Even though Missouri is landlocked with no access to the ocean, I was fascinated with sailing ships as a young boy. My favorite models were not of cars, but of clippers (a fast sailing ship).
Displayed on a shelf in my bedroom were tiny replicas of the three ships —the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria— that Columbus sailed on his journey in 1492 when he discovered America.
Monday was the national holiday for Christopher Columbus. If woke progressives have their way, this holiday will be stricken from the calendar, like many of his statues that have been torn down — 33 in 2020 alone.
As usual, the woke mob is wrong about placing Columbus on the scrap heap of history.
The angry mobs who vandalize and tear down statues have no idea why we recognize and honor the Italian who discovered — for Europe — the new world on his journey to find a new trade route to India.
For that, we have to delve into the history books.
Columbus Day was born from violence, not against indigenous Americans but against Italian immigrants, which resulted in a diplomatic crisis with Italy.
The first national Columbus Day was proclaimed in July 1892 by Republican President Benjamin Harrison for the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ discovery.
Beginning in the 1880s, there was a mass migration to America from southern Italy. Anti-immigrant sentiment toward Italians was high. This was demonstrated in May 1891 with one of the worst episodes of racial violence in American history, the mass murder of 11 Italians in New Orleans.
The immigrants had recently been acquitted of the murder of a local police chief.
The following day, a mob descended on the prison where the defendants were being held. “‘Bring ‘em out, we’ll kill ‘em,’ came the cry from a thousand throats,” the New Orleans Times-Democrat reported.
Vigilantes broke into the prison, where they shot and lynched the innocent immigrants. One victim’s body was riddled with 42 bullets, the paper reported. The murderers were never brought to justice.
The next day, a headline in the New York Times read, “Chief Hennessy avenged, eleven of his Italian assassins lynched by a mob.” The story included this line: “These…descendants of bandits and assassins…are to us a pest without mitigations.”
After the news, Italy broke diplomatic relations with the U.S. and recalled its ambassador to Washington D.C.
America was on the brink of war with Italy.
In April 1892, at Harrison’s instruction, the U.S. government was to pay an indemnity of $25,000 (over $843,000 today) to survivors of the three victims who were citizens of Italy.
Harrison made the Columbus Day proclamation to help raise the reputation of Italian immigrants and mend diplomatic relations with Italy.
The biggest celebration that year was in New York City, where on Oct. 12, a parade of 40,000 marching men in military uniform was observed by over a million spectators. Bringing up the rear of the celebration was an army of 1,000 Native Americans, read the New York Times.
On Oct. 13, the city unveiled a 14-foot statue of Columbus sitting on a 27.5-foot granite column. It’s still there at Columbus Circle in the Big Apple.
A New York minister, Francis Bellamy, wrote something to coincide with the 400th Anniversary of Columbus’ voyage, “The Pledge of Allegiance.”
In 1934, after lobbying by the Knights of Columbus, Congress authorized President Franklin D. Roosevelt to declare Oct. 12 a permanent national holiday. In 1971, the second Monday in October was set aside as a federal holiday.
Am I glad that Columbus brought western civilization to America? Yes. Do I think he was a saint? No. He sold some Bahamian natives — where he landed — into slavery. Slavery was not new; it was accepted at that time in many parts of the world.
“It’s unfair to judge someone who lived 500 years ago by today’s standards. It’s this simple fact when we celebrate Columbus, we celebrate the arrival of western civilization to the western hemisphere,” says Michale Knowels in a PragerU video. “And if you can’t celebrate that, it says much more about your moral compass than about history’s greatest explorer.”
The three replicas of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria? They are on display in my home office.
