Mark Twain

[Xavier_Onassis]

The influence of the government, Whig or Democrat, from 1835 to 1860, on the life of young Samuel Langhorne Clemons was minimal. This was before TV news and any sort of political activity such as we have today. His father does when he was young and he worked as a typesetter in a printshop. That was how he educated himself. He read extensively, and as any printer had to do, he learned how to read backwards and probably upside down as well.  Clemons and his brother Orion, (pronounced OR-ee own, so people would not think he was Irish -O'Ryan) educated themselves. After a few weeks in a local militia at the beginning of the Civil War, he did the logical thing and did not head for Bull Run, Shiloh, or Vicksburg, he lit out for the Territories, since his brother was named secretary to the Territorial governor of Nevada. Clemons correctly surmised that defending Missouri from or for the Yankees or fighting for slavery was not worth dying for. The Whigs were every bit as corrupt as the Democrats: their thing was nominating old generals for president, the last one being Winfield Scott.  James Polk was probably the least corrupt president of the 1800's. He did not even want to run for a second term. He promised to annex Texas, and did, and promised to settle the Oregon territory dispute, and he did that as well. Clemons made a lot of money as a Mississippi riverboat pilot, but the war ruined traffic on the river. He was offered a job piloting on the Missouri, but he knew that this was dangerous because of all the snags and sawyers, and he declined.

 
 

[sirs]

Ummm....ok.  Reinforcing the point Twain was making, that ALL politicians need their diapers changed...including Democrats

[Plane]

The influence of the government, Whig or Democrat, from 1835 to 1860, on the life of young Samuel Langhorne Clemons was minimal. This was before TV news and any sort of political activity such as we have today. His father does when he was young and he worked as a typesetter in a printshop...............

   So you want to say that he was unaware of the political climate , though his job required him to read the news every day?

[Plane]

What a guy!

Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837 – June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th President of the United States.[1] He was the winner of the popular vote for president three times—in 1884, 1888, and 1892—and was one of the two Democrats (alongside Woodrow Wilson) elected to the presidency in the era of Republican political domination dating from 1861 to 1933.

Cleveland was the leader of the pro-business Bourbon Democrats who opposed high tariffs, Free Silver, inflation, imperialism, and subsidies to business, farmers, or veterans. His crusade for political reform and fiscal conservatism made him an icon for American conservatives of the era.[2] Cleveland won praise for his honesty, self-reliance, integrity, and commitment to the principles of classical liberalism.[3] He relentlessly fought political corruption, patronage and bossism. Indeed, as a reformer his prestige was so strong that the like-minded wing of the Republican Party, called "Mugwumps," largely bolted the GOP presidential ticket and swung to his support in the 1884 election

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Cleveland

Whoops!

As his second term began, disaster hit the nation when the Panic of 1893 produced a severe national depression, which Cleveland was unable to reverse. It ruined his Democratic Party,...

There is no real steering wheel on the economy.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I mean that other than the Civil War, Twain's life was not much affected by anything the government did. The same was true for most people at that time. The federal government had little impact on the lives of citizens. It did not regulate anything, it did not pay anyone Social Security or Medicare. The main thing it did was to coin money. Paper money was actually issued by local banks.

[sirs]

He was affected enough to accurately conclude the need for frequent changing of politicians in power.  And this is, by your own words, when they weren't such control freaks

[Plane]

................, when they weren't such control freaks

Hahahahaha!

Who knew at the time, how ever present the government would become after a century?

[sirs]

Really     

[Xavier_Onassis]

The one thing that Mark Twain was NOT was a radical Republican.
I do not know whom he voted for or even if he voted at all, but he was an intellectual and not at all popular in the South, because he was against slavery and failed as a good Missourian to defend the Slave State South. 

In the presidential election of 1860, Lincoln finished last. Douglas won the most votes followed by Bell, the Constitutional Unionist. In the legislature, Breckenridge Democrats came out ahead. The legislature was about to vote to secede, but the Union Army took over the capitol in July 1860 before this happened.

Missouri was a slave state with only 9.7% slaves in the population. 110,000 Missourians fought for the Union, 30,000 for the Confederacy, and Samuel Langhorne Clemons lit out for the territories, ie Nevada. Clearly, he felt that neither side was worth dying for.

If sirs could provide examples of Mark Twain denouncing Democratic politicians, he could do so.  I am sure that Twain was against all types of corruption. I think it is significant that after extensive travels, he did not return to postwar Missouri, but settled down in Elmira New York, and moved to Bridgeport Connecticut after his wife died.

I would say the odds that Mark Twain would have voted for a fatcat Mormoin like Mitt  Romney would have been exceedingly small. He was a bit of an imperialist in his earlier writings, but by the time of the Spanish American War he was clearly against the war and its aftermath.

There is extensive information about him online.
 

[sirs]

The one thing that Mark Twain was NOT was a radical Republican.

Who claimed he was??  Nor am I claiming anything Twain was being specific about, outside of POLITICIANS (as in ALL). 

You seem to be the one intent on making this about how corrupt everyone was, outside of Democrats, and how Twain must have been aiming his quote that started this tread, at everyone else, except Democrats.  Given his original quote that started this thread, it's a forgone conclusion he would have never have supported a modern day Democrat for President.  That's not to claim he'd have embraced someone like Romney or Bush, merely that he would have been more likely to

[Xavier_Onassis]

I have not said, at any point, that Democrats during Twain's time, were not corrupt. Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall was as corrupt as was possible and Tweed's downfall is known to any historian, though probably not to you.

But the Gilded Age was the heyday of Republican domination, and Twain was a great fan of Grover Cleveland, who was that Democratic president of whom you were apparently ignorant.

[sirs]

The famed Democrat President you kept hording is irrelvent to the point Twain was making about ALL politicians.  YOU are the one that immediately tried to imply that Democrats weren't really the focus of Twain's quote that started this.  Based on.....nothing more than your knee jerk defense of anything/everything Democrat

[Xavier_Onassis]

So somehow I was "hoarding" the identity of Grover Cleveland from you. Haw haw haw, that is a hoot.

If you are so damn stupid you could not find this bit of info, you probably have trouble dressing yourself as well.

If you have evidence that Mark Twain condemned Democrats for corruption, you could always present it.

[sirs]

So somehow I was "hoarding" the identity of Grover Cleveland from you.

Not at all....you were using it as your standard deflection, since it was completely irrelevent to the topic at hand

If you have evidence that Mark Twain condemned Democrats for corruption, you could always present it.

And there's the other tactic.....arguing a point no one is making.  Never claimed Twain condemned Democrats alone.  You're the one trying to defend them.  I'm merely repeating what Twain clearly was referencing, the need for ALL politicians' diapers to be changed

[Xavier_Onassis]

He did not claim that politicians wore diapers.

He said that politicians, like diapers, needed to be changed regularly.

It is what is called a simile.