Seen some transcendent fortitude and steadfastness lately? Where?

It was the transcendent fortitude and steadfastness of these men who in adversity and in suffering through the darkest hour of our history held faithful to an ideal. Here men endured that a nation might live.

-Herbert Hoover

Hope your Memorial Day Weekend is starting well. As a country, I think we are a little short on transcendent fortitude and steadfastness. I thought it might be interesting to review a few things from our history that I have run across this week that reminded me of fortitude and steadfastness, and then maybe we could discuss a few other things that we should remember this weekend.

Memorial Day Weekend

Have anything planned to commemorate Memorial Day? I can't top my brother and his wife, who visited Bunker Hill.

Here are some ideas: Ways to Honor our Fallen Heroes on Memorial Day

This site also has a surprisingly detailed page about John Adams, under "Remembering our Founding Fathers". He was a man who exhibited some fortitude and steadfastness.

Here are some details from a different biography of John Adams, which you might share with young people who can read. It is more focused on basics of the development of the country:

John Adams, Biography of One of America’s Most Important Founding Fathers

John Adams was one of the most important Founding Fathers of the United States. He was born in Massachusetts, became a lawyer, and rose to prominence in the early days of the American Revolution. He admired James Otis and witnessed his speech against the Writs of Assistance. In 1764, he married Abigail Smith, who would go on to play an influential role in his involvement in politics.

During the Stamp Act Crisis, he was associated with the Sons of Liberty, along with his cousin, Samuel Adams. Despite his connections to the Patriot Cause, he defended the British soldiers who fired on colonists at the Boston Massacre, because he believed the men deserved a fair trial, and no other lawyers would take the case.

After the Coercive Acts were passed in 1774, he was elected as a delegate to the First Continental Congress and signed the Articles of Association. In 1775, he returned to the Second Continental Congress where he signed the Olive Branch Petition, however, a week later he nominated George Washington to lead the Continental Army. . .

How many kids today understand what is written above? Particularly the Adams quote?

I didn't remember this:

The XYZ Affair was a diplomatic scandal between France and the United States caused by French officials trying to bribe American diplomats in 1797. When the scandal was exposed, anti-French sentiment rose in America, and the slogan “Millions for defense but not one cent for tribute” became popular. As a result, the two nations became entangled in an undeclared naval war known as the Quasi-War. Peace was restored in 1800, but the XYZ Affair had serious long-term effects on the United States. The press was critical of President John Adams and Congress for how the affair was handled, which led to the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts. Two Southern states — Virginia and Kentucky — passed resolutions that said the laws were unconstitutional and that the states had a right to “nullify” the acts. Later, the concept of Nullification became a direct cause of the Civil War.

If only more of the French had been like Lafayette

From A Daily Dose of History. I think this summary underestimates the danger Lafayette faced after the rise of the Jacobins, due to his ties to aristocracy:

Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, was one of the wealthiest men in France (which is to say in the world), when, inspired by the words of the American Declaration of Independence, he left the comfort and security of his home, traveled to America, and offered his service to the cause of American liberty. At age 19, he was commissioned major general, to this day the youngest person ever to hold that rank in the American army.

Lafayette soon became one of General Washington’s most trusted and capable generals. Having been orphaned at a young age, Lafayette greatly admired Washington, who became a father figure for him. And likewise, Lafayette became like a foster son to Washington, who had no biological children of his own.
To the end of his long and celebrated life, Lafayette remained devoted to his adopted county. He named his only son George Washington, and he named a daughter Virginia.

Having returned to France after the war ended, Lafayette become a key player in the cause of French liberty, and he remains a revered hero in that country as well. He was the principal author of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man, modeling it on the American Declaration of Independence.

Lafayette was 67 years old when, in 1824, President James Monroe and Congress invited him to come to the United States in honor of the nation’s 50th birthday. After Washington’s death in 1799, he had given up his dream of someday returning to Virginia and living near Mount Vernon, but Lafayette was delighted at the invitation and welcomed the opportunity to return to the country he had helped.

At age 76, Lafayette died at his home in Paris. At his request, his son George Washington Lafayette sprinkled the soil from Bunker Hill over his father’s coffin as it was lowered into the ground. An American flag has flown continually over the grave ever since.

When word of Lafayette’s death reached America there was an outpouring of grief that equaled that when Washington died. Flags were lowered to half mast, John Quincy Adams delivered a eulogy in a joint session of Congress attended by the president, the cabinet, the Supreme Court justices, and the American diplomatic corps. Twenty-four-gun salutes were fired by every American naval ship and at every American military post, followed by a single cannon shot every half-hour afterwards until sunset. For six months American officers wore black armbands, and American citizens wore mourning dress for thirty days.

Hundreds of places in America, including at least 36 cities and towns, are named in honor of Lafayette.

Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, the “Hero of Two Worlds,” died on May 20, 1834, one hundred ninety-two years ago today.

Little-known history. Is this why John Quincy Adams went skinny dipping in the Potomac most mornings?

John Quincy Adams our 6th President once kept a live alligator in the White House bathtub, a wild gift from the Marquis de Lafayette himself.

White House staff had to check the tub every time before the president bathed. pic.twitter.com/NfRrpjmpR5

— HeritageBulwark (@hbulwark1) May 19, 2026

Remembering American And Western Culture

We have seen a lot of reports lately about kids who can't read. I would be nice if they could read some things that would help keep American and Western civilization alive, in particular. Here's something different: Richard Nixon's book recommendations. What do you think?

This is President Nixon's book recommendations for students interested in history, biography and historical novels. pic.twitter.com/PSxJX3JjUB

— Richard Nixon Foundation (@nixonfoundation) May 21, 2026

How many kids today know who Thucydides is, much less what a 'Thucydides Trap' is? VDH on China and the USA

Are young people ready for uplifting content on the internet?

Or in a commencement address?

Was not ready for Eric Church to deliver the best commencement speech I’ve ever heard.

Six guitar strings. Six pillars of a life.

Faith. Family. Spouse. Ambition. Community. You.

Tune them when you’re whole, not just when you’re broken.

Watch the whole thing. pic.twitter.com/6d5uY8lPP4

— Dante (@DanteTheDon) May 14, 2026

Tip: Don't mention Artificial Intelligence in such an address.

WEEKEND

The Week in Pictures: Messy Massie Edition

Greetings from Palermo, where I’m currently on a diplomatic mission to sort out the Europeans. Meanwhile, the salient news of the week is that Republicans seem to dealing with the anti-Semites in their midst while Democrats nominate theirs for higher office. More significantly, in purging Sen. Bill Cassidy and Rep. Thomas “Hot Mess” Massie (did Trump ever call him that?—he should have if not), Trump has achieved what Franklin Roosevelt failed to accomplish with his attempted purge of anti-New Deal Democrats in the 1938 election cycle. One more piece of evidence that the somnambulant Biden administration was merely a temporary and aberrant intermission in the Age of Trump. Maybe Massie will switch parties and come back as a Democrat. I hear they are still looking for a candidate for 2028.

Music

Buck Throckmorton included the lyrics of this song (and two others) in a Memorial Day ONT a couple of years ago. I think it is lovely.

Taps and Missing Man Formation

Hope you have something nice planned for this long weekend.

This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread.

Last week's thread, May 16, Artificial Intelligence vs. Woke?

Comments are closed so you won't ban yourself by trying to comment on a week-old thread. But don't try it anyway.

Really interesting comment thread on this post.