As the Civil War ground on, and the fate of the young nation hung in the balance, Ralph Waldo Emerson argued vehemently for a federal emancipation of the slaves. “Morality,” above all else, he asserted, “is the object of government.” He lauded President Lincoln for his principled moves in that direction.
Month: December 2011
Debates on African American Education
“Some one may be tempted to ask, Has not the negro boy or girl as good a right to study a French grammar and instrumental music as the white youth? I answer, Yes, but in the present condition of the negro race in this country there is need of something more…” Read Washington’s “Awakening of the Negro” from the Atlantic in 1901
“I sit with Shakespeare and he winces not. Across the color line I move arm in arm with Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men and welcoming women glide in gilded halls. From out the caves of Evening that swing between the strong-limbed earth and the tracery of the stars, I summon Aristotle and Aurelius and what souls I will, and they come all graciously with no scorn nor condescension. So, wed with Truth, I dwell above the Veil. Is this the life you grudge us, O knightly America? Is this the life you long to change into the dull red hideousness of Georgia? Are you so afraid lest peering from this high Pisgrah, between Philistine and Amalekite, we sight the Promised Land?”
Read Dubois’ Response to Washinton in “Of the Training of Black Men” from the Atlantic
WEB DuBois on the Freedman's Bureau
The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line; the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea. It was a phase of this problem that caused the Civil War; and however much they who marched south and north in 1861 may have fixed on the technical points of union and local autonomy as a shibboleth, all nevertheless knew, as we know, that the question of Negro slavery was the deeper cause of the conflict. Curious it was, too, how this deeper question ever forced itself to the surface, despite effort and disclaimer. No sooner had Northern armies touched Southern soil than this old question, newly guised, sprang from the earth, — What shall be done with slaves? Peremptory military commands, this way and that, could not answer the query; the Emancipation Proclamation seemed but to broaden and intensify the difficulties; and so at last there arose in the South a government of men called the Freedmen’s Bureau, which lasted, legally, from 1865 to 1872, but in a sense from 1861 to 1876, and which sought to settle the Negro problems in the United States of America.
It is the aim of this essay to study the Freedmen’s Bureau (9 pages from 1901)– the occasion of its rise, the character of its work, and its final success and failure–not only as a part of American history, but above all as one of the most singular and interesting of the attempts made by a great nation to grapple with vast problems of race and social condition.
Three Civil War Poems
The Election in November, James Russell Lowell
Shortly before the 1860 presidential election The Atlantic’s editor, James Russell Lowell, came out in support of Abraham Lincoln (9 pages), whom he commended as a “statesman” and a powerful voice against the spread of slavery. He predicted, accurately, that the election would prove to be “a turning-point in our history.”
Bees to be privatised
BRITAIN’S bees are to be privatised in a bid to reverse their decline.
Bees have been destroyed by communism
The insects have been hit in recent years by a huge drop in productivity, mass redundancies, and the collapse of traditional honeymaking communities, and the move is aimed at getting the ailing bee industry back on track.
Beehives will be rebranded as ‘Apiary Solutions’ and the bees will get a new uniform of regulation grey, updating the traditional yellow and black outfits that bees have worn since the 1950s.
They will also be assessed on aspects of their performance by a new regulatory body, Ofswarm.
Nathan Muir, director of free market think tank Urethra, said: “The traditional neighbourhood bee – buzzing about, collecting honey, occasionally stinging people who threaten the hive, maintaining a crucial balance between plants and animals in a precarious ecosystem – is a hopelessly outdated relic.
“For instance, the idea of a lone bee collecting pollen is absurd. Privatisation will allow us to to glue three or four bees together into one ‘megabee’ that will collect five times the amount of pollen of a 20th Century bee.”
He added: “Privatisation has trasformed so many organisations that barely worked to organisations that are very good at pretending they do.
“The problem with the natural world is, and always has been, that it doesn’t grasp the importance of free markets. Bees are just the start.”
A bee spokesman said ‘bzzzz’ before doing a sad little dance.
Vladimir Putin rides around battleship on a Harley
Russian Economy & Oil Prices: Rentier State?
Putin's Approval Rating 2000-2008
Evidence of Misstep by Putin
It is now clear that instead of restoring public confidence in the political system, the announcement that Mr. Putin and President Dmitri A. Medvedev would switch jobs annoyed many Russians. Mr. Putin’s approval rating briefly dipped to 61 percent this month, high by international standards but lower than at any point in a decade.
Meanwhile, the governing party, United Russia, has had to scale back its expectations for next Sunday’s parliamentary elections, when it is likely to lose the two-thirds majority it has held since 2007.
The announcement, in other words, seems to have had an unintended negative effect, a jarring outcome for a government that has proved itself adept at measuring and manipulating public opinion.
Russian Authorities Pressure Elections Watchdog
Though United Russia, which now has a commanding majority in Parliament, faces no powerful competitors in the election, opinion polls suggest that it will lose 50 to 60 seats, reflecting growing weariness with leadership that has not changed in a decade. State officials at all levels have been told to guard against significant losses.
With parliamentary elections only days away that are expected to reflect dwindling public support for Vladimir V. Putin’s party, Russian prosecutors have opened a case against the country’s only independent election monitoring organization.
The organization, Golos, has already posted reports of more than 4,500 violations of election law in the prelude to the voting on Sunday. Golos receives financing from Western governments, including the United States, and some Russian officials have suggested that the organization’s real aim is to incite an Arab Spring-type revolution in Russia.
Gorbachev Blasts Authoritarian Rule
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev says Russia’s parliamentary elections scheduled for December won’t be fair, and he blasted “authoritarian” rule in Russia in a Wall Street Journal interview.
Mr. Gorbachev said Tuesday that he believed an authoritarian government was necessary to pull Russia together in 2000 when Vladimir Putin first came to power. At the time, he brushed off concerns from a French colleague that Mr. Putin would “make a habit” of such tactics.
Now, however, the Kremlin’s “habit” of authoritarianism is undeniable and “a very dangerous thing,” he said.
Now “we in Russia are forced to seriously struggle to strengthen democracy, ensure honest elections, the independence of the judiciary and many other things,” Mr. Gorbachev said.
The Kremlin denies charges that it rigs elections, and Mr. Putin rejects accusations of authoritarian methods, saying he is committed to democracy in Russia.
Mr. Putin’s United Russia party is virtually certain to win parliamentary elections in December, and Mr. Putin plans to return to the presidency in 2012 elections.
“The elections will not be fair,” Mr. Gorbachev says.