Main Content
THE GREAT CAUSE OF UNIONOn Election Day, Abraham Lincoln had walked down to the courthouse in Springfield, Illinois, parting a crowd of supporters who had come to see him cast his vote. He did not think he should vote for himself, but otherwise checked off a straight Republican ticket. By midnight, through the benefits of the telegraph, he knew he
Through the vision of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, the White House Historical Association was chartered on November 3, 1961, “to enhance understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment of the historic White House.” In 2011, the association celebrated the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary with exhibitions, publications, and special events, including a White House reception hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama on October 31, 2011. Caroline Kennedy, the daug
In that week before Thanksgiving, President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline traveled to Texas. The trip was political–Kennedy was unsure of his support in this southern state. In the previous two years, very little Texas money had come into the coffers of the Democratic National Committee, and more and more Texas voters who opposed Kennedy’s civil righ
At the time, John F. Kennedy was serving as a United States senator from Massachusetts, and the events that were about to unfold would require the thinking and leadership of the nation’s president, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Yet the effects of those events would eventually come to bear on the presidency of John Kennedy. It started with the launching of Sp
During the last three decades of the nineteenth century, Americans were entertained, challenged, educated, and even shocked by an orator who crisscrossed the country by train, delivering more than 1,300 lectures and campaigning successfully for Republican Party presidents and politicians. He was heard by more Americans than any other person before the invention of the radio. His close friend, Walt Whitman,
Timeline of Events (Year 1814):May 9: News of Napoleon's abdication reached Washington.May 10-19: U.S. forces under Lt. Col. John B. Campbell captured and burned Port Dover and Port Talbot, Upper Canada (Ontario)—an outrage that contributed to the British decision to burn the public buildings of Washington, D.C.May 20: President James Madison tried to prod Secretary of War Jo
No measure of Thomas Jefferson’s presidential administration captured the public imagination, and no policy approach so significantly affected the character of the nation, as did the acquiring of the Louisiana Territory.1 Yet long before his presidency, Jefferson was keenly interested in the land to the west of the Mississippi River. For example, just after the Revolution, he had heard th
Timeline of Events:August 29, 1814: Faced with a British demand to surrender 21 merchant ships, naval and ordinance stores and cotton, flour, tobacco and wines from the city warehouses or face attack from a squadron of seven ships, Alexandria's mayor and council bowed to the inevitable and agreed to the British demand—for they had no reliable defenses or defenders.August 30, 1814: A wa
