Separation of Church and State A basic American principle is separation of church (religion) and state (government). The U. S. Constitution say s that people have the right to worship as they choose and that no religion can be made the official religion. In keeping with this principle, government money cannot be used to support […]

Lor a brief period each spring in Vermont it’s sugaring time. When days are warm but nights are cool, sap begins to run in the sugar maple trees. The trees are then tapped and buckets are put under the taps, in order to collect the sap. The maple sap is boiled down in sugar – […]

The War The conflicts worsened, and in 1861, the Southern states seceded, or separated, from the Union and formed a new nation: the Con­federate States of America. The Northern states refused to accept this. President Lincoln had not wanted war, but war became inevitable. The American Civil War lasted four years. More Americans died in […]

The Coming and Going of the Pony Express, by Frederic Remington   The Wild West really began in the Midwest, and you can see many of its landmarks there. You might want to begin at a symbolic beginning—the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri. Located at the meeting point of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, […]

A statue of Sacajawea and her baby In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson sent Mer – riweather Lewis and William Clark to explore the continent from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Never before had Ameri­cans undertaken such a voyage. An important member of the expedition was Sacajawea, a sixteen-year-old Shoshone Indian girl. Together with […]