On May 15, 1967, CBS broadcast Town Meeting of the World , a program in which Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York and Governor Ronald Reagan of California answered questions posed by the moderator, Charles Collingwood; students from the United States; and international students in Great Britain (via satellite). Although the subject of the program was "The Image of America and the Youth of the World," questions focused primarily on America’s involvement in Vietnam. After the broadcast, John F. Bayliss, a member of the English Department at Indiana State University and founder...

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave his first inaugural address on March 4, 1933, the nation was reeling from the Great Depression and was dissatisfied with the previous administration’s reluctance to fight it. Roosevelt declared that, by electing him, the American people had "registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action." The address is most remembered for FDR’s statement that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself," but it is also a declaration of war against economic hardship, a call to Americans to work together to face "the dark hour," and a notice...

After officially enacting the newly ratified US Constitution in September 1788, the Confederation Congress scheduled the first inauguration for March 1789. However, bad weather delayed many congressmen from arriving in the national capital, New York. It wasn’t until April 6, 1789, that a quorum had reached New York to tally the electoral ballots and declare George Washington the winner. On April 30, 1789, Robert R. Livingston, the chancellor of New York, administered the oath of office to George Washington on a second floor balcony of Federal Hall. Washington and members of...

On January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the thirty-fifth President of the United States. His short, fourteen-minute inaugural address is best remembered for a single line: "My fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country." This call to public service resonated with what JFK called the "new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage." It is virtually the only part of the speech to address solely domestic matters and initiatives...

On July 5, 1863, Dr. William H. Boyle wrote to a fellow member of the local Columbus Lodge of the International Organization of Odd Fellows, Isaac McCauley, describing the devastation the Confederates had caused in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, twenty-five miles west of Gettysburg. Confederate forces had been in Chambersburg as early as June 16 and had taken food, clothing, and other supplies, some of which was paid for with Confederate money. The pillaging this letter describes was what General Robert E. Lee had hoped to avoid when he issued General Orders No. 73 on June 27: The...

After more than a century of activism, the temperance movement achieved its signal victory with the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment to the US Constitution in 1919. The amendment abolished "the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors," and provided for "concurrent" federal and state authority to enforce the ban. It was controversial from its inception: it did not define "intoxicating liquors," it did not specifically forbid the purchase of alcohol, it established "concurrent" state and federal enforcement but did not provide any means for...

By 1863, thousands of Northern and Southern women had volunteered in hospitals to help care for sick and wounded soldiers. In cities and towns near battlefields, wounded soldiers were often placed in private homes and other buildings when hospitals were overcrowded. Whether in hospitals or in private homes, women provided a measure of comfort to the injured and often corresponded with soldiers’ families when the men were not able to do so themselves. Mary Oden, of Martinsburg, West Virginia, sent this letter to Emily J. Semmes the day Emily’s husband, Confederate General Paul...

When the nation fell into the Great Depression following the stock market crash of 1929, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was serving as New York’s governor and was responsible for shaping the state’s response to the crisis. The origins of the Roosevelt’s New Deal can be seen in this letter of July 28, 1932, addressed to New York’s superintendent of public works, Frederick S. Greene. Roosevelt describes his plan to appropriate federal emergency relief to highway projects that would both benefit the state’s infrastructure and combat unemployment. Since the funds were given with an...

Lowell, Massachusetts, named in honor of Francis Cabot Lowell, was founded in the early 1820s as a planned town for the manufacture of textiles. It introduced a new system of integrated manufacturing to the United States and established new patterns of employment and urban development that were soon replicated around New England and elsewhere. By 1840, the factories in Lowell employed at some estimates more than 8,000 textile workers, commonly known as mill girls or factory girls. These "operatives"—so-called because they operated the looms and other machinery—were primarily...

On February 15, 1898, the battleship USS Maine exploded in Havana’s harbor in Cuba, killing nearly two-thirds of her crew. The tragedy occurred after years of escalating tensions between the United States and Spain, and the “yellow press” and public opinion were quick to blame Spain. While the sinking of the Maine was not a direct cause of the Spanish-American War, it did accelerate the breakdown in diplomatic relations between the US and Spain. “Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain!” became a rallying cry. The Harper’s Weekly article featured here represents a more balanced...