Lincoln Assassinated

My first recollection of President Lincoln is from 1959 and the release of the new Lincoln penny. The obverse was changed from "wheat stalks" to an image of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. His picture hung in every classroom from Kindergarten through at least Junior High School, right alongside George Washington. He was considered somewhat of a saint. So naturally I was curious about this man ever since I can recall.

I have read everything about him, from Carl Sandburg's brilliant 2 volume biography to the latest books on his sexual obsessions. I have seen him played by Raymond Massey and Henry Fonda in films and several actors on stage. Love him or hate him, he was quite a man.

Tasked with keeping the Union together took a great toll upon him. You can see it in photos, especially the one here, taken just 3 days before he was shot and killed by John Wilkes Booth. Whether or not you agree with Lincoln's policies regarding slavery and States Rights, you cannot help but wonder what would have happened if the Union hadn't prevailed and the South had seceded successfully, pardon my alliteration.

It's possible that Mexico, with or without the aid of Spain, would have taken back Texas. And, what about the Spanish American War? Would it ever have happened? What would have been the fate of the Philippine Islands in World War Two? After all, Spain was neutral in that conflict and the Philippines was our pathway to Victory in the Pacific. I could go on, but I won't.

The flight and subsequent shooting of his assassin, John Wilkes Booth, is legendary, as is the trial and execution of his co-conspirators. Among them was the first of only two women ever executed by the United States Government. Her name was Mary Surratt. She essentially "ran the nest where the plot was hatched”, in the words of President Andrew Johnson.

But the most significant thing that Lincoln left us as a window into his character is the Gettysburg Address. First shunned here in the U.S. as "lackluster", it was hailed in England and is still considered by many to be amongst the greatest writings of Western Civilization. I am printing it here in the hope that all the people of our nation, currently divided as it is, will read it and fully understand its meaning. This would be the best way to honor the man who kept our Nation whole.

There are five different versions of the Gettysburg Address. This is taken from the one that is on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C. It contains the words "under God." This is the most notable difference in the five versions.

The Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. 

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom— and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

"Beyond the Gates" with John Hurt and Hugh Dancy (2005)

Rwanda; and the Genocide which was allowed to persist there in the 1990’s; was the point at which I stopped believing in the United Nations as the cure for anything. In spite of my own experiences in supplying the so-called “Peacekeeping” forces in Beirut during the early 1980’s I had still held out hope that the UN might be able to do something useful in this world. Rwanda dashed all of that hope for me.

How was it possible for the massacre between Hutu and Tutsi to continue while well-armed UN Peacekeepers were in country facing enemies armed with machetes? The official policy was to observe; and shamefully that is just what they did.

As diplomats spoke over lunch and politicians made speeches, the Peacekeepers were left with no clear directive of what to do when the mass killings began. And, as the killings progressed and the bodies piled up, the officers and men of the Peacekeeping Forces did their job and so did nothing.

In this beautifully made movie which takes place in 1994, just after the Hutu President’s plane has been shot down, the Hutu’s and Tutsi’s come to war over allegations that the plane was shot down by the Tutsi’s. The Hutu’s are more numerous and have every advantage of being the governing tribe in Rwanda. The airplane crash serves as a pretext for the killings to begin.

The film centers around a local school run by a Priest named Father Christopher, played by John Hurt. He is assisted by Joe Connor, played by Hugh Dancy. They have forged a community with the Tutsi’s of the area and introduced them to western style education and Christianity. There are also some Hutu’s living at the school as employees, which makes you think that there is hope for peace between the two tribes; at least in the school itself.

Father Christopher and Joe are able to shelter 2,500 men, women and children at the school as the violence rages just outside the gate and the corpses pile up. The Belgian Peacekeepers assigned to protect them find themselves under siege and a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues; the only question being how long it will take for the Hutu’s to realize that the UN Peacekeepers are under orders not to shoot; under any circumstances.

As the situation spirals way out of control, Father Christopher begins to question whether he has done any good for the students in his charge. They recite the prayers, they eat the wafers of the sacrament; but do they really understand Christianity? But just as he is judging them he and Joe face the larger ethical question of what they should do as individuals. Do they stay and share the fate of their refugees? Or do they flee with the Peacekeepers, leaving them to the fate of the Hutu’s?

Directed brilliantly and performed with intensity, this film will make you look with even more disgust at the United Nations. Having seen the UN in action close hand in Lebanon, I can tell you that this film does nothing to stretch the truth.

JFK's Grave - January 1964

It was 50 years ago today that John Fitzgerald Kennedy was laid to rest. My family made the trip to Washingto, D.C. about 5 weeks after the assassination to pay our respects at the grave. There were still crowds waiting in line to see the grave, which was nothing like it is today.

This photo shows the grave at the time of our visit. The President's son, Patrick, who had been stillborn the previous August, is interred to the right in the photo.

The gravesite today is a concrete monument, which leaves you feeling disconnected, both from the man, and the events of his life and death. When I was there, the earth was still freshly turned, and the only thing separating the people from their fallen leader was a white picket fence.

"The Hour of Peril" by Daniel Stashower (2013)

The plot to assassinate President-elect Lincoln has always been a source of fascination for me. When I was living in Baltimore, some 30 odd years ago studying for a Coast Guard License, I used to stand opposite the Calvert Street Station and contemplate what would have been if the plot to kill Lincoln had been successful. And, standing on the very spot in the station where Lincoln had once trod held another appeal all of its own. So, naturally, I was eager to pick this book off the shelf at the library where it was presumably waiting just for me. And, what a treat it was to read!

Author Daniel Stashower has taken the oft told story of the attempted assassination of Lincoln en route to Washington and turned it into an all-encompassing saga of such diverse topics as; Scottish immigration, the westward expansion of the United States as a nation, the Abolitionist Movement, Allan Pinkerton’s rise from humble beginnings to his world-wide fame as a premier Private Investigator, his part in the Underground Railroad, his friendship with John Brown, and of course the founding of the Secret Service.

Along the way he introduces the reader to Eugene Vidocq, the former criminal turned law enforcement agent who founded the French Surete, and pioneered the plaster casting of footprints and established one of the earliest criminal data bases of the era. He was the actual inspiration for Victor Hugo’s character Jean Valjean in “Les Miserables.” Even the Lincoln-Douglas Debates are not ignored here, nor their implications concerning the inevitable coming of a Civil War. Oh, and did I mention that this is a book about Abraham Lincoln’s First Inauguration?

In a sweeping style, and drawing upon all sources, the author has penned what could very well become the basis for a movie about Allan Pinkerton. If Steven Spielberg were to undertake this as a companion piece to his current blockbuster “Lincoln”, he could not miss. 

As a member of the Scottish Chartist group; who were early champions of the working class and later tied to Marx and Engels; Pinkerton was also a natural  champion of Abolition. His work with John Brown put him in direct violation of both state and federal laws, but still he persevered . His attitude was expressed in the oft quoted “The ends justify the means, if the ends are for the accomplishment of Justice.”

When the author does get around to the journey by rail from Illinois to Chicago, by circuitous fashion, passing through all the stops on the way to New York, and from there on to Washington, D.C.; including a very dangerous change of stations at Baltimore where the President-elects life was in imminent danger; the narrative actually gets even better, if that is imaginable. 

The smoke filled cars come to life as the train hurtles toward the destiny which will ultimately; some 4 years later; culminate in the President’s death by an assassin’s bullet. That in itself is almost ironic; that he should live through the earlier attempt upon his life, only to die in the same way after holding the country together during a vicious Civil War; seems almost as if history had done with him; and having done so, cast him aside.

This book also explores the role that the railroads were beginning to play in the way Americans lived, worked and even engaged in politics. Filled with rogues, knaves and the world's first female detective, there is something for everyone in this book. It is still early in the year; and the book is just recently out; but I would suggest that if you only read one or two books this year, skipping this one would be a real loss.

Cuban Missle Crisis Ends

On October 22nd, 1962 President Kennedy announced that the Soviet Union was installing nuclear missiles in Cuba, 90 miles from our shores. Acting under the auspices of the Monroe Doctrine he gave a 17 minute speech in which he outlined his response to the Soviet action, including the famous quarantine of Cuba, in which all Soviet ships headed to Cuba were boarded and searched. Those ships which refused to be searched were turned back by our Navy. On October 28th, 6 days later, the crisis came to an end when Soviet premier Khrushchev announced the withdrawal of the missiles. On the surface the United States had won a huge victory. Or, so it would seem.

In reality the United States had done the same thing to the Soviet Union by placing over 600 Jupiter missiles along the Turkish border, all aimed at strategic targets within the Soviet Union. This was akin to our violating the Soviet Union’s right of the principles of the Monroe Doctrine, which we were using to have the Soviet missiles removed from Cuba.

Moscow's position was correct, if we could have missiles on their border, they could have missiles on ours. Unknown to American military intelligence at the time, was that there were, and had been, low yield "tactical" nuclear weapons, though not missiles, in Cuba since the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. These weapons were for combat use, typically for the repulsion of invading forces. Had our troops landed in support of the coup, they would have been met with small scale nuclear arms. And that would have triggered a nuclear response from the United States, which of course would have set off a response from the Soviet Union. Now, here we were, one year later, facing off with the Soviet Union for a second time.

Kennedy and Khrushchev were both very concerned about losing control of their respective armed forces at the time. The Joints Chiefs of Staff wanted to invade over the missile issue, and the President wanted to negotiate. Officially, at the time, the so-called "Doomsday" clock stood at 1 minute to midnight, the closest the Soviet Union and the United States had ever come to a nuclear war. A solution, acceptable to both sides, needed to be found, and quickly!

Within 6 days of JFK's speech, Khrushchev announced the withdrawal of the Soviet missiles from Cuba. This was hailed as a great victory for America at the time. A closer look would have revealed otherwise. The facts would not come to light for several more years, and when they did surface it didn't look like we got such a great deal after all.

President Kennedy had proposed, and the Soviets accepted, the dismantling of 600 operational nuclear missiles on the Soviet border in exchange for removing 5 non-operational missiles from Cuba. There was one caveat; the terms of the deal could not be announced. The concessions by the United States were to be kept quiet. And they were, for several years.

The Soviet Union got exactly what they wanted, and in a way, so did we. At the time we were dismantling the Jupiter missiles on the Turkish border, we were installing newer, longer range missiles, all aimed at the same targets, throughout Germany and Western Europe.

By 1964 both Kennedy and Khrushchev were out of office, Kennedy felled by an assassin’s bullet(s), and Khrushchev removed to a Dachau, where he would spend his remaining days in seclusion. Both men had fallen victim to the forces that would thwart any peace efforts. Those forces are still with us, to this very day.