Following his discussion with William there had been a flurry of activity on the estate and surrounding it. In the nearby town the roads were being paved, a thing John insisted on doing, new houses were having foundations laid and the nearby river was putting up the peanut plant.
The building was made differently from many buildings of the time. Built on top of a brick-and-mortar base it was then topped with wooden frame for the second and third floors, finally topping it with a clay shingled roof. With a few dozen workers being part of the crew it all was assembled rather quickly and word spread of a new town being built by the carpenter estate.
This influx of people was mostly less than favorable to the British in the city and knowing the carpenters were a family disliking most British regulations it became commonplace for the new migrants to be from pro-colonial families.
The new people moving in were very willing to work on constriction in exchange for jobs and small plots of unused land they could farm on lease from the carpenters. In the end, it only took two and a half months for the factory to be completed and the town to have a new foundation.
A few essential buildings were being laid down as the factory was completed, from the church to the schoolhouse the unnamed town was soon becoming a thriving little industrial community.
While John had a hand in what happened in the town, most of the day-to-day and managerial work was done by foremen hired by his grandfather to keep William in lessons with his teachers.
Of these lesions, it was on a Tuesday of quite a busy week. On Wednesday he would have an old acquaintance visiting, one he hadn't seen in a few years, and that Friday he would be meeting the Chaplin of the local church. He believed that a good chaplain, one sympathetic to the colonial cause, would allow for the local chapel to be more than just a spiritual home but also a place where people could speak freely.
Like many influential thinkers in this era, John considered himself a Diest despite his Quaker roots. He had met a godly being so the idea that there was a magic baby born over a millennia and a half ago was not too far-fetched. But still, he attended church because it served a more social function during this era than anything else.
That day though John was having his lessons in law and government from Mr Dickenson. The two of them were talking at length about different forms of government and the benefits and negatives of each one. Recently John had acquired a translated copy of 'The Prince' by Machiavelli and this was one of the reasons for this discussion. Mr Dickonson was a believer in the Socratic method and so focused more on thoughtful discussion rather than lectures as, with one as smart as John, he believed lecturing would do no good.
"We have finished discussing the inherently tyrannical governments of the Middle Ages, now we will move on to a form of government often looked at as enlightened, the democracy of Athens." Mr. Dickson said as he sat across from John.
"Now Mr. Carpenter, please tell me what you know about the democracy of Athens. You need not go into detail, just give me a summary.
"Athens was ruled by democratic vote. People were chosen for offices by the public vote and had assigned duties but apart from those people all decisions made were by popular choice. It lasted for centuries but eventually fell to Macedon ending its democratic form of government."
The answer seemed to be more knowledgeable than Mr Dickenson expected and it caused him to get a slightly shocked expression on his face.
"That is correct and very impressive Mr Carpenter," he said, "Now I want you to tell me why it was a flawed form of government."
John sat thinking for a bit, "Athens was a direct democracy, meaning that all decisions were made by the masses in public votes. This led to mob rule where the crowd could get swept in a frenzy and there were no checks on the authority of the assembly, this led to decisions that could have been better if there were other bodies to oversee it."
"Excellent, now compare the government of Athens to the parliament of Britain." He said with a smile on his face.
"Unlike the government of Athens, the government of Britain has a strong executive to restrain the legislature. And unlike the legislature of Athens, Britain has a representative system, one less prone to mob rule."
Before Mr. Dickenson could, John kept speaking, "But this leads to a system where there are no guaranteed rights to vote for people not in established constituencies. Meaning in places like America where it is so far removed they have little reason to listen to us, and we have little recourse to influence them. "
The smile faded off of Mr Dickensons face, not into a frown but into a contemplative scowl.
"Mr Carpenter, what do you mean they have little reason to listen to us? We are citizens of the British Crown." He said.
"That is true but when we left no provision was made for our representation back in England, no plan was made to grant us recourse against parliament, and yet we give them complete legislative authority over us."
"That may be true, but we still pledged our loyalty to the crown and parliament, we need not renege on the agreements made."
"I am not talking about disregarding agreements, but the taxes levied on the colonies are inherently against the rights afforded to us. The Magna Carta was made to oppose unjust taxes and ensure the people had the ability to stop excessive taxation, a state which has been levied against the colonies frequently."
"That may be true, but things are not that bad. We are safe and doing quite well." He said, "There is no reason to cause a fuss, we can solve things peacefully."
"Things may be solved peacefully, but believe me if war breaks out then it will be some damn fool thing in Boston that sets it off."
The lesson got back on track and ended a few hours later so John finished his day and prepared for His meeting the next day.
The next morning John woke up and had a short meeting with a few craftsmen about making the equipment for the nut processing plant. It was a quick thing where the issue was solved quickly enough allowing John time to prepare for his next visitor to arrive.
A short time after midday a horse rode up to the house and the man on top of it dismounted and handed the reins to a nearby stableboy while John stood at the patio to greet his visitor.
"Dr Rush, welcome. I am glad you could make it up to talk." John said, looking at the man approaching.
"Mr Carpenter, I was happy to come. I still remember the day we met and have been excited to meet you again."
John gestured inside and the two made their way into the foyer of the house. Guiding them down a hall they enter a small sitting room.
Taking their seats at a table with some modest refreshments, the two began their conversation.
"Mr Carpenter, thank you for accepting my request for a meeting, I have wanted to speak ever since our encounter those years ago."
"It is no problem, I was quite surprised you reached out. Pray tell, what do you wish to discuss."
"I want to talk to you about a rumor I heard a year ago." He said looking a bit embarrassed about traveling all this way to clarify a rumor.
This peaks John's interest, "A rumor, what have you heard." he says most intrigued by the possibility.
"It concerns the Smallpox disease, a colleague of mine who has frequent contact with your grandfather mentioned in passing that you said something about a cure for smallpox."
This makes John think for a second until he remembers how he brought up cowpox at a dinner party many years ago.
"Yes, my theory of how the disease is spread. It is rather unconventional and is quite the opposite of the commonly believed miasma theory."
This startles Dr Rush, "A new theory, pray tell what it is you believe spreads disease rather than miasma."
"First let us have an example, you know you can get sick from ticks, fleas, leeches and other parasitic creatures." Dr Rush nods in agreement. "Let us imagine that disease is like these bugs, but smaller and in groups."
This idea causes a pensive look to cross Dr Rush's face, "If this is true then why can we not see them, we have never been able to look at what a disease looks like."
"That is because of its size, we can not see it because the disease is so small allowing it to enter our bodies and infect us. Imagine to an elephant what a flea looks like, it is too small to see, but in numbers it can damage a body."
"What is your cause to suspect such a thing Mr Carpenter," Dr Rush asked with a notable amount of suspicion.
" I read about it in the collected works of Girolamo Fracastoro, he was a scholar in Padua during the sixteenth century and he believed something similar. His work was then expanded upon by the Viennese physician Marcus Antonius Plencic. The two of them made a number of extremely convincing arguments for this theory."
"Then what is your proof? To truly and definitively prove the origin of disease would be an achievement for the ages, but how could you do it."
John gave a small smirk, "by thinking of disease as species."
"Species," Dr Rush asked in a toke that signified a need for clarification. "Do you mean to proposit that some illnesses are related?"
"Yes I do," John said, "What do you know of cowpox?"
"Cowpox? I know it is disease common among farmers, resulting in blisters and other forms of skin lesions"
"Well, I believe that cowpox is related to smallpox, and that if one was to catch cowpox then they would develop an immunity to smallpox."
Dr Rush is quiet for a few moments, his face drawn in a competitive manner, "It is a fascinating idea, though I doubt you have a great deal of evidence for it at the moment."
"You are true about that, most of my evidence comes from anecdotal stories of cowhands, especially those who come from England telling stories of how those who get cowpox never seem to get smallpox."
"Well, many great discoveries do come from such forms of knowledge, do you have anything else to discuss?"
John gives him a smile and a nod as the two proceed to work through the night in the candlelit study with Dr Rush discussing eveinde and his theories. By the next morning John felt like he had developed a companionship with Dr Rush, while he loved Eli like a brother it is nice to talk to someone a bit more intellectually developed.
After a cup of coffee and some light breakfast Dr Rush left with a small purse of coins gifted by John to pursue research into the nascent germ theory.
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Holy Shit, it's been a year since the last update, I hope y'all are doing well and I am here to tell you that this story is back. I got my passion for writing back and I completed this half finished chapter and will start working on the next chapter very soon.
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