Monday

                       Musings and History

Quote of the day:

Two friends that had not seen each other in several year met during a lifeboat drill on a cruise ship. One of them had gained a lot of weight. One man said “I didn't know they made life jackets in XXXL size.” He responded “The make jock straps in that size also but you would not know anything about that.” 

                       This Date in History   April 3

1776 The United States did not have a standing navy of warships to combat the British men-of-war that were blockading nearly every American port. On this date, the inimitable John Hancock issued “LETTERS of the MARQUE and REPRISALS” to those private warships and vessels that are interested. In short the United States was ready to hire pirates to board and capture English vessels on the high seas.. The notice read that those vessels carrying a LETTER of the MARQUE were commissioned by the United States to captured English vessels, by force of arms if necessary, and bring such vessels and/or cargo into any United States port as sanctuary. The deal was that in return for sanctuary the pirate vessel would have to split the cargo with the United States. Vessels that were prohibited from capture were those ships bringing immigrants to the United States or any vessel carrying armaments to the United States. The French government had been sending a stream of arms to America on French ships both covertly and later overtly.

1882 Earlier as teenagers and during the Civil War Jesse and Frank James joined with a Confederate Raider named William Quantrill in the Kansas/Missouri/Texas area. Quantrill did what he could to disrupt Union military activity in this area but he also would not hesitate to intimidate and kill, if necessary, anyone that was a Union supporter civilian or otherwise. After the war ended in 1865 Jesse and Frank returned to their farm in Missouri and began farming. These boys soon found out that the four years of excitement with Quantrill was still with them and they could not be happy farming. So they decided to rob a bank once in a while. The first was a bank in Lexington, Missouri in September of 1865. They did not go on rampages but just robbed about two banks a year and lay low on the farm the rest of the time. Then they branched off into train robberies. On one train robbery they robbed all the passengers except any southerner that they knew was suffering under the so-called Reconstruction. It was this act that gave them the legend of being a type of Robin Hood. But make no mistake, if anyone got in their way during a robbery, Yankee or Southerner, they would be killed. Finally the railroads hire the Pinkerton Agency to put a stop to these two. On one occasion the Pinkerton agents surrounded their mother’s house thinking the brothers were inside and threw in a tear gas canister which exploded and killed a nine year old boy that was inside and permanently injured the mother’s left arm. This also did not enamor the Yankees with the local gentry not Jesse and Frank. Jesse and Frank got together with their cousins the Younger brothers and decided to go way out of their territory where they would be the least expected and rob a bank. They chose Northfield, Minnesota as a target. The robbery went to hell in a hand basket and the Younger brothers were tracked down by a huge posse and all were killed or imprisoned. The James brothers escaped and fled to Tennessee and hid out until the heat was off. They organized another gang that included the Ford brothers, Bob and William. On this date, Jesse had called a meeting of the gang at his house to plan another robbery. The Ford brothers showed up and as Jesse was hanging a picture with his back to the room, Bob Ford shot Jesse several time in the back killing him instantly. Bob was after the reward money that the railroads had posted. Bob Ford went down in history as one of the worst scoundrels in American history along with Benedict Arnold.

1817 William Alexander Anderson Wallace is born in Lexington, Kentucky. Little is known of his youth but his older brother was in Texas helping fight for its independence from Mexico and was massacred by Santa Anna’s army in Goliad, Texas. In this event 465 Texans had gathered in defense of Goliad and Santa Anna shows up with a force of 3,000 and surrounds the town, The 465 surrender thinking they will be treated as prisoners of war. Santa Anna chose to treat them as traitors and killed them all. William declares he is going to Texas and “take my revenge on those Mexicans”. However, Sam Houston and 765 wild-eyed Texans beat the living shit out of Santa Anna and the war was over before Wallace got there. But Wallace enjoyed the independent attitude of the Texans and decided to stay. Wallace was a big boy, was 6’ 2” and weighed 240 pounds. Not only that he had gigantic feet and gained the nickname “Bigfoot”. Bigfoot Wallace became a legend in Texas by being in the Texas Militia and later on became a Texas Ranger under Captain John Hays. From this point on his life was one adventure after another. On one event he was driving an empty stage coach on the very dangerous San Antonio to El Paso route. And sure enough, a group of Kiowa Indians stopped him and stole his mules and he ended up having to walk across that Texas desert all the way to El Paso. He said that he ate 27 eggs at the first farm he came to and then went on into El Paso for a “real meal”. He was captured by the Mexicans and spent 15 months in the notoriously brutal prison in Vera Cruz. During the Civil War he fought for the Confederacy but served by protecting the Texas frontier from Indian raids in his later years. He enjoyed sitting around telling the younger kids of his adventures. Wallace died in 1899 after serving the state of Texas for most of his life. He is buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin. His biography is worthy for all to read. He was a man of enormous courage and determination.

Born today:

1822 US religious leader Edward Everett Hale. When asked if he prayed for the United States Senators. He said “No, I look at the Senators and pray for the nation.” I think Reverend Hale has his finger on the pulse of American politicians.

1593 English writer George Herbert. He said “Follow not the truth too closely, lest it knock your teeth out.” Sometimes the truth hurts, obviously.

Died today:

1933 US writer Wilson Mizner. He said “When a man continues to proclaim that he is no fool usually has his suspicions.” We all know such people.

1996 Mayor Charles Stokes. He said “When you start talking about making a “real change” it usually means that you are going to take away something someone possesses.”

          Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow