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Morris, Lewis, 1671–1746, American colonial official

(Encyclopedia)Morris, Lewis, 1671–1746, American colonial official, first lord of the manor of Morrisania in New York. The son of Richard Morris (d. 1672; see Morris, family), he was born in that part of Westches...

Bill of Rights, in British history

(Encyclopedia)Bill of Rights, 1689, in British history, one of the fundamental instruments of constitutional law. It registered in statutory form the outcome of the long 17th-century struggle between the Stuart kin...

Bill of Rights, in U.S. history

(Encyclopedia)Bill of Rights, in U.S. history: see Constitution of the United States. ...

Zenger, John Peter

(Encyclopedia)Zenger, John Peter zĕngˈər [key], 1697–1746, American journalist, b. Germany. He emigrated to America in 1710 and was trained in the printing trade by the pioneer printer William Bradford. Zenger...

Wilmot Proviso

(Encyclopedia)Wilmot Proviso, 1846, amendment to a bill put before the U.S. House of Representatives during the Mexican War; it provided an appropriation of $2 million to enable President Polk to negotiate a territ...

Nye, Edgar Wilson

(Encyclopedia)Nye, Edgar Wilson nī [key], known as Bill Nye, 1850–96, American humorist and journalist, b. Shirley Mills, Maine. He lived in Wisconsin from 1852 to 1876, when he went to Wyoming. There he was adm...

Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act

(Encyclopedia)Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act, 1909, passed by the U.S. Congress. It was the first change in tariff laws since the Dingley Act of 1897; the issue had been ignored by President Theodore Roosevelt. The Repub...

geranium

(Encyclopedia)geranium, common name for some members of the Geraniaceae, a family of herbs and small shrubs of temperate and subtropical regions. Their long, beak-shaped fruits give them the popular names crane's-b...

Graham, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Graham, Robert, later Robert Cunninghame Graham, c.1735–1797, Scottish poet and politician. He is best known for the lyric “If Doughty Deeds My Lady Please.” He inherited sizable estates and ser...

Daschle, Tom

(Encyclopedia)Daschle, Tom (Thomas Andrew Daschle) dăshˈəl [key], 1947–, U.S. senator from South Dakota (1987–2005), b. Aberdeen, S.Dak. A Democrat, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 197...