Lexington City Council has dealt with a number of contentious issues in recent years. In the process, it has made some momentous decisions that were not universally embraced. As Council this past Thursday grappled with the latest divisive matter – choosing a developer for city-owned property along Spotswood Drive – Chuck Smith quipped that half of Council members must have a “personality disorder” for their willingness to put up with the “abuse” sometimes heaped on them by their “friends and neighbors.” (He then amended that statement to say that maybe “abuse” was too strong a word.)
In the mid-1800s the Whig Party began to splinter over the question of slavery, making the Democrats the dominant national political party. Those Whigs who opposed slavery, mainly Northerners, joined the nascent Republican Party. Others joined the “Native American Party,” later to be simply the “American Party.”
Editor’s note: The following story was excerpted from a story written for Washington and Lee University by Lindsey Nair. The full story can be found on the school’s website.
