Secession

[Diane Amberg]

I just did a little internet searching, which isn't always accurate I know, but I found several articles that say no, neither he nor Mary Todd ever owned slaves. She grew up in a wealthy home that did have slaves, but she, Mary Todd, never did. There is a little legal piece that has to do with the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. It tries to show that if he withdrew his signature, he in effect owned all the slaves who had been freed. That was just a technical issue. I could find nothing that said he ever owned slaves and I don't know how he could have, too poor. I know of nothing about him owning land which would have needed slave labor, and they didn't have household slaves to my knowledge. Maybe Steve can share his source.

[Varmit]

I just did a little internet searching, which isn't always accurate I know, but I found several articles that say no, neither he nor Mary Todd ever owned slaves. She grew up in a wealthy home that did have slaves, but she did not.

I didn't know lincoln was transgender...

[Diane Amberg]

Oops! I'll fix that. Told ya I couldn't type.

[Diane Amberg]

It wasn't wrong, but it wasn't clear either. So I rewrote it. Actually, Lincoln was accused by some of being a homosexual because of his living arrangements as a young man. I guess there will always be people trying to make everything look bad. 

[redcliffsw]

Grant had slaves.  Grant said that good help was hard to find.

[Diane Amberg]

  One, I think.

[redcliffsw]

Diane- Most all slave owners cared for their slaves so don't believe all that
you learned about masters beating the slaves.  After the war, it was the
northerners who separated the blacks and whites as they did not
want them together.  

[Varmit]

So I rewrote it. Actually, Lincoln was accused by some of being a homosexual because of his living arrangements as a young man.

Really? I have heard lincoln called alot of things, but queer was never one of them.  Guess, you learn something new everyday.

[mobarbq]

Believe it or not, the only reason I remember anything about that was because it was on a current events pop quiz given by my history teacher, Earl Knorr. He demanded that we see the news and read the newspaper every day and he was known for his pop quizzes.

I've enjoyed reading this topic, considering that we still hear about secession even in today's politics, most recently with Gov. Rick Perry of Texas sharing some thoughts.  I am especially interested in Diane's comments as I am involved in a research project leading up to the 50th anniversary of the McDonald County Secession attempt of 1961.  I have been tracking newspapers that covered the story in 1961, and apparently this event made the AP wire several times, and small-town newspapers that needed filler material picked it up. 

The only thing I could add to W. Gray's original post (which is quite good, BTW) is that the postage at that time was actually three cents for first class mail. I suspect that they made their labels/stamps say two cents to assist in it "not being in similitude" to current US postage.  This came as part of an advisory given to well-known philatelist Herman Herst, Jr. in connection with the Shrub Oak Local Post of 1953, and there are indications that Walter Arndt, Postmaster General of the McDonald Territory may also have been a philatelist and may have taken this issue into consideration.



If you are interested in seeing my research, the shortcut to my page is http://tinyurl.com/McD2011

I would be very interested in hearing of any further information about the McDonald County secession attempt itself, or of any information related to the McDonald Territory Private Dispatch (the official name of the local post they established for mail carriage outside of the territory).  Thanks!

The image attached is from a photo postcard from the 1950's, and yes, Elk River still runs clear and true!  The Noel post office is about two or three blocks from this bridge to the right of frame. Many of the McDonald Territory pieces are seen with postmarks from Noel, although their original purpose was to frank mail for private carriage outside of the "Territory."

[W. Gray]

A forum for McDonald Territory--amazing.

Thanks for providing this information and as I recall the event made the NBC nightly news for several nights back when I think it was only 15 minutes long.