Histories of Many Persons.

   

To start with the history of the Presidency, you have to start in the beginning. Regardless of what far right conservatives or class reductionists say, America had a foundation made up of the evils of slavery and the genocide of the Native Americans. Many people back then fought for justice, and some didn't. That fact of history must always be emphasized. In order to make a better, you have to evaluate the past and the present. In the near future, I'm going to make a new series documenting a summary of every President in American history. The first President of the United States was George Washington (1732-1799). He was born in my birth state of Virginia. He was not only a slave owner and President. He was a Freemason, a political leader, a statesman, and a military general. He fought in the French and Indian War, and he was the general of Patriot forces in the Americans Revolutionary War. During the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the Patriot forces suffered heavily until later on via better training and assistance from France including Spain. George Washington was also the person who presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The Convention helped to form the Constitution of the United States. The growth of the federal government existed. Me personally, I believe in a strong federal government as a means to advance the general welfare of all people in society. He was President from April 30, 1789 to March 4, 1797. George Washington was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses and the 14th Chancellor of the College of William and Mary (at Williamsburg, Virginia). From 1749 to 1750, he was an official Surveyor of Culpepper County, Virginia. Washington worked to adopt and ratifythe Constitution, and he was elected twice as President by the Electoral College. He desired a strong, well financed national government. He also was impartial when there was a fierce rivalry between cabinet members Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. The reason for this tension caused the Federalist vs. Anti-Federalist debate. Jefferson was more sympathetic with the Anti-Federalists who wanted a strong state government and a weaker national government. Alexander Hamilton supported Federalists who wanted a strong federal government to build roads, to set up banking, and the develop more infrastructure to grow American society. Washington sanctioned the Jay Treaty. George Washington gave his Farewell Address to condemn entangling alliances and political polarization. 

 

One of the most terrible things that George Washington did was to own slaves and make policies to protect slavery. He only freed his slaves in a 1799 will. Also, he wanted to assimilate Native Americans into Anglo-American culture which is not right as Native Americans have the right to maintain their culturally diverse identities. George Washington was part of the Anglican Church as a large percentage of Presidents are. To this day, he has been praised in locations, stamps, monuments, and other themes. He was one of the most prominent Presidents in American history. His family were made up of Virginia planters. His great grandfather, John Washington, came into Virginia in 1656 from Sulgrave, Northamptonshire, England. Washington, during his youth, was a map maker as he studied mathematics like trigonometry including land surveying. On January 6, 1759, he married Martha Dandrige Custis. Washington opposed the British Parliament over the Stamp Act of 1765, over taxation without representation, and the Proclamation Act of 1763 (which forbid American settlements west of the Allegheny Mountains and protected the British flur trade). Washington opposed black people to join the Continental Army until the Dunmore Proclamation (that promised freedom to black slaves if they joined the British). It was only on January 16, 1776 when Congress allowed free black people to be in the American militia. By the end of the war, one-tenth of Washington's army were black human beings. As President, George Washington talked to people in his cabinet for advice. He rejected political divisiveness, but he believed in a strong central government. He had to deal with a military, budget, and other issues. Congress made many executive departments in 1789 like the State Department, the Treasury Department, and the Department of War. Washington did terrible things on the issue of slavery. He denied citizenship to black immigrants, slaves were barred from serving in state militias, and he admitted more slavery states. He signed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 to allow agents to kidnap slaves and bring them back into slavery. George Washington wanted Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton to have a true in their disagreements. He failed. Washington rejected Jefferson after his support of Freneau's National Gazette. By his 2nd term, he was neutral involving the French Revolution. Many of Washington's slaves escaped like Ona Judge to Portsmouth, Virginia and Hercules to Philadelphia. Washington knew slavery was evil, but he felt that radical change to eliminate slavery would end the Republic. That argument is of course wrong as freedom should be for all people regardless. Washington's will freed all of his slaves after the death of his wife Martha. Martha signed and order freeing slaves in 1801. George Washington wanted to leave office in 2 terms. He died by having a cold and it escalated massively. He lost much blood and passed away. He was 67 years old. Some believed that he died from epiglottis. He was buried at Mount Vernon, Virginia. 

 

  

 

John Adams was the second American President. He lived from 1735 to 1826. As a statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and leader of the American Revolution, he was involved in very historic events. His wife was Abigail Adams, and his adviser was Thomas Jefferson. John Adams have had a long career in government. He was the 1st Vice President and the 1st United States Minister to the United Kingdom. He was the Chairman of the Maine Committee and the Delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress. He was born in Braintree, Massachusetts. Harvard was where he was educated. He ironically defended British soldiers against the charge of murder from the Boston Massacre. He worked to draft the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Adams was the main author of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780 that influenced the American Constitution. His essay of Thoughts on Government influenced political thought to this very day in 2021. As part of the Federalist Party, he was in opposition to the Jeffersonian republicans. John Adams was wrong to sign the Alien and Sedition Acts that violated human civil liberties. He helped to build up the Army and the Navy in the Quasi War with France. He was the first President to live in the White House. He was a friend to Thomas Jefferson. Of the first 12 U.S. Presidents, John Adams and his son were the only Presidents who never owned slaves. Adams's great great grandfather Henry Adams immigrated to Massachusetts from Baintree, Essex, England in ca. 1638. Adams was in a family of Puritans. His father was a deacon. He knew of the classics like Thucydides, Plato, Cicero, and Tacitus. John Adams was a lawyer before he was President. He supported the Boston Tea Party protest and he was a member of the Continental Congress. 

 

John Adams wanted American independence. He was part of the Second Continental Congress too. John Adams worked in diplomacy as a commissioner to France. Adams disagreed with Benjamin Franklin on how to deal with French relations. He didn't want a Franco-American alliance while Franklin did. He was a President later on. He suffered the XYZ Affair. John Adams wanted to be neutral involving France and England. Jefferson supported France, and Hamilton supported the UK. Thomas Jefferson was his vice President, and ironically Jefferson would defeat him in a Presidential race.  John Adams retired after 1801. John Adams believed in republicanism, bicameral Congress, and the separation of powers among executive, judicial, and legislative branches. John Adams became Unitarianism. He publicly didn't like slavery , but he refused to support legal policies to abolish slavery. His wife publicly opposed slavery. John Adams was a Federalist, but he had his own thinking on many issues. 

  

As the third President of America, Thomas Jefferson's life and legacy has been debated. Thomas Jefferson was a very controversial man. He was a diplomat, a lawyer, a slaveholder, an architect, a musician, a philosopher, and he was vice President under President John Adams from 1797 to 1801. He believed in republicanism, individual rights (except for certain people, and you know what I mean. People who look like me), and promoted independence against Great Britain. He was a more conservative person on economic issues. He was a delegate from Virginia to the Continental Congress, the 2nd Governor of Virginia, and the delegate from Virginia to the Congress of the Confederation. He was the United States of Secretary of State and the 2nd United States Minister to France. Thomas Jefferson is an open book. He was a Virginia legislator who drafted a state law for religious freedom. Back then, many Baptists and religious minorities were oppressed by the Church of England in Virginia. Therefore, the religious liberty law in Virginia rightfully states that a human being has the right to believe as he or she desires without oppression. Jefferson and James Madison formed the Democratic Republican Party to oppose the Federalist Party. Madison and Jefferson believed in the states' rights doctrine. He promoted the nullifying the federal Alien and Sedition Acts. He fought against the Barbary pirates and he supported the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 that doubled the nation's size by theft without any consideration of the Native Americans tribes in the North American continent. Jefferson was a planter in his life. He surveyed many lands. Jefferson was part of the American Philosophical Society. He rejected organized religion denying the miracles of Jesus Christ by viewing him as only a great moral teacher. Thomas Jefferson believed in the views and teachings of the Enlightenment. He owned over 60 slaves, and he was a racist viewing black people as genetically and intellectually inferior (as found in his book about Virginia). Thomas Jefferson knew Sally Hemings, who was a multiracial slave. DNA evidence proved that Jefferson probably fathered at least six children with Hemings, including 4 that survived to adulthood. Evidence finds that Jefferson started his activities with Hemings when she was only 14 while he was 44 at Paris, France. Hemings was pregnant when she was 16 years old. Sally Hemings was born in Virginia.

 

By the time he was 16 years old, Thomas Jefferson studied at the College and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. He studied mathematics, metaphysics, and philosophy under Professor William Small. Small promoted empiricists like John Locke, Francis Bacon, and Sir Isaac Newton. Jefferson read literature on law, philosophy, history, religion, science, and agriculture. His library was made up of hundreds of books at first and he had over 1,200 titles by 1773 and grew to almost 6,500 volumes by 1814. On January 1, 1772, Thomas Jefferson married his 3rd cousin Martha Wayles Skelton. He had 6 children with Martha. He helped to finished Monticello. He was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence despite having the contradiction of being a slaveholder. Thomas Jefferson was President by March 4, 1801 when he was sworn in by Chief Justice John Marshall at the new Capitol in Washington, D.C. Jefferson ended the whiskey tax. He grew the military by investing in the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He promoted the Lewis and Clark Expedition of the western side of North America. He wanted Native Americans to be assimilated into Western society. He had his 2nd term in 1804. John Randolph was once Jefferson's ally who accused Jefferson of moving too much into the Federalist direction. Jefferson wanted national roads and canals in 1808. Jefferson opposed the international slave trade in the 1800's. Jefferson accused Burr of treason for attempting to make a military response in America. Burr was found not guilty by Jefferson's political foe John Marshall. Thomas Jefferson, after he was President, sold his books to the Library of Congress. He founded the built the University of Virginia. He communicated with many country leaders. Thomas Jefferson wrote letters in Monticello visited by tourists constantly. He reconciled with John Adams before his death. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams exchanged letters to discuss issues, debate topics, and focus on other things. Thomas Jefferson met the Marquis de Lafayette before Jefferson's death at 1824. Jefferson and Madison gave Lafayette a tour of the University of Virginia. He died on July 4, 1826 on the 50th year anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. He freed Sally Heming's children in his instructions. Jefferson admitted that slavery was a moral evil that the nation will have to account to God for, but he issued contradictory responses to slavery (which was his error. He even opposed the Haitian Revolution). Jefferson was a farmer and inventor. Thomas Jefferson was a man who made great accomplishments, but he also was wrong in his promotion of racism and his refusal to be courageous on the issue of slavery. 

  

 

Later in Kamala Harris's life, she was a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, California in 1990. This was where she was described as "an able prosecutor on the way up." In 1994, Speaker of the California Assembly Willie Brown appointed her to the state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Boards and later to the California Medical Assistance Commission. It is no secret that Willie Brown once dated Kamala Harris during this time. Harris took a 6 month level of absence in 1994 from her duties. Then, she resumed as prosecutor during the years she sat on boards. Harris has defended her work. By February 1998 San Francisco district attorney Terence Hallinan recruited Harris as an assistant district attorney. Kamala harris became the chief of the Career Criminal Division. So, she supervised five other attorney where she prosecuted homicide, burglary, robbery, and sexual assault cases. There were three strikes cases too. By 2000, Harris reportedly clashed with Halinan's assistant Darrell Salomon over Proposition 21. This policy granted prosecutors the option of trying juvenile defendants in Superior Court rather than juvenile courts. Kamala Harris campaigned against the measure, which passed. Salomon opposed directing media inquiries about Proposition 21 to Harris. He reassigned Harris or a de facto demotion. Harris filed a complaint against Salomon and quit. By August 2000, Harris took a job at San Francisco City Hall. She worked for city attorney Louise Renee. Harris ran the Family and Children's Services Division representing child abuse and neglect cases. Renne endorsed Harris during her D.A. campaign. 

 

  

 

 

 

 

By 2002, Kamala Harris prepared to run for District Attorney of San Francisco against Hallinan (the incumbent) and Bill Fazio. Harris and Hallinan advanced to the general runoff with 33 and 37 percent of the vote respectively. In the runoff, Harris pledged never to seek the death penalty and to prosecute three-strike offenders only in cases of violent felonies.  Harris ran a "forceful" campaign, assisted by former mayor Willie Brown, Senator Dianne Feinstein, writer and cartoonist Aaron McGruder, and comedians Eddie Griffin and Chris Rock.  Harris differentiated herself from Hallinan by attacking his performance.  She argued that she left his office because it was technologically inept, emphasizing his 52 percent conviction rate for serious crimes despite an 83 percent average conviction rate statewide. Harris charged that his office was not doing enough to stem the city's gun violence, particularly in poor neighborhoods like Bayview and the Tenderloin, and attacked his willingness to accept plea bargains in cases of domestic violence. Harris won with 56 percent of the vote, becoming the first person of color elected as district attorney of San Francisco. Kamala Harris ran unopposed for a 2nd term in 2007. 

 

 

Kamala Harris made many contributions as San Francisco district attorney. In 2005, she organized an environmental crimes unit. By 2007, she and city attorney Dennis Herrera investigated San Francisco supervisor Ed Jew for violating residency requirements necessary to hold his supervisor position;  Harris charged Jew with nine felonies, alleging that he had lied under oath and falsified documents to make it appear he resided in a Sunset District home, necessary so he could run for supervisor in the 4th district.  Jew pleaded guilty in October 2008 to unrelated federal corruption charges (mail fraud, soliciting a bribe, and extortion). Ed pleaded guilty the following month in state court to a charge of perjury for lying about his address on nomination forms, as part of a plea agreement in which the other state charges were dropped. Jew agreed to never again hold elected office in California.  Harris described the case as "about protecting the integrity of our political process, which is part of the core of our democracy." For his federal offenses, Jew was sentenced to 64 months in federal prison and a $10,000 fine;  for the state perjury conviction, Jew was sentenced to one year in county jail, three years' probation, and about $2,000 in fines. Under Harris, her D.A. office got more than 1,900 convictions for marijuana offenses including people simultaneously convicted of marijuana offenses including serious crimes. The rate at which Harris's office prosecuted marijuana crimes was higher than the rate under Hallinan, but the number of defendants sentenced to state prison for such offenses was substantially lower.  Prosecutions for low-level marijuana offenses were rare under Harris, and her office had a policy of not pursuing jail time for marijuana possession offenses.  Harris's successor as D.A., George Gascón, expunged all San Francisco marijuana offenses going back to 1975.

 

By the early 2000's, Kamala Harris had to deal with crime. The murder rate in San Francisco per capita outpaced the national average. She had a high rate of convictions for homicides and felony gun violations. She fought for higher bail for criminal defendants involved in gun related crimes. Kamala Harris made a gun crime unit. Harris opposed releasing defendants on their own recognizance if they were arrested on gun crimes, sought minimum 90-day sentences for possession of concealed or loaded weapons, and charged all assault weapons possession cases as felonies, adding that she would seek prison terms for criminals who possessed or used assault weapons and would seek maximum penalties on gun-related crimes. It's not a secret that Harris formed a Hate Crimes Unit to fight hate crimes against LGBT kids and teens in schools. Harris supported the Gwen Araujo Justice for Victims Act (which is named after the 17 year old American transgender human being named Gwen Araujo who was murdered by 2 men).  In September 2006, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed A.B. 1160 into law; the law put California on record as declaring it contrary to public policy for defendants to be acquitted or convicted of a lesser included offense on the basis of appeals to "societal bias." Harris supported the ban on gun shows at Cow Palace. It would be until 2019 when the Cow Palace Board of Directors voted to make a statement banning all future gun shows.

 

Kamala Harris had said that she doesn't agree with the death penalty and wants life without parole as the highest punishment. She believes that it is a cost saving measure. After the officer Isaac Espinoza was shot and killed in San Francisco, Kamala Harris refused to support the death penalty. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, Oakland mayor Jerry Brown, and the San Francisco Police Officers Association wanted Kamala Harris to support the death penalty. Yet, Harris refused to do so. Polls show that 70 percent of voters supported Harris's decision. When Edwin Ramos, an undocumented person and alleged MS-13 gang member, was accused of murdering a man and his two sons in 2009, Harris sought a sentence of life in prison without parole, a decision Mayor Gavin Newsom backed. There is the recidivism issue. In 2004, Harris recruited civil rights activist Lateefah Simon to form the San Francisco Reentry Division. This was a flagship program part of the Back on Track initiative, a first-of-its-kind reentry program for first-time nonviolent offenders aged 18–30. Initiative participants whose crimes were not weapon- or gang-related would plead guilty in exchange for a deferral of sentencing and regular appearances before a judge over a twelve- to eighteen-month period. The program maintained rigorous graduation requirements, mandating completion of up to 220 hours of community service, obtaining a high-school-equivalency diploma, maintaining steady employment, taking parenting classes, and passing drug tests. At graduation, the court would dismiss the case and expunge the graduate's record.  Over six years, the 200 people graduated from the program had a recidivism rate of less than ten percent, compared to the 53 percent of California's drug offenders who returned to prison within two years of release. Back on Track earned recognition from the U.S. Department of Justice as a model for reentry programs. The DOJ found that the cost to the taxpayers per participant was markedly lower ($5,000) than the cost of adjudicating a case ($10,000) and housing a low-level offender ($50,000). In 2009, a state law (the Back on Track Reentry Act, A.B. 750) was enacted, encouraging other California counties to start similar programs. Adopted by the National District Attorneys Association as a model, prosecutor offices in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Atlanta have used Back on Track as a template for their own programs.

 

There was the truancy issue too. By 2006, there was an initiative to reduce the city's skyrocketing homicide rate. Harris led a city wide effort to stop truancy for at risk elementary school youth in San Francisco. This program would be debated to this very day. Declaring chronic truancy a matter of public safety and pointing out that the majority of prison inmates and homicide victims are dropouts or habitual truants, Harris's office met with thousands of parents at high-risk schools and sent out letters warning all families of the legal consequences of truancy at the beginning of the fall semester, adding she would prosecute the parents of chronically truant elementary students; penalties included a $2,500 fine and up to a year in jail. The program was controversial when introduced. In 2008, Harris issued citations against six parents whose children missed at least fifty days of school, the first time San Francisco prosecuted adults for student truancy. San Francisco's school chief, Carlos Garcia, said the path from truancy to prosecution was lengthy, and that the school district usually spends months encouraging parents through phone calls, reminder letters, private meetings, hearings before the School Attendance Review Board, and offers of help from city agencies and social services; two of the six parents entered no plea but said they would work with the D.A.'s office and social service agencies to create "parental responsibility plans" to help them start sending their children to school regularly. By April 2009, 1,330 elementary school students were habitual or chronic truants, down 23 percent from 1,730 in 2008, and down from 2,517 in 2007 and from 2,856 in 2006. Harris's office prosecuted seven parents in three years, with none jailed.

 

By Timothy