ARTS/CULTURE

 

05 NOVEMBER 1733: In New York City, the New York Weekly Journal commences publication. Edited by German-born John Peter Zenger, the newspaper is funded by a group of influential citizens who oppose New York Governor William Cosby and support the cause of the Popular Party. On

17 November 1734, Zenger is arrested and put in prison for ten months before his case goes to trial. As editor, Zenger is held responsible for the polemical articles written by his reporters and he is accused of seditious libel by Governor Cosby.

 

08 NOVEMBER 1884: Samuel Sidney McClure initiates the first newspaper syndicate in the United States. The Civil War has sparked an interest in newspapers, which has not subsided with the return to Peace. Newspapers are propelled into the forefront of information distribution and the molding of public opinion.

 

EDUCATION

 

13 NOVEMBER 1749: In Pennsylvania Colony, an academy is established in Philadelphia by 24 of the city’s leading citizens. The founding of this educational institution has been suggested by a pamphlet on education written by Benjamin Franklin, who is subsequently chosen the first President of the Trustees. In 1753, $15,000 is donated to the school and two years later it is reorganized as the College, Academy, and Charitable School of Pennsylvania. The University of Pennsylvania will eventually develop from this school.

 

ENERGY

 

16 NOVEMBER 1973: President Nixon signs the controversial Alaska Pipeline Bill to build a 789-mile pipeline across Alaska to carry oil to the rest of the U.S.  Opposed by environmental groups, the law is praised by the President as the first major step toward making the U.S. self-sufficient in energy by 1980.

 

EXPLORATION

 

07 NOVEMBER 1805: In the Oregon region, the Lewis and Clark expedition sights the Pacific Ocean near the mouth of the Columbia River.  They build Fort Clatsop near the site of present-day Astoria, Oregon, and spend the winter there.

 

15 NOVEMBER 1806: During his second exploratory expedition for General James Wilkinson in the American Southwest, Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike spots a distant mountain peak that looks “like a small blue cloud,’ in the Colorado foothills of the Rocky Mountains.  This mountain will be named Pike’s Peak in his honor.  Pike’s party will be captured by the Spanish, later to be released unharmed.

 

FINANCE

 

29 NOVEMBER 1779: Congress makes its last issue of paper money.  The sum of over $10 million brings the total since June 1775 to nearly $242 million.

 

05 NOVEMBER 1781: The Netherlands extends a large loan to the U.S.

 

IDEAS/BELIEFS

 

18 NOVEMBER 1618: “Sir” Samuel Argall is removed from the governorship of Virginia Colony after ruling two years. Argall proclaimed strict laws supporting religious practices. Failure to attend church services is punishable by imprisonment and forced labor. The Sabbath is strictly enforced with all forms of amusement banned on this day.

 

06 NOVEMBER 1643: The New Haven Colony (Later Connecticut) General Court draws up a plan for representative government proposing a legal system based on the Ten Commandments, restricts the vote to church members and does not allow for a Jury trial.

 

14 NOVEMBER 1646: Robert Child and others protest the intolerance of Massachusetts Puritans toward other faiths – intolerance expressed in religious and civil discrimination. Governor John Winthrop and magistrates banish Child.

 

12 NOVEMBER 1701: The Carolina Assembly passes the Vestry Act of 1701 which makes the Anglican Church the established church of the Northern Carolina Territory. This measure provokes active opposition from resident Quakers and other religious non-conformists. Proprietors revoke the Vestry Act in 1703.

 

05 NOVEMBER 1763: Patrick Henry is the attorney for the defense in the case of Virginia clergyman Kames Maury. By the eloquence of his arguments, Henry sways the Jury to his side, against the advice of the judge. During trial, Henry presents the theory of a mutual compact between the governed and the ruler arguing when such a compact is broken by the action of the ruler, the ruler consequently loses all Right to claim the loyalty of his subjects.

 

NOVEMBER 1777: San Jose, the first non-religious community in California, is established.

 

02 NOVEMBER 1921: Margaret Sanger’s National Birth Control League combines with Mary Ware Dennett’s Voluntary Parenthood League to form the American Birth Control League.

 

IMMIGRATION

 

17 NOVEMBER 1880: The Chinese Exclusion Treaty is signed by China and the United States.  It permits the United States to restrict but not exclude immigration of Chinese laborers.

 

INTERNATIONAL

 

04 NOVEMBER 1796: The United States signs a Treaty with Tripoli, seeking an end to the costly raids of the Barbary Pirates on American commercial shipping in the Mediterranean Sea and off the coasts of Spain and Portugal.  In order to halt the seizure of American vessels and the imprisonment of American seamen, the United States agrees to pay ransom, large commissions and annual tribute.  The Senate will ratify this Treaty on 07 June, 1797.

 

18 NOVEMEBR 1883: Canadian and United States railroads meet and agree to eliminate conflicting time systems. Four zones each 15 degrees wide are established for the North American continent.

 

12 NOVEMBER 1971: Nixon announces withdrawal of another 45,000 men from Vietnam, leaving a force of 139,000. This year U.S. casualties drop dramatically with 1,302 U.S. dead compared to 14,592 in 1968.

 

04 NOVEMBER 1979: In retaliation – Blowback – for the U.S.-backed (CIA) overthrow of the democratically-elected Iranian government in 1953, on this day Muslim students in Iran storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 66 Americans hostage, holding them for 444 days.

 

LIFE/CUSTOMS

 

26 NOVEMBER 1789: The first national Thanksgiving Day is established by a Congressional Resolution and by George Washington’s proclamation. Intended to formally offer thanks for the Constitution, the holiday is opposed by Anti-Federalists who maintain Washington’s Proclamation violates States’ Rights.

 

MEXICO – U.S. RELATIONS

 

10 NOVEMBER 1845: President Polk commissions John Slidell to negotiate a settlement with Mexico that will not only attempt to pay off Mexico for Texas but also to purchase New Mexico and California from Mexico.  Polk instructs Slidell to pay $5 million for New Mexico and $25 million for California in exchange for Mexican approval of the Texas boundary at the Rio Grande River.

 

16 NOVEMBER 1846: General Taylor captures Saltillo, the capital of Coahuilla, Mexico.

 

25 NOVEMBER 1846: Colonel Kearney crosses into Southern California where the Mexicans are in control, but he defeats them at San Pascual on December 6 and occupies San Diego on December 12.

 

22 NOVEMBER 1847: Nicholas Trist, who has been recalled to Washington D.C., receives word that the Mexican government is now ready to negotiate the terms of Peace.  He agrees to take part.

 

23 NOVEMBER 1914: The U.S. starts to disentangle itself from Mexico by recalling troops from Vera Cruz, Mexico.

 

NATIONAL

 

30 NOVEMBER 1774: Encouraged by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine emigrates to America and settles in Philadelphia.

 

01 NOVEMBER 1788: The Congress under the Articles of Federation adjourns, leaving the United States with no central government until the first week of April 1789, when the new Congress under the Constitution achieves its first quorum.

 

20 NOVEMBER 1789: New Jersey becomes the first State to ratify the Bill of Rights.

 

16 NOVEMBER 1798: The Kentucky State legislature adopts a set of Resolutions drafted by Thomas Jefferson that strongly protest the usurpation of powers by the Federal Government under the un-Constitutional Alien and Sedition Acts. Jefferson insists the Union is a compact among sovereign States, and therefore the States have a Right to determine the un-Constitutionality of the Alien and Sedition Acts.

 

22 NOVEMBER 1799: The Kentucky legislature issues an additional Kentucky Resolution, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, in response to the repudiation of the earlier Resolution by a number of Northern States which insists the Federal Judiciary is the sole arbiter of constitutionality. This Resolution again insists on the Right of States to Nullify federal laws.

 

27 NOVEMBER 1806: After General James Wilkinson reveals the Aaron Burr conspiracy to carve out an empire in the American Southwest and Mexico, President Jefferson issues a Proclamation warning American citizens against joining any illegal expedition against the Spanish.  Apparently unaware of Wilkinson’s betrayal and Jefferson’s Proclamation, Aaron Burr leads his expedition down the Mississippi River to a point 30 miles above Natchez.  Here he is informed of the recent developments and escapes towards Florida.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Does this charge of conspiracy against Aaron Burr make General James Wilkerson and President Thomas Jefferson conspiracy theorists?

 

NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 1852: As both the Free Soil and the Whig Parties decline, the American, or Nativist Party begins to attract more supporters.  Originally founded as a Secret Society, it soon becomes known as the “Know Nothing” Party because members claim to know nothing about its workings.

 

NOVEMBER 1854: The Know-Nothing Party of native born Protestants holds a national meeting in Cincinnati.  They want to exclude Catholics and foreigners from public office and want a 21-year resident requirement for citizenship.

 

19 NOVEMBER 1863: President Lincoln delivers his Gettysburg Address, dedicating a military cemetery on the bloodstained Pennsylvania battlefield.  He prophesies that the “honored dead” of both sides “shall not have died in vain,” that there will be “a new birth of freedom; and that government of The People, by The People, for The People, shall not perish from the earth.”  With less accuracy, he also predicts, “the world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here.”  The Address is to become one of the immortal utterances of human history.

 

13 NOVEMBER 1929: By this day, some $30,000,000,000 ($30 billion) in value of listed stocks has been wiped out in the New York Stock Exchange.

 

15 NOVEMBER 1969: The largest Anti-War rally in the history of the U.S. takes place in Washington DC as 250,000 people gather to protest involvement in the Vietnam War.

 

07 NOVEMBER 1973: Congress passes the War Powers Act over President Nixon’s Veto.

 

13 NOVEMBER 1973: Representatives of Gulf and Ashland Oil Companies plead guilty to illegal contributions to Nixon’s re-election fund. Tomorrow, Commerce Secretary Maurice Stans will admit that such contributions were expected from major corporations. In two days, Braniff International, American Airlines and Goodyear will testify to similar donations.

 

NATIVE AMERICANS

 

03 NOVEMBER 1768: The Indiana Company buys 1,800,000 acres from the Iroquois southeast of the Ohio River.

 

05 NOVEMBER 1768: The Creek agree at Pensacola to the westward shift of the South Carolina border and to the establishment of the Georgia border at the Ogeechee River.

 

01 NOVEMBER 1784: In the Treaty of Augusta with the Creek, Georgia expands her northern boundary west from the Tugaloo to the Oconee River.

 

28 NOVEMBER 1785: The Treaty of Hopwell between United States commissioners and the Cherokees confirms the Right of the Cherokee to their land in the Tennessee area. This pact voids the earlier Treaty of Dumpling Creek between the Cherokees and the “State of Franklin.”

 

04 NOVEMBER 1791: Near the site of Fort Wayne, a force of Ohio Native Americans from the Maumee and Wabash River areas defeats an expeditionary force under General Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory.

 

03 NOVEMBER 1804: In St. Louis, Indiana territorial Governor William Henry Harrison negotiates a Treaty with the Fox and Sauk Indian tribes for the transfer of five million acres in the present-day Wisconsin region to the United States. The Fox and Sauk are granted the Right to stay on the land as long as it remains in the public domain.

 

10 NOVEMBER 1808: The Osage, the most important southern Sioux tribe in the Western Territory, sign the Osage Treaty with the United States. According to this pact, the Osage cede all their lands in present-day Missouri and Arkansas north of the Arkansas River to the United States. This Treaty will be ratified by Congress on April 25, 1810, and the Osage will move to a Reservation in present-day Oklahoma along the Arkansas River.

 

07 NOVEMBER 1811: In the Indiana Territory, the Native Americans led by The Prophet carry out a successful surprise attack on the 1000-man force led by Governor William Henry Harrison. Harrison’s men repulse the Native Americans despite heavy losses. After razing the Native village, Harrison’s troops withdraw southward to Fort Harrison. Despite the indecisive aftermath of the battle, the frontier settlers acclaim it as a great victory, adding to the influence of the congressional War Hawks. The British in Canada withdraw their support of Tecumseh and The Prophet. Nevertheless, anti-British sentiment on the frontier has been fueled with bellicose calls to expel the British from Canada.

 

03 NOVEMBER 1813: In the Creek War in the Mississippi Valley, General John Coffee leads a Tennessee Militia force in the destruction of the Native American village of Talishatchee.

 

NOVEMBER 1817: The First Seminole War begins with the raids by the Seminole along the Florida-Georgia border in retaliation for the destruction of Fort Apalachicola on 27 July, 1816, by a United States expeditionary force.

 

15 NOVEMBER 1827: The Creek sign a second Treaty, ceding the rest of their western Georgia lands to the United States.

 

NOVEMBER 1835: The Seminole in Florida resist their scheduled removal to the West, thereby setting off the Second Seminole War. It will last until August 14, 1843. Osceola leads the Indians in this war until he is captured in 1837.

 

20 NOVEMBER 1969: Seventy-eight Native Americans seize Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay and demand that it be given back to their people.

 

 

SLAVERY

 

25 NOVEMBER 1793: In Albany, New York, a group of slaves rebel and sets a series of devastating fires in the city.

 

1835: The Unitarian leader William Ellery Channing begins openly to advocate the abolition of slavery.  He publishes Slavery, an anti-slavery pamphlet which will be followed by two others.

 

1836: Interest in the abolition movement grows and approximately 500 abolitionist societies are now active in the North.  Their activities continue to cause violence and controversy.  In Granville, Ohio, a meeting of the Ohio Anti-slavery Society ends in riotous fighting incited by ruffians reportedly hired by some of the town’s “respectable” citizens.

 

1836: In a move that strikes a blow for Northern abolitionists, the Massachusetts Supreme Court rules that any slave brought within the state’s borders by a master can be regarded as freed.

 

07 NOVEMBER 1837: Elijah Lovejoy, publisher of an abolitionist newspaper in Alton, Illinois, is killed by a mob.  He had continued to proclaim his ant-slavery views even after his printing press had twice been thrown into a river.

 

13 NOVEMBER 1839: Abolitionists enter the political arena in an organized way.  Those of moderate views hold a convention at Warsaw, New York, and form the Liberty Party.  For President, they nominate James G. Birney, a former Kentucky slaveholder, now of New York, who is one of many converted to abolitionist views by Theodore Dwight Weld.  For Vice-President, they nominate Thomas Earle of Pennsylvania.  The Liberty Party does not agree with William Lloyd Garrison’s more radical views and would never advocate the dissolution of the Union.  Prominent members Gerrit Smith of New York and Salmon P. Chase of Ohio lead the party in its strongest platform issue against the annexation of Texas.

 

07 NOVEMBER 1841: Both pro-slavery and anti-slavery Americans become very excited when a group of slaves being taken from Hampton Roads, Virginia, to New Orleans successfully mutiny and take control of the United States ship, Creole.  They sail it into Nassau, a British port, where except for those accused of murder, they are immediately freed.

 

1843: In Vermont, the State Assembly acts to block execution of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.

 

1845: Just as the Baptist church has split over the slavery question, the Methodist Episcopal church now splits as well into Northern and Southern conferences when their Bishop James O. Andrew of Georgia is asked by the General Convention to choose between his slaves or his position.

 

NOVEMBER 1847: The abolitionist Liberty party holds a convention in New York and nominates John P. Hale of New Hampshire for president and Leicester King of Ohio for vice-president.  Hale will later withdraw in deference to Martin Van Buren.

 

07 NOVEMBER 1848: General Zachary Taylor, a Whig and hero of the Mexican War, is elected president.  Taylor is a slaveholder but is not especially committed to the principle of slavery.  Millard Fillmore is elected vice-president.  The free Soil candidate Van Buren wins 291,263 popular votes and noticeably contributes to Taylor’s victory by taking Democratic votes.

 

11-18 NOVEMBER 1850: Southern leaders reconvene in Nashville, and since the more extreme delegates hold the majority, there is much talk of the South’s right to secede.

 

24 NOVEMBER 1865: In an ominous move, Mississippi establishes the Black Codes, thus formalizing what all Southern states have begun to do informally: the Black Codes forbid blacks to testify against whites; blacks without work can be arrested for vagrancy and hired out to any employer requesting their help; public schools will be separate if there are any at all. Blacks cannot serve on juries, bear arms or hold large meetings.   Chicago newspaper voices Northern reaction: “We tell the men of Mississippi that the men of the North will convert…Mississippi into a frog pond before they allow such laws.”

 

 

TRANSPORTATION

 

20 NOVEMBER 1811: The construction of the Cumberland Road begins.  Also known as the Old National Road, this paved highway will connect Cumberland, Maryland with Wheeling (West Virginia) on the Ohio River.  The road will be completed to Wheeling in 1818, and subsequent extensions will carry it first to Columbus, Ohio, and finally to Vandalia, Illinois, in
1840.  The Cumberland Road will be the main route along which settlers will travel to colonize the Far West.

 

 

VOTING RIGHTS

 

07 NOVEMBER 1893: Women’s suffrage is adopted in Colorado by popular vote.

 

28 NOVEMBER 1901: Alabama adopts a new Constitution which effectively disenfranchises blacks through its literacy and property tests, and for extraordinary circumstances, by way of its “grandfather” clause which states that a person cannot vote if his grandfather has not voted before him.

 

06 NOVEMBER 1917: An important victory for women in their fight for suffrage is won when New York ratifies a Constitutional Amendment giving women the Right to vote.

 

 

WAR ON DRUGS

 

18-20 NOVEMBER 1874: Delegates from 17 States meet in Cleveland, Ohio, to form the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.

 

NOVEMBER 1933: New Mexico, Florida, Texas, and Kentucky become the 30th through 33rd States to Ratify the 21st Amendment to eventually repeal the 18th Amendment - Prohibition.  Three more States are needed for Ratification. Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Utah will Ratify in December 1933.