Conservative Senator Nelson Aldrich joined progressive President William H. Taft in supporting a constitutional amendment on federal income taxes because he knew it wouldn’t pass. But Aldrich got it all wrong. THIS YEAR, to the chagrin of millions of Americans, the federal income tax celebrates its centennial. Yet despite the perennial groans that go up …
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When railroad workers ignited a widespread, violent strike in 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes deployed U.S. troops to end the upheaval—and in doing so strengthened the power of the executive branch. Rutherford B. Hayes was a man without a mandate in 1877. He was the president, to be sure, but he didn’t have the full …
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There would have been no Constitution without compromise, but politics trumped principles in surprising— and unsettling—ways when it came to slavery. The framers of the Constitution knew better than to use the word “slave” or “slavery” in their blueprint for republican government. What an embarrassment that would be for a nation founded on the principle …
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An unexpected fork in the Missouri River presented a monumental challenge to the leadership of Lewis and Clark. On August 18, 1804, after a conference with some Oto chiefs near present-day Homer, Neb., Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark court-martialed Moses Reed, who had deserted their Corps of Discovery and been caught. Leniency was not …
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Frontiersmen: Lewis, Clark, JFK In 1803 the third president of the United States had a grand vision and a goal. With the acquisition of a vast swath of territory in the Louisiana Purchase, Thomas Jefferson was intent on exploring the new land of the United States, mapping it and finding a route across the continent …
The post Letter from the Editor- American History December 2013 appeared first on HistoryNet.
On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, 29-yearold Hawila Kaleohano stepped outside his home on the privately owned island of Niihau, the westernmost inhabited isle in the Hawaiian chain. From out of nowhere, a small plane came in low and fast and slammed into the rough soil, kicking up clouds of dirt until finally skidding to …
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When reporter Brian Bell stepped into the tiny mountain cabin where boxer Gene Tunney lived while training for a fight, he noticed books piled near Tunney’s bed. “What are you reading?” Bell asked. “The Way of All Flesh, an autobiographical novel by Samuel Butler,” Tunney replied. The boxer said he’d bought the book for 50 …
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