To a man with a post office, every problem looks like a stamp.
At least that seems to be the thinking behind today’s #stampoftheday, a 4-cent stamp issued in 1961l. Unlike most stamps, it doesn’t picture a person or a place. Instead prominently features seven of the most famous words in American history: “Give me liberty or give me death,” which (supposedly) were the last lines of a fiery speech given by Patrick Henry on March 23, 1775.
One thing I’ve learned in 11 months of writing these #stampoftheday posts is that things do not just happen to appear on stamps. So, if the answer is a stamp that says “give me liberty or give me death,” what was the question?
The question seems to be how to address concerns expressed by Arthur Summerfield, who served as Postmaster General from 1953 to 1961. Apparently, Summerfield—who had owned one of the largest General Motors auto dealerships in Michigan before he became active in politics and helped make Dwight D. Eisenhower president—was worried that Americans and others were in danger of forgetting the ideals of those who founded the United States.
And, apparently, issuing postage stamps with quotes from famous Americans was a good way to solve that problem. So, in September 1959, Summerfield announced that the Post Office would issue six new “American Credo” stamps, each featuring a short quotation from a famous American patriot: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, Abraham Lincoln, and Francis Scott Key.
“Great men have always expressed the principles by which they live in a few brief words, so self-evident and timeless in their truth that they live forever and become the creeds to inspire and guide generations to come,” said Summerfield, who added that “a poll was taken among 100 distinguished Americans, including leaders of public life, outstanding historians, and the presidents of all state universities, to determine the soundness of the proposal and to select the most appropriate themes. Without exception, the ‘American Credo’ series was endorsed by this group as being useful and appropriate.”
He added: “We believe there is an urgent need, perhaps now more than ever before, to re-emphasize to Americans and the peoples of the world the ideals on which this nation was founded and which guide our actions now. By using these stamps, we can be reminded of our heritage every time we affix one to a letter.” As part of this effort, the letters were to be issued at a pace and at a time that would allow them to be used to teach American values to school children.
I want to stop here for a moment and consider Summerfield’s theory of change: while putting a postage stamp on their utility bill or a letter to a friend, someone who was in danger of supporting Communism or forgetting to vote would, in that moment, be reminded that they like and support democracy and freedom and other good things.
Perhaps if those who stormed the US Capital in January were still using stamps (and if those stamps had inspirational quotes from American patriots) they would have had second thoughts. But they were using the Internet, email, cell phones and social media so they forgot to be truly patriotic.
Actually, they might have been inspired by a stamp picturing Henry who, despite his support for the American Revolution, opposed ratifying the proposed US Constitution which, he thought, vested too much power in the president and, as originally written, did not protect individual liberties. And he continued to rail against exercises of federal power until he died in 1799. Further complicating Henry’s reputation (and presence on a stamp) is the fact that during the Civil War, Southerners regularly cited his opposition to a powerful federal government and the Constitution and the fact that he owned about 70 slaves.
Moreover, in recent decades, Henry has become a powerful symbol for Christian conservatives, who cite his deep religious beliefs, as well as his writings and speeches in favor of Christian virtue and his defense of religious liberty. In fact, because he was educated at home by his father, he has become such a symbol of the homeschooling movement that he is the namesake of Patrick Henry College, which was founded in 2000 primarily to serve those who have been homeschooled. (Madison Cawthorn, one of the many new “luminaries” recently elected to Congress attended that school for a year.)
Is that what Summerfield had in mind when he put Patrick Henry on a stamp? I don’t think so but, given that he was a Republican and given what his party has become, maybe it’s exactly what he had in mind.
More broadly, the idea of putting a quote on a stamp made me think about other powerful and pithy quotes that could be put on stamps. The Frances Scott Key stamp, for example, says “in God we trust,” which immediately made me think “and all others pay cash.”
And then I remembered that buried in my files was a multi-page running list of quotes that my father kept and that I found in his papers after he died. The 27 pages probably are out of order but the top one included:
“There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.”
— Sir Joshua Reynold
“God works through sinful individuals because that’s all He has to work with.”
— Sr. Elizabeth Michael, Caldwell College, 6/95
“One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done”
— Marie Curie
The following pages contain quotes from an extraordinary range of people and sources—from the Koran and the prophet Isaiah to Mark Twain, Colin Powell, the 12th century emperor Hui Tsung, to Alan Bonem, my father’s cousin, and Ben Fielding, his cousin-in-law. Some are deep; some are trite; and some are fun. I’ll leave you with this one:
“Sometimes I lie awake at night and I ask, ‘Where have I gone wrong?’
Then a voice says to me, ‘This is going to take more than one night’”
— Charlie Brown
Stay safe, be well, do not “avoid the real labor of thinking,” fight for justice, and work for peace.