By Bonnie James July 22, 2019–Abraham Lincoln gave the speech excerpted here, which came to be known as the “Electric Cord Speech,” as celebrations of the nation’s 82nd Independence Day were underway in 1858. Lincoln was then anticipating his Senate campaign against the “Little Giant,” Stephen A. Douglas. The famous […]
By Bonnie James By the Light of the Silvery Moon: A Century of Lunar Photographs National Gallery of Art July 14, 2019-January 5, 2020 July 15, 2019–The National Gallery of Art is offering a small, but fascinating exhibition titled, “By the Light of the Silvery Moon: A Century of Lunar […]
By Bonnie James America’s First Black Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers By Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Basic Civitas Books, 2003, 129 pages Phillis Wheatley is perhaps the most fascinating and thought-provoking American you never heard of. She arrived in Boston on July […]
by Bonnie James Ulysses S. Grant, the outstanding hero of the U.S. Civil War, who brought peace to the nation with the surrender of the Confederate armies at Appomattox; two-term President of the United States; friend and ally of Abraham Lincoln; and protector and advocate for the emancipated African-American slaves, […]
By Nancy Spannaus Jan.11, 2021—Today marks the release of an invaluable video documenting the record of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton’s opposition to slavery. Under the title “The Evidence for Hamilton against Slavery,” independent researcher Marianne Als beautifully synthesizes text, imagery, and music to support her argument that not only is […]
By Angela Vullo December 17, 2020–As Christmas 2020 approaches, images of the same time period in 1932 come to mind: unemployment lines, swamped food banks, eviction notices, and more. The images are only overshadowed by the staggering number of deaths and other effects of the current deadly pandemic. While the […]
2021: Celebrate the Year of Dante
Dante Alighieri’s Concept of Statecraft And the Lorenzetti Frescoes in Siena by Bonnie James Jan. 5, 2021–The following article was originally published on June 28, 1999 in The New Federalist newspaper. It is reproduced here with minor editing by the author. The occasion for its republication is the 700th anniversary […]