Collected Essays on Americanism
Copyright © 2016 David Claire Jennings
First edition - first printing, June 2016
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.
David is a writer and historian who lives with his wife and son in Liverpool, N.Y. He was an engineer throughout most of his working life.
Published by Southern Heart Publishing Co.
Author’s website: www.davidclairejennings.com
ISBN-13: 978-9974601-3-1
ISBN-10: 0-9974601-3-X
Also by David Claire Jennings:
After Bondage and War
Hanna’s Promise: A Story of Grace and Hope
The American: A Man’s Life
The Goodness of Alzheimer’s
Table of Contents
Introduction
Section 1 – Society
The Goodness of Alzheimer’s
The American Dream
Celebrating White History
A Sociologist Studies Working-Class Saloons in Chicago
Who Will Take Care of the Poor?
An Honest Conversation About Race
Race vs. Class
Acting in Good Faith
Man’s Rights
Charity and the Government
The Makers and the Takers
Point of View
Are We Politically Correct Enough?
Offensive Language
Third-hand Smoke
Liberty versus Equality
Themes of Democracy: freedom, liberty, equality
Camp Life
The South
Section 2 – Bureaucracy
Bureaucracy’s Finest Hour
Mikey What’s Next
Section 3 – History
What is History?
An American Historiography
What is History? – revisited
The Significance of Historiography
Words from the Founding Fathers
George Washington Fairly Judged
Federalism v. Democracy
Two Views of America
American Exceptionalism
Newtonian Design for Democracy
John and Abigail Adams: A Lifetime Partnership
Letters of John and Abigail Adams
The Louisiana Purchase
Jeffersonian Yeoman Freeholders
Antebellum Sectionalism
Antebellum Compromises
Failed Reconstruction
The Missing Narrative
The Scots-Irish in America
The Presidential Election of 1912
US Foreign Policy - 1920 and 1941
Recollections of the 60’s
Attacks on the United States
Dut Leek Deng Biography (A New American Story)
Section 4 – Law
Article I. of the U.S. Constitution
Article II. of the U.S. Constitution
Article IV. of the U.S. Constitution
Article V. of the U.S. Constitution
The Bill of Rights
Is it Legal or Illegal?
What Gun Control Advocates Need To Know
Gun Control and Gun Violence
Section 5 – Politics
Political Parties in Historical Perspective
Lincoln’s Storytelling
What Liberals Won’t Admit
My Priorities
What is Everything?
The Good and Evil of Environmentalism
Neocentrism
Facts, Truth and Logic
What’s in a Name-calling You Idiots?
I Can See Clearly Now
Section 6 – Economics
Federal Income Tax Structure
And Then There’s The Other Middle Class
Section 7 – Art
Art and Awe
Conclusion
Introduction
Writing is such a solitary process. Some do it anyway because they have to, hoping they can connect with another and reverse the solitude someday. They hope it will make another human feel something, learn something, believe something or make some small difference in their lives.
For so many years I wrote essays, long before I wrote novels, before I went back to school to study history and study it further on my own. Before that I wrote technical manuals and instructions. Inexplicably, few read those, while they are needed for some practical purpose. But essays – narrations of ideas – have always been at the heart of my writing, even when infused within my characters and their stories in my novels.
Whether we believe the divine account or man’s scientific tentative determinations, the Earth formed from the cosmos, likely in one momentous event, many eons ago. For myself, both ideas of creation work and are compatible. I believe that God created it, that He is ageless and timeless and we cannot know His purpose.
Man began sometime thereafter in the northeastern region of the African continent and the fertile crescent there. The color of his skin was black for God’s or nature’s good reasons. Man’s population spread quickly to what is now the Middle East nearby.
We understand man propagated and formed family units and then groups for socialization and banded together for cooperation and survival. He became tribal. He spread across the vast distances of land and some believe he crossed large bodies of water even in early times.
The tribes fought for dominance and the stronger, cleverer, or benefactors of good circumstance from any manner of things, grew to mighty early civilizations in Egypt, Greece, Rome and Arabia. Ideas of philosophy, divine deity and mortal monarchy changed the lives of both the meek and the powerful.
Most agree that as a result of a brief climatic change – an ice age – men, women and children of Asia crossed a temporary, propitious land bridge over the Bering Strait, maybe some thirteen thousands of years ago, and came to what is now North America. They settled in warmer areas, the ice age dissipated and the bridge dissolved. We believe the earliest major settlement was near what is now Clovis, New Mexico. We call them the Clovis people. They spread down the thread and spine connecting North and South America. That thread of Central America brought mighty Inca and Mayan civilizations into the northwestern regions of South America.
Centuries later the western European highly developed civilizations - now nations - began to cross the Atlantic Ocean and around Africa and South America on frightful voyages of exploration for riches and treasures and future needs for more land. What some did to others is what we call history.
The Spaniards came to America as the first Europeans, followed by the Dutch, the French and the British. In our part of the hemisphere, the British dominated and formed the basis for our future country – our laws and our Christianity.
It is about what followed after that, our country we call the United States, or simply America, that has occupied my thoughts for all the years of my late maturity.
So here then are my essays, with some more recent in my years as an old student with passion for history and its people.
Some, the most early, are not so well written – it was before my deep reverence for the English language grew to its present love - and maybe weakly compelling, while a few show a spark of intelligence with profundity and maybe wisdom.
There is a little bit of memoir, some painful but honest and personal. Some are now outdated but reflect what I saw at the time. They are my own words.
They are topically grouped in sections –society, bureaucracy, history, law, politics, economics and art. Each section contains a number of essays. They are eclectic in topic and without particular order within each category, with a few humorous and some naïve, but most with a serious intent. The whimsical and sardonic ones are channeling P.J. O’Rourke for anyone who has read and enjoyed his books. I must thank my teachers in classes, the knowledge from many books and myself for my life’s experience.
I noted that Charles Krauthammer has been a newspaper correspondent and astute political commentator for many years and has recently compiled some of his columns (essays) into a book titled Things That Matter. I read it and enjoyed it. At first I did not like him very much, but have come to admire him as the acquired taste that he is. When his mind is tuned in, he is brilliant. When it is not, he bullshits effectively. While I do not have his credentials or celebrity; he was a doctor who became a writer, while I was an engineer who has done the same.
While my second novel will be published imminently and my third is stewing, this was a good time to do this. This effort of compilation began in mid-April, 2016.
I have only reviewed these old essays now to compile them and correct them for typographical errors, punctuation errors and the like. Whatever it was, it was what I wrote at the time. For whatever value that has now, it has.
Enjoy them if you may.
David Claire Jennings
Section 1 – Society
The Goodness of Alzheimer’s
David C. Jennings
Copyright 2014 – all rights reserved
Life is difficult. My good son read me that from his insights of M. Scott Peck’s “The Road Less Traveled”. That sounds so simple, so basic, so obvious. But to truly embrace and accept that life is difficult is hard. And life has constant but differing challenges. Alzheimer’s disorder or disease is only one of these and not the worst. It takes a long time to understand it and accept it. It takes even longer to see its goodness. I will try to save you some worry and time, help you understand it better, and reduce the fears you may have that it may happen to you or your loved one.
Alzheimer’s Nature
What I believe it isn’t. - Years ago, I watched one of those sensitive and touching movies produced by Hallmark I sometimes enjoy. It was the story of an elderly couple who lived by themselves in a beautiful woodsy place in a nice home much like a luxurious log cabin.
The wife developed most noticeable memory loss. She was fully cognizant, knew just what was happening, and what it portended for her future. It was her husband who was in denial. She was a bright woman, and early in her illness, she decided to move to a home on her own volition and spare her husband hardship. Her husband was saddened, disagreed, and didn’t want her to go. He reluctantly agreed and set her free because he loved her. He visited her often and watched her decline. Toward the end she developed a friendship, and something of a romance, with a fellow patient she knew to be much like her. Her husband viewed this and was further saddened. Eventually, he accepted this also. She ultimately viewed this stranger that came to visit her as someone from her past where they may have shared love. Maybe it was her father, but it was a person who must have mattered. He became something like a dear friend. The husband accepted this too.
This tender story disturbed me. It was unrealistic in that it was not the true nature of the disorder. It may be for some, but I tend to doubt it. It was tender, but sad and hopeless. It doesn’t have to be like this. I don’t think it is the nature of the illness either. The woman could not have had the awareness, cognizance, or insight as portrayed. The husband could not have left it all in her hands. He was intelligent too.
What I believe it is - Years ago, I watched “The Incredible Life of Benjamin Button,” portrayed very sensitively by Brad Pitt. It was a fantasy about a man who lived his life backwards. He was born an old man and died a baby. The story progressed and showed his life from a very old man, to an elderly man, to a middle aged man, to a young energetic and adventurous man, to a boy, and finally an infant - all the stages of life in reverse. Throughout his whole life there was a lady friend who started out as a girl and ended as an old woman. When their lives crossed together, around age 30, they had a brief passionate time as boyfriend and girlfriend. At the end, she cradled him in her arms and they felt the mother-infant bond of love. For the infant Benjamin, awareness was vague but love was felt and shared.
The man that wrote this was portraying the nature of Alzheimer’s. And I believe this is its nature. But their story was different and not as good as ours. There was only a brief time they were at the same age. They could not live throughout their lives with matching roles, at each age, as we do. The roles constantly changed as their lives moved in opposite directions. Also, and very important, the Alzheimer’s patient has generally lived most of a conventional full life and then, in a relatively brief span, lived a similar life again in reverse.
I have seen this up close and personal. I have watched my wife go from a forgetful older adult to regressive personalities of a young woman, to a petulant teenage adolescent, to a young girl and now maybe something like a 5 or 6 year old child. It has taken me time to adjust. There is anger to deal with, as well as love, both ways between us.
The Mechanics and Emotions of Care
When the close-by and emotionally invested caregiver engages, it can often go like this:
“Come here we need to change your wet pants.”
“No, I don’t need to, they aren’t wet”.
“Yes they are but you don’t understand. Come here now please.”
“No. Go to hell. You’re stupid.”
“No I’m not . You’re too stupid to know I’m trying to help you.”
“I don’t want you to talk to me anymore. Shut up. I’m leaving.”
She goes upstairs to her bedroom and slams the door. I have not been successful or handled this with the best parenting skill needed. After a few minutes, I go to her room and ask how she is feeling.
“I’m OK. Where have you been? I haven’t seen you in so long. Have you been at work?”
“No. I have been right around, but missed you and wanted to see you.”
“I’m so happy to see you again.”
“I have a good idea. Let’s both get out of our wet pants. We will feel better.”
“Oh. OK. If you think so.”
From there things get better.
She is in another room talking to my son in a rare lucid moment of self-reflective insight.
She tells him “Maybe he should leave me. I wouldn’t blame him.” My son tells me what she said. Here was a rare moment when she did feel psychic pain and suffered but, unlike us, it would only last for a moment. I asked my son to bring her to me. I held her cheeks gently so that we could look at each other’s eyes.
“I love you. I have always loved you. I will love you forever. I will never leave you.”
Her faced contorted in a twisted smile. Tears ran down her cheeks.
“Really? You do feel that way? You holler at me and I thought you didn’t love me. That is wonderful and makes me happy.”
“Let me tell about the night we got married. It was a long time ago. Forty-two years. We have been married and together most of our lives. It was close to Christmas and a candlelight service on a Friday night. There were poinsettias all around the church. The lights were dim and the candlelight was warm. It was beautiful. When I saw you coming down the aisle in your beautiful Spanish lace wedding gown, I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to have you for my wife. You were so beautiful, I had all I could do to keep from crying right then.”
“That’s nice. I love you.”
From there things get better.
A good loving dog can be helpful. One with high emotional intelligence and empathy can serve as a good arbitrator. When you are toe to toe, and nose to nose, hollering as loud as you can at each other, both frustrated because you cannot communicate, the dog will run right to you. She will bark as loud as she can to tell you she is upset her loved ones are fighting. You will reset.
When you are standing together in a long hug and smooching, the dog will run right to you. She will get all excited, furiously wag her tail, look at you both and approve. She will want you to pick her up so she can get in on the love fest. She will lick both your faces and be happy for her and you.
A good home-aid can be helpful. She will be skilled at quickly modifying uncooperative behavior. She won’t be emotionally invested and can be more effective to get done the difficult necessary chores that are so hard for you. Maybe it’s about getting your spouse to shower and look after her hygiene. You have tried to get her to agree and help her to shower. She has petulantly refused. You have fought her and tried every scheme you could think of. She doesn’t want water on her body or her hair. You have given up and tried a few days later. It was the same and you repeat. It has been 3-4 weeks. Finally she agrees and you help her shower.
A good home-aid can get this done skillfully every week and save you the struggle. She will paint her finger nails. They will have a little girlfriend time together. Your loved one may read her children’s books or show her companion pictures. It will be good for everyone.
The Understanding and Hope
While the caregiver may have full knowledge of the past and can project some vision for the future, and live in that context, the patient cannot. The patient has no choice. She can only live in the moment, right now. There is no past and there is no future. There is no other reality.
When long term and short term memory is gone, that is only the beginning. Outside loved ones cannot know the fallout and consequence of that, and where it goes from there. The patient’s whole reality changes without the benefit of her memory. She may remember a few things, correctly or distorted. She may bring them up like a routine at the very same time each day. At the supper table she may say every day-
“How are your Mom and Dad? I have not seen them in a long time.”
“They passed away a long time ago but lived a full and good life. Now it is you and me that are the old ones.”
“I always liked your mother and wonder if she liked me.”
“Mom always loved you. She was so happy I found such a smart and ladylike woman like you.”
“That’s nice.”
From there things get better.
The Goodness, Acceptance and Peace
She will know you and close loved ones right to the end. Even if she may mix up some names, she will know who you are. But most of the time, the memories of less close ones, like old friends or co-workers, will be gone. That is not the most important thing for you to concern yourself with. You must understand, cherish and preserve your new relationship.
There will always be an end to life and we all know that. But Alzheimer’s is hardly the end. It can be a beautiful transition. The patient feels no pain unlike so many terminal illnesses. If their feelings are hurt, they forget and forgive a moment later. Most of us cannot do that so easily. That is a blessing. They can be happy, and generally are, in their altered world.
If the caregiver can learn to join the patient and live in the moment, if only when he is with her, they will be together and happy all the way to the end. I think that may be the key. I have discovered this, have tried it, and we both are very happy together, as before, but in a new way. And our life together can be just as rewarding, loving, and rich as it was before. I understand and accept that we are living in a different way. That is OK. It is still good.
The Conclusion
I often can’t behave in the best way that I should but recognize I am human. I am so far from a saint. However, I must do the things necessary for her health, safety and comfort, whether she agrees or fights me. That is my responsibility in the role as her parent. The lessons I have learned have made it better for both me and my dearest wife. Our life is still rich, fulfilling and loving. With a touch of humor and poignancy, I hope this has been hopeful and helpful.
For now, don’t worry too much about the future. Enjoy to its fullest the wonderful life in the stage you are living in. Future stages can be just as rewarding. And at the end, if this terminal illness should become part of your life, know that it will be much better than other, more painful terminal illnesses. You will learn how to make lemonade from lemons.
The American Dream
Re-published in Americans With a Lick of Sense –
July, 2014
Forward
I didn’t write this story. I found it in a cigar box. As I have studied our American society and history, I have learned much about the good, the bad, and the ugly. There is a lot to regret and many shameful chapters. But once in a while, we discover the good and are reminded of what makes life worth living.
Immigration is a very contentious issue and has always been so in our history. Without going into this politically charged topic - that is not my purpose here - read this simple story and remember the true source of our greatness and American spirit. It is heartening. I am proud of the Padron family and they make me proud of my country.
The Story of “THE LITTLE HAMMER”
In 1962, I arrived in Miami, an unknown city in a foreign land. I had to start from zero. At first, I received $60 monthly, as government aid given to Cuban refugees. I was thirty-six years old, strong, and in good health. Every time I cashed that check, I felt like a burden on the country that had taken me in. For many days, I looked for a job and did not find one. Every night, I went home and thought of the future. I was determined to do something so that I could support my family.
One day, Raul Fernandez, a friend who worked in the Cuban Refugee Office asked if I had any carpentry skills. I said I did. He gave me a gift – a small hammer – which he asked me to put to good use. The hammer made me feel I had the necessary tool to become self-sufficient and not depend on a government hand-out. During the days, I worked as a gardener. At nights, I did carpentry with the hammer.
My dream was to save enough money to open a factory to make great cigars, like the ones we used to smoke in Cuba. Through a lot of sacrifice and hard work, I managed to save $600 – money I made working with the hammer. With that, I made my dream come true and opened Padron Cigars in 1964.
I still have the hammer as a reminder of how we started. More than 40 years later…the hammer is still here and so is Padron Cigars, the brand the hammer helped build.
Jose Orlando Padron
As a boy, my father would show me a small, old hammer and tell me how it changed his life. We, his children, grew up hearing the story of el martillito, the little hammer. It became a tradition which we now tell our children. The hammer represents the dedication and hard work that went into building Padron Cigars. It reminds us of our roots and humble beginnings. It stands for tenacity, integrity, perseverance, loyalty, commitment to quality…and much more. The hammer helped lay the foundation for what we are today. The hammer has a deep meaning for the Padron family. This is why we are sharing the story with you.
Jorge Padron
This is an American story; one of courage, hard work and integrity.
Celebrating White History
Originally published in Americans With a Lick of Sense –
April, 2012
In 2006 Edie and I took a wonderful 21-day, motor coach excursion covering over 3,300 miles of the UK. We departed from London and went to Oxford, Stratford, Coventry, Kenilworth, Wedgewood, York, Durham, Jedburgh, Edinburgh, St. Andrews, Dundee, Perth, Pitlochry, Laggan (in the Highlands), Isle of Skye, Loch Lomond, Glasgow, Grasmere, Manchester, Anglesey, Caernarvon, Chester, Ludlow, Liangollen, Liandrindod Wells, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Tintern Abbey, Bath, Glastonbury, Dunster, Exmoor, Torquay, St. Ives, Plymouth, Salibury, Lymington, Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth, Winchester and back to London.
Our driver, Jim Burke, was a stereotypical Scot, standing 5 foot 6 at 200 pounds and cranky but with sardonic wit and pride. He insisted we refer to him as a motor coach driver, not a bus driver. The way he spoke of his bus reminded me of Scotty in Star Trek.
Our Tour Director, Steve Tormey, was a smooth talking Welshman; tall and handsome with gray hair and bushy black eyebrows; very well spoken and charming. As we departed from London, Steve asked us all where we were from. We answered Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US. Steve said “Well you have all come home now, haven’t you? Welcome home”. This struck a nostalgic, sentimental chord with all of us. I have never thought of myself as a European American or a white American; just an American with pride in my country and its history. This was the first moment of my life when I felt my heritage strike my heart.
In the Isle of Skye, there was a lady folksinger who entertained us in the lobby of our old hotel. She said “Half of me is Irish and half of me is Scottish; so I really want a drink, but I don’t want to pay for it!” At my request she sang the old Irish song “Carrickfergus”. Steve Tormey sat next to us nipping his single malt and singing along in his beautiful Welsh voice. Carrickfergus is on the coast of Northern Ireland in Ulster. The sad melancholy lyrics:
I wish I was in Carrickfergus, only for nights in Ballygrand
I would swim over the deepest ocean, the deepest ocean for my love to find
But the sea is wide and I cannot swim over and neither have I wings to fly
If I could find me a handsome boatman to ferry me over to my love and die
My childhood days bring back sad reflections of happy times I spent so long ago
My boyhood friends and my own relations have all passed on now like melting snow
But I’ll spend my days in endless roaming, soft is the grass, my bed is free
Ah to be back in Carrickfergus on that long road down to the sea
And in Kilkenny it is reported there are marble stones as black as ink
With gold and silver I would support her, but I’ll sing no more now till I get a drink
I’m drunk today and I’m seldom sober, a handsome rover from town to town
Ah, but I’m sick now, my days are numbered so come all ye young men and lay me down
Scotch-Irish (or Scots-Irish) Americans are the descendants of an estimated 250,000 Presbyterian and other Protestant dissenters from the Irish province of Ulster who immigrated to North America primarily during the colonial era. Some scholars also include the 150,000 Ulster Protestants who immigrated to America during the early 19th century, and their descendants. Most of the Scotch-Irish were descended from Scottish and English families who colonized Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch-Irish_American-cite_note-2#cite_note-2 While an estimated 36 million Americans (12% of the total population) reported Irish ancestry in 2006, and 6 million (2% of the population) reported Scottish ancestry, an additional 5.4 million (1.8% of the population) identified more specifically with Scotch-Irish ancestry. People in Great Britain or Ireland that are of a similar ancestry usually refer to themselves as Ulster Scots, with the term Scotch-Irish used only in North America.
American descendants of this heritage include John Wayne, Elvis Presley, John McCain, Ulysses S. Grant, George S. Patton, Andrew Jackson and, of course, countless others.
Because of the close proximity of the islands of Britain and Ireland, migrations in both directions had been occurring since Ireland was first settled after the retreat of the ice sheets. Gaels from Ireland colonized current South-West Scotland as part of the Kingdom of Dal Riata, eventually replacing the native Pictish culture throughout Scotland. These Gaels had previously been named Scoti by the Romans, and eventually the name was applied to the entire Kingdom of Scotland.
The origins of the Scotch-Irish lie primarily in the Lowlands of Scotland and in northern England, particularly in the border country on either side of the Anglo-Scottish border, a region that had seen centuries of conflict. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch-Irish_American-cite_note-16#cite_note-16 In the near constant state of war between England and Scotland during the Middle-Ages, the livelihood of the people on the borders was devastated by the contending armies. Even when the countries were not at war, tension remained high, and royal authority in one or the other kingdom was often weak. The uncertainty of existence led the people of the borders to seek security through a system of family ties, similar to the clan system in the Scottish Highlands. Known as the Border Reivers, these families relied on their own strength and cunning to survive, and a culture of cattle raiding and thievery developed.
Scotland and England became unified under a single monarch with the Union of the Crowns in 1603, when James VI, King of Scots, succeeded Elizabeth I as ruler of England. In addition to the unstable border region, James also inherited Elizabeth’s conflicts in Ireland. Following the end of the Irish Nine Years’ War in 1603, and the Flight of the Earls in 1607, James embarked in 1609 on a systematic plantation of English and Scottish Protestant settlers to Ireland’s northern province of Ulster. The Plantation of Ulster was seen as a way to relocate the Border Reiver families to Ireland to bring peace to the Anglo-Scottish border country, and also to provide fighting men who could suppress the native Irish in Ireland.
The first major influx of Scots and English into Ulster had come in 1606 during the settlement of East Down onto land cleared of native Irish by private landlords chartered by James. This process was accelerated with James’s official plantation in 1609, and further augmented during the subsequent Irish Confederate Wars. The first of the Stuart Kingdoms to collapse into civil war was Ireland where, prompted in part by the anti-Catholic rhetoric of the Covenanters, Irish Catholics launched a rebellion in October. In reaction to the proposal by Charles I and Thomas Wentworth to raise an army manned by Irish Catholics to put down the Covenanter movement in Scotland, the Parliament of Scotland had threatened to invade Ireland in order to achieve “the extirpation of Popery out of Ireland” (according to the interpretation of Richard Bellings, a leading Irish politician of the time). The fear this caused in Ireland unleashed a wave of massacres against Protestant English and Scottish settlers, mostly in Ulster, once the rebellion had broken out. All sides displayed extreme cruelty in this phase of the war. Around 4000 settlers were massacred and a further 12,000 may have died of privation after being driven from their homes. In one notorious incident, the Protestant inhabitants of Portadown were taken captive and then massacred on the bridge in the town. The settlers responded in kind, as did the British-controlled government in Dublin, with attacks on the Irish civilian population. Massacres of native civilians occurred at Rathlin Island and elsewhere. In early 1642, the Covenanters sent an army to Ulster to defend the Scottish settlers there from the Irish rebels who had attacked them after the outbreak of the rebellion. The original intention of the Scottish army was to re-conquer Ireland, but due to logistical and supply problems, it was never in a position to advance far beyond its base in eastern Ulster. The Covenanter force remained in Ireland until the end of the civil wars but was confined to its garrison around Carrickfergus after its defeat by the native Ulster Army at the Battle of Benburb in 1646. After the war was over, many of the soldiers settled permanently in Ulster. Another major influx of Scots into Ulster occurred in the 1690s, when tens of thousands of people fled a famine in Scotland to come to Ireland.
Just a few generations after arriving in Ireland, considerable numbers of Ulster-Scots emigrated to the North American colonies of Great Britain throughout the 18th century (between 1717 and 1770 alone, about 250,000 settled in what would become the United States). According to Kerby Miller, Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America (1988), Protestants were one-third the population of Ireland, but three-quarters of all emigrants leaving from 1700 to 1776; 70% of these Protestants were Presbyterians. Other factors contributing to the mass exodus of Ulster Scots to America during the 18th century were a series of droughts and rising rents imposed by often absentee English and/or Anglo-Irish landlords.
During the course of the 17th century, the number of settlers belonging to Calvinist dissenting sects, including Scottish and Northumbrian Presbyterians, English Baptists, French and Flemish Huguenots, and German Palatines, became the majority among the Protestant settlers in the province of Ulster. However, the Presbyterians and other dissenters, along with Catholics, were not members of the established church and were consequently legally disadvantaged by the Penal Laws, which gave full rights only to members of the Church of England/Church of Ireland. Those members of the state church were often absentee landlords and the descendants of the British aristocracy who had been given land by the monarchy. For this reason, up until the 19th century, and despite their common fear of the dispossessed Catholic native Irish, there was considerable disharmony between the Presbyterians and the Protestant Ascendancy in Ulster. As a result of this many Ulster-Scots, along with Catholic native Irish, ignored religious differences to join the United Irishmen and participate in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, in support of Age of Enlightenment-inspired egalitarian and republican goals.
Scholarly estimate is that over 200,000 Scotch-Irish migrated to the Americas between 1717 and 1775. As a late arriving group, they found that land in the coastal areas of the British colonies was either already owned or too expensive, so they quickly left for the hill country where land could be had cheaply. Here they lived on the frontiers of America. Early frontier life was extremely challenging, but poverty and hardship were familiar to them. The term hillbilly has often been applied to their descendants in the mountains, carrying connotations of poverty, backwardness and violence; this word having its origins in Scotland and Ireland.
The first trickle of Scotch-Irish settlers arrived in New England. Valued for their fighting prowess as well as for their Protestant dogma, they were invited by Cotton Mather and other leaders to come over to help settle and secure the frontier. In this capacity, many of the first permanent settlements in Maine and New Hampshire, especially after 1718, were Scotch-Irish and many place names as well as the character of Northern New Englanders reflect this fact. The Scotch-Irish brought the potato with them from Ireland (although the potato originated in South America, it was not known in North America until brought over from Europe). In Maine it became a staple crop as well as an economic base. From 1717 to the next thirty or so years, the primary points of entry for the Ulster immigrants were Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New Castle, Delaware. The Scotch-Irish radiated westward across the Alleghenies, as well as into Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The typical migration involved small networks of related families who settled together, worshipped together, and intermarried, avoiding outsiders.
This story of my heritage is long but so is the history of my ancestors. It is full of pain, suffering, cruelty, fighting and the quest for freedom. It is the story of our American history. In our 21st century society, our history is neglected. It will never be celebrated as a federal holiday, or with a monument on the National Mall or by a month long celebration of our heritage and culture.
Most of us know the stories of our founding fathers. Their lives are well documented and are fairly well represented on our National Mall. But most of them were born here. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were born in Virginia. John Adams and Benjamin Franklin were born in Massachusetts. They were British subjects and later our first American citizens.
This story is not about them. It is about the throngs of European immigrants that came over and specifically those from the U.K. It is about my proud heritage. It is not racist. Sorry Al and Jesse; it’s not about you. It’s about me.
A Sociologist Studies Working Class Saloons in Chicago
Originally written for college history course –
January, 2014
This document is about a study conducted by a sociologist named Royal Melendy in 1900. While the writer’s demeanor is academic and a bit stuffy, the most interesting aspect of the article is that the sociologist came to the study with a preconceived notion but completed it with a surprising, and completely different, conclusion.
The introductory summary titled “A Sociologist Studies Working-Class Saloons in Chicago”1 sets the tone for the article titled “Royal Melendy - Ethical Substitutes for the Saloon, 1900” 2 as quoted here entirely as follows:
Progressive temperance reformers believed that saloons seduced customers into lives of drunkenness, crime, and debauchery. Many progressives also believed social problems such as saloons should be studied scientifically. Sociologist Royal Melendy investigated saloons in a working-class neighborhood of Chicago as part of an “Ethical Subcommittee” set up to study “the liquor problem,” as he put it. Venturing out from a progressive social settlement house in an industrial district of the city, Melendy discovered that saloons met major needs of working people. His study, excerpted below revealed the gap between the realities of working-class life and the assumptions and preconceptions of many progressives.3
The first thing Melendy learned was that “The popular conception of the saloon as a “place where men and women revel in drunkenness and shame,” or “where sotted beasts gather nightly at the bar,” is due to exaggerated pictures, drawn by temperance lecturers and evangelists, intended to excite the imagination with a view to arousing public sentiment.”4
Referring to the saloon as an institution, he further determined that “It is a part of the neighborhood, which must change with the neighborhood; it fulfills in it the social functions which unfortunately have been left to it to exercise.”5 He further considered that “In some sections of the city it has the appearance of accomplishing more for the laboring classes from business interests then we from philanthropic motives….”6Melendy concluded that it is a workingman’s club and serves a common ground for ethnicity, occupation, or political affiliation. It is also a place for assistance in finding employment and acts as a labor bureau, without a feeling of accepting charity. It is a place of friendship. He said that “Untrammeled by rules and restrictions, it surpasses in spirit the organized club. That general atmosphere of freedom, that spirit of democracy, which men crave, is here realized…..”7
His understanding deepens with his statements: “This is the working man school. He is both scholar and teacher”.8 and “I believe it is true that all the charity organizations in Chicago combined are feeding fewer people than saloons”.9
Certainly Royal Melendy was drawn to the conclusion that the saloon is a positive good. Certainly progressives reading his report would reject it and require further study.
This paper was especially enjoyable to write due to its topic and outcome. It is not often that one can get legitimate academic license to describe the way in which progressives have often believed that they are the better ones by providing their brand of loving-kindness, tolerance, and goods and services to their neighbors based on their assumptions. As Royal Melendy learned, it is an arrogant and naive belief that we know best how to do good and that our solutions are needed in every case.
Notes
Bibliography
Johnson, Michael P. Reading the American Past, Selected Historical Documents, Volume 2:
From 1865, Fifth Edition, New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012.
Who Will Take Care of the Poor?
Originally published in Americans With a Lick of Sense –
September, 2011
If you don’t believe that the government should take care of the poor, you must be mean spirited, selfish and totally lacking in compassion for those less fortunate. At least that is the guilt-driven view of Liberals.
Recently I was explaining the limited role of government from a Libertarian point of view to a Liberal. We were discussing the whole gamut of the concepts of rights, entitlements, obligations, individuality, and liberty. When I explained that caring for the poor is not the business of government, I was accused of not believing in Christian charity. Au contraire, mon ami! That’s precisely my point.
What did Jesus teach? I think he said we are our brothers’ keepers. Those of us who are blessed with so much are chastened to help those with so little. We are expected to help the poor and helpless. But Jesus meant us as individuals; not Caesar. In today’s society that means charity should come from friends, family, churches, soup kitchens, food banks, the Salvation Army, the Rescue Mission and other charitable non-profit organizations, privately financed organizations funded by individuals, fraternal organizations, wealthy individuals and corporations who want to give. If anyone wants to give, no one will stop them. That is Christian charity.
When the government does it, it is not charity. It is feckless bureaucrats doling out OPM (other people’s money) based on laws passed by possibly well-meaning politicians. The problem is that we as individuals do not get to decide. It is coerced charity and that is robbery.
So don’t you dare characterize those of us who believe in liberty as lacking compassion for the poor just because we don’t buy into the nonsense that what government does is charity. I don’t believe that even their motives are pure. They are using OPM to establish their base of dependent, entitled voters for their reelections. So actually this isn’t just robbery; its robbery with evil, selfish motives.
There is absolutely no expectation that government policy will change this far into our history. This is about presenting an uncomfortable principle. It is about setting aside emotion, rejecting incorrect initial premises and applying the rational mind to objective reality.
The views expressed here are not politically correct and will offend the sensibilities of the progressive mainstream and its media. That is my mission.
An Honest Conversation About Race
Originally published in Americans With a Lick of Sense –
October, 2013
Note: Anyone choosing to read this article may decide at the middle of it that the conclusion is known. If the topic is of interest to the reader, please read it to the end. It is written in a circle and ends where it begins.
I have met a few first generation citizens and immigrants from African countries like Sudan. My son has met and worked with immigrants from Nigeria and Kenya as graduate students. They are truly wonderful people. One, named Dut, is in my history class along with his younger cousin who is preparing to take her citizenship tests.
My new friend, in such a short time, has taught me so much. We have had many simple and profound discussions about people and life. He told me that storytelling is important in African life. One day he will return to Africa and tell a story about an old man with white hair that he once made a human connection with.
These are affable, friendly, religious, and inquisitive people who are very happy to be here. They do not carry any crippling baggage of victimhood or anything like that. Dut became an American citizen a couple years ago.
They have come to our country following the traditional path of immigrants like the Irish and Italians in the 18th century. But I have learned that their test for citizenship is more difficult now than it used to be. You are not just asked how many states there are; you have to have knowledge of our history and government structure.
