title: Louis VII of France

text: The expedition to the Holy Land came at a great cost to the royal treasury and military. It also precipitated a conflict with Eleanor that led to the annulment of their marriage. Perhaps the marriage to Eleanor might have continued if the royal couple had produced a male heir, but this had not occurred. The Council of Beaugency found an exit clause, declaring that Louis VII and Eleanor were too closely related for their marriage to be legal, thus the marriage was annulled on 21 March 1152. The pretext of kinship was the basis for annulment, but in fact, it owed more to the state of hostility between Louis and Eleanor, with a decreasing likelihood that their marriage would produce a male heir to the throne of France. On 18 May 1152, Eleanor married the Count of Anjou, the future King Henry II of England. She gave him the duchy of Aquitaine and bore him three daughters and five sons. Louis VII led an ineffective war against Henry for having married without the authorisation of his suzerain. The result was a humiliation for the enemies of Henry and Eleanor, who saw their troops routed, their lands ravaged, and their property stolen. Louis reacted by coming down with a fever and returned to the Île-de-France.


title: Louis VII of France

text: In 1154, Louis VII married Constance of Castile, daughter of King Alfonso VII of Castile. She also failed to supply him with a son and heir, bearing only two daughters, Margaret and Alys. By 1157, Henry II of England began to believe that Louis might never produce a male heir, and that the succession of France would consequently be left in question. Determined to secure a claim for his family, he sent his chancellor, Thomas Becket, to press for a marriage between Margaret and Henry's heir, Henry the Young King. Louis agreed to this proposal, and by the Treaty of Gisors (1158) betrothed the young pair, giving as a dowry the Norman city of Gisors and the surrounding county of Vexin.


title: Louis VII of France

text: Louis VII was devastated when Constance died in childbirth on 4 October 1160. As he was desperate for a son, he married Adela of Champagne just 5 weeks later. To counterbalance the advantage this would give the king of France, Henry II had the marriage of their children (Henry "the Young King" and Margaret) celebrated at once. Louis understood the danger of the growing Angevin power; however, through indecision and a lack of fiscal and military resources in comparison to Henry II, he failed to oppose Angevin hegemony effectively. One of his few successes was a trip to Toulouse in 1159 to aid Raymond V, Count of Toulouse, who had been attacked by Henry II: Louis entered into the city with a small escort, claiming to be visiting his sister, the countess, Henry declared that he could not attack the city while his liege lord was inside, and went home. In 1169, Louis was petitioned by the bishop of Le Puy to stop the Viscount of Polignac from attacking travelers through Auvergne. The viscount was besieged by Louis at Nonette and the county was turned into a prévôt.


title: Louis VII of France

text: Louis' reign saw Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I press his claims to Arles, in southeastern France. When a papal schism broke out in 1159, Louis VII took the part of Pope Alexander III, the enemy of Frederick I, and after two comical failures of Frederick I to meet Louis VII at Saint-Jean-de-Losne (on 29 August and 22 September 1162), Louis VII definitely gave himself up to the cause of Alexander III, who lived at Sens from 1163 to 1165. In return for his loyal support, the pope gave Louis the Golden Rose.


title: Louis VII of France

text: More important for English history would be Louis's support for Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, whom he tried to reconcile with Henry II. Louis sided with Becket as much to damage Henry as out of piety—yet even he grew irritated with the stubbornness of the archbishop, asking when Becket refused Henry's conciliations, "Do you wish to be more than a Saint?"


title: Louis VII of France

text: Louis also tried to weaken Henry by supporting his rebellious sons, and encouraged Plantagenet disunity by making Henry's sons, rather than Henry himself, the feudal overlords of the Angevin territories in France. But the rivalry among Henry's sons and Louis's own indecisiveness broke up the coalition (1173–1174) between them. Finally, in 1177, the pope intervened to bring the two kings to terms at Vitry-en-Perthois.


title: Louis VII of France

text: In 1165, Louis's third wife bore him a son and heir, Philip. Louis had him crowned at Reims in 1179, in the Capetian tradition (Philip would in fact be the last king so crowned). Already stricken with paralysis, Louis himself could not be present at the ceremony. He died on 18 September 1180 in Paris and was buried the next day at Barbeau Abbey, which he had founded. His remains were moved to the Basilica of Saint-Denis in 1817.


title: Louis VII of France

text: Louis is a character in Jean Anouilh's 1959 play "Becket". In the 1964 film adaptation he was portrayed by John Gielgud, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was also portrayed by Charles Kay in the 1978 BBC TV drama series "The Devil's Crown". He has a role in Sharon Kay Penman's novels "When Christ and His Saints Slept" and "Devil's Brood." The early part of Norah Lofts' biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine deals considerably with Louis VII, seen through Eleanor's eyes and giving her side in their problematic relationship. Louis is one of the main characters in Elizabeth Chadwick's novel "The Summer Queen".


title: Day

text: A day is the time period of a full rotation of the Earth with respect to the Sun. On average, this is 24 hours, 1440 minutes, or 86,400 seconds. In everyday life, the word "day" often refers to a solar day, which is the length between two solar noons or times the Sun reaches the highest point. The word "day" may also refer to "daytime", a time period when the location receives direct and indirect sunlight. On Earth, as a location passes through its day, it experiences morning, noon, afternoon, evening, and night. The effect of a day is vital to many life processes, which is called the circadian rhythm.


title: Day

text: A collection of sequential days is organized into calendars as dates, almost always into weeks, months and years. Most calendars' arrangement of dates use either or both the Sun with its four seasons (solar calendar) or the Moon's phasing (lunar calendar). The start of a day is commonly accepted as roughly the time of the middle of the night or midnight, written as 00:00 or 12:00 am in 24- or 12-hour clocks, respectively. Because the time of midnight varies between locations, time zones are set up to facilitate the use of a uniform standard time. Midnight is not the only convention used to determine the start of a new day. Other defining moments have been used throughout history, and some are used even today, such as with the Jewish religious calendar, which counts days from sunset to sunset, so the Jewish Sabbath begins at sundown on Friday. Astronomers also have a convention where their day begins at high noon. This way, all of their observations throughout a single night are recorded as happening on the same day. This method removes ambiguity of a particular observation happening on a calendar day, eliminating the need to further determine which night it happened on. Because when using midnight as the start of day, each calendar day is associated with two separate night periods.


title: Day

text: In specific applications, the definition of a day is slightly modified, such as in the ISQ day (exactly 86,400 seconds) used for computers and standards keeping, local mean time accounting of the Earth's natural fluctuation of a solar day, and stellar day and sidereal day (using the celestial sphere) used for astronomy. In most countries outside of the tropics, daylight saving time is practiced, and each year there will be one 23-hour civil day and one 25-hour civil day. Due to slight variations in the rotation of the Earth, there are rare times when a leap second will get inserted at the end of a UTC day, and so while almost all days have a duration of 86,400 seconds, there are these exceptional cases of a day with 86,401 seconds (in the half-century spanning 1972 through 2022, there have been a total of 27 leap seconds that have been inserted, so roughly once every other year).


title: Day

text: The term comes from the Old English term "dæġ" (), with its cognates such as "dagur" in Icelandic, "Tag" in German, and "dag" in Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and Dutch – all stemming from a Proto-Germanic root "*dagaz". , "day" is the 205th most common word in US English, and the 210th most common in UK English.


title: Day

text: Several definitions of this universal human concept are used according to context, need and convenience. Besides the day of 24 hours (86,400 seconds), the word "day" is used for several different spans of time based on the rotation of the Earth around its axis. An important one is the "solar day", defined as the time it takes for the Sun to return to its culmination point (its highest point in the sky). Because celestial orbits are not perfectly circular, and thus objects travel at different speeds at various positions in their orbit, a solar day is not the same length of time throughout the orbital year. Because the Earth moves along an eccentric orbit around the Sun while the Earth spins on an inclined axis, this period can be up to 7.9 seconds more than (or less than) 24 hours. In recent decades, the average length of a solar day on Earth has been about 86,400.002 seconds (24.000 000 6 hours) and there are currently about 365.2421875 solar days in one mean tropical year.


title: Day

text: Ancient custom has a new day start at either the rising or setting of the Sun on the local horizon (Italian reckoning, for example, being 24 hours from sunset, oldstyle). The exact moment of, and the interval between, two sunrises or sunsets depends on the geographical position (longitude and latitude, as well as altitude), and the time of year (as indicated by ancient hemispherical sundials).


title: Day

text: A more constant day can be defined by the Sun passing through the local meridian, which happens at local noon (upper culmination) or midnight (lower culmination). The exact moment is dependent on the geographical longitude, and to a lesser extent on the time of the year. The length of such a day is nearly constant (24 hours ± 30 seconds). This is the time as indicated by modern sundials.


title: Day

text: A further improvement defines a fictitious mean Sun that moves with constant speed along the celestial equator; the speed is the same as the average speed of the real Sun, but this removes the variation over a year as the Earth moves along its orbit around the Sun (due to both its velocity and its axial tilt).


title: Day

text: In terms of Earth's rotation, the average day length is about 360.9856°. A day lasts for more than 360° of rotation because of the Earth's revolution around the Sun. With a full year being slightly more than 360 days, the Earth's daily orbit around the Sun is slightly less than 1°, so the day is slightly less than 361° of rotation.


title: Day

text: Elsewhere in the Solar System or other parts of the universe, a day is a full rotation of other large astronomical objects with respect to its star.


title: Day

text: For civil purposes, a common clock time is typically defined for an entire region based on the local mean solar time at a central meridian. Such "time zones" began to be adopted about the middle of the 19th century when railroads with regularly occurring schedules came into use, with most major countries having adopted them by 1929. As of 2015, throughout the world, 40 such zones are now in use: the central zone, from which all others are defined as offsets, is known as , which uses Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).


title: Day

text: The most common convention starts the civil day at midnight: this is near the time of the lower culmination of the Sun on the central meridian of the time zone. Such a day may be referred to as a calendar day.


title: Day

text: A sidereal day or stellar day is the span of time it takes for the Earth to make one entire rotation with respect to the celestial background or a distant star (assumed to be fixed). Measuring a day as such is used in astronomy. A sidereal day is about 4 minutes less than a solar day of 24 hours (23 hours 56 minutes and 4.09 seconds), or 0.99726968 of a solar day of 24 hours. There are about 366.2422 stellar days in one mean tropical year (one stellar day more than the number of solar days).


title: Day

text: Besides a stellar day on Earth, other bodies in the Solar System have day times, the durations of these being:


title: Day

text: In the International System of Units (SI), a day not an official unit, but is accepted for use with SI. A day, with symbol d, is defined using SI units as 86,400 seconds; the second is the base unit of time in SI units. In 1967–68, during the 13th CGPM (Resolution 1), the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) redefined a second as "... the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom." This makes the SI-based day last exactly 794,243,384,928,000 of those periods.


title: Day

text: Various decimal or metric time proposals have been made, but do not redefine the day, and use the day or sidereal day as a base unit. Metric time uses metric prefixes to keep time. It uses the day as the base unit, and smaller units being fractions of a day: a metric hour ("deci") is of a day; a metric minute ("milli") is of a day; etc. Similarly, in decimal time, the length of a day is static to normal time. A day is also split into 10 hours, and 10 days comprise a "décade –" the equivalent to a week. 3 "décades" make a month. Various decimal time proposals which do not redefine the day: Henri de Sarrauton's proposal kept days, and subdivided hours into 100 minutes; in Mendizábal y Tamborel's proposal, the sidereal day was the basic unit, with subdivisions made upon it; and Rey-Pailhade's proposal divided the day 100 "cés."


title: Day

text: Mainly due to tidal deceleration – the Moon's gravitational pull slowing down the Earth's rotation – the Earth's rotational period is slowing. Because of the way the second is defined, the mean length of a solar day is now about 86,400.002 seconds, and is increasing by about 2 milliseconds per century.


title: Day

text: Since the rotation rate of the Earth is slowing, the length of a second fell out of sync with a second derived from the rotational period of the earth. This arose the need for leap seconds, which insert extra seconds into Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Although typically 86,400 seconds in duration, a civil day can be either 86,401 or 86,399 SI seconds long on such a day. Other than the two-millisecond variation from tidal deceleration, other factors minutely affect the day's length, which creates irregularity in the placement of leap seconds. Leap seconds are announced in advance by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS), which measures the Earth's rotation and determines whether a leap second is necessary.


title: Day

text: Discovered by paleontologist John W. Wells, the day lengths of geological periods have been estimated by measuring sedimentation rings in coral fossils, due to some biological systems being affected by the tide. The length of a day at the Earth's formation is estimated at 6 hours. Arbab I. Arbab plotted day lengths over time and found a curved line. Arbab attributed this to the change of water volume present affecting Earth's rotation.


title: Day

text: For most diurnal animals, the day naturally begins at dawn and ends at sunset. Humans, with their cultural norms and scientific knowledge, have employed several different conceptions of the day's boundaries. In the Hebrew Bible, Genesis 1:5 defines a day in terms of "evening" and "morning" before recounting the creation of a sun to illuminate it: "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day." Common convention among the ancient Romans, ancient Chinese and in modern times is for the civil day to begin at midnight, i.e. 00:00, and to last a full 24 hours until 24:00 (i.e. 00:00 of the next day).


title: Day

text: In ancient Egypt the day was reckoned from sunrise to sunrise. The Jewish day begins at either sunset or nightfall (when three second-magnitude stars appear).


title: Day

text: Medieval Europe also followed this tradition, known as Florentine reckoning: in this system, a reference like "two hours into the day" meant "two hours after sunset" and thus times during the evening need to be shifted back one calendar day in modern reckoning. Days such as Christmas Eve, Halloween, and the Eve of Saint Agnes are remnants of the older pattern when holidays began during the prior evening. Prior to 1926, Turkey had two time systems: Turkish (counting the hours from sunset) and French (counting the hours from midnight).


title: Day

text: Humans have divided the day in rough periods, which can have cultural implications, and other effects on humans' biological processes. The parts of the day do not have set times; they can vary by lifestyle or hours of daylight in a given place.


title: Day

text: A day, in the sense of daytime that is distinguished from night time, is commonly defined as the period during which sunlight directly reaches the ground, assuming that there are no local obstacles. The length of daytime averages slightly more than half of the 24-hour day. Two effects make daytime on average longer than nights. The Sun is not a point, but has an apparent size of about 32 minutes of arc. Additionally, the atmosphere refracts sunlight in such a way that some of it reaches the ground even when the Sun is below the horizon by about 34 minutes of arc. So the first light reaches the ground when the centre of the Sun is still below the horizon by about 50 minutes of arc. Thus, daytime is on average around 7 minutes longer than 12 hours.


title: Day

text: Daytime is further distinguished into morning, afternoon, and evening. Morning occurs between sunrise and noon. Afternoon occurs between noon and sunset. This period of time sees human's highest body temperature, an increase of traffic collisions, and a decrease of productivity. Evening occurs between the end of afternoon and before sleep.


title: Day

text: Twilight is the period before sunset and after sunrise in which there is natural light but no direct sunlight. Twilight can be subdivided into dawn or dusk, or into civil twilight, nautical twilight, and astronomical twilight. Civil twilight begins when the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon; nautical begins at 12 degrees, and astronomical begins at 18 degrees.


title: Day

text: Night is the period in which the sky is dark, or the period between dusk and dawn where no light is visible. Due to the darkness of night, it affects the circadian rhythm; artificial light during night can disrupt circadian rhythms and sleep.


title: Charlie Weber (actor)

text: Charles Alan Weber Jr. (born September 20, 1978) is an American actor and former model. In 2014, Weber began starring as Frank Delfino in the ABC legal drama series, "How to Get Away with Murder".


title: Charlie Weber (actor)

text: Weber was born in Jefferson City, Missouri. He dropped out of college after a year and moved to New York City when he was 19 years old to study at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. As a model, Weber appeared in the Christmas 1998 Abercrombie & Fitch catalog when photographer Bruce Weber revitalized the publication.


title: Charlie Weber (actor)

text: Weber made his screen debut in the 2000 film "". Later that same year he was cast in the recurring role of Ben on the TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Weber appeared in 14 episodes of the series from 2000 to 2001. He later guest-starred on "The Drew Carey Show", "Charmed", "Veronica Mars", "House", "Burn Notice", "Bones", "Warehouse 13" and "".


title: Charlie Weber (actor)

text: From 2003 to 2004, Weber had roles in the direct-to-video films "Gacy", "The Kiss" and "Cruel Intentions 3". In 2010, he co-starred in the vampire-spoof film "Vampires Suck". From 2003 to 2004 he had a recurring role of Jay in another The WB drama series, "Everwood". From 2012 to 2013 he appeared in the MTV comedy-drama series, "Underemployed", and later had a recurring role on the fifth season of The CW teen drama, "90210".


title: Charlie Weber (actor)

text: In 2014, Weber was cast in the series regular role in the ABC legal drama series, "How to Get Away with Murder" produced by Shonda Rhimes. He played the role of Frank Delfino, an associate of Viola Davis' character.


title: Charlie Weber (actor)

text: Weber played Christian Vance, owner of Vance Publishing, in the 2020 romance film sequel "After We Collided".


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Stephen Arnold Douglas (April 23, 1813 – June 3, 1861) was an American politician and lawyer from Illinois. A senator, he was one of two nominees of the badly split Democratic Party for president in the 1860 presidential election, which was won by Republican Abraham Lincoln. Douglas had previously defeated Lincoln in the 1858 United States Senate election in Illinois, known for the pivotal Lincoln–Douglas debates. He was one of the brokers of the Compromise of 1850 which sought to avert a sectional crisis; to further deal with the volatile issue of extending slavery into the territories, Douglas became the foremost advocate of popular sovereignty, which held that each territory should be allowed to determine whether to permit slavery within its borders. This attempt to address the issue was rejected by both pro-slavery and anti-slavery advocates. Douglas was nicknamed the "Little Giant" because he was short in physical stature but a forceful and dominant figure in politics.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Born in Brandon, Vermont, Douglas migrated to Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1833 to establish a legal practice. He experienced early success in politics as a member of the newly formed Democratic Party, serving in the Illinois House of Representatives and various other positions. He resigned from the Supreme Court of Illinois upon being elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1843. Douglas became an ally of President James K. Polk, and favored the annexation of Texas and the Mexican–American War. He was one of four Northern Democrats in the House to vote against the Wilmot Proviso, which would have banned slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: The Illinois legislature elected Douglas to the United States Senate in 1847, and Douglas emerged as a national party leader during the 1850s. Along with Whig Henry Clay, he led the passage of the Compromise of 1850, which settled some of the territorial issues arising from the Mexican–American War. Douglas was a candidate for president at the 1852 Democratic National Convention, but lost the nomination to Franklin Pierce. Seeking to open the west for expansion, Douglas introduced the Kansas–Nebraska Act in 1854. Though Douglas had hoped the Kansas–Nebraska Act would ease sectional tensions, it elicited a strong reaction in the North and helped fuel the rise of the anti-slavery Republican Party. Douglas once again sought the presidency in 1856, but the 1856 Democratic National Convention instead nominated James Buchanan, who went on to win the election. Buchanan and Douglas split over the admission of Kansas as a slave state, as Douglas accused the pro-slavery Kansas legislature of having conducted an unfair election.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: During the Lincoln–Douglas debates, Douglas articulated the Freeport Doctrine, which held that territories could effectively exclude slavery despite the Supreme Court's ruling in the 1857 case of "Dred Scott v. Sandford". Disagreements over slavery led to the bolt of Southern delegates at the 1860 Democratic National Convention. The rump convention of Northern delegates nominated Douglas for president, while Southern Democrats threw their support behind John C. Breckinridge. In the 1860 election, Lincoln and Douglas were the main candidates in the North, while most Southerners supported either Breckinridge or John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party. Campaigning throughout the country during the election, Douglas warned of the dangers of secession and urged his audiences to stay loyal to the United States. Ultimately, Lincoln's strong support in the North led to his victory in the election. After the Battle of Fort Sumter, Douglas rallied support for the Union, but he died in June 1861.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: He was born Stephen Arnold Douglass in Brandon, Vermont, on April 23, 1813, to physician Stephen Arnold Douglass and his wife, Sarah Fisk. The younger Douglas would drop the second "s" from his name in 1846, the year after the publication of Frederick Douglass's first autobiography; it is unknown if these two events were connected. Douglas's paternal ancestors had migrated to New England in the 17th century, and his paternal grandfather, Benajah Douglass, served several terms in the Vermont House of Representatives. Douglas's father died when Douglas was just two months old. Douglas, his mother, and older sister moved to the farm she and her bachelor brother, Edward Fisk, had inherited from their father. Douglas received an elementary education at the local school in Brandon. As a teenager, Stephen left the family farm for Middlebury, Vermont, and apprenticed himself to a cabinetmaker named Nahum Parker. He began reading political literature and engaging in discussions with his employer and other young men. Douglas came to have great admiration for Andrew Jackson. He left Middlebury and returned to Brandon after he grew dissatisfied with his employer. He began another apprenticeship with another cabinetmaker, Deacon Caleb Knowlton, but also quit this employer after less than a year.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Douglas moved back in with his mother and decided to enroll as a student at Brandon Academy in order to pursue a professional career. Soon, however, his sister married a man from western New York. Stephen’s mother later married this man’s father, Gehazi Granger. The whole family then relocated to the Granger estate in New York, Stephen included. He was 17 years old at that time, and soon continued his education at nearby Canandaigua Academy. He began the study of Latin and Greek and showed particular skill as a debater. At this point, he may have already been looking forward to a career as a politician. At Canandaigua Academy, Douglas frequently gave speeches supporting Andrew Jackson and Jackson's Democratic Party. A prominent local attorney, Levi Hubbell, allowed Douglas to study under him and while a student in Hubbell's office, Douglas became friendly with Henry B. Payne, who was studying law at the nearby office of John C. Spencer.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: In 1833, aged just 20, Douglas decided he had had enough of New York and wanted to seek his fortunes out West, which was full of opportunity for an enterprising young man. Despite his mother’s protests and the fact that he had not yet completed his studies at the academy, Stephen ventured out on his own. The newer states of the west had easier conditions for admission to the bar and he was eager to begin his professional career. And so, with his purposes only partially formed and only enough money for immediate needs, he began his westerly drift. After a short stay in Buffalo, NY, and a visit to Niagara Falls, Douglas took a steamboat down to Cleveland, OH. He had initially hoped to establish himself there, it would only take him a year to gain admission to the bar in Ohio, as opposed to four years in Vermont. Within a few days, however, he was stricken with malarial typhoid and was very ill for four months. He could very easily have died. After paying all his bills, he still had forty dollars left. Douglas decided to push further west.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: He took a canal boat from Cleveland to the southern Ohio town of Portsmouth, then went west to Cincinnati. Douglas still had no well-defined purpose and drifted from city to city, stopping in Louisville and St. Louis. His money now almost all spent, he had to find work soon. Finding no luck in St. Louis, he became convinced that he must find some small country town. Upon hearing that Jacksonville in Illinois was a thriving settlement, he decided to try his luck there. In Jacksonville, Douglas befriended attorney Murray McConnel, a friendship that would continue throughout Douglas' life. McConnel, having no employment to offer to Douglas, advised him to go to the town of Pekin, Illinois and open a law office there, believing Pekin was destined to become a major shipping and marketing hub. With books gifted to him by McConnel, Douglas waited in the town of Meredosia to await a steam boat that would take him to Pekin via the Illinois RIver. Douglas waited a week until learning the only boat expected on the river at that time of year had blown up. Broke and in desperate need of employment, Douglas rode with a farmer to the village of Exeter to open a school. The townspeople informed Douglas that a school could probably be opened in Winchester, ten miles away. A distance that Douglas traveled to on foot. After acquiring enough money and a license to practice law, Douglas moved back to Jacksonville. Morgan County was then only sparsely populated and still very much 'wild country'. Douglas found the open prairie lands to be a revelation. Having grown up in the hills of Vermont, these lands were like nothing he had previously seen. Years later he said, "I found my mind liberalized and my opinions enlarged, when I got on these broad prairies, with only the heavens to bound my vision, instead of having them circumscribed by the little ridges that surrounded the valley where I was born." Douglas settled in Jacksonville in November 1833.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Douglas was admitted to the state bar in Illinois in March 1834. To his family, Douglas wrote, "I have become a Western man, have imbibed Western feelings, principles, and interests and have selected Illinois as the favorite place of my adoption."


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Douglas became aligned with the "whole hog" Democrats, who strongly supported President Jackson. In 1834, with the support of the Democratic state legislator who represented Jacksonville, Douglas was elected as the State's Attorney for the First District, which encompassed eight counties in western Illinois. Douglas quickly became uninterested in practicing law, choosing instead to focus on politics. He helped arrange the first-ever state Democratic convention in late 1835, and the convention pledged to support Jackson's chosen successor, Martin Van Buren, in the 1836 presidential election. In 1836, he won election to the Illinois House of Representatives, defeating Whig Party candidate John J. Hardin. Douglas joined a legislature that included five future senators, seven future congressmen, and one future president: Abraham Lincoln, who was at that time a member of the Whig Party. While continuing to serve in the state legislature and as a state's attorney, Douglas was appointed by President Van Buren as the registrar of the Springfield Land Office.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Douglas sought election to the United States House of Representatives in 1838, but lost by a 36-vote margin to Whig candidate John T. Stuart. During the presidential election of 1840, Douglas campaigned throughout the state for President Van Buren, and he frequently debated with Lincoln and other Whigs. Though Van Buren lost his re-election bid to Whig candidate William Henry Harrison, Illinois was one of seven states to vote for Van Buren. After the election, Governor Thomas Carlin appointed Douglas as the Illinois Secretary of State, making Douglas the youngest individual to hold the post. During his brief tenure as secretary of state, Douglas helped arrange a state charter for the Mormon settlement of Nauvoo. In early 1841, Douglas accepted election to the Illinois Supreme Court. In 1843, Douglas resigned from the court after winning election to the United States House of Representatives.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: During one evening in the early 1840s, Douglas dined with Joseph Smith, the Prophet and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At Douglas's request, President Smith recounted a history of the Missouri persecutions, to which Douglas expressed sympathy. Joseph Smith then pronounced the following prophecy on the head of Stephen A. Douglas: Judge, you will aspire to the presidency of the United States; and if ever you turn your hand against me or the Latter-day Saints, you will feel the weight of the hand of Almighty upon you; and you will live to see and know that I have testified the truth to you; for the conversation of this day will stick to you through life.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: After decisively winning re-election in August 1844, Douglas campaigned for Democratic presidential candidate James K. Polk. During one of his first campaign appearances outside of Illinois, Douglas denounced high tariff rates, saying that they constituted "an act for the oppression and plunder of the American laborer for the benefit of a few large capitalists". Ultimately, Polk defeated Whig nominee Henry Clay in the 1844 presidential election. Douglas strongly supported the annexation of Texas, and in May 1846 he voted to declare war on Mexico after U.S. and Mexican forces clashed near the Rio Grande River. Douglas considered volunteering to serve in the war, but President Polk convinced him to remain in Congress, where he would serve as an advocate for Polk's policies. He was one of four Northern Democrats to vote against the Wilmot Proviso, which would have banned slavery from any land ceded by Mexico. Douglas instead favored extending the Missouri Compromise, which had banned slavery north of the parallel 36°30′ north in the Louisiana Purchase, to all U.S. territories, but his proposal was defeated by Northern congressmen. Despite being a supporter of Polk's policies, he voted against the Walker Tariff.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: In March 1847, he married Martha Martin, the 21-year-old daughter of wealthy Colonel Robert Martin of North Carolina. The year after their marriage, Martha's father died and bequeathed her a 2,500-acre cotton plantation with 100 slaves on the Pearl River in Lawrence County, Mississippi. He appointed Douglas the property manager but, as a senator of the free state of Illinois, and with presidential aspirations, Douglas found the Southern plantation presented difficulties. He created distance by hiring a manager to operate the plantation while using his allocated 20 percent of the income to advance his political career. His sole lengthy visit to Mississippi was in 1848, and he made only brief emergency trips thereafter.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: The newlyweds moved their Illinois home from Springfield to fast-growing Chicago in the summer of 1847. They had two sons: Robert M. Douglas (1849–1917) and Stephen Arnold Douglas, Jr., (1850–1908). Martha Douglas died on January 19, 1853, after the birth of her third child, a daughter. The girl died a few weeks later, and Douglas and the two boys were bereft.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: On November 20, 1856, Douglas married a second time, to 20-year-old Adele Cutts, a southern woman from Washington, D.C. She was the daughter of James Madison Cutts, a nephew of former President James Madison, and Ellen O'Neal, a niece of Rose O'Neal Greenhow. Her mother was from a Maryland Catholic family and raised Adele as a Catholic. With Stephen's approval, she had his two sons baptized as Catholic and reared in that faith. She had a miscarriage in 1858 and became ill. The following year, Adele gave birth to a daughter, Rachel, who lived only a few weeks.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Douglas's immediate ancestors were almost entirely from New England. His Douglas ancestors, upon emigrating from England in the early 1600s, settled in Connecticut where they lived for several generations until his grandfather, Benajah Douglas, moved to Stephentown, New York. From there the family moved to Brandon, Vermont, where Stephen A. Douglas was born.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Both of Douglas's grandmothers were Arnolds, and both of them descend from early Providence proprietor, William Arnold, each through a different one of his sons. His paternal grandmother, Martha (Arnold) Douglas, was the daughter of Stephen Arnold who left Rhode Island to settle in Stephentown, New York. Stephen was the son of Joseph Arnold of North Kingstown and Exeter, Rhode Island who links Douglas with several prominent colonial Rhode Islanders. Through Joseph Arnold, Douglas descends from Benedict Arnold, the first governor of the Rhode Island colony under the Royal Charter of 1663, and the older son of William Arnold. In this line he also descends from two signers of the compact that established the first government in the Rhode Island colony, they being Samuel Wilbore and John Porter. He also descends from Wilbore's son, Samuel Wilbur, Jr. who was mentioned by name in the Royal Charter of 1663, and who, with Porter, was an original purchaser of the Pettaquamscutt lands that became the town of South Kingstown, Rhode Island. Additionally, through his paternal grandmother, Douglas descends from Indian captive Susanna Cole and her famous mother, Anne Hutchinson, as well as early Newport settler George Gardiner and his common-law wife Herodias Gardiner.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Douglas' maternal grandmother, Sarah (Arnold) Fisk, was a descendant of William Arnold through his younger son, Stephen Arnold. She also descends from early Rhode Island Baptist minister Pardon Tillinghast.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: In the following ancestral chart, persons 1–7, 10–11, 14–15, 20–23, and 28–31 are all documented in the book "The Arnold Memorial", published in 1935 by Elisha Stephen Arnold, a fairly close relative of Douglas. Persons 8-9 and 16-17 are documented in a "New England Historical and Genealogical Register" article that was captured in a collection of Connecticut genealogies. The remaining persons, and a few additional dates, all come from online sources which are found under "External links."


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Douglas was re-elected to the House of Representatives in 1846, but the state legislature elected him to the United States Senate in early 1847. The United States defeated Mexico in the Mexican–American War and acquired the Mexican Cession in the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. After the war, Douglas attempted to avoid the debate over the Wilmot Proviso by immediately admitting the territory acquired from Mexico as one single, huge state. His proposal would have allowed the inhabitants of the new state to determine the status of slavery themselves, but Northerners and Southerners alike rejected the plan.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: In 1850, Senator Henry Clay introduced a multi-part proposal to admit California as a free state, establish the New Mexico and Utah territories, ban the slave trade in the District of Columbia, and pass a more stringent fugitive slave law. The proposal, which would form the basis of what would eventually be known as the Compromise of 1850, also required Texas to cede its claims on New Mexico in return for debt relief. After the apparent collapse of the bill, Clay took a temporary leave from the Senate, and Douglas took the lead in advocating for a compromise based largely on Clay's proposals. Rather than passing the proposals as one bill, as Clay had originally sought to do, Douglas would seek to pass each proposal one-by-one. The compromise faced strong opposition from Northerners like William Seward, who favored the Wilmot Proviso and attacked the fugitive slave provision, and Southerners like John C. Calhoun, who opposed the creation of new free states. With the help of President Millard Fillmore, Douglas put together a bipartisan coalition of Whigs and Democrats that passed the compromise in the Senate. Along with Fillmore and other supporters of the compromise, Douglas's lobbying helped ensure that the compromise also passed the House of Representatives. Fillmore signed the compromise bills into law, ending the sectional crisis.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Douglas's role in passing the compromise gave him the stature of a national leader, and he enjoyed the support of the Young America movement, which favored expansionary policies. Douglas helped pass a bill granting rights-of-way to the Illinois Central Railroad, which would connect Chicago to Mobile, Alabama. He envisioned a transcontinental country connected by railroads and waterways, with Illinois serving as the gateway to the West. "There is a power in this nation greater than either the North or the South ... that power is the country known as the great West," he stated. Though he publicly denied interest in running in the 1852 presidential election, Douglas worked behind the scenes to build a base of support. The 1852 Democratic National Convention held several presidential ballots, with delegates split between Douglas, former Secretary of State James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, 1848 presidential nominee Lewis Cass of Michigan, and former Secretary of War William L. Marcy of New York. Nomination required the support of two-thirds of the delegates, and none of the major candidates won that level of support. On the 49th ballot, the convention nominated a dark horse candidate, former Senator Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire. Despite his disappointment at losing the nomination, Douglas campaigned for Pierce across the Midwest. Pierce went on to defeat the Whig candidate, Winfield Scott, in the 1852 presidential election, while Douglas won re-election to the Senate.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: After the election, Douglas expected to have influence in the selection of Pierce's cabinet, and possibly to receive a cabinet appointment himself. Defying those expectations, Pierce largely ignored Douglas and instead gave key positions to rivals of Douglas, including Buchanan and Jefferson Davis. After the death of his daughter in early 1853, Douglas went on a five-month-long tour of Europe. Returning to the Senate in late 1853, Douglas initially sought to avoid taking center stage in national debates, but he once again became involved in sectional disputes stemming from the issue of slavery in the territories. In order to provide for western expansion and the completion of a transcontinental railroad, Douglas favored incorporating parts of the vast unorganized territory located west of the Missouri River and east of the Rocky Mountains. In January 1854, he proposed to organize two new territories: Nebraska Territory, located west of Iowa, and Kansas Territory, located south of Nebraska Territory and west of Missouri. Under the doctrine of popular sovereignty, the citizens of each territory would determine the status of slavery. Douglas also reluctantly agreed to an amendment that would provide for the formal repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Aided by Jefferson Davis, Douglas convinced President Pierce to support his proposal.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Douglas's proposal, which would come to be known as the Kansas–Nebraska Act, provoked a strong reaction in the North, where the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was unpopular. Douglas argued that the Compromise of 1850 had already superseded the Missouri Compromise, and argued that the citizens of the territories should have the right to determine the status of slavery. Opponents of popular sovereignty attacked its supposed fairness; Abraham Lincoln claimed that Douglas "has no very vivid impression that the Negro is human; and consequently has no idea that there can be any moral question in legislating about him". Nonetheless, the Kansas–Nebraska Act won passage in both houses of Congress, albeit narrowly in the House of Representatives. In both the House and the Senate, every Northern Whig voted against the Kansas–Nebraska Act, while just under half of the Northern Democrats and the vast majority of Southern congressmen of both parties voted for the act. Northern opponents of the act saw it as a triumph for the hated Slave Power. Douglas had hoped that the Kansas–Nebraska Act would help ease sectional tensions, and he was surprised by the intensity of Northern backlash to his proposal and to Douglas himself. He later remembered, "I could travel from Boston to Chicago by the light of my own effigy."


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Democrats suffered major losses in the 1854 elections, which saw the emergence of the nativist Know Nothing movement and the anti-slavery Republican Party. The Illinois legislature replaced Senator James Shields, a Douglas ally, with Lyman Trumbull, an anti-slavery Democrat. After the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, anti-slavery and pro-slavery settlers flocked to Kansas Territory to influence whether Kansas would be a free state or a slave state. A series of violent clashes, known as Bleeding Kansas, broke out between anti-slavery and pro-slavery forces in the territory, and the two sides established competing governments. Douglas issued a committee report that endorsed the pro-slavery government as the legitimate government of Kansas and denounced anti-slavery forces as the primary cause of the violence. Anti-slavery activists like Charles Sumner attacked Douglas for the report; one Northern paper wrote, "Douglas has brains, but so has the Devil, so had Judas and Benedict Arnold." As the crisis in Kansas continued, the Whig Party collapsed, and many former Whigs joined the Republican Party, the Know Nothings, or, in the South, the Democratic Party.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: In early 1856 Douglas inserted himself and the debate surrounding the Kansas–Nebraska Act into the Chicago mayoral election, where Douglas strongly backed pro-Nebraska Democrat Thomas Dyer. Dyer ultimately won the election.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Bleeding Kansas badly damaged Pierce's standing among the Democratic Party leaders, and Pierce, Douglas, and Buchanan competed for the presidential nomination at the 1856 Democratic National Convention. Buchanan's greatest advantage over his rivals was that he had been in Britain for most of Pierce's presidency, and thereby had avoided becoming involved in the debate over the Kansas–Nebraska Act. After Buchanan led the first fourteen ballots of the convention, Pierce dropped out of the race and endorsed Douglas. After he was unable to pull into the lead on the sixteenth ballot, Douglas withdrew from the race, and the convention nominated Buchanan. As in 1852, Douglas accepted defeat and campaigned for the Democratic nominee. In a three-person race, Buchanan defeated Republican nominee John C. Frémont and Know Nothing nominee Millard Fillmore. Buchanan dominated in the South, but Frémont won several Northern states and Douglas ally William Alexander Richardson lost the 1856 Illinois gubernatorial election.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Douglas and Buchanan had a long-standing enmity, but Douglas hoped that his efforts for Buchanan in the 1856 election would be rewarded with influence in the new administration. However, as had been the case in the Pierce administration, Buchanan largely ignored Douglas in making appointments. Shortly after Buchanan took office, the Supreme Court issued the "Dred Scott" decision, which declared that slavery could not be legally excluded from the federal territories. Though the ruling was unpopular with many in the North, Douglas urged Americans to respect it, saying "whoever resists the final decision of the highest judicial tribunal aims a deadly blow at our whole republican system of government." He approved of another aspect of the ruling, which held that African-Americans could not be citizens, stating that the Founding Fathers "referred to the white race alone, and not the African, when they declared men to have been created free and equal".


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: In late 1857, the pro-slavery state legislature in Lecompton, Kansas organized a constitutional referendum on the future of slavery. Anti-slavery forces boycotted the referendum because both options presented required that slaves already in the state remain slaves regardless of the outcome of the vote. Territorial Governor Robert J. Walker denounced the referendum as a "vile fraud," and many Northern Democrats joined with Republicans in opposing the referendum. Nonetheless, the state legislature presented the Lecompton Constitution to President Buchanan, who endorsed the constitution and called on Congress to ratify it. Buchanan stated, "Kansas is therefore at this moment as much a slave state as Georgia and South Carolina." After meeting with Walker, Douglas broke with Buchanan and declared that the constitution was a "fraudulent submission," promising to "resist it to the last". Despite Douglas's efforts, the Buchanan administration won congressional approval to admit Kansas as a slave state. Frustrating Buchanan's plans, the newly elected, anti-slavery Kansas legislature rejected admission as a slave state in April 1858. In the South, Douglas received much of the blame for Kansas's rejection of admission; one paper wrote that Douglas had severed "the ties which have hitherto bound this able statesman and the people of the South together in such a cordial alliance".


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: After his defeat by Lyman Trumbull in the 1854 Senate election, Abraham Lincoln began planning to run against Douglas in the 1858 Senate election. Lincoln strongly rejected proposals to cooperate with Douglas against Buchanan, and he won the Republican nomination to oppose Douglas. Accepting the nomination, Lincoln delivered his House Divided Speech, saying "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the House to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other." Douglas rejected Lincoln's notion that the United States could not continue to be divided into free states and slave states, and warned that Lincoln called for "a war of secession, a war of the North against the South, of the free states against the slave states".


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Lincoln and his entourage began following Douglas around the state, campaigning in the senator's wake. Eventually, Douglas agreed to debate Lincoln in seven different venues across the state. The format of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates called for one candidate to make a one-hour opening speech, followed by the other candidate delivering a ninety-minute rebuttal, followed by the first candidate delivering a half hour closing remark; Lincoln and Douglas agreed to rotate who would speak in the two slots. The debates focused on the issue of slavery in the territories, and, more broadly, the meaning of republicanism in the United States. Douglas favored popular sovereignty and emphasized the concept of self-government, though his vision of self-government only encompassed whites. Lincoln, meanwhile, emphasized human equality and economic opportunity for all.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: In the second debate, Douglas articulated the Freeport Doctrine, holding that the people in federal territories had "the lawful means to introduce [slavery] or exclude it as they please, for the reason that slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere, unless it is supported by local police regulations. Those police regulations can only be established by the local legislature; and if the people are opposed to slavery, they will elect representatives to that body who will by unfriendly legislation effectually prevent the introduction of it into their midst." Thus, Douglas argued that territories could effectively exclude slavery despite the "Dred Scott" decision. At another appearance, Douglas reiterated his belief that the Declaration of Independence was not meant to apply to non-whites. He said, "this government was made by our fathers on the white basis ... made by white men for the benefit of white men and their posterity forever".


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: For his part, Lincoln criticized Douglas for his moral indifference to slavery, but denied any intention of interference with slavery in the South. He suggested that, despite the public break between Douglas and Buchanan over Kansas, the two Democrats had worked together to extend and perpetuate slavery. Lincoln disclaimed the radical-for-the-time views on racial equality attributed to him by Douglas, arguing only for the right of African Americans to personal liberty and to earn their own livings. He stated, "I am not, nor ever have been in favor of making voters of the negroes, or jurors, or qualifying them to hold office, or having them to marry with white people." At another debate, Lincoln stated, "I believe that slavery is wrong ... There is the difference between Judge Douglas and his friends and the Republican Party."


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Following the final debate, Illinois voters headed to the polls for Election Day. In an election that saw higher turnout than that of the 1856 presidential election, Democrats won 54 of the 100 seats in the state legislature. Despite the split with Buchanan and the strong challenge from Lincoln, the state legislature elected Senator Douglas to a third term in January 1859. Following the elections, Douglas toured the South. He warned against sectionalism and secession, telling one crowd, "if you deem it treason for abolitionists to appeal to the passions and prejudices of the North, how much less treason is it, my friends, for southern men to appeal to the passions with the same end?"


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: According to the "Springfield Republican", in 1857 Douglas "was, next to General Cass, the richest man in public life"; by the end of 1859, after extravagant political spending and disappointing investments, he was near bankrupt. "Two months ago [before John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry] he seemed to have more political power and popularity than any other American; everybody was talking about him, and his chances for the Presidency were hopefully discussed by his friends, and reluctantly conceded by his enemies—but now ... the Southern Democracy have ceased to fear him; and the Northern to worship him." He contracted a serious illness, "gout in the stomach", described as "almost always fatal". He would be dead in less than 2 years.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Douglas's 1858 re-election solidified his standing as a leading contender for the Democratic nomination in the 1860 presidential election. His support was concentrated in the North, especially the Midwest, though some unionist Southerners, like Alexander H. Stephens, were sympathetic to his cause. Douglas remained on poor terms with President Buchanan, and his Freeport Doctrine had further alienated many Southern senators. At the start of the 36th United States Congress, Buchanan and his Southern allies removed Douglas as chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories. Douglas helped defeat an attempt to pass a federal slave code, but saw his own bill to establish agricultural land-grant colleges vetoed by Buchanan.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: The 1860 Democratic National Convention opened in Charleston, South Carolina, on April 23, 1860. Newspapers in the city attacked Douglas as the "Demagogue of Illinois," but Douglas was determined to uphold his doctrine of popular sovereignty, telling one supporter "I do not intend to make peace with my enemies, nor to make a concession of one iota of principle." Following a long-established precedent, Douglas himself did not attend the convention, and the pro-Douglas forces at the convention were led by William Alexander Richardson. The remaining delegates were split into two broad factions: allies of Buchanan, led by a quartet of senators, and the Fire-Eaters, an extremist group of Southern delegates led by William Lowndes Yancey. After a contentious battle over the inclusion of popular sovereignty or a federal slave code in the party platform, several Southern delegations walked out of the convention. The convention subsequently held several rounds of presidential balloting, and while Douglas received by far the most support of any of the candidates, he fell well short of the necessary two-thirds majority of delegates. After nearly sixty ballots failed to produce a nominee, delegates agreed to adjourn the convention and reconvene in Baltimore in June.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: In the weeks leading up to second Democratic convention, a group of former Whigs and Know Nothings formed the Constitutional Union Party and nominated John Bell for president. Bell campaigned on a simple platform that emphasized unionism and sought to minimize the role of slavery, but he received little support outside of the South. The 1860 Republican National Convention passed over the initial front-runner, William Seward, and nominated Douglas's old opponent, Abraham Lincoln. The Democratic convention reconvened in Baltimore on June 18, and most Southern delegates once again bolted the convention. The rump Democratic convention nominated Douglas by an overwhelming margin. The party initially offered the vice presidential nomination to Benjamin Fitzpatrick, but after Fitzpatrick declined, Herschel Vespasian Johnson of Georgia agreed to serve as Douglas's running mate. Meanwhile, the Southern Democrats held their own convention in Baltimore and nominated Vice President John C. Breckinridge for president. Breckinridge himself did not openly support secession, but he received the support of Fire-Eaters like Jefferson Davis. Douglas rejected efforts to cooperate with Breckinridge, arguing that "any compromise with the secessionists would ... give every Northern state to Lincoln." The 1860 election essentially became two contests, with Breckinridge and Bell contesting the South and Lincoln and Douglas competing for the North.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Douglas broke with the precedent that presidential candidates did not campaign, and he gave speeches across the Northeastern United States after he won the nomination. Sensing an opportunity in the Upper South, he also campaigned in Virginia and North Carolina before campaigning in the crucial swing states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. While many Republicans did not take the talk of secession seriously, Douglas warned that some Southern leaders would seek immediate secession after the election. At Raleigh, North Carolina, he said "I am in favor of executing in good faith every clause and provision of the Constitution and protecting every right under it—and then hanging every man who takes up arms against it!" His campaign treasurer, August Belmont, struggled to raise funds for a candidacy that many regarded as a lost cause. Few newspapers endorsed Douglas, with the major exception being James Gordon Bennett Sr.'s "New York Herald".


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: The split in Pennsylvania between supporters of Douglas and supporters of Buchanan helped deliver that state to Lincoln, and Republicans also won Ohio and Indiana. Each of those states held elections for state offices in October, one month ahead of the nationwide presidential election, and these results were taken as predictive of the mood of the electorate in the lower North. Douglas recognized that victory in the election was impossible without those states. With no hope of victory in the election, he decided to take another tour of the South to speak against secession. "Mr. Lincoln is the president", he stated, "We must try to save the Union. I will go South." In St. Louis, he told the audience, "I am not here tonight to ask for your votes for the presidency. I am here to make an appeal to you for the Union and the peace of the country." Despite denunciations from various local newspapers, he continued his journey South, speaking against secession in Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Ultimately, Missouri was the lone state Douglas carried, though he also won three of the seven electoral votes in New Jersey. Bell won Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, Breckinridge swept the remaining Southern states, and Lincoln won California, Oregon, and every Northern elector outside of New Jersey. Though Douglas finished in last place in the electoral vote, he won the second-highest popular vote total and was the lone candidate to win electoral votes from both a free state and a slave state. Following Lincoln's victory, many in the South began making plans for secession. One Douglas associate in the South wrote to him, stating, "with your defeat, the cause of the Union was lost."


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: After the election, Douglas returned to the Senate, where he sought to prevent a break-up of the United States. He joined a special committee of thirteen senators, led by John J. Crittenden, which sought a legislative solution to the growing sectional tensions between the North and South. He supported the Crittenden Compromise, which called for a series of constitutional amendments that would enshrine the Missouri Compromise line in the constitution, but the Crittenden Compromise was defeated in committee by a combination of Republicans and Southern extremists. As late as Christmas 1860, Douglas wrote to Alexander H. Stephens and offered to support the annexation of Mexico as slave territory to avert secession. South Carolina voted to secede on December 20, 1860, and five other Southern states had done the same by mid-January. In February 1861, Jefferson Davis took office as the president of the Confederate States of America, which consisted of several Southern states that had decided to secede from the United States.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Douglas unsuccessfully sought President-elect Lincoln's support for the Peace Conference of 1861, another attempt to head off secession. Lincoln was unwilling to support the conference, but Douglas described his meeting with Lincoln as "peculiarly pleasant". A long-time opponent of protectionism, he voted against the Morrill Tariff, instead calling for a customs union with Canada, Mexico, Cuba, and Central America. Douglas praised Lincoln's first inaugural address, describing it as "a peace offering rather than a war message" to the South. After the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in April 1861, Lincoln decided to proclaim a state of rebellion and call for 75,000 troops to suppress it. Douglas met privately with Lincoln, looked over the proclamation before it was issued and endorsed it. He suggested only one change: Lincoln should call for "200,000" troops, not just 75,000. "You do not know the dishonest purposes of those men as well as I do," he said. To a friend, he stated, "I've known Mr. Lincoln a longer time than you have, or than the country has. He'll come out all right, and we will all stand by him." In late April, Douglas departed Washington for the Midwest, where he rallied support for the Union cause.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Douglas was struck by illness in May 1861 and was confined to his bed. Though his supporters initially expected a quick recovery, Douglas contracted typhoid fever and suffered from several other afflictions (see above). He died on June 3, coincidentally on the same day as the Battle of Philippi, the first skirmish of the American Civil War. On June 4, Secretary of War Simon Cameron issued a circular to Union armies, announcing "the death of a great statesman ... a man who nobly discarded party for his country".


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: For a century and a half, historians have debated whether Douglas opposed slavery, and whether he was a compromiser or a devotee of principles. In his "Freeport Doctrine" of 1858, he repeatedly said that he did not care whether slavery was voted up or down, but only that white people had the right to vote it up or down. He denounced as sacrilegious the petitions signed by thousands of clergymen in 1854, who said the Kansas–Nebraska Act offended God's will. He rejected the Republican assertions that slavery was condemned by a "higher law" (Seward's position) and that the nation could not long survive as half slave and half free (Lincoln's position). He disagreed with the Supreme Court's "Dred Scott" decision that Congress had no ability to regulate slavery in the territories. When Buchanan supported the Lecompton Constitution and admitting Kansas as a slave state (see Bleeding Kansas), Douglas fought him in a long battle that gained Douglas the 1860 Democratic nomination but ripped his party apart.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Graham Peck finds that while several scholars have said that Douglas was personally opposed to slavery despite owning a plantation in Mississippi, none has presented "extensive arguments to justify the conclusion". He cites recent scholarship as (equally briefly) finding Douglas "insensitive to the moral repugnance of slavery" or even "proslavery". He concludes that Douglas was the "ideological [and] practical head of the northern opposition to the antislavery movement" and questions whether Douglas "opposed black slavery for any reason, including economics". Harry V. Jaffa thought Douglas was tricking the South with popular sovereignty—telling Southerners it would protect slavery but believing the people would vote against it. Johannsen found Douglas "did not regard slavery as a moral question; at least, he never condemned the institution in moral terms either publicly or privately." However, though he "privately deplored slavery and was opposed to its expansion (and, indeed, in 1860 was widely regarded in both North and South as an antislavery candidate), he felt that its discussion as a moral question would place it on a dangerous level of abstraction."


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: According to biographer Roy Morris Jr., Douglas "is remembered, if at all, for a hard-fought election victory that most people believe mistakenly was a defeat". Morris adds, however, that "for the better part of two decades, Douglas was the most famous and controversial politician in the United States." Douglas always had a deep and abiding faith in democracy. "Let the people rule!" was his cry, and he insisted that the people locally could and should make the decisions about slavery, rather than the national government. According to his biographer Robert W. Johanssen:


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Douglas was preeminently a Jacksonian, and his adherence to the tenets of what became known as Jacksonian democracy grew as his own career developed. ... Popular rule, or what he would later call popular sovereignty, lay at the base of his political structure. Like most Jacksonians, Douglas believed that the people spoke through the majority, that the majority will was the expression of the popular will.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Douglas's gravesite was bought by the state, which commissioned Leonard Volk for an imposing monument with a statue that was erected over his grave. Douglas's birthplace in Brandon, Vermont, has been memorialized as a museum and visitor center. Numerous places have been named after him: counties in Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin. Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City, the cities of Douglas and Douglasville in Georgia, and Douglas, Wyoming, were also named for him.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: In 1869, a large park in Chicago was named Douglas Park in honor of the senator. In 2020 the park was renamed Douglass Park, after the abolitionists Frederick Douglass and Anna Murray Douglass.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Douglas has been portrayed in several works of popular culture. In 1930, E. Alyn Warren portrayed Douglas in the United Artists film, "Abraham Lincoln". In 1939, Milburn Stone portrayed Douglas in the Twentieth Century-Fox film "Young Mr. Lincoln". In 1940, Canadian actor Gene Lockhart portrayed Douglas in the RKO film "Abe Lincoln in Illinois". In 1957, the actor Walter Coy portrayed Douglas in the episode "Springfield Incident" of CBS's "The 20th Century Fox Hour". Richard Dreyfuss portrayed Stephen A. Douglas in a Lincoln–Douglas debate audiobook.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: Douglas is referenced by folk-artist Sufjan Stevens in the song "Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!". Edgar Lee Masters' work "Children of the Marketplace: A fictitious biography" is about Stephen Douglas. In the alternate history short story "Lincoln's Charge" by Bill Fawcett (published in "Alternate Presidents"), Douglas wins the election of 1860, a change which only postpones the outbreak of war by one year. Douglas is a significant character in the mash-up novel "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter", and also appears in the of that book.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: In 1861, George W. Hewitt wrote a piano piece entitled "Douglas' Funeral March" with a picture of Stephen Douglas on the cover.


title: Stephen A. Douglas

text: A funereal poem, "Bury Me in the Morning", is attributed to Douglas by some sources but not by others.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Ruben Studdard (born September 12, 1978) is an American singer and actor. He rose to fame as winner of the second season of "American Idol" and received a Grammy Award nomination in 2003 for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for his recording of "Superstar". In the years following "Idol", Studdard has released seven studio albums, including his platinum-selling debut, "Soulful", and the top-selling gospel follow-up, "I Need an Angel". He is most well known for his recording career, which has produced hits including "Flying Without Wings", "Sorry 2004", and "Change Me", but he has also segued into television and stage work. Most notably, he starred as Fats Waller in a national tour revival of "Ain't Misbehavin'", which spawned a Grammy-nominated soundtrack.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: In 2013, Studdard appeared as a contestant on the fifteenth season of weight-loss competition show "". He later signed to Verve Records and collaborated with the label's chairman, David Foster, on Studdard's sixth studio album, "Unconditional Love", in 2014. That album received strong reviews as a return-to-form and included a tour with Lalah Hathaway. In 2018, Studdard, who has long been compared to R&B singer Luther Vandross, released a cover album called "Ruben Sings Luther" and launched his Always & Forever national tour.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: He made his Broadway theatre debut in December 2018 in "Ruben & Clay’s First Annual Christmas Carol Family Fun Pageant Spectacular Reunion Show" (aka "Ruben & Clay’s Christmas Show") at the Imperial Theatre.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Studdard was born in Frankfurt, West Germany, to American parents, while his father was stationed there with the U.S. Army, and grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. The youngest son of two teachers, at the age of three, he sang for the first time at the Rising Star Baptist Church in his hometown of Birmingham. He continued singing gospel in church, performing solos as a child while his mother sang in the local choir. While at Huffman High School, he played football for which he received a scholarship to Alabama A&M University. While at Alabama A&M, he joined the Omicron Delta chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the men's music fraternity of America.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: After growing up listening to his mother's Donny Hathaway albums, Fred Hammond, and gospel music, Studdard began to pursue a career in the music industry, majoring in voice studies at Alabama A&M. He sang with Just a Few Cats, a popular local Birmingham jazz and R&B band founded by members of Ray Reach's UAB Jazz Ensemble, along with other local musicians. Years later, Studdard stated: "A lot of people don't realize how hard I was trying to get into the business before "American Idol". I was making demos and just working so hard." A back-up singer from Just a Few Cats asked him to accompany her to Nashville, Tennessee for an audition on the 2003 second season of "American Idol".


title: Ruben Studdard

text: When auditioning, Studdard sang Stevie Wonder's "Ribbon in the Sky". On "American Idol", he impressed viewers with his performances of the Leon Russell/Bonnie Bramlett song "Superstar" and the Peabo Bryson/Regina Belle duet "A Whole New World". During his time on the show, Studdard received praise from music legends such as Lionel Richie, Neil Sedaka, Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees, Luther Vandross, and Gladys Knight.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: During the televised competition, Studdard gained the nickname "Velvet Teddy Bear" and was noted for his shirts printed with "205," the telephone area code of his hometown of Birmingham.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: He won the contest over runner-up Clay Aiken by only 134,000 votes out of 24,000,000 cast in the May 2003 finale, becoming the second "American Idol" winner. Alabama Governor Bob Riley declared March 11, 2003 as "Ruben Studdard Day".


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Studdard released his first single, a cover of Westlife's "Flying Without Wings" (which he had sung on the "American Idol" finale), produced by The Underdogs and Babyface. Fueled largely by sales, it debuted at number two on the "Billboard" Hot 100. In December 2003, advance orders for his album "Soulful" topped the one million mark before it was released into stores. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart that month, selling over 400,000 copies in its first week and attaining the second highest first-week sales of any "American Idol" winner. The single "Sorry 2004" from this album found substantial airplay, reaching number nine in the "Billboard" Hot 100 and number two on the Billboard R&B singles chart. Studdard received a Grammy Award nomination in December 2003 for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for "Superstar", nominated alongside his idol Luther Vandross, who ultimately won the category. In March 2004, Ruben won the NAACP Outstanding New Artist award.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Studdard released the gospel album "I Need an Angel" on November 23, 2004. The title track and first single "I Need an Angel" was a cover of a 2002 single performed by R&B singer Daniel DeBourg and written by R. Kelly. The album sold over 96,000 copies in its first week, entering the Gospel charts at number one and at number twenty on the "Billboard" 200 chart. It since has sold over 500,000 copies, securing Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America. It was also number one on the 2005 Billboard Year-End Gospel Albums Chart.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: In March 2005, Studdard filed a lawsuit against his godfather and business advisor Ronald Edwards. The suit alleges that Edwards ran up $156,000 on Studdard's credit cards and stole $90,000 from his checking account. Edwards filed a countersuit. On June 15, 2006, Studdard was awarded $500,000 for personal losses and another $1.5 million in punitive damages.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Between his second and third albums, Studdard began a diet and fitness program to deal with his weight, out of concern for a family history of diabetes and hypertension, resulting in his losing over 70 pounds on a vegetarian diet.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: In 2004, Studdard made a cameo in the film "", singing a cover of Earth, Wind & Fire's "Shining Star". He also made guest appearances on TV shows including "Life on a Stick," "8 Simple Rules," "One on One," "All of Us" and "Eve."


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Studdard's third album, "The Return," was released in October 2006. Returning to R&B music on this album, Studdard collaborated with a variety of producers, including Scott Storch, Stargate, and Ne-Yo. Studdard also co-wrote several songs on the album. "The Return" sold 71,000 copies in its first week to open at number eight on the Billboard 200 album chart. The lead single, "Change Me", reached number one on Billboard's Urban Contemporary chart, while the follow-up track, "Make Ya Feel Beautiful", also made a strong impression on the R&B charts.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Studdard continued to tour, saying he would play a variety of music: "Coming out to my show is like coming to my house. I'll play the songs I love. It's like a party. For me, a party has all different types of music happening."


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Studdard appeared on the finale of "American Idol" season 6 in May 2007. He spent a few weeks touring with Robin Givens in the comedy-drama "Heaven I Need a Hug" and prepared to take on the role of Fats Waller in a national tour of "Ain't Misbehavin'" in 2008. The tour is scheduled to begin November 17, 2008 in Atlanta, GA and end May 14, 2009 in Syracuse, NY.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: In December 2007, Studdard had been dropped from his record company, J Records, due to poor sales of "The Return" and "[falling] short of expectations". He remained under contract with 19 Recordings and was assigned the high-profile position of performing the "American Idol" season 7 farewell song, a recording of Kenny Loggins' "Celebrate Me Home", in a new version produced by Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Studdard performed "Celebrate Me Home" live on May 20, 2008, at the Nokia Theatre for the first night of the two-night grand finale of American Idol's seventh season. In 2008, Studdard also collaborated with gospel singer Deitrick Haddon and duo Mary Mary on the hit gospel song "Love Him Like I Do".


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Studdard announced that his next album, to be released May 19, 2009, would be released on Sony Music offshoot Hickory Records. The new album, entitled "Love Is", was produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. The album spawned the singles "Together" and "Don't Make 'Em Like U No More".


title: Ruben Studdard

text: "Love Is" was released on May 19, 2009, to positive reviews. The album, which features a mix of covers and original songs, sold 15,200 units in its first week to debut at number 36 on the Billboard 200, number five on Independent Albums and number eight on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Studdard appeared with the "David Foster and Friends" ten-city tour beginning October 21, 2009, in Chicago, Illinois and ending November 8, 2009, in Vancouver, Canada. A compilation album, "" was released on January 26, 2010, by Sony's Legacy Recordings.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Studdard returned to the "American Idol" stage on March 31, 2010, to perform "Don't Make 'Em Like U No More". In his on-camera interview with Ryan Seacrest after his performance, he announced that he would be touring with Clay Aiken in the summer.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Studdard and Aiken brought their Timeless tour to cities in the US and Canada beginning in Asheville, North Carolina on July 23, 2010, and ending in Biloxi, Mississippi on August 14. Instead of a concert focusing on each singers recordings, Studdard and Aiken opted for a variety show format covering medleys of songs from the 1960s to the 1990s, with a few solos and interspersed with comedy bits.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: In 2011, Studdard signed with Shanachie Entertainment. His first album for the label and fifth studio release overall, "Letters from Birmingham", was released in March 2012.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: A concept album that traces a relationship through a series of romantic letters, "Letters from Birmingham" received mostly positive reviews, especially for his duet with Chrisette Michele, "Do It Right", which was praised as "sublime" and "tantalizing". The album also included covers of Bobby Brown's "Rock Wit'cha" and "Pure Imagination" from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," recast as a love song. Since its release, "Letters from Birmingham" has sold 22,000 copies, and the lead single, "June 28 (I'm Single)", which referenced his marriage and subsequent divorce, reached the top 20 of Billboard's urban charts.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Studdard joined the cast of fifteenth season of the NBC weight loss competition show "", and was credited as its first ever celebrity contestant. At 6'3 and 462 pounds, Studdard had the highest starting weight and BMI of the entire cast. A member of the show's Red Team, Studdard was first eliminated in the fourth week after he failed to make his weight loss goal. However, because opposing coach Jillian Michaels had given her team caffeine pills in violation of the rules, Studdard's elimination was voided and he returned before once again being eliminated during the competition's eighth week.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: At the show's finale on February 4, 2014 (which coincided with the release of Studdard's newest album, "Unconditional Love"), it was revealed that he had lost a total of 119 pounds for an ending weight of 343 pounds. Studdard credited the weight loss for improving his ability to perform onstage. During the finale, Studdard also performed his new album's lead single, "Meant to Be", accompanied by the song's cowriter and producer, David Foster, on piano.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: "Unconditional Love" is Studdard's sixth studio album and first with his new label, Verve Records. Foster, who has won 16 Grammy Awards, was the executive producer of the disc, which primarily consists of covers of love songs along with two originals, including "Meant to Be". Studdard has called it "the album that everybody expected from me when I won "American Idol"." The album features collaborations with Stevie Wonder, Lalah Hathaway, and Eric Benet, and includes covers of songs originally performed by artists such as Paul McCartney, Donny Hathaway, Bonnie Raitt, Marvin Gaye, and Peabo Bryson. Since its release, the album has received some of Studdard's best reviews of his career. According to critics, the album "finds Studdard at the top of his game vocally" and he hits his stride, "exuding grace, confidence and class" as he successfully positions himself as a "stylish crooner". "Unconditional Love" debuted at #46 on the "Billboard" 200 and #7 on Billboard's R&B Albums chart.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Studdard supported the release of "Unconditional Love" with the national Born Again Tour with his collaborator Lalah Hathaway.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Studdard continues to appear regularly on "American Idol", including mentoring and performing with contestants in its farewell season on Fox. He released a new single, "Can't Nobody Love You", on April 8, 2016, and appeared on several talk shows to promote the song. In 2017, he released a cover of "A Change Is Gonna Come" and guested on Patti LaBelle's holiday album, performing "Your Presence with Me" and "Ave Maria".


title: Ruben Studdard

text: In 2018, Studdard, who had long been compared to Luther Vandross, released a tribute album, "Ruben Sings Luther", on the SEG Music label. He supported the album with the Always & Forever national tour. In an interview with People Magazine, Studdard said that, “Since I won "American Idol", people have been asking for me to sing Luther songs for a long time. I thought, ‘OK. You want to hear it? I might as well do it. I thought it was the perfect time to pay homage to one of the greatest song interpreters of all time.”


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Both the album and tour received strong reviews, with "Variety" noting that "Studdard truly took wing and made the music of Vandross his own" on tour and The Philadelphia Inquirer calling the album a "full-on lush-and-funky tribute".


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Studdard made his Broadway theatre debut in December 2018, reuniting with Clay Aiken in "Ruben & Clay’s First Annual Christmas Carol Family Fun Pageant Spectacular Reunion Show" (aka "Ruben & Clay’s Christmas Show") at the Imperial Theatre, with previews beginning December 7 and the show officially opening December 11. The show continued through December 30, with a portion of ticket sales benefitting the National Inclusion Project.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Studdard has worked as an actor in several roles, including single-episode appearances on the television series "8 Simple Rules", "Life on a Stick", "All of Us", "Eve", and "One on One", as well as a cameo appearance in the film "". He has also appeared on a television commercial for a Birmingham-area Kia dealer.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Studdard headlined the revival tour of "Ain't Misbehavin'", starring alongside fellow "American Idol" alumni Trenyce and Frenchie Davis. Starring as Fats Waller, Studdard received positive reviews and was part of the cast recording album released by Rhino Records on January 13, 2009. The album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Studdard's love of music led him to create The Ruben Studdard Foundation for the Advancement of Children in the Music Arts. The foundation's mission statement says their aim is "to promote the essential role of the arts in education through learning initiatives for the development of students in the Greater Birmingham Area."


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Studdard also signed on as an official spokesperson for "Be Sickle Smart", a nationwide grassroots health-education program aimed at increasing awareness of iron overload among people living with sickle-cell disease.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Studdard met Surata Zuri McCants in October 2006, when he was signing CDs at a Wal-Mart in Atlanta. On June 28, 2008, Studdard married McCants in a short, private ceremony in Mountain Brook, Alabama. On November 16, 2011, Studdard's attorney announced that Studdard was in the process of a divorce. Studdard's divorce was finalized in April 2012.


title: Ruben Studdard

text: Studdard received an honorary Master of Arts degree from his alma mater of Alabama A&M University, where he received a bachelor's degree in Vocal Studies, at its December 2015 commencement ceremony. He is a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity. In 2022, it was announced that Studdard would teach a masterclass for performing arts majors at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.


title: Ethiopian Civil War

text: The Ethiopian Civil War was a civil war in Ethiopia and present-day Eritrea, fought between the Ethiopian military junta known as the Derg and Ethiopian-Eritrean anti-government rebels from 12 September 1974 to 28 May 1991.


title: Ethiopian Civil War

text: The Derg overthrew the Ethiopian Empire and Emperor Haile Selassie in a coup d'état on 12 September 1974, establishing Ethiopia as a Marxist-Leninist state under a military junta and provisional government. Various opposition groups of ideological affiliations ranging from Communist to anti-Communist, often drawn from ethnic background, began armed resistance to the Soviet-backed Derg, in addition to the Eritrean separatists already fighting in the Eritrean War of Independence. The Derg used military campaigns and the Qey Shibir (Ethiopian Red Terror) to repress the rebels. By the mid-1980s, various issues such as the 1983–1985 famine, economic decline, and other after-effects of Derg policies ravaged Ethiopia, increasing popular support for the rebels. The Derg dissolved itself in 1987, establishing the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE) under the Workers' Party of Ethiopia (WPE) in an attempt to maintain its rule. The Soviet Union began ending its support for the PDRE in the late-1980s and the government was overwhelmed by the increasingly victorious rebel groups. In May 1991, the PDRE was defeated in Eritrea and President Mengistu Haile Mariam fled the country. The Ethiopian Civil War ended on 28 May 1991 when the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition of left-wing ethnic rebel groups, entered the capital Addis Ababa. The PDRE was dissolved and replaced with the Tigray People's Liberation Front-led Transitional Government of Ethiopia.


title: Ethiopian Civil War

text: The Ethiopian Civil War left at least 1.4 million people dead, with 1 million of the deaths being related to famine and the remainder from combat and other violence.


title: Ethiopian Civil War

text: The Ethiopian Empire became politically unstable beginning in the 1960s under the rule of Emperor Haile Selassie, whose administration was becoming very unpopular among ordinary Ethiopians at all levels of society due to stagnating quality of life, slow economic development and human rights abuses. Although Selassie had been a popular cultural figure with his attempts at modernizing Ethiopia, his reforms were ineffective. His rule was increasingly viewed as maintaining Ethiopia's feudal political system that heavily favored the Ethiopian nobility, who had routinely rejected his reforms. In December 1960, a group of high-ranking politicians and military officers attempted to overthrow Haile Selassie and institute a progressive government under his son, Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen, to solve Ethiopia's economic and political problems. However, the coup was crushed and quickly defeated by the loyalists, thus maintaining the status quo.


title: Ethiopian Civil War

text: On 12 September 1974, Haile Selassie and his government were overthrown by the Derg, a non-ideological committee of low-ranking officers and enlisted men in the Ethiopian Army who became the ruling military junta. On 21 March 1975, the Derg abolished the monarchy and adopted Marxism–Leninism as their official ideology, establishing themselves as a provisional government for the process of building a socialist state in Ethiopia. The Crown Prince went into exile in London, where several other members of the House of Solomon lived, while other members who were in Ethiopia at the time of the revolution were imprisoned. Haile Selassie, his daughter by his first marriage Princess Ijigayehu, his sister Princess Tenagnework, and many of his nephews, nieces, close relatives, and in-laws were among those detained. On 27 August 1975, Haile Selassie died under mysterious circumstances in detention at the National Palace in Addis Ababa. That year, most industries and private urban real estate holdings were nationalized by the Derg regime. The assets of the former royal family were all seized and were nationalized in a program designed to implement the state ideology of socialism.


title: Ethiopian Civil War

text: The Derg did not fully establish their control over the country, and the subsequent power vacuum led to open challenges from numerous civilian opposition groups. The Ethiopian government had been fighting Eritrean separatists in the Eritrean War of Independence since 1961, and now faced other rebel groups ranging from the conservative and pro-monarchy Ethiopian Democratic Union (EDU), to the rival Marxist-Leninist Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP), and the ethnic Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). In 1976, the Derg instigated the Qey Shibir (Ethiopian Red Terror), a campaign of violent political repression primarily targeting the EPRP and later the All-Ethiopia Socialist Movement (MEISON), in an attempt to consolidate their power. The Qey Shibir was escalated on 3 February 1977 following the appointment of Mengistu Haile Mariam as Chairman of the Derg, who took a hardline stance against opponents. The urban guerrilla warfare saw brutal tactics used on all sides, including summary executions, assassinations, torture and imprisonment without trial. By August 1977, the EPRP and MEISON were devastated, with their leadership either dead or fleeing to the countryside to continue their activities in stronghold areas, but despite this, the Derg did not successfully consolidate their power as much as hoped. Ironically, the majority of the Qey Shibir's estimated 30,000 to 750,000 victims are believed to be innocents, with the violence and collateral damage shocking many Ethiopians into supporting rebel groups. There are currently many civilians who are still missing who are thought to have been systematically killed by the Derg but are yet unaccounted for.


title: Ethiopian Civil War

text: On 13 July 1977, the Ogaden War was triggered when the Somali Democratic Republic invaded Ethiopia to annex the Ogaden and former Reserve area, a predominantly Somali populated border region. A month earlier, Mengistu accused Somalia of infiltrating Somali National Army (SNA) soldiers into the Ogaden to fight alongside the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF), and despite considerable evidence to the contrary, Somalia's leader Siad Barre strongly denied this by stating SNA "volunteers" were being allowed to help the WSLF. Although both countries were Soviet-backed communist states, Barre sought to exploit Ethiopia's weakness since the 1974 revolution to incorporate the Ogaden on a platform of Somali nationalism and pan-Somalism. Under the Derg, Ethiopia became the Warsaw Pact's closest ally in Africa and one of the best-armed nations of the region as a result of military aid, chiefly from the Soviet Union, Libya, East Germany, Israel, Cuba and North Korea. The Ethiopians were able to defeat the Somali army by March 1978, though only with massive military assistance from the Soviet Union and Cuba, but the war used up valuable resources.


title: Ethiopian Civil War

text: The Derg in its attempt to introduce full-fledged socialist ideals, fulfilled its main slogan of "Land to the Tiller", by redistributing land in Ethiopia that once belonged to landlords to the peasants tilling the land. Although this was made to seem like a fair and just redistribution, the mismanagement, corruption, and general hostility to the Derg's violent and harsh rule coupled with the draining effects of constant warfare, separatist guerrilla movements in Eritrea and Tigray, resulted in a drastic decline in general productivity of food and cash crops. Although Ethiopia is often prone to chronic droughts, no one was prepared for the scale of drought and the 1983–1985 famine that struck the country in the mid-1980s, in which 400,000–590,000 people are estimated to have died. Hundreds of thousands fled economic misery, conscription and political repression, and went to live in neighboring countries and all over the Western world, creating an Ethiopian diaspora community for the first time in its history. Insurrections against the Derg's rule sprang up with ferocity, particularly in the northern regions of Tigray and Eritrea which sought independence and in some regions in the Ogaden. Hundreds of thousands were killed as a result of the Qey Shibir, forced deportations . The Derg continued its attempts to end rebellions with military force by initiating several campaigns against both internal rebels and the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), the most important ones being Operation Shiraro, Operation Lash, Operation Red Star, and Operation Adwa, which led to its decisive defeat in the Battle of Shire on 15–19 February 1989 which ultimately led to Eritrean independence. This marked a receding end in power to the Derg.


title: Ethiopian Civil War

text: In May 1991, Mengistu's government was finally overthrown by its own officials and a coalition of rebel forces, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), after their bid for a push on the capital Addis Ababa became successful. There was some fear that Mengistu would attempt to fight to the bitter end for the capital, but after diplomatic intervention by the United States, he fled to asylum in Zimbabwe, where he still resides. The regime only survived another week after his ousting before the EPRDF poured into the capital and captured Addis Ababa.


title: Ethiopian Civil War

text: The EPRDF immediately disbanded the Workers' Party of Ethiopia and shortly afterward arrested almost all of the most prominent Derg officials that were still in the country. In December 2006, 72 officials of the Derg were found guilty of genocide. Thirty-four people were in court, 14 others died during the lengthy process and 25, including Mengistu, were tried "in absentia". These events marked the end of socialist rule in Ethiopia. Ethiopia then embraced a federal democracy to represent the many ethnic groups living in the country.


title: Ethiopian Civil War

text: There is not much in-depth information available about the revolution, but the book "Peasant Revolution in Ethiopia" by John Young provides detailed information about the revolution, why it started, how the Derg affected the nation, and the role of the peasant population in Tigray and Eritrea.


title: Ethiopian Civil War

text: The Ethiopian Civil War left at least 1.4 million people dead, with 1 million related to famine and the remainder from violence and conflicts, which is one third of population. It has also impacts on land and agriculture as well the reversal of former feudal system and implementation of nationalized reforms led peasants lost 75% production to landlords. Total forest cover in Wollo Province was approximately 2.2% of the total area in 1980, and in Tigray 0.5%, roughly 50% decline since 1960. Soil erosion typically the topsoil roughly 100 tons per hectare per year. The erosion could halt grain production by grain products by 120,000 tons per year in Wollo Province.


title: Ethiopian Civil War

text: During the first six years, food production also increased by 6%. Crop production declined by 12.2% per year from 1982 to 1984. With the 1983–1985 famine, ten million people were affected five times of the 1973 drought.


title: Antonia Kidman

text: Antonia Kidman (born 14 July 1970) is an Australian journalist and TV presenter, and the younger sister of the actress, Nicole Kidman.


title: Antonia Kidman

text: Born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in 1970, Kidman is the younger daughter of Antony Kidman, a clinical psychologist. She attended Monte Sant' Angelo Mercy College in North Sydney.


title: Antonia Kidman

text: Kidman began her career in journalism as a researcher with the Nine Network's "Today" program, and later worked as a news reporter for the Newcastle based television network, NBN Television. She has had a long professional involvement with Foxtel, and in 2002 presented her own series, "The Little Things", an instructional series about raising children on the W. Channel. In 2003, she released a yoga video called "Antonia Fitness Yoga: The Power And Style of Ashtanga". This was followed by the series "The Bigger Things" in 2006.