Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Civil War 20160221 : comparemela.

Further surprise in the form of tonights speaker. A person who many of you probably know quite well. Dennis frye is the chief historian of the Harpers Ferry historic park. This is a homecoming of sorts. He graduated with a ba in history. We are extremely excited to have him back here this evening. He has had a very long, very, and prestigious career. If i were to recite his entire cv, we would be here until 7 00 this evening. This will be a shortened version of his accomplishments. He is a writer, a lecturer, a guide, and a preservationist. He is a prominent civil war historian. He has had numerous appearances on pbs, the history channel, the discovery channel, and a e as a guest historian and he helped produce and the awardwinning winning programs such as, abolitionists john brown and marilyn during the civil war. He is also a leading Civil War Battlefield preservationist. He is cofounder and first president of the Save Historic Antietam Foundation and he is cofounder and former president of todays civil war trust. From whom he received the trusts highest honor, the shelby award. He has also earned the prestigious award for his Lifetime Achievement in the civil war community. He is a tour guide in great demand, leading tours for organizations such as the smithsonian, national geographic, numerous colleges and universities and civil war roundtables. He is also a wellknown author. He has published remarkably 95 articles and nine books. Harpers ferry under fire, received the National Book award from the association for partners of public lands and lincolns union in peril was awarded the 2012 book price for distinguished scholarship in writing on the military and political history of the war. He has written for civil war magazines such as civil war times illustrated, americas civil war, lou and green magazine, north and south magazine and hallowed ground. He has also served as a guest contributor to the washington post. He resides nearby at the Antietam Battlefield where he and his wife sylvia have restored the home that was used by general burnside as his post antietam headquarters. It gives me tremendous pleasure to welcome this evening, dennis frye. [applause] mr. Frye it is a great pleasure to return here to shepherd. When he is talking about decades, plural, i was not even finished my second decade when i started here as a 17yearold. And it was 40 years ago, 1975. 40 years ago that i began here. I was reminiscing earlier this afternoon as i was sitting here at the school we had a great Football Team then, we did not go undefeated but we had a great team. We had an excellent basketball team. One year i was here we went 333, when of the best college one of the best College Records in the United States. We had great academic professors here at the time, one reason why i selected shepherd. I am a homegrown boy. I live just across the river in Washington County. I grew up only a few miles from the Antietam Battlefield in Harpers Ferry and when i was a young man and would play war, quotation marks, as most kids do at some point, i would play war at the real fortifications that were built by the union army in 1962 and 1963. We did not have to build our forts, they did it for us 100 hundred years earlier. Shepherd university has always been special to me and it is great to return here this evening. To be here in the senator byrd center. I knew senator birdwell. Byrd well. I did a number of doors for him. Senator byrd became a big ally in us helping to preserve Civil War Battlefields, not only at the National Level but also specifically here in Jefferson County and Harpers Ferry. Really a great honor to be here at shepherd university, i my home school. I am so thankful that 40 years ago, i was taking finals and i have not had to take finals in 36 years. [laughter] mr. Frye it is really good to be back in this prestigious byrd center sharing with you about this story that happened right here. This title of the program is very interesting. Did john brown elect lincoln . I want you to think about that for a moment. Did john brown elect Abraham Lincoln . Of course, the first thing that would come to mind is how could that be . Brown is dead. He cannot vote. How could he possibly have anything to do with the election of 1860 . Before we finish this evening i think you will see that john brown, the ghost of john brown, the memory of brown, was very influential in what happened in that election. That watershed election in American History that ultimately gave us americas greatest president. A few days ago, december the second, december the second, three days ago, 156 years ago, here in Jefferson County, something very important happened. A hanging. An execution. You here in shepherdstown would have known about the execution. Everyone knew about it. Because john brown was climbing the scaffold. To be executed in charlestown, less than 10 miles down the road. In your county seat. It was not a public execution. You would not be invited. In fact, you would not be invited because you are under martial law. Yes, you live here, yes this is your home, but right now, Jefferson County is occupied. Occupied. By more than 2000 soldiers. Which is about more than the population of your town. What was it jim in 1860, roughly . 1200. You have 2000 people here in uniform who were here to defend you and protect you. From your perspective, you have just experienced an attack. An assault. On the people of Jefferson County, the people of shepherdstown, the people of charlestown. The event happened in Harpers Ferry Harpers Ferry. It goes beyond the boundaries of Jefferson County. This assault, or the word that the people of Jefferson County are using and the word that is being used throughout virginia and the rest of the south you have been invaded. This was an invasion. It was not a simple assault or attack, it was an invasion. Over the last several months, you have been here in this community, in a constant state of fear. Fearful to go out at night. Fearful to walk down the street. Fearful to leave the community you are familiar with. You are totally afraid of any stranger, anyone you do not know is here for dubious reasons. And is here to harm you. This community has been gripped by paranoia. You have every reason to fear this fear. Because your neighbors, the militia here from shepherdstown, most of them have been gone now for almost two weeks. You have not seen them. The young men, your neighbors who are serving as a militia unit to protect you and defend you they have been here in Jefferson County along the border between maryland and virginia. They have been in Harpers Ferry and shepherdstown they have been witnesses of the execution which took place a couple of days ago. Even with that execution, and now brown is dead, you do not feel any safer. You do not feel any more secure. You have discovered that you are on the border of what appears to be a war. What appears to be a war that has been launched against you with you as the target. What is interesting about this war is that the outsiders are americans. They are us. They are who we are. Yes you have been attacked by fellow americans. 156 years ago. What i want to do this evening is something i almost never do. I almost never used notes. We have friends here from cspan this evening and as we were getting set up, i asked them if i could move around a little bit because i do not like to stand behind a lectern. That is not my style. That is not how i like to give a presentation. What is important about tonight is that i want you to hear what is not my words or my words but their words. What were they saying. What they are saying is much more powerful, more meaningful, more dramatic, and traumatic than anything i could say. And so, to help us understand what their words will be, in your mind for a moment, think about your own words silently, consider your own words, that would describe how you feel about our current situation. In 2015. And the events which happen to us here in our country. By other americans. Only a few days ago, december 2 i think. What is coming to mind are words, but you know what is really coming to mind are not words but emotions. What is coming to mind is what you are feeling. What are we feeling . That is what i want to share with you this evening is what were they feeling. I cannot tell you what they are feeling because i was not there. None of us can go to 1859 and say this is what they felt. Feeling must be experienced. You must be part of it. It cannot be informed, it cannot be told, you must be a participant to feel. And so, over the next few minutes, i would like to share with you what they left the hind behind for us that is their feelings. About john brown. I think it is appropriate to begin with the president. Of the United States. A former president , one who you probably would have voted for if you could as a male citizen, with voting property here in virginia and white. In the 1840s. John tyler of tidewater, virginia. Tyler had been keeping careful watch on what had happened here in Harpers Ferry. As brown had been imprisoned in charlestown, was about to go on trial, it is possible that one of your neighbors would have been in the courtroom on the jury that is going to be trying john brown. Tyler had this to say about the situation these words are feelings. They also have relevance to what you may be feeling in 2015. Former president tyler virginia, he is referring to you as virginians and the state, virginia, is arming to the teeth, more than 50,000 stands of arms already distributed and the demand for more weapons daily increasing. Succession as voices as you might expect, delighted in john browns attack at Harpers Ferry. The leading voices of secession, had this to say, with respect to brown and the cause of his union. There is no more piece for the south in this union. And the richmond inquirer, a newspaper that would have circulated in these parts, noted less joyfully that browns raid at Harpers Ferry and as might be expected, a fellow virginian of yours you would be familiar with, at been rough and rejoiced in browns outrageous moves because they would stir the sluggish blood of Jefferson County elected, the officials would have known this man well. Outh. When the virginia delegation would come together in richmond and meet in the building there in richmond, the Capital Building that Thomas Jefferson had designed. They would all hear this speech. You would read it. These are some of the most famous words that describe the attitude of virginians in the immediate aftermath of the assault here on you in Jefferson County and Harpers Ferry. I will share these words with passion because i think if you share them, you cannot say them without. These are words of anger, these are words of that represent violation, these are words that are defensive, and these are words of action. You are not going to stand for this. Youre not. These words describe how most of you would feel, coming from an elected official. You will recognize the name because a few years later, he would become a very famous confederate general. These words would echo off the walls of a rotunda in the virginia capital. Virginia will stand forth as one man in its face of fanaticism. Whenever you advance a hostile. On our soil, we will welcome you with bloody hands and hospitable graves. James l kemper, confederate brigadier, the charge in july 3, 1863. Those are words, not to be heard, but to be felt. None of you should be surprised by this southern outpouring of outrage. A petersburg virginia newspaper called the express would refer to brown and his men as the fruit of satanic doctrine. Implicated by the rapid and unprincipled teachers of the garrison and seward school, all of whom were topranked republicans at the time. John tyler, former president , fellow virginian, summed up well the response to john brown when he would state but one sentiment pervades the country, security. For the whole union or separation. Let us move from south of the potomac to the north. You might expect a certain reaction in the north because we have been taught that this is where brown hails from, this is where his support was from and this is where his fellow abolitionists reside. But the initial reaction to john brown was not pleasant and was not supportive. We view the actions of brown and his associates as none other than as bloody murderers. Right the new york carroll, the Chicago Tribune out in the midwest, Lincoln Country would write that brown and his men were a band of fanatics, guilty of the most incomprehensible stupidity. Folly. Unpardonable criminality. And then the tribune to conclude would write this dark mad enterprise was the product of addled brains. Another chicago newspaper, very concerned about the impact of brown on the fledgling Republican Party and the reputation of the republicans had this to say the old idiot. The quicker they hang him and get him out of the way, the better. That might surprise you. This is not what we would expect from the north. This is what you may expect the northern reaction to be. Let us start with Ralph Waldo Emerson from his home in concord, massachusetts. West of boston. Emerson new brown personally. He had hosted him. Emerson did not see brown in the same way that the new york carol and the Chicago Tribune did. He would write that john brown is a pure idealist of artless goodness. Louisa may alcott, his neighbor, a younger protege of emerson also knew john brown. She and her father had also dined with him. She would write that john brown is saint john the just. William lloyd garrison, a name familiar to you as the quintessential abolitionist, compared his effort at revolution at Harpers Ferry with that of the fight for independence, american independence from the british. He would proclaim john brown is justified in his attempt. Washington was not his. Wendell phillips, an outspoken minister in boston, also alluded to the revolution of 1776 when he preached that Harpers Ferry is the lexington of today. Perhaps, henry david arose summarized best, new englands intellectual thought on john brown when he would state that john brown was the best news america has ever heard. What is going on here . All of these people are americans. They do not see john brown the same way. They do not react to brown in the same manner. They have attitudes, thoughts that are extreme, but there seems to be no compromise. What is happening to us . As a nation . As a people . What is going on here . In 1859. I will not dwell on brown and his biography. I think it is only important to note that he is a lifelong abolitionist, he is 59 years on, he has moved from place to place. He had been involved in many different businesses. He has not succeeded as a businessman but he has succeeded as a fighter. He has succeeded as a warrior. And he has as his foundation, a belief that god has chosen him, john brown, that his purpose, his destiny had been determined by god in that he is an instrument of god, placed here in our country, our nation, for the purpose of ridding this land of what he considers its greatest evil, slavery. And brown is tired of talk. He is tired of no action by politicians. He is tired of policy. He is tired of Supreme Court that in 1857 and the dred scott decision determines that a slave is a slave is a slave and is property forever, anywhere. Regardless of law passed otherwise. Brown believes that his nation has failed him. At the nation has not been true to the principles of the declaration of independence and that it has violated the constitution of the United States of the people. Brown feels frustration. Desperation. Hopelessness. What makes him most different from any other abolitionist is that john brown is willing to use violence. To bring about the end of slavery. Not persuasive. That has not seemed to work. Violence. His violence is justified in his mind and in his heart and in his soul because he has a special connection and a special direction from god. I think we can best summarize john brown with just a few words. These are words of passion. These are words that are included in his provisional constitution, a provisional constitution of the United States created by brown and others in chatham, canada in 1858. In the preamble, it is simply stated what john brown is. And what his mission is. In this provisional constitution it says whereas slavery, throughout its entire existence in the United States is none other than a most barbarous, unprovoked, unjustifiable war of one portion of it citizens against another portion. The only condition to wish our perpetual imprisonment, hopeless servitude, and absolute extermination. And utter disregard of the eternal and selfevident truths that were put forth in the declaration of independence. Therefore, we the citizens of the United States and the oppressed people who buy the decision of the Supreme Court have been declared to have no right which the white man is bound to re