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Showing results 61 – 70 of 125
Glossary Term – Person
Thaddeus Stevens
Thaddeus Stevens (1792–1868) was the leading Radical Republican in the Civil War–era House of Representatives. Stevens was an unapologetic abolitionist who supported free labor, the enlistment of African Americans in the military, and, later, the redistribution of slaveholders’ lands to former slaves. He played a major role in securing the passage of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. Stevens also led Congress in impeaching Andrew Johnson, proposing and pushing through the resolution for impeachment just...
Glossary Term – Person
Abraham Lincoln
The mythologizing of Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), which began almost immediately after his assassination, placed him in the pantheon of American heroes alongside George Washington. But behind the legend of “Honest Abe”—country raconteur, log cabin president, compassionate father figure, and, finally, national martyr—was a shrewd legal mind, astute politician, and adept student of human psychology. Though he lost his first senatorial election to Stephen Douglas in 1858, the Republican Lincoln outmaneuvered Douglas during the campaign by...
Glossary Term – Person
Stephen A. Douglas
Stephen A. Douglas (1913–1861) was the Democratic Illinois senator best known for his debates against Abraham Lincoln during the 1858 Senate race. Elected to the US House of Representatives in 1843 and to the US Senate in 1846, Douglas was a national expansionist who supported the annexation of Texas in 1845 and the subsequent Mexican-American War. Following that war, Douglas helped pass the Compromise of 1850. Supporting popular sovereignty, Douglas was also a key figure in the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. In 1858, Douglas...
Glossary Term – Person
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was an internationally known abolitionist, writer, and orator. Douglass escaped from slavery in Maryland in 1838 and settled in Massachusetts. He was drawn to the anti-slavery movement after reading William Lloyd Garrison’s Liberator. Douglass attended anti-slavery meetings where he related his experiences in slavery. He subsequently wrote a narrative of his life that became a best seller. Despite his status as a fugitive slave, Douglass lectured widely to promote the...
Glossary Term – Person
Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley (1811–1872) was the influential editor of the New York Daily Tribune. Greeley founded the Tribune in 1841 and edited the paper for more than thirty years. Greeley used the paper as a platform for reform causes. He opposed slavery, tobacco and alcohol use, gambling, and prostitution. Greeley also supported westward expansion. In 1854, after the disintegration of the Whig Party, Greeley became involved in the newly formed Republican Party and used the Tribune to promote its anti-slavery platform....
Glossary Term – Person
Benjamin Butler
Benjamin Butler (1818–1893) was an American politician and a Union general during the Civil War. During the 1850s, Burnside served as a Democrat in the Massachusetts state legislature. Butler worked to compromise with Southerners to prevent disunion, but he steadfasty supported the Union when war broke out. He received a political appointment as a Union officer, and as brigadier general in the Massachusetts militia he commanded troops in putting down the Baltimore Riots of 1861. He was promoted to major general and stationed in command at...
Glossary Term – Person
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Davis graduated from West Point in 1828 and served in Iowa under Colonel Zachary Taylor. He left the Army in June 1835 to marry Taylor’s daughter Sarah (against her father’s wishes) and begin a career as a planter in Mississippi, though Sarah soon died of malaria. Davis entered the US House of Representatives in 1845 but resigned the following year to join a Mississippi volunteer regiment (of which he was elected colonel) in the Mexican-American War. In Mexico, Davis once again served under Taylor. He was wounded in the heel while...
Glossary Term – Person
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner (1811–1874) was a Radical Republican senator and reformer who fought for abolition and rights for African Americans. Sumner was born in Boston and attended Harvard Law School. He began his first term in the US Senate in 1852. He immediately denounced the Compromise of 1850 in his first major speech. In May 1856, he delivered another anti-slavery speech. Focusing on the “Crime against Kansas,” Sumner denounced the events in “Bloody Kansas” as well as his pro-slavery colleagues. Among the people Sumner criticized in his speech...