Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville is a city located in Madison County in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama. Huntsville is the county seat of Madison County; the city extends south into Morgan County. Huntsville's population was 180,105 as of the 2010 census. Huntsville is the third-largest city in Alabama and the largest city in the five-county Huntsville-Decatur-Albertville, AL Combined Statistical Area, which at the 2013 census estimate had a total population of 683,871; the Huntsville Metropolitan Area's population was 417,593 in 2010 to become the 2nd largest in Alabama. Huntsville metro's population reached 441,000 by 2014, it grew across nearby hills north of the Tennessee River, adding textile mills munitions factories, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and the United States Army Aviation and Missile Command nearby at the Redstone Arsenal. The National Trust for Historic Preservation named Huntsville to its "America's Dozen Distinctive Destinations for 2010" list; the first settlers of the area were Muscogee-speaking people.
The Chickasaw traditionally claim to have settled around 1300 after coming east across the Mississippi. A combination of factors, including depopulation due to disease, land disputes between the Choctaw and Cherokee, pressures from the United States government had depopulated the area prior to 1805; that year Revolutionary War veteran John Hunt settled in the land around the Big Spring. The 1805 Treaty with the Chickasaws and the Cherokee Treaty of Washington of 1806 ceded native claims to the United States Government; the area was subsequently purchased by LeRoy Pope, who named the area Twickenham after the home village of his distant kinsman Alexander Pope. Twickenham was planned, with streets laid out on the northeast to southwest direction based on the flow of Big Spring. However, due to anti-British sentiment during this period, the name was changed to "Huntsville" to honor John Hunt, forced to move to other land south of the new city. Both John Hunt and LeRoy Pope were Freemasons and charter members of Helion Lodge #1, the oldest Lodge in Alabama.
In 1811, Huntsville became the first incorporated town in Alabama. However, the recognized "founding" year of the city is the year of John Hunt's arrival; the city's sesquicentennial anniversary was held in 1955, the bicentennial was celebrated in 2005. David Wade arrived in Huntsville in 1817, he built the David Wade House on the north side of what is now Bob Wade Lane just east of Mt. Lebanon Road, it had six rough Doric columns on the portico. During the Great Depression, the house was measured as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey to be included in the government's Archive and was photographed by Frances Benjamin Johnston for the project; this project put architects and photographers to work to create an inventory of documentation and photographs of significant properties across the country. The house had been abandoned for years and was deteriorated, it was torn down in 1952. Today an imposing structure itself, survives at the property. Huntsville's quick growth was from wealth generated by the railroad industries.
Many wealthy planters moved into the area from Virginia and the Carolinas. In 1819, Huntsville hosted a constitutional convention in Walker Allen's large cabinetmaking shop; the 44 delegates meeting there wrote a constitution for the new state of Alabama. In accordance with the new state constitution, Huntsville became Alabama's first capital when the state was admitted to the Union; this was a temporary designation for one legislative session only. The capital was moved to more central cities: to Cahawba to Tuscaloosa, to Montgomery. In 1855, the Memphis and Charleston Railroad was constructed through Huntsville, becoming the first railway to link the Atlantic seacoast with the lower Mississippi River. Huntsville opposed secession from the Union in 1861, but provided many men for the Confederacy's efforts; the 4th Alabama Infantry Regiment, led by Col. Egbert J. Jones of Huntsville, distinguished itself at the Battle of Manassas/Bull Run, the first major encounter of the American Civil War; the Fourth Alabama Infantry, which contained two Huntsville companies, were the first Alabama troops to fight in the war and were present when Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House in April 1865.
Eight generals of the war were born near Huntsville, evenly split with four on each side. On the morning of April 11, 1862, Union troops led by General Ormsby M. Mitchel seized Huntsville in order to sever the Confederacy's rail communications and gain access to the Memphis & Charleston Railroad. Huntsville was the control point for the Western Division of the Memphis & Charleston, by controlling this railroad the Union had a direct connection to Charleston, South Carolina. During the first occupation, the Union officers occupied many of the larger homes in the city while the other men camped on the outskirts. In the initial occupation, the Union troops searched for both Confederate troops hiding in the town and weapons. After they had established themselves, the occupying federals did not burn or pillage the city of Huntsville, though towns around it were sometimes targeted. Treatment toward the town was civil; the Union troops were forced to retreat some months but returned to Huntsville in the fall of 1863 and thereafter used the city as a base of operations for the remainder of the war.
While many homes and villages in the surrounding countryside were burned in retaliation for the active guerrilla warfare in the area, Huntsville itself was spared because it housed elements of the Union Army. After the Civil War, H
Tennessee River
The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is 652 miles long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley; the river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names, as many of the Cherokee had their territory along its banks in eastern Tennessee and northern Alabama. Its current name is derived from the Cherokee village Tanasi; the Tennessee River is formed at the confluence of the Holston and French Broad rivers in present-day Knoxville, Tennessee. From Knoxville, it flows southwest through East Tennessee into Chattanooga before crossing into Alabama, it travels through the Huntsville and Decatur area before reaching the Muscle Shoals area, forms a small part of the state's border with Mississippi, before returning to Tennessee. Its route northwesterly through Tennessee defines the boundary between two of Tennessee's Grand Divisions: Middle and West Tennessee; the Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway, a U. S. Army Corps of Engineers project providing navigation on the Tombigbee River and a link to the Port of Mobile, enters the Tennessee River near the Tennessee-Alabama-Mississippi boundary.
This waterway reduces the navigation distance from Tennessee, north Alabama, northern Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico by hundreds of miles. The final part of the Tennessee's run is north through western Kentucky, where it separates the Jackson Purchase from the rest of the state, it flows into the Ohio River at Kentucky. The river has been dammed numerous times during the 20th century since the 1930s by Tennessee Valley Authority projects; the construction of TVA's Kentucky Dam on the Tennessee River and the Corps of Engineers' Barkley Dam on the Cumberland River led to the development of associated lakes, the creation of what is called Land Between the Lakes. A navigation canal located at Grand Rivers, links Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley; the canal allows for a shorter trip for river traffic going from the Tennessee to most of the Ohio River, for traffic going down the Cumberland River toward the Mississippi. The river appears on French maps from the late 17th century with the names "Caquinampo" or "Kasqui."
Maps from the early 18th century call it "Cussate," "Hogohegee," "Callamaco," and "Acanseapi." A 1755 British map showed the Tennessee River as the "River of the Cherakees." By the late 18th century, it had come to be called "Tennessee," a name derived from the Cherokee village named Tanasi. The Tennessee River begins at mile post 652, where the French Broad River meets the Holston River, but there were several different definitions of its starting point. In the late 18th century, the mouth of the Little Tennessee River was considered to be the beginning of the Tennessee River. Through much of the 19th century, the Tennessee River was considered to start at the mouth of Clinch River. An 1889 declaration by the Tennessee General Assembly designated Kingsport as the start of the Tennessee, but the following year a federal law was enacted that fixed the start of the river at its current location. At various points since the early 19th century, Georgia has disputed its northern border with Tennessee.
In 1796, when Tennessee was admitted to the Union, the border was defined by United States Congress as located on the 35th parallel, thereby ensuring that at least a portion of the river would be located within Georgia. As a result of an erroneously conducted survey in 1818, the actual border line was set on the ground one mile south, thus placing the disputed portion of the river in Tennessee. Georgia made several unsuccessful attempts to correct what Georgia felt was an erroneous survey line "in the 1890s, 1905, 1915, 1922, 1941, 1947 and 1971 to'resolve' the dispute", according to C. Crews Townsend, Joseph McCoin, Robert F. Parsley, Alison Martin and Zachary H. Greene, writing for the Tennessee Bar Journal, a publication of the Tennessee Bar Association, appearing on May 12, 2008. In 2008, as a result of a serious drought and resulting water shortage, the Georgia General Assembly passed a resolution directing the governor to pursue its claim in the United States Supreme Court. According to a story aired on WTVC-TV in Chattanooga on March 14, 2008, a local attorney familiar with case law on border disputes, says the U.
S. Supreme Court will maintain the original borders between states and avoid stepping into border disputes, preferring the parties work out their differences; the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported on 25 March 2013 that Georgia senators approved House Resolution 4 stating that if Tennessee declines to settle with them, the dispute will be handed over to the attorney general, who will take Tennessee before the Supreme Court to settle the issue once and for all. The Atlantic Wire, in commenting on Georgia's actions stated: The Great Georgia-Tennessee Border War of 2013 Is Upon Us Historians, take note: On this day, not a day in 1732, a boundary dispute between two Southern states took a turn for the wet. In a two-page resolution passed overwhelmingly by the state senate, Georgia declared that it, not its neighbor to the north, controls part of the Tennessee River at Nickajack. Georgia doesn't want Nickajack, it wants that water.. The Tennessee River is an important part of the Great Loop, the recreational circumnavigation of Eastern North America by water.
The Tennessee River has been a major highway for riverboats through the south and today they are still found along the river in abundance. Major ports include Guntersville, Chattanooga and Yellow Creek, Muscle Shoals. Navigation has contributed greatly
Appalachian Regional Commission
The Appalachian Regional Commission is a United States federal-state partnership that works with the people of Appalachia to create opportunities for self-sustaining economic development and improved quality of life. Congress established ARC to bring the region into socioeconomic parity with the rest of the nation; the Appalachian Region, as defined by Congress, includes all of West Virginia and portions of 12 other states: Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia. ARC serves 420 counties that encompass 205,000 square miles, with a population of more than 25 million people; the Appalachian Regional Commission has 14 members: the governors of the 13 Appalachian states and a federal co-chair, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. A professional staff carries out the work of the Commission; the current Federal Co-Chair is Tim Thomas. Thomas was appointed by President Donald Trump and sworn in on April 3, 2018; the 2019 States' Co-Chair is North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper.
Grassroots participation is provided through 73 local development districts, which are multi-county organizations with boards made up of elected officials, business people, other local leaders. The ARC is a planning, research and funding organization. All of ARC's activities must advance at least one of the five strategic investment goals articulated in its 2016–2020 strategic plan adopted in November 2015: creating economic opportunities, developing a ready workforce, investing in critical infrastructure, including the Appalachian Development Highway System, leveraging natural and cultural assets, bolstering leadership and community capacity; the bulk of ARC funds, which come from a federal appropriation, support grant making across a broad range of categories. All grants require performance measures. A regional research and evaluation program helps inform the agency's work. ARC emphasizes the leveraging of private-sector investments, relies on a broad network of public and private partnerships, focuses on innovative, regional strategies to help communities help themselves.
ARC targets its resources to the areas of greatest need, with at least half of its grants going to projects that benefit economically distressed areas and counties. ARC's FY 2016 appropriation included $50 million in funding through the Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization Initiative; this multi-agency initiative, launched in 2015, targets federal resources to help diversify economies in communities and regions that have been affected by job losses in coal mining, coal power plant operations, coal-related supply chain industries due to the changing economics of America's energy production. The Trump Administration's proposed budget for FY 2018 eliminates funding for the ARC. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has assured constituents no funding would be cut from the ARC; as mandated by Congress, ARC helps coordinate federal and local initiatives to spur economic development in Appalachia. Each year Congress appropriates funds; the Appalachian governors submit to ARC their state spending plans for the year, which include lists of projects they recommend for funding.
The spending plans are reviewed and approved at a meeting of all the governors and the federal co-chair. The next step is approval of individual projects by the ARC federal co-chair. After the states submit project applications to ARC, each project is reviewed by ARC program analysts; the process is completed when the federal co-chair formally approves it. ARC is designed as a federal-state partnership that employs a flexible "bottom up" approach, enabling local communities to tailor support to their individual needs. ARC relies on local regional planning agencies to develop effective strategies for local economic development. ARC has made investments in such essentials of comprehensive economic development as a safe and efficient highway system. Since its creation, ARC has helped cut the number of high-poverty counties in Appalachia from 295 in 1960 to 91 today, reduce the infant mortality rate by two-thirds, double the percentage of high school graduates. Over the past five years, ARC programs have helped create or retain over 101,000 jobs in Appalachia through projects that include entrepreneurship and training, health care, telecommunications, business development, basic infrastructure.
Grants during that period have leveraged $2.7 billion in private investments. ARC commissioned a report on diseases of despair, which found that deaths due to drug overdose and alcoholic liver disease were higher than average in the parts of Appalachia under the most economic stress. Beginning in about 1960, the Council of Appalachian Governors, a group of the ten governors of the Appalachian states of Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia, united to seek federal government assistance for the mountainous portions of their states, which lagged behind the rest of the United States in income, health care, transportation. During the 1960 Presidential campaign, candidate John F. Kennedy met with the governors to hear their concerns and observed living conditions in West Virginia that convinced him of the need for federal assistance to address the region's problems. Unrest in the coal industry with movements like the Roving Pickets illustrated the need for f
Appalachian Development Highway System
The Appalachian Development Highway System is part of the Appalachian Regional Commission in the United States. It consists of a series of highway corridors in the Appalachia region of the eastern United States; the routes are designed as local and regional routes for improving economic development in the isolated region. It was established as part of the Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965, has been supplemented by various federal and state legislative and regulatory actions; the system consists of a mixture of state, U. S. and Interstate routes. The routes are formally assigned a letter. Signage of these corridors varies from place to place, but where signed are done so with a distinctive blue-colored sign. A 2019 study found that the construction of the ADHS led to economic net gains of $54 billion and boosted incomes in the Appalachian region by reducing the costs of trade. In 1964, the President's Appalachian Regional Commission reported to Congress that economic growth in Appalachia would not be possible until the region's isolation had been overcome.
Because the cost of building highways through Appalachia's mountainous terrain was high, the region's local residents had never been served by adequate roads. The existing network of narrow, two-lane roads, snaking through narrow stream valleys or over mountaintops, was slow to drive, in many places worn out; the nation's Interstate Highway System, though extensive through the region, was designed to serve cross-country traffic rather than local residents. The PARC report and the Appalachian governors placed top priority on a modern highway system as the key to economic development; as a result, Congress authorized the construction of the Appalachian Development Highway System in the Appalachian Development Act of 1965. The ADHS was designed to generate economic development in isolated areas, supplement the interstate system, provide access to areas within the region as well as to markets in the rest of the nation; the ADHS is authorized at 3,090 miles, including 65 miles added in January 2004 by Public Law 108-199.
By the end of FY 2018, 2,796 miles —approximately 90.5 percent of the 3,090 miles authorized—were complete, open to traffic, or under construction. Many of the remaining miles will be among the most expensive to build. Corridor Z across southern Georgia is not part of the official system, but has been assigned by the Georgia Department of Transportation. Corridor A is a highway in the states of North Carolina, it travels from Interstate 285 north of Atlanta northeasterly to I-40 near North Carolina. I-40 continues easterly past Asheville, where it meets I-26 and Corridor B. In Georgia, Corridor A travels along the State Route 400 freeway from I-285 to the SR 141 interchange southwest of Cumming. From here to Nelson, near the north end of I-575, Corridor A has not been constructed, it begins again with a short piece of SR 372, becoming SR 515 when it meets I-575. SR 515 is a four-lane divided highway all the way to Blairsville. From Blairsville to North Carolina, the corridor has not been built, SR 515 is a two-lane road.
The short North Carolina Highway 69 takes Corridor A north to U. S. Route 64 near Hayesville. Corridor A turns east on US 64, after some two-lane sections, it becomes a four-lane highway. Corridor A switches to US 23 near Franklin, meets the east end of Corridor K near Sylva. From Sylva to its end at I-40 near Clyde, Corridor A uses the Great Smoky Mountains Expressway, which carries US 23 most of the way and US 74 for its entire length. Corridor A-1 uses US 19/SR 400 from the point that Corridor A leaves it, at SR 141 near Cumming, northeast to SR 53 near Bright. SR 400 continues northeast as a four-lane highway from SR 53 to SR 60 south of Dahlonega. Corridor B is a highway in the states of North Carolina, Virginia and Ohio, it follows U. S. Route 23 from Interstate 26 and I-40 near Asheville, North Carolina, north to Corridor C north of Portsmouth, Ohio. Corridor B uses I-240 from its south end into downtown Asheville, where it uses US 23 to Kingsport, Tennessee; the US 23 freeway ends at the Tennessee–Virginia state line, but US 23 is a four-lane divided highway through Virginia and into northeastern Kentucky.
At Grays Branch, Corridor B leaves US 23 to turn east on Kentucky Route 10 over the two-lane Jesse Stuart Memorial Bridge into Ohio. The short Ohio State Route 253 connects the bridge to US 52, a freeway that takes Corridor B north to Wheelersburg. US 52 continues west to Portsmouth, the proposed alignment of Corridor B continues north and northwest along Ohio State Route 823 to US 23 near Lucasville; the part of Corridor B north of SR 253 is part of the I-73/74 North–South Corridor. Corridor B-1 travels from KY 10 to the north end of the Portsmouth Bypass. In Kentucky, it follows US 23 Truck. Corridors B and B-1 both end near Lucasville, where Corridor C continues north along US 23 to Columbus. Corridor C is a highway in the U. S. state of Ohio. It is part of U. S. Route 23, traveling from the north end of Corridor B near Lucasville north to Interstate 270 south of Columbus; as of 2005, most of the road is a four-lane divided highway, but there are a few gaps yet to be built. Corridor C is part of the I-73/I-
Interstate 65 in Alabama
Interstate 65 meanders across 366 miles of the Alabama countryside linking six of the state's ten largest cities. The highway links together many important roadways that make commerce inside and outside of the state's boundaries possible, it starts at Interstate 10 near Mobile. The route passes through the major cities of Montgomery and Decatur before entering Tennessee in the north near the town of Ardmore; the entire Alabama portion of I-65 is dedicated as Heroes Highway, in honor of the CIA officer Johnny "Mike" Spann and all of the people who died during the September 11 attacks. I-65 starts in Mobile at an interchange with Interstate 10, not far from the Gulf of Mexico. From there it runs northeast, intersecting with I-165 in Prichard and crossing the Mobile River delta at the General W. K. Wilson Jr. Bridge. En route to Montgomery, it passes county seats Greenville. In the case of a hurricane evacuation on Alabama's coast, I-65 can be converted to an evacuation route where all lanes flow in the northbound direction from Mobile to Montgomery.
This process is known as contra-flow. The terrain on this stretch of road is hilly, aside from a stretch in southern Conecuh County near Castleberry, where the road is mountainous as it descends over 400 feet into the southern plains of Alabama. At Montgomery, it intersects the southern terminus of I-85 and crosses the Alabama River north of the city; the Hyundai Corporation's automotive plant in Montgomery is located just off I-65. It can be accessed using the Pintlala-Hope Hull exit. At Chilton County, I-65 enters the Birmingham, metropolitan area. Halfway between Montgomery and Birmingham, it passes Clanton the county seat, where the water tower, visible from the road, is shaped and painted to resemble a huge peach. Between mile markers 212 and 219, I-65 was designated "War on Terror Memorial Highway" in 2014. From mile marker 242 to 290 I-65 carries at least 6 lanes of traffic. I-65 intersects I-459 in Hoover passes through the cities of Vestavia Hills and Homewood, which generate heavy traffic.
As the interstate passes by downtown Birmingham, south-bound travelers have a view of the Vulcan statue atop Red Mountain. At the north edge of downtown, I-65 intersects I-20/I-59 with a cross-over interchange called "Malfunction Junction". North of Birmingham at mile 266, interchange ramps provide access to parallel US-31, it is here that I-65 meets the eastern terminus of I-22, which heads northwest to Memphis, filling in a gap in the Interstate system. The interstate continues 98 miles in the general direction of Huntsville, passing the city of Cullman on the way. After entering the Decatur Metropolitan Area, in southern Morgan County, the interstate passes Decatur; the highway connects the Decatur and Huntsville Metropolitan Areas as it crosses Wheeler Lake on a 2.6-mile bridge. The interstate emerges again into the fringes of Decatur, in an open area of "endless" cotton fields where it intersects, inside Decatur, with Alabama 20, US-72 Alternate, the spur-route, I-565 to Huntsville. Between Walkers Chapel Road in Fultondale and the Tennessee River in Decatur, I-65 has been designated the "Ronald Reagan Memorial Highway".
The sign designating the north end of this portion of road cites Reagan's speech in Decatur on July 4, 1984. The interstate continues, passing Athens, merges with US-31; the 2 routes travel concurrently 12 miles to the Tennessee state line. In the Birmingham/Hoover vicinity, a plan to widen the interstate from North Birmingham to Alabaster has been proposed; the project is to widen the interstate by adding a HOV lane and keeping the original 3 lanes making it four lanes in each direction. This is planned to stretch to the Pelham area. From there on the interstate will widen from 2 lanes each way to 3 lanes each way into the Helena/Alabaster area. Near the northern border of Alabama with Tennessee on southbound I-65 is located the Alabama Welcome Center and rest area; the unique feature of this rest area compared to others is the existence of a large Saturn IB rocket erected on the site as a memorial to Alabama's—and in particular, Huntsville's—contribution to NASA's space exploration. In 1997, at Georgiana, honoring legendary country musician and Alabama native Hank Williams, the interstate was designated as Hank Williams' Memorial "Lost Highway", after one of his songs.
This designation continues northward until mile 179 north of Montgomery. From the state's capital, I-65 doglegs northwards, bypassing Prattville and Clanton before going through Metropolitan Birmingham, Alabama. From exit 242 to 290, this highway carries at least six lanes of traffic. A portion of the interstate running through Birmingham, has been nicknamed "Malfunction Junction" for its numerous wrecks; these accidents include two separate occasions of the support beams melting after crashes by 18-wheelers, the numerous collisions that happen every year, result from the junction with I-20 and I-59. In 2004, following the death of President Ronald Reagan, a lengthy segment of I-65 from Jefferson County to Limestone County was designated the Ronald Reagan Memorial Highway; the sign designating the north end of the segment includes a statement from Reagan's speech at Point Mallard Aquatic Center in nearby Decatur on July 4, 1984. Just a few miles north of I-22 will be the new interchange, which will be the Corridor X-1 and has been designated as I-422.
This loop route will connect I-65 with I-59 northeast of Birmingham and I-20/I-59 southwest of Birmingham, this will serve as an Interstate Highway bypass of Birmingham, augmenting the existing I-459, which alr
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. Johnson assumed the presidency as he was vice president of the United States at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. A Democrat who ran with Lincoln on the National Union ticket, Johnson came to office as the Civil War concluded, he favored quick restoration of the seceded states to the Union. His plans did not give protection to the former slaves, he was acquitted in the Senate by one vote. Johnson's main accomplishment as president is the Alaska purchase. Johnson was born in poverty in Raleigh, North Carolina, never attended school. Apprenticed as a tailor, he worked in several frontier towns before settling in Greeneville, Tennessee, 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 U. S. House of Representatives in 1843, where he served five two-year terms, he became Governor of Tennessee for four years, was elected by the legislature to the U.
S. Senate in 1857. In his congressional service, he sought passage of the Homestead Bill, enacted soon after he left his Senate seat in 1862; as Southern slave states, including Tennessee, seceded to form the Confederate States of America, Johnson remained with the Union. He was the only sitting senator from a Confederate state who did not resign his seat upon learning of his state's secession. In 1862, Lincoln appointed him as military governor of Tennessee. In 1864, Johnson, as a War Democrat and Southern Unionist, was a logical choice as running mate for Lincoln, who wished to send a message of national unity in his reelection campaign; when Johnson was sworn in as vice president in March 1865, he gave a rambling speech, after which he secluded himself to avoid public ridicule. Six weeks 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 reform their civil governments.
When Southern states returned many of their old leaders, passed Black Codes to deprive the freedmen of many civil liberties, Congressional Republicans refused to seat legislators from those states and advanced legislation to overrule the Southern actions. Johnson vetoed their bills, Congressional Republicans overrode him, setting a pattern for the remainder of his presidency. Johnson opposed the Fourteenth Amendment. In 1866, Johnson went on an unprecedented national tour promoting his executive policies, seeking to destroy his Republican opponents; as the conflict between the branches of government grew, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, restricting Johnson's 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, narrowly avoided conviction in the Senate and removal from office. After failing to win the 1868 Democratic presidential nomination, Johnson left office in 1869. Returning to Tennessee after his presidency, Johnson sought political vindication, gained it in his eyes when he was elected to the Senate again in 1875, making Johnson the only former president to serve in the Senate.
He died months into his term. While some admire Johnson's strict constitutionalism, his strong opposition to federally guaranteed rights for African Americans is criticized, he is regarded by many historians as one of the worst presidents in American history. Andrew Johnson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, on December 29, 1808, to Jacob Johnson and Mary McDonough, a laundress, he was of English, Scots-Irish, Irish ancestry. He had a brother William, four years his senior, an older sister Elizabeth, who died in childhood. Johnson's birth in a two-room shack was a political asset in the mid-19th century, he would remind voters of his humble origins. Jacob Johnson was a poor man, as had been his father, William Johnson, but he became town constable of Raleigh before marrying and starting a family. Both Jacob and Mary were illiterate, had worked as tavern servants, while Johnson never attended school. Johnson grew up in poverty. Jacob died of an apparent heart attack while ringing the town bell, shortly after rescuing three drowning men, when his son Andrew was three.
Polly Johnson became the sole support of her family. Her occupation was looked down on, as it took her into other homes unaccompanied. There were rumors that Andrew, who did not resemble his brother or sister, had been fathered by another man. Polly Johnson remarried, to Turner Doughtry, as poor as she was. Johnson's mother apprenticed her son William to James Selby. Andrew became an apprentice in Selby's shop at age ten and was bound to serve until his 21st birthday. Johnson lived with his mother for part of his service, one of Selby's employees taught him rudimentary literacy skills, his education was augmented by citizens who would come to Selby's shop to read to the tailors as they worked. Before he became an apprentice, Johnson came to listen; the readings caused a lifelong love of learning, one of his biographers, Annette Gordon-Reed, suggests that Johnson a gifted public speaker, learned the art as he threaded needles and cut cloth. Johnson was not happy at James Selby's, after about five years, both he and his brother ran away.
Selby responded by placing a r
Tom and Huck
Not to be confused with the 1918 film Huck and Tom. Tom and Huck is a 1995 American adventure comedy-drama film based on Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Brad Renfro, Mike McShane, Eric Schweig and Amy Wright; the film was directed by produced/co-written by Stephen Sommers. The movie was released in North America on December 22, 1995. In the film, mischievous young Tom Sawyer witnesses a murder by a vicious half-Native American criminal known as "Injun Joe". Tom befriends Huck Finn, a boy with no future and no family, is forced to choose between honoring a friendship or honoring an oath, when the town drunk is accused of the murder. One dark stormy night, Injun Joe accepts a job position from Doctor Jonas Robinson. Tom Sawyer is seen running away from home, he and his friends ride down the Mississippi River on a raft, but hit a sharp rock, which throws Tom into the water. His friends find him washed up on the shore, Tom finds it was Huck Finn who carried him to safety.
Huck learns of an unusual way to remove warts - by taking a dead cat to the graveyard at night. There they witness Injun Joe and Muff Potter, the town drunk, digging up the grave of Vic "One-Eyed" Murrell for Doctor Robinson. A treasure map is discovered and when Doc tries to betray the two men, Injun Joe murders him with Muff's knife; the next morning, Muff is charged for the murder. Tom and Huck had signed an oath saying that if either of them came forward about it, they would drop dead and rot; the boys embark on a search for Injun Joe's treasure map, so they can declare Muff innocent and still keep their oath. The only problem is. After Injun Joe finds the last treasure, he burns the map, leaving no evidence to claim Muff innocent. Joe discovers that Tom was a witness to the crime, he finds Tom and threatens he will kill him if he tells anyone about the murder. However, at the time, the entire community believed that he was dead, the friendship between Tom and Huck starts to decline because of the fact that their only evidence to prove Muff innocent, while preserving their oath, is destroyed.
At Muff Potter's trial, Tom decides that his friendship with Muff is more important than his oath with Huck and tells the truth. The court goes after Injun Joe; as a result, Injun Joe decides to hold up his end of the bargain by killing Tom. When Injun Joe returns to the tavern, he kills his accomplice Emmett for cheating him. Huck becomes angry with Tom for breaking their oath and leaves town. During a festival the next day, a group of children, including Tom and his love interest Becky Thatcher, enter the caves, where Tom and Becky become lost, they stumble upon Injun Joe in McDougal's Cave. He traps them; when they find the treasure, Tom tells Becky to go bring him back. Just Injun Joe finds Tom, again tries to kill him, but Huck returns to help save Tom, battles Injun Joe. But Injun Joe overpowers Huck. Injun Joe tries to get the chest from Tom, only to fall into the chasm to his death; the boys reconcile, are declared heroes by the people. Tom is praised on the front page of the newspaper, Widow Douglas decides to adopt Huck Finn.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas as Thomas "Tom" Sawyer Brad Renfro as Huckleberry "Huck" Finn Eric Schweig as Injun Joe Charles Rocket as Judge Thatcher Amy Wright as Aunt Polly Mike McShane as Muff Potter Marian Seldes as Widow Douglas Rachael Leigh Cook as Rebecca "Becky" Thatcher Courtland Mead as Cousin Sid Joey Stinson as Joseph "Joe" Harper Blake Heron as Benjamin "Ben" Rodgers Lanny Flaherty as Emmett: Injun Joe's accomplice. Peter MacKenzie as Mr. Sneed Heath Lamberts as Mr. Dobbins William Newman as Doctor Jonas Robinson Andy Stahl as Sheriff Bronwen Murray as Cousin Mary The film debuted at No. 9. In its second week it rose to No. 8. The U. S. and Canada box office for Tom and Huck was $23,920,048. The film received mixed to negative reviews, with a'rotten' 25% on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes; the Adventures of Huck Finn - Disney's previous Twain adaptation worked on by Sommers, starring Elijah Wood, Courtney B. Vance and Jason Robards. Official website Tom and Huck on IMDb Tom and Huck at Rotten Tomatoes Tom and Huck at Box Office Mojo Tom and Huck at AllMovie
