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February 24, 1803: The Marbury v Madison ruling defines the authority of the Supreme Court.
Fifteen years after the founding fathers create the judicial branch of the federal government, the nation’s fourth Chief Justice, John Marshall, defines the authority of the Supreme Court over the laws of the land in his Marbury v Madison decision. Until that moment the High Court has floundered under three prior Chiefs, unsure of its […]
February 13, 1819: The Tallmadge Amendment rings like “a fire bell in the night” for ex-President Jefferson.
James Tallmadge, Jr. is a 41 year old graduate of Brown University, a lawyer, ex-soldier in the War of 1812 and serving his one term in Congress when he becomes famous for offering an amendment to a bill to admit Missouri as the 23rd state in the Union. It supports the addition, but only… Provided, […]
Frederick Douglass: From Slavery To American Icon
It seems fair to say that Frederick Douglass does more than any other individual in his era to alter the negative stereotypes of black people in America. For over 200 years prior to his arrival on the national stage the enslaved Africans are perceived as a “different species of being” from their white counterparts. A leading […]
The Civil War Begins At The Battle Of First Bull Run
Forces Overview Union Forces: The Army of Northeastern Virginia under General McDowell made up the bulk of Union Forces. The army was composed of 36,000 troops divided into five divisions, these divisions were further divided into 3 to 5 brigades. There was also another army of 18,000 under Major General Robert Patterson, to prevent any […]
The Evolution Of America’s Four “Political Systems” Up To 1860
It is George Washington, the only president elected as an Independent, whose Farewell Address famously warns about the dangers of political parties to the well-being of the Union. His advice, however, is quickly ignored and between 1800 and 1860 four divisive “political systems” evolve. The 1st System is visible at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, with […]
Lincoln's Cooper Union Speech
In October 1859 Abraham Lincoln accepted an invitation to lecture at Henry Ward Beecher’s church in Brooklyn, New York, and chose a political topic which required months of painstaking research. His law partner William Herndon observed, “No former effort in the line of speech-making had cost Lincoln so much time and thought as this one,” […]
John Brown: Madman, Martyr, Or Both?
In 1837 word of the murder of abolitionist newspaper editor Elijah Lovejoy reaches John Brown who is thirty-six years old and living in Franklin Mills, Ohio. By then Brown has already led a hard life. His mother dies when he is eight and he grows up with an overbearing father, Owen Brown, a strict Calvinist […]
