There are lots of strange and fun facts surrounding the men we celebrate tomorrow. Here are a few:
- Ben Franklin was one of 8 men to sign both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. And dead bodies were found under his house in London a few years ago.
- James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution”, was 5′4″ tall, and weighed about 98 pounds. His wife Dolly was a fox who was not scared to show a little cleavage.
- Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense, a scathing indictment of England’s behavior a call to fight off English rule, a year after to moving to the United States…from England!
- Alexander Hamilton was an illegitimate child, born in the West Indies, and he was orphaned at age 13. And his wife looked like a dude. Not surprisingly then, he got caught up in one of the largest sex scandals in American history, when he was blackmailed by his mistress, Maria Reynolds, and her husband.
- Aaron Burr once submitted a bill to the New York Legislature allowing women the right to vote. He also talked more smack than Muhammed Ali. Burr once stated: “In the past even I was afraid of my own greatness, therefore I could not stand in front of mirrors.”
- Thomas Jefferson was a brilliant writer, but not such a great speaker. He had a high pitched voice and a lisp, which he was self-conscious about, and he only delivered two public speeches while President. Jefferson also spent way much more than he made, and died deeply in debt.
- John Adams’s last words were, “Thomas Jefferson still survives.” He was wrong. Jefferson had died hours earlier. They both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Five years later, James Monroe also died on the 4th of July. They are still the only 3 presidents to die on that date.
- George Washington, the Father of his Country, was the father of no children, though he helped raise the two children his wife Martha had from her first marriage. George proposed to Martha 3 weeks after they me. There is a town in the Northwest called George, Washington.
- John Hancock began his career as a molasses smuggler.
- The text of Patrick Henry’s famous “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech did not appear until his biographer wrote about it in 1817, and there are some historians who doubt that the speech was ever given.
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