by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
You know John Lennon's famous song, don't you (1968)? Everyone does. "You say you want a revolution, well you know, we all want to change the world..." but at Harvard, not too fast. Literally word by patient word. The issue at the World's Greatest University is this. The alma mater of the University, "Fair Harvard", was written in 1836. It is to be sure a sluggish hymn, played to the dewy-eyed undergraduates when they arrive, and to the misty-eyed when they graduate... when they take the Harvard brand into the real word. The do-gooders have got the usual bee in their bonnets. They want to change the last line, which reads "Till the stock of the Puritans die." This implies, so say advocates for change, that when the last Puritan dies, Harvard will cease to be the notable institution it has been for centuries. So important is this issue, the President of Harvard Drew Faust has created a commission titled Presidential Task Force on Inclusion and Belonging. This commission is currently in the midst of removing the Puritans and entering the diverse and nonjudgmental world of their imagining and constant search. This commission, like all kangaroo courts, is not asking the University community whether they wish to continue with an historic song, known by every Harvard student and alumnus... no, they've already decided that the line about the Puritans must go. They've appointed themselves the re-lyricing folks. They don't like the line, they don't want anyone else to like the line, and they certainly don't want to ask the University community whether it wants to keep the line. Democracy, you see, is for other people, not Harvard poohbahs. So far, these pocket revolutionaries have announced that all the University community is invited to participate in changing the last line of the alma mater to bring it into contemporary usage... never mind that the song in question has been on the lips of virtually every Harvard student who matriculated since 1836. "What's wrong is wrong," they say. And truth must prevail against all comers. This situation is tailor made for Voltaire (1694-1778), "History is a pack of lies... the living play on the dead." Time and other precious resources are being utilized this very minute to "improve" what needs no improvement. But what is worse, is that these people, with all their exalted academic titles and colorful gowns, are dealing with literally one word. At this rate, it will take a millennium for these valued academics to fulfill their wishing. Yes, so far, their one "achievement" is proclaiming a contest in two parts. Part one: a new, more "correct" and contemporary wording. And also, even more extraordinary, to select new music, including such suggestions as hip-hop and electronic. Now our lucky graduates can move the committee so that at future graduation ceremonies, new students can bugaloo, or perhaps reggae. Never let us ask what is appropriate for the ceremony, let us only inquire whether every strain of music has been given the chance to modernize the high festivities and events which characterize the life of a great university. In addition, they have created a website called the "solution space", which is designed to circulate their fatuous and jejune views. But now I have something important to say to this committee and to the University community. If the goal is to diminish the reputation of the Puritans, then they are certainly going about this matter completely incorrectly. Sixty people were appointed by the president to this commission. Sixty people for one word... Puritans. However I am like Louis Antoine de Saint-Just (1767-1794), the "Angel of Death" of this situation... the beautiful revolutionary. He changed the debate for the direction of the French Revolution in one sentence... that "One cannot reign innocently: the insanity of doing so is evident". And on this basis, they guillotined his Most Christian Majesty, Louis XVI. It is now time to strike a blow for this nonjudgmental, diverse, all inclusive revolution. To take it out of the hands of people who think removing a single word is triumph, and to get to the heart of the matter. That single word – Puritans – shows us that we remain enthralled to our ancient heritage when so much of this palaver does not enhance the debate. "J'accuse...!" In 1898, Emile Zola wrote perhaps the most famous declaration ever written, "J'accuse…!", where he changed the debate on the Dreyfus Affair (1894), a shameful exhibition of the abuse of power. But Zola and his unforgettable language changed a culture, and aroused a great nation. Now it is time to do this with Harvard, a name universally known, a destination that thousands of young people all over the world chart from an early day, and go to bed every night in hopeful expectation that they may have the great good fortune of going to Harvard and being a part of its community. Towards this end, I suggest with complete humility this truly new idea: the name Harvard must be stripped off the University. I am not being facetious, or cantankerous, or quarrelsome; I am presenting the solution to the problem of diversity and inclusion. Let us commence by looking at who this John Harvard was and remember that this is the man who we revere and venerate as a founder and benefactor of the great University and its worldwide reputation and dealings. John Harvard was born in 1607, and died in 1638, just 31 and a half years old. He bequeathed half his extensive property (over $2 million dollars in today's currency) and a great collection of his books. Since 1636, no one has bothered to go beyond the resource giver and look at his views, prejudices, and positions which so embarrass us today. In a way, of course, the University was enormously fortunate that so little is known about John Harvard, and even better that virtually all the books that he donated to Harvard, most of them on theological subjects, were destroyed in a fire in 1764. These books would have told us some inconvenient truths about this man, his mission, and what he wanted for Harvard. Fortunately, the Puritans were epistolary masters, and fastidious diary keepers. If we cannot see into the heart of John Harvard, we can learn a great deal about how he thought by examining places and people he engaged with. At the commencement, the members of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, themselves Puritans, said in their remarks upon accepting his bequest that “He is a Godly gentleman”, in other words that he was a great and good Puritan, and they like him more because they all agreed. Here are some things which in their eyes made all Puritans great, including John Harvard. 1) They condemned to eternal damnation and the fires of Hell anyone who was not saved. Since only Puritans could be saved, it was a select group. John Harvard was part of it, and he participated in the strongest possible measures to exile and remove those who did not concur with his select opinion. 2) The Puritans were anti-Roman Catholic. The Bishop of Rome was their particular nemesis. Within Puritan communities, Roman Catholic clergy and missionaries were all evil and could be literally thrown off the land and killed because they chose to follow God in their way, which no Puritan could ever allow. 3) They were anti The Church of England. It had not purified itself of Roman influence, and as such was anathema. 4) They opposed Quakers and Baptists, several of whom were hung by the neck until dead… because they chose their way of godliness, and the Puritans could never agree. Tolerance was not their metier. 5) They oppressed women. Running through the Puritan literature, adhered to by John Harvard, women were to be kept for breeding and cleaning… and of course to provide ongoing ecstasy upon demand to their lord and master. John Harvard believed this, because every Puritan believed it. 6) John Harvard believed as every Puritan believed in demons. He along with other Puritans was confident that the demons could do most anything to hurt and harm, malign and destroy any life… and therefore the strongest possible response was not only necessary, but essential. And so other colonists went to the stake, so they might expiate their sins in the fiery flames of Hell and eternal damnation. The Puritans did not believe in changing their treasured opinions. Those who advocated change were wrong now, wrong then, and wrong forever. They did not need committees of the well meaning, they had God, and He was sufficient. The sad truth of this matter is that it is the very paucity of information about John Harvard and his views that have made him such an attractive founder. There is no opposition to John Harvard because so very little is known about him. It is altogether fitting and proper that the famous statue in Harvard Yard is not of John Harvard at all, but someone quite different. And so, I charge you Danielle Allen, University Professor, Co-Chair of this commission, and all your 60 members, to drop the petty crusade against a single word and to go to the heart of the matter. Change the name of the University. Remove it from every degree. Remove it, root and branch, from everything touched by the name John Harvard. Your committee members may well blanch at this startling and long overdue recommendation. If you truly want diversity and inclusiveness you can have it. Of course some narrow minded people will say things like “They don’t care about inclusiveness and diversity. They didn’t come to Harvard for that, but for degrees which lift them high and above others who attended other, less rigorous educational institutions.” The very name John Harvard and everything that is known about him and his Puritan colleagues demands that it be excluded from every aspect of the University and its history. And to those who complain I say this: the motto of this great institution is still Veritas; so cease focusing on the insignificant, and focus instead on cleansing Harvard of Harvard. "You say you'll change the constitution Well, you know We all want to change your head You tell me it's the institution Well, you know You better free you mind instead" Click here to listen to the song.
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by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
It is the beginning of April. A lovely time of year here in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where I am writing you. The sun is brilliant; leaves are bursting out all over. It is going to be 82 degrees out today; it was just 30 last week. These rapid fire changes are, of course, the norm in New England. Temperatures may drop sharply yet again, but the odds are we are now on the necessary path to deliver spring for sure. I ought to be outside. I’m 70 now, you know, and I’m supposed to be retired. Instead I found that word almost ludicrous in the extreme. There is no rest for the weary. One reason why is the stack of auction catalogs which I cannot quite reach by leaning backwards in my desk chair. Every day now, the best that major auction companies (and some small ones too) can offer is just about a finger’s length away. They taunt, they point, they arrange themselves in a seductive pattern on the floor, they teeter in makeshift towers which are anything but stable, and fall frequently, giving me yet another look at the bounty inside… bounty that I want. I thought I’d write this article for you, to show you what you must do if you plan on becoming a major collector, or even an episodic superficial one. There are steps you must take. There are actions and procedures you must learn. As always, you must restrain yourself; it’s part of what being a connoisseur is all about. Focus on the best. Never be or remain satisfied with anything other than quality. For many years now, I have regarded April, when the first major auctions take place, as the true beginning of auction season. The auction schedule is clogged for this month, May, and June. The loveliest things in the world go on the block during this period, and must sell now before the summer descends, when the unrelenting heat crushes our desire to sit inside and make learned remarks about things we probably cannot afford. The first thing you need to know about auctions in this season or any other, is that homework is required. Collections are built through assiduous effort, constant viewing and reviewing of objects and offers, constant communication with your stable of experts, and frequent attaboys to keep your spirits up and, as they said in the Revolutionary War, to keep your powder dry. Upon receipt, review your catalogs at once. True connoisseurs, that is to say people who play the game better than anyone else, want information early, thorough, and precise. Thus, when a new catalog arrives (that could well be every single day), you must sit down and glance and skim every page. When you get good at this game, this review will only take 10 minutes or so. As you skim, mark each page that contains something of potential interest. The best thing to do is when you have a little bit more time, create bookmarks by cutting up scrap paper and keep a jar full of them so you’re prepared when the catalogs arrive. This preliminary review gives you a sense of what may become important over the next days and weeks before the auctions. The goal is not to make a decision now, it is simply to give you a bird’s eye view of everything that is coming up at the auction houses you follow. Thanks to contemporary universal communications, you may have auctions you’re interested in in Stockholm, Vienna, Paris, London, Rome, Amsterdam, New York, and other major cities, whereas in the olden days, before the internet and computers, you probably couldn’t follow more than one auction house in one city at a time. These days it is perfectly common to follow both major auction houses (Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Dorotheum), and some localized regional houses. Let’s be honest with each other: this is not easy to do. It takes sustained focus, and a willingness to do what is necessary so that you will not be intimidated when you look for goods in Sweden or Madrid. The worldwide communications revolution has quite clearly fundamentally altered communications, and they have made it possible to learn about, study, and acquire the lots of your highest interest. Craziness extra. Once you have accomplished your preliminary review, consult your bank book. As I so well know, being a connoisseur with a desire to achieve a splendid collection of international importance selected from the widest variety of goods, you must follow up your preliminary review with a more thorough secondary review. It is a wise idea to organize this review by date. Remember, when you’re dealing with many auction houses worldwide, your life will be like a popcorn machine, with new sales popping up all the time. Thus, organize your catalogs in chronological order. Don’t just mark the objects you’re interested in, mark the objects you need help with. I can recall one instance, for example, when I was purchasing Swedish silver sugar bowls from the 18th Century and before. Some of the best silver of this kind was produced in Stockholm, which was then a major political force in Europe. The silver bowls produced in Sweden, however, did not feature elaborate family coats of arms, or other heraldic markings. I was curious, because the objects would have been so much more dramatic, at least in my opinion, with these engraved devices. But it was not the custom to engrave silver as they did in every other major European power. Chacun à son goût. So… review all your catalogs… mark the items you are interested in… and be clear on the sales date for each catalog you’re interested in. Here is where strategy comes into play. You may see, as I often do, a lovely item on page 1, that is not quite as lovely as an item on page 6, that is not quite as lovely as an item on page 52. Connoisseurs have a constant dilemma. Should you nail down the first item in an auction, even though that may constitute all your available resources, or should you pass on the first item to get to the second, doing the exact same thing to get to the third item. This is a conundrum, a puzzle, an ongoing test of your strategic abilities. Very few of us have unlimited resources. We must, like I have done throughout the years, work harder, research more thoroughly, and enter the auction arena with nerves of steel. In the auction game, things change with lightning speed. Items which you think you couldn’t afford all of a sudden are selling for fifty percent of what you thought they would. You have to be ready to make the appropriate move, and you must never regret it if your strategy doesn’t work out. Learn from your failures. By the same token, when you get something that you didn’t expect to get, and you get it below the low estimate, do a happy dance around your desk and whoop it up. Napoleon Bonaparte used to say “Give me the lucky man.” The more you play this game, the luckier you will get. This brings me to the spring silver sales now underway. I have been spending the last few days in my usual state of anguish and anxiety. All three major European auction houses are having silver sales of the exact things that I crave and cherish. Two of the companies have their silver sales on the same day… different companies, even different continents… same day. This has happened to me on other occasions, where I have one company on hold on one phone and one company on hold on the other. Complete control and clarity are essential in this situation. Mark the lots that you most want. Do this in all the sales catalogs you have. Do not give way to over-enthusiasm, to an “I must have” attitude. No matter how rare the item you want, there will always be a rarer item coming down the pike. When I was a graduate student at Harvard, I lived like most graduate students. That is to say, I was a man of empty pockets and unyielding dreams. If some wise acre had told me forty years ago that I would be playing this game with some of the biggest international players, I would not just have disbelieved, I would have scoffed. Such things may happen in fairy tales, but not to graduate students without a schilling in their pocket. But my dream indeed has come true. Just this morning, I purchased an early 19th Century Venetian seascape by Giacomo Guardi (1764-1835). It is a lovely picture hitherto down on its luck, needing TLC and lots of it. Luckily, it found me, and it now has a chance of life again, and grandeur. This afternoon I’ve been working on my silver collection. Each of these numerous items is an asset. As I have said for so many years, all assets in play. Do not just sit on an asset and look at its thrilling aspects. See it not just as a stationary thing, but as an asset to leverage more. To be a connoisseur is to be not just a finder of beauteous objects, but an economic wizard, seizing a thing, twisting and turning that thing, until you have another thing, and the process takes place all over again for the rest of your life. Musical note from Grace Jones “Art Groupie” (1981) I’ve turned to my friend Grace Jones for a comment or two on this matter. Grace is never less than totally frank, which makes so many people squirm, knowing that they may be the next one in her sights. “Don't ask me any questions, My personal life is a bore, Admire me in glory, An Art Groupie. That's all.” “I'll never write my memoirs, There's nothing in my book, The only way you see me an Art Groupie, I'm hooked.” And so am I. by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
As you may imagine, it is difficult to keep up the oldest commissioned naval vehicle, but without thorough review and constant care, it would soon be past any chance of keeping it from the scrap heap. That is why it is good to see that a complete refurbishment of the ship is going on right now at Charlestown Navy Yard. Nearly 100 new white oak planks have been added, and over 2,200 fresh copper sheets on its recaulked hull. This extensive re-outfitting has not stopped the ship from receiving its regular, heavy flow of visitors. That is why you should make it a point when in Boston to visit "Old Ironsides" and thrill, for she is one of the reasons why the new Republic prospered and grew. The stamp of approval. U.S. Postal Service recognizes the USS Constitution, the world's oldest floating commissioned naval vessel. By Dr. Jeffrey Lant Author's program note. For this article no other song would do besides the jaunty, rousing fight song of the United States Naval Academy, "Anchors Aweigh." Strongly associated, too, with the United States Navy, it was composed in 1906 by Charles A. Zimmerman with lyrics by Alfred Hart Miles. Zimmerman was at the time a Lieutenant, and had been bandmaster of the United States Naval Academy Band since 1887. Miles was Midshipman First Class at the Academy, in the class of 1907. The song was originally written for the class of '07 to be used as a football march. It takes great fortitude and control not to jump and march when you hear its unmistakable sound. I own up to having neither when the band in full swing goes by playing this. Go now to any search engine and find the rendition you like best. Then play it loud and clear to get yourself into the mood for this tale of "Old Ironsides." "Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!" Perhaps the most perilous battle she faced, literally a matter of life and death occurred in September, 1830 when the pettifogging bureaucrats in the naval department, eager to pinch pennies, ordered the greatest ship of the young Republic, now past her prime, to be broken up, just so much salvage. A young Boston Brahmin named Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. learned of this intended act of short-sighted barbarism while at breakfast reading the "Boston Daily Advertiser." At once he decided to take action to save the ship which could no longer fight to save herself. He titled his fast-penned poem "Old Ironsides" and it ran September 16, 1830. "Ay, tear her tattered ensign down! Long has it waved on high, And many an eye has danced to see That banner in the sky; Beneath it rung the battle shout, And burst the cannon's roar; The meteor of the ocean air Shall sweep the clouds no more. Her deck, once red with heroes' blood, Where knelt the vanquished foe, When winds were hurrying o'er the flood, And waves were white below, No more shall feel the victor's tread, Or know the conquered knee; The harpies of the shore shall pluck The eagle of the sea. Oh, better that her shattered bulk Should sink beneath the wave; Her thunders shook the mighty deep, And there should be her grave; Nail to her mast her holy flag, Set every threadbare sail, And give her to the god of storms, The lighting and the gale!" By the evening of the 16th, author Holmes was famous... and his fervent verses, overwrought, overdone, overfraught, were making even the most committed pennypinchers abashed and ashamed. "Old Ironsides" was saved... but it was a very close run thing. One shudders to think what would have happened had young Mr. Holmes not been of a poetical disposition. The great warship is born, 1797. Now that the former American colonies had become the new American nation, the powerful British fleet, which had always protected them and cost them nothing, became the new nation's prime antagonist. Thus, this nation found itself in the unenviable position of having virtually no ships to protect them and their crucial maritime commerce. Constructing a navy became a priority, at least for the mercantile East and New England. It was their ships and cargoes, after all, their British antagonists aimed to capture and disrupt. And so, the USS Constitution, named by President George Washington, was authorized as one of 6 original frigates by the Naval Act of 1794. These ships were larger and more heavily armed and built than standard frigates of the period, a fact which was very important for all six ships, but particularly Constitution, which used this advantage to earn the most glorious battle record of them all. Right from the first, she was needed and served in the Quasi-War with France (1798) and in the war against the Barbary pirates, practiced thieves of North Africa who had hitherto preyed with impunity on American vessels and crews. Constitution helped win the First Barbary War (1801). But these useful services were just a preface to her greatest service in the otherwise lackluster and regrettable War of 1812, a conflict both Americans and British wanted, but brought neither laurels, treasure, territory or satisfaction. In this conflict, only the Constitution and its string of oceanic victories stood out, so much so that the British Admiralty ruled that warships combating Constitution and her sisters should never fight alone, only in packs. It was testament to just how good these vessels were, especially Constitution. She defeated one of His Majesty's ships after another... each victory thrilled a nation irritated, frustrated, exasperated by what the American army couldn't seem to do... and by a similar lack of results by other ships of the brand new navy. But Constitution caused Americans to rush to the harbor and shout "Huzzah" as news arrived about victory... first, over the Guerriere. This was the engagement which gave Constitution its celebrated sobriquet. For cannon balls shot from the doomed British warship seemed to bounce off Constitution without effect. An unknown sailor shouted, "Her sides are made of iron!"... and the nickname stuck, to thrill the proud nation which looked for any hopeful news to cheer at in this entirely unhappy war. HMS Java was next... then HMS Cyane... and HMS Levant... and HMS Lord Nelson, bearing the most famous name in British naval history... captured as a prize along with everything needed to celebrate Christmas, a meal they so enjoyed... with one toast after another heartily drunk from the defeated captain's fine liquors. How sweet that was... and sweeter still the cheers, plaudits, and resounding thanks of the nation when on 15 May, 1815 she came home, full of honors and renown. Now what? As navy men will tell you, each new ship embodies the best of current technology; as these ships are launched they push previous vessels to obsolescence and the scrap heap, for there is nothing so useless as a vessel, costing money everyday, without the ability to fulfill its bellicose purpose. No ship, not even ones covered with glory like Constitution, can avoid this sad fate. Thus as she aged, the vultures and scrap metal merchants circled... and for all her victories, she also would have been broken up, no more to sail, protect the nation, and make every citizen proud. Sic transit gloria mundi. But providence intervened in the person of Mr. Holmes and his facile pen. The subsequent history of Constitution and how she continued to serve is mundane compared to her maritime glories. No matter. She survived, though there were always those ready to sacrifice the legendary vessel to save a few pence. Her luck held... not least because of the many who worked mightily to save her and give her the honorable place in the Navy as the world's oldest floating commissioned warship along with a museum which opened in 1976, the same year H.M. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip trod her decks when they visited Boston as part of the nation's Bicentennial observations. Her ancestor George III, owner of the ships humbled by Constitution, no doubt spun in his imperial grave. Now, just in time for the Bicentennial of the War of 1812, the U.S. Postal Service has released the design for an "Old Ironsides" stamp. The beleaguered postal service, in the process of closing 3,700 post offices throughout the United States, hopes to use Constitution to sell commemoratives for needed funds. And because closing post offices means losing such sales... they have launched this new stamp on Facebook, thereby hoping to reach millions of folks of philatelic bent. So her good uses continue... her future now, we hope, secured. Next time you visit Boston, do visit, for she has always been one of the glories of the nation and so she remains. |
AuthorDr. Jeffrey Lant, Harvard educated, started writing for publication at age 5. Since then, he has published over 1,000 articles and 63 books, and counting. Archives
August 2018
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