OK, folks, no fair peeking: Who was the first woman to receive a US electoral vote, and what year? (I'll probably not be able to give you the answer until Monday due to computer accessability).

I am beginning a series extrapolating notes on third party candidates throughout history for a larger piece I am putting together. I felt these notes would make interesting blog articles as well: <P> William Wirt (1772-1834) was a poet and a lawyer who served for 12 years (1817-1829) as the US Attorney General, under presidents Monroe and John Quincy Adamd. He was the prosecutor in the 1807 conspiracy trial of Aaron Burr in 1807, and argued over 170 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.<...

The Republican Party's first presidential candidate, John C. Fremont's political career is all but forgotten, and memories of him are confined to the explorations he led into western lands and the writings that resulted. Born in 1813 as the illegitimate child of a prominent Virginia woman and a penniless French immigrant, Fremont felt compelled to be a social climber, and sought out politically influential patrons to assist him in this arera. He married the daughter of Thomas Hart Benton, ...

  The second of three (I erronously stated two earlier) former presidents to run as third party candidates, Fillmore had served as vice president under Zachary Taylor, and assumed the office upon Taylor's demise, serving from 1850-1853. He was selected in 1856 as the candidate for the American "know-nothing" party, which had formed in 1849 around a strong opposition to immigration, especially by Roman Catholics, who, they claimed, were subservient to a foreign prince (the pope). Cl...

Following on the 10% of the popular vote garnered by Martin Van Buren in 1848 as a member of the Free Soil Party, John P. Hale (1806-1873), a Representative and Senator from NH was selected as the 1852 candidate for the office of presidency. A senator for the party elected in 1847, Hale seemed the idealhigh profile choice to take the reins. He served as US Attorney under Andrew Jackson in 1834, and was removed by John Tyler in 1841. Elected as a Democrat to Congress and serving from 1843-1...

The second in my series on third party candidates who made a significant impact on presidential elections: James Birney (1792-1857) was a reformed slaveholder turned abolitionist. Born in Danville, Kentucky in 1792, he was a lawyer and a member of the Kentucky legislature from 1816-1818. He helped to organize the Liberty Party, which placed slavery on the national political agenda, in 1840, and was its presidential candidate in 1840 and 1844. He received 7,000 popular votes in 1840, but...

Tin soldiers and Nixon's coming we're finally on our own this summer I hear the drumming four dead in Ohio Gotta get down to it soldiers are gunning us down should of been done long ago what if you knew her and found her dead on the ground how can you run when you know? La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la Gotta get down to it soldiers are gunning us down should of been done long ago what if you knew her and found her dead on...

For those who don't know, I'm a history geek. I have been known to detour several miles for some esoteric out of the way museum (and once spent four hours driving around an Indian Reservation to find a museum that was there). So, I was quickly stirred up today by noting a family name in a Texas cemetary a little over two hours from here. My family was one that was split by the Civil War, and even though my family regrettably went to the Yankee side of things, I have always been interested in...

At least twice now, I have seen blogs regarding states' rights as regards the voting rights of felons. But these blogs have largely ignored the fact that we have gradually disallowed states' rights in education (No Child Left Behind) and national security (The US Patriot Act). Liberals are quick to attack George W. Bush as treading upon the constitution, and perhaps justly so. But in doing so, they ignore the facts regarding one of their cherished presidents, who set precedents that allow these ...

Clinton Fisk (1828-1890) was an educator and worked with freed slaves following the Civil War, establishing a school for freedmen in army barracks in 1866. in 1867, the school was renamed Fisk University, after its founder. In 1888, Fisk took the reins of the Prohibition Party, who built on their 1884 percentage by garnering 2.19% of the popular vote.

John St. John (1833-1916) was elected to the Kansas senate in 1873. In 1879, he was elected the Governor of Kansas as a Republican. When the Republican Party refused to adopt a platform of prohibition, St. John joined the Prohibition Party, and ran as its presidential candidate in 1884, garnering about 1.5% of the vote. combined with the Greenback Party's similar percentage, St. John and Benjamin Butler combined to spoil the 1884 contest, which was decided by fewer than 26,000 popular vote...

Benjamin Butler began his political career as a Democrat, winning the office of Massachussets state rep. in 1853, and state senator in 1858. He served the Union in the Civil War, and served in Congeress afterwards from 1867-75, and from 1877-79. He gained a reputation in the House when he authored the tenth article of impeachment against Andrew Johnson, and served as the lead House prosecutor in Johnson's removal trisl (his poor performance is often cited as a factor in Johnson's acquittal...

James Weaver (1833-1912) enlisted as a private in the Union Army and fought at Shiloh, and went on following the war to hold post as the District Attorney of Iowa's second judicial district in 1866. In 1867, he was appointed the federal assessor of internal revenue, and quickly became disillusioned with Ulysses S. Grant, and joined the Greenback Party, which had been organized in 1876 around the platform of expansion of paper money. Weaver ran for, and won, a seat in Congress with the part...

The continuing series on third party candidates throughout US History: Martin Van Buren (1782-1862) is one of two historical third party candidates who polled a significant percentage to have actually held the office. This prominence, combined with his historical anti-slavery stance (he blocked the annexation of Texas during his tenure as president because it would add to slave territory), made him the ideal, high profile candidate for the newly formed Free Soil Party, which formed on t...

Next Saturday, April 14, 2007, will mark the 72nd anniversary of "Black Sunday", the climax of the Dust Bowl and one of the most storied events of that era, memorialized both in film and in song. As Woody would write years later, "The churches was jammed and the churches was packed And that dusty old dust storm blowed so black That the preacher could not read a word of his text, So he folded his specs, took up the collection, said So Long, it's been good ta know yuh ...