1.
1856
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As of the start of 1856, the Gregorian calendar was 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923. January 8 –Borax deposits are discovered in large quantities by John Veatch in California, january 24 –U. S. President Franklin Pierce declares the new Free-State Topeka government in Bleeding Kansas to be in rebellion. January 26 –First Battle of Seattle, Marines from the USS Decatur suppress indigenous uprising in response to Governor Stevens declaration of a war of extermination on Native communities, january 29 The 223-mile North Carolina Railroad is completed from Goldsboro through Raleigh and Salisbury to Charlotte. Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross, february –The Tintic War breaks out in Utah. February 1 –Auburn University is first chartered as the East Alabama Male College, february 2 –Dallas, Texas is incorporated as a city. February 7 –The nawab of Oudh is exiled to Metiabruz and the state is annexed by the British East India Company, february 18 –The American Party convene in Philadelphia to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore. This eventually leads to the birth of the chemical industry, march –Nepalese–Tibetan War, The signing of the Treaty of Thapathali concludes the war. March 5 –Fire destroys the Covent Garden Theatre in London, march 6 –Maryland Agricultural College is chartered. March 20 –Filibuster War, Costa Rican troops rout Walkers soldiers in Battle of Santa Rosa, march 31 –The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War. April –Xhosa cattle-killing movement and famine begins in Cape Colony, april 7 –Nelson College is founded in Nelson, New Zealand. April 16 –Paris Declaration Respecting Maritime Law abolishes privateering and regulates the relationship between neutral and belligerent and shipping on the high seas, april 17 –The Chicago Historical Society Museum is established at 1601 N. Clark Street, Chicago. April 21 –Building workers agitate for the day in Melbourne. April 29 –The iron-hulled paddle steamer RMS Persia concludes a 9-day 16 hour westbound transatlantic crossing at an average 13.11 knots, may 1 –The province of Isabela is created in the Philippines in honor of Queen Isabella II of Spain. May 3 –Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom gives Norfolk Island to the population of the colony at Pitcairn Island and they first settle on Norfolk Island on June 8. Womens suffrage as practiced on Pitcairn is extended to Norfolk Island, may 14 –A San Francisco Committee of Vigilance is founded in the United States. It lynches two gangsters, arrests most Democratic Party officials and disbands itself on August 18, may 20 –David Livingstone arrives at Quelimane on the Indian Ocean having completed a 2-year transcontinental journey across Africa from Luanda. May 21 –Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces, sumner is unable to return to duty for 3 years while he recovers, Brooks becomes a hero across the South. May 24 –Pottawatomie massacre, A group of followers of radical abolitionist John Brown kill 5 homesteaders in Franklin County, June 2 –Battle of Black Jack, Antislavery forces, led by John Brown, defeat proslavery forces in Bleeding Kansas
2.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
3.
1854 in the United States
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Events from the year 1854 in the United States. President, Franklin Pierce Vice President, vacant Chief Justice, Roger B, taney Speaker of the House of Representatives, Linn Boyd Congress, 33rd January 4 – Senator Stephen Douglas introduces a bill to form the Nebraska Territory. The bill sparked major debates related to issues and evolved into the Kansas–Nebraska Act. February 14 – Texas is linked by telegraph with the rest of the United States, february 28 – The Black Warrior Affair, A ship destined for New York City is detained in Havana, Cuba. March 20 Anti-slavery opponents of the Kansas–Nebraska Act in Ripon, Wisconsin form the Republican Party, the Boston Public Library opens to the public. March 30 – Battle of Cieneguilla, The U. S, First Regiment of Dragoons attacks a larger force of Jicarilla Apache and Ute Native Americans near present-day Pilar, New Mexico. The Americans are forced to retreat after losing more than half their number, march 31 – Commodore Matthew Perry of the U. S. Navy signs the Treaty/Convention of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade. April 16 – The American packet ship Powhattan is wrecked off the shore of New Jersey with a loss of more than 200 lives, may – Elisha Otis publicly debuts his safety elevator at the New York Worlds Fair. May 27 – Taiping Rebellion, United States minister Robert McLane arrives at Nanjing aboard the U. S. Navy warship USS Susquehanna, june 10 – The first class of the United States Naval Academy graduates at Annapolis, Maryland. July 6 – In Jackson, Michigan, the first convention of the Republican Party is held, july 8 – An anti-Catholic riot in Bath, Maine, destroys a church used by Irish Catholics. July 13 – Bombardment of San Juan del Norte, The USS Cyane attacks San Juan del Norte, August 7–8 – Know Nothings riot against immigrants in St. Louis, Missouri, leading to 10 deaths. August 9 – Walden first published, August 19 – Grattan massacre, A group of U. S. Army soldiers in Nebraska Territory are killed by Lakota Sioux warriors after they killed Chief Conquering Bear, starting the First Sioux War. September 28 or 29 – Sloop USS Albany is lost off the coast of Venezuela with all hands, October 9–11 – The controversial Ostend Manifesto is secretly drafted. The document implies that the U. S. should acquire Cuba from Spain by any means necessary, October 16 – Abraham Lincoln, in his Peoria speech, expresses opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, Popular Sovereignty, and slavery in the United States. November 29 – Bleeding Kansas, A pro-slavery Democrat, John Wilkins Whitfield, is elected as the Congressional Delegate for Kansas Territory, December 26 – The Treaty of Medicine Creek is signed in Washington Territory. The U. S. acquires land from various Native American tribes, professor Benjamin Silliman, Jr. Thus, petroleum products like gasoline and kerosene are first produced. Waterbury, Connecticut brass manufacturer Benedict & Burnham Manufacturing Company create the department and this becomes the predecessor of the modern-day Timex Group USA, manufacturer of timepieces. Achulet Massacre, More than 65 Tolowa people Are killed by American settlers in California, Senator from Mississippi from 1911 to 1923 August 18 – James Paul Clarke, 18th Governor of Arkansas from 1895 to 1897 and U. S
4.
1855 in the United States
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Events from the year 1855 in the United States. President, Franklin Pierce Vice President, vacant Chief Justice, Roger B, the California State Militia and U. S. Army intervene, ending the war in March. January 23 – The first bridge over the Mississippi River opens in what is now Minneapolis, january 26 – The Point No Point Treaty is signed in the Washington Territory. February 12 – Michigan State University is established, february 22 – Pennsylvania State University is founded as the Farmers High School of Pennsylvania. March 3 – The U. S. Congress appropriates $30,000 to create the U. S. Camel Corps, March 16 – Bates College is founded by abolitionists in Lewiston, Maine. March 30 – Elections are held for the first Kansas Territory legislature, missourians cross the border in large numbers to elect a pro-slavery body. April – Cincinnati riots of 1855, Tension between nativists and German-American immigrants in Cincinnati breaks out into territorial street fighting on election day, may 17 – The Mount Sinai Hospital is dedicated in New York City, it opens to patients on June 5. June 6 – Portland Rum Riot, A crowd gathers at a storehouse believed to hold alcohol in Portland, the militia is called in and fires on the crowd to disperse the crowd, killing one person. June 28 – The Sigma Chi Fraternity is founded at Miami University in Oxford, july 1 – Quinault Treaty signed, Quinault and Quileute cede their land to the United States. July 2 – The Kansas Territorial Legislature convenes in Pawnee and begins passing proslavery laws, july 4 – Walt Whitmans poetry collection Leaves of Grass is published in Brooklyn. July 6 – The Kansas Territorial Legislature meets for the last time in Pawnee, voting to relocate to Shawnee, july 16 – U. S. Indian commissioner Isaac Stevens signs the Hellgate treaty with Native Americans living in what is present-day western Montana. August 6 – Bloody Monday, Protestant mobs attack Irish Catholics on a day in Louisville, Kentucky. September 3 – First Sioux War – Battle of Ash Hollow, U. S. forces defeat a band of Brulé Lakota in present-day Garden County, Nebraska. October 5 – Yakima War – Battle of Toppenish Creek, In the Yakima River Valley and it is the first battle of the Yakima War. October 28–31 – First Fiji Expedition, The U. S. Navy dispatches the USS John Adams to Viti Levu, Fiji, one American sailor is killed and two Marines are wounded. November 1 –31 people are killed in the Gasconade Bridge train disaster in Missouri, november 9–10 – Yakima War – Battle of Union Gap, American soldiers attack a Yakama village, forcing the village to retreat. November 21 – Large-scale Bleeding Kansas violence begins with events leading to the Wakarusa War between antislavery and proslavery forces, july 29 – Bowman Brown Law, politician September 2 – M. Hoke Smith, United States Senator from Georgia from 1911 till 1920. October 24 – James S. Sherman, 27th Vice President of the United States from 1909 till 1912, november 5 – Eugene V. Debs, United States is born
5.
1857 in the United States
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Events from the year 1857 in the United States. President, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan Vice President, vacant, february 3 – The National Deaf Mute College is established in Washington, DC, becoming the first school for the advanced education of the deaf. March 4 – James Buchanan succeeds Franklin Pierce as President of the United States, March 12 – Elizabeth Blackwell opens a hospital, the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children. March 23 – Elisha Otis first elevator is installed, March 27 – Waterbury Clock Company is legally incorporated in Waterbury, Connecticut, predecessor to the current day Timex Group USA and the iconic Timex brand. July 18 – The Utah Expedition leaves Fort Leavenworth, effectively beginning the Utah War, September 11 – Mountain Meadows massacre in Utah. Central America sinks off the coast of North Carolina, killing 425 people, October 13 – New York banks close following a major financial panic and do not reopen until December 12. Speculation in U. S. railway shares causes financial crisis in Europe, the seat of government of Iowa is moved from Iowa City to present-day Des Moines. The Mormons abandon Las Vegas, Nevada, american politician William Daniel proposes the Local Option for prohibition. Panic of 1857 Bleeding Kansas Third Seminole War Utah War March 20 – Benjamin F. Shively, March 21 – Charles Ellis Johnson, photographer. September 15 – William Howard Taft, 27th President of the United States from 1909 till 1913, October 7 – George P. McLean, United States Senator from Connecticut from 1911 till 1923. December 1 – Samuel M. Ralston, United States Senator from Indiana from 1923 to 1925, December 2 J. Frank Allee, United States Senator from Delaware from 1903 till 1907. Charles E. Rushmore, businessman, attorney, namesake of Mount Rushmore, february 16 – Elisha Kane, Arctic explorer May 1 – Stephen Adams, U. S. Senator from Mississippi from 1852 to 1857 May 26 – James Bell, Senator from New Hampshire from 1855 to 1857 September 15 – John Henderson, U. S. Senator from Mississippi from 1839 to 1845 October 7 – Louis McLane, U. S. Nicholas, Senator from Louisiana from 1836 to 1841 Jasper Grosvenor, financier Media related to 1857 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons
6.
1858 in the United States
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Events from the year 1858 in the United States. President, James Buchanan Vice President, John C, April 19 – The United States and the Yankton Sioux Tribe sign a treaty. May 11 – Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U. S. state, may 19 – The Marais des Cygnes massacre is perpetrated by pro-slavery forces in Bleeding Kansas. June 16 – Abraham Lincoln makes his House Divided Speech at the State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, july – Forty-Niners stream into the Rocky Mountains of the western United States during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. July 8 – The Paulist Fathers, a Roman Catholic society of apostolic life for men, is founded in New York City by Isaac Hecker, july 29 – Treaty of Amity and Commerce signed on the deck of USS Powhatan in Edo Bay. August 16 – U. S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks, August 21 – The first of the seven Lincoln–Douglas debates is held. September 14 – Fordyce Beals patents his six shooter revolver which will be produced by E. Remington & Sons of Ilion, November 17 – Denver is founded. Senator from Louisiana from 1913 to 1931 October 12 – John L. S, senator from Illinois from 1913 to 1921 November 21 – Charles A. Towne, U. S. Senator from Indiana from 1917 to 1923 January 10 – Hezekiah Augur, sculptor and inventor March 4 – Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, naval officer April 10 – Thomas Hart Benton, senator from Missouri from 1821 to 1851 August 23 – Calvin Willey, U. S. Senator from Connecticut from 1825 to 1831 September 17 – Dred Scott, slave September 21 – Arthur P. Bagby, senator from Alabama from 1837 to 1841 November 16 – Robert Hanna, U. S. Senator from Indiana from 1831 to 1832 December 14 – Michael Woolston Ash, representative from Pennsylvania from 1835 to 1837 December 18 – Thomas Holley Chivers, poet and physician Media related to 1858 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons
7.
Flag of the United States
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The flag of the United States, often referred to as the American flag, is the national flag of the United States. S. Nicknames for the flag include The Stars and Stripes, Old Glory, the current design of the U. S. flag is its 27th, the design of the flag has been modified officially 26 times since 1777. The 48-star flag was in effect for 47 years until the 49-star version became official on July 4,1959, the 50-star flag was ordered by the then president Eisenhower on August 21,1959, and was adopted in July 1960. It is the version of the U. S. flag and has been in use for over 56 years. At the time of the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the flag contemporaneously known as the Continental Colors has historically been referred to as the first national flag. The name Grand Union was first applied to the Continental Colors by George Preble in his 1872 history of the American flag, the flag closely resembles the British East India Company flag of the era, and Sir Charles Fawcett argued in 1937 that the company flag inspired the design. Both flags could have been constructed by adding white stripes to a British Red Ensign. However, an East India Company flag could have nine to 13 stripes. In any case, both the stripes and the stars have precedents in classical heraldry, Flag Day is now observed on June 14 of each year. While scholars still argue about this, tradition holds that the new flag was first hoisted in June 1777 by the Continental Army at the Middlebrook encampment. The first official U. S. flag flown during battle was on August 3,1777, Massachusetts reinforcements brought news of the adoption by Congress of the official flag to Fort Schuyler. A voucher is extant that Capt. Swartwout of Dutchess County was paid by Congress for his coat for the flag, the 1777 resolution was most probably meant to define a naval ensign. In the late 18th century, the notion of a flag did not yet exist. The flag resolution appears between other resolutions from the Marine Committee, on May 10,1779, Secretary of the Board of War Richard Peters expressed concern it is not yet settled what is the Standard of the United States. However, the term, Standard, referred to a standard for the Army of the United States. Each regiment was to carry the standard in addition to its regimental standard. The national standard was not a reference to the national or naval flag, the appearance was up to the maker of the flag. Some flag makers arranged the stars into one big star, in a circle or in rows, one arrangement features 13 five-pointed stars arranged in a circle, with the stars arranged pointing outwards from the circle, the so-called Betsy Ross flag
8.
Timeline of United States history
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This is a timeline of United States history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political and economic events in the United States and its predecessor states. To read about the background to these events, see History of the United States, some dates before September 14,1752, when the British government adopted the Gregorian calendar, may be given in the Old Style
9.
Civil war
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The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region or to change government policies. The term is a calque of the Latin bellum civile which was used to refer to the civil wars of the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC. A civil war is a high-intensity conflict, often involving regular armed forces, Civil wars may result in large numbers of casualties and the consumption of significant resources. Most modern civil wars involve intervention by outside powers, according to Patrick M. Civil wars since the end of World War II have lasted on average just over four years, a dramatic rise from the one-and-a-half-year average of the 1900–1944 period. For example, there were no more than five civil wars underway simultaneously in the first half of the 20th century while there were over 20 concurrent civil wars close to the end of the Cold War. Since 1945, civil wars have resulted in the deaths of over 25 million people, ann Hironaka further specifies that one side of a civil war is the state. The intensity at which a civil disturbance becomes a war is contested by academics. Some political scientists define a civil war as having more than 1000 casualties, the Correlates of War, a dataset widely used by scholars of conflict, classifies civil wars as having over 1000 war-related casualties per year of conflict. Based on the 1000 casualties per year criterion, there were 213 civil wars from 1816 to 1997,104 of which occurred from 1944 to 1997. If one uses the less-stringent 1000 casualties total criterion, there were over 90 civil wars between 1945 and 2007, with 20 ongoing civil wars as of 2007. The Geneva Conventions do not specifically define the term civil war and this includes civil wars, however no specific definition of civil war is provided in the text of the Conventions. That the legal Government is obliged to have recourse to the military forces against insurgents organized as military. That the insurgents have an organization purporting to have the characteristics of a State and that the insurgent civil authority exercises de facto authority over the population within a determinate portion of the national territory. That the armed forces act under the direction of an authority and are prepared to observe the ordinary laws of war. That the insurgent civil authority agrees to be bound by the provisions of the Convention, scholars investigating the cause of civil war are attracted by two opposing theories, greed versus grievance. Scholarly analysis supports the conclusion that economic and structural factors are more important than those of identity in predicting occurrences of civil war, a comprehensive study of civil war was carried out by a team from the World Bank in the early 21st century. A second source of finance is national diasporas, which can fund rebellions, the study found that statistically switching the size of a countrys diaspora from the smallest found in the study to the largest resulted in a sixfold increase in the chance of a civil war. Opportunity cost of rebellion Higher male secondary school enrollment, per capita income, the study interpreted these three factors as proxies for earnings forgone by rebellion, and therefore that lower forgone earnings encourage rebellion
10.
Federal government of the United States
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The Federal Government of the United States is the national government of the United States, a republic in North America, composed of 50 states, one district, Washington, D. C. and several territories. The federal government is composed of three branches, legislative, executive, and judicial, whose powers are vested by the U. S. Constitution in the Congress, the President, and the courts, including the Supreme Court. The powers and duties of these branches are defined by acts of Congress. The full name of the republic is United States of America, no other name appears in the Constitution, and this is the name that appears on money, in treaties, and in legal cases to which it is a party. The terms Government of the United States of America or United States Government are often used in documents to represent the federal government as distinct from the states collectively. In casual conversation or writing, the term Federal Government is often used, the terms Federal and National in government agency or program names generally indicate affiliation with the federal government. Because the seat of government is in Washington, D. C, Washington is commonly used as a metonym for the federal government. The outline of the government of the United States is laid out in the Constitution, the government was formed in 1789, making the United States one of the worlds first, if not the first, modern national constitutional republics. The United States government is based on the principles of federalism and republicanism, some make the case for expansive federal powers while others argue for a more limited role for the central government in relation to individuals, the states or other recognized entities. For example, while the legislative has the power to create law, the President nominates judges to the nations highest judiciary authority, but those nominees must be approved by Congress. The Supreme Court, in its turn, has the power to invalidate as unconstitutional any law passed by the Congress and these and other examples are examined in more detail in the text below. The United States Congress is the branch of the federal government. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate, the House currently consists of 435 voting members, each of whom represents a congressional district. The number of each state has in the House is based on each states population as determined in the most recent United States Census. All 435 representatives serve a two-year term, each state receives a minimum of one representative in the House. There is no limit on the number of terms a representative may serve, in addition to the 435 voting members, there are six non-voting members, consisting of five delegates and one resident commissioner. In contrast, the Senate is made up of two senators from each state, regardless of population, there are currently 100 senators, who each serve six-year terms
11.
President of the United States
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The President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. The president is considered to be one of the worlds most powerful political figures, the role includes being the commander-in-chief of the worlds most expensive military with the second largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by nominal GDP. The office of President holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad, Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The president is empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves. The president is responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of the party to which the president is a member. The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the United States, since the office of President was established in 1789, its power has grown substantially, as has the power of the federal government as a whole. However, nine vice presidents have assumed the presidency without having elected to the office. The Twenty-second Amendment prohibits anyone from being elected president for a third term, in all,44 individuals have served 45 presidencies spanning 57 full four-year terms. On January 20,2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th, in 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, acting through the Second Continental Congress, declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The new states, though independent of each other as nation states, desiring to avoid anything that remotely resembled a monarchy, Congress negotiated the Articles of Confederation to establish a weak alliance between the states. Out from under any monarchy, the states assigned some formerly royal prerogatives to Congress, only after all the states agreed to a resolution settling competing western land claims did the Articles take effect on March 1,1781, when Maryland became the final state to ratify them. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies, with peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. Prospects for the convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washingtons attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia. It was through the negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U. S. The first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto, the Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options, Sign the legislation, the bill becomes law. Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any objections, in this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation
12.
Franklin Pierce
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Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States. Pierce was a northern Democrat who saw the abolitionist movement as a threat to the unity of the nation. Historians and other scholars generally rank Pierce as among the worst of US Presidents, born in New Hampshire, Pierce served in the U. S. House of Representatives and the Senate until he resigned from the latter in 1842. His private law practice in his state was a success. Pierce took part in the Mexican–American War as a general in the Army. In the 1852 presidential election, Pierce and his running mate William R. King easily defeated the Whig Party ticket of Winfield Scott and William A. Graham. While Pierce was popular and outgoing, his life was a grim affair, with his wife Jane suffering from illness. All of their children died young, their last son being killed in a train accident while the family was traveling shortly before Pierces inauguration. Pierce was a Young America expansionist who signed the Gadsden Purchase of land from Mexico and his popularity in the Northern states declined sharply after he supported the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which nullified the Missouri Compromise, while many whites in the South continued to support him. Passage of the act led to violent conflict over the expansion of slavery in the American West, Pierces administration was further damaged when several of his diplomats issued the Ostend Manifesto, calling for the annexation of Cuba, a document which was roundly criticized. Although Pierce fully expected to be renominated by the Democrats in the 1856 presidential election, he was abandoned by his party and his reputation in the North suffered further during the Civil War as he became a vocal critic of President Abraham Lincoln. Pierce, who had been a heavy drinker for much of his life, Franklin Pierce was born on November 23,1804, in a log cabin in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. He was a descendant of Thomas Pierce, who had moved to the Massachusetts Bay Colony from Norwich, Norfolk, England. Pierces father Benjamin, a Revolutionary War lieutenant, moved from Chelmsford, Massachusetts to Hillsborough after the war, Pierce was the fifth of eight children born to Benjamin and his second wife, Anna Kendrick. Benjamin was by then a prominent Democratic-Republican state legislator, farmer, Pierces father, who sought to ensure that his sons were educated, placed Pierce in a school at Hillsborough Center in childhood and sent him to the town school at Hancock at the age of 12. The boy was not fond of schooling, growing homesick at Hancock, he walked 12 miles back to his home one Sunday. His father fed him dinner and drove him part of the back to school before kicking him out of the carriage. Pierce later cited this moment as the turning-point in my life, later that year he transferred to Phillips Exeter Academy to prepare for college
13.
Democratic Party (United States)
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The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The Democrats dominant worldview was once socially conservative and fiscally classical liberalism, while, especially in the rural South, since Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal coalition in the 1930s, the Democratic Party has also promoted a social-liberal platform, supporting social justice. Today, the House Democratic caucus is composed mostly of progressives and centrists, the partys philosophy of modern liberalism advocates social and economic equality, along with the welfare state. It seeks to provide government intervention and regulation in the economy, the party has united with smaller left-wing regional parties throughout the country, such as the Farmer–Labor Party in Minnesota and the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota. Well into the 20th century, the party had conservative pro-business, the New Deal Coalition of 1932–1964 attracted strong support from voters of recent European extraction—many of whom were Catholics based in the cities. After Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal of the 1930s, the pro-business wing withered outside the South, after the racial turmoil of the 1960s, most southern whites and many northern Catholics moved into the Republican Party at the presidential level. The once-powerful labor union element became smaller and less supportive after the 1970s, white Evangelicals and Southerners became heavily Republican at the state and local level in the 1990s. However, African Americans became a major Democratic element after 1964, after 2000, Hispanic and Latino Americans, Asian Americans, the LGBT community, single women and professional women moved towards the party as well. The Northeast and the West Coast became Democratic strongholds by 1990 after the Republicans stopped appealing to socially liberal voters there, overall, the Democratic Party has retained a membership lead over its major rival the Republican Party. The most recent was the 44th president Barack Obama, who held the office from 2009 to 2017, in the 115th Congress, following the 2016 elections, Democrats are the opposition party, holding a minority of seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a minority of governorships, and state legislatures, though they do control the mayoralty of cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Washington, D. C. The Democratic Party traces its origins to the inspiration of the Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and that party also inspired the Whigs and modern Republicans. Organizationally, the modern Democratic Party truly arose in the 1830s, since the nomination of William Jennings Bryan in 1896, the party has generally positioned itself to the left of the Republican Party on economic issues. They have been liberal on civil rights issues since 1948. On foreign policy both parties changed position several times and that party, the Democratic-Republican Party, came to power in the election of 1800. After the War of 1812 the Federalists virtually disappeared and the national political party left was the Democratic-Republicans. The Democratic-Republican party still had its own factions, however. As Norton explains the transformation in 1828, Jacksonians believed the peoples will had finally prevailed, through a lavishly financed coalition of state parties, political leaders, and newspaper editors, a popular movement had elected the president
14.
New Hampshire
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New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, New Hampshire is the 5th smallest by land area and the 9th least populous of the 50 United States. Concord is the capital, while Manchester is the largest city in the state and in northern New England, including Vermont. It has no sales tax, nor is personal income taxed at either the state or local level. The New Hampshire primary is the first primary in the U. S. presidential election cycle and its license plates carry the state motto, Live Free or Die. The states nickname, The Granite State, refers to its extensive granite formations, the state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire by Captain John Mason. New Hampshire is part of the New England region and it is bounded by Quebec, Canada, to the north and northwest, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Massachusetts to the south, and Vermont to the west. New Hampshires major regions are the Great North Woods, the White Mountains, the Lakes Region, the Seacoast, the Merrimack Valley, the Monadnock Region, and the Dartmouth-Lake Sunapee area. New Hampshire has the shortest ocean coastline of any U. S. coastal state, New Hampshire was home to the rock formation called the Old Man of the Mountain, a face-like profile in Franconia Notch, until the formation disintegrated in May 2003. Major rivers include the 110-mile Merrimack River, which bisects the lower half of the state north–south and ends up in Newburyport and its tributaries include the Contoocook River, Pemigewasset River, and Winnipesaukee River. The 410-mile Connecticut River, which starts at New Hampshires Connecticut Lakes and flows south to Connecticut, only one town – Pittsburg – shares a land border with the state of Vermont. The northwesternmost headwaters of the Connecticut also define the Canada–U. S, the Piscataqua River and its several tributaries form the states only significant ocean port where they flow into the Atlantic at Portsmouth. The Salmon Falls River and the Piscataqua define the southern portion of the border with Maine, the U. S. Supreme Court dismissed the case in 2002, leaving ownership of the island with Maine. New Hampshire still claims sovereignty of the base, however, the largest of New Hampshires lakes is Lake Winnipesaukee, which covers 71 square miles in the east-central part of New Hampshire. Umbagog Lake along the Maine border, approximately 12.3 square miles, is a distant second, Squam Lake is the second largest lake entirely in New Hampshire. New Hampshire has the shortest ocean coastline of any state in the United States, Hampton Beach is a popular local summer destination. It is the state with the highest percentage of area in the country. New Hampshire is in the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome, much of the state, in particular the White Mountains, is covered by the conifers and northern hardwoods of the New England-Acadian forests
15.
Vice President of the United States
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The executive power of both the vice president and the president is granted under Article Two, Section One of the Constitution. The vice president is elected, together with the president. The Office of the Vice President of the United States assists, as the president of the United States Senate, the vice president votes only when it is necessary to break a tie. Additionally, pursuant to the Twelfth Amendment, the president presides over the joint session of Congress when it convenes to count the vote of the Electoral College. Currently, the president is usually seen as an integral part of a presidents administration. The Constitution does not expressly assign the office to any one branch, causing a dispute among scholars whether it belongs to the executive branch, the legislative branch, or both. The modern view of the president as a member of the executive branch is due in part to the assignment of executive duties to the vice president by either the president or Congress. Mike Pence of Indiana is the 48th and current vice president and he assumed office on January 20,2017. The formation of the office of vice president resulted directly from the compromise reached at the Philadelphia Convention which created the Electoral College, the delegates at Philadelphia agreed that each state would receive a number of presidential electors equal to the sum of that states allocation of Representatives and Senators. The delegates assumed that electors would typically choose to favor any candidate from their state over candidates from other states, under a plurality election process, this would tend to result in electing candidates solely from the largest states. Consequently, the delegates agreed that presidents must be elected by a majority of the number of electors. To guard against such stratagems, the Philadelphia delegates specified that the first runner-up presidential candidate would become vice president, the process for selecting the vice president was later modified in the Twelfth Amendment. Each elector still receives two votes, but now one of those votes is for president, while the other is for vice president. The requirement that one of those votes be cast for a candidate not from the electors own state remains in effect. S, other statutorily granted roles include membership of both the National Security Council and the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. As President of the Senate, the president has two primary duties, to cast a vote in the event of a Senate deadlock and to preside over. For example, in the first half of 2001, the Senators were divided 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats and Dick Cheneys tie-breaking vote gave the Republicans the Senate majority, as President of the Senate, the vice president oversees procedural matters and may cast a tie-breaking vote. As President of the Senate, John Adams cast 29 tie-breaking votes that was surpassed by John C. Calhoun with 31. Adamss votes protected the presidents sole authority over the removal of appointees, influenced the location of the national capital, on at least one occasion Adams persuaded senators to vote against legislation he opposed, and he frequently addressed the Senate on procedural and policy matters
16.
Chief Justice of the United States
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The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the United States federal court system and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Chief Justice is one of nine Supreme Court justices, the eight are the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. From 1789 until 1866, the office was known as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice also serves as a spokesperson for the judicial branch. The Chief Justice leads the business of the Supreme Court and presides over oral arguments, when the court renders an opinion, the Chief Justice—when in the majority—decides who writes the courts opinion. The Chief Justice also has significant agenda-setting power over the courts meetings, in the case of an impeachment of a President of the United States, which has occurred twice, the Chief Justice presides over the trial in the Senate. In modern tradition, the Chief Justice also has the duty of administering the oath of office of the President of the United States. The first Chief Justice was John Jay, the 17th and current Chief Justice is John G. Roberts, Jr. The office was known as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and is still informally referred to using that title. However,28 U. S. C. §1 specifies that the title is Chief Justice of the United States, the title was changed from Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by Congress in 1866 at the suggestion of the sixth Chief Justice, Salmon P. Chase. Chase wished to emphasize the Supreme Courts role as a branch of government. The first Chief Justice commissioned using the new title was Melville Fuller in 1888, use of the previous title when referring to Chief Justices John Jay through Roger B. Taney is technically correct, as that was the title during their time on the court. The other eight members of the court are officially Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Chief Justice is the only member of the court to whom the Constitution refers as a Justice, and only in Article I. Article III of the Constitution refers to all members of the Supreme Court simply as Judges, the Chief Justice is nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed to sit on the Court by the United States Senate. The salary of the Chief Justice is set by Congress, the Constitution prohibits Congress from lowering the salary of any judge, including the Chief Justice, while that judge holds office. As of 2015, the salary is $258,100 per year, which is higher than that of the Associate Justices. Three serving Associate Justices have received promotions to Chief Justice, Edward Douglass White in 1910, Harlan Fiske Stone in 1941, Associate Justice Abe Fortas was nominated to the position of Chief Justice of the United States, but his nomination was filibustered by Senate Republicans in 1968. Despite the failed nomination, Fortas remained an Associate Justice until his resignation the following year, there have been 21 individuals nominated for Chief Justice, of whom 17 have been confirmed by the Senate, although a different 17 have served
17.
Roger B. Taney
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Roger Brooke Taney was the fifth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, holding that office from 1836 until his death in 1864. He delivered the majority opinion in Dred Scott v. S and he was the first Roman Catholic appointed both to a presidential cabinet, as Attorney General under President Andrew Jackson, as well as to the Court. Taney, a Jacksonian Democrat, was made Chief Justice by Jackson, Taney was a believer in states rights. He inherited slaves from his father but manumitted them and gave pensions to the older ones and he believed that power and liberty were extremely important and if power became too concentrated, then it posed a grave threat to individual liberty. He opposed attempts by the government to regulate or control matters that would restrict the rights of individuals. From Prince Frederick, Maryland, he had practiced law and politics simultaneously, after abandoning the Federalist Party as a losing cause, he rose to the top of the states Jacksonian machine. He was bought and sold and treated as an article of merchandise and traffic. The court also declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, thus permitting slavery in all of the countrys territories, Taney died during the final months of the American Civil War on the same day that his home state of Maryland abolished slavery. Roger Brooke Taney was born on March 17,1777 in Calvert County, Maryland and he was the second son, and the third of seven children born to a slaveholding family of tobacco planters in Calvert County, Maryland. He received an education from a series of private tutors. After instructing him for a year, his last tutor, David English, at the age of 15 he entered Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, graduating with honors in 1795. As a younger son with no prospect of inheriting the family plantation and he read law and in 1799 was admitted to the bar. He quickly distinguished himself as one of Marylands most promising young lawyers, Taney married Anne Phoebe Charlton Key, sister of Francis Scott Key, on January 7,1806. In 1799, the year he began practicing as an attorney, Taney was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates. He ran for re-election in 1800, but lost, returning to private practice, he served as a director of the State Bank Branch in Frederick, Maryland, from 1810 to 1815. He was elected the Maryland State Senate in 1816, serving until 1821—this time as a Democratic Republican and he was also a director of the Frederick County Bank from 1818 to 1823, when he returned to private practice. When the 1824 presidential election divided the party supporters and opponents of Andrew Jackson, Taney became a staunch Jacksonian Democrat. In 1833, as secretary of the Treasury, Taney ordered an end to the deposit of Federal money in the Second Bank of the United States, an act that killed the institution
18.
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
19.
Nathaniel P. Banks
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Nathaniel Prentice Banks was an American politician from Massachusetts and a Union general during the Civil War. A millworker by background, Banks was prominent in local debating societies, always a political chameleon, Banks was the first professional politician to serve as Massachusetts Governor. But he failed to reinforce Grant at Vicksburg, and badly handled the Siege of Port Hudson and he then launched the Red River Campaign, a failed attempt to occupy eastern Texas that prompted his recall. Banks was regularly criticized for the failures of his campaigns, notably in tactically important tasks including reconnaissance, Banks was also instrumental in early reconstruction efforts in Louisiana, intended by Lincoln as a model for later such activities. In his later years he adopted more liberal progressive causes, Nathaniel Startle Prentice Banks was born at Waltham, Massachusetts, the first child of Nathaniel P. Banks, Sr. and Rebecca Greenwood Banks, on January 30,1816. His father worked in the mill of the Boston Manufacturing Company. Banks went to local schools until the age of fourteen, at point the familys financial demands compelled him to take a mill job. He started as a boy, responsible for replacing bobbins full of thread with empty ones, working in the mills of Waltham. Because of this role he became known as Bobbin Boy Banks and he was at one time apprenticed as a mechanic alongside Elias Howe, a cousin. Recognizing the value of education, Banks continued to read, sometimes walking to Boston on his days off to visit the Atheneum Library and he attended company-sponsored lectures by luminaries of the day including Daniel Webster and other orators. He formed a club with other mill workers to improve their oratorical skills. He honed his oratorical and political skills by emulating Robert Rantoul, Bankss success as a speaker convinced him to quit the mill. He first worked as an editor for two short-lived political newspapers, after they failed he ran for a seat in the legislature in 1844. He then applied to Rantoul, who had been appointed Collector of the Port of Boston, Banks again ran unsuccessfully for the state legislature in 1847. Company leaders could effectively compel their workers to vote for Whig candidates because there was no secret ballot. This brought Banks, along with fellow Democrats Rantoul and George S. Boutwell to form a coalition with the Free Soil Party that successfully gained control of the legislature and governors chair. The deals negotiated after the win in the 1850 election put Boutwell in the governors chair. His role as speaker and his effectiveness in conducting business raised his status significantly
20.
Know Nothing
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The Native American Party, renamed the American Party in 1855 and commonly known as the Know Nothing movement, was an American political party that operated nationally in the mid-1850s. The motivators of the Partys rise were,1. )Nativist sentiment caused by the sudden, unprecedented influx of German and Irish immigrants in the late 1840s,2. )A rapid, steep decline in wages caused by the sudden influx of very large numbers of Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine,3. )The threat members perceived that the expansion of slavery into factory labor. In the eyes of supporters of both the Free Soil and Know Nothing movements, the existence of black slavery threatened to reduce free, white workers to wage slaves, and 4. )Fear that land in the western territories would be awarded to wealthy slave plantation owners rather than to white small farmers. It was due to fear that slavery would destroy the economic prospects of working families that the Party enrolled massive numbers of voters in the wake of the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854. The Partys most prominent leaders were U. S, the American Party nominated former President Millard Fillmore in the 1856 presidential election. Anti-Catholicism had been a factor in colonial America but played little role in American politics until the arrival of large numbers of Irish and it then reemerged in nativist attacks on Catholic immigration. It appeared in New York politics as early as 1843, under the banner of the American Republican Party, the movement quickly spread to nearby states, using that name or Native American Party or variants of it. They succeeded in a number of local and Congressional elections, notably in 1844 in Philadelphia, in the early 1850s, numerous secret orders grew up, of which the Order of United Americans and the Order of the Star Spangled Banner came to be the most important. They merged in New York in the early 1850s as an order that quickly spread across the North, reaching non-Catholics. The name Know Nothing originated in the organization of the party. When a member was asked about its activities, he was supposed to reply, outsiders called them Know Nothings, and the name stuck. In 1855, the Know Nothings first entered politics under the American Party label, the immigration of large numbers of Irish and German Catholics to the United States in the period between 1830 and 1860 made religious differences between Catholics and Protestants a political issue. Violence occasionally erupted at the polls, Protestants alleged that Pope Pius IX had put down the failed liberal Revolutions of 1848 and that he was an opponent of liberty, democracy and Republicanism. One Boston minister described Catholicism as the ally of tyranny, the opponent of material prosperity, the foe of thrift, the enemy of the railroad, the caucus, and the school. In 1849, a secret society, the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, was created by Charles B. Allen in New York City. Fear of Catholic immigration led to a dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party, activists formed secret groups, coordinating their votes and throwing their weight behind candidates sympathetic to their cause. When asked about these organizations, members were to reply I know nothing. Immigration during the first five years of the 1850s reached a level five times greater than a decade earlier, most of the new arrivals were poor Catholic peasants or laborers from Ireland and Germany who crowded into the tenements of large cities
21.
Massachusetts
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It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, and New York to the west. The state is named for the Massachusett tribe, which inhabited the area. The capital of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England is Boston, over 80% of Massachusetts population lives in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, a region influential upon American history, academia, and industry. Originally dependent on agriculture, fishing and trade, Massachusetts was transformed into a manufacturing center during the Industrial Revolution, during the 20th century, Massachusetts economy shifted from manufacturing to services. Modern Massachusetts is a leader in biotechnology, engineering, higher education, finance. Plymouth was the site of the first colony in New England, founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims, in 1692, the town of Salem and surrounding areas experienced one of Americas most infamous cases of mass hysteria, the Salem witch trials. In 1777, General Henry Knox founded the Springfield Armory, which during the Industrial Revolution catalyzed numerous important technological advances, in 1786, Shays Rebellion, a populist revolt led by disaffected American Revolutionary War veterans, influenced the United States Constitutional Convention. In the 18th century, the Protestant First Great Awakening, which swept the Atlantic World, in the late 18th century, Boston became known as the Cradle of Liberty for the agitation there that led to the American Revolution. The entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts has played a commercial and cultural role in the history of the United States. Before the American Civil War, Massachusetts was a center for the abolitionist, temperance, in the late 19th century, the sports of basketball and volleyball were invented in the western Massachusetts cities of Springfield and Holyoke, respectively. Many prominent American political dynasties have hailed from the state, including the Adams, both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also in Cambridge, have been ranked among the most highly regarded academic institutions in the world. Massachusetts public school students place among the top nations in the world in academic performance, the official name of the state is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. While this designation is part of the official name, it has no practical implications. Massachusetts has the position and powers within the United States as other states. Massachusetts was originally inhabited by tribes of the Algonquian language family such as the Wampanoag, Narragansett, Nipmuc, Pocomtuc, Mahican, and Massachusett. While cultivation of crops like squash and corn supplemented their diets, villages consisted of lodges called wigwams as well as longhouses, and tribes were led by male or female elders known as sachems. Between 1617 and 1619, smallpox killed approximately 90% of the Massachusetts Bay Native Americans, the first English settlers in Massachusetts, the Pilgrims, arrived via the Mayflower at Plymouth in 1620, and developed friendly relations with the native Wampanoag people. This was the second successful permanent English colony in the part of North America that later became the United States, the event known as the First Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World which lasted for three days
22.
United States Congress
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The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States consisting of two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the Capitol in Washington, D. C, both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election, though vacancies in the Senate may be filled by a gubernatorial appointment. Members are usually affiliated to the Republican Party or to the Democratic Party, Congress has 535 voting members,435 Representatives and 100 Senators. The House of Representatives has six non-voting members in addition to its 435 voting members and these members can, however, sit on congressional committees and introduce legislation. Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms representing the people of a single constituency, known as a district. Congressional districts are apportioned to states by using the United States Census results. Each state, regardless of population or size, has two senators, currently, there are 100 senators representing the 50 states. Each senator is elected at-large in their state for a term, with terms staggered. The House and Senate are equal partners in the legislative process—legislation cannot be enacted without the consent of both chambers, however, the Constitution grants each chamber some unique powers. The Senate ratifies treaties and approves presidential appointments while the House initiates revenue-raising bills, the House initiates impeachment cases, while the Senate decides impeachment cases. A two-thirds vote of the Senate is required before a person can be forcibly removed from office. The term Congress can also refer to a meeting of the legislature. A Congress covers two years, the current one, the 115th Congress, began on January 3,2017, the Congress starts and ends on the third day of January of every odd-numbered year. Members of the Senate are referred to as senators, members of the House of Representatives are referred to as representatives, congressmen, or congresswomen. One analyst argues that it is not a solely reactive institution but has played a role in shaping government policy and is extraordinarily sensitive to public pressure. Several academics described Congress, Congress reflects us in all our strengths, Congress is the governments most representative body. Congress is essentially charged with reconciling our many points of view on the public policy issues of the day. —Smith, Roberts, and Wielen Congress is constantly changing and is constantly in flux, most incumbents seek re-election, and their historical likelihood of winning subsequent elections exceeds 90 percent
23.
34th United States Congress
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It met in Washington, D. C. from March 4,1855 to March 4,1857, during the last two years of Franklin Pierces presidency. The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the Seventh Census of the United States in 1850. The Whig Party, one of the two parties of the era, had largely collapsed, although many former Whigs ran as Republicans or as members of the Opposition Party. The Senate had a Democratic majority, and the House was controlled by a coalition of Representatives led by Nathaniel P. Banks, March 30,1855, Elections were held for the first Kansas Territory legislature. Missourians crossed the border in large numbers to elect a pro-slavery body, july 2,1855, The Kansas territorial legislature convened in Pawnee and began enacting proslavery laws. November 21,1855, Large-scale Bleeding Kansas violence began with leading to the Wakarusa War between antislavery and proslavery forces. No party had controlled a majority of the seats, and more than 21 members vied for the post of Speaker, the election took 133 ballots and two months with Nathaniel P. Banks winning over William Aiken, Jr. by 103 to 100 votes, Banks, a member of both the nativist American Party and the Free Soil Party, served a term as Speaker before Democrats won control of the chamber in the 35th Congress. January 24,1856, President Franklin Pierce declared the new Free-State Topeka government in Bleeding Kansas to be in rebellion, January 26,1856, First Battle of Seattle, Marines from the USS Decatur drove off Indian attackers after an all-day battle with settlers. February,1856, Tintic War broke out in Utah February 18,1856, The American Party nominated their first Presidential candidate, may 21,1856, Lawrence, Kansas captured and burned by pro-slavery forces. Sumner was unable to return to duty for 3 years while he recovered, frémont of the fledgling Republican Party, to become the 15th President of the United States. November 17,1856, On the Sonoita River in present-day southern Arizona, January 9,1857, The 7.9 Mw Fort Tejon earthquake affects Central and Southern California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX. August 18,1856, Guano Islands Act, ch,164,11 Stat.119 January 26,1855, Point No Point Treaty signed in the Washington Territory. July 1,1855, Quinault Treaty signed, Quinault and Quileute ceded their land to the United States, the count below identifies party affiliations at the beginning of this Congress. Changes resulting from subsequent replacements are shown below in the Changes in membership section, during the elections for this Congress, opponents to the Democrats used the Whig party label inconsistently and not at all in some states. Hence in this Congress, and in accordance with the practice of the Senate and House and this is the first example in U. S. history of a form of coalition government in either house of Congress. The parties that opposed the Democrats joined a coalition and formed the majority, the Know-nothings caucused with the Opposition coalition. Banks Democratic Caucus Chairman, George Washington Jones This list is arranged by chamber, senators are listed in order of seniority, and Representatives are listed by district
24.
Governor of Alabama
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The Governor of Alabama is the chief executive of the U. S. state of Alabama. The governor is the head of the branch of Alabamas state government and is charged with enforcing state laws. The governor has the power to approve or veto bills passed by the Alabama Legislature, to convene the legislature. The governor is also the commander-in-chief of the military forces. There have officially been 53 governors of the state of Alabama, the first governor, William Wyatt Bibb, served as the only governor of the Alabama Territory. Five people have served as acting governor, bringing the number of people serving as governor to 58. Four governors have served multiple terms, Bibb Graves, Jim Folsom. Officially, these terms are numbered only with the number of their first term. William D. Jelks also served non-consecutive terms, but his first term was in an acting capacity, the longest-serving governor was George Wallace, who served sixteen years over four terms. The shortest term for a governor was that of Hugh McVay, who served four. Lurleen Wallace, wife of George Wallace, was the first and so far only woman to serve as governor of Alabama, the current governor is Republican Robert J. Bentley, who took office on January 17,2011. For the period before Alabama Territory was formed, see the list of Governors of Mississippi Territory, Alabama Territory was formed on March 3,1817, from Mississippi Territory. It had only one appointed by the President of the United States before it became a state. Alabama was admitted to the Union on December 14,1819, following the end of the American Civil War, Alabama during Reconstruction was part of the Third Military District, which exerted some control over governor appointments and elections. Alabama was readmitted to the Union on July 14,1868, the first Alabama Constitution, ratified in 1819, provided that a governor be elected every two years, limited to serve no more than four out of every six years. This limit remained in place until the constitution of 1868, which simply allowed governors to serve terms of two years, the current constitution of 1901 increased terms to four years, but prohibited governors from succeeding themselves. Amendment 282 to the constitution, passed in 1968, allowed governors to succeed themselves once, the constitution had no set date for the commencement of a governors term until 1901, when it was set at the first Monday after the second Tuesday in the January following an election. The office of lieutenant governor was created in 1868, abolished in 1875, earlier constitutions said the powers of the governor devolved upon the successor, rather than them necessarily becoming governor, but the official listing includes these as full governors
25.
John A. Winston
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John Anthony Winston was the 15th Governor of the U. S. state of Alabama from 1853 to 1857. He was born in 1812 in Madison County, Alabama Territory and he was a son of William Winston and Mary Cooper of Tuscumbia Alabama. William was a son of Anthony Winston and Keziah Jones former residents of Buckingham County Virginia, John Anthony Winston married his first cousin, Mary Agness Jones, on August 7,1832 in Madison County Alabama. He died December 21,1871 in Mobile, Alabama and is buried in the Winston Family Cemetery near Gainesville in Sumter County Alabama and he had only one child, a daughter, Mary Agnes Winston. In January 1867 he presented his credentials to the United States Senate as Senator-elect from Alabama for the term 1867–1873, John Jones Pettus wife was his first cousin Permelia Virginia Winston a sister of John Anthony Winston. Permelia Virginia Pettus is buried in the Winston Cemetery, Gainesville Sumter County Alabama, Alabama Department of Archives and History
26.
Governor of Arkansas
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The Governor of Arkansas is the head of the executive branch of Arkansass state government and the commander-in-chief of the states military forces. The state has had 45 elected governors, as well as 10 acting governors who assumed powers and duties following the resignation or death of the governor, before becoming a state, Arkansas Territory had four governors appointed to it by the President of the United States. Orval Faubus served the longest term as governor, being elected six times to serve twelve years. Bill Clinton, elected five times over two terms, fell only one month short of twelve years. The current governor is Asa Hutchinson, who took office on January 13,2015 after his election on November 4,2014, for the period before Arkansas Territory was formed, see the list of Governors of Missouri Territory. Arkansaw Territory was split from Missouri Territory on July 4,1819 and it lost land twice, on November 15,1824, and May 6,1828, with the land being made unorganized territory both times, this land eventually became part of Oklahoma. As secretary of the territory from 1819 to 1829, Robert Crittenden served as acting governor whenever the governor was not in the state. This meant he was in fact the first person to perform the office of Governor of Arkansas Territory, Arkansas was admitted to the Union on June 15,1836. It seceded from the Union on May 6,1861, following the end of the American Civil War, it was part of the Fourth Military District. Arkansas was readmitted to the Union on June 22,1868, the first state constitution of 1836 established four-year terms for governors, which was lowered to two years in the 1874, and current, constitution. Amendment 63 to the Arkansas Constitution, passed in 1984, increased the terms of governor and lieutenant governor to four years. Governors were originally limited only to serving no more than eight out of twelve years. A referendum in 1992 limited governors to two terms and this led to some situations where the governorship changed hands in quick succession, due to senate terms ending or new senate presidents being elected. For example, after John Sebastian Little resigned in 1907, three senate presidents acted as governor before the elected governor took office. Should the president of the senate be similarly incapacitated, the next in line for the governorship was the speaker of the house of representatives. The 1864 constitution created the office of lieutenant governor who would act as president of the senate. The 1868 constitution maintained the position, but the 1874 constitution removed it, amendment 6 to the constitution, passed in 1914 but not recognized until 1925, recreated the office of lieutenant governor, who becomes governor in case of vacancy of the governors office. The governor and lieutenant governor are not elected on the same ticket, Arkansas was a strongly Democratic state before the Civil War, electing only candidates from the Democratic party
27.
Elias Nelson Conway
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Elias Nelson Conway was an American politician and the fifth Governor of Arkansas. Conway was born in Greeneville, Tennessee, when he was a boy, his family moved from Tennessee to Missouri. Conway attended Bonne Femme Academy in Boone County, Missouri and his older brother Henry died in 1827 as a result of a duel with a former friend, Robert Crittenden. In 1833, Conway moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where his brothers had settled. In 1835, he was appointed as the auditor. In 1844, Elias Conway was offered, and declined, the Democratic nomination for Governor, when offered the nomination again in 1852, he accepted. With a successful campaign, he was elected as Governor of Arkansas and he was reelected to a second term in 1856. His administration focused on improvements to the state, roads. He formed the Chancery Courts and eased the financial problems. When Conway left office in 1860, the state held a surplus. Conway formed the Geological Survey of Arkansas, commissioning Principal Geologist David Dale Owen, to survey the territory west of Little Rock and provide a report on the area. The Natural Steps were first written about and drawn by Owen, in his Second Report of a Geological Reconnaissance of the Middle, Conway was first cousin to Senator Ambrose Hundley Sevier and Governor Henry Massey Rector. After Conway retired from life, he became somewhat of a recluse. Conway is buried at the historic Mount Holly Cemetery in Little Rock, Arkansas
28.
Governor of California
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The position was created in 1849, the year before California became a state. The current governor is Jerry Brown, a Democrat who was inaugurated January 3,2011, in October 2013, Jerry Brown surpassed Earl Warren for the longest cumulative period of time served as governor. Governors are elected by ballot and serve terms of four years. Governors take office on the first Monday after January 1 after their election, there are two methods available to remove a governor before the expiration of the gubernatorial term of office. Impeachment and removal by the legislature The governor can be impeached for misconduct in office by the State Assembly, recall by the voters Petitions signed by California state voters equal in number to 12% of the last vote for the office of governor can launch a gubernatorial recall election. The voters can vote on whether or not to recall the incumbent governor. If a majority of the voters in the vote to recall the governor. The 2003 California recall began with a drive that successfully forced sitting Democratic Governor Gray Davis into a special recall election. It marked the first time in the history of California that a governor faced a recall election and he was subsequently voted out of office, becoming the second governor in the history of the United States to be recalled after Lynn Frazier of North Dakota in 1921. He was replaced by Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Lieutenant Governor of California is separately elected during the same election, not jointly as the running mate of the gubernatorial candidate. California has had a governor and a lieutenant governor of different parties 26 of the past 31 years, the lieutenant governor is also the President of the California State Senate. In practice, there is an agreement for the Lieutenant Governor not to perform more than perfunctory duties while the Governor is away from the state. This agreement was violated when Mike Curb was in office, as he signed several executive orders at odds with the Brown administration when Brown was out of the state. Court rulings have upheld the lieutenant governors right to perform the duties, peter Burnett had the longest post-governorship,44 years. He left office in 1851 and died in 1895, excluding governors who died in office, Robert Waterman had the shortest post-governorship. He died on April 12,1891, a three months and four days after the expiration of his term. Sworn in at the age of 30, J. Neely Johnson was the youngest governor from 1856 to 1858, sworn in at the age of 72, Jerry Brown became the oldest governor in 2011. Earl Warren was the governor to serve more than two consecutive terms in office
29.
John Bigler
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John Bigler was an American lawyer, politician and diplomat. A Democrat, he served as the governor of California from 1852 to 1856 and was the first California governor to complete an entire term in office. His younger brother, William Bigler, was elected governor of Pennsylvania during the same period, Bigler was also appointed by President James Buchanan as the U. S. Minister to Chile from 1857 to 1861, Bigler was born in early 1805 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania to parents of German ancestry. In 1831, both moved to Bellefonte in Centre County to buy the local Andrew Jackson-affiliated Centre Democrat newspaper. Bigler worked as editor until 1835, when he sold the publication to study law, when news of the California gold rush reached the East Coast in mid-1848, Bigler, now a middle-aged lawyer, decided to leave for the West Coast to join a law practice. Travelling overland with an ox train, Bigler reached Sacramento in 1849, Bigler began to work at a series of odd jobs, including becoming an auctioneer, a wood chopper, and a freight unloader at the towns docks along the Sacramento River. Upon being elected to the first session of the California State Legislature in 1849, within a year, Bigler was voted by the heavily Democratic majority in the body as the Speaker of the Assembly in February 1850. Now one of the most powerful legislators in the state, Bigler enjoyed widespread name recognition, during the Sacramento Cholera Epidemic of October 1850, Bigler contracted cholera as a direct result of his remaining in the city and assisting doctors and undertakers. In May 1851, Bigler was nominated by the Democratic Party convention in Benicia as the choice for governor in Californias first general election after achieving statehood. Biglers challenger, the Whig Partys Pierson B, Reading, derided Bigler as an unpolished, gruff Yankee Northerner, while Reading articulated himself as an educated pioneering gentleman of the South. Bigler won the election by more than a thousand votes. Bigler also prioritized the industrialization of California, encouraging industrial investment on behalf of the state government, Bigler also enacted a policy to prevent Chinese coolie immigrants from entering California. Whereas the original 1850 law placed a US$20 per month tax on all miners of foreign origin, over the course of his two terms in office, taxes for Chinese immigrants steadily increased, with ever harsher bills passing the Legislature and signed into law by Governor Bigler. One law passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor created a US$50 tax per head for Chinese entering Californian ports, the California Supreme Court later ruled the law unconstitutional. Opposition to the constriction of Chinese immigration was voiced by Norman Asing and he argued that. we are not the degraded race you would make us and that. Pressure was also mounting on the Democratic Party itself in California in regards to slavery, the Democrats effectively split into two camps, with both the Chivalry and Free Soilers nominating their own candidates for the 1853 election. Despite the party split, Bigler was able to overcome Whig Party challenger William Waldo and win a term of office
30.
J. Neely Johnson
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John Neely Johnson was an American lawyer and politician. He was elected as the governor of California from 1856 to 1858. Born in rural Gibson County, Indiana, Johnson never attended University, while born to a prominent family and he apprenticed a printer before moving to Iowa to work with a lawyer, and was admitted to the Iowa Bar. In July 1849, Johnson left Iowa for the Gold Rush in California, where he employed himself as a gold prospector. Johnson restarted his law career in Sacramento, California by founding a law practice with Ferris Forman, during his time in the Assembly, Johnson nearly broke a local editors nose after accusing the editor of writing an insulting article about him. The editor aimed a pistol at Johnson, but was tackled by onlookers before he could fire, in 1854, both the state and federal wings of the Whig Party were on the verge on collapse due to party splits over the Kansas–Nebraska Act. In the wake of this split, Johnson joined the nativist American Party, in the 1855 general election, the American Party hoped to capitalize on the disintegration of the Whig party, internal Democratic divisions, and growing anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic sentiment. The party nominated Assemblyman Johnson as its candidate for governor, Johnson ran against incumbent John Bigler, with Johnson securing the governorship by a comfortable margin. Johnson was described as the most startled man in the state upon hearing of his election, Johnson was sworn in as the fourth governor of California on January 9,1856. At 30, Johnson is the youngest governor in California history, Johnson inherited a growing state debt from the Bigler administration, and planned to reduce government expenditures to cut the debt. Since the early 1850s, tensions within San Francisco political circles had sometimes erupted in open violence, in 1851 armed citizens took formed the San Francisco Vigilance Movement to correct wrongs they saw being committed or protected by the municipal government. The vigilantes lynched two criminals being held in city jails, Governor John McDougall, condemned the actions of the vigilantes, but was not able to stop them because state law enforcement was too weak. Casey, a purported ballot-box stuffer and city politician, Vigilantes erected a barricade along Sacramento Street to repel city officers from removing them. After a week, the Vigilantes marched on the city jail and overpowered its guards to arrest Casey, along with another criminal, Charles Cora, who had fatally shot a U. S. Sherman recalled in his 1875 Memoirs Johnson angrily confronting Coleman and other Vigilante ringleaders in their headquarters and exclaiming, Coleman. Coleman replied that the San Franciscans were tired of it, and had no faith in the officers of the law, Johnson returned to Sacramento with the Vigilantes refusing to disperse, claiming they were San Franciscos rightful law enforcement. With the citys police and sheriffs departments outnumbered and trying to establish a presence in the streets. Johnsons proclamation, like McDougalls, was difficult to enforce, Johnson had instructed the California Militia to impose martial law, but without proper arms, the Militia needed more equipment to be provided by federal forces
31.
Governor of Connecticut
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The Governor of Connecticut is the elected head of the executive branch of Connecticuts state government. The current governor is Dan Malloy, who took office on January 5,2011, Connecticut is among the few U. S. states that includes its colonial governors of Connecticut Colony in an unbroken list of chief executives spanning over 350 years to the present day. John Haynes became the first governor in 1639, the first incumbent after the Revolution, Jonathan Trumbull, is therefore numbered the sixteenth governor of Connecticut. For the period before independence, see the list of governors of Connecticut. Connecticut was one of the original Thirteen Colonies and was admitted as a state on January 9,1788, before it declared its independence, Connecticut was a colony of the Kingdom of Great Britain. Like most early states, Connecticut had claims to western areas and it maintained its Western Reserve until 1800, at which time it was reassigned to the Northwest Territory. There have been 68 governors of the state, serving 72 distinct spans in office, the longest terms in office were in the states early years, when four governors were elected to nine or more one-year terms. The shortest term was that of Hiram Bingham III, who served one day before resigning to take an elected seat in the U. S. Senate. Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. is noted for a third party win in American politics. The Governor of Connecticut is the head of the executive branch of Connecticuts state government. The governor has a duty to enforce laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Connecticut General Assembly. Unusual among U. S. governors, the Governor of Connecticut has no power to pardon, the Governor of Connecticut is automatically a member of the states Bonding Commission. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Connecticut. The current Constitution of Connecticut, ratified in 1965, calls for a term for the governor. The previous constitution of 1818 originally had only a term for governor. The 1875 amendment also set the date of the term to its current date, before then. The constitution provides for the election of a lieutenant governor for the term as the governor. The two offices are elected on the ticket, this provision was added in 1962
32.
William T. Minor
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William Thomas Minor was an American judge and politician from Connecticut. He served as the 39th Governor of Connecticut, Consul-General to Havana, Cuba, Minor was born in Stamford, Connecticut on October 3,1815 to Simeon Hinman Minor and Catherine Lockwood Minor. He studied at Yale University and graduated in 1834, Minor taught school for five years while he studied law under his father, Simeon Minor, a former Connecticut legislator. In 1840, Minor was admitted to the bar and began the practice of law in Stamford, Minor became a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1841, and served in that position until 1848. He was a judge for the Fairfield County, Connecticut Court and he married Mary Catherine Leeds on April 16,1849, and they had five children. He became a member of the Connecticut State Senate representing the 12th District in 1854, as candidate of the American Party, Minor was elected Governor of Connecticut in 1855 over Samuel Ingham by the Connecticut General Assembly by a 177 to 70 vote. He was re-elected to a term in 1856 by the Connecticut General Assembly, again over Ingham. While Governor, Minor was a supporter of lengthening the period of residency before naturalization and he also supported the dismissal of six military companies that consisted mostly of Irishmen. Legislation was passed that deprived suffrage to men unable to read the state constitution and he supported better schools in Connecticut and held the belief that the schools should be free for all the children in the state. He also supported the measures of the Republicans. He was not a candidate for the governorship in the election of April 1857, in 1864, Minor was a delegate from Connecticut to the Republican National Convention, which assembled at Baltimore in June of that year. He voted with his delegation for Abraham Lincoln for President and Andrew Johnson for Vice-President of the United States, in July 1864, Minor was appointed by Lincoln as Consul-General to Havana, Cuba. Three years later he returned to Connecticut and spent one year as a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives. In 1868, he was appointed judge on the Connecticut Superior Court and he also served on the 1879 commission that reconciled an extended boundary argument with New York. Minor died on October 13,1889, in Stamford and he is interred at Woodland Cemetery, Stamford, Fairfield County, Connecticut. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789-1978, Minor at Find a Grave Connecticut State Library Connecticut State Library National Governors Association The Political Graveyard Ancestry. com
33.
Governor of Delaware
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The Governor of Delaware is the head of the executive branch of Delawares state government and the commander-in-chief of the states military forces. There have been 70 people who have served as governor, over 73 distinct terms, additionally, Henry Molleston was elected, but died before he could take office. The shortest term is that of Dale E. Wolf, who served 18 days following his predecessors resignation, the current governor is John Carney, who took office on January 17,2017. For the period before independence, see the List of colonial governors of Pennsylvania, between 1681 and 1776, Delaware was a colony of the Kingdom of Great Britain, administered by colonial governors in Pennsylvania as the Lower Counties on Delaware. In 1776, soon after Delaware and the other Thirteen Colonies declared independence from Britain and it created the office of President of Delaware, a chief executive to be chosen by the legislature to serve a term of three years. The term was lengthened to four years by the 1831 constitution, the current constitution of 1897 allows governors to serve two terms. The 1776 constitution stated that if the presidency were vacant, the speaker of the council would be a vice-president. The offices of governor and lieutenant governor are elected at the same time, two have served as President of Pennsylvania. Four resigned to take other offices, three in the U. S. Congress and one to be President of Pennsylvania, all representatives and senators listed represented Delaware except where noted. As of January 2017, there are six former U. S. governors who are living at this time. The most recent death of a former U. S. governor of Delaware was that of David Buckson, the most recently serving U. S. governor of Delaware to die was Sherman W. Tribbitt, who died on August 14,2010. Delaware gubernatorial elections General Constitutions Specific Office of the Governor of Delaware
34.
Peter F. Causey
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Peter Foster Causey was an American merchant and politician from Milford, in Kent County, Delaware. He was a member of the American Party, who served in the Delaware General Assembly, Causey was born in Bridgeville, Delaware, son of Peter T. and Tamzey Causey. His family lived in Easton, Maryland for a time, but returned to Delaware in 1815 and he married Maria Williams and they had six children, William F. Maria E. Sally Maria, Peter Foster, Jr. John W. in 1850 they bought the old Levin Crapper mansion, former home of Governor Daniel Rogers. It was subsequently known as the Causey Mansion, the Causey family owned a large flour mill and were successful merchants, taking advantage of the many business opportunities in Milford at the time. They were members of the First Methodist Church in Milford, in the shifting political combinations of the time, Causey began his career as a progressive Jacksonian Democrat, and was elected to the State House in the 1831 session and the 1832/33 session. As the Democrats lost their progressive agenda, and with the collapse of the Whig Party, in 1850 a Temperance candidate was almost elected, and in 1854 Causey signed on as their candidate under the aegis of the American Party. This was a combination of various causes that in Delaware was headed by prohibition. He was elected Governor of Delaware in 1854, defeating William Burton, along with Causey several Know-Nothings, as they were known, were elected to the General Assembly. Proceeding with their Prohibition agenda, they passed legislation that went fully into effect by December 1855, needless to say, the repeal of the prohibition laws was foremost on their agenda. Other than the matter the most important issue in Delaware at the time was the completion of the Delaware Railroad. By September 1855 it was complete to Middletown, and by January 1857 all the way to Delmar, on the other side of the ledger, by 1861 Delaware College was forced to close due to a lack of funds, aggravated by a brutal unsolved murder on the campus. A true reformer, Causey hammered the General Assembly on all the same issues his predecessors had been speaking about for years, the existing public schools, he said, were dilapidated and the teachers untrained. Public education has been the theme of much debate in our legislative halls for years, he remarked, the tiny school districts run by committees elected by the residents most hostile to taxation simply were not working. Furthermore, the insane, more than any other portion of our community, were dependent upon our care, Causey died at Milford and is buried there at the Christ Episcopal Churchyard. One of the properties he owned at Milford, the Mill House, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, elections were held the first Tuesday in October until 1831, and since they have been held on the first Tuesday after November 1. Members of the Delaware General Assembly took office in the first Tuesday of January, State Representatives have a term of two years. The Governor takes office the third Tuesday in January, and has a four-year term, history of the State of Delaware
35.
Governor of Florida
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The Governor of Florida is the head of the executive branch of Floridas state government and the commander-in-chief of the states military forces. When Florida was first acquired by the United States, future president Andrew Jackson served as its military governor, Florida Territory was established in 1822, and five people served as governor over six distinct terms. The first territorial governor, William Pope Duval, served 12 years, since statehood in 1845 there have been 43 people who have served as governor, one of whom served two distinct terms. Three state governors have served two full terms, William D. Bloxham, in two stints, and Reubin Askew and Jeb Bush, who each served their terms consecutively. Bob Graham almost served two terms, as he resigned only three days left. The shortest term in office belongs to Wayne Mixson, who served three days following the resignation of his predecessor, Bob Graham, the current governor is Rick Scott, who took office on January 4,2011, following the 2010 election. He was re-elected in 2014, and his term began on January 6,2015. For a list of governors of Florida before it became a United States territory, spanish Florida was acquired from Spain in the Adams–Onís Treaty, which took effect July 10,1821. Florida Territory was organized on March 30,1822, combining East and West Florida, the State of Florida was admitted to the Union on March 3,1845. Following the end of the American Civil War, it was part of the Third Military District, Florida was readmitted to the Union on June 25,1868. The Florida Constitution of 1838 provided that a governor be elected four years. The secessionist constitution of 1861 would have reduced this to two years and removed the limit, but the state fell to the Union before the first election under that constitution. The rejected constitution of 1865 and the constitution of 1868 maintained the four-year term, though without the earlier term limit. The start of a term was set in 1885 at the first Tuesday after the first Monday in the January following the election, originally, the president of the state senate acted as governor should that office be vacant. The 1865 and 1868 constitutions created the office of lieutenant governor and this office was abolished in 1885, with the president of the senate again taking on that duty. The 1968 constitution recreated the office of lieutenant governor, who now becomes governor in the absence of the governor, the governor and lieutenant governor are elected on the same ticket. Florida was a strongly Democratic state before the Civil War, electing only candidates from the Democratic and it elected three Republican governors following Reconstruction, but after the Democratic Party re-established control,90 years passed before voters chose another Republican. Fifteen of Floridas governors have served in offices, including one President of the United States
36.
James E. Broome
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James Emilius Broome was an American politician who was the third Governor of Florida. Broome was born in Hamburg, South Carolina and moved to Florida in 1837 and he engaged in the mercantile business until he retired in 1841. In that same year, Governor Richard Keith Call appointed him to the position of Probate Judge of Leon County and he served in that position until 1848. He was elected governor in 1852 as a Democrat, and took office on October 3,1853, during his term, the Whig Party, the opposition to the Democrats at the time, controlled the Florida State Legislature. He vetoed so many of the bills that were passed by the legislature that he became known as the Veto Governor, after his gubernatorial stint ended on October 5,1857, Broome served as a member of the Florida Senate in 1861. A large planter, he was sympathetic to the Confederate cause. James E. Broome was married five times, in 1865, he moved to New York City. On a visit with his son in DeLand, Florida, Broome died in 1883, official Governors portrait and biography from the State of Florida James E. Broome at Find a Grave
37.
Herschel Vespasian Johnson
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Herschel Vespasian Johnson was an American politician. He was the 41st Governor of Georgia from 1853 to 1857, Johnson was born near Farmers Bridge in Burke County, Georgia. In 1834, he graduated from the University of Georgia and he then studied at the private law school of Judge William T. Gould in Augusta, Georgia and was admitted to the bar. He moved to Jefferson County in 1839 and began to practice law in Louisville, in 1844, he moved to the state capitol, Milledgville, and continued to practice law. He unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 1843, in 1844 he was a presidential elector, and cast his ballot for James K. Polk and George M. Dallas. Johnson served from February 4,1848 to March 3,1849 and he returned to Georgia and served as a circuit court judge from 1849 to 1853. In 1853, he was elected Governor of Georgia, then re-elected in 1855, after he finished his term as governor in 1857, Johnson County, Georgia was named in his honor. In 1860, when the Democratic Party refused to add the support of extending slavery to the territories to its platform. To try to recapture some southern votes, Johnson was chosen as the northern Democrats nominee as the mate of presidential candidate Stephen A. Douglas. He was also a slave owner, in 1840, he owned 34 slaves in Jefferson County, Georgia. In 1850, he owned 7 slaves in Milledgeville, Georgia and he also owned 60 additional slaves in Jefferson County, Georgia. In 1860, he owned 115 slaves in Jefferson County, Georgia, in 1861 he served as a delegate to the state secession convention, and opposed secession from the Union. When it became clear that Georgia would secede, however, he acquiesced out of loyalty to his state, in the Confederate Senate, he opposed conscription and the suspension of habeas corpus. After the Civil War, Johnson was a leader in the Reconstruction and was named head of the Georgia constitutional convention. Upon Georgias readmission to the Union in 1866, he was chosen as a U. S. Senator and he again became a circuit court judge in 1873 and served until his death in 1880 in Louisville, Georgia. List of signers of the Georgia Ordinance of Secession List of American Civil War generals United States Congress, biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2009-04-24 Herschel Vespasian Johnson, biographical Sketch of Hon. Herschel V. Johnson Sunny South, June 26,1875
38.
Governor of Illinois
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The Governor of Illinois is the chief executive of the State of Illinois and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is an elected position, votes being cast by popular suffrage of residents of the state. The governor is responsible for enacting laws passed by the Illinois General Assembly, Illinois is one of 14 states with no gubernatorial term-limit. The current governor is Republican Bruce Rauner, who succeeded Pat Quinn in 2015, the term of office of Governor of Illinois is four years, and there is no limit on the number of terms a governor may serve. Inauguration takes place on the second Monday in January following a gubernatorial election, a single term ends four years later. Its first occupant was Governor Joel Aldrich Matteson, who took residence at the mansion in 1855 and it is one of three oldest governors residences in continuous use in the United States. The governor is given the use of an official residence on the state fair grounds. Governors have traditionally used this part of the year. Six Illinois governors have been charged with crimes during or after their governorships, four were convicted, len Small, governor from 1921 to 1929, was indicted in office for corruption. He was acquitted, thereafter, eight of the received state jobs. Among his defense lawyers was a governor, Joseph W. Fifer, who asserted in pre-trial hearings. William G. Stratton, governor from 1953 to 1961, was acquitted of tax evasion in 1965 and he was prosecuted by future Illinois governor Jim Thompson. He was sentenced to seven years in prison five years of probation following his release. Former governor Jim Thompson, whom Ryan had served under as Lieutenant Governor of Illinois in the 1980s, was manager of the law firm that defended Ryan. In August 2010, he was convicted of lying to the FBI in connection with the investigation, but the jury deadlocked on 23 other charges. Blagojevich was retried on 20 counts from his 2010 trial and on June 27,2011, Blagojevich was convicted on 17 counts of fraud, acquitted on one count, on December 7,2011, Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison. List of Governors of Illinois 1. α Current governor of Illinois, in 2015, the Council of State Governments reported that Rauner had returned all but $1 of his salary to the State of Illinois. However, the pay rate for the title of Governor in Illinois remains at $177,412, Illinois Office of the Governor Illinois Executive Mansion Burial places of Illinois Governors Article V in the Illinois Constitution list of government help in Illinois
39.
Joel Aldrich Matteson
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Joel Aldrich Matteson was the tenth Governor of Illinois, serving from 1853 to 1857. In 1855, he became the first governor to reside in the Illinois Executive Mansion, after his term as governor ended he was for many years the president of the Chicago and Alton Railroad. The last years of his life were marred by charges of corruption in the Canal Scrip Fraud case, the village of Matteson, Illinois is named in his honor. Matteson was buried in Joliet, Illinois and this article incorporates facts obtained from, Lawrence Kestenbaum, The Political Graveyard Illinois 2005-2006 Blue Book Genweb
40.
Governor of Indiana
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The Governor of Indiana is the chief executive of the state of Indiana. The governor is elected to a term, and responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of the functions of many agencies of the Indiana state government. The governor also shares power with other executive officers, who manage other state government agencies. The governor works out of the Indiana Statehouse and holds official functions at the Indiana Governors Residence in the capital of Indianapolis. The 51st and current governor is Republican Eric Holcomb, the position of governor has developed over the course of two centuries. The governors powers are established in Article V of the Constitution of Indiana, constitutionally, the governor has very limited executive authority to manage the government of the state, most exercisable powers over state agencies are held by independent elected cabinet heads. The governor works in concert with the legislature and the state supreme court to govern the state. The governor has the power to veto legislation passed by the General Assembly, if vetoed, a bill is returned to the General Assembly for reconsideration. Unlike other states, most of which require a supermajority to override a veto. One of the governors most important political powers is the ability to call a session of the General Assembly. During a two-year period, the assembly can meet on its own for no more than 91 days, and this can give the governor considerable influence in the body which will often compromise on issues with him or her in exchange for a special legislative session. Among his other powers, the governor can call out the defense force or the Indiana National Guard in times of emergency or disaster. The governor is also charged with the enforcement of all the states laws, the governor also has the ability to grant a pardon or commutation of sentence of any person convicted of a crime in the state, except in cases of treason or impeachment. In addition to powers, governors also have a considerable degree of statutory authority. Most of the authority exercised by governors on a basis is derived from statute. The governor also can influence the court system through the appointment of judges. Justices of the peace and superior courts judges are elected in Indiana, if a vacancy occurs the governor may make an appointment, the authority to make such appointments gives the governor considerable sway in setting the makeup of the judiciary. The annual salary of the governor of Indiana is US$111,688, additionally, he receives $6,000 annually for discretionary spending and expenses
41.
Joseph A. Wright
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Joseph Albert Wright was the tenth Governor of the U. S. state of Indiana from December 5,1849 to January 12,1857, most noted for his opposition to banking. His positions created a rift between him and the Indiana General Assembly who overrode all of his anti-banking vetoes and he responded by launching legal challenges to the acts, but was ruled against by the Indiana Supreme Court. The states second constitutional convention was held during 1850-1851 in which the current Constitution of Indiana was drafted and he was a supporter of the new constitution and gave speeches around the state urging its adoption. He was opposed throughout his term by Senator Jesse D. Bright, after his term as governor, he was appointed to serve as United States Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Prussia where he served until the outbreak of the American Civil War. Following the war he was reappointed to his ambassadorial post where he remained until his death in Berlin, Joseph Albert Wright was born in Washington, Pennsylvania on April 17,1810 the son of John and Rachel Seaman Wright. He moved with his family to Bloomington, Indiana in 1820 and his father was a bricklayer, and worked as one of the laborers who built the first halls of Indiana State Seminary. He was the brother of future Iowa Senator George G. Wright and his father died when he was fourteen, and his family become impoverished. Wright worked as a janitor, bell ringer, and occasional bricklayer, in order to pay for his schooling, living in Bloomington, he was able to attend the seminary while living at home, making the education affordable for him. Many of his classmates were from families, and he earned money by selling them nuts and fruits he picked in the forest around his home. Wright received an education, learning Greek and Latin. He graduated in 1828 and decided to become a lawyer and he studied law in the office of Craven Hester, one of southern Indianas leading judges and political figures, and was admitted to the bar in 1829. He then moved to Rockville where he opened a law practice where he met Louisa Cook and she was an ardent Methodist who converted Wright before the couple married on November 30,1831. The couple had a son, but Louisas poor health and several bouts with malaria prevented her from having more children, Wright became very active in the Methodist Church and an outspoken advocate of Sunday School and religious study in public schools. Much of his support came from the church and many of his campaign rallies were held in Methodist churches. Through his law office, Wright became a friend of state representative William Perkins Bryant, in 1832, Bryant moved to Kentucky, leaving his seat vacant, and urged Wright to take it. With his support, Wright was elected and served as Park Countys representative to the Indiana House of Representatives, during the term he supported the charter for the Bank of Indiana, an unpopular act in his district, and he was defeated in his reelection bid. He left the General Assembly to become the prosecuting attorney of the Indiana 1st circuit in 1838 and he ran for the Indiana State Senate in 1839. The campaign was fought, occurring in the same year that the Indiana Territorys popular former governor, William Henry Harrison
42.
Governor of Iowa
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The Governor of Iowa is the chief executive of the U. S. state of Iowa. The governor is the head of the branch of Iowas state government and is charged with enforcing state laws. The governor has the power to approve or veto bills passed by the Iowa State Legislature, to convene the legislature. The governor is also the commander-in-chief of the military forces. There have been 41 governors of Iowa, the longest-serving governor is Terry Branstad, who served from 1983 to 1999, was elected again in 2010 and took office on January 14,2011. He is the governor in U. S. history. The shortest-serving governor was Robert D. Fulton, who served 16 days, for the period before Iowa Territory was formed, see the list of Governors of Wisconsin Territory. Iowa Territory was formed on July 4,1838, from Wisconsin Territory and it had three governors appointed by the President of the United States. The first governor did not arrive for six weeks after the territory had created, in the interim. The southeast portion of Iowa Territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Iowa on December 3,1846, the first state constitution of 1846 created the office of governor, to have a four-year term, with no specific start date for the term. The original constitution of 1857 reduced this term to two years, but an amendment in 1972 increased this back to four years. The 1857 constitution set the start of the term to the second Monday in the January following the election, the office of lieutenant governor was created in the 1857 constitution, elected for the same term as the governor. An amendment in 1988 specified that the lieutenant governor would be elected on the ticket as the governor. If the office of governor becomes vacant, the office devolves upon the lieutenant governor for the remainder of the term or vacancy, prior to 1857, if the office of governor became vacant, the state secretary of state would act as governor. There is no limit on the number of terms a governor may serve. Parties Democratic Whig Republican As of January 2017, there are four former U. S. governors of Iowa who are living at this time. The most recent U. S. governor of Iowa to die was Leo Hoegh, the most recently serving U. S. governor of Iowa to die was Harold Hughes, on October 23,1996. General Constitutions Specific List of Governors of Iowa at NNDB. com Governor of Iowa
43.
James W. Grimes
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James Wilson Grimes was an American politician, serving as the third Governor of Iowa and a United States Senator from Iowa. Born in Deering, New Hampshire, Grimes graduated from Hampton Academy and he studied law, moved west and commenced practice in a settlement in Black Hawk Purchase, Wisconsin Territory, that was later incorporated as Burlington, Iowa. Grimes served as a member of the Iowa Territorial House of Representatives for 1838 –1839 and 1843 –1844 terms and he served as Governor of Iowa from 1854 to 1858. While elected as a Whig in 1854, he was a light in the Republican Partys establishment in Iowa in 1855 and 1856. Grimes was elected as a Republican to the U. S. Senate in 1859 and he served in the Senate from March 4,1859, until December 6,1869, when he resigned due to ill health. In the Senate, he served as chairman of the Committee on the District of Columbia, and he also served on the Joint Committee on Reconstruction which drafted the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In 1861 Grimes was a member of the convention held in Washington. In December 1861, he introduced the bill which led to the creation of the Medal of Honor. During President Andrew Johnsons impeachment trial, Grimes broke party ranks, along six other Republican senators. Senators William Pitt Fessenden, Joseph S. Fowler, Grimes, henderson, Lyman Trumbull, Peter G. Van Winkle, and Edmund G. Ross of Kansas, who provided the decisive vote, defied their party and public opinion and voted against impeachment. They were disturbed by how the proceedings had been manipulated in order to give a presentation of the evidence. After the trial, Ben Butler conducted hearings on the reports that Republican senators had been bribed to vote for Johnsons acquittal. In Butlers hearings, and in subsequent inquiries, there was increasing evidence that some votes were acquired by promises of patronage jobs. Grimes died in Burlington on February 7,1872, aged 55 and he is buried in the Aspen Grove cemetery, in Burlington. The plot of land that his home was located on is now home to an elementary school that bears his name. The town of Grimes, IA is named for James W. Grimes, biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Includes Guide to Research Collections where his papers are located, brief bio of James Grimes from Spartacus Educational
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Whig Party (United States)
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The Whig Party was a political party active in the middle of the 19th century in the United States. Four US presidents belonged to the party while in office and it emerged in the 1830s as the immediate successor to the National Republican and Anti-Masonic Parties, and was also rooted in the tradition of the Federalist Party. Along with the rival Democratic Party, it was central to the Second Party System from the early 1840s to the mid-1860s and it originally formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic Party. In particular, the Whigs supported the supremacy of the US Congress over the Presidency and favored a program of modernization, banking and it appealed to entrepreneurs, planters, reformers and the emerging urban middle class, but had little appeal to farmers or unskilled workers. It included many active Protestants, and voiced a moralistic opposition to the Jacksonian Indian removal, Party founders chose the Whig name to echo the American Whigs of the 18th century who fought for independence. The underlying political philosophy of the American Whig Party was not directly related to the British Whig party, the Whig Party nominated several presidential candidates in 1836. General William Henry Harrison of Ohio was nominated in 1840, former Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky in 1844, another war hero, General Winfield Scott of New Jersey was the Whig Partys last presidential nominee, in 1852. In its two decades of existence, the Whig Party had two of its candidates, Harrison and Taylor, elected president, John Tyler succeeded to the presidency after Harrisons death in 1841, but was expelled from the party later that year. Millard Fillmore, who became president after Taylors death in 1850, was the last Whig president, the party fell apart because of the internal tension over the expansion of slavery to the territories. Most Whig Party leaders eventually quit politics or changed parties, the northern voter base mostly gravitated to the new Republican Party. In the South, most joined the Know Nothing Party, which unsuccessfully ran Fillmore in the 1856 presidential election, the Constitutional Union Party experienced significant success from conservative former Whigs in the Upper South during the 1860 presidential election. Whig ideology as a policy orientation persisted for decades and played a role in shaping the modernizing policies of the state governments during Reconstruction. The name Whig derived from a term that Patriots used to refer to themselves during the American Revolution and it indicated hostility to the British Sovereign, and despite the identical name, did not directly derive from the British Whig Party. The American Whigs were modernizers who saw President Andrew Jackson as a man on horseback with a reactionary opposition to the forces of social, economic. Casting their enemy as King Andrew, they sought to identify themselves as opponents of governmental overreaching. Despite the apparent unity of Jeffersons Democratic-Republicans from 1800 to 1824, as Jackson purged his opponents, vetoed internal improvements, and killed the Second Bank of the United States, alarmed local elites fought back. In 1831, Henry Clay re-entered the Senate and started planning a new party and he defended national rather than sectional interests. His Jacksonian opponents, however, distrusted the government and opposed all federal aid for internal improvements
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Governor of Kentucky
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The Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky is the head of the executive branch of government in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Fifty-seven men and one woman have served as Governor of Kentucky, the governors term is four years in length, since 1992, incumbents have been able to seek re-election once before becoming ineligible for four years. Throughout the states history, four men have served two terms as governor, and two others have served two consecutive terms. Kentucky is one of only five U. S. states that hold gubernatorial elections in odd-numbered years immediately before the United States Presidential Election, the current governor is Matt Bevin, who was first elected in 2015. The governors powers are enumerated in the state constitution, there have been four constitutions of Kentucky—adopted in 1792,1799,1850, and 1891, respectively—and each has enlarged the governors authority. Among the powers appropriated to the governor in the constitution are the ability to grant pardons, veto legislation, the governor serves as commander-in-chief of the states military forces and is empowered to enforce all laws of the state. Because Kentuckys governor controls so many appointments to commissions, the office has been considered one of the most powerful state executive positions in the United States. The history of the office of Governor is largely one of long periods of domination by a single party, Federalists were rare among Kentuckians during the period of the First Party System, and Democratic Republicans won every gubernatorial election in the state until 1828. The Second Party System began when the Democratic-Republicans split into Jacksonian Democrats, beginning with the election of Thomas Metcalfe in 1828, the Whigs dominated the governorship until 1851, with John Breathitt being the only Democrat elected during that period. Since 1931, only four Republicans have served as governor of Kentucky, current governor Matt Bevin, in all four Kentucky constitutions, the first power enumerated to the governor is to serve as commander-in-chief of the states militia and military forces. In 1799, a stipulation was added that the governor would not personally lead troops on the battlefield unless advised to do so by a resolution of the General Assembly. Such a case occurred in 1813 when Governor Isaac Shelby, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, was asked to lead a band of Kentucky troops to aid William Henry Harrison at the Battle of the Thames. For his service, Shelby received the Thanks of Congress and the Congressional Gold Medal, the 1891 constitution further required that, with each application for a pardon, the governor file a statement of the reasons for his decision thereon, which. Shall always be open to public inspection and this requirement was first proposed by a delegate to the 1850 constitutional convention, but it was rejected at that time. The power of the governor to adjourn the General Assembly for a period of up to four months if the two houses cannot agree on a time to adjourn appears in all four constitutions, the governor is also empowered to convene the General Assembly on extraordinary occasions. This was an important provision in the days of the Commonwealth. Taylor claimed a state of insurrection existed in the capital, the 1891 constitution added a provision that the governor must specify the reason for any specially-called legislative session, and that no other business could be considered during the session. There is, however, no requirement that the legislature conduct any business during the called session
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Media related to 1856 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons
