On August the 4th 1842 the Congress of the USA passed a donation act for the Territory of East Florida. Persons who could bear arms were allowed one quarter section of land upon which to settle. On September the 27th, 1850, a donation act was passed for Oregon, granting settlers from 160 to 640 acres. Research Donation Lands
The Gulf Stream is a well-known oceanic current, so called because it issues from the Gulf of Mexico. It owes its origin to the fact that the westward moving waters of the tropical portion of the Atlantic Ocean, encountering the eastward projection of South America, become divided into two currents, one setting southwards along the Brazilian coast, and the other northward past the mouths of the Amazon and Orinoco, into the Caribbean Sea. It then enters the Gulf of Mexico, and thence emerges through the Channel of Florida as the Gulf Stream. Its course is next to the north and eastwards, in a direction parallel to the coast of the United States, past Cape Hatteras, along the southern edge of the 'great banks' of Nantucket and Newfoundland (between the meridians of 48 and 60 degrees west), after which its course as a distinct current is less obvious.
In the earlier part of its course, especially when rounding the extremity of Florida, the Gulf Stream forms a well-defined current, distinguished by its high temperature and its deep blue or indigo colour. On account of the descent of the Polar or Baffin Bay current along the coast in a direction opposite to that of the Gulf Stream, the water on its inland side is colder than that to the eastward of it. The difference of temperature between the Gulf Stream and this cold current sometimes amounts to 20 or even 30 degrees Fahrenheit
The velocity of the Gulf Stream varies with its course. Within the Florida Channel it attains a mean of 65 miles per day, this sinks to 56 miles off Charleston, becomes 36 miles to 46 off Nautucket, and 28 miles to the south of the Newfoundland Banks; 300 miles to the eastward of Newfoundland its movement is hardly perceptible. At the bottom of the Florida Channel the observed temperature is 34 degrees that of the surface from 80 to 84 degrees Fahrenheit. Research Gulf Stream
The Loyal Order of Moose is a fraternal organisation founded in 1888 at Louisville, Kentucky, by John Henry Wilson. The first lodge was established in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Supreme Lodge, headquartered in Mooseheart, Illinois, co-ordinates the activities of the lodges and chapters in the USA and Canada. Two major philanthropic projects of the Moose are Mooseheart, a home and school for dependent children of deceased members, and Moosehaven in Orange Park, Florida, a home for aged members and their spouses. Moose lodges and chapters are also involved in local civic projects. Research Loyal Order of Moose
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American organisation founded in 1909 to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination within the USA.
The NAACP works towards a society in which all individuals have equal rights and there is no racial hatred or racial discrimination. Though, in 2007, after nearly one hundred years and with racism rife in the USA this objective seems almost a pipedream. Indeed in October 2007 the NAACP declared a State of Emergency in response to the recent surge in assaults against young African Americans as demonstrated by the boot camp beating death of Martin Lee Anderson, noose hangings in Jena, Louisiana and other communities, and the assault by police on Shelwanda Riley a 15-year old girl who was thrown around, punched and pepper sprayed by a Fort Pierce, Floridapolice officer, a man roughly twice her size, as he tried to arrest her for a non-violent curfew violation.
To ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of all citizens
To achieve equality of rights and eliminate race prejudice among the citizens of the United States
To remove all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic processes
To seek enactment and enforcement of federal, state, and local laws securing civil rights
To inform the public of the adverse effects of racial discrimination and to seek its elimination
To educate persons as to their constitutional rights and to take all lawful action to secure the exercise thereof, and to take any other lawful action in furtherance of these objectives, consistent with the NAACP's Articles of Incorporation and this Constitution.
The Northwest Boundary Question was a historic territorial dispute in North America. The territory bounded north by latitude 54 degrees 40 minutes, east by the Rocky Mountains, south by latitude 42 degrees, and west by the Pacific Ocean has been claimed at various times and to various extents by Russia, Spain, Great Britain and the United States. The Russian claim, which rested mainly upon occupation by fur traders, was settled by a treaty made on January 11, 1825. Under this treaty the United States were to make no-settlements north of latitude 54 degrees 40 minutes and Russia none south of that latitude. England and Russia agreed upon the same terms.
The Spanish claims were confined south of latitude 42 degrees by the treaty which ceded Florida in 1819. Great Britain had little or no claim by discovery. The United States' claim rested upon the voyage of Gray up the Columbia River in 1792, and the explorations of Lewis and Clark through the Rocky Mountains and through the Oregon country in 1805-06, under the orders of Jefferson. By the treaty of October the 20th, 1818, the whole territory west of the Rocky Mountains was to be opened to both countries for ten years, and, in 1827, the joint occupation for an indefinite period was agreed upon. Later this produced dissatisfaction, and after considerable negotiation, Great Britain was induced in 1846 to accept latitude 49 degrees as the boundary from the Rocky Mountains to the channel between Vancouver's Island and the mainland. Research Northwest Boundary Question
The Ocala Platform of the Farmers' Alliance congress was an American 19th century political group formed on December the 8th, 1890. It demanded the abolition of national banks; the establishment of sub-treasuries which should lend money directly to the people at low rates of interest; free coinage of silver; low tariff; the prohibition of alien ownership of land, and a graduated income tax. The group were so called from the place of meeting, Ocala, Florida. Research Ocala Platform
A plain is an expanse of low and nearly level land. Some plains, such as the Fens of England, large parts of Holland, and extensive areas of Russia, are almost perfectly flat; but generally an extensive plain consists of wide, gently sloping valleys separated by low hills. Such a plain is termed ' rolling' or 'undulating'. Many plains look extremely flat when viewed from the top of the neighbouring hills, but on descending one finds numerous instances of steep gradients, the valley slopes of the streams which cross the plain.
Plains are not all of the same type. Some plains may have been formed by the wearing down of lands that were once much higher. Such areas are more correctly called 'peneplains', e.g. Finland, a lowland area of very old rock, the HudsonBaylowlands, and Anglesey. Secondly, where layers of rock have not been folded but remain almost horizontal, extensive plains also occur. The Central Plains of the United States and the great plains of European Russia are in this group. Thirdly, plains may have been formed by the gradual accumulation of silt brought down by rivers. These are usually called alluvial plains. Good examples are the plain of North China, the Indo-Gangetic plain, the plains of Iraq, and much of the Amazonlowland. Some plains are the beds of old lakes. Rivers entering a lake deposit silt which is spread by the movement of the water over the lake floor. Such plains, though not large in size, are usually very fertile. Much of the great wheat land of Southern Manitoba is the bed of an old lake -lake Agassiz. The fertile plains of Hungary are of similar origin. Finally, some plains, such as the coastal plains of the United States from ChesapeakeBay to Florida, have been formed by the uplift of part of the sea floor bordering a continent.
The plains of the world tend to be areas of most advanced development and densest settlement. They are easier to cultivate than highland areas as the soil is usually deeper and more fertile. Hence the great plains, except where covered with large tracts of uncleared forest or occasional deposits of infertile soil, are important agricultural lands. Some plains, such as portions of Central Asia or of the Murray-Darling Basin, are too dry for successful agriculture. Unless irrigation is a practical possibility such plains are occupied by pastoral farmers engaged in rearing animals, and even the pastoral farmers sometimes have to bore wells for water, as in Hungary and in Australia. Where coal is found in or near plains, densely populated industrial centres usually develop, as in the North-Central United States. Movement is easy in all directions over lowlands, and rivers are generally slow and easily navigable, so that they are used as commercial highways. This is well illustrated by the United States, where the Mississippi and its tributaries provided the main lines of communication before the period when railways were developed.
The Rhea Letter was an American political scandal. On January the 6th, 1818, Andrew Jackson, then department commander in the South-west, wrote to President Monroe regarding the Seminole troubles in Florida and advising the prompt seizure of East Florida, which he declared could be done 'without implicating the Government'. He offered to accomplish the seizure himself within sixty days, if. it should be indicated to him that it were desirable. John Rhea, a Congressman from Tennessee, was the secret channel through which he hoped Monroe's assent might be signified. It was not. In 1831, during Andrew Jackson's administration, in the height of his quarrel with Calhoun, which turned in part upon the Seminole affair, John Rhea wrote to Monroe, hoping to elicit from him something that would implicate him as approving Andrew Jackson's plan. Monroe, on his death-bed in New York, denounced John Rhea's insinuations as utterly false. Research Rhea Letter
In America, after the adoption of the Constitution of 1787 the thought that the States were sovereign remained familiar to the minds of many, if not most, Americans. This led easily to the thought of secession by a State or States as a remedy for aggressive action on the part of the Federal Government.
The Federalists of New England made threats of secession in 1811 and 1814. As the slavery agitation began to be foremost among political issues, secession was extensively suggested as the constitutional right of the Southern States if the system of slavery was attacked. South Carolina was ready to secede in 1850. In 1860, upon news of the election of Abraham Lincoln, she did so, on December the 20th, by convention, which passed an ordinance purporting to repeal her adoption of the Constitution in 1788 and to revive her independence. Mississippi seceded on January the 9th, 1861, Florida on January the 10th, Alabama on January the 11th, Georgia on January the 19th, Louisiana on January the 26th, Texas on February 1st, all by conventions. These seven States formed the Confederate States of America, on February the 4th, 1861.
Buchanan's government could find no constitutional warrant for coercing a seceded State. After the firing on Fort Sumter and the decision of Abraham Lincoln and the North to suppress rebellion by armed force, four more States seceded - Arkansas on May the 6th, North Carolina on May the 20th, Virginia on May the 23rd and Tennessee on June the 8th. In most of these States there had been strong opposition to secession, but on the ground that it was inexpedient. That a State had a right to secede was the nearly universal belief. The national Government never recognized this right, nor the validity of the ordinances. Research Secession
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Donation Lands
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