Category Archives: History

The Death of “Old Man Eloquent”

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I have written before that if John Quincy Adams’ presidency had been as notable as his career in public service before and after he was president, he likely would have been on Mt. Rushmore.  He was, arguably, America’s greatest secretary of state — in that position he, not President Monroe, wrote the Monroe Doctrine that gave America primacy in the Western Hemisphere, and he engineered several treaties that brilliantly, and peacefully, gained America increased territory and prestige.

He was also among the greatest politicians ever to serve in Congress, which he did after he was president, entering the House of Representatives in 1831.   There “Old Man Eloquent,” as he was called, led the opposition to slavery, working tirelessly, and ultimately successfully, to end the so-called “gag rule,” which had allowed Congress to “table” — to put aside without debate or vote — the many petitions Congress was receiving demanding slavery’s end.

And in 1848 he passionately opposed then-President James Polk’s war with Mexico, which Polk had provoked in order to gain the Mexican-held California and New Mexico territories, thereby completing America’s continental expansion to the Pacific.  Adams supported America becoming a continental nation, but he also knew that these territories, forcibly taken, would exacerbate the conflict over slavery as southerners and northerners argued over whether the new states that would eventually be created from these territories would be free or slave states.  Adams also objected to Polk’s outmaneuvering Congress to start the war, clearly violating Congress’s exclusive constitutional war-declaration authority.

Which is why Adams yelled “No!” when, in February of 1848, the Speaker of the House called for a vote to honor the U.S. officers who had waged the war.  Rising to explain his vote, Adams suddenly collapsed from a stroke.  He died two days later, on February 23, 1848.

The upshot of which was that “No” was the last word Adams uttered in public even though, as a proud Whig, he was a positive progressive.  Like all Whigs he called for an activist government that supported “internal improvements,” meaning funding for new roads, bridges and canals to better move goods and services across the country.  He also advocated government support for science, education and industry, as well as legal recognition of rights for Indians, blacks and women.

Interestingly, Adams’ views on all of these issues were shared by another proud Whig who, in 1848, was also a member of the House of Representatives.  Abraham Lincoln was his name and unlike Adams his congressional career was undistinguished — he served just one term.  Then again, unlike Adams, his presidency from 1861 to 1865 was the most notable in our history.  So notable, in fact, that it made him a shoo-in for Mt. Rushmore.

Fidel Castro: The Survivor

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A high-powered rifle with sniper’s scope and silencer.  A poisoned cigar.  An exploding pen. An exploding sea shell.  Poisoned toiletries (toothpaste, mouthwash, etc.).  A poisoned scuba diving wet suit.  A poisoned drink.  Mind altering drugs.  Drugs to make facial and scalp hair fall out.  A car bomb.  A house bomb.  An atomic bomb.

No, that wasn’t Theodore “Unabomber” Kaczynski’s Christmas list.  At one time or another every one of the above was proposed or discussed by the CIA, the Pentagon, the Justice Department and/or the White House as a way of ending the rule, and life, of Cuba’s “Maximum Leader,” Fidel Castro. The life began in 1926. The rule began this week (Feb. 17) in 1959 when his rag-tag revolutionary army took power in Havana on the heels of the fleeing former Cuban dictator, Fulgencio Batista.

Interestingly, President Eisenhower’s first reaction to Castro was mixed. He was wary of this self-proclaimed revolutionary but gratified to have finally been rid of the pro-American, but extremely corrupt, ruthless, despised (and embarrassing) Batista.  And as for Castro, at the time he came to power he held no strong ideological convictions. Unlike his fellow revolutionary, Che Guevara, he was not initially a Marxist-Leninist, although like most good Latin Americans he did have a reflexive dislike of the U.S. But many historians have argued that with more patient and flexible diplomacy, Castro might not have wound up in the arms of the Russians and might even have been lured into the American camp.

Perhaps, but several realities get in the way of this hope. First, Castro had made no secret of his intention, once in power, to “nationalize” (confiscate) millions of dollars worth of American owned property — something no U.S. president could shrug off without political consequences. Second, although Castro’s conversion to Marxism came late, it was probably inevitable given his obsession with holding on to power.  The great thing about being a Marxist-Leninist is that you don’t have to hold elections, or seek consensus with rival parties, or worry about public opinion.

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Fleming Discovers Penicillin

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Had Sir Alexander Fleming’s mom raised a tidier son, who knows how many people would have died needlessly of infectious diseases?

As it was, during the early years of the 20th Century, hundreds of thousands did die needlessly, a number that grew exponentially during World War I, when more soldiers died from bacterial infections caused by their wounds than they did by the wounds themselves — something Fleming, a young doctor working in battlefield hospitals during the war, saw firsthand.  And so, after the war ended, Dr. Fleming returned to St. Mary’s hospital in London to search for a cure for bacterial infections.

His first breakthrough was the discovery of the antibacterial agent lysozyme, an enzyme found in many bodily fluids, including tears.  However, lysozyme was ineffective against serious infections such as those caused from war wounds, so Fleming kept looking.

His research took him down many paths, which meant many experiments using Petri dishes to grow bacterial agents.  And as is often the case with dedicated researchers, Fleming did not always have the time or inclination to perform the mundane task of cleaning those dishes, meaning they would often pile up in the sink, to be washed when he got around to it. But one day when he began cleaning up a pile of Petri dishes that had collected on a bench, he noticed a mold had grown on one of the dishes.  This was, of course, a not uncommon byproduct of leaving dirty dishes around for too long, but what Fleming considered very uncommon was the fact that all of the staph bacteria surrounding this mold had died.  Further experimenting, he eventually determined that the mold was Penicillum notatum, and that it prevented the growth of staphylococci (bacteria).  Fleming also found that this penicillin, as he finally named it, was particularly effective at preventing bacteria in wounds, and was almost completely harmless to the human body.

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