1.
United States presidential election, 1836
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The United States presidential election of 1836 was the 13th quadrennial presidential election, held from Thursday, November 3, to Wednesday, December 7,1836. The popular vote was closer, Martin Van Buren attracted 764,000 votes to the 738,000 won by the various Whig candidates. The strategy failed, but had three of the four received more electoral votes then Van Buren, it would have left to the House of Representatives to decide between the competing Whig candidates. Richard Mentor Johnson became the first Vice President elected by the United States Senate, although pledged to Van Buren and Johnson, Virginias 23 electors refused to vote for Johnson, which left him one electoral vote short of the 148-vote majority required to be elected. As such, it was left to the Senate to decide between the top two vote recipient recipients, Johnson and Francis Granger, Johnson was elected on the first ballot 33 to 16. This was the last election until the 1988 election in which the incumbent Vice President was elected to succeed the president under whom he served. The election of 1836 also marked an important turning point in American political history because of the part it played in establishing the Second Party System. In the 1830s the political party structure was changing, rapidly, the Democratic Party was organized. By the end of the campaign of 1836, the new party system was almost complete, incumbent President Andrew Jackson decided to retire after two terms and supported his vice-president, Martin Van Buren, to serve as the next president. The Whig Party emerged during the 1834 mid-term elections as the opposition to the Democratic Party. The party was formed members of the National Republican Party, the Anti-Masonic Party, disaffected Jacksonians. Some Southerners who were angered by Jacksons opposition to rights, including Sen. John C. Calhoun. Southern Nullifiers placed Tennessee Senator Hugh Lawson White into contention for the presidency in 1834 soon after his break with Jackson, White was a moderate on the states rights issue, which made him acceptable in the South, but not in the North. The state legislatures of Alabama and Tennessee officially nominated White, by early 1835, Whigs in the North were lining up behind Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster. Both Webster and White used debates in the Senate to establish their positions on the issues of the day, beginning at the end of 1835, some Whig state conventions in the North began to shift from Webster to popular former general William Henry Harrison. By mid 1836, the Northern free states except for Massachusetts, southern Whigs felt betrayed by Northern Whigs for abandoning White, who was still very popular there. In Massachusetts, the ticket was Daniel Webster and Granger, in South Carolina, the ticket was Willie P. Mangum for president and Tyler for vice-president. After the negative views of Freemasonry among a segment of the public began to wane in the mid 1830s
2.
Baltimore
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Baltimore is the largest city in the U. S. state of Maryland, and the 29th-most populous city in the country. It was established by the Constitution of Maryland and is not part of any county, thus, it is the largest independent city in the United States, with a population of 621,849 as of 2015. As of 2010, the population of the Baltimore Metropolitan Area was 2.7 million, founded in 1729, Baltimore is the second largest seaport in the Mid-Atlantic. Baltimores Inner Harbor was once the leading port of entry for immigrants to the United States. With hundreds of identified districts, Baltimore has been dubbed a city of neighborhoods, in the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key wrote The Star-Spangled Banner, later the American national anthem, in Baltimore. More than 65,000 properties, or roughly one in three buildings in the city, are listed on the National Register, more than any city in the nation. The city has 289 properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the historical records of the government of Baltimore are located at the Baltimore City Archives. The city is named after Cecil Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, of the Irish House of Lords, Baltimore Manor was the name of the estate in County Longford on which the Calvert family lived in Ireland. Baltimore is an anglicization of the Irish name Baile an Tí Mhóir, in 1608, Captain John Smith traveled 210 miles from Jamestown to the uppermost Chesapeake Bay, leading the first European expedition to the Patapsco River. The name Patapsco is derived from pota-psk-ut, which translates to backwater or tide covered with froth in Algonquian dialect, a quarter century after John Smiths voyage, English colonists began to settle in Maryland. The area constituting the modern City of Baltimore and its area was first settled by David Jones in 1661. He claimed the area today as Harbor East on the east bank of the Jones Falls stream. In the early 1600s, the immediate Baltimore vicinity was populated, if at all. The Baltimore area had been inhabited by Native Americans since at least the 10th millennium BC, one Paleo-Indian site and several Archaic period and Woodland period archaeological sites have been identified in Baltimore, including four from the Late Woodland period. During the Late Woodland period, the culture that is called the Potomac Creek complex resided in the area from Baltimore to the Rappahannock River in Virginia. It was located on the Bush River on land that in 1773 became part of Harford County, in 1674, the General Assembly passed An Act for erecting a Court-house and Prison in each County within this Province. The site of the house and jail for Baltimore County was evidently Old Baltimore near the Bush River. In 1683, the General Assembly passed An Act for Advancement of Trade to establish towns, ports, one of the towns established by the act in Baltimore County was on Bush River, on Town Land, near the Court-House
3.
Maryland
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The states largest city is Baltimore, and its capital is Annapolis. Among its occasional nicknames are Old Line State, the Free State, the state is named after Henrietta Maria of France, the wife of Charles I of England. George Calvert was the first Lord of Baltimore and the first English proprietor of the colonial grant. Maryland was the state to ratify the United States Constitution. Maryland is one of the smallest U. S. states in terms of area, as well as one of the most densely populated, Maryland has an area of 12,406.68 square miles and is comparable in overall area with Belgium. It is the 42nd largest and 9th smallest state and is closest in size to the state of Hawaii, the next largest state, its neighbor West Virginia, is almost twice the size of Maryland. Maryland possesses a variety of topography within its borders, contributing to its nickname America in Miniature. The mid-portion of this border is interrupted by Washington, D. C. which sits on land that was part of Montgomery and Prince Georges counties and including the town of Georgetown. This land was ceded to the United States Federal Government in 1790 to form the District of Columbia, the Chesapeake Bay nearly bisects the state and the counties east of the bay are known collectively as the Eastern Shore. Close to the town of Hancock, in western Maryland, about two-thirds of the way across the state. This geographical curiosity makes Maryland the narrowest state, bordered by the Mason–Dixon line to the north, portions of Maryland are included in various official and unofficial geographic regions. Much of the Baltimore–Washington corridor lies just south of the Piedmont in the Coastal Plain, earthquakes in Maryland are infrequent and small due to the states distance from seismic/earthquake zones. The M5.8 Virginia earthquake in 2011 was felt moderately throughout Maryland, buildings in the state are not well-designed for earthquakes and can suffer damage easily. The lack of any glacial history accounts for the scarcity of Marylands natural lakes, laurel Oxbow Lake is an over one-hundred-year-old 55-acre natural lake two miles north of Maryland City and adjacent to Russett. Chews Lake is a natural lake two miles south-southeast of Upper Marlboro. There are numerous lakes, the largest of them being the Deep Creek Lake. Maryland has shale formations containing natural gas, where fracking is theoretically possible, as is typical of states on the East Coast, Marylands plant life is abundant and healthy. Middle Atlantic coastal forests, typical of the southeastern Atlantic coastal plain, grow around Chesapeake Bay, moving west, a mixture of Northeastern coastal forests and Southeastern mixed forests cover the central part of the state
4.
Martin Van Buren
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Martin Van Buren was an American politician who served as the eighth President of the United States. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in a number of senior roles, including eighth Vice President and tenth Secretary of State. Van Buren won the presidency by promising to follow through on Jacksons policies, during his half-century of public service, he built, perfected, and defended a new system of political parties at first the state and then the federal level. In New York he reorganized the Democratic-Republican Party and established the Albany Regency to keep it in power and he then moved on Washington where he did more than anyone to construct the modern Democratic Party which dominated American politics down to the American Civil War. A delegate to a convention at age 18, he quickly moved from local to state politics. Elected to the Senate by the New York State Legislature in 1821, Van Buren supported William H. Crawford for president in the 1824 election, but by 1828 had come to support Jackson. Van Buren was a supporter and organizer for Jackson in the 1828 election. Jackson and Van Buren were elected, and after serving as governor for two months, Van Buren resigned to become Jacksons Secretary of State. During Jacksons eight years as president, Van Buren was a key advisor, in 1831, following his resignation as Secretary of State, which aided Jackson in resolving the Petticoat affair, Jackson gave Van Buren a recess appointment as American minister to Britain. Van Burens nomination was rejected by the Senate, cutting short his service in London, Van Buren faced little opposition for the presidential nomination at the 1835 Democratic National Convention, and he defeated several Whig opponents in the 1836 presidential election. Van Buren was the first president to be born a United States citizen, of Dutch ancestry, he is the only president who spoke English as a second language, and was the first not to have a university degree or a military commission. As president, Van Buren was blamed for the depression of 1837 and he attempted to cure the economic problems by keeping control of federal funds in an independent treasury—rather than in state banks—but Congress would not approve of this until 1840. Additionally, relations with Britain and its colonies in Canada proved to be strained from the bloodless Aroostook War, in the 1840 election, Van Buren was voted out of office, losing to Whig candidate William Henry Harrison. Van Buren was the candidate for the Democratic nomination in 1844, but lost to James K. Polk. In the 1848 election Van Buren ran unsuccessfully as the candidate of the anti-slavery Free Soil Party and he returned to the Democratic fold to endorse Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and Stephen A. Douglas for the presidency. However, his increasingly abolitionist views and support for the Union led him to support Abraham Lincolns policies after the start of the American Civil War, Van Burens health began to fail in 1861, and he died in July 1862 at the age of 79. Martin Van Buren was born on December 5,1782, in the village of Kinderhook, Van Buren was the first President not born a British subject, or even of British ancestry. His father, Abraham van Buren, was an inn–tavern keeper, Abraham Van Buren supported the Patriot cause during the American Revolution as a captain in the Albany County Militias 7th Regiment, and later joined the Jeffersonian Republicans
5.
New York (state)
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New York is a state in the northeastern United States, and is the 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated U. S. state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State, two-thirds of the states population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th-century Duke of York, the next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. New York has a diverse geography and these more mountainous regions are bisected by two major river valleys—the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley, which forms the core of the Erie Canal. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and straddles Lake Ontario, between the two lakes lies Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. The first Europeans to arrive were French colonists and Jesuit missionaries who arrived southward from settlements at Montreal for trade, the British annexed the colony from the Dutch in 1664. The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were similar to those of the present-day state, New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. On April 17,1524 Verrazanno entered New York Bay, by way of the now called the Narrows into the northern bay which he named Santa Margherita. Verrazzano described it as a vast coastline with a delta in which every kind of ship could pass and he adds. This vast sheet of water swarmed with native boats and he landed on the tip of Manhattan and possibly on the furthest point of Long Island. Verrazannos stay was interrupted by a storm which pushed him north towards Marthas Vineyard, in 1540 French traders from New France built a chateau on Castle Island, within present-day Albany, due to flooding, it was abandoned the next year. In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Corstiaensen, rebuilt the French chateau, Fort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River, also within present-day Albany. The small fort served as a trading post and warehouse, located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary fort was washed away by flooding in 1617, and abandoned for good after Fort Orange was built nearby in 1623. Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage marked the beginning of European involvement with the area, sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year
6.
Richard Mentor Johnson
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Richard Mentor Johnson was the ninth Vice President of the United States, serving in the administration of Martin Van Buren. He is the vice president ever elected by the United States Senate under the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment. Johnson also represented Kentucky in the U. S. House of Representatives and Senate, he began, Johnson was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives in 1806. He became allied with fellow Kentuckian Henry Clay as a member of the War Hawks faction that favored war with Britain in 1812. At the outset of the War of 1812, Johnson was commissioned a colonel in the Kentucky Militia and he and his brother James served under William Henry Harrison in Upper Canada. Johnson participated in the Battle of the Thames, some reported that he personally killed the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, which he later used to his political advantage. After the war, Johnson returned to the House of Representatives, the legislature appointed him to the Senate in 1819 to fill the seat vacated by John J. Crittenden. As his prominence grew, his relationship with Julia Chinn. It worked against his political ambitions, unlike other upper class leaders who had African American mistresses but never mentioned them, Johnson openly treated Chinn as his common law wife. He acknowledged their two daughters as his children, giving them his surname, much to the consternation of some of his constituents. The relationship is believed to have led to the loss of his Senate seat in 1829, in 1836, Johnson was the Democratic nominee for vice-president on a ticket with Martin Van Buren. Campaigning with the slogan Rumpsey Dumpsey, Rumpsey Dumpsey, Colonel Johnson killed Tecumseh, virginias delegation to the Electoral College went against the states popular vote and refused to endorse Johnson, abstaining instead. However, he was elected to the office by the Senate, Johnson proved such a liability for the Democrats in the 1836 election that they refused to renominate him for vice-president in 1840. President Van Buren campaigned for re-election without a running mate and he lost to William Henry Harrison, a Whig. Johnson tried to return to office but was defeated. He finally was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1850, Richard Mentor Johnson was born on October 17,1780, the fifth of Robert and Jemima Johnsons eleven children. At the time, the family was living in the newly founded settlement of Beargrass, near present-day Louisville, by 1782, the Johnsons had moved to Bryans Station in Fayette County. Johnsons mother was considered among the women of the community because of her actions during Simon Girtys raid on Bryans Station in August 1782
7.
Kentucky
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Kentucky, officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state located in the east south-central region of the United States. Kentucky is one of four U. S. states constituted as a commonwealth, originally a part of Virginia, in 1792 Kentucky became the 15th state to join the Union. Kentucky is the 37th most extensive and the 26th most populous of the 50 United States, Kentucky is known as the Bluegrass State, a nickname based on the bluegrass found in many of its pastures due to the fertile soil. One of the regions in Kentucky is the Bluegrass Region in central Kentucky. In 1776, the counties of Virginia beyond the Appalachian Mountains became known as Kentucky County, the precise etymology of the name is uncertain, but likely based on an Iroquoian name meaning the meadow or the prairie. Kentucky is situated in the Upland South, a significant portion of eastern Kentucky is part of Appalachia. Kentucky borders seven states, from the Midwest and the Southeast, West Virginia lies to the east, Virginia to the southeast, Tennessee to the south, Missouri to the west, Illinois and Indiana to the northwest, and Ohio to the north and northeast. Only Missouri and Tennessee, both of which border eight states, touch more, Kentuckys northern border is formed by the Ohio River and its western border by the Mississippi River. The official state borders are based on the courses of the rivers as they existed when Kentucky became a state in 1792, for instance, northbound travelers on U. S.41 from Henderson, after crossing the Ohio River, will be in Kentucky for about two miles. Ellis Park, a racetrack, is located in this small piece of Kentucky. Waterworks Road is part of the land border between Indiana and Kentucky. Kentucky has a part known as Kentucky Bend, at the far west corner of the state. It exists as an exclave surrounded completely by Missouri and Tennessee, Road access to this small part of Kentucky on the Mississippi River requires a trip through Tennessee. The epicenter of the powerful 1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes was near this area, much of the outer Bluegrass is in the Eden Shale Hills area, made up of short, steep, and very narrow hills. The Jackson Purchase and western Pennyrile are home to several bald cypress/tupelo swamps, located within the southeastern interior portion of North America, Kentucky has a climate that can best be described as a humid subtropical climate. Temperatures in Kentucky usually range from daytime summer highs of 87 °F to the low of 23 °F. The average precipitation is 46 inches a year, Kentucky experiences four distinct seasons, with substantial variations in the severity of summer and winter. The highest recorded temperature was 114 °F at Greensburg on July 28,1930 while the lowest recorded temperature was −37 °F at Shelbyville on January 19,1994, due to its location, Kentucky has a moderate humid subtropical climate, with abundant rainfall
8.
1832 Democratic National Convention
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The 1832 Democratic National Convention was held from May 21 to May 23,1832, in Baltimore, Maryland. The delegates nominated former Secretary of State Martin Van Buren for Vice President to replace and succeed the earlier incumbent John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, and endorsed Jacksons reelection. Following that defeat in the election of 1824, early in 1827, such a type of national convention would occur after the election. The Petticoat affair in which Calhouns wife, Floride, was a central figure further alienated Jackson from the Vice President, the final blow to the relationship came when Calhoun sank Van Burens nomination as Minister to Great Britain by casting a tie-breaking vote in the United States Senate. Calhoun resigned as Vice President on 28 December 1832 and became a Senator from South Carolina, the proposal for the convention began with members of Jacksons Kitchen Cabinet, his coterie of informal advisers and confidants. Major William Berkeley Lewis wrote on May 25,1831, to Amos Kendall and it is probably the best plan which can be adopted to produce entire unanimity in the Republican party, and secure its lasting ascendancy. The convention was called to order by Frederick A, sumner of New Hampshire, who said of the origins and purpose of the convention, Delegates from all states except Missouri were present. Governor Robert Lucas of Ohio served as the chairman and convention president, peter Vivian Daniel, James Fenner, John M. Barclay, and Augustin Smith Clayton were chosen as convention vice presidents. John Adams Dix was appointed secretary at the first meeting, with other additional secretaries thereafter, a resolution was passed by the convention requiring two-thirds support of the delegates for a nomination. Martin Van Buren was nominated for the presidency after he won more than two-thirds of the total delegates votes. The convention endorsed the prior nominations in areas of the United States of Jackson for the presidency. The convention concluded by adopting a resolution calling for an address or report from the delegations to their constituents, an address by the Republican delegates of New York gave a history of previous national political activity in the United States. The address described what they claimed were political similarities between Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson and it defended the policies of Jacksons administration and it characterized Van Buren as a strict constructionist and welcomed his nomination. Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren defeated their main competitors, Henry Clay and John Sergeant of the National Republican Party, the electors of Pennsylvania supported Jackson, but cast their votes for William Wilkins for the vice presidency. None, Niles Weekly Register,42 Parton, James, Life of Andrew Jackson,3, Kessinger Publishing, rutland, Robert Allen, The Democrats, From Jefferson to Clinton, University of Missouri Press, ISBN 0-8262-1034-1
9.
1840 Democratic National Convention
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The 1840 Democratic National Convention was held in Baltimore. The Democrats nominated President Martin Van Buren for reelection in 1840 in spite of his unpopularity following the Panic of 1837, former President Andrew Jackson backed James K. Polk for the position of vice president, but Van Buren supported his vice presidents renomination. The convention ultimately decided not to nominate a mate for Van Buren. As a result, Van Buren became the major party presidential nominee since the passage of the 12th Amendment to seek election without a running mate. Polk and Johnson both received electoral votes for president in the general election, but the Whig ticket won the election. Delegates from 21 of 26 states were in attendance, States not in attendance were Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, South Carolina and Virginia. The 1840 convention was the first at which the party adopted a platform, delegates reaffirmed their belief that the Constitution was the primary guide for each states political affairs. To them, this meant that all roles of the government not specifically defined fell to each respective state government. Decentralized power and states rights pervaded each and every resolution adopted at the convention including those on slavery, taxes, history of the United States Democratic Party Democratic Party Platform of 1840 at The American Presidency Project
10.
United States presidential nominating convention
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Other delegates to these conventions include political party members who are seated automatically, and are called unpledged delegates because they can choose for themselves for whom they vote for. Generally, usage of “presidential campaign nominating convention” refers to the two major parties’ quadrennial events, the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention. Some minor parties also select their nominees by convention, including the Green Party, the Socialist Party USA, the Libertarian Party, the Constitution Party, the convention cycle begins with the Call to Convention. Usually issued about 18 months in advance, the Call is an invitation from the party to the state. It also sets out the number of delegates to be awarded to each, the conventions are usually scheduled for four days of business, with the exception of the 1972 Republican and 2012 Democratic conventions, which were three days each. There is no rule dictating the order of the conventions, between 1864 and 1952, the Democrats went second every year. In 1956, when Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower was the incumbent, the Democrats went first, since 1952, all major party conventions have been held in the months of July, August or, early September. In 1996, both were held in August to accommodate the Atlanta Olympics in July, the last Summer Olympics to date to be played in the U. S, in 2000, both conventions preceded the Sydney Olympics in late September. In 2008 and 2012, the Democratic and Republican conventions were moved to back-to-back weeks following the conclusion of the Olympics, finally, the parties also did not want to schedule their conventions around the Olympics. But moving the conventions later into early September led to conflicts with the National Football Leagues season kickoff game, however, the NFL accommodated the conventions and moved its games to an earlier start time in 2008, and an earlier date in 2012. In 2016, both the Republican and Democratic conventions moved to July, before the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August. The Democrats then followed suit so they could provide a response to the Republicans. Each party sets its own rules for the participation and format of the convention, broadly speaking, each U. S. state and territory party is apportioned a select number of voting representatives, individually known as delegates and collectively as the delegation. The selection of delegates and their alternates, too, is governed by the bylaws of each state party. The 2004 Democratic National Convention counted 4,353 delegates and 611 alternates, the 2004 Republican National Convention had 2,509 delegates and 2,344 alternates. But these individuals are dwarfed by other attendees who do not participate in the business of the convention. The convention is held in a major city selected by the national party organization 18–24 months before the election is to be held. In the present day, political symbolism affects the selection of the host city as much as economic or logistical ones do, a particular city might be selected to enhance the standing of a favorite son, or in an effort to curry favor with residents of that state
