The Pink Flamingo :: Tombstone, Wyatt Earp & America

Tombstone is America in microcosm. In order to understand the heart and soul of America you need to understand two things baseball and Tombstone. More than a mining town, dirty and small minded, Tombstone is a symbol. It is America's version of Camelot. Wyatt Earp is our King Arthur. If the characters and storyline of Tombstone had not existed America would have invented it.

Wyatt Earp, age 79, 1928

(Additional photos in this article are copyright SJ Reidhead, 2008. All were taken today, July 4, 2008 in Tombstone, AZ)

The Civil War had ended less than 20 years earlier. The nation was ready to put the trauma of brother against brother behind it. Manifest Destiny demanded the Wild West be tamed, populated, and turned into a money making proposition. Roaming that vast frontier were hundreds of men, disenfranchised by war, loss of home, family, and occupation. They turned to crime, organizing their disorganized bands into lose confederations of outlaws.

Those migrating into Tombstone from Texas and New Mexico numbered anywhere from 150 to 300 strong. They were young, heavily armed and had nothing to lose. It was the nation's first real experience with organized crime. They conducted a reign of terror on the poorly regulated countryside, protected by one of the most corrupt political machines in the nation's history. Ranchers lost their stock. There were very few horses in the county, most having been stolen. Cowboys stole horses in Tombstone the way cars are stolen in ABQ today. If a rancher opposed them, they risked being tortured and murdered.

The community of Tombstone organized a Citizen's Safety Committee in an attempt to protect the town against the movement of the outlaws. There were at least two Secret Service agents in town at the time. We only know the identity of one. There were several men under cover for Wells Fargo. We know that Fred Dodge was one of these men. There were at least two deputy US Marshals - Wyatt & Virgil Earp. Virgil Earp was also the town police chief.

On October 26, 1881 around 2:30 in the afternoon on Fremont Street (Highway 80) between 4th and 3rd Streets, the character of America was defined for once and for all, for good or ill. Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan Earp along with Doc Holiday faced Ike & Billy Clanton and Frank & Tom McLaury. Only Ike Clanton remained alive. Of the combatants, only Wyatt Earp escaped unscathed. Within 15 minutes of the gunfight, the President of the United States knew of the event and the outcome.

Due to the depravations of the Cowboys, Mexico had threatened to invade the US and put an end to their activities. The elected authorities in Arizona and Cochise County were so corrupt and so dependent upon their 'cut' of the Cowboy's activities, that they were willing to risk a war with Mexico rather than put an end to their augmented income.

Two months later Virgil Earp was ambushed, and crippled for life. Three months after that, Morgan Earp was murdered.

In information I uncovered when researching my book TRAVESTY, I discovered that Frank Stilwell, who was part of the pack of animals who assisinated Morgan Earp, fired a bullet that sailed through the open windows of the rail car where the recovering Virgil and his wife, Allie, were sitting. The bullet crossed in front of them and exited the other window. Wyatt Earp, in defense of his injured brother,

killed Stilwell there on the rail platform in Tucson. He, Doc, and a handful of men continued back to Tombstone and Cochise County. There, for the next few weeks, they embarked on a remarkable series of adventures that are unique in the annals of American history and further define the American character.

Wyatt Earp proceeded to hunt down and terminate every man responsible for the murder of his brother, Morgan. He did so under the auspices of the US Marshal service. He did so with full knowledge of the President of the United States. The final result was war with Mexico was averted.

This is the very real American character - the person willing to set aside personal safety, future, and all dreams of a normal life in order to see that the distasteful job is done. It is the man or woman who is willing to stand up and spit in the face of Al Qaeda. It is the individual who can say, "It all ends now."

While my mother and I were walking around Tombtone today (shopping), we were watching as hundreds of people stood on the sidewalk, watching a re-inactment of the events leading up to the Gunfight at the OK Corral. My mother wondered if we would be free to do this if Barack Obama were to be elected. Would his version of political correctness even allow the re-inactment of such a violent moment in time. I told her the very real problem with Barack Obama is the fact that he had no comprehension of what America really is. He needs to spend time in Tombstone.

John McCain, on the other hand, is all to well aware of Tombstone and its meaning. Like Wyatt Earp before him, he is a Republican.

THE CHAMBERS BOOK OF DAYS

Born: Christian Gellert, German poet and fabulist, 1715, Chemnitz, Saxony.
Died: Lord Saye and Seal, beheaded, 1450, London; William Birde, English composer of sacred music, 1623; Meric Casaubon, learned and controversial writer, 1671, bur. Canterbury Cathedral; Henry Bentinck, second Duke of Portland, 1726, Jamaica; Samuel Richardson, novelist, 1761; Fisher Ames, American statesman, President of Harvard College, 1804, Boston, U. S.; Richard Watson, bishop of Llandaff, 1816; John Adams, second president of

the United States, 1825; Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, 1825; Rev. William Kirby, naturalist, 1850, Barham, Suffolk; Richard Grainger, the re-edifier of Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1861, Newcastle.
Feast Day: St. Finbar, abbot. St. Bolcan, abbot. St. Sisoes or Sisoy, anchoret in Egypt, about 429. St. Bertha, widow, abbess of Blangy, in Artois, about 725. St. Ulric, bishop of Augsburg, confessor, 973. St. Ode, archbishop of Canterbury, confessor, 10th century.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

The celebrated author of the American Declaration of Independence, entered life as a Virginian barrister, and, while still a young man, was elected a member of the House of Burgesses for his state. When the disputes between the colonies and mother-country began, he took an active part in the measures for the resistance of taxation, and for diffusing the same spirit through the other provinces. Elected in 1775 to the Continental Congress, he zealously promoted the movement for a complete separation from England, and in the Declaration of Independence, which was adopted on the 4th of July 1776, he laid down the pro-positions, since so often quoted, that all men are created equal,' with 'an inalienable right' to 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,' and that 'governments derive their just powers from the consent of the g

overned.' When the cause of independence became triumphant, Mr. Jefferson naturally took a high place in the administration of the new government. He successively filled the posts of governor of Virginia, secretary of state under the presidency of Washington, and vice-president under that of John Adams; finally, in 1801, attaining to the presidency, which he held for two terms or eight years.

While Washington and Adams aimed at a strong, an aristocratic, and a centralising government, Jefferson stood up as the advocate of popular rights and measures. He headed the Liberal Republican, or, as it was afterwards called, the Democratic party. He laboured for civil and religious liberty and education. He secured the prohibition of the slave trade, and of slavery over a vast territory, and was in favour of universal emancipation. In Virginia, he secured the abolition of a religious establishment, and of entails, and the equal rights of both sexes to inheritance. The most important measure of his administration was the acquisition of Louisiana, including the whole territory west of the Mississippi, which was purchased of France for 15,000,000 dollars. His administration was singularly free from political favouritism. It is remembered as one of his sayings, that 'he could always find better men for every place than his own connections.'

After retiring from the presidency, he founded the university of Virginia, carried on an extensive correspondence,

entertained visitors from all parts of the world, and enjoyed his literary and philosophical pursuits. He was married early in life, and had one daughter, whose numerous children were the solace of his old age. At the age of eighty, he wrote to John Adams, with whom, in spite of political differences, he maintained a warm personal friendship: 'I have ever dreaded a doting age; and my health has been generally so good, and is now so good, that I dread it still. The rapid decline of my strength, during the last winter, has made me hope sometimes that I see land. During summer I enjoy its temperature; but I shudder at the approach of winter, and wish I could sleep through it with the dormouse, and only wake with him in the spring, if ever. They say that Stark could walk about his room. I am told you walk well and firmly. I can only reach my garden, and that with sensible

fatigue. I ride, however, daily, but reading is my delight.—God bless you, and give you health, strength, good spirits, and as much life as you think worth having.'

The death of Jefferson, at the age of eighty-three, was remarkable. Both he and his friend John Adams, the one the author and the other the chief advocate of the Declaration of Independence—each having filled the highest offices in the Republic they founded—died on the 4th of July 1826, giving a singular solemnity to its fiftieth anniversary.

On the tomb of Jefferson, at Monticello, he is described as the author of the Declaration of Independence, the founder of religious freedom in Virginia, and of the university of Virginia; but there is a significant omission of the fact, that he was twice president of the United States.

THE FOURTH OF JULY

Where a country or a government has been baffled in its efforts to attain or preserve a hated rule over another people, it must be content to see its failure made the subject of never-ending triumph and exultation. The joy attached to the sense of escape or emancipation tends to perpetuate itself by periodical celebrations, in which it is not likely that the motives of the other party, or the general justice of the case, will be very carefully considered or allowed for. We may doubt if it be morally expedient thus to keep alive the memory of facts which as certainly infer mortification to one party as they do glorification to another: but we must all admit that it is only natural, and in a measure to be expected.

The anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, has ever since been celebrated

as a great national festival throughout the United States, and wherever Americans are assembled over the world. From Maine to Oregon, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, in every town and village, this birthday of the Republic has always hitherto been ushered in with the ringing of bells, the firing of cannon, the display of the national flag, and other evidences of public rejoicing. A national salute is fired at sunrise, noon, and at sunset, from every fort and man-of-war. The army, militia, and volunteer troops parade, with bands of music, and join with the citizens in patriotic processions. The famous Declaration is solemnly read, and orators, appointed for the occasion, deliver what are termed Fourth of July Orations, in which the history of the country is reviewed, and its past and coming glories pro-claimed. The virtues of the Pilgrim Fathers, the heroic exertions and sufferings of the soldiers of the Revolution, the growth and power of the Republic, and the great future which expands before her, are the staple ideas of these orations. Dinners, toasts, and speeches follow, and at night the whole country blazes with bonfires, rockets, Roman candles, and fireworks of eve

ry description. In a great city like New York, Boston, or Philadelphia, the day, and even the night previous, is insufferably noisy with the constant rattle of Chinese-crackers and firearms. In the evening, the displays of fireworks in the public squares, provided by the authorities, are often magnificent.

John Adams, second president of the United States, and one of the most distinguished signers of the Declaration of Independence, in a letter written at the time, predicted the manner in which it would be celebrated, and his prediction has doubtless done something to insure its own fulfilment. Adams and Jefferson, two of the signers, both in turn presidents, by a most remarkable coincidence died on the fiftieth anniversary of Independence, in the midst of the national celebration, which, being semi-centennial, was one of extraordinary splendour.