History Detective

As much joy as I felt in the Jefferson Library, I doubled that when I learned that one of my presidential siblings had moved to Missouri in 1820! Now that I live near the University of Missouri libraries (oh, great joy! So many books; so little time!) I haunt the stacks and the files of the Missouri Historical Society Library!

My sibling is Joseph Jones Monroe, the youngest brother of President James Monroe. Couldn’t do a thing in his life except rack up bills that he expected his presidential brother to pay–which President Monroe did, to the detriment of his own family. Finally, enough was enough, and Joseph headed west. It was the time of the Missouri Compromise state, and it was a personal Missouri compromise between the brothers. Joseph would go west, and President James would never, ever again pay any of his brother’s bills.

Joseph went to a town named Franklin, right on the banks (literally, with no flood protection) of the Missouri River. Growing up, my high school played basketball against New Franklin, three miles away. I knew there was an Old Franklin that had been washed away by the river, but I knew nothing more than that. Imagine my delight to find that Old Franklin had been quite the kicking town! Santa Fe Trail started there; Kit Carson rebelled against his apprenticeship to a saddler and took off for parts west at age 16. The famous artist George Caleb Bingham’s father had a hotel there, and a young, 9-year-old George aided the painter of the presidents, Chester Harding, as he painted the only two portraits of Daniel Boone done from life. Ole Dan’l died before they were completed. A land office was opened there to sell all the Howard County land obtained by the Louisiana Purchase. It was a place ripe for duels and shoot-outs and lawsuits–and an Eden for lawyers. Our Joseph Monroe set up shop there, along with future governors and supreme court judges and other Missouri leaders–and Dabney Carr, a cousin of Thomas Jefferson’s brother-in-law.

Joseph’s son-in-law was a man named Edward Cabell. Edward married Harriett Forbes Monroe back in Virginia and they moved west, landing in the area before Joseph Monroe did. A prominent family, it was a Cabell who was a prime mover with Thomas Jefferson in the founding the University of Virginia. Cabells were governors and senators. Edward’s own sister gave birth to a future vice president of the United States.

Edward and Harriett moved upriver to a town named Chariton, a place where, earlier, the Lewis and Clark expedition had landed. Because the mosquitoes were so bad, they got right back in their boats and moved on! Not a good place for a town. Many of the citizens became deathly ill–or died–from mosquito-borne malaria. Chariton eventually got washed away, too. But while it existed, Chariton was the first county seat for Chariton County, and Edward Cabell was named the first Circuit Clerk, a job he held for 30 years, as well as being named the first County Clerk. In the 1880’s, their son gave a speech to an Old Settlers’ Reunion, and said that for years, his father could carry all the papers of the court around in his hat. He told that his mother had hand-sewn the first Chariton County court books from quires of foolscap.

I traveled to the Chariton County Court House to see those first records. It was truly a trip to hold those 1820 records in my hands. At first, I thought I would be disappointed. The first record book looked like something that had been professionally bound. Then I opened it. There, inside, was the index to that record book, a small foolscap booklet, handsewn. I was holding in my hands what Harriett Monroe Cabell had carefully prepared in 1820. I was holding in my hands history.

The Real Meaning of Noblesse Oblige

My favorite English teacher, a tough, old-fashioned broad named Miss Edna Stewart, spent an entire high school class period discussing the meaning and obligation of noblesse oblige. It was the motto of the National Honor Society, so she was trying to get the ethics of it through our thick skulls. It is the class period I have never forgotten.

Noblesse oblige literally translates to “nobility obligates.” It implies that with wealth, power and prestige come social responsibilities; it is a moral obligation to act with honor, kindliness and generosity.

The term is often used sarcastically, implying that one is a hypocrite by doing a service because one has to, or by being condescending while doing it. My mother used to refer to that kind of attitude as being a “Lady Bountiful,” doing good deeds because you’re special, to make yourself feel better and make others feel bad at the same time.

For citizens of America, true noblesse oblige has nothing to do with high birth, power or prestige. True noblesse oblige is a responsibility for all of us who have been given the benefits of living in a free land, founded on the highest principles. If we, as a country, miss the mark, it is no reflection on the founding principles. It means we have the responsibility to use our energies and intelligence to return to basics and fix it.

When I was in college, I remember the speeches of John F. Kennedy, and how they touched each of us at depth. Every one of us wanted to serve the country, to make it better, to “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” Frankly, I felt that same way when I heard Barack Obama’s speech the evening of Super Tuesday. It brought tears to my eyes and made me want to be a better person.

A modern day mystic, Andrew Harvey, is teaching a concept called “Sacred Activism.” It doesn’t mean we all get on board and volunteer to solve one particular problem. What it does mean is that we seek to find the problem that breaks our heart, and then work like blue blazes to fix that. That may mean education, or health care, or violence in our communities, or any of a million other evils.

But it does mean that we enter into that true spirit of noblesse oblige–and do it. It is the only answer for our country, and our world.

First Lady Abigail Adams once wrote to her son, John Quincy Adams, “These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or in the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed…The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. All history will convince you of this… Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherways lay dormant, wake into life, and form the character of the hero and the statesman.”

We do not need to be wealthy, or powerful, or president to be a hero. We merely need to act, with honor, and with a loving and ethical heart.

New book, working title “In the Midst of Greatness.”

The next book is about the siblings of the presidents, and I have been working on the first Virginia presidents for the past few months; went to Virginia and was in heaven in all the homes and museums–and the Jefferson Library. When I came out of the library into the wild freshness of a Virginia winter, I was so filled with joy I wanted to twirl around like Julie Andrews on a mountaintop.

I am continually astounded at how the presidents–and often their families, too–gave everything they had for this country, usually winding up in disastrous debt and dying in poverty. I keep thinking of George Washington’s sister and brother-in-law, Betty and Fielding Lewis. Fielding gave his entire fortune to build an ammunition and gun factory, and died just days after he learned of Cornwallis’ defeat. Betty had little after his death, but what a blessing they learned about America’s victory before he died.

Would I have been willing to give up everything for a new country? Would I have been a sunshine patriot? I don’t know. But I do know that I, too,–and we–have a sacred responsibility to this country…now, more than ever.

Americans choose!

This morning, I headed out of a shop and said, “I’ve got to go vote now.” Before I reached the door, I was filled with elation. I turned back and said, “No, I GET to go vote now.”

On this Super Tuesday, for the first time in history, we have Hillary Clinton, a woman, Barack Obama, a Black American, John McCain, a former prisoner of war, and Mitt Romney, a Mormon. And they are all viable candidates. We, as Americans, get to choose among them, and others. It is an exciting day.

We must vote with our minds and hearts, sincerely choosing what we believe to be the highest and best for our country. We must not be affected by exit polls or any other ruses that might skew our decisions.

Back in 1948, Harry Truman spoke about polls: “These polls,” he said, “are like sleeping pills designed to lull the voters into sleeping on election day. You might call them ’sleeping polls.’” His opponent “keeps handing out these sleeping polls, and some people have been taking them. This doctor keeps telling the people, ‘Don’t worry, take a poll and go to sleep.’ But most of the people are not being fooled.”

I encourage all of us, as faithful Americans, not to go to sleep today. Today, WE get to choose.