19th Century – Sharing History

American Spies

June 14, 2024June 15, 202419th Century, US HistoryLeave a Comment

In the 40s and 50s, the United States was embroiled in the tension of the Cold War. Anti-communist sentiment was high, and Senator Joseph McCarthy and his lackeys were on the hunt for communist sympathizers. The U.S. government felt pressured to make a strong stand against communism, and it was, perhaps, this need that led to the dramatic execution of two American-born spies in 1953.

Julius Rosenberg met Ethel Greenglass in the late 1930s. They were married in 1939 and became members of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA). After Julius graduated with his engineering degree, he got a job with the U.S. Army Signal Corps. It is believed that it was at this time that the two began sending military secrets to the Soviet Union. In following years, Julius would head a ring of spies, including Ethel’s brother, David Greenglass. Greenglass was a machinist on the Manhattan Project, and thus in a great position to trade in information about U.S. nuclear weapons and research. This worked well for them for several years, until 1945, when Julius was discharged from the U.S. Army because of his membership in the Communist party.

In the summer of 1950, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and David Greenglass were arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit espionage. The Rosenbergs’ trials were widely publicized and hugely controversial. Part of the controversy lay in the fact that the U.S. case against the Rosenbergs was based solely on first-hand evidence presented by one witness: Ethel’s brother, David Greenglass. He agreed to turn against his sister and brother-in-law in exchange for leniency for himself and his wife. Critics argued that Greenglass’s motivation to trump up the charges against the Rosenbergs to save himself and the mother of his children was too personal for him to be a reliable witness. Others suggested that the judge was pressured to make a drastic decision on the case because of the U.S. need to appear tough on communism, especially in the case of Ethel Rosenberg, whose connection to the spy ring was tenuous at best. In any case, the Rosenbergs were sentenced to execution by electric shock. The two died together at Sing Sing Prison on June 19, 1953. Greenglass was given 15 years in prison, and his wife was not charged.

Years later, in an interview with a Times reporter, David Greenglass admitted that some of the allegations he hurled at his sister during her trial may not have been correct. He said, “My wife is more important to me than my sister. . . O.K.? And she was the mother of my children.”

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“O Captain! My Captain!”

June 4, 2024June 15, 202419th Century, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On May 31, 1819, in Long Island, New York, Walt Whitman was born to parents Louisa Van Velsor and Walter Whitman. Considered one of the great American poets, Whitman was famous for deviating from the traditional forms of poetry and writing with a cadence that was more accessible to the average person. His work, dealing largely with themes of nature, growth, and individuality, has been widely anthologized in the centuries since his death.

Walt Whitman grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where he attended public school before becoming a printer. He worked as a journalist and editor for The Brooklyn Daily Eagle until he was let go due to his political beliefs. Whitman was a member of the Free Soil Party, which, prior to the Civil War, opposed the expansion of slavery into the western territories. Their slogan was, “free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men.” During these years, Whitman dabbled in poetry, publishing a few verses in magazines, with little recognition.

In 1855, Whitman had collected enough poems to publish his first book, Leaves of Grass. Due to lack of interest, Whitman was forced to fund the venture himself. Its first recognition came from famous author Ralph Waldo Emerson who said that Leaves of Grass was “the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom” written thus far in America. Whitman declared in the preface of the first edition: “Here are the roughs and beards and space and reuggedness and nonchalance that the soul loves.”

During the Civil War, Whitman attempted to work for the government in the Department of the Interior, but he was let go because his poetry was seen as indecent. He continued to write, publishing a collection of poems inspired by the war: Drum-Taps. Whitman also composed a series of poems extolling President Abraham Lincoln. In fact, probably his most well-known poem (due to its being featured in a classic film), was inspired by the president. It reads:

“O Captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done,

The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won . . .”

Other of Whitman’s works, including “I Sing the Body Electric,” “I Hear America Singing,” and “Song of Myself,” were the inspiration for many an American poet throughout history.

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Run for the Roses

May 17, 2024June 15, 202419th Century, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On May 17, 1875, the first ever Kentucky Derby was held in Louisville, Kentucky. In the almost 150 years since, the race has been held annually on the first Saturday in May in the same spot. Each year, 20 three-year-old horses race 1.25 miles in hopes of having the coveted blanket of roses laid over their backs. About 150.000 people attend the Kentucky Derby in person each year, and in 2024, approximately 700,000 people viewed the derby online.

The history of the derby started with Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr. Meriwether was the grandson of famed explorer William Clark and named after his expeditionary partner, Meriwether Lewis. By 1872, Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr. was living in Louisville. That year, he decided to travel to Europe where he attended horse races and met track owners and jockeys. He decided to open a jockey club in Louisville and bring horse racing to Kentucky. In 1874, he borrowed land from his uncles, John and Henry Churchill (for whom the track is now named Churchill Downs), to build a track. The next year, on May 17, 1875, the first Kentucky Derby was held. Jockey Oliver Lewis won the first derby on his horse Aristides. By 1895, attendance at the event had become so great, Clark built the iconic double-spired grandstand.

Over the last century, the Kentucky Derby has become not only the most famous horse race in the United States but also a famed cultural event. There are traditional foods served, including the mint julep made from Kentucky bourbon, and over-the-top fashion statements made, including the wearing of elaborate fascinators.

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The Corps of Discovery

May 14, 2024June 15, 202419th Century, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On May 14, 1804, The Corps of Discovery set off up the Missouri River from St. Louis. The objective of this expeditionary group was to explore the U.S.’s newly acquired land, observe the Native American villages on that land, and potentially find new customers for the country’s fur trade. This expedition, led by Captain Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark, is one of the most famous in U.S. history.

In truth, Lewis and Clark’s famous expedition began about one year before they actually set sail up the Missouri River. On May 2, 1803, the United States signed a treaty with France to purchase the Louisiana Territory This was a vast tract of land that included present-day Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, the Dakotas, and, most importantly to Thomas Jefferson, the port of New Orleans. The U.S. agreed to purchase this land from the French government for approximately $15 million. That would equate to about $352 million today.

Wanting to explore the country’s new expansion, President Thomas Jefferson secured funding from Congress for an expedition. He asked his secretary, Meriwether Lewis to head up the group. Lewis asked his friend William Clark to share the command with him. On May 14, 1804, Lewis and Clark along with about 40 other men making up the Corps of Discovery began sailing up the Missouri River. By August, they’ve made it to Iowa, where they hold a council with the Oto and Missouri tribes. They called this area Council Bluffs. By late October, the Corps reached present-day Bismarck, North Dakota, where they find the villages of Mandan and Hidatsa. It is there they cross paths with a Canadian fur trader named Toussaint Charbonneau and his wife, a young Shoshone girl named Sacagawea. Lewis and Clark know that they will need the Shoshone to help them with their passage through the Rocky Mountains, so they hire a pregnant Sacagawea and her husband to help with the translation. In addition to her political help with the tribes, Sacagawea teaches the group much about surviving in the western wilderness. It is almost a year before they complete the passage over the Rockies.

Map of the travels of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

In November 1805, the expedition finally reaches their goal: the Pacific Ocean. They end up in present-day Washington after sailing along the Columbia River, never finding the mythical Northwestern Passage that many believed would take the travelers over water directly to the Pacific. Once the Corps reached their destination, they turned and began the long trek back to St. Louis. It is September 1806 by the time the group returns to where they started. Two and a half long years later, people thought the men of the Lewis and Clark expedition were dead. However, they did return and brought with them artifacts, animals, and journals that would inspire American interest for centuries.

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Boomers and Sooners

April 23, 2024May 7, 202419th Century, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On April 22, 1889, the sun sat high in the Oklahoma sky. At exactly noon, a cannon blast rang through the air, followed by the thundering sound of thousands of horses, wagons, and boots moving across the land. These some 50,000 men and women were propelled by that most valued currency: land. Those who moved fastest claimed for themselves and their families 160-acre parcels of land prime for ranching, farming, and settling. Overnight, this land grab transformed the Oklahoma countryside.

In the early 19^th century, the land that would become Oklahoma was designated as a home for Native Americans who had been forced from their homes by the United States government. Over the years, the tribe lands filled the area, save one 2-million-acre area smack in the middle of the area. Many Americans, colloquially known as “boomers,” desperately wanted the land so they could make their fortune. Capitulating to the pressure of the boomer movement, in March 1889, President Benjamin Harrison agreed to sign a bill allowing the settlement of these 2 million acres in the land then known as Indian Territory. The rules were as follows: on April 22, 1889, at 12:00 p.m., the land would officially open for settlement. Those wanting the land could not enter the territory any earlier than that. Men or women who found a suitable tract of land could claim a “quarter section,” or a half-mile by half-mile area. According to the Homestead Act of 1862, so long as those settlers stayed on the land for five years and made marked improvements to it, they could receive the title.

In the following weeks, tens of thousands of people gathered around the border of this territory. It is estimated that about 50,000 people gathered for the chance to claim their piece of Oklahoma. As one might imagine, there were plenty of people who snuck into the territory, hiding until the time they could jump out and claim the best plots for themselves. These people were called “sooners.” At noon on the designated day, the boomers and sooners rushed onto the land, putting up stakes and tents before returning to the land offices to formalize their claims. Overnight, cities of thousands were formed. This was the Oklahoma Land Rush.

The ’89 rush was the beginning of the end for the Indian Territory. The U.S. wrested control of the remaining tribal land in Oklahoma, allowing similar land rushes to take place there. All of these lands together became the 46^th state, Oklahoma, the “Sooner State.”

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Thomas Gallaudet and the American School for the Deaf

April 16, 2024May 7, 202419th Century, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On April 15, 1817, what is now called the American School for the Deaf opened its doors in Hartford, Connecticut. Inspired by his young, deaf neighbor, theologian Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet teamed up with French sign language instructor Laurent Clerc to open a residential school where deaf children would have the opportunity to be educated. The opening of the American School for the Deaf instigated the creation of a deaf culture in America that thrives to this day.

In 1814, Thomas Gallaudet met his nine-year-old neighbor, Alice Cogswell, who was deaf. He watched her struggle to communicate with her family and as a theology school graduate, saw Alice as part of a community that had not yet been proselytized to due to a lack of language skills. Alice’s father, Dr. Mason Cogswell, sponsored Gallaudet’s trip abroad, urging him to learn more about the teaching methods of the Braidwood Academy, a school for the deaf, in England. Gallaudet was not satisfied by Braidwood’s method of teaching, which focused on speaking and lip reading. While in London, Gallaudet chanced upon a group of teachers from the National Institute of the Deaf in Paris. Intrigued by their sign language, he followed them back to their school to learn with them. At the end of his own instruction, Gallaudet persuaded the distinguished instructor, Laurent Clerc to return to Connecticut and aid Gallaudet in opening the first school for the deaf in America. Alice was their first student.

At their school in Hartford, Gallaudet and Clerc joined deaf students from around the country together. Clerc’s French sign language mixed with the signs used by students from around the U.S. evolved to form American Sign Language. Of it, Thomas Gallaudet said, “The heart claims as its particular and appropriate language that of the eye and countenance, of the attitudes, movements, and gestures of the body.” With a shared language, as it often does, developed a culture. Gallaudet and Clerc traveled the country, training teachers and advising additional schools for the deaf.

In 1857, Thomas Gallaudet’s wife, Sofia Gallaudet, and their son, Edward Gallaudet, moved to Washington D.C. to run the School for the Deaf in Washington D.C. This school eventually became Gallaudet University, the premiere school for the education of deaf individuals in the U.S, and is the legacy of Thomas Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc.

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An American English

April 12, 2024May 7, 202419th Century, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On April 14, 1828, the American Dictionary of the English Language was published. It was the first dictionary of the American English language. Compiled by Noah Webster, it contained 70,000 words, including many of the spelling changes between British English and American English that we see today. In addition to creating for Americans a distinct version of English, Webster is also well-known for championing the idea that “grammar should be formed on language, and not language on grammar.”

Noah Webster was a law student at Yale University when he took a leave of absence to fight in the American Revolution. Upon his graduation, Webster chose to take a job as a teacher in Goshen, New York. While teaching, Webster was unimpressed by the spellers and readers available to his students. He felt that the texts they used, written and published in England, ignored some distinctive aspects of American life. His quest to champion an American English began with his writing and publishing a series of books to be used by educators: a spelling book, a grammar book, and a reader.

Webster began working on the dictionary in 1807. He said, “It is not only important, but, in a degree necessary, that the people of this country, should have an American Dictionary of the English language; for, although the body of the language is the same as in England, and it is desirable to perpetuate that sameness, yet some differences must exist. Language is an expression of ideas; and if the people of one country cannot preserve an identity of ideas, they cannot retain an identity of language.” He is responsible for many of the common spelling differences in words between British English and American English, including the removal of “u” in words like “color” and the switching of “e” and “r” in words like “center” or “meter.” The American Dictionary of the English Language was far from a bestseller in the 19^th century. Webster was berated for the inclusion of some colloquial words; however, Webster believed that public use was an important factor in an ever-changing language.

After Webster’s death, the rights to his dictionary were sold to George and Charles Merriam, who created the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. This dictionary is one of the most reliable and recognizable collections of American English today.

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1 . https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/noah-webster-dictionary#:~:text=Happy%20Birthday%2C%20Webster’s%201828!&text=April%2014%20is%20the%20anniversary,Dictionary%20of%20the%20English%20Language.

2. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Noah-Webster-American-lexicographer

The Beginning of the End of the Civil War

April 9, 2024May 7, 202419th Century, Civil War, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Despite Lee’s surrender, the fighting dragged on for months. However, the surrender at Appomattox was not only a huge loss for the Confederate Army but the beginning of the collapse of the Confederate government.

On March 25, 1865, General Lee’s army attacked Fort Stedman in Petersburg, Virginia. On April 1, the Union Army responded by attacking the Confederate troops at Five Forks. During the retreat from battle, the Union Army was able to surround the Confederates. In addition to this difficult tactical situation, the Confederate Army was also out of supplies. They moved west toward the Appomattox railroad station, where supplies should have arrived; however, the Union Army arrived first and captured the supply trains. With this, General Lee found himself in a difficult situation. On April 7, amid discontent and desertions, Lee received a letter from General Grant requesting his surrender. Grant wrote: it is “my duty to shift from myself the responsibility of any further effusion of blood by asking of you the surrender of that portion of the Confederate States army known as the Army of Northern Virginia.” Lee did not agree.

On April 9, the Union Army surrounded Lee’s men, forcing Lee to order a retreat across the Appomattox River. By the afternoon, Lee sent a message to Grant, agreeing to meet at the home of Wilmer McLean, local resident. The terms of the surrender were generous, allowing all Confederate soldiers and officers to retain their horses and weapons so long as they peacefully returned home. The terms also said that Confederate officers would not be prosecuted. These surrender terms were used again and again as the war ended. Following Lee and Grant’s meeting, Lee and almost 30,000 soldiers returned home. The war was officially declared over on August 20, 1866.

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On This Day: The Presidential Succession Act

July 18, 2023July 31, 202319th Century, US HistoryLeave a Comment

On July 18, 1947, President Harry Truman signed the Presidential Succession Act, which determined the line of succession if the president dies in office or is otherwise unable to perform the duties of president. Almost two decades later, this act became the 25^th Amendment. Since that time, the 25^th Amendment has been invoked six times and is an essential part of the operation of the United States government.

Prior to the Presidential Succession Act, there were two different plans for succession. Under the Congress of 1792, the President pro tempore of the Senate and then the Speaker of the House would become acting president until a new president was elected. The Presidential Succession Act of 1886 then changed the succession to allow the Secretary of State to become acting president in case the president was removed. In 1947, President Truman needed to appoint a new Secretary of State. Members of Congress became concerned that under the current rules of succession, Truman would be in a position to choose his own successor. They felt that was not true to the democratic process that the framers intended. It was this circumstance that caused Congress to draft a new succession act.

Under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, if the President of the United States dies, resigns, or for whatever reason is unable to perform the offices of president, the duties become those of the Vice President, then the Speaker of the House, President Pro Tempore of the Senate, and then Secretary of State. It also indicates that if the vice president leaves office, the president can nominate a new vice president who will need to be confirmed by Congress. The act also allows the president, in cases where he is temporarily unable to perform his duties, to submit written notice to Congress, and the vice president can take their place. This portion of the act has been used in cases of medical procedures during which the president was under anesthesia.

Following the assassination of President Kennedy, there was confusion about what the proper procedure was to swear in Vice President Johnson as president. This encouraged Congress to ratify the Presidential Succession Act as the 25^th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

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