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The Daily Dose/June 8, 2011
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Notes from around The Human Experience...
IN PROGRESS CAPSULE BOOK REVIEW: Eyewitness To America: 500 Years Of America In The Words Of Those Who Saw It Happen, Edited by David Colbert: The reporting of history is, of course, subjective, and its editors can be just as subjective, but using diaries, newspapers, memoirs and personal correspondence, Colbert has managed to put together a collection of American letters that puts the reader in the front row for virtually every significant American milestone, from Columbus first sighting land in 1492 through till 1998, right before the book was first published.
Live, In-Game Update: We're up to the Civil War, and it's going to take us awhile to get through it because the book is almost 600 pages and, as noted from time to time here, we are rather leisurely readers.
The More Things Change…: The very first entry is written by an officer sailing with Columbus as they discover the New World in 1492. Even then the white man acted as if owned the place, setting the tone for bending the natives over for the high, hard one that didn't end until we had taken all their land and put them on reservations.
This from the native's first recorded encounter with a European, at what is now San Salvador, Bahamas, as Columbus begins the white man's centuries-long conquest of the New World:
…he (Columbus) called them as witnesses…as he in fact took possession said island for the King and Queen his masters, making the declarations that were required…
We The People: Also useful is getting tidbits the history books leave out. Here is a good example: it is common knowledge that Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, although the members of the Second Continental Congress got their mitts on it before it was approved, a butchering Jefferson took rather gracefully.
Dry, Technical Matter: What is known by fewer is that Jefferson was one of five people appointed to a committee to write the Declaration, and that Jefferson was selected by the other members to write it.
Jefferson had his share of modesty, but he also knew he had his talents, and it is not clear by this conversation with fellow patriot John Adams whether Jefferson really needed to be coaxed into writing the Declaration of Independence, or rather Jefferson merely needed his ego satiated by being convinced no one else in the colonies was up to the challenge and that the entire future of human liberty was riding on his pen:
Adams: You should do it.
Jefferson: Oh! No.
They haggle for a bit. This is from an account written by Adams, but it's not difficult to picture Jefferson holding out until he is told how indispensable he is:
Adams: …I am obnoxious, suspected and unpopular…You can write ten times better than I can."
Jefferson's ego had been satisfactorily stroked: Very well…I will do as well as I can.
You Got A Wine Pairing With That? What is interesting is the matter-of-fact way history is treated by those making it. In the first-hand chronicle of the Donner Party the main focal point is the weather and the eating of dead humans is mentioned, but almost in passing, given no more import than if they were eating deer.
Then, this from James W. Marshall, the man who discovered gold at Sutter's Mill:
And there, upon the rock, about six inches beneath the surface of the water, I discovered the gold. I was entirely alone at the time.
OTOH: By contrast, Mary Boykin Chestnut's diary entries about the attack of Fort Sumter and the start of the Civil War brim with excitement, and an entry about her slaves is particularly poingnant:
Not by one word or look can we detect any change in the demeanor of these Negro servants…They make no sign. Are they stolidly stupid? or wiser than we are; silent and strong, biding their time?
In Progress Rating: Well, we can't issue an official rating, of course, but unless this gets really boring, it is going to get high marks. Any thinking citizen will like it.
Constitution 1.1.0: James Madison, then a member of the House of Representatives, introduces twelve amendments to the new US Constitution in Congress on this date in 1789. Ten are passed by 1791 and become the Bill of Rights. One, concerning Congressional pay raises would be ratified in 1992 and become the 27th Amendment. The other, concerning how members of the house are apportioned to the several states, was never ratified.
Dry, Technical Matter: What would become the 27th Amendment was ratified by a few states through 1792, then everybody forgot about it. To protest Congressional pay raises at the time, Ohio got snitty and ratified it in 1873 and Wyoming did the same thing in 1978 and in the rest of the states began following suit in 1983.
Now You Know: We usually only concern ourselves with the major league record book here at the Writer's Shack, but we think it's important to note that on this date in 1909 Cack Henley of the San Francisco Seals throws the longest complete game shutout in the history of professional baseball when he goes all 24 innings in a 1-0 Pacific Coast League victory over the Oakland Oaks.
Oh Yeah: The corresponding major league record is 18 innings, done in the National League by our recent friend Monte Ward of Providence (1882) and Carl Hubbell of the Giants (1933), and in the American League by Ed Summers of Detroit (1903) and Walter Johnson of the Senators (1918). All but Summers, whose game was a 0-0 tie, won 1-0 games.
On Vacation: We're taking a few days off here at the Writer's Shack. Be cool, though. We'll be back late next week!
Thought For The Day: There is not much sense in setting one's foot upon the road and not traveling the fullest possible distance. - James Madison
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: The Second Continental Congress did not have the legal authority to perform any of the functions of a national government it carried out. It merely assumed those powers.
Today's Stumper: Besides Jefferson and Adams, who else was on the Committee of Five appointed by the Second Continental Congress to write what became the Declaration of Independence? - Answer next time!
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