It was a glorious
morning. The sun was shining and the wind was from the southeast. Up especially
early, a tall, bony, redheaded young Virginian found time to buy a new
thermometer, for which he paid three pounds, fifteen shillings. He also
bought gloves for Martha, his wife, who was ill at home.
Thomas Jefferson arrived early at the statehouse.
The temperature was 72.5: and the horseflies weren’t nearly so bad at that
hour. It was a lovely room, very large, with gleaming white walls. The
chairs were comfortable. Facing the single door were two brass fireplaces,
but they would not be used today.
The moment the door was shut, and it was always
kept locked, the room became an oven. The tall windows were shut, so that
loud quarreling voices could not be heard by passersby. Small openings
atop the windows allowed a slight stir of air, and also a large number
of horseflies. Jefferson records that “the horseflies were dexterous in
finding necks, and the silk of stocking was as nothing to them.” All discussion
was punctuated by the slap of hands on necks.
On the wall at the back, facing the President’s
desk, was a panoply–consisting of a drum, swords, and banners seized from
Fort Ticonderoga the previous year. Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold had
captured the place, shouting that they were taking it “in the name if the
Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!”
READ the rest of this Rush Limbaugh, Jr. article HERE.