Blue Point, Long Island by Alfred Thompson Bricher
The Hudson River School
The United States has produced great artists. Members the Hudson River School enjoyed landscape painting as did, for instance, members of the Barbizon School in France.
The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century school. Therefore, Bricher was a late member. As Modern Art gained prominence, he was nearly forgotten, but he later regained notoriety as a marine painter. In the 1890s he purchased a house near the sea in the New Dorp section of Staten Island. He could view the Atlantic Ocean and Raritan Bay. He remained active until his death, in New Dorp in 1908.
On January 16, a month and two days after the massacre at Newtown, December 14, 2012, the Vice-President and the President had a plan to announce and orders to sign so the plan would go into effect immediately.
The plan does not go all the way. People may still bear arms walking down the street, but it may be that the President went as far as he could go given the circumstances of his Presidency. I therefore remain congratulatory.
So, let me repeat that a month and two days after the Newtown massacre and despite the holiday season the President signed orders that should decrease deaths by gun.
Sitting in the audience and introduced to us were parents of Newtown who had lost a child. We learned that the President had actually visited with the bereaved parents. That may not have been very ‘presidential’ of Barack Obama, but it was the human thing to do.
Behind the desk where he signed the necessary orders, there were children. He had read their letters. These children will never forget that they can talk with the President of the United States and that he will hear them and act. Again, it was the human thing to do. (See first Related Articles for photograph.)
Ironically, although he faces obstructionism in Washington, in the eyes of the world President Obama is viewed as a great leader. In most instances, he is, in fact, at the very top of the list, including my list. I am so grateful to him, to Vice-President Joe Biden, to Michelle and to Jill for helping the people of Newtown. In fact, they are the people of Newtown.
Yet, let me repeat that the plan does go far enough and add that, if such is the case, it is, to a certain extent, that the people of the United States will not let the Vice President and the President go further.
Given the opposition he faces in Washington, the President has to know that the people want him to go further. If he doesn’t know this, his successor may revoke the security measures his administration has put into place. Good presidents act in the best interest of the people, but good presidents prefer not to go beyond the expressed will of the people.
Many individuals enjoy collecting firearms, but I presume these are not loaded. Many individuals also like target shooting. It’s a sport. But again, I would presume that target shooters practice and compete in an enclosed area and that, for security reasons, they do not carry home loaded weapons.
Machiavelli and Thomas Hobbes would not agree with me. Yet, I would also presume that people know that their freedom ends where the freedom of others begin as do their “rights.” Rights and duties are like the opposite sides of the same coin as are reason and instinct.
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I remember my mother telling me that the nice thing about turning seven was that a child had finally reached the age of reason. I hate to say this, but when will members of the National Rifle Association (NRA) turn seven?
Publiée le 17 janv. 2013
Sir Henry Wood‘s ‘Suite No. 6’ is a set of six Bach transcriptions, arranged from various sources, that includes this heartfelt ‘Lament.’ It is the ‘Adagio’ from Bach’s ‘Capriccio on the Departure of His Most Beloved Brother’ in Bb major, BWV 992. In this recording, the BBC Symphony is conducted by Leonard Slatkin. (With all due acknowledgements to Chandos Records.)
I have discreetly updated the Louisiana Purchase Treaty. As some of you may have noticed, earlier versions of blogs sometimes appear on the screen. Or else, a thought comes to one’s mind.
Writing allows further understanding of an event.
My last posts have not been very entertaining. I have readers who require information.
However, my main reason for writing to you is that I may not be able to post articles for two or three days for medical reasons: minor surgery. Or else I may post articles that do not require much research. But I will reading your blogs.
*Jackson Square
Thure de Thulstrup (April 5, 1848 – June 9, 1930), born Bror Thure Thulstrup
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
France controlled this vast area from 1699 until 1762, the year it gave the
territory to its ally Spain. Under Napoléon Bonaparte, France took back the
territory in 1800 in the apparent hope of building an empire in North America. Here are the main dates:
The territory Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, S.J. (a Jesuit) explored in 1673 and claimed for France would be controlled by France from 1699 until 1762.[i]
In 1762, the French gave the territory to Spain.
Napoleon took it back in 1800, hoping to build an Empire in North America.
Three years later, in 1803, Napoléon sold Louisiana to the United States.
In 1673, explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette traveled down the Mississippi to within 435 miles (700 kilometers) of the Gulf of Mexico and claimed both sides of the River (all the way to the Rocky Mountains) for France. The territory was given to Spain in 1762, but reclaimed by Napoléon in 1800.
However, a mere three years after the territory was reclaimed by France, it was sold to the United States for 15 million dollars. The Louisiana Purchase Treaty was signed on April 30, 1803 during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826), the third President of the United States. The Treaty’s main American negotiator was Robert R. Livingstone, then US Minister to France. This is what he had to say after the Treaty was signed:
We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our whole lives… From this day the United States take their place among the powers of the first rank.
(please click on the picture to enlarge it)
Louisiana (green overlay)
The Story
Upon learning that Napoléon sold Louisiana, one is baffled. Moreover, given that Napoléon sold it for 15 million dollars, one can easily jump to the conclusion that Napoléon knew nothing about real estate and made terrible mistakes on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet, it may be that Bonaparte did what he had to do.
When the US approached Napoléon, which it did, all it was asking for was a right of way or a strip of land to the south of Louisiana which would have linked the eastern part of the current United States to its western part. The US was somewhat landlocked. However, Napoléon reflected that the United States could buy not only the very south of Louisiana, but all of it, for what we would call “peanuts,” i.e. very little money.
In fact, one wonders whether or not Napoléon had discussed the matter with Talleyrand. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, prince de Bénévent, then prince de Talleyrand (1754–1838), was Napoléon’s éminence grise or right-hand man. Well, Talleyrand actually negotiated the Louisiana Purchase Treaty.
It would appear that Napoléon needed to purchase ships so he could conquer the world, with the exception of what would become the United States of America. Fifteen million dollars could buy him a fleet. It also appears France had debts to repay. However, we cannot exclude early warning signs of the development of the rather pompous “Manifest Destiny.” In the not-so-distant future, the territory France sold would probably have been conquered by an expansionist United States, in which case France would have lost Louisiana. It at least earned itself a consolation prize.
For instance, on December 2, 1823, the United States introduced a policy known as the Monroe Doctrine, after President James Monroe(April 28, 1758 – July 4, 1831). The Monroe Doctrine was a document authored by Secretary of StateJohn Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) who succeeded James Monroe as President of the United States (POTUS) between 1825 and 1829. The document stated that European countries, or any other country for that matter, could no longer colonize South or North America. Could he have been so bold had the US been considerably smaller? I doubt it.
Therefore, the Louisiana Purchase Treaty, signed on April 30, 1803, may have led, in part, to a somewhat inflated view on the part of the United States concerning its place among nations. When Livingstone stated that “[f]rom this day the United States take their place among the powers of the first rank,” he was giving the US a glorious future. I do not know whether or not this notion has been expressed in textbooks on the history of the United States, but by selling Louisiana, Napoléon played a major role in empowering the United States of America.
Conclusion
In 1763, under the of Treaty of Paris, France chose to keep Guadeloupe and ceded Canada, Acadie and territory east of the Mississippi to the British. Later, in 1803, under the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, at fifteen million dollars, France chose to “give,” or nearly so, Louisiana to the United States.
Père Marquette and Louis Jolliet would have felt betrayed by the Treaty of Paris (1763)and the Louisiana Purchase Treaty. Napoléon Bonaparte removed from North America all that was left of France’s presence on the North-American continent, a continent French explorers, missionaries and Canadiensvoyageurs had openedin its near totality, or almost.
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Paris at the very end of April is a delightful city. All that was old is new again. But Mr Livingstone, with all due respect, could you really tell your fellow nation crafters that acquiring Louisiana was “the noblest work of [y]our whole lives?” I would agree, however, that April 30, 1803 was a very fine day in the history of the United States of America and that all parties involved had something to gain, except for the people whose motherland ceased to be France, for better of for worse, with the stroke of a pen.
Blue Point, Long Island, by Alfred Thompson Richer
I have been asked to compile all my articles on the United States. Some had been compiled. So here is half of my complete list. Mutiny in Congress: Ship them to Guantanamo was a favorite. For added pleasure, I thought you might enjoy a video featuring Alfred Thompson Bricher’s art. The United States has produced great artists. Members the Hudson River school enjoyed landscape painting as did, for instance, members of the Barbizon School in France.
I hope to feature more paintings by the artists associated with the Hudson River school.
Alfred Thompson Bricher (April 10, 1837- September 30, 1908) was an American painter associated with White Mountain art and the Hudson River School. He studied at the Lowell Institute and with Albert Bierstadt, William Morris Hunt, and others. By 1858, he made art his profession. He opened a studio in Boston, but in 1868 he moved to New York City and showed “Mill-Stream at Newburyport” at the National Academy of Design. He had first worked with oils, but ended up switching to watercolors. In 1873, he became a member of the American Watercolor Society. As did other members of the Hudson River School, Bricher painted landscapes mainly, but in the 1870s, he started to paint seascapes and these are the paintings that earned him renown.
The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century school. Therefore, Bricher was a late member. As Modern Art gained prominence, he was nearly forgotten, but he later regained notoriety as a marine painter. In the 1890s he purchased a house near the sea in the New Dorp section of Staten Island. He could view the Atlantic Ocean and Raritan Bay. He remained active until his death, in New Dorp in 1908.
Famous posthumous portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
War
As I reported in my last blog, Mitt Romney seems to have entered into some alliance with Israel, which is dangerous. For the Arab World, Israel is an American presence in the Near and Middle East. As a result, hatred for the US is immense. Therefore, the US cannot take sides. It has to work with the support of the world in order to eliminate nuclear threat everywhere. This would protect Israel.
The Second Debate
With respect to the second debate (16 October 2012), I have written that Mitt Romney acted in a Machiavellian fashion. This approach is a “do-anything-to-become-President-of-the-United States.” The end justifies the means.
Some people have not had the opportunity to read Machiavelli. I will therefore introduce a word everyone will understand: bullying. It appears Mitt Romney is a bully and bullies can break people. I have discovered that others consider Mr Romney a bully. I’m not alone.
I will have to do a little digging on this issue, but I recall a statement on the part of Mr Romney to the effect that his ethnicity would give him an edge over President Obama. It had to do with Mr Romney’s ability to understand people better, white people I believe. This is a statement he made in the UK.
Combined with voter suppression, this statement leads me to believe that Mr Romney hasn’t much use for persons of color. In fact, even if my memory does not serve me well regarding the UK remark, voter suppression alone would indicate that Mitt Romney does not respect persons of colour sufficiently to be elected into the office of President of the United States. At any rate, his poor opinion of persons of colour would make it easier for him to bully President Obama.
Interrupting the debate
If the next debate turns into a quarrel, as moderator of that debate, I would end it.
Conclusion
Daniel Craig [James Bond] declare[d] his support for President Obama: ‘I trust him.’ (see deGrio.com). I’m with Daniel Craig. I trust President Obama.
Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way (1861)
American westward expansion is idealized in Emanuel Leutze‘s famous painting Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way (1861). The title of the painting, from a 1726 poem by Bishop Berkeley, was a phrase often quoted in the era of Manifest Destiny, expressing a widely held belief that civilization had steadily moved westward throughout history. (Wikipedia: Manifest Destiny)
We will now see Canada moving quickly from the Act of Union (1840-1841) to Confederation (1867). Why this sudden rush?
Manifest Destiny
In 1845, John L. O’Sullivan(15 November 1813 – 24 March 1895), a journalist, coined the term “Manifest Destiny” in an article published in the Democratic Review. In this article, he favoured the annexation of Texas, not so much for the purpose of territorial expansion as for moral reasons. In the same article, he also promoted the annexation of the Oregon Country.
The term Oregon Country referred to the ownership of Pacific Northwest. It included Fort Vancouver, Fort Victoria and other forts to which Simon Fraser (North West Company [NWC]) and other fur-traders and explorers had travelled. The northern part of what was called the Oregon Country and later the Columbia district had been reached by land with the help of voyageurs and Amerindians, andthe Hudson’s Bay Company owned part of that land which it used for fur-trading purposes. On the map below, one can see the “disputed area.”
The Oregon Country
(please click on the map to enlarge it)
The Monroe Doctrine
Under James Monroe (28 April 1758 – 4 July 1831) and John Quincy Adams (11 July 1767 – 23 February 1848), the author of the Monroe Doctrine (2 December 1823), and perhaps emboldened by the Louisiana Purchase (1803), some Americans started to believe that they were destined, as quoted above, “to establish on earth the moral dignity and salvation of man.” In particular, Americans were to go Westward.
In 1811, John Quincy Adams(11 July 1767 – 23 February 1848), who would be the sixth President of the United States (1625 -1629), wrote to his father that:
The whole continent of North America appears to be destined by Divine Providence to be peopled by one nation, speaking one language, professing one general system of religious and political principles, and accustomed to one general tenor of social usages and customs. For the common happiness of them all, for their peace and prosperity, I believe it is indispensable that they should be associated in one federal Union.
Canada’s position
Such an ideology may have been perceived as an impediment to British expansion Westward and, eventually, to Confederation, which would unite Canada’s provinces. American-born Canadian explorer Simon Fraser (20 May 1776 – 18 August 1862 [NWC]) had travelled down the Fraser river and reached the Pacific. The British were therefore in the Oregon Country and had claims to the territory.
“resolved standing boundary issues between the two nations, and allowed for joint occupation and settlement of the Oregon Country, known to the British and in Canadian history as the Columbia District of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and including the southern portion of its sister for district New Caledonia.” (Wikipedia: Treaty of 1818)
The Hudson’s Bay Company had not been in a hurry to see this territory settled. However, there were US settlers arriving in the Oregon Country. As a result, in 1841, James Sinclair, of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), took Red River Colony settlers west from Fort Garry. This was an attempt to retain Columbia District as part of British North America. He chose to guide twenty-three families to the Columbia district. The group consisted of one hundred twenty-one people.
“Most of the families were of mixed-race (Métis) and were headed by men who were well-known to Sinclair and who were capable hunters, well-suited to living off the land; while on the trail and as pioneers in Oregon Country.” (Wikipedia: James Sinclair)
It was a brave effort on Sinclair’s part, but only Métis were able to make so difficult and lenghty a journey as could his Métis families. At any rate, eight years later, in 1849, under the terms of the Oregon Treaty, Britain “ceded all claims to land south of the 49th parallel” to the United States, except for Vancouver Island and little coastal islands that became the Colony of Vancouver Island.
In short, one could now settle in the United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, but how could one get there? One obstacle, the Monroe Doctrine, had been circumvented, but another obstacle remained: getting across the Rocky Mountains.
When Confederation was achieved, in 1867, the border remained unchanged and Canada now extended from sea to sea. However, travelling from sea to sea or moving to what is now British Columbia was well-nigh impossible. The Panama Canal had not been built. Building started in 1880 but was not completed until 1914. You might remember that John Jacob Astor (The American Fur Trade Company) asked Gabriel Franchère, to take voyageurs from New York City to Fort Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia river, on the Tonquin. They travelled around Cape Horn (c. 1811). Canada would need a railway so settlers could reach the West Coast.
—ooo—
Let me pause by stating that the Fathers of Confederation knew about the Monroe Doctrine and that they did fear active expansionism on the part of the US. In fact, I do not fully understand why the United States let the northern part of the Oregon Country go to Britain and ultimately to Canada. Obviously, there was good will on the part of both parties and I believe that eventually both parties were winners, except that the disputed land was being taken from Amerindians.
