Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Knights of the Golden Circle, secret order of Southern sympathizers in the North during the Civil War. Its members were known as Copperheads. Dr. George W. L. Bickley, a Virginian who had moved to Ohi...

(Encyclopedia) Hughes, Charles Evans hyo͞oz [key], 1862–1948, American statesman and jurist, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1910–16), U.S. secretary of state (1921–25), and 11th chief justice of...

(Encyclopedia) American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), largest union of public employees in the United States. It began as a number of separate locals organized by a group of Wisconsi...

(Encyclopedia) Orrery, Roger Boyle, 1st earl of, 1621–79, Irish statesman and writer; son of Richard Boyle, 1st earl of Cork. Created (1627) Baron Broghill, he studied at Trinity College, Dublin, traveled abroad, ...

(Encyclopedia) Peterborough, city and unitary authority (1991 pop. 155,050), E central England, on the Nene River. Designated as a new town in 1968, Peterborough is an engineering and rail hub and a farm trade cente...

(Encyclopedia) commonwealth, form of administration signifying government by the common consent of the people. To Locke and Hobbes and other 17th-century writers the term meant an organized political community simil...

(Encyclopedia) Cruikshank, George kro͝okˈshăngk [key], 1792–1878, English caricaturist, illustrator, and etcher; younger son of Isaac Cruikshank (1756–1810), caricaturist. Self-taught, George early gained a r...

(Encyclopedia) Preston, city and district (1991 pop. 166,675), county seat of Lancashire, N England, on the Ribble River. Preston has an active port and is a center of cotton and rayon manufacturing. Some mills have...

(Encyclopedia) Tyrconnel, Richard Talbot, duke and earl of tôlˈbət, tərkŏnˈəl [key], 1630–91, Irish Jacobite. He escaped from Ireland after Oliver Cromwell's punitive campaign there (1649) and was party to ...

(Encyclopedia) Armstrong, John, 1758–1843, American army officer, U.S. Secretary of War (1813–14), b. Carlisle, Pa.; son of John Armstrong, “hero of Kittanning.” In the American Revolution he was on the staf...