John Greenman – Spoken Realms https://spokenrealms.com Thu, 03 Oct 2024 11:26:21 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://i0.wp.com/spokenrealms.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/cropped-logo-purple-black-white-outline.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 John Greenman – Spoken Realms https://spokenrealms.com 32 32 136118765 President Zachary Taylor’s Last State of the Union Address https://spokenrealms.com/2024/10/10/president-zachary-taylors-last-state-of-the-union-address/ https://spokenrealms.com/2024/10/10/president-zachary-taylors-last-state-of-the-union-address/#respond Thu, 10 Oct 2024 17:24:00 +0000 https://spokenrealms.com/?p=24885

Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was the 12th President of the USA, serving from March 1849 until his death in July 1850. Before his presidency, Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army. His status as a national hero as a result of his victories in the Mexican-American War won him election to the White House despite his vague political beliefs. His top priority as president was preserving the Union, but he died sixteen months into his term, before making any progress on the status of slavery, which had been inflaming tensions in Congress.

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]]> https://spokenrealms.com/2024/10/10/president-zachary-taylors-last-state-of-the-union-address/feed/ 0 24885 A Petition to the Queen of England https://spokenrealms.com/2024/05/08/a-petition-to-the-queen-of-england/ https://spokenrealms.com/2024/05/08/a-petition-to-the-queen-of-england/#respond Wed, 08 May 2024 18:06:00 +0000 https://spokenrealms.com/?p=24234

Death and taxes, they have always been there. Mark Twain makes this plea to the Queen of England to rectify a clerk’s mistake, when he is taxed on his book sales in England. Narrator and storyteller John Greenman pleads Mr. Twain’s case in this excellent short story that first appeared in Harper’s magazine in December of 1887.

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]]> https://spokenrealms.com/2024/05/08/a-petition-to-the-queen-of-england/feed/ 0 24234 President William H. Taft’s Last State of the Union Address https://spokenrealms.com/2018/03/20/president-william-h-tafts-last-state-of-the-union-address-jgreenman/ https://spokenrealms.com/2018/03/20/president-william-h-tafts-last-state-of-the-union-address-jgreenman/#respond Tue, 20 Mar 2018 17:15:21 +0000 http://www.spokenrealms.com/?p=8222 William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857-March 8, 1930) was the twenty-seventh president of the United States (1909-1913) and later the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921-1930). He is the only person to have served in both of these offices. Riding a wave of popular support for fellow Republican Roosevelt, Taft won an easy victory in his 1908 bid for the presidency. In his only term, Taft’s domestic agenda emphasized trust busting, civil service reform, strengthening the Interstate Commerce Commission, improving the performance of the postal service, and passage of the Sixteenth Amendment. Abroad, Taft sought to further the economic development of nations in Latin America and Asia through Dollar Diplomacy and showed decisiveness and restraint in response to revolution in Mexico.

The task-oriented Taft was oblivious to the political ramifications of his decisions, often alienated his own key constituencies, and was overwhelmingly defeated in his bid for a second term in the presidential election of 1912. In surveys of presidential scholars, Taft is usually ranked near the middle of lists of all American presidents.

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]]> https://spokenrealms.com/2018/03/20/president-william-h-tafts-last-state-of-the-union-address-jgreenman/feed/ 0 8222 The Gettysburg Address https://spokenrealms.com/2018/03/14/the-gettysburg-address-jgreenman/ https://spokenrealms.com/2018/03/14/the-gettysburg-address-jgreenman/#respond Wed, 14 Mar 2018 17:18:03 +0000 http://www.spokenrealms.com/?p=8202 The Gettysburg Address is the most famous speech of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and one of the most quoted speeches in United States history. It was delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 19, 1863, during the American Civil War, four and a half months after the Battle of Gettysburg.

There are several written versions of the Gettysburg Address, each with minor differences from each other, but this one, known as the Bliss Copy, is the most reproduced and appears on the walls of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

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]]> https://spokenrealms.com/2018/03/14/the-gettysburg-address-jgreenman/feed/ 0 8202 The War Prayer https://spokenrealms.com/2018/03/03/the-war-prayer-jgreenman/ https://spokenrealms.com/2018/03/03/the-war-prayer-jgreenman/#respond Sat, 03 Mar 2018 18:40:35 +0000 http://www.spokenrealms.com/?p=8160 This short story by Mark Twain was not published until 1916, six years after his death in 1910, because his family considered it too scandalous. After all, what could be more scandalous then attacking religion and war. Narrator John Greenman takes us inside that church as the preacher beseeches God to grant them victory and protect our troops when a stranger appears.

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]]> https://spokenrealms.com/2018/03/03/the-war-prayer-jgreenman/feed/ 0 8160 Franklin Pierce’s Last Address to Congress https://spokenrealms.com/2018/01/08/franklin-pierces-last-address-to-congress-jgreenman/ https://spokenrealms.com/2018/01/08/franklin-pierces-last-address-to-congress-jgreenman/#respond Mon, 08 Jan 2018 18:37:08 +0000 http://www.spokenrealms.com/?p=7936 Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804 – October 8, 1869) was the 14th President of the United States (1853–1857). His inability to calm tensions over slavery kept the country on the path to the American Civil War. Genial and well-spoken, Pierce was a northern Democrat who saw the abolitionist movement as a fundamental threat to the unity of the nation. His polarizing actions in championing and signing the Kansas-Nebraska Act and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act failed to stem intersectional conflict, setting the stage for Southern secession, and leaving him widely regarded as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.

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