#Compromise of 1850

[1860sproblems]

William H. Seward's "higher law" speech, delivered in 1850 when Seward was a U.S. senator from New York, argued that the Constitution was not the ultimate law, and that a higher moral law, rooted in natural rights, should guide decisions, especially regarding slavery in new territories. Specifically, he argued that slavery was incompatible with this higher law and should not be allowed in new territories.

Seward delivered his "Higher Law" speech during the Compromise of 1850 debates, arguing against the Fugitive Slave Act and in favor of California's admission as a free state.

Seward's core argument was that a higher law, derived from natural rights and moral principles, existed above the Constitution.

[cherryblossomshadow]

Apparently, that section of land was just "No Man's Land" for a full forty years, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society, ending with the Oklahoma Organic Act.

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#there is a saying in indian country #It doesn't matter how good you are at the game they'll change the rules. (tags courtesy of @sahonithereadwolf)

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[Image ID 1 and source: Tweet from lil red (@/lilredridingwud) reading:

What goes on here?

Below is a picture of a map of Oklahoma with Texas visible below. Oklahoma's panhandle is circled in red.

/end ID]

[almackey]

America's Great Debate

In this book, Fergus Bordewich looks at the Compromise of 1850. “In a larger sense,” he tells us, the book is “about the genesis of the Civil War.” He says, “It will be clear to anyone who unravels the debate of that year that the war was already under way in the psyches of many Americans, in their agonized struggle to respond to slavery. For many in the South secession had already taken place…

[lightdancer1]

1850 and 1877 have one very direct parallel:

Out of all the many instances of the fatal US tendency to compromise and can-kicking, the one of 1850 has the dubious distinction of being the greatest failure. It was also one of the ones where the US wound up very narrowly avoiding the outbreak of the war that began 11 years later much like its successor 27 years later in 1877. That was the motivation that led US leaders to draw back from a brink aided by the death of US President Zachary Taylor from gastroenteritis. The result of this bargain, however, was a chain of events that included both the first open armed resistance of free Black people, as opposed to slave rebellions, and the onset of spiraling violence that led to the war before the war, in the 1850s, and to the wave of terrorism that was the war after the war in the Reconstruction era.

It should be noted, again, that this compromise only delayed the war by 11 years and that if it had fallen through we would speak of the outbreak of a U.S. Civil War in 1850, not 1861.

[whencyclopedia]

This map illustrates the situation in the United States n 1850, as the country faced growing sectional tension over the expansion of slavery into new territories gained from the Mexican-American War. The Compromise of 1850 aimed to preserve the Union by balancing interests between free and slave states through a series of legislative acts. The compromise admitted California as a free state, while...

[wacky-nameless-inventor-24]

omg Dracustein au lore?? :3

describing it as Frankenstein but what if it was actually Dracula instead. telling the story through the character introductions let’s see if this works

GYRO- is an aspiring scientist/professor who meets Fenton at a university, where they’re both super interested in science and medicine. Gyro one day gets the crazy idea of wondering if he can create life, which he goes about doing so by using part of his own DNA to grow a clone of himself. One night when it finally wakes up and comes to life he’s so completely horrified of it that he completely rejects it, spending the night hiding around the house from it before remembering another invention he has. He was attempting to make some kind of taser for self defense but the creep he used it on just like. evaporated into nothing when he zapped him. However with this thing what he wants is to get rid of it like that so as dawn comes he hits it with the Disappearing gun. He’s distraught over the failure of years of work and still terrified of the thing that he’s made he spends the winter recovering while Fenton takes care of him.

GANDRA- comes to visit them that summer! She's an old childhood friend of Gyro's, they lived really close to each other so they've known each other for most of their lives. She's been studying abroad all over Europe for the past few years, and comes to see them just as Gyro is getting better. They're the same age and still single so their parents are like. waow crazy idea what if you two just got married!!! and they like each other so they agree to that idea and technically get engaged just when Gandra gets there (<- They Don't Know meme the distinction between romantic and platonic affection). Gandra spends a lot of time telling Gyro and Fenton about all of the crazy things she'd seen while out of England.

FENTON- just kind of like. moves in with Gyro while he's taking care of him that spring, and that summer he gets invited out on this great cool fun business trip!!! (not sure for what though because he wouldn't be a solicitor) Upon arriving at the castle of the count he's there to help it only takes him a few days to realize that this count is insane and that he's being trapped there until the count decides to kill him. After like a month of this he climbs out a window and braves the Transylvanian countrysides to get out of there. He makes it back to England where it's now Gyro's turn to take care of him.

MADS- (Madison Darlington) wasn’t evaporated when hit by Gyros ray, what that thing actually does is throw the target through time. So Mads, less than like six hours old, is suddenly yeeted all the way back 200 years to the renaissance where he comes to realize he has a taste for human blood. Once he like. registers what’s going on and realizes what just happened to him he gets incredibly angry at Gyro for rejecting him and creating him to be like this so. he wants revenge. he waits around 200 years and slowly getting angrier until finally it’s back to 18— and Gyro now exists so he can kill him. He actually doesn’t know Fenton when he comes to visit, and only learns his connection to gyro through the letters he sends. He follows Fenton back to London and quickly realizes the best way to enact his revenge is by killing everyone Gyro cares about >:3 However it doesn’t take him long to notice the growing relationship between Fenton and Gandra and just how jealous Gyro is of that, so he quickly switches tactics and starts trying to widen a gap between Gyro and the two of them. Gyro doesn’t want them to know that he created Mads, so Mads starts bothering him in a variety of interactions that Gyro is forced to hide, creating bigger secrets between them.

Endings???

[ihopeinevergetsoberr]

cw: angry (unprotected) sex, afab reader, ungodly amount of tension, some dirty talk. you’re fucking viktor after a fight with him. that’s it. pretty much plotless — just some poetic filth written on a whim (well, i tried, at the very least). very, and i mean very poorly proofread — but i’ll fix that a bit later.

word count: 1850~

“Fuck you.”

It’s a clumsy, uncoordinated thing — hissed through gritted teeth and suffocatingly stinging exhales — a threat you spat out with the sole purpose of poisoning, of mingling gall with thick saliva and shoving it down that pretty throat, secretly aiming for the heart instead; if only he possessed such a thing, that is. 

The arrogant prick pants into the havoc of tangled tongues and bleeding bottom lips, the inviting stretch of his mouth utterly helpless against the sharpness of tortuous canines — you’ve crossed the line where a kiss turns into a bite, choking each other with liquid sounds and gawky clashes of teeth. 

He grins into the sweet heat of you, forces a wheeze out of what feels like the very depth of your lungs, and a pair of narrow hips nails a resonant snap into the pliant curve of your ass. 

“No,” he shakes that irritatingly wise head, “no, I suppose— ah,— that’s my job.”

Damp foreheads press against each other in an angry search of proximity, eager fingers gagging to crawl under his scalp, pulling at those disheveled strands with desperation — as if trying to find an entrance into Viktor’s very brain — to rearrange it in whatever way he does it to your guts and dignity. 

The handfuls of you — well, the weight of one breast and still burning under his handprint hip, to be precise — were melting. He reduced your body to a hundred sensitive pieces, demerging something whole and coherent you were presenting before he first had you in his damned bed. He dragged you in, acquaintening with exceptional filth he’s capable of producing — and you hated just how much better having his mouth on you felt than merely shutting it in ways that involve rivalry.

“Oh, save it,” you lick the metallic taste of him off the sharp angle of his chin — tongue wiping a glistening stripe in a rush to destroy the tiny evidence of your a little overly enthusiastic nibble, but Viktor — oh this utterly revengeful creature — brings a cruel palm to the smaller of your back, demanding you bend in half for him. Demanding you drown your face in the pillow as he fucks from behind; sweetly humiliating and sloppily hard — it’s the kind of sex making you arch in whatever ways you can manage. And so your spine forms just that delicious curve, slightly changing the angle of penetration — and Viktor moans a quiet curse, somehow pulled even deeper into the divine warmness of your pretty cunt, tip buried so deep inside it you might have to arch even more — to avoid the not so pleasant experience of it roughly slamming against your cervix. 

His thrusts are precise; well-aimed enough to benefit from that slight curve of his cock, had your spite for him drooling onto the sheets, each moan sweeter than the previous one. He stiffens for a split second; most likely to reposition the sore knee into a softer gap of the mattress, and you whine at the loss of him, hips wiggling backwards in a needy seek of his girth. Involuntary vulnerability — all squints, and flushed cheeks, and threatening ‘pleases’ — the embodiment of impatience. 

He laughs. He fucking laughs, letting a sly hand crawl under you, then dive in between widely parted thighs, and his fingers snake down your navel, travelling lower, preciser, filthier — just where you throb for them, just where you need assistance to collapse boneless onto the mattress. It’s a compromise, of sorts — an apology to your abandoned for a few minutes clit, and you’re shamefully thankful for it, awarding Viktor with a single, reluctant ‘yes’. 

“My, such impressive… eagerness. I almost feel flattered,” Viktor quips, but a jab earns him just a single furious glance thrown over your shoulder. “I wonder just how frustrated you’d get if I were to leave you unsatisfied.” 

You scoff. “That would be an ultimate guide for never sleeping with me again.” 

That lie is half-assed, unconvincing. Your tongue betrays you — oh that pathetic excuse of a nimble muscle; and you decide to quit relying on it for verbiage in his bed. And his desk. And his workshop. Though that part required reticence nonetheless. Both in moans and semantics. 

Viktor doesn’t comment on the treacherous stumble of your words or the pitifully quivering delivery. You’re gagging to note that he’s losing his grip, but he proves you wrong — letting two deft hands grab your waist, then sinking back into you. No, his grip is as sturdy as ever — digging into your skin, pulling closer, sliding inside with ease; cunt an embarrassingly wet mess wrapped around him tight enough to strangle. 

He’s a quick learner — even quicker now that he has to keep up with you, to chase the frantic pace you’re setting, to not get too distracted with the waves roaming all over the skin of your ass whenever it hits his pelvis, offering a delicious view of just how perfectly you swallow him to the hilt. 

“Are you threatening me, miláčku?” he’s chasing your skin like a man starved to death — desperate to lick, to touch, to devour, chest falling flat on your back — narrow, and flushed, and sweatslick, ribs digging under the space of each one of your shoulder blades. It’s a cry for proximity — a literal one, vibrating against the nape of your neck when he sharply thrusts forward, hips jerking upwards to become one with you, rapidly trembling fingers circling your clit hard enough for it to be sweetly sore in the morning. 

“Ah— Yes,” you gasp, abandoning your attempt to master a dangerous enough warning, “yes, I am threatening you.” 

“I see,” it comes out of him choked up — almost equally breathless to your pathetically rushed outburst. “Then I shall refrain from — mh,— tormenting you. I would grow quite miserable if you decided to rid me of sojourning my favorite place in the world.” 

Your fucked out brain short-circuits, clearly reduced to its most primitive state; you’re going to cum and you need to dig your fingers into something — anything, eyes roaming all over the messy bed, choosing your victim — but your options are limited either to tangled sheets or a handful of Viktor’s hair. You instantly pick the latter — just as eager to touch him, to ignore the sharp angle your arm caught when it reached for him, grabbing the back of his neck and pressing his face to yours, thick eyelashes tickling your damp temple. It’s a distorted position; all contorted limbs and pre-orgasm spasms — can’t have him pounding you from behind and licking into his mouth in the meantime; but it doesn’t stop you from at least trying. You turn your head to whatever extent possible, pulling at the havoc of dark hair, struggling to cage his tongue into the sweet lock of your lips. 

“What- What did you just say?” your tone is demanding; urgent. You’re almost halfway through your climax, and he knows it — feels it when you clench around him hard and tight, lavish slick drying between parted thighs. 

“I- I meant… you. My favourite place in the world is… inside you. And I would hate to upset you in any, ah, way—” but you don’t listen past that part. Oh no, you don’t let that man ruin you any further — which, at this point, would be beyond recognition — and your tongue attempts to crawl into his mouth again, fingers tangling a rough tug into a handful of chestnut strands. 

“Kiss me,” you plead, hot and breathless against his lips — a sloppy thing, open mouthed and trembling. “Viktor, please, kiss me.” 

The last syllable rolls off your tongue straight into his throat — Viktor is at your whim even before you managed to form that request, suckling swells into your bottom lip with an occasional whimper — shy and gentle, just so utterly him — arousingly subtle, flavourful, nimble. Heavy on the nimble part, since the mere presence of him in your mouth helped you capture your undoing — beautifully clumsy; wet hot pleasure running down shaky legs — a mess of arching hips, pretty foreign swears and swollen under the thorough touch of his fingers clit. He broke you like he was made for it, vowing to never stop, to never let that weary wrist pressed above your clit rest — you’ve deemed him worthy of being the one whose cock you cum around, and Viktor — so intelligent, incorrigible, yours — would never waste such a privilege. 

He does, however, regret his greediness when his own orgasm impatiently reminds him of its approach. It had him moaning your name almost deep enough to sound devastated — and that he was, in a way, uttering one last hissy curse into that bruising kiss before abruptly pulling out, frantic fingers rushing to be wrapped around his width. Your vision — blurry, incompetent and drunk on bliss — still allowed you a pretty view of him pumping that throbbing cock, its heaviness palpable on your lower back even in this state of divine afterglow. 

He came to the sight of you — still bent over, half-lidded, ruined. Painted your skin in his release yet still stared at you in the most beautiful awe ever, amber eyes radiating complete devotion — so sweet and picturesque, cheeks the softest shade of pink as he cried, cumming on your pretty back — a few hot tears rolling down his face as you let him pour himself on your very body.

Rushed, unexpected climaxes — one might even assume they probably lacked in gentleness. And perhaps they would have — if only it wasn’t Viktor you’re fucking tonight; hands just as tender as they’re exhaustive. He collapses beside you — still careful, invariably contemplative, gaze needled into your face looking for any signs of remaining anger; touch explorative, approbatory. Lazily slipping underneath you and pulling closer, inviting into a loose knot of limbs — and you allow it, letting your hand wander to languidly count his ribs, then stopping to deliver an occasional tickle. 

He hums and tucks you under his chin. Probably hinting at a truce. A temporary one, at least. 

“I’m still mad at you though,” you decide to inform him, letting a curious index finger press into his dark nipple — earning yourself a quick yawn and a crooked little smile. 

“Hm, are you really?” he insists — the ever attentive devil, always catching that particular tremble of your words. He did a great job in fucking you stupid and now demanded you admit it: the fight is over, you’re appeased and completely witless. 

But you don’t budge. Not this time. You’re not any less vengeful and always so persistent on dragging the cheekiness out of him — either with fighting or with fucking. Both were equally entertaining nonetheless. 

“Yes. Really,” you finally reply, submitting to the chain reaction and yawning back, rubbing the watering eyes with a free from pinching at Viktor’s chest hand. 

“Hm, how inconvenient. In that case, I must’ve failed as a lover.”

“How so?”

“Well, my only intentions were to leave you senseless enough to forget about the incident. And, well, since you’re still perfectly capable of being spiteful—“ 

“How about you shut up before I smother you in your sleep?” 

[being-worthy]

Venom & Eddie Brock headcanons - Part II

I know I said that all my writing was on hiatus, but the job search is not going well and I want to avoid falling deeper into my desperation/depression...

I had this interview for a really cool role, but they offered $15/h and not only is the rate unfair compared to the work they ask you to do, but the platform also takes a huge cut from it and after they take their cut, I'm left like with $10 and it's way under what I'm comfortable working for. When I see shit like this, I ask myself 'Why did we bother with abolishing slavery, if, now, in every job, they want you to work for a salary that was okay back in the 1850s when nothing is affordable with such salary?'

So, here's part 2 of my Venom & Eddie headcanons (part 1 can be found here). Comments and reblogs would be highly appreciated!!

Please help me with my goal on my Ko-fi! ��

Image found on Google. Credits to the creator Dreaming_Oor.

It took a while for you guys to get together, mostly because you were pushing them away, not because you didn’t feel something for them, but because you didn’t think you were good enough for them.

“What do you mean you’re not good enough for us? If someone is not good enough for you, it’s Eddie.” “Venom is right. Wait, what did you just say?!”, Eddie rebutted in offence. “Face it, Eddie, out of the two of us, you’re the bigger loser. I’m still cooler than you and she’s cooler than both of us together and more than enough for us," Venom answered smirking.

Once things got serious between you guys, and after many sweet, sometimes weird dates, you guys moved in together.

Their pet names or names you call each other:

How Eddie calls you: baby, babe, sweetheart, love.

How Venom calls: morsel, little one, nibble, sweetling.

How you call them: love, handsome, V, Ed, Eds, Edward (if he messed up), Edward "Eddie" Charles Allan Brock (if he messed up big big time!)

How Venom calls Eddie: Eddie, loser, love.

How Eddie calls Venom: Venom, love, parasite (he avoids this as much as possible because Venom breaks his nose when he calls him this and fixes it afterwards, only to break it again).

There was an adaption period for all three of you and getting to know the ins and outs of each of you and your relationship.

Both Eddie and V love to cuddle with you, it’s one of their favourite things to do with you.

They both like to be the big spoon with their backs towards the door because if some dangers comes through it, you'll be protected no matter what.

If they're having a bad day, they also love you being the big spoon because it makes them feel extra loved and safe, and you are their safe haven.

V’s favourite place to cuddle you is laying his head close to your neck (he sometimes will softly nibble at it). He also particularly loves to lay his head between your boobs. This leads to him and Eddie arguing as it’s Eddie’s favourite spot as well. He’d argue that he was there first, leaving you to devise a compromise for them. If Eddie doesn’t get to cuddle your boobs, he’ll be grumpy and pouting all day, but you always make it up to him.

V especially likes it when you pet him, he’ll end up sounding like a purring machine, although he’ll reiterate in all seriousness that he’s not a pet and does NOT purr as he's the Lethal Protector!

This also means they like to join you whenever you take a nap. For example, if they come home and see you napping, they’ll join you, or if you tell them you’re going to lay down, they’ll join you, you ask them if they want to nap with you, they’ll join you no matter what, even if V doesn’t require sleep.

You always always will wake up with some of V’s tendrils on and around you making sure you’re close to each other. It’s heaven during a scorching summer or a freezing winter as V can regulate Eddie’s body temperature accordingly and you’ll always have a deep comforting sleep thanks to this ability of his.

There are times when Eddie has to work because he’s got a deadline for an article and he’d like nothing more than to join and hug you close to them, but he likes his job and you love him for that and completely understand it. However, this leads to him and V arguing, as V wants to snuggle you and thinks work is dumb.

On the other hand, there are also times when they wake you up with their bickering and you just tell them to either join you or to take it outside and not come back until they’ve made up. This ends with them joining you 9 out of 10 times. Eddie will end up asking for an extension for whatever deadline he’s got.

The one time when V doesn’t get his way, he’ll curse Eddie to infinity and beyond and even go as far as detach himself from Eddie and make his way to you. Once he’s almost completely attached to you, he’ll stick out his tongue at Eddie and blow raspberries his way, and join you in the arms of Morpheus.

To be continued...

Comments and reblogs are always appreciated! Do not copy or translate my work plz!

💫 My Ko-fi page

[1860sproblems]

The Compromise of 1850

The Compromise of 1850 emerged from mounting tensions in the United States over the expansion of slavery following the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). In the wake of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ceded vast territories to the United States, policymakers grappled with whether slavery would be legally authorized in these new lands. The discovery of gold in California in 1848 precipitated a rapid influx of settlers, prompting local leaders to draft a constitution that outlawed slavery. Southern legislators resisted California’s free‐state status, fearing it would upset the balance of power in the Senate and embolden abolitionist sentiment. Simultaneously, debates raged over the status of slavery in newly organized territories such as New Mexico and Utah where local populations were divided. Congress, primarily through the efforts of prominent figures including Henry Clay and Stephen Douglas, sought a legislative package to quell the escalating crisis by satisfying Northern and Southern interests.

The proposed compromise consisted of five interrelated measures designed to address the contentious issues at play.

California was admitted to the Union as a free state, a victory for Northern interests.

The federal government assumed $10 million in debts Texas had incurred during its years as an independent republic, while the new boundary limited Texas’s claim to lands westward.

The territories of New Mexico and Utah were organized with the principle of “popular sovereignty,” meaning that white male settlers in those territories would vote to determine whether slavery would be permitted.

The slave trade (but not slavery itself) was abolished in Washington, D.C., appeasing Northern critics of the capital’s overt connections to slavery.

A more stringent Fugitive Slave Act was enacted, requiring federal officials and citizens in free states to assist in the capture and return of alleged runaway slaves.

While passage of the Compromise of 1850 temporarily diffused conflict, its long‐term consequences deepened the nation’s divisions. The strengthened Fugitive Slave Act, in particular, outraged many Northerners who were forced to participate in the recapture of escaped slaves. This enforcement spurred increased activity by the Underground Railroad and galvanized abolitionist movements. Politically, the Whig Party, already fracturing, struggled to hold together and ultimately dissolved. A new political alignment around slavery emerged with the rise of the Republican Party in the 1850s. Additionally, the principle of popular sovereignty proved problematic, as ensuing conflicts in Kansas and Nebraska illustrated that local votes could not easily resolve deep‐rooted moral and economic disputes over slavery. Although Henry Clay and other architects intended the Compromise to be a “final settlement,” it merely postponed the inevitable clash, setting the stage for the Civil War a decade later.

[sacramentohistorymuseum]

On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and Major General Gordon Granger announced the end of the Civil War and that the enslaved people in the town were free. This was the last area in the South to receive the orders that slavery was abolished, and this announcement came over 2.5 years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. What has become known as Juneteenth is now a federal holiday since 2021 and it is a symbolic date representing the African American struggle for freedom and equality in the United States and is also a celebration of family and community.

You might ask, what is important about Juneteenth to California history? Slavery was a major topic discussed at the California Constitutional Convention in September 1849. While California did enter the Union on September 9, 1850 as a “free state” as part of Congress’ Compromise of 1850, slavery did exist in California and there were certainly protections under the law that were not awarded to all people. Many enslaved people were brought to California during the Gold Rush.

Early Black civil rights leaders in Sacramento in the 1850s, such as Daniel Blue, Jeremiah B. Sanderson, William Yates, Charles Hackett, and Joseph Smallwood confronted political challenges and sought further representation in California in a time when a Person of Color could not testify against a white person in court. Early California newspapers were full of accounts of enslaved people paying for their freedom, testimonies by anti-slavery and civil rights activists, and stories covering plaintiffs suing for freedom. Elements of slavery continued in California through the Civil War.

The Emancipation Proclamation, General Granger’s announcement, and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution after the Civil War did not solve issues of freedom and equality. The struggle of civil rights continued through the 20th Century and the extension of those rights to all people continues to this day.

For today, Jared letterpress printed “JUNETEENTH” in 30 line pica wood type. The typeface is French Clarendon and the type was made by the Hamilton Wood Type Company in the late 1880s. This was printed with yellow, red, and green ink using our Washington hand press, which was made in 1852.

[anesidore]

UPDATE 12/04: thank you so much for the support! i'll be closing donation channels now, as we have reached our goal. i really do appreciate the support!

i will be keeping the original post through a read more below for posterity.

(please refer to this post if you'd like to know more about the previous situation in regards to alphy's vet visit!)

i have good news! alphinaud was sent home yesterday, and he is in good spirits. in addition to this, i managed to pay off a portion of the bill thanks to everyone's help.

unfortunately, since the bill was higher than i had expected, i have no choice put to ask for your help once more. i managed to pay off the rest of the downpayment, but the rest were unfortunately taken from my budget for our utility bills, which need to be paid at the end of the month.

in addition to this, i will have to take him back for a follow up appointment at dec. 3, and by then he will have to undergo another ultrasound and urinalysis, which are extra costs that i can't currently afford.

in total my deficit right now is around 288 usd (17k php) for the total vet bill of his previous visit, and around 64 usd (3750 php) [1100 for ultrasound, 1850 for the urinalysis, 800 for the consultation fee] for his next checkup at dec. 3. i will be sharing the vet bill in the read more as proof of these expenses.

i really hate to ask for help once more, but as i am still paying for my father's funeral and medical expenses, it's been a hard few months, and i really don't have any more to spare for alphy's care without compromising a lot of basic necessities such as paying for our electricity and internet bills. i hope someone out there with the means to do so finds it in their heart to help us in our plight.

as always, thank you for sticking with me if you've read this far! i would appreciate any help at all, whether through sharing this post or donating. i hope you have a great day!

^ proof of his vet bill from yesterday.

here's a picture of alphinaud from yesterday, fresh off the vet clinic! thank you for your interest in helping the little boy!

[contemplatingoutlander]

This is a gift🎁link so anyone can read the entire NY Times article, even if they don' subscribe to the Times.

Jamelle Bouie does another excellent job of looking at current events through the perspective of American history. In this column, he compares the current Roberts Court with the infamous late 1850s/ early 1860s Taney Court--the Court that lost all credibility with its Dred Scott decision. Below are a few excerpts.

If the chief currency of the Supreme Court is its legitimacy as an institution, then you can say with confidence that its account is as close to empty as it has been for a very long time. Since the court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization nearly two years ago, its general approval with the public has taken a plunge. [...] In the latest 538 average, just over 52 percent of Americans disapproved of the Supreme Court, and around 40 percent approved. [...] At the risk of sounding a little dramatic, you can draw a useful comparison between the Supreme Court’s current political position and the one it held on the eve of the 1860 presidential election. [color emphasis added]

[See more below the cut.]

NOTE: Remember that back in the 1850s/1860s the Democrats were the party that supported slavery. The Democrats and Republicans switched positions on civil rights in the late 20th century.

It was not just the ruling itself that drove the ferocious opposition to the [Taney] Supreme Court’s decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which overturned the Missouri Compromise and wrote Black Americans out of the national community; it was the political entanglement of the Taney court with the slaveholding interests of the antebellum Democratic Party. [...] Five of the justices were appointed by slave owners. At the time of the ruling, four of the justices were slave owners. And the chief justice, Roger Taney, was a strong Democratic partisan who was in close communication with James Buchanan, the incoming Democratic president, in the weeks before he issued the court’s ruling in 1857. Buchanan, in fact, had written to some of the justices urging them to issue a broad and comprehensive ruling that would settle the legal status of all Black Americans. The Supreme Court, critics of the ruling said, was not trying to faithfully interpret the Constitution as much as it was acting on behalf of the so-called Slave Power, an alleged conspiracy of interests determined to take slavery national. The court, wrote a committee of the New York State Assembly in its report on the Dred Scott decision, was determined to “bring slavery within our borders, against our will, with all its unhallowed, demoralizing and blighted influences.” The Supreme Court did not have the political legitimacy to issue a ruling as broad and potentially far-reaching as Dred Scott, and the result was to mobilize a large segment of the public against the court. Abraham Lincoln spoke for many in his first inaugural address when he took aim at the pretense of the Taney court to decide for the nation: “The candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the government upon vital questions, affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made, in ordinary litigation between parties, in personal actions, the people will have ceased to be their own rulers.” [color/ emphasis added]

[formatting edited]

[study-with-aura]

Monday, March 24, 2025

I managed to make it through the day and get everything done, which feels like a miracle at this point. On top of that, ballet exams started this week. I'm really hoping I can advance to Advanced 2 classes next year. I'm not expecting anymore than a pass, but since I'm not wanting to dance professionally, that's fine for me. I merely want the training since it's my physical education credit but also, who knows how I might use it in the years to come. Plus, it makes me happy to see the improvement and keeps me disciplined.

I hope tomorrow is another easy study day.🦄

Tasks Completed:

Algebra 2 - Reviewed arithmetic sequences + practice

American Literature - Copied vocabulary words + read about Maya Angelou + read about "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" + read "Still I Rise" + compare and contrasted Angelou's "Still I Rise" with Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream"

Spanish 3 - Listening exercise

Bible 2 - Read Psalms 48, 49, and 50

Early American History - Read about the Compromise of 1850 + read about Millard Fillmore + read part of Sage's "The Compromise of 1850" + updated study guide + wrote a journal entry based on a character from the history book I read

Earth Science with Lab - Copied key terms about the Moon + completed virtual crossword puzzle reviewing terms + watched a video on the phases of the moon

Art Appreciation - Read about Edouard Manet + completed daily critiquing assignment on Manet's Bench

Khan Academy - Completed U.S. History Unit 5: Lesson 1.5-1.6

Duolingo - Studied for approximately 15 minutes (Spanish + French + Chinese) + completed daily quests

Piano - Practiced for two hours

Reading - Read pages 85-126 of All That's Left to Say by Emery Lord

Chores - Cleaned my bathroom + cleaned windows in my bedroom and in the study + laundered bedding (not done last week since I wasn't home)

Activities of the Day:

Personal Bible Study (Galatians 1:10)

6-Week Devotional Journey (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

Group Bible Study (Joshua 5-8)

Volunteered 2 hours at the library

Ballet

Contemporary

Journal/Mindfulness

[whencyclopedia]

Compromise of 1850

The Compromise of 1850 was a series of five bills passed by the US Congress in September 1850 to diffuse a sectional crisis brewing between the 'free states' of the North and the 'slave states' of the South. The crisis was sparked by a disagreement over whether slavery should be allowed to expand into the so-called 'Mexican Cession', the 529,000 square miles of territory seized from Mexico after the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). Under the Compromise of 1850, California was admitted into the Union as a free state, while slavery in the rest of the territory – such as in New Mexico and Utah – would be decided through 'popular sovereignty,' meaning that settlers would decide on whether to prohibit slavery or not. This compromise did not resolve the dispute but only postponed the conflict over slavery that would culminate in the American Civil War (1861-1865).

Background: Mr. Polk's War

In 1844, James K. Polk (1795-1849) won election to the US presidency on a platform of expansionism; promising to lead the United States toward its 'Manifest Destiny', Polk declared his intention to wrest the Oregon Territory from the British, seize all Mexican territory north of 31°, and annex the newly independent Republic of Texas. Initially, this ambitious policy fell quite short of its goals. Polk was forced to settle for a treaty that established the Oregon boundary at the 49th parallel – less than was hoped for – while Mexico declined to sell any territory at all. But when Texas joined the Union in December 1845 as the 28th state, Polk saw a new opportunity for conquest; Mexico had not recognized Texas' independence and viewed its annexation by the US as a hostile act. Polk and his partisans continued to provoke Mexico, ultimately leading to the Mexican-American War. At the end of that conflict, Mexico was forced to give up vast amounts of territory, including Utah, New Mexico, and California. Polk had achieved his goal – by the end of his single term, the United States had expanded by two-thirds, growing more than it had under any other president.

Mr. Polk's War, as the conflict had been derisively called, was quite polarizing – while Polk's own Democratic Party supported the expansion of the United States by any means necessary, members of the Whig Party viewed the conflict as an unjust war and believed that its main objective had been to expand the institution of slavery and increase the political power of the slave-holding South. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 had fixed the boundary between 'slave states' and 'free states' by prohibiting slavery north of the 36°30' north latitude parallel. But since most of the land conquered from Mexico was beneath that boundary, several new 'slave states' could potentially be carved out from the territory. In 1846, anti-slavery representatives tried to prevent this with the Wilmot Proviso, which declared that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part" of the territory acquired from Mexico – the proviso passed in the House, but it was defeated in the Senate, where the South exerted greater power. Though the Wilmot Proviso failed, it rejuvenated the national debate over the question of slavery, an issue that had been festering beneath the country's surface for decades.

Opponents of slavery – often called Free Soilers – believed that the institution was not only a moral evil but also stood in the way of progress. As historian James M. McPherson writes, Free Soilers argued that "free labor was more efficient than slave labor because it was motivated by the inducement of wages and the ambition for upward mobility rather than by the coercion of the lash" (55). Slavery must therefore be kept out of the new territories to encourage free labor and progress there. But the slave-holding South interpreted these statements as an attack against its social system. As the global demand for cotton grew, Southern planters became more reliant on slave labor to cultivate the crop. Additionally, it was believed that slave labor was necessary to allow the slave-holding gentry time to cultivate the arts, literature, and to pursue public office. An attack on slavery was therefore viewed as an attack on the Southern way of life; to preserve this, Southerners sought to expand slavery wherever they could, to maintain a strong pro-slavery voting bloc in Congress.

The question of whether slavery would be allowed in the newly acquired territories threatened to dominate the US presidential election of 1848. Polk had declined to seek re-election; worn out by his time in office, he would be dead before the end of the decade. Instead, the Democrats nominated Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan, who championed the idea of 'popular sovereignty' – this meant that the settlers of the territories should decide for themselves whether they wanted slavery or not. The Whigs, needing to carry states where annexation had been popular, decided to avoid the question of slavery for the time being and nominated General Zachary Taylor (1784-1850), hero of the Mexican War. Taylor was an odd choice – he had been mostly unpolitical prior to his run for office, leaving many Americans unsure as to what his political positions were. However, he was a slaveholder who owned over a hundred slaves himself, leaving many pro-slavery voters feeling comfortable that he would support their position. Taylor won the election, carrying 8 of the 15 slave states, and was inaugurated on 4 March 1849. But little did anyone realize that Taylor's election heralded a political storm that was just about to break.

Read More

⇒ Compromise of 1850

[californiastatelibrary]

1851 An Act for the Admission of the State of California into the Union

California joined the Union in 1850, making California the 31st state. The act was passed by the 31st Congress and signed by President Millard Fillmore on September 9, 1850. Under the terms of the Compromise of 1850, California was admitted as a free state.

[lboogie1906]

The Pearl Incident in 1848 was the single largest recorded escape attempt by enslaved people in US history. On April 15, 1848, 77 enslaved attempted to flee DC by sailing away on a schooner called The Pearl. They planned to sail south along the Potomac River and north up the Chesapeake Bay and to the free state of New Jersey.

The mass escape attempt was organized by both Black and white abolitionists in DC. Paul Jennings, the former enslaved of President James Madison, and Paul Edmonson, whose wife and 14 children were still enslaved, were the initiators of the escape. They enlisted the help of William Chaplin, a DC white abolitionist who in turn contacted Philadelphia abolitionist Daniel Drayton, Captain and owner of The Pearl, and pilot Edward Sayres. Abolitionist Gerrit Smith of New York provided financial backing for the escape.

With the help of numerous members of DC’s free Black community, slipped away from their places of work or residence on the evening of April 15 and made their way to The Pearl at a wharf on the Potomac. They boarded the ship which set sail. After realizing their enslaved and The Pearl were missing, sent out an armed posse of 35 men on the steamboat Salem. They caught up with The Pearl near Point Lookout, Maryland, boarded the vessel, and took the enslaved and the ship back.

An angry mob formed and for the next three days lashed out at suspected white abolitionists and the entire free Black community of DC in what would be known as the first DC Riot. The mob focused much of its wrath on Gamaliel Bailey and his antislavery newspaper The New Era.

Once the DC Riot ended, the slaveowners sold the attempted escapees to slave traders from Georgia and Louisiana, who took them to New Orleans. Two of the Edmonson children, Mary and Emily, were purchased and freed.

A provision of the Compromise of 1850 enacted by Congress ended the slave trade in DC although it did not abolish slavery. The Pearl incident is said to have inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe in her writing of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence