Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America referred to as the Confederacy, was an unrecognized country in North America that existed from 1861 to 1865. The Confederacy was formed by seven secessionist slave-holding states—South Carolina, Florida, Georgia and Texas—in the Lower South region of the United States, whose economy was dependent upon agriculture cotton, a plantation system that relied upon the labor of African-American slaves; each state declared its secession from the United States, which became known as the Union during the ensuing civil war, following the November 1860 election of Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln to the U. S. presidency on a platform which opposed the expansion of slavery into the western territories. Before Lincoln took office in March, a new Confederate government was established in February 1861, considered illegal by the government of the United States. States volunteered militia units and the new government hastened to form its own Confederate States Army from scratch overnight.
After the American Civil War began in April, four slave states of the Upper South—Virginia, Arkansas and North Carolina—also declared their secession and joined the Confederacy. The Confederacy accepted Missouri and Kentucky as members, although neither declared secession nor were they largely controlled by Confederate forces; the government of the United States rejected the claims of secession and considered the Confederacy illegally founded. The War began with the Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, a Union fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. No foreign government recognized the Confederacy as an independent country, although Great Britain and France granted it belligerent status, which allowed Confederate agents to contract with private concerns for arms and other supplies. In early 1865, after four years of heavy fighting which led to 620,000–850,000 military deaths, all the Confederate forces surrendered and the Confederacy vanished; the war lacked a formal end.
By 1865 Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America for the duration of the civil war, lamented that the Confederacy had "disappeared". On February 22, 1862, the Confederate Constitution of seven state signatories – Mississippi, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Texas – replaced the Provisional Constitution of February 8, 1861, with one stating in its preamble a desire for a "permanent federal government". Four additional slave-holding states – Virginia, Arkansas and North Carolina – declared their secession and joined the Confederacy following a call by U. S. President Abraham Lincoln for troops from each state to recapture Sumter and other seized federal properties in the South. Missouri and Kentucky were represented by partisan factions adopting the forms of state governments without control of substantial territory or population in either case; the antebellum state governments in both maintained their representation in the Union. Fighting for the Confederacy were two of the "Five Civilized Tribes" – the Choctaw and the Chickasaw – in Indian Territory and a new, but uncontrolled, Confederate Territory of Arizona.
Efforts by certain factions in Maryland to secede were halted by federal imposition of martial law. A Unionist government was formed in opposition to the secessionist state government in Richmond and administered the western parts of Virginia, occupied by Federal troops; the Restored Government recognized the new state of West Virginia, admitted to the Union during the war on June 20, 1863, re-located to Alexandria for the rest of the war. Confederate control over its claimed territory and population in congressional districts shrank from 73% to 34% during the course of the American Civil War due to the Union's successful overland campaigns, its control of the inland waterways into the South, its blockade of the southern coast. With the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, the Union made abolition of slavery a war goal; as Union forces moved southward, large numbers of plantation slaves were freed. Many joined the Union lines, enrolling in service as soldiers and laborers; the most notable advance was Sherman's "March to the Sea" in late 1864.
Much of the Confederacy's infrastructure was destroyed, including telegraphs and bridges. Plantations in the path of Sherman's forces were damaged. Internal movement became difficult for Southerners, weakening the economy and limiting army mobility; these losses created an insurmountable disadvantage in men and finance. Public support for Confederate President Jefferson Davis's administration eroded over time due to repeated military reverses, economic hardships, allegations of autocratic government. After four years of campaigning, Richmond was captured by Union forces in April 1865. A few days General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant signalling the collapse of the Confederacy. President Davis was captured on May 10, 1865, jailed in preparation for a treason trial, never held; the initial Confederacy was established in the Montgomery Convention in February 1861 by seven states (South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major political parties in the United States. The GOP was founded in 1854 by opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which had expanded slavery into U. S. territories. The party subscribed to classical liberalism and took ideological stands that were anti-slavery and pro-economic reform. Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president in the history of the United States; the Party was dominant over the Democrats during the Third Party System and Fourth Party System. In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt formed the Progressive Party after being rejected by the GOP and ran unsuccessfully as a third-party presidential candidate calling for social reforms. After the 1912 election, many Roosevelt supporters left the Party, the Party underwent an ideological shift to the right; the liberal Republican element in the GOP was overwhelmed by a conservative surge begun by Barry Goldwater in 1964 that continued during the Reagan Era in the 1980s. After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the party's core base shifted, with the Southern states becoming more reliably Republican in presidential politics and the Northeastern states becoming more reliably Democratic.
White voters identified with the Republican Party after the 1960s. Following the Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, the Republican Party made opposition to abortion a key plank of its national party platform and grew its support among evangelicals. By 2000, the Republican Party was aligned with Christian conservatism; the Party's core support since the 1990s comes chiefly from the South, the Great Plains, the Mountain States and rural areas in the North. The 21st century Republican Party ideology is American conservatism, which contrasts with the Democrats' liberal platform and progressive wing; the GOP supports lower taxes, free market capitalism, a strong national defense, gun rights and restrictions on labor unions. The GOP was committed to protectionism and tariffs from its founding until the 1930s when it was based in the industrial Northeast and Midwest, but has grown more supportive of free trade since 1952. In addition to advocating for conservative economic policies, the Republican Party is conservative.
Founded in the Northern states in 1854 by abolitionists, modernizers, ex-Whigs and ex-Free Soilers, the Republican Party became the principal opposition to the dominant Democratic Party and the popular Know Nothing Party. The party grew out of opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise and opened Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory to slavery and future admission as slave states; the Northern Republicans saw the expansion of slavery as a great evil. The first public meeting of the general anti-Nebraska movement, at which the name Republican was suggested for a new anti-slavery party, was held on March 20, 1854 in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin; the name was chosen to pay homage to Thomas Jefferson's Republican Party. The first official party convention was held on July 1854 in Jackson, Michigan. At the 1856 Republican National Convention, the party adopted a national platform emphasizing opposition to the expansion of slavery into U. S. territories. While Republican candidate John C.
Frémont lost the 1856 United States presidential election to James Buchanan, he did win 11 of the 16 northern states. The Republican Party first came to power in the elections of 1860 when it won control of both houses of Congress and its candidate, former congressman Abraham Lincoln, was elected President. In the election of 1864, it united with War Democrats to nominate Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket. Under Republican congressional leadership, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution—which banned slavery in the United States—passed the Senate in 1864 and the House in 1865; the party's success created factionalism within the party in the 1870s. Those who felt that Reconstruction had been accomplished, was continued to promote the large-scale corruption tolerated by President Ulysses S. Grant, ran Horace Greeley for the presidency; the Stalwart faction defended Grant and the spoils system, whereas the Half-Breeds pushed for reform of the civil service. The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act was passed in 1883.
The Republican Party supported hard money, high tariffs to promote economic growth, high wages and high profits, generous pensions for Union veterans, the annexation of Hawaii. The Republicans had strong support from pietistic Protestants, but they resisted demands for Prohibition; as the Northern postwar economy boomed with heavy and light industry, mines, fast-growing cities, prosperous agriculture, the Republicans took credit and promoted policies to sustain the fast growth. The GOP was dominant over the Democrats during the Third Party System. However, by 1890 the Republicans had agreed to the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Interstate Commerce Commission in response to complaints from owners of small businesses and farmers; the high McKinley Tariff of 1890 hurt the party and the Democrats swept to a landslide in the off-year elections defeating McKinley himself. The Democrats elected Grover Cleveland in 1884 and 1892; the election of William McKinley in 1896 was marked by a resurgence of Republican dominance that lasted until 1932.
McKinley promised that high tariffs would end the severe hardship caused by the Pa
Maine's 3rd congressional district
Maine's 3rd congressional district is an obsolete congressional district. It was created in 1821 after Maine achieved statehood in 1820 as part of the enactment of the Missouri Compromise, it was eliminated in 1963 after the 1960 U. S. Census, its last congressman was Clifford McIntire. Martis, Kenneth C.. The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Martis, Kenneth C.. The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives. The office was established in 1789 by Article I, Section 2 of the U. S. Constitution; the Speaker is the political and parliamentary leader of the House of Representatives, is the House's presiding officer, de facto leader of the body's majority party, the institution's administrative head. Speakers perform various other administrative and procedural functions. Given these several roles and responsibilities, the Speaker does not preside over debates; that duty is instead delegated to members of the House from the majority party. Neither does the Speaker participate in floor debates; the Constitution does not require the Speaker to be an incumbent member of the House of Representatives, although every Speaker thus far has been. The Speaker is second in the United States presidential line of succession, after the Vice President and ahead of the President pro tempore of the Senate.
The current House Speaker, Democrat Nancy Pelosi of California, was elected to the office on January 3, 2019. Pelosi served as speaker from January 4, 2007 to January 3, 2011, she has the distinction of being the first woman to serve as Speaker, is the first former Speaker to be returned to office since Sam Rayburn in 1955. The House elects its speaker at the beginning of a new Congress or when a speaker dies, resigns or is removed from the position intra-term. Since 1839, the House has elected speakers by roll call vote. Traditionally, each party's caucus or conference selects a candidate for the speakership from among its senior leaders prior to the roll call. Representatives are not restricted to voting for the candidate nominated by their party, but do, as the outcome of the election determines which party has the majority and will organize the House. Moreover, as the Constitution does not explicitly state that the speaker must be an incumbent member of the House, it is permissible for representatives to vote for someone, not a member of the House at the time, non-members have received a few votes in various speaker elections over the past several years.
Every person elected speaker has been a member. Representatives that choose to vote for someone other than their party's nominated candidate vote for someone else in their party or vote "present". Anyone who votes for the other party's candidate would face serious consequences, as was the case when Democrat Jim Traficant voted for Republican Dennis Hastert in 2001. In response, the Democrats stripped him of his seniority and he lost all of his committee posts. To be elected speaker a candidate must receive an absolute majority of the votes cast, as opposed to an absolute majority of the full membership of the House – presently 218 votes, in a House of 435. There have only been a few instances during the past century where a person received a majority of the votes cast, thus won the election, while failing to obtain a majority of the full membership, it happened most in 2015, when John Boehner was elected with 216 votes. Such a variation in the number of votes necessary to win a given election might arise due to vacancies, absentees, or members being present but not voting.
If no candidate wins a majority of the "votes cast for a person by name" the roll call is repeated until a speaker is elected. Multiple roll calls have been necessary only 14 times since 1789. Upon winning election the new Speaker is sworn in by the Dean of the United States House of Representatives, the chamber's longest-serving member; the first Speaker of the House, Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania, was elected to office on April 1, 1789, the day the House organized itself at the start of the 1st Congress. He served two non-consecutive terms in the Speaker's chair, 1789–1791 and 1793–1795; as the Constitution does not state the duties of the Speaker, the speaker’s role has been shaped by traditions and customs that evolved over time. A partisan position from early in its existence, the speakership began to gain power in legislative development under Henry Clay. In contrast to many of his predecessors, Clay participated in several debates, used his influence to procure the passage of measures he supported—for instance, the declaration of the War of 1812, various laws relating to Clay's "American System" economic plan.
Furthermore, when no candidate received an Electoral College majority in the 1824 presidential election causing the President to be elected by the House, Speaker Clay threw his support to John Quincy Adams instead of Andrew Jackson, thereby ensuring Adams' victory. Following Clay's retirement in 1825, the power of the speakership once again began to decline, despite speakership elections becoming bitter; as the Civil War approached, several sectional factions nominated their own candidates making it difficult for any candidate to attain a majority. In 1855 and again in 1859, for example, the contest for Speaker lasted for two months before the House achieved a result. During this time, Speakers tended to have short tenures. For example, from 1839 to 1863 there were eleven Speakers, only one of whom served for more than one term. To date, James K. Polk is the only Speaker of the House elected President of the United States. Towards the end of the 19th century, the office of Speaker began to develop into a po
Virginia's 7th congressional district
Virginia's 7th congressional district is a United States congressional district in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The district is represented by Democratic Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, first elected in 2018; the Virginia Legislature's 2012 redistricting of the adjacent 3rd district was found unconstitutional and replaced with a court-ordered redistricting on January 16, 2016 for the 2016 elections. The district spans across much of Central Virginia including all of Orange, Goochland, Nottoway and Powhatan; the district includes large portions of Chesterfield and Henrico in the suburbs of Richmond. However, Richmond is not in the 7th. Spotsylvania has a large portion in the 7th district just outside of FredericksburgPrior to 1993, the 7th District stretched from the fringes of the Washington, D. C. suburbs to Charlottesville. It included the far northern portion of the Shenandoah Valley, as well as Manassas and Fredericksburg; the district's current configuration dates from 1993, when Virginia was forced to create a majority-minority district by a Justice Department directive.
At that time, most of Richmond, in the old 3rd District for over a century, was shifted to a newly created 3rd District. The remaining territory in the old 3rd was combined with some more rural areas to the north to form the new 7th District. From 2013 to 2017, the 7th District stretched from the west end of Richmond through the wealthier portions of Henrico and Chesterfield counties before taking in all of Goochland, Louisa, New Kent Orange, Culpeper and Rappahannock counties and a portion of Spotsylvania County. According to the United States Census Bureau's 2017 data for Virginia's 7th Congressional District, the total population of the district is 790,084. Median age for the district is 39.7 years. 65.5% of the district is White, 18.4% Black, 5.1% Asian, 0.3% Native American or Alaskan, 3.4% some other race with 7.3% Hispanic or Latino. Owner-occupied housing is 73.0% and renter-occupied housing is 27.0%. The median value of single-family owner-occupied homes is $266,500. 91.6% of the district population has at least a high school diploma, 40.4% at least a bachelor's degree or higher.
9.1% of the district are civilian veterans. 9.1% are foreign born and 11.9% speak a language other than English at home. 9.9% are of disability status. 68.2 % of the district is in the labor force, which consists of older. Mean travel time to work is 29.3 minutes. Median household income is $77,533. Per capita income is $37,567. 5.3% of the population account for families living below the poverty level, 7.7% of individuals live below the poverty level. 9.5% of Children live below the poverty line. As of February 2019, there are four living former members of the House from the district; the most recent to die was John Otho Marsh Jr. on February 4, 2019. Virginia's congressional districts List of United States congressional districts Martis, Kenneth C.. The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Martis, Kenneth C.. The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Democratic Party was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest active political party; the Democrats' dominant worldview was once social conservatism and economic liberalism, while populism was its leading characteristic in the rural South. In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt ran as a third-party candidate in the Progressive Party, beginning a switch of political platforms between the Democratic and Republican Party over the coming decades, leading to Woodrow Wilson being elected as the first fiscally progressive Democrat. Since Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal coalition in the 1930s, the Democratic Party has promoted a social liberal platform, supporting social justice. Well into the 20th century, the party had conservative pro-business and Southern conservative-populist anti-business wings.
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. Roosevelt's 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 less supportive after the 1970s. White Evangelicals and Southerners became Republican at the state and local level since the 1990s. People living in metropolitan areas, women and gender minorities, college graduates, racial and ethnic minorities in the United States, such as Jewish Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Arab Americans and African Americans, tend to support the Democratic Party much more than they support the rival Republican Party; the Democratic Party's philosophy of modern liberalism advocates social and economic equality, along with the welfare state.
It seeks to provide government regulation in the economy. These interventions, such as the introduction of social programs, support for labor unions, affordable college tuitions, moves toward universal health care and equal opportunity, consumer protection and environmental protection form the core of the party's economic policy. Fifteen Democrats have served as President of the United States; the first was President Andrew Jackson, the seventh president and served from 1829 to 1837. The most recent was President Barack Obama, the 44th president and held office from 2009 to 2017. Following the 2018 midterm elections, the Democrats held a majority in the House of Representatives, "trifectas" in 14 states, the mayoralty of numerous major American cities, such as Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Portland and Washington, D. C. Twenty-three state governors were Democrats, the Party was the minority party in the Senate and in most state legislatures; as of March 2019, four of the nine Justices of the Supreme Court had been appointed by Democratic presidents.
Democratic Party officials trace its origins to the inspiration of the Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and other influential opponents of the Federalists in 1792. That party inspired the Whigs and modern Republicans. Organizationally, the modern Democratic Party arose in the 1830s with the election of Andrew Jackson. Since the nomination of William Jennings Bryan in 1896, the party has positioned itself to the left of the Republican Party on economic issues, they have been more liberal on civil rights issues since 1948. On foreign policy, both parties have changed position several times; the Democratic Party evolved from the Jeffersonian Republican or Democratic-Republican Party organized by Jefferson and Madison in opposition to the Federalist Party of Alexander Hamilton and John Adams. The party favored republicanism; the Democratic-Republican Party came to power in the election of 1800. After the War of 1812, the Federalists disappeared and the only national political party left was the Democratic-Republicans.
The era of one-party rule in the United States, known as the Era of Good Feelings, lasted from 1816 until the early 1830s, when the Whig Party became a national political group to rival the Democratic-Republicans. However, the Democratic-Republican Party still had its own internal factions, they split over the choice of a successor to President James Monroe and the party faction that supported many of the old Jeffersonian principles, led by Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, became the modern Democratic Party. As Norton explains the transformation in 1828: Jacksonians believed the people's will had prevailed. Through a lavishly financed coalition of state parties, political leaders, newspaper editors, a popular movement had elected the president; the Democrats became the nation's first well-organized national party and tight party organization became the hallmark of nineteenth-century American politics. Opposing factions led by Henry Clay helped form the Whig Party; the Democratic Party had a small yet decisive advantage over the Whigs until the 1850s, when the Whigs fell apart over the issue of slavery.
In 1854, angry with the Kansas–Nebraska Act, anti-slavery Dem
Theodore M. Pomeroy
Theodore Medad Pomeroy was an American businessman and politician from New York who served as the 26th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from March 3, 1869, to March 4, 1869, the shortest American speakership term in history. He represented New York's 24th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1861 to 1869, he served as the mayor of Auburn, New York, from 1875 to 1876, in the New York State Senate from 1878 to 1879. Theodore Medad Pomeroy was born on December 31, 1824, he spent his childhood in New York, where he went to live when he was nine years old. He was educated at the Monroe Academy and at 15, entered Hamilton College as a Junior, as students under 13 were not admitted, he graduated in 1842 at age 17 and was ranked in the first division of 6 in a class of 24. In May 1843, at the age of 18, he left his parents' home in Cayuga and moved to Auburn, where he entered the firm of Beach & Underwood as a law student. William H. Seward was counsel for the firm as he had just finished serving as the Governor of New York from 1838 to 1842.
Christopher Morgan and Samuel Blatchford, who became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, became associated with the firm. On May 23, 1846, he was admitted to practice as an attorney in the state of New York. In 1847, he was elected by the Whig Party as clerk of Auburn and in 1851, he was nominated by the Whigs and was elected district attorney, he served a second term. At the end of his second term he was chosen to be a Member of the New York Assembly by the Republicans to represent the second district of Cayuga and served in the legislature in 1857 but declined renomination. In September 1860, he was nominated and elected by the Republican party to represent the 25th Congressional district, composed of the counties of Cayuga and Wayne, in the House of Representatives. On July 4, 1861, he took his seat at the extra session of the 37th Congress convened by President Abraham Lincoln, right after the start of the Civil War, he was referred to as the youngest-looking member on the floor by Washington newspaper correspondents, who described him as follows: Mr. Pomeroy of Auburn is small in stature, with keen black eyes, a peculiarly expressive countenance and somewhere near as smart as chain lightning, at least when he deals with lower law Democracy.
He is one of the most energetic and effective debaters in the House and brimful to running over with that kind of Republicanism, found in the now somewhat antiquated document known as the Declaration of Independence. The lions of buccaneer Democracy fare hard when they fall into his hands and he handles certain old fogy Republicans without gloves, he was nominated by acclamation in 1862, 1864, 1866 from the 24th Congressional district which comprised the counties of Cayuga and Seneca. On March 3, 1869, Pomeroy's final full day in office at the close of the 40th Congress, Schuyler Colfax, to be sworn into office as vice president the next day, resigned as speaker of the House. Upon his resignation the House passed a motion declaring Pomeroy duely elected speaker in place of Colfax. In office for one day, his is the shortest tenure of any speaker of the U. S. House. After leaving Congress, Pomeroy was out of politics, he returned to public life in the mid-1870 and was elected mayor of Auburn, New York, serving from 1875 to 1876 as a member of the New York State Senate in 1878 and 1879.
After the war ended, a boom in business production and industry began around the country. In the spring of 1866, the Merchants Union Express Company was organized to transport trade and goods across the United States with Elmore P. Ross as president, William H. Seward Jr. as vice-president, John N. Knapp as secretary, William C. Beardsley as treasurer, Pomeroy as their attorney. By October 1866, the company was transporting goods across the major U. S. railroads and by the beginning of 1867, the company operated a network of express lines across the entire United States. The huge business incurred huge debts and in 1868, the company was acquired and merged with the American Merchants Union, now known as the American Express Company. Pomeroy stayed on and served as first vice-president and general counsel, along with co-founder William Fargo and with William's brother, J. C. Fargo, in 1868. On September 4, 1855, while serving his second term as District Attorney, he married Elizabeth Leitch Watson, the second daughter of Robert Watson of Auburn.
Elizabeth's sister, Janet MacNeil Watson, married William H. Seward Jr.. Together, they had five children. Pomeroy retired from public life in 1879 and lived at 168 Genesee Street in Auburn, where he died in 1905. Harriet Tubman was a close friend of the family, she attended his funeral and it was reported that only her flowers and letter were placed on his casket and buried with him. Pomeroy's grandchildren include New York State Senator Robert Watson Pomeroy, Janet Pomeroy Avery, who married John Foster Dulles, the U. S. Secretary of State during the Eisenhower Administration, Josephine Herrick and teacher, his great-grandchildren include John W. F. Dulles, a professor of history and specialist in Brazil at the University of Texas at Austin, Lillias Dulles Hinshaw, a Presbyterian minister, Avery Dulles, who converted to Roman Catholicism, entered the Jesuit order, became the first American theologian to be appointed a Cardinal. Notes Sources Van Deusen, Glyndon. William Henry Seward. New York: Oxford University Press.
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