As he did most days of his adult life, President-elect James A. Garfield sat down to write in his diary on the evening of December 2, 1880.
Politics & Economics
December Drama for Democrats (or Stephen Douglas versus The Grinch)
December 2014 has been a particularly challenging month for Democrats.
Choosing a Chief Justice: Lincoln, Law, and Racial Equality
The appointment of any Supreme Court justice, especially the chief justice, reflects the issues and political trends of the day. But Abraham Lincoln’s appointment of Salmon Chase as chief justice in December 1864 did more than just reflect trends.
Did the Founding Fathers Really Turn to Moses for Inspiration?
The Texas State Board of Education has just designated Moses in its new history curriculum as a key influence on eighteenth-century republican thought and the American founding.
Nevada Women Win The Vote: A Centennial Recognition
As pundits discuss the role that women’s issues will play in 2016, it is good to remember that a century ago this year, Nevada became one of the last western states to approve suffrage after a struggle that started forty-five years earlier with the first attempt to bring the issue to the legislature.
Ready to Rumble? A Fight Between Lincoln and the Other Douglass
In the run up to the 2008 Democratic primary, Fox News proposed a series of debates between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton reminiscent of the ones between Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass 1856.
The Second Amendment and the 1879 Illinois Militia Law
The Second Amendment is one of the most hotly debated sections of the U.S. Constitution today. It is the one that reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Women In Congress: The Anita Hill Generation
In the fall of 1991, Law Professor Anita Hill testified before the then-all-male Senate Judiciary Committee in opposition to the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court.