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
John Langdon (politician)
John Langdon was a politician from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a Founding Father of the United States. He served as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, signed the United States Constitution, was one of the first two United States senators from that state; as a member of the Continental Congress Langdon was an early supporter of the Revolutionary War. He served in United States Congress for 12 years, including as the first president pro tempore of the Senate, before becoming governor of New Hampshire, he turned down a nomination for Vice Presidential candidate in 1812. Langdon's father was a prosperous farmer and local ship builder whose family had emigrated to America before 1660 from Sheviock, Cornwall; the Langdons were among the first to settle near the mouth of the Piscataqua River, a settlement which became Portsmouth, one of New England's major seaports. Langdon attended the local grammar school run by a veteran of the 1745 Siege of Louisbourg against the French at Fortress Louisbourg in New France.
After finishing his primary education, he served an apprenticeship as a clerk. He and his older brother, Woodbury Langdon, rejected the opportunity to join pop in their father's successful agricultural livelihood and apprenticed themselves to local naval merchants instead. By age 22, Langdon was captain of a cargo ship called sailing to the West Indies. Four years he owned his first merchantman, would continue over time to acquire a small fleet of vessels engaging in the triangle trade between Portsmouth, the Caribbean, London, his older brother was more successful in international trade, by 1777 both young men were among Portsmouth's wealthiest citizens. British control of the shipping industries hurt Langdon's business, motivating him to become a vigorous and prominent supporter of the revolutionary movement in the 1770s, he served on the New Hampshire Committee of Correspondence and a nonimportation committee, attended various Patriot assemblies. In 1774, he participated in the seizure and confiscation of British munitions from Fort William and Mary.
Langdon served as a member of the Second Continental Congress from 1775 to 1776. He resigned in June 1776 to become agent for the Continental forces against the British and superintended the construction of several warships including the Raleigh, the America, the Ranger, captained by John Paul Jones. In 1777, he equipped an expedition against the British, participating in the Battle of Bennington and commanding Langdon's Company of Light Horse Volunteers at Saratoga and in Rhode Island. In 1784 he built at Portsmouth the mansion now known as the Governor John Langdon House. Langdon was elected to two terms as President of New Hampshire, once between 1785 and 1786 and again between 1788 and 1789, he was a member of the Congress of the Confederation in 1787 and became a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, serving as a member of the New Hampshire delegation. Langdon was elected to the U. S. Senate and served from March 4, 1789 to March 3, 1801, he was elected the first President pro tempore of the Senate on April 6, 1789, served as president pro tempore during the second Congress.
During the 1787 constitutional debates in Philadelphia, Langdon spoke out against James Madison's proposed "negative" on state laws because he felt that should the Senate be granted this power and not the House of Representatives, it would "hurt the feelings" of House members. In 1798, Langdon assisted Oney Judge to evade Burwell Bassett, the nephew of George and Martha Washington, who had intended to kidnap Judge and return her to slavery with the Washingtons. Langdon served as a member of the New Hampshire Legislature, with the last two terms as speaker. In 1808, his niece, Catherine Whipple Langdon, married Edmund Roberts. Langdon declined the nomination to be a candidate for Vice President with James Madison in 1812, retired, he was interred at the Langdon Tomb in the North Cemetery. The town of Langdon, New Hampshire is named after him, as well as Langdon Street in Madison, Wisconsin, a town with numerous streets named after founding fathers. United States Congress. "John Langdon". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
"The Founding Fathers: New Hampshire." U. S. National Archives and Records Administration. Wright, Jr. Robert K. "John Langdon". Soldier-Statesmen of the Constitution. Washington, D. C.: United States Army Center of Military History. CMH Pub 71-25. State Builders: An Illustrated Historical and Biographical Record of the State of New Hampshire. State Builers Publishing Manchester, NH 1903 Mayo, Lawrence Shaw. John Langdon of New Hampshire. Port Washington, New York: Kennikat Press, 1937. Governor John Langdon House, Historic New England Chisholm, Hugh, ed.. "Langdon, John". Encyclopædia Britannica. Cambridge University Press
John Taylor Gilman
John Taylor Gilman was a farmer and statesman from Exeter, New Hampshire. He represented New Hampshire in the Continental Congress in 1782–1783 and was Governor of New Hampshire for 14 years, from 1794 to 1805, from 1813 to 1816. Gilman was born in the Province of New Hampshire, his family had settled in Exeter since its earliest days. He lived in the Ladd-Gilman House, now a part of the American Independence Museum, he received a limited education before he entered into the family shipbuilding and mercantile businesses. Aged 22, he read aloud a Dunlap Broadside brought to New Hampshire on July 16, 1776 to the city of Exeter; the American Independence Museum commemorates his brave act every year at their American Independence Festival, where a role-player reads the Declaration in its entirety to festival-goers. Gilman was one of the Minutemen of 1775 and a selectman in 1777 and 1778. Gilman served as a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 1779 and 1781 and was a delegate to the Convention of the States in Hartford, Connecticut, in October 1780.
He served as a member of the Continental Congress in 1782 and 1783. He was the New Hampshire Treasurer in 1791 and moderator in 1791–1794, 1806, 1807, 1809–1811, 1817, 1818, 1820–1825. Gilman served as Governor of New Hampshire between 1794 and 1805 and was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election in 1805, he was again a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 1810 and 1811 and again an unsuccessful candidate for governor in 1812. He was elected governor and served from 1813 to 1816 and declined to be a candidate for renomination for governor in 1816, he was an ex officio trustee of Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, trustee by election. He was president of the board of trustees of Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire, 1795–1827, donor of the oldest property, the'Yard,' upon which the older buildings stand. Gilman was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1814. Gilman was married to the daughter of Major General Nathaniel Folsom of Exeter, he died in Exeter on September 1, 1828.
He is the first governor of New Hampshire not to have a place in the state named after him. The town of Gilmanton, settled by 24 members of the extended Gilman clan, was named for the family as a whole and not for the Governor. Gilman's Congressional Biography Gilman, John Taylor, 1753–1828, Guide to Research Collections
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
New York (state)
New York is a state in the Northeastern United States. New York was one of the original thirteen colonies. With an estimated 19.54 million residents in 2018, it is the fourth most populous state. To distinguish the state from the city with the same name, it is sometimes called New York State; the state's most populous city, New York City, makes up over 40% of the state's population. Two-thirds of the state's population lives in the New York metropolitan area, nearly 40% lives on Long Island; the state and city were both named for the 17th century Duke of York, the future King James II of England. With an estimated population of 8.62 million in 2017, New York City is the most populous city in the United States and the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. The New York metropolitan area is one of the most populous in the world. New York City is a global city, home to the United Nations Headquarters and has been described as the cultural and media capital of the world, as well as the world's most economically powerful city.
The next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. The 27th largest U. S. state in land area, New York has a diverse geography. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut and Vermont to the east; the state has a maritime border with Rhode Island, east of Long Island, as well as an international border with the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the north and Ontario to the northwest. The southern part of the state is in the Atlantic coastal plain and includes Long Island and several smaller associated islands, as well as New York City and the lower Hudson River Valley; the large Upstate New York region comprises several ranges of the wider Appalachian Mountains, the Adirondack Mountains in the Northeastern lobe of the state. Two major river valleys – the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley – bisect these more mountainous regions. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes region and borders Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Niagara Falls.
The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, a popular vacation and tourist destination. New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. French colonists and Jesuit missionaries arrived southward from Montreal for trade and proselytizing. In 1609, the region was visited by Henry Hudson sailing for the Dutch East India Company; the Dutch built Fort Nassau in 1614 at the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers, where the present-day capital of Albany developed. The Dutch soon settled New Amsterdam and parts of the Hudson Valley, establishing the multicultural colony of New Netherland, a center of trade and immigration. England seized the colony from the Dutch in 1664. During the American Revolutionary War, a group of colonists of the Province of New York attempted to take control of the British colony and succeeded in establishing independence. In the 19th century, New York's development of access to the interior beginning with the Erie Canal, gave it incomparable advantages over other regions of the U.
S. built its political and cultural ascendancy. Many landmarks in New York are well known, including four of the world's ten most-visited tourist attractions in 2013: Times Square, Central Park, Niagara Falls, Grand Central Terminal. New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a global node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance, environmental sustainability. New York's higher education network comprises 200 colleges and universities, including Columbia University, Cornell University, New York University, the United States Military Academy, the United States Merchant Marine Academy, University of Rochester, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rockefeller University, which have been ranked among the top 40 in the nation and world; the tribes in what is now New York were predominantly Algonquian. Long Island was divided in half between the Wampanoag and Lenape; the Lenape controlled most of the region surrounding New York Harbor.
North of the Lenape was the Mohicans. Starting north of them, from east to west, were three Iroquoian nations: the Mohawk, the original Iroquois and the Petun. South of them, divided along Appalachia, were the Susquehannock and the Erie. Many of the Wampanoag and Mohican peoples were caught up in King Philip's War, a joint effort of many New England tribes to push Europeans off their land. After the death of their leader, Chief Philip Metacomet, most of those peoples fled inland, splitting into the Abenaki and the Schaghticoke. Many of the Mohicans remained in the region until the 1800s, however, a small group known as the Ouabano migrated southwest into West Virginia at an earlier time, they may have merged with the Shawnee. The Mohawk and Susquehannock were the most militaristic. Trying to corner trade with the Europeans, they targeted other tribes; the Mohawk were known for refusing white settlement on their land and banishing any of their people who converted to Christianity. They posed a major threat to the Abenaki and Mohicans, while the Susquehannock conquered the Lenape in the 1600s.
The most devastating event of the century, was the Beaver Wars. From 1640–1680, Iroquoian peoples waged campaigns which extended from modern-day Michigan to Virginia against Algonquian and Siouan tribes, as well as each other; the ai
John H. Sununu
John Henry Sununu is an American politician who served as the 75th Governor of New Hampshire and White House Chief of Staff under President George H. W. Bush, he is the father of John E. Sununu, the former United States Senator from New Hampshire, Christopher Sununu, the current governor of New Hampshire. Sununu was the chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party from 2009 to 2011. Sununu was born in Havana, the son of Victoria and John Saleh Sununu, an international film distributor, his father's family came to the United States from the Middle East at the turn of the twentieth century. His ancestry is Lebanese and Palestinian from the Greek Orthodox Church community in Jerusalem and Beirut, his father, was born in Boston. Sununu's mother, Victoria Dada, was born in El Salvador, her family was Greek Orthodox Christian from Lebanon and settled in Central America at the turn of the twentieth century. Sununu last visited Beirut as a child in the late 1940s, he earned a bachelor of science degree in 1961, a master of science degree in 1963, a Ph.
D. in 1966 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, all in mechanical engineering. He is a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. From 1966 to 1982, he taught at Tufts University, where he served as an associate professor of mechanical engineering, he was the associate dean of the University's College of Engineering from 1968 to 1973. As of 1988, Sununu retained his title and family tuition benefits from Tufts during an "extremely rare" unpaid six-year leave of absence that coincided with his governorship, he served on the Advisory Board of the Technology and Policy Program at MIT from 1984 until 1989. A Republican, Sununu served in the New Hampshire House of Representatives from 1973 to 1975. Sununu became New Hampshire's 75th Governor on January 6, 1983, served three consecutive terms, he was the first Arab-American Governor of New Hampshire. Sununu served as chairman of the Coalition of Northeastern Governors, the Republican Governors Association and, in 1987, the National Governors Association.
Sununu angered some when he was the only governor of a U. S. state not to call for repeal of the controversial UN General Assembly Resolution 3379. He reversed his position on this issue and supported the Republicans' pro-Israel 1988 platform. Sununu was the first White House Chief of Staff for George H. W. Bush, serving from 1989 to 1991. Time magazine dubbed him "Bush's Bad Cop" on the front cover on May 21, 1990. Sununu is considered to have engineered Bush's mid-term abandonment of his 1988 campaign promise of "no new taxes". In his report Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change, Nathaniel Rich wrote that in November 1989 Sununu prevented the signing of a 67-nation commitment to freeze carbon dioxide emissions, with a reduction of 20 percent by 2005, singled him out as a force starting coordinated efforts to bewilder the public on the topic of global warming and changing it from an urgent and unimpeachable issue to a political one. Sununu is responsible for recommending David Souter of New Hampshire to President George H. W. Bush for appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States, at the behest of his close friend, then-U.
S. Senator and fellow New Hampshirite Warren Rudman; the Wall Street Journal described the events leading up to the appointment of the "liberal jurist" in a 2000 editorial, saying Rudman in his "Yankee Republican liberalism" took "pride in recounting how he sold Mr. Souter to gullible White House chief of staff John Sununu as a confirmable conservative, they both sold the judge to President Bush, who wanted above all else to avoid a confirmation battle." Rudman wrote in his memoir that he had "suspected all along" that Souter would not "overturn activist liberal precedents." Sununu said that he had "a lot of disappointment" about Souter's positions on the Court and would have preferred him to be more similar to Justice Antonin Scalia. At the recommendation of George W. Bush, Sununu resigned his White House post on December 4, 1991, he remained at the White House as Counselor to the President until March 1, 1992. As White House Chief of Staff, Sununu took personal trips, for skiing and other purposes, classified them as official, for purposes such as conservation or promoting the Thousand Points of Light.
The Washington Post wrote that Sununu's jets "took him to fat-cat Republican fund-raisers, ski lodges, golf resorts and his dentist in Boston." Sununu had paid the government only $892 for his more than $615,000 worth of military jet travel. Sununu said that his use of the jets was necessary because he had to be near a telephone at all times for reasons of national security. Sununu became the subject of much late-night television humor over the incident. Sununu worsened the situation shortly afterwards when, after leaking rumors of financial difficulties in his family, he traveled to a rare stamp auction at Christie's auction house in New York City from Washington in a government limousine, spending $5,000 on rare stamps. Sununu sent the car and driver back to Washington unoccupied while he returned on a corporate jet. In the course of one week, 45 newspapers ran editorials on Sununu, nearly all of them critical of his actions. Sununu resigned his White House post on December 4, 1991. Sununu repaid over $47,000 to the government for the flights on the orders of White House counsel C.
Boyden Gray, with the help of the Republican Party. However, the reimbursements were at commercial rates, which are about one-tenth the cost of the actual flights. Sununu co-hosted CNN's nightly Crossfire from March 1992 until February 1998. From 1963 until 1983, he served as President o
Massachusetts
Massachusetts the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It borders on the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, New York to the west; the state is named after the Massachusett tribe, which once inhabited the east side of the area, is one of the original thirteen states. The capital of Massachusetts is Boston, the most populous city in New England. Over 80% of Massachusetts's population lives in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, a region influential upon American history and industry. Dependent on agriculture and trade, Massachusetts was transformed into a manufacturing center during the Industrial Revolution. During the 20th century, Massachusetts's economy shifted from manufacturing to services. Modern Massachusetts is a global leader in biotechnology, higher education and maritime trade. Plymouth was the site of the second colony in New England after Popham Colony in 1607 in what is now Maine.
Plymouth was founded in 1620 by passengers of the Mayflower. In 1692, the town of Salem and surrounding areas experienced one of America's most infamous cases of mass hysteria, the Salem witch trials. In 1777, General Henry Knox founded the Springfield Armory, which during the Industrial Revolution catalyzed numerous important technological advances, including interchangeable parts. In 1786, Shays' Rebellion, a populist revolt led by disaffected American Revolutionary War veterans, influenced the United States Constitutional Convention. In the 18th century, the Protestant First Great Awakening, which swept the Atlantic World, originated from the pulpit of Northampton preacher Jonathan Edwards. In the late 18th century, Boston became known as the "Cradle of Liberty" for the agitation there that led to the American Revolution; the entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts has played a powerful commercial and cultural role in the history of the United States. Before the American Civil War, Massachusetts was a center for the abolitionist and transcendentalist movements.
In the late 19th century, the sports of basketball and volleyball were invented in the western Massachusetts cities of Springfield and Holyoke, respectively. In 2004, Massachusetts became the first U. S. state to recognize same-sex marriage as a result of the decision in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Many prominent American political dynasties have hailed from the state, including the Adams and Kennedy families. Harvard University in Cambridge is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, with the largest financial endowment of any university, Harvard Law School has educated a contemporaneous majority of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. Kendall Square in Cambridge has been called "the most innovative square mile on the planet", in reference to the high concentration of entrepreneurial start-ups and quality of innovation which have emerged in the vicinity of the square since 2010. Both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, have been ranked among the most regarded academic institutions in the world.
Massachusetts' public-school students place among the top tier in the world in academic performance, the state has been ranked as one of the top states in the United States for citizens to live in, as well as one of the most expensive. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was named after the indigenous population, the Massachusett derived from a Wôpanâak word muswach8sut, segmented as mus "big" + wach8 "mountain" + -s "diminutive" + -ut "locative", it has been translated as "near the great hill", "by the blue hills", "at the little big hill", or "at the range of hills", referring to the Blue Hills, or in particular the Great Blue Hill, located on the boundary of Milton and Canton. Alternatively, Massachusett has been represented as Moswetuset—from the name of the Moswetuset Hummock in Quincy, where Plymouth Colony commander Myles Standish, hired English military officer, Squanto, part of the now disappeared Patuxet band of the Wampanoag peoples, met Chief Chickatawbut in 1621; the official name of the state is the "Commonwealth of Massachusetts".
While this designation is part of the state's official name, it has no practical implications. Massachusetts has powers within the United States as other states, it may have been chosen by John Adams for the second draft of the Massachusetts Constitution because unlike the word "state", "commonwealth" at the time had the connotation of a republic, in contrast to the monarchy the former American colonies were fighting against. Massachusetts was inhabited by tribes of the Algonquian language family such as the Wampanoag, Nipmuc, Pocomtuc and Massachusett. While cultivation of crops like squash and corn supplemented their diets, these tribes were dependent on hunting and fishing for most of their food. Villages consisted of lodges called wigwams as well as longhouses, tribes were led by male or female elders known as sachems. In the early 1600s, after contact had been made with Europeans, large numbers of the indigenous peoples in the northeast of what is now the United States were killed by virgin soil epidemics such as smallpox, measles and leptospirosis.
Between 1617 and 1619, smallpox killed ap
