Status Updates From The Story of America: Essay...

In fairness to Noah Webster who cited as an example sentence for the word ‘preposterous’: “A Republican government in the hands of women is preposterous”, he also didn’t think poor people, anyone not white, or people without money, education or property should vote either.

“William Grimes, a fugitive slave, had a different idea about what to do with the Constitution: ‘if it were not for the stripes on my back which were made while I was a slave, I would in my will, leave my skin a legacy to the government, desiring that it might be taken off and made into parchment and then bind the constitution of glorious happy and free America’ “

“The longer John Adams lived, the more he hated Thomas Paine, and the more worthless he considered that 46 page pamphlet (Common Sense).”
That sounds pretty intense until you take into consideration that John Adams had that level of hate and disdain for pretty much everyone.

These essays on early American myths are great. Almost worth it for the Benjamin Franklin chapter alone. That he had a pseudonym called "Fart-hing" in particular appeals to my inner nine year old.