by Stan Dyer

Created on: November 08, 2007

If you think of history in absolute terms, then "no", it does not repeat. That's ludicrous since time only passes once and the exact circumstances at that exact moment in time can never be repeated exactly. If, however, you think in general terms, then history repeats itself over and over again, and always will. A good example exists in the moment and the history happening right now.

I awoke today to an unstable economy, war abroad, and rising fuel prices with the knowledge that the coldest months of the year were just around the corner. I wondered if there was any good news at all. After all, it is the holiday season and there must be something to celebrate. It occurred to me that many Americans must have been thinking similar thoughts back in 1863; the year Abraham Lincoln established by proclamation a national day of Thanksgiving.

I found an issue of Harper's Weekly from October 17, 1863. Page 658 contained President Lincoln's public proclamation that established the Thanksgiving holiday. It also contained some familiar complaints of partisan politics, foreign alliance, and isolationism. After all, the country was having some trouble of its own then too. This was the Civil War in America, just ten months after the Emancipation Proclamation became effective, and just a few weeks before Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address. People had a lot on their minds. War and the effects of war were in the news. Does that Sound familiar? Much of it had the ring of familiarity.

The Harper's editors offered this opinion of the Emancipation Proclamation: "We support also every necessary measure of war. We are, indeed, most sincerely rejoiced that the war waged upon the government to secure the supremacy of slavery offers the opportunity for settling the eternal vexation of our history and the constant menace of our peace and permanence by overthrowing slavery itself". When they speak of "the constant menace of our peace and permanence", it sounds more as if they are talking about Al-Qaeda than Jefferson Davis. Americans have always argued the value of any existing war and the "fit and necessary war measures" taken to secure peace and permanence against varying foes, but they have never argued against a true, lasting peace.

As for partisan politics, it was interesting to find a letter to the editor from an obviously copperhead influence. Copperheads were Northerners suspected of subversive activity on behalf of the Confederacy, (There were terrorist cells even back then?),

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