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Yazoo land fraud
Yazoo land fraud name given to the sale in 1795 by an act of the Georgia legislature of vast holdings in the Yazoo River country to four land companies following the wholesale bribery of the legislators; the territory comprised most of present Alabama and Mississippi. The companies involved were th...
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legislature
legislature representative assembly empowered to enact statute law. Generally the representatives who compose a legislature are constitutionally elected by a broad spectrum of the population.
Types of Legislatures
Two common types of legislature are those in which the executive and the le...
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Nathaniel Prentiss Banks
Nathaniel Prentiss Banks 1816-94, American politician and Union general in the Civil War, b. Waltham, Mass. After serving in the Massachusetts legislature (1849-53), Banks entered Congress as a Democrat, was returned in 1855 as a Know-Nothing and became speaker of the House, and was reelected in 18...
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George Caleb Bingham
George Caleb Bingham 1811-79, American genre painter and politician, b. Augusta co., Va. His family moved (1819) to Missouri, which was the site of most of Bingham's activities. In 1837 he studied for a short time at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. From 1856 to 1859 he traveled in Europe...
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Lewis Cass
Lewis Cass 1782-1866, American statesman, b. Exeter, N.H. He established (1802) himself as a lawyer in Zanesville, Ohio, became a member (1806) of the state legislature, and was U.S. marshal for Ohio from 1807 to 1812. In the War of 1812, Cass's command was included against his will in the forces t...
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John Anthony Quitman
John Anthony Quitman 1798-1858, American general and politician, b. Rhinebeck, N.Y. He settled in Natchez, Miss., where he practiced law and held a series of political offices, serving in the state legislature and as acting governor (1835-36). As a brigadier general (promoted to major general in 18...
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legislative apportionment
legislative apportionment subdivision of a political body (e.g., a state or province) for the purpose of electing legislative representatives. In the United States, the Constitution requires that Congressional representatives be elected on the basis of population. State legislatures, not bound by t...
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Henry Rowe Schoolcraft
Henry Rowe Schoolcraft 1793-1864, American ethnologist, b. near Albany, N.Y. He gave enormous impetus to the study of Native American culture and may be regarded as the foremost pioneer in Native American studies. As a young man, Schoolcraft abandoned his family's glassmaking business and made a jo...
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Five Civilized Tribes
Five Civilized Tribes inclusive term used since mid-19th cent. for the Cherokee , Chickasaw , Choctaw , Creek , and Seminole tribes of E Oklahoma. By 1850 some 60,000 members of these tribes were settled in the Indian Territory under the Removal Act of 1830, which provided that this territo...
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Aaron Burr
Aaron Burr 1756-1836, American political leader, b. Newark, N.J., grad. College of New Jersey (now Princeton).
Political Career
A brilliant law student, Burr interrupted his study to serve in the American Revolution and proved himself a valiant soldier in early campaigns. In 1779 ill heal...
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