Burnished Rows of Steal

Plagiarism, or the theft of the ideas of others and passing them off as one's own, is the worst offense that can be committed in the intellectual world of academia. TFSmith purports to be an academic, and claims copyright over the work at the start of each post which he makes. Yet he also paraphrases or outright quotes from other historians without crediting these historians for the work he claims as his own.


These are Salmon P. Chase's comments in Chapter 1 Part 3:

“I tell you, the bottom is about to fall out – our bonds are being dumped on the New York Exchange, the speculators are buying gold, saltpeter, and gunpowder, and there’s the beginning of a run,” Salmon P. Chase, 53, said.

“The December loan payment is in jeopardy, and both Barings and Rothschild’s have closed their doors,” the Ohioan said.

This is Amanda Foreman's A World On Fire:

'On Monday morning in New York there were rowdy scenes at the Stock Exchange as investors dumped their bonds and rushed to buy commodities such as gold, saltpetre and gunpowder. A run on the banks suspended all business, including the payment of the loan to the Treasury that Secretary Chase had been expecting in mid-December. The New York officers of Barings and the Rothschilds closed their doors and Rothschilds transferred their American holdings to France to safeguard them from confiscation by the US government.'

 Stanley's comments in Chapter 1 Part 4:

'Not to mention the Canadian border is more than 1,500 miles long, thinly fortified and connected by only the most basic roads and waterways; and even if the Navy sweeps the Federal fleet from the seas, and blockades their cities on the Atlantic, and burns New York to the ground, we cannot garrison and hold 350,000 square miles of rugged country.'

Elsewhere in Amanda Foreman's work:

'The strategic difficulties were indeed formidable. The Canadian border was thinly fortified and connected by only the most basic roads and waterways. It would require a minimum of 10,000 regular troops and 100,000 militia volunteers to repel an invasion. Moreover, as the Times had pointed out, "We can sweep the Federal fleet from the seas, we can blockade the Atlantic cities; but we cannot garrison and hold 350,000 square miles of country."'

This is Wolseley's speech on the strategic situation in Canada in Chapter 3 Part 1:

“And, as we all know, it is along this line that the main area of Canadian settlement, rarely more than fifty miles in depth, is concentrated. The length of the exposed frontier alone makes it virtually impossible for us to defend it in its entirety - but, worse, the Americans are peculiarly well placed to attack it. They not only have superior local resources in men and material, they also have excellent communications for concentrating those resources upon the frontier and for reinforcing them from the heart of commercial and industrial America - in fact, sufficiently good communications, in my view, to outweigh the difficulties of a winter campaign,” the colonel said.

“From Albany, with its extensive road and rail communications, and the Hudson river connection with New York, can be brought - without the least difficulty - all the materials for mounting a major offensive. And from that point a large force can pass by canal into Lake Champlain from which, under cover of the fort at Rouse's Point at the head of the lake, it can safely issue for an attack on Montreal, which lays only forty miles distant. From Albany, too, there are good communications with the Niagara frontier and with Ogdensburg, from which the Americans can cut the St. Lawrence, as well as mount attacks on the Detroit River frontier and the shores of the lakes.”

And this is Bourne's Britain and the Balance of Power in North America from which it was stolen:

 'And it was still along part of this line that the main area of Canadian settlement, rarely more than fifty miles in depth, was concentrated. The vast length of the exposed frontier alone made it virtually impossible for the British to defend it in its entirety- but, worse, the Americans were peculiarly well placed to attack it. They not only had superior local resources in men and material, they also had excellent communications for concentrating those resources upon the frontier and for reinforcing them from the heart of commercial and industrial America- sufficiently good communications in Macdougall's view to outweigh the difficulties of a winter campaign. To the arsenal at Albany, with its extensive road and rail communications and the Hudson River connection with New York, could be brought without the least difficulty all the materials for mounting a major offensive. From that point a large force could pass by canal into Lake Champlain and, under the cover of Rouse's Point at the head of the lake, it could safely issue for an attack on Quebec, or, more probably, Montreal which lay only forty miles distant. From Albany, too, there were good communications with the Niagara frontier and with Ogdensburg, from which an attempt could be made to cut the St Lawrence. The rich American towns on the lakes could also be expected to supply the resources for at least diversionary attacks on the Detroit frontier and the shores of the lakes.' 

Notice, too, that all but one of the changes which have been made to the text are to strengthen the Union cause. The actual bank run, which closed banks across the Union, becomes the beginning of a run in Chase's mouth. The Times made no comment on the efficacy of burning New York; Stanley denies its effect and makes Canada rugged to boot. War materials can not just be brought to Albany, but from it north into Canada. The Union can not only attempt to cut the St. Lawrence, but can actually cut it. Diversionary attacks on the Detroit frontier become actual attacks on the Detroit frontier.

Selective or misleading quotation is a phenomenon to which we will have cause to return many, many times.