This week in our series, Steve Ember and Shirley Griffith continue the story of Thomas Jefferson's second term as president.
In the early 1800s, Britain and France were at war with each other. The United States remained neutral. President Jefferson did not want to become involved in a war. He believed it would destroy all the progress he had made.
His economic policies had helped to pay much of the national debt. And he was able to reduce taxes. Staying neutral was not easy, however. The United States was having trouble with Britain.
For many years, Britain had been taking men by force to serve in its navy. The custom was called 'impressment.' Britain claimed the right to impress -- or seize -- any British citizen, anywhere.
Conditions in the British navy were not good at that time, and many sailors deserted. Some went to work on American ships. The American ships were stopped and searched in British waters.
Anyone born in Britain was seized. Several thousand sailors were taken off American ships during the early 1800s. Sometimes, American citizens were taken by mistake.
Impressment was one of two major problems the United States was having with Britain in the early 1800s. The other problem was trade.
Britain wanted to stop the United States from trading with France and its colonies. British warships blocked the port of New York all through the year 1805. No American ship could leave without being searched. When goods for France were discovered, the ship was taken to Halifax on the coast of Canada.
There, a British court had the power to seize the goods and force the ship's owners to pay a large amount of money.
President Jefferson protested this interference in American trade. He sent James Monroe to London to negotiate a treaty. Jefferson wanted Britain to stop taking sailors from American ships, and to stop interfering in the trade of neutral nations. Monroe tried many times to discuss such an agreement. But the British foreign minister was always too busy to see him.
In Washington, Congress decided to act and not wait for a treaty. The House of Representatives debated two proposals.
One proposal would stop all goods from being imported into the United States from Britain and its colonies. Imports would be permitted only after Britain had answered America's protests.
The representative who offered the proposal said: "We do not wish to destroy the ties that ought to join nations of the same interests. To prevent this, we want an agreement that will satisfy both the United States and Britain. But if Britain continues its hostile acts, then we must loosen these ties of friendship."
<span>French settlers' treatment to Native Americans was kind and respectful compared to the British. they took them as trading partner and friends </span>
Answer: The tape revealed President Nixon's involvement in the Watergate scandal.
Context/details:
The first break-in by burglars was in May, 1972, as persons connected to the Nixon reelection campaign broke into the Democratic National Committee office in the Watergate complex of buildings in Washington, DC. They were planting wire-taps on the Democrats' phone lines, and also stole copies of documents. When the wire-taps didn't work properly, they broke in again (in June) to try to fix the surveillance devices, but they were caught.
Nixon's role in Watergate was especially in his efforts and those of members of his staff to cover up what had happened.
In July 1974, the White House was compelled to turn over subpoenaed tapes over to Special Prosecutor Ron Jaworski. As reported by <em>Politico </em>in an article (8/5/2018) remembering the release of the tapes:<em> </em>
- <em>One of those tapes was the so-called “smoking gun” tape, from June 23, 1972, six days after the Watergate break-in. On that tape, Nixon recorded an Oval Office meeting with H.R. Haldeman, his chief of staff. During their exchange, Nixon agreed that administration officials should approach Richard Helms, the director of the CIA, and Vernon A. Walters, its deputy director, and ask them to ask L. Patrick Gray, the acting director of the FBI, to halt the bureau's investigation into the Watergate break-in because it was a national security matter. Jaworski believed that Nixon, in so agreeing, had entered a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice.</em>
Ultimately, the Watergate affair brought down the Nixon presidency. He resigned in order to avoid impeachment. And the whole affair made Americans more distrusting of government.
Black identity and cultures
During the 1980s Microsoft adopted the Bell Curve Employee assessment tool, also known as 'Stack Ranking'
The system forced each department to assess their employees at the end of the year and grade them under 'top-performers', 'average' 'below-average' and 'poor'
The idea was to 'cull' employees that were not contributing and ensure high-performers get bonuses and promotions.
The system worked very well in the 80s and the 90s.
However, Microsoft's decline in the 2000s against apple was sharp and many ex-employees of Microsoft point to the 'stack ranking' system that eventually paved the way for internal politics rather than innovation.