Thanksgiving 2021
Nearing 2022, we are in the midst of the 2020's in a new decade. We are blessed to live in a new era of time. As being part of Generation Y, I have seen a lot of changes in the world, but the truth remains eternal like usual. Also, we don't live in ordinary times. We live in a unique era of world history where our democracy in America plus in other places of the world is hugely fragile. Laws in America have restricted voting rights and new policies have harmed the essence of our democratic institutions too. Fascists like the Proud Boys and the First Amendment Praetorian are abundant in the United States. In America, there is a large oil spill in California along with debates about the debt ceiling. Germany recently voted for a new Prime Minister in their own country. In Brazil, a far-right wing President is doing nothing to address the massive police brutality against Afro-Brazilians in favellas and in other locations of Brazil. The Republican Party now is more extreme than it was during the 1/6 seditious, far right insurrection against the United States Capitol building. Many GOP free market fundamentalists believe in the myth that we can't afford the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, but the United States has given $7 trillion to for profit defense contractors since 9/11. The truth is that healthcare, education, and Social Security are never entitlements regardless of what West Virginian Senator Joe Manchin has said. They are fundamental human rights that allow fellow human beings to have a great, dignified life. These social safety net programs enhance our democracy thoroughly. It is blatantly wrong for America to have 40 years of wage stagnation (involving how CEO pay has skyrocketed since 1978, but the minimum wage is just $7.25 for over 10 years), and some folks refuse to allow people to have $15 an hour as a federal minimum wage. Police brutality must end, as Congress refuses to pass real policing legislation to end racist policing practices. This has been done by many far-right Republicans who care more for the preservation of qualified immunity than the sanctity of black human lives. The massive hatred of immigration done by white racists and Hoteps (they are more alike ideologically than some would like to admit) is all part of the same old, evil nativism, bigotry, and corporate greed. They (i.e. far right GOP extremists and Hoteps) violate the creed of the Golden Rule (as treating your neighbor as yourself regardless of immigration status. I believe in black liberation too) and to help the sojourner in life's road.
In this Fall of 2021, we still believe in the Dream unequivocally. The Bill Back Better Plan should not be watered down for the purpose of placating Republican extremists or Democratic moderates who care more for token "bipartsanship" than freedom plus justice for all. Manchin and Sinema are clear on where they stand. They stand for DLC, centrist talking points. They stand for compromise and believing in the lie that we must water down our message when the vast majority of the American people are in support of what we stand for (like universal pre-K, infrastructure investments, and addressing climate change issues). Physical and social infrastructure policies make America better, and we need powerful legislation that can make that reality turn into fruition. The cacophony of propaganda of price tags (as advanced by certain factions of Big Pharma and many billionaire elitists) and inflation are refuted on how the super wealthy in many cases pay little to no federal income taxes. This is a time of choice. We choose to help the elderly to have vision, dental, and hearing services. We desire paid family and medical leave. We desire a permanent child tax credit to fight poverty. We desire free community college for working class people of every color. That is what we mean when we advocate for a real social infrastructure bill.
On this Thanksgiving era, we know about many things. We realize that there were many thanksgivings that spread out throughout the thousands of years of human history that celebrated family, friends, foods, and the spiritual qualities of togetherness, justice, and compassion. We know that in 1541, Spanish explorers had their feast on American soil. In 1607, English colonists at Fort St. George assembled for a harvest feast and prayer meeting with the Abenaki Native Americans of Maine. The Thanksgiving that many people talk about involve the New England's Thanksgiving among European settlers and Native Americans during the year of 1621 in the area of Massachusetts. One major part of this history was the Mayflower Compact. To start, we have to look at the time period back then. In America, back then, Native American mostly were the inhabitants of the Americas. They had their own languages, creeds, and beautiful complex, diverse culture. In Europe, it was a different story. Europe was dominated mostly by religious groups and monarchical rule. Many people in Europe couldn't worship as they please, and many lacked political rights. The dominate religious institution in Europe back then (during the early 17th century) was the Vatican. This was about more than 100 years after the Reformation. The Vatican so exploited indulgences and committed other errors that the Reformation happened. That Vatican institution is wrong to claim that the Pope is the Holy Father, to believe in purgatory, and to believe in the Inquisition (until the Vatican apologized for it), and to enact other forms of corruption. Erasmus tried to make reforms in the Roman Catholic Church. Erasmus was a great religious scholar and a prominent intellectual. Martin Luther made his 95 Theses to protest the Roman Catholic Church's policies. The Roman Catholic Church refused to change, and the Reformation existed by 1517. The Vatican created the Counter Reformation (with support by the Jesuits too) to counteract the influence of the Protestant Reformation. Major wars among Protestants and Catholics existed well into the 1600's and beyond in places like Ireland. Obviously, we can agree to disagree on religious matters without being violently disagreeable as religious freedom including the separation of church and state are hallmarks of a progressive society. The fruit of the Jesuit-inspired Counter Reformation is the Ecumenical Movement (which is promoted by the leaders of the Vatican and some Protestant movements to develop compromise on theological matters explicitly).
The Thanksgiving story deals with 2 groups of the Pilgrims and the Puritans. It is always important to establish the distinction between the Pilgrims and the Puritans. The Pilgrims came into America first, and the Puritans (who were mostly middle class and sought to reform the Church of England) came into America second. The Pilgrims were very much Separatists, working class, and some were very poor. They wanted to leave the Church of England totally. They formed the Mayflower Compact in 1621 to establish their own religious and political views. They wanted a more democratic model of governance for their adherents. They were in conflict with the English King James I. He believed in the divine right of kings heresy, which is very similar to the Pope falsely claiming divine authority over all believers in God. King James I was right to disagree with many of the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. King James I was right to disagree with witchcraft as he written literature in opposition to it. His error was that King James I made it his business to persecute Baptists and other separatists who didn't want to submit to the state church. I believe in the separation of church and state. Back then, human beings, who disagreed with state church institutions, were imprisoned or killed during the early 1600's in Europe. To disagree with a government authority back then was equivalent to treason (according to extremists). That is why many Baptists, Puritans, and other Protestant separatists left the UK and came into America. These dissidents made errors too, so that will be shown later. For now, we know that the Anglican Church was nearly identical to the Catholic Church in their ecclesiology. Also, William Schaw worked with King James VI of Scotland. William Schaw (who was accused of being a suspected Jesuit and holding anti-English views during the 1590’s. We know about the pro-Jesuits zealots involved in the evil Gunpowder terrorist plot in England against King James and his government. The plot was led by Roman Catholic Robert Catesby) helped to build castles and palaces.
Robert Catesby's fellow plotters were John and Christopher Wright, Robert and Thomas Wintour, Thomas Percy, Guy Fawkes, Robert Keyes, Thomas Bates, John Grant, Ambrose Rookwood, Sir Everard Digby and Francis Tresham. Fawkes, who had 10 years of military experience fighting in the Spanish Netherlands in the failed suppression of the Dutch Revolt, was given charge of the explosives. Some claim that William Schaw was an important figure in the development of Freemasonry in Scotland (as he was involved in the First and Second Schaw statues). Early Thanksgiving ceremonies were in Virginia by 1607, in Charles City County, Virginia in 1637, and were created by the French plus the Spanish during the 16th century.
Many Puritans, Baptists, and other separatists wanted religious freedom. They realized that a king in Europe, especially in the UK, having authoritarian powers is antithetical to democratic rights. Now, many of them did the wrong thing in murdering Native Americans and enslaving innocent black Africans. I want to make that perfectly clear. The English Pilgrims was led by William Bradford. They experienced religious persecution in England (they lived in the village of Scrooby near East Retford, Nottinghamshire). By 1607, Archbishop Tobias Matthew raided homes and imprisoned several members of the congregation. The congregation left England in 1608 and emigrated to the Netherlands, settling first in Amsterdam and then in Leiden. In Leiden, the congregation gained the freedom to worship as they chose, but Dutch society was unfamiliar to them. Scrooby had been an agricultural community, whereas Leiden was a thriving industrial center, and they found the pace of life difficult. The community remained close-knit, but their children began adopting the Dutch language and customs, and some also entered the Dutch Army. They also were still not free from the persecutions of the English Crown. English authorities came to Leiden to arrest William Brewster in 1618 after he published comments highly critical of the King of England and the Anglican Church. Brewster escaped arrest, but the events spurred the congregation to move farther from England. They had to pay their debt when they came into America. Using the financing secured from the Merchant Adventurers, the Colonists bought provisions and obtained passage on the Mayflower and the Speedwell. They had intended to leave early in 1620, but they were delayed several months due to difficulties in dealing with the Merchant Adventurers, including several changes in plans for the voyage and in financing. The congregation and the other colonists finally boarded the Speedwell in July 1620 in the Dutch port of Delfshaven. Many people in the Mayflower were Captain Christopher Jones, Captain Reynold, the brutish Myles Standish, Christopher Martin, and other people. The Mayflower and Speedwell ships left by August 23, 1621. The Mayflower departed Plymouth, England on September 6, 1620 with 102 passengers and about 30 crew members in the small, 106 feet (32 m) long ship. William Button died in the voyage.
They landed on November 9, 1620 off the coast of Cape Cod. Before their arrival, many Native Americans died via an epidemic of disease called leptospirosis. This happened when earlier English settlers gave the Native American people disease before the Pilgrims came on shore in America. The Mayflower Compact was created while people were on the ship. It was signed on November 1620. The compact was about them forming their own government while showing allegiance to the Crown of England. The settlers shown allegiance to the king. It was a social contract that settlers would consent to the community's rules to survive and have order. Early on, the Pilgrims struggled to survive. Peregrine White was born being the first child born to the Pilgrims in America by Susanna White. They searched for corn to plant. As early as December 6, in their third expedition, they took the Native Americans' corn and fired upon them in the First Encounter near Eastham, Massachusetts. By December 21, 1620, a brutal winter caused the Pilgrims to suffer at Plymouth. Native Americans literally saved their lives. One such Native American was Samoset. On March 16, 1621, the Pilgrims had more contact with Native peoples. Samoset learned some English from fishermen and trappers in Maine. He said, "Welcome, Englishmen!" The Pilgrims learned of many Natives died of an epidemic. They also knew of a great leader in the region who was the Wampanoag chief Massasoit. Also, they learned about Squanto (Tisquantum) who was the sole survivor from Patuxet. Squanto had spent time in Europe and spoke English quite well. Samoset spent the night in Plymouth and agreed to arrange a meeting with some of Massasoit's men.
Massasoit and Squanto were apprehensive about the Pilgrims, as several men of his tribe had been killed by English sailors. He also knew that the Pilgrims had taken some corn stores in their landings at Provincetown. Squanto himself had been abducted in 1614 by English explorer Thomas Hunt and had spent five years in Europe, first as a slave for a group of Spanish monks, then as a freeman in England. He had returned to New England in 1619, acting as a guide to explorer Capt. Robert Gorges, but Massasoit and his men had killed the crew of the ship and had taken Squanto. Samoset returned to Plymouth on March 22 with a delegation from Massasoit that included Squanto; Massasoit joined them shortly after, and he and Governor Carver established a formal treaty of peace after exchanging gifts. This treaty ensured that each people would not bring harm to the other, that Massasoit would send his allies to make peaceful negotiations with Plymouth, and that they would come to each other's aid in a time of war. Many Plymouth settlers died during that winter.
In November 1621, the surviving Pilgrims and some Native Americans celebrated their First Thanksgiving. The celebration involved the 53 surviving Pilgrims, along with Massasoit and 90 of his men. Three contemporaneous accounts of the event survive: Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford; Mourt's Relation probably written by Edward Winslow; and New England's Memorial by Plymouth Colony Secretary (and Bradford's nephew) Capt. Nathaniel Morton. The celebration lasted three days and featured a feast that included numerous types of waterfowl, wild turkeys and fish procured by the colonists, and five deer brought by the indigenous people. After the departure of Massasoit and his men, Squanto remained in Plymouth to teach the Pilgrims how to survive in New England, such as using dead fish to fertilize the soil. For the first few years of colonial life, the fur trade was the dominant source of income beyond subsistence farming. Colonists were buying furs from Natives and selling to Europeans. Governor Carver suddenly died shortly after the Mayflower returned to England. William Bradford was elected to replace him and went on to lead the colony through much of its formative years. Many Native Americans came into Plymouth in the middle of 1621 to promise peace. On July 2, a party of Pilgrims led by Edward Winslow (who later became the chief diplomat of the colony) set out to continue negotiations with the chief. The delegation also included Squanto, who acted as a translator. After traveling for several days, they arrived at Massasoit's village of Sowams near Narragansett Bay. After meals and an exchange of gifts, Massasoit agreed to an exclusive trading pact with the Plymouth colonists. Squanto remained behind and traveled throughout the area to establish trading relations with several tribes. By July 1621, the missing boy John Billington almost ended the peace, but the peace existed for a time. The Nausets found him. The Pilgrims reimburse the corn that they unwittingly stolen from them for the return of the boy.
During their dealings with the Nausets over the release of John Billington, the Pilgrims learned of troubles that Massasoit was experiencing. Massasoit, Squanto, and several other Wampanoags had been captured by Corbitant, sachem of the Narragansett tribe. A party of ten men under the leadership of Myles Standish set out to find and execute Corbitant. While hunting for him, they learned that Squanto had escaped and Massasoit was back in power. Standish and his men had injured several Native Americans, so the colonists offered them medical attention in Plymouth. They had failed to capture Corbitant, but the show of force by Standish had garnered respect for the Pilgrims and, as a result, nine of the most powerful sachems in the area signed a treaty in September, including Massasoit and Corbitant, pledging their loyalty to King James.
In my view, the man (including many other people) responsible for the breaking of the treaties, the ruin of tons of Native American lives, and the changing of an era was Myles Standish. He was a murderer and the breaker of the peace in the region. The settlement of Wessaguessett north of Weymouth, Massachusetts was short lived (by colonists from the ship The Sparrow in May 1622). Reports reached Plymouth of a military threat to Wessagussett, and Myles Standish organized a militia to defend them. However, he found that there had been no attack. He (i.e. Myles Standish) therefore decided on a pre-emptive strike, an event which historian Nathaniel Philbrick calls "Standish's raid." He lured two prominent Massachusett military leaders into a house at Wessagussett under the pretense of sharing a meal and making negotiations. Standish and his men then stabbed and killed them. Standish and his men pursued Obtakiest, a local sachem, but he escaped with three prisoners from Wessagussett; he then executed them. Within a short time, Wessagussett was disbanded, and the survivors were integrated into the town of Plymouth. After Standish's raid, many Native Americans fled the area and many left their villages. The Pilgrims lost trades in furs. Standish's raid had disastrous consequences for the colony, as attested by William Bradford in a letter to the Merchant Adventurers: "we had much damaged our trade, for there where we had most skins the Indians are run away from their habitations." The closest Pilgrim ally in the region increased their power who was the Massasoit led Wampanoag tribe. In November 1621, the Fortune ship camp to Plymouth.
Among the passengers of the Fortune were several of the original Leiden congregation, including William Brewster's son Jonathan, Edward Winslow's brother John, and Philip Delano (the family name was earlier "de la Noye") whose descendants include President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Myles Standish was the military leader of the Plymouth Colony. The Pequot War existed in 1637. The war's roots go back to 1632, when a dispute arose between Dutch fur traders and Plymouth officials over control of the Connecticut River Valley near modern Hartford, Connecticut. Representatives from the Dutch East India Company and Plymouth Colony both had deeds which claimed that they had rightfully purchased the land from the Pequots. A sort of land rush occurred as settlers from Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies tried to beat the Dutch in settling the area; the influx of English settlers also threatened the Pequot. Other confederations in the area sided with the English, including the Narragansetts and Mohegans, who were the traditional enemies of the Pequots. The murder of John Oldham in 1636 was blamed on allies of the Pequots. In April 1637, a raid on a Pequot village by John Endicott led to a retaliatory raid by Pequot warriors on the town of Wethersfield, Connecticut, where some 30 English settlers were killed. This led to a further retaliation, where a raid led by Captain John Underhill and Captain John Mason burned a Pequot village to the ground near modern Mystic, Connecticut, killing hundreds of Pequots. Plymouth Colony had little to do with the actual fighting in the war.
The 1637 Massacre in Mystic caused at least 700 Native Americans to be murdered by Europeans. Men, women, and children Native Americans were burned alive, and their buildings were destroyed. William Bradford or the Governor of Plymouth praised the massacre in sick terms by the following words: “…Those that escaped the fire were slain with the sword; some hewed to pieces, others run through with their rapiers, so that they were quickly dispatched and very few escaped. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire...horrible was the stink and scent thereof, but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to enclose their enemies in their hands, and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enemy."
“This day forth shall be a day of celebration and thanksgiving for subduing the Pequots," read Governor John Winthrop’s proclamation.
In 1637, Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford described the massacre of a community of Pequot people by white settlers:
“Those that scraped the fire were [slain] with the sword; some hewed to [pieces], others [run] [through] with their rapiers, so as they were quickly [dispatched], and very few [escaped]. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the [fire], and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the [stink] and [scent] thereof, but the victory seemed a [sweet] sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to [enclose] their [enemies] in their hands, and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an [enemy]."
You couldn’t make this stuff up. This is real and these massacres against Native Americans are totally evil plus disgusting. Later, Pequots prisoners were executed. Pequot women and children were sold into slavery in the West Indies. The Pequot War killed most of the Pequot peoples.
Then, the King's Philip's War existed.
Metacomet was the younger son of Massasoit and the heir of Massasoit's position as sachem of the Pokanoket and supreme leader of the Wampanoag. Known to the English as King Philip, he became sachem upon the sudden death of his older brother Wamsutta, also known as Alexander, in 1662. This war started with more English colonists demanding more land. King Philip didn't want more land taken by the colonists. He wanted to reverse the trend. Of specific concern was the founding of the town of Swansea, which was located only a few miles from the Wampanoag capital at Mount Hope. The General Court of Plymouth began using military force to coerce the sale of Wampanoag land to the settlers of the town. The death of the Native American John Sassamon in 1675 really started the war. Sassamon converted to Christianity. King Philip drifted from his friend Sassamon because of this reason. John was murdered. There is debate whether King Philip's men murdered John or not. A jury convicted some Native peoples of the murder and sentenced them to death. Both sides committed atrocities against unarmed people. The Native people used guerilla warfare. Governor Winslow and Plymouth military commander Major William Bradford (son of the late Governor William Bradford) relented and gave Church permission to organize a combined force of English and Native Americans. Later, King Philip was killed by a Pocasset Native American. The English had too many numbers, so King Philip's forces were defeated. Many Native Americans were killed, fled, or shipped as slaves. Most Native American people were exterminated by this time in New England.
The Pilgrims and the Puritans embraced Calvinistic views. John Calvin invented Calvinism. An imprisonment of Calvin, however, also took place in May 1534. It has been debated on why he was imprisoned for. Many authors say that Calvin was imprisoned because of a specific "reason." John Calvin formed a theocratic state in Geneva, Switzerland where many people were executed for theological disagreements. Bernard Cottret, author of Calvin: A Biography, a favorable treatment of Calvin’s life and work, has provided accounts of the torture and execution of heretics (who denied the Trinity. I believe in the Trinity, but I don't agree with killing people who disagree with me on the Trinity) and those who were merely suspected of committing crimes in Geneva. Calvin died in 1564, apparently despised by the citizens of Geneva. Even the Bible is clear that you don't murder people if he or she disagrees with your theological views. Jesus taught to ‘turn the other cheek’ instead. None of the Apostles taught murderous action against unbelievers but instead taught the believer to seek them out and present the gospel in love. Dave Hunt wrote a book entitled, "What Love is This?" that refutes many of the doctrines of Calvinism in a compassionate, eloquent fashion. He writes the following from his book: “… my firm disagreement with Calvinism is not over God’s sovereignty, which I fully embrace and to which I submit. The issue is whether God loves all without partiality and desires all to be saved. Unquestionably, Calvinism denies such love; but the Bible, in the clearest language repeatedly declares God’s love to all and His desire that all should be saved and none should be lost.” (pp. 301, 302). JOHN CALVIN TAUGHT THE NOTORIOUS HERESY OF INFANT BAPTISM WHICH HAS NO BASIS IN THE OT AND THE NT.
I recommend his book. Calvin claimed to disagree with Catholicism, but he established his brutal empire like a "Pope" in Geneva. To this day, many undercover Calvinists would try to infiltrate Baptist churches and other churches in trying to promote their doctrines. The Bible is clear that God wants everyone to wake up. 2 Peter 3:9 mentions that, "The Lord is not slack concerning [His] promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." John 3:16 is ever clear that: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Also, it is important to promote religious freedom. I may disagree with certain religions, but I don't believe in stereotyping, maligning, or dehumanizing people who worships in any religion (or those who embrace no religion at all). We can agree to disagree peacefully on spirituality without bigotry and without hatred of one another. We can show our diversity, and our diversity is part of our strength.
John Two-Hawks, who runs the Native Circle web site, gives a sketch of the facts:
“Thanksgiving' did not begin as a great loving relationship between the pilgrims and the Wampanoag, Pequot and Narragansett people. In fact, in October of 1621 when the pilgrim survivors of their first winter in Turtle Island sat down to share the first unofficial 'Thanksgiving' meal, the Indians who were there were not even invited! There was no turkey, squash, cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie. A few days before this alleged feast took place, a company of 'pilgrims' led by Miles Standish actively sought the head of a local Indian chief, and an 11 foot high wall was erected around the entire Plymouth settlement for the very purpose of keeping Indians out!”
Fifty-five years after the original Thanksgiving Day, the Puritans had destroyed the generous Wampanoag and all other neighboring tribes. The Wampanoag chief King Philip was beheaded. His head was stuck on a pole in Plymouth, where the skull still hung on display 24 years later. Many Puritans were complicit in the slave trade where they oppressed black African people (i.e. Puritan ship owners began a slave-trading business by raiding the coast for Native American people and trading them for black African human beings). Also, scholarship like Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz's "Indigenous People's History of the United States" is ignored in academia and popular culture. The early English colonizers and capitalists wanted to go into America to promote the myth of white spiritual supremacy and to expand their resources. Today, many Native Americans suffer various forms of oppression like diseases, homelessness, dilapidated and vermin-infested housing, substance abuse, inadequate education, unemployment, and police brutality. Likewise, we acknowledge many Native Americans standing up for justice back then and today in 2021. So, we desire true liberation. Therefore, we know the truth. Having empathy towards the indigenous people means that we can never glamorize killers and murderers like many European imperialists were. It is also important to acknowledge the food banks, activists, and other volunteers helping tons of families during this time of the year with food, clothing, love, compassion, and other resources. Their work is never in vain, and they are acknowledged by all of us here. The best way to honor the indigenous people on this day in November 25, 2021 is to tell the truth, help the suffering, and fight for justice for all people.
Presidents Part 2: The Antebellum Period
After the early era of American history, there was the further existence of the antebellum period and Westward expansion. We know that much of the westward expansion involved the theft of lands from Native American people. There was a violation of treaties. Also, many Native Americans were removed from the Southeast into Oklahoma. These relocations caused thousands of Native Americans to die. While this was going onward, slavery existed. Black people suffered unspeakable horrors during the 19th century. There were also abolitionists and grassroots freedom fighters who fought constantly against the evil of slavery worldwide. Harriet Tubman freed tons of people from bondage, and the Harper Ferry's raid was established by many people, including John Brown. The Western region of America was conquered by American expansionism. Under the guise of "Manifest Destiny," many settlers believed in the myth that they have the God-given right to take territories that didn't belong to them by force, even displacing innocent human beings from their lands. Also, we saw the rise of Mormonism, the growth of railroads, and the Mexican-American War that changed America forever. There was the California Gold Rush, the Oregon Trail, and the further growth of the divisions among the North and the South. These divisions would ultimately evolved into the American Civil War by 1861. Many Presidents during this time believed in the status quo. From Martin Van Buren to Franklin Pierce, massive changes existed in the young American nation.
Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren (1782-1862) was President from 1837 to 1841. He was the 8th President of the United States of America. He was once the founder of the Democratic Party. Also, he served as the 9th Governor of New York state, the 10th United States secretary of state, and the 8th Vice President of the United States of America. He won the 1836 election with the support from the outgoing President Andrew Jackson and the organizational strength of the Democratic Party. He was born in Kinderhook, New York. His father was on the Patriot side of the American Revolutionary, and he was the first President born after the existence of the American Revolution. The residents in Kinderhook, New York were mostly of Dutch descent and spoke Dutch as their primary language. His birthplace was about 20 miles south of Albany on the Hudson River. His father Abraham Van Buren was a descendant of the Dutch man named Cornelis Maessen (who was from Buurmalsen, Netherlands). Cornelis emigrated to New Netherlands in 1631. Abraham Van Buren was part of the Democratic-Republican Party. Martin Van Buren studied Latin and other subjects at his village schoolhouse. His first language was Dutch, but he learned English. Martin Van Buren married Hannah Hoes in Catskill, New York on February 21, 1807. They knew each other since childhood. The couple had 5 children. Van Buren was the Secretary of State under President Andrew Jackson. When Van Buren ran for President, at first, he assured southern Democrats that he opposed abolitionism and wanted slavery to existed in places where it already existed. That's a shameful view. Van Buren cast the tie breaking Senate vote to prevent circulation of abolitionist mail in the South. Van Buren had the view that slavery was immoral but sanctioned by the Constitution. The truth is that any unjust law, even found in the Constitution, is no true law at all and must be rejected.
Van Buren's Presidency was short, because of his response to the Panic of 1837. The Panic of 1837 dealt with state banks in New York running out of hard currency reserves. They refused to convert paper money into gold or silver, and other financial institutions followed suit in America. This caused a 5 year depression in which banks failed and unemployment was in record levels. Van Buren refused to allow Texas in the Union because Texas was a slave location. Van Buren blamed the crisis on the American and foreign business plus financial institutions. The Whigs blamed Andrew Jackson's economic policies like his 1836 Specie Circular. Some believed that Jackson ending the Bank of the United States caused the crisis too. The Whigs soon gained seats in the U.S. House and Senate. Van Buren wanted an independent Treasury system. He was involved in the costly Second Seminole War. Southern Democrats were angry at him, because he didn't want Texas to be a state. Andrew Jackson obviously wanted diplomatic recognition to the Republic of Texas in March of 1837. New England abolitionists believed that this was a slaveholding conspiracy to get Texas. Daniel Webster denounced the U.S. annexation of Texas. Van Buren avoided a war against Great Britain involving Canada. Van Buren was wrong to support the Spanish kidnapping black people on the Armistad.
John Quincy Adams, to his credit, argued passionately for the Africans' right to freedom. The Supreme Court in 1841 said that the Africans were free people and should be allowed to return home. The case inspired more support for the abolitionist cause in America. This caused Southern Democrats to nominate James K. Polk. Van Buren promoted the newly formed Free Soil Party's system. He was a Presidential nominee in 1848. Van Buren later became one of the few leading Democratic abolitionists. That was a massive change. Van Buren lived to see the Compromise of 1850. He rejected Southern extremists, but he wanted compromise in dealing with slavery. You can't compromise with evil. When the American Civil War existed, he made public support for the Union. He supported Abraham Lincoln's policies during the American Civil War. He passed away in his hometown of Kinderhook, NY in July of 1862. He was 79 years old.
William Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison (1773-1841) was one of the most unique Presidents in American history. He was a military officer and President for only 31 days in 1841. He had the shortest serving time as U.S. President in history. His death caused a brief constitutional crisis regardless to the President. The reason was that back then, the U.S. Constitution didn't make it clear on what should be done in the event of a President's death. He was born in Charles City County, Virginia. He was the son of the Framer Benjamin Harrison V and the paternal grandfather of Benjamin Harrison or the 23rd President of the United States of America. Harrison was the last President born as a British subject in the Thirteen Colonies. He was a member of a prominent political family of English descent whose ancestors had been in Virginia since the 1630s. Benjamin Harrison became the last American President not born as an American citizen. His father was a Virginian planter, who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress (1774–1777) and who signed the Declaration of Independence. His father also served in the Virginia legislature and as the fifth governor of Virginia (1781–1784) in the years during and after the American Revolutionary War. Harrison's older brother Carter Bassett Harrison represented Virginia in the House of Representatives (1793–1799). Harrison was tutored at home until age 14 when he began attending Hampden–Sydney College, a Presbyterian college in Virginia. He studied there for three years, receiving a classical education which included Latin, Greek, French, logic, and debate. His Episcopalian father removed him from the college, possibly for religious reasons, and after brief stays at an academy in Southampton County, Virginia, and with his elder brother Benjamin in Richmond. Later, he went to Philadelphia in 1790.
He was involved in the 1794 Battle of Fallen Timbers that caused the end of the Northwest Native American War. It was an American military victory. He led a military force against Tecumseh's troops at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. That is why his nickname was "Old Tippecanoe." He was a major General during the War of 1812 in the Army. He was led infantry and cavalry at the Battle of the Thames in Upper Canada. Harrison became the Secretary of the Northwest Territory in 1798 and by 1799, he was elected as the territory's delegate in the House of Representatives. In 1801, he was the Governor of the new Indiana Territory. Harrison held that position until 1812. During that time, he supervised 11 treaties with Native American leaders. The federal government got more than 60 million acres of land. The 1804 Treaty of St. Louis with Quashquame required the Sauk and Meskwaki tribes to cede much of western Illinois and parts of Missouri to the federal government. Many of the Sauk greatly resented this treaty and the loss of lands, especially Black Hawk, and this was a primary reason that they sided with the British during the War of 1812. Harrison thought that the Treaty of Grouseland (1805) appeased some of the Native Americans, but tensions remained high along the frontier. The Treaty of Fort Wayne (1809) raised new tensions when Harrison purchased more than 2.5 million acres (10,000 km2) inhabited by the Shawnee, Kickapoo, Wea, and Piankeshaw tribes; he purchased the land from the Miami tribe, who claimed ownership. He rushed the treaty process by offering large subsidies to the tribes and their leaders so that it would be in force before Jefferson left office and the administration changed. He was pro-slavery too. He wanted Congress to allow slavery in the Indiana by repelling Article VI of the Northwest Ordinance. Congress rejected the idea. Jefferson was the primary author of the Northwest Ordinance, and he had made a secret compact with James Lemen to defeat the nascent pro-slavery movement eventually led by Harrison. Even though he was a slaveholder himself. Jefferson did not want slavery to expand into the Northwest Territory, as he believed that the institution should end. He donated $100 to encourage Lemen, who donated those funds to other good works, and later another $20 to help fund the planting of the church later known as Bethel Baptist Church. Lemen planted churches in Illinois and Indiana to stop the pro-slavery movement. In Indiana, the planting of an anti-slavery church led to citizens signing a petition and organizing politically to defeat Harrison's efforts to legalize slavery in the territory. Jefferson and Lemen were instrumental in defeating Harrison's attempts in 1805 and 1807 to expand slavery in the territory. After the War of 1812, he moved into Ohio where he was elected to represent the state's 1st district in the House in 1816. In 1824, he was elected to the U.S. Senate.
Harrison lost the Presidential election in 1836. He faced the incumbent Van Buren during the 1840 election. The economy was weakened by the Panic of 1837. William Henry Harrison won in a landslide victory in 1840. He had 234 electoral votes to Van Buren's 60. He got 53 percent of the popular vote to Van Buren's 47 percent, with a margin of less than 150,000 votes. He set up the first Whig cabinet. He married a woman named Anna Tuthill Symmes of North Bend, Ohio, and they had 10 children together. He took the oath office on Thursday, March 4, 1841 on a cold, wet day. He didn't wear an overcoat or hat. He gave the longest inaugural address in American history at 8,445 words taking him nearly two hours to read. Harrison wanted to rebuild the Bank of the United States via Henry Clay's American system. He intended to defer to the judgment of Congress on legislative matters, with sparing use of his veto power, and to reverse Jackson's spoils system of executive patronage. He promised to use patronage to create a qualified staff, not to enhance his own standing in government. Harrison had disputes with Clay on governing.
On March 26, 1841, Harrison became ill with cold-like symptoms. His doctor, Thomas Miller, prescribed rest; Harrison was unable to rest during the day for the crowds in the White House, and that night chose instead to host a party with his army friends. The next day, he was seized with chills during a cabinet meeting and was put to bed. By the morning of March 28, Harrison had a high fever, at which time a team of doctors was called in to treat him. The prevailing theory at the time was that his illness had been caused by the bad weather at his inauguration three weeks earlier. Others noted that in his first few days in office, Harrison had personally walked in the mornings to purchase groceries (and a dairy cow for the White House) at Washington's markets, with the weather still cold and the markets in the midst of marshlands. (He ended the morning walks after the office-seekers began following him to the markets). As soon as the doctors placed him in bed and undressed him, they diagnosed him with right lower lobe pneumonia, and placed heated suction cups on his bare body and administered a series of bloodlettings to draw out the disease. Those procedures failed to bring about improvement, so the doctors treated him with ipecac, castor oil, calomel, mustard plasters, and finally with a boiled mixture of crude petroleum and Virginia snakeroot. All this only weakened Harrison further and the doctors came to the conclusion that he would not recover. Some believed that unsanitary water contributed to his death. Harrison died on April 4, 1841, nine days after becoming ill and exactly one month after taking the oath of office; he was the first president to die in office. A 30-day period of mourning commenced following the president's death. The White House hosted various public ceremonies, modeled after European royal funeral practices. An invitation-only funeral service was also held on April 7 in the East Room of the White House, after which Harrison's coffin was brought to Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. where it was placed in the Public Vault. Solomon Northup gave an account of the procession in Twelve Years a Slave during this time period. That June, Harrison's body was transported by train and river barge to North Bend, Ohio, and he was buried on July 7 in a family tomb at the summit of Mt. Nebo overlooking the Ohio River which is now the William Henry Harrison Tomb State Memorial.
There was a dispute on who would replace Harrison and Vice President Tyler took control of the President. Back then, Article I, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution was ambiguous on the succession to the Presidency. Tyler was sworn as the new President on April 6, 1841. Congress passed a resolution making Tyler President for the rest of Harrison's term. The Constitution made the Vice President as the successor if the President died by the 1967 25th Amendment in Section One. Tyler would reject Whig views. Harrison's grandson Benjamin Harrison would be President later on. His wife, Anna, was given by pension after Harrison died almost penniless. America saw more expansion of land in creating controversial treaties with Native Americans during his time as President.
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John Tyler
John Tyler (1790-1862) was a President like Andrew Jackson. He served one term, he was a conservative, and he was an overt reactionary. He was the 10th President of the United States of America serving from 1841 to 1845. He was born to a slave owning family. He came from Charles City County, Virginia. He is descendants of the First Families of Virginia. The Tyler family traced its lineage to English emigrants and 17th century colonial Williamsburg. His father, John Tyler Sr., commonly known as Judge Tyler, was a friend and college roommate of Thomas Jefferson and served in the Virginia House of Delegates alongside Benjamin Harrison V, William's father. The elder Tyler served four years as Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates before becoming a state court judge and later Governor of Virginia and a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at Richmond. His wife, Mary Marot (Armistead), was the daughter of prominent New Kent County plantation owner and one-term delegate, Robert Booth Armistead. She died of a stroke in 1797 when her son John was seven years old.
John Tyler's family owned slaves. He studied legal matters, and John Tyler was a state judge. He was a person who also owned slaves people in numbering 24 people. John Tyler supported states' rights and he opposed a national bank like conservatives did back in the day. He joined fellow legislator Benjamin W. Leigh in supporting the censure of U.S. senators William Branch Giles and Richard Brent of Virginia who had, against the Virginia legislature's instructions, voted for the recharter of the First Bank of the United States. He wanted America to fight back against the British after the British captured Hampton, Virginia during the War of 1812. Tyler organized a militia company called the Charles City Rifles to defend Richmond. He was a captain. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. John Tyler was in the U.S. Senate. During his life, he didn't want the expansion of the power of the federal government. Tyler was an ally with Andrew Jackson at first, then he disagree with Jackson's spoils system. He agreed with Jackson on opposition to the Second Bank of the United States. Tyler was so extreme, that he supported South Carolina in the Nullification crisis over tariffs. South Carolina threatened secession back in the 1830's. He lost the 1836 Presidential election. John Tyler's opponents never saw him as President. Mississippi Senator Robert J. Walker, in opposition, stated that the idea that Tyler was still vice president and could preside over the Senate was absurd. Tyler disagreed with the Whigs on the tariff issue. Tyler wanted to expand America to the Pacific and have free trade. His foreign policies helped America to annex Hawaii to the United States. President Tyler wanted to annex Texas. Texas was already independence after the Texas Revolution of 1836.
The people of Texas actively pursued joining the Union, but Jackson and Van Buren had been reluctant to inflame tensions over slavery by annexing another Southern state. Though Tyler intended annexation to be the focal point of his administration. Secretary Webster was opposed, and convinced Tyler to concentrate on Pacific initiatives until later in his term. Texas was part of the Union by December 29, 1845. Tyler owned slaves, knew slavery was wrong, and he still owned them anyway. He was part of the states' rights movement. He lived to recognize the John Brown raid on Harpers Ferry. Tyler's community organized a cavalry troop and a home guard company; Tyler was chosen to command the home guard troops with the rank of captain. Tyler was a traitor for joining the Confederacy during the American Civil War. On April 17, 1861, after the attack on Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call for troops, Tyler voted with the new majority for secession. He headed a committee that negotiated the terms for Virginia's entry into the Confederate States of America and helped set the pay rate for military officers. On June 14, Tyler signed the Ordinance of Secession, and one week later the convention unanimously elected him to the Provisional Confederate Congress. Tyler was seated in the Confederate Congress on August 1, 1861, and he served until just before his death in 1862. In November 1861, he was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives but he died of a stroke in his room at the Ballard Hotel in Richmond before the first session could open in February 1862. He had poor health all over his life. He had the most children (having 15 children) of any American President. He was buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia being only 71 years old. John Tyler decided to be a traitor to America by joining the Confederacy.
James K. Polk
James K. Polk (1795-1849) was the 11th President of the United States. He served one term from 1845 to 1849. He had many positions like the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Governor of Tennessee, and he was a protégé of the bigot Andrew Jackson. That is why James Polk loved the Jacksonian democracy model being a member of the Democratic Party. Polk worked to expand the territory of the United States via the Mexican-American war during his Presidency. He was born in Pineville, North Carolina. Polk was the first of 10 children born to a family of farmers. His father was Samuel Polk, and James was named after James Knox. Samuel was a farmer, slaveholder, and surveyor of Scots-Irish descent. The Polks immigrated to America by the late 1600's. They lived in the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Then, the moved into south central Pennsylvania and then to the Carolina hill country. His family were Presbyterians. Polk's mother was a Presbyterian, but his father including his grandfather Ezekiel Polk was a deist, rejecting dogmatic Presbyterianism. Nevertheless, James' mother "stamped her rigid orthodoxy on James, instilling lifelong Calvinistic traits of self-discipline, hard work, piety, individualism, and a belief in the imperfection of human nature", according to James A. Rawley's American National Biography article. James Polk had an illness as a child. He was enrolled at a Presbyterian academy in 1813, and he was a member of Zion Church near his home in 1813. He entered Bradley Academy in Murfreesboro, Tennessee where he was a promising student.
James Polk was admitted into the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a second semester sophomore on January 1816. He studied law after graduation under the renowned trial attorney Felix Grundy, who was his first mentor. He was a successful lawyer. He handled many cases that came from the Panic of 1819, which was a huge depression. Polk supported Andrew Jackson. As Andrew Jackson's disciple, James Polk opposed the progressive policies from the John Quincy Adams administration. Jackson and Polk didn't want investments in national infrastructure programs, because they believe in an extremist philosophy on the economy. Working on Jackson's behalf, Polk successfully opposed federally-funded "internal improvements" such as a proposed Buffalo-to-New Orleans road. He was pleased by Jackson's Maysville Road veto in May 1830, when Jackson blocked a bill to finance a road extension entirely within one state. That state was Kentucky, and Polk deemed it unconstitutional. Polk abhorred the Second Bank of the United States. Like many Southerners, Polk favored low tariffs on imported goods, and initially sympathized with John C. Calhoun's opposition to the Tariff of Abominations during the Nullification Crisis of 1832–1833, but came over to Jackson's side as Calhoun moved towards advocating secession. Thereafter, Polk remained loyal to Jackson as the President sought to assert federal authority. Polk condemned secession and supported the Force Bill against South Carolina, which had claimed the authority to nullify federal tariffs. The matter was settled by Congress passing a compromise tariff. He later was the Speaker of the House and Governor of Tennessee. James Polk defeated Clay in the 1844 Presidential election. People debated the future of Texas.
Clay had an anti-annexation of Texas view, but Polk supported it. This caused some even Southern Whig leaders to support Polk. With a slender victory in the popular vote, but with a greater victory in the Electoral College (170–105), Polk proceeded to implement his campaign promises. He presided over a country whose population had doubled every twenty years since the American Revolution and which had reached demographic parity with Great Britain. Polk said that he wanted to deal with technology. He wanted to get the Oregon County, acquire California and its harbors from Mexico, reduce tariffs, and reestablish the Independent Treasury System. His cabinet included people from the North and the South. President Polk was 49 years old when he was inaugurated. The inaugural ceremony was the first one to be reported by telegraph and first to be shown in a newspaper illustration (in The Illustrated London News). Polk supported the annexation of Texas. James Buchanan was the Secretary of State and Robert J. Walker was the Secretary of the Treasury. Once, Britain controlled the Oregon Country. Lewis and Clark visited the area. This land was stolen from the indigenous peoples of the region. The United States and Britain negotiated to allow America to control much of the Oregon Country without going to war each other over it. Polk had refrained in his address from asserting a claim to the entire territory, which extended north to 54 degrees, 40 minutes north latitude, although the Democratic Party platform called for such a claim. Polk claimed the Rio Grande, but Mexico claimed the Nueces River as the border. This dispute lead into the Mexican American War. Polk signed a resolution annexing Texas to make it the 28th state of the Union. Mexico didn't have diplomatic relations with America by 1845.
Mexico didn't recognize Texas independence. War was coming, so Polk send Brigadier General Zachary Taylor to prepare for conflict. Polk wanted negotiations (via diplomat John Slidell and others) to prevent a war, but war came. General Taylor wanted to guard at the Rio Grande. This dispute caused the war. Polk signed the Congressional declaration of war calling for 50,000 volunteers in the military. Many in the Senate opposed the war claiming that it existed under questionable circumstances like Calhoun and Abraham Lincoln. The Senate approved the resolution 40-2. The war ended in an American victory. Mexican forces under General Mariano Arista fought gallantly, but it was too much fire power from the American side. Many Northern Whigs opposed the war. Army Captain John C. Fremont led settlers in California to overthrow the Mexican government there. A freshman Democratic Congressman, David Wilmot of Pennsylvania, previously a firm supporter of Polk's administration, offered an amendment to the bill, the Wilmot Proviso. The Wilmot Proviso bill would ban slavery in any land acquired using the money. The appropriation bill, with the Wilmot Proviso attached, passed the House, but died in the Senate. Debates on the war caused Polk to have one term in office. General Santa Ana fled. America once captured Mexico City. War opponents were also active; Whig Congressman Abraham Lincoln of Illinois introduced the "exact spot" resolutions, calling on Polk to state exactly where American blood had been shed on American soil to start the war, but the House refused to consider them. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war and expanded American territory along with the Gadshen Purchase too. When Congress reconvened in December 1848, Polk asked it in his annual message to establish territorial governments in California and New Mexico, a task made especially urgent by the onset of the California Gold Rush. Debates on slavery continued. Polk dealt with trade in the Caribbean. Polk didn't want a national bank, and Polk supported lowering tariffs. One of Polk's last acts as president was to sign the bill creating the Department of the Interior (March 3, 1849). This was the first new cabinet position created since the early days of the Republic. Polk had misgivings about the federal government usurping power over public lands from the states. Nevertheless, the delivery of the legislation on his last full day in office gave him no time to find constitutional grounds for a veto, or to draft a sufficient veto message, so he signed the bill. Polk didn't seek one term.
Polk's Presidency was stressful and his health suffered. He died on June 15 at his home in Nashville, Tennessee. Polk's funeral was held at the McKendree Methodist Church in Nashville. Following his death, Sarah Polk lived at Polk Place for 42 years and died on August 14, 1891, at the age of 87. He owned human beings as a slaveowner whose names are Elias Polk, Mary Polk, and Matilda Polk. Elias and Mary Polk both survived slavery. Matilda died in 1849 at the age of about 110 years old. James Polk expanded American territories. Many of the generals and military leaders of the Mexican American War would be future participants in the U.S. Civil War like Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Stonewall Jackson, George Meade, and Jefferson Davis. James Polk's house, Polk Place, was demolished in 1901, a decade after Sarah's death.
Zachary Taylor
The 12th President of the United States of America was Zachary Taylor (1784-1850). He was a military leader of the U.S. Army who was a major general during the Mexican-American War. He was born in Barboursville, Virginia. His ancestors came from England. He was the third of five surviving sons in his family (a sixth died in infancy) and had three younger sisters. His mother was Sarah Dabney (Strother) Taylor. His father, Richard Taylor, had served as a lieutenant colonel in the American Revolution. Taylor was a descendant of Elder William Brewster, a Pilgrim leader of the Plymouth Colony, a Mayflower immigrant, and a signer of the Mayflower Compact; and Isaac Allerton Jr., a colonial merchant, colonel, and son of Mayflower Pilgrim Isaac Allerton and Fear Brewster. Taylor's second cousin through that line was James Madison, the fourth president. He was also a member of the famous Lee family of Virginia, and a third cousin once removed of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. His family moved from Virginia to Louisville, Kentucky on the Ohio River.
His mother taught him how to read and write. Zachary Taylor attended Middletown, Kentucky academy run by Kean O'Hara (who came from Ireland). In June 1810, Taylor married Margaret Mackall Smith, whom he had met the previous autumn in Louisville. "Peggy" Smith came from a prominent family of Maryland planters—she was the daughter of Major Walter Smith, who had served in the Revolutionary War. They had 6 children together. Taylor served in the military for decades. He was involved in the War of 1812 and other conflicts. He was involved in the Black Hawk War and the Second Seminole War. Taylor commanded American forces at the Battle of Palo Alto and the nearby Battle of Resaca de la Palma. Though greatly outnumbered, he defeated the Mexican "Army of the North" commanded by General Mariano Arista, and forced the troops back across the Rio Grande. He humanely treated Mexican soldiers prior to the prisoner exchange with General Arista.
Zachary Taylor was a nationalist, supported the Second Bank of the United States, and didn't want slavery to expand into the West (for economic not moral reasons). Taylor also opposed secessionism. He had Millard Filmore on his ticket as Vice President. As support for Taylor's candidacy grew, he continued to keep his distance from both parties, but made it clear that he would have voted for Whig Henry Clay in 1844 had he voted. In a widely publicized September 1847 letter, Taylor stated his positions on several issues. He did not favor chartering another national bank, favored a low tariff, and believed that the president should play no role in making laws. Taylor did believe that the president could veto laws, but only when they were clearly unconstitutional. Taylor was also a slave owner. Taylor supported the Wilmot Proviso too. Most abolitionists didn't support Taylor as he was a slave owner. Martin Van Buren ran for President in the anti-slavery Free Soil Party who didn't want an extension of slavery in more territories. That took votes from the Democratic nominee Lewis Cass, and Taylor won the 1848 election. Zachary Taylor was the last Whig to be elected President in America, and he was the last person elected President who wasn't a Democrat or Republican. He elected diverse people from America to be in his cabinet. For the position of Postmaster General, which also served as a center of patronage, Taylor chose Congressman Jacob Collamer of Vermont.
President Taylor didn't want entangling alliances as George Washington condemned too. He dealt with the issue of slavery. Southern racists didn't like Northerners giving aid to slaves who ran from the South. As the threat of Southern secession grew, he sided increasingly with antislavery Northerners such as Senator William H. Seward of New York, even suggesting that he would sign the Wilmot Proviso to ban slavery in federal territories should such a bill reach his desk. Taylor wanted California to be a state. California would later be a free state. While this was going on, the Latter Day Saint settlers came into Utah to form the provisional State of Deseret. These were the Mormons. This land evolved into Utah Territory. Taylor promised the Mormons to have religious freedom, even being a federal territory. Taylor dealt with New Mexico wanting to be a new state too. On foreign policy matters, many in Taylor's cabinet supported the Revolutions of 1848 in opposition to autocrats. Taylor stopped Narciso Lopez to conquer Cuba. The Missouri Compromise existed, and a strict Fugitive Slave Law was created that harmed human lives. Taylor threatened to use troops to stop secession. He ate a large amount of raw fruit and ice milk during a fund raising event at the Washington Monument (that was under construction on July 4, 1850). His digestive system was sick. It is said that he died of cholera morbus because of the open sewers in D.C. back then. His food might have been contaminated. President Zachary Taylor died on July 9, 1850 at the age of 64 years old. After his death, Vice President Fillmore assumed the presidency and completed Taylor's term, which ended on March 4, 1853. Soon after taking office, Fillmore signed into law the Compromise of 1850, which settled many of the issues faced by the Taylor administration.
A Joint Special Committee was appointed by the Common Council of the city of New York, to make the necessary arrangements for the funeral in honor of the late Taylor, which took place in New York City, on Tuesday July 23, 1850. A procession moved from the Park and proceeded down Broadway, to Chatham Street to the Bowery; down to Union Square; and then in front of the City Hall. The procession included the firing of three volleys by the 7th National Guard Regiment. There were thirty pallbearers, which was the number of states in the Union at that time. Taylor was interred in the Public Vault of the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., from July 13, 1850, to October 25, 1850 (which was built in 1835 to hold remains of notables until either the grave site could be prepared or transportation arranged to another city). His body was transported to the Taylor family plot where his parents were buried on the old Taylor homestead plantation known as "Springfield" in Louisville, Kentucky. President Taylor saw an evolution of the tensions of the North and the South grow into the U.S. Civil War. He was the last President to own slaves while he was in office. He had deals with many foreign powers, and the antebellum period would end in war.
Millard Filmore
Millard Fillmore (1800-1874) was the 13th President of the United States. He served from 1850-1853. He was the last member of the Whig Party to be in the House House. He was a former Vice President President and a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives too. He was born in a log cabin on a farm (at Moravia, Cayuga County, New York state). His parents were Phoebe Millard and Nathaniel Filmore. He was the 2nd of 8 children and the oldest son. Nathaniel Fillmore and Phoebe Millard moved from Vermont in 1799 and sought better opportunities than were available on Nathaniel's stony farm, but the title to their Cayuga County land proved defective, and the Fillmore family moved to nearby Sempronius, where they leased land as tenant farmers, and Nathaniel occasionally taught school. The historian Tyler Anbinder described Fillmore's childhood as "one of hard work, frequent privation, and virtually no formal schooling." Millard Filmore lived in poverty as a young person. Millard Filmore taught school in East Aurora and accepted a few cases in justice of the peace courts. He further studied law in Buffalo. Meanwhile, he also became engaged to Abigail Powers. In 1823, he was admitted to the New York bar, declined offers from Buffalo law firms, and returned to East Aurora to establish a practice as the town's only resident lawyer. Later in life, Fillmore said that had had initially lacked the self-confidence to practice in the larger city of Buffalo. His biographer, Paul Finkelman, suggested that after being under others' thumbs all his life, Fillmore enjoyed the independence of his East Aurora practice. Millard and Abigail wed on February 5, 1826. They had two children, Millard Powers Fillmore (1828–1889) and Mary Abigail Fillmore (1832–1854).
Millard Filmore supported the Anti-Masonic Party after the death of former Mason William Morgan. Many Anti-Masons were opposed to the presidential candidacy of General Andrew Jackson, who was a Mason. Fillmore was a delegate to the New York convention that endorsed President John Quincy Adams for re-election and also served at two Anti-Masonic conventions in the summer of 1828. Filmore worked in East Aurora and was part of the New York State Assembly found in Albany, NY. He came into the U.S. House of Representatives in 1832. Filmore was in the Whig Party. He and others like Weed formed an alliance of National Republicans, Anti-Masons, and disaffected Democrats to promote the Second Bank of the United States, federally funded internal improvements (like roads, bridges, and canals), and other policies. Weed was more anti-slavery than Filmore. Filmore disliked slavery but considered the federal government powerless in dealing with it. People know of William H. Seward who was a Weed protégé and New York Whig. Filmore wanted the expansion of Buffalo harbor. Millard Filmore was President by 1850 during the midst of a crisis of slavery. He was President starting in 1850. This was after Polk died while he was in office.
Fillmore sent a special message to Congress on August 6, 1850; disclosed the letter from Governor Bell and his reply; warned that armed Texans would be viewed as intruders; and urged Congress to defuse sectional tensions by passing the Compromise. Without the presence of the Great Triumvirate of John C. Calhoun, Webster, and Clay, who had long dominated the Senate, Douglas and others were able to lead the Senate towards the administration-backed package of bills. Each bill passed the Senate with the support of the section that wanted it, with a few members who were determined to see all of the bills passed. The battle then moved to the House, which had a Northern majority because of the population. Most contentious was the Fugitive Slave Bill, whose provisions were anathema to abolitionists. Fillmore applied pressure to get Northern Whigs, including New Yorkers, to abstain, rather than to oppose the bill. Through the legislative process, various changes were made, including the setting of a boundary between New Mexico Territory and Texas, the state being given a payment to settle any claims. California was admitted as a free state, the District of Columbia's slave trade was ended, and the final status of slavery in New Mexico and Utah would be settled later. Fillmore signed the bills as they reached his desk and held the Fugitive Slave Bill for two days until he received a favorable opinion as to its constitutionality from the new Attorney General, John J. Crittenden. The issue of slavery was never resolved. The Fugitive Slave Act was not only evil and unjust. It never solved anything. Abolitionists exposed the law as cruel and in violation of due process. In August 1850, the social reformer Dorothea Dix wrote to Fillmore to urge support of her proposal in Congress for land grants to finance asylums for the impoverished mentally ill. Though her proposal did not pass, both became friends, met in person, and continued to correspond well after Fillmore's presidency. In September of 1850, Filmore appointed Brigham Young (or a Mormon or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints) as the first governor of Utah Territory. In gratitude, Young named the first territorial capital Filmore and the surrounding county Millard.
Filmore also worked in Japan in trade deals and expanded national infrastructure in America. He opposed European nations trying to annex Hawaii. Filmore was neutral in Kossuth's call for Hungary independence. Filmore was opposed by Northern abolitionists who disagreed with his support of the Fugitive Slave Act. He left the Presidency on March 4, 1853 succeeded by Pierce. Millard Filmore left the White House without a pension, without independent wealth, and no estate. So, he made to make a living. His wife died in 1835 via pneumonia. Filmore was saddened going into Buffalo. His only daughter Mary died of cholera on July 26, 1854. He lived to see the Kansas-Nebraska debate on slavery that threatened to expand slavery northward. Many northern foes of slavery, such as Seward, gravitated towards the new Republican Party, but Fillmore saw no home for himself there. In the early 1850s, there was considerable hostility towards immigrants, especially Catholics, who had recently arrived in the United States in large numbers, and several nativist organizations, including the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, sprung up in reaction. By 1854, the order had morphed into the American Party, which became known as the Know Nothings. (In its early days, members were sworn to keep its internal deliberations private and, if asked, were to say they knew nothing about them). Filmore unfortunately joined the No Nothing Party. It is fine to disagree with the doctrines of Roman Catholicism peacefully. That's fine. Yet, it is wrong to promote discrimination and bigotry against Catholics and people from other countries based upon background and creed. Immigrants have a huge role in making America better, and their contributions should never be demonized. That is why the No Nothing Party was wrong. He saw the Pope Pius IX and visited Britain.
He ran for President in 1856 with his running mate Andrew Jackson Donelson of the Know Nothing convention. He lost to Buchanan. Later, he came back home to Buffalo. Fremont from California ran for President and lost. Some historians believed that Filmore was not a Know Nothing or nativist. However, Fillmore had sent a letter for publication in 1855 that explicitly denounced immigrant influence in elections and Fillmore stated that the American Party was the "only hope of forming a truly national party, which shall ignore this constant and distracting agitation of slavery." The truth is that slavery is evil and xenophobia is evil too. He re-married to Caroline McIntosh. He helped to found Buffalo General Hospital. He supported Senator Douglas in the 1860 Presidential election. Filmore supported Abraham Lincoln's call to preserve the Union when the Civil War existed. He supported the Union Continental soldiers. Then, he wanted the Confederates to immediately be re-united to the Union after the war was over. That is why he support Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction policies. He died because of stroke on March 8, 1874 at New York state. The crisis of slavery and the cowardly laws like the Fugitive Slave Act which harmed black lives were key in causing the ultimate American Civil War.
Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce (1804-1869) was the 14th President of the United States of America. He was one of the reactionary Presidents who believed in the lie that the abolitionist movement was a fundamental threat to the unity of America. He alienated anti-slavery groups by supporting and signing the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He enforced the unjust Fugitive Slave Act. He saw the beginning and end of the American Civil War. He was born in a log cabin at Hillsborough, New Hampshire. He was a sixth generation descendant of Thomas Pierce, who moved into the Massachusetts Bay Colony from Norwich, Norfolk, England in about 1634. His father Benjamin was a lieutenant in the American Revolutionary War who moved from Chelmsford, Massachusetts to Hillsborough after the war, purchasing 50 acres (20 ha) of land. Pierce was the fifth of eight children born to Benjamin and his second wife Anna Kendrick. Benjamin's first wife Elizabeth Andrews died in childbirth, leaving a daughter. Benjamin was a prominent Democratic-Republican, state legislator, farmer, and tavern keeper. Franklin Pierce was involved in politics since his youth. His other brothers fought in the War of 1812. He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy. In 1820 at the fall, he came into Bowdoin College at Brunswick, Maine, one of 19 freshman. He studied law briefly. He also was part of state politics. Franklin Pierce opposed the Federalists and supported Andrew Jackson.
He was the Billsborough town moderator. Andrew Jackson won his district as Franklin Pierce campaigned for him, and he elected for town moderator for six consecutive years. He was later part of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. He was in the state militia of New Hampshire as he was between the ages of 18 and 45. Franklin Pierce was appointed aide de camp to Governor Samuel Dinsmoor in 1831. He remained in the militia until 1847, and attained the rank of colonel before becoming a brigadier general in the Army during the Mexican–American War. Interested in revitalizing and reforming the state militias, which had become increasingly dormant during the years of peace following the War of 1812, Pierce worked with Alden Partridge, president of Norwich University, a military college in Vermont, and Truman B. Ransom and Alonzo Jackman, Norwich faculty members and militia officers, to increase recruiting efforts and improve training and readiness. Since New Hampshire was a great Democratic stronghold, so he won in the House election. He married Jane Means Appleton. Jane was shy, religious, and pro-temperance. She inspired Pierce to stop drinking alcohol. They had 3 children. Franklin Pierce opposed the 2nd National Bank and even infrastructure spending. He opposed abolitionism. He hypocritically claimed to be morally opposed to slavery, but he opposed the federal government opposing slavery. He was so extreme that he wrote in December 1835 that, " One thing must be perfectly apparent to every intelligent man. This abolition movement must be crushed or there is an end to the Union." When Rep. James Henry Hammond of South Carolina looked to prevent anti-slavery petitions from reaching the House floor, however, Pierce sided with the abolitionists' right to petition. Nevertheless, Pierce supported what came to be known as the gag rule, which allowed for petitions to be received, but not read or considered. This passed the House in 1836.
Franklin Pierce was a hypocrite. He left the Senate to be a lawyer. He campaign for James Polk who became President. He fought in the Mexican American war as a brigadier general. He returned to Concord, New Hampshire. There was the Election of 1852 that Franklin Pierce has won. The Democrats were divided by the slavery issue. His son passed away (on January 6, 1853) before he was sworn into office. Pierce never got over his son's passing. He delivered his inaugural address by memory. He tried to form a unity government. The Vice President was William R. King. Abolitionists and anti-abolitionists criticized him on many issues. Pierce wanted an efficient government to promote civil service examinations. He promoted infrastructure, and diplomatic relations with other nations. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act existed. He wanted a transcontinental railroad with a link from Chicago to California, through the vast western territory. Organizing the territory was necessary for settlement as the land would not be surveyed nor put up for sale until a territorial government was authorized. Those from slave states had never been content with western limits on slavery, and felt it should be able to expand into territories procured with blood and treasure that had come, in part, from the South. Douglas and his allies planned to organize the territory and let local settlers decide whether to allow slavery. This would repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820, as most of it was north of the 36°30′ N line the Missouri Compromise deemed "free". The territory would be split into a northern part, Nebraska, and a southern part, Kansas, and the expectation was that Kansas would allow slavery and Nebraska would not. The political turmoil that followed the passage saw the short-term rise of the nativist and anti-Catholic American Party, often called the Know Nothings, and the founding of the Republican Party.
Even as the act was being debated, settlers on both sides of the slavery issue poured into the territories so as to secure the outcome they wanted in the voting. The passage of the act resulted in so much violence between groups that the territory became known as Bleeding Kansas. Thousands of pro-slavery Border Ruffians came across from Missouri to vote in the territorial elections although they were not resident in Kansas, giving that element the victory. Pierce supported the outcome despite the irregularities. When Free-Staters set up a shadow government, and drafted the Topeka Constitution, Pierce called their work an act of rebellion. The president continued to recognize the pro-slavery legislature, which was dominated by Democrats, even after a Congressional investigative committee found its election to have been illegitimate. He dispatched federal troops to break up a meeting of the Topeka government. Passage of the act coincided with the seizure of escaped slave Anthony Burns in Boston. Northerners rallied in support of Burns, but Pierce was determined to follow the Fugitive Slave Act to the letter, and dispatched federal troops to enforce Burns's return to his Virginia owner despite furious crowds. He lost the 1856 election as slavery tensions increased. He attacked Republicans and abolitionists in December 1856.
He also criticized New England Protestant ministers, who largely supported abolition and Republican candidates, for their "heresy and treason." The rise of the Republican Party forced the Democrats to defend Pierce. During his debates with Republican Senate candidate Abraham Lincoln in 1858, Douglas called the former president "a man of integrity and honor." Pierce was cowardly trying to play in the middle when the U.S. Civil War existed. By the time of Reconstruction, Pierce agreed with Andrew Johnson's plans to allow the Confederates to have total immunity. He died in 1869. In his last will, which he signed January 22, 1868, Pierce left a large number of specific bequests such as paintings, swords, horses, and other items to friends, family, and neighbors. Much of his $72,000 estate (equal to $1,400,000 today) went to his brother Henry's family, and to Hawthorne's children and Pierce's landlady. Henry's son Frank Pierce received the largest share.
Conclusion
The Presidents from Martin Van Buren to Franklin Pierce changed the whole country. What I see is that the issue of slavery was never going to be resolved without war. The United States of America back then was in its youth, not even 100 years after 1776. It saw controversies, social activists, and new debates arising up. America witnessed the Great Awakening, abolitionists, and various wars. The South refused to immediately free black people. The Southern aristocracy promoted racism, slavery, and the evil status quo. The North, in many cases, went along with the Fugitive Slave Act. While this was going on, we saw tons of abolitionists, black activists, and other freedom fighters fighting to make sure that slavery was abolished. The Presidents during that era capitulated so much to the establishment on many issues, that no long-term solutions to slavery existed. Also, American infrastructure grew in the paradox of expanding canals at the expense of indigenous lands being stolen. You can't know about American history without knowing the slavery against black people and the genocide against Native Americans are key events of American history. Abolitionists, the Whig Party, Democrats, and other political leaders debated issues all throughout the early American country. After the 1850's, the American Civil War existed. During the near future, Presidents before, during, and after the U.S. Civil War will be fully analyzed.
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