Tag: American History

The Big Immigration Crackdown

According to the promise of our new fearless leader there will be a massive crackdown on immigration….farmers are trying to head this off at the pass….but this ‘promise’ is nothing new…..it happened back in the mid to late 19th century and it was the Chinese that was the anger of the people.

That’s right yet another opportunity for me to drop some history and maybe some knowledge of things to come.

This is a detail look at what transpired around what became known as the “Chinese Exclusion Act”…..

This 1882 law is now popularly known as “the Chinese Exclusion Act.” It banned both skilled and unskilled Chinese laborers from immigrating to the US for ten years. Symbolically and politically, this bill was a big deal: it was the first significant crackdown on immigration in American history, a message that the federal government opposed Chinese immigration, and a reaffirmation that Chinese immigrants already in America could never become citizens.

However, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was just one in a series of federal laws against Chinese immigrants — and, as Beth Lew-Williams makes clear in The Chinese Must Go, this 1882 law was actually quite ineffective. Basically, President Arthur and Congress threw a bone to the insurgent anti-Chinese movement, but they provided few resources for federal enforcement against Chinese immigration and introduced a bunch of loopholes that allowed Chinese immigrants to continue coming in.

In the years after the Act’s passage, West Coast newspapers and populist agitators grew angry that Chinese immigrants were still entering the country and demanded that the government do more. This was the beginning of what you might call the national fight against “illegal immigration” — because before this virtually all immigration to the United States was legal.

Historians have found that the economies of towns suffered after they kicked out their Chinese residents.

So, if there’s a lesson from Qian’s study, it’s that, yes, maybe immigration restrictions and expulsions or deportations can actually help some native workers. But, really, the cost is tremendous — not just for the immigrants themselves but also for almost everyone else.

https://www.npr.org/sections/planet-money/2024/11/26/g-s1-35805/chinese-expulsion-act-railroads-immigration-crackdown

Please read the entire article…..there was a huge cost to this crackdown as there will be if another one takes place.

If you worry about the economy then maybe Trump’s big idea will not play well as it did in the 19th century.

Class dismissed!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Historical Ignorance

This is a re-post from my other site, Gulf South Free Press, I include for those individuals that may not be aware of my other writings.

I am astonished by the historical ignorance that many show in this country….this by a people that are supposedly proud of our history but yet will do anything to see that it is never written about accurately.

Historical Ignorance Is Staggering

If we keep going down this path of ignorance the damage will be irreversible.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Can Harris Defy History?

We have a VP that is seeking the highest office in the land….nothing unusual there but if she is elected she will break a curse from our past.

Yep, more history from the junkie in the room.

Did you know if Harris wins the election she will be the first in many years?

As Vice President Kamala Harris begins her fall campaign for the White House, she can look to history and hope for better luck than others in her position who have tried the same.

Since 1836, only one sitting vice president, George H.W. Bush in 1988, has been elected to the White House. Among those who tried and failed were Richard Nixon in 1960, Hubert Humphrey in 1968 and Al Gore in 2000. All three lost in narrow elections shaped by issues ranging from war and scandal to crime and the subtleties of televised debates. But two other factors proved crucial for each vice president: whether the incumbent president was well-liked and whether the president and vice president enjoyed a productive relationship.

“You really do want those elements to come together,” says Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. “If the person the vice president is working for is popular, that means people like what he’s doing and you can gain from that. And you need to have the two principals working together.”

In 1988, Bush easily defeated Democrat Michael Dukakis, the Massachusetts governor whom Republicans labeled as ineffectual and out of touch. Bush was otherwise helped by a solid economy, the easing of Cold War tensions and some rare luck for a vice president. President Ronald Reagan’s approval ratings rose through much of the year after falling sharply in the wake of the 1986-87 Iran-Contra scandal, and Reagan and Bush worked well together during the campaign. Reagan openly backed his vice president, who had run against him in the 1980 primaries. He praised Bush at the Republican convention as an engaged and invaluable partner, appeared with him at a California rally and spoke at gatherings in Michigan, New Jersey and Missouri.

https://apnews.com/article/kamala-harris-incumbent-vice-president-election-defc726ac5a8db8ef0ba9a756fd8eec5

The question is….will she succeed where so many others have failed?

Her popularity is growing but it is early in the campaigns and so much can happen and quickly.

Will she buck history?

Any amazing thoughts to share?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

2024–The Worse Election Ever

Lots of crap being spread through social media about this upcoming election….some on how violent it could be and some that it could be the worse election ever for the US.

Will it be the worse?

Of course, these political sparring matches leave many voters dissatisfied, as any Gore, Trump, or Sanders supporter will certainly tell you, but their pain is surely less than those felt in 1876. The bloody election lead to sweeping reforms and the secretive Compromise of 1877.

…

Grant served two terms in office before declining to run for a third. With so much bad blood brewing between the Republicans and the Democrats, the North and the South, the election was incredibly bitter. Rutherford B. Hayes (R) and Samuel J. Tilden (D) were the primary candidates, though Hayes was a compromise candidate after the frontrunner was unable to secure enough support at the Republican National Convention.

The election was fraught with allegations of electoral fraud, election violence, and disenfranchisement of Black Republicans. The Democrats relied on the White League and Red Shirts, para-military groups that violently disrupted rallies and suppressed both white and Black voters. In South Carolina, 101% of all eligible voters had cast their votes in a clear case of election fraud and an estimated 150 Black Republicans were murdered. Democrat ballots deceived illiterate voters by using the Republican symbol of Abraham Lincoln to steal votes. During the inevitable recounts, these votes were discarded.

(any of that sound familiar?)

https://wegotthiscovered.com/fyi/if-you-think-2024-will-be-the-worst-election-of-all-time-its-time-to-revisit-your-history/

This was not the first ugly election….think back to 1804….

I could write about this but since most people cannot concentrate to read I shall let a video do the deed.

So you see that Trump is not the only person to turn a vote into something ugly and contentious.

This election saw a Electoral College debacle that the House of Representatives had to sort out.

We are still paying for that POS today.

There is your short but sweet history lesson and since this is my special day I will bow out and see what gifts have come my way.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

12 April 1861

My readers know that I cannot pass up an opportunity to drop some history….and today is one of those days.

Do you know what day it is?

Hundred and sixty three years ago today the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina thus starting the bloody struggle that has been called the “American Civil War”……

For those that slept through American history class….

By 1861, the country had already experienced decades of short-lived but ultimately failed compromises concerning the expansion of slavery in the United States and its territories. The election of Abraham Lincoln as president of the United States in 1860—a man who declared “I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free”—threatened the culture and economy of southern slave states and served as a catalyst for secession. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the United States, and by February 2, 1861, six more states followed suit. Southern delegates met on February 4, 1861, in Montgomery, AL., and established the Confederate States of America, with Mississippi senator Jefferson Davis elected as its provisional president. Confederate militia forces began seizing United States forts and property throughout the south. With a lame-duck president in office, and a controversial president-elect poised to succeed him, the crisis approached a boiling point and exploded at Fort Sumter.

In the South we are taught our state’s history and most book make it seem like the desire to leave the union was overwhelmingly popular…,not accurate….

From its beginnings the Confederacy suffered from a rising tide of intense domestic hostility, not only among Southern blacks but increasingly among Southern whites. Ironically, it was a hostility brought on largely by those most responsible for the Confederacy’s creation. Planters excused themselves from the draft in various ways, then grew far too much cotton and tobacco, and not nearly enough food. Soldiers went hungry, as did their families back home. Women defied Confederate authorities by staging food riots from Richmond, Virginia, to Galveston, Texas. Soldiers deserted by the tens of thousands, and draft evasion became commonplace. By 1864, the draft law was practically impossible to enforce and two-thirds of the Confederate army was absent with or without leave. Many deserters and draft dodgers formed armed bands that controlled vast areas of the Southern countryside.

Wartime disaffection among Southerners had solid roots in the early secession crisis. Most white Southerners, three-fourths of whom owned no slaves, made it clear in the winter 1860-61 elections for state convention delegates that they opposed immediate secession. Nevertheless, state conventions across the South, all of them dominated by slaveholders, ultimately ignored majority will and took their states out of the Union. One Texas politician conceded that ambitious colleagues had engineered secession without strong backing from “the mass of the people.” A staunch South Carolina secessionist admitted the same. “But,” he asked, “whoever waited for the common people when a great move was to be made—we must make the move and force them to follow.”

https://www.essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com/southern-unionism.html

Even in the South there were enclaves of unionist bravado…..even in Mississippi….Jones county.

The story of Jones County, Mississippi’s Unionist activities has long been clouded by myth and legend, but most historians agree that this small, wooded backwater was the site of some particularly violent resistance to the Confederacy. The pro-U.S. movement in Jones first crystallized a few years into the Civil War, when the county became a haven for young men who had grown disillusioned with the Confederate cause and deserted the army. Led by a mercurial local named Newton Knight, the runaways organized into a Unionist guerilla outfit called the Knight Company and took to harassing nearby Confederate units. Whether Knight and his band were a principled resistance group or mere bandits has been a matter of debate, but there’s no doubt they succeeded in stirring the political pot. The group effectively disabled the county government, and at one point, its activities sparked rumors that Jones County had seceded from the Confederacy and was flying the stars and stripes over its courthouse. The Knight Company’s disruptive reign continued until April 1864, when Confederate Colonel Robert Lowry used bloodhounds to track the guerillas and drive them from their hideout in the swamps. Newton Knight later resurfaced, however, and after the war, he assisted in U.S. reconstruction efforts in Mississippi.

Back in the Dark Ages when I was in school this event was never covered at all.

There were others…..

https://www.history.com/news/6-unionist-strongholds-in-the-south-during-the-civil-war

For more information if interested….

Southerner vs. Southerner: Union Supporters Below the Mason-Dixon Line

You have seen those child soldiers in Africa…..well during our Civil War children as young as 10 fought and died….

Ten times more underage soldiers, from as young as 10-17, fought in the American Civil War than previously recognised, and this had profound implications for US military and legal history. This is a key takeaway from Associate Professor Frances M. Clarke and Professor Rebecca Jo Plant’s prize-winning book, Of Age: Boy Soldiers and Military Power in the Civil War Era.

“In America’s Civil War era, children remained minors until they turned 21. If they entered the regular army, however, they were emancipated from parental control. To retrieve young sons, parents filed writs of habeas corpus in massive numbers, while the Lincoln administration tried to stymie their efforts by silencing local courts. These disputes led to one of the most significant shifts in US legal history-the federalisation of habeas corpus,” said Associate Professor Clarke, who is a researcher in the Discipline of History.

https://www.nationaltribune.com.au/american-civil-war-prize-winning-new-book-reveals-plight-of-underage-soldiers/

A little history for those that are interested in the American Civil War….

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Oh The Atrocities!

Sunday and time for a little history (heavy sighs and eye rolls will not help)….

We have two wars raging that is being financed by the US and within these two conflicts there have been what the White House and media has called atrocities…..and of course there have been others across time but funny how none have mentioned any the the US may have committed….why is that?

But unfortunately the US has also committe3d some terrible things in the past….both distant and not so distant….

As most are well aware of I like to find teachable moments to help expand my readers knowledge and horizons (but some of the replies are way off subject which leads me to think knowledge is not necessarily important to some)….

Here are 10 atrocities that the US had a hand in committing both stateside and internationally….

You might know about the Tulsa Race massacre, which has thankfully gotten lots of long overdue attention in recent years, or the My Lai Massacre, where US troops abused and gunned down a whole village of Vietnamese civilians during the war there. But lots of atrocities deliberately perpetrated by American authorities against innocent victims at home and abroad have been, perhaps unsurprisingly, swept under the rug. That ain’t okay, folks. Let’s shed some light on some of these shameful episodes here…

10. Philippine-American War and Concentration Camps

The Philippine-American War (1899–1902) is one of the lesser-studied events in American classrooms. That could be because between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, the World Wars, Vietnam and the Cold War, as well as other subjects, there are just bigger stories to cover that had a greater impact on US life back home. But maybe it’s because of the US Army’s use of ‘reconcentration’ orders to suppress support for guerrilla resistance against American colonial rule. Termed ‘zones of protection,’ these confined villages were subject to strict demarcation and controlled movement. And yes, by ‘reconcentration’ we definitely do mean regular ol’ concentration camps. Run by the United States. In a nation we colonized. 

Worse still, American reconcentration policy in the Philippines had an impact that extended beyond the formal wartime period. Rather than a fleeting measure applied to enforce martial law, reconcentration became a feature of the post-war governance structure, with the Philippines Commission authorizing provincial governors in 1903 to continue reorganizing specific populations.

There is more….read on….

10 American Atrocities You’ve Probably Never Heard About

My point is why condemn others when you are just as guilty as they?

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Presidential Scandals

With the media jumping through hoops to get the ‘skinny’ on the newest indictment of Trump I thought I would drop a little history on my readers.

How many know what Watergate was about? Or the Teapot Dome for that matter.

There have been some real nut cracker scandals in our relatively short history…..Trump is not the first to visit outside the law…..so to speak…..

Let’s begin our journey with Andrew Johnson….

Johnson was the first US president ever impeached by the House of Representatives.

“He was impeached in 1868 for dismissing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton without the approval of the Senate as required … and for attacking congressional policies on the Reconstruction in the South” after the US Civil War, according to the Library of Congress.

Johnson had vetoed legislation “to protect the rights of those who had been freed from slavery”.

Then there was Ulysses S. Grant the first president ever arrested…..

Grant was the first-ever sitting US president to be arrested, according to US media reports.

In 1872, Grant was pulled over for speeding in a horse-drawn carriage in Washington, DC and issued a warning. The next day, he was caught speeding again and arrested.

Grant was let out on bail and continued serving as president.

Next presidential scandal was Harding and Teapot Dome…..

The Teapot Dome scandal of the mid-1920s involved the secret leasing of federal oil reserves at Elk Hills in California and Teapot Dome, Wyoming, to oil tycoons by Harding’s interior secretary.

While Harding was not personally involved in the affair, he faced criticism for failing to expose corruption.

Some historians have referred to Harding as the least capable president.

The next big time scandal was Watergate…..

Watergate was one of the biggest political scandals in US history.

The scandal began with a botched 1972 burglary at the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC’s) office in the Watergate complex in Washington, DC. It drew little immediate attention, but ended two years later with the first and only resignation of a president.

The tale began with G Gordon Liddy, a former FBI agent who worked for Nixon’s re-election campaign. Liddy got $250,000 to implement a plan of dirty tricks and espionage that included late-night forays to install telephone bugs at the DNC office and scour the party’s files for useful information.

Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein later reported on the president’s connection to the events.

Nixon stepped down in 1974, and his successor, President Gerald Ford, gave him a full pardon for any crimes committed.

Who was the only president not elected by the people of this country?

My favorite scandal…..Iran-Contra…..

The Iran-Contra affair was one of the biggest political scandals during the Cold War and threatened to bring down Reagan’s presidency.

In 1985, Reagan authorised a secret plan to sell antitank and antiaircraft missiles to Iran in exchange for releasing Americans who had been abducted by Iranian-backed armed fighters in Lebanon. The move was contrary to the government’s public policy of refusing to negotiate with “terrorists”.

When news of the deal broke, it was revealed that part of the money earned from the arms sales had been used to circumvent congressional restrictions and buy weapons and supplies for the Contras, a right-wing rebel group in Nicaragua.

Under public and media pressure, a congressional commission investigated the incident and determined that “Reagan’s lack of oversight enabled those working under him to divert the funds to the Contras”. Some members of the Reagan administration were charged, but Reagan was not.

Reagan got some lackeys to accept jail instead of him.

On to the biggest scandal of the 1990s…..a White House blow job…..

Clinton was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice in the House of Representatives for lying under oath to a federal grand jury on sexual harassment allegations.

The process was linked to a civil lawsuit filed against Clinton by Paula Jones, who had accused him of sexual harassment in an incident that she said occurred before Clinton became president.

During a deposition in that case, Clinton denied having an affair with Monica Lewinsky, a 21-year-old White House intern. He later admitted to lying under oath.

A simplistic look at presidential scandals from our past with help from AJE…..and now…..

We have the antics of a former president Trump to light our fire of indifference.

I do love some history!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

GOP–Where It All Began

There are many opinions running around the internet on the GOP….most of it is all about the party for the last 15 or so years…..but how many have nay damn idea where it all began and why?

That’s right….you are in for some knowledge….I know that is a bad word these days of idiots….there is no such things as bad knowledge just morons that cannot find the time to pull their heads of of their asses to learn something.

The year is 1854…..the place was Ripon, Wisconsin…..

Trying times spawn new forces. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 divided the country at the 36° 30′ parallel between the pro-slavery, agrarian South and anti-slavery, industrial North, creating an uneasy peace which lasted for three decades. This peace was shattered in 1854 by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Settlers would decide if their state would be free or slave. Northern leaders such as Horace Greeley, Salmon Chase and Charles Sumner could not sit back and watch the flood of pro-slavery settlers cross the parallel. A new party was needed.

Where was the party born? Following the publication of the “Appeal of Independent Democrats” in major newspapers, spontaneous demonstrations occurred. In early 1854, the first proto-Republican Party meeting took place in Ripon, Wisconsin. On July 6, 1854 on the outskirts of Jackson, Michigan upwards of 10,000 people turned out for a mass meeting “Under the Oaks.” This led to the first organizing convention in Pittsburgh on February 22, 1856.

The gavel fell to open the party’s first nominating convention, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 17, 1856, announcing the birth of the Republican Party as a unified political force.

The Republican Party name was christened in an editorial written by New York newspaper magnate Horace Greeley. Greeley printed in June 1854: “We should not care much whether those thus united (against slavery) were designated ‘Whig,’ ‘Free Democrat’ or something else; though we think some simple name like ‘Republican’ would more fitly designate those who had united to restore the Union to its true mission of champion and promulgator of Liberty rather than propagandist of slavery.”

https://www.ushistory.org/gop/origins.htm

In the beginning the GOP was not all that bad….as late as 1956 their platform was something that even a hard Leftist like me could have supported.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

Class Dismissed!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Wounded Knee–50 Years On

Yep a little slice of American history that most young people have NO idea ever occurred.

50 years ago last month the Native Americans started their protest at Wounded Knee, the site of a US cavalry massacre of American natives….

The 1973 Siege at Wounded Knee is the longest “civil unrest” in the history of the US Marshal Service. For 71 days, the American Indian Movement (AIM) and members of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) nation were under siege in a violent standoff with the FBI and US Marshals equipped with high powered rifles and armored personnel carriers.  Two people were killed, over two dozen wounded.  At stake, sovereignty and self-determination guaranteed through treaty rights.

Fifty years have passed but for American Indians the struggle for recognition of the nation-to-nation treaties continues to be seen as survival.  At the end of February, young Indian leaders joined older activists to gather at Wounded Knee to commemorate the violent events that began on February 27, 1973, and renew their call for self-determination and recognition of their treaties.

For older Wounded Knee veterans, this Fiftieth Anniversary year is a time for a ritual passing on of the struggle.  “You are the seventh generation. It’s your time to stand up and protect your water, defend your land,” proclaimed Vic Camp, son of Wounded Knee AIM leader Carter Camp, “Remember your treaty rights, protect those treaties . . .  we have to remind the United States government that this is our land.”

Bill Means, a veteran of the 1973 siege urged people to be clear on the purpose, “Remember, we came here for the 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaty. We didn’t come here just to raise hell. We had to make a statement, to tell the world that Indians are still alive, that this is still our land, and the Black Hills are not for sale!”

For the Lakota this fight for self-determination, the preservation of their nation and its land, were the central demands of the siege at Wounded Knee.  It was a fight for survival. During the negotiations in 1973 the local Oglala leaders were frustrated with the Justice Department’s refusal to grasp the central issue of the Treaty.  Gladys Bissonette, a revered Oglala elder admonished the Government negotiators, “In the past there were a lot of violations of the sacred treaties . . . This is real. We’re not playing here. So all you people that go back to Washington, think real good, because our lives are at stake. It concerns our children’s children, the unborn.”

Much has been written about the aftermath of the 1973 siege, including the murders of 60 AIM sympathizers and activists in the following year, known as the Reign of Terror, carried out by a local vigilante group self-titled “Goons” (Guardians of the Oglala Nation). U.S. District Court Judge Fred Nichols viewed this as the FBI colluding with vigilantes to target AIM sympathizers. The continued imprisonment of Leonard Peltier despite universal calls for clemency – even by the prosecutor – demonstrates the truth of the FBI’s intent to eliminate Indian activists even at the cost of truth.

Siege at Wounded Knee 50 Years Later: the Fight for Self-Determination Continues

I remember those days and thinking ahead…..the Native Americans are still trying to gain some sort of respect from this government and the nation at large….slow go and little has changed…..they still do not get the respect they deserve from either the government or the nation at large.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

The Lead Up To The Civil War

Since there are so many right wing dullards that are trying to re-write our history I thought I would join the debate to try and help clarify the events that lead up to the American Civil War….there are more things that lead to the outbreak of war other than the firing on Ft. Sumter….9 to be exact.

After the American Revolution, a divide between the North and South began to widen. Industrialized northern states gradually passed laws freeing enslaved people, while southern states became increasingly committed to slavery. Many southerners came to view slavery as a linchpin of their agricultural economy, and as a justifiable social and political institution.

Throughout the first half of the 1800s, the nation struggled to manage the clash between these two incompatible viewpoints, working out deals such as the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which sought to balance the number of new free and slave states and drew a line through the nation’s western territories, with freedom to the north and slavery to the south. But in the last decade before war broke out, the conflict gained momentum and intensity. 

“Throughout the 1850s, a series of events increased sectionalism, emboldened southern secessionists, and deepened northern resolve to defend the Union and end slavery,” explains Jason Phillips, the Eberly Family Professor of Civil War Studies at West Virginia University, and author of the 2018 book Looming Civil War: How Nineteenth Century Americans Imagined the Future. “Many of these crises revolved around politics, but economic, social and cultural factors also contributed to the war’s origins.”

Here are nine events from the 1850s to the early 1860s that historians view as critical in the march toward the American Civil War.

https://www.history.com/news/civil-war-causes-issues

This illustrates that there were complex issues that lead to the outbreak of war than the simplistic whitewash that the era gets in history classes these days.

I will do my part to correct the misconceptions….now we all need to do our part and learn our history….all of it….the good, the bad and the ugly.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

Class dismissed!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”