Posted on 01/30/2007 11:33:39 AM PST by RayStacy
Another side note...George Washington Custis Lee graduated from West Point while his father was superintendant. Unlike his father, Custis Lee graduated first in his class.
And the answer to the other trivia question nobody seems to have asked - who graduated first in the class of 1829 - Charles Mason of New York.
The Lincoln-Douglas debates may have made a name for Lincoln, but what most folks apparently overlook is that Douglas won the 1956 Senate contest in Illinois. Before he was elected in 1860, Lincoln was pretty much the equivalent of Alan Keyes.
Who were those supporters and how did that support manifest itself?
Lincoln was paid fantastic sums of money to argue cases on behalf of various clients in the railroad industry. He served as the general counsel of the Illinois Central Railroad (if I remember correctly from my reading) for years. And he had a controversial real estate deal in Council Bluffs, Iowa that wasn't very different than the one that has put Harry Reid in the news in recent weeks.
But I'm still puzzled over your statement about the national rail system, something many would argue we still don't have today, and your statements about the improvements for the Ohio River valley. Are you saying that the improvements the federal government made along the Mississippi did not also benefit the South?
The Civil War has effectively obscured one of the most important historical developments of Lincoln's presidency -- the Pacific Railway Act of 1862. The establishment of a national railroad policy -- including the implementation of a standard railroad guage for the entire nation -- would have been nearly impossible under the vision of autonomous, soveriegn states that had been held by this country's founders.
And while any improvements along the Mississippi River system would have benefitted both North and South to some extent, the truth is the Mississippi basin was far more crucial to the North than the South. If individual states had retained their own sovereignty, the South would have effectively controlled much of the maritime commerce -- and nearly all of the international trade -- in an area between Pittsburgh and the Great Plains. You simply can't get a ship or barge from the Gulf of Mexico to anywhere in the Mississippi River system without going through the old Confederacy.
Everything you've said there about Lee would also apply to Lincoln.
Check my post #47. A few jackhammers and...,
Stone Mountain is a Georgia State Park. It is operated by a private company because, long ago, the state and the idiots at the capital decided Stone Mountain should compete with Six Flags. When I was a kid you drove out there and halfway up the mountain. There was nothing there. Now it's a big amusement park and an abomination.
Well, I suppose changing Lee's likeness to MLK would just about destroy it ;'}
Everything that I've said about a general would apply to the elected president of the country? I guess, but one was the elected president of the country and had constitutional responsibilities, and the other was a general who got in over his head.
Sure, if Lincoln had thrown up his hands, there'd have been no war. But a country whose leaders simply give up doesn't survive. A country whose generals don't take up arms against it can make out pretty well.
I don't think King would look good on a horse.
As usual, easier to tear down than to build.
Not at all. Keyes was a carpetbagger while Lincoln was a long time resident of the state. And what you overlook is that Lincoln lost the Senate races in 1858 AND 1854. But the debates in 1858 helped make him a national figure and by the time of his Cooper Union address his reputation was already established.
Lincoln was paid fantastic sums of money to argue cases on behalf of various clients in the railroad industry. He served as the general counsel of the Illinois Central Railroad (if I remember correctly from my reading) for years. And he had a controversial real estate deal in Council Bluffs, Iowa that wasn't very different than the one that has put Harry Reid in the news in recent weeks.
Lincoln was well-paid as an attorney, no doubt about that. But your claim that he was some sort of tool of the railroads or that they poured massive sums into his campaign are still unsubstantiated. And I believe that as Ambrose himself points out, the President chose the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific, and that was in Omaha and not Council Bluffs. Hardly calculated to send Lincoln's land values soaring.
The Civil War has effectively obscured one of the most important historical developments of Lincoln's presidency -- the Pacific Railway Act of 1862. The establishment of a national railroad policy -- including the implementation of a standard railroad guage for the entire nation -- would have been nearly impossible under the vision of autonomous, soveriegn states that had been held by this country's founders.
Both the platforms for the Breckenridge faction and the Douglas faction of the Democratic Party also called for a transcontinental railway. Does that mean that they were for a national railroad, too?
And while any improvements along the Mississippi River system would have benefitted both North and South to some extent, the truth is the Mississippi basin was far more crucial to the North than the South. If individual states had retained their own sovereignty, the South would have effectively controlled much of the maritime commerce -- and nearly all of the international trade -- in an area between Pittsburgh and the Great Plains. You simply can't get a ship or barge from the Gulf of Mexico to anywhere in the Mississippi River system without going through the old Confederacy.
I disagree. The largest city in the South was New Orleans on the Mississippi. It was also the largest port. In the year prior to the rebellion almost 60% all cotton exported from the country left through New Orleans, and the only way for that cotton to reach the city was via the Mississippi River. Improvements made to the river were invaluable to the South's economic prosperity.
It takes a lot of people to build a barn. It takes a jackass five minutes to kick it down.
Ann Richards
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free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
Ah, the spawn of satan's birthday is but four days after mine.. no wonder i thought there was something dubious about that day, considering some dumb person on their cell phone totaled my car on that day last year..
Charles Mason graduated from WPMA & did WHAT???
free dixie,sw
I thought that was Nathan Bedford Forrest day... :) (sarc)
Oh you'd like him, stand. He later moved west. He lived in Wisconsin for a time then moved to Iowa and was a prosecutor, legislator, judge, and journalist. He was a Democrat, and during the war he would have been called a Copperhead.
free dixie,sw
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