Who that guy is in statue form at that corner of Dupont by the starbucks?
Its John Witherspoon. He was imprisoned in scotland his homeland for not siding with the jacobians who wanted King James on the throne- it was a religious war of sorts conflated with a political power battle. He was exhiled to Princeton in America and was a signer of the declaration of independence. He championed religious liberty and freedom of worship as First Amendment guarantees and the non-establishment of organized state sponsored religion.
He is also the first President of Princeton NJ, the college formerly called the College of New Jersey. When it got too dangerous to meet in Philadelphia he housed the continental constitutional congress in the college for a time- exhiled briefly across the river from the city.
Here is what he wrote that is inscribed on the statue on the side that faces the starbucks:
" For my part, of property, I have some. Of reputation more that reputation is staked, that property is pledged on the issue of this contest, and although these gray hairs must soon descend into the sepulchre, I would infinately rather that they descend thither by the hand of the executioner than desert at this crisis the sacred cause of my country."
Did i mention he was an evangelical presbyterian pastor?
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