But shall this crazed old man be tamely suffered to drag a whole ship’s company down to doom with him?

"In Emerson’s words, we are 'build[ing] sepulchres of the fathers' and seeking the authority of the past rather than 'demanding our own works and laws and worship.' ... Rather than enjoying an 'original relation to the universe,' we are subjected to an originalist relation to the universe."

and plunging into that blackness of darkness, seemed the material counterpart of her monomaniac commander’s soul

GRAND CONTESTED ELECTION FOR THE PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES.

HDT

Nothing was done, and nothing seemed capable of being done

The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. — Frederick Douglass

RIP Dan Howe, a great historian of the antebellum United States 🗃️

Grateful to @melville-society.bsky.social and honored to be in the company of so many impressive past winners!

Before the midterms of 1866, President Andrew Johnson called his congressional opponents traitors and said they should be hanged. Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.

Moby Dick was published on this day in 1851, so today's bank note comes from Nantucket and features a large vignette of whalers in a longboat about to harpoon a spouting sperm whale. Also on the right, note the Hydrostatic Oil Press. Manufacturers and Mechanics Bank, Nantucket, MA, $3, Dec 5, 1843.🗃️

Illinois congressman John Farnsworth comparing the U.S. Supreme Court in Dred Scott to the Bleak House chancery court in 1859 is just *chef's kiss* [4 weeks out from my book deadline and still finding gems in my own research 🙃]

Boy, Holmes' bad man is really getting a workout these days.

Political violence is bad. It usually begets more political violence. Celebrating political violence is bad. It usually encourages more political violence, against various targets. Campus shootings are bad. They make everyone on campus less safe. It's bad that what I wrote here is controversial.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

Planning this panel for next year's @c19americanists.bsky.social conference in Cincinnati. Email/DM me with questions and/or proposals!

Too easy...

Nearly 250 years of a republic struggling to live up to the ideals of its founding documents only to arrive here.

O gentlemen, the time of life is short; To spend that shortness basely were too long If life did ride upon a dial’s point, Still ending at the arrival of an hour. An if we live, we live to tread on kings.

“It is…a small college. And yet, there are those who love it”

“Kafka name-checked three words in” feels like the lawyer equivalent of noticing a small red dot appearing between your eyes

Planning this panel for next year's @c19americanists.bsky.social conference in Cincinnati. Email/DM me with questions and/or proposals!

Most foreigners at Harvard grasp American principles better than most senior officials in the Trump administration.

This intolerable attack on Harvard’s independence and academic freedom is plainly government retaliation for Harvard’s speech standing up for itself and the rule of law. America must rally to the side of Harvard and its students in court, in Congress and in our communities.

"Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges." ―Billy Budd, Sailor

Souter was right about everything. www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nQR...

it has taken me a minute to finish, but if you’re a 19th century american history/legal theory nerd you will love this book yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

Apt pairing.

"Just a week after the authorities of Boston assembled to carry back a perfectly innocent man, and one whom they knew to be innocent, into slavery, the inhabitants of Concord caused the bells to be rung and the cannons to be fired, to celebrate their liberty +

In 1844, "Squire" Samuel Hoar was sent to South Carolina to protest the ongoing enslavement of free black sailors from Massachusetts there. He and his daughter fled Charleston under threats of violence. Please stop making my research relevant... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_...

Historian here traitors are always trying to kill our republic. On this day Abraham Lincoln was murdered by a Confederate assassin. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

Fight fiercely, Harvard.

HARVARD TAKES A STAND. Yes!!!! “The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights. Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government.”

Boston has the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever

Can we please remember that John Adams literally represented the Redcoats who did the Boston Massacre. Like, if you’re going to wave the goddamn flag and say that lawyers ought not to represent clients you disagree with or who are allegedly guilty, then you’re just confused about American lawyers.

Was just reading John Quincy Adams' oral arguments before SCOTUS in the Amistad case and this part seems, uh, pretty relevant

The deadline's been extended to March 17th! There's still time to submit!

Still looking for submissions to this @melville-society.bsky.social MLA panel!

"Despite multiple attacks by the eagle, the goose remained unbowed. The raptor, defeated, flew off." www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Honored to be organizing this Melville Society panel on two of my favorite subjects at next year's MLA in Toronto. Email or DM me with questions/proposals. mla.confex.com/mla/2026/web...