1.
United States Statutes at Large
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Each act and resolution of Congress is called a slip law, which is classified as either public law or private law, and designated and numbered accordingly. At the end of a Congress session, slip laws are compiled into Statutes at Large and they are part of a three-part model for publication of federal statutes consisting of slip laws, session laws, and codification. Today, large portions of slip laws denominated as public laws are now drafted as amendments to the United States Code. Once enacted into law, an Act will be published in the Statutes at Large and will add to, modify, provisions of a public law that contains only enacting clauses, effective dates, and similar matters are not generally codified. Private laws also are not generally codified, some portions of the United States Code have been enacted as positive law and other portions have not been so enacted. Publication of the United States Statutes at Large began in 1845 by the firm of Little, Brown. During Little, Brown and Companys time as publisher, Richard Peters, George Minot, in 1874, Congress transferred the authority to publish the Statutes at Large to the Government Printing Office under the direction of the Secretary of State. 633, was enacted July 30,1947 and directed the Secretary of State to compile, edit, index,980, was enacted September 23,1950 and directed the Administrator of General Services to compile, edit, index, and publish the Statutes at Large. Since 1985 the Statutes at Large have been prepared and published by the Office of the Federal Register of the National Archives, sometimes very large or long Acts of Congress are published as their own volume of the Statutes at Large. For example, the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 was published as volume 68A of the Statutes at Large. Volumes 1 to 18 of the Statutes at Large made available by the Library of Congress Volumes 1 to 64 of the Statutes at Large made available by the Congressional Data Coalition via LEGISWORKS
2.
United States House of Representatives
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The United States House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the Senate, composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the House are established by Article One of the United States Constitution, since its inception in 1789, all representatives are elected popularly. The total number of voting representatives is fixed by law at 435, the House is charged with the passage of federal legislation, known as bills, which, after concurrence by the Senate, are sent to the President for consideration. The presiding officer is the Speaker of the House, who is elected by the members thereof and is traditionally the leader of the controlling party. He or she and other leaders are chosen by the Democratic Caucus or the Republican Conferences. The House meets in the wing of the United States Capitol. Under the Articles of Confederation, the Congress of the Confederation was a body in which each state was equally represented. All states except Rhode Island agreed to send delegates, the issue of how to structure Congress was one of the most divisive among the founders during the Convention. The House is referred to as the house, with the Senate being the upper house. Both houses approval is necessary for the passage of legislation, the Virginia Plan drew the support of delegates from large states such as Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, as it called for representation based on population. The smaller states, however, favored the New Jersey Plan, the Constitution was ratified by the requisite number of states in 1788, but its implementation was set for March 4,1789. The House began work on April 1,1789, when it achieved a quorum for the first time, during the first half of the 19th century, the House was frequently in conflict with the Senate over regionally divisive issues, including slavery. The North was much more populous than the South, and therefore dominated the House of Representatives, However, the North held no such advantage in the Senate, where the equal representation of states prevailed. Regional conflict was most pronounced over the issue of slavery, One example of a provision repeatedly supported by the House but blocked by the Senate was the Wilmot Proviso, which sought to ban slavery in the land gained during the Mexican–American War. Conflict over slavery and other issues persisted until the Civil War, the war culminated in the Souths defeat and in the abolition of slavery. Because all southern senators except Andrew Johnson resigned their seats at the beginning of the war, the years of Reconstruction that followed witnessed large majorities for the Republican Party, which many Americans associated with the Unions victory in the Civil War and the ending of slavery. The Reconstruction period ended in about 1877, the ensuing era, the Democratic and the Republican Party held majorities in the House at various times. The late 19th and early 20th centuries also saw an increase in the power of the Speaker of the House
3.
Thaddeus Stevens
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Thaddeus Stevens was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania and one of the leaders of the Radical Republican faction of the Republican Party during the 1860s. A fierce opponent of slavery and discrimination against African-Americans, Stevens sought to secure their rights during Reconstruction, Stevens was born in rural Vermont, in poverty, and with a club foot, giving him a limp he kept his entire life. He moved to Pennsylvania as a man, and quickly became a successful lawyer in Gettysburg. He interested himself in municipal affairs, and then in politics and he was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, where he became a strong advocate of free public education. Financial setbacks in 1842 caused him to move his home and practice to the city of Lancaster. There, he joined the Whig Party, and was elected to Congress in 1848 and his activities as a lawyer and politician in opposition to slavery cost him votes and he did not seek reelection in 1852. After a brief flirtation with the Know-Nothing Party, Stevens joined the newly formed Republican Party, there, with fellow radicals such as Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, he opposed the expansion of slavery and concessions to the South as war came. Stevens argued that slavery should not survive the war, he was frustrated by the slowness of President Abraham Lincoln to support his position and he guided the governments financial legislation through the House as Ways and Means chairman. His plans went too far for the Moderate Republicans and were not enacted, after Lincolns assassination in April 1865, Stevens came into conflict with the new president, Johnson, who sought rapid restoration of the seceded states without guarantees for freedmen. The difference in views caused a battle between Johnson and Congress, with Stevens leading the Radical Republicans. After gains in the 1866 election the radicals took control of Reconstruction away from Johnson, Stevenss last great battle was to secure articles of impeachment in the House against Johnson, though the Senate did not convict the President. Stevens was born in Danville, Vermont, on April 4,1792 and he was the second of four children, all boys, and was named to honor the Polish general who served in the American Revolution, Thaddeus Kościuszko. His parents were Baptists who had emigrated from Massachusetts around 1786, Thaddeus was born with a club foot, at the time seen as a judgment from God for secret parental sin—and his older brother was born with the condition in both feet. The boys father, Joshua Stevens, was a farmer and cobbler who struggled to make a living in Vermont, after fathering two more sons Joshua abandoned the children and his wife Sarah. The circumstances of his departure and his subsequent fate are uncertain, Sarah Stevens struggled to make a living from the farm, with the increasing aid of her sons. She was determined that her sons improve themselves, and in 1807 moved the family to the town of Peacham. He suffered much from the taunts of his classmates for his disability, later accounts describe him there as wilful, headstrong with an overwhelming burning desire to secure an education. After graduation, he enrolled at Burlington College of the University of Vermont, Stevens then enrolled in the sophomore class at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire
4.
United States House Committee on the Judiciary
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The U. S. House Committee on the Judiciary, also called the House Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is charged with overseeing the administration of justice within the courts, administrative agencies. The Judiciary Committee is also the responsible for impeachments of federal officials. Because of the nature of its oversight, committee members usually have a legal background. In the 115th Congress, the chairman of the committee is Republican Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, in prior years, Lamar S. Smith of Texas was the chairman, and prior to that John Conyers served as chairman. The committee was created on June 6,1813 for the purpose of considering legislation related to the judicial system. Res. 95 Chairman, Jim Sensenbrenner, Ranking member, John Conyers The Antitrust Task Force during the 108th Congress existed from March 26,2003, all Judiciary Committee Members also served as members of the Task Force, and conducted hearings and investigations into consolidation of the Bell Telephone Companies. The task force operated like any other subcommittee, except that it only has a six-month term, a longer term for the task force would cause the Judiciary Committee to exceed this limit. Chairman, Adam Schiff, Ranking member, Bob Goodlatte Established in September 2008, the investigation was not completed by the end of the 110th Congress, and it was reestablished after the 111th Congress convened in January 2009. The responsibilities of the Task Force were expanded to include the case of Judge Samuel B, kent, leading to hearings and his subsequent impeachment by the full House of Representatives. The Task force finally voted to impeach Porteous on January 21,2010, administrative Law, Process and Procedure Project The Use and Misuse of Presidential Clemency Power for Executive Branch Officials Equal Justice for Our Military Act of 2009, HR569. Congress holds a hearing to consider granting members of the U. S, armed Forces access to the Supreme Court of the United States. 109-153, A History of the Committee on the Judiciary 1813–2006
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United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
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The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of the United States Senate, of the United States Congress. The Judiciary Committee, with 20 members, is in charge of conducting hearings prior to the Senate votes on confirmation of judges nominated by the president. In recent years, this role has made the committee increasingly a point of contention, with numerous party-line votes and standoffs over which judges should be approved. The committee also has a jurisdiction over matters relating to federal criminal law, as well as human rights, immigration law, intellectual property rights, antitrust law. It is also Senate procedure that all proposed Constitutional Amendments pass through the Judiciary Committee, the committee is one of the oldest in the Senate. It was initially created in 1816, source,2013 Congressional Record, Vol.159, Page S296 to 297 United States House Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Official Website
6.
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
7.
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
8.
Supreme Court of the United States
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The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest federal court of the United States. In the legal system of the United States, the Supreme Court is the interpreter of federal constitutional law. The Court normally consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight justices who are nominated by the President. Once appointed, justices have life tenure unless they resign, retire, in modern discourse, the justices are often categorized as having conservative, moderate, or liberal philosophies of law and of judicial interpretation. Each justice has one vote, and while many cases are decided unanimously, the Court meets in the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, D. C. The Supreme Court is sometimes referred to as SCOTUS, in analogy to other acronyms such as POTUS. The ratification of the United States Constitution established the Supreme Court in 1789 and its powers are detailed in Article Three of the Constitution. The Supreme Court is the court specifically established by the Constitution. The Court first convened on February 2,1790, by which five of its six initial positions had been filled. According to historian Fergus Bordewich, in its first session, he Supreme Court convened for the first time at the Royal Exchange Building on Broad Street and they had no cases to consider. After a week of inactivity, they adjourned until September, the sixth member was not confirmed until May 12,1790. Because the full Court had only six members, every decision that it made by a majority was made by two-thirds. However, Congress has always allowed less than the Courts full membership to make decisions, under Chief Justices Jay, Rutledge, and Ellsworth, the Court heard few cases, its first decision was West v. Barnes, a case involving a procedural issue. The Courts power and prestige grew substantially during the Marshall Court, the Marshall Court also ended the practice of each justice issuing his opinion seriatim, a remnant of British tradition, and instead issuing a single majority opinion. Also during Marshalls tenure, although beyond the Courts control, the impeachment, the Taney Court made several important rulings, such as Sheldon v. Nevertheless, it is primarily remembered for its ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which helped precipitate the Civil War. In the Reconstruction era, the Chase, Waite, and Fuller Courts interpreted the new Civil War amendments to the Constitution, during World War II, the Court continued to favor government power, upholding the internment of Japanese citizens and the mandatory pledge of allegiance. Nevertheless, Gobitis was soon repudiated, and the Steel Seizure Case restricted the pro-government trend, the Warren Court dramatically expanded the force of Constitutional civil liberties. It held that segregation in public schools violates equal protection and that traditional legislative district boundaries violated the right to vote
9.
Ex parte Vallandigham
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Ex parte Vallandigham,68 U. S. Vallandigham was tried before a military tribunal by Major General Ambrose E. In February 1864, the Supreme Court avoided ruling on the question by instead unanimously holding that they could not take appeals from military tribunals at all. Clement Vallandigham, a member of the United States House of Representatives, was the leader of the pro-Confederate faction known as Copperheads in Ohio. To those who supported the war he declared, Defeat, debt and he also called for King Lincolns removal from the presidency. Accordingly, on May 5, Vallandingham was arrested as a violator of General Order No.38, Vallandighams enraged supporters burned the offices of the Dayton Journal, the local Republican newspaper. A Federal circuit judge upheld Vallandighams arrest and military trial as an exercise of the Presidents war powers. Despite repeated petitions, President Lincoln refused to repudiate Burnsides actions or release Vallandigham, however, in late May, Lincoln commuted Vallandighams sentence to banishment to the Confederacy, from where he went to Canada. Meanwhile, Vallandighams lawyers appealed the tribunals decision to the Supreme Court. The Court issued a ruling in February 1864, refusing to address Vallandighams main argument that the military tribunal lacked jurisdiction to try him. Instead, they said the Court was only authorized to take appeals as regulated by Congress -, accordingly, they denied Vallandighams appeal for lack of jurisdiction. Then, the court upheld Milligan and Vallandighams claim that military tribunals lacked authority to try civilians when civil courts were open. Supreme Court cases of the American Civil War Ex parte Milligan Findlaw Case file Full text of the Supreme Court case on Justia. com Full text of the Supreme Court case on Oyez. org
10.
United States Reports
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The United States Reports are the official record of the rulings, orders, case tables, and other proceedings of the Supreme Court of the United States. Opinions of the court in each case, prepended with a prepared by the Reporter of Decisions. For lawyers, citations to United States Reports are the reference for Supreme Court decisions. Following Bluebook, a commonly accepted citation protocol, the case Brown, et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, for example, would be cited as, Brown v. Bd. of Educ. The early volumes of the United States Reports were originally published privately by the individual Supreme Court Reporters, as was the practice in England, the reports were designated by the names of the reporters who compiled them, Dallass Reports, Cranchs Reports, etc. The decisions appearing in the entire first volume and most of the volume of United States Reports are not decisions of the United States Supreme Court. Instead, they are decisions from various Pennsylvania courts, dating from the colonial period, alexander Dallas, a lawyer and journalist, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, had been in the business of reporting these cases for newspapers and periodicals. He subsequently began compiling his case reports in a bound volume and this would come to be known as the first volume of Dallas Reports. Dallas continued to collect and publish Pennsylvania decisions in a volume of his Reports. When the Supreme Court began hearing cases, he added those cases to his reports, starting towards the end of the volume,2 Dallas Reports. Dallas went on to publish a total of four volumes of decisions during his tenure as Reporter, when the Supreme Court moved to Washington, D. C. in 1800, Dallas remained in Philadelphia, and William Cranch took over as unofficial reporter of decisions. In 1817, Congress made the Reporter of Decisions an official, salaried position, in 1874, the U. S. government began to fund the reports publication, creating the United States Reports. The earlier, private reports were retroactively numbered volumes 1–90 of the United States Reports, therefore, decisions appearing in these early reports have dual citation forms, one for the volume number of the United States Reports, and one for the set of nominate reports. For example, the citation to McCulloch v. Maryland is 17 U. S.316
11.
Ex parte Milligan
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Ex parte Milligan,71 U. S.2, was a U. S. Supreme Court case that ruled the application of military tribunals to citizens when civilian courts are still operating is unconstitutional. The landmark case stemmed from a trial by a commission of Lambdin P. Milligan, Stephen Horsey, William A. Bowles. The charges against the men included, among others, conspiracy against the U. S. government, offering aid and comfort to the Confederates, on December 10,1864, Milligan, Bowles, and Horsey were found guilty on all charges and sentenced to hang. Humphreys was found guilty and sentenced to labor for the remainder of the war. A similar petition was filed on behalf of Bowles and Horsey, the two judges who reviewed Milligans petition disagreed about the issue of whether the U. S. Constitution prohibited civilians from being tried by a commission and passed the case to the U. S. Supreme Court. The case was argued before the Court on March 5 and March 13,1866, Lincoln believed his administrations plan would suppress anti-government agitators, but he was also optimistic that it would be rescinded after the war ended. The first test of Lincolns thesis for silencing dissenters occurred in the spring of 1863, clement Vallandigham, an Ohio politician and anti-war Democrat, was placed under arrest on May 5,1863, taken to Cincinnati for a trial before a military commission, and jailed. Vallandigham was found guilty and sentenced to prison for the remainder of the war, vallandighams petition to the U. S. Supreme Court, known as Ex parte Vallandigham, was denied. The next test began with trials by a commission that led to the landmark U. S. Supreme Court case known as Ex parte Milligan. Dodd, grand commander of the Sons of Liberty in Indiana, two other men, James B. Wilson and David T. Yeakel, were also seized. Dodd, who was the first to be tried, escaped from jail before his trial was completed, on October 10,1864, he was found guilty, convicted in absentia, and sentenced to hang. Charges against Bingham, Harrison, Yeakel, and Wilson were dismissed, heffren was released before the proceedings against Milligan began. The military commission for the trial of Milligan, Horsey, Bowles, the military commissions decision on December 10,1864, found Milligan, Bowles, and Horsey guilty. The men were sentenced to hang on May 19,1865, Humphreys was found guilty and sentenced to hard labor for the remainder of the war. Efforts were made to secure pardons for Milligan, Bowles, and Horsey, with the decision passing to President Johnson following Lincolns assassination. On May 10,1865, Jonathan W. Gorden, Milligans legal counsel, a similar one was filed on behalf of Bowles and Horsey. The petitions were based on an act of the Congress titled An Act Relating to Habeas Corpus and Regulation Judicial Proceedings in Certain Cases that went into effect on March 3,1863
12.
Act of Congress
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An Act of Congress is a statute enacted by the United States Congress. It can either be a Public Law, relating to the public, or a Private Law. The term can be used in countries with a legislature named Congress. In the United States, Acts of Congress are designated as public laws, relating to the general public, or private laws. Since 1957, all Acts of Congress have been designated as Public Law X-Y or Private Law X-Y, for example, P. L. 111-5 was the fifth enacted public law of the 111th United States Congress. Public laws are often abbreviated as Pub. L. When the legislation of those two kinds is proposed, it is called public bill and private bill respectively, the word act, as used in the term Act of Congress, is a common, not a proper noun. The capitalization of the act is deprecated by some dictionaries. Some writers, in particular the U. S. Code and this is likely a result of the more liberal use of capital letters in legal contexts, which has its roots in the 18th century capitalization of all nouns as is seen in the United States Constitution. Act of Congress is sometimes used in speech to indicate something for which getting permission is burdensome. For example, It takes an Act of Congress to get a permit in this town. The President promulgates Acts of Congress made by the first two methods, if an Act is made by the third method, the presiding officer of the house that last reconsidered the act promulgates it. In addition, if the President rejects a bill or resolution while the Congress is in session, after the Archivist receives the Act, he or she provides for its publication as a slip law and in the United States Statutes at Large. Thereafter, the changes are published in the United States Code, an Act of Congress that violates the Constitution may be declared unconstitutional by the courts. The judicial declaration of an Acts unconstitutionality does not remove the law from the books, rather. However, future publications of the Act are generally annotated with warnings indicating that the statute is no longer valid law, legislation List of United States federal legislation for a list of prominent acts of Congress. Procedures of the United States Congress Act of Parliament Coming into force Enactment Federal Register http, //bensguide. gpo. gov/6-8/glossary. html
13.
President of the United States
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The President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. The president is considered to be one of the worlds most powerful political figures, the role includes being the commander-in-chief of the worlds most expensive military with the second largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by nominal GDP. The office of President holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad, Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The president is empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves. The president is responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of the party to which the president is a member. The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the United States, since the office of President was established in 1789, its power has grown substantially, as has the power of the federal government as a whole. However, nine vice presidents have assumed the presidency without having elected to the office. The Twenty-second Amendment prohibits anyone from being elected president for a third term, in all,44 individuals have served 45 presidencies spanning 57 full four-year terms. On January 20,2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th, in 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, acting through the Second Continental Congress, declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The new states, though independent of each other as nation states, desiring to avoid anything that remotely resembled a monarchy, Congress negotiated the Articles of Confederation to establish a weak alliance between the states. Out from under any monarchy, the states assigned some formerly royal prerogatives to Congress, only after all the states agreed to a resolution settling competing western land claims did the Articles take effect on March 1,1781, when Maryland became the final state to ratify them. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies, with peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. Prospects for the convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washingtons attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia. It was through the negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U. S. The first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto, the Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options, Sign the legislation, the bill becomes law. Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any objections, in this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation
14.
Habeas corpus
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Habeas corpus is a recourse in law whereby a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment before a court, usually through a prison official. The writ of habeas corpus is known as the great and efficacious writ in all manner of illegal confinement, if the custodian is acting beyond his or her authority, then the prisoner must be released. Any prisoner, or another person acting on his or her behalf, may petition the court, or a judge, One reason for the writ to be sought by a person other than the prisoner is that the detainee might be held incommunicado. Most civil law jurisdictions provide a remedy for those unlawfully detained. For example, in some Spanish-speaking nations, the equivalent remedy for unlawful imprisonment is the amparo de libertad, though a writ of right, it is not a writ of course. So if an imposition such as internment without trial is permitted by the law, in some countries, the writ has been temporarily or permanently suspended under the pretext of war or state of emergency. The right to petition for a writ of habeas corpus has nonetheless long been celebrated as the most efficient safeguard of the liberty of the subject, the most common of the other such prerogative writs are quo warranto, prohibito, mandamus, procedendo, and certiorari. The due process for such petitions is not simply civil or criminal, the official who is the respondent must prove his authority to do or not do something. Failing this, the court must decide for the petitioner, who may be any person and this differs from a motion in a civil process in which the movant must have standing, and bears the burden of proof. From Latin habeas, 2nd person singular present subjunctive active of habere, to have, to hold, in reference to more than one person, habeas corpora. Literally, the means you may have the body. The complete phrase habeas corpus ad subjiciendum means you may have the person for the purpose of subjecting him/her to. These are the words of writs in 14th century Anglo-French documents requiring a person to be brought before a court or judge. The full name of the writ is often used to distinguish it from similar ancient writs, Habeas corpus ad prosequendum, a writ ordering return with a prisoner for the purpose of prosecuting him before the court. Habeas corpus ad respondendum, a writ ordering return to allow the prisoner to answer to new proceedings before the court, Habeas corpus ad testificandum, a writ ordering return with the body of a prisoner for the purposes of testifying. Habeas Corpus originally stems from the Assize of Clarendon, a re-issuance of rights during the reign of Henry II of England, in the 17th century the foundations for habeas corpus were wrongly thought to have originated in Magna Carta. William Blackstone cites the first recorded usage of habeas corpus ad subjiciendum in 1305, however, other writs were issued with the same effect as early as the reign of Henry II in the 12th century. The procedure for issuing a writ of habeas corpus was first codified by the Habeas Corpus Act 1679, a previous law had been passed forty years earlier to overturn a ruling that the command of the King was a sufficient answer to a petition of habeas corpus
15.
American Civil War
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The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America, the Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U. S. history. Among the 34 U. S. states in February 1861, War broke out in April 1861 when Confederates attacked the U. S. fortress of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy grew to eleven states, it claimed two more states, the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the western territories of Arizona. The Confederacy was never recognized by the United States government nor by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal, including border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North, the war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the dissolution of the Confederate government in the spring of 1865. The war had its origin in the issue of slavery. The Confederacy collapsed and 4 million slaves were freed, but before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to declare secession had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, the first seven with state legislatures to resolve for secession included split majorities for unionists Douglas and Bell in Georgia with 51% and Louisiana with 55%. Alabama had voted 46% for those unionists, Mississippi with 40%, Florida with 38%, Texas with 25%, of these, only Texas held a referendum on secession. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession, outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincolns March 4,1861 inaugural address declared that his administration would not initiate a civil war, speaking directly to the Southern States, he reaffirmed, I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the United States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. After Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy, efforts at compromise failed, the Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on King Cotton that they would intervene, but none did, and none recognized the new Confederate States of America. Hostilities began on April 12,1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, while in the Western Theater the Union made significant permanent gains, in the Eastern Theater, the battle was inconclusive in 1861–62. The autumn 1862 Confederate campaigns into Maryland and Kentucky failed, dissuading British intervention, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, the 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lees Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg, Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grants command of all Union armies in 1864
16.
Political prisoner
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A political prisoner is someone imprisoned because they have opposed or criticized the government responsible for their imprisonment. The term is used by persons or groups challenging the legitimacy of the detention of a prisoner, supporters of the term define a political prisoner as someone who is imprisoned for his or her participation in political activity. If a political offense was not the reason for the prisoners detention. Some understand the political prisoner narrowly, equating it with the term prisoner of conscience. Amnesty International campaigns for the release of prisoners of conscience, which include political prisoners as well as those imprisoned for their religious or philosophical beliefs. To reduce controversy, and as a matter of principle, the organizations policy applies only to prisoners who have not committed or advocated violence, thus, there are political prisoners who do not fit the narrower criteria for POCs. The organisation defines the differences as follows, AI uses the political prisoner broadly. It does not use it, as others do, to imply that all such prisoners have a special status or should be released. It uses the only to define a category of prisoners for whom AI demands a fair. Governments often say they have no political prisoners, only prisoners held under the criminal law. AI however describes cases like the examples given above as political, for instance, French anarchist groups typically call the former members of Action Directe held in France political prisoners. While the French government deemed Action Directe illegal, the group fashioned itself as a guerilla movement. In this sense, political prisoner can be used to describe any politically active prisoner who is held in custody for a violent action which supporters deem ethically justified, some libertarians also include all convicted for treason and some convicted of espionage in the category of political prisoners. Currently, there is much controversy and debate around how to define this term. Political prisoners can also be imprisoned with no legal veneer by extrajudicial processes, some political prisoners need not be imprisoned at all. Supporters of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima in the 11th Panchen Lama controversy have called him a political prisoner and he is held under secluded house arrest. This is common in situations which may otherwise be decried nationally and internationally as a human rights violation or suppression of a political dissident, particularly in this latter situation, whether an individual is regarded as a political prisoner may depend upon subjective political perspective or interpretation of the evidence. In the Soviet Union, dubious psychiatric diagnoses were sometimes used to political prisoners in the so-called psikhushkas
17.
Legal liability
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In law, liable means esponsible or answerable in law, legally obligated. Legal liability concerns both civil law and criminal law and can arise from various areas of law, such as contracts, torts, taxes, the claimant is the one who seeks to establish, or prove, liability. Claimants can prove liability through a myriad of different theories, known as theories of liability, which theories of liability are available in a given case depends on nature of the law in question. Each theory of liability has certain conditions, or elements, that must be proven by the claimant before liability will be established, theories of liability can also be created by legislation. For example, under English law, with the passing of the Theft Act 1978, payment of damages usually resolves the liability. A given liability may be covered by insurance, in general, however, insurance providers only cover liabilities arising from negligent torts rather than intentional wrongs or breach of contract. In commercial law, limited liability is a form that shields its owners from certain types of liability. A limited liability form separates the owner from the business and this means that when a business is found liable in case, the owners are not themselves liable, rather, the business is. Thus, only the funds or property the owner have invested into the business are subject to that liability, if, for example, a limited liability business goes bankrupt, then the owner will not lose unrelated assets such as a personal residence. This is the model for larger businesses, in which a shareholder will only lose the amount invested. This is known as piercing the veil, manufacturers liability, a legal concept in most countries, reflects the fact that producers have a responsibility not to sell a defective product. Economists use the legal liability to describe the legal-bound obligation to pay debts
18.
United States congressional conference committee
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A conference committee is a committee of the United States Congress appointed by the House of Representatives and Senate to resolve disagreements on a particular bill. A conference committee is composed of senior Members of the standing committees of each House that originally considered the legislation. Conference committees operate after the House and the Senate have passed different versions of a bill, Conference committees exist to draft a compromise bill that both houses can accept. Both houses of Congress must eventually pass identical legislation for the bill to be presented to the President. The two houses can reach that point through the process of amendments between Houses, where the House passes the Senate bill with a House amendment, or vice versa, thus, some bills pass both Houses through the use of a conference committee. After one house passes a bill, the house often passes the same bill. The second house then sends a message to the first house, the second house then insists on its amendment, agrees to a conference, and appoints conferees. Each house determines the number of conferees from its house, the number of conferees need not be equal. To conclude its business, a majority of both House and Senate delegations to the conference must indicate their approval by signing the conference report. The authority to appoint conferees lies in the entire House, but leadership have increasingly exercised authority in the appointment of conferees. The House and Senate may instruct conferees, but these instructions are not binding, Conference committees can be extremely contentious, particularly if the houses are controlled by different parties. House rules require that one conference meeting be open to the public, unless the House, in open session, apart from this one open meeting, conference committees usually meet in private, and are dominated by the chairs of the House and Senate committees. House and Senate rules forbid conferees from inserting in their report matter not committed to them by either House, but conference committees sometimes do introduce new matter. In such a case, the rules of each House let a member object through a point of order, the House provides a procedure for striking the offending provision from the bill. Formerly, the Senate required a Senator to object to the bill as reported by the conference committee. If the objection was well-founded, the Presiding Officer ruled, if the appeal was sustained by a majority of the Senate, it had precedential effect, eroding the rule on the scope of conference committees. From fall 1996 through 2000, the Senate had no limit on the scope of conference reports, in December 2000, the Senate reinstated the prohibition of inserting matters outside the scope of conference. The rule changed again with the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, now any single Senator may raise a procedural objection, a point of order, against subject matter newly inserted by the conference committee without objecting to the rest of the bill
19.
Andrew Johnson
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Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. Johnson became president as he was president at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. A Democrat who ran with Lincoln on the National Union ticket, the new president favored quick restoration of the seceded states to the Union. His plans did not give protection to the slaves, and he came into conflict with the Republican-dominated Congress. The first American president to be impeached, he was acquitted in the Senate by one vote, Johnson was born in poverty in Raleigh, North Carolina. Apprenticed as a tailor, he worked in several towns before settling in Greeneville. He served as alderman and mayor there before being elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1835, after brief service in the Tennessee Senate, Johnson was elected to the federal House of Representatives in 1843, where he served five two-year terms. He became Governor of Tennessee for four years, and was elected by the legislature to the Senate in 1857, in his congressional service, he sought passage of the Homestead Bill, which was enacted soon after he left his Senate seat in 1862. As Southern slave states, including Tennessee, seceded to form the Confederate States of America and he was the only sitting senator from a Confederate state who did not resign his seat upon learning of his states secession. In 1862, Lincoln appointed him as governor of Tennessee after most of it had been retaken. When Johnson was sworn in as president in March 1865, he gave a rambling speech. Six weeks later, the assassination of Lincoln made him president, Johnson implemented his own form of Presidential Reconstruction – a series of proclamations directing the seceded states to hold conventions and elections to re-form their civil governments. Johnson vetoed their bills, and Congressional Republicans overrode him, setting a pattern for the remainder of his presidency, Johnson opposed the Fourteenth Amendment, which gave citizenship to former slaves. In 1866, Johnson went on a national tour promoting his executive policies. As the conflict between the branches of government grew, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, restricting Johnsons ability to fire Cabinet officials. When he persisted in trying to dismiss Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, he was impeached by the House of Representatives, and narrowly avoided conviction in the Senate and removal from office. Returning to Tennessee after his presidency, Johnson sought political vindication, Johnson is regarded by many historians as one of the worst presidents in American history. While some admire his strict constitutionalism, his opposition to federally guaranteed rights for African Americans is widely criticized
20.
Washington, D.C.
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing
21.
Baltimore
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Baltimore is the largest city in the U. S. state of Maryland, and the 29th-most populous city in the country. It was established by the Constitution of Maryland and is not part of any county, thus, it is the largest independent city in the United States, with a population of 621,849 as of 2015. As of 2010, the population of the Baltimore Metropolitan Area was 2.7 million, founded in 1729, Baltimore is the second largest seaport in the Mid-Atlantic. Baltimores Inner Harbor was once the leading port of entry for immigrants to the United States. With hundreds of identified districts, Baltimore has been dubbed a city of neighborhoods, in the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key wrote The Star-Spangled Banner, later the American national anthem, in Baltimore. More than 65,000 properties, or roughly one in three buildings in the city, are listed on the National Register, more than any city in the nation. The city has 289 properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the historical records of the government of Baltimore are located at the Baltimore City Archives. The city is named after Cecil Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, of the Irish House of Lords, Baltimore Manor was the name of the estate in County Longford on which the Calvert family lived in Ireland. Baltimore is an anglicization of the Irish name Baile an Tí Mhóir, in 1608, Captain John Smith traveled 210 miles from Jamestown to the uppermost Chesapeake Bay, leading the first European expedition to the Patapsco River. The name Patapsco is derived from pota-psk-ut, which translates to backwater or tide covered with froth in Algonquian dialect, a quarter century after John Smiths voyage, English colonists began to settle in Maryland. The area constituting the modern City of Baltimore and its area was first settled by David Jones in 1661. He claimed the area today as Harbor East on the east bank of the Jones Falls stream. In the early 1600s, the immediate Baltimore vicinity was populated, if at all. The Baltimore area had been inhabited by Native Americans since at least the 10th millennium BC, one Paleo-Indian site and several Archaic period and Woodland period archaeological sites have been identified in Baltimore, including four from the Late Woodland period. During the Late Woodland period, the culture that is called the Potomac Creek complex resided in the area from Baltimore to the Rappahannock River in Virginia. It was located on the Bush River on land that in 1773 became part of Harford County, in 1674, the General Assembly passed An Act for erecting a Court-house and Prison in each County within this Province. The site of the house and jail for Baltimore County was evidently Old Baltimore near the Bush River. In 1683, the General Assembly passed An Act for Advancement of Trade to establish towns, ports, one of the towns established by the act in Baltimore County was on Bush River, on Town Land, near the Court-House
22.
William Fell Giles
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William Fell Giles was a U. S. Representative from Maryland and later a United States federal judge, born in Harford County, Maryland, Giles attended a private academy and the Bel Air Academy. He read law, was admitted to the bar in 1829 and he later served as member of the Maryland House of Delegates from 1838 to 1840. Giles was elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-ninth Congress, Giles received a recess appointment from President Franklin Pierce on July 18,1853, to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Maryland vacated by John Glenn. He was formally nominated on December 19,1853, and on January 11,1854 he was confirmed by the United States Senate and he issued the original writ of habeas corpus in Ex parte Merryman. He served as a judge until his death in Baltimore, Maryland on March 21,1879 and he was interred in Greenmount Cemetery. Ex parte Merryman United States Congress, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. William Fell Giles at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center, william H. Rehnquist, All the Laws but One, Civil Liberties in Wartime, New York, Morrow, ISBN 978-0-679-44661-3. This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress website http, //bioguide. congress. gov
23.
Fort McHenry
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It was first built in 1798 and was used continuously by U. S. armed forces through World War I and by the Coast Guard in World War II. It was replaced early on the morning of September 14,1814 with a garrison flag. The larger flag signaled American victory over the British in the Battle of Baltimore, Fort McHenry was built on the site of the former Fort Whetstone, which had defended Baltimore from 1776 to 1797. The Frenchman Jean Foncin designed the fort in 1798, and it was built between 1798 and 1800, the new forts purpose was to improve the defenses of the increasingly important Port of Baltimore from future enemy attacks. The new fort was constructed in the form of a star surrounded by a dry moat — a deep. The moat would serve as a shelter from which infantry might defend the fort from a land attack, in case of such an attack on this first line of defense, each point, or bastion could provide a crossfire of cannon and small arms fire. Fort McHenry was named after early American statesman James McHenry, a Scots-Irish immigrant and he was a delegate to the Continental Congress from Maryland and a signer of the United States Constitution. Afterwards, he was appointed United States Secretary of War, serving under presidents Presidents George Washington, beginning at 6,00 a. m. on 13 September 1814, British warships under the command of Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane continuously bombarded Fort McHenry for 25 hours. The American defenders had 18-, 24- and 32-pounder cannons, the British guns had a range of 2 miles, and the British rockets had a 1. 75-mile range, but neither guns nor rockets were accurate. The British ships were unable to pass Fort McHenry and penetrate Baltimore Harbor because of its defenses, including a chain of 22 sunken ships, the British vessels were only able to fire their rockets and mortars at the fort at the weapons maximum range. The poor accuracy on both sides resulted in little damage to either side before the British, having depleted their ammunition. Thus the naval part of the British invasion of Baltimore had been repulsed, only one British warship, a bomb vessel, received a direct hit from the forts return fire, which wounded one crewman. At one point during the bombardment, a bomb crashed through the powder magazine. Fortunately for the defenders, either the rain extinguished the fuse or the bomb was a dud. Francis Scott Key, a Washington lawyer who had come to Baltimore to negotiate the release of Dr. William Beanes, an oversized American flag had been sewn by Mary Pickersgill for $405.90 in anticipation of the British attack on the fort. Francis Scott Keys grandson, Francis Key Howard, was one of political detainees. Taney occurred at the gates between Court and Federal Marshals and the commander of Union troops occupying the Fort under orders from President Abraham Lincoln in 1861. Fort McHenry also served to train artillery at this time, this service is the origin of the Rodman guns presently located and displayed at the fort
24.
Roger Taney
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Roger Brooke Taney was the fifth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, holding that office from 1836 until his death in 1864. He delivered the majority opinion in Dred Scott v. S and he was the first Roman Catholic appointed both to a presidential cabinet, as Attorney General under President Andrew Jackson, as well as to the Court. Taney, a Jacksonian Democrat, was made Chief Justice by Jackson, Taney was a believer in states rights. He inherited slaves from his father but manumitted them and gave pensions to the older ones and he believed that power and liberty were extremely important and if power became too concentrated, then it posed a grave threat to individual liberty. He opposed attempts by the government to regulate or control matters that would restrict the rights of individuals. From Prince Frederick, Maryland, he had practiced law and politics simultaneously, after abandoning the Federalist Party as a losing cause, he rose to the top of the states Jacksonian machine. He was bought and sold and treated as an article of merchandise and traffic. The court also declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, thus permitting slavery in all of the countrys territories, Taney died during the final months of the American Civil War on the same day that his home state of Maryland abolished slavery. Roger Brooke Taney was born on March 17,1777 in Calvert County, Maryland and he was the second son, and the third of seven children born to a slaveholding family of tobacco planters in Calvert County, Maryland. He received an education from a series of private tutors. After instructing him for a year, his last tutor, David English, at the age of 15 he entered Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, graduating with honors in 1795. As a younger son with no prospect of inheriting the family plantation and he read law and in 1799 was admitted to the bar. He quickly distinguished himself as one of Marylands most promising young lawyers, Taney married Anne Phoebe Charlton Key, sister of Francis Scott Key, on January 7,1806. In 1799, the year he began practicing as an attorney, Taney was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates. He ran for re-election in 1800, but lost, returning to private practice, he served as a director of the State Bank Branch in Frederick, Maryland, from 1810 to 1815. He was elected the Maryland State Senate in 1816, serving until 1821—this time as a Democratic Republican and he was also a director of the Frederick County Bank from 1818 to 1823, when he returned to private practice. When the 1824 presidential election divided the party supporters and opponents of Andrew Jackson, Taney became a staunch Jacksonian Democrat. In 1833, as secretary of the Treasury, Taney ordered an end to the deposit of Federal money in the Second Bank of the United States, an act that killed the institution
25.
Ex parte Merryman
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Ex parte Merryman,17 F. Cas. 144, is a well-known and controversial U. S. federal court case arose out of the American Civil War. U. S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled that the authority to suspend habeas corpus lay exclusively with Congress. The Executive Branch, including the Army, failed to comply with Taneys Merryman opinion, Taney filed his Merryman decision with the United States Circuit Court for the District of Maryland, but it is unclear if Taneys decision was a circuit court decision. According to this view, Merryman was an in-chambers decision, due to its vague jurisdictional locus and hastened disposition, the nature of the Merryman decision remains contested to this day. The court can then remand the prisoner to custody, release him on bail, in April 1861, actual fighting in the Civil War began. President Lincoln called for the states to provide troops to the Federal government to suppress the rebellion. Troops traveling to Washington passed through Baltimore, Maryland, Baltimore mobs objecting to a war with the seceding states attacked some of the troop transports on April 19. It seemed possible that Maryland would attempt to block the passage of troops, cutting off Washington, at this time the legislature seems to have wanted to avoid involvement in a war with its southern neighbors. However, for the few weeks, troops were brought to Washington via Annapolis. Also on April 19, Lincoln asked Attorney General Edward Bates for an opinion on the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, the threat to Washington was serious, and Lincoln eventually responded by delegating limited authority to the Army to suspend habeas corpus in Maryland. Militia Lieutenant John Merryman was arrested on May 25 by order of Brigadier General William High Keim of the United States Volunteers, Merryman was charged with treason and being a commissioned lieutenant in an organization intending armed hostility toward the government. In another Maryland habeas corpus case, just prior to Merryman, the commander of Fort McHenry, Major William W. If all this be not rebellion, I know not what to call it, I certainly regard it as sufficient legal cause for suspending the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus. Taneys order only directed Cadwalader to produce Merryman, not to release him, during that era, Supreme Court Justices sat as circuit court judges, as well. Cadwalader, although himself a lawyer, had less than one day to draft a response and defense for his conduct, Cadwalader responded to Taneys order on May 27 by sending a colonel to explain that the Army had suspended the writ of habeas corpus under presidential authority. The letter declared that the safety was still threatened and that any errors should be on the side of safety to the country. Because of the seriousness of the charges and the complexity of the issues, Taney refused the request, and instead held Cadwalader in contempt of court for refusing to produce John Merryman
26.
United States Constitution
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The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. The Constitution, originally comprising seven articles, delineates the national frame of government, Articles Four, Five and Six entrench concepts of federalism, describing the rights and responsibilities of state governments and of the states in relationship to the federal government. Article Seven establishes the procedure used by the thirteen States to ratify it. In general, the first ten amendments, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, offer specific protections of individual liberty, the majority of the seventeen later amendments expand individual civil rights protections. Others address issues related to federal authority or modify government processes and procedures, Amendments to the United States Constitution, unlike ones made to many constitutions worldwide, are appended to the document. All four pages of the original U. S, according to the United States Senate, The Constitutions first three words—We the People—affirm that the government of the United States exists to serve its citizens. From September 5,1774 to March 1,1781, the Continental Congress functioned as the government of the United States. The process of selecting the delegates for the First and Second Continental Congresses underscores the revolutionary role of the people of the colonies in establishing a governing body. The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was the first constitution of the United States and it was drafted by the Second Continental Congress from mid-1776 through late-1777, and ratification by all 13 states was completed by early 1781. Under the Articles of Confederation, the governments power was quite limited. The Confederation Congress could make decisions, but lacked enforcement powers, implementation of most decisions, including modifications to the Articles, required unanimous approval of all thirteen state legislatures. The Continental Congress could print money but the currency was worthless, Congress could borrow money, but couldnt pay it back. No state paid all their U. S. taxes, some paid nothing, some few paid an amount equal to interest on the national debt owed to their citizens, but no more. No interest was paid on debt owed foreign governments, by 1786, the United States would default on outstanding debts as their dates came due. Internationally, the Articles of Confederation did little to enhance the United States ability to defend its sovereignty, most of the troops in the 625-man United States Army were deployed facing – but not threatening – British forts on American soil. They had not been paid, some were deserting and others threatening mutiny, spain closed New Orleans to American commerce, U. S. officials protested, but to no effect. Barbary pirates began seizing American ships of commerce, the Treasury had no funds to pay their ransom, if any military crisis required action, the Congress had no credit or taxing power to finance a response. Domestically, the Articles of Confederation was failing to bring unity to the sentiments and interests of the various states
27.
John Catron
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John Catron was an American jurist who served as a US Supreme Court justice from 1837 to 1865. His father, Peter Kettering, had immigrated as a child with his parents from Mittelbrun in the German Palatinate and his mother was Maria Elizabetha Houck, whose parents had settled in Virginia after emigrating from the Palatinate by way of Pennsylvania. His only sibling, Mary, later married Thomas Swift and moved to Missouri and, ultimately, John Catron was a second cousin to Thomas Benton Catron, who later became one of the first senators to represent the state of New Mexico. Catrons father had served in Captain William Doacks militia company from Montgomery County during the Revolutionary War, the family relocated to Kentucky in the first years of the 19th century. Catron served in the War of 1812 under Andrew Jackson and he read law and was admitted to the Tennessee bar in 1815. John and Mathilda Catron had no children, Catron was in private practice at Sparta in the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee from 1815 to 1818, while simultaneously serving as a prosecuting attorney of that city. He established a law practice in Nashville in 1818, in which he continued until 1824. From 1824-1834, Catron was appointed to the Tennessee Supreme Court of Errors and Appeals, in 1834, the Tennessee state legislature abolished the chief justice position, and Catron retired and returned to private practice in Nashville. During the election of 1836, Catron directed Martin Van Burens presidential campaign in Tennessee against native son Hugh Lawson White, in 1836 Congress, by 5 Stat. 176, expanded the United States Supreme Court from seven to nine members and this allowed then-President Andrew Jackson an opportunity to name two new justices on March 3,1837, his last full day in office. Catron was the one of Jacksons nominees to accept. The newly seated Senate of the subsequent Congress confirmed Catrons appointment five days later and he took the judicial oath on May 1,1837. Catron served as a justice until his death in 1865 at age 79. Catron supported slavery and sided with the majority in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case, but, he opposed secession and urged Tennessee to remain with the Union. For a brief time after Tennessee seceded from the Union but prior to Nashville being occupied by Federal troops, Catron left his residence in Nashville and temporarily lived in Louisville, John Catron’s political views primarily coincided with the views of his fellow Tennessean Andrew Jackson. Just as Jackson opposed the idea of the bank, Catron also became an outspoken critic of the national bank. This view coincides with his view on corporations. While Catron ultimately believed that power could threaten the livelihoods of American citizens
28.
James Moore Wayne
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James Moore Wayne was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and was a United States Representative from Georgia. He served in the United States Army during the War of 1812, from 1812 to 1815 and he served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 1815 to 1816. He then served as the mayor of Savannah from September 8,1817 to July 12,1819 and he resigned to accept the appointment as an Associate Justice to the Supreme Court. He served on the court from January 14,1835 to his death on July 5,1867 and he favored free trade, opposed internal improvements by Congress, and opposed the rechartering of the United States Bank. President Andrew Jackson, who was the seventh President of the United States, while Wayne served his time as a Chief Justice he heard many cases about slavery, tax, and reform. A “Jacksonian”, Wayne agreed with President Andrew Jackson on the ideals of deepening rivers and harbors, Wayne also agreed with President Andrew Jackson on the Indian Removal Act and believed that the land that used to belong to the Indians would belong to the state. The fact that Wayne refused to accept the Indians as an independent nation and forced them to move west, Justice James Moore Wayne was a Unionist. He was against the Confederate States of America, which was shocking because he was from the state of Georgia, as a Unionist in a southern state, James Moore Wayne took a careful approach on the ideals of nullification and consolidation. While Justice Wayne himself remained loyal to the Union, his son Henry C. Wayne served as a general in the Confederate Army, in 1844 Chief Justice James Moore Wayne heard the case Louisville, Cincinnati & Charleston Railroad Co. v. Letson. It centered on the principle that a citizen in a state should have the right to sue a corporation. In these statements Justice Wayne is explaining how owners stopped being relevant and this case was instrumental as it showed the view of the Supreme Court that corporations could be viewed as ‘citizens’ of the states where they were incorporated. This court case was significant in Justice James Moore Wayne’s career and development because this showed that Wayne was willing to increase dominion in the courts. The court case of Dred Scott v. Sandford was argued in front of the United States Supreme Court, taney giving the majority opinion and Judge Wayne concurring. This landmark decision against slave Dred Scott ruled that African-Americans, whether slave or free were not to be considered American citizens, some scholars view this decision, which Justice Wayne concurred with as one of the worst to ever be handed down by the Court. The vacancy caused by the death of Justice John Catron in 1865 had not been filled, in 1869 Congress passed the Circuit Judges Act, setting the court at nine members. With Waynes and Catrons seats remaining vacant, the Court had eight justices at the time of this Act, the new seat was ultimately filled on March 21,1870, by Joseph Philo Bradley. Justice Wayne served on the Supreme Court for 32 years, one of the longest terms for any justice and his leanings stayed consistent and many of his decisions believed power resides in the federal offices such as the U. S. Congress. He held to this in the Dred Scott case supporting Chief Taney’s opinion in the face of criticism by many
29.
Union (American Civil War)
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The Union was opposed by 11 southern slave states that formed the Confederate States, or the Confederacy. All of the Unions states provided soldiers for the U. S. Army, the Border states played a major role as a supply base for the Union invasion of the Confederacy. The Northeast provided the resources for a mechanized war producing large quantities of munitions and supplies. The Midwest provided soldiers, food, horses, financial support, Army hospitals were set up across the Union. Most states had Republican governors who energetically supported the war effort, the Democratic Party strongly supported the war in 1861 but in 1862 was split between the War Democrats and the anti-war element led by the Copperheads. The Democrats made major gains in 1862 in state elections. They lost ground in 1863, especially in Ohio, in 1864 the Republicans campaigned under the National Union Party banner, which attracted many War Democrats and soldiers and scored a landslide victory for Lincoln and his entire ticket. The war years were quite prosperous except where serious fighting and guerrilla warfare took place along the southern border, prosperity was stimulated by heavy government spending and the creation of an entirely new national banking system. The Union states invested a great deal of money and effort in organizing psychological and social support for soldiers wives, widows, orphans, and for the soldiers themselves. Most soldiers were volunteers, although after 1862 many volunteered to escape the draft, Draft resistance was notable in some larger cities, especially New York City with its massive anti-draft riots of 1863 and in some remote districts such as the coal mining areas of Pennsylvania. In the context of the American Civil War, the Union is sometimes referred to as the North, both then and now, as opposed to the Confederacy, which was the South. The Union never recognized the legitimacy of the Confederacys secession and maintained at all times that it remained entirely a part of the United States of America, in foreign affairs the Union was the only side recognized by all other nations, none of which officially recognized the Confederate government. The term Union occurs in the first governing document of the United States, the subsequent Constitution of 1787 was issued and ratified in the name not of the states, but of We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union. Union, for the United States of America, is repeated in such clauses as the Admission to the Union clause in Article IV. Even before the war started, the preserve the Union was commonplace. Using the term Union to apply to the non-secessionist side carried a connotation of legitimacy as the continuation of the political entity. In comparison to the Confederacy, the Union had a large industrialized and urbanized area, additionally, the Union states had a manpower advantage of 5 to 2 at the start of the war. Year by year, the Confederacy shrank and lost control of increasing quantities of resources, meanwhile, the Union turned its growing potential advantage into a much stronger military force
30.
New-York Tribune
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The New-York Tribune was an American newspaper, first established by Horace Greeley in 1841. Between 1842 and 1866, the newspaper bore the name New-York Daily Tribune, from the 1840s through the 1860s it was the dominant Whig Party and then Republican newspaper in the U. S. The paper achieved a circulation of approximately 200,000 during the decade of the 1850s, making it the largest in New York City, the Tribunes editorials were widely read and helped shape national opinion. In 1924 it was merged with the New York Herald to form the New York Herald Tribune, Greeley had previously published a weekly newspaper, The New Yorker, in 1833, and was also publisher of the Whig Partys political organ, Log Cabin. In 1841, he merged operations of two publications into a new newspaper, the New-York Tribune. The Tribune did reflect some of Horace Greeleys idealist views, the journal retained Karl Marx as its London-based European correspondent in 1852. The arrangement provided Marx with much needed income during a period of his life in which his friend, the arrangement, whereby Engels also submitted articles under Marxs by-line, lasted ten years, with the final Marx column being published in February 1862. In 1854 the paper joined the newly formed Republican Party—Greeley chose the partys name—and emphasized opposition to slavery, during the American Civil War the Tribune usually spoke for the Radical Republican faction that was very hostile to the Confederacy and wanted slavery abolished immediately. The paper generated a large readership, with a circulation of approximately 200,000 during the decade of the 1850s. This made the paper the largest circulation daily in New York City and perhaps in the entire United States — gaining commensurate influence among voters and political decision-makers in the process. After the failure of the Peninsular Campaign in the spring of 1862, during the 1863 Draft Riots a mob tried to burn down the Tribune building which lacked the Gatling guns of the nearby New York Times. Following Greeleys defeat by Ulysses S. Grant for the presidency of the United States in 1872, Greeley checked into Dr. Choates Sanitarium where he died a few weeks later. In 1886, the Tribune became the first publication to be printed on a linotype machine, which allowed it to exceed the standard newspaper size of eight pages. Under Reids son, Ogden Mills Reid, the acquired the New York Herald in 1924 to form the New York Herald Tribune. Copies of the New-York Tribune are available on microfilm at large libraries. Also, indices from selected years in the nineteenth century are available on the Library of Congress website. The original paper articles from the newspapers morgue are kept at The Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin, a new New York Tribune debuted in 1976 in New York City. The paper, which was originally named The News World and later changed to The New York City Tribune, was published by News World Communications, Inc. owned by the Unification Church
31.
Henry Wilson
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Henry Wilson was the 18th Vice President of the United States and a Senator from Massachusetts. Before and during the American Civil War, he was a leading Republican, and he devoted his energies to the destruction of the Slave Power – the faction of slave owners and their political allies which anti-slavery Americans saw as dominating the country. Originally a Whig, Wilson was a founder of the Free Soil Party in 1848 and he served as the party chairman before and during the 1852 presidential election. Wilson successfully authored bills that outlawed slavery in Washington D. C. after the Civil War, he supported the Radical Republican program for Reconstruction. In 1872, he was elected Vice President as the mate of Ulysses S. Grant, the incumbent President of the United States. The Grant and Wilson ticket was successful, and Wilson served as Vice President from March 4,1873 until his death on November 22,1875. Throughout his career, Wilson was known for championing causes that were at times unpopular, including the abolition of slavery, Henry Wilson was born in Farmington, New Hampshire on February 16,1812, one of several children born to Winthrop and Abigail Colbath. His father named him Jeremiah Jones Colbath after a neighbor who was a childless bachelor. Winthrop Colbath was a veteran of the War of 1812 who worked as a day laborer and hired himself out to local farms and businesses. The Colbath family was impoverished and, after an elementary education, at the age of 10 Wilson was indentured to a neighboring farmer. During this time two neighbors gave him books and Wilson enhanced his meager education by reading extensively on English and American history, at the end of his service he was given six sheep and a yoke of oxen. Wilson immediately sold his animals for $85, which was the first money he had earned during his indenture, Wilson apparently did not like his birth name, though the reasons given vary. Some sources indicate that he was not close to his family, or disliked his name because of his fathers supposed intemperance, others indicate that he was called Jed and Jerry, and disliked the nicknames so much that he resolved to change his name. Whatever the reason, when he turned 21 he successfully petitioned the New Hampshire General Court to legally change it and he chose the name Henry Wilson, inspired either by a biography of a Philadelphia teacher or a portrait from a book on English clergymen. After trying and failing to work in New Hampshire, in 1833 Wilson walked more than one hundred miles to Natick. Having met William P. Legro, a shoemaker who was willing to train him, Wilson learned the trade in a few weeks, bought out his employment contract for $15, and opened his own shop, intending to save enough money to study law. Wilson had success as a shoemaker, and was able to save several hundred dollars in a short time. Wilsons shoe making experience led to the creation of the nicknames his supporters later used to highlight his working class roots—the Natick Cobbler
32.
Lyman Trumbull
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Lyman Trumbull was a United States Senator from Illinois during the American Civil War, and co-author of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Lyman Trumbull was born in Colchester, Connecticut, the grandson of the historian Benjamin Trumbull, after graduating from Bacon Academy, he taught school from 1829 to 1833. At 20, he was hired as head of an academy in Georgia and he studied as a legal apprentice, and was admitted to the bar in Georgia. He practiced law in Greenville, Georgia until 1837, when he moved west to Alton and his house in Alton, the Lyman Trumbull House, is a National Historic Monument. By 1840, Trumbull was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives and he was appointed as Illinois Secretary of State, serving from 1841-1843. In 1848, he was appointed as a justice on the Supreme Court of Illinois, although elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1854, he was elected by the state legislature to serve in the United States Senate before he could take his seat. He served for two decades, from 1855 through 1873. During this time, he claimed party affiliations with the Democrats, the Republicans, the Liberal Republicans, Senator James Dixon said of the resolution that it seems to me calculated to produce nothing but mischief. It was also the constitutional loophole by which southern states abused convict lease labor, all seven Senators, resisting the pressure imposed on them, broke party ranks and defied public opinion, voting for acquittal, although they knew their decision would be unpopular. After the trial, Representative Ben Butler of Massachusetts conducted hearings in the House on widespread reports that Republican senators had been bribed to vote for Johnsons acquittal, butlers hearings and subsequent inquiries revealed evidence that some acquittal votes were acquired by promises of patronage jobs and cash cards. He may place an obstruction there and toll may be gathered from every person who goes to see these wonders of creation, after leaving the Senate in 1873, Trumbull set up a law practice in Chicago. He worked in practice except for a brief period when he ran an unsuccessful campaign for governor in 1880. In January 1883, Trumbull was given a seat of honor at the dedication of the Pullman Arcade Theatre in George Pullmans company town and he became a Populist in 1894. Trumbull was part of the legal team, which included Clarence Darrow. Debs et al. was heard by the US Supreme Court in 1895, during his explorations in the west John Wesley Powell named Mt. Trumbull in northwestern Arizona after the senator. The Lyman Trumbull House is a National Historic Landmark, Trumbull has a street named after him in the city of Chicago, Lyman Trumbull Elementary School in Chicago is named after the senator. Trumbull Park and adjacent Trumbull Park Homes in Chicago are named after the Senator White, Horace. The Life of Lyman Trumbull, biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Lyman Trumbull at Find a Grave Trumbull at OurCampaigns. com
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Maryland General Assembly
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The Maryland General Assembly is the state legislature of the U. S. state of Maryland that convenes within the State House in Annapolis. It is a body, the upper chamber, the Maryland State Senate, has 47 representatives and the lower chamber. Members of both houses serve four-year terms, the 2016 Legislative Session, the General Assemblys 436th session, convened January 13 - April 11,2016. The General Assembly will reconvene Wednesday, January 11,2017 at 12,00 p. m. for its 437th session, the forerunner of the Maryland General Assembly was the colonial institution, an assembly of free Marylanders, which bore the same name. Marylands foundational charter created a state ruled by the Palatine lord, Lord Baltimore, in addition, the Lord Proprietor could summon any delegates whom he desired. In some ways the General Assembly was an improvement upon the institutions of the mother country, during the American Revolution the colonial Assembly ceased to exist, and was replaced by its modern successor. Each senator or delegate must be a citizen of Maryland and a resident of the state for at least one year preceding his or her election, a prospective legislator must have resided for the six months prior to election in the legislative district the candidate seeks to represent. A senator must be at least twenty-five years of age at the time of election, persons elected to or holding a civil or military office other than as a member of a reserve component under the federal or State government are not eligible for election to the General Assembly. However, members of the General Assembly are not term limited, a Constitutional amendment, the plan created 47 legislative districts, many of which cross county boundaries to delineate districts relatively equal in population. Each legislative district elects one senator and three delegates, in most districts, the three delegates are elected at large from the whole district via block voting. The Senate is led by a President and the House by a Speaker whose respective duties and prerogatives enable them to influence the process significantly. The President and Speaker preside over the sessions of their respective chambers, maintaining decorum. As legislation is introduced, they assign it to a committee for consideration. The president pro tempore appoints majority and minority whips and leaders, a bill is a proposal to change, repeal, or add to existing state law. A House Bill is one introduced in the House of Delegates, bills are designated by number, in the order of introduction in each house. For example, HB16 refers to the bill introduced in the House of Delegates. The numbering starts afresh each session, the names of the sponsor, the legislator who introduced the bill, becomes part of the title. They are listed with the title of a legislator rather than the Governor due to requirements in the Maryland Constitution
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Frank Key Howard
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Frank Key Howard was the grandson of Francis Scott Key and Revolutionary War colonel John Eager Howard. Howard was the editor of the Daily Exchange, a Baltimore newspaper sympathetic to the Southern cause, congressman Henry May, all the police commissioners of Baltimore, and the entire city council. He was then transferred first to Fort Lafayette in Lower New York Bay off the coast of Brooklyn, Howard commented on his imprisonment, When I looked out in the morning, I could not help being struck by an odd and not pleasant coincidence. On that day forty-seven years before my grandfather, Mr. Francis Scott Key, when on the following morning the hostile fleet drew off, defeated, he wrote the song so long popular throughout the country, the Star Spangled Banner. As I stood upon the scene of that conflict, I could not but contrast my position with his. The flag which he had then so proudly hailed, I saw waving at the place over the victims of as vulgar. Howard died while in London in 1872, Maryland was considered one of the five border states at the outbreak of the U. S. Civil War. On April 27,1861 Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus in Maryland partially as a response to the Baltimore riot of 1861, and in portions of midwestern states such as southern Indiana. The first person to be arrested after this order was issued was Lieutenant John Merryman of the newly formed Baltimore County Horse Guards, Merryman was accused of treason for destroying bridges and telegraph wires to prevent Union troops from marching through Baltimore to reinforce Washington D. C. Lincolns action was challenged in court and overturned by the U. S. Circuit Court in Maryland in Ex Parte Merryman,17 F. Cas, Lincoln, citing the actions of prior U. S. President Andrew Jackson, chose to ignore the ruling. It was for criticizing Lincolns actions in the section of the Baltimore Exchange that Howard was arrested. Works by or about Frank Key Howard at Internet Archive Works by Frank Key Howard at LibriVox
35.
Francis Scott Key
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Francis Scott Key was an American lawyer, author, and amateur poet from Georgetown who wrote the lyrics to the United States national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner. Francis Scott Key was born to Ann Phoebe Penn Dagworthy and Captain John Ross Key at the family plantation Terra Rubra in what was part of Frederick County, now Carroll County. His father was a lawyer, judge, and officer in the Continental Army and his great-grandparents on his fathers side, Philip Key and Susanna Barton Gardiner, were both born in London and then immigrated to Maryland in 1726. Key graduated from St. Johns College, Annapolis, Maryland and he married Mary Tayloe Lloyd on January 1,1802. Thus, Key was unable to do anything but watch the bombarding of the American forces at Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore on the night of September 13–14,1814, at dawn, Key was able to see an American flag still waving. S. Heroes of the First Barbary War and it has become better known as The Star-Spangled Banner. Though somewhat difficult to sing, it increasingly popular, competing with Hail, Columbia as the de facto national anthem by the time of the Mexican–American War. Key was an attorney in Frederick, Maryland, and Washington, D. C. for many years. He and his family settled in Georgetown in 1805 or 1806, there the young Key assisted his uncle, the prominent lawyer Philip Barton Key, such as in the sensational conspiracy trial of Aaron Burr and the expulsion of Senator John Smith of Ohio. He made the first of his arguments before the United States Supreme Court in 1807. In 1808 he assisted President Thomas Jeffersons attorney general in United States v. Peters, a supporter of Andrew Jackson, Key, in 1829 assisted in the prosecution of Tobias Watkins, former U. S. Treasury auditor under former President John Quincy Adams for misappropriating public monies. He also handled the Petticoat affair concerning Secretary of War John Eaton, in 1832, he served as the attorney for Sam Houston, then a former U. S. Representative and Governor of Tennessee, during his trial for assaulting Representative William Stanbery of Ohio, President Jackson nominated Key for United States Attorney for the District of Columbia in 1833. After the U. S. Senate approved the nomination, he served from 1833 to 1841, Key purchased his first slave in 1800 or 1801 and owned six slaves in 1820. Mostly in the 1830s, Key manumitted seven slaves, one of continued to work for him for wages as his farms foreman. Throughout his career Key also represented several slaves seeking their freedom in court, over the next decade, beginning in 1833, the administrators fought to enforce the will and provide the freed slaves land to support themselves. Mr. Key convinced me that slavery was wrong—radically wrong, in June 1842, Key attended the funeral of William Costin, a free, mixed race resident who had challenged Washingtons surety bond laws. However, he was removed from the board in 1833 as its policies shifted toward abolitionist, a slave-owner himself, Key used his position as U. S. Attorney to suppress abolitionists
36.
The Star-Spangled Banner
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The Star-Spangled Banner is the national anthem of the United States of America. Key was inspired by the large American flag, the Star-Spangled Banner, the poem was set to the tune of a popular British song written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a mens social club in London. To Anacreon in Heaven, with lyrics, was already popular in the United States. Set to Keys poem and renamed The Star-Spangled Banner, it became a well-known American patriotic song. With a range of one octave and one fifth, it is known for being difficult to sing, although the poem has four stanzas, only the first is commonly sung today. Before 1931, other songs served as the hymns of American officialdom, hail, Columbia served this purpose at official functions for most of the 19th century. My Country, Tis of Thee, whose melody is identical to God Save the Queen, following the War of 1812 and subsequent American wars, other songs emerged to compete for popularity at public events, among them The Star-Spangled Banner, as well as America the Beautiful. Beanes was accused of aiding the arrest of British soldiers, because Key and Skinner had heard details of the plans for the attack on Baltimore, they were held captive until after the battle, first aboard HMS Surprise and later back on HMS Minden. On the morning of September 14, the flag had been lowered. During the bombardment, HMS Terror and HMS Meteor provided some of the bombs bursting in air, Key was inspired by the American victory and the sight of the large American flag flying triumphantly above the fort. This flag, with fifteen stars and fifteen stripes, had made by Mary Young Pickersgill together with other workers in her home on Baltimores Pratt Street. The flag later came to be known as the Star-Spangled Banner and is today on display in the National Museum of American History and it was restored in 1914 by Amelia Fowler, and again in 1998 as part of an ongoing conservation program. Aboard the ship the day, Key wrote a poem on the back of a letter he had kept in his pocket. At twilight on September 16, he and Skinner were released in Baltimore and he completed the poem at the Indian Queen Hotel, where he was staying, and titled it Defence of Fort MHenry. Much of the idea of the poem, including the flag imagery and some of the wording, is derived from a song by Key. The song, known as When the Warrior Returns, was written in honor of Stephen Decatur, absent elaboration by Francis Scott Key prior to his death in 1843, some have speculated in modern times about the meaning of phrases or verses. Professor Mark Clague has stated that the two verses of Keys lyric vilify the British enemy in the War of 1812 and in no way glorifies or celebrates slavery. Clague asserts that the used to refer to British professional soldiers but also the Corps of Colonial Marines which Key viewed as scoundrels
37.
Martial law
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It is usually imposed temporarily when the government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively. Martial law can be used by governments to enforce their rule over the public, such incidents may occur after a coup détat, when threatened by popular protest, to suppress political opposition, or to stabilize insurrections or perceived insurrections. Martial law may be declared in cases of natural disasters, however, most countries use a different legal construct. Martial law has also been imposed during conflicts, and in cases of occupations, examples of this form of military rule include post World War II reconstruction in Germany and Japan as well as the Southern Reconstruction following the U. S. Civil War. Civilians defying martial law may be subjected to military tribunal, the Black War was a period of violent conflict between British colonists and Aboriginal Australians in Tasmania from the mid-1820s to 1832. With an escalation of violence in the late 1820s, Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur declared martial law in November 1828—effectively providing legal immunity for killing Aboriginal people and it would remain in force for more than three years, the longest period of martial law in Australian history. Brunei has been under a law since a rebellion occurred on 8 December 1962 known as the Brunei Revolt and was put down by British troops from Singapore. e. The military does not administer justice, which remains in the hands of the courts, the Act has been invoked three times, During World War I, World War II, and the October Crisis of 1970. In 1988, the War Measures Act was replaced by the Emergencies Act, during the colonial era, martial law was proclaimed and applied in the territory of the Province of Quebec during the invasion of Canada by the army of the American Continental Congress in 1775–1776. It was also applied twice in the territory of Lower Canada during the 1837–1838 insurrections and it was imposed until April 27,1838. Martial law was proclaimed a second time on November 4,1838, this time by acting Governor John Colborne, in Egypt, a State of Emergency has been in effect almost continuously since 1967. Following the assassination of President Anwar el-Sadat in 1981, state of emergency was declared, Egypt has been under state of emergency ever since, the Parliament has renewed the emergency laws every three years since they were imposed. The legislation was extended in 2003 and were due to expire at the end of May 2006, but after the Dahab bombings in April of that year, state of emergency was renewed for another two years. In May 2008 there was an extension to June 2010. In May 2010, the state of emergency was extended, albeit with a promise from the government to be applied only to Terrorism. Public demonstrations are banned under the legislation, under martial law the source of power is not the people, not the parliament, not the constitution, not a Holy Text, but solely the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. The military issued in its announcement the end of the State of Emergency as soon as order is restored in Egypt. Before martial law, the Egyptian parliament under the constitution had the power to declare a State of Emergency
38.
Simon Cameron
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Simon Cameron was an American politician who served as United States Secretary of War for Abraham Lincoln at the start of the American Civil War. Cameron made his fortune in railways, canals and banking, and he then turned to a life of politics. He became a U. S. senator in 1845 for the state of Pennsylvania, originally a Democrat, he failed to secure a nomination for senator from the Know-Nothing party, and joined the Peoples Party, the Pennsylvania branch of what became the Republican Party. He won the Senate seat in 1857, and became one of the candidates for the Republican nomination in the election of 1860. Cameron gave his support to Abraham Lincoln, and became his Secretary of War and he served only a year before resigning amidst allegations of disorganization and corruption during the early phases of the American Civil War. Cameron then became the minister to Russia, but was overseas for less than a year. Beginning in 1867, he served in the Senate, he was succeeded by his son, J. Donald Cameron in 1877. After leaving the senate, Cameron lived in retirement, but still participated in politics and he died in 1889 and was buried in Harrisburg. Camerons chief legacy was a powerful Republican party machine that continued to dominate Pennsylvania politics long after his death, Simon Cameron was born in Maytown, Pennsylvania, to Charles Cameron and Martha Pfoutz. He was orphaned at nine and later apprenticed to a printer, Andrew Kennedy and he was editor of the Bucks County Messenger in 1821. A year later, he moved to Washington, D. C. and studied political movements while working for the firm of Gales. He married Margaret Brua and returned to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania where he purchased, Cameron served as state printer of Pennsylvania from 1825 until 1827, and was state adjutant general in 1826. He constructed several lines and merged them into the Northern Central Railway. He founded the Bank of Middletown in 1832 and engaged in business enterprises. In 1838, he was appointed as commissioner to settle claims of the Winnebago Indians, Cameron began his political career as a Democrat, supporting the campaigns of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren. He was elected to replace James Buchanan in the United States Senate in 1845, a persistent opponent of slavery, Cameron switched to the Know Nothing Party, before joining the Republican Party in 1856. In 1857, Cameron was again elected to the United States Senate, Cameron was nominated for President, but gave his support to Abraham Lincoln at the 1860 Republican National Convention. Lincoln, as part of a bargain, named Cameron Secretary of War
39.
Thomas Holliday Hicks
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Thomas Holliday Hicks was a politician in the divided border-state of Maryland during the American Civil War. As governor, opposing the Democrats, his views reflected the conflicting local loyalties. Under pressure to call the General Assembly into special session, he held it in the town of Frederick. In December 1862, Hicks was appointed to the U. S. Senate, where he endorsed Lincolns re-election in 1864, but died soon afterwards. Born in 1798 near East New Market, Maryland, Hicks began his career as a Democrat when he was elected town constable and then, in 1824. Later, he switched to the Whig Party and was elected to the House of Delegates in 1830, in 1837, the legislature elected him a member of the Governors Council, the last to be chosen before that body was abolished. In 1838, he was appointed Register of Wills for Dorchester County and he stayed in that job until his election as governor. In 1857, as the Whig Party disintegrated, Hicks joined the Native American Party, as such, in 1858, he ran for governor and defeated Democrat John Charles Groome by 8,700 votes. The election, however, was notable for fraud, open intimidation of voters, Hicks was one of the oldest men to become governor. In his gubernatorial inaugural address, Hicks criticized the numbers of immigrants coming to America. Hicks opposed abolitionists and supported slave owners and he denounced “he attacks of fanatical and misguided persons against property in slaves and added that slave owners had a right under the Constitution to recover their property. Hicks belatedly supported the Union of the states and sought to prevent Maryland from seceding and joining the Confederacy and this would have isolated Washington, D. C. in confederate territory. Hicks reflected the divisions in his state, in Hicks writings about the South and its secession, he referred to it as we. He wrote that they, the North, were wrong in refus to observe the requirements of the Constitution to permit new states to join the Union as slave states. Kane, and former Governor Enoch Louis Lowe requested that Hicks burn the bridges leading to Baltimore. These actions were addressed in Ex parte Merryman, the case of Maryland militia Captain John Merryman who was arrested by Union forces. After initially denying that he had authorized such actions, Hicks backtracked and voiced his support for the Union, Hicks worried about Marylands position as a border state. In an address to the Maryland General Assembly on April 25,1861, the Assembly normally met in Annapolis, but that city was occupied by Union troops, so Hicks changed the location to Frederick, a generally pro-Union town
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