Rapidly declining value of national currency. A dangerous dependence upon foreign products. Suppression of civil rights. Shabby treatment of veteran soldiers.
Sounds familiar? Oddly enough, early warnings about such events are not the product of a contemporary writer but emanated from one of our nearly forgotten Founding Mothers, Mercy Otis Warren, ( 1728-1814), the first female historian of the American Revolution, and a confidant of John and Abigail Adams.
I had no idea about Mrs. Warren's alarmed pronouncements when I was researching and writing THE MUSE OF THE REVOLUTION: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation in 2003-2007. By late 2007 and into 2008 I was thus struck by the similarities in the early Federal period and those today -- just when this biography was about to be published.
Rest assured though, it wasn't all doom and gloom for the Revolutionary-era woman writer who possessed what John Adams called a " genius pen" meant to records the events of the Revolution in her famous History. Now that the book is published, I'm told that readers chortle over the sixteen-letter argument between Mrs. Warren and John Adams of 1807 over his performance as the second U.S. president. All of which reminds us that we should never put anything in print we might later regret! Even in emails!
Sounds familiar? Oddly enough, early warnings about such events are not the product of a contemporary writer but emanated from one of our nearly forgotten Founding Mothers, Mercy Otis Warren, ( 1728-1814), the first female historian of the American Revolution, and a confidant of John and Abigail Adams.
I had no idea about Mrs. Warren's alarmed pronouncements when I was researching and writing THE MUSE OF THE REVOLUTION: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation in 2003-2007. By late 2007 and into 2008 I was thus struck by the similarities in the early Federal period and those today -- just when this biography was about to be published.
Rest assured though, it wasn't all doom and gloom for the Revolutionary-era woman writer who possessed what John Adams called a " genius pen" meant to records the events of the Revolution in her famous History. Now that the book is published, I'm told that readers chortle over the sixteen-letter argument between Mrs. Warren and John Adams of 1807 over his performance as the second U.S. president. All of which reminds us that we should never put anything in print we might later regret! Even in emails!
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