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!