A Little American History....

     I've always been fasicinated by American history.  I especially love reading about colonial times.  There's such a sense of adventure when you hear about how our country began.  They lived and died for liberty and religious freedom. 
     Several years ago, my mother began researching our family's geneology.  She found some fasicinating connections from the colonial time period.  On my mother's side, we are related to Elizabeth Kortright (Kortright is my middle name) Monroe- President James Monroe's wife.
     She is most well known for making a courageous visit to Adrienne de Noiolles de Lafayette, the imprisoned wife of the Marquis de Lafayette - the great personal friend of George Washington and many other revolutionary era patriots and France's most prominent supporter of American independence. Because of Elizabeth's visit, Adrienne was released.
 (http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=5)     

     Also on my mother's side, we are related to Gouverneur Morris.  I didn't know much about him and so today I googled his bio.
Here are some of the things I found:

     Gouverneur Morris, who represented Pennsylvania at the Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, was the author of much of the Constitution. The noble phrases of that document's Preamble, "We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union", sprang from his gifted mind, and like the finely wrought clauses that followed, clearly mirrored his personal political philosophy. Morris was perhaps the most outspoken nationalist among the Founding Fathers. Although born into a world of wealth and aristocratic values, he had come to champion the concept of a free citizenry united in an independent nation. In an age when most still thought of themselves as citizens of their sovereign and separate states, Morris was able to articulate a clear vision of a new and powerful union. He was, as Theodore Roosevelt later put it, "emphatically an American first."

http://www.history.army.mil/books/revwar/ss/morrisg.htm

     It made me smile to learn that he was somewhat known for speaking his mind clearly, as I have a tendency to do that.  I will say it has gotten me in trouble many a time and I learned that it did for him as well.  I obviously didn't know him personally, but this small similarity made him that much more real to me.

     I also loved the fact that he was a man of such strong conviction when it comes to his political beliefs.  We all need to be reminded to be people of strong conviction about our beliefs.

    

      On this weekend when we celebrate our country's Independence, take a moment to think about the great men and women who risked their lives to make our freedoms and beliefs possible so many years ago.  And also make it a point to appreciate the service men and women who still defend our Indepence today!