Earth Quake in Washington, D.C., Tetonic plates or Gigant Tortoise...

Francis “Lightfoot” Lee was one of the only pair of brothers (see also Richard Henry Lee) to sign the Declaration of Independence. He was also the brother of General "Lighthorse Harry" Lee of Revolutionary War fame, and the uncle of Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee.


Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses (the colony's legislature) in 1858, taking his seat there with his brother, Richard Henry Lee, who had also been elected. He joined another brother and two cousins that year in the House of Burgesses. In 1769, he married his cousin, Rebecca Tayloe, and although they would have no children of their own, they would raise two nieces. Although quiet and reserved, Francis was active in the Virginia House of Burgesses, and led much of the protests against the hated Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts, which were unpopular in much of the colonies.


In 1775, he was elected as a member of the Second Continental Congress, along with his brother, Richard Henry Lee, and supported the cause for independence. As a member of the Board of War, he played a vital role in obtaining supplies for the American Army, and during the Revolutionary War, he served as a Congressman, actively supporting the independence cause. The two brothers resigned from the Continental Congress on the same day, May 15, 1779, and while Richard Henry Lee would later return to Congress, Francis returned briefly back to the Virginia legislature, and then retired to his plantation in Virginia, to tend to its concerns.


After the Revolutionary War, Francis Lightfoot Lee supported the adoption of the Constitution, and encouraged Virginians to vote for it. He died at his plantation in 1797 at the age of 62. He is buried on the grounds in Warsaw, Virginia.


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Richard Henry Lee was the brother of Francis “Lightfoot” Lee, and he was also the brother of General "Lighthorse Harry" Lee of Revolutionary War fame, and the uncle of Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Born at Stratford, Virginia, he was the seventh child of eleven (while some scholars believe he was born in 1732, the family Bible states that he was born in January 1733). After being home tutored, he was sent to England at age 11 to be formally taught, eventually returning to Virginia when he was 18. When Richard was in his mid-20s he married Anne Aylette, and they would have four children. He established a plantation, called Chantilly, on the Potomac River, becoming a gentleman farmer. In 1768, he had a hunting accident that blew four fingers off his hand, and in December 1768, his wife, Anne, died. He would later marry Anne Pinckard, with whom he had another five children.


He was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses (the state legislature), where he served from 1758 until 1776. He was especially active in Virginia's campaign of resistance to the hated Stamp Act and Townshend Acts. In 1774, Lee was a delegate to the First Continental Congress, and initially, he favored a policy of economic boycott to bring the British to reason in their colonial policies. But he began to change his mind when the King closed the port of Boston, and he began to think more and more of independence from Britain.


In 1776, he obtained a resolution from the House of Burgesses to introduce into the Second Continental Congress that "these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown; and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." This resolution, introduced by Lee on June 7, 1776 into Congress, began the process that produced the Declaration of Independence. The Second Continental Congress approved the resolution on July 2, 1776.


After the Revolutionary War, Lee served as President of Congress, from 1784 to 1785, under the Articles of Confederation, and thus, actually was President of the United States, although this title is now reserved for those who were elected under the Constitution. Lee supported the adoption of the US Constitution, and after it was adopted, Lee served as a Senator from Virginia from 1789 to 1792, when he resigned because of illness and injuries suffered in a carriage accident.


His last effort as a senator was to give enthusiastic support for the adoption of a Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments to the US Constitution).


Richard Henry Lee died at his home, Chantilly, Virginia, in 1794, in his early sixties. He is buried at Coles Point, Virginia.

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Thomas Nelson Junior was born to one of the wealthiest merchant families in Yorktown, Virginia. His father, William Nelson, had been Virginia's Governor twice. At age 14, Thomas was sent to England to attend school, a common practice among colonists, and he was educated at Christ's College at Cambridge University. Graduating in 1760, he returned to Virginia the next year, when he was 22. While aboard ship on the return journey, he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses. In 1762, he married Lucy Grymes, a talented harpsichord player and daughter of Philip Grymes, Esquire, of Brandon, Virginia. With an ample fortune given to him by his father, Nelson was able to live a style of common elegance and hospitality; together, they would have 13 children. Their son, Hugh Nelson (1768-1836), would later serve in the US Congress. In 1772, his father died, leaving him 20,000 acres of land and more than 400 slaves.


Just two years later, in 1774, after hearing about the Boston Tea Party, he performed an act against the British Tea Tax by boarding a merchant ship, Virginia, which was anchored near his home, and dumped several chests of tea into the York River. In an age when destroying another person's property was a serious crime, this was a very risky act, yet he was not punished for doing this. He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1775 to 1777, and again in 1779. He was one of the first congressmen to favor independence, and urged his fellow delegates to support the cause of independence.


The following spring, in May 1777, he suffered the first of many strokes. Returning home, he seemed to recover, but would have additional strokes as well as periodic bouts of asthma. Despite these health problems, he kept active in politics, and in 1781, he was elected as Virginia's Governor, succeeding Thomas Jefferson. In addition, he commanded the Virginia Militia with the rank of General. In the fall of 1781, General Nelson led 3,000 Virginia Militiamen as part of George Washington's Army besieging Yorktown. When the British took refuge in his home, American artillerymen refused to fire on the house, in respect to General Nelson. Nelson then aimed and fired a cannon at his own home, and ordered the men to fire at his house, destroying it. The British surrendered at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, marking the end of the major fighting in the American Revolution.


Thomas Nelson had sacrificed his health, his home and his fortune to help win independence. He died in 1787 at the age of fifty while living at his son's home in Hanover County, Virginia. He is buried in Grace Episcopal churchyard in Yorktown, Virginia.


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Thomas Stone was born in Charles County, Maryland, not far from the present-day Washington, DC. He borrowed money to study law in the Annapolis office of Thomas Johnson, who later became Maryland’s first state governor. For several years, he practiced law in Frederick, Maryland, and in 1768, he married Margaret Brown, with whom he had three children. Seeking a quiet life, the family settled on a farm in Charles County in 1771 where he continued to practice law. By the early 1770s, he had made a name for himself as an opponent of British policies towards the colonies.


In December 1774, he was elected as a delegate to the First Continental Congress, and his took his seat in May 1775. Stone rarely spoke in Congress, and although he favored independence for the colonies, he initially urged a policy of reconciliation and negotiation with Britain. Even after he signed the Declaration of Independence, he still favored finding some way to make peace with Britain. While in Congress, he served on the committee that created the Articles of Confederation.


After the war, he was elected to the Maryland senate three times, dying during his third term. In 1787, he was elected to represent Maryland at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, but held off going because his wife was extremely ill. When Margaret died in June 1787, he was so grief-stricken that he gave up his law practice and died just four months after his wife’s passing, dying of grief at the age of 44. He is buried in Port Tobacco, Maryland.

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John Adams was the 2nd United States President, first United States Vice President, Signer of the Declaration of Independence from Massachusetts, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, and Revolutionary War Patriot. Born the first of two sons to John and Susanna Boylston Adams, he was born in Braintree, Massachusetts (now part of Quincy, MA), where his father was a Puritan farmer, a lieutenant in the militia, a town selectman (town councilman), and a descendant of the first settlers who had arrived in 1636 to found the town. John attended Harvard College, and after graduating in 1755, taught school in Worcester, Massachusetts for a few years. He decided that he wanted to become a lawyer, and studied law under James Putnam, a prominent lawyer in Worcester. In 1758, he was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar. A careful student, he would write detailed descriptions of events, court cases, and impressions of men, so that he could later study them and reflect upon them. His 1761 notes of the court argument of attorney James Otis on the legality of the Writs of Assistance has served to be one of the best historical records of that argument, helping historians to understand both that law, the public perceptions of the effects of that law, and the patriotism that existing in James Otis.


With the Stamp Act of 1765, Adams rose to prominence as an opponent of the king, in which he argued to the Royal Governor that without representation in Parliament, Massachusetts had not assented to the Stamp Act. In 1770, following the Boston Massacre, the British soldiers involved were charged with murder. When no lawyer in Boston would agree to defend them, Adams argued on their behalf, and got six of them acquitted, with two soldiers who had fired directly into the crowd convicted only of manslaughter with dismissal from the Army. That same month, Adams was elected to the Massachusetts General Legislature, beginning his political career. Adams attended the First and Second Continental Congresses as a representative from Massachusetts. Believing in independence, he nominated George Washington of Virginia for Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. Tired of repeating his arguments for independence, Adams wrote a pamphlet "Thoughts on Government" (1776), which articulated his thoughts on independence and, more influentially, on the thought that monarchs, the aristocracy, and the common people all had to be mixed together and represented, in order to bring their support to the government. This thought was considered very radial at the time. "Thoughts on Government" was extremely influential on political thinkers, and was referenced as an authority in virtually every state when each wrote their state constitution. Adams would help write the Declaration of Independence, and would sign as a Massachusetts delegate. During the Revolution, he served as head of the Board of War and Ordnance, seeing that the Continental Army received the supplies it needed.


In 1779, he wrote most of the Massachusetts Constitution, with help from his cousin, Sam Adams, and patriot James Bowdoin. During the Revolutionary War, Adams successfully negotiated treaties of recognition and friendship with France, Holland and Prussia, giving the United States its first foreign recognition as a nation. In 1785, he was appointed as the first Ambassador from the United States to Great Britain since the Revolution. When the Constitution of the United States was adopted, Adams ran for President, coming in second behind General George Washington. In accordance with the US Constitution, that made Washington President and Adams Vice President. As President of the Senate (the only duties that the Constitution gave the Vice President) he cast 29 tie-breaking votes, a record that still stands today. As the first Vice President, he set the standards for the sessions of the Congress, many of which are still enforced even today. In 1796, Adams ran for President on the Federalist Party platform against Governor Thomas Pinckney (Federalist), Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican Party) and Senator Aaron Burr (also Democratic-Republican). In a narrow victory, Adams won the Presidency over the next candidate, Thomas Jefferson, thus, under the rules then in place, Jefferson become Adams' Vice President. In the next four years, President Adams built up the Navy, fought an undeclared war with France, and signed into law the Alien and Sedition Acts as an legal instrument against French actions in America (but was used by some politicians to silence their political opponents) and gave the first ever State of the Union address. In the election of 1800, each candidate ran for the first time with a vice presidential running mate. In this election, Jefferson teamed with Aaron Burr to defeat John Adams and his running mate, Charles Pinckney. Just before leaving the Presidency, Adams became the first US President to occupy the newly constructed White House, the official residence of the President. In his final days as President, Adams appointed his Secretary of State, John Marshall, as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; Marshall would go on to establish much of the legal decisions that influence the Supreme Court even today, and he is considered one of the best Chief Justices the US ever had.


Following his defeat, Adams retired into private life, returning to his farm in Massachusetts. He and Jefferson were bitter by the infighting of politics and would not speak to each other again until 1812, when Adams finally reconciled with Jefferson. Becoming friends again, the two men corresponded on a number of political and philosophical discussions, giving future historians deep insight into political thought of the times and of the two men.


Sixteen months before his death, Adams' son, John Quincy Adams, became the sixth President of the United States, the first son of a President to achieve this office. On July 4, 1826, on the 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Adams died at his home in Quincy. His last words were "Jefferson lives," considered a tribute of his deep affection for his friend and former rival. However, Thomas Jefferson had died a few hours earlier than his friend, John Adams, that same day. He is buried in Quincy, Massachusetts.











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John Adams was the 2nd United States President, first United States Vice President, Signer of the Declaration of Independence from Massachusetts, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, and Revolutionary War Patriot. Born the first of two sons to John and Susanna Boylston Adams, he was born in Braintree, Massachusetts (now part of Quincy, MA), where his father was a Puritan farmer, a lieutenant in the militia, a town selectman (town councilman), and a descendant of the first settlers who had arrived in 1636 to found the town. John attended Harvard College, and after graduating in 1755, taught school in Worcester, Massachusetts for a few years. He decided that he wanted to become a lawyer, and studied law under James Putnam, a prominent lawyer in Worcester. In 1758, he was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar. A careful student, he would write detailed descriptions of events, court cases, and impressions of men, so that he could later study them and reflect upon them. His 1761 notes of the court argument of attorney James Otis on the legality of the Writs of Assistance has served to be one of the best historical records of that argument, helping historians to understand both that law, the public perceptions of the effects of that law, and the patriotism that existing in James Otis.


With the Stamp Act of 1765, Adams rose to prominence as an opponent of the king, in which he argued to the Royal Governor that without representation in Parliament, Massachusetts had not assented to the Stamp Act. In 1770, following the Boston Massacre, the British soldiers involved were charged with murder. When no lawyer in Boston would agree to defend them, Adams argued on their behalf, and got six of them acquitted, with two soldiers who had fired directly into the crowd convicted only of manslaughter with dismissal from the Army. That same month, Adams was elected to the Massachusetts General Legislature, beginning his political career. Adams attended the First and Second Continental Congresses as a representative from Massachusetts. Believing in independence, he nominated George Washington of Virginia for Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. Tired of repeating his arguments for independence, Adams wrote a pamphlet "Thoughts on Government" (1776), which articulated his thoughts on independence and, more influentially, on the thought that monarchs, the aristocracy, and the common people all had to be mixed together and represented, in order to bring their support to the government. This thought was considered very radial at the time. "Thoughts on Government" was extremely influential on political thinkers, and was referenced as an authority in virtually every state when each wrote their state constitution. Adams would help write the Declaration of Independence, and would sign as a Massachusetts delegate. During the Revolution, he served as head of the Board of War and Ordnance, seeing that the Continental Army received the supplies it needed.


In 1779, he wrote most of the Massachusetts Constitution, with help from his cousin, Sam Adams, and patriot James Bowdoin. During the Revolutionary War, Adams successfully negotiated treaties of recognition and friendship with France, Holland and Prussia, giving the United States its first foreign recognition as a nation. In 1785, he was appointed as the first Ambassador from the United States to Great Britain since the Revolution. When the Constitution of the United States was adopted, Adams ran for President, coming in second behind General George Washington. In accordance with the US Constitution, that made Washington President and Adams Vice President. As President of the Senate (the only duties that the Constitution gave the Vice President) he cast 29 tie-breaking votes, a record that still stands today. As the first Vice President, he set the standards for the sessions of the Congress, many of which are still enforced even today. In 1796, Adams ran for President on the Federalist Party platform against Governor Thomas Pinckney (Federalist), Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican Party) and Senator Aaron Burr (also Democratic-Republican). In a narrow victory, Adams won the Presidency over the next candidate, Thomas Jefferson, thus, under the rules then in place, Jefferson become Adams' Vice President. In the next four years, President Adams built up the Navy, fought an undeclared war with France, and signed into law the Alien and Sedition Acts as an legal instrument against French actions in America (but was used by some politicians to silence their political opponents) and gave the first ever State of the Union address. In the election of 1800, each candidate ran for the first time with a vice presidential running mate. In this election, Jefferson teamed with Aaron Burr to defeat John Adams and his running mate, Charles Pinckney. Just before leaving the Presidency, Adams became the first US President to occupy the newly constructed White House, the official residence of the President. In his final days as President, Adams appointed his Secretary of State, John Marshall, as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; Marshall would go on to establish much of the legal decisions that influence the Supreme Court even today, and he is considered one of the best Chief Justices the US ever had.


Following his defeat, Adams retired into private life, returning to his farm in Massachusetts. He and Jefferson were bitter by the infighting of politics and would not speak to each other again until 1812, when Adams finally reconciled with Jefferson. Becoming friends again, the two men corresponded on a number of political and philosophical discussions, giving future historians deep insight into political thought of the times and of the two men.


Sixteen months before his death, Adams' son, John Quincy Adams, became the sixth President of the United States, the first son of a President to achieve this office. On July 4, 1826, on the 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Adams died at his home in Quincy. His last words were "Jefferson lives," considered a tribute of his deep affection for his friend and former rival. However, Thomas Jefferson had died a few hours earlier than his friend, John Adams, that same day. He is buried in Quincy, Massachusetts.











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