Church of the Brethren
The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination with origins in the Schwarzenau Brethren, organized in 1708 by Alexander Mack in Schwarzenau, Germany, as a melding of the Radical Pietist and Anabaptist movements. The denomination holds the New Testament as its only creed; the church has taken a strong stance for nonresistance or pacifism—it is one of the three historic peace churches, alongside the Mennonites and Quakers. Distinctive practices include believers baptism by trine immersion; the first Brethren congregation was established in the United States in 1723. These church bodies became known as "Dunkards" or "Dunkers", more formally as German Baptist Brethren; the Church of the Brethren represents the largest denomination descending from the Schwarzenau Brethren, adopted this name in 1908. The denomination had 122,810 members as of June 2010 and 1,047 congregations in the United States and Puerto Rico as of August 2010; the history of the Brethren began in 1708 when a group of eight Christians organized themselves under the leadership of Alexander Mack into a church and baptized one another in Schwarzenau, now part of Bad Berleburg in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Five men and three women gathered at the Eder, a small river that flows through Schwarzenau, to perform baptism as an outward symbol of their new faith. One of the members of the group first baptized Mack, who in turn, baptized the other seven, they believed that both the Lutheran and Reformed churches were taking liberties with the "true" Christianity revealed in the New Testament, so they rejected established liturgy, including infant baptism and existing Eucharistic practices. The founding Brethren were broadly influenced by Radical Pietist understandings of an invisible, nondenominational church of awakened Christians who would fellowship together in purity and love, awaiting Christ's return; these eight Christians referred to themselves as the New Baptists. The name alluded to the use of the name Täufer by the Mennonites; the denomination reorganized in America and founded its first American congregation on Christmas Day 1723 in Germantown, Pennsylvania a village outside Philadelphia. They became known as German Baptists.
In 1871, the denomination adopted the name, "The German Baptist Brethren Church". Until the early 20th century, Brethren were colloquially called Dunkers. In 1728, Conrad Beissel, a Brethren minister at Conestoga renounced his association with the Brethren and formed his own group in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, they came to be known as the Ephrata Cloister. Beissel practiced a mystical form of Christianity, he encouraged a vegetarian diet. After the Beissel split, the Brethren split several times because of doctrinal differences; the most conservative members emphasized consistency and the order of the Brethren. They opposed the use of musical instruments, Sunday schools, worldly amusements, they promoted plain dress, simple living, church discipline. The progressives in the church focused on acceptance, they promoted higher education, salaried ministers, Sunday schools, revivalism. The majority of Brethren held a position between the two extremes. In 1869 and 1880, a group of Brethren in the Miami Valley of Ohio submitted a petition to Annual Conference to stop liberalization and return to traditional Brethren values.
On both occasions, a more moderate petition was submitted to the delegates. Both times, the Miami Valley group found the rewording unacceptable. In 1881, they resubmitted their petition to Annual Conference, it was rejected for violating technical procedure. In November 1881, conservative Brethren led by the Miami Valley group met and formally split from the Church of the Brethren to form the Old German Baptist Brethren, they held their first annual meeting in 1882. At the same time, Henry Holsinger, a leader of the progressives in the church, published writings that some Brethren considered slanderous and schismatic; as a result, he was disfellowshipped from the 1882 annual meeting of the Brethren. He met with other progressives on June 6 and 7, 1883, together they formed the Brethren Church; the remaining middle group—called "conservatives"—retained the name German Baptist Brethren. At the Annual Conference of 1908 at Des Moines, the name was changed to the Church of the Brethren; the Annual Conference justified the name change by citing the predominant use of English in the church, the fact that the name "German Baptist" frustrated mission work, that it would disassociate the denomination from the Old German Baptist Brethren.
During the early 20th century, the Church of the Brethren invested in foreign missions in India and other nations. They embraced the American temperance movement, which they had once dismissed as a manifestation of "popular Christianity". Discipline for violating church teachings subsided as the earlier emphasis upon unity of practice gave way during the 1920s and 1930s to an emphasis upon individual moral autonomy. Martin Grove Brumbaugh—a Brethren minister and historian who became Governor of Pennsylvania in 1915—played a leading role in disseminating a more progressive vision of Brethren history, his claim that "no force in religion" had been a Brethren teaching since their founding reinforced his calls to relax church discipline. During
Orange County, California
Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 3,010,232, making it the third-most populous county in California, the sixth-most populous in the United States, more populous than 21 U. S. states. Its county seat is Santa Ana, it is the second most densely populated county behind San Francisco County. The county's four largest cities by population, Santa Ana and Huntington Beach, each have a population exceeding 200,000. Several of Orange County's cities are on the Pacific Ocean western coast, including Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, San Clemente. Orange County is included in Metropolitan Statistical Area. Thirty-four incorporated towns and cities are in the county. Anaheim was the first city, incorporated in 1870 when the region was still part of neighboring Los Angeles County. Whereas most population centers in the United States tend to be identified by a major city with a large downtown central business district, Orange County has no single major downtown / CBD or dominant urban center.
Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Irvine all have smaller high-rise CBDs, other, older cities like Anaheim, Huntington Beach, Orange have traditional American downtowns without high-rises. The county's northern and central portions are urbanized and dense, despite the prevalence of the single-family home as a dominant land use, its southern portion is more suburban, with limited urbanization. There are several "edge city"-style developments, such as Irvine Business Center, Newport Center, South Coast Metro. Orange County is part of the "Tech Coast"; the county is a tourist center, with attractions like Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, several popular beaches along its more than 40 miles of coastline. Throughout the 20th century and up until 2016, it was known for its political conservatism and for being a bastion for the Republican Party, with a 2005 academic study listing three Orange County cities as among America's 25 most conservative. However, the county's changing demographics have resulted in a shift in political alignments.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton became the first Democrat since 1936 to carry Orange County in a presidential election and in the 2018 midterm elections the Democratic Party gained control of every Congressional seat in the county. Members of the Tongva, Juaneño, Luiseño Native American groups long inhabited the area. After the 1769 expedition of Gaspar de Portolà, a Spanish expedition led by Junipero Serra named the area Valle de Santa Ana. On November 1, 1776, Mission San Juan Capistrano became the area's first permanent European settlement. Among those who came with Portolá were José Manuel Nieto and José Antonio Yorba. Both these men were given land grants—Rancho Los Nietos and Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana, respectively; the Nieto heirs were granted land in 1834. The Nieto ranches were known as Rancho Los Alamitos, Rancho Las Bolsas, Rancho Los Coyotes. Yorba heirs Bernardo Yorba and Teodosio Yorba were granted Rancho Cañón de Santa Ana and Rancho Lomas de Santiago, respectively. Other ranchos in Orange County were granted by the Mexican government during the Mexican period in Alta California.
A severe drought in the 1860s devastated the prevailing industry, cattle ranching, much land came into the possession of Richard O'Neill, Sr. James Irvine and other land barons. In 1887, silver was discovered in the Santa Ana Mountains, attracting settlers via the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific Railroads. After several failed attempts in previous sessions, the California legislature passed a bill authorizing the portion of Los Angeles County south of Coyote Creek to hold a referendum on whether to remain part of Los Angeles County or to secede and form a new county to be named “Orange” as directed by the legislature; such referendum required a 2/3 vote for secession to take place, subsequently on June 4th, 1889, the residents south of Coyote Creek voted 2,509 to 500 in favor of secession. After such referendum, Los Angeles County filed three lawsuits in the courts to stall and stop the secession from occurring, but such attempts were futile. On July 17, 1889, a second referendum was held south of the Coyote Creek to determine if the county seat of the to-be county to be in either Anaheim or Santa Ana, along with an election for every county officer.
In the end, Santa Ana defeated Anaheim in such referendum and elected right leaning officers, with some, including one of the primary lobbyists for the creation of the county, Henry W. Head, elected to the Board of Supervisors while being a member of the Ku Klux Klan, with Head’s son, Horace Head, elected as District Attorney of the soon to be county, known to, as stated by the OC Weekly, threaten “...any Mexicans who walked in front of their homes with shotguns when not burning crosses on front lawns,” along with Horace Head supporting and defending his fathers affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan. With the referendum taken place, the County of Orange was incorporated on August 1st, 1889, as prescribed by state law. Since the date of the incorporation of the county, the only geographical changes to have occurred which affected Orange County was when the County and Los Angeles County agreed to trade land around Coyote Creek to adjust the border of the two counties to conform with city blocks.
The county is said to have been named for the
Ross Mathews
Ross Mathews is an American television personality known as an intern and a correspondent for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, where he was known as "Ross the Intern". Mathews has subsequently appeared on Celebrity Fit Club, The Insider, Celebrity Big Brother, as a weekly panelist on Chelsea Lately, he is working on the shows RuPaul's Drag Race and Live from E!, as well as hosting two weekly podcast shows with Westwood One Studios. Mathews graduated in 2002 from the University of La Verne, in La Verne, where he majored in communications and was a speech and debate competitor. Mathews began as an intern behind the scenes on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. From December 2001, he covered movie premieres, the Academy Awards, two Winter Olympic Games and other events. Mathews has contributed commentary to the E! Networks various 101... specials, appeared as a weekly panelist on E's late night talk show Chelsea Lately. He appeared on the fifth season of Celebrity Fit Club. During the course of the show, which premiered in April 2007, Mathews lost more than 40 lbs. and helped his team win the grand prize.
He was a guest host on The View on July 17, 2007. Mathews appeared as a celebrity mob member on seven episodes of NBC's prime time game show 1 vs. 100 in early 2008. In 2009, Mathews was a contributing correspondent on The Insider, hosted a web show with The Insider called Inside Dish With Ross Mathews, where he took his viewers behind the scenes, as an "outsider" in Hollywood. Inside Dish became the official online web-shows for The Amazing Race. In 2009, Mathews co-hosted GSN's Big Saturday Night, a weekly game show, his other 2009 appearances included the 2009 Game Show Awards with Diane. Mathews joined the panel of judges for RuPaul’s drag race with the odd appearance in the earlier seasons and more frequent appearances from season seven onwards. In 2010, Mathews joined the E! Network's red carpet team, filling in for Ryan Seacrest as co-host with Giuliana Rancic for E! Live From the Red Carpet coverage of the 2011 Screen Actors Guild Awards, the 2010 Emmy Awards, the 2011 Golden Globe Awards, the 2011 Academy Awards.
In January 2011, Mathews starred in a pilot that he produced and co-wrote with fellow Chelsea Lately round table regular Heather McDonald. Titled Love or Hate, the pilot was made for the E! Network and was executive produced by Chelsea Handler and her company Borderline Amazing Productions. Mathews appeared in the E! Network's After a show about the behind the scenes of Chelsea Lately. By September 2011, Mathews had formally moved on from The Tonight Show, returning for guest appearances, including for the "Woulda, Shoulda" skit on December 14, 2011. Mathews appeared in the fourth episode of the Bravo series Interior Therapy with Jeff Lewis in 2012, in which Lewis redesigned his and his boyfriend's garage. On May 7, 2013, Mathews released his book Man Up! Tales of My Delusional Self-Confidence. Mathews was the host of Hello Ross, an interactive talk show on E! from September 6, 2013, until May 16, 2014. In 2015, Mathews and Carson Kressley were named as new regular judges for the 7th season of RuPaul's Drag Race.
At the end of 2015, Mathews began filling in as a guest host on Hollywood Today Live, syndicated on Fox. He became a permanent host on January 4, 2016, he starred in the movie Pup Star. The sequel, Pup Star: Better 2Gether, premiered the following year. Mathews guest-starred as himself in an episode of Mike Tyson Mysteries titled "Unsolved Situations" in 2016. In 2017, he was the commentator of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 together with Michelle Visage live for Logo TV, he commented alongside Shangela on the Logo TV broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 final as well. In 2018, he was announced as one of the eleven houseguests competing on the first American edition of Celebrity Big Brother, he finished in 2nd place, winning $50,000, was voted as America's Favorite Houseguest earning an additional prize of $25,000. Mathews appeared in the second season as part of a Head of Household competition. Mathews is gay. From 2008 to 2018, he had a relationship with stylist Salvador Camarena. In 2013, the couple appeared in an episode of House Hunters while shopping for a home in Palm Springs.
Mathews, Ross. Man Up!: Tales of My Delusional Self-Confidence. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 978-1455501809. Official website Ross Mathews on IMDb Inside Dish w/ Ross Mathews
Point Mugu, California
Point Mugu, California is a cape or promontory within Point Mugu State Park on the Pacific Coast in Ventura County, near the city of Port Hueneme and the city of Oxnard. The park has more than 70 miles of hiking trails; the name is believed to be derived from the Chumash Indian term "Muwu", meaning "beach", first mentioned by Cabrillo in his journals in 1542. It is a name applied to the nearby NAS Point Mugu, a test range facility known by various names over the years, including Pacific Missile Test Center and Naval Air Missile Test Center; the ZIP Code is 93042, the area is located in area code 805. The name derives from Muwu, the name of a Chumash village at Point Mugu during pre-colonial times; the village of Muwu had the highest population of any coastal Chumash settlements along the Santa Monica Mountains. Muwu was a ceremonial center and the ancient capital of Lulapin, a major political unit of Chumash territory which stretched from modern day Los Angeles County to Santa Barbara in the north.
The territory stretched for 60 miles along the coast, at least half as far inland. Mission records indicate that more individuals were baptized in Muwu, more than any other Chumash village by the Santa Monica Mountains; the last chief of Muwu, Mariano Wataitset, son of Halashu, was baptized at Mission San Buenaventura in 1802. Mugu Rock is a distinctive feature of the coastal headland promontory, featured in many film shoots and television commercials; this igneous dike marks the western end of the Santa Monica Mountains, the old Rancho Guadalasca boundary. The rock was formed when the roadway was cut through the near-vertical ridge of resistant volcanic rock in 1937. A route had been blasted out around the promontory in 1923–24 to complete Pacific Coast Highway between Malibu and the Oxnard Plain; this replaced a dangerous narrow path around the rock and much of that roadway has since eroded away. The site is a popular but dangerous place for fishing, cliff diving, rock climbing up the sheer sides of the rock.
On Thanksgiving Day 2008, three young men from Oxnard were swept to sea and killed by a rogue wave while surf watching from Mugu Rock. Directly east of Mugu Rock is Point Mugu State Beach Campsite
Christian pacifism
Christian pacifism is the theological and ethical position that any form of violence is incompatible with the Christian faith. Christian pacifists state that Jesus himself was a pacifist who taught and practiced pacifism and that his followers must do likewise. Notable Christian pacifists include Martin Luther King, Jr. Leo Tolstoy, Ammon Hennacy. Hennacy believed that adherence to Christianity required not just pacifism but, because governments threatened or used force to resolve conflicts, anarchism. However, most Christian pacifists, including the peace churches, Christian Peacemaker Teams and individuals such as John Howard Yoder, make no claim to be anarchists. Roots of Christian pacifism can be found in the scriptures of the Old Testament according to Baylor University professor of religion, John A. Wood. Millard C. Lind explains the theology of warfare in ancient Israel as God directing the people of Israel to trust in Him, not in the warring way of the nations, to seek peace not coercive power.
Stephen B. Chapman expresses the Old Testament describes God's divine intervention, not human power politics, or the warring king, as key to the preservation of Israel. Lind asserts the Old Testament reflects that God sanctions commands wars to the point of God fighting utilizing the forces of nature, miraculous acts or other nations. Lind further argues God fights so that Israel doesn't have to fight wars like other nations because God delivers them. God promised to be an enemy to their enemies and oppose all that oppose them. Pacifist, John Howard Yoder explains God sustained and directed his community not by power politics but by the creative power of God's word, of speaking through the law and the prophets; the scriptures in the Old Testament provide background of God's great victory over evil and death. Stephen Vantassel contends the Old Testament exists to put the issue of war and killing in historical and situational context. Throughout the Old Testament, there is a movement in the role of war.
Stephen B. Chapman, associate professor of Old Testament at Duke University asserts God used war to conquer and provide the Promised Land to Israel, to defend that land; the Old Testament explains that Israel does not have to fight wars like other nations because God delivers them. Starting with the Exodus out of Egypt, God fights for Israel as a warrior rescuing His people from the oppressive Egyptians. In Exodus 14:13 Moses instructs the Israelites, "The Lord will fight for you; the miraculous parting of the Red Sea is God being a warrior for Israel through acts of nature and not human armies. God's promise to fight on behalf of His chosen people is affirmed in the scriptures of the Old Testament. According to Old Testament scholar, Peter C. Craige, during the military conquests of the Promised Land, the Israelites fought in real wars against real human enemies, however it was God who granted them victory in their battles. Craige further contends God determined the outcome of human events with His participation through those humans and their activity.
Once the Promised Land was secured, the nation of Israel progressed, God used war to protect or punish the nation of Israel with His sovereign control of the nations to achieve His purposes. John Howard Yoder affirms as long as Israel trusted and followed God, God would work His power through Israel to drive occupants from lands God willed them to occupy; the future of Israel was dependent on its faith and obedience to God as mediated through the Law and prophets, not on military strength. Jacob Enz explains God made a covenant with His people of Israel, placing conditions on them that they were to worship only Him, be obedient to the laws of life in the Ten Commandments; when Israel trusts and obeys God, the nation prospered. War was used in God's ultimate purpose of restoring peace and harmony for the whole earth with the intention towards salvation of all the nations with the coming of the Messiah and a new covenant. Jacob Enz describes God's plan was to use the nation of Israel for a higher purpose, that purpose was to be the mediator between all the peoples and God.
The Old Testament reflects how God helped His people of Israel after Israel's repeated lapses of faith, demonstrating God's grace, not violence. The Old Testament explains God is the only giver of life and God is sovereign over human life. Man's role is to be a steward who should take care of all of God's creation, that includes protecting human life. Peter Craige explains God's self-revelation through His participating in human history is referred to as "Salvation History." The main objective of God's participation is man's salvation. God participates in human history by acting through people and in the world, both in need of salvation, is thus imperfect. God participates in the human activity of war through sinful human beings for His purpose of bringing salvation to the world. Studies conducted by scholars Friedrich Schwally, Johannes Pedersen, Patrick D. Miller, Rudolf Smend and Gerhard von Rad maintain the wars of Israel in the Old Testament were by God's divine command; this divine activity took place in a world such as war.
War is considered evil. God's participation through evil human activity such as war, was for the sole purposes of both redemption and judgment. God's presence in these Old Testament wars does not justify or deem them holy, it serves t
Mennonites
The Mennonites are members of certain Christian groups belonging to the church communities of Anabaptist denominations named after Menno Simons of Friesland. Through his writings, Simons formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders; the early teachings of the Mennonites were founded on the belief in both the mission and ministry of Jesus, which the original Anabaptist followers held to with great conviction despite persecution by the various Roman Catholic and Protestant states. An early set of Mennonite beliefs was codified in the Dordrecht Confession of Faith in 1632, but the various groups do not hold to a common confession or creed. Rather than fight, the majority of these followers survived by fleeing to neighboring states where ruling families were tolerant of their belief in believer's baptism. Over the years, Mennonites have become known as one of the historic peace churches because of their commitment to pacifism. In contemporary 21st-century society, Mennonites either are described only as a religious denomination with members of different ethnic origins or as both an ethnic group and a religious denomination.
There is controversy among Mennonites about this issue, with some insisting that they are a religious group while others argue that they form a distinct ethnic group. Historians and sociologists have started to treat Mennonites as an ethno-religious group, while others have begun to challenge that perception. There is a discussion about the term "ethnic Mennonite". Conservative Mennonite groups, who speak Pennsylvania German, Plautdietsch, or Bernese German fit well into the definition of an ethnic group, while more liberal groups and converts in developing countries do not. There are about 2.1 million Anabaptists worldwide as of 2015. Mennonite congregations worldwide embody the full scope of Mennonite practice from "plain people" to those who are indistinguishable in dress and appearance from the general population. Mennonites can be found in communities in at least 87 countries on six continents; the largest populations of Mennonites are to be found in Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and the United States.
There are Mennonite colonies in Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico and Paraguay Plautdietsch-speaking, who originated in the Netherlands, formed as a distinct ethnic group in Prussia and Ukraine, are called, somewhat inaccurately, Russian Mennonites. Today, fewer than 500 Mennonites remain in Ukraine. A small Mennonite presence, known as the Algemene Doopsgezinde Societeit, still continues in the Netherlands, where Simons was born; the early history of the Mennonites starts with the Anabaptists in the German and Dutch-speaking parts of central Europe. The German term is "Täufer" or "Wiedertäufer"; these forerunners of modern Mennonites were part of the Protestant Reformation, a broad reaction against the practices and theology of the Roman Catholic Church. Its most distinguishing feature is the rejection of infant baptism, an act that had both religious and political meaning since every infant born in western Europe was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church. Other significant theological views of the Mennonites developed in opposition to Roman Catholic views or to the views of other Protestant reformers such as Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli.
Some of the followers of Zwingli's Reformed church thought that requiring church membership beginning at birth was inconsistent with the New Testament example. They believed that the church should be removed from government, that individuals should join only when willing to publicly acknowledge belief in Jesus and the desire to live in accordance with his teachings. At a small meeting in Zurich on January 21, 1525, Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, along with twelve others, baptized each other; this meeting marks the beginning of the Anabaptist movement. In the spirit of the times, other groups came to be, preaching about reducing hierarchy, relations with the state and sexual license, running from utter abandon to extreme chastity; these movements are together referred to as the "Radical Reformation". Many government and religious leaders, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, considered voluntary church membership to be dangerous—the concern of some deepened by reports of the Münster Rebellion, led by a violent sect of Anabaptists.
They joined forces to fight the movement, using methods such as banishment, burning, drowning or beheading. Despite strong repressive efforts of the state churches, the movement spread around western Europe along the Rhine. Officials killed many of the earliest Anabaptist leaders in an attempt to purge Europe of the new sect. By 1530, most of the founding leaders had been killed for refusing to renounce their beliefs. Many believed that God did not condone killing or the use of force for any reason and were, unwilling to fight for their lives; the non-resistant branches survived by seeking refuge in neutral cities or nations, such as Strasbourg. Their safety was tenuous, as a shift in alliances or an invasion could mean resumed persecution. Other groups of Anabaptists, such as the Batenburgers, were destroyed by their willingness to fight; this played a large part in the evolution of Anabaptist theology. They believed that Jesus taught that any use of force to get back at anyone was wrong, taught to forgive.
In the early days of the Anabapt
United States dollar
The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States and its territories per the United States Constitution since 1792. In practice, the dollar is divided into 100 smaller cent units, but is divided into 1000 mills for accounting; the circulating paper money consists of Federal Reserve Notes that are denominated in United States dollars. Since the suspension in 1971 of convertibility of paper U. S. currency into any precious metal, the U. S. dollar is, de facto, fiat money. As it is the most used in international transactions, the U. S. dollar is the world's primary reserve currency. Several countries use it as their official currency, in many others it is the de facto currency. Besides the United States, it is used as the sole currency in two British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean: the British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands. A few countries use the Federal Reserve Notes for paper money, while still minting their own coins, or accept U. S. dollar coins. As of June 27, 2018, there are $1.67 trillion in circulation, of which $1.62 trillion is in Federal Reserve notes.
Article I, Section 8 of the U. S. Constitution provides that the Congress has the power "To coin money". Laws implementing this power are codified at 31 U. S. C. § 5112. Section 5112 prescribes the forms; these coins are both designated in Section 5112 as "legal tender" in payment of debts. The Sacagawea dollar is one example of the copper alloy dollar; the pure silver dollar is known as the American Silver Eagle. Section 5112 provides for the minting and issuance of other coins, which have values ranging from one cent to 100 dollars; these other coins are more described in Coins of the United States dollar. The Constitution provides that "a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time"; that provision of the Constitution is made specific by Section 331 of Title 31 of the United States Code. The sums of money reported in the "Statements" are being expressed in U. S. dollars. The U. S. dollar may therefore be described as the unit of account of the United States.
The word "dollar" is one of the words in the first paragraph of Section 9 of Article I of the Constitution. There, "dollars" is a reference to the Spanish milled dollar, a coin that had a monetary value of 8 Spanish units of currency, or reales. In 1792 the U. S. Congress passed a Coinage Act. Section 9 of that act authorized the production of various coins, including "DOLLARS OR UNITS—each to be of the value of a Spanish milled dollar as the same is now current, to contain three hundred and seventy-one grains and four sixteenth parts of a grain of pure, or four hundred and sixteen grains of standard silver". Section 20 of the act provided, "That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars, or units... and that all accounts in the public offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation". In other words, this act designated the United States dollar as the unit of currency of the United States. Unlike the Spanish milled dollar, the U.
S. dollar is based upon a decimal system of values. In addition to the dollar the coinage act established monetary units of mill or one-thousandth of a dollar, cent or one-hundredth of a dollar, dime or one-tenth of a dollar, eagle or ten dollars, with prescribed weights and composition of gold, silver, or copper for each, it was proposed in the mid-1800s that one hundred dollars be known as a union, but no union coins were struck and only patterns for the $50 half union exist. However, only cents are in everyday use as divisions of the dollar. XX9 per gallon, e.g. $3.599, more written as $3.599⁄10. When issued in circulating form, denominations equal to or less than a dollar are emitted as U. S. coins while denominations equal to or greater than a dollar are emitted as Federal Reserve notes. Both one-dollar coins and notes are produced today, although the note form is more common. In the past, "paper money" was issued in denominations less than a dollar and gold coins were issued for circulation up to the value of $20.
The term eagle was used in the Coinage Act of 1792 for the denomination of ten dollars, subsequently was used in naming gold coins. Paper currency less than one dollar in denomination, known as "fractional currency", was sometimes pejoratively referred to as "shinplasters". In 1854, James Guthrie Secretary of the Treasury, proposed creating $100, $50 and $25 gold coins, which were referred to as a "Union", "Half Union", "Quarter Union", thus implying a denomination of 1 Union = $100. Today, USD notes are made from cotton fiber paper, unlike most common paper, made of wood fiber. U. S. coins are produced by the United States Mint. U. S. dollar banknotes are printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and, since 1914, have been issued by t
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