1.
Richard Rush (director)
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Richard Rush is an American movie director, scriptwriter, and producer. He is best known for the Oscar-nominated The Stunt Man and his other works, however, have been less celebrated. The next best-known of his movies is Color of Night — also nominated, Rush also directed Freebie and the Bean, an over-the-top police buddy comedy/drama starring Alan Arkin and James Caan. He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1990 movie Air America, Rush spent his childhood fascinated by Marcel Proust and Batman comics. Too Soon to Love is considered the first product of the American New Wave and it also marked the second film appearance of Jack Nicholson. Rush directed three films for AIP in the late 1960s exploring counter-cultures of the period and also introducing racking focus, Rushs first studio effort was 1970s Getting Straight, starring Elliott Gould and Candice Bergen. The film did well commercially and was deemed by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman to be the best American film of the decade, Rushs next movie, in 1974, was Freebie and the Bean. For the most part, Freebie was critically panned, in 1981, Truffaut was asked Who is your favorite American director. He answered, I don’t know his name, but I saw his film last night, the film also features Rushs typical protagonist, an emotionally traumatized male who has escaped the traditional frameworks of society only to find his new world corrupted by the same influences. The Stunt Man won Rush Oscar nominations for best director and best script, when Air America showed signs of trouble during development, Rush was given $4 million to walk away from the project. This allowed the studio to cast Mel Gibson and Robert Downey, afterward, Rush retreated from the world of commercial cinema. As Kenneth Turan of The Los Angeles Times wrote, Rush’s career seems to be followed by the kind of luck that never seems to afflict the untalented. His most recent project is a DVD documentary on the making of The Stunt Man entitled The Sinister Saga of Making The Stunt Man and he currently resides in Bel Air with his wife Claudia. He has a brother, Dr. Stephen Rush who also resides in Los Angeles. Richard Rush at the Internet Movie Database Richard Rush at the TCM Movie Database
2.
United States Ambassador to France
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The United States Ambassador to France is the official representative of the President of the United States to the head of state of France. There has been a U. S. Ambassador to France since the American Revolution, the United States sent its first envoys to France in 1776, towards the end of the four-centuries-old Bourbon dynasty. The American diplomatic relationship with France has continued throughout that countrys five republican regimes, two periods of French empire, the Bourbon Restoration, and its July Monarchy. Livingston,1801 –1804 John Armstrong,1804 –1810 Joel Barlow,1811 –1812 William H. Crawford,1813 –1815 Albert Gallatin July 16,1816 – May 16,1823 James Brown,1824 –1829 William C. Mason,1853 –1859 William L. Dayton,1861 –1864 John Bigelow,1864 –1866 John Adams Dix,1866 –1869 Elihu B, Ambassador to France from the Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives
3.
James K. Polk
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James Knox Polk was the 11th President of the United States. Polk was born in Pineville, North Carolina, and moved to Tennessee to study law, after building a successful law practice, he was elected to the Tennessee legislature and then to the United States House of Representatives in 1825. He left Congress to serve as Governor of Tennessee from 1839 to 1841, after losing re-election as governor in 1840, and losing in another gubernatorial election in 1842, Polk was a dark horse candidate for president in 1844. Though he entered the convention hoping to be nominated for vice president, in the general election, he defeated Henry Clay of the rival Whig Party in large part due to his promise to annex the Republic of Texas. True to his pledge to serve only one term as President, Polk left office in March 1849. He died of cholera three months later, scholars have ranked him favorably on lists of greatest presidents for his ability to promote, obtain support for, and achieve all of the major items on his presidential agenda. However, he has also criticized for leading the country into war against Mexico. Polk has been called the least known consequential president, James Knox Polk, the first of ten children, was born on November 2,1795 in a log house in what is now Pineville, North Carolina in Mecklenburg County, just outside Charlotte. His father, Samuel Polk, was a slaveholder, successful farmer and his mother, Jane Polk, was a descendant of a brother of the Scottish religious reformer John Knox. She named her firstborn after her father James Knox, like many early Scots-Irish settlers in the North Carolina mountains, the Knox and Polk families were Presbyterian. While Polks mother Jane remained a devout Presbyterian her entire life, when the parents took the young James to a Presbyterian church to be baptized, the father Samuel refused to declare his belief in Christianity, and the minister refused to baptize the child. In 1803, most of Polks relatives moved to the Duck River area in what is now Maury County, Middle Tennessee, the family grew prosperous, with Samuel Polk turning to land speculation and becoming a county judge. His health was problematic and in 1812 his pain became so unbearable that he was taken to Dr. Ephraim McDowell of Danville, Kentucky, Polk was awake during the operation with nothing but brandy available for anesthetic, but it was successful. The surgery may have left Polk sterile, as he did not sire any children, when Polk recovered, his father offered to bring him into the mercantile business, but Polk refused. In July 1813, Polk enrolled at the Zion Church near his home, a year later he attended an academy in Murfreesboro, where he may have met his future wife, Sarah Childress. At Murfreesboro, Polk proved a promising student, in January 1816, Polk was admitted into the University of North Carolina as a second-semester sophomore. The Polk family had connections with the university, then a school of about 80 students, Sam Polk was their land agent for Tennessee. While there, Polk joined the Dialectic Society where he took part in debates
4.
Zachary Taylor
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Zachary Taylor was the 12th President of the United States, serving from March 1849 until his death in July 1850. Before his presidency, Taylor was an officer in the United States Army. Taylors status as a hero as a result of his victories in the Mexican-American War won him election to the White House despite his vague political beliefs. His top priority as president was preserving the Union, but he died 16 months into his term, before making any progress on the status of slavery and he remains the only President to come from Louisiana. Taylor was born into a prominent family of planters who migrated westward from Virginia to Kentucky in his youth and he was commissioned as an officer in the U. S. Army in 1808 and made a name for himself as a captain in the War of 1812. He climbed the ranks establishing military forts along the Mississippi River and his success in the Second Seminole War attracted national attention and earned him the nickname Old Rough and Ready. The Mexican–American War broke out in April 1846, in May, Taylor defeated Mexican troops commanded by General Mariano Arista at the Battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, and managed to drive his troops out of Texas. Taylor subsequently led his troops into Mexico, where once again defeated Mexican troops commanded by Pedro de Ampudia at the Battle of Monterrey in September. Defying orders, Taylor moved his troops further south, despite being severely outnumbered, he dealt a crushing blow to Mexican forces under Antonio López de Santa Anna in February 1847 at the Battle of Buena Vista. After this, most of Taylors troops were transferred to the command of Major General Winfield Scott, the Whig Party convinced the reluctant Taylor to lead their ticket in the 1848 presidential election, despite his unclear political beliefs and lack of interest in politics. At the 1848 Whig National Convention, Taylor defeated Scott and former Senator Henry Clay to take the nomination, as president, Taylor kept his distance from Congress and his cabinet, even as partisan tensions threatened to divide the Union. Debate over the status of slavery in the Mexican Cession dominated the political agenda, despite being a Southerner and a slaveholder himself, Taylor did not push for the expansion of slavery, and he sought sectional harmony above all other concerns. To avoid the issue of slavery, he urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, Taylor died suddenly of a stomach-related illness in July 1850, with his administration having accomplished little aside from the ratification of the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty. Fillmore served the remainder of Taylors term, Zachary Taylor was born on November 24,1784, on a plantation in Orange County, Virginia, to a prominent family of planters of English ancestry. He is inconclusively believed to have born at the home of his maternal grandfather. He was the third of five surviving sons in his family and had three younger sisters and his mother was Sarah Dabney Taylor. His father, Richard Taylor, had served as a lieutenant colonel in the American Revolution, Taylors second cousin through that line was James Madison, the fourth president. Leaving exhausted lands, his family joined the migration out of Virginia and settled near what developed as Louisville, Kentucky
5.
William R. King
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William Rufus DeVane King was an American politician and diplomat. He was the 13th Vice President of the United States for six weeks in 1853 before his death, earlier he had been elected as a U. S. Representative from North Carolina and a Senator from Alabama and he also served as Minister to France during the reign of King Louis Philippe I. A Democrat, he was a Unionist and his contemporaries considered him to be a moderate on the issues of sectionalism, slavery and westward expansion and he helped draft the Compromise of 1850. He is the only United States executive official to take the oath of office on foreign soil, inaugurated in Havana, King died of tuberculosis after 45 days in office. With the exceptions of John Tyler and Andrew Johnson—both of whom succeeded to the Presidency—he is the shortest-serving Vice President, King was the only Vice President from the State of Alabama and held the highest political office of any Alabamian in American history. He was the third Vice President to die in office, King was born in Sampson County, North Carolina, to William King and Margaret deVane. His family was large, wealthy and well-connected and he graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1803, where he was also a member of the Philanthropic Society. Admitted to the bar in 1806 after reading the law with Judge William Duffy of Fayetteville, North Carolina, King was an ardent Freemason, and was a member of Fayettevilles Phoenix Lodge No.8. King entered politics and was elected as a member of the North Carolina House of Commons, where he served from 1807 to 1809 and he developed a large cotton plantation based on slave labor, calling the property Chestnut Hill. King and his relatives formed one of the largest slaveholding families in the state, William Rufus King was a delegate to the convention which organized the Alabama state government. Upon the admission of Alabama as the twenty-second State in 1819 he was elected by the State Legislature as a Democratic-Republican to the United States Senate. King was reelected as a Jacksonian in 1822,1828,1834, and 1841, serving from December 14,1819, until April 15,1844, when he resigned. During this time, in March–April 1824, William R. King was honored with a vote at the Democratic-Republican Party Caucus to be the partys candidate for the Office of U. S. Vice President for the upcoming 1824 Presidential election, later he served as President pro tempore of the United States Senate during the 24th through 27th Congresses. King was Chairman of the Senates Committee on Public Lands and the Committee on Commerce and he was appointed as Minister to France, and served from 1844 to 1846. After his return, King resumed serving in the Senate, appointed and he held his seat from July 1,1848 until resigning because of ill health on December 20,1852, after having been elected Vice President. King supported a conservative, pro-slavery position, arguing that the Constitution protected the institution of slavery in both the Southern states and the federal territories and he opposed both the abolitionists efforts to abolish slavery in the territories as well as the Fire-Eaters calls for Southern secession
6.
William Cabell Rives
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William Cabell Rives was an American lawyer, politician and diplomat from Albemarle County, Virginia. He represented Virginia as a Jackson Democrat in both the U. S. House and Senate and also served as the U. S. minister to France. During the American Civil War, Rives served as a Delegate to the Provisional Confederate Congress, Rives was born at Union Hill, the estate of his grandfather, Col. William Cabell, in Amherst County, Virginia. It was located on the James River in what is now Nelson County and his parents were Robert and Margaret Cabell Rives, and his brothers included Alexander Rives. He was a great-uncle of Alexander Brown, author of books on the history of Virginia. After private tutoring, Rives attended Hampden-Sydney College, followed by the College of William and he left Williamsburg to study law with Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, and in 1814 was admitted to the bar at Richmond. Rives began his law practice in Nelson County, but after marrying Judith Page Walker in 1819, he moved to her estate Castle Hill and this was his home for the remainder of his life. Rives political career began by serving in the constitutional convention of 1816. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1817–19 for Nelson County, in 1823 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives and served from 1823 to 1829. In 1829 he was appointed by Andrew Jackson as minister to France serving for 3 years, on his return from France, Rives was elected to the United States Senate. He would serve three terms, the last as a member of the Whig Party, from 1849 to 1853, he was again minister to France. In 1860, he endorsed the call for a Constitutional Union Party Convention, Rives was a delegate to the February 1861 Peace Conference in Washington which sought to prevent the American Civil War. He spoke out against secession, but was loyal to Virginia when she did secede and he served in the Provisional Confederate Congress from 1861 to 1862, and the Second Confederate Congress from 1864 to 1865. Rives wrote several books, the most important being his Life and he served on the Board of Visitors for the University of Virginia from 1834 to 1849, and was for many years the president of the Virginia Historical Society. He died at Castle Hill in 1868 and was buried in the family cemetery and his son, Alfred Landon Rives, was a prominent engineer, and his granddaughter Amélie Rives was a novelist, best known for The Quick or the Dead. His second son William Cabell Rives, Jr. owned Cobham Park Estate and it was listed the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. His son, also William Cabell Rives donated the Peace Cross, Rives is the namesake of the town of Rivesville, West Virginia. William Cabell Rives, A Country to Serve by Barclay Rives, new York, Atelerix Press,2014 William Cabell Rives, A Country to Serve by Barclay Rives
7.
United States Secretary of the Treasury
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This position in the Federal Government of the United States is analogous to the Minister of Finance in many other countries. The Secretary of the Treasury is a member of the Presidents Cabinet, nominees for The Secretary of the Treasury undergo a confirmation hearing before the United States Senate Committee on Finance before being confirmed by the United States Senate. The Secretary of the Treasury is a member of the U. S. National Security Council. The Secretary along with the Treasurer must sign Federal Reserve notes before they can become legal tender, the Secretary also manages the United States Emergency Economic Stabilization fund. Most of the Departments law enforcement agencies such as the U. S. Customs Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, secret Service were reassigned to other Departments in 2003 in conjunction with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. The Secretary of the Treasury salary is $205,700 annually,2 Deputy Secretary of the Treasury M. Peter McPherson served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury from August 17,1988, to September 15,1988. 4 Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Kenneth W. Dam served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury from December 31,2002,5 Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Robert M. Kimmitt served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury from June 30,2006, to July 9,2006. 7 Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Neal Wolin served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury from January 25,2013, as of April 2017, there are eleven living former Secretaries of the Treasury, the oldest being George P. Shultz. The most recent Secretary of the Treasury to die was Lloyd M. Bentsen, United States Department of the Treasury
8.
John Quincy Adams
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John Quincy Adams was an American statesman who served as a diplomat, United States Senator, member of the House of Representatives, and was the sixth President of the United States from 1825 to 1829. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican and he was the son of President John Adams and Abigail Adams and thus contributed to the formation of the Adams political family. Adams shaped U. S. foreign policy using his ardently nationalist commitment to U. S. republican values, as a diplomat, Adams played an important role in negotiating key treaties, most notably the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812. As Secretary of State, he negotiated with Britain over the United States northern border with Canada, negotiated with Spain the annexation of Florida, historians generally concur that he was one of the greatest diplomats and secretaries of state in American history. Adams was elected president in a close and controversial four-way contest in 1824, as president he sought to modernize the American economy and promote education. Adams enacted a part of his agenda and paid off much of the national debt, however he was stymied time and again by a Congress controlled by opponents, and his lack of patronage networks helped politicians sabotage him. He lost his 1828 bid for re-election to Andrew Jackson, after leaving office, he was elected as U. S. Representative from Massachusetts in 1830, serving for the last 17 years of his life with greater acclaim than he had achieved as president, animated by his growing revulsion against slavery, Adams became a leading opponent of the Slave Power. Adams predicted the Unions dissolution over slavery, and in such a case, historians have in the aggregate ranked Adams as the 21st most successful president. John Quincy Adams was born on July 11,1767, to John Adams and he was named for his mothers maternal grandfather, Colonel John Quincy, after whom Quincy, Massachusetts, is named. Young Adams was educated by private tutors – his cousin James Thaxter and his fathers law clerk and he soon began to exhibit his literary skills in 1779, when he initiated a diary which he kept until just before he died in 1848. The diary comprised an unprecedented fifty volumes, representing one of the most extensive, much of Adams youth was spent accompanying his father overseas. He accompanied his father on diplomatic missions to France from 1778 until 1779, Adams acquired an education at institutions such as Leiden University. He matriculated in Leiden on January 10,1781, for nearly three years, beginning at the age of 14, he accompanied Francis Dana as a secretary on a mission to Saint Petersburg, Russia, to obtain recognition of the new United States. He spent time in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark and, in 1804, during these years overseas, Adams became fluent in French and Dutch and became familiar with German and other European languages. Though Adams enjoyed Europe, he and his family decided he needed to return to the United States to complete his education and he entered Harvard College, graduated in 1787 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and was elected by Phi Beta Kappa. Adams, mainly with the influence of his father, had excelled in studies and reached fluency in Latin. Upon entering Harvard he had already translated Virgil, Horace, Plutarch, after graduating from Harvard, he studied law with Theophilus Parsons in Newburyport, Massachusetts from 1787 to 1789
9.
William H. Crawford
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William Harris Crawford was an American politician and judge during the early 19th century. He served as United States Secretary of War from 1815 to 1816 and United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1816 to 1825 and he moved with his family to Edgefield County, South Carolina in 1779, and to Columbia County, Georgia in 1783. Crawford was educated at schools in Georgia and at Richmond Academy in Augusta. After his fathers death, Crawford became the main financial provider. He later studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1799, also in 1799, Crawford was appointed by the state legislature to prepare a digest of Georgias statutes. William H. Crawford influenced Georgia politics for decades, in 1803, Crawford was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, and he served until 1807. He allied himself with senator James Jackson and their enemies were the Clarkites, led by John Clark. In 1802, he shot and killed Peter Lawrence Van Alen, four years later on December 16,1806, Crawford faced Clark himself in a duel, resulting in Crawfords left wrist being shattered by a shot from Clark, but he eventually recovered. In 1807, Crawford joined the 10th United States Congress mid-term as the junior U. S, senator from Georgia when the Georgia legislature elected him to replace George Jones, an appointee who had held the office for a few months after the death of Abraham Baldwin. Crawford was elected President pro tempore in 1811, when Vice President George Clinton died on April 20,1812, Crawford, as President pro tempore, became the first Acting Vice President until March 4,1813. In 1811, Crawford declined to serve as Secretary of War in the Madison administration, in the Senate, he voted for several acts leading up to the War of 1812, and he supported the United States entry into the war, but was ready for peace. Crawford said, Let it then be the wisdom of this nation to remain at peace, upon Crawfords return, Madison appointed him as Secretary of War. After slightly more than a year of service in that post. He remained in position through the rest of Madisons term and Monroes entire administration. Crawford was again a candidate for the Democratic-Republican presidential nomination in 1824. However, Crawford was put out of the running because of a stroke he suffered in 1823 that was brought on by a prescription given to him by his physician. The Democratic-Republican Party split around this time and one of the splinter groups nominated Crawford, despite Crawfords improved health, he finished third in the electoral vote, behind New Orleans war hero Andrew Jackson and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams. Refusing Adamss request that he remain at the Treasury, Crawford then returned to Georgia, Crawford remained an active judge until his death a decade later
10.
Samuel D. Ingham
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Samuel Delucenna Ingham was a U. S. Congressman and U. S. Treasury Secretary under President Andrew Jackson, Ingham was born at near New Hope, Pennsylvania. His parents were Dr. Jonathan Ingham, a physician from Philadelphia, and his wife. After a pursuit of studies, he was an apprentice to a paper maker along Pennypack Creek not far from Philadelphia. After completing his apprenticeship, Ingham became the manager of a mill at Bloomfield. It was while here he met Rebecca Dodd, whom he married in 1800, also in 1800 Ingham returned to Pennsylvania and established a paper mill on his mothers farm that would be his main source of employment in the coming years. He was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1806 to 1808, after his service in the legislature Ingham was appointed Justice of the Peace by the Governor of Pennsylvania. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1813 until July 6,1818 and he easily trounced his Federalist opponents in the first two elections and had no opposition at all in 1816. He resigned from Congress in 1818 due to his wifes ill health and he was appointed the Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County, Pennsylvania after leaving Congress. In 1819 Rebecca Dodd Ingham died, Ingham served as Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from 1819 to 1820. In 1822 Ingham married Deborah Hall of Salem, New Jersey and they would become the parents of three children. Also in 1822 Ingham was elected to Congress where he would serve until 1829, during the 13th Congress he was chair of the United States House Committee on Pensions and Revolutionary War Claims. Ingham served as the ninth Secretary of the U. S. Treasury from March 6,1829, Jackson thought that there should be no paper currency in circulation, but only coins, and that the U. S. Constitution was designed to expel paper currency as part of the monetary system, Ingham believed in the Second Bank, and labored to resolve conflicts between Jackson, who wanted it destroyed, and the Banks president, Nicholas Biddle. Eaton by a group of Cabinet members and their wives led by Floride Calhoun, Calhoun, in what became known as the Petticoat affair. He was involved with the organization of the Beaver Meadow Railroad Company and he was also connected with the organization of the Hazleton Coal Company. He also worked to promote canals such at the Lehigh Navigation and he moved to Trenton, New Jersey, in 1849, where he worked with that citys Mechanics Bank. Ingham died in Trenton, New Jersey, and is interred in the Solebury Presbyterian Churchyard, Solebury, Ingham County, Michigan, one of several Cabinet counties named for members of Jacksons administration, is named in Inghams honor
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