The Whiskey (Tax) Rebellion on This Day in History

 

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This day in history: President George Washington invoked the Militia Acts of 1792 to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania on this day in 1794. The Whiskey Rebellion (also known as the Whiskey Insurrection) was a tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791 and it was the first tax imposed on a domestic product by the newly formed federal government. 

The "whiskey tax" became law in 1791, and was intended to generate revenue for the war debt incurred during the Revolutionary War and to also pay for the Capitol Building. Many of the resisters were war veterans who believed that they were fighting for the principles of the American Revolution, in particular against taxation without local representation, while the federal government maintained that the taxes were the legal expression of Congressional taxation powers.

As James and Nicolaus Woehlke write: "the whiskey rebellion of 1794: farmers were unfairly taxed for producing whiskey, which for some was the only viable means of transporting their corn. The farmers quickly rebelled and refused to pay the tax. The new federal government, which had only recently been founded on, among other things, the principle of fair taxation, responded harshly by sending an entire army, led by President George Washington in general’s garb, to force the farmers into compliance."

Ryan McMaken adds "Washington, enraged that anyone would dare oppose his government’s taxes, raged at the tax resisters denouncing them as democratic rabble. Jefferson found this whole display to be quite offensive, and labeled the effort to crush the tax rebellion as nothing more than making 'war on our own citizens.'"

This "war" failed and Murray Rothbard states that it was "considered properly...a victory for liberty and property rather than for federal taxation." 

Wikipedia lists hundreds of tax revolts over the centuries starting from the first century Jews all the way to restaurant owners in the Marche region of Italy, who suffered under mandated closures in 2020.

In 2011, the Whiskey Rebellion Festival was started in Washington, Pennsylvania. This annual event is held in July and includes live music, food, and historic reenactments, featuring the "tar and feathering" of the tax collector.

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The Atomic Bomb on this Day in History

"I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds!"~J. Robert Oppenheimer

“Humans invented the atomic bomb but no mouse would ever build a mouse trap”~Albert Einstein

“All war is a symptom of man’s failure as a thinking animal.”~John Steinbeck

This day in history: Hiroshima, Japan was devastated on this day in 1945 when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" was dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning. Three days later another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki Japan.

The bomb was not the only tragedy witnessed by Hiroshima that year. On September 17, 1945, Hiroshima was struck by a typhoon and suffered more than 3,000 deaths and injuries. More than half the bridges in the city were destroyed, along with heavy damage to roads and railroads, further devastating the city.

The only good thing to come out of this tragedy was the resilience of the remaining residents. The city has been rebuilt and now it is a remarkable and beautiful area.

I remember being told that the area would be in devastation for 60 years after the bomb, but vegetation started growing there the very next year. In fact, the Yamaka Pine, a 390 year old tree survived the bombing.

The earth is far more resilient than we give it credit for.

Socialist-Capitalist Friedrich Engels on This Day in History

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This day in history: Friedrich Engels died on this day (August 5) in 1895. Engels is described as a German philosopher, economist, historian, political theorist and revolutionary socialist...however he was also a Capitalist, and his Capitalistic activities (he was a wealthy German textile manufacturer) financed Karl Marx's ramblings against Capitalism. All of the larger than life Socialists, like Marx, Lenin and Trotsky were financed by Capitalists. See Who financed Lenin and Trotsky? When that money ran out, they usually ransacked and pillaged their own countrymen.

Even the National Socialist Hitler was heavily financed by Big Money, with names that include Prescott Bush (George Bush's Grandfather), Henry Ford, Max Warburg amongst others.

It's interesting that most of the leading minds of Christian anticapitalist-Socialistic thought in Engel's time were aristocrats: Villeneuve-Bargemont, de Mun, Liechtenstein, Vogelsang, Ketteler. It's interesting as well that Karl Marx's two closest friends were Engels (a wealthy textile businessman) and August Philips (a Dutch banker) who was also his cousin.

Marx and Engels, though writing about the rights of the working class, had nothing but disdain for the rabble. Engels enjoyed fox-hunting, and said it was a good preparation for military command. He was irreconcilably bourgeoise, even snobbish, refusing to marry his long-time love, because she was socially inferior to him. Marx was a snob that considered the lower classes as sacks of potatoes.

Karl Marx, once you examine his life closely, presents us with a person that lacked a single redeeming feature. Engels at least worked for a living.

Joke: Engels dies and goes to hell.

There he discovers that he has a choice: he can go to capitalist hell or to communist hell. Naturally, he wants to compare the two, so he goes over to capitalist hell.

There outside the door is the devil, who looks a bit like Ronald Reagan. “What’s it like in there?” asks Engels. “Well,” the devil replies, “in capitalist hell, they flay you alive, then they boil you in oil and then they cut you up into small pieces with sharp knives.”

“That’s terrible!” he gasps. “I’m going to check out communist hell!” He goes over to communist hell, where he discovers a huge queue of people waiting to get in. He waits in line. Eventually he gets to the front and there at the door to communist hell is a little old man who looks a bit like Karl Marx. “I’m still in the free world, Karl,” he says, “and before I come in, I want to know what it’s like in there.”

“In communist hell,” says Marx impatiently, “they flay you alive, then they boil you in oil, and then they cut you up into small pieces with sharp knives.”

"But… but that’s the same as capitalist hell!“ protests Engels, "Why such a long queue?”

“Well,” sighs Marx, “Sometimes we’re out of oil, sometimes we don’t have knives, sometimes not even hot water…”

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King James Bible Defender John Burgon on This Day in History

 

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This day in history: Dean John William Burgon died on this day in 1888. Burgon was an English Anglican theologian who is now mostly remembered as the father of the King James Only Movement. In Burgon's day the King James Bible was the dominant Bible among Protestants, and had been so for hundreds of years. Since the time that the King James Bible was released, some much older manuscripts of the New Testament had been found, and these findings brought into question some of the readings the in the Common Bible at the time. Two scholars, B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort created a new Greek Text which would supplant the Received Text (Textus Receptus) underlying the King James Version. So, towards the end of his life, British Bible scholars took the Westcott and Hort Greek text and produced the Revised Version of the Bible which corrected the King James Bible by taking these new findings into consideration. 

John Burgon was absolutely not happy with this development and published volleys against the new Bible, and he combined these works into one book called "The Revision Revised." If you look at most newer Bibles, there is a section at the end of the Gospel of Mark that is now relegated to the footnotes, or in brackets. This is a strange section that includes, "They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them" which is taken literally in some Appalachian churches. Burgon also published a book defending those Last Twelve Verses of Mark.

Dean Burgon claimed to have found over 85,000 quotations in the early church fathers that he said used the later Byzantine Greek text used by the King James translators. However, Burgon appears to have used later medieval texts of those fathers. A modern patristic text-critical scholar, Gordon D. Fee, has said that there are NO ante-Nicene fathers (i.e. before 325 A.D.) who quoted the Byzantine text.

Two of the most considerable Scriptures that the Revised Version corrected was argued about earlier by none other than Sir Isaac Newton himself.  Newton even wrote about them in his Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture, I. John v. 7, [For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one] and I. Tim. iii. 16, [God was manifest in the flesh]. The much older Greek manuscripts do not contain these words as written.

John Burgon's legacy can be found in the King James Only Movement whose adherents believe that the King James Bible is superior to all others, and newer Bibles based on older manuscripts are corruptions, perhaps even Satanic. 

Read or Download New Age Bible Versions Online

Read my article: The Majority Text-Byzantine Text vs the Modern Critical Text

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The Immortal Legend of the Wandering Jew on This Day in History

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This Day In History: French novelist Eugene Sue died on this day in 1857. Famous for writing the serialized "Mysteries of Paris" he also popularized the legend of "The Wandering Jew." The Wandering Jew is a mythical immortal man whose legend began to spread in Europe in the 1200's, perhaps even sooner. The original legend tells of a Jew who taunted Jesus before his death and was then cursed to walk the earth until the Second Coming. According to some sources, the legend stems from Jesus' words given in Matthew 16:28: "Yes. I tell you that there are some people standing here who will not experience death until they see the Son Man coming in his kingdom." (Jewish New Testament)

In the 1988 film The Seventh Sign the Wandering Jew appears as Father Lucci, and in the third episode of the first season of The Librarians, the character Jenkins mentions the Wandering Jew as an "immortal creature that can be injured, but never killed". The Wandering Jew even made it into video games. Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned presents The Wandering Jew as a childhood friend and, later, disciple of Jesus, who drank drops of his blood during the crucifixion and was thus cursed with immortality. The video game series Assassin's Creed features a group of individuals known as Sages, who share a number of supernatural abilities. In the game Assassin's Creed Unity, one of the sages is named the Wanderer and is linked to the Wandering Jew, described as "a Jewish Sage born in Judea. He was believed to have encountered Jesus Christ on his way to Golgotha".

The Wandering Jew is not the only immortal legend. According to some Mormons, the Apostle John, using their own scriptures in conjunction with the biblical scripture found at John 21:21-23 interpret that to mean that John will tarry or remain on the earth until the Second Coming. Mormons also believe that the Three Nephites mentioned in the Book of Mormon are given power over death in order to fulfill their desire to minister among men until Jesus comes again.

Arthurian Knight Sir Galahad achieved immortality after his quest for the Holy Grail. 

The famous magician Merlin is trapped in a spell by Nimue (the Lady of the Lake) that has him in a trap (variously a tomb, a cave, a mist, or a tree) indefinitely.

French scribe Nicolas Flamel is believed to have found and decoded the book of Abraham the Mage, and found a spell for immortality, along with his wife.

The Count of St. Germain, who was born three hundred years ago, is believed to still be alive today. "The Count de Saint-Germain, as is well known, maintained that he possessed the Elixir of life, and that he could always rejuvenate himself with it; and that he knew how to rule and search into nature by the power of his secret mysterious knowledge." ~Hugo Castel 1915

See also: Jewish History and Mysteries - 220 PDF Books on DVDrom
https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2018/11/jewish-history-and-mysteries-220-pdf.html

(The Worst President?) Warren G. Harding on This Day in History

Video Presentation about the Crash of 1921

This Day In History: President Warren Harding died on this day in 1923. Many call him the worst president, but he may actually be one of the best. In 1921, under President Harding, unemployment hit 11.7 percent. Harding did nothing to get the economy stimulated. Despite objections, he reduced government spending. He simply let the market revive on its own and as a result the 11.7 percent unemployment rate in 1921 fell to 6.7 percent in 1922, and then to 2.4 percent in 1923.

"For the first 150 years of this country's existence, the federal government felt no great need to 'do something' when the economy turned down. Over that long span of time, the economic downturns were neither as deep nor as long lasting as they have been since the federal government decided that it had to 'do something' in the wake of the stock market crash of 1929, which set a new precedent...history shows that the economy rebounded out of a worse unemployment situation in just two years under Harding, who simply let the market revive on its own, as it had done before, time and time again for more than a century."~Thomas Sowell

"With tax rates cut for all groups, Americans invented or expanded such businesses as air conditioning, talking movies, radios, refrigerators, telephones, and air travel. The Roaring ‘20s launched with Harding’s assumption that greater freedom and less government would increase prosperity for all groups. The 1920s would also become the last decade in US history to see annual budget surpluses every year. Almost one-third of the federal debt disappeared under Harding and Coolidge."~Burton Folsom

Harding's presidency was marred by the Teapot Dome Scandal, a minor affair compared to many other scandals, and he wasn't even involved in it.

"Of course historians hate him. They say he was a do-nothing president. Harding himself admitted it. He said that he was unqualified to be president. Indeed, no man is qualified to be president. Harding was honest enough to say it outright."~Lew Rockwell

The book Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty ranks Harding as the 6th greatest president "for his rejection of the League of Nations, his restrained foreign policy, his success in arms control, and his relatively laissez-faire economic policies."

See also The History & Mystery of Money & Economics-250 Books on DVDrom

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Justinian and His Pandemic on This Day in History

 

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This day in history: Justinian I became the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire on this day (August 1) in 527. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized renovatio imperii, or "restoration of the Empire". A big impediment to this restoration was the plague that bore his name (The Plague of Justinian or Justinianic Plague). Professor Henry E. Sigerist, in his book "Civilization and Disease" argues that the Justinian Plague put an end to the Roman Empire both in the east and the west: "Thus the 6th century marks a turning-point in the history of the Mediterranean world, and the great plague of Justinian appears as a demarcation line between the two periods...The old world broke down, and on its ruins a new civilization began slowly to rise."

The population of the world at the time was, by many estimates, was about 200 million people. It is also estimated that the Justinian Plague may have killed up to 100 million (up to 10000 people per day). Imagine a modern pestilence killing over 3 billion people. That folks is a real PANDEMIC! 

Justinian's response to this plague was nothing if not deplorable. Byzantine scholar Procopius of Caesarea wrote at the time: "When pestilence swept through the whole known world and notably the Roman Empire, wiping out most of the farming community and of necessity leaving a trail of desolation in its wake, Justinian showed no mercy towards the ruined freeholders. Even then, he did not refrain from demanding the annual tax, not only the amount at which he assessed each individual, but also the amount for which his deceased neighbors were liable."

With the massive deaths, tax revenues declined and Justinian was unable to fund projects and wars he had his heart set on. 

The Plague of Justinian is the first and the best known outbreak of the first plague pandemic, which continued to recur until the middle of the 8th century. It was one of the deadliest pandemics in history, with a death toll equivalent up to 60% of Europe's population at the time of the first outbreak. This plague and the Black Death which started in 1347 remain the deadliest pandemics in history. 

Wikipedia ranks Covid-19 as number 8 with a percentage worldwide death toll of only 0.05%–0.1% even with the politically inflated numbers. 

As for Justinian, his rule was marked with triumph and tragedy. He was a man who dreamed big and had the skill and will to make his dreams a reality. He built grand buildings, created the law as we know it, and was the last Roman Emperor to rule over Rome. The reign of Justinian was the final reign of a Roman Emperor.

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