Lindenwald is a country estate on the Old Post Road between New York and the state capital Albany. The Hudson River Valley was still Dutch-speaking when Van Buren was born in a local tavern (fyi, ‘kill’ is Dutch for ‘waterway’). President Van Buren bought it in anticipation of not winning re-election, after a financial crisis and not backing Texas statehood after the Alamo. Van Buren was a political tactician who helped form the Democratic Party, managed Andrew Jackson’s campaign and became his Vice President. He expanded the franchise for white males by reducing the property ownership burden, but he restricted the franchise for black males by raising the property ownership burden. He also opposed women having any rights and continued Jackson’s cruel Native American relocation policies. The house tour was very educational, especially since I knew almost nothing about him, and I was pleased that the ranger described our 8th President’s faults without hesitation, unlike Andrew Johnson‘s ridiculous site.
I’m not sure why this site hasn’t been promoted to National Historical Park, since it is a presidential birthplace, childhood home, presidential home, library, and gravesite. There’s also the walled garden at Bellefield, the neighboring Eleanor Roosevelt site, and the neighboring Vanderbilt site.
These wonderful estates are a fine introduction to the historic Hudson River Valley. I enjoyed the Clinton written & narrated film in the museum, and thought $10 for the library worth it. Your park pass includes the house tour, and there’s even a cafe serving hot dogs (see ’Hyde Park on the Hudson’ with Bill Murray). I can’t complain about the three top notch tours today or anything else here. Simply superb!
This is where a young nominee sought the critical endorsement of Eleanor Roosevelt. She thought him too wishy-washy on Civil Rights, and counseled him to be more assertive on the issue. JFK complied, she endorsed him, and he won by a hair. Without Eleanor, it also seems impossible to me that FDR could have overcome his crippling polio limitations and successfully campaigned for and won the Presidency. And of course, without Eleanor, it seems unlikely that the UN would have adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. After her husband’s death, she was in many ways the moral leader of the Democratic Party. She stared down the Soviets at the UN. She wrote over a dozen books. And she spoke frequently to labor, Civil Rights, and other important leaders, as well as to the public.
Her home here was also where many of the most important acts of FDR’s diplomacy took place, including playing in the pool with Churchill and famously eating hot dogs with the King of England. The house is viewable by tour (frequent in summer) and the grounds are also lovely. The site was once part of FDR’s family estate, so there’s a hiking path linking them, if you have time. The archive library & museum at the FDR site contain useful exhibits of Eleanor, so it’s wise to visit both sites together.
The stately home to the right should be the subject of my photo, or perhaps the meticulously preserved interior, but I’ve always loved the garden. Brattle is a quiet street off of Harvard Square, and the garden is a lovely little oasis for contemplation. George Washington doubtless had little free time after he set up his command here to build a revolutionary army. The British had retreated to Boston (along with the owner of this house) after the Minutemen forced them back in Concord. A siege ensued, and the British were unable to break out of the city, taking heavy losses at Bunker Hill. Then Washington arrived here, organized, trained, and motivated his troops for nine months. In the middle of an exceptionally cold winter, using oxen to drag sledges quickly over the ice, Henry Knox delivered cannon captured in New York to the hills surrounding Boston, and the British evacuated the city permanently.
Some sixty years later, a young literature professor named Henry Wadsworth Longfellow arrived here to rent a room from the indebted landlord, and he was thrilled to stay in the famous headquarters of General Washington. His father in law bought the house for the young couple, and Longfellow wrote the poems that many of us memorized as children: A Psalm of Life, The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, Song of Hiawatha, the Courtship of Miles Standish, and Tales of a Wayside Inn. Fortunately for us, his family protected his legacy in exceptional detail, along with heirlooms from his colorful relatives, such that “if Longfellow returned, he would be able to find his books and most of his things exactly where he left them”. The tour explains the history of all kinds of people who lived here, from the first owner’s slaves to the flamboyant Longfellow descendant who both preserved the original artifacts and entertained here in style.
I first visited Brookline decades ago, so this was a trip down memory lane: the corned beef “king“, the narrow tree-lined side streets, and the signs of progressive political activism. The site is being renovated until sometime in 2023, but there’s a film and an audio tour online, a neighborhood walking tour, and even a special exhibit at the JFK Library, which is excellent. Rose, JFK’s mother, bought the home where she gave birth to JFK and donated it to the public. It’s quite a traditional home, that evokes the moral, social, political and intellectual upbringing that she and her husband provided their many children. Both sides of the family were prominent Irish Catholic leaders, with Rose’s father mayor and Joe Sr’s father an important part of FDR’s administration (he later resigned his ambassadorship after saying he supported American isolationism).
The legend of the family wealth is that Joe Sr was a bootlegger, but it’s more accurate to say that his family legally acquired liquor prior to Prohibition, sold it legally to close family friends during Prohibition, and then acquired the rights to be the first post-Prohibition US importer of Dewar’s scotch, Haig & Haig and Gordon’s Gin. Joe Sr was successful as a banker, film producer, investor and in his other ventures, he came from a prominent political family, and he helped raise some of America’s most famous public servants: JFK, RFK, Teddy K, and Eunice K Shriver. The rumors that suggest illegal activity are unfounded and likely were pushed by the family’s political enemies. He later divested from the alcohol business to avoid political trouble for his children.
The oldest synagogue building in America, Touro is an enduring symbol of our freedom of religion. Fearful of the Inquisition, many Jews migrated to new world colonies not under Spanish or Portuguese control. The Torah pictured was a gift from a congregation in Amsterdam and is over 500 years old. Rhode Island was founded as a religious sanctuary by Roger Williams, with help from John Clarke and Anne Hutchinson, who was banished from the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony for having the audacity to argue that women could discuss and help interpret scripture. The synagogue occupies a prominent location in Newport, along with other faith centers, away from the political center to help show the separation of church and state. And, since it is still being used by the local congregation as a place of worship, the park receives no federal funding.
Several Presidents have visited, but the first was George Washington, who wrote a thank you letter expressing his view that beyond mere tolerance, religion is a natural American right shared equally, including full liberty of conscience for all, guaranteeing protection against fear. Today’s Christian Nationalists should be ashamed of their profoundly un-American views.
“All possess alike liberty of conscience…
for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance…
every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”
George Washington’s Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island
society’s demands for moral authority and character
increase as the importance of the position increases.”
John Adams
The Old House above was John & Abigail Adams’ dream house where they raised their son, John Quincy Adams, and where future generations of Adams would live, garden, read, write and serve our country. The Adams were all educated well-beyond American standards. John felt that we suffer due to our fear of thinking, and that we must “dare to read, think, speak and write”. The larger quote hints at their high ethical standards as well. John defended the British officers involved in the Boston Massacre, because no matter how anti-British he was, he knew they deserved a proper legal defense (most were acquitted).
I hope folks are familiar with John & Abigail through various movies and series related to the Continental Congress, but his negotiations with Europe were also critical to our fledgling country, as was his Presidency. But I suspect few remember our 6th President, John Quincy Adams. He was criticized for supporting the opposition party’s embargo of Britain which hurt the financial interests of Massachusetts, for supporting infrastructure & education investments, supporting science, for refusing to sign fraudulent treaties stealing Native American land, for defending the slaves who escaped on the Amistad, and for trying to legislate the end of slavery. Like his father, he believed that country was more important than state or party, fearing that states’ rights folk would tear the country apart. While protesting the Mexican American War, he had a stroke and died in the US Capitol.
America has a problem with voters who will elect bad people to achieve selfish or immoral goals. While an individual might not steal Native American land, hold someone in bondage or pollute, there’s a moral dilution that occurs when electing a leader. The leader can simply say they are responding to the will of the people, and the people can elect the person who will commit evil on their behalf, without having to get their own hands dirty. Back in John Quincy Adams’ day it was Andrew Jackson, then pro-slavery leaders, and today one party is committed to taking no action on climate change and taking the country backwards in women’s rights & voting rights, among other issues. Electing a leader for intellect and morality who will do the right thing for the long run even when unpopular seems an impossible, quaint, bygone concept.
Taft was a well-educated, hard-working, intelligent, admired, talented, ethical, moderate public service from a family of successful politicians, and he had an accomplished career as a judge, foreign administrator, and President. But what makes him unique among Presidents was that 100 years ago he also became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. As he had in other jobs, he instituted important and intelligent reforms and improvements, such as focusing on only cases of national and constitutional importance and getting Congress to build the Supreme Court building. In particular, Taft tried to convince the other justices to join in unanimous or near unanimous decisions, to avoid having the Court lose popular respect by issuing sharply divided opinions. Imagine that!
Somebody has gone to a great deal of effort to rehabilitate disgraced President Andrew Johnson. The hagiographic film is narrated by the late Tennessee Senator (and actor) Fred Thompson. The exhibits extol Johnson’s fidelity to the Constitution against the “radical” views in Congress that African Americans should be granted full citizenship rights. This may be the worst site for informing people about history in the park service.
In fact, Johnson was an inveterate racist, a slave-owner who got a special exemption from Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation to extend slavery in Tennessee. After Lincoln’s demise, Johnson reversed Reconstruction and vetoed the Civil Rights Act, paving the way for a campaign of terror by the KKK (also from Tennessee in 1865) and the collapse of all efforts to let freed slaves participate fully in elections. He was impeached (148-27), but escaped conviction by one vote. Johnson’s presidency was such a threat to the nation that Grant was pressured to run “in order to save the Union again”. A long-time historical favorite of racists, modern historians generally rank Johnson among the worst presidents. Nowhere at this historic site could I find any acknowledgement that it was morally wrong and anti-democratic to deny freed slaves the right to vote.
Johnson was a poorly-educated tailor who had the good fortune to be married by a relative of Abraham Lincoln.
Certainly the highlight of my trip, the three units are connected by the Little Missouri River, which is the south unit oxbow on the left. The south unit also has bison, wild horses, a painted canyon, petrified logs, a prairie dog town, badlands, a replica of Teddy’s cabin, a ranch, camping, and lots more. The north unit has even better oxbow views on one of the best hikes I’ve ever done: Caprock Coulee 4 miles. Even the tiny Elkhorn Ranch unit, hemmed in by cattle fences and pumpjacks, had a pair of whooping cranes to amaze me. I’m honestly struggling for superlatives. Teddy used the phrase “grim beauty” which gets at the serious nature of the park. This is one of my favoritenational parks. Click here for more Teddy Roosevelt sites.
I would like to spend a week up here and ride a horse, but I’m already in Montana. For EV travelers who want to see all 3 units, I recommend charging overnight in state campgrounds before & after. There’s one next to the south unit and another not too far from the north.
Zero Carbon Travel 