Duchess Mountain Spring Domain

Spring temperatures have sprung up here in southwest Colorado and the pile-up of snow is melting throughout the San Juan valley. We had to hang the bird feeders higher to keep the raccoon and skunk raiders out.

They tell me up at Vallecito Reservoir that Weaselskin creek is running fast with the snow melt going on in the San Juan mountains. As you can see from the photo on the right.

Just to forewarn you, our NW Techie has been working to convert/merge our Okielegacy MSAccess (OLD) database to our NEW OkieLegacy MySQL database for the past weeks. Mike is still working, refining the NEW so that we can publish, comment through the NEW mysql database. We are still publishing this week's OkieLegacy ezine through the OLD database. Let us know if you have any other problems receiving, viewing the OkieLegacy Ezine -- or not receiving it!

Early this week we snapped a shot of the Albert Squirrel that had some how gotten into the middle of a hanging feeder and was raiding the wild bird seed. As seen in the photo on the left. Have not seen any of those pesky raccoons or skunks, though!

We have been doing some research on political parties of the 19th century and things that happened back in April, 1912 and 1861.

One of our research finds were two groups of Democrats (Barnburners and Pro-abolition democrats) which eventually joined the Republicans sometime around the 1860's.

We always wondered how our maternal great grandfather, Henry Clay Paris, was named. What we did find was that our Great grandpa Henry Clay Paris was born 5 Jul 1844, in Foxtown, Madison county, Kentucky. G-Grandpa's first/middle names bore the name of the Whig party leader, Henry Clay, of Kentucky.

The Whigs became the Republicans in 1854 and eventually broke off into the National Union Party in 1864. There were other political parties during that time, also. You can read some of their legacies in this week's OkieLegacy features.

It was 98 years ago, April 10, 1912, the RMS Titanic sank on its maiden voyage from Southhampton to New York with only approximately 700 survivors out of 2000 passengers and crew members.

It was 139 years ago, April 12, 1861, South Carolina fired on the Fort Sumter, and the Civil War began.

It was between 1943-45 that Anne Frank, a Jewish teenager (age 13 years) during World War II, hid from the Nazis and poured out her heart to the only true friend she had left -- her diary.

As to who was the greatest U.S. President of our time, some historians state that President Abraham Lincoln (Whig, Republican, National Union party) was the greatest president of our time. BUT -- Radical Republicans strongly opposed President Lincoln throughout his presidency.

The Republican party back in 1854 was known as a Northern Altruists. To get a better idea of the ideology of the Republican back then, we looked up Altruism on Wikipedia -- "Pure altruism is giving without regard to reward or the benefits of recognition and need. A selfless concern for the welfare of others. The term "altruism" may also refer to an ethical doctrine that claims that individuals are morally obliged to benefit others.

If a Republican was known as an altruists, someone disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others, back in 1850s -- It sure does not sound like the Republicans of today! So -- Exactly when did the Republicans and Democrats switch ideology? Sometime after the Civil War and after the death of President Abraham Lincoln?

Good Night and Good Luck!
View/Write Comments (count 7)   |   Receive updates (4 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Radical Republicans & Abe Lincoln

Was Abraham Lincoln a radical republican? -- The radicals frequently concluded that Lincoln was a prisoner of the conservative wing of the party, whereas conservatives complained that Lincoln was too close to the Radicals. But Lincoln's cautious reserve had the dual benefit of leaving open his lines of communication with both wings of the party and fragmenting his opposition.

1832 Lincoln ran unsuccessfully for the Illinois legislature. Two years later he was elected to the lower house for the first of four successive terms (until 1841) as a Whig. His membership in the Whig Party was natural -- Lincoln's father was a Whig, and the party's ambitious program of national economic development was the perfect solution to the problems Lincoln had seen in his rural Indiana past.

Abraham Lincoln started out as a Whig then progressed to the Republican Pary in 1856. By 1864 Lincoln was running on the National Union Party ticket for re-election as United States President.

Between the years of 1847-1849, Lincoln served one term as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, where he opposed the Mexican War as unnecessary and unconstitutional. That was one of the reasons that Abraham Lincoln split with the Whigs.

Lincoln had been indifferent about the annexation of Texas, but he opposed any expansion that would allow slavery into new areas. Lincoln supported the Wilmot Proviso, which would have barred slavery from any territory gained as a result of the Mexican War.

Lincoln did not run for Congress again, returning instead to Springfield Illinois and the law. It was not until 1855 that Lincoln returned to politics when he vied for the U.S. Senate, but eventually threw his support to Lyman Trumbull.

The Republican Party

The Republican Party was founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854. The Republican Party at its formation during the 1850s was a coalition of Northern altruists, industrialists, former Whigs, practical politicians, etc. While not publicly committed to abolition of slavery prior to the Civil War, the party nonetheless attracted the most zealous anti-slavery advocates.

It was in 1856 Lincoln joined the newly formed Republican Party, and two years later he campaigned for the Senate against Stephen Douglas. In his speech at Springfield in acceptance of the Republican senatorial nomination (June 16, 1858) Lincoln suggested that Douglas, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, and Democratic presidents Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan had conspired to nationalize slavery. He did not win the Senate seat.

In February 1860, Lincoln made his first major political appearance in the Northeast when he addressed a rally at the Cooper Union in New York. He went on to win the presidential election, defeating the Northern Democrat Douglas, the Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, and the Constitutional Union candidate John Bell. By the time of Lincoln's inauguration in March 1861, seven states had seceded from the Union. On April 12, 1861, South Carolina fired on the Fort Sumter, and the Civil War began.

Lincoln tried throughout the war to keep the Republican party (moderate and radicals) together and never consistently favored one faction in the party over another. At that time there were the Radical Republicans (Abolitionists) and the Moderate Republicans.

Lincoln's achievements, saving the Union and freeing the slaves, and his martyrdom just at the war's end assured his continuing fame. No small contribution was made by his eloquence as exemplified in the Gettysburg Address (November 19, 1863), in which he defined the war as "A rededication to the egalitarian ideals of the Declaration of Independence."

Lincoln left the Republican Party in 1864 to campaign as the National Union Party presidential candidate, and then aggressively pursued the impeachment of the National Union Party successor and former southern Democrat Andrew Johnson.

President Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, is now inscribed on one wall of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C. -- "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds

Lincoln warned the South in his Inaugural Address, "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you.... You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it."

Lincoln decided that if ten percent (10%)of the voters in a Confederate state signed an oath of loyalty to the United States, that state would be readmitted to the Union. But, Lincoln's plans were met with some resistance. A group of congressmen, known as the Radical Republicans, wanted to punish the states that had seceded. Lincoln disagreed with the Radical Republicans' agenda and opposed their legislation. Then, in 1865, Lincoln was assassinated. His vice president, Andrew Johnson, became head of the country. The Radical Republicans thought the new president would be on their side, but President Andrew Johnson followed through on Lincoln's plans on reconstruction of America.

President Lincoln successfully led his country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War (1860-1865), preserving the Union and ending slavery. Six days after the large-scale surrender of Confederate forces under General Robert E. Lee, Lincoln became the first American president to be assassinated.
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Free-Soiler Party (1848-1852)

Wikipedia defines Free-Soiler Party as a short lived political party in the United States active in the 1848 and 1852 presidential elections and in some state elections. It was a third party that largely appealed to and drew its greatest strength from New York State.

The Free-Soil Party developed in part from a political rivalry in New York State. The Democratic Party there consisted of contending factions: the "Barnburners," who were strongly opposed to slavery, and the "Hunkers," who were neutral or supportive of slavery.

The party leadership consisted of former anti-slavery members of the Whig Party and the Democratic Party. Its purpose was opposing the expansion of slavery into the western territories. They argued that free men on free soil comprised a morally and economically superior system to slavery. They also opposed slavery in the new territories and worked to remove existing laws that discriminated against freed blacks in states such as Ohio.

Free-Soiler candidates ran on the platform that declared, "We inscribee on our banner, "Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor and Free Men,' and under it we will fight on and fight ever, until a triumphant victory shall reward our exertions."

The Free Soil Party was a notable third party. More successful than most, it sent two Senators and fourteen Representatives to the thirty-first Congress. Its presidential nominee in 1848, Martin Van Buren, received 291,616 votes against Zachary Taylor of the Whigs and Lewis Cass of the Democrats but Van Buren received no electoral votes. The Party's "spoiler" effect in 1848 may have put Zachary Taylor into office in a narrowly-contested election. The Free Soil Party membership was largely absorbed by the Republican party in 1854.
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

According to The History Place, The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by the US Congress on May 30, 1854. It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30´.
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Wilmot Proviso

An important congressional proposal in the 1840s to prohibit the extension of slavery into the territories was a basic plank upon which the Republican Party was subsequently built.

Soon after the Mexican War, President James K. Polk asked Congress for $2,000,000 to negotiate peace and settle the boundary with Mexico. In behalf of anti-slavery forces throughout the country, a Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania named David Wilmot offered an amendment, August 8, 1846, to the bill forbidding slavery in the new territory, thus precipitating bitter national debate in an atmosphere of heightening sectional conflict.

Despite repeated attempts, the Wilmot Proviso was never passed by both houses of Congress. But out of the attempt by both Democrats and Whigs to subordinate or compromise the slavery issue grew the Republican Party (founded in 1854) which specifically supported the Wilmot principle.
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Fugitive Slave Act (1850)

Fugitive Slave Act, Social Issues of 1850, passed by United States congress, September 18, 1850, as part of the compromise of 1850 between Southern slaveholding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. This was known as one of the most controversial acts of the 1850 compromise and heightened northern fears of a slave power conspiracy. It declared that all runaway slaves be brought back to their masters. Abolitionists nicknamed it the "Bloodhound Law" for the dogs that were used to track down runaway slaves. It was in payment for Southern support for California's admission to the Union as a free state and ending the slave trade in the District of Columbia, that Congress enacted the Fugitive Slave Act to assist the South with maintaining a tight rein on slaveholders... property.

The new law created a force of federal commissioners empowered to pursue fugitive slaves in any state and return them to their owners. No statute of limitations applied, so that even those slaves who had been free for many years could be (and were) returned. SEE Also: Fugitive Slave Act
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Liberty Party (1840-1844)

The Liberty party was a minor political party in the United States in the 1840s. It was an early advocate of the abolitionist cause. Also, it broke away from the American Anti-slavery society due tot grievances with William Lloyd Garrison's leadership. The party included abolitionists who were willing to work within electoral politics to try to influence people to support their goals. The party was announced in November 1839 and first gathered in Warsaw, New York. Its first national convention took place in Albany on April 1, 1840.
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Wade-Davis bill (1864)

In late 1863, President Abraham Lincoln and the Congress began to consider the question of how the Union would be reunited if the North won the Civil War. In December President Lincoln proposed a reconstruction program that would allow Confederate states to establish new state governments after 10 percent of their male population took loyalty oaths and the states recognized the permanent freedom of slaves.

Several congressional Republicans thought Lincoln's 10 Percent Plan was too mild. A more stringent plan was proposed by Senator Benjamin F. Wade and Representative Henry Winter Davis in February 1864. The Wade-Davis Bill required that 50 percent of a state's white males take a loyalty oath to be readmitted to the Union. In addition, states were required to give blacks the right to vote.

Congress passed the Wade-Davis Bill, but President Lincoln chose not to sign it, killing the bill with a pocket veto.
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Reconstruction Act (1867)

It was after the Civil War that the United States Congress passed four statures known as Reconstruction Acts: March 2, 1867 (39 Cong. Ch. 153; 14 Stat. 428), March 23, 1867 (40 Cong. Ch. 6; 15 Stat. 2), July 19, 1867 (40 Cong. Ch. 30; 15 Stat. 14), March 11, 1868 (ch. 25, 15 Stat. 41).

The Acts' main points included:
* Creation of five military districts in the seceded states not including Tennessee, which had ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and was readmitted to the Union

* Requiring congressional approval for new state constitutions (which were required for Confederate states to rejoin the Union)

* Confederate states give voting rights to all men.

* All former Confederate states must ratify the 14th Amendment.

President Andrew Johnson veto of these measures were overridden by Congress.
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Whig Party (United States 1833-1856)

Wikipedia definition of Whig Party -- "The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from 1833 to 1856, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and the Democratic Party. In particular, the Whigs supported the supremacy of Congress over the executive branch and favored a program of modernization and economic protectionism.

The Whig name was chosen to echo the American Whigs of 1776, who fought for independence, and because "Whig" was then a widely recognized label of choice for people who saw themselves as opposing autocratic rule. The Whig Party counted among its members such national political luminaries as Daniel Webster, William Henry Harrison, and their preeminent leader, Henry Clay of Kentucky. In addition to Harrison, the Whig Party also counted four war heroes among its ranks, including Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. Abraham Lincoln was a Whig leader in frontier Illinois. -- Whig Party (United States)
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl (1943-1944)

Did you set your DVR for this last Sunday evening PBS broadcast for the premiering on the Holocaust Remembrance Day, April 11, 2010, of the showing of "Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl?"

I remember back in the mid or late-1950s when the book came out, or was it the movie? We were living down on the southwest corner of Seventh and Church Street (703 7th Street), in Alva, Oklahoma. Our neighbor to the left had this garage with storage setup on the rafters, like an attic of sort. We would pretend, play like that was our attic hiding place.

Anne Frank, a Jewish teenager (age 13 years) during World War II, hiding from the Nazis poured out her heart to the only true friend she had left -- her diary.

PBS's Masterpiece Classic presented a most accurate-ever adaptation of one of the world's most beloved and widely read memoirs, The Diary of Anne Frank, premiering on Holocaust Remembrance Day, April 11, 2010.
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

Copperheads of 1860s

Copperheads of 1860s We found this definition of Copperheads which states, "Copperhead was a pejorative epithet applied to Northern members of the Democratic party, also known as Peace Democrats, who criticized the presidential administration of Abraham Lincoln for its war policies and who sought an armistice with the Confederacy. A loosely-affiliated group, the Copperheads expressed their views on the war in the press, at political conventions, and in state legislatures.

It goes on to state, "Their views struck a responsive chord among like-minded Democrats in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio in the period 1862 to 1864, while their Republican opponents considered their ideas and alleged actions as nothing less than treason. BUT -- Not all those known as Copperheads supported the doctrine of secession, but as a group they found common cause in their objections to the actions of the Lincoln administration. Copperheads and other opponents of the war criticized President Lincoln for refusing to compromise on the slavery issue."

Republicans started calling anti-war Democrats "Copperheads", likening them to the poisonous snake. The Peace Democrats accepted the label, but for them the copper "head" was the likeness of Liberty, which they cut from copper pennies and proudly wore as badges.

The Copperheads, besides being known as the "Peace Democrats," they were also known as "Doughface" -- a Southern sympathizer in the years before the war.

Although the Democratic party had broken apart in 1860, during the secession crisis Democrats in the North were generally more conciliatory toward the South than were Republicans. They called themselves "Peace Democrats."

A majority of Peace Democrats supported war to save the Union, but a strong and active minority asserted that the Republicans had provoked the South into secession; that the Republicans were waging the war in order to establish their own domination, suppress civil and states rights, and impose "racial equality" and that military means had failed and would never restore the Union.

Although the 13th Edition of The American Pageant makes a distinction between the two, as those termed Copperheads were at the extreme end of the Peace Democrats. The "Butternuts" were the other faction, named for the color of the Confederate uniforms. Perhaps the most famous Copperhead was Ohio's Clement L. Vallandigham.

Link sources:
* Illinois Copperheads and the American Civil War
* Copperheads (Peace Democrats) - civilwarhome.com
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

1912 - The RMS Titanic

On April 10, 1912 (about 98 years ago today, April 10, 2010) the RMS Titanic sailed from Southampton with 2,200 passengers and crew. Four days later the Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank. 1500 people died and 700 survived.



The RMS Titanic was a British registered four funnelled ocean liner built for the transatlantic passenger and mail service between Southampton and New York. Constructed at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, Titanic was on her maiden voyage and at that time, the largest vessel afloat.

Some of the Titanic Passengers:

STEAD, Mr William Thomas, age 62, 1st Class, 113514, £26 11s, Southampton, Journalist. Until his death Stead continued to preach "peace through arbitration" and when he boarded the Titanic in Southampton he was traveling to America to take part in a peace congress at Carnegie Hall on 21 April at the request of the President William Howard Taft. Stead occupied cabin C-87 (? C-89) but while the ship sank he sat quietly reading a book in the First Class Smoking Room. The world famous news journalist W.T. Stead perished onboard the RMS Titanic.

Everyone should remember the "Unsinkable "Molly" Margaret Brown (née Tobin).

If you follow this LINK, you can view the passenger list, crew list, survivors, victims, articles, basic statistics, etc.
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

NWOSU's Spring Alumni Reunion (24 Apri. 2010)

James Bradley reminds ALL Northwestern Oklahoma State University alumni of the upcoming NWOSU Spring Reunion, to be held on Saturday, 24th of April 2010.

That is the time of Honoring selected Alumni and classes from the past. Also, there is the Banquet on Saturday night. The schedule of events can be seen at: nwfoundation.com/events/spring.htm. I would hope that Alumni would find time to attend, at least some of the events.

James would also like to inquiry, "IWondering how many subscribers you have that are from my hometown of Goltry. We have our high school alumni gathering on the Saturday night of April 17th, 2010. I would be glad to hear from any graduates of Goltry High School that are subscribers of "The Okie Legacy" eZine."
Cheers, Jim Bradley, Class of 1959 .
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

1854 Radical Republicans

The Republicans of 1854 are nothing like the Republicans of today!

The Republican Party was founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854. During the 1850s, the Republican Party was a coalition of Northern altruists, industrialists, former Whigs, practical politicians, and while not publicly committed to abolition of slavery prior to the Civil War, the Republican party nonetheless attracted the most zealous anti-slavery advocates.

Some members of the Republican Party were not only in favour the abolition of slavery but believed that freed slaves should have complete equality with white citizens. They also opposed the Fugitive Slave Act and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This group became known as Radical Republicans.

When the Republican Party formed in 1854 many abolitionists, gradual and immediate, joined in hopes that they could work within a political structure to change the United States. Both Freesoilers and the Liberty Party were almost all abolitionists while the Northern Whigs, which made up the largest single group of the Republican Party were interested in correcting a wide range of problems they saw within the structure of America. Two groups of Democrats also joined the Republicans, remnants of the Barnburners and pro-abolition Democrats.

The Radical Republicans thought Abraham Lincoln to be radical for his views. Historians have concluded that Lincoln handled the factions (moderate and radicals) of the Republican Party well, bringing leaders of each faction into his cabinet and forcing them to cooperate.

The Radical Republicans, an abolitionist faction of the Republican Party, criticized President Lincoln for moving too slowly in abolishing slavery. The Radical Republicans were a "loose faction" of American politicians within the Republican Party from about 1854 (before the American Civil War) until the end of Reconstruction in 1877.

Radical Republicans also clashed with Lincoln over his treatment of Major General John C. Fremont. On 30th August, 1861, Fremont, the commander of the Union Army in St. Louis, proclaimed that all slaves owned by Confederates in Missouri were free.

The Radical Republicans opposed President Abraham Lincoln's terms for reuniting the United States during Reconstruction, which began in 1863, which they viewed as too lenient. They proposed an "ironclad oath" (which Lincoln blocked) and the Wade-Davis Bill (which Lincoln vetoed) in 1864. However the Radicals did control the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, where they demanded a more aggressive prosecution of the war, "the faster end to slavery and total destruction of the Confederacy."

The Radical Republicans took a hard line against the Confederacy early during the Lincoln Administration and opposed Lincoln's "too easy" terms for reuniting the United States following the end of the Civil War. Utilizing membership within the Joint Committee on Reconstruction as a political platform, the Radical Republicans demanded a more aggressive prosecution of the war and the faster destruction of slavery and Confederate Nationalism. The leading Radicals in the Republican party were Thaddeus Stevens in the House, Charles Sumner in the Senate. After his election as president in 1868 Ulysses S. Grant became the leading Radical Republican.

Radical Republicans strongly opposed the policies of President Andrew Johnson and argued in Congress that Southern plantations should be taken from their owners -- divided among the former slaves. They also attacked Johnson when he attempted to veto the extension of the Freeman's Bureau, the Civil Rights Bill and the Reconstruction Acts. However, the Radical Republicans were able to get the Reconstruction Acts passed in 1867 and 1868.

Despite these acts, white control over Southern state governments was gradually restored when organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan were able to frighten blacks from voting in elections.

Following the Civil War, however, Radical Republicans collapsed. Following the U.S. presidential election of 1876, the influence of the Radical Republicans waned and died. The Radical Republicans were viewed as outrageous in their own time, but their progressive goals of civil rights and equal treatment for African-Americans following emancipation were in fact almost universally realized within the United States over the following 100 years.

Link sources:
* Radical Republicans
* Radical Republicans & Reconstruction After the Civil War
* Book: "The Radical and the Republican, by James Oakes
* Radical Republicans - New World Encyclopedia
* Radical Republican -- History.com Articles, videos & Facts
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

National Union Party

Wikipedia definition of the National Union Party, "The National Union Party was the name used by the Republican Party for the national ticket in the 1864 presidential election, held in the northern states during the Civil War. State Republican parties did not usually change their name. The temporary name was used to attract War Democrats who would not vote for the Republican Party. It nominated incumbent President Abraham Lincoln and former Democrat Andrew Johnson, who were elected in a landslide."

"The National Union Party was created in May 1864 during the Civil War. A faction of anti-Lincoln Radical Republicans held the belief that Lincoln was incompetent, and therefore could not be re-elected. A number of Radical Republicans formed a party called the Radical Democracy Party, and a few hundred delegates convened in Cleveland starting on May 31, 1864, eventually nominating John C. Frémont, who had also been the Republicans' first presidential standard-bearer during the 1856 U.S. presidential election." -- National Union Party - United States
View/Write Comments (count 0)   |   Receive updates (0 subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe