1.
Vice President of the United States
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The executive power of both the vice president and the president is granted under Article Two, Section One of the Constitution. The vice president is elected, together with the president. The Office of the Vice President of the United States assists, as the president of the United States Senate, the vice president votes only when it is necessary to break a tie. Additionally, pursuant to the Twelfth Amendment, the president presides over the joint session of Congress when it convenes to count the vote of the Electoral College. Currently, the president is usually seen as an integral part of a presidents administration. The Constitution does not expressly assign the office to any one branch, causing a dispute among scholars whether it belongs to the executive branch, the legislative branch, or both. The modern view of the president as a member of the executive branch is due in part to the assignment of executive duties to the vice president by either the president or Congress. Mike Pence of Indiana is the 48th and current vice president and he assumed office on January 20,2017. The formation of the office of vice president resulted directly from the compromise reached at the Philadelphia Convention which created the Electoral College, the delegates at Philadelphia agreed that each state would receive a number of presidential electors equal to the sum of that states allocation of Representatives and Senators. The delegates assumed that electors would typically choose to favor any candidate from their state over candidates from other states, under a plurality election process, this would tend to result in electing candidates solely from the largest states. Consequently, the delegates agreed that presidents must be elected by a majority of the number of electors. To guard against such stratagems, the Philadelphia delegates specified that the first runner-up presidential candidate would become vice president, the process for selecting the vice president was later modified in the Twelfth Amendment. Each elector still receives two votes, but now one of those votes is for president, while the other is for vice president. The requirement that one of those votes be cast for a candidate not from the electors own state remains in effect. S, other statutorily granted roles include membership of both the National Security Council and the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. As President of the Senate, the president has two primary duties, to cast a vote in the event of a Senate deadlock and to preside over. For example, in the first half of 2001, the Senators were divided 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats and Dick Cheneys tie-breaking vote gave the Republicans the Senate majority, as President of the Senate, the vice president oversees procedural matters and may cast a tie-breaking vote. As President of the Senate, John Adams cast 29 tie-breaking votes that was surpassed by John C. Calhoun with 31. Adamss votes protected the presidents sole authority over the removal of appointees, influenced the location of the national capital, on at least one occasion Adams persuaded senators to vote against legislation he opposed, and he frequently addressed the Senate on procedural and policy matters
2.
James K. Polk
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James Knox Polk was the 11th President of the United States. Polk was born in Pineville, North Carolina, and moved to Tennessee to study law, after building a successful law practice, he was elected to the Tennessee legislature and then to the United States House of Representatives in 1825. He left Congress to serve as Governor of Tennessee from 1839 to 1841, after losing re-election as governor in 1840, and losing in another gubernatorial election in 1842, Polk was a dark horse candidate for president in 1844. Though he entered the convention hoping to be nominated for vice president, in the general election, he defeated Henry Clay of the rival Whig Party in large part due to his promise to annex the Republic of Texas. True to his pledge to serve only one term as President, Polk left office in March 1849. He died of cholera three months later, scholars have ranked him favorably on lists of greatest presidents for his ability to promote, obtain support for, and achieve all of the major items on his presidential agenda. However, he has also criticized for leading the country into war against Mexico. Polk has been called the least known consequential president, James Knox Polk, the first of ten children, was born on November 2,1795 in a log house in what is now Pineville, North Carolina in Mecklenburg County, just outside Charlotte. His father, Samuel Polk, was a slaveholder, successful farmer and his mother, Jane Polk, was a descendant of a brother of the Scottish religious reformer John Knox. She named her firstborn after her father James Knox, like many early Scots-Irish settlers in the North Carolina mountains, the Knox and Polk families were Presbyterian. While Polks mother Jane remained a devout Presbyterian her entire life, when the parents took the young James to a Presbyterian church to be baptized, the father Samuel refused to declare his belief in Christianity, and the minister refused to baptize the child. In 1803, most of Polks relatives moved to the Duck River area in what is now Maury County, Middle Tennessee, the family grew prosperous, with Samuel Polk turning to land speculation and becoming a county judge. His health was problematic and in 1812 his pain became so unbearable that he was taken to Dr. Ephraim McDowell of Danville, Kentucky, Polk was awake during the operation with nothing but brandy available for anesthetic, but it was successful. The surgery may have left Polk sterile, as he did not sire any children, when Polk recovered, his father offered to bring him into the mercantile business, but Polk refused. In July 1813, Polk enrolled at the Zion Church near his home, a year later he attended an academy in Murfreesboro, where he may have met his future wife, Sarah Childress. At Murfreesboro, Polk proved a promising student, in January 1816, Polk was admitted into the University of North Carolina as a second-semester sophomore. The Polk family had connections with the university, then a school of about 80 students, Sam Polk was their land agent for Tennessee. While there, Polk joined the Dialectic Society where he took part in debates
3.
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
4.
Millard Fillmore
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Millard Fillmore was the 13th President of the United States, the last to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House. A former congressman from New York, Fillmore was elected the nations 12th Vice President in 1848 and he was instrumental in getting the Compromise of 1850 passed, a bargain that led to a brief truce in the battle over slavery. He failed to win the Whig nomination for president in 1852, he gained the endorsement of the nativist Know Nothing Party four years later, Fillmore was born into poverty in the Finger Lakes area of New York state, his parents were tenant farmers during his formative years. He rose from poverty through study, and became a lawyer though he had formal schooling. He became prominent in the Buffalo area as an attorney and politician, was elected to the New York Assembly in 1828, and to the U. S. House of Representatives in 1832. Fillmore was a candidate for Speaker of the House when the Whigs took control of the chamber in 1841. Fillmore received the Whig vice presidential nomination in 1848 as Taylors running mate, and he was largely ignored by Taylor, including the dispensing of patronage in New York, on which Taylor consulted Weed and Seward. As vice president, Fillmore presided over debates in the Senate as Congress decided whether to allow slavery in the Mexican Cession. Fillmore supported Henry Clays Omnibus Bill though Taylor did not, after President Taylor died in July 1850, Fillmore dismissed the cabinet and changed the administrations policy. The new president exerted pressure to gain the passage of the Compromise, in foreign policy, Fillmore supported U. S. Navy expeditions to open trade in Japan, opposed French designs on Hawaii, and was embarrassed by Narciso Lópezs filibuster expeditions to Cuba. He sought election to a term in 1852, but was passed over by the Whigs in favor of Winfield Scott. As the Whig Party broke up after Fillmores presidency, many of Fillmores conservative wing joined the Know Nothings, in his 1856 candidacy as that partys nominee, Fillmore had little to say about immigration, instead focusing on the preservation of the Union, and won only Maryland. In his retirement, Fillmore was active in civic endeavors. He helped to found the University of Buffalo, serving as its first chancellor, during the American Civil War, Fillmore denounced secession and agreed that the Union must be maintained by force if necessary, but was critical of the war policies of Abraham Lincoln. After peace was restored, he supported the Reconstruction policies of President Andrew Johnson, obscure today, Fillmore has been praised by some for his foreign policy, but he is criticized by others for his enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act and for his association with the Know Nothings. Millard Fillmore was born in a log cabin, on a farm in what is now Moravia, Cayuga County, in the Finger Lakes region of New York state and his parents were Phoebe and Nathaniel Fillmore. He was the second of eight children and the oldest son, Nathaniel Fillmore Sr. was a member of the Green Mountain Boys, and served as an ensign and first lieutenant during the American Revolution. In 1767, Nathaniel Fillmore Sr. married Hepzibah Wood, the mother of Nathaniel Fillmore and grandmother of Millard Fillmore
5.
United States Senate
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The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the Senate are established by Article One of the United States Constitution. S. From 1789 until 1913, Senators were appointed by the legislatures of the states represented, following the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913. The Senate chamber is located in the wing of the Capitol, in Washington. It further has the responsibility of conducting trials of those impeached by the House, in the early 20th century, the practice of majority and minority parties electing their floor leaders began, although they are not constitutional officers. This idea of having one chamber represent people equally, while the other gives equal representation to states regardless of population, was known as the Connecticut Compromise, there was also a desire to have two Houses that could act as an internal check on each other. One was intended to be a Peoples House directly elected by the people, the other was intended to represent the states to such extent as they retained their sovereignty except for the powers expressly delegated to the national government. The Senate was thus not designed to serve the people of the United States equally, the Constitution provides that the approval of both chambers is necessary for the passage of legislation. First convened in 1789, the Senate of the United States was formed on the example of the ancient Roman Senate, the name is derived from the senatus, Latin for council of elders. James Madison made the comment about the Senate, In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people. An agrarian law would take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation, landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority, the senate, therefore, ought to be this body, and to answer these purposes, the people ought to have permanency and stability. The Constitution stipulates that no constitutional amendment may be created to deprive a state of its equal suffrage in the Senate without that states consent, the District of Columbia and all other territories are not entitled to representation in either House of the Congress. The District of Columbia elects two senators, but they are officials of the D. C. city government. The United States has had 50 states since 1959, thus the Senate has had 100 senators since 1959. In 1787, Virginia had roughly ten times the population of Rhode Island, whereas today California has roughly 70 times the population of Wyoming and this means some citizens are effectively two orders of magnitude better represented in the Senate than those in other states. Seats in the House of Representatives are approximately proportionate to the population of each state, before the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, Senators were elected by the individual state legislatures
6.
Pennsylvania
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Pennsylvania /ˌpɛnsᵻlˈveɪnjə/, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state located in the northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The Appalachian Mountains run through its middle, Pennsylvania is the 33rd largest, the 5th most populous, and the 9th most densely populated of the 50 United States. The states five most populous cities are Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, the state capital, and its ninth-largest city, is Harrisburg. Pennsylvania has 140 miles of shoreline along Lake Erie and the Delaware Estuary. The state is one of the 13 original founding states of the United States, it came into being in 1681 as a result of a land grant to William Penn. Part of Pennsylvania, together with the present State of Delaware, had earlier been organized as the Colony of New Sweden and it was the second state to ratify the United States Constitution, on December 12,1787. Independence Hall, where the United States Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution were drafted, is located in the states largest city of Philadelphia, during the American Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg, was fought in the south central region of the state. Valley Forge near Philadelphia was General Washingtons headquarters during the winter of 1777–78. Pennsylvania is 170 miles north to south and 283 miles east to west, of a total 46,055 square miles,44,817 square miles are land,490 square miles are inland waters, and 749 square miles are waters in Lake Erie. It is the 33rd largest state in the United States, Pennsylvania has 51 miles of coastline along Lake Erie and 57 miles of shoreline along the Delaware Estuary. Cities include Philadelphia, Reading, Lebanon and Lancaster in the southeast, Pittsburgh in the southwest, the tri-cities of Allentown, Bethlehem, the northeast includes the former anthracite coal mining communities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston City, and Hazleton. Erie is located in the northwest, the state has 5 regions, namely the Allegheny Plateau, Ridge and Valley, Atlantic Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and the Erie Plain. Straddling two major zones, the majority of the state, with the exception of the corner, has a humid continental climate. The largest city, Philadelphia, has characteristics of the humid subtropical climate that covers much of Delaware. Moving toward the interior of the state, the winter climate becomes colder, the number of cloudy days increase. Western areas of the state, particularly locations near Lake Erie, can receive over 100 inches of snowfall annually, the state may be subject to severe weather from spring through summer into fall. Tornadoes occur annually in the state, sometimes in large numbers, the Tuscarora Nation took up temporary residence in the central portion of Pennsylvania ca. Both the Dutch and the English claimed both sides of the Delaware River as part of their lands in America
7.
Isaac D. Barnard
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Isaac Dutton Barnard was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States Senator from Pennsylvania. He also served as a Pennsylvania State Senator from 1820 until 1826 and he moved to a farm near Chester with his parents, and was a scholar at several public schools. He later resided in Philadelphia until 1811, when he moved back to Chester, while he was studying law, Barnard became a member of the Fourteenth Regiment, United States Infantry, and served in the War of 1812. He fought at the Battle of Plattsburgh, and the Battle of Lyon Creek, after the war ended he resumed his legal studies, and was admitted to the bar on May 1,1816. He began practicing law in West Chester, Barnard was the deputy attorney general for Chester County from 1817 to 1821, and an Assistant Burgess in the government of the borough of West Chester in 1821,1824, and 1825. Barnard was also a major-general of militia, and declined the judgeship of Chester County. Beginning in 1820, and ending in 1826, he was a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate, and he was elected to the United States Senate as a Jacksonian, and began his first term on March 4,1827. During the 21st and 22nd United States Congresses, he was the chairman of the Committee on Militia, in 1829, Barnard was closely defeated in his attempt to gain the nomination for Governor of Pennsylvania. He undertook part of a second Senate term, but resigned from the Senate on December 6,1831 and he was replaced by a future Vice President of the United States, George M. Dallas. Just before he resigned, the New York papers were reportedly demanding that Barnard be given a place in the United States Cabinet, Barnard died on February 28,1834, in West Chester, and was interred in Oaklands Cemetery nearby. William Everhart, a merchant, named a street after Barnard, with whom he was a friend. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsylvania, comprising a sketch of the county. Account of Barnards work regarding a monument to the Battle of Paoli
8.
Samuel McKean
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Samuel McKean was an American merchant and politician from Burlington, Pennsylvania. He served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1815 to 1819 and he was in the Pennsylvania State Senate from 1829 to 1830. He then represented Pennsylvania in both the U. S. House and Senate, samuel McKean was born on April 7,1787, in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. He worked as a merchant in Burlington, Pennsylvania, before becoming a member of the Bradford County board of commissioners, McKean served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1815 until 1819 and was a major general in the Pennsylvania State Militia. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1822 and was re-elected in 1824 and 1826, while in the U. S. House, he was a member of the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads during the 20th Congress. He then returned to the legislature, serving in the Pennsylvania Senate from 1829 until 1830. A Democrat, McKean served as an elector for the Jackson/Van Buren ticket during the 1832 election. He was elected by the legislature to the United States Senate in 1833. He was chairman of the Senate Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses from 1835 until 1839, McKean died in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, on December 14,1841, and was interred in the Old Church Cemetery in West Burlington Township. Representative from New York from 1859 until 1863, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress website http, //bioguide. congress. gov
9.
Pennsylvania Attorney General
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The Pennsylvania Attorney General is the chief law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It became an office in 1980. Currently, Democrat Josh Shapiro is Attorney General, consequently, as the Solicitor General, Bruce Castor assumed the office as Acting Attorney General. Governor Tom Wolf nominated Bruce Beemer to serve out the balance of Kanes term which expired in January 2017 in which Democrat Josh Shapiro succeeded Bruce Beemer. The Commonwealth Attorneys Act of 1980 established the Office of Attorney General as an independent office headed by an elected Attorney General, the Attorney General represents the commonwealth in all actions brought by or against the commonwealth and reviews all proposed rules and regulations by commonwealth agencies. There have been four styles of selection of Pennsylvania Attorney General, the first phase was colonial, with the first Attorney General commissioned in 1683. Under the new Constitution of 1790, Attorneys General were appointed by the Governor and this remained in the Constitutions of 1838,1874, and 1968. In 1978, voters approved an amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution making the office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General an elected position, note that before William Penn, there were Attorneys General for New Sweden as early as 1643. Under the influence of David Lloyd, who served 1686–1710, Pennsylvania developed its first judicial system, andrew Hamilton, who served 1717–1726, strongly influenced Pennsylvania law away from some aspects of the British system
10.
George Wolf
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George Wolf was the seventh Governor of Pennsylvania from 1829 to 1835. On June 29,1888, he was recognized as the “father of the public-school system” in Pennsylvania by the erection of a gateway at Easton. Wolf was born in Allen Township, Pennsylvania and his parents, George and Mary Wolf, had immigrated from Alsace, a then-province of the Holy Roman Empire, in 1751. George Wolf was educated at a school, taught for some time. He was admitted to the bar in 1799 and commenced practice in Easton and he became a member of the Republican Party at the start of Thomas Jeffersons administration, and was appointed postmaster of Easton, which office he filled in 1802 and 1803. He was clerk of the court of Northampton County, Pennsylvania. He was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1814, Wolf married Mary Erb of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on June 5,1798. The couple had eight sons and one daughter, Wolf was elected without opposition to the United States House of Representatives in 1824 to the Eighteenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Thomas J. Rogers. He was reelected to the Nineteenth, Twentieth, and Twenty-first Congresses and he took the protectionist side in debates on the tariff. As member of the Jacksonian Democratic Party, Wolf defeated Joseph Ritner in both 1829 and 1832 to become the Governor of Pennsylvania. He lost the seat to the Anti-Mason candidate Ritner in 1835, owing to the defection of a part of the Democrats. As governor, Wolf persuaded the legislature to construct canals and impose new taxes for the liquidation of debts that had already been incurred on account of internal improvements. Wolf advocated the establishment of a system of common schools. In 1836 Andrew Jackson appointed him as first Comptroller of the Treasury, two years later President Martin Van Buren appointed him as Collector of Customs for the District of Philadelphia in a job swap with James Nelson Barker. He held this office until his death, Wolf Hall on the campus of Penn State University is named for George Wolf. Wolf Township in Lycoming County is also named for him, as is Wolf Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Biography United States Congress. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
11.
Ellis Lewis
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Ellis Lewis was a Pennsylvania lawyer and judge. He served on the states Supreme Court for six years, the last three as Chief Justice, Ellis Lewis was the youngest child of Major Eli and Pamela Lewis. Orphaned at the age of nine, he was apprenticed as a printer to the owner of the Harrisburg newspaper founded by his father, after five years, he ran away and found work as a printer under an assumed name. By 1818, he owned a newspaper in Williamsport, Lycoming County, there he studied law with Espy Van Horne. He sold the newspaper in 1821, and was admitted to the bar in 1822 and he continued to work with his brothers Eli and James and their newspapers, by which means he began his involvement in Pennsylvania politics. Lewis married Josephine Wallis in 1822 and their oldest child, Juliet would become a poet and novelist, and marry James Hepburn Campbell, a lawyer and politician. In 1823, Lewis supported John Andrew Shulzes election as Governor of Pennsylvania and that year a painful condition developed in his leg, and as of 1827, he was reappointed for Lycoming County only. In 1827, surgery removed a necrosis from his tibia, while recovering, he resigned his position. And moved to Towanda, Bradford County, in 1832, Lewis was elected to the Pennsylvania House, as an Independent. Early in 1833, he was appointed state Attorney General, without giving up his House seat and he resigned both positions when, late in 1833, he was appointed President Judge of the Eighth Judicial District. In 1843 he was appointed President Judge of the Second Judicial District, in 1850, Pennsylvania amended its constitution to choose its Supreme Court members by election. Lewis was elected in 1851, and became Chief Justice in 1854, at the end of his term in 1857, he declined to run for re-election and retired, making his home in Philadelphia. He took up poetry and also wrote on law and he died in 1871, and was buried at The Woodlands. The Life of Chief Justice Ellis Lewis, 1798-1871, smull, John A. Smulls Legislative Hand Book and Manual of the State of Pennsylvania. Historical Sketches of the Bench and Bar of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania
12.
James Todd (lawyer)
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James Todd was a Pennsylvania lawyer and judge, who served in the state legislature and as state Attorney General. Todd was born in 1786, son of Henry and Mary Todd, early in 1787, the family moved to Fayette County, and both his parents died that year. Todd was raised by one Duncan McLean and his official schooling was limited to one and a half years, but he read extensively at night. Todd served as county commissioner 1815–1819, during which time he read law under John Bouvier and he served as a representative in the state legislature, 1819–1829. He was admitted to the bar in 1823, Todd married Mary Cornell in 1810, she died in 1824. Todd married Jane Miller in 1825, they had 7 children, Todd served as prothonotary and clerk of the court 1825–1830. He was appointed attorney-general in 1835, and removed to Philadelphia, Todd resigned in 1838, when he was appointed president judge of the newly created court of Criminal Sessions of Philadelphia, which he served until the court was abolished in 1840. Afterwards he stayed in Philadelphia in private practice, until 1852, when he removed to Westmoreland county and he was buried in the St. Clair Cemetery, Greenburg. Todds eldest son, David, would have a daughter Mary Todd and their only child, a daughter, Mary Todd Marchand, would marry Cyrus Woods, a distinguished lawyer, politician, and ambassador, who also served a term as state Attorney General. Todds youngest son, Moses Hampton, would have a career as a Philadelphia lawyer, including serving a term as state Attorney General
13.
Benjamin Wood Richards
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Benjamin Wood Richards was an American lawyer and politician from Pennsylvania. Richards practiced law in Philadelphia for many years and was active in the political scene. He was the mayor of Philadelphia in 1829, replacing George M. Dallas, who resigned, after leaving office, Richards resumed the practice of law, in which he continued until his death in 1851. Benjamin Wood Richards at Find a Grave
14.
United States Ambassador to Russia
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The Ambassador of the United States of America to the Russian Federation is the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary from the United States of America to the Russian Federation. The position is held by John F. Tefft, a career U. S. Foreign Service Officer who was recalled from retirement to serve his fourth ambassadorship, the United States first established diplomatic relations with the Russian Empire in 1780. Diplomatic relations were broken off in 1917 when the Bolsheviks seized power, from 1933 to 1991, the United States recognized the Soviet Union. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Ambassadors title was changed to Ambassador to Russia. state. gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/index. htm, United States Department of State, Chiefs of Mission for Russia United States Department of State, Russia United States Embassy in Moscow
15.
Martin Van Buren
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Martin Van Buren was an American politician who served as the eighth President of the United States. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in a number of senior roles, including eighth Vice President and tenth Secretary of State. Van Buren won the presidency by promising to follow through on Jacksons policies, during his half-century of public service, he built, perfected, and defended a new system of political parties at first the state and then the federal level. In New York he reorganized the Democratic-Republican Party and established the Albany Regency to keep it in power and he then moved on Washington where he did more than anyone to construct the modern Democratic Party which dominated American politics down to the American Civil War. A delegate to a convention at age 18, he quickly moved from local to state politics. Elected to the Senate by the New York State Legislature in 1821, Van Buren supported William H. Crawford for president in the 1824 election, but by 1828 had come to support Jackson. Van Buren was a supporter and organizer for Jackson in the 1828 election. Jackson and Van Buren were elected, and after serving as governor for two months, Van Buren resigned to become Jacksons Secretary of State. During Jacksons eight years as president, Van Buren was a key advisor, in 1831, following his resignation as Secretary of State, which aided Jackson in resolving the Petticoat affair, Jackson gave Van Buren a recess appointment as American minister to Britain. Van Burens nomination was rejected by the Senate, cutting short his service in London, Van Buren faced little opposition for the presidential nomination at the 1835 Democratic National Convention, and he defeated several Whig opponents in the 1836 presidential election. Van Buren was the first president to be born a United States citizen, of Dutch ancestry, he is the only president who spoke English as a second language, and was the first not to have a university degree or a military commission. As president, Van Buren was blamed for the depression of 1837 and he attempted to cure the economic problems by keeping control of federal funds in an independent treasury—rather than in state banks—but Congress would not approve of this until 1840. Additionally, relations with Britain and its colonies in Canada proved to be strained from the bloodless Aroostook War, in the 1840 election, Van Buren was voted out of office, losing to Whig candidate William Henry Harrison. Van Buren was the candidate for the Democratic nomination in 1844, but lost to James K. Polk. In the 1848 election Van Buren ran unsuccessfully as the candidate of the anti-slavery Free Soil Party and he returned to the Democratic fold to endorse Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and Stephen A. Douglas for the presidency. However, his increasingly abolitionist views and support for the Union led him to support Abraham Lincolns policies after the start of the American Civil War, Van Burens health began to fail in 1861, and he died in July 1862 at the age of 79. Martin Van Buren was born on December 5,1782, in the village of Kinderhook, Van Buren was the first President not born a British subject, or even of British ancestry. His father, Abraham van Buren, was an inn–tavern keeper, Abraham Van Buren supported the Patriot cause during the American Revolution as a captain in the Albany County Militias 7th Regiment, and later joined the Jeffersonian Republicans
16.
John Randolph Clay
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John Randolph Clay was an American diplomat. Clay was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1808, the child of parents Joseph and Mary Ashmead Clay. He also had a younger sister Ann Eliza Clay, Clay was orphaned as a child, and was both brought up and taught by John Randolph of Roanoke. In May 1830 Randolph was appointed U. S. ambassador to Russia, still in Russia, he subsequently served as secretary to James Buchanan and William Wilkins. He would later serve in Austria as Henry A. P. Muhlenbergs secretary, from 1836 to 1837 he served as Chargé dAffaires in Serbia. One of his accomplishments there is shown in the following that was written by William Lewis Herndon in his Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon, klein, Philip S. Oeste, George Irvin. Review of Books, John Randolph Clay, Americas First Career Diplomat, John Randolph Clay, Americas First Career Diplomat
17.
Churchill C. Cambreleng
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Churchill Caldom Cambreleng was an American politician from New York. Cambreleng was born in Washington, Beaufort County, North Carolina on October 24,1786 and he attended school in New Bern, North Carolina, and moved to New York City in 1802. Intending to begin a career as a businessman, Cambreleng worked as a clerk in a counting room. In 1806 he moved to Providence, Rhode Island, where he was the clerk for a merchant with interests in the Pacific Northwest. After the death of his employer, Cambreleng intended to pursue an opportunity in New Orleans. He then returned to New York City, where he was employed by John Jacob Astor, Cambreleng traveled throughout Europe and Asia while handling commercial opportunities for himself and Astor, and he eventually became wealthy as a result of his business success. He was Chairman of the U. S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the U. S. House Committee on Ways, upon its incorporation in 1831, he became the first President of the Saratoga and Schenectady Railroad. President Martin Van Buren appointed him United States Minister to Russia in 1840 and he was a delegate from Suffolk County to the New York State Constitutional Convention of 1846. Later he rejoined the Democrats and supported Franklin Pierce in 1852, Cambreleng died in West Neck, Suffolk County, New York on April 30,1862. He was buried at Brooklyns Green-Wood Cemetery, Section 73, Lot 4150, Cambreleng Avenue in the Bronx, New York, is named for him. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, House Ways and Means Committee Churchill C. Cambreleng at Find a Grave Biography at NC Gen Web
18.
United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom
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The position is regarded as one of the most prestigious positions in the United States Foreign Service due to the so-called Special Relationship. The ambassadorship has been held by notable politicians, including five who would later become presidents, John Adams, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren. However, the tendency of American presidents is to appoint keen political fundraisers from previous presidential campaigns, despite the importance. The ambassador and the staff at large work at the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square. The official residence of the ambassador is Winfield House in Regents Park, the post of Ambassador is currently vacant, however, Woody Johnson has been nominated by Donald Trump, pending senate confirmation. Lewis Lukens is currently serving as Chargé daffaires-ai until Johnson is approved by the Senate, the most recent Ambassador was Matthew Barzun. The ambassadors main duty is to present American policies to the Government of the United Kingdom and people and to report British policies and he serves as the primary channel of communication between the two nations and plays an important role in treaty negotiations. The ambassador is the head of the United Statess consular service in the United Kingdom, as well as directing diplomatic activity in support of trade, he is ultimately responsible for visa services and for the provision of consular support to American citizens in the UK. He also oversees cultural relations between the two countries, John Adams James Monroe John Quincy Adams Martin Van Buren James Buchanan Ambassadors of the United States British Embassy, Washington, D. C. state. gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/index. htm. Alison R. Holmes and J. Simon Rofe, The Embassy in Grosvenor Square, American Ambassadors to the United Kingdom, United States Department of State, Chiefs of Mission for the United Kingdom United States Department of State, United Kingdom United States Embassy in London
19.
Franklin Pierce
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Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States. Pierce was a northern Democrat who saw the abolitionist movement as a threat to the unity of the nation. Historians and other scholars generally rank Pierce as among the worst of US Presidents, born in New Hampshire, Pierce served in the U. S. House of Representatives and the Senate until he resigned from the latter in 1842. His private law practice in his state was a success. Pierce took part in the Mexican–American War as a general in the Army. In the 1852 presidential election, Pierce and his running mate William R. King easily defeated the Whig Party ticket of Winfield Scott and William A. Graham. While Pierce was popular and outgoing, his life was a grim affair, with his wife Jane suffering from illness. All of their children died young, their last son being killed in a train accident while the family was traveling shortly before Pierces inauguration. Pierce was a Young America expansionist who signed the Gadsden Purchase of land from Mexico and his popularity in the Northern states declined sharply after he supported the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which nullified the Missouri Compromise, while many whites in the South continued to support him. Passage of the act led to violent conflict over the expansion of slavery in the American West, Pierces administration was further damaged when several of his diplomats issued the Ostend Manifesto, calling for the annexation of Cuba, a document which was roundly criticized. Although Pierce fully expected to be renominated by the Democrats in the 1856 presidential election, he was abandoned by his party and his reputation in the North suffered further during the Civil War as he became a vocal critic of President Abraham Lincoln. Pierce, who had been a heavy drinker for much of his life, Franklin Pierce was born on November 23,1804, in a log cabin in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. He was a descendant of Thomas Pierce, who had moved to the Massachusetts Bay Colony from Norwich, Norfolk, England. Pierces father Benjamin, a Revolutionary War lieutenant, moved from Chelmsford, Massachusetts to Hillsborough after the war, Pierce was the fifth of eight children born to Benjamin and his second wife, Anna Kendrick. Benjamin was by then a prominent Democratic-Republican state legislator, farmer, Pierces father, who sought to ensure that his sons were educated, placed Pierce in a school at Hillsborough Center in childhood and sent him to the town school at Hancock at the age of 12. The boy was not fond of schooling, growing homesick at Hancock, he walked 12 miles back to his home one Sunday. His father fed him dinner and drove him part of the back to school before kicking him out of the carriage. Pierce later cited this moment as the turning-point in my life, later that year he transferred to Phillips Exeter Academy to prepare for college
20.
James Buchanan
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James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States, serving immediately prior to the American Civil War. He is the president from Pennsylvania, the only president to remain a lifelong bachelor. Beginning in the 1820s, he represented Pennsylvania in the United States House of Representatives and later the Senate, Buchanan was nominated by the Democratic Party in the 1856 presidential election, on a ticket with former Kentucky Representative John C. He defeated both the incumbent President Pierce and Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas to win the nomination and his subsequent election victory took place in a three-man race against Republican John C. Shortly after taking office, Buchanan lobbied the Supreme Court to issue a ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford. He allied with the South in attempting to gain the admission of Kansas to the Union as a state under the Lecompton Constitution. In the process, he alienated both Republican abolitionists and Northern Democrats, most of whom supported the principle of sovereignty in determining a new states slaveholding status. He was often called a doughface, a Northerner with Southern sympathies, and he fought with Douglas, in the midst of the growing sectional crisis, the Panic of 1857 struck the nation. Buchanan indicated in his 1857 inaugural address that he would not seek a second term, he kept his word, Breckinridge in the 1860 presidential election. In response, seven Southern states declared their secession from the Union, Buchanans view was that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal, and so didnt confront the new polity militarily. Buchanan, an attorney, was noted for his mantra, I acknowledge no master, Buchanan supported the United States during the Civil War, and publicly defended himself against charges that he was responsible for the Civil War. Shortly after the Union victory, he published his memoirs, Mr. Buchanans Administration on the Eve of Rebellion and he died in 1868 at age 77. Buchanan aspired to be a president who would rank in history with George Washington, historians who participated in a 2006 survey voted his failure to deal with secession the worst presidential mistake ever made. His parents were both of Ulster Scots descent, the father having emigrated from Milford, County Donegal, Ireland, one of eleven siblings, Buchanan was the oldest child in the family to survive infancy. Shortly after Buchanans birth the family moved to a farm near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, Buchanans father became the wealthiest person in town, becoming a prosperous merchant and investing in real estate. The family home in Mercersburg was later turned into the James Buchanan Hotel, Buchanan attended the village academy and, starting in 1807, Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Though he was expelled at one point for poor behavior, he pleaded for a second chance. Later that year, he moved to Lancaster, which, at the time, was the capital of Pennsylvania, James Hopkins, the most prominent lawyer in Lancaster, accepted Buchanan as a student, and in 1812 Buchanan was admitted to the bar after an oral exam
21.
Abraham Lincoln
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Abraham Lincoln was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and perhaps its greatest moral, constitutional, in doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy. Born in Hodgenville, Kentucky, Lincoln grew up on the frontier in Kentucky. Largely self-educated, he became a lawyer in Illinois, a Whig Party leader, elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1846, Lincoln promoted rapid modernization of the economy through banks, tariffs, and railroads. Reentering politics in 1854, he became a leader in building the new Republican Party, in 1860, Lincoln secured the Republican Party presidential nomination as a moderate from a swing state. Though he gained little support in the slaveholding states of the South. Subsequently, on April 12,1861, a Confederate attack on Fort Sumter inspired the North to enthusiastically rally behind the Union. Politically, Lincoln fought back by pitting his opponents against each other, by carefully planned political patronage and his Gettysburg Address became an iconic endorsement of the principles of nationalism, republicanism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy. Lincoln initially concentrated on the military and political dimensions of the war and his primary goal was to reunite the nation. He suspended habeas corpus, leading to the ex parte Merryman decision. Lincoln closely supervised the war effort, especially the selection of top generals, including his most successful general, Lincoln tried repeatedly to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, each time a general failed, Lincoln substituted another, until finally Grant succeeded. As the war progressed, his moves toward ending slavery included the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. On April 14,1865, five days after the surrender of Confederate commanding general Robert E. Lee, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton launched a manhunt for Booth, and 12 days later on April 26, Lincoln has been consistently ranked both by scholars and the public as among the greatest U. S. presidents. Abraham Lincoln was born February 12,1809, the child of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville. He was a descendant of Samuel Lincoln, an Englishman who migrated from Hingham, Norfolk to its namesake of Hingham, samuels grandson and great-grandson began the familys western migration, which passed through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Lincolns paternal grandfather and namesake, Captain Abraham Lincoln, moved the family from Virginia to Jefferson County, Captain Lincoln was killed in an Indian raid in 1786. His children, including eight-year-old Thomas, the presidents father
22.
Charles Francis Adams Sr.
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Charles Francis Adams Sr. was an American historical editor, politician and diplomat. He was a son of President John Quincy Adams and grandson of President John Adams and that meant conducting dialogue with both sides and monitoring the British connection in the supply of commerce raiders. He became an overseer of Harvard University, and built Adams National Historical Park and he was born in Boston and attended Boston Latin School and Harvard College, where he graduated in 1825. He then studied law with Daniel Webster and practiced in Boston and he wrote numerous reviews of works about American and British history for the North American Review. Charles Adams and his brothers, John and George, were all rivals for the woman, their cousin, Mary Catherine Hellen. In 1828 John married Mary Hellen at a ceremony in the White House, from the 1840s Adams became one of the finest historical editors of his era. He developed his expertise in part because of the example of his father, the senior Adams began a life of his father, John Adams, but wrote only a few chapters before resuming his political career in 1830 with his election to the US House of Representatives. The edition, titled The Works of John Adams, Esq and he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1857. As a Republican, Adams was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1858, where he chaired the Committee on Manufactures. He was re-elected in 1860, but resigned to become U. S. minister to the Court of St Jamess, powerful Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner had wanted the position and became alienated from Adams. Part of his duties included correspondence with British civilians including Karl Marx, back in Boston, Adams declined the presidency of Harvard University but became one of its overseers in 1869. In 1870 he built the first presidential library in the United States to honor his father John Quincy Adams, the Stone Library includes over 14,000 books written in twelve languages. The library is located on the property of the Old House at Adams National Historical Park in Quincy, Adams served as U. S. arbiter on the 1871–72 international commission to settle the Alabama claims that met in Geneva. He is considered one of the contributors on this seminal work in forwarding the concept of world law through arbitration. During the 1876 electoral college controversy, Adams sided with Democrat Samuel J. Tilden over Republican Rutherford B. Hayes for the presidency and he was the last surviving child of John Quincy Adams. Abigails health and spirits worsened after her husbands death and she died at Peacefield June 6,1889, butterfield, L. H. et al. eds. Multivolume letterpress edition of all letters to and from members of the Adams family, plus their diaries. Donald, Aida Dipace and Donald, David Herbert, eds, Charles Francis Adams Sr. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
23.
United States Attorney
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United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U. S. Attorneys located throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U. S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. One U. S. Attorney is assigned to each of the districts, with the exception of Guam. Each U. S. Attorney is the federal law enforcement officer within his or her particular jurisdiction. They supervise district offices with as many as 350 Assistant U. S. Attorneys, an Assistant U. S. Attorney, or federal prosecutor, is a public official who represents the federal government on behalf of the U. S. Attorney in criminal prosecutions. U. S. Attorneys and their offices are part of the Department of Justice, U. S. Attorneys receive oversight, supervision, and administrative support services through the Justice Departments Executive Office for United States Attorneys. Selected U. S. Attorneys participate in the Attorney Generals Advisory Committee of United States Attorneys, the Office of the United States Attorney was created by the Judiciary Act of 1789, along with the office of Attorney General and the United States Marshals Service. The same act also specified the structure of the Supreme Court of the United States and established inferior courts making up the United States Federal Judiciary, thus, the office of U. S. Attorney is older than the Department of Justice. The Judiciary Act of 1789 provided for the appointment in each district of a Person learned in the law to act as attorney for the United States. The U. S. Attorney is appointed by the President of the United States for a term of four years, a U. S. Attorney continues in office, beyond the appointed term, until a successor is appointed and qualified. By law, each United States attorney is subject to removal by the President, the Attorney General has had the authority since 1986 to appoint interim U. S. Attorneys to fill a vacancy. If an appointment expires under subsection, the court for such district may appoint a United States attorney to serve until the vacancy is filled. The order of appointment by the court shall be filed with the clerk of the court, on March 9,2007, President George W. This, in effect, extinguished the 120-day limit on interim U. S. Attorneys, and their appointment had an indefinite term. Related to the dismissal of U. S. attorneys controversy, in March 2007 the Senate, the bill was signed by President George W. Bush, and became law in June 2007. Senator Dianne Feinstein, summarized the history of interim United States Attorney appointments, the U. S. Attorney is both the primary representative and the administrative head of the Office of the U. S. Attorney for the district. The U. S. Attorneys Office is the prosecutor for the United States in criminal law cases. However, they are not the one that can represent the United States in Court. These responsibilities include certain legal, budgetary, administrative, and personnel services, the EOUSA was created on April 6,1953, by Attorney General Order No
24.
Andrew Jackson
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Andrew Jackson was an American soldier and statesman who served as the seventh President of the United States from 1829 to 1837 and was the founder of the Democratic Party. Before being elected to the presidency, Jackson served in Congress, as president, Jackson sought to advance the rights of the common man against what he saw as a corrupt aristocracy and to preserve the Union. Jackson was born in 1767 somewhere near the border between North and South Carolina, into a recently immigrated Scots-Irish farming family. During the American Revolutionary War, Jackson acted as a courier, at age 13, he was captured and mistreated by the British. He moved to Tennessee and practiced as a lawyer, in 1791, he married Rachel Donelson Robards. The couple later learned that Rachels previous husband had failed to finalize their divorce, Jackson served briefly in the U. S. House of Representatives and the U. S. Senate. Upon returning to Tennessee, he was appointed a judge on the Tennessee Supreme Court, in 1801, Jackson was appointed colonel in the Tennessee militia, and was elected its commander the following year. He built the Hermitage plantation in 1804, in 1806, he killed a man in a duel over a matter of honor regarding his wife. He led Tennessee militia and U. S. Army regulars during the Creek War of 1813-1814, Jackson won a decisive victory in the War of 1812 over the British army at the Battle of New Orleans, making him into a national hero. Because Spanish Florida was a refuge for blacks escaping slavery, who allied with the Seminole Indians, Jackson invaded the territory in 1816 to destroy the Negro Fort. He led an invasion in 1818, as part of the First Seminole War, resulting in the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819. Jackson briefly served as Floridas first Territorial Governor in 1821, Jackson was nominated by several state legislatures to be a candidate for president in 1824. Although he earned a plurality in both the electoral and popular vote against three major candidates, Jackson failed to get a majority and lost in the House of Representatives to John Quincy Adams, Jacksons supporters founded what became the Democratic Party. He ran again for president in 1828 against Adams, building and expanding upon his base of support in the West and South, he won in a landslide. He blamed the death of his wife, Rachel, which occurred after the election, on the Adams campaigners, as president, Jackson faced a threat of secession by South Carolina over the Tariff of Abominations, which Congress had enacted under Adams. In contrast to several of his successors, he denied the right of a state to secede from the union or to nullify federal law. The Nullification Crisis was defused when the tariff was amended and Jackson threatened the use of force if South Carolina attempted to secede. Jackson believed strongly in majority rule and he supported direct election of senators and abolition of the Electoral College, believing that these reforms would provide average citizens with greater power
25.
Charles Jared Ingersoll
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Charles Jared Ingersoll was an American lawyer and Democratic member of the U. S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was the son of Jared Ingersoll who served in the Continental Congress, Charles Ingersoll dropped out of the College of New Jersey, later Princeton University, in 1799. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1802 and he traveled in Europe for a time, and was attached to the U. S. embassy in France. He was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Thirteenth Congress, where he served as chairman of the United States House Committee on the Judiciary and he was not a candidate for renomination in 1814, having been appointed United States district attorney for Pennsylvania. He served in office from 1815 to 1829, and was a member of the Pennsylvania canal and internal improvement convention in 1825. In 1829, he was removed from the office of attorney by U. S. President Andrew Jackson. He was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1830, and he was appointed secretary of the legation to Prussia on March 8,1837. He was a candidate in 1837 for election to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Francis J. Harper in the Twenty-fifth Congress. He was again a candidate for election in 1838. Ingersoll was elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-seventh and to the three succeeding Congresses and he served as chairman of the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs during the Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Congresses). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1848 and he was appointed Minister to France in 1847 but was not confirmed by the Senate. He died in 1862 in Philadelphia and his son Edward Ingersoll wrote on legal topics. He also published numerous anonymous contributions to the Democratic Press of Philadelphia, at the time of his death, he was preparing a History of the Territorial Acquisitions of the United States. Recollections, Historical, Political, Biographical, and Social, of Charles J. Ingersoll, Philadelphia, Lippincott & Co.1861 Meigs, William Montgomery. The Life of Charles Jared Ingersoll, reprint, New York, DaCapo Press,1970. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, the Political Graveyard Attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Wilson, James Grant, Fiske, John, eds. The Charles Jared Ingersoll papers, including correspondence and writings, are available for use at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Charles Jared Ingersoll at Find a Grave
26.
Henry D. Gilpin
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Henry Dilworth Gilpin was an American lawyer and statesman of Quaker extraction who served as Attorney General of the United States under President Martin Van Buren. He was the son of Joshua Gilpin and Mary Dilworth, and was born in Lancaster, England and his mother was from the Quaker Dilworths of Lancaster, England. The family returned to England for another tour in 1812, and returned to the United States in about 1816, after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, he studied law with Joseph R. Ingersoll and was admitted to the bar in 1822. He served as U. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from 1831 to 1837, during this time he joined the American Philosophical Society and from 1833 to 1835 he was on the board of the Bank of the United States. President Martin Van Buren named him 14th Attorney General of the United States in 1840 and he served until 1841, during which time he presented the U. S. governments side of the Amistad case to the U. S. Supreme Court. He was also a secretary and director of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, Gilpin died in Philadelphia in 1860. Gray, Ralph D. Henry D. Gilpin, A Pennsylvania Jacksonian
27.
Philadelphia
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In 1682, William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia was one of the capitals in the Revolutionary War. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became an industrial center. It became a destination for African-Americans in the Great Migration. The areas many universities and colleges make Philadelphia a top international study destination, as the city has evolved into an educational, with a gross domestic product of $388 billion, Philadelphia ranks ninth among world cities and fourth in the nation. Philadelphia is the center of activity in Pennsylvania and is home to seven Fortune 1000 companies. The Philadelphia skyline is growing, with a market of almost 81,900 commercial properties in 2016 including several prominent skyscrapers. The city is known for its arts, culture, and rich history, Philadelphia has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city. Fairmount Park, when combined with the adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the watershed, is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the United States. The 67 National Historic Landmarks in the city helped account for the $10 billion generated by tourism, Philadelphia is the only World Heritage City in the United States. Before Europeans arrived, the Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape Indians in the village of Shackamaxon, the Lenape are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government. They are also called Delaware Indians and their territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island. Most Lenape were pushed out of their Delaware homeland during the 18th century by expanding European colonies, Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox, and violent conflict with Europeans. Iroquois people occasionally fought the Lenape, surviving Lenape moved west into the upper Ohio River basin. The American Revolutionary War and United States independence pushed them further west, in the 1860s, the United States government sent most Lenape remaining in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory under the Indian removal policy. In the 21st century, most Lenape now reside in the US state of Oklahoma, with communities living also in Wisconsin, Ontario. The Dutch considered the entire Delaware River valley to be part of their New Netherland colony, in 1638, Swedish settlers led by renegade Dutch established the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina and quickly spread out in the valley. In 1644, New Sweden supported the Susquehannocks in their defeat of the English colony of Maryland
28.
Democratic Party (United States)
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The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The Democrats dominant worldview was once socially conservative and fiscally classical liberalism, while, especially in the rural South, since Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal coalition in the 1930s, the Democratic Party has also promoted a social-liberal platform, supporting social justice. Today, the House Democratic caucus is composed mostly of progressives and centrists, the partys philosophy of modern liberalism advocates social and economic equality, along with the welfare state. It seeks to provide government intervention and regulation in the economy, the party has united with smaller left-wing regional parties throughout the country, such as the Farmer–Labor Party in Minnesota and the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota. Well into the 20th century, the party had conservative pro-business, the New Deal Coalition of 1932–1964 attracted strong support from voters of recent European extraction—many of whom were Catholics based in the cities. After Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal of the 1930s, the pro-business wing withered outside the South, after the racial turmoil of the 1960s, most southern whites and many northern Catholics moved into the Republican Party at the presidential level. The once-powerful labor union element became smaller and less supportive after the 1970s, white Evangelicals and Southerners became heavily Republican at the state and local level in the 1990s. However, African Americans became a major Democratic element after 1964, after 2000, Hispanic and Latino Americans, Asian Americans, the LGBT community, single women and professional women moved towards the party as well. The Northeast and the West Coast became Democratic strongholds by 1990 after the Republicans stopped appealing to socially liberal voters there, overall, the Democratic Party has retained a membership lead over its major rival the Republican Party. The most recent was the 44th president Barack Obama, who held the office from 2009 to 2017, in the 115th Congress, following the 2016 elections, Democrats are the opposition party, holding a minority of seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a minority of governorships, and state legislatures, though they do control the mayoralty of cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Washington, D. C. The Democratic Party traces its origins to the inspiration of the Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and that party also inspired the Whigs and modern Republicans. Organizationally, the modern Democratic Party truly arose in the 1830s, since the nomination of William Jennings Bryan in 1896, the party has generally positioned itself to the left of the Republican Party on economic issues. They have been liberal on civil rights issues since 1948. On foreign policy both parties changed position several times and that party, the Democratic-Republican Party, came to power in the election of 1800. After the War of 1812 the Federalists virtually disappeared and the national political party left was the Democratic-Republicans. The Democratic-Republican party still had its own factions, however. As Norton explains the transformation in 1828, Jacksonians believed the peoples will had finally prevailed, through a lavishly financed coalition of state parties, political leaders, and newspaper editors, a popular movement had elected the president
29.
Alexander J. Dallas (statesman)
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Alexander James Dallas was an American statesman who served as the U. S. Treasury Secretary under President James Madison. Dallas was born in Kingston, Jamaica, to Dr. Robert Charles Dallas, when he was five his family moved to Edinburgh and then to London. There he studied under James Elphinston and he planned to study law, but was unable to afford it. He married Arabella Maria Smith of Pennsylvania, the daughter of Maj. George Smith of the British Army and Arabella Barlow, in 1780, there he was admitted to the bar through his fathers connections. Marias health suffered in Jamaica and they moved to Philadelphia in 1783 and he was admitted to the bar in 1785. His law practice was slow and on the side he edited the Pennsylvania Herald from 1787 to 1788, when the United States Supreme Court came to Philadelphia in 1791, he would become their first reporter of decisions starting with West v. Barnes. Because the post of reporter was a one, Dallas did his work from his own funds. The volumes, of which he produced only four, were faulted for being incomplete, inaccurate, and extremely tardy. For example, the ruling in Chisholm v. Georgia which prompted the Eleventh Amendment, was not reported by Dallas until five years later. He was a founder of the Democratic-Republican Societies in 1793, governor Thomas Mifflin named Dallas Secretary of the Commonwealth, a post he held from 1791 to 1801. Because Mifflin was an alcoholic, Dallas functioned as de facto governor for much of the late 1790s, Dallas helped found the Democratic-Republican party in Pennsylvania and advocated a strict construction of the new Constitution. In 1801, he was named United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and his friend Albert Gallatin was treasury secretary when the War of 1812 began and Dallas helped Gallatin obtain funds to fight Britain. The war nearly bankrupted the Federal Government by the time Dallas replaced Gallatin as treasury secretary, from March 2,1815 to August 1,1815 he was acting Secretary of War and for a time that year was acting Secretary of State as well. He returned to Philadelphia, but lived only a year and he was a member of the American Philosophical Society from 1791 and a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania. Dallas County, Alabama and Dallas Township, Pennsylvania are named for him, six U. S. Coast Guard Cutters have been named DALLAS, the most recent was USCGC DALLAS. Fort Dallas in Florida and the U. S. Navy ship USS Dallas were named after his son, Alexander J. Dallas, who died during his Navy service. His other son George Mifflin Dallas was Vice President under James K. Polk and one possible namesake for Dallas, Texas, biography and portrait at the University of Pennsylvania Alexander J. Dallas at Find a Grave Alexander J. Dallas, Secretary of War
30.
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
31.
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
32.
Mayor of Philadelphia
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The Mayor of Philadelphia is the chief executive of the government of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as stipulated by the Charter of the City of Philadelphia. The current Mayor of Philadelphia is Jim Kenney, the first mayor of Philadelphia, Humphrey Morrey, was appointed by city founder William Penn. Edward Shippen was appointed by Penn as first mayor under the charter of 1701, subsequent mayors, who held office for one year, were elected by the city council from among their number. No compensation was paid to the earliest office-holders, and candidates often objected strongly to their being selected, in 1704 Alderman Griffith Jones was elected but declined to serve, for which he was fined twenty pounds. In 1706, Alderman Thomas Story was similarly fined for refusing office, in 1745, Alderman Abraham Taylor was fined thirty pounds for refusing the mayoralty, Council then elected Joseph Turner, who also refused and was likewise fined. Robert Wharton declined in 1800 and 1811, amid serving for 14 one-year terms, making him the most-often-elected, in 1747, at the request of retiring Mayor William Attwood, Council resolved to institute an annual salary of 100 pounds for the office. Nevertheless, that year, Anthony Morris secretly fled to Bucks County to avoid being notified of his election to the mayoralty. When after three days he could not be located, a new election had to be arranged, beginning in 1826, Council could elect any citizen of Philadelphia to the mayoralty. From 1839, mayors were elected by popular vote, if no candidate won a majority of the popular vote, then the joint Councils would decide between the two leading candidates. John Swift was the first mayor to be elected directly by the people in the 1840 election, the length of the term of office was extended to two years in 1854, to three years in 1861, and to four years in 1885. A two-consecutive-term limit was instituted in 1951, parties Democratic Democratic-Republican Federalist National Republican Republican Whig
33.
Albert Gallatin
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Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin was a Swiss-American politician, diplomat, ethnologist and linguist. He served as a Representative, Senator, United States Ambassador and was the longest-serving United States Secretary of the Treasury, in 1831, he helped found the University of the City of New York, now New York University. Born in Geneva in present-day Switzerland, Gallatin immigrated to America in the 1780s and was naturalized in Morgantown and he ultimately settled in western Pennsylvania. He was politically active against the Federalist Party program and was elected to the United States Senate in 1793, however, he was removed from office by a 14–12 party-line vote after a protest raised by his opponents suggested he did not meet the required nine years of citizenship. Two years later, he was elected to the House of Representatives and he also helped found the House Committee on Finance and often engineered withholding of finances by the House as a method of overriding executive actions to which he objected. He was secretary from 1801 until February 1814, under both Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, holding the longest tenure in office in American history. Gallatin never wanted the position and was humiliated when forced to withdraw from the race because he lacked popular support, in 1826 and 1827, he served as Ambassador to Great Britain and negotiated several useful agreements, such as a ten-year extension of the joint occupation of Oregon. Gallatin settled in New York City after his return to the US and it was intended to offer university education to the working and merchant classes as well as the wealthy. He became president of the National Bank in New York City and his last great endeavor was founding the American Ethnological Society in 1842 and serving as its president until 1848. With his studies of the languages of Native Americans, he has called the father of American ethnology. At his death in 1849, Gallatin was the last surviving member of the Jefferson Cabinet, Gallatin was born in Geneva, Switzerland, to wealthy Jean Gallatin and his wife, Sophie Albertine Rollaz. Gallatins family had influence in Switzerland, and many family members held distinguished positions in the magistracy, military. Gallatins father, a merchant, died in 1765, followed by his mother in April 1770. Now orphaned, Gallatin was taken into the care of Mademoiselle Pictet, in January 1773, Gallatin was sent to boarding school. The democratic spirit of the United States attracted him and he decided to emigrate, in April 1780, he secretly left Geneva with his classmate Henri Serre. Carrying letters of recommendation from eminent Colonials that the Gallatin family procured, the men left France in May, sailing on an American ship. They reached Cape Ann on July 14 and arrived in Boston the next day, bored with monotonous Bostonian life, the men set sail with a Swiss female companion, to the settlement of Machias, located on the northeastern tip of the Maine frontier. At Machias, Gallatin operated a bartering venture, in which he dealt with a variety of goods and he enjoyed the simple life and the natural environment surrounding him
34.
Second Bank of the United States
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The banks formal name, according to section 9 of its charter as passed by Congress, was The President, Directors, and Company, of the Bank of the United States. A private corporation with public duties, the bank handled all fiscal transactions for the U. S. Government, and was accountable to Congress, twenty percent of its capital was owned by the federal government, the banks single largest stockholder. Four thousand private investors held 80% of the capital, including one thousand Europeans. The bulk of the stocks were held by a few hundred wealthy Americans, in its time, the institution was the largest monied corporation in the world. The federal deposits endowed the BUS with its regulatory capacity, failing to secure recharter, the Second Bank of the United States became a private corporation in 1836, and underwent liquidation in 1841. A national alliance arose to legislate a central bank to address these needs, calhoun of South Carolina and Henry Clay of Kentucky was decisive in the successful chartering effort. The charter was signed into law by Madison on April 10,1816, opposition to the banks revival emanated from two interests. if Congress could incorporate a bank, it might emancipate a slave. Hostile to the effects of the central bank, private banks—proliferating with or without state charters—had scuttled rechartering of the first BUS in 1811. These interests played significant roles in undermining the institution during the administration of U. S. President Andrew Jackson, Government land sales in the West, fueled by European demand for agricultural products, ensured that a speculative bubble would form. When the U. S. Further, it transpired that branch directors for the Baltimore office had engaged in fraud and larceny. Resigning in January 1819, Jones was replaced by Langdon Cheves who continued the contraction in credit in an effort to stop inflation and stabilize the bank, the central banks reaction to the crisis—a clumsy expansion, then a sharp contraction of credit—indicated its weakness, not its strength. The effects were catastrophic, resulting in a recession with mass unemployment. The financial crisis raised doubts among the American public as to the efficacy of paper money, upon this widespread disaffection the anti-bank Jacksonian Democrats would mobilize opposition to the BUS in the 1830s. The national bank was in disrepute among most Americans when Nicholas Biddle. Under Biddles guidance, the BUS evolved into a banking institution that produced a strong and sound system of national credit. From 1823 to 1833, Biddle expanded credit steadily, but with restraint, albert Gallatin, former Secretary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, wrote in 1831 that the BUS was fulfilling its charter expectations. By the time of Jacksons inauguration in 1829, the bank appeared to be on solid footing. Public perceptions of the bank were generally positive
35.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
36.
United States presidential election, 1844
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The United States presidential election of 1844 was the 15th quadrennial presidential election, held from Friday, November 1, to Wednesday, December 4,1844. Democrat James K. Polk defeated Whig Henry Clay in a close contest that turned on the issue of slavery expansion through the annexation of the Republic of Texas. The Whig Party nominee Henry Clay adopted a platform on the principle of preserving North-South sectional unity. In place of Van Buren, Democrat James K. Polk emerged as Americas first dark horse nominee and he ran on a platform that embraced Americas popular commitment to territorial expansionism, often referred to as Manifest Destiny. Polk successfully linked the US-British boundary dispute over the partition of Oregon Territory with the Texas annexation debate, in doing so, Polk narrowly outpolled the Whig Party nominee Clay by less than 40,000 votes. Texas would enter the Union as the 28th state in 1846 and this was the last presidential election to be held on different days in different states. Starting with the election of 1848, all states held the election on the same date in November. It is the presidential election in which both major party nominees were former Speakers of the House. Anti-annexation petitions to Congress sent from northern anti-slavery forces, including state legislatures, were similarly suppressed, in 1836, a portion of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas declared its independence to form the Republic of Texas. Texans, mostly immigrants from the Deep South, many of whom owned slaves. At first, the subject of annexing Texas to the United States was shunned by both major American political parties, although they recognized Texas sovereignty, Presidents Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren declined to pursue annexation. The prospect of bringing another slave state into the Union was fraught with problems, both major parties – the Democrats and Whigs – viewed Texas statehood as something not worth a foreign war or the sectional combat that annexation would provoke in the United States. The incumbent President John Tyler, formerly vice-president, had assumed the presidency upon the death of William Henry Harrison in 1841, Tyler, a Whig in name only, emerged as a states rights advocate committed to slavery expansion in defiance of his partys principles. After he vetoed the Whig domestic legislative agenda, he was expelled from his own party on September 13,1841. Politically isolated, but unencumbered by party restraints, Tyler aligned himself with a faction of Texas annexationists in a bid for election to a full term in 1844. Tyler became convinced that Great Britain was encouraging a Texas-Mexico rapprochement that might lead to emancipation in the Texas republic. Tyler submitted his Texas-US treaty for annexation to the US Senate, delivered April 22,1844, in it, he characterized slavery as a social blessing and the acquisition of Texas as an emergency measure necessary to safeguard the peculiar institution in the United States. In doing so, Tyler and Calhoun sought to unite the South in a crusade that would present the North with an ultimatum, anti-slavery Whigs considered Texas annexation particularly egregious, since Mexico had outlawed slavery in Coahuila y Tejas in 1829, before Texas independence had been declared
37.
1844 Democratic National Convention
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The 1844 Democratic National Convention was held in Baltimore. The annexation of Texas was the political issue of the day. Van Buren, initially the leading candidate, opposed annexation because it might lead to a sectional crisis over the status of slavery in the West. This position cost Van Buren the support of southern and expansionist Democrats, as a result, the delegates likewise could not settle on Cass, whose credentials also included past service as a U. S. minister to France. On the eighth ballot, the historian George Bancroft, a delegate from Massachusetts, Polk argued that Texas and Oregon had always belonged to the United States by right. He called for the reannexation of Texas and for the reoccupation of the disputed Oregon territory. On the next call, the convention unanimously accepted Polk. The Democrats then nominated George M. Dallas, a Pennsylvania lawyer, in 1840, the Democratic Party Convention had provided that a majority vote would be sufficient for nominee selection. Northern Democrat Van Burenites arrived at the convention on May 27,1844, with the expectation that, possessing a majority of the delegates, they would quickly secure the candidacy for their man. Van Buren supporters persisted in spite of this setback, garnering 146 votes for their candidate on the first ballot, a 55% simple majority, middle and Deep South pro-annexationists opposed Van Buren 75 to 3, depriving northern anti-annexationists the 31 votes needed for victory. Calhoun and Levi Woodbury of New Hampshire, President John Tyler also hoped to win the support of delegates, but he was unable to find any backers. Southern intransigence had succeeded in eliminating Van Buren and his stand on Texas annexation. Van Buren was open to deferring to Senator Silas Wright of New York, James K. Polk, a former Speaker of the House and Governor of Tennessee, had entered the convention in hopes of becoming the vice presidential nominee. For president, Polk had the backing of former President Andrew Jackson, on the eighth presidential ballot, Polk was offered to the convention as an acceptable alternative for all Democratic factions at odds over the Texas annexation crisis. Southern Democrats benefited from the Tyler-Calhoun machinations in eliminating Martin Van Buren as a presidential candidate, on the ninth ballot, Van Buren instructed his delegates to support Polk, beginning a stampede to Polk that ended with him winning the nomination unanimously. Despite Whig efforts to cast Polk as an unknown – Who is James K. Polk they asked rhetorically – he was respected as a political operator. James K. Polk, a slaveholder, never enunciated a slavery expansionist position with respect to Texas annexation, as had John C. Calhoun and the southern extremists. As a national imperialist, he exhibited an unwavering support for Manifest Destiny, perceived as a devotion to expansionism
38.
Whig Party (United States)
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The Whig Party was a political party active in the middle of the 19th century in the United States. Four US presidents belonged to the party while in office and it emerged in the 1830s as the immediate successor to the National Republican and Anti-Masonic Parties, and was also rooted in the tradition of the Federalist Party. Along with the rival Democratic Party, it was central to the Second Party System from the early 1840s to the mid-1860s and it originally formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic Party. In particular, the Whigs supported the supremacy of the US Congress over the Presidency and favored a program of modernization, banking and it appealed to entrepreneurs, planters, reformers and the emerging urban middle class, but had little appeal to farmers or unskilled workers. It included many active Protestants, and voiced a moralistic opposition to the Jacksonian Indian removal, Party founders chose the Whig name to echo the American Whigs of the 18th century who fought for independence. The underlying political philosophy of the American Whig Party was not directly related to the British Whig party, the Whig Party nominated several presidential candidates in 1836. General William Henry Harrison of Ohio was nominated in 1840, former Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky in 1844, another war hero, General Winfield Scott of New Jersey was the Whig Partys last presidential nominee, in 1852. In its two decades of existence, the Whig Party had two of its candidates, Harrison and Taylor, elected president, John Tyler succeeded to the presidency after Harrisons death in 1841, but was expelled from the party later that year. Millard Fillmore, who became president after Taylors death in 1850, was the last Whig president, the party fell apart because of the internal tension over the expansion of slavery to the territories. Most Whig Party leaders eventually quit politics or changed parties, the northern voter base mostly gravitated to the new Republican Party. In the South, most joined the Know Nothing Party, which unsuccessfully ran Fillmore in the 1856 presidential election, the Constitutional Union Party experienced significant success from conservative former Whigs in the Upper South during the 1860 presidential election. Whig ideology as a policy orientation persisted for decades and played a role in shaping the modernizing policies of the state governments during Reconstruction. The name Whig derived from a term that Patriots used to refer to themselves during the American Revolution and it indicated hostility to the British Sovereign, and despite the identical name, did not directly derive from the British Whig Party. The American Whigs were modernizers who saw President Andrew Jackson as a man on horseback with a reactionary opposition to the forces of social, economic. Casting their enemy as King Andrew, they sought to identify themselves as opponents of governmental overreaching. Despite the apparent unity of Jeffersons Democratic-Republicans from 1800 to 1824, as Jackson purged his opponents, vetoed internal improvements, and killed the Second Bank of the United States, alarmed local elites fought back. In 1831, Henry Clay re-entered the Senate and started planning a new party and he defended national rather than sectional interests. His Jacksonian opponents, however, distrusted the government and opposed all federal aid for internal improvements
39.
Mexico
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Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
40.
United States presidential election, 1848
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The United States presidential election of 1848 was the 16th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7,1848. It was won by Zachary Taylor of the Whig Party, who ran against Lewis Cass of the Democratic Party, incumbent President James K. Polk, having achieved all of his major objectives in one term and suffering from declining health, kept his promise not to seek re-election. The contest was the first presidential election took place on the same day in every state. The Whigs in 1846–47 had focused all their energies on condemning Polks war policies and they had to reverse course quickly. In February 1848 Polk surprised everyone with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican-American War, the Whigs in the Senate voted 2-1 to approve the treaty. Then, in the summer, the Whigs nominated the hero of the war, while he did promise no more future wars, he did not condemn the Mexican-American War or criticize Polk, and the Whigs had to follow his lead. They shifted their attention to the new issue of slavery could be banned from the new territories. The choice of Zachary Taylor was made almost out of desperation, he was not clearly committed to Whig principles, the Democrats had a record of victory, prosperity, and the acquisition of both Oregon and the Southwest. It appeared almost certain that they would win unless the Whigs picked Taylor, Taylor ultimately declared himself a Whig, and easily took their nomination, receiving 171 delegate votes to defeat Henry Clay, Winfield Scott, Daniel Webster and others. Former President Martin Van Buren once again sought the Democratic nomination, Cass had served as Governor and Senator for Michigan, as well as Secretary of War under Andrew Jackson, and from 1836 to 1842 as ambassador to France. Van Buren had burned for the nomination, but he had wanted it on a Free Soil platform, neither his name nor his stand received any support at the Democratic convention. The Free Soil Party, was organized for the 1848 election to oppose expansion of slavery into the western territories. Much of its support came from disaffected anti-slavery Barnburner Democrats and Conscience Whigs, the party was led by Salmon P. Chase and John Parker Hale and held its 1848 convention in Utica and Buffalo, New York. Van Buren knew that the Free Soilers had not the slightest chance of winning, rather that his candidacy would split the Democratic vote, bitter and aging, Van Buren did not care despite the fact his life had been built upon the rock of party solidarity and party regularity. He loathed Lewis Cass and the principle of sovereignty with equal intensity. Despite their significant showing in the presidential election, certain events would conspire to remove the Liberty Party from political significance. Initially, the nomination was to be decided in the fall of 1847 at a Convention in Buffalo, there, Senator John P. Hale was nominated over Gerrit Smith, brother-in-law to the partys previous nominee James G. Birney. Leicester King, a judge and state senator in Ohio, was nominated to be Hales running mate
41.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established as a sovereign state on 1 January 1801 by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The growing desire for an Irish Republic led to the Irish War of Independence, Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, and the state was consequently renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Britain financed the European coalition that defeated France in 1815 in the Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire thereby became the foremost world power for the next century. The Crimean War with Russia and the Boer wars were relatively small operations in a largely peaceful century, rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the states formation continued up until the mid-19th century. A devastating famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland. It was an era of economic modernization and growth of industry, trade and finance. Outward migration was heavy to the colonies and to the United States. Britain also built up a large British Empire in Africa and Asia, India, by far the most important possession, saw a short-lived revolt in 1857. In foreign policy Britain favoured free trade, which enabled its financiers and merchants to operate successfully in many otherwise independent countries, as in South America. Britain formed no permanent military alliances until the early 20th century, when it began to cooperate with Japan, France and Russia, and moved closer to the United States. A brief period of limited independence for Ireland came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the British governments fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite the two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801, however, King George III was bitterly opposed to any such Emancipation and succeeded in defeating his governments attempts to introduce it. When the Treaty of Amiens ended the war, Britain agreed to return most of the territories it had seized, in May 1803, war was declared again. In 1806, Napoleon issued the series of Berlin Decrees, which brought into effect the Continental System and this policy aimed to eliminate the threat from the British by closing French-controlled territory to foreign trade. Frances population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of the British Isles, Napoleon expected that cutting Britain off from the European mainland would end its economic hegemony. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent, after Napoleons surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned. The Allies united and the armies of Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon once, simultaneous with the Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes, arming hostile Indians and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812 with the United States. The war was little noticed in Britain, which could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall of Napoleon in 1814, American frigates inflicted a series of defeats on the Royal Navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in Europe
42.
Devon
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Devon, also known as Devonshire, which was formerly its common and official name, is a county of England, reaching from the Bristol Channel in the north to the English Channel in the south. It is part of South West England, bounded by Cornwall to the west, Somerset to the northeast, combined as a ceremonial county, Devons area is 6,707 km2 and its population is about 1.1 million. Devon derives its name from Dumnonia, which, during the British Iron Age, Roman Britain, the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain resulted in the partial assimilation of Dumnonia into the Kingdom of Wessex during the eighth and ninth centuries. The western boundary with Cornwall was set at the River Tamar by King Æthelstan in 936, Devon was constituted as a shire of the Kingdom of England thereafter. The north and south coasts of Devon each have both cliffs and sandy shores, and the bays contain seaside resorts, fishing towns. The inland terrain is rural, generally hilly, and has a low density in comparison to many other parts of England. Dartmoor is the largest open space in southern England at 954 km2, to the north of Dartmoor are the Culm Measures and Exmoor. In the valleys and lowlands of south and east Devon the soil is fertile, drained by rivers including the Exe, the Culm, the Teign, the Dart. As well as agriculture, much of the economy of Devon is linked with tourism, in the Brittonic, Devon is known as Welsh, Dyfnaint, Breton, Devnent and Cornish, Dewnens, each meaning deep valleys. One erroneous theory is that the suffix is due to a mistake in the making of the original letters patent for the Duke of Devonshire. However, there are references to Defenascire in Anglo-Saxon texts from before 1000 AD, the term Devonshire may have originated around the 8th century, when it changed from Dumnonia to Defenascir. Kents Cavern in Torquay had produced human remains from 30–40,000 years ago, Dartmoor is thought to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunter-gatherer peoples from about 6000 BC. The Romans held the area under occupation for around 350 years. Devon became a frontier between Brittonic and Anglo-Saxon Wessex, and it was absorbed into Wessex by the mid 9th century. This suggests the Anglo-Saxon migration into Devon was limited rather than a movement of people. The border with Cornwall was set by King Æthelstan on the east bank of the River Tamar in 936 AD, the arrival of William of Orange to launch the Glorious Revolution of 1688 took place at Brixham. Devon has produced tin, copper and other metals from ancient times, Devons tin miners enjoyed a substantial degree of independence through Devons Stannary Parliament, which dates back to the 12th century. The last recorded sitting was in 1748, agriculture has been an important industry in Devon since the 19th century
43.
Kingston, Jamaica
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Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal. In the Americas, Kingston is the largest predominantly English-speaking city south of the United States. The local government bodies of the parishes of Kingston and St. Andrew were amalgamated by the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation Act of 1923, to form the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation. Greater Kingston, or the Corporate Area refers to areas under the KSAC, however, it does not solely refer to Kingston Parish. Kingston Parish had a population of 96,052, and St. Andrew parish had a population of 555,828 in 2001, Kingston is only bordered by Saint Andrew to the east, west and north. The city proper is bounded by Six Miles to the west, Stony Hill to the north, Papine to the northeast and Harbour View to the east, communities in urban and suburban Saint Andrew. Communities in rural St. Andrew such as Gordon Town, Mavis Bank, Lawrence Tavern, Mt. Airy, two parts make up the central area of Kingston, the historic Downtown, and New Kingston. Both are served by Norman Manley International Airport and also by the smaller, Kingston was founded in July 1692 as a place for survivors of the 1692 earthquake that destroyed Port Royal. Before the earthquake, Kingston’s functions were purely agricultural, the earthquake survivors set up a camp on the sea front. Approximately two thousand people died due to mosquito-borne diseases, initially the people lived in a tented camp on Colonel Barrys Hog Crawle. The town did not begin to grow until after the destruction of Port Royal by fire in 1703. Surveyor John Goffe drew up a plan for the town based on a grid bounded by North, East, West, by 1716 it had become the largest town and the centre of trade for Jamaica. The government sold land to people with the regulation that they no more than the amount of the land that they owned in Port Royal. Gradually wealthy merchants began to move their residences from above their businesses to the lands north on the plains of Liguanea. The first free school, Wolmerss, was founded in 1729 and there was a theatre, first on Harbour Street, in 1755 the governor, Sir Charles Knowles, had decided to transfer the government offices from Spanish Town to Kingston. It was thought by some to be a location for the Assembly in proximity to the moral distractions of Kingston. By the end of the 18th century, the city contained more than 3,000 brick buildings, the harbour fostered trade, and played part in several naval wars of the 18th century
44.
Edinburgh
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Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 local government council areas. Located in Lothian on the Firth of Forths southern shore, it is Scotlands second most populous city and the seventh most populous in the United Kingdom. The 2014 official population estimates are 464,990 for the city of Edinburgh,492,680 for the authority area. Recognised as the capital of Scotland since at least the 15th century, Edinburgh is home to the Scottish Parliament and it is the largest financial centre in the UK after London. Historically part of Midlothian, the city has long been a centre of education, particularly in the fields of medicine, Scots law, literature, the sciences and engineering. The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1582 and now one of four in the city, was placed 17th in the QS World University Rankings in 2013 and 2014. The city is famous for the Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe. The citys historical and cultural attractions have made it the United Kingdoms second most popular tourist destination after London, attracting over one million overseas visitors each year. Historic sites in Edinburgh include Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, the churches of St. Giles, Greyfriars and the Canongate, Edinburghs Old Town and New Town together are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which has been managed by Edinburgh World Heritage since 1999. It appears to derive from the place name Eidyn mentioned in the Old Welsh epic poem Y Gododdin, the poem names Din Eidyn as a hill fort in the territory of the Gododdin. The Celtic element din was dropped and replaced by the Old English burh, the first documentary evidence of the medieval burgh is a royal charter, c. 1124–1127, by King David I granting a toft in burgo meo de Edenesburg to the Priory of Dunfermline. In modern Gaelic, the city is called Dùn Èideann, the earliest known human habitation in the Edinburgh area was at Cramond, where evidence was found of a Mesolithic camp site dated to c.8500 BC. Traces of later Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements have found on Castle Rock, Arthurs Seat, Craiglockhart Hill. When the Romans arrived in Lothian at the end of the 1st century AD, at some point before the 7th century AD, the Gododdin, who were presumably descendants of the Votadini, built the hill fort of Din Eidyn or Etin. Although its location has not been identified, it likely they would have chosen a commanding position like the Castle Rock, Arthurs Seat. In 638, the Gododdin stronghold was besieged by forces loyal to King Oswald of Northumbria and it thenceforth remained under their jurisdiction. The royal burgh was founded by King David I in the early 12th century on land belonging to the Crown, in 1638, King Charles Is attempt to introduce Anglican church forms in Scotland encountered stiff Presbyterian opposition culminating in the conflicts of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. In the 17th century, Edinburghs boundaries were defined by the citys defensive town walls
45.
United States Secretary of the Treasury
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This position in the Federal Government of the United States is analogous to the Minister of Finance in many other countries. The Secretary of the Treasury is a member of the Presidents Cabinet, nominees for The Secretary of the Treasury undergo a confirmation hearing before the United States Senate Committee on Finance before being confirmed by the United States Senate. The Secretary of the Treasury is a member of the U. S. National Security Council. The Secretary along with the Treasurer must sign Federal Reserve notes before they can become legal tender, the Secretary also manages the United States Emergency Economic Stabilization fund. Most of the Departments law enforcement agencies such as the U. S. Customs Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, secret Service were reassigned to other Departments in 2003 in conjunction with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. The Secretary of the Treasury salary is $205,700 annually,2 Deputy Secretary of the Treasury M. Peter McPherson served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury from August 17,1988, to September 15,1988. 4 Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Kenneth W. Dam served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury from December 31,2002,5 Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Robert M. Kimmitt served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury from June 30,2006, to July 9,2006. 7 Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Neal Wolin served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury from January 25,2013, as of April 2017, there are eleven living former Secretaries of the Treasury, the oldest being George P. Shultz. The most recent Secretary of the Treasury to die was Lloyd M. Bentsen, United States Department of the Treasury
City of Dallas
