tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1237087217187172116.post4691245949902321634..comments2024-03-28T10:44:30.518-06:00Comments on American Creation: Another Perspective of an American FirstBrad Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17669677047039491864noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1237087217187172116.post-43230906467323423292008-10-25T13:08:00.000-06:002008-10-25T13:08:00.000-06:00It's more his overblown rhetoric and slag on Charl...It's more his overblown rhetoric and slag on Charles Carroll.Tom Van Dykehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07121072404143877596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1237087217187172116.post-68339825954416871172008-10-25T11:29:00.000-06:002008-10-25T11:29:00.000-06:00Tom, I can't see why you label Maclay as particula...Tom, I can't see why you label Maclay as particularly "quarrelsome." Was it the expression he gave to the convictions deeply rooted in his "conscience" that disagreed with the congressional Jehu-types who were "straining the constitution" with their "religious distinctions"?Ray Sollerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07950061062767093373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1237087217187172116.post-41088169395961628702008-10-24T16:23:00.000-06:002008-10-24T16:23:00.000-06:00A very good rejoinder to my post and account of th...A very good rejoinder to my post and account of the opposing view, Ray. As Shanna Riley noted, there was no unanimity at the Founding, which we should all keep in mind.<BR/><BR/>Maclay does seem to be a quarrelsome man, however, disparaging the character of the well-respected Charles Carroll of Maryland. Perhaps he thought he had a natural ally in Carroll, a Catholic, and was disappointed. We all have our religious wars, even secularists.<BR/><BR/>We should not skip over John Adams' inaugural, his address containing this passage guaranteed to set certain folks' teeth on edge, and no doubt Maclay's---<BR/><BR/><I>"I feel it to be my duty to add, if a veneration for the religion of a people who profess and call themselves Christians, and a fixed resolution to consider a decent respect for Christianity among the best recommendations for the public service, can enable me in any degree to comply with your wishes, it shall be my strenuous endeavor that this sagacious injunction of the two Houses shall not be without effect."</I><BR/><BR/>As for Jefferson keeping his inauguration pompless and circumstanceless, it was certainly in his character. This is an account of Jefferson receiving the new foreign minister from britain at the White House:<BR/><BR/><BR/>"In a few moments after our arrival," said the senator, writing two years before Merry's mishap, "a tall high-boned man came into the room. He was dressed, or rather undressed, in an old brown coat, red waistcoat, old corduroy small-clothes much soiled, woolen hose, and slippers without heels. I thought him a servant, when General Varnum surprised me by announcing that it was the President."<BR/><BR/>The man was a pig. More here on his slovenliness in <A HREF="http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_1801-09/The_First_Administration_of_Thomas_Jefferson/II:16" REL="nofollow">Henry Adams' "History of the United States".</A>Tom Van Dykehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07121072404143877596noreply@blogger.com