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Charles Lindbergh Goes to Europe (1935 - 1939)

5/22/2015

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         Source: Lynne Olson. Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and
                    America's Fight Over World War II, 1939 - 1941 (2013)
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     13 June, 1927: 75% of New York City's population
(four million) showed up for the ticker-tape parade honoring Charles Lindbergh for his miraculous solo flight across the Atlantic. Time Magazine also honored Lindbergh, naming him their first "Man of the Year". Lindbergh toured all 48 states in his beloved "Spirit of St. Louis"; 30 million people were able to see the "Lone Eagle". Shortly thereafter, Lindbergh became a technology advisor to Pan Am and TWA; he was instrumental in creating the first modern airports.
     Try as he might, Lindbergh was unable to reclaim his treasured privacy, and restore equilibrium to his life. Wherever he went, he was besieged by the press and adoring citizens. A loner all his life, Lindbergh was unprepared for the trappings of immense fame. As he kept his distance, the public became more hysterical, demanding to see and know more about "Lucky Lindy". After the kidnapping/murder of his first-born son, 2 year-old Charles Jr., a "Paparazzi Attack" occurred on his 2nd-born; it was not too much to state that those events psychologically scarred Lindbergh. As a result, Lindbergh decided to take his family to Europe in December, 1935, in order to escape the insanity that was their life in America. 

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     From 1936 to 1938, Charles Lindbergh, and his almost-as-famous wife, Anne Morrow, lived in England in a secluded estate called "Long Barn" (a friend of the Morrow family owned the estate). There, they were left alone by British citizens and the media. Then, in 1938, the Lindberghs moved to the tiny island of Illiec, off the coast of Brittany (France). That location was even more remote, which suited Lindbergh just fine.

    (Below: the British estate nicknamed "Long Barn")

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    Though very thankful for their hospitality, he was exasperated by what he perceived to be British mediocrity and complacency. However, Lindbergh had formed his conclusions about Britain (and eventually Nazi Germany) without any connection with common citizens; in effect, he was clueless about what was really going on in England. Most of the British upper-class with which the Lindberghs interacted were pro-Nazi and pro-Appeasement. Lindbergh refused to socialize / associate with Winston Churchill, who was the leading anti-Nazi political figure in Britain. 
 (Below: Hermann Goering giving the Lindberghs a tour of a Nazi government building)
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      In Europe, Lindbergh was asked by the British and French, governments to inspect their aircraft factories and aviation facilities. In 1936, Lindbergh was invited to inspect the German Luftwaffe (Air Force), and to Hermann Goering's great delight, Lindbergh accepted. Lindbergh was shown the latest planes and factories, and witnessed demonstrations of precision bombing. He concluded that Nazi Germany was far ahead of Britain and France in every significant aviation category. Goering used Lindbergh to promote Nazi airpower, and to try and delay any resistance to Nazi expansion in Europe. 
A major result of his visit to Nazi Germany in 1936 was that Lindbergh became convinced that America was on its descent, and that Germany was in its ascendency.
     Lindbergh publicly stated that in quantity and quality, no nation(s) could challenge Nazi airpower. But Lindbergh's conclusion was flawed, in that the vaunted Luftwaffe, at that point, was only designed to lead/support troops, not for long-range bombing raids.
Lindbergh's omission of that fact meant that Britain, especially London, was very fearful of bombing runs by Nazi Germany. By publicly bragging about Nazi airpower, Lindbergh was partially responsible for the Appeasement in Munich in 1938. 
               (Below: Lindbergh at a party in Berlin hosted by the Nazis)
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     Lindbergh was (willingly?) used as a tool by the Nazi Government, of whom he had developed a personal & political affinity. Lindbergh preferred the spirit and attitude of Germany far more than that of Britain (or France). And, the Nazis protected his privacy to a far greater extent than the British or French, but ironically, Lindbergh's freedom in Germany came at the expense of the freedom of German citizens . . . who in their right mind would crash the estate of an official guest of Hitler and Goering?
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        In Germany, the Lindberghs only saw what the Nazis wanted them to see; all their interactions were with government or military men, and neither Charles or Anne spoke German. They were also shielded from the horrors of the pogroms against Jews; when informed of Kristallnacht, Lindbergh wondered why the Nazis could be so "silly". Lindbergh
was so far removed from the reality of life in Nazi Germany, that he wasn't outraged by the excesses and brutality of the Nazi regime. 
     In the U.S., news of Lindbergh's visits to Nazi Germany had started to erode his popularity. Erosion of popularity transformed to outright attacks against Lindbergh in the U.S. media when Goering presented Lindbergh with a medal on behalf of the Nazi Government. It was a surprise medal ceremony, and while Lindbergh was flabbergasted (his words), he took the honor in stride. Anne saw the medal much differently, referring to it as "The Albatross", which it would definitely become. The medal ceremony occurred just days before Kristallnacht, and that incidental timing increased the level of outrage in America; not since WW I had there been such anti-German fervor in America. After Kristallnacht, FDR actually recalled the US Ambassador from Berlin.

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      After the Nazi medal ceremony, Lindbergh's open contempt of the U.S. media came back to haunt him. The media felt totally entitled to go after his character and reputation, inventing "facts" to suit their allegations. An example: the media claimed that Lindbergh wore the medal all evening after Goering awarding it to him (Lindbergh never once wore the medal). Lindbergh refused to give his side of the story, despite being advised to do so by his wife and friends. 
     Lindbergh's political myopia explained why he didn't think the thunderstorm that was centered around him was very intense. From 1938-on, the "Medal Incident" was the instrument the media used to bludgeon Lindbergh. And then the federal government started to publicly attack Lindbergh, with FDR's blessing and encouragement. The government figure that ran point attacking Lindbergh was Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes (pictured); in effect, he was FDR's pit bull against Lindbergh. Ickes was already on the warpath against Hitler, so it wasn't too much of a leap at all, politically or personally, for him to start savaging Lindbergh. 
     The Lindberghs were informed by friends and acquaintances that he was being booed in American theaters when he appeared in newsreels. Anne was greatly shaken by the attacks on her husband; she believed that the media and the government were being beyond-unfair.

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     Lindbergh seemed to be totally unperturbed by the "scurrilous hoo-haw" that surrounded him. In 1939, just a few months after the "Medal Incident", he decided to go back to the U.S., giving up their privacy in exchange for the maelstrom of celebrity and political controversy in America. His decision to return to the U.S. occurred immediately after Hitler took the rest of Czechoslovakia on 15 March, 1939. 
     As a result, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced the "Line in the Sand": if Nazi Germany invaded Poland, Britain would declare war (France was in agreement). Europe was on the brink of another major war when Lindbergh came back to America. Upon his return, Lindbergh pressed for American neutrality in case of a European War; he believed that America should be the protector of Western Civilization, and the best way to accomplish that goal (in his opinion) was to avoid involvement in the upcoming War in Europe. Not long after Lindbergh's return to the U.S., President Franklin Roosevelt set his sights on trying to destroy the influence and reputation of the most prominent Isolationist in the nation . . . In less than four years, Charles Lindbergh went from the most famous man in America, to the most famous-and-controversial man in America . . . by 1938, that was a title that he shared with FDR . . . 

     Here is a Boston Globe Book Review of Lynne Olson's Those Angry Days
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President Woodrow Wilson Goes to Paris in 1919

5/2/2015

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                           Source: Margaret MacMillan. Paris 1919: 
                         Six Months That Changed the World (2007)
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      On 4 December, 1918, the SS George Washington set sail for Europe. Among those on board were President Woodrow Wilson, his (second) wife Edith, and Secretary of State Robert Lansing. Also on board were selected "experts" from universities and government, as well as prominent diplomats. On board the former German passenger ship were mountains of research/reference material for the President and his massive entourage to use in Paris.
     No United States President had ever gone to Europe while in office (Theodore Roosevelt attended the funeral of King Edward VII in 1910 as an official representative of the U.S., but by then he was an ex-President); Wilson's opponents accused him of flat-out violating the Constitution by making the trip, while his supporters saw going to Paris as a very unwise decision. To Wilson, making the peace was as important as winning the war, and he felt that he owed it to all concerned that he head to Paris. A British diplomat compared Wilson's trip to Paris to that of a debutante entranced by the prospect of attending her first ball.
     Wilson told his most trusted advisor, Colonel Edward House
(pictured; who was already in Paris) that he would focus on his "Big Picture" Ideals; he didn't want to remain too long in Paris, and get bogged down in any details . . . or to talk to German representatives. The "Preliminary Conference" actually became the main attraction, and Wilson wound up staying in Paris for six months. Other than a quick return to the U.S. from mid-February to mid-March, Wilson was in Paris from January through June in 1919.
   (Below: The SS George Washington heads towards Europe in December, 1918)

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     President Wilson had a long list of enemies, many of which were former friends; his enemies viewed him as an ingrate and a liar. Wilson never forgave those that disagreed with him - he was a "Great Hater", in the mold of Robert Kennedy before JFK was assassinated.
According to Edward House, Wilson was only receptive to other perspectives when he was in the process of making a decision. Once Wilson had made a decision, it was inviolate, no longer open to discussion by anyone; some admired that trait, while others viewed it as egotism of the most dangerous magnitude. A French diplomat stated that Wilson would have been a great tyrant, in that he had no concept at all that he could ever be wrong.
     Wilson was so sure he knew what he was going to do in Paris (and that he would succeed) that he only had four others with him in his "Circle of Trust" (five, if one counts Edith). One was his most trusted advisor, Edward House. Another was SecState Lansing (pictured); the only reason Wilson brought Lansing along was that it would have been very awkward to explain why the SecState wasn't with the President (also, Lansing had committed the Cardinal Sin of publicly disagreeing with Wilson). The other two were General Tinker Bliss (the military representative; Wilson only talked with him five times in Paris) and Henry White, a retired diplomat whose function was to help Edith Wilson on matters of French etiquette.
     Wilson had deliberately slighted the Republicans, despite the fact that many (especially the moderates) at least shared some of Wilson's Post-World War I goals. By December of 1919, Wilson's hatred and distrust of the Republicans had reached a crescendo; this omission, plus Wilson's absolute refusal to compromise after he returned from Paris, led to the narrow defeat in the Senate of not only the Treaty of Versailles, but also American participation in the League of Nations.
  (Below: The SS George Washington of the coast of France in December 1918)

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       President Wilson stated that he loved Democracy, but he absolutely hated most of his fellow politicians, regardless of party. Wilson wanted to serve humanity, but he had so few personal relationships. Wilson was an Idealist, and he was also someone that wanted as much power as possible in order to accomplish his great works and vision. Therefore, he was intolerant of perspectives of others that differed with his, and blind to legitimate concerns. Those that opposed Wilson weren't just wrong, they were wicked . . . like the Germans.
     By December of 1919, Wilson had convinced himself that he spoke for the global masses, despite clear evidence to the contrary (that would be evident in Paris, but it wouldn't become in any way manifest to Wilson). Adding to the future problems he would face in Paris, Wilson often ignored established facts if they didn't fit with his Idealism.
     During The Great War, America had become a huge provider of food for the Allies; more significantly, the US had supplanted Britain to become the world's financial power, due to the massive loans to the Allies. European allies owed $7 billion to the US Government, and $4 billion to US banks - Wilson believed that the financial debts alone would force Great Britain and France to see the Post-WW I world his way, and to follow his lead in Paris. 

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      Wilson's well-publicized-in-advance proclamation of "Self-Determination" was controversial and opaque; it was kind of like trying to explain the Electoral College to the uninformed (or worse yet, the Bowl Championship Series before 2014). Many requests reached Wilson even before he arrived in Paris wanting him to define what he meant by "Self-Determination", but he never answered the queries, and never defined his flagship term while in Paris. It was left to others to interpret what he meant (historians aren't even sure that Wilson was able to define his own term): did Wilson mean a type of Democracy, or true "Self-Determination" in its literal sense, or even acceptable versions of autocracy . . . no one knew.
     Complicating the landscape of "Self-Determination" was that Wilson had no sympathy for Irish Nationalists trying to free themselves from Britain, or for those asking for decolonization in Africa or Southeast Asia
(the person who would eventually call himself
Ho Chi Minh was in Paris, pictured at the right). SecState Lansing thought that Wilson had raised hopes in the world that would never be realized, and that the President was bound be be discredited. Lansing further wrote that a clear definition of what constituted a nation ("Self-Determination") would have gone a long way in Paris. 

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     Wilson eventually stated that "Well-Defined" national aspirations would be satisfactory; but he never clarified that term either. It was beyond-difficult to categorize "Well-Defined" Nationalism in any case - a Poland for the Poles? A Slovakia for the Slovaks? A Ukraine for the Ukrainians? An Ireland for the Irish? In every case, there were other ethnicities and nationalities that were prominent minorities . . . when imposed borders are created, war is a likely result. Wilson's job in Paris would prove to be an "Impossible Dream". The possibilities of dividing people across yet-to-be-determined boundaries was unending, in particular in Central Europe. In short (according to MacMillan), an arrogant, inflexible, idealistic President Woodrow Wilson went to Europe, and basically made a very difficult situation worse. Basically, Wilson brought a Bible to a poker game.  
     American Idealism by 1919 featured two sides. One was an eagerness to set the world straight, assuming that American values were global and universal. The other was ready to turn its back with contempt if its message to the world was ignored. This has lead to a certain "obtuseness" from not only Wilson, but in the decades that followed - a tendency to preach to others, rather than listen. It has also led to a point-of-view that American principles are pure, while all others are suspect, even wicked or evil. British Prime Minister David Lloyd George summed up this American Idealism by sarcastically stating that Wilson came to Europe ready to rescue the heathen Europeans from themselves. (Pictured above, from Left-to-Right: French Premier Georges Clemenceau, President Woodrow Wilson, and British Prime Minister David Lloyd George)

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     It was easy to mock President Wilson, and many did, but SO MANY believed in him and his 14 Points as the year 1919 began. Wilson represented a brighter future; after The Great War, much of the world was ready to listen, and believe, in the American President. So many disparate populations took Wilson's 14 Points to heart; to these populations, his principles became a sort of sacred tract. 
     Wilson commented to George Creel, who was also on board the SS George Washington (his "Propaganda Chief"), that he may have done too good a job in spreading the 14 Points across the globe, especially in Europe. Wilson thought that Creel may have unconsciously spun a web from which there was no escape. On 13 December, 1918, the SS George Washington reached the French port of Brest; World War I had been over for a 
little over a month - Wilson's reception in France was beyond-"Beatle-esque". Wilson, at a private dinner, expressed his pleasure at his reception: the French, in his words, were "most friendly." 
     Soon, Wilson would have to deal with British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and French Premier Georges Clemenceau, and their very different visions of Post-WW I Europe. And, added to that, Wilson would be expected to wave his "magic wand" and satisfy a myriad of impossible-to-satisfy requests and demands from people in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

   Here is the New York Times book review of Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan

         Below: A preview of a documentary based on MacMillan's Paris 1919  
For the Stout-of-Heart, here are Parts 1 and 2 of Paris 1919, the full documentary
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LBJ & JFK: Before the 1960 Democratic Nat'l Convention, Part 1

3/20/2015

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              Source: Robert A. Caro. The Years of Lyndon Johnson:
                                     The Passage of Power (2012)
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     In the late-1950s, Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson didn't think that any U.S. Senator was a serious challenger to his pursuit of the Democratic nomination in 1960, including John F. Kennedy. But, to be fair, most everyone in Washington, D.C. had misread JFK to this point in his political career. While both Senators seethed with Presidential ambition, their backgrounds and how they approached their job in the Senate varied greatly.
     LBJ's experience in World War II was of a "behind the scenes" sort; he spent a total of 13 minutes in action as an observer on a plane in the Pacific. As Senate Majority Leader, LBJ wore a silver star pin on his label, and regaled his colleagues with his WW II "experiences". In reality, this self-proclaimed "Tailgunner" was an intelligence officer who debriefed pilots behind a desk. JFK was a "Millionaire Playboy" Congressman, and then Senator, who lived lavishly, but was a decorated WW II hero. JFK basically phoned-in his duties as a member of Congress; no serious legislation bore his name in his nearly decade-and-a-half as a Congressman/Senator . . . but there were physical & political reasons for doing so.

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      In 1952, JFK shocked everyone when he not only announced that he was running for U.S. Senator against the powerful and popular incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. (both candidates pictured bottom-right), but that he actually won (by a very narrow margin). While LBJ was a genius at gathering votes in the Senate as Majority Leader, JFK was very effective as a campaigner gathering votes. When JFK ran for the Senate against Lodge, Jr., he sent out thousands of invitations to women voters to "Meet JFK in Person" at voter rallies. While LBJ had very powerful Texas businessmen and politicians in his corner, JFK had his father, Joseph Kennedy - JFK's father bailed out a Boston newspaper to the tune of $500k, and then made sure the newspaper endorsed his son for the Senate race.
     JFK had very serious health problems, including chronic back trouble, as well as Addison's Disease. Part of the reason why JFK wasn't a constant physical presence in the Senate was that he had two major back surgeries; upon his return to the Senate in 1955 after an almost two-year absence, the views of his colleagues towards him remained unchanged. Despite his relative lack of import in the Senate, JFK almost became Adlai Stevenson's Vice-Presidential candidate in 1956, being narrowly edged out on a floor vote among delegates by fellow Senator Estes Kefauver.
     Below: The 1956 Democratic Convention Vice-President Nomination Ballot

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      LBJ, after Joseph Kennedy's prompting, appointed JFK to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; foreign policy was the one area that JFK embraced as a US Senator. LBJ figured that since JFK's father "owed him one", he had JFK lined up to be HIS Vice-Presidential running mate in 1960. LBJ measured Senators by what they had accomplished, and in his estimation, Senator Kennedy didn't measure up to his standards. To LBJ, "Work Horse" Senators did their job, while "Show Horse" Senators, such as JFK, were merely posers. Had LBJ known JFK's "Back Story", what it took for JFK to even get to Capitol Hill, LBJ may have significantly revised his opinion of JFK. (Pictured: Senators Johnson, Kennedy, and Hubert Humprey (MN) in the center)
Below: JFK, early in his first term as Senator, talks about US involvement in SE Asia 
     

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     JFK overcame crippling health problems en route to Congress; LBJ just assumed that Senator Kennedy was a wealthy and lazy dilettante. In fact, JFK had very few days in his life when he wasn't in pain or sick in some way. He was diagnosed with deteriorating lumbar / discs in 1940, yet he served in the Navy in the Pacific in World War II. JFK wanted to serve on a PT Boat, which was the worst possible posting for a man w/ his back condition. JFK was beyond-heroic after his PT boat (PT-109) was cut in half by a Japanese destroyer (historians are still divided on his activity beforehand): during the six days before their rescue, JFK spent far more time in the water than out, helping his men to shore, and trying to signal for help. Not long after, JFK got command of PT-59, and 5 men from PT-109 followed him as part of his crew. JFK was in command for six weeks, then the degeneration of his discs reached a point in which he could no longer actively serve his nation in the Navy.

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      Once JFK became used to campaigning (in pain) in 1946, he found that he had a talent for making connections with voters. His quick wit, intelligence, people skills, and an ability to speak whether prepared or "off the cuff" resonated with voters . . . that was a side of JFK that LBJ never saw, or bothered to see. But once in elected office, health-related problems kept JFK from doing what his colleagues saw as the bare-minimum to be an effective member of Congress. After years of jaundiced-skin and vomiting with little-or-no appetite, JFK was finally diagnosed with Addison's Disease in the late-1940s. JFK's adrenal glands were failing, and he had lost significant weight, experienced fevers and fatigue - his doctor thought that he only had a year left to live.
     Cortisone injections saved JFK in terms of stopping the immediate effects of Addison's Disease - he gained weight and energy, while his yellow skin was passed off as a nice sun tan. However, those same life-saving injections actually made his back far-worse . . . JFK, before he even pursued the Democratic nomination for President in 1960, was in very bad physical condition. In addition to his physical state being a limiting factor in terms of his workload in the Senate, JFK also saw being an obscure Senator as a drawback to pursuing the Presidency, so he spent as little time in the Senate as possible, choosing to focus on the upcoming Democratic primary elections.

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     JFK recognized the value and potential that TV had for gaining popularity and votes, while LBJ (as well as most other politicians) didn't see TV as an asset in 1956, or even in 1960. One added benefit of the cortisone injections was that JFK was far more telegenic by the late-1950s. Not only did he look very handsome and knowledgeable, but his self-deprecating humor blazed through the TV set as well, which he used to tremendous advantage. 

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     JFK's media appearances drowned out his lackluster performance and attendance in the Senate, much to the chagrin and irritation of his colleagues, especially LBJ. JFK and his campaign advisors (such as Theodore Sorensen) knew that they would have to secure the nomination on the first ballot; in other words, they needed to have a clear majority of undisputed delegates committed to them before the convention opened. If they failed to have that majority heading in, then the nomination would very likely be decided, literally, in a "Back Room", where LBJ would almost certainly be able to maneuver and be able to corral enough delegates for the nomination. JFK knew that LBJ was counting on that outcome, and starting in 1958, JFK and his campaign advisors started to aggressively organize their efforts in the primaries, and JFK started to make many appearances as a candidate for the Democratic nomination. LBJ, on the other hand, decided to spend his hours working in the Senate as Majority Leader, hoping-and-assuming that he could secure the Democratic nomination without campaigning in the primary elections.
  Below: JFK addresses an audience in Wisconsin on the topic of direct primaries

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LBJ & JFK: Before the 1960 Democratic Nat'l Convention, Part II

3/20/2015

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           Source: Robert A. Caro. The Years of Lyndon Johnson: 
                              The Passage of Power (2012)
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      LBJ had a problem for the upcoming Election of 1960: he wanted to run for his US Senate seat from Texas AND for President of the United States. Using his powerful political base in Texas (and no doubt some political shenanigans), he was able to get the Texas state legislature, in 1959, to pass a law authorizing his name to be on the ballot for both the Senate and President (and by extension, Vice-President). (Pictured: Senator Lyndon Johnson at a birthday celebration of former President Harry Truman in 1959)
     On 7 May, 1959, LBJ finally accepted an invitation to speak in Pennsylvania at a political rally supporting his bid to be the Democratic nominee for President. LBJ electrified the crowd that numbered in the thousands; many believed that this experience in a Northern state would convince LBJ to formally enter primary elections in Northern & Western states. LBJ, however, returned to his political shell (he was mortified by a fear of failure and humiliation) once again refusing invitations to speak at rallies organized on his behalf, often at the last minute.

     LBJ needed delegates for the Democratic Convention, and they were there to be had in the Western states (but not in California; JFK had already secured those delegates), which totaled 172 delegates . . . LBJ was a shoe-in to win at least two Western primaries, and he was favored to win most of the others, but he hadn't formally entered any as of yet. Ted Kennedy was his brother's organizational guru out West, and he told JFK that the West (not California) was "Johnson Country". But LBJ would have needed to actually campaign in the West for those delegates; the decision to not campaign in the Western primaries would be the death-knell for LBJ's presidential aspirations in the Democratic National Convention of 1960.

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     While LBJ was equivocating, JFK sent his secret weapon against LBJ to the West: Robert Kennedy. By 1959, RFK had developed a deep hatred for LBJ, and the feeling was reciprocated. The first time they encountered each other was in January, 1953, in the Senate cafeteria, next to Senate Minority Leader Lyndon Johnson's office. RFK was seated at a table with Senator Joseph McCarthy (to whom he was assistant counsel), and as LBJ walked by, everyone but RFK stood and shook LBJ's had, and called him "Leader". 
     RFK stayed seated, and glowered, and only kind of shook LBJ's hand, with no eye contact. RFK had come to hate LBJ since Johnson was with FDR when the President announced that he would remove Joseph Kennedy as Ambassador to England. LBJ relished in telling the story of how FDR tricked Joseph Kennedy to come back to the US, give a national radio address as Ambassador, and then forced him to resign . . . RFK was VERY protective of his father. 
(Pictured: RFK as the chief counsel during a McClellan Committee hearing on the Teamsters 
  in 1959)
     LBJ continued to force RFK to shake his hand every day for awhile; it was truly 
"Hate at First Sight" for both of them. LBJ took every chance he could to rub in his dislike for RFK in front of others, such as calling him "Sonny Boy". LBJ disliked RFK, but he didn't take him seriously, since RFK was a staffer, not a Senator.  RFK on the other hand, hated LBJ, and took him very seriously indeed, seeing him as a threat to JFK's path to the Presidency.

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     RFK knew that US Senators couldn't deliver very many delegates at the Convention, but Governors could do so; LBJ either didn't know, or care, about that political reality. More to the point, RFK knew that LBJ had no idea where the real power was located as far as corralling convention delegates. Unlike LBJ, RFK had learned a lot from the 1956 Democratic National Convention, and applied those lessons to the upcoming convention in order to try and secure JFK's nomination on the first ballot. 
     In 1959, RFK resigned as chief counsel from the McClellan Committee (investigating shenanigans with organized labor, including Jimmy Hoffa), and campaigned for JFK full-time. When LBJ finally decided to start campaign organizations in Western states, his people found that JFK had set up organizations months beforehand, and also had a tremendous head start in gathering committed delegates. LBJ fear-of-trying had held him back, and by early-1960, it was far too late to catch up to the JFK primary machine. 
     A young representative from Massachusetts named Tip O'Neill (pictured: he would become Speaker of the House) told LBJ that JFK would win the Democratic nomination on the first ballot, and there was nothing that LBJ could do to alter that outcome. LBJ was unwilling to concede even the most remote possibility that JFK could (or had) outmaneuvered him before the Democratic National Convention.

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      In terms of the 1960 Democratic Primaries, LBJ was confident that the other candidates would "kill off each other". On 10 May, 1960, West Virginia, a predominantly Protestant state, held its Democratic primary election. If JFK could win in WVA, he would show that he was an electable candidate for President; if he didn't win, then in all likelihood, LBJ would get his "Back Room" scenario where he would wheel-and-deal for delegates. JFK took 60% of the popular vote in the WVA primary, in part because he had made the conscious effort to minimize his Catholicism on a state-wide television address. 
  (Pictured: JFK campaigning in West Virginia)
     After West Virginia, when it was far too late, LBJ showed how much he wanted to become President. With only two months before the convention in Los Angeles, he made a desperate lunge for the prize. LBJ worked hard for delegates in Indiana, then finally made his long-delayed trip to campaign in the West. Despite his herculean efforts in the 11th Hour, LBJ was not able to come close to JFK's impressive total of committed convention delegates. 

     Pennsylvania was the final battleground between LBJ and JFK; if LBJ could deny JFK the state's 81 delegates, then he would deny JFK a victory on the first ballot, and his "Back Room" scenario would become a reality.  

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     The Governor of Pennsylvania, "Don't Call Me Boss" David Lawrence, did not support JFK, mostly due to his belief that a Catholic could not be elected President. Lawrence was a supporter of two-time Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson (1952 & 1956, losing to Eisenhower in both elections); in fact, he idolized Stevenson. Lawrence had the same political view towards a Southern Democrat in terms of Presidential "electability", so LBJ also did not receive support from Governor Lawrence. Despite Lawrence's wishes and designs, most of Pennsylvania's delegates were pledged to JFK.
     Adlai Stevenson was non-committal when Lawrence asked him to formally declare his candidacy, which meant that Lawrence did not have a candidate to champion during his state's caucus. JFK left Pennsylvania with 64 committed delegates, Stevenson garnered 7.5, while LBJ only secured 4; those results meant that it was conceivable that JFK could win the Democratic nomination on the first ballot. (Pictured: JFK, Stevenson, and LBJ at the Beverly Hilton during the Democratic National Convention in LA)

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        During the Democratic National Convention,, LBJ and JFK actually debated each other. JFK sent telegrams to all states, stating the he would meet with their delegation of they so desired. LBJ basically "Triple-Dog-Dared" JFK to debate him in front of the Texas delegation, and JFK accepted. JFK got the better of LBJ, in that he was classy and self-deprecating, while LBJ was loud-mouthed and petty. JFK basically won-over the hearts, if not their minds, of the Texas delegation. LBJ finally came to the conclusion that JFK had enough delegates to win the party's nomination.
     In the end, it all came down to Wyoming's 15 delegates, and JFK needed them all to win on the first ballot, and avoid any behind-the-scenes political chicanery. JFK and RFK negotiated with the Wyoming delegation, and secured the 5 uncommitted delegates to their total, as well as the Democratic nomination for President on the first ballot. LBJ could have had the Wyoming delegates, and the other Western states in his delegate total, but he waited far too long to actively campaign, and JFK and RFK took full advantage. The final tally of delegates at the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles: JFK 806, LBJ 409 (Senators Hubert Humphrey and Stuart Symington totaled 306 between the two). 
(Pictured: Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn, LBJ's #1 supporter, grieves with LBJ when it was confirmed that JFK won on the first ballot)
    Below: A portion of the LBJ/JFK debate in front of the Texas delegation in LA

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TR & the Pennsylvania Coal Strike of 1902

1/31/2015

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                Source: Edmund Morris. Theodore Rex (2001)
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     Today, huge conglomerates are called corporations, but at the turn of the 20th Century, they were known as Combinations. President Theodore Roosevelt's predecessors paid scant attention to Combinations (e.g. Standard Oil, the Pennsylvania Railroad), but TR knew (as did most US citizens) that Combination led to monopoly (what many called "Dark Power"). Once a Combination was achieved, the predictable economic results were higher prices and lower wages . . . but there were also clear benefits for the consumer.
     To form a "Trust", the companies that were merged into a Combination reorganized their shares in the Stock Market, and created an "Independent" Board that would then operate the colossus. The goal was to crush competition to maximize profits, and few were better at the Combination Game than John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, that controlled 90% of the oil industry by the time TR became President in 1901. 
     Potential profits were so great, and many Combinations were formed in many industries, that Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in 1890. But that law wasn't enforced by Presidents Harrison, Cleveland, and McKinley, because consumers largely benefited somehow / someway from Combinations. For example, Standard Oil refined and sold the safest (and very affordable) kerosene on the market; there were Combinations for virtually every consumer good, including a Combination for chewing gum. TR was ideologically conservative towards Combinations, believing that the overall benefits outweighed the costs . . . 65% of the overall wealth in the US was attributed to Combinations.


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      It didn't take TR too long, as President, to believe that at some point the federal Government had the right to supervise and regulate Combinations; TR viewed himself as the Director of the greatest Combination of all - the US Government. To TR, the "Labor Question" was the greatest single problem confronting 20th Century America; in his view, the contempt for unskilled workers sowed the seeds for future Revolution. In 1902, the biggest tinderbox in terms of conflict between Capital and Labor was located in the coal mines in the Alleghenies. 
     The resistance by the Coal Combination to the growing United Mine Workers was profound; they did have at least tacit public support since the Haymarket Square Riot in Chicago (1886) convinced most of the public that Labor was the main antagonist. TR's support of Labor had severely dimmed as a result of the Haymarket Riot, but on the other hand, he understood more than most that Combinations (especially in transportation and industry) consumed the resources as if they were a swarm of locusts. Conservation, a term that by 1901 had become fashionable and accepted by many Americans, meant not only should natural resources be preserved, but Combinations should be prevented from destroying those resources.

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     Coal mine owners also owned the coal-bearing railroads; by that fact alone, they were among the most powerful of Combinations. The anthracite coal ("hard" coal, that burned much cleaner for heating compared to the "soft" bituminous coal, which was less efficient for heating, and was often used in the production of steel since "coke" could be extracted) produced in these Pennsylvania mines and fields heated all of Northeast America. 
     In situations involving extreme points-of-view, TR always wanted to find the center. TR's speeches on the "Coal Crisis" equivocated, and editorials on both sides of the issue harshly criticized the new President. However, mixed in with the equivocations was TR's desire for the national government to regulate Combinations.
         (Pictured: UMW leader John Mitchell leading miners in a protest during the lockout)
     Demand for coal skyrocketed with the continued Capital v. Labor struggle in Pennsylvania, and the approaching winter. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge (MA); one of TR's closest friends and advisors, demanded that TR do something to end the crisis; TR responded that unless the Governor of Pennsylvania asked for assistance, the federal government's hands were tied. TR suspected that the real issue was that the Coal Combination wanted to save face in the public arena, as well as with other Combinations . . . the mine owners didn't want to acquiesce to the government, or even a single politician, in the public arena.

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     The Governor of Massachusetts, W. Murray Crane, gave TR the idea of a Bipolar Conference; that strategy had solved the Teamsters Strike in Boston in less than 24 hours. TR faced murder, sabotage, coal shortages, and thousands of civilian deaths in the upcoming winter if he didn't end the crisis in Pennsylvania. After five months of stalemate, TR had enough; the Coal Combination (and Labor) was threatening the "Public Good". 
     Both sides in the crisis had made it clear in the media that they would not be receptive to any interference from state or federal governments. So TR sent out duplicate telegrams to the Coal Combination owners and Labor in the guise of "Presidential Invitations". which was in reality a polite Presidential Order. Shockingly, both parties agreed to meet in the same room with President Roosevelt. TR met with the leaders of both parties still confined to a wheelchair, since he was still convalescing from a near-fatal car-trolley accident some weeks prior (he was thrown from the car over twenty feet, landing flat on his face, and his right shin needed two operations)

       (Political Cartoon of Labor "Striking" Capital)

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     President Roosevelt, UMW leader John Mitchell, and the Combination representatives met at the "Temporary White House" (22 Jackson Place; the White House was undergoing major renovations), with TR in his wheelchair, and all 14 others arranged around him in a semicircle. TR admitted that he had no legal authority, but he hoped to influence an end to the crisis, and get the coal once again flowing from the mines. TR stated that there were actually THREE involved parties: Capital, Labor, and the General Public, of which he was their representative.
     The representatives of the Coal Combination didn't think that UMW leader Mitchell should be part of the assembled party, since he was part of the bituminous (soft) coal industry, not anthracite (hard) coal. Nonetheless, TR gave all 14 assembled his written views, and adjourned the meeting until 3 pm; the Combination representatives spent the adjournment fuming. 
     The Combination told TR that the 10% wage hike he was suggesting would threaten their profitability (which was true); what they really wanted from TR was protection from the federal government against the striking miners in order to get "scabs" (replacement workers) into the mines. The Anthracite Coal Combination representatives knew that bituminous coal was far more plentiful, and if the flow of anthracite coal continued to be interrupted, they could be out of business. 
     When the meeting resumed at 3 pm, TR asked the Combination reps if Mitchell's (UMW) proposal for a 3rd-Party mediation to the dispute was acceptable - the Combination reps immediately stated that it was unacceptable. The media lauded TR for trying to end the crisis, and excoriated both Capital and Labor for their continued intransigence. 

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     During the impasse of TR's negotiations with Capital and Labor, violence once again descended on Western Pennsylvania; the UMW was openly inciting mobs of striking miners to riot. TR decided to appoint a Commission of Inquiry, then he would find a way to end the crisis. Secretary of War, Elihu Root (one of TR's closest advisors) suggested that J.P. Morgan
 was the perfect choice to find a solution to the Coal Crisis. 
     TR sent Root to see Morgan, after he briefed both Root and Attorney General Philander Knox that he was about ready to use the Army; not since April, 1861, had the U.S. been in such a potential state of affairs. Rumors of a General Strike (workers striking across many industries) were pervasive, and TR gave orders to General Schofield that he only answered to the President, and if he was ordered to go to Pennsylvania, he was to use overwhelming force to quickly end the crisis.
     On 13 October, 1902, SecWar Root and J.P. Morgan met with TR; Morgan stated that Capital tacitly acknowledged the supremacy of the federal government. Morgan also broached the subject of the Coal Combination's wish of who would be a member of the Commission of Inquiry - under no circumstances did they want a member of Labor to be on the commission. Since the Coal Combination expressed support of the inquiry, with one major demand, TR felt that he had quite a bit of latitude in how he could proceed.

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     On 14 October, 1902, TR, Morgan, and Root met on Root's yacht, the "Corsair"; the 
"Corsair Agreement" officially announced the Commission of Inquiry to end the Coal Crisis, but still unresolved was the question of who would be on the commission. Combination reps finally agreed to a Labor representative on the Committee of Inquiry if he wasn't officially identified as a representative of Labor. To TR, this was a case of "Tweedledum v. Tweedledee", but he pounced on the opening. 
     The Combination reps agreed to a Labor leader being on the Committee of Inquiry if he was publicly identified as a SOCIOLOGIST. Soon, all seven members of the Committee of Inquiry were in place, and the flow of anthracite coal once again resumed, ending the crisis. TR was universally lauded as the hero that ended the potential catastrophe (which was to a large extent true), and was portrayed as the first President to stand up to a Combination (which was true). TR's "Litmus Test" for when to challenge a Combination was to determine of the "Public Good" was threatened; even before the Coal Crisis, TR was in the process of challenging J.P. Morgan's "Northern Securities" Railroad Combination proposal. 

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Walter Cronkite & JFK in 1960

1/24/2015

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                               Source: Douglas Brinkley, Cronkite. 2012
 Walter Cronkite was the television news anchorman that my parents watched every day on CBS, oftentimes while we ate dinner.  My first memory watching Walter Cronkite on television was during the Apollo 8 mission during Christmas Break, 1968 (at the age of 6), in which NASA (Cronkite was a HUGE supporter of NASA) orbited three astronauts around the moon ten times; I still remember Jim Lovell reading from the book of Genesis during the broadcast from the spacecraft.  
     My wife purchased the audio book for her father, and it is now in my possession - it has been wonderful learning about Cronkite's professional life.  The above video segment features a brief analysis of Cronkite's famous broadcast announcing the death of JFK to the nation - he needed to do the broadcast from the radio room since the large television cameras took at least 15 minutes to warm up, and he needed to broadcast immediately.  Cronkite became a supporter of JFK, in part, due to Kennedy's vision of landing an American on the moon before the end of the 1960s.  Therefore, it was very interesting to listen to Cronkite's first face-to-face interaction with JFK in the Fall of 1960, after Senator Kennedy was nominated by the Democratic Party to run for President against the Republican candidate, Vice-President Richard Nixon.
     Cronkite was conducting a series of 8 political interviews on CBS leading up to the 1960
Presidential Election.  When Cronkite visited Senator Kennedy, and officially invited him to be on the program, JFK not-so-nicely declined.  Cronkite stated that JFK would have to do the interview if he was able to schedule Vice-President Nixon to appear on the program.  According to Cronkite, JFK said that Nixon would never agree to be on the program.  Very soon after that meeting, Cronkite met with Nixon, and the Vice-President enthusiastically agreed to appear on the program; JFK's hand was forced - he too had to appear on the program the following week.
     Nixon's interview (on videotape, to be broadcast soon afterwards) went exceedingly well; Nixon was not only very prepared, but also, contrary to what many may believe, very engaging during his interview with Cronkite, he even cracked a joke about his "5 O'Clock Shadow".  The following week, JFK was interviewed by Cronkite on the same program, but, for some reason, JFK was not prepared, nor very engaging.  Often, JFK's response to a question by Cronkite started with an "Um", or an "Ah"; his lack of preparation and interest in doing the interview
was beyond-evident.  After the last question was answered, and the cameras turned off, JFK told Cronkite that the interview would never air.  JFK even went so far as to go over Cronkite's head to the CBS brass, not only to keep the videotaped interview from being aired, but to actually re-do the interview itself.  
     What occurred next is my favorite part of the audio book so far: Cronkite, when told of JFK's phone call to his superiors, shortly after the interview, actually went upstairs to JFK's bedroom (the interview had been conducted in one of JFK's homes).  Cronkite approached the bedroom, and the door was open - JFK was lying on the bed, undoubtedly resting his back, and Lincoln, Nebraska's own Theodore Sorensen, his main speech-writer, was with him. Basically, a highly agitated Cronkite told JFK that it would be no problem to re-do the interview, but he would have to place a disclaimer at the beginning of the program that unlike Vice-President Nixon, this interview was Senator Kennedy's second go-round.  A furious and frustrated JFK told Cronkite to air the videotaped interview as it was, which Cronkite did. 
     One wonders what impact that interview had on JFK's campaign strategy in running for President in 1960 - JFK was very well prepared for his televised debates with Nixon later on in the campaign (a sample of that first debate is below).  Maybe, Cronkite's journalistic integrity was the jolt JFK needed in order to be more prepared and engaging for his televised debates with Nixon, starting in September, 1960.

Here is Chris Matthews' NY Times Sunday Book Review of Cronkite (6 July, 2012)
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Top Ten Walter Cronkite Television Moments

1/24/2015

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                        Source: Douglas Brinkley. Cronkite. 2012
This "Top 10" list is from the friendly folks at WatchMojo.com; it's hard to argue with the top of their list, in that it includes Cronkite's reports on Watergate, the Tet Offensive, Apollo 11, and the death of JFK.  One event that I thought could have been included in this video was the television report that made Cronkite a "household name": his report on the first American to orbit the Earth, John Glenn, on 20 February, 1962.  While Glenn was sitting in his chair travelling at over 17,000 miles per hour around Earth for orbit-after-orbit, Cronkite was sitting his chair, hour-after-hour, providing a running commentary of the event.  What separated Cronkite from the other (absolutely great) news anchors, such as Chet Huntley and David Brinkley at NBC, was that he had developed a great relationship with NASA since their inception, and he was basically a "Space-Geek".  His love of space exploration (which had its roots in his WW II assignment covering the Army Air Corps in Europe for UPI) and his knowledge of what NASA was doing (he studied, studied, studied) gave his coverage more credibility in the opinion of television viewers at the time.  
     Some perspective as to why his Watergate broadcast (which were actually two PRIME TIME
broadcasts on CBS a week-and-a-half before the 1972 Presidential Election), was controversial - Cronkite, the "most trusted man in America" by 1972, decided that he couldn't compete with Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, so why not have two programs that summarized what the Post reporters had discovered?  Up to then, Watergate hadn't reached "Scandal-Status", but Cronkite's broadcasts made Watergate a visual story for the first time. Also, the Washington Post was out on a journalistic branch on their own, and Cronkite's broadcasts provided a much-needed boost.  As Ben Bradlee, the chief editor of the Washington Post said, it was a "big kiss" from Walter.  It was true that Cronkite was an avowed liberal, especially by 1972 (there was even a grass-roots effort at the Democratic National Convention to convince George McGovern, the presumptive nominee, to have Cronkite run as his Vice-Presidential running mate), but that alone doesn't explain why Nixon absolutely hated Cronkite (and all other members of the media).  Cronkite had become one of top names on Nixon's infamous "hit list" long before his extended Watergate broadcast.  Among the the reasons was that Cronkite was the only member of the media to be able to conduct not one, but two clandestine television interviews with Daniel Ellsberg, the author of "The Pentagon Papers", an expose on the U.S. Government and Vietnam (think Old-School "Wiki-Leaks"). The FBI couldn't find Ellsberg, Nixon's men couldn't find Ellsberg, but Cronkite did, and the Ellsberg interviews meant that Nixon had a political bulls-eye placed on Cronkite's head.  Long before Cronkite's Watergate broadcasts, Nixon and his men tried very hard to isolate and discredit Cronkite as an ultra-liberal with an obvious agenda against the President.
    The impact of Cronkite's Watergate extended broadcasts didn't make any difference on that year's election; Nixon won the largest victory in presidential history in terms of states won 
(49 to 1; McGovern only carried Massachusetts, he didn't even carry his home state of South Dakota). The impact of Cronkite's broadcasts was delayed; it took time for Americans to digest all the information.  Also, since Cronkite attached his name to the Post reports, any new development concerning Watergate in the Washington Post had the implied consent and support of Cronkite as well, which lent even more credibility to Woodward & Bernstein's investigative journalism (it also helped that Cronkite kept echoing the Post reports in his nightly CBS newscasts).  
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President Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1st Term (1953 - 1957)

1/24/2015

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        Source: Jim Newton, Eisenhower: The White House Years, 2011
What follows is a some of the things I learned reading the section of Jim Newton's biography on Ike's first term in office (1953 - 1957) . . . 

*  Starting in 1951, Eisenhower was courted by both major parties, but it became obvious that     his political philosophy matched the Republicans far more than the Democrats at the time. 
    Ike believed in a "Middle Road" approach to politics, which was an outgrowth from his
    many years serving his nation in the military.  When he finally was convinced to confirm
    his candidacy, he actually was not the favorite to win the Republican nomination in 1952.
    The favorite was Robert Taft (President Taft's son, and one of the most respected senators
    in U.S. History), who, by using convention rules that favored him, was almost guaranteed 
    the nomination in terms of delegates.  But Ike's advisers succeeded in removing key rules
    (e.g. settling which contested delegates from certain states would vote) in order to make 
    the process far more equitable.  Eisenhower secured the hard-fought nomination, and then
    faced the Democratic nominee, Adlai Stevenson, in the general election.  Eisenhower, 
    unsure about his popularity, campaigned hard, traveling across the nation - this was also 
    the first presidential election to feature campaign commercials on television.  Ike 
    defeated Stevenson by a large margin in 1952; his popularity remained high during both
    terms in office, rarely dipping below 70% in terms of approval from popularity polls.

* Ike had a love affair with covert affairs - successful "regime changes" in Iran and
   Guatemala, spearheaded by the CIA, convinced Ike that covert strategies were a useful
   and necessary tool in order to contain Communism.  In Iran, Eisenhower encouraged
   the efforts to remove Mohammed Mosaddegh from power; he was viewed as not only
   unfriendly to U.S. interests in the Middle East, but also as a leader that just very well may
   hold the door open for the USSR to enter, and dominate the region.  Iran was viewed as
   a strategic lynch-pin for the U.S. in containing the USSR, and as far as Eisenhower &
   his advisers were concerned, Mosaddegh had to be removed.  In effect, the CIA created a
   political atmosphere in Iran that made it impossible for Masaddegh to stay in power, 
   opening the door for a leader that was far-more friendly to U.S. interests, Mohammed Reza      Pahlavi . . . the Shah of Iran. This regime change had a long-term consequence, in that 
   when the U.S. placed the Shah in power, an Islamic religious leader started to view the
   U.S. in an extremely unfavorable light - the Ayatollah Khomeini entered the political
   landscape in Iran.
       In Guatemala, Ike also favored regime change; it was perceived that a Communist was in
   power in that Central American nation, and unlike in Iran, he was much easier to remove
   from power.  The long-term consequence of this regime change featured another person
   that resented U.S. influence in the region, a 26 year-old who became a force to be reckoned
   with soon enough in Latin America - Che Guevera

* Ike labeled his foreign policy in dealing with Communism (especially the USSR), the 
  "New Look".  It featured three parts: a) Containment - continue Truman's foreign policy;
   b) Deterrence - not only stay ahead of the USSR in terms of nuclear weapons, but also be
   very clear that the U.S. intended to use them if sufficiently provoked (Mao Tse-Tung was
   the recipient of more than one of those threats from Eisenhower); c) "Roll-Back" - Ike
   wanted to take back some of Communist Eastern Europe that was in the Soviet Union Bloc;
   he had high hopes that covert operations could build enough resistance in nations such as
   Poland, where the USSR would hopefully tire of the increased political resistance, and leave
   Poland to its own affairs.  

* Richard Nixon was Eisenhower's Vice-President for both terms, but he was never part of
   Ike's inner circle (what Ike, and some in the media called, "The Gang").  Nixon lost quite a
   bit of political capital in Ike's eyes during the investigation of financial shenanigans after 
   he was named Ike's VP candidate (Nixon saved his spot on the ticket, as well as his 
   political future, with his famous televised "Checkers" Speech). Ike never really distrusted
   Nixon; it appeared that he just didn't think Nixon was politically seasoned or talented 
   enough to be an important adviser, or a future President of the United States.  When Ike
   decided to run again in 1956, he left Nixon politically hanging for months, never really
   committing to him as his Vice-President until the eve of the Republican National
   Convention.
 * By 1954, President Eisenhower had enough of Senator Joseph McCarthy's (Wisc.) 
    attempts at exposing loyalty and security risks in the federal government; when McCarthy
    started to claim that the U.S. Army was coddling Communists, it was too much for
    the former general to bear.  What you see above is the U.S. Army's counsel, Joseph
    Welch (one of Ike's favorite people), embarrassing, but more importantly, exposing 
    McCarthy as a bully - no one had really stood up to McCarthy before . . . no one dared.
    Ike had successfully maneuvered McCarthy into not only conducting a Congressional
    hearing concerning the Army, but also to televise those hearings; millions watched the
    "Army-McCarthy Hearings" in lieu of the afternoon soap operas.  Once Welch stood up
    to McCarthy, in a fashion and time encouraged by Ike,  McCarthy's influence immediately 
    waned; no longer was he as feared, and soon enough, McCarthy was even censored 
    in the Senate.  

* Eisenhower had health problems, most chronically, Crohn's Disease (severe intestinal
   cramps and pain - it is a very debilitating disease).  The most severe of Ike's medical
   episodes was also the most covered-up - Ike's heart attack late in his first term.  Shortly
   after midnight, Ike awoke, complaining of a variety of ailments (he wasn't himself all day),
   and his wife, Mamie, called for his personal physician, Dr. Howard Snyder (also a personal
   friend).  Why Dr. Snyder didn't immediately diagnose the heart attack is unknown - he
   tried numerous strategies to help his patient, but nothing worked.  Eisenhower, who by
   then was well into his sixties, lied down, with Mamie holding him, trying to keep him
   calm - and Ike went back to sleep for several hours.  It turns out that that period of
   sleep saved his life; upon waking, he was taken to a hospital by ambulance, and properly
   diagnosed as having a heart attack.  Dr. Snyder, as one would expect, did all he could
   to help Ike; he also did all he could to cover up his misdiagnosis, writing many unsolicited
   letters to various parties, claiming that he did indeed immediately diagnose and treat Ike's 
   heart attack. Interestingly, Ike helped with the cover-up, insisting that all was well - Dr. 
   Snyder continued 
in his capacity as the President's doctor.  
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Calvin Coolidge and the Boston Police Strike of 1919

1/24/2015

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                  Source: Amity Schlaes, Coolidge. Harper-Collins, 2013
"In college, Coolidge had observed that men succeeded in politics when they got out in front of a movement that other politicians had not yet identified" (Schlaes, e-pages 299-300). 
     In the immediate aftermath of World War I, class conflict increased, much to the dismay of the middle class Progressive reformers.  Coolidge (who was the governor of Massachusetts in 1919) was among the vanguard of politicians that realized that the nation was ready to move on from the seemingly non-stop class conflict (e.g. labor strikes) that had regularly occurred since the end of the Civil War.  
     By 1919, it was widely known and accepted by most everyone in Boston that its police 
force was underpaid and overworked.  Labor strife became more widespread after World War I, in part due to the vast shortage of jobs with about 1 million veterans returning home from Europe (there was no equivalent of a G.I. Bill).  During the war, laborers in city-after-city were promised that once the war ended, wages would increase.  However, city and state governments were unable to do so after the war, since the "velocity of money" (consumer spending) had stalled, leading to a short but brutal post-war recession.  In this post-war landscape in Boston, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, nicknamed the "Wobblies", an aggressive Socialist worker's union) was able to establish a level of influence with a significant number of Boston police.  Their gamble: by walking off the job for higher pay and shorter hours, other laborers in Boston would also go on strike in support (a General Strike, shutting down all services in Boston). In particular, the striking Boston police were hoping that the ladies that operated the city's telephone switchboards would join them, igniting the General Strike: Boston and Massachusetts politicians would then undoubtedly be forced to negotiate.
     The striking workers had reason to believe their strategy would be effective, in that Governor Calvin Coolidge had a history of taking a "Middle of the Road" approach to labor conflicts in the recent past.  In September of 1919, the vast majority of Boston police went on strike - the city's social order collapsed almost immediately.  Similar to the chaos in Los Angeles in 1991, a percentage of Boston's population decided to take full advantage of the absence of law enforcement. Reports of assaults, theft, and even deaths became commonplace, and requests for gun permits skyrocketed. The Boston Police Strike became national news, in that an economic and political precedent may be set - if the Boston Police Strike was effective, then other city's police forces would also go on strike (the Washington, D.C. police force was, in essence, at the starting line, ready to strike at a moment's notice).  
     President Woodrow Wilson was focused on his national speaking tour promoting the League of Nations, trying to put pressure on the U.S. Senate to reconsider its vote rejecting U.S. involvement in the League.  Added to that were his efforts at trying to avert a national steel strike, and, to cap it off, his health was failing fast - he would suffer a very debilitating stroke during his national tour.  Therefore, it was predictable that the President didn't place enough importance on the Boston Police Strike, although while in Montana, he would eventually endorse Coolidge's actions in ending the strike.
     Governor Coolidge was in a tough spot - it seemed the only real choice was to negotiate with the police labor leaders, giving them at least most of what they wanted so the city would be safe once again.  Coolidge's decision stunned most observers - he in essence fired all the striking police men, vowing to never hire them back; he then ordered the entire state's militia (National Guard) into Boston to quell the spreading violence and lawlessness, citing the state constitution's clause that allowed the governor to act as "Commander-in-Chief" in emergency situations.  Coolidge also was lucky - the ladies that operated the telephone switchboards decided not to strike, ensuring that communication was still in place to use the militia as a temporary substitute police force.
     Some historians argue that Coolidge either waited too long, or went too far with his decision, but it seemed to me that Schlaes argued that Coolidge didn't decisively act until he was convinced that a "Middle of the Road" solution would be not only disastrous for Boston, and Massachusetts, but also for the nation.  Coolidge, with plenty of support and some precedence, stated that due to public safety, the police of the city of Boston had no right to strike whatsoever.  Coolidge, showing that he did indeed have sympathy for the striking police, tried to help as many as possible find a job - but he did not allow them to come back to the Boston police force - he made sure that the striking police men were replaced by newly hired candidates.
     Coolidge's political popularity in Boston and Massachusetts increased to even greater heights with his decision to use the militia. With the terms of elected office so short in Massachusetts in those years, Coolidge was up for re-election for governor very soon, but it turned out that he had become such a prominent Republican politician as a result of ending the strike, that he was on the short-list of Republicans for the Vice-Presidential slot in 1920.  Calvin Coolidge, not President Wilson, was the politician that was out in front in dealing with the Boston Police Strike of 1919; Wilson was mostly focused on the past, with his League of Nations tour, while Coolidge realized that America was at the brink of a new era.  Schlaes argued that 1919 was similar to 1787; America was ready to move on from a major war, and Calvin Coolidge was among the first major politicians after World War I to recognize and act on that belief.  
    With the election of the Republican Warren Harding as president in 1920 (w/ Coolidge as his Vice-President), the Progressive Era was officially at an end.  Harding received over 60% of the popular vote, campaigning on the slogan "A Return to Normalcy".  In 1923, Harding died of natural causes, and Calvin Coolidge became the 30th President of the United States, winning election in his own right in 1924.

New York Times article on Amity Schlaes' Coolidge (14 February, 2013)
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President Coolidge's Economic Strategies

1/24/2015

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                    Source: Amity Schlaes, Coolidge. Harper-Collins, 2013
    President Calvin Coolidge was one of the primary reasons for the "Boom" economy in the 1920s, but at the same time, he was at least partially responsible for the "Bust" that was soon to occur, despite doing his best to avoid that economic catastrophe.  
     The Governor of Massachusetts, Calvin Coolidge, never really planned, or initially wanted, to be Warren Harding's Vice-Presidential running mate in 1920.  During the Republican National Convention, Harding, after ten ballots, became the Republican nominee, and after some maneuvering by Coolidge's key politicos, Coolidge, somewhat reluctantly, accepted the nomination as Vice-President.  When Harding died of what was almost certainly congestive heart failure (although there is a conspiracy theory that his wife poisoned him due to his infidelity) in 1923, Calvin Coolidge was thrust into the presidency. In short order, Coolidge ran for President in his own right, easily defeating the Democratic candidate, John W. Davis in theElection of 1924. 
     After reading Schlaes' biography, I learned that Coolidge focused on two major economic areas during his years as President.  First, Coolidge wanted to trim the federal budget down to $3 billion, which, for all practical purposes, he accomplished.  President Coolidge regularly met with one his most-trusted advisers (General Herbert Lord), and they, for his entire time in office, trimmed government spending at the federal level.  Coolidge believed that the federal government should operate within its means (Coolidge was a living example of a colossally successful person that lived within his means), and he worked tirelessly to trim the budget.
     Secondly, he teamed up with his Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon (quite possibly the second-most famous SecTreas behind Hamilton), and started the process of what Mellon called "Scientific Taxation".  The impetus behind this, for lack of a better word, experiment, was the crushing federal government debt after World War I - 75% of the federal government debt was related to the Great War (the worst scandal of Harding's Presidency, in terms of wasted federal spending and embezzlement, was an effort to start a federal system of assistance for U.S. veterans). Mellon believed that if the tax rates were reduced for America's top earners, more money would be spent in the areas of Consumption and Investment.  In other words, Coolidge and Mellon predicted that if taxes were lowered in the upper quintile, more money would be spent in the economy, which would then actually lead to more government revenues; and they were correct in their hypothesis. There was some "lag-time", but it became abundantly clear that reducing those tax rates not only encouraged more spending and hiring, but the government was able to bring in more revenue than even Mellon had predicted.  Of course, Coolidge and Mellon were not able to do this unilaterally; Congress was involved, and Coolidge and Mellon were not able to enact every aspect of "Scientific Taxation".  However, this Congress didn't dilute or eliminate as much as some Progressive Era Congress's may have, so it seemed that Mellon's theory was sound.
     The problem with "Scientific Taxation" was that it produced, what Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan many decades later termed, "Irrational Exuberance".  The American economy started to expand at a rapid pace; the Dow Jones Industrial Average skyrocketed to over 300, an incredible figure in those days.  Coolidge wondered (and worried) why the value of stocks became so inflated in such a short period of time.  The federal government was collecting more revenues than had been predicted, and more-and-more politicians in both parties wanted to spend that excess instead of reducing the federal government's debt (There was constant pressure, for example, to provide a "bonus" for WW I veterans, and for veterans of previous wars).  Even the leading Republican not-named-Coolidge, Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, was pressuring for government spending for flood control.  In terms of what Hoover wanted, Coolidge was in a tough spot - the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927showed that states were unable to cope with emergencies of that scope, and Hoover was an advocate of greater government spending for relief and dam-building.  Coolidge believed that as horrific as the flood was in terms of the human and financial cost, it was the burden of the states to deal with the disaster - the federal government didn't get involved in the way we are accustomed to seeing (and expecting) today. Coolidge held firm in his stance, even when his beloved home state of Vermont experienced the worst flooding in a century shortly thereafter.  The tradition of the federal government "coming to the rescue" after a natural or economic disaster would not occur until the early-1930s when Herbert Hoover was President.
     During the summer of 1927 in South Dakota (Coolidge accepted an invitation to have the "Summer White House" near Mount Rushmore, which was under construction), Coolidge announced that he would not run for another term as President.  Still incredibly popular, not only within his party, but with most Americans as well, Coolidge decided that he was through. His decision was based partly on his health (he died of a heart attack on 5 January, 1933 - FDR hadn't yet been inaugurated), and also because he felt that he could accomplish no more in terms of trimming the budget, lowering taxes, and expanding the economy.       
     Before I finish, I just want to mention that this author's research was impeccable, but she is an avowed Coolidge fan (of which there is a lot to admire), and I think she lets Coolidge off the hook at least a little bit in terms of his economic decisions that were part of what caused the Great Depression.  That being said, she found primary sources that showed Coolidge, late in his presidency, predicted that if Hoover became president, he would spend too much government money, which would increase the federal government's debt (which Coolidge had worked so hard to reduce to a more manageable level).  She also found documentation that Coolidge predicted that if the Democrats took office during a depression, they would spend far too much government money with very little focus for which that money was spent.  
     Coolidge made those statements, but the "Velocity of Money" in the economy did start to super-heat during his presidency, due in part to his tireless efforts in support of SecTreas Mellon's "Scientific Taxation" strategy. It would have been very interesting, if Coolidge had decided to run for President in the Election of 1928 (he would have easily been re-elected), to see what his decision-making would have been at the onset of the Great Depression.
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Rachel Carson and the Emergence of the Environmental Movement

1/24/2015

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                      Source: William Souder. On a Farther Shore (2012).
     Rachel Carson was one of the most famous authors in America by 1962, and when her seminal book Silent Spring was published that year, William Souder compared its impact to Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852.  Carson had already published two best-sellers about the ocean (The Sea Around Us in 1951, and The Edge of the Sea in 1955), and had become keenly aware of mankind's increasingly negative impact towards nature. By the late-1950s, Carson had reached a similar conclusion that many other scientists had reached as early as World War II - DDT, the world's most-used pesticide, was entering the food supply, causing incalculable harm.  Rachel Carson had the gift of making the complex simple, which made Silent Spring's scientific content and conclusions very readable for millions of Americans. Most readers, and as it turned out a significant majority of Americans, believed her conclusions of the damaging and long-lasting effects that DDT had on the world's population.
     In 1954, a Japanese fishing vessel, the Lucky Dragon, started its trek in the Pacific in search of blue fin tuna.  For many weeks, the Lucky Dragon's crew wasn't very lucky at all in terms of their catch, and had sailed well east of the Marshall Islands trying to change their fortunes. One night, deckhands saw a bright flash in the distance to their west (later to be confirmed as 187 miles west), and not long after that came huge waves in the sea, and shock waves in the air, nearly capsizing the vessel.  Very soon thereafter, crew members lost their appetites, and their hair started falling out. The decision was made by the captain and crew to head back to Japan. The entire fishing vessel was covered in ash, and at least a few samples were taken.  
     Later, despite denials by the U.S. Government, it was confirmed that the Lucky Dragon was
too close (not its fault) to the Bikini Atoll (in the Marshall Islands), as a hydrogen bomb was tested.  American scientists were expecting an explosion of the equivalent of 6 million tons of TNT, but due to the addition of lithium isotopes, the explosion reached 15 million tons of TNT, producing an explosion 2.5 times larger than expected. The crew of the Lucky Dragon were the first, and most immediate, victims of the test explosion. There would be more . . . many more as it turned out - the explosion sent radiation well above 17,000 feet in the air, which meant massive dispersal of radiation to far-distant locations.  After a moratorium, the USSR resumed their atmospheric nuclear tests, and the U.S. followed suit, and more-and-more radiation was invisibly descending on world populations, especially in North America. By the early-1960s, it was confirmed that Strontium 90 had entered the U.S. food supply (with other less harmful but very real radiation), and the U.S. public was predictably upset, concerned, and afraid in terms of their health, and the health of future generations.  
     At the same time, the American public was learning that something else was poisoning the food supply, and actually or potentially harming millions of people: DDT.  Used as an insect pesticide to help U.S. soldiers during World War II, the U.S. Government basically went "all-in", totally committing itself to its use after the war; more specifically, the Department of Agriculture fell in love with DDT after WW II.  True, DDT was very effective in combating malaria by killing mosquitoes, as well as other insects that were a huge health hazard in other locations (e.g. the Gypsy Moth), but it was confirmed fairly early that insects developed resistance to DDT.  For Americans directly involved with growing crops for the global market, DDT (and other related chemicals) simply meant more yield per acre, and more potential profit.
     Rachel Carson argued, in Silent Spring, that the actual problem was the over-use of DDT. She didn't advocate a total ban of chemicals to combat the threat of insect infestations (for example, she did support an appropriate use of chemicals to combat malaria where needed); she argued that U.S. farmers and the U.S. Government were using far too much DDT in far too many locations, and it was contaminating the food supply.  An experiment served as an example: DDT was sprayed on hay, and that hay was feed to cows, and then the cows were slaughtered, and the beef was cooked. That beef was then fed to pigs, and then the pigs were slaughtered . . . in the end, the bacon from those pigs had the exact same level of DDT as did the hay.  Carson, very early in Silent Spring, connected radiation from atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, and the use of DDT, showing that by the early-1960s, virtually all Americans were at risk for consuming contaminated food (milk was especially at risk from both sources), which led to significant health problems (e.g. birth defects and certain types of cancer).
     The battle lines were set: The Chemical Industry, Agriculture, and the U.S. Government versus a petite unmarried woman in her mid-50s who by then was experiencing severe health problems (most significantly, cancer).  Unlike her previous best-sellers, the publication of Silent Spring caused an eruption of protest. President Kennedy even inquired if there was a way for the federal government to discredit her conclusions during the fall of 1962 (he soon had a rather unpleasant distraction with the Cuban Missile Crisis).  Throughout the howls of protests from those parties with a vested interest in the continued use of DDT and other pesticides, tests and experiments involving DDT were conducted by a variety of scientists, both inside and outside the federal government, and their conclusions matched those of Rachel Carson, and those of the scientists from which she based her research.  Eventually, as the social and political battles intensified during the 1960s, the use of DDT (and related pesticides) was drastically reduced in the United States.
     When Rachel Carson argued, with scientific evidence in support, that radiation and pesticides were a clear threat to the health of virtually every American, the fledgling Environmental Movement was galvanized.  In November of 1963, the same month in which JFK was assassinated, the Secretary of the Interior, Steward Udall, spearheaded the publication ofThe Quiet Crisis,  which served as the U.S. Government's effort to warn the public about environmental pollution (President Kennedy wrote the introduction to the book).  It is worth mentioning that for many years before she became a successful author, Rachel Carson worked in the Fish and Wildlife division of the Department of the Interior, writing informative educational brochures and advertisements; SecInterior Udall was an admirer and supporter of Carson.  Shortly after the publication of Silent Spring, federal laws were enacted such as the Clean Air Act (1963), the Water Quality Act (1965), and the Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act (1965).  By 1970, the Environmental Movement had built enough momentum and political influence where the  Environmental Protection Agency was created, and the first "Earth Day" was established on 22 April that year.
     
By 1962, Rachel Carson's health was declining rapidly - the main culprit was cancer, but she also experienced what was most probably rheumatoid arthritis.  She died in her "Happy Place", her cottage on the coast of Maine, in April, 1964, never really able to fully appreciate the impact she made by researching and writing Silent Spring.  As she was researching and writing the book, she was encouraged by her publisher to title it "Silent Spring", referring to the lack of birds singing (especially due to the death of robins) in the areas where there was heavy use of DDT.  Rachel Carson's best friend, Dorothy, was at least somewhat comforted that Rachel was able to hear birds sing outside her window, as she was also able to see, hear, and smell her beloved ocean during the last days of her life.


   Here is a New York Times book review of William Souder's On a Farther Shore
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General Ulysses S. Grant in the Civil War

1/24/2015

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Sources:  *H.W. Brands. The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant in 
                  War and Peace (2012)
                *Bruce Catton. Never Call Retreat (The Centennial History of the
                  Civil War, Volume 3; 1965).
     In late-1863, a bill was introduced in Congress to resurrect the rank of Lieutenant General, which had not been in existence since General George Washington held that rank during the Revolutionary War. The bill was intended solely for General Ulysses S. Grant; when the bill passed both houses, Grant became the overall commander of all the Union armies, including the Army of the Potomac, the Army of Tennessee, the Army of the James, the Army of the Cumberland, and the Army of the Ohio. President Lincoln had desperately searched for a general that would be able to lead an army without the need for micromanagement and extrinsic motivation in order to be successful. President Lincoln also finally had a general whose overall strategy in fighting the Civil War matched his own - in effect, they both saw that a "full court press" had to be applied to the few remaining armies of the Confederacy in order to win total victory.  
     From the very beginning of his time as a general in the Civil War, Grant's philosophy was to engage and destroy an army of the Confederacy.  Location(s) was important, but Grant thought that defeating / destroying a Confederate army led to the acquisition of key strategic locations, as opposed to capturing the strategic location(s), which would lead to the destruction of an army. In February of 1862, Grant decided to engage a Confederate army atForts Henry & Donelson, only eight miles away from each other on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. Grant could have out-flanked or by-passed the Confederate forces (especially the larger one at Fort Donelson on the Cumberland), but he chose to engage.  After a close-call in terms of a surprise Confederate attack, Grant forced the surrender of 12,000 troops, earning a promotion to major general in the process.  Far more important to Grant, however, was the ability to proceed south on the Tennessee & Cumberland rivers to engage another Confederate army in the west at Corinth, Mississippi.  
     By destroying the Confederate army at Corinth (led by Gen. Albert Sydney Johnston), Grant would then be able to gain access to the lower-Mississippi River, and a "Jumping-Off" point to move towards Chattanooga, Tennessee, which would basically divide the Confederacy not just once, but two times over . . . all by destroying one Confederate army.  Before Grant could engage Johnston's army at Corinth, Johnston attacked Grant's army in SW Tennessee at what would be known as the Battle of Shiloh (April, 1862).  Like at Fort Donelson, Grant was surprised by a Confederate offensive, but at Shiloh, the scale of the Confederate offensive was much, much larger.  That being said, Grant never lost his focus; he kept his emotions in check. Those that came to know him were astounded that his demeanor never changed, regardless of the circumstance.  After a disastrous first day of battle, the second day was all in the Union's favor, and Grant forced Johnston's army to abandon the field of battle (Johnston suffered a fatal wound to his femoral artery during the first day at Shiloh).  The casualties were astounding: in two days of battle, almost as many Americans died at Shiloh that had died in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Mexican War, combined.  While victorious, Grant was essentially sidelined for a time, blamed for the excessive casualties despite gaining a crucial Union victory in the west. Grant's immediate superior, General Henry Halleck, an ambitious and vindictive sort, did the "sidelining", and actually traveled to the west to take over Grant's command.  
     However, General Halleck was re-assigned to Washington, D.C., to be the lead Union general in terms of administration, which suited his ambition. Halleck's promotion doesn't get very much historical attention, but without it, Grant probably would have left the army, and faded into obscurity. Back in command, Grant decided to take the last area of Confederate strength that remained on the Mississippi River - Vicksburg (Mississippi) and the surrounding forts.  In order to do so, he needed to defeat General Pemberton's forces at Vicksburg, while at the same time, defeating General Joseph Johnston's army at Nashville.  The general that Grant ordered to engage Johnston's army was General William Tecumseh Sherman (who not only became his most trusted general, but also a close friend), whose philosophy of battle was different than Grant's.  Sherman believed that geography was more important than the destruction of an enemy army; whenever possible, he tried to by-pass the enemy, destroying anything that could supply them on his way to his destination.  Sherman forced Johnston to retreat from Nashville by rarely engaging him in battle; he kept destroying rail lines and roads, and out-flanked Johnston's forces.  Once Johnston was forced out of Nashville, Grant ordered Sherman to join him, so they could focus on Vicksburg. Vicksburg was one tough nut to crack - it took Grant months to finally get on the same side of the Mississippi River as Vicksburg. General Pemberton's fate was sealed at Vicksburg when General Sherman was able to take the last Confederate artillery position on high ground in the area, but still, he stayed, hoping for reinforcements.  After months of maneuvering, and then a siege, Grant finally accepted the surrender of Vicksburg on 3 July, 1863, which was the same day the Battle of Gettysburgended. Gettysburg often overshadows Vicksburg, but Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America, saw that Vicksburg had the potential to turn the tide of the war in the Union's favor.  
     President Lincoln wanted to focus on a strategy which historians refer to as "Concentrations in Time"; attack the Confederacy on multiple fronts at the same time in order to end the war as soon as possible.  After Grant secured another Union victory in Tennessee, further dividing the Confederacy, he was placed in charge of all the Union armies.  Grant and Lincoln met for the first time during the Winter of 1863 - 1864, and Lincoln was satisfied that he finally had his "Concentrations in Time" general.  Grant believed that to win the Civil War, he needed to destroy Lee's army, as well as the remaining Confederate armies (e.g. Joseph Johnston's army in Tennessee, and Jubal Early's cavalry outside of Washington, D.C.).  Grant's orders were the following: a) Sherman was to destroy Johnston's army; b) General Phil Sheridan (cavalry) was to deal with Jubal Early in the Shenandoah Valley; c) General Benjamin Butler and the Army of the James would attack Lee from behind; d) General George Meade would advance on Lee's army. Basically, Grant dismissed the notion held by most northern politicians that to win the Civil War, the Union needed to capture Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy.  
     The strategy, of course, worked, but not as smoothly or as quickly as Grant or Lincoln envisioned.  General Butler, a political appointee who was not a very good tactician, blundered badly, and never did threaten Lee from behind - ironically enough, his Army of the James became bogged down on the James River outside of Richmond.  Sherman, under orders from Grant to destroy railroads and roads to his rear as he advanced towards Johnston, was going nowhere fast, and Grant, who was with Meade, was having extreme difficulty with Lee in the spring of 1864 (e.g. The Battle of the Wilderness, Sharpsburg, and Cold Harbor).  The only positive, as Catton mentioned in Never Call Retreat, was that Lee wasn't able to take the offensive, which was his preference, but had to engage in defensive strategies against Grant. General Sherman provided the turning point for Grant's strategy: he asked Grant for permission to take the offensive in Tennessee, and then in Georgia, focusing on geography rather than Johnston's army.  This strategy became known as "Sherman's March to the Sea",after he captured Atlanta in September, 1864.  He used the census of 1860 to focus on which parts of Georgia to devastate, and he continued with that strategy to Savannah, and then through the Carolinas, until he joined up with Grant in Virginia.  General Sheridan also received permission from Grant to do essentially the same thing in the Shenandoah Valley west of Washington, D.C., which meant that Lee was almost entirely isolated, and starving, his army down to 20,000 effectives.  
     On 2 April, 1865, Richmond was evacuated, and largely burned, and was occupied by Union forces. On 8 April, Lee gambled that he could take his army to the Danville railhead, and resupply his army.  As long as Lee had hope to feed his army, he refused to surrender to Grant.  At this point, Grant was using the strategy that historians call "Concentrations in Space", massing all of his forces in one location, in this case to force Lee to surrender. Sheridan beat Lee to the railhead, denying him any chance to feed his army, and he was then surrounded by Union armies commanded by Meade, Sherman, and Ord (who replaced Butler).Lee surrendered to Grant on 9 April, 1865, at Appomattox Court House.  Grant, probably on his own, but was also counseled by Lincoln to do so, gave Lee's army honorable terms for surrender, plus he ordered his quartermaster to provide five days of rations to Lee's starving army . . . in effect, the Civil War was over (General Joseph Johnston didn't surrender to General Sherman until 26 April, 1865, which was also the day John Wilkes Booth was captured and killed).
     In the late-1850s, Grant was toiling in a Missouri field, trying to make something of his life as a farmer. He was farming in Missouri since it was land that his wife's family owned (he had married Julia Dent during the Mexican War in the late-1840s), and he had a terrible go of it. Grant's social standing among his neighbors, in a slave state, was tremendously low.  In a northern state, Grant's efforts in the field would be seen as admirable, but in Missouri, working with African slaves in the field diminished his social standing to the lowest in his life, and Grant was fully aware of his station.  One wonders what his former neighbors thought of Grant during his ascendancy in the Union army during the Civil War, becoming not only the most famous Union general, but also, by 1900, the most famous person in American History, surpassing Washington, Jackson, and even Lincoln.
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General Ulysses S. Grant: Between the Civil War and the Presidency (April, 1865 - March, 1869)

1/24/2015

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Source:  H.W. Brands. The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant in 
                                      War and Peace (2012)
     After the Civil War, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant held the same rank, but his title became General-in-Chief of the Armies.  As the months passed after the conclusion of the Civil War (which technically didn't end until the summer of 1865, when remnants of a Confederate army in Texas surrendered), General Grant was forced to enter the world of politics, an arena in which he was admittedly not well-suited to enter.  Even though he was an admitted political neophyte, he earned the Republican nomination for president by acclamation, and easily defeated the Democratic nominee in the Election of 1868: his campaign slogan of "Let Us Have Peace" resonated in the North and the South.
     Grant's entry to the world of post-Civil War politics occurred very quickly.  General WilliamTecumseh Sherman negotiated a surrender with the Confederate general Joseph Johnston (after Appomattox) without consulting President Lincoln, SecWar Stanton, or General Grant. Even by Grant's standard, Sherman's surrender terms were viewed as far too generous, and actually set up post-Civil War Reconstruction policies at the state level contrary to what the Republican leadership wanted. General-in-Chief Grant was in a political pickle: SecWar Stanton, his superior, wanted Sherman demoted, or even cashiered, but Grant wanted Sherman to remain at his current rank.  SecWar Stanton honored Grant's request to allow Sherman to remain, but Stanton decided to embarrass Sherman politically by basically insulting his intelligence in the newspapers.  Sherman never forgot that Grant supported him, and he never forgave SecWar Stanton for what he considered libel.
     While this political kettle was boiling, President Lincoln was assassinated.  Mary Todd Lincoln had assumed that the Grants would attend "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater with her and the President - advertisements had already been released stating that the Grants would do so.  Julia Grant had her heart set on visiting family, and despite her husband's demanding schedule, had made arrangements for the trip.  With General Grant away from home, Julia received a message from Mary Todd Lincoln on 14 April, 1865, which indicated that it was a forgone conclusion that the Grants would alter their plans and attend the play that night, in just a few hours.  While General Grant would have been very receptive to the idea of going to the theater with Lincoln, a man he truly admired and respected, Julia made the executive decision that they would not attend the play. Julia's decision was based on a very simple reason - she had learned to despise the First Lady, intensely. She adamantly refused to alter her plans to suit Mary Todd Lincoln, and it's not clear whether General Grant knew at that time what had just transpired. On their way to visit family, the Grants were told of the assassination, and Grant had to immediately return to Washington, D.C. to help bring order out the chaos of Lincoln's Assassination.
     It must have been a difficult transition for Grant to serve as General-in-Chief in the Andrew Johnson administration after serving with Lincoln.  In short, Grant didn't like or respect the President, but he tried his best to respect and serve the position - Johnson didn't make that very easy for Grant. During the off-year elections of 1866, Grant had reluctantly decided to accept Johnson's invitation to travel with the President as he campaigned against the Radical Republicans, trying to reduce their influence in Congress.  It didn't take Grant long to determine that his role was in essence to be the "Celebrity-in-Chief", helping Johnson sway as many voters as possible by simply being seen.  As Grant heard Johnson speak during this campaign, he decided that he wanted to be as neutral (and as invisible) as possible, which was politically impossible. The end-result for Johnson's efforts were that the Radical Republicans(who wanted to punish the Southern states for the Civil War while advancing civil rights for African-Americans) gained a significant number or seats in the House, and a few in the Senate. Johnson's campaign strategy had backfired, but Grant fortunately remained politically unscathed, unlike the President.
     President Johnson had another plan in store that would actually lead Grant to believe he would go to jail if he continued to honor the President's wishes.  In early-1868, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, which was designed to insure that SecWar Stanton, a Radical Republican, remained in Johnson's Cabinet.  The law, passed over Johnson's veto, required the President to involve Congress in the removal of a Cabinet member.  Johnson, smart-but-stubborn, decided to challenge the law, and suspended Stanton while Congress was not in session - which technically meant he didn't violate the Tenure of Office Act.  But in the world of "High Crimes and Misdemeanors", violating the spirit of the act was enough for the House to impeach Johnson.  Grant, in the meantime, was appointed by Johnson to be the interim SecWar in Stanton's absence.  Grant did not have any desire to become the SecWar on a permanent basis, and as the drama unfolded, he didn't want to be the Acting SecWar either. After Johnson survived removal in the Senate by one vote, 35-19 (he was never in any danger of being removed - the Moderate Republicans did not want the Pro Tem of the Senate, Benjamin Wade, as the next president).  It soon dawned on Grant that Congress could, if they followed the letter of the law, actually put him in jail since he was Stanton's replacement.  The whole unsavory episode for Grant ended after Johnson's acquittal in the Senate (after three 35-19 votes!); Johnson, now a confirmed lame-duck president, decided that he wasn't going to challenge Radical Republican policies, and Grant went back to only having one duty, General-in-Chief.
     During the Civil War in 1864 the Sand Creek Massacre occurred in Colorado.  Colonel Chivington and his small Union army soundly defeated Native warriors from the Arapahoe and Cheyenne nations.  While historians have long debated the significance of Sand Creek in the Civil War, what is certain is that Sand Creek was the touchstone for organized Native resistance on the Great Plains after the Civil War.  As early as 1865, the Cheyenne allied themselves with the Lakota nation in the Northern Plains, and U.S. forts north of Fort Laramie were attacked. By 1868, the Lakota leader Red Cloud, and his chief lieutenant, Crazy Horse, had gained total control of the Bozeman Trail, and General Grant ordered a tactical retreat, abandoning those forts on the trail.  Ironically, Red Cloud had actually won a war against the U.S. military, with Grant in overall command.  Given the impact and profusion of railroads in that part of America, Red Cloud's victory would be short-lived, but Grant, in the short-term, was forced on the defensive, and was politically criticized for his strategy.
     General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant was nominated by acclamation during the Republican National Convention in the summer of 1868.  The Democratic National Convention, on the other hand, needed over a dozen ballots before they were able to nominate Horatio Seymour as their candidate.  The presidential candidates of 1868 provided a stark choice for voters - Seymour's campaign slogan of "It is a White Man's Nation; Let White Men Rule", versus Grant's "Let Us Have Peace".  Grant, like virtually every prior presidential candidate, didn't actively campaign; he spent most of his time between the convention and the election in his hometown of Galena, Illinois. While Grant won the popular vote by a margin of 300,000, his margin of victory in the Electoral College in the Election of 1868 was much greater.  Not only was Grant's accomplishments and celebrity in play, but the Democratic Party would be associated with disunion for a few more presidential elections (it wouldn't be until 1884 that a Democratic candidate, Grover Cleveland, would win a presidential election).  
     On 4 March, 1869, Grant was inaugurated as the 18th President of the United States.  In his inaugural address, Grant stated his desire that the U.S. should return to the Gold Standard is soon as possible (the "Greenbacks" of the Civil War were not backed up by gold).  He also stated that African-Americans (men) needed and deserved the right to vote, and that a 15th Amendment to the Constitution should be proposed, and then ratified.  For many Americans in the North and South, it seemed to them that the new President was moving too fast for the times, in that there was still significant concern about the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. While most people today focus on the 14th Amendment's "Equal Protection Under the Law" clause, there is another aspect to the amendment that had millions of Americans after the Civil War concerned.  By making African-Americans citizens, the "3/5's Compromise" contained in the Constitution was essentially nullified.  The battle over how to count African-Americans for representation in Congress resumed, 92 years after the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.  Southern states wanted to count African-Americans as citizens, without granting them the right to vote, gaining power in the House, and maintaining power at home.  Northern states were deeply conflicted, in that they didn't want to establish a precedent that African-Americans were eligible to vote, but they certainly didn't want the South to dominate the House of Representatives. A compromise was reached: States could only count African-Americans as citizens if they were given the right to vote.  Republicans in Congress believed that the "enforcement clause" to the 14th Amendment (Section 5) would be a sufficient deterrent if any state refused to follow through on the agreed interpretation.
     The Republicans in the new Congress and the new President would soon find out that such language didn't provide any actual deterrence in the South.  
Grant became President during a time when the Republicans were looking deep into the future concerning African-American Civil Rights and economic expansion, while Democrats were looking to the past, trying to re-create their traditional social order that existed before the Civil War. 
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President Ulysses S. Grant (1869 - 1877)

1/24/2015

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Source:  H.W. Brands. The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant in 
                                      War and Peace (2012)
     Most presidents that were re-elected experienced second terms that didn't measure up to their first term in office.  Among them were Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Wilson, FDR, Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, and President Ulysses S. Grant.  Some historians downgrade Grant's Presidency due to his decision-making during the nation's worst economic depression at that point in history (starting in 1873), while others focus on the scandals that metastasized in his last two years in office.  While Grant does not deserve a place at the head table with our great or near-great presidents, he certainly does not deserve relegation to the "Kiddie Table" with Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, or Andrew Johnson. While it is true that Grant's second term was a disaster relative to his first, one must remember that he succeeded in securing the future of the United States as a unified, Democratic nation, which was most definitely in doubt in the years that followed the Civil War.
     While President Grant was trying to re-unify the nation, his Republican Party was dividing along two fronts. The Radical Republicans (sometimes called "Consciousness" Republicans), led by Senator Charles Sumner (MA) and Representative Thaddeus Stevens (PA), were basically idealists that wanted to advance Civil Rights for African-Americans, while punishing the former Confederate states. The opposing faction in the Republican Party was a more practical wing that wanted to focus on economic expansion and business. In a way, both factions achieved their goals, in that the Radical Republicans were able to direct Reconstruction, while the other faction was able to expand the Northern economy to almost unimaginable horizons. But President Grant was caught in the middle within his party, not being nearly idealistic enough for one faction, and in some ways, not pro-business enough for the other. This fracture within the Republican Party would not only limit Grant as president, but it would also open the door for a return to national influence and prominence for the Democratic Party.
     Almost immediately in his first term in office, Grant found that it was indeed difficult to please the leaders within his own party. While Grant nominated capable men in his Cabinet (the best member of his Cabinet was Hamilton Fish as SecState), he didn't follow the established decades-long procedure of providing the names ahead of time to the Party leaders in Congress as a courtesy. In a time when virtually no Cabinet nomination met resistance in terms of confirmation in the Senate, Grant had to withdraw at least two nominations due to the sheer lack of support in that chamber. While Grant was able to eventually form a reliable Cabinet, the struggle to do so was a portent of things to come, not only within his party, but also within the nation.
     In 1870, Grant, again not following established protocol, tried to annex the Dominican Republic; he tried to do so while Congress was not in session. Grant saw the Dominican Republic as a way to establish an American "Footprint" in the Caribbean. In his mind, by providing a stable government in the form of a U.S. Territory (very much like what Puerto Rico would become) in the Dominican Republic, the U.S. would benefit in terms of being better-able to enforce the Monroe Doctrine, while acquiring controlled access to sugar cane. Senator Charles Sumner (who as the years went by became more-and-more unhinged in terms of his views and behavior, even among his fellow idealists) repeatedly blocked all of Grant's attempts to annex the Dominican Republic, in part due to his belief that the U.S. should be focused on expanding freedom for African-Americans in the South, not in a poverty-stricken part of an island in the Caribbean. While President Grant saw the annexation of the Dominican Republic as a potential benefit, the Radical Republicans saw it as an unnecessary cost at the expense of Reconstruction
     The Ku Klux Klan, and other reactionary terrorist groups, were reeking havoc and vengeance in the South after the Civil War. In states such as Louisiana, the White League assassinated Republican politicians (e.g. the Coushatta Massacre), and in South Carolina, the Klan was doing more of the same. Grant was besieged with letters from Republicans in Southern states begging for protection under the 14th Amendment. Gaining support from the Radical Republicans (the idealists), the Ku Klux Klan Act became law in 1871; the law gave Grant the power to use the rules of engagement that existed during the Civil War. In other words, Grant was able to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in dealing with suspected Klansmen, much the same as our government can do today with suspected terrorists. Grant's enforcement of the Klan Act in South Carolina worked, driving the reactionaries underground - the threat of the same thing occurring in other states reduced the reactionary activity. While the idealists in the Republican Party applauded these actions, the practical wing bemoaned those actions, believing that the President should shift his focus to the Northern economy.
     During Grant's Presidency, Great Britain became a trusted ally instead of an ancient enemy. The basis of this transformation centered around the still-lingering dispute from the Civil War over the "Laird Rams"; ships that the British had manufactured for the Confederate Navy, the most famous being the Alabama. The U.S. demanded an apology and war reparations from the British, and the British refused to do either.  Relations between America and Great Britain remained strained, until the Franco-Prussian War. With the growing threat from Germany, the newest empire in Europe, as well as internal problems in France, Great Britain desperately needed an ally, and decided to settle the whole affair with the United States. Thus, during Grant's time in office, the longest-lasting alliance in modern world history was established, and, both wings of the Republican Party were satisfied with the result (for differing reasons, of course).
     Grant wanted to include Natives in Modern America if at all possible; to such great leaders as Red Cloud, Grant offered "survival".  In essence, Grant started a system called "Concentration", which provided a Limited Homeland for Native nations / tribes (it was the stage before the Reservation System). Grant saw his program as a "Peace Initiative"; he very much wanted to end the conflicts in the Great Plains and in the American Southwest, in part because he needed troops to enforce the 14th Amendment in the South, but also so the nation could more easily expand West. In general terms, the Radical Republicans supported the strategy (potentially more troops to be used in the South), but the practical wing of the Party loved the strategy - they believed it would be much easier to expand the system of rails to the West. That heavy expansion (with the accompanying speculation) would play a role in starting the nation's worst depression in its not-quite 100 year history.
     The Election of 1872 pitted Grant, whose popularity was even greater than in 1868, against the Democratic candidate, newspaper publisher Horace Greeley. In effect, the Democrats nominated an un-electable candidate; Grant's victory in the popular vote was the greatest vote-differential in American History to that point. Undoubtedly in the throes of victory (I'm thinking of Sally Fields' "You Really Like Me" acceptance speech after winning an Oscar in 1985) Grant declared that it was basically "Mission Accomplished" in the South, and by inference, the West. Then, with very little warning, the bubble burst on the economy with the Panic of 1873, which led to the first "real" depression. The previous economic depressions hit the agricultural sector the hardest, which was most of America. Also, farmers had a built-in safety net in that they could grow their own food during hard times. But in 1873, America was transforming to an industrial giant, and when a person lost their factory job, there was no safety net. 

     Grant was a supporter of "Hard Money" (the Gold Standard), and he held firm in terms of expanding the money supply more than what was already in the financial system. While Grant did sign a bill into law that restricted the flow of money to banks in the East, trying to help banks out West, he refused to do more, believing that a sound "Hard Money" policy would be the best cure. Idealists didn't think Grant did enough, because the depression drastically eroded Northern interest in Reconstruction, and the practical Republicans wanted Grant to do something to encourage economic expansion. About the only group of Americans that supported Grant's policies concerning the depression were bankers, who benefited from "tight money".  
     With the North losing almost total interest in Reconstruction due to the "Great Depression" of that era, it should be no surprise that while the Civil Rights Act of 1875 became law (barely voted into law before the next Congress was sworn in after the mid-term elections; the next Congress had far more Democrats, and would not have supported the bill), it was never enforced. The Civil Rights Act of 1875, signed by Grant, outlawed segregation in public areas.
But with the depression and far-fewer Radical Republicans in positions of power, and President Grant understandably tiring from being asked to come to the rescue by Southern Republicans, the Act was in the books, but never enforced. Not until the Civil Rights Era of the 1950s / 1960s would the issue of public access be addressed again.
     Although there were scandals during Grant's first term (the Gould-Fisk Scandal, and the
Credit Mobilier Scandal), when the "Tweed Ring" in New York City was exposed, the general public started to pay far more attention to political scandals. When the "Whiskey Ring" was exposed, it was then predictable that the participants were actually prosecuted.  Grant promised vigorous prosecution and enforcement for those involved, and was extremely dismayed to find out that his own private secretary was accused of being a major participant. And to make matters worse, his own brother, Orville Grant, was involved in a scandal concerning the Secretary of War's wife, and after her death, SecWar Belknap himself, for receiving "kick-backs" for favors rendered. In terms of Grant's Presidency, scandals became synonymous with his name: "Grantism".  While the scandals occurred, Grant himself was never a part, but the scandals are part of his presidency.
     By 1876, Grant's "Peace Initiative" on the Great Plains was in tatters (in part due to the discovery of gold in the Black Hills in 1874), and he had to make two key tactical decisions. Firstly, he calculated that a defeat of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse in Montana would strengthen Red Cloud in the Dakotas, with which he would then negotiate. Secondly, he wanted a military leader that would deliver that victory, and the media and general public thought that Colonel George A. Custer was the man.  Grant, however, had deep misgivings about Custer's leadership capabilities, and placed a man he knew well from the Civil War, General Alfred E. Terry, in overall command. However, in June, 1876, Custer and about 200 of his men were killed at Little Bighorn. What the defeat meant to Grant was that there was absolutely no chance of any negotiations for peace on the Great Plains (or in the Southwest); the media and the public were clamoring for an end to the conflict. The timing of the battle was at least partly to blame, since it occurred about a week before the Centennial Celebration, and as a result, there was a general desire for retribution and revenge.
     During his second term, Grant had made it official: he would not run for president in 1876.
As a result, both political parties found it very difficult to nominate their candidates, needing more ballots than what each party considered necessary to select their standard-bearers. The Republicans selected a former Civil War general, Rutherford B. Hayes, while the Democrats finally selected the NY attorney general that put "Boss Tweed" in jail, Samuel Tilden.  With Grant no longer in the picture, the Democrats nearly won the election. With election "shenanigans" in three Southern states, each candidate claimed a victory in the Electoral College. A special commission was created, mirroring the make-up of Congress, so there were 8 Republicans and 7 Democrats on the commission.  Tilden needed just one of the states to become president, and Hayes needed all three - the commission, along party lines, gave all three states, and the presidency, to Hayes. But, a crucial decision was made in what became known as the "Compromise of 1877"; the Republicans had Hayes as president, but the Democrats were able to get U.S. troops out of the South, which signaled the end of "Political Reconstruction" (but not the end of social or economic Reconstruction by any means). Another main result of the Election of 1876 was that the Democratic Party had made its return to national level politics, only a little over a decade after the Civil War.
     From 1863 - 1877, tumult constantly threatened the Union, and Grant was the only historical figure directly involved during all those years, as a general, and then as a two-term president. By 1877, secession was no longer an option, even with the most reactionary extremists in the South. And while forms of slavery still existed (e.g. Sharecropping, Literacy
Tests, and the Poll Tax), the future of Democracy in America was insured, largely due to the efforts, influence, and vision of Ulysses S. Grant, a universally acclaimed military leader and tactician, but in the views of more-and-more historians such as H.W. Brands, a tremendously under-appreciated president.
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Edward Muybridge & "The Borrowers"

1/24/2015

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Source: Edward Ball. The Inventor and the Tycoon: A Gilded Age
                                     Murder and the Birth of Motion Pictures (2013)
     They made an odd couple: Edward Muybridge was an eccentric man of art and science, while Leland Stanford was a man of power, profit, and image. Yet, from 1871 to 1881, they had a mutually-beneficial relationship of sorts.  Stanford spent a small fortune in order for Muybridge to prove that when a horse was at full-gallop, all four hooves left the ground. Stanford benefited from spending all that money in that, in essence, he gained bragging-rights among his wealthy peers in terms of solving a mystery that mattered to them. Muybridge benefited in that he became famous for something other than murdering a man in cold blood in the mid-1870s.  Yet, from 1882 - 1893, Muybridge and Stanford became completely estranged, never again speaking to each other. Muybridge would eventually wish that he had never spoke to Thomas Edison in 1888 - Edison, to a greater degree than Stanford, "borrowed" from the vision and mind of Edward Muybridge, and Muybridge was not able to truly shine, not when he was under the shadow of these two titans in American History (Personal observation: I have a hard time feeling too sorry for Muybridge since he was also a murderer). 
     The falling-out between Muybridge and Stanford began in 1882, when they were both in France, independently of each other.  Muybridge was in France to learn more in the world of photography, while Stanford was traveling in Europe to relax, and also to escape the spotlight and pressure of being the most powerful and influential Californian. When Stanford (and his family) was in Paris, Stanford became extremely jealous of the glowing reception in the newspapers that Muybridge received; he felt slighted that Muybridge never mentioned his name in conjunction with his success with moving pictures. Stanford, a man that always had things the way he wanted them, went back to San Francisco and used Muybridge's collection of photographs for his own published book. Stanford's book of Muybridge's photos (Muybridge was rarely mentioned in the book) sold well enough in America and in Europe, that when Muybridge traveled to his nation of origin, Great Britain, he was accused of plagiarism. When Muybridge came back to the United States, he sued Stanford, but lost, mostly due to the fact that Stanford had an all-star legal team in play. At this point, the only way that Muybridge could make money was to travel across America, giving presentations using his Zoopraxiscope(projector); Muybridge was the first to show motion pictures to paying audiences. By the end of 1882, Muybridge and Stanford reached the point where they detested each other.
     In 1883, Muybridge accepted a position at Penn; the university decided to sponsor him in order to have a famous Artist / Scientist in residence. Muybridge accepted the position because he needed the money and prestige, but also so he could try and upstage Stanford. For the next five years, Muybridge worked on projects that interested him, free of any meaningful supervision from the Penn administration. Most of Muybridge's projects involved photographing people in motion, even himself from time-to-time. The major problem as far as Penn was concerned was that these people photographed in motion were also nude. By 1888, Penn tired of his eccentricities, and refused to renew his contract. The good news for Muybridge by 1888: he had been cleared of all charges of plagiarism from Stanford's book, and was still famous . . . the bad news was that he was in need of a source of regular income.   
     In February, 1888, Muybridge met with a young-but-famous Thomas Edison. Muybridge, almost certainly hoped that a connection with Edison would prove to be fruitful in terms of work, money, and prestige, discussed an idea with the "Wizard of Menlo Park". Muybridge's idea: combine his pictures in motion with Edison's phonograph. Very soon after their first-and-only meeting, an article mentioning this idea appeared in "The Nation" (founded in 1865; a journal that contained opinions and analysis . . . it's still published); it is not known who provided the information for the article, but Edward Ball believed that Edison had the most to gain by "leaking" the idea.  Muybridge, back to presenting his moving pictures on his projector to paying audiences, was near West Orange, New Jersey, where Edison had recently relocated in order to have a larger base of operations. Edison had a nasty habit of "borrowing" the work and ideas of others, and passing them off as his own, and that is what he did with Muybridge's life work.  It is due to this "theft" that to this day, most Americans believe that Thomas Edison
invented motion pictures.  
     Muybridge never bothered to patent his projector, and Thomas Edison took full advantage. Edison submitted a "caveat" to the U.S. Patent Office for a projector; a caveat is the step before a patent, in which a person shows significant progress - in schoolyard terms, a caveat is "legal dibs" on an idea / item (it was abolished in 1909).  Edison even traveled to France, and talked to the same experts that Muybridge had visited earlier, and submitted more caveats to legally cover his bases so he wouldn't have to worry about someone else applying for any patents related to motion pictures. 
     Celluloid, the original plastic material, was "developed" by the late-1880s; George Eastmanwas using celluloid by 1889, calling it "film".  Celluloid changed everything for motion picture technology. Muybridge could not do what Edison could - Research & Development, market, advertise, and innovate in the fledgling world of motion picture technology - Edison even coined the term "Filmmaker".  In 1893, Muybridge reached the peak of his fame during theChicago World's Fair; he had a permanent exhibit, and for the first time, people came to him while he presented his moving pictures that featured twenty-four photographs on his Zoopraxiscope; one could argue that his exhibit was the first movie theater. Leland Stanford was attending the Chicago World's Fair, but refused to visit Muybridge; by then, Stanford was ailing, being taken around the exhibits in a wheelchair. Stanford would die that same year at the age of 69, never having reconciled with Muybridge. 
    During this period, Edison invented the Kinetograph (motion picture camera using celluloid) and the Kinetoscope (one-person motion picture viewer), and in April, 1894 in New York City, Edison created the first Kinetoscope Parlor for the paying public. Edison soon faced competition from the Lumiere Brothers in France - the Lumieres invented a celluloid projector that could display movies on a screen for an audience to watch together at the same time.  Edison, knowing that his Kinetoscope was dead-in-the-water, developed his "Vitascope" in 1895 to beat the Lumieres to the punch in the United States.  Both Edison and the Lumieres were on to the same thing that Muybridge had discovered years before: people liked to view motion pictures in an audience (a "Communal Gaze").  1895 was the year that motion pictures became a common amusement in cities; it was also the year that Muybridge closed down his exhibit in Chicago, and moved back to Great Britain. He gave his last presentation in 1896; by then, no one was willing to pay to see his dated technology at work.  
     On 8 May, 1904, Edward Muybridge died in Great Britain. An eccentric to the end, Muybridge died while continuing to dig a huge hole in his back yard that was, for some reason, in the shape of the Great Lakes. In 1905, the first true movie theater opened in Pittsburgh; before this theater, movies were shown as "teasers" before live performances (e.g. Vaudeville). By 1915, Edison was out of the movie business due to the U.S. Government's enforcement of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act against his efforts at creating a monopoly in the emerging movie industry.
     Edward Muybridge was among the first to create moving pictures. However, Muybridge WAS the first to show moving pictures to audiences, since that was the only way he could make money from his vision and expertise in the world of photography.  Due to "The Borrowers", namely Leland Stanford and especially Thomas Edison, Muybridge has largely been lost in U.S. History. At best, Muybridge is remembered in popular history as the photographer that showed that all four hooves of a horse leave the ground when it is at full-gallop. He is forgotten as one of the pioneers of motion pictures (and as a murderer), a visual medium that continues to enthrall and engage Americans, whether or not they are a fan of Marvel's Captain America: The Winter Soldier (which I saw earlier today . . . it was great . . . BTW, contrary to popular belief, Captain America was never President of the United States).


New York Times Book Review of Edward Ball's The Inventor and the Tycoon: 
                           A Gilded Age 
Murder and the Birth of Motion Pictures (2013)
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Motion Pictures & Murder: The Story of Edward Muybridge - 1866 - 1880

1/24/2015

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Source: Edward Ball. The Inventor and the Tycoon: A Gilded Age
                                    Murder and the Birth of Motion Pictures (2013)
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     Edward Muybridge was one of the pioneers of the technology that led to motion pictures.
In effect, Muybridge, by finding a way to quickly take twenty-four consecutive stop-motion photographs, "kidnapped" time.  After Muybridge, the "Media" became possible; all elements of what became the media had to rely on his template.  While Muybridge was able to "kidnap" time with a camera, he was also able to commit murder with a Smith and Wesson revolver. For a time, he was equally famous as an American icon in terms of photography, and as a cold-blooded killer whose story of why and how he committed murder made national headlines.
     Edward Muybridge was born (and grew up) in Britain, but emigrated to the U.S. in the
years before the Civil War. He went back to England as the Civil War began, and didn't come back to the U.S. until the Civil War was over. While some historians wonder about that coincidental timing, Muybridge used his time abroad, and learned quite a bit about photography during those years. In 1866, Muybridge went to San Francisco, and called himself "Helios" (Muybridge, born Muggerridge, was constantly changing his name to suit his circumstances): a professional photographer was born. Helios hated taking portraits of people; he preferred to photograph landscapes, even if there was no market for that kind of print.  In 1867, Helios (Muybridge) traveled to Yosemite, and in essence started the popularity of American Landscape Photography, while at the same time making himself known nationally. While there were photographers that preceded him in terms of landscapes, the photographs of Helios were different - his predecessors focused on space . . . he focused on time.  Helios had the gift of capturing time in a still photograph, even with the limited technology in the 1860s. 

Above, Helios photographed himself in Yosemite - he called this photograph "Charon at the Ferry" (1868).  He envisioned himself as Charon in his boat crossing the river Styx in Greek Mythology

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In 1872, back at Yosemite, Helios / Muybridge photographed himself in a very dangerous position. He admitted that it would have been very easy to lose his balance and fall to his death 2000+ feet below.  This photograph was used in his murder trial in order to try and illustrate his lack of rational decision-making

     Helios just happened to be in San Francisco in 1868 when an earthquake hit the city (while severe, it wasn't nearly as bad as the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake). Helios was actually able to photograph San Francisco before AND after the earthquake.  As a result of his Yosemite and San Francisco photographs, Helios was a national figure, and General Henry Halleck selected Helios to go to Alaska with him in 1868 in order to document what was in America's newest territory ("Seward's Folly").  By the late-1860s, the technology of photography had advanced enough where Helios started to feature speed AND time in his prints. The improved technology also allowed Helios to "doctor" photographs in the development stage (it was still the glass-plate era).
     In "Cemetery With Cloud Effect" (1875), Muybridge inserted clouds in the sky during the development phase of the photograph. The actual photograph had a clear sky, as you can see in the original photograph at the left.
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     As you can see in "Cemetery Without Cloud Effect", the photograph isn't as pleasing to the eye. Muybridge (he stopped calling himself Helios by the early-1870s) loved open sky; but in his photographs, he felt clouds enhanced the overall quality of the print . . . 
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     1871 was a big year for Edward Muybridge, in that the studio owners that showcased his photographs introduced him to two people that year: Leland Stanford, his future patron, and Flora Brown, his future wife.  That same year, he married Flora Brown, even though she was twenty years old, and he was forty-one.  Muybridge constantly left his bride for months at a time for his adventures in photography, and he was completely oblivious to the fact that she had an affair with a man named Harry Larkyn (basically a colorful grifter).  In 1873, Muybridge was told of the affair by his housekeeper, and he even warned Larkyn about "California Justice". 
     When Flora gave birth to a boy in 1874 that was obviously a result of her affair with Larkyn, Muybridge followed through on his threat.  Muybridge traveled to Napa Valley near a town called Calistoga, and in a miner's cottage, shot Larkyn in the chest in a doorway in front of several witnesses.  Muybridge was almost lynched on the spot, but avoided that fate when one of the witnesses calmed down the throng.  Charged with murder, Muybridge needed a lawyer, and Leland Stanford was more than happy to supply one.  The first extremely wealthy Californian hired Muybridge to take interior photographs of his palatial mansion in 1871 (later published as a "Picture Book" in the late-1870s), and by 1874 was in the middle of an experiment which involved Muybridge's talent and expertise. 
     Stanford sent his best lawyer to represent Muybridge, and that lawyer convinced a jury to acquit him of murder (the prosecution helped by insisting on "first degree murder or nothing"). Flora Downs divorced Muybridge as one would expect, and desperately tried to get alimony, but she died suddenly in 1875 at the age of twenty-four, most likely of influenza.  Muybridge was completely free to resume his part of the experiment with Leland Stanford, since he no longer had any fear of any financial loss with the death of his former wife (BTW, Muybridge only visited his son, "Harry Jr.", once, when he was nine years old).
     The main reason why Stanford supplied an excellent lawyer free-of-charge for Muybridge was that he and Muybridge were in the middle of trying to solve a mystery over which Stanford obsessed.  Stanford, a horse-nut, believed that at full-gallop, all four of a horse's hooves left the ground; he wanted to prove that he was right (no one knew for sure). After his acquittal, Stanford purchased a huge tract of land outside of San Francisco in 1876 in order to have a place to keep his race horses, and to also provide a location for Muybridge to continue his work. On "The Farm" were two sequoias, which inspired Stanford to name the area Palo Alto (Tall Tree) - the future home of Stanford University, but that's another story for another U.S. History Blog entry. Stanford purchased over one million dollars worth of equipment in today's dollars for Muybridge to prove his "horse theory" was right.  
     In 1878, Muybridge finally succeeded in capturing one of Stanford's horses at full gallop with twenty-four photographs. Muybridge had succeeded in stopping time; in 1879, he would "re-start" time.  Muybridge
 invented (and received a patent for) what he called a"Zoopraxiscope", which was a projector he invented to display his twenty-four images so they would appear to be in motion - in essence, he invented the first motion picture projector.  
     In 1880, Leland Stanford, former Governor of California and the Chairman of the Central Pacific Railroad, one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in America, hosted a gathering at his mansion in San Francisco on Nob Hill (Nob was from the Indian word "Nabobs", which meant extreme wealth). The occasion was for Muybridge to display his "motion pictures", including that of Stanford's horse, to California's Elite.  The phenomenon of watching objects in motion from a projector was so astounding, that Muybridge actually had three public showings with his projector in the days following his debut at the Stanford mansion. Overnight, Muybridge became a magician with a projector, instead of a murderer with an obsession. However, despite reaching this peak of innovation and fame, there were storm clouds on the horizon. While Stanford spent an exorbitant amount of money on the process, he never really paid Muybridge much at all.  By 1882, a little over ten years after they were introduced and solved a vexing mystery together, they would drift apart, and become completely estranged.
    The story of Edward Muybridge was not over in 1880 - in the years that followed, he became a celebrated artist / scientist in America and Europe, and had a historically significant conversation with Thomas Edison, but he never again connected with Leland Stanford. How Leland Stanford became incredibly wealthy and powerful, and the role that Thomas Edison played in the development of motion pictures at the expense of Muybridge are for another U.S. History Blog post(s)
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George Washington: Commander-in-Chief 1775

1/16/2015

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                   Source: Ron Chernow. Washington: A Life (2010)
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     Although George Washington experienced command in the wilderness during the French and Indian War (1754 - 1763), he was still a military neophyte. As 1775 unfolded, Washington knew he wasn't prepared to command troops in a large-scale conflict, and read volumes on military strategy. Despite this, Washington was the best-suited to lead when the time came to name a Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army.
          (Pictured: Washington's portrait of 1772)
     Washington knew he didn't have the kind of experience that he felt was necessary, but he also knew that he wanted overall command - he appeared at the 
2nd Continental Congress (he was one of Virginia's representatives) in his Fairfax County Militia uniform, looking like a general . . . to his fellow representatives, he looked like Mars (the Roman God of War) himself. The 2nd C/C lacked any consensus for independence, but they did favor a defensive military posture after Lexington and Concord. Adding to the complexity of the 2nd C/C's situation, was news that the fort at Ticonderoga had fallen, taken by Ethan Allen and his men (Benedict Arnold participated, but was denied credit by Allen). The 2nd C/C needed someone to bring order out of chaos in terms of overall military organization and strategy, and they turned to Washington; before there was a nation, a flag, or even a symbol, there was Commander-in-Chief George Washington.

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      0n 25 May, 1775, the HMS Cerebus docked in Boston, bringing the British "Triumvirate" of Generals John Burgoyne, William Howe, and Henry Clinton. Based on the previous events, their arrival in the American Colonies dashed any hope for a happy or peaceful outcome with King George III. After their arrival, the new President of the 2nd C/C, John Hancock (pictured), hoped to be named the top Colonial military figure, but most of the representatives felt that the overall commander should be from Virginia; the consensus being that a Virginian would be best-suited to unify the Colonies. 
     The only other serious contenders for the position of what was being named "Major General" were Horatio Gates and Charles Lee, both former British Regular officers. Many factors separated Washington from Hancock, Gates, and Lee, including gravitas, as well as being a politician for the last 16 years; it was thought that he would answer to civilian authority.

     On 14 June, 1775, the 2nd C/C officially took charge of the Colonial soldiers in Boston; it was the birth of the Continental Army, and a Commander-in-Chief was required. By this point, Washington's appointment was a fait accompli (so impressive was Washington to his colleagues!), but Hancock STILL believed that he was entitled to the post. Hancock expected John Adams to nominate him first, before Washington, but Adams nominated Washington first instead. Washington handled the nomination with dignity and aplomb, unlike what the egomaniacal Hancock would have done. What sealed the confirmation of the nomination was that both John and Samuel Adams, along with Hancock the pre-eminent politicians from Boston, supported Washington. On 16 June, 1775, the 2nd C/C officially named George Washington as the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army (a video segment from HBO's "John Adams" dramatizing this moment in history is below).
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     Major General George Washington responded to the appointment by showing that he could be trusted with great power. He decided to serve without pay, wanting only expenses; he also tried to lower expectations of what was expected of him and the army (which was a consistent character trait during Washington's life); Washington was a bundle of confidence and insecurity. Although Washington was in command of an unorganized and untrained army in an undeclared war, he needed subordinate generals to carry out his orders and strategies. 
     Among his major generals were Horatio Gates (pictured) and Charles Lee, which the 2nd C/C had forced upon him; they would not only turn out to be incompetent generals, but would also covet Washington's rank. Israel Putnam (Connecticut) was unfit for everything except fighting, and Philip Schuyler (New York) was more of a politician than a military man (but he would be the conduit for Alexander Hamilton joining Washington's artillery corps). Before he was able to head towards Boston, Washington opened a sealed dispatch addressed to Hancock in order to see if there was any timely information for him as Commander-in-Chief. In that communique was a summary of the Battle of Bunker Hill from 17 June, 1775; Washington saw the battle as a colossal missed opportunity for the Colonial forces - he blamed a lack of discipline as the main factor why the key high ground was abandoned to the British
                             (Below: a video segment from the Discovery Channel)

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     Washington's initial assessment of the soldiers under his command was that most of them would probably never amount to very much at all, especially those from New England. Among the few New Englanders that Washington quickly came to admire and trust was Nathanael Greene from Rhode Island; he was asthmatic, limped, and had little formal education, but he would become by far Washington's favorite general. Washington so admired Greene that he officially stated that Greene would be his successor as Commander-in-Chief.
     Another of the few New Englanders that were in Washington's "Circle of Trust" was Henry Knox (pictured), a Boston bookseller, who would not only become Washington's artillery commander, but also his Secretary of War when he was President. Washington liked Knox's imagination, candor, and enterprise, and came to implicitly trust Knox's strategies in terms of how to properly use the artillery. Knox never breathed a word of criticism towards Washington, even when Washington made huge mistakes during the Revolutionary War.
     Unlike the deceptive, disloyal, and eventually disgruntled Gates and Lee, Washington's best and most-daring generals were young, homegrown officers in which Washington saw great potential, and he groomed them for command . . . they were the officers he counted on for his great military maneuver / bluff at Dorchester Heights in March, 1776, where he convinced the British to abandon their occupation of Boston.
  (Below: a video segment from the History Channel's "Revolution" on Dorchester Heights)

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      On 4 July, 1775, the 2nd C/C formally incorporated state militias into the Continental Army. In late-July, Daniel Morgan and his men marched 600 miles to join the Continental Army in Boston (they would be Washington's sharpshooters). There were many soldiers from many different regions of the Colonies, all without any military discipline . . . so trouble among soldiers was predictable. Marblehead militiamen (Massachusetts) taunted Virginia militiamen based on what they considered to be "foppish" uniforms, and over 1000 soldiers engaged in what was in essence a huge outdoor bar room brawl. General Washington showed up on horseback, dismounted, and grabbed two of the fight's ringleaders by their necks, often lifting them up from the ground; hundreds of soldiers see Washington doing this, and they ran for the hills, and the fight was over . . . only 15 minutes passed from the start of the fight to the end . . . it was the beginning of Washington instilling discipline in his army.
  (Pictured: General Washington officially taking command of the Continental Army in 1775)
     Although Washington had started making inroads towards creating military discipline, he was badly outnumbered by the British (they had up to 10,000 more soldiers around Boston), and he had nowhere near enough food or ammunition in order to take the offensive; he had to become a "Master Bluffer"; out of necessity, secrecy and deception became part of Washington's military repertoire . . . he was able to convince General Howe that it would be folly to attack the Continental Army. 
     Adding to Washington's challenges in Boston was the real threat of a smallpox epidemic; Washington inoculated and quarantined hundreds of soldiers. The only "offensive" strategy employed by General Howe in 1775 was to dump 300 Americans with smallpox as close to Washington's lines as possible . . . even as Washington's command was in its infancy, his army was on the brink of disaster long before they were ready for any significant military engagement with the British.

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George Washington: Before the French & Indian War

1/9/2015

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            Source: Ron Chernow. Washington: A Life (2010)
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     Despite being the most famous Founding Father, George Washington was the most enigmatic of that brethren. Beneath the iconic General and President were complex layers of motivation and anxiety in the political, social, and economic spheres. As with all people, Washington was the sum of his experiences, and much of Washington's ambitions and anxiety were shaped from his childhood to his early-twenties before the beginning of the French & Indian War in 1754 in the Ohio River Valley.

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     George Washington as a young child lived with his parents at Fredericksburg in Colonial Virginia; Washington's father, Augustine, ran a profitable plantation and also made money with iron ore. Washington's half-brother, Lawrence (14 years his senior; pictured) was tasked with being the caretaker of the properties on the Potomac River. Washington wanted to spend as much time as possible on the Potomac properties, mostly because he adored Lawrence. The Potomac properties were called Little Hunting Creek, but Lawrence, in a fit of Anglophobia, renamed it Mount Vernon after a British admiral under which he served (and admired). Lawrence had actually received a Royal Commission, which meant he served in the REAL British military; that was something Washington would pursue with every fiber in his being during the French and Indian War (1754 - 1763), but would never attain.

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     Washington's father, Augustine (pictured below with a young GW), died in 1743; ironically, he died in a very similar manner as Washington would in 1799. The reality of the men in the Washington family was that none of them lived very long, and the young George Washington was very cognizant of that fact (he would be the outlier, living to the age of 67). Due to his father's death, Washington was unable to receive a classical education (which was considered a must when considering social status), or even have a true childhood, since it was "all hands on deck" to keep the plantations profitable. As a result, Washington lacked the classical education that was attained by Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton, and Madison; he would always seem more provincial than the other Founding Fathers. 
     Nonetheless, Washington was exceedingly smart, and quick to grasp ideas, whether they were his or from someone else. Even as an older child, he knew good advice when he heard it, and more-often-than-not acted upon it. Washington learned the 110 Social Maxims, which was the universal etiquette for Gentlemen in Colonial Virginia. Washington followed the maxims almost to the letter; to others, Washington was cool, pragmatic, and controlled . . . but those genteel manners were a social facade that concealed his stormy emotions. It would be a very rare event indeed for anyone to witness Washington's virulent temper at Mount Vernon, during the Revolutionary War, or as President.

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     Lawrence was a perfect model for Washington's development in terms of polishing his manners and investing in his human capital; Washington made sure that he was near Lawrence as often as possible. Lawrence married Anne Fairfax (pictured) in July, 1743; the Fairfax family was the most powerful and influential family in that region of Virginia (they were the only family to own land in all of the 3 main regions of Colonial Virginia: Tidewater, Piedmont, and the Shenandoah). As a result of the marriage, Lawrence became a Virginia Grandee (Gentleman) and a member of the House of Burgesses. 
     Anne's father, William Fairfax, owned five million acres, from the Potomac to the Shenandoah Valley; by marrying into the Fairfax family, Lawrence crossed the chasm from being merely comfortable to being fabulously rich and influential. Almost immediately, Colonel William Fairfax saw the young George Washington as a protege, grooming him for bigger and better things as a member and representative of the Fairfax clan . . . Washington would have never had his future opportunities without that marriage. Washington now had his social, economic, and political platform for advancement in Colonial Virginia, all at the age of 11.
     At age 15, due mostly to derive an income on his own, Washington learned how to be a good surveyor. Also, while acting as an agent for others in terms of land speculation (especially for the Fairfax family), he could scout potential choice areas for himself. Surveying was a perfect fit, in that Washington loved the outdoors, was very good with math, and was an excellent problem-solver. His years as a surveyor meant a lot of time in the saddle, and as a result, Washington would become one of the great horsemen of his time.

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      At the age of 16, Washington had become hardened by the outdoors, and nothing really rattled him from that point on; that may explain why he would be able to make a smooth transition between the genteel and the wild (it also boded well for his future in the military). Lawrence and the Fairfaxes created the Ohio Company, which was designed to snatch up as much desirable land as possible in the vast Ohio River Basin; the formation of this company would set George Washington on his path to being directly involved in events that started the French and Indian War.
     At age 17, Washington was named the surveyor for William & Mary College; he became the youngest official surveyor in the history of Colonial Virginia, and as a result he was able to skip many social steps in terms of status. When he turned 18, Washington already had a plantation, where he focused on growing corn, wheat, and tobacco (By 1756, at the age of 23, Washington owned 2315 acres in the Shenandoah Valley, which today is NW Virginia). 
     In 1751 (Washington was 18), Lawrence contracted tuberculosis, and he and George went to Barbados, in an effort to help Lawrence recover his health. In Barbados, George contracted smallpox, and was nursed back to health inside of a month. By 12 December, 1751, Washington was completely recovered, but bore a pock-marked nose for the rest of his life; Washington now had immunity to the most virulent scourge for 18th Century armies.

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     Not long after his return from Barbados, Lawrence died at Mount Vernon on 26 July, 1752; he was only in his mid-thirties. Mount Vernon was willed to George if he was alive after Anne and her daughter died; it wouldn't be too far in the future when both had died, leaving Washington the sole owner of Mount Vernon (it was a continuing Greek Tragedy in Washington's life that he greatly benefitted from the death of someone close to him). More immediately, Washington was willed thousands of acres near where he spent his young childhood at Fredericksburg. 
     It was at this point in his life that Washington decided to trade his life as a surveyor to become a soldier, like his beloved half-brother Lawrence. Due to his connection with the Fairfax family, Washington became a Major in the region's militia, with the additional title of Adjutant for the Northern District; it was the most prominent and prestigious military position in all of Colonial Virginia. In short order, Washington became a Freemason, mostly to gain more meaningful social contacts. By the age of 21, George Washington possessed large tracts of land, African slaves, and military and social status, but it came in part at tremendous cost, in that much of it would not have been possible without the deaths of his father and half-brother. 
     At age 21, Major George Washington, Adjutant for the Northern District of the Commonwealth of Virginia, was at the forefront of the events that unfolded in the Ohio River Valley that led to the start of the French and Indian War . . . his experiences to that point prepared him well for the challenges that awaited him in the Ohio River Valley.
                           (Pictured: a portrait of Washington shortly after being 
                                      promoted to Colonel in the Virginia Militia)

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FDR's 2nd Term: Nearly a TERMinal Disaster . . .

10/19/2014

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                 Source: Jean Edward Smith. FDR (2008)
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     In order to to provide context why the first two-plus years of FDR's second term as President was disastrous, so much so that by the Spring of 1939 he had no chance of being re-nominated for President by his own party, a quick run-down of his first term & the Election of 1936 is helpful. During his first term, FDR could seemingly do no political wrong in the eyes of most of Congress and the American people. 15 major pieces of New Deal legislation were introduced, and 15 New Deal bills became law in the first three months. By the Election of 1936, the major economic indicators were heading to normal levels, and the Republican Party, as with the Democrats in 1928, had no chance at winning the Presidency.
     FDR knew he would win re-election, expecting an Electoral College tally of 360 - 71 over the Republican nominee Alfred Landon. FDR was stunned at the results on Election Day, 
3 November, 1936: Popular vote, FDR 60.79%, with FDR winning 46 of 48 states - Electoral Vote: FDR 523, Landon 8; overall, it was a margin of victory not seen since James Monroe in 1820. The Democrats gained 11 seats in the House for a majority of 331 - 89, and the Senate stood at 76 - 16 for the Democrats, with 4 Independents (including Nebraska's George Norris) in FDR's corner. It wasn't long after Inauguration Day (on 20 January, for the first time), that FDR made three mistakes that nearly led to political and historical disaster for the 32nd President.

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     MISTAKE #1 - "Court-Packing" Scheme: Flush from the largest margin of victory since 1820, FDR focused on the Supreme Court. In short, the Supreme Court was the "Skunk in FDR's Garden Party" during his first term. The Supreme Court ruled that the Agricultural Adjustment Act and the National Industrial Recovery Act were unconstitutional (executive branch over-reach), and FDR wanted to settle political accounts in his second term. FDR should have known better as a lawyer, politician, and President . . . hubris (excessive pride) dominated FDR's thinking and behavior. 
     The Supreme Court was not reactionary, but FDR was not used to resistance; FDR should have focused on the interpretation of the decisions, not the justices themselves. Another problem: FDR plotted his strategy against the Supreme Court in secret, which was a tactical error. FDR had consulted many politicians / advisors on most every matter so far, but not with this strategy . . . that meant that he would not have any political support once resistance crystallized. FDR's biggest mistake in his "Court-Packing" strategy (for every justice over the age of 70, an additional Supreme Court judge position would be created, for a total of 3 new justices) was that he didn't run his idea past Felix Frankfurter, his best legal advisor. Had he done so, Frankfurter (a future Supreme Court justice) would have advised FDR that his plan was unconstitutional and indefensible.  The few that FDR directed to research the validity of his strategy were not stellar constitutional researchers by any stretch of the imagination.

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     FDR timed his announcement of his "Court-Packing" strategy for maximum impact and media coverage in the late-morning on 5 February, 1937. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes 
(Republican candidate for President in 1916) took an active role in the public controversy; not since John Marshall in 1819 (in McCulloch v. Maryland) had a Chief Justice done so. Hughes absolutely demolished FDR's claims and views concerning the Supreme Court in the public arena (e.g. showing that the Supreme Court wasn't "overwhelmed" with cases). Hughes proved to be the savior of checks and balances of the three branches and Constitutional law. Soon, though, the Supreme Court started to rule favorably on New Deal legislation, and an associate justice even retired, which meant that FDR could nominate a "New Deal" justice. 
     It was at this point that FDR was advised to claim victory, and call off the fight, but FDR refused to do so; he continued the Special Session of Congress, and even demanded a discharge petition to get his Court-Packing bill out of committee. Senate Majority Leader Joe Robinson (Arkansas) actually died under the stress placed on him by FDR. FDR refused to go to his funeral, believing that Robinson had let him down; that was a final and tragic error that capped off the whole affair. Robinson was popular in the Senate, and few senators forgave FDR, and his popularity in Congress plummeted. 
     FDR paid dearly for his Court-Packing scheme, losing much public support, but the fracas ruptured the Democratic Party. From that point in early-1937, the New Deal was just a movement in the Democratic Party, no longer synonymous with economic recovery. In just one year after the Election of 1936, FDR had lost control of his party as President; FDR's legislative agenda was either ignored or blocked despite huge Democratic majorities in Congress.

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     MISTAKE #2 - Balancing the Budget: The "Roosevelt Recession" that started in 1937 was mostly due to FDR's decision to balance the federal budget (in addition to nasty labor strife); in other words, FDR decided to reduce federal spending at the worst possible time. With such economic indicators as unemployment down to 12% (from 25%), FDR assumed that the Great Depression was over, and he dramatically slashed federal spending. FDR's "Inner Thrifty Dutchman" wanted to balance the budget as soon as possible, and he believed that mid-1937 was the perfect time.
    To make up for the shortfall, Congress borrowed from Social Security, and The Federal Reserve Board of Governors reduced the money supply. On 19 October, 1937, the Stock Market crash was the worst since October, 1929, and the Dow Jones Average was down 40%. By the end of 1937, steel production was at only 19% of total capacity. Two-thirds of all that was gained in economic terms since 1933 was lost by early-1938. Ironically, FDR was acting much like President Herbert Hoover did in 1930, repeating the mantra in public "Everything will be okay . . ." Then, in the Summer of 1938, the Agricultural sector started to decline, making the "Roosevelt Recession" even more severe. It was at this point that FDR's most trusted advisor, Harry Hopkins, came to the rescue; he was able to convince FDR to start massive federal spending again. The "Roosevelt Recession" was due to FDR's decision to not only balance the federal budget, but also by his delayed decision to resume federal spending per Hopkins advice. 
When FDR tried to "pack" the Supreme Court, he shot himself in the foot . . . but when he tried to balance the federal budget, he shot the entire nation in the foot.


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     MISTAKE #3: "The Purge" - FDR tried to purge (remove) "traitorous" anti-New Deal Conservative Democrats in state primaries before the Congressional Elections of 1938. FDR personally organized the opposition in terms of candidates and funding; not since Andrew Johnson in 1868 had a President involved himself in opposition to specific members of Congress (at least Johnson, a Southern Democrat, had targeted Northern Radical Republicans). 
     While FDR was successful in a district in Florida (his candidate, Claude Pepper, won the primary and general election; Pepper served the longest in the history of the House); but the four Conservative Democrats that FDR wanted most to purge from the party won their primaries and re-election. FDR's standing in Congress fell even further, and divisions in the Democratic Party worsened. FDR put his political capital and prestige on the line in the Off-Year Elections of 1938, and he failed miserably; as a result, "New Deal" candidates didn't fare as well as they would have under normal political circumstances.
     Republicans picked up 81 seats in the House, and 9 in the Senate; FDR was stunned. There were still Democratic majorities in both houses, but they were not working majorities in any form or fashion for FDR. By early-1939, FDR was a Lame-Duck President, and liberals in the Democratic Party were looking elsewhere for their nominee at the Democratic National Convention; it was clear for all to see that FDR wouldn't win re-nomination in his own party in Chicago in 1940.

     "PERSON TO THE RESCUE FOR FDR" - What, or more accurately, WHO saved FDR from political ruin was Adolph Hitler. In 1938, Hitler annexed Austria, and then The Sudetenland (part of Czechoslovakia), leading to the Appeasement at Munich by Great Britain, in particular. In 1939, Hitler signed a Non-Aggression Pact with Joseph Stalin, and then just days later, invaded the western part of Poland on 1 September, 1939. By early-1940, FDR's political return was complete: in 1933, he was seen as an "Economic Savior", but by early-1940, FDR was seen as the indispensable Commander-in-Chief as the US drifted towards greater involvement in the War in Europe. In the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, 1940, FDR was nominated for a third term basically by acclamation (that didn't mean that the convention wasn't tense and fractious); the Democratic Party had no one else that could win the Presidential Election of 1940.
              USA Today Book Review of Jean Edward Smith's FDR
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Clarence Birdseye: The Path to the Frozen Food Industry, Part 2

9/13/2014

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      Source: Mark Kurlansky. Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man (2012)
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     Clarence Birdseye lived during an era of innovation in America that focused on practical ideas that would create or reinvigorate an entire industry (as opposed to Europe, which mostly focused on theoretical applications). By the mid-1920s, Birdseye started selling frozen fish, but had his (Birds)eye on starting the first frozen food industry in America. Many obstacles stood in his way, including a lack of start-up capital, as well as unfavorable consumer preferences towards frozen food. Always the innovator, Birdseye, after crossing the summit in terms of frozen food manufacturing and sales, was instrumental in other industries as well, including his innovation with the light bulb. By the 1950s, when Clarence Birdseye had an idea, America paid attention.

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     Clarence Birdseye moved his family to Gloucester, Massachusetts in 1925, where he tried to establish frozen fish in a city where fresh fish was always available . . . yet his real goal was to develop and patent ideas to create a frozen food industry. Birdseye was able to find investors who put up $375,000 ($4.6m today), and he called his company General Seafoods Corporation, wanting it to have similar name-impact as General Electric and General Motors; he planned on eventually calling his company General Foods.
     While experimenting with freezing food, he was more focused developing the machinery for every phase of the process (e.g. scaling fish, filleting fish). The machine that truly started the frozen fish industry was patented on 18 June, 1927 (#1,773,079), that used "quick-freezing" technology on blocks, which drastically reduced the likelihood of bacteria. His patent described every step of the process for freezing food, including consumer-friendly packaging; he called this process "Multi-Plate Freezing", and it started (and dominated) the fledgling industry.
     Despite his tremendous breakthrough, he 
still had the problem of how to distribute his frozen food nationwide. In a way, he had the same problem that Thomas Edison experienced after perfecting the light bulb; without a power grid, the light bulb was useless. Even more perplexing was how to convince consumers that his frozen food was the equal, or even superior, to fresh food - butchers, fishmongers, and poultry producers all publicly came out against frozen food, since it was a threat to their markets. Adding to his almost insurmountable challenges was that the transportation industry (e.g. trucking & railroads) refused to ship his product, fearing liability. Birdseye even had to spend a fair amount of money at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to prove that frozen food was SAFE to eat.

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     Adding to Birdseye's travails was that it was a decade before the commercial use of plastic, so packaging was a constant challenge; Birdseye worked with a European company to develop cellophane for product packaging - something for which popular history does not give Birdseye credit. Birdseye even needed to improve his multi-plate technology, so he started using stainless steel plates and featured belts in his machinery. By 1928, Birdseye was freezing meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, but no market yet existed for those frozen foods. 
     Birdseye needed someone that had millions to invest and also knew how to create a market for a product . . . enter Marjorie Post. The Post family was already an American brand name due to the success of the coffee substitute Postum and the cereal Grape Nuts (the product's name came from the fact that the sugar that was extracted from the wheat was the same sugar that was found in grapes). In 1929, Marjorie Post purchased General Seafoods for $23.5m ($315m today), in which she then owned Birdseye's patents, as well as his giant brain. Post knew she could focus on her specialty of capital and marketing since Birdseye had the technology framework established - each had what the other lacked, and it was a perfect business match. 
     The Postum Company reorganized after the purchase, and on 25 July, 1929, renamed the company General Foods. Birdseye was the Director of Research for General Foods, and he remained in Gloucester to perfect his process for frozen food. Birdseye was very lucky indeed that the sale occurred when it did, just three months before the Stock Market Crash in October, 1929.

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     So far, all Birdseye had accomplished was getting the right people and a lot of money to support his effort at creating the frozen food industry, but the systems network and consumer preferences for frozen food were not yet in existence. Birdseye was soon able to start selling his frozen food near Gloucester, but General Foods divided his name to two words - Birds Eye: proper names were not supposed to be used as trademarks in the 1920s, plus it seemed to Marjorie Post to have more commercial appeal.
     In Springfield, Massachusetts on 6 March, 1930, General Foods introduced twenty-seven frozen food items, including steak, lamb, ham sausage, peas, spinach, cherries, raspberries, fish, and oysters under the name "Birds Eye Frosted Foods: A Little Short of Magic." Post's sales pitch was this: Imagine having whatever food you want, out-of-season, and fresh! But even Marjorie Post experienced an obstacle to her marketing vision, in that the percentage of people that had freezers at home in 1930 was still very low.
     By 1932, the typical American consumer still didn't believe that frozen food was safe as fresh food, or of the same quality. General Foods supplied stores with freezers, and the frozen food was on consignment for vendors; it was the only way to get frozen food "out there" to the still-skeptical consumer. Frozen food was slow to catch on, in part, due to the fact that fresh food was readily available and inexpensive. Another reason why frozen food was slow to catch on was that in the 1930s, the poor preferred inexpensive canned food, middle class citizens preferred fresh food, and frozen food was viewed by both classes as a high-quality luxury for the rich.  In was only in the 1940s when there were multiple companies selling frozen food (Entries to the Market) as well as freezers in enough homes that the frozen food industry truly exploded on the American landscape.

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     In 1930, Birdseye invented a portable multi-plate freezer, which allowed him to freeze food on site, instead of having to take time transporting it to the factory; the machine worked great, but it was a machine whose future had not yet arrived. General Foods was losing money in their new Frozen Foods Division, which led to the obvious question of how to turn a profit?
One way to turn a profit is to minimize costs, and the $1500 freezers in stores had to go; they were replaced with cheaper and more reliable units made by American Radiator (Amrad) which developed the slanted-window freezer for $300. Those freezers were cheaper to run, and were far more consumer-friendly in the store, which soon led to the national distribution of Birds Eye Frozen Foods.
    Birdseye traveled the nation during the Great Depression, bragging-up frozen food; he was viewed as an inspirational figure in a society hungry for success stories. Even though frozen food wasn't making a huge splash in the marketplace, the media loved the product, and they especially loved Birdseye. During the Great Depression, Clarence (he preferred to be called Bob) Birdseye was a favorite-son of Gloucester for providing opportunities for employment.
    Birdseye remained curious; he wanted to know how long frozen food would last. He found out that meat became more tender a week after being quick-frozen than it was fresh. Birdseye also figured out that freezing peas one-at-a-time (as opposed to a block of peas) was by far the best method, while plunging vegetables in boiling water before freezing also enhanced freshness. As the market for frozen food grew, a new complaint arose: not enough variety. Birdseye worked on providing more variety of vegetables, but lettuce and tomatoes never cooperated w/ his efforts.

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     Birdseye kept tinkering, curious about everything (e.g.the "Better Potato Chip"), but his curiosity which led to an innovation with the light bulb was a game-changer. He envisioned a light bulb that contained its own reflector (e.g. for store-fronts), and formed the Birdseye Electric Company in 1935 (more jobs in Gloucester!). Birdseye's patent #2,219,510 for a reflecting electric lamp revolutionized commercial lighting, featuring more efficient (and brighter) filaments. He was eventually bought out by Sylvania, who continued to make Birds Eye Bulbs.
    In 1939, Birdseye invented the "Gravity Froster", which would be his last important invention for freezing individual pieces of food. This industrial freezer was so small it was even portable, and would freeze food without drying it out. One worker could operate four machines at once; a worker could monitor the machines freezing 7200 pounds of peas per hour.
     Even before that breakthrough, General Foods & Birdseye lobbied Congress to pass an improved Food and Drug Act in 1938. General Foods needed / wanted to convince people that frozen food was safe, since it would have the FDA's seal-of-approval. Another reason was that competition in the frozen food industry existed, and Birdseye in particular wanted the other producers to adhere to proper industry standards. In other words, Birdseye wanted regulation which led to product safety for frozen food, meaning that the quality remained high even when the price decreased.

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     World War II ended the consumer resistance to frozen food. A shortage of tin and aluminum meant there was less canned food available during the war, and many Americans tried frozen food for the first time. In 1951, Science Digest found that 41% of the housewives surveyed preferred frozen food, due to its quality and convenience. Also, the growth of supermarkets after WW II led to more-and-more stores selling frozen food; by 1950, 64% of supermarkets sold frozen food. In that same year, frozen food sales topped $1 billion ($9.5B today), and was projected to reach $50 billion ($408B today). Birds Eye now had stiff competition, with over 500 brands of frozen food on the market. General Foods responded with better marketing, featuring color print ads, as well as advertising on the relatively new medium of television: General Foods was the sole sponsor of "Our Miss Brooks" in 1952, one of television's first successful situation comedies. The last major developments in the frozen food industry of which Birdseye was part was the new market for frozen meals (a.k.a. "TV Dinners"), and the new demand in America for seafood from Asia.

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     Even though Birdseye was told to take it easier in terms of physical exertion (heart trouble), he stayed far more active than his doctors would have preferred (good thing, since it kept his blood oxygenated). Birdseye visited a lard rendering plant after World War II, and something about seeing that process starting him thinking that there must be a better way of converting wooden chips to paper . . . what a brain!  Due to severe paper shortages in Developing Nations, Birdseye perfected the process of processing sugar cane bagasse (dry, pulpy residue from harvesting sugar cane) into paper. What had taken others up to nine hours to accomplish, Birdseye succeeded in doing so in only twelve minutes with his process.
     Clarence Birdseye died on 7 October, 1956, at the age of 69 of heart failure in New York City. Even in that year, many Americans had started to take the miracle of frozen food for granted; for millions, frozen food was a normal feature on their landscape. With all the choices available today in frozen food and frozen dinners, it's easy to forget that none of the high-quality and relatively inexpensive choices would be possible for consumers without Birdseye's perpetual curiosity (and his giant brain) . . . and just to be clear, the company that Birdseye and Post named General Foods is now General Mills . . . which has a few food items to purchase . . . 

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Clarence Birdseye: The Path to the Frozen Food Industry, Part I

8/24/2014

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     Source: Mark Kurlansky. Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man (2012)
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     Clarence Birdseye was a man who observed how things worked, and figured out how to make them work better. Birdseye was also an adventurer, even though he looked like someone that would be more at home in a library. While his innovations / inventions were all mechanical (never electronic), he made a huge impact in US History, most famously developing the frozen food industry. Birdseye risked his life to help people in Montana, and then on the Labrador Coast in Canada, all the while trying all sorts of different, and many times exotic, food. It was during those years as an adventurer in Canada that he figured out the best method to freeze food.

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     Clarence Frank Birdseye II was born in Brooklyn, NY on 9 December, 1886. At the turn of the century, Brooklyn was the third-largest city in America, and its dense urban population was possible due to the technology of refrigeration. Hundreds of thousands of people produced no food, but bought and stored food in ice-boxes; there was no other place in the world that used as much ice as the citizens of New York City and it surrounding boroughs . . . it was so common that they took the technology for granted.
    Birdseye grew up in an inventor's culture in America that valued practical and commercial applications; in Europe, the approach of inventors was far more theoretical. In the US, a successful inventor was one that founded an industry, such as Edison and electricity, or Eastman and film photography. Birdseye also grew up during the "Age of Extermination"; he couldn't remember a time when he didn't love to hunt. He romanticized the West, and his first hero was Buffalo Bill Cody.

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     Birdseye was a born Naturalist as well; he was happiest as a kid when wandering around Wyndiecote (an isolated wooded area) in Long Island. He bought a single-gauge shotgun at the age of ten by trapping twelve muskrat, and sending them to a buyer in Great Britain, earning the equivalent of $250 in today's money. He used the shotgun and learned how to preserve and stuff the animals he shot by reading and asking questions; even at that age, Birdseye was someone that everyone liked, and they wanted to answer his questions. 
     By the time he became a teenager, Birdseye was fascinated with science. During college, he was so curious about insects that he was called "Bugs" by his peers (He was also called "Spots", which he didn't mind as much). Birdseye didn't like the nickname "Bugs", and he was in a tough situation, in that he was an extrovert, but he kept to himself to avoid ridicule. In 1908, family financial troubles forced Birdseye to drop out of Amherst College in Massachusetts; he would never again pursue formal education. Very soon thereafter, he went West, looking for adventure while he was still young.

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     Birdseye went to Arizona and New Mexico in 1908, eventually working for the U.S. Biological Survey, which was then part of the Agriculture Dept. His job was to exterminate "nuisance" animals for the area ranchers/farmers. Birdseye used steel traps to kill wolves and coyotes; once trapped, the animals starved to death - it was even then a controversial method.
Those in the Survey knew that these animals didn't really present a threat to livestock, but they continued anyway, since that was what the Agriculture Dept. wanted. 
    Birdseye figured out how to make money with coyote furs by paying Natives fifty cents, which was twice their asking price. Once he had those furs, he sent them to NYC, and they were sold for $1.25 each. When he found something exotic, he always wondered what it would taste like, and which was the best method to cook the animal or plant. Birdseye was astounded to discover the reliance (addiction?) of Westerners to canned food from the East, but as it turned out, he loved the canned food as well. In 1910, Birdseye linked up part-time with the National Geographic Society (formed in 1888), and he explored, investigated new ideas, took photos, and didn't have to worry about politics . . . it was everything Birdseye loved.

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     During the Spring/Summer of 1910, Birdseye was in Montana, collecting ticks as part of a
medical project trying to figure out the cause of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. He was allowed unrestricted hunting of wildlife; in other words, there wasn't any limit for Birdseye in terms of shooting animals. It turned out that this job was VERY dangerous - it was the first formal scientific study of the disease, which killed 20% of those infected. The disease appeared and spread in the 1870s when the lumber industry exploded in the region. In 1889, a tick was discovered on a patient, and years later it was determined that Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever was caused by being bitten by a tick.
     Among the many new fields of study that burst upon the scene at the turn of the century was Entomology; in 1909, "Medical Entomology" took root in the Bitterroot Region of Montana, providing the first comprehensive study of ticks. The medical profession at large, as well as the locals, scoffed at these "Bug People", believing that there was no way ticks were the cause of a disease that was so deadly. A twenty-three year old Birdseye was among those that the Biological Survey sent to Montana in 1910. Few were willing to go since it was so dangerous in the field, especially in the Bitterroot Mountains. Birdseye killed about every type of mammal in the region, getting samples of ticks afterwards. As a result of Birdseye's work with two other men, it was proven that ticks caused the disease. Ticks fed on small animals, and worked their way up to larger ones, meaning it was a two-year cycle. It was determined that if a tick fed on a person for a few hours, it was very likely that a person would contract the disease.
    Ranchers refused to recognize the findings, due to the cost of using the recommended repellent. But in the end, there was no real solution other than to follow the Biological Survey's recommendations, since the source was identified, and a repellent developed; the disease vanished in the area as a result. But the dangerous work had to continue in 1911, and Birdseye returned to Montana; he eventually recommended that small animals, especially gophers, should be exterminated, leaving the large animals alone. What makes his recommendation somewhat ironic is that the Biological Survey eventually became the Fish & Wildlife Service, whose mission is to regulate protected environments.

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     The key moment in Birdseye's life occurred when he decided to go to the Labrador Coast in Canada. In 1912, Labrador was a wild and uncharted wilderness with ports that froze in the winter. People in Labrador could hunt and fish (except in the winter), but they had to import their fruits and vegetables. Birdseye joined the legendary Dr. Wilfred Grenfell's medical missions to assist fishermen in Labrador; by then, Grenfell was staying in Labrador during the long, brutal winters. In Grenfell, Birdseye found a fellow adventurer (twice his age) that also wanted to help people. Birdseye decided that while he was helping people in Labrador, he would also focus his attention to try and apply scientific knowledge in order to pursue an economic opportunity. So, Birdseye decided to trap silver foxes, and send them to the U.S. as breeding stock for starting a fur company. 
     Harris Hammond of Gloucester, Massachusetts, backed Birdseye with $750 ($18k today); it was the beginning of the Harris & Birdseye Fur Company. Birdseye procured foxes by traveling by dogsled weeks at a time; he learned about foxes and survival in the winter by asking questions of anyone he encountered. He specialized in sucking volumes of information from those that were even reluctant to provide answers. It was at about this time that Birdseye changed his first name to Bob - probably because Bob is more approachable than Clarence.
         (Below: A brief biography of Dr. Wilfred Grenfell)

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     Birdseye was an expert hunter, and he became an expert fisherman, as well as a de facto Corpsman acting on behalf of Dr. Grenfell. He learned as much as he could about wildlife in Labrador, whether an animal was alive or dead. He was also obsessed with food in Labrador; he had an endlessly curious palette, and the more exotic the food, the better (he especially loved seal meat). 
    In 1914, the fur industry collapsed in Europe and NYC, but Birdseye saw opportunity in America-at-large. He killed his current number of silver foxes, and purchased as many other furs as possible at the deflated prices due to the collapse of the industry after being staked $8000 ($185k today). He froze the small animals in snow for shipment, and in essence, he cornered the fur market in Labrador. In 1915, Birdseye went back home to marry Eleanor (they had been putting off marriage for awhile); he was twenty-nine years old. As it turned out, Birdseye would get his best ideas after marrying Eleanor, since he was thinking beyond himself and his needs.
     Birdseye (with Eleanor) went back to Labrador, and built a solid, three-room house, which would protect them in the long winters. He wanted his family (now with son Kellogg) to eat well, and he also needed to learn how to preserve food to feed his new silver foxes. His food concerns were of an immediate nature; he wasn't thinking (yet) of launching a new food industry.

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     In the Winter of 1916-1917, Birdseye had a full larder, filled with fruits and vegetables; but he needed a way to keep them fresh and edible. It was at this point in his life he became serious about the science of freezing food. Freezing food was nothing new in the mid-1910s, but very few people knew about the "Laws of Crystallization". As a result, when frozen food was thawed, it was pretty mushy, icky, and awful, and no one liked eating it at all. But, most frozen food in Labrador, when thawed, was not just adequate, it was close to fresh. 
     Birdseye spent months trying to figure out the mystery of the "Live Frozen Fish" of the area Natives; the fish that these Natives had frozen actually swam around normally when thawed. One of the things Birdseye noticed was that food wasn't as good if it was frozen early or late in the winter . . . finally he made the connection. When food was frozen instantly (e.g. when winter was at its coldest), it stayed fresh when it was thawed. He knew that it had something to do with the size of the crystals; salting food (the opposite of freezing) required large crystals, while freezing needed very small crystals . . . when food "Quick-Freezes", crystallization is at its smallest.
     In 1917, Birdseye went back to the U.S.; freezing food was on the "back-burner" in his mind. He started work for the U.S. Fisheries, trying to solve the problem of how to get fresh fish to far-away markets in good condition. If he could figure that out, people would eat more fish, and the industry would expand, as would his reputation as a problem-solver. After numerous failures, he remembered "Quick-Freezing" in Labrador.

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     In 1922, Birdseye left his job, and convinced an ice cream company to let him experiment in one of their freezer areas. Little did he know that America would be the birthplace of frozen food, while Europe would focus on smoking, salting, and canning food. What eventually aided Birdseye as well was that his efforts coincided with the development of electric refrigerators and freezers. But the bulk of refrigeration/freezing in 1922 still meant ice, and like electricity, America had "Democratized" ice . . . it was for everyone (in Europe, ice was still for the rich). Interestingly, Americans had to get "used" to artificial (man-made) ice, which occurred in 1890, due to an extraordinarily moderate winter . . . artificial ice had become the norm by the early-1920s.
     Frozen food already existed in the U.S., but most Americans gave it "Two Thumbs Down" for quality. Various methods of freezing food fast had been in tried for years in the fledgling frozen food industry. One method was to fast-freeze fish in salt and ice, which was sold in 1915, when Birdseye was in Labrador. The main reason why Birdseye didn't pursue frozen food earlier than he did was due to its horrible reputation with the American consumer.

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     In 1923, Birdseye created a company called Birdseye Seafoods in NYC; he tried chilling fish in fiberboard boxes, and . . . ICK! . . . At this point, he specifically started to apply his knowledge from Labrador. Fast-freezing had been around awhile, but no one had tried freezing food on a large scale. Birdseye estimated that meat/fish wasn't truly frozen unless it reached minus ninety-six degrees Fahrenheit, yet existing commercial freezers only went to twenty-five
degrees Fahrenheit. 
     Birdseye found that if he quickly reached twenty-two degrees Fahrenheit as fast as possible, small crystals formed around the food very quickly. He also found that smaller amounts of food froze (crystallized) faster and better than larger amounts (he would eventually freeze peas one at a time). In 1924, Birdseye took out a patent on his process, and by freezing one fish at a time, he had frozen fish on the market that same year. Despite all his advances and successes in the science of frozen food, Birdseye Seafoods went broke within a year; he just couldn't overcome the negative consumer opinions towards frozen food.

    Bob Birdseye had no way to realize that he was very close to a scientific and financial breakthrough in the world of frozen food. Before the end of the 1920s, he would create a company that would go on to make a bit of a mark in American history . . . General Foods.
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Alexander Hamilton: 1796 - 1804

8/9/2014

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            Source: Richard Brookhiser. Alexander Hamilton, American (1999)
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     If Alexander Hamilton was a Jedi Knight, he almost certainly would have opposed those that used the "Dark Side of the Force", which in his opinion included Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr, and to top it off, mankind in general. Hamilton was spared the passions of greed and rage, but he thought he saw it in others. Almost all of the Founding Fathers "poo-pooed" ambition (well, not Aaron Burr), believing that if they showed the ambition that they felt in every fiber of their being, it would be construed as a threat to the nation. Therefore, all of them felt it was their duty to "check" ambition in others. Hamilton, as well as the other Founding Fathers, feared "Caesarism", which was defined as unchecked ambition; in other words, ambition was equated with danger. Hamilton saw one person that not only seemed to be the most ambitious, but in addition had all of the worst combination of passions possible: Aaron Burr, of whom Hamilton labeled an "Embryo-Caesar." Complicating the landscape for Hamilton, et. al., was their passion of protecting their honor at virtually any cost; it was the era of the "Honor Culture."

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     Hamilton's last major service for President Washington was drafting/proofing his Farewell Address (pictured: The Farewell Address Wordle). Hamilton expanded on Madison's 1792 draft for Washington, and it was printed in newspapers on 19 September, 1796; in a way, the Farewell Address was the last collaboration between Hamilton and Madison (Washington made dozens of changes in Hamilton's draft, making the Address sound even more like him). Ironically, Hamilton, the Founding Father that wrote and spoke more than any other (with the possible exception of Franklin), did not write or talk about his service to Washington . . . it was one of the few things that Hamilton didn't talk about when there was at least one other person in his presence.
     Once it was confirmed that there would be a new President, passionate behind-the-scenes politicking occurred at the state level, which as a result of the Election of 1796, meant that the Federalist John Adams was President, and the Republican Thomas Jefferson was Vice-President. In so many ways, President John Adams was limited in what he could accomplish; among the reasons was his Cabinet. For obvious political reasons, Adams retained all of Washington's Cabinet, but that group was mediocre at best, and they were far more loyal to Hamilton than to the President. In Hamilton's mind, this was more-than-fine, in that he was able to "check" a fellow Federalist that had stated, years earlier, that certain aspects of monarchy may be desirable in America (Hamilton had campaigned hard in the Election of 1796 for Thomas Pinckney over John Adams, and it nearly cost Adams the Presidency).

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     During the Summer of 1797, newspaper publisher James Callendar (loyal to Jefferson), brought the "Reynolds Affair" back to public attention and scrutiny. Hamilton now had to publicly defend himself in order to remain politically relevant (he had privately done so with members of Congress a few years earlier), and stated that while he did indeed cheat on his wife, he didn't use any money from the Treasury to pay off his blackmailers. Hamilton believed that corruption was far more heinous than adultery, and that was the card he played. One of the ironic results of the resurrection of the "Reynolds Affair" was that James Monroe (one of the people to which Hamilton privately confessed) was so bent-out-of-shape by Hamilton's defense that he wanted to challenge Hamilton to a duel . . . but Aaron Burr calmed Monroe down, and the duel never occurred.
     In 1798, President John Adams signed into law the Alien and Sedition Acts; the Federalists felt more-than-justified in passing these restrictions due to the Whiskey Rebellion and the Genet Affair (basically, this was a brazen attempt by the Federalist Party to destroy Jefferson's and Madison's Republican Party). Due to recent tensions with France ("XYZ Affair") and the perceived internal threats, Washington was called to command an expanded U.S. Army (his commission took effect on 4 July, 1798). General Washington refused to leave Mount Vernon unless the U.S. was attacked, so the Second-in-Command would be the actual commanding officer, and there was quite the "Depth Chart" for that rank. Vying for that title/rank, among others, were Henry Knox, Charles Pinckney, and Alexander Hamilton. President Adams wanted to remove Hamilton from any consideration for that rank (revenge for 1796?), but for political reasons, had to keep him in play. Hamilton held some kind of rank in the Army for almost two years, and since there was no fighting, he became obsessed with the "little stuff" (e.g. marching formations, buttons on uniforms, etc.). After Washington's death in 1799, and the de-escalation of tensions with France, Congress downsized the Army in June, 1800; Hamilton was the officer that took care of the necessary details to carry out that Act of Congress.
(Below: A segment from the "John Adams" miniseries - President Adams and "2nd-in-Command" Hamilton")

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     In the months leading up to the Election of 1800, the Federalists were divided over President Adams' second peace mission to France. Hamilton wrote and circulated a pamphlet to SELECT Federalists, which called on them to unite in order to keep Thomas Jefferson from being elected President. Aaron Burr, a Republican, got a copy of the pamphlet, and circulated it EVERYWHERE. Burr also outmaneuvered Hamilton in the New York state legislature when it came to the state's Electoral Vote in 1800. The twelve Electoral Votes that went to Adams in 1796 now were in Thomas Jefferson's pocket (and Burr's as well, since he was TJ's VP candidate). 
     After all the Electoral Votes were counted, Jefferson and Burr were deadlocked at 73 votes each (the voter that had the honor of sending his Vice-Presidential Electoral Vote to someone other than Burr apparently forgot to do so). For the first time, the House of Representatives had to elect the President (each state's delegation votes, and each state counts as one total vote), and after the first ballot, Jefferson and Burr each had eight states.
    Aaron Burr's main problem was that he was a Narcissist (exceptional interest in or admiration of oneself); he was able to talk a good game, but following through was problematic . . . he was all interaction, with nothing at his core, and it would cost him dearly, starting at this point. General Washington was among the first to figure out that Burr was a Narcissist (Burr only lasted ten days as an aide to Washington), and Hamilton viewed Burr in much the same way. Hamilton took it further than Washington, however, in that he didn't want Burr to hold any major elected office at all. Hamilton not only viewed Burr as a Narcissist, but also as someone that could be a serious threat to the future of the U.S., and he wrote numerous letters to Delaware's only Representative, James Bayard, imploring him to change his vote from Burr to Jefferson. On the 36th ballot, James Bayard abstained, and Thomas Jefferson became the 3rd President (8 states to 7 for Burr); little did Burr realize that he had already reached the pinnacle of his political career.

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     To Hamilton, his arguments were the essence of his being; this was so much a part of him that he believed that failure to persuade threatened his existence. Among the topics in which he endeavored to persuade others was bullying, especially mobs (and those that organized and instigated mobs). He also equated other behavior with bullying, including intriguing, lying, and even silence; this behavior was among the reasons why there was a huge rift between Hamilton and Jefferson, and Hamilton and Burr. 
    According to Brookhiser (pictured), there are three modes of leadership: The highest is "Inspiration", which is also the most rare. Next is "Demonstration", which is sharing your reasons with everyone, and model appropriately. Last is "Flattery", which is all talk with little-or-no action; this type can lead to situations where the leader fools the followers, or worse yet, the leader and the followers are both fooled. "Flattery" usually occurs when the leader(s) and followers can't think of anything else to do (e.g. lack of vision). Hamilton rarely reached "Inspiration", and he refused to resort to "Flattery" - Hamilton was a "Demonstrator." Jefferson inhabited all three, but mostly he exhibited "Inspiration" (Declaration of Independence) and "Flattery", which further fueled the rift between Hamilton and Jefferson. Aaron Burr spent virtually his entire political life in "Flattery", which also explains much as to why Hamilton viewed Burr as a "dangerous man." 

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     America in the late-1700s / early-1800s was a rights-based society (much like the U.S. from 1946 - 1965), but Hamilton did not share his fellow citizens' confidence with the Bill of Rights. Hamilton placed far more value and reliance on British Common Law and Natural Law; in other words, Precedent and Theory meant more to Hamilton (remember, he was a very successful lawyer in New York City) than the specific liberties listed in the Bill of Rights.
     Specific applications for Hamilton's beliefs concentrated on contracts. Contracts were related to debt, which helped explain his plan as SecTreas to repay the massive Revolutionary War debts incurred by the government. According to Hamilton, special privileges were the hallmark of despots and slave-owners, while contracts were the handiwork of free men. In yet another reason for the chasm between Hamilton and others was that in a way, Jefferson, Madison, and Burr were "Born on 3rd Base", with a very short trip to "Home Plate". Hamilton, on the other hand, had to work his way around all the bases, and the key to his success was the contract. 
     Hamilton did not have a violent temper; his pride and stubbornness far exceeded any rage in his machine. What Hamilton had plenty of was ARDOR (enthusiasm, passion); he loved his ideas, his work, and family and friends. Like most of the other Founders, Hamilton also had the passion of lust, but he was the only Founding Father to freely admit his lust (to this day, Hamilton's admission of adultery remains the most frank among politicians). It must have galled Hamilton to no end that Jefferson denied any involvement with Sally Hemings, or Burr's continuous attendance at whorehouses, yet the media focused on Hamilton and Maria Reynolds, due to his candor.

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     In November, 1801, nineteen year-old Philip Hamilton died in a duel after being given advice by his father. Hamilton's advice: let your opponent fire first, then fire in the air, and by doing so, the affair of honor is over (it was actually a violation of the Irish Code Duello). Hamilton was consumed with depression and guilt; Hamilton's father was a deadbeat who abandoned his family, but he never gave lethal advice to his son.  
    Aaron Burr was struggling as well in late-1801; his (calculated?) indecision in the House phase of the Election of 1800 had cost him his political future; President Jefferson made sure that in the Republican Party, Vice-President Burr was persona non grata. Yet Burr was still seething with ambition, and he started to focus his political energies in New York state-level politics in an effort to re-start his career. 
     Hamilton's ambition had been ebbing away since he lost his high rank with the dissolution of most of the U.S. Army in the Summer of 1800, and the death of his son Philip in 1801, but he still distrusted Burr, and he basically made it his business to block Burr's efforts in their home state of New York. In 1804, Burr was a FEDERALIST candidate in the New York gubernatorial election; he used his many connections among prominent Federalist families to gain his spot on the ballot. However, Burr was soundly defeated, in part due to being associated with New England Federalists that wanted to secede from the Union, but also due to the tireless efforts of Hamilton's anti-Burr letter-writing campaign. Burr (remember, he was a Narcissist) in no way saw his situation as his fault, and President Jefferson was untouchable, so Burr started to focus on Hamilton as the reason for his political failure. The only one that was open about opposing Burr in the election was Hamilton, and dueling was considered an acceptable political weapon by many to restore one's reputation. Actually, in the "Honor Culture", it was very common for a losing candidate to challenge the winner to a duel; it was the only way to publicly save face and be "electable" in the future. However, almost all of those challenges were resolved long before they reached the stage of firing pistols on the "Field of Honor"; such was not the case with Burr and Hamilton . . .

     The question has been debated by historians for over two centuries: why did Hamilton go through with the duel when he hated the practice? Did Hamilton have a desire to be politically useful and relevant again; Brookhiser argued no, that his life had become somber - he was like a sinking fox pressed by a desperate old hound. It was more likely that Hamilton, due to extreme guilt and depression, had decided to pursue the same advice that he gave his son Philip, for better or for worse. And, if he could derail Burr's attempt at political resurrection, that would have certainly been an added bonus in his point of view.
    On 11 July, 1804, at Weehawken, New Jersey (the same site where Philip was killed), Vice-President Aaron Burr faced former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in the most famous duel in American History. We'll never know the true circumstances and sequence of the duel, but it's almost certain that both men fired at the same time. Hamilton's shot went high, clipping a cedar branch, while Burr's shot was mortal, hitting Hamilton in his abdomen. 
     Assuming that this duel was with light sabres instead of pistols, it could have been possible that Hamilton saw Philip off to the side, and decided to let Burr shoot him; maybe by his death he could thwart Vader's, I mean Burr's, efforts at political ascendancy. In the "Reynolds Affair", Hamilton chose to save his public life at the expense of his personal life, not once, but twice. In his duel with Burr, it's possible that Hamilton chose to risk his life in order to protect the nation from Burr. I would argue that if he had not been so depressed and consumed with guilt over the advice that he gave Philip almost three years before, he almost certainly would have figured out that one of his enemies, President Jefferson, had his Arch-Enemy, the Narcissist Burr, well-contained, and he was no real threat to anyone at all but himself. 
  (Below: A segment from "The Duel", from the flagship PBS documentary series "The American Experience";
                  it's one of the best documentaries I've ever seen about the Burr-Hamilton Duel)

The Duel from Mitch Wilson on Vimeo.

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Alexander Hamilton: The Man That Made Modern America

8/3/2014

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          Source: Richard Brookhiser. Alexander Hamilton, American (1999)
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     Among the Founding Fathers, Alexander Hamilton would probably be the only one that would recognize (and appreciate) modern America. His vision of a financially sound nation that produced and traded manufactured goods was in conflict with the vision of Thomas Jefferson, who envisioned a far more self-sufficient, pastoral nation. When Hamilton proposed a National Bank in late-1790, the creation of the first political parties became inevitable. Viewed not only as a threat to the nation, but to their way of life, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison spearheaded ferocious opposition to Hamilton's vision of what America should become. By 1795, the vast majority of Hamilton's Economic Plan had been enacted by Congress, and his Federalist Party dominated all three branches of the new federal government. Hamilton resigned as the first Secretary of the Treasury early that same year; always achievement-oriented, he felt that he had succeeded in establishing a sound foundation for America to flourish in the future.

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     Although Alexander Hamilton sometimes stated that he was a "Bastard Child From a Caribbean Whore", in actual fact, his mother was a good businesswoman on the island of St. Croix (southeast of what is now Puerto Rico). While her business affairs were in good order, she did face difficulty in her personal life. She remarried before her divorce was finalized, which created a social scandal on the small island. Ironically, Hamilton's father was a bum, walking out on his family, but only moving a few islands away, and never provided any assistance. 
     It was in this situation that Hamilton started working full-time as a nine year-old boy, in what would eventually be called a General Store. Hamilton so impressed his adult mentors that arrangements were made to send the teenage Hamilton to Princeton to study. Even at that age, Hamilton wrote responses (editorials) in newspapers that were well-received. When the Revolutionary War started, Hamilton volunteered, serving in Henry Knox's artillery regiment at Trenton and Princeton.

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     Two months after the victory at Princeton, Hamilton was promoted to Lt. Colonel, and joined General George Washington's official family. Being Washington's aide was demanding and exhausting - the General wanted people that were excellent administrators, but also the ability to solve problems on their own. To illustrate Hamilton's capabilities, he served as an aide to Washington for four years; Aaron Burr lasted ten days. In Washington, Hamilton, for the first time (and probably the only time) met a man greater than himself. Hamilton was quicker in terms of analysis and drawing proper conclusions, but in everything else, Washington was equal or better.
     Both Washington and Hamilton wanted order; the General wanted things done right, and Hamilton knew he was the man that could do everything the way Washington wanted. Before the Battle at Monmouth (1778), Hamilton's duties were administrative and in the battlefield, but after the battle, his duties became entirely administrative. In short, Hamilton was Washington's main conduit to all the groups outside the army, including the national legislature under the Articles of Confederation. By the end of the Revolutionary War, Hamilton saw pressing problems in the nation, the army, and Congress, and he started to think about how those problems could be solved.

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      In trying to find answers to those problems, Hamilton educated himself, especially with economic data and theory (unlike his future opposition, Jefferson & Madison). Ironically, both Hamilton and Madison wanted to expand the power of the national government, especially with a new Executive. But Hamilton was the one that studied markets and industry, and worked hard to try and figure out what worked in Europe. Among Hamilton's many conclusions was that Great Britain became a superpower due to the Bank of England; they were able to expand their economy at a tremendous rate due to financial organization and being able to issue loans.
     When Hamilton married Betsey Schuyler, he entered Upstate New York high society; people who viewed themselves as equal, or even superior, to any Planter in the South. In was often said in New York that the Clintons had the power, the Livingstons had the numbers, but the Schuylers had Hamilton. While Hamilton married into New York society, he was never really truly embraced, since he was an achiever, while the "Gentlemen" were simply "possessors". 

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     Hamilton was sent to the Congress of the Articles of Confederation as a representative from his district in New York; soon after arriving, he met a Virginia representative by the name of James Madison. Almost immediately they started to collaborate, and did so for the rest of the 1780s. There main difference during that decade was that Hamilton was driven by finding solutions to problems, while Madison was driven by theories.
     Hamilton developed a reputation in Congress as that of an impatient, impolitic reformer; his desire to achieve solutions to problems ran into a brick wall called "The Status Quo", and after eight months, he returned to New York to continue his law practice (while he was always in demand as a lawyer, he never got rich). Hamilton's desire for law and order was seen as he represented many former Loyalists in court, trying to reclaim their property under the Trespass Act.
     Before long, Hamilton was sent back to Congress, and he and Madison organized a convention to be held in Annapolis in 1786; problems over commerce was the stated reason for the convention. When only five of the twelve states convened in Annapolis (no enough for a quorum), Hamilton and Madison issued a statement that there would be another convention the following year in Philadelphia; Madison convinced Hamilton to reword part of that statement to read ". . . and adjust to the federal system."

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      Hamilton was one of three New York delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, 1787. However, the other two were loyal to George Clinton, and Hamilton was constantly out-voted 2-1 in the New York Delegation. He felt that he had no impact on the agenda for the convention: he disliked both the Virginia and New Jersey Plans, but was powerless to say or do anything of consequence. Also, his idea of an "Elected Monarch" as the new Executive went nowhere; in short, he left the convention because was didn't feel that he was allowed to be a full participant.
     While Hamilton was in Philadelphia, Madison agreed with him that state debts from the Revolutionary War should be "assumed" by the new government - for political reasons a few years later, Madison will completely change his stand on the issue of "Assumption". Both also agreed that the idea of "Assumption" should stay in the background, and not even be debated on the floor of the convention. Hamilton was the only New Yorker to sign the Constitution on 17 September, 1787; Clinton had basically recalled his two men after getting reports that the national government would likely change. 

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     While Hamilton was at best a minor supporting character at the Constitutional Convention, he would run point during Ratification; his main problem was to get the state of New York to ratify the document in the face of stout opposition from George Clinton. Hamilton turned to the press, writing over twenty Federalist Essays, and then enlisting the help of James Madison to join the battle. In reading the Federalist Essays from Hamilton and Madison, it seemed that future disagreement would have been impossible. But they had their own points-of-view on certain topics: Madison wanted to block tyranny, while Hamilton focused on the potential greatness of the nation under the Constitution. 
     During the Ratifying Convention in New York, Hamilton employed a Madisonian strategy of analyzing each clause of the Constitution, while arguing it merits. Hamilton's arguments did indeed change some votes; the New York convention voted 30-27 to ratify the Constitution.

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     To President George Washington, the only choice for the first Secretary of the Treasury was his former trusted military aide, Alexander Hamilton. Washington also named Henry Knox (his artillery officer) as SecWar, and fellow Virginian Edmund Randolph as Attorney General. The only member of Washington's Cabinet that Hamilton did not know was SecState Thomas Jefferson, fourteen years his senior. Jefferson's "pedigree" of a Virginia Squire ruffled Hamilton's feathers; merit and achievement were the true mark of a man according to Hamlton, not his origin. 
     SecTreas Hamilton determined that the key to Great Britain's greatness was the Bank of England, which in issuing loans was able to influence the "Velocity of Money", and expand the economy, and their empire. Hamilton also concluded that a nation can thrive if it is in debt, but only if the debt is manageable, and the nation has great standing in terms of credit. As Hamilton would discover, opposition to forming a national bank was based mostly on economic ignorance, and fear of losing state-level control (and a certain standard-of-living).
     The Treasury department was by far the largest, and most difficult to run, segment of the Executive Branch in the early years of the Constitution. Hamilton worked FAR harder than Jefferson at his Cabinet post; State was a far more leisurely endeavor. Hamilton needed to establish procedures & precedents for the Treasury; the other three Cabinet level departments had no such dilemma. 

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     On 14 January, 1790, Hamilton issued his "Report on Credit"; he wanted to re-establish America's foreign and domestic credit. The U.S. was in debt to Revolutionary War veterans, speculators, states, foreign nations, and European banks (especially Dutch banks). Hamilton wanted to issue securities, which he believed would provide immediate revenue to repay debts, and increase the level of trust among citizens for the new government. Hamilton wanted to lift the U.S. economy by creating capital (the word was not yet used that way), and the best way to create that capital was to issue securities (citizens loaning money to the government). 
     In order to repay the domestic debt to veterans, Hamilton proposed to pay fifty cents on the dollar: if a person presented $10 in Continental Dollars, he would receive $5 in new currency. It was impossible to keep word of that plan secret, and hordes of speculators roamed the countryside, offering to buy Continental currency for ten cents on the dollar. At about the same time, Hamilton released his plan of "Assumption", in which the federal government would take over state debts (the vast majority of the states were in deep debt due to the war).
     Madison opposed Hamilton on both issues, further stating that only the original holder of the Continental Dollars should be paid, not the unscrupulous speculators (even though in the 1780s he had the opposite position on both issues . . . Virginia politics of the early-1790s was the reason for his reversal). Madison wanted to cripple "Assumption" in the House by including all state debts, those that had been paid, and those that had not (Virginia would be "in the black" as a result), gambling that the amount would be too much for his colleagues to support.
     Faced with organized opposition for the first time in his life, Hamilton responded with his best political move of his career. At a very small dinner party, hosted by Jefferson, Hamilton agreed to support a future capital city on the Potomac River. In response, Madison would vote against "Assumption" to save political face, but he and Jefferson would work behind-the-scenes to secure its passage. In effect, Hamilton sacrificed his state of New York (NYC was the current capital) in order to advance his vision of a financially-secure United States.

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     Alexander Hamilton officially called for the formation of a National Bank in December, 1790, citing numerous advantages in his statement. He proposed raising $10m in initial capital (the total of all U.S. banks was $2m), $8m from investors, and the remaining $2m from various revenues (e.g. tariffs). The Bank Bill easily passed the Senate, but ran into stout opposition with James Madison in the House; he raised the question of whether-or-not the Bank was Constitutional. Madison reversed himself once again from his views during the 1780s; one of his fears was that Philadelphia would become the permanent national capital, despite the Potomac agreement. Hamilton argued that the National Bank was not only Constitutional, but it would also be able to provide money quickly in an emergency, or for the national military. Hamilton's arguments overwhelmed the Madison faction, the House passed the Bank Bill, and Washington signed it into law (it was informally-yet-universally understood that the capital would be on the Potomac). 
     Hamilton released his "Report on Manufactures" in December, 1791, which provided another opportunity to communicate his idealized industrial vision for America. Hamilton relied heavily on Tench Coxe, the new Deputy SecTreas (the first, William Duer, had fallen from Hamilton' graces); to Hamilton and Coxe, industry represented national salvation. Hamilton argued that industry would enhance and support agriculture (a win-win), and would also increase individual enterprise and initiative. Money for all this manufacturing would come from domestic banks (especially the National Bank) and foreign investors. Paterson, New Jersey became the test-center for this industrial vision - it was none other than Hamilton's Showcase (a water-powered plant near Monmouth)

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     The second-half of 1791 was not all wine-and-roses for Hamilton. Hamilton was tremendously gullible when dealing with attractive young women, as the "Reynold's Affair" showed. Maria Reynolds claimed to be a New Yorker from a prominent family who: a) Needed money, and; b) Was afraid of her husband. The gullible SecTreas not only loaned her money (personal, not from the Treasury), but also "visited" Mrs. Reynolds over the next several weeks. Hamilton was being blackmailed: Maria was a whore, her husband was a pimp, and they were conspirators in extorting money and patronage from the Secretary of the Treasury . . . the nation would learn of this affair soon enough.
     On other matters, the SecTreas knew what he was doing. In settling debts by issuing securities, he solidified the nation's credit, which allowed industry to develop. The economy would generate revenue that would fund the pay-back of those securities, with interest. This cycle would be repeated again-and-again, expanding America's economy, and increasing the overall standard of living. While there was significant opposition to Hamilton's "Scheme", the votes were simply not in existence in either house to block his financial/industrial program.
     The National Bank was an entirely different matter, in part due to the reality that the Bank could change the national landscape almost immediately to the benefit of some, and to the detriment of others. The debate over the National Bank was the crisis that led to the creation of political parties (Federalists & Republicans). As stated earlier, Hamilton had never experienced this level of organized opposition, as orchestrated by Jefferson and Madison. Hamilton's Economic Plan was to the detriment of the Planters, who were accustomed to living in luxury by running up huge debts that they never really had to pay-off. In short, Southern Planters were afraid that they would lose their power and wealth in their state / region. Some Northerners opposed Hamilton as well, since there was a huge level of inherent distrust with banks in America.

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     The "Rupture" occurred in April, 1791 during a Cabinet meeting that took place without President Washington. In attendance were SecTreas Hamilton, SecState Jefferson, SecWar Knox, and V.P. John Adams. After listening to Hamilton's arguments in defense of the National Bank, Jefferson concluded that the Banks would be a clone of Great Britain's, and therefore a threat to the nation. It was at this point that Jefferson, by his own admission, started the "Newspaper War" in 1792 that further polarized the fledgling political parties. 
     Hamilton's foreign birth also complicated things at this point; Jefferson's minions in the press concluded that only a "Low-Born" (Hamilton) would stoop to corruption in service of the public. As a result, there was no way Hamilton and Jefferson could work together in any meaningful or productive manner, due to their competing ambitions, vision, origin, and base characteristics (e.g. Hamilton was achievement-driven, Jefferson less so). 
     The year 1792 featured more problems for SecTreas Hamilton. His former Deputy SecTreas, William Duer (corrupt to his core; Hamilton refused to enable him) was sentenced to debtor's prison. Jefferson and Madison pounced on that event, claiming that if Duer was corrupt, then Hamilton must be as well. Jefferson's main newspaper publisher / pitbull, William Freneau, featured constant attacks on Hamilton, to which Hamilton obviously felt the need to respond.
A quote from a personal letter that Jefferson sent to Washington, complaining about Hamilton, was telling: "A man whose history, from the moment history stooped to notice him, is a tissue of machinations against the liberty of the country." This quote is telling, not only showing that Jefferson was a "Virginia Squire Snob", but also that he didn't consider Hamilton a fellow Founding Father, due in part to his Caribbean origin. 

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     In December, 1792, three members of Congress visited Hamilton about his involvement with Maria Reynolds (remember her?), including Senator James Monroe (by now a protege of both Jefferson and Madison). When confronted with the evidence (both anecdotal and written), Hamilton freely admitted the affair. In essence, Hamilton chose to protect his public life at the expense of his private life (namely, his wife, Betsey). The good news for Hamilton was that the three members of Congress believed Hamilton, and strongly advised Jefferson to let the matter rest, at least for the present . . . the affair would become public knowledge, but not due (directly) to Jefferson.
     In January, 1793, a Congressional investigation commenced, trying to prove that Hamilton had defrauded the Treasury (Jefferson & Madison figured they might as well attack his public life). Congress demanded a full accounting of the Treasury during its first three-and-a-half years of existence. In only four weeks, Hamilton responded in great detail, and exposed the opposition's ignorance of finance, as well as their political bias. Congress kept investigating Hamilton nonetheless; the investigations didn't stop until he resigned as SecTreas in 1795.
     The entire political tone in America changed for the worse in 1793, featuring actual conflict on many fronts. The French Revolution divided Americans - there were riots and privateers galore, much of which was caused by the actions of the French Ambassador Edmund Charles Genet. The Federalists supported Britain, while the Republicans supported France; it seemed that any opposition to one's views was tantamount to treason.

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      The largest armed uprising before the Civil War occurred in Western Pennsylvania in 1794: The Whiskey Rebellion. Among the causes of the revolt was Hamilton's excise tax on whiskey, from which he anticipated quite a bit of revenue for the federal government. Among the "political" rebels (there were nasty "radical" rebels as well) was Congressman Albert Gallatin, who ironically would become SecTreas in the early-1800s, and would distinguish himself in that capacity. Fortunately for Gallatin and the other "political" rebels, Hamilton had concluded that they did not commit any crimes against the federal government . . . but that wasn't the case with the "radical" rebels, who physically took up arms and marched on Pittsburgh. 
     President Washington ended the revolt with an offer of amnesty, after leading a few thousand militiamen far enough west to intimidate the rebel leadership; he turned over command to Hamilton, and returned East. Shortly after the Whiskey Rebellion, Hamilton notified Washington that he would resign as SecTreas early in 1795. He felt he had accomplished as much as he possibly could, especially after the Whisky Rebellion established the precedent that the federal government could and would enforce their own laws. Also, his family finances dictated that he return to his profitable law practice in New York City.

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     In 1795, Great Britain issued the "Orders of Council" which in essence turned back the clock to the days of Mercantilism: the British started to confiscate U.S. ships that were suspected of heading towards France. British captains that did so were de facto privateers, since they were able to keep a large quantity of what they confiscated. Adding humiliation to injury, the British also still held ten forts in the Northwest (e.g. Fort Detroit), and were able to monopolize the lucrative fur trade. Washington needed to send a diplomat of stature to try and negotiate improved relations with Britain, and although many thought Hamilton would be the special envoy, Washington instead sent John Jay (he thought Jay was a better choice, and would be far-more diplomatic than Hamilton). Interestingly, Hamilton was tasked with drawing up Jay's instructions as the special envoy, which Jay made sure his counterpart was aware (Hamilton was very much admired in most of the circles of British government). 

     The Jay Treaty came back to the U.S. in March, 1795 (negotiations had actually started before the Whiskey Rebellion); even the Federalists didn't like most of the treaty . . . at best, Britain "promised" to do certain things; at least war with Britain was avoided. Washington turned to his former SecTreas for advice and assistance in trying to get the Senate to ratify the Jay Treaty. Once again, Hamilton's essays supporting and analyzing the Jay Treaty dampened enough of the opposition where it was ratified without a vote to spare (20-10) in the Senate, and signed by President Washington.
     Hamilton was assailed (verbally and even physically) at mob protests in New York City against the Jay Treaty; Hamilton never quite figured out that it was impossible to talk some sense into a mob. Hyper-Passion was in fashion, and angry mobs became the norm. In terms of politics, it seemed that everyone had lowered himself after 1793; among the few that hadn't resorted to that "lowering" was Hamilton. 
     That was the Hamilton as of 1795; a very different Alexander Hamilton would surface in the following years, he was influential in determining the the outcomes of two Presidential elections, and he would be a participant in America's most famous duel . . . 
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James Madison: President & Beyond (1809 - 1836)

7/21/2014

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                 Source: Richard Brookhiser. James Madison (2011)
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     Thomas Jefferson and James Madison each served two terms as President. Jefferson's popularity plummeted by a large margin not long after he easily won re-election in 1804. By the time Jefferson left office, his popularity as a politician was at its lowest. In contrast, Madison barely won re-election in 1812, and his popularity nosedived even more halfway through his second term in office due to the War of 1812. However, in rallying his nation to what was seen as an American victory over the British, James Madison left office almost as popular as George Washington was during his first term, and far more popular than John Adams and his mentor, Thomas Jefferson. Usually, when a President's popularity falls off a precipice, there is very little chance to climb back into favor (e.g. Nixon, President George H.W. Bush in 1992). President James Madison found a way to do so as the first President to be in power during a major war.

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     President Madison decided that it was time that the U.S. should at long last possess West Florida and New Orleans. In what would today undoubtedly be called a "Black Op", Madison authorized a clandestine operation against Spain that was headquartered in Baton Rouge and Mobile. Faced with such a popular uprising, Spain ceded the territory to the U.S. Government in 1810; the full potential of the Louisiana Territory could be realized, with the added bonus that Spanish influence was minimized in the Gulf Region.
     In June, 1809, Congress passed the Non-Intercourse Act, which lifted the embargo for U.S. ships heading to ports in Great Britain and France; Brookhiser referred to the act as "profitable dishonesty." As a result, the Atlantic was flooded with American merchant vessels heading to Great Britain. Great Britain, however, did not honor the act, and used the "Rule of 1756" to strangle American trade heading to Europe, and relations between the two nations chilled.
     In the Spring of 1810, Macon's Bill #2 became law; the U.S. would trade with the nation that lifted their trade barriers first. The Republican doctrine of projecting American strength through trade never worked, and Madison was stunned to see that impact to U.S. trade was even worse than the Embargo of 1807. Napoleon offered to resume trade, but Madison chose to ignore the offer since there were too many obvious loopholes that would be to the disadvantage of the U.S. The British were beyond-incensed that the U.S. seemed to be negotiating with its European nemesis - slowly but surely, Madison was leading America to a war with Great Britain in a roundabout, sideways fashion.

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      President Madison, unhappy with SecState Robert Smith's disunity and indiscretion, asked for his resignation, and replaced him with James Monroe - it was the creation of the "Virginia Dynasty." This was also the moment that Madison realized that he was the Chief Executive, no longer a legislator or a Cabinet member . . . but Madison was still too passive to be an effective President, and he still focused too much attention on intra-party matters.
     In February, 1811, Congress voted to enforce the Non-Intercourse Act against Great Britain, which was a significant step towards war. Congress also wanted the National Bank to expire, contrary to SecTreas Albert Gallatin's advice and wishes. Ironically, it was also against Madison's wishes as well; he had come to see the Bank as Alexander Hamilton argued years before, an institution that was "Necessary and Proper." Madison was unwilling to lead the fight to renew the Bank's charter, however, and Gallatin (whose statue is in front of the Treasury Building) was left to fight the battle himself. The House voted to postpone their vote (which was decidedly anti-Bank) until the Senate conducted their vote. The Senate was deadlocked 17 - 17, but Vice-President George Clinton (NY; still sore that he didn't become President) broke the tie, and voted against the Bank. Madison would realize too late that if he had exercised any executive influence at all, the bank would have been saved, and would have been a very useful tool during the War of 1812 (imagine, the U.S. fought the War of 1812 without a National Bank!).

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     The 12th Congress convened in 1811, and Henry Clay (KY) was voted Speaker of the House in his first term. For the first time in U.S. History, Clay used his position as Speaker to advance his personal and party's politics, and one of the things he most wanted to see was war with Great Britain (he believed it would benefit western states). There was "New Blood" in the 12th Congress, with John C. Calhoun (SC) on the Foreign Relations Committee, also pushing for war. These young "War Hawks" (Calhoun was only 29) consistently pressured Madison for war.
     This Republican Congress was "stripping for a fight" with Britain, but the "War Hawks" were basically clueless that they were in no position to hold their own against a superpower. The revenue stream for the government trickled to virtually nothing, since there was no longer a National Bank which meant no regulation of the economy, no trade of note, and taxes were low. Their desire for war was high, but they were beyond-naive in grasping the true reality of what it would take to even have a chance at success in clashing with Great Britain. 
     By the Summer of 1812, Great Britain had not rescinded their trade barriers against the U.S., impressment of American sailors continued, as was British support for Native tribes on the frontier (e.g. the Tecumseh). On 1 June, Madison sent a war message to Congress, listing many grievances against the British; couched behind those grievances was a strong desire for national self-respect. After two-and-a-half weeks of debate, Congress voted 74-49 to declare war, while the Senate voted 19-13 (both houses largely along partisan lines). On 16 June, the British repealed their "Orders in Council", which eliminated most of the American grievances, but due to slow communication, there was no way either government could know of the actions of the other (and given the political climate in the U.S., one wonders if it would have made any difference). 
     In the Election of 1812, President Madison won re-election, defeating the Federalist candidate DeWitt Clinton (who also received the support of anti-war Republicans), but only because he carried Pennsylvania. The Electoral tally was Madison, 128, and Clinton, 89, but if Clinton would have won Pennsylvania, the result would have been Clinton 114, and Madison, 103. It was the strongest showing of a Federalist candidate since President John Adams narrowly lost to Vice-President Thomas Jefferson in 1800. 

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     The early results were in: so far, James Madison had failed as a war-time President, due mostly to the reality that he had the wrong people in charge of the wrong things at the wrong time. Madison had a chance to change all of that, but in 1814, Madison was unwilling to unleash his star, James Monroe, by naming him as acting SecWar while he was also SecState. So, Madison named John Armstrong as SecWar, whose qualifications for the position were lacking to most . . . the Republican party's disdain for all-things-military came back to haunt Madison early in the war (only Monroe and Gallatin were worthwhile Cabinet members). 
    As the British landed in force in Maryland, SecWar Armstrong believed that the British would leave Washington, D.C. alone, and instead attack Baltimore. Madison, after consulting Armstrong, allowed the decision to remain, and after the "Bladensburg Races", the British entered D.C. without any opposition. After this debacle, Madison named Monroe as acting SecWar in addition to his duties as SecState - that move provided real leadership when it was needed most. However, Madison had appointed Armstrong (and the feeble General William Winder at Bladensburg), plus numerous others that failed to make the grade. And yet, Armstrong was right on one thing - the British did indeed want Baltimore. 

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     By the end of 1814, Madison and Washington, D.C. were no longer major players in the war. The focus shifted to negotiations in Ghent, Belgium (lead by John Quincy Adams), General Jackson in New Orleans, and the Federalist Convention in Hartford, Connecticut. Madison received the news of these three events in the following order, which lifted Madison's popularity as President to a level only surpassed by Washington in his first term. 
     First came word of Jackson's miraculous victory at New Orleans on 8 January, 1815 (The American army was outnumbered at least 10:1). Then came news from Ghent of a treaty that was signed in late-December, 1814, ending the war. And lastly, news of the desire of the New England Federalists in Hartford to secede from the Union. The sequence of events to the American public were processed like this: the miraculous victory in New Orleans meant the British have had enough of the war, so therefore we WON THE WAR, and those Federalists are traitors! For his remaining time as President, Madison was lauded as a hero by the vast majority, his party was once again united, and the Federalist party became extinct. 
Ironically, in March, 1816, Congress and President Madison authorized a Second National Bank of the United States.

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     As America basked in its newfound total independence from Great Britain (political, social and economic), there was a Presidential Election in 1816. James Monroe edged William Crawford (GA) for the Republican nomination, and then cruised to the White House by soundly defeating the token Federalist candidate Rufus King (Electoral Vote: Monroe 183, King 34).
     James Madison refused to be a spectator to his own Presidency towards the end of his second term, as Thomas Jefferson had decided to do. For example, on 3 March, 1817 (his last day in office) Madison vetoed a bill providing federal money for roads and canals. While Madison wanted improved transportation for expansion, he viewed federal spending for roads and canals as unconstitutional - it was a matter reserved for the states (Monroe would do the same with his famous veto of the Cumberland Road).
     In the years after his Presidency, Madison refused to publish his notes from the Constitutional Convention in 1787 as long as he was alive; he thought the impact of their release would be greater after his death (historians treasured his notes, but ironically the general public didn't embrace his account nearly as much at that time). Madison lived for almost twenty years as an ex-President. His most notable contribution was during the Nullification Crisis in the early-1830s, when he joined Jackson (a man he truly did not like or trust) in his pro-Union stance against those that wanted to secede. 
     James Madison was the last Framer of the Constitution to die (he even outlived James Monroe, who died on 4 July five years to the day after J. Adams and Jefferson). Madison died on 28 June, 1836; his doctors offered to extend his life to 4 July so he could join John Adams, Jefferson, and Monroe, but he politely-yet-firmly declined. 

     James Madison accomplished something that the vast majority of two-term Presidents could not claim. Not only did Madison's second term surpass his first, but Madison reached his greatest popularity as he exited office after eight years. Think of the two-term Presidents in our history that did not have the "Madison Exit": Jefferson, Grant, Wilson (LBJ, Nixon), Reagan, Clinton, and Bush ("The Younger"); even Washington and Monroe didn't exit office at the same level of popularity as Madison.
     The only two-term Presidents that I can think of whose popularity remained high after eight years in office were Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower; even FDR suffered a drop in popularity and effectiveness during his second term. There was no doubt that Madison benefited from luck and timing, but he also made crucial decisions that not only buttressed his popularity, but led the U.S. to a favorable end to its first major war under the Constitution.
       (Below: The Presidency of James Madison, from the History Channel's "The Presidents")
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James Madison: Secretary of State (1800 - 1809)

7/19/2014

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                 Source: Richard Brookhiser. James Madison (2011)
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     The political life of James Madison could be compared to a mountain range, in that his experience consisted of peaks and valleys. James Madison reached his first political peak in 1789 with the Ratification of the Constitution and George Washington selected as the first President. His first "Valley of Political Despair" occurred in the early-to-mid 1790s, when the opposing party, the Federalists, scored significant political victories, most notably with the National Bank and the suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion. By 1796, Madison's political standing in his own party was such that he was bypassed as the candidate for President in favor of a semi-retired Thomas Jefferson. However, by the late-1790s, the Federalist overreaction in enforcing the Sedition Act brought Madison (and the Republicans) near the pinnacle once again; by 1800, the political tide seemed to be turning in favor of James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and the Republican party, with a Presidential Election in the offing.

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     As a result of Jefferson's victory in the Election of 1800 ("The Peaceful Revolution"), the Republicans held a 3:2 advantage in the House of Representatives, reversing the Federalist advantage. The Republicans also nearly pulled even with the Federalists in the Senate - the Republicans were transformed from an impotent minority faction to the party-in-power almost overnight. 
     Jefferson stocked his Cabinet with people he knew and trusted, with the most significant members being James Madison as SecState and Albert Gallatin as SecTreas. This triumvirate of Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin would stay together and united, unlike the first trio of Washington, Hamilton, and Jefferson (and the nightmare that was John Adams' Cabinet). One benefit that Jefferson experienced by having Madison in his Cabinet is that his Secretary of State became the "Lighting Rod of Hate" for the Federalists, taking much of the attention away from the new President (e.g. Marbury v. Madison). 
     James Callendar, however, kept his focus (and newfound contempt and hatred) on Jefferson; he was out for political revenge against a President that did not find a position for his loyal newspaper publisher in his adminstration. Callendar, now writing for a Federalist newspaper, "outed" Jefferson in terms of his illicit relationship with one of his African slaves, Sally Hemings. In an event that reeked even then of conspiracy, James Callendar was found dead in 1803, having drowned in the James River. While it was true in those days that journalists were often attacked and assaulted, many Americans (especially Federalists) believed that Callendar's death was not an accident.
     As Secretary of State, Madison shared two goals with President Jefferson: peace and expansion. They were also in agreement in terms of how they viewed nations in Europe, most importantly France (awesome!) and England (root of all evil!). The main advantage of their relationship was consistency, with the main disadvantage being that their mutual agreement / world view blinded them to difficulties and failures.

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      In November, 1801, Madison learned of the secret treaty between Spain and Napoleon; America's new neighbor to the west was France, a superpower that wanted to build another empire in North America. In response, Madison (a Francophile) actually threatened France with aligning the United States with Great Britain. The situation was serious enough where Madison sent James Monroe to France to serve as an additional diplomat, under instructions to purchase West Florida and New Orleans (maximum price limit: $10m). 
     Two events changed France's empire-building west of the Mississippi River: a "Polar Vortex" so severe that all of France's ports on the Atlantic actually froze solid in 1803, and an African slave revolt in the Caribbean sugar cane island of Santo Domingo (led by Toussaint L'Ouverture). The impulsive Napoleon decided that the stars were no longer in alignment for his goals in North America, and he offered the Louisiana Territory to the United States for purchase. Robert Livingston and James Monroe signed the document agreeing to purchase the territory from France, and Jefferson and Madison started to work to get votes in Congress to finalize the transfer of land (ironically, the LA Purchase DID NOT include West Florida or New Orleans; it wasn't until Madison was President in 1810 that the U.S. gained what it most desired in the Gulf region). 
     In 1804, Jefferson easily won re-election, receiving 162 Electoral Votes, with the Federalist candidate, Charles Pinckney, garnering only 14. The Republicans also gained an astounding 80% of the seats in the House and the Senate. The purchase of the Louisiana Territory and the results of the Election of 1804 went to the heads of Jefferson and Madison. In short, they both believed that they could do no political wrong; they would not be ready for the foreign difficulties that lay ahead in Jefferson's second term as President.

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     President Jefferson and SecState Madison made efforts to purchase West Florida and New Orleans from Napoleon, but to no avail; the U.S. had the tremendous expanse of the Louisiana Territory, but did not have possession of the port city that would really make the purchase come to its full potential . . . and there was still the unwanted presence of Spain in the extreme southeast.
     In 1805, Jefferson's and Madison's relatively idyllic time in office came to a halt, when in July the British Government changed the rules of the game in the Atlantic Ocean. In recent years, the U.S. had been able to trade under what was called "The Broken Voyage" rule, which meant that U.S. ships could sail the expanse of the Atlantic, but had to stop at specified British ports on their way to their final destination. It was a win-win situation for both the U.S. and Britain, but with the threat from Napoleon, Great Britain reinstituted the "Rule of 1756", which in essence put up trade barriers exclusively to Britain's benefit; it was a de facto return to Mercantilism. 
     Madison published an argument that laid the basis for "Freedom of the Seas" in America's foreign policy, and instructed the U.S. Minister to Britain, James Monroe, to make an issue of impressment. Impressment now became an additional "affront" when combined with the British trade barriers. By late-1806, Britain and France had created a situation where the U.S. couldn't trade with either nation. The main source of revenue (and jobs in cities) was revenue from free trade, and it was in sharp decline; the Jefferson/Madison vision of a totally self-sufficient nation was taking some painful body-blows. 
     In July of 1807, the British warship Leopard attacked the U.S. frigate Chesapeake, killing three Americans and wounding eighteen more; the British took four sailors, and one was hanged. To the Federalists (and a growing number of Republicans), this situation seemed to epitomize the foreign policy of Jefferson / Madison . . . it seemed to be "Wussyville." 
     The Embargo Act of 1807 showed the "I'm too good for this world" streak in Jefferson's character. His mountaintop mansion (Monticello), his extreme dislike of face-to-face arguments, and his small invitation-only dinner parties also confirmed that aspect of his character (as would his ultimate reaction to the failure of the Embargo of 1807). While Jefferson supported the embargo by signing it into law, the embargo was actually Madison's brainchild - he (and Jefferson) believed in the power of commercial warfare. SecTreas Gallatin objected to the embargo; he understood that the U.S. was not truly self-sufficient, and was not in a position of power to benefit from the trade barrier. He also (correctly) pointed out that enforcing the embargo would in-and-of-itself be a nightmare. But, Gallatin was loyal to his President and his party, and he publicly supported the Embargo of 1807.

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     As a result of the embargo, by 1808 exports had declined by 80%, and imports by 60%; yet Jefferson and Madison stood fast by their trade barrier. In enforcing the Embargo of 1807, the Republicans were acting just as irrationally and badly as the Federalists had with the Sedition Act in the late-1790s. Madison and Jefferson never saw that correlation - they valued and understood free speech, not free trade. Jefferson became physically sick when his popularity plummeted (e.g. severe migraines); again, his "I'm too good for this world" streak manifested itself when he decided to end his presidency as a spectator, mentally if not physically resigning as President. Both Jefferson and Madison were stunned that they had fallen so far and so fast - it must have seemed like the early-1790s to them all over again. 
     Before the Presidential Election of 1808, Madison had to defeat James Monroe within his party without burning any political bridges in the process. Dolley Madison's skill as a hostess-extraordinaire helped her husband the most, since he needed as many Republicans in Congress to support him as possible to get the nomination. In addition, Madison was able to secure the nomination during the caucuses in that he had the support of SecTreas Gallatin, and the effects of the embargo hadn't become a reality (or political liability) yet. When the full negative impact of the embargo came to fruition, the Republican delegates were already committed to Madison. In the Electoral College, Madison easily won re-election with 122 votes to Charles Pinckney's 47 as the Federalist candidate.
     The Embargo of 1807 did not end until the Republicans and Federalists in Congress acted in concert on their own (it took that political and economic disaster to get both parties to work together); both Houses voted to end the embargo on 4 March, 1809 (Jefferson's last day in office). Jefferson signed the bill into law, ending the embargo, attended Madison's Inauguration, and then retired to Monticello for good.     

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     By 1809, James Madison had reached yet another political peak by climbing out of a deep valley (at least somewhat of his own making) becoming the nation's fourth President. However, James Madison inherited a small-but-angry opposition in the Federalists, and a divided Republican party (many were vocal in their preference for Gallatin). As President, Madison would climb out of one more deep valley to reach yet another political peak. He would initially fail as a War-Time President before rallying to lead his nation to what was perceived (and packaged) as a victory against Great Britain in the War of 1812.
   (Below: The Presidency of Thomas Jefferson, from the History Channel's "The Presidents")

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