Founding Fathers - Words of Wisdom

Eight lines from six of the Founders, set in black type on a field the color of old parchment. Seven can be traced to a letter, a speech or a document. One cannot.

Jefferson wrote about the tree of liberty to William Stephens Smith on November 13, 1787, in a letter about the uprising in Massachusetts. Washington's warning about free speech comes from the Newburgh Address of March 15, 1783, when he talked a hall of unpaid officers out of a revolt; the poster tightens his wording. Franklin's line about essential liberty is from a 1755 reply of the Pennsylvania Assembly to its governor. John Adams wrote "Liberty once lost is lost forever" to Abigail on July 7, 1775. Madison's line on knowledge is from a letter of June 1825.

Two need a note. "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God" is older than Franklin, who proposed it as a motto for the Great Seal in 1776. And the Samuel Adams lines come from an "oration" dated August 1, 1776, that Adams never delivered, a pamphlet forged in London.

On the page they stand in stacked, centered lines, each over its author's name in small capitals, with the faint outlines of portraits ghosted behind the type.