March 4, 1863: Idaho Territory

147 years ago today, Abraham Lincoln took time out from dealing with the Civil War to sign into law an act of Congress creating the Idaho Territory.  The territory contained what are now the states of Idaho, Montana and most of Wyoming.  Its first capital was Lewiston, Idaho.

But then, in 1864, the capital moved to Boise -- and has stayed here ever since.  To make it up to the bereft citizens of northern Idaho, Idaho's land grant university -- the University of Idaho, my law school alma mater -- was situated in Moscow, the seat of Latah County.  

Incidentally, Latah County is the only county in the entire nation that was created by an act of Congress.  

Stars and Stripes Forever

It's not a holiday or anything; no particular reason to be patriotic today.  But I have just been watching one of my favorite movies, Heartbreak Ridge, which closes with "Stars and Stripes Forever." And that made me start surfing the Internet for information about this magnum opus of John Philip Sousa, the Marine and gentleman pictured to the left.  Which in turn made me put together this post.

Sousa composed "Stars and Stripes Forever" on Christmas Day, 1896.  It was such a hit that it is practically universally recognized, and known by heart by any band musician.  This is probably why, in the circus, it serves as the "disaster march": the signal for dire emergency (such as the deadly Hartford, Connecticut circus fire of 1944) that calls circus staff to action without instantly panicking the audience.  

Did you know "Stars and Stripes Forever" has lyrics?  Here they are:

Let martial note in triumph float
And liberty extend its mighty hand
A flag appears 'mid thunderous cheers,
The banner of the Western land.
The emblem of the brave and true
Its folds protect no tyrant crew;
The red and white and starry blue
Is freedom's shield and hope.
Other nations may deem their flags the best
And cheer them with fervid elation
But the flag of the North and South and West
Is the flag of flags, the flag of Freedom's nation.

Hurrah for the flag of the free!
May it wave as our standard forever,
The gem of the land and the sea,
The banner of the right.
Let despots remember the day
When our fathers with mighty endeavor
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever.

Let eagle shriek from lofty peak
The never-ending watchword of our land;
Let summer breeze waft through the trees
The echo of the chorus grand.
Sing out for liberty and light,
Sing out for freedom and the right.
Sing out for Union and its might,
O patriotic sons.
Other nations may deem their flags the best
And cheer them with fervid elation,
But the flag of the North and South and West
Is the flag of flags, the flag of Freedom's nation.

Hurrah for the flag of the free.
May it wave as our standard forever
The gem of the land and the sea,
The banner of the right.
Let despots remember the day
When our fathers with might endeavor
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray,
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever.

"Stars and Stripes Forever" is, by law, the official march of the United States.   In 1998, in a rare fit of brevity, Congress enacted what is now codified as 36 U.S.C.A. § 304, which reads in its entirety:

The composition by John Philip Sousa entitled "The Stars and Stripes Forever" is the national march.

Finally, in the (highly unlikely) event you have never heard "Stars and Stripes Forever" -- or you have heard it, but would just like to hear it again, links to two audio files:

A one-hundred-year-old recording of "Stars and Stripes Forever," performed by Sousa's Band for Edison Records

A more recent (and first-rate) performance by the U.S. Marine Band

A Great President on a Great Anniversary

For Veteran's Day: President Reagan's speech at Point du Hoc, June 6, 1984 -- the 40th anniversary of D-Day.

Two of the Greatest Minutes in the History of Oratory

For Veteran's Day: the Gettysburg Address. The address was so short that there was no time to photograph President Lincoln in the act of delivering it.

The keynote speaker at the ceremony dedicating the cemetery at Gettysburg was Edward Everett of Massachusetts, a man of many accomplishments who was acclaimed as the greatest orator of his day. He delivered a two-hour oration. President Lincoln followed with a short speech that he had composed after arriving at Gettysburg. "I should be glad," said Edward Everett to the President, "if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes."

Incidentally, we are eight days away from the 146th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address.

Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth, upon 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 it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.

It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, 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.

Tin Pan Alley's Greatest Hits

This is Tin Pan Alley, located on 28th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues in New York City, headquarters of America's popular music industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tin Pan Alley's leading composers include the Gershwins, Scott Joplin, Irving Berlin, Hoagy Carmichael, Lew Pollack, Jack Yellen, and George M. Cohan.

Some Tin Pan Alley hits have had such a profound effect on American culture that they are probably familiar to even the goofiest, most rap-inundated, network-television-soaked kids of today. Even if you don't recognize the names of these songs, you will probably recognize the songs themselves as soon as you hear them. For example:

"Maple Leaf Rag," (1899) by Scott Joplin. This is one of the most famous and recognizable ragtime pieces ever. The rendition linked here was played by Scott Joplin himself.

"The Entertainer" (1902) by Scott Joplin. Probably even more famous than "Maple Leaf Rag." It served as the theme for The Sting in 1973.

"Hello! Ma Baby" (1899) by Joseph Howard and Ida Emerson. Anybody who grew up watching Warner Bros. cartoons on Saturday mornings has heard the chorus to this one. This recording was performed by Arthur Collins in 1899.

"Give My Regards to Broadway" (1904) by George M. Cohan. The linked performance is by James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942).

"Down by the Old Mill Stream" (1911) by Tell Taylor. Most people who are familiar with this song know the chorus and not the verses. It goes against the grain, but I have linked to the Chipmunks' performance of this tune.

"Take Me Out to the Ball Game" (1908) by Jack Norworth (lyrics) and Albert von Tilzer (music). The composers had never attended a ball game, and would not do so for several decades. The recording was made in 1908 by Edwin Meeker.

"Ain't She Sweet" (1927) by Milton Ager and Jack Yellen. This song was written for Milton Ager's daughter, who was then two years old. Jack Yellen, you may remember, was also the co-composer of "My Yiddishe Momme," which I posted about the other day. The linked performance is by Lillian Roth in 1933.

"Happy Days Are Here Again" (1929), also by Milton Ager (music) and Jack Yellen (lyrics). Unfortunately, this song was hijacked by FDR and the Democrat Party. This rendition was recorded in 1930 by Charles King in the movie Chasing Rainbows.

And last but not least...

"God Bless America" (1918) by Irving Berlin. Berlin made some revisions to the song in 1938, when Kate Smith introduced it during an Armistice Day broadcast. It became her signature song.

And here she is, singing it in This Is the Army (1943). (Watch for a future president in this clip from the film.)

The Fourth of July

This is rather a sad Fourth of July. It is sad because this nation has placed herself into the hands of the enemies of all she has ever stood for. We have fallen away from our faith and our ideals, and have let ourselves in for a terrible chastisement. This has already started; how many of us notice?

We need to start wearing out the rosaries. We also need to remind ourselves of our glorious patrimony, before we throw it all away.

The Federalist Papers
The Declaration of Independence (how many of the grievances against the king apply to the present administration so far?)
The United States Constitution
"The Americans Who Risked Everything": Rush H. Limbaugh, Jr.'s speech on the men who signed the Declaration of Independence

Pray also for our Marines currently engaged in a major offensive in Afghanistan.

Psalm 144

Blessed be the LORD, my Rock,
Who trains my hands for war,
and my fingers for battle;
my Rock and my Fortress,
my Stronghold and my Deliverer,
my Shield and He in whom I take refuge,
Who subdues the peoples under Him.
O LORD, what is man that Thou dost regard him,
or the son of man that Thou dost think of him?
Man is like a breath,
his days are like a passing shadow.
Bow Thy heavens, O LORD, and come down!
Touch the mountains that they smoke!
Flash forth the lightning and scatter them,
send out Thy arrows and rout them!
Stretch forth Thy hand from on high,
rescue me and deliver me from the many waters,
from the hand of aliens,
whose mouths speak lies,
and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
I will sing a new song to Thee, O God;
upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to Thee,
Who givest victory to kings,
Who rescuest David Thy servant.
Rescue me from the cruel sword,
and deliver me from the hand of aliens,
whose mouths speak lies,
and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
May our sons in their youth
be like plants full grown,
our daughters like corner pillars
cut for the structure of a palace;
may our garners be full,
providing all manner of store;
may our sheep bring forth thousands
and ten thousands in our fields;
may our cattle be heavy with young,
suffering no mischance or failure in bearing;
may there be no cry of distress in our streets!
Happy the people to whom such blessings fall!
Happy the people whose God is the LORD!

How Appropriate...

...that news of the latest vacancy on the Supreme Court should break on May Day, Day 102 of the most virulently leftist and pro-abortion administration ever in the history of the United States. NARAL and the other militant leftists must be thinking that maybe there is a God after all, and daring to entertain the possibility that maybe He is on their side.

For the rest of us, it's time to start wearing out the rosary beads. After decades of stealth liberal Supreme Court justices installed by Republican administrations, aren't we long overdue for a stealth conservative justice?

Lincoln's Birthday

Also the birthday of my grandmother, Lisa Botti, who died 32 years ago tomorrow. R.I.P.

Inauguration Day

Today, Barack Obama, late the junior Senator from Abraham Lincoln's home state, will be inaugurated the 44th President of the United States. It is reported that he will be swearing his oath of office on the same Bible on which Abraham Lincoln swore his.

Speaking of Abraham Lincoln, this is Abraham Lincoln delivering his famous Second Inaugural Address on March 4, 1865. The Second Inaugural is justifiably hailed as one of the finest speeches in American history -- if not the finest.

On a day when the leadership of the nation is about to be taken over by a man who will turn out to be F.D.R. (without the wartime leadership), Jimmy Carter, and Planned Parenthood all rolled into one, surrounded by a bunch of Clinton retreads, it might pay to look back on our nation's great moments, and remind ourselves of what we should be living up to, but presently aren't. So here, in its entirety, is the text of the Second Inaugural.

Fellow-Countrymen:

At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, urgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war--seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

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, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

George M. Docherty, R.I.P.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

In a shocking breach of the sacred Berlin Wall of Separation Between Church and State, school children have been reciting the Pledge of Allegiance with the words "under God" for more than half a century.

It was the Knights of Columbus of New York City who first adopted the practice of adding the words "under God" to their recitation of pledge in 1951, citing to the Gettysburg Address, in which Abraham Lincoln spoke of this nation, under God, having a new birth of freedom. The following year, the Supreme Council of the Knights took up the banner and launched a campaign to lobby Congress to universalize the change.

Rev. George M. Docherty, a Presbyterian minister and recent Scots immigrant to the United States, also liked the idea of adding the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance. It was the custom at that time for Presidents to attend New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., the same church Abraham Lincoln himself attended, on "Lincoln Sunday," the Sunday nearest Lincoln's birthday. Knowing that he would have President Eisenhower's ear on Lincoln Sunday, and that President Eisenhower had recently become a Presbyterian, Rev. Docherty preached a sermon on the subject of adding the words "under God" to the Pledge on February 7, 1954. On February 8th, President Eisenhower got his friends in Congress to introduce a bill to make the desired change. The bill was signed into law on Flag Day, June 14, 1954.

Rev. Docherty passed away at his home in Alexandria, Pennsylvania on Thanksgiving Day. He was 97. Requiescat in pace.

President's Day

The trouble with "President's Day" is that not all Presidents deserve to be honored. Washington, the Father of his country, and Lincoln, its Preserver, unquestionably deserve holidays in their honor; the same, however, cannot be said of certain other Presidents. This seems to be all part of the culture of "equality," when mediocrity or even badness shares the spotlight with excellence, thereby degrading the latter while doing nothing to exalt the former. I wish we would get away from this business of celebrating all Presidents, whether they deserve it or not.

Unless we're going to start instituting holidays for the days when certain Presidents' terms end; in which case, I could go for that.

(I have a feeling we're going to be celebrating the end of the next administration, whichever candidate wins.)