Gil Hahn's Blog, page 3

The Presidential Election of 1860 - Part 4

State and National Conventions
The Republican Party, as noted previously, was not a national party – it was strong in the north, nominally present in the upper south, and nonexistent in the lower south. By 1859 the party had won control of thirteen northern state legislatures, and by January 1860 Republican governors had taken office in thirteen northern states. In the 1860 election, 152 electoral votes were required to elect a president. The states where the Republican Party was strongest rep...

The Presidential Election of 1860 - Part 3

Two attacks on slavery occurring just before the election season of 1860 raised the nation’s emotional intensity. The first, as we have seen, was the raid led by John Brown on the federal armory in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, widely regarded by contemporaries as the first step in a deliberate program to attack and end slavery. In the second event, which began just as Virginia executed Mr. Brown, a contest for the speakership of the House of Representatives made the United States Congress yet ag...

The Presidential Election of 1860 - Part 2

Year of Meteors
If Walt Whitman had been more politically minded, he might have extended his “Year of Meteors” back to the political season of 1858. William H. Seward, a United States senator from New York, gave a speech in Rochester, New York, that apparently was intended to solidify his claim to leadership of the Republican Party. Senator Seward had previously served as his state’s governor and was spoken of as a leading contender for the party’s presidential nomination in 1860. In his addre...

The Presidential Election of 1860 - Part 1

The subtext of most elections is change – the need for change when times are bad or the direction of the country is troubling and the need to resist change when times are good. Each voter’s assessment of the temper of the times and thus his decision whether to select one candidate over another are often discussed as rational acts, but they contain an emotional component as well, touching that voter’s hopes and fears. Our times have shown us that election campaigns seek to make both rational a...

A Temporary Leave-Taking

I'm going to be taking a holiday from my social media platforms and blog. The purpose of this absence is to dedicate my time and energy to the completion of a new book project for which the working title is “With All Possible Despatch” - The Civil War on Coastal Waters.
I have been fascinated by the Civil War era for years, and the naval aspects of that war afford an opportunity to explore the effects of technology on the course of history. My new project is very much like my first book, Four...

Harper's Ferry Revisited

On a recent weekend my wife and I visited Harper's Ferry.  The National Park Service does a wonderful job of interpreting historic sites.  The visit was not our first, and I recalled that on a prior visit, I had recorded some impressions of a newly awakened appreciation for the place and its history.  Having just located those notes, I was surprised to see that they are over 14 years old.  They are as follows:
Harpers FerryJuly 5, 2001
I volunteer at the Hagley Museum, just...

Echoes From the Past

For some, it was the heroically tragic failed attempt of Southern nationalists to protect their civil liberties by declaring themselves independent of a nation whose government they feared would impinge upon their rights.  Their attempt to assert and defend their political independence was no less principled – and no less illegal – than the acts of the American c...

Viral Civil War Video at Prager University

I have viewed Professor Ty Seidule's video on Slavery as the Cause of the Civil War that was posted on the Prager University website, and I applaud him for having summarized as accurately as possible in a five minute video for a popular audience so complex a historical issue. Any fair analysis of the facts leads to the conclusion that slavery was the root cause of the Civil War. Anyone who believes otherwise in this day and age either has not acquainted himself with the facts objectively or i...

Harper's Ferry: The Senate Select Committee Investigation

On December 14, 1859, the United States Senate passed a resolution to establish a select committee to inquire into the invasion of Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and the seizure of public property that occurred there during October of that year. As directed by the resolution, Vice President John C. Breckinridge, the presiding officer of the Senate, appointed as members of the committee James. M. Mason, a Democrat from Virginia (chairman); Jefferson Davis, a Democrat from Mississippi; Graham N. Fit...

The Panic of 1857

Until now, the Chinese government has been widely applauded for its deftness in managing economic matters. For instance, its massive stimulus program launched in late 2008 helped the Chinese economy weather the global financial crisis.

It also saddled the economy with debt, a property bubble and wasteful projects throughout the country. As part of a strategy to help the companies unwind the debts they had taken on in that push, policy makers encouraged stock investing.
"Chinese Government Strug...