Category Archives: The War of 1812

Abraham Lincoln Quote

Posted on by October 14, 2016

Abraham_Lincoln_2“You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” It’s a good quote. Most of us attribute that saying to Abraham Lincoln. Even historians.

However, this quote is not found in any of the writings of Abraham Lincoln. It is likewise not found in any of the newspaper articles around Abraham Lincoln’s time. This particular saying did not even come to be known until about 50 years after Abe was supposed to have said it. read more

When Was the War of 1812?

Posted on by March 8, 2016

JamesMadisonAs funny as it may seem, one of the questions that I asked the Senior Advanced Placement Government class when I was a guest instructor for an hour, was “When was the War of 1812?”

There were some confused faces in the classroom. What was that war all about? Who started it? Who won? When? They finally did come to the conclusion that the War of 1812 was actually in 1812, but they really didn’t know much about it.

That’s not unusual, I’m told. Sometimes referred to as Madison’s War, it was declared in June of 1812 at President James Madison’s request. Congress declared war because the British had incited the Indians to fight against the U.S., they had interfered with American merchants and had actually forced some American sailors into service for the British! read more