FAKE NEWS AWARD--This Just In--ARMY OF POTOMAC RETREATS--

The President's first "Fake News Award" will go to the correspondent at the New York Tribune who reported that General Hooker's Army of the Potomac took a retrograde movement across the Rappahannock and reversed its campaign in pursuit of General Lee's retreating Army of Virginia. Apparently, the "false news" claim slipped passed the military censor as it was encoded in cipher, possibly meant for stock-jobbers to speculate. Commenting on the mysterious fabrication, The Massachusetts Republican noted "We advise Mr. Stanton to set his news censors at work to ferret out these coiners of false information."

" There is something requiring '21)4W:iron in the very positive arid detailed accounts sent forward froth Wash-tugton on 14unday as to another advance of Oen. hooker across the Rappahannock. They seemed incredible at the time. and )et they were gct up in such aplicit and wai-ter-of-fact style as to dereive the most sagacious sifters of Ilf-11(5. Where did they come from? Who was the irge-Mous trainator, andabat was his object t We ads ise Mr. Starton to art bin news ,:eubora at work to ferret out these coiner. of false Information. Of course they will have little difficulty in tracing the despatches to their mourns, since they were allowed to pass when known to be raise, on the principle, we suppose, that fa/se news Pio* not help the enemy if it shodll reach them. The new was most full and particular as sent to the Philadelphia Prew, Mr. Forney'. parr, which often has army news in-dicating close relations with the War Offlee—a fact that may or way not be relevant in this case. ',the correspon-d ut undertook to give the news as brought back from Gen. Hooker's army- by Vie President and Oen. Ili/leek, I, nod Witt as that after sending over several regiments on Wednesday and Thursday, who found that the enemy had disappeared from the other side, Geo. Hooker put over the first ard fifth corps wider Sedgwick, and afterwards cross-ed his •h le army, who deployed in (Efferent directions Hera of the enemy."

WINTER OLYMPICS--Integration of the Korean Women's Hockey Team--REMARKABLE STEP TOWARD PEACE

Note the very Asian name of the South Korean coach, Sarah Murray. She's from Minnesota, the land of a whole bunch of lakes, more than Finland. It is appropriate for South Korea to import gunslingers for the team but not the Peoples Republic.
What a remarkable step forward for peace on the Peninsula, something that goes against the formal policy of not just the White House but most of the rest of the so-called democratic world, where integration of all beliefs: religious, economic and political (not to forget gender equality) are the cornerstones of their nations.

WAPO ARTICLE--

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/olympics/koreas-plan-olympic-first-with-joint-womens-hockey-team-but-many-in-the-south-are-not-happy/2018/01/17/5066040c-fb90-11e7-b832-8c26844b74fb_story.html?utm_term=.3fe76198515c

HISTORY101C//UNR--Essay on Henry Clay Speech, 1847--JC LANGELLE

History 101C.1001
Univ of Nevada, Reno
Professor CB Strang
Fall 2017

Primary Source Essay: Henry Clay Speech; Lexington, Kentucky  November 13, 1847

     Deception, invasion, occupation, unfettered military action by the Commander-in-Chief; does this sound like something out of the last
decade? Hardly. It was the Mexican War  of 1846-1848. Although it was brief, casualties were staggering and war crimes allegations dominated
the subsequent treaty that ended hostilities. Before it ended, but after General Winfield Scott captured Mexico City; Henry Clay, a Kentucky
Whig who  lost to James K. Polk in the 1844 Presidential election, gave a speech in Lexington in 1847. The war developed over the annexation of
Texas into the Union along with a border dispute linked to the territory.
     In opening remarks of his speech, Clay denounced the war as illegal, precipitated by a false clause written into the preamble. However, in
a letter addressed to the Senate delivered on May 11, 1846, the President states his case for war with Mexico. In it, Polk argued that the
Mexican government had changed hands and adopted a military posture. Even as US naval forces were drawn back from Vera Cruz and the diplomat
Slidell arrived and requested a meeting with the Foreign Minister, Mexico City refused to negotiate. Following this rebuttal, Polk ordered
troops across the Rio Nueces, claiming that the border had been drawn beyond that and revenue had been agreed upon to be extracted from that
district, with a revenue officer already appointed by Congress. It was this redeployment beyond the Rio Nueces that exacerbated the conflict
when a dragoon patrol from the American camp along the Rio Bravo del Norte was ambushed and close to a dozen soldiers killed. (1)
     Inasmuch as the speech compares aggression to former empire seekers such as Alexander, Caesar and Napoleon, it is worth noting Clay’s
assertion that Congress does not have the power to intervene and halt a war once it has been declared, leaving the President alone to determine
its progress and conduct. Quoted from the speech text:
     “If it be contended that a war having been once commenced, the President of the United States may direct it to the accomplishment of any
objects he pleases, without consulting and without regard to the will of Congress, the Convention will have utterly failed in guarding the
nation against the abuses and ambition of a single individual.” (2)
     The United States would have to wait 126 years to see any kind of legislation that would address the authority of the President in the
conduct of war. The War Powers Resolution of 1973 would only check the Commander-in-Chief’s authority in undeclared wars with various
restrictions and requirements for the Executive Branch to be held liable to the Legislative Branch in the absence of consent by Congress to
engage in hostilities against a foreign adversary. Henry Clay was perhaps the most visionary politician of his time to discover this flaw in
the Constitution that allowed even the most altruistic leader the opportunity to become a despot. (3)
     Clay then turns his attention toward the possibility of the annexation of Mexico into the US empire, steadfastly arguing against such a
proposal. He cites 100,000 troops that would have to be stationed in Mexico on a continuous basis to suppress rebellion; he notes the
probability of a new political party, the Mexican vote, in Congress, that would undermine the interests of the nation to the north as a whole.
He offers the conflict that would be created by the Catholic nation below the Rio Grande being ruled by the Protestant nation to the north and
finally, the rejection of slavery into Mexico. The issue of slavery is examined in detail in the speech and not just from the interests of the
plantation owners. Clay indirectly refutes the abolitionist demand for immediate emancipation, claiming the slaves were too ignorant and
disorganized to contribute to the society. In addition, the fact that slaves were, if not dominant numerically in some states, they would be a
significant force to be reckoned with if they were given the vote.
     All of this he rationalized into the calculus of annexation of Mexico and in the end, Clay introduces resolutions that he believed would
prevent the United States from entering into costly wars, both in the lives of soldiers and the national debt. Looking back on this incredibly
visionary speech, one can only become speechless himself that most of what Henry Clay warned against and proposed has fallen on deaf ears.

REFERENCES:
(1) The Congressional Globe, 1846.
https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llcg&fileName=016/llcg016.db&recNum=830
(2) Speech of Henry Clay, Lexington Mass Meeting, 1847
https://archive.org/details/speechofhenryclay00inclay
(3) War Powers Resolution 1973
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/warpower.asp