June Twenty-First What care I if Cyrus McCormick was born in Rockbridge County? These new-fangled contraptions" are to the old system what the little, dirty, black steam-tug is to the threedecker, with its cloud of snowy canvas towering to the skies-the grandest and most beautiful sight in the world. I wouldn't give Uncle Isham's picked man, "long Billy Carter," leading the field, with one good drink of whisky in him-I wouldn't give one swing of his cradle and one "ketch" of his straw for all the mowers and reapers in creation. GEORGE W. BAGBY Cyrus Hall McCormick of Virginia patents his reaping machine, 1831 June Twenty-Second If I could dwell Where Israfel Hath dwelt, and he where I, He might not sing so wildly well A mortal melody, While a bolder note than this might swell From my lyre within the sky. EDGAR ALLAN POE Arkansas readmitted to the Union, 1868 June Twenty-Third THE BROOK It is the mountain to the sea JOHN B. TABB June Twenty-Fourth AN AMUSING COMMENTARY ON THE MAKING OF SOME HISTORIES 66 I have here a small volume entitled, "John Randolph,by Henry Adams." It is one of a series called American Statesmen," and emanates from the thin air of Boston. The series is edited by Mr. J. T. Morse, Jr. By what law of selection he has been governed in allotting to particular authors the preparation of respective biographies it is impossible to divine. It is quite clear, however, that he has not followed any rule of qualification or congeniality hitherto recognized by men or angels. For example, a foreigner, Dr. Von Holtz, who, in an emphatically European and un-American treatise on the Federal Constitution, had already denounced Calhoun as a kind of Lucifer, is appointed his biographer; Henry Clay, the father of Protection (as it is called), is assigned to Carl Schurz, who, I understand, is an ardent advocate of Free Trade; while John Randolph is turned over to the tender mercies of a descendant of the first Vice-President, and the grandson of John Quincy Adams! Had this unique law of selection prevailed hitherto, we might have had a biography of Luther by Leo the Tenth; a life of St. Thomas Aquinas by Thomas Payne; while Pontius Pilate, or more likely the devil himself, would have been selected to chronicle the divine career of Jesus Christ. DANIEL B. LUCAS John Randolph dies, 1833 June Twenty-Fifth But far away another line is stretching dark and long, Another flag is floating free where armed legions throng; Another war-cry's on the air, as wakes the martial drum, And onward still, in serried ranks, the Southern soldiers come. GEORGE HERBERT SASS Beginning of Seven Days' Battle around Richmond, 1862 June Twenty-Sirtb A PROPHECY, 1869 The close of the Civil War found the conquering States so nearly equally divided between the Radical and Conservative parties, that if the South should be restored to her relative might in the Union, the balance would be thrown at once in favor of the Conservatives. The problem therefore assumed a mathematical form, and demanded that the South should not reinforce the Conservatives of the North. This could be prevented only in two ways, viz.; either by keeping the South out of the Union entirely or by placing the political power there in the hands of a minority. To adopt one or the other of these expedients was a party necessity. This is the whole key to Reconstruction; and fifty years hence no man living will be found to deny it. JUDGE J. FAIRFAX MCLAUGHLIN (In the "Southern Metropolis," June 26, 1869) |