HR1913 Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 by the United States House of Representatives. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. HR1913 RFS, 111th Congress, 1st Session, HR1913, in the Senate of the United States, April 30, 2009, received, read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, an Act, to provide federal assistance to states, local jurisdictions, and Indian tribes to prosecute hate crimes, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. Section 1, short title. This Act may be cited as the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. Section 2, definition of hate crime. In this Act, 1, the term crime of violence has the meaning given that term in Section 16, Title 18, United States Code. 2, the term hate crime has the meaning given such term in Section 280003A of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. 28, United States Code, 994, note. And 3, the term local means a county, city, town, township, parish, village, or other general purpose political subdivision of a state. Section 3, support for criminal investigations and prosecutions by state, local, and tribal law enforcement officials. A, assistance other than financial assistance. Section 1, in general, at the request of a state, local, or tribal law enforcement agency, the attorney general may provide technical, forensic, prosecutorial, or any other form of assistance in the criminal investigation or prosecution of any crime that a, constitutes a crime of violence, b, constitutes a felony under the state, local, or tribal laws, and c, is motivated by prejudice based on the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of the victim, or as a violation of the state, local, or tribal hate crime laws. 2, priority. In providing assistance under paragraph 1, the attorney general shall give priority to crimes committed by offenders who have committed crimes in more than one state and to rural jurisdictions that have difficulty covering the extraordinary expenses relating to the investigation or prosecution of the crime. B, grants. 1, in general, the attorney general may award grants to state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies for extraordinary expenses associated with the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes. 2, office of justice programs. In implementing the grant program under this subsection, the office of justice program shall work closely with grantees to ensure that the concerns and needs of all affected parties, including community groups and schools, colleges, and universities, are addressed through the local infrastructure developed under the grants. 3, application. A, in general, each state, local, or tribal law enforcement agency that desires a grant under this subsection shall submit an application to the attorney general at such time, in such manner, and accompanied by or containing such information as the attorney general shall reasonably require. B, date for submission. Application submitted pursuant to subparagraph A shall be submitted during the 60-day period beginning on a date that the attorney general shall prescribe. C, requirements. A state, local, or tribal law enforcement agency applying for a grant under this subsection shall, 1, describe the extraordinary purposes for which the grant is needed. 2, certify that the state, local government, or Indian tribe lacks the resources necessary to investigate or prosecute the hate crime. 3, demonstrate that in developing a plan to implement the grant, the state, local, or tribal law enforcement agency has consulted and coordinated with nonprofit, non-governmental violence recovery service programs that have experience in providing services to victims of hate crimes. 4, certify that any federal funds received under this subsection shall be used to supplement, not supplant, non-federal funds that would otherwise be available for activities funded under this subsection. 4, deadline. An application for a grant under this subsection shall be approved or denied by the attorney general not later than 180 business days after the date on which the attorney general receives the application. 5, grant amount. A grant under this subsection shall not exceed $100,000 for any single jurisdiction in any one-year period. 6, report. Not later than December 31, 2011, the attorney general shall submit to Congress a report describing the application submitted for grants under this subsection, the award of such grants, and the purposes for which the grant amounts were expended. 7, authorization of appropriations. There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this subsection $5 million for each of fiscal years 2010 and 2011. Section 4, grant program. A, authority to award grants. The Office of Justice Programs or the Department of Justice may award grants in accordance with such regulations as the attorney general may prescribe to state, local, or tribal programs designed to combat hate crimes committed by juveniles including programs to train local law enforcement officers in identifying, investigating, prosecuting, and preventing hate crimes. B, authorization of appropriations. There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out this section. Section 5, authorization for additional personnel to assist state, local, and tribal law enforcement. There are authorized to be appropriated to the Department of Justice including the Community Relations Service for fiscal years 2010, 2011, and 2012. Such sums as are necessary to increase the number of personnel to prevent and respond to alleged violations of Section 249 of Title 18, United States Code, as added by Section 7 of this act. Section 6, prohibition of certain hate crime acts. A, in general, Chapter 13 of Title 18, United States Code is amended by adding at the end the following. Section 249, hate crime acts. A, in general, one, offenses involving actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin. Whoever, whether or not acting under color of law willfully causes bodily injury to any person or, through the use of fire, a firearm, a dangerous weapon, or an explosive or incendiary device, attempts to cause bodily injury to any person because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin of any person. A, shall be imprisoned not more than 10 years. Find in accordance with this title, or both, and B, shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life. Find in accordance with this title, or both, if 1. Death results from the offense or 2.  2. Offenses involving actual or perceived religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. A, in general, whoever, whether or not acting under color of law, in any circumstance described in subparagraph B, willfully causes bodily injury to any person or, through the use of fire, a firearm, a dangerous weapon, or an explosive or incendiary device, attempts to cause bodily injury to any person because of the actual or perceived race. A, in general, whoever, whether or not acting under color of law, in any circumstance described in subparagraph B, willfully causes bodily injury to any person or, through the use of fire or incendiary device, attempts to cause bodily injury to any person or, through the use of fire or incendiary device. 1. Death results from the offense or 2.  B, circumstances described. For purposes of subparagraph A, these circumstances described in this subparagraph are that, 1. The conduct described in subparagraph A occurs during the course of or as a result of travel of the defendant or the victim. 1. Across a state line or national border or 2. Using a channel, facility or instrumentality of interstate or foreign commerce. 2. The defendant uses a channel, facility or instrumentality of interstate or foreign commerce in connection with the conduct described in subparagraph A. 3. In connection with the conduct described in subparagraph A, the defendant employs a firearm, explosive or incendiary device or other weapon that has traveled in interstate or foreign commerce. Or, 4. The conduct described in subparagraph A, 1, interferes with commercial or other economic activity in which the victim is engaged at the time of the conduct or, 2, otherwise affects interstate or foreign commerce. 3. Additional federal nexus for offense. Whoever in special maritime or territorial jurisdiction of the United States or in Indian country, engages in conduct described in paragraph 1 or in paragraph 2A, without regard to whether that conduct occurred in a circumstance described in paragraph 2B, shall be subject to the same penalties as those provided for offenses under those paragraphs. B. Certification requirement. No prosecution of any offense described in this subsection may be undertaken by the United States, except under the certification in writing of the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, the Associate Attorney General, or any Assistant Attorney General, specially designated by the Attorney General, that, 1. Such certifying individual has reasonable cause to believe that the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of any person was a motivating factor underlying the alleged conduct of the defendant. 2. Such certifying individual has consulted with state or local law enforcement officials regarding prosecution and determined that, a. The state does not have jurisdiction or does not intend to exercise jurisdiction. B. The state has requested that the federal government assume jurisdiction. C. The state does not object to the federal government assuming jurisdiction. Or D. The verdict or sentence obtained pursuant to state charges left demonstratively unvindicated the federal interest in eradicating bias-motivated violence. C. Definitions. 1. In this section, a. The term explosive or incendiary device has the meaning given such term in section 232 of this title. B. The term firearm has the meaning given such term in section 921a of this title. And C. The term state includes the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and any other territory or possession of the United States. 2. For the purposes of this chapter, the term gender identity means actual or perceived gender-related characteristics. D. Statute of limitations. 1. Offences not resulting in death, except as provided in paragraph 2. No person shall be prosecuted, tried, or punished for any offense under this section unless the indictment for such offense is found or the information for such offense is instituted not later than 7 years after the date on which the offense was committed. 2. Death resulting offenses. An indictment or information alleging that an offense under this section resulted in death may be found or instituted at any time without limitation. E. Rule of evidence. In a prosecution for an offense under this section, evidence of expression or associations of the defendant may not be introduced as substantive evidence at trial, unless the evidence specifically relates to that offense. However, nothing in this section affects the rules of evidence governing impeachment of a witness. B. Technical and conforming amendment. The table of sections at the beginning of Chapter 13 of Title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new item. 249. Hate crime acts. Section 7. Severability. If any provision of this act, an amendment made by this act, or the application of such provision or amendment to any person or circumstance is held to be unconstitutional, the remainder of this act, the amendments made by this act, and the application of the provision of such to any person or circumstance shall not be affected thereby. Section 8. Rule of construction. Nothing in this act, or the amendments made by this act, shall be construed to prohibit any expressive conduct protected from legal prohibition by, or any activities protected by, the Constitution. Past House of Representatives April 29, 2009. A test clerk. End of. Each hour, 1913. Local law enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. By the United States House of Representatives. Recorded by Craig Campbell in Appleton, Wisconsin in 2009. Meditation 17. By John Dunn. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Sean Craig Smith. Nunclento Sonito Dicente Moriere. Now this bell tolling softly for another says to me, thou must die. Perchance he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill as that he knows not it tolls for him. And perchance I may think myself so much better than I am as that they who are about me and see my state may have caused it to toll for me. And I know not that. The church is Catholic. Universal. So are all her actions. All that she does belongs to all. When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me. For that child is thereby connected to that head which is my head too. And it grafted into that body whereof I am a member. And when she buries a man, that action concerns me. All mankind is of one author, and is one volume. When one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language. And every chapter must be so translated. God employs several translators. Some pieces are translated by age. Some by sickness. Some by war. Some by justice. But God's hand is in every translation. And his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again. For that library where every book shall lie open to one another. As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come. So this bell calls us all. But how much more me who am brought so near the door by this sickness. There was a contention as far as a suit in which both piety and dignity, religion and estimation were mingled. Which of the religious orders should ring to prayers first in the morning. And it was determined that they should ring first that rose earliest. If we understand to write the dignity of this bell that tolls for our evening prayer. We would be glad to make it ours by rising early in that application. That it might be ours, as well as his, whose indeed it is. The bell doth toll for him that thinks it doth. And though it intermits again, yet from that minute that that occasion wrought upon him, he is united to God. Who casts not up his eye to the sun when it rises? But who takes off his eye from on comment when that breaks out? Who bends not his ear to any bell which upon any occasion rings? But who can remove it from that bell which is passing a piece of himself out of this world? No man is an island entire of itself.  If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were. As well as if a manner of thy friends or of thine own were.  And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee. Neither can we call this a begging of misery, or a borrowing of misery. As though we were not miserable enough of ourselves, but must fetch in more from the next house in taking upon us the misery of our neighbors. Truly it were an excusable covetousness if we did. For affliction is a treasure and scares any man hath enough of it. No man hath affliction enough that is not matured and ripened by it, and made fit for God by that affliction. If a man carry treasure in bullion, or in a wedge of gold, and have none coined into current monies, his treasure will not defray him as he travels. Tribulation is treasure in the nature of it, but it is not current money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer our home, heaven, by it. Another man may be sick too, and sick to death, and this affliction may lie in his bowels, as gold in a mine, and be of no use to him. But this bell that tells me of his affliction digs out, and applies that gold to me, if, by this consideration of another's danger, I take mine own into contemplation, and so secure myself by making my recourse to God, who is our only security. End of Meditation 17 by John Dunn This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. A Message to Garcia by Albert Hubbard Apollologia This literary trifle, A Message to Garcia, was written one evening after supper in a single hour. It was on the 22nd of February, 1899, Washington's birthday, and we were just going to press with the March Philistine. The thing leaped hot from my heart, written after a trying day, when I had been endeavoring to train some rather delinquent villagers to abjure the Commodore State and get radioactive. The immediate suggestion, though, came from a little argument over the teacups, when my boy Bert suggested that Rowan was the real hero of the Cuban War. Rowan had gone alone, and Dunn the Thing carried the Message to Garcia. It came to me like a flash. Yeah, the boy is right. The hero is the man who does his work, who carries the Message to Garcia. I got up from the table and wrote a Message to Garcia I thought so little of it at the time we ran it in the magazine without a heading. The edition went out and soon orders began to come in for extra copies of the March Philistine. A dozen fifty-a-hundred, and when the American News Company ordered a thousand, I asked one of my helpers which article it was that had stirred up the cosmic dust. It's the stuff about Garcia, he said. The next day a telegram came from George H. Daniels of the New York Central Railroad. Thus, give a price on one hundred thousand Rowan article in the pamphlet form, Empire State Express advertisement on back, and how soon can you ship? I replied, giving price, and stated we could supply the pamphlets in two years. Our facilities were small, and a hundred thousand booklets looked like an awful undertaking. The result was that I gave Mr. Daniels permission to reprint the article in his own way. He issued it in booklet form in editions of half a million. Two or three of those half a million lots were sent out by Mr. Daniels, and in addition the article was reprinted in over two hundred magazines and newspapers. It has been translated into all written languages. At the time Mr. Daniels was distributing the message to Garcia, Prince Halkalov, director of Russian Railways, was in this country, he was the guest of the New York Central, and he made a tour of the country under the personal direction of Mr. Daniels. The Prince saw the little book and was interested in it, more because Mr. Daniels was putting it out in such big numbers probably than otherwise. In any event, when I got home he had the matter translated into Russian and a copy of the booklet given to every railroad employee in Russia. Other countries then took it up, and from Russia it passed into Germany, France, Spain, Turkey, Hindustan, and China. During the war between Russia and Japan, every Russian soldier who went to the front was given a copy of the message to Garcia. The Japanese finding the booklets in possession of the Russian prisoners concluded that it must be a good thing and accordingly translated into Japanese. And on an order of Makato, a copy was given to every man in the employee of the Japanese government, soldier or civilian. Over 40 million copies of a message to Garcia have been printed. This is said to be a larger circulation than any other literary venture has ever attained during the lifetime of the author in all history, thanks to a series of lucky accidents. E. H. Easterora, December 1, 1913. A message to Garcia. In this Cuban business there is one man stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at Perahirion. When war broke out between Spain and the United States it was very necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the insurgents. Garcia was somewhere in the mountain fastnesses of Cuba. No one knew where. No mail or telegraph message could reach him. The president must secure his cooperation and quickly. What to do? Someone said to the president, there is a fellow by the name of Rowan who will find Garcia for you if anyone can. Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to Garcia. How the fellow with the name of Rowan took the letter, sealed. It up in an oil skin pouch strapped it over his heart. In four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat disappeared into the jungle and in three weeks came out on the other side of the island having traversed a hostile country on foot and delivered his letter to Garcia. Are things I have no special desire to now to tell in detail. The point is that I wish to make this. McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia. Rowan took the letter and did not ask. Where is he at? By the eternal there is a man from which should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college of the land. It is not book-learning young men need nor instruction about this and that but a stiffening of the vertebrae that will cause them to be loyal and to trust. To act promptly, concentrate their energies, do the thing, carry a message to Garcia. General Garcia is dead now but there are other Garcia's. No man who has endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands are needed but has been well nigh appalled at times by the imbecility of the average man the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it. Ship-shod assistance. Foolish inattention, dowdy indifference, and half-hearted work seem to be the rule and no man succeeds unless by hook or by crook or threat he forces or bribes other men to assist him or may have God in his goodness performs a miracle and sends him an angel of light for an assistant. You reader, put this matter to a test. You are sitting now in your office. Six clerks are within call. Summon any one and make this request. Please look in the encyclopedia and make a brief memorandum for me concerning the life of Varegio. Will the clerk quietly say yes, sir, and go do the task? On your life he will not. He will look at you out of the fishy eye and ask one or more of the following questions. Who was he? Which encyclopedia? Was I hired for that? Don't you mean Bismarck? What's the matter with Charlie doing it? Is he dead? Is there any hurry? Shant I bring you the book and let you look it up yourself? What do you want to know for? And I will lay you tend to one that after you have answered the questions and explained how to find the information and why you want it the clerk will go off and get one of the other clerks to help him try to find Garcia and then come back and tell you that there was no such man. Of course I may lose my bet but according to the law of average I will not. Now if you are wise you will not bother to explain to your assistant that Correggio is indexed under the seas and not the caves but you will smile very sweetly and say never mind and go look it up yourself. And this incapacity for independent action, this moral stupidity, this infirmity of the will, this unwillingness to cheerfully catch hold and lift, these are the things that put pure socialism so far into the future. If men will not act for themselves what will they do when the benefit of their effort is for all? A first mate with a knotted club seems necessary and the dread of getting the bounce. Saturday night holds many a worker in his place, advertised for a stenographer and nine out of ten who apply can neither spell nor punctuate and do not think it necessary too. Can such a one write a letter to Garcia? You see that bookkeeper said the foreman to me in a large factory. Yes, what about him? Well he's a fine accountant but if I'd send him uptown on an errand he might accomplish the errand or write and on the other hand he might stop at four saloons on the way and when he got to Main Street would forget what he had been sent for. Can such a man be entrusted to carry a message to Garcia? We have recently been hearing much model and sympathy expressed for the downtrodden denzians of the sweatshop and the homeless wanderers searching for honest employment and with it all often go many hard words for the men in power. Nothing is said about the employer who grows old before his time in a vain attempt to get flousy nerduels to do intelligent work and his long patience striving after help. That does nothing but loaf when his back is turned in every store and factory there is a constant weeding out process going on. The employer is constantly sending away help who have shown their incapacity to further the interest of the business and others are being taken on. No matter how good times are this sorting continues only if times are hard and work is scarce the sorting is done finer. But out and forever out the incompetent and unworthy go and the survival is of the fittest self-interest prompts every employer to keep the best those who can carry a message to Garcia. I know one man of the really brilliant parts who has not the ability to manage a business of his own and yet he is absolutely worthless to anyone else because he carries with him constantly the insane suspicion that his employer is oppressing or intending to oppress him. He cannot give orders and will not receive them. Should a message be given him to take to Garcia his answer would probably be take it yourself. Tonight this man walks the streets looking for work the wind whistling through his threadbare coat.  He is impervious to reason and the only thing that can impress him is the toe of the thick old some number nine boot. Of course I know that no one so morally deformed is no less to be pitied than a physical cripple. But in our pitting let us drop a tear too for the men who are striving to carry on the great enterprise whose working hours are not limited by the whistle and whose hair is fast turning white through the struggle to hold in line dowdy indifference slip-shot in facility and the heartless ingratitude which but for their enterprise would be both hungry and homeless. Have I put the matter too strongly? Possibly I have. But when all the world has gone a slumming I wish to speak a word of sympathy for the man who succeeds. The man who against great odds has directed the efforts of others and having succeeded finds there's nothing in it. Nothing but bareboard and clothes. I have carried a dinner pail and worked for a day's wages and I have also been an employer of labor. And I know that there is something to be said for both sides. There is no excellence per se in poverty. Rags are no recommendation and all employers are not reparatious and high-handed any more than all poor men are virtuous. My heart goes out to the man who does his work when the boss is away as well as when he is at home and the man who when given a letter for Garcia quietly takes the missive without asking any idiotic questions and with no lurking intentions of chucking it into the nearest sewer or doing ought else but deliberate never gets laid off nor has to go on a strike for higher wages. Civilization is one long anxious search for just such individuals. Anything such a man asks shall be granted. He is wanted in every city, town, and village in every office, shop, store, and factory. The world cries out for such. He is needed and needed badly the man who can carry a message to Garcia. End of A Message to Garcia by Albert Hubbard Preface to God and My Neighbor by Robert Blatchford This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Reading by Bologna Times Preface to God and My Neighbor by Robert Blatchford Infidel I put the word in capitals because it is my new name and I want to get used to it. Infidel The name has been bestowed on me by several Christian gentlemen as a reproach but to my ears it has a quaint and not unpleasing sound. Infidel The notorious Infidel editor of the Clarion is the form used by one true believer. The words recurred to my mind suddenly while I was taking my favorite black pipe for a walk along the pleasant strand and I felt a smile glimmer within as I repeated them. Which is worse, to be a demagogue or an Infidel? I am both, for while many professed Christians contrived to serve both God and Mammon The depravity of my nature seems to forbid my serving either. It was a mild day in mid-August not cold for the time of year. I had been laid up for a few days and my back was unperpicious and I was tired but I felt very happy for so bad a man since the sunshine was clear and genial and my pipe went as easily as a dream. Besides, one's fellow creatures are so amusing especially in the strand. I had seen a proud and gorgeously upholstered lady lulling languidly in a motor-car and looking extremely pleased with herself. Not without reason. And I had met two successful men of great presence who reminded me somehow of porken and snob and I had noticed a droll little bundle of a baby in a fawn-colored woollen suit with a belt slipped almost to her knees and sweet round eyes as purple as pansies who was hunting a rolling apple amongst the wild mob's million feet. And I had seen a worried-looking matron frantically waving her umbrella to the driver of an omnibus endanger the soak-hat of porken and disturb the complacency of snob and I felt glad. It was at that moment that there popped into my head the full style and title I had earned, notorious infidel editor of the Clarion. These be brave words indeed. For a moment they almost flattered me into the belief that I had become a member of the higher criminal classes, a bold bad man like Guy Fox or Kruger or R. B. Cunningham Graham. You ought, I said to myself, to dress the part. You ought to have an S. D. P. sombrero, a slow-wise Fabian smile and the mysterious trousers of a Soho conspirator. But at that instant I caught a sight of my counterfeit presentment in a shop window and veiled my haughty crest, that a notorious infidel, behold a dumpy, comfortable, British peterfamilius in a light flannel suit and a faded sun hat. No, it will not do. Not a bit like Mephisto, much more like the Miller of the D. Indeed I am not an irreligious man, really. I am rather a religious man, and this is not an irreligious, but rather a religious book. Such thoughts should make men humble. After all, may not even John Burns be human. May not Mr. Chamberlain himself have a heart that can feel for another? Gentle reader, that was a wise as well as a charitable man who taught us there is honour among thieves. Although, having never been a Member of Parliament himself, he must have spoken from hearsay.  As I have remarked elsewhere, I like the Strand. It is a very human place, but I own that the Strand lacks dignity and beauty, and that amongst its varied odours the odor of sanctity is scarce, perceptible. There are no trees in the Strand. The thoroughfare should be wider. The architecture is, for the most part, banal. For a chief street and a Christian capital the Strand is not eloquent of high national ideals. There are derelict churches in the Strand, and dingy, blatant taverns, and strident signs and hoardings, and there are slums, hard-by. There are thieves in the Strand, and prowling vagrants, and gaunt hawkers, and touts and gamblers and loitering failures, with tragic eyes and wilted garments and prostitutes plying for hire. And east and west and north and south of the Strand there is London. Is there a man amongst all London's millions brave enough to tell the naked truth about the vice and crime, the misery and meanness, the hypocrisies and shames of the great, rich, heathen city? Were such a man to arise amongst us and voice the awful truth, what would his reception be? How would he fare at the hands of the press and the public and the church? As London is, so is England. This is a Christian country. What would Christ think of Park Lane and the slums and the hooligans? What would he think of the stock exchange and the music hall and the race course? What would he think of our national ideals? What would he think of the House of Peers and the Bench of Bishops and the Yellow Press? Pausing again over against Exeter Hall, I mentally apostrophize the Christian-British people. Ladies and gentlemen, I say, you are Christian in name, but I discern little of Christ in your ideals, your institutions, or your daily lives.  I like you very much, but that is what you are.   What do you mean by it? If to praise Christ in words and deny him in deeds be Christianity, then London is a Christian city and England is a Christian nation. For it is very evident that our common English ideals are anti-Christian and that our commercial, foreign, and social affairs are run on anti-Christian lines. Renan says in his Life of Jesus that were Jesus to return amongst us, he would recognize as his disciples not those who imagine they can compress him into a few catechismal phrases, but those who labor to carry on his work. My Christian friends, I am a socialist and as such believe in and work for universal freedom and universal brotherhood and universal peace.  Well, be it even so, I am an infidel and I now ask leave to tell you why. End of Preface to God and My Neighbor by Robert Blatchford. A refutation of the charges made against the Confederate States of America of having authorized the use of explosive and poisoned musket and rifle balls during the late Civil War of 1861-65. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by FNH. A refutation of the charges made against the Confederate States of America of having authorized the use of explosive and poisoned musket and rifle balls during the late Civil War of 1861-65 by Horace Edwin Hayden. Explosive and poisoned musket and rifle balls. The following remarkable statement occurs as a note to the account of the Battle of Gettysburg on page 78, volume 3 of The Pictorial History of the Civil War in the United States of America by Benson J. Lossing, LLD. Many mostly young men were maimed in every conceivable way by every kind of weapon and missile, the most fiendish of which was an explosive and a poisoned bullet represented in the engraving a little more than half the size of the originals procured from the battlefield there by the writer. These were sent by the Confederates. Whether any were ever used by the Nationals, the writer is not informed. One was made to explode in the body of the man and the other to leave a deadly poison in him whether the bullet lodged in or passed through him. Figure A represents the explosive bullet, the perpendicular stem with a piece of thin copper hollowed and a head over it of bullet metal fitted a cavity in the bullet proper below it as seen in the engraving. In the bottom of the cavity was fulminating powder. When the bullet struck the momentum would cause the copper in the outer disc to flatten and allow the point of the stem to strike and explode the fulminating powder when the bullet would be rent into fragments which would lacerate the victim. In Figure B the bullet proper was hollowed into which was inserted another also hollow containing poison. The latter, being loose, would slip out and remain in the victim's body or limbs with its freight of poison if the bullet proper should pass through. Among the Confederate wounded at the college were boys of tender age and men who had been forced into the ranks against their will. The Italics I am responsible for. It is difficult for those who live at the south to realize how extensively such insinuating slanders as the above against the Confederates accredited by the North, even by reading people. I purpose in this paper to examine the statement of the author of this pictorial history and to show by indisputable proof its recklessness and its falsity. In the above quotation he states that he had picked up on the battlefield of Gettysburg an explosive and a poisoned ball. These, he adds, were sent by the Confederates whether any were ever used by the nationals the writer is not informed. I do not desire to be severe beyond justice but it does seem that as no one has ventured to inform him to the contrary this author accepted the silence of the world and deliberately put into print this slander against the Confederates without having made any apparent effort to learn as he could have done with ease whether his statement had any basis of truth. It is with entire confidence in the facts presented in this paper that I deny this author's statement above to be a statement of fact. I do more than this. I most emphatically deny that the Confederate states ever authorised the use of explosive or poisoned musket or rifle balls. Two, I most emphatically assert that United States did purchase, authorise, issue and use explosive musket or rifle balls during the late civil war and that they were thus officially authorised and used at the Battle of Gettysburg. It happened in 1864 the day after the Negro troops made their desperate and drunken charge on the Confederate lines to the left of Chaffin's farm and were so signally repulsed that the writer who was located in the trenches a mile still further to the left picked up in the field outside the trenches assailed by the Negroes some of the cartridges these poor black victims had dropped containing the very explosive ball described in the above quotation and charged to the Confederates. I've preserved one of these balls ever since. It lies before me as I write. It is similar to figure A but with a zinc and not a copper disc. It never contained any fulminating powder. The construction of the ball led me to make investigations to ascertain its purpose. At first I thought it might have been made to leave in the body of the person struck by it three pieces of metal instead of one to irritate and possibly destroy life. But this theory appeared to me so fiendish that I was unwilling to accept it and I have become convinced after more careful examination that the purpose of the ball was to increase the momentum by forcing in the cap and expanding the disc so as to fill up the grooves of the rifle. The correctness of this view will be proven in this paper. In the first place although the charge made by the author of the pictorial history of the Civil War against the Confederates of having used explosive and poison balls has been made before and often repeated since it has never been supported by one grain of proof. How did this author ascertain that the balls he picked up on the battlefield of Gattiesburg were sent by the Confederates? How did he learn that one was an explosive and the other was a poison projectile? Did he test the explosive power of the one and the poisonous character of the other? He gives no evidence of having done so and advances no proof of his assertions. It is a very remarkable fact that no case was ever reported in northern hospitals or of northern surgeons of Union soldiers having been wounded by such barbarous missiles as these from the Confederate side. I very carefully examine those valuable quattro volumes issued by the United States Medical Department and entitled The Medical Surgical History of the Rebellion and as yet have failed to find any case of wound or death reported as having occurred by an explosive or poisoned musket ball. Accepting that on page 91 of volume 2 of said work there is a table of 4,002 cases of gunshot wounds to the scalp two of which occurred by explosive musket balls to which army these two belonged does not appear. A letter addressed to the Surgeon General of the United States by the writer on this subject has elicited the reply that the Medical Department is without any information as to wounds by such missiles. I do not find such projectiles noticed as preserved in the museum of the Surgeon General's department where rifle projectiles taken from wounds are usually deposited. In the second place, the manufacture, purchase, issue or use of such projectiles for firearms by the Confederate states is positively denied by the Confederate authorities as the following correspondence will show. Beauvoir, Miss, 28th June, 1879 My dear sir, in reply to your inquiries as to the use of explosive or poison balls by the troops of the Confederate states I state as positively as one may in such a case that the charge has no foundation in truth. Our government certainly did not manufacture or import such balls and if any were captured from the enemy they could probably only have been used in the captured arms for which they were suited. I heard occasionally that the enemy did use explosive balls and others prepared so as to leave a copper ring in the wound but it was always spoken of as an atrocity beneath knighthood and abhorrent to civilization. The slander is only one of many instances in which our enemy have committed or attempted crimes of which our people and their government were incapable and then magnified the guilt by accusing us of the offenses they had committed. Believe me, ever faithfully yours. Jefferson Davis General Josiah Gorgas, the Chief of Ordnance of the Confederate States, now of the University of Alabama, writes, under date of July 11, 1879, that to his knowledge the Confederate States never authorized or used explosive or poisoned rifle balls during the late war. In this statement also General I. M. St. John and General John Ellicott, both of the Ordnance Bureau, Confederate States Army, entirely concur. The Adjutant General of the United States also writes me under date of August 22nd, 1879, as to the Confederate Archives now in possession of the National Government as follows. In reply to yours of the 18th August, I have the honor to inform you that the Confederate States records in the possession of this department furnished no evidence that the poisoned or explosive musket balls were used by the Army of the Confederate States. Reverend J. William Jones, D.D., Secretary of the Southern Historical Society, has written me to the same effect as to the archives in possession of the Society. In the third place, a brief examination of the United States Patent Office reports for 1862-3 and the Ordnance reports for 1863-4 will show that the explosive and the poison balls, which the author of the pictorial history of the Civil War so gratuitously charges upon the Confederates, were painted by the United States Patent Office at Washington and were purchased, issued and used by the United States government and what is still more remarkable that neither of the aforesaid projectiles were in any sense explosive or poisoned. In the Patent Office report for 1862-3 will be found the following with the corresponding illustration in the second volume. Number 37,145, Elijah D. Williams of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania improvement in elongated bullets patented dated December 9th, 1862. This invention consists in the combination with a elongated expanding bullet of a leaded pin and a concave expanding disc. The disc having its concave side against the base of the bullet and the pin entering the cavity thereof and operating to produce the flattening of the disc by which it is caused to expand against the walls of and enter the grooves of the gun. Clank. First, the combination with elongated expanding bullets of a pin C and expanding disc B applied substantially as herein specified. Second, fitting the pin to the cavity of the bullet in the manner substantially as herein specified whereby the expansion of the bullet is caused to commence in the front part of expanding portion and to be gradually continued towards the rear as herein set forth. So much for the explosive ball sent by the Confederates. In the same volume of the Patent Office reports will be found also the following. Number 36197, Ira W. Shaler of Brooklyn, New York and Rubin Shaler of Madison, Connecticut assigned to Ira W. Shaler aforesaid improvement in compound bullet for small arms patented dated August 12th, 1862. This projectile is composed of two or more parts which fit the bore of the barrel and so constructed that the forward end of each of the parts in the rear of the front one enters a cavity in the rear of the one before it and is formed in relation to the same in such a manner as to separate from it after leaving the barrel of the gun and make a slight deviation in its line of flight from that of its predecessor. Clank. The projectile herein before described made up of two or more parts of the same equal diameter constructed as set forth so as to separate from each other. No illustration of this projectile appears in the illustrative volume of patents but an official drawing of it from the Patent Office lies before me. The ball is slightly different from Figure B in that it is here perfect and Figure B gives but two parts of the missile. So much for the poisoned ball sent by the Confederates. Any person ought to know perfectly well that it is necessary to invent or construct a rifle ball especially adapted to carry poison when the common mini-ball itself dipped into liquid poison and coated as ball cartridges are usually finished with wax or tallow would have affected the same purpose. To what extent the bullets of Williams and Shaler were used during the late war by the United States troops the following official communication from the War Department at Washington under date of September the 16th, 1879 will show. In reply to your letter of the 9th instant to the Secretary of War I have to inform you that during the late war a great many of the bullets painted by Elijah D. Williams and about 200,000 of those painted by Ira W. Shaler were used by the United States. Respectfully your obedient servant F. C. Lyford acting Chief of Ordnance. In the fourth place in repelling and refuting the charge against the Confederates of having used explosive musket or rifle projectiles I charge the United States government with not only painting but purchasing and using especially at the Battle of Gettysburg an explosive musket shell nor do I trust to my imagination but I present the facts which are as follows In April 1862 the Commissioner of Public Buildings at Washington brought to the attention of the Assistant Secretary of War then Mr. John Tucker the explosive musket shell invented by Samuel Gardner Jr. The Assistant Secretary at once referred the matter to General James W. Ripley who was then the Chief of Ordnance Bureau at Washington What action was taken will appear when it is stated that in May 1862 the Chief of Ordnance at the West Point Military Academy made a report to the government of a trial of the Gardner musket shell In May 1862 Mr. Gardner offered to sell some of his explosive musket shells to the government at a stipulated price His application was referred to General Ripley with the following endorsement Will General Ripley consider whether this explosive shell will be a valuable missile in battle? A Lincoln General Ripley replied that it had no value as a service projectile In June 1862 Brigadier General Rufus King at Fredericksburg made a requisition for some of the Gardner musket shells On referring this application to the Chief of Ordnance General Ripley, that old army officer whose sense of right must have been shocked at this instance of barbarism a second time recorded his disapproval replying that it was not advisable to furnish any such missiles to the troops at present in service In September 1862 the Chief of Ordnance of the 11th Corps United States Army recommended the shell to the Assistant Secretary of War who ordered 10,000 rounds to be purchased made into cartridges Of this number, 200 were issued to Mr Gardner for trial by the 11th Corps In October 1862 the Chief of Ordnance of the 11th Corps then in reserve near Falifax Courthouse sent in a requisition endorsed by the General commanding the Corps for 20,000 Gardner musket shells and cartridges The Assistant Secretary of War referred the matter to the Chief of Ordnance General Ripley, who for the third time recorded his disapproval of such issue Nevertheless, the Assistant Secretary of War ordered the issue to be made to the 11th Corps of the remaining 9,800 shells and cartridges which order was obeyed In November 1862 Mr Gardner offered to sell to the United States his explosive musket shell and cartridge at $35 per thousand, calibre 58 The Assistant Secretary of War at once ordered 100,000 of which 75,000 were calibre 58 for infantry and 25,000 calibre 54 for cavalry service In June 1863 the second New Hampshire volunteers made a requisition of 35,000 of these shells and by order of the Assistant Secretary of War they received 24,000 Of this number, 10,060 were abandoned in Virginia and 13,940 distributed to the regiment The report of this regiment made subsequently shows that in the third quarter of 1863 that is, from July 1st to October 1st about 4,000 of these shells were used in trials and target firing and about 10,000 were used in action The second New Hampshire regiment was in the battle of Gettysburg and 49 of its members lie buried at the cemetery there The above statement shows that the Assistant Secretary of War against what might be regarded as the protest of the Chief of Ordnance purchased 110,000 of the Gardiner Explosive Musket shells and issued to the troops in actual service 35,000 leaving 75,000 on hand at the close of the war In 1866 the Russian government issued a circular calling a convention of the nations for the purpose of declaring against the use of explosive projectiles in war To this circular the then Chief of Ordnance of the United States General A. B. Dyer made the following reply which I have but little doubt expresses the sentiment which actuated General Ripley in his disapproval of the purchase and issue of the Gardiner Musket shell Ordnance Office War Department Washington August 19, 1868 Honourable J. M. Scofield, Secretary of War Sir, I have read the communication from the Russian minister in relation to the abolishment of the use of explosive projectiles in military warfare with the attention and care it well deserves I concur heartily in the sentiments therein expressed and I trust that our government will respond unhesitatingly to the proposition in behalf of humanity and civilization The use in warfare of explosive balls so sensitive as to ignite and burst on striking a substance of soft and yielding as animal flesh of men or horses I consider barbarous and no more to be tolerated by civilized nations than the universally reprobated practice of using poison missiles or of poisoning food or drink to be left in the way of an enemy Such a practice is inexcusable among any people above the grade of ignorant savages Neither do I regard the use in war of such explosive balls as of any public advantage but rather the reverse for it will have the effect of killing outright rather than wounding and it is known that the care of wounded men much more embarrasses the future operations of the enemy than the loss of the same number killed who require no further attention which may delay or impede them There is a class of explosive projectiles now used the discontinuance of which is not demanded by humanity and the use of which may be considered legitimate These are the projectiles which can only be exploded by contact with hard resisting substances and which are generally used for destroying ships, caissons and light fortifications are not directly against men or animals in the opposing ranks These latter ought not and probably cannot be included in an agreement of treaty to prohibit their use in warfare but I strongly advocate an agreement or treaty binding all civilized nations to discontinue and forever abandon the use in war of that class of missiles or projectiles which may be used in small arms and be so sensitive as to explode on contact with animal flesh The papers in the case received through the state and war departments are herewith returned In this connection I also notice a letter from the honourable C. M. Clay, a minister to Russia which has been referred to this office and herewith returned and on which I have to report If the civilized nations persist in refusing to discontinue and abandon the use of sensitive explosive balls then it would be well for this government to enter into the agreement suggested by Mr. Clay whereby we may be enabled to secure their use in case of necessity by an agreement with him or his named authorized agent for the payment of a stipulated royalty on each that may be procured from him or may be used in government service Respectfully, your obedient servant A. B. Dyer, brevet major general, chief of ordnance I have recorded enough to show the recklessness and falsity of the charge against the Confederates of using such missiles in small arms during the late war and the public is hereby specifically informed whether the nationals ever used them In the patent office report for 1863-4 will be found the following account of the gardener musket shell No. 40468 Samuel Gardner Jr. of New York, New York Improvement in hollow projectiles, patent dated November 3, 1863 The shell to form the central chamber is attached to a mandrel and the metal forced into the mould around it Claim Constructing shells for firearms by forcing the metal into a mould around the internal shells supported on a mandrel I have a box of these shells in my possession They are open for examination by any persons who may desire to see them This summer, the distinguished officer who commanded the 143rd regiment of the Pennsylvania Volunteers United States Army at the Battle of Gettysburg Inform me that during the last day of the battle he and his men frequently heard above their heads amid the whistling of the mini-balls from the Confederate side sharp, explosive sounds like the snapping of musket caps He mentioned the matter to an ordnance officer at the time The officer replied that what he heard was explosive rifle balls which the Confederates had captured from the Union troops who had lately received them from the ordnance department From the fact that the gardener shell is not fitted with a percussion cap at the point of the projectile and is not easily exploded by hand and from additional fact that only about ten thousand are reported as having been used in action I am willing to believe that the primary purpose of the government of the United States in using them was of the exploding of caissons There is moreover no evidence that any of these shells were issued from the Ordnance Bureau after the year of 1863 The gardener shells are so constructed as to have no different appearance in the cartridge from the common mini-ball, only the title on the box and an examination of the ball when separate from the cartridge giving any indication of its explosive character I know not certainly if any other such projectiles were used by the United States troops nor have I any a special desire to prosecute the investigation further than to prove the position taken in this paper It would be disingenuous in me if I failed to notice the fact that a charge somewhat similar to that which begins this article was made by a correspondent in the Scientific American for September 6, 1862, volume 7, page 151 as follows Recently it was my privilege to examine in the hands of a man just from Fortress Monroe an explosive bullet such as was used by the rebels in the six days battle It is conical in shape, about one inch long, made of lead and consists of two parts, vis, a solid head piece and a cylindrical chamber which are united together by a screw From the point of the bullet projects a little rod which passes down through a small hole in the head piece into the chamber below where it was connected with a percussion cap The chamber contains about a tablespoon full of powder You can readily perceive that if the bullet should encounter a bone or other hard substance when entering a man's body it will explode and thereby produce a fatal wound FJC, Philadelphia, August 23, 1862 In the Patent Office report United States for 1863-4 will be found a shell exactly corresponding to this one Number 39593 Joseph Nottingham Smith, New York, New York Improvement in elongated projectile for firearms Patent dated August 18, 1863 It consists of an elongated cylinder having a charged chamber in its rear portion which contains powder for propulsion The point is a pointed axial bolt whose rear is furnished with a percussion cap to be exploded by the forward motion of a striker on the concussion of the projectile Not having seen this ball I cannot certainly identify it with the ball mentioned by FJC but it is evidently the same The inference is very natural that if these several projectiles painted by the United States Patent Office as the invention of northern men during the war and used in United States armies were ever used by the Confederates it was only as captured ammunition it was hardly possible at any reasonable cost to run them through the blockade to the south In conclusion it may well be noted to draw attention to Mr. Lossing's intimation in the note quoted at the beginning of this paper that the men of the south were forced into the Confederate ranks against their will while those of the north were volunteers Does Mr. Lossing purposefully forget the United States drafts made to fill up the depleted regiments in the field and especially the draft of May 1863 two months before the Battle of Gettysburg and the riots that occurred in New York City as the result of that draft Does he purposefully forget that the United States established recruiting offices in Europe to procure men for her armies It may be questioned whether as a historian Mr. Lossing is deserving even the notice of a novice in history for while he is known to be a volumous writer of American history he is also known to be a writer of many and great inaccuracies a writer who has allowed himself to be so easily imposed upon as he sees ready acceptance as true history of Morgan Jones Welsh Indian fraud American historical record one 250 who makes such glaring historical mistakes as his statement that General Braddock was defeated and killed at the Battle of the Great Meadows history of the Revolutionary War and that Captain John Smith the Virginia explorer had explored the Susquehanna River as far north as Wyoming Valley Harper's Magazine November 1860 and who draws so largely on his imagination and is so much controlled by his prejudices in his history of the Civil War cannot be considered an entirely trustworthy historian but because Mr. Lossing's histories have flooded the north and are largely accepted as authentic narrations of events it is due to the Confederates and the cause for which they so long and nobly battled against such fearful odds that the truth be made known and Mr. Lossing's misstatements exposed it is earnestly to be hoped that the facts presented in this paper will forever set at rest the malicious slander so often repeated against the Confederates by many who are so willing to believe anything against them of having authorized the use in military warfare of such atrocious and barbarous missiles as explosive and poisoned musket or rifle balls H.E.H. Brownsville P.A. September 1, 1879 end of a refutation of the charges made against the Confederate States of America of having authorized the use of explosive and poisoned musket and rifle balls during the late Civil War of 1861-65 by Horace Edwin Hayden recording by F.N.H. reminiscences of the military life and sufferings of Colonel Timothy Bigelow this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by F.N.H. reminiscences of the military life and sufferings of Colonel Timothy Bigelow commander of the 15th Regiment of the Massachusetts line in the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution by Charles Hersey 2. Colonel T. Bigelow Lawrence, a great-grandson of the hero of these pages I dedicate this feeble effort it is written to perpetuate the memory of one of Worcester's most illustrious sons and also of his companions in arms who for eight years struggled so hard to gain the independence of the colonies Introduction the writer of the following pages was dandled upon the knee of a worthy sire who had spent eight years of his life in the struggle for independence and taught me the name of Colonel Bigelow long before I was able to articulate his name many have been the times while sitting on my father's lap around the old half-stone now more than fifty years since that I listened to effect in reminiscences of Colonel Bigelow and others until his voice would falter and tears would flow down his aged and care-worn face and then my mother and elder members of the family would laugh and inquire what is there in all of that that should make you weak? but I always rejoiced with him and wept when I saw him weak after the death of my father having engaged in the active scenes of life those childish memories in some degree wore away but the happiest moments of my life have been spent in company with some old revolutionary patriot while I listened to the recital of their sufferings and their final conquest the first history of the American Revolution I ever read is found in Morse's geography published in 1814 this I read until I had committed the whole to memory the next was what may be found in Lincoln's history of Worcester published in 1836 and from which I have taken liberal extracts the next is the history of the War of Independence of the United States of America written by Charles Botter translated from the Italian by George Alexander Otis in 1821 and this also I have taken extracts I have also consulted Lossing's pictorial fieldbook of the Revolution in neither of these histories except Lincoln's does the name of Colonel Bigelow occur therefore I have depended principally upon tradition coming from his own brethren in arms and corroborated by history it has been exceedingly difficult to trace the course and conduct of Colonel Bigelow from any history of the war but history aided by tradition makes up the history of any man to illustrate I get the account of Colonel Bigelow's conduct at the battle of Monmouth as stated in section 7 from Mr. Solomon Parsons which I received from his own lips more than 40 years ago and saw in his journal and more than 30 years since I heard General Lafayette and Mr. Parsons refer to these scenes footnote Lafayette's visit 1824 the remembrance of which drew tears from each of their eyes and also from many of the spectators I find that Mr. Parsons was in Lafayette's detachment General Green's division, General Glover's Brigade and Colonel Bigelow's regiment all of this I knew 40 years ago from tradition from history we all know that General Lafayette and General Green were at that battle and I am happy to say this whole subject was very recently become an item of history which may be found on page 260 of Washburn's history of Leicester in this way and from such sources I have gathered the facts embodied in these pages as to the personal appearance of Colonel Bigelow I have procured from witnesses who were as well acquainted and familiar with him and his physiognomy as the old residents of this city are with their venerable friend Governor Lincoln some of them are still living there is one man now living in this city who was 30 years of age when Colonel Bigelow died this man is a native of Worcester a new Colonel Bigelow as well as he did any man in town and heard him speaking the old South Church many times against the Tories footnote, Ebenezer Moore, born 1760 October 10 these articles have appeared in the daily spy of this city and at the suggestion of several distinguished individuals who wish to see them in a more durable form for reading and preservation I have concluded to present them to the public in the following pages Colonel Timothy Bigelow Chapter 1 A Monument to Colonel Bigelow It is well known in this community that one of the descendants of Colonel Bigelow is about to erect a monument to his memory within the enclosure of our beautiful Central Park Colonel Timothy Bigelow Lawrence of Boston a great grandson of the subject of this notice received permission from the city government last year to enclose a lot of sufficient size and to erect such a monument as he might deem suitable and proper it is understood that Colonel Lawrence will commence this benevolent and patriotic work in the spring or early summer footnote, June 1860 we are happy to say that Colonel Lawrence has the work now in successful progress let me suggest to him, to the mayor and council and to all whom it may concern the propriety of laying the foundation stone of this monument on the 19th day of April which will be the 85th anniversary of the marching of the Minutemen from Worcester under the command of Captain Bigelow it seems to me that Worcester cannot afford to let this opportunity pass without making some signal recognition of the event cannot the citizens of Worcester for the first time in 85 years gather with their families around the grave containing the last remains of her noble son Chapter 2 Early Efforts for Liberty the name of Timothy Bigelow stands conspicuous in the history of Worcester as early as 1773 we find him on a committee with W. M. Young, David Bancroft, Samuel Curtis and Stephen Salisbury to report upon the grievances under which the province laboured and also upon what was then called Boston Pamphlet which had been introduced at the town meeting in March the writer of this article thinks that this Boston Pamphlet was John Hancock's oration in commemoration of the bloody massacre of the 5th of March 1770 at the adjourned meeting in May following this committee made an elaborate report recommending a committee of correspondence the town adopted the report and elected the committee W. M. Young, Timothy Bigelow and John Smith in December following the leading wigs of the town assembled and formed a society which afterwards took the name of the American Political Society and Nathan Baldwin, Samuel Curtis and Timothy Bigelow were a chosen committee to report a constitution this society with Timothy Bigelow for a leader did good service to the town and to the country the last and most powerful blow was struck in the town meeting 7th of March 1774 when the society presented a long preamble and resolutions which were considered by the royalists to be treasonable and revolutionary when these resolutions were read said an eyewitness of the scene to the writer fear anxiety and awful suspense sat upon the countenance of every man of the wig party except Timothy Bigelow the blacksmith while the Tories were pale with rage after a few moments James Putnam the leader of the Tories arose Putnam was said to be the best lawyer in North America his arguments were marked by strong and clear reasoning logical precision and arrangement and that sound judgments whose conclusions were presented so forcibly as to command assent he made such a speech against the resolutions as had never before been heard in Worcester and when he sat down the same informant said that not a man of the wig party thought a single word could be said that old Putnam the Tory had wiped them all out Timothy Bigelow at length arose without learning without practice in public speaking without wealth the Tories of Worcester had at that day most of the wealth and learning but there he stood upon the floor of the old south church met the goliath of the day and vanquished him the governor of Massachusetts Bay and the crown and parliament of Great Britain were brought to fill the effect of his sling and stone suffice it to say the resolutions were carried triumphantly this was the first grand public effort made by Colonel Timothy Bigelow in his part of the great drama of the American Revolution Chapter 3 The Minute Men in August 1774 a company of minute men were enrolled under the command of Captain Bigelow and met each evening after the labors of the day for drill and martial exercise muskets were procured for their arming from Boston their services were soon required for the defense of the country at 11 o'clock a.m. April 19th 1775 an express came to town shouting as he passed through the street at full speed to arms to arms the war is begun the bell rang out the alarm cannons were fired and in a short time the minute men were paraded on the green under the command of Captain Timothy Bigelow after fervent prayer by Reverend Mr. McCarty they took up the line of march when they arrived at Sudbury intelligence of the retreat of the enemy met them and a second company of minute men from Worcester under command of Captain Benjamin Flag over took them when both moved on to Cambridge the writer cannot forbear to mention a few of the names of these soldiers of freedom most of them have descendants now living and living on the same farms that their illustrious sires or grand sires left when they started with captains Bigelow and flag to repel the enemy at Lexington Eli Chaplin was the father of Mrs. Jonathan Flag and Mrs. Captain Campbell W. M. Trowbridge was the father of Mrs. Lewis Chaplin Jonathan Stone grandfather of Emory Stone Esquire who now owns and occupies the same estate as a ward grandfather of W. M. Ward Simon Gates father of David R. who now lives on and owns the same estate David Richards was in Captain Flag's company but after he returned concluding there was going to be hot work to use his own words forty years afterwards he turned over to the Tories the organization of the army was immediately made at Cambridge and Timothy Bigelow was appointed major in Colonel Jonathan Ward's regiment in the autumn of 1775 Major Bigelow volunteered his services with his men from Worcester in that expedition against Quebec alike memorable for its boldness of conception the chivalrous daring of its execution and its melancholy failure during their march from Cambridge to Quebec Major Bigelow and his noble band endured severe hardships reduced by hunger to the necessity of eating their camp dogs and in their last extremity cutting their boots and shoes from their feet to sustain life had that winter march through the wilderness been the exploit of a Grecian phalanx or Roman legion the narrative of suffering and danger would have been long since celebrated in song and story one of the three divisions penetrating through the forest by the route of the Kennebec was commanded by Major Bigelow and during a day's halt of the troops on this memorable march Major Bigelow ascended a rugged height about 40 miles northwest from Norwichwalk for the purpose of observation this eminence still bears the name of Mount Bigelow in the attack on Quebec on the night of the 31st of December Major Bigelow was taken prisoner with those of his men who were not killed and remained in captivity until the summer of 1776 Chapter 4 Major Bigelow a prisoner we left Major Bigelow a prisoner of war whether he was confined in Canada transported to Halifax or placed aboard an English prison ship does not appear on the record but tradition has it that he went aboard one of those Tory vessels so noted in the history of George III the severe treatment and cruelty he received here did not cool his ardo his motto was I have not begun to fight yet an exchange having been affected in the summer of 1776 after an imprisonment of seven months he returned and was immediately called into the service with rank of Lieutenant Colonel and the next February he was appointed Colonel of the 15th regiment of the Massachusetts line in the Continental Army his regiment was composed principally of men from Worcester though there were some from Leicester, Auburn, Paxton and Holden and a braver band never took the field or mustered for battle high character for courage and discipline early acquired was maintained unsullied to the close of their service his troops being drilled Colonel Bigelow marched to join the Northern Army under the command of General Gates and arrived in season to join the main army at Saratoga and to assist in the capture of General Burgoyne at this scene of blood and carnage Colonel Bigelow with his regiment from Worcester behaved with uncommon gallantry it was said by our informant who was on the spot at the time that the 15th regiment under the command of Colonel Bigelow was the most efficient of any on the ground Colonel Bigelow was of fine personal appearance his figure was tall and commanding his bearing was erect and marshal and his step was said to have been one of the most graceful in the army with taste for military life he was deeply skilled in the science of war and the troops under his command and instruction exhibited the highest degree of discipline Colonel Bigelow possessed a vigorous intellect an ardent temperament and a warm and generous heart Chapter 5 in Pennsylvania we left Colonel Bigelow with the American Army under the command of General Gates on the banks of the Hudson exalting over the capture of Burgoyne and the flower of the British Army the next we hear of him he with his regiment together with Colonel Morgan's celebrated rifle corps and one or two other regiments were ordered to march to the relief of the army in Pennsylvania under the command of General Washington this campaign in Pennsylvania was very disastrous to the American Army being poorly clothed and more poorly fed they were not in condition to meet the tried veterans of the English Army it was said of this reinforcement from General Gates Army that they were men of approved courage and flushed with recent victory but squalid in their appearance from fatigue and want of necessaries but when Colonel Bigelow led his regiment into line with the main army at White Marsh a small place about 14 miles from Philadelphia he was recognized by the commander-in-chief as the very identical Captain Bigelow whom he had seen at Cambridge with a company of minute men from Worcester and while Washington held Colonel Bigelow by the hand to introduce him to his brother officers he said this gentlemen officers is Colonel Bigelow and the 15th regiment of the Massachusetts line under his command this gentleman is the man who vanquished the former royalists in his own native town he marched the first company of minute men from Worcester at the alarm from Lexington he shared largely in the sufferings of the campaign against Quebec and was taken prisoner there after his exchange he raised a regiment in his own neighborhood and joining the northern army under General Gates participated in the struggle with Burgoyne and shares largely in the honor of that victory it was said by an eyewitness that this was an exceedingly interesting and affecting event and could not fail to satisfy every one of the high estimation in which the commander-in-chief held Colonel Bigelow the American army was now watching the movements of Sir William Howe, commander of the British army who soon landed his troops at the head of the Elk River in two columns the right commanded by General Knifehousen, the left by Lord Cornwallis after several skirmishes the two armies met up on the banks of the Brandywine in this battle the Americans were unsuccessful and soon after the British army took possession of Philadelphia and the American army took their position at Germantown which is six miles northwest from Philadelphia here again the Americans are repulsed and each army retires to winter quarters the British to Philadelphia, the American to Valley Forge Chapter 6 at Valley Forge Valley Forge is on the west side of Shulekill, twenty miles from Philadelphia and this is where Colonel Bigelow spent the winter of 1777-78 with his regiment and here is where the soldiers of freedom suffered most intensely the British general had derived no other fruit from all his recent victories than of having procured excellent winter quarters for his army in Philadelphia here they spent the winter within the most splendid mansions of that city feasting upon the best the country afforded while the American army were suffering in their mud huts half-clothed with famines staring them in the face many of the soldiers were seen to drop dead with cold and hunger others had their bare feet cut by the ice and left their tracks in blood the American army exhibited in their quarters at Valley Forge such examples of constancy and resignation as were never paralleled before in such pressing danger of famine and the dissolution of the army mutiny appeared almost inevitable at this alarming crisis Colonel Bigelow had a party of officers and soldiers convened at his headquarters one evening such a party as we should call in these days a surprise party when the subject of abandoning the cause was fully discussed Colonel Bigelow heard all that was to be said on the subject some of his men argued that Congress could not clothe or feed them and they did not feel it to be their duty to abandon their families and homes to starve in that cold climate when all had been said by as many as wished to express their minds Colonel Bigelow arose and said gentlemen I have heard all the remarks of discontent offered here this evening but as for me I have long since come to the conclusion to stand by the American cause come what will I have enlisted for life I have cheerfully left my home and my family all the friends I have are the friends of my country I expect to suffer with hunger with cold and with fatigue and if need be I expect to lay down my life for the liberty of these colonies such remarks as these could not fail of having the desired effect about this time a large herd of cattle was driven into the camp from New Jersey in Connecticut Worcester had sent Colonel Bigelow's regiments sixty-two sets of shirts shoes and stockings as their proportion for the army other towns did their part Worcester sent seventy-eight pounds in law for money which was taken up at the old south church after divine service now the Marquis de Lafayette with his money and with his French troops had arrived now Count de Cestan with his powerful fleet were in the American waters now General Gates with his remainder of the Northern Army had arrived to join the Army of Washington Spring comes and the day that the English abandoned Philadelphia the American Army leaves Valley Forge to watch their movements they cross the Delaware to Corielle's ferry and take post at Hopewell they do not venture to cross the Raritan the English reach Allentown General Lee occupies English town Washington encamped at Cranbury Morgan and Colonel Bigelow harassing the right flank of the English the British now upon the heights of Freehold parcel their baggage to the hills of Middletown for safety and then comes the Battle of Monmouth Chapter 7 The Battle of Monmouth The Battle of Monmouth so called by the Americans was fought in Freehold, Monmouth County, New Jersey situated thirty-five miles southeast from Trenton the Commander-in-Chief had detached two brigades to the sport of General Wayne who had been sent on as a vanguard and had already come up with the British rear these two brigades were commanded by Generals Lee and Lafayette at this time Colonel Bigelow was under the command of General Lafayette this vanguard of the American Army had so severely gawd the rear of the British that General Clinton resolved to wheel his whole army and put the Americans to flight at the point of the bayonet for a short time the conflict was severe at length General Lee gave way for which he was afterwards court-martialed and suspended for one year the light horse also of Lafayette's brigade gave way and nothing of that celebrated vanguard but Colonel Bigelow's regiment with two or three other regiments remained it was said that if General Lee had stood his ground as he might have done a decisive victory would have been gained Colonel Bigelow's regiment was the last to quit the field it was said by one of Colonel Bigelow's men who was an intimate acquaintance of the writer of this article and who was wounded at that time that at the time he fell Colonel Bigelow seized his musket from him and fought more like a tiger than a man this man was Mr. Solomon Parsons whose son now occupies and owns the same farm on which his father died on Apricot Street in this city Colonel Bigelow with his regiment had to retire but was soon met by Washington with the main army who was moving up to the rescue after the troops of Lee and Lafayette had been rallied the whole army turned upon the enemy and then came the tug of war for Greek met Greek the English flushed with their own advantages they had got and the Americans under the command of their own beloved Washington many of whom had never fought before by his side were determined to retake the field or die in the attempt the conflict was now terrible indeed and in the midst of the flame and smoke and metal hail Bigelow was conspicuous the English were repulsed and driven to the woods the Americans retake the field, night comes on the whole American army rest on their arms through the night that they may renew the attack with the dawn of day day comes on and the British army has fled as one of their officers said by moonlight but it so happened that the moon set that night at ten o'clock being but four days old such was the issue of the battle of Freehold or of Monmouth as the Americans call it we have now traced the military history of Colonel Bigelow from April 1917-75 to June 28, 1778 Chapter 8 The Slaughter at Wyoming the history of Colonel Bigelow is so interwoven with that of the Revolution that it is difficult to separate the two we shall therefore give in this chapter a short account of the bloody butchery of the inhabitants of that beautiful little colony at Wyoming and what Colonel Bigelow thought of that demonic cruelty the bare remembrance of which makes us shudder Wilkes Barre is a shire town of Lausanne County, PA it is situated in the Wyoming Valley 114 miles northeast from Harrisburg and 120 northwest from Philadelphia this place was settled by emigrants from Connecticut in 1773 under the auspices of one Colonel Ducky who gave it the compound name it bears in honor of two eminent and zealous advocates of the American cause in the British Parliament Wilkes and Barre Wyoming contained eight townships each containing a square of five miles beautifully situated on both sides of the Susqueyanna Wilkes Barre is one of these towns the inhabitants of this beautiful valley were much engaged in their country's cause and nearly one thousand of their young men had joined the army and were absent from home most of the remaining at home were Tories although they were not so numerous as the Friends of Liberty yet they formed an alliance with the Indians and the first of July there appeared before the fort at Wilkes Barre about sixteen hundred armed men two thirds of which were Tories and one third Indians the colony of Wyoming could muster only about five hundred men in this condition the Tories and Indians fell upon them and put them nearly all to death only about sixty escaped never was a route so deplorable never was a massacre accompanied with so many horrors the barbarians took the men, women and children promiscuously into houses and barracks and set fire to them and consumed them all listening delighted to hear the moans and shrinks of the expiring multitude the crops of every description were consigned to the flames the habitations, granaries and other constructions the fruit of years of human industry sunk in ruin under the destructive strokes of these cannibals their fury was also wrecked upon the very beasts they cut out the tongues of the horses and cattle and left them to wander in the midst of those fields lately so luxuriant but now in desolation to undergo the torments of a lingering death Captain Bedlock was stripped naked and stuck full of pine splinters and set on fire captains Ransom and Durgy were thrown alive into the fire one of the Tories whose mother had married a second husband butchered her with his own hand and then massacred his father-in-law his own sisters and their infants in the cradle another killed his own father and exterminated all his family a third imbued his hands in the blood of his brothers, his sisters, his brother-in-law and his father-in-law other atrocities if possible still more abominable we leave in silence the Tories appeared to vie with and even to surpass the savages in barbarity such men as these Colonel Bigelow had to contend with in Worcester in 1774 and upon hearing of this bloody massacre it was said that Colonel Bigelow was filled with horror and indignation and swore eternal vengeance and can dine punishment upon all the Tories Colonel Bigelow at this time was at his post in Rhode Island and on hearing of this bloody tragedy it was said by the same informant that he walked his room for one hour without speaking at length he exclaimed our worst enemies are those of our own household Chapter 9 Scouting after the British evacuated Rhode Island Colonel Bigelow moves on with his regiment and the next we hear of him he is at the Planks Point the American Army was at this time very much divided the great object of the Commander-in-Chief was to annoy the British forces as much as possible and we think that it is not saying too much of Colonel Bigelow that no Colonel in the whole American Army was better qualified for that service his whole life had been and was at this time devoted to his country's cause he had left Worcester and all of its pleasant associations with the determination to free the colonies from the mother country or die in the attempt he seemed to feel that the whole responsibility of the struggle rested on him always ready to obey orders from superior officers cheerfully and never wanting any energy to execute them the deep snows of Quebec had not cooled his ardour and the fetid stench of the English prison ship could not abate his love of liberty in country the blood and carnage of Saratoga and of Monmouth had given him confidence the blood-stained soil of Valley Forge had enured him to the hardships to which others would have yielded the news of the bloody buttery at Wyoming had aroused his iron nerve to its utmost tension against Tories and in this condition he was ordered with his regiment to Robinson's Farm, New Jersey here he breaks up a nest of Tories who was supplying the British with hay, grain and other things necessary for their army an anecdote of this bloodless battle was related to the writer by one of Colonel Bigelow's men who was present at the time the English had sent a company of men to guard their teams while removing some hay they were receiving from their friends the Tories when Colonel Bigelow came up with his regiment and ordered them to disperse the Tories were insolent the English captain refused to go until the hay went with them upon this Colonel Bigelow ordered a part of his men to fire upon them at this moment one of Colonel Bigelow's men from Worcester who had just joined the regiment and we are sorry to say was a coward exclaimed at the top of his voice in the name of God why don't Colonel Bigelow order us to retreat this man in afterlife received a pension from government and died respected a few years since in this city his children are now living here and therefore we shall not call his name he was always afraid of gunpowder the English were also frightened and fled leaving the hay on the hands of Colonel Bigelow who having no use for it returned it to its Tory owner on the express condition that he should not sell it to the British Colonel Bigelow is now ordered to pier skill this is a town on the Hudson 46 miles north of New York and 106 miles south of Albany here he frightened the Tories and drove the British down the river to New York Colonel Bigelow is again at the planks and stony point guarding the pass called King's Ferry General Clinton moves upon them with the British Army and Commodore Collier with the British squadron ascends the river the British storm the fort named the fort of Lafayette at the planks the fortress has to surrender but not until Colonel Bigelow showed them the points of his bayonets it was said of this conflict that Colonel Bigelow ordered his men to draw their charge and approach the enemy with fixed bayonets while he himself laid aside his sword and took a musket from a sick soldier and with it fought more like a tiger than a man this fort being overpowered by the enemy at length gave way and surrendered at discretion the policy of the English is now to resume the war of devastation and the army is ordered into South Carolina General Gates is ordered to the command of the Southern Army Chapter 10 Disasters at the South General Gates takes command of the Southern Army the British at this time had almost undisputed possession of South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina in this condition Gates resolved to risk a general battle with Lord Cornwallis and for which he was severely blamed he lost the battle hence the blame if on the other hand he had gained it he would have gained another laurel to place by the side of the one gained at Saratoga at this battle General Gates lost more than 2,000 men and among them three valuable officers General Gregory was killed and Baron DeCulb and General Rutherford of Carolina were taken prisoners this was the result of the Battle of Camden at this time Colonel Bigelow was watching the movements of the British troops in New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island in this stage of the narrative the writer cannot refrain from passing a tribute of respect to the memory of these patriotic women of South Carolina who displayed so ardent so rare a love of country that scarcely could there be found in ancient or modern history an instant more worthy to excite surprise and admiration they repaired on board ships and descended into dungeons where their husbands children or friends were in confinement they carried with them consolation and encouragement some in your magnanimity they said yield not to the fury of tyrants hesitate not to prefer prisons to infamy death to servitude America has fixed her eyes upon her beloved defenders you will reap doubt it not the fruit of your sufferings they will produce liberty that parent of all blessing they will shelter her forever from the assaults of British bandity you are the martyrs of a cause the most grateful to heaven and sacred to man by such words these generous women mitigated the miseries of the unhappy prisoners exasperated at their constancy the English condemned the most zealous of them to banishment and confiscation imbidding a last farewell to their fathers their children their brothers their husbands these heroines far from betraying the least mark of weakness which in men might have been excused extorted them to arm themselves with intrepidity they conjured them not to allow fortune to vanquish them nor to suffer the love they bore their families to render them unmindful of all they owed their country a supernatural alacrity seemed to animate them when they accompanied their husbands into distant countries and even when they immured themselves with them in their fetid ships into which they were inhumanely crowded reduced to the most frightful indigents they were seen to beg bread for themselves and families among those who were nurtured in the lap of opulence many passed suddenly from the most delicate and most elegant style of living to the rudest toils and to the humblest services the humiliation could not triumph over their resolution and cheerfulness their example was the support to their companions in misfortune to this heroism of the women of carolina it is principally to be imputed that the love and even the name of liberty were not totally extinguished in the southern provinces colonel bigelow hearing of the loss of gates army and the appointment of general green to the command of the southern department solicited and received orders from the commander-in-chief to move on with his regiment to join green but did not arrive in season to participate in the battles of hopkirk and of uchu springs which closed the campaign in the south Chapter 11. Battle at Yorktown Yorktown is a port of entry in Virginia, seventeen miles east-south-east from Richmond on the south side of York River opposite Gloucester the British army from the south had encamped at this place and fortified it colonel bigelow had arrived with his regiments to join general green, colonel bigelow is now in general Lafayette's detachment Lafayette's second officer is colonel Hamilton, aide to camp of the commander-in-chief, a young man of the highest expectations and accompanied by colonel Loren's son of the former president of congress another detachment was commanded by the Baron D. Viom Snitt, the Count Charles de Damus and the Count D. DuPonts the commanders addressed their soldiers a short exhortation to inflame their courage they represented that this last effort would bring them to the close of their glorious toils the attack was extremely impetuous general Lafayette is ordered to attack the right redoubt while the Baron D. Viom Snitt is to attack the left this was done at the point of the bayonet, suffice it to say that both redoubts were carried one of colonel bigelow's men on being inquired of by the writer where his colonel was at the time answered while colonel Tim was everywhere all the time and you would thought if you had been there that there was nobody else in the struggle but colonel bigelow and his regiment before the morning of the nineteenth those redoubts were all repaired and manned by the allies now comes the celebrated nineteenth day of October 1781 the day began to appear the allies open a tremendous fire from all their batteries the bombs showered copiously the French fleet under command of Count de Grasse are opening a most deadly fire from the harbour Lord Cornwallis sends in a flag to General Washington proposing a cessation of arms for twenty four hours Washington would not consent to it and would grant but two hours and during this interval he should expect the propositions of the British commander the proposition is made and accepted the British flotilla consisting of two frigates the Guadalupe and the Fowie besides about twenty transports twenty others had been burnt during the siege one hundred and sixty pieces of filled artillery mostly brass with eight mortars more than seven thousand prisoners exclusive of seamen five hundred and fifty slain including one officer major Cochrane was surrendered into the hands of the armies of France and America whose loss was about four hundred and fifty and killed and wounded at the news of so glorious so important a victory transports of exultation broke out from one extremity of America to the other nobody dared longer to doubt of independence a poet in Colonel Bigelow's regiment made a short song commemorative of this event in which occurred these lines Count de Grasse he lies in the harbour and Washington is on shore a wagon Worcester after they had returned changed it so as to make it read thus Count de Grasse he lies in the harbour and Bigelow is on shore such was the end of the campaign of Virginia which was well nigh being that of the American War this laid the foundation of a general peace thus ended a long and arduous conflict in which Great Britain expended a hundred million of money with a hundred thousand lives and one nothing the United States endured great cruelty and distress from their enemies lost many lives and much treasure but finally delivered themselves from a foreign dominion and gained a rank among the nations of the earth CHAPTER XII. CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTION After the surrender of Yorktown the American army divide part of the troops returned to the banks of the Hudson to watch the motions of Clinton who had still a large force at New York the rest were sent to South Carolina to reinforce General Green and confirm the authority of Congress in those provinces Colonel Bigelow and his regiment were among those that returned to the Hudson the Marquis de Lafayette embarked about the same time for Europe bearing with him the affection of the whole American people in a few months General Green had driven the British from the southern colonies and they retired to New York to join the main army Colonel Bigelow is ordered to leave West Point where he was stationed and proceed to Rhode Island the next spring 1782 Segui Carlton arrived in America and took command of the British army at New York immediately after his arrival he acquainted General Washington and Congress that negotiations for a peace had been commenced at Paris on the 30th of November of that year the provincial articles of peace were signed Colonel Bigelow returned to Worcester but was very soon stationed at West Point for what purpose the writer could never ascertain afterwards he was assigned to the command of the National Arsenal at Springfield after his term of service was out there he returned again to Worcester with a frame physically impaired by long hardship, toil and exposure with blighted worldly prospects with the remains of private property considerable at the outset seriously diminished by the many sacrifices of his martial career in 1780 Colonel Bigelow with others obtained a grant of 23,040 acres of land in Vermont and founded a town on which was bestowed the name of Montpellier now the capital of the state a severe domestic affliction in 1787 the loss of his second son Andrew uniting with other disappointments depressed his energy and cast over his mind a gloom presaging the approach of knight of premature old age he died March 31st 1790 in the 51st year of his age end of reminiscences of the military life and sufferings of Colonel Timothy Bigelow commander of the 15th Regiment of the Massachusetts line in the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution taking diplomatic action against piracy by the US State Department this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org taking diplomatic action against piracy Bureau of Public Affairs Office of the Spokesman Washington DC May 13 2009 the United States has taken a leading role in the contact group on piracy off the coast of Somalia highlighting our commitment to joining our international partners to meet the shared security challenge posed by piracy's negative impact on maritime safety global commerce humanitarian aid delivery to eastern Africa and regional trade and development since December 2008 the United States has led UN Security Council efforts to adopt two resolutions allowing states to partner with Somalia's transitional federal government to suppress armed robbery in its territorial waters established a contact group per UN Security Council Resolution 1851 the contact group currently includes 28 countries and six international organizations the African Union, the Arab League, the European Union, the International Maritime Organization, NATO and the UN Secretariat the contact group continues to grow with several nations asking to participate joined international partners to enhance security with expanded naval patrols the US Navy created Combined Task Force 151 on counter piracy and we actively support the expansion of NATO and European Union counter piracy missions we also hope to build upon new counter piracy collaboration with non-traditional maritime security partners such as China, India and Russia secured a formal arrangement with Kenya to accept pirates for prosecution and continues to work with other countries to expand options for prosecution in keeping with our strong conviction that states affected by piracy have a responsibility to prosecute the US Department of Justice is prosecuting the surviving perpetrator of the pirate attack on the US flag Marisk, Alabama in a US federal court continue to work with international partners and private industry to encourage greater commercial shipping self-protection capability as well as with regional governments to help develop local self-sufficient coastal security forces work to integrate international maritime security efforts with diplomatic support for the UN leg Djibouti peace process to help the Somali people address their larger political security and governance challenges the long-term solution to piracy lies in political and economic stability in Somalia and the creation of a government that can secure its territory and meet the needs of its citizens end of taking diplomatic action against piracy by the US State Department Recording by James Christopher Jx Christopher at yahoo.com Recorded for International Talk Like a Pirate Day September 19, 2009 www.talklikeapirate.com