Compromise of 1833 IV August 13, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, Civil War, Slavery Lead: Conflict over a protective tariff almost produced Civil War in the United States in 1833. Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: Angered over protective tariffs which benefited Northern industry and hurt Southern farmers, Southerners, led by United States Vice-President John C. Calhoun of South Carolina in the early 1830s, advocated nullification. If states were convinced the Federal government had passed laws that were unconstitutional, they could nullify them, declare them inoperative inside their state's boundaries. Read more →
Compromise of 1833 III August 12, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, Civil War, Slavery Lead: The debate over a protective tariff nearly brought the United States to Civil War in 1833. Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: In the late 1820s, Northern manufacturers wanted a high tariff to protect their businesses from foreign competition. Southern farmers despised protective tariffs. They wanted free trade to buy cheaper goods from Europe and to discourage other countries from imposing retaliatory tariffs which made it harder to sell Southern rice and cotton overseas. Read more →
Compromise of 1833 II August 11, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, Civil War, Slavery Lead: In late 1832 the state of South Carolina declared that it had the right to nullify or ignore Federal law within its boundaries. Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: At its heart, the U.S. Constitution was a compromise, more precisely, it was a series of compromises, between rural and urban areas, between small states and large ones, between those living on the frontier and maritime interests on the coast, between slaveholders and those opposed to this institution and embarrassed by its glaring violation of the nation's ideals. Read more →
Compromise of 1833 I August 10, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, Civil War, Slavery Lead: There are several themes of conflict or faultlines that run through United States History. One of the most important is the tension between Federal and local government. Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: After the failure of the first post-revolutionary experiment in government, the Articles of Confederation, it became clear to the founders that if the United States was to grow and prosper, the individual states must surrender a significant portion of their power to the national government. The Constitution and its first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, gave certain responsibilities to the central regime among which were foreign policy, the declaration of war, and the federal judiciary. However, the Constitution specifically retained significant power in the hands of the states and also left many other questions to be decided in the future. Read more →
Struggle for Missouri II June 15, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, Civil War, Slavery Lead: In the late spring of 1861, Missouri's fate hung in the balance. Would the state secede or remain loyal to the Union? Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: Congressman Frank Blair faced a difficult task. Despite the fact that a majority of Missourians preferred to remain in the Union, Governor Claiborne Jackson, most of the Missouri legislature, and a substantial minority of the state's most powerful leaders had Southern sympathies and were working actively to pull the state out. Both sides assumed that the key to winning Missouri was the Federal Arsenal at St. Louis. There thousands of weapons and tons of ammunition were available to arm one side or another. Read more →
Struggle for Missouri I June 14, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, Civil War, Slavery Lead: In the early days of the Civil War the destiny of Missouri was very much in doubt. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: From the beginning, Missouri was something of an oddity. There it sat, a state in which slavery was permitted, jutting up into the Midwest, surrounded north, east and west by free territory. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 allowed it to become a slave state but decreed that no other territory north of the line running along its southern border could enter the union as a slave state. It was a brilliant solution but a temporary one. In the years running up to the Civil War, life in Missouri reflected the deterioration of national civility and illustrated the tensions that were about to carve the nation into warring camps. Read more →
Franklin Buchanan May 10, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, Civil War, Military History Lead: The Civil War brought the naval career of Franklin Buchanan to an abrupt halt. Intro. : A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: In the annals of the United States Navy, the service of few officers equals in luster that of Franklin Buchanan. A native of Maryland he went to sea when he was fourteen years old. When the Southern states seceded in 1861, the sixty-year-old Buchanan already had a distinguished and memorable career. He planned the organization of the United States Naval Academy and from 1845 served as its first superintendent. He was executive commander of the Navy's first major steam-powered warship, the Mississippi, and commanded the flagship of Commodore Oliver C. Perry in the 1853 expedition to Japan. On that voyage Buchanan acted as chief negotiator in the talks which helped open Japan to Western commerce. At the outbreak of hostilities before the Civil War, he was in charge of the Washington Navy Yard and watched with apprehension the departure for Confederate service of officers at whose side he had served for decades. Read more →
Presidential Wit: Abraham Lincoln January 30, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, American Politics, American Presidents, Civil War, Humor Lead: Of the weapons available to the politician, among the most powerful is humor. No one was better at wielding that weapon than Abraham Lincoln. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: Few politicians can survive if they become an object of laughter and ridicule. On the other hand, those seeking office who have the ability to use humor as a weapon against opponents or as a means of giving themselves a more sympathetic and down-to-earth image, go a long way to winning the support and perhaps the affection of the electorate. A sense of humor is not required for election, but it helps, both to soften the blow of losing or, even better, to keep political success in correct perspective. Download [116.77 KB]
