And here come the letters about Sarah Palin!

And first up is no less a celebrity than Borepatch hisself (whom you read every day like the Czar does, right?). Anyway, Borepatch says:

It looks like she got it [the Paul Revere comment] right, and the media yukking it up have (once again) been shown to be fools.

I’m not sure that I agree with Aretae, but I’m by now moderately convinced that (a) she’s much smarter than most of the people in the media and (b) she does this to them on purpose.

To this, let us add the aptly named Mysterian, who adds:

Czar,

While I doubt not your ability to spot attributes necessary for a successful autocrat your historical research staff seems a trifle weak:

Revere did in fact tell the British that the colonial militias, who had been alerted, were waiting for them. Here is the original historical text written by Revere (spelling in original, bold added):

I observed a Wood at a Small distance, & made for that. When I got there, out Started Six officers, on Horse back,and orderd me to dismount;-one of them, who appeared to have the command, examined me, where I came from,& what my Name Was? I told him. it was Revere, he asked if it was Paul? I told him yes He asked me if I was an express? I answered in the afirmative. He demanded what time I left Boston? I told him; and aded, that their troops had catched aground in passing the River, and that There would be five hundred Americans there in a short time, for I had alarmed the Country all the way up. He imediately rode towards those who stoppd us, when all five of them came down upon a full gallop; one of them, whom I afterwards found to be Major Mitchel, of the 5th Regiment, Clapped his pistol to my head, called me by name, & told me he was going to ask me some questions, & if I did not give him true answers, he would blow my brains out. He then asked me similar questions to those above. He then orderd me to mount my Horse, after searching me for arms.

Palin’s short statement on the video was less than clear; that sometimes happens but the part of the statement which has people screaming — that Revere warned the British that the colonial militias were waiting — appears to be true.

ave!

Ave atque vale! Oh, there is indeed one more:

Dear Most Wonderful Czar,

I’ve only known about this blog for a couple of days, but it only took reading a couple of posts for me to decide to add it to my Reader queue. Therefore when I checked the queue today, your post “Palin Ain’t It, Either” and Mr. Friedman’s post “Looking for an Honest Man” both appeared.

As Mr. Friedman admits his ignorance of Revere’s account, so do I. I also suspect Mrs. Palin was ignorant of these facts. After all, if one actually listens to, or reads, what she said, it has absolutely nothing to do with a literal face-to-face warning–even though that took place as well.

I’m curious to see what you think of his post.

As ever yours,
ScottO
@AgStateSense

Before we go further, the reader will note a curious pattern here: reassurances, for the most part, that Palin was right in her historical statement.

The Czar will repeat himself: the Czar is not objecting to the historical comment, but to the rambling incoherence of it. Watch or read her comment again: does this sound like someone offering an incredibly arcane historical tidbit most scholars of the period don’t even know about Revere, or someone explaining to a police officer how an open bottle of alcohol came to be in the front seat?

And while we are playing question-and-answer, here is another question. If you were to walk up to Sarah Palin three hours before and said, “Governor, tell me about the time when Paul Revere met the British checkpoint outside Boston,” do you honestly think she would be aware of a small paragraph in his memoirs to that effect, or—maybe—she had no idea what she was rambling about?

And if we afford her the benefit of the doubt, what was all that about warning the British that we had guns and would be ready for them? Because all of these sources we received point back to the quoted part above, which makes no mention whatsoever of this. He simply said that 500 Americans were en route, not ready in wait. And he was wrong about that: a smaller number were moving to fortify Lexington.

If we are to be honest with ourselves, it seems that Ms. Palin screwed up, and efforts to prove her a clever devil with an obscure quote from Paul Revere are more than a stretch.

Further, while everyone seems to be linking back to that exact quote, there has been little mention of the 400 pound historical gorilla: Paul Revere was a minor figure in that event, who did very little of the things actually attributed to him. Most of what we believe to be true was given to us by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who never let a historical fact get in the way of making a buck. While Revere was the individual who first warned John Hancock and Sam Adams the Redcoats were beginning to assemble for march, most of the important work was actually done by William Dawes. However, Longfellow allegedly had the phrase “Listen, my children, and you shall hear…” as a grand slam opening line to a poem. He later realized that “the midnight ride of Paul Revere” fit that perfectly, and thus a legend was born. Longfellow could not find enough drama for his poem, so he simply invented a lot of it, and misattributed actions like crazy. Most people of the time had no idea who Paul Revere was or what he did. He was, regrettably, not as important as other midnight riders who did more, went further, and warned more people (like Dawes and Israel Bissell). He happened to have a name that rhymed better.

Also, the Revere quote fails to mention that Dawes was captured with him at the same time, but Dawes escaped to continue his ride. Curiously, Ms. Palin omitted that as well.

One would think that if Ms. Palin was serendipitously aware of an obscure paragraph of a chance encounter between Revere and a British checkpoint—who warned them of exactly nothing, since Revere had no idea whether American resistence was coming up behind him—then she would also have mentioned that he was one of many important figures in that event when she gave her implausibly non sequitur answer.

When you start to use Occam’s razor, it seems she simply screwed up. And that brings us in line with ScottO’s opinion.

We do have one more letter: FJR of the Commonwealth of Virginia sees the point the Czar was actually trying to make:

Great and mighty Czar,

Thanks for the Palin post. It was spot on. I’m a Palin fan but I’m hoping she doesn’t run for President for all the reasons you listed. I do love the way she drives liberals and the media into a frothing rabid frenzy.

Thanks,
FJR
Virginia

And that brings us back up to Borepatch’s note, with which FJR agrees: Palin is the most destructive weapon the under-brained liberal media has ever seen. And in the Czar’s opinion (and fervent hope), she’s just getting started.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.