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March Revolution

2007-05-20T02:15:15Z

Ninetyten: Redirecting to February Revolution

#REDIRECT [[February Revolution]]

February Revolution

2007-05-20T02:14:55Z

Ninetyten:

The '''February Revolution''' (sometimes called the March Revolution, due to discrepancies between the Russian and Western calendars) was a large protest against [[Czar Nicholas II]] in March 1917. It forced the [[Czar]] to abdicate the throne and did not allow his heir, Alexis, to inherit it. A provisional government was established with [[Alexander Kerensky]] as the leader. The ineffective new government was later overthrown in the [[October Revolution]], which installed the [[Bolshevik]] Party under [[V.I. Lenin]].

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[[Category:History]]

February Revolution

2007-05-20T02:14:17Z

Ninetyten:

The '''March Revolution''' (Old Calender) was a large protest against [[Czar Nicholas II]] in March 1917. It forced the [[Czar]] to abdicate the throne and did not allow his heir, Alexis, to inherit it. A provisional government was established with [[Alexander Kerensky]] as the leader. The ineffective new government was later overthrown in the [[October Revolution]], which installed the [[Bolshevik]] Party under [[V.I. Lenin]].

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[[Category:History]]

Communist revolution

2007-05-20T02:13:46Z

Ninetyten: Redirecting to October Revolution

#REDIRECT [[October Revolution]]

Leon Trotsky

2007-05-20T02:13:27Z

Ninetyten:

[[Image:Trockiy2.jpg|right|thumb|Leon Trotsky]]

'''Leon Trotsky''' (1879-1940) was a participant with [[V. I. Lenin]] in the [[communist revolution]] in [[Russia]] in 1917. However, he had previously been a member of the Mensheviks, a communist party that had once been aligned with the Bolsheviks. They did not believe in actively pursuing revolution, that it would happen when the people were ready, unlike the Bolsheviks who believed that the people needed to be led. From 1904 until 1917 Trotsky had a stormy relationship with Lenin, with him accusing Lenin of wanting to become a dictator. But the two of them resolved their differences in 1917, and after that point arguably Trotsky was totally loyal to Lenin.

Trotsky was the most powerful orator in the Bolshevik party, and due to his numerous spells in jail and his active role in the failed 1905 revolution he was much more famous than Lenin was to ordinary Russians. He was the actual organizer behind the October revolution, as Lenin was still in exile and so unable to participate.

Trotsky also helped build the Red Army that defeated the White Russian Army in the subsequent Civil War in Russia, despite having no military experience of any kind.

Trotsky was unpopular within the Bolshevik party due to his intellectual snobbery and small details; he dressed very well, he had only joined the party in 1917, previously he had made insulting remarks to Lenin between 1904 and 1917.

When Lenin died in 1924, a lengthy power struggle began between Trotsky and [[Stalin]]. Trotsky took the view that socialism in the Soviet Union must await a revolution in western Europe and even worldwide. Stalin wanted power immediately and offered a rival ideology, ''Socialism in one country''. To fend off accusations of becoming the new 'Napoleon', he gave up his command of the Red Army. However Stalin expelled Trotsky from the Bolshevik party in 1927 and exiled him from Russia in 1929.

Trotsky eventually settled in [[Mexico]] in 1937, where he gave up politics and writing in favor of a career as a gardener. He was hunted down and murdered by an assassin sent by Stalin in 1940.

Trotsky's famous command was this: "Those who do not obey, do not eat."

== See also ==

*[[Karl Marx]]
*[[Vladimir Ilyich Lenin]]
*[[Communist Party]]

[[Category:Political people|Trotsky, Leon]]

Joseph Stalin

2007-05-20T02:12:52Z

Ninetyten:

[[Image:Josephstalin.jpg|right|thumb]]


'''Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin''' (Ru: Иосиф Сталин) (December 6th, 1878 (Julian: December 18th)-March 5, 1953) was the General Secretary of the [[Communist Party]] of the [[Soviet Union]] (CPSU) from 1922 until his death. He was the son of a poor Georgian cobbler and a former seminary student who became a Bolshevik and one of [[Lenin|Lenin's]] closest allies during the their take-over of the Kerensky regime. During the [[Russian Civil War]] Stalin, who chose his name from the Russian word for steel, held the city of Tsaritsen on the Volga from counter-revolutionary forces. Stalin later re-named [[Stalingrad]] in honor of his victory, and was the same city of [[Germany]]'s massive defeat in [[World War II]].
 
 
 
 
 
==Rise to Power==

Stain was tapped by the Okhrana, the Tsarist secret police, as a low-level informer shortly after he was expelled from the Tiflis seminary in 1899. Stalin then began to systematically inform on revolutionary comrades in party organizations in Tiflis, Baku, and Batum over the next few years. He acquired a highly unsavory reputation among the [[Social Democrats]] of these cities and was finally arrested for cover purposes in 1902 when suspicions about him were about to boil over. It was the Okhrana that furnished the invisible means of support for the family he acquired after 1904.

In 1917, the Commissariat of Nationalities was formed with Stalin as its Commissar (Minister). The Commissariat addressed the question of the nationalities of the Russian Empire, and helped integrate them into the [[Soviet Union]]. From 1919-1922 he was also the People's Commissar of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspection (Rabkrin, from the Russian), which was founded to be a check on the burgeoning Soviet bureaucracy.

In 1922, Lenin named Stalin General Secretary of the CPSU. In 1924 Stalin in turn created the "Secret Department," a unit of 94 of his personal functionaries that maintained special privileges as the ''[[nomenklatura]]'', or a list of trusted individuals. He also appointed regional party secretaries who all, of course, supported Stalin. Through the Secret Department Stalin gained control of the [[Red Army]] after removing [[Lev Trotsky]] in 1925 and the OGPU (later, [[KGB]]) when its leader [[Felix Derzhinsky]] died in 1926. Lenin had foreseen all of this and had warned in his last testament that Stalin should be removed from General Secretary because the position's power was unlimited.

Stalin, however, did not allow this to happen. His most powerful rival, Lev Trotsky, who was the commander of the Red Army, was painted as a danger to the Revolution, because he continued to push the idea of international revolution; the "left opposition." Other Soviet leaders, like [[Zinoviev]], leader of the [[Comintern]], and [[Kaminev]], the head of the Communist Party in Moscow, were painted with the same brush because they supported Trotsky and did not wish to expel him from the CPSU in 1927. Later, he accused his ally [[Bukharin]] of being a member of the "right opposition," i.e. he was in favor of a more capitalistic economic system, as seen under the [[New Economic Policy]] (NEP) of the early 1920s. Trotsky was murdered in Mexico in 1940 by [[Ramón Mercader]] in an extenisve conspiracy that included underground operatives from the [[Communist Party of the United States]] (CPUSA). Zinoviev, Kaminev, and Bukharin were the center of the famous "[[Great Purge|show trials]]" of the 1930s. All were put to death.

==Catch and Overtake==

In 1928 Stalin decided that the Soviet Union was not properly industrialized to enjoy a communist future, so he initiated the First Five Year Plan and the campaign to collectivize agriculture in order to "build socialism," and to "catch and overtake" the capitalist world. Stalin fanned the fires of collectivization, claiming that peasants had been hording grain and that they needed to be controlled. Under this program, rich peasants (kulaks), were exiled or killed for being enemies of the people, and peasants' land was taken in order to introduce collective farming to expedite grain appropriations. Many were called kulaks by jealous neighbors, while the peasants who remained were often the laziest and most ill suited to producing enough grain. Collectivization caused massive famine in Russia, particularly in [[Ukraine]] (see [[Holodomor]]), where Stalin ordered the Red Army to blockade certain regions and take grain by force. It is estimated that the famine of 1931-33 killed 6-7 million people, while 20 million starved.

The First Five Year Plan was a program of crash-industrialization. After [[World War I]] and the Russian Civil War Russia had an industrial capacity equal to that of its 1861 capacity. The only way for Russia to be able to break the "capitalist encirclement," Stalin declared, was to industrialize. Brigades of shock workers were formed to work faster and harder than the world had ever seen. Most of this, however, was pure propaganda, although the shock workers did set the record for concrete poured in a single shift. Compared to the capitalist world which was experiencing the Great Depression, Soviet growth was impressive. Between 1929 and 1937, 8,000 factories were constructed, average GDP growth was around 10%, and the official unemployment statistics, which included gulag detainees, was 0. In 1936, after the Second Five Year Plan, Stalin declared socialism "built." Nevertheless, the capitalist world lived better than the Soviet Union, despite the Great Depression. [[John Scott]], an American CPUSA member and Comintern oeprative who was living in the Soviet Union during the Five Year Plans, notes this in his memoirs of that period "Behind the Urals." The legacy of the Five Year Plans (most of which Stalin declared "completed" in 4 years) injured the Soviet's production models, because the encouraged quantity and speed over quality. However, the planning of the 1930s enabled the Russians to defeat the Nazis in the 1940s. <ref>Suvorov, Viktor. ''Icebreaker: Who Started the Second World War?// (Viking Press/Hamish Hamilton; 1990) ISBN 0241126223.</ref>

==Stalin's Terror==

Between 1936 and 1938, [[Joseph Stalin]] launched his purges to rid the Soviet Union of "fifth columnists," or spies who were loyal to the [[capitalist]] world. During the Terror 3 million people were arrested on various and often made-up charges, while 750,000 were executed. Due to the interrogation techniques of the NKVD (later, KGB), which often were torturous, most of those arrested confessed and were sent to work camps, called the [[Gulag]] for 10 years and sometimes even 25. Here, prisoners were forced to labor in mines, to log forests, or to do construction. Few lived through their sentences.

The infamous show trials of former leaders of the Soviet Union occurred during this period, where they were accused of working with Trotsky or sabotaging the Soviet Union. Stalin also evicerated the high command of the Red Army, killing 90% of the leadership. The minions of oppression were not spared either; of the NKVD's 809 officials, 43 lived through the purges. The leadership of the communist party was persecuted as well. For example, in 1934 130 members of the 139-member Central Committee were arrested. The Terror forever made Russians afraid to speak out against the government, and also made sure that no one but Stalin could ever rule the Soviet Union as effectively.

==World War II==

To avoid war with [[Germany]], Stalin ordered the Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union, [[Molotov]], to sign a non-aggression pact with [[Adolf Hitler]], named the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, on 19 August 1939. The treaty detailed the agreement to split up [[Poland]] between Germany and the Soviet Union, give Stalin the Baltic Republics of [[Latvia]], [[Lithuania]], and [[Estonia]], and to allow the Soviets to wage war on [[Finland]], a war that ended in a humiliating Soviet defeat. Both sides, however, knew that they would eventually engage in hostilities.

It seems that Stalin anticipated this less than Hitler, who, in June of 1941 invaded the Soviet Union with the largest land army ever assembled. It consisted of 170 divisions, or 3.5 million troops. Stalin was caught off guard, and the [[Nazis]] blazed a path through the Ukraine and European Russia. Reaching [[Moscow]] in October 1941, the Nazis threatened Stalin and the entire Soviet Union with defeat. In only 6 months, the Nazis controlled one third of the Soviet economy, a total of 5% of the Earth's surface. Hitler's troops were defeated at Moscow during the winter of 1941-42 after Stalin appointed [[Yorky Zhukov]] as commander of the Red Army. A spy in the German embassy in Tokyo, [[Richard Sorge]], informed Stalin that Japan was not going to attack [[Siberia]], freeing thousands of winter ski-troops to move to Moscow to defeat the Nazis. It was during this time that Stalin famously invoked the name of [[God]] and allowed religious services to be conducted after 20 plus years of repression. Also, 1500 factories were evacuated and restored in Siberia and 12-15 million workers were moved east of the [[Urals]], where Soviet production was higher than Germany's in 1942, despite Germany holding some 50% of Soviet industry.

The Red Army went on the offensive after the defense of Moscow, but soon the Nazis gained the advantage and pushed to Stalingrad. More than one million troops fought on each side in urban combat. Hitler refused to allow surrender, and eventually the Nazis were encircled and routed. After turning the tide of war in Stalingrad, the 1943 [[Kursk]] tank battle was decisive in pushing the Nazis from European Russia. In two years, the Red Army pushed the Nazis all the way back to [[Berlin]]. Stalin used his control of Eastern Europe to extract concessions from [[President Roosevelt]] at Allied conferences, including control over the region. [[Winston Churchill]] warned against this very control, for he greatly feared Soviet hegemony in Europe. Victorious, Stalin named himself Generalissimo and became more popular than ever in the Soviet Union and more dangerous than ever to the capitalist world.

Over the course of World War II, around 25 million Russians died. Twenty million were in the armed services. The total number of 25 million reflects half of the worldwide losses of human life during World War II. The population did not recover until 1956. Many Soviet POWs, like famous writer [[Alexander Solzhenitsyn]], were sent to the Gulag after the war because they had fallen into German hands, and were accused of being spies. This swelled the prison camps by the thousands.

==Post-War Period and Death==

Similar to the 1930s, Stalin undertook a harsh campaign of industrialization, which hurt the Soviets as much as it helped them rebuild. Money was devalued to one-tenth of its previous value, 2 million German and Japanese POWs were forced to stay in the Soviet Union and rebuild the country, and 10% of investment from 1945-46 was from looted machinery. The crops produced by household plots were collected by the government to sell, and a famine in 1947 caused by drought and Soviet single-crop farming killed 2 million. The recovery was built on the Soviet subjects.
[[Image:Stalinfuneral.jpg|250px|right|thumb|''Right to left:'' Lavrenti Beria, Georgi Malenkov, Vassily Stalin, V.M. Molotov, Nikolai Bulganin]]
After World War II, Stalin's cult of personality emerged as the dominant force of Soviet life. He was credited as the savior of the Soviet Union and the architect of victory, though it was really General Zhukov who was responsible for most of this. The communist youth group, the [[Komsomol]], devoted songs to "the Father of All Nations" or "the Driver of the Locomotive of History." Party membership increased by one million people between 1945 and 1953. Books quoted Stalin as an expert in communism, while he was often photographed surrounded by children to make him seem friendlier. This all served to form a deep, personal connection with Stalin for many Soviets. Indeed, he was loved by the Soviets. When he died in 1953 an anxious mob at his viewing crushed and trampled some mourners to death. Dissidents like Sakharov, the man forced in a prison to build the Soviet atom bomb, cried upon hearing that Stalin had died, despite their intense hatred of him. Despite his terror, he had convinced millions that he was their father.

Following a stroke on 1 March 1953, Stalin died on 5 March after a period of declining performance. Between 1949 and 1952 Stalin increasingly took vacations and met with the [[Politburo]] less and less. When he died a short power struggle ensued, one which led to the execution of KGB head [[Beria]] as a spy. Eventually [[Khrushchev]] became the General Secretary of the CPSU and denounced Stalin's repressive tactics, his purges, gulags, and his cult of personality in the [[Secret Speech]] at the 20th Party Congress of 1956. Gulags were dismantled and the political climate was slightly less tense, but Soviet oppression still continued. The period following Stalin's rule is called the "thaw," the start of life again after a long winter.

==Quotes==

"The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic." ~ to Churchill, 1945.

==References==
Though this isn't footnoted, it is culled from the following sources:

Hosking, Geoffrey. The First Socialist Society: A History of the Soviet Union from Within. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.

Kotkin, Stephen. Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as Civilization. Berkley, CA: University of California Press, 1995.

Scott, John. ''Behind the Urals: An American Worker in Russia’s City of Steel''. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1989.

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr Isaevich, ''The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956''; an experiment in literary investigation'', Translated from the Russian by Thomas P. Whitney, Publisher New York, Harper & Row (1974-78), 1st Edition, pg. 67n.

[[category:political people]][[category:communists]]

Glasnost

2007-05-20T02:12:34Z

Ninetyten:

During the late 1980's, the leader of the [[Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics]] ("U.S.S.R."), General Secratary [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], introduced a social, and cultural policy called "'''Glasnost'''" (pronounced GLAHZ-nohst), which means "openness". Specifically, glasnost was a new Soviet policy allowing public discussion of political issues and a more free circulation of information.

Gorbachev began to promote this "openness" in public discussions about current and historical problems in the U.S.S.R. He acknowledged the brutality of the [[Stalin]] era, such as the great purges and the [[Katyn massacre]]. Soviet leaders became more receptive of foriegn leaders and the media, as a new period opened between the East and the West.

This opening of Soviet society to the [[Western world|West]] was one of the key events that eventually led to the collapse of the U.S.S.R. and its empire.

Glasnost

2007-05-20T02:11:50Z

Ninetyten:

During the late 1980's, the leader of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic ("U.S.S.R."), General Secratary [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], introduced a social, and cultural policy called "'''Glasnost'''" (pronounced GLAHZ-nohst), which means "openness". Specifically, glasnost was a new Soviet policy allowing public discussion of political issues and a more free circulation of information.

Gorbachev began to promote this "openness" in public discussions about current and historical problems in the U.S.S.R. He acknowledged the brutality of the Stalin era, such as the great purges and the Katyn massacre. Soviet leaders became more receptive of foriegn leaders and the media, as a new period opened between the East and the West.

This opening of Soviet society to the West was one of the key events that eventually led to the collapse of the U.S.S.R. and its empire.

World War II

2007-05-20T02:11:08Z

Ninetyten: /* Fall Out From World War II */

'''World War II''' was a global conflict fought between the [[Allies|Allied]] powers including the [[United States]], the [[Soviet Union]], [[Britain]], [[France]], Australia, Canada and many other nations and the [[Axis (WWII)|Axis]] powers (mainly [[Nazism|Nazi]] [[Germany]], [[Fascism|Fascist]] [[Italy]], and Imperial [[Japan]]). The war is usually considered to have started on September 1, 1939 with the invasion of [[Poland]] by Nazi Germany. During the war, eight major world powers fought, along with several lesser states joining with one side or the other. On the side which lost were the Axis Powers Germany, [[Japan]], and [[Italy]]. Against them were the Allied Powers [[United States]], [[Great Britain]] and the Commonwealth, the [[Soviet Union]], [[France]], and [[China]] (which was friendly to the West at the time.) Russia entered the war on the side of the Allies after Germany launched an attack codenamed [[Operation_Barbarossa|Barbarossa]], while Britain declared war in reaction to Germany's aggression against [[Poland]].

==Causes==
The causes of World War II are complicated. The immediate causes of World War II are generally held to be the Japanese attacks on China, the United States, the British and Dutch colonies; and the German invasion of Poland on the 1st September 1939. Following the two day deadline for the withdrawl of German forces, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand declared war on Germany, followed quickly by France, South Africa, Canada and Nepal.

One major cause of German aggression may be the fervent [[Nationalism]] that became the norm in Germany post-[[World War I]]. Germans were eager to reaffirm their position as a major player on the world stage.{{fact}}

The state of Germany in the aftermatch of World War I is also considered to be a contributing factor. Due to the harsh terms of the treaty ending the first World War, Germany was not only humiliated, but pushed into economic ruin. The German currency which used to trade at 4 to a dollar eventually became over 1 trillion to the dollar. (Yes, that's not a typo). Under such deplorable conditions, anyone who could make them rise again would be viewed almost as a savior. The scene was set for Hitler.

== German Tactics ==
The major tactical innovation of the war was the use of combined arms warfare, typified by the German doctrine of [[blitzkrieg]]. In this style of warfare armor, infantry, artillery and air power (see [[Luftwaffe]]) all coordinate to achieve overwhelming superiority at point on the enemy lines. Armor and fast-moving infantry units then exploit the gap and penetrate deep behind enemy lines. The objective is to cause a widespread collapse of the enemy's ability to fight. It was particularly effective during the early stages of the war, before the Allies developed effective countermeasures.

==War in Europe 1939-1941==
The French and British were initially reluctant to honour promises to the Polish government, avoiding serious consideration of an invasion of Germany. The British failed to send land forces in time to support the Poles (see [[Western betrayal]]). The French mobilized slowly and then launched a token offensive in the Saar. The Meanwhile, on September 8, the Germans reached Warsaw, having slashed through the Polish defenses.

Following the completion of the invasion of Poland, German forces regrouped and Allied forces remained defensive, leading US commentators to dub it the [[Phoney War]]. This perception was not shared in [[Finland]], which fought a Soviet invasion started on November 30 1939. Despite the overwhelming numbers of the [[Red Army]], the Finnish resistance was strong and the battle was hard fought before the Soviet army took control.

May 10 1940 marked the end of any accustion of a phoney war, with the invasion of France by Germany, via [[The Netherlands]], [[Luxembourg]] and [[Beligium]]. Resistance by the British armies and French armies proved weak and the occupation of France began. British troops were able to evacuate mainland Europe at Dunkirk. France was divided into the northern [[Occupied France]] and the collaborationist [[Vichy regime]] in the south of France, including [[Corsica]].

The collapse and occupation of France, together with Germany's alliance with the Soviet Union, fascist Italy, benevolent neutrality of fascist Spain and Portugal, with little of Europe outside of Axis hands led many to assume that the United Kingdom had been defeated. Indeed it would appear that the, seemingly foolish, decision of the relatively weak United Kingdom to continue the war took the Axis powers off guard. This decision ensured the remaining British Empire was still involved in the war, with Japan threatening many British possessions in Asia.

In 1940 [[Denmark]] and [[Norway]] were invaded by German forces, to preempt a British occupation of Norway. Norway also contained a source of [[Heavy water]], possibly crucial in the construction of an atomic weapon. This was soon followed by the British invasion of neutral [[Iceland]] (the invasion of [[Denmark]] by German forces marks the start of an independent Iceland).

With Britain the sole opposing European nation, the [[Battle of Britain]] commenced. The [[Luftwaffe]] attempted to achieve aerial dominance over the south of Britain, in order to allow a sea based invasion of Britain to proceed. For many months the [[Royal Air Force]] and Luftwaffe fought for dominance, with the resilience of the RAF, with British, Canadian and Polish pilots forced a rethink of [[German]] tactics. The period that followed is known as the [[Blitz]], where the RAF and Luftwaffe attempted to undermine the infrastructure of the opposing country. This was a period of great economic devastation, which took both countries a considerable period to recover from. More seriously it led to huge numbers of civilian deaths.

1941 marked the major turning point in the war in Europe, when the Germans put aside plans for an invasion of Britain and undertook [[Operation Barbarossa]] - the invasion of the Soviet Union. In a war of major turning points, this was the most significant in Europe. This miscalculation diminished the German army's capacity. The war against the Soviet Union (known as the [[Great Patriotic War]] in the Soviet Union) demanded a huge dedication of resources and later in the war permitted an invasion of mainland Europe by Allied Forces on [[D-Day]].

==United States Enters the War==
The [[Attack on Pearl Harbor|attack on Pearl Harbor]] officially brought the United States into World War Two. Admiral [[Isoroku Yamamoto]] of the Japenese Imperial Navy was against engaging with the United States, due to fear of "waking a sleeping giant". The United States recovered from the shell shock of the initial attack and plunged into the war with the slogan "Remember Pearl Harbor!".

==United States War in the Pacific==
At first the United States was on the defensive, losing Burma, the Phillpines, and other countries under U.S. military protection. The battle of the Coral Sea was the first major engagement with the Japanese that resulted in a draw and set the stage for the battle of Midway a month later. That one battle changed the direction of the war forever, crushing Japanese offensive sea power in one strike. After that, the Japanese were forced to be on the defensive for the rest of the war and never seriously threatened the American military again. In order to shorten the war, the U.S. military chose to adopt a policy of Island Hopping that including bypassing most of the extensive Japanese holdings to instead focus on a relatively straight path leading right to Japan.

==The End of World War II in Asia==
On August 6, 1945, a B-29 Superfortress, the Enola Gay, dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima. Then, on August 9, a B-29 dropped the second atomic bomb. On August 20 the Japanese government told the United States they were ready to accept the terms which the Allies proposed. The next day, the Allies replied, saying the authority of the emperor would be "subject to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers." On August 14 the Japanese government agreed to this.

Then, September 2, 1945, the Japanese government, along with all its military forces, formally surrendered to the United States. This happened in a ceremony aboard a United States battleship, the ''Missouri'', on [[Tokyo Bay]], where the [[Japanese Instrument of Surrender]] was signed. This was the ending of World War II, after six years almost to the day.

==Fallout From World War II==

*[[Iron Curtain]]

*British Empire
The war effectively bankrupted Britain, which started the process of dismantling its empire. It was not until 2007 Britain finished paying off the loans to the USA which it had taken to fight Nazi Germany.

*Supremacy of the USA in the Western World
Whilst most countries had seen their economies demolished by the war, the USA had industrialised heavily and made financial gains from sales of arms to other Allied countries.

*Supremacy of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe.

*Vietnam War
During the war the French lost their colony of Vietnam to the Japanese. At the end of the war they decided to reassert their colonial mastery, but the Vietnamese now had other ideas. The battle with the French would eventually lead into the Vietnam war after the French defeat and American intervention ensued to prevent the spread of Communism.

==References==
<references/>

== External Links ==
* United States Department of the Navy/Navy Historical Center's [http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq36-4.htm Fleet Admiral Chester William Nimitz]
[[Category:World War II| ]]
[[Category:Wars]]

Divided government

2007-05-20T02:10:54Z

Ninetyten:

A '''Divided government''' is one in which the [[President|presidency]] and the [[Congress]] are controlled by different [[parties]]. For example, in the second half of the [[William J. Clinton|Clinton]] administration, 1995-2000, the presidency was controlled by the [[Democrat]]s, while the Congress was [[Republican]] controlled.

Many commentators suggest that a divided government may be the best state for the United States, since each party then serves as a watchdog on the other.

Statistics show that the economy grows at a higher rate during divided government than with either party in control of both branches of government. This is sometimes attributed to the [[gridlock]] effect, in which each party blocks the other party's spending. For example, undivided Republican control (2002-2006) under the leadership of [[George W. Bush]] resulted in budget deficits.

Also, in the Clinton administration the years of undivided Democratic control resulted in budget deficits, while the years of divided government resulted in a budget surplus, the first significant surplus in the post-[[World War II]] era.

[[Category:Politics]]

MIT

2007-05-20T02:10:15Z

Ninetyten:

The '''Massachusetts Institute of Technology''', also called '''MIT''', is a university in [[Cambridge]], [[Massachusetts]].

MIT

2007-05-20T02:09:40Z

Ninetyten: New page: The '''Massachusetts Institute of Technology''', also called '''MIT''', is a university in Cambrige, Massachusetts.

The '''Massachusetts Institute of Technology''', also called '''MIT''', is a university in [[Cambrige]], [[Massachusetts]].

Global warming

2007-05-20T02:08:52Z

Ninetyten:

'''Global warming''' is the term ascribed to an increase in global average surface temperature. Average [[Earth]] surface air temperature has risen just over one degree since 1850.
<ref>Hansen's group at the Goddard Institute wrote, "Global warming is now 0.6 °C [1.0 °F] in the past three decades and 0.8 °C [1.4 °F]in the past century." http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2005/</ref>

Scientists such as [[Richard Lindzen]] of [[MIT]], [[Sallie Baliunas]] of [[Harvard]] and [[Fred Singer]] (independent) say that the patterns of global warming are naturally caused (see [[climate cycles]]).

Assessments by the [[United Nations]] promote the world view that the warming since around 1850 is mostly human-caused.
In February, 2007, the [[Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change]], a body of climate change scientists<ref>http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0704280477apr29,1,4275902.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed</ref> established by the [[United Nations]], released their fourth assessment report on climate change. That report concluded that recent global climate change was "very likely" caused by human activity, <ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6321351.stm</ref>.

Politicians who support the [[Kyoto Protocol]] have made the claim that there is a cause and effect relationship between increases in atmospheric concentrations of [[greenhouse gas]]es and air temperature.

==Natural variability of the climate system==

Secular scientists think that the Earth has experienced numerous [[Ice Age|ice age]]s over two million years, during which global temperatures dropped approximately 6 degrees Celsius and then returned to normal. The frigid temperatures allowed ice sheets to expand southward, covering much of [[Asia]], [[Europe]], and [[North America]]. The cooling associated with ice ages is gradual, while the terminations are relatively rapid. However, even the rapid terminations of ice ages take centuries to millennia.

==Global Warming on other Planets==

And it's not just the earth that has variations. Since the [[Viking spacecraft]] reached [[Mars]] in the 1970's until recent readings were taken, the average temperature on Mars has risen 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit just as the average temperature on the earth has risen. Since human industrialization is probably not to blame for the change on Mars, other causes are being considered. One possibility is that dust storms are changing the albedo of the planet, allowing it to warm, while another possibility is that solar variations from the sun are causing the warming.<ref>http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070404_gw_mars.html</ref><ref>http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=17977</ref>

Recently, it has also been found that similar to the Earth and Mars, that [[Neptune]] is undergoing global warming as well. Measurements taken at the Lowell observatory in [[Arizona]] have shown an increase in Neptune's brightness and temperature since 1980 following the same pattern found on the earth, and Mars. The researchers who discovered this warming suggest there may be a correlation between the warming and solar variations.<ref>http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2007.../2006GL028764.shtml</ref>

[[Pluto]] has also been found to be undergoing global warming.<ref>http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/pluto_warming_021009.html</ref>

==Politics of global warming==

The global average surface temperature warmed about 0.5 °C (0.9 °F) over the second half of the 20th Century, and to some the warming appears to be related to increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The possibility of adverse consequences has become a major concern for environmentalists.

Assessments of climate science by the United Nations (see [[IPCC]] - ''Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change'')
have claimed that scientists are 90% sure that over 50% of the observed global warming in recent decades is human-caused, and that continued global warming should be expected over at lease the next century. Science published a literature search by Naomi Oreskes concluding that "scientific consensus" supports the IPCC reports. <ref>http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/306/5702/1686]</ref>

Several prominent scientists have pointed out the [[politicized science]] of the UN's assessment methods. The scientific reports are submitted to a panel of representatives appointed by each country in the IPCC. Several scientists have complained about their work being misrepresented by the U.N.

There is wide agreement among the American public that Global Warming is a reality. A poll conducted March 11-14 of 2007 found that the majority of the American public (59%) believes we are already seeing the effects of Global Warming, an additional 3% and 8% respectively believe they will see the effects with in a few years or within their lifetime, and 19% believe that Global Warming will be seen, not in their lifetime, but in future generations—only a small minority 8% believe that Global Warming will never happen. <ref>Poling report on Gallup poll for March 11-14, 2007[http://www.pollingreport.com/enviro.htm]</ref>.

== Scientists ==

[[Image:Rogerrevelle.jpg|thumb|right|100px|Roger Revelle]]

{|
| valign="top" width="35%"|
* [[Roger Revelle]]
* [[Achim Steiner]]
* [[Fred Singer]]
* [[Richard Lindzen]]
* [[Sallie Baliunas]]
* [[Lonnie Thompson]]
| valign="top" width="33%"|
* [[James E. Hansen]]
* [[Michael Mann]]
* [[Charles Keeling]]
* [[Edwin A. Hernández-Delgado]]
|}

==External links==

*[http://schwinger.harvard.edu/~motl/global-temperature-not-exist.pdf Does a global temperature exist?], ''Journal of Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics'', June 2007.
*[http://www.magma.ca/~hurleyp/FightingTheHoax.htm Fighting the Hoax]
*[http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2032821,00.html The appliance of science] by Mike Hulme.
*[http://www.climatecrisis.net/ ''An Inconvenient Truth''], Film by [[Al Gore]]
*[http://www.physics.harvard.edu/%7Emotl/iris-effect.pdf Climate Sensitivity and Observed Negative Feedbacks], lecture by Richard Lindzen and Roberto Rondanelli.
*[http://www.physics.harvard.edu/%7Emotl/lindzen-nature-of-arguments.pdf Nature of Arguments for Anthropogenic Global Warming], by Richard Lindzen
*[http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv15n2/reg15n2g.html Global Warming: The Origin and Nature of the Alleged Scientific Consensus] - [[Richard S. Lindzen]], Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]
*[http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20030825-090130-5881r.htm Global warming smear targets]
*[http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=2319 The physical evidence of earth's unstoppable 1,500-year climate cycle]
*[http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=17181 Survey Shows Climatologists Are Split on Global Warming]
*[http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4499562022478442170 The Great Global Warming Swindle - Documentary Film]

==References==

<references/>

[[category:earth science]]
[[category:Liberal Falsehoods]]

Hampton Roads

2007-05-20T02:04:58Z

Ninetyten: Redirecting to Battle of Hampton Roads

#REDIRECT [[Battle of Hampton Roads]]

Potomac River

2007-05-20T02:04:35Z

Ninetyten:

The '''Potomac River''' flows into the [[Chesapeake Bay]].
[[category:rivers]]

District of Columbia

2007-05-20T02:04:24Z

Ninetyten: New page: The '''District of Columbia''' (also known as '''Washington, D.C.'''), is the capital of the United States. It is located between the states of Virginia and Maryland, on the no...

The '''District of Columbia''' (also known as '''Washington, D.C.'''), is the capital of the [[United States]]. It is located between the states of [[Virginia]] and [[Maryland]], on the north side of the [[Potomac River]].

User:Ninetyten

2007-05-20T02:02:34Z

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{{User patriot questions authority}}
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{{User Bible just book}}
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{{user|Ninetyten}}

I obey the [[Conservapedia:Commandments|90/10 Rule]]. Having made this edit, however, I must now go make nine encyclopedic edits.

User:Ninetyten

2007-05-20T01:50:12Z

Ninetyten:

{{Userboxtop}}
{{Userbox|turquoise|magenta|100+|This user has now made over 100 edits to Conservapedia!}}
{{User noBush}}
{{User Earth}}
{{User gay rights}}
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{{User Evo}}
{{User bigbang}}
{{User antigun}}
{{User guns illegal}}
{{User not Regan}}
{{User patriot questions authority}}
{{User guns harm}}
{{User free speech}}
{{User gay is ok}}
{{User Liberal}}
{{User Bible just book}}
{{Userboxbottom}}
{{user|Ninetyten}}

I obey the [[Conservapedia:Commandments|90/10 Rule]]. Having made this edit, however, I must now go make nine encyclopedic edits.

Christian apologetics

2007-05-20T01:38:03Z

Ninetyten:

{{Christianity}}

'''Christian apologetics''' is the ''rational defense'' of the [[Christianity|Christian]] faith. The term comes from the [[Greek]] word ''apologia'', which means "defense". There are a number of subfields within apologetics. Some apologists specialize in internal biblical consistency (such as JP Holding, owner of tektonics.org), others in scientific defenses of the Bible, and still others in historical or philosophical defenses of Christianity (such as [[Gary Habermas]] or [[Lee Strobel]]). Christian apologist [[JP Holding]] has recommended that prospective apologists choose one area of focus rather than trying to be a "jack of all trades". <ref>http://www.tektonics.org/qt/sowant.html</ref> Some feel that faith alone should need no justification, however, many feel that Christians should be prepared to defend and spread their faith by intellectual means.
==History of Christian Apologetics==
Christian apologetics has existed as long as Christianity itself. As Christianity was founded as a minority religion, and was under immediate persecution, believers, especially educated believers, jumped to the intellectual defense of their Faith.

==Types of Christian Apologetics==

===Evidentialist===

== Christian Apologetics and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ ==
The [[Resurrection of Jesus Christ|resurrection of Jesus Christ]] is critical to the Christian faith. The Apostle Paul wrote, "if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain" (I Cor:15:14). Traditionally, Christianity has believed in a physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. <ref>http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/crj0056a.txt</ref>

In recent history Dr. [[Gary Habermas]] is considered the foremost Christian apologist for defending the resurrection of Jesus. <ref>http://www.garyhabermas.com/articles/dialog_rexperience/dialog_rexperiences.htm</ref><ref>http://www.tektonics.org/books/lichabrvw.html</ref><ref>http://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/Ted_Hildebrandt/NTeSources/NTArticles/CTR-NT/Habermas-Resurrection1-CTR.pdf </ref><ref>http://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/Ted_Hildebrandt/NTeSources/NTArticles/CTR-NT/Habermas-Resurrection2-CTR.pdf</ref><ref>http://www.garyhabermas.com/articles/crj_explainingaway/crj_explainingaway.htm</ref><ref>http://www.apologetics.com/default.jsp?bodycontent=/articles/historical_apologetics/habermas-nt.html</ref> Dr. Habermas had a debate against the philosopher Antony Flew regarding the resurrection which was chronicled in the work ''Did Jesus Rise from the Dead? The Resurrection Debate'' and the debate had a panel of debate judges. J. Hampton Keathley, III , Th.M. in his essay ''Evidences for the Resurrection'' wrote: "The decision of the judges were as follows. The panel of philosophers judging content cast four votes for Habermas who argued for the fact of the resurrection, none for Flew, and one draw. The panel of professional debate judges voted three to two, also in favor of Habermas, this time regarding the method of argumentation technique." <ref>http://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=639</ref>

In recent history some notable defenders of the resurrection include: [[William Lane Craig]], [[Ben Witherington]], [[Lee Strobel]], [[Josh McDowell]], [[Edwin M. Yamauchi]], [[N.T. Wright]] and [[Michael Horner]]. <ref>http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/menus/historical.html</ref><ref>http://www.leaderu.com/everystudent/easter/articles/josh2.html</ref><ref>http://www.leaderu.com/everystudent/easter/articles/yama.html</ref><ref>http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Early_Traditions.htm</ref><ref>http://www.michaelhorner.com/articles/resurrection/index.html</ref>

Legal scholars such as [[Simon Greenleaf]], [[John Warwick Montgomery]] and many others have asserted that western legal standards argue for the resurrection of Christ. <ref>http://www.bibleteacher.org/sgtestimony.htm</ref><ref>http://www.mtio.com/articles/bissart1.htm</ref><ref>http://lawreligionculturereview.blogspot.com/2005_01_01_lawreligionculturereview_archive.html</ref><ref>http://www.trinitysem.edu/journal/philjohnsonpap.html</ref> Defenders of the resurrection of Christ also cite many distinguished legal authorities regarding the historicity of the resurrection of Christ. <ref>http://www.ankerberg.com/Articles/apologetics/AP0302W3.htm</ref>

==References==
<references/>

== External Links ==
*[http://www.allaboutgod.com AllAboutGOD.com]
*[http://www.carm.org Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry]
*[http://www.apologetics.com Apologetics.com]
*[http://www.apologeticsinfo.org/resource.html Apologetics Information Ministry]
*[http://www.tektonics.org/classics/classics.html Classic Works of Apologetics]
*[http://hisdefense.org/Links/Authors/tabid/297/Default.aspx Academy of Christian Apologetics]
*[http://www.leaderu.com/menus/theology.html Leadership U]
*[http://www.lifeway.com/apologetics LifeWay Apologetics]
*[http://www.probe.org/ Probe Ministries -Christian Apologetics]
*[http://www.rzim.org/ Ravi Zacharias, modern apologist]
*[http://www.ses.edu/journal/ Christian Apologetic Journal]
*[http://www.str.org/ Stand to Reason]
*[http://www.tektonics.org Tekton Apologetics Ministries]
*[http://www.christian-thinktank.com Christian Thinktank]
*[http://www.worldview.org Worldview Academy]

[[Category: Christianity]]

Louisville

2007-05-20T01:35:49Z

Ninetyten:

'''Louisville''' is the largest city in the state of [[Kentucky]]. It is also the sixteenth-largest city in the [[United States]]. Founded on the [[Ohio River]] in 1778 by [[George Rogers Clark]], it was named after King [[Louis XVI]] of [[France]]. Louisville is famous for [[Thunder Over Louisville]], the [[Louisville Slugger Museum]], and the [[Kentucky Derby]]. Louisville's Mayor is [[Democrat]] Jerry Abramson.

Kentucky

2007-05-20T01:35:17Z

Ninetyten:

[[Image:Kentucky_State_Flag.gif|thumb|right|The state flag of Kentucky.]]

Kentucky entered into the Union in 1792, making it the fifteenth state to enter into the union. Its capital is [[Frankfort]], and its largest city is [[Louisville]]. Kentucky is the state that borders the most other states: to the north [[Ohio]], [[Indiana]], and [[Illinois]], to the south [[Tennessee]], to the east [[Virginia]] and [[West Virginia]], and to the west [[Missouri]]. The [[Ohio River]] makes up the northern border of Kentucky.

[[Category:US state]]

Abraham Lincoln

2007-05-20T01:34:21Z

Ninetyten:

{| border="1" align="right" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="250" style="margin-left:5px"
|align="center" colspan="2"|[[Image:Ncoln2.jpg|250px]]
|-
!colspan="2" align="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: blue no-repeat scroll top left;"|Abraham Lincoln
Sixteenth President of the United States
|-
|Born
|February 12,1809
|-
|Died
|April 15,1865
|-
|}

'''Abraham Lincoln''' was the 16th [[President of the United States of America|President]] of the United States, and a man who led the country through its darkest chapter, the [[American Civil War]]. His humble origins, from his birth in a [[Kentucky]] log cabin, his early life of poverty, through his struggle with life in a frontier society gave him an all-too human, and humane, personality, which he used to great effect in his law practice, his politics, and ultimately the presidency. And despite a severe lack of a formal education, Lincoln is the author of some of the most profound and eloquent writings ever to have come from the pen of an American.

==Early life==
''“I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families-- second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks, some of whom now reside in Adams, and others in Macon Counties, Illinois.”'' [http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/autobiog.htm]

Abraham Lincoln was born in a backwoods cabin some three miles south of Hodgenville, Kentucky. His father was Thomas Lincoln, who himself was a descendant of a weaver’s apprentice who had migrated to Massachusetts from England some years after the Mayflower landed. Thomas was a sturdy man, committed to pioneering in the new lands of Kentucky and Indiana, despite his lack of prosperity. He married Nancy Hanks on June 12, 1806, and together they had three children: Sarah, Abraham, and Thomas, who did not survive infancy. Young Abraham’s earliest memories of his days in Kentucky were his helping his father plant some seeds of corn and sunflower, and of a flood that washed them away.

In December 1816 Thomas had to pack up his family and leave for southwestern Indiana to avoid a lawsuit which had threatened him with a takeover of his property. There he built what was a “half-faced” camp, just a crude log structure with one side open to the elements, and there the family stayed as squatters on public land until Thomas had finished a permanent cabin, and later would buy the land outright on which it stood. Helping Thomas clear the land and plowing the fields was Abraham, who would also take care of the crops but developed a dislike for tasks which put additional food on the table, hunting and fishing. The poverty, Lincoln recalled, was “pretty pinching” at times, and by the age of nine he was a tall, lanky boy dressed rather ragged and unkempt.

Then the fall of 1818 brought the hardest blow: Nancy had died of the “milk sickness”, leaving Abraham without the mother whom he deeply loved. Some time later, Thomas had taken the buckboard and the mule, and left Abraham and Sarah on their own for two weeks; when he returned, he was with a new wife, Sarah Bush Johnson; she immediately made up for the absence of Nancy by replacing Abraham’s corn husk mattress with one of down, winning him over the first day. The new step-mother treated both children with an even hand (she herself was a widow with three children, whom she had brought), but she became very fond of Abraham, and he in turn was fond of her, referring to her as his “angel mother” for the rest of his life.

===Education===
Both of Abraham’s parents were nearly completely illiterate, and he himself had not much more than one year of formal education. When he did go to school, it was by “littles” – a little here, a little there – and he would call it “blab” school, which meant that they had to recite their lessons constantly due to lack of paper, pencils, and chalk. “Of course, when I came of age I did not know much. Still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the rule of three; but that was all.”

His step-mother encouraged his reading as much as possible, and although Abraham did not have access to a large number of books, he would read as much of what was there, and read voraciously. He read John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, ''Aesop’s Fables'', Daniel DeFoe’s ''Robinson Crusoe'', Parson Weems's ''Life and Memorable Actions of George Washington'', Edward Gibbon’s ''Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', and undoubtedly he read many times the only book his family actually owned, the Bible. He would walk for miles to borrow a book he heard about, and after his chores he would collapse into a heap in front of the fire and read for hours. He would say years later that his best friend was the man who let him borrow a book he hadn’t read yet.

===The Rail-Splitter===
[[Image:Railsplitter.jpg|thumb|200px|right|An artist's impression of a young Abe Lincoln, the ''Rail-Splitter''.]]
The Lincolns moved to Illinois in March, 1830, with Abraham driving the team of oxen himself, a young man of 21, rawboned and lanky at six feet four inches tall. But the years working on the Indiana farm have also made him physically powerful, and on his arrival in Illinois he was soon to demonstrate the skill with which he could wield an axe, putting it to good use by clearing the trees and laying the fence on his father’s new farm; the speed with which he could take tree trunks and split them into the rails needed for the fencing just by using his axe earned him the nickname “rail-splitter.” He could make an axe flash and bite deep; one neighbor saying “He could sink an axe deeper into wood than any man I ever saw.” And after a good deal of chopping, he could take the axe by its handle and hold it straight out away from his body, without a single quiver. (Sandburg, pg. 14) Good-natured as well, he would make friends easily, despite his awkward-looking stride and backwoods language.
[[Image:Lincoln hair.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Fearing that his friends wouldn't recognize him "without a bad tousle", Lincoln messed his hair up in this picture before the photographer closed the shutter.]]
Soon, he signed on as a deckhand on a flatboat, and made a voyage down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. When he returned he settled in a small town on the Sangamon River called New Salem, working as a store keeper, surveyor, or a postmaster, the later of which allowed him to be the first to read the arriving newspapers. Then talk went about town of Lincoln’s utter honesty, how he would walk six miles to return a few cents to a customer he had accidentally overcharged, or the woman that had bought some tea, and having used the wrong weight for the purchase, Lincoln made the correction and walked the many miles to her house to ensure she got the right order (Sandburg, pp 24-25).

In 1832 he enlisted in the Black Hawk War, and was elected captain of his company, but the only fighting he admitted seeing action in was the “many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes.” After he was mustered out of his company, he aspired for the state legislature, losing the contest the first time he ran, then getting elected and re-elected several times afterward. He had briefly thought about practicing the trade of blacksmithing, but his craving of reading led him to law books, which caused some serious studying. Lincoln passed the bar in 1836, and began a new career practicing law.

==Springfield==
The following year he moved to the new state capital of Illinois, Springfield, becoming law partners with John T. Stuart, Stephan T. Logan, and finally William H. Herndon in 1844, who, although junior in age to Lincoln by a decade, made a good, balanced partner. Few records exist of their law business, and when they got paid for their services they split the cash, no matter who was paid. Lincoln would earn $1,200 - $1,500 annually within just a few years; by comparison circuit judges earned $750. But to earn it he kept busy and worked hard; often he would climb into his buggy and travel the circuit of neighboring counties and practice before the courts there. And often the cases he would be involved in were petty

Years before he had tried, and failed, to push legislation through the state assembly to have the Sangamon River made navigable to New Salem; by 1850 the railroads were bringing business and prosperity to Illinois, and Lincoln, by virtue of the ease the railroad made in traveling to his courts, profited more. He had served as a lobbyist for the Illinois Central Railroad, enabling it to get a state charter; he would defend the company against McClean County’s unsuccessful efforts to tax it. He handles cases for other railroads, banks, manufacturing, and other large companies in the state; he handled some patent suits and a few criminal trials. And he also saved the first bridge to cross the Mississippi River from demolition, when river interests demanded the bridge be taken down.

===The moonlight murder===
In Lincoln’s New Salem days he was introduced to the Clary’s Grove Boys, a group of rowdy men from that nearby town would come into New Salem to bully some of the male townsfolk. The leader of the group was Jack Armstrong, who’s challenge to wrestle the Salem men usually resulted in Armstrong throwing the unfortunate man to the ground in a very short time; when he saw Lincoln, Armstrong would dismiss the lanky young man as a pushover. It was when they fought that Armstrong discovered just how hard it was to throw Lincoln – in fact, it was impossible. The battle ended in a draw, and the good-natured Lincoln made a new friend. Armstrong would later be one of the men to elect Lincoln to lead the company of volunteers in the Black Hawk War.

In 1856, Jack Armstrong’s son, William (or “Duff”), was charged with murder. A witness had claimed that he had seen Duff and another kill a New Salem man late at night by the light of full moon. Lincoln pulled out an almanac and proved that the witness could not have seen anything at all, as the moon was at its quarter and had actually set over an hour before. Duff was acquitted, and Lincoln won the case.

==Politics==
Andrew Jackson, the hero of New Orleans in the War of 1812 and a Democrat from Tennessee, was in the White House when Lincoln first entered politics. He shared with Jackson the sympathies for the common man, but differed in the role of government as related to it; Jackson stated the government should be separated from the economic enterprise, while Lincoln was of the view that “the legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot do so well, for themselves, in their separate and individual capacities.” Lincoln most associated himself with the Whig Party, as among their members Henry Clay and Daniel Webster both advocated a government should be encouraging business, and the development of the country to that end. It was an easy choice for Lincoln: he saw Illinois as needing such aid to improve the development of its own economy.

In the Illinois State Legislature Lincoln found that politics could be detrimental and harsh, as well as rewarding. An example of the former occurred in 1836, just as he gave a speech in support of his re-election. Democrat John Forquer, also seeking election, used his response and acid tounge to denounce him. "This young man needs to be taken down" he said, pointing to Lincoln, "and I'm afraid the task devolves upon me." The success of Forquer's speech convinced some of Lincoln's own allies that his career was over.

But when Lincoln rose to make his rebuttal, he thought of Forquer, and what he had done recently in conniving with President Jackson to change parties; in reward for doing so he was made Government Land Register with a $3,000 annual salary. Forquer was then able to construct a fine new house in Springfield, complete with a curiosity residents had heard about from science but had never seen before: a lightning rod. Before he entered the state house building that day, Lincoln spent a few minutes at Forquer's house staring at the thing, and having heard Forquer's speech later on, he thought of what he saw. Lincoln's reply was blistering, and sealed Forquer's fate.

:''"Among other things he said, the gentleman commenced his speech by saying that 'this young man,' alluding to me, 'must be taken down.' I am not so young in years as I am in the tricks and the trades of a politician, but, live long or die young, I would rather die now than, like the gentleman, change my politics, and with the change receive an office worth $3,000 a year, and then feel obliged to erect a lightning-rod over my house to protect a guilty conscience from an offended God!"'' (Sandburg, pg.49)

Lincoln also proposed state funding to construct a network of roads, railroads, and canals. Both Whigs and Democrats would join in for the passing of this omnibus bill, but a business depression was created by the panic of 1837, and as a result most of the provisions in the bill were abandoned. 1837 was also marked by the murder of Elijah Lovejoy, a newspaperman from Alton who was killed by a mob due to his anti-slavery views. The legislature introduced resolutions defending Southern slavery while condemning abolitionist societies, as per the U.S. Constitution. In protest of the resolutions Lincoln, with a fellow legislator, drew up a declaration [http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/slavery/al02.htm] which stated that slavery was “founded on both injustice and bad policy,” while also declaring that “the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than to abate its evils.”
[[Image:Lawyer Lincoln.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Lincoln in the late 1850's, about to debate his rival Stephen A. Douglas.]]
He only served one term in the United States Congress, 1847 to 1849, during which time he did little on legislative matters. He did introduce a bill calling for a gradual emancipation of slaves within the District of Columbia, but since it hinged on the approval of the white citizens there, it only caused mild anger from abolitionists as well as slave holders, and was quietly dropped. His one main issue was over the Mexican War, in which he condemned the American entry into it on false pretenses, particularly blaming current president James K. Polk. He worked toward the nomination of Zachary Taylor for the presidency, and when Taylor had won, Lincoln expected to be rewarded with the job of land commissioner, but failed. He was voted out of office by his constituents, as they felt he was too critical of the war. Disillusioned, he left politics and reentered his law practice.

==Return to politics==
He stayed out for five years, winning several cases before the courts, then in 1854 he had read in the papers that Stephan A. Douglas, his political rival and Democratic senator from Illinois, had placed before Congress a bill which would reopen the territory of the Louisiana Purchase to slavery, as well as allow settlers in the Kansas and Nebraska territories to vote for themselves whether or not they wanted it, a concept which was called “popular sovereignty” by Douglas. The resulting Kansas-Nebraska Act would do nothing more than provoke violent opposition; a border war would result between Kansas and Missouri as both pro and anti-slavery forces would cause much bloodshed; and voters in the Old Northwest, Illinois among them, would react vehemently against it, resulting in the destruction of the Whigs as a political party, and the birth of the Republicans, of which Lincoln quickly became a member. The [[Dred Scott]] decision of 1856, in which a black man who sued for his freedom only to be told that he was never a citizen and had to remain a slave, only added more fuel to the fire, as the states were aligning slave versus free, North versus South.

As the leading member of the Republican Party in Illinois, Lincoln was nominated for the Senate seat held by Douglas at the Republican State Convention in Springfield on June 16, 1858. The acceptance speech he gave has been called the [[Lincoln's "House Divided" Speech|House Divided]] speech, after the opening lines, which were based upon Matthew 12:25:

:''If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. "A house divided against itself cannot stand."  I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new -- North as well as South.'' [http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/divided.htm]

August through October, 1858 saw seven Illinois towns witnessing the [[Lincoln-Douglas debates]]; Douglas the national figure defending the choice of voters whether to accept slavery or not, and the little-known Lincoln taking a stand against slavery on political, social, and moral grounds. Douglas never wavered from defending popular sovereignty, and he also played on the voters' fears of [[black integration]]. Stating blacks were inferior to whites, he appealed to racists by declaring that the government was "established upon the white basis. It was made by white men, for the benefit of white men." (TL 1, pg 106). Lincoln on the other hand knew Douglas was in a war of his own with President [[Franklin Buchanan]]'s administration over acceptance of the Kansas constitution which barred slavery from the state, further alienating Southern Democratic support; the fear was that Douglas would be more appealing to moderate Republicans in the east. Lincoln's strategy therefore was to point out and use the vast difference between the moral indifference to slavery as embodied by Douglas's popular sovereignty, and the moral wrong that slavery actually was as embodied by Republican opposition to it. Douglas was, Lincoln insisted, a man who did not care whether slavery was "voted up or voted down." By his last debate, Lincoln would narrow the differences between himself and Douglas as the basic principle of right and wrong.

:''"That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time; and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, "You work and toil and earn bread, and I'll eat it." No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle."'' [http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/slavery/al11.htm]

Douglas for his part knew how formidable his foe was, and declared that if he won, “it would be a hollow victory.” He did win, retaining his Senate seat, but by a narrow margin.

==The presidency==
[[Image:Lincoln and beard.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Soon after his election, a little girl named Grace Bedell wrote to Lincoln, telling him his face would be softened by the addition of a beard; here he just started on her advice.]]
:''My friends, no one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.'' Lincoln's Farewell Speech to the citizens of Springfield, February 11, 1861.

On May 18, 1860 at the Republican National Convention held in Chicago, Lincoln was nominated on the third ballot. He then set aside his law practice and gave full time to the direction of his campaign, with the object of first uniting the Republicans from anything with which the party could disagree over. The Democrats were already divided, having nominated Douglas in Baltimore on the Northern platform of popular sovereignty, and John C. Breckenridge who was elected on a platform of states’ rights and slavery by Southern Democrats. Lincoln won the election of 1860, winning a clear majority in popular votes as well as electoral votes, despite winning no votes in the South.

The state of South Carolina proclaimed its secession from the Union in December, 1860, soon after Lincoln’s victory. To try to prevent other states from following, compromises were hurriedly pushed through Congress, one of which, the [[Crittenden Amendment]], guaranteed the existence of slavery in perpetuity where it already existed, and dividing the territories between slave and free; Lincoln, however, was opposed to it, as he believed that despite this slavery would still expand south of the U.S. border. Six more states seceded, joining with South Carolina to form the Confederate States of America.

A crisis was thus forced upon Lincoln before he even entered the White House. Fort Sumter, in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor, was claimed by the Confederacy and ordered to be turned over; the commander, Major Robert Anderson, refused. Lincoln, still in Springfield, asked Winfield Scott, general in chief of the U.S. Army, to be prepared “to either hold, or retake, the forts, as the case may require, at, and after the inauguration.”

On the 4th of March, 1861, a few weeks after Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as president of the Confederacy, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as the nation's 16th president. In his address he reiterated his stance, and what he believed the stance of the nation should be, namely non-interference with slavery where it existed, and preventing slavery to spread in the territories, and above all was his stand to preserve the Union. The substance of what he said was conciliatory, but it also mentioned the obvious

:''"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. 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."'' [http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/war/lincoln_address1.html]

However, communications between the fort and Charleston broke down, and General P.G.T. Beauregard, believing Fort Sumter had a supply ship on the way, ordered the fort shelled on April 14, 1865. The Civil War had begun.

==Civil War==
Lincoln’s goal was to preserve the Union; he would have been happy to preserve the peace as well, but he was willing to engage in a war to preserve it as well, a war he thought would be short. After Fort Sumter he proclaimed a blockade of Southern ports and called for thousands of volunteers to enlist for ninety days. He also believed that an overland war was inevitable, and he ordered forces on a march on the Virginia front, resulting in the first great defeat for the Union at Bull Run (July 21, 1861). Shortly afterward, Lincoln issued a set of memorandums for the military, of which his basic thought was that armies in the field must advance concurrently and on several fronts.

Finding himself as the leader of a country now at war, Lincoln used a description of himself in which he let events control him, and then react to the problem. It was something of himself that was used with success as a politician. In this sense he was being practical, ready to employ an action or decision which would help the cause, and ready to abandon it and use another if the first failed. But his first insight with which he held fast to, that of taking the fight to the enemy’s army, failed many times when successive generals tried to take the fight to the enemy’s capitol and failed, or failed in following up on a rare victory. He had George McClellan on the Peninsula, but was beaten back during the Seven Days battles. His replacement, John Pope, lost in a repeat of Bull Run. McClellan was back again, winning a victory at Antietam, but failed to follow through in capturing the enemy’s army afterwards. Then Ambrose Burnside, followed by Joseph Hooker, led the Army of the Potomac to massive defeats at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, respectively. Then George Gordon Meade was put in, just in time for the Battle of Gettysburg; Meade would not finish off the enemy either. Robert E. Lee, the commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, commented on the frequent changes in generals. “I’m afraid they’re going to find a general I cannot understand.”

Having seen what he done at Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga, Lincoln found the fighting general he was looking for in Ulysses S. Grant. In March 1864 he promoted Grant to lieutenant general and gave him command of all Federal armies. Grant would have his headquarters in the field with Meade’s Army of the Potomac, and his subordinates William T. Sherman, Philip Sheridan, and George H. Thomas would each lead an army to take the fight to the enemy. Halleck would be given a new title, chief of staff, and remain in Washington as the presidential liaison. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton would be responsible for the procurement of men and supplies. By this reorganization Lincoln created the structure of the high command in which all the energies of and resources of the country were mobilized into a grand strategy for the completion of the war. It was all the more remarkable as prior to 1861, he had no knowledge of military theory or affairs; he threw himself into studying the subject that by 1864, he was considered to be something of a military genius.

==Personal life==
Ann Rutledge played a part in stories as being the first woman Lincoln may have fallen in love with. However, evidence is scant, and what surviving letters and documents there are indicate they were close friends. She died in 1835 at the age of 22, and the entire community grieved with Lincoln.
[[Image:Lincoln and tad.jpg|thumb|200px|left|The irrepressible Tad Lincoln, striking a typical pose next to his father, who could barely restrain a smile.]]
The one true love of Lincoln’s life was a well-educated woman with a quick wit, [[Mary Todd]], from a well-to-do family in Springfield. Lincoln endured a courtship that lasted two years (and was broken once), before they were married on November 4, 1842. Together they would have four boys: Robert Todd, Edward Baker (“Eddie”, who died at age 4), William Wallace (“Willie”), and Thomas (“Tad”). Willie and Tad were the first children in the White House, and the halls and gardens were filled with childish romps, especially from the rambunctious, uncontrollable Tad, who once took a group of office seekers there to see the president on a trip through a confusing maze of hanging laundry; drove a herd of goats inside; got into the attic and rang the servants’ bells for hours; and succeeded in getting his doll executed for sleeping on watch.

The Lincolns also had their share of quarrels, and stories passed through the years tended to exaggerate them, but existing letters between the two indicate they were like any other married couple. They were devoted to each other’s company, and when apart they missed each other. "I have fallen in love with her," Lincoln would write to a friend about Mary, "and have never fallen out." Mary did have fits of temper and a sense of insecurity; while in the White House she had spells of simple jealousy which she staged in front of guests; sometimes the scene would be quite embarrassing. She also rang up large bills for her personal wardrobe and redecorating the White House; Lincoln, when he found out one such bill which totaled near $20,000 and coupled with a request for Congress to appropriate the money needed to pay for it, displayed a rare occurrence of pure anger:

:''"It would stink in the nostrils of the American people to have it said the President of the United States had approved a bill overrunning an appropriation of $20,000 for flub dubs, for this damned old house, when the soldiers cannot have blankets!"'' [http://www.historyswomen.com/1stWomen/marytoddlincoln.htm]

The early deaths of Eddie in 1850 and Willie in 1863 may have played a role in Mary’s eccentricity. Lincoln did what he could to support her, even pointing out the presence of a nearby building which housed a sanitarium, hinting that Mary could be placed there if she didn't control herself over Willie's death.

==On slavery==
In 1841, Lincoln had a flatboat trip down the Mississippi, and he saw sitting on board another boat a group of slaves chained together. He described the sight in a letter to Joshua Speed in 1855: “You may remember, as I well do, that from Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio there were, on board, ten or a dozen slaves, shackled together with irons. That sight was a continual torment to me; and I see something like it every time I touch the Ohio, or any other slave-border.”

Lincoln hated slavery. “I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself,” he declared. “I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world; enables the enemies of free institutions with plausibility to taunt us as hypocrites.” [http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/slavery/al05.htm] In 1855, writing to his friend Joshua Speed, he recalled a steamboat trip the two had taken on the Ohio River14 years earlier. “You may remember, as I well do,” he said, “that from Louisville [Kentucky] to the mouth of the Ohio there were, on board, ten or a dozen slaves, shackled together with irons. That sight was a continual torment to me; and I see something like it every time I touch the Ohio, or any other slave-border.” [http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/slavery/al03.htm]

Lincoln often penned fragments on slavery. He would begin it by starting a hypothetical vested interest in slavery, and end it with the only logical conclusion, that is was a great moral wrong.

:''If A. can prove, however conclusively, that he may, of right, enslave B.—why may not B. snatch the same argument, and prove equally, that he may enslave A?''

:''You say A. is white, and B. is black. It is color, then; the lighter, having the right to enslave the darker? Take care. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with a fairer skin than your own.''

:''You do not mean color exactly? You mean the whites are intellectually the superiors of the blacks, and, therefore have the right to enslave them? Take care again. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with an intellect superior to your own.''

:''But, say you, it is a question of interest; and, if you can make it your interest; you have the right to enslave another. Very well. And if he can make it his interest, he has the right to enslave you.'' (Fragment on Slavery, April, 1854)

Lincoln was elected on a platform which pledged no interference with slavery where it had already existed, and he was hesitant to adopt an abolitionist policy. He was concerned about the reaction of the border states should such a policy be enacted. He was concerned about four million newly-freed blacks being incorporated into the country’s social, economic, and political life. Some individuals, such as General John C. Freemont, made it a point to proclaim freedom in districts which they had conquered; Lincoln revoked those proclamations. In a letter to Horace Greely, Lincoln plainly stated
:''"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that."''

Lincoln was willing to play a major part in removing slavery altogether during the war. He first proposed an idea in which slaves were to be freed gradually by the actions of the states, with the federal government sharing the cost of compensation. None of the border states were willing to implement it, and no prominent African-American leader was willing to see newly-freed blacks sent to Africa, as part of the idea called for.

But with the victory at Antietam in September 1862, Lincoln brought out an idea which he read before his cabinet, that slaves held in the Confederate States were declared to be free. He would declare it formally with his Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. Although it did not include those areas under Union control, and officially it was a war measure, it had a great deal of significance as a symbol, and European countries who had toyed with the idea of recognizing the Confederacy abandoned it and supported the Union.

Lincoln also felt that the freed slaves would be put back in chains at war's end, as the Proclamation itself was not constitutional. But Lincoln was prepared for something else: he drafted the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which stated slavery was illegal except for crimes committed. He also urged the Republican Party to add the proposed amendment as a plank to the 1864 presidential campaign, stating slavery was the cause of the war, and that the Proclamation had aimed “a death blow at this gigantic evil;” only by a constitutional amendment could slavery be rendered extinct. After the election, Lincoln did not wait for the new Congress. He got the two-thirds needed for ratification before the year was over, and rejoiced when his state of Illinois led the way.

:''"In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just - a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless."'' Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862.

==Religion==
Abraham Lincoln, like many other people of his day, believed that "Religion is a private affair between a man and his God." Doubts about Lincoln's faith have arisen mainly because he never officially joined a church, which his political opponents used sometimes to accuse him. He had a love of the Bible and memorized parts of the Bible. Lincoln said once that:
''"I doubt the possibility or propriety of settling the religion of Jesus Christ in the models of man-made creeds and dogmas. I cannot without mental reservations assent to long and complicated creeds and catechisms."''

He also said on another occasion:
:''"That I am not a member of any Christian church is true, but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures, and I have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general or of any denomination of Christians in particular."''

He also made statements that suggest a strong faith, such as when his father was ill:
:''"Tell father to remember to call upon and confide in our great, and good, and merciful Maker who will not turn away from him in any extremity. He notes the fall of a sparrow and numbers the hairs of our heads; and he will not forget the dying man who puts his trust in him. If it is to be his lot to go now, he will soon have a joyous meeting with many loved ones gone before; and where the rest of us, through the help of God, hope ere long to join them."''

Rumors still circulate. Many Christians believe that he was a strong Christian. Others believe he was not one. Another opinion is that he became one while in office. After he was shot at Ford's theater two clergy claimed that he had made a secret trip from Washington to be baptized. Also a Roman Catholic Priest claimed that Lincoln received the sacrament of baptism in secret. Neither of these claims have any proof in White House records or his personal diary.<ref> [[God and the Oval Office]], by John C. McCollister, W Publishing, 2005. </ref>

==Lincoln's style of writing==
[[Image:Lincoln seated.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Lincoln in November, 1863, about to leave for Pennsylvania. The reason for his confident look may have been within the envelope lying on the table, believed to contain his draft of the Gettysburg Address]]
A White House visitor, Orville Browning, told Lincoln's personal secretary John Nicolay one day that he had spoke to Lincoln sometime in 1861 on the subject of slavery; that if the right thing about slavery wasn't done, God just couldn't be on the side of the Union. Browning remembered Lincoln's reply: "What if the Almighty takes a different view of slavery than we do?", and right then and there Browning realized that Lincoln had thought very deep on the subject, much deeper than Browning did. [http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/books/wilson.htm]

Lincoln was known to think long and deep on various topics, and often he would take notes, write them on little scraps of paper, and stuff them into his tall stovepipe hat for later use. When it was time for use, such as his "House Divided" speech, he pulled them out, laid them on a table, and would commence to writing. He would sift through the subject, adding this, removing that, and sometimes he would stand in his empty room and deliver it out loud to an imaginary audience, testing the effects of what he spoke, and altering it as needed. According to author Garry Wills, Lincoln brought to bear the rhetorical tone of the Greek Revival and Transcendental movements, in which spoken oratory was practiced in government and on the stage. The leading speakers of this time, and whom Lincoln looked upon, were Danial Webster and Henry Clay, both of the Senate, and Edward Everett, a speaker much in demand.

The training he had given himself also enabled him to write a simple letter or a speech on the spot. Words would flow clear when Lincoln wrote in his later years, and he didn't have to do twice one of his finest personal letters, one of consolation to Mrs. Bixby of Boston, who had lost five sons in the war.

:''Executive Mansion,''
:''Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.''

:''Dear Madam,''

:''I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.''
:''I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.''
:''I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.''

:''Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,''

:''A. Lincoln''

What many consider his masterpiece is the [[Gettysburg Address]]. Here Lincoln, going through perhaps a dozen writes and re-writes of what he had thought on the subject, entirely changed the meaning of the war itself in a mere 272 words, and in so doing, according to Wills, remaking America.

==Politics in war==
That there had to be a certain degree of support to win the war was a given, and Lincoln strove to have unity for that effort in the North. Politics was required, and Lincoln had a special knack for appealing to his fellows and talking to them at their own level and language. He would smooth over lingering differences, and held the loyalty of those who were antagonistic to one another.

But the Democrats remained strong, and frequently clashed. Its member included both war and peace Democrats; the peace side was called “Copperheads”, after the snake which strikes without warning while hidden. Lincoln tried conciliating with both, but with the latter he had to resort to arrest at times, most famously to an Ohio Congressman, Clement L. Valandigham, who was arrested after he had repeatedly exhorted soldiers to desert. He justified his actions on the grounds that the suspension of ''habeas corpus'' was necessary only in times of rebellion, insurrection, or when the public safety may require it, as stated in the Constitution; certainly the Civil War had met those specific conditions. Many would dissent, and openly criticize Lincoln for arbitrarily violating the Constitution that he had sworn to preserve. In response to the criticism in general, and the case of Valandigham in particular, Lincoln wrote:
:''"Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wiley agitator who induces him to desert? This is none the less injurious when effected by getting a father, or brother, or friend, into a public meeting, and there working upon his feeling, till he is persuaded to write the soldier boy, that he is fighting in a bad cause, for a wicked administration of a contemptable government, too weak to arrest and punish him if he shall desert. I think that in such a case, to silence the agitator, and save the boy, is not only constitutional, but, withal, a great mercy."'' [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=lincoln;cc=lincoln;type=boolean;rgn=div1;q1=soldier;op2=and;q2=deserts;op3=and;q3=agitator;singlegenre=All;view=text;subview=detail;sort=occur;idno=lincoln6;node=lincoln6%3A569]
Lincoln faced reelection against Democrat George McClellan in 1864, who promised a restoration of the Union, but waffled on many of its points, even abandoning the Democratic platform of armistice and peaceful separation. Lincoln was able to beat him in the election, assisted by the timely victories of Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and Sherman in Georgia. Overtures of peace from Confederates were not wholly rejected. On February 3, 1865, Lincoln met with Confederate commissioners, among them Vice President Alexander Stephens, on a steamship in Hampton Roads, Virginia. There would be peace, he insisted, if the South would quit the war, abandon slavery, and accept re-unification, and once these conditions were met he would gracious with pardons. But his terms satisfied neither the Confederacy nor the Radical Republicans in Congress.
His postwar policy was one of compassion. As he explained to his top leaders on board a riverboat, the City Queen, he wanted peace above all else. His Second Inaugural Address expressed his point of healing the wounds caused by the war.
:''With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."''

When asked specifically, he related the following, according to General Sherman, one of those present:
:''Mr. Lincoln was full and frank in his conversation, assuring me that in his mind he was all ready for the civil reorganization of affairs at the South as soon as the war was over; and he distinctly authorized me to assure Governor Vance and the people of North Carolina that, as soon as the rebel armies laid down their arms, and resumed their civil pursuits, they would at once be guaranteed all their rights as citizens of a common country; and that to avoid anarchy the State governments then in existence, with their civil functionaries, would be recognized by him as the government de facto till Congress could provide others.''
:''I know, when I left him, that I was more than ever impressed by his kindly nature, his deep and earnest sympathy with the afflictions of the whole people, resulting from the war, and by the march of hostile armies through the South; and that his earnest desire seemed to be to end the war speedily, without more bloodshed or devastation, and to restore all the men of both sections to their homes. In the language of his second inaugural address, he seemed to have "charity for all, malice toward none," and, above all, an absolute faith in the courage, manliness, and integrity of the armies in the field.'' [http://www.sonshi.com/sherman24.html]

==Final curtain==
Lincoln received the news of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Virginia, on April 9, and he was called out to the balcony of the White House that night by a large crowd gathered in celebration. When asked to make a speech, Lincoln noticed a band among them, and made an unusual request.
:''"I have always thought ‘Dixie’ one of the best tunes I have ever heard. Our adversaries over the way attempted to appropriate it, but I insisted that we fairly captured it. I presented it to the Attorney General, and he gave it as his legal opinion that it is our lawful prize. I now request the band to favor me with its performance."''
He entered Richmond the following day, to the joyous delight of free blacks, who welcomed the arrival of "Father Abraham" as they called him, and he paid a visit to the Confederate White House, and sat at the desk of Jefferson Davis. The only thing he asked for was a glass of water.

Just four days later on April 14 he attended a play at Ford's Theater. It was called ''Our American Cousin'', with well-known stage actress Laura Keane and comedian Harry Hawke in the title role. Unseen to the audience was another actor making his way quietly up the stairs to the president's private box, [[John Wilkes Booth]], a Southern sympathizer who had hatched a conspiracy with a few others to kill the president and other leading officials. Booth entered the box, shot Lincoln in the head, stabbed a guest, and dropped to the stage, escaping behind the curtains. Taken across the street to a boarding house, the mortally-wounded Lincoln was laid across a small bed in humble surroundings, similar it seemed, to where he was born. He died at sunrise a few hours later.

"Now he belongs to the ages" Edwin Stanton was heard to say.

==References==
*McCollister, John C. ''God and the Oval Office'', W Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee(2005)
*Sandburg, Carl. ''Abraham Lincoln'', Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York (1954)
*Walsh, John E. ''Moonlight'', St. Martin's Press, New York (2000)
*Goodwin, Doris Kearns. ''Team of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln'', Simon and Schuster, New York (2005)
*Hanchett, William. ''The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies'', University of Illinois (1983)
*Donald, David Herbert. ''Lincoln'', Jonathan Cafe (Random House), London (1995)
*Wills, Gary. ''Lincoln at Gettysburg: the Words that Remade America'', Simon and Schuster, New York (1992)
*White, Ronald C. Jr. ''The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words'', Random House, New York (2005)
*Carwardine, Richard. ''Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power'', Alfred A. Knopf, New York (2003)
*Time-Life Books ''The Civil War'', vol. 1 (''Brother Against Brother''), Time Inc, New York (1983)

==Links==
*[http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/ Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln]
*[http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln.html Abraham Lincoln Online]
*[http://www.abrahamlincolnarchive.com/Home.aspx Lincoln Archive of original newspaper articles]
*[http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/ History Place: Lincoln timeline]
*[http://www.nps.gov/liho/index.htm Lincoln's Home National Historic Site]
*[http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/al16.html White House site; short bio on Lincoln]
*[http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=112&subjectID=1 Mr. Lincoln and Friends]
*[http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/slavery/al02.htm Declaration against slavery, Illinois State Legislature, March 3, 1837]
*[http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/slavery/al03.htm Lincoln's letter to Joshua Speed, August 24, 1855]
*[http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/slavery/al05.htm Speech in Peoria, Illinois, October 16, 1854]
*[http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=lincoln;cc=lincoln;q1=erastus;q2=corning;op2=and;op3=and;rgn=works;idno=ACK7441.0001.001;didno=ACK7441.0001.001;view=image;seq=00000227 Letter to Erastus Corning and Others, June 13, 1863, in which Lincoln explains his suspention of ''habeas corpus'']
*[http://www.sonshi.com/sherman.html Memoirs of William T. Sherman ]

[[Image:DcLincMor.JPG|right|thumb]]

== See also ==

*[[Democracy]]
*[[John F. Kennedy]]
*[[Andrew Jackson]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lincoln, Abraham}}
[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:Abraham Lincoln]]

Turkey (Nation)

2007-05-20T01:32:30Z

Ninetyten:

'''Turkey''' is a large country in southeast [[Europe]] and western [[Asia]]. The current president is [[Ahmet Necdet Sezer]].

Turkey was part of the [[Ottoman Empire]] until October 1923, where it declared itself a republic. The majority of the Turkish population is [[Muslim]]. Throughout 2007, Turkey has held several demonstrations in favor of remaining a [[secular]] nation.

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Turkey (Nation)

2007-05-20T01:32:10Z

Ninetyten:

'''Turkey''' is a large country in southeast [[Europe]]. The current president is [[Ahmet Necdet Sezer]].

Turkey was part of the [[Ottoman Empire]] until October 1923, where it declared itself a republic. The majority of the Turkish population is [[Muslim]]. Throughout 2007, Turkey has held several demonstrations in favor of remaining a [[secular]] nation.

{{stub2}}

Constantinople

2007-05-20T01:31:38Z

Ninetyten:

'''Constantinople''' was the magnificent city that served as the capital of the eastern half of the [[Roman Empire]]. Formerly the city of [[Byzantium]], [[Constantine]] renamed it as Constantinople in A.D. 330. It was designed to be the [[Rome]] of the East. It was conquered by the [[Ottoman]] [[Sultan]] [[Mahmud II]] in 1453. It served as the capital of the [[Ottoman Empire]] until the Empire was destroyed by the [[World War I|First World War]].

Today the city is named [[Istanbul]], and is located in modern-day [[Turkey (Nation)|Turkey]].

[[Category:Cities]]

Ottoman Empire

2007-05-20T01:30:48Z

Ninetyten:

{{stub}}

The '''Ottoman Empire''' was a [[Muslim]] [[theocracy]] which ruled much of the [[Middle East]] from 1299 A.D. until 1922 A.D..

The [[Ottoman Turks|Ottomans]] are perhaps most notable for their overthrow of the [[Byzantine Empire]] in 1453, by capturing the Christian city of [[Constantinople]] (now [[Istanbul]]). After capturing the city, the Ottomans changed the [[Hagia Sophia]] from a Church into a Mosque. This event is commonly considered the end of the [[Roman Empire]], as the Byzantine Empire was a continuation of the [[Roman Empire]]. The Ottoman Empire continued to militarily force their way into south eastern Europe. In retrospect their failure in the [[Siege of Malta]] (1565) and defeat at the [[Battle of Lepanto]] (1572) were the turning points in their expansion in the Mediterranean. During this period, a strengthening Muscovy ([[Russia]]) was winning Muslim territory and pushing at Ottoman borders. As Europe continued to make heavy military strides in the following centuries, the Ottoman Empire began to lag and lose status as a major power. Wars with Russia became frequent in the later part of it's existence, with the Russians often getting the better of the engagements. In its later years the Empire was actually aided in its survival by the powers in Europe who were afraid its collapse or loss of large amounts of land to Russia would destabilize the balance of power. The Empire continued into [[World War I]], and was disbanded afterwards due to its defeat. The nation of [[Turkey]] is what remained after this dismembering.

[[Category:Former Countries]]

Osman

2007-05-20T01:28:46Z

Ninetyten: New page: '''Osman I''' was the founder and first sultan of the Ottoman Empire in 1281.

'''Osman I''' was the founder and first [[sultan]] of the [[Ottoman Empire]] in 1281.

Ottoman Turks

2007-05-20T01:26:30Z

Ninetyten:

An '''Ottoman Turk''' is a [[Turk]] serving descendants of [[Osman]]. These Turks ruled the [[Ottoman Empire]] from 1300 up until after the [[First World War]]. In this time they twice beseiged [[Vienna]], conquered most of the [[Balkans]] and [[Middle East]], and on one occasion took the city of [[Nice]] in modern [[France]].
[[category:history]]

Byzantine Empire

2007-05-20T01:23:55Z

Ninetyten:

The '''Byzantine Empire''' is the name given to the eastern part of the [[Roman Empire]], which survived until well into the [[Middle Ages]]. First split into an Eastern and Western divisions by [[Constantine]] in the 300s A.D., the Eastern Empire went on to outlive its Western half by 1000 years. The empire was multi-ethnic and predominantly Greek-speaking. The empire's heritage consisted of the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]], [[Greek]] philosophy, and Roman law.

The empire's history was extremely violent as it was often at war with at least one foreign power. As a result, its borders fluctuated greatly over time, but it was always centered in [[Constantinople]]. While taking on offensive position to "reunite" with the west under Justinian in the 500's, for the most part the positiion of the Empire was defensive in nature, having little desire to increase its borders. For years the cultured Byzantine Empire was the protector of Dark Age Europe, repelling Islamic armies that would stretch to control lands from Morocco to India. An important element in Byzantine survival was Greek Fire, a substance that could burn even in water and was a terror to enemy fleets. The contents were such a carefully guarded secret that to this day they are unknown.

In 1453, the capital of the Byzantine Empire fell to the [[Ottoman Turks]] after a long cannon bombardament at a time when the Empire had been reduced to a mere shell of its former self. The conquerors renamed the city [[Istanbul]].

[[Category:History]]

Hypothesis

2007-05-20T01:20:21Z

Ninetyten:

A '''hypothesis''' is an educated guess that attempts to explain an observation or answer a question.<ref>Wile, Dr. Jay L. ''Exploring Creation With General Science''. Anderson: Apologia Educational Ministries, Inc.

2000</ref> It is then tested with [[experiments]], and if it makes [[falsifiable]] claims and is supported by evidence, is called a [[theory]]. Thus, [[Gravity]], [[Quantum Mechanics]], [[Germ Theory]], and [[Evolution]] are all referred to as '''theories'''.

==References==
<references/>
[[category:science]]

Scientific method

2007-05-20T01:20:02Z

Ninetyten:

The goal of the '''scientific method''' is to test the truthfulness of a [[hypothesis]]. It is not a set of directions for making original discoveries and it does not set out the means that scientists must use in order for their research to succeed. The whole point is to compare the hypothesis with the facts.

==Processes involved in the scientific method==

* the identification of a problem or uncertainty about an area of knowledge
* the precise statement of that problem
* the examination of the existing knowledge to see what solutions it offers to the problem
* the statement of a hypothesis that looks as if it might answer the problem
* the testing of that hypothesis to see if it is compatible with the much of the existing knowledge about the problem
* the drawing of some consequences of the hypothesis that can be tested
* the design of an empirical test of the hypothesis or its consequence of it that can be tested by experiment or observation
* the carrying out of such tests of the hypothesis looking at all the evidence, whether it supports the hypothesis or not
* the examination of the data resulting from those tests, including statistical processing
* the evaluation of the hypothesis to see if it is still compatible with both existing knowledge and new experimental evidence
* the retesting of the hypothesis, possibly with new methods, if the results of experiments and observations are inconclusive
* the acceptance, change or rejection of the hypothesis if the results of experiments and observations are conclusive
* the checking of the existing body of knowledge to see if the acceptance of the hypothesis changes it in some way
* the identification and formulation of new problems raised by the confirmation of the hypothesis
* the repetition of the test and reexamination of its possible impact on existing knowledge

==Conclusions drawn from the scientific method==

The agreement of an observation or experiment with a hypothesis does not on its own prove the hypothesis correct. It merely makes its correctness more likely. The hypothesis must agree with other aspects of the scientific framework of knowledge, and survive the test of repeated experiments by other people working independently. Over time, the accumulation of data will tend to confirm or refute a hypothesis.

Scientists may be influenced by their world-views to look for certain results that fit a preconception. The test of objectivity and rigor imposed on their work by the need for other scientists to replicate it makes the truth-seeking facility of the scientific method prevail in the long run. <ref>http://teacher.pas.rochester.edu/phy_labs/AppendixE/AppendixE.html </ref>

==References==
<references/>
[[category:science]]

Emperor Norton

2007-05-20T01:16:28Z

Ninetyten:

'''Joshua Abraham Norton''', was a [[San Francisco]] investor until he was rendered bankrupt in 1859, whereupon he took up himself the role of Emperor of the United States of America and Protector of Mexico. The natives of the city humored him, printed his proclamations in the newspapers, and permitted him to support himself by selling 'promissory notes', which are now worth many times their original value.

In 1880, Norton was buried with full [[Mason|Masonic]] honors. Between 10,000 and 30,000 people are said to have attended his funeral, which was marked by an [[eclipse]] of the sun.

The [[Discordians]] have a saying: "Everybody understands [[Mickey Mouse]]. Few understand [[Hermann Hesse]]. Hardly anybody understands [[Einstein]]. And nobody understands Emperor Norton."

=== External Links ===
[http://www.zpub.com/sf/history/nort.html]
[http://www.knauer.org/mike/discordia/norton.php]

Ibn Battuta

2007-05-20T01:08:21Z

Ninetyten:

'''Ibn Battuta''' was an [[Islamic]] scholar and explorer who lived 1304-1368 or 1377 AD. He traveled much of the Islamic world and recorded his trips in ''Rihla'' or "Journey." Battuta covered more miles than the better-known Marco Polo.

== See also ==

*[[Marco Polo]]

Ibn Battuta

2007-05-20T01:07:53Z

Ninetyten:

'''Ibn Battuta''' was an [[Islamic]] scholar and explorer who lived 1304-1368 or 1377 AD. He traveled much of the Islamic world and recorded his trips in ''Rihla'' or "Journey"

== See also ==

*[[Marco Polo]]

Douglas Adams

2007-05-20T01:03:17Z

Ninetyten:

'''Douglas Adams''' was the author of the bestselling book ''[[The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy]]'', based on his scripts for the radio series of the same title.

''The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy'' was followed by ''[[The Restaurant at the End of the Universe]]'', ''[[Life, The Universe, and Everything]]'', ''[[So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish]]'', and ''[[Mostly Harmless]]''. He has also written two books about a figure named Dirk Gently; ''[[Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency]]'' and ''[[Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul]]''.

In 1990, Adams traveled around the world with zoologist Mark Carwardine to write ''[[Last Chance to See]]'', a book about endangered species and the people who work to help them. At the time of his death Adams was working on his eighth novel ''[[The Salmon of Doubt]],'' which in its incomplete published form centers again on Dirk Gently, although Adams had spoken about the possibility of changing it to another Hitchhiker novel. The book also contains several short stories and essays, including discussion of the author's [[atheist|atheism]].

''The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy'' started as a radio show on BBC in 1978 and has later been converted into novels, a TV-show, movies, a record album and a computer game.

Douglas Adams was born in Cambridge, UK, in March 1952 and died of heart attack in May 2001. He was an environmental activist, an avid technologist, and described himself as "a radical [[atheist]]." [[Richard Dawkins]], a close friend and fellow atheist, dedicated his book "[[The God Delusion]]" to his memory.

During his life, he won three Golden Pans and several other awards.

On Adams' death, Dawkins had the following to say about his friend:

<blockquote>
" Science has lost a friend, literature has lost a luminary, the mountain gorilla and the black rhino have lost a gallant defender (he once climbed Kilimanjaro in a rhino suit to raise money to fight the cretinous trade in rhino horn), Apple Computer has lost its most eloquent apologist. And I have lost an irreplaceable intellectual companion and one of the kindest and funniest men I ever met."<ref>http://edge.org/documents/adams_index.html</ref>
</blockquote>

==References==
http://www.douglasadams.com/dna/bio.html
<references/>

[[Category:Authors|Adams, Douglas]]

Trent Lott

2007-05-20T00:59:20Z

Ninetyten:

'''Trent Lott''' is the junior [[U.S. Senate|Senator]] from [[Mississippi]].

==Legislative Career==
After graduating from [[Ole Miss]], Trent Lott was the staffer for Rules Committee chairman [[William Colmer]], a conservative Democrat. When Colmer retired in 1972, Lott ran as a Republican, receiving Colmer's endorsement.<ref>http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/12/16/timep.lott.tm/</ref>. In the House, Lott achieved prominence, serving as Minority Whip from 1981-1989. In 1988 he was elected to the United States Senate to succeed [[John Stennis]]. In the Senate he has served as Majority Leader and Minority Leader, and is currently serving as the Minority Whip.

Lott resigned his position as Majority Leader after commenting that things would have been better had [[Strom Thurmond]] won his presidential bid. This angered many people, as Thurmond had run on a pro-segregation platform.
[[Category:US Senators]]

Strom Thurmond

2007-05-20T00:58:46Z

Ninetyten:

{{stub}}

'''James Strom Thurmond''' was an [[United States]] [[Senate|Senator]] from [[South Carolina]] for over fifty years. He served from 1954 to 1964 as a [[Democrat]] and from 1964 to 2003 as a [[Republican]]. Thurmond was originally a strong supporter of [[segregation]], and when the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] outlawed discrimination, Thurmond changed parties. At Thurmond's one hundredth birthday party, Senate Majority Leader [[Trent Lott]] stated that things would have been a lot better if Thurmond had been elected president when he ran. This eventually caused Lott resign his position as Majority Leader, as Thurmond had run on a pro-segregation platform.

After Thurmond's death, it was revealed that he had fathered a child with an [[African American]] woman.

[[Category:Political people]]

Strom Thurmond

2007-05-20T00:43:22Z

Ninetyten:

{{stub}}

'''James Strom Thurmond''' was an [[United States]] [[Senate|Senator]] for over fifty years. He served from 1954 to 1964 as a [[Democrat]] and from 1964 to 2003 as a [[Republican]]. Thurmond was originally a strong supporter of [[segregation]]. At Thurmond's one hundredth birthday party, Senate Majority Leader [[Trent Lott]] stated that things would have been a lot better if Thurmond had been elected president when he ran. This eventually caused Lott resign his position as Majority Leader, as Thurmond had run on a pro-segregation platform.

After Thurmond's death, it was revealed that he had fathered a child with an [[African American]] woman.

[[Category:Political people]]

Robert Byrd

2007-05-20T00:42:22Z

Ninetyten:

[[Image:Uity70.jpg|right|thumb]]
'''Robert Byrd''' (born 1917) is a [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] Senator from [[West Virginia]]. He is currently the oldest and longest-serving member of [[Congress]], [[President pro tempore]] of the US Senate, and is the longest-serving [[Senator]] in history, having been first elected in 1959.

During the 1940s, he was involved in the [[Ku Klux Klan]] where he reached the rank of [[Exalted Cyclops]], the leader of the local chapter of the organization.<ref>Pianin, Eric. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/18/AR2005061801105_pf.html A Senator's Shame: Byrd, in His New Book, Again Confronts Early Ties to KKK]. Washington Post, 2005-06-19, pp. A01</ref> He repeatedly expressed his desire for the Klan to expand to its previous size and power, once remarking in a letter that "The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia" and "in every state in the nation." <ref>King, Colbert I. [http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2003/commentary/works/king2.html Sen. Byrd: The view from Darrell's barbershop], Washington Post, March 2, 2002</ref>

Byrd commented on the 1945 controversy raging over the idea of racially integrating the military. In his book When ''Jim Crow Met John Bull'', Graham Smith referred to a letter written that year by Byrd, when he was 28 years old, to [[segregationist]] Senator [[Theodore Bilbo]] of [[Mississippi]], in which Byrd vowed never to fight:

:''Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds."''

He had earlier written Bilbo:

:''"I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side"''

By the 1950s, he was no longer involved with the Ku Klux Klan.

He is third in line to the [[President of the United States|Presidency]] behind [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]] [[Dick Cheney]] and [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives|Speaker]] [[Nancy Pelosi]].

On March 4, 2001, during an interview with Tony Snow, Byrd said the following comment on race relations:

:''"There are white niggers. I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time. I'm going to use that word."''

Byrd's use of the term "nigger" created immediate controversy.

==References==
<references />

[[Category:US Senators]]

United States Senate

2007-05-20T00:40:50Z

Ninetyten:

The [[United States]] has a '''senate''' composed of 100 members, two from each of the 50 [[state]]s. The Senate convenes in [[Washington, D.C.]]. The Senate is equally divided, with 49 [[Republican]]s and 49 [[Democrat]]s. However [[Independent]]s [[Jim Jeffords]] and [[Joe Leiberman]] caucus with the [[Democratic Party]], giving Democrats the majority.

The position of '''President of the Senate''' is filled by the [[Vice President of the United States]], and he casts the deciding vote in case of a tie. If the President is not present, the [[President Pro Tempore]] (currently [[Robert Byrd]]), acts as President. The Senate's current Majority Leader is [[Harry Reid]], and the Minority Leader is [[Mitch McConnell]]. [http://senate.gov/pagelayout/senators/a_three_sections_with_teasers/leadership.htm]

==References==
<references/>
[[Category:United States]]

United States Senate

2007-05-20T00:38:56Z

Ninetyten:

The [[United States]] has a '''senate''' composed of 100 members, two from each of the 50 [[state]]s. The Senate convenes in [[Washington, D.C.]]. The Senate is equally divided, with 49 [[Republican]]s and 49 [[Democrat]]s. However [[Independent]] [[Jim Jeffords]] caucuses with the [[Democratic Party]], giving Democrats the majority.

The position of '''President of the Senate''' is filled by the [[Vice President of the United States]], and he casts the deciding vote in case of a tie. If the President is not present, the [[President Pro Tempore]] (currently [[Robert Byrd]]), acts as President. The Senate's current Majority Leader is [[Harry Reid]], and the Minority Leader is [[Mitch McConnell]]. [http://senate.gov/pagelayout/senators/a_three_sections_with_teasers/leadership.htm]

==References==
<references/>
[[Category:United States]]

Fred Thompson

2007-05-20T00:38:28Z

Ninetyten:

[[Image:FredThompson.jpg|right|thumb|300px]]
'''Fred Dalton Thompson''' (born August 19, 1942 in Sheffield, [[Alabama]]) is an [[United States of America|American]] lawyer, actor and former [[Republican Party|Republican]] [[U.S. Senate|senator]] from [[Tennessee]].

He attended public school in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee and graduated from Memphis State University in 1964. He received a J.D. degree from Vanderbilt University in 1967 and was admitted to the Tennessee bar in 1967.

He was appointed assistant U.S. attorney 1969-1972; minority counsel, then to the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities ("Watergate Committee") 1973-1974. He became special counsel to Tennessee Governor [[Lamar Alexander]] in 1980, special counsel, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations 1980-1981, Special counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee 1982. He became a member of the Tennessee Appellate Court Nominating Commission 1985-1987.

Thompson was elected as a Republican to the [[United States Senate]] in the November 8, 1994, special election to fill the unexpired portion of the term ending January 3, 1997, left vacant by the resignation of [[Al Gore|Albert Gore, Jr.]] and was re-elected in 1996 for the term ending January 3, 2003. He is currently considering a run for [[President]] in 2008.

He is also an actor of note with more than 30 roles according to the International Movie Database including "The Hunt for Red October" and "Die Hard 2". He is currently a co-star of the popular television series "''Law and Order''"

Thompson announced April 11, 2007 that he's in remission from [[lymphoma]].

"I have had no illness from it, or even any symptoms. My life expectancy should not be affected. I am in remission, and it is very treatable with drugs if treatment is needed in the future—and with no debilitating side effects,". <ref>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,265271,00.html</ref>

==References==
<references/>

[[category:political people]]

Fred Thompson

2007-05-20T00:38:16Z

Ninetyten:

[[Image:FredThompson.jpg|right|thumb|300px]]
'''Fred Dalton Thompson''' (born August 19, 1942 in Sheffield, [[Alabama]]) is an [[United States of America|American]] lawyer, actor and former [[Republican Party|Republican]] [[senator]] from [[Tennessee]].

He attended public school in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee and graduated from Memphis State University in 1964. He received a J.D. degree from Vanderbilt University in 1967 and was admitted to the Tennessee bar in 1967.

He was appointed assistant U.S. attorney 1969-1972; minority counsel, then to the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities ("Watergate Committee") 1973-1974. He became special counsel to Tennessee Governor [[Lamar Alexander]] in 1980, special counsel, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations 1980-1981, Special counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee 1982. He became a member of the Tennessee Appellate Court Nominating Commission 1985-1987.

Thompson was elected as a Republican to the [[United States Senate]] in the November 8, 1994, special election to fill the unexpired portion of the term ending January 3, 1997, left vacant by the resignation of [[Al Gore|Albert Gore, Jr.]] and was re-elected in 1996 for the term ending January 3, 2003. He is currently considering a run for [[President]] in 2008.

He is also an actor of note with more than 30 roles according to the International Movie Database including "The Hunt for Red October" and "Die Hard 2". He is currently a co-star of the popular television series "''Law and Order''"

Thompson announced April 11, 2007 that he's in remission from [[lymphoma]].

"I have had no illness from it, or even any symptoms. My life expectancy should not be affected. I am in remission, and it is very treatable with drugs if treatment is needed in the future—and with no debilitating side effects,". <ref>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,265271,00.html</ref>

==References==
<references/>

[[category:political people]]

Romance Languages

2007-05-20T00:37:06Z

Ninetyten: Redirecting to Romance language

#REDIRECT [[Romance language]]

Liberal Party of Australia

2007-05-20T00:35:30Z

Ninetyten:

[[Image:Lpa.jpg‎|thumb|300px| The Liberal Party of Australia logo.]]

The '''Liberal Party of Australia''' is a [[conservative]]-leaning political party based in the Commonwealth of [[Australia]]. The Liberal Party was founded in 1944 by [[Sir Robert Menzies]]. "Pig Iron Bob" as he was known to his detractors kept the Liberal Party in power during much of the post-war boom. As with many other Western democracies the winds of change swept through Australia and the Liberal Party was ousted from power by [[Gough Whitlam]] and the [[Australian Labor Party]] in 1972.

The Liberals in general believe in low levels of government interference in the economy and are understood to be more socially conservative than their more left wing political foes, the Labor Party.

Until recent times the Liberal Party occupied the centre of Australian politics. The Liberals have recently moved more to the right of politics as the [[Labor Party]] has moved to the centre.

The Liberal Party is divided into state-based divisions. The Liberals contest both state and federal elections, but do not officially contest local government elections. However many party members stand for local council elections in their own right.

Since 1996 the Liberals have governed Australia (at a federal level), in coalition with the smaller National Party, under the leadership of [[John Howard]], a champion of neo-liberal ideas.

[[Category:Political Parties]]
[[Category:Australia]]

Liberal Party of Australia

2007-05-20T00:35:07Z

Ninetyten:

[[Image:Lpa.jpg‎|thumb|300px| The Liberal Party of Australia logo.]]

The '''Liberal Party of Australia''' is a [[conservative]]-leaning political party based in the Commonwealth of [[Australia]]. The Liberal Party was founded in 1944 by [[Sir Robert Menzies]]. "Pig Iron Bob" as he was known to his detractors kept the Liberal Party in power during much of the post-war boom. As with many other Western democracies the winds of change swept through Australia and the Liberal Party was ousted from power by [[Gough Whitlam]] and the [[Australian Labor Party]] in 1972.

The Liberals in general believe in low levels of government interference in the economy and are understood to be more socially conservative than their more left wing political foes, the Labor Party.

Until recent times the Liberal Party occupied the centre of Australian politics. The Liberals have recently moved more to the right of politics as the Labor Party has moved to the centre.

The Liberal Party is divided into state-based divisions. The Liberals contest both state and federal elections, but do not officially contest local government elections. However many party members stand for local council elections in their own right.

Since 1996 the Liberals have governed Australia (at a federal level), in coalition with the smaller National Party, under the leadership of [[John Howard]], a champion of neo-liberal ideas.

[[Category:Political Parties]]
[[Category:Australia]]

Social Democracy

2007-05-20T00:34:09Z

Ninetyten:

'''Social democracy''' is an ideology of the political Left that emerged from [[socialism]] in the earlier part of the twentieth century. While socialism in the strict sense seeks to destroy [[capitalism]] (in some cases, by violent means) and to replace it with a different social and economic system, social democracy seeks to subject capitalism to regulation and governmental intervention in order to remedy its alleged deficiencies.

It is generally considered that the international Left split into two distinct camps after the [[Russian Revolution]] of 1917. Members of the more extreme factions around the world, which sought to achieve radical societal change through revolution, became known as ''[[communists]]'', while members of the less extreme factions, which sought to pursue gradual change through the democratic system, became known as ''social democrats''. The roots of these divisions, in fact, long preceded 1917: [[Marxists]], for example, had called for violent revolution in the nineteenth century, while more moderate parties such as the [[British]] [[Labour Party]] had never espoused such ideas.

On one definition, social democrats continue to have the ultimate objective of achieving full socialism, albeit by peaceful means. Others prefer to call such people "democratic socialists" (though ''non''-democratic, violent socialism continues to exist in various parts of the world), and reserve the term "social democrats" for those who would be content with a society comprising a mixture of capitalist and socialist elements (for example, an economy in which a market operates, but with sizeable governmental intervention, and in which enterprise is possible, but business is subjected to high taxes).

Many parties in economically developed nations have espoused social democratic beliefs, including the [[Labour Party]] in the [[United Kingdom]], the [[SPD]] in [[Germany]], the Social Democratic Parties in [[Sweden]] and [[Finland]], and the [[Australian Labor Party]]. Social democratic beliefs are also found in parts of the American [[Democratic Party]], and some European and South American [[Christian democracy|Christian Democratic]] parties have resemblences to social democratic parties.

[[Category:Politics]]
Since the 1980s, a number of social democratic parties have moved away from the territory of the traditional Left and have accepted greater elements of free-market, capitalistic thought. The principal example of this phenomenon is the British Labour Party under [[Tony Blair]], while other examples include the [[Australian]] Labor Party under [[Bob Hawke]] and [[Paul Keating]], and the German SPD under [[Gerhard Schroeder]].

Native American

2007-05-20T00:31:04Z

Ninetyten:

"'''Native American'''" is the collective name for the indigenous people living in North and South America before the coming of Europeans. Current anthropological and historical models have the first Native Americans crossing the Bering land bridge sometime after the [[Great Flood]] according to [[YEC]], or between 15,000 and 60,000 years ago according to various anthropological theories.

[[Hunter-gatherers]] from [[Asia]] migrated south to eventually inhabit all of North and South America. Indians in the New World developed complex societies and many were sedentary agriculturalists at the time of contact with [[Christopher Columbus|Columbus]].

Unfortunately, contact with Europeans led to a decrease in the Indian population due to lack of immunity to [[disease]], intermarriage, [[slavery]], and [[Wounded Knee Massacre|massacre]]. Native populations have been estimated to range from 8 to 18 million before contact. Since 1492, this population was estimated to have fallen by 95% before stabilizing and then reversing direction.<ref> Thornton, Russell. 1987. Aboriginal North American Population and Rates of Decline, ca. 1500-1900 CE. Current Anthropology 38(2):310 -315.</ref>

==References==

<references/>

Latin

2007-05-20T00:25:55Z

Ninetyten:

An [[Indo-European]] language of the Italic family; its closest relative was [[Umbric]], which is now extinct. Latin was the language of the [[Roman Empire]], from which all the [[Romance languages]] are derived. These languages include [[Spanish]], [[Romanian]], [[Portuguese]], [[Italian]], [[French]] and [[Catalan]] among others.

Latin grammar is marked by an extensive system of noun cases and verbal inflection. Noun cases are organized along nominative-accusative lines, with several other oblique cases also used. Verbal morphology distinguishes both case and aspect. Perhaps one aspect is the mood, as Latin verbs are usually divided up into the indicative, subjunctive and optative, as well as the passive. Much of the Latin read nowadays is based on literature written around the time of (Sanath.) Cicero and Publius Vergelus Vaas Maro IV. Phonologically, Latin is generally similar to other western languages of the Indo-European family.
[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Latin Terms/Phrases]]

Romance language

2007-05-20T00:25:01Z

Ninetyten:

The '''Romance languages''' (the largest branch of the [[Indo-European languages]] family) are languages that descended from [[Vulgar Latin]], a collection of dialects of [[Latin]], spoken throughout the [[Roman Empire]]. The Romance Languages are spoken in western [[Europe]], the [[Americas]], and many other parts of the world. These languages include [[Portuguese]], [[Galician]], [[Spanish]], [[Catalan]], [[Occitan]], [[French]], [[Italian]], [[Lombard]], [[Sardinian]], [[Sicilian]], and [[Romanian]]. Many other languages exist.

[[Category:Languages]]