By William H. Benson
The Parallel Lives
Of The NOBLE AMERICAN RELIGIOUS THINKERS AND BELIEVERS:
Roger Williams VS. Cotton Mathers
NEW ARTICLES
Thoughts on Kings
In Shakespeare’s play, “Henry IV, Part II,” Act 3, Scene 1, the King, dressed in a nightgown, delivers a monologue. In it, the king asks, “How many thousands of my poorest subjects are at this hour asleep?” Yet, “Nature’s soft nurse,” is not for him. He finishes with often-quoted words,
“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,” a reflection back to Damocles’s hanging sword.
Thomas Paine hated the idea of a king, a monarch. In much of his work, “Common Sense,” Paine ridicules the idea that a king must rule over people. Paine writes,
“There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of Monarchy; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required. The state of a king shuts him from the World.”
Throughout “Common Sense,” Paine calls for independence from England, from Parliament, from King George III, saying, “Let us come to a final separation.”
Thomas Paine felt thrilled when he saw “Common Sense,” first published on January 10, 1776. Six months later, on July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress that brought together representatives from the thirteen colonies approved Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence.
After the French Revolution, the autocratic general Napoleon claimed the title of king. On December 2, 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor Napoleon I at Notre Dame de Paris.
During the coronation, he received the crown from the hands of Pope Pius VII and crowned himself, a signal that he rejected the Pontiff’s authority.
Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saints, claimed for himself three titles, that of Prophet, Priest, and King, at Nauvoo, Illinois, on April 11, 1844, three months after he announced he was running for President in the November 1844 election.
Smith did not win that election, because he was assassinated on June 27, 1844.
This past week, the nation read the chilling words, “Long live the king,” in reference to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s attempt to end the congestion pricing program in the State of New York, a state policy that has worked ok the past seven weeks to reduce city traffic.
The governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, felt outraged. She said,
“The state of New York has not labored under a king in 250 years, and we’re not going to start now. The streets of this city were where battles were fought, and we stood up to a king, and we won then. You know New Yorkers. We do not back down, not now, not ever.”
The governor is correct about the American Revolution’s battles in and around New York City. George Washington was close to defeat on numerous occasions there, but he would escape to fight another day, summoning reserves of strength to defeat the British and King George III.
Washington achieved that win in Virginia, his native state, with the French navy’s assistance.
Thomas Paine asks a question, “Where is the King of America?” To answer, Paine suggests a formal ceremony, where an official would place a written Charter of laws atop a Bible, and “let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that in America the law is king.”
A second quote by William Shakespeare. “Time’s glory is to calm contending kings, to unmask falsehood, and bring truth to light.” The Bard is saying that over time the world’s grasping kings will experience a humbling, that truth will appear, and it will banish falsehood.
The paradox is that “life often presents a confused picture of events, and it is difficult to discern truth from falsehood.” It is to the historians that we look for clarity between the two.
Common sense tells us much. Shakespeare tells us much more.
Stories
This past week I listened to Craig Wortmann’s book, “What’s Your Story: Using Stories to Ignite Performance and Be More Successful.” Craig encourages readers to place their stories into a matrix of sixteen cells, four columns by four rows.
He identifies four columns, top to bottom: success, failure, fun, and legends. A success story is how a project succeeded. A failure story is how a project failed. A fun story is a joke. A legend story is a once-upon-a-time story, that of a hero.
The idea of a matrix appears too complicated, a spreadsheet to arrange jokes. Ronald Reagan kept it simpler. He wrote his stories on 3 x 5 cards and kept them in boxes. To write a speech, for example, to inspire, he withdrew cards from his stack.
Roger Williams and William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was born close to April 23, 1564, in Stratford-on-the-Avon, in England, 100 miles northwest of London. Roger Williams was born either as early as December of 1603, or as late as April 5, 1604, in Smithfield, a section of London.
Shakespeare’s father, John, was a glover in Stratford-on-the-Avon, in that he stitched gloves out of animal skins. Williams’s father, James, bought, sold, and traded textiles.
Shakespeare became a famous playwright in London at the Globe Theater, but Williams sailed to Massachusetts in 1631, and later founded Providence, Rhode Island.
Shakespeare died close to his 52nd birthday, on April 23, 1616, in Stratford-on-the Avon. Roger Williams died in early March of 1683, near his 79th birthday, in Providence.
Roger Williams vs. the Puritans
Last time in these pages, I mentioned Jonathan Winthrop’s “city on a hill” sermon, “that all the eyes of all people are upon us.” Winthrop considered himself a type of Moses who was leading his people, like Israel, to a new land, to build a new Jerusalem.
This is spelled out in John Barry’s 2012 book, “Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty.”
Winthrop and his fellow Puritans believed the city on a hill should have a church and a state, and that the two should work together, like left and right hands. In essence, Winthrop wanted to build a theocracy, in New England, in 1630.
The Puritans expected the magistrates to support the church by compelling people to attend worship, to recite oaths, to pray prescribed prayers, and to tithe.
Jonathan Winthrop’s ‘A Model of Christian Charity’
In recent days, I have begun reading John Barry’s book, “Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty.”
Although published in 2012, Barry tells the story of how the Puritans chose to leave old England to build a plantation on the rocky New England coast of Massachusetts.
In England, the Puritans wanted to purify and simplify their church. Hence, the title of Puritans. They wanted a rustic sanctuary, without stained glass windows and gaudy artwork. Also, they wanted the Anglican clerics to dress without cassock, cap, or gown.
King James I, his son Charles I, and Charles’s archbishop William Laud disagreed. Laud and his henchmen hunted the Puritans down, jailed them, and even tortured them. For these Puritans, exile to North American represented a better choice.
biweekly column
Readers, please look for my column that I completed today, some ideas on Jonathan Winthrop's sermon "A Model of Christian Charity." It should post in a few days.
War and peace in Ukraine
On February 17, 2023, David Remnick of the New Yorker podcast interviewed Steven Kotkin, history professor at Stanford, and biographer of Joseph Stalin.
Kotkin said, “Let’s think of a house with ten rooms, and let’s say I barge in and take two of those rooms. I wreck those two rooms, and I also wreck your other eight rooms. You try to evict me, but I’m still there wrecking your entire house. An excerpt about war and peace in the Ukraine.
Older Posts
St. Valentine’s Day / Presidents Day
We celebrated St. Valentine’s Day yesterday, February 14, a day when we reflect upon our good fortune that we have that special person in our life, our Valentine.
Next Monday, February 20, government officials grant us a holiday to consider the forty-five Presidents, all men. Because Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms, officials count him twice, as #24 and #26. Thus, we give honor to forty-four men.
Groundhog Day
On February 4, 1977, the band Fleetwood Mac released their record-selling “Rumours” album. Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie sang one of its songs, “Don’t Stop.” “If you wake up and don’t want to smile. If it takes just a little while. Open your eyes and look at...
Profiles in Courage
Kennedy showed that quote from Herbert Agar’s book to his speechwriter Ted Sorensen, and asked him to find other examples of Senators, who had displayed unusual political courage at crucial times in their careers. Sorensen came back with eight examples.
In addition to John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, Sorensen included Daniel Webster also of Massachusetts, Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, Sam Houston of Texas, Edmund G. Ross of Kansas, Lucius Lamar of Mississippi, George Norris of Nebraska, and Robert Taft of Ohio.
Shortcuts to winning
Shortcuts to winningHow does a player cheat at chess? When playing online chess at home, on his or her computer, a cheater receives instructions, hints, and directions from a second computer, standing beside the first, that contains chess analysis software. But how…
White Christmas
White ChristmasThe crooner Bing Crosby first sang “White Christmas” live on the “Kraft Music Hall” radio show on December 26, 1941, nineteen days after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. It was a frightening time, one of our country’s darkest moments. The nation felt...
Two weddings
Twenty-eight-year-old Naomi Biden married twenty-five-year-old Peter Neal on the south lawn, at the White House, on Saturday, November 19, 2022, beginning at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time.
Because there was no tent, and because the temperature was a chilly 39 degrees, some 250 guests received shawls, hand-warmers, and blankets once they arrived. They also checked in their cell phones.
One of University of Northern Colorado’s 2020 Honored Alumni
William H. Benson
Local has provided scholarships for history students for 15 years
A Sterling resident is among five alumni selected to be recognized this year by the University of Northern Colorado. Bill Benson is one of college’s 2020 Honored Alumni.
Each year UNC honors alumni in recognition for their outstanding contributions to the college, their profession and their community. This year’s honorees were to be recognized at an awards ceremony on March 27, but due to the COVID-19 outbreak that event has been cancelled. Instead UNC will recognize the honorees in the fall during homecoming Oct. 10 and 11……
Newspaper Columns
The Duodecimal System
For centuries, the ancient Romans calculated sums with their clunky numerals: I, V, X, L, C, D, and M; or one, five, ten, 50, 100, 500, and 1,000. They knew nothing better.
The Thirteenth Amendment
On Jan. 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and by it, he declared that “all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are and henceforward shall be free.” Lincoln’s Proclamation freed some 3.1 million slaves within the Confederacy.
The Fourteenth Amendment
After Congress and enough states ratified the thirteenth amendment that terminated slavery, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. This law declared that “all people born in the United States are entitled to be citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude.” The Act equated birth to citizenship.
The New-York Packet and the Constitution
Jill Lepore, the Harvard historian, published her newest book a month ago, These Truths: A History of the United States. In a short introduction, she describes in detail the Oct. 30, 1787 edition of a semi-weekly newspaper, The New-York Packet.
Mr. Benson’s writings on the U.S. Constitution are a great addition to the South Platte Sentinel. Its inspiring to see the history of the highest laws of this country passed on to others.
– Richard Hogan
Mr. Benson, I cannot thank you enough for this scholarship. As a first-generation college student, the prospect of finding a way to afford college is a very daunting one. Thanks to your generous donation, my dream of attending UNC and continuing my success here is far more achievable
– Cedric Sage Nixon
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– Extra Times
FUTURE BOOKS
- Thomas Paine vs. George Whitefield
- Ralph Waldo Emerson vs. Joseph Smith
- William James vs. Mary Baker Eddy
- Mark Twain vs. Billy Graham
- Henry Louis Mencken vs. Jim Bakker
