JUNE 21 — 1788 U.S. Constitution goes into effect (TEST!!!!); 1877 Molly Maguires hanged at the Old Jail; 1986 Larry Harvey begins Burning Man Festival; Answers to Test
JUNE 21
1788 – U.S. Constitution goes into effect
… as New Hampshire is 9th state to ratify. Pop quiz, everyone. It’s only five questions. Believe me, I’d ask 20 if I had time. And I would do it out of love. I’ll read the questions and give the answers at the end.
Question 1: What was our country’s first constitution called? A) The Articles of Confederation B) The Declaration of Independence C) The Federalist Paper D) The Emancipation Proclamation.
#2 the laws for the United States are made by a) The President B) The Senate C) Congress D) The Supreme Court?
#3) the longest possible time a person can now serve as president is: a) 4 years b) 8 years c) 10 years d) 12 years.
#4 A man accused of a crime in court has a right to a) hear the witnesses against him, b) be tried wherever he wants, c) have any judge he wants, d) change courts.
#5) invoking the 5th amendment means an accused man: a) refuse to testify against himself, b) refuses to be tried again, c) demands a grand jury, d) wants to appeal his case.
1877 – Molly Maguires hanged on Day of the Rope at the Old Jail. The Old Jail,
…built in 1871 in Jim Thorpe, PA, remained a jail for over a hundred years until 1995 when was sold to Tom McBride and his wife Betty Lou who turned into a museum you can and should check out. The Molly Maguire’s was a secret organization that had branches in Ireland, England, and the U.S., namely Pennsylvania where they would meet in various taverns.
The Mollies were activists who were sympathetic towards labor rights of coal miners and would use violence again mine bosses. The Pennsylvania leader, John Kehoe, was hanged in December of the same year, which is a story I’ll get to another time. The actual Molly Maguire may or may not be real other than folklore, but regardless she is represented as protection and resistance against enslavement.
Two million Irish immigrants were treated with oppression, bigotry, and racism in the mines, had to move their families into mine-owned houses and get mine-owned groceries at inflated prices, ensuring they were always in debt. From the Molly Maguire’s rose a violent front group called the Ancient Order of Hibernians or the AOH, to an otherwise peaceful Irish American activist group.
The group was infiltrated by an undercover agent, and who better to pick that agent than the J. Edgar Hoover of the 19th century, Allan Pinkerton and the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, and Pinkerton picked Frank Gowan wanted to take out the Mollies no matter what. About 20 members were arrested and faced despicably unfair trials that truly marked a new low in the American justice system. It was on this day in 1877 when four of these coal miners, Alexander Campbell, Edward Kelly, Michael Doyle and John Donohue hanged after unfairly being accused of killing two mine bosses. Campbell was in cell #17.
When it came time for him to go to the gallows, he put his hand on the grimy floor, smacked it on the wall and yelled “I am innocent, and let this be my testimony!” Sounds silly, right? I mean the guards can just clean the grime off the wall right? Actually they couldn’t. That hand print stayed there despite cleaning, painting over, even trying to replace the plaster, you can still see his handprint to this day,
For over a century, where retribution, not rehabilitation, existed, the Old Jail housed some of the worst criminals in its day, like Campbell’s handprint, just one of the many ghosts that run through the museum halls at night.
Larry Harvey lights up the summer solstice, beginning the Burning Man Festival.
He started this tradition actually on Baker’s beach in San Francisco, instead of 100 miles north of Reno Nevada like it is today. He burned a 9 foot wooden sculpture shaped man into a bonfire and had so much fun he did it the next year the wooden man was 15 feet, and then by 1989 it was 40 feet. The police extinguished the entertainment, and friends Kevin Evans and John Law moved it to the Black Rock Desert. There, every year around Labor Day, a small city is erected for those who want to relive Woodstock.
The principles for this event are very clear, should you attend. They include Radial inclusion, where everyone is welcome, Gifting, “Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting, which is where people should give gifts to each other without asking for anything in exchange? So don’t bring cash. I don’t know spices? Gold frankincense or mushroom caps and doses? Sandwich anyone? Another principle is DE commodification which doesn’t allow advertisements, I think. I’m really not sure actually; there are 7 more principles, including radical self-reliance, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation and immediacy, or don’t let anything stop you from learning about yourself.
The event brings in 55,000 a year. The mutant cars are another interesting attraction, which are vehicles transformed to look like insects and other psychedelic art with pyrotechnics. Finally at night the big 40 foot tall fella burns, which can be seen for miles across the flat desert. I’ve never been, but from what I understand, you never know what you’re going to see at the Burning Man Fest, but you are highly encouraged to join in the fun.
1834 — American inventor and business man Cyrus Hall McCormick
…patents the reaping machine. The mechanical reaper, as it was also called, was used by farmers to harvest crops mechanically.
#1, A. The Articles of Confederation was in effect from 1781-1789. It was based on the concept of a weak central government because of the experience we had under the strong influence of Great Britain. This constitution was our first written plan of government and was based on an opposition to a strong central government, strong executive, taxation and the power to control trade.
#2 – C. This is found in Article 1, Section 1: “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.” Thus, the function of Congress is to legislate or make the laws.
#3 – C, 10 Years. Based upon Amendment Twenty-Two of the Constitution, no person can be elected to the office of President more than twice or serve more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President. Therefore, the total length of time that any person could serve as President is ten years.
#4, a) hear the witnesses against him. This is guaranteed to every person in the United States based on the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him ………”
#5 a) refuses to testify against himself. This constitutional right is found in the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution: “No person shall ……. be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”