Four men. Each elected to lead their nation. Men with flaws threaded through their greatness.
Did you know their lives overlapped to form a continuous line from 1732 until 1919?
Washington and Jefferson were contemporaries. During the years of revolution and formation of a new nation they worked for the same goal in different capacities. Perhaps we should remember them as soldier and diplomat.
Jefferson, the younger of the pair by nine years, lived until the year 1826. (Yes, tomorrow is two centuries since the deaths of both John Adams & Thomas Jefferson.)
When Jefferson died, Lincoln was age seventeen — a strong, tall boy facing manhood.
Lincoln’s life was cut short in 1865. At the time of that event, Theodore Roosevelt was a lad of six. He carried the thread of this quartet into the 20th century with both his administration and later life.
Two and one-half centuries since John Hancock and others signed the Declaration of Independence. Have you read the document recently? Perhaps you have a copy in your home — in a seldom read book or pamphlet. Take a little time today to read and think on these men and their words. They risked their fortunes, lives, and future of their families for an idea. What would you risk?
