Author Archives: Advocate

The Loyalists in the American Revolution

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A member of our book club selected “Dreams of Glory” by Thomas Fleming as the book to be read for the April/May meeting. That fiction book is about espionage during the Revolutionary War, including a plan to kidnap George Washington. Reading that book convinced me I should learn more about the Loyalists. I selected the book by Claude Halstead Van Tyne copywrited in 1902. The book was written in formal language, and I wouldn’t characterize it as easy to read. The author makes it clear he was sympathetic to the Loyalists. He writes in the preface that the young American republic made many “…youthful errors…” that could have been avoided if the Loyalists had been part of the new country instead of being vilified and driven into exile. One of his primary references was “…files of Rivington’s Gazette, the greatest Loyal newspaper from 1774 until the close of the war.” The author asserts that most people in America were indifferent to the Revolution, although they would be “…ready to stampede along with the successful party.” He also quotes John Adams as saying that Great Britain “…seduced and deluded nearly one third of the people in the colonies.” The author adds that “influential Americans” and “worthy gentlemen” (the upper class) mostly remained loyal to the king. The book refers to the revolutionaries as Whigs. The Whigs and Tories were opposing political parties in the English parliament beginning in the mid 1600s.

The discussion and analysis of the tax placed on tea is fascinating and different than what I recall from high school history. The tax was three pence a pound, and the three pence sterling has a current value of five cents. A Wikipedia article says the tax was equated to about 10% of the cost of the tea. The king attempted to mollify the colonists and their resistance to the tax by compensating the East India Company to make English tea cheaper than other sources even with the tax. People such as John Adams weren’t impressed, continued to protest that there should be no taxation without representation, and the Boston Tea Party was the result. The author referred to those who participated in that event as “…the immortal band of Boston Indians…” Parliament reacted by passing five acts to further regulate American affairs. The one that attracted the most attention was an act to shut down Boston harbor until the town repaid the East India Company for the destroyed tea, which would be required to convince the king that Boston would submit to his authority. The colonists did not react submissively. One group issued a statement ridiculing the idea of paying for the tea. “If a man draws his sword on me…and I break his sword ought I pay for the sword?” The rest, as the saying goes, is history. The serving of tea was interpreted to be an insult to the revolution, and people began to refer to serving tea as “white coffee” to avoid visits from angry neighbors. Continue reading →

Like Gangbusters

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The Urban Dictionary attributes this tem to the famous radio program that aired from 1936 until 1957.  “The sound effects of police sirens, tommyguns, and screeching tires that opened the show were dramatic and exciting…(and) inspired the expression ‘coming on like gangbusters’.”  The usage has evolved to describe things that are exciting, successful, and intense, and the ‘coming on’ part is often omitted.  As an example, you might hear someone say, “That business idea has taken off like gangbusters.”

Prophet in Politics: Henry A Wallace and the War Years, 1940-1965

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(This 1970 book by Edward L. and Frederick H. Schapmeier is out of print though available from libraries and used book sellers.)

I originally became interested in why FDR had three Vice Presidents, and Henry Agard Wallace was the second. The first was John Nance Garner, and FDR hadn’t won the Democratic nomination for the presidency until he persuaded Garner to drop out of the race and accept the vice presidency. Garner and Roosevelt disagreed widely on many issues, and their relationship soured irretrievably during their second term. Garner was quoted a characterizing the vice presidency as being “not worth a bucket of warm piss.” Wallace was different than Garner in many ways. He was a studious, deeply religious Progressive. He had been well suited to the position of Secretary of Agriculture that he held before FDR selected him to replace Garner. He had taught himself Spanish and made a very successful tour of Latin America as Germany was declaring war on the United States.

Reading about Wallace was often baffling. As Vice President he supported the Manhattan Project because he feared the Germans would develop the bomb first. He understood the Soviet Union possessed the capability to produce the weapon, but his actions indicated that he believed Stalin was a dependable ally who did not have subversive purposes.  Wallace said, “The future of the well-being of the world depends on the extent to which Marxism, as it is being progressively modified in Russia, and democracy, as we are adapting it…can live in peace.” Wallace went so far in his idealism to envision the United Nations would have sovereign powers over the United States through “…an international peace law, an international peace court and an international peace force…”   Continue reading →

Drunk as a Skunk

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This expression presents complications in describing its origin. A posting on funtrivia.com by zbeckabee, observes that the word “skunk” originates from an Algonquian Indian word meaning “urinating fox,” and that the term “drunk as a skunk is “…simply a good example of our love of comparisons and rhyming…” Wikianswers.com complicates the explanation, “Check with any moonshiner about pulling drowned skunks out of his corn mash and you’ll know where it came from.” I did Internet searches to learn about moonshiners and skunks, and only found a reference to Al Capp’s “Lil Abner.” Two characters of that cartoon strip brewed up their spirits in a hidden still called the “Skunk Works.” I admit that I haven’t found a solid answer on the origin of this expression, and would welcome input to: fdsmhobbs@aol.com.

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies–Part II

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Part one of the review of this book by Jared Diamond focused on the role of guns, germs and steel in the conquest of native peoples by invaders. This part focuses on the evolution of Europeans and Asians from being hunter-gathers to the domestication of wild plants and animals. The animals brought plentiful protein, and created the ability to farm much larger areas of land. Domestication of animals also brought the epidemic-causing germs, but the survivors developed immunity and grew to large populations supported by the ability to grow food. Technology advanced as people were freed from the continual search for food, more complex systems of government were developed, and armies could be formed, trained, and fed. Population densities increased, new lands were sought, germs were introduced to the new lands and caused marked reduction in the population of the natives who might not welcome the new settlers, and the well-armed settlers took over with the help of their armies.

I recommend the book to anyone who has an interest in horticulture, because there are detailed descriptions of the plants found in different areas of the globe, and how the Europeans and Asians had the advantage that they were able to domesticate plants that produced large grains with high levels of protein. Chapter 7, “How to Make an Almond,” describes how edible and harvestable foods evolved. The title refers to the fact that most almonds contain chemicals that make them too bitter to eat, but a non-bitter mutant was eventually domesticated. Many wild plants have specialized mechanisms to scatter seeds, and that prevented humans from being able to harvest them. A genetic mutation developed in some of the plants that prevented the seeds from being scattered. Humans harvested the seeds, ate some, planted some, and profited from the practice. Continue reading →

Boondoggles

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I thought this to be an appropriate time to post this description, because I recently posted a four part review of a book about FDR. The term Boondoggles became well known as the result of one of Roosevelt’s signature programs, the Works Program Administration (WPA), during the Great Depression. A man hired to teach crafts in the WPA told a Senate committee he taught “Boon Doggles.” When asked to explain he said, “Boon doggles is simply a term applied to the pioneer days to what we call gadgets today…” The New York Times published an article on April 4, 1935 describing how millions were being spent teaching the jobless to play by making “boon doggles.” The term evolved into “boondoggle,” and was applied to anything that involved useless, wasteful, or trivial work. The term apparently originated with scouts making decorations for their lanyards. Worldwidewords notes that the term was first mentioned in print in Punch August 14, 1929, “The chief scout has recently been presented…with a Degree, and by the scouts of America with a boondoggle.”