Epic of Being George Washington: And Declaration of America’S Independence over High Taxes, Usurpations of Power, and No Economic Growth

Copyright © 2012 by Festus Ogunbitan.

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ISBN: 978-1-4759-5213-1 (sc)

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Contents

Themes in each play

Appreciation

Motivation

About the Author

Epic Of Being George Washington

Bibliography

Preamble to the battle of Mount Algidus 467-458 B.C.

Introduction

Bibliography

Endnotes

Themes in each play

President George Washington Turns the Revolutionary War’s Defeat into Victory in the Battle of New York

&

Cincinnatus Turns the Roman Defeat into Victory in the Battle of Mount Algidus

These plays are written with the philosophy and psychology of the history of America’s Declaration of Independence

By Festus Ogunbitan

A.K.A. Festus Shakesword

American Heroes Theater Series

Appreciation

My appreciation to Dr. Bradley Nystrom, and Dr. Jeffrey Brodd from the department of Humanities and Liberal Arts at Sacramento State University for supervising the background notes on the story of Cincinnatus during my Liberal Arts Master’s thesis program. When I started adapting the history of American presidents into Greek style epideictic drama, I shared my adaptation on the story of President Abraham Lincoln with Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield Illinois. Dr. Bryon Andreasen, the Research Historian in the center, motivated me with his comments on Killing Abraham Lincoln: who turned his nations defeat into victory in the battle of Five Forks, by saying;

You are to be commended for your diligence in reconstructing American historical stories through Greek-style epideictic oratory.

President George Washington1732-1799

Champion of America’s Independence and Democratic Rule for Economic Growth

Consul Quinctius Cincinnatus 520 B.C.-430 B.C.

King George III of England

1738-1820

Purpose of Writing

Epic of Being George Washington: & Declaration of America’s Independence Over High Taxes and No Economic Growth

Purpose of writing this play is to reclaim the dream of the father of our nation, President George Washington by adapting his brainy quotes into Greek style epideictic drama. Also, I wish to explore the conflicts and issues in dialectic of exchange and reply in the political responses of King George III of England, and President George Washington who represented the thirteen colonies of America in the struggle for America’s Independence and democratic rule.

I have dramatized President Washington, and King George III’s arguments based on the articles of the Declaration of Independence through the logic of stated assumptions, and unstated assumptions to discuss the logical soundness of the disputes made by each faction on monarchy and democratic rule. I have critically analyzed their line of reasoning with the method of Aristotle’s catharsis and intellectual purification of the soul.

Although democracy has been around since the time of the Greeks, but I have examined the recurring ideologies in the evolution of democracy from the Roman era through the overthrow of King Tarquin the proud, 496 B.C., and the emergence of the first twenty senators or Rex Sacrorum, to the foundation of the new democratic system of government during the period of Quinctius Cincinnatus 456 B.C. The collapse of the full establishment of democratic government came during the time of Julius Caesar 44 B.C. in the early Roman Republican period; but hope for a free and fair world of democratic government of the people, by the people, and for the people returned through President George Washington in the 1776 A.D. According to Charlene Spretnak in The Resurgence of the Real—Body, Nature, and Place in a Hypermodern World, this evolution of political governance can be called a ‘social process of culture.’ Social process of culture is a metaphor derived for human experience through the original meaning of culture—Cultura—the tending of crops or livestock—agriculture and cultivation. I have used this theme to construct my lyric poems, and to embellish the historical facts of the American Revolution.

I used President Washington’s brainy quotes to write fifty percent of the speeches in this play to demonstrate why political dialogues have been the factor for economic and social progress in Western Civilization, and most especially the birth of America’s independence. The Declaration placed emphasis on the individual, and critically questioned traditional institutions of the kings, queens, and the church; and asserts that all men are created equal. Charlene Spretnak emphasized in his definition of social process of culture that societies that deviate from this important discourse of humanity will not be able to engage in economic progress such as formation, preparation, training, building, and other things associated with human beings.¹

Examples of arguments presented by President George Washington in the Declaration of America’s Independence are as follows:

He does not want reciprocity—deriving knowledge through the kings, queens, lords, and religious authorities; the people want emphasis to be placed on the individual—power belongs to the people. He is against exploitation by the kings, the lords and the church, and he affirms that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.² He asserts that Freedom of the colonies is being denied though unfair taxation, and misrepresentation in government affairs. He calls for standardized education, language, bureaucratization of information and structuring a system by which information can be gathered by modern institution, and not by the church and the kings’ consultants—Dukes.³ He wants knowledge to be obtained through investigative method of science—rationalism. He wants a permanent middle class system. He asserts that talents of prophets and poets are meant for industrial and educational research. He proclaims that the monarchy and the church cannot fully answer the needs of the people—power belongs to the people.

Examples of arguments presented by King George III of England, and King Louis XVI of France are as follows:

King George III and King Louis XVI assert that knowledge and development of the state can only be obtained through autocracy, reciprocity, and subjectivism—Great Chain of Being. They believe that the democratic system of government which George Washington foresees is just an excuse to define modernity as a triumphant force progressing in opposition to the kingship system of government. They declare that inequality or hierarchy of power is not working backward, and that authoritarianism works better than government of the people. They maintain that the colonists cannot dissociate from the political and religious life of the kings, lords, and the church. Decrees from the monarchy are the essence of good judgment to build a nation and the whole world, and on the overall, the people must obey the king’s decrees.

King George III           President George Washington

Another style of epideictic rhetoric is monologue or ‘demonstrative speech.’ This style combines the praise/blame codes of speech making into one argument. The praise side will likely neutralize the undesirable concern in the blame side of the argument as the whole statement changes its meaning. The receiver may not disagree with the speaker, and he/she would agree to work together with the maker of the speech for the progress of the community. Quinctius Cincinnatus, Quinctius Capitolinus, and Marcus Tulius Cicero, are among the best epideictic demonstrative speech makers during the early Roman Republican period. Like President George Washington, their persuasive communication style of speech has created bipartisanship, and made reconstruction and peace possible on the senate floor of the two political rivals of Rome—the Tribunes and the Patricians.

Motivation

My motivation to write Greek style epideictic oratory plays for all United States’ presidents is to retell the great history of this country through reciprocity method of storytelling. Modern literature regards telling stories through epic heroes as backward and anachronistic; but there is something that the society can learn through the locus of these heroes. Playwrights and poets through the centuries seemed not to have narrated the great history of this country for permanence in our memory as Homer, Sophocles, Aristophanes, William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlow and many other great writers narrated the great history of Greece and England on the theaters of all schools and colleges through epideictic oratory. I am continuing this project with the story of the American Revolution championed by the Father of our Nation, President George Washington, in his fight for freedom and liberty for all people. According to Prof. Athanassakis Apostolos in his lecture to Hellenistic Society at Sacramento State University in 2008, he mentioned that modern literature, and contemporary historians have failed to retell the story of our great heritage for permanence; he warned that if care is not taken to find the right language and literature (epideictic rhetoric) to retell history, ‘our children will forget.’

David Starkey, a British Historian, also commented on how contemporary culture of Hip Hop lyrics has caused disappearance of articulate language and literature in the British society and said "‘it is a Jamaican patois that has intruded in England, which is why so many of us have this sense that we are literally living in a foreign country. This problem also started with some instructors who believe it is proper to use non-educative literatures and movies in the classroom for education. Most of today’s movies are for entertainment alone, they are not for education.

According to W.J.T. Mitchell in Ways of Reading: Words and Images, he quoted from W.E.B Du Bois’ lecture, the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of color television… the society have become potently manipulable elements in the pervasive technologies of simulation and mass mediation; we may find that the problem of the twenty-first century is the problem of image. Certainly I would be the first to suggest that we live in a culture dominated by pictures, visual simulations, stereotypes, illusions, copies, reproductions, imitations, fantasies. Anxieties about the power of visual culture are not just province of critical intellectuals, everyone knows that television is bad for you, and that its badness has something to do with the passivity and fixation of the spectator… What we need is critique of visual culture that is alert to the power of images for good and evil, and that is capable of discriminating the variety and historical specificity of their uses.⁴

Charlene Spretnak, in The Resurgence of the Real: Body, Nature, and Place in a Hypermodern World, also referred to the disappearance of educative rhetoric in our schools and colleges, he said, Learning, especially at the university level is strictly divided into departments, which have little interaction. One of the compartments, spiritual and religious life is devalued in modernity because modern history celebrates the escape from religion and other superstitions. In the modern era, institutionalized religions have downplayed spiritual connectedness with creation; instead, they focus on rationalist application of morals and ethics.⁵

Fred D’Aguiar, a literary critic also pointed out from Prof. Everest Percival’s Erasure that un-educative rhetoric is proliferated in our schools to erase critical thinking in students through the help of publishing industries that promote only certain kinds of literature—those with vague speeches and ghetto settings, at the expense of intelligent writers like the Monk personality in Erasure. Monk happens to be black but he cannot get published because he writes the kind of books which contain classical rhetoric that could project critical thinking for articulate college composition in students.⁶

Modern literature has misled us to believe that Liberal Arts—epideictic rhetoric, which is the beginning of all departments in colleges and universities is no longer needed in modern civilization. As a result, the foundation of creativity and industrial growth, which the great scholars of deposed College of Liberal Arts built for thousands of years for earth’s growth has been wrongly accredited to the success of plain and dry modern language that contains no philosophy. In a few years’ time, the rich inheritance from the College of Liberal Arts will soon dry up in our children, and the earth may fall into unfathomable problem as students are void of the high energy of reasoning through the proliferation of vague language and literature in our schools and the media.

From my high school days, I have been opened to British history through The Norton Anthology of English Literature, and Shakespeare’s plays. When I reached the University, I started to further appreciate the Greek and British history through the great works, which the epic playwrights did for Greece and Europe by rewriting the European history with philosophical poetry that consciously controls the minds of its readers.

Examples of literatures that consciously control the minds of its readers are: Iliad, Livy’s Pentads, The Aeneid, Taoist Books, Shakespeare’s plays, I Have a Dream, Bhagavad Gita, and many other great epic literatures ; these writers have used epideictic oratory style of writing to make the history and struggle of their various nations very permanent in our memory.

Hoping to permanently retell the history of America, I have decided to use Aristotle’s theory of catharsis to rewrite America’s history through the locus of all presidents, or the first family to have a permanent knowledge of America’s history. All the plays shall incorporate the principles of American politics, focusing on the values and virtues of the Conservatives and the Liberals.

About the Author

Festus Ogunbitan obtained an associate degree in Journalism from Sacramento City College, Sacramento California. He also obtained a bachelor’s degree in English Language, and a master’s degree in Liberal Arts from Sacramento State University, Sacramento. During his Liberal Arts Masters program, he adapted the history of how Cincinnatus turned a Roman defeat into victory in the battle of Mount Algidus, and the return of Odysseus from the battle of Troy. These two plays are tilted, Cincinnatus, and A Tale on Homer’s Odyssey. It is from here that he continued to adapt more stories into epideictic plays for education and entertainment.

Epic No. 1

Epic of Being

George Washington

&

Declaration of America’s Independence

Over High Taxes, Usurpations of Power, and No Economic Growth

Epic Of Being George Washington

PRESIDENT GEORGE WASHINGTON, Virginia member of the Continental Congress, first president of the United States of America, Father of the Nation, and Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army.

MARTHA CUSTIS WASHINGTON, wife of President George Washington.

KING GEORGE III, the king of England during the American Revolution.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Pennsylvania member of the Continental Congress.

THOMAS JEFFERSON, Virginia member of the Continental Congress.

JOHN ADAMS, Massachusetts member of the Continental Congress.

SAMUEL CHASE, Maryland member of the Continental Congress.

GEORGE WALTON, Georgia member of the Continental Congress.

PATRICK HENRY, Virginia member of the Continental Congress.

STEPHEN HOPKINS, Rhode Island member of the Continental Congress.

CAESAR RODNEY, Delaware member of the Continental Congress.

SAMUEL HUNTINGTON, Connecticut member of the Continental Congress.

OTHER MEMEBERS OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS FROM THE THIRTEEN COLONIES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

COMMANDER BENEDICT ARNOLD, a commander of the Revolutionary Army.

COMMANDER HORATIO GATES, a commander of the Revolutionary Army.

COMMANDER WILLIAM ALEXANDER, a commander of the Revolutionary Army.

COMMADER HENRY CHAMPION, a commander of the Revolutionary Army.

COMMADER CHRISTOPEHR GADSDEN, a commander of the Revolutionary Army.

GENERAL WILLIAM HOWE, a commander of the army of the British imperialists.

GENERAL CHARLES CORNWALLIS, a commander of the British Army, he surrenders to General Washington in the Battle of New York.

REAR ADMIRAL SIR THOMAS GRAVES, commander of the British Warships.

ADMIRAL GEORGE BRYDGES RODNEY, commander of the British Warships.

COLONEL RALL, German Hessian Troop, ally of the British Army.

MAJOR DECHOW, German Hessian Troop, ally of the British Army.

ADMIRAL DE BARRASS, French ally of the British on the sea.

ADMIRAL DE GRASSE French ally of the British on the sea.

DUKE OF YORK, sits with the king over the affairs of the British Empire.

DUKE OF EDINBURGE, sits with the king over the affairs of the British Empire.

DUKE OF NORMANDY, sits with the king over the affairs of British the Empire.

DUKE OF LANCASTER, sits with the king over the affairs of British the Empire.

DUKE OF BURGUNDY, sits with the king over the affairs of British the Empire.

AFRICAN AMERICAN LADY

GERMAN HESSIAN ARMY

FRENCH SOLDIERS.

BRITISH SOLDIERS.

AMERICAN SOLDIERS.

BLACK & WHITE MOBS, on the streets of New York.

Act 1 Scene 1

In Philadelphia, General George Washington addresses the first Continental Congress of the thirteen colonies that will form the United States of America. The meeting takes place in 1774.⁷

JOHN ADAMS, to some members of the Continental Congress in the hallway of the conference building.

Arise, arise, arise, and suppress no more the yoke of high taxes, extravagancy, misrepresentation in government affairs, and usurpations of power put upon the colonists by the autocratic rule of the kings and the lords of England.

STEPHEN HOPKINS

Oh thou fellow Congressman, thy words doth indeed herald my feelings to that pronouncement which purges my soul to the meeting of your mind.

SAMUEL CHASE

Methinks me that I perceive more of the meeting of our minds in the military dressing of George Washington to this meeting.

STEPHEN HOPKINS

Fellow, in mufti-attire, the British have turned over our ‘Coats of Arms’ in the rank and file of the army. And in silence, our code of conduct has been encoded by the order of the British monarchy that subordinates the voice