U.S. Politics
Three Letters to Canada
Translated into French, 2,000 copies were sent to Montreal and Quebec City. The British Governor General Guy Carleton managed to have his troops seize most, but not all, of the copies. The letter, according to modern Canadian historians Marcel Trudel and Gustave Lanctôt, was Canada’s first lesson in constitutional law since it highlighted how the British government was ignoring the terms of the 1763 Treaty of Paris.
Read MoreRebuilding a Library
Roughly 3,000 books and countless other records were fed into the fire. Many of the books were donated by members of Congress and were housed in the room known as the Library of Congress. When this library was created, the Founding Fathers intended it for research. Its existence is not constitutionally mandated.
Read MoreWe’ve Tried Trade Embargos Before
In the U.S., the Chesapeake incident caused a political firestorm and President Jefferson was forced to act. This was a period during which he had defunded the U.S. Navy despite the continual impressment of U.S. merchant seamen. For the record, between 1800 and 1812, 15,000+ U.S. citizens were forced to serve in the Royal Navy.
Read MoreThe Senate’s First Impeachment Trial
On July 3rd, 1797, President Adams delivered a letter to Vice President Jefferson, who was the president of the Senate and presiding over the Senate the day before it was to adjourn for the year. The document stated that the administration was investigating Senator William Blount of Tennessee.
Read MoreClass Assignments in the U.S. Senate
George Washington was elected as our first president, and his vice president, John Adams, was presiding over the Senate as per Article II, Section 3, Paragraph 4. The question of determining which senators would be in each election “class” was being debated. There were only 20 Senators in the room since Rhode Island and North Carolina had yet to ratify the Constitution and could not send Senators. New York hadn’t gotten around to electing its Senators so none were members.
Read MoreLeaks in Congress Are Not New
Deane’s Philadelphia-based paper was extremely influential and had been publishing editorial after editorial criticizing Adams and the Federalists. Today, we would call much of Aurora’s content “hit pieces” or “fake news.”
Read MoreThe Vice Admiralty Act of 1768 Led to the Fourth Amendment
“Writs of assistance” were authorized by the Vice Admiralty Act of 1768 as the basis for issuing a search warrant. These writs did not require any evidence or proof of suspicion that a crime had been committed to be presented to the judge. The writs gave the court’s own officers wide latitude when they searched an individual’s property.
Read MoreWho Were the Sons of Liberty?
Oddly enough, opponents to the Stamp Act (and later the Intolerable Acts of 1773) were spurred on by an Irish MP Isaac Barré’s speech in Parliament on February 6th, 1765. Barré agreed that the Colonists should not be forced to pay taxes on which they did not vote approval.
Read MoreThe Price of Tea
A three pence/pound tax was built into the act that required the tax to be paid once the tea landed in the Thirteen Colonies. Essentially, the act shifted the payment of the tax onto the actual buyer of the tea.
Read MoreWhen Did the American Revolution Really Start?
The war left the British treasury empty. As it had done in the past, Parliament increased taxes on its citizens residing in England, but it was not nearly enough. The British Parliament passed five pieces of legislation known Townshend Acts which targeted citizens in the Thirteen Colonies who were reluctant to abide by England’s restrictive trade practices and tax laws for which they had no say in their creation.
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