New Jersey is headed toward its first roundup of its most illustrious
citizens. They will be enshrined in the New Jersey Hall of Fame designated for
the Meadowlands Complex in East Rutherford.
Once acting Gov. Richard Codey signs the legislation he will be under
obligation to appoint 13 of the 15-member Hall of Fame Advisory Commission;
two will be named by Assembly Speaker Albio Sires of West New York.
The commission will determine "criteria" for selection of nominees and
annual inductions.
The commission will also review architectural designs and development
plans.
Commission members will be drawn from "visual and performing arts, music,
literature, science, education, sports, entertainment, business, religion,
government, military and philanthropy."
There are obvious choices for Hall selection.
Most likely choices include Gov. and President Woodrow Wilson, inventor
Thomas A. Edison, poet Walt Whitman, physicist Albert Einstein, singer-actor
Frank Sinatra, actor Jack Nicholson and singer Bruce Springsteen.
But don't overlook some other figures from history, like Clara Barton,
founder of the Red Cross; John P. Holland, inventor of the modern submarine;
or the tarnished Aaron Burr, a vice president best remembered for the duel
that killed Alexander Hamilton on July 11, 1804, in Weehawken.
There are also the state's numerous war heroes: Gen. Philip Kearny, killed
in the Civil War in 1862; Adm. William F. Halsey of Elizabeth, famed South
Pacific commander; and Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, commander in the Gulf War.
Bank of New
York Overrun by Competition
By Associated Press
July 28, 2005, 2:45 AM EDT
NEW YORK -- Competition among consumer banks is more frenzied in New
York than almost anywhere in the United States. Regional banks from
around the country have flocked to the city, hoping to snag footholds
in the affluent metro area. Hometown titans Citigroup Inc. and
JPMorgan Chase & Co. have scrambled to fend off the newcomers by
expanding and modernizing their vast retail networks.
Bank of New York Co., the nation's oldest bank, has largely sat on the
sidelines of this activity. Because of this -- and the likelihood more
M&A deals beckon among New York banks -- some industry watchers think
the bank might sell its retail banking business, operations that could
fetch up to $5 billion.
Founded by Alexander Hamilton in 1784, Bank of New York has 341
branches in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. It has about 4
percent of the greater New York area's consumer deposits, making it
one of the top 10 retail banks in the region. But over the past
decade, Bank of New York's business model has become less reliant on
retail banking, generating income instead from securities-processing
and a slew of back-office and other more profitable services it
provides around the world. Its second-quarter earnings rose 7 percent,
driven by these businesses.
Meanwhile, retail banking profits have shrunk. Last year, they
generated $201 million in pretax income -- less than 10 percent of
total profits. A decade ago, it was more than one quarter of profits.
While its peers have aggressively opened more branches, the bank has
done the opposite. It has fewer branches now than five years ago. Nor
has it refurbished those branches or upgraded their technology.
"They haven't been keeping up," said Andrew Collins, an analyst with
Piper Jaffray, which does business with Bank of New York.
In fact, the bank's performance has spawned an industry joke: When
Alexander Hamilton set off in 1804 to face Aaron Burr in the duel that
killed him, Hamilton directed Bank of New York officials not to do
anything until he returned -- and, the punch line goes, they've heeded
his instructions.
Despite what many see as the company's neglect of the retail business,
it still has value. The retail bank has affluent customers and is
"very heavy on good suburbs" like New York's Westchester County and
Fairfield County, Conn., said Ray Soifer, an industry consultant.
"It's a very desirable franchise from that standpoint."
Which is why some observers think the time has come for Bank of New
York to sell it. .....
Life sentence for Islamic fundamentalist Al-Timimi:
an attack on free speech
By John Andrews
27 July 2005
On July 13, Dr. Ali Al-Timimi, a scientist and Islamic fundamentalist
preacher, was sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 70 years on
charges that he urged Muslim followers in the week following the September 11
terrorist attacks to leave the United States and support Islamic military
efforts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, Indonesia and Russia.
Al-Timimi denied that he made any such appeal. His defense was that he only
counseled Muslims that it might be wise to leave the United States because
practicing Islam in America would be difficult after September 11, and that
they should relocate in an Islamic country where they could freely practice
their religion.
US-born Al-Timimi, 42, has been well known for years within certain Islamic
circles for his lectures on the fundamentalist “salafi” form of Sunni Islam at
the Center for Islamic Information and Education—also known as the Dar al
Arqam Islamic Center—in Falls Church, Virginia.
A professional scientist who has lived most his life in the Washington, DC
area, Al-Timimi has undergraduate degrees in biology and computer science and
a doctorate in computational biology from George Mason University. He has
published or coauthored at least 12 scientific articles, including pioneering
work using computers to measure and analyze the presence of genes in various
forms of cancer, and worked as a researcher for SRA International, a major
information technology company and US government contractor.
The charges against him arise from a private September 16, 2001 dinner he
attended at the home of one of his followers. He is accused of urging the
other Muslim men in attendance to travel overseas for what one prosecution
witness called “violent jihad.” He was not alleged to have been involved with
planning or carrying out any terrorist act.
There was no evidence at trial that Al-Timimi actually undertook any
actions to facilitate the men leaving the United States to join Islamic
military movements. He did not arrange any financing or provide contacts
overseas, for example.
Indeed, the evidence at trial established that the three men who eventually
did leave the United States to join Pakistanis fighting against Indian forces
over the disputed Kashmir region began planning their trip before the
September 16 dinner.
The 10 counts against Al-Timimi consist of inducing others to conspire to
use firearms and carry explosives, soliciting others to make war against the
United States, attempting to contribute services to the Taliban, and inducing
others to violate the Neutrality Act by taking part in military expeditions
against countries with whom the United States is at peace.
Al-Timimi went on trial on April 4, 2005 in federal district court in
Alexandria, Virginia. On April 26, the jury returned guilty verdicts on all
counts.
The most serious charge was that Al-Timimi urged the others to engage in
combat against US troops. The United States never declared war against
Afghanistan, however, and the September 16 meeting preceded not only the US
invasion itself, but also President Bush’s signing of the congressional
resolution authorizing military action against Afghanistan in response to the
9/11 attacks.
US District Judge Leonie Brinkema herself called the life sentence “very
draconian.” It was mandated by federal guidelines, however, once she denied
all Al-Timimi’s post-trial motions to set aside the verdicts on the basis that
they were not supported by the evidence and violated his First Amendment
rights.
The case began when US government prosecutors in June of 2003 indicted 11
young Muslim men on charges of conspiring to travel to Pakistan to wage war
against India. The group was commonly referred to as the “Virginia Jihad
Network,” or simply, the “Virginia 11.” After the FBI claimed that many of
them played “paintball” together in the Virginia woods to train for combat,
the 11 were derided as the “paintball jihadists” in local media reports.
None of the men made it to Afghanistan or engaged in any combat against US
troops or their allies. Nevertheless, they were prosecuted with a vengeance.
Six of the 11 defendants pled to lesser charges early this year, their
sentences ranging from two to twenty years. Of the five who went to trial,
three were convicted and face prison sentences of up to 90 years. Two were
acquitted.
Although Al-Timimi was not charged in their indictment, he was named as an
unindicted coconspirator and identified as the group’s spiritual leader. Over
a year later, the government indicted Al-Timimi on separate charges. After Al-Timimi
rejected an offer to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of 14 years, the
case proceeded to trial.
The trial itself exhibited all the features of a witch-hunt. There were no
victims. There was no claim that anyone involved with Al-Timimi actually
perpetrated a specific crime or planned a terrorist act. The principal
witnesses were alleged coconspirators pressured into plea deals granting
sentence reductions in exchange for testimony.
The heart of the case was the dinner on September 16, 2001 attended by nine
of the eleven “Virginia Jihadists” at which Al-Timimi supposedly solicited
them to leave the United States and fight with Muslim forces in places such as
Afghanistan, Chechnya, Palestine, Pakistan and Indonesia. Five days later,
three of those at the meeting traveled to Pakistan, where they obtained two
weeks of military training from Lashkar-e-Taiba, an organization seeking to
drive India from Kashmir. Lashkar-e-Taiba was not at the time designated by
the US as a terrorist organization.
The most damaging witness at trial was Yong Kee Kwon, a Korean-born convert
to Islam and the host of the September 16 dinner. On direct examination he
testified that Al-Timimi said that each man present should “repent,” leave the
United States and “try to join the mujahideen.” Another witness at the
meeting, Aatique Gharbieh, testified that Al-Timimi said “the battle in
Afghanistan is imminent” and, although the Taliban “have problems in how they
interpret or implement Islam . . . we should help them.” A third witness,
Mahmood Hasan, said Al-Timimi announced, “Mullah Omar has called upon the
Muslims to defend Afghanistan.” There was little else of substance in the
evidence against Al-Timimi.
To bolster their case, the government prosecutors appealed openly to the
fears and prejudices of the jurors with inflammatory and irrelevant evidence.
For example, they played excerpts from videotapes depicting combat in various
war zones found in searches of residences of the “Virginia Jihadists.” One,
entitled “Russian Hell 2000,” which depicted the execution of a captive
soldier in Chechnya, was supposedly particularly fascinating to Kwon. Yet all
the witnesses testified that Al-Timimi was not aware of their watching the
videos.
The prosecution made liberal use of Islamic doctrine and Al-Timimi’s
teachings to paint him as a co-thinker of Osama bin Laden and therefore
complicit in the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The jury
heard from a lecture given in 1990, before the first Gulf War, in which Al-Timimi
attacked Shiites for “always unit[ing] themselves with enemies” while “the
swords of the Sunni Muslims are dripping with the blood of Christians, Jews
and idol worshipers and Allah has commanded us to make jihad against the
enemies of Allah.” He added that “in an Islamic state” Shiite “heads should be
lopped off.”
Judge Brinkema allowed the prosecutors to read an email allegedly sent by
Al-Timimi on the morning of the Columbia shuttle catastrophe, February 1,
2003, long after all the alleged acts for which he was charged criminally. The
email stated, “[T]here is no doubt that Muslims were overjoyed because of the
adversity that befell their greatest enemy,” and it called the disaster a
“good omen.”
The racism which pervaded the Al-Timimi prosecution was epitomized at very
end of closing arguments. Assistant United States Attorney Gordon Kromberg
told the jury, “If you’re a kafir [a non-Muslim] Timimi believes in time of
war he’s supposed to lie to you. Don’t fall for it. Find him—find Sheik Ali
Timimi—guilty as charged.”
Al-Timimi’s nationalist and religious obscurantist views, while deeply
reactionary, clearly fall within the parameters of constitutionally protected
free speech. The prosecution’s use of such evidence to stampede a jury into
convicting him of multiple felonies flies in the face of the First Amendment.
Al-Timimi waged a two-part defense. First, his lawyer claimed the witnesses
against his client should not be believed because they were pressured into
incriminating him in exchange for leniency in their own cases, and, second, he
argued that the statements of the prosecution witnesses were contradictory and
incomplete.
In the unsuccessful post-trial challenge to the verdict, defense attorneys
argued that Al-Timimi’s alleged statements at the September 16 dinner were
protected speech because they were not inciting “imminent” violent acts—the
listeners would have had to agree with Al-Timimi, make their way overseas,
join Muslim military outfits, and engage in combat before any breach of the
peace would have occurred.
Before sentence was pronounced, Al-Timimi read a 10-minute statement
declaring his innocence and accusing the government of a frame-up. He recited
the preamble to the Constitution, claiming that he committed it to memory
“long before I was taught or learnt any passage of the Koran.” Focusing on the
Constitution’s professed aim of creating “a more perfect union” to “establish
justice,” Al-Timimi pointed out the hollowness of the case against him.
“Let us recall the crimes to which I was charged: advocating treason,
soliciting war against the United States, providing aid and comfort to the
enemy, conspiring to levy war against Israel, Russia, India, and Indonesia,
and, of course, at every turn, the informal charge of terrorism.
“Charges I must say ‘abounding in crudities and absurdities.’ (Al-Timimi
here quoted Aaron Burr, the one-time US vice president who was tried
and acquitted for treason.)
“For to accept these charges we must believe that a solitary man who would
spend his days working full-time at one of Fortune magazine’s one
hundred best companies and then spend his evenings and weekends engaged in
cancer research for a doctorate in computational biology, an individual who
never owned or used a gun, never traveled to a military camp, never set foot
in a country in which a war was taking place, never raised money for any
violent organization would be—could be—the author of so much harm.”
Al-Timimi concluded his remarks with a clear warning about the implications
of his case for democratic rights. “For if my conviction is to stand, it would
mean that 230 years of America’s tradition of protecting the individual from
the tyrannies and whims of the sovereign will have come to an end. And that
which is exploited today to persecute a single member of a minority will most
assuredly come back to haunt the majority tomorrow.”
Under house arrest until sentencing, Al-Timimi is now in the custody of the
US Bureau of Prisons. His appeal will be heard by the United States Court of
Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the most right-wing court in the nation. If
the appellate court confirms the convictions, his only redress will be an
appeal to the Supreme Court.
Aside from the personal injustice to Al-Timimi, the trial and life sentence
are a stark warning of the extremes to which the US government is prepared to
go in attacking constitutionally protected rights of free speech and political
expression, under the cover of the “war on terrorism.”
The Decatur Daily 7/24
Dismal’s Canyon Sanctuary boasts
Champion Tree, rare worms that glow in dark
PHIL CAMPBELL — Dismal's Canyon,
nestled in 85 acres of soaring hemlocks and sweating bluffs, provides
visitors a pristine view of the state's geological diversity.
....
Pueblo, Chickasaw and Cherokee
tribes also called the Dismal's home at one time in history.
U.S. troops held a large group
of Chickasaw Indians captive in the canyon in 1838 before forcing them
to Muscle Shoals where they began what historians now call the Trail
of Tears.
Outlaws, such as Jesse James and
Aaron Burr, have also sought refuge in the canyon for their misdeeds
because of its close proximity to the Natchez Trace.
Explorers found an old musket
and cot in one of the dark spots of the canyon, and believed them to
belong to Aaron Burr when he went into hiding after he killed
Alexander Hamilton in an 1804 duel.
"You know the man never spent a
day in jail for it," tour guide Darlene Cagle said. ..
Proposed letter to the editor:
I read your article on Dismal's Canyon, but was surprised to find an
inaccuracy.
It states that Vice President Aaron Burr went into
hiding near the Natchez Trace after killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel, and
tour guide Darlene Cagle says Burr never spent a day in jail for it.
The truth is that Colonel Burr hated slavery, but Thomas
Jefferson loved it, and was afraid if Burr settled on his land in Louisiana
without slaves, the plantation owner power would be challenged. So TJ ordered
Burr arrested for treason, and in three trials, Burr won.
As to "hiding," Hamilton insulted Burr, and then brought
trick pistols to the Duel with secret hair triggers that only Hamilton knew
about. AH shot first but too quickly, over Burr's head, while Burr shot
normally. Burr then completed his term as vice president by stopping
Jefferson from impeaching a judge and taking over the judicial branch. Col.
Burr departed, giving the most eloquent speech ever to the congress as he
departed, reminding them that they kept the branches separate. Many senators
wept.
Aaron Burr tried to settle out west, but was ordered
arrested by Jefferson. He eventually led his own defense to victory in our
most famous trial in history in Richmond, Virginia in 1807.
To put Burr and Jesse James in the same sentence is
twisted.
Sincerely, Peter Tavino, Litchfield,CT
Member, Aaron Burr Association.
NYTimes.com 7/22/05
Walking Tour: Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, which New Yorkers invariably speak of simply as "the
Village," enjoyed a raffish reputation for years. ...
Head east on Bleecker Street to Carmine Street and the Church of Our Lady of
Pompeii, where Mother Cabrini, a naturalized Italian immigrant who became the
first American saint, often prayed. When you reach Father Demo Square (at
Bleecker Street and 6th Avenue), head up 6th Avenue to West 3rd Street and check
out the basketball courts, where city-style basketball is played in all but the
very coldest weather. Turn down West 3rd Street and check out the illustrious
Blue Note, where jazz greats play. The next intersection brings you to MacDougal
Street, once home to several illustrious names. The two houses at 127 and 129
MacDougal Street were built for Aaron Burr in 1829; notice the pineapple newel
posts, a symbol of hospitality. Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women
while living at 130-132 MacDougal Street. The Provincetown Playhouse at No. 133
premiered many of Eugene O'Neill's plays. ...
wsj.com
Hoover's Institution
Anecdotes from the FBI crypt--and lessons
on how to win the war.
BY LAURENCE H. SILBERMAN Wednesday, July 20, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT
I recently completed a rewarding year as co-chairman of President Bush's
commission on intelligence, and I propose to discuss our recommendations
regarding the FBI in light of my own unique experience with J. Edgar Hoover....
Former Director Louis Freeh initiated the
practice of taking new FBI recruits through the Holocaust Museum to show what
can happen when the law enforcement apparatus of a country becomes corrupted. I
have always thought that sort of extreme example was a bit farfetched for our
country, but there is an episode closer to home. I think it would be appropriate
to introduce all new recruits to the nature of the secret and confidential files
of J. Edgar Hoover. And in that connection this country--and the bureau--would
be well served if his name were removed from the bureau's building. It is as if
the Defense Department were named for Aaron Burr. Liberals and conservatives
should unite to support legislation to accomplish this repudiation of a very sad
chapter in American history. Mr. Silberman was co-chairman of President
Bush's Commission on Intelligence Capabilities. This is adapted from a speech he
delivered recently to the First Circuit Judicial Conference.
Response to article: Naming the Defense
Department after Aaron Burr would be no problem. Only high school sophomores
think Burr was evil. Well read people know that Burr was innocent at his 1807
treason trial. Burr hated slavery while Jefferson loved it, so Jefferson tried
to get Burr hung, but lost.
Go to www.AaronBurrAssociation.org for truth.
Aaron Burr of North Myrtle Beach tapped his way to the top on "Good
Morning America" on Friday, winning the Greatest Dancer in America
Challenge.
The 12-year-old competed against the winners of the show's couples,
freestyle and kids contests this week.
"I didn't know who was going to win because everybody was so great," Burr
said.
His performance of the routine "Brooms" drew a unanimous vote from the
judges, including entertainment legend Tommy Tune.
"I was happy when the first judge, Tommy Tune, voted for him," said Mary
Helen Harvin, owner of Miss Libby's School of Dance, where Burr takes
lessons.
"When the third one voted for him, I just burst into tears."
Getting feedback and encouragement from Tune was exciting for Aaron, said
his mother, Melody Burr, and probably the highlight of the experience.
After nine years of dancing and more than a year of rehearsing this
routine, the practice is paying off.
"It's just such a wonderful thing to see all his hard work come to
fruition," Harvin said.
New Summer Series on The History Channel
Yahoo News (press release) - USA ... Then, it's a journey from Weehawken, New Jersey to Blennerhassett
Island in the Ohio River to document AaronBurr's aspirations to
take over the US In Florida ...
REBELS AND TRAITORS: August 22 at 10 pm ET/PT: Learn about some of the
lesser-known homegrown plots to rebel, revolt, and subvert the rule government.
First, it's off to San Francisco to meet America's one and only Emperor --
Joshua Abraham Norton, who declared himself "Emperor of the United States of
America and Protector of Mexico" in 1859. Next, the two Marks wade through
cutlasses, treasure, and talking severed heads at the Pirate Soul pirate museum
on the trail of one of America's original rebels, the pirate Blackbeard. Then,
it's a journey from Weehawken, New Jersey to Blennerhassett Island in the Ohio
River to document Aaron Burr's aspirations to take over the U.S. In Florida, our
hosts explain how a really bad traffic jam led to Key West's secession in the
1980s.
WEIRD U.S. is produced by KPI for The History Channel. Executive Producer for
The History Channel is Carl H. Lindahl.
7/15 http://www.mackinac.org/article.asp?ID=7163
A Governor Cries “Treason”
Gov. Jennifer Granholm of Michigan recently called for state Rep. Rick Baxter
to be removed from office for
a July 7, 2005 Wall Street Journal column he co-authored with Hillsdale
professor Gary Wolfram. The commentary cited various publicly available measures
of Michigan’s economic activity, while criticizing the governor’s current policy
proposals, and it led her to assert, according to
the July 11
Detroit News, that writing the column for a national publication was
"treasonous to the state of Michigan."
The Journal’s
editorial page has since fired back at the governor, and Detroit News
columnist George Weeks has written a
follow-up
to his original article on her remarks. Given the amount of ink spilled on
the story, it is worth reviewing the meaning of "treason" as defined in the U.S.
and Michigan constitutions.
Despite the lack of precedent at the state level, there have been at least 40
prosecutions for treason under the U.S. Constitution, and the federal courts’
interpretation of "treason" gives us some basis for understanding the proper
legal definition of term. Article 3, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution states,
"Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying War against
them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort." This is
almost identical to the language in the Michigan Constitution, so state courts
would probably apply the federal standards to any prosecution for treason under
Michigan law.
Federal courts in practice have interpreted the treason clause strictly, so
that few prosecutions outside of wartime settings have been successful. The most
famous peacetime treason trial was of Vice President Aaron Burr in 1807, and it
resulted in his acquittal. Politically motivated attempts to convict opponents
of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 were also unsuccessful.
Treason is the only crime defined in the U.S. Constitution, and for good
reason. ...
Happy Fifth of July, New York!
Published: July 3, 2005
NY Times Op-Ed Contributors
By LOUISE MIRRER, JAMES OLIVER HORTON and RICHARD RABINOWITZ
Published: July 3, 2005
STANDING before a gathering of the Ladies' Antislavery Society in
Rochester, Frederick Douglass, newspaper editor and internationally known
voice of abolition, moved his audience with the force of his argument. It
was July 5, 1852, the day after the national celebration of American
independence. This former slave confronted a hushed crowd and a nation with
the stunning question: "What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of
July?"
Douglass followed his question, an indictment of America's commitment to
the value of human freedom in the decades before the Civil War, with an
equally challenging reply: "A day that reveals to him, more than all other
days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the
constant victim."
In the wake of the new federal Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, which allowed
bounty hunters to seize runaway slaves who had fled to states where slavery
was illegal, Douglass spoke bitterly of the betrayal of American ideals. The
law gave those accused of being fugitive slaves no right to a trial or even
to speak in self-defense. It thus endangered the already precarious liberty
of free black people everywhere in the country, including those in New York
State, where slavery had officially ended a quarter century before in 1827.
Although most people today imagine slavery as a Southern institution, it
existed in all of the original 13 British colonies. In New York, it was an
important labor system for 200 years, beginning with the arrival of the
first African slaves in New Amsterdam in 1627. Recent excavations in Lower
Manhattan that uncovered the African Burial Ground have brought the city's
connection to slavery to public attention. Still, most New Yorkers and
Americans today have little sense of the city's and state's long involvement
with slavery. Public schools teach little of the history of slavery that, as
the historian Ira Berlin has recently remarked, "insinuated itself into
every nook and cranny of life in New York City."
Slavery was central to New York's development from its formative years as
a Dutch and British colony to the early days of the United States. During
British rule, 40 percent of New York City households owned slaves, who
accounted for 20 percent of the city's population. There were more slaves in
New York City than in any other city in the British colonies except
Charleston, S.C.
New Yorkers owned and traded in slaves, rented out their slaves as day
laborers and produced ships and trading merchandise for slaving voyages.
Landmarks in Manhattan that were built by slaves include the wall on Wall
Street, Fort Amsterdam in what is now Battery Park, the road that became
Broadway, the first and second Trinity Church buildings and the first city
hall (the Dutch Stadt Huys on Pearl Street).
The story of New York's black population during slavery includes heroes
like the poet Jupiter Hammon and the actor James Hewlett who resisted
injustice even as they produced a rich cultural legacy in the face of
adversity. And New Yorkers - both black and white - fought to erase slavery
from the state. Several prominent New Yorkers, including
Aaron Burr, John Jay and Alexander Hamilton,
encouraged by Long Island's Quaker population, formed the New York
Manumission Society, the state's first antislavery club, in 1785, and two
years later established the African Free School in New York City to educate
freed slaves.
New York antislavery forces pressured newspapers not to run slave-sale
advertisements and auction houses not to hold slave sales. They also
provided free legal council to slaves seeking to sue their masters for
freedom.
These efforts bore fruit when the State Legislature enacted a gradual
emancipation law that took effect on July 4, 1799. The law freed all
children born to slave women after July 4, 1799, but only after at least two
decades of forced indenture. Males became free at age 28, and females at age
25. Until then, they were tied to the service of the mother's master.
Unrestricted freedom did not come to New York's slaves until a new
emancipation law took effect 28 years later, on July 4, 1827.
Page 2 of 2)
As that date approached, there was considerable debate among New York's
black residents over how to celebrate abolition of slavery. In March 1827, two
New Yorkers, the Rev. Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm, established Freedom's
Journal, the nation's first black-owned newspaper, and its early issues
resound with this debate. Black New Yorkers worried, among other things, that
a parade on Broadway on the Fourth of July to celebrate abolition would be
disrupted; white revelers often attacked blacks on public holidays.
In the end, the day after was chosen for the commemoration. And on July 5,
1827, 4,000 blacks marched along Broadway, preceded by an honor guard on
horseback and a grand marshal carrying a drawn sword. The parade wound through
the downtown streets to the African Zion Church, where the abolitionist leader
William Hamilton declared, "This day we stand redeemed from a bitter
thralldom." Celebrations were held around the state. Even blacks in Boston and
Philadelphia celebrated the news from New York. Thus, both Douglass's speech
about the significance of Independence Day to American slaves and the
celebration of slavery's end in New York on July 4, 1827, took place on the
fifth.
There are no public celebrations of the fifth today, but as the history of
New York's long involvement in slavery becomes better known to New Yorkers
through lectures, debates, exhibitions and in discussions about the proper way
to memorialize the African Burial Ground, it is fitting to reclaim the
powerful significance of July 4 and 5, 1827, as a holiday of freedom for all
New Yorkers.
By restoring this historical meaning, we acknowledge the role our city and
state played in the institution of slavery. We also honor the
African-Americans who overcame its hardships and injustices to make important
contributions to New York City's cultural life, as did other immigrants who
came here more willingly.
We are the heirs of July 4, treasuring - as Douglass did - the vision of
independence set forth in Philadelphia in 1776. But we are also the heirs of
July 5, which recognizes the evolution of human freedom in our state.
The War for Independence In New York
BY JOHN P. AVLON
July 1, 2005
This Independence Day, increase your appreciation by realizing that the
ground we stand on in New York was the site of some of the most pivotal
battles of the Revolutionary War.
Imagine in the heart of Times Square a corn field dotted with stone walls
where the island's two main dirt roads converged. That is where George
Washington rode on horseback to meet one of his top generals, Israel Putnam,
along with his aide Aaron Burr, to discuss the British invasion of Manhattan
at Kips Bay after they launched from Newtown Creek, which now divides Brooklyn
and Queens. Remember that on September 11, 1776, John Adams and Benjamin
Franklin met with British Admiral Richard Howe on Staten Island for a
conference to try to avert further escalation of the war. The first fleet of
French soldiers who came to aid the cause of American liberty landed at what
is now Sandy Hook. Later, major battles were fought at Throgs Neck in the
Bronx and Harlem Heights and northern Manhattan. ...
Road Trip ... Destination: Bridgewater
Thursday, June 30, 2005
By Bob Batz Jr., Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
....
Rows of Sharon
In 1805, before it became part of Bridgewater (1868), the village of Sharon
was where several "Orleans boats" were built to carry men and supplies to a
Louisiana colony planned by none other than Aaron Burr, who of course played
Perry Mason and Ironsides on TV. Actually, Aaron was the guy who in 1804 out-dueled Alexander Hamilton. While he was Thomas Jefferson's
vice president, Burr's alleged conspiracy to take over the Southwest from
Spain got him arrested for treason. There's a historical marker along
Riverside Drive, which follows the Beaver River from downtown (past the
Pit-Stop Family Restaurant) to the town's riverside nightlife district.
.....
Letter to the Editor
I found your article by Bob Batz, about
Sharon/Bridgewater boat building two centuries ago to be quite interesting.
Aaron Burr was no longer vice president when he
pioneerd to the west on a river boat he had built for only a hundred and
thirty three dollars. On April 20, 1805 he floated down the Ohio River in
his craft measuring some 60' by 14'. In 1858, James Parton tells us it
"contained four apartments, a dining room, a kitchen with fire place, and
two bedrooms, all lighted by glass windows, and the whole covered by a roof,
which served as a promenade deck... Of propelling power it had none, but
merely floated down the swift and winding stream, aided occasionally, and
kept clear of snags and sand banks, by a dexterous use of pole. In the
spring, the current of the Ohio rushes along with surprising swiftness,
carrying with it an ark or raft eight miles an hour... For hundreds and
hundreds of miles, this most monotonously beautiful of rivers winds and
coils itself about among those never-varying, seldom receding hills."
You are indeed fortunate to live in such a
wonderful part of our country. Aaron Burr and so many others recognized the
beauty of our great country as we pushed westward through our history.
To follow up, Aaron Burr defended himself
successfully against his former president Thomas Jefferson's attempt to have
Burr hung for treason that Burr did not commit. Jefferson wanted slavery out
west, while Burr was anti slavery, and prevailed.
Peter Tavino
Litchfield, CT
6/27/05
zwire.com
For local historians, this Independence Day is going to be
a little more special this year.
Advertisement
From time to time, historians from these shoreline towns stop into the
office, offering warm smiles, handshakes and pieces of historical gold.
A recent visit to the Pictorial last month was no different. A quiet, humble
man said little before he left the office, only staying long enough to say,
"you might find this interesting."
And we did.
The clipping he left from the July 8, 1801, edition of the Connecticut
Gazette couldn't have been more timely as Independence Day draws near.
The article gave a short description of the day's activities in "Say-Brook,"
just 25 years after winning the nation's independence, and then listed 16
reasons to be thankful.
Much like the evening fireworks displays that dot the shoreline skies, the
anonymous writer describes the small state's morning reverie that opened
with a "firing of the cannon and the ringing of bell."
By noon, testimonials of joy were repeated and an hour later, Elisha Hart,
William Lynde and other citizens of Say-Brook joined the Rev. Hotchkiss at
his home for the day's prayers and oration. Afterwards, of course, a large
group joined Mr. H. Pratt at his home for a "social repast prepared for the
occasion," full of toasts and merriment. It seems two centuries haven't
changed much of our shoreline's celebration of our nation's independence.
It was the toasts, though, that perhaps we should remember this holiday
weekend, raising our own glasses at our social repasts, to give thanks for
things and people we otherwise take for granted.
The 1801 toasts remembered the "ever memorable" July 4, 1776, and the
patriots who signed the Declaration of Independence. "May tyrants tremble,
and the freemen rejoice."
They toasted the nation of the United States, praying that they forever
"preserve their dignity Independent of all foreign nations."
They held their glasses high for George Washington, the current President
Thomas Jefferson and Vice President Aaron Burr, and the former
President John Adams. None of the celebrants knew that 25 years later to the
day, both Adams and Jefferson would die, at the ages of 90 and 83,
respectively.
The Say-Brook toasts continued, remembering those who fought and bled for
the country, the Militia of the United States, the clergy and the Governor
and State of Connecticut.
They thanked the American Fair, "the pride of the country," and American
Commerce, hoping "Merchantmen rejoice together on the ocean unsearched."
The last three men remembered were local heroes, critical in making the
shoreline what it is today: the gallant Captain Wadsworth, who was
instrumental in the hiding of the Connecticut Charter in what has become
known as the Charter Oak tree back in 1687; George Fenwick, who was honored
for leaving "the shores of tyranny" to defend himself and the land that we
now call Old Saybrook; and finally, Captain Thomas Bull, the first commander
of Say-Brook Fort, who repelled the British in 1675.
With smiles on their faces, the writer described the final cannon shot and
the immediate dispersal of the small crowd to their dwellings at precisely 7
p.m.
May we all enjoy our Independence Day remembrances and keep those toasting
glasses high in the air.
6/25/05
Stately elm lives on as one of its offspring takes root
A new elm is raised into position near the stump of the old tree
in Princeton Cemetery.
Old tree was 278 years old when it fell to Dutch elm disease
Many Princeton residents underwent feelings of grief when Princeton
Cemetery's nearly 300-year-old elm tree was cut down this spring.
A massive stump — its width is a testament to its age — is all that
remains of the tree that once stood behind the cemetery's gate at
Witherspoon and Wiggins streets.
According to cemetery superintendent Douglas Sutphen, every effort was
made to save the elm, which was identified as one of the parent trees of
the Princeton elm.
But despite repeated pruning and treatments, the tree finally succumbed
to Dutch elm disease. The cemetery superintendent said that once it died,
beetles moved in and compromised its stability, making the dead elm a
public-safety hazard, because some of its large branches had overhung the
sidewalk and roadway.
The tree stood at that spot during the Battle of Princeton in January
1777. After it was taken down in late March and early April, several
residents lamented its loss. Someone even placed a bouquet of flowers on
the stump.
Now, people who cared about the old tree have reason to celebrate,
because a genetic offspring of the elm was put in the ground Thursday not
far from where the parent tree once stood.
Wholesale nurseryman Roger Holloway of Riveredge Farms in Atlanta, who
donated the Princeton elm sapling that was installed about 15 feet from
the stump of the old tree, was onsite for the planting.
"They counted 278 rings when they cut the (old) tree down, one ring for
each year that it was alive," he said prior to the installation. He said
there's a photo of Aaron Burr's grave at the cemetery dated about 1854 and
that the elm was huge then. "I've always said the thing has been there
throughout all of American history," he said.
The Princeton elm was introduced by Princeton Nurseries in the 1920s,
selected for cloning by William Flemer Jr. It was Mr. Holloway who
confirmed the cemetery elm as a parent of the Princeton elm variety. He
began selling the Princeton variety in 2000 and today is perhaps the
largest producer of the strain in the world.....
From Letters to the Editor 6/15/05
Columbia University Magazine, Spring 2005
page 69
The Second Second
Your article
on the Hamilton-Burr rematch ("Duel Degree" winter) failed to note that
Burr's second this time around was Peter T___. ('78SEAS). Not only did he
portray William P. VanNess, but Peter also provided the dueling pistols,
which are replicas of the real thing.
Cliff
Wattly '72 SEAS
Ridgefield,
CT
Having worked with the Weehawken Historical
Commission to plan the bicentennial event, Peter Tavino was indeed Antonio
Burr's second at the July 11 reenactment. Last fall he lectured to the
Columbia University Alumni Club of Fairfield County on Burr and Hamilton
and fired his pistols in another restaging of the duel. "I met David
Rockefeller at the Council on Foreign Relations," Tavino told us, "and we
discussed the original pistols he has in the vault of Chase Manhattan, the
bank founded by Aaron Burr. My pistols were used in the History Channel
documentary Duel, with Richard Dreyfuss." - Ed.
At the post
office the other day, I got some change, and one of the shiny
nickels looked odd. The clerk helpfully explained that it was
one of the new "Buffalo Nickels" which honor the bicentennial
of the 1804-06 expedition of the American Corps of Discovery,
led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.
There's another Lewis and Clark nickel scheduled for later
this year, and the mint issued a Sacajawea dollar coin in
2000, to honor the Shoshone woman who helped that expedition
find its way. The portrait on that coin also represented one
of the great moments in coinage creativity, since no one has
any idea what Sacajawea really looked like.
Just a month ago, the Postal Service issued three Lewis and
Clark stamps, and there are a host of re-enactments, tours,
festivals and the like all along their route from St. Louis to
the mouth of the Columbia River and back.
Not to take anything away from Lewis and Clark, but it does
seem astonishing that America devotes so much attention to
their bicentennial, while essentially ignoring the
bicentennial of another American expedition into the West.
That, of course, is the 1806-07 trek led by Lt. Zebulon
Montgomery Pike from St. Louis to the Arkansas River to its
source in the highest of the Rocky Mountains, then into the
San Luis Valley and his capture by Spanish soldiers. Anyone
who has read Pike's journals (which are, of course, out of
print) cannot help but be astonished by the pluck and
perseverance that it took to march barefoot in the Rockies in
the dead of winter.
There are some commemorations planned by the Santa Fe Trail
Association and the Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum. But there
are no stamps, no coins, no TV specials, no acts of Congress.
As far as the national agenda is concerned, Pike never lived,
even if he died in service to his country, leading a charge at
Toronto during the War of 1812.
Why is it that America loves Lewis and Clark, and ignores
Pike? My best guess, after years of sober contemplation, is
that Lewis and Clark fit the traditional notions of American
virtue: They were just trying to find a route, make deals with
the Indians along the way, and add to the store of scientific
knowledge.
In other words, they fit the Republican notion that our
history classrooms should teach the "nobility of America,"
rather than what actually happened. The local right-thinkers
certainly won't criticize a high-school history teacher for
addressing Lewis and Clark.
Now consider Pike. He led two expeditions - one to find the
source of the Mississippi, another to find the start of the
Red River (now known to
be in the Panhandle of Texas but then assumed to be in our
mountains) - and failed at both.
Pike's motives are mysterious to this day, for he could
have been part of a conspiracy that led to former
vice-president Aaron Burr's trial for treason in 1807.
Lewis and Clark got their orders directly from President
Thomas Jefferson, but Pike's orders came from Gen. James
Wilkinson, governor of Louisiana Territory. Wilkinson was
supposed to be defending America as tensions grew with Spain,
which then ruled over a big chunk of our West. But Wilkinson
was also on the Spanish payroll, and he conspired with Burr
toward raising a private army so they could set up their own
empire on this side of the Mississippi.
To this day, historians argue about whether Pike was an
honest soldier of the United States, or a spy sent by
Wilkinson to examine Spanish defenses along that empire's
northern frontier, and whether that spying was for the benefit
of Wilkinson, the U.S. Army officer, or Wilkinson, the Burr
conspirator.
Pike's story is not a simple one, and we don't know a lot
of it. But Pike cannot be addressed without delving into
conspiracies, double agents, secret payrolls, ambiguities,
multiple motives, disputed boundaries, espionage and treason.
It is for this reason, I suspect, that schoolbooks gloss
over Pike if they mention him at all. The politics of the Pike
expedition are vastly more interesting than those of the Corps
of Discovery, but Pike is just too complex to fit into the
myth of America the Inevitable and Ever Virtuous, whereas
Lewis and Clark slide right into the national self-image.
Honoring Pike with a stamp or coin would bring up a lot of
history that many people would prefer to ignore; it is, after
all, much simpler to admire the "Undaunted Courage" of Lewis
and Clark than to explore the tangled intrigues of American
politics two centuries ago.
Ed Quillen of Salida (ed@cozine.com)
is a former newspaper editor whose column appears Tuesday and
Sunday.
Ed,
Please read up on Aaron Burr.
He was betrayed by Wilkinson.
Burr had no idea Wilkinson was a Spanish spy.
Burr's trial ended with his being not guilty
despite slave owner Jefferson wanting Burr hung.
Pike did map out Spanish territory at a time when
war seemed imminent.
Perhaps they should name a military satellite after
him.
Pike's Peak in the sky.
And having a coin seems reasonable since we give
our precious ten to the duel cheating Hamilton.
Ah, sweet vindication for all who have continued to collect baseball cards
as childhood turns to middle age.
Tony Kowalewski, 46 and adult in most ways, pulled into the Northtown
Shinders, in need of a break from his grownup errands a few days ago.
With guilt in his heart -- his spouse, Veronica, doesn't always appreciate
his sports card collection habit -- he bought a box of the recently released
series of Topps baseball cards. There are 24 packs of 12 cards each in a box.
Total cost: About $50.
Kowalewski, a special ed teacher in Forest Lake, said his hand was
almost mystically drawn to the box he purchased. He went to his car, hoping for
maybe one of the rare Barry Bonds cards.
First pack, nothing special.
Second pack, nothing special.
Third pack, nothing special.
"But the fourth pack felt a little thicker," he said.
Fingers quivering, he opened the pack and, sure enough, there was a specially
wrapped card, congratulating him. "You've just received a one of one Martin
Luther King autograph card."
MLK never played big league ball. But his card is part of the "Power Brokers"
series put out by Topps this spring in an effort to bring non-baseball fans into
the baseball card market. The series includes 50 characters ranging from the
likes of Aaron Burr to Hubert Humphrey to Walter Cronkite to Strom Thurmond --
and, of course, King. There's just one card of each of the characters from this
eclectic list. ...
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y., May 26 - For sale: One Greek Revival mansion,
summer home of the 19th-century social climber Madame Eliza Jumel, who married
and divorced Vice President Aaron Burr. Asking price: $750,000. Walking
distance to Saratoga Gaming and Raceway and downtown. Legends, ghost stories
and colorful rumors included. Fixer-upper.
Stewart Cairns for The New York Times
The Jumel mansion, built around 1832, is for sale at
$750,000.
Stewart Cairns for The New York Times
Dr. Leo Hoge, a former owner of the Jumel mansion in
Saratoga Springs, N.Y., toured the historic house last week, his first
visit in 35 years.
A portrait of Madame Jumel in a book on her life at
the mansion.
Built around 1832, the white-columned house was put up for sale after its
most recent owner, Richard Speers, a popular mathematics professor at Skidmore
College, died of a heart attack in February.
It was clear that Mr. Speers had a sense of humor about the home occupied
by one of Saratoga's most notorious residents. He named his two standard
poodles "Madame" and "Eliza."
May 29, 2005 NYTimes book review on Vindication:
In late 1790 Wollstonecraft's ''Vindication of the Rights of Men,'' the first
counter to Edmund Burke's treatise on the dangers of the French Revolution,
was published anonymously; ''all the best journals of the day discussed it.''
But when she produced ''The Vindication of the Rights of Woman'' just 14
months later, her name was on the title page and all hell broke loose. It was
the most immodest emergence of a woman's voice in memory and the 32-year-old
Wollstonecraft became famous. While the American statesman Aaron Burr declared
''your sex has in her an able advocate . . . a work of genius'' (and John
Adams teased his wife, Abigail, for being a ''Disciple of Wollstonecraft!'')
Horace Walpole's reaction was more typical. He called her a ''hyena in
petticoats.''
Hello -
I am descended from Solomon Stoddard, Burr's great-great-grandfather, have
read much on Burr and am puzzled that apparently so few of his speeches and
writings survive. Might you direct me to a source where I could find his
noted farewell speech to Senate?
'Rivers of Memory' a
delightful paddle in midcoast Maine
...On this same trip, a few short miles down the Kennebec, Gibson's passage
east of Swan Island gave him the chance to weave history into his river
narrative - in this case through the Jacataqua tale.
In the 1700s, Gibson tells us, Jacataqua lived on Swan Island, located just
offshore present-day Richmond. Part French and part Abanaki Indian, Jacataqua
married Aaron Burr and accompanied him on the ill-fated 1775 Arnold expedition
to Quebec.
True or not, Gibson recounts the rumor that, years after the Arnold
expedition, Jacataqua drowned herself upon hearing that Burr shot Alexander
Hamilton in a duel.
During his southern Kennebec excursion, Gibson does more than just paddle the
river. At one point he detours to the Eastern River, where his kayak bumps a
sturgeon.
The following day he scoots into the Cathance ...
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE REVIEW
Accused peeping Tom wanted a little more
By
Michael
Hasch
TRIBUNE-REVIEW Friday, May 13, 2005
A suspected peeping Tom is accused of burglarizing the homes of
young women he had earlier watched undress.
Aaron Burr, 23, who had addresses in Lincoln-Lemington and
Morningside, is charged with three break-ins and an attempted
burglary in Morningside, Pittsburgh police Lt. Robert Roth said.
He is a suspect in at least two other burglaries in Morningside
and Highland Park, city burglary detective Michael Pilyih said.
"Burr admitted he would look into windows at females in various
stages of undress for sexual gratification and would later
burglarize the locations, taking small electronic items," Roth
said.
Burr was arrested Wednesday when he appeared in the courtroom of
Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Kathleen A. Durkin to stand
trial on charges filed in connection with similar crimes that
occurred last year, Pilyih said.
Pilyih and his partner, David Jellison, initially believed the
Morningside break-ins were committed by the serial burglar
suspected of breaking into more than two dozen homes in Highland
Park and Point Breeze.
But after talking to the young women involved, the detectives
remembered that they had arrested Burr for similar crimes last
year.
Burglary detectives John Mihalcin and Gregory Schanck, who also
were involved in the investigation, said it is very rare to have a
peeping Tom involved in burglaries.
"Most burglars target a residence, get inside, steal the goods
and liquify them as soon as possible for money to buy drugs or
whatever," Pilyih said.
Detectives said Burr did not attempt to touch any of the women.
"In three of the cases, Burr was confronted by female residents
and fled the area, asking them not to call police," Roth said.
Burr, who now is in the Allegheny County Jail, is charged with
burglarizing an apartment on Stanton Avenue on April 8 and 19,
attempting to break into an apartment on Heths Avenue on April 28
and burglarizing a home on Chislett Street the next night.
Trips
American history is right at home in New Hope
Mules haul tourists on Delaware Canal barges
By Ronald Hube
Special To The Sun
Originally published May 12, 2005
Just before the Civil War, thousands of
mule-drawn boats carried coal, lumber and produce along the Delaware Canal in
eastern Pennsylvania. Today, mules still pull vessels through the manmade
waterway, but the numbers are far fewer, and instead of food and materials,
the boats carry tourists....
For an overview of New Hope history, architecture and many shops and
restaurants, take a guided walking tour of the town at 11 a.m. any morning
Wednesday through Sunday. The tours meet rain or shine at the cannon next to
the Logan Inn at Ferry and Main streets. Ghost tours start at the same spot at
8 p.m. on Saturdays June-November - you might spot the spirit of Aaron Burr,
the U.S. vice president who fled to New Hope in 1804 after killing Alexander
Hamilton in a duel.....
May 11, 2005
On Bluffs
and Nuclear Options
By
Lee Harris
Published
05/11/2005
A Two Hundred Year Old Tradition?
Democrats tells us that the
filibuster tradition is two hundred years old, making it almost old as
the
United States
itself. Just Google the phrase "the filibuster tradition" and up will
pop a number of sites in which it is confidently stated that the
filibuster tradition goes back to the earliest days of the Senate
But if the filibuster tradition is really a
tradition, who started it? ...
Who Invented the Filibuster?
To discover the question to this
question, I turned off my computer, got out my battered edition of The
Encyclopedia Britannia, and shortly discovered that the filibuster tradition
does not have quite the pedigree that current Democrat polemists have assigned
to it. "From 1789 to 1828 the presiding officer of the senate…had, in practice,
the unappealable power to stop superfluous motions and tedious speeches, and
evidence seems to indicate that this power was used by vice-presidents John
Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr."
May 8, 2005
City Lore NY Times.com
Before Richard Meier, There Were - Plants
For all its cutting-edge, 21st-century glory, and despite the fact that
Manhattan would seem an inhospitable place for greenhouses, the Nolen
Greenhouses is part of a lineage reaching back deeply into the city's history.
Historical records show that as early as 1793, a commercial nursery existed in
Lower Manhattan with a business that was engaged in "keeping sundry plants in
winter," and a client list that included luminaries like Aaron Burr and Robert
Livingston.
The glass structures were an import from Europe, which was enjoying a "mania"
for hothouses, as the English botanist J. C. Loudon wrote, and "glass
horticulture" was a modern marvel that allowed people to "exhibit spring and
summer in the midst of winter" and "to give man so proud a command over Nature."
May 2. 2005
Monday, May
02, 2005
— Time:
7:45:53 AM EST
Blennerhassett Island begins new season
By DAVE PAYNE Sr.
PARKERSBURG - A stream of visitors trickled to Blennerhassett
Island Historical State Park Sunday as the island opened its shores
to begin a new season of tourism.
The attendance wasn't spectacular - officials say that opening
day never is - and nothing compared to what it will see in a few
months when school buses from across the state bring children to the
island for end-of-the-school-year field trips.
The island is a common field-trip destination because of its
historical significance and the reconstructed mansion of Harman and
Margaret Blennerhassett, who lived there in the early 19th Century.
The island was once nationally known as a place of notoriety in
much the same way as the Watergate Hotel was in the 1970s. It was on
the island that former Vice President Aaron Burr tried to raise an
army to establish a western empire.
The plot failed and Burr was charged with treason. He was
acquitted, but would again make news when he shot and killed former
Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton.
Volunteers serving as tour guides help the island promote its
rich history. Tour guides, dressed in 19th-century clothing led the
visitors on tours of the mansion. ....
(Someone should remind them that Burr
and Hamilton dueled before Burr visited the Blennerhassetts.)
"Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of
1800," by John Ferling, Oxford University Press, $26, 288 pages.
"1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft & Debs -- The Election that Changed the
Country," by James Chace, Simon & Schuster, $25.95. 283 pages.
"Happy Days Are Here Again: The 1932 Democratic Convention, the Emergence
of FDR, and How America Was Changed Forever," by Steve Neal, William Morrow,
$26.95, 324 pages.
Politics is never out of season, especially the presidential kind. These three
books examine three campaigns past.
The first, "Adams vs. Jefferson," delves into a campaign of extraordinary
complexity that was complicated still further by the sheer newness of the
process. Only the second contested presidential election in U.S. history (the
first was the election of 1796), the contestants barely trusted one another to
do the right thing. (Well, that much hasn't changed.) The rules of the
political game were pretty much in flux.
At first blush, the issue of trust seems odd. The principals, John Adams,
the incumbent president, and Thomas Jefferson, the incumbent vice president,
come down to us as paragons of democratic virtue. However, the two men, once
and future friends, could barely stomach one another in 1800. Their saving
grace was a mutual distrust of Aaron Burr, who finished ahead of Adams and
thus became Jefferson's vice president.
Before plunging into "Adams vs. Jefferson" try to clear your mind of the
modern presidential election tableau: tediously long primary season, party
conventions, campaign stop hoopla, election night vigils.
Print this article
E-mail this article
Subscribe to this paper
Larger