Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Chaos In Congress: Masculinity And Violence In The Congressional Struggle Over Kansas, Ian L. Baumer

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

According to Joanne Freeman's recent book on congressional violence, in the years between 1830 and 1860, members of Congress engaged in 'manly' violence against one another more than seventy times. However, no issue caused more violent personal disputes in the legislature than slavery. In particular, the debate over the legal status of slavery in the Kansas Territory caused a panoply of incidents in Congress, including near-duel between John C. Breckinridge and Francis Cutting in 1854, Preston Brooks' caning of Charles Sumner in 1856, and a brawl in the House of Representatives in 1858. This article examines how these lawmakers' views …

Ms-290: Wwii Diary Of Leslie Wright Jr., U.S. Signal Corps, Danielle S. Russell

All Finding Aids

Leslie Wright Jr. enlisted in the United States Signal Corps on September 15, 1941, serving as a 2nd Lieutenant, until he was honorably discharged on January 9, 1946. He was first stationed in Richmond-Upon-Thames in Southwest London, before being transferred to Grimsby, in North East Lincolnshire.

This diary details a wide array of subjects relevant to Wright’s personal life and his service with the United States Signal Corps. References are made to politics and pop culture in the early 1940s.

Special Collections and College Archives Finding Aids are discovery tools used to describe and provide access to our holdings. Finding …

Androgyny In The Ancient World: The Intersection Of Politics, Religion And Gender In The Art Of Hatshepsut, Megan N. Reimer

Student Publications

The Pharaoh Hatshepsut is one of the most well-known rulers of ancient Egypt and she has fascinated historians for decades. She ruled Egypt during the 15th century BCE, coming to power after the death of her husband, Thutmose II. Hatshepsut is particularly interesting to historians due to how she was portrayed in her art. Due to how far in the past she ruled, not many pieces of her art have survived; however, in the objects that we do have she is often shown very androgynously or even in came cases distinctly masculine. My research focuses on the many theories as …

The National Intelligencer Validating Cowardice: How A Washington D.C. Newspaper Redefined Defeat Into Republican Victory, Wesley C. Cline

Student Publications

The fall and burning of Washington D.C. without substantial resistance by the American army and militia was initially an obvious disgrace, however the widely read Washington based newspaper, The National Intelligencer, sought to rewrite this story of defeat into a narrative highlighting republican virtue. Utilizing preexisting stereotypes perpetuated in their paper of British soldiers acting immoral, the staff of The National Intelligencer articulated that the men defending Washington had to return to their individual homes on account of the impending barbarism and savagery of the British invaders, therefore vindicating the militiamen of their lack of resistance and praising their virtuous …

Women In State Legislatures And State-Level Abortion Restrictions, Sydney N. Siegel

Student Publications

This research paper explores the relationship between women in state legislatures and state level abortion restrictions. This relationship is explored, and then tested against the amount of democratic legislators, the conservatism, of the public, and the religiosity of the public using a linear regression. While the findings are complex, they show that women do have an impact on state level abortion restrictions in some instances.

Ms – 243: Emma Guffey Miller Photo Albums, Katie Amtower

All Finding Aids

This collection includes three different albums. Two of them are bound in traditional Japanese binding with rice paper; the other may have been constructed to imitate the Japanese bound ones. These albums include Emma Guffey’s travels, from traveling around Japan and returning home periodically. They also include photographs of her time living in Japan. The photographs in this album include many small panorama photographs of nature and architecture, and there is a possibility that these albums include a few early colored photographs.

The first album, labeled “1901-1904,” begins with a few photos of her final year at Bryn Mawr. It …

Lincoln’S First 100 Days, Hannah M. Christensen

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Imagine trying to avoid a civil war and then having to figure out how to fight one—all in one’s first 100 days in office and all without Congress. That was what Abraham Lincoln’s first 100 days as president essentially looked like. From his first full day in office on March 5th, 1861 to his 100th day in the middle of June, Lincoln barely had time to handle the things presidents normally did, never mind relax.

The Corwin Amendment: The Last Last-Minute Attempt To Save The Union, Hannah M. Christensen

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

At around 5:20AM on March 4, 1861—Inauguration Day—the Senate voted 24-12 to pass a proposed amendment to the Constitution that would permanently preserve slavery in the states where it currently existed. If successfully ratified, it would become the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution—and hopefully avert the secession crisis and the impending Civil War. However, only six states had ratified the amendment by early 1862, and the amendment died soon after. The last attempt to stop the Civil War, an attempt which had been in the works since shortly after the presidential election, had failed.

Abolitionists Day: Why Now?, Olivia Ortman

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

This past Saturday, I attended the very first Abolitionists Day here in Gettysburg. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I arrived at the Seminary Ridge Refectory, but the crowded room seemed like a promising sight to me. When the event started, I was greeted with the words of famous abolitionists—William Loyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Beecher Stowe—being spoken by reenactors in period garb. As I listened, I couldn’t help wondering why now? This was a question I heard echoed by many of the other event goers. Why hold the first Abolitionist Day on March 4, 2017?

Burnishing Buchanan's Brand On His Birthday, Michael J. Birkner

History Faculty Publications

James Buchanan’s brand needs refreshing.

Outside his hometown, his name does not much register with Americans today. When it does, the reaction is usually negative. What a comedown from the high hopes associated with Old Buck’s election to the presidency in 1856. [excerpt]

Throwing The Switch: Eisenhower, Stevenson And The African-American Vote In The 1956 Election, Lincoln M. Fitch

Student Publications

This paper seeks to contextualize the 1956 election by providing a summary of the African American political alignment during the preceding half-century. Winning a greater portion of the black vote was a central tenant of the 1956 Eisenhower Campaign strategy. In the 1956 election a substantial shift occurred among the historically democratic black electorate. The vote shifted because of disillusionment with the Democrats and Eisenhower’s civil rights record. The swing however, was less pronounced for Republican congressional candidates. This paper draws upon extensive primary material, including countless newspapers, magazines, the NAACP Papers, and published primary sources to form the core …

Because I Am, Ann M. Sasala

SURGE

Why?

“Because I am a Republican!”

Why?

“Because I am a Democrat!”

Why?

“Because I am a Christian!”

Why?

In America, religion and politics are not merely taboo dinner topics; it is strongly advised that you don’t discuss either one in nearly all situations. [excerpt]

Loyalty: Democracy And Gettysburg's Union League, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

"The ball is rolling," the Sentinel crowed, "and it is no time now to faint or falter in the good and noble work of crushing rebels and traitors abroad and at home, and bringing back to its original glory our time-honored Union."

The Union would be saved, the Sentinel was sure, by the pure and sustained love and loyalty of her people. Gettysburg was showing her mettle in that department in the waning days of April 1863, as citizens gathered to follow the lead of others to the east in forming a Loyal Union League in the Adams county seat. …

Did Secularism Fail? The Rise Of Religion In Turkish Politics, Zeynep Taydas, Yasemin Akbaba, Minion K.C. Morrison

Political Science Faculty Publications

Religious movements have long been challenging the modernist and secularist ideas around the world. Within the last decade or so, pro-religious parties made significant electoral advances in various countries, including India, Sudan, Algeria, and the Palestinian territories. In this article, we focus on the rise of the pro-religious Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi- AKP) to power in the 2002 elections in Turkey. Using the Turkish experience with political Islam, we evaluate the explanatory value of Mark Juergensmeyer's rise of religious nationalism theory, with a special emphasis on the "failed secularism" argument. Our analysis indicates that the …

Book Review: The Rise And Fall Of The American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics And The Onset Of The Civil War By Michael Holt, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

"An impartial history of American statesmanship will give some of its most brilliant chapters to the Whig party from 1830 to 1850," wrote James G. Blaine in his memoirs. This was not, unhappily, because of a great heritage of political achievement in American public life. The work of the Whigs was, as Blaine admitted, negative and restraining rather than constructive. Still, "if their work cannot be traced in the National statute books as prominently as that of their opponents, they will be credited by the discriminating reader of our political annals as the English of to-day credit Charles James Fox …

Journalism And Politics In Jacksonian New Jersey: The Career Of Stacy G. Potts, Michael J. Birkner

History Faculty Publications

The year was 1831, and the President of the Bank of the United States, Nicholas Biddle, was preparing for a difficult campaign to win the re-charter of his institution. Facing the hostility of Andrew Jackson, and the partisan newspapers that supported him, Biddle was determined to put his own views before the American public. [excerpt]

10. The Political Thought Of Machiavelli, Robert L. Bloom, Basil L. Crapster, Harold A. Dunkelberger, Charles H. Glatfelter, Richard T. Mara, Norman E. Richardson, W. Richard Schubart

Section V: The Rise of Capitalism and the National State to 1500

The national state in Western Europe was a new institution, without precedent in the European World. Its rise and almost immediate conflict with the Church challenged political theorists to reexamine the assumptions of a universal church in a universal empire upon which the theory of the two swords was based. These assumptions were so generally accepted that they were not easily abandoned. In the fourteenth century Marsiglia of Padua, for all his disinterest in the two swords, had arrived at his conclusions without denying either the existence of a universal church or the validity of the traditional morality. Other writers …

1. Introduction, Robert L. Bloom, Basil L. Crapster, Harold L. Dunkelberger, Charles H. Glatfelter, Richard T. Mara, Norman E. Richardson, W. Richard Schubart

Section XXI: Meaning in the Social Sciences

Vastly increased research and a sounder technique in history in the nineteenth century had two influences on the social sciences. When an enthusiasm for the records of history was combined with the evolutionary perspective, it often resulted in the search for and the imposition of patterns of development on history in general or on the history of particular subject matters such as economics, politics, morals, or religion. Social scientists looked to history for explanations, in the hope of finding inevitable laws, stages of development, or the forces that moved human society. As historians worked out a critical method for their …