Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1917 — APRIL AN HISTORIC MONTH [ARTICLE]

APRIL AN HISTORIC MONTH

Tennyson said, “In the spring a young ’man’s’ fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” Strangely enough, in the most typically spring •month of the twelve in the calendar, April, the fancy of the people of the United States seems to turn not to love, bqt to war. as we may see from consulting the accounts if the different American wars given in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.- ’ The battle of Lexington that ishered in the war of independence ( was fought on April 19, 17 75. The ■attack on Fort Sumter, ushering in j the great rebellion, took place April 12, lifrkL The SpanishAmerican war nagan with the declaration of war by Spain April 24 and by the United States April 25, 1898. Even the Mexican war began in April, for it was on the 24th of April, 1846, that the first fighting took place in an attack of a large force of Mexicans on a small party of American dragoons under Captain Thornton.

Of the five wars in which the United States has been engaged, four have broken but in the month of April; only one, the war of 1812, began in a different month, ind as a matter of fact that war did. too. for it was on April 4, 1812, that congress enacted the embargo against Great Britain, following it a little later by the formal declaration of war. There is an old proverb that “History never repeats itself." This loes certainly not hold true in the past history of the United States as regards war, and with congress meeting on April 2, this year, it seems safe to state that -it will not be true again this year.