“Look at your houses, your parents, your wives and your children. Are you prepared to see your dwelling in flames, hoary hairs bathed in blood, female chastity violated, or children writhing on a pike and the halberd? Great God of compassion and justice, shield my country from destruction.”

"Donald Trump is a hideous hermaphroditical character which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.”

<- reblogging mostly for prev's great tags

Lafayette, Kościuszko, Von Steuben, and Rochambeau statues at Lafayette Square. ☀️

on today's episode of insane and funny history we have thomas jefferson's hate mail!

If I was named “William” I would never join the army. I’ve seen too many movies where the general yells “fire at Will.” Miss me with that shit

What did he mean by this

Fake Empire, The National

(Or: When you're an angel and you fall, but just a little bit.)

love how dashcon began on duel day and ended on marat’s assassination day

Cato: A Tragedy

After seeing @enlitment's post, I went and actually read through the whole of Addison's Cato, and damn. I can see why the amrev set were so obsessed with it.

There are so many threads to pull at here, but the notion of honour jumps out most obviously.

For the good, noble characters, honour is sacred:

The corrupt characters see it differently:

Accusations of dishonour don't go down well:

And 60-some years before Nathan Hale, Addison wrote:

Thanks for sharing!

The similarities between the quotes are really interesting. I know the quote is really well-known with people in the US, but the fact that it's paraphrasing Addison's play probably less so?

Also god for Cato for having this much cultural impact 1800 years after his death!

(I wonder whether there are any quotes paraphrased by the French Revolutionaries too? I know that they staned Cato as well because - well - they were republicans in the century obsessed with Ancient Rome

In case you're wondering like I was: the reason why a lot of the 18th-century philosophers can't seem to stop making Cato the Younger references (Voltaire talks about Cato at least 6 or 7 times in Letters on England which is a lot because it's by no means a long text. Mandeville too of course — hi bestie!)

is because there was a play in the early 1700s about Cato (Addison's Cato, a Tragedy to be precise) which seemed to have had the cultural impact of early seasons of Game of Thrones

Catoo! this actor is from an 1800s production but still. Look at that facial expression. The sad wet cat energy. The pain in his eyes. It's all there!

Oh, and by 'cultural impact of Game of Thrones' I don't mean an increase in theatre subscriptions or of Cato action figures sales (though that would have been awesome!)

I mean it had a pretty significant influence on many of the American Revolutionaries (and French too most likely, since, cultural osmosis and all that). A lot of these nerds sure loved to quote it!

Abigail Adams invokes this comparison when she writes about the death of John Laurens!

Abigail Adams to John Thaxter, 26 October 1782

The footnote on Founders goes on to explain that:

love how the "Addison’s play occupied a central place in [their] thinking" seems to be a fancy academic way of saying "The Cato play was permanently stuck in their brains"

also poor Laurens :(

Reasons why other people want a time machine:  I could meet Shakespeare and discuss his plays with him! I could watch Leonardo Da Vinci paint Mona Lisa! I could go back to the roaring twenties and throw amazing parties, like in The Great Gatsby!

Reasons why I want a time machine: I would go back to the 18th century and make the founding fathers read all the fanfiction to see how they would react

Figured out that the 4th of July is the perfect oportunity to reblog the post which got me the most notes from - *checks pocket watch* - 7 years ago.

Looking at my old posts usually makes me cringe, but at the same time, it's kind of amazing to see how little some things have changed. Mostly just jumped a decade ahead and skipped continents.

no idea what’s the 4th of July is, happy jefferson and adams double death day

IMPORTANT!!!!

TOMORROW, JUNE 3RD, IS THE BIRTHDAY OF PIERRE-ETIÉNNE/PETER-STEPHEN DU PONCEAU!!!!

DU PONCEAU WAS A FRENCH-AMERICAN LINGUIST AND LAWYER, AS WELL AS THE PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY!!! HE WAS THE FIRST MAJOR WESTERN LINGUIST TO STUDY ASIAN AND INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES, AND EVEN COINED TWO MAJOR LINGUISTIC TERMS STILL USED TODAY!!! DU PONCEAU WAS ALSO HEAVILY SPECULATED TO HAVE BEEN BISEXUAL, AND TOMORROW IS BISEXUAL PRIDE DAY!!! EVERYONE TOLD HIM TO WRITE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BUT HE DIDNT, BECAUSE HE THOUGHT HE WASNT WORTH REMEMBERING!!! LETS SHOW HIM THAT HE WAS!!!!

Reblog this to show pretty boy that he was so worth remembering.