The FReeper Foxhole Saturday Symposium - Maryland joins the Confederacy? - June 25th, 2005

our own minds

[snippy_about_it]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


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What if Maryland had joined the Confederacy in 1861? How would this have changed the war and why?



We'd also like suggestions for other persons, places, and things you would like to see discussed in this new Saturday forum, the Foxhole Saturday Symposium.

sym·po·sium : a social gathering at which there is free interchange of ideas

So now let's get on with the discussion. Pull up a chair or grab a spot on the floor around the virtual Foxhole Cabin and let's chat.

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Background



In early 1861, Maryland was walking a tightrope between the Union and the Confederacy. In addition to being physically between the two sides, Maryland depended equally on the North and the South for its economy. Although Maryland had always leaned toward the south culturally, sympathies in the state were as much pro-Union as they were pro-Confederate. Reflecting that division and the feeling of many Marylanders that they just wanted to be left alone, the state government would not declare for either side.

For the Federal Government, however, there was no question about which side Maryland had to take. If she seceded, Washington D.C. would be surrounded by hostile states, effectively cut off from the rest of the Union. The situation came to a head on April 19, 1861, when the soldiers of the 6th Massachusetts Volunteers, moving through Baltimore on the way to Washington, were attacked by a pro-Southern mob. When the mob started shooting at the regiment, the soldiers returned fire, and when the smoke had cleared, four soldiers and twelve civilians had been killed.

To avoid further riots, it was decided to send troops through the Naval Academy at Annapolis. To ensure the safety of the troops and the loyalty of the state government, the Federal Government sent General Benjamin F. Butler to Annapolis to secure the city on April 22. That same day, Governor Thomas Holliday Hicks decided to call a special session of the General Assembly to discuss the crisis. At that time, the General Assembly met biannually, but popular outcry was so strong that the governor felt it necessary to call together the Assembly during an off year. However, he probably felt that anti-Union sentiment would run high in a city that had just been occupied by Northern troops, so Governor Hicks decided to convene the Legislature in Frederick, Maryland, a strongly pro-Union city.



The General Assembly first met in the Frederick County Courthouse on April 26. However, it was quickly found that the courthouse was too small, and so, on the second day, the Assembly moved to Kemp Hall the meeting hall belonging to the German Reformed Church. On April 30, the weekly Frederick Herald reported: "The Legislature seems comfortable and well provided for in their new halls in the German Reformed Building. The Senate occupies the Red Men's Hall, third story -- the House, the hall in the second story. These halls have been tastefully and appropriately fitted up for their purposes."

The main topic of discussion in those tastefully appointed halls was, of course, the question of whether or not to secede from the Union. As the General Assembly met throughout the long summer, a bill and a resolution were introduced calling for secession. Both failed because the legislators said that they did not have the authority to secede from the Union. Even many of the pro-Southern delegates and senators did not support the bills. At the same time, however, the legislators refused to reopen rail links to the Northern States, for fear the they would be used for military purposes and also by pro-Union agitators bent on revenge for the Baltimore riots. One of the few things the General Assembly did agree upon was a resolution sent to President Lincoln protesting the Union occupation of Maryland. It seems that the General Assembly was primarily interested in preserving Maryland's neutrality, for they neither wanted to secede from the Union, nor to allow Union troops to cross its territory in order to attack the Confederacy.



On August 7, the General Assembly adjourned, intending to meet again on September 17. However, on that day Federal troops and Baltimore police officers arrived in Frederick with orders to arrest the pro-Confederate members of the General Assembly. Thus, the special session in Frederick ended, as did Frederick's summer as the state capital, as Maryland found itself inexorably drawn further and further into the heart of the bloodiest war in American history.

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After the second wave of secession, four states remained in the balance. Delaware was a slave state, but not a great problem, as there were few slaves there and no general interest in leaving the Union. Missouri was much more polarized, but thinly populated and not of immediate strategic importance. Kentucky was a greater fear, as a Confederate Kentucky would almost cut the Union in half. Mr. Lincoln was to say a little later that to lose Kentucky was essentially to lose the whole game. The biggest worry was Maryland. Washington DC was bordered by Confederate Virginia to the south and an unstable Maryland on the other three sides, as well as infested with secessionist sympathy from within. If Maryland joined the Confederacy, the city would be certainly lost.

Military forces with enough strength to hold the city were slow to arrive. After the request for militia on Monday, 15 April 1861, a company of regulars from Minnesota and a few hundred Pennsylvanians came into town on the train on 18 April. They had been harrassed and stoned by a secessionist mob while passing through Baltimore.

The next day, 19 April, the 6th Massachusetts Regiment marched through Baltimore to make the connection to Washington and ended up having a shootout with the mob. Four soldiers were killed and 31 wounded; 12 citizens of Baltimore were dead and an unknown number of wounded. Many of the civilians who were shot were innocent bystanders who were caught in the open when the shooting began. The injured Union soldiers were met by a group of women, led by a Patent Office clerk from Massachusetts, Miss Clara Barton. She was a quiet spinster, but her sympathy with the men from her home state overcame her timidity. The others were barracked in the unfinished Capitol building, where they made good use of congressional franking privileges to write free letters home.

Maryland Governor Hicks expressed his fears over the provocation of funneling Union soldiers through Baltimore to the President, who responded that he understood and would try to avoid trouble. However, when a Baltimore delegation protested the movement of soldiers across any part of Maryland, Lincoln bluntly replied: "Our men are not moles, and cannot dig under the earth. They are not birds, and cannot fly through the air. There is no way but to march across, and that they must do." Lincoln then pointedly added: "Keep your rowdies in Baltimore, and there will be no bloodshed. Go home and tell your people that if they do not attack us we will not attack them; but if they do attack us, we will return it, and that severely!"



Baltimore secessionists took him up on his challenge. They burned the railroad bridges connecting the city to Washington, and then cut the telegraph lines. Panic started to run through the streets of Washington as rumors of large Confederate forces gathering outside the city circulated. The days passed and the regiments of troops that Mr. Lincoln had been promised didn't materialize. He paced his office, muttering: "Why don't they come? Why don't they come?" On reviewing some of the men of the 6th Massachusetts who had been wounded in the fight in Baltimore, he told them: "I don't believe there is a North ... you are the only northern realities."

Despite the insecurity, Mr. Lincoln continued to lay out his military strategy. On 19 April, he had proclaimed a blockade of the Confederate coast. This was an oddly aggressive declaration for a president who seemed in imminent risk of being chased out of his own capitol.

Finally, reinforcements started to trickle in to Washington. On Saturday the 20th, a steamer carrying the 8th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment had anchored at Annapolis, directly to the south of Baltimore. Maryland secessionists had sabotaged the rail lines out of Annapolis to block the movement of Union troops, but they had not reckoned on the commander of the 8th Massachusetts, Brigadier General Benjamin Franklin Butler.

With troops now arriving in Washington, the next steps were to ensure that Maryland didn't join the Confederacy, and to put Maryland secessionists firmly in their place. Governor Hicks, faced with an outcry for a special assembly of the Maryland legislature, ordered such an assembly on the 26th. It was to be held in Frederick, 40 miles (64 kilometers) west of Baltimore and in strongly pro-Union territory. The legislature met and declared Maryland a neutral state. Mr. Lincoln was relieved, as he had considered arresting the lot of them, but had concluded doing so would be counterproductive.

The secessionist troublemakers were the next item on the agenda. Mr. Lincoln had promised them he would deal with them severely; he was as good as his word. On the 27th, Mr. Lincoln informed General Scott that the general had the authority to suspend the writ of habeas corpus along the military supply line between Philadelphia and Washington. Military officers could now arrest and imprison anyone without regard for due process. This suited Ben Butler just fine. In early May he marched troops from Annapolis to occupy Baltimore, declared martial law, had his men search out and seize arms caches, and threw anyone he regarded as subversive into jail. He strutted around in his grand militia uniform, playing dictator and enjoying himself immensely.



Butler's show didn't last. General Scott, who had not authorized the military occupation of Baltimore, and who like almost all regulars disliked militiamen, irritably relieved Butler of his command on 15 May and sent him down to command Fort Monroe, a Federal installation at the tip of the James River Peninsula, east of Richmond on Chesapeake Bay. Butler was replaced by Major General George Cadwalader, but it became quickly obvious that the Army high command's distaste for Butler did not mean disapproval for the measures he had taken. A man named John Merryman was in Baltimore at the time, enlisting recruits for the Confederacy. When Cadwalader's people found out about him, they immediately threw him into jail at Fort McHenry in Baltimore.

Chief Justice Taney, famous for the Dred Scott decision, was in Baltimore, and Merryman's lawyers appealed to him. The judge issued a writ of habeas corpus and sent a US marshall to serve it. The marshall was thwarted by soldiers, and returned to Taney with a message from General Cadwalader informing the judge that Merryman was a traitor and so, by authority of the president, the general was not bound by the writ. Judge Taney cited the general for contempt. The marshall was sent to serve papers on him, and sent packing as before. Taney protested, but the President replied a few weeks later in a speech: "Are all the laws, but one, to go unexecuted, and the government itself go to pieces, lest that one go unexecuted?"

Governor Hicks later agreed with the measures: "I believe that arrests and arrests alone saved the State of Maryland not only from greater degradation than she suffered, but from everlasting destruction. I approved them then, and I approve them now; and the only thing for which I condemn the Administration in regard to that matter is that they let some of them out."

Maryland was the first state in the Union to feel the heavy hand of Federal authority. Presently such extralegal measures would be extended throughout the Union, and secessionists and others judged subversive would find themselves in jail without the slightest pretense of due process.

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[snippy_about_it]

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[snippy_about_it]

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization.

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Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

Thanks to quietolong for providing this link.

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We here at Blue Stars For A Safe Return are working hard to honor all of our military, past and present, and their families. Inlcuding the veterans, and POW/MIA's. I feel that not enough is done to recognize the past efforts of the veterans, and remember those who have never been found.

I realized that our Veterans have no "official" seal, so we created one as part of that recognition. To see what it looks like and the Star that we have dedicated to you, the Veteran, please check out our site.

Veterans Wall of Honor

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NOW UPDATED THROUGH JULY 31st, 2004




The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul

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[PAR35]

How would this have changed the war and why?

A formal secession by Maryland would probably have had little impact on the war. It would have, to some extent, legitimized the heavy handed manner with which Mr. Lincoln illegally dealt with the state. The state itself would probably have split between a unionist west and a Confederate east, as did Virginia.

[Aeronaut]

Good morning Snippy.

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Freeper Foxhole.

[GailA]

Good morning All.

[PzLdr]

The Federal government would never have allowed it to succeed. Maryland was too strategically located. The Confederacy at that stage [and for some time afterward] was too weak to send troops [It was organizing itself, had no clear strategic vision of how to gain its independence, and proved unable, after Bull Run, to project military power as far as D.D]. Maryland, like Virginia, was divided over secession. To expect that the Federal government would have allowed secession, and done nothing while Maryland raised, trained and equipped a defense force, is ludicrous. Look what happened in Missouri, where such Southern units, and a state government favoring secession already existed, or Kentucky. Lincoln would never have allowed the territory that comprised Maryland to "go South".

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning everyone.

Awww, full bird feeder and it's the weekend.

[The Mayor]

June 25, 2005

Word Watch

Read:
James 3:1-12

Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. —James 3:10

Bible In One Year: 2 Kings 11:1-14:20

Good grammar matters to me. As a writer and former English teacher, I'm bothered when I hear the wrong word used by people I think should know better. For instance, using "I" instead of "me" or "who" instead of "whom." There's a proper way to use the language, and it makes me cringe when the standard is violated.

There's another kind of incorrect word usage that is far worse. It happens when Christians utter words that fall short of the standard God expects. Whenever we use words that are considered crude, profane, or obscene, we violate God's clear standards.

Anytime we speak any form of God's name irreverently or in a way that doesn't honor Him, we displease Him (Exodus 20:7). If we joke about sinful practices, we are speaking in a way we shouldn't (Ephesians 5:12). Or if we participate in coarse talk (5:4), we bring dishonor to the name of Christ.

James said, "Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. . . . These things ought not to be so" (James 3:10). Such speech is hypocritical.

Controlling our tongue is difficult because it is an "unruly evil" (v.8). For the glory of God, and with respect for His standards, let's watch our words. —Dave Branon

A wise old owl sat on an oak;
The more he saw, the less he spoke;
The less he spoke, the more he heard—
Why aren't we like that wise old bird? —Richards

Every time you speak, your mind is on parade.

FOR FURTHER STUDY
Moses: His Anger And What It Cost Him
When Words Hurt

[Humal]

Good morning, Snippy. Another good article. I'm sharing this with my UDC sisters.

[Valin]

On this Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on June 25:
1373 Johanna II, Queen of Naples (1414-35)
1813 William Hugh Keim, Brig General (Union volunteers), died in 1862
1823 James Dunwody Bulloch, Capt (Confederate Navy), died in 1901
1864 Walther Hermann Nernst Prussian physical chemist (Nobel 1920)
1865 Robert Henri US painter, leader of the Ashcan school
1886 Henry (Hap) Arnold commanding general, US Army Air Force in WW II
1887 George Abbott Forestville NY, producer (Damn Yankees, Pajama Game)
1894 Hermann Oberth Germany, founded modern astronautics
1900 Lord Louis Mountbatten of Burma, royal relative
1903 George Orwell England, satirist/author (Animal Farm, 1984)
1907 J Hans D Jensen Germany, physicist (atomic nuclei-Nobel 1963)
1924 Sidney Lumet Phila, director (Group, Pawnbroker, Fail Safe)
1925 Clifton Chenier blues singer (Bayou Blues, Bon Ton Roulet)
1925 June Lockhart NYC, actr (Lassie, Lost in Space, Petticoat Junction)
1925 Robert Venturi US, architect (Levittown NY, Las Vegas)
1933 Gary Crosby Calif, actor (Bill Dana Show, Adam 12, Chase)
1942 Patrick Michael Mitchell Ottawa, one of FBI's most wanted
1942 Willis Reed basketball hall-of-famer center (NY Knicks)
1945 Carly Simon NYC, singer (Anticipation, You're So Vain)
1949 Jimmie Walker Bronx NY, comedian (JJ-Good Times, At Ease)
1949 Phyllis George-Brown Denton Tx, Miss America (1971)/sportscaster
1963 George Michael England, rocker (Wham-I Want Your Sex)
1963 Mike Myers Canada, comedian (SNL-Wayne's World)
1979 Brandi Lynn Burkhardt, Miss Maryland Teen USA (1997)

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Deaths which occurred on June 25:
1142 Gulielmus of Vercelli, Italian hermit/monastery founder/saint, dies
1212 Simon de Montfort a leader of the crusades, dies at 67
1483 Edward V, king of England (Apr 9-Jun 25, 1483), murdered
1876 Boston Custer, brother of George Custer, dies at Little Bighorn
1876 George A Custer, US general (Little Bighorn), dies at 36
1876 John Patton, trumpeter, dies at Little Bighorn
1876 Lame White Man, Cheyenne, dies at Little Bighorn
1876 Myles Keogh, US officer, dies at Little Bighorn
1876 Thomas W Custer, brother of George Custer, dies at Little Bighorn
1906 Architect Stanford White shot dead atop Madison Square Garden which he designed by Harry Thaw jealous husband of Evelyn Nesbit
1956 Alfred C Kinsey, US zoologist/sexologist, dies at 62
1956 Ernest J King, US fleet admiral/Chief of Naval Operations, dies at 77
1959 Charles Starkwether executed
1960 Walter Baade astronomer, dies
1962 Ephraim Lisitsky, Hebrew poet, dies
1976 Johnny Mercer, US songwriter (That Old Black Magic), dies at 66
1988 Axis Sally, [Mildred E Gillars], US nazi propagandist (WW II), dies
1995 Warren Earl Burger, Supreme Court Justice, dies of heart failure at 78
1997 Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Fren oceanographer, dies of heart attack at 87
1997 William Lyle Woratzeck, convicted killer, executed in Ariz at 51
2003 Lester Maddox (87), segregationist and former Georgia governor (1967-1970), dies

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GWOT Casualties

Iraq
25-Jun-2003 4 | US: 4 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Lance Corporal Gregory E. MacDonald Hillah Hostile - vehicle accident
US Specialist Andrew F. Chris Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire
US Sergeant 1st Class Gladimir Philippe Balad Hostile - hostile fire
US Private 1st Class Kevin C. Ott Balad Hostile - hostile fire

Afghanistan
06/25/03 Retzer, Thomas E. 1st Class Petty Officer 30 Navy Interior Communications Electrician, Navy SEAL Hostile fire Near Gardez, Afghanistan San Diego California

http://icasualties.org/oif/
Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White

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On this day...
0253 St Lucius I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
0841 Charles the Bald and Louis the German defeat Lothar(Grandsons of Charlemagne) at Fontenay (For control of Frankish empire)
1096 1st Crusade slaughter Jews of Werelinghofen Germany
1139 Battle of Ourique: Afonso I defeats Moors
1178 5 Canterbury monks report something exploding on Moon
1580 Book of Concord, standards of Lutheran Church, 1st published
1630 Fork introduced to American dining by Gov Winthrop
1638 A lunar eclipse becomes the 1st astronomical event recorded in US
1672 1st recorded monthly Quaker meeting in US held, Sandwich, Mass
1667 Dr Jean-Baptiste Denys, French doctor, performs 1st blood transfusion
1749 General fast because of drought in MA
1788 Virginia becomes 10th state to ratify US constitution
1798 US passes Alien Act allowing president to deport dangerous aliens
1835 1st building constructed at Yerba Buena (now SF)
1857 Gustave Flaubert goes on trial for public immorality regarding his novel, Madame Bovary.
1862 Robert E. Lee commands the Confederate Army for the first time. (Seven Days Campaign)
1863 US General George Meade replaces General Hooker to be more aggressive
1864 Petersburg Campaign-Federals begin digging tunnels under Reb lines
1868 FL, AL, LA, GA, NC & SC readmitted to US
1870 The opera Die Walküre is produced (Munich)

1876 Custer & 7th Cavalry wiped out by Sioux & Cheyenne at Little Big Horn

1888 Republican Convention, in Chicago, nominates Benjamin Harrison
1903 Yanks & White Sox end deadlocked at 6-6 in 18
1910 Mann Act passed (no women across state lines for immoral purposes)
1919 1st advanced monoplane airliner flight (Junkers F13)
1921 Jack Hutchinson becomes 1st American to win golf's British Open
1924 K Reinmuth discovers asteroid #1023 Thomana
1929 Pres Hoover authorizes building of Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam)
1934 NY Yankee Lou Gehrig hits for the cycle beating White Sox 11-2
1935 Joe Louis defeats Primo Carnera at Yankee Stadium
1937 Cub Augie Galan becomes 1st player to switch hit HRs in a game
1938 Federal minimum wage law guarantees workers 40 cents per hour
1940 Adolf Hitler views Eiffel tower and grave of Napoleon in France
1941 FDR issues Executive Order 8802 forbidding discrimination
1941 Germans invade Dubno, Poland, and encouraged the Ukrainians to do whatever they want to 12,000 Jews living there
1942 Major General Dwight Eisenhower was appointed commander of US forces in Europe
1942 British RAF staged a 1,000 bomb raid on Bremen Germany (WW II)
1943 Crematory III at Birkenau, Poland, completed.
1943 Arthur Seyss-Inquart orders a mass arrest of Dutch physicians
1944 British assault Caen, Normandy...finally
1948 Joe Louis KOs Jersey Joe Walcott in 11 to reatain championship
1950 Israeli airline El Al begins service


1950 Korean conflict begins; N Korea invades S Korea


1951 1st color TV broadcast-CBS' Arthur Godfrey from NYC to 4 cities
1953 1st passenger to fly commercially around the world (100 hours)
1953 86ø F in Anchorage Alaska
1956 51 die in collision of "Andrea Doria" & "Stockholm" (Cape Cod)
1961 Iraq announces that Kuwait is a part of Iraq (Kuwait disagrees)
1961 Yankee's Roger Maris hits his 40th of 61 HRs

1962 Supreme Court rules NY school prayer unconstitutional

1966 Beatles' "Paperback Writer," single goes #1 & stays #1 for 2 weeks
1966 Kosmos 122, 1st Soviet weather satellite, launched
1967 Mohammed Ali (Cassius Clay) sentenced to 5 years
1967 400 million watch Beatles "Our World" TV special
1968 Bobby Bonds hits a grand slam in his 1st major league game (Giants)
1969 Longest tennis match in Wimbeldon history, Pancho Gonzalez beats Charles Pasarell in 112 game (5hr12m) marathon
1972 Berenice Gera becomes 1st female umpire in pro baseball
1973 John Dean begins testimony/lying before Senate Watergate Committee
1975 Mozambique gains independence from Portugal (National Day)
1977 Roy C Sullivan of Va is struck by lightening for 7th time! (Take the hint Roy!)
1981 Supreme Court upholds male-only draft registration, constitutional
1982 Porn star John Holmes acquitted on murder charges
1982 Sec of State Alexander Haig Jr resigns, replaced by Schultz
1983 Udo Beyer of East Germany sets record for shot put, 22.22 m
1987 Pope John Paul II receives Austrian Pres Kurt Waldheim
1989 1st US postmark dedicated to Lesbian & Gay Pride (Stonewall, NYC)
1990 120ø F in Phoenix Arizona
1990 NBC decides to air episodes of "Quantum Leep" for 5 straight days
1991 Slovenia & Croatia declare independence from Yugoslavia



1996 Khobar Towers attacked by terrorist homicide bomber. 105 suffer serious injuries, 23 Americans were killed. Ahmad Behbahani plans attack, Osama bin Laden bankrolls it.




1997 It's reported that a man from Rio Vista, Ca., was doing a good business selling the moon’s real estate. Dennis Hope was charging $15.99 for 1,777 acres of lunar land plus tax and shipping.
1997 Montserrat's Soufriere Hills Volcano, after lying dormant for 400 years, erupted, wiping out two-thirds of the Caribbean island.
1998 US Supreme Court reject a 1997 line-item veto law as unconstitutional
1998 US Supreme Court rules that “decency” can be considered in awarding federal arts grants
2000 US (goofy)Green party nominates Ralph Nader as its presidential candidate with running mate Winona LaDuke, an Ojibwe activist/nutcase from Minnesota.
2001 Pope John Paul II, on a visit to Ukraine, offered a prayer for Holocaust victims at Babi Yar.
2001 UN General Assembly convenes for a special 3-day session on AIDS. (Decide they are not in favor of it. World leader hail this as a great moment in international diplomacy)
2002 A federal judge in Alexandria, Va., refuses to accept a no-contest plea from Zacarias Moussaoui, accused of conspiracy in the Sept. 11 attacks, and instead entered an innocent plea on his behalf
2002 Moroccan authorities arrest three more people in a widening investigation into the Moroccan tendrils of al-Qaida, bringing the number of suspects held here to 10, including three Saudis.
2004 Pres. Bush stops in Ireland to meet with EU leaders, while on his way to Turkey for a summit with NATO leaders. Thousands of protesters/moral midgets demonstrated against his actions in Iraq, in ousting a murderous tyrant & psychopathic killer, and his gang of thugs.

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Gibraltar : Spring Bank Holiday
Mozambique : Independence Day (1975)
Virginia : Ratification Day (1788)
US : Take Your Dog To Work Day
National Sheriff's Week (Day 6)
National Log Cabin Day
Leon Day/Samtsirhc Day (Leon and Christmas spelled backwards)/6 mos opposite Xmas/people named Leon
Own Your Share of America Month (If the courts let you)

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Religious Observances
Christian : Feast of St Prosper
RC : Commemoration of St William, abbot
Luth : Commemoration of the Augsburg Confession
Luth : Commemoration of Philipp Melanchthon, renewer of the Church

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Religious History
1115 St. Bernard founded a monastery in Clairvaux, France. It afterward became a strategic center for the Cistercians, a religious order that flourished up until the Reformation.
1580 The German 'Book of Concord' was published, containing all the official confessions of the Lutheran Church. (English translations of the entire work were not available before 1851.)
1744 The first Methodist conference convened, in London. This new society within Anglicanism imposed strict disciplines upon its members, formally separating from the Established Church in 1795.
1865 English pioneer missionary J. Hudson Taylor founded the China Inland Mission. Its headquarters moved to the US in 1901, and in 1965 its name became Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF) International.
1957 During a convention in Cleveland, Ohio, the United Church of Christ (UCC) was formed by a merger of the Congregational Christian Church and the Evangelical and Reformed Church.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

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MEET KIRBY, THE... HUMAN PLANET
SMALL MOONS ORBIT FAT MAN

By Dick Siegel

VALHALLA, Md. -- Jackson Kirby, a short, 450- pound bank loan officer, was strolling down the street last week when two small, potato-shaped rocks suddenly flew at him.

"The neighborhood kids love to tease me because I'm so heavy," the 5-foot-2 Kirby told Weekly World News. "I thought someone was throwing things at me so I raised my arm to protect myself. But nothing happened. At least, not what I expected."

Peeking over his arm Kirby watched, amazed, as the rocks began floating around him. Thinking they were Nerfs or some kind of toy picked up by the wind, Kirby swatted at them and walked on.

The objects followed, circling him slowly, one around his chest and the other around his waist. Try as he might, Kirby was unable to shake them.

"I quickly realized they were rocks all right," he said. "They dented mail boxes, smacked a passing skateboarder and took down a low flying robin. Luckily, they also knocked down a cat that was stuck up a tree."

Understandably concerned, Kirby took a quick trip to the emergency room. There, Dr. David Peters diagnosed him as suffering from a unique physical malady known as Latitudinal Revolving Dependent.

"LaRD is what happens when an extremely dense object meets movable matter," Dr. Peters said. "Kirby's combination of great weight and compacted molecular structure has created a gravity field that attracted the small rocks."

The doctor prescribed a lead based salve to reduce the energy radiated by his body. "Unfortunately, the only cure is weight loss," said Dr. Peters. "Until then, Mr. Kirby will have to use the balm or put up with being a man-planet."

Although Kirby applied the salve, it did not get rid of the rocks. It simply reduced their altitude, dropping them around his knees. Flying at such a low height they clobbered innocent kittens and puppies, so Kirby discontinued the treatment.

By that time, however, Kirby had actually become rather fond of his travel buddies. He nicknamed the larger of the two moons "Beany," since it revolves at high speed around his expansive chest and hits the most people in the head.

He called the smaller moon "Cecil." It hugs Kirby's waist or 'equator' closely, making it less dangerous -- though it does make putting on a pair of pants difficult.

When Kirby returned to his office his cubicle became a swirling vortex of debris. Computers were smashed, coffee makers exploded, and several clients and co-workers were knocked out.

Jagged shards of glass from a shattered computer monitor briefly formed a Saturn-like ring system around the man-planet.

Bank management immediately issued hard hats and safety goggles to employees hoping to protect them from Kirby's twin moons. But employees were not happy.

"Working in close proximity to Kirby impacts our job performance -- AND our heads," teller Lee Brackett told us, his face wrapped in bandages. "You can't count change or cash a check with rocks constantly banging on the walls or glass partitions."

"My cubicle is near the water-cooler," complained account manager Herbie F. Fury. "It's a regular moon river. Try working on a spread-sheet with water spraying from cracks caused by those damn rocks."

"We're in a tough spot." admitted bank president Hamilton Edmonds. "We're facing lawsuits from both personal injury and potential man-planet discrimination.

"We asked Kirby to take a paid leave of absence until we could take time to sort it all out. He declined. You've got to admire the man's work ethic, if not his judgment."

"I like my job, and besides that, people depend on me," the man-planet insisted over lunch at his desk. He was sucking up spaghetti, the rocks passing harmlessly through the dangling strands.

"Plus, it's kinda neat to be stared at, even feared. Kids have stopped throwing things at me. My moons intercept all 'incoming' and return-to-sender at high velocity -- whomp!"

"Sure, Kirby can walk down the street in peace," said the heavily bandaged Lee Brackett. "But what about the rest of us? We're tired of being 'mooned' by the jerk."

"Kirby is just an oblivious fat idiot," Herbie F. Fury said angrily. "Forget those two moonlets. He thinks the whole world revolves around him."

---

Thought for the day :
"Do it right or don't do it at all."

[w_over_w]

Morning Glory Folks~

Presently such extralegal measures would be extended throughout the Union, and secessionists and others judged subversive would find themselves in jail without the slightest pretense of due process.

To move a little forward, Bull Run (Union name)had emboldened Maryland's secessionist legislators wherein they called a special legislative session that Lincoln feared would vote to secede. Lincoln sent troops to occupy Baltimore, locked the mayor and thirty-one legislators in jail, and kept them there without trial for more than two months until a new and safely Unionist legislature was elected in November. Lincoln would reward Maryland (as other slave holding border states) by allowing them to continue slavery. Lincoln liberated enemy slaves like he liberated enemy cattle. The "principle asserted is not that a human being cannot justly own another, but that he cannot own him unless he is loyal to the United States."

[Valin]

Shameless Plug
On This Day In History: North Korean Invades South Korea
Korean War.com
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1430460/posts
/Shameless Plug

[w_over_w]

1990 NBC decides to air episodes of "Quantum Leep" for 5 straight days

Episode Three: "A Single Drop of Rain"

[Does anyone recognize the guy in the mirror?]

[Valin]

Hard to see. give us a hint please.

[snippy_about_it]

Oh my goodness. It looks like that guy that was following your wife around Gettysburg last week!

[w_over_w]

Hard to see. give us a hint please.

Okay . . . but I'm not going to make it easy. Here's your hint: Go Here and look for a picture of a guy holding the Texas Flag with a beautiful woman.

[w_over_w]

Oh my goodness. It looks like that guy that was following your wife around Gettysburg last week!

That's right! And I had to beat the crap out of him! And the same goes if I catch him near you . . . sweets. ;^)

[snippy_about_it]

ROTFLOL!