SEPTEMBER 21, 1897= "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus!"

Yes I know! With every year that passes the pause between the end of summer and Halloween gets smaller. And after Halloween never mind Thanksgiving but let's move straight on to the Christmas BUYING season.  I bemoan this entirely commercial kidnapping of our once cherished kids holiday into a big cashier's payoff as much as you do. So please understand that that is not what I'm doing here! It would feel a lot more appropriate if this had occurred some time in December.  But it didn't.  It happened now and since this Blog is called "TODAY in History", please indulge me for posting it today.

It just so happens that one of the best loved episodes of our Christmas holiday season occurred on today's date, September 21 in 1897  when the little eight year old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote in to the newspaper the New York  Sun to  get an authoritative answer to a question which had bothered her. Miss O'Hanlon's actual letter (above) struck one of the the Sun's editors as being important enough to require an immediate response.  So Mr. Francis Pharcellus Church composed a properly philosophical answer. First I'll give you the full text of the Sun's introduction, Miss O'Hanlon's letter, and then the Sun's rather lengthy response and then we'll look at some of the historical details.

"Is There a Santa Claus?

We take pleasure in answering at once and thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.

Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.

Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’

Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

VIRGINIA O’HANLON.

115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood."

The Reaction to and Legacy of "Yes, Virginia..."

  The editorial response from the Sun has gone on to be the most often repeated editorial in our English language. Nevermind that it goes on to deal with some pretty adult concepts such as "the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge." and uses some words which I don't imagine most 8 year olds would ever understand these days such as "comprehensible". But it does refer to some very modern day problems as "the skepticism of a skeptical age." In our very own present day with our computers, cell-phones, "smart" phones, we. or at least I wonder if it's possible to capture the imagination of children who seem jaded in a world that that has become harsh and all too real, wherein children know the latest computer trends, but rarely go out and see nature in its own habitat.

Some Reality...

  And of course even this seemingly magical moment has some harsh reality to go with it. The editorial went unsigned in the newspaper that day; its author, Mr. Francis Pharcellus Church had been a war correspondent during the American Civil War, and had thus seen humanity and destruction at its worst. So that may have informed the editorial with its laments about skepticism, and the need for child-like faith, romance and love. Indeed it may very well be that Mr. Church

himself (right) was a kind of hardened cynic. In an edition of the radio program "the Rest of the Story" an anecdote was broadcast saying that Francis Pharcellus Church was an atheist who had no belief in superstitions. It also said that Church didn't want to write the editorial and that this was why he didn't want his name attached to it. Although I must say that I find it difficult to believe that the man who wrote those sweet words was a cynic who didn't believe any of what he wrote there. But there it is for my readers to consider.

"Yes Virginia" Continues....

   Whatever the truth about the details of the story behind the story may be, the essential meaning of the story goes on year after year to inspire readers with its faith in the goodness and love to be found in the whole idea of Christmas and Santa Claus. A cartoon has been produced of the story, a TV movie, and of course numerous newspapers around the
country continue to re-print the letter from little Virginia, and the Sun's response every Christmas. Not a bad legacy for a letter from a little girl, wouldn't you say?


Sources =

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes,_Virginia,_there_is_a_Santa_Claus

https://oklahoman.com/article/2878743/yes-virginia-brwe-offer-this-classic-for-santa-doubters

https://www.newseum.org/exhibits/online/yes-virginia/ 

SEPTEMBER 3, 1783 = The Treaty of Paris is Signed

The Treaty of Paris was signed by Britain and America on today's date, Sept. 3 in Paris (hence the name), in 1783. This document recognized the former American colonies to be a free and independent nation.  Although both the Brits and we Americans mostly got what they wanted out of the Treaty, the Brit's overall feelings can be summed up by the painting above by Benjamin West. It is a painting of the peace negotiators and it remains eternally unfinished, because the British  declined to sit and be painted into it.

The Fighting War Ends

The last actual armed combat between Britain and America came in October 1781 with the surrender of the last major army the Brits had in America (outside of New York City) on October 19, 1781 at Yorktown, Virginia. That left @ 9,000 prisoners of war (including General Cornwallis) on America's hands. The defeat at Yorktown left the war in

America with diminishing support in the British Parliament and with the British public. The war government of Lord North had been brought down by the defeat at Yorktown  and had been replaced the new Prime Minister, Lord Shelburn (right) who saw a favorable opportunity to develop a new and lucrative trading partner with the Americans. But the point which held up full negotiations on a Peace Treaty was the British unwillingness to recognize America as a free and independent state. Lord Shelburn had no problem with this. Yes Britain would accept American Independence. So on that basis negotiations could proceed.

The United States Send Jay, Adams and Franklin

  The U.S. sent John Jay, the U.S. Minister to Spain to Paris to negotiate with the Brits, and with him sent John Adams (below), and Ben Franklin, already in Paris as our Minister to France.  The Continental Congress  had given it's delegation strict instructions to follow France's lead in the negotiations. But the U.S. delegation saw no advantage in hitching our position to France. Jay told the Brits that his 

people would negotiate directly with them. Adams, who favored the idea as well said that the U.S. wished: "...to be honest and grateful to our allies,  but to think for ourselves."  The most important point came in the first sentence of Article I stating, "His Britannic Majesty acknowledges
the said United States... to be free, sovereign and independent states." 
This was fine with Shelburn who saw it as a way of splitting the U.S. off from France and thus bring about the rich trading partnership with the Americans. And it paid off handsomely with the Brits ceding all of the territory south of Canada down to Spanish held Florida, and east of the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River, thus doubling the size of the United States with the stroke of a pen.

Other Terms of the Treaty of Paris

Among other things, the treaty recognized the deep sea fishing rights of American fishermen in the Grand Banks off the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Newfoundland coasts.

Declared the Mississippi River to be open for the free navigation of both countries.

Said that the Continental Congress would recommend and "provide for the restitution of all estates, rights, and properties.." seized from British loyalists during the war. Also, it said that debts to creditors on either side of the conflict would be paid.

Released Prisoners of war on both sides; and any property of the British army presently located in the United States was forfeited. This included slaves.

The Treaty was signed by Franklin, Adams and Jay and the British emissary Richard Oswald at the Hotel d’York in Paris, on September 3, 1783.  It would be ratified by the Continental Congress in early 1784. The conflict which had started out as a skirmish between a few hundred British regulars and disgruntled Massachusetts farmers and townsmen way back on April 19 in 1775 and had swallowed up a large chunk of the North American continent was at long last over. And the United States of America which would eventually take up nearly the entire continent was born.


Sources =

https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/treaty-of-paris

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Paris_(1783)

"John Adams" by David McCullough, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2001

"The American Heritage History of the American Revolution" by Bruce Lancaster, American Heritage Publishing Co., New York, 1971