Lemme guess, Pauly is voting Obama/Palin, right?
Garbage published by the Liberal MSM is not worth reading.
Half of Free Republic is also not worth reading, because it is a republication of garbage published by the Liberal MSM.
This article is certainly part of that half.
> perhaps the only man in history who turned down the position of monarch.
Not so! Truth in Advertizing!
Julius Caesar refused to become Emperor of Rome. That didn’t stop him getting backstabbed, tho’.
I’m the third cousin six times removed of Bushrod Washington, George’s nephew and one of the worst Supreme Court justices in our history. So what does that make me? A princess?
1) There is no evidence that a monarchy was seriously considered by the Constitutional Convention.
2) There is no evidence that Washington would have accepted the throne if offered to him.
3) Yes, Washington may have been able to pull an Oliver Cromwell and use the Continental Army to overthrow the Continental Congress(would the army have followed him? Your guess is as good as mine.), but he didn't so that ends that. George III called Washington “the greatest man in Christendom” for resigning his commission and disbanding the army, which still was waiting on payment of back pay. Eventually the soldiers got their money.
4) If offered the throne, and if accepted by Washington there is no reason to assume it would be hereditary. It may have been elective, like Poland or the Papal States.
5) Assuming it was hereditary, since Washington had no descendants either the Constitutional Convention would have had to provide a mechanism for the succession, perhaps picking the successor themselves, or leaving it to Washington to designate a successor. Perhaps he would have picked someone like Alexander Hamilton instead of a relative?
6) And finally there is no reason to assume that this new monarchy would not have joined the the Empire of Mexico, the Empire of Brazil, the Empire of Haiti, the Kingdom of Patagonia, or the Kingdom of Hawaii on the trash heap of history in a generation or two. The only monarchies that still rule any territory in the New World are monarchies of the Old World, like the United Kingdom, Denmark, the Netherlands.
It may be cool to be a relative of George Washington, but I suggest these people not worry about what might have happened and get on with their lives.
The U.S. presidency is for all intents and purposes an elected monarchy and has been for some time. It does not have some of the superficially trappings of European style monarchies, but that’s just a matter of style.
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Note: this topic is from October 11, 2008. |
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No, "Paul Emery Washington" is NOT a direct descendant of George Washington. Washington had no children.
He can be a indirect descendant but not a direct descendant. Words mean things.