The JFK assassination.I am tired of all the nonsense of the assassination plots..This is all to make money for the people who write about it.

I am so tired of all the nonsense about the Kennedy assassination. I have read so many books on it and every book has a different cast of people involved in the plot. I am of the idea that we have made a lot out of nothing.

I think that Oswald did it. He was a high awarded marksman in the Marines. He was one of the best. He was high marked for 200 yard shots in the Marines. To be honest he shot the President at a much shorter distance...so for Oswald it was like a turkey shoot...quite easy.

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I think a lot of people have made a lot of money talking and writing about this stuff.

One has to remember that there is a LOT OF MONEY TO BE MADE IN CONSPIRACY!!

And everyone from Oliver Stone down has made a fortune out of the death of JFK! To hell with the truth, conspiracy makes money!!!!!

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In fact if you add all the people that are supposed to have shot the President in Dallas....

They would all be getting in each others way!!!!!!


I find that rather funny, of course each conspiracy theorist thinks they have the guy or have made up the guy to make money. Because if you want to see some silly stuff, read some of these conspiracy books on Kennedy. They are a hoot at times.


I have seen everything from a gunman at the grassy knoll to Kennedy's own secret service accidentally shooting him, even his driver!!!!! The computer has aided us in the real truth behind the assassination. The fellow who is supposed to be in the picture on the grassy knoll. Computer studies have shown that he would have to be around three and half feet tall.
Connally was in a jump seat and lower than the President so the bullets line up perfectly. I know this get conspiracy folks all upset. But the longer time goes on the more we can see we have the answer already.
People want to believe that one man could not do this...why not..remember he was an amazing marksman and a nutcase!

No one seems to want to mention that!! It spoils the story....and once again conspiracy makes MONEY!!!


I have mentioned this before, and it seems to be something conspiracy folks like to leave out and that was Kennedy was in a back brace and wrapped from the chest down in this brace. It was to keep him erect. He needed this as he was so weak in his spine. He was on drugs when in public to look like he was OK, but behind the scenes he was a wreck. Therefore this harness was put on him from the nipples to the small of his back and he was wrapped in ace bandages around a metal frame so he could be erect and not strain his very weak back. Sadly this device which helped him tremendously, also led to his death. As he had no freedom of movement.

When he received the first bullet, he should have crumpled, but he did not as he could not. The reason quite simply was that he was wrapped and bound in this brace.
Even when he was hit in the head he bounced and snapped back into position and then fell over sideways. He never crumpled up. He just fell to his side dead. Much has been made of this snapping back and rarely do I hear about the back brace...It does not make as much money to say that. So they do not and sell more books and movies that way. This is the way to make money.....That is why there are books on everything from Marlyn Monroe to the Lock Ness Monster selling...People love to be given the chance to believe what is not real...The conspiracy people fill that need nicely.


Even the stuff about the "magic bullet" Tests done on similar bullets from the same batch shot into 45 inches of wood came out even more pristine than the magic bullet. By the way the Magic bullet is not really in that great of condition. It is in good condition not pristine!! Major fact

When the real facts are looked at and the nonsense put out by some really questionable people is looked at....you start to see things in a very different way.

The truth will set you free is the old saying ...and in this case the more you learn the real facts people like Oliver Stone look rather foolish. Sadly most of the younger people of the world are instructed by that awful movie......People think it is fact...it needs to be mentioned that it is fictional. Hello just like Star trek Fiction!!

Now I know many people would like to argue that fact...But I will go back to the facts.... Marksman, open clear shots, and a slow moving vehicle. To me it seems really easy if you are a marksman...and rather nuts as Oswald was.

Amazing huh!!


I was lucky to talk President Gerald R.Ford and we did talk about the Warren commission and the Kennedy assassination (he must have been so sick of that subject) He talked about the movie JFK. He said it was a nice movie, just a movie not based on fact.
He said they looked at the evidence and they decided on their conclusions on the evidence. He was very convinced and after looking at much of the evidence that Oswald was the assassin.

After looking at the magic bullet debunked, and the nonsense of many of the books like one where they altered the Presidents body. I agree that I find Ford is correct.


I know there are problems with the Warren Report, but I think it is more on the ball than many of these half baked conspiracy theories.


I am of the opinion that we will never know everything...But I think we know more than we think we do.....Till then, the writers will put out more nonsense and Oliver Stone will be given credit for exposing the truth. I can't wait till he does a movie on the Easter Bunny...It will be about as truthful I am sure.

Clinton, Obama and McCain .... The crazy election of 2008...It is as crazy as the election of 1912! ..... A little history of that 1912 election...

Now I know that many of you are looking at this campaign with wild disbelief and wonder. I would guess that it is most unique in this day and age. We have not had a situation quite like this for a long time.

Now of course nearly everyone including myself felt that Hillary Clinton was the candidate, and no one else in the Democratic party could stand in her way or attract anyone. But Obama has proved us all wrong.
I was very aware of him, but I did not think he would have the staying power to beat Clinton and her political machine. I am very much of the thought that this was also Clinton's belief as well. She didn't know what hit her. Now she is being quite an attack dog and until recently Obama and McCain have been pretty mild. But now all hell is breaking loose in the Democratic party.

The Democratic party is being torn apart by this political, financial, ego driven, and ideological battle within it. Although I can see why each of the parties are staying in the battle, but it seems to me at this moment that Obama is clearly the one to beat. Clinton and Obama are all drama now. It has brought forth from the candidates, talk radio and the media all the nastiness, and vitriolic behavior that can be.

However, as this election cycle has proved so far.... Nothing is certain in the election campaign of 2008!! I would not wish to say what will happen as everything that was thought to have happened has not!! It is a real wild, unknown, horse race we are in now. But there are some precedents, of which I will talk about in a moment.

As for John McCain, if I was his campaign manager I would say to him...Go on vacation and don't say anything!
Because Obama and Clinton will do the job for him. One can think of the many sound bites this will give the Republicans as these two attack each other and try to show how much better the other is...
This for McCain is like "Manna from Heaven"...But he can hurt himself if he says too much during this massive political battle within the Democratic party.

If the battle from within does not end soon it will lead to a massive fallout and splitting of the Democratic party. There are already two camps and two very different opinions. It also seems that many who support Clinton have little liking for Obama, and the same seems to be with the supporters of Obama. They are not at all fond of Clinton.

This brings to mind the great political battle of 1912. There were 3 major candidates and it lead to a massive split in the Republican party.

In 1912 Theodore Roosevelt wanted to be President again. He therefore bullied his way into the campaign. The Republican President at the time was William Howard Taft. Taft was running for reelection, and Roosevelt forced himself into the campaign and tried to push Taft out.
Taft was not going to budge.
This led to a vicious political campaign within the party. There were two camps, Taft and Roosevelt.
Roosevelt was asked by the political powers that be that he should back out. He refused and battled on.
He and his followers disrupted the Republican convention and in fact, his followers stormed out of the convention when they did not see Roosevelt get the nod...

They called it the Roosevelt steam roller at the convention. They all kept saying "toot toot" as they marched around the convention hall, bringing everything to a halt........This split in the Republican party led to Roosevelt's followers leaving the convention.
This left the Republican party in taters. Roosevelt's supporters finally formed another party within what had been the Independent Party.

This new party that was completely centered on one thing and one thing alone, "which was getting T.R. elected not matter how" was called the Bull Moose Party. Based on T.R.'s comments that he felt as strong as a bull moose.
Roosevelt acted like a spoiled child as he felt the Presidency was his for the taking. The more he made a fool of himself, the more he energized the Democratic party.

Now the Democratic candidate Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey, was empowered by the battle and split within the Republican Party. The Republicans would not vote for Roosevelt, nor would the independents vote for Taft.

Therefore Wilson won the election of 1912. Not because he was the most popular, but because of the great split in the Republican party.

Now of course there was no mass media (ie. TV, Radio, Internet) Just newspapers. Had there been such things around then the election of 1912 would have been even worse!

Roosevelt just started making nasty, real nasty personal attacks on the two other candidates. He called Taft a fat slob and Woodrow Wilson, something less than a man!

Roosevelt was on the attack, Taft had much more reserve (ie. class) as did Wilson. But Roosevelt did everything in his power to demonize Taft and Wilson. He became a terrible attack dog.
It cost him greatly. He was disliked by Republicans, and of course by Taft and Wilson.

It took years for him to be taken back into the fold again, and that really did not happen till well after the 1916 election, when he was looked at as a candidate for President in 1920, however he died in January 1919.

Incidentally he was not well liked either during the 1916 campaign as he refered to the Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes as, "the bearded lady".

Roosevelt became a very negative campaigner. He also was the most theatrical of the group.
Sadly Roosevelt was shot during the campaign, and as ever the DIVA...Roosevelt insisted on doing his speech after being shot.
Oddly Roosevelt was not so badly injured due to the fact that the bullet was slowed by his metal eyeglass case and thick wad of paper that was his speech.

But drama or no drama Roosevelt did nothing but elect Woodrow Wilson.

In the campaign of 2008 we can see some of the same actions going on. So as I would have said to Wilson in 1912, and I say now to McCain ...Go on vacation and let these two beat the daylights out of each other...I do not see Clinton forming another party, but I do see many bolting from the Democratic party after this mess is over.

The longer the battle goes on, the more certain I am of a McCain victory.

If you like McCain, that is good. If you do not like McCain tell one of the Democrats to give up. Or history will most definitely repeat itself here.

Let's get the story of the Titanic straight!

The Titanic in movies, myth and reality. Here we see the poster of the movie, a picture of the ship leaving on her maiden voyage and lastly the ghostly bow section of the ship as she looks today.



















Since 1985, when the wreck of the Titanic was found and a renewed interest came again to the ship, much has wrongly been said of her and I think it is time to correct a little history here.

First off, the Titanic was not a revolutionary ship, she was part of 3 ship team of identical liners!

The names of the ships would be Olympic, Titanic, and Britannic(originally to be called Gigantic) All the names symbolized size and power, but were they such revolutionary ships?
Not at all......... In fact they were just like most of the White Star ships of the last 10 years previous. Just a bit bigger. But to honest, the Olympic class of ships in which they were called were just larger version of White Star's RMS. Oceanic. Granted with a better system of power and triple screw. But outside of 4 funnels, it was basically another Oceanic.

The story of these ships goes back to a dinner party with the head of the White Star Line & and the head of Harland and Wolff ship builders. It was suggested by Bruce Ismay who was the head of the White Star Line in name only (The real owner and power broker was J.P. Morgan. He owned the White Star line through his US Steel interests in New Jersey)

They were distressed by the new ships called Lusitania & Mauritania brought out by Cunard in 1907. Both of those ships broke speed records for the Atlantic crossing and the White Star Line took notice! They were also quite well appointed. Mostly the Lusitania, she was the more beautiful of the two, and also the most popular.


Therefore at this dinner party it was decided to produce 3 large super luxury liners that would not focus on speed but, comfort and safety.
The Lusitania and her sister were around 32,000 tons and 790 feet in length. The new White Star ships would be around 46,000 tons and 882 feet in length. And while the Cunard ships would easily make 24 to 26 knots, the White Star ships were designed to go slower ...around 21 to 24 knots.

The design or hotel within the White Star ships was breathtaking. They would be the largest ships in the world. Also the most wonderfully appointed. There were all kinds of suites in all kinds of styles. Luxury was the order of the day.

The Olympic Class of ships were the last of the ocean greyhounds to have a clipper look to them. Soon after the Olympic Class the ships became larger and more boxy looking. They were the last of that breed.

The first ship produced was the Olympic. She was covered in all the papers and became the "ship of wonder" "the ship of dreams" Her maiden voyage was followed by all the press. The Papers all talked about the ships that were practically unsinkable... To tell the truth that was an old line used by every company of the time. The Lusitania and Mauritania were listed as practically unsinkable too!

New York City was all fired up for the arrival of the new colossus....Pier 59 which was the White Star pier was enlarged and lengthened for the Olympic. The press was non stop. White Star had a hit!

I want to also mention once again ... Pier 59 was the White Star Pier....Not Pier 54 which is often stated by the Circle Line and many historic papers.
The Carpathia who brought back to New York the survivors of the disaster landed at Pier 54. but that was the Cunard Pier and the Carpathia was a Cunard liner.

Also just for a quick bit of info ...The Lusitania left for her final voyage from Pier 54 in 1915.


Now as the second ship was getting prepared ....the Titanic. There was no press, no big parties, no wild stories, nothing!!!!

In fact, the Titanic was referred to as just another Olympic....Even the class of ships was called the "Olympic Class" There was hardly any press at all about the Titanic...


I have been looking at papers of the time and it gets a passing mention...but no really exciting news..it was just a repeat of the same thing. (perhaps a good analogy would be the shuttle flights..the first one was followed by the press every minute, after that it was all the same. When the first shuttle accident occurred most people were not even aware the shuttle was going up as it was done before)
The Titanic got headlines cause it sank!!! Not because it was a ship of wonder, or unsinkable, or the fastest ship in the world, BUT BECAUSE IT SANK....that's all.

The movie Titanic has created a false impression that the Titanic was a lone ship and was trying to break a record. The only record she could break was that of her sister the Olympic. Of course for the Titanic to break an Atlantic record would have required her to be re-engined, which of course was not the case or the desire of the White Star line. Remember, the Titanic like all of her sisters used mainly reciprocating engines, aided by a center turbine. The Lusitania and her sister used only turbines and therefore had greater speed and less vibration. So no record would be possible.

I am going to list a few bullets here to get some of the record straight.

1. The Titanic was based on a standard design used by Harland and Wolff since the 1890's Just the amount of funnels and size where the great feature. Her power plant was combination of standard and turbine engines...Economical but not revolutionary. As I mentioned before it was not a system of speed, it was very economical yet, not a great advance. The first White Star liner to have such a system came out in 1907.

2. The Titanic/Olympic carried more lifeboats than Lusitania and Mauritania. The Titanic was just like every other liner of the time. They all carried around the same amount of lifeboats. The German liners often carried more. But they were an exception, rather than the rule.

3. The Titanic most likely grounded on an iceberg rather that striking one. As few people felt more than a shutter. If the Titanic had hit an iceberg at full speed people would have been thrown all over. Also had the Titanic struck the berg, it most probably would have not sunk. The Titanic most likely grounded and while doing so she damaged her keel. As the areas of damage were not only in front but in the near center of the ship. Although that is rarely discussed.

4. The Titanic was sailed at half speed for nearly a half hour after striking the berg..filling the ship with water. One of the major reasons the Titanic sank so quickly was for that reason. The water, to put it best, was forced into the ship by this action.
It is interesting to notice that Titanic passenger Lawrence Beasley in his book about the disaster mentioned that he calmed the nerves of several ladies several minutes after the accident by having them touch a sink or tub and feel the vibrations of the engines moving the ship ahead. This is very telling and often overlooked. The ship was being driven, before she was examined. Captain Smith did that, and perhaps it was a mindless reaction, but more likely his belief that the ship was not that damaged as the vibration from the impact was hardly noticeable, which brings back the fact that she probably grounded rather than struck the berg. But to drive the ship on before inspection was foolish.

Much of the reason the Titanic sank and the tremendous loss of life was the total incompetence of the Captain and crew! Although there was great gallantry by them, there was quite a bit of a cavalier attitude with most of them, not all, but many of them.

5. The people in First Class were not the mindless robots as they portrayed in the Movie Titanic, nor were the Steerage passengers so wonderful.
There was also no way for someone to get to first class from Steerage as the gates were always locked between classes. (Specially dressed as Jack was in the movie!!!!)
It is funny in the movie Jack Dawson comes and goes up and down from Steerage to first class, and yet when the ship was sinking all the steerage people were behind locked gates!!!
Also the nonsense at the early part of the movie where she runs all the way to back of the ship and no one follows was just too stupid..There were always sailors on board and of course in 1912...No woman could let out a peep with out a series of gentlemen offering their services to escort them. Remember this was the age of the Gentleman...Always ready at a moments notice to offer their assistance to a woman.

6. The Titanic was the last gasp of the post Victorian age, where the rich were rich and the poor were poor and God made it that way......The modern age of the world was born on the slanting, sinking decks of the RMS Titanic.
What the movie did not convey was that the loss of the ship affected much of the world in many ways... Macy's in NYC it's owner went down with the ship. The Aide de camp of the President of the United States went down on the ship....1,517 went down on the ship. Economically the results of the disaster were amazing. The White Star Line never recovered financially.
Soon WWI would come and we would wake up to a new world that was never quite so sure of itself.......It has not changed. The age of the Titanic will never be again.

7. The Titanic's sister that was all the news, soon was always forever in the shadow of her sister...
In fact the name Titanic was NEVER brought up by shipping companies and everything in White Star Line mentioned the Olympic as a ship that was just by itself and was never a part of a 3 sister ocean liner set.
She became famous in her later years...called "Old reliable" she sank a submarine in WWI by ramming it and took many soldiers to the war safely. In the 1920's she was very popular, but by the 1930's it was clear her days were numbered. In 1934 Cunard took over the failing White Star line and the Olympic became a Cunard ship.
Shortly after this she rammed the Nantucket Light Ship....She was retired in April 1935.... 23 years after her now more famous sister sank. She was finally scraped in 1937.

By the way you know I mentioned a 3rd ship.....The Britannic (she was to be called Gigantic but that seemed dumb after the Titanic disaster) She was finished in 1915, she was a perfected Titanic, she was designed to survive what had destroyed the Titanic.
She was design to take a lot before she would sink. In 1915 she became a hospital ship in the war, in 1916 she hit a mine and sank in 50 minutes! She had never sailed a commercial voyage, therefore no one ever knew about her.... Her story is one of the saddest of almost any liner.

8. J. Dawson was on the Titanic. He was in the coaling dept. He is buried in Canada and his grave to this day is covered in flowers from crazed girls who think he was Leonardo De Caprio....Isn't that pathetic!

9. The Titanic and her sisters flew the British flag. However, they were all American owned ships! The Titanic as mentioned before was owned by J.P. Morgan. I.M.M. owned the White Star Line through Morgan's U.S. Steel Company in New Jersey.

Bruce Ismay who is shown in the movie yielding such power was only a puppet for the company, but was more of a eyepiece for the head of the group, Morgan. Ismay also became the brunt of all the hatred of everything that went wrong with the Titanic. He was ruined by the disaster, and really his only crime was that he survived. Also he was very proud, arrogant, and a bit foolish. He wanted everyone to know who he was, and by doing so and so loudly, he became an object of their scorn.

10. The Titanic did not send out the first SOS in history, that had been done in 1909. The Titanic sank on April 14, 15, 1912 from 11:40pm in which the accident happened, till 2:20 am when she sank.

11. Sadly not mentioned, many of the crew that were not English or American or let's put it this way "white" were locked in rooms to drown like rats.
There was a great deal hatred for Italian's, Asians, and other people that did not fit in the standard view of what members of the Titanic's white crew thought were human.
In fact one of the last persons found floating after the sinking and still alive was an Asian man.....There was feelings at the time that he was hardly worth saving. How very sad a people we were only 100 years ago.

In fact during the court testimony after the sinking. The Italian Ambassador to the USA came to the court held in Washington DC before a Senate panel and complained that every time when the 5th Officer Lowe mentioned a crazed person or a bad person he called them an Italian!

Also The "wireless crew" of the Titanic snuffed off conversation to a German ship called the Frankfort after the accident stating that they were not worth talking too. There was a lot of English/ German jousting going on which would lead to WWI two years later. But their actions like that of the Captain were foolish and very cavalier. There were no laws to speak of to control their actions. Therefore they did not give information to the Frankfort! Also after 12 midnight most wireless operators shut down their systems.

12. There was indeed a fire in the Titanic's starboard coal bunker...It has been suggested that the Titanic was racing to NYC to get the fire taken care of.
Although I wonder how true that is.

The fire was burning on the starboard side in the exact area where the ship was damaged...It was quite intense. It was going on for several days.
So it may have led to the weakening of the bulkheads. For there was a massive bulkhead failure on the Titanic, Noticeable when she took a dive forward and created a wave that ran up the decks and written about by Archibald Gracie

This is not often talked about either. The Titanic was doing 22 and a half knots when she struck/ grounded on the iceberg....and that was damn fast! Like doing 25-26 land miles an hour. So the speed and weakened bulkhead both had profound effects on the vessel.

13. There seems to have been a number of problems with the captain. He seems to have vanished for quite a bit of time and perhaps was in shock. He had to be told to give the order to load the lifeboats...scary!! He was famous as a Captain, but he seems to have been a bit reckless at times. To think he went to bed when they were entering a region where they all knew ice was, to me is just stupid. The Captain should be on his bridge when they are in a region were ice is known to be. Yet he went to bed?

14. There seems to have been much more damage to the ship when she grounded on the iceberg. The keel seems to have been damaged as the discovery of two large complete sections of the hull were found last year and announced on TV in 2006. The ship it seems started to fall apart. This was due I believe to a broken keel. The keel of a ship is like our spine. It supports the entire ship, once damaged the ship is in severe jeopardy.

15. J. Bruce Ismay became the perfect scapegoat to the press for the disaster. His most awful crime was to live. He started to be called by the press as "J. Brute Ismay" He did not resign his post as head of White Star because of the disaster, he had rendered it earlier. But the damage was done by his actions and personal nature.

16. There seems to be no evidence that Captain Smith was going to retire after the Titanic's maiden voyage. That is not mentioned till years later.

17. The Titanic was shipping a Renault automobile made famous in the movie. It was most probably in a crate and in pieces. Not the car ready to drive around the cargo hold or to have a romantic tryst in. That is so wrong in the movie. But it made many a romantic swoon.

18. The Titanic's radio name was MGY...Her radio (wireless system) broke down on April 13th!! Fortunately it had been repaired for use on the 14th. It was not the first time wireless had proved itself to be invaluable in rescue efforts.

There was a major disaster in 1909 when another White Star Liner named the Republic was rammed by a ship called the Florida. The wireless operator of the Republic was named Jack Binns. He made quite a career for himself through his wireless work. When the Titanic disaster took place the wireless operators Phillips and Bride were minor players compared to the stardom Binns received.

19. John Jacob Astor is always mentioned to have been crushed by the forward funnel and it is always described that his body was identified by his rings/cuff links/clothes..etc. Not true...There is no mention of that on the report by the ship and crew who recovered his body.

20. Had not the Titanic struck that iceberg on that cold dark April night. We would hardly think of her. She would have been just another ship in the Olympic class of White Star ships.

21. I have heard about the steel and the rivets being sub standard. There is some fact to that. But that was not why the Titanic sank.
The Titanic sank because it was sailed for nearly 30 minutes after striking the iceberg. That was a foolish act. There were so many strings of foolish acts that awful night.
The Titanic was the perfect Greek Tragedy. Everything that could have possibly gone wrong did, everything that could have been designed badly, was and compromised the ship and its ability to perform, there was a certain about of foolishness in the actions of the Captain and crew.

All in all everything that possibly could happen ..did! I guess that is the allure quality of the Titanic as it really was natures way of kicking mankind in the teeth.

Don't be fooled, it will happen again. Not necessarily to a ship, but to a plane, car, truck, building, bridge, dam, service system, or anything. What made the Titanic so terrible and shocking was that we had forgotten that we are like little ants and the Titanic was like the collapse of a big ant hill. There will be many more in the future. As soon as we forget ourselves.

Within a year the Titanic was surpassed in size by another trio of German ships . Today the Titanic would not be looked at as a massive ship at all.( The Queen Mary 2 is 3 times the size of the Titanic!!) It is also amazing how much we hear of the Titanic and how little we hear of the Empress of Ireland that sank just 2 years later with a near equal amount of lives lost. But the rich and famous were not on that ship, so no one cared.



In closing ...I wanted to list few facts I thought would be interesting to read....The history of the Titanic is often clouded by romance, excitement, sensationalism, and down and out lies! Newspapers issued interviews with people who did not even give them...
But the people wanted stories of the disaster. The press answered the call, and did not let the truth spoil a good story.
I tried to mention a few of the facts here that are as I see it correct. I can equally make great mistakes too...But I feel that this is a pretty good bit of info. So in closing, I say this...that we often think we know the history

But there is so much more to History than what we think there is........

Exhuming James Madison around 1856. This was done so the ground around his grave was strong enough to support his gravestone

The grave marker of James Madison.
James Madison 1751-1836




James Madison died on June 28, 1836 while seated in bed with his breakfast tray. In fact he died in such a gentle way. His niece asked him him if he was doing well..In one of the gentlest of farewells he simply said "Nothing but a change of heart, my dear." and his head immediately hit his chest. He was dead so fast and so quietly.

His funeral on the 29th was a quiet affair, attended by family, officials, friends and all the slaves. Once the body was placed in the grave there was a great moaning and cry from all attending the funeral. The 4th President was no more.

He was indeed the last of the "Founding Fathers". He was eulogised by all of the leaders of the country. All the great orators of the day spoke of his greatness. John Quincy Adams read his eulogy and spoke of his greatness before a joint session of Congress. His wife Dolley was in bad financial shape as had been Mr. Madison. He had been over the last 10 years of his life selling land, slaves, and his last resort was a house he owned in Washington DC. Dolley hoped that would never happen, and indeed it never did. Madison was extremely depressed over money in his later years.
It was not till the 20th century that ex Presidents received a pension. So in his case and every other ex President till Harry S Truman, no one received a pension

Truman started it all when he said why don't we get pensions??? After Truman pushed it, all ex Presidents got one.

But back in the 1830's James Madison was in pretty rough shape financially. He sold most of his slaves together to a man names Taylor so he could keep all the husbands and wife's together. He was another of those Virginians who said slavery was bad, but was a part of it. But I am venturing off my topic here as I can write for hours on so much of this era and I will some day.

Madison was buried amazingly in an unmarked grave. Dolley when she died in 1849 was buried in Congressional Cemetery in Washington DC. She was buried in some one Else's crypt. It was not till around 1858 that she finally was laid to rest with her husband.

It was not till 1856, twenty years after his death that many people got upset that the "Father of the American Constitution" did not even have a grave marker.

Now there are two stories I have found so far on this and I am sure there are more. But for now here are the two of them. The first was a history of Orange County Virgina by W.W. Scott in 1907, the second one is from the Fredricksburg news on Oct. 6, 1857.


The first story states it was around 1856 and the second says it was 1857. None the less the stories are rather similar and are interesting to read. It is most amazing how many of our former Presidents have been exhumed, looked at, and reburied.



#1

A HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA
From its Formation in 1734 ( O. S.) to the end of Reconstruction in 1870 ; compiled mainly from Original Records. With a Brief Sketch of the Beginnings of Virginia, a Summary of Local Events to 1907, and a Map

By W. W. SCOTT
.State Law Librarian, Member of the State Historical
.Society, and for ten years State Librarian
of Virginia


MADISON'S TOMB. This monolith was erected about 1856 by private subscriptions, mostly by admirers of Madison outside the County The date of birth is an error, as explained in the sketch of Madison, infra. The smaller tombstone in the illustration is that of Mrs. Madison, and curious to say, Maude Wilder Goodwin, in her "Life of Dolly Madison," complains of a wrong inscription on her tombstone also. She died July 12, not July 8, as the inscription reads, and she signed her name "Dolly," not "Dolley," to her will, which was dated on the 9th. She was buried first in Washington, D. C., in 1849, and her remains were not brought to Montpelier until about 1858. As her own nephew, not Madison's, erected the tombstone, the error must be imputed to him. The inscription on Madison's tomb is:

MADISON
BORN MARCH 16, 1751.
DIED JUNE 28, 1836.
I have been told that when the stone was erected it was necessary to take up his remains in order to get a safe foundation. The coffin was opened, and, except that one cheek was a little sunken, his appearance was the same as in life; but disintegration began immediately, and the coffin had to be closed. He had been buried about twenty years.



#2

"MADISON'S MONUMENT AND REMAINS. -- Since his death and burial in 1836, the mortal remains of Ex-President Madison have been quietly reposing at Montpelier, in Orange county – a locality distant some nine miles from Gordonsville, on the line of the Virginia Central Railroad. During all this time no mural record with high-sounding eulogy disclosed the place of his final rest; only neighborhood tradition and historic record serving to point the way to it. The neglect in attesting his worth by some suitable monument attracted attention, and some few years since a number of gentlemen of Orange county set about the task of procuring one. Having been procured, it was conveyed to Montpelier on the 15th inst., and placed in position... In digging for a suitable foundation, it became necessary to go below the coffin, which was consequently exposed to view. The boards placed above the coffin had decayed, but no earth had fallen in upon it, and everything appeared to be as when the coffin was deposited there, except that the coffin-lid was slightly out of place, allowing a partial view of the interior. As there were no fastenings to prevent, the part of the lid covering the superior portion of the body was raised, and the several gentlemen present looked in upon the remains of the great Virginian..."
– Fredericksburg News, 6 October 1857



So there you have it George Washington was exhumed and looked at in the 1830's, Madison and John Quincy Adams in the 1850's, Lincoln was observed several times from1870 till the last time he was looked at was in late 1901!! Of course the latest look at a dead President was of Zachary Taylor in 1991. It was said that he was indeed still recognizable, although badly decomposed.

I cannot recall any other Presidents being observed after being buried or in a crypt for a while. I think the days of doing such things are over. At least I think they are.

Did the Lusitania really get us into World War One?

Not really.


I agree that the Lusitania did have a vast impact on the world. Sadly the impact was promoted more through propaganda.

It was a horrible and great mistake on both the sides of the Allies and Germans. The Allies were using all of the ships sailing to Europe to carry a lot of munitions.
They sugar coated it by putting passengers on such ships.

The loss of life was amazing. Both sides hold the blame for their loss. Ironically a little known story concerns some Germans. Four of them were seen looking around the Lusitania and they were taken to the ships brig and there they still remain. They were locked in their cage and when the ship was torpedoed they were forgotten.

The Germans were not at all at fault by sinking a ship carry such munitions. One has to remember that each of these ships was carrying materials that would in time be fired at them by the Allies!!

Germany even issued warnings in the Newspapers telling passengers not to sail on such a vessel as there existed a state of war. But few paid any attention, and paid dearly with their lives.

It is interesting that the Allies never mentioned such a fact to their passengers. It was arrogance on a grand scale, and the result was catastrophic to everyone.

So it was in their best interest to sink any ship carry such items. However, if only they could have done it a little easier by telling everyone to abandon ship and then sunk her.

The problem with that was that the German's originally did that with ships. They would surface and tell the ships company to go to the boats and after all were off they would sink the ship with gun fire or torpedo's.
But after this bit of courtesy was started the Allies would ram the U boats. So they stopped that practice.

Therefore when the U 20 saw the Lusitania she did not surface, she just fired one torpedo, just one. That one torpedo caused a 790 foot liner to go down in 18 minutes!

There are still problems in my mind about why that ship sank so fast? She was subdivided like a cruiser and made to withstand a lot. She was still plowing through the water as she sank.
The RMS Britannic (sister of the Titanic) Struck a mine the following year and received a great deal of damage as the ship plowed along in the water. Yet she lasted an hour.

By the sinking, the Allies had a great piece of propaganda, and used it for 2 years till the USA was in the picture.
There were Lusitania Memorial Cards and one other piece that truly was an awful piece of propaganda.

When the Lusitania was sunk there was a private issue of a metal made in Germany. No one would have known of it. However the British got a hold of one of the metals and had tens of thousands of them made and then they blamed the German's for making them!
That was one of the factors that turned the tide against the German's.

The Lusitania was sunk in 1915 and it was a big issue for a while. However the United States did not enter the war till well into 1917. It was not till there were the famous Zimmerman telegrams intercepted concerning Mexico and many other ships torpedoed that the United States reluctantly entered the war.

It was the worst thing the United States ever did.

Perhaps the two greatest errors of the USA in the 20th century were entering the war and the terrible peace process that followed.

This war was a continuation of the wars that had been going on in Europe for the last few hundred years.
It was a war blown out of proportion by the foolish actions of the Russian Tsar, who never was much of an intellect at all.
Much of the problems started with his actions. The Kaiser sent telegrams to the Tsar basically saying to him

"shut up and be quiet and let it all cool down"

But he did not...Before long through that first action the sides were drawn and the world started to fall apart. In fact it has never recovered from that moment of 1914. Much of the mess that exists in our world today dates from the peace process of World War One.

That process effected the world in such a way that we are still paying for it. Iraq, Iran,and really what would in time become Israel as we know it was created in that peace conference of World War One.
Just one of the many great blunders. I have often wondered if they gave it a thought back then? We are creating a whole mess of countries side by side and each of them hates the other!

Yes, the Lusitania was a terrible event, but not the major reason the USA went into the war. Many people think that was the reason. No, it was one of many reasons, but not the major one.
But if Germany and England had changed their tune in 1915. We would not have entered the war.
If we had not allowed contraband to be put on passenger ships in New York Harbor there would not have been issue with the Lusitania either. But that is another story, for another posting.