The Man, The Myth, The Legend: Hello Ancient Argyle

Argyle is a town in Washington County, New York, United States. It is part of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town population was 3,644 at the 2020 census. The town was named by its many early settlers from Scotland after Argyllshire.

The lands of Argyle prior to becoming the town were used as hunting and fishing grounds for Native American Mohicans and subsequently the Mohawk tribes although Huron and Iroquois tribes may also have hunted here. During the period 1628 to 1664, the Mohawk tribe had a near exclusive fur trading monopoly with the Dutch New Netherland Colony based at nearby Fort Orange; now present day Albany.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argyle,_New_York

Letting the Cat Out of the Bag

Library of Congress

Title

• Letting the cat out of the bag!!

Summary

A figurative portrayal of the rift within the Republican party resulting from the nomination of Abraham Lincoln for the presidency in 1860. Here New York senator and would-be nominee William H. Seward watches as the radical antislavery senator from Massachusetts Charles Sumner releases a snarling cat, the “Spirit of Discord,” from a “Republican Bag.”

The cat bolts toward New York “Tribune” editor Horace Greeley and Lincoln, who wields a rail (yes, as in train rail) in his defense. Greeley exclaims, “What are you doing Sumner! you’ll spoil all! she aint to be let out until after Lincoln is elected,–“

Lincoln, also alarmed, rejoins, “Oh Sumner! this is too bad!–I thought we had her safely bagged at Chicago [i.e., the Republican national convention at Chicago], now there will be the old scratch to pay, unless I can drive her back again with my rail!”

Sumner replies, “It’s no use talking Gentlemen, I wasn’t mentioned at Chicago, and now I’m going to do something desperate, I can’t afford to have my head broken and be kept corked up four years for nothing!”

The mention of his broken head refers to the widely publicized 1856 beating inflicted on Sumner by South Carolina congressman Preston S. Brooks. (See “Arguments of the Chivalry,” no. 1856-1.)

Seward warns, “Gentlemen be cautious you don’t know how to manage that animal as well as I did, and I’m afraid that some of you will get “scratched.”

Henry J. Raymond, editor of the “New York Times,” stands in background shouting, “Scat!–scat!–back with her, or our fat will all be in the fire.”

source: Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2003674589/

Everytime I go to the Westchester County/ Hudson Valley area to do research something happens. Ummmm, I wonder why? https://domoregooddeeds.wordpress.com/2022/09/19/who-are-the-real-vanderbilts-the-indigenous-american-indians/

Source: https://domoregooddeeds.wordpress.com/2024/10/02/hello-ancient-argyle/