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embezzlement

(Encyclopedia)embezzlement, wrongful use, for one's own selfish ends, of the property of another when that property has been legally entrusted to one. Such an act was not larceny at common law because larceny was c...

Bland, Richard Parks

(Encyclopedia)Bland, Richard Parks, 1835–99, American statesman, b. near Hartford, Ky. He taught in rural schools in Kentucky and Missouri before he went to the gold fields of California in 1855. He was a prospec...

Gómez, Juan Vicente

(Encyclopedia)Gómez, Juan Vicente gōˈmĕs [key], 1857–1935, caudillo of Venezuela (1908–35). Of indigenous and white parentage, Gómez was born on a ranch in the Western Andes and grew up a nearly illiterat...

Fichte, Johann Gottlieb

(Encyclopedia)Fichte, Johann Gottlieb yōˈhän gôtˈlēp fĭkhˈtə [key], 1762–1814, German philosopher. After studying theology at Jena and working as a tutor in Zürich and Leipzig, he became interested in K...

Paoli, Pasquale

(Encyclopedia)Paoli, Pasquale päskwäˈlā päˈōlē [key], 1725–1807, Corsican patriot. He shared the exile (1739–55) of his father, Giacinto Paoli, who had fought against the Genoese rulers of the island. I...

Gambetta, Léon

(Encyclopedia)Gambetta, Léon lāôNˈ gäNbĕtäˈ [key], 1838–82, French republican leader. A lawyer who achieved some note as an opponent of the Second Empire of Napoleon III, he was elected deputy in 1869 and...

Guayaquil

(Encyclopedia)Guayaquil gwīäkēlˈ [key], city, capital of Guayas prov., W Ecuador, on the Guayas River near ...

barbiturate

(Encyclopedia)barbiturate bärbĭchˈərātˌ [key], any one of a group of drugs that act as depressants on the central nervous system. High doses depress both nerve and muscle activity and inhibit oxygen consumpti...

coolie labor

(Encyclopedia)coolie labor, term applied to unskilled laborers from Asia, especially from India and China. With the discontinuance of slavery, the use of Chinese and Indian contract labor in British and French colo...

Greenback party

(Encyclopedia)Greenback party, in U.S. history, political organization formed in the years 1874–76 to promote currency expansion. The members were principally farmers of the West and the South; stricken by the Pa...