ORIENTATION LECTURE
History
will be kind to me for I intend to write it.
-- Winston Churchill
History is
more or less bunk. -- Henry Ford
The charm
of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age,
nothing changes and yet everything is completely different. -- Aldous Huxley
Say
goodbye to the oldies, but goodies, because the good old days weren't always
good and tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems. -- Billy
Joel
Anyone who
knows anything of history knows that great social changes are impossible
without feminine upheaval. Social progress can be measured exactly by the
social position of the fair sex, the ugly ones included.
-- Karl Marx
History is
the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon. -- Napoleon
Bonaparte
You can't
say civilization isn't advancing: in every war they kill you in a new way. --
Will Rogers
Those who
cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. -- George Santayana
I once
asked my history teacher how we were expected to learn anything useful from his
subject, when it seemed to me to be nothing but a monotonous and sordid
succession of robber baron scumbags devoid of any admirable human qualities. I failed history. -- Sting
Sir Francis Drake circumsized the world with
a 100-foot clipper. -- Unknown history student
The sun
never sets on the
-- Unknown
history student
For most
of history, Anonymous was a woman.
-- Virginia Woolf
Learn from
yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to
stop questioning.
-- Albert Einstein
Who
controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the
past. -- George Orwell
Don't
worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in
Chapter 1 Quotes
“We are
as near to heaven by sea as by land.”
Sir Humphrey Gilbert on a ship bound for
“We found
the people most gentle, loving and faithful, void of all guile and treason, and
such as lived after the manner of the Golden Age.” Arthur Barlow, commander of Sir Walter
Raleigh’s ship Dorothy upon meeting the natives at a village on the northern
tip of
“I will
make them conform themselves or I will harry them out
of the land.” King James re the Puritans
Chapter 2
Quotes
“We have
found the Indians very faithful in their covenant of peace with us, very loving
and ready to pleasure us. We often go to
them and they often come to us.”
“Since you
are strangers here, you should rather conform to the customs of our
country.” Algonquin chief responds to
imposition of English law on Indians 1635
Chapter 3
& 4 Quotes
“We derive
our authority from God and the Company, not from a few ignorant subjects.” Gov Stuyvesant tells
“Be
careful how you quarrel with the English.
Although you may do them much harm yet assuredly you will all be
destroyed and rooted off the earth if you do.”
Passaconaway, Naragansett
sachem in deathbed speech
“We return
you thanks for the powder and lead given us but what shall we do without guns,
throw them at the enemy.” Iroquois reply
to English offer of ammo but no guns
“… I am
wronged. It is a shameful thing that you
should mind these folks that are out of their wits.” Martha Carrier hanged as a witch,
Chapter 5
“Where
there’s marriage without love, there will be love without marriage.” Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard’s Almanac
1734
“He who
falls in love with himself will have no rivals.” Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard’s Almanac
1739
Other quotes
from Benjamin Franklin: “Keep your eyes
wide open before marriage and half shut afterwards.”
“Three may
keep a secret if two of them are dead.”
“He that
lives upon hope dies farting.”
“We have
it in our power to begin the world anew.”
Thomas Paine
John Adams
on
Samuel
Adams on
Lt.
Barker, British, on
Chapter 6
I may
point out to the public that heroic youth, Col Washington, whom I cannot but
hope
“The
preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks is of more
importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men in the
world.” John Adams, 1775
“Unless we
are absolutely forced into, we shall avoid a large battle. With the fate of
“From the
day I enter upon command of the American armies, I date my fall and the ruin of
my reputation.” G. Washington, Late June
1775
“There I
guess King George will be able to read that.”
John Hancock upon signing the Declaration of Independence
“Yes, we
must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly, we shall hang
separately.” B. Franklin to J. Hancock
upon signing the Declaration of Independence
“A
national debt if not excessive, will be to us a national blessing. It will be a powerful
cement to our union.” Alexander Hamilton
1781
“May we
never see another war!
For in my opinion there never was a good war or a bad peace.” BF 1783
“What
astonishing changes a few years are capable of producing. Have we fought for this? Was is it with these
expectations that we launched into a sea of trouble, and have bravely struggled
through the most threatening dangers?”
George Washington 1786
“A
standing army is one of the greatest mischiefs that
can possibly happen.” James Madison at he Constitutional Convention
[Continental
Congress] “members consider themselves under the
strongest obligations of honor to keep the proceedings secret.”
“Constitutions
should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must
necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible
change of things.” Alexander Hamilton
Chapter 8
“As the
first of everything, in our situation, will serve to establish a precedent, it si devoutly wished on my part, that these precedents may be
fixed on true principles.” George
Washington to James Madison, May 1789
“My country has, in its infinite wisdom, contrived for me
the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his
imagination conceived.” John Adams on
office of VP 1789
“An injured friend is the bitterest of foes.” Thomas Jefferson on relations with
“My ardent desire is … to keep the
“Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty
at home is to be charged to provisions against danger, real or pretended, from
abroad.”
“We can no longer say there is nothing new under the
sun. For this whole chapter in the
history of man is new.”
“I hold it that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good
thing as as necessary in the political world as
storms in the physical.” Thomas
Jefferson
“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and
government to gain ground.” Thomas
Jefferson
“The appointment of a woman to office is
an innovation for which the public is not prepared, nor am I.” Thomas
Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, secretary of Treasury 1807
Presidency “brings nothing but unceasing drudgery and daily
loss of friends” asserts TJ in a letter to John Dickenson 1807
“Had I
been chosen president again, I am certain I could not have lived another
year.” John Adams 1809
“The
government of the
“I have
yet to learn that the color of the skin … can affect a man’s qualifications or
usefulness.” Commodore
Chauncey to Captain Perry upon hearing Perry’s complaints about black reinformcements.
Chapter 9
“Knowledge
is power … knowledge is safety … knowledge is happiness.”
The
American Revolution “was affected before the war commenced. The revolution was in the minds and hearts of
the people.” John Adams
“Damn the
weather, we’re sailing on schedule.”
Says Capt of James Monroe as she sailed from NYC to
“Advertisements
contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.” Thomas Jefferson
Chapter 10
“To the
victor belong the spoils of the enemy.”
William Macy,
“I can
scarcely conceive a more harassing, wearying, teasing condition of existence
….” John Quincy Adams writes of the presidency 1827
Pres
Jackson in toast at celebration of Thomas Jefferson’s birthday says on the issue of
nullification “Our Federal union – it must be preserved!” VP Calhoun replies
“The Union – next to our liberty, the most dear!”
“I am in
earnest – I will not equivocate – I will no excuse – I will not retreat a
single inch – I will be heard.” Wm Lloyd
Garrison in opening editorial of The Liberator
“Can
anyone of common sense believe the absurdity that a state ha s a right to
secede and destroy this union and the liberty of our country with it, or
nullify the laws of the union; then is our Const a rope of sand; under such I
would not live.” Andrew Jackson
“The
wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation that would operate with
perfect equality.” Pres. Andrew Jackson
Chapter 11
“The
investigation of the rights of the slave has led me to a better understanding
of my own.” Angelina Grimke
“We are
under the most imperious obligation to counteract every tendency to
disunion.” John Calhoun after War of
1812
“The truth
can no longer be disguised, that the peculiar domestick(sic)
institution of the Southern States and the consequent direction which that and
her soil and climate have given her industry, has placed them … in opposite
relation to the majority of the
“I have
ever had but one opinion on the subject [slavery]. Our fate as a people is bound up in the
question.” John Calhoun
“Americans
are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than
unequal in freedom.” Alexis de Tocqueville
“I trust
these sentiments and opinions are correct; I had rather be right than
president.” Henry Clay on his belief that sudden freeing of slaves may stir up
racial wars across the land and how this opinion will affect his run for
president
Chapter 12
“In
truth though I occupy a very high position, I am the hardest working man in
this country.” James Polk
“Eternal
vigilance is the price of liberty.” Wendell Phillips; reformer, advocate of rights for women, factory
workers, Indians, prisoners and slaves.
“Hostilities
may now be considered commenced.” Gen.
Zachary Taylor to Pres. Polk upon learning Mexican soldiers crossed the
“I do not
think there ever was a more wicked war than that waged by the
Chapter 13
Abraham
Lincoln quotes:
“ I surely will not blame [southern
people] for not doing what I should not know how to do myself.” 1854
“You can
fool some of the people some of the time and all of the people some of the
people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the
time.” 1854
“The
monstrous injustice of slavery deprives our republican example of its just
influence in the world – enables the enemies of free institutions, with
plausibility, to taunts us as hypocrites.” 1854
“A house
divided against itself cannot stand… I believe this
government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.” 1858
“Slavery
cannot exist a day in the midst of an unfriendly people with unfriendly
laws.” Stephen Douglas
Chapter 14
Women,
like children, have but one right, and that is the right to protection. The right to protection involves the
obligation to obey.” George Fitzhugh,
southern social theorist, 1850s
“Before I
leave this Government I will have contrived to have a law passed gradually
abolishing slavery in this state, or at all events to begin the work of
prohibiting slavery on the west side of the Blue Ridge Mountains.” Governor John Floyd from his diary
“Let not
slavery prove a barrier to our independence.
If it is found in the way – if it proves an insurmountable object of the
achievement of our liberty and separate nationality, away with it! Let it perish!” editorial in the
Jackson Mississippian
“Where,
under our Declaration of Independence, does the Saxon man get his power to
deprive all women and Negroes of their inalienable rights?” Susan B.
Anthony
“I could
work as much and eat as much as any man and bear the lash as well. And ain’t I a
woman?” Sojourner Truth 1852
Chapter 15
“I must in
all candor, say I do not consider myself fit for the
Presidency.” Abraham Lincoln in letter to editor T. J. Pickett Springfield Il
“Secession
is neither more nor less than revolution.”
Pres Buchanan
“You can
always get the truth from an American statesman after he has turned seventy, or
given up all hope of the presidency.”
Wendell Phillips, noted abolitionist, 1860
“Sending
armies to McClellan is like shoveling fleas across a barnyard. Not half of them get there.” Abraham Lincoln
“War
means fighting and fighting means killing.”
Nathan Bedford Forrest, confederate General
“War is
cruelty. There is no use trying to
reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner
it will be over.” William T. Sherman
“Give me
a Union Infantry and a Confederate Cavalry and I’ll lick anyone in the
world.” Robert E. Lee
The Civil
War is characterized as “a rich man’s war but a poor
man’s fight.”
“Our
country is invaded—our homes are in danger—We are
deprived or they are attempting to deprive us of that glorious liberty for
which our Fathers fought and bled and shall we finally submit to this?
Never! We are only asking for
self-government and freedom to decide our own destinies. We claim nothing of
the North but—to be let alone.” Gertrude Clanton Thomas, southern plantation
mistress, 1861
Chapter
16
“If
there is a worse place than Hell, I am in it.”
Abraham Lincoln on the Civil War
“…But one
of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would
accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.” Abraham Lincoln, 2nd inaugural
address,
“We are
not only fighting hostile armies but a hostile people.” Gen William T. Sherman
“Our
country owed all her troubles to [
“We are
born on the same soil, breathe the same air, live on the same land, and why
should we not be brothers and sisters?”
Nathan Bedford Forrest, Confederate general
“As
to the emancipated Negroes, while there is of course a natural dislike to the
loss of so much property, in my inmost soul, I cannot regret it.” Gertrude Clanton Thomas told her journal in
May 1865
“I
am now considered sucha monster, that I
hesitate to darken with my shadow, the doors of those I love, lest I should
bring them misfortune.” Robert E. Lee