Archive | May 2014
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While the Chief Magistrate and the popular branch of Congress are elected for short terms by the suffrages of those millions who must in their own persons bear all the burdens and miseries of war, our Government can not be otherwise than pacific… James K. Polk
James Knox Polk was the Ronald Reagan of his day defeating Henry Clay of the Whig Party by promising to annex Texas. The last strong pre–Civil War president he is noted for his foreign policy successes. He threatened war with Britain over the issue of which nation owned the Oregon Country and when Mexico rejected […]
The battle, Sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave… Patrick Henry
Almost a miracle : the American victory in the War of Independence John Ferling Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007 Hardcover. 1st ed., later printing. xiii, 679 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. [653]-661) and index. Clean, tight and strong binding with clean dust jacket. No highlighting, […]
A five pointed star, one point down. On the obverse, the foul[sic] spirit of Secession and Rebellion is represented by a male figure in crouching attitude holding in his hands, serpents, which with forked tongues are striking at a large female figure, representing the union or Genius of our country, who holds in her right hand a shield, and in her left, the fasces. Around these figures are 34 stars, indicating the number of states [both federal and Southern] in the union… description of Medal awarded federal raiders of the GENERAL
Stealing the General : the great locomotive chase and the first Medal of Honor Russell S. Bonds Yardley, Pa. : Westholme, c 2007 Hardcover. xvii, 444 p. : ill., maps ; 25 cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. 423-434) and index. Clean, tight and strong binding with clean dust jacket. No highlighting, underlining or marginalia in […]
The withdrawal of a State from a league has no revolutionary or insurrectionary characteristic. The government of the State remains unchanged as to all internal affairs. It is only its external or confederate relations that are altered. To term this action of a Sovereign a ‘rebellion’ is a gross abuse of language… Jefferson Davis
The dogs of war, 1861 Emory M. Thomas Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, c 2011 Hardcover. 1st ed. and printing. xi, 113 p. : maps ; 22 cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. Clean, tight and strong binding with clean dust jacket. No highlighting, underlining or marginalia in text. VG/VG In 1861, […]
I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism and everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch… William Barret Travis
There is a certain irony in having an Alabama lawyer calling, however eloquently, for help from Americans in a revolution against Mexico. Even odder is that the immediate story starts in New Orleans with a situation roughly analogous to the Bay of Pigs when exiled Mexican generals attempted a coup against Santa Anna the beginning […]
No political dreamer was ever wild enough to think of breaking down the lines which separate the States, and of compounding the American people into one common mass… John Marshall
On his last day in office, President John Adams named forty-two justices of the peace and sixteen new circuit court justices for the District of Columbia in an attempt by the Federalists to take control of the federal judiciary before Thomas Jefferson took office. The commissions were signed by President Adams and sealed by acting […]
Confederate Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest had 30 horses shot from under him and personally killed 31 men in hand-to-hand combat. “I was a horse ahead at the end,” he said.
The American Civil War was, unfortunately for the South, fought as a relatively conventional war between two sovereign nations. The result was exactly what you would expect in that the nation with the larger manufacturing base won. No amount of superiority in the quality of command can overcome the ability to deploy and supply larger […]
My sole ambition is to rid Mexico of the class that has oppressed her and give the people a chance to know what real liberty means… Pancho Villa
The Texas Rangers and the Mexican Revolution : the bloodiest decade, 1910-1920 Charles H. Harris III and Louis R. Sadler Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press, c 2004 Hardcover. 1st ed., later printing. xiv, 673 p. : ill., maps ; 27 cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. 578-652) and index. Clean, tight and strong binding […]
It is difficult not to come to the conclusion that the rabid hatred of England which animates almost all the Northern newspapers, will so excite the masses as to make it impossible for Lincoln and Seward to grant our demands; and we must therefore look forward to war as the probable result… Lord Palmerston following the TRENT affair
A world on fire : Britain’s crucial role in the American Civil War Amanda Foreman New York : Random House, c 2010 Hardcover. 1st ed. and printing. xxxix, 958 p., [39] p. of plates : ill., maps ; 25 cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. [813]-916) and index. Clean, tight and strong binding with clean dust […]
A state too expensive in itself, or by virtue of its dependencies, ultimately falls into decay; its free government is transformed into a tyranny; it disregards the principles which it should preserve, and finally degenerates into despotism. The distinguishing characteristic of small republics is stability: the character of large republics is mutability… Simon Bolivar
Conquer or die! : Wellington’s veterans and the liberation of the New World Ben Hughes Oxford, UK ; Long Island City, NY : Osprey Pub., 2010 Hardcover. 1st ed. and printing. 376 p., [16] p. of plates : ill. (some col.), maps ; 24 cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. 365-369) and index. Clean, tight and […]
Deo Vindice 