Blog Posts - Citizen Genius

Sitting Bull’s True Thoughts

11/29/2018

When Chief Sitting Bull was invited to speak at the Northern Pacific Railroad’s ceremony to mark the completion of its transcontinental railroad track in 1883, he denounced the audience by calling them “thieves” and “liars”; his speech was given a standing ovation nevertheless because the translator spoke the kinder remarks of Sitting Bull’s previously prepared text.

Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West (London: Vintage, 1991), 426-27.

Ross and Jackson: Allies to Enemies

11/8/2018

As a lieutenant in the Army, John Ross fought alongside Andrew Jackson during the Creek War in 1814, but as Cherokee leader in the 1830s, he fought against President Jackson in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the removal of the Cherokee due to the Indian Removal Act.

Sean Wilentz, The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005), 428.

Emancipation Before the Proclamation

11/2/2018

During the Civil War, Union General David Hunter gave an order freeing slaves in three Southern states, and he formed the first black Army regiment; President Abraham Lincoln reversed both actions.

Erik Loomis, A History of America in Ten Strikes (New York: The New Press, 2018), 37.

Snacking Before Burning

10/24/2018

Before the British burned the President’s House (White House) during the War of 1812, the troops drank some wine and ate some of the food that had been prepared for dinner.

Gene Allen Smith, The Slaves’ Gamble: Choosing Sides in the War of 1812 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 123.

La Follette’s Record-Breaking Filibuster

10/4/2018

When speaking in opposition to the Aldrich-Vreeland bill in 1908, Senator Robert La Follette broke the record for the longest filibuster by speaking for 18 hours and 23 minutes; lines of spectators wanting to watch filled the Capitol’s halls.

Michael Wolraich, Unreasonable Men: Theodore Roosevelt and the Republican Rebels Who Created Progressive Politics (New York: Palgrave Macmillian, 2014), 119-20.

A Less Notable July 4 Event

9/27/2018

George Washington surrendered Fort Necessity at the start of the French and Indian War on July 4, 1754.

Walter R. Borneman, The French and Indian War: Deciding the Fate of North America (New York: HarperCollins, 2006), 41.

Wars in Iraq Troops Comparison

7/26/2018

The size of the U.S. force used in Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003 – 2011) peaked at 240,000 U.S. troops, less than half the amount used in Operation Desert Storm (1991).

Mark K. Updegrove, The Last Republicans: Inside the Extraordinary Relationship Between George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush (New York: HarperCollins, 2017), 338.

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Grant and Twain

7/13/2018

When Ulysses S. Grant worked in finance in New York City after his presidency, Mark Twain often visited him at his office.

Charles Bracelen Flood, Grant’s Final Victory: Ulysses S. Grant’s Heroic Last Year (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2011), 8.

One Catholic at the Continental Congress

7/6/2018

Although Charles Carroll attended the First Continental Congress, he was not officially part of Maryland’s delegation because of his Roman Catholic faith; two years later he attended the Second Continental Congress and became the only Roman Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence.

Jay P. Dolan, The Irish Americans: A History (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2008), 14.

College Expansion Post-Civil War

6/29/2018

From the end of the Civil War to 1890, the number of college students increased from 50,000 to 150,000.

James Piereson, Shattered Consensus: The Rise and Decline of America’s Postwar Political Order (New York: Encounter Books, 2015), 270.

Jamestown Was Deadly

6/21/2018

Of the 3,600 Jamestown settlers who arrived between 1619 – 1622, 3,000 died.

Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War (New York: Viking, 2006), 5.

Two Cabinet Jobs for Monroe

5/17/2018

During the War of 1812, President James Madison appointed his secretary of state, James Monroe, to also serve as secretary of war.

Charles A. Cerami, Jefferson’s Great Gamble: The Remarkable Story of Jefferson, Napoleon and the Men Behind the Louisiana Purchase (Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, Inc., 2003), 266.

Death at the Salt Pit

5/3/2018

At a CIA prison in Afghanistan called the “Salt Pit,” in 2002 a wet, naked, and chained prisoner died of hypothermia overnight in his cell; he was buried in an unmarked grave.

Jane Mayer, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals (New York: Doubleday, 2008), 225.

Douglas at Lincoln’s Inauguration

4/26/2018

When President Abraham Lincoln took off his top hat to give his first inaugural address, Stephen Douglas volunteered to hold the hat.

Roy Morris, Jr., The Long Pursuit: Abraham Lincoln’s Thirty-Year Struggle with Stephen Douglas for the Heart and Soul of America (New York: HarperCollins, 2008), 210.

Silver from the Comstock Lode

4/13/2018

From 1860 to 1890, $340,000,000 worth of silver was mined from the Comstock Lode.

Fon W. Boardman, Jr., America and the Gilded Age: 1876 – 1900 (New York: Henry Z. Walck, Inc., 1972), 47.

New Schools for the Newly Freed

4/6/2018

By 1866, over 900 schools for freed African Americans were established, and they were educating 90,000 students.

Douglas R. Egerton, The Wars of Reconstruction: The Brief, Violent History of America’s Most Progressive Era (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2014), 11.

Population Growth in the 13 Colonies

3/30/2018

The population of the thirteen colonies increased from about 500,000 in 1700 to nearly 3 million in 1775.

Kevin Phillips, 1775: A Good Year for Revolution (New York: Viking, 2012), 134.

Pollution’s Proliferation

3/22/2018

In 1967, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare released a report that revealed that all major U.S. cities had hazardous sulfur dioxide levels.

G. Calvin Mackenzie and Robert Weisbrot, The Liberal Hour: Washington and the Politics of Change in the 1960s (New York: The Penguin Press, 2008), 214.

Bunker for Congress to Carry On

3/16/2018

During the Cold War a 120,000 square foot bunker was built into a West Virginia mountain that had chambers for the House of Representatives and Senate, living accommodations for members of Congress and their staffs, a hospital, and a crematorium.

Evan Thomas, Ike’s Bluff: President Eisenhower’s Secret Battle to Save the World (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2012), 268-69.

Teddy’s Conservationism

3/9/2018

President Theodore Roosevelt created five national parks and 51 wildlife refuges.

Aida D. Donald, Lion in the White House: A Life of Theodore Roosevelt (New York: Basic Books, 2007), 193.