1.
United States presidential election, 1872
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The United States presidential election of 1872 was the 22nd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5,1872. The incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant was easily elected to a term in office. Grants decisive re-election was achieved in the face of a split within the Republican Party that resulted in a party of Liberal Republicans nominating Horace Greeley to oppose Grant. This action caused the Democratic Party to cancel its convention, support Greeley as well, on November 29,1872, after the popular vote was counted, but before the Electoral College cast its votes, Greeley died. As a result, electors previously committed to Greeley voted for four different candidates for president, Greeley himself received three posthumous electoral votes, but these votes were disallowed by Congress. The election of 1872 is the only United States presidential election in which a party nominee died during the electoral process. It was the last instance until the 2016 presidential election in more than one presidential elector voted for a candidate to which they were not pledged. Others, who had grown weary of the corruption of the Grant administration, in the hope of defeating Grant, the Democratic party endorsed the nominees of the Liberal Republican Party. An influential group of dissident Republicans split from the party to form the Liberal Republican Party in 1870, at the partys only national convention, held in Cincinnati in 1872, New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley was nominated for president on the sixth ballot, defeating Charles Francis Adams. Missouri Governor Benjamin Gratz Brown was nominated for vice-president on the second ballot, the 1872 Democratic National Convention met in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 9–10. Because of its desire to defeat Ulysses S. Grant. Greeley received 686 of the 732 delegate votes cast, while Brown received 713, accepting the Liberal platform meant the Democrats had accepted the New Departure strategy, which rejected the anti-Reconstruction platform of 1868. They realized that to win the election they had to look forward, also, they realized they would only split the anti-Grant vote if they nominated a candidate other than Greeley. Bayard that sought to act independently of the Liberal Republican ticket, the convention, which lasted only six hours stretched over two days, is the shortest major political party convention in history. Presidential Candidates, The Labor Reform Party had only been organized in 1870, with its first National Convention meeting held in St. Louis, Missouri, on February 22,1872. Every motion to that effect lost, and a number of ballots were taken that resulted in the nomination of David Davis, joel Parker, the Governor of New Jersey, was nominated for vice-president. After their convention, in which he failed to attain the nomination, Davis telegraphed the Labor Reform party, unfortunately for the aims of the party, that movements nominee, Charles OConor, also declined to run. Recognizing that it was now too late to nominate a ticket of their own, the various state affiliates grew less and less active, and by the following year, the party ceased to exist
2.
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
3.
Horace Greeley
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Horace Greeley was founder and editor of the New-York Tribune, among the great newspapers of its time. Greeley was born to a family in Amherst, New Hampshire. He was apprenticed to a printer in Vermont and went to New York City in 1831 to seek his fortune and he wrote for or edited several publications and involved himself in Whig Party politics, taking a significant part in William Henry Harrisons successful 1840 presidential campaign. The following year, he founded the Tribune, which became the newspaper in the country through weekly editions sent by mail. Among many other issues, he urged the settlement of the American West, which he saw as a land of opportunity for the young and the unemployed. He popularized the phrase Go West, young man, and grow up with the country, Greeleys alliance with William H. Seward and Thurlow Weed led to him serving three months in the House of Representatives, where he angered many by investigating Congress in his newspaper. In 1854, he helped found and may have named the Republican Party, Republican newspapers across the nation regularly reprinted his editorials. During the Civil War, he mostly supported Lincoln, though urging him to commit to the end of slavery before the President was willing to do so, after Lincolns assassination, he supported the Radical Republicans in opposition to President Andrew Johnson. He broke with Republican president Ulysses Grant because of corruption and Greeleys sense that Reconstruction policies were no longer needed, Greeley was the new Liberal Republican Partys candidate in the 1872 U. S. presidential election. He lost in a landslide, despite having the support of the Democratic Party. He was devastated by the death of his wife, who died five days before the election, Horace Greeley was born on February 3,1811, on a farm about five miles from Amherst, New Hampshire. He could not breathe for the first twenty minutes of his life and he was of English descent, and his forebears included early settlers of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Greeley was the son of poor farmers Zaccheus and Mary Greeley, Zaccheus was not successful, and moved his family several times, as far west as Pennsylvania. Horace attended the schools, and was a brilliant student. Seeing the boys intelligence, some neighbors offered to pay Horaces way at Phillips Exeter Academy, in 1820, Zaccheuss financial reverses caused him to flee New Hampshire with his family lest he be imprisoned for debt, and settle in Vermont. Even as his father struggled to make a living as a hired hand, in 1822, Horace ran away from home to become a printers apprentice, but was told he was too young. In 1826, at age 15, he was made an apprentice to Amos Bliss, editor of the Northern Spectator. There, he learned the mechanics of a job, and acquired a reputation as the town encyclopedia
4.
New York (state)
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New York is a state in the northeastern United States, and is the 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated U. S. state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State, two-thirds of the states population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th-century Duke of York, the next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. New York has a diverse geography and these more mountainous regions are bisected by two major river valleys—the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley, which forms the core of the Erie Canal. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and straddles Lake Ontario, between the two lakes lies Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. The first Europeans to arrive were French colonists and Jesuit missionaries who arrived southward from settlements at Montreal for trade, the British annexed the colony from the Dutch in 1664. The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were similar to those of the present-day state, New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. On April 17,1524 Verrazanno entered New York Bay, by way of the now called the Narrows into the northern bay which he named Santa Margherita. Verrazzano described it as a vast coastline with a delta in which every kind of ship could pass and he adds. This vast sheet of water swarmed with native boats and he landed on the tip of Manhattan and possibly on the furthest point of Long Island. Verrazannos stay was interrupted by a storm which pushed him north towards Marthas Vineyard, in 1540 French traders from New France built a chateau on Castle Island, within present-day Albany, due to flooding, it was abandoned the next year. In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Corstiaensen, rebuilt the French chateau, Fort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River, also within present-day Albany. The small fort served as a trading post and warehouse, located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary fort was washed away by flooding in 1617, and abandoned for good after Fort Orange was built nearby in 1623. Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage marked the beginning of European involvement with the area, sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year
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Missouri
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Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, achieving statehood in 1821. With over six million residents, it is the eighteenth most populous state, the largest urban areas are St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, and Columbia. The capitol is in Jefferson City on the Missouri River, the state is the twenty-first most extensive by area and is geographically diverse. The Northern Plains were once covered by glaciers, then tallgrass prairie, in the South are the Ozarks, a forested highland, providing timber, minerals, and recreation. The Mississippi River forms the border of the state, eventually flowing into the swampy Missouri Bootheel. Humans have inhabited the land now known as Missouri for at least 12,000 years, the Mississippian culture built cities and mounds, before declining in the 1300s. When European explorers arrived in the 1600s they encountered the Osage, the French established Louisiana, a part of New France, and founded Ste. Genevieve in 1735 and St. Louis in 1764, after a brief period of Spanish rule, the United States acquired the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Americans from the Upland South, including enslaved African Americans, rushed into the new Missouri Territory, many from Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee settled in the Boonslick area of Mid-Missouri. Soon after, heavy German immigration formed the Missouri Rhineland, Missouri played a central role in the westward expansion of the United States, as memorialized by the Gateway Arch. The Pony Express, Oregon Trail, Santa Fe Trail, as a border state, Missouris role in the American Civil War was complex and there were many conflicts within. After the war, both Greater St. Louis and the Kansas City metropolitan area became centers of industrialization and business, today, the state is divided into 114 counties and the independent city of St. Louis. Missouris culture blends elements from the Midwestern and Southern United States, the musical styles of ragtime, Kansas City jazz, and St. Louis Blues, developed in Missouri. The well-known Kansas City-style barbecue, and lesser known St. Louis-style barbecue can be found across the state, St. Louis is also a major center of beer brewing, Anheuser-Busch is the largest producer in the world. Missouri wine is produced in the nearby Missouri Rhineland and Ozarks, Missouris alcohol laws are among the most permissive in the United States. Outside of the large cities popular tourist destinations include the Lake of the Ozarks, U. S. President Harry S. Truman is from Missouri. Other well known Missourians include Mark Twain, Walt Disney, Chuck Berry, some of the largest companies based in the state include Express Scripts, Monsanto, Emerson Electric, Edward Jones, and OReilly Auto Parts. Missouri has been called the Mother of the West and the Cave State, however, Missouris most famous nickname is the Show Me State, the state is named for the Missouri River, which was named after the indigenous Missouri Indians, a Siouan-language tribe
6.
1868 Democratic National Convention
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The 1868 Democratic National Convention was held at Tammany Hall in New York City. The slogan for the 1868 Democratic National Convention was, This is a mans country. The convention was notable for the return of Democratic Party politicians from the southern states, the Democratic National Convention was held in New York City between July 4, and July 9,1868. Meanwhile, the convention chairman Horatio Seymour, former governor of New York and this unexpected move caused loud and enthusiastic cheering, but Seymour refused, saying, I must not be nominated by this Convention, as I could not accept the nomination if tendered. My own inclination prompted me to decline at the outset, my honor compels me to do so now and it is impossible, consistently with my position, to allow my name to be mentioned in this Convention against my protest. The clerk will proceed with the call, after numerous indecisive ballots, the names of John T. Hoffman, Francis P. Blair, and Stephen Johnson Field were placed in nomination. None of these candidates, however, gained any support, for twenty-one ballots, the opposing candidates battled it out, the East battling the West for control, the conservatives battling the radicals. The two leading candidates were determined that the other should not receive the nomination, because of the rule of the convention. Seymour still hoped it would be Chief Justice Salmon P. Seymour had to wait for the rousing cheers to die down before he could address the delegates, I have no terms in which to tell of my regret that my name has been brought before this convention. God knows that my life and all that I value most in life I would give for the good of my country, cried someone from the floor. but when I said that I could not be a candidate, I mean it. I could not receive the nomination without placing not only myself, god bless you for your kindness to me, but your candidate I cannot be. Seymour left to platform to cool off and rest, no sooner had he left the hall than the Ohio chairman cried that his delegation would not accept Seymours declination, Utahs chairman rose to say that Seymour was the man they had to have. While Seymour was waiting in the vestibule, the convention nominated him unanimously, in 1868, the States of Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana were readmitted to the Union. Nebraska had been admitted to the Union on March 1,1867, texas, Mississippi and Virginia had not yet been readmitted to the Union. Exhausted, the delegates unanimously nominated General Francis Preston Blair, Jr. for vice-president on the first ballot after John A. McClernand, dodge, and Thomas Ewing, Jr. withdrew their names from consideration. Blairs nomination reflected a desire to balance the ticket east and west as well as north and south, Blair had worked hard to acquire the Democratic nomination and accepted second place on the ticket, finding himself in controversy. Blair had gained attention by a letter addressed to Colonel James O. Broadhead. In his letter, Blair wrote that the real and only issue in this contest was the overthrow of Reconstruction, as the radical Republicans had forced it in the South
7.
United States presidential nominating convention
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Other delegates to these conventions include political party members who are seated automatically, and are called unpledged delegates because they can choose for themselves for whom they vote for. Generally, usage of “presidential campaign nominating convention” refers to the two major parties’ quadrennial events, the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention. Some minor parties also select their nominees by convention, including the Green Party, the Socialist Party USA, the Libertarian Party, the Constitution Party, the convention cycle begins with the Call to Convention. Usually issued about 18 months in advance, the Call is an invitation from the party to the state. It also sets out the number of delegates to be awarded to each, the conventions are usually scheduled for four days of business, with the exception of the 1972 Republican and 2012 Democratic conventions, which were three days each. There is no rule dictating the order of the conventions, between 1864 and 1952, the Democrats went second every year. In 1956, when Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower was the incumbent, the Democrats went first, since 1952, all major party conventions have been held in the months of July, August or, early September. In 1996, both were held in August to accommodate the Atlanta Olympics in July, the last Summer Olympics to date to be played in the U. S, in 2000, both conventions preceded the Sydney Olympics in late September. In 2008 and 2012, the Democratic and Republican conventions were moved to back-to-back weeks following the conclusion of the Olympics, finally, the parties also did not want to schedule their conventions around the Olympics. But moving the conventions later into early September led to conflicts with the National Football Leagues season kickoff game, however, the NFL accommodated the conventions and moved its games to an earlier start time in 2008, and an earlier date in 2012. In 2016, both the Republican and Democratic conventions moved to July, before the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August. The Democrats then followed suit so they could provide a response to the Republicans. Each party sets its own rules for the participation and format of the convention, broadly speaking, each U. S. state and territory party is apportioned a select number of voting representatives, individually known as delegates and collectively as the delegation. The selection of delegates and their alternates, too, is governed by the bylaws of each state party. The 2004 Democratic National Convention counted 4,353 delegates and 611 alternates, the 2004 Republican National Convention had 2,509 delegates and 2,344 alternates. But these individuals are dwarfed by other attendees who do not participate in the business of the convention. The convention is held in a major city selected by the national party organization 18–24 months before the election is to be held. In the present day, political symbolism affects the selection of the host city as much as economic or logistical ones do, a particular city might be selected to enhance the standing of a favorite son, or in an effort to curry favor with residents of that state
8.
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
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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
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Ford's Theatre
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Fords Theatre is a theater in Washington, D. C. used for various stage performances beginning in the 1860s. It is also the site of the assassination of U. S. President Abraham Lincoln on April 14,1865, after being shot, the mortally wounded president was carried across the street to the Petersen House, where he died the next morning. The theater was used as a warehouse and office building. It was renovated and re-opened as a theater in 1968, during the 2000s, it was renovated again, opening on February 12,2009, in commemoration of the bicentennial of Lincolns birth. A related Center for Education and Leadership museum experience opened February 12,2012 next to Petersen House, Fords Theatre is located at 511 10th Street, NW. The site was originally a house of worship, constructed in 1833 as the meeting house of the First Baptist Church of Washington. In 1861, after the congregation moved to a built structure. Ford bought the church and renovated it into a theater. He first called it Fords Athenaeum, the famous actor John Wilkes Booth, desperate to aid the dying Confederacy, stepped into the box where the presidential party was sitting and shot Lincoln. Booth then jumped onto the stage, and cried out Sic semper tyrannis just before escaping through the back of the theater, between 1866 and 1887, the theater was taken over by the U. S. In 1887, the building became a clerks office for the War Department. On June 9,1893, the front part of the building collapsed, killing 22 clerks and this led some people to believe that the former church turned theater and storeroom was cursed. The building was repaired and used as a government warehouse until 1911, in 1928, the building was turned over from the War Department Office to the Office of Public Buildings and Parks of the National Capital. A Lincoln museum opened on the first floor of the building on February 12. In 1933, the building was transferred to the National Park Service, hildreth first suggested to Young the need for its restoration in 1945. Through extensive lobbying of Congress, a bill was passed in 1955 to prepare a study for the reconstruction of the building. In 1964 Congress approved funds for its restoration, which began that year and was completed in 1968, on January 21,1968, Vice President Hubert Humphrey and 500 others dedicated the restored theater. The theater reopened on January 30,1968, with a gala performance, the theater was again renovated during the 2000s
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History of Washington, D.C.
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The history of Washington, D. C. is tied to its role as the capital of the United States. Originally inhabited by an Algonquian-speaking people known as the Nacotchtank, the site of the District of Columbia along the Potomac River was first selected by President George Washington, the city came under attack during the War of 1812 in an episode known as the Burning of Washington. Upon the governments return to the capital, it had to manage reconstruction of public buildings, including the White House. The McMillan Plan of 1901 helped restore and beautify the downtown area, including establishing the National Mall, along with numerous monuments. Unique among cities with a percentage of African Americans, Washington has had a significant black population since the citys creation. As a result, Washington became both a center of African American culture and a center of Civil Rights Movement. Since the city government was run by the U. S. federal government, black and it was not until the administration of Woodrow Wilson, a southern Democrat who had numerous southerners in his cabinet, that federal offices and workplaces were segregated, starting in 1913. This situation persisted for decades, the city was segregated in certain facilities until the 1950s. Today, D. C. is marked by contrasts, neighborhoods on the eastern periphery of the central city, and east of the Anacostia River tend to be disproportionately lower-income. Following World War II, many whites moved out of the citys central and eastern sections to newer, affordable suburban housing. The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968 sparked major riots in chiefly African American neighborhoods east of Rock Creek Park, large sections of the central city remained blighted for decades. During the early 20th century, the U Street Corridor served as an important center for African American culture in DC, the Washington Metro opened in 1976. A rising economy and gentrification in the late 1990s and early 2000s led to revitalization of many downtown neighborhoods, article One, Section 8, of the United States Constitution places the District under the exclusive legislation of Congress. Throughout its history, Washington, D. C. residents have therefore lacked voting representation in Congress, the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961, gave the District representation in the Electoral College. The 1973 District of Columbia Home Rule Act provided the government more control of affairs, including direct election of the city council. Archaeological evidence indicates Native Americans settled in the area at least 4,000 years ago, Early European exploration of the region took place early in the 17th century, including explorations by Captain John Smith in 1608. At the time, the Patawomeck and the Doeg lived on the Virginia side, as well as on Theodore Roosevelt Island, Native inhabitants within the present-day District of Columbia included the Nacotchtank, at Anacostia, who were affiliated with the Conoy. Another village was located between Little Falls and Georgetown, and English fur trader Henry Fleet documented a Nacotchtank village called Tohoga on the site of present-day Georgetown
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Abraham Lincoln
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Abraham Lincoln was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and perhaps its greatest moral, constitutional, in doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy. Born in Hodgenville, Kentucky, Lincoln grew up on the frontier in Kentucky. Largely self-educated, he became a lawyer in Illinois, a Whig Party leader, elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1846, Lincoln promoted rapid modernization of the economy through banks, tariffs, and railroads. Reentering politics in 1854, he became a leader in building the new Republican Party, in 1860, Lincoln secured the Republican Party presidential nomination as a moderate from a swing state. Though he gained little support in the slaveholding states of the South. Subsequently, on April 12,1861, a Confederate attack on Fort Sumter inspired the North to enthusiastically rally behind the Union. Politically, Lincoln fought back by pitting his opponents against each other, by carefully planned political patronage and his Gettysburg Address became an iconic endorsement of the principles of nationalism, republicanism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy. Lincoln initially concentrated on the military and political dimensions of the war and his primary goal was to reunite the nation. He suspended habeas corpus, leading to the ex parte Merryman decision. Lincoln closely supervised the war effort, especially the selection of top generals, including his most successful general, Lincoln tried repeatedly to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, each time a general failed, Lincoln substituted another, until finally Grant succeeded. As the war progressed, his moves toward ending slavery included the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. On April 14,1865, five days after the surrender of Confederate commanding general Robert E. Lee, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton launched a manhunt for Booth, and 12 days later on April 26, Lincoln has been consistently ranked both by scholars and the public as among the greatest U. S. presidents. Abraham Lincoln was born February 12,1809, the child of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville. He was a descendant of Samuel Lincoln, an Englishman who migrated from Hingham, Norfolk to its namesake of Hingham, samuels grandson and great-grandson began the familys western migration, which passed through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Lincolns paternal grandfather and namesake, Captain Abraham Lincoln, moved the family from Virginia to Jefferson County, Captain Lincoln was killed in an Indian raid in 1786. His children, including eight-year-old Thomas, the presidents father
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