Tea at Trianon: Trail of Tears

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, January 10, 2022

Trail of Tears

Always sad to read about. From Ancient Origins:

Some Indian tribes, notably the Five Civilized Tribes, took up European culture many years after contact in an attempt to live in peace in their native lands. Some early American leaders, including the first president, George Washington, wanted to “civilize” the tribes to end hostilities. The colonists called the conflicts between Europeans, the early U.S. citizens, and the native Americans “the Indian problem.”
The goal of “civilizing” the natives was to reshape Indian society into a system that resembled European American society. In theory, this would end the raiding the Indians did and also bring peace into frontier areas that were rife with violence and warfare. Another program that the Americans proposed was Indian removal, whose foremost proponent was Andrew Jackson. He became president after trying to force out the Indians for years. Under Indian removal, the natives would be forced to move elsewhere to make room for settlers who wanted their land. Sometimes when Indians went to new territory, they were decimated by warfare and disease there too. (Read more.)