WWI Momence, IL Aviator - Lt. Pat O'Brien Royal Canadian Air Corps

The Illinois border town of Momence in Kankakee County hugs the banks of Kankakee River at Route 17 and Route 1 -known here in Chicago as Halsted Street. The town was first platted in 1846 and named after a local Potowatomi named Isadore Moness. The town was used in the movie Road to Perdition. It is a classic Midwestern Town. The Claretian Priests and Brothers operated a seminary there and also Good Shepherd Manor which serves young men with Downs Syndrome. Prominent in the town is St. Patrick's Church and School.It was here that Patrick Alva O'Brien, one of America's first aviators and hero of WWI, was baptized and schooled.

Pat O'Brien, like the more famous gent who portrayed Knute Rockne, was also a film star. Shortly, after makining a silent action movie, Pat O'Brien was reported to have committed suicide.

Lt. O'Brien wrote a best selling account of his amazing escape from a Germany bound prisoner of war train after being shot down in a dogfight over France. Outwitting the Hun was a best-seller and subject of O'Brien's international speaking tour. In this book, O'Brien speaks of his Catholic Faith nurtured in Momence, Il and his early fascination with flight and adventure.

O'Brien's life is fit subject for a movie: Here is a bit of it taken from the research of John at 66 Squardon.

Early Life
Patrick Alva O’Brien was born in the small Illinois town of Momence, Kankakee County near Chicago on the 13 December 1890, the seventh of nine children born to Margaret O’Brien nee Hathaway and her labourer husband Daniel O’Brien. It should be noted that the family bible gives his name as Alva F O’Brien. Pat states in his book “Out Witting the Hun” (Harper Brothers published March 1918) that he started flying at the age of 18 in 1912 (If this date is correct he would have been born in 1894). His mother, some of his brothers and sisters resided in the town during 1917-21, he had another brother, Merwin who was living in California at the time of his death.

Pat started his flying career in 1912 near Chicago, and later went to California where according to Pat he and an unknown associate built their own aircraft. Before 1916 it is known that he was living in Richmond, California and was working for the Santa Fe Railway company as a Fireman.


United States and the Punitive Expedition 1916
In January 1916, a group of villistas attacked a train on the Mexico North Western Railway, near Santa Isabel, Chihuahua, and killed 18 American employees of the ASARCO company. This raid was though to have been instigated by Pancho Villa. On 9 March 1916 the Mexicans attacked Columbus New Mexico. The US decided to respond to the Columbus raid by sending 6,000 troops under General John J. Pershing to Mexico and pursue Villa. During the search for Villa, the United States Air Service under took its first air combat mission with eight Curtiss JN3 aeroplanes from the 1st Aero Squadron. At the same time Villa, was also being sought by Carranza's Mexican army. The U.S. expedition was eventually called off after failing to find Villa, and Villa successfully evaded capture by either force.

Patrick joined the Aviation Section of the US Signal Corps and in 1916 hoping to join in the action against Villa, but he was be stationed at San Diego for about eight months with the Army Flying School. North Island San Diego Aviation Camp was established in 1911 by the Signal Corps after Glenn Curtiss made the first flight on the uninhabited island on 26 January 1911. In 1915 the Camp became a permanent A.S.C. aviation school. Congress purchased the site in August 1917, by which time Pat was probably a prisoner of war. The Camp became known as Rockwell Field in 1918 and was shared with the Army and Navy until 1939. But I digress; Pat became restless after some eight months due to the lack of action, so he resigned and made his way north to Canada and joined the Royal Flying Corps. Some sources say that he joined the Canadian Army in Victoria B.C. Unfortunately I have not been able to confirm this. Pat then joined the R.F.C. in Canada, if he followed the usual pattern he would have been sent to 4 School of Military Aviation in Toronto for basic training and then to 81 CTS at Camp Borden for his initial flying training, later he became a flying Instructor.

With the RFC
In May 1917 along with seventeen other Canadian cadets he left for England onboard the S. S. Magantic. Other members of the draft are quite interesting from a 66 Squadron perspective. Those from the British Empire and Dominions were T L Atkinson (46 sqn pow 22/11/17), F C Conry, A C Jones, C R Moore (59 Sqn kia 8/3/1918), A Muir, C. Nelmes, J R Park, P H Raney (66 Sqn KIA 21/08/1917), E A L F Smith (57 Sqn kwf 27/9/1918). From America came A A Allen (46 Sqn kia 11/10/1917), H K Boysen (66 Sqn), E B Garnett (61 T S kwf 27/1/1918), F S McClurg, H A Miller, C C Robinson (66 Sqn), H A Smeeton (66 Sqn) and A Taylor. As can be seen five of these pilots would serve with 66:


• Howard Koch Boysen (wia. 28 January 1918)
• Patrick Alva O’Brien (pow 17 August 1917)
• Paul Hartley Raney (kia on 21 August 1917)
• Charles Claude Robinson
• Herbert Arthur Smeeton

After arriving in England they all underwent further flying training. On gaining his wings Pat was awarded Royal Aero Club certificate 5397 on 16 June 1917, he gave his home address as 43 Powell Street, San Francisco, California. Pat was sent to 23 (Training) Wing in England arriving on 28 June 1917. 23 Wing’s main aerodrome was at South Carlton with a half flight at Thetford. By the 20 July 1917 he had been posted to Reading and 1 School of Instruction. His record indicates that he was then posted to 81 Squadron on 25 July, although 81 Squadron was not officially due to form at Scampton as a training unit until 1 August 1917 under the control of 23 Wing, but Pat O’Brien was posted to 66 Squadron via the Pilots Pool in France on 28 July 1917.

66 Squadron
Pat joined 66 on 28 July along with Edgar H. Garland from New Zealand and Charles. H. F. Nobbs from Norfolk Island Australia. Garland was shot down on 22 August when his Scout’s engine failed and would later attempt to escape Holzminden himself (see The Tunnellers of Holzminden by Durnford M.C. 1920). Nobbs was shot down on 20 September and like Pat became a prisoner of war. Pat’s first flight with 66 Squadron was on the evening of the 12 August when he flew B1710 with New Zealander Ralph Steadman and his friend from training days in Canada Paul Raney. In his book Pat notes that he was “taken over the lines to get a look at things”. The next day (13 August) he had a morning practice flight, along with William Keast and Paul Raney arriving back at the aerodrome at 08.40 a.m. His first combat patrol was made later the same day when along with patrol leader, Evelyn H Lascelles, Ralph Stedman, Frank S Wilkins and William Keast they undertook the squadron’s third patrol of the day.

On the 16 August patrol leader Angus Bell-Irving led Paul Raney, Pat in B1732, Ralph Stedman, William Keast and Evelyn Lascelles on the first patrol of the day. Lascelles dropped out of the formation around 9 a.m. with gun problems landing at 1 squadron’s aerodrome at Bailleul (Asylum Ground), 30 minutes later Pat dropped out of the patrol landing at 100 squadron’s home at Treizennes with engine trouble. He departed 100 squadron at 11.30 a.m. arriving 66 squadron at 1.50 p.m. a flight of some 2hrs 20 minutes although the distance if some 5-6 Kms. Pat in his book states that “After doing our regular patrol, it was our privilege to go off on our own hook, if we wished, before going back to the squadron” later on page 21 he retells the events of the 17 August, his claim of a two seater and notes that he saw “two German balloons and decided to go off on his own hook and see what a German balloon looked like at close quarters”. Does this account for the time he took to return to his home aerodrome the previous day, if he did go of on his own hook the flight should still have been recorded in the squadron record book, even then, would an experienced Squadron Commander like Boyd let a new recruit go off on his own over the Lines? Later on page 23 he says “When our two hours duty was up, therefore, I dropped out of the formation as we crossed the lines and turned back again”. There is no possibility of the Sopwith Scout having a combat endurance of some four hours or more. I suspect that the flight probably took place on the 16 whilst making his way back from 100 Sqn. On 17 August, Pat on his first patrol of the day, claimed an unidentified reconnaissance C type but later in the evening, after shooting down an unidentified D type Scout he was in turn shot down, sustaining a gunshot wound to his neck crashing behind the German lines and became a prisoner of war. Pat was quite close to 2/Lt Paul Raney who signed for Pat’s personnel belongings and sent them back to Cox & Co the RFC Bankers in England. The McKean County Miner (20 June 1918) newspaper carried a photograph of the document and Pat mentions it in his book. He also claims to have witnessed the dogfight of the 21 August when his friend and travelling companion Paul Raney was shot down and killed, possibly by Ltn Weiss of Jasta 28. Also shot down that day and killed was 2/Lt. William R Keast (In his book O’Brien mistakenly calls him “Keith” from Australia, he was a native of Carlton, Victoria, Australia, although his parents lived in Brighton, Melbourne, Australia.) Keast is commemorated on the Arras Memorial.

Pat O’Brien was determined to escape from his German captors and the story is well told in his inimitable style in “Outwitting the Hun,” his book. After his initial capture he was put through the usual interrogation by the Germans and then on the 9 September he was sent to the Officers prison camp at Courtrai. Later Pat and five other British and one French officer were to be sent to another camp in Germany via Ghent. Luckily his injuries were not too severe and on 9 September Pat O’Brien escaped from his German escort by leaping from the train whilst in motion. Making his way through Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium and Holland he returned to England on 19 November 1917, he covered the 320 miles in some seventy two days. (for a fuller account of his trials and tribulations see his book).

On his return to England he was debriefed by a Capt. J S H Moore on 23 November 1917, the report carries little of note, the military must have been content with his story or no doubt he would not have been awarded the MC. He very quickly sent a telegram to his mother on the 28 or 29 November saying “escaped from German prison: letter follows”. Whilst in London he sought out the U.S. Ambassador Walter Hines Page for advice on how to transfer to the American Flying Corps. Whilst recuperating in England he must have started to write his book “Outwitting The Hun” which was published in March 1918. Pat relinquished his commission on 21 March 1918 whilst on three months leave. His Military Cross was gazetted on 12 December 1919.


Homecoming
Pat was presented to King George V (1910-36) on the 7 December 1917 at Buckingham Palace and talked to the King for nearly an hour. Then Pat returned to the USA and his family in Momence. He departed Liverpool on 23 December 1917, on board was a comrade from that fateful flight when he was shot down, Lt Evelyn H Lascelles. They travelled via Dublin, St. John, New Brunswick, New York and Chicago where he caught the train to Momence arriving on 11 January 1918.

Tomorrow - O'Brien's post war adventures in Mongolia, Cuba, and Hollywood.

Monday - O'Brien's marriage to actress Virginia Dare and the mysterious activities of the odious Mrs. Ottis of Springfield, IL. Did O'Brien commit suicide in 1920? Was he murdered? Was there a lesbian-affair between Mrs. Ottis and Mrs. O'Brien?
Was O'Brien assasinated by Japanese agents?

Tell me this man's life is not the stuff the legends!

Chiniquy - Firebrand Temperance Priest, Emigration Activist, Ultramontane Debater and Illinois Schismatic

But, my dear son, if thou hast no more room in the valley of the St.
Lawrence, and if, by the want of protection from the Government, thou canst not go to the forest without running the danger of losing thy life in a
pond, or by being crushed under the feet of an English or Scotch tyrant ...
Go to Illinois. Charles P.T. Chiniquy, 1851

Charles Chiniquy is an Illinois figure from the 19th Century. He used the Roman Catholic Church as priest to become one of the most original Identity Politics* activists, who combined economic interests, ethnic rivalries, abstinence from alcohol, and a chameleon-like speaking style to lead his followers out of the Catholic Faith and emerge as a powerful anti-Catholic preacher. With the French language Chiniquy defended the Church, yet easily turned to the English tongue to escoriate its Doctrines. Chiniquy had it both ways and flourished with either.

1851 was an an epiphany year for Charles Paschal Telesphore Chiniquy, the French Canadian Temperance activist, hell-fire preacher, Ultramontane** mouthpiece and emigration huckster. Five years after a debate with a French speaking Swiss Canadian anti-Catholic merchant, Chiniquy was excommunicated from the Church. In that time, Chiniquy managed to escape charges of sexual assault on women in Canada, lead an exodus of thousands of French Catholics to Illinois, foment tensions between French Catholics and the Irish Bishop of Chicago, sue many of his parishioners in Bourbonnais, latch onto Abraham Lincoln, and begin preaching in English against the Church.

I wrote about Chiniquy as the first American Apostate - a priest who led some of his flock out of the Roman Catholic Church. Today I'd like to touch on how a Conservative (Ultramontane) Catholic French Speaking Temperance Activist Priest, became a Republican English Speaking Protestant Preacher.

First off let's get some context. Canada was French until the Treaty of Paris ended the Seven Years War (1756–1763)known on our continent as The French & Indian War. Britain controlled the heavily French provinces of Canada, which included our later-day Great Lakes States.

The French were mostly Roman Catholic and the British Protestant (Anglican); however there were a few French Protestants ( Swiss mostly) and some French Huegonots ( French Calvinists). Many of the Swiss and French Canadian Protestants were peddlers and book printers who wanted to convert their French speaking cousins to Protestantism. These merchant/missionaries preached and printed anti-Catholic polemics under the protection of the British Crown and with the legislative complicity of the Anglo-Canadians now active in populating their heavily Catholic domain with immigrants from Calvinist Scotland and especially Northern Ireland - the Scots-Irish who were flooding the American colonies.

Through the early eighteenth century, Catholicism found itself beset politically, geographically and socially by Protestant Nationalism in Holland,Great Britain and Prussia and from within by Republican French firebrand Liberals. Chartism in England and Liberalism on the continent shook the temporal and theological authority of the Pope. To combat this the Church called the 1st Vatican Council and Ultramontane thought defended the authority of Roman Catholic Church in all matters political or spiritual.

Political alliances that still are all too evident today emerged in the mid-18th Century. Thus, French Protestants allied with Anglo- Protestants in opposition to French Catholics in Canada. Not only that Liberal Catholics formed alliances with Protestants as well.

Paul Laverdure, of University of Toronto wrote a scholarly thesis on Chiniquy, in 1987. Charles Chiniquy:The Making of an Anti-Catholic Crusader examined three rubrics underwhich one might understand the power and historical significance of the transformation of Charles Chiniquy. Laverdure argues that Chiniquy used the authority of Rome in his preaching against Swiss and French Protestant tract writers and debate professionals.

Bishop Bourget of Montreal commissioned Father Charles Chiniquy, by
1851 a famous Quebec orator and temperance preacher, to meet and debate
with French-speaking Protestants who had begun to proselytize the
French-Canadian Catholics. The religious line dividing the French Protestant
from the French Catholic was very sharply drawn, but there existed another
difference between the two – the French Protestant was more than likely to
have come from French Switzerland.

“Les petits suisses,” or the “little chipmunks,” as French Canadians still
pun, popped up here and there, travelling, as did Vessot, from one small
town to another as “colporteurs” or peddlers of religious books and pamphlets.
The religious authorities of these predominantly Catholic towns were
disturbed at the steady attacks made on the Roman Catholic faith and at the
small raids made on their flocks’ numbers. Debates were common forms of
educational entertainment.

Public debate was a hugely popular form of entertainment in the mid-19th Century. Here in America, we can look to the famous Lincoln Douglas Debates, or the stump speeches of Congressman Davy Crockett and President Andy Jackson.


Chiniquy debated a Swiss book peddler who had been very effective in converting French Catholics to Protestantism. Chiniquy face this gentleman in public debate.

A closer look at the 1851 Chiniquy-Roussy debate is useful since it
contains in miniature many of the elements prominent in Chiniquy’s life.
Records from both sides of the debate have been kept.9 Chiniquy’s side,
claiming victory, put forward “unanswerable” arguments supporting the
“one, holy, [and Roman, of course] Catholic, and apostolic Church” on the
grounds of Petrine authority and episcopal succession. The Bible had to be
interpreted in line with traditional Roman Catholic teachings, because the
Apostles were not commissioned to have a non-existent Bible read, but to
have the Gospel – no book at all, but the good news – preached. For Roman
Catholics, this meant a continuing, authoritative church community to which
the written form of the Gospel in the Bible belonged. These were ancient
arguments used against every individual or group who decided to interpret
the written word of the Bible independently of the community.Chiniquy’s opponent, the Swiss pedlar Louis Roussy, however, had his
own arguments. He denounced innovations introduced into the religious
beliefs and practices of the people (the rosary, devotion to the Sacred Heart,
and to Mary, etc.) by the ultramontanists, such as Bishop Bourget and the
Jesuits. The Roman Catholic Church hierarchy was not, he declared, faithful
to the early church’s beliefs and had, therefore, forfeited its claim to be the
Church Universal. Of course, with a centralizing Church under Pope Pius
IX, and the popular piety encouraged after the European revolutions (such
as that which surrounded the concept of the Immaculate Conception,
solemnly defined in 1854), Roussy believed himself entirely justified in his
opinions. Chiniquy championed Pius IX and the centralized papacy of the
ultramontanist theorists in clever invective, even abusive language, against
“the ignorance of all these creators of new religions.” Whether Chiniquy
actually won the debate is another question. Roussy also claimed victory.

Chiniquy was a famous Catholic preacher and his Bishop tasked him with confronting Protestant French proselytizers. Not only that, Chiniquy got on the ground floor of Temperance Movement founded by Irish priest Theobald Matthew, who demanded that Irish Catholic peasants fore swear all alcohol for life and save their pennies in order to have the right to vote. Chinquy was called the Canadian Father Matthew.

Previous writers have not bothered to trace the connections between
Chiniquy’s later Protestantism and his earlier involvement in the temperance
movement. This element in Chiniquy’s world was of great importance to
English and French religious leaders throughout the nineteenth and the early
part of the twentieth centuries in North America. Chiniquy’s temperance
crusades were immensely popular, pleasing everyone in Lower Canada
except the tavern keepers. The French conservative (Bleus) and the
social-reform-minded liberal (Rouges) political parties could unite with the
English-speaking Tory and the Reform (Grits) parties in one of the greatestmoral crusades of the English-speaking world; a medal and money was
presented to Chiniquy by the Parliament of the United Canadas to commemorate
his temperance work .25 In truth, English-Protestant Upper Canada
had about a hundred societies by 1831. Chiniquy had taken up moderate
temperance only in 1839 (after some Oblates had done so successfully) and
became a teetotaler in 1841.
In Chiniquy’s Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, the relations between
temperance and religion were very much in evidence. Drunkenness was on
a par “with immoralities of the most degrading kind.” Alcoholic beverages
“are cursed in hell, in heaven and on earth” and are “the most formidable
enemy of our dear country and our holy religion”: for “alcohol kills the body
and damns the soul of its blind victims.”27 His Manual of the Temperance
Society was filled with stories of deaths, murders and the damnation of
drinkers to convince its readers of the religious (if not superstitious)
significance of the virtue of temperance. Chiniquy pictured temperance
societies as “nothing else than drops of living water which comes from the
fountains of eternal life to reform and save the world.”28 The 1849 edition
had been approved by no less than four bishops and had included psalms,
prayers, and scripture passages. Chiniquy perceived all opposition to himself
and his activities as irreligious. Did not even Methodists and Presbyterians
abhore alcohol? Was not Theobald Mathew revered throughout the
English-speaking world? And was Chiniquy not called the ‘Father Mathew
of Canada’?
There was opposition. Many of the temperance societies set up were
animated by Protestant laity and clergy. Some French Catholics could have
been scornful at the sometimes single-minded effort in the odd Protestant
denominations to make temperance almost the sole repository of salvation.
Later in his career, Chiniquy invariably labelled his opponents, especially the
Irish priest and bishop, as drunkards. He also claimed that bishops and
priests perceived temperance societies as Protestant schemes for spreading
Protestant heresy.30 The temperance crusade brought Chiniquy into sympathetic
contact with like-minded English Protestants who deplored, with
him, the weaker Christians. Here is a sign of Chiniquy’s beginning disenchantment with the Roman Catholic Church and his growing attraction for
a Reformed Christianity.

In order to escape the economic (real or imagined) and political hardships, Chiniquy sought to encourage emigration to Illinois.

Though the references to English or Scots tyrants were acceptable in
French (and Irish) circles, the encouragement of emigration to the English,
Protestant United States was not. Such a scheme, to build a FrancoAmerican
West, would draw away precious human resources from French-Canadian
plans to reconquer Canada from the British. Emigration to another country
did not receive as sympathetic a hearing as temperance from the
French-Canadian and Catholic leaders. Temperance was an attempt to build
a better French and Catholic world in Canada; therefore, it was acceptable
to the French-Canadian élite. To go to the United States would mean an
overwhelming of both French and Catholic elements. This was unacceptable
to the French-Canadian élite.36 An added ultramontane consideration was the
fact that Roman Catholics were leaving a Canada they could have influenced
through sheer weight of numbers; the United States, however,
constitutionally separated Church and State.
Chiniquy’s arguments for emigration were economically sound, but the
political and cultural arguments for keeping the French Canadians in the
Canadas prevailed among the élite. Although thousands continued to stream
south, the leaders of Lower Canada did not encourage the emigrants.
Chiniquy’s scheme was a contradiction of French-Catholic plans for the
Canadian North-West. Newspaper battles began.
Tied to emigration in Chiniquy’s conflicts with the Roman Catholic
hierarchy is the well-known controversy over American-Catholic land trusteeship.
Trudel himself analyzed the development of Chiniquy’s arguments
with Bishop O’Regan about the ownership and control of church property by
the parish as opposed to the diocese.37 In English-speaking colonies and the
United States, the Irish diaspora gave an added impetus to Propaganda Fide,
but with the lack of state patronage of Church rights and privileges in the
United States the conflicts over trusteeship exploded on the American
frontier.

Now, Chiniquy was one sly activist. He understood the political and moral power he was handed as a French-speaking Roman Catholic priest, defending the Faith and French identity, while improving the moral tone of his countrymen by railing for Temperance and Total Abstinence. He was a powerful and popular public man.

This public man's private inclinations made trouble for him and his ministry - he was seducing great numbers of women in the confessional and his Bishop found his diocese scandalized by the very man most in the public eye as Defender of the Faith. Bishop Bourget blessed Chiniquy's Illinois Emigration schemes.

Paul Laverdure concludes -

In the frontier atmosphere of Illinois, Chiniquy and his French--
Canadian followers no longer recognized the authority of their Irish bishop.
Chiniquy was excommunicated in 1856 for the constant sexual scandals, the
complaints of female parishioners, the real misappropriation of parish funds,
the lack of any sign of repentence or obedience and, most importantly, his
challenge to the institutional Church’s authority. Chiniquy quickly founded
the Christian Catholic Church – Chiniquy’s Church, as it became known –
to hold on to a small group within the parish community who either did not
know of his failings or did not care. The fact that such a group formed
around Chiniquy attests to the importance of other elements in Chiniquy’s
history: temperance, emigrant lay trusteeship on the frontier, battles with
centralizing ultramontanists and the charisma of a powerful master of
religious language.
In 1859, often in the company of the French Swiss he had once fought
under the Canadian Catholic hierarchy’s eyes, he toured Montreal and
Quebec. Greatly publicized riots followed in the wake of his remunerative
sermons. In 1860, Chiniquy attached his followers to the Old School
Presbyterian Synod of Chicago in exchange for a premium paid for each
convert. A slight misunderstanding over the number of converts was settledamicably with Chiniquy leaving Illinois for his first European tour, paid by
the Synod. On his return, he was suspended for having solicited funds for a
non-existent theological college and for slandering a fellow Presbyterian
minister who had criticized him. Chiniquy’s story continues beyond his
conversion.
Alexander Ferrie Kemp, who had been sent from the Montreal Presbytery
to investigate Chiniquy’s desire to join that body, made the case that
Chiniquy’s language was at fault and could be excused. Chiniquy’s education
in the Roman Catholic Church was blamed! Also, the word collège had a
different meaning in French Canada, where it referred to a classical
preparatory school educating boys until they were ready for professional
training. The American Presbyterians’ accusations of fraud stemmed from
their expectations of a university-level institution. There were certainly some
young boys living and studying with Chiniquy and other teachers. Again,
the questions of language and the emigrant's experience on the frontier
played a role in Chiniquy’s life.
Eager for such a notable French Canadian, the Montreal Presbyterians
made Illinois a mission field in 1863. In 1864, Chiniquy “gave what his new
friends doubtless regarded as a signal proof of the soundness of his
Protestantism.... he married his housekeeper.” One moral weakness,
perhaps, was solved. Protestant evangelicals compared him to Luther, to
Calvin, Zwingli, and to Knox. At the age of seventy, he went travelling
again, to Hobart, Tasmania, Ballarat and Horsham, Australia, to the
Washington territories, and to California. Everywhere, there were riots
among the Irish immigrant populations still struggling with the problems of
a new land and a new identity.57 In 1878 the legal battles with the Bishop of
Chicago ended with the French-Canadian parishioners winning possession
of the land, school and church. Were his complaints about the Irish
bishop’s oppression of the French indeed justified? His followers chose to
believe so.Chiniquy’s derivative language, his experiences in emigrating to the
United States, in the temperance movement, and in the liberal-ultramontane
debates within the Catholic Church as well as between the Protestant and
Roman Catholic churches made him a stock figure, too, a legend, and a new
element in anti-clerical language. Importantly, his works are still being
printed and surface occasionally during anti-Catholic movements.59 He died
in 1899, still writing, still publishing, and proclaiming his anti-Catholicism.
One newspaper obituary acknowledged Chiniquy’s importance to the
Protestant-Catholic debates of the time by exclaiming that: “The thought that
he never was even once killed in a religious riot must have embittered his
last hours.”

Charles Chiniquy was an activist priest who chose to be a prophet to his followers and apostle of persecution. Chinuquy not only employed the rubrics of Ultramontane authority, temperance and emigration, so well presented in Paul Laverdure's article, but he cleverly employed victim-hood and identity politics in a manner that would excite envy in any current preacher-activist.

Charles Chiniquy was master manipulator of public media. Illinois owns Chiniquy, but ignores his impact.


*Identity politics refers to political arguments that focus upon the self interest and perspectives of self-identified social interest groups and ways in which people's politics may be shaped by aspects of their identity through race, class, religion, sexual orientation or traditional dominance. Not all members of any given group are necessarily involved in identity politics.

Groups who participate in identity politics may or may not be a marginalised class of people. However, group advocates will often have a self-belief, a self schema or explanatory narrative, that they are in fact a marginalized group. Typically, these group identities are defined in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class, or neurological wiring[citation needed].

Minority influence is a central component of identity politics. Minority influence is a form of social influence which takes place when a majority is being influenced to accept the beliefs or behavior of a minority. Unlike other forms of influence this usually involves a personal shift in private opinion. This personal shift in opinion is called conversion. This type of influence is most likely to take place if the minority is consistent, flexible and appealing to the majority.



** UltramontaneA term used to denote integral and active Catholicism, because it recognizes as its spiritual head the pope, who, for the greater part of Europe, is a dweller beyond the mountains (ultra montes), that is, beyond the Alps. The term "ultramontane", indeed, is relative: from the Roman, or Italian, point of view, the French, the Germans, and all the other peoples north of the Alps are ultramontanes, and technical ecclesiastical language actually applies the word in precisely this sense. In the Middle Ages, when a non-Italian pope was elected he was said to be a papa ultramontano. In this sense the word occurs very frequently in documents of the thirteenth century; after the migration to Avignon, however, it dropped out of the language of the Curia

Charles Chiniquy - Illinois Schismatic: The First American Catholic Apostate

I lived in Kankakee County from 1975 until 1988. I was a teacher at Bishop McNamara High School in the City of Kankakee. The County is heavily populated with descendants of French Canadian Voyageurs of the late 18th Century and Immigrants from Canada lured to Illinois by a controversial and public relations savvy Catholic priest, Charles H. Chiniquy.

Bishop McNamara ( formerly St. Patrick's High School) was staffed by Clerics of St. Viator priests. This order was brought to Kankakee County expressly to combat the apostasy of Pastor Charles Chiniquy.

I worked with many talented scholars while at Bishop Mac, especially Father Jim Fanale,CSV. my Department Chair. Father Fanale and librarian Anne Chandler introduced me to Charles Chiniquy and his impact on the region. Father Fanale gave me a copy of a dissertation done by a gentleman named Barrett. This was a well-written and detailed study of Chiniquy. The dissertation was like a prose map of Kankakee.

To this day one can trace the exodus of Chinquyites from the Catholic Church out of Bourbonnais, St. Ann, Beaverville, Martinton, Papineau, E'lrable, and Kankakee township via the French names in the registers of the Presbyterian and Baptist Churches in Kankakee and Irqouis Counties.

In the late 1840's, Chicago Bishop James Oliver Van de Velde, SJ (1848–1853,a Belgian, sought to bring more Catholics into Illinois from Canada. The Bishop it seems wanted more literate, tractable, socially sophisticated and skilled French craftsmen and farmers to settle in Illinois and offset the tide of unskilled, illiterate, intractable and violent Irish canal workers.

Though Illinois was pioneered by French voyageurs in the 18th Century, Anglo-Protestant Americans shifted from the east during and immediately after the War of 1812. Protestant political power gripped the State of Illinois. The fledgling Catholic Diocese of Chicago was massive in terms of landscape but empty of people in the pews.

Canada's Bishop Bourget was appealed to by Van De Velde. As luck would have it Bishop Bourget had a popular, but troublesome priest in Charles Chiniquy.

Chiniquy was known throughout Canada as a brilliant preacher and wildly popular Temperance Advocate. Chinquy launched an anti-alcohol campaign that spread like wild-fire throughout Canada. The newspapers lauded this young fierce Temperance Apostle and helped Chiniquy's pamphleteering and public relations. However, the activist priest was accused by more than a few women in written complaints to Bishop Bourget of using the confessional to force sexual advances on them.

Chiniquy's talent for promoting emigration to Illinois and personal self-promotion made Illinois look mighty inviting. French Canadians knowing only of the Chiniquy the Temperance Priest followed him to Illinois.

Chiniquy was energetic and dynamic. He established churches in St. George, Bourbonnais, Beaverville and St. Ann and towns and villages sprung up around those churches. The farm land was rich and fruitful and the Illinois Central Railroad was linking Chicago to the Ohio River. The Railroad had a sharp lawyer - Abraham Lincoln.

Bishop Van De Velde and his Irish successor Bishop Anthony O'Regan (1854–1858) warred constantly with the fiery priest over property rights and over charges that Chiniquy was taking great liberties with women.

Chiniquy sued parishioners for slander and was himself sued by Peter Spink of Bourbonnais:

After the fall court term, Spink applied for a change of venue to the court in Urbana. Abraham Lincoln was then hired by Chiniquy to defend him. The spring court action in Urbana was the highest profile libel suit in Lincoln’s career. [2] The case was ended in the fall court session by agreement. [3]

Charles Chiniquy clashed with the Bishop of Chicago, Anthony O'Regan, over the bishop’s treatment of Catholics in Chicago, particularly French Canadians. He declared that O’Regan was secretly backing Spink's suit against him. Chiniquy stated that in 1856 O’Regan threatened him with excommunication if he didn’t go to a new location where the bishop wanted him. Several months later the New York Times published a pastoral letter from Bishop O’Regan in which O’Regan stated that he had suspended Charles Chiniquy and since the priest had continued in his normal duties as a priest, the bishop excommunicated him by his letter. Chiniquy vigorously disputed that he had been excommunicated, saying publicly that the Bishop was mistaken. Chiniquy left the Church in 1858. [4] He claimed that the Catholic Church is pagan, that Roman Catholics worship the Virgin Mary, that its theology spoils the Gospel and that its theology is anti-Christian. He also claimed that the Vatican had planned to take over the United States by importing Catholic immigrants from Ireland, Germany and France.

Chiniquy claimed that he was falsely accused by his superiors (and that Abraham Lincoln had come to his rescue), that the American Civil War was a plot against the United States of America by the Vatican, and that the Vatican was behind the Confederate cause, the death of President Lincoln and that Lincoln's assassins were faithful Roman Catholics ultimately serving Pope Pius IX.

Chiniquy played the Ethnicity Card against Bishop Regan charging that the Mick Bishop was maltreating French Catholics; it worked for a few of his followers. Chiniquy took his tiny flock out of the Roman Catholic Church after several failed attempts to wrest Church property. Chiniquy began his own Church and later merged with the Presbyterians. That was a bumpy ride as well.

Chiniquy returned to writing fiery tomes and pamphlets culminating in Fifty Years in the Church of Rome in 1885. This work was cited by Cardinal Newman as one of the wilder anti-Catholic polemics that were used by Know-Nothings in Illinois like Joseph Medill to drum up ant-Catholic hatred in the newspapers.

Here is an example of Chiniquy's self-promotionfrom Fifty Years in the Church of Rome:

The next morning I went to table with the Bishop Prince, the coadjutor, who had invited me to breakfast.

He said to me, "M. Chiniquy, you look like a man who has spent the night in tears. What is the matter with you?"

I said, "My lord, you are correct. I am desolate above measure."

"What is the matter?" he asked.

"Oh! I cannot tell you here," I said. "Will you please give me one hour in your room alone? I will tell you a mystery which will puzzle you."

After breakfast I went out with him and said:

"Yesterday you paid me a great compliment because of the sermon in which I proved that Jesus had always granted the petitions of His mother. But, my lord, last night I heard another voice, stronger than yours, and my trouble is that I believe that voice is the voice of God. That voice has told me that we Roman Catholic priests and bishops preach a falsehood every time we say to the people that Mary has always the power to receive from the hands of Jesus Christ the favours which she asks. This is a lie, my lord-this, I fear, is a diabolical and damning error."

The Bishop then said, "M. Chiniquy, what do you mean? Are you a Protestant?"

"No," I said, "I'm not a Protestant." (Many times I had been called a Protestant because I was so fond of the Bible.) "But I tell you, face to face, that I sincerely fear that yesterday I preached a lie, and that you, my lord, will preach one also the next time you say that we must invoke Mary, under the pretext that Jesus has never refused any favour to His mother. This is false."

The Bishop said, "M. Chiniquy, you go too far!"

"No, my lord," I said, "it is of no use to talk. Here is the Gospel; read it."

I put the Gospel into the hands of the Bishop, and he read with his own eyes what I have already quoted, My impression was that he read those words for the first time. The poor man was so much surprised that he remained mute and trembling. Finally he asked, "What does that mean?"

"Well," I said, "this is the Gospel; and here you see that Mary has come to ask from Jesus Christ a favour, and He has not only rebuked her, but has refused to consider her as His mother. He did this publicly, that we might know that Mary is the mother of Jesus as man, and not as God."

The Bishop was beside himself. He could not answer Me.

I then asked to be allowed to put him a few questions. I said, "My lord, who has saved you and saved me upon the Cross?"

He answered, "Jesus Christ."

"And who paid your debts and mine by shedding His blood; was it Mary or Jesus?"

He said, "Jesus Christ."

"Now, my lord, when Jesus and Mary were on earth, who loved the sinner more; was it Mary or Jesus?"

And again be answered that it was Jesus.

"Did any sinner come to Mary on earth to be saved?"

"No."

"Do you remember that any sinner has gone to Jesus to be saved?"

"Yes, many."

"Have they been rebuked?

"Never."

"Do you remember that Jesus ever said to sinners, 'Come to Mary and she will save you'?"

" No", he said.

"Do you remember that Jesus has said to poor sinners, 'Come unto me'?"

"Yes. He has said it."

"Has He ever retracted those words?"

"No!"

"And who was, then, the more powerful to save sinners?" I asked.

"Oh! it was Jesus!"

"Now, my lord, since Jesus and Mary are now in Heaven, can you show me in the Scriptures that Jesus has lost anything of His desire and power to save sinners, or that He has delegated this power to Mary?"

And the Bishop answered, "No."

"Then, my lord," I asked ' "why do we not go to Him, and Him alone? Why do we invite poor sinners to come to Mary, when, by your own confession she is nothing compared with Jesus, in power, in mercy, in love, and in compassion for the sinner?"

Then the poor Bishop was as a man who is condemned to death. He trembled before me, and as he could not answer me, be pleaded business and left me. His "business" was that he could not answer me.

Chiniquy became a stalker of his lawyer, Abe Lincoln. Though the Spink trial which was settled out of court gave Lincoln some notoriety, the Rail Splitter and Chinquy were anything but fast friends. Chiniquy after his break with Catholicism went uninvited to see President Lincoln during the Civil War. The meeting was more than brief, but Chiniquy used that entree to further promote himself and his war on Catholicism. Chiniquy claimed, twenty years after the assassination of Lincoln, to have warned the President of the Pope's plot to kill him -

"My dear President I answered, it is just that letter which brought me to your presence again. That letter is a poisoned arrow thrown by the Pope at you personally; it is your death warrant. Before the letter, every Catholic could see that their church as a whole was against this free Republic. However, a good number of liberty-loving Irish, German and French Catholics, following more the instincts of their noble nature than the degrading principles of their church, enrolled themselves under the banners of liberty, and have fought like heroes. To detach these men from the rank and file of the Northern armies, and force them to help the cause of the rebellion, became the main object of the Jesuits. Secret pressing letters were addressed from Rome to the bishops, ordering them to weaken your armies by detaching those men from you. The bishops refused; for they would be exposing themselves as traitors and be shot. But they advised the Pope to acknowledge, at once, the legitimacy of the Southern republic, and to take Jeff Davis under his supreme protection, by a letter, which would be read everywhere. That letter tell every Roman Catholic that you are a bloodthirsty tyrant fighting against a government which the infallible and holy Pope of Rome recognizes as legitimate. The Pope, by this letter, tells his blind slaves that you are outraging the God of heaven and earth, by continuing such a bloody. By this letter of the Pope to Jeff Davis you are not only an apostate, as you were thought before, whom every man had the right to kill, according to the canonical laws of Rome: but you are more vile, criminal and cruel that the horse thief, the public bandit, and the lawless brigand, robber and murderer. And my dear President, this is not a fancy imagination on my part, it is the unanimous explanation given me by a great number of the priests of Rome, with whom I have had occasion to speak on that subject. In the name of God, and in the name of our dear country, which is in so much need of your services, I plead that you pay more attention to protect your precious life, and not continue to expose it as you have done till now."

The man can prose.

Chiniquy wrote a pamphlet accusing the Pope, Jesuits and Bishops of America for the assassination of Lincoln.

Chiniquy claimed that he was falsely accused by his superiors (and that Abraham Lincoln had come to his rescue), that the American Civil War was a plot against the United States of America by the Vatican, and that the Vatican was behind the Confederate cause, the death of President Lincoln and that Lincoln's assassins were faithful Roman Catholics ultimately serving Pope Pius IX.

After leaving the Catholic Church, Chiniquy dedicated his life to trying to win his fellow French Canadians, as well as others, from Catholicism to the Protestant faith. He wrote a number of books and tracts pointing out the errors in the faith and practises of the Roman Catholic Church. His two most influential works are Fifty Years in The Church of Rome[5] and The Priest, The Woman and The Confessional.[6] These books raised concerns in the United States about the Catholic Church. According to one Canadian biographer, Charles Chiniquy is Canada’s best-selling author of all time. [7] These books were written at a time when Americans were suspicious of foreign influence, as typified by the Know-Nothing movement.

He died in Montreal on January 16, 1899.

Charles H. Chiniquy is the first example of American Apostasy. There have been others like the African-American Catholic Association Breakaway black Roman Catholic group who have rejected Catholic doctrine barring abortion, remarriage after divorce and ordination of women and married men. Here are other breakaway churches:

American Catholic Church in the United States

Ancient Apostolic Communion

Arian Catholic (The Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church)

Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church

Catholic Apostolic National Church United States

Catholic Apostolic Church

Catholic Apostolic Church in North America (CACINA)

Celtic Catholic Church

Charismatic Episcopal Church

Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (Patriotic Catholic Association) Parallel Catholic Church in China that appoints its own bishops and answers to the Chinese government, but adheres closely to the rites of a traditional Catholic Consecration, began after China broke ties with the Vatican when the Communists gained power in 1949.

Free Catholic Church

Liberal Catholic Church

Mariavite Church

Old Catholic Church

Palmarian Catholic Church

Latin Episcopal Church of Brazil

Philippine Independent Church

Polish National Catholic Church

True Catholic Church

http://www.reformation.org/lincoln.htmlhttp://books.google.com/books?id=RIcYDKw9W1oC&pg=PT289&sig=jpAHmcu3sd3_vOQc97vpm0SLPCA&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS268US331&q=Charles+Chinquiy#q=Charles+Chiniquy&hl=en&sa=X&pwst=1&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS268US331&biw=975&bih=533&prmd=ivnsbo&tbs=tl:1&tbo=u&ei=Bli5TdnuHafk0QGF2bnhDw&oi=timeline_result&ct=title&resnum=18&ved=0CHEQ5wIwEQ&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=710f75bbac2df164

Green Faith and Chia Churches

The Green Faith's Buck-Neckid Cathedral!

Huffington Post - The Mayor Emanuel Playbook offers a peek at Green Faith Initiatives! Click my post title.

Green Churches - now that's something. Synogogues and Churches (I can not imagine a Green Mosque other than the paint job) that are Way Green and in full communion with Eco-Theologians Rev. Tommy Barry and Daffy Matt Fox.

In essence, Ecotheology is about as sensible to me as Scientology . . .well, almost.

It is one of those seamless garments crafted with the way hip and the almost hep in mind - folks who, after having introduced yourself to them, will tell you, loudly, and in no uncertain terms that they 'watch only public television, listen only to NPR, and read only the New York Times!'

Gracious me. How can one not be overwhelmed by such an unsolicited proclamation and shink whelp-like into the shadows?

Easy.

Ecotheology began at the University of Southern California in 1967 with Lynn White a Medievalist who held that patriarchal Christianity is anthropocentric -Man Centered (I thought it was Christ Centered) and therefore very, very, very bad. Man uses the Earth! He treds on Mother Earth; plucks her fruit; butchers the fawna and salads up the flora! The old, " I Love Animals . . .they're Delicious!"

If it were not for people the earth would be a lovely place.

People are to the Earth, what Whitey is to all other Races. Bad. Good people want to give the Earth back to the Earth. We elect many Green Machine Party hacks. Like the Chicago Metropolitan Water Reclamation District's Lesbian Green Advocate of reversing the flow of the Chicago River - Debra Shore. Debra Shore laces her polemics in Father Barry's ideas.

Father Tommy Barry shed his mortal husk in 2009 after years of evolving. Father Barry gave hope to the unfulfilled worshiper who who demands cosmic linkage. Such worshippers and sacerdotal functionaries can be found in the hipper Parishes of the Catholic Church. The ones where the outre is encouraged - liturgical requisites be damned.

These are churches that fulfill - personal ministries are doled out and embraced no matter how daffy: Amnesty for All Illegals, Peace Agitation, Solidarity with Criminals, Terrorists, Race Falgellators and the Sexually Preposterous.

If the Church ain't Green, it's patriarchal, racist, fascist and mean. Mean! No what I mean?


I believe that the Green Faith might find more telling theology in the 22nd Chapter of the Gospel of Yossarian in Joseph Heller's brilliant satire Catch 22.

Joseph Heller's Green Jesus -Capt. Yossarian at Snowden's funeral.


Here is the context - B-25 bombardier Yossarian has flown more than one too many missions over Italy and the former Yugoslavia in WWII. On one mission, a gunner Snowden had his guts spill out all over Yossarian having been rendered by Nazi flak. Yossarian stripped off all of his clothes and climbed a tree. He is visted by venture capitalist Milo Minderbinder who wants to sell chocolate covered Egyptian cotton to the troops and asks Yossarian to taste it.

Gripping the bough above with both hands, Milo began inching his way out on the limb sideways with utmost care and apprehension. His face was rigid with tension, and he sighed with relief when he found himself seated securely beside Yossarian. He stroked the tree affectionately. “This is a pretty good tree,” he observed admiringly with proprietary gratitude.

“It’s the tree of life,” Yossarian answered, waggling his toes, “and of knowledge of good and evil, too.”

Milo squinted closely at the bark and branches. “No it isn’t,” he replied. “It’s a chestnut tree. I ought to know. I sell chestnuts.”

“Have it your way.”

They sat in the tree without talking for several seconds, their legs dangling and their hands almost straight up on the bough above, the one completely nude but for a pair of crepe-soled sandals, the other completely dressed in a coarse olive-drab uniform with his tie knotted right. Milo studied Yossarian diffidently through the corner of his eye, hesitating tactfully.

“I want to ask you something,” he said at last. “You don’t have any clothes on. I don’t want to butt in or anything, but I just want to know. Why aren’t you wearing your uniform?”

“I don’t want to.”

Milo nodded rapidly like a sparrow pecking. “I see, I see,” he stated quickly with a look of vivid confusion. “I understand perfectly. I heard Appleby and Captain Black say you had gone crazy, and I just wanted to find out.” He hesitated politely again, weighing his next question. “Aren’t you ever going to put your uniform on again?”

“I don’t think so.”

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

Funnier than Heller, is the Green Faith initiatives that are sure to ignite the passions of the unfulfilled. Time to build that Chia Cathedral?

April 27th - Remember President Grant - Gen. Phil Sheridan's Visit to the Dying Hero

Southern historian Shelby Foote* wrote three volumes of American history that read like epic poetry - The Civil War: A Narrative The volumes are - Fort Sumter to Perryville (1958), Fredericksburg to Meridian (1963), and Red River to Appomattox (1974).

I read the last volume first, in my senior year at Loyola University at the suggestion of Dr. Heibel, my American literature professor. It was wonderful. Foote was no southern apologist, but worshiped the in-born integrity of the people who emerged from his studies of America's crucible with a humane balance of judgment - combatants and leaders were presented as situations met motivations. Foote equally valorized Abraham Lincoln and Nathan Bedford Forrest, unlike group-thought PC dilettante agendanistas.

General Grant was particularly admired and of the tanner's son, West Point third tier graduate, and Mexican War yeoman Foote noted, "He had what you'd call 4am courage. You could wake him at 4am... & he'd be calm & able to tackle any problem"


U.S. Grant is so much more than the face on the $50. Grant was a tough, sentimental, pious, loyal and thoughtful man. At his death, the New York Times featured a lengthy summary in narrative of the man who ended the Civil War, but became a victim of politics.

Click my post title for the whole feature, but here pasted below is a touching detail of Roman Catholic General Phil Sheridan's visit to the dying Methodist President.

A Talk with Sheridan

Shiloh and the Valley Campaign--No Smile at Appomattox

Washington, July 23--From day to day, and almost hourly, during Gen. Grant's illness, there has been one inquirer in this city whose concern has been manifested by the earnestness of his questions about the brave patient in New-York. In his quiet, unobtrusive, undemonstrative way, Lieut.-Gen. Sheridan, Gen. Grant's companion in arms, has shown that he was pained at the thought of the struggle that was going on between the great soldier and a disease with which his sturdy courage could not hope to successfully contend. While the dispatches have been coming in to the office of the General of the Army, and in such moments as he could spare, Gen. Sheridan has talked about his relations with Gen. Grant, their joint efforts to overcome the rebellion, and has told over again the story of some of the most memorable scenes in which both of them participated. Gen. Sheridan does not readily take to story telling, particularly when the telling of a story involves references to his own valorous deeds. His diffidence, great now as it was when he was a boy, is something remarkable in a man who showed an absolute lack of diffidence in the face of an enemy. To get anything out of him in the way of incident one must lead him carefully to the point upon which information is desired. Then, in a low, simple, straightforward way he will tell his story. It will be unimaginative, without attempt at dramatic effect, and without a shade of boastfulness. Like Gen. Grant, Gen. Sheridan has sometimes been called reticent and taciturn. This is only true of him when he speaks with strangers or with curious people whom he suspects of a desire to hear him blow his own trumpet.

Grant's Confidence In Sheridan
The writer dropped in to see him a few days before his departure for the West, and, after chatting about Gen. Grant's condition, expressed some curiosity to know when he had first come in contact with Gen. Grant. "Well," said the General, "you see, we were both attached to the same regiment in the army. He had gone out of it after the Mexican war, and my service had been continuous from the time I left West Point until I drifted down the Tennessee River as an acting Quartermaster for Gen. Halleck. The battle of Shiloh had just been fought. Our army was resting, a sort of suspension following the battle. Hearing that Grant and McPherson were both at the front, I took the first opportunity presented of reporting to them. I found Gen. Grant with Gen. McPherson. He was sitting in his tent smoking a cigar, and was in his shirt sleeves. Our greeting was pleasant, and he expressed his gratification that I had been sent to the front. I had just gone through with the Pea Ridge campaign, and he seemed to have the notion that I could be useful to him in the advance through Kentucky and Tennessee."

"I was pretty near Grant from that time on until I was sent East to take command of all the cavalry in Virginia. When I met the General at Shiloh he was the same man in manner that he has always been to me. I did not find him reticent. On the contrary, he was a very free and frank talker. He did not need much explanation from me of anything I proposed to do, but appeared to have entire confidence that I would do the best I could at all times." The General referred most pleasantly to the influence exerted by Gen. Grant in securing his transfer to the East after the brilliant services he had rendered at Perryville, Stone Ridge, and Chickamauga. "Gen. Grant agreed with me that whenever it was possible we should fight cavalry with cavalry, and infantry with infantry. He agreed with me in my plan of the valley campaign of 1864. The cavalry was taken off of guard duty about the army and put to better use. I saw Gen. Grant occasionally. He was always the same in manner. Never elated by victory, he was also never cast down by defeat. He met all sorts of fortune stolidly. His confidence in himself never failed. Under all circumstances he treated his associates with the same simple courtesy. Plainer in dress than most of his subordinates, he was so because he had no thought for dress, his mind being upon the great task he had set himself. He came to see me in September. Talked over the plans I had made for fighting Early, and having faith in my confidence that I could whip his army. Saw that no other instructions were necessary than the injunction to 'go in.' He never visited me again for the purpose of giving me orders, and in that way testified his full faith in my desire and ability to comprehend and carry out his plans. His regard for me was shown again after the valley campaign, and when I had been made a Brigadier-General in the regular army, by the order for a salute of 100 guns."

Together at Appomattox
With great interest Gen. Sheridan referred to the campaign events following his bold push of March, 1865, to the south of Richmond, preceding the brilliant events in which he was to take so conspicuous a place and win such lasting renown. "At Dinwiddie Court House," said he, "came Grant's order about ending the battle before going back. We were in bivouac. The weather was rainy and the roads muddy. Wagons were everywhere up to their hubs. The general movement forward appeared to be ended. At daybreak on the 30th, I think, when everything was swamped, I rode back to see Gen. Grant. The infantry were huddled together, wet and cold. Gen. Grant's tent was in a sand field, and was as cheerless a place as could be found. He met me cordially, and suggested that if the cavalry could move up a little it would be better than an absolute standstill. I assented to the suggestion--it was all that could be done, said 'good-bye' to Gen. Grant, rode back to my command, and gave the order to move on Five Forks. I did not see Gen. Grant again, except to get a glimpse of him at Jetersville, until ten days later, when I joined him as he went to receive the surrender of Lee at Appomattox.

"The story of the surrender of Lee has been so often told," said Gen. Sheridan, "that nothing could be added to it by me. Gen. Grant, arriving at Appomattox Court House with Col. Newhall on the 9th of April after a long and hard ride, was spattered with mud from his soft hat to his boots, in which he wore his trousers. I had been riding hard, too, and had not had much sleep for several days. Neither of us looked very nice. We greeted each other briefly. The General knew what was about to be done, and little was said about it. Gen. Grant showed no exultation. I took him to the McLean House, where Gen. Lee awaited him. Gen. Grant and one or two of his staff went in; the rest of us staid outside on the piazza until Col. Babcock came out and invited us in. Presently Gen. Lee went out to take his horse and drive away. He was dressed in a new gray uniform. We had had no chance to get at our uniforms. All of us were rather silent and serious. Gen. Grant wore no smile of victory on his face. He knew what the victory meant, but his face did not show it."

Gen. Sheridan said he had met Gen. Grant many times since then, and that their pleasant relations during the war have always been maintained. He went with him on a journey to Cuba and Mexico, and on that trip found him to be the same simple man he had known in the army. In other places he has occupied he has always been unchanged to his admired companion in arms. Soldier-like, Gen. Sheridan is not effusive in his language when expressing his affection for Gen. Grant; but it is not difficult to see that there will be no heartstrings in the country more strained at the death of Grant than those of "Gallant Phil Sheridan."

Longstreet's Reminiscences

At West Point Together--Grant's Courtship--The War and After

GAINESVILLE, Ga., July 23--"He was the truest as well as the bravest man that ever lived," was the remark made by Gen. James Longstreet, when he recovered to-day from the emotion caused by the sad news of Gen. Grant's death. Gen. Longstreet lives in a two-story house of modern style about three miles from Gainesville, where, amid his vines and shrubs, he was seen by The Times's correspondent. He was dressed in a long and many colored dressing gown; his white whiskers were trimmed after the pattern of Burnside's, and he looked little like the stalwart figure which was ever in the thickest of the fight during the bloody battles of the late war.

"Ever since 1839," said he, "I have been on terms of the closest intimacy with Grant. I well remember the fragile form which answered to his name in that year. His distinguishing trait as a cadet was a girlish modesty; a hesitancy in presenting his own claims; a taciturnity born of his modesty; but a thoroughness in the accomplishment of whatever task was assigned him. As I was of large and robust physique I was at the head of most larks and games. But in these young Grant never joined because of his delicate frame. In horsemanship, however, he was noted as the most proficient in the Academy. In fact, rider and horse held together like the fabled centaur.

Two Young Lieutenants
"In 1842 I was attached to the Fourth Infantry as Second Lieutenant. A year later Grant joined the same regiment, stationed in that year at Fort Jefferson, 12 miles from St. Louis. The ties thus formed have never been broken; but there was a charm which held us together of which the world has never heard. My kinsman, Mr. Frederick Dent, was a substantial farmer living near Fort Jefferson. He had a liking for army officers, due to the fact that his son Fred was a pupil at West Point. One day I received an invitation to visit his house in order to meet young Fred, who had just returned, and I asked Grant to go with me. This he did, and of course was introduced to the family, the last one to come in being Miss Julia Dent, the charming daughter of our host. It is needless to say that we saw but little of Grant during the rest of the visit. He paid court in fact with such assiduity as to give rise to the hope that he had forever gotten over his diffidence. Five years later, in 1848, after the usual uncertainties of a soldier's courtship, Grant returned and claimed Miss Dent as his bride. I had been married just six months at that time, and my wife and I were among the guests at the wedding. Only a few months ago Mrs. Grant recalled to my memory an incident with Gen. Grant's courtship. Miss Dent had been escorted to the military balls so often by Lieut. Grant that, on one occasion, when she did not happen to go with him, Lieut. Hoskins went up to her and asked, with a pitiful expression on his face: 'Where is that small man with the large epaulets?'

In the Field of Duty
"In 1844 the Fourth Regiment was ordered to Louisiana to form part of the army of observation. Still later we formed part of the army of occupation in Corpus Christi, Texas, Here, removed from all society without books or papers, we had an excellent opportunity of studying each other. I and every one else always found Grant resolute and doing his duty in a simple manner. His honor was never suspected, his friendships were true, his hatred of guile was pronounced, and his detestation of tale bearers was, I may say, absolute. The soul of honor himself, he never even suspected others either then or years afterward. He could not bring himself to look upon the rascally side of human nature.

"While we remained in Corpus Christi an incident illustrating Grant's skill and fearlessness as a horseman occurred. The Mexicans were in the habit of bringing in wild horses, which they would sell for two or three dollars. These horses came near costing more than one officer his life. One day a particularly furious animal was brought in. Every officer in the camp had declined to purchase the animal except Grant, who declared that he would either break the horse's neck or his own. He had the horse blindfolded, bridled, and saddled, and when firmly in the saddle he threw off the blind, sunk his spurs into the horse's flanks, and was soon out of sight. For three hours he rode the animal over all kinds of ground, through field and stream, and when horse and rider returned to camp the horse was thoroughly tamed. For years afterward the story of Grant's ride was related at every camp fire in the country. During the Mexican war we were separated, Grant having been made Quartermaster of the Fourth Regiment, while I was assigned to duty as Adjutant of the Eighth. At the Battle of Molino del Rey, however, I had occasion to notice his superb courage and coolness under fire. So noticeable was his bearing that his gallantry was alluded to in the official reports.

Payment of a Debt of Honor
"In the long days of our stay in Louisiana and Texas," continued Gen. Longstreet, "we frequently engaged in the game of brag and five-cent ante and similar diversions. We instructed Grant in the mysteries of these games, but he made a poor player. The man who lost 75 cents in one day was esteemed in those times a peculiarly unfortunate person. The games often lasted an entire day. Years later, in 1858, I happened to be in St. Louis, and there met Capt. Holloway and other army chums. We went into the Planters' Hotel to talk over old times, and it was soon proposed to have an old-time game of brag, but it was found that we were one short of making up a full hand. 'Wait a few minutes,' said Holloway, 'and I will find some one.' In a few minutes he returned with a man poorly dressed in citizen's clothes and in whom we recognized our old friend Grant. Going into civil life Grant had been unfortunate, and he was really in needy circumstances. The next day I was walking in front of the Planters', when I found myself face to face again with Grant who, placing in the palm of my hand a five-dollar gold piece, insisted that I should take it in payment of a debt of honor over 15 years old. I peremptorily declined to take it, alleging that he was out of the service and more in need of it than I. 'You must take it,' said he, 'I cannot live with anything in my possession which is not mine.' Seeing the determination in the man's face, and in order to save him mortification, I took the money, and shaking hands we parted.

The Meeting at Appomattox
"The next time we met," said Gen. Longstreet, "was at Appomattox, and the first thing that Gen. Grant said to me when we stepped inside, placing his arm in mine, was: 'Pete (a sobriquet of mine), let us have another game of brag, to recall the old days which were so pleasant to us all.' Great God! thought I to myself, how my heart swells out to such a magnanimous touch of humanity! Why do men fight who were born to be brothers?

"During the war my immediate command had engaged the troops of Grant but once--at the battle of the Wilderness. We came into no sort of personal relations, however. In the Spring of 1865, one day, while awaiting a letter from Gen. Grant, Gen. Lee said to me, 'There is nothing ahead of us but to surrender.' It was as one of the Commissioners appointed to arrange the terms of peace that I met Gen. Grant at Appomattox. His whole greeting and conduct toward us was as though nothing had ever happened to mar our pleasant relations.

Friendship After the War
"In 1866 I had occasion to visit Washington on business, and while there made a call of courtesy on Gen. Grant at his office. As I arose to leave he followed me out into the hallway, and asked me to spend an evening with his family. I thanked him, promising compliance, and passed a most enjoyable evening. When leaving Grant again accompanied me into the hallway and said: 'General, would you like to have an amnesty?' Wholly unprepared for this I replied that I would like to have it, but had no hope of getting it. He told me to write out my application and to call at his office at noon the next day, and in the meantime he would see President Johnson and Secretary of War Stanton on my behalf. When I called he had already seen these men, and assured me that there was not an obstacle in the way. He indorsed my application by asking that it be granted as a special personal favor to himself.

"In the January before he was inaugurated President for the first time I paid him a passing friendly visit. He then said to me: 'Longstreet, I want you to come and see me after I am inaugurated, and let me know what you want.' After the inauguration I was walking up the avenue one day to see him when I met a friend who informed me that the President had sent in my name for confirmation as Surveyor of the Port of New-Orleans. For several weeks the nomination hung in the Senate, when I went to Grant and begged him to withdraw the nomination, as I did not want his personal friendship for me to embarrass his Administration. 'Give yourself no uneasiness about that,' he said, 'the Senators have as many favors to ask of me as I have of them, and I will see that you are confirmed.'

"From what I have already told you," said Gen. Longstreet, in conclusion, "it will be seen that Grant was a modest man, a simple man, a man believing in the honesty of his fellows, true to his friends, faithful to traditions, and of great personal honor. When the United States District Court in Richmond was about to indict Gen. Lee and myself for treason, Gen. Grant interposed and said: 'I have pledged my word for their safety.' This stopped the wholesale indictments of ex-Confederate officers which would have followed. He was thoroughly magnanimous, was above all petty things and small ideas, and, after Washington, was the highest type of manhood America has produced."

Gen. Grant and the South

His Desire When President to Befriend Its People

SAVANNAH, Ga., July 23--The Times's correspondent called upon Gen. Lafayette McLaws recently. Gen. McLaws was one of the officers who resigned his commission in the Federal Army for the purpose of following his State into secession. During the four years' war which followed he held the rank of Major-General and participated in some of the hardest fighting. In his early days he had been on terms of the closest intimacy with the young subaltern who was destined afterward to play so important a part in the history of his country. When the war was over McLaws retired to a farm in Effingham County, refusing all participation in politics. It was not until 1876 that he visited Washington, when he called at the White House. He had no sooner sent in his card to Gen. Grant than he heard the President, who was at the time busily engaged, call out to his secretary:

"Don't let McLaws go; I want to see him."

"All at once," said Gen. McLaws, "I saw a changed look on the faces of my companions in waiting when they found there was one among them whom the President was anxious to see. Meeting me on the doorstep Gen. Grant held out his hand and said: 'I am delighted to see my old army comrade. I want you to dine with me, when we can dream over the past.'

"After dinner he led me into his private room and directed the conversation so as to find out my personal condition. He listened to my narrative with interest, and turning to me he said:

"'McLaws, would you take office under an old comrade?'

"Taken aback by the question, I at length replied that I was ready to perform all the duties of American citizenship. 'I am sorry you did not come to see me before,' rejoined the President; 'I would have taken pleasure in conferring office upon you. My second term of the Presidency is now nearly ended, but there has not been an hour of that time in which I was not only willing but anxious to confer the offices upon reputable citizens. In this, however, I was foiled by the politicians. The prejudices of the Northern politicians were at work, but the great hindrance was in the Southern Congressmen. They have always held aloof, treated me as a stranger, and refused to give me an opportunity to befriend them. For a Southern man to take office under me brought him under suspicion at home.' "In fact," continued Gen. McLaws, "Gen. Grant spoke with the air of a man who felt chagrined and disappointed at the manner in which the politicians had used sectional differences to further their own purposes. Finally, Gen. Grant said to me, 'Go home and have nothing to do with the politicians, and leave your case with me, and I will take care of you.' I had not much more than reached home when I was nominated and confirmed for the Savannah Post Office, which position I held until a few months ago.

"This is not the only instance within my knowledge," said Gen. McLaws," of the interest taken by Gen. Grant in the South. A story told me by the Hon. William Dougherty, whose memory all Georgians revere, proves beyond question that there would have been no sectional bitterness if Grant had been listened to. When the policy of reconstruction had been resolved upon by Congress Gen. Pope was appointed to take control of the Third Military District, of which Georgia was a part. On assuming control of the district Gen. Pope issued an order announcing that fact, the tenor of which gave great satisfaction to the people. Judge Dougherty was so well pleased with it that he felt called upon to make a visit to Gen. Pope and to express in person his sense of gratification. This done he arose to leave, when Gen. Pope said:

"'Judge, I have known you by reputation a long time; it was my purpose to have invited you to advise me on matters of state, but now that you are here we might as well get to the point. My appointment to the command of this district was made by Gen. Grant for a special purpose. I am from Illinois, a State well settled with the children of Southern people. This fact, in Gen. Grant's opinion, would make me feel more kinship here than would some officer without these associations. Gen. Grant further instructed me to call into council in Georgia the best citizens, naming Gov. Jenkins, Chief-Justice Warner, and yourself. The Constitutional Convention required under the Reconstruction act, if held under these auspices, will perform its work quickly and intelligently. He understands the difficulty you will encounter in dealing with the negro question, but to palliate it he suggests that you adopt either a property or an educational qualification, such as is to be found in some Northern States. Gen. Grant knows that the requirements of the Reconstruction act are extreme, and does not expect that a convention of men like yourself would or could come up to them; but what he asks of you is this: send your best men to the convention; your refined, reputable citizens; let them adopt a Constitution as far advanced as the prejudices of the people will admit; let them give evidence of an honest purpose to reach an agreement with the North; and Gen. Grant promises, in return, to use the whole weight of his influence to have Georgia readmitted into the Union under that Constitution. What he desires, above all things, is a supreme effort on the part of your people to bring about that harmony which should exist between the States. He feels that Georgia is the pivotal State; that if Georgia has the courage--he knows that she has the statesmanship--to make a settlement of the question, her example will be followed by the entire South. I have offered the Presidency of the convention to Gov. Jenkins, but he has declined it on constitutional grounds. I have offered it to Chief-Justice Warner, but he declines it because the fight is too sharp and the prejudices too deep to be met. Now, Judge Dougherty, will you accept the Presidency?'"

Judge Dougherty declined the honor, stating that it was too great a task to try to overcome the prejudices of a whole people. Contrary counsels from those of Gen. Grant led the Southern people into a train of disaster which it has taken nearly 20 years to overcome.

"An officer who once served on Gen. Grant's staff once told me an incident which illustrated the quick decision of Gen. Grant. It was just after the battle of Shiloh. The officers were grouped around a camp fire, when Gen. John A. McClernand rode up to Gen. Grant, and handing him an autograph letter from President Lincoln directing Grant to turn his command over to Gen. McClernand, Gen. Grant read the letter carefully, and then, tearing it up into small pieces and throwing them into the fire, said:

"'I decline to receive or obey orders which do not come through the proper channel.'

"Pausing a moment, he turned to Gen. McClernand and said:

"'Your division is under orders to leave this department in the morning, and I advise you to go with it.' McClernand went, and that was the last that was ever heard of the order, for the culmination of events showed that Grant was right, and no President dared to remove him, for a change of commanders just after the battle of Shiloh would have led to very different results for the Federals.

"The dogged determination to do or die, which was so characteristic of Grant, was what gave backbone to the Federal army. He would never acknowledge defeat. Gen. Zachary Taylor once told me an anecdote of Grant, which occurred during the Mexican war. Lieut. Grant was in charge of a party of men detailed to clear the way for the advance of boats laden with troops from Aransas Bay to Corpus Christi by removing the oyster beds and other obstructions. Failing either by words or signs to make those under him understand him, Lieut. Grant jumped into the water, which was up to his waist, and worked with his men. Some dandy officers began making fun of him for his zeal, when Gen. Taylor came upon the scene, and rebuked it by saying:

"'I wish I had more officers like Grant, who would stand ready to set a personal example when needed.'"

Gen. Sherman

The Veteran's Recent Talk About the Administration, Grant, and Others

From the Chicago Inter Ocean, July 18

"I'm a soldier, not a politician," said Gen. "Tecumseh" Sherman, as at the Grand Pacific yesterday the old warrior offered his good-natured apology for neither knowing nor caring much about politics. Said the General:

"I am on my way to Lake Minnetonka, where my family now is, and I stopped over to arrange some matters with Gen. Chetlain regarding our reunion of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee that will be held here Sept. 9 and 10. It is all arranged now, and I think we shall have a beautiful meeting. We shall not throw it open so much to the general public as heretofore. It is a reunion of soldiers, you see, to talk over old war times and keep alive our old associations, as well as the organization itself. Yes, I have been its President since its origin in 1868. How many shall we have here? Oh, yes, over 200-250, I think. The first day we shall transact our private business in some rooms Mr. Drake will give us here in the Grand Pacific, and in the evening in some public place, for everybody to hear, there will be a public address by Gen. Sanborn. The next evening we shall have a banquet of the society."

The General got to talking about the civil service institution, and he seemed cordially willing to give the system his approval. He declared he believed it in the interests of good government, and it seemed to him to furnish a great relief to Senators and Congressmen, who had but to refer their petitioners for office to the Civil Service Commission for an answer. Said the reporter: "General, does it strike you that a good many Republican soldiers have been removed from office?"

"No," promptly replied the veteran, "I don't think there have been. They seem to have been very moderate in that, and not to have removed a man except for qualifications."

The subject was introduced of Wade Hampton's recent letter regarding the particular service of his troops at Manassas, whereat Gen. Sherman speedily said: "Gen. Hampton is undoubtedly a truthful man, and I do not question that Imboden is honest, but that battle was ten miles long, from Surrey Church to Manassas, and a man is liable to write from the position he occupied. My men were new and did not have sufficient tenacity; but they were not driven by Jackson; they withdrew, and his men were not as a 'stone wall,' but they stood behind a stone wall in fact."

"Have you seen Gen. Grant lately?"

"No, not since December, but I heard three days ago from Fred, and they feel very apprehensive about the General. Save the cancer in his throat he is sound in his lungs, heart, and stomach, and I think he will live several months yet."

"He has written a valuable book, General?"

"Oh, yes, and he has written it mostly with his own hand, but still it comes too late; that is, I do not mean that it is really too late, but it would have been better if he could have written it 20, 15, or 10 years ago when he was fresh. A man commanding everything is better qualified than a colonel to write such a book, for he knows all things. I feel even now, in view of all the material that I had, that I have little to add to my memoirs."

"Shall you ever publish again?"

"No, I think not, though I may add an appendix to my memoirs, and perhaps insert something here and there."

"Shall you put in anything about Jeff Davis?" asked the reporter somewhat irrelevantly. And the General shot out his reply with a soldier's sledge-hammer emphasis:

"If Jeff Davis is a patriot, I'm a traitor, and I ain't. If Jeff Davis is a patriot, Abraham Lincoln is a traitor, and if God ever made a pure man Abraham Lincoln was he. Oh, no, I have nothing to do with Davis. He saw fit to take up something I said to a Grand Army post. No, I have never met him. I believe Davis is honest, but his ambition led him into treason to his country."

"You think Sheridan will have no trouble with the Indians?"

"Oh, no, I think not. You see the only way for an Indian to be honest is to kill a white man's ox. There is no game left; the buffalo and the elk are gone. No, the Indian question will be settled when he is given for his occupation a section of land and the remainder invested for his benefit."

Gen. Sherman got up to wish his visitor good day. The same plain, grizzly old fighter in fatigue dress he remains. He stands with his feet together like the soldier he was trained, and his tall form appears perfectly at ease in black alpaca coat and low-cut white vest, whereon army buttons declare the trade in which "Tecumseh" Sherman made his everlasting mark. When he talks he talks with the utmost good humor and straightforward simplicity. He was speaking of his home in St. Louis, his house building, and the provision he wished to make for those that remained when he was gone. When he mentioned his six children and seven grandchildren he came to speak of the families of brother officers, men his peers in the service years ago, who passed away only to leave those dependent on them beggars for office at Washington, willing to work 10 hours a day for $40 a month, simply to get bread and meat. Forty such instances he said he could recall, and the thought seemed to have its deep pathos as the General dwelt feelingly upon it.

* In 1940 Foote joined the Mississippi National Guard and was commissioned as captain of artillery. After being transferred from one stateside base to another, his battalion was deployed to Northern Ireland in 1943. The following year, Foote was charged with falsifying a government document relating to the check-in of a motor pool vehicle he had borrowed to visit a girlfriend in Belfast - later his first wife — who lived two miles beyond the official military limits. He was court-martialed and dismissed from the Army. He came back to the United States and took a job with the Associated Press in New York City.[3] In January 1945, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, but was discharged as a private in November 1945, never having seen combat.[3] During his training with the Marines, he recalled a fellow Marine asking him "you used to be a[n] Army captain, didn't you?" When Foote said yes, the fellow replied, "You ought to make a pretty good Marine private."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelby_Foote

Free Bradley Manning Rezko!

The adorable Bradley Manning Wiki leak Traitor and dandified victim to the Progressive should look to Antoine 'Tony' Rezko and count his blessings, as well as his toes.


These Frootloops Love Bradley! Tony Rezko ought to drop a few nickels to Code Pink and wear one of them Bradley Manning Masks at the Metro Fed or wherever they are keeping him.

Tony Rezko, who offered Senator Barack Obama, fifteen feet of prime Hyde Park turf and bundled for Blago is the Illinois Man in the Iron Mask.

Toni Preckwinkle could beef that this guy . . .not gonna happen.

A prominent political fundraiser with ties to former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and President Barack Obama will spend eight more months behind bars before he is sentenced for his crimes. Tony Rezko was convicted of fraud and corruption in federal court back in June 2008.

Since then he’s had several sentencing dates, but each one has been postponed. On Wednesday, Rezko appeared in federal court wearing his prison uniform, looking noticeably thinner and speaking with a raspy voice, telling the judge he wanted to push his sentencing back to September. Rezko’s defense attorneys and the federal prosecutors both agreed to delay the sentencing, opening up the possibility that Rezko could take the stand as a witness against former Gov. Rod Blagojevich in his upcoming retrial in April. “There’s a possibility he [Rezko] may be called in the second trial as well,” said lead defense attorney Joe Duffy.

Where is the Innocence Project and the Northwestern Wildcat Cabbie Bribers, when a guy needs one?

This guy will have mushrooms growing between his toes, or Obama removes the switch plates at the White House, before he gets taken care of . . .quietly, mind you.

Progressive Chicago Victory Complete - Read on Huffington Post Chicago

The Chicago and Cook County Democratic Party gradually and finally handed the keys to the County and City over to the Progressives. Daley in fact did just that last year about this time, when Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel dreamed of becoming a Chicagoan and the Mayor. Mayor Daley exited, having destroyed politics for policy and exhausted the affection of Chicagoans in creating a Postcard out of what had been a City of Neighborhoods.

Chicago is never cutting edge. Chicago always apes other cities, whether it is London's checker-board Cop hat bands, Big Brother Blue Light Cameras, Cabs,Buses, or clean subways. Chicago bans smoking, neighborhood saloons,or trans-fatty acid because New York City did so and allows anarchists the freedom of the streets, media and bike paths in homage to Seattle. Daley is touring the Hoods that aped other cities.

Daley has left the 19th Ward and other blue-collar neighborhoods that helped get him elected ( Beverly, Morgan Park & Mount Greenwood out of his walking tours, because those neighborhoods, while loyal, are deemed unimportant -only voters, tax-payers, breeders and Catholics there. Mayor Daley is quite correct. Neighborhoods stopped being important years ago. Community -whatever the hell that means - trumped neighborhoods.

Chicago's Purty, unless you take the 79th street bus east or west, or try to get from Hegewisch to Navy Pier via public transportation, or sell your home in Garfield Ridge.

Identity Policy trumped politics ( the old quid pro quo that got things done . . . for now. The Dreams of Leon Despres, Abner Mikva, and Dick Simpson are realized. Chicago will turn the microphone off on the last of political professionals.

Rahm Emanuel will govern Chicago according to the needs, whims, and wants of the 2012 Presidential Re-Election Campaign. In fact the Rahm years will be a replay of the Obama Administration 2008-2012. All the players are here already. It will be like the Seinfeld Reunion. Chicago City services will be the collateral damage. Chicago's Serial Appointee, Forrest Claypool, the Rula Lenska of Chicago politics, will run the buses and trains; Joe Moore will be the City Council voice; former Mayor Clerk Dave Orr will direct policy to the media; Wards will be re-mapped into silence - especially the 19th Ward where turnout is always heavy.

Politics no longer exists. Policy reigns supreme and that settles it.

If Chicagoans want to know what is going to happen - skip reading the Tribune and the Sun Times. All you need to know is to be found on the Huffington Post Chicago links.

There you will find Toni Periwinkle's dagger in the kidneys of Sheriff Tom Dart; Dick Simpson's imitation of the Daniel Burhnam; Locke Bowman's Daily Burge Reminder that Racism is 24/7.

All of the non-blinking Progressive Superstars ( folks who used be laughed out of the room) are loudly reminding Chicagoans that THEY, not you - won! Get over it!

Julie Westerhoeff who partners with Mike Klonsky and Bill Ayers with the ironic and seemingly adversarial help of the Chicago Teachers Union to make sure that Public Schools get worse has been featured prominently of late.

Also, Christine Bork of the YWCA Metro will demand more abortions for black babies because she and Planned Parenthood understand the black experience better than black people.

If you are LGBTQ you can be sure that your voice will dominate those breeders who dare utter a sound. It will be a universal WTTW Panel shout down of breeders.

If you do not worry about where the money comes from, not to break a sweat! Taxes go to breeders, racists, mean people, tea-baggers, homophobes, and working stiffs.

Chicagoans will learn what is important - not solid police presence, not fire fighting, not teacher accountability, not personal accountability. Cultural Bread and Circuses, Race Baiting, Gay Supremacy at every level - Gay Friendly is Homophobic, Food Fascism, Green Propaganda even though the boilers have not worked in years, Rain Barrels over Water Filtration, Reversing Chicago River Flow, Sanctuary City Sanctification, Abortion, Police Brutality/Systemic Racism Lawsuits,and Hate Crime Up-Ticks.

This will be the Progressive Golden Age - four years anyway.

Progressives captured the Captive City! Billy Sunday could not shut it down. The Democratic Party, Media and the patient Lefties killed the Machine.

The City of the Big Shoulders has trimmed down to Metrosexually Sized Smartness.

Have fun. See you in four!

Secular Cohabitation Vows - No Bands, No Ties, No Biggie, No Hokey-Pokey, Whatever!

Hat tip from Regular Guy!

I listened to a tweedy academic explain that marriage is as outmoded as spats, or something like that and I kept my mouth shut. Must have been all the Rhino tranquillizer that my Love slipped into my soda water. The guy blinked about three times during his five minute discourse on marriage, religion, intolerance, and Pope Benedict. He argued that cohabitation is the only civilized conjugal arrangement.



Marriage works in my neighborhood. It might not work everywhere. Who's to say?

Gravity works in my neighborhood. It does not work in controlled upper -stratospheric environments, like big NASA airplanes, or up in outer space. Who's to say.

We are as God made us works in my neighborhood with certain theological and moral modifications. Atheists are as the Big Bang made them. Who's to say.