1.
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
2.
Massachusetts
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It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, and New York to the west. The state is named for the Massachusett tribe, which inhabited the area. The capital of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England is Boston, over 80% of Massachusetts population lives in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, a region influential upon American history, academia, and industry. Originally dependent on agriculture, fishing and trade, Massachusetts was transformed into a manufacturing center during the Industrial Revolution, during the 20th century, Massachusetts economy shifted from manufacturing to services. Modern Massachusetts is a leader in biotechnology, engineering, higher education, finance. Plymouth was the site of the first colony in New England, founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims, in 1692, the town of Salem and surrounding areas experienced one of Americas most infamous cases of mass hysteria, the Salem witch trials. In 1777, General Henry Knox founded the Springfield Armory, which during the Industrial Revolution catalyzed numerous important technological advances, in 1786, Shays Rebellion, a populist revolt led by disaffected American Revolutionary War veterans, influenced the United States Constitutional Convention. In the 18th century, the Protestant First Great Awakening, which swept the Atlantic World, in the late 18th century, Boston became known as the Cradle of Liberty for the agitation there that led to the American Revolution. The entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts has played a commercial and cultural role in the history of the United States. Before the American Civil War, Massachusetts was a center for the abolitionist, temperance, in the late 19th century, the sports of basketball and volleyball were invented in the western Massachusetts cities of Springfield and Holyoke, respectively. Many prominent American political dynasties have hailed from the state, including the Adams, both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also in Cambridge, have been ranked among the most highly regarded academic institutions in the world. Massachusetts public school students place among the top nations in the world in academic performance, the official name of the state is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. While this designation is part of the official name, it has no practical implications. Massachusetts has the position and powers within the United States as other states. Massachusetts was originally inhabited by tribes of the Algonquian language family such as the Wampanoag, Narragansett, Nipmuc, Pocomtuc, Mahican, and Massachusett. While cultivation of crops like squash and corn supplemented their diets, villages consisted of lodges called wigwams as well as longhouses, and tribes were led by male or female elders known as sachems. Between 1617 and 1619, smallpox killed approximately 90% of the Massachusetts Bay Native Americans, the first English settlers in Massachusetts, the Pilgrims, arrived via the Mayflower at Plymouth in 1620, and developed friendly relations with the native Wampanoag people. This was the second successful permanent English colony in the part of North America that later became the United States, the event known as the First Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World which lasted for three days
3.
Massachusetts's 11th congressional district
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Massachusetts Congressional District 11 is an obsolete congressional district in eastern Massachusetts. It was eliminated in 1993 after the 1990 U. S. Census and its last Congressman was Brian Donnelly, its most notable wereJohn Quincy Adams following his term as president, eventual president John F. Kennedy and Speaker Tip ONeill. 1893, Suffolk County, Boston, Wards 21,22, middlesex County, City of Newton, towns of Belmont, Holliston, Sherborn, and Water- town. Norfolk County, Towns of Bellingham, Brookline, Dedham, Dover, Foxboro, Franklin, Hyde Park, Medfield, Medway, Millis, Needham, Norfolk, Norwood, Sharon, Walpole, bristol County, Town of North Attleboro. Worcester County, Towns of Hopedale and Milford,1916, Suffolk County, Boston Wards 10,11,12,18,19,21,22,23. 1968, Norfolk County, City of Quincy, Towns of Avon, Braintree, Canton, Dedham, Holbrook, Milton, Norwood, Randolph, Sharon, Stoughton, and Weymouth. Suffolk County, City of Boston, Ward 18,1977, Norfolk County, City of Quincy. Towns of Avon, Braintree, Holbrook, Milton, Randolph, Suffolk County, City of Boston, Wards 15,16,17,18. 1985, Norfolk County, City of Quincy, Towns of Avon, Braintree, Holbrook, Milton, Randolph, and Weymouth. Towns of Abington, East Bridgewater, Rockland, West Bridgewater, Suffolk County, City of Boston, Wards 15,16,17, and 18. The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress, the Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts. Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present
4.
John Z. Goodrich
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John Zacheus Goodrich was an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives and the 24th Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. He was born in Sheffield, Massachusetts on September 27,1804 and he attended the common schools and Lenox Academy. He studied law, was admitted to the bar, and engaged in manufacturing, Goodrich served in the Massachusetts State Senate, and was elected as a Whig to the Thirty-second and Thirty-third Congresses. He was a member of the 1861 Peace Conference held in Washington and he was elected as a Republican Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts in 1860 and served from January 1,1861, until his resignation on March 29,1861. He also served as the president of the Union Emigration Society, Goodrich was appointed collector of customs at Boston on March 13 and served until March 11,1865. He retired from life and died in Stockbridge, Massachusetts on April 19,1885. His interment was in Stockbridge Cemetery, biographical Directory of the United States Congress
5.
Henry L. Dawes
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Dawes was born in Cummington, Massachusetts in 1816. After graduating from Yale University in 1839, he taught at Greenfield, Massachusetts, in 1842, he was admitted to the bar and began the practice of law at North Adams, where for a time he edited The North Adams Transcript. In 1869 Dawes became a member of the Monday Evening Club. The post-Civil War period was one of founding numerous fraternal and civil societies, Henry Dawes died in Pittsfield, Massachusetts on February 5,1903. Dawes served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1848–1849 and in 1852, in the state Senate in 1850, from 1853 to 1857, he was United States district attorney for the western district of Massachusetts. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1856, in late 1871 and early 1872, Dawes became an ardent supporter of the creation of Yellowstone National Park, in order to preserve its wilderness and resources. In March 1871, he supported federal financing for Ferdinand Vandeveer Haydens fifth geological survey of the territories, which became a driving force in the creation of the park. Dawes son, Chester Dawes, was a member of the team, and Annie. When the Act of Dedication bill came before congress, Dawes was one of its most active supporters, in 1875, he was chosen by the state legislature to succeed William B. Washburn as U. S. Senator from Massachusetts, serving until 1893, during this long period of legislative activity, Dawes served in the House on the committees on elections, ways and means, and appropriations. He took a prominent part in passage of the anti-slavery and Reconstruction measures during and after the Civil War, in tariff legislation and he also initiated daily weather reports to be provided by the federal government. In the Senate, Dawes was chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs and he concentrated on enactment of laws that he believed were for the benefit of the Indians. In the late 19th century, after the Indian Wars, there were fears that the Indians were disappearing. Dawes most prominent achievement in Congress was the passage in 1887 of the General Allotment Act of 1887, ch. 388,25 U. S. C. §331 et seq. which authorized the President of the United States to survey Indian tribal land and it was intended to assimilate Indians by breaking up their tribal governments and communal lands, and encouraging them in subsistence farming. It was enacted February 8,1887, and named for Dawes, the Act was amended in 1891,1898 by the Curtis Act, and in 1906, by the Burke Act. It was this commission that registered the members of the Five Civilized Tribes, the Curtis Act of 1898 extended the provisions of the Dawes Act to the Five Civilized Tribes, abolishing tribal jurisdiction of their communal lands. On leaving the Senate in 1893, Dawes became chairman of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, Native Americans lost about 90 million acres of treaty land, or about two-thirds of their 1887 land base, over the life of the Dawes Act
6.
Bangor, Maine
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Bangor is a city along the Penobscot River in the U. S. state of Maine. The city proper has a population of 33,039, while the Bangor metropolitan area has a population of 153,746, Bangor is known as the Queen City of Maine. Modern Bangor was established by European Americans in the mid-1800s, based on the lumber, with their wealth, the lumber barons built elaborate Greek Revival and Victorian mansions and the 31 feet high statue of Paul Bunyan. Today, Bangors economy is based on services and retail, healthcare, founded as Condeskeag Plantation, Bangor was incorporated as a New England town in 1791, after the end of the American Revolutionary War. There are more than 20 communities worldwide named Bangor, of which 15 are in the United States and named after Bangor, the final syllable is pronounced gor, not ger. Bangor has a port of entry at Bangor International Airport, also home to the Bangor Air National Guard Base, Historically Bangor was an important stopover on the great circle air route between the East Coast of the United States and Europe. Bangors Police Department also has a popular Facebook page, which uses humor and advice in an attempt to better public police relations, Bangor has a humid continental climate, with cold, snowy winters, and warm summers. The Penobscot have inhabited the area around present-day Bangor for at least 11,000 years and they practiced some agriculture, but less than peoples in southern New England where the climate is milder, and subsisted on what they could hunt and gather. Contact with Europeans was not uncommon during the 1500s because the fur trade was lucrative, the site was visited by Portuguese explorer Estêvão Gomes in 1524 and by Samuel de Champlain in 1605. In 1769 Jacob Buswell founded a settlement at the site, by 1772, there were 12 families, along with a sawmill, store, and school, and in 1787 the population was 567. In September 1787 a petition, signed by 19 residents, was sent to the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts requesting that this area be named Sunbury. On the back of it was written, To the care of Dr. Cony and this petition was rejected before 6 October 1788, as the town referred to itself as Penobscot River, west side. In 1779, the rebel Penobscot Expedition fled up the Penobscot River, the ships remained there until the late 1950s, when construction of the Joshua Chamberlain Bridge disturbed the site. Six cannons were removed from the riverbed, five of which are on display throughout the region and he left the name for the town blank so he could obtain tentative approval. He chose the name of a popular hymn known to be a favorite of Governor John Hancock, the incorporation was received on 25 February 1791 and was signed by John Hancock. During the War of 1812, Bangor and Hampden were looted by the British, Maine was part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts until 1820, when it voted to secede from the state and was admitted to the Union under the Missouri Compromise as the 23rd state. Bangor was near the lands disputed during the Aroostook War, a dispute with Britain in 1838–39. The passion of the Aroostook War signaled the increasing role lumbering and logging were playing in the Maine economy, particularly in the central, Bangor arose as a lumbering boom-town in the 1830s, and a potential demographic and political rival to Portland, Maine
7.
Somerville, Massachusetts
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Somerville is a city located directly to the northwest of Boston, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of 2010, the United States Census has the city with a population of 75,754 people. As of 2010, it was the 16th most densely populated incorporated municipality in the country, Somerville was established as a town in 1842, when it was separated from Charlestown. In 2006, the town was named the city in Massachusetts by the Boston Globe. In 1972, in 2009, and again in 2015, the city received the All-America City Award, the territory now comprising the city of Somerville was first settled in 1629 as part of Charlestown. In 1629, English surveyor Thomas Graves led a party of 100 Puritans from the settlement of Salem to prepare the site for the Great Migration of Puritans from England. Graves was attracted to the narrow Mishawum Peninsula between the Charles River and the Mystic River, linked to the mainland at the present-day Sullivan Square. The first European settler in Somerville of whom there is any record was John Woolrich, an Indian trader who came from the Charlestown Peninsula in 1630, others soon followed Woolrich, locating in the vicinity of present-day Union Square. The population continued to increase, and by 1775 there were about 500 inhabitants scattered across the area. Otherwise, the area was used as grazing and farmland. It was once known as the Stinted Pasture or Cow Commons, John Winthrop, the first colonial governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was granted 600 acres of land in the area in 1631. Named for the ten small knolls located on the property, Ten Hills Farm extended from the Craddock Bridge in present-day Medford Center to Convent Hill in East Somerville, Winthrop lived, planted, and raised cattle on the farm. It is also where he launched the first ship in Massachusetts, built for trading purposes in the early 1630s, it was soon armed for use as a patrol boat for the New England coast. It is seen as a precursor to the United States Navy, the neighborhood Ten Hills, located in the northeastern part of the city, has retained the name for over 300 years. New research has found less than a decade after John Winthrop moved to the farm in 1631. Each successive owner of Ten Hills Farm would depend upon slaverys profits until the 1780s, in a short time, the settlers began laying out roads in all directions in search of more land for planting and trade with various Native American tribes in the area. Laid out as early as the mid-1630s, the earliest highway in Somerville was probably what is now Washington Street, in its earliest days, Washington Street was known as the Road to Newtowne. Laid out in 1636, Broadway was likely the second built in the area
8.
Springfield, Massachusetts
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Springfield is a city in western New England, and the seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. Springfield sits on the bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers, the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern Mill River. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 153,060. Metropolitan Springfield, as one of two areas in Massachusetts, had an estimated population of 698,903 as of 2009. The first Springfield in the New World, it is the largest city in Western New England, and the urban, economic and it is the third-largest city in Massachusetts and fourth-largest in New England after Boston, Worcester, and Providence. Hartford, the capital of Connecticut, lies 23.9 miles south of Springfield, bradley International Airport, which sits 12 miles south of Metro Center Springfield, is Hartford-Springfields airport. Springfield was founded in 1636 by English Puritan William Pynchon as Agawam Plantation under the administration of the Connecticut Colony, in 1641 it was renamed after Pynchons hometown of Springfield, Essex, England, following incidents that precipitated the settlement joining the Massachusetts Bay Colony. From 1777 until its closing during the Vietnam War, the Springfield Armory attracted skilled laborers to Springfield, arsenal at Springfield during Shays Rebellion of 1787 led directly to the formation of the U. S. Springfield is located at 42°6′45″N 72°32′51″W, according to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 33.2 square miles, of which 32.1 square miles is land and 1.1 square miles is water. Once nicknamed The City in a Forest, Springfield features over 4, aside from its rivers, Springfields 2nd most prominent topographical feature is the citys 735 acres Forest Park, designed by renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. Forest Park also borders Western Massachusetts most affluent town, Longmeadow, Springfield shares borders with other well-heeled suburbs such as East Longmeadow, Wilbraham, Ludlow and the de-industrializing city of Chicopee. The small cities of Agawam and West Springfield, Massachusetts lie less than a mile from Springfields Metro Center, across the Connecticut River. The City of Springfield also owns the Springfield Country Club, which is located in the city of West Springfield, Massachusetts. Springfield, like other cities in southern New England, has a continental climate with four distinct seasons. Winters are cold with a average in January of around 26 °F. During winter, noreaster storms can drop significant snowfalls on Springfield, Springfields summers are very warm and sometimes humid. During summer, several times per month, on hot days afternoon thunderstorms will develop when unstable warm air collides with approaching cold fronts, the daily average in July is around 74 °F. Usually several days during the summer exceed 90 °F, constituting a heat wave, Spring and fall temperatures are usually pleasant, with mild days and crisp, cool nights
9.
Know Nothing
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The Native American Party, renamed the American Party in 1855 and commonly known as the Know Nothing movement, was an American political party that operated nationally in the mid-1850s. The motivators of the Partys rise were,1. )Nativist sentiment caused by the sudden, unprecedented influx of German and Irish immigrants in the late 1840s,2. )A rapid, steep decline in wages caused by the sudden influx of very large numbers of Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine,3. )The threat members perceived that the expansion of slavery into factory labor. In the eyes of supporters of both the Free Soil and Know Nothing movements, the existence of black slavery threatened to reduce free, white workers to wage slaves, and 4. )Fear that land in the western territories would be awarded to wealthy slave plantation owners rather than to white small farmers. It was due to fear that slavery would destroy the economic prospects of working families that the Party enrolled massive numbers of voters in the wake of the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854. The Partys most prominent leaders were U. S, the American Party nominated former President Millard Fillmore in the 1856 presidential election. Anti-Catholicism had been a factor in colonial America but played little role in American politics until the arrival of large numbers of Irish and it then reemerged in nativist attacks on Catholic immigration. It appeared in New York politics as early as 1843, under the banner of the American Republican Party, the movement quickly spread to nearby states, using that name or Native American Party or variants of it. They succeeded in a number of local and Congressional elections, notably in 1844 in Philadelphia, in the early 1850s, numerous secret orders grew up, of which the Order of United Americans and the Order of the Star Spangled Banner came to be the most important. They merged in New York in the early 1850s as an order that quickly spread across the North, reaching non-Catholics. The name Know Nothing originated in the organization of the party. When a member was asked about its activities, he was supposed to reply, outsiders called them Know Nothings, and the name stuck. In 1855, the Know Nothings first entered politics under the American Party label, the immigration of large numbers of Irish and German Catholics to the United States in the period between 1830 and 1860 made religious differences between Catholics and Protestants a political issue. Violence occasionally erupted at the polls, Protestants alleged that Pope Pius IX had put down the failed liberal Revolutions of 1848 and that he was an opponent of liberty, democracy and Republicanism. One Boston minister described Catholicism as the ally of tyranny, the opponent of material prosperity, the foe of thrift, the enemy of the railroad, the caucus, and the school. In 1849, a secret society, the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, was created by Charles B. Allen in New York City. Fear of Catholic immigration led to a dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party, activists formed secret groups, coordinating their votes and throwing their weight behind candidates sympathetic to their cause. When asked about these organizations, members were to reply I know nothing. Immigration during the first five years of the 1850s reached a level five times greater than a decade earlier, most of the new arrivals were poor Catholic peasants or laborers from Ireland and Germany who crowded into the tenements of large cities
10.
Methodist Episcopal Church
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The Methodist Episcopal Church was the first Methodist denomination founded in the United States. In the early 19th century, it was the largest Protestant denomination in the U. S, the Methodist Episcopal Church existed from 1784 until 1939, when it merged with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South and the Methodist Protestant Church to form the Methodist Church. In 1968, the Methodist Church merged with the Evangelical United Brethren Church to form the present-day United Methodist Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church originated from the spread of Methodism outside of England to the Thirteen Colonies in the 1760s. Wesley was loyal to the Anglican Church, and he organized his followers into parachurch societies and classes with the goal of promoting spiritual revival within the Church of England, around fifteen or twenty societies formed a circuit. Anywhere from two to four itinerant preachers would be assigned to a circuit on a basis to preach. One itinerant preacher in each circuit would be made the assistant, and he would direct the activities of the itinerant preachers in the circuit. Wesley gave out preaching assignments at an annual conference, in 1773, Wesley appointed Thomas Rankin general assistant, placing him in charge of all the Methodist preachers and societies in America. On July 4,1773, Rankin presided over the first annual conference on American soil at Philadelphia, at that time there were 1,160 Methodists in America led by ten lay preachers. Itinerant Methodist preachers would become known as circuit riders, Methodist societies in America also operated within the Church of England. There were several Anglican priests who supported the work of the Methodists, attending Methodist meetings and these included Charles Pettigrew of North Carolina, Samuel Magaw of Dover and then Philadelphia, and Uzel Ogden of New Jersey. Anglican clergyman Devereux Jarratt was an active supporter, founding Methodist societies in Virginia. The American Revolution severed ties to England and left Americas Anglican Church in disarray, due to the scarcity of Anglican ministers, Methodists in the United States were unable to receive the sacraments of baptism and Holy Communion. Wesleys actions were based in his belief that the order of bishop and priest were one, the founding conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, known commonly as the Christmas Conference, was held in December 1784 at Lovely Lane Chapel in Baltimore, Maryland. At this conference, Coke ordained Francis Asbury as co-superintendent according to Wesleys wishes, Asbury had been serving as general assistant since Rankin returned to England. The German-born Philip W. Otterbein, who helped found the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. American Methodists, however, preferred non-liturgical worship and The Sunday Service was largely ignored, the conference adopted an organization consisting of superintendents, elders, deacons, traveling preachers, and local preachers. Preachers were licensed to preach but were not ordained and could not administer sacraments, traveling preachers worked full-time in itinerant ministry and were supported financially by the societies they served. Local preachers pursued secular employment but preached on Sundays in their local communities, deacons were preachers authorized by a superintendent to officiate weddings, bury the dead, baptize, and assist the elders in administering the Lords Supper
This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress website http://bioguide.congress.gov.
