Every aspiring statesman faces the choice set before Hercules. When John Adams looked at Massachusetts in 1772, he saw a people worn down by years of resistance to a merciless government. Despotism was gaining ground, and some of the most able men had fallen in the struggle against it. A young man of talent could still make his peace with those in power and secure wealth and honors for himself, but if he chose instead to stand with his countrymen, he knew what it might cost him.
The Fellowship for American Ascent asks the same question of a rising generation. When your country is in distress and the prospect of success is uncertain, what will you do with the gifts you have been given? We seek young Americans willing to make the “Ascent of Virtue” even at the risk of drawing the “Vengeance of Despotism.” Our task is to prepare them to govern.
Additional information, including insights on programming and the application process, will be announced in December.
My Country is in deep Distress, and has very little Ground of Hope, that She will soon, if ever get out of it. The System of a mean, and a merciless Administration, is gaining Ground upon our Patriots every Day. The Flower of our Genius, the Ornaments of the Province, have fallen, melancholly Sacrifices, to the heart piercing Anxieties, which the Measures of Administration have occasioned. A Mayhew, a Thatcher, an Otis to name no more, have fallen, the two first by Death and the last by a Misfortune still much worse, Victims to the Enemies of their Country. The Body of the People seem to be worn out, by struggling, and Venality, Servility and Prostitution, eat and spread like a Cancer. Every young rising Genius, in this Country, is in a situation much worse than Hercules is represented to have been in, in the Fable of Prodicus.—Two Ladies are before him: The one, presenting to his View, not the Ascent of Virtue only, tho that is steep and rugged, but a Mountain quite inaccessible, a Path beset with Serpents, and Beasts of Prey, as well as Thorns and Briars, Precipices of Rocks over him, a Gulph yawning beneath, and the Sword of Damocles over his Head.— The other displaying to his View, Pleasures, of every Kind, Honours, such as the World calls by that Name, and showers of Gold and Silver.
If We recollect what a Mass of Corruption human Nature has been in general, since the Fall of Adam, we may easily judge what the Consequence will be.
Our Attention is now engaged by the Vengeance of Despotism…