This is posted with the new ping list. I should have added everyone who has requested to be on it.
Continued from beginning of thread.
Nicole Etcheson, Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era
Posted on 11/21/2015 11:35:55 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Before when free-soil men invoked the right of revolution in defense of their political rights, proslavery men condemned them for defying the legitimate government. But proslavery men feared the loss of their right to own slaves as much as free soilers feared the loss of the right to exclude slavery.
At Hickory Point, [Kansas] a squabble over land claims ignited these political quarrels. A settler named Franklin M. Coleman had been squatting on land abandoned by some Hoosiers, who subsequently sold the claim to Jacob Branson, another Hoosier. In late 1854, when Branson informed Coleman of his legal claim and attempted to move into Coleman’s house, Coleman held him off with a gun. A group of arbitrators later awarded part of the claim to Branson, but the boundaries between his land and Coleman’s were not determined. Branson invited in other men, including a young Ohioan named Charles W. Dow. Branson belonged to the free-state militia, a connection he used to intimidate Coleman, although Branson later testified that there had been no problems between Dow and Coleman – until the day of Dow’s murder.
On the morning of November 21, 1855, Dow went to the blacksmith shop at Hickory Point to have a wagon skein and lynchpin mended. While there he argued with one of Coleman’s friends, but left unharmed. As he walked away, he passed Coleman on the road. Coleman snapped a cap at him. When Dow turned around, he received a charge of buckshot in the chest and died immediately. His body lay in the road until Branson recovered it four hours later. Coleman claimed that Dow had threateningly raised the wagon skein (a two-foot piece of iron) as they argued over their claim dispute, forcing him to act in self-defense. Fearing that he could not get fair treatment at the free-state settlement of Hickory Point, Coleman and his family fled to Missouri.
Nicole Etcheson, “Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Eraâ€
I think so.
The abolitionists understood well that there must be division before their could ever be justice and peace.
“Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.”
“This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. In the light of these ideas, Negroes will be hunted at the North, and held and flogged at the South so long as they submit to those devilish outrages, and make no resistance, either moral or physical. Men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must certainly pay for all they get. If we ever get free from the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and if needs be, by our lives and the lives of others.”
Frederick Douglass, 1857
Again, for the sake of anyone reading, I highly recommend that they read and study Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech very, very carefully. He presents an amazingly clear synopsis of the political, judicial, and governmental history of the years leading up to the war that is, in my opinion, unequaled anywhere else.
After an alert from PP I added his 1855 autobiography to my shopping cart but before I ordered it I had a "D'OH" moment. An autobiography published in 1855 will not include events after that. That is, there will be no 160-year-old bits to include in this series. Anybody know of a later Frederick Douglass bio or autobio that will cover 1855-65? I found one recent book at Amazon but the reviews were tepid.
There is some interesting information about the New Englanders who sent men and arms to Kansas when the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in "Bleeding Kansas." The excerpt I posted with this post picks up at a later date. The New Englanders were fairly radical in that they were practically (gasp) abolitionists.
Well, here’s the one he wrote after the great events of the war:
Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (A Will To Be Free) is Frederick Douglass’ third autobiography, published in 1881, revised in 1892.
Originally published: 1881
Author: Frederick Douglass
Ah, that’s better. I replaced the earlier one in my shopping cart.
Great!
“philosophy of reform”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Philosophical_View_of_Reform
Reform is one of those words that sounds good until you think about it. Mark Twain always helps:
I have never known, in the case of any petty thief, of a reform that covered the whole ground, after he had once gotten habituated to the feel of the coin in another man’s pocket.
- Letter to Seymour Eaton, 8 January 1906
Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.
- Pudd’nhead Wilson
The church is always trying to get other people to reform; it might not be a bad idea to reform itself a little, by way of example.
- A Tramp Abroad
Reflection is the beginning of reform. There can be no reform without reflection. If you don’t reflect when you commit a crime then that crime is of no use. It might just as well have been committed by someone else.
- The Watermelon speech, 1907
That desire which is in us all to better other people’s condition by having them think as we think.
- What is Man
In my early manhood and in middle life I used to vex myself with reforms every now and then. And I never had occasion to regret these divergencies for, whether the resulting deprivations were long or short, the rewarding pleasure which I got out of the vice when I returned to it always paid me for all that it cost.
- Autobiography of Mark Twain
You can straighten a worm, but the crook is in him and only waiting.
- More Maxims of Mark, edited by Merle Johnson
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).
- Notebook, 1904
I am jaded as I get older. The quote, “Slaves dream more of being master, than freedom” (which is from a movie I believe) keeps echoing in my head..................
Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech
It was said that Ronald Reagan gave essentially the same speech through out most of his political career?
Hmmmm....well...I certainly won’t give place to anyone in the level of my disgust and zeal against the kinds of phony “reforms” peddled by our political class today.
But it seems to me that if there was ever anyone engaged in bringing about truly authentic and absolutely necessary reform, it was Douglass.
I also can’t believe that he had any desire to make slaves out of anyone, either.
Lincoln gave a whole lot of speeches. They’re all worth reading and absorbing, especially if you want to understand the background of the war.
I don’t recall any stump-like repetitive nature to them, either. They seemed fairly unique, well able in each case to stand up on their own.
Things were different then. Political speeches tended to run for hours.
Take a look at the Lincoln-Douglas debates for example. They went on for hours and hours, and were repeated many times in numerous locations.
These guys had to know their stuff.
The above is why, I think, that people were so shocked by the incredible brevity of perhaps the greatest speech in American history, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. (”The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here...”)
At that event, the main speaker was Edward Everett, a renowned orator. He spoke for several hours. Lincoln gave his immortal address in two minutes.
Afterwards, Everett famously told Lincoln that he wished he could have summed up the heart of the matter in two hours as well as he had done it in two minutes.
“
Please add me to the ping list for your upcoming series.
Thanks in advance.
Repeal The 17th
This is posted with the new ping list. I should have added everyone who has requested to be on it.
Continued from beginning of thread.
Nicole Etcheson, Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era
This is posted with the old WWII ping list. I will continue to use it for a while longer. If you get this ping and not the one I just posted that means you are not on the new one yet. As before, just let me know if you want to be on the 1855-65 Civil War era ping list.
Please add me to this new list.
Thank you for all your research.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving, Homer!
I just missed you for today’s post (see previous) but you are on the list now. Welcome aboard.
Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward, Secretary of State
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