Your Questions Answered

From: Daniela Burr

Question: Do you know why presidential elections are always held in November? Does it have to do with Civil War? And have they always been held on the first Tuesday of November?

Answer: No, the standardization of the day for voting for president had nothing to do with the Civil War -- it predated that event by sixteen years.

Here's the explanation from ”Ben's Guide," a helpful website maintained by the U.S. Government Printing Office at http://bensguide.gpo.gov/:

Election of the President & Vice President: Election Day
The Constitution (Article II, Section 1) provides that "Congress shall determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States." In 1792, legislation was enacted establishing the first Wednesday in December as the day on which presidential electors were to assemble and vote, and further required that the States appoint electors within 34 days prior to the date set for the electors to vote. In 1845, Congress enacted legislation providing a uniform date for the choice of electors in all states, establishing "Tuesday next after the first Monday in the month of November of the year in which they are to be appointed."

Why November?
The decision to create a single day for the selection of Presidential electors was intended, in part, to prevent election abuses. The reason that November was chosen was that the United States was largely a rural and agrarian nation. Since the harvesting of crops was normally completed by this time, farmers were free to vote. Also, since November is before the onset of winter, traveling would be easier (particularly in the northern states that experienced harsh winter weather).

Why Tuesday after the first Monday?
Tuesday was chosen partly because it gave a full day's travel time between Sunday, which was widely observed by religious groups as a strict day of rest (except for traveling) and voting day. Two days were given for travel to give voters the time to travel by foot or by horse to the nearest polling place, usually the county's seat.

Finally, the choice of Tuesday after the first Monday was established to prevent elections from falling on the first day of the month. The first date of the month was typically reserved for court business at the county seat and would not make a good day to hold elections. By making the Tuesday following the first Monday in November election day, Congress had insured that this would not happen."

From: Barbara Broyles

Question: Are there any lesson plans available on the Mexican holiday of 16 de Semptiembre?

Answer: A lot of people are talking about teaching Mexican history in U.S. schools, but finding someone who's doing it and providing helpful how-to's is another story, isn't it?

Here is a convenient English-language webpage on September 16th – it’s part of a website on all Mexican holidays, so be sure to check out that information as well:

http://www.mexonline.com/grito.htm

Have you looked at the “Mexico for Kids” website maintained by the Mexican government? This looks quite promising. It’s available in Spanish, English, French, and Italian at:

http://www.elbalero.gob.mx/index_kids.html

And there’s a special history section at:

http://www.elbalero.gob.mx/kids/history/html/home.html

Do you read Spanish? If so, bookmark the University of Texas Library’s website for sources on Mexico and Mexican history. Most of these are Spanish-language, although there are some helpful “Anglophone” numbers as well:

http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/mexico/

Try this one out for a lesson plan:

http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/units/Byrnes-celebrations/mid.html

And for future questions about classroom resources for Mexican history, go to this website and work your way through it and down it:

http://members.aol.com/MrDonnHistory/K12west.html

You do have to work your way through this site, but I found it was worth the trouble:

http://www.archives.gov/grants/about_nhprc/commission_staff.html

And this webpage gives a good summary of statistics on slaves in 1860:

http://www.civilwarhome.com/population1860.htm

This one is a useful brief summary of population shifts among African Americans in the early nineteenth century:

http://www.africana.com/research/encarta/census.asp

As for the second part of your question, try these books about white attitudes toward African Americans in the early nineteenth century:

Obudho, Constance E. Black-white Racial Attitudes: An Annotated Bibliography (Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 1976). This book will give you a chance to review an analysis of all the books on the subject and find some that sound useful.

Bay, Mia. The White Image in the Black Mind : African-American Ideas About White People, 1830-1925 (New York : Oxford University Press, 2000). This is really interesting as it examines the other side of the coin -- how African Americans developed their attitudes toward whites.

Jordan, Winthrop D. The White Man's Burden : Historical Origins of Racism in the United States (New York : Oxford University Press, 1974). This is largely based on Jordan's earlier book, White Over Black (Baltimore, Md. : Penguin Books, 1969, c1968).

From: Arietta McGowan

Question: Who was the only president who was not elected by the people as either president or vice president?

Answer: You're thinking of Gerald Ford, whom Richard Nixon appointed vice president to succeed Spiro Agnew, who had resigned. Then Nixon resigned, making Ford president.