A Little American Anecdotal Humor

At a White House press conference various reporters were vainly firing questions at President Calvin Coolidge whose fame for being a man of very few words was transcendental with regards to his personality. Silent Cal didn't disappoint:

"Have you anything to say about prohibition?"

"No."

"Have you anything to say about the World Court?"

"No."

"About the farm situation?"

"No."

"About the forthcoming senatorial campaign?"

"No."

The conference was breaking up as the disappointed reporters began to file out of the room.

"And," the President suddenly called out, "don't quote me."

History of the Presidency: Fact Of The Day

President Obama's inauguration brought to mind a few comparatives of interest with other past Presidents. He was the ninth President to take office in his forties (47). He was the first President born in Hawaii as well as outside the continental United States. This would make him the 20th President who was a resident of a state other than his birth place. The native Hawaiian would be the third President from Illinois after Lincoln and Grant. Mr. Obama is the 8th left handed President following William Jefferson Clinton. There was a left handed President from 1981 to 2001 which is strange considering the number of left handed people in the population. James Garfield would be the first left handed President.

As I watch the inauguration I was curious when the tradition of an inaugural review started from in front of the White House. President Garfield was the first President to have such a review. Mr. Obama would also be the fifth President to be sworn in from the west portico of the White House with Ronald Reagan being the first.

This Day In American History

The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) were formed on this day in 1890 after the consolidation of workers from the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor. The labor movement took its first burgeoning steps forming a united front in the fight to use collective bargaining as a negotiation tool in their battle against the scandalous working conditions that permeated the mining industry throughout the country. By the 1930 when the National Recovery Act would be signed into law organizers would be moving freely throughout the country to organize all coal miners.

An Aerial View On Inauguration Day 1/20/2009

[Click the image for a larger view]

Today In American History

On this day in 1952 the United States and Great Britain issue a joint statement regarding U.S. airbases in the United Kingdom: an agreement stating that the U.S. will not launch an atomic attack on the European mainland without specific consent of the government of Great Britain. This joint agreement winds up a conference in Washington between President Truman and Prime Minister Winston Churchill that would be the first of his four official transatlantic visits to the U.S. during his second term as Prime Misister.

Just six years earlier right after the British Prime Minister had been ousted in a new post war government opposition realignment, he had been traveling with President Truman in Missouri when Mr. Churchill delivered his now famous "Iron Curtain" speech at Westminister College in Fulton in which he stated:

"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow."

With this speech Churchill helped introduce a new post war lexicon that would define a new era of "cold war" alliances and competing hegemonic interests throughout the world.

Happy Birthday To Our 13th President Millard Fillmore

You know your Presidency has an element of insignificance when you can't even get an honorable mention on Wikipedia's front page on your birthday. On this day the Unitarian and former Congressman from Summerhill, New York was born in 1800. He was 50 years and 184 days old on the day he succeeded Zachary Taylor, our 12th President, when he died in office on July 9th, 1850. His short term of office would be 2 years and 236 days.

The were few significant events during his short tenure in the White House: the admission of California as the 31st state in the union on Sept. 9th, 1850; the enactment of the fugitive slave law on Sept. 11, 1850; the departure of Commodore Matthew C. Perry's expedition to Japan in November of 1852 to open commercial ports; and finally his appointment of Associate Justice Benjamin Robbins Curtis on Sept. 22, 1851 to the United States Supreme Court.

In the election of 1848 he would be elected to the Vice Presidency on the ticket with ol' Rough and Ready, Gen. Zachary Taylor. The twice married Fillmore was a member of the Whig party who had the dubious distinction of a sitting President unable to win the nomination of his own party when he decided to run for another term in the 1852 election losing out to ol' Fuss n' Feathers, Gen. Winfield Scott. Fillmore would suffer through an excruciating 53 ballots during the three day Whig convention in Maryland Institute Hall in Baltimore, Maryland July 17th through July 20th, 1852. He would start out with 133 votes on the first ballot and ending up with 112 on the final and deciding 53rd ballot. Though his Presidency would earn little to no respect he did manage to get two counties named after him in Minnesota and Nebraska and get his likeness on a 13 cent green stamp when a series was issued in 1938 honoring all the Presidents.

In Joseph Kane's Facts About the Presidents we learn some interesting comparative data about the 13th President:

• He was the second President born in New York
• He was the second President whose father was alive when he was inaugurated
• He was the second President to remarry
• He was the fourth President to marry a widow
• He was the first President to have a step mother

When he left office on March 4th, 1853 he became the Chancellor of the University of Buffalo. He would live 21 years and 4 days after the end of his term of office. He died on March 8th, 1874 in Buffalo, NY at the age of 74 years and 60 days. He was laid to rest at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, NY. His second wife, Caroline Fillmore would survive him by 7 years, 156 days.

Jacksonville History: 1904

The Windsor Hotel, torn down in the 1950's, had 500 rooms. Built in the 1880's it spread over an entire block on the west side of Hemming Park which today is the city's plaza. The thing I find really interesting about this shot is you can see the old Confederate soldier memorial. It still stands today facing south looking into its past rather than its future.

American Anecdotes & Witticisms: 1911

Shortly before his death, Judge John Marshall Harlan of the U.S. Supreme Court became partly conscious and spoke his farewell words to those at his bedside: "Goodbye, I am sorry to have kept you all waiting so long."

Justice Harlan would forever be known as the lone dissenter in one of the most infamous Supreme Court decisions ever handed down in American history: Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), where the legal concept of "separate but equal" segregation statutes were upheld. His eloquent defense of basic civil rights stands as a testament to his vision and adherence to the concept of the rule of law:

"[...] in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved."

His grandson, John Marshall Harlan II, would be appointed an Associate Justice by Dwight Eisenhower in 1955 and serve until 1971. Ironically, he disagreed with his grandfather on the doctrine of incorporation whereas the Fourteenth Amendment made the Bill of Rights applicable at the state and federal level. He would in turn be replaced by eventual Chief Justice William Renquist by Richard Nixon who was Vice President when his predecessor was appointed.

Jacksonville History: 1892

Here is an 1892 view of Henry Flagler's railroad bridge located near the present day location of the Acosta bridge. The population in 1892 was just over 17,000 people. It would not top 100,000 unitl 1922.

Today In American History

On January 5th, 1776 the assembly of the colony of New Hampshire enacted and adopted the first state constitution.