Harper’s Weekly – May 19, 1860

Harper's Weekly archives ^ | May 19, 1860

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[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.

Posting history, in reverse order

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 Harper’s Weekly thread

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The Union Candidates – 1-3
Editorials – 3-4
The Lounger – 4-5
Humors of the Day – 5-6
Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church – 7-10
The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins, the Housekeeper’s Narrative concluded; the Narrative of Hester Pinhorn, Cook in the Service of Count Posco; the Narrative of the Doctor; the Narrative of Jane Gould; the Narrative of the Tombstone; the Narrative of Walter Hartright, Resumed – 10-14
Domestic Intelligence – 14-15
Foreign News – 15
The Republicans in Nominating Convention, in Their Wigwam at Chicago, May, 1860 – 16
Taken by Storm – 17-19
The Uncommercial Traveler, No. VIII, by Charles Dickens – 19-20
Our Japanese Visitors – 21-23
Captain Brand of the Schooner “Centipede,” by Lieut. Henry A. Wise, U.S.N. (Harry Gringo). Chapter XV – 22-25
Pleasing Proposal - 26

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from May 18 (reply #32).

David Herbert Donald, Lincoln

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from May 18 (reply #33).

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Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from May 12 (reply #3).

Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from 5/18 (reply #35).

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

[nwrep]

On Seward, the Weekly writes above:

His oration on charity, his oration on Washington, his oration on astronomy on the opening of the Albany Geological Hall in August 1856, are masterpieces of eloquence which will live for centuries after Burke, Sheridan and Patrick Henry, and will be learned by boys in schools far hidden in the future.

Of course, as it turned out, this was not to be. These names are completely forgotten today, except by historians. You could not find one in a million American school children today who know about any of these people, esp. Burke and Sheridan. And that happened scarcely a century and a half later.

Instead, everyone today knows about Lincoln's speech at Gettysburg, which was a few years away from being written when the above claptrap was written.

History has a way of proving people wrong.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The quote you cite is from a profile of Edward Everett, famous orator of the day, and the vice-presidential nominee of the Constitutional-Union Party. He will speak for a couple hours before Lincoln delivers his brief remarks at Gettysburg in November 1863.

[nwrep]

Yes, not Seward, but Everett. Completely forgotten today, especially by the average American school kid.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Apparently he and other celebrity orators were the rock stars of the day.

[OIFVeteran]

And yes the south did perpetuate a special act of idiocy, by breaking apart the democratic party. Therefore insuring the election of Lincoln. I thank God they did.

[colorado tanker]

The die was cast when the Southern Democrats decided to split the party over the issue of a territorial slave code. Unless they back off from that demand and back Douglas, Lincoln will be the next President. And, of course, they can’t/won’t do that.

[BroJoeK]

I highly recommend to all the editorial on page 3 titled:

"Our Dirty Lenin Aired Abroad"

It is a full-throated defense of Americans against typical criticisms of that day, and indeed, some of our day too.
Item #3 includes a line from my boyhood -- it says that our representatives abroad, far from being (we would say) "Ugly Americans", rather they "roar as gently as any suckling dove".

As a boy I was obliged to learn & present that line, for comedic effect: Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 1, scene 2, Bottom is hoping to play the part of a lion, whose only line is to roar, but not toooo fiercely:

"I grant you, friends, if you should fright the ladies out of their wits, they would have no more discretion but to hang us.
But I will aggravate my voice so that I will roar you as gently as any sucking dove.
I will roar you an ’twere any nightingale."

Our representatives abroad "roar... as gently as any sucking dove," and this was in the days even before presidential apology tours!

Well worth the time to read it.

[BroJoeK]

Oh for crying out loud...

Lenin = Linen

Not this guy, this:

[x]

Schools don’t teach oratory any more. In the 19th century, every student who got beyond the earliest grades would study famous speeches as part of reading and English classes. If you graduated high school - and not that many people did back then - you would know Webster and Hayne, Burke and Fox, Edward Everett and Charles Sumner. Even so, it was probably a safe bet that even if we kept up the tradition, Seward’s oration on astronomy wouldn’t have made the cut.

[x]

With the exception of Seward, the list of great American public men the paper gives to refute the British attack goes a long way to proving the Earl's point, rather than disproving it. Still, how many British politicians back then were "great" largely because of the titles, and not because of the abilities?

The article on population changes is also interesting. It seems like one reason we had the Civil War may have been that the Southeastern states couldn't keep up the pace of growth in the rest of the country, and couldn't cope with their potential loss of power. It would be interesting to know how the people of that era reacted to the article and the changes it discusses.

[nwrep]

And not only those. They would have also studied Pericles and Cicero.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from May 19 (reply #4).

Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals

[Homer_J_Simpson]

On this date Lincoln had his photograph taken in Springfield by William Marsh.

“Presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois, two days after he won his party's nomination.”

List of photographs of Abraham Lincoln

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from 5/19 (reply #6.)

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