David Wilmot was a congressman from Pennsylvania who in 1846 proposed an amendment to a military appropriations bill that slavery be forbidden in any territory obtained from Mexico during or after the Mexican War (1846-48).
The amendment passed in the House but not the Senate.
There have been two “Banks of the United States”, both chartered by Congress and both allowed to expire after 20 years. The First Bank of the United States lasted from 1791 to 1811, the second from 1816 to 1836. Each served as the federal government’s fiscal agents and repositories of federal funds. The banks were…
The Yiddish word “chutzpa” meaning “gall, impudence” came over from Eastern Europe with the millions of Jews who immigrated to the U.S. beginning in the 1880s. By the 1970s, the Americanized term had taken on the positive connotation of “self-confidence, courage” and had made its way into British slang as well.
Merchant Richard Sears and watchmaker Alvah C. Roebuck began their collaboration in 1887 by selling mail-order watches advertised in newspapers. In 1889, Sears produced his first catalog of watches and other jewelry. By 1893, when the name Sears, Roebuck & Co. was first used, the business included clothing, furniture, baby carriages, and more. A century…
Part of the maple-sugar manufacturing process, “sugaring-off” refers to boiling down the sap of the maple tree until the sap hardens into candy or crystallizes into sugar. Maple-sugaring was a popular social activity in America during the 19th century, accompanied by feasting and dancing.
It took seven years for Sacco and Vanzetti to move from arrest to execution, from their arrest in May 1920 to their electrocution on August 23, 1927. The Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were convicted of robbery and murder in South Braintree, Massachusetts. The evidence was shaky and the conviction seemed motivated by…
Thomas Jefferson said, “I am not among those who fear the people; they, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom”.