Saturday, March 16, 2019
Friday, March 15, 2019
On this day in 1767,
Andrew Jackson Born
Only P.O.W. To Be Elected President
In 1828 Jackson became the only prisoner of war to have been elected president, having been captured by the British during the Revolutionary War when he was a 13 year old soldier. As a result of his capture, Jackson held a lifelong dislike for the British.
John McCain would have been the second P.O.W. to be elected president. McCain was released from the Hanoi Hilton 46 years ago yesterday.
On this day in 1833,
The Nullification Crisis
Andrew Jackson Avoids Civil War After Southern States Resist Tariffs
Imposed By Northern Manufacturers
Four minute video explaining the "Nullification Crisis"
28 years before the start of the Civil War, South Carolina almost triggered a military conflict with Union when it claimed the right to nullify federal tariffs, including the Tariff of Abomination.
Led by former Jackson Vice President, John Calhoun, the Nullifiers argued the compact theory of government (i.e. the states had created the federal government) allowed the states to secede from the Union and/or refuse to comply with offensive federal laws. The South had long complained about tariffs backed mostly by northeastern merchants. Although Congress lowered the tariffs as part of the Tariff Bill of 1832, South Carolinians remained outraged, said they would not pay the reduced tariffs, and threatened to leave the Union - by force if necessary. Virginia and influential southerners suggested they would support South Carolina in a military conflict.
Jackson countered that the compact theory of government was wrong, that the states had not created the federal government, and that the people themselves had created the federal government through state conventions. (Jackson’s theory was later echoed by Abraham Lincoln years during his first inaugural address.) Jackson countered South Carolina’s tariff nullification with a carrot and a stick: by further reducing the tariffs as part of the Compromise Tariff of 1833, and by threatening the use of federal military force to subdue the “traitors.”
The congressional debate was led by such luminaries as Daniel Webster, who strongly supported the Union, Henry Clay, who supported the tariffs, and Calhoun.
South Carolina ultimately relented and accepted the additional tariff reductions, but saved face by continuing to maintain it had the right to nullify federal laws.
On this day 60 years ago,
Frankie Avalon's "Venus" Hits #1
Sells Million Records
Dick Clark introduces Frankie Avalon on the Saturday Night Beechnut Show
Thursday, March 14, 2019
The man who presaged Trumpism, Pat Buchanan:
Is Diversity a Root Cause of Dual Loyalty?
Teddy Roosevelt:“There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is a man who is an American and nothing else.”Wednesday, March 13, 2019
On this day in 1954,
[Partial source: Lt. General H.R. McMaster (President Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor), Dereliction of Duty (1997).]
Viet Minh Rout French At Dien Bien Phu - Eisenhower Rejects French Plea For Help
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| Viet Minh Plant Their Flag At French Headquarters |
On this day in 1954, the Viet Minh surrounded 15,000 French troops at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam. The French asked Republican President Dwight Eisenhower for military help. Eisenhower, who knew a thing or two about when and how to fight a war, declined. All but 73 of the French troops were killed or captured by the Viet Minh. The massacre at Dien Bien Phu effectively marked the end of French involvement in Vietnam.
10 years later, Democrat President Lyndon Johnson would ignore the advice of his generals and mislead the American people during the presidential campaign regarding the scope of American involvement in Vietnam and what lay ahead. By the time the Vietnam War was over, 58,000 American boys, most of whom had been drafted and forced to go to Vietnam to fight, had been killed.
[Partial source: Lt. General H.R. McMaster (President Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor), Dereliction of Duty (1997).]
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Monday, March 11, 2019
On this day in 1942,
MacArthur Flees Philippines
Leaves 19,000 American Soldiers Behind
Pledges “I Shall Return”
 |
| Flees in a PT Boat |
On this day in 1862,
Lincoln Fires McClellan
McClellan Later Runs for President as Democrat on Peace Platform
Opposed to Abolition
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| Lincoln and McClellan at Antietam in 1862 |
On this day in 1862, President Lincoln removed George McClellan as general-in-chief of the Union Army.
McClellan and Lincoln did not get along. One time Lincoln walked from The White House to McClellan’s home to talk to him about war strategy. When Lincoln arrived, he was told the general was out a social event. Lincoln waited in McClellan’s parlor. And waited. When McClellan arrived home, he walked past Lincoln and went straight to bed.
Lincoln was critical of McClellan’s unwillingness to fight. McClellan thought Lincoln was a bit of a know-nothing meddler. McClellan claimed in part he did not have enough men to win a decisive victory without unreasonable casualties. The two bickered back and forth, with McClellan generally refusing to engage the Confederate Army.
Lincoln went through six generals-in-chief, hoping each time for a more aggressive fighter. He finally got what he wanted in Ulysses S. Grant.
In 1864 McClellan ran for president against Lincoln as a Democrat opposed to the abolition of slavery. The Democrat Party platform called for an immediate end to the war.
Sunday, March 10, 2019
Contingent Magazine:
The Southern "Mossbacks" Who Refused to Fight for the Confederacy
"Slaveholders had created a war to protect their own wealth and privilege. Then they expected non-slaveholders to carry the burden of the war; to give life, limb, and sanity to preserve an institution that only negatively impacted them. Hundreds of thousands of southern men said, plainly, no."
Andrew McCarthy:
Paul Manafort Was an Agent of Ukraine, Not Russia
He is a scoundrel, but he was never a Kremlin operative.
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