Search Results: Titles starting with P from The Raab Collection

24/11/1812. William Henry Harrison William Henry Harrison was named secretary of the Northwest Territory - a huge tract of land composed of most of the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin - by President John Adams in 1798. As the territory's first congressional delegate, Harrison helped obtain legislation that divided the land into the Northwest and Indiana territories, the latter of which he served as governor of from 1801 until 1813. As governor, Harrison oversaw the efforts to gain access to and control of Indian lands so settlers could extend their presence and establish new territories. The Indians usually resisted the process, so it became Harrison's task to take action against the Indians and defend the fledgling settlements.In 1809, the native populations became fierce in their resistance. They were led by Tecumseh, who proved to be a tenacious adversary. In 1811, Harrison received permission to attack Tecumseh and his confederacy. But before he could, on November… Read More

01/10/1782. John Adams This notification represents the first recognition of our independence by a European country that was not party to the war[embed]https://vimeo.com/881750021?share=copy[/embed] The Dutch Negotiations in The HagueSupport for the American Revolution was strong in the Netherlands, where the ideas of `The Age of Reason' were extremely popular and hopes for greater freedom were excited. After France recognized the new American republic in 1778 and declared war on England, a strong party developed that wanted the Dutch government to follow the same policy. But the Netherlands and Great Britain had been official allies for a hundred years and this pro-American policy was not universal. The Netherlands was composed of sovereign provinces that had united to form a federal government. Provincial legislatures controlled by long-established local families elected representatives and sent them to the States-General that was the parliament of the nation. The head of state, the… Read More

1200. Before 1300|All Medieval Historical Documents The “Sentences” were the most commented on piece of Christian literature of the era for four centuries, through the Reformation, and were lectured on by Martin Luther himself We found no record of another example of such early commentaries on Lombard using the text of Marchesinus.Often, we have the assumption that the great men of the Middle Ages came from royal families or important lines. The French romances, from which our modern pop culture derives so much, offer stories of men who come to nobility through bravery on the field of combat, are made knights, and their chivalry is supported by a long-lost connection to royalty. Ancient line established, ancient line continued, and so great, learned men beget great, learned men. The poor and illiterate fill the margins of medieval history with no room for upward mobility from nothing to greatness.Peter Lombard, Bishop of Paris, revolutionary of Christian theology, came from humble… Read More

Dec-89. George H.W. Bush We obtained this treasured letter from the Kirkpatrick family, and it has never before been offered for saleThe Malta Summit took place from December 2-3 1989. The Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and recently inaugurated President George H.W. Bush met on the cruise ship SS Maxim Gorkiy, which was moored in Marsaxlokk Harbour, Malta. It was the first meeting between the two men. Significantly, the summit took place around a month after the fall of the Berlin wall, and Communist governments in Eastern Europe were collapsing. Hungary had just opened its border with the West. After the fall of Communist leader Erich Honecker, the new East German government lasted just seven weeks.During the Summit, the two men discussed the cataclysmic changes sweeping across Europe after the collapse of the Berlin wall and the end of the Iron Curtain. They declared a planned reduction in troops within Europe and that a reduction in weaponry would be discussed at a meeting scheduled for June… Read More

Thomas Edison The Edison Pioneers was an organization composed of former employees of Thomas Edison who had worked with the inventor in his early years, and founded to keep alive Edison’s ideals and aims. Membership was limited to people who had worked closely with Edison before 1885. On February 11, 1918, the Edison Pioneers met for the first time, on the 71st birthday of Edison. There were 37 people at the first meeting. In time there were 100 members, counting descendants of Edison Pioneers who were allowed membership in later years.To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the invention of the light bulb, in 1927 the Pioneers commissioned U.S. Chief Engraver John R. Sinnock to create a piece of metallic art - a portrait plaque - that would symbolize this. He produced a work that has an engraving of Edison on the front, along with his name and the initials of the engraver. The reverse is inscribed: “1879-1929/ Edison Pioneers/ “The Light Once Lit/ Shall Never Dim/ But Through All Time/ Shall… Read More

1920. Christopher Morley Christopher Morley was a novelist, essayist and poet known for novels like Parnassus on Wheels and Kitty Foyle. The latter was one of the first books to openly discuss abortion and was turned into a Oscar winning movie starring Ginger Rogers.Autograph Letter Signed, no date but post 1920 as it is on his letterhead from Roslyn Heights, New York, to Mr. Bigelow. “If you are going to cultivate an appetite for ‘autographs’ let me give you a valuable suggestion; your victims will be more likely to come through if you send ‘em a stamped addressed envelope. This is not due to parsimony but a legitimate desire to save time and labor. Oh God, if you knew to what proportions this cruel lust has spread in our once untainted land! Anyhow, good luck.”Author of more than 100 novels, books of essays, and volumes of poetry, Morley is probably best known today for his first novels, Parnassus on Wheels (1917), The Haunted Bookshop (1919), and Thunder on the Left (1925).Morley was one… Read More

29/10/1947. Mahatma Gandhi ""We were all of and from one and the same God, no matter by what names we worshipped Him.""In August 1947, when, after three hundred years of rule in India, the British finally left, the subcontinent was partitioned into two independent nation states: Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. Communities, families and farms were cut in two. Immediately, there began one of the greatest migrations in human history, as millions of Muslims trekked to West and East Pakistan (the latter now known as Bangladesh), while millions of Hindus and Sikhs headed in the opposite direction. Across the Indian subcontinent, communities that had coexisted for almost a millennium attacked each other in a terrifying outbreak of sectarian violence, with Hindus and Sikhs on one side and Muslims on the other. In the middle lay Kashmir, now part of India but an area where the majority of people are Muslims.In Kashmir, on the border between the two new nations, the pro-India Maharaja Hari… Read More

27/12/1855. Jefferson Davis Rose O’Neal Greenhow was born into obscurity, but became one of the most powerful women in Washington, D.C. and in time became a famous Confederate spy._ Arriving in Washington at the age of fourteen, she became fascinated with the Washington socialite scene and attempted to gain acceptance by the well-to-do Washingtonians. Even though she was mocked for her low birth, she eventually caught the eye of Dr. Robert Greenhow, a federal librarian and translator with medical and law degrees. The couple married on May 26, 1835 and, with her new husband, Rose gained acceptance into high society and socialized with famous Washingtonians, like First Lady Dolley Madison. She became friendly with South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun, whose views influenced her. In fact, she nursed Calhoun on his deathbed. She also met and socialized with her future leader, Jefferson Davis. By 1854 she was a widow with a pension from the Federal government; she bought a house four blocks north of… Read More

1830. Andrew Jackson On May 10, 1800, Congress passed an “Act supplementary to the act, entitled ‘An act to establish the Treasury Department’”, which required the Secretary of the Treasury to report annually the receipts and expenditures of the United States government. The purpose cited by the act was to give “information to Congress in adopting modes of raising money requisite to meet the public expenditures.” In other words, Congress required this information to know how to manage the country’s finances. The information was compiled by the Treasury, generally on a quarterly basis.But presidents also made use of this information. It governed their own conduct, and they also used it to provide Congress with interim information of importance to their programs and policies. Sometimes it would appear in their State of the Union addresses.With the time for the 1830 State of the Union address approaching, President Jackson wrote his Secretary of the Treasury, Samuel Ingham, requesting the… Read More

8/6/16. Woodrow Wilson “I think the freer it [the commission] is to get at the facts and to draw inferences as the facts demand, the better it will be for the whole country.”In the Progressive Era, many Americans supported the idea of non-partisan, semi-independent commissions to regulate and manage aspects of the economy. Theodore Roosevelt empowered the Interstate Commerce Commission and established the Food and Drug Administration. Woodrow Wilson created the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Reserve system. He also guided establishment of the U.S. International Trade Commission, originally known as the U.S. Tariff Commission. All of these commissions continue to exist today, showing the wisdom and durability of the concepts.Here is how the latter commission came into being. In 1915 Democratic leaders urged the Administration to prepare for the 1916 election by crafting a proposal for a permanent tariff commission that would appeal to former Progressive Party voters who had supported TR… Read More

29/05/1956. Dwight D. Eisenhower Abraham J. Feldman was born in Kiev, Ukraine and came to the U.S. in 1906 at age 11. In 1918, he was ordained as a rabbi at the Hebrew Union College, and then served as fellowship assistant for Rabbi Stephen S. Wise at his Free Synagogue in New York. A year later, Feldman went on to Congregation Children of Israel in Athens, Ga. and then spent five years as rabbi to the Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel in Philadelphia. In 1925 Feldman was selected as rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel in West Hartford, CT, where he remained until retiring in 1977. While at Beth Israel, Feldman was a leader not only in Connecticut Jewish life, but also in ecumenical and secular organizations. In 1929 he was a co-founder of the Connecticut Jewish Ledger, of which he remained editor until 1977.Feldman was prominent in Jewish organizations at the national level, as well. He was a member of the Board of Governors of Hebrew Union College and served on the executive council of the Union of… Read More

20/07/1882. Chester A. Arthur George W. McElroy started his naval career as an assistant engineer, was promoted to chief engineer in the Spanish-American War, then lieutenant commander, and finally to rear admiral during World War I.Document signed as President, with its eagle, flags, naval scenes and blue seal, Washington, July 20, 1882, naming McElroy as an Assistant Engineer with the rank of Ensign. The document is countersigned by Secretary of the Navy William E. Chandler.

28/04/1870. Ulysses S. Grant A sheet of Executive Mansion letterhead, dated Washington, April 28, 1870, signed by “Yours truly, U.S. Grant” and “Yours truly, Schuyler Colfax.” An uncommon combination, this being the first we’ve had.

15/03/1963. John F. Kennedy The first Catholic President also praises the Bishop’s advocacy of ""religious liberty and tolerance""The issue of Kennedy's religion was a significant one - if not the most significant one - in the 1960 presidential campaign. JFK’s speechwriter Ted Sorenson would later say, ""Clearly there was a very large number that didn't think Catholics should be president of the U.S.” And the prejudice was quite open. Richard Nixon, Kennedy's opponent, piously said, ""I am not going to raise the religion issue."" To demonstrate his sincerity, he said that in every state. So, as Sorenson noted, ""it was out there.” Kennedy would meet this prejudice head on.Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam, often called ""America's Protestant cardinal”, was president of American Methodist bishops as well as a leader of the POAU, the lobbying group, Protestants and Other Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and the FCC - a precursor to the National Council of Churches. His antipathy… Read More

14/01/1953. Dwight D. Eisenhower “Since November 4th my thoughts have turned often to those whose faith and support - and financial contributions - helped to make victory possible. In the task of bringing the message of our Crusade to all of our follow Americans, we would have failed without their much-needed help.”The 1952 United States presidential election was held on Tuesday, November 4, 1952. Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower won a landslide victory over Illinois Democratic Governor Adlai Stevenson, becoming the first Republican president in 20 years. This was the first election since 1928 without an incumbent president on the ballot. Eisenhower was re-elected in 1956 in a rematch with Stevenson.The 1952 presidential election campaign was conducted against the backdrop of a “red scare” in which many Americans feared that foreign communist agents were attempting to infiltrate the government. Two years earlier Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, who held that the Roosevelt and Truman administrations… Read More

16/02/1844. John Tyler This is the earliest official ratification between the two countries we have ever seen on the market; The Mexicans refused to ratify the changes the United States made in this document An important stepping stone on the path to War; This convention predates the first formal treaty between the two countriesThroughout the late 1830s, US Embassy officials in Mexico City were inundated by the complaints and claims regarding the seizure of American vessels, mistreatment of American citizens, and alleged injuries inflicted on American merchants. These claims escalated and became a sore point between the United States and Mexico.A special agent was sent to Mexico in the summer of 1838 with full authority to make a demand for redress. The demand was made; the Mexican Government promised to repair the wrongs, and after much delay a treaty of indemnity with that view was concluded between the two powers on the 11th of April, 1839, and was duly ratified by both Governments. By this… Read More

12/10/82. Richard Nixon Nixon had himself played a key role in aiding the launch of the peace process, mediating the Sinai I disengagement agreement between Egypt and Israel in 1974Israel and Egypt (with its Arab allies) had been engaged in hostilities for three decades, and this resulted in four wars in twenty four years. The hatreds in the region were fierce, and the constant conflicts seemed interminable. The last of these, the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, was launched by the Arabs as a surprise, and they had initial successes before Israel emerged victorious. Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat’s own brother was killed in that war. No one foresaw peace as a possibility.But President Sadat saw the wars as a disastrous drag on the Egyptian economy and knew that they stood as a barrier to its receiving aid from the United States and many NATO countries. They also tended to throw the Middle East into the arms of the Russians, whom Sadat distrusted. Sadat had no intention of allowing Egypt to… Read More

16/04/1940. Franklin D. Roosevelt Just before the turn of the 20th century, international rivalries between Britain, Germany and the United States were settled by the Tripartite Convention that partitioned the Samoan Islands into two parts: the eastern island group became a territory of the United States today known as American Samoa; the western islands became known as German Samoa (they are now the nation of Samoa). In return, Germany gave up claims it had in Africa to Britain. On April 17, 1900, the Treaty of Cession of Tutuila was signed between several chiefs of the island of Tutuila and the United States, whereby the chiefs on that island swore allegiance to, and ceded the island of Tutuila to, the United States. Now American Samoa was essentially complete and became a Protectorate of the United States. In 1940, it would celebrate its 40th anniversary under the American flag. Navy Capt. Edward W. Hanson was the 28th Governor of American Samoa, serving from 1938 to 1940. He believed that the… Read More

15/09/1852. Millard Fillmore In his State of the Union message to Congress delivered on December 6, 1852, Fillmore made a special point of emphasizing that a reliable supply of clean water for the nation’s capital, Washington, DC. must be a top priority. The lack of such water had been a problem in the past and posed a public health risk besides.The President’s stated, “Permit me to invite your particular attention to the interests of the District of Columbia, which are confided by the Constitution to your peculiar care. Among the measures which seem to me of the greatest importance to its prosperity are the introduction of a copious supply of water into the city of Washington and the construction of suitable bridges across the Potomac to replace those which were destroyed by high water in the early part of the present year. At the last session of Congress an appropriation was made to defray the cost of the surveys necessary for determining the best means of affording an unfailing supply of… Read More

10/3/71. Richard Nixon Richard Nixon was elected in 1968 on the basis of his claim to have a plan to end the War in Vietnam, which had dragged on for years and deeply divided the country. However, once in the White House, he continued the war, and on July 25, 1969 set forth what became known as the Nixon Doctrine: “The United States would assist in the defense and developments of allies and friends,"" but would not ""undertake all the defense of the free nations of the world."" This meant in general that allies would share defense burdens with the U.S., and in specific Vietnamization of the war (having South Vietnam forces continue the war with U.S. help, as the U.S. began to withdraw some ground troops). He confirmed this approach on November 3, 1969, in a televised address, outlining Vietnamization of the war and asking that it be given a chance. This led to massive anti-war demonstrations in mid-late November. On April 30, 1970, Nixon asked the American people to support his decision to widen… Read More