Episode 9: Instagram: October 30, 2019 at 01:12PM
via Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/B4QBM7RJxdn/ Episode: Family Trees
This came up in my Facebook memories, dated about six months before I started the podcast. It ended up as a story in the episode Family Trees, which I link below, but it is worth copying here for posterity—and because it’s a fine tale out of American history, and a good one about a politician for once. We can all stand that, right?
Original post:
This still makes me laugh. My family made minor Congressional history for being firm in our beliefs (read: stubborn) and strong in our convictions (read: opinionated). I give you The Pettigrew Indictment. “In 1917, while being interviewed by a journalist from the Argus Leader, Pettigrew offered his opinion that the First World War was a capitalist scheme intended to further enrich the wealthy, and he urged young men to evade the draft.” They tried to charge him with espionage, he countered with his friend Clarence Darrow (yes, that Clarence Darrow, he of the Scopes Trial) and was acquitted.
Best part: he then framed the original indictment for display in his home office…right next to the Declaration of Independence.
It’s still there in the Pettigrew Home Museum.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_F._Pettigrew
Congressional record: http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=P000271
Carla Pettigrew
Carla Pettigrew
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