Today in History: A Lincoln Pardon (And, You Know, That Whole Surrender at Appomattox Thing)

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Major & Knapp Print, Library of Congress.

On April 12, 1865, Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee met, and Lee formally accepted the surrender terms drawn up on April 9th, and disbanded the Army of Northern Virginia. Several small battles took place after Lee's surrender, but the war was effectively over. For thousands of troops, the fighting was now done.

George Maynard's Letter to His Uncle. From the Compiled Military Service Records, US National Archives

For one Union soldier, however, this date held even more significance.  Private George A. Maynard of the 46th New York Infantry was arrested September 18, 1864, as a deserter, only 15 days after enlisting, and taken to Fort Monroe. He was charged with the even more serious crime of deserting to join the opposition. At trial, Maynard was found guilty on February 14, 1865, and sentenced "to be hung by the neck until dead."  

Telegraph from Lincoln to Grant, Dated February 23, 1865. From the Compiled Military Service Records, US National Archives

The soldier sent a message to his uncle, Harrison Maynard, of St. Albans, VT, entreating for help.  Uncle Harrison must have been well connected, because less than ten days later on February 23rd, President Abraham Lincoln telegraphed General Grant, ordering him to suspend Maynard's sentence until his case could be further reviewed.  Lincoln, in spite of the Herculean burden of running a country at war with itself, reviewed the cases of hundreds of individual soldiers, converting sentences and pardoning many. Entreaties on behalf of soldiers came from those in high positions of power--governors, congressmen--and regular, everyday people, if they could get their request to him. The President treated each request, once received, the same. Lincoln's mercy became a sore subject with his Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton,  who wished the President would remember that the Army needed harsh consequences at times to keep the troops in line.

 On April 12, 1865, Lincoln officially pardoned George A. Maynard, and ordered he be returned to his regiment.  Two days later, Lincoln would be assassinated by John Wilkes Booth; so Maynard was lucky in more ways than one. The official order pardoning Maynard was published on April 24th, and sent out to General George G. Meade and the Army of the Potomac. Meade in turn sent the order back, explaining that the 46th New York Infantry was no longer serving with his outfit. Maynard finally returned to his regiment on June 5, 1865, and was mustered out with the rest of the 46th at the end of July. We'd call his army tenure a short, but storied career.

This Day In History: "Dump the Tea Into the Sea!"

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W.D. Cooper. "Boston Tea Party.", The History of North America. London: E. Newberry, 1789. Engraving. Plate opposite p. 58. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress.

The Boston Tea Party, initially referred to by John Adams with the less catchy title: “The Destruction of The Tea in Boston,” was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty (a “secret society” created to protect the rights of colonists and protest taxation by the British) in Boston, MA, on this day in 1773.  The colonists were unhappy about the passage of the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, as they believed it violated their rights as British citizens to “no taxation without representation.” 

On the evening of December 16th, 30 to 130 men boarded three ships in Boston Harbor, some disguised as Mohawk warriors. Over the course of three hours, they dumped all 342 chests of tea into the water—a shipment worth £9,000 at the time, or $1.7 million in American currency today.  This event is seen as a major catalyst leading up to the American Revolution.

This iconic 1846 lithograph by Nathaniel Currier was entitled "The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor"; the phrase "Boston Tea Party" had not yet become standard. Contrary to Currier's depiction, few of the men dumping the tea were actually disguised as Native Americans. Image. Library of Congress

This notice from the "Chairman of the Committee for Tarring and Feathering” in Boston denounced the tea consignees as "traitors to their country." Image, Library of Congress.

Parliament responded to the Tea Party with the Coercive Acts, known as the Intolerable Acts in the Colonies, in 1774, which ended local self government in Massachusetts and closed all of Boston’s commerce.  This did not sit well with citizens in all 13 colonies, who not only continued to protest, but then convened the first Continental Congress which petitioned the Monarchy to repeal the acts and provide representation for the colonists. 

It is thought that coffee jumped to Americans' preferred drink after the Tea Party, as John Adams and many other Americans believed drinking tea to be unpatriotic! This is a key example of the better choices Americans make (don't tell us about how tea has as much caffeine as coffee, ugh), and why we needed to separate from the English tyrants.

The Boston Tea Party Museum

Today, you can visit the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum which is located on Congress Street in Boston, MA.  Alex enjoyed a very memorable 3rd grade field trip there where you can see two replica ships, one of the tea chests from the original event, and even take a turn throwing a chest into the harbor while yelling “dump the tea into the sea!”

Get Out the Vote!

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232 years ago today, the Continental Army peacefully disbanded after defeating the British. Celebrate by exercising your right to vote!

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Boxer, Cowboy, Soldier, President: Happy Birthday TR!

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Happy birthday to inarguably the most colorful US president of all time! Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858, and we talk about him a lot here because we love him so much, especially his work to promote conservation and save public lands, and that he proceeded with a 90 minute stump speech after being shot in the chest. Here are a few more reasons he is the original "Most Interesting Man in the World:"

- TR was the first president to appoint a Jewish cabinet member (Secretary of Commerce and Labor, Oscar Solomon Straus), and invite a black man (the esteemed Booker T. Washington) to have dinner at the White House.
- TR had a boxing ring in the White House, and would challenge staff members and visitors to matches. An unfortunately placed punch blinded him in his left eye during his presidency; which was kept a very close secret by only TR's closest confidantes. 
- Following his presidency, TR went on scientific expeditions to Africa and South America, bringing back specimens for the Smithsonian Institution and American Museum of Natural History. During the latter expedition, he contracted a tropical fever after jumping to the river to prevent a collision of the group's canoes with some jagged rocks, and cutting his leg. His condition was so bad that he begged his small party to go on without him, and let him perish, out of concern that he was endangering them all. It was only at his son Kermit's insistence that he continued on.
- TR walked Eleanor Roosevelt down the aisle at her wedding to FDR.
- After his presidency, TR also took up the cause of women's suffrage. He delivered a famous speech for the cause in 1915 at the Metropolitan Opera House stating:

"Conservative friends tell me that woman’s duty is the home. Certainly. So is man's. The duty of a woman to the home isn’t any more than the man’s. If any married man doesn’t know that the woman pulls a little more than her share in the home he needs education. If the average man has more leisure to think of public matters than the average woman has, then it’s a frightful reflection on him. If the average man tells you the average woman hasn’t the time to think of these questions, tell him to go home and do his duty. The average woman needs fifteen minutes to vote, and I want to point out to the alarmist that she will have left 364 days, 23 hours and 45 minutes."

Photograph is a different view of TR than we usually see; a young Teddy Roosevelt in 1880 in his mountaineering attire, 21 years before he would become president. Part of the New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection held b…

Photograph is a different view of TR than we usually see; a young Teddy Roosevelt in 1880 in his mountaineering attire, 21 years before he would become president. Part of the New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection held by the Library of Congress.

Liberty's Puppies

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In 1975, President Ford's dog, Liberty, gave birth to nine puppies at the White House. These were not the first babies born at the White House, however. The first White House baby was Thomas Jefferson's grandson, Martha Jefferson Randolph's son James Madison Randolph. The only president to have his own baby born at the White House was Grover Cleveland. After losing the presidency, then being re-elected for a second, non-consecutive term, Cleveland's wife Frances Folsom Cleveland, 27 years his junior and the daughter of Cleveland's former law partner, gave birth to their second child, Esther

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library

"Abraham Lincoln said that."

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Everyone misquotes famous lines and speeches- to the point that we remember the paraphrase or error more than the original statement. Neither Ingrid Bergman nor Humphrey Bogart ever say "Play it again, Sam" in Casablanca. Marie Antoinette never uttered "let them eat cake"- a similar "let them eat brioche" was attributed to her falsely by Jean-Jacques Rousseau as anti-royal propaganda. But we repeat these lines all the time.

Even the great Bob Dylan has made these snafus- check out his Lincoln-Sandburg mix up with the Lincoln maxim:

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, 
and all of the people some of the time, 
but you can't fool ALL of time."

No matter how you say though, the sentiment is fantastic, and used not only by Dylan, but Bob Marley & the Wailers in "Get Up Stand Up."

Wacky Whiskers Wednesday: President Benjamin Harrison

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For this Wacky Whiskers Wednesday we bring you our Whiskered 23rd President of the United States, Benjamin Harrison. As cool as his whiskers are, we didn’t know too many fun facts about Harrison, and are under the assumption you must have a fun presidential factoid always on the ready. Here are some things you may know and some things that may surprise you about Benjamin Harrison:

-Benjamin Harrison was the first and currently only president that was the grandson of a former president. His grandfather was our 9th President, William Henry Harrison.

-Harrison was the first president to use electricity in the White House. Apparently everyone was still weary of getting shocked, so Harrison and his wife often went to sleep with the lights on.

-Until Leslie Knope is elected, Harrison will remain the only US President from Indiana.

-Harrison served in the Civil War and was nominated by Lincoln to the grade of Brevet Brigadier General.

-Harrison was the first President to appoint an African-American in a high ranking role in government. He named Frederick Douglass as US Minister to Haiti in 1889.

-He was only 5’ 6” so Democrats called him “Little Ben.”

-Harrison was the first and only president to lose and election to a previous president. Even though the incumbent Grover Cleveland won the popular vote in the election of 1888 by 90,000 votes, Harrison carried the Electoral College 233 to 168, winning the election. Cleveland came back to win in 1892 over Harrison.

-Harrison was the first president known to have his voice preserved, recording a 36 second speech in 1889 on a wax phonograph cylinder.

-When William Henry Harrison ran for president in the mid-1800s, his staff rolled large spheres between towns on the campaign trail, giving rise to the phrase “keep the ball rolling.” Benjamin Harrison was the only presidential candidate to continue this idea, creating his own “campaign ball.”  The aforementioned Leslie Knope visited said campaign ball on Parks & Recreation.


TR and the Antiquities Act of 1906

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Teddy Roosevelt did a lot of amazing and incredible things during his life time (including winning BOTH the Nobel Peace Prize and the Congressional Medal of Honor). But by far, the Archive Gals' favorite contribution Teddy made to society was his work in the field of conservation. Today, in 1906, he signed into law the Antiquities Act of 1906, which allowed presidents to make public lands into National Monuments by presidential proclamation, to protect significant natural andcultural resources. This act would pave the way for the creation of our National Parks system. If this at all seems interesting to you, we of course highly recommend binging on Ken Burns (PBS)'s The National Parks and The Roosevelts documentaries (which during the latter, you can learn about our boy Teddy giving a two hour speech after being shot in the chest in an assassination attempt). Caitlin is also obsessed with The Big Burn by Timothy Egan, if you want to learn more specifically about Teddy and the conservation movement.

"In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which, so far as I know, is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. Keep this great wonder of nature as it is. You can not improve it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it."

- Theodore Roosevelt, impromptu speech at Grand Canyon on May 6, 1903.

The Grand Canyon was declared a National Monument on January 11, 1908. It was then established as a US National Park in 1919.

 


Devil's Tower became the first US National Monument on September 24, 1906. 

Here are Caitlin and her cousin Allie at Devil's Tower; searching for aliens, and bedecked in their middle school finest.

 

 

Presidential Signature: James Monroe

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Our Friday special- that presidential post you all have been waiting for! On March 10, 1813, James Monroe was serving as Secretary of State under President James Madison. The US was in the middle of the War of 1812, and Monroe wrote this pass to allow a British agent free travel around Washington, DC, so he could negotiate the exchange of POWs. Eighteen months later, after the British burned both the White House and the Capitol, Madison would fire then Secretary of War John Armstrong, and appoint Monroe to the position. But, after his switch, a successor was not appointed as Secretary of State through February 1815 when the war ended; leaving Monroe to fill two cabinet positions. Before the Treaty of Ghent was signed and peace was official, Secretary of War Monroe had been planning an invasion of Canada- a fantasy many red-blooded Americans still hold today (not us, we love Canucks!). With the war over, Monroe returned to his position as Secretary of State, until he himself was elected president.

Animals for Cincinnati

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106 years ago, President William Howard Taft, of bathtub and Supreme Court fame, promised to send any animals he received as gifts to the Cincinnati Zoo, according to The Washington Post. The question that remains is: what bumpkin gifted him with "several dozen possums."

In Memory of Franklin Delano Roosevelt

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Some of you Ken Burns aficionados may already know this, but the memorial Franklin Delano Roosevelt actually wanted stands outside The National Archives. As the president who signed the enabling legislation to make the National Archives its own agency, FDR wished for a humble, unadorned memorial on the grounds outside. While we love the feeling and scope of the newer Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial; the peaceful, understated stone at the corner of 9th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. is definitely worth a visit.