Governor of New Hampshire
The Governor of New Hampshire is the head of the executive branch of New Hampshire's state government. The governor is elected at the biennial state general election in November of even-numbered years. New Hampshire is one of only two states, along with bordering Vermont, to hold gubernatorial elections every two years as opposed to every four; the state's 82nd governor is Republican Chris Sununu, who has served since January 5, 2017. In New Hampshire, the governor has no term limit of any kind. No governor has served more than three terms since the 18th century with the exception of John Lynch, who won an unprecedented fourth two-year term on November 2, 2010. John Taylor Gilman had been the last governor before Lynch to serve longer than six years, serving 14 one-year terms as governor between 1794 and 1816. Unlike in many other states in which Executive Councils are advisory, the Executive Council of New Hampshire has a strong check on the governor's power; the five-member council has a veto over many actions of the governor.
Together, the Governor and Executive Council approve contracts with a value of $5,000 or more, approve pardons, appoint the directors and commissioners, the Attorney General and officers in the National Guard. The governor has the sole power to veto bills and to command the National Guard while it is not in federal service. To be qualified to be governor, one must be 30 years of age, a registered voter, domiciled in New Hampshire for at least seven years. Traditionally, the governors of the Province of New Hampshire had been titled as "President of New Hampshire", beginning with the appointment of the province's first president, John Cutt, in 1679. From 1786 to 1791, "President of the State of New Hampshire" was the official style of the position; the New Hampshire Constitution was amended in 1791 to replace "President" with "Governor". OfficialOfficial websiteGeneral informationGovernor of New Hampshire at Ballotpedia Governors of New Hampshire at The Political Graveyard Works by or about Office of the Governor of New Hampshire in libraries
United States
The United States of America known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U. S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D. C. and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico; the State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean; the U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The diverse geography and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century; the United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776; the war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties; the United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848. During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery.
By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a global military power; the United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Sweeping civil rights legislation, notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, outlawed discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U. S. Moon landing; the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world's sole superpower. The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation, it is a representative democracy.
The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, other international organizations. The United States is a developed country, with the world's largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for a quarter of global GDP; the U. S. economy is post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world's largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U. S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country. Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, worker productivity.
The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, is a leading political and scientific force internationally. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America in honor of the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci; the first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" is from a letter dated January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, Esq. to George Washington's aide-de-camp and Muster-Master General of the Continental Army, Lt. Col. Joseph Reed. Moylan expressed his wish to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the revolutionary war effort; the first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1776. The second draft of the Articles of Confederation, prepared by John Dickinson and completed by June 17, 1776, at the latest, declared "The name of this Confederation shall be the'United States of America'".
The final version of the Articles sent to the states for ratification in late 1777 contains the sentence "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be'The United States of America'". In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence; this draft of the document did not surface unti
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they compose the legislature of the United States; the composition of the House is established by Article One of the United States Constitution. The House is composed of Representatives who sit in congressional districts that are allocated to each of the 50 states on a basis of population as measured by the U. S. Census, with each district entitled to one representative. Since its inception in 1789, all Representatives have been directly elected; the total number of voting representatives is fixed by law at 435. As of the 2010 Census, the largest delegation is that of California, with fifty-three representatives. Seven states have only one representative: Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming; the House is charged with the passage of federal legislation, known as bills, after concurrence by the Senate, are sent to the President for consideration.
In addition to this basic power, the House has certain exclusive powers, among them the power to initiate all bills related to revenue. The House meets in the south wing of the United States Capitol; the presiding officer is the Speaker of the House, elected by the members thereof. The Speaker and other floor leaders are chosen by the Democratic Caucus or the Republican Conference, depending on whichever party has more voting members. Under the Articles of Confederation, the Congress of the Confederation was a unicameral body in which each state was represented, in which each state had a veto over most action. After eight years of a more limited confederal government under the Articles, numerous political leaders such as James Madison and Alexander Hamilton initiated the Constitutional Convention in 1787, which received the Confederation Congress's sanction to "amend the Articles of Confederation". 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.
Edmund Randolph's Virginia Plan called for a bicameral Congress: the lower house would be "of the people", elected directly by the people of the United States and representing public opinion, a more deliberative upper house, elected by the lower house, that would represent the individual states, would be less susceptible to variations of mass sentiment. The House is referred to as the lower house, with the Senate being the upper house, although the United States Constitution does not use that terminology. Both houses' approval is necessary for the passage of legislation; the Virginia Plan drew the support of delegates from large states such as Virginia and Pennsylvania, as it called for representation based on population. The smaller states, favored the New Jersey Plan, which called for a unicameral Congress with equal representation for the states; the Convention reached the Connecticut Compromise or Great Compromise, under which one house of Congress would provide representation proportional to each state's population, whereas the other would provide equal representation amongst the states.
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 1789, when it achieved a quorum for the first time. During the first half of the 19th century, the House was in conflict with the Senate over regionally divisive issues, including slavery; the North was much more populous than the South, 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 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, which began soon after several southern states attempted to secede from the Union; the war culminated in the abolition of slavery. All southern senators except Andrew Johnson resigned their seats at the beginning of the war, therefore the Senate did not hold the balance of power between North and South during the war.
The years of Reconstruction that followed witnessed large majorities for the Republican Party, which many Americans associated with the Union's victory in the Civil War and the ending of slavery. The Reconstruction period ended in about 1877; the Democratic Party and Republican Party each held majorities in the House at various times. The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw a dramatic increase in the power of the Speaker of the House; the rise of the Speaker's influence began in the 1890s, during the tenure of Republican Thomas Brackett Reed. "Czar Reed", as he was nicknamed, attempted to put into effect his view that "The best system is to have one party govern and the other party watch." The leadership structure of the House developed during the same period, with the positions of Majority Leader and Minority Leader being created in 1899. While the Minority Leader
New Hampshire's at-large congressional district
The New Hampshire At-large congressional district is obsolete, with representation having since been divided into districts. However, from 1789 to 1847, New Hampshire elected members to the United States House of Representatives at-large: From 1789 to 1793, three members represented the state At-large. From 1793 to 1803, four members represented the state At-large. From 1803 to 1813, five members represented the state At-large. From 1813 to 1833, six members represented the state At-large. From 1833 to 1843, five members represented the state At-large. From 1843 to 1847, four members represented the state At-large. In 1847 at-large representation was replaced by four electoral districts. Martis, Kenneth C.. The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Martis, Kenneth C.. The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present
Province of New Hampshire
The Province of New Hampshire was a colony of England and a British province in North America. The name was first given in 1629 to the territory between the Merrimack and Piscataqua rivers on the eastern coast of North America, was named after the county of Hampshire in southern England by Captain John Mason, its first named proprietor. In 1776 the province established an independent state and government, the State of New Hampshire, joined with twelve other colonies to form the United States. Europeans first settled New Hampshire in the 1620s, the province consisted for many years of a small number of communities along the seacoast, Piscataqua River, Great Bay. In 1641 the communities were organized under the government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, until Charles II issued a colonial charter for the province and appointed John Cutt as President of New Hampshire in 1679. After a brief period as a separate province, the territory was absorbed into the Dominion of New England in 1686. Following the collapse of the unpopular Dominion, on October 7, 1691 New Hampshire was again separated from Massachusetts and organized as an English crown colony.
Its charter was enacted on May 14, 1692, during the coregency of William and Mary, the joint monarchs of England and Ireland. Between 1699 and 1741, the province's governor was concurrently the governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay; this practice ended in 1741, when Benning Wentworth was appointed governor. Wentworth laid claim on behalf of the province to lands west of the Connecticut River, east of the Hudson River, north of Massachusetts, issuing controversial land grants that were disputed by the Province of New York, which claimed the territory; these disputes resulted in the eventual formation of the Vermont Republic and the US state of Vermont. The province's economy was dominated by fishing; the timber trade, although lucrative, was a subject of conflict with the crown, which sought to reserve the best trees for use as ship masts. Although the Puritan leaders of Massachusetts ruled the province for many years, the New Hampshire population was more religiously diverse, originating in part in its early years with refugees from opposition to religious differences in Massachusetts.
From the 1680s until 1760, New Hampshire was on the front lines of military conflicts with New France and the Abenaki people, seeing major attacks on its communities in King William's War, Dummer's War, King George's War. The province was at first not in favor of independence, but with the outbreak of armed conflict at Lexington and Concord many of its inhabitants joined the revolutionary cause. After Governor John Wentworth fled New Hampshire in August 1775, the inhabitants adopted a constitution in early 1776. Independence as part of the United States was confirmed with the 1783 Treaty of Paris. Prior to English colonization, the area, now northeastern New England was populated by bands of the Abenaki, who lived in sometimes-large villages of longhouses. Depending on the season, they would either remain near their villages to fish, gather plants, engage in sugaring, trade or fight with their neighbors, or head to nearby fowling and hunting grounds; the seacoast was explored in the early years of the 17th century by English and French explorers, including Samuel de Champlain and John Smith.
Permanent English settlement began after land grants were issued in 1622 to John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges for the territory between the Merrimack and Sagadahoc rivers encompassing present-day New Hampshire and western Maine. Settlers, whose early leaders included David Thomson, Edward Hilton and his brother William Hilton, began settling the New Hampshire coast as early as 1623, expanded along the shores of the Piscataqua River and the Great Bay; these settlers were intending to profit from the local fisheries. Mason and Gorges, neither of whom came to New England, divided their claims along the Piscataqua River in 1629. Mason took the territory between the Piscataqua and Merrimack, called it "New Hampshire", after the English county of Hampshire. Conflicts between holders of grants issued by Mason and Gorges concerning their boundaries led to a need for more active management. In 1630, Captain Walter Neale was sent as chief agent and governor of the lower settlements on the Piscataqua, in 1631 Captain Thomas Wiggin was sent to govern the upper settlements, comprising modern-day Dover and Stratham.
After Mason died in 1635, the colonists and employees of Mason appropriated many of his holdings to themselves. Exeter was founded in 1638 by John Wheelwright, after he had been banished from the neighboring Massachusetts Bay Colony for defending the teachings of Anne Hutchinson, his sister-in-law. In the absence of granting authority from anyone associated with the Masons, Wheelwright's party purchased the land from local Indians, his party included William Wentworth, whose descendants came to play a major role in colonial history. Around the same time, others unhappy with the strict Puritan rule in Massachusetts settled in Dover, while Puritans from Massachusetts settled what became Hampton; because of a general lack of government, the New Hampshire settlements sought the protection of their larger neighbor to the south, the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1641, they collectively agreed to be governed from Massachusetts, provided the towns retained self-rule, that Congregational Church membership was not required for their voters.
The settlements formed part of that colony until 1679, sending representat
Levi Woodbury
Levi Woodbury was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, a U. S. Senator, the 9th Governor of New Hampshire, cabinet member in three administrations. Born in Francestown, New Hampshire, he established a legal practice in Francestown in 1812. After serving in the New Hampshire Senate, he was appointed to the New Hampshire Supreme Court in 1817, he served as Governor of New Hampshire from 1823 to 1824 and represented New Hampshire in the Senate from 1825 to 1831, becoming affiliated with the Democratic Party of Andrew Jackson. He served as the United States Secretary of the Navy under President Jackson and as the United States Secretary of the Treasury under Jackson and President Martin Van Buren, he served another term representing New Hampshire in the Senate from 1841 to 1845, when he accepted President James K. Polk's appointment to the Supreme Court. Woodbury was the first Justice to have attended law school, he received significant support for the presidential nomination at the 1848 Democratic National Convention among New England delegates, but the nomination went to Lewis Cass of Michigan.
Woodbury served on the court until his death in 1851. Woodbury was born in the son of Mary and Peter Woodbury, he began his education at Atkinson Academy. He graduated from Dartmouth College, Phi Beta Kappa, in 1809 attended Tapping Reeve Law School in Litchfield and read law to be admitted to the New Hampshire Bar in 1812, he became the first Supreme Court justice to attend law school. He was in private practice in Francestown from 1812 to 1816, he joined the Freemasons. His education contributed to his early start in law, which led to his political positions, he began practicing law in his hometown. During his time in Francestown, he wrote the Hillsborough Resolves to defend the Madison administration for their decisions in the War of 1812, which marked the beginning of his political involvement. Following the publication of his defense, he gained the recognition he needed to receive an appointment to the state senate in 1816. In quick succession, he was appointed to the state supreme court a year and in 1823, he was elected as the Governor of New Hampshire.
During the time of his gubernatorial election, there was factionalism within the party. The caucus chose Samuel Dinsmoor as the candidate for governor, but an "irregular" public convention elected Woodbury as the other candidate. Woodbury defeated Dinsmoor by a wide margin, he did not make a lot of progress. He became a U. S. Senator from New Hampshire, during which time he served as the Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. Throughout Woodbury's political career, he was characterized as being independent and moderate, which some scholars interpret as indecisiveness and hesitancy. Woodbury was a clerk of the New Hampshire State Senate from 1816 to 1817, a Justice of New Hampshire Superior Court of Judicature from 1817 to 1823, he was Governor of New Hampshire from 1823 to 1824 and was Speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, 1825. Woodbury served as a United States Senator from New Hampshire from 1825 to 1831. Elected to serve in New Hampshire State Senate in 1831, Woodbury did not take office due to his appointment as United States Secretary of the Navy under President Andrew Jackson, from 1831 to 1834.
At the beginning of this term, he was instrumental in the appointment of fellow New Hampshireman Edmund Roberts as special agent and envoy to the Far East. Woodbury served as Secretary of the Treasury under Jackson and Martin Van Buren from 1834 to 1841, served again as Senator from New Hampshire from 1841 to 1845, he was a Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court, 1845 to 1851; as a U. S. Senator, Woodbury was a dependable Jackson Democrat, President Jackson appointed him Secretary of the Navy and Secretary of the Treasury. Woodbury worked to end the Second Bank of the United States. In retrospect, the financial Panic of 1837 and the collapse of speculative land prices were legacies of Woodbury's tenure. After the Panic, Woodbury realised that the U. S. Treasury needed a more secure administration of its own funds than commercial banks supplied, he backed the act for an "Independent Treasury System" passed by Congress in 1840, it was repealed under the new administration the following year, but the foundation was laid for an independent U.
S. Treasury established in 1846, under President James K. Polk. Woodbury served as chairman of the U. S. Senate Committee on Finance during a Special Session of the 29th Congress, his ten-day chairmanship is the shortest on record. In the 1844 presidential election and the Jackson Democrats supported the Democrats' nomination of Polk. In that year, Woodbury delivered a Phi Beta Kappa Address at his alma mater, Dartmouth College, titled "Progress." The address discussed Thomas Cole's series of The Course of Empire. Woodbury believed that, unlike Cole's depiction of a cycle of rise and decline, in the United States there would only be a rise. On September 20, 1845, Polk gave Woodbury a recess appointment to the seat on the U. S. Supreme Court vacated by Joseph Story. Formally nominated on December 23, 1845, Woodbury was confirmed by the United States Senate on January 3, 1846, received his commission the same day, he was promoted as a candidate for president at the 1848 Democratic National Convention, his support was centered in New England.
He remained on the Cou
