To My Favorite Granddaughter,

I’ve been wondering whether you were aware of the back story behind the “Victory” card I sent you.  Assuming not, here it is:

In the 1770’s, George Washington led a ragtag “Rabble in Arms” in the American Revolution against the British.  Against all odds, the “rabble” won, securing the independence of the colonies from the British crown.  Washington then went on to become the first president of the United States.  One of the members of General Washington’s staff during the revolution, his designated Flag Bearer, was your G-G-G-G-G-G-Grandfather, Captain John Westcott.  (<-You can trace the lineage from him to yourself on this chart.)

There’s a very famous painting of a key moment in the war, “Washington Crossing the Delaware”, depicting Washington and his staff,  one of whom being your ancestor John Westcott, crossing the frozen Delaware river to attack the forces of the King George III.  It was this painting that I modified to show you as "The Victor".

The colonists’ army was in bad shape.  The troops were starving and ragged.  They'd just lost New York and Long Island to the well-trained, well-supplied, professional British army.  Worse, the revolution's army was losing faith in itself, and the colonists were almost ready to give up.  Then, on the night after Christmas, having been driven from New York into Pennsylvania, Washington counter-attacked.   He led his army across the partly frozen Delaware river near the town of Trenton, New Jersey, in a desperate attack on an encampment of Hessian mercenaries who’d been hired to fight for the English.  The Hessians were taken totally by surprise and put to route. Washington’s momentum carried – he went on to overcome the garrison of regular army English troops in Trenton, then took Princeton.  The revolutionary army had at last won a major victory, the colonials took heart, going on eventually to win the war - and create the United States of America. 

The statesmen who founded the country were wise men indeed.  Washington's military victory had given them the chance – perhaps the first ever in history – to structure a nation of people free from the tyranny of either aristocrats or clergy.  The Founders seized their opportunity powerfully and expressed it compellingly in the Declaration of Independence* and the Constitution, with its Bill of Rights, documents which still today protect the liberty of the American people.

..... And THAT, dear Lila, is how you came to be standing up in that boat on that icy river!

________________
*  Ringing excerpt from the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,