[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1855-1860: Seminar and Discussion Forum
Bleeding Kansas, Dred Scott, Lincoln-Douglas, Harper’s Ferry, the election of 1860, secession – all the events leading up to the Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts

First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: Sometime in the future.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed. To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.

Link to previous thread

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The Statue in Clay – 2
Monthly Record of Current Events * – 2-7
Editor’s Drawer – 8-17
Substance and Shadows. – 18-19
Fashions for March – 20-21

* “The affairs of Kansas, which have engrossed a large share of public attention during the month over which our Record extends, appear to be approaching a crisis.”

“Apart from Kansas and Nicaragua, the most important measures before Congress have been the bills for the Admission of Minnesota into the Union under the Constitution duly framed and transmitted to Congress; and the bill for the increase of the army.”

“Dispatches and letters from the army in Utah have been received up to the middle of December.”

“In England the chief topic of public interest has been the approaching marriage of the Princess Royal with Prince Frederick William of Prussia which was to be celebrated on the 25th of January.” [As we have seen, Harper's Weekly Magazine scooped the monthly magazine by reporting on the wedding in their February 27 issue.]

“An attempt was made on the evening of January 14th to assassinate the Emperor of France.”

“A terrible earthquake occurred in the kingdom of Naples on the 16th of December, occasioning a fearful loss of life..”

“The Russian government has authorized the nobles of certain provinces to prepare a plan for the gradual emancipation of their serfs.”

“The Indian mutiny has assumed the aspect of a regular war in the kingdom of Oude, the latest acquisition of the British, where the disciplined army of the late King forms a nucleus around which are gathering the fragments of the insurgents defeated and driven from other parts of India.”

[Mr Ramsbotham]

"... that exquisite waist, which seemed the isthmus of earth and heaven -- the Panama which divided the North America of her intellect from the Southern Continent of her luxuriant charms --- how we longed to make our arms the only railroad of that region, pouring the wild Atlantic of our passionate desires into the calm Pacific of enjoyment!"

For a family magazine of the mid-nineteenth century, that's damned erotic!

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from February 25 (reply #22) .

The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from September 18, 1857 (reply #55) .

Home Letters of General Sherman, edited by M.A. DeWolfe Howe, 1909

[henkster]

I see that Crown Prince Frederick William of Prussia has stopped off in London to pick up his bride, the daughter of Queen Victoria. Their child will be the bane of Europe at the end of this century and the beginning of the next. It’s a pity that Frederick William died too young of throat cancer; he could have moderated the more neurotic aspects of his son’s behavior had he lived longer.