The Mysteries of History (March 4 Edition)
Constitution; Jackson's Inaugural Bash; Lincoln's Inauguration; "Spanish" Flu; FDR's Inauguration
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” — Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana, 1905
1789 — Constitution Replaces Articles of Confederation
public domain images from wikimedia commons
On this date in 1789, at the first session of Congress, the U.S. Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation, a little less than two months before the inauguration of George Washington, the first President. However, the “in with the new” as regards the Constitution was at the time not quite the big deal we would expect it to have been, apparently, as only nine of 22 Senators, and 11 of 59 Representatives even bothered to show up to discuss it.
The following is what I wrote about The Constitution going into effect in my book Still Casting Shadows: A Shared Mosaic of U.S. History — Volume 1: 1620-1913:
Although the representatives of the various commonwealths had first met to revamp the Articles of Confederation two years earlier, the Constitution was not formally adopted by the entire country until this year. Congress had adopted the Constitution back in September of 1787, only four months after the framers had convened in order to hash out an updated version of the Articles of Confederation. Rather than just an upgrade, the Articles ended up being scrapped and replaced by a thoroughly reworked Constitution. It was an uphill battle for the Federalists, who wanted a strong federal government as set forth in the new Constitution, to convince the majority of the states to ratify. Those on the other side who favored states’ rights feared that the Constitution would make the federal government too powerful. Virginia, where the first British Colony in North America was located in Jamestown, and which had also brought the first African slaves to North America, was intent on retaining individual and states’ rights. Massachusetts, home state of Plymouth Colony and rabble-rousers of the rebellion against the British, also tended to view a strong central government (seemingly similar to their former oppressor Britain) with suspicion. Wealthy (and thus influential) New York also initially looked askance at the new arrangement. In an attempt to explain their position and persuade people to adopt it, three staunch Federalists (Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay) wrote a series of essays known as the “Federalist Papers” beginning in late 1787. These writings, published in the New York Independent Journal, urged the ratification of the Constitution. Only after the necessary two-thirds of the states (nine of thirteen) had already ratified the Constitution did New York join in voting for its adoption. That left Rhode Island, North Carolina, and Virginia, who only agreed to ratify after the Bill of Rights were added in 1791. However, three states who had already accepted the Constitution (Georgia, Connecticut, and Massachusetts) did not ratify the Bill of Rights until 1939.
Questions: Why were so few politicians present for the negotiations for the Constitution? In what way is the Constitution better than the Articles of Confederation that it replaced? Were the Articles of Confederation better than the Constitution in some way? If you could go back in time and be part of the discussion, what would you say? Would you want part of the Constitution stricken out? Something else added in? Something made more clear?
1829 — Old Hickory’s Animal House
public domain image from wikimedia commons
Andrew Jackson may have had inviter’s remorse after inviting all who wanted to come to his inauguration party — inside the White House, at that — on this date in 1829. Among the 20,000 who accepted the invitation were uncouth backwoodsmen and star-struck hangers-on who broke dishes and crystal, muddied furniture by standing on chairs, took mementos, trampled dropped bits of food as they wandered around the rooms (causing a cheesy smell to permeate the White House for months).
To lure the unruly guests outside, White House personnel set up bathtubs full of whiskey (and, for the abstemious, juice) on the White House lawn.
The tradition of holding open house following inaugurations finally ended in 1885 when Grover Cleveland had a parade instead of an open-invitation bash, thus keeping the riff-raff out of the White House.
Questions: What role did Andrew Jackson play in the War of 1812? What role did Andrew Jackson play regarding the Trail of Tears? How many slaves did the Tennessean own? How many times did Jackson escape death, and at what age did he finally die? What U.S. currency features Jackson’s stolid visage? Why was he nicknamed “Old Hickory”?
1861 — Abraham Lincoln Inaugurated
public domain images from wikimedia commons
In his inauguration speech on this date in 1861, Lincoln said (among other things):
In your hand, my fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it… We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union.
As Lincoln stated, it was the Southern States who had seceded from the Union who began the Civil War: they became the aggressors when they attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina less than six weeks later, in the middle of April.
The following is what I wrote about Abraham Lincoln’s 1861 inauguration in my book Still Casting Shadows: A Shared Mosaic of U.S. History — Volume 1: 1620-1913:
“I have been told I was on the road to hell, but I had no idea it was just a mile down the road with a dome on it.”—Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as the 16th President of the United States early this year, destined—along with George Washington—to become one of the two most famous and beloved in the country’s history. Not every one was overjoyed to see the lanky lawyer enter the White House, though. In his “Pioneer Days in California,” John Carr reports:
There were rumors of plans to assassinate the President-elect…So, on the 4th day of March, 1861, Lincoln was inaugurated—the first President whom it had become necessary on inauguration to surround with the army of the United States in order to protect his person from the bullet or the dagger of the assassin.
Questions: Why did the South want to keep slavery while the North did not? Did all Southerners support slavery? Were all Northerners abolitionists? How long did the Civil War last? How could it have been prevented? How many people died as a result of the War? How many Southern soldiers? How many Northern soldiers? How many white soldiers? How many black soldiers? How many who were neither black nor white or of mixed race?
1918 — First Case of “Spanish” Flu Reported
public domain images from wikimedia commons
The first cases of what came to be misleadingly called “The Spanish Flu” were experienced by soldiers at Fort Riley, Kansas, on this date in 1918, near the end of World War 1. The flu spread to other army bases as well as prisons, and then throughout the world when American soldiers were shipped overseas to participate in the final parts of “The Great War.”
The war ended in November 1918, but the flu raged on, infecting two out of seven U.S. residents and killing 675,000 of them (the U.S. population was about 103,000,000 prior to the breakout of the flu, so approximately one out of 152 U.S. residents died from the flu). Worldwide, the death toll is estimated as having been 50 million (by contrast, according to estimates, those who had died in the war, both military personnel and civilians, numbered between 15 and 24 million).
“Only” one in approximately 6,000 Americans died from COVID, so although that is a large number (52,000 deaths), the Spanish flu was far more deadly.
The following is what I wrote about The “Spanish” Flu in my book Still Casting Shadows: A Shared Mosaic of U.S. History — Volume 2: 1914-2006:
“Medical science for four and one-half years devoted itself to putting men on the firing line and keeping them there. Now it must turn with its whole might to combating the greatest enemy of all—infectious disease.”—JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association.
The pestilence that appeared this year was to prove costlier, in terms of lives lost, than all the bullets and bombs of the war combined. The pandemic which came to be known as the Spanish Flu eventually took a toll of between 21 and 100 million lives. In one year, more died from the Spanish flu than had perished from the black death in Europe in an entire century; more died in 24 weeks than have died, at the time of writing, in 24 years from AIDS. At least half a million of the victims of the flu were Americans. In fact, more Americans died as a result of the pandemic in a single year than had died in both world wars. Thus the War and the Flu overlapped—some were already in the fire when the remainder of the contents of the frying pan were overturned into the flames. In fact, historians and scientists often describe the flu pandemic of 1918 as a “firestorm.” The flu originated in a war setting, and spread further and faster because of war conditions. In fact, it first appeared on March 9th at an army base just seventy miles west of Topeka, in Fort Riley, Kansas. Fort Riley also happened to be the home base of George Custer and the 7th Cavalry half a century earlier, at which time a cholera epidemic swept the fort and the surrounding region. So how did the flu get named for Spain, if it began in Kansas? Due to the wartime news censorship, Spain was the first locale to report on the widespread deaths. Thus was the messenger “stamped” with the disease. From Fort Riley, and another base in Kansas, Fort Funston, the flu quickly spread to army bases throughout the country. Not understanding the danger, the military sent thousands who carried the virus to Europe. Conditions in the trenches there only encouraged further rapid spreading of the flu. The unhygienic conditions that prevailed there due to all the casualties, wounded and dead, were a perfect breeding ground for the virus. The deaths came so fast and furious (many died within 24 hours of becoming ill) that some feared that germ warfare was being used against them by the Germans. But German soldiers were also dying. By the fall every major army in combat in Europe had a significant number of its troops sick. A fstrange thing about the flu was that it most affected the healthiest cross section of the country—those between 20 and 40 years of age. For this reason, many colleges temporarily closed. Most public gatherings were prohibited, and unnecessary travel was discouraged. Many cities enacted laws that required the wearing of masks in public. The situation was so serious in New York City that the city health commissioner recommended that if people must kiss each other, they do so through a handkerchief. Five hundred were arrested in that city for spitting. In Chicago, a man who refused the order to don a mask was shot dead on the street by a city health official. A remarkable aspect of the flu was the suddenness with which it could strike. In a mine in South Africa, a lift operator was overcome so quickly with a sweating paralysis that he could no longer control his machine, and twenty-four miners died as the lift fell to the bottom of the shaft. In Washington, D.C., a young woman called the authorities, reporting that two of her three roommates were dead, and the other one was sick—she was the only healthy one there. By the time they reached the apartment shortly afterwards, all four of the young women were dead. More than half of American casualties in the war were a result of the flu—forty-three thousand American soldiers died from the disease. An estimated twenty-five percent of the U.S. population contracted the flu, including President Woodrow Wilson, who caught the virus in early 1919 while participating in the Treaty of Versailles negotiations (British Prime Minister David George and French Premier George Clemenceau were also ill with the flu at the time). In some cases, entire settlements were wiped out. In India alone, five million succumbed. Upwards of 550,000 Americans lost their lives as a result of the flu, which was more than ten times the number of the American soldiers who died in battle throughout the entire World war. By the time the pandemic was finally over, a total of 675,000 Americans had died from it—greater than the number of American soldiers killed in all the wars of the 20th century combined. During the month of October 1918 alone, over 195,000 Americans died from the flu. If the flu had continued to spread, at the speed it was reaping deaths, the entire world population would have been wiped out in just a few years.
Questions: Were you affected by COVID? Were you vaccinated? Will you be vaccinated the next time there is a pandemic? Why or why not?
1933 — FDR’s First Inauguration
public domain images from wikimedia commons
FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt), a distant cousin of former President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt and husband of Teddy’s niece Eleanor, became President for the first time on this date in 1933, while the nation was suffering from the (economic) Depression. He is the only President (so far, anyway) to serve three terms (and they were consecutive, from 1933 to 1945). Plus, FDR was elected as President for a fourth straight time, but died just a few months into his fourth term.
In 1947, after Harry Truman had taken over as President, the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed, which limited future Presidents to a maximum of two times elected to be at the helm of the Country.
Questions: How many Presidents have served multiple terms non-consecutively? Do you think the 22nd Amendment should be repealed? What would prevent an incumbent President from manipulating things so that he would be re-elected “in perpetuity”?
