Word: virginians
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...before, a preliminary vote on Virginian Richard Henry Lee's resolution for independence showed nine of the colonies in favor, two (South Carolina and Pennsylvania) opposed, New York abstaining and Delaware deadlocked. To decide such momentous business?cutting much of a continent and its 2.5 million inhabitants free from the British Empire?the Congress hoped for virtual unanimity. Anything less might poison the enterprise with disunity. Hence the delegates' anxiety on the morning of July...
...write the Declaration. According to one story, Jefferson urged the task on John Adams, the brilliant, truculent Boston lawyer who had proved himself the ablest debater of the revolutionary cause. By this account, Adams demurred on grounds that he was personally "obnoxious" to many members of Congress, that a Virginian should write the document since Virginia had first moved for independence, and that, in any case, Jefferson was the superior writer...
Jefferson is a formidably learned man with a meticulous and graceful mind. The tall, red-haired Virginian was elected a delegate to Congress last year?when just 32 and only recently a father?and he first appeared in Philadelphia riding in a phaeton and accompanied by two black servants. John Adams may have regretted Jefferson's silence during debate, but he found him so quick in smaller councils that he was charmed. The two have formed an extraordinary partnership: Adams arguing the case for independence in the day-to-day clutches of debate, and Jefferson formulating the argument in private...
...floor of the House of Representatives three scholars tried to pour a little of his wisdom into the heads of legislators, who were impatiently edging toward the Easter exit. Jerry Ford limousined over to the Jefferson Memorial to lay a wreath and claim some political kinship with the Virginian. And even one cab driver's tribute was recorded augustly by the Washington Post: "Yeah, I guess he was about the best...
...battle over who would succeed Mansfield was already joined last week. The Democratic whip, West Virginian Robert C. Byrd, has expressed interest in the leadership post, and Maine's Edmund Muskie has announced that he will seek it. Minnesota's Hubert Humphrey might also land the job next January, should something more important down Pennsylvania Avenue not come his way. Ironically, Humphrey was the man whom the modest Mansfield had proposed for the post when it became vacant...