By Tim Fullerton

Born in Wales, Francis Lewis was orphaned at the age of four.  A maiden aunt raised him.  She insisted he master Welch, Gaelic and Scottish.  When his formal education completed, he took a position in a counting house, soon mastering that as well.  Upon his 21st birthday, he collected the inheritance from his father's estate, bought a shipload of goods, and set out for the new world.

He formed a partnership with a Mr. Edward Annesly of New York City.  Francis left half the goods with Mr. Annelsy to be sold on consignment.  Francis took the remainder to Philadelphia.  It took him two years to set up the Philly branch of the company.  Then he returned to New York.

He married his partner's sister.

Mr. Lewis became a supply agent for the British army during the French and Indian war.  He was present at the surrender of Fort Oswego to French General Montcalm. Francis was one of 30 prisoners handed over to the Indians.  Legend has it that the Indians were fascinated by the strange language he spoke and let him live.  Since the Indians didn’t appear to want him, the French took him back, sending him to a prison camp in France.

Upon his release, Francis attempted to reestablish his mercantile empire – like a man frantically making up for lost time.  He traveled over a considerable part of Europe, making deals from Shetland to Russia.  

Perhaps because of his worldliness, he jumped on the independence bandwagon long before most other New Yorkers.  He joined the, “sons of liberty,” (not unlike our own TEA Party); possibly starting the New York branch of that organization.

He got himself appointed to the continental congress in 1775.  And in 1776, voted for and signed the Declaration of Independence.

Francis served on several committees in the congress, mainly dealing with importing military equipment – his expertise in importing was well known.

During the war, Francis moved his family out of the city to Long Island.  An unfortunate decision.  The house was overrun by the British.  Books and papers burned.  Mrs. Lewis taken prisoner.

Congressional protests did nothing regarding the release of Mrs. Lewis.  A prisoner exchange was negotiated, but the deal fell through – only to be taken up again, by General Washington, himself.

Francis' wife was returned to him.  But she was not the same woman.  Her health was broken.  She died shortly thereafter.

And so too was Francis broken.  He died in obscurity and poverty.  His empire, and fortune gone; sacrificed to his country.

By Tim Fullerton

The world is warming.  Evidence is everywhere; ground water in Egypt and Bangledesh is so salty crops are dying.  Glaciers is Wyoming, Peru, Switzerland and Nepal are all receding.

Speaking of glaciers, ponder for a minute the glacier that carved out the American Great lakes.  A wall of ice 600 miles long – from east of Buffalo all the way to Green Bay – half a mile high.  A huge chunk of ice creeping south from Canada.  Grinding soil and rock  beneath its relentless push.

Where is that glacier now?

On the day that particular glacier started to melt, I guarantee there wasn't one single Ford Explorer or incandescent light bulb in the neighborhood at the time.  One day it just started melting – the result of global warming – thousands, if not millions of years ago.

Today governments around the world are trying to stop this natural occurrence.  Suddenly, carbon dioxide (the stuff plants breathe and the bubbles in soda pop) is public enemy number one.  The current administration want's to put a “cap” on how much CO2 every company may emit.  Companies can “trade” leftover allowance with each other.  Hardest hit will be coal-fired electric power plants and oil refineries.

Make no mistake – it isn't only industry that will be effected.  They're coming after you too!  Beginning 1 year after enactment of the Cap and Trade Act, you won't be able to sell your home unless you retrofit it to comply with the energy and water efficiency standards of this Act.  Can you afford, for example, replacing every window in your home with triple-pane glass?  Just so you can sell that house!

Please call and write your senators.  Don't let Cap & trade tax us all back to when that glacier was still carving out the Great Lakes.

By Tim Fullerton

His father died when Ben 6 years old.  Young Benjamin was sent to a boarding school in Maryland.  Then to Princeton.  Graduated after ONE YEAR! (at the age of 15!)

Studied medicine in Philadelphia for 6 years.  Then to Edinburgh , Scotland.  Received his MD after 2 years.

He returned to Philadelphia to practice medicine, elected professor of chemistry in the college of Philadelphia.

A strong advocate of, “bleeding,” for nearly any malady even though most doctors of the day had dismissed the practice.  In 1793, a yellow fever epidemic nearly wiped out Philadelphia.  In addition to bleeding, he prescribed calomel and jalap, after reading about them in a book given to him by Benjamin Franklin.  He had great success.  More, he did not keep this knowledge to himself but shared with doctors, even pharmacists.  Proving that no good deed goes unpunished, the medical establishment attacked him and his methods.

He didn't see independence from England as did most of the Declaration's signers.  Instead of commerce, or military might, he considered first and foremost the freedom to experiment.  To learn.  To share knowledge.

He tended to the wounded during the war.  But in a dispute with another physician, he resigned after one year.  He also spent the war trying to get George Washington fired as commander in chief!  Rush later, expressed regret for his actions against Washington. In a letter to John Adams in 1812, Rush wrote, "He [Washington] was the highly favored instrument whose patriotism and name contributed greatly to the establishment of the independence of the United States.

He attended the constitutional convention.  He called the federal government a, “masterpiece of human wisdom.”

Appointed by President John Adams to the post of treasurer for the U.S. mint.

He was the principal agent in founding Dickinson College, in Carlisle, PA. For some years, he was president of the society for the abolition of slavery, and, also, of the Philadelphia Medical Society. He was a founder of the Philadelphia Bible Society, and one of its vice presidents.  Ben was also a vice president of the American Philosophical Society.

Dr. Rush purchased a slave in 1776. He still owned this slave when he joined the Pennsylvania Abolition Society in 1784. (Go figure)

Rush may be more famous today as the man who helped reconcile the friendship of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams by encouraging the two former Presidents to resume writing to each other.  He wrote to Adams: “Some talked, some wrote, and some fought to promote and establish it, but you and Mr. Jefferson thought for us all. I never take a retrospect of the years 1775 and 1776 without associating your opinions and speeches and conversations with all the great political, moral, and intellectual achievements of the Congress of those memorable years.“

By Tim Fullerton

How will you know if the present congress is overstepping its bounds if you don't know what restraints were placed on congress by the Constitution?  In an earlier blog, I listed the 17 things congress can do, so I felt I should also list what it cannot.  

From Article 1, Section 9

1. Congress may not interfere with migration between the states, nor the importation of slaves – at least not until 1808.  But even before then, a tax (or duty) of up to $10 per slave may be imposed.
2. The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus may not be suspended except in time of revolution or invasion.
3. No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed.
4. No direct tax shall be laid.  (nullified by the 16th amendment)
5. No tax or duty shall be laid on any articles exported from any state.
6. No preference shall be shown the ports of one state over another.  No vessel traveling from one state to another shall be obliged to pay a duty.
7. No funds may be drawn from the Treasury without an appropriation in Congress.  An accounting of all public money shall be published from time to time.
8. No titles of nobility may be granted by the U.S.  And no public office-holder who is getting paid may receive gifts, money, office or title from a foreign country without the approval of congress.

There you have it, only half as long as the previous list.  And this one sounds like it was written by lawyers.  I'll wade through these as best I can (Ryan, you may correct anywhere I'm off base)

A Writ of Habeas Corpus is like a court order, demanding the government prove it has good reason to detain (imprison) someone.  Habeas Corpus is Latin for, “you have the body.”  President Lincoln, famously, suspended Habeas Corpus during the Civil War.  His actions are, strangely, compared to the actives of George W. Bush after 9/11 in this piece at CNN, http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/04/08/civil.war.today/index.html

A Bill of Attainder was used in English law to yank titles, land and castles etc. away from noblemen accused of serious crimes.  The king didn't even need the bother of a trial.  

An Ex Post Facto (“after the fact,” in Latin of course) law would retroactively impose legal consequences.  For example, you can't write a law today that would result in the arrest of someone for what he/she did yesterday (when it was legal).

I have heard it said that when President Obama accepted his Nobel Peace Prize, he was in violation of paragraph #8, since he did not petition congress for approval before accepting the money associated with the prize.  But since it comes from a committee instead of directly from the Norwegian government (NOTE: only the Peace Prize comes from Norway, all others come from Sweden), I don't see a problem.