Monday, November 1, 2010

Truth Alert

There is an opinion piece in today's Austin American-Statesman entitled "In search of civility," by Jeanne Claire van Ryzin. It is about a speaking tour by Jim Leach, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

It is difficult to tell which parts of the article are Ms. van Ryzin's words, which are quotations from Mr. Leach, and which are paraphrases of Mr. Leach, but in the article are these words: "[W]e had greater tension in the pre-Civil War era and we had greater tension soon after the founding of the republic. After all, Alexander Hamilton was killed in a duel with the vice president of the United States. I sometimes describe that as 'a legal act of incivility,' because duels were legal then and fortunately they're not now." [Emphasis added.] I think that is a quotation from Mr. Leach.

In any event, these things are so simple. With the availability of the internet, you don't even have to go to the library to check them, even if you don't remember your basic American history. Why does the American-Statesman continue to publish these obvious falsehoods?

Duels were not legal when Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr fought theirs. In fact, even though they both lived in New York, they rowed across the Hudson River to a dueling grounds in Weehauken, New Jersey, to fight their duel because the law against dueling was being more aggressively enforced in New York at the time, and they were afraid the duel would be stopped by the authorities if held in New York. Mr. Hamilton died the following day of a wound he received at the hand of Mr. Burr, and Mr. Burr was charged with two counts of murder.

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