Archive | June 2014
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The Constitution provides for every accidental contingency in the executive – except a vacancy in the mind of the president… Senator John Sherman (1823-1900)
An unusual, three-part wood engraving attributing John Wilkes Booth’s assassination of Abraham Lincoln to the influence of the proslavery secret society, the Knights of the Golden Circle. Lincoln was shot by Booth on April 14, 1865, while attending Ford’s Theatre in Washington. In the first panel (left) is a three-quarter length portrait of George W. […]
I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say; I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger… Harriet Tubman
Bound for Canaan : the underground railroad and the war for the soul of America Fergus M. Bordewich New York : Amistad, c 2005 Hardcover. 1st ed. and printing. xv, 540 p., [16] p. of plates : ill., maps ; 24 cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. [508]-519). Clean, tight and strong binding with clean dust […]
I trust that I have the courage to lead a forlorn hope… John C. Breckinridge
A crude nonpartisan satire, parodying all four candidates in the 1860 presidential election. A map of the United States hung on a wall is being torn apart by three of the candidates. Lincoln (far left) and Douglas tear at the western part of the country, as Breckinridge (center) attacks the South. The fourth, John Bell […]
The past rises before me like a dream. Again we are in the great struggle for national life.We hear the sounds of preparation–the music of boisterous drums–the silver voices of heroic bugles. We see the pale cheeks of women and the flushed faces of men; and in those assemblages we see all the dead whose dust we have covered with flowers…
Voices in the storm : Confederate rhetoric, 1861-1865 Karen E. Fritz Denton, Tex. : University of North Texas Press, 1999 Hardcover. 1st ed. and printing. xv, 173 p. ; 24 cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. 139-164) and index. Clean, tight and strong binding with clean dust jacket. No highlighting, underlining or marginalia in text. VG/VG […]
The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence… H. L. Mencken
Wanted : historic county jails of Texas Edward A. Blackburn, Jr. College Station : Texas A&M University Press, c 2006 Hardcover. 1st ed. xii, 412 p. : ill., maps ; 26 cm. Includes bibliographical references p. ( [377]-396) and index. Clean, tight and strong binding with clean dust jacket. No highlighting, underlining or marginalia in […]
This light of history is pitiless; it has a strange and divine quality that, luminous as it is, and precisely because it is luminous, often casts a shadow just where we saw a radiance… Babylon violated diminishes Alexander; Rome enslaved diminishes Caesar; massacred Jerusalem diminishes Titus. Tyranny follows the tyrant. Woe to the man who leaves behind a shadow that bears his form… Victor Hugo
Tomorrow is Juneteenth another of the host of misunderstood facts of American history. On January 1, 1863 Lincoln had issued his Emancipation Proclamation – a few hours before signing an order deporting another 5,000 blacks from the north – declaring all black slaves in the states that had seceded to be free. By April 1865 […]
America had no use for [John Quincy] Adams because he was eighteenth-century, and yet it worshipped Grant because he was archaic and should have lived in a cave and worn skins… Henry Adams
An overweight rheumy eyed drunk who, after eight years of scandal and mismanagement, had been run out of Washington, D.C. did what every president since has done – when they can no longer stand the heat of the kitchen they travel rooting for foreign plaudits to shore up their reputations at home. Listening to the […]
They were pleased that Keckley’s book was published, as it would serve as a warning “to those ladies whose husbands may be elevated to the position of the President of the United States not to put on airs and attempt to appear what their education, their habits of life and social position, and even personal appearance would not warrant.” Cleveland Daily Plain Dealer
There are two major flaws with this book. The first is that Keckly can hardly be described as a slave in the terms of Uncle Toms Cabin. She was a highly considered domestic servant who was allowed to ply a trade and by doing so buy her freedom. There is no evidence offered that she […]
Ist Das Leben Schön
Monday, July 1st—At 11 o’clock we noticed land, I arrived in Galveston at 4 o’clock. Low coast line with dunes. The entire island is flat, intersected by bayous. Mons. Cobb and Mons. Arcieri welcomed us, as did Maas. Mons. A., a charming, short man, is secretary at the French legation. He dined with me at […]
Oregon and the annexation of Texas are now all- important to the security and future peace and prosperity of our union, and I hope there are a sufficient number of pure American democrats to carry into effect the annexation of Texas and [extension of] our laws over Oregon. No temporizing policy or all is lost… Andrew Jackson
The conventional wisdom is generally neither and although there are elements of the issues that Silbey gives prominence in his study their importance has largely been discovered after the fact – something like the runner from Marathon who didn’t figure in histories until 600 years after the battle and now is a focal point of […]
Deo Vindice 