November 19 - Remembering James A. Garfield

Posted on November 19, 2017

Here are a few things that James A. Garfield had in common with the more famous Abraham Lincoln:

He was raised on a farm in the North, in a family without much money.

Part of his childhood, he lived in a simple log cabin.

He was a Republican.

He was against the Confederate secession - which means he was against the South breaking away from the United States and causing the Civil War.

He was involved with the Civil War on the Union side.

He was elected president of the U.S.

He was assassinated.

Of course, there are loads of differences between the two presidents. Lincoln was born in Kentucky and raised there and in Illinois, whereas Garfield was born and raised in Ohio. Lincoln was president during the Civil War, whereas Garfield served as a major general in the Union Army. Also, Lincoln served as president a lot longer than Garfield. Lincoln served an entire 4-year term, was re-elected, and was assassinated by a pro-Confederate actor just a few days after the South surrendered. Garfield, on the other hand, was shot less than four months  after he was sworn into office, and he died from an infection about two months later (his doctor hadn't washed his hands before treating Garfield for his gunshot wound). 

Because of the short time Garfield had in office (and because, much of that time, he was trying to recover from being shot), Garfield is ranked in the bottom half of presidents as far as accomplishments, and many historians don't feel it is fair to rank him at all. 

However, Garfield did get some things accomplished in just a few months, and he got the ball rolling on a big accomplishment. Garfield was responsible for increasing America's naval power and for the appointments of several important posts, including a U.S. Supreme Court justice. Garfield got rid of corruption in the post office and was moving to get rid of corruption all through the civil service. (The civil service is made up of the permanent staff of professionals who work in the government's administration, aside from judges and military folks and elected officials.) After Garfield's death, his proposed anti-corruption bill was passed and signed into law. 

What might he have done with more time in office? Garfield wanted to increase technology on the nation's farms and ranches. He wanted to work for better education and for civil rights for African Americans. 

Garfield knew the dangers of mixing church and state.

He was against a tax exemption for churches,
and he was a Christian pastor before he was a politician! 

Did you know...?

James Garfield knew and taught Latin and Greek. He was ambidextrous - which means he was comfortable writing both right- and left-handed - and, get this: He is supposed to have been able to ask visitors a question and then write the answer in Latin with one hand and in Greek with the other - AT THE SAME TIME!

Garfield is credited as the first president to campaign in more than just English, he campaigned in German as well as English.

 

 

Also on this date:

Rocky and Bullwinkle Day 

Actress / director Jodie Foster's birthday

Monaco's National Holiday

Gettysburg Address Day

Machu Picchu promoter Hiram Bingham's birthday

Discovery Day in Puerto Rico

Garifuna Settlement Day in Belize

World Toilet Day

Geographic Information Systems Day

Oman's Sultan's Birthday

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

• November holidays
• November birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in November

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

• December holidays
• December birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in December

December 29, 2012 - Happy Birthday, Andrew Johnson

He wasn't elected president—he became president when Abraham Lincoln was tragically assassinated.

He had no vice president—nobody had ever thought through what would happen if a VP had to step up to the top job, and then something had happened to him! (The Constitution has since been amended, so now there is a succession for vice presidents as well as presidents.)

Andrew Johnson was a Democrat—even though he ran for election with President Abraham Lincoln, a Republican! Lincoln was famous for consulting people with all sorts of opinions, especially those with ideas that opposed his own, but that wasn't the reason he selected a person from an opposing party as his running mate. Instead, Lincoln was looking forward to the end of the war and reunification, and he chose a running mate that would show the South that he was dedicated to welcoming Confederate states back into the nation rather than to punishing them for leaving.

Andrew Johnson was not only a Democrat, he was a Southerner—he was from the state of Tennessee, which had broken off from the Union and joined the Confederacy! At the time that Tennessee seceded (broke away), Johnson was a Senator from Tennessee—but he refused to quit his post in the Senate and join the Confederacy. He was convinced that, if the United States really did break up, there would be not just two countries, but many small countries, each with its own form of government. I guess he thought that scenario didn't lend itself to a peaceful future! So Johnson spoke up loudly against the Confederacy and for Lincoln.

Johnson was (like Lincoln) a self-educated man with a poor family and few formal schooling opportunities.

And I'm telling you all of this because today is his birthday—Andrew Johnson was born on this date in 1808.

Coincidence presented as mystery

Have you ever heard about that list of mystical connections between John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln? Both of these presidents were assassinated, and both were succeeded by Southern Democrats with the last name of Johnson. There are a lot of other similarities, as well – according to lists of 16 to 40 similarities that circulate on the internet and elsewhere.

Many people look at one of these lists and marvel at the eeriness of so many coincidences. “It can't be JUST coincidence!” they think. “There has to be some sort of weird cosmic connection between these two assassinations!”

Actually, these lists of Lincoln-Kennedy coincidences are examples of “cherry-picking” and fudging data. ANY two presidents (or anyone else, for that matter) would have as many similarities—but there are also millions of differences. For example, the fact that the names Lincoln and Kennedy have seven letters each is trivial but true; on the other hand, the two presidents' first names have different numbers of letters (Abraham has seven and John has four), their nicknames have different numbers of letters (Abe has three and Jack has four), and their middle names are a completely different situation, since Kennedy's middle name, Fitzgerald, has ten letters and Lincoln didn't even have a middle name! Furthermore, Kennedy is frequently referred to as JFK, and Lincoln is never referred to with initial letters. So the list just cherry picked the one similarity, name-wise, and didn't mention all the differences.

An example of fudging data (also known as lying) is the so-called coincidence that Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln and Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy. President Kennedy did, in fact, have a secretary named Evelyn Lincoln, but President Lincoln did not have a secretary named Kennedy. Several items on the list are either mistakes, lies, or worded so oddly (such as referring to a tobacco shed as a warehouse) that they may as well be lies.

If you want to see a thorough description of why lists of Lincoln-Kennedy similarities are flawed and misleading, check out this Snopes article. 

Also on this date:

Tick Tock Day 

Explorer and scientist Joaquin de Acosta's birthday 

Anniversary of Texas's statehood

Madame de Pompadour's birthday

November 19, 2012 - Gettysburg Address Day

Seven score and nine years ago, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln brought forth in this nation a very small, very impactful speech.

The occasion was the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The style of the day was for orators (speakers) to go on and on with long, soaring speeches. And indeed, one of the most famous orators of the time, Edward Everett, had been invited to speak, and he wowed the crowd with two hours of grand speechifying. Then President Lincoln, who was coming down with a mild case of smallpox and felt a bit ill, stood up and gave what he was asked to give: “a few appropriate remarks.”

Just 272 words.

A mere 10 sentences.

He started and was finished in just a couple of minutes. The photographer missed taking a picture of him while speaking, he finished so unexpectedly quickly!

Lincoln received very little, if any, applause. (Reports differ.)

And yet this speech, these 272 words, are considered one of the greatest speeches in American history!

Lincoln looked at the founding principles of the U.S. within the prism of the Civil War, and he restated the principles of human equality, expressed in the Declaration of Independence, within the context of the ending of slavery. He talked about the preservation of the nation and finished with iconic words describing the American government: “...this government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

The Gettysburg Address
is carved on the walls of the
Lincoln Memorial.

Check these out...

I like this animated video and stirring reading of the Gettysburg Address A LOT. 

Here is another video about the Gettysburg Address.

Also on this date:

Machu Picchu promoter Hiram Bingham's birthday 

Discovery Day in Puerto Rico 

Garifuna Settlement Day in Belize 

World Toilet Day 

February 12, 2010

Darwin Day AND Lincoln's Birthday 

Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were famously born on the very same day--this date in 1809--Darwin in England and Lincoln in the U.S. Darwin was born to a well-to-do family and ended up becoming one of the most important scientists of all time, and Lincoln was born in a much poorer family and ended up becoming one of the most important U.S. Presidents.

Last year, upon the occasion of these two men's 200th birthdays, articles and books compared the two, and we found out that both men lost their mothers in childhood, had strained relationships with their fathers, and suffered from depression. Both had difficulties settling on a career. Lincoln piloted a river raft, split rails, and served as a store clerk, postmaster, and surveyor before becoming a lawyer and finally seeking political office. Darwin, as the son of a wealthy society doctor, was supposed to become a doctor as well but neglected his studies at medical school. His disappointed father enrolled him in another university program so that he could become a parson in the Anglican church instead. However, after graduating, Darwin, who had always been interested in nature, took a position on the H.M.S. Beagle as a gentleman naturalist, and so began his career in science.

The most significant likeness between Darwin and Lincoln, of course, is that they both had major impact on the world.

Lincoln was president during the dreadful Civil War, when southern states broke away from the country and formed the Confederate States of America in response to efforts to limit the spread of slavery. Lincoln's act of keeping the nation together shaped how the U.S. thought of itself—more a country than a collection of states—and widened the commitment that the nation was based on the idea that “all men are created equal.” Of course, Lincoln had enormous impact on the United States itself, but Lincoln also helped set up the country as an important, long-lasting nation on the world stage, and eventually a super-power.

Darwin and his big idea revolutionized all of biology and changed how people thought of themselves and their history. Because findings in biology mesh with findings in geology, chemistry, and other sciences, Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection has had an impact on other scientific fields and even the philosophy of science. The language of evolution and selection has been applied (sometimes incorrectly) far outside of Darwin's Origin of the Species, and linguists now discuss the evolution and extinction of languages, social scientists discuss the reproduction and mutation of memes (bits of human culture, such as a particular song or style of dress), and economists discuss evolutionary models of monetary systems.

One reason for the influence of Lincoln and Darwin is that they both wrote exceptionally well. Here are some quotes from the two men:

A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life. – Darwin

A house divided against itself cannot stand. – Lincoln

A man's friendships are one of the best measures of his worth. – Darwin

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them? – Lincoln

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. – Darwin

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. – Lincoln

To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact. – Darwin

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. – Lincoln

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science. – Darwin

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm. – Lincoln

Check out a Lincoln timeline.

Some kids and their teachers at Berwick Academy made an illustrated timeline of Abraham Lincoln's life. After you enjoy looking at it, consider making a similar contribution on a topic that interests you! The internet is a very democratic institution—anyone can add to the writings, art, and photography available on the web!

Find out more about Lincoln here.

Watch a movie about Darwin.

This clip from Animal Planet, about Darwin and the Galapagos Islands, is short and funny. This clip from National Geographic deals with Darwin in a more serious way and has beautiful photography.

Attend a Darwin Day event.

This international celebration includes many local events, some held in museums and universities. Check for a local event here.