George Washington’s “Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport RI”
Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City
Letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport, from George Washington, August 18, 1790:
Gentlemen:
While I received with much satisfaction your address replete with expressions of esteem, I rejoice in the opportunity of assuring you that I shall always retain grateful remembrance of the cordial welcome I experienced on my visit to Newport from all classes of citizens.
The reflection on the days of difficulty and danger which are past is rendered the more sweet from a consciousness that they are succeeded by days of uncommon prosperity and security.
If we have wisdom to make the best use of the advantages with which we are now favored, we cannot fail, under the just administration of a good government, to become a great and happy people.
The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy — a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.
It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my administration and fervent wishes for my felicity.
May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants — while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.
May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy.
G. Washington
Source: George Washington: A Collection, ed. W.B. Allen (Liberty Fund: Indianapolis, 1988)
Tags: Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City, F5P1_81OLF0, freedom of religion, George Washington, Moses Seixas, religious liberty, T9wUHhEOBUE
Posted 2014/12/04, 6:17 pm
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The answer isn’t 42. It is 150.
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Working with the anthropologist Russell Hill, [ evolutionary psychologist Robin] Dunbar pieced together the average English household’s network of yuletide cheer. The researchers were able to report, for example, that about a quarter of cards went to relatives, nearly two-thirds to friends, and 8 percent to colleagues. The primary finding of the study, however, was a single number: the total population of the households each set of cards went out to. That number was 153.5, or roughly 150.
This was exactly the number that Dunbar expected. Over the past two decades, he and other like-minded researchers have discovered groupings of 150 nearly everywhere they looked. Anthropologists studying the world’s remaining hunter-gatherer societies have found that clans tend to have 150 members. Throughout Western military history, the size of the company—the smallest autonomous military unit—has hovered around 150. The self-governing communes of the Hutterites, an Anabaptist sect similar to the Amish and the Mennonites, always split when they grow larger than 150. So do the offices of W.L. Gore & Associates, the materials firm famous for innovative products such as Gore-Tex and for its radically nonhierarchical management structure. When a branch exceeds 150 employees, the company breaks it in two and builds a new office.
The Dunbar Number, From the Guru of Social Networks
It is also the answer to “How Many People ‘Should’ You Invite To Your Wedding?”
It is impossible for Americans to accept the extent to which the Colonial period—including our most sacred political events—was suffused with alcohol. Protestant churches had wine with communion, the standard beverage at meals was beer or cider, and alcohol was served even at political gatherings. Alcohol was consumed at meetings of the Virginian and other state legislatures and, most of all, at the Constitutional Convention.
Indeed, we still have available the list of beverages served at a 1787 farewell party in Philadelphia for George Washington just days before the framers signed off on the Constitution. According to the bill preserved from the evening, the 55 attendees drank 54 bottles of Madeira, 60 bottles of claret, eight of whiskey, 22 of porter, eight of hard cider, 12 of beer, and seven bowls of alcoholic punch.
George Washington: Boozehound. Prodigious alcohol consumption by Washington and his fellow founding fathers has been whitewashed from American history.
More after the jump.
Continue reading ‘Dunbar Number, Reason Video Awards, George Washington, Rent Seeking, Fascism’ »
Tags: 150, 2XLuaebpdAA, fascism, George Washington, I Pencil, IYO3tOqDISE, James Buchanan, Kf-RQEs_4K8, liberal fascism, lobbyists, Mancur Olson, Mike Geier, Murry Bergtraum, Obama Revolving Door, public choice, Ray LaHood, RDT, rent seeking, revolving door tax, Robin Dunbar, VBmCJEehYtU
Posted 2014/02/24, 7:17 am
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