On the Character of Our Founders

October 27, 2017

The revered pages of our nation’s history are notably absent boastful demagogues and political agitators. Joseph Reed, secretary and aid-de-camp to General George Washington, wrote in 1776, “When I look around, and see how few of the numbers who talked so largely of death and honor are around me, and that those who are here are those from whom it was least expected… I am lost in wonder and surprise… Your noisy sons of liberty are, I find, the quietest in the field… An engagement, or even the expectation of one, gives wonderful insight into character.” 

Those from whom it was least expected. 

What a lesson.  While the sum of our own years should suffice to make clear that talk and action usually enjoy an inverse proportionality, history provides us ample demonstration of that all-too-frequent relationship.  Most of us were taught to be wary of braggarts, your “noisy sons of liberty” who loudly profess their skill and piety, and have learned with time that the truly capable have little need to advertise it.  The lesson of that flag, resplendent and red?  What is promised never comes. 

Washington thought extremely well of Reed.  As a young Philadelphia attorney, he became known for his deft intellect and honorable moral courage, both qualities Washington would find indispensable in keeping the man at his side; and indeed, those with whom we surround ourselves speaks plainly to our own character.  Reed’s admirable combination of humility and quiet confidence was never more fully on display than when he was offered £10,000 by the British crown to promote reconciliation with the late colonies.  He replied simply, "I am not worth purchasing; but, such as I am, the King of Great Britain is not rich enough to do it."  

Where are such Americans of character today?  They have stood before us and humbly asked to serve, and with no small measure of regret we will recall their rejection.