Big Georgie Porgie, Patriot Cum Laude, p. 4
Dublin Core
Title
Big Georgie Porgie, Patriot Cum Laude, p. 4
Description
"Our favorite patriot was the nation’s first president (two terms yet), George Washington AKA (police symbol for also known as) the “father of his country”.
Which, according to his devotees, is not because many inns and guest houses across the original 13-colony nation boast that “Washington slept here.”
General Washington had been commander-in-chief of the revolutionary army which freed this country from oppressive British rule. So he is also memorialized as “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”
He didn’t do so badly with women either. Land-wealthy in his own right, he married Martha Dandridge Curtis, a widow whose first husband had left her 29,650 pounds in colonial Virginia currency. This rings up to about $5.9 million on our computer.
The 26 year-old widow and her two children also inherited some 17,000 acres of rich plantation land. Suddenly getting the urge to become a family man, Georgie wooed and won her a fast 18 months later.
And if the Feminist Movement had pressed him to appoint a woman to is cabinet, she probably would have been Betsy Ross, the Philadelphia lass credited with making the first American flag. Shw aws 25 and his 6-feet-two-inch frame cut a fine figure in uniform. A combination which could easily arouse patriotism. Or something.
Like politics, flag colorschemes make some strange bedfellows. As with the USA, red, white and blue are the rousing colors in banners of at least 20 other nations.
Including Australia, Chile, Taiwan, Czechoslovakia, France, Cuba, Curacao, Iceland, Liberia, North Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Nepal, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Paraguay, Panama, Western Samoa, Thailand and the United Kingdom.
None of which can boast, we don’t think, that ‘George Washington Slept here.’ Back in those days, U.S. presidents and congressmen didn’t make overseas junkets at taxpayers’ expense. Exotic cruises and plane trips were not advertised in the Sunday papers. So the non-travelers never knew what fun they were missing.
General Washington was resourceful, if nothing else. With a little help from his friends, he brought the hardship war to a victorious conclusion. Came July 4, 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress, he felt the need to celebrate.
That started the trend of Independence Day spectaculars. But what’s a parade without a flag? So resourceful Mr. Washington scurried to recruit the seamstress services of Betsy Ross. (Her home in center-city Philadelphia is now public property, officially designated as the American Flag House.
To strengthen his plea, he had corralled two signers of the Declaration of Independence, Robert Morris, a merchant, and Judge George Ross, Betsy’s uncle.
Even woman’s “military place” was in the home in those days, so this committee easily persuaded Betsy to do her patriotic duty by the stars and stripes. But she was the first USA ‘smart cookie’. She wangled a contract to make all government flags; and her daughter continued in the business for another 80 years.
Anyway, the Independence Day hoopla featured fireworks and flag. Georgie favored a federal government for the new union, and himself as its leader. The 1790 (first) U.S. census reported a population of 3,929,214.
But Washington had no way to make them registered voters: not to conduct a popularity poll. He had nothing to campaign on. No hostage negotiations, no missile build-up, no foreign policy, no federal income tax, no budget deficit, no diplomatic issues, no labor or civil rights issues.
So he took a shortcut to the White House. He became chairman of the 1787 Constitutional Convention. He helped get the Constitution ratified, and was unanimously elected USA president by the electoral college, twice. And he had to decline a third term.
In the Constitution, the presidential oath contains only 35 words. Solemnly swearing to faithfully execute the office; and to preserve protect and defend the Constitution. It was Washington who added the inspirational “So help me God.”
Somebody Up There must have liked that. He not only got his hands on Martha’s $6 million; he also go his picture on our government’s one-dollar bill, the $25 Savings Bond, and the $500 Treasury Bond. And in 1982, a 90% silver half dollar was issued as a commemorative coin noting the 250th anniversary of his birth.
He also got as his namesake George Washington Carver (1860-1943), black agricultural chemist whose extensive experiments in soil building and plant ailments revolutionized the economy of the South.
Only his barber knew for sure
How Georgie made it so big.
Must have been ‘go-for-it’ brainwaves
In his colonial wig."
Which, according to his devotees, is not because many inns and guest houses across the original 13-colony nation boast that “Washington slept here.”
General Washington had been commander-in-chief of the revolutionary army which freed this country from oppressive British rule. So he is also memorialized as “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”
He didn’t do so badly with women either. Land-wealthy in his own right, he married Martha Dandridge Curtis, a widow whose first husband had left her 29,650 pounds in colonial Virginia currency. This rings up to about $5.9 million on our computer.
The 26 year-old widow and her two children also inherited some 17,000 acres of rich plantation land. Suddenly getting the urge to become a family man, Georgie wooed and won her a fast 18 months later.
And if the Feminist Movement had pressed him to appoint a woman to is cabinet, she probably would have been Betsy Ross, the Philadelphia lass credited with making the first American flag. Shw aws 25 and his 6-feet-two-inch frame cut a fine figure in uniform. A combination which could easily arouse patriotism. Or something.
Like politics, flag colorschemes make some strange bedfellows. As with the USA, red, white and blue are the rousing colors in banners of at least 20 other nations.
Including Australia, Chile, Taiwan, Czechoslovakia, France, Cuba, Curacao, Iceland, Liberia, North Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Nepal, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Paraguay, Panama, Western Samoa, Thailand and the United Kingdom.
None of which can boast, we don’t think, that ‘George Washington Slept here.’ Back in those days, U.S. presidents and congressmen didn’t make overseas junkets at taxpayers’ expense. Exotic cruises and plane trips were not advertised in the Sunday papers. So the non-travelers never knew what fun they were missing.
General Washington was resourceful, if nothing else. With a little help from his friends, he brought the hardship war to a victorious conclusion. Came July 4, 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress, he felt the need to celebrate.
That started the trend of Independence Day spectaculars. But what’s a parade without a flag? So resourceful Mr. Washington scurried to recruit the seamstress services of Betsy Ross. (Her home in center-city Philadelphia is now public property, officially designated as the American Flag House.
To strengthen his plea, he had corralled two signers of the Declaration of Independence, Robert Morris, a merchant, and Judge George Ross, Betsy’s uncle.
Even woman’s “military place” was in the home in those days, so this committee easily persuaded Betsy to do her patriotic duty by the stars and stripes. But she was the first USA ‘smart cookie’. She wangled a contract to make all government flags; and her daughter continued in the business for another 80 years.
Anyway, the Independence Day hoopla featured fireworks and flag. Georgie favored a federal government for the new union, and himself as its leader. The 1790 (first) U.S. census reported a population of 3,929,214.
But Washington had no way to make them registered voters: not to conduct a popularity poll. He had nothing to campaign on. No hostage negotiations, no missile build-up, no foreign policy, no federal income tax, no budget deficit, no diplomatic issues, no labor or civil rights issues.
So he took a shortcut to the White House. He became chairman of the 1787 Constitutional Convention. He helped get the Constitution ratified, and was unanimously elected USA president by the electoral college, twice. And he had to decline a third term.
In the Constitution, the presidential oath contains only 35 words. Solemnly swearing to faithfully execute the office; and to preserve protect and defend the Constitution. It was Washington who added the inspirational “So help me God.”
Somebody Up There must have liked that. He not only got his hands on Martha’s $6 million; he also go his picture on our government’s one-dollar bill, the $25 Savings Bond, and the $500 Treasury Bond. And in 1982, a 90% silver half dollar was issued as a commemorative coin noting the 250th anniversary of his birth.
He also got as his namesake George Washington Carver (1860-1943), black agricultural chemist whose extensive experiments in soil building and plant ailments revolutionized the economy of the South.
Only his barber knew for sure
How Georgie made it so big.
Must have been ‘go-for-it’ brainwaves
In his colonial wig."
Creator
Ruth Jenkins, "Sob Sister"
Publisher
Baltimore Afro-American
Date
1985-8-10
Collection
Citation
Ruth Jenkins, "Sob Sister", “Big Georgie Porgie, Patriot Cum Laude, p. 4,” African American Fourth of July, accessed May 1, 2024, https://africanamerican4th.omeka.net/items/show/139.