Tuesday, August 16

Having a rum time

Yo ho! It's National Rum Day!

I can't figure out who proclaimed it so, but as a Good Pirate, who am I to argue?

Speaking of proclamations, did you know President Abraham Lincoln
declared that the 11 states of the Confederacy were "in a state of insurrection against the United States" 150 years ago today when he signed Proclamation 86.

Lincoln
issued 48 proclamations during the Civil War and no, National Rum Day was not one of them.

While not as well known as the Emancipation Proclamation, the Aug. 16, 1861 proclamation effectively stymied a once bustling cotton trade between the South and Border states and further bolstered an ongoing federal naval blockade of Southern ports and waterways.
 

(Have you heard of blockade runners? It's just a genteel term for pirates and profiteers.)

I thought 48 proclamations sounded like a lot until I did some library research and discovered that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed 3466 proclamations and executive orders during his three terms!

Phew! That calls for a drink!

We're beggars and blighters and ne'er do-well cads,
Drink up me 'earties, yo ho.
Aye, but we're loved by our Mommas and dads,
Drink up me 'earties, yo ho.
Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.

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