Petitions Quotes
Mr. Brandeis was Louis D. Brandeis, first Jewish Supreme Court Justice and one of the leading Zionist world leaders. Theodor Herzel is generally credited with being the father of Zionism but his treatise was written in 1895. Four years earlier, Blackstone, a Methodist Evangelical Minister, had drafted what has come to be called the Blackstone Memorial, which was a petition to President Benjamin Harrison to have American foreign policy work to return the Jews to Palestine where they would have a state and government. The petition was signed by over 400 notables. Straus, Brandeis and other Jewish Zionists credited Blackstone even though history has almost forgotten him. See {614860} for quotes from the Blackstone Memorial.
After Adams’ term as President, he was elected to the House of Representatives where he served for the rest of his career. He was constantly calling for the emancipation of slaves (see {77463}) in the House debates. The Southern Congressmen were so offended by this that they got the majority of the House to pass a rule that made using the word “slavery” out of order. It was called the “Gag Rule”. Adams, one of the best legislators and lawyers of his day, then started reading in the House debates petitions of his constituents calling for an end to slavery. The Southerners called for the Speaker to declare him out of order for violating the gag rule. But Adams pointed out that the Constitution gave citizens the right to petition Congress with no controls on the petitions. Therefore the reading of the petitions was Constitutionally mandated and trumped the Rules of the House. He then arranged to have many petitions submitted which he dutifully read on the House floor to the extreme anger of the Southerners.
He like many others had signed petitions for good causes that were circulated by Communist organizations. Racists then used that fact to claim that desegregation, voting rights and anti-lynching laws were communist ideas. With the Red Scare operating in the 1950s, Terkel, like so many others were Blacklisted and denied opportunities to earn a living. Many claimed that they had been duped and don’t really believe in these causes. Some like Terkel would not. He opposed most of the Communist programs, but agreed with some. Ironically, ideas like anti-lynching and voting rights which were then labeled as Communist ideology, are today supported by the vast majority of Americans.
Duchess of Bedford. In 1853, during a visit to England, Harriet Beecher Stowe was presented with a petition containing the signatures of over a half million British women asking for an end to American Slavery. It was in 26 bound volumes. The backing of the prestigious Duchess and so many other English women had a profound effect on American Women and the growing strength of the Abolition movement.
Sanger faced charges of obscenity for explaining birth control in a magazine she founded called the Woman Rebel. She got no political support from Wilson or the Democrats. The few politicians who did support her were Republican progressives and reformers.
Donald Trump had won the presdiency by winning a majority of the votes of the Electoral College. However his opponent Hillary Clinton garnered about 2 million more votes. Several other presidents have won with a minority vote. These occurances did not affect the Presidents' legitimacy as the Electoral College was specified in the Constitution, However, it did undercut the concept that the President had a mandate. Other presidents just carried on and either earded the respect of the majoprity of AMericans or did not over time. Howevewr, Trump, who was so sensitive and fragile about his image, kept responding to comedians like Bee by claiming that the only reason he lost the poular vote was voter fraud by illegal immigrants. However he never offered any evidence of such and there were no convictions for same or even arrests and trials.
It was signed by over 400 American notables—politicians and clergy, Christian and Jewish. Signers included the Mayors of Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore, congressmen and editors of most of the leading newspapers of the day. Blackstone’s Memorial predated the Zionist writings of Theodor Herzl by 4 years and Blackstone, thought a Christian, was credited as being the “Father of Zionism” by many of the American Jewish Zionist leaders. See {614859}.
Many of the fundamental principles of government that were in the United States Constitution, were already in the Constitutions of different states. Vermont had a substantial number of them. When we speak of the Constitution as a “revolutionary document” it was to the rest of the world but not to many Americans who had these concepts in their state constitutions and had been living with them for some time.
In 1836 the House of Representatives adopted the so-called "Gag Rule" whereby the house could not act on all further petitions regarding slavery, even though thousands of petitions were being received. Adams was one of the few who protested the Gag Rule:. Adams even submitted petitions with which he did not agree:. Every year Adams attempted to get the Gag Rule repealed. He was even threatened with censure for his efforts, but his status as an ex-president protected him. Finally, in 1844, Adams' perennial resolution carried:
Adams had submitted to the House a petition from some of his constituents calling for a dissolution of the Union on the grounds that the existence of slavery nullified a sufficient part of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights so that the union should be nullified and in effect anti slavery states such as Massachusetts would not be bound by slavery supporters blocking anti-slavery legislation. State’s rights and succession cut both ways potentially in America’s race history. The vast majority of the house members were indignant that any responsible member would introduce a petition, and there were calls for Adam’s expulsion from the House from the majority of the members. The leadership however thought this might set some bad precedents, and tried to persuade the membership to on the grounds of mercy and comity just censure him. Adams responded with this famous quotation cutting the legs from under both the leadership and the membership with the result being that no action was taken.
This was one of several petitions that were sent to the President by groups of scientists who were working on the development of the atomic bomb. The major objective of the scientists was to demonstrate the power of the bomb before it was used. The President did not select this policy of demonstration as the invasion of the Japanese mainland was imminent and America only had two bombs—one a uranium and the other, plutonium. If the demonstration would not produce the unconditional surrender, then there would only be one weapon left and it would take months to produce another. This was the strongest argument against using up a bomb. It was somewhat borne out when the Japanese did not surrender after the first bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima. It took the second.
Johnson rued that the Governor and other authorities of Alabama could not block or harass the Civil rights protesters.
Nguyen Ai Quoc was early pseudonym. At the Versailles WWI Peace Conference a young, 29 year old, Ho Chi Minh showed up and tried to present his petition for Vietnamese independence to Woodrow Wilson and the other non-French leaders. (Indochina was then a French colony.) Little attention was paid to him and his petition. Even though Wilson was for national self determination, all the other major WWI Allies had overseas colonial empires. After suffering losses from German aggression they were interested in getting those back plus reparations—not ceding away any of their then existing territory. They paid little attention to Wilson on the self determination issue and the Senate would not support Wilson on the League of Nations which then might have pressed for self determination. Ho was snubbed. It was a costly, unjust snub for the world.
In an unprecedent event for Broadway, Victor Dixon, as the cast was taking its curtain call of the then hootest musical play, "Halilton", read aloud this statement to the audience and the new Vice President Elect, Mike Pence who was attending the show. The document had been written and endorsed by the entire cast as a group. The trigger for this unusal happening was the winning of the presidency by Donald Trump who had throughout the campain made many racist statements about monorities and a contual tirade of sexist, anti-female statements. It had also been revealed that Tromp had been sexually accosting women. During and after the campaign, Pence had not himself made any of these statemetns or even indicated that he agreed with them, but he did not public;y deagree or disavow them. The message was clarly meandt for Donald Trump. The Vice President then walked out, and many in the audience booed him in the process. Victor Dixon asked them not do boo the vice president as the cast was trying to keep thir message on a high plane, but the audience wanted to express their view. Pence was hot offended personally by the message but walked out in defference to Trump. Teh President elect however was outraged and in the early morning hours went on one of his many tweeting tirades against the cast of Hamilton--to many an overreaction to criticism to which Presidents in America have to become accostomed.
In one of the most unusual revolutions in world history, Brazil became independent from Portugal via a revolution led by the son of the Portuguese King and heir to the throne, Pedro I. The crown prince of Portugal, led Brazil in her breakaway from Portugal and by popular acclaim became Pedro I, Emperor of Brazil. He is probably the only monarch in history who was the heredity monarch of one kingdom and selected by popular acclaim to the throne of another.
