By William H. Benson
The Parallel Lives
Of The NOBLE AMERICAN RELIGIOUS THINKERS AND BELIEVERS:
Roger Williams VS. Cotton Mathers
NEW ARTICLES
The 1790’s: Fierce Political Fights
Last time in these pages, I wrote about the sharp division within George Washington’s Presidential administration, that between Alexander Hamilton, founder of the Federalist Party, and Thomas Jefferson, founder of the Democratic-Republican Party.
That division between the two parties accelerated throughout the 1790’s.
In the election of 1796, John Adams won the presidency with 71 electoral votes to Thomas Jefferson’s 68 votes. Per the Constitution then, the one with the most votes would serve as President, and the one with the second most votes would serve as Vice-President.
It was an unpleasant situation, Adams as President and Jefferson as Vice-President. In their respective newspapers, the two parties pummeled each other and fell into vicious name calling.
Newspaper editors who favored the Jeffersonians called John Adams “a hideous character, who has neither the force and firmness of a man nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.” The same editors labeled Adams “a fool, a hypocrite, and a tyrant.”
Editors who supported Adams called Jefferson “a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, a weakling, an atheist, and a libertine.” In addition, they called into question Jefferson’s English parentage.
A certain Federalist was convinced that Jefferson intended to “unleash the terrible evils of democracy,” allowing the unwashed masses to seek office in the Federal government. Another Federalist said that “when the pot boils, the scum will rise.”
In early 1798, Matthew Lyon, a fierce anti-Federalist and a Congressman from Vermont, drifted into a war of words, trading back and forth put-downs, with Roger Griswold, a volatile Democratic-Republican, also a Congressman, but from Connecticut.
On January 31, Lyon propelled tobacco juice into Griswold’s eyes.
Two weeks later, on February 15, Griswold “walked up to Lyon’s desk and hit him about the head and shoulders with a hickory walking stick. Lyon grabbed a pair of fireplace iron tongs and beat Griswold back. The two men dropped their weapons and threw fists at each other.”
Because the Federalists had the votes in Congress, they passed four laws that summer.
On June 18, 1798, Congress passed the Naturalization Act, that extended the residency requirement for immigrants from five to fourteen years before they could attain citizenship.
On June 25, Congress passed the Alien Friends Act, that authorized the President to deport any non-citizen deemed dangerous to the peace and safety of the U.S.
On July 6, Congress passed the Alien Enemies Act, that authorized the President to detain or deport immigrants from a hostile nation during wartime.
On July 14, Congress passed the Sedition Act, that made criminal any “false, scandalous, or malicious writing against the government,” in pamphlets or newspapers.
Jefferson and his fellow Democratic-Republicans were aghast. They perceived those four laws as a political attack upon their party. The four laws raised questions about the proper balance between the two parties, and the limits of free speech and a free press.
The Alien Friends Act and the Sedition Act both expired in 1800, and Congress repealed the Naturalization Act in 1802. The Alien Enemies Act (AEA) though is still the law of the land.
Presidents have used it four times: the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II. The AEA was used to intern in camps certain Japanese, German, and Italian people during World War II.
Last March, Donald Trump attempted to use the 1798 AEA to “justify deporting Venezuelans to El Salvador, that they were members of a Venezuelan gang that had infiltrated the U.S.”
In the election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson received 73 votes, the same as Aaron Burr. A vote in Congress made Jefferson President and Burr Vice-President. The Federalists were swept out.
IN RETROSPECT: Pestilence
IN RETROSPECT: Pestilence On June 26, 1284, officials in a German town called Hamelin hired a musician to rid the town of its rats. The “rat-catcher’s magical flute” hypnotized the rats that followed the piper out of Hamelin’s gates and into the Weser River, where...
1776
The logo for the Broadway musical “1776” features an eaglet inside a broken eggshell, biting down on a flagpole. The small flag atop the pole shows its colors: red and white stripes, and a blue field in the upper left corner. Across the bottom portion of the egg appears a larger English flag.
The musical begins with John Adams alone in the Pennsylvania State House’s belfry, four floors up, leaning on a massive bell. A messenger approaches and informs him that he must return to the hall.
George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer The Native American tribes had pet names for George Armstrong Custer. The Crow called him Child of the Morning Star, the Cheyenne labeled him Yellow Hair, but the Lakota Sioux referred to him as Long Hair, even though a barber had cut off his...
Stewart Brand: “The Whole Earth Catalog”
Steve Jobs gave the commencement address at Stanford University on June 14, 2005. In it, he told three stories. The first was how he dropped out of Reed College, in Portland, Oregon. The second was how a manager fired him from the company that he and Steve Wozniak had started in a garage.
The third story was about his pending death, due to a pancreatic cancer diagnosis a year before.
Then, after he finished the three stories, he said, “When I was young, there was an amazing publication called “The Whole Earth Catalog,” which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand, not far from here in Menlo Park, California.
Mythology
Tony Hillerman grew up in Oklahoma, and attended St. Mary’s Academy, a boarding school intended for Native American girls. One of the few boys permitted to attend, he developed a sensitivity for the various Native American cultures, mythologies, and religions.
Traditions
In recent days, I have re-read David L. Lindsay’s novel, Body of Truth. In it, he describes a cruel and gruesome civil war that terrorized the people of Guatemala for thirty-six years, from 1960 until 1996. It was the federal government, then run by a series of generals, who attacked the poorest of its citizens.
A United Nations report, dated March 1, 1999, declared that, “An estimated 200,000 Guatemalans were killed during the civil war, including at least 40,000 persons who disappeared.”
Older Posts
Truth vs. lies
It might be fabricated, but a story I heard years ago was that Bill Cosby warned a young Oprah Winfrey, to “always balance your own check book.” In other words, he cautioned her to trust only herself, and not any paid employee, with that simple task.
Another piece of advice for the up-and-coming, who are now, after years of struggle, experiencing some success, “Do not believe your own press reports.” In other words, no matter how wonderful and great the journalists and reporters say you are, keep in reserve some small measure of humility.
A tale of two cities
A quote I read years ago said, “The family surname of the betrothed says much about the success of the marriage.” That idea may come near to a singular truth in a general way, despite plenty of examples to contradict it. Yet, I dare suggest something similar, but in a political sense.
How a man or woman identifies his or her citizenship–to what city he or she claims allegiance–tells much about his or her innermost thoughts, ideas, conclusions, and reasoning skills. In other words, tell me the name of your city, and I can predict the ideas that you think and believe.
Yet, not always. Again, outliers who think for themselves.
There were two cities in ancient Greece: Athens and Sparta. The Athenians practiced trade, they valued art and culture, and they ruled themselves by democracy of voters, legislators, and written laws. The Spartans though encouraged a militant society, based on farming and conquering.
Irish Wit
The Irish have their own way of seeing the world. The American poet Marianne Moore said as much in six words. “I’m troubled. I’m dissatisfied. I’m Irish.”
Frank McCourt said the same, but in more words, on the first page of his memoir, Angela’s Ashes.
“It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.
Freeze-up in Ottawa
Kathrene and Robert Pinkerton married in 1911. He worked at a newspaper in a big city: long hours, deadlines, and stress. A doctor advised him to “get out of newspaper offices and out of cities,” if he wanted to preserve his health. He decided he would write fiction—short stories—and sell them.
When single, Robert had worked as a logger and fur trader in Ottawa’s woods,
Immigration
With high school diploma in hand, a young African from Ghana named Robert Kosi Tette came to the United States in 1998, leaving behind family, friends, and “a simple life of blissful innocence.”
Ten years later, he described his decade in America, in an article that appeared in the March 1, 2008 issue of Newsweek, that he entitled “An Immigrant’s Silent Struggle.”
Abraham Lincoln’s farewell to Springfield
A favorite Lincoln biographer of mine is Carl Sandburg. In 1926, he published a two-volume work, Abraham Lincoln, The Prairie Years, and then in 1939, he published a four-volume work, Abraham Lincoln, The War Years. This latter work won Sandburg the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1940.
One of University of Northern Colorado’s 2020 Honored Alumni
William H. Benson
Local has provided scholarships for history students for 15 years
A Sterling resident is among five alumni selected to be recognized this year by the University of Northern Colorado. Bill Benson is one of college’s 2020 Honored Alumni.
Each year UNC honors alumni in recognition for their outstanding contributions to the college, their profession and their community. This year’s honorees were to be recognized at an awards ceremony on March 27, but due to the COVID-19 outbreak that event has been cancelled. Instead UNC will recognize the honorees in the fall during homecoming Oct. 10 and 11……
Newspaper Columns
The Duodecimal System
For centuries, the ancient Romans calculated sums with their clunky numerals: I, V, X, L, C, D, and M; or one, five, ten, 50, 100, 500, and 1,000. They knew nothing better.
The Thirteenth Amendment
On Jan. 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and by it, he declared that “all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are and henceforward shall be free.” Lincoln’s Proclamation freed some 3.1 million slaves within the Confederacy.
The Fourteenth Amendment
After Congress and enough states ratified the thirteenth amendment that terminated slavery, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. This law declared that “all people born in the United States are entitled to be citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude.” The Act equated birth to citizenship.
The New-York Packet and the Constitution
Jill Lepore, the Harvard historian, published her newest book a month ago, These Truths: A History of the United States. In a short introduction, she describes in detail the Oct. 30, 1787 edition of a semi-weekly newspaper, The New-York Packet.
Mr. Benson’s writings on the U.S. Constitution are a great addition to the South Platte Sentinel. Its inspiring to see the history of the highest laws of this country passed on to others.
– Richard Hogan
Mr. Benson, I cannot thank you enough for this scholarship. As a first-generation college student, the prospect of finding a way to afford college is a very daunting one. Thanks to your generous donation, my dream of attending UNC and continuing my success here is far more achievable
– Cedric Sage Nixon
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– Extra Times
FUTURE BOOKS
- Thomas Paine vs. George Whitefield
- Ralph Waldo Emerson vs. Joseph Smith
- William James vs. Mary Baker Eddy
- Mark Twain vs. Billy Graham
- Henry Louis Mencken vs. Jim Bakker
