by Mary W Maxwell, LLB
Being a presidential candidate for only a short time (until the New Hampshire primary is held on February 11, 2020), I figured I had better get up to the far north during Christmas week as the roads could be blocked with snow after that. The photo above is at the very Bretton Woods resort where certain things happened in 1944 regarding the IMF.
As a child in Massachusetts I did not hear of any of the colonial history before the revolutionary war, except that the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620, that Harvard college was started in 1636, and that Rev Jonathan Edward gave a sermon in 1741 entitled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (something to think about, Folks).
Here is a tidbit about New Hampshire’s first four towns (paraphrasing J Duane Squires’ The Story of New Hampshire (1864). In 1631 a ship brought a load of settlers to Strawberry Bank, later called Portsmouth. Before 1629 there were some settlers in Dover — in 1640 , 42 men of Dover signed a compact like the Mayflower Compact, calling it “the Dover Combination.” A minister name John Wheelwright found the town of Exeter; the deed he made with the native Americans is preserved in the library of Philip Exeter Academy. The fourth town, originally called Winnacunnet, became Hampton in 1639.
Hampton was known to Bostonians in my day as a fine beach. And since it’s just over the border from Massachusetts it was also known as the place to go for chiropractry, which was forbidden in MA, for purchasing a lottery ticket (ditto), and for eloping — as NH would issue a marriage license without requiring the blood test known as the Wasserman, by which your fiancé would learn if you had syphilis or not.
When I first planned my campaign, the goal was to find out what, in the small towns, made for the person known as “a New Hampshire republican.” Political party aside there really is something special about a NH republican. Not only would they give their lives for the Second Amendment, they are truly independent — somewhat like modern Libertarians. NH is the only state where you do not have to wear a seatbelt (except under age 16).
The Knife
One of my scheduled appearances was at Gorham, in the White Mountains. I saw many signs in the area “Beware Moose,” but didn’t actually see any moose. (I’m told that for a moose to have “a nice rack” means his antlers are well-endowed.)
My venue was, of course, the Public Library. Gorham’s is a perfect gem. It’s librarian, Ms Shannon Buteau, is beautiful and the library’s mission is “to inspire and empower.” Wow. I saw this heartening sign on the Children’s Room:
To provide refreshments for my audience I popped into Scoggins General Store in Gorham and got 8 large pieces of fudge. Then I worried that more folks could show up, so I went to the Pantry Shop and snagged a knife with which to cut the 8 pieces into 16, or, if truly overwhelmed, 32.
As it turned out, the knife lay idle. The “voters” on hand for the feast did not even number eight. However, I learned a lot that day, including that I am not the only person who is a back-pewer:
I also learned at the Gun-Shop-cum-Flea-Market that you can carry a loaded gun, concealed, anywhere in this state, without committing a crime but you may not carry a folded knife. (The aforementioned fudge-killer was duly flat.) Suggest you not give your son a Swiss knife for his birthday.
At other whistle stops I asked people what traits they wanted in a president. Got many answers including “Bring respect to the role”. Gee, it’s been so long since we had any of that that I had forgotten it existed.
One elderly guy said he thought the president should be young, female, and with military experience. Hmm. Wonder whose campaign he’s been following. He also said the only military presidents he remembers were Ike and JFK, as the others dodged the draft. (Actually, Carter served, and so did elder Bush.) There is currently no draft.
On the day I “applied for the job,” I asked the NH Sec’y of State William Gardner to autograph a book I own about the Revolutionary war, which he edited back in 1974: Towns against Tyrants. He wrote thusly:
“To Mary, on the day you filed for US President… enjoy your campaign and our rich history.” November 15, 2019
Another person in the office grabbed the book, saw that it was about the period from 1775-1783 and said “Were you secretary of state then, Bill?” Everyone laughed, as Gardner has been in that office for 43 years.
In Towns against Tyrants, we see that life was not easy. Page 143 quotes George Waldo Browne’s The History of Hillsborough (1921):
“One of the most notable examples of wintry endurances was that experience by the remnant of Washington’s army in the dismal camp at Valley Forge 1777-78. Here the soldiers lived in huts thatched with boughs, on a meagre supply of the coarsest food. It is said there was not a whole pair of shoes nor a decent suit of clothes among them. “Barefoot they tracked in blood through the snow for firewood and food. All were in rags, and many sat shivering through the whole night by the fires, for they could not lie on the bare ground.” Some died of the hardship and privation; a few deserted — not many — and these came back in the spring.”
New Hampshire Was Unorthodox
I’ll now quote from Dr William Stillman’s 1918 publication, concerning New Hampshire’s unorthodox use of an independent command:
“We can raise a brigade; and our friend Stark, who so nobly sustained the honor of our arms at Bunker’s Hill, may safely be entrusted with the command, and we will check Burgoyne.”
With this pledge and prophecy, New Hampshire began her share in the campaign which made [the victorious battles of] Bennington and Saratoga possible. On that same day the first part of the prophecy was fulfilled by the election of John Stark as Brigadier General. Before a month had passed, “our friend Stark” had raised a brigade, and he had “checked Burgoyne” at Bennington.
How the Battle of Bennington was won is an interesting tale; but it has been told often and well, by the victors and by the vanquished. The object of this paper, therefore, is not to describe the battle, but rather to show how there came to be an American force at Bennington capable of fighting any battle.
These fragments have been collected and put together into a daily record from the pen of the participants —American, British, and German [the Hessians, I assume].
Their combined daily record sheds somewhat more of the white light of truth, or at least the gray light of history, on the causes and results of Stark’s Independent Command, which proved such a vital factor in the campaign.
From the participants we may hope to glean a clearer and therefore juster idea of why the independent command was granted by New Hampshire; second, how it enabled Stark to carry out the sound strategy once planned by Schuyler, always approved by Washington, and fortunately insisted upon by Stark and the Vermont Council; and third, how it was regarded by soldiers and citizens, by the Continental officers, and by Congress [not Congress as we know it, which began in 1789, but The Continental Congress].
On the 18th of July, after John Langdon’s speech, New Hampshire, under extraordinary circumstances took unusual action which gave rise to much discussion and criticism. The General Court appointed “the Hon William Whipple Esq.” and “the Hon John Stark Esq.” brigadier generals, and voted ”that the said Brigadier Generals be always amenable for their conduct to the General Court or Committee of Safety for the time being.”
It is the omission that is significant: Stark was not made “amenable” to Congress, to the officers of the Continental Army, or to continental regulations. [Oh dear!] The reasons which led New Hampshire to give Stark this independent command are set forth clearly in an unpublished letter of Josiah Bartlett, written a month after the battle was fought. Bartlett was also a Colonel in the New Hampshire militia, had twice represented his state in Congress, and later was to serve her as a Chief Justice and as Governor. [Good heavens.]
“I am much Surprized to hear the uneasiness Expressed by the Congress at the orders given him [Stark], by this state; I think it must be owing to their not Knowing our Situation at that time. The Enemy appeared to be moving down to our frontiers and no man to oppose them but the militia and Col. Warners Regiment not Exceeding 150 men, and it was impossible to raise the militia to be under the Command of Gen in whom they had no Confidence, and who might immediately call them to the South ward and leave their wives and families a prey to the enemy.
And had Gen Starks gone to Stillwater agreable to orders; there would have been none to oppose Col Baum in carrying Gen Burgoine’s orders into Execution:
No State wishes more Earnestly to keep up the union than New Hampshire, but Surely Every State has a right to raise their militia for their own Defence against the Common Enemy [about which a future article by The Candidate, Insh’allah].
As to the State giving such orders to Gen Starks, because he had not the rank he thought himself entitled to, (which seems to be intimated) I can assure you is without foundation and I believe never entered the mind of any of the Committee of Safety who gave the orders; however I hope by this time the Congress are convinced of the upright intentions of the State and the propriety of their conduct. . . .”
No more convincing statement of the reasons for granting the independent command could be given to-day. The only query is: do the facts substantiate Bartlett’s statements as to the causes and results of the independent command?
The Queen’s Room
The statement as to the lack of confidence in the generals of the Northern Department is only too amply substantiated. “The people are disgusted, disappointed and alarmed” wrote the New York Council of Safety on the 27th of July, to the New Hampshire Committee of Safety. To General Putnam even more explicitly they wrote:
“The evacuation of Ticonderoga appears to the Council highly reprehensible . . . absurd and probably criminal.” [amazing] “I agree with you,” replied the Chairman of the New Hampshire Committee, “that the loss of Ticonderoga, in the manner it was left, has occasioned the loss of all confidence, among the people in these parts, in the general officers of that department.”
The investigations by Congress, the letters of Washington, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., Van Cortlandt, and of less known soldiers and civilians show that the distrust was deep and widespread. …
The loss of confidence was the more dangerous because known and reckoned on by the enemy. Philip Skene, Burgoyne’s Tory adviser, wrote to Lord Dartmouth on the 15th of July: “The men want confidence in their officers and their Officers in their men.”
“The King,” says Walpole, “on receiving the account of taking Ticonderoga, ran into the Queen’s room crying, ‘I have beat them! beat all the Americans!’ ”
Well, not really.
Sorry Mary, but I only skimmed your report.
Here we have hundreds of firefighters at risk and a few sad losses. …… a 28 year old is to have a fatherless child in May with a grieving widow. Following other sad losses.
But they serve as volunteers and are the equivalent in courage to those at Valley Ford.
Our kings and queens in politics here lament the losses of life, towns and properties.
But for decades they did not arm the populace with water. Today I wheeled my wheelbarrow of water to save a few fruit trees…….. in some cases there appears to be little hope of a crop. ( passion fruit is gold… $1,20 each at the local Woollies)
Oh well, i trust that you might have the opportunity to see Sydney bring in the fireworks display for 2020 and discern hope and awe for 2020 in little faces and may it bring joy to you for a victorious New Year.
Ned.
( passion fruit is gold… $1,20 each at the local Woollies)
LUXURY!
mind you…
we can get them now or $1.50, down from >$2.00
https://imgur.com/a/1Vu3G80
is “Scoggins” a real store?
Yes, Fair. It’s right thar on Main St. Sells many things besides fudge.
Fair, with reference to your helping my Fringe show:
And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere!
And gie’s a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll tak a right guid willy waught,
For auld lang syne.
(Do no attempt the following without Kleenex):
Thanks for the bucket of goodwill. if you do another fringe, I’ll bring some Lamingtons, least I can do.
Thank you Ned for keeping us focused in the present reality.
See this now before Sydney fireworks start in 2 minutes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/31/world/australia/fires-red-skies-Mallacoota.html
45 years ago. If this was not man-made I will eat my hat:
Lyrics to “Santa Never Made It into Darwin”:
On Christmas Eve of seventy-four
The warning sounded out
For all the broadcast stations
A great storm was near about
The girls and boys asleep in bed
Tomorrow was the day
Their mums and dads all prayed
The mighty storm would turn away
Santa never made it into Darwin
Disaster struck at dawn on Christmas Day
Santa never made it into Darwin
A big wind came and blew the town away.
Christmas morning was a nightmare
As Cyclone Tracy struck
It ripped apart the buildings
Like an atom bomb had struck
It twisted iron girders
And it flattened all the trees
The might of such a cyclone
Must be seen to be believed.
Santa never made it into Darwin
A big wind came and blew the town away
Many boats put out to sea
Very few returned
Most were foundered on the rocks
Or in deep seas overturned
Australia was shocked and saddened
As the news came through
The devastated city
Must be built anew. [Don’t tell me it was a Halliburton job?]
That suffering and heartbreak
Could happen in this way
A natural disaster
Could come on on Christmas Day
From National Archives of Australia — naa.gov.au:
Rebuilding the city
In the aftermath of Cyclone Tracy there were arguments on whether Darwin should be rebuilt at all, or rebuilt further inland, or just abandoned. The decision was quickly made to rebuild the city in the same location.
Darwin Reconstruction Commission
On 30 December 1974 Cabinet approved the establishment of a statutory authority to be known as the Darwin Reconstruction Commission with a five-year life to plan, coordinate and undertake the task of rebuilding the city. Pending passage of the legislation, an interim commission was appointed under the chairmanship of industrialist Leslie Thiess.
The Interim Commission first met on 6 January 1975 and agreed to the preparation of a new planning scheme to be used as the basis for rebuilding Darwin.
As bushfires and cyclones have been hitting Aus for eons, certainly well before Captain Cook showed up, you might need to swallow some sort indigestion remedy.
Accusations that aren’t evidence based are just a self-indulgent form of entertainment, one that plays right into the hands of Counter-intelligentsia
And what might CI do with it, Berry?
Use it as a means of discrediting genuine grievances perhaps ?
Then there’s the fact that there’s no better decoy than a half-baked theory.
The devastation caused by Tracy was largely due to the way in which Darwin had been constructed:
https://theconversation.com/how-building-codes-save-homes-from-cyclones-and-how-they-dont-25550
A lot of bushfire-damage can be attributed to a foolhardy attachment to other Northern Euro building traditions but the worst folly of all is the habit of stringing overhead power-lines through country where eucalyptus trees grow like weeds, on top of which you’ve got outright negligence:
http://www.broome.wa.gov.au/files/ce791601-79eb-4da5-9603-75518e6ac400/20080925-912D2.pdf?streamFile=true
https://thewest.com.au/news/bushfires/western-power-incompetence-blamed-for-parkerville-bushfire-ng-b88897764z
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/bushfire-victims-claim-corporate-bullying-as-western-power-claims-court-costs-20190807-p52ewd.html
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/report-confirms-western-power-caused-toodyay-bushfire-20100813-122g0.html
But in my view the overarching problem is that, in a victim-centred culture, solutions are anathema
The script is writ
Yeats, The Second Coming:
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
At 3.30 she says — absurdly — that the fires in Siberia were caused by higher temperatures (Greta-like):
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/william-blake
William Blake
1757–1827
“”The Tyger” is the sister poem to “The Lamb” (from “Songs of Innocence”), a reflection of similar ideas from a different perspective (Blake’s concept of “contraries”), with “The Lamb” bringing attention to innocence. “The Tyger” presents a duality between aesthetic beauty and primal ferocity, and Blake believes that to see one, the hand that created “The Lamb”, one must also see the other, the hand that created “The Tyger”: “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?”
The “Songs of Experience” were written as a contrary to the “Songs of Innocence” – a central tenet in Blake’s philosophy, and central theme in his work.[1]The struggle of humanity is based on the concept of the contrary nature of things, Blake believed, and thus, to achieve truth one must see the contraries in innocence and experience. Experience is not the face of evil but rather another facet of that which created us. Kazin says of Blake, “Never is he more heretical than … where he glories in the hammer and fire out of which are struck … the Tyger”.[1] Rather than believing in war between good and evil or heaven and hell, Blake thought each man must first see and then resolve the contraries of existence and life. In “The Tyger” he presents a poem of “triumphant human awareness” and “a hymn to pure being”, according to Kazin.[1]”
“One incident at this time affected Blake deeply. In June of 1780 riots broke out in London incited by the anti-Catholic preaching of Lord George Gordon and by resistance to continued war against the American colonists. Houses, churches, and prisons were burned by uncontrollable mobs bent on destruction. On one evening, whether by design or by accident, Blake found himself at the front of the mob that burned Newgate prison. These images of violent destruction and unbridled revolution gave Blake powerful material for works such as Europe (1794) and America (1793).”
Never done heard this nohow, Diane. Thanks .
“by resistance to continued war against the American colonists. Houses, churches, and prisons were burned by uncontrollable mobs bent on destruction…”
The Lamb, by William Blake
Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
Gave thee life & bid thee feed.
By the stream & o’er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice!
Where can I meet these people?
.
Two observations from our “leaders”: Scomo and Albo—abc
Scomo with wife promoting the wonderful spirit of Australians to carry on in this most beautiful country in the world–promoting tourism -from the mother country–{hence the cringe /crap promotion recently released.}
And also on abc news- Albo – with his dog Toto announces. ‘This is a National Emergency that requires a National response” requiring a COAG response-that goes beyond the restrictions of layers of government.
All the best for better days and for truth to triumph over lies.
2020 to be ‘the year we take down the 1% who think they’re above the law’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7841951/Virginia-Roberts-tweets-New-Years-wish-Jeffrey-Epsteins-powerful-friends-face-justice.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ico=taboola_feed
Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Roberts calls for 2020 to be ‘the year we take down the 1% who think they’re above the law’ in New Year’s message which appears to slam powerful friends of Jeffrey Epstein
[…] person, Dr Maxwell thought of using libraries in NH as her “hustings,” but the crowd in Gorham, NH was a bit small, and later, when another librarian told her not to talk about politics (!!!), […]