| American Minute with Bill Federer
‘Into the valley of Death, Rode the six hundred…’ – Crimean War and Russia selling Alaska to U.S.
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Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward, All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. “Forward, the Light Brigade! “Charge for the guns!” he said: Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.  “Forward, the Light Brigade!”Was there a man dismay’d? Not tho’ the soldier knew Someone had blunder’d: Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die: Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.
These lines are from the poem, ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, to eulogize the mistaken command that sent the British cavalry riding directly into Russian cannons during the Crimean War.
The Crimean War ended with the British alliance defeating the Russians in 1856. Combined casualties included over half-million deaths.
Many wounded were cared for by Florence Nightingale, pioneer of the nursing profession. She was known as ‘The Lady with the Lamp’ for making her rounds at night to check on the soldiers.
After losing the Crimea, Russia was concerned that Britain would try to expand their North American territory of British Columbia to include Alaska.
Rather than let Britain get Alaska, Russia sold 586,412 square miles to the United States in 1867 for $7.2 million – about two cents per acre.
It was the second largest land purchase in history – the largest being the Louisiana Purchase of 828,000 square miles in 1803.
The purchase was called Seward’s Folly, as Alaska was thought to be of no value.
Only when Alaska was discovered to be rich in natural resources was appreciation shown to Secretary of State William Seward.
William Henry Seward, who was born MAY 16, 1801, had been Governor of the State of New York, 1839-43; U.S. Senator 1849-61; and Secretary of State under President Lincoln during the War between the States, 1861-65.
The same night Lincoln was shot, an accomplice of John Wilkes Booth broke into Seward’s home and wounded him in an attempted assassination.
Seward later served as Secretary of State under President Andrew Johnson, 1865-69, working to implement the “reconstruction” in the South. William Henry Seward stated: “I do not believe human society, including not merely a few persons in any state, but whole masses of men, ever have attained, or ever can attain, a high state of intelligence, virtue, security, liberty, or happiness without the Holy Scriptures; even the whole hope of human progress is suspended on the ever-growing influence of the Bible.”
In 1836, as the vice-president of the American Bible Society, William Seward stated: “I know not how long a republican government can flourish among a great people who have not the Bible; the experiment has never been tried; but this I do know: that the existing government of this country never could have had existence but for the Bible. And, further, I do, in my conscience, believe that if at every decade of years a copy of the Bible could be found in every family in the land its republican institutions would be perpetuated.”
William Seward gave an oration titled, ‘The Destiny of America’, in which he stated: “Shall we look to the sacred desk? Yes, indeed; for it is of Divine institution, and is approved by human experience.
are now carrying further and broadly onward the great work of the renewal of the civilization of the world, and its emancipation from superstition and despotism.” www.fggam.org Thanks Bill Federer & www.AmericanMinute.com |
