150-457: The Massachusetts Republican Party ( MassGOP ) is the Massachusetts branch of the U.S. Republican Party . Originally, the party was formed in 1854. Soon after its founding, the party quickly became the dominant party in the state with Massachusetts remaining a staunchly Republican state until well into the 20th century. In fact, every single Massachusetts state and federal office was held by
300-553: A Wôpanâak word muswachasut , segmented as mus(ây) "big" + wach "mountain" + -s "diminutive" + - ut "locative". This word has been translated as "near the great hill", "by the blue hills", "at the little big hill", or "at the range of hills", in reference to the Blue Hills —namely, the Great Blue Hill , located on the boundary of Milton and Canton . Massachusett has also been represented as Moswetuset . This comes from
450-563: A right to shelter law, and the first U.S. state, and one of the earliest jurisdictions in the world to legally recognize same-sex marriage . Harvard University in Cambridge is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States , with the largest financial endowment of any university in the world. Both Harvard and MIT , also in Cambridge, are perennially ranked as either
600-509: A Lincoln election. Nonetheless, loyal army officers in Virginia, Kansas and South Carolina warned Lincoln of military preparations to the contrary. Secessionists threw their support behind Breckinridge in an attempt either to force the anti-Republican candidates to coordinate their electoral votes or throw the election into the House of Representatives, where the selection of the president would be made by
750-526: A New Englander and former member of Franklin Pierce 's cabinet. This larger group met immediately in Baltimore's Institute Hall, with Cushing again presiding. They adopted the pro-slavery platform rejected at Charleston, and nominated Vice President John C. Breckinridge for president, and Senator Joseph Lane from Oregon for vice president. Yancey and some (less than half) of the bolters - almost entirely from
900-461: A ballot for Lincoln could theoretically have still voted for him by means of a write-in ballot provided his state had electors pledged to Lincoln and the voter knew their identities, casting a ballot in favor of the Republican candidate in a strongly pro-slavery county would have incurred (at minimum) social ostracization (of course, casting a vote for Breckinridge in a strongly abolitionist county ran
1050-475: A bitter feud. Bates outlined his positions on the extension of slavery into the territories and equal constitutional rights for all citizens, positions that alienated his supporters in the border states and Southern conservatives, while German Americans in the party opposed Bates because of his past association with the Know Nothings . Into this mix came Lincoln. He was not unknown; he had gained prominence in
1200-558: A bloc for him. Lincoln did not attend the convention in person and left the task of delegate wrangling to several close friends. The first round of voting predictably produced a lead for Seward, but not a majority, with Lincoln in second place. The second round eliminated most of the minor contenders, with voters switching mostly to Seward or Lincoln. The convention remained deadlocked, however, and skillful political maneuvering by Lincoln's delegate wranglers convinced some delegates to abandon Seward in favor of Lincoln. Lincoln's combination of
1350-655: A co-founder of the Special Olympics . In 1966, Massachusetts became the first state to directly elect an African American to the U.S. senate with Edward Brooke . George H. W. Bush , 41st President of the United States (1989–1993) was born in Milton in 1924. Other notable Massachusetts politicians on the national level included Joseph W. Martin Jr. , Speaker of the House (from 1947 to 1949 and then again from 1953 to 1955) and leader of House Republicans from 1939 until 1959 (where he
1500-571: A difficult task if he was to win the nomination. He set about ensuring that he was the second choice of most delegates, realizing that the first round of voting at the convention was unlikely to produce a clear winner. He engineered that the convention would happen in Chicago, which would be inherently friendly to the Illinois-based Lincoln. He also made sure that the Illinois delegation would vote as
1650-560: A former one-term Whig Representative from Illinois. Its platform promised not to interfere with slavery in the South but opposed extension of slavery into the territories. The 1860 Democratic National Convention adjourned in Charleston, South Carolina , without agreeing on a nominee, but a second convention in Baltimore, Maryland , nominated Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas . Douglas's support for
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#17328454157751800-552: A frontrunner in the Democratic primaries for the 2020 presidential election. However, she later suspended her campaign and endorsed presumptive nominee Joe Biden . Two pressure cooker bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, at around 2:49 pm local time ( EDT ). The explosions killed three people and injured an estimated 264 others. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) later identified
1950-487: A large population of grey seals . Since 2009, there has been a significant increase in the number of Great white sharks spotted and tagged in the coastal waters off of Cape Cod . Freshwater fish species in Massachusetts include bass , carp , catfish , and trout , while saltwater species such as Atlantic cod , haddock , and American lobster populate offshore waters. Other marine species include Harbor seals ,
2100-506: A letter in which he stated that his health had been so poor that he had not been able to be away from home since 1858. Nonetheless, he remained popular in the party because he had helped inspire some of John Brown's supporters at the Raid on Harpers Ferry . In his letter, Smith donated $ 50 to pay for the printing of ballots in the various states. There was quite a spirited contest between the friends of Gerrit Smith and William Goodell in regard to
2250-525: A moderate stance on slavery, long support for economic issues, his western origins, and strong oratory proved to be exactly what the delegates wanted in a president. On the third ballot on May 18, Lincoln secured the presidential nomination overwhelmingly. Senator Hannibal Hamlin from Maine was nominated for vice president, defeating Clay. Hamlin was surprised by his nomination, saying he was "astonished" and that he "neither expected nor desired it." The party platform promised not to interfere with slavery in
2400-634: A party member until 1876, and it was only until 1874 that the state had any Democratic mayors again (namely William Gaston of Boston ). By the 1920s, however, the Massachusetts Republican Party was in decline. Immigrants to Massachusetts made the state increasingly Democratic, as well as the Great Depression and the New Deal . The state began producing a streak of victories for Democratic presidential candidates beginning in 1928, and by
2550-536: A path to decarbonize the state's economy. On April 22, 2020, Kathleen A. Theoharides, the state's Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, released a Determination of Statewide Emissions limits for 2050. In her letter, Theoharides stresses that as of 2020, the Commonwealth has experienced property damage attributable to climate change of more than $ 60 billion. To ensure that the Commonwealth experiences warming no more than 1.5 °C of pre-industrialization levels,
2700-777: A platform dispute, led by the extreme pro-slavery " Fire-Eater " William Lowndes Yancey and the Alabama delegation: following them were the entire delegations of Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas, three of the four delegates from Arkansas, and one of the three delegates from Delaware. Six candidates were running: Stephen A. Douglas from Illinois, James Guthrie from Kentucky, Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter from Virginia, Joseph Lane from Oregon, Daniel S. Dickinson from New York, and Andrew Johnson from Tennessee, while three other candidates, Isaac Toucey from Connecticut, James Pearce from Maryland, and Jefferson Davis from Mississippi (the future president of
2850-480: A presidential campaign in 1860 but failed to win support from the anti-slavery majority of the Massachusetts delegation. He chose not to attend the national convention and retired as Governor. Republicans nominated John Albion Andrew , a radical supporter of John Brown, as Banks's successor over Banks's preferred candidate, Henry L. Dawes . At the 1861 state Republican convention in Worcester, Senator Sumner delivered
3000-436: A significant change to the state's built environment and ecosystems. In Boston alone, costs of climate change-related storms will result in $ 5 to $ 100 billion in damage. Warmer temperatures will also disrupt bird migration and flora blooming. With these changes, deer populations are expected to increase, resulting in a decrease in underbrush which smaller fauna use as camouflage. Additionally, rising temperatures will increase
3150-480: A sixteen-year period from the onset of the American Civil War in 1861 until 1876, every statewide and federal elected office in Massachusetts was held by a Republican. While the party held a monopoly on power in the state, there were internal divisions between the radical abolitionist faction, represented by Sumner, and the moderate faction, represented by Banks. As Governor, Banks had a difficult time appeasing
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#17328454157753300-512: A special election to succeed Senator Ted Kennedy . Brown became the first Republican to represent Massachusetts in the Senate since 1979 and the first in Congress since 1997. However, Brown lost his bid for a full six-year term to Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren in 2012. In 2014, moderate Republican Charlie Baker was elected Governor, defeating Democratic nominee Martha Coakley and returning
3450-640: A speech claiming that the Civil War's sole cause was slavery and the primary objective of the Union government was to destroy slavery. Sumner stated that the Union government had the power to invoke martial law and emancipate the slaves. This speech drew harsh criticism from the conservative Boston establishment but cheers from the party's abolitionists. During and after the Civil War, Democrats and anti-war Republicans became increasingly unpopular in Massachusetts. Radical Republicans , who were most aggressively supportive of
3600-435: A steady decrease in support for the national party, the Massachusetts Republican Party has been able to maintain control over the governor's office. From 1990 until 2023, the governor's office had been consistently held by a number of Republicans, only interrupted by the governorship of Deval Patrick from 2007 to 2015. In 2010, Republicans won a shock victory when Scott Brown defeated Democratic candidate Martha Coakley in
3750-413: A valid presidential ballot; however, what this meant in practice was that a candidate's campaign was responsible for printing and distributing their own ballots (this service was typically done by supportive newspaper publishers). Moreover, since voters did not choose the president directly, but rather presidential electors, the only way for a voter to meaningfully support a particular candidate for president
3900-450: A vice presidential candidate. Houston, never enthusiastic about running for the presidency, soon became convinced that he had no chance of winning and that his candidacy would only make it easier for the Republican candidate to win. He withdrew from the race on August 16, and urged the formation of a Unified "Union" ticket in opposition to Lincoln. In their campaigning, Bell and Douglas both claimed that disunion would not necessarily follow
4050-425: A voter the same risk). In the four slave states that did not secede (Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware), Lincoln came in fourth in every state except Delaware (where he finished third). Within the fifteen slave states, Lincoln won only two counties out of 996, Missouri's St. Louis and Gasconade counties. In the 1856 election, the Republican candidate for president had received no votes at all in twelve of
4200-453: A youngster and paraded them into the convention with a banner that proclaimed Lincoln to be "The Rail Candidate" for president. Lincoln received a thunderous ovation, surpassing his and his political allies' expectations. Lincoln's campaign managers had printed and distributed thousands of fake convention admission tickets to Lincoln supporters to ensure and increase the crowd's support. Even with such support from his home state, Lincoln faced
4350-456: Is Boston . Other major cities are Worcester , Springfield and Cambridge . Massachusetts is also home to the urban core of Greater Boston , the largest metropolitan area in New England and a region profoundly influential upon American history , academia , and the research economy . Massachusetts has a reputation for social and political progressivism ; becoming the only U.S. state with
4500-467: Is its largest city. Despite its small size, Massachusetts features numerous topographically distinctive regions. The large coastal plain of the Atlantic Ocean in the eastern section of the state contains Greater Boston , along with most of the state's population, as well as the distinctive Cape Cod peninsula . To the west lies the hilly, rural region of Central Massachusetts , and beyond that,
4650-694: Is now known as Rhode Island , and Hutchinson joined him there several years later. Religious intolerance continued, and among those who objected to this later that century were the English Quaker preachers Alice and Thomas Curwen , who were publicly flogged and imprisoned in Boston in 1676. By 1641, Massachusetts had expanded inland significantly. The Commonwealth acquired the Connecticut River Valley settlement of Springfield , which had recently disputed with—and defected from—its original administrators,
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4800-471: Is quite wet. Frosts are frequent all winter, even in coastal areas due to prevailing inland winds. Boston has a relatively sunny climate for a coastal city at its latitude, averaging over 2,600 hours of sunshine a year. Climate change in Massachusetts will affect both urban and rural environments, including forestry, fisheries, agriculture, and coastal development. The Northeast is projected to warm faster than global average temperatures; by 2035, according to
4950-693: Is the most populous state in New England, the 16th-most-populous in the country, and the third-most densely populated , after New Jersey and Rhode Island. Massachusetts was a site of early English colonization . The Plymouth Colony was founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims of the Mayflower . In 1630, the Massachusetts Bay Colony , taking its name from the Indigenous Massachusett people , also established settlements in Boston and Salem. In 1692,
5100-429: The 2010 special election , Brown lost his bid for a full term in 2012 to Elizabeth Warren who has held the seat since. Edward Brooke was the last Republican to be elected to a full term in Massachusetts. First elected in 1966 , Brooke lost his bid for a third term in 1978 to Paul Tsongas . Massachusetts’ U.S. House delegation has been entirely Democratic since 1997. The last Republicans to serve Massachusetts in
5250-408: The 2020 presidential election , the party endorsed Trump's false claims of election fraud , despite criticism from Governor Charlie Baker. The leadership's embrace of Trump's positions has led to infighting among moderate and pro-Trump Republicans in the post-Trump era. In 2023, James J. Lyons Jr. lost reelection as the party's chair to Amy Carnevale by a vote of 37 to 34. Lyons sued Pat Crowley,
5400-478: The 2024 State Senate election . While the party lost sets in the State House, there was no net change in seats. U.S. Senate nominee John Deaton had the best popular vote showing of a Republican Senate candidate in over a decade. Both of Massachusetts's U.S. Senate seats have been held by Democrats since 2013 . Scott Brown was the last Republican to represent Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate. First elected in
5550-503: The 2024 United States presidential election , has voted Republican ever since, marking the beginning of the longest active voting streak for any party at the county level. The 1860 presidential election conventions were unusually tumultuous, due in particular to a split in the Democratic Party that led to both Northern and Southern party conventions. Republican candidates: The Republican National Convention met in mid-May 1860 after
5700-616: The American Human Development Index and the standard Human Development Index , first in per capita income , and as of 2023, first in median income . Consequently, Massachusetts typically ranks as the top U.S. state, as well as the most expensive state, for residents to live in. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was named after the Indigenous population, the Massachusett or Muhsachuweesut , whose name likely derived from
5850-662: The Battle of Fort Sumter ; afterwards four further states seceded. Lincoln would go on to win re-election in the 1864 United States presidential election . The 1860 election was the first of six consecutive Republican victories. Despite Lincoln's commanding victory, this was the first election in American history in which the winner has failed to win his home county, with Lincoln narrowly losing Sangamon County, Illinois to Douglas. However, he would win Gasconade County, Missouri , which as of
6000-828: The Cape Cod National Seashore and the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area . In addition, the Department of Conservation and Recreation maintains a number of parks , trails, and beaches throughout Massachusetts. The primary biome of inland Massachusetts is temperate deciduous forest . Although much of Massachusetts had been cleared for agriculture, leaving only traces of old-growth forest in isolated pockets, secondary growth has regenerated in many rural areas as farms have been abandoned. Forests cover around 62% of Massachusetts. The areas most affected by human development include
6150-638: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts , is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States . It borders the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode Island to its south, New Hampshire and Vermont to its north, and New York to its west. Massachusetts is the sixth-smallest state by land area . With over seven million residents as of 2020, it
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6300-533: The Connecticut Colony . This established Massachusetts's southern border in the west. However, this became disputed territory until 1803–04 due to surveying problems, leading to the modern Southwick Jog . In 1652 the Massachusetts General Court authorized Boston silversmith John Hull to produce local coinage in shilling, sixpence and threepence denominations to address a coin shortage in
6450-615: The Connecticut River Valley . Along the western border of Western Massachusetts lies the highest elevated part of the state, the Berkshires , forming a portion of the northern terminus of the Appalachian Mountains . The U.S. National Park Service administers a number of natural and historical sites in Massachusetts . Along with twelve national historic sites, areas, and corridors, the National Park Service also manages
6600-787: The Free Soil Party , and Speaker of the House Nathaniel Prentiss Banks , formerly of the American Party . At the time of the Republican Party's founding in 1854, all of Massachusetts's congressional representatives but Sumner were members of the nativist Know-Nothing Party . However, Banks's role as chairman of the 1856 Republican National Convention, his active support for the Republican presidential nominee John C. Frémont in 1856 and his focus on anti-slavery legislation as Speaker put him at odds with his party. Following
6750-772: The Kansas–Nebraska Act and the Supreme Court's 1857 decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford . From the election of 1856 , the Republican Party had replaced the defunct Whig Party as the major opposition to the Democrats. A group of former Whigs and Know Nothings formed the Constitutional Union Party , which sought to avoid disunion by resolving divisions over slavery with some new compromise. The 1860 Republican National Convention in Chicago nominated Abraham Lincoln,
6900-469: The Massachusetts Bay Colony —now known as Boston—in 1630. The Puritans believed the Church of England needed to be further reformed along Protestant Calvinist lines, and experienced harassment due to the religious policies of King Charles I and high-ranking churchmen such as William Laud , who would become Charles's Archbishop of Canterbury , whom they feared were re-introducing "Romish" elements to
7050-636: The Millard Fillmore administration. The party platform advocated compromise to save the Union with the slogan "The Union as it is, and the Constitution as it is." Liberty (Union) candidates: By 1860, very little remained of the Liberty Party , after most of its membership left to join the Free Soil Party in 1848 and nearly all of what remained of it joined the Republicans in 1854. The remaining party
7200-574: The United States on November 6, 1860. The Republican Party ticket of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin won a national popular plurality, a popular majority in the North where states had already abolished slavery, and a national electoral majority comprising only Northern electoral votes. Lincoln's election thus served as the main catalyst of the states that would become the Confederacy seceding from
7350-479: The common loon are becoming rare. A significant population of long-tailed ducks winter off Nantucket . Small offshore islands and beaches are home to roseate terns and are important breeding areas for the locally threatened piping plover . Protected areas such as the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge provide critical breeding habitat for shorebirds and a variety of marine wildlife including
7500-485: The monarchy the former colonies were fighting against during the American Revolutionary War . The name "State of Massachusetts Bay" appeared in the first draft, which was ultimately rejected. It was also chosen to include the "Cape Islands" in reference to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket —from 1780 to 1844, they were seen as additional and separate entities confined within the Commonwealth. Massachusetts
7650-403: The steam engine to power factories. Canals and railroads were being used in the state for transporting raw materials and finished goods. At first, the new industries drew labor from Yankees on nearby subsistence farms, though they later relied upon immigrant labor from Europe and Canada. Although Massachusetts was the first slave-holding colony with slavery dating back to the early 1600s,
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#17328454157757800-540: The "Atlas of Independence", was highly involved in both separation from Britain and the Constitution of Massachusetts , which effectively (the Elizabeth Freeman and Quock Walker cases as interpreted by William Cushing ) made Massachusetts the first state to abolish slavery. David McCullough points out that an equally important feature was its placing for the first time the courts as a co-equal branch separate from
7950-399: The 1850s, primarily over extending slavery into the western territories . The incumbent president, James Buchanan , like his predecessor, Franklin Pierce , was a Northern Democrat with Southern sympathies . Buchanan also adamantly promised not to seek reelection. From the mid-1850s, the anti-slavery Republican Party became a major political force, driven by Northern voter opposition to
8100-542: The 1858 Lincoln–Douglas debates and had represented Illinois in the House of Representatives. Lincoln had been quietly eyeing a run since the debates, ensuring that they were widely published and that a biography of himself was published. He gained great notability with his acclaimed February 1860 Cooper Union speech , which may have ensured him the nomination although he had not yet announced his intention to run. Delivered in Seward's home state and attended by Greeley, Lincoln used
8250-403: The 1950s, the Massachusetts Republican Party's strongholds were reduced to rural Western Massachusetts and Cape Cod . Since then, however, the party has still had control over the governor's office from 1991 to 2007, and 2015 to 2023. The party currently has very weak electoral power in Massachusetts. It controls none of Massachusetts' statewide or federal elected offices, and holds just 14% of
8400-472: The 19th century, Massachusetts became a national leader in the American Industrial Revolution , with factories around cities such as Lowell and Boston producing textiles and shoes, and factories around Springfield producing tools, paper, and textiles. The state's economy transformed from one based primarily on agriculture to an industrial one, initially making use of water-power and later
8550-555: The 30th President of the United States. Coolidge was previously the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. The Republican dominance of Massachusetts slowly died in the 1920s and 1930s as predominantly Democratic immigrant groups changed the traditionally Republican White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) Massachusetts into the Catholic Democratic majority state that it remains today. The Democratic take-over of Massachusetts
8700-458: The 48 states. After the world war, the economy of eastern Massachusetts transformed from one based on heavy industry into a service-based economy . Government contracts, private investment, and research facilities led to a new and improved industrial climate, with reduced unemployment and increased per capita income. Suburbanization flourished, and by the 1970s, the Route 128 / Interstate 95 corridor
8850-647: The British government, were a primary reason for the unity of the Thirteen Colonies and the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775. The Battles of Lexington and Concord , fought in Massachusetts in 1775, initiated the American Revolutionary War . George Washington , later the first president of the future country, took over what would become the Continental Army after the battle. His first victory
9000-827: The British monarchy, including open rebellion under the Dominion of New England in the 1680s. Protests against British attempts to tax the colonies after the French and Indian War ended in 1763 led to the Boston Massacre in 1770, and the 1773 Boston Tea Party escalated tensions. In 1774, the Intolerable Acts targeted Massachusetts with punishments for the Boston Tea Party and further decreased local autonomy, increasing local dissent. Anti-Parliamentary activity by men such as Samuel Adams and John Hancock , followed by reprisals by
9150-457: The Civil War. Massachusetts was the first state to recruit, train, and arm a Black regiment with White officers, the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment . In 1852, Massachusetts became the first state to pass compulsory education laws. Although the U.S. stock market had sustained steep losses the last week in October 1929, Tuesday, October 29 is remembered as the beginning of the Great Depression. The Boston Stock Exchange , drawn into
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#17328454157759300-464: The Colony of Georgia in 1735.) Later, Adams was active in early American foreign affairs and succeeded Washington as the second president of the United States . His son, John Quincy Adams , also from Massachusetts, would go on to become the nation's sixth president. From 1786 to 1787, an armed uprising led by Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays , now known as Shays' Rebellion , wrought havoc throughout Massachusetts and ultimately attempted to seize
9450-399: The Confederate States ) also received votes. Douglas, a moderate on the slavery issue who favored " popular sovereignty ", was ahead on the first ballot, but was 56½ votes short of securing the nomination. On the 57th ballot, with Douglas still ahead, but 51½ votes short of the nomination, the exhausted and desperate delegates agreed on May 3 to cease voting and adjourn the convention. While
9600-424: The Democratic ticket. However, Republicans were still the dominant force in the state through the end of the century, and Massachusetts continued to be a base for the national Republican Party. One national figure to emerge was Henry Cabot Lodge , a scion of wealthy and powerful Cabot and Lodge families. Lodge represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate for thirty years from 1893 to his death in 1924. Lodge
9750-436: The Democratic victory in the 1856 elections and the Dred Scott case in 1857, the national American Party organization collapsed, and most Northern members joined the nascent Republicans. In 1857, Banks ran as a Republican against incumbent Know-Nothing Governor Henry J. Gardner and won a decisive victory. From 1856 until 1876, Massachusetts was among the most Republican states in the nation in presidential elections. During
9900-431: The Democrats convened again at the Front Street Theater in Baltimore, Maryland , on June 18, 110 Southern delegates (led by "Fire-Eaters") boycotted the convention or walked out after the convention informed them they would not adopt a resolution supporting extending slavery into territories whose voters did not want it. While some considered Horatio Seymour a compromise candidate for the national Democratic nomination at
10050-415: The Democrats had been forced to adjourn their convention in Charleston. With the Democrats in disarray and a sweep of the Northern states possible, the Republicans felt confident going into their convention in Chicago . William H. Seward from New York was considered the front-runner, followed by Salmon P. Chase from Ohio, and Missouri's Edward Bates . Abraham Lincoln from Illinois, was lesser-known, and
10200-650: The Greater Boston area in the east and the Springfield metropolitan area in the west, although the latter includes agricultural areas throughout the Connecticut River Valley. There are 219 endangered species in Massachusetts. A number of species are doing well in the increasingly urbanized Massachusetts. Peregrine falcons utilize office towers in larger cities as nesting areas, and the population of coyotes , whose diet may include garbage and roadkill, has been increasing in recent decades. White-tailed deer , raccoons , wild turkeys , and eastern gray squirrels are also found throughout Massachusetts. In more rural areas in
10350-466: The House of Representatives were Peter I. Blute and Peter G. Torkildsen . Both were elected in 1992 and subsequently defeated in the 1996 elections. Source: Massachusetts Masshole Massachusite (traditional) Massachusetts ( / ˌ m æ s ə ˈ tʃ uː s ɪ t s / , /- z ɪ t s / MASS -ə- CHOO -sits, -zits ; Massachusett : Muhsachuweesut [məhswatʃəwiːsət] ), officially
10500-485: The Illinois senate race just two years earlier. That two candidates were from Illinois showed the importance of the West in the election. While Benjamin Fitzpatrick from Alabama was nominated for vice president, he refused the nomination. After the convention concluded with no vice presidential nominee, Douglas offered the vice presidential nomination to Herschel V. Johnson from Georgia, who accepted. Southern Democratic candidates: The delegates who walked out of
10650-415: The Lower South - met on June 28 in Richmond, along with the South Carolina and Florida delegations, at a convention that affirmed the nominations of Breckinridge and Lane. Besides the Democratic parties in the Southern states, the Breckinridge/Lane ticket was also supported by the Buchanan administration. Buchanan's own continued prestige in his home state of Pennsylvania ensured that Breckinridge would be
10800-553: The Massachusetts Marijuana Legalization Initiative , also known as Question 4. Massachusetts is the seventh-smallest state in the United States . It is located in the New England region of the Northeastern United States . It has an area of 10,555 square miles (27,340 km ), 25.7% of which is water. Several large bays distinctly shape its coast, giving it the nickname "the Bay State". Boston
10950-511: The Northeast United States has risen by ten percent from 1895 to 2011, and the number of heavy precipitation events has increased by seventy percent during that time. These increased precipitation patterns are focused in the winter and spring. Increasing temperatures coupled with increasing precipitation will result in earlier snow melts and subsequent drier soil in the summer months. The shifting climate in Massachusetts will result in
11100-420: The Republican Party. Seward had been painted as a radical, and his speeches on slavery predicted inevitable conflict, which spooked moderate delegates. He also was firmly opposed to nativism , which further weakened his position. He had also been abandoned by his longtime friend and political ally Horace Greeley , publisher of the influential New-York Tribune . Chase, a former Democrat, had alienated many of
11250-628: The Seward forces were disappointed at the nomination of a little-known western upstart, they rallied behind Lincoln, while abolitionists were angry at the selection of a moderate and had little faith in Lincoln. Northern Democratic candidates: At the Democratic National Convention held in Institute Hall in Charleston, South Carolina , in April 1860, 50 Southern Democrats walked out over
11400-587: The South was not as monolithic as the Electoral College map would make it seem. Economically, culturally, and politically, the South was made up of three regions. In the states of the Upper South, also known as the Border South (Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri), unionist popular votes were scattered among Lincoln, Douglas, and Bell, to form a majority in all four. In the four Middle South states, there
11550-532: The U. S. Global Change Research Program, the Northeast is "projected to be more than 3.6°F (2°C) warmer on average than during the preindustrial era". As of August 2016, the EPA reports that Massachusetts has warmed by over two degrees Fahrenheit, or 1.1 degrees Celsius. Shifting temperatures also result in the shifting of rainfall patterns and the intensification of precipitation events. To that end, average precipitation in
11700-454: The Union . This marked the first time that a Republican was elected president. It was also the first presidential election in which both major party candidates were registered in the same home state; the others have been in 1904 , 1920 , 1940 , 1944 , and 2016 . Lincoln's 39.7% of the popular vote is to date the lowest for any winner not decided by a contingent election . The United States had become increasingly sectionally divided during
11850-402: The Union and be controlled by Confederate armies, ballots for Lincoln were cast only in Virginia, where he received 1,929 votes (1.15 percent of the total). Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of the votes Lincoln received were cast in border counties of what would soon become West Virginia – the future state accounted for 1,832 of Lincoln's 1,929 votes. Lincoln received no votes at all in 121 of
12000-406: The broad transition zone to Humid Subtropical climates. The warm to hot summers render the oceanic climate rare in this transition, only applying to exposed coastal areas such as on the peninsula of Barnstable County . The climate of Boston is quite representative for the commonwealth, characterized by summer highs of around 81 °F (27 °C) and winter highs of 35 °F (2 °C), and
12150-412: The coastal city of Portsmouth . One key difference between modern elections and those of the mid-nineteenth century is that at the time the state did not print and distribute ballots. In theory, any document containing a valid or at least non-excessive number names of citizens of a particular state (provided they were eligible to vote in the electoral college within that state) might have been accepted as
12300-531: The colony did not move to renew his contract or appoint a new mintmaster. The coinage was a contributing factor to the revocation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony charter in 1684. In 1691, the colonies of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth were united (along with present-day Maine , which had previously been divided between Massachusetts and New York ) into the Province of Massachusetts Bay . Shortly after,
12450-504: The colony. Before that point, the colony's economy had been entirely dependent on barter and foreign currency, including English, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese and counterfeit coins. In 1661, shortly after the restoration of the British monarchy , the British government considered the Boston mint to be treasonous. However, the colony ignored the English demands to cease operations until at least 1682, when Hull's contract as mintmaster expired, and
12600-463: The concept of popular sovereignty , which called for each territory's settlers to decide locally on the status of slavery , alienated many radical pro-slavery Southern Democrats, who wanted the territories, and perhaps other lands , open to slavery. With President Buchanan's support, Southern Democrats held their own convention, nominating Vice President John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky . The 1860 Constitutional Union Convention , which hoped to avoid
12750-519: The convention at Charleston reconvened in Richmond, Virginia on June 11. When the Democrats reconvened in Baltimore, they rejoined (except South Carolina and Florida, who had stayed in Richmond). When the convention seated two replacement delegations on June 18, they walked out again or boycotted the convention, accompanied by nearly all other Southern delegates and erstwhile Convention chair Caleb Cushing ,
12900-551: The departure of several manufacturing companies, the state's industrial economy began to decline during the early 20th century. By the 1920s, competition from the American South and Midwest , followed by the Great Depression , led to the collapse of the three main industries in Massachusetts: textiles, shoemaking, and precision mechanics. This decline would continue into the latter half of the 20th century. Between 1950 and 1979,
13050-524: The early 1600s, European colonists caused virgin soil epidemics such as smallpox , measles , influenza , and perhaps leptospirosis in what is now known as the northeastern region of the United States. Between 1617 and 1619, a disease that was most likely smallpox killed approximately 90% of the Massachusetts Bay Native Americans . The first English colonists in Massachusetts Bay Colony landed with Richard Vines and spent
13200-458: The endangered North Atlantic right whales , as well as humpback whales , fin whales , minke whales , and Atlantic white-sided dolphins . The European corn borer , a significant agricultural pest, was first found in North America near Boston, Massachusetts in 1917. Most of Massachusetts has a humid continental climate , with cold winters and warm summers. Far southeast coastal areas are
13350-449: The exclusion of same-sex couples from the right to a civil marriage was unconstitutional. In 2004, Massachusetts senator John Kerry , who won the Democratic nomination for President of the United States, lost to incumbent George W. Bush . Eight years later, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (the Republican nominee) lost to incumbent Barack Obama in 2012. Another eight years later, Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren became
13500-485: The executive. (The Constitution of Vermont , adopted in 1777, represented the first partial ban on slavery among the states. Vermont became a state in 1791 but did not fully ban slavery until 1858 with the Vermont Personal Liberty Law. The Pennsylvania Gradual Abolition Act of 1780 made Pennsylvania the first state to abolish slavery by statute - the second English colony to do so; the first having been
13650-614: The federal Springfield Armory . The rebellion was one of the major factors in the decision to draft a stronger national constitution to replace the Articles of Confederation . On February 6, 1788, Massachusetts became the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution . In 1820, Maine separated from Massachusetts and entered the Union as the 23rd state due to the ratification of the Missouri Compromise . During
13800-499: The first Republican to do so since 1956. Massachusetts Republicans hoped his victory ushered in what appeared to be a new era for Republicans in the state. In 1990, due to the unpopularity of then Governor Michael Dukakis at the end of his last term in office, Republicans led by gubernatorial candidate William Weld erased the Democratic super-majorities in the state legislature. However, the death of Silvio Conte in 1991 (and his succession by Democrat John Olver ) also meant that for
13950-589: The first time, every federal elected official in Massachusetts was a Democrat. In 1993, Peter Blute and Peter Torkildsen became the first freshman Republicans elected to Congress from Massachusetts since 1973. The hope of a Republican renaissance in Massachusetts largely dissipated in 1996, when Weld failed in his attempt to unseat Senator John Kerry and most of the Republicans gains in the State Legislature were erased. Both Torkildsen and Blute were defeated. Despite heavy losses at all levels of government and
14100-560: The former Whigs by his coalition with the Democrats in the late 1840s. He had also opposed tariffs demanded by Pennsylvania and even had opposition from his own delegation from Ohio. However, Chase's firm antislavery stance made him popular with the Radical Republicans. But what he offered in policy he lacked in charisma and political acumen. The conservative Bates was an unlikely candidate but found support from Horace Greeley, who sought any chance to defeat Seward, with whom he now had
14250-437: The fourteen slave states with a popular vote (these being the same states as in the 1860 election, plus Missouri and Virginia). The election was held on Tuesday, November 6, 1860, and was noteworthy for the exaggerated sectionalism and voter enthusiasm in a country that was soon to dissolve into civil war. Voter turnout was 81.2%, the highest in American history up to that time, and the second-highest overall (exceeded only in
14400-492: The governor's race and attorney general's races, respectively. Brooke was re-elected by a large margin again in 1972. In 1978, Republicans lost their remaining Senate seat when Paul Tsongas unseated Brooke. On the state level, Democrats would take super-majorities in both houses of the state legislature, and would dominate the governorship for 22 years out of the 34-year period from 1957 to 1990. In 1980, Republican presidential nominee Ronald Reagan carried Massachusetts, being
14550-486: The key driver in the successful effort to form a separate state. Hancock County (Virginia's northernmost at the time) returned Lincoln's best result – he polled over 40% of the vote there and finished in second place (Lincoln polled only eight votes fewer than Breckinridge). Of the 97 votes cast for Lincoln in the state's post-1863 boundaries, 93 were polled in four counties along the Potomac River and four were tallied in
14700-429: The largest enslaved populations, and consequently the smallest enfranchised free white populations. Among the slave states, the three states with the highest voter turnouts voted the most one-sided. Texas, with five percent of the total wartime South's population, voted 75 percent Breckinridge. Kentucky and Missouri, with one-fourth the total population, voted 73 percent pro-Union Bell, Douglas and Lincoln. In comparison,
14850-441: The more radical Sumner faction. Banks's stated opposition to the militant abolitionist John Brown and support for a state constitutional amendment requiring newly naturalized citizens to wait two years before becoming eligible to vote each drew support from the more conservative members of the party. As national tensions over slavery grew more fraught, the state Republican Party became more radical. Banks briefly attempted to launch
15000-415: The most or among the most highly regarded academic institutions in the world. Massachusetts's public-school students place among the top tier in the world in academic performance. Massachusetts is the most educated and one of the most highly developed and wealthiest U.S. states, ranking first in the percentage of population 25 and over with either a bachelor's degree or advanced degree , first on both
15150-623: The name of the Moswetuset Hummock (meaning "hill shaped like an arrowhead") in Quincy , where Plymouth Colony commander Myles Standish (a hired English military officer) and Squanto (a member of the Patuxet band of the Wamponoag people , who have since died off due to contagious diseases brought by colonists) met Chief Chickatawbut in 1621. Although the designation "Commonwealth" forms part of
15300-619: The national church. They decided to colonize to Massachusetts, intending to establish what they considered an "ideal" religious society. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was colonized under a royal charter, unlike the Plymouth colony, in 1629. Both religious dissent and expansionism resulted in several new colonies being founded, shortly after Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, elsewhere in New England. The Massachusetts Bay banished dissenters such as Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams due to religious and political conflict. In 1636, Williams colonized what
15450-469: The new province's first governor, William Phips , arrived. The Salem witch trials also took place, where a number of men and women were hanged for alleged witchcraft . The most destructive earthquake known to date in New England occurred on November 18, 1755, causing considerable damage across Massachusetts. Massachusetts was a center of the movement for independence from Great Britain . Colonists in Massachusetts had long had uneasy relations with
15600-479: The nomination for the presidency. In spite of his professed ill health, Gerrit Smith was nominated for president and Samuel McFarland from Pennsylvania was nominated for vice president. In Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana, slates of presidential electors pledged to Smith and McFarland ran with the name of the Union Party. They received a total of 176 votes in the general election, 0.004% of the total. The People's Party
15750-516: The number of Massachusetts residents involved in textile manufacturing declined from 264,000 to 63,000. The 1969 closure of the Springfield Armory , in particular, spurred an exodus of high-paying jobs from Western Massachusetts, which suffered greatly as it de-industrialized during the century's last 40 years. Massachusetts manufactured 3.4 percent of total United States military armaments produced during World War II , ranking tenth among
15900-551: The number of reported Lyme disease cases in the state. Ticks can transmit the disease once temperatures reach 45 degrees, so shorter winters will increase the window of transmission. These warmer temperatures will also increase the prevalence of Asian tiger mosquitoes , which often carry the West Nile virus . To fight this change, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs has outlined
16050-444: The office to Republican control after eight years. Throughout his first term, Baker consistently polled as the most popular governor in the nation. He was re-elected by a large margin in 2018. However, Republicans also lost three seats in the state legislature. In 2020, Republicans lost three state legislative special elections. Since 2016, much of the Massachusetts party has shifted toward the policies of Donald Trump . Shortly after
16200-537: The other six states of the Deep South made up one-fourth the Confederate voting population, split 57 percent Breckinridge versus 43 percent for the two pro-union candidates. The four states that were admitted to the Confederacy after Fort Sumter held almost half its population, and voted a narrow combined majority of 53 percent for the pro-union candidates. In the eleven states that would later declare their secession from
16350-446: The party had a net account of $ 35,000 with $ 117,000 in debt. However, Carnevale later stated that the party had $ 602,152 in unpaid invoices, but that a large amount was not "the responsibility of the party" such as the advertising campaign costs for Geoff Diehl 's gubernatorial campaign. The party spent $ 55,415 on investigating Maura Healey 's romantic relationships. In the 2024 Republican Primary , Donald Trump won approximately 60% of
16500-502: The party is governed by a state committee which consists of one man and one woman from each of the 40 State Senate districts. The state committee elects party officers including a chair. The Massachusetts Republican Party was founded in 1854. Drawing together abolitionist and nativist anti-Catholic elements, it quickly became the dominant political force in the state and a powerful arm of the national Republican Party. Significant founding figures include Senator Charles Sumner , formerly of
16650-414: The party's treasurer, in 2022 after Crowley froze the party's bank account as a budget was not passed by a quorum, but Carnevale dropped the lawsuit after taking office. Lyons and twenty-one members of the state committee members filed a revive the lawsuit against Crowley. Jennifer Nassour , a former chair of the party, stated that the party was "an absolute disaster" in 2021. In 2023, Crowley stated that
16800-453: The principal Democratic candidate in that populous state. Breckinridge was the last sitting vice president nominated for president until Richard Nixon in 1960 . Constitutional Union candidates: The Constitutional Union Party was formed by remnants of both the defunct Know Nothing and Whig Parties who were unwilling to join either the Republicans or the Democrats. The new party's members hoped to stave off Southern secession by avoiding
16950-461: The re-routing of several other major highways. The project was often controversial, with numerous claims of graft and mismanagement, and with its initial price tag of $ 2.5 billion increasing to a final tally of over $ 15 billion. Nonetheless, the Big Dig changed the face of Downtown Boston and connected areas that were once divided by elevated highway. Much of the raised old Central Artery
17100-414: The reconvening convention in Baltimore, Seymour wrote a letter to the editor of his local newspaper declaring unreservedly that he was not a candidate for either spot on the ticket. After two ballots - the 59th ballot overall - the remaining Democrats nominated Stephen A. Douglas from Illinois for president. The election would now pit Lincoln against his longtime political rival, whom Lincoln had lost to in
17250-475: The remaining 11. Lincoln's election motivated seven Southern states, all voting for Breckinridge, to secede before the inauguration in March. While Lincoln received no votes in 10 Southern states, this was not due to him being removed from the ballot in those states but rather because of the Republican Party's absence in those states. The American Civil War began less than two months after Lincoln's inauguration, with
17400-453: The representatives elected in 1858, before the Republican majorities in both House and Senate achieved in 1860 were seated in the new 37th Congress . Mexican War hero Winfield Scott suggested to Lincoln that he assume the powers of a commander-in-chief before inauguration. However, historian Bruce Chadwick observes that Lincoln and his advisors ignored the widespread alarms and threats of secession as mere election trickery. Indeed, voting in
17550-565: The seats in the Massachusetts General Court . As of 2024, the Massachusetts Republican Party's members in office include four members of the Massachusetts Senate , 25 members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives , and four mayors. There are no Republican congresspeople from the state. The last time the party had nominees for all state congressional races was 1956 . In accordance with Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 52,
17700-535: The slavery issue entirely, nominated a ticket led by former Tennessee Senator John Bell . Lincoln's main opponent in the North was Douglas, who won the popular vote in Missouri, electoral votes in New Jersey, and the second highest popular vote total nationally. Douglas was the only candidate in the 1860 election to win electoral votes in both free and slave states. In the South, Bell won three states and Breckinridge swept
17850-631: The slavery issue. They met in the Eastside District Courthouse of Baltimore and nominated John Bell from Tennessee for president over Governor Sam Houston of Texas on the second ballot. Edward Everett was nominated for vice president at the convention on May 9, 1860, one week before Lincoln. John Bell was a former Whig who had opposed the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the Lecompton Constitution . Edward Everett had been president of Harvard University and Secretary of State in
18000-481: The speech to show that the Republican Party was a party of moderates, not crazed fanatics, as Southerners and Democrats claimed. Afterward, Lincoln was in much demand for speaking engagements. As the convention approached, Lincoln did not campaign actively, as the "office was expected to seek the man". So it did at the Illinois state convention, a week before the national convention. Young politician Richard Oglesby found several fence rails that Lincoln may have split as
18150-442: The state Democratic Party gained massive popularity with suburban business interests as well as its traditional Catholic and immigrant base. Kennedy's victory over incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. in 1952 is symbolic of the long-term transition of power from Republican to Democratic in the commonwealth. As the successful 1960 Democratic candidate for president, Kennedy won a landslide victory in Massachusetts. His brother Ted Kennedy
18300-420: The state became a center of progressivist and abolitionist (anti-slavery) activity in the years leading up to the American Civil War . Horace Mann made the state's school system a national model. Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson , both philosophers and writers from the state, also made major contributions to American philosophy. Furthermore, members of the transcendentalist movement within
18450-666: The state emphasized the importance of the natural world and emotion to humanity. Although significant opposition to abolitionism existed early on in Massachusetts, resulting in anti-abolitionist riots between 1835 and 1837, abolitionist views there gradually increased throughout the next few decades. Abolitionists John Brown and Sojourner Truth lived in Springfield and Northampton, respectively, while Frederick Douglass lived in Boston and Susan B. Anthony in Adams . The works of such abolitionists contributed to Massachusetts's actions during
18600-933: The state will work towards two goals by 2050: to achieve net-zero emissions , and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent overall. The State of Massachusetts has developed a plethora of incentives to encourage the implementation of renewable energy and efficient appliances and home facilities. The Mass Save program, formed in conjunction with the State by several companies that provide power and gas in Massachusetts, provides homeowners and renters with monetary incentives to retrofit their homes with efficient HVAC equipment and other household appliances. Appliances such as water heaters, air conditioners, washers and driers, and heat pumps are eligible for rebates in order to incentivize change. 1860 United States presidential election James Buchanan Democratic Abraham Lincoln Republican Presidential elections were held in
18750-471: The state's at-the-time 145 counties (including 31 of the 50 that would form West Virginia), received a single vote in three counties and received ten or fewer votes in nine of the 24 counties where he polled votes. Lincoln's best results, by far, were in the four counties that comprised the state's northern panhandle , a region which had long felt alienated from Richmond, was economically and culturally linked to its neighbors Ohio and Pennsylvania and would become
18900-416: The state's official name, it has no practical implications in modern times, and Massachusetts has the same position and powers within the United States as other states. John Adams may have chosen the word in 1779 for the second draft of what became the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution ; unlike the word "state", the word " commonwealth " had the connotation of a republic at the time. This was in contrast to
19050-614: The states, but opposed slavery in the territories. The platform promised tariffs protecting industry and workers, a Homestead Act granting free farmland in the West to settlers, and the funding of a transcontinental railroad . There was no mention of Mormonism (which had been condemned in the Party's 1856 platform), the Fugitive Slave Act , personal liberty laws, or the Dred Scott decision . While
19200-501: The suspects as brothers Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev . The ensuing manhunt ended on April 19 when thousands of law enforcement officers searched a 20-block area of nearby Watertown . Dzhokhar later said he was motivated by extremist Islamic beliefs and learned to build explosive devices from Inspire , the online magazine of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula . On November 8, 2016, Massachusetts voted in favor of
19350-650: The town of Salem and surrounding areas experienced one of America's most infamous cases of mass hysteria , the Salem witch trials . In the late 18th century, Boston became known as the "Cradle of Liberty" for the agitation there that later led to the American Revolution . In 1786, Shays' Rebellion , a populist revolt led by disaffected American Revolutionary War veterans, influenced the United States Constitutional Convention . Originally dependent on agriculture , fishing , and trade , Massachusetts
19500-495: The urban North, Boston became competitive in statewide elections. In 1874, Boston mayor William Gaston became the first Democratic governor since 1851. In the 1876 elections , Republicans lost six congressional seats and Rutherford Hayes became the first Republican to lose Suffolk County . Liberal Republicans Charles Francis Adams Sr. and Benjamin Franklin Butler left the party and staged competitive bids for Governor on
19650-526: The urban and Catholic vote, Massachusetts produced victories for Democratic presidential candidates in every election from 1928 to 1948. By the 1950s, most of the urban and suburban areas of Massachusetts were largely Democratic, leaving just a few pockets of strongly Republican rural areas in the Cape and Islands region and Western Massachusetts . Under control by the Kennedy family and John F. Kennedy in particular,
19800-453: The vote, while Nikki Haley took 37%. Former Bristol County Sheriff Tom Hodgson chaired Trump's campaign in the state, while former Party chair Jennifer Nassour led Haley's Massachusetts campaign . The 2024 Presidential election was Trump's best showing in the state by both percentage and popular vote. In the 2024 House election , the party nominated candidates for only two of nine congressional races . The party gained one seat in
19950-442: The war, consolidated power and passed a wave of reforms. To aid the war effort, Andrew rescinded a ban on immigrant militias. During his governorship, Republicans repealed the constitutional restriction on immigrant voting Banks had supported and passed the nation's first comprehensive integration laws. The end of Reconstruction also signaled the end of one-party rule in Massachusetts. As the national Democratic Party gained support in
20100-468: The western part of Massachusetts, larger mammals such as moose and black bears have returned, largely due to reforestation following the regional decline in agriculture. Massachusetts is located along the Atlantic Flyway , a major route for migratory waterfowl along the eastern coast. Lakes in central Massachusetts provide habitat for many species of fish and waterfowl, but some species such as
20250-610: The whirlpool of panic selling that beset the New York Stock Exchange, lost over 25 percent of its value in two days of frenzied trading. The BSE, nearly 100 years old at the time, had helped raise the capital that had funded many of the Commonwealth's factories, railroads, and businesses. " Governor of Massachusetts Frank G. Allen appointed John C. Hull the first Securities Director of Massachusetts. Hull would assume office in January 1930, and his term would end in 1936. With
20400-633: The winter in Biddeford Pool near Cape Porpoise (after 1820 the State of Maine) in 1616. The Puritans , arrived at Plymouth in 1620. This was the second permanent English colony in the part of North America that later became the United States, after the Jamestown Colony . The "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated by the Puritans after their first harvest in the " New World " and lasted for three days. They were soon followed by other Puritans, who colonized
20550-605: Was a loose association of the supporters of Governor Samuel Houston . On April 20, 1860, the party held what it termed a national convention to nominate Houston for president on the San Jacinto Battlefield in Texas . Houston's supporters at the gathering did not nominate a vice presidential candidate, since they expected later gatherings to carry out that function. Later mass meetings were held in northern cities, such as New York City on May 30, 1860, but they too failed to nominate
20700-532: Was a prominent advocate for restrictions on immigration and an antagonist of Democratic President Woodrow Wilson on matters of foreign policy. When Republicans won control of the Senate in 1918, Lodge was named Senate Majority Leader and Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee and served in both positions until his death. Following the death of President Harding , Vice President Calvin Coolidge became
20850-586: Was a unionist majority divided between Douglas and Bell in Virginia and Tennessee; in North Carolina and Arkansas, the unionist (Bell and Douglas) vote approached a majority. In three of the seven Deep South states, unionists (Bell and Douglas) won divided majorities in Georgia and Louisiana and neared it in Alabama. Breckinridge convincingly carried only four of the seven states of the Deep South (South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Texas). The Deep South states had
21000-530: Was aided by the high unionization of workers in the state, coupled with the onset of the Great Depression and the rise of the New Deal Democrats. In 1928, Catholic Al Smith became the first Democrat to win a majority of the vote in Massachusetts in a presidential election since the party's foundation a century prior. With the emergence of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal coalition and the growing power of
21150-554: Was also called the Radical Abolitionists. A convention of one hundred delegates was held in Convention Hall, Syracuse, New York, on August 29, 1860. Delegates were in attendance from New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, and Massachusetts. Several of the delegates were women. Gerrit Smith , a prominent abolitionist and the 1848 presidential nominee of the original Liberty Party , had sent
21300-501: Was appointed to the vacant Senate seat in 1962 and would hold that seat until his death in 2009. Since Kennedy's victory in 1960, only one Republican presidential candidate, Ronald Reagan , has carried Massachusetts. Liberal and moderate Republicans still experienced some success at the state level. In 1966, Edward Brooke won a landslide victory to become the first popularly-elected black United States Senator. Republicans John Volpe and Elliot Richardson also won landslide victories in
21450-403: Was cast a ballot for citizens of his state who would have pledged to vote for the candidate in the Electoral College. In ten southern slave states, no citizen would publicly pledge to vote for Abraham Lincoln, so citizens there had no legal means to vote for the Republican nominee. In most of Virginia, no publisher would print ballots for Lincoln's pledged electors. While a citizen without access to
21600-618: Was dotted with high-tech companies who recruited graduates of the area's many elite institutions of higher education. In 1987, the state received federal funding for the Central Artery/Tunnel Project. Commonly known as "the Big Dig ", it was, at the time, the biggest federal highway project ever approved. The project included making the Central Artery , part of Interstate 93 , into a tunnel under downtown Boston, in addition to
21750-487: Was not considered to have a good chance against Seward. Seward had been governor and senator of New York and was an able politician with a Whig background. Also running were John C. Frémont , William L. Dayton , Cassius M. Clay , and Benjamin Wade , who might be able to win if the convention deadlocked. As the convention developed, however, it was revealed that frontrunners Seward, Chase, and Bates had each alienated factions of
21900-539: Was originally inhabited by tribes of the Algonquian language family , including Wampanoag , Narragansett , Nipmuc , Pocomtuc , Mahican , and Massachusett . While cultivation of crops like squash and corn were an important part of their diet, the people of these tribes hunted , fished , and searched the forest for most of their food. Villagers lived in lodges called wigwams as well as longhouses . Tribes were led by male or female elders known as sachems . In
22050-543: Was replaced with the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway . The project also improved traffic conditions along several routes. The Kennedy family was prominent in 20th-century Massachusetts politics. The children of businessman and ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. included John F. Kennedy , who was a senator and U.S. president before his assassination in 1963; Ted Kennedy , a senator from 1962 until his death in 2009; and Eunice Kennedy Shriver ,
22200-690: Was the siege of Boston in the winter of 1775–76, after which the British were forced to evacuate the city. The event is still celebrated in Suffolk County only every March 17 as Evacuation Day . On the coast, Salem became a center for privateering . Although the documentation is incomplete, about 1,700 letters of marque , issued on a per-voyage basis, were granted during the American Revolution. Nearly 800 vessels were commissioned as privateers, which were credited with capturing or destroying about 600 British ships. Bostonian John Adams , known as
22350-696: Was the only Republican to serve as Speaker between 1931 and 1995), John W. McCormack , Speaker of the House in the 1960s, and Tip O'Neill , whose service as Speaker of the House from 1977 to 1987 was the longest continuous tenure in United States history. On May 17, 2004, Massachusetts became the first state in the U.S. to legalize same-sex marriage . This followed the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court 's decision in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health in November 2003, which determined that
22500-665: Was transformed into a manufacturing center during the Industrial Revolution . Before the American Civil War , the state was a center for the abolitionist , temperance , and transcendentalist movements. During the 20th century, the state's economy shifted from manufacturing to services ; and in the 21st century, Massachusetts has become the global leader in biotechnology , and also excels in artificial intelligence , engineering , higher education , finance , and maritime trade . The state's capital and most populous city , as well as its cultural and financial center ,
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