Thursday, March 19, 2020

The Schenck Ruling by Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes

The Schenck Ruling by Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Charles Schenck was the general secretary of the Socialist Party in the United States. During World War I, he was arrested for creating and distributing pamphlets that urged men to assert your rights and resist being drafted to fight in the war. Schenck was charged with attempting to obstruct recruitment efforts and the draft. He was charged and convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917 that stated that people could not say, print, or publish anything against the government during times of war. He appealed to the Supreme Court, claiming the law violated his First Amendment right to free speech. Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes The former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States was Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. He served between 1902 and 1932.  Holmes passed the bar in 1877 and started working in the field as a lawyer at a private practice.  He also contributed editorial work to the American Law Review for three years, where he subsequently lectured at Harvard and published a collection of his essays called The Common Law.  Holmes was known as the Great Dissenter at the U.S. Supreme Court due to his opposing arguments with his colleagues. Espionage Act of 1917, Section 3 Following is the pertinent section of the Espionage Act of 1917 that was used to prosecute Schenck: Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully make or convey false reports of false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the military..., shall willfully cause or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, refusal of duty..., or shall willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both. Supreme Court Decision The Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes ruled unanimously against Schenck. It argued that, even though he had the right to free speech under the First Amendment during peacetime, this right to free speech was curtailed during the war if they presented a clear and present danger to the United States. It is in this decision that Holmes made his famous statement about free speech: The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic. Significance of Schenck v. the United States This had a huge significance at the time. It seriously lessened the strength of the First Amendment during times of war by removing its protections of the freedom of speech when that speech could incite a criminal action (like dodging the draft). The Clear and Present Danger rule lasted until 1969. In Brandenburg v. Ohio, this test was replaced with the Imminent Lawless Action test. Excerpt from Schencks Pamphlet: Assert Your Rights In exempting clergymen and members of the Society of Friends (popularly called Quakers) from active military service the examination boards have discriminated against you. In lending tacit or silent consent to the conscription law, in neglecting to assert your rights, you are (whether knowingly or not) helping to condone and support a most infamous and insidious conspiracy to abridge and destroy the sacred and cherished rights of a free people. You are a citizen: not a subject! You delegate your power to the officers of the law to be used for your good and welfare, not against you.

Friday, March 6, 2020

How Honorifics Are Used in English

How Honorifics Are Used in English An honorific is a conventional word, title, or grammatical form that signals respect, politeness, or social deference. Also known as a  courtesy title or an address term. The most common forms of honorifics (sometimes called  referent honorifics) are honorary titles used  before names  in salutations- for example, Mr. Spock,  Princess Leia, Professor X. In comparison to languages such as Japanese and Korean, English doesnt have an especially rich system of honorifics. Commonly used honorifics  in English include Mr., Mrs., Ms., Captain, Coach, Professor, Reverend  (to a member of the clergy),  and  Your Honor  (to a judge), among others. (The abbreviations Mr., Mrs., and Ms. usually end in a period in American English  but not in British English- Mr, Mrs, and Ms.) Examples and Observations Mrs. Lancaster, you are an impressively punctual person, Augustus said as he sat down next to me.(John Green, The Fault in Our Stars. Dutton, 2012)The Reverend Bond walked up to the horse, smiling up at Benton.Afternoon, Reverend, Benton said to him.Good afternoon, Mister Benton, Bond answered. My apologies for stopping you. I just wanted to find out how things went yesterday.(Richard Matheson, The Gun Fight. M. Evans, 1993)Princess Dala:  The Pink Panther is in my safe, at . . ..Inspector Jacques Clouseau: Your Highness, please. Dont say it, not here.(Claudia Cardinale and Peter Sellers in The Pink Panther, 1963)The New York Times waited until 1986 to announce that it would embrace the use of Ms. as an honorific alongside Miss and Mrs.(Ben Zimmer, Ms. The New York Times, Oct. 23, 2009)John Bercow, Speaker, Britains First Commoner (thats an honorific for the class conscious of you out there), was greeting and welcoming his new intake in Portcullis House. He is master of this domain .(Simon Carr, My Ill-Tempered Encounter With the Speaker. The Independent, May 12, 2010) The Honorifics Maam and Sir in the U.S. and Britain-The use of maam and sir is  much more common in the South than elsewhere in the United States, where calling adults maam and sir can be taken as being disrespectful or cheeky. In the South, the terms convey just the opposite. Johnson (2008) reported that when two English 101 classes  at a university in South Carolina were surveyed, data showed that Southern English speakers used maam and sir for three reasons: to address someone older or in an authority position, to show respect, or to maintain or reestablish good relations with someone. Maam and sir are also frequently used by Southerners in customer service, such as restaurant servers.(Anne H. Charity Hudley and Christine Mallinson, Understanding English Language Variation in U.S. Schools.  Teachers College Press, 2011)Now you must understand  that in the British Isles, the  honorific Sir  is very widely used to bestow a  knighthood  on any citizen who performs exc eptionally well in public life. A leading jockey can become a Sir. A leading actor. Famous cricket players. Queen Elizabeth has awarded the title in honorary form to [U.S. presidents] Reagan and Bush.(James A. Michener,  Recessional. Random House, 1994) H.L. Mencken on HonorificsAmong the honorifics in everyday use in England and the United States, one finds many notable divergences between the two languages. On the one hand the English are almost as diligent as the Germans in bestowing titles of honor upon their men of mark, and on the other hand, they are very careful to withhold such titles from men who do not legally bear them. In America, every practitioner of any branch of the healing art, even a chiropodist or an osteopath, is a doctor ipso facto, but in England, a good many surgeons lack the title and it is not common in the lesser ranks. . . .In all save a few large cities of America every male pedagogue is a professor, and so is every band leader, dancing master, and medical consultant. But in England, the title is very rigidly restricted to men who hold chairs in the universities, a necessarily small body.(H.L. Mencken, The American Language, 1921)T-V DistinctionIn many languages . . . the second person plural pronoun of address doubles as an honorific form to singular respected or distant alters. Such usages are called T/V systems, after the French tu and vous (see Brown and Gilman 1960). In such languages, the use of a T (singular non-honorific pronoun) to a non-familiar alter can claim solidarity.Other address forms used to convey such in-group membership include generic names and terms of address like Mac, mate, buddy, pal, honey, dear, duckie, luv, babe, Mom, blondie, brother, sister, cutie, sweetheart, guys, fellas.(Penelope Brown and Stephen C. Levinson, Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge University Press, 1987) Pronunciation: ah-ne-RI-fik

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Molly Pitcher (Mary Hays McCauly) Revolutionary Heroine

Molly Pitcher (Mary Hays McCauly) Revolutionary Heroine Molly Pitcher was a fictitious name given to a heroine, revered for taking her husbands place loading a cannon in the Battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778, during the American Revolution. The identification of Molly Pitcher, earlier known in popular images as Captain Molly, with Mary McCauly, didnt come until the centennial of the American Revolution.  Molly was, at the time of the Revolution, a common nickname for women named Mary. Much of Mary McCaulys story is told from oral histories or court and other legal documents correlating with some parts of the oral tradition. Scholars disagree on many of the details, including what her first husbands name was (the famous husband who collapsed and whom she replaced at the cannon) or even whether she is the Molly Pitcher of history. The Molly Pitcher of legend may be completely folklore or may be a composite. Molly Pitchers Early Life Mary Ludwigs birthdate is given on her cemetery marker as October 13, 1744.  Other sources suggest her birth year was as late as 1754. She grew up on her familys farm. Her father was a butcher. She is unlikely to have had any education and was likely illiterate.  Marys father died in January of 1769, and she went to Carlisle, Pennsylvania to be a  servant to the family of Anna and Dr. William Irvine.   Molly Pitchers Husband A Mary Ludwig married a John Hays on July 24, 1769. This may have been a first husband for the future Molly Pitcher, or it may have been a marriage of her mother, also named Mary Ludwig as a widow. In 1777, the younger Mary married William Hays, a barber, and an artilleryman. Dr. Irvine, for whom Mary was working, had organized a boycott of British goods in response to the British Tea Act in 1774. William Hayes was listed as one helping with the boycott. On December 1, 1775, William Hays enlisted in the First Pennsylvania Regiment of Artillery, in a unit commanded by Dr. Irvine (also called General Irwin in some sources). A year later, January 1777, he joined the 7th Pennsylvania Regiment and was part of the winter camp at Valley Forge. Molly Pitcher at War After her husbands enlistment, Mary Hays first stayed in Carlisle, then joined her parents where she was closer to her husbands regiment. Mary became a camp follower, one of the many women attached to a military camp to take care of support tasks such as laundry, cooking, sewing, and other tasks. Martha Washington was another of the women at Valley Forge. In 1778, William Hays trained as an artilleryman under Baron von Steuben. The camp followers were taught to serve as water girls. William Hays was with the 7th Pennsylvania Regiment when, as part of George Washingtons army, the Battle of Monmouth was fought with British troops on June 28, 1778. William (John) Hays job was to load the cannon, wielding a ramrod. According to the stories told later, Mary Hays was among the women bringing pitchers of water to the soldiers, to cool the soldiers as well as to cool the cannon and soak the rammer rag. On that hot day, carrying water, the story told is that Mary saw her husband collapse - whether from the heat or from being wounded is not clear, though he certainly was not killed - and stepped in to clean the ramrod and load the cannon herself, continuing until the end of the battle that day. In one variation of the story, she helped her husband fire the cannon. According to the oral tradition, Mary was nearly hit by a musket or cannonball that sped between her legs and ripped her dress. She is said to have responded, Well, that could have been worse. Supposedly George Washington had seen her action on the field, and after the British retreated unexpectedly rather than continuing the fight the next day, Washington made Mary Hays a non-commissioned officer in the army for her deed. Mary apparently began calling herself Sergeant Molly from that day forward. After the War Mary and her husband returned to Carlisle, Pennsylvania. They had a son, John L. Hayes, in 1780. Mary Hays continued to work as a domestic servant. In 1786, Mary Hays was widowed; later that year, she married John McCauley or John McCauly (various spellings of names was common in a society where many were not literate). This marriage was not successful; John, a stonecutter and a friend of William Hays, was apparently mean and did not adequately support his wife and stepson. Either she left him or he died, or he otherwise disappeared, about 1805. Mary Hays McCauly continued to work around town as a domestic servant, with a reputation for being hard-working, eccentric and coarse. She petitioned for a pension based on her Revolutionary War service, and on February 18, 1822, the Pennsylvania legislature authorized a payment of $40 and subsequent annual payments, also of $40 each, in An act for the relief of Molly MKolly. The first draft of the bill had the phrase widow of a soldier and this was revised to for services rendered. Specifics of those services are not noted in the bill. Mary Ludwig Hays McCauly - who called herself Sergeant Molly - died in 1832. Her grave was unmarked. Her obituaries do not mention military honors or her specific war contributions. The Evolution of Captain Molly and Molly Pitcher Popular images of Captain Molly at a cannon circulated in the popular press, but these were not tied to any specific individual for many years. The name evolved into Molly Pitcher. In 1856, when Marys son John L. Hays died, his obituary included the note that he was a son of the ever-to-be-remembered heroine, the celebrated Molly Pitcher whose deeds of daring are recorded in the annals of the Revolution and over whose remains a monument ought to be erected. Connecting Mary Hays McCauly With Molly Pitcher In 1876, the American Revolution centennial sparked interest in her story and local critics in Carlisle had a statue of Mary McCauley created, with Mary described as the Heroine of Monmouth. In 1916 Carlisle established a three-dimensional representation of Molly Pitcher loading a cannon. In 1928, on the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Monmouth, pressure on the Postal Service to create a stamp showing Molly Pitcher was only partially successful. Instead, a stamp was issued that was a regular red two cent stamp depicting George Washington, but with a black overprint of the text Molly Pitcher in capital letters. In 1943, a Liberty ship was named SS Molly Pitcher and launched. It was torpedoed that same year. A 1944 wartime poster by C. W. Miller depicted Molly Pitcher with a ramrod at the battle of Monmouth, with the text Americas women have always fought for freedom. Sources John Todd White. The Truth About Molly Pitcher. in The American Revolution: Whose Revolution? edited by James Kirby Martin and Karen R. Stubaus. 1977.John B. Landis. A Short History of Molly Pitcher, the Heroine of Monmouth. 1905. Published by the Patriotic Sons of America.John B. Landis. Investigation into American Tradition of Woman Known as Molly Pitcher. Journal of American History 5 (1911): 83-94.D. W. Thompson and Merri Lou Schaumann. Goodbye Molly Pitcher. Cumberland County History 6 (1989).Carol Klaver. An Introduction into the Legend of Molly Pitcher. Minerva: Quarterly Report on Women and the Military 12 (1994) 52.

The May Fourth Movement Essays - Republic Of China, Chiang Kai-shek

The May Fourth Movement After World War I The Chinese felt sold out. Outrage and dissatisfaction emitted in exhibitions on May 4, 1919, i...