Clifford Dowdey describes all of this well in his book in The Great Plantation: “Washington’s Mount Vernon suffered similarly, and Jefferson at Monticello became so poor in his old age that public subscriptions provided for his subsistence. To repeat, running a plantation was a full-time job, and in the struggle for the democracy which Americans accept so casually as heritage many aristocrats impoverished themselves. “In the traditional revolution, the aristocrat was destroyed by the people; in the American Revolution the Virginia aristocrat destroyed himself, and the people, with little of the liberty-love attributed to them later, profited by it. Yet, in the current timidity about admitting any flaws in the leveling of democracy, the “people” have to be made the heroes of everything. This has resulted in confusions regarding the case history of the composite American--especially in regard to America’s original colony, and the Southern states that derived from or were influenced by it.” Overall, In it, he notes that the founding father generation of Virginians that grew out of the Virginia Golden age focused less upon planting than they probably should have, but also that they did so largely because of a concern with public service

Savages aren’t noble The Indians were, as Jefferson described them, merciless savages and it’s good that their evil and godless culture was wiped from the continent by the inexorable march of the Anglo on his path to Manifest Destiny That anyone thinks otherwise is a testament to the subversion we’ve experienced

The fact that an "unhoused person" can vote at all is an indictment of our system With the exception of Franklin, all the Founders supported some variation of property restrictions on voting, as the idea of some "unhoused" schizo determining the course of the republic is ridiculous Voting is a somewhat abstracted form of stewardship of the national prosperity through determining its course and direction. Obviously, only those who can steward their own lives, as shown by the stewardship of wealth, particularly property, should be able to have a hand in stewarding the fate of the nation The property rules that generally existed with the beginning of the republic effectively screened out the bottom half from voting...which today would be the ~47% reliant on some form of welfare or another That we have gotten away from such a concept is the reason why our nation is increasingly a disaster-plagued economic zone jammed full of human detritus that washed up upon our shores

The career of Light Horse Harry Lee, from the book "Lee Chronicle": "In 1781, worn out with the fatigue of six years of active service, he obtained a furlough and, happily, was present at the surrender of Cornwallis. He then paid a visit to the Northern Neck and a few months later we find him married to the heiress of Stratford. Harry Lee was at this time but twenty-six years old; a classical scholar and gifted orator, a veteran of the Revolution, an officer of renown, and now master of one of the largest estates in Virginia. He had been fiery and impetuous soldier; he was soon to become a hot and partisan in politics, and to make warm friends and bitter enemies. "The people of Westmoreland hastened to honor him, and he embarked on a political career as spectacular as his life as a soldier had been. "He was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress of 1786, and two years later to the Virginia Constitutional Convention where he brought all his eloquence to bear in urging the ratification of the constitution. Beveridge has drawn a colorful picture of him as he appeared at this period of his life: “'A young man, thirty-two years of age rose, and standing within a few feet of the chair, was recognized. Six feet tall, beautiful of face, with the resounding and fearless voice of a warrior, Henry Lee looked the part which reputation had assigned him. Descended from one of the oldest and most honourable families in the colony, a graduate of Princeton College, one of the most daring, picturesque, and attractive officers of the Revolution, in which by sheer gallantry and military genius he had become commander of a famous cavalry command, the gallant Lee was a perfect contrast to the venerable Pendleton.' "From 1789 to 1791 he sat in the Virginia Legislature. At this time, when he was nearing the high tide of his career, he suffered great loss, for in 1790 his young wife died at the untimely age of twentysix.26 In the effort to assuage his grief he plunged deeper into politics and the following year was elected Governor of Virginia, at a time when that office was second only to that of President of the United States."

“To lead, Lee well understood, one first had to be the master of oneself. Original Sin taught him to expect human failure. But a Christian and a gentleman was obligated to do better. Lee believed that the more one surmounted the baser passions of human nature, the more one approached the divine, the more one successfully imitated Christ, the more one fulfilled one's duty as a Christian gentleman. It was a hierarchical understanding that fit his background and upbringing and that he saw expressed and experienced in the reality of nature, social classes, the army, and the church.” -Robert E Lee on Leadership by Crocker III