On July 25, 1861, the U.S. Congress passed the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution, stating that the war with the seceded states of the Confederacy was being fought to preserve the Union, not to end slavery.
Thank you for your email. This Internet of yours is a wonderful invention.
(George W. Bush to Al Gore during the 2000 presidential campaign.)
From his raised platform at the convention, Donald J. Trump made some things perfectly clear. Unfortunately, it was not what he plans on actually doing as president, even on security, which he pushed to a Lord of the Rings level of dark horror and dire importance. Big on promises, short on specifics. “Trust me.”
Click on over to the Townhall website for this weekend’s foray into long form Common Sense. Come back here for a little more reading:
Hillary Clinton does share Richard Nixon’s penchant for secrecy and dissembling, an obsession with enemies, and an inability to change course until even more damage is done. The country paid a terrible price electing to its highest office a person with Nixon’s character flaws. If Democrats don’t understand that their self-interest lies in looking at other candidates before their 2016 convention, they face a strong chance that over a long campaign the public will come to agree that Hillary has too many Nixonian qualities to be trusted with high office.
John Fund, National Review, “Do Hillary and Nixon Look Like Soulmates?” (August 21, 2015).
Ladies and Gentleman, from the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio:
https://youtu.be/UTJB8AkT1dk
On this day in 1903, the Ford Motor Company sold its first car. Less than 30 years later, Aldous Huxley satirized Ford’s assembly line procedures in his novel Brave New World. Arguably, both the assembly line and the satire advanced freedom.
“New thinking. Unleashing growth that creates opportunity. Promoting development that lifts all people out of poverty.Supporting democracy that gives citizens their say. Advancing the security and justice that delivers peace. Respecting the human rights of all people. These are the keys to progress — not just in Africa, but around the world.”
Remarks by President Obama to the People of Africa at Mandela Hall, African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (July 28, 2015).
I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. I do not belong to that sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal. Even in the helter-skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more or less. No, I do not weep at the world — I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.
Zora Neale Hurston, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” in The World Tomorrow (May 1928).
On July 22, 1937, the U.S. Senate voted down Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s court packing scheme.
“Yes, in our world, old thinking can be a stubborn thing. That’s one of the reasons why we need term limits — old people think old ways.”
Remarks by President Obama to the People of Africa at Mandela Hall, African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (July 28, 2015).