Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Functor

2013-01-28T18:23:49Z

Barack: /* In Pure Mathematics */

The term '''functor''' has two distinct meanings.

cumming on my face oh yes sweet milk

==In Computer Science==
In computer science, the term "functor" is short for "function operator", also called a "function object". It is essentially a class method with no name. Many modern programming languages support this. For example, in [[C++]] one can define a function object with the "operator()" notation, that is, a definition of what parentheses mean after an object.
class C {
public:
int operator()(int i, int j) { return k+i*j; }
int k;
.....
};

.....
C MyObject;
MyObject.k = 3;
int r = MyObject(4,5);
.....

We have effectively defined a nameless method for class C. Instead of making a named invocation like "MyObject.func(4,5)", we just write "MyObject(4,5)".

[[Category:Mathematics]]
[[Category:Computer Science]]

Ben Cardin

2013-01-28T18:23:24Z

Barack: /* References */

{{Officeholder
|name=Ben Cardin
|image=Cardin.jpg
|party=[[Democrat]]
|spouse=Myrna Edelman Cardin
|religion=Jewish
|offices=
{{Officeholder/senator
|state=Maryland
|terms=January 3, 2007 - Present
|preceded=Paul Sarbanes
|former=n
|succeeded=
}}
}}

'''Ben Cardin''', born October 5, 1943 (age {{age|1943|10|5}}), is a [[United States Senator]] from [[Maryland]]. He is a member of the [[Democratic Party]]. Cardin served from 1987 to 2006 in the [[United States House of Representatives]] until his recent senatorial election victory over former Lt. Governor [[Michael Steele]]. As a representative, Cardin was a ranking member in the House Ways & Means Committee and also the Trade Subcommittee and the Helsinki Commission. In 2001, he was named by ''Worth'' magazine as among the top "100 people who have influenced the way Americans think about money."<ref>http://www.uscc.gov/bios/2007bios/07_02_1_2bios/cardin_ben.php</ref>

Previously, Cardin was chosen to become the youngest Speakers of the House in Maryland history, a position he held for eight years.<ref>http://www.bencardin.com/about/</ref>

fighting bravely against erectile dysfunction

Christian Aid

2013-01-28T18:23:02Z

Barack: /* References */

'''Christian Aid''' is a [[Christian]] charitable organisation founded by [[British]] and [[Irish]] churches in the 1940s as ''Christian Reconstruction in Europe'' to provide aid to [[refugee|refugees]] from [[World War Two]]. Its stated purpose was "not to evangelise, but to alleviate suffering for ordinary people, no matter what their faith".<ref>[http://www.christianaid.org.uk/ Christian Aid website] Accessed July 13 2007</ref>

Its mission has now grown to encompass fighting poverty around the world. It aims to do this by providing benefits to those living in poverty, speaking out where it perceives those living in poverty are suffering injustice, and campaigning for changes it believes are needed to fight poverty. Its current campaigns include raising awareness of [[global warming]], publicising poverty in conflict zones such as the [[Palestine|Palestinian Territories]], promoting an approach to fighting [[AIDS]] that rejects [[abstinence]] as the most beneficial message, fighting [[corruption]] in poverty-stricken countries, and arguing for global trade agreements that will benefit poorer countries.

in 2006 it raised £93m for its causes.

I WISH THE SOUTH HAD WON THE CIVIL WAR SINCE I AM
-RACIST
-A BUTT SNIFFA

Momentum (physics)

2013-01-28T18:22:24Z

Barack: /* Angular momentum */

'''Momentum''' is the "quantity of motion" an object possesses. In classical [[physics]], the linear form of momentum is defined as the product of [[mass]] and [[velocity]]:

:<math> \mathbf{p} = m\mathbf{v} </math>

Hence, the faster an object goes, or the more mass it posesses, the more momentum it has. Momentum is a [[vector]] quantity, and therefore has both a magnitude and direction. It is important to physicists because it is a [[conservation law|conserved]] quantity, making it useful for solving problems.

In common usage, the words "momentum" and "[[inertia]]" are sometimes used interchangeably. Inertia is the tendency for a body to resist changes in its motion until and unless a force acts on it.

The motion of an object will continue until something makes it change its motion. A railroad car, once it gets going, will continue its motion for a long time, until the tiny forces of friction cause it to slow down and stop. This can take miles. Even putting on the brakes can take up to mile, because there is so much momentum.

A [[force]] in the same direction as the body is moving will increase its speed. A force in the opposite direction will slow it down.

A force coming from the side will cause a deviation from straight-line motion.

An interesting case of a sideways force is a weight on the end of a string (like the Biblical slingshot used by [[David]] against [[Goliath]]). When you twirl the weight around above your head, the string is pulling the weight toward you - but it never gets any closer! This kind of force is called a [[centripetal force|centripetal]], or center seeking, force.

SCIENCE IS USELESS! GOD>SCIENCE!

==External Links==
*[http://id.mind.net/~zona/mstm/physics/mechanics/momentum/momentum.html Momemtum]

[[Category:Physics]]

Walter B. Jones

2013-01-28T18:21:20Z

Barack: /* External Links */

[[Image:WalterJones.jpg|thumb|right|200px| Congressman Walter B. Jones]]
'''Walter B. Jones''' is a [[conservative]] and [[paleolibertarian]] [[Republican]] Congressman currently representing [[North Carolina]]'s 3rd congressional district.

erectile disfunction

Cord blood bank

2013-01-28T18:20:59Z

Barack: /* References */

A '''cord blood bank''' stores [[umbilical cord]] [[blood]] for the benefit of future patients, particularly for treating diseases of the blood and immune systems, such as [[leukemia]]. The first successful cord blood transplant was in 1988.

Cord blood contains hematopoietic [[stem cells]]. These are progenitor cells capable of forming [[red blood cells|red]] and [[white blood cells]], and [[platelet]]s. Cord blood stem cells are not embryonic stem cells and mothers must consider donating to save lives. Unlike unethical embryonic stem cells which have no known medical cures and destroys a life, cord blood stem cells have no ethical concerns and are used as treatment for the following diseases; <ref>[http://www.marrow.org/ABOUT/Cord_Blood_Commitment/Diseases_related_cord/index.html Diseases Treatable by a Related Donor Cord Blood Transplant] National Marrow Donor Program</ref>

*Acquired or inherited severe aplastic anemia
*ADA or PNP Deficiency
*Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD)
*Alpha mannosidosis
*Amegakaryocytic Thrombocytopenia
*Aplasia
*Ataxia-Telangiectasia
*Bare Lymphocyte syndrome
*[[Bone marrow]] failure diseases
*Cancer treated with chemotherapy
*Chediak-Higashi syndrome
*Chronic Granulomatous disease
*Chronic Mucocutaneous Candidiasis
*Combined Immunodeficiency Syndrome (CID)
*Common Variable Immunodeficiency Disease (CVID)
*Diamond-Blackfan syndrome
*DiGeorge syndrome
*Dyskeratosis congenital
*Fanconi anemia
*Familial Erythrophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (FEL)
*Glanzmann’s Thrombocytopenia
*Globoid Leukodystrophy (Krabbe disease)
*Hematologic malignancy (all), such as leukemia or lymphoma, or a cancer treated with chemotherapy
*Hereditary Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH)
*Hunter syndrome (MPHS II)
*Hurler syndrome (MPHS I)
*Hurler-Scheie syndrome (MPS H-S)
*Hyper IgM
*I-cell disease
*Inherited or acquired severe aplastic anemia
*Inherited transfusion dependent anemias
*Immune deficiencies
*Kostmann syndrome
*Krabbe disease or Globoid Leukodystrophy
*Leukocyte Adhesion Deficiency (LAD)
*Lesch-Nyhan syndrome
*[[Leukemia]], all types
*Lymphoma, all types
*Metachromatic Leukodystrophy (MLD)
*Metabolic/Storage diseases
*MPHS II or Hunter syndrome
*MPHS I or Hurler syndrome
*MPS H-S or Hurler-Scheie syndrome
*Nezeloff syndrome
*Niemann-Pick disease
*Omenn’s disease
*Osteopetrosis
*Paroxsysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria
*Perlizaeus Merzbacher syndrome
*PNP or ADA Deficiency
*Platelet diseases
*Porphyria
*Pure red cell aplasia
*Red blood cell diseases
*Sandhoff disease or Tay Sachs disease
*Sanfilippo Syndrome (MPS III)
*Schwachman-Diamond Syndrome
*Severe [[Aplastic Anemia]] acquired or inherited
*Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Syndrome (SCID)
*[[Sickle cell disease]]
*Sideroblastic anemia
*Tay Sachs disease or Sandhoff disease
*Thalassemia disorders
*Thrombocytopenia with absent radii (TAR)
*White blood cell diseases
*Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome

I like to stick my head in the sand like an ostrich since im a dumb fuqq conservative

Evidence of evolution

2013-01-28T18:20:28Z

Barack: /* Gradual appearance */

'''Evidence of evolution''' consists of all historical and modern facts which suggest the validity of [[microevolution]]. There is no physical evidence for [[macroevolution]] which is also referred to as the general [[theory]] of [[evolution]]. The two aspects of macroevolution which must be proven are: first, that the various species of life have appeared gradually over the course of time (i.e., hundreds of millions of years) by natural means (see [[natural selection|theory of evolution by natural selection]]); second, that all forms of life have a common ancestor (see [[common descent]]).

[[Creationism]], particularly the religious idea generally called [[Young Earth Creationism]], rejects these aspects of evolution on Biblical grounds. Just over half of creationists agree with the first aspect of evolution (gradual appearance); see [[Old Earth Creationism]]. Other creationists approach the problem with the faith that [[God]] created every important form of life as it exists today. It is important to note that the theory of evolution says nothing about how the first life form(s) originated.

The majority of physical scientists, who often hold an [[atheism|atheistic]] worldview and/or insist on employing [[methodological naturalism]], however, have currently accepted the two aspects of evolution mentioned above since at least the 20th century. It has been alleged that these scientists insist on the validity of macroevolution on philosophical/religious grounds and not due to the actual evidence that they have found.

there is no god dipshits

Liberal propaganda

2013-01-28T18:19:45Z

Barack: /* See Also */

'''Liberal propaganda''' is the use of distorted media coverage, half truths, [[deceit]], [[liberal denial]], and [[liberal bias]] to promote liberal political goals, such as gay marriage and the legalization of drugs- which are contrary to a pure moral nation.

Liberal propaganda can also take the form of inspirational images designed to portray liberal politicians in a positive light. For example, in his campaign for the Presidency, [[Barack Hussein Obama]] used artistically rendered images that sought to portray him as the center of a [[cult of personality]].<ref>http://obeygiant.com/post/obama</ref> This is disturbingly similar to the propaganda used by [[atheist|atheistic]] [[communism|communist]] leaders.

Other examples include:
# Using [[Hollywood]] to popularize liberal causes, such as [[Al Gore]] using [[An Inconvenient Truth]] to promote [[global warming]] alarmism, or actors promoting the [[gay agenda]].
# Museums marginalizing creation and favoring [[evolutionism]] in exhibits about [[dinosaur|dinosaurs]] and [[Neanderthal]].
# Using movies to demonize the Bush administration's tactics and present the dark side of the [[war on terror]] without describing its necessity to keep America safe.<ref>"Rendition," [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804522/ 2007].</ref>
# Depicting creationists as ignorant fools, and glorifying their evolutionist opponents, in films like [[Inherit the Wind]], which misrepresents what actually happened in the [[Scopes trial]].\
# Promoting environmentalism on television commercials and programs, such as in Disney's Friends for Change campaign about saving the planet.
# Showing gay characters on television as enlightened and harmless, overlooking the real harms behind [[homosexuality]].
# Glorifying so-called 'celebrity culture' and denying the associated and pernicious effects of [[Hollywood values]].
# Using the media to attack institutions such as the military and the church.
# Using historical [[revisionism]] to claim that respected figures such as [[Abraham Lincoln]] were liberals.

Weiner-Ballsack Conundrum

==See Also==
[[conservative propaganda]]

==References==
<references/>
{{liberalism}}
[[category:Liberalism]]

Liberal propaganda

2013-01-28T18:19:30Z

Barack: /* Tools of Liberal Propaganda */

'''Liberal propaganda''' is the use of distorted media coverage, half truths, [[deceit]], [[liberal denial]], and [[liberal bias]] to promote liberal political goals, such as gay marriage and the legalization of drugs- which are contrary to a pure moral nation.

Liberal propaganda can also take the form of inspirational images designed to portray liberal politicians in a positive light. For example, in his campaign for the Presidency, [[Barack Hussein Obama]] used artistically rendered images that sought to portray him as the center of a [[cult of personality]].<ref>http://obeygiant.com/post/obama</ref> This is disturbingly similar to the propaganda used by [[atheist|atheistic]] [[communism|communist]] leaders.

Other examples include:
# Using [[Hollywood]] to popularize liberal causes, such as [[Al Gore]] using [[An Inconvenient Truth]] to promote [[global warming]] alarmism, or actors promoting the [[gay agenda]].
# Museums marginalizing creation and favoring [[evolutionism]] in exhibits about [[dinosaur|dinosaurs]] and [[Neanderthal]].
# Using movies to demonize the Bush administration's tactics and present the dark side of the [[war on terror]] without describing its necessity to keep America safe.<ref>"Rendition," [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804522/ 2007].</ref>
# Depicting creationists as ignorant fools, and glorifying their evolutionist opponents, in films like [[Inherit the Wind]], which misrepresents what actually happened in the [[Scopes trial]].\
# Promoting environmentalism on television commercials and programs, such as in Disney's Friends for Change campaign about saving the planet.
# Showing gay characters on television as enlightened and harmless, overlooking the real harms behind [[homosexuality]].
# Glorifying so-called 'celebrity culture' and denying the associated and pernicious effects of [[Hollywood values]].
# Using the media to attack institutions such as the military and the church.
# Using historical [[revisionism]] to claim that respected figures such as [[Abraham Lincoln]] were liberals.

Weiner-Ballsack Conundrum

==See Also==
[[propaganda]]

==References==
<references/>
{{liberalism}}
[[category:Liberalism]]

American History Lecture Six

2013-01-28T18:18:43Z

Barack: /* Review */

{{HS_American_History}}
[[American History Lecture Six|Lecture]] - [[American_History_Homework_Six|Questions]] - [[American History Homework Six Answers|Student Answers]]

This is a good time to pause and consider if you would like to take the CLEP exam for college credit at the end of this course. The cost is less than $100, the time is at your convenience at a local community college, and the credit earned can be worth thousands of dollars. Please let me know if you are interested in this.

We will have a midterm exam in this course in '''two weeks''', covering all the material through this Lecture (through Reconstruction, which means through 1876). The distribution of questions will be similar to the distribution on the CLEP exam, so do not spend too much time on an area that will not have many questions. '''There is no written homework this week; instead, study for the exam'''.

In 1835, a Frenchman named Alexis de Tocqueville published a book entitled "Democracy in America," which was collection of observations about our young nation based on his nine-month visit. This book remains the most comprehensive analysis of American culture, and includes many insightful statements like "the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention." De Tocqueville also observed about America, "I have nowhere seen woman occupying a loftier position."

I like to sniff my mothers panties

== Secession ==

In 1860, the South threatened to secede (break away) from the United States if the Republican Abraham Lincoln were elected president. Lincoln and many of his supporters considered that to be election rhetoric or bluffing by the South to try to influence the election. After all, the South had threatened to secede before (as South Carolina did during the Jackson Administration), and never did actually leave. Lincoln did not expect the South to secede after he won.

The Republican Party was antislavery with respect to the (western) territories and many in the Republican Party also wanted slavery abolished even in existing states (though that was not the official position of the Party). Several southern states, particularly South Carolina, considered opposition to slavery to be opposition to South Carolina itself, which depended heavily on slavery. Many in the South felt so strongly about slavery that they wanted to break away if and when a Republican became president. Note that the South also had fundamental differences with the North on other issues, such as the tariff and the significance of state's rights.

Lincoln was elected in November 1860, but presidents then were not inaugurated until four months later, in March of the following year. (That has since been moved to the earlier date of January 20 for inaugurations after a presidential election.) That gave the South a long period to act, before Lincoln had any power to do anything about it.

Merely four days after the election of the new President Lincoln, on November 10, 1860, the South Carolina legislature called for a convention to consider secession from the United States. South Carolina, the state of John Calhoun (who died in 1850), always had one of the largest slave populations (by percentage) and for decades had been the leader in calling for secession. South Carolina residents were well-informed about the issues of states rights and how their heroes of John Calhoun and even Thomas Jefferson had championed the rights of states in the past by nullifying federal law.

South Carolina moved quickly. The first convention met in Charleston, South Carolina on December 20, and ''unanimously'' passed the first ordinance of secession:

{{cquote|We, the people of the State of South Carolina in convention assembled, do declare and ordain ... that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of 'the United States of America,' is hereby dissolved.}}

With that, South Carolina declared herself a new and independent country, and her residents celebrated with parties, fireworks, and revelry in the streets.

By the end of January 1861, six other southern states imitated South Carolina and declared their independence from the United States, all prior to the inauguration of Lincoln as the new President. They were Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. A diarist in the South, Mary Boykin Chesnut, summed up the feeling of many southerners: "We are divorced, North and South, because we have hated each other so."<ref>http://civilwar.bluegrass.net/secessioncrisis/601220.html</ref>

After that, there was some calm as the nation awaited Lincoln's Inaugural Address, which is the speech a president gives to the nation on the day he is sworn it. Fearful for his own life, Lincoln rode the train from Illinois to D.C. wearing a disguise. In his Inaugural Address, Lincoln tried to preserve the Union by appeasing the southern states: "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so."<ref name="Inaugural Address">http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres31.html</ref> Lincoln was not yet a prayerful man (he would soon become one), and his speech contained only a passing reference to God. He concluded by both begging and warning the South: "The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect, and defend it.' I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. ..."<ref name="Inaugural Address"/>

Lincoln's weak speech persuaded no one. Some of my prior students have suggested that the real problem in 1861 was a lack of leadership just when the nation needed it most. Where was George Washington, or someone like him, at our nation's crucial moment? Instead, Lincoln was at our helm and he used a lawyer-like approach to a problem that cried out for something more meaningful. Lincoln had the respect and confidence of virtually no one in the South.

One month after his inauguration, in April, Lincoln told South Carolina that he needed to re-supply a federal garrison there called Fort Sumter. South Carolina did not trust Lincoln and felt this was a trick to fool and possibly attack it. So South Carolina demanded the surrender of federal troops at Fort Sumter. Shots were fired (it's unknown who fired first), and South Carolina quickly captured Fort Sumter on April 12th. Lincoln called for Union (North) troops on April 15th. Within weeks more states seceded, bringing the total to 11 of the states overall that seceded by the end of June 1861: Arkansas, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee.

There had been compromises between the North and South in 1820, 1850 and 1854. One last attempt at compromise occurred in 1861, led by Senator John Crittenden of the border state of Kentucky. Congress passed a constitutional amendment in 1861 to protect slavery in the South, in the hope that would satisfy it. But this amendment was never ratified by the States because war broke out before the States could even consider it. It seems unlikely that the northern states would have agreed anyway.

Meanwhile, Congress passed two "Confiscation Acts" in order to help the President win the war. The Confiscation Act of 1861 authorized the Union to seize any property, including slaves, which were being used to aid the South in its "insurrection" against the North.<ref>http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=557</ref> The Second Confiscation Act was next passed in 1862, taking the additional step of ordering freedom for any slaves belonging to slave-owners engaged in "treason" against the United States:<ref>http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=559</ref>

:That every person who shall hereafter commit the crime of treason against the United States, and shall be adjudged guilty thereof, shall suffer death, and all his slaves, if any, shall be declared and made free; or, at the discretion of the court, he shall be imprisoned for not less than five years and fined not less than ten thousand dollars, and all his slaves, if any, shall be declared and made free ....

== Civil War - 1861-1862 ==

The view in the North was that the southern states had no right to secede, and thus their declarations of secession were null and void. The South was still part of the United States, according to the North, and the fighting by the South (as at Fort Sumter) constituted an insurrection or a "civil war."<ref>In ''Texas v. White'', 74 U.S. 700 (1869), the U.S. Supreme Court held by a 5-3 margin that secession was not allowed by the U.S. Constitution, and that the southern ordinances of secession were "absolutely null." This opinion has been criticized, however, because it was written by Chief Justice Salmon Chase, who was a former member of President Lincoln's Cabinet during the Civil War, and hence had already been against secession.</ref> In the South, its view was that Lincoln was the aggressor in trying to fortify a northern position in South Carolina (Fort Sumter), and the resulting conflict was the "War of Northern Aggression" or "War Among the States." For a long time one could tell whether a stranger was from the northern part of the United States, or the southern part, simply by the name the person used to talk about the conflict. It is said that the winner of a war gets to name it, so "Civil War" is what we will use.

The eleven states that seceded formed the Confederate States of America, or simply the "Confederacy". It adopted its own constitution,<ref>The Confederate constitution was similar to the U.S. Constitution, but did have one advantage: the Confederate constitution gave its president the power of the "line-item veto," which enabled him to veto specific items of spending in legislation without vetoing the entire bill. The U.S. President does not have this power under the U.S. Constitution.</ref> elected its own president (Jefferson Davis), had its own capitol city (Montgomery, Alabama), and printed its own money. Its unique national flag, the "Confederate Flag," remains controversial wherever used today (and it is still displayed in some parts of the South).

The first major battle of the Civil War was at Bull Run, near Manassas, Virginia, on July 21, 1861.<ref>"During the war, the North generally named a battle after the closest river, stream or creek and the South tended to name battles after towns or railroad junctions. Hence the Confederate named Manassas after Manassas Junction and the Union named Bull Run for the stream Bull Run." See http://www.nps.gov/mana/</ref> By then Virginia had also chosen to secede and its local hero, General Robert E. Lee, remained loyal to his State. Lincoln offered him command of the Union forces because Lee was the most respected American military commander at the time, but he chose to represent his home state instead.

In this first major battle the emotional South crushed the North, and people fled into nearby D.C. But the South made a mistake of not charging immediately to take D.C., as urged by one of the greatest American (southern) generals, "Stonewall" Jackson (who had previously been a physics teacher at Virginia Military Institute). Had the South captured D.C. in this first battle, it may have broken the will of the North to continue fighting. But General Lee was not as clever and as aggressive as Stonewall Jackson, and the North had a chance to regroup. Still, it was a big victory for the South. Chastened by this initial defeat, President Lincoln fired his general and replaced him with George McClellan.

McClellan was an important figure throughout the war, and eventually ran against Lincoln for president in 1864 and may have defeated him had the southern states been able to participate and vote. McClellan held a dim view of Lincoln, and frankly thought Lincoln was incompetent. McClellan often ignored Lincoln's calls and urgent requests. For example, early one evening President Lincoln left McClellan an urgent message to respond to him, no matter how late. McClellan, upon receiving the message, simply ignored it and went to sleep. A brilliant student at West Point (second in his class), McClellan was a masterful organizer who was running large railroads just before the Civil War. Upon taking command, McClellan quickly fortified and protected D.C., and built up the Army of the Potomac into powerful force for the North (the Union).

But McClellan himself had a serious character flaw: he did not want to put his army into battle. McClellan was the best general ever at ... retreating. He could and did supervise massive retreats of his army with minimal casualties and loss of equipment.

McClellan did not engage the South in battle in the fall of 1861 and soon 1862 had arrived. Time was on the North's side, as it had over three times the free population and a much more developed manufacturing and transportation system. For the South to win the war, it had to win quickly. But the South simply waited.

McClellan also waited, and waited, and waited. He much preferred defense to offense. He did not like the harm caused by war, including the loss of life. As described above, McClellan did not get along with Lincoln and did not think much of him. Finally, Lincoln wrote this famous letter to McClellan:<ref>http://usmilitary.about.com/library/miljokes/bllincolnandmcclellan.htm</ref>

:My Dear McClellan:

::If you are not using the army, I should like to borrow it for a short while.

:Yours respectfully,

:Abraham Lincoln

Amid the Union failures in 1862, Lincoln also suffered a personal tragedy. Lincoln lost his beloved young son, William ("Willie"), after a brief illness that was probably caused by contaminated water in D.C. "Lincoln feels his loss very deeply," was an understatement of the impact as reported by ''Harper's Weekly'', the prominent national magazine.<ref>http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1862/march/death-lincolns-son-willie.htm</ref> In fact, Mrs. Lincoln mourned for a year and President Lincoln was profoundly shaken by his son's death.<ref>http://www.mrlincolnswhitehouse.org/inside.asp?ID=18&subjectID=2</ref> Though Lincoln had little use for religion in his youth, this tragedy may have put him on a path towards [[faith]]. Even General McClellan did his best to console Lincoln about this personal tragedy.

Back to the war in 1862: the Union General McClellan's superb defensive skills came in handy when the Confederate General Lee launched a massive invasion of northern territory (Maryland, which had been sympathetic to the Confederacy). Known as the "Battle of Antietam," this was the single bloodiest day in battle in all of American History (the three days of battle at Gettysburg, discussed below, resulted in even greater numbers of casualties). Savage combat for twelve hours resulted in the death, wounding or disappearance of 23,000 soldiers on September 17, 1862. But McClellan's defense was successful, and this success encouraged President Lincoln to issue a preliminary version of the Emancipation Proclamation.<ref>http://www.nps.gov/anti/</ref> General McClellan, however, should have pursued the retreating Confederate Army. He failed to do so.

President Lincoln fired General McClellan in November 1862.

== The Trent Affair ==

A fascinating international incident occurred on the Atlantic Ocean that nearly brought Great Britain into the Civil War. Two Confederate envoys had departed from Charleston, South Carolina toward Cuba, and then on toward England on a mail ship called the "Trent". The envoys used this circuitous route in order to sneak through the Union navy blockade and reach Britain. The envoys had been sent by Confederate President Jefferson Davis to obtain recognition by Britain and France of the independent sovereignty of the Confederacy. Up until this point Great Britain and France had maintained their diplomatic relations with the North (the United States) and viewed the Confederacy as in rebellion, not an independent nation. Davis hoped that early victories by the South against the North (the Union) would cause Britain and France to receive these envoys and recognize the Confederacy.

But on November 8, 1861, Charles Wilkes, a U.S. Navy Officer (on the side of the North), intercepted the Trent and ordered a search of this British ship, despite lacking permission from Washington or Britain for such a bold move. This search discovered the Confederate envoys, and the U.S. Navy took them prisoner along with their aides, and then released the ship so it could continue on to England.

The British were furious at the Union for this invasion of Britain's own sovereignty on the ship, and demanded both an apology and a release of the envoys. Britain even ordered troops to Canada (which was still a colony of Britain) and sent additional ships to the Western Atlantic. Britain at this time was still far more powerful than the United States.

But Britain's demands took nearly a month to reach Washington, D.C., due to a malfunction in the transatlantic cable for communications. Ultimately, President Lincoln did authorize an apology and released the envoys to freedom, and thereafter both the Union and the Confederacy attempted to persuade Britain to side with it. Instead, Britain continued to remain neutral.<ref>http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/cw/92452.htm</ref>

== Civil War - 1863-1865 ==

On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This historic document proclaimed all slaves ''in areas in rebellion'' to be "forever free."

Already Lincoln was planning for a post-War South. His plan for readmitting southern States to the Union (that is, readmitting their representatives to Congress) was issued in his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in 1863: don't prosecute Southerners, help reconstruct the South, and readmit states when 10% of the people take an oath of loyalty to the United States. Lincoln was more generous to the South than many in the North wanted to be. The North, after all, had substantially '''''more''''' casualties in the Civil War than the South did.

But the Civil War was far from over. The Union (North) had a lucky break when the Confederacy (South) lost its best general, perhaps the finest ever in American history: "Stonewall" Jackson. A brilliant teacher, General Jackson earned his nickname "Stonewall" in July 1861, when he led the famous "Stonewall Brigade" from the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia against the Union at the Battle of 1st Manassas. There he and his unit withstood attack after attack by the Union Army, and emerged victorious against all odds. "Look, there stands Jackson like a stone wall" against the assaults, it was said. In May and June of 1862, Jackson led a brilliant military campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, winning at Front Royal, Winchester, Cross Keys and Port Republic. But tragedy struck him a year later at the Battle of Chancellorsville when, at 9pm on May 2, 1863, he was accidentally fired upon by his own soldiers who mistook him for the enemy as nighttime made it difficult to see. Known as "friendly fire," such incidents have caused a loss in life of many figures throughout history. He died soon thereafter, and the Confederacy lost its most brilliant and daring commander.<ref>http://www.vmi.edu/archives.aspx?id=4933</ref>

Meanwhile, the Union Army (the North) was under new command after the firing of McClellan in late 1862, and it began winning battles against the Confederacy in 1863. The key turning point occurred around July 4, 1863 in two different locations: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (July 1-3) and Vicksburg, Mississippi (July 4). The losses of the South on those days have been described as "mortal blows." It was Ulysses S. Grant who led the Union to victory at Vicksburg, and geographically that had the huge impact of cutting the South in half.

===Gettysburg===

The three-day battle at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, at the beginning of July 1863, is the most important in all of American history. It could be the subject of an entire course, featuring military strategy, enormous human tragedy, and endless debates about why it happened and whether the outcome could have been different. Its location is only about a two-hour drive from our class and is a "must see" stop for tourists. Lincoln himself traveled there to deliver the most famous speech in American history later in 1863: the Gettysburg address.

The Union and Confederate armies collided on a farmer's field. The Union side (the "Army of the Potomac" in this case) had 83,289 men; the Confederate Soldiers (the "Army of Northern Virginia") totaled 75,054 men. It was a chance encounter in which neither side expected the other side to have as many troops as it did. Both sides fought ferociously expecting the other side to cut and run. From just three days of fighting, the results were very grim: 10,000 soldiers killed, 30,000 wounded, and another 10,000 captured or missing; more Confederate soldiers were killed and wounded than Union soldiers (the opposite was true for most other battles).

Confederate General Robert E. Lee commanded the southern troops, and he hoped to push through Gettysburg and then march on D.C. itself by attacking from the north. Up until this time General Lee, who had been first in his class at West Point, had never lost a battle. He planned his strategy with expert precision, utilizing three different points of assault to break the Union line in order to defeat them. General George Meade led the Union troops. In contrast with General Lee's military brilliance, General Meade made his major decision based on a majority vote of his subordinates! But some of those subordinates were brilliant themselves.

At dawn, General Lee started by firing cannons from the largest cannonade assembled in history to this date. But the Union troops were closer than he thought, and the cannon balls sailed harmlessly over their heads to explode behind them. It was the first of many mishaps for the South. General Lee sent a massive cavalry of 5,000 men to outflank the Union soldiers, but upon meeting a small amount of resistance (led by Union commander George Custer, who became notorious later in history), the southern cavalry retreated rather than fighting on.

The Union held two key positions which can be visited today: Little Round Top, which was the crucial high ground on the left flank of the Union forces, and Culp's Hill, which protected the Union's right side. General Lee's forces repeatedly tried to take those small hills, and repeatedly failed amid devastating casualties.

The most tragic engagement of all occurred on the third day: General Lee ordered his General George Pickett to lead his 15,000 men into a massive frontal assault against the Union forces, the largest direct attack in the history of the Western Hemisphere. Pickett knew it was a mistake and told Lee so, but Lee insisted. The Union forces slaughtered the charging soldiers; 60% of them were killed, wounded or captured, and the remainder, including Pickett himself, fled to safety. General Lee then had to retreat to Virginia, and the Union had won the most important battle of the war. This was the turning point in favor of the North.

Four months later, in November 1863, President Lincoln took a train ride out to Gettysburg to honor the dead. It was then a massive cemetery. Lincoln found faith as he prepared his remarks. Though not in the early drafts of his speech for that commemoration, while on the train Lincoln inserted in his own handwriting the phrase "under God" after the reference to "one Nation," so that his speech would refer to "one Nation, under God."<ref>The origin of the phrase "under God" is the General Orders of [[George Washington]] on July 2 and 9, 1776: "The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army" (July 2); "the peace and safety of the Country now depends, under God, solely on the success of our arms" (July 9). See http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/264xqezm.asp?pg=2 . Later, the imagery of "under God" appeared in a cartoon in 1788 celebrating the ratification of the Constitution by Massachusetts.</ref>

President Lincoln then delivered his "Gettysburg Address" at the farm-turned-battlefield-turned-cemetery. Lincoln's short speech remains the most famous in all of American history. It ends with the immortal words "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

===1864-1865===

Lincoln soon took notice of Grant's success and by spring of May 1864 Lincoln elevated Grant to command of the Union forces in Virginia. Grant was no military genius and had been only an average student at West Point, although he was a superb horseman. But what made Grant so valuable to Lincoln was that Grant did not mind shedding blood on both sides. Grant used the superior numbers of the Union to win battles against the South, led by General Robert E. Lee, in 1864 in Northern Virginia.

1864 was an election year for the presidency, and McClellan ran against Lincoln. Early in the year it looked like McClellan would win.
"Copperheads" were northern "peace" or pacifist Democrats who opposed Lincoln's war efforts against the seceded South, and they supported McClellan. Quakers in the North, for example, would have likely supported McClellan rather than Lincoln.

But then the Union Army started to win overwhelming victories on the battlefield, and the more it won, the more popular Lincoln became among voters. Union General William Tecumseh Sherman really broke the back of the South's morale and will to fight. General Sherman brutalized Georgia by destroying everything in a 60-mile-wide path from Atlanta to the ocean, known as his "March to the Sea" in late 1864. To this day some southerners are bitter about this destruction, which Sherman justified a way to crush the opponent and end the War. To the South, General Sherman was as evil as a modern-day terrorist, and the popular movie ''Gone With the Wind'' decries the excessive hardship caused by Sherman and the Union troops.

Lincoln was still worried about possibly losing the presidential election in 1864, and he even replaced his current Vice President with a Democratic southerner, Andrew Johnson, in order to help attract Democratic voters. Lincoln wanted to appease voters (including the Copperheads) who were tired of the war, and broaden his support.

To further help Lincoln win reelection, absentee voting was instituted for the first time. This enabled thousands of Union soldiers to vote by mail rather than show up at the polling booths in their home town. Much later absentee voting was allowed for everyone, so they could vote by mail while away from their voting booths.

Lincoln showed his sympathy for the South by vetoing the [[Wade-Davis bill|Wade-Davis Bill]] in 1864, which would have imposed a very harsh reconstruction plan on the South demanded by the northern "Radical Republicans," which was a group of congressmen most determined to punish the South for slavery and the Civil War. That Bill, which never became law, would have established virtually impossible conditions for Confederate states to rejoin the union, by requiring a majority in each State to take an oath of loyalty stating that they had always been loyal to the United States, before the State could be readmitted. Lincoln, fearful of a backlash by Radical Republicans for blocking their bill, used a "pocket veto" to prevent this from becoming law. A "pocket veto" is a procedure allowed under the Constitution whereby legislation is considered vetoed if the President does nothing within ten days and Congress has adjourned; doing nothing is a less controversial way of dealing with a crisis than doing something people do not like.

Lincoln then defeated McClellan in the election of 1864, aided by the exclusion of southern voters from the election (who would have voted against Lincoln). McClellan dropped out of national politics after losing this election, but much later McClellan became Governor of New Jersey (1878-81).

In March 1865, Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address was the opposite of his First: he now saw the world and the Civil War in moral rather than legal terms. His Second Inaugural Address was filled with spiritual references, reflecting that Lincoln had found faith in God. He is one of the few public officials to display an increase in faith while wielding earthly power.

== Surrender ==

By fall 1864 the South was running out of resources and spirit. "Southern Disunion" began to occur in September 1864, as characterized by a high desertion rate, riots, food shortages, and even South Carolina ignoring Acts of its own Confederacy. Fearful of a slave rebellion, the Confederation delayed in arming the slaves.

Congress was preparing for the Union victory. It passed the Freedmen's Bureau in March 1865, which established a government agency to help emancipated blacks get food and medical supplies, and to find jobs.<ref>http://www.history.umd.edu/Freedmen/fbact.htm</ref>

Under General Ulysses S. Grant the Union army was racking up big wins against the Confederate army in Virginia in early 1865. A Union victory was becoming inevitable. To avoid further loss of life, General Robert E. Lee surrendered at the Appomattox Court House in Virginia on April 9th. The terms of surrender were generous to the South: southern officers were allowed to keep their arms, and soldiers were allowed to keep their horses. Some observers complained that it looked more like Grant was surrendering to Lee rather than Lee surrendering to Grant. Truth be told, Grant did have enormous respect for Lee, as most soldiers on both sides did.

Five days later, on Good Friday, April 14th, Lincoln was attending a theatrical performance (that's an odd way to spend Good Friday, one might observe), and Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, who was himself an actor sympathetic to the South. Some suggest that Lincoln accepted this ending to his life. Booth's crime was part of a conspiracy to assassinate the top persons in government, including Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward. General Ulysses S. Grant was to be with Lincoln at the theater but canceled his attendance. Of all the targets of the conspiracy, only Lincoln died.<ref>http://americanhistory.about.com/od/lincolnsdeath/a/lincolnsdeath.htm</ref> The conspirators were quickly caught and either killed in the chase (Booth) or tried and hung. The expression "your name is mud" comes from the conviction and imprisonment of Dr. Samuel Mudd for treating Booth's broken leg after Booth's crime. Dr. Mudd was later pardoned by President Andrew Johnson, who became president upon Lincoln's death.

Lincoln remains a controversial historical figure to this day. His original goals were not moral, and he admitted that he was not trying to abolish slavery. He was trying to save the Union. He even agreed to try to preserve slavery as a way of saving the Union. A cynic might point to Lincoln's career as a railroad lawyer as the prime motivation for his obsession with unity. The profitability of a railroad depends heavily on national unity; if a country were to break up, then the railroad might not work nearly as well with different sections refusing to cooperate with each other. Today Lincoln is idolized in the North, but is still disliked by many in the South.

== President Andrew Johnson ==

Vice President Andrew Johnson, who was liked by almost no one, became president in spring 1865 when Lincoln died. When Johnson succeeded Lincoln as president, it was only the third succession of presidential power in our history (the first was Tyler becoming president after Harrison's death, and the second was Millard Fillmore becoming president after Zachary Taylor's death).

Johnson was a Democrat from Tennessee, not a Republican. In fact, the Radical Republicans in Congress loathed and ridiculed him. They even spread an unjustified rumor that Johnson was drunk during his inauguration. Johnson was blunt speaking, and that did not help win him any friends. He went on a nationwide speaking tour called the "Swing Around the Circle," during which he harshly and unsuccessfully criticized his opponents in Congress. Meanwhile, at this time the United States was missing all the southern states of the Confederacy: they did not have any seats in Congress. Simply put, the United States was in disarray in 1865.

Congress was controlled by the "Radical Republicans" who wanted to impose harsh conditions on the South both to protect the freed slaves and to punish
the South for the War. Congress, led by the Radical Republicans, improperly attempted to control Johnson by passing the Tenure of Office Act in 1867. This required Senate approval before the President could fire his own Cabinet officials, and this law sought to stop Johnson from firing Edwin Stanton, the Secretary of War, who was allied with the Radical Republicans in Congress. In 1868, Congress also passed the Command of the Army Act, which restricted the President in how he commands the army.

But Johnson did not back down. He attempted to fire Stanton, which the Radical Republicans considered to be grounds for impeaching Johnson. Thaddeus Stevens was a representative from Pennsylvania who would talk about the South as "conquered territory," and was a typical Radical Republican. He led the House of Representatives to vote by an astounding margin of 126-47 to impeach Johnson:<ref>http://law.jrank.org/pages/13490/Andrew-Johnson-Trial.html</ref>

:Resolved,

::that Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors in office.

But impeachment is not removal from office. Rather, it is like filing charges against someone, and it is up to the Senate under the Constitution to decide whether to remove the official from office. That requires a 2/3rds vote of the Senate. After a trial in the Senate, Johnson survived by only one vote. Johnson then continued to serve the remainder of his term in office.

== Reconstruction ==

"Reconstruction" is the 12-year period from the end of the Civil War (1865) to 1877. The term describes exactly what happened: the South was "reconstructed" from its shambles. To do this, the North sent troops into the South to control its operations. Procedures were established for admitting the Confederate states back into the Union (actually, they supposedly were never allowed to leave, but they did need to be readmitted back into Congress). Obviously much animosity -- and racism -- remained after the end of the actual fighting. New constitutional amendments were required to make slavery illegal and to protect the rights of African Americans (Amendments 13, 14 and 15).

Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to establish the rights of blacks to testify in court, make contracts, and hold property. President Johnson vetoed the bill, but Republicans enjoyed such a large majority in Congress that it then passed the bill over Johnson's veto (with a 2/3rds majority, which is known as "overriding the veto").

The United States divided the South into five military districts by passing the Military Reconstruction Act in 1867. The federal government then sent in federal troops (the Union army) to govern each military district. This was humiliating to the South. Many northerners (who were given the derogatory name "carpetbaggers") moved to the South to form quasi-military governments, often at the expense of southern taxpayers. The term "carpetbaggers" is still used today to describe any politician who moves to a new state to be elected to office (as when Hillary Clinton moved to New York to become a U.S. Senator in 2000, as a stepping stone to her presidential campaign in 2008). "Scalawags" were white southerners who teamed up with the carpetbaggers who governed the South during Reconstruction.

The '''13th Amendment''' to the Constitution banned slavery, and it was ratified quickly. The '''14th Amendment''' was ratified with more difficulty, as it is a complex Amendment that protects many rights of citizens against interference by any State. It was intended to protect the former slaves and give Congress special powers to protect them further, but in recent years has been expanded by the courts to apply in ways never intended (such as abortion). Congress provided additional protection to former slaves by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which prohibited racial discrimination in hotels, theaters, public transit, employment and other public places and also established the right of former slaves to serve on juries. But later the Supreme Court held the Civil Rights Act to be unconstitutional, deterring Congress from passing more laws like it until the 1960s.

Southern whites interfered with voting (also called "suffrage") by former slaves, and the '''15th Amendment''' was ratified to protect that right: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. ... The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."<ref>U.S. Const., 15th Am.</ref> Much later, in 1964, the 24th Amendment was passed to ban charging a poll tax to interfere with the right to vote.

So remember these '''Reconstruction Amendments''', all of which were added to the U.S. Constitution in the five years following the Civil War (1865-1870):
*13th Amendments: abolish slavery
*14th Amendment: give all races equal rights
*15th Amendment: give all races the right to vote

Meanwhile the South was passing laws of its own to continue to discriminate against African Americans. Beginning in 1866, the South passed Black Codes or "Jim Crow" laws to subjugate blacks and restrict them in voting and from holding office. In 1868, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was founded in the South. It was a secretive society of white supremacists, who intimidated by burning crosses and killed African Americans.

Unfortunately, the KKK was not a small group. It was widespread across the South and extended even towards the North. It recruited young people. One long-serving and powerful Democratic Senator, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, once belonged to KKK. So did the Democratic Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black in his youth.

Congress cracked down on the KKK by passing the Force Act in 1870, which banned any use of force or terror to interfere with voting based on the person's race. Congress also placed elections in the South under the authority and jurisdiction of the federal officers in order to prevent intimidation of African Americans.

In 1872, Congress passed the Amnesty Act, which pardoned many Rebels from the old Confederacy and allowed them to reenter public life.

Reconstruction was not formally ended until there was a disputed outcome for election of President in 1876. The Compromise of 1877 cut a deal between the North (Republicans) and the South (Democrats) whereby the South consented to Republican Rutherford Hayes becoming President and the North agreed to withdraw the remaining federal troops still in the South.

[[Image:Presidential Election of 1876.jpg|300x|right|thumb|The Presidential Election of 1876 was a virtual tie, and the compromise to resolve it ended Reconstruction]]

== Other Happenings During the Civil War and Reconstruction Periods ==

There were additional important developments between 1861 and 1877.

In 1862, Congress passed the Homestead Act, which granted 160 acres to anyone who farmed land for 5 years. This encouraged people to migrate westward. Also in 1862, Congress passed the Pacific Railway Act, which provided taxpayer subsidies and land in order to build a transcontinental railroad to connect the East Coast with the West Coast. This railroad was completed in Utah in 1869 and facilitated more of a ''national'' economy.

There was one more significant piece of legislation enacted in 1862: the Morrill Land Grant Act, which established agricultural colleges. It gave each state 30,000 acres times the state's number of congressmen.

Immigration was controversial in the 1860s. Specifically, Chinese immigration into California caused many union laborers to object, because the Chinese would work more industriously and for less pay than union workers. The Burlingame Treaty was signed between the United States and China in 1868, and it permitted unrestricted immigration by Chinese to the U.S. The Chinese immigrants were the only ones who could complete the building of the railroad over the treacherous Sierra-Nevada mountain range, which finally enabled linking the West Coast to the East Coast by railroad. Afterward, factory owners as far away as Massachusetts would transport Chinese immigrants from California in order to break a strike by union workers (in other words, replace the local striking workers with the transported Chinese immigrants).

Conflicts with Indians continued during the Civil War and afterward.
The Sioux Wars lasted from 1864 to 1867 between Indians and the Union army in Colorado, Montana, and the Dakotas (North and South Dakota). The most famous battle of all, however, occurred a decade later. General George Custer was a highly popular and charismatic cavalry officer who sported long yellow hair and the latest fashions in his clothing. But he had also graduated last in his class at West Point, in contrast to many of the Civil War officers who took their coursework more seriously. In 1876, Custer led his men to Little Big Horn (now in Montana) to handle a conflict with Indians. Custer's superiors opposed an immediate attack on the Indians, and told Custer to wait before leading the charge. Overly aggressive and perhaps attempting to become a hero, Custer charged ahead anyway. The Sioux and Cheyenne warriors, led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, then overwhelmed Custer and his men and slaughtered all of them. The warriors scalped all of Custer's men, except Custer himself, whose strange clothing may have misled the warriors into thinking he was an innocent civilian! This massacre at Wounded Knee is popularly known today as "Custer's Last Stand."

Another embarrassing bit of history during this period was corruption in the government of New York City, where the "Tammany Hall" of the Democratic Party ruled from 1805 to 1871. It was finally broken up when its leader "Boss Tweed" was imprisoned for taking tens of millions of dollars from the city and his opponents won the election in November 1871. His famous quote when caught stealing was, "What are you going to do about it?"

In the New York City elections of 1868, Tammany Hall had worked to steal the outcome by giving this advice:<ref>A. Callow, The Tweed Ring 210 (1966) (quoting M. Werner, Tammany Hall 439 (1928)).</ref>

{{cquote|When you've voted 'em with their whiskers on, you take 'em to a barber and scrape off the chin fringe. Then you vote 'em again with the side lilacs and a mustache. Then to a barber again, off comes the sides and you vote 'em a third time with the mustache. If that ain't enough and the box can stand a few more ballots, clean off the mustache and vote 'em plain face. That makes every one of 'em good for four votes.}}

When Boss Tweed was eventually arrested, [[robber baron]] Jay Gould posted a multi-million dollar bail for him. A decade later, in 1886, Tammany Hall regained power, and ran New York City politics until 1932, when Fiorello La Guardia was elected. La Guardia airport is named after him.

Offsetting all that bad news was some good news from the late 1800s. Baseball developed as a uniquely American sport during the Civil War, as soldiers found a way to pass the time between battles. After the war, informal leagues began to develop. The first professional team was the Cincinnati Red Stockings (now the "Reds"), formed in 1869. Then, the same year as the massacre of Custer's men in Little Big Horn, 1876, the National League was founded. The American League -- the league for the New York Yankees -- did not arise until 1903.

== Grant Administration ==

Once the Civil War ended, the powerful forces of capitalism brought the United States new prosperity remarkably quickly. Most countries, not benefiting from the free enterprise that exists in the United States, would take 50 to 100 years to recover from such a devastating Civil War. But the United States recovered in less than 10 years. By 1875, the United States had a budget surplus (taking in more money than it spent), and it enjoyed a budget surplus for every year until 1893! In contrast, rarely has there been a budget surplus in the United States since 1975.

The first president elected after the Civil War ended was, not surprisingly, the Union General credited with winning it: Ulysses S. Grant. He won the presidency in 1868 (after President Andrew Johnson completed his term) and served two full terms, through 1876. Grant was a Republican who favored the "gold standard" for the economy, which means he preferred "hard money" (gold) over "soft money" (paper that can lose its value due to inflation). Grant, however, was considered a weak executive for not properly supervising the bureaucrats who worked for him. Specifically, Grant is blamed for having a corrupt Administration, even though he was not corrupt himself.

His presidency was at the beginning of the "Gilded Age," a name given by the writer Mark Twain to describe a period that appeared golden on the surface but was the opposite underneath. This period, and the Grant Administration, is criticized for corrupt business and government dealings. We will discuss the Gilded Age more in the next lecture.

But the truth is that the American economy prospered enormously during this period, particularly in the 1870s and 1880s. There was almost no government regulation that burdens businesses so much today. It was a spectacularly creative and industrious period, with many of the greatest inventions (e.g., light bulb, telephone, motion pictures, and phonograph) developed then.

Nevertheless, historians emphasize business and government scandals that occurred in the absence of modern regulation. In 1869, for example, there was the "Fisk-Gould Scandal," in which financiers ("Wall Street" types) tried to corner (monopolize) the gold market. This caused "Black Friday," with the price of gold first going way up, and then going way down. The Grant Administration broke up the scheme by selling gold reserves.

'''Debate: Is there anything wrong with speculation, or prices going way up and then way down?'''

Next government corruption occurred in the Credit Mobilier scandal, which consisted of bribery with a construction company that had been created by the powerful Union Pacific Railroad in the period of 1865-69. This scandal, first uncovered in 1872 by Congress, symbolized the government corruption of the Grant Administration. Specifically, owners of the Union Pacific Railroad formed a new company, the Credit Mobilier of America, in order to award it with profitable contracts to build a railroad out West. Then stock in this construction company was given to influential congressmen, who next approved spending taxpayer money to pay for the railroad construction. The result was huge profits for the owners of the railroad and the congressmen, at the expense of taxpayers. A New York newspaper publicized the scandal just before the 1872 elections, and the Speaker of the House (the Republican James Blaine of Maine) set up congressional hearings to investigate and publicize the scandal. The hearings lasted into 1873 and discredited the government.<ref>http://cprr.org/Museum/Credit_Mobilier.html</ref>

Another scandal, the Whiskey Ring, was even worse. It consisted of many government agents in the Grant Administration participating in a conspiracy or scheme to steal whiskey taxes for themselves. To help pay for the Civil War, federal liquor taxes were increased to very high amounts. But many distillers bribed officials in the Department of the Treasury to reduce the cost of their tax stamps. An investigation resulted in the conviction of more than 100 officials in the Grant Administration, and even Grant's private secretary, Orville Babcock, was accused (but he was never convicted).<ref>http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h234.html</ref> As a result of these scandals, there was growing public pressure to end the "spoils system" first established by President Andrew Jackson.

In 1873, the Republican-controlled Congress doubled the salary of the president to $50,000 a year (a great deal of money in those days), and increased the salary of many other officials in government. The public was outraged, and their outcry caused a partial repeal.

Grant had to deal with a big problem caused by the Civil War: inflation. Wars are expensive. Remember the French and Indian War and how Britain taxed the colonies afterward? Somebody has to pay all the bills from a war: the hospitals, the weapons, the food, the transportation, and even the meager wages for soldiers.

The revenue from tariffs was not enough to pay for the Civil War. Lincoln started an income tax for the first time (it expired in 1872). He suspended the payment by the government to citizens in gold and silver, to protect its reserves. He taxed manufacturers and the public through sales taxes. But most of all, Lincoln financed the Civil War by issuing "greenbacks", similar to our green dollar bills today. This was a change from monetary practices under Alexander Hamilton, when all currency was backed by gold or silver. Lincoln's greenbacks were not backed by anything at all. The government simply printed and distributed them.

===Inflation and the Gold Standard===

When the government increases the amount of money out there, it causes inflation. Everyone starts to realize that the money is not worth as much anymore because the government is printing more of it. So inflation increased during the Civil War. What cost $100 when the War started in 1861 cost about $170 after it was over. That's 70% inflation in just a few years, which is terrible if you have money in the bank. Your savings are then worth only a little more than half what it was before the war. Guess how much that $100 cost in 1861 would be worth today. (About $2,282!). You can compare inflation between any two years with this website: http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

Recall our ongoing struggle between debtors (farmers) and creditors (bankers). Which side likes inflation? (The farmers.) Their income increases because eggs, meat, milk, etc., are all increasing in prices when there is inflation. Meanwhile, the money the farmers owe the bank does not increase; it is still the same loan as when they initially borrowed the money from the bank to set up their farm. So farmers love inflation, while bankers dislike it because the real value of the loan decreases during inflation due to the decrease in the value of the paper money used to pay off the loan.

Whether to have more inflation, or less inflation, became the single biggest issue between the Civil War and 1900. This conflict manifested itself in many different ways.

The first issue arose just after the Civil War: what should the government do about all the greenbacks? The farmers loved them, but the bankers did not. The bankers, who were powerful within the Republican Party (and, before that, in the Whig Party), demanded that the government stop issuing money unless it is backed by gold. Many people still feel the same way today, but for a different reason: preventing the government from printing more money helps limit government power. The less the government can print and spend, the less power it has.

Then the financial Panic of 1873 hit. Like the Panic of 1837, this financial panic caused many railroads to shut down. Unemployment increased. Just as the power of a political party goes in cycles, the economy goes in cycles also. Prosperity alternates with recessions or depressions. Good times alternate with bad times. Republicans blamed the financial panic on too much speculation in railroads, and passed a law limiting the availability of money for everyone, including speculators. Republicans did this by making gold (and not silver) the only monetary standard of United States currency, which opponents called the "Crime of 1873" (a new coinage law that halted the mining of silver and made gold the sole standard for currency). This ended Alexander Hamilton's policy of "bimetallism", which set both gold and silver as standards of currency in a 15:1 ratio of silver to gold.

Recall that President Jackson had issued the "Specie Circular" in 1836 in response to inflation and land speculation resultant from the increase in paper money at that time. Jackson's Specie Circular provided that only gold and silver (and sometimes Virginia land scrip) would be accepted by the government for payment for public lands. After the Panic of 1837, Jackson's Specie Circular was repealed in 1838.

Money then became scarcer when Grant converted to the gold ("hard money") standard, and inflation ended. Farmers were outraged, calling this the "Crime of 1873." What cost $100 in 1872 cost only $77.82 by 1880. Deflation, not inflation, was occurring! Deflation is devastating to farmers. The prices for the goods they are selling decreases, while the real value of their loans that they have to pay back grows larger.

So the farmers formed a new political party in reaction to the deflation and "Crime of 1873": the Greenback Party. The so-called "Greenbackers" opposed the gold standard and opposed allowing people to turn in Greenback currency for gold. They were farmers and debtors who wanted inflation, and who wanted silver coins to cause inflation. In 1878 and 1880 the Greenback Party won two dozen seats in Congress. But that was not enough to change the country, and the government went ahead with redeeming greenbacks in gold. The Greenback Party peaked in 1878 and disappeared by 1884 as the political issues changed.

== References ==

<references/>

[[Category:American History lectures]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:American History Lecture 06}}

Bruce Kovner

2013-01-28T18:18:22Z

Barack: /* References */

[[Image:Bruce Kovner.jpg|right|thumb|100px]]
'''Bruce Stanley Kovner''' (born 1945 in Brooklyn, New York) is a businessman and Chairman of the [[neoconservative]] think tank [[American Enterprise Institute]]. His current net-worth is estimated to be around $2.5 billion. Bruce Kovner is described by his colleagues as a private person and an "introvert". [[Richard Perle]] described Bruce Kovner as “brilliant,” and “intellectually rigorous, balanced, and thoughtful.”

Bruce Kovner's family immigrated to the United States in the early 1900s from Tsarist Russia to escape from prosecution for their involvement in Communist groups.

==Education==
Bruce Kovner studied political science at Harvard College starting in 1962, under the prominent conservative scholar Edward C. Banfield. However he never managed to finish his PhD thesis.

==Business Career==
After leaving Harvard, Bruce Kovner took a job as writer and music critic of ''[[Commentary]]'' magazine, where he met [[Norman Podhoretz]] who described Bruce Kovner as "an intellectual". During this period, Bruce Kovner also took a part-time job as a cab driver. Around 1976, Bruce Kovner began studying commodities, and was hired as a trader for Commodities Corp. In 1983, Bruce Kovner started his own hedge fund trading business.

==View On Religion==
According to Bruce Kovner's close friend, “I have never seen the Jewish-culture aspect of Bruce. I would guess that he is basically agnostic.”

Bruce sucks dick

Ground Zero Mosque

2013-01-28T18:17:19Z

Barack: /* Reaction of 9/11 Families */

[[File:Ground Zero Mosque1.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Proposed location of Cordoba House (or "Park51") on Park Place, lower Manhattan, New York City.]]
The '''"Ground Zero Mosque"''' controversy concerns the proposed construction of an Islamic cultural center containing a [[mosque]], two or three blocks from the wreckage of the former [[World Trade Center]], which fanatic [[Islamic]] [[terrorist]]s destroyed on [[9/11]], killing almost 3,000 people.<ref name="dailymail1">[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1303463/Obama-backtracks-Ground-Zero-mosque.html Obama backtracks on Ground Zero Mosque]</ref> The plans for the building, originally dubbed "Cordoba House" (but changed to "Park51"), are a collaboration between the [[Cordoba Initiative]] and the [[American Society for Muslim Advancement]] (ASMA), a Muslim organization created in 1997<ref> [http://www.asmasociety.org/home/ ASMA]</ref> to promote "integration and tolerance based on Islamic values of compassion."<ref name="aol">[http://www.aolnews.com/article/ground-zero-mosque-rebuttal-the-9-11-christian-center/19556400 Ground Zero Mosque Rebuttal]</ref> The vast majority of Americans oppose the plan as "insensitive" to the families of the 9/11 victims.<ref>According to a [http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2011799,00.html TIME magazine poll] from August 2010</ref>

Although the backers of the construction project have no connection with al-Qaeda terrorists, opposition to the project generally equates letting it proceed with as supporting terrorism, even if only in an indirect way.

anuslicking ballsacktouching

==Public Criticism==
[[Sarah Palin]] stated that "to build a mosque at Ground Zero is a stab in the heart of the families of the innocent victims of those horrific attacks."<ref name="post">[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/17/AR2010081705860.html?hpid=topnews Washington Post]</ref><ref>[http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=411073718434 An Intolerable Mistake on Hallowed Ground]</ref> Former [[Speaker of the House of Representatives]] [[Newt Gingrich]] compared the mosque's construction to placing a [[swastika]] next to the [[Holocaust]] Museum in [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref name="post"></ref> Bill Keller, a born-again [[Christian]] and preacher, has stated that because the mosque is "a spit in the face of the people of [[New York City|New York]]," he plans to build a $1 million Christian center near the World Trade Center as well.<ref name="aol"></ref>

[[Dick Morris]] summed up the heart of the matter quite succinctly:
{{cquote|'''The proposed mosque near to ground zero is not really a religious institution. It would be — as many mosques throughout the nation are — a terrorist recruitment, indoctrination and training center. ''It is not the worship of [[Islam]] that is the problem.'' It is the efforts to advance [[Sharia Law]] with its requirement of [[Jihad]] and violence that is the nub of the issue. <ref>[http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/ground-zero-mosque-the-real-issue/ Dick Morris; GROUND ZERO MOSQUE: THE REAL ISSUE</ref>}}

==Obama's Support==
Despite overwhelming public opposition to the mosque's construction, President Obama, at a White House dinner held to mark the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, stated that Muslims have
"the right to build a place of worship and a community center" near the site of the attacks. Through his comments, Obama, purposefully or not, aligned himself with Islamic terrorist associations like Hamas, which continually argue that Muslims "have to build everywhere"<ref name="dailymail1"></ref> in an attempt to draw more converts.

Faced with an intense popular backlash, Obama backtracked from his comments the next day and stated that "I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there."<ref name="dailymail1"></ref> The White House, however, steadfastly maintains that he was not backing away from his comments, but rather clarifying them.

Obama said:
#"I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right that people have that dates back to our founding."
#"my intention was simply to let people know what I thought. Which was that in this country we treat everybody equally and in accordance with the law, regardless of race, regardless of religion." [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100814/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_ground_zero_mosque_obama]

=="Declaration of Victory"==
Many critics of the mosque's planned construction worry that the placement of a mosque so close to the site of an Islamic terrorist attack is tantamount to allowing a declaration of victory by al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist organizations that supported the 9/11 attacks. This became more and more evident when government of New York City offered the Islamic group the option to build elsewhere in the city, at reduced cost, which the group quickly refused.<ref name="foxnews">[http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/08/11/ny-governor-offer-state-property-mosque-built-farther-away-ground-zero/ Offer Rejected to Move Mosque Away From Ground Zero]</ref> Also telling was the original proposed name of "Cordoba House," Córdoba being a former Roman city conquered by Muslims in 711 AD. Moorish troops destroyed much of the city and built numerous mosques. The city became a hugely important site in the early Islamic movement.<ref>http://www.sacred-destinations.com/spain/cordoba-history.htm</ref> In one concession to decency, the Park51 organizers agreed to drop the reference to Muslim conquest and rename the project.<ref>http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/07/14/2010-07-14_new_name_doesnt_mosque_their_ire_tense_hearing_on_park51_near_ground_zero.html</ref>

Dr. Gamal Abd Al-Gawad, director of Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, Egypt, stated that the mosque's presence and location would "remind Americans of what Muslims did on 9/11" and that "it's not good for Muslims and Islam to be in the heart of such a controversy."<ref name="hnn">[http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/130299.html History News Network]</ref>

==Faulty Comparison and Appeal to Judaism==
Some supporters of the mosque, including the AMSA itself, have compared the plans for the mosque to plans by Jewish groups to construct a center (albeit one much smaller) within a few miles of the former World Trade Center. By comparing themselves to the Jewish people of New York and the world, the AMSA is hoping to draw similarities between themselves and Israel, a staunch American ally. This comparison, however, ignores the fact that neither Israel nor any Jewish group has committed an attack against Americans, either on American soil or abroad. This comparison has also drawn criticism from watchdog organizations like Jihadwatch.org, which faulted the comparison because
<blockquote>'''Radical Jews have never bombed the West side of Manhattan nor killed 3000 Americans in the name of Judaism''' (their emphasis).<ref name="jihadwatch">[http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/08/islamic-supremacist-mega-mosque-like-skokie-nazi-march-legal-but-hurtful.html Islamic Supremacist Mosque]</ref></blockquote>

Other supporters compared the Muslim plans to construct a mosque to the demand by the [[Nazi Party|National Socialist Party of America]] (NSPA) to march through the village of Skokie, Illinois (home to many [[Holocaust]] survivors), in 1977. Despite the controversial nature of the march and overwhelming public opposition to it, the Supreme Court agreed with the ACLU's defense of the NSPA that their actions were covered by the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech. These supporters, however, fail to note several key differences between these two situations:<ref name="jihadwatch"></ref>
*The NSPA's planned march was nothing more than a "disgusting publicity stunt" and a ''temporary'' action (a small group march for the city's center). This stands in sharp contrast to the ''construction'' of a mosque, a far more permanent and imposing structure.
*Although the First Amendment does protect many examples of free speech, the Supreme Court decided in ''Roth v United States'' that standards could be applied to obscenity or otherwise ruthlessly inflammatory speech. Some could argue, as many of the 9/11 families have done, that the construction of a mosque near the former World Trade Center would constitute exactly this type of "speech."

==Viewpoints of Islamic leaders==

Sarah Palin's Facebook page attributes to Imam [[Faisal Abdul Rauf]] the following quote:
* "United States’ policies were an accessory to the crime that happened."<ref> [http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=411073718434 Sarah Palin's Facebook Page]</ref>

Faisal's website says that he was misquoted:
* The ‘60 Minutes’ piece was completely incorrect as the statement was edited out of context. In the full interview, Imam Feisal describes the mistake the CIA made in the 1980s by financing Osama Bin Laden and strengthening the Taliban. This view is widely shared within the US and the US Government today, and Imam Feisal underlines the importance of not supporting “friends of convenience” who may in the future become our enemies. This is common sense. [http://www.cordobainitiative.org/?q=content/frequently-asked-questions Cordoba Initiative] - Frequently Asked Questions

==Statements by other religious leaders==

Bruce Grodner, bishop of the New York district of the [[Unification Church]], suggests addressing the issue with an [[interreligious]] perspective.

==References==
<references />
[[Category:New York]]
[[Category:Islam]]

Battle of Adys

2013-01-28T18:16:47Z

Barack: /* Sources */

The '''Battle of Adys''' fought in 256 B.C. was part of the [[Punic Wars#First Punic War|First Punic War]] fought between [[Carthage]] and [[Roman Republic|Rome]]. The Romans had landed in Africa after the Carthaginians had been unable to stop them at the naval [[battle of Cape Ecnomus]]. An army of 20,000 men under [[Regulus]] then won the decisive battle, forcing Carthage to sue for peace. The terms were so harsh, however, that Carthage continued the war, which would then be fought for 15 more years.

i LIKE TO SUCK PENIS

Slave Power

2013-01-28T18:16:11Z

Barack: /* Threat to republicanism */

'''Slave Power''' was pejorative - but deserved, and accurate - term used by opponents of slavery in the U.S. to identify the corrupting influence that [[slavery]] had on the [[United States of America]]. The [[Republican Party]] made it a main theme of the 1850s, arguing that the slave owners had seized control of most of the national government and were using it to their own ends. The Republicans argued this violated [[Republicanism]]--that is, it violated basic American political values.

The [[American Civil War]] destroyed the "slave power" and the Republican policies during [[Reconstruction]] were specifically designed to totally erase its influence.

This is a racist website

==Southern power==
Slave Power derived from a combination of factors. The "three-fifths clause," (counting 100 slaves as 60 people for seats in the House and thus for electoral votes) gave the South additional representation at the national level.<ref> Garry Wills, ''"Negro President": Jefferson and the Slave Power,'' (2005) </ref> Parity in the Senate was critical, whereby a new slave state was admitted in tandem with a new free state. Regional unity across party lines was essential on key votes. In the Democratic party, the a presidential candidate had to carry the national convention by a two-thirds vote to get nominated. It was also essential for some northerners--"Doughfaces"<ref>Most Doughfaces were [[Jacksonian Democracy|Jacksonian Democrats]] like [[Franklin Pierce]] and [[James Buchanan]]; few were Whigs.</ref>--to collaborate with the South proved crucial, as in the debates surrounding the three-fifths clause itself in 1787, the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the gag rule in the House (1836-1844), and the wider subject of the [[Wilmot Proviso]] and slavery expansion in the Southwest after the Mexican war of 1846-48.<ref> Richards (2000) </ref> However, the North was adding population--and House seats--much faster than the South, so the handwriting was on the wall. With the implacable Republicans gaining every year, the secession option became more and more attractive to the South. Secession was suicidal, as some leaders realized--and as [[John Quincy Adams]] had long prophesied. Secession, argued James Henry Hammond of South Carolina, reminded him of "the Japanese who when insulted rip open their own bowels." And yet when secession came in 1860 Hammond followed. Richards concludes, "It was men like Hammond who finally destroyed the Slave Power. Thanks to their leading the South out of the Union, seventy-two years of slaveholder domination came to an end." <ref> Richards (2000) pp. 214-15. </ref>

==bAllLsACK==
The problem posed by slavery, it was argued by opponents of the Slave Power was not so much the mistreatment of slaves (a theme that abolitionists emphasized), but rather the political threat to American [[Republicanism]], and more generally to American standards of liberty. The [[Free Soil Party]] first raised this warning in 1848, arguing that the annexation of Texas as a slave state was a terrible mistake. Their strong rhetoric became a central theme in the new anti-slavery [[U.S. Republican Party, history|Republican party]], especially in the election of 1856.

The Republican argument was that slavery was economically inefficient, compared to free labor, and was a deterrent to the long-term modernization of America. Worse, said the Republicans, the Slave Power was systematically seizing control of the White House, the Congress, and the Supreme Court. Senator and governor [[Salmon P. Chase]] of Ohio was an articulate enemy of the Slave Power, as was Senator [[Charles Sumner]] of Massachusetts and Republican party leader [[Abraham Lincoln]] of Illinois. The Southerns replied that they were committed to democracy and republicanism, and that assaults on their "peculiar institution" (slavery) was an illegitimate effort to make them second class citizens. By 1850 they talked of secession.

==House divided==
In his "House Divided" speech of June 1858, Lincoln charged that Senator [[Stephen A. Douglas]], President [[James Buchanan]], his predecessor, [[Franklin Pierce]], and Chief Justice [[Roger Taney]] were all part of a plot to nationalize slavery, as proven by the Court's ''[[Dred Scott]]'' decision of 1857.

Other Republicans pointed to the [[Bleeding Kansas|violence in Kansas]], the brutal [[Charles Sumner|assault on Senator Sumner]] on the floor of the Senate, attacks upon the abolitionist press, and efforts to take over [[Cuba]] as new slave territory, as evidence that the Slave Power was violent, aggressive, and expansive.

The only solution, Republicans insisted, was a new commitment to free labor, and a deliberate effort to stop any more territorial expansion of slavery. Northern Democrats answered that it was all an exaggeration and that the Republicans were paranoid. Their Southern colleagues spoke of secession, arguing that the John Brown raid of 1859 proved that the Republicans were ready to attack their region and destroy their way of life.

In congratulating President-elect Lincoln in 1860, [[Salmon P. Chase]] exclaimed, "The object of my wishes and labors for nineteen years is accomplished in the overthrow of the Slave Power", adding that the way was now clear "for the establishment of the policy of Freedom" — something that would come only after four destructive years of [[American Civil War|Civil War]].
==Wartime==
The Republicans believed that the Confederacy was created by and for the benefit of the Slave Power, and that destroying one involved destroying the other.

In August, 1861, he supported the first law attacking slavery, the Confiscation Act that said owners would forfeit any slaves they allowed to help the Confederate war effort. By December he was the first Congressional leader pushing for emancipation as a tool to weaken the rebellion. He called for total war on January 22, 1862:
<blockquote>
"Let us not be deceived. Those who talk about peace in sixty days are shallow statesmen. The war will not end until the government shall more fully recognize the magnitude of the crisis; until they have discovered that this is an internecine war in which one party or the other must be reduced to hopeless feebleness and the power of further effort shall be utterly annihilated. It is a sad but true alternative. The South can never be reduced to that condition so long as the war is prosecuted on its present principles. The North with all its millions of people and its countless wealth can never conquer the South until a new mode of warfare is adopted. So long as these states are left the means of cultivating their fields through forced labor, you may expend the blood of thousands and billions of money year by year, without being any nearer the end, unless you reach it by your own submission and the ruin of the nation. Slavery gives the South a great advantage in time of war. They need not, and do not, withdraw a single hand from the cultivation of the soil. Every able-bodied white man can be spared for the army. The black man, without lifting a weapon, is the mainstay of the war. How, then, can the war be carried on so as to save the Union and constitutional liberty? Prejudices may be shocked, weak minds startled, weak nerves may tremble, but they must hear and adopt it. Universal emancipation must be proclaimed to all. Those who now furnish the means of war, but who are the natural enemies of slaveholders, must be made our allies. If the slaves no longer raised cotton and rice, tobacco and grain for the rebels, this war would cease in six months, even though the liberated slaves would not raise a hand against their masters. They would no longer produce the means by which they sustain the war."<ref>Woodburn 178-179</ref></blockquote>

One of the key reasons for Lincoln's announcement of the [[Emancipation proclamation]] in September, 1862, was to reassure the North that the destruction of the Slave Power was indeed a war goal.

==Reconstruction==
In [[Reconstruction]], one of the main objectives of the U.S. Congress, especially the [[Radical Republicans]] like Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens was to guarantee that the Slavery Power was permanently dead. They decided the only way to achieve this was to give Freedmen (freed slaves) the right to vote, while stripping the vote away from leavers of the Confederacy. Despite widespread doubts in the North, in fact the white South unanimously agreed that slavery was dead and there were no efforts whatever to resurrect it.

==Activists==
Blue (2006) explores the motives and actions of those who played supportive but not central roles in antislavery politics—those who undertook the humdrum work of organizing local parties, holding conventions, editing newspapers, and generally animating and agitating the discussion of issues related to slavery. They were a small but critical number of voices who, beginning in the late 1830s, battled the institution of slavery through political activism. In the face of great odds and powerful opposition, activists insisted that emancipation and racial equality could only be achieved through the political process. Representative activists include: Alvan Stewart, a Liberty party organizer from New York; [[John Greenleaf Whittier]], a Massachusetts poet, journalist, and Liberty activist; Charles Henry Langston, an Ohio African American educator; [[Owen Lovejoy]], a congressman from Illinois, whose brother was killed by a pro-slavery mob; Sherman Booth, a journalist and Liberty organizer in Wisconsin; Jane Grey Swisshelm, a journalist in Pennsylvania and Minnesota; [[George W. Julian]], a congressman from Indiana; David Wilmot, a congressman from Pennsylvania whose [[Wilmot proviso]] tried to stop the expansion of slavery in the Southwest; [[Benjamin Wade]] and Edward Wade, a senator and a congressman, respectively, from Ohio; and Jessie Benton Frémont of Missouri and California, wife of the Republican 1856 presidential nominee [[John C. Frémont]].<ref> See Blue (2006)</ref>
==Impact of Democratic Free Soilers==
The Democrats who rallied to [[Martin Van Buren]]'s "Free Soil Party" in 1848 have been studied by Earle (2003). Their views on race occupied a wide spectrum, but they were able to fashion new and vital arguments against slavery and its expansion based on the [[Jacksonian Democracy]]'s long-standing commitment to egalitarianism and hostility to centralized power. Linking their antislavery stance to a land-reform agenda that pressed for free land for poor settlers -- realized by the Homestead Law of 1862--in addition to land free of slavery, Free Soil Democrats forced major political realignments in New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Ohio. Democratic politicians such as Wilmot, Marcus Morton, John Parker Hale, and even former president Van Buren were transformed into antislavery leaders. Many entered the new Republican party after 1854, bringing along Jacksonian ideas about property and political equality, helping transform antislavery from a struggling crusade into a mass political movement that came to power in 1860.<ref> See Earle (2003)</ref>

==Centralize power ==

Historian [[Henry Adams]] explained that the Slave Power was a force for centralization:<ref>Henry Adams, ''John Randolph'' (1882) pp 178-79</ref>
:"Between the slave power and states' rights there was no necessary connection. The slave power, when in control, was a centralizing influence, and all the most considerable encroachments on states' rights were its acts. The acquisition and admission of Louisiana; the Embargo; the War of 1812; the annexation of Texas "by joint resolution" [rather than treaty]; the war with Mexico, declared by the mere announcement of President Polk; the Fugitive Slave Law; the Dred Scott decision — all triumphs of the slave power — did far more than either tariffs or internal improvements, which in their origin were also southern measures, to destroy the very memory of states' rights as they existed in 1789. Whenever a question arose of extending or protecting slavery, the slaveholders became friends of centralized power, and used that dangerous weapon with a kind of frenzy. Slavery in fact required centralization in order to maintain and protect itself, but it required to control the centralized machine; it needed despotic principles of government, but it needed them exclusively for its own use. Thus, in truth, states' rights were the protection of the free states, and as a matter of fact, during the domination of the slave power, Massachusetts appealed to this protecting principle as often and almost as loudly as South Carolina."

==Bibliography==
* Ashworth, John. "Free Labor, Wage Labor, and Slave Power: Republicanism and the Republican Party in the 1850s," in ''The Market Revolution in America: Social, Political and Religious Expressions, 1800-1880'', edited by S. M. Stokes and S. Conway (1996), 128-46.
* Blue, Frederick J. ''No Taint of Compromise: Crusaders in Antislavery Politics'' (2004) [http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0807132055/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-4827826-5463040#reader-link excerpt and text search]
* Boucher, Chauncey S. "In Re That Aggressive Slavocracy," ''The Mississippi Valley Historical Review'' Vol. 8, No. 1/2 (Jun., 1921), pp. 13-79 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0161-391X%28192106%2F09%298%3A1%2F2%3C13%3AIRTAS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V in JSTOR]
* Craven, Avery. "Coming of the War Between the States An Interpretation," ''The Journal of Southern History,'' Vol. 2, No. 3 (1936), pp. 303-322; rejects notion of Slave Power [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-4642(193608)2%3A3%3C303%3ACOTWBT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8 in JSTOR]
* Davis, David Brion. ''The Slave Power Conspiracy and the Paranoid Style'' (1969)
* Earle, Jonathan. ''Jacksonian Antislavery and the Politics of Free Soil, 1824-1854'' (2004) [http://www.amazon.com/Jacksonian-Antislavery-Politics-Free-1824-1854/dp/0807855553/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195732386&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Foner, Eric. ''Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War'' (1970)], esp pp. 73-102 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=90104191 online edition]
* Gara, Larry . "Slavery and the Slave Power: A Crucial Distinction" ''Civil War History'' v15 (1969), pp 5-18
* Gienapp, William E. "The Republican Party and the Slave Power," in Robert H. Abzug and Stephen E. Maizlish, eds., ''New Perspectives on Race and Slavery in America'' (1986), pp 51-78
* McInerney, Daniel J. "'A State of Commerce': Market Power and Slave Power in Abolitionist Political Economy." ''Civil War History'' 1991 37(2): 101-119. Issn: 0009-8078
* Richards, Leonard L. ''Slave Power: The Free North and Southern Domination, 1780-1860'' (2000), the standard scholarly history; [http://www.amazon.com/Slave-Power-Southern-Domination-1780-1860/dp/0807126004/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195730674&sr=8-5 excerpt and text search]
* Trefousse, Hans L. ''Thaddeus Stevens: Nineteenth-Century Egalitarian'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=97209778 online version]
* Woodburn, James Albert. ''The Life of Thaddeus Stevens: A Study in American Political History, Especially in the Period of the Civil War and Reconstruction''. (1913) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=3161778 online version]

===Primary sources===
* Cairnes, John Elliott. ''The Slave Power: Its Character, Career, and Probable Designs'' (1862), British political tract [http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moa;idno=AFN8980 online text of the second edition]; [http://books.google.com/books?id=VWoFAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:%22slave+power%22&num=30&as_brr=1 complete text online]
* Lowance Jr., Mason I. ed. ''House Divided: The Antebellum Slavery Debates in America, 1776-1865'' (2003) [http://www.amazon.com/House-Divided-Antebellum-Slavery-1776-1865/dp/0691002282/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230544251&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Thompson, C. Bradley ed. ''Anti-Slavery Political Writings, 1833-1860: A Reader'' (2003)
* Henry Wilson, ''History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America'' (in 3 volumes, 1872 & 1877) [http://books.google.com/books?id=iG4FAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:%22slave+power%22&num=30&as_brr=1 vol 2 online]; [http://books.google.com/books?id=tG4FAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:%22slave+power%22&num=30&as_brr=1 vol 3 online]
*[http://antislavery.eserver.org/treatises/the_slave_power.doc/file_view ''The Slave Power''] speeches of abolitionist Theodore Parker, 1841-52

==See also==
* [[Republican Party]]
* [[Democratic Party]]
* [[Third Party System]]
* [[American Civil War]]
* [[Abraham Lincoln]]
* [[Reconstruction]]
* [[Thaddeus Stevens]]
* [[Charles Sumner]]

===Notes===
<references/>
[[Category:American Civil War]]
[[Category:Reconstruction]]
[[Category:Slavery]]
[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:Black History]]
[[category:Jacksonian Democracy]]

Slave Power

2013-01-28T18:15:28Z

Barack: /* Ante-bellum */

'''Slave Power''' was pejorative - but deserved, and accurate - term used by opponents of slavery in the U.S. to identify the corrupting influence that [[slavery]] had on the [[United States of America]]. The [[Republican Party]] made it a main theme of the 1850s, arguing that the slave owners had seized control of most of the national government and were using it to their own ends. The Republicans argued this violated [[Republicanism]]--that is, it violated basic American political values.

The [[American Civil War]] destroyed the "slave power" and the Republican policies during [[Reconstruction]] were specifically designed to totally erase its influence.

This is a racist website

==Southern power==
Slave Power derived from a combination of factors. The "three-fifths clause," (counting 100 slaves as 60 people for seats in the House and thus for electoral votes) gave the South additional representation at the national level.<ref> Garry Wills, ''"Negro President": Jefferson and the Slave Power,'' (2005) </ref> Parity in the Senate was critical, whereby a new slave state was admitted in tandem with a new free state. Regional unity across party lines was essential on key votes. In the Democratic party, the a presidential candidate had to carry the national convention by a two-thirds vote to get nominated. It was also essential for some northerners--"Doughfaces"<ref>Most Doughfaces were [[Jacksonian Democracy|Jacksonian Democrats]] like [[Franklin Pierce]] and [[James Buchanan]]; few were Whigs.</ref>--to collaborate with the South proved crucial, as in the debates surrounding the three-fifths clause itself in 1787, the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the gag rule in the House (1836-1844), and the wider subject of the [[Wilmot Proviso]] and slavery expansion in the Southwest after the Mexican war of 1846-48.<ref> Richards (2000) </ref> However, the North was adding population--and House seats--much faster than the South, so the handwriting was on the wall. With the implacable Republicans gaining every year, the secession option became more and more attractive to the South. Secession was suicidal, as some leaders realized--and as [[John Quincy Adams]] had long prophesied. Secession, argued James Henry Hammond of South Carolina, reminded him of "the Japanese who when insulted rip open their own bowels." And yet when secession came in 1860 Hammond followed. Richards concludes, "It was men like Hammond who finally destroyed the Slave Power. Thanks to their leading the South out of the Union, seventy-two years of slaveholder domination came to an end." <ref> Richards (2000) pp. 214-15. </ref>

==Threat to republicanism==
The problem posed by slavery, it was argued by opponents of the Slave Power was not so much the mistreatment of slaves (a theme that abolitionists emphasized), but rather the political threat to American [[Republicanism]], and more generally to American standards of liberty. The [[Free Soil Party]] first raised this warning in 1848, arguing that the annexation of Texas as a slave state was a terrible mistake. Their strong rhetoric became a central theme in the new anti-slavery [[U.S. Republican Party, history|Republican party]], especially in the election of 1856.

The Republican argument was that slavery was economically inefficient, compared to free labor, and was a deterrent to the long-term modernization of America. Worse, said the Republicans, the Slave Power was systematically seizing control of the White House, the Congress, and the Supreme Court. Senator and governor [[Salmon P. Chase]] of Ohio was an articulate enemy of the Slave Power, as was Senator [[Charles Sumner]] of Massachusetts and Republican party leader [[Abraham Lincoln]] of Illinois. The Southerns replied that they were committed to democracy and republicanism, and that assaults on their "peculiar institution" (slavery) was an illegitimate effort to make them second class citizens. By 1850 they talked of secession.

==House divided==
In his "House Divided" speech of June 1858, Lincoln charged that Senator [[Stephen A. Douglas]], President [[James Buchanan]], his predecessor, [[Franklin Pierce]], and Chief Justice [[Roger Taney]] were all part of a plot to nationalize slavery, as proven by the Court's ''[[Dred Scott]]'' decision of 1857.

Other Republicans pointed to the [[Bleeding Kansas|violence in Kansas]], the brutal [[Charles Sumner|assault on Senator Sumner]] on the floor of the Senate, attacks upon the abolitionist press, and efforts to take over [[Cuba]] as new slave territory, as evidence that the Slave Power was violent, aggressive, and expansive.

The only solution, Republicans insisted, was a new commitment to free labor, and a deliberate effort to stop any more territorial expansion of slavery. Northern Democrats answered that it was all an exaggeration and that the Republicans were paranoid. Their Southern colleagues spoke of secession, arguing that the John Brown raid of 1859 proved that the Republicans were ready to attack their region and destroy their way of life.

In congratulating President-elect Lincoln in 1860, [[Salmon P. Chase]] exclaimed, "The object of my wishes and labors for nineteen years is accomplished in the overthrow of the Slave Power", adding that the way was now clear "for the establishment of the policy of Freedom" — something that would come only after four destructive years of [[American Civil War|Civil War]].
==Wartime==
The Republicans believed that the Confederacy was created by and for the benefit of the Slave Power, and that destroying one involved destroying the other.

In August, 1861, he supported the first law attacking slavery, the Confiscation Act that said owners would forfeit any slaves they allowed to help the Confederate war effort. By December he was the first Congressional leader pushing for emancipation as a tool to weaken the rebellion. He called for total war on January 22, 1862:
<blockquote>
"Let us not be deceived. Those who talk about peace in sixty days are shallow statesmen. The war will not end until the government shall more fully recognize the magnitude of the crisis; until they have discovered that this is an internecine war in which one party or the other must be reduced to hopeless feebleness and the power of further effort shall be utterly annihilated. It is a sad but true alternative. The South can never be reduced to that condition so long as the war is prosecuted on its present principles. The North with all its millions of people and its countless wealth can never conquer the South until a new mode of warfare is adopted. So long as these states are left the means of cultivating their fields through forced labor, you may expend the blood of thousands and billions of money year by year, without being any nearer the end, unless you reach it by your own submission and the ruin of the nation. Slavery gives the South a great advantage in time of war. They need not, and do not, withdraw a single hand from the cultivation of the soil. Every able-bodied white man can be spared for the army. The black man, without lifting a weapon, is the mainstay of the war. How, then, can the war be carried on so as to save the Union and constitutional liberty? Prejudices may be shocked, weak minds startled, weak nerves may tremble, but they must hear and adopt it. Universal emancipation must be proclaimed to all. Those who now furnish the means of war, but who are the natural enemies of slaveholders, must be made our allies. If the slaves no longer raised cotton and rice, tobacco and grain for the rebels, this war would cease in six months, even though the liberated slaves would not raise a hand against their masters. They would no longer produce the means by which they sustain the war."<ref>Woodburn 178-179</ref></blockquote>

One of the key reasons for Lincoln's announcement of the [[Emancipation proclamation]] in September, 1862, was to reassure the North that the destruction of the Slave Power was indeed a war goal.

==Reconstruction==
In [[Reconstruction]], one of the main objectives of the U.S. Congress, especially the [[Radical Republicans]] like Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens was to guarantee that the Slavery Power was permanently dead. They decided the only way to achieve this was to give Freedmen (freed slaves) the right to vote, while stripping the vote away from leavers of the Confederacy. Despite widespread doubts in the North, in fact the white South unanimously agreed that slavery was dead and there were no efforts whatever to resurrect it.

==Activists==
Blue (2006) explores the motives and actions of those who played supportive but not central roles in antislavery politics—those who undertook the humdrum work of organizing local parties, holding conventions, editing newspapers, and generally animating and agitating the discussion of issues related to slavery. They were a small but critical number of voices who, beginning in the late 1830s, battled the institution of slavery through political activism. In the face of great odds and powerful opposition, activists insisted that emancipation and racial equality could only be achieved through the political process. Representative activists include: Alvan Stewart, a Liberty party organizer from New York; [[John Greenleaf Whittier]], a Massachusetts poet, journalist, and Liberty activist; Charles Henry Langston, an Ohio African American educator; [[Owen Lovejoy]], a congressman from Illinois, whose brother was killed by a pro-slavery mob; Sherman Booth, a journalist and Liberty organizer in Wisconsin; Jane Grey Swisshelm, a journalist in Pennsylvania and Minnesota; [[George W. Julian]], a congressman from Indiana; David Wilmot, a congressman from Pennsylvania whose [[Wilmot proviso]] tried to stop the expansion of slavery in the Southwest; [[Benjamin Wade]] and Edward Wade, a senator and a congressman, respectively, from Ohio; and Jessie Benton Frémont of Missouri and California, wife of the Republican 1856 presidential nominee [[John C. Frémont]].<ref> See Blue (2006)</ref>
==Impact of Democratic Free Soilers==
The Democrats who rallied to [[Martin Van Buren]]'s "Free Soil Party" in 1848 have been studied by Earle (2003). Their views on race occupied a wide spectrum, but they were able to fashion new and vital arguments against slavery and its expansion based on the [[Jacksonian Democracy]]'s long-standing commitment to egalitarianism and hostility to centralized power. Linking their antislavery stance to a land-reform agenda that pressed for free land for poor settlers -- realized by the Homestead Law of 1862--in addition to land free of slavery, Free Soil Democrats forced major political realignments in New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Ohio. Democratic politicians such as Wilmot, Marcus Morton, John Parker Hale, and even former president Van Buren were transformed into antislavery leaders. Many entered the new Republican party after 1854, bringing along Jacksonian ideas about property and political equality, helping transform antislavery from a struggling crusade into a mass political movement that came to power in 1860.<ref> See Earle (2003)</ref>

==Centralize power ==

Historian [[Henry Adams]] explained that the Slave Power was a force for centralization:<ref>Henry Adams, ''John Randolph'' (1882) pp 178-79</ref>
:"Between the slave power and states' rights there was no necessary connection. The slave power, when in control, was a centralizing influence, and all the most considerable encroachments on states' rights were its acts. The acquisition and admission of Louisiana; the Embargo; the War of 1812; the annexation of Texas "by joint resolution" [rather than treaty]; the war with Mexico, declared by the mere announcement of President Polk; the Fugitive Slave Law; the Dred Scott decision — all triumphs of the slave power — did far more than either tariffs or internal improvements, which in their origin were also southern measures, to destroy the very memory of states' rights as they existed in 1789. Whenever a question arose of extending or protecting slavery, the slaveholders became friends of centralized power, and used that dangerous weapon with a kind of frenzy. Slavery in fact required centralization in order to maintain and protect itself, but it required to control the centralized machine; it needed despotic principles of government, but it needed them exclusively for its own use. Thus, in truth, states' rights were the protection of the free states, and as a matter of fact, during the domination of the slave power, Massachusetts appealed to this protecting principle as often and almost as loudly as South Carolina."

==Bibliography==
* Ashworth, John. "Free Labor, Wage Labor, and Slave Power: Republicanism and the Republican Party in the 1850s," in ''The Market Revolution in America: Social, Political and Religious Expressions, 1800-1880'', edited by S. M. Stokes and S. Conway (1996), 128-46.
* Blue, Frederick J. ''No Taint of Compromise: Crusaders in Antislavery Politics'' (2004) [http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0807132055/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-4827826-5463040#reader-link excerpt and text search]
* Boucher, Chauncey S. "In Re That Aggressive Slavocracy," ''The Mississippi Valley Historical Review'' Vol. 8, No. 1/2 (Jun., 1921), pp. 13-79 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0161-391X%28192106%2F09%298%3A1%2F2%3C13%3AIRTAS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V in JSTOR]
* Craven, Avery. "Coming of the War Between the States An Interpretation," ''The Journal of Southern History,'' Vol. 2, No. 3 (1936), pp. 303-322; rejects notion of Slave Power [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-4642(193608)2%3A3%3C303%3ACOTWBT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8 in JSTOR]
* Davis, David Brion. ''The Slave Power Conspiracy and the Paranoid Style'' (1969)
* Earle, Jonathan. ''Jacksonian Antislavery and the Politics of Free Soil, 1824-1854'' (2004) [http://www.amazon.com/Jacksonian-Antislavery-Politics-Free-1824-1854/dp/0807855553/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195732386&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Foner, Eric. ''Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War'' (1970)], esp pp. 73-102 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=90104191 online edition]
* Gara, Larry . "Slavery and the Slave Power: A Crucial Distinction" ''Civil War History'' v15 (1969), pp 5-18
* Gienapp, William E. "The Republican Party and the Slave Power," in Robert H. Abzug and Stephen E. Maizlish, eds., ''New Perspectives on Race and Slavery in America'' (1986), pp 51-78
* McInerney, Daniel J. "'A State of Commerce': Market Power and Slave Power in Abolitionist Political Economy." ''Civil War History'' 1991 37(2): 101-119. Issn: 0009-8078
* Richards, Leonard L. ''Slave Power: The Free North and Southern Domination, 1780-1860'' (2000), the standard scholarly history; [http://www.amazon.com/Slave-Power-Southern-Domination-1780-1860/dp/0807126004/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195730674&sr=8-5 excerpt and text search]
* Trefousse, Hans L. ''Thaddeus Stevens: Nineteenth-Century Egalitarian'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=97209778 online version]
* Woodburn, James Albert. ''The Life of Thaddeus Stevens: A Study in American Political History, Especially in the Period of the Civil War and Reconstruction''. (1913) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=3161778 online version]

===Primary sources===
* Cairnes, John Elliott. ''The Slave Power: Its Character, Career, and Probable Designs'' (1862), British political tract [http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moa;idno=AFN8980 online text of the second edition]; [http://books.google.com/books?id=VWoFAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:%22slave+power%22&num=30&as_brr=1 complete text online]
* Lowance Jr., Mason I. ed. ''House Divided: The Antebellum Slavery Debates in America, 1776-1865'' (2003) [http://www.amazon.com/House-Divided-Antebellum-Slavery-1776-1865/dp/0691002282/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230544251&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Thompson, C. Bradley ed. ''Anti-Slavery Political Writings, 1833-1860: A Reader'' (2003)
* Henry Wilson, ''History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America'' (in 3 volumes, 1872 & 1877) [http://books.google.com/books?id=iG4FAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:%22slave+power%22&num=30&as_brr=1 vol 2 online]; [http://books.google.com/books?id=tG4FAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:%22slave+power%22&num=30&as_brr=1 vol 3 online]
*[http://antislavery.eserver.org/treatises/the_slave_power.doc/file_view ''The Slave Power''] speeches of abolitionist Theodore Parker, 1841-52

==See also==
* [[Republican Party]]
* [[Democratic Party]]
* [[Third Party System]]
* [[American Civil War]]
* [[Abraham Lincoln]]
* [[Reconstruction]]
* [[Thaddeus Stevens]]
* [[Charles Sumner]]

===Notes===
<references/>
[[Category:American Civil War]]
[[Category:Reconstruction]]
[[Category:Slavery]]
[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:Black History]]
[[category:Jacksonian Democracy]]

St. Paul's Cathedral

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'''St. Paul's Cathedral''' is an [[Anglican]] cathedral in [[London]], [[England]]. It is the fifth church to have been built on the same location. Previous churches can be traced back to A.D. 604. Its history predates the Anglican Church, but its current structure does not. Its present form, designed by Christopher Wren, was built between 1675 and 1710, after the Great Fire of London destroyed the existing church. Its majestic grandeur makes it one of the greatest structures in the history of the world.

In 1981, the royal wedding of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer was held at St. Paul's.

== See also my anus ==

*[http://www.stpauls.co.uk/ St. Paul's website]

[[Category:Cathedrals]]

Subway

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Barack: /* List of cities with subways */

<small>For the sandwich restaurant, see [[Subway (restaurant)]]</small>

A '''Subway''' is the North American term for a rapid transit system that runs underground for much or all of its route. Outside North America, they may be known as an underground, metro, or mass transit railway. Subways require large populations to run efficiently and run at a "grade separation" from other vehicles and run frequently. This means that they exist in the largest cities.

The first subway was opened in [[London]] in 1863, (where it is called the "[[Underground]]") although many more major cities now have subways systems. The [[Boston]] subway opened in 1901 and the [[New_York_City|New York]] subway first opened in 1904.

Fu|< Ballsakk Qunt Diq

Platypus

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The '''platypus''' is an aquatic [[mammal]], one of only five monotremes - mammal species which lays eggs as opposed to a live birth.<ref>↑ The other four are types of echidnas which are also native to [[Australia]].</ref> Its natural range is in eastern [[Australia]] and [[Tasmania]]. It has a bill, similar in shape to a [[duck]], which is very pliable, and also has webbed feet. Like all mammals it has fur and suckles its young. The platypus can find its prey in water due to its ability to detect electric fields produced by muscular contractions. The male platypus has has a spur on its hindfoot which can deliver venom - a feature which very few mammals possess. It has no visible ears.

An excellent swimmer, the platypus spends much of its time foraging for [[food]] in water. It swims with an alternating left-to-right paddling of its front feet. Despite all four of its feet being webbed, its hindfeet remain held against its body, instead being used for steering (along with its tail) rather than propulsion.

The platypus (and its fellow [[monotreme]] the [[echidna]]) was believed to have evolved in isolation 225 million years ago when the land mass that would become [[Australia]] (Gondwana) broke away from the other continents. This idea of [[evolution]] in isolation followed the theory of [[Charles Darwin]], whose affinity for evolution may also have been influenced by his early studies of the platypus during his time on The Beagle.

However, the isolation theory was overturned when, in the early 1990s, three platypus teeth were discovered in South America - virtually identical to fossil platypus teeth found in Australia. (Marsupials, too, were once considered to be exclusive to Australia, but their [[fossils]] have now been found on every continent). Modern adult platypuses do not have [[teeth]], but the discovery of platypus fossils in Australia had already identified that their ancestors did indeed have unique and distinctive teeth.

The platypus is featured on the Australian 20 cent [[coin]].

The strangeness of this [[animal]] is sometimes used as evidence that [[God]] did have a good sense of [[humor]].

== Mitt Romeny is a bum sniffer ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.genevaschools.org/austinbg/class/gray/platypus/ The Duck-Billed Platypus]

[[Category:Monotreme]]

Homomorphism

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Given two [[Group (mathematics)|group]]s <math>G,G'</math>, a '''homomorphism''' from <math>G</math> to <math>G'</math> is a [[function]] <math>\phi : G \to G'\,</math> such that for all <math>a,b\in G</math>, <math>\phi (ab) = \phi (a) \phi (b) \,</math>



Gayness in the anus

Thuban

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Barack: /* References */

'''Thuban''', also known as '''Alpha Draconis''', is a fourth magnitude binary star, some 310 light years away in the constellation of [[Draco]]. The star is notable, because most stars this faint do not carry a proper name. Thuban, though, is a star that plays a significant historical role because it was once the pole, or north star of the ancient world. The name Thuban itself is derived from the [[Arabic]] ثعبان ''θu‘bān'', meaning "the basilisk", which was also applied to the entire Draco constellation.<ref>http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Topics/astronomy/_Texts/secondary/ALLSTA/Draco*.html</ref>

Thuban has an apparent magnitude of 3.65, also making its alpha [[Bayer designation]] unusual. The designation is usually reserved for the brightest star in a constellation, in this case - [[Gamma Draconis]]. Alpha Draconis is only the fourth brightest. The star itself is easy to spot, despite its faintness, because of its location relative to the [[Big Dipper]]. The two inner stars of the Big Dipper can be used to locate Thuban, which appears very nearby in the night sky.

Vagina

==Thuban as a Pole Star==

Thuban was the pole star, meaning the closest star to the celestial north pole that can be seen with the unaided eye. Due to the [[precession of the equinoxes]], Thuban was the pole star from around 3900 BC until 1900 BC, when the much brighter [[Beta Ursae Minoris]] replaced it (Although Thuban was still closer to the celestial pole until 1793 BC).<ref>http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/T/Thuban.html</ref> At present, Thuban is slowly moving away from the northern celestial pole.

[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Double Stars]]

VAG

Thuban

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Barack: Conservative edit