Once in a while, we get a day when everything just goes right.
Last Saturday, the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, along with the 1st Division Band out of Fort Riley, the Salina Symphony, and the National Archives gave me one of those days.
For Kansas in June, the weather was surprisingly cooperative and the band and symphony performed with perfection. But for this Kansas farm kid it was the National Archives traveling “Opening the Vault” exhibit that made that day a burned into memory forever day.
To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the archives have partnered with ten Presidential Libraries across the country to display some of the most significant documents in our history.
Please join me in a walk through that history:
1782 – Original Design for the Great Seal of the United States.
March 1, 1784 – Proclamation announcing the signing of the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783, that officially ended the Revolutionary war with England officially recognizing U.S. independence.
September 14, 1789 – Proposed amendments (Bill of Rights) to the U.S. Constitution as passed by the Senate with original strike through marks on amendments not approved.
April 30, 1803 – Louisiana Purchase that transferred 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River from France to the United States for $15 million, doubling our size at the time.
March 1, 1820 – Conference Committee Report on the Missouri Compromise that allowed Missouri to enter as a slave state, Maine a free state and outlawed slavery in the rest of the Louisiana Territory above the 36° 30’ latitude line.
January 29, 1850 – Henry Clay’s handwritten draft of the Comproise of 1850.
January 1854 – Senator Stephen Douglas’ Amendment to the Kansas-Nebraska bill that led to the pro and anti -slavery factions in “Bleeding Kansas”, putting the nation one step closer to Civil War.
April 18, 1861 – Telegram from Major Robert Anderson to Secretary of War Simon Cameron announcing the surrender of Fort Sumter.
January 31, 1865, and June 13, 18168 - Joint resolutions proposing the 13th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution.
May 18, 1896 – Plessy v. Ferguson judgement
January 8, 1918 – President Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points speech to Congress.
August 6, 1942, to June 30, 1943 – Manhattan Project Technical Notebook record of experiments noting the world’s first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction on December 2, 1942.
May 7, 1945 – Act of Military Surrender signed by General Alfred Jodle, Chief of Staff of the German Army at General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s headquarters in Rheims, France.
July 27, 1953 – Korean War Armistice Agreement
April 4, 1949 – North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) formation document
July 26, 1948 – Executive Order 9981. President Harry S. Truman’s ordering abolishment of racial segregation and discrimination in the United States Armed Forces.
May 17, 1954 - Opinion Supreme Court, Oliver Brown, et al., v. Board of Education of Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas, et al.
September 23, 1957 – Executive Order 10730. Eisenhower’s order federalizing the Arkansas National Guard and sending the 101st Airborne to protect black students at Central High School, Little Rock AR. who would come to be known as the “Little Rock Nine”.
August 6, 1965 – Original Voting Rights Act
March 23, 1971 – Joint resolution proposing the 26th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Lowering the voting age from 21 to 18. Ratified by ¾ of the states by July 1, 1971, giving it the fastest ratification in history.
Now, do me a favor and look back over that list. What do you see?
No personal slight intended, but if all you see is a list of dates from days long past, you’re missing the point.
Tomorrow, June 14, is flag day. It marks the date when 249 years ago the Second Continental Congress passed the resolution officially authorizing a national flag.
On May 30, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson made it a national observance by proclamation, but it not until August 3, 1949, when President Harry Truman signed House Joint Resolution 170 was it codified into law by an official act of Congress.
Think about that. There have been 27 versions since that first flag was adopted. And in one iteration or another, it has flown over every single event in this nation’s history. Yet, it took us over two centuries before we as a nation officially acknowledged its importance.
I think of the flag as the tapestry of our history. Each iteration a new panel in our evolution from 13 rebel colonies into the global power we are today.
They are not perfect panels. In fact, some are bloody and awful. But they are our panels and we own them, one and all. They are not for others to define. And while we should not ignore the dark of our past, it is imperative that we never let it overshadow the good.
Happy Flag Day everyone, and yes, God bless Mr. Cohan’s “grand old flag.”
The Eisenhower exhibit displays through July 5th, details can be found here: https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/events/landmark-exhibit-opening-the-vault-at-the-presidential-libraries
Globe pdf:
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