Keywords: Political appointments
Item 77743
George Beal on political appointments, Washington, 1869
Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1869 Location: Portland; Norway Media: Ink on paper
Item 77737
George Beal letter on federal appointments, Norway, 1869
Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1869 Location: Norway; Portland Media: Ink on paper
Item 151643
Capt. John Deering house, 1884-1919
Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1884–1919 Location: Portland; Portland; Kennebunkport Client: John W. Deering Architect: John Calvin Stevens
Exhibit
Margaret Chase Smith: A Historic Candidacy
When she announced her candidacy for President in January 1964, three-term Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith became the first woman to seek the nomination of one of the two major political parties.
Exhibit
Port of Portland's Custom House and Collectors of Customs
The collector of Portland was the key to federal patronage in Maine, though other ports and towns had collectors. Through the 19th century, the revenue was the major source of Federal Government income. As in Colonial times, the person appointed to head the custom House in Casco Bay was almost always a leading community figure, or a well-connected political personage.
Site Page
Maine Department of Transportation
View collections, facts, and contact information for this Contributing Partner.
Site Page
"Once in office, his uncle appointed him to the official expedition to inspect the fortifications to the east."
Story
Lloyd LaFountain III family legacy and creating own path
by Biddeford Cultural & Heritage Center
Lloyd followed in his family’s footsteps of serving Biddeford and the State of Maine.
Lesson Plan
Longfellow Studies: Longfellow Amongst His Contemporaries - The Ship of State DBQ
Grade Level: 9-12
Content Area: English Language Arts, Social Studies
Preparation Required/Preliminary Discussion:
Lesson plans should be done in the context of a course of study on American literature and/or history from the Revolution to the Civil War.
The ship of state is an ancient metaphor in the western world, especially among seafaring people, but this figure of speech assumed a more widespread and literal significance in the English colonies of the New World. From the middle of the 17th century, after all, until revolution broke out in 1775, the dominant system of governance in the colonies was the Navigation Acts. The primary responsibility of colonial governors, according to both Parliament and the Crown, was the enforcement of the laws of trade, and the governors themselves appointed naval officers to ensure that the various provisions and regulations of the Navigation Acts were executed. England, in other words, governed her American colonies as if they were merchant ships.
This metaphorical conception of the colonies as a naval enterprise not only survived the Revolution but also took on a deeper relevance following the construction of the Union. The United States of America had now become the ship of state, launched on July 4th 1776 and dedicated to the radical proposition that all men are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights. This proposition is examined and tested in any number of ways during the decades between the Revolution and the Civil War. Novelists and poets, as well as politicians and statesmen, questioned its viability: Whither goes the ship of state? Is there a safe harbor somewhere up ahead or is the vessel doomed to ruin and wreckage? Is she well built and sturdy or is there some essential flaw in her structural frame?
