Amendment XXI

Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

Section 2. The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.

Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

The Twenty-First Amendment was ratified December 5, 1933.

From Nate:

With this amendment, prohibition became a state or local issue.

Amendment XXVI

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The Twenty-Sixth Amendment was ratified July 1, 1971.

From Nate:

"If you can die for your country in the military, you should be able to vote" – for the politicians who send young Americans into harms way.

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation ...

One thing that Congress does not do is set standards for voter registration or for voting machines. And, Congress does not fund these enterprises. Currently, each state and local jurisdictions perform these functions.

A disaster arose in Florida in the presidential election of 2000. The election was so close, and punch card ballots were not counted if the counting machines could not determine whether a voter selected a candidate. If the punch wasn't completely empty, the counting machine did not recognize the vote. This came to be called "hanging chads " by the industry which manufactured these machines.

Congress had no say in the matter. Voting has been under the supervision of the state legislature and had enacted a rule for an automatic recount. However, the recount had a deadline if Florida was going to be able submit its votes for the Electoral Collage without negative consequences.

The Florida Supreme Court weighed in – with dubious state constitutional authority.

Two cases were submitted to the Unites States Supreme Court addressing different issues.

Finally, two hours before the Electoral College deadline, the Supreme Court ruled that the original ruling by Florida's Secretary of State that George W. Bush had won the popular vote. Candidate Al (Albert) Gore, Jr., conceded the next day.

The Supreme Court majority (5 to 4) ruled based on the spirit of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment:

"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; ... nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

Some constitutional scholars believe that the federal Supreme Court made the right decision but based on the wrong grounds. A lot has been written about the subject, but something similar could happen again (see ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE FLORIDA SUPREME COURT, Bush v. Gore, Case (00-949), [December 12, 2000], Cornell University Law School Supreme Court Collection, February 1, 2006, accessed December 7, 2009).

Dear Reviewer . . .

Dear Reviewer,

Please use the menu list on the left to see everything that I posted about each amendment.

Some postings for amendments have additional labels such as "That's Outrageous."

Thanks and enjoy.

Nate Segal

Amendment XXV

Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

Section 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.

Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session.

If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

The Twenty-Fifth Amendment was ratified February 10, 1967.

From Nate Segal:

This amendment introduces the term 'Acting President.' Amendment XXII speaks of man "acting as president." I believe that these ideas are not quite the same.

The United States was without a vice president on several occasions. This amendment addresses this issue: the president appoints a vice president, and this vice president is in line to become president like any other vice president.

This Amendment is long – 393 words.
However, Amendment XIV is the longest amendment, containing 430 words.
The third longest amendment, Amendment XII, has 237 words.

Amendment XX

Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January,
and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January,
of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified;
and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

Section 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

Section 3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President.
If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified;
and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.

Section 4. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.

Section 5. Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article.

Section 6. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission.

The Twentieth Amendment was ratified January 23, 1933.

From Nate:

Among other things, this amendment closes the gap between the time of the presidential election and the inauguration. Previously, the inauguration had been in the spring, on March 4th.

It seems to me that this is a case of the Constitution catching up to the way Americans were living. With railroads spanning the continent, the time gap of a "lame duck" president could have been closed fifty years earlier.

So why in 1933?

The unpopular President Herbert Hoover was the lame duck. The stock market had crashed in October 1929. By the time Americans had voted for president in 1932, many were not only jobless but homeless. Entire families lived outdoors in makeshift accommodations. They called these camps "Hoovervilles" – President Hoover was keeping his hands off the economy although it wasn't improving.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was president-elect. Everyone knew his platform and ideas for rescuing America from its greatest depression. And yet the clock ticked away.

In truth, this amendment was proposed by Congress in March 1932, well before the election. This point is consistent with the feeling of removing President Hoover as early as possible. On the other hand, it was declared ratified in February 1933 after the new presidency would have begin. Perhaps this was a way of showing deference to a sitting president by not changing the rules especially to his detriment.

· · ·

Some history:

Concerning the Electoral College's choosing a president and vice president, we find in Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution:

"The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes."

Ordinarily, Congress was in session on the first Monday of December (see Article I, Section 4). They wanted to go home before winter set in and only return when roads were passable in the spring.

In the years of presidential elections, the quorum of a new Congress could have already assembled in December waiting for the arrival of the electors from all the states.

The Appalachian Mountains were a barrier between the original states and "western" territories. However, electors from Kentucky and Tennessee, riding through the Cumberland Gap over the Wilderness Road *, were hardly farther time-wise from the nation's capital than inland Vermont (1791) – maybe even closer. These two states had entered the Union in 1792 and 1796.

As new states entered the Union, they lay along the large interior rivers: the Ohio, the Missouri, and the Mississippi Rivers. Before Michigan entered the Union in 1837, only three states from the Northwest Territory had entered the Union – Ohio in 1803, Indiana in 1816, and Illinois in 1818.

According to Jack Beatty (Age of Betrayal: the Triumph of Money in America, 1865-1900, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007, page 16) people going from Illinois to New York in 1830 might be traveling up to three weeks. No other state capital was farther from New York. Of course, the capital of the United States was in Washington, D.C., not New York. But this figure gives a feel for the season of presidential elections.

1825 was the year of the "Great Betrayal." The candidates had been Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford (a Southern cotton planter), John Quincy Adams, Speaker of the House Henry Clay, and Secretary of War John C. Calhoun – and none had secured a simple majority in the Electoral College. The House would decide among the three top finishers, each state receiving one vote. Clay had finished fourth and Crawford had suffered a massive, disabling stroke. However, on the evening of January 9, Clay and Adams met in Washington "at Clay's invitation, mainly, it seems, to smooth over their personal differences."

The subseqent allegations that Adams and Clay struck a "Corrupt Bargain" in which Adams promised Clay the office of secretary of state in exchange for his support for the presidency, were highly dubious – and also devastating (Sean Wilentz, Andrew Jackson, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2005, pages 47-8).

The long winter until spring was a time of political mischief in 1825. I don't know how long Congress was away for the holidays. I don't know where the presidential electors were, although they were probably enjoying themselves in Washington. November - election. December - travel to Washington and cast preliminary votes. January - wait for revised voting instructions. Congress returns to elect the president, one vote for each of the 24 states. March 4th - inaugurate the new president. Life was slower than we can probably imagine. And plenty of time for mischief.

* From Wikipedia:

The Wilderness Road was the principal route used by settlers to reach Kentucky for more than fifty years. In 1775, Daniel Boone blazed a trail for the Transylvania Company from Fort Chiswell in Virginia through the Cumberland Gap into central Kentucky. It was later lengthened, following Native American trails, to reach the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville. The Wilderness Road was steep and rough, and could only be traversed on foot or horseback. Despite the adverse conditions, thousands of people used it. In 1792, the new Kentucky legislature provided money to upgrade the road. In 1796, an improved all-weather road was opened for wagon and carriage travel. The road was abandoned around 1840, although modern highways follow much of its route.

(Wikipedia, "Wilderness Road," Accessed December 13, 2009)

Amendment XIX

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The Nineteenth Amendment was ratified August 18, 1920.

Amendment XVIII

[ Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

Section 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission here of to the States by the Congress. ]

The Eighteenth Amendment was ratified January 16, 1914. It was repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment, December 5, 1933.

From Nate:

What were they thinking? Would legislation prevent workers from drinking away their wages? Would they arrive at their jobs on Monday without hangovers?
I believe that this amendment was conceived without a sense of human nature. Distillation of alcohol only went underground, and abuse possibly intensified.
Today, we have a war on drugs that has been proven futile.

New York Times - Tues Dec 8, 2009 page D1
"A. Thomas McLellan: Scientist at Work - Addiction on 2 Fronts: Work and Home"
Sarah Kershaw – WASHINGTON
"A new top federal drug-control official knows his enemy well."

"PERSONAL MATTER A. Thomas McLellean says he is working against not just drug abuse, but also the belief by many that it is a moral, not medical, issue."

Amendment XVII

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years;
and each Senator shall have one vote.
The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.

When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies:
Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

The Seventeenth Amendment was ratified April 8, 1913.

Amendment XVI

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

The Sixteenth Amendment was ratified February 3, 1913.

This is the income tax which we pay to this day.

It is enforced by the Internal Revenue Service.

Brief History of IRS

Origin

The roots of IRS go back to the Civil War when President Lincoln and Congress, in 1862, created the position of commissioner of Internal Revenue and enacted an income tax to pay war expenses. The income tax was repealed 10 years later. Congress revived the income tax in 1894, but the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional the following year.

16th Amendment

In 1913, Wyoming ratified the 16^th Amendment, providing the three-quarter majority of states necessary to amend the Constitution. The 16^th Amendment gave Congress the authority to enact an income tax. That same year, the first Form 1040 appeared after Congress levied a 1 percent tax on net personal incomes above $3,000 with a 6 percent surtax on incomes of more than $500,000.

• 1913 Form 1040 (PDF 126KB, 4 pages, including instructions)

In 1918, during World War I, the top rate of the income tax rose to 77 percent to help finance the war effort. It dropped sharply in the post-war years, down to 24 percent in 1929, and rose again during the Depression. During World War II, Congress introduced payroll withholding and quarterly tax payments.

A New Name

In the 50s, the agency was reorganized to replace a patronage system with career, professional employees. The Bureau of Internal Revenue name was changed to the Internal Revenue Service. Only the IRS commissioner and chief counsel are selected by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

Today's IRS Organization

The IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 prompted the most comprehensive reorganization and modernization of IRS in nearly half a century. The IRS reorganized itself to closely resemble the private sector model of organizing around customers with similar needs.

(Page Last Reviewed or Updated by IRS: November 01, 2007)

Reconstruction

According to Ginsberg, Lowi, and Weir:

Protected by the presence of federal troops, African American men were able to exercise their political rights immediately after the [Civil] war. During Reconstruction, blacks were elected to many political offices: two black senators were elected from Mississippi and a total of fourteen African Americans were elected to the House of Representatives between 1869 and 1877. African Americans held many state-level political offices. As voters and public officials, black citizens found a home in the Republican Party, which had secured the ratification of the three constitutional amendments guaranteeing black rights. ... This political equality was short-lived, however. The national government withdrew its troops from the South and turned its back on African Americans in 1877. In the Compromise of 1877, southern Democrats agreed to allow the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, to become president after a disputed election. In exchange, northern Republicans dropped their support for the civil liberties and political participation of African Americans (pages 161-62).

Amendment XV

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The Fifteenth Amendment was ratified February 3, 1870.

From Nate Segal:

We all know how this amendment came about after the Civil War to give the right to vote to the former slaves.
What I didn't know was that African-Americans had been denied voting rights in the North, also.

Lawrence M. Friedman wrote:

In 1860, there were only five states, all in New England, which permitted blacks to vote. Massachusetts was the only state to allow black men on juries. The post-Civil War amendments gave Northern blacks the vote, but did not change very much the climate of opinion.

– A History of American Law, Second Edition (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985) page 507.

"The climate of opinion" is, of course racism. Laws don't change what's in people's hearts. Within only several years after this amendment was ratified, Southerners devised ways to deprive African American's the vote and, in fact, virtually all civil liberites.

You might say that the North won the Civil War, but the South won the peace.

Amendment XIV

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States;
nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;
nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed.
But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.
But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.
But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave;
but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified July 9, 1868.

From Nate Segal:

The federal government promised to pay pensions to men who fought for the Union. This was supposed to include all the African-Americans who joined the Union army. I'm not sure what the government actually did. Although slavery had been abolished, racism didn't go away.

According to authors Paul Kendrick and Stephen Kendrick, abolitionists had to struggle with the federal government so that black soldiers would be paid the same amount as white soldiers. "In June of 1864 President Lincoln had asked Attorney General Edward Bates his opinion on what the government legally owed these men [black men in the military] in terms of equal payment." (Douglass and Lincoln: How a Revolutionary Black Leader and a Reluctant Liberator Struggled to End Slavery and Save the Union, New York: Walker & Company, 2008, page 221)

With this amendment, former slaves became full citizens of the United States and also full citizens of the state that they lived in. Former slaves are now being counted as one full person instead of as three-fifths of a person.

I get mixed up. Three Fifths or Five Thirds?
(www.53.com)

Amendment XIII

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The Thirteenth Amendment was ratified December 6, 1865.

From Nate Segal:

This is the first of the Civil War Amendments. Americans felt then that only an amendment to the Constitution would end slavery. Otherwise, states could assert their rights to enact legislation that reflected the will of the voters within the state. The country would return to its status of before the Civil War began. In fact, states could again entertain the idea of seceding. Americans had been debating the legality of a state seceding from the Presidency of Thomas Jefferson onward. John C. Calhoun was a leading politician of his time who addressed the constitutionality of seceding. He died in 1850, so we can't "blame" him for the Civil War. (Calhoun was vice-president under both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. He had been a representative in Congress for South Carolina and would become a senator after he had been vice president.)

From Wikipedia,

"Attempts or aspirations of secession from the United States have been a feature of the politics of the country since its birth." (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secession_in_the_United_States, accessed November 29, 2009)

The Embargo Act of 1807 [enacted by President Thomas Jefferson] was seen as a threat to the economy of Massachusetts and in late May 1808 the state legislature debated how the state should respond. Once again these debates generated isolated references to secession, but no clear cut plot ever materialized.

Spurred on by some Federalist party members, the Hartford Convention was convened on December 15, 1814 to address both the opposition to the War of 1812 (which lasted until 1815) and the domination of the federal government by the Virginia political dynasty. Twenty-six delegates attended – Massachusetts sent 12 delegates, Connecticut seven, and Rhode Island four. New Hampshire and Vermont decided not to send delegates although two counties from each state did send delegates.

Historian Donald R. Hickey noted: "Despite pleas in the New England press for secession and a separate peace, most of the delegates taking part in the Hartford Convention were determined to pursue a moderate course. Only Timothy Bigelow of Massachusetts apparently favored extreme measures, and he did not play a major role in the proceedings."

The final report addressed issues related to the war and state defense and recommended seven constitutional amendments dealing with "the overrepresentation of white southerners in Congress, the growing power of the West, the trade restrictions and the war, the influence of foreigners (like Albert Gallatin), and the Virginia dynasty's domination of national politics."

Massachusetts and Connecticut endorsed the report, but the war ended as the states' delegates were on their way to Washington, effectively ending any impact the report might have had. Generally the convention was a "victory for moderation," but the timing led to the convention being identified as "a synonym for disloyalty and treason" and was a major factor in the sharp decline of the Federalist Party.

William L. Barney (2001) wrote:

When Congress met in December 1863, the Republican Party [President Lincoln's party] committed itself to a constitutional amendment that would forever abolish slavery throughout the United States. ... Encouraged by ... public support, the Senate approved the 13th Amendment in April 1864, but in June Democratic opposition in the House prevented the amendment from obtaining the needed two-thirds majority.

Following his reelection in the fall of 1864, President Abraham Lincoln redoubled his efforts on behalf of the 13th Amendment. Although most Democrats continued to hold that the federal government had no constitutional authority to interfere with slavery in the states, enough of them changed their votes to enable the 13th Amendment to pass Congress in January 1865. The necessary three-fourths of the states ratified the amendment by the end of that year.

(The Civil War and Reconstruction: A Student Companion, New York: Oxford University Press, pages 315-16)

Some points from Nate:

• Democrats generally held that the federal government could not unilaterally wrest property from the slave owners – slaves being property – without recourse to judicial proceedings. After all, the Bill of Rights protects citizens from being deprived of property "without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation" – Amendment V.
• The Senate approved the 13th Amendment in April 1864 – a Senate of only 21 of the 32 states. While that's about two-thirds of the states, barely two-thirds of the House approved the amendment on January 31, 1865. According to authors Paul Kendrick and Stephen Kendrick, the House vote was 119 to 56 (Douglass and Lincoln: How a Revolutionary Black Leader and a Reluctant Liberator Struggled to End Slavery and Save the Union, New York: Walker & Company, 2008, page 223).
• President Lincoln signed the amendment although he didn't have to (Krannawitter, Thomas L., Vindicating Lincoln: Defending the Politics of Our Greatest President, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2008, page 284).
• The necessary three-fourths of the states ratified this amendment by the end of 1865. General Robert E. Lee had surrendered to General Ulysses Grant on April 12, 1865. The 11 states of the Confederacy were forced to ratify this amendment as a condition of being readmitted into the Union. On the other hand, these 11 states were forced to rejoin the Union because the North won the war.
• Concerning the states that bordered the South – Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia (which only became a state during the Civil War by breaking away from Virginia), Kentucky, and Missouri – Barney wrote, "It was here [in the Border South] that he [President Lincoln] was most likely to sanction military arrests and the closing down of pro-secessionist newspapers" (page 43). I've already commented that I believe that President Lincoln was an imperial president and that he violated several tenets of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

· · ·

From the United States Mint:

When Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861, the Nation was already on the verge of civil war, and fighting soon broke out at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. Shortly after the Battle of Antietam, in late 1862, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves in rebel territory free as of January 1, 1863. The Union victory at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on July 3, 1863, marked a crucial turning point in the war in favor of the North.

On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was mortally wounded by an assassin, John Wilkes Booth, while watching a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington. Army physicians worked to save him throughout the night, but he never regained consciousness and died at 7:22 AM the next morning at the age of 56.

· · ·

Lincoln

(from Ford Motors in 2010)

I disavow myself from Libertarianism, but here's an interesting site about "King" Abraham Lincoln: