Letter to the Editor: Another history lesson
You’re absolutely right, January 6, 2022 was a relatively routine day in Congress. Just to make sure, I accessed the Congressional Record from that day. The session opened with a blessing from the House Chaplain, “…that once again we would emerge from our national turmoil.” The chaplain then quoted Abraham Lincoln: “With malice toward none, and charity for all, with firmness in the right, as You give us to see the right; to finish the work we are in, to bind up the Nation’s wounds; to do all which may achieve a just and lasting peace among ourselves.”
Quoting from the end of that day’s congressional session: “As I conclude, I want to acknowledge our fallen heroes of that day:
U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick:
U.S. Capitol Police Officer Howard Liebengood;
Metropolitan Police Officer Jeffrey Smith;
U.S. Capitol Police Officer Billy Evans, of a later assault.
Now I ask all Members to rise for a moment of silence in their memory.”
I appreciate the refresher course on the events of March 1, 1954, and of February 13, 1861; I even took the time to read of the “caning,” from 1858. Apparently, Senator Sumner made comments about slave-holders in general, and about Congressman Prescott’s family in particular. Those comments prompted Rep. Prescott to enter the Senate chamber and lash Sen. Sumner with his cane. It’s possible that Rep. Prescott considered it “legitimate political discourse,” but I doubt Sen. Sumner felt the same way.
It may have been your communication device that messed up this quote: “the act of the South succeeding from the nation ,,,” The word “succeeding” might be more closely related to success, or to succession. The Monarchy of Great Britain recently had a succession. The well-established pattern in the United States is a peaceful transfer of power.
Although the letters ‘s’ and ‘d’ are right next to each other on keyboards, it wasn’t my keyboard, or my error, the word I deliberately chose was ‘had.’
Gene Nielsen
Crescent Mills