President Millard Fillmore--The Last Whig President

 

Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853, the last to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House. A former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from upstate New York, Fillmore was elected as the 12th vice president in 1848, and succeeded to the presidency in July 1850 upon the death of Zachary Taylor. Fillmore was instrumental in passing the Compromise of 1850, a bargain that led to a brief truce in the battle over the expansion of slavery. He failed to win the Whig nomination for president in 1852 but gained the endorsement of the nativist Know Nothing Party four years later and finished third in the 1856 presidential election.

Fillmore was born into poverty in the Finger Lakes area of upstate New York. His parents were tenant farmers during his formative years. Though he had little formal schooling, he studied diligently to become a lawyer. He became prominent in the Buffalo area as an attorney and politician, and was elected to the New York Assembly in 1828 and to the House of Representatives in 1832. Fillmore initially belonged to the Anti-Masonic Party, but became a member of the Whig Party as formed in the mid-1830s. He was a rival for the state party leadership with the editor Thurlow Weed and his protégé William H. Seward. Throughout his career, Fillmore declared slavery an evil but said it was beyond the federal government's power to end it. Seward was openly hostile to slavery and argued that the federal government had a role to play in ending it. Fillmore was an unsuccessful candidate for Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives when the Whigs took control of the chamber in 1841, but was made chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. Defeated in bids for the Whig nomination for vice president in 1844 and for New York governor the same year, Fillmore was elected Comptroller of New York in 1847, the first to hold that post by direct election.

As vice president, Fillmore was largely ignored by Taylor; even in dispensing patronage in New York, Taylor consulted Weed and Seward. But in his capacity as president of the Senate, Fillmore presided over its angry debates, as the 31st Congress decided whether to allow slavery in the Mexican Cession. Unlike Taylor, Fillmore supported Henry Clay's omnibus bill, the basis of the 1850 Compromise. Upon becoming president in July 1850, he dismissed Taylor's cabinet and pushed Congress to pass the compromise. The Fugitive Slave Act, expediting the return of escaped slaves to those who claimed ownership, was a controversial part of the compromise. Fillmore felt duty-bound to enforce it, though it damaged his popularity and also the Whig Party, which was torn between its Northern and Southern factions. In foreign policy, he supported U.S. Navy expeditions to open trade in Japan, opposed French designs on Hawaii, and was embarrassed by Narciso López's filibuster expeditions to Cuba. Fillmore sought the Whig nomination for a full term in 1852 but was passed over in favor of Winfield Scott.

As the Whig Party broke up after Fillmore's presidency, many in his conservative wing joined the Know Nothings and formed the American Party. During his 1856 candidacy, he said little about immigration, focusing on the preservation of the Union, and won only Maryland. During the American Civil War, Fillmore denounced secession and agreed that the Union must be maintained by force if necessary, but was critical of Abraham Lincoln's war policies. After peace was restored, he supported President Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction policies. Fillmore remained involved in civic interests in retirement, including as chancellor of the University of Buffalo, which he had helped found in 1846. Historians consistently rank Fillmore among the worst presidents in American history, largely for his policies regarding slavery, as well as among the least memorable. His association with the Know Nothings and support of Johnson's reconstruction policies further tarnished his reputation and legacy. 

Millard Fillmore was born on January 7, 1800, in a log cabin, on a farm in what is now Moravia, Cayuga County, in the Finger Lakes region of New York. His parents were Phoebe Millard and Nathaniel Fillmore, and he was the second of eight children and the oldest son.

Nathaniel Fillmore was the son of Nathaniel Fillmore Sr. (1739–1814), a native of Franklin, Connecticut, who became one of the earliest settlers of Bennington, Vermont, when it was founded in the territory that was then called the New Hampshire Grants.

Nathaniel Fillmore and Phoebe Millard moved from Vermont in 1799 and sought better opportunities than were available on Nathaniel's stony farm, but the title to their Cayuga County land proved defective, and the Fillmore family moved to nearby Sempronius, where they leased land as tenant farmers, and Nathaniel occasionally taught school. The historian Tyler Anbinder described Fillmore's childhood as "one of hard work, frequent privation, and virtually no formal schooling."

Over time Nathaniel became more successful in Sempronius, but during Millard's formative years, the family endured severe poverty. Nathaniel became sufficiently regarded that he was chosen to serve in local offices, including justice of the peace. Hoping that his oldest son would learn a trade, he convinced Millard, who was 14, not to enlist for the War of 1812 and apprenticed him to clothmaker Benjamin Hungerford in Sparta. Fillmore was relegated to menial labor, and unhappy at not learning any skills, he left Hungerford's employ.

His father then placed him in the same trade at a mill in New Hope. Seeking to better himself, Millard bought a share in a circulating library and read all the books that he could. In 1819 he took advantage of idle time at the mill to enroll at a new academy in the town, where he met a classmate, Abigail Powers, and fell in love with her.

Later in 1819 Nathaniel moved the family to Montville, a hamlet of Moravia. Appreciating his son's talents, Nathaniel followed his wife's advice and persuaded Judge Walter Wood, the Fillmores' landlord and the wealthiest person in the area, to allow Millard to be his law clerk for a trial period. Wood agreed to employ young Fillmore and to supervise him as he read law. Fillmore earned money teaching school for three months and bought out his mill apprenticeship. He left Wood after eighteen months; the judge had paid him almost nothing, and both quarreled after Fillmore had, unaided, earned a small sum by advising a farmer in a minor lawsuit. Refusing to pledge not to do so again, Fillmore gave up his clerkship. Nathaniel again moved the family, and Millard accompanied it west to East Aurora, in Erie County, near Buffalo, where Nathaniel purchased a farm that became prosperous.

In 1821 Fillmore turned 21, reaching adulthood. He taught school in East Aurora and accepted a few cases in justice of the peace courts, which did not require the practitioner to be a licensed attorney. He moved to Buffalo the following year and continued his study of law, first while he taught school and then in the law office of Asa Rice and Joseph Clary. Meanwhile, he also became engaged to Abigail Powers. In 1823 he was admitted to the bar, declined offers from Buffalo law firms, and returned to East Aurora to establish a practice as the town's only resident lawyer. Later in life, Fillmore said he had initially lacked the self-confidence to practice in the larger city of Buffalo. His biographer, Paul Finkelman, suggested that after being under others' thumbs all his life, Fillmore enjoyed the independence of his East Aurora practice Millard and Abigail wed on February 5, 1826. They had two children, Millard Powers Fillmore (1828–1889) and Mary Abigail Fillmore (1832–1854). Wikipedia

 

Dick Cheney, Vice-President of the United States

 

Richard Bruce Cheney (/ˈtʃeɪni/ CHAY-nee; born January 30, 1941) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He is currently the oldest living former U.S. vice president following the death of Walter Mondale in 2021.

Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Cheney grew up there and in Casper, Wyoming. He attended Yale University before earning a bachelor of arts and master of arts in political science from the University of Wyoming. He began his political career as an intern for Congressman William A. Steiger, eventually working his way into the White House during the Nixon and Ford administrations. He served as White House chief of staff from 1975 to 1977. In 1978, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and represented Wyoming's at-large congressional district from 1979 to 1989, briefly serving as House minority whip in 1989. He was selected as Secretary of Defense during the presidency of George H. W. Bush, and held the position for most of Bush's term from 1989 to 1993. During his time there, he oversaw 1991's Operation Desert Storm, among other actions. Out of office during the Clinton administration, he was the chairman and CEO of Halliburton from 1995 to 2000.

In July 2000, Cheney was chosen by presumptive Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush as his running mate in the 2000 presidential election. They defeated their Democratic opponents, incumbent Vice President Al Gore and Senator Joe Lieberman. In 2004, Cheney was reelected to his second term as vice president with Bush as president, defeating their Democratic opponents Senators John Kerry and John Edwards. During Cheney's tenure as vice president, he played a leading behind-the-scenes role in the George W. Bush administration's response to the September 11 attacks and coordination of the Global War on Terrorism. He was an early proponent of invading Iraq, alleging that the Saddam Hussein regime possessed a weapons of mass destruction program and had an operational relationship with Al-Qaeda; however, neither allegation was ever substantiated. He also pressured the intelligence community to provide intelligence consistent with the administration's rationales for invading Iraq. Cheney was often criticized for the Bush Administration's policies regarding the campaign against terrorism, for his support of wiretapping by the National Security Agency (NSA) and for his endorsement of "enhanced interrogation techniques" which several critics have labeled as torture. He publicly disagreed with President Bush's position against same-sex marriage in 2004, but also said it is "appropriately a matter for the states to decide".

Cheney, often cited as the most powerful vice president in American history, ended his tenure as an unpopular figure in American politics with an approval rating of 13 percent. His peak approval rating in the wake of the September 11 attacks was 68 percent.

Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, the son of Marjorie Lorraine (née Dickey) and Richard Herbert Cheney. He is of predominantly English, as well as Welsh, Irish, and French Huguenot ancestry. His father was a soil conservation agent for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and his mother was a softball star in the 1930s; Cheney was one of three children. He attended Calvert Elementary School before his family moved to Casper, Wyoming, where he attended Natrona County High School.

He attended Yale University, but by his own account had problems adjusting to the college, and dropped out. Among the influential teachers from his days in New Haven was Professor H. Bradford Westerfield, whom Cheney repeatedly credited with having helped to shape his approach to foreign policy. He later attended the University of Wyoming, where he earned both a bachelor of arts and a master of arts in political science. He subsequently started, but did not finish, doctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

In November 1962, at the age of 21, Cheney was convicted of driving while intoxicated (DWI). He was arrested for DWI again the following year. Cheney said that the arrests made him "think about where I was and where I was headed. I was headed down a bad road if I continued on that course."

In 1964, he married Lynne Vincent, his high school sweetheart, whom he had met at age 14.

When Cheney became eligible for the draft, during the Vietnam War, he applied for and received five draft deferments. In 1989, The Washington Post writer George C. Wilson interviewed Cheney as the next Secretary of Defense; when asked about his deferments, Cheney reportedly said, "I had other priorities in the '60s than military service." Cheney testified during his confirmation hearings in 1989 that he received deferments to finish a college career that lasted six years rather than four, owing to sub-par academic performance and the need to work to pay for his education. Upon graduation, Cheney was eligible for the draft, but at the time, the Selective Service System was not inducting married men. On October 26, 1965, the draft was expanded to include married men without children; Cheney's first daughter, Elizabeth, was born 9 months and two days later. Cheney's fifth and final deferment granted him "3-A" status, a "hardship" deferment available to men with dependents. In January 1967, Cheney turned 26 and was no longer eligible for the draft.

In 1966 Cheney dropped out of the doctoral program at the University of Wisconsin to work as staff aide for Gov. Warren Knowles.

In 1968 Cheney was awarded an American Political Science Association congressional fellowship and moved to Washington.

Cheney's political career began in 1969, as an intern for Congressman William A. Steiger during the Richard Nixon Administration. He then joined the staff of Donald Rumsfeld, who was then Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity from 1969 to 1970. He held several positions in the years that followed: White House Staff Assistant in 1971, Assistant Director of the Cost of Living Council from 1971 to 1973, and Deputy Assistant to the president from 1974 to 1975. As deputy assistant, Cheney suggested several options in a memo to Rumsfeld, including use of the US Justice Department, that the Ford administration could use to limit damage from an article, published by The New York Times, in which investigative reporter Seymour Hersh reported that Navy submarines had tapped into Soviet undersea communications as part of a highly classified program, Operation Ivy Bells.

Cheney was Assistant to the President and White House Deputy Chief of Staff under Gerald Ford from December 1974 to November 1975. When Rumsfeld was named Secretary of Defense, Cheney became White House Chief of Staff, succeeding Rumsfeld. He later was campaign manager for Ford's 1976 presidential campaign.

In early 2000, while serving as the CEO of Halliburton, Cheney headed then-Governor of Texas George W. Bush's vice-presidential search committee. On July 25, after reviewing Cheney's findings, Bush surprised some pundits by asking Cheney himself to join the Republican ticket. Halliburton reportedly reached agreement on July 20 to allow Cheney to retire, with a package estimated at $20 million.

A few months before the election Cheney put his home in Dallas up for sale and changed his drivers' license and voter registration back to Wyoming. This change was necessary to allow Texas' presidential electors to vote for both Bush and Cheney without contravening the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which forbids electors from voting for "an inhabitant of the same state with themselves" for both president and vice president.

The Bush–Cheney ticket won the 2000 presidential election with 271 electoral votes but with only 47.9% of the popular vote, less than their opposition ticket, Gore–Lieberman, which received 48.3%.

Cheney campaigned against Al Gore's running mate, Joseph Lieberman, in the 2000 presidential election. While the election was undecided, the Bush-Cheney team was not eligible for public funding to plan a transition to a new administration, prompting Cheney to open a privately funded transition office in Washington. This office worked to identify candidates for all important positions in the cabinet. According to Craig Unger, Cheney advocated Donald Rumsfeld for the post of Secretary of Defense to counter the influence of Colin Powell at the State Department, and tried unsuccessfully to have Paul Wolfowitz named to replace George Tenet as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Following the September 11, 2001, attacks, Cheney remained physically apart from Bush for security reasons. For a period, Cheney stayed at a variety of undisclosed locations, out of public view. Cheney later revealed in his memoir In My Time that these "undisclosed locations" included his official vice presidential residence, his home in Wyoming, and Camp David. He also utilized a heavy security detail, employing a motorcade of 12 to 18 government vehicles for his daily commute from the vice presidential residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory to the White House.

On the morning of June 29, 2002, Cheney served as acting president from 7:09 a.m. to 9:24 a.m., under the terms of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, while Bush underwent a colonoscopy.

Bush and Cheney were re-elected in the 2004 presidential election, running against John Kerry and his running mate, John Edwards. During the election, the pregnancy of his daughter Mary and her sexual orientation as a lesbian became a source of public attention for Cheney in light of the same-sex marriage debate. Cheney has since stated that he is in favor of gay marriages personally, but that each individual U.S. state should decide whether to permit it or not.

Cheney's former chief legal counsel, David Addington, became his chief of staff and remained in that office until Cheney's departure from office. John P. Hannah served as Cheney's national security adviser.

Until his indictment and resignation in 2005, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Jr. served in both roles.

On the morning of July 21, 2007, Cheney once again served as acting president, from 7:16 am to 9:21 am. Bush transferred the power of the presidency prior to undergoing a medical procedure, requiring sedation, and later resumed his powers and duties that same day.

After his term began in 2001, Cheney was occasionally asked if he was interested in the Republican nomination for the 2008 elections. However, he always maintained that he wished to retire upon the expiration of his term and he did not run in the 2008 presidential primaries. The Republicans nominated Arizona Senator John McCain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mary Barr Clay--Suffragette

 Mary Barr Clay (October 13, 1839 – October 12, 1924) was a leader of the American women's suffrage movement. She also was known as Mary B. Clay and Mrs. J. Frank Herrick. 

The elder daughter of Cassius Marcellus Clay and his wife Mary Jane Warfield, Mary Barr Clay was born on October 13, 1839, in Lexington, Kentucky. Clay married John Francis "Frank" Herrick, of Cleveland, Ohio, on October 3, 1866. The couple had three sons: Cassius Clay Herrick (July 17, 1867 – March 1935); Francis Warfield (February 9, 1869 – May 16, 1919); and, Green (August 11, 1871 – 10 Jan 1962). They divorced in 1872. She then dropped the Herrick name and took back her surname of Clay; she changed the last names of her two youngest children to Clay also.

In 1878, Clay's parents also divorced, leaving her mother Mary Jane Warfield Clay homeless after she had managed White Hall, the family estate, for 45 years. This inequality galvanized Clay into joining the women's rights movement, and she soon brought her three younger sisters with her. Laura Clay, the youngest, also became very active in the movement.

In May 1879, Mary B. Clay went to St. Louis, Missouri to attend the tenth anniversary of the National Woman Suffrage Association. She soon became a Kentucky delegate for that organization, serving as a vice-president. She was already a Vice President for the American Woman Suffrage Association. There she met Susan B. Anthony and arranged for the suffrage leader to speak in Richmond, Kentucky. Returning home she organized the Fayette County Equal Suffrage Association in 1879. The next year, she created the Madison County Equal Rights Association. While living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to educate her two younger sons, she organized a suffrage club there. She became president pro tem of the convention in Flint for the Michigan State Suffrage Association.She also edited a column in the Ann Arbor "Register and spoke before the senior law class of the University of Michigan on the "Constitutional Right of Women to Vote." She submitted the Kentucky report in Volume 3 of the History of Woman Suffrage: 1876-1885.

Clay became the first Kentuckian to hold the office of president in a national woman's organization when she was elected president of the American Woman Suffrage Association in 1883. Mary B. Clay was also the first Kentucky woman to speak publicly on women's rights.

She corresponded with Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Alice Stone Blackwell and other leading suffragists. She is credited with drawing her younger sister Laura Clay into the women's rights movement. The younger Clay became better known in history as a women's rights advocate. 

Her public life largely ended in 1902, as she dealt with ill health and family obligations. Clay died on October 12, 1924, one day shy of her 85th birthday, and is interred at Lexington Cemetery.  Wikipedia

 

Born to the prominent Clay family of Kentucky, Mary was the daughter of outspoken abolitionist and U.S. Minister to Russia, Cassius M. Clay. One of the first women in Kentucky to advocate for women’s suffrage, Mary was quickly joined by her sisters, and the youngest, Laura, would eventually become a well-known leader of the movement in Kentucky. Mary was part of both national and state associations, serving as vice president for the National Woman Suffrage Association and vice president and president for the American Woman Suffrage Association. Through those organizations, as well as local ones such as the Kentucky Equal Rights Association, Mary lobbied for female equality among their male counterparts.

Though she was from a family with many well-known and public figures, Mary stated in an article published in The Woman’s Journal on March 2, 1889 that her mother had the largest influence on how she approached the issues with which she dealt. Her mother, Mary Jane, had been born to wealthy slave owners in Lexington, Kentucky, and as a result, grew up in a pro-slavery household. Mary Jane would go on to marry Cassius Clay, who, after going off to college, took up a staunch anti-slavery stance. While living in a Southern, conservative state, being an abolitionist was a dangerous choice, and Mary stated that her mother was her father’s only sympathizer. There were many times were Mary said her mother had to convince her father to stay strong in his beliefs, stating that Mary Jane told him to be prepared to die rather “than give up [his] principles.” Mary Jane’s strong convictions continued through the Civil War, where she was a Unionist in a border state, and after the war, she became a suffragist and supported her daughters’ work to gain enfranchisement. Mary then stated that with a mother such as that, a person “cannot wonder that I, her daughter, should naturally be found advocating the liberty and civil and political equality of women.”

In a short piece on Mary in A Woman of Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in all Walks of Life (1893), her revelation about women’s place in society came after attending a convention held in Cleveland, Ohio, where she saw Lucy Stone speak sometime around 1868 and 1869. From that point on, Mary began to not only read pamphlets and books published on the topic of gender inequality, but she began to write her own pieces and submit them to newspapers. Along with written articles, Mary also spoke to legislatures at both the state and national level about the need for political equality for women.

One such speech before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, given on March 8, 1884 and recorded in History of Woman Suffrage (vol. IV), saw Mary pleading for change on behalf of women, noting that it was like a debate between “a subject class with a ruling class.” Continuing on in her speech, Mary noted the disparity in treatment of men and women, stating that up until they come of age, boys and girls are treated the same. After that point, however, a “boy becomes a free human being” and “the girl remains a slave, a subject.” This leaves women without the ability to vote and therefore “powerless either to punish or reward.” To conclude her speech to the Judiciary Committee, and to summarize her belief in why women needed enfranchisement, Mary stated that men needed a woman’s “sense of justice and moral courage,” while women needed “the ballot for self-protection.”  William G. Pomeroy Foundation website

 

 

 

Demi Moore--Member of the Brat Pack & One Time Highest Paid Film Actress

 

Demi Gene Moore (/dəˈmiː/ də-MEE; née Guynes; born November 11, 1962) is an American actress. After making her film debut in 1981, Moore appeared on the soap opera General Hospital (1982–1984) and subsequently gained recognition as a member of the Brat Pack with roles in Blame It on Rio (1984), St. Elmo's Fire (1985), and About Last Night... (1986). She had her breakthrough for her starring role in Ghost (1990), the highest-grossing film of that year. Her performance was praised and earned her a Golden Globe nomination.

She had further box-office success in the early 1990s, with the films A Few Good Men (1992), Indecent Proposal (1993), and Disclosure (1994). In 1996, Moore became the highest-paid actress in film history when she received an unprecedented $12.5 million to star in Striptease. She had starring roles in the films The Scarlet Letter (1995), The Juror (1996) and G.I. Jane (1997), all of which were commercially unsuccessful and contributed to a downturn in her career. Her career has since had a resurgence with voice roles in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame II (2002) and supporting roles in such films as Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003), Bobby (2006), Mr. Brooks (2007), Margin Call (2011), and Rough Night (2017).

In 2019, she released a memoir titled Inside Out, which became a New York Times Best Seller. Moore has been married three times: to the musician Freddy Moore and the actors Bruce Willis and Ashton Kutcher. She has three daughters with Willis. 

Moore was born November 11, 1962, in Roswell, New Mexico. Her biological father, Air Force airman Charles Foster Harmon Sr., left her then 18-year-old mother, Virginia (née King), after a two-month marriage before Moore was born. Charles came from Lanett, Alabama, and Virginia was born in Richmond, California, but had grown up in Roswell. Moore's maternal grandmother was raised on a farm in Elida, New Mexico. When Moore was three months old, her mother married Dan Guynes, a newspaper advertising salesman who frequently changed jobs; as a result, the family moved many times. In 1967, they had Moore's half-brother Morgan. Moore said in 1991, "My dad is Dan Guynes. He raised me. There is a man who would be considered my biological father who I don't really have a relationship with." Moore has half-siblings from Charlie Harmon's other marriages, but she doesn't keep in touch with them either.

Moore's stepfather Dan Guynes married and divorced Virginia twice. On October 20, 1980, a year after their second divorce from each other, Guynes died by suicide. Her biological father Charlie Harmon died in 1997 from liver cancer in Brazoria, Texas. Moore's mother had a long arrest record which included drunk driving and arson. Moore broke off contact with her in 1989, when Guynes walked away halfway through a rehab stay Moore had financed at the Hazelden Foundation in Minnesota. Virginia Guynes posed nude for the magazine High Society in 1993, where she spoofed Moore's Vanity Fair pregnancy and bodypaint covers and parodied her clay scene from Ghost. Moore and Guynes briefly reconciled shortly before Guynes died of a brain tumor on July 2, 1998.

Moore spent her early childhood in Roswell, and later, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. She suffered from strabismus as a child, which was corrected by two operations; Moore also suffered from kidney dysfunction. Moore learned of her biological father, Harmon, at age 13, when she found her mother and stepfather's marriage certificate and inquired about the circumstances since she "saw my parents were married in February 1963. I was born in '62."

Moore signed with the Elite Modeling Agency, then enrolled in drama classes after being inspired by her next-door neighbor, 17-year-old German actress Nastassja Kinski. In August 1979, at age 16, Moore met musician Freddy Moore who was married and at the time leader of the band Boy, at the Los Angeles nightclub The Troubadour. They lived in an apartment in West Hollywood. Moore co-wrote three songs with Freddy Moore and appeared in the music video for their selection "It's Not a Rumor," performed by his band, The Nu Kats. She continues to receive royalty checks from her songwriting work (1980–1981). Moore also sang in the films One Crazy Summer and Bobby.

Moore appeared on the cover of the January 1981 issue of the adult magazine Oui, taken from a photo session in which she had posed nude. In a 1988 interview, Moore claimed she "only posed for the cover of Oui—I was 16; I told them I was 18". Interviewer Alan Carter said, "However, some peekaboo shots did appear inside. And later, nude shots of her turned up in Celebrity Sleuth—photos that she once said 'were for a European fashion magazine'." In 1990, she told another interviewer, "I was 17 years old. I was underage. It was just the cover." Moore made her film debut with a brief role in the 1981 teen drama Choices, directed by Silvio Narizzano. Her second film feature was the 3-D sci-fi horror film Parasite (1982), for which director Charles Band had instructed casting director Johanna Ray to "find me the next Karen Allen." Moore then joined the cast of the ABC soap opera General Hospital, playing the role of an investigative reporter until 1983. During her tenure on the series, she made an uncredited cameo appearance in the 1982 spoof film Young Doctors in Love. Moore's film career took off in 1984 following her appearance in the sex comedy Blame It on Rio. She also portrayed Laura Victor in the comedy film No Small Affair (1984), opposite Jon Cryer.

Moore's commercial breakthrough came in Joel Schumacher's yuppie drama St. Elmo's Fire (1985), which received negative reviews, but was a box office success and brought Moore recognition. Because of her association with that film, Moore was often listed as part of the Brat Pack, a label she felt was "demeaning". Moore progressed to more serious material with About Last Night... (1986), co-starring Rob Lowe, which marked a positive turning point in her career, as Moore noted that, following its release, she began seeing better scripts. Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and praised her performance, writing, "There isn't a romantic note she isn't required to play in this movie, and she plays them all flawlessly. Wikipedia [see Wikipedia also for later career]

 

 

 

Thomas Garrett--Quaker Abolitionist & Underground Railway Stationmaster

 

Thomas Garrett (August 21, 1789 – January 25, 1871) was an American abolitionist and leader in the Underground Railroad movement before the American Civil War. He helped more than 2,500 African Americans escape slavery.

For his efforts, he was threatened, harassed, and assaulted. A $10,000 (equivalent to $351,760 in 2022) bounty was established for his capture. He was arrested and convicted for helping Emeline and Samuel Hawkins escape slavery.

Garrett was born on August 21, 1789, in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia, to Sarah Price and Thomas Garrett. The family were members of the Quaker Darby Friends Meeting. His family lived on their homestead called Riverview Farm.

In 1813, Garrett married Mary Sharpless, with whom he had five children. He became a member of the Wilmington Meeting when he moved to Wilmington, Delaware in 1822. Wilmington was advantageous for his career as it was a growing city. It was also well-suited for Underground Railroad activity as it was the last city before Philadelphia within a slave state. He established a station at his house at 227 Shipley Street.

Mary died in 1828. He married a second time in 1830 to Rachel Mendenhall, the daughter of Eli Mendenhall. They had a son.

When his father died in 1839, the original farm was split between Thomas's brothers Issac and Edward, who renamed their farms "Fernleaf Farm" and "Cleveland Farm", but much is preserved today as Arlington Cemetery. Thomas's house, "Thornfield", built around 1800 and in which he lived until 1822, still stands today (as a private residence) in what is now the Drexel Hill neighborhood of Upper Darby. 

He established an iron and hardware business and made it prosper. In 1835, Garrett became a director of the new Wilmington Gas Company, which made gas "made from rosin, at $7 per 1,000 cubic feet" for lighting lamps. In 1836, he, Chandler, Joseph Whitaker, and other partners invested and revived the Principio Furnace in Perryville, Maryland, near an important crossing of the Susquehanna River at the top of Chesapeake Bay.

His life as an abolitionist began in earnest in 1813 when he was 24 years of age. A free black woman who worked for the Garretts was kidnapped by slave traders who intended to sell her into slavery in the Deep South. Garrett rescued her and determined to defend African Americans throughout his life.

In the schism between Orthodox and Hicksite Quakers, Garrett split with his Orthodox family and moved to Wilmington in the neighboring slave state of Delaware to strike out on his own and pursue his struggle against slavery. In 1827 Society of the State of Delaware was reorganized as the Delaware Abolition Society, whose officers and directors included Garrett, William Chandler, president John Wales, vice-president Edward Worrell, and others. Later that year, Wales and Garrett represented the group at the National Convention of Abolitionists.

William Lloyd Garrison, whom Garrett admired greatly, once visited him. However, they held different views regarding the opposition to slavery. Garrison was willing to be a martyr to the abolition of slavery and would not defend himself if attacked physically. Garrett, on the other hand, believed slavery could only be abolished through a civil war and, when attacked physically, defended himself by subduing his attackers.

Thomas Garrett was the inspiration for the Harriet Beecher Stowe's abolitionist character, Simeon Halliday, in her famous novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. As was Garrett, Simeon was unafraid of risking fines or imprisonment for helping his fellow man. As Beecher Stowe was writing the follow-up volume in 1853, Garrett was encouraged by Charles Whipple, a Boston abolitionist, to send the author an account of his experiences on the front-lines of abolitionism. 

Garrett openly worked as a stationmaster on the Underground Railroad in Delaware, working with William Still in Philadelphia and John Hunn further down the Delmarva Peninsula. Among those he helped was the family of Henry Highland Garnet. Because he openly defied slave hunters as well as the slave system, Garrett had no need of secret rooms in his house at 227 Shipley Street. The authorities were aware of his activities, but he was never arrested.

Garrett was also a friend and benefactor to the noted Underground Railroad Conductor Harriet Tubman, who passed through his station many times. In addition to lodging and meals, Garrett frequently provided her with money and shoes to continue her missions conducting runaways from slavery to freedom. Garrett also provided Tubman with the money and the means for her parents to escape from the South. Both were free people at the time Tubman rescued them, but Tubman's father faced arrest for secreting runaway slaves in his cabin.

The number of runaways Garrett assisted has sometimes been exaggerated. He said he "only helped 2,700" before the Civil War put an end to slavery.

In 1848, he and fellow Quaker John Hunn were sued in federal court for helping the Emeline and Samuel Hawkins family of seven slaves owned by two owners escape, although their lawyer colleague John Wales had managed to free them from imprisonment the previous year when a magistrate granted a writ of habeas corpus. The two slaveowners sued Hunn and Garrett. U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney presided at the trial in the New Castle Court House and James A. Bayard Jr. acted as prosecutor. Garrett and Hunn were found guilty of violating the Fugitive Slave Act by helping a family of slaves escape. As the architect of the escape, Garrett received a $4,500 fine, later reduced to $1,500. According to Kathleen Lonsdale, referencing the American Friends Service Committee, "The fine was so heavy that it left him financially ruined, yet Thomas Garrett stood up in Court and said Judge thou has left me not a dollar, but I wish to say to thee and to all in this courtroom that if anyone knows a fugitive who wants a shelter and a friend, send him to Thomas Garrett and he will befriend him." This comment was made in response to the Judge saying to Garrett, "Thomas, I hope you will never be caught at this business again." A lien was put on his house until the fine was paid, and although Hunn ended up losing his house in a sheriff's sale, with the aid of friends Garrett continued in his iron and hardware business and helping runaway slaves to freedom. By 1855, traffic through Garrett's station had increased, and Sydney Howard Gay noted that in 1855 to 1856 nearly 50 fugitives whom Garrett had helped arrived in New York.

During the American Civil War, the free African Americans of Wilmington guarded Garrett's house. When the 15th Amendment passed, giving black men the right to vote, Wilmington's African Americans carried Garrett through the streets in an open barouche with a sign: "Our Moses".

[Note: My 4G grandfather, John Langdon, who had become a Quaker following his service in the American Revolution, also became a Hicksite Quaker in his later years.]