The WJMI Year in Review

Happy New Year from the Washington, Jefferson & Madison Institute!  We at WJMI are grateful for your support this past year.  A few statistics from 2013:

During 2013 over 9,171 people have downloaded WJMI’s free manual “Jefferson & Madison’s Guide to the Constitution” at the Federalist Papers Project: 

http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/ebooks/jefferson-and-madisons-guide-to-the-constitution 

The Guide is also available on Amazon’s Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/Jefferson-Madisons-Guide-Constitution

Our Blog averages over 2,000 page views per month.  Our top blog posts are:           

Entry	Pageviews
The Declaration of Independence	9535
The Basic Principles of the Declaration of Independence	8317
Favorite Quotes from President Calvin Coolidge	4838
James Madison's "Advice to My Country"	2205
Quotes Concerning the Declaration of Independence	2044

WJMI sponsored three seminars for secondary school teachers during 2013:

     The Bill of Rights: Charter of Freedom            February 15, 2013

     Alexander Hamilton and the Constitution       September 13, 2013

     Thomas Jefferson Roundtable                            November 15, 2013

WJMI also sponsored several seminars on the Constitution for Citizens in Utah and Virginia.

Tony Williams joined WJMI as full-time Program Director in 2013. He is the author of four books on the Founding, including “America's Beginnings: The Dramatic Events that Shaped a Nation's Character” (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2010), all available at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Tony-Williams

WJMI began to collaborate in 2013 with the Center for American Studies at Christopher Newport University (http://cnu.edu/cas/) and they will co-sponsor our first teacher seminar of 2014 in February on the topic of “The Life & Character of George Washington.”

We hope that you have a Happy & Prosperous New Year and commend to all this wise advice:

"Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors,

and let each New Year find you a better man."

— Benjamin Franklin

The Boston Tea Party

By: Tony Williams

On December 16, Americans recognize and celebrate the 240th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.  We honor what patriot John Adams called an act “so bold, so daring, so firm, intrepid, and inflexible.”  Adams rightly predicted that the Boston Tea Party would be remembered as a significant event in the resistance against British tyranny. “It must have so important consequences, and so lasting, that I can’t but consider it an epocha in history.” 

The events of the Boston Tea Party are familiar to most schoolchildren. The colonists were angered by the Tea Act which gave a monopoly to the East India Company and the tax that was retained from the Townshend Acts.  The Bostonians refused to allow the tea to be landed in Boston and threatened the tea agents.  After a democratic mass meeting of thousands in which Sam Adams warned that they would make “Boston harbor a tea-pot tonight!” the assembled crowd make their way to Griffin’s Wharf to destroy the tea.  Patriots dressed up like Mohawk Indians and methodically dumped an incredible 90,000 pounds of tea worth £10,000 into the water. 

For the colonists, it was not a matter of paying a few extra pence for their tea, but rather the constitutional principle of Englishmen not wanting to be taxed without their consent.  George Washington asked from Virginia: “What is it we are contending against?  Is it against paying the duty of 3d. per pound on tea because burdensome?  No, it is the right only . . . as Englishmen, we could not be deprived of this essential and valuable part of our Constitution.” 

In response to the Boston Tea Party, the British passed several acts collectively known as the “Coercive Acts,” which systematically violated the rights of the colonists in Massachusetts.  Their right to trade was violated, their right to their property and not to have troops in their home without their consent was violated, their right to self-government was violated, their right to justice and local trial by jury for accused royal murderers, and their right to settle out West was violated.    

The colonists believed that these acts constituted a systematic British plan of despotism to enslave the colonists.  They argued for their rights as Englishmen, but they also argued that their natural rights from nature and nature’s God were being violated as well.  Washington wrote, “An innate spirit  of freedom first told me, that the measures, which administration hath for some time been, and now are most violently pursuing, are repugnant to every principle of natural justice; whilst much abler heads than my own hath fully convinced me, that it is not only repugnant to natural right, but subversive of the laws and constitution of Great Britain itself.”

It is no surprise then that Washington averred, “The crisis is arrived when we must assert our rights, or submit to every imposition.”  Although history is filled contingency and reconciliation was certainly possible to avert war and revolution at this point, it is also true that the Boston Tea Party triggered a series of events that would ultimately lead to independence and self-government for Americans. 

It is for that reason that Americans rightly commemorate the event. 

Tony Williams is the WJMI Program Director and has written about the Boston Tea Party and related events in his book America’s Beginnings: The Dramatic Events that Shaped a Nation’s Character. 

The First Whitehouse Christmas with John & Abigail Adams

“When the second President of the United States, John Adams, and his wife Abigail, moved into what would come to be known as the White House [in November 1800], the residence was cold, damp, and drafty. Sitting at the edge of a dreary swamp, the First Family had to keep 13 fireplaces lit in an effort to stay comfortable. It is in this setting that the cantankerous president held the first ever White House Christmas party in honor of his granddaughter, Susanna. It could be said that the invitations sent for this party were the very first White House Christmas cards, though in those early days, the building was referred to as the President’s Palace, Presidential Mansion, or President’s House.

The affair was planned in large part by the vivacious First Lady, Abigail Adams, and was considered a great success. A small orchestra played festive music in a grand ballroom adorned with seasonal flora. After dinner, cakes and punch were served while the staff and guests caroled and played games. The most amusing incident of the evening occurred when one of the young guests accidentally broke one of the First Granddaughter’s new doll dishes. Enraged, the young guest of honor promptly bit the nose off of one of the offending friend’s dolls. The amused president had to intervene to make sure the incident didn’t take an uglier turn.”

Following the Adams’ first Christmas in the White House, they held the first presidential levee on New Year’s Day.

“As you can imagine, the celebration was grand! Cookies, custards, and cakes, all baked in the new hearths on either side of the enormous kitchen fireplace, were served, along with all kinds of puddings, pastries, trifles, and tarts. Borrowing court etiquette from European kings and queens she had seen while John was U. S. Ambassador to Britain, Abigail regally greeted guests from a throne-like chair. Standing proudly beside her was her husband, wearing velvet breeches and lace with fashionably powdered hair.

Although that reception was a lavish affair, John and Abigail preferred more basic fare, and a few of their favorite foods, which can be traced to their New England roots, included Green Turtle Soup, Indian Pudding, and Gooseberry Fool.”

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Sources:

http://www.whitehousechristmascards.com/john-adams-1797-1801/john-adams/

http://lincolnslunch.blogspot.com/2010/07/john-and-abigail-adams-indian-pudding.html

Remember Pearl Harbor

In  the morning hours of Sunday, December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise air attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii (located on the south side of the Hawaiian island of Oahu).  The first wave of Japanese planes reached the U.S. Naval Station at 7:55 a.m

Almost two weeks before the strike, on November 26, 1941, the Japanese attack force, led by Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, left Etorofu Island in the Kurils (located northeast of Japan) on its 3,000-mile journey across the Pacific Ocean with an armada of six aircraft carriers, nine destroyers, two battleships, two heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, and three submarines. 

At 6:00 a.m. on December 7^th, the Japanese aircraft carriers began launching their planes amid rough sea. In total, 183 Japanese aircraft took to the air as part of the first wave of the attack on Pearl Harbor. At 7:15 a.m., the Japanese aircraft carriers, plagued by even rougher seas, launched 167 additional planes to participate in the second wave of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

That Sunday morning, U.S. military personnel at Pearl Harbor were either still asleep, in mess halls eating breakfast, or getting ready for church. They were completely unaware that an attack was imminent.  Just before the first bombs dropped on Pearl Harbor, Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, leader of the air attack, called out, "Tora! Tora! Tora!" ("Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!"), a coded message which told the entire Japanese navy that they had caught the Americans totally by surprise. 

The Japanese onslaught lasted just two hours, but it was devastating. They had been hoping to catch U.S. aircraft carriers at Pearl Harbor, but the aircraft carriers were out to sea that day. The next major important naval targets were the battleships. As their planes approached, there were eight U.S. battleships at Pearl Harbor, seven of which were lined up at what was called Battleship Row and one (the Pennsylvania) was in dry dock for repairs (the Colorado, the only other battleship of the U.S.'s Pacific fleet, was not at Pearl Harbor). One of the eight, the Arizona, was struck a number of times by bombs. One of these bombs, thought to have hit the forward magazine, caused a massive explosion, which quickly sank the vessel. Approximately 1,100 of her crew were killed and drowned. Including the eight battleships, enemy bombs and torpedoes destroyed nearly twenty American naval vessels and almost two hundred aircraft.  In total, more than 2,400 American soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded.  

The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. In his speech he said,

“Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan….No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory…With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph -- so help us God.”

Congress approved the President’s pronouncement with just one dissenting vote.  Three days later, Japanese allies Germany and Italy also declared war on the United States.  America had been thrust into World War II.

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(Sources: http://www.history.com/topics/pearl-harbor and http://history1900s.about.com/od/worldwarii/a/Attack-Pearl-Harbor.htm)