Two Views of Internal Improvements

I can't resist juxtaposing these two quotes.

Whatever . . . impedes the intercourse of the extremes with this, the centre of the Republic, weakens the Union. The more enlarged the sphere of commercial circulation, the more extended that of social intercourse; the more strongly are we bound together; the more inseparable are our destinies.

Those who understand the human heart best, know how powerfully distance tends to break the sympathies of our nature. Nothing, not even dissimilarity of language, tends more to estrange man from man. Let us then . . . bind the Republic together with a perfect system of roads and canals. Let us conquer space. . . .

John Caldwell Calhoun, February 4, 1817.

“After all,” said he, . . . “I don’t deny that the steamboat is destined to produce valuable results – but after all, I much question . . . if we are not better without it. I declare, I think it strikes deeper at the supremacy of the states than most persons are willing to allow. This annihilation of space, sir, is not to be desired. Our protection against the evils of consolidation consists in the very obstacles to our intercourse. Splatterthwaite Dubbs of Dinwiddie . . . made a good remark – That the home material of Virginia was never so good as when her roads were at their worst.”

John Pendleton Kennedy, Swallow Barn; or, A Sojourn in the Old Dominion (1832).

Thrasyboulos, Son of Lykos

In his Ancient Greek History lectures, Donald Kagan urges us to remember the Athenian Thrasyboulos, who defeated the Thirty Tyrants and returned democracy to Athens following the end of the Peloponnesian War. Professor Kagan points out the remarkable reputation that Thrasybulus carried among historians in the ancient world, who probably were relying on sources now lost to us.

Here is the remarkable assessment of 1st Century B.C. Roman biographer Cornelius Nepos:

THRASYBULUS, the son of Lycus, was a native of Athens. If merit is to be valued by itself, without regard to fortune, I doubt whether I ought not to place him first of all the Greek commanders. This I can say without hesitation, that I set no man above him in integrity, firmness, greatness of mind, and love for his country; for while many have wished, and few have been able, to deliver their country from one tyrant, it was his lot to restore his country, oppressed by thirty tyrants, from slavery to freedom. But though no man excelled him in these virtues, many, I know not how, surpassed him in fame.

The 2nd Century A.D. Greek traveler, geographer and historian Pausanias likewise regarded him as "the greatest of all famous Athenians," including Pericles:

Such are their sanctuaries here, and of the graves the first is that of Thrasybulus son of Lycus, in all respects the greatest of all famous Athenians, whether they lived before him or after him. The greater number of his achievements I shall pass by, but the following facts will suffice to bear out my assertion. He put down what is known as the tyranny of the Thirty, setting out from Thebes with a force amounting at first to sixty men; he also persuaded the Athenians, who were torn by factions, to be reconciled, and to abide by their compact. His is the first grave, and after it come those of Pericles, Chabrias and Phormio.

The Potomac Canal and the Constitution

Susan Dunn notes an irony in the fact that, in subsequent years, many of Virginia’s founding fathers disputed that the Constitution authorized the federal government to support “internal improvements,” as they were then known. After all, Prof. Dunn observes,

The Framers of the Constitution had come together in Philadelphia precisely to create a national government with the capacity to plan and support a system of roads and canals. From the very beginning, “internal improvements” – roads, canals, bridges – had been not only the new government’s mission but its raison d’etre.

As Prof. Dunn recounts, the pre-history of the gathering of the Constitutional Convention lay in the possibility of using the Potomac River to develop a Potomac Canal that would funnel trade from Ohio through Virginia. Thomas Jefferson supported the idea, and George Washington was particularly enthusiastic.

Because the Potomac River lay between Virginia and Maryland, Washington organized a “Mount Vernon Conference, at which representatives from Virginia and Maryland would meet in March 1785 to work out commercial and legal issues.” That plan developed into a larger conference, to be held in Annapolis in the fall of 1786, at which “representatives from all thirteen states would gather to consider a ‘uniform system’ for regulating commerce and transportation across the nation.”

The resulting conference, known as the Annapolis Convention, convened at Annapolis, Maryland in September 1786 to consider, in the words of the resulting Report, “how far an uniform system in their [the states’] commercial intercourse and regulations might be necessary to their common interest and permanent harmony.” The Annapolis Convention, however, “proved a disappointment, with delegates from only five states in attendance.” Nonetheless, the delegates issued a Report in which they called for yet another conference, at which, they hoped, delegates would agree to authorize the federal government to initiate and orchestrate infrastructure projects. In the words of the Report:

Your Commissioners, with the most respectful deference, beg leave to suggest their unanimous conviction, that it may essentially tend to advance the interests of the union, if the States, by whom they have been respectively delegated, would themselves concur, and use their endeavours to procure the concurrence of the other States, in the appointment of Commissioners, to meet at Philadelphia on the second Monday in May next, to take into consideration the situation of the United States, to devise such further provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the constitution of the Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union; and to report such an Act for that purpose to the United States in Congress assembled, as when agreed to, by them, and afterwards confirmed by the Legislatures of every State, will effectually provide for the same.

That proposed conference became the Constitutional Convention. “And so, a direct line of descent can be traced from the Constitutional Convention – at which Benjamin Franklin called for ‘a power to provide for cutting canals where deemed necessary’ – back to George Washington’s Potomac Canal.”

It is perhaps appropriate to give the last word to John Quincy Adams, who during his presidency “called once again for a national plan for internal improvements."

Unlike [James] Madison, [Adams] had not attended the Constitutional Convention, but he did not doubt that the Constitution allowed for such federal undertakings. If it had not, Adams mused, it could be said that the Founders “performed their work in a manner so ineffably stupid as to deny themselves the means of bettering their own condition.”

Leo Kottke

Some guitar videos that Rene Tyree posted on Facebook got me thinking about Leo Kottke. This version of "Louise" is, unfortunately, far inferior to the version that appears on Kottke's second album, Greenhouse. But if I had to pick just one Kottke album to recommend, I'd go for his first, 6- and 12- String Guitar.

Add It to the List

Richard Painter at Volokh recommends Mark R. Killenbeck's M'Culloch v. Maryland: Securing a Nation for a "comprehensive discussion of the First Bank of the United States." The H-Net review does indeed make it look quite interesting.

Although the illustration depicts Chief Justice John Marshall at a later event, it's not entirely irrelevant given Andrew Jackson's attack on the Second Bank. Plus, I love Andy's hair!

"Strictly, the Southerner had no mind; he had temperament"

Susan Dunn's Dominion of Memories led me to this highly amusing description of Robert E. Lee's son, William Henry Fitzhugh ("Rooney") Lee. Henry Adams, Rooney's classmate at Harvard in the late 1850s, provided this sketch of Rooney and other southerners he encountered at school, in his The Education of Henry Adams:

Lee, known through life as “Roony,” was a Virginian of the eighteenth century, much as Henry Adams was a Bostonian of the same age. Roony Lee had changed little from the type of his grandfather, Light Horse Harry. Tall, largely built, handsome, genial, with liberal Virginian openness towards all he liked, he had also the Virginian habit of command and took leadership as his natural habit. No one cared to contest it. None of the New Englanders wanted command. For a year, at least, Lee was the most popular and prominent young man in his class, but then seemed slowly to drop into the background. The habit of command was not enough, and the Virginian had little else. He was simple beyond analysis; so simple that even the simple New England student could not realize him. No one knew enough to know how ignorant he was; how childlike; how helpless before the relative complexity of a school. As an animal, the Southerner seemed to have every advantage, but even as an animal he steadily lost ground.

The lesson in education was vital to these young men, who, within ten years, killed each other by scores in the act of testing their college conclusions. Strictly, the Southerner had no mind; he had temperament. He was not a scholar; he had no intellectual training; he could not analyse an idea, and he could not even conceive of admitting two; but in life one could get along very well without ideas, if one had only the social instinct. Dozens of eminent statesmen were men of Lee’s type, and maintained themselves well enough in the legislature, but college was a sharper test.

John Taylor of Caroline Says, "Ouch!"

Having spent some time in New Haven myself, I got a particular kick out of this story related by Susan Dunn in Dominion of Memories: Jefferson, Madison & the Decline of Virginia (which I'm enjoying very much).

In 1805, John Taylor of Caroline apparently wrote to Timothy Dwight, then President of Yale College, concerning the admission of his (Taylor's) son to the school. Dwight responded with a cutting letter illustrating "the widening cultural chasm between North and South":

"Permit me to say that I do not think it would forward your design to send your son to this college," . . . Dwight wrote dismissively . . .. As far as Dwight was concerned, young Virginians inhabited another sphere, so unsuited were they for serious study in New Haven. "If I may judge from the Virginia youths who have been here during my presidency," he observed, "I cannot form a rational hope that youths from that country will at all acquire here any portion of the New England manners." Most of the southern students who had attended Yale, Dwight wrote, "despised and hated our manners,morals, industry, and religion. No part of our system or conduct was agreeable to them."

Dunn reports that, to his credit, Taylor for the most part kept to the high road in response to Dwight:

Rather than exacerbating regional differences [Taylor suggested], shouldn't the nation's colleges promote understanding among the states and help obliterate those differences? "Consider, sir, the consequences of academical institutions, which teach local prejudices, State enmities, and individual hatred. What will become of the Union and national happiness, if errors calculated to arm State against State, with the most deadly moral weapons, are inculcated by zeal, rendered doubly dangerous by credulity?"

Dwight's letter strikes me as particularly odd because another southerner, John C. Calhoun, had graduated from Yale just the year before. I don't have my Calhoun biographies with me, but Dwight no doubt admitted him and my recollection is that Calhoun performed brilliantly, despite little prior formal education, and got on famously with Dwight.

Jimmy Carter Is Still a Moron, At Least

I'm old enough to remember Jimmy Carter in his original incarnation. The only question is whether he's just an idiot or downright malevolent. He spent most of his term trying to make the country look like "a weak, pitiful giant." His subsequent career, however, suggested that he was more evil than stupid: the incorrigible America bashing, the repeated siding with intolerant theocracies and dictatorships and murderous terrorist groups.

Carter's most recent lunacy swings the needle back toward "just really stupid:" According to Carter, the Civil War was un-Christian:

Here's the latest outrage from Jimmy Carter, the ex-President so many Americans love to hate: He claims the Civil War - which he calls, Southern-style, "The War Between the States" - was un-Christian and could have been avoided.

The comments come in a new book, "In Lincoln's Hand: His Original Manuscripts With Commentary By Distinguished Americans." Carter comments on a passage by Lincoln in which Lincoln writes: "I am almost ready to say this is probably true - that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet."

Carter writes that he finds the Lincoln writing "very troubling." Continues Carter: "He ignores the fact that the tragic combat might have been avoided altogether, and that the leaders of both sides, overwhelmingly Christian, were violating a basic premise of their belief as followers of the Prince of Peace." He concludes: "A legitimate question for historians is how soon the blight of slavery would have been terminated peacefully in America, as in Great Britain and other civilized societies."

I discussed this a long time ago.

Thanks to LGF for the lead.

Strapping Swedish Swordsman Pussy Whipped in Brazilian Pine Barrens

I have to note with pride that my hometown paper, the New York Post, has been on a roll lately. On Thursday, the Post ran the front page headline, “PUSSY WHIPPED!”, about a small-time celebrity who had thrown her cat at her sleeping fiancé.

The next day, page 2 of the paper included the headline, “IT’S BUSH COME TO SHOVE IN WAX WAR”. The State of New Jersey, apparently having nothing better to do, was about to outlaw “’Brazilian’ bikini waxes”, and hirsute Garden State women were outraged because “officials have no business legislating what women do with their, uh, Pine Barrens.“

That same day, New Jersey officials dropped the planned Brazilian wax ban. The headline of the resulting Post article wasn’t great (“NJ Scraps Ban on Brazilian Waxing”), but the lead sentence of the article happily announced that “New Jersey is smoothing out differences over a plan to ban bare-it-all bikini waxing.”

But to make up for its somewhat disappointing wax-ban performance, the Post produced “They Made Swede Love: Divorce Countess’ Heart Pierced By Fencer’s Blade”. I particularly like the opening paragraph:

An "off the reservation" countess who complains she can't live on a measly $36 million divorce settlement admitted she had a steamy affair with a strapping Swedish swordsman during her tumultuous marriage.

Jean-Baptiste Lully

I see that Jean-Baptiste Lully died today, March 22, in 1687. If you have never heard a French baroque opera, you owe it to yourself to do so, and I just happen to have a recommendation: Lully's Atys, as performed by William Christie and his group Les Arts Florissants. Simply magnificent.

"When Jackson begins to talk about hanging . . . look out for ropes"

As South Carolina moved toward nullification in November 1832, President Andrew Jackson's rage mounted. He reportedly told one congressman,

Tell them from me that they can talk and write resolutions and print threats to their heart's content. But if one drop of blood be shed there in defiance of the laws of the United States, I will hang the first man of them I can get my hands on to the first tree I can find.

To another, Jackson warned that South Carolina would be "covered with blood." And Jackson told Martin Van Buren that John C. Calhoun "ought to be hung as a traitor."

Washington buzzed with reports of the president's statements and "threatening the gallows." Many felt that Jackson was impulsive enough to carry out his threats. Jackson loyalist Thomas Hart Benton was one of them. Benton knew Jackson well, both as an enemy and, later, a political ally and friend. Benton also knew from personal experience that Jackson was no stranger to violence. In September 1813, Jackson and several companions were involved in a running gunfight with Benton and Benton's brother Jesse in downtown Nashville, during which Jesse was repeatedly stabbed and Jackson was shot twice and nearly killed.

Thus, when Robert Y. Hayne of South Carolina approached Benton to ask, "I don't believe [Jackson] would really hang anybody do you?", Benton warned him not to be so sure:

Well before he invaded Florida on his own hook, few people could have believed that he would hang [Alexander] Arbuthnot and shoot [Robert] Ambrister -- also on his own authority -- could they? I tell you, Hayne, when Jackson begins to talk about hanging, they can begin to look out for ropes.

James Alley Blues

When I first heard "James Alley Blues" by Richard "Rabbit" Brown I was stunned, and it remains one of my favorite pieces of early music and blues to this day. If you know it, it's probably because it appears on the Harry Smith Anthology. It also shows up on the excellent Times Ain't Like They Used to Be series and on a Document Records disc that Brown shares with Mississippi John Hurt (and which I see has been discontinued).

The Wikipedia entry mentions that many modern musicians have covered the piece. I've heard only a couple, but my advice is -- don't bother. Nothing can approach the original.

Andrew Jackson = Millard Fillmore?

The great historian David M. Potter famously characterized the Compromise of 1850 as an "armistice" rather than a "compromise" because few legislators voted in favor of all of its components. Most historians -- but not all -- have embraced this conclusion.

Harry L. Watson suggests that the same debate might be had concerning the resolution of the Nullification Crisis (emphasis added):

The compromise tariff bill won the support of a coalition of low-tariff supporters and moderately protectionist congressmen, while the Force Bill passed with the votes of National Republicans and Northern Jacksonians. Few congressmen voted for both measures, but Jackson signed the two of them into law on March 2, 1833.

Martin Van Buren Says, "Ouch!"

I'm not sure I agree with this, but the first sentence of the quote is too wonderful to pass up:

The one thing missing from the Bucktails' program was a consistent and principled set of state policies. Emphasizing patronage and party discipline, they concentrated on the dead issue of Federalist elitism and evaded the substantive questions of their own times. As good Republicans, for example, the Bucktails were ostensibly opposed to the overwhelming power of banking institutions, but bankers who endorsed the Bucktail faction had no trouble getting what they needed from the legislature. . . . Under Van Buren's leadership, the strength of the Republican Party became synonymous with republicanism itself, and party loyalty alone became the test of the common good.

Harry L. Watson's Liberty and Power: The Politics of Jacksonian America is just wonderful.

About the illustration:

A satire condemning the duplicity and conspiracy of the "Bucktail" faction of New York Democrats in their April 1824 ouster of New York's ex-governor DeWitt Clinton from his post as canal commissioner. The Library's impression of the print has the missing letters in the names of the figures filled in by hand. Twelve men stand in a room, with a platform, table, and lamp on the right. On the left G[ardiner] is about to exit saying, "I will run home and ask the people how they will like it before I give my vote." To the left of the platform P[ierson] says to B[ourne], "I hope we shall give you a united vote for the removal of Mr. Clinton I have long wished an opportunity to have revenge on him for blowing up the old Burr Conspiracy." B[ourne]: "I am delighted with the prospect! Clinton has always been my devil--it will be impossible to pull him down to our level if we do not dishonor him. I recommend secrecy as success depends upon our taking the members by surprise at the moment of adjournment." Others in the room speak (counterclockwise, from the far left): S[eama]n: "I beg of you to pause ere you adopt any more lobby measures--we were sent here for public good--yet all our measures have for their object individual benefit. This base deed will produce a reaction and may make him Governor. The republican party so justly famed for justice and liberality will in their haste to free themselves from this odium forget and forgive everything." M[ors]e: "The North river squad think the Canal a benefit to ourside [sic] of the City and they will therefore disapprove our dishonoring its founder." D[rake]: "I wish I could be excused from voting, my conscience tells me it is wrong my judgment tells me it will dishonor the State--but the lobby requires it and it must be done." H[yatt]: "I vote here against the measure but if a majority of this meeting decide in its favor I will vote for it in the house tomorrow as my creed is the majority must rule." B[enedict]: "It is inconsistant with a Soldiers honor to build up or pull down any man to gratify angry or sordid passions --besides this lobby influence must be check'd or it will ruin the State." [Henry] W[heaton]: "I will support the measure to punish him for the injury he did our profession by recommending the fee bill and extending the jurisdiction of the judges." [Clarkson] C[rolius]: "I will support the measure in hopes of appeasing the wrath of the Bucktails altho' I fear they are too hard baked to be gull'd in this way. Besides My Insurance Co. & the lobby." W[ar]d: "My vote shall be given for this removal because he is the author of all our troubles about the electoral law. When Govr. he recommended to the Legislature the restoration of the peoples rights." T[own]: "It is true he has been my Benefactor and I ought to shudder at the deed but three months tuition in the hands of the lobby does away these squeamish feelings." Above, in a cloud, is Columbia with an American flag and an eagle, saying, "I renounce them and their ways."

"There was something that riveted your attention as with hooks of steel"

John Caldwell Calhoun was born 227 years ago today, on March 18, 1782.

Calhoun's oratorical style was the nearly perfect expression of his character and intellect. It combined "clear analysis, suppressed passion, and lofty earnestness." His only eloquence inhered in his argument. "He spoke as Euclid would have spoken," said [Rufus] Choate, who was himself Ciceronian, believing that the inert argument required the momentum of eloquence to reach its mark. Calhoun spoke with precision, without tropes, figures, analogies, or allusions. He spoke almost always without notes, and excelled in impromptu debate. "His voice was harsh, his gestures stiff, like the motions of pump-handle," a keen observer wrote. "There was no ease, flexibility, grace, or charm in his manner, yet there was something . . . that riveted your attention as with hooks of steel."

For all his machine-like rhetoric, Calhoun was, according to a Washington journalist, the most difficult man to report in the Congress. "He spoke with extraordinary fluency and rapidity, at times uttering short, piquant sentences that had the force of a round shot, and then running into a prolonged and involved sentence that required a sharp man to follow and comprehend." Since there was so little winning in the manner of Calhoun's oratory, one had to be taken in, if taken at all, by the matter.

Merrill D. Peterson, The Great Triumvirate: Webster, Clay, and Calhoun.

"A few striking examples"

When he left him this morning, James Buchanan was asserting that, if Section 25 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 were repealed, federal laws “would thus be entirely annulled.” He proceeded to give “a few striking examples” – hypotheticals that illustrated the point.

His first example took aim directly at South Carolina, the tariff and nullification:

Suppose the Legislature of one of the States, believing the tariff laws to be unconstitutional, should determine that they ought not to be executed within its limits. They accordingly pass a law, imposing the severest penalties upon the collector and other custom-house officers of the United States within their territory, if they should collect the duties on the importation of foreign merchandise. The collector proceeds to discharge the duties of his office under the laws of the United States, and he is condemned and punished before a State court for violating this State law.

Repeal of Section 25, Buchanan asserted, would allow the unnamed state to “nullify” the tariff:

Repeal this section, and the decision of the State court [convicting the collector] would be final and conclusive; and any State could thus nullify any act of Congress which she deemed to be unconstitutional.

Such a result would be disastrous, for the choices would be dissolution or war:

If no such appeal [to the Supreme Court] existed, then, upon the occurrence of cases of this character, the General Government would be compelled to determine whether the Union should be dissolved, or whether there should be a recurrence to force – an awful alternative, which we trust may never be presented. We will not attempt further to portray the evils which might result from the abandonment of the present judicial system. They will strike every reflecting mind.

Thirty years later, then President Buchanan confronted a similar choice between dissolution or war. As I have discussed in the past, he regrettably took the position that, although secession was unauthorized, the federal government lacked the power under the Constitution to employ (in his earlier words) “a recurrence to force” to prevent it.

"These laws would be entirely annulled"

Over the weekend, I referred to a report issued by the House Judiciary Committee on January 24, 1831 endorsing a bill that would have repealed Section 25 of the Judiciary Act of 1789. Section 25 then authorized the United States Supreme Court to review, among other things, final judgments of state supreme courts holding federal statutes to be “invalid”. The proposal had obvious application to the then-simmering Nullification dispute.

The minority “Counter Report” was written by none other than Rep. James Buchanan of Pennsylvania. Since most people (including me) have little good to say about him, I thought I’d take a look at what seems to have been Mr. Buchanan’s finest hour.

The most interesting thing about Buchanan’s report is that it takes on nullification fairly directly. If Section 25 were repealed,

[t]he judiciary of the States might refuse to carry into effect the laws of the United States; and without that appeal to the Supreme Court which the 25th section authorizes, these laws would be entirely annulled, and could not be executed without resort to force.

In the next installment, I’ll look at “a few striking examples” that Buchanan uses to illustrate his point.

Happy Birthday, Jemmy!

James Madison would have been born on March 16, 1751 if he had been born in 1752 instead of 1750. Ralph Ketcham explains:

Because of his birth just before Great Britain's calendar reform in 1752, Madison had two "birthdates," a Julian, or Old Style, one and a Gregorian, or New Style one. A calendar on the wall the night of his birth would have read March 5, 1750, reflecting the eleven-day lag accumulated by the inaccurate Julian calendar, and the designation of March 25 rather than January 1 as the first day of the new year. Adoption of the Gregorian calendar added eleven days to Old Style dates and changed the first of the year date, thus making Madison's birthdate March 16, 1751, New Style, though like many of his contemporaries he sometimes used the Old Style date and/or year in speaking of his birth.

ΚΑΙ ΣΎ ΤΈΚΝΟΝ;

As soon as Caesar took his seat, the conspirators crowded around him as if to pay their respects. Tillius Cimber, who had assumed the lead, came up close, pretending to ask a question. Caesar made a gesture to put him off until later, but Cimber caught his toga by both shoulders. Then as Caesar cried, "Why, this is violence!" one of the Cascas stabbed him from one side just below the throat. Caesar caught Casca's arm and ran it through with his stylus, but as he tried to leap to his feet, he was stopped by another wound. When he saw that he was beset on every side by drawn daggers, he muffled his head in his robe, and at the same time drew down its lap to his feet with his left hand, in order to fall more decently, with the lower part of his body also covered. And in this wise he was stabbed with three and twenty wounds, uttering not a word, but merely a groan at the first stroke, though some have written that when Marcus Brutus rushed at him, he said, "You too, my son?"

All the conspirators made off, and he lay there lifeless for some time, and finally three common slaves put him on a litter and carried him home, with one arm hanging down. And of so many wounds none turned out to be mortal, in the opinion of the physician Antistius, except the second one in the breast.

Suetonius reports that Caesar's last words were in Greek: kai su, teknon? You, too, my son?

Helen of Troy, to Priam

"Before thy presence, father, I appear,
With conscious shame and reverential fear.
Ah! had I died, ere to these walk I fled,
False to my country, and my nuptial bed;
My brothers, friends, and daughter left behind,
False to them all, to Paris only kind!
For this I mourn, till grief or dire disease
Shall waste the form whose fault it was to please!
The king of kings, Atrides, you survey,
Great in the war, and great in arts of sway:
My brother once, before my days of shame!
And oh! that still he bore a brother's name!"