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Showing results 1 – 6 of 6

Glossary Term – Event

Lincoln-Douglas debates published

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 were hurried into print in April 1860 to help garner support for Lincoln’s presidential bid and immediately become a best seller. The impetus and final arrangements for publishing the debates came from several top Republican leaders. Although Lincoln lost the Senate seat in 1858, the debates became widely known due to this publication and were crucial to his subsequent nomination for president. Despite several better-known candidates, they made Lincoln an acceptable choice for the Republican Party. Of...

Glossary Term – Event

Lincoln urged Thirteenth Amendment

In his annual message to Congress, President Lincoln urged passage of Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery in the United States. The Emancipation Proclamation had freed only those slaves in states still at war. The permanent emancipation of all slaves required a constitutional amendment. In April 1864, the Senate passed the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery in the United States. Opposition from Democratic congressmen prevented the amendment from receiving the required two-thirds majority in the House. Only after Lincoln was...

Glossary Term – Event

Watergate break-ins

Determined to win the 1972 presidential election, the Nixon administration sent special agents—called the “Plumbers”—to the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel. They hoped to copy documents and wiretap telephones. The Plumbers were caught by a hotel security guard. The Nixon administration managed to cover up the incident temporarily, but the scandal was revealed by reporters and Senate hearings. Nixon was eventually forced to resign.

Glossary Term – Event

Watergate hearings

The Senate Watergate Committee began investigating the break-in at the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters. Based on the investigation, the House Judiciary Committee passed three articles of impeachment against Nixon in July 1974.

Glossary Term – Person

Joseph McCarthy

Joseph McCarthy (1908–1957) was a Republican senator who led a series of anti-Communist investigations in the early 1950s. McCarthy ruined the lives and careers of many government and military officials with false and aggressive accusations of Communist sympathizing and activity. McCarthy was censured by the Senate for his conduct in 1954.

Teaching Resource

The Survival of the US Constitution

The United States has the oldest written national framework of government in the world. At the end of the twentieth century, there were about 159 other national constitutions in the world, and 101 had been adopted since 1970. While the United States has been governed by a single framework of government for over two centuries, France, in contrast, has had 10 separate and distinct constitutional orders (including five republics, two empires, a monarchy, and two dictatorships). The country of El Salvador has had 36 constitutions since 1824....