Friday

                       Musings and History

Quote of the day:

My daughter posted on Facebook a pic of her and a friend having dinner at a new restaurant in Pensacola. My college student granddaughter posted “Why didn't you invite me, Mama.” My daughter posted “You call yo Mama more you get more invitations.”

Memorial Day comes this weekend. The day began just before the Civil War and has been renamed many things since but the theme is the same. We should and ought to acknowledge the sacrifices our military makes in our behalf worldwide. As far as I am concerned, there is not a day that I do not think about the soldiers, sailors and Marines out there from northern Alaska to Okinawa from Hawaii to Kosovo serving their country...you should too.

            This Date in History May 27

1831 In 1822 the Ashley fur trapping expedition departed Saint Louis headed up the Missouri River. Included in the expedition was two men named Jedediah Smith and Jim Bridger. These two men play an immense role in the settling of the west. Jim Bridger was more of a mountain man/trapper and Jedediah Smith was more of an explorer. Bridger was the discoverer of the legendary South Pass in southern Wyoming which allowed pioneers and their heavily laden wagons and carts to cross the Rocky Mountains into Oregon and California. Bridger also was the first non-native to lay eyes on the Great Salt Lake. Some of his friends dared him to track down the end of a nearby creek and off he went. The creek emptied into the Salt Lake. Bridger had thought it was an inlet of the Pacific Ocean because of its salty taste. He had a great memory for topography and was depended on greatly as a guide to others. But it was Smith who explored Oregon in depth and survived three or four attacks by the Indians in Oregon. He also explored the northern part of California. Smith wrote down everything he saw which proved to be invaluable to the people that followed. Even though Jim Bridger discovered the South Pass he chose not to tell a lot of people about it but Smith told in detail how to get to the Pass and the Oregon Trail was born. After Smith found out that his mother and sister had died he decided to move back to Saint Louis and open a mercantile store and write a complete book about his explorations, but before he could get started a trader offered him a deal he could not refuse. He wanted Smith to guide a wagon train full of trade good to Santa Fe. Smith agreed and off they went. Smith probably was over-confident about his skills and was eager to get back to Saint Louis knowing that the Santa Fe Trail was well marked and well used. After they got started Smith decided to depart from the Trail and head down the Cimarron River which would cut off about 300 miles. Smith was confident that he would be able to find potable water on the shortcut. Fresh water sources on the Santa Fe Trail were known and the wagon train left with enough water to get them to the first water hole but now they were off the trail. On this date the potable water became dangerously low and Smith sent seven men including himself in different directions to find water. While Smith was hunting water in central Oklahoma a Comanche war party found him first. He was tortured and killed but his body was never found. We know that he was killed because of the account given by a Comanche trader in Santa Fe and who was selling stuff that was known to belong to Smith. That is what over-confidence and impatience will do for you.

1813 On this date Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to his one time bitter political enemy John Adams to tell him that their mutual friend and physician Benjamin Rush had died. In the letter Jefferson reminisced about the heady days of the Revolutionary War. He mentioned that there were only six other signers of the Declaration of Independence still alive. Jefferson beat Adams in a very close presidential race in 1800. They argued bitterly about the form and power of the Federal government during this election and they remained silent to each other until this letter. Jefferson also had a tenuous relationship with Benjamin Rush over religion. Rush was a born again Christian and had accepted Christ as his savior while Jefferson was a deist meaning he believed in God but did not believe that Jesus Christ was supernatural. Jefferson and Rush had several conversations about this and had reached an impasse. Now here is where the spooky stuff happens. Jefferson and Adams both died on July 4, 1826 exactly fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Apparently God is sentimental also.

1863 On this day United States Supreme Court chief justice Roger Taney issues an ex-parte Merryman against President Abraham Lincoln for suspending the writ of habeas corpus between the cities of Washington and Philadelphia. The reason for this is the plantation owners in Maryland were raising hell about the freeing of the slaves. Maryland was one of those states that were slave holding but did not secede. Lincoln allowed the military and others to arrest anyone that they felt was interfering or their dissent were causing unrest. Anyone they arrested could be held for an undetermined length of time without being charged or arraigned. I suspect that the President today could do the same thing in time of war. After all we interned many Japanese during WWII just because they were Japanese.

1940 As I told y'all in a previous lesson, many English boats had crossed the English Channel to evacuate the soldiers of the ill-fated invasion of Dunkirk. On this date the Germans commit one of many atrocities. They captured several English soldiers and herded them into a small depression and machine gunned them all and called in a bulldozer and covered them up. They were rotten people then. But General Eisenhower said toward the end of the war “I am not worried about the German navy or air force, I am worried about the German infantry, they die hard.”

Born today:

1912 English writer Arnold Bennett. He said “Always behave as if nothing has happened even if something has happened.” Arnold, shut up.

1894 French writer Louis Celine. He said “The more hated a person, I find, the happier they are.” You would expect something like that from a Frenchman.

1907 US naturalist Rachel Carson. Rachel wrote the immortal book The Silent Spring. She said “In every out thrust headland, in the curve of every beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth.” Silent Spring had a big effect on me, as with many others.

1917 US editor Gene Fowler. He said “Every editor should have a pimp as a brother so he can have someone to look up to.” Gene obviously has animosity toward editors.

            Thanks for listening  I can hardly wait until tomorrow