Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Secret Service, United States, a law enforcement division (since 2003) of the Dept. of Homeland Security. It was established in 1865 in the the Dept. of the Treasury to investigate and prevent counter...

(Encyclopedia) Lane, James Henry, 1814–66, American politician, called the “liberator of Kansas.” He was probably born in Lawrenceburg, Ind., where he practiced law. Lane commanded an Indiana regiment in the M...

(Encyclopedia) Emigrant Aid Company, organization formed in 1854 to promote organized antislavery immigration to the Kansas territory from the Northeast. Eli Thayer conceived the plan as early as Feb., 1854, even be...

(Encyclopedia) Congress of the United States, the legislative branch of the federal government, instituted (1789) by Article 1 of the Constitution of the United States, which prescribes its membership and defines it...

(Encyclopedia)  Text1 of the Constitution of the United States Preamble Article I Article II Article III Article IV Article V Article VI Article VII Amendment I Amendment II Am...

(Encyclopedia) Senate, United States: see Congress of the United States. ...

(Encyclopedia) Guanajuato gwänähwäˈtō [key], state, 11,805 sq mi (30,575 sq km), W central Mexico, on the ...

(Encyclopedia) court system in the United States, judicial branches of the federal and state governments charged with the application and interpretation of the law. The U.S. court system is divided into two administ...

(Encyclopedia) Roth v. United States, case decided in 1957 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Samuel Roth of New York City was convicted of mailing obscene materials. On appeal his conviction was affirmed by the Supreme Cou...

(Encyclopedia) Zacatecas säkätāˈkäs [key], state (1990 pop. 1,276,329), 28,125 sq mi (72,844 sq km), N central Mexico. Zacatecas is the capital. Lying on the central plateau, Zacatecas is a state of semiarid pl...