Monday, September 18, 2006

in response to

poetryman's comments from my previous post- about being americans because we were born here- you got me to thinkin' pm. so- i took it upon myself to look and see where the signers of the constitution were born. you can check out their biographies when you click on their names at the end of the constitution. here are my results- you can draw your own conclusions:

thanks to nara

George Washington- b. VA


George Read- b. MD

Gunning Bedford, jr- b. PA

John Dickinson- b. MD

Richard Bassett- b. MD

Jacob Broom- b. DE


James McHenry- b. Ireland

Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer- b. MD

Daniel Carroll- b. MD


John Blair- b. VA

James Madison, jr.- b. VA


William Blount- b. NC

Richard Dobbs Spaight, Sr- b. NC

Hugh Williamson- b. PA


John Rutledge- b. SC

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney- b. SC

Charles Pinckney- b. SC

Pierce Butler- b. Ireland


William Few- b. MD

Abraham Baldwin- b. CT


John Langdon- b. NH

Nicholas Gilman- b. NH


Nathaniel Gorham- b. MA

Rufus King- b. MA


William Samuel Johnson- b. CT

Roger Sherman- MA


Alexander Hamilton- b. British West Indies


William Livingston- b. NY

David Brearly- b. NJ

William Patterson- b. Ireland

Jonathan Dayton- b. NJ


Benjamin Franklin- b. Mass.

Thomas Miflin- b. PA

Robert Morris- b. England

George Clymer- b. PA

Thomas Fitzsimons- b. Ireland

Jared Ingersoll- b. CT

James Wilson- b. Scotland

Gouverneur Morris- b. NY



8 comments:

Peacechick Mary said...

I did not know that. Thanks.

landsker said...

Hi Betmo,
I think you might find that Robert Morris was of Welsh, not English stock.
Of course Thomas Jefferson was also of Welsh blood, I guess you knew that!
Oh yes, and J.P. Morgan,Daniel Boone, William Penn... and Robert E. Lee, and ...I better stop, otherwise it gets boring.
It is fascinating how the "British race" (English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh) somehow crossed the Atlantic, and, whilst being united in their quest for independence from "Royal Britain", still, to a certain extent, nurtured their own cultures.

shawn (aka blogstud) said...

Wow, betmo, thanks for doing some homework. That is very interesting.

I am ashamed to admit, I never even thought about it before.

Have a good one.

Trailady said...

Yeah! This was a really neat post. I'm happy to see that the Irish and the Scotts had to do with the forming of our government-as they are a large part of my heritage. :o)

msliberty said...

One of the important consequences of globalization is that our national identities are less and less important. Primarily, we are citizens of the world.

Donnie McDaniel said...

Having the adopted name of McDaniel from my step father, I am glad to see the Irish backgrounds. Even though my bloodline is French.

Mark Prime (tpm/Confession Zero) said...

Excellent, betmo...

I have drawn a conclusion...

Though the bulk were born in this country, their parents were not. Most reading this, I assume, had parents born in America. My point? The founding father's, a majority of them, though born in this country, knew that they were the product of another country and knew the pitfalls of such and knew the quest with which they wre seemingly ordained, if you will, and having such a knowledge of oppression by way of religious persecution, and other, motivations to escape such servitude, they created the longest living (thus far) democracy the world has seen. Furthermore, where their parents and grandparents were from is important in their respecting other lands, which is clearly defined in the founding documents. They knew that nationalism and religous dominance and an overbearing state (sometimes all are one in the same) were the first steps toward tyranny.

Fear mongering they certainly understood to be a catalyst for such endeavors and they explicitly stated so in the constitution regarding interfering in international affaires and explicitly wrote the freedom of religion and right to bear arms and to confront your government if it becomes corrupted eiher from the inside or the outside and in that knowledge they knew lay the bones of other races, colors and creeds. Therefore they knew the abyss could be reached by usurping these explicit rights and they, of all people, knew that national fanaticism might well lead us to the path we find ourselves so rotted in on this particualr era.

Man oh man... I am yammering away. I just hope this made sense... :>)

"In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot ... they have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and jargon, unintelligible to all mankind, and therefore the safer engine for their purpose." - March 17, 1814 - Thomas Jefferson

"History I believe furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purpose." - to Baron von Humboldt, 1813

"[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest friend of the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue." --Samuel Adams

"Safety from external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct. Even the ardent love of liberty will, after a time, give way to its dictates. The violent destruction of life and property incident to war, the continual effort and alarm attendant on a state of continual danger, will compel nations the most attached to liberty to resort for repose and security to institutions which have a tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe, they at length become willing to run the risk of being less free." --Federalist No. 8

billie said...

pm- you made perfect sense- thanks.