If you have not already, take a moment to look at the contest we have going on here in Nebraska!
Happy President's Day, to all! If you have a moment, you should take a moment to check out Arizona's blog to learn a bit more about Gerorge Washington and Abraham Lincoln who both have a birthday this month. It has a lot of great information and a quiz to take with your children!
Omaha, Nebraska is the birthplace of Gerald Ford. The following article comes from whitehouse.gov.
When Gerald R. Ford took the oath of office on August 9, 1974, he declared, "I assume the Presidency under extraordinary circumstances.... This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts."
It was indeed an unprecedented time. He had been the first Vice President chosen under the terms of the Twenty-fifth Amendment and, in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, was succeeding the first President ever to resign.
Ford was confronted with almost insuperable tasks. There were the challenges of mastering inflation, reviving a depressed economy, solving chronic energy shortages, and trying to ensure world peace.
The President acted to curb the trend toward Government intervention and spending as a means of solving the problems of American society and the economy. In the long run, he believed, this shift would bring a better life for all Americans.
Ford's reputation for integrity and openness had made him popular during his 25 years in Congress. From 1965 to 1973, he was House Minority Leader. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1913, he grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He starred on the University of Michigan football team, then went to Yale, where he served as assistant coach while earning his law degree. During World War II he attained the rank of lieutenant commander in the Navy. After the war he returned to Grand Rapids, where he began the practice of law, and entered Republican politics. A few weeks before his election to Congress in 1948, he married Elizabeth Bloomer. They have four children: Michael, John, Steven, and Susan.
As President, Ford tried to calm earlier controversies by granting former President Nixon a full pardon. His nominee for Vice President, former Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, was the second person to fill that office by appointment. Gradually, Ford selected a cabinet of his own.
Ford established his policies during his first year in office, despite opposition from a heavily Democratic Congress. His first goal was to curb inflation. Then, when recession became the Nation's most serious domestic problem, he shifted to measures aimed at stimulating the economy. But, still fearing inflation, Ford vetoed a number of non-military appropriations bills that would have further increased the already heavy budgetary deficit. During his first 14 months as President he vetoed 39 measures. His vetoes were usually sustained.
Ford continued as he had in his Congressional days to view himself as "a moderate in domestic affairs, a conservative in fiscal affairs, and a dyed-in-the-wool internationalist in foreign affairs." A major goal was to help business operate more freely by reducing taxes upon it and easing the controls exercised by regulatory agencies. "We...declared our independence 200 years ago, and we are not about to lose it now to paper shufflers and computers," he said.
In foreign affairs Ford acted vigorously to maintain U. S. power and prestige after the collapse of Cambodia and South Viet Nam. Preventing a new war in the Middle East remained a major objective; by providing aid to both Israel and Egypt, the Ford Administration helped persuade the two countries to accept an interim truce agreement. Detente with the Soviet Union continued. President Ford and Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev set new limitations upon nuclear weapons.
President Ford won the Republican nomination for the Presidency in 1976, but lost the election to his Democratic opponent, former Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia.
On Inauguration Day, President Carter began his speech: "For myself and for our Nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land." A grateful people concurred.
Probably the key event in Nebraska's state history is America's Westward Expansion. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson asked Congress for a secret expedition to explore the area west of the Mississippi River. He sought trade routes across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. This message and this expedition were to be secret, because the territory in question was owned by France.
That July, Napolean, in need of cash for his endeavours in Haiti, offered to sell the entire Louisiana territory for $15,000,000. Overnight, our nation grew by nearly 1 million square miles, from the Mississippi to the Rockies, from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. This came as a welcome surprise to a president who had long dreamed of expanding America's borders westward. In fact, his selection of Merriwether Lewis as Secretary of State may well have been based on his qualifications as a man knowledgeable of this region.
On May 14, 1804, Merriwether Lewis and William Clark set out with the orders from President Jefferson, "...explore the Missouri River and such principal stream of it, as by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, may offer the most direct and practical water communication across the continent, for the purposes of commerce." The journey would take them 21/2 years and 8,000 miles.
Slowly paddling up the Missouri River, the small expedition noted the changing landscape as they left behind what is now Missouri and entered the Nebraska/Iowa region of the Missouri River. July 30, 1804, they camped at Fort Calhoun, NE.
"Set out early this morning proceeded on to a Clear open Prairie on the LS on a rise of about 70 feet higher than the bottom which is also a Prairie both forming Bluffs to the river of High Grass Plumb bush Grapes and situated above high water is a small grove of timber at the foot of the Riseing Ground between those two prairies, and below the Bluffs of the high prairie we Came too and formed a Camp*, intending to waite the return of the french man & Indians. - the white horse which we found near the Kanzeis River, Died last night. I am ingaged in and drawing off my courses to accompany the map Drawn at White Catfish Camp." Clark
"this day Joseph Fields killed a Braro** as it is called by the French engages. it's weight is sixteen pounds." Lewis
Today, you can drive along the Missouri River in Northeast Nebraska/Northwest Iowa and see the area Lewis and Clark first explored. So closely is this area of Nebraska tied to this expedition that the whole region is knows as the "Lewis and Clark" region of Nebraska. There are many sites of historic interest, complete with markers, maps and visitors' centers.
Courtesy Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602 View of the Missouri River and Council Bluffs From an Elevation Frederick Hawkins Piercy, (1830-1891) Steel Engraving, black&white, 16.5 X 25.5 cm
This site gives several points of interest allong the Missouri River with background information and links to help you plan your journey into this fascinating part of our state's history. Here you can obtain a complete trail brochure from the National Parks Service, free of charge. The Lewis and Clark Trail is one of four National Historic Trails.
Here you can read the travel logs kept by the expedition. Lewis and Clark truly were the "writingest explorers."
For some in depth information about Lewis and Clark displays, although not necessarily in Nebraska, HERE is an interesting blog. The author, Kathleen A. Dahl, PhD, is an anthropologist with Eastern Oregon University and is studying, "...how the Lewis and Clark Expedition is being interpreted in museums and historic sites."
What initially began as an introduction to an entry seems to have grown to an entry all its own. So if you were looking forward to my discussion of the significance of the Platte River, please check back near the end of next month. I will be posting similar tours of our state's history near the end of each month, and this entry is the model I plan to follow.
Have you been to any of these sites? Would you care to share your Lewis and Clark adventures? Leave a note in comments or email me and I will include it. Sounds like a great assignment for your little kiddos! (for safety reasons, I will not post any identifying information about children, but will send you the link if it is included on this blog). If you have a blog already here on homeschoolblogger (it's free!), you can also post it there and let me know the link.
Updates for homeschoolers living in or moving to Nebraska.
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