In one of the most controversial decisions in the nation’s judicial history, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Dred Scott v. Sandford decision on March 6, 1857, ruling that Blacks could not be citizens in the United States and were not protected by the U.S. Constitution. The Court also ruled that Congress could not prohibit slavery in federal territories. For good measure, the Court stated that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was unconstitutional. read more...
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After a 13-day siege of the fierce Texians (American settlers in Texas) defending the Alamo, Mexican troops under General Santa Anna quietly prepared for a final assault at midnight, March 5. In the early morning hours of March 6, 1836, over 2,000 Mexican troops stormed the crumbling adobe mission where approximately 200 defenders awaited the attack, willing to give their lives for the cause of freedom and Texas independence. read more...
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A political drama unfolded in the U.S. Congress when, for the first time in American history, the Senate convened in a Court of Impeachment, on March 5, 1868, to try President Andrew Johnson. What the fight really concerned was Johnson’s policies of reconciliation towards the South (he was a former senator from Tennessee) versus the harsher demands made by the “Radical Republicans” who controlled Congress and wanted the Confederate states punished for their rebellion during the Civil War. read more...
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Has any president faced a more difficult task than Abraham Lincoln when he rose March 4, 1861, to deliver his inaugural address? Seven slave states had already seceded from the Union, formed their own country, adopted a constitution, elected a president, and—on the very day of Lincoln’s inauguration—hoisted their newly-adopted Confederate flag over their capital in Montgomery, Alabama. Eight more slave states seemed poised on the brink of secession. What words could Lincoln possibly summon to heal this division and avert a civil war? read more...
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It’s nice to see that humor was alive and well in Clarksville, Texas, on March 4, 1848, when the townsfolk picked up their local paper the Northern Standard and read this interesting comment:
“Overcome evil with good,” as the preacher said when he knocked a rascal down with the Bible.
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Jeannette Pickering Rankin, a suffragist and pacifist, earned the distinction of becoming the first female member of Congress when she was elected to represent Montana in the U.S. House of Representatives on Nov. 7, 1916. She had worked hard in the successful campaign that granted women the right to vote in Montana in 1914. However, throughout her first term as a U.S. representative most women in the country could not vote (the Nineteenth Amendment giving women the right to vote nationwide was not ratified until 1920). read more...
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When South Carolina became the first Southern state to secede from the Union, on Dec. 20, 1860, an elderly American had a unique perspective on this harbinger of the Civil War. Ralph Farnham, at 104, was the last Revolutionary War veteran still alive; the last living witness of the heroism and sacrifice that created the Union in the first place. He died six days after South Carolina seceded. read more...
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Maine became the nation’s 23rd state on March 15, 1820, but its entrance into the Union was sullied by an acrimonious debate in Congress over slavery, a fierce disagreement solved by a compromise that pleased few and left many dissatisfied: the Missouri Compromise. In the spring of 1820 the United States had a delicate and precarious balance of 11 free states and 11 slave states. Missouri had applied for statehood as a slave state in early 1819 but anti-slavery forces in the House of Representatives thwarted it. read more...
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It is hard to imagine the horror of what those people went through. There were 116 of them, sleeping inside two trains snowbound at Wellington Depot high in Washington’s Cascade Mountains. The trains, one carrying passengers and the other mail, had been stuck at Wellington for six days. The passengers were no doubt irritated, as the storms of the past nine days had piled up so much snow that there was no going forward—and perhaps somewhat uneasy as well, looking up at the huge snowfields crouching on the steep slopes high above them. read more...
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Although better known as the successful general-in-chief of the Union army during the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant later achieved another notable success when, as president, he signed legislation creating Yellowstone National Park—the world’s first national park—on March 1, 1872. Although known to the Native Americans, throughout the first half of the nineteenth century only a handful of white people, mainly fur trappers, had ever seen the staggering array of plants, animals, geological features and geothermal activity that make up the wonderland of the Yellowstone region. read more...
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I understand that when writing a blog, it’s necessary to show a picture and say a few words about yourself, so that people don’t think a nameless, faceless committee or advisory board is running the show. Here I am, a real person. My name is Tony Pettinato, and I live in Deerfield, Mass. I did my undergraduate studies in English at Oberlin College, my graduate work in Journalism at UC Berkeley, and have been a reporter for six newspapers. For the past fourteen years I have worked at NewsBank, six of those as a managing editor for the U.S. Congressional Serial Set project – NewsBank’s acclaimed effort that digitized and indexed twelve million pages of primary source documents – that gratified my lifelong interest in American history. And that led me to editing this history blog!
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