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The Blessings from God on our Nation

Mon, 17 Jul 2023 16:30:13 GMT

As I was reviewing the readings from mass yesterday, I turned to my American Patriots Bible, edited by Dr Richard G. Lee (I would suggest you pick up a copy of this bible – it is fantastic). The first reading was from Zechariah, the second to the last book in the Old Testament, written 500 years before Christ. The theme of this book is the return of God to the City of Jerusalem.

But God’s richest blessings are bestowed with certain responsibilities. * As he took his place as America’s 23rd President in 1889, Benjamin Harrison admonished his fellow citizens, “No other people have a government more worthy of their respect and love, or a land so magnificent in extent, so pleasant to look upon, and so full of generous suggestion to enterprise and labor. God has placed upon our head a diadem and has laid at our feet power and wealth beyond definition or calculation. But we must not forget that we take these gifts upon the condition that justice and mercy shall hold the reins of power and the upward avenues of hope shall be free to all people.”

Students For Trump

Wed, 12 Aug 2020 21:40:12 GMT

AN HONEST HISTORY OF BLACK PEOPLE AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

On July 4, 1776 our Founding Fathers forged a new nation over 240 years ago with a Constitution which is perhaps the greatest document ever written, except for the Bible. The Constitution was dedicated to the ideals that it would not discriminate any people on the basis of race, religion, color or sex. Never before in the history of the world had a country that was blessed with so many rights and freedoms given to its people. Now these rights and freedoms are being brutally challenged by our radical left wing Democrats.

We the people have seen our cities burned, vandalized, precious monuments and buildings destroyed! Police cars were set on fire, children, police and citizens killed along with destruction of all kinds going rampant.

The individuals doing these criminal acts of violence and murder are not being challenged by the radical left wing Democratic mayors of cities whose socialistic aim is to ruin our government and replace it with Marxist Socialism.

A strong force in all this destruction is a group called “Black Lives Matter” because they say white people are racists and are keeping them in chains. If this is true then who is the party of racists and who is the party of chains. It is time to be accurate and honest about the history of black people and the Democratic party.

Let us set the record straight, once and for all!!!

The following article was sent to me that was named ,

STUDENTS FOR TRUMP

Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican President. Lincoln wanted to free the slaves. Democrats fought the Civil War to keep the slaves in bondage. During this war thousands of white soldiers died for their black brothers.

President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves in America. Democrat slave owners were furious. Lincoln made equality for all and made black people part of the official Republican Party platform. Republicans wrote and passed the 13th amendment ending slavery forever in the United States. Most Democrats voted against it.

Republicans wrote and passed the 14th amendment and granted citizenship & equal protection under the law to former slaves. No Democrats voted for it. Republicans wrote and passed the 15th amendment, allowing black slaves to vote. No Democrats voted for it.

The first black senator was a Republican. The first black member of the United States House of Representatives was a republican and former slave. In fact, the first 23 black members of congress were all Republican.

While Republicans were electing black people to congress, the Democrats were founding the Ku Klux Klan. The KKK was founded in opposition to the Republican Party. The KKK dedicated itself to a campaign of violence against the blacks and Republican leaders. The KKK wanted white supremacy fulfilled through electing Democrats.

Democratic states passed racist Jim Crow laws that dehumanized black people. Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent the National Guard to protect black students integrating into all white schools in Little Rock, Arkansas. Who opposed this? The Democrats who ran that state.

A segregationist Democrat ran for President every cycle until the 1980’s. The civil rights act outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion or sex.

By percentage, more republicans voted for the civil rights act than democrats. Republican President Nixon used federal powers to desegregate even more states.

Black Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas was nominated by George H. W. Bush. His son George W. Bush started an aids program that saved over 13 million lives, mostly in Africa.

President Trump restored funding to historically black colleges and universities. President Trump passed the first step act achieving landmark criminal justice reforms. President Trump passed the tax cuts and jobs act which featured opportunity gains and incentivizing long-term investments in low income communities.

Under President Trump, unemployment for black Americans fell to the lowest number Americans have ever seen and black wages rose to the highest numbers in history.

Meanwhile, Democratic Governor of Virginia wears black face multiple times and remains in office while Joe Biden says “You’re not black unless you vote for me!”

So tell me, who are the racists that want to keep the blacks in bondage? The Democrats or the Republicans?

In conclusion, the Founding Fathers, in their Constitution, can say “Black Lives DO Matter”. And, that, it is their right to have equal rights and freedoms as citizens of the United States of America.

STUDENTS FOR TRUMP

Joe Mastromatteo

5 Things You Didn't Know About Pearl Harbor 5 Things You Didn't Know About Pearl Harbor

proadAccountId-347284 — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 19:36:54 GMT

More than three-quarters of a century have passed since the "day that will live in infamy." Just before eight o'clock in the morning on December 7, 1941, a Japanese force made up of 350-plus planes, supported by submarines, cruisers, destroyers, and battleships, attacked Pearl Harbor , a U.S. naval station on Oahu, Hawaii.

In total, 2,403 people died in the attack on Pearl Harbor. Japan destroyed 19 American ships, including the USS Arizona , which remains underwater. You know what came next. The aftermath of the attack plunged the country into World War II, making it, as TheNew York Times reported the next morning , "... the first time in its history, the United States finds itself at war against powers in both the Atlantic and the Pacific."

But even now, 77 years later, there's probably a lot you don't know about Pearl Harbor. We look at five lesser-known facts about one December day that changed the course of history.

The "Sleeping Dragon" Almost Stayed Asleep

It's a day taught in every history book, and arguably one of the most transformative days in American history—next to Independence Day and 9/11. But according to historian and author of Pearl Harbor: From Infamy to Greatness , Craig Nelson, it should never have happened in the first place. Speaking with Popular Mechanics, Nelson says failed negotiations on both sides of the table failed to prevent war.

Erroneously, America pigeonholed Japan into a similar fascist system like Nazi Germany then ravaging Europe. "They thought the Japanese were just like the Nazis, in that they were unified behind a philosophy, a madman dictator, and the unstoppable force of fascism," says Nelson. "They weren't ... the Japanese government was so chaotic that it changed hands 15 times in 14 years." Because of this constant turnover, there were moments in the lead-up to war that the United States could have negotiated a peace with an incoming government, most notably with Japan's last civilian prime minister Fumimaro Konoe . America's misunderstanding of Japan's political turmoil eventually led to war.

Unfortunately, things on the other side of the Pacific weren't much better. Not everyone was in agreement about entering into war with the United States, including the admiral who planned the Pearl Harbor attack Isoroku Yamamoto, who had actually studied at Harvard . "He ... warned his military superiors that such an attack would awaken a giant sleeping dragon that Japan could not hope to materially defeat," wrote Keith Huxen, senior director of research and history at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, to Popular Mechanics, "However, he was ignored."

While Admiral Yamamoto did lead the attack as ordered, he turned out to be right about waking up America from its global slumber and forever changing the course of history.

One Japanese Communications Officer Changed the World Forever

In the run-up to World War II, wireless telegraphy was the most effective and efficient way for far-away nations to communicate. This was certainly the case between the United States and Japan, who were talking via cable right up to the attack. On December 6, President Roosevelt sent a cable to his Japanese counterpart Emperor Shōwa in hopes of "dispelling the dark clouds" by appealing to the two countries' long-standing peace and friendship. But Major Morio Tomura, an army officer stationed at the Tokyo's cable office, delayed the conciliatory cable arriving for the Imperial Palace by ten hours because he believed that war was Japan's destiny.

When the cable finally arrived, Japan had already composed a 14-part cable announcing the end of negotiations that was to be sent back to America with the intention of delivering it 30 minutes before the strike. Although it might sound weird in modern warfare, it's part of the samurai/bushido honor code to notify someone before attacking them.

However, the same Major Tomura delayed the cable yet again and it didn't arrive until nearly two hours after the attack. "The entire day of infamy," says Nelson, "you can almost say was caused by this one character."

The Mysterious New Yorker Ad That May Have Been a Warning

On November 22, 15 days before the strike at Pearl Harbor, several odd advertisements showed up in New Yorker Magazine for a dice game called "The Deadly Double." The initial ad features a headline reading "Achtung, Warning, Alerte!" (German for "Attention, Warning, Alert") with an illustrated image of people in an underground bunker enjoying the dice game.

Underneath, further copy says, "We hope you'll never have to spend a long winter's night in an air-raid shelter, but we were just thinking ... it's only common sense to be prepared." It then explains all the things one will need, like canned goods, blankets, cigarettes and "Chicago's favorite game ... (in bold, stylized letters) The Deadly Double." Throughout the magazine, the other advertisements refer back to this main one, however one featured a close-up pair of dice with the numbers 12 and 7 showing.

For some, these extraordinarily bizarre ads were actually a warning about Pearl Harbor. According to Nelson's book, investigations into the matter led to dead-ends since the ad was delivered in person to the office and the fee paid in cash. There are conflicting reports that the company mentioned (the Monarch Publishing Company out of New York) and its game ever even existed. Either way, Nelson thinks the ads were in poor taste and definitely creepy, but likely unrelated to the attack.

The Lingering Specter of Pearl Harbor

The 2,403 people who perished in Pearl Harbor were not the only victims. Many survivors endured lingering PTSD, a psychological disorder that often went undiagnosed during this time. According to a 1989 study , 65 percent of Pearl Harbor survivors still suffered from PTSD flashbacks decades after the attack. In addition, nearly a quarter reported that certain stimuli (like engine noises) startled them and caused flashbacks.

No one illustrates post–Pearl Harbor PTSD more than Sterling Cale . While docked when the bombs started dropping, he immediately dived in the water to save dozens of his fellow sailors. The USS Arizona blew up during this daring rescue. After the attack, since Cale appeared visibly unscathed, he was given the unenviable job of collecting dead bodies from the ships. As Nelson's book mentions, often he wasn't collecting bodies—so much as dust.

Flash forward about six years later and Cale is at a family picnic on the beach when a wave unexpectedly pulls his two-year-old son out to sea. Cale jumps into the water to save his child, only to freeze and go into shock. Luckily, the family's dog miraculously pulled the little boy to safety, but Cale's trauma prevents him from ever getting near a shoreline again.

The USS Arizona is Still Leaking Fuel

On December 6, the USS Arizona took on a full load of 1.5 million gallons of fuel in preparation for a January mainland trip. The next day at about 8:10 a.m., a Japanese bomber dropped its 1,700-pound payload onto the ship, igniting the fuel. A horrific explosion lifted the 33,000-ton ship out of the water and ripped it in half. This explosion, and subsequent fires (which burned for 2-1/2 days afterwards), killed 1,177 sailors and marines, or about 80 percent of the crew on board.

Since that day, the USS Arizona continues to leak oil into the harbor at an estimated 2 to 9 quarts each day . According to most estimates, there's nearly half a million gallons of thick, bunker C fuel oil still trapped in the rusting ship. Easily observed by visitors, some call the oil slick the "tears of the Arizona" or "black tears ." However, various environmental studies have concluded that a "catastrophic" release of the fuel oil is inevitable , but scientists are not sure of when this could happen.

Source: December issue of Popular Mechanics, by Mike Blitz

Columbus Day - October 14, 2019

proadAccountId-347284 — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 14:13:00 GMT

COLUMBUS DAY and LYNCHING

We bet you never thought you would see those two words together. We never did either….until this past week.

Columbus Day 2019 was celebrated on Monday, October 14, 2019. Recently there has been a movement to change the name to Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and several states and municipalities have embraced this name change. Why? Because they believe the Christopher Columbus was an evil man, who enslaved and killed many of the people he encountered in his quest to discover new lands. That’s a whole other topic.

And what about lynching? This past week, President Trump used the word to describe the current “impeachment hearings” against him that have been going on for the past few months.

Webster defines the term lynching as the following: to inflict punishment upon, especially death, without the forms of law.

Dictionary.com describes it similarly: to put to death, especially by hanging, by mob action and without legal authority.

Used figuratively, one could say that lynching refers to the process of persecution without due process.

Of course, the word is a disturbing one to anyone who knows American history. There were close to 5,000 deaths in the USA in the 20th century by lynching. Gross and despicable. Unacceptable. No question about it. People were killed simply because someone didn’t like them.

But did you know that the largest lynching in US history involved white victims? That’s right. It happened in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1891. 19 men were imprisoned unjustly during the murder trial of New Orleans police chief David Hennessey. All men were of Italian/Sicilian descent. The racism against Italian immigrants at the time was rampant. And after the men were acquitted, they were put back in prison. The next day, a mob broke into the prison and lynched the suspects. 11 were killed. 8 hid throughout the prison and escaped death. It was at that time when President Benjamin Harrison, in an effort to ease tensions between Italy and the US due to the incident, declared the first nationwide celebration of Columbus Day in 1892, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the Italian explorer’s landing in the new world.

How fitting it is, then, that this modern-day “lynching” of President Trump is occurring in October, the month our nation celebrates Columbus Day, a day that was put forth following the largest lynching in our nations’ history?

Source: Wikipedia.

National Day of Prayer - May 2, 2019

Tue, 30 Apr 2019 16:53:59 GMT

Our Founding Fathers were strong believers in the Bible, which shaped their thinking and writing of their laws and documents. Their principles and ethics of Judeo Christian values were a foundation for our Founding Fathers that formed their political ideas, which resulted in the Republic and Constitution that we have today.

One such document is the Proclamation of the National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer of the Second Continental Congress of June 12, 1775, setting aside July 20, 1775 for such a day. This Proclamation was issued shortly after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, when the War of American Independence had just begun.

This was the first National Day of Prayer, the second being May 17,1776. Note the conciliatory language towards Britain as compared to the Second National Day. This document is published in the Journals of the Continental Congress, and signed by John Hancock, President of the Congress, and affirmed by Charles Thomson, Secretary. Our Christian heritage is clearly evident in this Proclamation.

In 1795 President George Washington issued a Proclamation. When he said;

I, George Washington, President of the United States, do recommend to all religious societies and denominations and to all persons whomsoever within the United States, to set apart and observe a day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer.

With devout reverence and affectionate gratitude, to acknowledge our many and great obligations to Almighty God, and to implore Him to continue and confirm the blessings we experience.

Therefore, on that day we shall meet together to render sincere thanks for the mercies which distinguish our lot as a nation;

Especially for the possession of constitutions of government which unite and establish liberty with order, and to also preserve our peace, both foreign and domestic and for reasonable control which has been given to a spirit of disorder.

This shall promote prosperity for the condition of our affairs, both public and private, and at the same time humbly and fervently beseech the Kind Author of these blessings graciously to prolong them to us.

To imprint on our hearts a deep and solemn sense of our obligations for them.

To teach us rightly to estimate their immense value.

To preserve us from the arrogance of prosperity.

By our gratitude for these blessings, and by a corresponding conduct as citizens and as men to render this country more and more a safe and propitious asylum for the unfortunate of other countries.

To extend among us true and useful knowledge.

To establish habits of sobriety, order, and morality and piety.

President George Washington January 1, 1795

In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln continued a call for a day of Thanksgiving and Prayer.

In 1952 Congress established a National Day of Prayer as an annual event and signed by President Truman.

In 1988 President Reagan designated the annual National Day of Prayer as the first Thursday in May.

PEARL HARBOR DAY - Dec 7, 2018

Thu, 06 Dec 2018 20:32:41 GMT

In the early hours of Sunday, December 7th, 1941, Japanese fighter planes attacked the U. S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. In just two hours, more than 2000 American soldiers, sailors and civilians died and another 1000 were wounded and 20 American naval vessels and more than 300 airplanes.

It was the beginning of the US entrance into World War II, the largest war the world has ever known. Immediately after, the entire country mobilized for defense. President Roosevelt asked congress to declare war against Imperial Japan. “We are in a state of war. We have been attacked.” The spirit of patriotism blossomed thereafter, with hundreds of thousands of men and women enlisting for service. The US Congress voted 388 to 1 (Jeannette Rankin of Montana was the only vote against declaring war on Japan).

The surprise attack came as a profound shock to the American people and led directly to the American entry into World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters . The following day, December 8, the United States declared war on Japan, and several days later, on December 11, Germany and Italy each declared war on the U.S. The U.S. responded with a declaration of war against Germany and Italy . Domestic support for non-interventionism , which had been fading since the Fall of France in 1940, disappeared.

There were numerous historical precedents for unannounced military action by Japan, but the lack of any formal warning, particularly while negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, " a date which will live in infamy ". Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, the attack on Pearl Harbor was later judged in the Tokyo Trials to be a war crime .

Today, let us remember those who bravely fought for our freedom in World War II. If you know a living veteran from this war, take a few moments to reach out to them and thank them for their service to our great country. As this event took place 77 years ago, there are only a few veterans still alive from this war. Do not miss the opportunity to honor them today.

MEMORIAL DAY

lemaster@digitalproductsuite.com — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Memorial Day or Decoration Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in the country's armed forces. The holiday, which is currently observed every year on the last Monday of May, was held on May 28, 2018. The holiday was held on May 30 from 1868 to 1970. It marks the unofficial start of the summer vacation season, while Labor Day marks its end.

Many people visit cemeteries and memorials, particularly to honor those who have died in military service. Many volunteers place an American flag on each grave in national cemeteries .

Memorial Day is not to be confused with Veterans Day – Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving, whereas Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans. It is also not to be confused with Armed Forces Day , a minor U.S. remembrance celebrated earlier in May, which specifically honors those currently serving in the U.S. military.

History

1870 Decoration Day parade in St. Paul, Minnesota

The practice of decorating soldiers' graves with flowers is an ancient custom. Soldiers' graves were decorated in the U.S. before and during the American Civil War .

Some believe that an annual cemetery decoration practice began before the American Civil War and thus may reflect the real origin of the "memorial day" idea. Annual Decoration Days for particular cemeteries are still held on a Sunday in late spring or early summer in some rural areas of the American South, notably in the mountain areas. In cases involving a family graveyard where remote ancestors as well as those who were deceased more recently are buried, this may take on the character of an extended family reunion to which some people travel hundreds of miles. People gather, put flowers on graves and renew contacts with relatives and others. There often is a religious service and a picnic-like "dinner on the grounds," the traditional term for a potluck meal at a church.

On June 3, 1861, Warrenton, Virginia was the location of the first Civil War soldier's grave ever to be decorated, according to a Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper article in 1906. In 1862, women in Savannah, Georgia decorated Confederate soldiers' graves according to the Savannah Republican. The 1863 cemetery dedication at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania , was a ceremony of commemoration at the graves of dead soldiers. On July 4, 1864, ladies decorated soldiers' graves according to local historians in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania and Boalsburg promotes itself as the birthplace of Memorial Day.

In April 1865, following President Abraham Lincoln's assassination , commemorations were ubiquitous. The more than 600,000 soldiers of both sides who died in the Civil War meant that burial and memorialization took on new cultural significance. Under the leadership of women during the war, an increasingly formal practice of decorating graves had taken shape. In 1865, the federal government began creating national military cemeteries for the Union war dead.

On May 1, 1865, in Charleston, South Carolina , recently freed African-Americans held a parade of 10,000 people to honor 257 dead Union Soldiers, whose remains they had reburied from a mass grave in a Confederate prison camp. Historian David W. Blight cites contemporary news reports of this incident in the Charleston Daily Courier and the New-York Tribune . Although Blight claimed that "African Americans invented Memorial Day in Charleston, South Carolina", in 2012, Blight stated that he "has no evidence" that the event in Charleston inspired the establishment of Memorial Day across the country. Accordingly, investigators for Time Magazine , LiveScience , RealClearLife and Snopes have called this conclusion into question.

In 1868, copying a southern annual observance, General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic , an organization of Union veterans founded in Decatur, Illinois , established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the Union war dead with flowers. By the 20th century, various Union and Confederate memorial traditions, celebrated on different days, merged, and Memorial Day eventually extended to honor all Americans who died while in the military service.

On May 26, 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson designated an "official" birthplace of the holiday by signing the presidential proclamation naming Waterloo, New York , as the holder of the title. This action followed House Concurrent Resolution 587, in which the 89th Congress had officially recognized that the patriotic tradition of observing Memorial Day had begun one hundred years prior in Waterloo, New York. The village credits druggist Henry C. Welles and county clerk John B. Murray as the founders of the holiday. Scholars have determined that the Waterloo account is a myth. Snopes and Live Science also discredit the Waterloo account.

In the North

The Tomb of the Unknowns located in Arlington National Cemetery

On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan issued a proclamation calling for "Decoration Day" to be observed annually and nationwide; he was commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic , an organization of and for Union Civil War veterans. With his proclamation, Logan adopted the Memorial Day practice that had begun in the Southern states three years earlier.

The first northern Memorial Day was observed on May 30, 1868. One author claims that the date was chosen because it was not the anniversary of any particular battle. According to a White House address in 2010, the date was chosen as the optimal date for flowers to be in bloom in the North.

The northern states quickly adopted the holiday. In 1868, memorial events were held in 183 cemeteries in 27 states, and 336 in 1869. In 1871, Michigan made "Decoration Day" an official state holiday and by 1890, every northern state had followed suit. There was no standard program for the ceremonies, but they were typically sponsored by the Women's Relief Corps , the women's auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) , which had 100,000 members. By 1870, the remains of nearly 300,000 Union dead had been reinterred in 73 national cemeteries, located near major battlefields and thus mainly in the South. The most famous are Gettysburg National Cemetery in Pennsylvania and Arlington National Cemetery , near Washington, D.C.

Memorial Day speeches became an occasion for veterans, politicians, and ministers to commemorate the Civil War and, at first, to rehash the "atrocities" of the enemy. They mixed religion and celebratory nationalism for the people to make sense of their history in terms of sacrifice for a better nation. People of all religious beliefs joined together and the point was often made that the German and Irish soldiers had become true Americans in the "baptism of blood" on the battlefield.

Since 1868, Doylestown, Pennsylvania , has held annual Memorial Day parades which it claims to be the nation's oldest continuously running. However, the Memorial Day parade in Rochester, Wisconsin , predates Doylestown's by one year.

By the 1880s, ceremonies were becoming quite similar as the GAR provided handbooks that presented specific procedures, poems, and Bible verses for local post commanders to utilize in planning the local event. Historian Stuart McConnell reports:

“On the day itself, the post assembled and marched to the local cemetery to decorate the graves of the fallen, an enterprise meticulously organized months in advance to assure that none were missed. Finally came a simple and subdued graveyard service involving prayers, short patriotic speeches, and music...and at the end perhaps a rifle salute.”

In the South

Confederate Memorial Monument in Montgomery, Alabama

The U.S. National Park Service and numerous scholars attribute the beginning of a Memorial Day practice in the South to the ladies of Columbus, Georgia. On April 25, 1866, women in Columbus, Mississippi laid flowers on the graves of both the Union and Confederate dead in the city's cemetery. The early southern Memorial Day celebrations were simple, somber occasions for veterans and their families to honor the dead and tend to local cemeteries.

Historians acknowledge the Ladies Memorial Association played a key role in these rituals of preservation of Confederate "memory." Various dates ranging from April 25 to mid-June were adopted in different Southern states. Across the South, associations were founded, many by women, to establish and care for permanent cemeteries for the Confederate dead, organize commemorative ceremonies, and sponsor appropriate monuments as a permanent way of remembering the Confederate dead. The most important of these was the United Daughters of the Confederacy , which grew from 17,000 members in 1900 to nearly 100,000 women by World War I . They were "strikingly successful at raising money to build Confederate monuments, lobbying legislatures and Congress for the reburial of Confederate dead, and working to shape the content of history textbooks."

In 1868, some southerners appended the label "Confederate" to what they originally called "Memorial Day" after northerners co-opted the holiday. The tradition of observances were linked to the South, they served as the prototype for the national day of memory embraced by the nation in 1868.

By 1890, there was a shift from the emphasis on honoring specific soldiers to a public commemoration of the Confederate south. Changes in the ceremony's hymns and speeches reflect an evolution of the ritual into a symbol of cultural renewal and conservatism in the South. By 1913, David Blight argues, the theme of American nationalism shared equal time with the Confederate.

At Gettysburg

Soldiers National Monument at the center of Gettysburg National Cemetery

Starting in 1868, the ceremonies and Memorial Day address at Gettysburg National Park became nationally known. In July 1913, veterans of the United States and Confederate armies gathered in Gettysburg to commemorate the fifty-year anniversary of the Civil War's bloodiest and most famous battle.

Since the cemetery dedication at Gettysburg occurred on November 19, that day (or the closest weekend) has been designated as their own local memorial day that is referred to as Remembrance Day .

20th century

Indiana from the 1860s to the 1920s saw numerous debates on how to expand the celebration. It was a favorite lobbying activity of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). An 1884 GAR handbook explained that Memorial Day was "the day of all days in the G.A.R. Calendar" in terms of mobilizing public support for pensions. It advised family members to "exercise great care" in keeping the veterans sober. As the years went by, the GAR complained more and more about the younger generation. In 1913, one Hoosier veteran complained that younger people born since the war had a "tendency ... to forget the purpose of Memorial Day and make it a day for games, races and revelry, instead of a day of memory and tears." Indeed, in 1911 the scheduling of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway car race was vehemently opposed by the increasingly elderly GAR. The state legislature in 1923 rejected the race on that special day. But the new American Legion and local officials wanted the big race to continue, so Governor Warren McCray vetoed the bill and the race went on.

In the national capital in 1913 the four-day "Blue-Gray Reunion" featured parades, re-enactments, and speeches from a host of dignitaries, including President Woodrow Wilson , the first Southerner elected to the White House since the War. James Heflin of Alabama gave the main address. Heflin was a noted orator; his choice as Memorial Day speaker was criticized, as he was opposed for his support of segregation; however, his speech was moderate in tone and stressed national unity and goodwill, gaining him praise from newspapers.

One of the longest-standing traditions is the running of the Indianapolis 500 , an auto race which has been held in conjunction with Memorial Day since 1911. Originally it was held on Memorial Day itself, and since 1974 it runs on the Sunday preceding the Memorial Day holiday. Since 1961 NASCAR 's Coca-Cola 600 has been held during Memorial Day weekend, and has also been held on the previous Sunday since 1974. Since 1976, The Memorial Tournament golf event has been held on or close to the Memorial Day weekend. The final of the NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship is held on Memorial Day.

"On Decoration Day" Political cartoon c. 1900 by John T. McCutcheon . Caption: "You bet I'm goin' to be a soldier, too, like my Uncle David, when I grow up."

The preferred name for the holiday gradually changed from "Decoration Day" to "Memorial Day," which was first used in 1882. Memorial Day did not become the more common name until after World War II , and was not declared the official name by Federal law until 1967. On June 28, 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act , which moved four holidays, including Memorial Day, from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend. The change moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May. The law took effect at the federal level in 1971. After some initial confusion and unwillingness to comply, all 50 states adopted Congress' change of date within a few years.

21st century

Memorial Day endures as a holiday which most businesses observe because it marks the unofficial beginning of summer. The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) advocated returning to the original date, although the significance of the date is tenuous. The VFW stated in 2002:

Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed a lot to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day.

In 2000, Congress passed the National Moment of Remembrance Act, asking people to stop and remember at 3:00 PM.

On Memorial Day, the flag of the United States is raised briskly to the top of the staff and then solemnly lowered to the half-staff position, where it remains only until noon. It is then raised to full-staff for the remainder of the day.

Memorial Day observances in small New England towns are often marked by dedications and remarks by veterans and politicians.

The National Memorial Day Concert takes place on the west lawn of the United States Capitol . The concert is broadcast on PBS and NPR . Music is performed, and respect is paid to the men and women who gave their lives for their country.

Across the United States, the central event is attending one of the thousands of parades held on Memorial Day in large and small cities. Most of these feature marching bands and an overall military theme with the Active Duty, Reserve, National Guard and Veteran service members participating along with military vehicles from various wars.

Poppies

Main article: Remembrance poppy

In 1915, following the Second Battle of Ypres , Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae , a physician with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, wrote the poem, " In Flanders Fields ". Its opening lines refer to the fields of poppies that grew among the soldiers' graves in Flanders.

In 1918, inspired by the poem, YWCA worker Moina Michael attended a YWCA Overseas War Secretaries' conference wearing a silk poppy pinned to her coat and distributed over two dozen more to others present. In 1920, the National American Legion adopted it as their official symbol of remembrance.

As civil religious holiday

Scholars, following the lead of sociologist Robert Bellah , often make the argument that the United States has a secular " civil religion " – one with no association with any religious denomination or viewpoint – that has incorporated Memorial Day as a sacred event. With the Civil War, a new theme of death, sacrifice and rebirth enters the civil religion. Memorial Day gave ritual expression to these themes, integrating the local community into a sense of nationalism. The American civil religion, in contrast to that of France, was never anticlerical or militantly secular; in contrast to Britain, it was not tied to a specific denomination, such as the Church of England . The Americans borrowed from different religious traditions so that the average American saw no conflict between the two, and deep levels of personal motivation were aligned with attaining national goals.

Memorial Day has been called a "modern cult of the dead ". It incorporates Christian themes of sacrifice while uniting citizens of various faiths.

In film, literature, and music

Films

Memorial Day (2012) is a war film starring James Cromwell , Jonathan Bennett, and John Cromwell.
Logan Lucky (2017) starring Channing Tatum

Music

Charles Ives 's symphonic poem Decoration Day depicted the holiday as he experienced it in his childhood, with his father's band leading the way to the town cemetery, the playing of " Taps " on a trumpet, and a livelier march tune on the way back to the town. It is frequently played with three other Ives works based on holidays, as the second movement of A Symphony: New England Holidays .

Poetry

Poems commemorating Memorial Day include:

Michael Anania's "Memorial Day" (1994)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 's "Decoration Day" (1882)
Joyce Kilmer 's "Memorial Day"

PATRIOTS’ DAY

lemaster@digitalproductsuite.com — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT

An official state holiday commemorating the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the American Revolutionary War.

Description

The holiday was originally celebrated on April 19, the actual anniversary of the battles (fought in 1775). Since 1969, it has been observed on the third Monday in April in Massachusetts and in Maine (which until the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was part of Massachusetts). The Monday holiday creates a three-day long weekend . It is also the first day of a vacation week for public schools in both states and a school holiday for many local colleges and universities, both public and private.

The day is a public school observance day in Wisconsin . Florida law also encourages people to celebrate it, though it is not treated as a public holiday. ] Connecticut begins observance in 2018.

Observances and re-enactments of the battles occur annually at Lexington Green in Lexington, Massachusetts (around 6:00 am) and the Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts (around 9:00 am). In the morning, mounted re-enactors with state police escorts retrace the Midnight Rides of Paul Revere and William Dawes , calling out warnings the whole way.

The biggest celebration of Patriots' Day is the Boston Marathon , which has been run every Patriots' Day since April 19, 1897 to mark the then-recently established holiday, with the race linking the Athenian and American struggles for liberty ( marathons being so named after the Greek Battle of Marathon ).

Observed by

Massachusetts
Maine
Wisconsin
Connecticut (starting 2018)
encouraged in Florida

Type - Historical

Celebrations - Boston Marathon

Observances - Battles of Lexington and Concord

Date - Third Monday in April

History

In 1894, the Lexington Historical Society petitioned the Massachusetts State Legislature to proclaim April 19 as "Lexington Day." Concord countered with “Concord Day.” Governor Frederic T. Greenhalge opted for a compromise: Patriots' Day. Patriots' Day was first proclaimed in Massachusetts in 1894 by Gov. Greenhalge replacing Fast Day as a public holiday. The idea was introduced to the Governor by the statesman from Lowell, Isaac Henry Paige. It was established on April 19, commemorating the date of the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775, and consolidating the longstanding municipal observances of Lexington Day and Concord Day. It also marked the first bloodshed of the American Civil War in the Baltimore riot of 1861 , during which four members of the Massachusetts militia were slain and 36 injured. The dual commemoration, Greenhalge explained, celebrated "the anniversary of the birth of liberty and union." In 1938, with the generation that had fought in the Civil War largely off the voter rolls, the Massachusetts legislature passed a bill establishing the holiday "in commemoration of the opening events of the War of the Revolution."

Maine followed Massachusetts in 1907 and replaced its Fast Day with Patriot's Day. On June 10, 2017, Governor Dannel Malloy signed a bill establishing Patriots' Day as a statewide unpaid holiday in Connecticut. This means that starting April 2018, Connecticut will be the 4th state to recognize the holiday.

Sporting Events

The Boston Marathon is run on Patriots' Day every year, since its inception in 1897, even during the World War years. Therefore sometimes the holiday is referred to as "Marathon Monday".

The Boston Red Sox have been scheduled to play at home in Fenway Park on Patriots' Day every year since 1959. The games were postponed due to weather in 1959, 1961, 1965, 1967, and 1984, and canceled in 1995 because of the late start to the season . From 1968 to 2006, the games have started early, in the morning, around 11:00 am. The early start to these games usually resulted in the game ending just as the marathon is heading through Kenmore Square . However, since 2007 the marathon has started between 9:30 am and 10:00 am, resulting in the racers going through Kenmore towards the middle of the Red Sox game.

APRIL 15, 2019

Tue, 02 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT

PATRIOTS’ DAY

The story of Lexington and Concord began when the British made plans to seize a stash of Patriot munitions stored in Lexington. The plan was discovered, and Paul Revere made his “immortal” ride to warn of the dastardly plot. Minute men sprang into action to oppose the British soldiers marching down the road.

There was a standoff that finally resulted in the mysterious “shot heard round the world,” which no one knows who fired, that began the American Revolution. Americans fought a hit and run style action against the British at Lexington and Concord and successfully moved the munitions to another, safer, location.

In Massachusetts and Maine, Patriots’ Day is basically a day off work for adults and out of school for kids. But in the towns of Lexington and Concord, reenactments of the battles fought there long ago are held every year. Those who come to see the reenactments also can ring the warning bell that warned the British were coming and attend seminars, concerts, races, and other special events. We strongly encourage you to attend these glorious events on Patriots’Day, and bring your children so that they will learn some valuable and incredible history.

Of course, we are blessed to have someone put to life the actions of one we consider to be an Original Founding Father, Paul Revere. Without him warning all the people that the British were coming, who knows what would have happened to the Patriots and Minutemen of the day back in 1775? So, we present to you Mr Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem of Paul Revere.

Paul Revere's Ride

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

"Paul Revere's Ride" was first published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1861.

" Paul Revere's Ride " (1860) is a poem by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that commemorates the actions of American patriot Paul Revere on April 18, 1775, although with significant inaccuracies. It was first published in the January 1861 issue of The Atlantic Monthly . It was later retitled " The Landlord's Tale " in the collection Tales of a Wayside Inn .

Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm."

Then he said "Good-night!" and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.

Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street
Wanders and watches, with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,
And the measured tread of the grenadiers,
Marching down to their boats on the shore.

Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,
By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry chamber overhead,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade,--
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town
And the moonlight flowing over all.

Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
In their night encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still
That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, "All is well!"
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens to meet the bay,--
A line of black that bends and floats
On the rising tide like a bridge of boats.

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse's side,
Now he gazed at the landscape far and near,
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry tower of the Old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns.

A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.

It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer's dog,
And felt the damp of the river fog,
That rises after the sun goes down.

It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, black and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.

It was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadow brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket ball.

You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,---
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,---
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

Overview

The poem is spoken by the landlord of the Wayside Inn and tells a partly fictionalized story of Paul Revere. In the poem, Revere tells a friend to prepare signal lanterns in the Old North Church ( North End, Boston ) to inform him whether the British will attack by land or sea. He would await the signal across the river in Charlestown and be ready to spread the alarm throughout Middlesex County, Massachusetts . The unnamed friend climbs up the steeple and soon sets up two signal lanterns, informing Revere that the British are coming by sea. Revere rides his horse through Medford , Lexington , and Concord to warn the patriots.

Composition and Publication History

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1860, the year he wrote "Paul Revere's Ride", painted by Thomas Buchanan Read

Longfellow was inspired to write the poem after visiting the Old North Church and climbing its tower on April 5, 1860. He began writing the poem the next day. It was first published in the January 1861 issue of The Atlantic Monthly . It was later re-published in Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn as "The Landlord's Tale" in 1863. The poem served as the first in a series of 22 narratives bundled as a collection, similar to Geoffrey Chaucer 's The Canterbury Tales , and was published in three installments over 10 years.

Longfellow's family had a connection to the historical Paul Revere. His maternal grandfather, Peleg Wadsworth , was Revere's commander on the Penobscot Expedition .

Analysis

When the poem was written in 1860, America was on the verge of Civil War. Longfellow first came forward publicly as an abolitionist in 1842 with the publication of his Poems on Slavery . Though he admitted the book made little impact, it was written for his best friend, Charles Sumner, an activist abolitionist politician with whom he would continue to share common cause on the issues of slavery and the Union. "Paul Revere's Ride" was published in the January 1861, issue of The Atlantic magazine on December 20, 1860, just as South Carolina became the first state to secede from the United States. The poem was meant to appeal to Northerners' sense of urgency and, as a call for action, noted that history favors the courageous. Longfellow, who often used poetry to remind readers of cultural and moral values, warns at the end of the poem of a coming "hour of darkness and peril and need", implying the breakup of the Union, and suggests that the "people will waken and listen to hear" the midnight message again. By emphasizing common history, he was attempting to dissolve social tensions.

The phrase "Hardly a man is now alive" was true as one of the last men alive at the time had only recently died. Jonathan Harrington, the young fifer for Lexington's militia during the battles of Lexington and Concord, died at the age of 96 in 1854, a few years before the poem was written. The poem fluctuates between past and present tense, sometimes in the same sentence, symbolically pulling the actions of the Revolution into modern times and displaying an event with timeless sympathies.

Longfellow's poem is not historically accurate but his "mistakes" were deliberate. He had researched the historical event, using works like George Bancroft's History of the United States , but he manipulated the facts for poetic effect. He was purposefully trying to create American legends, much as he did with works like The Song of Hiawatha (1855) and The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858).

Critical Response

Modern critics of the poem emphasize its many historical inaccuracies. For example, the poem depicts the lantern signal in the Old North Church as meant for Revere, but actually the signal was from Revere: the historical Paul Revere did not receive the lantern signal, but actually was the one who ordered it to be set up. The poem also depicts Revere rowing himself across the Charles River when, in reality, he was rowed over by others. He also did not reach Concord that night. Another inaccuracy is a general lengthening of the time frame of the night's events.

The majority of criticism, however, notes that Longfellow gave sole credit to Revere for the collective achievements of three riders (as well as other riders, whose names do not survive to history). In fact, Revere and William Dawes rode (via different routes) from Boston to Lexington to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams that British soldiers were marching from Boston to Lexington to arrest Hancock and Adams and seize the weapons stores in Concord. Revere and Dawes rode toward Concord, where the militia's arsenal was hidden; they were joined by Samuel Prescott, a doctor who lived in Concord and happened to be in Lexington. Revere, Dawes, and Prescott were stopped by British troops in Lincoln on the road to Concord. Prescott and Dawes escaped, but Revere was detained and questioned and then escorted at gunpoint by three British officers back to Lexington. Of the three riders, only Prescott arrived at Concord in time to warn the militia there

Historical Impact

Paul Revere (1940) by Cyrus Edwin Dallin, North End, Boston, Massachusetts. The Old North Church is visible in the background.

Longfellow's poem is credited with creating the national legend of Paul Revere, a previously little-known Massachusetts silversmith. Upon Revere's death in 1818, for example, his obituary did not mention his midnight ride but instead focused on his business sense and his many friends. The fame that Longfellow brought to Revere, however, did not materialize until after the Civil War amidst the Colonial Revival Movement of the 1870s. In 1875, for example, the Old North Church mentioned in the poem began an annual custom called the "lantern ceremony" recreating the action of the poem. Three years later, the Church added a plaque noting it as the site of "the signal lanterns of Paul Revere". Revere's elevated historical importance also led to unsubstantiated rumors that he made a set of false teeth for George Washington. Revere's legendary status continued for decades and, in part due to Longfellow's poem, authentic silverware made by Revere commanded high prices. Wall Street tycoon J. P. Morgan, for example, offered $100,000 for a punch bowl Revere made.

In 1883, Boston held a national competition for an equestrian statue of Revere. It was won by Cyrus Edwin Dallin, although his model was not accepted until 1899, and the statue was not dedicated until 1940. It stands in "Paul Revere Plaza," opposite the Old North Church.

In 1896 Helen F. Moore, dismayed that William Dawes had been forgotten, penned a parody of Longfellow's poem:

'Tis all very well for the children to hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere;

But why should my name be quite forgot,

Who rode as boldly and well, God wot?

Why should I ask? The reason is clear—

My name was Dawes and his Revere.

For a long time, historians of the American Revolution as well as textbook writers relied almost entirely on Longfellow's poem as historical evidence – creating substantial misconceptions in the minds of the American people. In re-examining the episode, some historians in the 20th century have attempted to demythologize Paul Revere almost to the point of marginalization. While it is true that Revere was not the only rider that night, that does not refute the fact that Revere successfully completed the first phase of his mission to warn Adams and Hancock. Other historians have since stressed Revere's importance, including David Hackett Fischer in his book Paul Revere's Ride (1995), a scholarly study of Revere's role in the opening of the Revolution.

In 2007, the United States Postal Service (USPS) issued a commemorative stamp with images referencing the poem. Longfellow is represented by a painting by artist Kazuhiko Sano.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1807-1882 , Portland , ME

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine—then still part of Massachusetts—on February 27, 1807, the second son in a family of eight children. His mother, Zilpah Wadsworth, was the daughter of a Revolutionary War hero. His father, Stephen Longfellow, was a prominent Portland lawyer and later a member of Congress.

After graduating from Bowdoin College, Longfellow studied modern languages in Europe for three years, then returned to Bowdoin to teach them. In 1831 he married Mary Storer Potter of Portland, a former classmate, and soon published his first book, a description of his travels called Outre Mer (“Overseas”). But in November 1835, during a second trip to Europe, Longfellow’s life was shaken when his wife died during a miscarriage. The young teacher spent a grief-stricken year in Germany and Switzerland.

Longfellow took a position at Harvard in 1836. Three years later, at the age of thirty-two, he published his first collection of poems, Voices of the Night, followed in 1841 by Ballads and Other Poems . Many of these poems (“A Psalm of Life," for example) showed people triumphing over adversity, and in a struggling young nation that theme was inspiring. Both books were very popular, but Longfellow’s growing duties as a professor left him little time to write more. In addition, Frances Appleton, a young woman from Boston, had refused his proposal of marriage.

Frances finally accepted his proposal the following spring, ushering in the happiest eighteen years of Longfellow’s life. The couple had six children, five of whom lived to adulthood, and the marriage gave him new confidence. In 1847, he published Evangeline, a book-length poem about what would now be called “ethnic cleansing.” The poem takes place as the British drive the French from Nova Scotia, and two lovers are parted, only to find each other years later when the man is about to die.

In 1854, Longfellow decided to quit teaching to devote all his time to poetry. He published Hiawatha, a long poem about Native American life, and The Courtship of Miles Standish and Other Poems . Both books were immensely successful, but Longfellow was now preoccupied with national events. With the country moving toward civil war, he wrote "Paul Revere’s Ride," a call for courage in the coming conflict.

A few months after the war began in 1861, Frances Longfellow was sealing an envelope with wax when her dress caught fire. Despite her husband’s desperate attempts to save her, she died the next day. Profoundly saddened, Longfellow published nothing for the next two years. He found comfort in his family and in reading Dante’s Divine Comedy . (Later, he produced its first American translation.) Tales of a Wayside Inn, largely written before his wife’s death, was published in 1863.

When the Civil War ended in 1865, the poet was fifty-eight. His most important work was finished, but his fame kept growing. In London alone, twenty-four different companies were publishing his work. His poems were popular throughout the English-speaking world, and they were widely translated, making him the most famous American of his day. His admirers included Abraham Lincoln, Charles Dickens, and Charles Baudelaire.

From 1866 to 1880, Longfellow published seven more books of poetry, and his seventy-fifth birthday in 1882 was celebrated across the country. But his health was failing, and he died the following month, on March 24. When Walt Whitman heard of the poet’s death, he wrote that, while Longfellow’s work “brings nothing offensive or new, does not deal hard blows," he was the sort of bard most needed in a materialistic age: “He comes as the poet of melancholy, courtesy, deference—poet of all sympathetic gentleness—and universal poet of women and young people. I should have to think long if I were ask’d to name the man who has done more and in more valuable directions, for America.”