Free speech or sedition: Clement L. Valladigham and the Copperheads, 1860-1864

Abstract The antiwar movement during the Civil War, led by the Peace Democrats and their more virulent cousins, the Copperheads, was remarkable from many perspectives. First, their civil disobedience and political dissent largely remained well within constitutional boundaries, and the voting booth was their preferred battleground throughout the war. Second, during the unprecedented Civil War, at least unprecedented from an American perspective, executive wartime authorities expanded with the crisis, often abridging civil rights under the auspices of war. Third, power lay mostly in the hands of the Radical Republicans, both at the national and state level, and the determination of what constituted acceptable and unacceptable dissent was theirs to make, often to the severe disadvantage of the Democrats. Last, confronted with vote gerrymandering, vote rigging, voter intimidation, arrest without warrant and incarceration without trial, the Democrats behaved with restraint throughout, notwithstanding the aberration of the Sons of Liberty and possible Confederate collusion in 1864. Pledged to a party platform of peace and immediate reconciliation with the estranged South, the Democrats remained unwavering from 1861-1865 in their opposition to Abraham Lincoln and the war. The following is their story. Their rise and fall followed the trajectory of one man, Clement Laird Valladigham, and on him they relied for direction, inspiration and both thick and thin prospects of success. To him was attributed much, and when he was arrested, tried and exiled to the South in 1863, the population of the North was attentive. Labeled as martyr and as a traitor, dependent on party affiliation, Valladigham remained in the national spotlight until his last, great failure in November of 1864. The Copperheads, and Valladigham, remain relevant today. Throughout the Civil War, they were obdurate protesters of what they saw as constitutional abuse and usurpation, and their protests continue to serve as a model for how to protest a war, as well as how not to

Diplomatic letter of introduction for James Chesnut of Camden, S.C. Written by John Forsyth, Secretary of State, 1839.

Diplomatic letter of introduction for James Chesnut of Camden, S.C. to the respective diplomatic agents of United States in Europe, written and signed by John Forsyth, U.S. Secretary of State, in compliance with a request from the Secretary of War Joel Poinsett (also from S.C.). 1839.https://digitalcommons.wofford.edu/littlejohnmss/1179/thumbnail.jp

Outcomes for Older Telecare Recipients: The Importance of Assessments

The article explores both telecare in relation to its composition of assistive technologies, including sensors; and associated services that use such technologies as a means by which, often vulnerable, people can obtain help through their activation - with signals being routed to monitoring centres. The context is one where there are changes to such technologies and ongoing growth in the use of telecare services - despite there being no indicated benefits from a major study (the Whole System Demonstrators). The 'curious' investment in such technologies and services by Adult Social Care Departments in England is investigated through an interview survey that elicited over 100 valid responses. Iy gave particular attention to the assessment process by which effective targeting (to those who would be most likely to benefit) would, it had been assumed, have taken place. Key outcomes point to needed improvements to social care practice - including the need to balance a narrow focus on risk (determined in a largely top-down way) with other telecare offerings that could more proactively address (e.g. loneliness) and involve the user more proactively in relation to technology and service options. The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Summary This article explores the role of telecare assessment, review and staff training in meeting the needs of older people living at home. Using original empirical data obtained from an online survey of English local authorities it reveals considerable variation in assessment and review practice and in training given to social work and other staff who assess and review, which may impact on outcomes for telecare users. The study findings are situated within an English policy context and earlier findings from a large, government funded randomised controlled trial. This trial concluded that telecare did not lead to better outcomes for users. Findings Our survey findings suggest that it may be the way in which telecare is used, rather than telecare itself that shapes outcomes for people who use it, and that ‘sub-optimal’ outcomes from telecare may be linked to how telecare is adopted, adapted and used; and that this is influenced by staff training, telecare availability and a failure to regard telecare as a complex intervention. Application The findings may help to reconcile evidence which suggests that telecare does not deliver better outcomes and local authority responses to this which either discount or contest its value. The article suggests that to use telecare to achieve optimal outcomes for older people, social workers, care managers and other professionals involved in assessing for telecare will need to be given enhanced training opportunities, and their employers will need to perceive telecare as a complex intervention rather than simply a ‘plug and play’ solution

A quantitative exploration of dance drug use : the new pattern of drug use of the 1990s

Since the late 1980s there has been a great deal of public concern about a new form of drug use. This concern has arisen from the practice of people using drugs as an adjunct to dancing at events commonly known as 'raves'. This dance drug phenomenon is most closely associated with a drug called 'ecstasy' (usually 3,4-Methylenedioxy-N-methamphetamine or MDMA). It is usually assumed that many of the hundreds of thousands of young people who attend raves use ecstasy. Beyond this assumption however, little is known about the patterns of drug use among 'ravers'. This thesis will examine in detail the relationships between the 'rave scene' and changing patterns of drug use. This was done using data from 135 dance drug scene event attendees (ravers) collected during detailed interviews conducted by the author. It was found that drug use related to dance events was not restricted to MDMA, but included a variety of other substances used in different settings. The implications of this complex form of drug use are discussed and potential future trends in illicit substance use are identified

Identifying the magnetotail lobes with Cluster magnetometer data

We describe a novel method for identifying times when a spacecraft is in Earth’s magnetotail lobes solely using magnetometer data. We propose that lobe intervals can be well identified as times when the magnetic field is strong and relatively invariant, defined using thresholds in the magnitude of BX and the standard deviation σ of the magnetic field magnitude. Using data from the Cluster spacecraft at downtail distances greater than 8 RE during 2001–2009, we find that thresholds of 30 nT and 3.5 nT, respectively, optimize agreement with a previous, independently derived lobe identification method that used both magnetic and plasma data over the same interval. Specifically, our method has a moderately high accuracy (66%) and a low probability of false detection (11%) in comparison to the other method. Furthermore, our method identifies the lobe on many other occasions when the previous method was unable to make any identification and yields longer continuous intervals in the lobe than the previous method, with intervals at the 90th percentile being triple the length. Our method also allows for analyses of the lobes outside the time span of the previous method

A Pilot Study of a Modified Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Smoking Cessation Treatment for Veterans with PTSD

Veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have high rates of smoking and significant difficulties with quitting. Acceptance and mindfulness-based techniques may enhance smoking cessation approaches for veterans with PTSD as they are designed to improve emotion regulation skills related to coping with elevated negative affect and withdrawal symptoms associated with quit attempts. Veterans with current PTSD and smoking ≥ 15 cigarettes/day (N=19) participated in an open trial of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Veterans with PTSD and Tobacco Use (ACT-PT). Participants attended nine weekly individual counseling sessions and received eight weeks of the nicotine patch. Primary outcomes included expired-air carbon monoxide confirmed seven-day point prevalence abstinence, number of cigarettes/day at the end of treatment, and PTSD symptoms on the PTSD Checklist (PCL). Intent-to-treat analyses examined pre-treatment to post-treatment scores on the PCL. At the end of treatment (one month after targeted quit date), 37% (7/19) of participants were abstinent from smoking, 37% (7/19) were abstinent from smoking at the one month follow-up, and 16% (3/19) were abstinent at the three month follow-up. Subjects reduced from 26 cigarettes/day at baseline to 10 cigarettes/day at the end of treatment (p\u3c.001), and 15 cigarettes/day at the 3-month follow-up (p=.002). PTSD symptoms significantly decreased from baseline to the end of treatment (p\u3c.001), and continued to remain significantly decreased at the 3-month follow-up (p=.011). The retention rate (74%), client satisfaction ratings and qualitative feedback from subjects indicated that the treatment was acceptable. Although preliminary, these results suggest that ACT-PT is a promising smoking cessation treatment for veterans with PTSD. Longer follow-up and randomized controlled studies are needed

Objective determination of image end-members in spectral mixture analysis of AVIRIS data

Spectral mixture analysis has been shown to be a powerful, multifaceted tool for analysis of multi- and hyper-spectral data. Applications of AVIRIS data have ranged from mapping soils and bedrock to ecosystem studies. During the first phase of the approach, a set of end-members are selected from an image cube (image end-members) that best account for its spectral variance within a constrained, linear least squares mixing model. These image end-members are usually selected using a priori knowledge and successive trial and error solutions to refine the total number and physical location of the end-members. However, in many situations a more objective method of determining these essential components is desired. We approach the problem of image end-member determination objectively by using the inherent variance of the data. Unlike purely statistical methods such as factor analysis, this approach derives solutions that conform to a physically realistic model