Between 1776 in 1850, the American frontier opened up. Colonists first expanded out as far as Appalachia and then pushed the frontier to the Mississippi River. In 1850, American pioneers pushed the edge of settlement to Texas, the Southwest, and the Pacific Northwest. With each expansion, they saw cheap land and were inspired by the belief that they had a manifest destiny to stretch across the continent. In 1885, Alexis de Tocqueville traveled America as it was coming into its own as a nation. The Frenchman wrote his observations in Democracy in America. This classic
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…devout thanksgiving…penitent confession of our sins, and humble supplication for pardon, through the merits of our Savior. Thanksgiving Proclamation (1778) …to cause virtue and true religion to flourish, to give to all nations amity, peace and concord, and to fill the world with his glory. Thanksgiving Proclamation (1784) These United States The Declaration of Independence (1776) announced the birth of a new confederation, the United States of America. But its first constitution, The Articles of Confederation, wasn’t ratified until March 1, 1781, five years into the seven-year War for Independence. The confederation had neither a chief executive
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By 1796, George Washington had created a solid government for the new Republic. But he was tired; the political wrangling taken its toll on him. Had he wanted a third term, there is no doubt he would’ve been reelected, but he longed to return to Mount Vernon to live out his years as a farmer. Washington was sixty-four years old when he decided to end his political life. Besides, he was committed to a government where power changed hands frequently and peacefully, so he did not want to continue in office too long. This peaceful
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When the British surrendered at Yorktown, the American Revolution was over the battle for a new form of government had only just begun. The first issue to be faced by General Washington was a matter of pay for the Continental Army. When some veterans threatened to take the matter in their own hands, it was Washington who intervened and promised a better way. Washington is that a principle maintained by the United States military to the present day – namely that the military would remain ever the servant of the people and of its big
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No event in the annals of United States history is better known than the Boston Tea Party. The grassroots political movement even derives its name from it. But how much do we really know about it? As Paul Harvey used to say, here’s the rest of the story. The Tea Act of 1773 actually lowered the price of tea to the colonists. However, the effect of the act was unexpected. The act set in motion a chain of events which would soon lead open revolt. When the Townshend Acts were repealed in 1770, an import
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On March 23, 1775, delegates from every county in Virginia met at St. John’s Church in Richmond to discuss the situation with the British. They were also there to elect the delegates to the coming Second Continental Congress. They did not meet in Williamsburg, Virginia’s capital, because they feared that the British Governor of the colony might arrest them and ship them all back to England to face trials as traitors. Instead, the Virginia delegates met fifty miles inland, where they hope to be protected. Everyone knew that the British would send reinforcements to Boston
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The documentary A Noble Lie: Oklahoma City 1995 was released in December of 2011, the culmination of sixteen years of active resistance to the official story of the Oklahoma City bombing.  The filmmakers dedicated two years of their lives to production, pouring every spare hour and spare dollar into making sure that the truth tellers’ story was told.  If anything, A Noble Lie is a testament to the strength of the truth, the weakness of the lie, and the will of whatever forces govern this plane to see evil exposed.  But that was nothing compared
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For the generation of Americans who grew up with Fess Parker as Davy Crockett, Indian fighter, there is little doubt what kind of a legend he was. He was the same kind of man as portrayed by John Wayne in the Alamo—he was the man who went down fighting to the last against insurmountable odds. Most wouldn’t recognize him as the politicians that had his fill of Washington and his constituents. When asked by some voters what he would do if they didn’t reelect him he answered, “You may all go to hell, and I
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With tensions rising in the Middle East over the possibility of Iran pursuing a nuclear option and the fading memory of the Cold War ,it would do us all well to recall how and why the only two nuclear bombs were deployed. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused an accumulated death toll of at least 200,000 with half of those during the first 24 hours. Until now, at least, such weapons have never been used again. In his 1955 memoirs, Harry Truman dedicated just three pages to what is still remembered as
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One of the most enduring mysteries of the twentieth century that remains to be is the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. To this day many still wonder if she was a spy. When Earhart’s plane disappeared on July 3, 1937, President Roosevelt ordered a massive naval search. It lasted one week, cost millions of dollars, and covered approximately 250,000 miles. But Earhart, the navigator Fred Noonan, and her Lockheed Electra aircraft had simply disappeared. Officials concluded that Earhart had run out of gas and downed somewhere in the ocean. In the years since then, however, the
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