Flashback Post - Memphis and Nashville in the COLD!

This is a flashback post from my trip last January with Katrina

While scrolling down through my list of "drafts" for Blogger I found a few posts that somehow never got scheduled including this one that goes back to my President Tour with Katrina in January 2017.
I guess a year late is better than never?

Forks flashed separately to make it appear to move

We stopped in Memphis on our way home from our final stop at the Clinton Library in Little Rock, and it was cold and snowing.  That did not stop Wisconsin ladies like us from walking down past all the honky tonks in "The District" to see the neon and hear the music spilling out onto the sidewalk.

I'm one of the few out there who is not interested in crowds or "entertainment", preferring the company of less than half a dozen people at a time in general, and music that I don't have to shout over.  The volume on the sidewalk was perfect for a lifelong fuddy-duddy like myself.

We ate at the Kooky Canuck, lured in by the promise of Canadian comfort.  I am here to tell you that aside from having a Canadian flag in the room nowhere I've ever eaten was less Canadian, especially considering the rude and dismissive service we got from the moment we walked into the almost empty restaurant.  The menu items have quirky Candian inspired names and that is where the similarity to Canada ends.  Not all adventures turn out the way you think they will, but Katrina enjoyed her drink at least.

It was so cold out that no one was taking carriage rides, and the canine assistant huddled beneath blankets only poking her nose out when someone stopped by to give her a dog treat.

It was a little warmer when we visited Nashville, but not enough that we lingered long after parking our car a few blocks from the Capitol building.  We only had time to give the War Memorial a glance.

Above the front steps to this entrance, a carving reads:

AMERICA IS PRIVILEGED TO SPEND HER BLOOD AND HER MIGHT FOR THE PRINCIPLES THAT GAVE HER BIRTH AND HAPPINESS AND THE PEACE WHICH SHE HAS TREASURED.  This is a quote from President Woodrow Wilson's message before a joint session of Congress, recommending that a state of war be declared between the United States and the imperial German government.

I didn't get a photo of  the Tennessee State Capitol which sits on the highest hill in the central city.  It was designed in the Greek Revival Style by architect William Strickland of Tennessee limestone quarried only a mile from the building site.  The architect died in 1854 before it was finished in 1859 and is entombed in the walls of the building itself.  He worked on the U.S. Capitol and the steeple of Independence Hall in Philadelphia - so unbeknownst to me until now I have seen his 3 most popular works!

It was a very nice Capitol, and holding up very well for its age. It wasn't just the limestone that came from Tennessee but most of the marble as well.  Definitely a contrast to the Wisconsin state Capitol which had 43 varieties of stone from six countries and eight states.  However, if you are at the Tennessee Capitol and notice that some of the exterior limestone seems a different color that is because the softer limestone had to be replaced with sturdier Indiana limestone a century later.  It is also one of only 12 state Capitols that does not have a dome, perhaps due to its age?  Maybe that wasn't the thing to do yet then!

The official video which you can watch here says "..the state saved considerable money by having the limestone worked by inmates from the state penitentiary and by slaves hired out from their masters." The fact wasn't as surprising as the cheerfulness with which the fact was delivered...

Original chandelier in former State library, now the Legislative Lounge

Some of the ironwork is Tennessee sourced but some wasn't including the intricate gasolier/chandeliers from Philadelphia.  Gas lighting was a new technology during the 1850's. The State Library has been restored as closely as possible to its original state, I especially loved the ceiling which included portraits of Tennessee intellectuals such as poets, geologists and historians.  We could use a little more respect for men of learning in these times, the past does instruct us in what we traditions we should keep as well as in those we should change.

Frescoed portraits in ceiling of State Library

On August 18, 1920, Tennessee passed the proposed 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by a one-vote margin, becoming the 36th state to ratify the measure and clearing the way for its official adoption eight days later and securing the right for women to vote. Here is the touching story that came out of that event:

Harry Burn, a 24-year-old representative from East Tennessee who two years earlier had become the youngest member of the state legislature. The red rose signified his opposition to the proposed 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which stated that “[t]he right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” By the summer of 1920, 35 states had ratified the measure, bringing it one vote short of the required 36. In Tennessee, it had sailed through the Senate but stalled in the House of Representatives, prompting thousands of pro- and anti-suffrage activists to descend upon Nashville. If Burn and his colleagues voted in its favor, the 19th Amendment would pass the final hurdle on its way to adoption.

After weeks of intense lobbying and debate within the Tennessee legislature, a motion to table the amendment was defeated with a 48-48 tie. The speaker called the measure to a ratification vote. To the dismay of the many suffragists who had packed into the capitol with their yellow roses, sashes and signs, it seemed certain that the final roll call would maintain the deadlock. But that morning, Harry Burn—who until that time had fallen squarely in the anti-suffrage camp—received a note from his mother, Phoebe Ensminger Burn, known to her family and friends as Miss Febb. In it, she had written, “Hurrah, and vote for suffrage! Don’t keep them in doubt. I notice some of the speeches against. They were bitter. I have been watching to see how you stood, but have not noticed anything yet.” She ended the missive with a rousing endorsement of the great suffragist leader Carrie Chapman Catt, imploring her son to “be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the ‘rat’ in ratification.”

Still sporting his red boutonniere but clutching his mother’s letter, Burn said “aye” so quickly that it took his fellow legislators a few moments to register his unexpected response. With that single syllable he extended the vote to the women of America and ended half a century of tireless campaigning by generations of suffragists, including Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul, Lucy Burns and, of course, Mrs. Catt.   (Borrowed from the History Channel website)

There were 3 U.S. Presidents from Tennessee: Andrew Johnson (Abraham Lincoln's Vice-President), James Polk and Andrew Jackson.  President Jackson is a figure I've been meaning to do more research on, honored and admired by many he was also unfortunately the one who ignored the Supreme Court decision and enforced his Indian Removal Act of 1830 sending the Cherokee on their forcible journey. The horrific story of their migration from North Carolina to Oklahoma where more than 4,000 of them died is another topic I mean to read more about.   He was the first president to rise from a low social position to the White House by popular demand, and he personally beat the tar out of the man who made history’s first presidential assassination attempt. Although he had no problem with slavery, he was adamant about preserving the Union against secession and nullification. Most of our Presidents were not perfect and a product of their times for better or worse.  So much to learn, so little time!  Maybe Jackson's Hermitage should be next on my list of Presidential stops? Though I did have to raise an eyebrow when I saw the slogan "Home of the People's President" on the website.  Not the black people or the brown people, so that's an interesting choice in these times!  I just learned that we may actually be in that area in April so perhaps I will get to stop in for a crash course on all I need to know to judge for myself what kind of man he was.