Donald Trump is the first president or former president to face a federal indictment, but as Joshua Zeitz points out at Politico, a sitting vice-president and the president of the Confederacy faced treason charges. Here is a taste of Zeitz’s...
Aaron Burr
“His rotundity” versus a supposed atheist and anarchist
Over at his Substack, historian William Hogeland is telling “lurid tales” of American elections. He begins his series with the presidential election of 1796. Here is a taste of his post: Jefferson supporters, labeling Adams “His Rotundity,” claimed that the...
Even John Quincy and Louisa Adams could not resist the Aaron Burr charm offensive
Gwen Fries of the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society has a nice post on March 19, 1805 between John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Adams’s encounter with Aaron Burr a ship sailing from Baltimore to Philadelphia. Here is a...
“If you stand for nothing Burr, what’ll you fall for?”
Today’s GOP may want to listen to this Hamilton classic:...
Let’s set the record straight on what Mike Pence can and cannot do at tomorrow’s certification of the Electoral College results
Donald Trump seems to believe that Mike Pence can overturn the votes of the Electoral College tomorrow when Congress certifies the results. Here is Trump last night in Georgia: And earlier today: CNN is reporting that Trump and Pence had...
Song of the Day
“Dear Theodosia”: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKpJjdKcjeo&w=560&h=315]...
The History Behind the Insurrection Act of 1807
Donald Trump said yesterday that he would use this act to take military action in U.S. cities for the purpose of quelling violence. Here is the text of the act: An Act authorizing the employment of the land and naval...
Day 3 of the 2018 Princeton Seminar
Day 3 is in the books! (For posts on Day 1 and 2 click here). We covered a lot of content today. I spent the morning lecturing on the seventeenth-century Chesapeake. After lunch, we started on the Puritans and Massachusetts...
Princeton Seminar 2017: Day 3
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History “Colonial Era” teachers seminar (aka the “Princeton Seminar“) is rolling along. This morning in the lecture hall we finished our discussion of colonial Virginia. I made the connection between mercantilism and tobacco culture...
A Historian of Dueling in Early America Uncovers a 7th Grade History Paper
Most of our readers know Joanne Freeman.  She teaches history at Yale, is a co-host at Backstory Radio, and is the author of Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic and editor of the recent The Essential Hamilton. I am a...
On Treason
I think it was Virginia Senator Tim Kaine who her first raised the “T” word in the wake of news that senior officials in the Trump presidential campaign, including Donald Trump Jr., met with a Russian lawyer in June 2016....
Did I Jump to Conclusions About Aaron Burr?
A few days ago I tweeted: My 17-year old daughter is obsessed with Aaron Burr. Where did I go wrong as a parent? @allyrae19— John Fea (@JohnFea1) December 15, 2014 //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Listening to my daughter and her friends talk about […]