The Value of Reputation: Good or Bad
What do we mean when we speak of the reputation of a
person? What generally is meant is
a summation of what other people think of that person. By oneÕs attitudes, actions and manner
of life, his or her reputation is shaped by what others see in those patterns
of life.
Looking at the historical
event of the American Revolution, it is easy for people to cite numerous
individuals associated with that struggle for freedom and independence. We think of them by good
reputations! We can study the list of 56 brave
men who signed the Declaration of Independence. They ranged from age 26 (Edward
Rutledge) to 70 (Benjamin Franklin), and included two future U.S. Presidents,
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. By
the way, Benjamin Franklin is the only signer of all three significant
documents that freed the colonies from British rule: The Declaration
of Independence, the Treaty of Paris
(peace between the colonies, England and France), and the United States Constitution.
Only one other American had a greater favorable reputation than did Benjamin
Franklin, General George
Washington, who became the first President of the United States.
You may know that George is
my 27th cousin, six times removed! Unfortunately, Benjamin is not related
to me, though I dearly wish he were!
Heroes of the American
Revolution with outstanding reputations are memorialized in multitudes of
statues, monuments and various other arrangements of special public recognition
all across the nation, and, in particular, around
Washington, D.C. One cannot think
of Washington D.C. without glimpsing in their minds two of those greatest of
iconic monuments, the Washington Monument
at one end of that vast reflection pond, with the Abraham Lincoln Memorial
at the other end. We are awash with
remembrances of people with good reputations
Mount Rushmore is that
majestic monument carved into a mountainside in the Black Hills of South
Dakota. It features 60-foot tall
head sculptures of four U. S. Presidents.
They symbolize (1) the father of our country, (2) the governance of our
nation, (3) the bringing together into unity of our nation and (4) the strength
of our nation, becoming known as a world power that carried a big stick! They are George Washington, my 6th
cousin, 27 times removed; Thomas Jefferson, my 28th cousin, five
times removed; Abraham Lincoln, my 30th cousin, three times removed;
and Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt, who is the fifth cousin to my half-eighth
cousin.
However, recall in your minds the publically known
figures of bad reputation whose values are so depreciated in your thinking that
it would be out of place to recall much good about them! Recall the local scoundrels in Texas and
environs, Bonnie &
Clyde. I worked with an older
lady in my career, whose younger brother was regularly intimated and beat up by
Clyde when the boys were grammar school age! Think of elected officials who fell from
grace, because of an indiscretion or an illegal act. The same occurs when you think of a man
of the cloth, or of some evangelist.
Ah! The shame of it all, you
say!
The American Revolution was
not without figures of unfavorable reputation. Surprisingly, many of the people we
associate with bad reputations actually had some
surprisingly good and favorable records prior to the earning of those bad
reputations. Let me tell you about
one man in the American Revolution.
For the time being, IÕll just call him Benjamin, and reveal his real
name later.
Benjamin was born in
Connecticut before 1750. He is the
great grandnephew of Freelove Arnold, the wife of Edward Pelham. Edward is the son of Herbert Pelham and
his second wife, Eliza Beth Bosvile.
Herbert
Pelham, who was the first Treasurer of Harvard College, is my 24th cousin,
nine times removed. Herbert also is
the 11th cousin, once removed of Edward Southworth, the first husband of my
seventh great grandmother, Alice Carpenter, on my father's side of the family,
which descends from her second marriage with Plymouth Colony Governor William
Bradford. William and Alice are
my 7th great grandparents. Southworth is my 25th cousin,
eight times removed. Alice is my
ninth great grand aunt well as a seventh grandparent. Herbert Pelham is the second great grandnephew
of English King
Henry VIII (through the King's marriage to Anne Boleyn). Herbert is the third great grandson of
Thomas Boleyn, the father-in-law of King Henry VIII. Herbert is the 11th cousin, 14 times removed
to my son-in-law, Steve Westmoreland.
Benjamin was a general in the
Continental Army during the American Revolution. Benjamin had distinguished himself as a
hero of the revolution early in the war through acts of cunning and bravery at Fort
Ticonderoga in 1775, and at the Battle of Saratoga in
1777. Benjamin strongly
opposed the decision by the Continental Congress to form an alliance with
France, having experienced a bitter defeat at the hands of the French and their
Indian allies during the French and Indian War (1754-1763).
Disaffected due to grievances
with the Continental Congress and the military, suffering from mounting
personal debt, and facing corruption charges filed by the Pennsylvania civil
authorities, Benjamin also faced pressure at home from his young second wife, a
British Loyalist. In 1780, he
formulated his scheme. If successful,
this would have given British forces control of the Hudson River Valley, and
split the colonies in half. This BenjaminÕs
name really was Benedict Arnold,
and he was plotting to surrender the American fort at West Point, New York to
the British. The plot was thwarted,
but Benjamin managed to flee to England, where he was rewarded with a
commission as a Brigadier General in the British Army, along with a reduced
award of £6,000 sterling (because the plot failed).
In the United States, Benedict
Arnold's name is synonymous with treason.
He has the worst reputation of all the American Revolutionary people,
and just from one act of treason!
Now, the unfortunate aspect
is to admit that, under the Theory of Relativity, Benedict Arnold is a relative
of mine, as illustrated above through the family of HarvardÕs first Treasurer,
Herbert Pelham. Even to this day, I
sometimes wonder about those Harvard people!
Proverbs
22 New International Version (NIV)
22
1
A
good name is more desirable than great riches;
to be esteemed is
better than silver or gold.
2
Rich
and poor have this in common:
The Lord is the Maker
of them all.
3
The
prudent see danger and take refuge,
but the simple keep
going and pay the penalty.
4
Humility
is the fear of the Lord;
its wages are riches
and honor and life.
5
In
the paths of the wicked are snares and pitfalls,
but those who would
preserve their life stay far from them.
6
Start
children off on the way they should go,
and even when they are
old they will not turn from it.
7
The
rich rule over the poor,
and the borrower is
slave to the lender.
8
Whoever
sows injustice reaps calamity,
and the rod they wield
in fury will be broken.
9
The
generous will themselves be blessed,
for they share their
food with the poor.
10
Drive
out the mocker, and out goes strife;
quarrels and insults
are ended.
11
One
who loves a pure heart and who speaks with grace
will have the king for
a friend.
12
The
eyes of the Lord keep watch over knowledge,
but he frustrates the
words of the unfaithful.
13
The
sluggard says, ÒThereÕs a lion outside!
IÕll be killed in the
public square!Ó
14
The
mouth of an adulterous woman is a deep pit;
a man who is under the
LordÕs wrath falls into it.
15
Folly
is bound up in the heart of a child,
but the rod of
discipline will drive it far away.
16
One
who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth
and one who gives gifts
to the richÑboth come to poverty.
Writing for the
preservation
Of history and humor
D. A. Sharpe, Admiral
Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Squadron
The Texas Navy Association
Member, Sons of American Revolution,
Texas Society, Dallas Chapter
Member Ephraim M. Daggett Chapter #36
Sons of the Republic of Texas
805 Derting Road East
Aurora, TX 76078-3712
817-504-6508
Biographical Sketch: http://www.dasharpe.com/Bioskets/BiographicalHome.htm
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Albert Sharpe