Letter box
A letter box, letter plate, letter hole, mail slot or mailbox is a receptacle for receiving incoming mail at a private residence or business. For the opposite purpose of collecting outgoing mail, a post box is used instead. Letterboxes or mailboxes use the following primary designs: A slot in a wall or door through which mail is delivered A box attached directly to the building A box mounted at or near the street A centralised mail delivery station consisting of individual mailboxes for an entire building A centralised mail delivery station consisting of individual mailboxes for multiple recipients at multiple addresses in a particular neighborhood or community A "letter box", or "mail slot" in American and Canadian usage, is a slot horizontal but sometimes vertical, about 30 cm by 5 cm, cut through the middle or lower half of a front door; this style is universal in British homes and offices, but in the US is limited to older neighborhoods in a few eastern cities. Most are covered by a seal on the outside for weatherproofing.
The flap may be sprung to prevent it opening and closing noisily in the wind. Some letterboxes have a second flap on the inside to provide further protection from the elements. There may be a small cage or box mounted on the inside of the door to receive the delivered mail. Mail slots are limited to receiving incoming mail, as most have no provision for securing and protecting outgoing mail for pickup by the mail carrier. Wall-mounted or attached mailboxes may be used in place of mail slots located close to the front door of the residence, they are known as "full-service" mailboxes when they have provisions for securing outgoing as well as incoming mail. Attached wall-mounted mailboxes are still used in older urban and suburban neighbourhoods in North America, they are common in urban and suburban areas of Canada, where the curbside mailbox is seen except in rural areas. Attached mailboxes are less common in newer urban and suburban developments and in rural areas of the United States, where curbside delivery or delivery to a community mail station is used.
Rural and some suburban areas of North America may utilize curbside mailboxes known as rural mailboxes. These receptacles consist of a large metal box mounted on a support designed to receive large quantities of incoming mail with an attached flag to signal the presence of outgoing mail to the mail carrier. In the US and Canada, rural curbside mailboxes may be found grouped together at property boundaries or road/driveway intersections, depending upon conditions. Although the United States Postal Service has general regulations stating the distance a letter box may be from the road surface, these requirements may be changed by the local postmaster according to local environment and road conditions. At one time, nearly 843,000 rural Canadian residents used rural mailboxes for private mail delivery, though Canada Post has since required the installation of community mailbox stations for many rural residents. In the US, wall-mounted or curbside mailboxes that are only designed for receiving incoming mail are known as "limited-service" mailboxes, while mailboxes equipped with a mechanism for notifying the postman to collect outgoing mail from the mailbox are known as "full service" mailboxes.
A number of designs of letterboxes and mailboxes have been patented in the United States. One design was the visible mailbox with a flip-up aluminium lid produced during the first part of the 20th century by George F. Collins of the Barlet-Collins Glass Company in Sapulpa, Oklahoma; the European standard for letter boxes, EN 13724:2002 "Postal services – Apertures of private letter boxes and letter plates – Requirements and test methods", replaces earlier national standards such as BS 2911:1974 "Specification for letter plates" or DIN 32617. It specifies among other things: Envelope size C4 must be deliverable without bending or damage The internal volume must able to hold at least a 40 mm high bundle of C4 envelopes Aperture width of either 230–280 mm or 325–400 mm Aperture height of 30–35 mm Mounting height of between 0.7 and 1.7 m for the aperture When positioned externally, the post box should not allow more than 1% total capacity water ingress from natural precipitation or moisture causes.
Various privacy, theft-protection, vandalism resistance and corrosion-resistance test requirementsThis Standard is voluntary. It was developed by a German mail boxes manufacturer Burg Wächter and it reflects this manufacturer's technical capability and commercial interests with a number of the specifications unfounded, for example, aperture dimensions or internal volume, while the vital issues of security, energy saving, environmental issues of a property and the occupants are not addressed in the Standard. Although the Standard was due for a review after 5 years in 2007, this did not happen. In April 2013 the amended Standard BS EN 13724:2013 was published, again it was drafted by the same company and is nearly word-for-word copy of the old EN 13724:2002 Standard; the essential amendments were not included again and the interests of security, energy saving and wellbeing of the public were not addressed. For those neighbourhoods where mail delivery to a mail slot is still provided, mail slots must have an opening not less than 17
Tennessee's 8th congressional district
The 8th Congressional District of Tennessee is a congressional district in West Tennessee. It has been represented by Republican David Kustoff since January 2017; the district is located in West Tennessee. It borders Kentucky to the north and Missouri to the west, Mississippi to the south, it is composed of the following counties: Carroll, Dyer, Gibson, Henry, Lauderdale, Obion and Weakley. It contains a large piece of Shelby County and a small piece of Benton; the map is deceptively rural, but the bulk of the district's vote is cast in the suburban areas around Memphis, such as Germantown and Collierville, as well Fayette and Tipton counties. This area boasts some of the highest median incomes in the state; the rest of the district is composed of small towns and farming communities. The district had a strong social conservative tint which grew more pronounced when eastern Memphis was added to the district. According to the 2010 census, the five largest cities located with the district are: Jackson, Collierville and Dyersburg.
Districts similar to today's 8th have been in place since Reconstruction. During the early 20th century, most of northwest Tennessee was represented by Democrats Finis J. Garrett, Jere Cooper, Clifford Davis Cooper again from 1953 to 1957. Cooper was succeeded by Fats Everett, who served until his death in early 1969; the district's current form of including Memphis suburbs began in 1967 due to a re-districting caused by the Baker v. Carr ruling. Following Everett's death in 1969, the district chose former Tennessee Commissioner of Agriculture Ed Jones in a special election. Jones served the area in Congress for just under twenty years until his retirement in 1988. Upon Jones' retirement, the district selected Democrat John S. Tanner as its representative. Following eleven terms in Congress, Tanner retired. In 2011, the district chose Republican businessman Stephen Fincher over Democrat state senator Roy Herron, it marked the first time since Reconstruction. Following the 2010 census, the district lost its remaining territory in Middle Tennessee, meaning it was within West Tennessee for the first time since 1968.
In the same census, the 7th lost its remaining claims in Shelby County, meaning that since 2012, any area of Shelby County, not in the 9th is in the 8th. In 2016, Fincher retired and was succeeded by Republican David Kustoff, a former United States Attorney. Tennessee's congressional districts List of United States congressional districts Martis, Kenneth C.. The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Martis, Kenneth C.. The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present
Cumberland University
For other institutions called "Cumberland College," see Cumberland College. For the school in Williamsburg, see University of the Cumberlands. Cumberland University is a private university in Tennessee, it was founded in 1842, though the current campus buildings were constructed between 1892 and 1896. The university was founded by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1842 and received its Tennessee State charter in 1843. In 1847 Cumberland Presbyterian church leaders added a law school, the first in Tennessee and the first west of the Appalachian Mountains, in 1854 a school of theology was begun; the original building, designed by Philadelphia architect William Strickland, housed schools of art and theology. It was burned by the Union Army during the American Civil War. Following the war, the university's faculty included former Confederate general A. P. Stewart, he taught there during his post-Civil War Union parole. From its early years, Cumberland University maintained a reputation for high-quality education.
The Cumberland School of Law at one time was said to have had more of its alumni elected to Congress than any other in the South. The Civil War nearly destroyed Cumberland University. University Hall was burned to the ground by Confederate forces under the command of General Joseph Wheeler. A Cumberland student wrote on a ruined Corinthian column the Latin Ex Cineribus Resurgam; the university thereafter adopted the mythical phoenix bird as its symbol. By 1866, just one year after the war's end, all departments were again operating in various locations in the town of Lebanon. Cumberland University moved to its present campus location in 1892; the university fell on hard times during the Great Depression. After World War II, Cumberland experienced several changes in sponsorship and programs. In 1946, The Tennessee Baptist Convention assumed control of the school, ending a century of operation by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. In 1951, the Tennessee Baptists closed the College of Arts and Sciences and operated only the School of Law.
In 1956, the Board of Trust secured an amendment to the Charter and changed Cumberland to a private, independent corporation. The College of Arts and Sciences was reopened as a two-year junior college, known as Cumberland College of Tennessee. In 1962, the assets of the School of Law were transferred to Howard College, now known as Samford University, in Birmingham, Alabama; the Board of Trust expanded the academic programs of the junior college in 1982, returning Cumberland to a four-year, degree institution. It resumed the old name of Cumberland University. Since Cumberland has expanded its academic program to include new majors and specialized student-learning opportunities. Cumberland University believes that a broad education, based in the liberal arts, is the best foundation for a lifetime of learning. Students from every state and from many foreign countries now attend Cumberland, its alumni include 14 governors, more than 80 members of the United States Congress, two Supreme Court justices, three United States ambassadors, one United States Secretary of State.
In 1847 Cumberland Presbyterian church leaders added the Cumberland School of Law, the first law school in Tennessee and the first west of the Appalachian Mountains. For many years the law school was located in historic Caruthers Hall, named for Robert Looney Caruthers, a founder of Cumberland University; the trustees sold the School of Law and its assets in 1962 to what is now Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. The law school continues to operate there. Cumberland University gives back to the local community in many ways. Cumberland has a Circle K club, affiliated with Kiwanis International. On February 13, 2010, Cumberland University hosted a conference basketball game, donated half of its gate admissions to Sherry's Run, a non-profit organization created to benefit people with cancer; the Cumberland University cycling team formed its own chapter of local non-profit organization Ride for Reading. The university has 5 fraternities; the sororities include the Lambda Omicron chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi and the Delta Mu chapter of Alpha Sigma Tau as well as Zeta Phi Beta.
The fraternities include the Theta Prime chapter of the Nu chapter of Sigma Chi. There are 3 NPHC fraternities: Gamma Rho Gamma chapter of Phi Beta Sigma, the Phi Delta Delta chapter of Omega Psi Phi and Kappa Alpha Psi. Cumberland University teams, nicknamed athletically as the Phoenix, are part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics competing in the Mid-South Conference; the Phoenix competed in the TranSouth Athletic Conference. Men's sports include baseball, cross country, golf, soccer and wrestling. Cumberland football began on October 26, 1894 with a 6–6 tie with Peabody and finished that first year with a 2–1–1 season record; the early days of Cumberland football were promising. The pinnacle of the early days of CU football was the 1903 season that began with a win over Vanderbilt a loss to Sewanee and continued with a five-day road trip with victories over Alabama November 14, 1903, LSU November 16, 1903, Tulane November 18, 1903. Cumberland would play a postseason game against Coach John Heisman's Clemson team on Thanksgiving Day that ended in an 11–11 tie and a record of 4–1–1 which gave Coach A.
L. Phillips and Cumberland University the Championship of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association; the 1916 game against Georgia Tech is famous as the most lop
Robertson County, Tennessee
Robertson County is a county located on the central northern border of Tennessee in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 66,283, its county seat is Springfield. The county was named for James Robertson, an explorer, founder of Nashville, a state senator, called the "Father of Middle Tennessee". Robertson County is a component of the Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 2002 current Mayor Howard Bradley became the mayor of Robertson County; this was part of the Miro District, named after the Spanish Governor Esteban Rodríguez Miró of what was Louisiana on the west side of the Mississippi River. Miró had served with Spanish troops. James Robertson, the explorer for whom this county was named, was trying to create an alliance with Miró that would allow free movement on the Mississippi River to settlers on the Cumberland frontier; this territory was first known as Tennessee County before statehood. It was organized as Robertson County in 1796, at the same time as Montgomery County, part of that district.
The county seat of Springfield, Tennessee was laid out in 1798. Although most settlers did not hold slaves, by the 1820s planters began to cultivate tobacco, a commodity crop, labor intensive and depended on enslaved African Americans; the planters bought slaves to work their plantations, as well as to care for the livestock they bred - thoroughbred horses and cattle. By the time of the Civil War, African-Americans comprised about one-quarter of the area's population, typical for Middle Tennessee, where tobacco and hemp were commodity crops. During the Civil War, Tennessee was occupied by the Union from 1862, which led to a breakdown in social organization in Middle Tennessee. During the Reconstruction era after the war, Confederate veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee started the Ku Klux Klan, a secret, insurgent paramilitary group. Chapters developed throughout the South, they attacked freedmen and their sympathizers, working to suppress teachers of black students, the mobility of blacks and, after enfranchisement of African-American men, Republican voting by freedmen and whites.
The KKK was suppressed in the early 1870s, but other insurgent groups arose in many areas of the South. This county and much of the region continued to have an agricultural economy during the late 19th century and into the 20th century, with tobacco the chief crop. Although white conservative Democrats had political control over Robertson County, violence against freedmen continued after Reconstruction to enforce white supremacy. According to Goodspeed's History of Tennessee, whites arrested nine black men and lynched seven of them in retaliation for the murder on August 30, 1880 of L. S. La Prade, a white man living alone near Sadlersville. Jack Bell and Arch Jamison were arrested and taken to the Robertson County jail in Springfield, Tennessee. Without trial, the two African Americans were taken by a white mob on September 11, 1880 and hanged in a nearby grove; the sheriff soon arrested seven more African-American men for La Prade's murder. They were scheduled for trial at the circuit court in February 1881.
Two men, William Murphy and Andrew Duffy, were released. During the trial, on February 14, 1881, a mob of 25-30 white men threatened to take the five remaining defendants from jail but were dissuaded. Four days however, while the prisoners were being taken from the courtroom, a white mob overcame the guards, took the men and hanged them from the east side of the courthouse balcony. Jim Elder, Jim Higgins, Bob Thweat, Lum Small, Sock Mallory were all murdered without benefit of trial. There were four additional lynchings of blacks in the county around the start of the 20th century. Robertson County had the fourth highest number of lynchings in the state. By 1910 the county’s population was 25,466, including 6,492 black citizens, who continued to make up one-quarter of the total. Most of the residents were still involved in farm work, tobacco was the primary commodity crop, but agricultural mechanization was reducing the need for laborers. White conservative Democrats had tried to restrict black voting.
Many African Americans left rural Robertson County and other parts of Tennessee in the Great Migration to northern and midwestern cities for employment and social freedom. Combined with in-migration of whites to the county, in the 21st century African Americans comprise less than 10 percent of the county population. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 476 square miles, of which 476 square miles is land and 0.2 square miles is water. Logan County, Kentucky Simpson County, Kentucky Sumner County Davidson County Cheatham County Montgomery County Todd County, Kentucky Cedar Hill Swamp Wildlife Management Area Port Royal State Park As of the census of 2000, there were 54,433 people, 19,906 households, 15,447 families residing in the county; the population density was 114 people per square mile. There were 20,995 housing units at an average density of 44 per square mile; the racial makeup of the county was 89.13% White, 8.62% Black or African American, 0.28% Native American, 0.31% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.83% from other races, 0.80% from two or more races.
2.66% of the p
Jacob Collamer
Jacob Collamer was an American politician from Vermont. He served in the U. S. House of Representatives, as Postmaster General in the cabinet of President Zachary Taylor, as a U. S. Senator. Born in Troy, New York, raised in Burlington, Collamer graduated from the University of Vermont, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1813. After service in the militia during the War of 1812, he became active as an attorney, first in Royalton, in Woodstock. Regarded in the legal profession, he became a respected prosecutor and judge. Elected to the House of Representatives in 1842, Collamer became a prominent Whig leader and advocate of the anti-slavery cause. President Taylor selected Collamer to serve as Postmaster General following the 1848 presidential election. Collamer served until shortly after Taylor's death, when he resigned to allow Taylor's successor, Millard Fillmore, to name his own appointee. Collamer was elected to the Senate as a Republican in 1855, shortly after the formation of the new party.
He became a respected voice against slavery and a prominent supporter of the Lincoln administration during the American Civil War. An advocate of more stringent postwar Reconstruction measures than those that were favored by Lincoln and his successor, Andrew Johnson, Collamer advocated congressional control of the Reconstruction process, he was buried at River Street Cemetery in Woodstock. He was born in Troy, New York in 1791, the son of Samuel Collamer and Elizaberth Collamer, his family moved to Burlington, Vermont in 1795, he received a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Vermont in 1810, after additional study, UVM changed Collamer's degree to master of arts. He studied law in St. Albans, Vermont with Asa Aldis, Asahel Langworthy, Benjamin Swift, he relocated to Randolph, where he completed his legal studies with attorney William Nutting, he was admitted to the bar in 1813. He served as an officer in a Vermont Militia unit during the War of 1812. Appointed as a first lieutenant, Collamer served first with an artillery unit on Vermont's border with Canada and as aide-de-camp to Brigadier General John French.
In 1816, he moved to Royalton, where he continued to practice law. He remained a resident of Royalton for 20 years, practicing law in partnership with Judge James Barrett. Among the prospective attorneys who studied law under his supervision was Lyman Gibbons, who served as a Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. Collamer served in local offices, including Register of Probate, Windsor County State’s Attorney, member of the Vermont House of Representatives. From 1833 to 1842 Collamer was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Vermont, succeeding Nicholas Baylies. In 1836 he moved to Woodstock. From 1839 to 1845 Collamer was a Trustee of the University of Vermont. Elected to the US House of Representatives in 1842 as a Whig, Collamer served three terms, from 1843 to 1849, he opposed the extension of slavery, the Texas Annexation, the Mexican–American War. Collamer was Chairman of the Committee on Public Lands. Collamer served as Postmaster General under President Taylor. After he was appointed at the start of the Taylor administration in 1849, he held office until he resigned in July 1850.
Collamer resigned shortly after Taylor's death to enable President Fillmore to name his own appointee. As Postmaster General, Collamer was criticized by Whig partisans of the spoils system because he was reluctant to remove local Democratic postmasters en masse. Upon returning to Vermont, Collamer was appointed a Judge of the state Circuit Court, where he served until 1854, he was succeeded on the bench by Abel Underwood, who served until the state Circuit Court was abolished in an 1857 court reorganization. Collamer was a longtime trustee of and lecturer at the Vermont Medical College in Woodstock and served as President of the Board of Trustees. In 1855 Collamer was elected to the Senate as a anti-slavery Republican. In his first term, Collamer was Chairman of the Committee on Engrossed Bills. In 1856, Collamer received several votes for Vice President at the Republican National Convention. In the Senate, he defended his positions vigorously when he was in the minority; when the Committee on Territories, chaired by Stephen A. Douglas, recommended passage of the Crittenden Amendment, which proposed resubmitting for popular vote the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution for Kansas and James R. Doolittle of Wisconsin refused to vote in favor but instead crafted a persuasive minority report explaining their opposition.
Collamer represented the minority view in June 1860, when the committee, chaired by James Murray Mason, issued its report on John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. Mason argued that Brown's raid was the work of an organized abolitionist movement, which needed to be curtailed with federal authority. Collamer and Doolittle countered that Brown and his followers had been caught and punished and that further government action was not necessary. Collamer's years on the bench helped develop his reputation as the best lawyer in the Senate, his colleagues were known to pay close attention to his remarks on the Senate floor though he spoke infrequently and then too to reach the entire chamber or the galleries. Charles Sumner referred to Collamer as the "Green-Mountain Socrates". At the 1860 Republican National Convention, Collamer received the favorite son votes of Verm
Tennessee
Tennessee is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 16th most populous of the 50 United States. Tennessee is bordered by Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina to the east, Georgia and Mississippi to the south, Arkansas to the west, Missouri to the northwest; the Appalachian Mountains dominate the eastern part of the state, the Mississippi River forms the state's western border. Nashville is the state's capital and largest city, with a 2017 population of 667,560. Tennessee's second largest city is Memphis, which had a population of 652,236 in 2017; the state of Tennessee is rooted in the Watauga Association, a 1772 frontier pact regarded as the first constitutional government west of the Appalachians. What is now Tennessee was part of North Carolina, part of the Southwest Territory. Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the 16th state on June 1, 1796. Tennessee was the last state to leave the Union and join the Confederacy at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861.
Occupied by Union forces from 1862, it was the first state to be readmitted to the Union at the end of the war. Tennessee furnished more soldiers for the Confederate Army than any other state besides Virginia, more soldiers for the Union Army than the rest of the Confederacy combined. Beginning during Reconstruction, it had competitive party politics, but a Democratic takeover in the late 1880s resulted in passage of disenfranchisement laws that excluded most blacks and many poor whites from voting; this reduced competition in politics in the state until after passage of civil rights legislation in the mid-20th century. In the 20th century, Tennessee transitioned from an agrarian economy to a more diversified economy, aided by massive federal investment in the Tennessee Valley Authority and, in the early 1940s, the city of Oak Ridge; this city was established to house the Manhattan Project's uranium enrichment facilities, helping to build the world's first atomic bombs, two of which were dropped on Imperial Japan near the end of World War II.
Tennessee's major industries include agriculture and tourism. Poultry and cattle are the state's primary agricultural products, major manufacturing exports include chemicals, transportation equipment, electrical equipment; the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the nation's most visited national park, is headquartered in the eastern part of the state, a section of the Appalachian Trail follows the Tennessee-North Carolina border. Other major tourist attractions include the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga; the earliest variant of the name that became Tennessee was recorded by Captain Juan Pardo, the Spanish explorer, when he and his men passed through an American Indian village named "Tanasqui" in 1567 while traveling inland from South Carolina. In the early 18th century, British traders encountered a Cherokee town named Tanasi in present-day Monroe County, Tennessee; the town was located on a river of the same name, appears on maps as early as 1725. It is not known whether this was the same town as the one encountered by Juan Pardo, although recent research suggests that Pardo's "Tanasqui" was located at the confluence of the Pigeon River and the French Broad River, near modern Newport.
The meaning and origin of the word are uncertain. Some accounts suggest, it has been said to mean "meeting place", "winding river", or "river of the great bend". According to ethnographer James Mooney, the name "can not be analyzed" and its meaning is lost; the modern spelling, Tennessee, is attributed to James Glen, the governor of South Carolina, who used this spelling in his official correspondence during the 1750s. The spelling was popularized by the publication of Henry Timberlake's "Draught of the Cherokee Country" in 1765. In 1788, North Carolina created "Tennessee County", the third county to be established in what is now Middle Tennessee; when a constitutional convention met in 1796 to organize a new state out of the Southwest Territory, it adopted "Tennessee" as the name of the state. Tennessee is known as The Volunteer State, a nickname some claimed was earned during the War of 1812 because of the prominent role played by volunteer soldiers from Tennessee during the Battle of New Orleans.
Other sources differ on the origin of the state nickname. This explanation is more because President Polk's call for 2,600 nationwide volunteers at the beginning of the Mexican–American War resulted in 30,000 volunteers from Tennessee alone in response to the death of Davy Crockett and appeals by former Tennessee Governor and Texas politician, Sam Houston. Tennessee borders eight other states: Virginia to the north. Tennessee is tied with Missouri as the state bordering the most other states; the state is trisected by the Tennessee River. The highest point in the state is Clingmans Dome at 6,643 feet (
Charles A. Wickliffe
Charles Anderson Wickliffe was a U. S. Representative from Kentucky, he served as Speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives, the 14th Governor of Kentucky, was appointed Postmaster General by President John Tyler. Though he identified with the Whig Party, he was politically independent, had differences of opinion with Whig founder and fellow Kentuckian Henry Clay. Wickliffe received a strong education through private tutors, he studied law and was part of a debate club that included future U. S. Attorney General Felix Grundy and future Governor of Florida William Pope Duval, he was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1812. A vigorous supporter of the War of 1812, he served for a brief time as aide-de-camp to two American generals in the war. In 1823, he was elected to the first of five consecutive terms in the U. S. House of Representatives, he returned to the state House in 1833, was elected the tenth Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky in 1836. Governor James Clark died in office on October 5, 1839, Wickliffe served as governor for the remaining nine months of Clark's term.
President Tyler appointed Wickliffe as Postmaster General following Wickliffe's term as governor. While aboard a steamship in 1844, he was stabbed by a man, found to be insane. In 1845, President James K. Polk sent Wickliffe on a secret mission to report on British and French intents with regard to annexing Texas and to assess the feasibility of the United States undertaking such an action. Wickliffe's participation in this endeavor further distanced him from the Whigs. In 1861, Wickliffe was again elected to the U. S. House, serving a single term, he tried to avert the Civil War by serving as a delegate to both the 1861 Peace Conference and the Border States Convention. After war was declared, he sided with the Union cause. In 1863, he again sought the office of governor, but federal military forces interfered with the election, resulting in a landslide victory for Thomas E. Bramlette. In life, Wickliffe was crippled in a carriage accident and went blind, he died on October 1869, while visiting his daughter in Maryland.
Charles Anderson Wickliffe was born June 1788, in a log cabin near Springfield, Kentucky. He was the youngest of the nine children born to Lydia Wickliffe, his family emigrated to Kentucky from Virginia in 1784. Wickliffe attained his early education at the local schools of Springfield attended Wilson's Academy in Bardstown. For a year, he received private instruction from James Blythe, acting president of Transylvania University read law with Martin D. Hardin, a cousin on his mother's side. In 1809, he began practice in Bardstown, he and five other prominent lawyers of Bardstown formed. The club included six members: Wickliffe, John Hays, Ben Chapeze, Benjamin Hardin, Felix Grundy, William Pope Duval. John Rowan and John Pope participated in the debates, but were not members of the club. In his early life, Wickliffe was known to gamble at cards, his friends considered his gambling excessive, two of them – Duval and Judge John Pope Oldham – devised a scheme to break Wickliffe of his habit. The two knew that Wickliffe would be collecting several thousand dollars at the upcoming session of the Bullitt County court.
They plotted to invite Wickliffe to play cards with them and agreed upon a secret system of signals to communicate about the strengths and weaknesses of the cards in their hands. In this way, they hoped to win all of Wickliffe's money return it to him in exchange for his promise to forsake the vice. On the night appointed, however, it was Wickliffe who won all the money wagered by Duval and Oldham, despite their schemes; when Wickliffe learned of the designs of his friends, he agreed to give up gambling. In 1813, Wickliffe married Margaret Cripps, the couple had three sons and five daughters. Most notable among the children was Robert, who became Governor of Louisiana; the Wickliffes contracted with John Rogers, architect of St. Joseph's Cathedral in Bardstown, to construct their residence, which they dubbed "Wickland". Wickland was called "the home of three governors". Besides Wickliffe and his son, J. C. W. Beckham, Wickliffe's grandson and future governor of Kentucky, occupied the residence.
Wickliffe's political career began when he was elected to represent Nelson County in the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1812 and 1813. During his tenure, he enthusiastically supported the War of 1812, he first served as an aide-de-camp to General Joseph Winlock, on August 24, 1813, he enlisted as a private in Martin H. Wickliffe's company. On September 2, 1813, he was chosen as aide-de-camp to General Samuel Caldwell and served in this capacity at the October 5, 1813, Battle of the Thames. In 1816, he succeeded Ben Hardin as Commonwealth's Attorney for Nelson County. Wickliffe was returned to the Kentucky House in 1822 and 1823. During this period, a controversy known as the Old Court-New Court controversy was raging in Kentucky. Reeling from the financial Panic of 1819, many of the state's citizens demanded debt relief; when some debt relief measures passed by the legislature were declared unconstitutional by the Kentucky Court of Appeals, the legislature attempted to dissolve the court and replace it with a more sympathetic one.
For a time, two courts claimed to be the court of last resort in Kentucky. Wickliffe supported the "Old Court", the court that prevailed. In 1823, Wickliffe was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives and served five consecutive terms. Again he succeeded Ben Hardin. Though a Whig, he disagreed wit
