Political History Commons^™

Introduction To Ethnic Voters And The Election Of Lincoln, Frederick C. Luebke

Department of History: Faculty Publications

A twofold purpose informs this anthology of essays on ethnic voters in the presidential election of 1860. First, it gathers together a great quantity of factual information about immigrants and politics on the eve of the Civil War. Naturally, the Germans receive the greatest amount of attention. Not only did they rival the Irish in numbers in 1860. but they were also the most diverse ethnic group in America. The essays of this volume also offer much data about politicians and their perceptions of the democratic process, about political parties and the social bases of their support, and about political …

A Descriptive Analysis Of Nebraska's Unicameral Legislature, Harry W. Wade

Nebraskiana Publications: Resources and Materials on the 37th State

What is the Nebraska "Unicameral" experience in handling problems relating to organization, procedure, leadership, and lobbying? Has the Nebraska system attracted different kinds of people to legislative service? This study was undertaken for the purpose of determining, on the basis of an investigation of the only one-house state legislative system in the nation, how Nebraska unicameralism functions in present-day circumstances and if the Nebraska experience has produced evidence of alternative ways of dealing with contemporary legislative problems which would tend to bear out the expectations of the supporters of the single-house legislature. Because the Nebraska unicameral plan employs an important …

The Origins Of Thomas Jefferson's Anti-Clericalism, Frederick C. Luebke

Department of History: Faculty Publications

Cannibals - mountebanks - charlatans - pious and whining hypocrites - necromancers - pseudo-Christians - mystery mongers. These are among the epithets which Thomas Jefferson applied to the clergy of the Protestant denominations and of the Roman Catholic Church as well. It was they who "perverted" the principles of Jesus "into an engine for enslaving mankind"; it was the Christian "priesthood" who had turned organized religion into a "mere contrivance to filch wealth and power" for themselves; they were the ones who throughout history had persecuted rational men for refusing to swallow "their impious heresies." This attitude of Jefferson, with …

George W. Norris's Persuasion In The Campaign For The Unicameral Legislature, Phillip K. Tompkins

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The people of forty-seven states in this country are governed by bicameral or two-house legislatures. The people of the forty-eighth, Nebraskans, are governed by a unicameral or one-house legislature.

On November 6, 1934, the people of Nebraska provided by amendment to their state constitution, a one-house legislature to be composed of between thirty and fifty members to be elected on a non-partisan ballot. The number of solons was later set at forty-three, and 1957 marked the twentieth anniversary of the first unicameral session in Nebraska.

Senator George W. Norris is generally regarded by all as the father of the unicameral …

British Land Policy And The American Revolution: A Belated Lecture In Economic History, George O. Virtue

University Studies (University of Nebraska) (1888–1984)

If this were spoken from a pulpit instead of from a teacher's rostrum, I should be disposed to take as a text for what follows a passage from C. W. Alvord's study of The Mississippi Valley in British Politics. From the middle of the 18th century to the Revolution, how to deal with the great valley was, Alvord holds, the number one American problem of every British ministry: How to meet the claims of France to it and how to defend it once her claims were extinguished; how to meet the claims to it of the seaboard colonies by virtue …

Soviet Russia: An Interpretation, John J. Heeren

Open Learning Resources, General/Selected

Summary

This paper offers an interpretation of Soviet Russia, based upon several weeks of direct observation and investigation conducted in the summer of 1932. The Soviet Union presents itself as a colossal experiment in recasting human society along Marxian lines. The following pages examine both the philosophical underpinnings of Communism and the visible outworking of this revolutionary transformation. Impressive industrial centers reflect a Planned Economy of great ambition, yet marred by shortages, inefficiencies, and a reliance upon capitalistic methods such as piecework and wage incentives. Visible wealth and inequality have been replaced with widespread, uniform poverty. In the countryside, collectivization …

The Constitutions Of The Northwest States, John D. Hicks

University Studies (University of Nebraska) (1888–1984)

CHAPTER I • The Statehood Movement • The territorial system of the United States • The statehood movement in Dakota • The statehood movement in Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming • The Omnibus Bill • The Remaining Territories • The Constitutional Conventions • The Reform Movement

CHAPTER II • The Departments of Government • The Fixity of American Constitutions • Constitutions as historical sources • The Legislature • General dissatisfaction with the lawmaking body • The "Dakota plan" • The single chamber legislature • Size of the legislature • Basis of representation • Minority representation • Re-appointment • Popular control …

The Embassy Of Everaard Van Weede, Lord Of Dykvelt, To England In 1687, James Muilenburg

University Studies (University of Nebraska) (1888–1984)

The importance of the embassy of Everaard van Weede, Lord of Dykvelt, to England in 1687, has been variously estimated by the many historians of the Revolution of 1688. Bishop Burnet, who played an important role in all the counsels of William and acted as the spiritual minister to Mary, speaks intimately of the whole affair. He gives an account of the mission which purports to be as he had it from the envoy himself. In Burnet's opinion the embassy may from one point of view be looked upon as a failure, for its ostensible objects were not attained. But …

The Meeting Of The Estates-General, 1789: The Union Of The Three Orders, June 24 To June 27, Jeanette Needham

University Studies (University of Nebraska) (1888–1984)

The calling of the estates-general for 1789 marked the culmination of a long and bitter struggle between the king and the privileged orders, caused chiefly by the financial embarrassment of the country. The victory over the king was the signal for.a still more bitter conflict between the third estate and the privileged classes over the organization of the estates-general. It was continued after the formal opening of the estates in May, 1789, under the guise of a new contest, over the manner of verifi€ation of credentials. Although outwardly but a matter of parliamentary procedure, this question in reality veiled that …

On The Conflict Of Parties In The Jacobin Club (November, 1789-July 17, 1791), Charles Kuhlmann

University Studies (University of Nebraska) (1888–1984)

The Breton Club having ceased its activity after the discussion of the veto in August, 1789, the popular party in the assembly found itself without a railying point. Although differences of opinion had shattered the loosely organized club at Versailles, the memory of its usefulness soon induced the same members to attempt the formation of a new and more regularly organized association in the capital,1 The exact date of the formation of the J acobin Club it is impossible to determine from the evidence so far discovered, but everything points to the close of November or the first days of …

The Past And The Present Condition, And The Destiny, Of The Colored Race, Henry Highland Garnet

Zea E-Books in American Studies

Henry Highland Garnet’s 1848 address to the Female Benevolent Society of Troy, New York, published that year, is an eloquent survey and reclaiming for the race of its share in the Western intellectual tradition. That the ancient Egyptians were Africans, that the Song of Solomon was addressed to an African woman, that the Ethiopians warriors were celebrated by Homer, that Moses’ wife was Ethiopian, that Hannibal, Terence, Euclid, Cyprian, Origen, and Augustine all were of African ancestry—these facts are adduced by Garnet to suggest both the heritage and the potential achievements of the Africans in America. Gar-net surveys the origin …

Walker’S Appeal, In Four Articles; Together With A Preamble, To The Coloured Citizens Of The World, … (Boston, 1830), David Walker, Paul Royster , Editor & Depositor

Zea E-Books in American Studies

Walker’s Appeal ... is a radical antislavery and antiracist manifesto by a free American of African ancestry. Its bold denunciation of European culture was unprecedented, unrestrained, and startling, viz.:

“The whites have always been an unjust, jealous, unmerciful, avaricious and blood-thirsty set of beings, always seeking after power and authority.”

Walker attacks the slave system and its rampant racism from the viewpoint of America’s allegiance to the idea of freedom; he quotes the Declaration of Independence at length, and strikes a recognizably jeremiad note:

“O Americans! Americans!! I call God—I call angels— I call men, to witness, that your destruction …

A Discourse, Delivered At Plymouth, December 22, 1820. In Commemoration Of The First Settlement Of New-England., Daniel Webster, Paul Royster , Ed.

Electronic Texts in American Studies

To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Mayflower Pilgrims’ Landing at Plymouth Rock, Daniel Webster (1782–1852), former congressman and future senator and secretary of state, delivered this long discourse to the assembled members of the Pilgrim Society. Always the consummate New Englander, Webster sketched 200 years of American history, surveyed the present era, and projected grand future prospects for a nation barely 40 years old, but with deep roots in Reformed Protestant values and English constitutionalism. Underlying all was his belief that “The character of their political institutions was determined by the fundamental laws respecting property.” Webster’s stories highlight the …

'Farewell' Address To The People Of The United States, Announcing His Intention Of Retiring From Public Life At The Expiration Of The Present Constitutional Term Of Presidency, George Washington

Zea E-Books in American Studies

President George Washington’s farewell address “To the People of the United States” was delivered to the public through the medium of the Philadelphia Daily Advertiser newspaper and was immediately reprinted in other newspapers and in pamphlet form throughout the country, and in England, Ireland, and Scotland as well. All contemporary editions derived directly or indirectly from the Daily Advertiser newspaper source.

The composition of the address was a collaborative effort, with James Madison co-authoring with Washington an early draft that was reviewed and revised at least twice to incorporate suggestions by Alexander Hamilton. The final draft, in Washington’s handwriting, was …

A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission And Non-Resistance To The Higher Powers: With Some Reflections On The Resistance Made To King Charles I. And On The Anniversary Of His Death: In Which The Mysterious Doctrine Of That Prince’S Saintship And Martyrdom Is Unriddled, Jonathan Mayhew

Zea E-Books in American Studies

After the Restoration of the English monarchy in the person of Charles II in 1660, the new king and his first Parliament declared the anniversary of the beheading of his father Charles I (January 30, 1649) a religious holiday with a special commemoration in the Book of Common Prayer, naming the late monarch a saint and martyr. This holiday was not generally celebrated in Massachusetts until the emergence of several Anglican churches there in the early eighteenth century. In 1750, Jonathan Mayhew, the twenty-nine-yearold pastor of the West (Congregational) Church in Boston, took occasion to dispute the first Charles’ credentials …