In 1744 the government of Virginia colony offered the local Indians the opportunity to send a few of their young men to college at William and Mary.
They respectfully declined. And made a counter-offer.
Benjamin Franklin tells the story.
From: "Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America," 1784:
Savages we call them, because their Manners differ from ours, which we think the Perfection of Civility. They think the same of theirs.
An Instance of this occurred at the Treaty of Lancaster in Pensilvania, anno 1744, between the Government of Virginia and the Six Nations. After the principal Business was settled, the Commissioners from Virginia acquainted the Indians by a Speech, that there was at Williamsburg a College, with a Fund for Educating Indian youth; and that if the Six Nations would send down half a dozen of their young Lads to that College, the Government would take Care that they should be well provided for, and instructed in all the Learning of the White People. It is one of the Indian Rules of Politeness not to answer a public Proposition the same day that it is made; they think it would be treating it as a light matter, and that they show it Respect by taking time to consider it, as of a Matter important. They therefore deferred their Answer till the Day following; when their Speaker began by expressing their deep Sense of the Kindness of the Virginia Government in making them that Offer, for we know, says he, that you highly esteem the kind of Learning taught in those Colleges, and that the Maintenance of our young Men while with you, would be very expensive to you. We are convinced therefore that you mean to do us Good by your Proposal, and we thank you heartily.
But you who are wise must know, that different Nations have different Conceptions of Things, and you will therefore not take it amiss if our Ideas of this kind of Education happen not to be the same with yours. We have had some Experience of it: Several of our young People were formerly brought up at the Colleges of the Northern Provinces; they were instructed in all your Sciences; but when they came back to us they were bad Runners ignorant of every means of living in the Woods, unable to bear either Cold or Hunger, knew neither how to build a Cabin, take a Deer or kill an Enemy, spoke our Language imperfectly, were therefore neither fit for Hunters Warriors, or Counsellors, they were totally good for nothing.
We are however not the less obliged by your kind Offer tho’ we decline accepting it; and to show our grateful Sense of it, if the Gentlemen of Virginia will send us a Dozen of their Sons, we will take great Care of their Education, instruct them in all we know, and make Men of them.
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20 comments:
Thank you for that timely reminder from one of our Founding Fathers that all people consider themselves exceptional. When President Obama made that same point during an April 2009 press conference, Republicans excoriated him for it. But what can you expect from a White nationalist party?
I suspect that Mr. Franklin, perhaps of most, if not all the Framers would not be terribly surprised by the shaky condition of the Republic today.
I suggest clicking on Original Full Text. Good read.
Western Civilization produced the Industrial Revolution and the Science/Technology Revolution. That’s a unique achievement in the history of the human race. No other culture has come even close to figuring out DNA or putting satellites into orbit, to say nothing of learning to fly through the air or creating software that can pass the bar exam.
We are definitely exceptional, and we have a lot to be proud of.
I suspect that there will be some around here who will insist on channeling Eeyore and claim that it’s all terrible. I will leave them to wallow in their self-generated cesspool of guilt and negativity.
Respecting other cultures and what they have achieved does not require us to ignore or denigrate the exceptional achievements of our own culture.
Very interesting. There was no suggestion that we should ignore or denigrate our own culture until the comment about the “self-generated cesspool of guilt and negativity.” Sounds like the very idea that others could be as exceptional as us can send some people off the deep end.
I wasn’t reacting to anything that Ben Franklin said. I like what he said. I was reacting to Mike’s injection of partisan animus into the discussion.
And, looking back now, what I was really reacting to was the long history of left-wing denunciations of western culture (e.g. the 1619 Project) rather than anything Mike said in his comment today.
So, I will have to plead guilty to having had one of my buttons pushed. I will try to be more watchful about that, which has always been a lifelong project for me…
Done, yes,quite fascinating. My History Teachers seem to have skipped it in my "American History" classes, just as they spent about 15 minutes on the Subject of Slavery in this Country.
If Franklin says it, that's OK. IF Obama makes the same point, that's partisan animus. Very interesting.
The injection of partisan animus was the twisting of Peter's non-partisan post into a denunciation of Republicans.
All I did was state the facts. It's the behavior of Republicans that denounces them.
I did make a political comment, but this is a political blog and what I said is true.
Apparently, the platform isn't putting up all the Posts. I keep reading it trying to find where anybody suggested anything about denigrating our accomplishments, and unless I'm extraordinarily Dense, I didn't see anything like what MT is suggesting, until I reached his post about "the self generated cesspool of guilt and negativity."
Ed,
Looking back at the sequence of posts, it’s clear to me that I was reacting more to my own internal dialog than anything that was actually said. A button got pushed and I reacted without realizing what was going on.
I’ve been working on not doing that, but clearly without 100% success; it’s a work in progress… 🤷♂️
I read the whole 1619 Project book, cover to cover. I found nothing in the book that in any way denigrated the advancements of western civilization. What I did find were evidence of how slavery, Jim Crow and continued racism were and are critical factors in how many of our countries operating systems - political, social, economic, geographic, etc - were formed and continue to operate. I don’t see that denigrating western civilizations advancements; I see it as putting them in some perspective. History is full of barbaric civilizations that made immense contributions to our species’ advancement. Acknowledging the barbarism of our western civilization - which can only be denied by ignoring the 20th century - does not denigrate the scientific advancements that concurrently were produced.
"The injection of partisan animus was the twisting of Peter's non-partisan post into a denunciation of Republicans."
Actually, this was a guest post by Benjamin Franklin. He was a lot of things, but non-partisan isn't one of them.
It’s always possible to misunderstand the points someone was trying to make, especially if you do it on purpose.
Excellent point.
He was in favor of education and personal rights.
Today's GOPee would have hated him.
"I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood."
---The Animals
“Mellow is the man
Who knows what he’s been missing”
— Robert Plant
The protection of slavery was not one of the main reasons the 13 Colonies went to war, but slavery was certainly an issue in the American Revolution. There’s a big difference between such mistaken emphasis and “false slander against the founding of this country.”
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/06/1619-project-new-york-times-mistake-122248
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