Dusk Descends

Hummingbird

We put up a hummingbird feeder the other week, and voila! Not flashy by tropical standards, but in northern New Jersey you take what you can get. Click to enlarge.

Richard Henry Lee, George Wythe, and the Constitutionality of Secession

The proposition that a state could ratify the Constitution, subject to the right to withdraw from the Union if desired amendments were not ratified thereafter, would seem to be fundamentally inconsistent with the idea that single-state secession was not permitted.

At least two leading Virginians did not, it seems, grasp this contradiction. Both Richard Henry Lee and George Wythe proposed such a device in order to gain ratification of the Constitution with amendments.

Richard Henry Lee was not a delegate to the Virginia Convention. His proposition came as private advice to anti-federalist delegate George Mason. Recognizing that requiring amendments before ratification would delay enactment of the Constitution at best, and perhaps torpedo it altogether, in early May 1788 Lee

counseled Mason to watch carefully so “the foes of union, order, and good government” did not “prevent our acceptance of the good part of the plan proposed.” After extensive reflection, he proposed that Virginia should ratify the Constitution but demand “such amendments as can be agreed upon” as statements of “their undoubted rights and liberties which they mean not to part with.” The amendments would be proposed and adopted using the procedures under Article V. However, if the amendments still had not been enacted two years after the new government began, Virginia would “be considered as disengaged from this ratification.”

Lee intended and assumed that his proposal would help get the Constitution ratified and that the “friends” of the Constitution (except perhaps those who were dead set against any amendments) would see it as such and favor his scheme:

That “friendly and reasonable” method, Lee said, would allow the new Congress to amend the Constitution “without risking the convulsion of new conventions,” gratify critics of the Constitution and also those Federalists who thought amendments were needed, harmonize the undetermined stated, and quiet the “formidable minorities” in states that had already ratified. Lee recommended his plan for Mason's “serious and patriotic attention.”

Toward the end of the next month, on Tuesday June 24, 1788, George Wythe – 62 years of age, Thomas Jefferson's early mentor (and later Henry Clay's), and one of the leading lawyers and jurists in the state – moved that the Virginia convention, sitting as Committee of the Whole, recommend that the Constitution be adopted. Wythe, too, seems not to have understood that an individual state could never withdraw from the Constitution once ratified, for his motion included a provision for post-adoption withdrawal:

Wythe then moved his main resolution: that, in the opinion of the committee of the whole, the Constitution should be ratified, and that the convention should recommend amendments to the first federal Congress. He perhaps asked that another committee draw up those amendments. According to Patrick Henry, the text of Wythe's motion, - which [David] Robertson did not include in his Debates [and Other Proceedings of the Convention of Virginia] – also said that Virginia's ratification would “cease to be obligatory” if the amendments the convention proposed were not enacted. If so, his motion had some similarity to what Richard Henry Lee had recommended to Mason in early May.

The next day, Wednesday June 25, 1788 – 223 years ago today – the Virginia convention voted to reject Patrick Henry's competing motion that the Constitution not be ratified before proposed amendments were presented to the other states. “It lost be eight votes: 80 delegates voted for it, 88 against. That was the critical vote.” “[B]etween two and three o'clock in the afternoon, the convention turned to the main question, Wythe's resolution that the Constitution 'be ratified.' It passed by ten votes, 89 for and 79 against.”

All quotes are from Pauline Maier's excellent Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788.

Dragonfly

Click to enlarge.

Brigadier General John Gregg, CSA

Mrs. Elektratig and I were in Longview, Texas over last weekend for a wedding. Longview, it turns out, is in Gregg County, named for John Gregg, a member of the Texas secession convention, a Confederate congressman, and a Confederate officer who fought in both the western and eastern theaters. He ultimately rose to the rank of Brigadier General and was killed in action outside Richmond in 1864. I noticed that there was a memorial to him in town, and we made a visit.

As a northerner who doesn't get south alot (they don't let me out much), I still find it weird that there are public memorials to secessionists and Confederates. I therefore thought I'd document our visit and the memorial with some pictures, which I've posted at Flickr. A few of them are also included in this post.

The memorial, which is outside the Gregg County court house, included two inscribed markers. The first, commemorating the Texas secession convention, read as follows:

Texas Secession Convention.

This meeting, which had John Gregg as a key member, was extra-legal governing body of delegates from over Texas. Held January – March 1861. Drew up secession ordinance – ratified by 3 to 1 popular vote. Selected delegates to convention of southern states in Montgomery, Ala. Declared office of anti-secessionist governor Sam Houston vacant, putting in Lt. Governor Edward Clark. Ratified C.S.A. Constitution. Raised troops to seize U.S. property, getting $3,000,000 worth by surrender. Placed troops at outposts to protect frontier.

The second memorialized Gen. Gregg:

General John Gregg 1828 – 1864.

Born Alabama. Came to Texas 1854. Judge, Confederate congressman. Organized 7th Texas infantry as Colonel 1861. Captured at Fort Donelson, Tenn. 1862. Promoted Brigadier General after exchange. Commanded brigade Vicksburg campaign 1863. Severely wounded Battle of Chickamauga Oct. 1863. Returning to action 1864 led Hood's Texas Brigade in heavy fighting in Virginia. Killed in action at Richmond, Oct. 7, 1864. A memorial to Texans who served the Confederacy erected by the State of Texas.

Sunset

The days are getting longer. Sleep well.

The Return of Mollie Moo

Every spring farmer Harry brings three or four cows from his farm down the road to our paddock. Molly Moo, the grande dame of Harry's Herd, is inevitably among them. Mollie's getting up there in years, but she's as irascible as ever.

Mollie and two of farmer Harry's "little girls" arrived last weekend, a little earlier than usual. Mistress Karen says that's because Mollie was bullying all the calves and Farmer Harry had to get her away from them.

Click on any photo to enlarge alot.

Willie the Pimp

When Hot Rats came out I was, I think, in tenth grade. Peaches was a great song, but the cut that I really loved was Willie the Pimp. Enjoy.

Sallie, Dignified and Undignified

Click to enlarge.

Spring Has Sprung, Part II

A little cooler on Sunday, but a beautiful weekend overall. Photos are of a friend's garden here in northwest New Jersey. Click to enlarge. The originals are at Flickr.

Spring is Sprung

Playing with my fisheye yesterday, at last a glorious spring day here in northwest New Jersey. Click to enlarge.

Town Line, NY Really Did Secede from the Union in 1861

Several years ago I posted an entry referring to a report that, at the outset of the Civil War, the town of Town Line, New York, located in Erie County near Buffalo, had seceded from the Union: Did Town Line, NY Really Secede from the Union in 1861? In the post I questioned whether the report could possibly be true.

Correspondent Jeff Cooke has helpfully pointed me to a recent article in the Buffalo History Gazette that appears to confirm the truth of the report: Hamlet of Town Line "Heads South" in 1861: Nearby Hamlet Left Union in Civil War Days. According to the article, in late 1861 or early 1862 the eligible voters of the town voted by a count of 80 to 45 to secede from the Union. The reasons the town did so seem to be lost to history:

Why Town Line left the Union is a mystery. It's [sic] residents at that time were sons and daughters of pioneers who came from Vermont or Germany. Such ancestry would almost guarantee an abhorrence of slavery, but Town Line then was a Democratic stronghold. There was little economic reason for such sympathy, for Town Line residents were either farmers or woodsmen.

Town Line remained out of the Union, according to the article, for eighty-five years. On January 24, 1946 town residents decided to rejoin the Union by a vote of 90 to 23.

 

The picture, taken from the article, purports to show the "Old School house, now a Blacksmith shop, where Town Line voted for the Stars and Bars of the South."

Cut Off the Head and Save the Blood

I missed Easter dinner at my sister's this year, so I've asked her to make this mouth-watering turtle stew recipe for me the next time I come over. It's from Amelia Simmons's American Cookery, or the Art of Dressing Viands, Fish, Poultry and Vegetables, and the Best Modes of Making Puff-Pastes, Pies, Tarts, Puddings, Custards and Preserves, and All Kinds of Cakes, from the Imperial Plumb to Plain Cake. Adapted to This Country, and All Grades of Life (1796). Do you think she'll mind?

Fill a boiler or kettle, with a quantity of water sufficient to scald the callapach and callapee, the fins, &c. and about 9 o'clock hang up your turtle by the hind fins, cut of [sic] the head and save the blood, take a sharp pointed knife and separate the callapach from the callapee, or the back from the belly part, down to the shoulders, so as to come at the entrails which take out, and clean them, as you would those of any other animal, and throw them into a tub of clean water, taking great care not to break the gall, but to cut it off from the liver and throw it away, then separate each distinctly and put the guts into another vessel, open them with a small pen-knife end to end, wash them clean, and draw them through a woolen cloth, in warm water, to clear away the slime and then put them in clean cold water till they are used with the other part of the entrails, which must be cut up small to be mixed in the baking dishes with the meat; this done, separate the back and belly pieces, entirely cutting away the fore fins by the upper joint, which scald; peal off the loose skin and cut them into small pieces, laying them by themselves, either in another vessel, or on the table, ready to be seasoned; then cut off the meat from the belly part, and clean the back from the lungs, kidneys, &c. and that meat cut into pieces as small as a walnut, laying it likewise by itself; after this you are to scald the back, and belly pieces, pulling off the shell from the back, and the yellow skin from the belly, when all will be white and clean, and with the kitchen cleaver cut those up likewise into pieces about the bigness or breadth of a card; put those pieces into clean cold water, wash them and place them in a heap on the table, so that each part may lay by itself; the meat being thus prepared and laid separate for seasoning; mix two third parts of salt or rather more, and one third part of cayenne pepper, black pepper, and a nutmeg, and mace pounded fine, and mixt all together; the quantity, to be proportioned to the size of the turtle, so that in each dish there may be about three spoonfuls of seasoning to every twelve pound of meat; your meat being thus seasoned, get some sweet herbs, such as thyme, savory, &c. let them be dryed an rub'd fine, and having provided some deep dishes to bake it in, which should be of the common brown ware, put in the coarsest part of the meat, put a quarter pound of butter at the bottom of each dish, and then put some of each of the several parcels of meat, so that the dishes may be all alike and have equal portions of the different parts of the turtle, and between each laying of meat strew a little of the mixture of sweet herbs, fill your dishes within an inch and an half, or two inches of the top; boil the blood of the turtle, and put into it, then lay on forced meat balls made of veal, highly seasoned with the same seasoning as the turtle; put in each dish a gill of Madeira wine, and as much water as it will conveniently hold, then break over it five or six eggs to keep the meat from scorching at the top, and over that shake a handful of shread parsley, to make it look green, when done put your dishes into an oven made hot enough to bake bread, and in an hour and half, or two hours (according to the size of the dishes) it will be sufficiently done.

H/T J.L. Bell of Boston 1775.

Millard, Dissed Again

Uh oh, the upcoming Paul Finkelman biography of Millard Fillmore looks like it's going to be a simplistic hatchet job. Amazon has posted an excerpt from the beginning of the book, and it's full of nonsense and snide innuendo. Let's start with this; my comments are in brackets:

Millard Fillmore, who became president after Taylor's death, was inexperienced and virtually unknown when he was nominated for vice president at the 1848 Whig convention. [Uh, he served four terms in Congress, rising to become Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee; alot more experience that a certain Mr. Lincoln later had.] He was born in poverty in central New York, poorly schooled as a child, and largely self-educated after that. [Notice the snarky "poorly schooled". Again one might say the same about Lincoln.] He achieved a comfortable middle-class status and struggled to fit in with men who were better educated, culturally more sophisticated, and more socially adept than he. [More snarkiness. Millard didn't raise himself up by his bootstraps to better himself and achieve success. His goal, apparently, was to become a self-satisfied bourgeois fat-cat - if he weren't such a socially inept dolt. Imagine Abe being described this way.] Moving to Buffalo, he practiced law and entered politics at age twenty-eight, serving three terms in the state legislature and later four terms in Congress. He was an unsuccessful candidate for governor of New York in 1844, but in 1847 he was elected state comptroller - an important but hardly a major office. [What happened to the Ways and Means Committee? And what state-wide office did Abe hold?] A year later, this obscure politician was nominated to run for vice president alongside General Taylor. [So obscure he was nominated more or less by acclamation after his name was suggested.]

Pathetic rubbish.

The Moon Times Five

Just playin'. Click on any photo to enlarge.

Sailors and Cats

The U.S. Naval Institute has posted some delightful pictures, dating from the 1880s to the 1950s, of Cats in the Sea Services. The photo at the top is accompanied by the following caption:

"Accepting her fate as an orphan of war, 'Miss Hap' a two-week old Korean kitten chows down on canned milk, piped to her by medicine dropper with the help of Marine Sergeant Frank Praytor ... The Marine adopted the kitten after its mother was killed by a mortar barrage near Bunker Hill. The name, Miss Hap, Sergeant Praytor explained, was given to the kitten 'because she was born at the wrong place at the wrong time'." Korea, ca 1953

After the Rain

We had a cold, miserable rain most of the day here in western New Jersey, but shortly before dusk the rain slackened to a mist. Spring is coming.

Click to enlarge.

Barnum in the Pulpit

While his sister Harriet sunned herself in Florida after the War, brother and preacher Henry Ward Beecher remained in Brooklyn. But as David Goldfield explains in America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation, Henry, too, "backed off from crusades after the war."

He had always interspersed his sermons with secular humor, and some critics complained he was Barnum in the pulpit. After the war, his sermons at Plymouth Church dwelt on topics such as civic duty, child rearing, and voting rights. It was nondenominational entertainment, punctuated by such aphorisms as "The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom" and "The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one often comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't." Fellow Brooklynite Walt Whitman stated flatly, "It was only fair to say to Beecher that he was not a minister." Showmanship and fortune-cookie advice overtook theology, and most northerners welcomed the transition.

About the illustration, entitled Celebrities of the great trial "Theodore Tilton vs. Henry Ward Beecher" (c. 1875):

Head-and-shoulders portrait of Chief Justice Joseph Neilson surrounded by head-and-shoulders portraits of 17 people, including S.D. Morris, Theodore Tilton, Francis D. Moulton, and Henry Ward Beecher.

Harriet Beecher Stowe in Disney World

David Goldfield's America Aflame: How The Civil War Created a Nation comes into its own when he arrives at the end of the Civil War. He does an excellent job painting the dizzying array of technical, business and cultural developments and distractions that led northerners, always thinly committed to anti-slavery, so quickly to turn away from the War, the south and the problems of the freedmen.

Goldfield employs Harriet Beecher Stowe as a symbol of the transformation:

She moved to Florida. Stowe came to teach former slaves to read and write and stayed to promote Florida real estate. She coauthored a book with her sister Catharine, The American Woman's Home (1869), which served as the middle-class bible for home design through World War I.

Harriet began the book even before the end of the War, correctly sensing correctly that the war-weary public would prefer to read about home decoration. "Her first essay on the subject, 'Ravages of a Carpet,' appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in January 1864."

Applauding William Lloyd Garrison's decision to withdraw from the American Anti-Slavery Society shortly after the War, Harriet concluded that the end of slavery was enough. Harriet was in Disney World:

Florida's exotic environment captivated Stowe. When she arrived on the banks of the St. Johns River in north Florida in February 1867, the orange blossoms were in bloom. She immediately "stripped off the woolen garments of my winter captivity, put on a thin dress white skirt . . . & sat down to enjoy the view of the river & the soft summer air." At this desk, Stowe wrote a breezy account of her early experiences in Florida, Palmetto Leaves (1873), describing her work with the freedmen, but mostly promoting Florida tourism and offering advice on growing citrus trees.

Judicial Review at the Constitutional Convention

In his podcast course on Colonial and Revolutionary America, Stanford history prof Jack Rakove criticizes those lawprofs who, he says, characterize the doctrine of judicial review as springing forth fully formed out of nothing from the pen of Chief Justice John Marshall, like Athena from the head of Zeus.

The doctrine, Rakove concedes, was not systematically developed at the time of the Philadelphia Convention. But the idea, he contends, was in the air and common currency among the delegates.

Without citing a particular speech, Rakove refers to arguments by delegate Elbridge Gerry criticizing James Madison's proposed council of revision. I tracked down one of Gerry's statements to which Rakove presumably refers, and I thought I'd go over it with you.

The Resolutions laid out by Edmund Randolph (almost universally believed to have been prepared by Madison) at the outset of the Convention included an Eighth Resolution by which a “Council of revision”, composed of both “the Executive” and “a convenient number of the National Judiciary”, would “ examine every act of the National Legislature before it shall operate”:

8. Resd. that the Executive and a convenient number of the National Judiciary, ought to compose a Council of revision with authority to examine every act of the National Legislature before it shall operate, & every act of a particular Legislature before a Negative thereon shall be final; and that the dissent of the said Council shall amount to a rejection, unless the Act of the National Legislature be again passed, or that of a particular Legislature be again negatived by ----- of the members of each branch.

The Convention, sitting as a Committee of the Whole, held an initial discussion concerning “Proposition 8th” on Monday June 4, 1787. Elbridge Gerry promptly objected to it. Among other things, Gerry suggested that the federal judiciary did not need to review laws in advance because it would have an opportunity to review them, and if necessary to set them aside as unconstitutional, after the fact (emphasis added):

First Clause of Proposition 8th. relating to a Council of Revision taken into consideration.

Mr. GERRY doubts whether the Judiciary ought to form a part of it, as they will have a sufficient check agst. encroachments on their own department by their exposition of the laws, which involved a power of deciding on their Constitutionality. In some States the Judges had actually set aside laws as being agst. the Constitution. This was done too with general approbation. It was quite foreign from the nature of ye. office to make them judges of the policy of public measures. He moves to postpone the clause in order to propose "that the National Executive shall have a right to negative any Legislative act which shall not be afterwards passed by -------- parts of each branch of the national Legislature."

Rufus King of Massachusetts then jumped in in support of Gerry, amplifying a conclusion perhaps implicit in Gerry's remarks. Because federal judges would be evaluating laws after the fact, approving them in advance would compromise their judicial role:

Mr. KING seconds the motion, observing that the Judges ought to be able to expound the law as it should come before them, free from the bias of having participated in its formation.