1.
United States Secretary of State
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Secretary of State is a Level I position in the Executive Schedule and thus earns the salary prescribed for that level. The current Secretary of State is former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson and those that remain include storage and use of the Great Seal of the United States, performance of protocol functions for the White House, and the drafting of certain proclamations. The Secretary also negotiates with the individual States over the extradition of fugitives to foreign countries, under Federal Law, the resignation of a President or of a Vice President is only valid if declared in writing, in an instrument delivered to the office of the Secretary of State. Accordingly, the resignations of President Nixon and of Vice-President Spiro Agnew, domestic issues, were formalized in instruments delivered to the Secretary of State, six Secretaries of State have gone on to be elected President. Former Secretaries of State retain the right to add the title Secretary to their surnames, as the head of the United States Foreign Service, the Secretary of State is responsible for management of the diplomatic service of the United States. The foreign service employs about 12,000 people domestically and internationally, the U. S. Secretary of State has the power to remove any foreign diplomat from U. S. soil for any reason. The nature of the means that Secretaries of State engage in travel around the world. The record for most countries visited in a secretarys tenure is 112, second is Madeleine Albright with 96. The record for most air miles traveled in a secretarys tenure is 1.380 million miles, second is Condoleezza Rices 1.059 million miles and third is Clintons 956,733 miles. S
2.
John Tyler
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John Tyler was the tenth President of the United States. He was also, briefly, the tenth Vice President, elected to office on the 1840 Whig ticket with William Henry Harrison. Tyler became president after Harrisons death in April 1841, only a month after the start of the new administration. Still, the circumstances of his rise to the presidency. A firm believer in manifest destiny, President Tyler sought to strengthen and preserve the Union through territorial expansion, Tyler, born to an eminent Virginia family, came to national prominence at a time of political upheaval. In the 1820s the nations only political party, the Democratic-Republicans, though initially a Democrat, his opposition to Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren led him to ally with the Whig Party. Tyler served as a Virginia state legislator, governor, U. S. representative and he was put on the ticket to attract states rights Southerners to what was then a Whig coalition to defeat Van Burens re-election bid. Harrisons death made Tyler the first vice president to succeed to the presidency without being elected to the office, because of the short duration of Harrisons one-month term, Tyler served longer than any president in U. S. history who was never elected to the office. A strict constructionist, Tyler found much of the Whig platform unconstitutional, believing that the president should set policy instead of deferring to Congress, he attempted to bypass the Whig establishment, most notably Kentucky Senator Henry Clay. Most of Tylers Cabinet resigned soon into his term, and the Whigs, dubbing him His Accidency, though Tyler was not the first president to veto bills, he was the first to see his veto overridden by Congress. Although he faced a stalemate on domestic policy, he had several achievements, including the Webster–Ashburton Treaty with Britain. He initially sought election to a term as president, but after failing to gain the support of either Whigs or Democrats. When the American Civil War began in 1861, Tyler sided with the Confederate government, although some have praised Tylers political resolve, his presidency is generally held in low esteem by historians. He is considered an obscure president, with presence in American cultural memory. John Tyler was born on March 29,1790, like his future running mate William Henry Harrison, he hailed from Charles City County, Virginia, both descended from aristocratic and politically entrenched families. The Tyler family traced its lineage to colonial Williamsburg in the 17th century, the elder Tyler served four years as Speaker of the House of Delegates before becoming a state court judge. He subsequently served as governor and as a judge on the U. S. District Court at Richmond and his wife, Mary Marot, was the daughter of a prominent plantation owner, Robert Booth Armistead. She died of a stroke when her son John was seven years old, with his two brothers and five sisters, Tyler was raised on Greenway Plantation, a 1, 200-acre estate with a six-room manor house his father had built
3.
Daniel Webster
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Daniel Webster was an American politician who twice served in the United States House of Representatives, representing New Hampshire and Massachusetts, served as a U. S. Senator from Massachusetts and was twice the United States Secretary of State, under Presidents William Henry Harrison and John Tyler and he and James G. Blaine were the only two people to serve as Secretary of State under three presidents. Webster also sought the Whig Party nomination for President three times, in 1836,1840 and 1852. As a diplomat he is best known for negotiating the Webster–Ashburton Treaty of 1842 with Great Britain, Webster was an outstanding spokesman for American nationalism with powerful oratory that made him a key Whig leader. He spoke for conservatives and led the opposition to Democrat Andrew Jackson and he was a spokesman for modernization, banking, and industry, but not for the common people who composed the base of his opponents in Jacksonian democracy. He was a thoroughgoing elitist, and he reveled in it, chiefly recognized for his Senate tenure, Webster was a key figure in the institutions Golden days. Webster was the Northern member of the Great Triumvirate, with his colleagues Henry Clay from the West and his Reply to Hayne in 1830 has been regarded as one of the greatest speeches in the Senates history. As with his fellow Whig Henry Clay, Webster wanted to see the Union preserved and they both worked for compromises to stave off the sectionalism that threatened war between the North and the South. Websters support for the Compromise of 1850, devised in part by Clay, in 1957, a Senate committee selected Webster as one of the five greatest U. S. Senators with Clay, Calhoun, Robert La Follette, and Robert A. Taft, Daniel Webster was born on January 18,1782, in Salisbury, New Hampshire, the present-day city of Franklin. He was the son of Abigail and Ebenezer Webster and he and his nine siblings grew up on their parents farm, a small parcel of land granted to his father. His ancestors were among the settlers of Salisbury. Webster attended Phillips Exeter Academy, a school in Exeter. He was chosen Fourth of July orator in Hanover, the town, in 1800. After he graduated from Dartmouth, Webster was apprenticed to the lawyer Thomas W. Thompson in Salisbury, in 1802 Webster began as the headmaster of the Fryeburg Academy, Maine, where he served for one year. When Ezekiels education could no longer be sustained, Webster returned to his apprenticeship, in 1804 he left New Hampshire and got a position in Boston under the prominent attorney Christopher Gore. Clerking for Gore – who was involved in international, national, in 1805 Webster was admitted to the bar. He returned to New Hampshire to set up a practice in Boscawen and he began to speak locally in support of Federalist causes and candidates
4.
John C. Calhoun
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John Caldwell Calhoun was an American statesman and political theorist from South Carolina, and the seventh Vice President of the United States from 1825 to 1832. He is remembered for defending slavery and for advancing the concept of minority rights in politics. He began his career as a nationalist, modernizer, and proponent of a strong national government. His beliefs and warnings heavily influenced the Souths secession from the Union in 1860–1861, Calhoun began his political career in the House of Representatives. He then served as Secretary of War under President James Monroe, Calhoun was a candidate for the presidency in the 1824 election. After failing to support, he let his name be put forth as a candidate for vice president. The Electoral College elected Calhoun for vice president by an overwhelming majority and he served under John Quincy Adams and continued under Andrew Jackson, who defeated Adams in the election of 1828. During his terms as president, he made a record of 31 tie-breaking votes in Congress. Calhoun had a relationship with Jackson primarily due to the Nullification Crisis. In 1832, with only a few remaining in his second term, he resigned as vice president. He sought the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1844, but lost to surprise nominee James K. Polk, Calhoun served as Secretary of State under John Tyler from 1844 to 1845. As Secretary of State, he supported the annexation of Texas as a means to extend the slave power and he then returned to the Senate, where he opposed the Mexican–American War, the Wilmot Proviso, and the Compromise of 1850 before his death in 1850. Calhoun often served as a virtual party-independent who variously aligned as needed with Democrats, later in life, Calhoun became known as the cast-iron man for his rigid defense of Southern beliefs and practices. His concept of republicanism emphasized approval of slavery and minority rights, as embodied by the Southern states—he owned dozens of slaves in Fort Hill. Calhoun also asserted that slavery, rather than being an evil, was a positive good. To protect minority rights against majority rule, he called for a concurrent majority whereby the minority could sometimes block proposals that it infringed on their liberties. To this end, Calhoun supported states rights and nullification, through which states could declare null, Calhoun was one of the Great Triumvirate or the Immortal Trio of Congressional leaders, along with his Congressional colleagues Daniel Webster and Henry Clay. In 1957, a Senate Committee headed by Senator John F. Kennedy selected Calhoun as one of the five greatest United States Senators of all time
5.
United States Secretary of the Navy
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The Secretary of the Navy is a statutory office and the head of the Department of the Navy, a military department within the Department of Defense of the United States of America. The Department of the Navy consists of two Uniformed Services, the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. In effect, all authority within the Navy and Marine Corps, specifically enumerated responsibilities of the SECNAV in beforementioned section are, recruiting, organizing, supplying, equipping, training, mobilizing, and demobilizing. The Secretary also oversees the construction, outfitting, and repair of ships, equipment. The Secretary of the Navy is a member of the Defense Acquisition Board, chaired by the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, the CNO and the Commandant act as the principal executive agents of the SECNAV within their respective services to implement the orders of the Secretary. The United States Navy Regulations is the principal regulatory document of the Department of the Navy, the Chief of Naval Operations and the Commandant of the Marine Corps have their own separate staffs, the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations and Headquarters Marine Corps
6.
George Edmund Badger
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George Edmund Badger was a Whig U. S. senator from the state of North Carolina. Badger was born on April 17,1795 in New Bern, following a partial college education at Yale College, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1814. Badger practiced law in North Carolina, was active in state politics, a supporter of Andrew Jackson from the 1820s, he separated with him in the mid-1830s, became a leader of the Whig party and helped carry the Whigs to victory in the 1840 Presidential election. Badgers brief term as Secretary was marked by efforts to strengthen the Navy in the face of tension with Great Britain, home Squadron, and growing interest in steamships. Badger resigned in September 1841, during a cabinet shakeup. He was elected to the Senate in 1846 to fill the term of William Henry Haywood, Jr. and remained a Senator until 1855. He was nominated by President Millard Fillmore as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 1853 and he was a Unionist during the secession crisis but thereafter supported the Confederate war effort. Badger died in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1866, two Navy ships have been named in honor of Senator Badger, USS George E. Badger, and USS Badger. A Liberty ship, the SS George E. Badger, also was named in his honor, Badger was a cousin of naval officers Oscar C. Badger, Charles J. Badger and Oscar C and this article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress website http, //bioguide. congress. gov. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Naval History & Heritage Command, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. George Edmund Badger entry at The Political Graveyard George Edmund Badger at Find a Grave George E. Badger at Naval Historical Center
7.
Northampton County, Virginia
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Northampton County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 12,389, Northampton and Accomack Counties comprise the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The county is the center of the late Eocene meteor strike that resulted in the Chesapeake Bay impact crater, the Northampton County Courthouse Historical District is part of the Eastville Historical District at the county seat. The former name of the county was Accomac Shire, one of the shires of Virginia. In 1642, the name was changed to Northampton County by the English, in 1663, Northampton County was split into two counties that still exist today. The northern two thirds took the original Accomac name, while the third remained as Northampton. Northampton County is notable for a court case involving an indentured servant. The first free negro in North America was Anthony Johnson of Northampton County, Johnson was also the first African-American to own land. In 1653, Johnson brought suit in Northampton County Court to argue that one of his servants, Casor had left him and was working for a neighbor. The court ruled in Johnsons favor, making Northampton County the first jurisdiction to acknowledge that Negros could own slaves. This court ruling decision also gives insight to how owners of indentured servants could easily choose to ignore the expiration of indentured contracts, although Casor, an African, had well-known white planters taking his part, he was reduced to lifetime slavery. Some planters sought more profitable methods of labor by taking advantage of Negro indentured servants, according to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 795 square miles, of which 212 square miles is land and 584 square miles is water. The population density was 63 people per square mile, there were 6,547 housing units at an average density of 32 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 57. 9% White,36. 5% Black or African American,0. 2% Native American,0. 7% Asian,0. 1% Pacific Islander,3. 2% from other races, and 1. 4% from two or more races. 7. 1% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,29. 40% of all households were made up of individuals and 15. 60% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the family size was 2.94. In the county, the age distribution of the population shows 23. 30% under the age of 18,7. 10% from 18 to 24,23. 60% from 25 to 44,24. 80% from 45 to 64, the median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 87.90 males, for every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.10 males
8.
Potomac River
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The Potomac River /pəˈtoʊmək/ is located along the mid-Atlantic Ocean coast of the United States and flows into the Chesapeake Bay. The river is approximately 405 miles long, with an area of about 14,700 square miles. In terms of area, this makes the Potomac River the fourth largest river along the Atlantic coast of the United States, over 5 million people live within the Potomac watershed. The river forms part of the borders between Maryland and Washington, D. C. on the left descending bank and West Virginia and Virginia on the right descending bank. The majority of the lower Potomac River is part of the State of Maryland, exceptions include a small tidal portion within the District of Columbia, and the border with Virginia being delineated from point to point. Except for a portion of its headwaters in West Virginia. The South Branch Potomac River lies completely within the state of West Virginia except for its headwaters, the Potomac River runs 405 miles from the Fairfax Stone in West Virginia on the Allegheny Plateau to Point Lookout, Maryland, and drains 14,679 square miles. The length of the river from the junction of its North and South Branches to Point Lookout is 302 miles, the average flow is 10,800 ft³/s. The largest flow recorded on the Potomac at Washington, D. C. was in March 1936 when it reached 425,000 ft³/s. The lowest flow recorded at the same location was 600 ft³/s in September,1966. The source of the North Branch is at the Fairfax Stone located at the junction of Grant, Tucker, the source of the South Branch is located near Hightown in northern Highland County, Virginia. The rivers two branches converge just east of Green Spring in Hampshire County, West Virginia, to form the Potomac. Once the Potomac drops from the Piedmont to the Coastal Plain at Little Falls, tides further influence the river as it passes through Washington, D. C. salinity in the Potomac River Estuary increases thereafter with distance downstream. The estuary also widens, reaching 11 statute miles wide at its mouth, Potomac is a European spelling of Patowmeck, the Algonquian name of a Native American village, perhaps meaning something brought. Native Americans had different names for different parts of the river, calling the river above Great Falls Cohongarooton, meaning honking geese and Patawomke below the fall, meaning river of swans. The spelling of the name has many forms over the years from Patawomeke to Patawomeck, Patowmack. The rivers name was decided upon as Potomac by the Board on Geographic Names in 1931. The river itself is at least two years old, likely extending back ten to twenty million years before present when the Atlantic Ocean lowered and exposed coastal sediments along the fall line
9.
Alma mater
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Alma mater is an allegorical Latin phrase for a university or college. In modern usage, it is a school or university which an individual has attended, the phrase is variously translated as nourishing mother, nursing mother, or fostering mother, suggesting that a school provides intellectual nourishment to its students. Before its modern usage, Alma mater was a title in Latin for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele. The source of its current use is the motto, Alma Mater Studiorum, of the oldest university in continuous operation in the Western world and it is related to the term alumnus, denoting a university graduate, which literally means a nursling or one who is nourished. The phrase can also denote a song or hymn associated with a school, although alma was a common epithet for Ceres, Cybele, Venus, and other mother goddesses, it was not frequently used in conjunction with mater in classical Latin. Alma Redemptoris Mater is a well-known 11th century antiphon devoted to Mary, the earliest documented English use of the term to refer to a university is in 1600, when University of Cambridge printer John Legate began using an emblem for the universitys press. In English etymological reference works, the first university-related usage is often cited in 1710, many historic European universities have adopted Alma Mater as part of the Latin translation of their official name. The University of Bologna Latin name, Alma Mater Studiorum, refers to its status as the oldest continuously operating university in the world. At least one, the Alma Mater Europaea in Salzburg, Austria, the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has been called the Alma Mater of the Nation because of its ties to the founding of the United States. At Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, the ancient Roman world had many statues of the Alma Mater, some still extant. Modern sculptures are found in prominent locations on several American university campuses, outside the United States, there is an Alma Mater sculpture on the steps of the monumental entrance to the Universidad de La Habana, in Havana, Cuba. Media related to Alma mater at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of alma mater at Wiktionary Alma Mater Europaea website
10.
Yale University
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Yale University is an American private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701 in Saybrook Colony to train Congregationalist ministers, it is the third-oldest institution of education in the United States. The Collegiate School moved to New Haven in 1716, and shortly after was renamed Yale College in recognition of a gift from British East India Company governor Elihu Yale. Originally restricted to theology and sacred languages, the curriculum began to incorporate humanities and sciences by the time of the American Revolution. In the 19th century the school introduced graduate and professional instruction, awarding the first Ph. D. in the United States in 1861 and organizing as a university in 1887. Yale is organized into fourteen constituent schools, the undergraduate college, the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. While the university is governed by the Yale Corporation, each schools faculty oversees its curriculum, the universitys assets include an endowment valued at $25.4 billion as of June 2016, the second largest of any U. S. educational institution. The Yale University Library, serving all constituent schools, holds more than 15 million volumes and is the third-largest academic library in the United States, Yale College undergraduates follow a liberal arts curriculum with departmental majors and are organized into a social system of residential colleges. Almost all faculty teach courses, more than 2,000 of which are offered annually. Students compete intercollegiately as the Yale Bulldogs in the NCAA Division I – Ivy League, Yale has graduated many notable alumni, including five U. S. Presidents,19 U. S. Supreme Court Justices,20 living billionaires, and many heads of state. In addition, Yale has graduated hundreds of members of Congress,57 Nobel laureates,5 Fields Medalists,247 Rhodes Scholars, and 119 Marshall Scholars have been affiliated with the University. Yale traces its beginnings to An Act for Liberty to Erect a Collegiate School, passed by the General Court of the Colony of Connecticut on October 9,1701, the Act was an effort to create an institution to train ministers and lay leadership for Connecticut. Soon thereafter, a group of ten Congregationalist ministers, Samuel Andrew, Thomas Buckingham, Israel Chauncy, Samuel Mather, the group, led by James Pierpont, is now known as The Founders. Originally known as the Collegiate School, the institution opened in the home of its first rector, Abraham Pierson, the school moved to Saybrook, and then Wethersfield. In 1716 the college moved to New Haven, Connecticut, the feud caused the Mathers to champion the success of the Collegiate School in the hope that it would maintain the Puritan religious orthodoxy in a way that Harvard had not. Cotton Mather suggested that the school change its name to Yale College, meanwhile, a Harvard graduate working in England convinced some 180 prominent intellectuals that they should donate books to Yale. The 1714 shipment of 500 books represented the best of modern English literature, science, philosophy and it had a profound effect on intellectuals at Yale. Undergraduate Jonathan Edwards discovered John Lockes works and developed his original theology known as the new divinity
11.
Princeton University
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Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The institution moved to Newark in 1747, then to the current site nine years later, Princeton provides undergraduate and graduate instruction in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering. The university has ties with the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton has the largest endowment per student in the United States. The university has graduated many notable alumni, two U. S. Presidents,12 U. S. Supreme Court Justices, and numerous living billionaires and foreign heads of state are all counted among Princetons alumni body. New Light Presbyterians founded the College of New Jersey in 1746 in order to train ministers, the college was the educational and religious capital of Scots-Irish America. In 1754, trustees of the College of New Jersey suggested that, in recognition of Governors interest, gov. Jonathan Belcher replied, What a name that would be. In 1756, the moved to Princeton, New Jersey. Its home in Princeton was Nassau Hall, named for the royal House of Orange-Nassau of William III of England, following the untimely deaths of Princetons first five presidents, John Witherspoon became president in 1768 and remained in that office until his death in 1794. During his presidency, Witherspoon shifted the focus from training ministers to preparing a new generation for leadership in the new American nation. To this end, he tightened academic standards and solicited investment in the college, in 1812, the eighth president the College of New Jersey, Ashbel Green, helped establish the Princeton Theological Seminary next door. The plan to extend the theological curriculum met with approval on the part of the authorities at the College of New Jersey. Today, Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary maintain separate institutions with ties that include such as cross-registration. Before the construction of Stanhope Hall in 1803, Nassau Hall was the sole building. The cornerstone of the building was laid on September 17,1754, during the summer of 1783, the Continental Congress met in Nassau Hall, making Princeton the countrys capital for four months. The class of 1879 donated twin lion sculptures that flanked the entrance until 1911, Nassau Halls bell rang after the halls construction, however, the fire of 1802 melted it. The bell was then recast and melted again in the fire of 1855, James McCosh took office as the colleges president in 1868 and lifted the institution out of a low period that had been brought about by the American Civil War. McCosh Hall is named in his honor, in 1879, the first thesis for a Doctor of Philosophy Ph. D. was submitted by James F. Williamson, Class of 1877. In 1896, the officially changed its name from the College of New Jersey to Princeton University to honor the town in which it resides
12.
Lawyer
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A lawyer is a person who practices law, as an advocate, barrister, attorney, counselor or solicitor or chartered legal executive. The role of the lawyer varies greatly across legal jurisdictions, in practice, legal jurisdictions exercise their right to determine who is recognized as being a lawyer. As a result, the meaning of the lawyer may vary from place to place. In Australia, the lawyer is used to refer to both barristers and solicitors. In Canada, the word lawyer refers to individuals who have been called to the bar or. Common law lawyers in Canada are formally and properly called barristers and solicitors, however, in Quebec, civil law advocates often call themselves attorney and sometimes barrister and solicitor in English. The Legal Services Act 2007 defines the activities that may only be performed by a person who is entitled to do so pursuant to the Act. Lawyer is not a protected title, in India, the term lawyer is often colloquially used, but the official term is advocate as prescribed under the Advocates Act,1961. In Scotland, the word refers to a more specific group of legally trained people. It specifically includes advocates and solicitors, in a generic sense, it may also include judges and law-trained support staff. In the United States, the term refers to attorneys who may practice law. It is never used to refer to patent agents or paralegals, in fact, there are regulatory restrictions on non-lawyers like paralegals practicing law. Other nations tend to have terms for the analogous concept. In most countries, particularly civil law countries, there has been a tradition of giving many legal tasks to a variety of civil law notaries, clerks, and scriveners. Several countries that originally had two or more legal professions have since fused or united their professions into a type of lawyer. Most countries in this category are common law countries, though France, in countries with fused professions, a lawyer is usually permitted to carry out all or nearly all the responsibilities listed below. Arguing a clients case before a judge or jury in a court of law is the province of the barrister in England. However, the boundary between barristers and solicitors has evolved, in England today, the barrister monopoly covers only appellate courts, and barristers must compete directly with solicitors in many trial courts
13.
Law of the United States
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The United States Code is the official compilation and codification of general and permanent federal statutory law. Federal law and treaties, so long as they are in accordance with the Constitution, preempt conflicting state and territorial laws in the 50 U. S. states, however, the scope of federal preemption is limited because the scope of federal power is not universal. Indeed, states may grant their citizens broader rights than the federal Constitution as long as they do not infringe on any federal constitutional rights. Thus, most U. S. law consists primarily of state law, which can and does vary greatly from one state to the next. At both the federal and state levels, the law of the United States is largely derived from the law system of English law. However, American law has diverged greatly from its English ancestor both in terms of substance and procedure, and has incorporated a number of civil law innovations. In the United States, the law is derived from five sources, constitutional law, statutory law, treaties, administrative regulations, where Congress enacts a statute that conflicts with the Constitution, the Supreme Court may find that law unconstitutional and declare it invalid. Notably, a statute does not disappear automatically merely because it has been found unconstitutional, many federal and state statutes have remained on the books for decades after they were ruled to be unconstitutional. However, under the principle of stare decisis, no sensible lower court will enforce an unconstitutional statute, conversely, any court that refuses to enforce a constitutional statute will risk reversal by the Supreme Court. The United States and most Commonwealth countries are heirs to the common law tradition of English law. Certain practices traditionally allowed under English common law were expressly outlawed by the Constitution, such as bills of attainder, as common law courts, U. S. courts have inherited the principle of stare decisis. The actual substance of English law was received into the United States in several ways. Some reception statutes impose a specific date for reception, such as the date of a colonys founding. Thus, contemporary U. S. Second, a number of important British statutes in effect at the time of the Revolution have been independently reenacted by U. S. states. Two examples that many lawyers will recognize are the Statute of Frauds, such English statutes are still regularly cited in contemporary American cases interpreting their modern American descendants. However, it is important to understand that despite the presence of reception statutes, early on, American courts, even after the Revolution, often did cite contemporary English cases. But citations to English decisions gradually disappeared during the 19th century as American courts developed their own principles to resolve the problems of the American people. The number of published volumes of American reports soared from eighteen in 1810 to over 8,000 by 1910
14.
Virginia
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Virginia is a state located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, as well as in the historic Southeast. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, the capital of the Commonwealth is Richmond, Virginia Beach is the most populous city, and Fairfax County is the most populous political subdivision. The Commonwealths estimated population as of 2014 is over 8.3 million, the areas history begins with several indigenous groups, including the Powhatan. In 1607 the London Company established the Colony of Virginia as the first permanent New World English colony, slave labor and the land acquired from displaced Native American tribes each played a significant role in the colonys early politics and plantation economy. Although the Commonwealth was under one-party rule for nearly a century following Reconstruction, the Virginia General Assembly is the oldest continuous law-making body in the New World. The state government was ranked most effective by the Pew Center on the States in both 2005 and 2008 and it is unique in how it treats cities and counties equally, manages local roads, and prohibits its governors from serving consecutive terms. Virginias economy changed from agricultural to industrial during the 1960s and 1970s. Virginia has an area of 42,774.2 square miles, including 3,180.13 square miles of water. Virginias boundary with Maryland and Washington, D. C. extends to the mark of the south shore of the Potomac River. The southern border is defined as the 36° 30′ parallel north, the border with Tennessee was not settled until 1893, when their dispute was brought to the U. S. Supreme Court. The Chesapeake Bay separates the portion of the Commonwealth from the two-county peninsula of Virginias Eastern Shore. The bay was formed from the river valleys of the Susquehanna River. Many of Virginias rivers flow into the Chesapeake Bay, including the Potomac, Rappahannock, York, and James, the Tidewater is a coastal plain between the Atlantic coast and the fall line. It includes the Eastern Shore and major estuaries of Chesapeake Bay, the Piedmont is a series of sedimentary and igneous rock-based foothills east of the mountains which were formed in the Mesozoic era. The region, known for its clay soil, includes the Southwest Mountains around Charlottesville. The Blue Ridge Mountains are a province of the Appalachian Mountains with the highest points in the state. The Ridge and Valley region is west of the mountains and includes the Great Appalachian Valley, the region is carbonate rock based and includes Massanutten Mountain. The Cumberland Plateau and the Cumberland Mountains are in the southwest corner of Virginia, in this region, rivers flow northwest, with a dendritic drainage system, into the Ohio River basin
15.
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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Texas
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Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Other major cities include Austin, the second most populous state capital in the U. S. Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State to signify its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the states struggle for independence from Mexico. The Lone Star can be found on the Texan state flag, the origin of Texass name is from the word Tejas, which means friends in the Caddo language. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10 percent of Texas land area is desert. Most of the centers are located in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the term six flags over Texas refers to several nations that have ruled over the territory. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas, Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the United States as the 28th state, the states annexation set off a chain of events that caused the Mexican–American War in 1846. A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, after the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. One Texan industry that thrived after the Civil War was cattle, due to its long history as a center of the industry, Texas is associated with the image of the cowboy. The states economic fortunes changed in the early 20th century, when oil discoveries initiated a boom in the state. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy, as of 2010 it shares the top of the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with California at 57. With a growing base of industry, the leads in many industries, including agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace. Texas has led the nation in export revenue since 2002 and has the second-highest gross state product. The name Texas, based on the Caddo word tejas meaning friends or allies, was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves, during Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas, La Provincia de Texas. Texas is the second largest U. S. state, behind Alaska, though 10 percent larger than France and almost twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Chile, Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers, the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south
17.
USS Princeton (1843)
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The first USS Princeton was a screw steam warship in the United States Navy. Commanded by Captain Robert F. Stockton, Princeton was launched on September 5,1843, the ships reputation in the Navy never recovered from a devastating incident early in her service. Upshur, Secretary of the Navy Thomas Walker Gilmer, and other high-ranking federal officials, President John Tyler, who was aboard but below decks, was not injured. Princeton was laid down on October 20,1842, at the Philadelphia Navy Yard as a 700 long tons corvette, the designer of the ship and main supervisor of construction was the Swedish inventor John Ericsson, who later designed the USS Monitor. The construction was supervised by Captain Stockton who had secured the political support for the construction of the ship. The ship was named after Princeton, New Jersey, site of an American victory in the Revolutionary War, the ship was christened with a bottle of American whiskey and launched on September 5,1843. It was ordered commissioned on September 9,1843, with Captain Stockton in command, Princeton made a trial trip in the Delaware River on October 12,1843. On November 22, Captain Stockton reported Princeton will be ready for sea in a week, on November 28, he dressed ship and received visitors on board for inspection. On November 30, she towed the USS Raritan down the Delaware, Princeton sailed on January 1,1844, for New York, where she received her two big guns, named Peacemaker and Oregon. Princeton was sent to Washington, D. C. in late January, washingtonians displayed great interest in the ship and her guns. She made trial trips with passengers on board down the Potomac River on February 16,18 and 20, after several test runs, the Princeton was considered ready. Princeton included the very first screw propellers powered by an engine mounted entirely below the waterline to avoid the vulnerability of paddle wheels and her two vibrating lever engines were built by Merrick & Towne, and designed by Ericsson. They burned hard coal and drove a six-bladed screw 14 ft in diameter, the engine was small enough to be below the waterline. Ericsson also designed the ships funnel, an improved range-finder. Twelve 42-pound carronades were mounted within the iron hull. Ericsson had designed the ship to mount one long gun, named the Oregon, Captain Stockton wanted his ship to carry two long guns and had the second, named Peacemaker, built in Philadelphia. The two guns fired identical shot, but the Peacemaker was built with older forging technology creating a gun of more impressive appearance. Both guns were mounted onto the Princeton, according to Kilner, the Peacemaker was fired only five times before certifying it as accurate and fully proofed
18.
Federalist Party
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The Federalist Party was the first American political party. It existed from the early 1790s to 1816, its remnants lasted into the 1820s, the Federalists called for a strong national government that promoted economic growth and fostered friendly relationships with Great Britain, as well as opposition to revolutionary France. The party controlled the government until 1801, when it was overwhelmed by the Democratic-Republican opposition led by Thomas Jefferson. The Federalist Party came into being between 1792 and 1794 as a coalition of bankers and businessmen in support of Alexander Hamiltons fiscal policies. These supporters developed into the organized Federalist Party, which was committed to a fiscally sound, the only Federalist president was John Adams, although George Washington was broadly sympathetic to the Federalist program, he remained officially non-partisan during his entire presidency. Federalist policies called for a bank, tariffs, and good relations with Great Britain as expressed in the Jay Treaty negotiated in 1794. Hamilton developed the concept of implied powers and successfully argued the adoption of that interpretation of the United States Constitution, the Jay Treaty passed, and the Federalists won most of the major legislative battles in the 1790s. They held a strong base in the cities and in New England. After the Democratic-Republicans, whose base was in the rural South, won the election of 1800. They recovered some strength by their opposition to the War of 1812. On taking office in 1789, President Washington nominated New York lawyer Alexander Hamilton to the office of Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton wanted a strong national government with financial credibility. James Madison was Hamiltons ally in the fight to ratify the new Constitution, Political parties had not been anticipated when the Constitution was drafted in 1787 and ratified in 1788, even though both Hamilton and Madison played major roles. Parties were considered to be divisive and harmful to republicanism, No similar parties existed anywhere in the world. By 1790 Hamilton started building a nationwide coalition and his attempts to manage politics in the national capital to get his plans through Congress, then, brought strong responses across the country. In the process, what began as a capital faction soon assumed status as a faction and then, finally. The Federalist Party supported Hamiltons vision of a centralized government. In foreign affairs, they supported neutrality in the war between France and Great Britain, the majority of the Founding Fathers were originally Federalists. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and many others can all be considered Federalists and these Federalists felt that the Articles of Confederation had been too weak to sustain a working government and had decided that a new form of government was needed
19.
Vaucluse (Bridgetown, Virginia)
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Vaucluse is a historic plantation house located near Bridgetown, Northampton County, Virginia. It is a complex, two-story, ell-shaped brick and frame structure with a gable roof, attached to the house is a 1 1/2-story quarter kitchen with brick ends. The brickended section of the house was built about 1784, with the addition to the house added in 1829, the annex connecting the house with the old kitchen was probably added in 1889. It was the home of Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur who died in the USS Princeton disaster of 1844 and his brother U. S. Navy Commander George P. Upshur, owned nearby Caserta from 1836 to 1847. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, vaucluse, State Route 619, Bridgetown, Northampton County, VA2 photos at Historic American Buildings Survey
20.
War of 1812
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Historians in the United States and Canada see it as a war in its own right, but the British often see it as a minor theatre of the Napoleonic Wars. By the wars end in early 1815, the key issues had been resolved, the view was shared in much of New England and for that reason the war was widely referred to there as Mr. Madison’s War. As a result, the primary British war goal was to defend their North American colonies, the war was fought in three theatres. Second, land and naval battles were fought on the U. S. –Canadian frontier, Third, large-scale battles were fought in the Southern United States and Gulf Coast. With the majority of its land and naval forces tied down in Europe fighting the Napoleonic Wars, early victories over poorly-led U. S. armies demonstrated that the conquest of the Canadas would prove more difficult than anticipated. Despite this, the U. S. was able to inflict serious defeats on Britains Native American allies, both governments were eager for a return to normality and peace negotiations began in Ghent in August 1814. This brought an Era of Good Feelings in which partisan animosity nearly vanished in the face of strengthened American nationalism, the war was also a major turning point in the development of the U. S. military, with militia being increasingly replaced by a more professional force. The U. S. also acquired permanent ownership of Spains Mobile District, the government of Canada declared a three-year commemoration of the War of 1812 in 2012, intended to offer historical lessons and celebrate 200 years of peace across the border. At the conclusion of the commemorations in 2014, a new national War of 1812 Monument was unveiled in Ottawa. The war is remembered in Britain primarily as a footnote in the much larger Napoleonic Wars occurring in Europe, historians have long debated the relative weight of the multiple reasons underlying the origins of the War of 1812. This section summarizes several contributing factors which resulted in the declaration of war by the United States, as Risjord notes, a powerful motivation for the Americans was the desire to uphold national honour in the face of what they considered to be British insults such as the Chesapeake–Leopard Affair. The approaching conflict was about violations of American rights, but it was also vindication of American identity. Americans at the time and historians since often called it the United States Second War of Independence, in 1807, Britain introduced a series of trade restrictions via a series of Orders in Council to impede neutral trade with France, with which Britain was at war. The United States contested these restrictions as illegal under international law, the American merchant marine had come close to doubling between 1802 and 1810, making it by far the largest neutral fleet. Britain was the largest trading partner, receiving 80% of U. S. cotton, the British public and press were resentful of the growing mercantile and commercial competition. The United States view was that Britains restrictions violated its right to trade with others, during the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy expanded to 176 ships of the line and 600 ships overall, requiring 140,000 sailors to man. The United States believed that British deserters had a right to become U. S. citizens and this meant that in addition to recovering naval deserters, it considered any United States citizens who were born British liable for impressment. Aggravating the situation was the reluctance of the United States to issue formal naturalization papers and it was estimated by the Admiralty that there were 11,000 naturalized sailors on United States ships in 1805
21.
Yale College
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Yale College is the undergraduate liberal arts college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the school of the university. Originally established to train Congregationalist ministers, the college began teaching humanities, at the same time, students began organizing extracurricular organizations, first literary societies, and later publications, sports teams, and singing groups. By the mid-19th century, it was the largest college in the United States, in 1847, it was joined by another undergraduate degree-granting school at Yale, the Sheffield Scientific School, which was absorbed into the college in the mid-20th century. The most distinctive feature of life is the schools system of residential colleges, established in 1932. All undergraduates live in these colleges after their year, when most live on the schools Old Campus. The Collegiate School was founded in 1701 by a charter drawn by ten congregationalist ministers led by James Pierpont, originally situated in Abraham Piersons home in Killingworth, Connecticut, the college moved to New Haven in 1718 and was renamed for Elihu Yale, an early benefactor. Founded as a school to train ministers, original curriculum included only coursework in theology, later in the century, William Graham Sumner, the first professor of sociology in the United States, introduced studies in the social sciences. The relaxation of curriculum came in tandem with expansion in the extracurriculum, participation and leadership in these groups was an important social signifier and a route to induction into prestigious senior societies. Thus extracurricular participation became central to student life and social advancement, by 1870, Yale was the largest undergraduate institution in the country. Two additional colleges were built by 1940, and two more in the 1960s, for most of its history, study at Yale was almost exclusively restricted to white Protestant men, often the children of alumni. Documented exceptions to this paradigm include Hawaiian native Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia, who became a student of Yale President Timothy Dwight in 1809, pennington, who was allowed to audit theology courses in 1837. Moses Simons, a descendent of a slave-holding South Carolinian family, has suggested to be the first Jew to graduate from Yale. Though his maternal ancestry is disputed, he may have also been the first person of African American descent to graduate from any American college. In the early 20th century, the student body was predominately old-stock, high-status Protestants, especially Episcopalians, Congregationalists, by the 1970s it was much more diversified. Enrollment at Yale only became competitive in the early 20th century, as late as the 1950s, tests and demographic questionnaires for admission to the college worked to exclude non-Christian men, especially Jews, as well as non-white men. By the mid-1960s these processes were becoming more meritocratic, focusing on recruitment of a racially, economically and geographically diverse student body and this meritocratic transition encouraged the university to establish the first need-blind admissions policy in the United States. After several decades of debate about coeducation, Yale College admitted its first class of women in 1969, in recent years, the college has focused on international recruitment, quadrupling the fraction of international students admitted between 1993 and 2013
22.
Richmond, Virginia
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Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. It is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond Region and it was incorporated in 1742, and has been an independent city since 1871. As of the 2010 census, the population was 204,214, in 2015, the population was estimated to be 220,289, the Richmond Metropolitan Area has a population of 1,260,029, the third-most populous metro in the state. Richmond is located at the line of the James River,44 miles west of Williamsburg,66 miles east of Charlottesville. Surrounded by Henrico and Chesterfield counties, the city is located at the intersections of Interstate 95 and Interstate 64, Major suburbs include Midlothian to the southwest, Glen Allen to the north and west, Short Pump to the west and Mechanicsville to the northeast. The site of Richmond had been an important village of the Powhatan Confederacy, and was settled by English colonists from Jamestown in 1609. The present city of Richmond was founded in 1737 and it became the capital of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia in 1780. During the American Civil War, Richmond served as the capital of the Confederate States of America, the city entered the 20th century with one of the worlds first successful electric streetcar systems. The Jackson Ward neighborhood is a hub of African-American commerce. Richmonds economy is driven by law, finance, and government, with federal, state. Dominion Resources and MeadWestvaco, Fortune 500 companies, are headquartered in the city, in 1737, planter William Byrd II commissioned Major William Mayo to lay out the original town grid. The settlement was laid out in April 1737, and was incorporated as a town in 1742, Richmond recovered quickly from the war, and by 1782 was once again a thriving city. A permanent home for the new government, the Virginia State Capitol building, was designed by Thomas Jefferson with the assistance of Charles-Louis Clérisseau, after the American Revolutionary War, Richmond emerged as an important industrial center. The legacy of the canal boatmen is represented by the figure in the center of the city flag, on April 17,1861, five days after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, the legislature voted to secede from the United States and joined the Confederacy. Official action came in May, after the Confederacy promised to move its capital to Richmond. It became the target of Union armies, especially in the campaigns of 1862. The Seven Days Battles followed in late June and early July 1862, during which Union General McClellan threatened to take Richmond, three years later, as March 1865 ended, the Confederate capitol became indefensible. On March 25, Confederate General John B, gordons desperate attack on Fort Stedman east of Petersburg failed
23.
Baltimore
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Baltimore is the largest city in the U. S. state of Maryland, and the 29th-most populous city in the country. It was established by the Constitution of Maryland and is not part of any county, thus, it is the largest independent city in the United States, with a population of 621,849 as of 2015. As of 2010, the population of the Baltimore Metropolitan Area was 2.7 million, founded in 1729, Baltimore is the second largest seaport in the Mid-Atlantic. Baltimores Inner Harbor was once the leading port of entry for immigrants to the United States. With hundreds of identified districts, Baltimore has been dubbed a city of neighborhoods, in the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key wrote The Star-Spangled Banner, later the American national anthem, in Baltimore. More than 65,000 properties, or roughly one in three buildings in the city, are listed on the National Register, more than any city in the nation. The city has 289 properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the historical records of the government of Baltimore are located at the Baltimore City Archives. The city is named after Cecil Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, of the Irish House of Lords, Baltimore Manor was the name of the estate in County Longford on which the Calvert family lived in Ireland. Baltimore is an anglicization of the Irish name Baile an Tí Mhóir, in 1608, Captain John Smith traveled 210 miles from Jamestown to the uppermost Chesapeake Bay, leading the first European expedition to the Patapsco River. The name Patapsco is derived from pota-psk-ut, which translates to backwater or tide covered with froth in Algonquian dialect, a quarter century after John Smiths voyage, English colonists began to settle in Maryland. The area constituting the modern City of Baltimore and its area was first settled by David Jones in 1661. He claimed the area today as Harbor East on the east bank of the Jones Falls stream. In the early 1600s, the immediate Baltimore vicinity was populated, if at all. The Baltimore area had been inhabited by Native Americans since at least the 10th millennium BC, one Paleo-Indian site and several Archaic period and Woodland period archaeological sites have been identified in Baltimore, including four from the Late Woodland period. During the Late Woodland period, the culture that is called the Potomac Creek complex resided in the area from Baltimore to the Rappahannock River in Virginia. It was located on the Bush River on land that in 1773 became part of Harford County, in 1674, the General Assembly passed An Act for erecting a Court-house and Prison in each County within this Province. The site of the house and jail for Baltimore County was evidently Old Baltimore near the Bush River. In 1683, the General Assembly passed An Act for Advancement of Trade to establish towns, ports, one of the towns established by the act in Baltimore County was on Bush River, on Town Land, near the Court-House
24.
Virginia House of Delegates
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The Virginia House of Delegates is one of two parts in the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years, unlike most states, these take place during odd-numbered years. The House is presided over by the Speaker of the House, the Speaker is almost always a member of the majority party and, as Speaker, becomes the most powerful member of the House. The House shares legislative power with the Senate of Virginia, the house of the Virginia General Assembly. The House of Delegates is the successor to the Virginia House of Burgesses. The House is divided into Democratic and Republican caucuses, in addition to the Speaker, there is a majority leader, majority caucus chair, minority leader, minority caucus chair, and the chairs of the several committees of the House. Through the House of Burgesses, the Virginia House of Delegates is considered the oldest continuous legislative body in the New World, originally having 22 members, the House of Burgesses met from 1619 through 1632 in the choir of the church at Jamestown. From 1632 to 1699 the legislative body met at four different state houses in Jamestown, the first state house convened at the home of Colonial Governor Sir John Harvey from 1632 to 1656. The burgesses convened at the state house from 1656 until it was destroyed in 1660. Historians have yet to identify its location. The House has met in Virginias Capitol Building, designed by Thomas Jefferson, the legislative body met from 1788 to 1904 in what is known as today the Old Hall of the House of Delegates or commonly referred to as the Old House Chamber. The Old House Chamber is part of the original Capitol building structure and it measures 76 feet in width and is filled today with furnishings that resemble what the room would have looked like during its time of use. There are many bronze and marble busts of historic Virginians on display in the Old House Chamber, including, George Mason, George Wythe, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, and Meriwether Lewis. From 1904 to 1906, University of Virginia graduate and architect John K. Peeples designed, the General Assembly members and staff operate from offices in the General Assembly Building, located in Capitol Square. Prior to 1788 the House of Delegates met in the Colonial Capital of Williamsburg, in 1999, Republicans took control of the long-time Democratic House of Delegates for the first time since Reconstruction. The annual salary for delegates is $17,640 per year, each delegate represents roughly 83,000 people. Candidates for office must be at least 21 years of age at the time of the election, residents of the districts they seek to represent, and qualified to vote for General Assembly legislators. The regular session of the General Assembly is 60 days long during even numbered years and 30 days long during odd numbered years, the House has 14 standing committees
25.
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
26.
States' rights
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The balance of federal powers and those powers held by the states as defined in the Supremacy Clause of the U. S. Constitution was first addressed in the case of McCulloch v. Maryland, the Supremacy Clause of the U. S. The Articles gave the government very little, if any. Gutzman argued that Governor Edmund Randolph designed the protest in the name of moderation, Gutzman argues that in 1798, Madison espoused states rights to defeat national legislation that he maintained was a threat to republicanism. During 1831–33, the South Carolina Nullifiers quoted Madison in their defense of states rights, the most vociferous supporters of states rights, such as John Randolph of Roanoke, were called Old Republicans into the 1820s and 1830s. Tate undertook a literary criticism of a book by John Taylor of Caroline. Tate argues it is structured as a forensic historiography modeled on the techniques of 18th-century Whig lawyers, Taylor believed that evidence from American history gave proof of state sovereignty within the union, against the arguments of nationalists such as U. S. Another states rights dispute occurred over the War of 1812, at the Hartford Convention of 1814–15, New England Federalists voiced opposition to President Madisons war, and discussed secession from the Union. One major and continuous strain on the union, from roughly 1820 through the Civil War, was the issue of trade, heavily dependent upon international trade, the almost entirely agricultural and export-oriented South imported most of its manufactured goods from Europe or obtained them from the North. The North, by contrast, had a growing industrial economy that viewed foreign trade as competition. Trade barriers, especially protective tariffs, were viewed as harmful to the Southern economy, in 1828, the Congress passed protective tariffs to benefit trade in the northern states, but that were detrimental to the South. Southerners vocally expressed their opposition in documents such as the South Carolina Exposition and Protest in 1828. Exposition and Protest was the work of South Carolina senator and former vice president John C, calhoun, formerly an advocate of protective tariffs and internal improvements at federal expense. South Carolinas Nullification Ordinance declared that both the tariff of 1828 and the tariff of 1832 were null and void within the borders of South Carolina. This action initiated the Nullification Crisis, over the following decades, another central dispute over states rights moved to the forefront. In contrast, opponents of slavery argued that the rights were violated both by that decision and by the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Exactly which—and whose—states rights were the casus belli in the Civil War remain in controversy, a major Southern argument in the 1850s was that banning slavery in the territories discriminated against states that allowed slavery, making them second-class states. In 1857 the Supreme Court sided with the states rights supporters, Southern states sometimes argued against states rights
27.
Nullification Crisis
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It ensued after South Carolina declared that the federal Tariffs of 1828 and 1832 were unconstitutional and therefore null and void within the sovereign boundaries of the state. The US suffered an economic downturn throughout the 1820s, and South Carolina was particularly affected, many South Carolina politicians blamed the change in fortunes on the national tariff policy that developed after the War of 1812 to promote American manufacturing over its European competition. The controversial and highly protective Tariff of 1828 was enacted into law during the presidency of John Quincy Adams, the tariff was opposed in the South and parts of New England. By 1828, South Carolina state politics increasingly organized around the tariff issue and its opponents expected that the election of Jackson as President would result in the tariff being significantly reduced. In Washington, a split on the issue occurred between Jackson and Vice President John C. Calhoun, a native South Carolinian and the most effective proponent of the theory of state nullification. On July 14,1832, before Calhoun had resigned the Vice Presidency in order to run for the Senate where he could effectively defend nullification, Jackson signed into law the Tariff of 1832. This compromise tariff received the support of most northerners and half of the southerners in Congress, military preparations to resist anticipated federal enforcement were initiated by the state. The South Carolina convention reconvened and repealed its Nullification Ordinance on March 15,1833, the crisis was over, and both sides could find reasons to claim victory. The tariff rates were reduced and stayed low to the satisfaction of the South, by the 1850s the issues of the expansion of slavery into the western territories and the threat of the Slave Power became the central issues in the nation. Later in the decade the Alien and Sedition Acts led to the states rights position being articulated in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. ”The key sentence, and the word nullification was used in supplementary Resolutions passed by Kentucky in 1799. He was chairman of a committee of the Virginia Legislature which issued a book-length Report on the Resolutions of 1798 and this asserted that the state did not claim legal force. The declarations in such cases are expressions of opinion, unaccompanied by other effect than what they may produce upon opinion, the opinions of the judiciary, on the other hand, are carried into immediate effect by force. But, the four presidential terms spanning the period from 1800 to 1817 did little to advance the cause of states’ rights and much to weaken it. ”Over Jefferson’s opposition, the power of the federal judiciary, led by Federalist Chief Justice John Marshall, increased. Jefferson expanded federal powers with the acquisition of the Louisiana Territory, opposition to the War of 1812 was centered in New England. Delegates to a convention in Hartford, Connecticut met in December 1814 to consider a New England response to Madison’s war policy, the debate allowed many radicals to argue the cause of states’ rights and state sovereignty. In the end, moderate voices dominated and the product was not secession or nullification. After the conclusion of the War of 1812 Sean Wilentz notes, This spirit of nationalism was linked to the tremendous growth and economic prosperity of this post war era
28.
South Carolina
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South Carolina /ˌsaʊθ kærəˈlaɪnə/ is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. The state is bordered to the north by North Carolina, to the south and west by Georgia across the Savannah River, South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the U. S. Constitution, doing so on May 23,1788. South Carolina became the first state to vote to secede from the Union on December 20,1860, after the American Civil War, it was readmitted into the United States on June 25,1868. South Carolina is the 40th most extensive and the 23rd most populous U. S. state and its GDP as of 2013 was $183.6 billion, with an annual growth rate of 3. 13%. The capital and largest city is Columbia with a 2013 population of 133,358, South Carolina is named in honor of King Charles I of England, under whose reign the English colony was first formed, with Carolus being Latin for Charles. There is evidence of activity in the area about 12000 years ago. Along the Savannah River were the Apalachee, Yuchi, and the Yamasee, further west were the Cherokee, and along the Catawba River, the Catawba. These tribes were village-dwellers, relying on agriculture as their food source. The Cherokee lived in wattle and daub houses made with wood and clay, about a dozen separate small tribes summered on the coast harvesting oysters and fish, and cultivating corn, peas and beans. Travelling inland as much as 50 miles mostly by canoe, they wintered on the plain, hunting deer and gathering nuts. The names of these survive in place names like Edisto Island, Kiawah Island. The Spanish were the first Europeans in the area, in 1521, founding San Miguel de Gualdape, established with 500 settlers, it was abandoned within a year by 150 survivors. In 1562 French settlers established a settlement at what is now the Charlesfort-Santa Elena archaeological site on Parris Island, three years later the Spanish built a fort on the same site, but withdrew following hostilities with the English navy. In 1629, King Charles I of England established the Province of Carolina an area covering what is now South and North Carolina, Georgia, in the 1670s, English planters from the Barbados established themselves near what is now Charleston. Settlers built rice plantations in the South Carolina Lowcountry, east of the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, settlers came from all over Europe. Plantation labor was done by African slaves who formed the majority of the population by 1720, another cash crop was the Indigo plant, a plant source of blue dye, developed by Eliza Lucas. Meanwhile, in Upstate South Carolina, west of the Fall Line, was settled by farmers and traders. Colonists overthrew the rule, seeing more direct representation
29.
Joseph Story
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Joseph Story was an American lawyer and jurist who served on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1811 to 1845. Dominating the field in the 19th century, this work is a cornerstone of early American jurisprudence and it is the second comprehensive treatise on the provisions of the U. S. Constitution and remains a source of historical information about the forming of the American republic. Historians agree that Justice Joseph Story reshaped American law—as much or more than Marshall or anyone else—in a conservative direction that protected property rights. He was uniquely honored in the historical Steven Spielberg film Amistad when he was portrayed by retired Associate Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court Harry Blackmun. Justice Blackmun portrays Justice Story reading the Supreme Courts decision in the case in which the film was based and this is the only time in known film history that an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court has portrayed another Associate Justice. Story was born at Marblehead, Massachusetts and his father was Dr. Elisha Story, a member of the Sons of Liberty who took part in the Boston Tea Party in 1773. Dr. Story moved from Boston to Marblehead during the American Revolutionary War and his first wife, Ruth died and Story remarried in November 1778, to Mehitable Pedrick, nineteen, the daughter of a wealthy shipping merchant who lost his fortune during the war. Joseph was the first-born of eleven children of the second marriage, as a boy, Joseph studied at the Marblehead Academy until the fall of 1794, where he was taught by schoolmaster William Harris, later president of Columbia University. At Marblehead he chastized a fellow schoolmate and Harris responded by beating him in front of the school, Story was accepted at Harvard University in January 1795, he joined Adelphi, a student-run literary review, and was admitted to the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He graduated from Harvard in 1798, second in his class behind William Ellery Channing and he read law in Marblehead under Samuel Sewall, then a congressman and later chief justice of Massachusetts. He later read law under Samuel Putnam in Salem and he was admitted to the bar at Salem, Massachusetts in 1801. As the only lawyer in Essex County aligned with the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans, Story was also writing poetry and, in 1804, published The Power of Solitude, one of the first long poems by an American. There he led the effort to end the Jefferson embargo of maritime commerce and he re-entered private practice in Salem, and was again elected to the state House of Representatives, where he was chosen Speaker in 1811. Oliver, died in June 1805, shortly after their marriage, in August 1808, he married Sarah Waldo Wetmore, the daughter of Judge William Wetmore of Boston. They had seven children but only two, Mary and William Wetmore Story, would survive to adulthood and their son became a noted poet and sculptor—his bust of his father was mounted in the Harvard Law School Library—who would later publish The Life and Letters of Joseph Story. Volume I and Volume II Story was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1810, and he would later serve as that societys vice-president from 1831-1845. In November 1811, at the age of thirty-two, Story became the youngest Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, president James Madison nominated Story on November 15,1811 to a seat vacated by William Cushing
30.
Officer (armed forces)
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An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. In this sense, officers are not enlisted, but hold appointments from their government that typically remain in force indefinitely unless resigned, the proportion of officers varies greatly. Officers typically make up between an eighth and a fifth of modern armed forces personnel, in 2013, officers were the senior 17% of the British armed forces, and the senior 13. 7% of the French armed forces. In 2012, officers made up about 18% of the German armed forces, historically, however, armed forces have generally had much lower proportions of officers. During the First World War, fewer than 5% of British soldiers were officers, in the early twentieth century, the Spanish army had the highest proportion of officers of any European army, at 12. 5%. Within a nations armed forces, armies tend to have a proportion of officers. For example,13. 9% of British army personnel and 22. 2% of the RAF personnel were officers in 2013, having officers is one requirement for combatant status under the laws of war, though these officers need not have obtained an official commission or warrant. Commissioned officers are typically the only persons, in an armed forces environment, a superior officer is an officer with a higher rank than another officer, who is a subordinate officer relative to the superior. Non-commissioned officers in positions of authority can be said to have control or charge rather than command per se, many advanced militaries require university degrees as a prerequisite for commissioning, even from the enlisted ranks. In the Israel Defense Forces, a university degree is a requirement for an officer to advance to the rank of lieutenant colonel, the IDF often sponsors the studies for its majors, while aircrew and naval officers obtain academic degrees as a part of their training programmes. In the United Kingdom, there are three routes of entry for British Armed Forces officers, the first, and primary route are those who receive their commission directly into the officer grades following completion at their relevant military academy. The third route is similar to the second, in that they convert from an enlisted to a commission, but these are taken from the highest ranks of SNCOs. LE officers, whilst holding the same Queens Commission, generally work in different roles from the DE officers, in the infantry, a number of Warrant Officer Class 1s are commissioned as LE officers. For Royal Navy and Royal Air Force officer candidates, a 30-week period at Britannia Royal Naval College or a 30-week period at RAF College Cranwell, Royal Marines officers receive their training in the Command Wing of the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines during a grueling 15-month course. The courses consist of not only tactical and combat training, but also leadership, management, etiquette, until the Cardwell Reforms of 1871, commissions in the British Army were purchased by officers. The Royal Navy, however, operated on a more meritocratic, or at least socially mobile, AOCS also also included the embedded Aviation Reserve Officer Candidate and Naval Aviation Cadet programs. NAVCADs were personnel who held associates degrees, but lacked bachelors degrees, nAVCADs would complete the entire AOCS program, but would not be commissioned until completion of flight training and receiving their wings. After their initial tour, they would be assigned to a college or university full-time for no more than two years in order to complete their bachelors degree
31.
United States Naval Observatory
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The USNO operates the Master Clock, which provides precise time to the GPS satellite constellation run by the United States Air Force. The USNO performs radio VLBI-based positions of quasars with numerous global collaborators, aside from its scientific mission, a house located within the Naval Observatory complex serves as the official residence of the Vice President of the United States. President John Quincy Adams, who in 1825 signed the bill for the creation of an observatory just before leaving presidential office, had intended for it to be called the National Observatory. The names National Observatory and Naval Observatory were both used for 10 years, until a ruling was passed to use the latter. Adams had made protracted efforts to bring astronomy to a level at that time. He spent many nights at the observatory, watching and charting the stars, established by the order of the United States Secretary of the Navy John Branch on 6 December 1830 as the Depot of Charts and Instruments, the Observatory rose from humble beginnings. Placed under the command of Lieutenant Louis M. Goldsborough, with an budget of $330, its primary function was the restoration, repair. It was made into an observatory in 1842 via a federal law. Lieutenant James Melville Gilliss was put in charge of obtaining the instruments needed, lt. Gilliss visited the principal observatories of Europe with the mission to purchase telescopes and scientific devices and books. The observatorys primary mission was to care for the United States Navys marine chronometers, charts and it calibrated ships chronometers by timing the transit of stars across the meridian. These facilities were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017, the first superintendent was Navy Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury. Maury had the worlds first vulcanized time ball, created to his specifications by Charles Goodyear for the U. S. Observatory and it was the first time ball in the United States, being placed into service in 1845, and the 12th in the world. Maury kept accurate time by the stars and planets, the time ball was dropped every day except Sunday precisely at the astronomically defined moment of Mean Solar Noon, enabling all ships and civilians to know the exact time. Time was also sold to the railroads and was used in conjunction with railroad chronometers to schedule American rail transport, early in the 20th century, the Arlington Time Signal broadcast this service to wireless receivers. In 1849 the Nautical Almanac Office was established in Cambridge, Massachusetts as a separate organization and it was moved to Washington, D. C. in 1866, colocating with the U. S. Naval Observatory in 1893. On September 20,1894, the NAO became a branch of USNO, the astronomical measurements taken of the transit of Venus by a number of countries since 1639 resulted in a progressively more accurate definition of the AU. Relying heavily on methods, the naval observers returned 350 photographic plates in 1874. This calculated distance was a significant improvement over several previous estimates, the telescope used for the discovery of the Moons of Mars was the 26-inch refractor, then located at Foggy Bottom
32.
Republic of Texas
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The Republic of Texas was an independent sovereign country in North America that existed from March 2,1836, to February 19,1846. The citizens of the republic were known as Texians, the Mexican province of Tejas declared its independence from Mexico during the Texas Revolution in 1836. The United States recognized the Republic of Texas in March 1837, the Republic-claimed borders were based upon the Treaties of Velasco between the newly created Texas Republic and Antonio López de Santa Anna of Mexico. The republics southern and western boundary with Mexico continued to be disputed throughout the republics existence, Texas claimed the Rio Grande as its southern boundary, while Mexico insisted that the Nueces River was the boundary. However, the United States again inherited the southern and western border dispute with Mexico, Texas had been one of the Provincias Internas of New Spain, a region known historiographically as Spanish Texas. Though claimed by Spain, it was not formally colonized by them until competing French interests at Fort St. Louis encouraged Spain to establish permanent settlements in the area. Sporadic missionary incursions occurred into the area during the period from the 1690s–1710s, in 1762, France ceded to Spain most of its claims to the interior of North America, including its claim to Texas, as well as the vast interior that became Spanish Louisiana. During the years 1799 to 1803, the height of the Napoleonic Empire, Spain returned Louisiana back to France, starting in 1810, the territories of New Spain north of the Isthmus of Panama sought independence in the Mexican War of Independence. Many Americans fought on the side of Mexico against Spain in filibustering expeditions, one of these, the Gutiérrez–Magee Expedition consisted of a group of about 130 Americans under the leadership of Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara. Gutierrez de Lara initiated Mexicos secession from Spain with efforts contributed by Magee, bolstered by new recruits, and led Samuel Kemper, the expedition gained a series of victories against soldiers led by the Spanish governor, Manuel María de Salcedo. Their victory at the Battle of Rosillo Creek convinced Salcedo to surrender on April 1,1813, on April 6,1813, the victorious Republican Army of the North drafted a constitution and declared the independent Republic of Texas, with Gutiérrez as its president. Soon disillusioned with the Mexican leadership, the Americans under Kemper returned to the United States, the ephemeral Republic of Texas came to an end following the August 18,1813 Battle of Medina, where the Spanish Army crushed the Republican Army of the North. Since Mexican independence had been ratified by Spain shortly thereafter, Austin would later travel to Mexico City to secure the support of the new country in his right to settle. The establishment of Mexican Texas coincided with the Austin-led settlement, leading to animosity between Mexican authorities and ongoing American settlement of Texas, the First Mexican Empire was short lived, being replaced by a republican form of government in 1823. Following Austins lead, additional groups of settlers, known as Empresarios, in 1830, Mexican President Anastasio Bustamante outlawed American immigration to Texas, following several conflicts with the Empresarios over the status of slavery in the region. Angered at the interference of the Mexican government, the Empresarios held the Convention of 1832, on the eve of war, the American settlers in the area outnumbered Mexicans by a considerable margin. Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna revoked the 1824 Constitution of Mexico, the Texian leadership under Austin began to organize its own military, and hostilities broke out on October 2,1835 at the Battle of Gonzales, the first engagement of the Texas Revolution. In November,1835 a provisional government known as the Consultation was established to oppose the Santa Anna regime, on March 1,1836 the Convention of 1836 came to order, and the next day declared independence from Mexico, establishing the Republic of Texas
33.
Isaac Van Zandt
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Isaac Van Zandt was a political leader in the Republic of Texas. Van Zandt County, Texas, was named in his honor, Van Zandt was born in Franklin County, Tennessee in the United States to Jacob and Mary Isaacs Van Zandt. The Van Zandt family had migrated to America from Holland prior to the American Revolutionary War, in 1833 he married Frances Lipscomb and went into a joint business venture with his father by opening a store. Van Zandt later moved to Coffeeville, Mississippi, where he opened his own store, after experiencing financial difficulties after the depression of 1837, Van Zandt became interested in a debate society which enabled him to use his natural talent for public speaking. This spurred an interest in law and within a year he was a member of the Mississippi bar and he came to the Republic of Texas in 1838 and settled in Elysian Fields in what was then Panola County. In 1839 he moved to what is now Marshall, Texas, in 1841 Van Zandt donated land, along with Peter Whetestone, to create a county seat for Harrison County. Van Zandt named the new city in honor of the Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court John Marshall. As the Republic of Texas ambassador to the United States Van Zandt was instrumental in crafting the Annexation Treaty of the Republic of Texas to the U. S and he returned to Texas in 1845 to serve as a delegate to the Texas state constitutional convention. Van Zandt died during a fever epidemic in Houston while campaigning for governor in 1847. The Van Zandt family donated their plantation as the site for the College of Marshall in 1912, in 1936 a memorial was constructed in Canton, the seat of Van Zandt County. Isaac Van Zandt is the father of Texas politician and businessman K. M. Van Zandt and his sister Ida Van Zandt Jarvis, a generous benefactor, isaac was also the third great-grandfather of country music songwriter and performer Townes Van Zandt. Papers, 1774-1953 and undated, of son Khleber Miller Van Zandt in the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library at Texas Tech University
34.
Oregon boundary dispute
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Through these treaties the British and Americans gained residual territorial claims in the disputed area. The Oregon Dispute began to become important in geopolitical diplomacy between the British Empire and the new American Republic, especially after the War of 1812. In the 1844 U. S. presidential election, ending the Oregon Question by annexing the area was a position adopted by the Democratic Party. Some scholars have claimed the Whig Partys lack of interest in the issue was due to its relative insignificance among other more pressing domestic issues, Democratic candidate James K. Polk appealed to the popular theme of manifest destiny and expansionist sentiment, defeating Whig Henry Clay. Polk sent the British government the previously offered partition along the 49th parallel, subsequent negotiations faltered as the British plenipotentiaries still argued for a border along the Columbia River. The turmoil gave rise to such as Fifty-four Forty or Fight. Just before the outbreak of the Mexican–American War, Polk returned to his position of a border along the 49th parallel. As a result, a portion of the Tsawwassen Peninsula, Point Roberts. Vague wording in the treaty left the ownership of the San Juan Islands in doubt, during the so-called Pig War, both nations agreed to a joint military occupation of the islands. Kaiser Wilhelm I of the German Empire was selected as an arbitrator to end the dispute, there the Haro Strait became the border line, rather than the British favored Rosario Strait. The border established by the Oregon Treaty and finalized by the arbitration in 1872 remains the boundary between the United States and Canada in the Pacific Northwest, the Oregon Question originated in the 18th century during the early European or American exploration of the Pacific Northwest. Various Empires began to consider the area suitable for expansion, including the Americans, Russians. Overland explorations were commenced by the British Alexander Mackenzie in 1792 and later followed by the American Lewis and Clark expedition and these explorers often claimed in the name of their respective governments sovereignty over the Northwest Coast. The knowledge of fur-bearing animal populations like the California sea lion, North American beaver, the fur trade would remain the main economic interest that drew Euro-Americans to the Pacific Northwest for decades. Merchants exchanged goods for fur pelts along the coast with indigenous nations such as the Chinookan people, the Aleuts, a series of Expeditions to the Pacific Northwest were financed by the Spanish to strengthen their claims to the region. Creating a colony called Santa Cruz de Nuca on Vancouver Island, a period of tensions with the United Kingdom, called the Nootka Crisis, arose after the Spanish seized a British vessel. However the three Nootka Conventions averted conflict, with both agreeing to protect their mutual access to Friendly Cove against outside powers. While the Spanish colony was abandoned, a border delineating the northern reaches of New Spain wasnt included, with the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, the Spanish formally withdrew all formal claims to lands north of the 42° north
35.
Oregon Country
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The Oregon Country was a predominantly American term referring to a disputed region of the Pacific Northwest of North America. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 ended disputed joint occupancy pursuant to the Treaty of 1818, Oregon was a distinctly American term for the region. The British used the term Columbia District instead, the area now forms part of the present day Canadian province of British Columbia, all of the US states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, and parts of Montana and Wyoming. George Vancouver explored Puget Sound in 1792, Vancouver claimed it for Great Britain on 4 June 1792, naming it for one of his officers, Lieutenant Peter Puget. Alexander Mackenzie was the first European to cross North America by land north of New Spain, arriving at Bella Coola on what is now the Central Coast of British Columbia in 1793. From 1805 to 1806 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark explored the territory for the United States on the Lewis, Thompson was the first European to voyage down the entire length of Columbia River. Along the way, his party camped at the junction with the Snake River on July 9,1811 and he erected a pole and a notice claiming the country for Great Britain and stating the intention of the North West Company to build a trading post on the site. The earliest evidence of the name Oregon has Spanish origins and this chronicle is the first topographical and linguistic source with respect to the place name Oregon. There are also two other sources with Spanish origins such as the name Oregano which grows in the part of the region. Another subsequent theory is that French Canadian fur company employees called the Columbia River hurricane river le fleuve douragan and this theory was endorsed in Oregon Geographic Names as the most plausible explanation. The Oregon Country was originally claimed by Great Britain, France, Russia, and Spain, the extent of the region being claimed was vague at first, evolving over decades into the specific borders specified in the US-British treaty of 1818. The U. S. based its claim in part on Robert Grays entry of the Columbia River in 1792, Great Britain based its claim in part on British overland explorations of the Columbia River by David Thompson and on prior discovery and exploration along the Coast. Spains claim was based on the Inter caetera and Treaty of Tordesillas of 1493-94, Spain gave up its claims of exclusivity via the Nootka Conventions of the 1790s. Spain later relinquished any remaining claims to territory north of the 42nd parallel to the United States as part of the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819. In the 1820s, Russia gave up its claims south of 54°40′ and east of the 141st meridian in separate treaties with the United States and Britain. Meanwhile, the United States and Britain negotiated the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 that extended the boundary between their territories west along the 49th parallel to the Rocky Mountains, the two countries agreed to joint occupancy of the land west of the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean. Chief Factor John McLoughlin, as HBCs manager in the Columbia District, applied the law to British subjects and sought to maintain law and order over American settlers, in 1843 settlers established their own government, called the Provisional Government of Oregon. A legislative committee drafted a code of laws known as the Organic Law and it included the creation of an executive committee of three, a judiciary, militia, land laws, and four counties
36.
49th parallel north
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The 49th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 49 degrees north of the Earths equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, the city of Paris is about 15 km south of the 49th parallel and is the largest city between the 48th and 49th parallels. Its main airport, Charles de Gaulle Airport, lies on the parallel. S, side, more specifically from the Strait of Georgia to the Lake of the Woods. Slightly less than 1/8 of the Earths surface is north of the 49th parallel, starting at the Prime Meridian and heading eastwards, the parallel 49° north passes through, The Peace Arch is a large monument between Surrey, British Columbia, and Blaine, Washington. It is the centerpiece of Peace Arch Park and it has as its focal point the Peace Tower. The Stadtgarten in Karlsruhe, Germany, marks the 49th parallel with a stone, however, it is often difficult to precisely determine the location of a watershed in a region of level plains, such as in central North America. Both sides gained and lost some territory by this convention, but the United States gained more than it lost, a geographical oversight at the Lake of the Woods resulted in the creation of the Northwest Angle. Their power was ceded by conquest and treaty during the several decades that followed. Among these peoples, the 49th parallel was nicknamed the Medicine Line because of its seemingly magical ability to prevent U. S. soldiers from crossing it. In the 1844 U. S. presidential election, the Democratic Party asserted that the border of the Oregon Territory should be 54°40′. However, the Oregon boundary dispute was settled diplomatically in the 1846 Oregon Treaty and this had the side effect of isolating Point Roberts, Washington. S. The three Maritime provinces are entirely south of the parallel, but the vast majority of Canadian territory lies north of it. The surveys were subject to the limitations of early to mid-19th century technology, however, in some places the surveyed 49th parallel is several hundred feet from the geographical 49th parallel for the currently adopted datum, the North American Datum of 1983. The Digital Chart of the World, which uses the Clarke 1866 ellipsoid, reports the border on average at latitude 48° 59′ 51″ north and it ranges between 48° 59′ 25″ and 49° 0′ 10″ north,810 metres and 590 metres on either side of the average. In any case, the Earths North Pole moves around slightly, notionally moving the 49th and other parallels with it, the Northwest Angle is the only part of the contiguous 48 states that goes north of the 49th parallel. This was due to a map that showed the source of the Mississippi River as being north of the 49th parallel. At the time that the United States and Great Britain agreed on the 49th parallel as the boundary, after the boundary was established, British surveyors discovered that Point Roberts lay south of the 49th parallel. The British requested that the United States cede the territory to Great Britain, in 1909 the United States, United Kingdom and Canada signed and ratified a treaty confirming the original survey lines as the official and permanent international border
37.
Steamship
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A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically drive propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships came into usage during the early 1800s, however. Steamships usually use the designations of PS for paddle steamer or SS for screw steamer. As paddle steamers became less common, SS is assumed by many to stand for steam ship, Ships powered by internal combustion engines use a prefix such as MV for motor vessel, so it is not correct to use SS for most modern vessels. The steamship was preceded by smaller vessels designed for insular transportation, once the technology of steam was mastered at this level, steam engines were mounted on larger, and eventually, ocean-going vessels. Becoming reliable, and propelled by screw rather than paddlewheels, the changed the design of ships for faster. Paddlewheels as the main motive source became standard on these early vessels and it was an effective means of propulsion under ideal conditions but otherwise had serious drawbacks. Within a few decades of the development of the river and canal steamboat, the first sea-going steamboat was Richard Wrights first steamboat Experiment, an ex-French lugger, she steamed from Leeds to Yarmouth in July 1813. She carried passengers and freight to Paris in 1822 at an speed of 8 knots. The American ship SS Savannah first crossed the Atlantic Ocean, another claimant is the Canadian ship SS Royal William in 1833. The SS Archimedes, built in Britain in 1839 by Francis Pettit Smith, was the worlds first steamship to be driven by a screw propeller. It had considerable influence on development, encouraging the adoption of screw propulsion by the Royal Navy. The key innovation that made ocean-going steamers viable was the change from the paddle-wheel to the screw-propeller as the mechanism of propulsion and these steamships quickly became more popular, because the propellers efficiency was consistent regardless of the depth at which it operated. Being smaller in size and mass and being submerged, it was also far less prone to damage. The development of screw propulsion relied on the technological innovations. Steam engines had to be designed with the power delivered at the bottom of the machinery, a paddle steamers engines drive a shaft that is positioned above the waterline, with the cylinders positioned below the shaft. SS Great Britain used chain drive to power from a paddlers engine to the propeller shaft - the result of a late design change to propeller propulsion. An effective stern tube and associated bearings were required, the stern tube contains the propeller shaft where it passes through the hull structure
38.
Congressional Cemetery
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The Congressional Cemetery or Washington Parish Burial Ground is a historic and active cemetery located at 1801 E Street, SE, in Washington, D. C. on the west bank of the Anacostia River. It is the only American cemetery of national memory founded before the Civil War, over 65,000 individuals are buried or memorialized at the cemetery, including many who helped form the nation and the city of Washington in the early 19th century. Though the cemetery is owned, the U. S. government owns 806 burial plots administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Congress, located about a mile and a half to the northwest, has influenced the history of the cemetery. The cemetery still sells plots, and is a burial ground. From the Washington Metro, the cemetery lies three blocks east of the Potomac Avenue station and two south of the Stadium-Armory station. Many members of the U. S. Congress who died while Congress was in session are interred at Congressional Cemetery, other burials include early landowners and speculators, the builders and architects of early Washington, Native American diplomats, Washington mayors, and Civil War veterans. Nineteenth-century Washington, D. C. families unaffiliated with the government also have graves. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 23,1969, by 1817 sites were set aside for government legislators and officials, this includes cenotaphs for many legislators buried elsewhere. The cenotaphs, designed by Benjamin Latrobe, each have a square block with recessed panels set on a wider plinth. From 1823 to 1876 the U. S. Congress funded the expansion, enhancement, and maintenance of the cemetery, but it never became a Federal institution. Appropriations funded a gravel road from the Capitol to the cemetery, paving within the cemetery, the vault, fencing, and the gatehouse, as well as funerals for congressmen. The grid survives to day and was extended as the cemetery expanded. Starting in the late 1840s, the cemetery was influenced by the rural cemetery movement in which the graves were placed in a setting with extensive landscaping. To implement this new vision, the cemetery needed to expand, between 1849 and 1869 the cemetery grew in area to 35.75 acres. The original cemetery was located on block 1115 on E Street between 18th and 19th Streets Southeast in 1808, in 1849, it doubled in size by acquiring the block to its south,1116. In 1853, it expanded to the east on blocks 1130,1148 and 1149 between F and G Streets Southeast, in 1853-53, the cemetery expanded to the west by acquiring block 1104, between 17th Street and 18th Streets Southeast. In 1858, the cemetery acquired block 1105 and Reservation 13, in 1859, it added blocks 1105 and 1123
39.
Washington, D.C.
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing
40.
Oak Hill Cemetery (Washington, D.C.)
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Oak Hill Cemetery is a historic 22-acre cemetery located in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D. C. in the United States. It was founded in 1848 and completed in 1853, and is an example of a garden cemetery. Oak Hill has two structures which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel and the Van Ness Mausoleum. Oak Hill began in 1848 as part of the rural cemetery movement, directly inspired by the success of Mount Auburn Cemetery and he then organized the Cemetery Company to oversee Oak Hill, it was incorporated by act of Congress on March 3,1849. Oak Hills chapel was built in 1849 by noted architect James Renwick and his one story rectangular chapel measures 23 by 41 feet and sits on the cemeterys highest ridge. It is built of granite, in Gothic Revival style. By 1851, landscape designer Captain George F. de la Roche finished laying out the winding paths, when initial construction was completed in 1853, Corcoran had spent over $55,000 on the cemeterys landscaping and architecture. Barry, Brevet Brigadier General in the Union Army and Representative from Mississippi Alice Birney, Army, acting Secretary of War under President Andrew Johnson Theodore Timby, inventor of the revolving turret first introduced on the Civil War ship USS Monitor, and many other inventions. His portrait of Ulysses S. Grant hangs in the White House, with brother Julius had photographic studio in Washington DC. National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary
41.
Destroyer
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Before World War II, destroyers were light vessels with little endurance for unattended ocean operations, typically a number of destroyers and a single destroyer tender operated together. After the war, the advent of the missile allowed destroyers to take on the surface combatant roles previously filled by battleships. This resulted in larger and more powerful guided missile destroyers more capable of independent operation, the emergence and development of the destroyer was related to the invention of the self-propelled torpedo in the 1860s. A navy now had the potential to destroy an enemy battle fleet using steam launches to launch torpedoes. Fast boats armed with torpedoes were built and called torpedo boats, the first seagoing vessel designed to fire the self-propelled Whitehead torpedo was the 33-ton HMS Lightning in 1876. She was armed with two drop collars to launch these weapons, these were replaced in 1879 by a torpedo tube in the bow. By the 1880s, the type had evolved into small ships of 50–100 tons, in response to this new threat, more heavily gunned picket boats called catchers were built which were used to escort the battle fleet at sea. The anti-torpedo boat origin of this type of ship is retained in its name in other languages, including French, Italian, Portuguese, Czech, Greek, Dutch and, up until the Second World War, Polish. At that time, and even into World War I, the function of destroyers was to protect their own battle fleet from enemy torpedo attacks. The task of escorting merchant convoys was still in the future, an important development came with the construction of HMS Swift in 1884, later redesignated TB81. This was a torpedo boat with four 47 mm quick-firing guns. At 23.75 knots, while still not fast enough to engage torpedo boats reliably. Another forerunner of the torpedo boat destroyer was the Japanese torpedo boat Kotaka, designed to Japanese specifications and ordered from the London Yarrow shipyards in 1885, she was transported in parts to Japan, where she was assembled and launched in 1887. The 165-foot long vessel was armed with four 1-pounder quick-firing guns and six torpedo tubes, reached 19 knots, in her trials in 1889, Kotaka demonstrated that she could exceed the role of coastal defense, and was capable of accompanying larger warships on the high seas. The Yarrow shipyards, builder of the parts for the Kotaka, the first vessel designed for the explicit purpose of hunting and destroying torpedo boats was the torpedo gunboat. Essentially very small cruisers, torpedo gunboats were equipped with torpedo tubes, by the end of the 1890s torpedo gunboats were made obsolete by their more successful contemporaries, the torpedo boat destroyers, which were much faster. The first example of this was HMS Rattlesnake, designed by Nathaniel Barnaby in 1885, the gunboat was armed with torpedoes and designed for hunting and destroying smaller torpedo boats. Exactly 200 feet long and 23 feet in beam, she displaced 550 tons, built of steel, Rattlesnake was un-armoured with the exception of a 3⁄4-inch protective deck
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USS Abel P. Upshur (DD-193)
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USS Abel P. Upshur was a Clemson-class destroyer in the service of the United States Navy until traded to Britain at the beginning of World War II where she served as HMS Clare. Named after Secretary of the Navy, Abel Parker Upshur, she was laid down on 20 August 1918 at Newport News, following her commissioning, the destroyer was assigned to Destroyer Division 37, Squadron 3, Atlantic Fleet. She cruised along the east coast, taking part in fleet exercises, the ship was placed out of commission at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 7 August 1922. Her name was struck from the Navy list. The ship served the Coast Guard attempting to prevent the smuggling of liquor into the United States. Abel P. Upshur was returned to Navy custody on 21 May 1934 but was laid up at Philadelphia until 4 December 1939, the ship operated along the east coast on neutrality enforcement patrols. On 9 September 1940, Abel P. Upshur was decommissioned at Halifax, the vessel was transferred to Britain under an agreement by which, the United States exchanged 50 overage destroyers for bases on British colonial territory in the Atlantic. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 8 January 1941. As HMS Clare, she was assigned to the 1st Town Flotilla and arrived at Belfast, Northern Ireland, Clare joined Escort Group 7 and escorted transatlantic convoys. On 20 February 1941, she rescued the crew of the sinking British steamship Rigmor, in the early hours of 21 February, the destroyer collided with the motor vessel Petertoum and suffered some damage. After undergoing repairs at Plymouth, England, between March and October, Clare resumed convoy duty with Escort Group 41, Western Approaches Command, Clare was modified for long range trade convoy escort service by removal of the two forward boilers and substitution of additional fuel tanks. This modification improved endurance but reduced top speed to 25 knots, in the fall of 1942, the destroyer took part in the landings of the invasion of North Africa Operation Torch. As a member of the Eastern Naval Task Force, she covered landings near Algiers, on 12 November 1942, the destroyer attacked a German U-boat in waters north of Oran, Algeria, and claimed to have sunk the enemy vessel. Clare left Gibraltar on 17 November 1942, returned to Britain, in July 1943, the ship participated in the invasion of Sicily. She entered drydock at Cardiff, Wales in September of that year, returned to action in May 1944, in August 1945, Clare was reduced to reserve at Greenock, Scotland. List of United States Navy destroyers Lenton, H. T. British and Dominion Warships of World War II. This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, the entry can be found here
