Tuesday, Jan. 04, 2005 - 1:35 p.m.

Wha- - - - -?

The Great
Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History
by John M. Barry.

.... in first chapter,

"In the South a far more important but equally savage war
was being waged as white Democrats sought "redemption" from
Reconstruction in anticipation of the presidential election.
Throughout the South "rifle clubs," "saber clubs," and
"rifle teams" of former Confederates were being organized
into infantry and cavalry units. Already accounts of
intimidation, beatings, whippings, and murder directed
against Republicans and blacks had surfaced.

Voting returns had already begun to come in (there was no
single national election day) and two months later Democrat
Samuel Tilden would win the popular vote by a comfortable
margin. But he would never take office as president. Instead
the Republican secretary of war would threaten to "force a
reversal" of the vote, federal troops with fixed bayonets
would patrol Washington, and southerners would talk of
reigniting the Civil War. That crisis would ultimately be
resolved through an extraconstitutional special committee
and a political understanding: Republicans would discard the
voting returns of three states (Louisiana, Florida, South
Carolina) and seize a single disputed electoral vote in
Oregon to keep the presidency in the person of Rutherford B.
Hayes. But they also would withdraw all federal troops from
the South and cease intervening in southern affairs, leaving
the Negroes there to fend for themselves."
`
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Isn't this interesting? Lest anyone think they are alwayson the right side, or that our nation always does the right thing, little things like this pop up. Of course, I got my awakening in my teens, when the Gary Powers-U2 incident took place. Of course, history is always recorded by the victors, so even history may not always be correct. I am sure glad You keep the books.

I need to get off the internet and do something. Noodles sound good, chicken noodle soup with some homemade noodles, and store-bought soup. Yum.

EE's devotional

newAutumn Leaves

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