Nixon IRS — Today’s History Lesson

Nixon IRS — Today’s History Lesson —
“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.”

— articles of impeachment drawn up against Richard Nixon, 1973

 

Hat tip Michael King

Crowds Expected At Gettysburg

State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129) said the state expects more than four million visitors to the Gettysburg region this summer for the 150th Anniversary of the battle which is expected to generate $2 billion.

The Seminary Ridge Museum in Schmucker Hall at the Lutheran Theological Seminary is scheduled to open its doors on July 1, which is the date the battle began.

Smoking Joe’s Gym Officially Historic

Smoking Joe’s Gym Officially Historic — Sen. Pat Toomey reports that the National Park Service informed him last week that Joe Frazier’s Gym  at Broad Street and Glenwood Avenue in Philadelphia will be added to the National Register of Historic Places.

“Smoking Joe” Frazier won 32 out of 37 career matches, won an Olympic gold medal and was the world heavyweight champion from 1970-73. He began training at the gym in 1968; it played a significant role in the story of his life and legacy as he trained there for many of his most famous bouts, including his victory against Muhammad Ali in the 1971 “Fight of the Century.”

 

Smoking Joe’s Gym Officially Historic

Washington Farewell Address

Today marks the birth in 1732 of maybe the greatest American and one the greatest figures in history.

That would be George Washington for those of you now being indoctrinated in public schools.

In his honor we are publishing his Farewell Address:

Friends and Citizens:

The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive government of the United States being not far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made.

I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured that this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all the considerations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citizen to his country; and that in withdrawing the tender of service, which silence in my situation might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future interest, no deficiency of grateful respect for your past kindness, but am supported by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both.

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the office to which your suffrages have twice called me have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty and to a deference for what appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it would have been much earlier in my power, consistently with motives which I was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement from which I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this, previous to the last election, had even led to the preparation of an address to declare it to you; but mature reflection on the then perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea.

I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external as well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible with the sentiment of duty or propriety, and am persuaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my services, that, in the present circumstances of our country, you will not disapprove my determination to retire.

The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous trust were explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I will only say that I have, with good intentions, contributed towards the organization and administration of the government the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable. Not unconscious in the outset of the inferiority of my qualifications, experience in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself; and every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied that if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my services, they were temporary, I have the consolation to believe that, while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it.

In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country for the many honors it has conferred upon me; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me; and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and persevering, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from these services, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, that under circumstances in which the passions, agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead, amidst appearances sometimes dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, in situations in which not unfrequently want of success has countenanced the spirit of criticism, the constancy of your support was the essential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans by which they were effected. Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the free Constitution, which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly maintained; that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it.

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger, natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, some sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to the permanency of your felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion.

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.

The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.

For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have in a common cause fought and triumphed together; the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels, and joint efforts of common dangers, sufferings, and successes.

But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply more immediately to your interest. Here every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the union of the whole.

The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, protected by the equal laws of a common government, finds in the productions of the latter great additional resources of maritime and commercial enterprise and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The South, in the same intercourse, benefiting by the agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of the North, it finds its particular navigation invigorated; and, while it contributes, in different ways, to nourish and increase the general mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime strength, to which itself is unequally adapted. The East, in a like intercourse with the West, already finds, and in the progressive improvement of interior communications by land and water, will more and more find a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad, or manufactures at home. The West derives from the East supplies requisite to its growth and comfort, and, what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own productions to the weight, influence, and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of interest as one nation. Any other tenure by which the West can hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own separate strength, or from an apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious.

While, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate and particular interest in union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means and efforts greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations; and, what is of inestimable value, they must derive from union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves, which so frequently afflict neighboring countries not tied together by the same governments, which their own rival ships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues would stimulate and embitter. Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. In this sense it is that your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.

These considerations speak a persuasive language to every reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of the Union as a primary object of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt whether a common government can embrace so large a sphere? Let experience solve it. To listen to mere speculation in such a case were criminal. We are authorized to hope that a proper organization of the whole with the auxiliary agency of governments for the respective subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to the experiment. It is well worth a fair and full experiment. With such powerful and obvious motives to union, affecting all parts of our country, while experience shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who in any quarter may endeavor to weaken its bands.

In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heartburnings which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection. The inhabitants of our Western country have lately had a useful lesson on this head; they have seen, in the negotiation by the Executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the Senate, of the treaty with Spain, and in the universal satisfaction at that event, throughout the United States, a decisive proof how unfounded were the suspicions propagated among them of a policy in the General Government and in the Atlantic States unfriendly to their interests in regard to the Mississippi; they have been witnesses to the formation of two treaties, that with Great Britain, and that with Spain, which secure to them everything they could desire, in respect to our foreign relations, towards confirming their prosperity. Will it not be their wisdom to rely for the preservation of these advantages on the Union by which they were procured ? Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if such there are, who would sever them from their brethren and connect them with aliens?

To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a government for the whole is indispensable. No alliance, however strict, between the parts can be an adequate substitute; they must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions which all alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a constitution of government better calculated than your former for an intimate union, and for the efficacious management of your common concerns. This government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.

However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments as of other human institutions; that experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country; that facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember, especially, that for the efficient management of your common interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name, where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property.

I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.

It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.

There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.

It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositaries, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield.

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?

Promote then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.

As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible, avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it, avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertion in time of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your representatives, but it is necessary that public opinion should co-operate. To facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is essential that you should practically bear in mind that towards the payment of debts there must be revenue; that to have revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment, inseparable from the selection of the proper objects (which is always a choice of difficulties), ought to be a decisive motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the government in making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining revenue, which the public exigencies may at any time dictate.

Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not equally enjoin it – It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it ? Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue ? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices?

In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence, frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would reject; at other times it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations, has been the victim.

So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.

As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils. Such an attachment of a small or weak towards a great and powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy to be useful must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.

The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none; or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.

Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people under an efficient government. the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice?

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.

Taking care always to keep ourselves by suitable establishments on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.

Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing (with powers so disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to enable the government to support them) conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as experience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that, by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion, which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.

In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish; that they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But, if I may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated.

How far in the discharge of my official duties I have been guided by the principles which have been delineated, the public records and other evidences of my conduct must witness to you and to the world. To myself, the assurance of my own conscience is, that I have at least believed myself to be guided by them.

In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my proclamation of the twenty-second of April, I793, is the index of my plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice, and by that of your representatives in both houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually governed me, uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it.

After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all the circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in duty and interest to take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I determined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it, with moderation, perseverance, and firmness.

The considerations which respect the right to hold this conduct, it is not necessary on this occasion to detail. I will only observe that, according to my understanding of the matter, that right, so far from being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has been virtually admitted by all.

The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without anything more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity towards other nations.

The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will best be referred to your own reflections and experience. With me a predominant motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress without interruption to that degree of strength and consistency which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes.

Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence; and that, after forty five years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest.

Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is so natural to a man who views in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations, I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government, the ever-favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.

Washington Farewell Address

Washington Farewell Address

Scariest Election Photo Of All Time

Scariest Election Photo Of All Time — Yes, that is an election poster for Adolph Hitler from the race for the German presidency held on March 13, 1932.  Maybe the most troubling thing about the election was that the future fuhrer would lose fairly handedly to World War I hero Paul von Hindenburg getting 11.3 million votes to Hindenburg’s 18.6 million. Since Hindenburg’s tally, however, was just 49 percent of the total, a runoff was required. It was held on April 10 and Hindenburg again easily won 59 percent to 41 percent.

Still, Hitler’s second-place finish showed him to be a political force that in the turmoil roiling that nation led him to be picked as chancellor the next January. The rest is, unfortunate, history.
Scariest Election Photo Of All Time

Lewis Hiller In WWII

Honor Flight is a national non-profit organization founded in 2005 to give aging or terminally ill veterans a day of honor in Washington D.C. There is no cost to the veterans. 
 
The average age for a living World War II veteran is about 90, so they are getting first priority for seats.
 
The Philadelphia hub’s next trip is Sept. 9. It leaves from and returns to St. Luke’s Greek Orthodox Church, 35 N. Malin Road, Broomall, Pa. 19008.
 
The return is at 6:30 p.m., and those wishing to join the welcome back with flag-waving and cheers would be well appreciated. 
 
Among the veterans participating in the trip will be Lewis Hiller of Dunmore, Pa. Below is his story.
By Lewis Hiller
I was inducted into the U.S. Army on August 28, 1941 at Fort Meade, MD. We received uniforms and a bit of basic Army life and bused out seven days later to Camp Walters, Texas. At Camp Walters, we completed 13 weeks of basic Army training. Following basic training, a11 40 of us new soldiers were assigned to the 45th Division at Camp Barkely, Texas. The Division was mainly made up of the Oklahoma and Arizona National Guard, including a large number of American Indians. Most of us “dammed Yankees” had never even seen an Indian before.
In March 1942, after training in Texas, we were shipped to Pine Camp in NY for winter training, expecting to fight the Russians. There we had ski training and hiking through deep snow that was up to our waist and sometimes our chests. Every soldier would take his turn at the point for two minutes and then drop back to the end of the line. Many of the men developed pneumonia and frozen hands and feet. Obviously, training was very difficult.
In the spring of 1942 we were moved from there to Fort Devens, MA to train off Martha’s Vineyard and to do mountain hiking in the forests of New Hampshire. We remained at Fort Devens through Christmas 1942. We had paraded through Boston and most of the surrounding towns in New England for months until Walter Winchell got on the air and broadcast that we were only a parade outfit and should be overseas fighting the Germans. Soon we were put on alert and the Division was then sent to Camp Pickett in Virginia for amphibious landing training off the coasts of North and South Carolina. The weather there was unusually cold in early spring, and several men were lost who fell from frozen rope ladders and were crushed or drowned between the ships. We later shipped to Camp Patrick Henry, VA that turned out to be our P.O.E (Port of Embarkation).
On June 8, 1943, we loaded on the ships for unknown ports. After 14 days of zigzagging across the Atlantic, we arrived off the shore of Oran, North Africa. On June 22, we went down the cargo nets with full field packs, two bandoleers of ammunition, three hand grenades, rifles, bayonets, two canteens of water, three days of rations, and loaded in the Landing Crafts Personnel (LCP’ s) to head into combat in North Africa. After 2 1/2 hours of riding the waves, most of us were seasick and crawled ashore. If General Rommel and the Germans forces were still there waiting, many of us wouldn’t have made it.
Rommel’s luck had turned also, and he was on the run, abandoning North Africa. We stayed in North Africa for a few weeks of training and reconditioning, or mainly to stretch our legs, before heading back into the ships for the invasion of Sicily.
On August 12,1943, under General Patton, we loaded into the ships in North Africa and hit the beaches of Sicily, off the shores of Gaela. The Navy was short of training, and as a result, dropped the ramps on a sand bar, and we ran off into 10 feet of water. We lost a lot of men who either drowned or were shot by the Germans who were waiting for us. We came ashore and were immediately in hand-to-hand combat. We fought through the Germans and pushed to eight miles inland on the first day. It was reported that our casualty rate that day was over 65%. It was a real awakening for all of us. I remember seeing a German with a flame-thrower put the flame on Sgt. Cook and burn him down to an ash. I can still see that today. I also remember taking our first prisoners and all of us receiving an order to shoot them because there was no way to hold them and to continue fighting.
In a battle to guard Calagerone Airport in Sicily, from being retaken by the Germans, I was hit in the left leg by German bullets and about the same time a bullet struck my full canteen. It knocked me down but I got up quickly and ran to catch up with our men. With great relief, I learned that my leg was very wet from the hole in my canteen, and not from my own blood. The Medic patched me up and we moved on. We pushed up through Sicily, the 1st Division on our left and the 36th on our right to the city of Palermo. Near the city, we stopped for a short rest along a coast road overlooking the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, the Germans spotted us from a railroad gun from up above. We lost a number of good men. My good friend Lynn Hannah, who was no more than five feet from me, was hit in 57 places. I didn’t get a scratch. General Bedell Smith pulled us out of our shock and probably saved all our lives. After a good fight, we took the guns and continued on to Messina. At Messina, we learned the Germans had pulled out and crossed over into Italy.
We were pulled back to Palermo to receive replacements, ammunition, and rations, and we were told that we were selected to spearhead the landing in Italy. We had the 3rd Division on our left and the 36th Division, along with the British on our right.
In late July 1943, we landed with little resistance near Salerno, in Italy near Salerno, under the command of General Clark. However, the 179th Infantry landed benath a cliff and ran into a strong German defense. After we secured our beachhead, we set an enveloping deployment around the German forces to allow the 179th clearance to get off the beach. Together, we pushed inland.
The campaign up through Italy was much more difficult than was Sicily. The terrain was very mountainous. We fought up each mountain through the Po Valley toward Naples. The Germans had very powerful tanks and were set up in the mountains overlooking the valley. With superior tanks and position, they quickly disposed of our tank support. The German tank mounted 88’s caliber guns could track a lone soldier and get him within three shots.
As the Platoon Leader and the assigned B.A.R man, I was firing from behind a rock wall shooting down at the German forces. My friend Jim Gaitanis, at the end of our line, was badly hit. Fortunately, I was able to turn over the B.A.R to one of the ammunition carriers, crawl out to pick off the sniper and get Jim to the Medic. However, later that same day, I was struck behind the ear by a bullet that went through my helmet. I still don’t remember how I got to the field hospital for a five-day stay. We captured many German and Italian troops as we pushed up through the ridges and valleys. The Germans were the best trained soldiers in the world but they were trained to follow their leaders’ commands and weren’t taught to think for themselves which was a big difference between them and the U.S. Army soldiers. They said they never knew what the Yanks would do next because we used our heads and did what we thought would work.
After a few days of needed R & R following the liberation of Naples, we fought inch by inch against well-entrenched German troops as we headed north toward Monte Cas
sino. The Germans stopped us cold, and we were pulled out in January of 1944 to spearhead the Anzio Beachhead invasion, a move to outflank the German Gustav line.
The armada left Naples for Anzio, landing in January 1944 under General Lucas, and caught the Germans by surprise. However, there were too few troops to advance inland more than a few miles. We were ordered to hold up and to dig deep foxholes, but unfortunately this was the rainy season, and we lost a number of men to dysentery and trench foot. I was one of the first to get amoebic dysentery and was carried away from the beach by stretcher to spend several days on the hospital ship, Arcadia, in the bay of Anzio. Here, all the injured were laid side by side on the deck of the ship. I can vividly remember the German fighter planes flying over us strafing the ship, bullets ricocheting off the deck, within several feet where we lay. Although a terrifying experience, I was too sick to move.
I returned to my unit just a couple days before we received orders that we were jumping off to break through on our way toward Rome. At Monte Cassino, our tanks were brought up to the hedgerow where we were holding position. The gun barrels of the tanks extended over our heads firing for hours at the German stronghold at the Abbey. As a result, I couldn’t hear anything for three days after that. At Bizerette Airport, we chased the Germans out, but a German tiger tank fired at the wall protecting us, causing it to collapse on us. After digging out and running toward a better location, I got hit in the leg, and treated by the medic in the field. The Germans were in retreat when we finally reached the city of Rome. Rome was declared an open city in June 1943. We were given passes to go into the city, where we visited St. Peter’s Cathedral and the tombs.
Once again, the 45th and the 3rd Division, under General Omar Bradley, spearheaded the landings for the invasion of southern France in August 1944. Our division landed between Marseilles and Toulon against heavy German opposition, but were able to break through and move inland nearly 12 miles the first day. We connected with the 3rd Army, which had landed at Omaha Beach and pushed nearly 400 miles toward Germany. Amazingly, there were only two of us soldiers left from the original Company E, 180 Division. However, my time was running out.
In September, near Rougemont, France and the German border, I got hit with shrapnel from a mortar shell and was sent to the 300th General Hospital in Naples, Italy where I stayed for nearly three months. The largest fragment of metal went completely through my leg creating a hole about two inches wide. However, many smaller pieces remained. The surgeon colonel did a good job removing the larger pieces of shrapnel, but couldn’t get all the smaller ones without risking the loss of my leg. He advised me to discourage any further surgery. For much of the three months in the hospital in Italy, I wore a body cast that ran from lower leg to chest.
On December 10, 1944, I was sent from Naples by hospital ship across the Atlantic to Batty General Hospital in Rome Georgia. Several days later, the army offered-me train tickets home to Scranton, PA to see my family for Christmas. I took my crutches and gratefully accepted their offer. I arrived in Philadelphia on Christmas afternoon, but too late for the train to Scranton. After sleeping in the lonely train station that night, I caught a morning train to Wilkes Barre and there transferred to the Laurel Line to Scranton, and the trolley to Dunmore. Getting along with my crutches and duffel bag along the route was not easy. That afternoon, I found the 2nd floor apartment on N. Blakely Street in Dunmore and was home. It was the first time I saw my son, David who was born 15 months earlier. It was wonderful to be home.
After the Christmas holidays, I reported to Camp Pickett, VA to a hospital for rehab on my wounded leg. I was there until the end of May 1945. I made many good friends in the Army, and lost many good soldiers and friends. Truly, God watched over me through many tough battles in and close contacts with death all around me. In May, I was shipped to Fort Dix, NJ and received my discharge from the service on June 18,1945 and headed back home to my family.
Lewis Hiller In WWII
Lewis Hiller In WWII

Remember Irena Sendler

Courtesy Judy McGrane

Irena Sendler Died: May 12, 2008 (aged 98)

Warsaw, Poland During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto to check for typhus, which the Nazis feared might spread beyond the ghetto.

She had an ulterior motive.

Irena smuggled Jewish infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried.

She also carried a burlap sack in the back of her truck, for larger kids.

Irena kept a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto.

The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.

During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants.

Ultimately, she was caught, however, and the Nazi’s broke both of her legs and arms and beat her severely.

Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she had smuggled out,

In a glass jar that she buried under a tree in her back yard.

After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived and tried to reunite the family.

Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.

In 2007 Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was not selected.

Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming.

Later another politician,Barack Hussein Obama, won for his work as a community organizer for ACORN.

In MEMORIAM – 65 YEARS LATER

I’m doing my small part by forwarding this message.

I hope you’ll consider doing the same.

It is now more than 65 years since the Second World War in Europe ended.

This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain,

In memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests

Who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated!

Now, more than ever, with Iran , and others, claiming the HOLOCAUST to be ‘a myth’.

It’s imperative to make sure the world never forgets,

Because there are others who would like to do it again.

This e-mail is intended to reach 40 million people worldwide!

Please send this e-mail to people you know and ask them to continue the memorial chain.

Please don’t just delete it. It will only take you a minute to pass this along

Remember Irena Sendler

Remember Irena Sendler

Berwick Nazi Target In World War II

Berwick Nazi Target In World War II — Columbia County, Pa. was on a list of 21 targets of  proposed World War II bomber attack by the Nazis.

What they would have been trying to hit was the American Car and Foundry Co. plant in Berwick,

The Nazis would have used a trans-Atlantic “Amerika Bomber” to wreak the havoc but couldn’t manage to build one.

Nothing in Philadelphia was targeted.

 

Berwick Nazi Target In World War II

 

Berwick Nazi Target In World War II

Auction Gives John du Pont Snapshot

 

John DuPont Train Set Auction Gives John du Pont Snapshot

The electric trains with which John duPont played while a lonely boy in a large, fatherless home with a coddling mother are among the items from his estate which are being auctioned tomorrow, Nov. 26, in Ludwig’s Corner, Pa.

DuPont, the richest man to ever be convicted of murder for the 1996 killing of Olympic gold medal wrestler Dave Schultz, died Dec. 9 in minimum-security state prison in Mercer.

He had grown up and lived in Newtown Township, Delaware County.

In the  1980s, duPont was on the lists of the magazine rankings of the richest Americans, and presidents were  hosted at his home.

The auction starts 9 a.m. at Griffith Hall, Ludwig’s Corner Fire Company 1325 Pottstown Pike (Route 100), Glenmoore, PA 19343

DuPont Portrait Auction Gives John du Pont Snapshot
This portrait of duPont in garb of the Foxcatcher wrestling program which he ran at his Newtown estate and which led to his ultimate downfall is expected to bring between $500 and $700. Auctioneer Ted Wiedersiem says duPont paid artist Hubert Shuptrine $100,000 to have it done.

 

 

Auction Gives John du Pont Snapshot

As Bedbug Assault Looms, Do We DIY DDT?

Bedbug Assault Looms, Do We DIY DDT? — Experts are predicting an bedbug explosion this summer so is it time to sneer in the face of the enviro-Nazis; invoke the spirt of Walter Steuber and follow the Delaware County tradition of homebrewing our own dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane?

Steuber was a  chemist who in the final days of World War II made DDT in the basement of his Swarthmore home. The desirable insecticide had been exclusively for military use and when it popped up for sale at two hardware stores in Media and Swarthmore the authorities investigated. When it was found that Steuber was not using priority chemicals, the government allowed civilians access to the near-miracle stuff.

And this led to the almost complete eradication of bedbugs in the USA.

Which have now made a comeback.

So do we start moonshining the stuff while petitioning our elected officials to rescind the 1972 DDT ban?

Probably best not.

While the near-absolute ban on the chemical strikes many as being irrational, emotion-driven and quasi-religious — especially given as to how DDT was indiscriminately misused and highly abused during its heyday — bedbugs  seem to have maintained the resistance they have developed to it.

So using it wouldn’t do much good.

There is, however, an effective anti-bedbug insecticide, propoxur,  that was pulled from the market after its manufacturer declined to spend several millions of dollars on testing the EPA was demanding .

Apparently, the EPA is concerned about toxicity to children after chronic exposure. One wonders exactly how much “chronic exposure” children would receive if it were restricted to hotels and such which are a major source of the spreading of the infestation.

Freeing propoxur, which was sold as Baygon , would be something about which to petition our elected officials.

In the meantime, here is a link to the EPA search engine of pesticides that it claims are safe and might have an effect on bedbugs.

As Bedbug Assault Looms, Do We DIY DDT?

As Bedbug Assault Looms, Do We DIY DDT?