The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
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.
* “The failure of the attempt to lay the Atlantic Telegraph Cable is the most noteworthy event of the month.”
“During the month of August elections for State officers and members of Congress have been held in different States. . . . In Missouri Mr. Stewart, Democrat, has been elected by about 300 majority over Mr. Rollins. This election is noteworthy on account of the position of Mr. Rollins, who is himself a slaveholder, on the slavery question. He said, in the canvass, that he was in favor of submitting the subject of future emancipation to the laws of climate, of emigration, of labor, and of production. He would offer every inducement to emigration from the North and the South; and if, he says, ‘this emigration, in the course of years, brings about such a disproportion between the white and the black races, that it is no longer the interest of the people of Missouri to continue it a Slave State, then let it go.’ His own opinion is, in view of the high northern latitude of the State, and of the constantly increasing disproportion between the white and black population that, in the course of time, it will become the interest of the slaveholders themselves to abolish the institution. . . .The two Constitutional Conventions in Minnesota have agreed upon a State Constitution to be presented for the suffrages of the people of that Territory. It provides that slavery or involuntary servitude shall never exist in the State . . . In Kansas there now appears to be a growing disposition on the part of the Free State men to vote at the coming election. At a Convention held at Grasshopper Springs, August 26, resolutions to that effect were almost unanimously passed. Mr. Robinson has been brought to trial on the charge of having acted as Governor under the Topeka Constitution, and acquitted.”
“A ‘National Emancipation Convention’ met at Cleveland, Ohio, August 26, in order to devise a plan by which the slaves in the South should all be bought up by the General and State Governments for the purpose of liberating them. . . . The American Association for the Advancement of Science held its eleventh annual meeting at Montreal, commencing August 12. Among the papers presented were the following: . . . [O]n the Prevention of Counterfeiting, by Professor B. Silliman, Jun. The invention of photography had given rise to new and dangerous counterfeits of bank-bills, to guard against which it was proposed to print them in two colors, between which there was no photographic contrast.” “A division is likely to take place in the New School Presbyterian Church. The Southern members feeling aggrieved at the course in respect to slavery taken by the late General Assembly, held a convention at Richmond, Virginia commencing August 27. Resolutions were passed declaring that all censures against members on account of their being slaveholders are contrary to the examples and teachings of Christ and his Apostle, and a violation of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church; that the relation of master and slave, as such, is not a proper subject for discussion in Church judicatories . . .”
“The camel experiment upon the plains is pronounced to be entirely successful. Besides their power of abstaining from water, they are more tractable than mules, bear heavier loads, are less easily jaded, and live upon food on which other animals would starve.”
“The Indians are becoming exceedingly troublesome all along our western and northwestern frontiers. Colonel Sumner reports an engagement with the Cheyennes, August 29. Three hundred warriors were drawn up to oppose the advance of our troops. Being charged by cavalry they fled, and were pursued seven miles. They lost a large number of men; our loss being two killed and several wounded. Their village, consisting of 170 lodges, was burned. – In New Mexico an action has taken place with the Coyatero Indians, who lost 41 killed and 45 prisoners; our loss was 7 wounded. – The Indians in Iowa have been fighting among themselves. On the 1st of August, a party of Chippewas attacked a detached band of the Sioux, took 30 scalps, and retreated down the Red River.”
“Margaret Rine, the last slave in the State of New York, died recently on Long Island, at the age of 79 years.”
In Great Britain, Parliament is greatly aroused over the Indian mutiny, which is described in news from The East.
“The camel experiment upon the plains is pronounced successful.”
Until it wasn’t.
Scarcely a year had passed since their first arrival, hardly enough time to judge.
From the column, an English pound sterling was worth five gold dollars.
Just wow. Money as a store of wealth, and not an instrument of social justice.
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
Continued from September 11 (reply #41) .
Nicole Etcheson, Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era
The Wild West’s Mysterious Red Ghost
They said that it was a camel, with a skeletal rider on its back.
https://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2014/09/wild-wests-mysterious-red-ghost-camel/
Continued from April 5 (reply #18). (Letter from Sherman to wife Ellen referenced in footnote 18 written on today's date.)
James Lee McDonough, William Tecumseh Sherman: In the Service of My Country, A Life
Thanks for your work.
5.56mm
