LEAP DAY - A DAY FOR NATIVE AMERICANS AND HATTIE McDANIEL

Jay Treaty, also known as Jay's Treaty, The British Treaty, the Treaty of London of 1794, and (officially), Treaty of Amity Commerce and Navigation, between His Britannic Majesty; and The United States of America was a treaty between the United States and Great Britain that is credited with averting war, resolving issues remaining since the Treaty of Paris 1783, which ended the American Revolution, and facilitating ten years of peaceful trade between the United States and Britain in the midst of the French Revolutionary Wars, which began in 1792. (See Blog entry Saturday 19^th November

The treaty was signed on 19^th November, 1794, the Senate advised and consented on 24^th June, 1795; it was ratified by the President and the British government; it took effect on the day ratifications were officially exchanged, 29^th February, 1796.

Of some note, Articles III of the Treaty contained the following provisions:

"It is agreed, that it shall at all times be free to His Majesty's subjects, and to the citizens of the United States, and also to the Indians dwelling on either side of the said boundary line, freely to pass and repass, by land or inland navigation into the respective territories and countries of the two parties on the continent of America, (the country within the limits of the Hudson Bay company only excepted) ... and freely carry on trade and commerce with each other."

Article III of the Jay Treaty declared the right of "Indians" (“Native Americans”) as well as of American citizens and Canadian subjects to trade and travel between the United States and Canada, which was then a territory of Great Britain.

Over the years since, the United States has codified this obligation in the provisions of Section 289 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, and as amended in 1965. As a result of the Jay Treaty,

"Native Indians born in Canada are therefore entitled to enter the United States for the purpose of employment, study, retirement, investing, and/or immigration".

Article III of the Jay Treaty is the cause of most Indian claims. So it should be and the promise made should be honoured.


The Twelfth Academy Awards took place at the Cocoanut Grove of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on the 29^th February 1940. Hattie McDaniel won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy in Gone With The Wind.

Hattie McDaniel said in her Acceptance Speech:

“Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, fellow members of the motion picture industry and honored guests: This is one of the happiest moments of my life, and I want to thank each one of you who had a part in selecting me for one of their awards, for your kindness. It has made me feel very, very humble; and I shall always hold it as a beacon for anything that I may be able to do in the future. I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry. My heart is too full to tell you just how I feel, and may I say thank you and God bless you.”

POLITICS PROTEST AND PISA

Two photographs relating to the 27th February that speak for themselves:

Photo of Abraham Lincoln taken 27^th February,

1860 in New York City by Mathew Brady,

the day of his famous Cooper Union speech

          

The Wounded Knee incident began on the 27^th February, 1973 when about 200 Oglala Lakota and followers of the American Indian Movement (AIM) seized and occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The grassroots protest followed the failure of their effort to impeach the elected tribal president Richard Wilson, whom they accused of corruption and abuse of opponents; they also protested the United States government's failure to fulfill treaties with Indian peoples and demanded the reopening of treaty negotiations.

Oglala and AIM activists controlled the town for 71 days while the United States Marshals Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and other law enforcement agencies cordoned off the area. The activists chose the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre for its symbolic value. Both sides were armed and shooting was frequent. An FBI agent was paralyzed from a gunshot wound early during the occupation, and later died from complications; a Cherokee and an Oglala Lakota were killed by shootings in April 1973. Ray Robinson, a civil rights activist who joined the protesters, disappeared during the events and is believed to have been murdered. Due to damage to the houses, the small community was never reoccupied. (see video below)

On 27^th February, 1964, the government of Italy requested aid in preventing the tower from toppling. It was, however, considered important to retain the current tilt, due to the vital role that this element played in promoting the tourism industry of Pisa.

A multinational task force of engineers, mathematicians and historians gathered on the Azores islands to discuss stabilisation methods. It was found that the tilt was increasing in combination with the softer foundations on the lower side. Many methods were proposed to stabilise the tower, including the addition of 800 tonnes of lead counterweights to the raised end of the base.

On January 7, 1990, after over two decades of stabilisation studies, the tower was closed to the public. The bells were removed to relieve some weight, and cables were cinched around the third level and anchored several hundred meters away. Apartments and houses in the path of the tower were vacated for safety. The final solution to prevent the collapse of the tower was to slightly straighten the tower to a safer angle, by removing 38 cubic meters (50 cubic yards) of soil from underneath the raised end. The tower was straightened by 45 centimetres (18 inches), returning to its 1838 position. After a decade of corrective reconstruction and stabilization efforts, the tower was reopened to the public on December 15, 2001, and was declared stable for at least another 300 years.

In May 2008, after the removal of another 70 metric tons (77 short tons) of ground, engineers announced that the Tower had been stabilized such that it had stopped moving for the first time in its history. They stated it would be stable for at least 200 years

BARINGS BARED

Barings Bank, founded in 1762 as the John and Francis Baring Company,  was declared insolvent on the 26^th February 1995, and appointed administrators began managing the finances of Barings Group and its subsidiaries. 

Sir Francis Baring (left), with brother John Baring

And son-in-law Charles Wall, 

in a painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence 

The same day, the Board of Banking Supervision of the Bank of England launched an investigation led by Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer; their report was released on 18 July 1995. Lord Bruce of Donington, in the House of Lords’' debate on the report, with masterful irony (a wonderful piece of performed writing) said:

“Even the provisional conclusions of the report are interesting. I should like to give them to the House so that we may be reminded what the supervisory body itself decided at the end of such investigation as it was able to make. It stated on page 250:

"Barings' collapse was due to the unauthorised and ultimately catastrophic activities of, it appears, one individual (Leeson) that went undetected as a consequence of a failure of management and other internal controls of the most basic kind".

The words I venture to emphasise to your Lordships are these:

"as a consequence of a failure of management and other internal controls of the most basic kind".

Noble Lords who have read through paragraph 14.2 of the report will be aware that it specifies these deficiencies. The report states:

"Management teams have a duty to understand fully the businesses they manage".

Really! They really have to understand the businesses! I would have thought that it was an elementary assumption to make that the controllers should understand the nature of the businesses they are trying to control. The next requirement is this:

"Responsibility for each business activity has to be clearly established and communicated".

Hooray for that! I wonder how businesses in this country manage in their generality to continue without that qualification. The third requirement is:

"Clear segregation of duties is fundamental to any effective control system".

Tut, tut! We are now treating the real elementum of the whole art and science of management, and it needs to be repeated here. The report continues:

"Relevant internal controls, including independent risk management, have to be established for all business activities".

Hooray for that! These are matters of plain, ordinary common sense. One does not need to be an accountant or a management consultant to be aware of that. Finally:

"Top management and the Audit Committee have to ensure that significant weaknesses, identified to them by internal audit or otherwise, are resolved quickly".

Well, well, well! These are all respects which this control body finds were absent from Barings. Do noble Lords really know what is being said? It is being said that Barings ought not to have been authorised bankers from the beginning, because any business — I do not care whether it is a whelk stall (one must not insult whelk stall owners in the context of this catastrophe) or what — knows that these are the basic conditions for the continuance of the business. It seems to me that the Bank of England ought never to have authorised this concern without verifying that all these conditions were in”

An extraordinary outcome after 233 years of trading.

TREATIES AND BULLS COME AND GO

What can begin as a piece of performance writing can end up so much wasted paper, or vellum as the case may be.

On 25^th February, 1991 the Warsaw Pact was declared disbanded at a meeting of defence and foreign ministers from Pact countries meeting in Hungary.

The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance, or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defence treaty between eight communist states of Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War. The founding treaty was established under the initiative of the Soviet Union and signed on 14 May 1955, in Warsaw. The Warsaw Pact was the military complement to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CoMEcon), the regional economic organisation for the communist states of Eastern Europe. The Warsaw Pact was a Soviet military response to the integration of West Germany into NATO in 1955, per the Paris Pacts of 1954.

The founding signatories to the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance consisted of the following communist governments:

People's Republic of Albania (withheld support in 1961 because of the Sino-Soviet split, formally withdrew in 1968)

People's Republic of Bulgaria

Czechoslovak Republic (Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1960)

German Democratic Republic (withdrew in September 1990, before German reunification)

People's Republic of Hungary

People's Republic of Poland

Peoples's Republic of Romania (Socialist Republic of Romania from 1965)

Soviet Union

In 1569 there was a major Catholic rising in the North; the goal was to free Mary, Queen of Scots, marry her to Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, and put her on the English throne. After the rebels' defeat, over 750 of them were executed on Queen Elizabeth's orders.

In the belief that the revolt had been successful, Pope Pius V issued a bull on 25^th  February 1570 titled Regnans in Excelsis, which declared "Elizabeth, the pretended Queen of England and the servant of crime" to be excommunicate and a heretic, releasing all her subjects from any allegiance to her and excommunicating any that obeyed her orders.

The man was clearly a fool.

TREATIES AND MANIFESTOES - AGAIN

Just a couple of entries for the 24^th February, involving declarations of a treaty and a manifesto:

Proclaimed on the 24^th February 1831, the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was a treaty signed on 27^th September, 1830 between the Choctaw and the United States Government. This was the first removal treaty carried into effect under the Indian Removal Act. The treaty ceded about 11 million acres (45,000 km²) of the Choctaw Nation (now Mississippi) in exchange for about 15 million acres (61,000 km²) in the Indian Territory (now the state of Oklahoma). The principal Choctaw negotiators were Chief Greenwood Le Flore, Musholatubbee, and Nittucachee; the U.S. negotiators were Colonel John Coffee and Secretary of War John Eaton.

Coffee

LeFlore

Musholatubbee

Eaton

Yet another of the continuing land grabbing treaties, but what a lovely name for a treaty – Dancing Rabbit Creek.

And on the 24^th February 1918 the Manifesto to the Peoples of Estonia was published and distributed in the capital Tallinn, The Estonian Declaration of Independence, also known as the Manifesto to the Peoples of Estonia is the founding act of the Republic of Estonia from 1918. It is celebrated on the 24th February, the National Day or Estonian Independence day.

The declaration was drafted by the Salvation Committee elected by the elders of the Estonian Provincial Assembly. Originally intended to be proclaimed on 21^st February 1918, the proclamation was delayed until the evening of 23^rd February, when the manifesto was printed and read out aloud publicly in Pärnu.

The Estonian Salvation Committee:

Konstantin Päts, Jüri Vilms, Konstantin Konik

I would ask you to note in particular clauses 3 and 4. The Salvation Committee clearly realised they had a lot to do.

 MANIFESTO TO THE PEOPLES OF ESTONIA

In the course of centuries never have the Estonian people lost their desire for independence. From generation to generation have they kept alive the hidden hope that in spite of enslavement and oppression by hostile invaders the time will come to Estonia "when all splinters, at both end, will burst forth into flames" and when "Kalev will come home to bring his children happiness."

Now that time has arrived.

An unprecedented fight between nations has crushed the rotten foundations of the Russian Tsarist Empire. All over the Sarmatian plains ruinous anarchy is spreading, threatening to overwhelm in its wake all the nations living in the former Russian Empire. From the West the victorious armies of Germany are approaching in order to claim their share of Russia's legacy and, above all, to take possession of the coastal territories of the Baltic Sea.

In this hour, the Estonian National Council, as the legal representative of our land and people, has, in unanimous agreement with Estonian democratic political parties and organizations, and by virtue of the right of self-determination of peoples, found it necessary to take the following decisive steps to shape the destiny of the Estonian land and people.

ESTONIA,

within his historical and ethnic boundaries, is declared as of today an

INDEPENDENT DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC.

The independent Republic of Estonia shall include Harjumaa, Läänemaa, Järvamaa, Virumaa, with the city of Narva and its surroundings, Tartumaa, Võrumaa, Viljandimaa, and Pärnumaa with the Baltic islands of Saaremaa, Hiiumaa, Muhumaa, and others where the Estonians have settled for ages in large majorities. Final determination of the boundaries of the Republic in the areas bordering on Latvia and Russia will be carried out by plebiscite after the conclusion of the present World War.

In the aforementioned areas the only supreme and organizing authority is the democratically supported Estonian Salvation Committee created by the Estonian National Council.

The Republic of Estonia wishes to maintain absolute political neutrality towards all neighbouring states and peoples and expects that they will equally respond with complete neutrality.

Estonian military troops shall be reduced to the extent necessary to maintain internal order. Estonian soldiers serving in the Russian military forces will be called home and demobilized.

Until the Estonian Constituent Assembly, elected by general, direct, secret, and proportional elections, will convene and determine the constitutional structure of the country, all executive and legislative authority will remain vested in the Estonian National Council and in the Estonian Provisional Government created by it, whose activities must be guided by the following principles:

1. All citizens of the Republic of Estonia, irrespective of their religion, ethnic origin, and political views, are going to enjoy equal protection under the law and courts of justice of the Republic.

2. All ethnic minorities, the Russians, Germans, Swedes, Jews, and others residing within the borders of the republic, are going to be guaranteed the right to their cultural autonomy.

3. All civic freedoms, the freedom of expression, of the press, of religion, of assembly, of association, and the freedom to strike as well as the inviolability of the individual and the home, shall be irrefutably effective within the territory of the Estonian Republic and based on laws, which the Government must immediately work out.

4. The Provisional Government is given the task of immediately organizing courts of justice to protect the security of the citizens. All political prisoners shall be released immediately.

5. The city, county, and township local governments are called upon to immediately continue their work, which has been violently interrupted.

6. For maintenance of public order, people's militia, subordinated to local governments, shall be immediately organized and citizens' self-defence organizations established in the cities and rural areas.

7. The Provisional Government is instructed to work out, without delay, on a broad democratic basis, bills for the solution of the agrarian problem, and the problems of labor, of food supply, and of finances.

ESTONIA!

You stand on the threshold of a hopeful future in which you shall be free and independent in determining and directing your destiny! Begin building a home of your own, ruled by law and order, in order to be a worthy member within the family of civilized nations! Sons and daughters of our homeland, unite as one man in the sacred task of building our homeland! The sweat and blood shed by our ancestors for this country demand this from us; our forthcoming generations oblige us to do this.

May God watch over thee
And amply bless
Whatever thou undertake
My dear fatherland!

Long live the independent democratic Republic of Estonia!

Long live peace among nations!

The Council of Elders of the Estonian National Council
, Tallinn, 21 February 1918