The violation of American neutral rights was not the major cause of the War of 1812. Many other factors far more important contributed to the war. Some of these factors include the chance of potentially gaining Canada or Florida and issues between the Indians and Britain.

One of the major causes of the War of 1812 was the problems with the Indians. Many people in the West were angry that the Indians were blocking Americans from expansion into the frontier area. Much of this anger was directed towards Britain, who supported the Indians by supplying them with guns and other weapons to aid in their defense. Another crucial cause of the War of 1812 was over land. The chance of America potentially gaining Canada or Florida aroused the Democratic-Republicans in the South and in the West. Support from these areas was strong for gaining one or even both of these territories, since they would add more agricultural states to the Union. Some people, such as John Randolph, believed that this hunger for land was the main cause of the war, not neutral rights. Randolph expresses this belief by saying, “Agrarian cupidity, not maritime right, urges the war.”

In conclusion, the neutral rights of the United States were not the main cause of the War of 1812. This is evident because although Britain and France both violated American neutral rights, the Americans insisted on only fighting the British. Indian problems and the chance of gaining land were more important in the cause of the war than American neutral rights. 

Some days ago, I was thinking of Afghan women and I wonder about them. There was a time when I used to read a lot on the issue. Feminist groups had started to denounce the situation these women were having in their country. I also read some reports of Amnesty International that were enough to make any sensitive person to shudder.  Then, these women seem to have vanished from the world arena. 

I really wonder about them. 

All what I know about Afghanistan is that women are forced to wear the burka. Few of them will choose to wear it on their own will, but the majority won’t. They claim that it’s very hot inside this robe. Worse still, I’d say, it’s as if they don’t exist. In fact, they don’t. In rural areas, very young girls are forced into marriage. 60% are battered. They aren’t allowed to go to a doctor when they need it and worse still, they aren’t allowed to study. Afghan women are isolated at home and they are stopped to take part in public life.

As I say it, it is as though they don’t exist, but to work at home or in the fields, and they are only for the men who bought them in marriage. 

First, it was their fight to free themselves from Soviet rule. Then, it was the civil war of fundamentalist groups that were supported by foreign powers. Many of them died in the struggle and under the tyranny of the fundamentalists. 60% of the widows in Kabul choose to commit suicide as an only option and immolation is a way to escape from misery and tyranny. 

When I see or read on this issues, it makes me think that we have progressed very little no matter how many inventions have come up in our so called modern world. We can’t say that we’ve progressed while in parts of the world there women being battered and condemned to illiteracy and ostracism, because we women make up half of the world population. 

Official language: English

Land area: 3,619,239 sq mi/9,366,014 sq km

Population:  310,462,000

Dominant religion: Christianity

Capital: Washington, D.C.

Current leader: President Barack Obama

United States is a large country in North America, spanning the entire east-west distance of the continent. It is world’s fourth largest country in landmass and third largest in population. Only Russia, Canada and China cover more land and only China and India have more people. When the states of Alaska and Hawaii, both which are separated from the mainland, are included, the United States covers more land than China. The U.S. is bordered by Canada to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Gulf of Mexico and Mexico to the south and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is comprised of 50 states and one federal district.

 The United States is widely considered to be the world’s most ethnically diverse country. Virtually every nationality and ethnic group in the world is represented. People of European descent make up about 65 percent of the population; Hispanics and people of African descent make up about 12 percent each; people of Asian/Middle Eastern and Pacific Islander descent make up about 10 percent and Native Americans comprise about 1 percent. Because of the country’s ongoing stubborn racial divide people of mixed ancestry have long been forced to identify with just one race or ethnic group and therefore the federal government has never been able to keep an accurate number of people of mixed ancestry. Only about 2.4 million, less than 1 percent of the population, officially acknowledge mixed heritage but this number is believed to include only those of mixed African and European ancestry. But if the vast number of blacks and whites who also claim Native American ancestry are included, as well as those of mixed black and Hispanic ancestry, mixed white and Hispanic ancestry, mixed Hispanic and Asian ancestry, mixed black and Asian ancestry and mixed white and Asian ancestry, the percentage of Americans of mixed ancestry can very well be as high as 15 percent.

 The United States is the world’s largest market economy and widely considered to be the world’s wealthiest nation. American-made goods can be found in almost every corner of the globe. It is the most highly industrialized nation with vast deposits of natural resources and very few countries have made as much use of their natural resources as the U.S. has. Because of the country’s wealth and opportunities, the United States has long been the top destination for immigrants and it is one of the world’s top tourist destinations. Glitzy major cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Houston, Miami and Atlanta are symbols of vast financial opportunities and entertainment.

 Christopher Columbus landed in the Bahamas in 1492 but the land that is now the United States remained unexplored until the 1520’s, when the Spanish began exploring the southeastern U.S. The oldest incorporated city in the U.S., St. Augustine, Florida, was founded in 1565. At about the same time, however, the British and French were also beginning to stake claims to parts of the new land further north. In the 1600’s British territory was taking the shape of 13 colonies along the Atlantic Ocean. In 1775, these 13 colonies began revolting against British rule, sparking the American Revolution. On July 4, 1776, the colonies officially declared independence although the war would rage on for another seven years. For the next roughly 120 years, through a series of treaties, purchases and wars, and not to mention atrocities against Native Americans who were already inhabiting the land, the United States would expand westward until finally reaching the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Under the 1783 Treaty of Paris, it was given all the land east of the Mississippi River. It gained control of Florida from Spain and annexed Texas in the 1840’s. The Louisiana Purchase from France nearly doubled the size of the country. It was awarded what now makes up Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah in 1848 after defeating Mexico in the Mexican-American War. It fought another war with its colonial ruler, the United Kingdom, in the War of 1812, in which the British destroyed Washington, D.C. It would be the last time a foreign power would invade American soil.

 While the U.S. rapidly expanded there was one issue that was increasingly dividing the country – slavery. By 1819, every Northern state had abolished slavery but for the South, whose economy depended heavily on agriculture, slavery was part of the lifeline. In the mid-1800’s Congress was passing a series of laws which, in the opinion of the South, had the ultimate goal of ending slavery. In 1861, following the election of Abraham Lincoln as president, the Southern states broke away and declared themselves the Confederate States of America, sparking the American Civil War. Four years and more than 600,000 deaths later, the country was reunited. Afterwards, the country continued to grow. The Spanish-American War of 1898 marked the country’s debut as a global military superpower. It gained its first foreign possessions – the Philippines, Guam and Cuba. During World War I it showed its superpower potential again by helping the United Kingdom, France and Italy defeat Germany and Austria-Hungary. Although the country tried to retreat from the world stage but was called back in World War II, emerging from the war as the world’s most powerful nation and leader of the free world. During the Cold War, the United States was about all that stood between the free world and the spread of communism by the Soviet Union. In the Korean War it saved South Korea from communism although it failed to stop communism in the Vietnam War. In the 1991 Persian Gulf War it took the lead in turning back Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

 While it was trying to keep the world safe from the Soviet Union in the 1950’s and 60’s the U.S. also had to save itself at home. During that period, blacks, long disenfranchised as second-class citizens, began taking to the streets in the civil rights movement, demanding more equal rights and an end to the humiliation of segregation. By the end of the 1960’s segregation was no more but racial problems continue to persist. Through it all, most people continue to consider the United States the greatest country in the world and the best example of democracy and it even with the removal of the Soviet threat, it continues to take an active role in global affairs as the world’s lone military superpower.

Let us go back to the civil War…., in 1862, President Lincoln created the position of ‘commisioner of Internal Revenue’ and enacted the income tax to pay for increasing war epspenses. this income tax was repealed 10 years later until Congress revived the tax in 1894. However, just one year later, the Supreme Court ruled the income tax unconstitutional.

Then in 1913, say hello to the 16th Amendment, ratified by Wyoming, it provided the three-quarter majority needed to amend the constitution. So, what did the 16th amendment do?, it gave congress the authority to enact an income tax.

The first 1040 Form came that same year after congress levied a 1% tax on net personal incomes over $3,000. there was also a 6% sutax on incomes greater than $500,000.

During World War I, in 1918, the top rate of income tax rose to 77% to help finance the war. It dropped to 24% after the war but rose again during the Great Depression. And… (woulldn’t you know it?) during War World II Congress introduced the payroll withholding and quarterly tax payments. This set the stage for taxes as we know them today.

Currently there are Fatherhood groups that are training male abusers to use the judicial system to their advantage.  Fathers are coached and sometimes even told that if they will go to court to try and obtain custody of their children from the mothers that they will be supported by the Judges in their district to do this.  Here’s how it works.

The lawyers know about these special programs for fathers.  The federal entitlement program is called, “Federal Parental Access and Visitation Grants.”  These funds come under the directive of “Responsible Fatherhood Programs” instituted in the 1990’s.  The Department of Human Services has produced a program called, “Meeting the Challenge:  What the Federal Government Can Do to Support Responsible Fatherhood Efforts.”  The lawyers often tell the abusing fathers that if they cooperate and continuously use the judicial system and pay a fee up front, that those fees will be rebated to the fathers a small amount at a time through the reduction on their child support fees and also in general sums from the amounts the Judges and counties are getting from the federal government.  These funds are wasteful and the process is harmful to domestic violence survivors and their children.  As the abuser repeatedly takes the mother back to court for modifications in visitation plans, the court gets paid through the DHS, and the fathers receive a kick-back.  They can also do this to repeatedly wear the survivor out, and eventuallly apply for a change in child custody.  It is unfortunate that our courts are a party to this corruption.

Other activities sponsored by these grants are Mediation between the divorcing parties, a “children in the middle” class for both parties before the divorce, counseling, and of course, alterations in the visitation plans.  Every time an abusing father is allowed to use a court clerk or court advocate to re-develop or institute a modification or enforcement of a parenting plan the court receives special funds from these grants aforementioned, so the Judges are not listening to the evidence a woman brings to the court because they are focused on the numbers related to the grant money they will get.  This can be particularly abusive in small rural communities where there are less funds.  One county in a rural Oregon community is so broke that they are considering the utilization of road funds to pay the wages for the Deputy District Attorney in charge of prosecuting the abusers this next year.  Even so, that District Attorney is only able to take about half of the cases to court.  Her salary per year is in the $70,000 range.  So, it behooves the lawyers, judges and Fatherhood Rights groups to tap in to any other funds they can find, and in this way the counties win, the abusers win, but the victims are battered again.  Yes, there is a Civil War going on in America.

Under the peace deal, Syrian troops must withdraw from protest centres by Tuesday. But US officials said the situation appeared to have worsened.

Monday proved to be one of the bloodiest days of the uprising, with activists reporting more than 100 dead.

Earlier violence spilled across Syria’s borders with Turkey and Lebanon.

Turkey protested angrily, summoning Syria’s envoy in Ankara after two incidents along their joint border left two dead and many injured, including Turkish citizens.

Separately a Lebanese cameraman was shot dead on Lebanon’s northern border with Syria.

Continue reading the main story Ceasefire timetable

• 10 April: Government must withdraw troops and heavy weapons such as tanks from towns, cities and villages
• Following 48 hours: Ceasefire to be implemented on the ground with the onus on the opposition to follow the government’s lead
• 06:00 local time on 12 April: All forms of violence must be stopped on all sides
• Next step: All parties to hold talks on a political solution

The surge in violence came on the eve of the deadline for troops to withdraw from Syrian towns and cities under the international peace plan brokered by UN and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.

“We certainly have seen no signs yet of the Assad regime abiding by its commitments, which is obviously quite unfortunate,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

The US also expressed outrage over the violence along Syria’s border with Turkey.

“We join the Turkish government in calling for the Syrian regime to immediately cease fire,” state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

“Not only has the violence not abated, it has been worse in recent days,” she said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon issued a statement deploring the violence on Syria’s borders.

He also made a final plea for the Syrian administration to halt all attacks on civilians, his spokesman is quoted by AFP news agency as saying.

Day of bloodshed

International condemnation poured in amid mounting pessimism over the prospects for Mr Annan’s peace deal. Earlier Turkey’s foreign minister described the April 10 deadline for troop withdrawal as “void”.

After earlier agreeing to Mr Annan’s plan, Damascus on Sunday called for written guarantees from rebel fighters to end attacks and a promise from foreign states not to fund them.

It said it did not want the rebels to exploit any troop withdrawal to reorganise and rearm themselves.

The rebel Free Syrian Army said although it backed the UN-Arab League truce, it refused to meet the government’s new demands.

Meanwhile violence intensified across the country on Monday.

Activists reported more than 100 deaths – among them at least 30 civilians who died in bombardment in the central province of Hama.

Harrowing scenes were reported in the town of al-Latmana, where 17 women and eight children were said to have been crushed under the rubble of their homes in the second attack on the area in days.

In the first of the skirmishes on the Turkish border at least two people died and many were wounded after people crossing from Syria into Turkey at Kilis were shot at by the Syrian army, the governor of Kilis told the BBC.

Violence has intensified in Syria as the ceasefire deadline approaches.

In the second incident at least two Syrian refugees and a Turkish translator were wounded inside a refugee camp after being hit by gunfire, possibly from stray bullets from clashes between Syrian rebels and troops.

Turkey has seen a sharp rise in the number of refugees coming over the border in the past week, and now hosts some 24,000 Syrians, including hundreds of army defectors.

In a separate incident, a Lebanese cameraman for Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed television channel was shot dead when a film crew came under a hail of bullets from troops on the Syrian side of the border.

Annan visit

A Western diplomat has told the BBC that the UN Security Council is expecting a letter from Kofi Annan on Tuesday regarding the Syrian government’s implementation – or lack – of a military pullback by the 10 April deadline.

Mr Annan will also briefly visit Syrian refugees on the Turkish border on Tuesday on his way to Iran, where he is expected to try to convince the Iranians to lean on the Syrian government to stop the bloodshed.

China has also urged both sides in the conflict to honour the peace deal. Correspondents say that Russia, Syria’s main ally, may now have to play a crucial role. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem is in Moscow for talks.

The UN says more than 9,000 people have been killed in the uprising against Mr Assad’s rule which began more than a year ago.

The Syrian government says 2,000 security personnel have been killed in the uprising and blames the violence on “armed gangs” and “terrorists”.

             110 years now the death toll of the Civil War has remaind at 618,222 men died, 360,222 from the North and 258,000 from the South. The man behind the calculation is J. David Hacker, a demographic historian from Binghamton University in New York. He say’s that the new death toll is now 750,000 men died. I think this is completly mind blowing. Your talking about almost 1 million men that have died! The full story about this discovery is at the website below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/science/civil-war-toll-up-by-20-percent-in-new-estimate.html?_r=1&ref=science

            ”Let the ghosts of Colfax have the first word. They do not rest in peace; their bones have been restless.” These are the first couple sentences of the book The Colfax Massacre, written by Leeanna Keith. These two sentences just give us a glimpse of what is to later happen in this unnecessary massacre.

            The community located at Colfax started around 1832 as a result to a huge log jam in the Red River. There was a senator named John C Calhoun who would become a huge voice in the South. As relatives from back home in Europe were coming to the Americas, the Calhoun’s invested heavily in slavery. Calhoun’s plantation was huge and therefore the profit just as big, making $167,000 in one year which today would be $3.5 million dollars.

            As a child of one and a half years old, Meredith Calhoun broke his back after a hard fall from within his maid’s arms. This period of time after 1836 would be a tragic time for the Calhoun family. John Taylor died at age four in July of 1842. Meredith Calhoun, Jr., died at age six in 1846. This left only one daughter and a son, Marie Marguerite Ada Calhoun who they called Ada, and then William, known as Willie. These two were the only children to survive and make it to adulthood. Soon after all of this they moved to France mainly on the discovery of a doctor who could help Willie’s back. When Willie was 15, he returned to the United States and had learned to ride a horse. Willie would become the master of the Red River plantations with the help of his family’s fortune.

            During the civil war, Calhoun went with the Confederates as he watched his next-door neighbor being threatened of assassination for expressing his hatred of the Confederates. Some of Calhoun’s slaves joined the cause of war and were part of the colored infantry. Willie stayed at home during the war and witnessed the boat Champion No. 3’s demise and terrible aftermath.

            After the war, planters like Willie tried hard to get the labor of their former slaves after they had been freed. The population of blacks greatly reduced after the war, from 15,000 to around 5,000. Some were killed in battle and some after being free didn’t want to stay near their former owners, and then some traveled far searching for their lost family members to reunite.

            After the war, African Americans contributed $1 million for educational programs. In Louisiana there were 178 schools, mostly surrounding New Orleans. The schools in this state served more than 14,000 students who were mainly adults. It was said “that a greater number of colored than white people in this State can read and write. (50)” Some schools in the area were safe, but others like the school near Cheneyville had to close down after there was repeated threats made to the teacher’s life. Another teacher who was black was whipped  as well has kidnapped, had his horse stolen, and his saddle burned. Other schools were just as unlucky. “Threatening letters have been sent us; bricks have been thrown through our windows; [and] dead cats dropped into our cistern. (52)” There was 50 schools in the area who paused all classes since  there was a lack of teachers because of the safety issues.

            William Calhoun was committed to the education of black children. He had sympathy for them and also wanted their education for business calculations. Calhoun wanted to be a political figure so he ran for office. Willie won the April 1868 election to the upper house of the Louisiana legislature, who among him included two African Americans.

            “Even after a gang of whites shot at the teacher, breaking the window and tearing up the classroom walls, pupils of all ages continued to attend classes at the freedmen’s school at Frazier’s Mill. (62)” These students were dedicated to their educations even at the beginning of the rise of the Klan. Groups of white people went around threatening to burn down black schoolhouses, and anything else to attempt to frighten them. Hoods and costumes weren’t always used at this point, but the Klan’s main signature was fire, as well as burning states with symbols attached. Murder, a Klan group said they were destined to deliver the largest number of victims in the history of racial violence. Colfax developed as a “black man’s town.” Whites referred to it as “the Mecca of bad and desperate negroes from everywhere. (78)”

            There was trouble after the election of 1872. The courthouse in Colfax was seized by local blacks. Some blacks often told the whites the whites that they intended to kill them all, keeping only the young women so they could start a new breed. They said that no matter what the age or sex was, no one would be spared. One white recalled, “The open threats of the negroes were to kill the white men and violate the white women. (90)” Both the whites and blacks prepared for a fight that was to come.

            Whites stole horses from local areas and took young men to help with the fight to come. They created army-style squadrons who each had a leader. They scouted for the arrival of new recruits. The whites even got a 4-inch cannon from the deck of a steamship from the Navy. The fight would take place on Easter Sunday.

            The white leader of the battle, a Christopher Columbus Nash, was a former lieutenant. They were going to flank the blacks held up at the courthouse. There was a sniper on the courthouse roof who was taking shots at the whites. The whites advanced their lines hoping to take control of the building. Cannon fire penetrated defenders of the courthouse and caused the first fatality of the fight.

            The blacks were pretty much surrounded and some tried escaping to a nearby rode, but were shot in the process. The whites threw a torch into the courthouse and started the building on fire. A black man tore the sleeve from his white shirt and put it out the window saying that they surrender. No one knew for sure if it was actually supposed to be a flag of truce. The blacks had only shot four major people on the other side. They took out two of the artillery team and two men trying to capture the building. The blacks didn’t have the taste for killing and didn’t fire often as you can see in the number of white casualties. Black bodies fell at the door of the courthouse and started piling up. There was a scent of burning flesh as a lot of people couldn’t get out. Some blacks went underneath the courthouse hoping that they wouldn’t be found but when the white men did find them they shot them many times. Most of them had anywhere from three to twelve bullet holes in them.

            C.C. Nash wanted to set the blacks free and not have a mass murder but some other whites didn’t agree with this and wanted them all dead. They took the remaining blacks as prisoners and told them that they were only going to kill the wounded. “The white men told the remaining prisoners to line up and prepare to be marched to the sugarhouse, where they would spend the night and be set free in the morning. (105)” The whites did not do what they said and ended up executing most of the prisoners. When the sun rose in the next morning, the whites scanned the area looking for wounded blacks that tried to escape. They found many and shot them dead on the spot. After the massacre there were over 150 black men dead but only three whites. Many families of the blacks of the massacre that were still alive were afraid to go to the site and find the body of their family. They wanted to bury the bodies but many were left unburied for a few days after the bloody fight.

            This historical event was sad and I think unnecessary. The white men didn’t need to kill all of the blacks that they ended up killing. They told the blacks that they would be set free in the morning but that didn’t happen. As far as the book goes, I did enjoy it but my opinion is that the background information was a little long but necessary to understand what was going on at the time. I learned a lot about how things were in the later 1800s and how even though the blacks were freedmen, the whites hated them even more when they had some power. There was a lot of details in this book about the blacks that I hadn’t known before. 

During the civil war, the Union and Confederacy faced off over a very controversial issue: slavery. This war had the most American casualties and deaths in our country’s history. However, there was one infantry regiment in particular that stood apart from the others during this war. The Massachusetts 54th regiment was significant because it was the first official black regiment in the United States.

Since the beginning of the Civil War, President Lincoln argued that the Union was fighting not to end slavery, but to prevent the disintegration of the United States. However, abolitionists thought that the reason for the war was to end slavery. Therefore, they argued that black people should have the right to join the army to fight for their freedom. The Massachusetts 54th regiment was authorized in March of 1863 by John A. Andrew, the governor of Massachusetts at the time. The regiment was given over to Colonel Robert Gould Shaw to command, and the black soldiers who fought in the regiment were recruited by white abolitionists.

The Massachusetts 54th regiment was very significant in the fact that it was the first official black unit in the United States military. Up until this time, the only people who had the right to fight in the military were whites. This regiment was a big step towards abolishing slavery, because it showed that blacks had the right to fight in the military.

The Joan Baez cover version came two years after the original recording by The Band (which features in the movie version of their famous farewell concert, The Last Waltz). The Baez recording makes a few slight changes and corrections to the original lyrics  as written by Robbie Robertson, but essentially retains the theme of the song. She has since also recorded the song with the original lyrics too.

What startles most is Baez’s opening line, introducing herself as the narrator, Virgil Caine, with her voice immediately given a male persona without the slightest loss of her femininity.

The song tells of the bitter sense of defeat felt by the Confederate South in the closing months of the American Civil War, though without in anyway supporting their values or referring to their concern to maintain slavery.

Caine is a labourer (a farmer in The Band’s version), who serves as a Confederate army troop line railroad worker frustrated by the Yankee practice of trashing railway tracks to prevent supplies getting through the South’s vital supply lines.

In 1865, Cane and his friends are left deeply demoralized and half-starved.

The story then moves to the post war period, with Caine is working, chopping wood, when the Mississippi paddle steamer, The Robert E Lee passes by, giving him memories of his old friends and values. He laments the defeat and that so many of his best friends were killed off by the war.  In the original song, the sighting is not of the boat but of the man it is named after, The South’s president, Robert E Lee, so over-shadowed by the true elected President, Abraham Lincoln. Lees’ passing is his departure from politics.

Caine laments the death of his brother, another rebel, killed in the war.  He draws allusion to the Biblical Cain & Abel story, but sees his own defeat as one from which he can never recover. Cain in the Bible is left alive to retain memory of his brother’s death. Caine knows he will take the memory of his brother to his own grave, possibly soon.

The chorus is the people singing in celebration of the defeat of The South and the end of the war, a chilling victory for the losers, who, despite their defeat, still represented half of the US population. For the people defeated it was the destruction of all they stood for and the end of a way of life. The song captures their tragedy very effectively in both of its major versions.

The Band’s version of the song – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VShpcqd3zE

The Joan Baez version of the song – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnS9M03F-fA

Arthur Chappell