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Want to watch the inauguration online? Check out these web sites:http://www.uspolitics.america.gov/uspolitics/government/inauguration.html is sponsored by the U.S. State Department and http://www.pic2009.org is sponsored by the Presidential Inaugural Committee.

The Presidential Oath of Office: A 34-Word Promise
The Presidential Oath of Office is found in the United States Constitution (Article II, Section 1, Clause 8) and simply reads:

I do solemnly swear [or affirm] I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Inauguration Day Official Scheduled Events
The United States Marine Band, the San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus perform
Sen. Dianne Feinstein gives the Call to Order and Welcoming Remarks
Rev. Rick Warren gives the Invocation
Aretha Franklin performs
Vice President-Elect Joseph Biden is sworn into office
John Williams conducts Itzhak Perlman, on the violin and Yo-Yo Ma on the cello
President-Elect Barack Obama takes the Oath of Office
Poet Elizabeth Alexander reads her inaugural poem (see Elizabeth Alexander below)
Civil Rights leader, Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, gives the Benediction
The United States Navy Band “Sea Chanters” sings the National Anthem

Scheduled performers include:
Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Herbie Hancock, Jon Bon Jovi, John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, U2, Usher and Stevie Wonder.

For more details and a complete list of official inaugural events, go to:

http://www.inauguration.dc.gov/events.

The Inaugural Poet: Elizabeth Alexander
Inaugural Poet Elizabeth Alexander was born in Harlem in 1962 but raised in D.C. She is a teacher with degrees from Yale and the University of Pennsylvania. As a poet, she has been published pretty much everywhere from the Kenyon Review, The Paris Review, The Village Voice, and The Washington Post. Her work has won awards from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as been nominated for a Pulitzer.

Ars Poetica #100: I Believe
by Elizabeth Alexander

Poetry, I tell my students,
is idiosyncratic. Poetry

is where we are ourselves,
(though Sterling Brown said

“Every ‘I’ is a dramatic ‘I’”)
digging in the clam flats

for the shell that snaps,
emptying the proverbial pocketbook.

Poetry is what you find
in the dirt in the corner,

overhear on the bus, God
in the details, the only way

to get from here to there.
Poetry (and now my voice is rising)

is not all love, love, love,
and I’m sorry the dog died.

Poetry (here I hear myself loudest)
is the human voice,

and are we not of interest to each other?

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The dog days of August roared in Tennessee in 1920!

August 18, 1920

Seventy years after the first National Women’s Rights Convention was held in 1850, the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed, finally giving women the right to vote.

The amendment simply reads:

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

But these two sentences were hard won despite the fact that 50 years prior, in 1870, Congress had passed the 15th Amendment, giving the right to vote to male citizens of color.

But letting women vote? We’d have to go through Prohibition first!

By the summer of 1920, 35 individual states had granted women the right to vote, Wyoming being the first in 1890. Just one more state was needed to ratify the amendment in order to make it Constitutional law.

Tennessee became that 36th state ¬but it took three roll calls. On the third round of voting, the youngest member of the state legislature, the 22-year old Republican (some accounts say he was 23), Harry Thomas Burn, unexpectedly changed his vote.

Burn had been wearing a red rose in his lapel, signifying that he was against giving women the right to vote. Those “for” the amendment wore yellow roses. When the voting began, red roses outnumbered yellow ones. Then the vote tied at 48 to 48 when Banks Turner changed his vote. Burn was sporting a red rose when he changed his vote in favor of the amendment.

Mayhem burst out. Local legend says that Burn was chased around the Capitol voting chamber by disappointed anti-suffragists. Some describe those chasing Burn as “a mob” which included, ironically, legislators as well as women who were against women having the right to vote!

The story goes that he ended up exiting the building through a window on the third floor, edging himself along the ledge of the Capitol, and finally hiding out in the attic.

What made Burn change his mind between the second and third vote? His mother, Febb Ensminger, had sent him a letter asking him to “do the right thing.”

Tennessee Governor A. H. Roberts signed the bill on August 24, 1920. The amendment formally became law on August 26. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby read the amendment into law.

Mrs. J. L. Burn’s letter to her son:

Dear Son:

Hurrah, and vote for suffrage! Don’t keep them in doubt. I noticed some of the speeches against. They were bitter. I have been watching to see how you stood, but have not noticed anything yet. Don’t forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt [Carrie Chapman Catt] put the ‘rat’ in ratification.

Signed, Your Mother.

In a later speech to his colleagues, Burn is quoted as saying:

I know that a mother’s advice is safest for her boy to follow and my mother wanted me to vote for ratification. But I appreciate the fact that an opportunity as does seldom come to mortal man to free 17 million from political slavery was mine. I do it not for any personal glory but for the glory of my party. (NYT August 17, 1995)

Carrie Chapman Catt was a former president of the National American Women’s Suffrage Association and one of the party leaders who worked on getting the amendment passed.

Links
www.archives.gov/education/lessons/woman-suffrage/
www.blueshoenashville.com/suffragehistory.html
www.law.umkc.edu/…

In 1997, Beth Ann Hogan became the first coed to matriculate at the Virginia Military Institute.

On a musical note:
In 1969, Woodstock closed with Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix had wanted to be the final performer. Scheduled to begin at midnight at the end of Day 3, he did not take the stage until 9 a.m., kinda on Day 4!

Some of the songs he played during those two hours included:
Foxy Lady, Purple Haze, Hey Joe and, of course, the Star Spangled Banner.

Jefferson Airplane (now Jefferson Starship), Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and Sha-Na-Na played on Day 3.

Richie Havens, The Incredible String Band, Ravi Shankar, Arlo Guthrie and Joan Baez played on Day 1.

Day 2 included Santana, Grateful Dead, The Who, and Janis Joplin.

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Thus begin the dogged days of August:

On August 4, 1936, Jesse Owens wins the long jump in the Olympics, the Berlin Olympics presided over by Adolph Hitler and the politics of racism. This win was the first of four gold medals for Owens this week. (More to come.)

Jesse Owens is African American but he is, first and foremost, a superb athlete, one who could break world records even under this kind of intense political and psychological pressure.

Today in 1964, the bodies of three civil rights workers are found in a shallow grave in Mississippi:

• Michael Schwerner, 24, nicknamed “Goatee” and “Jew-Boy” by the KKK.

• Andrew Goodman, 20, like Schwerner, also from New York.

• James Chaney, 21, an African American from Mississippi.

Schwerner and Goodman had traveled to Mississippi on behalf of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality). They were helping to register African American voters. Chaney was a local man and recent CORE volunteer.

The three men disappeared June 21 after being released from jail on trumped up charges related to a recent church burning.

Given the violence accompanying efforts to register the black vote and organize citizens in support of civil rights, the disappearance of these men was national news and the subject of an FBI manhunt.

The code name for the investigation was MIBURN. It stood for “Mississippi Burning”, also the name of a movie about this same event

• Seven men were eventually convicted of the murder. These included a local police officer and the local KKK Imperial Wizard.

• Nine men were acquitted. The jury never could decide on the guilt of three others.

• The sentences for these convicted murderers ranged from 3-10 years.

The verdict, for the time, was considered a victory. The longest prison time anyone actually served was 6 years.

Judge Cox, the local judge responsible for the sentencing, said this after the trial:

“They killed one nigger, one Jew, and a white man. I gave them what I thought they deserved.”

On a happier note, and just to add balance to sports and politics, the birthday babes today are poets and musicians:

Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792

Louis Armstrong, 1901

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At the time, they said we would grow into a nation of cynics. I mean, you can’t have the president of any nation revealed as a thief, a liar and a moral vacuum and then continue, business as usual. Rally round the flag. Hail to the chief and all that jazz.

Cynics? I thought they were wrong. We were a nation of outraged citizenry. More people came forward to do the “right thing” during the Watergate investigation than did not. By the way, the right thing, in this case, was both hard and dangerous.

It meant speaking out against bosses and policies and the “perversion” of law and civic rights.
Actual government officials, both high and low, had to come forward.
It meant, ultimately, speaking out against the president and those glowing in the ring of power.
Action would have to be taken, formal, messy, public and legal action.
It meant jolting the history books.
It meant that the citizens of this country would be given a choice: what we would find acceptable by our leaders and what we would not.

June 18 and June 19, 1972: the Washington Post reports on a break-in to Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. Of the five arrested, one claims to be former CIA while another proves to be a Republican security aide.

October 10, 1972, the FBI verifies links between the Republican Committee to Re-Elect the President and the Watergate criminals. Among the charges are evidence of organized political spying and sabotage.

November 17, 1972, Nixon is re-elected in a landslide victory.

November, 17, 1973, Nixon publicly states he is innocent of any Watergate connection.

July 24, 1974, Congress overrules executive privilege and insists the President turn over missing tape recordings of White House conversations “forthwith.” The Supreme Court, in an 8-0 decision, supported the requisition of the tapes. Justice William H. Rehnquist recused himself because of his prior relationship with Nixon appointee and White House Attorney General, John N. Mitchell.

July 27, 1974, Congress passes three articles of impeachment against Nixon. The three articles of impeachment begin with obstruction of justice and end with subverting the laws of this nation.

August 8, 1974, Nixon resigns.

July 25, 1974, Congresswoman Barbara Jordan made the following speech before Congress. There is no room for cynicism in this speech. This is a moment in history that is sweeping and grand. It is inspiring:

Mr. Chairman:

I join in thanking you for giving the junior members of this committee the glorious opportunity of sharing the pain of this inquiry. Mr. Chairman, you are a strong man and it has not been easy but we have tried as best we can to give you as much assistance as possible.

Earlier today, we heard the beginning of the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States, “We, the people.” It is a very eloquent beginning. But when the document was completed on the seventeenth of September 1787 I was not included in that “We, the people.” I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation and court decision I have finally been included in “We, the people.”

Today, I am an inquisitor; I believe hyperbole would not be fictional and would not overstate the solemnness that I feel right now. My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total. I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.

…The subject of its jurisdiction are those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men. That is what we are talking about. In other words, the jurisdiction comes from the abuse or violation of some public trust. It is wrong, I suggest, it is a misreading of the Constitution, for any member here to assert that for a member to vote for an article of impeachment means that that member must be convinced that the President should be removed from office.

The Constitution doesn’t say that. The powers relating to impeachment are an essential check in the hands of this body, the legislature, against and upon the encroachment of the Executive. In establishing the division between the two branches of the legislature, the House and the Senate, assigning to the one the right to accuse and to the other the right to judge, the framers of this Constitution were very astute. They did not make the accusers and the judges the same person.

We know the nature of impeachment. We have been talking about it awhile now. It is chiefly designed for the President and his high ministers to somehow be called into account. It is designed to “bridle” the Executive if he engages in excesses. It is designed as a method of national inquest into the conduct of public men. The framers confined in the Congress the power, if need be, to remove the President in order to strike a delicate balance between a President swollen with power and grown tyrannical and preservation of the independence of the Executive. The nature of impeachment is a narrowly channeled exception to the separation of powers maxim; the federal convention of 1787 said that. It limited impeachment to high crimes and misdemeanors and discounted and opposed the term, “maladministration.” “It is to be used only for great misdemeanors,” so it was said in the North Carolina ratification convention. And in the Virginia ratification convention: “We need one branch to check the others.”

The North Carolina ratification convention: “No one need to be afraid that officers who commit oppression will pass with immunity.

“Prosecutions of impeachments will seldom fail to agitate the passions of the whole community,” said Hamilton in the Federalist Papers, number 65. “And to divide it into parties more or less friendly or inimical to the accused.” I do not mean political parties in that sense.

The drawing of political lines goes to the motivation behind impeachment; but impeachment must proceed within the confines of the constitutional term, “high crime and misdemeanors.”

Of the impeachment process, it was Woodrow Wilson who said that “nothing short of the grossest offenses against the plain law of the land will suffice to give them speed and effectiveness. Indignation so great as to overgrow party interest may secure a conviction; but nothing else can.”

Common sense would be revolted if we engaged upon this process for petty reasons. Congress has a lot to do: Appropriations, tax reform, health insurance, campaign finance reform, housing, environmental protection, energy sufficiency, mass transportation. Pettiness cannot be allowed to stand in the face of such overwhelming problems. So today we are not being petty. We are trying to be big, because the task we have before us is a big one.

This morning, in a discussion of the evidence, we were told that the evidence which purports to support the allegations of misuse of the CIA by the President is thin. We are told that that evidence is insufficient. What that recital of the evidence this morning did not include is what the President did know on June 23, 1972. The President did know that it was Republican money, that it was money from the Committee for the Re-election of the President, which was found in the possession of one of the burglars arrested on June 17.

What the President did know on June 23 was the prior activities of E. Howard Hunt, which included his participation in the break-in of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, which included Howard Hunt’s participation in the Dita Beard ITT affair, which included Howard Hunt’s fabrication of cables designed to discredit the Kennedy Administration.

We were further cautioned today that perhaps these proceedings ought to be delayed because certainly there would be new evidence forthcoming from the President of the United States. There has not even been an obfuscated indication that this committee would receive any additional materials from the President. The committee subpoena is outstanding and if the President wants to supply that material, the committee sits here. The fact is that on yesterday, the American people waited with great anxiety for eight hours, not knowing whether their President would obey an order of the Supreme Court of the United States.

At this point, I would like to juxtapose a few of the impeachment criteria with some of the President’s actions.

Impeachment criteria: James Madison, from the Virginia ratification convention. “If the President be connected in any suspicious manner with any person and there is grounds to believe that he will shelter him, he may be impeached.”

We have heard time and time again that the evidence reflects payment to the defendants of money. The President had knowledge that these funds were being paid and that these were funds collected for the 1972 presidential campaign. We know that the President met with Mr. Henry Petersen twenty-seven times to discuss matters related to Watergate, and immediately thereafter met with the very persons who were implicated in the information Mr. Petersen was receiving and transmitting to the President. The words are, “If the President be connected in any suspicious manner with any person and there be grounds to believe that he will shelter that person, he may be impeached.”

Justice Story: “Impeachment is intended for occasional and extraordinary cases where a superior power acting for the whole people is put into operation to protect their rights and rescue their liberties from violations.”

We know about the Houston plan. We know about the break-in of the psychiatrist’s office. We know that there was absolute, complete direction in August 1971 when the President instructed Ehrilichman to “do whatever is necessary.” This instruction led to a surreptitious entry into Dr. Fielding’s office. “Protect their rights.” “Rescue their liberties from violation.”

The South Carolina ratification convention impeachment criteria: Those are impeachable “who behave amiss or betray their public trust.”

Beginning shortly after the Watergate break-in and continuing to the present time, the President has engaged in a series of public statements and actions designed to thwart the lawful investigation by government prosecutors. Moreover, the President has made public announcements and assertions bearing on the Watergate case which the evidence will show he knew to be false. These assertions, false assertions; impeachable, those who misbehave. Those who “behave amiss or betray their public trust.”

James Madison, again at the constitutional convention: “A President is impeachable if he attempts to subvert the Constitution.”

The Constitution charges the President with the task of taking care that the laws be faithfully executed, and yet the President has counseled his aides to commit perjury, willfully disregarded the secrecy of grand jury proceedings, concealed surreptitious entry, attempted to compromise a federal judge while publicly displaying his cooperation with the process of criminal justice. “A President is impeachable if he attempts to subvert the Constitution.”

If the impeachment provision in the Constitution of the United States will not reach the offenses charged here, then perhaps that eighteenth century Constitution should be abandoned to a twentieth century paper shredder.

Has the President committed offenses and planned and directed and acquiesced in a course of conduct which the Constitution will not tolerate? This is the question. We know that. We know the question.

We should now forthwith proceed to answer the question.

It is reason, and not passion, which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Happy notes:

July 26, 1948
President Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981 and legally ends discrimination in the U.S. military and in the government. To be thorough, Truman also establishes the Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Forces.

President Truman’s Executive Order 9981 states:
It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.

July 28, 1868
The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified. It promises that all citizens, born or naturalized, are equally protected under the law. This granted African Americans the right of citizenship.

Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment states:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

July 31, 1777
The 19-year old Marquis de Lafayette became Major General de Lafayette in the Continental Army.

Recent birthday babes include:
Wesley Snipes, 1963, actor
Vita Blue, 1949, baseball great and winner of the Cy Young, American League MVP, and Sporting News Pitcher of the Year awards
Mick Jagger, 1944, legendary English rock ‘n roll bad boy…but you already know that
Bugs Bunny, 1940, debuts in the cartoon, “A Wild Hare”
Stanley Kubrick, 1928, director, A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, 2001: A Space Odyssey…
Henry Moore, 1898, English sculptor
Amelia Earhart, 1897, the first aviatrix to fly alone over the Atlantic
Robert Graves, 1895, English poet, novelist, critic and classical scholar (I, Claudius)
Aldous Huxley, 1894, author or Brave New World
Maxfield Parrish 1870, painter
Henry Ford, 1863, industrialist
Emily Bronte, 1818, English author of Wuthering Heights
Alexander Dumas, 1802, French author of The Three Musketeers

The Three Articles of Impeachment Against Richard M. Nixon (courtesy of www.historyplace.com)

Article 1: Obstruction of Justice.

In his conduct of the office of the President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has prevented, obstructed, and impeded the administration of justice, in that: On June 17, 1972, and prior thereto, agents of the Committee for the Re-Election of the President committed unlawful entry of the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, District of Columbia, for the purpose of securing political intelligence. Subsequent thereto, Richard M. Nixon, using the powers of his high office, engaged personally and through his subordinates and agents in a course of conduct or plan designed to delay, impede and obstruct investigations of such unlawful entry; to cover up, conceal and protect those responsible and to conceal the existence and scope of other unlawful covert activities. The means used to implement this course of conduct or plan have included one or more of the following:

(1) Making or causing to be made false or misleading statements to lawfully authorized investigative officers and employes of the United States.

(2) Withholding relevant and material evidence or information from lawfully authorized investigative officers and employes of the United States.

(3) Approving, condoning, acquiescing in, and counseling witnesses with respect to the giving of false or misleading statements to lawfully authorized investigative officers and employes of the United States and false or misleading testimony in duly instituted judicial and congressional proceedings.

(4) Interfering or endeavoring to interfere with the conduct of investigations by the Department of Justice of the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the office of Watergate Special Prosecution Force and congressional committees.

(5) Approving, condoning, and acquiescing in, the surreptitious payments of substantial sums of money for the purpose of obtaining the silence or influencing the testimony of witnesses, potential witnesses or individuals who participated in such unlawful entry and other illegal activities.

(6) Endeavoring to misuse the Central Intelligence Agency, an agency of the United States.

(7) Disseminating information received from officers of the Department of Justice of the United States to subjects of investigations conducted by lawfully authorized investigative officers and employes of the United States for the purpose of aiding and assisting such subjects in their attempts to avoid criminal liability.

(8) Making false or misleading public statements for the purpose of deceiving the people of the United States into believing that a thorough and complete investigation has been conducted with respect to allegation of misconduct on the part of personnel of the Executive Branch of the United States and personnel of the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, and that there was no involvement of such personnel in such misconduct; or

(9) Endeavoring to cause prospective defendants, and individuals duly tried and convicted, to expect favored treatment and consideration in return for their silence or false testimony, or rewarding individuals for their silence or false testimony.

In all of this, Richard M. Nixon has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

Wherefore Richard M. Nixon, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office.

Article 2: Abuse of Power.

Using the powers of the office of President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in disregard of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has repeatedly engaged in conduct violating the constitutional rights of citizens, imparting the due and proper administration of justice and the conduct of lawful inquiries, or contravening the laws governing agencies of the executive branch and the purposes of these agencies.
This conduct has included one or more of the following:

(1) He has, acting personally and through his subordinated and agents, endeavored to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposes not authorized by law, and to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigation to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner.

(2) He misused the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service, and other executive personnel, in violation or disregard of the constitutional rights of citizens, by directing or authorizing such agencies or personnel to conduct or continue electronic surveillance or other investigations for purposes unrelated to national security, the enforcement of laws, or any other lawful function of his office; he did direct, authorize, or permit the use of information obtained thereby for purposes unrelated to national security, the enforcement of laws, or any other lawful function of his office; and he did direct the concealment of certain records made by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of electronic surveillance.

(3) He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, in violation or disregard of the constitutional rights of citizens, authorized and permitted to be maintained a secret investigative unit within the office of the President, financed in part with money derived from campaign contributions to him, which unlawfully utilized the resources of the Central Intelligence Agency, engaged in covert and unlawful activities, and attempted to prejudice the constitutional right of an accused to a fair trial.

(4) He has failed to take care that the laws were faithfully executed by failing to act when he knew or had reason to know that his close subordinates endeavored to impede and frustrate lawful inquiries by duly constituted executive; judicial and legislative entities concerning the unlawful entry into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, and the cover-up thereof, and concerning other unlawful activities including those relating to the confirmation of Richard Kleindienst as attorney general of the United States, the electronic surveillance of private citizens, the break-in into the office of Dr. Lewis Fielding, and the campaign financing practices of the Committee to Re-elect the President.

(5) In disregard of the rule of law: he knowingly misused the executive power by interfering with agencies of the executive branch: including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Criminal Division and the Office of Watergate Special Prosecution Force of the Department of Justice, in violation of his duty to take care that the laws by faithfully executed.

In all of this, Richard M. Nixon has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

Wherefore Richard M. Nixon, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office.

Article 3: Contempt of Congress.

In his conduct of the office of President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, contrary to his oath faithfully to execute the office of the President of the United States, and to the best of his ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, had failed without lawful cause or excuse, to produce papers and things as directed by duly authorized subpoenas issued by the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives, on April 11, 1974, May 15, 1974, May 30, 1974, and June 24, 1974, and willfully disobeyed such subpoenas. The subpoenaed papers and things were deemed necessary by the Committee in order to resolve by direct evidence fundamental, factual questions relating to Presidential direction, knowledge or approval of actions demonstrated by other evidence to be substantial grounds for impeachment of the President. In refusing to produce these papers and things, Richard M. Nixon, substituting his judgement as to what materials were necessary for the inquiry, interposed the powers of the Presidency against the lawful subpoenas of the House of Representatives, thereby assuming to himself functions and judgments necessary to the exercise of the sole power of impeachment vested by Constitution in the House of Representatives.

In all this, Richard M. Nixon has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

Wherefore, Richard M. Nixon, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial and removal from office.

See these links for more Watergate history and Watergate timelines:
https://www.washingtonpost.com
https://www.watergate.info/chronology/brief.shtml
https://www.historyplace.com
https://www.watergate.info
https://www.landmarkcases.org

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Once upon a time…

About 600 African American soldiers, all armed and ready for battle, muster on Boston Common.

It is May, a saucy month in New England. The gardens are greening and life seems full of possibility. This particular day is no exception. It is, in fact, absolutely golden: warm, sunny, a day to wrap your arms around.

To be precise, it is the 28th of May, 1863 and despite the pleasant weather, we are at war with ourselves.
Shiloh. Harper’s Ferry.
Antietam has too-recently made its blood offering.
Fredericksburg. Chancellorsville.
Already this is a history of near loss for the Union Army, and a history of wondrous survival for the Confederates.

But here on Boston Common, there is both celebration and boldness in the air as the first Northern “coloured regiment” of the Union Army gets ready to march off to battle. Trained and armed just like their white counterparts, they are also uniformed and paid – just like their white counterparts.

But unlike their white counterparts, these soldiers and their white officers march with a death sentence over their heads. On Christmas Eve, 1862, nearly a month before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ General Orders #111 declare that any and all commissioned Union officers be considered “as robbers and criminals deserving death” upon capture. Further, whether the black soldiers be freed or runaway slaves, it no longer mattered once they crossed Southern lines. At that time, all were considered “slaves [who were to be] “at once delivered over to…the respective States to which they belong to be dealt with according to the laws of said States.”

Most of these men are free, but not all. They have come from Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Missouri…as far away as Bermuda. They all know the risks of serving in this regiment. In spite of these risks, perhaps because of these risks, they stand here now in regimental trim, ready to make their mark on history.

Among the souls here today are Lewis Henry Douglass and Charles Redmond Douglass, sons of the former slave and great abolitionist, Frederick Douglass.

James Caldwell, grandson of Sojourner Truth, is here as well. He has traveled from Battle Creek, Michigan.

So, too, is Stephen Atkins Swails, a young man who will survive to become a Reconstructionist lawyer, town mayor, and member of the 1868 electoral college. He also will be the first man of color to make lieutenant in this unit (Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune 30).

William Harvey Carney is here. He is one of the first to join that cold February (Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune 30). Twenty-three years old, Carney was born into slavery.

Both his parents were slaves but the family, now free, lives in New Bedford, Massachusetts. When he was 15, he “embraced the gospel” and later believed he would become a minister (The Liberator November 6, 1863), but he is here, instead, responding to a different type of calling:

Previous to the formation of colored troops, I had a strong inclination to prepare myself for the ministry; but when the country called for all persons, I could best serve my God serving my country and my oppressed brothers. (The Liberator 1863).

Leading these men are the sons of socially prominent, white abolitionist families: Col. Robert Gould Shaw, of Boston, who was married just a month prior, and Lt. Col. Norwood “Pen” Hallowell and his younger brother, Edward. Pen Hallowell will go on to lead the Massachusetts 55th, a second African American regiment formed after the success of the 54th. Edward Hallowell eventually will command the 54th.

The American author, Henry James, has a younger brother, Wilkie, who also signs on.

They are gathered now, in front of the State House and will march to Boston Harbor, famous for a different party during a different war. From there, they sail south. Their ultimate destination is Fort Wagner, South Carolina.

They arrive on July 18, 1863 having seen some prior skirmishes the month before. The fort is located on Morris Island and guards the southern approach into Charleston harbor. This battle will be the second attempt in a week to win the fort. The first attempt resulted in over 300 Union dead compared to the loss of 12 Confederate soldiers (www.wikipedia.org).

Col. Shaw writes:

July 18th. Morris Island
We are in General Strong’s Brigade, and have left Montgomery, I hope for good. We came here last night, and were out again all night in a very heavy rain. Fort Wagner is being very heavily bombarded. We are not far from it. (Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune 386)

Five thousand Union soldiers attack the fort. The Massachusetts 54th leads the way. Their approach is along the beach. They need to cross over a 30’ defensive embankment. It is here that Col. Shaw, leading his men by foot, raises his sword to storm the enemy walls.

“Forward 54th!” he cries. His men follow. Shaw is one of the first to reach the top of the wall.

The Union dead number into the thousands. Of the 600 soldiers of the 54th, 220 die as a result of the day’s battle. One of those soldiers, shot through the heart, is Col. Shaw. One of the survivors is William Carney.

At battle’s end, the Confederacy strip Col. Shaw’s body, briefly put him on display, then throw him into the bottom of a mass grave with other soldiers of the 54th. The action is intended as an insult, not least because officers’ bodies were, in those days, collected and returned from the battleground to the family for a formal burial. Not so in this case.

The intended insult ends up as a point of honor between Col. Shaw and his men. His family says that this is where their son would want to be, that he would have considered it an honor to be buried with his men.

His widow never remarries.

In the fire of battle, however, Carney sees the flag-bearer drop the company flag. Without giving it any thought, he picks up the flag before it can be captured and fights his way to the Fort Wagner wall. He is said to have kept the flag waving for 20 minutes during that desperate battle. When he finally gives up his position, family legend says that he actually wraps himself in the flag in order to protect it.

The action also makes him a very special moving target: a former slave, a black Union soldier, a company man bearing the company colors. Carney is wounded four times before he gives up the flag in safety. Twice in his body. Once in his arm. The last bullet grazes his head.

Even when a member of the NY 100th offers to carry the flag for him, Carney keeps going, refusing to give up the flag to any but a member of the 54th (“America’s Civil War” Hammond, March, 2007).

“The old flag never touched the ground,” he says when he finally collapses.

In 1900, 37 years after his act of bravery and 38 years after the medal’s inception, William Carney is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor “to be presented in the name of Congress, to such officers and non-commissioned privates as shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action.”

William Harvey Carney is the first African American recipient.

“I only did my duty,” says Carney upon receiving it.

Follow this you-tube link to see an interesting little video about the Emancipation Proclamation and the Massachusetts 54th.

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Ah! Dreams…“We are the stuff that dreams are made on,” said Shakespeare and it is true.

This is a very special dream week. It is a week of wonder in terms of the creative as well as the courageous. Fair Reader, read on!

All I Have to Do Is Dream, the Everly Brothers, 50 years ago this week, released that fabulous song.

Ten years later, Otis Redding’s (Sittin’ on the) Dock of the Bay was on top of Billboard.

In 1964, The Beatles had just released A Hard Day’s Night which was followed, just one year later, by that ode to teenage angst, The Rolling Stones’ (I can’t get no) Satisfaction.

Check out this weird musical medley of hits from the 1970s:
On the one hand is The Commodores’ Three Times a Lady sharing radio space with Debby Boone’s You Light Up My Life, while on a totally different third hand are Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson asking, Mammas, Don’t Let Your Children Grow Up to Be Cowboys.

That, in a clef note, was America in the late 1970s.

Some other high notes of the week:

Happy Birthday!
Wyoming (1890);

And happy birthday to the original raging bull, Jake la Motta (1921); to that heart-warming comedian Bill Cosby (1937); to tennis great Arthur Ashe (1943) … and to Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland (1274). That last one may be pushing it but ‘twas a great movie now, wasn’t it?

But! More important than Classic Coke’s return in 1985, or the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team winning the World Cup in 1999…

More important than Etch-a-Sketch making its happy debut in 1960…

Even of greater note than Geraldine Ferraro’s historic 1984 vice presidential nomination is the fact that…

On July 11, 1925, the Scopes Trial had just begun its second day of putting the freedom to teach evolution on trial.

Clarence Darrow would represent John Scopes, the Tennessee teacher who was accused of breaking a state law, the Butler Act, by teaching evolution in his science class.

The state was represented by that great orator and presidential aspirant, William Jennings Bryan.

Scopes was found guilty on July 21 (short trial) and fined $100.

It was, however, the Butler Act that was really on trial. Was it a fair law? (See the link below for the full text of the law.) It was repealed September 1, 1967.

On day 2 of the trial, Darrow argued that this law was, indeed, unconstitutional saying:

If today you can take a thing like evolution and make it a crime to teach it in the public school, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools… At the next session you may ban books and the newspapers. Soon you may set Catholic against Protestant and Protestant against Protestant [sic], and try to foist your own religion upon the minds of men. If you can do one you can do the other. Ignorance and fanaticism is ever busy and needs feeding. … After awhile, your honor, it is the setting of man against man and creed against creed.

The trial became the inspiration for the play, Inherit the Wind. The title, by the way, comes from a Bible verse:

He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart. (Proverbs 11:29)

Be well!
Concord Star

Related links courtesy of UMKC Law School:

Full text of the Butler Act (Tenn. HB 185, 1925) and its repeal: www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/tennstat.htm

Background on the trial:
www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/scopes.htm

Transcript of the trial:
www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/scopes2.htm

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