Tag Archive for ‘lincoln’
“The Blood and Sweat Behind Labor Day” (CNN.com)
“To most Americans, the first Monday in September means a three-day weekend and the last hurrah of summer, a final outing at the shore before school begins, a family picnic.
But Labor Day was born in a time when work was no picnic. As America was moving from farms to factories in the Industrial Age, there was a long, violent, often-deadly struggle for fundamental workers’ rights, a struggle that in many ways was America’s “other civil war.”
“Is there hope for America in era of broken trust?”
We are in an era of broken trust. The deep divisions in Washington, evident most recently in the wrangling over the debt ceiling, drove this home. Opinion polls in the wake of the debate confirmed the worst news for the Beltway Crowd: Confidence in Congress has plunged to an all-time low.
America’s “Other” Independence Day
America’s birthday is fast approaching. But let’s not wait for July 4th to light the fireworks. There is another Independence Day on the horizon. Juneteenth falls on June 19 each year. It is a holiday whose history was hidden for much of the last century. But as the nation now observes the 150th anniversary of the Civil War’s onset, it is a holiday worth recognizing
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Juneteenth-Our-Other-Independence-Day.html#ixzz1PXGpVxj8
Don’t Know Much About® John Brown
Abolitionist martyr? Or terrorist? Born on May 9, 1800, John Brown has always posed that awkward question in American history. I am quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. –John Brown at his execution (November 2, 1859) Viewed through history as a lunatic, psychotic, [...]
Today in History: “We the People” (v 2.0)
On March 11, 1861, the delegates at the Congress of the Confederate States of America, meeting in Montgomery, Alabama, adopted a Constitution. Working under duress, they used the U.S. Constitution almost verbatim as their template. But they made some changes… What was the difference between the Confederate and U.S. Constitutions? One week after Lincoln’s inaugural address, [...]
“We are not enemies but friends.”
“That there are persons in one section or another who seek to destroy the Union at all events and are glad of any pretext to do it I will neither affirm nor deny; but if there be such, I need address no word to them. To those, however, who really love the Union may I [...]
It is NOT Presidents Day. Or President’s Day. Or Even Presidents’ Day.
We mistakenly call the third Monday in February Presidents Day. But. Really it is George Washington’s Birthday –federally speaking that is.
“Would you like one term or two?”
More than a few presidents who desired a second term were not returned to office. What keeps single-term Presidents from earning those added 1,461 days in office? And what can the past say about President Obama’s future?
Today in History: The Birthday of the Confederacy
The Confederacy was officially born on February 4, 1861 when six breakaway states created the Confederate States of America. What was different about the Confederate Constitution?
