To install click the Add extension button. That's it.
The source code for the WIKI 2 extension is being checked by specialists of the Mozilla Foundation, Google, and Apple. You could also do it yourself at any point in time.
How to transfigure the Wikipedia
Would you like Wikipedia to always look as professional and up-to-date? We have created a browser extension. It will enhance any encyclopedic page you visit with the magic of the WIKI 2 technology.
Try it — you can delete it anytime.
Install in 5 seconds
Yep, but later
4,5
Kelly Slayton
Congratulations on this excellent venture… what a great idea!
Alexander Grigorievskiy
I use WIKI 2 every day and almost forgot how the original Wikipedia looks like.
Lot Myrick Morrill (May 3, 1813 – January 10, 1883) was an American statesman who served as the 28thGovernor of Maine, in the United States Senate, and as Secretary of the Treasury appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant. Morrill was an accomplished politician serving in several elected and appointed offices throughout his lifetime. Morrill, as Secretary of Treasury, was devoted to hard currency rather than paper money. He dedicated himself to serve the public good rather than party interests.[1] Morrill was popularly received as Treasury Secretary by the American press and Wall Street, and was known for his financial and political integrity. Morrill was President Grant's fourth and last Secretary of the Treasury.
A native of Maine, Morrill was educated in public school and after briefly attending Waterville College served as principal of a private school in New York. He studied law and passed the bar in 1839, afterwards setting up law practices in Readfield and Augusta, Maine. Morrill, known for his eloquent speaking, soon become popular among Democratic friends advocating temperance. Morrill was elected to Maine's House of Representatives in 1854 as a Democrat and served as Chairman of the Maine Democratic Party. However, as the nation divided over slavery during the 1850s, Morrill's politics changed and he went over to the Republican Party for the sole reason that the Republicans were opposed to the expansion of slavery. He was elected Maine's state senator in 1856 as a Republican, and elected Governor of Maine in 1858, serving until 1861 during the outbreak of the American Civil War. Morrill was elected Maine's U.S. Senator in 1861 when a vacancy opened in the U.S. Senate, after Sen. Hannibal Hamlin assumed the office of Vice President under President Abraham Lincoln. Morrill's extended tenure for almost 15 years as U.S. Senator took place during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Morrill sponsored legislation that outlawed slavery in Washington D.C. and advocated education and suffrage for African American freedmen.
In 1876, Sen. Morrill was appointed U.S. Secretary of the Treasury by President Grant, to fill in a vacancy after Sec. Benjamin Bristow resigned from office. His political rival James G. Blaine was appointed Maine's Senator after Morrill resigned from the Senate to accept the position of Secretary of Treasury. Morrill's tenure was less than a year. Upon his retirement from the Treasury Department, President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed Morrill to the Collector of Customs in Portland, Maine, where he held this position until his death in 1883.
YouTube Encyclopedic
1/5
Views:
1 432 979
1 533 808
1 212 785
78 835
42 423
The Civil War Part 2: Crash Course US History #21
The Election of 1860 & the Road to Disunion: Crash Course US History #18
How to Treat Candida in 6 Steps
Ohio State Housing
Ohio State Housing 2016
Transcription
†CCUS 21 - The Civil War Part 2
Hi, I’m John Green; this is Crash Course
U.S. history and today we return to...wait,
what are we talking about today, Stan? Ah,
the Civil War! I can tell because Lincoln’s
here.
But this week we’re not gonna talk about
casualty counts or battles or its generals
with their heroic and probably fictional dying
declarations.
Mr. Green, Mr. Green, wait did that one guy
not really say “Honeybun how do I look in
the face?” because that was the best part
of this whole class.
Jeb Stewart did say that, Me from the Past,
but it probably wasn’t his last words, but
anyway today we’re going to try to focus
on what’s really important.
In the end the really vital stuff isn’t,
like, Pickett’s Charge or Lee saying “It
is well that war is so terrible - otherwise
we would grow too fond of it” or the surrender
at the Appomattox Court House.
That stuff matters and I don’t want to deny
it, but the Civil War and the way we remember
it is still shaping the world today, and that’s
what I want to focus on, because it’s the
stuff that might actually change the way you
think about your own life in your own country,
whether it’s the United States or the Green
Parts of Not America.
intro
So let’s start with one of the big questions
historians still ask about the Civil War:
Did Lincoln free the slaves? The answer, as
with so much here on Crashcourse is yes … and
also no. Let’s go straight to the Thought
Bubble today.
So Lincoln’s reputation as the Great Emancipator
rests largely on his Emancipation Proclamation,
an executive order which went into effect
on January 1, 1863. This order ostensibly
freed all the slaves in territory currently
rebelling against the United States, i.e.
in areas where the U.S. government had no
authority to free slaves. This is rather like
the United States announcing that from here
on out, North Korea will be ruled by Lady
Gaga. Sure, it’s a great idea, but it’s
not really your jurisdiction.
In areas where the U.S. did have the authority
to free slaves, the border states and some
of the areas of the Confederacy that had been
effectively conquered and occupied by federal
troops, those slaves were NOT freed. So Lincoln
didn’t free the slaves that he actually
had the power to free.
Many historians argue that, in fact, slaves
freed themselves. How? By running away to
union lines and becoming “contrabands.”
Because this was a time of war and slaves
were seen as a valuable resource to the enemy,
when they escaped and sought refuge with Union
troops, Union commanders wouldn’t give them
back, despite fugitive slave laws still being
on the books.
So many slaves escaped, the argument goes,
that Lincoln was basically forced to issue
the Emancipation Proclamation, because until
he did so, those contraband slaves were still
technically property of their Southern masters,
and the Union generals were breaking American
laws by not returning them. The Emancipation
Proclamation then had the added bonus of encouraging
more slaves to come over to the Union lines,
many of whom joined the army, which eventually
included about 180,000 former slaves and free
black men.
Thanks, Thought Bubble. So Lincoln may also
have issued the proclamation in order to shift
the focus of the war from union to slavery
to prevent the British from recognizing the
Confederacy.
Arguably the Confederacy’s best chance to
win the Civil War was to get some kind of
foreign patron, and Britain was the likeliest
choice as it was very dependent on Confederate
textiles.
But as you’ll remember from all those people
going to Canada, Britain had already abolished
slavery and it was the historic source of
abolitionist sentiment, and so it was very
shrewd of Lincoln to make the war about slavery.
Off-topic, but if I may put on my world historian
hat for a moment. Thank you, Stan. The fact
that the British did not recognize the South
had profound effects on the whole world, because
it meant that the British shifted their focus
to Egypt and India as sources of cotton for
their textile mills.
All that noted, I think Lincoln does deserve
some credit for freeing the slaves for two
reasons.
First, he pushed for the Thirteenth amendment
which actually ended slavery in the United
States.
And perhaps more importantly, he continued
the war to its conclusion and demanded that
the end of slavery and the return of the Southern
states to the Union be conditions for peace.
This may seem obvious today, but in 1864 it
wasn’t.
In fact, there were numerous calls in the
North for an end to the war that would allow
the South to exist as a separate country and
leave slavery intact.
Now, of course, the rest of world history
indicates that at some point slavery would
have ended, but by prosecuting the war to
its end, Lincoln brought about slavery’s
end sooner.
But the Civil War didn’t just end slavery.
If it had gone differently, Me from the Past
might have been annoying teachers in a different
country from the one in which I now live.
I might’ve need a passport to visit my parents
in North Carolina and slavery might have survived
for decades--Brazil didn’t fully abolish
slavery until 1888.
And the south would be covered in green as
part of Not-America. Or, the north, depending
on where you’re watching this video, I guess.
And, the people who lived through the Civil
War knew it was momentous. In his famous Gettysburg
Address, Abraham Lincoln fostered the idea
that the Civil War was a kind of second American
Revolution, or at least a culmination and
reaffirmation of the first one.
“From these honored dead we take increased
devotion to that cause for which they gave
the last full measure of devotion--that we
here highly resolve that these dead shall
not have died in vain—that this nation,
under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and
that government of the people, by the people,
for the people, shall not perish from the
earth.”
We tried to hire Daniel Day-Lewis for that,
but he was unavailable.
That phrase “new birth” of freedom had
religious significance as well because it
was, like, the 19th century equivalent to
“born again.”
So, the Civil War was the first modern war
in terms of its scale and its destruction.
Like, others have waged war on civilians to
break the spirit of their enemies (STAN! Mongoltage
OPPORTUNITY!)
mongoltage
But new technologies made this one of the
most destructive wars yet recorded. And, yes,
I know the Taiping rebellion took more lives,
and in terms of percentage of population killed,
the contemporaneous war in Paraguay was worse,
but bear with me.
Rifles, and toward the end of the Civil War,
machine guns shifted the way that people fight.
It became easier to defend a line, so cavalry
charges and huge waves of attacks started
to be just slaughtery although it would take
World War I for the rest of the world to figure
that out.
And the incredible numbers of dead and wounded
really changed Americans’ relationship with
death itself.
Like, the Gettysburg address was given to
dedicate a new national cemetery, and the
Civil War helped to create a culture of meditation
on mortality itself that led to cemeteries
replacing churchyards as the final resting
places for most Americans.
And the sight of slaughter and the sheer weight
of it had profound existential effects on
a generation of American intellectuals from
Walt Whitman and Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Oh, it’s time for the Mystery Document?
The rules here are simple.
I guess the Mystery Document and usually I
am shocked. Oh my gosh, today’s Mystery
Document is on an iPad!
This appears to be a photograph of wounded
soldiers in hospital. I’m gonna go ahead
and call it as being by Mathew Brady.
What? I already got it? But I didn’t get
to say the name... Oh, it’s called Wounded
Soldiers in Hospital.
Thank you for an easy one, Stan.
So, Mathew Brady was a prolific photographer
during the Civil War, although, like a lot
of prolific people, he often took credit for
work done by his employees. And Brady really
changed the way that people thought about
war.
He and his staff created some 10,000 images
during the Civil War. And it was the first
time that an event had been photographically
documented so thoroughly.
By the way, lest you think that the unreliability
of images began with Photoshop, many of Brady’s
photographs were staged.
He would move bodies, sometimes soldiers were
apparently told to act dead.
But of course, at the time, photographs felt
inherently authentic and written accounts
of battles could now be accompanied by actual
images of the fighting and its aftermath.
But, perhaps the most important impact of
the Civil War was the new nation that it created.
Like, the American Civil War fits right in
with the global phenomenon of nation-building
that was happening.
Soon we would have places on the map like
Italy and Germany, and older places like Greece
would be re-born as nation states. And then
all of these places would be known to Americans
as Not-America.
But, by the way, congratulations to Italy
on the recent election of their 732nd Prime
Minister in just 180 years of existing.
By far, the most successful of these new nation
states were the ones that embraced industrialization
and modern ideas of organization and centralized
government.
Northern victory in the Civil War meant the
United States would follow the path that the
North laid down. It would become an industrial
rather than agrarian nation, with a national
government pre-eminent over those of individual
states. It would become a nation.
And its not a coincidence that over the course
of the 19th century, people stopped pluralizing
the United States; they stopped saying, “The
United States are a great place to live,”
and began saying, “The United States is
a great place to live.” The Civil War helped
singularize what had been until then a plural
nation.
And Abraham Lincoln was the first president
to truly expand the power of the executive.
He ordered blockades and suspended habeas
corpus, in addition to emancipating the slaves.
But the Republican dominated congress played
a role in this federalization too.
Congress passed the Homestead Act in 1862
that encouraged settlement of the west by
basically giving away land to anyone who had
$18 and was willing to live on it and farm
it for five years.
Downside: you have to live in Oklahoma. Unless
of course you’re an American Indian in which
case, downside: you don’t get to live in
Oklahoma anymore.
You may be wondering, how were we able to
sell all of this land so cheap? It’s because
we stole it!
Meanwhile, the Morrill Land Grant Act financed
colleges to offer training in new scientific
agricultural techniques. The Department of
Agriculture was created to generate statistics
and share best practices in farming.
Congress also helped unify the country with
the massive land grants in the Pacific Railway
Act of 1862.
And during the war the Lincoln administration
gave away 158 million acres to railroads to
tie the nation together. Get it? Tie? Railroad
ties? The nation toge-? I’ll take my coat
and go.
Plus, as you may have noticed, wars are expensive.
And in order to finance the Civil War, Congress
passed the first progressive income tax in
American history, as well as floating huge
bond issues to the public.
And when that wasn’t enough, the administration
began printing federal money on green paper
called “greenbacks.” These, along with
notes issued by banks under the National Bank
Act of 1863 became the first national currency
in the United States.
Altogether, the total cost of the war for
the Union was $6.7 billion. Interestingly,
if in 1860 the federal government had purchased
every slave and granted a 40-acre farm to
each family, the total cost would have been
$3.1 billion.
But a) it would have been hard to get that
bill through Congress, and b) at the time
the federal government had no way to raise
that kind of money.
The federal government also actively promoted
the industrial economy that was to become
dominant in the United States after the war.
In fact, industrialization was so healthy
that visitors to cities in the North during
the Civil War would have been hard pressed
to notice that they were even in a war.
So, ultimately, the Civil War was a victory
for Alexander Hamilton’s federalist vision
of what America should be.
I mean, Thomas Jefferson could never have
imagined the United States that emerged from
the Civil War, a government that supported
an army of a million men, carried a $2.5 billion
national debt, distributed public lands, printed
a national currency, and collected an array
of internal taxes. It sounds like Britain!
So, the Civil War wasn’t just a victory
of North over South or of freedom over slavery.
It created the nation that the United States
of America has become. Thanks for watching.
I’ll see you next week.
Crash Course is produced and directed by Stan
Muller. Our script supervisor is Meredith
Danko. Too far! Our associate producer is
Danica Johnson. The show is written by my
high school history teacher, Raoul Meyer,
and myself. And our graphics team is Thought
Café.
Every week, there’s a new caption for the
Libertage. You can suggest some in comments
where you can also ask questions about today’s
video that will be answered by our team of
historians. Thank you for watching and as
we say in my hometown, don’t forget to be
awesome.
Civil War 2 -
Lot M. Morrill was born on May 3, 1813 in Belgrade (in modern-day Maine, then a part of Massachusetts) to Peaslee and Nancy (Macomber) Morrill.[2] He was of entirely English ancestry, his earliest immigrant ancestor was Abraham Morrill, who came to America from England in 1632 as part of the Great Puritan migration.[3] The Morrill family was very large; Lot having been one of 14 children. His older brother Anson P. Morrill was a prominent U.S. statesman. After attending common school, Morrill taught at a local academy to earn money to go to college. At the age of 18, Morrill attended Waterville College.[2] After briefly attending Waterville, Morrill served as principal of a private western New York college for a year. Morrill returned to Maine and studied law under Justice Fuller in Readfield.[2] Morrill passed the bar in 1839, and built up a successful law practice. At this time Morrill began to associate with the Democratic Party and was popular speaker among his Democratic friends.[2]
State political career
Morrill entered politics as a speaker for early temperance movement in Maine and other political movements. In 1841, having become locally famous, Morrill moved to Augusta, Maine where he spoke in front of Maine's capital legislative committees.[2] As a speaker, Morrill gained much experience in state politics. Morrill started a law practice in Augusta; his partners were James W. Bradbury and Richard D. Rice. In 1849, Morrill became chairman of Maine's Democratic Party and served in this position until 1856.[2] As a Democrat, Morrill was elected to Maine's House of Repusentatives in 1854.[2] Morrill began to break from his party's platform starting in 1855 eventually changing over to the Republican Party; having opposed Democratic concessions to slave states.[2] During the Presidential election of 1856, Morrill believed James Buchanan was a good candidate, however he stated the Democratic Party's platform was "a flagrant outrage upon the country and an insult to the North".[2] Morrill's change of political views were shared by his brother, Anson P. Morrill, and his friend and future Vice President Hannibal Hamlin.[2] Morrill, completely severed ties with the Democratic Party and formally became a Republican in 1856.[2] As a member of the Republican Party, Morrill was elected a Maine state senator in 1856, serving as Senate President. He was the first Republican to hold the position which would be held by Republicans until 1964, with one brief exception. He was elected Governor of Maine in 1858.[2] (His brother Anson P. Morrill also served as Maine's governor.) Morrill served as Maine's governor until January 1861 when he was elected to the U.S. Senate to replace Hannibal Hamlin, who had left his seat to become Abraham Lincoln's running mate.[2]
U.S. Senator
Civil War
Morrill came into the U.S. Senate at a pivotal moment in history before the American Civil War. In 1861, Sen. Morrill argued strongly against compromise on the principles of slavery (via Constitutional Amendments) in order to restore the peace.[4] In February 1861, Morrill attended the Peace Conference of 1861 and opposed John J. Crittenden's compromise arguments, similar to those made in the Crittenden Compromise.[2] In March 1862, Morrill supported legislation that permitted the freedom of confiscatedConfederate slaves captured during the War. Morrill believed this would be an effective military weapon against the Southern rebellion.[2] In April 1862, Morrill spoke in favor of a bill that passed Congress; signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln that freed slaves in Washington, D.C.[2] By the end of the war, he argued against punishing the southern states for the rebellion, and in favor of higher education for people of all races.[4]
Reconstruction Era
During the Reconstruction Era, Sen. Morrill forcefully advocated Congressional Reconstruction that authorized the U.S. military in Southern sections of the United States to protect African American citizens.[2] In June 1866, Morrill supported suffrage for African Americans in Washington D.C. In 1868, Morrill voted for the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson; the other Senator from Maine, William P. Fessenden, voted for Johnson's acquittal.[2] In 1869, Morrill was defeated by his rival Hannibal Hamlin to the office of U.S. Senator from Maine by one vote. However, after Sen. Fessenden died in office in 1869, Morrill was appointed to replace Fessenden to serve out Fessenden's expired term. Morrill was elected to finish the term in 1871 and served until he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury in 1876 by President Ulysses S. Grant.[2]
Morrill was appointed Treasury Secretary by President Ulysses S. Grant; having served from 1876 to 1877 and for five days under President Rutherford B. Hayes. His appointment was in part due to the resignation of previous reformer Sec. Benjamin Bristow who successfully prosecuted and shut down the notorious Whiskey Ring scandal. Bristow resigned due to friction between himself and President Grant over Bristow's zealous reforming in the Treasury Department and potential Presidential run in 1876. Sec. Morrill, upon his assumption to office, was in charge of all the top secret and confidential files left over during Bristow's Whiskey Ring prosecutions. Although Sec. Morrill did not have the reputation of a financial authority, he was believed to have political integrity and it was thought he would run the department as well as George S. Boutwell, Grant's first Treasury Secretary.[1] Morrill upon his appointment submission by President Grant was immediately approved by the Senate without question.[5] Morrill's appointment was popularly received by the press and Wall Street.[5] Morrill's resignation from the Senate caused a vacancy which Gov. Seldon Connor filled by appointing Morrill's rival James G. Blaine as Maine's Senator.
Currency redemption debate
During Sec. Morrill's tenure in office there was debate over currency being redeemed by gold rather than issuing inflationary greenback paper currency. Like his predecessor Sec. Bristow, Morrill advocated the gold standard having viewed paper money was "irredeemable and inconvertible" and "essentially repugnant to the principles of the Constitution".[6] Paper money, however was popular in the South and West, where cheap capital was necessary for economic expansion.[6] Sec. Morrill advised Congress the Treasury's gold supply needed to be increased in anticipation of gold backed currency in 1879, according to the 1875 Resumption of Species Act, that reduced the number of paper notes to $300,000,000.[6]
Later career
Following his term in the Grant Administration, he returned to Maine and became Collector of Customs for the Port of Portland, Maine.
"I admit that this species of legislation Civil Rights Act of 1866 is absolutely revolutionary. But are we not in the midst of a revolution? Is the Senator from Kentucky utterly oblivious to the grand results of four years of war? Are we not in the midst of a civil and political revolution which has changed the fundamental principles of our government in some respects? ... There was a civilization based on servitude.... Where is that? ... Gone forever.... We have revolutionized this Constitution of ours to that extent and every substantial change in the fundamental constitution of a country is a revolution.[8]
Other
The revenue cutter USRC Morrill was named for him.
Notes
^ abDetroit Free Press (June 22, 1876), The New Secretary of the Treasury, p. 2
^The Morrills and Reminiscences By Charles Henry Morrill
^ abBiographical encyclopedia of Maine of the nineteenth century (Boston: Metropolitan Pub. and Engraving Co., 1882)
^ abNew York Times (June 22, 1876), Secretary of the Treasury
^ abcU.S. Dept. of the Treasury, Lot M. Morrill (1876–1877)
^"Lot M. Morrill Buried". New York Times. January 13, 1883. Retrieved November 9, 2012. The funeral services of the Hon. Lot M. Morrill at his late residence to-day were very impressive.