Tea at Trianon: The Iroquois Confederacy

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, January 28, 2017

The Iroquois Confederacy

From Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Blog:

We found this topic on the Haudenosaunee to be a captivating topic because of the working thriving nation they were prior to the American Revolution but also because we wanted to view them as Benjamin Franklin would have – contemporaries or as equals. Many Iroquois today and in the past like other Native Americans and American Indians are well educated. Appreciating their rich heritage, I have tried to leave off stereotyping or the view that the American Indians history was one tragic event after another. There is debate about when the Confederation was formed. Most historians believe it was formed by 1630. Historians can agree that in 1722, the Tuscaroras (6th nation) joined the Confederation. Whenever it was formed, the 5 Nations (then 6) was a well established union following a constitution they called “The Great Law of Peace”. Their Great Law of Peace was a democratic structure already in progress. Had the Iroquois played a key role in influencing American democracy? Are they the Forgotten Founders? (Read more.)