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gag rules

(Encyclopedia)gag rules, in parliamentary procedure, rules limiting or prohibiting free debate on a particular issue. In U.S. history, the term is applied especially to procedural rules in force in the House of Rep...

Fitzhugh, George

(Encyclopedia)Fitzhugh, George, 1806–81, American author and editor, b. Prince William co., Va. Although he had little formal education he was admitted to the bar, but he devoted little time to the practice of la...

Nonpartisan League

(Encyclopedia)Nonpartisan League, in U.S. history, political pressure group of farmers and workers organized in 1915 and led by a former socialist, Arthur C. Townley, who believed that the solution to the farmers' ...

Byrd, Robert Carlyle

(Encyclopedia)Byrd, Robert Carlyle, 1917–2010, U.S. senator from West Virginia (1959–2010), b. North Wilkesboro, N.C., as Cornelius Calvin Sale, Jr. A Democrat, he served (1947–52) in the West Virginia legisl...

Union League Clubs

(Encyclopedia)Union League Clubs, in U.S. history, organizations formed throughout the North in the Civil War after the military defeats and Republican election losses of 1862. A convention at Cleveland (May, 1863)...

garnet

(Encyclopedia)garnet, name applied to a group of isomorphic minerals crystallizing in the cubic system. They are used chiefly as gems and as abrasives (as in garnet paper). The garnets are double silicates; one of ...

Baker, Ella Josephine

(Encyclopedia)Baker, Ella Josephine, 1903–1986, U.S. civil rights activist, b. Norfolk, Va. Ella Baker was an activist and organizer whose b...

Guilford Courthouse, battle of

(Encyclopedia)Guilford Courthouse, battle of, in the Carolina campaign of the American Revolution, fought Mar. 15, 1781. The site is included in a national military park near Greensboro, N.C. (see National Parks an...

Browne, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Browne, Thomas, d. 1825, Loyalist commander in the American Revolution. A resident of Augusta, Ga., he was the victim of colonist violence in 1775, when he was tarred and feathered for ridiculing the ...

Stephens, William

(Encyclopedia)Stephens, William, 1671–1753, English colonial official in Georgia, b. Bowcombe, Isle of Wight. He was educated at Cambridge and served in Parliament (1702–27). In 1736 he went to South Carolina t...