John Tyler, the first vice president to finish the term of a president who had died
in office, established a pattern in 1841 that would be followed for more than a
century. The
Constitution was not entirely clear about what would happen if a president
died. And when William Henry Harrison died in the White
House on April 4, 1841, some in the government believed his vice president
would only become an acting president whose decisions would need the
approval of Harrison's cabinet……To Read More….
My Take - This is an interesting time in American
history. At one time all the candidates ran separately, as in the case of
election of 1796, where George Washington's "Vice
President John Adams from Massachusetts became a candidate
for the presidency on the Federalist Party ticket with former
Governor Thomas Pinckney of South Carolina
as the next most popular Federalist. Their opponents were former Secretary of
State Thomas Jefferson
from Virginia along with Senator Aaron Burr of New York of the Democratic-Republican. At this point, each man from any party ran alone, as the
formal position of "running mate" had not yet been established."
As a result the President was of one
party and the Vice President another. This was fixed by the adoption of the
12th amendment.
As I read this I thought this might have been the
issue with Tyler and Harrison's cabinet, but this Constitutional issue was
fixed by then and clearly they were of the same party by this time. It turns
out it was nothing more than power mongering by the cabinet and I would assume others
who hoped for some gain.
The Battle of Shiloh
In early April 1862 the Battle of Shiloh
delivered a shock to Americans. The first clash of the Civil War to result in
mass casualties, it was an indication that the war would be much bloodier than
anyone could have predicted.
A look at the newspapers of
the day show how startling the great battle must have been. In the days before
the clash in rural Tennessee, the focus of the press in the North was on
General George McClellan's campaign in Virginia.
It actually took a few weeks
for the name Shiloh to become known, and the first reports of the engagement
referred to "a great battle" somewhere "near Corinth."
Within days, reporters were able to piece together startling accounts of the
brutal fighting. Readers must have been horrified by some of the details……To Read More….
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