Trial of Henry Ward Beecher I May 27, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, Religious History Lead: Religion was important in nineteenth-century America. Its influence was in no way better demonstrated than in the prominence of the Beecher family. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: Religion has played a vital role in the shaping of the American experience. While the Founders created a secular state, it was in many ways the only choice they had. So prevalent was religion in its various forms that only a government that was neutral could possibly deal fairly with all the churches and sects that had established themselves in America even by the 1780s. The Founders were determined that no state church would encumber the tender consciences or drain the pocketbooks of those of the unwilling. The Founders were also painfully aware of the scars that remained on the European landscape after three centuries of religious warfare and intolerance. However, this official secular bias or lack of bias did not mean Americans were irreligious. In fact, the history of the United States is replete with examples of the powerful influence of religion over political, social, and economic life. Even in the late twentieth century church attendance and participation in America outstripped that of any other developed country. Read more →
Gambling Comes to Nevada May 26, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITamerican economics, American History, Mexican History Lead: Mired in the Great Depression, to create jobs the state of Nevada legalized gambling. Intro.: "A Moment In Time" with Dan Roberts. Content: Nevada was the last area of the continental United States to be explored by Europeans. In the early 1800s British and American fur traders crossed the territory and then returned to trap along the Humboldt River the late 1820s. After gold was discovered in California in 1848, thousands of people crossed Nevada on their way to the Pacific Coast. Acquired from Mexico by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, Nevada became a separate territory after a dazzling silver strike, the Comstock Lode, near Virginia City. The discovery brought thousands seeking a bonanza some of whom stayed and helped make Nevada a state in 1864. Read more →
Samuel Tilden and Tammany Hall II May 25, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, American Politics Lead: The power of the Tammany political organization in New York City was broken when one of its former allies, Sam Tilden, joined the forces of reform. Intro.: "A Moment In Time" with Dan Roberts. Content: Samuel J. Tilden rose to prominence as one of the first great corporation lawyers in America. He made a fortune representing railroad interests in New York and his ambition carried him to the chairmanship of the New York State Democratic Committee, a term as governor of New York, and to the threshold of the White House. Read more →
Samuel Tilden and Tammany Hall I May 24, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, American Politics Lead: Sam Tilden, who lost the most controversial election in United States history, made his reputation helping destroy the power of Tammany Hall. Intro.: "A Moment In Time" with Dan Roberts. Content: In 1876 Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote in the Presidential election but lost the Electoral vote after furious maneuvering in the Congress. He got to that pinnacle by helping to clean up corruption in New York. During the middle decades of the nineteenth century, Empire State politics was dominated by Tammany Hall. The Society of Tammany was a working class political club in the City of New York and had been a force in that state's politics since the years just after the American Revolution. Tammany helped promote the political ambitions of Aaron Burr who rose to be Vice-president of the United States but fell in disgrace after he shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel. By 1860 Tammany had enormous power over political elections and patronage in New York. The organization was dominated by William Marcy Tweed and his associates who were known as the Tweed Ring. Read more →
American Revolution: Virginia Resolves II May 21, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, American Revolution Lead: In the 1700s the United States broke from England. No colony in history had done that before. This series examines America’s Revolution. Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts Content: Having laid before the Virginia House of Burgesses in May 1765 five resolutions condemning the revenue-enhancing Stamp Act recently passed by the British Parliament, Patrick Henry, newly-elected delegate from Louisa County and widely famous as a result of the court case known as the Parson’s Cause, rose to brilliantly defend the so-called Virginia Resolves. He did so in a manner so extravagantly provocative that in the minds of some present, he edged over the line into disloyalty to the Crown. He first did a historical riff reminding the listeners of Caesar’s Brutus and King Charles I’s Cromwell and anticipated that some American would rise to defend his Country from the acts of the current monarch, King George III. This was clearly incendiary language and the Speaker of the House, John Robinson, warned him that his rhetoric was edging very close to treason. Read more →
American Revolution: Virginia Resolves I May 20, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, American Revolution Lead: In the 1700s the United States broke from England. No colony in history had done that before. This series examines America’s Revolution. Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts Content: When word of the passage of the Stamp Act reached the colonies in Spring 1765 there was little immediate reaction, but in the latter days of May, the Virginia House of Burgesses passed a series of resolves so radical and strong that their passage set off a storm of protest and economic reprisals in the other colonies that within a year Parliament was forced to repeal the Act. Read more →
Susan B Anthony II May 19, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, Feminism, Women in Leadership Lead: Devoted to a succession of causes, Susan Brownell Anthony did not hesitate to challenge laws she felt were discriminatory. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: At the end of the Civil War, women's rights advocates renewed the struggle which had lain fallow as the North concentrated on saving the Union. In 1869, Susan Anthony and her associate Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National Women's Suffrage Association and a national newspaper, The Revolution, which in its short life vigorously addressed women's issues including problems they faced in the workplace. Despite the good reception Anthony was receiving around the country, it seemed to her that little real progress was being made, therefore she decided to take more direct action. In the elections of November 1872, she and a handful of women walked into the Rochester, New York registration office and demanded to be registered as voters. Four days later they cast their ballots, three weeks after that, Anthony was arrested. Read more →
Susan B Anthony I May 18, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, Feminism, Women in Leadership Lead: In a life devoted to various causes, Susan B. Anthony proved herself in many ways far ahead of her times. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: Susan Brownell Anthony was born in 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts. Her father was a prosperous cotton manufacturer. A Quaker and an abolitionist, a man who hated alcohol, Daniel Anthony who gave his daughter a strict upbringing and demonstrated a zeal for moral crusading that Susan would follow for the rest of her life. Read more →
