Shot Glass of History

Delivering a Strong Dose of Historical Rethinking
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Teddy Roosevelt Quote on Territorial Conquest Jul 21, 2018

Quoted from Theodore Roosevelt’s 1894 book The Winning of the West, in which he presents his defense for territorial expansion of superior races: Many good persons seem prone to speak of all wars of conquest as necessarily evil. This is of course a shortsighted view. In its after effects a conquest may be fraught either with evil or with good for mankind, according to the comparative worth of the conquering and conquered peoples. It is useless to try to generalize about conquests simply as such in the abstract; each case or set of cases must be judged by itself. The...

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Abraham Lincoln Quote on Slavery and the Civil War Jul 21, 2018

Executive Mansion, Washington, August 22, 1862. Hon. Horace Greeley: Dear Sir. I have just read yours of the 19th. addressed to myself through the New-York Tribune. If there be in it any statements, or assumptions of fact, which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here, argue against them. If there be perceptable in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I have...

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Ulysses S. Grant Quote on the Mexican-American War Jul 21, 2018

  “With a soldier the flag is paramount . . . I know the struggle with my conscience during the Mexican War. I have never altogether forgiven myself for going into that. I had very strong opinions on the subject. I do not think there was ever a more wicked war than that waged by the United States on Mexico. I thought so at the time, when I was a youngster, only I had not moral courage enough to resign. I had taken an oath to serve eight years, unless sooner discharged, and I considered my supreme duty was to...

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When Abolitionists Argued for States’ Rights and Secession Jul 21, 2018

Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men: A History of the American Civil War BY JEFFREY ROGERS HUMMEL OPEN COURT, 448 PAGES, $29.95 - States' rights and secession haven't always been synonymous with the South. In fact, in the lead up to the Civil War, abolitionists denouncing the Fugitive Slave Act defended both states' rights and secession, while it was southern politicians that argued for more Federal involvement. In Jeffrey Hummel's book, "Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men," we're given a fascinating look at the complex battle to end slavery. The political debate centered around slavery's Achilles heel, the runaway slave. So long as slaves had a place to...

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The Newburgh Conspiracy of 1783 Jul 21, 2018

"I have ever considered that the United States are indebted for their republican form of government solely to the firm and determined republicanism of George Washington at this time." - David Cobb, member of Washington's staff   On a chilly Wednesday morning in December, Colonel Thomas Pride and the Regiment of Foot took up position on the steps leading to the House of Commons, while Nathaniel Rich's Regiment of Horse stood by if reinforcements were needed. As the members of Parliament arrived to perform their usual duties, they were astonished to find these military troops stationed on the steps. Colonel...

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Why History is More Than Just the “Facts” Jul 21, 2018

When doing history it can be easy to emphasize the importance of data over story, when in fact the story is essential to being able to make sense of the data. One of the temptations of overemphasizing the data can be to divide the historical timeline into hermetically sealed periods based around easily identifiable points in history. Recently, historian Jeremy C. Young devoted an entire article to explaining that he had almost failed to make the connection that William Jennings Bryan's rhetorical style in the 1920s had been invented by James Rush in the 1830s, because the Civil War divided...

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Indian Politics after Columbus Jul 21, 2018

Historical tales are told through the eyes of the narrators. While ethnocentric history is often just human nature, it is a problem if we only see our own people as the shapers of history: as if we have been the active participants, and everyone else has merely been the passive recipients. Specifically with regards to American history, we are most likely to see slaves and Indians as the passive sideliners. Active African slave history was the subject of a book a few years back by historian David Williams in “I Freed Myself: African American Self-Emancipation in the Civil War Era,” and...

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The State and the Frontier: America Inherits the Imperial Burden 1787-1800 Jul 21, 2018

It’s popular today to picture the American Indians tribes as though they were all 19th century, nomadic Plains Indians. However, at the time of 17th and 18th century colonial settlement the native inhabitants, particularly east of the Mississippi, were far from our caricature of migrating hunter-gatherers. Instead, North America was a complicated political network of Indian states and kingdoms. The continent was dotted with large fortified settlements, whose inhabitants had such a way with agriculture that they shaped the American landscape into a cultivated breadbasket.[1] As settlers arrived in the New World, the English government, and later the U.S. government, adopted a foreign...

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“The Great Tax Wars” and the Origins of the Income Tax Jul 21, 2018

The Great Tax Wars: Lincoln-Teddy Roosevelt-Wilson How the Income Tax Transformed America BY STEVEN R. WEISMAN SIMON & SCHUSTER, 432 PAGES, $25.99 - Wars naturally consolidate and centralize government, leading to a greater flow of wealth to those in power. And as Steven Weisman details in his book, The Great Tax Wars, that new flow of consolidated wealth generally arises from the need to pay for those wars in the first place. Weisman's book covers the heated political tug of war from Lincoln's administration to Wilson's, as America's political parties sought to gain control of the wealth of a nation...

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American Imperialism and Shays’s Rebellion of 1786 Jul 21, 2018

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it's natural manure. Our Convention has been too much impressed by the insurrection of Massachusets: and in the spur of the moment they are setting up a kite to keep the hen yard in order. I hope in god this article will be rectified before the new constitution is accepted." - Thomas Jefferson in a letter to William Stephens Smith, Paris, Nov. 13, 1787   After the American War for Independence, both Britain and the thirteen newly freed states felt...

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