Washington refused and dismissed the danger as inconsequential. It was at that point that William Lee rode forward and put himself between George and the enemy. Washington commanded him to get back to safety and he said, “No sir, my master has assured me the danger is inconsequential.” Washington acquiesced to go to the rear if William accompanied him to safety. For more about William Lee go here: https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/william-billy-lee/

The George and Martha Washington estates had over three hundred enslaved people. 123 were owned by Washington and were ordered to be freed in his will upon the death of his wife. He also ordered that any slaves who were too old or injured to work would be supported and taken care of by his estate for the rest of their lives. The rest of the slaves were part of the Custis estate and could not legally be freed by George or Martha but passed to her children upon her death. The only slave freed immediately upon George Washington’s death was William Lee who was given a stipend of 30$ a month for the rest of his life and was not required to do anything for it. He chose to live at the Arlington, Mount Vernon for the rest of his life. (For contrast a private in the army was paid $6.67 a month and a captain 20$ while a colonel made 50$.)

General Lee inherited slaves from his father in law from the Custis side and he freed those who his wife inherited after educating them in reading, writing, and “cyphering” which is what they used to call arithmetic. Lee said that if they were not educated so that they could be active members of society then people would take advantage of them. There is a story of a young freed slave woman who was in New York and a NY woman brought in a bolt of calico for them to make themselves dresses out of. The young emancipated woman was indignant, “I’m not going to wear that! It’s been out of style for years. I am of the Lee family and we know what is proper and what is not!”

For more about the Washington Family and slavery see: https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/slavery/ten-facts-about-washington-slavery/

The founding of the Americas were not anchored in slavery nor in the genocide of “native” Americans who are no more native than we are – (having crossed over on the Asian land bridge or arrived by ancient sea-going vessels of a myriad of designs.) Therefore, you may notice that I tend to call them First Peoples because they were the first immigrants – according to science.

It is interesting that Leftists are so concerned about colonialism and invasion of every land EXCEPT Europe and Israel where the indigenous peoples in those locations (whose roots also go back thousands of years,) are irrelevant as the cultures that built the greatest and most technologically advanced civilization in the known history of the human race is being destroyed by an invasion of military age males of Islamic countries. The left is completely ignoring the decades of “intent” declared by Islamic leaders that infiltrating other nations and then subverting them and out-breeding them was how they were going to “conquer the world for Islam.” But its just one more of mainstream media’s lies and half-truths.

It may seem that this is out of place here in this discussion, but bear with me. I was reading Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Warning to the West the other day and I came across a statement he made where he questioned why America had recognized the Communist regime of Soviet Russia when they knew that it killed millions of its own citizens. He said that “the Great Washington” [George that is] did not recognize the Republic of France because of the orgy of violence that accompanied the French Revolution yet a century and a half later they recognize the Soviet Union who had much more blood on their hands. He asked why? Today we can ask ourselves why so many are willing to ignore the orgy of violence against jews over the past five decades and forgive rape, murder, and torture in the name of Islam by terrorists. It seems today, as when we recognized the Soviet Union there are too many in America lacking the principles and values that America was founded on. I think “the Great Washington” looks on in sadness.

For more on the above quote see the East African Center for Law and Justice: Is the Goal of Islam Conquest?

If you would like to study where ideas for the United States and our government actually came from the book First Principles, What America’s Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How that Shaped Our Country by Thomas E. Ricks. Like most authors from academia, he has a liberal bias, but it is a good work. However, he mentions that Jefferson “apparently” did not realize the hypocrisy of writing “all men are created equal.” So, this historian, like so many today, apparently is unaware of the draft of the Declaration and its edits. I found that disappointing in a book that is presenting “First Principles” but like the story of William “Billy” Lee, which he also ignores (or is ignorant of,) he does not address these things.

In fairness “conservative” sources leave out other things in their selection of the facts, no historian can include everything and what they leave out show their biases as much as what they choose to include. But this ongoing bias of history, politics, and social commentary is why SabersEdge was created along with its sister site (much neglected,) ofNaturesGod.com I am not immune to my own bias but I tend to be biased toward original primary documents and a Jeffersonian Republic mediated by modern scientific understanding and experience. This does not mean my view is perfect, it just means I have no home in either political party…political parties which the founding fathers had hoped that we could leave behind us in England. There are many misconceptions and ideas about our founders that have been forgotten or even twisted or lied about but they are valuable and we should know them as foundations for building us a future in freedom and peace.

Alas in our history, political parties began to form side by side with the government.

I had a young man show me a presentation by another young man which showed how the political parties were naturally and mathematically whittled down to only two by our political system of government. It was logical but completely false in its relevance to American Politics. America has never been a multi-party society. From the beginning questions were not “is it Left or Right?” but does the law or action make us “more free or less free?” The question of Left or Right was created in the last hundred years (primarily,) in imitation of England by political parties that were no longer concerned with the question “does it make us more free or less free?”

This is, perhaps, one of the ideas of our forebears that we need to use as a foundation for our future. I think it is passed the time when Americans need to ask themselves NOT whether something meets the need of this party or that, but does it make us MORE FREE or LESS FREE?