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Warren G. Harding

Warren G. Harding

Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was an American politician and the 29th President of the United States, serving from 1921 to 1923, when he became the sixth president to die in office. A Republican from the U.S. state of Ohio, Harding was an influential newspaper publisher with a flair for public speaking before entering politics, first in the Ohio Senate (1899–1903) and later as Lieutenant Governor of Ohio (1903–1905). Harding was elected to the Ohio State Senate in 1899. He served four years before being elected Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, a post he occupied from 1903 to 1905. His leanings were conservative, his record in both offices relatively undistinguished. At the conclusion of his term, Harding returned to private life, only to reenter politics ten years later as a United States Senator (1914–1921), where he again had a relatively undistinguished record, missing over two-thirds of the roll-call votes. A political unknown at the time of the 1920 Republican National Convention, Harding emerged as a dark horse to become the presidential nominee through political maneuvering. In the 1920 election he defeated his Democratic opponent James M. Cox in a landslide, 60.36 % to 34.19 % (404 to 127 in the electoral college). He adopted hands-off laissez-faire policies both on economic and social policy. While on the final leg of a tour of the western states and the Alaska Territory, Harding died in San Francisco, California, 27 months into his term. The cause of death was first said to have been food poisoning acquired during a stop-over in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was later believed that he died at age 57 from apoplexy or a stroke; however medical scholars now believe that Harding died of end-stage heart disease. He was succeeded by his Vice President, Calvin Coolidge. Due to a number of scandals involving others in his administration, after his death Harding gained a reputation as being one of America's least successful presidents. In numerous polls of historians, Harding is ranked as one of the worst. Some recent writers, however, have come to different conclusions about Harding's place in history. John Dean, who wrote a 2004 biography of Harding for Times Press, has stated that (see http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20010511.html "Harding is not a role model for a failed Presidency". Dr. Robert H. Ferrell, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at Indiana University, a Harding biographer and a leading national scholar on the presidency, concluded that Warren G. Harding was basically "a good President."

Early life

Harding was born on November 2, 1865, near Corsica, Ohio (now Blooming Grove, Ohio). Harding was the eldest of the eight children of Dr. George Harding and Phoebe Dickerson Harding. His boyhood heroes were Alexander Hamilton and Napoleon. His mother was a midwife who later obtained her medical license, and his father taught for a time at a rural school north of Mount Gilead, Ohio. While a teenager, the Harding family moved to Caledonia, Ohio in neighboring Marion County, Ohio when Harding's father acquired The Argus, a local weekly newspaper, where Harding learned the basics of the business. Harding's education was completed at Ohio Central College (later Muskingum College) in Iberia, Ohio. While a college student, he learned about the printing and newspaper trade while working at the Union Register in Mount Gilead. After graduation, Harding moved to Marion, Ohio, where he raised $300 with two friends to purchase the failing Marion Daily Star. It was the weakest of Marion's three newspapers and the only daily in the growing city. Harding converted the paper's editorial platform to support the Republicans and enjoyed a moderate degree of success. However, Harding's political stance was at odds with those who controlled most of Marion's local politics. When Harding moved to unseat the Marion Independent as the official paper of daily record, his actions brought the wrath of Amos Kling, one of Marion's wealthiest real estate speculators, down upon him. While Harding won the war of words and made the Marion Daily Star the biggest newspaper in the county, the battle took a toll on his health. In 1889, when Harding was 24, he suffered exhaustion and nervous fatigue. He traveled to Battle Creek, Michigan to spend several weeks in a sanitarium regaining his strength, later returning to Marion to continue operating the paper. He spent his days boosting the community on the editorial pages, and his evenings "bloviating" (Harding's term for informal conversation) with his friends over games of poker. In 1891, Harding married Florence Kling, an older woman, a divorcee, and the mother of a young son. She had pursued him persistently, until he reluctantly surrendered and proposed. Florence's father, Amos Kling, was Harding's nemesis. Upon hearing that his only daughter intended to marry Harding, Kling cut her completely out of the family and even forbade his wife to attend her wedding. He opposed the marriage vigorously and would not speak to his daughter or son-in-law for eight years. While the marriage was not one of full-blown passions, the couple complemented one another, Harding's affable personality balancing his wife's no-nonsense approach to life. Florence Harding inherited her father's determination and business sense, and turned the Marion Daily Star into a profitable business. One of the Hardings' paperboys at the Star was the young Norman Thomas, son of the city's Presbyterian Church minister, who later became a noted journalist and socialist leader in New York City. Thomas, who ran for President on the Socialist Party ticket, often credited his work ethic to Florence Harding, whom he remembered fondly in his recollections of life in Marion. Florence's drive has been credited with helping Harding to achieve greater things than he could have done alone, leading to speculation that she later pushed him all the way to the White House. Harding was also a Freemason, raised to the Sublime Degree of a Master Mason on August 27, 1920, in Marion Lodge #70, F.& A.M., Marion, Ohio.

Political rise

As an influential newspaper publisher with a flair for public speaking, Harding was elected to the Ohio State Senate in 1899. He served four years before being elected Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, a post he occupied from 1903 to 1905. His leanings were conservative, his record in both offices relatively undistinguished. At the conclusion of his term as Lieutenant Governor, Harding returned to private life.

Senator

Re-entering politics five years later, Harding lost a race for governor in 1910, but won election to the United States Senate in 1914, serving from 1915 until his inauguration as President on March 4, 1921, having earned the distinction of becoming the first sitting Senator to be elected President of the United States. As with his first term as Senator, Harding had a relatively undistinguished record, missing over two-thirds of the roll-call votes. Among them was the vote to send the 19th Amendment (granting Women's Suffrage) to the states for ratification, a measure he had supported. However, Harding was a strong opponent of President Woodrow Wilson's proposal to create a League Of Nations, an early predecessor of the United Nations, going so far as to make a speech against its formation.

Election of 1920

United Nations Relatively unknown outside his own state, Harding was a true "dark horse" candidate, winning the United States Republican Party nomination due to the political machinations of his friends after the nominating convention had become deadlocked. Before receiving the nomination, he was asked whether there were any embarrassing episodes in his past that might be used against him. His formal education was limited, he had a longstanding affair with the wife of an old friend, and was a social drinker. Harding answered "No" and the Party moved to nominate him, only to discover later his relationship with Carrie Fulton Phillips. Phillips and her family received an extended tour of Asia courtesy of the Republican Party in exchange for her silence. Mrs. Harding's newlywed brother, Vetallis Kling (aka "Tal"), and his bride Elnora Younkins-Hinaman (aka "Nona"), also received a all expenses-paid tour of Europe from the Hardings; the bride was a Catholic widow, and the marriage performed in the Roman Catholic Church at a time when Catholics were viewed as a liability in American politics and were targeted by the recently revived Ku Klux Klan, which was anti-Catholic, as well as anti-black and anti-Jewish, and was rapidly becoming popular in the Midwest. There is controversial and disputed evidence that Harding was himself a Klan member. In the 1920 election, Harding ran against Democrat Ohio Governor James M. Cox, whose vice presidential candidate was Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt. The election was seen in part as a referendum on whether to continue with the progressive work of the Woodrow Wilson administration or to revert to the laissez-faire approach of the William McKinley era. Harding ran on a promise to "Return to Normalcy," a term he coined, which reflected three trends of his time: a renewed isolationism in reaction to World War I, a resurgence of nativism, and a turning away from the government activism of the reform era. Harding's "front porch campaign" during the late summer and fall of 1920 captured the imagination of the country. Not only was it the first campaign to be heavily covered by the press, and to receive widespread newsreel coverage, but it was also the first modern campaign to use the power of Hollywood and Broadway stars who traveled to Marion for photo opportunities with Harding and his wife. Al Jolson, Lillian Russell, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford were among the conservative-minded luminaries to make the pilgrimage to central Ohio. Business icons Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone also lent their cachet to the campaign. From the onset of the campaign until the November election, over 600,000 people traveled to Marion to participate. The campaign owed a great deal to Florence Harding, who played perhaps a more active role than any previous candidate's wife in a Presidential race. She cultivated the relationship between the campaign and the press; as the business manager of the Star, she understood reporters and their industry and played to their needs by making herself freely available to answer questions, pose for pictures or deliver home cooked food from her kitchen to the press office, a bungalow she had constructed at the rear of their property in Marion. Mrs. Harding even went so far as to coach her husband on the proper way to wave to newsreel cameras to make the most of coverage. The campaign also drew upon Harding's popularity with women. Considered handsome, Harding photographed well compared to Cox. However, it was Harding's support for women's suffrage in the Senate that made him extremely popular with women: the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in August 1920 brought huge crowds of women to Marion, Ohio to hear Harding. During the campaign, rumors were spread by persons (unaffiliated with the Cox campaign) that Harding's great-great-grandfather was a West Indian black and that other blacks lurked in his family tree (see Scandals, below). In response, Harding's campaign manager said, "No family in the state [of Ohio] has a clearer, a more honorable record than the Hardings, a blue-eyed stock from New England and Pennsylvania, the finest pioneer blood." To a friend, however, Harding confided that one of his ancestors may have "jumped the fence", although Harding himself was never certain whether or not this was true. These rumors, perhaps based on no more than local gossip, were circulated maliciously by William Estabrook Chancellor. The milestone election of 1920 was the first in which women could vote nationwide. Harding received 61 % of the national vote and 404 electoral votes, an unprecedented margin of victory. Cox received 36 % of the national vote and 127 electoral votes. Socialist Eugene V. Debs, campaigning from Federal prison, received 3 % of the national vote. Eugene V. Debs

Cabinet


Supreme Court appointments

Harding appointed the following justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:
- William Howard Taft - Chief Justice - 1921
  - Harding was the only President to have appointed a previous President as chief justice (or associate justice, for that matter; Taft is the only person to have served as both President and Supreme Court Justice).
- George Sutherland - 1922
- Pierce Butler - 1923
- Edward Terry Sanford - 1923

Death in office

In June of 1923, Harding set out on a cross-country "Voyage of Understanding", planning to meet ordinary people and explain his policies. During this trip, he became the first President to visit Alaska. Rumors of corruption in his administration were beginning to circulate in Washington by this time, and Harding was profoundly shocked by a long message he received while in Alaska, apparently detailing illegal activities previously unknown to him. At the end of July, while traveling south from Alaska through British Columbia, he developed what was thought to be a severe case of food poisoning. Arriving at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, he developed pneumonia. Harding died of either a heart attack or a stroke at 7:35 p.m. on August 2, 1923, at the age of 57. Naval physicians surmised that he had suffered a heart attack; however, this diagnosis was not made by Dr. Charles Sawyer, the Surgeon General, who was traveling with the presidential party. Upon Sawyer's recommendation, Mrs. Harding refused permission for an autopsy, which soon led to speculation that the President had been the victim of a plot. Sawyer's medical qualifications were also called into question. Harding was succeeded by his Vice President, Calvin Coolidge, who was sworn in by his father, a Justice of the Peace, in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. Following his death, Harding's body was returned to Washington, where it was placed in the Gold Room of the White House pending a state funeral at the United States Capitol. White House employees at the time were quoted as saying that the night before the funeral, they heard Mrs. Harding speak for more than an hour to the face of her dead husband. The most commonly reported (though never verified) remark attributed to Mrs. Harding at this time was: "They can't hurt you now, Warren." Harding was entombed in the receiving vault of the Marion Cemetery, Marion, Ohio, in August 1923. Following Mrs. Harding's death in November 1924, she too was temporarily buried next to her husband. Both bodies were moved in December 1927 to the newly completed Harding Memorial in Marion, which was dedicated by President Herbert Hoover in 1931. The lapse between the final interment and the dedication was due in part to the aftermath of the Teapot Dome scandal. In 1930, a former private investigator named Gaston Means wrote the exploitative book, The Strange Death of President Harding, in which he suggested many people had motives to murder the President, including his wife. Means claimed it was possible that Mrs. Harding poisoned the President, a rumor that has clouded the facts of Harding's death and heart condition. In 1933, an exposé in Liberty magazine denounced Means as a fraud who used a ghost writer for the book. The theories advanced by Means—who had previously been imprisoned for his suspect activities while an FBI agent—have never been proven; they remain as speculative as they were sensational.

Scandals

Harding's detractors began using the damaging rumor of his alleged negro ancestry against him in the 1880s, early in his political career. Among those spreading the rumor was Amos Kling, Harding's father-in-law, one of Marion's wealthiest citizens, who detested Harding and his newspaper, The Marion Daily Star. Kling got his comeuppance when his daughter, Florence, married Harding. Eventually the Hardings and Klings reconciled, but the rumors persisted. Those who hold to the theory of mixed race do so without proof, often relying on the research of William Estabrook Chancellor for details of Harding's supposed African-American lineage. There is no scientific or legal basis for these arguments. Chancellor's work never provided clear indications of his sources, or his proof. In fact, so few copies of his book exist—one of five known copies is owned by a private book collector in Marion, Ohio—that its availability to modern scholars is limited at best. Furthermore, there has never been a test of Harding's DNA. The claim is also impossible to verify through public records in Ohio; Harding was born in 1865, and the state of Ohio did not require registration or recording of births until 1867. Furthermore, Chancellor's theories find no basis in Federal Census Records, nor in probate court records. Harding's 1923 California-issued death certificate also indicates nothing to suggest Chancellor's theories were accepted as fact. With the release in the 1960s of Francis Russell's The Shadow of Blooming Grove, the specter of Harding's mixed blood was again raised and, lacking factual sources, quickly put down as innuendo. There has been speculation that Harding was involved in the Ku Klux Klan. Historians Wyn Craig Wade and Glenn Feldman are among those who promote the theory. Both assert that Harding joined the Klan following his election taking his Klan oath in the Green Room of the White House. Wade's evidence is dismissed by several Harding biographers as based on third party hearsay. Wade uses as evidence letters written by members of the Calvin Coolidge Administration. However no primary source material—that is to say material either written by Harding admitting to support of the Klan, or any documentation by members of the Harding Administration to support Craig and Wade's assertions—is known to exist. Recent Harding biographers Robert Ferrell, Carl Anthony and John Dean not only dispute this claim, but also point to the allegations as an example of the rumors that surrounded the President after his death. Melinda Gilpin, site administrator for the Harding Home and Museum in Marion argues there is no primary evidence of Harding's Klan membership and pointing out that Harding was the first U.S. President to speak out against the practice of lynching blacks. Gilpin also points to the Klan's "one drop rule" (that no one who possessed one drop of Negro blood could join the Klan) was in direct conflict with the rumors that swirled around Harding and his mixed race. Upon winning the election, Harding appointed many of his old allies to prominent political positions. Known as the "Ohio Gang" (a misleading term used by Charles Mee, Jr., for his book of the same name), some of the appointees used their new powers to rob the government. Corruption was rampant throughout Harding's administration, though it is uncertain how much Harding himself knew about his friends' illicit activities. The most infamous scandal of the time was the Teapot Dome affair, which shook the nation for years after Harding's death. The scandal involved United States Secretary of the Interior, Albert B. Fall, who was eventually convicted of covertly leasing public oil fields to business associates in exchange for personal loans. In 1931 Fall became the first member of a Cabinet to be sent to prison. Thomas Miller, head of the Office of Alien Property, was convicted of accepting bribes. Jess Smith, personal aide to the Attorney General, destroyed papers and then committed suicide. Charles Forbes, Director of the Veterans Bureau, skimmed profits, earned fat kickbacks, and ran alcohol and drugs. He was convicted of fraud and bribery and drew a two-year sentence. Charles Cramer, an aide to Charles Forbes, also committed suicide. No evidence to date suggests that Harding personally profited from these crimes, but he was apparently unable to stop them. "My God, this is a hell of a job!", Harding said. "I have no trouble with my enemies, but my damn friends, they're the ones that keep me walking the floor nights."

Extramarital affairs

The extent to which Harding engaged in extra-marital affars is somewhat controversial. It has been recorded in primary documents that during his lifetime, Harding had an affair with Carrie Fulton Phillips (a married woman), and Nan Britton wrote a book after Harding's death in which she claimed to have had an affair and a love child with him. Rumors of the Harding love letters circulated through Marion, Ohio for many years. However, their existence was not confirmed until author Francis Russell gained access to them during his research for his book, The Shadow of Blooming Grove. The letters were in the possession of Harding's one true love, Carrie Fulton Phillips, who by the 1960s was very elderly. Phillips kept the letters in a box in a closet and was reluctant to share them. Russell persuaded her to relent, and the letters showed conclusively that Harding had a 15-year relationship with Mrs. Phillips, who was then the wife of his friend James Phillips, owner of the local department store, the Uhler-Phillips Company. Mrs. Phillips was ten years younger than Harding. By 1915, she began pressing Harding to leave his wife. When he refused, she left her husband and moved to Berlin with her daughter Isabel. However, as the United States became increasingly likely to be drawn into World War I, Mrs. Phillips moved back to the U.S. and the affair reignited. Harding was now a U.S. Senator, and a vote was coming up on a declaration of war against Germany. Mrs. Phillips threatened to go public with their affair if the Senator supported the war, but Harding defied her and voted for war, and Carrie did not reveal the scandal to the world. When Harding won the Republican presidential nomination in 1920, he did not disclose the relationship to party officials. Once they learned of the affair, it was too late to find another nominee. To reduce the likelihood of a scandal breaking, the Republican National Committee sent Carrie and her family on a trip to Japan and paid them over $50,000. Mrs. Phillips also received monthly payments thereafter, becoming the first and only person known to have successfully extorted money from a major political party. The letters Harding wrote to Mrs. Phillips were confiscated at the request of the Harding heirs, who requested and received a court injunction prohibiting their inclusion in Russell's book. Russell in turn left quoted passages from the letters as blank passages in protest against the Harding heirs' actions. The Harding-Phillips love letters remain under an Ohio court protective order that expires in 2023, 100 years after Harding's death, after which the content of the letters may be published and/or reviewed. Besides Mrs. Phillips, Harding also reportedly had an affair with Nan Britton, the daughter of Harding's late friend, a Dr. Britton of Marion. Nan Britton's obsession with Harding started at an early age when she began pasting pictures of then-Senator Harding on her bedroom walls. According to Britton's book The President's Daughter, she and Senator Harding conceived a daughter, Elizabeth Ann, in January 1919 in his Senate office. Harding never met Elizabeth Ann, but paid large amounts of child support. Harding and Britton, according to unsubstantiated reports, continued their affair while he was President, using a closet adjacent to the Oval Office for privacy. Following Harding's death, Britton unsuccessfully sued the estate of Warren G. Harding on behalf of Elizabeth Ann. Under cross-examination by the Harding heirs' attorney, Grant Mouser (a former member of Congress himself), Britton's testimony was riddled with inconsistencies, and she lost her case. Britton married a Mr. Christian, who adopted Elizabeth Ann, now known as Elizabeth Ann Blaesing. Nan Britton's daughter has been a resident of California for most of her life and was still alive as of 2002.

Speaking style

Harding was notorious for his verbal gaffes, such as his comment "I would like the government to do all it can to mitigate, then, in understanding, in mutuality of interest, in concern for the common good, our tasks will be solved." His errors were compounded by his insistence on writing his own speeches. The most famous mistake was his mispronunciation of "normality" as "normalcy". Harding decided he liked the sound of this mistake and made "Return to Normalcy" a recurring theme. Critic H.L. Mencken disagreed, writing "It reminds me of stale bean soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights." Mencken also coined the term "Gamalielese" to refer to Harding's distinctive style of speech. Upon Harding's death, poet E.E. Cummings said "The only man, woman or child who wrote a simple declarative sentence with seven grammatical errors is dead."

Trivia


- Harding is the only U.S. President to be elected on his birthday, 2 November (it was his 55th).
- The 1920 Presidential election was the only Presidential election in which the two major party nominees were office holders from the same state (Harding, U.S. Senator from Ohio / Cox Ohio Governor), and had the same profession (Newspaper Publishers - Harding in Marion Ohio and Cox in Dayton, Ohio).
- Harding was known to host poker games at the White House, and once gambled away a set of Presidential china dating back to the administration of Benjamin Harrison.
- Norman Thomas, founder of the American Civil Liberties Union and Socialist Party candidate for President, held a childhood job as a newsboy for Harding's Marion Daily Star where he was supervised by Florence Harding.
- Harding County, New Mexico is named in his honor.
- President Harding and his wife both appear in fictional form as supporting characters in the novel Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold. Thomas Carter was a famous stage magician in the early part of the 1900's, and the book offers a fascinating alternate explaination for the death of Warren Harding.

Media

External links


- [http://www.lewrockwell.com/bonner/bonner84.html Harding, Garfield, and Arthur]
- [http://vvl.lib.msu.edu/showfindingaid.cfm?findaidid=HardingW Audio clips of Harding's speeches]
- [http://www.usa-presidents.info/inaugural/harding.html Inaugural Address]
- [http://www.ohiohistory.org/places/harding/ The Harding home (historic site, Ohio)]
- [http://www.usa-presidents.info/union/harding-1.html First State of the Union Address of Warren Harding]
- [http://www.usa-presidents.info/union/harding-2.html Second State of the Union Address of Warren Harding]
- [http://www.americanpresidents.org/presidents/president.asp?PresidentNumber=28 C-Span The American Presidents]
- [http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/wh29.html White House biography]
- [http://www.davidpietrusza.com/Harding-links.html Warren G. Harding Links]
- [http://www.davidpietrusza.com/1920-links.html 1920 Presidential Election Links]
-

References


- "Social Equality Impossible for Negro, Says President, Pleading for Fair Treatment." Atlanta-Journal Constitution, October 27, 1921.
- "An International Problem" Marion Daily Star, October 26, 1921.
- Stephen Pile, The Book of Heroic Failures (Futura, 1980) p.180. Harding, Warren G. Harding, Warren G. Harding, Warren G. Harding, Warren G. Harding, Warren G. Harding, Warren G. Harding, Warren G. Harding, Warren G. Harding, Warren G. Harding, Warren G. Harding, Warren G. Harding, Warren G. Harding, Warren G. Harding, Warren G. Harding, Warren G. ja:ウオレン・G・ハーディング simple:Warren G. Harding

November 2

November 2 is the 306th day of the year (307th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 59 days remaining.

Events


- 676 - Donus becomes Pope.
- 1772 - American Revolutionary War: Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren form the first Committee of Correspondence.
- 1783 - In Rocky Hill, New Jersey, US General George Washington gives his "Farewell Address to the Army".
- 1861 - American Civil War: Western Department Union General John C. Fremont is relieved of command and replaced by David Hunter.
- 1868 - Time zone: New Zealand officially adopts a standard time to be observed nationally, and is perhaps the first country to do so.
- 1889 - North and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states.
- 1895 - The first gasoline-powered race in the United States. First prize: $2,000
- 1899 - The Boers started their 118 day siege of British held Ladysmith during the Boer War.
- 1914 - Russia declares war on the Ottoman sultanate.
- 1917 - Zionism: The Balfour Declaration proclaims support for Jewish settlement in Palestine.
- 1920 - In the United States, KDKA of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania starts broadcasting as the first commercial radio station. The first broadcast was the results of the U.S. presidential election, 1920.
- 1930 - Haile Selassie is crowned emperor of Ethiopia.
- 1936 - The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is established.
- 1936 - Italian dictator Benito Mussolini proclaims the Rome-Berlin Axis, establishing the alliance of the Axis Powers.
- 1936 - the British Broadcasting Corporation initiates the BBC Television Service, the world's first regular, high-definition (then defined as at least 200 lines) service. Renamed BBC1 in 1964, the channel still runs to this day.
- 1947 - In California, Designer Howard Hughes performs the maiden flight of the Spruce Goose; the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built.
- 1948 - U.S. presidential election, 1948: Harry S. Truman defeats Thomas E. Dewey for the US presidency.
- 1953 - The Constituent Assembly of Pakistan names the country The Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
- 1959 - Quiz show scandals: "Twenty-One" game show contestant Charles Van Doren admits to a Congressional committee that he had been given questions and answers in advance.
- 1959 - Ice Hockey: After being struck in the face with a puck, goalkeeper Jacques Plante returns to play wearing a protective mask for the first time in professional play.
- 1959 - The first section of the M1 motorway, the first in Britain, was opened between the present junctions 5 and 18.
- 1960 - Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case
- 1963 - South Vietnamese President Ngô Ðìhn Diệm is assassinated following a military coup.
- 1964 - King Saud of Saudi Arabia was deposed by a family coup, and replaced by his half-brother King Faisal.
- 1966 - The Cuban Adjustment Act enters force, allowing 123,000 Cubans the opportunity to apply for permanent residence in the United States.
- 1967 - Vietnam War: US President Lyndon B. Johnson and "the Wise Men" conclude that the American people should be given more optimistic reports on the progress of the war.
- 1974 - 78 die as the Time Go-Go Club in Seoul, South Korea burns down. Six of the victims jumped to their deaths from the seventh floor after a club official barred the doors after the fire started.
- 1976 - U.S. presidential election, 1976: Jimmy Carter defeats incumbent Gerald Ford to become first candidate from deep south to win since the Civil War.
- 1981 - Antigua and Barbuda become independent from Britain.
- 1982 - Channel 4 in the United Kingdom was launched.
- 1983 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating Martin Luther King Day.
- 1984 - Capital punishment: Velma Barfield becomes the first woman executed in the United States since 1962.
- 1988 - The Morris worm, the first internet-distributed computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention, was launched from MIT.
- 1991 - Bartholomew I becomes the Patriarch of Constantinople.
- 1991 - Jermaine Jackson's single "Word to the Badd!", which attacks his brother Michael, is leaked to radio station KPWR in Los Angeles.
- 2000 - The first crew arrives at the International Space Station.
- 2001 - Monsters, Inc. debuts with the best ticket sales ever for an animated film.
- 2004 - President George W. Bush wins election over John Kerry.

Births


- 1082 - Emperor Huizong of China (d. 1135)
- 1636 - Edward Colston, English merchant and philanthropist (d. 1721)
- 1667 - James Sobieski, Crown Prince of Poland (d. 1737)]])
- 1692 - Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer, Dutch composer (d. 1766)
- 1699 - Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, French painter (d. 1779)
- 1734 - Daniel Boone, American frontiersman (d. 1820)
- 1739 - Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Austrian composer (d. 1799)
- 1741 - Joan van der Capellen tot den Pol, Dutch politician (d. 1784)
- 1755 - Marie Antoinette, Queen of France (d. 1793)
- 1766 - Joseph Radetzky von Radetz, Austrian field marshal (d. 1858)
- 1795 - James Knox Polk, 11th President of the United States (d. 1849)
- 1808 - Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, French writer (d. 1889)
- 1815 - George Boole, English mathematician and philosopher (d. 1864)
- 1821 - Sir George Bowen, British provincial governor (d. 1899)
- 1844 - Mehmed V, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1918)
- 1865 - Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States (d. 1923)
- 1877 - Joseph De Piro, Maltese founder of the Missionary Society of St. Paul (d. 1933)
- 1877 - Victor Trumper, Australian cricketer (d. 1915)
- 1885 - Harlow Shapley, American astronomer (d. 1972)
- 1894 - Alexander Lippisch, German scientist (d. 1976)
- 1897 - Vito Genovese, American gangster (d. 1969)
- 1906 - Daniil Andreev, Russian poet, writer, and mystic (d. 1959)
- 1908 - Fred Bakewell, English cricketer (d. 1983)
- 1911 - Odysseus Elytis, Greek writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996
- 1911 - Raphael Robinson, US mathematician (d. 1995)
- 1913 - Burt Lancaster, American actor (d. 1994)
- 1927 - Steve Ditko, American artist
- 1929 - Muhammad Rafiq Tarar, President of Pakistan
- 1929 - Richard E. Taylor, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- [[1934]] - [[Ken Rosewall, Australian tennis champion
- 1936 - Jack Starrett, American actor and director (d.1989)
- 1938 - Pat Buchanan, American journalist and politician
- 1938 - Queen Sofia of Spain
- 1941 - Bruce Welch, rhythm guitarist and songwriter (The Shadows)
- 1942 - Shere Hite, American author
- 1942 - Stefanie Powers, American actress
- 1944 - Keith Emerson, British keyboardist and composer (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
- 1946 - Alan Jones, Australian race car driver
- 1946 - Giuseppe Sinopoli, Italian conductor and composer (d. 2001)
- 1954 - Pat Croce, American entrepreneur
- 1958 - Willie McGee, baseball player
- 1961 - k.d. lang, Canadian singer
- 1965 - Shahrukh Khan, Indian actor
- 1966 - Tim Kirkman, American filmmaker
- 1969 - Reginald Arvizu, American bassist (KoЯn)
- 1974 - Nelly, Rapper (St. Lunatics)
- 1976 - Ricardo Dinis, KFC clone engineer, chicken specialist
- 1979 - Julie Lund, Danish actress
- 1986 - Erika Jo, American musician
- 1986 - Lara Sacher, Australian actress
- 1989 - Steven Jones, Musician (guitarist)

Deaths


- 1327 - King James II of Aragon (b. 1267)
- 1483 - Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, English politician (b. 1454)
- 1610 - Richard Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1544)
- 1618 - Archduke Maximilian III of Austria (b. 1568)
- 1716 - Engelbert Kaempfer, German physician and traveler (b. 1651)
- 1807 - Baron de Breteuil, French statesman (b. 1730)
- 1863 - Theodore Judah, American railroad engineer (b. 1826)
- 1877 - Friedrich Graf von Wrangel, Prussian field marshal (b. 1784)
- 1887 - Jenny Lind, Swedish soprano (b. 1820)
- 1898 - George Goyder, English-born surveyor-general of South Australia (b. 1826)
- 1905 - Albert von Kölliker, Swiss anatomist (b. 1817)
- 1935 - Jock Cameron, South African cricketer (b. 1905)
- 1944 - Thomas Midgley, American chemist and inventor (b. 1889)
- 1950 - George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1856)
- 1960 - Dimitri Mitropoulos, Greek conductor, pianist, and composer (b. 1896)
- 1961 - James Thurber, American humorist (b. 1894)
- 1963 - Ngo Dihn Diem, President of South Vietnam (b. 1901)
- 1966 - Peter Debye, Dutch chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1884)
- 1975 - Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italian film director (b. 1922)
- 1984 - Velma Barfield, American murderer (executed) (b. 1932)
- 1986 - Paul Frees, American voice actor (b. 1920)
- 1992 - Hal Roach, American director and producer (b. 1892)
- 2002 - Tonio Selwart, German actor (b. 1896)
- 2002 - Charles Sheffield, American author and physicist (b. 1935)
- 2004 - Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan, President of the United Arab Emirates (b. 1918)
- 2004 - Theo van Gogh, Dutch filmmaker (b. 1957)

Holidays and observances


- Catholicism - All Souls Day (unless on a Sunday)
- Ancient Latvia - Dveselu Diena held
- Mexico and the United States - Day of the Dead (Spanish: El Dia de los Muertos), a Mexican and Mexican-American celebration of dead ancestors.
- USA - admission day (1889) of North Dakota and South Dakota as 39th and 40th states.
- Rastafari movement - The coronation of Haile Selassie (1930) celebrated

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/2 BBC: On This Day] ---- November 1 - November 3 - October 2 - December 2 -- listing of all dates ko:11월 2일 ms:2 November ja:11月2日 simple:November 2 th:2 พฤศจิกายน

August 2

August 2 is the 214th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (215th in leap years), with 151 days remaining.

Events


- 338 BC - Rise of Macedon: Philip II of Macedon crushes Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea.
- 216 BC - Punic Wars: In the Battle of Cannae, Hannibal destroys the Roman army of Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro in what is considered one of the great masterpieces of the tactical art.
- AD 461 - Majorian resigns as Western Roman Emperor; shortly afterwards Libius Severus is declared western Roman emperor by Ricimer
- 1610 - Henry Hudson sails into what it is now known as Hudson Bay, thinking he had made it through the Northwest Passage and reached the Pacific Ocean.
- 1776 - Delegates to the Continental Congress begin signing the United_States_Declaration of Independence.
- 1790 - The first US Census is conducted.
- 1798 - Second Coalition: The Battle of the Nile between French and British navies ends with a British victory.
- 1869 - Japan's samurai, farmer, artisan, merchant class system is abolished as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms. (Traditional Japanese date: June 25, 1869).
- 1870 - Tower Subway, the world's first underground tube railway, opens in London.
- 1903 - Fall of the Ottoman Empire: Unsuccessful uprising of the Bulgarians against Ottoman Turkey, also known as the Ilinden uprising.
- 1916 - World War I: Austrian sabotage causes the sinking of the Italian battleship Leonardo da Vinci in Taranto.
- 1918 - Japan announces that it is deploying troops to Siberia in the aftermath of World War I.
- 1934 - Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany.
- 1943 - PT-109, with future president of the United States Lieutenant John F. Kennedy aboard, sinks.
- 1944 - The "Zigenerblock of the extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau is liquidated. The last 3000 Sinti and Roma are murdered by German SS.
- 1944 - Beginning of the Treblinka uprising.
- 1945 - World War II: Potsdam Conference, in which the Allied Powers discuss the future of defeated Germany, concludes.
- 1950 - The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures is released in a public event held in Yankee Stadium in New York City.
- 1955 - Velcro is patented.
- 1964 - North Vietnam allegedly fires on a US destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.
- 1967 - The second Blackwall Tunnel opens in Greenwich, London.
- 1975 - In New Orleans, Louisiana, the Superdome officially opens with an NFL football game between the New Orleans Saints and Houston Oilers.
- 1976 - An intruder breaks into Priscilla Davis's mansion in Fort Worth, Texas and kills Andrea Wilborn and Stan Farr.
- 1979 - New York Yankees catcher Thurman Munson dies in a plane crash. An avid pilot, he was practicing takeoffs and landings in his new Cessna Citation jet. The official cause of the crash was determined to be pilot error.
- 1980 - A bomb explodes at the railway station in Bologna, Italy, killing 85 people and wounding more than 200.
- 1985 - A Delta Air Lines Lockheed L-1011 TriStar crashes at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in Texas, killing 137.
- 1990 - Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.
- 1994 - Popular Japanese television and movie actor Beat Takeshi is seriously injured in a motorcycle accident.
- 1997 - Eighteen lives are lost in the Thredbo landslide in New South Wales, Australia.
- 2005 - Air France Flight 358 skids off the runway at Toronto Pearson International Airport outside Toronto, Canada, destroying the plane but resulting in no loss of life.

Births


- 1533 - Theodor Zwinger, Swiss scholar (d. 1588)
- 1672 - Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, Swiss scholar (d. 1733)
- 1674 - Philip II, Duke of Orléans, regent of France (d. 1723)
- 1696 - Mahmud I, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1754)
- 1703 - Lorenzo Ricci, Italian Jesuit leader (d. 1775)
- 1754 - Pierre Charles L'Enfant, French-born architect and city planner (d. 1825)
- 1788 - Leopold Gmelin, German chemist (d. 1853)
- 1815 - Adolf Friedrich von Schack, German writer (d. 1894)
- 1834 - Frédéric Bartholdi, French sculptor (d. 1904)
- 1835 - Elisha Gray, American inventor and entrepreneur (d. 1901)
- 1854 - Milan I, King of Serbia (d. 1901)
- 1865 - Irving Babbitt, American literary critic (d. 1933)
- 1868 - King Constantine I of Greece (d. 1923)
- 1871 - John French Sloan, American artist (d. 1951)
- 1892 - Jack Warner, Canadian film producer (d. 1978)
- 1897 - Max Weber, Swiss Federal Councilor (d. 1974)
- 1900 - Helen Morgan, American actress (d. 1941)
- 1905 - Karl Amadeus Hartmann, German composer (d. 1963)
- 1905 - Myrna Loy, American actress (d. 1993)
- 1912 - Vladimir Zerjavic, Croatian statistician (d. 2001)
- 1914 - Beatrice Straight, American actress (d. 2001)
- 1915 - Gary Merrill, American actor (d. 1990)
- 1924 - James Baldwin, American author (d. 1987)
- 1924 - Carroll O'Connor, American actor (d. 2001)
- 1925 - Jorge Rafael Videla, Argentinian dictator
- 1932 - Peter O'Toole, Irish-born actor
- 1934 - Valery Bykovsky, cosmonaut
- 1937 - Garth Hudson, Canadian musician (The Band)
- 1939 - Wes Craven, American film director
- 1941 - Doris Coley, American singer (Shirelles) (d. 2000)
- 1942 - Isabel Allende, American author
- 1944 - Jim Capaldi, British drummer, singer, and songwriter (Traffic) (d. 2005)
- 1948 - Dennis Prager, American radio talk show host and author
- 1950 - Lance Ito, American judge
- 1953 - Butch Patrick, American actor
- 1957 - Mojo Nixon, American musician and actor
- 1959 - Apollonia Kotero, American singer and actress
- 1961 - Linda Fratianne, American figure skater
- 1964 - Mary-Louise Parker, American actress
- 1969 - Fernando Couto, Portuguese footballer
- 1969 - Richard Hallebeek, Dutch guitarist
- 1970 - Tony Amonte, American hockey player
- 1970 - Kevin Smith, American actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1974 - Jeremy Castle, American singer and songwriter
- 1975 - Xu Huaiwen, Chinese-born badminton player
- 1977 - Edward Furlong, American actor
- 1977 - Dave Farrel, American musician
- 1982 - Hélder Postiga, Portuguese footballer
- 1985 - Jeff Healy, American model
- 1992 - Hallie Kate Eisenberg, American actress

Deaths


- 461 - Majorian, Roman Emperor (assassinated) (b. 457)
- 686 - Pope John V
- 1100 - King William II of England
- 1222 - Count Raymond VI of Toulouse (b. 1156)
- 1511 - Andrew Barton, Scottish naval leader
- 1589 - King Henry III of France (b. 1551)
- 1611 - Kato Kiyomasa, Japanese warlord and samurai (b. 1562)
- 1696 - Robert Campbell of Glenlyon, Scottish military commander at the Massacre of Glencoe (b. 1630)
- 1769 - Daniel Finch, 8th Earl of Winchilsea, English politician (b. 1689)
- 1776 - Louis François I, Prince of Conti, French military leader (b. 1717)
- 1788 - Thomas Gainsborough, English artist (b. 1727)
- 1815 - Guillaume Marie Anne Brune, French marshal (murdered) (b. 1763)
- 1859 - Horace Mann, American educator and abolitionist (b. 1796)
- 1876 - James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok, American gunfighter (b. 1837)
- 1890 - Louise-Victorine Ackermann, French poet (b. 1813)
- 1903 - Edmond Nocard, French veterinarian (b. 1850)
- 1921 - Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor (b. 1873)
- 1922 - Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-born inventor (b. 1847)
- 1923 - Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States (b. 1865)
- 1934 - Paul von Hindenburg, German general and politician (b. 1847)
- 1936 - Louis Blériot, French aviation pioneer (b. 1872)
- 1939 - Harvey Spencer Lewis, American Rosacrucian mystic (b. 1883)
- 1945 - Pietro Mascagni, Italian composer (b. 1863)
- 1976 - Fritz Lang, Austrian film director (b. 1890)
- 1978 - Carlos Chávez, Mexican composer (b. 1899)
- 1979 - Thurman Munson, baseball player (b. 1947)
- 1986 - Roy Cohn, American politician (b. 1927)
- 1988 - Raymond Carver, American writer (b. 1938)
- 1990 - Norman Mclean, American writer (b. 1902)
- 1997 - William S. Burroughs, American writer (b. 1914)
- 1998 - Shari Lewis, American puppeteer (b. 1933)
- 2003 - Don Estelle, British actor (b. 1933)
- 2003 - Mike Levey, American television personality (b. 1948)
- 2004 - Don Tosti, musician (b. 1923)

Holidays and observances


- Costa Rica - Our Lady of the Angels
- Bulgaria/Republic of Macedonia - Ilinden (St. Ilya Day), a day of remembrance of the Ilinden Uprising
- Feast day of Ilya the Prophet in Russian Orthodox Church
- Feast day of St Peter Julian Eymard Roman Catholic Church
- Day of airborne forces in Russia

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/2 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050802.html The New York Times: On This Day] ---- August 1 - August 3 - July 2 - September 2 -- listing of all days ko:8월 2일 ms:2 Ogos ja:8月2日 simple:August 2 th:2 สิงหาคม

Politics of the United States

The federal government of the United States was established by the United States Constitution. United States politics is dominated by the two major parties, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. There are several other groups or parties of minor political significance.

Federal, state and local governments

The federal entity created by the Constitution is the dominant feature of the American governmental system. However, every person outside the capital is subject to at least three governing bodies: the federal government, a state, and a county (Note: county government has been abolished in some places, see New England and Town Meeting, the town/city fulfills this level of government). Within an incorporated entity, such as a city, they are also subject to the local government and possibly a district. Each level has its own political system (subject to constraints at higher levels). This multiplicity of jurisdictions reflects the country's history. The federal government was created by former colonies that had been established separately and had governed themselves independently of the others. Within these colonies were counties and towns with varying levels of development and therefore different administrative needs. Rather than replacing the states' legal systems with a unitary government, the Constitutional Convention chose to keep the states largely self-governing. As the country expanded, it admitted new states modeled on the existing ones.

State government

Before their independence, colonies governed themselves separately under the authority of the British Crown. In the early years of the republic, prior to the adoption of the Constitution, each state was virtually an autonomous unit. The delegates to the Constitutional Convention sought a stronger, more viable federal union, but they could not ignore state traditions, nor the interests of state politicians. In general, matters that lie entirely within state borders are the exclusive concern of state governments. These include internal communications; regulations relating to property, industry, business, and public utilities; the state criminal code; and working conditions within the state. Within this context, the federal government requires that state governments must be republican in form and that they adopt no laws that contradict or violate the federal Constitution or the laws and treaties of the United States. There are, of course, many areas of overlap between state and federal jurisdictions. Particularly in recent years, the federal government has assumed ever broadening responsibility in such matters as health, education, welfare, transportation, and housing and urban development. But where the federal government exercises such responsibility in the states, programs are usually adopted on the basis of cooperation between the two levels of government, rather than as an imposition from above. Like the national government, state governments have three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial; these are roughly equivalent in function and scope to their national counterparts. The chief executive of a state is the governor, elected by popular vote, typically for a four-year term (although in a few states the term is two years). Except for Nebraska, which has one legislative body, all states have a bicameral legislature, with the upper house usually called the Senate and the lower house called the House of Representatives, the House of Delegates, or the General Assembly. To confuse matters further, some states refer to the entire state legislature as the "General Assembly", with two houses therein. In most states, senators serve four-year terms, and members of the lower house serve two-year terms. The constitutions of the various states differ in some details but generally follow a pattern similar to that of the federal Constitution, including a statement of the rights of the people and a plan for organizing the government. On such matters as the operation of businesses, banks, public utilities, and charitable institutions, state constitutions are often more detailed and explicit than the federal one. Each state constitution, however, provides that the final authority belongs to the people, and sets certain standards and principles as the foundation of government.

City government

Once predominantly rural, the United States is today a highly urbanized country, and about 80 percent of its citizens now live in towns, large cities, or suburbs of cities. This statistic makes city governments critically important in the overall pattern of American government. To a greater extent than on the federal or state level, the city directly serves the needs of the people, providing everything from police and fire protection to sanitary codes, health regulations, education, public transportation, and housing. The business of running America's major cities is enormously complex. In terms of population alone, New York City is larger than 41 of the 50 states. It is often said that, next to the presidency, the most difficult executive position in the country is that of mayor of New York. City governments are chartered by states, and their charters detail the objectives and powers of the municipal government. But in many respects the cities function independently of the states. For most big cities, however, cooperation with both state and federal organizations is essential to meeting the needs of their residents. Types of city governments vary widely across the nation. However, almost all have some kind of central council, elected by the voters, and an executive officer, assisted by various department heads, to manage the city's affairs. There are three general types of city government: the mayor-council, the commission, and the council-manager. These are the pure forms; many cities have developed a combination of two or three of them. Mayor-Council. This is the oldest form of city government in the United States and, until the beginning of the 20th century, was used by nearly all American cities. Its structure is similar to that of the state and national governments, with an elected mayor as chief of the executive branch and an elected council that represents the various neighborhoods forming the legislative branch. The mayor appoints heads of city departments and other officials, sometimes with the approval of the council. He or she has the power of veto over ordinances — the laws of the city — and frequently is responsible for preparing the city's budget. The council passes city ordinances, sets the tax rate on property, and apportions money among the various city departments. As cities have grown, council seats have usually come to represent more than a single neighborhood. The Commission. This combines both the legislative and executive functions in one group of officials, usually three or more in number, elected city-wide. Each commissioner supervises the work of one or more city departments. One is named chairperson of the body and is often called the mayor, although his or her power is equivalent to that of the other commissioners. Council-Manager. The city manager is a response to the increasing complexity of urban problems, which require management expertise not often possessed by elected public officials. The answer has been to entrust most of the executive powers, including law enforcement and provision of services, to a highly trained and experienced professional city manager. The city manager plan has been adopted by a growing number of cities. Under this plan, a small, elected council makes the city ordinances and sets policy, but hires a paid administrator, also called a city manager, to carry out its decisions. The manager draws up the city budget and supervises most of the departments. Usually, there is no set term; the manager serves as long as the council is satisfied with his or her work.

County government

The county is a subdivision of the state, sometimes — but not always — containing two or more townships and several villages. New York City is so large that it is divided into five separate boroughs, each a county in its own right. On the other hand, Arlington County, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., is both an urbanized and suburban area, governed by a unitary county administration. What has happened, in these cases, is known as consolidated city-county government, which is also used by several other larger U.S. cities. In most U.S. counties, one town or city is designated as the county seat, and this is where the government offices are located and where the board of commissioners or supervisors meets. In small counties, boards are chosen by the county as a whole; in the larger ones, supervisors represent separate districts or townships. The board levies taxes; borrows and appropriates money; fixes the salaries of county employees; supervises elections; builds and maintains highways and bridges; and administers national, state, and county welfare programs. In some New England states, counties do not have any governmental function and are simply a division of land.

Town and village government

Thousands of municipal jurisdictions are too small to qualify as city governments. These are chartered as towns and villages and deal with such strictly local needs as paving and lighting the streets; ensuring a water supply; providing police and fire protection; establishing local health regulations; arranging for garbage, sewage, and other waste disposal; collecting local taxes to support governmental operations; and, in cooperation with the state and county, directly administering the local school system. Note that in many states the term "town" does not have any specific meaning--it is simply an informal term applied to populated places (both incorporated and unincorporated municipalities). And in some states, the term town is equivalent to how civil townships are used in other states. The government is usually entrusted to an elected board or council, which may be known by a variety of names: town or village council, board of selectmen, board of supervisors, board of commissioners. The board may have a chairperson or president who functions as chief executive officer, or there may be an elected mayor. Governmental employees may include a clerk, treasurer, police and fire officers, and health and welfare officers. One unique aspect of local government, found mostly in the New England region of the United States, is the "town meeting." Once a year — sometimes more often if needed — the registered voters of the town meet in open session to elect officers, debate local issues, and pass laws for operating the government. As a body, they decide on road construction and repair, construction of public buildings and facilities, tax rates, and the town budget. The town meeting, which has existed for more than two centuries, is often cited as the purest form of direct democracy, in which the governmental power is not delegated, but is exercised directly and regularly by all the people.

Other local governments

The federal, state, and local governments covered here by no means include the whole spectrum of American governmental units. The U.S. Bureau of the Census (part of the Commerce Department) has identified no less than 84,955 local governmental units in the United States, including counties, municipalities, townships, school districts, and special districts. Americans have come to rely on their governments to perform a wide variety of tasks which, in the early days of the republic, people did for themselves. In colonial days, there were few police officers or firefighters, even in the large cities; governments provided neither street lights nor street cleaners. To a large extent, people protected their own property and saw to their families' needs. In modern times, meeting these needs is usually seen as the responsibility of the whole community, acting through the agency of one or more levels of government. Even in small towns, the police, fire, welfare, and health department functions are exercised by governments. Hence, the bewildering array of jurisdictions.

Participation

Suffrage is nearly universal for citizens 18 years of age and older. A major remaining exception is the District of Columbia, where residents have no representation whatsoever in the US Senate; only a non-voting "delegate" in the House; and an extremely weak "home rule" city government. Also, US voting rights can be restricted as a result of felony conviction (such laws vary widely by state). The most significant fact about politics in the United States, especially at the national level, is that successful participation requires large amounts of money, especially for television advertising. This money is very difficult to raise by appeals to a mass base, although the Republican Party has had some success, as has Howard Dean with his Internet appeals. Both parties must depend on wealthy donors and organizations - traditionally the Democrats depended on donations from organized labor while the Republicans relied on business donations. Since 1984, however, the Democrats' business donations have surpassed those from labor organizations. This dependency on donors is controversial, and has led to laws limiting spending on political campaigns being enacted; as a complicating factor due to the United States Constitution, opponents of campaign finance laws cite the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, and challenge campaign finance laws on grounds that they attempt to circumscribe their constitutionally-guaranteed rights. Even when laws are upheld, the complication of compliance with the First Amendment requires careful and cautious drafting of legislation, leading to laws that are still fairly limited in scope, especially in comparison to those of other countries such as the United Kingdom, France or Canada. Some would allege that funding practices commonplace in the United States would likely be considered political corruption elsewhere.

Political culture

Most schools in the United States teach the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the writings of the Founding Fathers as the definition of the country's governing ideology. Among the core tenets of this ideology are the following:
- The government is answerable to citizens, who may change it through elections.
- The government's power in matters of religion, expression, and law enforcement should be limited to prevent abuse of power.
- The laws should attach no special privilege to any citizen (that is, citizens should be equal before the law).
- Individuals and political parties debate how this ideology applies to particular circumstances, and may disagree openly with any of it. At the time of the United States's founding, the economy was predominantly one of private business, and state governments left welfare issues to private or local initiative. The United States government has largely accepted the system of private enterprise and opposed broad grants of support to citizens, although the experience of the Great Depression challenged both positions. As a result the US tends to be ideologically oriented toward capitalism in contrast with the social democratic cultures in Europe. Prior to World War II the United States pursued a policy of isolationism in foreign affairs by not taking sides in conflicts between foreign powers. The country abandoned this policy when it became a superpower, but the country remains skeptical of internationalism. The ideology of the incumbent President and the President's advisors largely determines the government's attitude in foreign affairs.

Political parties

See also: Republican Party, Democratic Party, Puerto Rico political parties Many of America's Founding Fathers hated the thought of political parties. They were sure quarreling factions would be more interested in contending with each other than in working for the common good. They wanted individual citizens to vote for individual candidates, without the interference of organized groups — but this was not to be. By the 1790s, different views of the new country's proper course had already developed, and those who held these opposing views tried to win support for their cause by banding together. The followers of Alexander Hamilton, the Hamiltonian faction, took up the name "Federalist"; they favored a strong central government that would support the interests of commerce and industry. The followers of Thomas Jefferson, the Jeffersonians and then the "Anti-Federalists," took up the name Democrat-Republicans" (not to be confused with the modern Republican party); they preferred a decentralized agrarian republic in which the federal government had limited power. By 1828, the Federalists had disappeared as an organization, replaced by the Whigs, brought to life in opposition to the election that year of President Andrew Jackson. Jackson's presidency split the Republican party: Jacksonians became the "Democratic-Republicans" and those following the leadership of John Quincy Adams became the "National Republicans." The Democratic-Republicans quickly shortened their name to the Democratic party, and the two-party system, still in existence today, was born. The United States thus has exceptionally old political parties. In the 1850s, the issue of slavery took center stage, with disagreement in particular over the question of whether or not slavery should be permitted in the country's new territories in the West. The Whig Party straddled the issue and sank to its death; it was replaced in 1854 by the Republican Party, whose primary policy was that slavery be excluded from all the territories. Just six years later, this new party captured the presidency when Abraham Lincoln won the election of 1860. By then, parties were well established as the country's dominant political organizations, and party allegiance had become an important part of most people's consciousness. Party loyalty was passed from fathers to sons, and party activities — including spectacular campaign events, complete with uniformed marching groups and torchlight parades — were a part of the social life of many communities. By the 1920s, however, this boisterous folksiness had diminished. Municipal reforms, civil service reform, corrupt practices acts, and presidential primaries to replace the power of politicians at national conventions had all helped to clean up politics — and make it quite a bit less fun. How did the two-party system develop in the United States? America has historically had many minor or third political parties. They tend to serve a means to advocate polices that eventually are adopted by the two major political parties, i.e. the abolishment of slavery, and child labor laws. Some of these third political parties such as the Socialist Party, the Farmer Labor Party and the Populist Party developed an impressive degree of support, although limited electoral success. Most officials in America are elected from single-member districts and win office by beating out their opponents in a system for determining winners called first-past-the-post — the one who gets the pluarity wins, (which is not the same thing as actually getting a majority of votes). While some cities and the state of Illinois did experiment with proportional representation, the United States Congress banned the usage of that alternative voting method for federal legislative elections in 1967. This, too, encourages the two-party system; see Duverger's law. Another critical factor has been ballot access law. Originally voters went to the polls and publicly stated which candidate they supported, later on this developed into a process whereby each political party would create its own ballot and thus the voter would put the party's ballot into the voting box. In the late nineteenth century, states became to adopt the Australian Secret Ballot Method and it eventually became the national standard. The secret ballot method ensured that the privacy of voters would be protected (hence government jobs could no longer be awarded to loyal voters) and each state would be responsible for creating one official ballot. The fact that states legislators were dominated by Democrats and Republicans provided an opportunity to possible discriminatory laws against minor political parties, yet such laws did not start to arise until the first Red Scare that hit America after World War I. State legislators became to enact tough laws that made it harder for minor political parties to run candidates for office by requiring a high number of petition signatures from citizens and decreasing the length of time that such a petition could legally be circulated. The election laws encourages the creation of a duopoly: one party in power, the other out. If those who are "out" band together, they have a better chance of beating those who are "in." Occasionally a third party does come along and receive a considerable share of the vote, although usually not for very long. The most successful third parties in recent years have been H. Ross Perot's Reform Party, which won 8% of the vote in the presidential election of 1996 (Perot himself won 19% of the vote in 1992, but the Reform Party did not yet exist) and the Libertarian Party, which has more than 400 members in elected office. Jesse Ventura became the only Reform Party candidate to win statewide office when he was elected governor of Minnesota in 1998. Only two independents currently hold federal office - Senator James Jeffords (though he often votes with Democrats and sits with them in their closed meetings) and Congressman Bernie Sanders, both of Vermont (Vermont has only one House seat). However, Jeffords was elected as a Republican, and has yet to face re-election since leaving the GOP. Most third parties have a hard time surviving, though, because one or both of the major parties often adopt their most popular issues, and thus their voters. Also, voters who might otherwise favor a third party often hesitate to give them their votes because they are perceived as not having any realistic chance of winning, or because they fear their support for a third party will the divide the vote and cause the defeat of the major party candidate more favorable than