Genius.

Johnston, Silas Deane, 1766

Doctor Franklin is with Us but he is not a Speaker though We have I think his hearty Approbation of & assent To every Measure. But, my Dear, Times like these call up Genius, which slept before, and stimulate it in action to a degree, that eclipses what might before have been fixed as a Standard. The War will not last Seven Years if I have any Judgment in Matters, and as to powder I hope the Measures we are taking will procure a supply, but I do not approve of wasting it on Batteries, Ships &c, however much, I approve of & applaud the Bravery of Our Men. I hope General Washington answered the Character I gave of him, I only wish he had a better regulated & provided Army to Command, but hope for the best, if We can worry them through this Campaign, resources will be procured or relief obtained. I have the fullest assurance that These Colonies will rise triumphant, & shine to the latest posterity, though trying Scenes are before Us which Our Wise Father is in Mercy exercising Us with at this Day.

Silas Deane, delegate to the Second Continental Congress, from a letter to Elizabeth Deane, 1 July 1775

Authority.

I doubt that my sense of personal freedom is any stronger than anybody else's. I'm happy to respect authority when it's genuine authority, based on moral or intellectual or even technical superiority. I'm eager to follow a hero if we can find one. But I tend to resist or evade any kind of authority based merely on the power to coerce.

Edward Abbey, from Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast

Saving.

Houdon, Life-Mask of George Washington, 1785

The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army—Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; this is all we can expect—We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die: Our own Country’s Honor, all call upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world—Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions—The Eyes of all our Countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their blessings, and praises, if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the Tyranny meditated against them. Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and shew the whole world, that a Freeman contending for Liberty on his own ground is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.

The General recommends to the officers great coolness in time of action, and to the soldiers a strict attention and obedience, with a becoming firmness and spirit.

General George Washington, General Orders, 2 July 1776

Chappel, Samuel Adams, 1862

Your adversaries are composed of wretches who laugh at the rights of humanity, who turn religion into derision, and would, for higher wages, direct their swords against their leaders or their country. Go on, then, in your generous enterprise, with gratitude to Heaven for past, success, and confidence of it in the future. For my own part, I ask no greater blessing than to share with you the common danger and common glory.

Samuel Adams, from a speech given August 1, 1776

Preserve.

Be.

Be. Be ungovernable.

Own.

People with self-respect exhibit a certain toughness, a kind of moral nerve; they display what was once called character which is the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life.

Joan Didion

Singlehandedly.

After years of failed lobbying for a road to be built to the isolated village of Arnish on the Isle of Raasay, 56-year-old Calum Macleod picked up an engineering manual, shovel, pick, and wheelbarrow and almost singlehandedly constructed the stunning stretch of island infrastructure that now bears his name.

CONNECT

The BBC's documentary on Calum and his heroic road ...

Attack.

The attack could have been a territorial squabble with the electronic foe, or just a hungry eagle.

I saw a great bumper sticker on an F-750 at The Hawk's Nest the other day ... "F@?k Around & Find Out".

Thanks, Kurt.

Happy Birthday, Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on this day in 1803.

It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ask.

Ask, hath your house been burnt? Hath your property been destroyed before your face? Are your wife and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live on? Have you lost a parent or a child by their hands, and yourself the ruined and wretched survivor? If you have not, then are you not a judge of those who have. But if you have, and still can shake hands with the murderers, then you are unworthy of the name of husband, father, friend, or lover, and whatever may be your rank or title in life, you have the heart of a coward, and the spirit of a sycophant.

Thomas Paine, from Common Sense, published on this day in 1776

Every.

Independence.