New Jersey 150th Civil War Anniversary Part II

Yesterday was the second meeting of our ad hoc group that is discussing how New Jersey might observe the 150th anniversary of the Civil War beginning in 2011. We had a good meeting, the commitment of the group is high and I think we are off to a good start. Most of the work so far has been on basic organizational issues and how we should broaden the group to include the whole state.

Beginning in 2009 we will start focusing on the content of this effort. Like everyone else in the group I have my opinions about what we should do, but I am not going to get into that at this time. What I do want to say is that one of my highest priorities, if not my highest priority, is that the net result of this work should be that the people of this state will have a better understanding of New Jersey's role in the Civil War. I hope that this will not end with this observation, but rather continue and grow in the future.

There are two other things of interest going on simultaneously, but co-incidentally with this work. One relates to the 33rd New Jersey re-enactors who have located the unmarked grave of Lt Joesph L. Miller who was killed at the battle of Dug Gap on May 8, 1864. Led by Gary Abrams, the re-enactors are trying to move his remains to a national cemetery. In trying to help them find Miller's descendants, I have done a little research and found that Miller was about 36 at the time of his enlistment in the 33rd. He left behind his wife, Martha and four small children below the age of 10. This is really important work and I hope Gary and the group are successful - anyone who reads this and knows anything about Miller's descendants or where to find them, please let me know.

The other Civil War news relates to a friend of mine, Vince Dahmen, who I know through early morning running in Verona Park. There is a group of four-five of us who run most mornings at about 5:30 a.m.. Currently I am on the injured list, but hope to get back at some point in some way. In any event through his church Vince has been involved in a massive cleanup effort at St. Mark's Cemetery in West Orange. In doing that he discovered that there are close to 20 Civil War veterans buried there, primarily from the 26th New Jersey. On his own Vince has organized a Veterans Day observation at the cemetery to honor these long forgotten men. A group of the 33rd re-enactors is coming to present the colors and honor these men. Carol and I will be there to take part in a brief ceremony - well done Vince!

Both of these items along with the passion and commitment of those discussing the 150th demonstrate that there is some real interest not just in the war (that's not news), but in New Jersey's part in that war. I think this is all very important and very exciting and I am committed to doing what I can to make it a success by which I mean create some real change in how our state and our people understand New Jersey's role in what is probably the major turning point in the history of our country.

John C. Calhoun

My non-fiction reading seems to be following a course almost of its own. I read William Miller's "Lincoln's Virtues" because Carol and I are going to the Lincoln Forum in Gettysburg next month. That accomplished two things, reading a book by one of the speakers and continuing the process of reading books that I already have as opposed to new ones. Reading about Lincoln's youth and his admiration for Henry Clay motivated me to read Robert Remini's massive biography of the great compromiser - again a book I already owned.

For some reason that I don't completely understand, reading about Clay motivated me to read a biography of John C. Calhoun. When I was in high school, I read Margaret Coit's "John C. Calhoun: American Portrait," but I can't say that I remember much of anything about it. I think part of the reason that I wanted to read about Calhoun is due to the fact that he seems to be one of the few apologists for slavery and the old South who somehow seems to still have some credibility. Charles Niltse's three volume biography of Calhoun seemed like too much so I went to John Niven's "John C. Calhoun and the Price of Union," which was recommended by Remini in the Clay book.

I guess I thought I was going to learn about exactly how Calhoun, who is considered to be an intellectual giant, could justify slavery, but there seemed to be little about that in the book. Niven may have dealt with that issue early on in the book when he said that Calhoun simply ignored the morality of slavery which allowed him to concentrate on issues of minority rights in a democratic society. Since minority rights are, of course, always important that may explain why Calhoun has not been consigned to the dust heap of history with the other demagogic supporters of slavery.

Regardless, however, of how articulate Calhoun may have been about minority rights (and I didn't find a lot of this in Niven's book) it is impossible to separate minority rights from the relevant moral issues. It would seem obvious, perhaps self-evident is a better word, that the rights of the minority don't include the right to enslave another group of people. Both Niven's book and Richard Hofsteder's essay "Calhoun - Marx of the Master Class," point out that Calhoun was adamantly opposed to the natural rights theories of the Declaration - especially the idea that "all men are created equal."

Calhoun might have been more amenable to this if it had said, "all white men are created equal" and, in fact, he and others claimed that slavery supported white equality by liberating all whites from the most menial tasks. It is interesting to note, however, that Calhoun's sons, much like Clay's - another slaveholder, basically led dissolute, unproductive lives. Is it possible that a society and its norms for young men built on the enslavement of millions of people encouraged this kind of behavior? Certainly not impossible I would think.

After finishing Niven's book I had intended to get back to Lincoln since the Forum is only three weeks away. But for some reason I found my self drawn to William Freehling's, "The Road to Disunion: The Secessionists at Bay." This is the first of two volumes about the secession movement and how ultimately a small radical minority (too radical even for Calhoun) moved the South to secession. Already I have learned something interesting - in Jefferson's day, slavery was to some extent looked on as an evil that would/could be eliminated when the conditions were right. By Calhoun's time this was changing into the view that slavery was a good that had to be continued. If this is a gradual progression (or degeneration) of the Southern view, it again illustrates how great a turning point the Civil War was in United States history.

St. Crispin's Day - 2008

"This day is called the feast of Crispin," thus begins the famous band of brothers speech in Shakespeare's "Henry V." St. Crispin's day is, of course, today, October 25th, but Carol and I observed it last night by watching Acts IV and V of Kenneth Branagh's version of the great poet's last history play. Of all the different stage and screen versions that I have seen both of the play and of the speech, Branagh's is my favorite - I think he captures both the strengths and struggles of this warrior king.

I believe that at least part of what Shakespeare was doing as he worked his way through these plays was to explore national leadership and that he made his final statements in his final play in this genre. In looking at "Henry V" it is both natural and easy to get caught up in all the specifics of the actual events portrayed by the play - what right did Henry have to invade France, what claim did he have to the French crown things of that nature.

All of that is there and those are certainly legitimate issues. But another way to look at this play is to bear in mind something that Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot) wrote to a publisher who wanted to know the subject of her new novel. Evans' position was that art is not the subject, but the treatment of the subject. I think part of what Shakespeare is about in "Henry V" is looking at national leadership in crisis situations - the English go into the battle badly outnumbered, exhausted, sick and starving, but still prevail - how did they do that? Or more importantly how did Henry lead them to do that.

It is especially interesting that Shakespeare does not make use of a number of things available to him from his sources (Holinshed). Part of the English victory was due to Henry's strategy, but Shakespeare makes no mention of that. Henry fought with great valor during the battle - saving his brother's life among other things, but again Shakespeare makes no use of that material. Instead Shakespeare seems to eliminate all possible factors except the band of brothers speech, a speech that is like nothing else in Shakespeare or the rhetoric of the time.

Many people find fault with Henry for the way he deals with his soldiers the night before the battle, but I think we need to look at the whole act not just one scene. To me Act IV is all about Henry's agon, his struggle to find the way the lead his men to victory. He finds that way in the speech, a speech that creates something new - a band of brothers - I believe it speaks to something deep in our human nature. And while some say that the band of brothers lasts only for the duration of the battle, I think there is plenty of evidence in the text that it continues.

During the speech, Henry tells his army that they and this day will be remembered "from this day to the ending of the world." Regardless of how accurate that is, the image of the band of brothers had not only been remembered, but put to good use. In 1976 when we saw the RAF chapel in Westminster Abbey, I noticed that there were only nine words on the stained glass windows - "we few, we happy few, we band of brothers."

The Best Club

I literally just finished reading John Niven's, "John C. Calhoun and the Price of Union," but I want to read a famous essay about Calhoun by Richard Hoftstader before writing about the book and its subject. One thing that stood out for me, however, from both this book and Robert Remini's biography of Henry Clay is the relative ease with which prominent men like Calhoun and Clay moved in and out of the United States Senate.

Part of that, of course, is something that most of us have either forgotten or didn't know. The framers of the constitution set up the Senate so that Senators were not elected directly by the people, but indirectly by state legislatures. For example, when Abraham Lincoln lost the 1858 Illinois Senate race to Stephen Douglas, it was by a vote of the legislature, not the people of Illinos. With a limited number of people voting and the ability to have an election at any time to fill a vacancy prominent men could be and were elected without much difficulty. Calhoun's final election to the Senate came when an incumbent fulfilled a long time commitment simply to resign when Calhoun was ready to come back to the Senate.

Thinking about this reminded me of something else that we often lose track of today, the importance of an upper chamber. A chamber consisting of those who are only up for election every six years and can take a longer term view of problems and issues. Multiple examples of how such an arrangement has helped the country as well as a solid history of the Senate can be found in Robert Caro's "Master of the Senate. It is over a 1000 pages long, but in many places reads like a novel. I would recommend it to anyone regardless of their feelings about Johnson himself.

I think we saw another example of this recently in the case of the plan to bail out the banking industry. The first version of the plan started in the House and was defeated. In much of what I read the defeat was attributed to representatives unwillingness to vote a huge potential expenditure of tax payer money so close to election day. It was only when the second version of the plan started in the Senate that a modified package was passed. At least two-thirds of the Senators are not up for re-election and could take a longer term view. Regardless of whether the bail out of the banking industry is a good plan or a bad one, it is another example of why it makes sense to have a bicameral legislature. It enables the legislature to take both the short and the long term view.

Persuasion - Perhaps Starting To Get It

Earlier this week I finished "Persuasion" meaning that I am 5/6ths through the Austen canon. I need to say that I have been struggling with my thinking about Jane Austen as a writer. I read "Sense and Sensibility" some time ago and thought it was a good book although I felt that one part of the ending was somewhat contrived. "Pride and Prejudice," which I have read twice, I think is a great book. However as I got into "Mansfield Park," "Emma," and now "Persuasion," I have been having a lot of difficulty with why so many people think that Austen is a great writer.

I have tried to be very careful about expressing these doubts both because so many people have such high opinions of Austen and because of a concern that there might be some gender issues here. That is as a man reading books written by a woman about women probably in large measure for women, I may be missing something or somethings. At the same time I can say with complete honesty that I think Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot) is a great writer so perhaps it is also a matter of taste.

Some of the things that bother me about Austen's writing include what I think are too frequent use of what seems like divine intervention (deux ex machina) to resolve her plots, other endings that are never adequately explained and endings where it seems like everyone gets what they deserve (very different than life itself). I was thinking about this last night while driving home from a church meeting and remembered something that Elaine from Random Jottings wrote about "Jane Eyre." While reading Charlotte Bronte's classic as a teenager, Elaine was moved by Jane's standing up and demanding equality with Rochester - an example I think of what might be lost on a male reader.

This led me to think about Austen's heroines and what they have in common. I think it is fair to say that in the five books I have read so far all of them have a high degree of integrity. At least three of them turn down marriage proposals that would have been advantageous to them financially for which they are criticized by other family members. This, of course, is reminiscent of Austen herself who made a similar decision which for her (unlike her fictional heroines) had a real cost financial and otherwise. Given how limited women's options were in those days, it may be that Austen's consistent message that women should live their lives with integrity is something that resonates today even though circumstances are different.

I still need and want to think about this some more especially after I read "Northanger Abbey" and "The Jane Austen Book Club." I mention the latter book because I hope it will give me some insights as why Jane Austen is so popular. In the meantime if there are any "Janeites" out there reading this who would like to have some dialogue about this, I would greatly appreciate it.

Illusions of Clarity - Part II

While I am having illusions of clarity I may as well as go all the way. Another of my writing goals is to write a book about Shakespeare's history plays. A book that would be thoroughly researched, but not an academic book - a book that would try to explain why we should care about these plays. My thought is to write about the plays in the order Shakespeare wrote them so as to focus on how Shakespeare's thinking about kingship develops over time. I say kingship, but I really mean leadership because that is where I think the lasting importance of these plays lies - especially Henry V.

The other day Carol got a phone call that the adult school Shakespeare class that she had signed up for had been canceled. For some reason that gave me a thought - teach an adult school class on the history plays over a multi-year period. Teaching the class would motivate me to do the research that I would need to do anyway to write the book. Doing this over a multi-year period would allow it to be done gradually while I am working on other things.

The first step is to write a proposal and see if it is accepted. If not (and I think that highly probable) I could try other adult schools or perhaps a private high school where they do enrichment courses over the summer. It is at least worth a try. Of course all I have to do now is find the time to write the proposal. The main thing though is that there is a clarity that feels good - let's hope it stay that way.

Illusions of Clarity

There are some parts of my life where moments of clarity are very fleeting. That is especially true of my nonfiction writing avocation - can't call it a career as it certainly isn't a money maker - more a question of limiting my cost. Part of my reason for retiring at 61 was to spend more time researching and writing.

The challenge is that I have far more ideas about books than I will ever have time to write. To take the The Major League Pennant Races of 1916 as an example, research on that book began in earnest in the summer of 2003. The manuscript was finally sent to the publisher in February of 2008 and it will probably be published sometime the first quarter of 2009. Of course almost all of my work on that was while I was still working full time, but still researching and writing a book takes time, a lot of time.

I have had a lot of ideas about what comes next, but little clarity. However the other day everything seemed to fall into place. This is probably an illusion so I thought I better write about it while the moment lasts. At present I am working on two things, the New Jersey section of the pioneer project, which I have written about before, and the Civil War letters of William Lloyd.

William Lloyd was a soldier in the 33rd New Jersey, the subject of my first book, "The Mutinous Regiment." One of the ironies of writing about the Civil War is that while Civil War soldiers wrote innumerable letters only a small percentage of them survive. By probably what is no more than chance, about 50 of Lloyd's letters survive and were a major source for my book.

Lloyd's letters are incredibly honest, he never hesitates to say what is on his mind. The best example is when his wife, Mary asks if she can go out with some men, Lloyd wrote back (this is almost a quote) "If you go out without anyone other than Briggs (brother-in-law) or Jeff (brother) I will disown you forever. I may as well as speak plain." Incredibly Lloyd then follows those harsh words with "Write again soon."

About two years ago a close friend introduced me to her God-son, who was then a junior in high school. I gave him some help on a Civil War research project and asked him if he would be interested in transcribing Lloyd's letters as part of editing them for publication. He was and did a great job before going off to college in September. So now I am at work on putting together a manuscript including writing background and introductory information on the letters as well as explanatory notes on the letters.

There is also more research to do on mysterious aspects of Lloyd's early life as well as his post war life. Lloyd lived until 1928 and his pension file is over 250 pages long! I hope to finish this sometime next year and then start looking for a publisher. I already have a title - I May as Well Speak Plain - The Civil War Letters of William Lloyd.

The pioneer project that I mentioned earlier has a deadline of April 1, 2009. This project is to consist of a compilations of histories of the most important teams in base ball's amateur era, roughly 1855 to 1870. I have already written first drafts for two Newark teams and one Paterson team and knew I had to do one about the Irvington Club. Looking at what else might be out there, I found the Champion Club of Jersey City plus the Resolutes of Elizabeth. Looking at all of this as well as some other clubs made me realize that there is enough material here to write a book. So after finishing the Lloyd letters and the pioneer project, I will work on expanding the pioneer project material into a book.

I had thought about such a book before, but it always seemed like it would become just a recitation of teams in different towns throughout New Jersey. As such it would be tedious to write and even more tedious to read. But now I think that there is enough in the way of themes there to write a book that will be interesting to read and will record the history of these long forgotten players and teams. As I say this may only be an illusion, no doubt in days or weeks I will have send thoughts, but for the moment I have clarity and it is a wonderful thing!

Books: To buy or not to buy?

Earlier this week, Simon from "Stuck in a Book" posed a sort of quiz about books and reading that Elaine at "Random Jottings" also wrote about. Looking at the quiz I was stopped short by the first question, what was the last book you bought? It's not that I can't remember, it was "Southern Storm: Sherman's March to the Sea" by Noah Trudeau. It is more that the question for me is incomplete - my answer is about the book that I most recently decided I wanted to own, not the most recent book I wanted to read. To me the question would have been more complete if it said something like, "what is the most recent book you bought or took out of the library?"

For as long as I can remember reading has been my favorite activity. However during my active working career, I was lucky if I could read somewhere between one to two dozen books a year. That was not, however, how many books I bought, I bought books pretty much without restraint. Among other things that led to unfortunate experiences like seeing books that I bought in hard cover coming out in paperback before I had read them. Or, and this is even worse, finding that I was no longer interested in the topic of a book I just had to have at the time of purchase.

This is something that I have struggled with for years - it has been a major stewardship issue for me - the place where I confront my own personal issues with material things. After all the issue isn't necessarily about owning, it is about reading. The thing that I have come to realize is that I can read just as many books (far more since retirement) for far less money and using far less space. It is due primarily to those wonderful institutions called libraries. Today I make extensive use of the Rutgers Library (free to Alumni) and countless other libraries in Verona and surrounding communities.

None of this is to suggest that I will never buy another book, but my approach is a lot different. The first and primary question is do I just want to read this book or do I want to own it as well. In the past year I have read a number of books of criticism of Shakespeare's history plays, some of them have been so helpful to my understanding that I know I will want to use them again and so I buy them. With other books there may be a reason why I want to own the book, but I am finding that that is more the exception than the norm. Besides costing less money, it also means not using as much space and ultimately having to dispose of those books in one way or another.

I think this is an example of a fundamental stewardship issue - good stewardship is about figuring out the most effective way to do what we want to or have to do. I want to read a lot of books, using libraries is a cost effective and efficient way of doing just that. Renting or even borrowing DVD's instead of going to the movies is another example of the same thing.

I am grateful to Simon and Elaine for raising these questions, in fact, the most recent books I borrowed from the library were "One Fine Day" and "Deerbrook," both of which were recommended by Elaine on her blog. I will probably buy "One Fine Day" because I think it will take multiple readings to really appreciate it. I have just started "Deerbrook" so it is too early to say. Other books that Elaine has recommended are not available at any library within 50 miles of here so this is case again where I may end up buying.

The final thing that I want to say is a word of praise for libraries. Untold amounts of knowledge and enjoyment is available to all of us in libraries - available at little or no cost. If nothing else the latter fact means that libraries offer tremendous opportunities to all regardless of how much money we have.

One Fine Day - Part II

As promised (threatened), I want to reflect for a few minutes on how Stephen and Laura work through their feelings about England in Mollie Panter-Downes (pictured here) "One Fine Day," given that their lives in this post war world will be very different. The focal point seems to be Barrow Down, the high ground still in a natural state where one can look down on the surrounding countryside. Perhaps somewhat ironically Stephen thinks about it on his way home from work not knowing that Laura is up there at that very moment without his knowing it.

Almost symbolically either being there or thinking about it helps them to think about England and what is going on their lives. Stephen starts to find some real clarity when he realizes that before the war they and their class were really puppets with their lives run by the servants who pulled the strings and now that no one was pulling the strings nothing works the way it had in the past. Perhaps this is a first step in moving towards how to live in this new world, but what seems even more significant is that they realize how important England is to them, how important it is that England won the war. And again, it is seeing and thinking about the land that is a major part of this.

Interestingly as an American of a completely different generation I can share some of these feelings. I have commented frequently about our trip to England earlier this year which was our third trip to England. Our first in 1976 was the traditional tourist guided tour of London and surrounding areas with one day around Stratford. The purpose of our second trip, almost 25 years later, in 2000 was to climb my family tree. We stayed in Tewksbury while visiting Horsely in Gloucestershire and Astley/Worcester in Worcestershire. Then we met my third cousin who graciously hosted us for a week in Audley in Staffordshire.

This trip was off the typical tourist path so we had to plan it all by ourselves and for almost two weeks we did not see or talk to another American. We learned and saw a lot about my English ancestors and the plan was to go back once I had gotten better organized on my research. The trip we made this year was for an entirely different reason - to see Shakespeare's entire history cycle at Stratford. While it certainly wasn't spur of the moment, it was fairly spontaneous ruling out any possibility of doing family history research.

We did, however, go a few days early leaving open the possibility of visiting my cousin in Audley plus some other distant relatives who I had met over the Internet. The idea was that on our first full day there, we would take the train from Stratford to Birmingham and then Stoke. For a while it seemed like the meeting with my relatives might not happen and I remember saying to Carol that if we couldn't do that I didn't want to make the trip since the only other reason to go was to do research and there wasn't enough time for that.

Fortunately we did work out the visit with my relatives which was wonderful. However, what I didn't expect in any way was how moved I was to be back in Audley. We had time both before and after our lunch and my cousin drove us around in her car plus we walked into the village looking for the site on the home of one of my earliest ancestors. My roots in Audley go back into the 1500's and I was surprised by the strong feelings I had about visiting there again and am very grateful that we got there.

Carol and I are planning another trip to England sometime in 2010. At present there are two goals, family history and visiting places related to our favorite authors, we especially want to visit Dartmoor, the site of "The Hound of the Baskervilles." On the family history side I want to do research as it is definitely time to write all this down in a form it can be passed on to future generations. But equally important I want to spend a few days in Nympsfield and Horsely in Gloucestershire as well as Audley - walking in the village and through the surrounding countryside, renewing connections that are hundreds of years old.

All of this helped me both understand and appreciate how Stephen and Laura come to a deeper understanding of what England means to them. I am very grateful to Elaine of Random Jottings for introducing me to this author. And the good news is that this was just the first of the authors she recommended - so many books so little time!

The Sun Sets on the Season

Yesterday on a pristine October afternoon the Eureka Base Ball Club of Newark (21st Century version) concluded its 2008 season with a loss to the Mountain Athletic Club of Fleischmann's, New York. Carol and I made the 2 plus hour ride up to Fleischmann's in Delaware County, in addition to the game we got a chance to see some spectacular autumn foliage.

This game was played under 1890's rules which is very similar to today's game, the major exception being that foul balls are not strikes. After seeing a few games played by these rules I understand why reformers wanted to change this rule - it is a tremendous advantage to the batter. Of all the forms of 19th century rules I have to say that I like the 1890's version (the overhand game) the least. I think the closer that the rules are to the modern game, the more it favors teams made up of predominantly younger players which is definitely not this year's version of the Eureka. The other thing is that if we are going to recreate an early version of the game it seems to make sense to do so in a way that is distinctly different from today.

One encouraging development is that there is interest in forming two new teams next year which would give us five vintage base ball teams in New Jersey. That would allow for more games in the state with less travel. Being retired I don't mind the travel that much, but it is tough on younger guys especially those with young children. There is to be a meeting on the subject in the near future and I hope we can make this happen. It will also be interesting to work on this at the same time that I am involved in the planning for the 150th Civil War anniversary.

On a related note, I received an e-mail this week from Peter Morris of the pioneer project, indicating that my drafts of team histories for the Eureka, the Newark Club and the Olympic Club of Paterson were in fairly good order. It looks now like I will basically be writing the New Jersey chapter of this book. Besides finishing these first three, I have to go on and write about the Irvington club plus see what other teams are out there. Based on what I have seen so far, I will probably also include a history of the Centennial Club of Jersey City and something about the Resolute Club of Elizabeth.

A big question going forward is how I am going to proceed with researching the early history of base ball in New Jersey. Expanding this chapter into a book is a distinct possibility, but one that would require a lot more research and some careful planning about how to write it. One thing that is very appealing is that it does not appear that there has been a lot of work done in this area. On the other hand the narrow focus is a drawback in terms of getting it published. The question is one I will be wrestling with as I work to finish the current project by the April 1, 2009 deadline.

All of that is for another day, however, the key thing today is to honor the 2008 Eureka - a great bunch of guys. I have enjoyed every minute of it and am already looking forward to the 2009. So three cheers and a tiger for everyone who made this possible.

One Fine Day - Part I

As stated previously one of my goals in retirement is to do a lot of reading thereby making up a lot of lost time over the past few years. Since we got back from England in March, I have been doing just that - I have probably read more books in six months than in the past six years combined. A subset of the goal to read more was (and is) to work my way through the books I already have - at some point I will write about my issues with buying books, but for the moment suffice it to say that I own far books than I have read.

So the idea was to focus on reading what I already have as opposed to buying or borrowing other books, new or otherwise. While I have certainly made progress there too, it gets subverted frequently as I learn about authors and books that are new to me. Case in point is two posts by Elaine over at Random Jottings of a Book and Opera Lover (http://randomjottings.typepad.com/) about books set in English villages which contained the names of a number of authors who are new to me.

Of particular note was a book called "One Fine Day" by Mollie Panter-Downes, Elaine quoted a passage from the book that by itself made me want to read it. So while down at the Rutgers library last week doing baseball history research, I checked the stacks and was able to find a copy of this short novel (184 pages) about one day in an English village in 1946. Due to its short length I was able to finish it in just a few days. I think it is an extraordinary book, one that I am confident that I didn't fully understand and will both want and need to read again.


At the heart of the book is the Marshall family, Laura, Stephen and their daughter Victoria. They are presented as a middle class family that before the war enjoyed a life where most of the manual type labor was done by servants. Now in this new post war world, servants are no longer available and Laura and Stephen are having a hard time adjusting. They are now having to do work to maintain a home and household that they are not used to doing, haven't been trained to do - in some cases things that they were trained not to do or at least not to think about.


My initial reaction to their difficulties was fairly negative, sort of a reverse snobbism. Life without servants - get used to it, grow up - that kind of thing. But the more I think about it, that initial reaction feels like a kind of literary "presentism" - judging the past by the present - a more typical problem in history. I have written a lot about my sense that the Civil War generation in the U.S. doesn't get sufficient credit today for ending slavery because today the very idea is so unthinkable.

The life the Marshalls lived in before the war was the life they were prepared for, the life they inherited. It is unfair, therefore, to think that they should easily accept the end of that way of life. Especially after enduring the risks and deprivations of war for five to six years - it is hard not to understand their asking, "What was the purpose of these sacrifices,?" "What did we ultimately win by winning the war?" It reminds me in some ways of the famous American movie, "The Best Years of Our Lives," the story of the difficulties faced by three American servicemen adjusting to civilian life.


Looking at it this way, it seems to me that the bulk of the story is about how Stephen and Laura, especially Laura, work through these issues. What is tested then in large measure is their devotion to England now that it is a very different England that to paraphrase Arthur Conan Doyle's words, "lies in the sunshine once the storm has past." How they see the enduring good in England is something I will try to address in my next post, addressed, of course, from an American point of view.

Civil War 150th Anniversary - New Jersey Style

The main reason there was no post yesterday was that I was out most of the day first doing research for the base ball pioneer project, but more importantly attending a meeting about the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War which will begin in 2011. Earlier this year I had reached out to a small group of the New Jersey Civil War community to see if there was interest in convening a group of interested parties to start discussing how New Jersey might observe this anniversary.

We had our first meeting yesterday and there was a high level of interest, commitment and belief that it is important that New Jersey observe this anniversary and do so in an appropriate way. Perhaps not surprisingly there was unanimity that the Civil War is one of the most important events in American history and that New Jersey's role is not adequately studied, taught and known. Given those in attendance none of this was a surprise, but we went on to have a good discussion about how to organize this effort with some discussion of the content. We are going to keep meeting and I am excited about being part of this effort.

As is obvious from my posts about books about Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln I have been doing a lot of thinking about the Civil War. What has become clearer to me is how much of a turning point the Civil War was in our history. Clearly before the war the United States was a nation committed to high principles, but with a cancer eating at its core - the cancer of slavery. As I wrote the other day it seems hard to believe that there was any peaceable way to end slavery which, if true, means that in this case war was the only answer and who won that war was crucial to the nation's future.

Had the south prevailed there would have been two nations, one with an economic system based on slavery and buttressed by a philosophy of racism. There might not have been slaves in the north, but as time passed it seems likely that economic relations between the two nations would have been rebuilt so that much of the north's economy would have been tied into this same system. And with an adjoining nation built on the belief of the inferiority of blacks, it is very questionable how much real progress blacks would have seen in the north even if they weren't slaves. It is also worth nothing Major Henry Hitchcock's comment after taking part in both the March to the Sea and the Carolina campaign - "Talk about negro slavery! - if we haven't seen white slaves from Atlanta to Goldsboro, I don't know what the word means." Perhaps the whole nation needed - "a new birth of freedom."

This is what makes the war so important, makes it important it is studied and remembered, and makes it important New Jersey observe this anniversary and use it as an opportunity to do something about past failures to teach this important aspect of our history. The photo that accompanies this post is one of the battle flags of the 33rd New Jersey taken shortly after the war. It became tattered in a good cause, we need to make sure that its memory is not tattered because we forgot.

Emma

Last week I finished "Emma" so I have now read four of Jane Austen's full length novels with only "Persuasion" and "Northanger Abbey" to go. The latter two appear to be quite short perhaps not much longer combined than "Emma" or "Mansfield Park" alone. In the introduction to "Emma" (which I always read after I have read the book) there was something about the importance of reading Austen's novels more than once since you look for other things once you are not focused on how the story will come out. This may be something I need to do, at least with "Mansfield Park" and "Emma."

One thing that stood out for me in "Emma" was a number of the subsidiary characters who are very well drawn. In writing about "Mansfield Park" I suggested that these two novels may represent Austen's moving to another level as a novelist - after the success of her first two books and before her declining health impaired her ability to work. Of special note to me in "Emma" are Mr. Woodhouse and Miss Bates, one a chronic hypochondriac and worse, the other a chronic talker. While these habits are not necessarily endearing, Austen's portrayal of them makes them both funny and to some degree endearing.

Perhaps the only unsympathetic character in "Emma" is the local vicar - Mr. Elton. This is interesting because it represents the second time (Mr. Collins in "Pride and Prejudice" being the first) where an Anglican minister is presented in something less than glowing terms. Interesting because, of course, Austen's father was an Anglican minister. One would guess that Austen probably knew Anglican clergy fairly well, raised by one, no doubt hearing stories of countless others and also probably meeting a number of them at different times. After working for almost 25 years in the Episcopal church, I am well aware of the many issues facing clergy children - enough to make me wonder about Austen's motivation for at least twice presenting pictures of unattractive behavior of men of the cloth.

My reading of two Austen novels this year has closely followed reading about five Trollope novels. Reading them in contrast like that made one thing about Austen's world especially clear - the difficulty of travel and how sheltered one's existence was away from major cities. In Trollope travel is almost always by railroad, neither simple nor easy, but it pales in comparison to Austen's world where horseback and stage were the only means of any kind of distance travel. Witness how in "Mansfield Park" Fanny is really stranded at Bristol until someone (ie. a protective male) can come and bring her back to Mansfield Park. George Eliot's novel, "Adam Bede" has been described as being about life in England before the railroad - Austen's novels are even more so.

One complaint about "Emma." As in "Mansfield Park," Austen sets up a two/one romantic situation creatring drama about who will be married and who will be left out. While in "Mansfield Park" the problem was resolved by someone giving into their bad side, in "Emma" it is resolved by one person falling in love with someone else. The latter relationship is present throughout the book, but no explanation is given for the one of the two giving up the one and marrying someone else. Indeed, the book ends without Emma herself understanding how this happens - it seems too easy a way out of someone being disappointed. But this complaint should not be seen as being anti-Jane. I am enjoying myself, looking forward to the last two and then on to "The Jane Austen Book Club."

Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union

This past week I finally finished Robert Remini's almost 800 page biography of Henry Clay, long time Senator from Kentucky, Secretary of State under JQ Adams, and three time unsuccessful presidential candidate. This makes the third of Remini's biographies of major American political leaders of the first half of the 19th century that I have read, the others being his three volume biography of Andrew Jackson and a one volume biography of Daniel Webster. Remini is a distinguished professor and scholar who I have seen many times on CSpan. At the same time I have to say that I always seem to find his biographies somewhat disappointing.

There is no question that they are exhaustively researched, comprehensive and then some, and the writing is certainly accessible. I think it is more that to me they tend to be long detailed accounts of the subject's live with only limited amounts of analysis and explanation. I may be mistaken in that, but it sure feels that way. The Clay biography is an example. One of the reasons I read it was that I wanted to get some understanding of Whig principles. After all the Whigs were one of the two major political parties in the 1830's and 40's and elected two presidents in that time frame.

Yet after all that reading I still don't have a real good sense of what was at the heart of the Whig party. As for Clay for most of the book all that I really took away was that he was charming and a mesmerizing speaker, but not much of a real sense of why he is an important person in American history. I finally got that sense at the end of the book when Remini discusses Clay's role as the driving force behind the Compromise of 1850. Clay had previously played similar roles in the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise tariff of 1833.

As a rule compromisers are not usually people that I admire and that would especially be true of situations where the compromise helped the continuation of slavery which was the case in both 1820 and 1850. However, in Remini's portrayal of Clay's role, it is possible to see Clay as a positive force. Clay comes across as someone who was committed to the Union at a time when many on both sides were not. This made Clay's role important as he was articulating a value system that was certainly not the norm.

Remini repeats the oft made claim that the Compromise of 1850 was key to the ultimate Union victory in the Civil War as it gave the north ten more years to strengthen itself and to find Abraham Lincoln as its war leader. He also speculates that had Clay been elected president in 1844 that the Civil War might well have been avoided. Unlike Polk the ultimate winner, Clay was opposed to war with Mexico making it at least possible that the nation could have avoided war and the huge acquisition of territory that helped put the issue of slavery on the front burner. Given Clay's skills at compromise, the author also thinks it possible that he would have helped find a way to peaceful solution on the slavery issue.

Clay himself was an outspoken opponent of slavery while at the same time owning slaves. Although opposed to slavery, Clay clearly held racist views about the inferiority of blacks which would make a multi-racial society untenable. Like many of his time, Clay supported the colonization of freed slaves back to Africa. Also like many of his time, Clay had no solution except for the vague hope that the white population would increase to the point that it flood the country with such much free labor that there would be no economic basis for slavery,an idea that seems far fetched at best.

All of this reminds me of something I wrote last month about a form of presentism - evaluating the past by modern standards. To us today the very idea of slavery is so horrifying that a system based on it seems almost unimaginable. But the truth is that from before the nation's founding through its first 90 or so years, it not only existed, but it was built upon the pillars of racial prejudice and economic interest. No wonder that Clay opposed it, but had no solution - to come right down to it, no one had a peaceful solution. Only when we understand this, can we begin to understand the depth of the challenge taken on by those who not only opposed slavery, but tried to do something about it.

And only then can we properly appreciate the complexity, difficulty and indeed heroic nature of what they did whether they be John Quincy Adams, William Lloyd Garrison or most important of all, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln not only had to get himself into a position where he could do something about slavery, but then try to lead those who remained in the union - many of whom would ultimately have to overcome their economic self interest and/or their racial prejudices. I started out reading about Henry Clay to understand more about Whip principles, I came away with a greater understanding of the U. S. before the Civil War - not an attractive place to visit (even in the mind) if one believes in the values of the American Revolution

Mansfield Park

Since I last posted about Jane Austen I have finished both "Mansfield Park" and "Emma." What follows is written without doing any real research, just my reactions and observations. To me it seemed that Austen after enjoying some success with her first two books, was now moving or trying to move into the next level of her writing career. Both books are significantly longer than what came before and my sense is that she was trying for more fully developed plots and characters.

What held my attention about "Mansfield Park" was what I saw to be the drama in who Fanny would ultimately marry. Although the Edmund/Fanny possibilities are made clear throughout the book and certainly seem to be written to attract our sympathy, Austen also gradually starts to make Henry Crawford more sympathetic. I found this especially true when he visits Fanny and her family in Bristol, the last place where Fanny would want anyone from her life at Mansfield Park to visit. During those scenes Austen makes Crawford appear to be growing/improving so that if continued it seemed possible that a Crawford/Fanny marriage might be the outcome.

All of this breaks down, of course, when Crawford reverts to the bad Henry, running away with Maria the older of the two Bertram daughters. It felt to me that Austen used this much in the same way she used the Lydia/Wickham elopement in "Pride and Prejudice" as a sort of Deus Ex Machina to move the story to a final solution. The Crawford/Maria relationship had been very strongly suggested earlier in the book, but still the whole thing seemed a little contrived to me.

Austen had created a situation with two possible outcomes (marriages) for her heroine. Her decision to have the one give into the worst angels of his nature also seems too neat and clean. Those who sin are punished for their sins, those who don't are rewarded. This is also the case with the Mary Crawford/Edmund relationship, Henry's sins set the stage for Mary's inappropriate reactions leading Edmund to turn away from that possibility and ultimately turn to Fanny who is, of course, even more available before. An outcome where someone is disappointed even though they did nothing wrong would be more ambiguous, but to me, at least on first thought, more satisfying.

I enjoyed "Mansfield Park," as I said Austen's development of William Crawford to be an almost eligible (from Fanny's perspective) suitor created drama that more than held my attention. There seems to be a pattern in her endings, however, that I find to be disappointing. I will write more about this when I write about "Emma" which will come after I post something about the Henry Clay biography. I should also say that I am thinking a lot about Austen overall which I will probably write about once I have had more time to think about it.

"It's All Stewardship"

Earlier today I posted the stewardship sermon that I preached at St. Paul's in Paterson this past Sunday. Stewardship has been an interest of mine a long time. While some may consider it another word for fundraising to me stewardship is best defined as "What I do after I say I believe" and "Everything that I do with everything I have all of the time" - both well know stewardship definitions.

This year at St. Paul's we have broadened our focus somewhat to look more at our stewardship of everything we have - thus the connection to the parable of the talents. So far I have had interesting conversations with a number of parishioners about both the importance and the difficulty of good financial management. It seems clear that as a church we need to spend more time on this. If so one thing that I think that is essential is that we teach that good financial management begins with giving - only if we give away enough (whatever that is for us) can we expect to manage all of our finances well.

One thing that was unusual about this year's sermon was that I preached it three times, twice in English and once in Spanish. I have preached in English twice in one day many times and also have preached in Spanish before, but never all three in one day. In fact it was the first time I had ever been to three church services in one day which was exhausting by itself. I think it went all right, the primary goal was to have the same message at all three services - I still think that is a good idea.

The experience once again made me reflect on the fact that I am bi-lingual, able to communicate effectively in both English and Spanish - listening in Spanish is still a challenge. I took four years of Spanish in High School and two more in college. The reason I took Spanish (for some reason I wanted to take French) was that my father had supposedly studied Spanish and he could help me with the language. Looking backward I don't know why anyone thought that was a good idea, but it certainly never materialized.

While I studied Spanish for six years, I really hadn't used much from 1966 until about 2000. it is amazing how much of it I retained which is due to my memory - I am both blessed and cursed with an exceptional memory. It is a gift, certainly not something that I earned. This experience was different because this was the first time that I had to practice the same sermon in two different languages. For obvious reasons, I had to spend more time on the Spanish, but I found that when I turned to the English version I really didn't have to practice it that much - practicing it in Spanish helped me with the English version.

My parents made the decision that I would study Spanish almost 50 years ago without having any way of knowing how it would be useful to me a half century later. Who would have known I would have ended up in an urban church in a predominantly Latino city. This reminded me of a similar decision that my parents made. They decided that I would take typing in high school so that I could type my papers in college - a sound decision that certainly helped me in college and graduate school. Who could have foreseen, however, the development of the personal computer utilizing the same key board as those old manual typewriters. It has certainly aided my computer skills immeasurably.

It underscores for me how important the decisions are that we make about our children's education. Sometimes like my parents case in ways that we can never foresee. Other decisions such as picking a private high school or college can have clear cut and immediate impacts. How we work with our children on their education may be one of our most important contributions to their lives. In this, as in so many things, there are no easy answers, but one thing I do know committing the time and energy to it increases dramatically the chances of making a crucial difference. How parents are stewards of their time to this end can help our children to steward their time to great benefit.

Sermon Preached at St. Paul's Church, Paterson, New Jersey - 9/28/2008

Knowing What We Don’t Know

This year’s stewardship program is somewhat different from the past. In most years the role of the congregation is sort of reactive. The congregation listens closely to the sermons (we hope) carefully reads the written material (we hope), and then makes intentional stewardship decisions (we also hope). This year, however, we are asking the congregation to take a more active role. Specifically everyone in the congregation asked to do three things:

1. Write down five things that are priorities and values in our life.

2. Keep track of our expenses for the month of September, both the money we spend by check and how we spend the cash that we take out of the bank.

3. Finally compare our expenses with our values and priorities. This is very important because our expenses say a lot about our values and priorities no matter what we may think our priorities are.

The stewardship committee recommended this approach to the vestry. In agreeing to this idea, the vestry believed that they should lead by example. So the vestry has already done this exercise for the month of August. At our September vestry meeting, we spent at least a half-hour talking about what we had learned. Everyone agreed that it was worthwhile and that everyone in the congregation should do it as well.

One thing that came out of our discussion that the vestry especially wanted me to pass on is that it is very important to know how we spend our cash. Since it is already the end of September, if we haven’t kept a record it is possible that we don’t have that information. If not the suggestion is to do that for October or November so as to have the full benefit of the process.

So the vestry would like us to do this. Of course we will all do it then – correct? After all what more reason could we need to comply. I have been an Episcopalian too long to believe that it could be that simple. I think we need to believe that there will be some real benefit to us in doing this work, I would like to talk about what I think that benefit is.

I believe that when we do this exercise all of us will find some area where our expenses do not match our priorities. I also believe that we will be surprised by at least one way that this is true. This means that we will understand something that we didn’t understand before or in other words, we will know what we don’t know.

Knowing what we don’t know is some of the most valuable information we can have. Let me share an example. About two years ago I was tutoring an adolescent, a friend of mine’s son in American history. We were studying the American Revolution and he didn’t understand why the colonists wanted to be independent of Great Britain. I tried a number of different approaches and he still didn’t understand. Finally I asked him if he knew what a colony is and he said know he didn’t.

Once I knew what he didn’t know it became easy to solve the problem. I asked him if there were ever times when he thought he could make his own decisions, but his parents didn’t agree with him. He is an adolescent so of course, he said yes. I explained to him that it is the same thing with people living in a colony, they think they can make their own decisions without the help of the mother country. I hope I didn’t start a revolution in that family, but the point is that when I knew what he didn’t know I could help him change from not knowing to knowing.

This same principle applies to our money. Once we know what we don’t know about spending and priorities, we can change. If we are talking about change, we are also talking about choices – at the heart of stewardship is making good choices. Look at today’s Gospel reading – what is important is not the amount of money each man has, but the choices they make. The third man’s error is his choice especially a choice to do nothing.

I am not trying to suggest that we all have the same choices, but stewardship is not about what we do in relationship to anyone else – it is about our choices. How much money we have is not important, whether we have more or less money than others is not important, whether we have more or less expenses is not important, what is important are the choices that we make with the money we do have. At the heart of the Gospel’s message about stewardship is that we make good choices. We have a much better chance of doing that when we know what we don’t know.