Thursday, August 30, 2012
Hamlet of Town Line "Heads South" in 1861 Nearby Hamlet Left Union in Civil War Days
Via Billy
Broadway begins at Lafayette Square, which has a history as old as the city, but is set apart as a memorial to men who died fighting for the Union cause during the Civil War. The Square is also hallowed because one night, the Great Emancipator himself walked alone in the little park that was there when he stopped in Buffalo on his way to the White House. Lincoln won by a scant majority in Buffalo and Erie County in the election which made him President. But the reception Buffalonians gave him must have assured him of their support in the polices he was to pursue in the coming four years. Walking alone in the little park, Lincoln could not have known that fourteen miles out Broadway from Lafayette Square was the tiny Hamlet of Town Line, who had a majority of residents who opposed him, his policies and the rest of the United States loyal to the Union.
Broadway begins at Lafayette Square, which has a history as old as the city, but is set apart as a memorial to men who died fighting for the Union cause during the Civil War. The Square is also hallowed because one night, the Great Emancipator himself walked alone in the little park that was there when he stopped in Buffalo on his way to the White House. Lincoln won by a scant majority in Buffalo and Erie County in the election which made him President. But the reception Buffalonians gave him must have assured him of their support in the polices he was to pursue in the coming four years. Walking alone in the little park, Lincoln could not have known that fourteen miles out Broadway from Lafayette Square was the tiny Hamlet of Town Line, who had a majority of residents who opposed him, his policies and the rest of the United States loyal to the Union.
Sympathized with Confederacy - Town Line had so many Southern sympathizers that it took action unparalleled in the United States north of the Mason-Dixon Line at the beginning of the Civil War. Town Line, by a majority vote of it's citizens, seceded from the Union. Almost 500 miles away from the nearest Confederate State, the obscure settlement was an isolated but loyal patch of the Confederate States of America. While the rest of Erie County sent thousands into battle for the Union, it is believed at least five men from Town Line went South and fought for the Bonnie Blue Flag of the Confederacy. In the files of an old Lancaster newspaper is the angry account of the meeting of "copperheads" who drew up the articles of secession and signed them.
More @ Buffalo History Gazette
Montana rancher shoots black bear that broke into home
A Montana rancher shot and killed a black bear that scaled a tall fence and broke into his house to rummage for food this week along the Rocky Mountain Front.
Lane Yeager discovered damage when he returned to his home near Choteau on Monday evening. The young male bear had broken through a screen and entered an open window, wrecked a lazy Susan and tore off a door to get to food in the trash and in the pantry.
"It was dark out. I was headed for the light switch when it ran across ahead of me," Yeager told the Great Falls Tribune
Mike Madel, grizzly bear management specialist with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said the bear had probably been in the house for an hour.
Yeager dispatched it with a rifle.
"I killed it so someone else wouldn't have to," Yeager said. "We're fat with grizzlies, but the black bear was off the beaten path."
More @ Fox
Democratic registration all but dries up since new Florida laws
Big surprise, I know.........
Since a new set of state voting laws went into effect more than a year ago, the number of new Democrats registering in Florida has all but disappeared, according to a Times-Union review.
During the 13 months beginning July 1 the year before elections in 2004 and 2008, registered Democrats increased by an average of 209,425 voters. From 2011 to this year, that number was 11,365.
In Duval County alone there were about 13,000 new Democrats, meaning the rest of the state lost them.
Over that same time, the number of registered Republicans increased by 128,039, topping the average of 103,555 during the past two presidential cycles.
Overall, Democrats still hold a 445,794 statewide registration advantage.
More @ Florida Times-Union
New frontiers in hypersensitivity: State Department officer says ‘holding down the fort’ is racist
Dingbat
John M. Robinson, the Chief Diversity Officer at the U.S. Department of State, wants America’s diplomats to know that common phrases and idioms like “holding down the fort” are, in fact, deeply racist.
Robinson, who also serves as director of the Department’s Office of Civil Rights, used his “Diversity Notes” feature in the July/August issue of the official “State Magazine” to examine the hateful roots of everyday sayings. In one recent public relations kerfuffle at Nike, Inc., he wrote, the company torpedoed a sneaker called the “Black and Tan.”
“What a wonderful celebratory gesture and appreciation for Irish culture. Not!” wrote Robinson, an adult.
Robinson notes that “Black and Tan,” in addition to being an enjoyably robust alcoholic concoction, can refer to the brutal Protestant militiamen who ravaged the Irish countryside in the early 20th century — which is why Irish bartenders always get so upset when you order one.
In an effort to avoid offending those notoriously fragile Irish sensibilities, Nike pulled the shoe from stores.More@ The Daily Caller
Disgruntled supporters of Ron Paul stage walkout at convention
“I wouldn’t vote for Mitt Romney any more than I would vote for Obama,” he said. “They’re both war mongers and elitists. There’s no difference. It’s two sides of the same coin. And nothing’s going to change.”
Hundreds of Rep. Ron Paul’s (R-Texas) supporters staged a walkout during Sen. John McCain’s Wednesday evening speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla.
A long stream of Paul’s backers from Maine, Oklahoma, Oregon, Arizona, and several other states protested the Republican National Committee's treatment of Paul and his supporters by walking out of the convention hall with chants of, “As Maine goes, so goes the nation!”
More @ The Hill
The Z11 Grey Ghost
The NHRA and AHRA may have been writing the rule books, but the game of one-upmanship between the factories at the dawn of the 1960s seemed to escalate with each passing weekend as one performance package after another issued from Detroit. In 1963 Chevrolet made a bold leap forward with the Z11 Impala, a lightweight match-racer that drew on the lessons of the recent past to dominate Super Stock and the fledgling A/FX class.
The Z11’s aluminum front end and bumpers and Spartan finish were standard practice for factory lightweights. What sets this car apart is the high performance 427 CI "mystery engine" scruntinzed as authentic by W-Block expert Phil Reed. On top of the engine sits an aluminum dual quad intake and carburetors as well as the distinctive Z11 air cleaner that drew air from the passenger-side cowl vent, the latter item so rare today that examples have sold for more than $40,000!
More @ Mecum
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