 On The Line -- Issue 566 -- January 20, 2006  Online News and Views of Life in San Benito County with Herman Wrede Published by HollisterOnline.com -- Copyright 1995-2008 HollisterOnline.com
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On The Line -- Issue 566 -- January 20, 2006 Online News and Views of Life in San Benito County with Herman Wrede Published by HollisterOnline.com -- Copyright 1995-2008 HollisterOnline.com
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This past week we observed the birthdays of three Americans, each of whom lived in a separate century. Two owned slaves, although that is not primarily for what they were known, and the other was the descendant of slaves.
The first was Benjamin Franklin and although we normally do not observe his birthday on Jan. 17, this year marked the 300th anniversary of it, and historians see it as a significant date in the nation's annals. His was the first American success story. Born as the 10th of 17 children, he was the son of a chandler who had come to Boston from his native England because he saw the New World as a place for greater opportunity. We all know of his illustrious son's history from our schoolbooks. He was apprenticed to an older brother as a printer and became a master of the craft. He learned that he had a gift for putting words together into clever essays, rather than just setting them in type. Franklin left Boston for Philadelphia while a young man and became his own master, although with encouragement from influential patrons. His "Poor Richard's Almanack," a series of essays that stirred public mirth, was popular reading on both sides of the Atlantic. He made many trips to England and lived there for years at a time. Had he followed his inclination to become an English citizen, the United States might have never been created or, if created, would have had a different tone. Franklin took his illegitimate son into his home and educated him in many ways. William Franklin admired his father and developed a deep loyalty to him and the causes he espoused. His father's influence helped him become governor of New Jersey. Benjamin Franklin invented many items, including bifocals, a stove named for him and even an early catheter. By the time he was 50 he was among the richest men in the colonies who had not inherited wealth. He turned over the shop to his foreman, splitting the profits from it evenly, and spent his time in invention, scientific experiments, writing and public service. He held many important posts in colonial government and was celebrated whenever he went abroad. Franklin was approaching 70 when the American colonies revolted against Great Britain. He went to France as an emissary to win that nation's support for the patriot cause. He was lionized there like no other American had ever been. At the same time, his son was imprisoned for not embracing the American cause. Franklin was the oldest and only man to sign each of the three documents that could cumulatively be called the United States' birth certificate: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War, and the U.S. Constitution. He met his son the final time in England in 1785 when the father was preparing to embark for the United States. When William did not offer the apology he expected, he turned and left him. Franklin ?s few slaves were freed when he died in 1790. A national day of mourning was proclaimed for the man who had become the nation' s first Postmaster General, and newspapers throughout the nation and world featured the story of his death. Robert Edward Lee was born on Jan. 19, 1807 to one of Virginia's oldest and proudest families. His father was Henry Lee, better known as "Light Horse Harry" as a hero of the Revolution. As a boy, Robert was greatly influenced by Christianity and followed its tenets all his life. He attended West Point and at graduation in 1829 stood second in his class. Lee remains the only West Point cadet who never received a demerit in four years. His army career was brilliant. As an officer of engineers he charted and surveyed many areas of the Midwest. When the Mexican-American War broke out, Lee's star shone even brighter. He served on the staff of General Winfield Scott and led troops in battle for which he won three promotions. His career after the war rose steadily and he was made superintendent of West Point in the 1850s. Scott called Lee the finest soldier he had ever known. When President Abraham Lincoln took office as Southern states were seceding to form the Confederate States of America, Lee prayed that the Union would not be fractured. General Scott, at Lincoln's behest, offered him the command of the US Army. Lee resigned shortly after that to go with his native state and became an adviser to CSA President Jefferson Davis. Soon Davis appointed him to head the Army of Northern Virginia. Lee's brilliance in planning and audacity in combat became legendary. Time after time he out-maneuvered or defeated larger Union forces until he took on the aura of a champion to his enemies as well as his own soldiers. The latter loved him and followed wherever he went, no matter the circumstances. The North dominated and Lee was forced into surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Some Northern officials, vengeful because of Lincoln's assassination less than a week later, wanted to imprison or even execute him. Lee rejected outright the plan of many former CSA officers to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Northern occupation force. "We fought for a cause, and lost that struggle," he said. "Now let us submit to the wisdom of the Almighty in His determination for peace." His conviction made it easier for most Southerners to accept the bitter defeat. Lee accepted the offer to become president of Washington College. Upon his death on Oct. 12, 1870, most American newspapers, including those in the North, eulogized him as "the soul of honor" and "the best example in our nation's history of a Christian gentleman." Washington College was renamed Washington and Lee College to memorialize him. Most of the Southern states proclaimed the anniversary of his birth as a holiday. Some Southern cities still observe it. Martin Luther King Jr., the son and grandson of ministers, was born on Jan. 15, 1929 in Atlanta. Like his fellow Southerner, Lee, a devotion to God was instilled in him early. However, unlike Lee, he was denied some aspects of the American dream altogether and had limited access to others. Even at that the boy fared far better than most other Black Americans with his family's stature in the community. It was found early that Martin had a quick mind and his intelligence asserted itself. He led his classmates in all subjects and did so well on tests that his teachers allowed him to skip the ninth and 12 grades of high school. He was 15 when he entered Morehouse College and graduated at 19 in 1948. King's future was clear for him. He studied to become a minister and when he accomplished that he became the assistant pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church where his father was pastor. It would have seemed that his future was to minister to his congregation and to teach several generations the works of God. However, Fate had placed him at a critical point in time in which seething centuries of history were coming to a boil. In 1954 he accepted an appointment as pastor of the Dexter street Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala. He had already won recognition as a civil rights leader and was a member of the executive council of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He quickly became a leading figure in the Montgomery Improvement Association. A year after he settled in Montgomery, a seamstress named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. She was arrested. King was among those who led a boycott of the Montgomery bus system and the black community responded by walking, car-pooling, bicycling or whatever other means by which they traveled in Montgomery. Some cynical observers predicted failure: "They're going to get tired of walking," but the boycott ran into a week, then a month, and six months and a year. The black community adhered to it for 382 days until Dec. 21, 1956 when the United States Supreme Court determined that segregated busing was unconstitutional. History had been made but King and others realized that it was only one battle in a long war against embedded custom and bitter enemies. He was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957. From then until his death in 1968, he traveled more than six million miles and spoke more than 2,500 times until all America and the world had heard his "I have a dream speech" that told of people of all colors studying, working and praying together. He was arrested many times and threatened many more. At least four assaults were made on him, and his home was bombed. King and his wife, Coretta, became the parents of four children and taught them the Bible and the necessity to strive toward an equal world. Time magazine named him its Man of the year in 1963, and at 35 he became the youngest man ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize. He stressed peaceful resistance to oppressors but privately told his inner circle that he would probably be killed in the cause. In Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968 an assassin drew a bead on him while he was relaxing outside his motel room. Within minutes, word of his murder was going out to the world. His closest friends and advisers tried to stem outrage among the black community and, indeed, most refrained from seeking retaliation. King's example did not perish with him, and people of many colors and many cultures are closer now than they would have been had he not lived. He is the only one of the three Americans honored this week whose birthday is a national holiday, on the third Monday of January. Each of the three was a highly unusual person and each has left his mark on American history. |
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