Friday, April 30, 2010

Tariff of Abominations - 1828

This is a re-post from my U.S. history blog.

New England textile manufacturers complained of British products being dumped on the market, so they wanted a higher tariff to protect their domestic products. Westerners wouldn't agree to this unless imported raw materials (especially wool) also had a tariff put on them. The tariff was revised, and a little more than half of New England opposed it. Many of those were merchants, who did not wish to pay a 62% rate on raw goods when they brought them into the country. The New Englanders who supported the tariff saw that the long term benefits, increasing America's industrial system and power, would be worth it.

The South was opposed to it almost entirely, with 50 out of 53 votes going against the tariff. Their cotton would be more expensive for Britain to import (so they would buy less), and the European goods that the South liked to buy would become more expensive. It was a lose-lose situation, they felt. The South lost money from decreased exports and more expensive imports. (Britain also lowered their imports of Southern cotton from abolitionist pressure.) On top of that, the economies of some of the older Southern states were also hurt by people moving towards the newer ones for better soil and more land.

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The Nullification Crisis

This is a re-post from my U.S. history blog.

The Nullification Crisis lasted from roughly 1832 - 1833. Before I talk about it directly, I'll start with some exposition (to set things up for you.)

(Yes, my use of the word "exposition" was intentional.)

After the War of 1812, British goods started flooding the American market. To protect and encourage American industry, the Tariff of 1816 was enacted. This made British goods more expensive so that people would buy American-made products instead. This tariff was great for the North especially, since it was well on its way to becoming the industrial hub of the nation. For the South the tariff wasn't too great; they were mostly agricultural and helping industry didn't help them too much, and since they bought many goods from Europe, they were afraid of angering the British (since they might make their own tariffs against Southern cotton) and it just made the things they liked to buy more expensive. Eventually much of the South decided to just go with the tariff for national interest; America needed it and it would probably be repealed in a few years, right?

Andrew Jackson, as pictured during his service in the War of 1812.

They were wrong. The tariff wasn't repealed. Southern cotton went to Britain, which gave America lots of money. With all this new money, industrialization could just get stronger in the North since it could be widely financed. The South didn't industrialize, while the North did. As industry and the North grew, people tried to get more protective tariffs to make it grow even more. The whole thing was a bit self-perpetuating.

There was another tariff in 1824 which basically raised the 1816 tariff rates. This was the first time that many Southerners (who had supported the 1816 tariff) actually began to out right oppose raising the tariff rate. Many believed that this new tariff was not in national interest, but sectional interest, favoring the North and hurting the South. States that were part of the original Southern colonies were also going through some tougher times, so the tariff wasn't exactly appreciated. Among the opposition to the tariff was then Vice President John C. Calhoun from South Carolina, who had previously supported the 1816 tariff in order to raise revenue for the country. Like many other Southerners, he believed that this tariff was an unfair burden on the South and was purely for the North's benefit. There was also some opposition in New England against it among traders. (This tariff was pretty sectional, so you can't really blame the opposition for getting annoyed with it.)

 This picture of Errol Flynn is unrelated to anything I have to say in this post.

In 1828 the tariff was raised again, by the then President J. Q. Adams. Many were angry enough about it to give it the name "the Tariff of Abominations." In the election of that year, Andrew Jackson won the presidency, and Calhoun ran for Vice President under him and (again) won the office. He had been assured that Jackson would not support the tariff, but when he did (thanks on part to his Northern party members), Calhoun became displeased. Over the course of Jackson's presidency, conflicts over various policies and such only made relations between the two of them worse, and the Tariff of Abominations and what ensued because of it pretty much became the final straw.

Frustrated, Calhoun went back to his plantation in South Carolina and wrote a pamphlet entitled "Exposition and Protest." In it, he endorsed and argued for the idea of nullification, which says that a state may nullify (choose to ignore) any federal law that it finds to be unconstitutional. (He also said that if a state should decide to nullify, then a vote could be held among the states and if 3/4 ruled that the law was not unconstitutional, the nullifying state would have to follow suit with the law.) Accordingly, because the Tariff of Abominations was so one sided, South Carolina had every right to nullify the tariff should it choose to.Calhoun also went further to suggest that states could secede from the Union if the federal government proved not to be acting in its best interests and only harming it.



Here's an excerpt from the pamphlet. It sums up his thoughts on the 1828 tariff in brief:

"...the whole system of legislation imposing duties on imports, not for revenue, but the protection of one branch of industry at the expense of others, is unconstitutional, unequal, and oppressive, and calculated to corrupt the public virtue and destroy the liberty of the country...so partial are the effects of the system, that its burdens are exclusively on one side and its benefits on the other."

 John C. Calhoun; a cape-wearing 6'4'' Scots-Irish guy from the Antebellum South. More interesting than he looks and decidedly less creepy; I suggest you go check out a book on him from the library.

Calhoun wrote this anonymously so as not to get himself into too much trouble just yet, since he had his eye on succeeding Jackson as president or getting the office some time or other, (which never happened and was never going to happen anyways once 1828 came along) but many people suspected that he had written it anyway. In case you were wondering, Exposition and Protest did not have an effect on the proceedings regarding the tariff, but it did irk Jackson. Although he liked small government and state's rights, he believed in the Union, and thought nullification and secession were treasonous things to do to it.  

By 1832, nullification had become a topic of national debate. To calm the situation down, a revised tariff was created, but South Carolina was still not happy with the tariff rate it had set; it was still too high. Later in that same year, South Carolina (Calhoun's home state) decided that it'd had enough, and passed the Ordinance of Nullification to effectively nullify the 1828 and 1832 tariffs. The Nullification Crisis had officially begun! *drum roll*


Look what I found...

Jackson was highly displeased with S.C., and he was a guy that you probably didn't want to annoy. In 1833 he issued the Force Bill which would allow the tariff money to be collected from South Carolina by any means necessary. He also sent in the military and warships into Charleston harbor just in case the message wasn't clear enough. The little state smirked, and nullified that bill too.

Meanwhile, some South Carolinians (among others) began to make some extreme rallies and movements in support of nullification that were a little radical and could possibly create a volatile situation. Calhoun was a bit unnerved by this, and with his anger against Andrew Jackson contributing to the decision, decided to resign as Vice President and go spearhead the nullification movement. He joined the Senate (where he would remain 'til the end of his days, almost literally), and formed the short lived Nullifier Party. (It merged with the Democratic Party in 1839.

A little map of the state for you all...

On the same day that the Force Bill passed in 1833, Senator Henry Clay and Calhoun, now a senator himself, together authored the Compromise Tariff for a gradual reduction in tariff rates. South Carolina found this acceptable, and repealed the Ordinance of Nullification. Andrew Jackson also dropped the Force Bill, since South Carolina now intended to comply with federal law.

Amusingly, South Carolina kept the now-repealed Force Bill nullified, a fact which Jackson decided to ignore.

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Bacon's Rebellion

This is a re-post from my U.S. History blog.

Bacon's Rebellion took place in 1676 in Virginia Colony. The leader of the rebellion was Nathaniel Bacon, a wealthy tobacco planter. Why did he rebel? Was not the fact that his last name evokes the image of smoky crispy strips of goodness good enough for him?

I'm glad you asked. As a matter of fact, I'm here to help y'all find out.

Colonial times in all their fancy-coat-and-hat glory.

Virginia Colony was going through some tough times. Tobacco prices had sunk, and the colony faced competition from the Carolinas and Maryland. On top of that, England had barred trade with France for them, so they lost a whole market. Bad weather didn't help either.

When some Native Americans lead a mini-raid on someone's plantation, the Virginians decided to use them as a scapegoat for their troubles. A series of raids and violence went back and forth on either side, so Governor Berkley decided to pursue a policy of containment of the threat, and just build a bunch of forts. Settlers in the back-country questioned this plan's effectiveness, and many thought it was just an excuse to raise taxes. People didn't like Berkley much, and also accused him of appointing his friends to high government offices. Bacon lead some raids against the Native Americans, (even killing friendly groups), and was elected to the House of Burgesses for his efforts.

Nathaniel Bacon himself. 

Governor Berkley convened the HoB and when Bacon came, tried to have him arrested. This failed, and Bacon gathered his followers and coerced Berkley into allowing him continue his raids on Native Americans. Berkley agreed, and fled Jamestown to go raise a militia since Bacon had sort of taken over the Colony for a bit. Bacon died suddenly, and his rebellion collapsed without his leadership. Berkley came back to assume command, but was recalled to England (much to the delight of Virginia.)

Defending against Native Americans, although the colonists may have started this one...

Many joined Bacon's cause against Berkley and the Native Americans, including both black and white indentured servants. The economic situation hadn't been kind to them either, so they joined in the rebellion. For upper-class Virginians, seeing the indentured servants ban together and rebel was frightening, and what was especially frightening was the fact that they were black and white joined together.

This caused Virginia colony to start relying more on slave labor and being tougher on African-Americans, free or slave. Since indentured servants were unreliable in times like these (and because they were racist and didn't like blacks and whites joining together), Virginia decided it needed a safe, more permanent lower class of person. to work for them.

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Wednesday, April 21, 2010

The French and Indian War - Proclamation of 1763

This is a re-post from my US History blog. I will post content back and forth between the two.

The name "French and Indian War" (is the name for the part of the Seven Year's War that happened in North America. (The Seven Year's War was a European thing, although parts of it took place overseas, mostly in colonized areas.) Calling it the French and Indian War may be deceiving, since the French and (many of) the Native Americans actually fought on the same side against Great Britain, and not against each other as it may sound. On top of that, the Seven Year's War actually lasted for 9 years; 1754-1763. You love that, don't you?



In North America, the whole thing got started because Europe was still feverishly trying to colonize, or at least expand and maintain power. Now France had laid claim to the Mississippi watershed area as well as the Ohio Valley and the Great Lakes region, and had some forts and trading activity with the Native Americans going on. As time passed, the British colonies grew more prosperous, and people wanted to move out west over the Appalachian Mountains and set up shop in the rich Ohio Valley lands. The French weren't too happy with this British encroachments on "their" land, so they started building a string of forts to keep guard. Then, Britain built a couple of forts too; one in Oswego and the other in Halifax. (Oswego had started out a trading post below Lake Ontario, but was expanded to become a fort.)

British and French representatives met in Paris soon after, but no progress on the "who exactly has rights to the Ohio Valley, since the Native Americans obviously don't count" question was made. After that, France decided to just settle the situation by building even more forts even closer to British colonial soil, this time in Western Pennsylvania. At the same time, the governor of Virginia decided to start granting land in the Ohio Valley to Virginia citizens. To add to the trouble, a one George Washington decided to advise Britain to build a fort in a particularly nice location in the Ohio Valley, and so they did. Long story short, France captured it before it was finished, completed construction, and took it for their own. Washington then attacked the French, but he lost when re-enforcements came. Fort-wars then ensued for a while, until Britain finally decided it would be a good time to officially declare war in 1756.



The Native Americans (except the Iroquois Confederacy, who fought with Britain alongside some other tribes) sided with the French. France had a far more inclusive society in North America, and the Native Americans received less-meddling in their affairs on the part of France, and more friendliness and intermingling. The Native Americans would trade with the French, and fur trappers would actually bother to learn their languages, and sometimes even decided to marry the Native Americans too. In British society, things were decidedly less "chill;" they had an exclusive society. Things were more hostile, racist, and not as fair business wise with Native American-British relations, so understandably, most Native Americans decided to join France against Great Britain.

The war goes on, and Great Britain wins. The Native Americans aren't too happy, France gets kicked out of North America entirely, and ends up left with two small sugar islands. (Over Canada and the Ohio Valley, France decides to keep the sugar islands; this = importance of mercantilism!) Great Britain decides to raise the prices of goods sold to the Native Americans, and stops paying them for using forts on their land. They also stop giving exchanging gifts, which was an important and symbolic custom for the Native Americans, and they probably felt pretty offended that Britain just decided to stop it.



The Native Americans weren't feeling all that amiable towards the British, and when the prophet Neolin from a tribe in Delaware started preaching through ought the Great Lakes against materialism/alcohol/the English way of life, things didn't go well. On top of that, colonists had started to push further into Native American lands. The Ottawa war chief Pontiac, around the same time as Neolin was preaching, started a rebellion against the British and attacked colonists in the Ohio Valley; this was Pontiac's Rebellion (1763.) In response/anger, a group of colonists called the Paxton Boys in Western Pennsylvania attacked a peaceful group of Native Americans nearby and massacred them; partly out of racism and partly because they thought their government wasn't doing much to help them. Benjamin Franklin helped put an end to the killing by negotiating with the group, and was scathingly critical about their inhumane actions. Eventually, Great Britain decided to step in to end Pontiac's Rebellion, and did so, with the help of germ warfare in the form of smallpox infected blankets.

To ensure that something like that wouldn't happen again, the British government issued the Proclamation of 1763, which forbade settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. This was an attempt to keep colonists out of the Ohio Valley, and out of trouble with the Native Americans. Colonists pretty much disregarded it, and moved westward anyways, angry at the British for placing this restriction on them. This was one of the first 'restrictive acts' that the British took against the colonists, and one that they became more resented for.



At the end of the French and Indian War, many British soldiers stayed in North America. Tensions increased between the colonists and the soldiers. Many colonists became disgusted/displeased with the behavior/attitudes/appearances of the soldiers, and felt that they had a more separate identity from them. The colonists also felt that Britain had under-appreciated the part that they had played in the fighting the war. During this time, a sense of common identity, separate from that of the British, became stronger, as well as resentment against Britain that would grow in the future.

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Friday, April 16, 2010

ISS Tour

This is a video that I found on YouTube; it's a tour of the International Space Station.





On-orbit construction began in 1988, and is set to finish late next year.

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Thursday, April 15, 2010

Tweet Database

The Library of Congress is archiving all tweets from Twitter made since the site's inception. This means the updates you posted on the Iranian election will be archived, as well as the tweets about how crunchy your toast was and that post you don't want your brother to know about.

Please click this link to know more:

http://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2010/04/how-tweet-it-is-library-acquires-entire-twitter-archive/

Hope this proves to be worth it!

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Photoshop CS5

One of the new features of Abode Photoshop CS5 is the content aware fill tool. It's like an automated version of the clone tool, and using it takes considerably less time for complex jobs than it would with the clone tool.




And here is a fun video based on the content aware fill tool. Enjoy.

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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Eudemons Online

There's this pretty interesting (though fairly standard) MMO that I play; Eudemons Online.  (Oh, it's free.)

Here's a screenshot:


You make an account, and can set up characters (one each) on various serves, like Sydney or Toronto. There are three character classes to pick from: mage, paladin, and warrior. There is no class-specialization, sorry. The most interesting aspect of the game are the pest (the "eudemons") that you carry with you; they help fight alongside you and defend you in combat. They can be combined in different ways to be made stronger in various aspects of their strength and attributes, be ranked, and learn different skills to help you attack and defend.

There is an optional system in the game where you can pay for elite items/eudemons/gear/whatever you want, however it is possible to obtain these without paying for anything. There are also in game events much of the time that allow you to collect some points in the special currency (EP's) that you usually have to pay for. This way, everyone gets a chance.

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Monday, April 12, 2010

Taro Magic

Apparently the little doughnut shop down the street from me does have taro drinks; you just have to ask for them. =)

Taro is a vegetable grown for the consumption of its roots and leaves, especially in Oceanic cultures (where it's something of a staple) and in East Asia. The root kind of looks like a hell-potato. Here:


Okay it doesn't look weird, I just said "hell-potato" to get you to laugh. Sad attempt eh?

The plant can be toxic if you don't cook it first, so watch out. With the root, you must clean and remove the skin. Some people may have irritating skin reactions to the plant's juices when they're preparing it, so you can either wear gloves when you're peeling it or just cook it in the microwave first to neutralize the effect.


The plant has a variety of uses, and pretty much any use you can think of for a potato applies to taro as well...except that taro gets made into drinks. Yum!


The purple one on the far right is taro flavored. _ㅅ

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Don't touch me! - I'm contagious!

So I saw the doctor today about me not feeling good today and yesterday, and it turns out that I am infected with streptococcal pharyngitis. Joy!

By the way, streptococcal pharyngitis = strep throat. It's the most common bacterial infection of the throat that one can get. My doctor had a Rapid Strep Test performed, which took a little more than 10 minutes, and it came back positive. They also took a swab for a throat culture which will take a couple of days to develop, so the RST is good because the results come back quickly. They were positive, so now we know I've got strep.  

Since I doubt any of you want to see any graphical representation of this, I'm posting a picture (that I do not own) of a rabbit instead. Enjoy.

Doesn't its cuteness overwhelm you? ^^

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Digital Painting

As of yesterday, I have begun to work on a digital painting. I'm still sketching out the basic design and trying to work out composition. So far I have about 2.5 hours of work on it.

Ordinarily I'd take less time to sketch it, but I'm a little unsure of what I what the final to look like.

One thing that I am certain of though, is that there shall be a robot in it. I'm thinking it "lives" in an old abandoned factory, and periodically goes out with a large sack and forages for scraps of metal and parts in old shipyards and scrapheaps. Then it comes back and works on a generator and tries to replicate the old machines in the factories...

Eh, I'll update you more later. One I have something painted I'll post it up on here so you can see...

...maybe.

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