Brackets

The NCAA basketball tournament has a way of leading to at least one Cinderella team most every year.  A few years ago it was Virginia Commonwealth, coached by an Oregon, WI native whose name keeps surfacing for head coaching jobs at more big named schools, most recently Marquette. For some the bracket busted in the first weekend of play when Duke lost to Mercer.  Of the teams in Sweet Sixteen, there are two number 11 seeds.  As of this writing one of the two has advanced to the elite 8.  Let us take a look at two teams, who each won last night, one of them being an 11^th seed, the other a two seed.

The University of Wisconsin was a number 2 seed, and an obvious darling of the selection committee who placed them in a favorable bracket, with their first two games in-state, 60 miles east, in Milwaukee, WI.  Last night UW blew out the Baylor Bears, in what was really not a contest.  Playing in the West Regional, the UW will meet #1 seed Arizona on Saturday.  The Badgers are right where the selection committee expected them to be, one of the elite 8.  Michigan, also a #2 seed, plays #11 seed Tennessee today, to determine if they too may advance to the group eight.  Of the four regional's this is the only one able to pit a #1 and #2 seed against each other, thus the selection committee received the gift it desired from the start.  Joy in Madison is shown by the front page of the Wisconsin State Journal which looked more like a front sports page.  The UW web site has the Badger victory and its being in the elite eight as its first of five header slides. 

Wisconsin was able to play all twelve of its players, although four only are credited with one minute of play. in contrast, three of the Wisconsin players played 34 minutes.  Apparently a victory as convincing as this one, where the team was in dominant control from the first half was not sufficient for a coach to play his back end of the bench more than a few fleeting seconds.  Eight Badgers had some hand in scoring part of their 69 points.  Big Frank led the way with 19 points, but also had an amazing six blocked shots.

Of the two 11^th seeded teams, one is the Cinderella of this year’s tournament—Dayton.  They defeated Stanford last night by ten points, a victory which earned them their first visit to the Elite Eight since 1984, and earned them less than 30 words in Wisconsin State Journal.  I think Aaron Rodgers' attendance at the Badger game and his visit to the locker room earned him more words in the newspaper than the snippet on Dayton’s victory.  Like the UW web-site, Dayton’s has their victory over Stanford as one of five headlines that alternate views.  However, while Dayton had a closer game than UW, it has much greater confidence in its bench.  Twelve of Dayton’s players were in the game, but its lowest minute total was four minutes and that was for only one player; and only one player was in the game for more than 27 minutes, and he played 33 minutes.  What is amazing about Dayton is that 11 of its players scored in the game.  Apparently, Dayton has more confidence in their bench, and has likely used it more over the course of the season than has Wisconsin.  But what is most amazing about Dayton, according to Sports Illustrated, is that no member of the team averages more than 12.5 points per game.  Dayton’s type of offense may be key to its need for confidence in its bench, as SI goes on to say: “They got here thanks to a relentless offense predicated on speed, selfless passing (19 assists) and substitution patterns that resemble hockey line changes.” 

But Dayton earns extra points for creativity and imagination. After defeating The Ohio State University, the local newspaper headline was The Dayton University. A nice in your face to the pretensions of Ohio State.  But it goes on, their web headline today was titled—“If the slipper fits…”, and when they advanced they had a piece titled “Walking in Memphis.”  The State Journal headline was a predictable, “Joining the Elite”;  the newspaper does not seem to realize UW is right where they were expected to be at the start of the tournament.

Although, one thing that is great about the NCAA are the upsets, which we tend to remember more than when the #1 seeds advance.  From a statistical standpoint the advancement of the top seeds is more the norm than the exception.  (As of today, only the Midwest regional lacks a number 1 seed, and two #1 seeds have advanced to the elite eight, with one other playing tonight.)  What both Wisconsin and Dayton seem to possess is the idea of not only of teamwork, but team chemistry.  Some smaller schools, like Creighton, have one very good player, but Dayton as a team that is playing well right now.  Duke lost to Mercer, even though led by a man who many consider the greatest coach in college basketball, and a highly regarded freshman player.  Dayton plays in that power house of a conference, the Atlantic 10, which contains teams like Dusquene, and Richmond.   Of course, the UW plays in what is thought to be one of the most powerful in basketball and where three of its teams are in the Sweet Sixteen. 

Statistically, one has to say it looks much better for Wisconsin to advance to the final four than a lowly 11^th seeded team.  But, it is always great to see teams who embody team work do well, and in particular teams that are not afraid to play those who sit at the far end of the bench do well. Or those few lower seeded teams that defy the selection committee advance and make the tournament more enjoyable.  So well it is great to see Wisconsin advance, I give credit to Dayton for having advanced beyond expectations, other than perhaps their own.  On Saturday Dayton will face #1 seed Florida which I view as the overall #1. Whatever the outcome of the next set of games, both teams should be credited with having advanced to this point.  

Old World Order

In the movie, The Hunt for Red October, based on a Tom Clancy novel, the large submarine is about to  set on its maiden voyage from the Bearing Sea, and Captain Vasili Borodin says to the Commanding officer of the ship, Marco Ramius, that it is a cold day, to which Ramius responds, “yes, cold and hard.”  That would be the weather in an area far north.  It is from here that a story of a rogue submarine adventure takes place.   Since the end of the cold war western powers seem more concerned about globalization and the world coming together, and in so doing have allowed their thinking to take precedence over much of the eastern world.  Or, as Robert Kaplan, author of the Revenge of Geography puts it, “Western leaders think in universal terms, while rulers in places like Russia, the Middle East, and East Asia think in narrower terms: those that provide advantage to their nations or their ethnic groups only.”  Hence, the west thinks in different terms than the east.  Secretary of State John Kerry refers to the current thinking of Russia as so “19^th century.”  Such pretension does not serve groups of nations well.  The thinking that your way is the best way, often leads to trouble.  Recent history is replete with the results of such thinking.  Perhaps it is time for the west to realize that the east looks at the world from lens with a long history and here they think geographically; or geo-politically.  The west has lost its lessons of geography.  The recent Russian land grab of Crimea is a case in point.  And this gets us back to the Hunt for Red October.  Crimea is the only warm water port available to Russia, and its location as a peninsula at the north end of the Black Sea allows it to control much of the Black Sea.

Black Sea

The area of Crimea, as a peninsula in the Black Sea, has been important for several thousand years, and many an empire have recognized its geographic importance.  This one sea serves to divide east from west, serve as a crucial artery for Eastern Europe, serve as a bulwark between the ever-boiling Middle East and Europe, and serves as a confluence of occurrences that hamper modern day living from the drug trade to human trafficking.  Crimea, according to Jay Winik, had been the crown jewel of the Ottoman Empire, and before that parts of it were within the Roman and even the Greek empires.  Combined with the Anatolian plain and the Middle East, much of human history has been written in that wider region.

Vladimir Putin’s defense of the Russian incursion into Crimea is based on his contention that it is necessary for Russia to protect the interests of the many ethnic Russians who live in Crimea.  Crimea first became part of Russia following a bloody war after the Ottoman Turks declared war on Russia, insurrection by the Tatars, and diplomatic maneuvers.   Catherine the Greats advisor, Potemkin, would indicate that Crimea could be hers.  And to her it would be.

Catherine the Great

In 1782 Russia saw Crimea as a key to thwarting invasion from the south.  Britain was involved in wars with America, France with Britain, and Austria was, at the time, not willing to challenge an incursion into Crimea.  One could say that but for the involvement of those western powers elsewhere, Crimea may never have become part of Russia.  It would appear that Putin’s thinking mirrors that of Potemkin who said he who controls Crimea can control the Black Sea.   The Russian Black Sea fleet, first established in 1783, and it was this fleet over 200 years later that allowed Russian incursion into the Republic of Georgia in 2008, where today they still hold a good part of this former Soviet territory.  In 1787 Catherine the Great, ruler of Russia would journey to Crimea, to see her southern prize.  It was on this journey that she would come across the seemingly great villages which were mainly but facades, giving us now the commonly used term Potemkin village, for an illusory situation described as better than what it is.

With the breakup of the Soviet Union, the 1994 Budapest Memorandum came about, but is of little regard to Mr. Putin.  The pro-Russian President of Ukraine was over thrown by Ukrainian protestors interested in leaning toward the west rather than to Russia.  The former President, who was essentially Mr. Putin’s puppet, decided to break ties with the west and form ties with Russia, and while that would be his downfall, Russia had not yet fully played its hand.  It did not take long for Russia to exert its influence and in a matter of days Crimea held an election to reunite with Russia, and Russia willingly accepted.  The west should have realized that Russia is positioning itself to gradually re-establish land areas to which it says it has some historic claim. The 2008 move into Georgia should have been a clue. Russia first took control of Crimea in the 18^th century, and but for partial occupation by Nazi forces during WWII, had remained under Russian or Soviet control, until the fall of the Soviet Union.  Nikita Khrushchev never thought when he gifted Crimea to the Ukraine in the 1950’s that there would never be a Soviet Union.  But history, as noted in a prior post, is intractable; little goes according to plan.

Location of Crimea

When the US and its allies invaded Iraq it was to rid the country of a brutal dictator, and bring democracy to the Middle East.  Little turned out according to plan.  What we have is a country that is a pawn to Iran.  So to the Arab Spring was to bring down dictator’s in Egypt, Libya and other countries and to have democratic elections providing the values the west long holds true.  Yet, other than perhaps Tunisia, this has not occurred.  Radical Islam has taken hold: Libya is in shambles; Egypt had a democratically elected man who was quickly leading it to an Islamist state and was thrown out of power so the country is essentially ruled by the military; and in Syria a tyrant is on the run by other tyrants, and opposition groups promoting democracy have been supplanted by those allied with Al Qaeda.  Christians in Syria, among the oldest lineages in the Christian world now have to pay a tax in gold to radical Islamists, and agree to not repair any destroyed churches.  While the Assad regime is tyrannical, if replaced it may well be like Iraq, by a group more radical and recognizing less the rights of minority groups than the one it replaces.  One can see at play the role that tribes and blood plays in the territories of the Middle East.

Middle East

Likewise domination of territory, that 19^th century phenomenon so belittled by US Secretary of State John Kerry, is rampant by China and it on-going grab for rights in the South China Sea. China, ever thinking ahead, while on the verge of internal issues of its own, has been purchasing land for mineral rights in countries on other continents, as far away as South America.  Burma, at the east edge of India, is a mountainous country with internal strife, in a sense mimicking its poor economic structure.  The homeland Marco Ramius, the fictitious captain of the Red October, Lithuania, has been subjugated, along with the other Baltic Republics and Poland, by powers to their east and west.  A consequence of geography.

Red October Captain Marco Ramius, played by Sean Connery

Bonds of blood and territory that go with it is a matter of geography.  The prior post noted that tribalism, which dates from the earliest times of human movement, is alive and well.  In part this is shown by the ambitions of nations like, China, Russia, and others in the east still think in terms of territory.  Middle Eastern countries think less in terms of their nation than of their birth right be it religious or tribal—Kurds, Shiite, and Sunni come to mind.  Even Russians opposed to Putin agree with his taking of Crimea.  Putin’s current approval rating is one only President Obama can dream of obtaining.  Territory is viewed as power, and the values of a nation that sees territory as power cannot be pushed to the side as 19^th century thinking.  Instead the western world has to understand the values and the way of thinking of those to the east, and recognize that their values may well not be western values. The west needs to recognize the harsh reality that not all nations view the world as does the west.  Kaplan also comments that “Geography establishes the broad parameters—only within its bounds does human agency have a chance to succeed.”    

If Russia sees as its duty the need to protect the interests of its ethnic population, could you imagine the chaos to result in the United States if other nation’s thought the same way?  After all we are a nation primarily of immigrants, and the ethnic group having the largest majority in any one person is German descent. (Could you imagine Angela Merkl declaring the right of Germany to protect ethnic Germans in the U.S.?)   It is this rather unique heritage in the US, where we are bound less by our ethnicity, and more by our ideals and values, that colors are geo-political thinking.  The world is not made up of a melting pot, or stew, as is the United States, but rather it is continues to be comprised of nations, many of which are very concerned with their blood, tribe, and territorial rights.  It was not a too distant past that Europe too thought in ethnic terms.  One only needs to go back to WWII to see the concept of a pure race in play.  Yet, Europe has transformed its thinking, although concepts of blood and tribe still retain importance in certain ways. 

Ancestry of the US Population (blue is predominantly German)

While democracy may be the best and ultimate goal for a civil society, a nation needs to be sufficiently willing to accept the rights of the minority.  As found in Egypt, a democracy that is one-sided devolves into another form of tyranny.  After all, in most other places on earth the defecting submarine Captain Marco Ramius would look out of place, but in the multi-ethnic U.S. he can fit right in.

Six Years a Slave

Over the course of recent time tomorrow will be, particularly those of Irish ancestry or those who desire such for that one day a year, celebrated as a day to drink green beer, wear fifty shades of green, dress as a leprechaun, or attend a parade, perhaps even in a city who dyes its river green.  It is often used as an excuse to party, although those who party may know they are honoring a Saint, may even realize the Saint was a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church, and they are likely know that March 17 is his feast date, recognizing the date of his death.  But, it is likely few of those revelers truly understand the trials this man faced in late adolescence, his insecurity of not having completed his formal Roman education, how different was the message he preached, or the humility and, well, saintliness, in which he approached his work.  Even fewer would understand that the preservation of ancient western culture is in large part due to this one man.  To understand we need to take ourselves back in time over 1600 years ago, to a world quite different from our own.  In doing so one cannot look at the era long ago with the world view and values held today, but rather one needs to sense the values and conditions of that time.

But, first let us go back further (another 1,000 years) to about 600 BC when the tribe of Celts set up shop in Gaul, and in 400 BC would settle the Britain.  In 350 BC another group of Celts, likely from the Iberian Peninsula would settle in present day Ireland.  Two different ethnic groups would develop over the centuries, although linked by distant ancestry.  Britain would see itself become part of the Roman Empire and its civilizing effects in 43 AD.  Much of the occupation of Britain from that to the fall of the empire would end up falling within the Pax Romana, the great peace.  Yet, Rome would grow complacent and believe its past glories would forever continue.  It would be a victim of its own success (with the reasons why, a story in itself) when in 406 AD Vandels, Sueves, and Alans from the “other” side of the Rhine (that is what we know today as Germany) would cross the Rhine and end up wreaking havoc and destroying not only the empire built by Rome, but also much of western civilization.  Rome, the Eternal City, would fall in 410 AD. The chaos and destruction set forth by these groups would last through the mid to late 5^th century and its destruction would stop only at the Pyrenees.  The western portion of the empire would see its last emperor in 476 AD.  The relatively quick destruction of the one great power would leave a large vacuum and an unregulated Europe would struggle in the ruins of the once mighty Roman Empire.  It was a time of darkness. It would take time before the next institution would settle-in and bring order to the rampant disorder resulting from the barbarian invasions. As Thomas Cahill writes, a “world in chaos is not a world in which books are copied, and libraries maintained.” Likewise, he would note, it was not a world for which the schedules of learning and classes for young scholars is transmitted year by year. This is shown today by the conflict in Syria where, only a few years in UNICEF is concerned about a lost generation of Syrian students, who have no ability to learn within the strife presented.  Taken over more than three generations 1600 years ago when learning was not near as present as today and one gets a sense why the western world would enter into what is often termed the dark ages.

Celtic Settlements History

Not all barbarians were on the east side of the Rhine, there were also the Celts.  They populated the island we know as Ireland, never having truly known the benefits of a civilized life.  Not unlike their ancestors of central Europe they lived in tribes of extended families each family ruled by its own king, who was a rather ruthless tribal leader.  Tribes and clans retain their importance in society to this day, and these links go back to the early hunter-gatherer elements and early human mobility.  Perhaps it is part of our DNA.  Into this situation was a man to live, who would help alter the course of history.

Patricius was born in 387 AD to a father who was a curialist, perhaps a tax collector, in the Roman government which governed the place of his birth near present day Dumbarton, Scotland.  His mother, Conchessa, was a near relation to St Martin of Tours (316-397), patron of Gaul (France).  Patricius would have enjoyed an indulgent, comfortable upper-middle class life as a Roman citizen in the far outpost of the Empire. Patricius was not, at birth, Irish, he was a Briton, yet he has come to be synonymous with Ireland.  This is due to the most trying, and in hindsight, the most significant portion of his life.

Icon of St. Patrick

When Patricius was 16 years of age a large group of Celts set forth in their small water craft, to run up the west coast of Britain.  On this single trip they would capture 1,000’s of young persons to be sold into slavery.  Patricius would lose the benefits brought about by his family’s station at the periphery of the empire, and find himself a slave in or around Antrim.  What is interesting is that Ireland, not far from Britain was never part of the Roman Empire.  Perhaps the Romans thought it not worth an effort, or that the inhabiting Celts were not easily vanquished by the legions.  Through much of history the Romans seem to have never found a land they did not want, leading this writer to believe the reason is more the latter than the former.  If so, a testament to the warring skills of the Irish tribes.

Typical Irish Monastic Settlement from 6th century
Inishmore

As a slave, he found his primary duty was as a shepherd, a position as low then as it was 400 years earlier in Judea.  He was provided little clothing, and even less human contact. His owner, Miliucc, one of  likely 100's of local kings or tribal leaders, was not a nice man.  Cahill comments that “in the slavery business, no tribe was fiercer or more feared than the Irish.” Patricius did not really believe in God, and thought priests were foolish.  This even through his grandfather was a priest, his mother near related to Martin of Tours, and his father was said to be a deacon.  As a slave for six years, Patricius would learn lessons that would serve him the rest of his life.  In his most difficult ordeal, and with levels of deprivation we can only imagine, he would learn what it meant to pray. Prayer was his companion when he spent weeks on end in the verdant hills of Ireland tending the sheep of the slave owner.  Prayer was his comfort when he was faced with the tribulations of dealing with persons who thought they better than him.  Prayer brought him to the function as the had of God.  In his solitary confinement he recognized what it was to be silent and to listen.  Six years a slave, he had grown.  He had become a man that six years earlier he would never have imagined becoming—a holy man. 

His last night in captivity he would hear a voice which would inform him that his “hungers are rewarded: you are going home.”  As he sat up, startled, the voice would continue claiming “look your ship is ready.”  Miliucc’s farm was not near a sea, it was inland, and Patricius estimates he had traveled over 200 miles as a fugitive without being stopped and through land he had never traveled.  As he said: “I came in God’s strength…and had nothing to fear.”  He would come upon sailors loading a ship, whose captain eyed him suspiciously.  They did not wish to grant a fugitive travel.  Yet, as he was walking away rather discouraged, the sailors would call him back.  Three days later they found themselves on a continent desolated and deserted due to the ravages of the people from the other side of the Rhine.  For two weeks the group walked inland finding no food as all was destroyed.  At wits end the captain would taunt him, asking him to pray for food. He would respond that they should trust in God, and he will “send food for your journey until you are filled…”   As the ravished sailors lifted their heads having heard Patricius’ speak, having bowed due to the sincerity of this young man, they would find pigs heading down the road.  It would take a few more years for Patricius to make it back to Britain.

As Cahilll notes, the experience as a slave left him no longer as a carefree Roman, but “hardened physically and psychologically by un-sharable experiences hopelessly behind his peers in education.”  One night he would receive a letter simply reading Vox Hiberionacum, or The Voice of the Irish.  He would later hear the voice telling him to “come and walk among us once more.” Patricius would find his life changed and he would enter a phase that would earn him the name St. Patrick. 

He would enter a monastery in Gaul, likely one on an island off-shore of present day Cannes.  Here would feel inadequate with a formal education halted by his six years as a slave.  Yet he would persevere.  What he had learned as a slave well prepared him for his voyage back to Ireland.  He learned humility, and serenity, but also about the tribal customs, networks and language of those inhabiting the island west of Britain.  He was perhaps the first missionary, after St. Thomas I suspect, to go beyond the bounds of the Roman Empire.  The first to go to the barbarians.  The first to Christianize a people without martyrdom.  The first to unequivocally speak against slavery (and no other voice was as strong from then until the 17^th century).  Irish slavery would end about the time of his death in 461 (although some reports have him living until 490’s).  Additionally, a Celtic people heavily into warring would reduce other forms of violence most notably murder and inter-tribal warfare concomitant with the end of slavery.  He successfully was able to redefine pagan virtues as Christian virtues.  He is no longer one with his place of birth.  He has operated at the margins of geography, of human consciousness and his sense as a Briton.  He well knew the snobbery of the better educated Roman citizens which would make him feel inadequate. For he is known to have said “Is it a shameful thing ...that we have been born in Ireland?”  His six years a slave perhaps gave him, through prayer, a new birth, it was his epiphany.  Patrick’s gift to Ireland was his Christianity--the first Christianity not linked to the Roman Empire in history.  He took Ireland from chaos to peace.  Some historians believe that the far south of Ireland saw Christianity before the re-arrival of Patrick in 433. Yet, this does not diminish the affects or totality of Patrick’s remarkable efforts.

Even though his formal education may have been cut short, he realized the benefits of an educated populace.  These acts would set the stage for a re-flowering of the continent after the dark dreary times imposed by the Vandals, Sueves and Alans on the populations of the Roman Empire.  Much was lost during this period, but some was saved by solitary monks working in the stone beehives of Ireland.  Apart from continental Europe, these monks did not censor.  Within 200 years of the death of St Patrick, one of these Irish monks would re-establish centers of learning in Europe, and it is this man that the Bohmemian Havel (Americanized as Hovel) surname recognizes. This all emanates from Patrick.  Once again, Cahill:

Patrick prayed, made peace with God, and then looked not only into his own heart but into the hearts of others.  What he saw convinced him of the bright side—that even slave traders can turn into liberators, even murders and peacemakers, even barbarians can take their places among the nobility of the heavens.

Beehives constructed by Irish Monks.
Some dating to 600's or earlier still stand to this day
Dry-stone construction, i.e. no mortar is used

Patrick would provide a confidence little known or understood to those he approached.  This confidence, combined with his humility and sincerity, was key to his ability to evangelize and yet to avoid martyrdom.  I think he knew he would remain safe, as he had experienced what can happen when he relied on the one who sustained him during his years of captivity.  The well-known prayer, St. Patrick’s Breastplate, has as it last words a simple acknowledgement:  “Of the Creator of Creation.”  He knew that God loved all, a rather different calculation than the pagan druids.

This Bishop of Ireland was meek and humble person in whom people recognized goodness and sincerity.  Even the most battle hardened Celts recognized in him the hand of God.  He embodied the true sense of a Christian.  So, if you do or do not partake in drinking green beer tomorrow, or wear a funny shade of green, perhaps you can take some time to reflect on the changes one man made to this world--how he gathered strength from despair, worked to end slavery and reduce violence, and helped to preserve works from a western civilizations so that they remain in our midst.  His value is more than a parade, his idea more than green beer, and his mark on history flows more than a river dyed green.  

I conclude with a poem by the Irishman Joseph Mary Plunkett (1876-1916):

 I see his blood upon the rose  
And in the stars the glory of his eyes,  
His body gleams amid eternal snows,  
His tears fall from the skies. 

I see his face in every flower; 
The thunder and the singing of the birds 
Are but his voice – and carven by his power 
Rocks are his written words. 

All pathways by his feet are worn, 
His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea, 
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn, 
His cross is every tree.

Have a good and enjoyable St. Patrick's day.

Better Angels

March 4

…On this date in 1861 a crowd started to gather at the US Capitol building before dawn, in order to attend an early afternoon event.  They were not arriving for a concert, to see the Easter bunny, or some mid-19^th century version of black Friday. They were gathering to hear a gangly, self-educated lawyer from the Illinois prairie speak on his policies for a nation undergoing rapid change and division.  As Abraham Lincoln made his way to the Capitol with President Buchanan from the Willard Hotel, his temporary home in Washington, DC, Lincoln would have seen a city that bears little resemblance to the city we see today.  The city was spread out.  A canal ran for much of the approximate length from the Capitol to the Potomac, following much of what we know as Constitution Avenue, and a sewage canal, and I am not talking storm runoff, ran next to the Smithsonian.  Quite simply the city stank, particularly during the hot summer days.  The National Mall was in the early stages of what we see today.  There were a few monuments present, and the obelisk structure recognizing our first president was under construction. The area east of the Washington Monument, from the WWII memorial to the Lincoln Memorial, was water.  Besides the Capitol and the White House, the most significant structures were the Patent office, (Old) Post Office, and the Smithsonian. This presents an interesting, and telling, contrast with today where the Pentagon and Supreme Court are two of the additionally significant buildings. The Army and Navy departments (yes, they were separate departments), like the state department, found offices in former homes.  The most urban section was around the navy yard. 

Hotel at which Lincoln resided from his arrival
in Washington to March 4.

Juxtaposed against a sunny late winter day were strong March type winds which would portend the upcoming conflict over the states in rebellion.  More people than not in the city would wish this man was not giving the address, all but one member of his incoming cabinet felt they were better than he, and the out-going president’s only words to Lincoln during the carriage ride to the Capitol, was that he hoped he (Lincoln) was as “happy entering the office as I am to leave.”  It was in this kite flying weather that Abraham Lincoln would rise to provide his inaugural address and then take the oath of office.   As librarian Ted Widmer comments “there were more beautiful speeches in the Lincoln canon, and more impressive displays of research.  But no Lincoln speech was ever delivered with more preparation, under more scrutiny, for higher stakes than this one.”  Lincoln had worked on this speech for months, even having an initial version type-set in Springfield, IL by the Illinois State Journal.

While Lincoln gave over 100 speeches in about two weeks during his journey from Springfield to Washington, DC, he remained publicly silent about any policy actions.  Of the comments he made regarding the states in secession, he would refer to it as an artificial crises, and believed the south had little to complain about.  Interestingly, he kept the type-set speech in a carpet bag entrusted to his son Robert.  Robert would mistakenly give the bag to a hotel employee at a stop in Pennsylvania.  When Lincoln found out, not only was he furious with fear of the speech being “leaked,” but he rushed down to the front desk to sort through the collected bags to retrieve his, which he would then keep watch under his eyes.  This speech was not ready for prime time.

Lincoln's notes on his speech copy
His method of cut and paste

On arrival in Washington DC he provided a copy of the speech to William Seward, his rival for the Republican nomination and Secretary of State designate, for comment.  Seward would write pages outlining 49 suggestions, of which Lincoln accepted 27.  The most memorable, and concluding, paragraph came as a result of Seward’s comments.  Some historians say that Seward had little to do with the wording, but I tend to agree with Walter Stahr, a Seward biographer, who says that Lincoln improved on Seward’s suggested conclusion, but Lincoln’s improvements to Seward’s draft were less critical than Seward’s to Lincoln’s draft.  While Lincoln re-worked the last paragraph to provide the poetry we recognize today.  Seward suggested a move from what Stahr refers to as “militaristic music” with an end word of “sword” to a paragraph concluding with affection.  He then provided some suggestions.  Lincoln re-worked Seward’s idea to give the work a memorable conclusion.  Lincoln Biographer Ronald White says that Lincoln’s last sentence has found “its place as American Scripture.”  The concluding paragraph as written:

“I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Lincoln delivery first Inaugural address

Upon conclusion of the speech, the dignitaries and gathered crowd of 30,000 heard Lincoln take the oath of office which was administered by 83 year old Chief Justice Taney, who one commentator of the time referred to as a walking cadaver.  Little known is that just prior to the speech Lincoln was wishing to find a place to put his ever present top hat.  Stephen Douglas, “the Little Giant” a Democratic senator from Illinois and a fierce rival who was one of three who lost the 1860 election to Lincoln, would reach out to take and hold his hat.  It has been commented that Douglas was indicating that if he could not be president, he may as well hold the hat of one.  However, Margaret Leech in a 1941 Pulitzer Prize winning work commented that people viewing the speech saw it as a sign of unity. Thus, even an act of simple kindness by Douglas has come to have two significantly different interpretations. Like the incident with the hat, the speech itself would draw two vastly different reactions.   As one would expect in a partisan and divided nation, some liked the speech, others despised it.  But, Lincoln was looking to work the vast middle.  One commentator points out the words of George Templeton Strong, a diarist from New York, would write that the speech “seems to introduce a man and dispose one to like him.”  Yet, Strong would also go on to say of the speech, that there was a “chunk of metal in it.”  Lincoln’s goal was to shore up his support in the north and at the same time assuage the fears of the south, and the Border States.  But, this bone to southerners was not accepted.  Reinhold Niebuhr in his 1952 work The Irony of American History observes that history is intractable, as its direction and course are beyond human comprehension.  Lincoln found that out.  One can give a speech, but is unable to control how it is heard and interpreted.  Events are often not as controllable as leaders think.

Crowd at First Inaugural 

A Library of Congress on-line exhibit tells us that in preparing his speech, Lincoln turned to historic documents.  In particular “he turned to four documents, all concerned directly or indirectly with state’s rights—the great orator Senator Daniel Webster’s reply to Robert Hayne, Andrew Jackson’s Nullification Proclamation (1832), Henry Clay’s 1850 compromise speech, and the Constitution.  An informed observer of the day would realize that the speech would not make mention of two key aspects of the Republican Party platform—first was its condemnation of efforts to reopen the slave trade, and second the party was against attempts to allow Congress or territorial legislatures to legalize slavery in any territory.  He would state that he did not intend to interfere with slavery where it existed.  Lincoln’s views on slavery were fluid and developing. If war were to come it was to preserve the Union.

Washington, DC in 1860
Note the L shaped green area in the center, top of L is White House
Left base of L would be Washington Monument

Old Fuss and Feathers, whose given name is Winfield Scott, was at the time Commanding General of the US Army, suggested to President Buchanan in October 1860 that US Army installations in the south be resupplied.  Buchanan would not immediately accept this advice, but in January Buchanan would send an unarmed merchant ship Star of the West which was fired upon from shore-side batteries as it attempted a resupply. Scott would oversee the security arrangements for the inauguration, and he himself would be near a battery of artillery at an entrance to the Capitol on that long-ago day.  Later that day, 153 years ago, after taking his oath of office, Lincoln would read a dispatch from the commanding officer of a little regarded outpost in South Carolina.  Major Robert Anderson would write that if Fort Sumter was not soon resupplied that he would have to surrender. 

General Winfield Scott

Surrender would indeed be the end result for Fort Sumter, and it would start the Civil War. Lincoln tried, but ultimately failed to convince the south of working through a political solution.  The south thought the north would never fight a war; the north thought a war would be over with quickly.  Both were wrong.  War would come, and men would die, adding battlefields and patriot graves to the mystic cords of memory that form our national consciousness, but, in the end, the nation discovered the better angels of our nature.