Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

267 results found

Hayes, Rutherford Birchard

(Encyclopedia)Hayes, Rutherford Birchard, 1822–93, 19th President of the United States (1877–81), b. Delaware, Ohio, grad. Kenyon College, 1843, and Harvard law school, 1845. He became a moderately successful l...

Freedmen's Bureau

(Encyclopedia)Freedmen's Bureau, in U.S. history, a federal agency, formed to aid and protect the newly freed blacks in the South after the Civil War. Established by an act of Mar. 3, 1865, under the name “bureau...

Bédier, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Bédier, Joseph zhôzĕfˈ bādyāˈ [key], 1864–1938, French authority on medieval literature. He was professor at the Collège de France and a member of the French Academy. His reconstruction, in ...

force bill

(Encyclopedia)force bill, popular name for several laws in U.S. history, notably the act of Mar. 2, 1833, and the Reconstruction acts of May 31, 1870; Feb. 28, 1871; and Apr. 20, 1871. The first force bill, passed ...

Hill, Benjamin Harvey

(Encyclopedia)Hill, Benjamin Harvey, 1823–82, American statesman, b. Jasper co., Ga. A highly successful lawyer and Whig politician, he supported the Whig-Democratic alliance that carried Georgia in favor of the ...

grandfather clause

(Encyclopedia)grandfather clause, provision in constitutions (adopted 1895–1910) of seven post–Reconstruction Southern states that exempted those persons who had been eligible to vote on Jan. 1, 1867, and their...

Douglas, Clifford Hugh

(Encyclopedia)Douglas, Clifford Hugh, 1879–1952, English engineer and social economist, educated at Cambridge. Author of the economic theory of Social Credit, he became (1935) chief reconstruction adviser to the ...

scalawags

(Encyclopedia)scalawags skălˈəwăgz [key], derogatory term used in the South after the Civil War to describe native white Southerners who joined the Republican party and aided in carrying out the congressional R...

Tourgée, Albion Winegar

(Encyclopedia)Tourgée, Albion Winegar to͝orzhāˈ [key], 1838–1905, American author and lawyer, b. Williamsfield, Ohio, studied at the Univ. of Rochester. After serving in the Union army he was for a few years ...

Stevens, Thaddeus

(Encyclopedia)Stevens, Thaddeus, 1792–1868, U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania (1849–53, 1859–68), b. Danville, Vt. He taught in an academy at York, Pa., studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Marylan...