AMERICAN REVOLUTION & INDEPENDENCE

 

22 MARCH 1765: In passing the Stamp Act, the English Parliament sets its first direct tax on the Colonies. The intent of this Act is – together with revenue from the 1764 Sugar Act – is to raise adequate revenue to support at least one-third of the total cost to the British of maintaining their military in the Colonies. The Stamp Act mandates a tax on all printed materials, including almanacs, broadsides, pamphlets, newspapers, legal documents, licenses, insurance policies, ship’s papers and even playing cards and dice. Americans are to be appointed the stamp agents to collect the revenues. Vice-Admiralty courts - no Jury - are to have jurisdiction over enforcement exciting fears of the erosion of the basic Civil Right of trial by Jury.

 

24 MARCH 1765: The Quartering Act goes into effect. This English law requires the Colonies to provide quarters or housing for British troops and to keep the soldiers supplied with food and other necessities. An amendment to the Act is passed in 1766, which mandates the housing of British soldiers in unoccupied buildings, Inns, and Taverns.

 

18 MARCH 1766: King George III signs a Bill fully repealing the Stamp Act. This same day, the English Parliament passes the Declaratory Act, which asserts that the British government has complete power to legislate any laws governing the American Colonists “in all cases whatsoever.”

 

31 MARCH 1774: In response to the continuing Rebelliousness of the Massachusetts Colony, and angry Parliament passes a series of Coercive Acts that include a Boston Port Bill that forbids any shipping or trade in Boston Harbor except that involving military supplies and certain approved cargos of food and fuel. For the Boston Port to be re-opened, Massachusetts is required to reimburse customs and the East India Company for duties owed and the costs from the Boston Tea Party the previous December.

 

23 MARCH 1775: Edmund Burke addresses Parliament opposing the proposed New England Restraining Act and supporting conciliation with the Colonies. On this same day, at the Virginia Convention in Richmond, Patrick Henry opposes the arbitrary rule of Britain with a speech that closes, “Give me Liberty, or give me death!”

 

30 MARCH 1775: King George III endorses the New England Restraining Act, which forbids the New England Colonies from trading with any other countries except England and also bans them from fishing in the North Atlantic. In April, the Act will be applied to Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia.

 

16 MARCH 1778: The British Parliament creates a British Peace Commission which has wide powers to negotiate with the American Rebels.

 

ARTS/CULTURE

 

02 MARCH 1789: The Pennsylvania legislature repeals a law banning the performance of stage plays.  This liberalized attitude toward the dramatic arts will spread throughout the Eastern Seaboard.  The frequent attendance of George Washington at New York’s John Street Theater serves to endow the theater with an even greater aura of respectability.

 

10 MARCH 1849: A riot erupts in New York where a British actor named Macready is performing at the Astor Place Opera House. Crowds are angry because of the theatre’s snobbish dress requirements and because Macready makes scornful comments on the vulgarity of Americans. As if to prove his point, the rioters shatter theatre windows with bricks, clubs and stones.

 

13 MARCH 1852: A great American symbol is born with the first appearance of Uncle Sam in Diognes, His Latern, a weekly comic publication in New York.

 

FINANCE

 

18 MARCH 1780: Congress passes the Forty-To-One Act, which provides that the Continental - paper money – will be redeemable at one-fortieth of face value.

 

03 MARCH 1791: On the recommendation of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, Congress passes the revenue-raising Whiskey Act, setting an excise tax on distilled liquors and stills.  This levy is opposed by farmers. The State Legislatures of Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia pass Resolutions opposing the Whiskey Act.

 

08 MARCH 1796: In the case of Hylton v. United States, the Supreme Court rules a 1794 carriage tax an indirect tax, and hence Constitutional.  This case is important in that this is the first time the court rules on the Constitutionality of an Act of Congress.

 

04 MARCH 1811: The Bank of the United States is dissolved.

 

14 MARCH 1812: In preparation for war with England, Congress authorizes a bond issue of $11 million – the first of six such war bond issues by 1815. War-Hawks note the absence of a Central Bank makes war financing difficult.

 

14 MARCH 1816: The Bill to create a second Bank of the United States passes the House of Representatives 80-71, and in the Senate 22-12. Representative Daniel Webster of New Hampshire opposes a national bank arguing against the need for currency reform in the face of current legislative provisions gold and silver money. 

 

06 MARCH 1819: In McCulloch v. Maryland, which involves taxation of the Baltimore branch of the Bank of the United States by the State of Maryland, the Supreme Court finds that States may not tax an agency of the federal government. In Chief Justice John Marshall’s opinion, the Court also upholds the right of Congress to create the bank under the Hamiltonian doctrines of “implied powers” and “loose construction.”

 

19 MARCH 1824: In Osborn v. Bank of the United States, Chief Justice Marshall holds that the State of Ohio cannot tax the Bank of the United States.

 

12 MARCH 1830: In Craig v. Missouri, the Supreme Court declares that State loan certificates are bills of credit and therefore un-Constitutional.

 

02 MARCH 1833: A Resolution in the House of Representatives states that the Bank of the United States can continue as a safe place of deposit for government funds. President Jackson wants the funds withdrawn and will eventually succeed. In March 1824, the Senate will adopt two Resolutions to censure President Jackson after the removal of government funds.

 

03 MARCH 1835: The growing country has a growing need for money and an Act of Congress provides for United States mints in New Orleans; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Dahlohega, Georgia.

 

01 MARCH 1837: Members of Congress against the Specie Circular of 11 July 1836, which requires that land be paid for in gold or silver, adopt a Bill to rescind it, but President Jackson, who issued the Specie Circular, simply pocket vetoes the Bill.

 

04 MARCH 1837: In Jackson’s published Farewell Address he condemns monopolies, speculation and paper currency.

 

26 MARCH 1838: For the second-time, the Senate passes a Bill to establish an independent Treasury that would allow the United States government the exclusive Right to care for its own monies.  The Bill is defeated in the House of Representatives.

 

04 MARCH 1842: Ruling in Dobbins v. Commissioners, the United States Supreme Court finds that a State cannot impose a tax on the salary earned by a federal officer.

 

03 MARCH 1851: Congress authorizes the coinage of three-cent silver pieces.

 

18 MARCH 1869: The Public Credit Act is adopted by Congress.  It stipulates that payment of government bonds be made in gold.

 

03 MARCH 1875: Congress authorizes the minting of a silver 20-cent piece.

 

03 MARCH 1884: The Supreme Court rules that Congress has legitimate power to make treasury notes – greenbacks – legal tender even in peacetime.

 

05 MARCH 1895: A minority of House Democrats back an appeal for free coinage of silver at the ratio to gold of 16 to one.

 

14 MARCH 1900: The Gold Standard Act is ratified by Congress. The Act establishes a Gold Dollar of 25.8 grains, nine-tenths fine, and puts all forms of U.S. money on a parity with gold.

 

27 MARCH 1980: The price of silver drops by $5 to $10.80 an ounce in a single day of trading.

 

31 MARCH 1980: President Carter signs a Bill deregulating the banking industry.  The law raises the interest rates that bank may offer small depositors and permits interest on checking accounts.  It also raises the limit on federally insured accounts to $100,000, up from $40,000.

 

10 MARCH 1981: President Reagan submits his proposed budget for fiscal 1982, which calls for federal expenditures of $695 billion and a projected deficit of $45 billion.

 

IDEAS/BELIEFS

 

19 MARCH 1860: Elizabeth Cady Stanton appears before the New York State Legislature to promote the cause of Women’s Suffrage.

 

01 MARCH 1872: Pressed by a growing agitation for conservation of the badly exploited natural resources of the country, Congress begins to reverse its wholesale giveaway programs and creates Yellowstone Park as a public preserve.

 

MARCH 1880: At the request of an advance group in Philadelphia, Commissioner George Railton and seven women come to organize the American branch of the Salvation Army.  The Army is a philanthropic and evangelical organization which holds that self-sacrifice is one’s supreme duty.

 

22 MARCH 1882: In a move directly aimed at the Mormon Church, the Edmonds Act is passed by Congress.  It prohibits polygamists from voting of from holding public office.  Five commissioners are appointed by President Chester A. Arthur to oversee elections.

 

14 MARCH 1907: Members of The Inland Waterways Commission are appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt.  The Commission is to study and report on the rivers and lakes of the U.S., their relation to forests, traffic congestion and other such matters.  During the Roosevelt Administration, five National Parks will be established – to include Crater Lake in Oregon – and in addition, under the National Monuments Act of 1906, Roosevelt sets aside 16 National Monuments and creates 51 Wildlife Sanctuaries.

 

IMMIGRATION

 

26 MARCH 1790: Congress passes the Naturalization Act, mandating a two-year residency requirement for new citizens.

 

02 MARCH 1819: Congress passes legislation regulating immigration, specifically mandating ships’ captains to provide descriptive lists of the passengers brought in on each voyage.

 

11 MARCH 1879: Congress passes a Bill to restrict Chinese immigration, which is vetoed by President Hayes.

 

03 MARCH 1891: The office of Superintendent of Immigration is created by Congress.  Immigration is increasing, frontier land is almost gone, depression threatens the land and job security in industry is nonexistent.

 

02 MARCH 1897: In one of his last acts as President, Grover Cleveland vetoes the Immigration Bill which would make mandatory a literacy test for immigrants.  Cleveland declares it a too “radical departure from our national policy.”

 

28 MARCH 1898: In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court finds in United States v. Wong Kim Ark that U.S. Citizenship is without respect to race or color.  In consequence, a child born in the United States cannot be deported under the Chinese Exclusion Act even though both parents are Chinese.

 

14 MARCH 1907: By Theodore Roosevelt’s Presidential Order the United States excludes Japanese laborers from entering the country.

 

26 MARCH 1910: An Amendment to the Immigration Act of 1907 makes it no longer possible to admit criminals, paupers, anarchists and diseased persons into the United States.  Some countries have been scouring jails and asylums and officially the inmates over to the U.S.

 

INDUSTRY

 

02 MARCH 1889: The first Anti-Trust law is passed by Kansas as the State challenges the might of the giant trusts and their unabashed privileges.  They have come to control the economic life of the nation simply by default.  Maine, Michigan and Tennessee follow suit this same year.

 

MARCH 1892: In a landmark decision, the Standard Oil Trust is dissolved by the Ohio Supreme Court, which orders the Standard Oil Company of Ohio to sever its connections with the main company.

 

24 MARCH 1900: The New Carnegie Steel Company is incorporated in New Jersey in direct defiance of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law, which by this time has no teeth in it at all.  Capitalization of the new corporation amounts to a dazzling $160,000,000.  It is the largest and most controversial incorporation to date.

 

10 MARCH 1902: Instigated by President Theodore Roosevelt’s vigorous campaign to bring the operations of Big Business within reach of the law, Attorney General Philander C. Knox invokes the Sherman Anti-Trust Law to bring suit against Morgan and Harriman’s Northern Securities Company.

 

14 MARCH 1904: In a landmark case, Northern Securities Company v. United States, the Supreme Court finds that the company violates the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.  Roosevelt’s reputation as a “Trustbuster” will largely rest upon his vigorous participation in the outcome of this decision.

 

INTERNATIONAL

 

03 MARCH 1815: After refusing President Madison’s request for a Declaration of War, Congress passes legislation authorizing a naval expedition to take action against the Dey of Algiers who has reinstated the plunder of American shipping during the War of 1812. Insisting he had not been receiving enough tribute from the U.S., the Dey dismissed the American minister and had declared war on the United States. Also on this day, Congress authorizes a national policy of trade reciprocity with all nations.

 

25 MARCH 1818: In Congress, Speaker of the House Henry Clay delivers a three-hour speech calling for United States recognition of a number of revolutionary governments in South America which have recently Liberated their nations from Spanish colonial rule.

 

08 MARCH 1822: President Monroe sends a special message to Congress proposing United States recognition of the new Latin American Republics that have recently achieved Independence – Columbia, Peru, Argentina and Mexico.

 

07 MARCH 1950: Charges brought against Valentin Gubitchev lead to the Soviet consular official’s being found guilty of conspiracy and attempted espionage against the United States. EDITOR’S NOTE: Does this make the convicting jury conspiracy theorists?

 

22 MARCH 1975: After two weeks of shuttle diplomacy, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger announces that “irreconcilable differences” between Israel and Egypt have led him to suspend efforts for an agreement between the two Middle East countries.

 

26 MARCH 1979: With President Carter, in a formal ceremony in Washington D.C., Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat sign a Peace Treaty (Camp David) between their countries, bringing an end the ‘State of War’ existing since 1948.

 

LABOR

 

31 MARCH 1840: President Van Buren issues an Executive Order that establishes a ten-hour work day for federal employees involved in public works jobs.

 

06 MARCH 1886: The Knights of Labor Strike against Jay Gould’s Missouri-Pacific railroad system and are forced by hunger to return without any noticeable gains in May.  Industry, having siphoned off incredible profits, can last longer than Strikers who are now only beginning to understand the power and strategy of Strike and Union.

 

22 MARCH 1903: The special commission set up by Roosevelt to settle the anthracite coal dispute recommends shorter hours, a ten-percent wage increase and an “Open Shop.”  The principle of the Open Shop will later be used against organized labor, but in this instance, when the owners adamantly refuse to recognize the United Mine Workers Union, the decision precludes discrimination against Union members.

 

23 MARCH 1932: The Norris-LaGuardia Anti-Injunction Act is passed; it prohibits the use of injunctions in labor disputes except with certain restrictions; it is considered an important step in protecting the Rights of labor to negotiate through their Unions.

 

01 MARCH 1937: U.S. Steel announces their corporation will accept a contract that includes recognition of the United Steel Workers; a critical breakthrough for Organized Labor in the United States.

 

MEXICO – U.S. RELATIONS

 

24 MARCH 1825: The Mexican State of Texas-Coahuila officially declares itself open to American settlers.

 

01 MARCH 1836: A group of Texas settlers meet in Washington, Texas, to discuss Santa Anna’s call for a central government.  On March 2, they adopt a Declaration of Independence from Mexico, and draw up a Constitution.  On March 4, they name Sam Houston commander of their army.

 

27 MARCH 1836: Santa Anna continues his assault on Texas settlers.  His troops massacre approximately 300 soldiers led by Captain James Fannin, who is trying to defend Goliad.  Santa Anna continues to sweep through American settlements and by mid-April he will reach Galveston.

 

01 MARCH 1845: Mexico agrees in a preliminary way to recognize Texas as an Independent Republic, but their discussions related to this sort of treaty cease when Texas learns of the February Congressional Annexation Resolution.

 

06 MARCH 1845: Following President Polk’s references to Texas annexation in his inaugural address two days earlier, the Mexican minister at Washington protests and demands his passports.

 

28 MARCH 1845: Mexico severs diplomatic relations with the United States.

 

28 MARCH 1846: General Taylor takes his troops onto the left bank of the Rio Grande, always recognized as Mexican Territory, on the orders of President Polk.  There, across from Matamoros, Americans begin building fortifications while Mexicans opposite them are doing the same.

 

09 MARCH 1847: General Scott’s force lands near Vera Cruz.  It is the most powerful fortress of the time in the Western Hemisphere.  The city cannot bear attacks from both land and sea and Scott takes it on 29 March.

 

MARCH 1848: The Senate Ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and President Polk gets an Appropriation Bill to pay Mexico.

 

07 MARCH 1911: The U.S. orders 20,000 troops to the Mexican border.  On November 20, 1910, Revolution broke out against Mexican Dictator Porfirio Diaz.  Diaz has been carving up the country for his friends, creating conditions for the poor as harsh as in any country in the world.  President Taft is not prepared to look beneath the surface and holds Diaz in esteem for his ability to keep “Law and Order.”  Taft writes that his respect for Diaz is occasioned also “for the reason that we have two billions American capital in Mexico that will be greatly endangered if Diaz were to die.”  Despite the lack of support from its neighbor, the Mexican Revolution brings to power a gentle liberal named Francisco Madero.  In subsequent efforts to keep the status quo ante, American Diplomat Henry Lane Wilson helps the ruthless General Victoraino Huerta, friend of the landowners, to stage a coup d’etat.  In 1913, Madero will be killed and Mexico left in subjection to Huerta, whom one historian calls “a super-gangster.”

 

09 MARCH 1916: Pancho Villa leads an attack of 1,500 men into New Mexico and kills 17 Americans.  Brigadier General John Pershing, with 6,000 men will be ordered to pursue Villa into Mexico and to capture him.  The subsequent two-year effort will result in failure.

 

18 MARCH 1938: Mexico nationalizes all oil properties of U.S. and other foreign-owned companies.

 

NATIONAL

 

01 MARCH 1790: Congress passes the Census Act, which calls for a periodic census of the inhabitants of the United States.  The first census, completed on August 1, shows a total population of 3,929,625, including 59,577 free blacks and 697,624 enslaved blacks.  (Although blacks account for 19.3 percent of the total population, they are counted as only three-fifths of a person for purposes of apportionment.)  Massachusetts is the only State to report no slaves.  Philadelphia is the largest city (42,000) and Virginia the most populous State (820,000). The Bureau of the Census will be created by an Act of Congress on 6 March, 1902.

 

04 MARCH 1801: In President Jefferson’s Inaugural Address, he calls for a government of limited powers, operating economically, supporting States’ Rights, acquiescing in majority decisions, preserving Civil Liberties, and avoiding “entangling alliances” with foreign nations.

 

04 MARCH 1805: Jefferson is inaugurated for his second term as President.  In his Inaugural Address, he notes the end of internal taxes, which have been replaced by consumption taxes on imported luxury items, and also asks support for a federally-funded public works program. On 26, March 1806, Congress will pass legislation authorizing the construction of the Cumberland Road.

 

12 MARCH 1808: The third Embargo Act is passed by Congress. Contrary to expectations, the Embargo Acts will nearly destroy the American shipping industry, as well as impose severe economic hardships on the New England States, leading to the virtual demise of small New England seaports. Days before leaving office, President Jefferson will sign the Non-Intercourse Act in March 1809, repealing the Embargo Acts.

 

18 MARCH 1818: Congress passes the first Pension Act, which provides lifetime pensions for the veterans of the Revolutionary War.

 

04 MARCH 1825: Ant-Masonic John Quincy Adams is inaugurated as the sixth president. Adams’ stated policy of avoiding political patronage will cost him important support.

 

03 MARCH 1837: On his last day in office, President Jackson recognizes the independent Lone Star Republic of Texas.

 

03 MARCH 1873: In the so-called “Salary Grab” Act, Congress increases its salaries by 50 percent and doubles both the President’s salary and that of the Justices of the Supreme Court.  To add insult to injury the increase is made retroactive for two years.  The Act is met with strong opposition among The People.  The public is deeply disgusted with the venal ways of its “representatives.”

 

22 MARCH 1882: In a move aimed directly at the Mormon Church, Congress passes the Edmunds Act prohibiting polygamists from voting or from holding public office.

 

08 MARCH 1948:The Supreme Court rules that religious training in public schools is un-Constitutional.

 

09 MARCH 1964: The Supreme Court, in New York Times v. Sullivan, rules that public officials may not recover payment in libel suits unless they can prove actual malice was involved in publishing defamatory falsehoods about their public actions.

 

29 MARCH 1976: The Supreme Court upholds, by a vote of 6-3, a lower court ruling allowing States to outlaw homosexual acts, even if committed in private by consenting adults.

 

NATIVE AMERICANS

 

17 MARCH 1775: The Treaty of Sycamore Shoals is negotiated between the Cherokee Indians and the Transylvania Company, whereby the Indians grant a land tract in the Kentucky Territory to the company in return for $10,000 in goods.

 

07 MARCH 1792: In Gnadenhutten in the Ohio Territory, American militiamen massacre 96 Christian Delaware Indians in retaliation for Indian raids executed by other tribes.

 

05 MARCH 1792: Following his November 1791 defeat by the Ohio Indians, General Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory, is replaced as the military commander of the troops in the Ohio Territory by General Anthony Wayne.

 

27 MARCH 1814: In the Creek Indian War, Tennessee militia forces led by Andrew Jackson achieve a decisive victory over the Creeks and their Cherokee allies at the battle of Horseshoe Bend, on the Tallapoosa River in Alabama.  This defeat effectively destroys all Indian resistance, thus ending the Creek War.

 

04 MARCH 1829: Andrew Jackson is inaugurated as the seventh President and calls for a fair Indian policy.  On 23 March, the Creek Indians receive a message from President Jackson ordering them either to conform to the laws of Alabama or to relocate across the Mississippi River. 

 

29 JULY 1829: In the Michigan Territory, the Chippewa, Ottawa and Potawatomi Indians cede lands to the United States.

 

18 MARCH 1831: The Supreme Court rules against the Cherokees in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia.  The Indian tribe is trying to prevent Georgia from applying its laws in Indian Territory where gold has recently been discovered.  The court rules the Cherokees are a “domestic dependent” and not a foreign nation and therefore cannot sue in Federal courts.

 

03 MARCH 1832: In Worcester v Georgia, the Supreme Court finds that the Federal Government has jurisdiction over Indians and their territories within a State.  An 1830 Georgia law had required all white citizens living in Cherokee country to have a State granted license for doing so and to swear allegiance to the State.  The court rules this law un-Constitutional because Indian nations can make treaties, and these, according to the Constitution, are the highest law in the land.  The court declares, therefore, that the laws of Georgia “can have no force” within Cherokee boundaries.  Georgia refuses to acknowledge the Court’s decision and finds support with President Jackson who declares, “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it!”

 

24 MARCH 1832: As part of President Jackson’s continuing effort to move Indians, the Creek tribe signs a Treaty to cede their territory east of the Mississippi River to the United States.

 

03 MARCH 1849: Congress establishes the Home Department which will become the Department of the Interior.  The Department begins setting policies on Indians, public lands and settlements to meet the demands of those in the West who want the land.

 

03 MARCH 1871: The Indian Appropriations Act of 1871 is accepted by Congress.  George Washington had initiated a policy toward the Indian tribes which recognized them as “distinct, independent, political communities” and “domestic dependent nations.”  Thus essentially they were to be regarded somewhat as States, with the Federal Government having ultimate Sovereignty.  The Indian Appropriations Act reverses this policy.  Tribes will no longer be regarded as independent entities with Treaty-making powers; rather, Indians are declared wards of the state.

 

MARCH 1876: General Crook encounters Cheyenne Chief Two Moons and Oglala warrior Crazy Horse at Rosebud Creek.  The Oglalas force Crook’s withdrawal.

 

13 MARCH 1885: President Cleveland warns settlers to stay off Indian lands in Oklahoma. The government has waged harsh war to round up Indians and fence them onto these acres but the land is coveted by whites.

 

SLAVERY

 

01 MARCH 1780: The Pennsylvania Assembly enacts legislation mandating the gradual Abolition of slavery within the State.

 

01 MARCH 1784: A Congressional Committee narrowly defeats a proposal by Thomas Jefferson to ban slavery everywhere in the United States after 1800.

 

MARCH 1788: The Massachusetts legislature receives a Petition from liberated blacks, instigated by a notorious Boston incident in which Free blacks were violently seized and transported to the West Indian island of Martinique.  After consideration of this protest, the Massachusetts Assembly enacts a forceful Bill to declare the slave trade illegal and to provide for monetary damages for any victims of such kidnappings.

 

22 MARCH 1794: Congress passes a Bill banning the slave trade with foreign nations.

 

29 MARCH 1799: The New York State Legislature passes a gradual emancipation law.

 

01 MARCH 1803: Ohio enters the Union as the 17th State.  Since the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 outlawed slavery in the Territory, Ohio is the first State in which slavery is illegal from the beginning.

 

02 MARCH 1807: On the recommendation of President Jefferson, Congress passes legislation prohibiting the importation of any more slaves into the United States after January 1, 1808.

 

03 MARCH 1819: Congress enacts legislation setting a $50 reward per slave for informers reporting the illegal importation of slaves into the United States.  The President is also empowered to return to Africa any slaves captured under the provision of this Act.  The smuggling of slaves has become a profitable and widespread activity.

 

03 MARCH 1820: The Missouri Compromise becomes official with the proposed admission of Maine as a Free State and of Missouri as a Slave State, and with the exclusion of slavery from the Louisiana Purchase north of 36’ 30’.

 

11 MARCH 1836: The Senate begins what will become a routine reaction to Abolitionist Petitions: they hear Petitions, then reject them.

 

17 MARCH 1836: A Constitution which formally legalizes slavery is officially adopted by Texas.

 

09 MARCH 1841: The Supreme Court rules on the Amistad case involving 53 black mutineers from a Spanish slave ship who had been taken into the United States custody.  The court upholds the lower court decision to Free the blacks and allow them to return to Africa.

 

01 MARCH 1842: The Supreme Court rules, in Prigg v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, that a Pennsylvania law forbidding the seizure of fugitive slaves in that State is un-Constitutional.  But the opinion goes on to state that the enforcement of fugitive slave laws is entirely a federal responsibility, so various Northern States use this as a loophole and adopt Personal Liberty laws.

 

21-23 MARCH 1842: Abolitionist Representative Joshua Giddings, an Ohio Whig, presents several Resolutions to the House following the controversy over the Creole mutiny and subsequent British freeing of slaves from that American vessel. Secretary of State Daniel Webster, among others, has demanded the British return the slaves because they were the “property” of American citizens.  Giddings, however, disagrees and opposes both slavery and the shipment of slaves in America’s coastal trade.  This angers Southern Representatives who are able to garner a healthy majority to vote censureship of Giddings in the House.  On March 23, Giddings resigns his seat.  In April, voters in his District will reelect Giddings; he will return to his seat in the House on May 8.

 

MARCH 1852: The complete novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is published in Boston.  Within a year it will sell over one million copies, and its critical portrayal of slave life serves to arouse both Northerners and Southerners.

 

13 MARCH 1865: In the last days of the Civil War with The South desperate for manpower, Confederate States of America President Jeff Davis signs a Bill allowing slaves to enlist; those who do are to be freed.

 

WAR ON DRUGS

 

04 MARCH 1884: Iowa adopts laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol.

 

01 MARCH 1913: In a great victory for the anti-liquor groups led by the Anti-Saloon League, the Webb-Kenyon Interstate Liquor Act is upheld by Congress overriding a Taft Veto.  The Act states that it is unlawful to ship liquor into a State which has made its sale illegal and tips the balance of power in the matter to the federal government over the State.

 

02 MARCH 1920: The maverick State of New Jersey tests the new Prohibition Amendment by declaring 3.5 percent beer legal.  But later in the year, in the National Prohibition Cases, the Supreme Court will declare such laws invalid.

 

22 MARCH 1933: Anticipating the Repeal of the 18th Amendment – Prohibition – Congress amends the Volstead Act by passing the beer and Wine Revenue Act; effective 7 April beer and wine with alcoholic content of 3.2 percent (by weight) will be legal.  FDR was also clever enough to put a solid tax on these beverages, thus satisfying two of his goals.

 

16 MARCH 2002: Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) is founded.  LEAP is made up of current and former members of law enforcement who believe the existing drug policies have failed in their intended goals of addressing the problems of crime, drug abuse, addiction, juvenile drug use, stopping the flow of illegal drugs into this country and the internal sale and use of illegal drugs. By fighting a War on Drugs, LEAP believes the government has increased the problems of society and made them far worse and contends a system of regulation rather than Prohibition is less harmful, more ethical, and a more effective public policy.