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Fourth of July Parade, Marshfield, MO 7/4/91 [OA 8325] [2]
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Fourth of July Parade, Marshfield, MO 7/4/91 [OA 8325] [2]
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Speech Backup Chronological Files
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This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential
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Record Group/Collection:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Records
Collection/Office of Origin:
Speechwriting, White House Office of
Series:
Speech File Backup Files
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OA/ID Number:
13762
Folder ID Number:
13762-011
Folder Title:
Fourth of July Parade, Marshfield, MO 7/4/91 [OA 8325] [2]
Stack:
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G
26
21
5
1
(417) 468 - 5428 (417) 468-5428
Grant / Cawley
Draft two
June 26, 1991
A:JULYFOUR
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: FOURTH OF JULY PARADE
MARSHFIELD, MISSOURI
JULY 4, 1991
11:00 a.m. 11:00 a.m.
Thank you so much for that Jack warm welcome. [Acknowledgements:
Governor Ashcroft; / Senators Danforth and Bond; Congressman "Give
Intro
Danforth
Kit
Em Hell, Mel" Hancock, Mayor Walter Plunkett, all the veterans,
Wayne
others?] And to all of you who lined the parade route as Barbara
familing
and I came into town, thank you for letting us share this holiday
Presid
with you. ///
Rust
[Mr. Plunkett, I hear that in addition to being Mayor, you
chist
are a fire fighter here in town, and that you own and operate the
gas station. [joke to come from NSC. ]]
Look at this field of flags, will you? I know that the
flags don't just fly on the Fourth of July in Marshfield,
Missouri. They fly every day of the year. ///
[I understand that Marshfield has a long history of great
Fourth of July parades. In fact, I'm told that 100 years ago
today, the speaker at the parade was the Honorable O.H. Travers,
who was reported to be "the silver-tongued orator of
Missouri
X
Springfield.' On the centennial of that great occasion, would
you settle for "the Silver Fox of Rye, New York"? /// ]
What a thrill to be celebrating "the glorious Fourth" here
x
in the Show-Me State. When we heard we had a chance to walk in
the oldest Fourth of July parade in Missouri, we couldn't pass it
X
continuous
Celebration
2
up. It's great to be here in Marshfield -- the place some have
called "the best little town on Earth. ///
Barbara and I remember other Fourths we've celebrated
the kids and the fireworks in Midland, Texas
baseball games
in Connecticut
corn on the cob and hamburgers last summer in
Maine, outside of a town about the size of this one. Seeing
these youngsters on bikes reminds us of our own grandkids, and
standing here, I think of our family
...
our friends
...
and the
special times we've shared together over the years.
Times like this bring to mind President Eisenhower's
(Cort)
thankfulness for "the rare and priceless privilege of growing up
in a small town. " These towns cultivate the kind of values that
carried this country for over two hundred years -- ones like
liberty and loyalty, ingenuity and independence. And through it
all, faith in God above. These ideals make up the American
Character. You can't buy them out of a catalog or learn them
from the evening news. They grow out of the good deeds we do for
Am the Q4.
each oth
them right here in this town square.
Resp. Sp.
If
ell them: You can find the American
Bully Pulpit (Pres)
characte
day, in Marshfield, Missouri.//
It'
I. Today hundreds of relatives are in
town, high school classmates back for reunions, long-lost friends
home for the weekend. Take a look at some of the heroes among us
this morning: the hard-working doctors and nurses. /// The
fearless fire fighters, all volunteers -- like your own Mayor,
right here. /// The policemen and women -- some of them
3
volunteers, too -- on the beat day in and day out. 111 And
certainly, thank God for the dedicated teachers at Marshfield
Elementary, and the Junior and Senior High Schools. ///
But today, the town -- the whole nation -- gathers to honor
yet another group of heroes -- the brave servicemen and women of
Operation Desert Storm. /// While standing strong for American
values, they liberated a nation abroad and transformed a nation
at home. As Sergeant Richard Mann [is he hère today?] said, "I
FAX
think God took a whole generation of Americans out into the
desert, and showed them a miracle." Sergeant Mann was right --
but the real miracle took place not in the sands of Kuwait. It
unfolded in the American heart. ///
These young men and women went to the desert, thinking of
you, thinking of their country. They brought honor to our
nation, just as all our veterans here today made us proud. ///
Together, we stand ready for the next step in the American
experience -- the 21st Century together. And we are ready -- for
we are a nation of families and communities just like Marshfield.
We are a nation of parents, brothers, sisters and neighbors. We
know that our future lies right in the hands of kids like these
right here. [point to kids on their bikes in parade.]
We believe in them, through all their childhood dreams and
wild ideas. I'm reminded of a story about Mark Twain
true
story -- a man who had a weakness for new inventions. Over the
years, he lost half a million dollars investing in various
4
contraptions. Finally, decided that he'd been güllible too
often. He resolved never to humor an inventor again.
Ayres, Wisdom
Well, one day a gangly young man approached Twain, carrying
Th Mark 124-58 Twain
boxy device. Twain listened politely to the young man's pleàs
for help, but explained he just wasn't interested. Looking
dejected, the would-be inventor shuffled away. Twain, perhàps
feeling a pang of pity, cried out: "What did you say your name
was again?" "Bell," was the reply, "Alexander Graham Bell."
Luckily, someone else took a chance on Alexander Graham
Bell. [[Luckily, that is, unless you have a teenager who won't
leave Bell's invention alone. ]]
Bell saw an opportunity to make life better -- and he seized
it. Right here in Marshfield, you know what it takes to solve
problems and you're willing to take a chance. You know who you
Parents AS
are: the volunteers who run the Head Start, the people who
Teachers
created the child care center at the Methodist Church; teachers
AZODO
model
who challenge children's imaginations and stretch their minds. (can
see)
Barbara and I have come here today because it's impossible
Temple
Baptist
not to feel at home in America's heart. By your example, your
faith and your hard work, you are leading us into the Next
American Century. By your hospitality, you're making one
President feel as comfortable as a cousin at a family reunion.//
Thank you so much for having us here today. God bless each
and every one of you, and Happy Fourth of July.
#
#
#
To C2
Date 7/1
Time 1:40
WHILE YOU WERE OUT
M
Anne Driscoll
of
Phone 778-2321
Area Code
Number
Extension
TELEPHONED
X
PLEASE CALL
x
CALLED TO SEE YOU
WILL CALL AGAIN
WANTS TO SEE YOU
URGENT
RETURNED YOUR CALL
Message
CMB
Operator
AMPAD
23-000 50 SHT. PAD
EFFICIENCY©
23-001 250 SHT. DISPENSER BOX
Intro
Kay Plunkett
Janet Ashcroft
sug (shoog) Hancock
Leona Rost
David-
DPE Lib.
913-263-4751
Times like this bring to mind President Eisenhower's
thankfulness for "the rare and priceless privilege of growing up
in a small town." These towns cultivate the kind of values that
carried this country for over two hundred years -- ones like
liberty and loyalty, ingenuity and independence. And through it
all, faith in God above. These ideals make up the American
Character. You can't buy them out of a catalogue or learn them
from the evening news. They grow out of the good deeds we do for
each other, and you can find them right here in this town square.
If anybody asks, I'll tell them: You can find the American
Character on display, every day, in Marshfield, Missouri. ///
[You can also find that same Character in self-made
Americans like our nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Clarence
Thomas. Judge Thomas X says that X when X he X was growing x up, X "God
X
WPOST July PAI 1991
school, discipline, hard work and right-from-wrong X were X of the X
MAM
highest priority Judge Thomas spent a lot of his life in
attending the Imm Conc Sem. and then
Missouri
working as an assistant attorney general, as counsel
later,
to the Monsanto Company, and an aide to your own Senator Danforth
-- before going on to a distinguished career as a jurist.
Clarence Thomas is a man of character and impeccable credentials
-- a model for all Americans. Clarence Thomas has earned the
right to sit on the United States Supreme Court. /// ]
It's the Fourth of July. Today hundreds of relatives are in
town, high school classmates back for reunions, old friends home
Lamari ofc.
Anne 401-3008
SENT BY:THE WHITE HOUSE
; 7- 1-91 : 4:37PM ;
2024566218-
4562983;# 1
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
Office of Public Affairs
FACSIMILE TRANSMITTAL SHEET
Number of Pages Including Cover
3
Date July 1, 1991
To Public Affairs Directors
Fax Number
office Number
Comments
For Your Information
OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Barrie Tron, Director
Kristen Gear, Associate Director
Paul Luthringer, Associate Director
Terri Woods, Staff Assistant
Office Number
(202) 456-2483
SENT BY:THE WHITE HOUSE
; 7- 1-91 ; 4:38PM ;
2024566218-
4562983;# 2
JUDGE CLARENCE THOMAS
Judge Thomas was born on June 23, 1948 in Pinpoint, Georgia,
a rural community outside savannah, to Lecla and N.C. Thomas. He
was reared by his grandparents, Myers and Christine Anderson.
After graduating from high school in 1967, he attended Immaculate
Conception seminary in conception Junction, Missouri. He
subsequently entered Holy cross College in Norcaster,
Massachusetts, from which he was graduated with honors in 1971.
In that same year, he 1 enrolled at Yale Law School and was
graduated in 1974.
Following graduation, and until 1977, Judge Thomas served as
an assistant attorney general in the office or Missouri Attorney
General John c. Danforth, where he represented the State or
Missouri before trial and appellate courts, including the Supreme
Court of Missouri. From 1977 until 1979, Judge Thomas worked as
an attorney in the Legal Department or the Monsanto Company. In
1979, he joined the staff or Senator Danforth as a legislative
assistant.
In 1981, Judge Thomas was appointed by President Reagan to
be Assistant Secretary for civil Rights at the Department or
Education. A year later, he was appointed Chairman of the Equal
Opportunity Commission. Me was reappointed Chairman or the EEOC
in 1986.
In October 1989, Judge Thomas was nominated by President
Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia circuit.
4562983:# 3
2024566218-
: 7- 1-91 ; 4:39PM ;
SENT BY:THE WHITE HOUSE
Judge Thomas was confirmed by the United States Senate on
March 5, 1990, and has served on the court of Appeals since March
12, 1990. He, his wife Virginia, and his son Jamel live in
Northern Virginia.
Weather
Today: Humid, showers or storms.
High 86. Low 72. Wind 7-14 mph.
Wednesday: Variably cloudy.
AQI: 60. Details on Page B2.
The Washington Pust
FINAL
High 86. Wind 7-14 mph.
Yesterday: Temp. range: 73-86.
Inside: Health
Detailed index on Page A2
114TH YEAR
No. 209
TUESDAY, JULY 2, 1991
Prices May Vary in Areas Outside
Metropolitan Washington (See Box on A2)
25c
Bush Picks Thomas for Supreme Court
Appeals Court Judge Served as EEOC Chairman in Reagan Administration
Both sides acknowledged the
By John E. Yang
power of his personal history. He
Self-Made Conservative
and Sharon LaFraniere
Washington Post Staff Writers
was raised in poverty in Savannah,
Ga., by a nearly illiterate grandfa-
President Bush yesterday chose
ther, who he said stressed "God
Clarence Thomas, a conservative
school, discipline, hard work and
Nominee Insists He Be Judged on Merits
black federal appeals court judge, to
'right from wrong.'
replace Thurgood Marshall on the
"Judge Thomas's life is a model
Supreme Court, saying he is "the
for all Americans, and he's earned
black member of the court, Jus-
By Ruth Marcus
best person at the right time."
the right to sit on this nation's high-
tice Thurgood Marshall, Thomas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thomas, chairman of the Equal
est court," said Bush, who insisted
has had firsthand experience of
Employment Opportunity Commis-
race played no part in his choice of a
Judge Clarence Thomas is the
racism that rivals Marshall's
sion under President Ronald Rea-
black judge to replace Marshall, the
product of southern poverty and
own. He was barred from whites-
gan, has for years challenged civil
first black justice on the court.
segregation who made his way
only movie theaters and restau-
rights leaders over workplace pref-
Senate Minority Leader Robert J.
from Pin Point, Ga. to the once
rants. As the only black student
erences for minorities or women
Dole (R-Kan.) praised Thomas as "a
unimaginable height of a Su-
at a Catholic boarding school, he
and school busing for desegrega-
man whose very life exemplifies the
preme Court nomination.
was harassed by classmates who
tion. A 43-year-old Roman Catholic,
American dream."
"As a child, I could not dare
teased, after lights out, "Smile,
he would be one of the youngest
Although opposition to his nom-
dream that I would ever see the
Clarence, so we can see you."
justices ever to join the Supreme
ination seemed muted yesterday,
Supreme Court, not to mention
But that experience was the
Court.
some senators and civil rights
be nominated to it," Thomas
crucible for a conservative phi-
Conservatives were delighted
groups predicted that Thomas will
said in a brief but emotional
losophy that is in many ways the
with the nomination of a longtime
face tougher confirmation hearings
statement yesterday, standing
polar opposite of Marshall's lib-
favorite, while some Democrats
than did David H. Souter, Bush's
by President Bush's side in Ken-
eral worldview-a fierce belief
expressed fears that Thomas,
first appointment to the Supreme
nebunkport, Maine. "In my
in the primacy of individual will
whose views on abortion are not
Court. "I'm through reading tea
view, only in America could this
and drive, and in the debilitating
publicly known, would help over-
leaves and voting in the dark.
I
have been possible."
effect of racial preferences as a
turn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision
will not support yet another Rea-
Tapped to replace the first
See NOMINEE, A6, Col. 1
that established a constitutional
gan-Bush Supreme Court nominee
ASSOCIATED PRESS
right to abortion.
See COURT, A6, Col. 1
In Kennebunkport, Maine, Bush introduces Thomas as his choice for high court.
CRACK'S CHILDREN
A6 TUESDAY, 2, 1991
THE WASHINGTON POST
High Court Nominee
Mixe
Are
Called a Conservative
Righ
With 'Common Touch'
Uncert
About
After school, Thomas helped his
NOMINEE, From A1
grandfather deliver ice and oil; in
means of redressing discrimination.
the evening, he would go to the li-
Thomas's views on affirmative
brary built for blacks by the Carne-
action and civil rights were sharp-
gie family-the public library in Sa-
Several
ened and expounded during his con-
vannah was for whites only-to
rights lea
troversial tenure as head of the
muse over the pages of the exotic
yesterday
Equal Employment Opportunity
New Yorker magazine.
ination of
Commission from 1982 to 1990. It
"If you wanted him to do some-
Supreme
was a post he once said be felt "in-.
thing, you'd just go to the Carnegie
that-unl
sulted" about being selected for be-
Library and there be was," his moth-
good Ma
cause of the silent assumption that
er, Leola Williams, told the Associ-
appears
he was qualified for a civil rights job
ated Press. "He loved his books."
the rights
rather than one using his expertise
His most vivid childhood memory
Noting
in taxation and corporate law.
of the Supreme Court, he said yes-
and grew
At the EEOC, Thomas grew in-
terday, was the "Impeach Earl War-
taged in
creasingly opposed to the use of ra-
ren" signs that lined Highway 17
president
cial preferences and attacked civil
near Savannah-placards prompted
League,
rights leaders who "bitch, bitch,
by Warren's ruling in the Brown D.
one sitting
bitch" about the administration. Af-
Board of Education case argued by
office wo
firmative action programs, he said in
Thurgood Marshall.
walls, tha
a 1987 letter, "create a narcotic of
"I didn't quite understand who
that perso
dependency, not an ethic of respon-
this Earl Warren fellow was, but I
ing the
siblity and independence. They are
knew he was in some kind of trou-
portunitie
at best an irrelevance, covering up
ble," said Thomas, who was 5 àt the
ly of mir
some real problems, and inevitably a
time of the landmark school deseg-
people."
stigma."
regation ruling.
Whethe
Thomas has criticized Brown
The seeds of that view were
receptive
planted early by Thomas's grandfa-
from a different perspective, saying
"is the
ther, Myers Anderson, a stalwart
it was based on faulty assumptions
Thoma
that all-black schools are necessar-
Democrat, devout Catholic, and ac-
appointed
tive member of the NAACP. He in-
ily inferior.
peals for
Thomas made his way from the
stilled in the young Thomas a drive
Circuit by
St. John Vianney Minor Seminary,
to succeed, a fervent belief in the im-
chairman
where he was a star quarterback, to
portance of education and disdain for
Opportuni
the Immaculate Conception Sem-
those who rely on government wel-
criticized
inary in Missouri, where he decid-
fare programs rather than making
grams as
ed, to the bitter disappointment of
their own way in the world.
rights gro
his grandfather, to end his studies
Thomas's father left the family
panic, have
for the priesthood.
when he was young child; his moth-
was lax
He headed to Holy Cross College
er remarried, and he was sent to Sa-
tions unde
in Massachusetts, where he worked
vannah to live with his grandfather at
"The
on a free breakfast program for
age 7-the first time he had lived in
sion had
black schoolchildren and urged a
a house with indoor plumbing, and
protecting
student walkout over the college's
eaten three square meals a day.
communit
investments in South Africa, and
president
then to Yale Law School, where he
La Raza,
graduated in 1974.
CLARENCE
Now, after a career that has in-
groups.
Del. El
cluded a jobs in corporate law and
THOMAS
on the staff of Sen. John C. Dan-
ASSOCIATED
D.C.),
Thomas pauses, overcome with emotion, as be expresses his thanks to "all those who have helped me along the way."
Senate CO
forth (R-Mo.), as well as the EEOC,
held in
he occupies the appeals court seat
Born: June 23, 1948, in
once held by Judge Robert H. Bork,
Netchvolodoff, recalled Thomas tell-
side-shows of anti-black quips and at-
"We are talking about a person
important
Savannah, Ga
ing how he hid from his instructors
tacks," he said.
who understands what it's like to be
Supreme
whose Supreme Court nomination
Married: Virginia Lamp
was defeated in 1987.
black and poor in this country and
be.
during college and at law school "so
In an article, he joked that he of-
Thomas: one son, Jamal, 18.
So overcome with emotion he had
they couldn't see what his color was"
ten felt "that my only role was to be
to face the worst kinds of preju-
"I would
by previous marriage.
to stop speaking, Thomas yesterday
and adjust his grades accordingly.
confused with Clarence Pendleton,"
dice," said Frank Washington, a law
the EEO
school classmate and former Carter
tive of h
Education: Holy Cross Col-
thanked "all those who have helped
When he interviewed with Netch-
then the outspoken black chairman of
lege, Yale Law School
me along the way especially my
volodoff for a job on Danforth's staff
administration official. "The kind of
Norton S1
the Civil Rights Commission.
to where
Professional: Assistant at-
grandparents. my mother and the
in the Missouri attorney general's of-
Thomas has also been outspoken
experiences he's had, he will not
torney general, state of Mis-
nuns, all of whom were adamant that
fice, Netchvolodoff said, Thomas,
about the continuing significance of
block those from his thinking.'
Rights. T
souri, 1974-1977; lawyer,
I grow up to make something of my-
then a student at Yale Law School,
race in America. "I don't care how
Thomas is "a conservative but a
ing has ye
Monsanto Co., 1977-1979:
self."
demanded: "Are you going to treat
educated you are, how good you are
compassionate kind of conservative,
Benjami
director
legislative assistant. Sen John
Divorced from his first wife,
me as harshly AS anyone else?"
at what you do-you'll never have
not rigid or ideologic in his VIEWS.
C. Danforth (R-Mo.) 1979.
the same contacts and opportuni-
last week
Thomas, who turned 43 last week,
Yet Thomas has been willing to
His every motive is that he empa-
1981; assistant secretary for
ties, you'll never be seen as equal to
someone
has custody of their son, Jamal, 18.
challenge discrimination by those
thizes with ordinary people, he's one
civil rights, U.S. Department
white," he said in an Atlantic mag-
the civil
He is married to Virginia Lamp
who purported to be allies. In a
of them," Danforth said in a tele-
of Education, 1981-1982;
works the
speech to the conservative Heritage
azine article in 1987.
would be
chairman of the Equal Em-
phone interview yesterday.
ployment Opportunity Com-
partment' legislative affairs office.
Foundation in 1987, he complained
Thomas's friends said yesterday
mation bat
"Clarence Thomas has the com-
mission, 1982-1990; U.S.
Thomas's career is pervaded by an
that he and other black conservatives
that while his philosophy may differ
Yesterd
mon touch," Danforth said. "In a
Court of appeals, March
insistence that he be judged on his
were often shunned by policymakers.
sharply from that of the man he is
been spea
very real way, he'll be the people's
1990-present.
own merits and a seeming horror at
"It often seemed that to be accept-
slated to replace, his life experi-
about The
justice."
the thought of special treatment be-
ed within conservative ranks and to
ences-like Marshall's-offer a
have ma
Religion: Catholic.
cause of his race.
be treated with some degree of ac-
valuable perspective for a court
Staff writers Bill McAllister and
Thomas,"
Source: Response Senate Judiciary
Committee questionnaire, 1990
Thomas's friend and former col-
ceptance, a black was required to be-
dominated by those with privileged
Helen Dewar contributed to this
not oppos
league on Danforth's staff, Alex
come a caricature of sorts, providing
upbringings.
report.
the federa
Hooks
hoped the
Bush Picks Thomas for Marshall Seat on Supreme Court
nate bla
court vaca
it should
who emb
lack of action. Thomas blamed the
ministration official said Thomas
of Justice
COURT. From A1
growing backlog of unaddressed
won out over Garza because of a
The NA
who remains silent on a woman's
cases during his tenure on a lack of
"semiconscious sense this was a
Thomas's
right to choose [an abortion] and
funds.
black man to be replaced," then im-
affirmativ
then ascends to the court to weaken
Thomas's critics did not sway
mediately backpedaled, saying:
those disa
that right," said Sen. Howard M.
Senate Judiciary Committee mem-
"Strike that. He was the best per-
require a
Metzenbaum (D-Ohio), who cast the
bers in February 1990, when they
son."
Hooks said
voted 12 to 1 to approve his nom-
Bush settled on Thomas about 3
lone vote against Thomas's nom-
Many
ination to the D.C. Circuit. But sev-
ination as an appellate judge.
p.m. Saturday, during a conference
Bush woul
Thomas avoided giving his poten-
eral senators, including Biden,
call with White House Counsel C.
the high
warned Thomas that they would
Boyden Gray, White House Chief of
officials r
tial opponents any ammunition yes-
scrutinize him far more carefully if
Staff John H. Sununu and Thorn-
candidates
terday as he and Bush addressed
he came back to them as a Supreme
burgh.
judges. Fe
reporters in front of the wood-shin-
Court nominee.
Bush telephoned Thomas on Sun-
Emilio Ga
gled cottage that serves as Bush's
His most likely opponents at the
day afternoon to discuss the nom-
Tex., flew
office at his family's oceanfront
confirmation hearings, expected to
ination and to invite him to Maine,
terview ov
home in Kennebunkport, Maine.
take place in September, are activ-
but did not formally offer the job.
panic has
Thomas restricted his comments to
ists for abortion rights and organ-
When Thomas arrived aboard an
the high co
hoped the president would nomi-
Bush Picks Thomas for Marshall Seat on Supreme Court
nate a black person to fill the high
court vacancy, "but we also thought
it should be an African American
who embodies some of the tradition
lack of action. Thomas blamed the
ministration official said Thomas
of Justice Marshall."
COURT, From A1
growing backlog of unaddressed
won out over Garza because of a
The NAACP has disagreed with
who remains silent on a woman's
cases during his tenure on a lack of
"semiconscious sense
this was a
Thomas's stands on issues such as
right to choose [an abortion] and
funds.
black man to be replaced," then im-
affirmative action, "but whether
then ascends to the court to weaken
Thomas's critics did not sway
mediately backpedaled, saying:
those disagreements are fatal. will
that right," said Sen. Howard M.
Senate Judiciary Committee mem-
"Strike that. He was the best per-
require a whole new examination,
bers in February 1990, when they
son."
Hooks said.
Metzenbaum (D-Ohio), who cast the
voted 12 to 1 to approve his nom-
Bush settled on Thomas about 3
Many observers had believed
lone vote against Thomas's nom-
ination to the D.C. Circuit. But sev-
p.m. Saturday, during a conference
Bush would nominate a Hispanic to
ination as an appellate judge.
eral senators, including Biden,
call with White House Counsel C.
the high court after administration
Thomas avoided giving his poten-
warned Thomas that they would
Boyden Gray, White House Chief of
officials revealed that the list o
tial opponents any ammunition yes-
scrutinize him far more carefully if
Staff John H. Sununu and Thorn-
candidates included three Hispani
terday as he and Bush addressed
he came back to them as a Supreme
burgh.
judges. Federal appeals court judge
reporters in front of the wood-shin-
Court nominee.
Bush telephoned Thomas on Sun-
Emilio Garza, 43, of San Antonio
gled cottage that serves as Bush's
His most likely opponents at the
day afternoon to discuss the nom-
Tex., flew to Washington for an in
office at his family's oceanfront
confirmation hearings, expected to
ination and to invite him to Maine,
terview over the weekend. No His
home in Kennebunkport, Maine.
take place in September, are activ-
but did not formally offer the job.
panic has ever been nominated to
Thomas restricted his comments to
ists for abortion rights and organ-
When Thomas arrived aboard an
the high court.
the pivotal role his grandparents,
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The president and Judge Clarence Thomas during news conference yesterday.
izations for the elderly.
Air Force jet yesterday with Thorn-
"Well of course we are disap
his mother and the Catholic nuns
Kate Michelman, executive di-
burgh, Gray and Sununu, Bush
pointed that a Hispanic was not ap
played in his rise.
rector of the National Abortion
chatted with him alone in the bed-
pointed," Yzaguirre said.
"As a child I could not dare dream
nority has nothing to do with this
Thomas has described himself as
Rights League, said in a statement:
room of his residence for 15 or 20
Rhetorically, he asked of Bush
that I would ever see the Supreme
sense that he is the best qualified at
a firm advocate of a "colorblind so-
"Never again should senators con-
minutes, then offered him the nom-
"Are you saying that there were n°
Court, not to mention be nominated
this time. I kept my word to the
ciety." "Racial quotas and other
firm a nominee to the U.S. Supreme
ination.
qualified people? Are you saying
to it," Thomas somberly said. "Only
American people and to the Senate
race-conscious legal devices only
Court who has no record and pro-
They then joined the Bush family
we're never the best?
That
in America could this have been
by picking the best man for the job
further and deepen the original
vides no answers about his commit-
and aides for a lunch of crab salad
what Bush said with [Suprem
possible.'
on the merits. And the fact that he's
problem," he wrote in 1987.
ment to equal justice and fundamen-
and English muffins on a porch
Court Justice David H.) Souter. An
His voice choked with emotion as
a minority, so much the better."
"Today
color conscious
tal rights."
overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
that's what the president is saying
he acknowledged his grandparents,
Democrats acknowledged yester-
means something favorable to us.
During his 15 months on the
Thomas tried to telephone his wife,
again. I think he's going to have t
and he paused for several seconds,
day that the fact that Thomas is
We have set-asides, we have affirm-
bench, Thomas has written 18 op-
but she was not in her office at the
answer."
unable to continue, while Bush
black will make it difficult for civil
ative action.
I firmly believe
inions on issues ranging from the
Labor Department. He reached her
Richard Larson, legal director c
Interstate Commerce Commission's
the Mexican American Legal De
looked into the distance.
rights groups to make a compelling
that just as we can use it for us it's
with the news just minutes before
Administration officials said
issue of his opposition to many
going to be used against us again,"
jurisdiction over a passenger ferry
the news conference.
fense and Educational Fund, sai
Thomas, who Bush appointed to the
forms of affirmative action.
he told an interviewer in 1983.
to a complaint that a criminal de-
Bush told reporters Thomas met
that although he was surprise
D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals only
"Anyone who takes him on on the
Thomas has often said that no
fendant's rights against self-incrim-
his requirement as someone who
when the nominee turned out to b
15 months ago, emerged as the
subject of civil rights is taking on
ination were violated at his trial on
would "faithfully interpret the Con-
Thomas rather than Garza. "We'r
government program can replace
front-runner almost as soon as Mar-
the grandson of a sharecropper
the kind of self-discipline instilled in
cocaine distribution charges.
stitution and avoid the tendency to
pleased that ethnicity remained
because that person wants quotas
None of the opinions, said Bruce
him by his grandfather, who taught
legislate from the bench." He said
consideration."
shall announced his retirement
and preferential treatment," said
Fein, a conservative constitutional
he did not ask Thomas, who spent a
The problem. Larson and othe
Thursday. The process of selecting
him: "You had to get up, had to go
Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah.).
expert, "were of great moment.
year in a Roman Catholic seminary
rights activists said, lies not in th
him was characteristic of the Bush
to work." Only his grandfather's
It may also be difficult for Dem-
He's going to be almost as tabula
philosophy saved him from a life
studying for the priesthood, his
color of the nominee but in his COI
administration: it involved only a
ocrats to carry through on their
rasa as David Souter."
views on abortion rights.
stitutional views. "We do not believ
tiny circle of aides and was marked
like that of his sister, who was
promises to vigorously question
Thomas's nomination was set in
The president praised Thomas as
that he [Thomas] believes in const
by tight secrecy.
Bush's choice because "the question
raised by other relatives and now
motion only a few hours after Mar-
The other finalists were Texas
supports four children on welfare,
fiercely independent thinker with
tutional protection of individu
will be, is a higher standard being
shall's resignation, when Attorney
an excellent legal mind who be-
rights or full enforcement of our n:
appellate judges Edith H. Jones and
applied to this guy than was applied
he said in 1983.
General Dick Thornburgh inter-
lieves passionately in equal oppor-
tion's civil rights laws," Larson said
Emilio M. Garza, both from the 5th
to David Souter, and why," said one
At various points, Thomas has
viewed him. Some administration
tunity for all Americans. He will
Mary Frances Berry, former hea
Circuit Court of Appeals, adminis-
Senate Democratic aide. "If Souter
questioned rent control, minimum
officials said they believed that
approach the cases that come be-
of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission
tration officials said. Bush aides ar-
was confirmable with non-answers,
wage laws and enterprise zones to
Garza would be a better political
fore the court with a commitment
said Thomas's potential elevation
gued that Thomas was less contro-
why isn't Thomas?"
redevelop slums.
choice, because any opposition from
to deciding them fairly, as the facts
the high court ought not to be give
versial than Jones, and more expe-
Neither Senate Majority Leader
As chairman of the EEOC from
the Democrats would seem to fur-
and the law require."
a lot of attention by the civil righ
rienced than Garza, sources said.
George J. Mitchell (D-Maine) nor
1982 to 1990, Thomas drew fire
ther link the party's civil rights pol-
community. The conservative m
Administration officials said Bush
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair-
for what critics called a "dismal"
icy to the interests of blacks.
Yang reported from
jority, producing 6 to 3 rulings C
concentrated almost exclusively on
man Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.)
failure to enforce anti-discrimina-
Garza's appointment also would
Kennebunkport, Maine, and
most issues, already is in place, st
minority or female candidates.
gave clues to their reaction yester-
tion laws. Civil rights groups
have been a nod toward a voting
LaFraniere from Washington. Staff
said, so Thomas's potential seat (
Bush, however, told reporters,
day, saying only that the nomination
charged he let thousands of age-dis-
bloc that the administration has
writers Helen Dewar and Ruth
the bench "doesn't change the cour!
"The fact that he is black and a mi-
would be promptly considered.
crimination complaints lapse for
been courting vigorously. One ad-
Marcus contributed to this report.
of the law."
THE WASHINGTON POST
Mixed Feelings
Are Voiced by
Rights Leaders
Uncertainty Expressed
About Thomas's Views
By Lynne Duke
Washington Post Staff Writer
Several black and Hispanic civil
rights leaders expressed pleasure
yesterday at President Bush's nom-
ination of a minority jurist to the
Supreme Court, but they said
that-unlike retiring Justice Thur-
good Marshall-Clarence Thomas
appears to be no friend of the issues
the rights community holds dear.
Noting that Thomas, 43, is black
and grew up poor and disadvan-
taged in the South, John Jacob,
president of the National Urban
League, said, "I'm hoping that any-
one sitting in Justice Marshall's old
office would hear voices from the
walls, that there is a charge that
that person has to keep in protect-
ing the rights and dignities and op-
portunities of all people, particular-
ly of minority and disadvantaged
people."
Whether Thomas is likely to'be'
receptive to such voices, Jacob said,"
"is the major question mark."
Thomas, a conservative who was
appointed to the U.S. Court of Ap-
peals for the District of Columbia
Circuit by Bush in 1990, is a former
chairman of the Equal Employment
Opportunity Cómmission who has
criticized affirmative action pro-
grams as "social engineering." Civil
rights groups, both black and His-
panic, have alleged that the EEOC
was lax in remedying rights viola-
tions under Thomas's leadership.
"The reality is that the commis-
sion had a dismal record in terms of
protecting the civil rights of our
community," said Raul Yzaguirre,
president of the National Council of
La Raza, a coalition of Hispanic
groups.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (Dr
ASSOCIATED PRESS
D.C.), a former EEOC chief, said
mas pauses, overcome with emotion, as he expresses his thanks to "all those who have helped me along the way."
Senate confirmation hearings, to be'
held in September, "will be very
chvolodoff, recalled Thomas tell-
side-shows of anti-black quips and at-
"We are talking about a person
important" in gauging what kind of
how he hid from his instructors
tacks," he said.
who understands what it's like to be
Supreme Court justice Thomas may:
ng college and at law school "so
In an article, he joked that he of-
black and poor in this country and
be.
couldn't see what his color was"
ten felt "that my only role was to be
to face the worst kinds of preju-
"I would hope that his tenure at
adjust his grades accordingly.
confused with Clarence Pendleton,"
dice," said Frank Washington, a law
the EEOC would not prove reflec-
/hen he interviewed with Netch-
then the outspoken black chairman of
school classmate and former Carter
tive of his constitutional views,"
doff for a'job on Danforth's staff
the Civil Rights Commission.
administration official. "The kind of
Norton said. "We are projecting as
e Missouri attorney general's of-
Thomas has also been outspoken,
experiences he's had, he will not
to where he stands on the Bill of
Netchvolodoff said, Thomas,
about the continuing significance of
block those from his thinking."
Rights. That kind of deep question-
a Student at: Yale Law School,
race in America. don't care how
Thomas is "a" conservative but a
ing has yet to take place."
anded: "Are you going to treat
educated you are, how good you are
compassionate kind of conservative,
Benjamin L. Hooks, executive
as harshly as anyone else?"
at what you do-you'll never have
not rigid or ideological in his views.
director of the NAACP, promised
let Thomas has been willing to
the same contacts and opportuni-
His every motive is that he empa-
last week that if Bush nominated
lienge discrimination by those
ties, you Il never be seen as equal to
thizes with ordinary people, he's one
someone extremely unacceptable to
purported to be allies. In a
white," he said in an Atlantic mag-,
ech to the conservative Heritage
of them, Danforth said in a tele-
the civil rights community there
azine article in 1987.
phone interview yesterday.
would be the "mother of all confir
ndation in 1987, he complained
Thomas's friends said yesterday
T
"Clarence Thomas has the com-
mation battles."
he and other black conservatives
that while his philosophy may differ
mon touch," Danforth said. "In a
Yesterday, Hooks said he had
e often shunned by policymakers.
sharply from that of the man he is
it often seemed that to be accept-
slated to replace, his life experi-
very real way, he'll be the people's
been speaking hypothetically, not
within conservative ranks and to
justice."
about Thomas in particular. "We
ences-like Marshall's-offer a
have made no decisions about
rested with some degree of ac-
valuable perspective for a court
Staff writers Bill McAllister and
Thomas," he said. The NAACP did
black was required to be
dominated by those with privileged
Helen Dewar contributed to this
not oppose Thomas's nomination to
caricature providing
upbringings.
report.
the federal appeals court.
Hooks said the NAACP had
hoped the president would nomi-
Marshall Seat on Supreme Court
nate a black person to fill the high
court vacancy, "but we also thought
it should be an African American
lack of action. Thomas blamed the
who embodies some of the tradition
ministration official said Thomas
of Justice Marshall."
growing backlog of unaddressed
won out over Garza because of a
cases during his tenure on a lack of
The NAACP has disagreed with
"semiconscious sense
this
was
a
funds.
Thomas's stands on issues such as
black man to be replaced," then im-
Thomas's critics did not sway
affirmative action, "but whether
mediately backpedaled, saying:
Senate Judiciary Committee mem-
those disagreements are fatal will
"Strike that. He was the best per-
bers in February 1990, when they
require a whole new examination,"
son."
Hooks said.
voted 12 to 1 to approve his nom-
Bush settled on Thomas about 3
ination to the D.C. Circuit. But sev-
Many observers had believed
D.m.
Saturday
ASSOCIATED PRESS
as pauses, overcome with emotion, as he expresses his thanks to "all those who have helped me along the way."
Senate confirmation hearings, to be
held in September, "will be very:
important" in gauging what kind of
avoledoff, recalled Thomas tell-
side-shows of anti-black quips and at-
"We are talking about a person
OW he hid from his instructors
tacks," he said.
who understands what it's like to be
Supreme Court justice Thomas may-
be.
g college and at law school "so
In an article, he joked that he of-
black and poor in this country and
"I would hope that his tenure at
couldn't see what his color was"
ten felt "that my only role was to be
to face the worst kinds of preju-
the EEOC would not prove reflec-
idjust his grades accordingly.
confused with Clarence Pendleton,"
dice," said Frank Washington, a law
tive of his constitutional views,"
hen he interviewed with Netch-
then the outspoken black chairman of
school classmate and former Carter
Norton said. "We are projecting as
loff for a job on Danforth's staff
the Civil Rights Commission.
administration official. "The kind of
to where he stands on the Bill of
e Missouri attorney general's of-
Thomas has also been outspoken
experiences he's had, he will not
Rights. That kind of deep question-
Netchvolodoff said, Thomas,
about the continuing significance of
block those from his thinking."
ing has yet to take place."
student at, Yale Law School,
race in America. "I don't care how
Thomas is "a conservative but a
Benjamin L. Hooks, executive
anded: "Are you going to treat
educated you are, how good you are
compassionate kind of conservative,
director of the NAACP, promised
13 harshly as anyone else?"
at what you do-you'll never have
not rigid or ideological in his views.
last week that if Bush nominated
Yet Thomas has been willing to
the same contacts and opportuni-
His every motive is that he empa-
someone extremely unacceptable to
Enge discrimination by those
ties, you'll never be seen as equal to
thizes with ordinary people, he's one
the civil rights community there
purported to be allies. In a
white," he said in an Atlantic mag-,
of them," Danforth said in a tele-
would be the "mother of all confir-¹
cn to the conservative Heritage
azine article in 1987.
phone interview yesterday.
mation battles."
dation in 1987, he complained
Thomas's friends said yesterday
"Clarence Thomas has the com-
that while his philosophy may differ
Yesterday, Hooks said he had
he and other black conservatives
mon touch," Danforth said. "In a
sharply from that of the man he is
been speaking hypothetically, not
often shunned by policymakers.
very real way, he'll be the people's
slated to replace, his life experi-
about Thomas in particular. "We
often seemed that to be accept-
justice."
ences-like Marshall's-offer a
have made no decisions about
ithin conservative ranks and to
ested with some degree of so
valuable perspective for a court
Staff writers Bill McAllister and
Thomas," he said. The NAACP did
fouired
to
dominated by those with privileged
Helen Dewar contributed to this
not oppose Thomas's nomination to
upbringings
report.
the federal appeals court.
Hooks said the NAACP had
hoped the president would nomi-
Marshall Seat on Supreme Court
nate a black person to fill the high
court vacancy, "but we also thought
it should be an African American
who embodies some of the tradition
lack of action. Thomas blamed the
ministration official said Thomas
of Justice Marshall."
growing backlog of unaddressed
won out over Garza because of a
The NAACP has disagreed with
cases during his tenure on a lack of
"semiconscious sense
this was a
Thomas's stands on issues such as
funds.
black man to be replaced," then im-
affirmative action, "but whether
Thomas's critics did not sway
mediately backpedaled, saying:
those disagreements are fatal will
Senate Judiciary Committee mem-
"Strike that. He was the best per-
require a whole new examination,"
bers in February 1990, when they
son."
Hooks said.
voted 12 to 1 to approve his nom-
Bush settled on Thomas about 3
Many observers had believed
ination to the D.C. Circuit. But sev-
p.m. Saturday, during a conference
Bush would nominate a Hispanic to
eral senators, including Biden,
call with White House Counsel C.
the high court after administration
warned Thomas that they would
Boyden Gray, White House Chief of
officials revealed that the list of
scrutinize him far more carefully if
Staff John H. Sununu and Thorn-
candidates included three Hispanic
he came back to them as a Supreme.
burgh.
judges. Federal appeals court judge
Court nominee.
Bush telephoned Thomas on Sun-
Emilio Garza, 43, of San Antonio,
His most likely opponents at the
day afternoon to discuss the nom-
Tex., flew to Washington for an in-
confirmation hearings, expected to
ination and to invite him to Maine,
terview over the weekend. No His-
take place in September, are activ-
but did not formally offer the job.
panic has ever been nominated to
ists for abortion rights and organ-
When Thomas arrived aboard an
the high court.
ASSOCIATED
18 news conference yesterday.
izations for the elderly.
Air Force jet yesterday with Thorn-
"Well of course we are disap-
Kate Michelman, executive di-
burgh, Gray and Sununu, Bush
pointed that a Hispanic was not ap-
rector of the National Abortion
chatted with him alone in the bed-
pointed," Yzaguirre said.
mas has described himself as
Rights League, said in a statement:
room of his residence for 15 or 20
Rhetorically, he asked of Bush:
advocate of a "colorblind so-
"Never again should senators con-
minutes, then offered him the nom-
"Are you saying that there were no
"Racial quotas and other
firm a nominee to the U.S. Supreme
ination.
qualified people? Are you saying
inscious legal devices only
Court who has no record and pro-
They then joined the Bush family
we're never the best?
That's
and deepen the original
vides no answers about his commit-
and aides for a lunch of crab salad
what Bush said with [Supreme
n," he wrote in 1987.
ment to equal justice and fundamen-
and English muffins on a porch
Court Justice David H.] Souter. And
'ay
color conscious
tal rights."
overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
that's what the president is saying
something favorable to us.
During his 15 months on the
Thomas tried to telephone his wife,
again. I think he's going to have to
e set-asides, we have affirm-
bench, Thomas has written 18 op-
but she was not in her office at the
answer."
action.
I firmly believe
inions on issues ranging from the
Labor Department. He reached her
Richard Larson, legal director of
st as we can use it for us it's
Interstate Commerce Commission's
with the news just minutes before
the Mexican American Legal De-
0 be used against us again,"
jurisdiction over a passenger ferry
the news conference.
fense and Educational Fund, said
an interviewer in 1983.
to a complaint that a criminal de-
Bush told reporters Thomas met
that although he was surprised
nas has often said that no
fendant's rights against self-incrim-
his requirement as someone who
when the nominee turned out to be
ination were violated at his trial on
ment program can replace
would "faithfully interpret the Con-
Thomas rather than Garza, "We're
d of self-discipline instilled in
cocaine distribution charges.
stitution and avoid the tendency to
pleased that ethnicity remained a
None of the opinions, said Bruce
his grandfather, who taught
legislate from the bench." He said
consideration."
Fein, a conservative constitutional
ou had to get up, had to go
he did not ask Thomas, who spent a
The problem, Larson and other
expert, "were of great moment.
k." Only his grandfather's
year in a Roman Catholic seminary
rights activists said, lies not in the
He's going to be almost as tabula
studying for the priesthood, his
color of the nominee but in his con-
phy saved him from a life
rasa as David Souter."
it of his sister, who was
views on abortion rights.
stitutional views. "We do not believe
Thomas's nomination was set in
by other relatives and now
The president praised Thomas as
that he [Thomas] believes in consti-
motion only a few hours after Mar-
"a fiercely independent thinker with
tutional protection of individual
S four children on welfare,
shall's resignation, when Attorney
an excellent legal mind who be-
rights or full enforcement of our na-
in 1983.
General Dick Thornburgh inter-
lieves passionately in equal oppor-
tion's civil rights laws," Larson said.
arious points, Thomas has
viewed him. Some administration
tunity for all Americans. He will
Mary Frances Berry, former head
ned rent control, minimum
officials said they believed that
approach the cases that come be-
of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission,
WS and enterprise zones to
Garza would be a better political
fore the court with a commitment
said Thomas's potential elevation to
op slums.
choice, because any opposition from
to deciding them fairly, as the facts
the high court ought not to be given
hairman of the EEOC from
the Democrats would seem to fur-
and the law require."
a lot of attention by the civil rights
) 1990, Thomas drew fire
ther link the party's civil rights pol-
community. The conservative ma-
it critics called a "dismal"
icy to the interests of blacks.
Yang reported from
jority, producing 6 to 3 rulings on
to enforce anti-discrimina-
Garza's appointment also would
Kennebunkport, Maine, and
most issues, already is in place, she
:WS. Civil rights groups
have been a nod toward a voting
LaFraniere from Washington. Staff
said, so Thomas's potential seat on
I he let thousands of age-dis-
bloc that the administration has
writers Helen Dewar and Ruth
the bench "doesn't change the course
tion complaints lapse for
been courting vigorously. One ad-
Marcus contributed to this report.
of the law."
THE WASHINGTON POST
Politics and the Thomas Choice:
SAL
Building the GOP's Black Elite
TIA MARIA
COFFEE
By Thomas B. Edsall
LIQUEUR
Washington Post Staff Writer
750 ML
12.99*
Less
President Bush's nomination of
DLC
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1.99
Clarence Thomas to the Supreme
Court is the most significant event
$11.00
in a decade-long drive by the Re-
publican Party and the conservative
The nomination
movement to nurture and promote
a black elite directly challenging the
"appears to be yet
HEAVEN HIL
traditional-and strongly Demo-
cratic-civil rights leadership.
another step in the
BOURBON
"Politically, [the Thomas nomi-
ideological hijacking
1.75L
nation] will tear down the existing
black political leadership in the
of the Supreme Court
$10.99
sense that he will bring to light the
fact that the black
by the radical right
NEWS
ANALYSIS
community is not
wing of the
monolithic and need
DLC
not be held captive to the liberal
Republican Party."
CLIP
$1.99 a
one (1) Tia
plantation," said Claudia A. Butts,
a
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In Montgom
stores. Limit
deputy director of the New Major-
Democratic national chairman
ity, the Heritage Foundation's mi-
$
(Must give zip
7/06/91.
nority outreach program. "The days
of blacks being politically aligned to
the liberal party [the Democratic
Party] are about to be ended."
Naming Thomas to the court is
one of a number of moves involving
than that [the Thomas nomination]
overall disdain for the rule of law"
right-leaning black officials that
to redeem ourselves [with black
as chairman of the Equal Employ-
have been designed to counter
voters]." Instead, he said, the nom-
ment Opportunity Commission.
charges of racism against the GOP
ination may have more "impact on
They had in mind Thomas's public
and conservative institutions.
liberal whites; they will credit Bush
challenges to liberal ideology, as
These efforts during the Reagan
for choosing a black person."
demonstrated in such statements as
and Bush years included naming
The Bush adviser argued that the
"there is no government
Clarence M. Pendleton Jr. chairman
selection of a conservative black to
solution.
I will ask those who
of the U.S. Civil Rights Commis-
the Supreme Court will provide an
proffer a governmental solution to
sion, backing Rep. Gary Franks (R-
indirect boost to Bush as he at-
show me which group in the history
Conn.) in his successful bid in 1990
tempts to make the case that the
of this country was pulled up and
O
to become the first black Republi-
civil rights bill passed by House
put into the mainstream of the
can House member in two gener-
Democrats and now the subject of
economy with government pro-
ations, and now the third major fed-
intensive negotiations in the Senate
grams. The Irish weren't. The Jews
eral appointment for Thomas.
promotes racial quotas.
weren't."
As Republican National Commit-
"It [the Thomas nomination]
Yesterday, Ronald H. Brown,
tee chairman, Lee Atwater, who
strengthens Bush's position in the
chairman of the Democratic Nation-
was a principal architect in making
civil rights fight across the board,"
al Committee, said the Thomas
black murderer-rapist Willie Hor-
the adviser contended. "Every dem-
nomination "appears to be yet an-
ton's case a symbolic issue in the
onstration that there is not a pure,
other step in the ideological hijack-
1988 campaign, said a central goal
homogeneous position on these is-
ing of the Supreme Court by the
of his tenure would be raising black
sues helps us."
radical right wing of the Republican
Republican voting margins from the
But a Washington-area GOP con-
Party."
10. <percent levels characteristic of
sultant argued that the nomination
Robert Squier, a Democratic con-
the 1980s. But whether the Thom-
"confuses the quota issue" because
sultant, sharply disputed Republi-
as-nomination would further the
it seems to imply that the court seat
can assertions that the Thomas
goals of Atwater, who died this
being vacated by Justice Thurgood
nomination will help the GOP chop
year, was a point of contention yes-
Marshall had to be filled by another
away at the strong Democratic loy-
terday among Republican strate-
black. "This [the Thomas nomina-
alty of blacks. "It's not possible," he
gists.
tion] is a quota. One day Bush was
said, to use an appointment to build
A key Bush adviser, speaking on
like a ramrod [on quotas], the next
black support "if you try to do it
background, argued "that one of the
he contradicts himself."
without regard to the issues that
things that has influenced black vot-
In picking Thomas, Bush laid
guys like Marshall fought for all
ers to a modest degree is the num-
down a gauntlet, not, only, to the
their lives."
ber of blacks you bring into govern-
civil rights leadership but also to:
Referring specifically to Bush's
ment. This is a nudge [to an over-
the liberal wing of the Democratic
use of Willie Horton in 1988, Squier
whelmingly Democratic black elec-
Party, which has already made:
said, You can't turn around and say
torate]
known its ideological differences
was just kidding.)
Another Republican who has
with Thomas.
want to do a racist campaign. You
done extensive work exploring
Two years ago, 16 prominent
can't attack the people you are try-
black attitudes toward the GOP
Democratic House liberals charged
ing to convert. It's so fundamental,
countered: "It will take a lot more
that Thomas "has demonstrated an
it's hard to express."
our
I Emphasize Black Self-Help
year, was a point of contention yes-
Marsnall nad to De meu by
terday among Republican strate-
black. "This [the Thomas nomina-
alty of blacks. "It's not possible," he
gists.,
tion] is a quota. One day Bush was
said, to use an appointment to build
A key Bush adviser, speaking on
like a ramrod [on quotas], the next
black support "if you try to do it
background, argued "that one of the
he contradicts himself."
without regard to the issues that
things that has influenced black vot-
In picking Thomas, Bush laid
guys like Marshall fought for all
ers to a modest degree is the num-
down a gauntlet, not only to the
their lives."
ber of blacks you bring into govern-
civil rights leadership but also to
Referring specifically to Bush's
ment. This is a nudge [to an over-
the liberal wing of the Democratic
use of Willie Horton in 1988, Squier
whelmingly Democratic black elec-
Party, which has already made
said, "You can't turn around and say
torate].
known its ideological differences
'I was just kidding, I really don't
Another Republican who has
with Thomas.
want to do a racist campaign.' You
done extensive work exploring
Two years ago, 16 prominent
can't attack the people you are try-
black attitudes toward the GOP
Democratic House liberals charged
ing to convert. It's so fundamental,
countered: "It will take a lot more
that Thomas "has demonstrated an
it's hard to express."
our
I Emphasize Black Self-Help
usil
Thomas's Thoughts on Quotas, the Work Ethic and Conservatism
Following are excerpts from some Clarence Thom-
about this position as well as my current
as speeches and published interviews:
position.
I always found it curious that even
Wall Street Journal, 1987: "I firmly insist that
though my background was in energy, taxation and
the Constitution be interpreted in a colorblind fash-
general corporate regulatory matters, that I was
ion. It is futile to talk of a colorblind society unless
not seriously sought after to move into one of those
this constitutional principle is first established.
areas.
I am of the view that black Americans will
Hence, I emphasize black self-help, as opposed to
racial quotas and other race-conscious legal devices
move inexorably and naturally toward conservatism
that only further and deepen the original problem."
when we stop discouraging them; when they are
treated as a diverse group with differing interests;
The Washington Post, 1983: "You can't replicate
and when conservatives stand up for what they be-
OPI
my grandfather. A sociologist at the University of
lieve in rather than stand against blacks. This is not
Alabama, when he studied blacks who were success-
a prescription for success, but rather an assertion
ful, found that there was a strong father figure, a
that black Americans know what they want, and it is
strong person someplace in that individual's life,
not timidity and condescension.
that broke him out of the circle of poverty-a
I failed to realize just how deep-seated the
coach, a minister, grandparent, mother, father.
animosity of blacks toward black conservatives was.
Somebody who said, 'Boy, you are going to school
The dual labels of black Republicans and black con-
today. You gon' be somebody. You gon' do better'n
servatives drew rave reviews. Unfortunately, the
I'm doin'.' That was my granddaddy's whole philos-
raving was at us, not for us. The reaction was neg-
ophy. 'I'm doin' this for y'all, so y'all don't have to
ative, to be euphemistic, and generally hostile. In-
work for the white man, so y'all don't have to take
terestingly enough, however, our ideas themselves
P
what I had to take.' My granddaddy used to say this
received very positive reactions, especially among
world is tough, always tough on a poor man. My
the average working class and middle-class black
OPE
granddaddy told me, when I went off to college,
American who had no vested or proprietary interest
'Just remember that no matter how many degrees
in the social policies which have dominated the po-
you get and how high you go, the lowest white man
litical scene over the past 20 years.
in the gutter can call you a nigger.' The attitude
Inherent equality is the basis for aggressive
that kept me going came from him. He used to al-
enforcement of civil rights laws and equal employ-
ways say that there was no problem that elbow
ment opportunity laws designed to protect individ-
grease can't solve. Then he'd say things like, 'Old
ual rights. Indeed, defending the individual under
man Can't is dead. I helped bury him.'
these laws should be the hallmark of conservatism
From a speech to the Heritage Foundation, 1987:
rather than its Achilles' heel. And, in no way, should
"My household
was strong, stable and conser-
this be the issue of those who are antagonistic to in-
vative. In fact, it was far more conservative than
dividual rights and the proponents of a bigger, more
many who fashion themselves conservative today.
intrusive government. Indeed, conservatives should
God was central. School, discipline, hard work and
be as adamant about freedom here at home as we
'right-from-wrong' were of the highest priority.
are about freedom abroad. We should be at least as
Crime, welfare, slothfulness and alcohol were
incensed about the totalitarianism of drug traffick-
enemies.
The most compassionate thing they
ers and criminals in poor neighborhoods as we are
(our grandparents) did for us was to teach us to fend
about totalitarianism in Eastern Bloc countries. The
for ourselves and do that in an openly hostile
primacy of individual rights demands that conser-
environment.
Those who attempt to capture
vatives be the first to protect them."
the daily counseling, oversight, common sense, and
Atlantic Magazine, 1987: "There is nothing you
vision of my grandparents in a governmental pro-
can do to get past black skin. I don't care how ed-
gram are engaging in sheer folly. Government can-
ucated you are, how good you are at what you do-
not develop individual responsibility, but it certainly
you'll never have the same contacts or opportuni-
can refrain from preventing or hindering the devel-
ties, you'll never be seen as equal to whites.
opment of this responsibility.
Those who insist on arguing that the prin-
I joined the [Reagan] administration [in
ciple of equal opportunity, the cornerstone of civil
1981] as an assistant secretary in the Department
rights, means preferences for certain groups, have
of Education. I had, initially, resisted and declined
relinquished their roles as moral and ethical leaders
taking the position of assistant secretary for civil
in this area. I bristle at the thought, for example,
rights simply because my career was not in civil
that it is morally proper to protest against minority
rights and I had no intention of moving into this
racial preferences in South Africa while arguing for
area. In fact, I was insulted by the initial contact
such preferences here."
Services of Mead Data Central, Inc.
PAGE
6
5TH STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
Copyright (c) 1990 News World Communications Inc.;
The Washington Times
January 19, 1990, Friday, Final Edition
SECTION: Part A; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 1610 words
HEADLINE: GOP howls at demands Biden makes of nominee
BYLINE: Dawn M. Weyrich; THE WASHINGTON TIMES
BODY:
Sen. Joseph Biden's request that conservative judicial nominee Clarence
Thomas release thousands of documents on his record in government service has
triggered a partisan blowout on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Republican senators charged that the committee chairman is trying to
discredit the nomination of Mr. Thomas to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
D.C. Circuit in a manner reminiscent of the successful fight against Judge
Robert H. Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court.
"It's apparent that the long knives are out and [the Democrats] are doing
everything to discredit Clarence Thomas by hook or by crook," said Sen. Orrin
Hatch, Utah Republican and a Judiciary Committee member.
"We're not going to have another character assassination like they did to
Bork," Mr. Hatch said. "If they think they're going to do to [Mr. Thomas] what
they did to Bork, they are going to have the most awful fight on their hands
they have ever seen. I guarantee it."
Democratic senators refused to comment or did not return phone calls. But
Democratic aides on the Senate Judiciary Committee - who asked to remain
annonymous - said all judicial nominees receive extensive questionnaires on
their records.
While not all nominees are issued document requests, one aide said, such
inquiries are normal when the candidate has an extensive background in
government. Mr. Thomas has been chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission since 1982.
"I expect [the Republicans] to react this way," one aide said. "It's not a
fishing expedition. There are real issues that need to be resolved."
But, conservatives have said that liberals abhor Mr. Thomas' refusal to
seek sweeping quota-based remedies in equal opportunity cases before the EEOC.
Republican critics said the eight-page document request contains some
legitimate questions, but is rife with others that do not relate to Mr. Thomas'
fitness to serve on the bench.
Sen. Charles Grassley, a committee member and Iowa Republican, said he is
particularly outraged over a request for "the EEOC work force composite, by
race, at the time Mr. Thomas became EEOC chairman along with the most current
LEXIS'NEXIS'LEXIS NEXIS
Services of Mead Data Central, Inc.
PAGE
7
(c) 1990 The Washington Times, January 19, 1990
workforce composite available."
"The question is inappropriate," Mr. Grassley said. "The question ought to
be whether or not qualified people are hired to work at the EEOC. It seems to me
like a violation of the dream of Martin Luther King, who dreamed of a
color-blind society."
Other critics said they are incensed that Mr. Thomas has been asked to
release all correspondence in 1982-1989 on cases that allege discrimination due
to neutral employment criteria shown to have a disproportionate adverse impact
on minorities.
According to EEOC documents, 2,965 lawsuits have been filed in U.S. district
court since 1982. Critics said Democrats are attempting to stall the nomination
by asking Mr. Thomas to compile the thousands of pages relating to these suits.
Furthermore, the critics charge, some of the cases in question are still
pending in court, and release of related memoranda could inhibit the
government's ability to conduct the cases.
But Democratic aides said that because Mr. Thomas has been a high-ranking
government official for nearly eight years, senators reviewing his nomination
must have access to information on concerns raised about the nominee.
"He's had a long record of government service and - as has been the case in
similar circumstances - a number of allegations have been raised by outside
groups, anonymous sources and members of the judiciary committee,' one
Democratic source said.
"In addition to seeking basic information relating to the fitness of a
nominee to serve on the federal bench, it is the obligation of this committee to
follow up on allegations which nevertheless often prove to be baseless," the
aide said, adding that Mr. Biden did not request information on some
allegations that he considered to be "irrelevant."
Democrats have more on their minds than investigating charges against Mr.
Thomas, Mr. Grassley said, adding that defeating the nomination is the goal of
liberals who worry that the nominee ultimately could rise to higher judicial
office.
"For the Democrats, this is not a case of keeping Clarence Thomas off the
court of appeals. They see it as keeping a likely successor to [Justice]
Thurgood Marshall off the Supreme Court, and the sooner they get him buried the
better off they are," Mr. Grassley said. Like Justice Marshall, Mr. Thomas is
black.
Furthermore, the senators said, if Mr. Thomas were a liberal he would not
have been asked to release such an extensive amount of information.
"They want to defeat him so bad they can taste it," said committee member
Alan K. Simpson, a Wyoming Republican. "They want to do it in a bloodless
crime, to leave a poisoned dart in his chest and say it came from outer space.
"He's getting pecked to death by ducks. If they'd just have the guts to
say, 'We don't like him because he's a conservative,' that would be nice and
LEXIS'NEXIS'LEXIS'NEXIS
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PAGE
8
(c) 1990 The Washington Times, January 19, 1990
honest and 50 refreshing."
The document request was leaked to the Wall Street Journal and printed in
its Wednesday editions with an accompanying editorial blasting Mr. Biden for
conducting "a fishing expedition offending standards of fair play."
Mr. Biden fired off an angry letter to the Justice Department and Judiciary
Committee members - the only ones to receive the confidential document request.
"I have been firmly committed to keeping confidential our investigations of
nominees pending before this committee," the letter stated. "The primary reason
that I insist on confidentiality is to protect the nominees themselves, as well
as their reputations and families."
The letter went on to say: "We receive many serious accusations against
nominees that later prove to be baseless, and I am strongly opposed to allowing
any aspect of these accusations to be publicly aired prior to their being fully
investigated and resolved by the committee."
Not all Republicans on the 14-member judiciary committee agreed that the
document request is a poorly disguised political maneuver.
"The committee chairman has the right and responsibility to check the
background af any appointee," said Sen. Strom Thurmond, South Carolina
Republican. "I have been impressed with Mr. Thomas' performance in past
positions and I intend to support him. It is my prediction he will be
confirmed."
Biden critics also predict a successful result to Mr. Thomas' nomination,
but say it won't happen without a nasty fight.
"I'm going to go into training," Mr. Simpson said. ****PHOTO/BOX
Clarence Thomas
* Born: June 23, 1948, in Savannah, Ga.
* Education: Bachelor's degree from Holy Cross College, 1971. Law degree
from Yale Law School, 1974.
* Career: Served as Missouri assistant attorney general in Jefferson City,
1974-77. Was the Monsanto Co. attorney in St. Louis from 1977-79. Worked
as a legislative assistant to Sen. John Danforth, Missouri Republican.
Served as assistant secretary for civil rights in the Department of Education,
1981-82. Has been chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission since
1982.
Source: 5th edition "Who's Who Among
Black Americans."
CHART
BIDEN'S RESEARCH PROJECT
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9
(c) 1990 The Washington Times, January 19, 1990
Sen. Joseph Biden, Delaware Democrat and chairman of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, sent an unprecedented, eight-page minutely detailed document request
to Clarence M. Thomas, President Bush's nominee to the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the District. Mr. Thomas is former chairman of the U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Representative portions of the Biden
questionnaire follow.
Please provide any and all transcripts that have been made of speeches or
public remarks made by Chairman Thomas, including any question and answer
sessions following his remarks.
Also, please provide a list of any and all videotapes made of Chairman
Thomas' speeches or public remarks.
Please provide each version, or edition, from January 1986 to the present,
of the section of the EEOC's Official Compliance Manual dealing with the
relative priority to be placed upon cases brought under the Age Discrimination
in Employment Act [ADEA]. If no section of a particular version of the manual
mentions this issue, please indicate that. In addition, please provide any
correspondence, memos or instructions sent to District Directors with regard to
any changes or updates in this section of the Manual over this time period.
For the years 1982 through 1989, please provide the following information:
Copies of all memoranda or correspondence prepared by Chairman Thomas or
transmitted to him from the EEOC General Counsel, the EEOC Office of Legal
Counsel, other EEOC commissioners or personnel from the Office of Management and
Budget, which discuss or address the treatment of charges filed by persons who
allege a violation of the ADEA due to an employer's denial of pension accruals
for work performed beyond normal retirement age (65).
[Six similar requests follow in the pension accrual category alone. The
document request includes 11 such categories, with similarly detailed demands. ]
This [overall] request contemplates production of all documents described,
including all drafts and non-identical or distribution copies.
This request contemplates production of responsive documents in their
entirety, without abbreviation or expurgation.
The words "and" and "or" shall be construed disjunctively or conjunctively
as necessary to make the request inclusive rather than exclusive.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
GRAPHIC: Photo/box, Clarence Thomas, By The Washington Times; Chart, BIDEN'S
RESEARCH PROJECT, By The Washington Times
LEXIS NEXIS'LEXIS'NEXIS
what time POTUS speaks ?
how Many PREPART WHITE
HOUSE
WASHINGTON
Mayor first 0 Plenkett intro
Gov. ashcroft who
intrors POTUS
also on stage
Sm. kit Bond
ms. ascroat
Mrs. Bush
long. Mel Hancock
[call valrie]
07/02/91 09:20 19132634218
Eisenhower Libry
5
001
NATIONAL ARCHIVESNAND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER LIBRARY, ABILENE, KS 67410
Telecopier/Facsimile Cover Page
Date
7/2/91
Time 9:00 a.m.
Number of pages (including this page)
~
To: Carolyn Cawley
From: David Haight, Eisenhower Library
White House Speech Writing Dept.
Phone/FAX: 202-456-6218
Phone: 913-263-4751
SUBJECT: Pages 4-5 of DDE's Guildhall Address July 1945
THOMPSON COMMUNICATIONS
John P. Thompson
President
Communications, Marketing I Media Services
P.O. Box 5, Marshfield, Missouri 65706
(417) 468-5428
dead. They cannot soothe the anguish of the widow
London back into the uncertainties of unrecorded
or the orphan whose husband or father will not return.
history. To those people I am proud to belong.
The only attitude in which a commander may
with satisfaction receive the tributes of his friends
But I find myself today five thousand miles from
is in the humble acknowledgment that no matter how
that countryside, the honored guest of a city whose
09:21
name stands for grandeur and size throughout the
unworthy he may be, his position is the symbol of
great human forces that have labored arduously and
world. Hardly would it seem possible for the London
successfully for a righteous cause. Unless he feels this
Council to have gone farther afield to find a man
symbolism and this rightness in what he has tried to
to honor with its priceless gift of token citizenship.
do, then he is disregardful of courage, fortitude and
Yet kinship among nations is not determined in
devotion of the vast multitudes he has been honor-
such measurements as proximity of size and age.
619132634218
Rather we should turn to those inner things-call
ed to command. If all Allied men and women that
have served with me in this war can only know that
them what you will-I mean those intangibles that
are the real treasures free men possess.
it is they whom this august body is really honoring
today, then indeed I will be content.
To preserve his freedom of worship, his equality
This feeling of humility cannot erase of course my
before law, his liberty to speak and act as he sees fit,
great pride in being tendered the freedom of London.
subject only to provisions that he trespass not upon
I am not a native of this land. I come from the very
similar rights of others-a Londoner will fight. So
will a citizen of Abilene.
heart of America. In the superficial aspects by which
When we consider these things, then the valley
Eisenhower Libry
we ordinarily recognize family relationships, the town
of the Thames draws closer to the farms of Kansas
where I was born and the one where I was reared are
far separated from this great city. Abilene, Kansas,
and the plains of Texas.
and Denison, Texas, would together equal in size,
To my mind it is clear that when two peoples will
possibly one five-hundredth of a part of great London.
face the tragedies of war to defend the same spirit-
By your standards those towns are young, with-
ual values, the same treasured rights, then in the
out your aged traditions that carry the roots of
deepest sense those two are truly related. So even as
I proclaim my undying Americanism, I am bold
[4]
[5]
The Lights D wight
002
*
The
*
*
American Treasury
*
1455-1955
*
*
SELECTED, ARRANGED, AND EDITED BY
CLIFTON FADIMAN
ASSISTED BY CHARLES VAN DOREN
Harper & Brothers, Publishers
New York
86
WE LOOK AT OURSELVES
WHERE WE LIVE
87
making all the money in the world.
Texans are so proud of Texas
Illinois is heaven for men and horses, but hell for women and oxen.
that they cannot sleep at night.
Popular saying in Illinois in the early nineteenth century
ANON., a supposed "speech" by a visitor to the state, printed
in the Texas Almanac
Honour to Pioneers That Broke Sod That Men to Come Might Live.
Inscription on State Capitol Building, Lincoln, Nebraska
[Houston] will be the New York of the late 20th century.
J. RUSSELL SMITH
The common fence in the eastern half of the United States was made of
rails split from the tree trunks of the cleared fields. It was supplemented
THE MIDDLE WEST
by the stone wall or rock fence in regions such as New England where
there were as many rocks as there were trees. Of rails, the most familiar
type was the Virginia worm or zigzag fence, remnants of which still exist
This is the country for a man to enjoy himself: Ohio, Indiana, and the
in remote parts of the woodland states. This fence, along with the log
Missouri Territory; where you may see prairie sixty miles long and ten
cabin, made its way west until it came to the Great Plains which it could
broad, not a stick nor a stone in them, at two dollars an acre, that will
not enter or cross for the simple reason that there was no material for
produce from seventy to one hundred bushels of Indian corn per acre:
making it. Also, there were no rocks, especially in the eastern plains
too rich for wheat or any other kind of grain. I measured Indian corn in
which the pioneers first entered. In short, fencing became economically
Ohio State last September more than fifteen feet high, and some of the
impossible, and without fences there could be no farming because live-
ears had from four to seven hundred grains. I believe I saw more peaches
stock and agricultural crops are mutually exclusive. For want of fencing
and apples rotting on the ground than would sink the British fleet. I was
the agricultural frontier was brought almost to a dead halt on the edge of
at many plantations in Ohio where they no more knew the number of
the plains, and it was unable to move forward until a practical and eco-
their hogs than myself. And they have such flocks of turkeys, geese, ducks,
nomical substitute could be found. In the interval before a practical fence
and hens as would surprise you; they live principally upon fowls and eggs,
was invented, every device imaginable was tried, such as thorny hedges
and in summer upon apple and peach pies. The poorest family has a COW
of bois d'arc, cactus, running roses; even mud fences were built to go
or two and some sheep and in the fall can gather as many apples and
along with sod houses. None of the substitutes were satisfactory and all
peaches as serve the year round. Good rye whiskey; apple and peach
were expensive. The fence problem may be said to have been acute from
brandy, at forty cents per gallon, which I think equal to rum. Excellent
1850 to 1875, leaving the Great Plains in the hands of the cattle kings of
cider at three dollars per barrel of thirty-three gallons, barrel included.
the open range.
There is enough to spare of everything a person can desire; have not
The solution in this case was neither borrowed from the Spaniards, as
heard either man or woman speak a word against the government or the
the method of handling range cattle on horseback had been, nor fur-
price of provisions.
nished by New England, as in the case of the Colt revolver. The solution,
The poorest families adorn the table three times a day like a wedding
the invention of barbed wire, was the work of a group of farmers living
dinner-tea, coffee, beef, fowls, pies, eggs, pickles, good bread; and their
in the open prairies of Illinois near the little town of DeKalb. Their
favorite beverage is whiskey or peach brandy. Say, is it so in England?
names were Joseph Glidden, Jacob Haish, and perhaps a third, Isaac
If you knew the difference between this country and England you
Ellwood. Joseph, Jacob, and Isaac did not make brick without straw, but
would need no persuading to leave it and come hither. It abounds with
they made fences requiring little timber. In 1873 the first two began
game and deer; I often see ten or fifteen together; turkeys in abundance,
weighing from eighteen to twenty-four pounds. The rivers abound with
making barbed wire, independently, and each obtained a patent. What
ducks and fish. There are some elk and bears. We have no hares, but
they discovered was that a cheap and practical fence, one easy to con-
swarms of rabbits: the woods are full of turtledoves, and eight or nine
struct and to maintain, could be made by twisting two wires with barbs
kinds of woodpeckers. Robin redbreast the size of your pigeon.
spaced at regular intervals, and that three strands of this infernal con-
SAMUEL CRABTREE, letter to his brother, 1818
trivance stretched tight on posts would keep cattle and crops separated.
88
WE LOOK AT OURSELVES
WHERE WE LIVE
89
The success of Joseph, Jacob, and Isaac was phenomenal, and though
than Camelot; and a rebellious girl is the spirit of that bewildered empire
they started as simple farmers they wound up as millionaires because they
called the American Middlewest.
had the only fence that could be used in about half of the United States.
SINCLAIR LEWIS, Main Street, 1920
Barbed wire was shipped into the plains by the trainload, and within
twenty-five years nearly all the open range had become privately owned
Here-she meditated-is the newest empire of the world; the Northern
and was under fence. Ranching was converted from the open range into
Middlewest; a land of dairy herds and exquisite lakes, of new automobiles
the big pasture type. With the possibility of fencing, the farmers, who had
and tar-paper shanties and silos like red towers, of clumsy speech and a
been stalled for a generation on the edge of the plains, resumed their
hope that is boundless. An empire which feeds a quarter of the world-
march to the west.
yet its work is merely begun. They are pioneers, these sweaty wayfarers,
WALTER PRESCOTT WEBB, The Great Plains
for all their telephones and bank-accounts and automatic pianos and co-
operative leagues. And for all its fat richness, theirs is a pioneer land.
The Kansas spirit is the American spirit double-distilled. It is a new
What is its future? she wondered. A future of cities and factory smut
grafted product of American individualism, American idealism, American
where now are loping empty fields? Homes universal and secure? Or
intolerance. Kansas is America in microcosm: as America conceives itself
placid chateaux ringed with sullen huts? Youth freed to find knowledge
in respect to Europe, so Kansas conceives itself in respect to America.
and laughter? Willingness to sift the sanctified lies? Or creamy-skinned
Within its borders Americanism, pure and undefiled, has a new lease of
fat women, smeared with grease and chalk, gorgeous in the skins of beasts
life. It is the mission of this self-selected people to see to it that it does
and the bloody feathers of slain birds, playing bridge with puffy pink-
not perish from off the earth. The light on the altar, however neglected
nailed jeweled fingers, women who after much expenditure of labor and
elsewhere, must ever be replenished in Kansas. If this is provincialism, it
bad temper still grotesquely resemble their own flatulent lap-dogs? The
is the provincialism of faith rather than of province. The devotion to the
ancient stale inequalities, or something different in history, unlike the
state is devotion to an ideal, not to a territory, and men can say "Dear
tedious maturity of other empires? What future and what hope?
old Kansas!" because the name symbolizes for them what the motto of
SINCLAIR LEWIS, Ibid.
the state so well expresses, ad astra per aspera.
CARL BECKER, Kansas, I910
[Village contentment is] the contentment of the quiet dead, who are
scornful of the living for their restless walking. It is negation canonized
There is about [Indiana] a charm I shall not be able to express.
as the one positive virtue. It is the prohibition of happiness. It is slavery
This is a region not unlike those which produce gold or fleet horses or
self-sought and self-defended. It is dullness made God.
oranges or adventurers.
SINCLAIR LEWIS, Ibid.
THEODORE DREISER, A Hoosier Holiday, 1916
Back in 1905, in America, it was almost universally known that though
On a hill by the Mississippi where Chippewas had camped two genera-
cities were evil and even in the farmland there were occasional men of
tions ago, a girl stood in relief against the cornflower blue of Northern
wrath, our villages were approximately paradise. They were always made
sky. She saw no Indians now; she saw flour-mills and the blinking win-
up of small white houses under large green trees; there was no poverty
dows of skyscrapers in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
A breeze which
and no toil worth mentioning; every Sunday, sweet-tempered, silvery
had crossed a thousand miles of wheatlands bellied her taffeta skirt in a
pastors poured forth comfort and learning; and while the banker might
line so graceful, so full of animation and moving beauty, that the heart
be a pretty doubtful dealer, he was inevitably worsted in the end by the
of a chance watcher on the lower road tightened to wistfulness over her
honest yeomanry. But it was Neighborliness that was the glory of the
quality of suspended freedom
The days of pioneering, of lassies in
small town. In the cities, nobody knew or cared; but back home, the
sunbonnets, and bears killed with axes in piney clearings, are deader now
Neighbors were one great happy family. They lent you money, without
questioning
they soothed your brow in sickness
and when you
90
WE LOOK AT OURSELVES
WHERE WE LIVE
91
had nevertheless passed beyond, they sat up with your corpse and your
Many of the following items are to be encountered all over the United
widow. Invariably they encouraged youth to go to bigger and nobler
States; nevertheless I think of them as typically middle western. One
things.
could make a litany of forces, memories, institutions-for instance the
And in 1905, I returned to my own Minnesota village for vacation
ole swimmin' hole, the red brick schoolhouse, and the ritual of "working
after my Sophomore year at Yale, and after two months of it
I was
one's way" through college; or cartoons like that by John McCutcheon
converted to the faith that a good deal of this Neighborliness was a fake;
of the Chicago Tribune about Indian summer, football teams like the
that villages could be as inquisitorial as army barracks. So in the third
Green Bay Packers, and social phenomena like wrong-side-of-the-trackism
month of vacation, fifteen years before it was published, I began to write
in regard to where a person is born.
Main Street.
I could mention church suppers; county and state fairs, particularly on
SINCLAIR LEWIS, Ibid., "Introduction," 1937
Governor's Day as in Iowa; the memory of portages and poems by Carl
Sandburg; the tradition of paternalistic independent newspaper editors
The Nation's Dust Bowl.
like Henry Justin Smith of the Chicago Daily News; small lakes in north-
Description of the Middle West during the great drought of
ern Indiana like saucepans full of limp bathing suits; the lawns, six inches
the '30's
deep with autumn leaves, before frame houses with big porches in middle-
sized Wisconsin towns; and the rows of orange pumpkins outside Ohio
The Corn Belt is a gift of the gods-the rain god, the sun god, the ice
filling stations.
god, and the gods of geology.
Or I could talk of the great state universities, their athletics and their
alumni; utterly nauseous conditions in the state insane asylums; bulletin
J. RUSSELL SMITH
boards in the local post offices, with their wide variety of reading matter
-reports on migratory birds, advices on criminals by the FBI, and civil
and the smell of woodsmoke in Ohio and the flaming maples, the
service jobs; about the use of the word "visit" as a synonym for the verb
nights of the frosty stars, the blazing moons that hang the same way in a
"see," and the fact that the most conservative vote is not, contrary to gen-
thousand streets, slanting to silence on the steeple's slope; nights of the
eral opinion, that of the farmers but of businessmen in small towns; about
wheel, the rail, the bell, the wailing cry along the river's edge, and of the
the crushing social pressure exerted on youngsters by the corner drugstore,
summer's ending, nights of the frost and silence and the barking of a dog,
and place names like What Cheer, Iowa, and Peculiar, Missouri, about
of people listening, and of words unspoken and the quiet heart, and nights
the middle western awe of a really good department store, like Marshall
of the old October that must come again, while we are waiting, waiting,
Field's in Chicago, and the ubiquitous night schools-especially their
waiting in the darkness for all of our friends and brothers who will not
courses in law.
return.
Then there are the motels and tourist camps which, what with Puritan-
THOMAS WOLFE, "One of the Girls in Our Party"
ism and the housing shortage, have become the chief haunts of the amor-
ous; the fact that the United States is the country where most luxuries
Chicago is stupefying
an Olympian freak, a fable, an allegory, an
are cheap; a great instinct for horseplay in most Americans; the hired
incomprehensible phenomenon
monstrous, multifarious, unnatural,
man who comes to work at 8:02 in the morning (or 7:59) instead of 8
indomitable, puissant, preposterous, transcendent
throw the diction-
sharp to demonstrate his independence and hatred of regimentation; the
ary at it!
gap between the basic good will of citizens and their lack of concrete de-
JULIAN STREET
sire to put the good will into performance; and the nuggets of political
conversation like "Don't know if he can vote his own wife, but he carries
Ohio is the farthest west of the east and the farthest north of the south.
a lot of punch," "When we're in a war I'm for the president as long as it
lasts," "There's a pretty high brand of government in this here state"
LOUIS BROMFIELD
(how many times did I hear that!), "He's the best rough-and-tumble
WHERE WE LIVE
93
92
WE LOOK AT OURSELVES
From the conditions of frontier life came intellectual traits of profound
swivel-chair lawyer in the county," and "The guy is so honest that there's
importance. The works of travelers along each frontier from colonial days
nothing he'd steal but an election."
onward describe certain common traits, and these traits have, while sof-
JOHN GUNTHER, Inside U.S.A.
tening down, still persisted as survivals in the place of their origin, even
when a higher social organization succeeded. The result is that to the
THE WEST
frontier the American intellect owes its striking characteristics. That
coarseness and strength combined with acuteness and inquisitiveness; that
practical, inventive turn of mind, quick to find expedients; that masterful
I turn round and round irresolute sometimes for a quarter of an hour,
grasp of material things, lacking in the artistic but powerful to effect great
until I decide, for the thousandth time, that I will walk into the south-
ends; that restless, nervous energy; that dominant individualism, working
west or west. Eastward I go only by force, but westward I go free. Thither
for good and for evil, and withal that buoyancy and exuberance which
no business leads me. It is hard for me to believe that I shall find fair
comes with freedom-these are traits of the frontier, or traits called out
landscapes or sufficient wildness and freedom behind the eastern horizon.
elsewhere because of the existence of the frontier. Since the days when the
I am not excited by the prospect of a walk thither; but I believe that the
fleet of Columbus sailed into the waters of the New World, America has
forest which I see in the western horizon stretches uninterruptedly toward
been another name for opportunity, and the people of the United States
the setting sun, and there are no towns or cities in it of enough conse-
have taken their tone from the incessant expansion which has not only
been open but has even been forced upon them. He would be a rash
quence to disturb me. Let me live where I will, on this side is the city, on
that the wilderness, and ever I am leaving the city more and more and
prophet who should assert that the expansive character of American life
has now entirely ceased. Movement has been its dominant fact, and, un-
withdrawing into the wilderness. I should not lay so much stress on this
less this training has no effect upon a people, the American energy will
fact if I did not believe that something like this is the prevailing tendency
continually demand a wider field for its exercise. But never again will
of my countrymen. I must walk toward Oregon and not toward Europe.
such gifts of free land offer themselves. For a moment, at the frontier, the
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
bonds of custom are broken and unrestraint is triumphant. There is not
tabula rasa. The stubborn American environment is there with its imperi-
Up to and including 1880 the country had a frontier of settlement, but at
ous summons to accept its conditions; the inherited ways of doing things
present the unsettled area has been SO broken into by isolated bodies of
are also there; and yet, in spite of environment, and in spite of custom,
settlement that there can hardly be said to be a frontier line. In the dis-
each frontier did indeed furnish a new field of opportunity, a gate of
cussion of its extent, its westward movement, etc., it cannot, therefore,
escape from the bondage of the past; and freshness, and confidence, and
any longer have a place in the census reports.
scorn of older society, impatience of its restraints and its ideas, and in-
Bulletin of the Superintendent of the Census, 1890
difference to its lessons, have accompanied the frontier. What the Medi-
terranean Sea was to the Greeks, breaking the bond of custom, offering
Stand at Cumberland Gap and watch the procession of civilization,
new experience, calling out new institutions and activities, that, and more,
marching single file-the buffalo following the trail to salt springs, the
the ever retreating frontier has been to the United States directly, and to
Indian, the fur trader and hunter, the cattle raiser, the pioneer farmer-
the nations of Europe more remotely. And now, four centuries from the
and the frontier has passed by. Stand at South Pass in the Rockies a cen-
discovery of America, at the end of a hundred years of life under the
tury later and see the same procession with wider intervals between.
Constitution, the frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first
FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER, The Frontier in American
period of American history.
History, 1920
FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER, Ibid.
[The frontier is] the line of most rapid and effective Americanization.
American democracy was born of no theorist's dream; it was not carried
FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER, Ibid.
in the Susan Constant to Virginia nor in the Mayflower to Plymouth. It
PN6081
57
1967
WHRC
t: THE HOME BOOK
OF
QUOTATIONS
Classical and Modern
SELECTED AND ARRANGED BY
BURTON STEVENSON
Editor The Home Book of Verse
I can tell thee where that saying was born
SHAKESPEARE, Twelftb Night
Act i, SC. 5,1.9
TENTH EDITION
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY
NEW YORK
VILLAGE
VILLAIN AND VILLAINY 2085
feat
1
9
0 vanquisher, whosoever thou art. not long
Country in town. (Rus in urbe.)
Failure
shalt thou exult. nor shall I he unavenged:
MARTIAL, Epigrams. Bk. xii, ep. 57. I. 12.
thee also a like fate awaits. (Non me. qui-
10
it.
J. i, bk. ii, ch. 1.
cumque es. inulto Victor. nec longum læta-
Small town, great renown. (Petite ville, grand
bere: te quoque fata Prospectant paria.)
renom.)
VERGIL, AEneid. Bk. X, 1. 739.
RABELAIS, Works. Bk. ii, ch. 35. Of Chinon.
2
Rabelais' native town. See also AMBITION.
Nothing except a battle lost can be half so
11
melancholy as a battle won.
In every village marked with little spire,
DUKE OF WELLINGTON, Despatch, 1815.
Embowered in trees, and hardly known to
fame.
Madam, there is nothing so dreadful as a great
WILLIAM SHENSTONE, The Schoolmistress. St. 2.
victory-excepting a great defeat.
DUKE OF WELLINGTON, Remark, to a lady ex-
And villages embosomed soft in trees.
No. 1.
pressing passionate wish to see a great vic-
THOMSON, The Seasons: Spring, 1. 954.
12
tory. Wellington borrowed it from D'Argen-
son. (See Grimm's Mémoires.)
They take the rustic murmur of their bourg
For the great wave that echoes round the
VILLAGE
world.
same price.
3
TENNYSON, The Marriage of Geraint, 1. 419.
There is more harm in the village than is
y ho!"
dreamt of (Hay mas mal en el aldegüela
VILLAIN AND VILLAINY
osts that win!
que se suena.)
See also Knave
CERVANTES, Don Quixote. Pt. i, ch. 46.
ow,
4
I-Villain
$ with sin,
The villager, born humbly and bred hard,
12a
to know
Content his wealth, and poverty his guard.
Villain of the deepest dye! thy hellish machi-
Alamo.
CHARLES CHURCHILL, Gotham. Bk. iii, 1. 117.
nations I defy! me life you may gain in this
f the Alamo.
5
wild endeavor, but me spotless honor, hardly
The victory.
If you would be known, and not know, vege-
ev-never! never! And the villain still pur-
1.
tate in a village; if you would know, and not
sued her.
be known. live in a city.
triumphant
MILTON NOBLES, The Phœnix. Act i, SC. 3. Car-
C. C. COLTON, Lacon. Pt. i, No. 334.
roll Graves, one of the characters, is writing
6
a chapter of a story.
Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the. plain,
13
This victory
Where health and plenty cheer'd the labour-
The greatest scoundrel that walks on two
gaudes? Hæc
ing swain,
legs. (Omnium bipedum nequissimus.)
Where smiling spring its earliest visit paid,
PLINY THE YOUNGER, Epistles. Bk. i, epis. 5.
And parting summer's lingering blooms de-
A wretch, a villain, lost to love and truth.
lay'd.
BURNS, The Cotter's Saturday Night, 1. 83.
victors? Un-
OLIVER GOLDSMITH, The Deserted Village, 1. 1.
Calm, thinking villains, whom no faith could fix,
How often have I loiter'd o'er thy green,
Of crooked counsels and dark politics.
d called the
Where humble happiness endear'd each scene;
POPE, The Temple of Fame, 1. 410.
SS of a day?
How often have I paus'd on every charm,
One Pinch, a hungry lean-faced villain,
artans, who
The shelter'd cot, the cultivated farm,
A mere anatomy.
The never-failing brook, the busy mill,
SHAKESPEARE, Comedy of Errors. Act v, 1, 237.
$ judges, or
The decent church that topp'd the neighbouring
With foreheads villainous low.
hill,
SHAKESPEARE, The Tempest. Act iv, SC. 1, 250.
The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade,
is.
For talking age and whisp'ring lovers made!
Thou lowest scoundrel of the scoundrel kind,
OLIVER GOLDSMITH, The Deserted Village, 1. 7.
Extract of all the dregs of all mankind.
d have van-
7
THOMAS SHERIDAN, Satire on Mr. Fairbrother.
us within;
A little one-eyed. blinking sort o' place.
14
uced by the
HARDY, Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Ph. i, ch. 1.
0 villain. villain, smiling, damned villain!
gh;
SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet, 5, 106. See under SMILE.
suffer. resist
This poor little one-horse town.
15
MARK TWAIN, The Undertaker's Story.
As if we were villains by necessity; fools by
8
is
heavenly compulsion.
A small country town is not the place in
SHAKESPEARE, King Lear. Act i, SC. 2, 1. 132.
sincere co
which one would choose to quarrel with a
See also KNAVE AND FOOL.
S victosque
wife; every human being in such places is a
16
spy
I would not be the villain that thou think'st,
SAMUEL JOHNSON, Letters. Vol. i, p. 107.
For the whole space that 's in the tyrant's
last,
A village is a hive of glass,
grasp,
own.
Where nothing unobserved can pass.
And the rich East to boot.
1230.
C. H. SPURGEON, Sall-Cellars.
SHAKESPEARE, Macbeth. Act iv. SC. 3. 1. 35.
PN 6081
53
int
AMERICA THE
QUOTABLE
Mike Edelhart and
James Tinen
Facts On File Publications
460 Park Avenue South
New York, N.Y. 10016
THE MIDWEST
modatingly across so much townless territory farther
mogenous organism which
west."
[A businessman of the West]: "If the West had been
Constance Fenimore Woolson
settled first, the East would be a wilderness today,
Edmund Wilson
Castle Nowhere
for the reason that the fertile soil, the vast cities, the
"Detroit Motors"
1875
ease of communication of the midland, would have
1930
made it the home of all ease, refinement, culture, and
art. The East would have been only a fringe of
seaport towns, with fine shooting and fishing lands
as a background."
1 Places
THE MIDWEST
Hamlin Garland
Crumbling Idols
1894
AND THE
of the Grosse Pointe people,
"This Midwest. A dissonance of parts and people,
ere some men have to go for
GREAT PLAINS
we are a consonance of towns. Like a man grown fat
ch they escape at night."
in everything but heart, we over-labor; our outlook
Stephen Birmingham
never really urban, never rural either, we enlarge and
The Golden Dream
The Midwest and Great Plains, by their unmatched
linger at the same time, as Alice both changed and
1978
economic output, have fueled the American experi-
remained in her story."
ment. The vast quantities of food and raw materials
William Gass
een accused of representing
produced in this swatch of fertile land, running
In the Heart of the Heart of the Country
money, as tasteless and
southward from the Canadian border to the Rio
1968
innual models."
Grande and stretching from the Ohio Valley to the
Stephen Birmingham
Rocky Mountains, have made America an economic
"[Socialist leader] Eugene Debs came to magnify the
The Golden Dream
powerhouse. Socially, the area is conservative, the
midwestern virtues and to minimize the midwestern
1978
heart of homey American virtues. No trend that
faults, but even the faults he shared with others
begins on the coasts can become officially "Ameri-
became a source of strength.
He was able to
can" until it is accepted by the pragmatic folks of the
understand [the] common mind because it was, in
ula Region:
Middle West, until it "plays in Peoria." When the
many ways, so exactly his mind. His generosity
world thinks of America, the rich fields of the Great
sometimes became mawkishness. His literary sense
of Michigan is a year-round
Plains and the hardworking people of the Midwest
found satisfaction in both Goethe and ordinary dog-
ays are cool and the nights
are what comes to mind.
gerel. His delight in humor did not scruple at re-
n of the new growth on the
peated Negro dialect jokes. He drank hard liquor
the early bloom of the first
because his fellows drank hard liquor. In his entire
eir way through the moss-
THE REGION
life, he never made an important decision on the
auty we would hate to miss.
basis of theoretical study."
autumn blow a spectacular
"It is in that great cosmopolitan country known as
Ray Giner
quiet woodlands along the
the Middle West that we may hope to see the hard
Eugene V. Debs
shore."
molds of American provincialism broken up; that we
1949
Joanne and Charles Jordan
may hope to find young talent which will challenge
*
Travel
the pale proprieties, the insincere, conventional opti-
"Those who have lived pent up in our large cities
May, 1976
mism of our art and thought."
know but little of the broad, unembarrassed freedom
Willa Cather
of the Great Western Prairies."
shore bordering the head of
These United States
Josiah Gregg
hern curve of that silver sea,
1924
Commerce on the Prairies
ored. It is a wilderness still,
1844
e school-maps nothing save
ed paper, generally a pale,
"I sometimes think that a European deploring the
le climate, all the way from
horror of Pittsburgh, Detroit, St. Louis, and 'your
"Define the Middle West again. It is where industry
on ports on the Little Bay de
Midwest cities' is not really criticizing the Midwest
and agriculture both reach their highest American
in lake phraseology, 100
or American cities but the 19th century city any-
development and coalesce."
ng to the mapmakers, who,
where."
John Gunther
region, set it down accord-
Alistair Cooke
Inside USA
those long-legged letters,
Talk About America
1947
'a-rees," that stretch accom-
1968
257
THE MIDWEST
out. We
"On a hill by the Mississippi where Chippewas had
shriveling and dying, farmhouses stand abandoned
the barn
camped two generations ago, a girl stood in relief
and stark, sun-bleached mementos of an era lost in a
against the cornflower blue of Northern sky. She saw
sea of prairie grass."
no Indians now; she saw flour-mills and the blinking
Neal R. Peirce
windows of skyscrapers in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
The Great Plains States of America
A breeze which had crossed a thousand miles of
1973
wheatlands bellied her taffeta skirt in a line so
***
graceful, so full of animation and moving beauty,
"Its affe
"The Plainsmen are reminded again and again that
that the heart of a chance watcher on the lower road
this chunk of the continent they have taken as their
land; At
tightened to wistfulness over her quality of sus-
ness that
own is the subject of violent, elemental force of
pended
freedom
The days of pioneering, of las-
that com
nature, a place where man is still guest, never mas-
sies in sunbonnets, and bears killed with axes in
ter."
right rea
piney clearings, are deader now than Camelot; and a
mean all
Neal R. Peirce
rebellious girl is the spirit of that bewildered empire
the Midv
The Great Plains States of America
called the American Middlewest."
1973
Sinclair Lewis
***
Main Street
[Passing the home towns of Jesse James, J.C. Pen-
1920
ney, General Pershing, Mark Twain, Abe Lincoln-
***
"The
and Ernie Pyle]: "[U.S. 36] might be called the
"I had gone to catch a glimpse of the famous Middle
electric e
road of great men's homes. "
West that has long been the bogey of Europe. If the
Ernie Pyle
powerful
United States Senate refused to ratify a treaty, we
what the
Home Country
always ascribed it to pressure from the Middle West;
1947
vitality W
if a new and super-efficient tractor began to undercut
***
British tractors, it was always due to the mass pro-
"We're the calm, thoughtful center. We [in the
duction that was possible only in the illimitable
Midwest] can moderate between the extremes. We
Middle West; if the United States wanted its war debt
can see both sides of the argument. If you take us out
repaid, it was owing to the ignorant clamor, we
of the United States, you drain all the basic common
"I really
explained to each other, of the citizens of the Middle
sense out of the country."
outpost. ]
West who were so unreasonable as to want their
Coast hav
Resident
money back. In fact, we made the Middle West into a
R
Quoted by Jonathan Raban
sort of Colossus, alternately illiterate and politically
Old Glory
acute, alternately half-witted and shrewd, alternately
1981
turning its back and its telescope upon European
affairs, alternately wrapped up in a loutish sleep and
possessed of demonaic vigilance."
"It is safe here, and there is room here, and the bad
A.G. MacDonell
cities of the coasts, the Sodoms and Gomorrahs,
"Night 01
The supp
A Visit to America
can't swallow you up."
Richard Rhodes
low,
1935
The weari
***
The Inland Ground
kets;
"
those flat lands of compromise and mediocre
1970
I walk by
self-expression, those endless half-pretty repetitive
which I
small towns of the Middle and the West."
"If the Midwest stays separate, then its glory would
Norman Mailer
be in its failure."
Now I abs
"Superman Comes to the Supermarket"
Richard Rhodes
I admire d
1960
The Inland Ground
***
1970
"It is an amorphous region, a slab of eight or nine
***
states deposited in the center of America."
"The heartland as a hideout: it is a theme that
James Morris
recurs."
THE I
As I Saw the USA
Richard Rhodes
1956
The Inland Ground
"Come, t
***
1970
See-I kis
"Across the table-flat plains, from North Dakota to
*
In the still
Texas, the lights are going out. Small towns are
"The heartland is in danger of having its heart cut
Stripping
258
THE MIDWEST
out. We're moving away from the horse manure in
uses stand abandoned
Skirting the towns, passing the lonely houses,
the barn."
ntos of an era lost in a
Skating away from the sleeping cities,
Kansas City educator
Running forever-on and on-into the empire of
Quoted by Richard Rhodes
the corn.
Neal R. Peirce
The Inland Ground
ins States of America
1970
Come, tired little sister, run with me.
1973
Do you known my brother, the farmer?
"Its affectionate nicknames (the heartland; the mid-
Now he grows discouraged and weeps.
1 again and again that
land; America's breadbasket) evoke a wholesome-
ey have taken as their
ness that is ballasted with complacency, a heartiness
I saw him kneeling and praying alone, by a de-
it, elemental force of
that comes from 'being close to the land,' a down-
stroyed wheat field.
still guest, never mas-
right reasonableness that is genuine but narrow. We
It was the time of learning for me.
Neal R. Peirce
mean all of this when we say, again and again, that
I fairly choked.
the Midwest is flat."
It was the beginning of faith in the gods for me."
'ains States of America
1973
Jon Spayde
Sherwood Anderson
The Literary Guide to the United States
Mid-American Chants
1981
1918
Jesse James, J.C. Pen-
Twain, Abe Lincoln—
"The
impression [of the Midwest] was of an
"All, of the people of my time were bound with
might be called the
electric energy, a force, almost a fluid of energy so
chains. They had forgotten the long fields and
powerful as to be stunning in its impact. No matter
the standing corn. They had forgotten the west
Ernie Pyle
what the direction, whether for good or for bad, the
winds.
Home Country
vitality was everywhere."
1947
John Steinbeck
Into the cities my people had gathered. They had
Travels with Charley
become dizzy with words. Words had choked
ul center. We [in the
1962
them. They could not breathe.
veen the extremes. We
ment. If you take us out
"I really think that the Middle West is the last
On my knees I crawled before my people. I de-
in all the basic common
outpost. I think that the East Coast and the West
based myself. The excretions of their bodies I
Coast have become un-Americanized."
took for my food. Into the ground I went and my
Resident
oted by Jonathan Raban
Richard Sticklebur, Kansas City arts patron
body died. I emerged in the corn, in the long
Quoted by Richard Rhodes
corn fields. My head arose and was touched by
Old Glory
The Inland Ground
the west wind. The light of old things, of beauti-
1981
1970
ful old things, awoke in me. In the corn fields
***
the sacred vessel is set up."
room here, and the bad
Sherwood Anderson
"Night on the prairies,
doms and Gomorrahs,
Mid-American Chants
The supper is over, the fire on the ground burns
1918
low,
Richard Rhodes
The Inland Ground
The wearied emigrants sleep, wrapt in their blan-
"
kets;
the midwestern sensibility must surely be the
1970
I walk by myself-I stand and look at the stars,
most finely tuned of any region's, because of the
which I think now I never realized before.
landscape that nurtures it. Plain, squarely sectioned,
te, then its glory would
altered only by its season, it has none of the easy
Now I absorb immortality and peace,
majesty of oceans, mountains, forests. A Midwest-
Richard Rhodes
I admire death and test propositions."
erner must look hard for his natural variety, must
The Inland Ground
Walt Whitman
grow an appreciation for the hummocky roll of hill-
1970
Night on the Prairies
sides, the imperceptibly varying line of land to sky."
1860
Douglas Bauer
ut: it is a theme that
Prairie City, Iowa
THE LANDSCAPE
1979
Richard Rhodes
***
The Inland Ground
"Come, tired little sister, run with me.
"It's downright disgraceful that in most parts of the
1970
See-I kiss your lips-soft-to entice you.
United States the climate is of foreign origin. Florida
In the still young night we begin our running,
and California openly brag of their Mediterranean
of having its heart cut
Stripping our clothes away.
sunshine. The only place where one can get real,
259
MISSOURI
THE STATE
'They're against everybody but themselves!' I asked
Mr. Truman what they were for. 'Missouri!' "
"This state [Missouri] is a melange of peoples,
John Gunther
occupations and resources. It would be difficult to
Inside USA
pinpoint it, except to say that, in general, it is
1947
southern."
Pearl S. Buck
"Missouri would lose something if the Civil War
America
were ever entirely settled."
1971
Kansas City Star
***
Quoted by John Gunther
"Missouri is the abolitionist North with its belief in
Inside USA
equal rights for all men and women. It is the planta-
1947
tion South with its old ideas of a leisure society. It is
***
the industrial East, busy, noisy, mechanical, com-
"That peppery, independent spirit, not entirely for-
mercial. It is the grazing West, miles and miles of
eign to the ornery mules who helped make Missouri
pasture and prize livestock in every direction."
famous, has surfaced again and again in Missouri
Irving Dilliard
history, recent decades not excepted."
I'm From Missouri
Neal R. Peirce
1952
The Great Plains States of America
1973
"Illinois may have a richer soil and a more prosper-
ous people; Iowa may have a better organized com-
munity life; and Kansas, a quicker sense of civic
responsibility and political opportunity. But Missouri
CITIES, TOWNS
doesn't want to hear about it. Missourians are satis-
AND REGIONS
fied with here, and she is satisfied with herself.
Besides, who can say that Arkansas excels her in
Kansas City
anything?"
h
Manley O. Hudson
"People in Kansas City are tormented by the fact that
These United States
they live here
'Kansas City' sounds so bad. It
1924
commends itself to a nasal tone of voice."
b
***
Giles Fowler, Kansas City drama critic
"I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and
Quoted by Richard Rhodes
cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence
The Inland Ground
neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Mis-
1970
souri. You have got to show me."
***
Williard Vandiver, congressman
'Busy, boasting, and Babbitt-ful, Kansas City holds
Speech in Philadelphia
a key position in the American system of interstate
to
1899
commerce
It has life but it lacks character."
C
Manley G. Hudson
in
PEOPLE
These United States
1924
[Obituary of Kansas City man who killed himself
***
three months after moving to New York]: "He hated
"Kansas City stands at the eastern edge of the wheat
New York. He wanted to come home."
belt, at the western edge of the corn belt, and at the
Kansas City Star
northern limit of the white belt. This is not a racial
1966
remark. I am talking about the white belt, which men
in Kansas City have taken to wearing with red
WAY OF LIFE
pants."
wi
Charles Kuralt
pr
"He [Vice-President Harry Truman] talked about
Dateline America
friends I should call on, who were the apple of his
1979
eye. 'They're ornery, mean folk!' he chuckled.
***
292