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Cathey letter to home: Mexican War

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:43 EDT

Cathey letter to home: Mexican War

Andrew Cathey died in the Mexican War 1846 to 1848.…no record has been found on the circumstances of his death or place of burial.

From Andy to his niece in North Carolina:

I am sorry for all

them that I left behind

the tears I have shed run down

in my eyes and make me blind.

Our almighty God,

he knows the point,

the very spot where

each of us shall fall

and who shall be

the earliest lot who

the cast off all

our journey here end.

You have just begun

with many a friend

little way home from wigatism Federalist

where is the old Riogrande.

1847 Uncle Andy

In summary, Andy(age 21 ½) enlisted, fought and died in late 1847 or early 1848. Political turmoil raged in the US which hurt the American cause. Soldiers suffered diease, hardship,cold wet even in summer.

A freshman Congressman from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln lashed out against the war, calling it immoral, proslavery, and a threat to the nation's republican values. In Congress, he proposed the so-called "Spot Resolution," demanding that President Polk identify the precise spot on which Mexicans had "shed American blood on American soil." One of Lincoln's constituents branded him "the Benedict Arnold of our district," and he was denied renomination by his own party.

As newspapers informed their readers about the hardships of life on the front, public enthusiasm for the war began to fade. The war did not turn out to be the romantic exploit that Americans envisioned. Troops complained that their food was "green with slime" and "acted as an instantaneous emetic." Diarrhea, amoebic dysentery, measles, and yellow fever ravaged American soldiers. Seven times as many Americans died of disease and exposure as died of battlefield injuries. Of the 90,000 Americans who served in the war, only 1,721 died in action. Another 11,155 died from disease and exposure to the elements.

Public support for the war was further eroded by reports of brutality against Mexican civilians. Newspaper reporters claimed that the chapparral was "strewn with the skeletons of Mexicans sacrificed" by American troops. After one of their members was murdered, the Arkansas volunteer cavalry surrounded a group of Mexican peasants and began an "indiscriminate and bloody massacre of the poor creatures." A young lieutenant named George G. Meade reported that volunteers in Matamoros robbed the citizens, stole their cattle, and killed innocent civilians "for no other object than their own amusement." If only a tenth of the horror stories were true, General Winfield Scott wrote, it was enough "to make Heaven weep, & every American of Christian morals blush for his country."

Dissent even made its way to the battlefield. A group of enlisted Irish-Catholic Americans, shocked by the desecration of Catholic churches, deserted to the Mexican side, formed the San Patricio Battalion, and fought against the American army. At Churubusco, 65 members of the battalion (which also consisted of foreign nationals resident in Mexico) were captured. Fifty were executed and 11 others were punished with fifty lashes apiece and the letter D (for deserter) branded on their cheeks.

A young essayist and poet named Henry David Thoreau staged the best known act of protest against the Mexican war. On July 23, 1846, the constable of Concord, Massachusetts, arrested the Transcendentalist poet for failure to pay the state poll tax (a head tax on male citizens between the ages of 21 and 70). The constable actually offered to pay the tax if Thoreau was short of money, but Thoreau insisted that he refused to pay on principle, as a protest against his country's involvement in the Mexican War. The constable then placed Thoreau in the local jail. Thoreau spent only a single night in jail because his tax was paid, much to his disgust, by one of his relatives.

In response to his arrest Thoreau wrote an essay that became a source of inspiration for Leo Tolstoi, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Thoreau entitled his essay "Civil Disobedience." In it he declared that if all citizens who opposed the Mexican War followed his example and went to jail for their beliefs, the government could be forced to end the conflict. It was the duty of every individual to protest a government policy, even though it had been adopted with majority consent, when it conflicted with moral law. "Any man more right than his neighbor," he wrote, "constitutes a majority of one."

So how should an individual protest a moral wrong? Here Thoreau was at his most creative. He described a type of disobedience that disrupted the everyday workings of society and dramatized the moral issues at stake, without resorting to violence. Individual acts of protest, he argued, would awaken the conscience of those people whose consciences could still be stirred.

Out of Thoreau's jailing grew a legend. Ralph Waldo Emerson, America's greatest philosopher, visited Thoreau in jail. Emerson asked, "Henry, why are you here?" Thoreau replied, "Why are you not here?"

Welcome to My Page

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 07:20 EDT

Thanks for visiting my page. You can find me in the groups I belong too. If you would like to interact with me you can do it in these groups. I do not have a friend's list.

In a fantasy

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 07:16 EDT

In a fantasy we hide what we need. We imagine what would nuture us, excite, and make us feel good. we fantasize to compensate for what we missing in our life. Fantasies do not satisfy....because we do not have to change. If we have fantasies we need not change.
they give us relief...but the real relief is is about giving and recieving our needs.

I only escaped from one illusion to another. I refuse to escape to another.

freedom of the butterfly

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 07:14 EDT

the freedom of the butterfly is not in the wings.....but in the warmth(love)....which empowers the butterly to fly.

Just my observation from watching them in my garden.....

As realted to us:
Freedom( empowerment).... is that empowers us to move and live

The final Truth

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 07:12 EDT

Truth allows all to win. What hurts...is we not told enough of the truth to come to full understanding and resolution....Peace

Can you ever be at peace with ..........

Incredible beautiful thoughts

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 07:10 EDT

Incredible beautiful thoughts. beautiful day dreams that us a moment of relaxation admist our harsh reality of our daily lives.

Love does not hurt...A daydream or dream is love.
A night mare is not....is the opposite..absence(fear)
pain indicates something is wrong,harmed, damaged, or offended.

To fulfill a dream is happiness. An unfilled dream is despair. we should enjoy your day dreams for what they are...beautiful and relaxing. Sometimes we want a dream to be true, so we act.

What is not made in honesty is an illusion. Reality is truth.
Reality chan be good or bad. Reality bites hard at an illusion if you can not sustain it.

You know if I love you or not if you love yourself. Then you know the difference between hurt and love. The answer is yours....

the words.... I love you ......fulfill

Love electric

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 07:06 EDT

Love Electric

Most people do not understand electricity just like love because it can not be seen.

There are two type of electricity …direct and alternating.

Direct flows in one direction positive to negative. A battery (stored) has to be replaced or recharged. It is limited in the distance and power that it can flow.

Alternating like love can be transmitted over great distances and its power will increased or decrease as needed. No more can be generated than used. This electricity flows to and returns.

What causes electricity to slow is resistance. The lines to burn?….not enough generated than used.

Love is electric…We find our answers in the real……by living or observing the real

Four lives saved .

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:06 EDT

The year 1969.

I had already had swam the more than the mile distance to the other shore and back.

I was alerted by the strange silence. The same silence I heard before….I knew somrthing was going to happen .

I looked at the lake and my eye caught the sight of a person in the middle of the lake. At times like this.... time stand still for me. I looked at the shore and saw everyone staring , and frozen.. I did not know if I could reach this person and make it back to the shore. I knew I had to attempt and saw a float and grabbed it on the way to the water. When I was half the distance to the person, three of friends(aqauintances) hit the water.

I reached the young woman first. She was drunk and had swam out. The float was useless to her.... she would not hold on. My three friend arrived.. .but they were exhausted. They would have drowned too but they could hold on to the float.. they help save themselves.

Now the young woman was my concern. Pulling her back to shore she went under several times… I pulled her again back to the surface time and again. She did not struggle against me, but I had to pull her with no help from her for all the distance

I reached the shore. Her friends invited us to party with them. My three friends did. I refused. Never would I accept decorations because of actions manifested by stupidity.

I was not just college student….I was an ex marine…expert swimmer. I slept for two days after before I woke.

be happy

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:01 EDT

Desiderata by Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952.

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

To Be

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:46 EDT

When I take responsibility for my life I cease to be the victim.

Being responsible does not mean that if something occurs or happens that I am at fault.

Being held responsible without authority to act is servitude.

Too much responsibility without the power to fulfill it will create stress and a sense of frustration and purposelessness.

If you give or take responsibility without authority is a horrible injustice.

This responsibility is to take authority for my life.

The Faith of My Fathers.

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:29 EDT

The Faith of My Fathers.

Primitive people are far more disposed to attend to matters of the spirit, to accept God as real, than civilized man is. Civilization robs man of his spiritual perception, rather than enhancing it.

With all my studies it is clear to me that man must have begun with a pure concept of a Supreme Being, a great God, Lord of all, Creator of the world, merciful and just and all-seeing, omnipresent, and omniscient. This was the faith of primitive people whom evolutionists themselves hold to be our "contemporary ancestors."

My earliest ancestors are traced back to the Celts and Picts.

Celtic spirituality has some distinguishing features, one of them is its diversity: it combines polytheistic and monotheistic features, earthy rituals and transcendental mysticism. The appearance of Celtic spirituality is dated back to first mythological mentions. Second feature of Celtic spirituality is its natural character, ties with earth. The Celtic spirituality is contained in sky, earth, sun, and sea - in all nature. Celts believed in sanctity of nature and tried to take care of it. The third thing is mystical and relational directivity. Celtic diversity comes more from experience than from theological dogmas. Celts were looking for the religious origins in their hearts and souls; they did not accept philosophical substantiation of the belief. Celts saw the necessity of collaboration between people and the earth, people and the spirits of nature and the Holy Spirit that is the head of all living creatures and is beyond all names.

The pre-Christian world these Celts believe in existence of many gods and angels and image them as living beings, not just abstract creations. According to the Celtic understanding of the world, these divine beings can communicate with people in their own mystical way. The pre-Christian world was the world of Celts, who worshiped nature. To the Celtic outlook, the land was the main goddess, the rivers were her helpers and they enriched the earth

On the islands which are considered the family's ancestral home. St Oran and St. Columba are said to have stopped on their way to finally settling on Iona: The names of the the isles are Colonsay( St. Columba isle) and Oransay( St. Oran isle) St. Oran was founder of the island monastery in 563 AD.

With the appearance of Christianity ancient Celts didn't disturb their close ties with nature, they connected their love to nature with the main principles of Christianity. The most important thing was to understand the divine origin of all things and god's existence in nature. Celts saw life as a constantly changing circulation of life and death. Everything moved in a spiral and nature's observation gave a possibility to find mechanism of development of the world. Nowadays we have practically completely lost the awareness of spiral development and it's difficult to gain an understanding of the world. Life of Celts is an integration of spirit, community and nature, and these concepts were a single whole and couldn't exist separately that can be scarcely imagined in our modern society. Celtic Christians strongly believed in Holy Trinity. Early Celtic Christians didn't go to church they preferred worshipping in small communities and sharing their food, money, work with the representatives of this small group. They saw Christ in their neighbour and shared everything with him.

Though preceded by St. Oran, who established churches in Iona, Mull and Tiree, Columba was the most important of these missionaries. He later became a popular saint in the history of the Christian Church, but even he built the nave of his first monastery facing west and not east. For his efforts at reforming the Church, Rome excommunicated him. His banishment from Ireland became Scotland's gain.

The island of Iona, just off the western coast of Argyll, is in present-day Scotland. It is been called the Isle of Dreams or Isle of Druids. It was here that Columba (Columcille "Dove of the Church") and a small band of Irish monks landed in 563 to spread the faith. And it was here that the missionary saint inaugurated Aidan as king of the new territory of Dalriata (previously settled by men from Columba's own Ulster).

Iona quickly became the ecclesiastical head of the Celtic Church in the whole of Britain as well as a major political center. After the monastic settlement at Iona gave sanctuary to the exiled Oswald early in the seventh century, the king invited the monks to come to his restored kingdom of Northumbria. It was thus that Aidan, with his twelve disciples, came to Lindisfarne, destined with Iona to become one of the great cultural centers of the early Christian world.

In 574, Columba is believed to have returned to Ireland to plead the cause of the bards, who were about to be expelled as troublemakers. According to legend, he sensibly argued that their expulsion would deprive the country of an irreplaceable wealth of folklore and antiquity. He also refused to chop down the ancient, sacred oak trees that symbolized the old druidic religion. Although the bards were allowed to remain, they were forced to give up their special privileges as priests of the old religion

Iona remained an important center of Christianity despite the retreat of many of its monks to Ireland during the deprivations of the Vikings. To be buried in the ancient burial ground in Iona was a special privilege for early Christians.

Iona suffered greatly from the raids of the Vikings and Danes. Under their deprivations, the Abbey was destroyed and the rule of St. Columba and the remaining Celtic Church brought came to an end. It wasn't until 1072 that St. Margaret was able to rebuild the destroyed Abbey. By that time, of course, the Norman invasions had inaugurated centuries of armed conflict and political tension between the English and Scottish kingdoms.

The Reformation of the 16th century, with its brutal suppression of the old religion and all that was connected with it, seemed to completely transform Scotland. However, traditions die hard, and in Ireland and Scotland, many Celtic customs survived. Some of them even survived the bloody battle of Culloden in 1746 that for all intents and purposes marked the end of the Gaelic way of life in Scotland. The survival of these traditions (and the hostility caused by brutal attempts to eliminate them) underlies much of today's Celtic resurgence

Some members of the clan(family) moved to Lochaber where many Macfies lived beside the Camerons. A Macfie was one of two pipers at Glenfinnan when Bonnie Prince Charlie raised his banner there in 1745. The following year many Clan members died on the right flank at Culloden fighting alongside the Camerons. They share a common grave on that desolate moor.

The survival of these traditions (and the hostility caused by brutal attempts to eliminate them) underlies much of today's Celtic resurgence.

With the Scottish reformation the adopted Presbytarian..The origins of the Presbyterian churches were in Calvinism, which is no longer emphasized in some contemporary branches.

Presbyterians place great importance upon education and continuous study of the scriptures, theological writings, and understanding and interpretation of church doctrine. It is generally considered that the point of such learning is to enable one to put one's faith into practice; most Presbyterians generally exhibit their faith in action as well as words, by generosity, hospitality, and the constant pursuit of social justice and reform, as well as proclaiming the gospel of Christ.

We built our meeting houses. Only one faith could be called a Church…that of The Church of England. After the American Revolution we earned the right to call our place of worship a Church.

As we lived in America members of the family remained Presbytertain or choose in their freedom to join other denominations. This their religious background .

I believe in the separation of Church and State. For without this people can be denied the Human Right to their Faith.

Genesis

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 10:42 EDT

My true father is God. It is God who created Adam and gave the breath of life,

My true mother is the earth. For God created Adam from the dust of the Earth..

He made Eve for Adam for loneliness is not good. But Adam forgot about his

Father and Mother.

My sexuality

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:23 EDT

My sexuality…. It used to be easy …I am male

I am one who does not flaunt their sexuality, but I really hate having to define my sexuality. I hate having to say "I'm straight,”

I imagine other people hate having to say I'm straight," "I'm gay," "I'm transgendered," "I'm bisexual" ... whatever.

I hate having to limit myself in any one or another pigeonhole, having to say that I am one way, another, or another.

I hate having to try to explain to people that my sexuality is far more complicated than a single word or idea. And that I think that everyone's sexuality is ... it's just scary to admit it.

Sexuality is complex and spans a vast array of human experiences including family relationships, dating, sexual behavior, physical development, sensuality, sexualization, reproduction, gender, body image and more. It is a fundamental and natural part of being human, for people of all ages. Defining sexuality can be difficult.

To me sexuality is the expression of an age-blind desire for meaningful intimacy and connection with others.

I am a male.

I am a heterosexual.

Never have or never had the desire or wish to participate in gay, bisexual sex, group sex, or animal sex. Lol...I am not sure how many types of sex there is.

I am very comfortable with my sexuality because of this others do not threaten me. I live my life as I wish and others should too.

I believe in Human Rights…that include a person right to their sexuality.

I lose patience with other Christians who stop or hinder others form knowing the wonderfulness of god by their concentration on sexuality and not Jesus Christ and love. I do want to have to ask them what are their sins before they throw that first stone. The truth is we all are separated from god. It is not sexuality that separates us from God but the lack of goodness in our hearts. To the Christian Jesus Christ manifests this goodness in his heart.

Should you ever fall

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:47 EDT

Should you ever fall..... by Chuck

Should you ever fall

Me is who to call

I am not tall

Or not too small

Should you ever fall

To give you the lift

Like no other can

Love is my gift

Just take my hand

What should this cost

It's not for sale

When I was so lost

You took my hand

You should not forget

You healed me from regret

Saved me from a sad tale

You should not forget

Should you ever fall

........That I fell

Barack Obama for USA President 2008

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:26 EDT

Stand for Change

Barack Obama

For

USA President

2008

VOTE!