title: Folsom State Prison

text: In June 1987, Karlic was arrested in Hesperia, California, and convicted for aiding Godwin's escape. In January 1988, Shelly Godwin was classified as a federal fugitive for her role in her husband's escape. The FBI captured her in Dallas, Texas, on February 7, 1990.


title: Folsom State Prison

text: Godwin was arrested in Mexico in 1991 but escaped again from a prison in Guadalajara in September of that year and remains at large.


title: Folsom State Prison

text: Two minimum-security inmates, Jeffrey William Howard, 43, and Garrett Daniel Summet, 34, escaped from Folsom on October 19, 2010.


title: Folsom State Prison

text: Prison spokesman Lt. Anthony Gentile did not elaborate on the circumstances of how the men got away, only saying that the two men fled from the prison's Minimum Support Facility, and that the escape was discovered when the two failed to report to their work areas.


title: Folsom State Prison

text: Folsom State Prison correctional staff and California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) Office of Correctional Safety agents initiated escapee apprehension efforts. The CDCR, local law enforcement agencies, and the California Highway Patrol joined the search for the two men, who were apprehended in Inglewood, CA on November 22, 2010.


title: Folsom State Prison

text: Inmate Todd Willis walked away at about 8 A.M. from a minimum-security housing facility at the prison; five days later on October 31, 2017, an off-duty officer was driving through Rancho Cordova when she spotted him. Police were contacted and Willis was quickly apprehended.


title: Folsom State Prison

text: During the 1970s and 1980s violence at Folsom peaked, when the Mexican Mafia, Black Guerrilla Family and other prison gangs made prisons increasingly dangerous. The establishment of Secure Housing Units, first at California State Prison, Sacramento, and later at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, and California State Prison, Corcoran, did much to control gang-related violence.


title: Folsom State Prison

text: On August 27, 2010, seven federal inmates at Folsom were admitted to a hospital after corrections officers discharged firearms during a riot involving 200 inmates. None of the inmates' injuries was life-threatening, and no corrections officers were injured during the incident.


title: Folsom State Prison

text: On Wednesday, September 19, 2012, a fight erupted in one of the yards, shortly after 11:00 am. No prison staffers are believed injured and the fight was eventually broken up by the prison guards (using less-than-lethal force), but one inmate was shot and at least ten other inmates had stab or slash wounds, authorities stated (the inmates were treated at area hospitals).


title: Folsom State Prison

text: Singer Johnny Cash made FSP widely known to the outside world through his song "Folsom Prison Blues" (1956) – which narrated a fictional account of an outlaw's incarceration, and through the two live concerts he performed at FSP. The first was in 1966; the more famous, held on January 13, 1968 in the FSP cafeteria, was recorded as the album "At Folsom Prison". Cash later said the FSP inmates "were the most enthusiastic audience I ever played." The "Folsom Prison Blues" single from that album was #1 on the country music chart for four weeks, and the album was on the top 200 pop album chart for 122 weeks. A 40th-anniversary tribute concert was to take place in the same cafeteria at FSP on January 13, 2008, with a special appearance by Cash's original drummer W.S. "Fluke" Holland. The original plans were to stream the concert over the Internet, with four nonprofit groups underwriting the show and sharing in any proceeds from the show. However, a few days before the concert was to occur, it was canceled in a dispute over filming rights, media access, and security concerns.


title: Folsom State Prison

text: To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Cash's groundbreaking concert, the Sinaloa, Mexico norteño band Los Tigres del Norte performed for both male and female inmates at FSP. The performances were filmed as part of a Netflix special, and was released in September 2019.


title: Folsom State Prison

text: FSP has been the location of a number of feature films, including "Riot in Cell Block 11," "Convicts 4," "American Me," "The Jericho Mile," "Another 48 Hrs.," "Diggstown," parts of "Walk the Line" (a biographical film of Johnny Cash), and "Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison".


title: Folsom State Prison

text: FSP is referenced during the 1995 Film "Heat". It is suggested as being the home of Neil McCauley, the movie's main protagonist for 7 years. A majority of the other accompanying crew members are said to have met and spent time in the facility.


title: Folsom State Prison

text: On the M-5 freeway in Farmington Hills, MI, two service drives – named Folsom and Freedom – are adjacent to the eastbound and westbound sides respectively.


title: Folsom State Prison

text: Folsom Prison is mentioned in The Offspring's 1998 song "Walla Walla." However, the implied or mistaken location of Folsom is in Walla Walla, Washington, based on the song's lyrics.


title: Folsom State Prison

text: The series premiere of the Cartoon Network animated series "Cow and Chicken", appropriately titled "Field Trip to Folsom Prison", sees the titular characters visiting the prison on a field trip, only for Chicken to end up swapping places with a prisoner named Red. Season 2 episode 16 of The tv show The Mentalist mentions Folsom briefly, with a detective stating to the episode's criminal. "you'll be the richest man in Folsom."


title: The Last Stand (2013 film)

text: The Last Stand is a 2013 American action thriller film directed by South Korean film director Kim Jee-woon in his American directorial debut. The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role, Forest Whitaker, Johnny Knoxville, Rodrigo Santoro, Jaimie Alexander, Luis Guzmán, Eduardo Noriega, Peter Stormare, Zach Gilford and Genesis Rodriguez and was written by Andrew Knauer. This was Arnold Schwarzenegger's first lead acting role since "" in 2003. The film focuses on a tough small town sheriff and his deputies who must stop a dangerous drug lord from escaping to Mexico in a modified sports car.


title: The Last Stand (2013 film)

text: Filming took place in Belen, New Mexico and Nevada in late 2011. The film premiered on January 14, 2013, at Grauman's Chinese Theatre and was released on January 18, 2013, by Lionsgate, receiving mixed reviews from critics and grossing $48.3 million worldwide against a $45 million budget.


title: The Last Stand (2013 film)

text: Sheriff Ray Owens resigns himself to a life of crime-fighting in the sleepy border town of Sommerton Junction, Arizona. He left his LAPD post following a bungled operation and leaving him wracked with failure and defeat after his partner was crippled and his team decimated. The crimes experienced in Sommerton range from the Mayor parking his Camaro in the fire lane to vintage arms collector Lewis Dinkum firing off guns at slabs of meat with the deputies. One night, Gabriel Cortez, an international drug lord and race car driver makes a daring escape from FBI custody in Las Vegas and speeds off in a modified Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1, taking Agent Ellen Richards as his hostage as he races southbound toward Mexico at speeds over 200 mph. Agent John Bannister has a blockade set up in Bullhead City, Arizona, but Cortez's men mow down the cops on site and clear the road for him to continue his getaway. Cortez also uses his extraordinary driving skills to immobilize two SWAT vehicles headed toward Summerton Junction. Before flying to Arizona, Agent Bannister has his team do a financial background check on all agents involved to learn about the mole, who has helped Cortez's escape.


title: The Last Stand (2013 film)

text: At 4:30 A.M, Owens dispatches deputies Jerry Bailey and Sarah Torrance to visit the residence of the local farmer Parsons, who has suddenly missed his usual milk delivery at the diner. After discovering that Parsons has been murdered, the deputies follow a trail of tire tracks that lead them to Cortez's henchman Thomas Burrell and his mercenary cutthroats, who are planting a mobile assault bridge across the canyon that marks the U.S./Mexico border. Bailey is fatally shot in the middle of a shootout between the deputies and the thugs before Owens rushes in to bring his officers back to his precinct. Shortly after being notified by Agent Bannister of Cortez's presence, Owens gathers Torrance and senior Deputy Mike "Figgy" Figuerola. He also deputizes jailed local Frank Martinez, a former US Marine who is a veteran of the Iraq War with PTSD who developed a streak of never finishing what he started; because Bailey was his friend, Martinez insists that he will not falter. Finally, Owens recruits Dinkum to protect their town. Dinkum agrees only if he becomes a deputy and if he keeps the gun Owens had confiscated earlier. At 7:10 A.M., Owens and his deputies, equipped with weapons from Dinkum's private museum, have the town's main road barricaded with cars when Burrell and his men arrive, prompting a lengthy firefight.


title: The Last Stand (2013 film)

text: Armed with a Tommy gun, Figuerola holds off the thugs before being injured by a sniper. Owens and Dinkum mow down a majority of the thugs with a Vickers machine gun mounted on the back of a school bus with Martinez providing cover fire, while Torrance snipes several gunmen on the rooftops. After Owens kills Burrell, Cortez's Corvette eventually arrives in town, veering past the barricade as Owens and the deputies shoot it. Cortez ejects Agent Richards from the car before speeding through a corn field. Suddenly, he encounters the mayor's Camaro commandeered by Owens before both cars collide with a swather. A dazed Cortez continues his escape on foot, but Owens meets him at the bridge. Owens ignores Cortez's bribe offers before both men fight each other. Despite sustaining slashes and stab wounds from Cortez's push dagger, Owens defeats Cortez and handcuffs him before dragging him back into town using the battered and now roofless Camaro. Agent Bannister arrives to take Cortez back into custody and arrests Agent Richards for taking a bribe from Cortez and aiding in his escape. Deputies Figuerola and Dinkum are taken to the hospital to be treated for their wounds. Martinez turns in the deputy's badge, Bailey's badge, that Owens had given him earlier. Owens tells him to keep it, as he's earned it. As the Mayor sees what is left of his Camaro, Owens warns him about parking in the fire lane before he, Torrance and Martinez walk into the diner.


title: The Last Stand (2013 film)

text: In June 2009, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura and studio Lionsgate pre-emptively picked up Andrew Knauer's spec script for "The Last Stand". Back then, the script involved Cortez escaping with a Gumpert Apollo. One year later, South Korean director Kim Jee-woon became attached to the project. di Bonaventura stated that Jee-woon was invited because he felt that in his filmography he "makes the simple feel rich". Kim in turn declared that he was attracted to the plot of "protecting something important, no matter how small", and having advanced technology being taken down in "analogue ways". Writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff was also brought in to rewrite the script, which di Bonaventura compared the film to a Western film, with a small town being attacked by an analogue to a corrupt cattle baron and a weathered veteran trying to stop him.


title: The Last Stand (2013 film)

text: Liam Neeson was considered for the protagonist, but after he passed in 2011 Lionsgate offered the project to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had just ended his tenure as Governor of California. He was announced on "The Last Stand" in July 2011. The actor said he considered the project "a lot different for me, even though it's action-packed, because I have to play a guy who's sensitive to my team. And we have lots of laughs like in "True Lies"." Jee-woon was at first apprehensive to have such a big star in the project, but once both discussed the project he noticed both had the same ideas for Ray Owens, aiming for an everyman instead of a "Terminator like feel". Two weeks later, Lionsgate announced a release date of January 18, 2013.


title: The Last Stand (2013 film)

text: Filming started on October 17, 2011 in Belen, New Mexico and Nevada. Sommerton was required to be a border town, and Jee-woon also wanted a city that represented "Small Town America". Belen was eventually chosen for having an abandoned area that could be used by the production company for as long as they needed it. Two existing buildings became landmarks of Sommerton, the local hotel and a condemned building that became the diner. Six vacant lots were filled with façades, in which production designer Franco-Giacomo Carbone tried to put a mixture of styles to heighten the appearance of a frontier city with much history. While the producers originally wanted to actually film in Downtown Las Vegas, they eventually found that downtown Albuquerque was visually similar and opted to film there instead, adding the Las Vegas Strip in the background during post-production. The town allowed filming from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., which did not interrupt local businesses. Jee-woon aimed to "create a distinct look and change the style for every space", with the chaotic environment of the FBI having cold tones and a smarter ambiance, and Sommerton having a "peaceful small town feeling" heightened by warm colors such as yellow and orange.


title: The Last Stand (2013 film)

text: Given that di Bonaventura had a previous history with General Motors producing "Transformers", the company provided them with the required muscle cars. For Cortez' escape car, a Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1 was picked for being advertised as "the fastest car in a straight line ever made". Eventually, a Camaro was provided for the car that Owens drove during the chase. Seven cars of each model were provided by Chevrolet, with two being returned in pristine shape. The others had varied changes: some had an automated driving system built atop them for the scenes shot from inside the car, others were reinforced for collisions, and a few ended up mounted on rigs - with the Camaro dragged atop the Corvette having all its insides removed to make it lighter. A 24-acre cornfield outside Albuquerque was purchased to serve as the scenery for the climactic chase at the end, and that field was later added to the background of the Sommerton scenes. The chase had the problem of a snowstorm shortly before filming, which made the ground muddy and hard to drive on.


title: The Last Stand (2013 film)

text: On December 17, 2011, shooting of the film was briefly interrupted, but on January 3, 2012, it continued. The processing ended February 2, 2012, and the subsequent post-production continued in Los Angeles.


title: The Last Stand (2013 film)

text: "The Last Stand" had its premiere on January 14, 2013, at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. The film was released worldwide on January 17, 2013, and in North America the following day.


title: The Last Stand (2013 film)

text: The film ranked at number 9 on its debut weekend, taking in $6.3 million. Its theatrical run ended having grossed $12.1 million in America and $36.2 million in other territories for a total gross of $48.3 million. Lionsgate released it on home video in the US on May 21, 2013.


title: The Last Stand (2013 film)

text: Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that of surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is . The site's consensus reads: "There's nothing particularly distinguished about it, but for Schwarzenegger fans "The Last Stand" provides perfectly undemanding entertainment." Metacritic rated it 54 out of 100 based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: The Last Stand (2013 film)

text: According to "Entertainment Weekly" critic Owen Gleiberman, "the picture is much better than its promos suggest. It's a crackerjack B movie worthy of comparison to such stylishly low-down, smart-meets-dumb, hyper-violent entertainments as the 1997 Kurt Russell thriller "Breakdown", Clint Eastwood's infamous police bloodbath "The Gauntlet", John Carpenter's original "Assault on Precinct 13", and Arnold's own overlooked 1986 outing "Raw Deal"...[Schwarzenegger] gives a controlled and brutally charismatic performance that restores his dignity as a star. He proves — and this is the last thing I was expecting — that there's life after the Governator."


title: The Last Stand (2013 film)

text: IGN editor Jim Vejvoda rated the film 6 out of 10 and wrote, "The movie's shortcomings are clear whenever anyone is required to speak or act. That may not be the reason why most viewers will go to see "The Last Stand", but it's grating enough to chip away at the overall enjoyment of the film. "The Last Stand" is a formulaic action flick, but it still delivers enough decent car stunts, shoot-outs and fistfights to warrant a look-see for Arnold fans."


title: The Last Stand (2013 film)

text: Richard Roeper enjoyed the film, giving it three stars out of four and stating, "If you've got violent-movie fatigue, and you're too exhausted from real-life carnage on the news to enjoy an R-rated blood-fest in which a number of kills are executed as deliberately funny visual punchlines, you do not want to go anywhere near this film. But if you're a fan of stylish, relentlessly loud shootouts, questionable plot developments be damned, this is your ticket to weekend escapism."


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Washington and Lee University (Washington and Lee or W&L) is a private liberal arts university in Lexington, Virginia. Established in 1749 as the Augusta Academy, the university is among the oldest institutions of higher learning in the United States.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Washington and Lee's 325-acre campus sits at the edge of Lexington and abuts the campus of the Virginia Military Institute in the Shenandoah Valley region between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Allegheny Mountains. The campus is approximately northeast from Roanoke, west from the state capital of Richmond, and inland southwest from the national capital at Washington, D.C.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Washington and Lee was originally a small classical school. It was founded as the Augusta Academy (later renamed Liberty Hall Academy) by Scots-Irish Presbyterian pioneers, though the university has never claimed any sectarian affiliation. In 1796, shortly before the end of his second term as U.S. president, George Washington endowed the struggling academy with a gift of stock, one of the largest gifts to an educational institution at that time. In gratitude, the school was renamed for Washington, the commander of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War, president at the 1787 Federal Constitutional Convention, and first President of the United States. In 1865, shortly after his April 9 surrender to Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, commander of the Union Armies, former Confederate States Army general-in-chief Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) served as president of the college for five years until his death in 1870, when the college was thereafter renamed the "Washington and Lee University." One of the oldest institutions of higher education in the American South, W&L is the second-oldest in the Commonwealth of Virginia (next to the College of William & Mary, founded in 1693).


title: Washington and Lee University

text: The university consists of three academic units: the college itself; the Williams School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics; and the School of Law. The university hosts 24 intercollegiate varsity athletic teams which compete as part of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA Division III).


title: Washington and Lee University

text: The classical school from which Washington and Lee descended was established in 1749 by Scots-Irish Presbyterian pioneers and soon named Augusta Academy, about north of its present location. In 1776, it was renamed Liberty Hall in a burst of revolutionary fervor. A number of prominent men from the area acted as its original trustees, including Andrew Lewis, Thomas Lewis, Sampson Mathews, Samuel McDowell, George Moffett, William Preston, and James Waddel. The academy moved to Lexington in 1780, when it was chartered as Liberty Hall Academy, and built its first facility near town in 1782. The academy granted its first bachelor's degree in 1785.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Liberty Hall is said to have admitted its first African-American student when John Chavis, a free black, enrolled in 1795. Chavis accomplished much in his life including fighting in the American Revolution, studying at both Liberty Hall and the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), becoming an ordained Presbyterian minister, and opening a school that instructed white and poor black students in North Carolina. He is believed to be the first black student to enroll in higher education in the United States, although he did not receive a degree. Washington and Lee enrolled its next African-American student in 1966 in the law school.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: In 1796, George Washington endowed the academy with $20,000 in the form of 100 shares of James River Canal stock, at the time one of the largest gifts ever given to an educational institution in the United States. The shares were originally a gift given to Washington by the Virginia General Assembly. Washington's gift continues to provide nearly $1.87 a year toward every student's tuition. The gift rescued Liberty Hall from near-certain insolvency. In gratitude, the trustees changed the school's name to Washington Academy; in 1813 it was chartered as Washington College. An statue of George Washington, carved by Matthew Kahle and known as "Old George", was placed atop Washington Hall on the historic Colonnade in 1844 in memory of Washington's gift. The current statue is made of bronze; the original wooden statue was restored and now resides in the university's library.The campus took its current architectural form in the 1820s when a local merchant, "Jockey" John Robinson, an uneducated Irish immigrant, donated funds to build a central building. For the dedication celebration in 1824, Robinson supplied a huge barrel of whiskey, which he intended for the dignitaries in attendance. But according to a contemporary history, the rabble broke through the barriers and created pandemonium, which ended only when college officials demolished the whiskey barrel with an axe. A justice of the Virginia State Supreme Court, Alex. M. Harman, Jr. ('44 Law), re-created the episode in 1976 for the dedication of the new law school building by having several barrels of Scotch imported (without the unfortunate dénouement). Robinson also left his estate to Washington College. The estate included between 70 and 80 slaves. Until 1852, the institution benefited from their enslaved labor and, in some cases, from their sale. In 2014, Washington and Lee University joined such colleges as Harvard University, Brown University, the University of Virginia, and The College of William & Mary in researching, acknowledging, and publicly regretting their participation in the institution of slavery.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: During the Civil War, the students of Washington College raised the Confederate flag in support of Virginia's secession. The students formed the Liberty Hall Volunteers, as part of the Stonewall Brigade under Confederate States Army general Stonewall Jackson and marched from Lexington. Later in the war, during Hunter's Raid, Union Captain Henry A. du Pont refused to destroy the Colonnade due to its support of the statue of George Washington, "Old George."


title: Washington and Lee University

text: In the Fall of 1865, the financially ruined Lee was offered several business opportunities but he instead chose to accept an offer to become Washington College's president. Lee stated the reason he chose to become the college's president was because he had a desire to train "young men to do their duty." During his tenure, Lee established the first journalism courses (which were limited and only lasted several years), and added engineering courses, a business school, and a law school to the college curriculum, under the conviction that those occupations should be intimately and inextricably linked with the liberal arts. That was a radical idea: engineering, journalism, and law had always been considered technical crafts, not intellectual endeavors, and the study of business was viewed with skepticism.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Lee's emphasis on student self-governance for Washington College remains the distinguishing character of the student-run Honor System today. And, ardent about restoring national unity, he successfully recruited white men as students from throughout the reunited nation, North and South.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: However, it has been argued that one of Lee's failings as president of Washington College was an apparent indifference to crimes of violence towards blacks committed by students at the college. Historian Elizabeth Brown Pryor notes that students at Washington College formed their own chapter of the KKK and were known by the local Freedmen's Bureau to attempt to abduct and rape black schoolgirls from the nearby black schools. There were also at least two attempted lynchings by Washington students during Lee's tenure. Yet Lee seemed to punish the racial harassment more laxly than he did more trivial offences, or turned a blind eye to it altogether.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Lee died on October 12, 1870, after five years as Washington College president. The college's name was almost immediately changed to Washington and Lee University to honor Lee. On February 4, 1871, the name change was formalized by the Virginia General Assembly. The university's motto, "Nōn Incautus Futūrī"', meaning "Not unmindful of the future", is an adaptation of the Lee family motto. Lee's son, George Washington Custis Lee, followed his father as the university's president. Robert E. Lee and much of his family—including his wife, his seven children, and his parents, the Revolutionary War hero Major-General Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee and Anne Hill Carter Lee—are buried in University Chapel (formerly Lee Chapel) on campus, which faces the main row of antebellum college buildings. Robert E. Lee's beloved horse Traveller is buried outside, near the wall of the chapel.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: After Lee's death, the university continued his program of educational innovation, modernization, and expansion. In 1905, the board of trustees formally organized a School of Commerce in order to train students in business and finance alongside the college and the School of Law. In 1995, Ernest Williams II of the Class of 1938 endowed the School of Commerce which was renamed the Ernest Williams II School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics. Also in 1905, Andrew Carnegie donated $55,000 to the university for the erection of a new library.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Omicron Delta Kappa or ODK, a national honor society, was founded at Washington and Lee on December 3, 1914. For many years ODK's annual convocation was held at the school in Lee Chapel on or about Robert E. Lee's birthday, January 19, in conjunction with a board of trustees-mandated university holiday/Lee commemoration called "Founders Day," a version of the Robert E. Lee Day birthday holiday still officially celebrated in a few southern states. (The university's board of trustees announced the discontinuation of "Founders Day" on June 4, 2021.) ODK Chapters, known as Circles, are located on over 300 college campuses. The society recognizes achievement in the five areas of scholarship; athletics; campus/community service, social/religious activities, and campus government; journalism, speech and the mass media; and creative and performing arts. ODK is a quasi-secret society with regard to the way in which its members are selected and kept secret for a period of time. Membership in the Omicron Delta Kappa Society is regarded as one of the highest collegiate honors that can be awarded to an individual, along with Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Beta Kappa. Some circles limit membership to less than the top one quarter of one percent of students on their respective campuses. Omicron Delta Kappa continues to maintain its headquarters in Lexington and is a major presence at W&L.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: During the first half of the 20th century, the university began its traditions of the Fancy Dress Ball and Mock Convention. Both of these are still staples of the W&L experience.The second half of the 20th century saw Washington and Lee move from being an all-men's college to a co-ed university. The School of Law enrolled its first women in 1972 and the undergraduate program enrolled its first woman in 1985. The university built new buildings to house its science departments as well as a new School of Law facility. Further, W&L successfully completed several multimillion-dollar capital campaigns.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Among many alumni who have followed in George Washington's footsteps by donating generously, Rupert Johnson Jr., a 1962 graduate who is vice chairman of the $600 billion Franklin Templeton investment management firm, gave $100 million to Washington and Lee in June 2007, establishing a merit-based financial aid and curriculum-enrichment program.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: In 2014, a large Confederate battle flag and a number of related state flags were removed from Lee Chapel, after a group of black students protested that the school was unwelcoming to minorities. In his letter, President Kenneth P. Ruscio publicly apologized for the school's ownership of about 80 slaves during the period from 1826 to 1852, some of whom were forced to build a dormitory on campus.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Some students, faculty, and alumni have advocated that the university disassociate itself from Lee, including advocating a change of name. Other students and alumni have defended the association with Lee. In July 2020, for the first time, university faculty (by more than a three-quarters vote) and the executive committee of the Student Body called for Robert E. Lee's name to be removed from the name of the university. The board of trustees announced the formation of a committee to consider name-change, removing portraits of Lee from diplomas, and how university names and symbols of Lee and confederates "uphold slavery" and "abhorrent racist sentiment." On June 4, 2021, after 11 months of deliberation, the board voted 22–6 to keep the name.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: The central core of the campus, including the row of brick buildings that form the Colonnade, are a designated National Historic Landmark District for their architecture. The Lee Chapel, separately designated a National Historic Landmark, is also a part of that district.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: In 1926, the poet and dramatist John Drinkwater, author of "Robert E. Lee" and other plays, wrote of W&L, "This Lexington university is one of the loveliest spots in the world." Jonathan W. Daniels, North Carolina author, newspaper editor and White House Press Secretary to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, wrote that it was "the South at its most beautiful: the green sloping campus to the red-brick buildings with the tall white porticoes...I wish it were the picture of the South. I wish, indeed, it were the picture of America." Washington and Lee History Professor Ted DeLaney, who was born and grew up in Lexington during Jim Crow and spent more than 45 years of his 60-year career at W&L, more than a quarter-century as a professor, including serving as the first Black chair of the History Department, said in 2019, "W&L is unique because the entire campus is a Confederate monument."


title: Washington and Lee University

text: In recent years the university has invested heavily in upgrading and expanding its academic, residential, athletic, research, arts and extracurricular facilities. The new facilities include an undergraduate library, gymnasium, art/music/theater complex, dorms, student center, student activities pavilion and tennis pavilion, as well as renovation of the journalism and commerce buildings and renovation of every fraternity house and construction of several sorority houses. Lewis Hall, the 30-year-old home of the law school, as well as athletic fields and the antebellum Historic Front Campus buildings, are all currently undergoing major renovation.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Constructed in 1991, the Lenfest Center for the Arts has presented both performances from students and presentations that are open to the community. The Reeves Center houses a notable ceramics collection which spans 4000 years and includes ceramics from Asia, Europe and America, and examples of Chinese export porcelain. The indoor athletics facility, Duchossois, is undergoing renovation and is scheduled to be reopened in Fall 2020.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: The undergraduate calendar is an unusual three-term system with 13-week fall and winter terms followed by a four-week spring term. The spring-term courses include topical, often unique, seminars, faculty-supervised study abroad, and some domestic and international internships. The law calendar consists of the more traditional early semester system.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Washington and Lee maintains a rigorous honor system that dates from the 1840s. Students, upon entering the university, vow to act honorably in all academic and nonacademic endeavors.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: The honor system is administered by students through the executive committee of the Student Body (and has been since 1905). Students found guilty of an Honor Violation by their peers are subject to a single sanction: expulsion. The honor system is defined solely by students, and there is an appeal process. Appeals are heard by juries composed of students drawn randomly by the University Registrar. A formal assessment of the honor system's "White Book", occasionally including referendums, is held every three years to review the tenets of the honor system. Overwhelmingly, students continue to support the honor system and its single sanction, and they and alumni point to the honor system as one of the distinctive marks they carry with them from their W&L experience.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Washington and Lee's honor system does not have a list of rules that define punishable behavior—beyond the traditional guide of the offenses lying, cheating or stealing. Exams at W&L are ordinarily unproctored and self-scheduled. It is not unusual for professors to assign take-home, closed-book finals with an explicit trust in their students not to cheat.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: The honor system is strongly enforced. In most years, only a few students withdraw in the face of an honor charge or after investigations and closed hearings conducted by the executive committee of the Student Body, the university's elected student government (with the accused counseled by Honor Advocates, often law students). In recent years, four or five students have left each year. Students found guilty in a closed hearing may appeal the verdict to an open hearing before the entire student body, although this option is rarely exercised. If found guilty at an open trial, the student is dismissed from the university permanently.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Separately from the student-run honor system, the Student Judicial Council and the Student-Faculty Hearing Board hear allegations of student misconduct.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: In the 2022 "U.S. News & World Report" rankings, the undergraduate college is 11th among national liberal arts colleges and 9th among Best Value Schools, and the law school is ranked 35th nationally among all law schools. The 2019 "Forbes" magazine college rankings place W&L 42nd among 650 universities, liberal arts colleges, and service academies. "Washington Monthly" ranked Washington and Lee 1st among 214 liberal arts colleges in the U.S. based on its contribution to the public good, as measured by social mobility, research, and promoting public service.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: "Kiplinger's Personal Finance" ranked the college 3rd in its 2019 list of 149 best private liberal arts college values and 6th overall among 500 colleges and universities. In 2015, "The Economist" ranked Washington and Lee first among all undergraduate institutions in the United States in terms of the positive gap between its students' actual median earnings ten years from graduation and what the publication's statistical model would suggest. Of its findings, the newspaper wrote that "No other college combines the intimate academic setting and broad curriculum of a LAC [liberal arts college] with a potent old-boy network."


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Washington and Lee is divided into three schools: (1) The College, where all undergraduates begin their studies, encompassing the liberal arts, humanities and hard sciences, with notable interest among students in pre-health and pre-law studies; (2) the Williams School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics, which offers majors in accounting, business administration, economics, and politics; and (3) the School of Law, which offers the Juris Doctor degree.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: More than 800 undergraduate courses are offered. With no graduate program (except in law), every course is taught by a faculty member. The university libraries contain more than 700,000 volumes as well as a vast electronic network. The law library has an additional 400,000 volumes as well as extensive electronic resources.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Washington and Lee offers 40 undergraduate majors (including interdisciplinary majors in neuroscience, Medieval and Renaissance studies, and Russian area studies) and 30 minors, including interdisciplinary programs in Africana studies, East Asian studies, Education and Education policy, environmental studies, Latin American & Caribbean studies, Middle East and South Asian studies, poverty and human capability studies (Shepherd Program), and women's, gender, and sexuality studies.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Though the university has refused since 2003 to submit data to The Princeton Review, the 2006 edition of "The Best 357 Colleges" ranked W&L highly for "Best Overall Academic Experience," "Professors Get High Marks," and "Professor Accessibility". In the 2007 edition, Washington and Lee was ranked fourth in "Professors Get High Marks" and sixth in "Professor Accessibility". Combining academics with an active social culture, Washington and Lee ranked 14th in "Best Overall Academic Experience for Undergraduates".


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Washington and Lee University is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Washington and Lee University serves as the host for the Virginia Governor's School for Foreign Language as part of the annual Summer Residential Governor's Schools.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: The university has 1829 students . The median family income is $261,100, with 55% of students coming from the top 5% highest-earning families, 8% from the bottom 60%, and 1.5% from the bottom 20% (among the lowest of any U.S. college or university). 82% of students are white, 4.5% are Hispanic, 3.4% are Asian, and 2.2% are Black.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: The school's teams are known as "The Generals" and compete in NCAA Division III in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference and the Centennial Conference for wrestling. Washington and Lee has 12 men's teams (baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, tennis, indoor and outdoor track & field, and wrestling) and 12 women's teams (basketball, cross country, field hockey, golf, lacrosse, riding, soccer, swimming, tennis, indoor and outdoor track & field, and volleyball). Washington and Lee holds two NCAA National Championship team titles. In 1988, the men's tennis team won the NCAA Division III National Championship title and holds 35 ODAC championships. In 2007, the women's tennis team claimed the NCAA Division III National Championship title. In 2018, the men's golf team finished as runner-up in the NCAA Division III championship. In 2006, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2015, the Generals football team won the Old Dominion Athletic Conference championship. In 2009, the Generals baseball team won the ODAC championship.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Athletic exclusion was manifest in the early 20th century, when the school forced Rutgers to sit out star African-American football player Paul Robeson for a 1916 football game and later forfeited a 1923 game when Washington and Jefferson refused to comply with a similar demand.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Every four years, the school sponsors the Washington and Lee Mock Convention for whichever political party (Democratic or Republican) does not hold the Presidency. The convention has received gavel-to-gavel coverage on C-SPAN and attention from many other national media outlets. The convention has correctly picked the out-of-power nominee for 20 of the past 27 national elections. It has been wrong three times since 1948, including its incorrect choice of Bernie Sanders in 2020. In 1984, the failure of the scoreboard significantly slowed the vote tally process and almost led to a wrong selection. "The Washington Post" declared Washington and Lee's Mock Convention "one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious mock conventions."


title: Washington and Lee University

text: The university hosts the Fancy Dress Ball, a 105-year-old formal black-tie event. It is put on by a committee of students appointed by the executive committee. The committee is responsible each year to create a theme and handle the logistics of setting up the Fancy Dress Ball. The Fancy Dress Ball has a budget of over $80,000.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Washington and Lee University also follows the "speaking tradition" which traces its history to Robert E. Lee. Under this tradition, students are suggested to greet one another upon passing on campus. This tradition is not enforced.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Washington and Lee University has several mysterious societies including the Cadaver Society, the Sigma Society, and the Mongolian Minks.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Greek letter organizations play a major role in Washington and Lee's social scene. A significant percentage of the student population participate and affiliate in Greek organizations on campus. The following is a list of active, recognized fraternities and sororities.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Alpha Phi Alpha, a historically African American fraternity, also maintains an active chapter on campus.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: The Kappa Alpha Order, one of the Lexington Triad, was founded at W&L. Alpha Tau Omega and Sigma Nu, the other two members of the Triad, were founded at neighboring VMI and instituted early chapters at W&L.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Dormant fraternity chapters at Washington and Lee also include Alpha Chi Rho, Alpha Tau Omega, Beta Theta Pi, Chi Phi, Delta Sigma Phi, Delta Tau Delta, Delta Upsilon, Theta Delta Chi, Phi Delta Theta, Phi Kappa Sigma, Psi Upsilon, Phi Epsilon Pi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Nu, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Saint Anthony Hall, and Zeta Beta Tau.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: The eminent photographer Sally Mann got her start at Washington and Lee, photographing the construction of the law school while a university employee. The photos eventually became the basis of a one-woman exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Secretariat, who holds the record for the fastest time in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes, and the winner of the Triple Crown in 1973, wore royal blue and white (as shown in the 2010 film) because his co-owner, Christopher Chenery, was a graduate and trustee of Washington and Lee.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: A Washington and Lee art history professor, Pamela Hemenway Simpson, in 1999 wrote the first scholarly book on linoleum, giving it the title "Cheap, Quick and Easy". The book also examines other lower-cost home-design materials.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Washington and Lee is home to a collection of 18th- and 19th-century Chinese and European porcelain, the gift of Euchlin Dalcho Reeves, a 1927 graduate of the law school, and his wife, Louise Herreshoff. In 1967, Reeves contacted Washington and Lee about making "a small gift", which turned out to be a collection of porcelain so vast that it filled two entire houses which he and his wife owned in Providence, Rhode Island. A number of dirt-covered picture frames, found in the two houses, were put on the van along with the porcelain. Soon it was discovered that the frames actually contained Impressionist-like paintings created by Herreshoff as a young woman in the early days of the century. In 1976 the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., mounted a posthumous one-woman exhibition of Herreshoff's works.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Before it morphed into a swing, Dixieland and bluegrass standard, "The Washington and Lee Swing" was one of the most well known—and widely borrowed—football marches ever written, according to Robert Lissauer's "Encyclopedia of Popular Music in America." Schools and colleges from Tulane to Slippery Rock copied it (sometimes with attribution). It was written in 1910 by Mark W. Sheafe, '06, Clarence A. (Tod) Robbins, '11, and Thornton W. Allen, '13. It has been recorded by virtually every important jazz and swing musician, including Glenn Miller (with Tex Beneke on vocals), Louis Armstrong, Kay Kyser, Hal Kemp and the Dukes of Dixieland. "The Swing" was a trademark of the New Orleans showman Pete Fountain. The trumpeter Red Nichols played it (and Danny Kaye pretended to play it) in the 1959 movie "The Five Pennies." (Here is an audio excerpt from a 1944 recording by Jan Garber, a prominent dance-band leader of the era. Here is an exuberant instrumental version by a group called the Dixie Boys, which YouTube dates to 2006.)


title: Washington and Lee University

text: The "Swing" was parodied in "The Dummy Song" by Ray Brown and Lew Henderson. "Dummy" was recorded by NRBQ, Louis Armstrong, Louis Prima and Glenn Miller's vocal jazz group, the Modernaires, and many others, and was used in the movie "You've Got Mail".


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Washington and Lee University is the alma mater of three United States Supreme Court Justices, a Nobel Prize laureate, winners of the Pulitzer Prize, the Tony Award, and the Emmy Award, as well as 27 U.S. Senators, 67 U.S. Representatives, 31 state governors, as well as numerous other government officials, judges, business leaders, entertainers, and athletes.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Several well-known alumni include past American Bar Association President Linda Klein (School of Law), Utah Governor Spencer Cox (School of Law), Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, Virginia Governor Linwood Holton, United States Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr.; United States Senator John Warner from Virginia; United States Solicitor General John W. Davis, Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States during the 1924 presidential election; author Tom Wolfe, founder of New Journalism; broadcast journalist Roger Mudd; Anglican bishop Steve Breedlove; artist Cy Twombly; voice actor Mike Henry; Federal Judge and Civil Rights champion John Minor Wisdom; and billionaire Rupert Johnson Jr. of Franklin Templeton Investments.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Archives of the papers of notable alumni and other resources relating to the history of the university may be found in the manuscript collections at Washington and Lee's James Graham Leyburn Library. Publication of the 1995 guide to the collections was made possible by a grant from the Jessie Ball DuPont Fund.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: A fictionalized representation of the university appears in "L'Étudiant étranger" by Philippe Labro (1986, Editions Gallimard), translated into English two years later and published as "The Foreign Student" (Ballantine Books). In 1994 it was made into a movie, starring Robin Givens and Marco Hofschneider, but it grossed only $113,000 at the box office.


title: Washington and Lee University

text: Other novels about the university include "Geese in the Forum" (Knopf, 1940) by Lawrence Edward Watkin, a professor of English who went on to become a screenwriter for Disney (the college faculty were the titular geese); "The Hero" (Julian Messner, 1949), by Millard Lampell, filmed as "Saturday's Hero," starring Donna Reed and John Derek (Columbia Studios, 1951), about a football player who struggles to balance athletics, academics and a social life; and "A Sound of Voices Dying" by Glenn Scott (E.P. Dutton, 1954), released in a paperback edition in 1955 under the new title "Farewell My Young Lover" (replete with a lurid illustration on the cover). The Russian-born American author Maxim D. Shrayer depicted a fictionalized version of the Washington & Lee campus in the story "Trout Fishing in Virginia" (2007), included in his collection "Yom Kippur in Amsterdam" (2009).


title: Gov't Mule

text: Gov't Mule (pronounced "Government Mule") is an American Southern rock jam band, formed in 1994 as a side project of the Allman Brothers Band by guitarist Warren Haynes and bassist Allen Woody. Fans often refer to Gov't Mule simply as "Mule".


title: Gov't Mule

text: The band released their debut album, "Gov't Mule", in 1995, and have since released an additional nine studio albums, plus numerous EPs and live releases. Gov't Mule has become a staple act at music festivals across North America, with both its members and frequent guests from other notable bands adding various funk and blues rock elements to the band's sound.


title: Gov't Mule

text: When the Allman Brothers Band reformed in 1989, partially in response to the popularity of their "Dreams" box set, Warren Haynes was added as a permanent lead guitarist and vocalist, and Allen Woody was recruited as bass guitarist. The two shared a love for 1960s power trios like Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the James Gang, and Mountain. Haynes, Woody, and drummer Matt Abts, who played with Haynes in Dickey Betts' band, came together as Gov't Mule during Allman Brothers breaks. They released their debut album "Gov't Mule", produced by Michael Barbiero, in 1995. "Live at Roseland Ballroom" was released in 1996, consisting of their 1995 New Year's Eve set opening for Blues Traveler.


title: Gov't Mule

text: When the Allman Brothers Band were not forthcoming with any new material, Haynes and Woody left to concentrate full-time on Gov't Mule in 1997. Their second studio effort, "Dose", also produced by Barbiero, was released in early 1998. They were joined by members of the Allman Brothers, the Black Crowes, Parliament/Funkadelic and the Derek Trucks Band for their 1998 New Year's Eve concert, released both in a two and four CD version as "Live... With a Little Help from Our Friends". The performances exposed some of the bands' influences, covering Neil Young, Free, Traffic, Jimi Hendrix, Little Feat, Humble Pie and Black Sabbath.


title: Gov't Mule

text: In February 2000, the band released "Life Before Insanity", to critical praise, and although the band had already experienced previous successes, they anticipated a greater commercial success with this album. Unfortunately, Allen Woody was found dead in New York City on August 26 of that year. On September 21, 2000, a benefit concert was organized called "One for Woody", with the proceeds going to Woody's daughter, Savannah Woody, intended for her education. The Allman Brothers, the Black Crowes, Phil Lesh and Friends, Jimmy Herring, Edwin McCain and several more of Woody's friends also performed at the concert. Haynes and Abts continued to do limited touring in the Fall of 2000 supporting Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals as an homage to Woody. Their subsequent "Smile at Half Mast Tour" that followed was named in reference to a poem Haynes wrote for Woody's funeral.


title: Gov't Mule

text: At the "One for Woody" performance and subsequently at other shows, Haynes began appearing with the Allman Brothers Band again. With Dickey Betts' departure from the Allmans, Haynes came back full-time to the band at the beginning of 2001 and has continued splitting his time between the Allman Brothers, Gov't Mule and for a period Phil Lesh and Friends and other re-formed Grateful Dead bands.


title: Gov't Mule

text: The next year, Barbiero, Haynes and Abts began to record a tribute album. using some of Woody's favorite bass players. These sessions resulted in two CDs "The Deep End, Volume 1" (2001) and "The Deep End, Volume 2" (2002). A documentary of the recording sessions was also made by Phish bassist Mike Gordon called "Rising Low". Bass contributions to the CDs came from Jack Bruce, formerly of Cream, John Entwistle of the Who, Mike Watt of Minutemen, Les Claypool of Primus, Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Chris Squire of Yes and Stefan Lessard of Dave Matthews Band among others.


title: Gov't Mule

text: A revolving door of keyboardists and bassists were used to fulfill touring engagements in support of the Deep End recordings. Keyboardists included Chuck Leavell, Rob Barraco, Page McConnell and Danny Louis. Bassists included, among others, Dave Schools of Widespread Panic, Oteil Burbridge who already had filled Woody's former place in the Allman Brothers, Les Claypool of Primus, Victor Wooten of the Flecktones, George Porter Jr. of the Meters, Jason Newsted (formerly of Metallica), Greg Rzab formerly of the Black Crowes and the Buddy Guy Band, and Andy Hess, also formerly of the Black Crowes. Louis and Hess were eventually named as permanent members of Gov't Mule.


title: Gov't Mule

text: The first CD with Louis and Hess, "Deja Voodoo", was released in September 2004. The album won the Jammy award for Best Album and was the last studio album involving Michael Barbiero as producer and engineer. Additional material from those sessions was released in 2005 as "Mo' Voodoo". The new lineup's second full release, "High & Mighty", was released on August 22, 2006, and it was followed in 2007 by a dub/reggae album called "Mighty High" - including versions of covers and original songs with special guest appearances by Michael Franti, Toots Hibbert, and Willi Williams.


title: Gov't Mule

text: Gov't Mule continues to tour extensively and has become a staple act at many music festivals including Bonnaroo, Wakarusa, Mountain Jam, Vegoose, All Good, and their annual New Orleans Jazzfest night show (where they filmed and recorded the last show of the Deepest End tours, with 17 guest musicians in a six-hour show).


title: Gov't Mule

text: Every year since 1989, Warren Haynes hosts the "Annual Christmas Jam" in his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina. The concert usually takes place the first weekend in December at the Asheville Civic Center, as a fundraiser for Habitat For Humanity. Many artists who play at the Christmas Jam also perform separate gigs in various Asheville clubs, usually the day before the Jam proper. The Pre-Jam, as it is called, features many of the same artists, in smaller clubs. The 19th edition of the Jam took place on December 15, 2007 with performances by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Shelly Colvin, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Jackson Browne, G. Love, Bruce Hornsby and Peter Frampton among others. Gov't Mule headlined.


title: Gov't Mule

text: On June 28, 2008, while keyboardist Danny Louis was drafted by Cheap Trick to revisit Sgt. Pepper at the Hollywood Bowl, Gov't Mule performed as a power trio for the first time since 2000, this time with its regular bassist Andy Hess. The band titled their set "Old School Mule" and ran through some of their older songs such as "Wandering Child" and "Thorazine Shuffle."


title: Gov't Mule

text: On September 15, 2008, Haynes' wife, Stefani Scamardo announced on her Sirius radio show that Andy Hess would be leaving the band and a new bassist would be in place for the fall tour. Hess was subsequently replaced by Jorgen Carlsson, who had been rehearsing with the band for six months.


title: Gov't Mule

text: On August 17, 2009, it was announced on the band's official website that Gov't Mule's eighth studio album, entitled "By a Thread", was on schedule for release on October 27, 2009.On the same date, the first track of the new album, "Broke Down on the Brazos" (featuring Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top), was made available for listening on the website.


title: Gov't Mule

text: On October 31, 2009, Gov't Mule gave a special Halloween concert at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia. From the Gov't Mule web site: "Following in the tradition of 2007's "Holy Haunted House" and last year's Pink Floyd spectacular, the band, once again, has something very special planned for the occasion." This third in their series of Halloween shows featured a first set of over two hours, composed entirely of Rolling Stones covers. Previous sold-out shows had featured covers of Led Zeppelin's "Houses of the Holy" and an assortment of Pink Floyd compositions.


title: Gov't Mule

text: Gov't Mule played at the "Island Exodus" in Negril, Jamaica in January 2010, at the all-inclusive resort The Grand Lido Negril. The First Island Exodus consisted of three Gov't Mule shows and a Warren Haynes solo show. Also appearing at this event were Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Ron Holloway, and DJ Logic.


title: Gov't Mule

text: Gov't Mule also played at the Hangout Music festival on Saturday, May 15, 2010, and at the Azkena Rock Festival in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, on June 24, 2010. The band also opened up for the Dave Matthews Band on Friday, July 30, 2010, at Cruzan Amphitheatre, in West Palm Beach, Florida.


title: Gov't Mule

text: In October 2010, Gov't Mule celebrated Halloween at the Fox Theater in Oakland, California. Warren Haynes and company used their first set to cover the Who's album "Who's Next" in its entirety.


title: Gov't Mule

text: Except for its regular festival appearances, the band was mostly on hiatus during the early part of the decade while band members pursued other projects, particularly Haynes and his Warren Haynes Band. In the summer of 2013, the band gave details on their upcoming album "Shout!", their first studio album in four years and their first release on Blue Note Records, which was released on September 24 of that year. In what Haynes contends is a first, the album included a bonus disc consisting of covers of the album's tracks by artists including Elvis Costello, Dr. John, Grace Potter and Steve Winwood.


title: Gov't Mule

text: On December 31, 2013, Gov't Mule performed with Robby Krieger, the guitarist from the Doors, at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.


title: Gov't Mule

text: The following year, they performed at the Beacon Theatre again with Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge. They performed 18 classic AC/DC songs in a second set with Kennedy on vocals for the New Year's Eve "Back at the Beacon" show.


title: Gov't Mule

text: On June 9, 2017, Gov't Mule released their tenth studio album "Revolution Come... Revolution Go" on Fantasy Records. Following the "Rolling Stone" premiere of "Stone Cold Rage", "Sarah, Surrender" was premiered exclusively at KBCO, and the album launched for pre-orders on April 12. When talking about "Stone Cold Rage", Haynes points out that the song represents "the divide that's going on in our country right now." He explains that "even though it was written before the election, it was written knowing that whichever way the results went, we were going to have close to fifty percent of the nation very angry. Musically, it's an aggressive up-tempo rock song that reflects the anger of the lyrics, but with a sense of sarcasm and humor."


title: Gov't Mule

text: On the heels of the release of their new record, "Revolution Come... Revolution Go", Gov't Mule kicked off their extensive tour, including stops at New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival with Soulive, New York and Philadelphia with Chris Robinson Brotherhood, a return to Europe, 14 dates with Galactic up and down the East Coast/Mid-West, a night at Red Rocks, festival sets at The Peach Music Festival, Lockn' Festival, Summer Camp Music Festival and Del Fest, and four shows with Blackberry Smoke. Appearing as festival-closing headliner for the King Biscuit Blues Festival, the band was joined in a 40-minute encore by blues legends Larry McCray and Bob Margolin. In 2019, the Mule released a full-length concert film and accompanying recording, "Bring on the Music", which was recorded at Port Chester, New York's Capitol Theatre.


title: Gov't Mule

text: Following is a listing of Gov't Mule's major releases. Nearly every concert that Gov't Mule plays is recorded and sold online in both high- and low-resolution MP3 format, and in the lossless FLAC format.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Agustín de Iturbide (; 27 September 178319 July 1824), full name Agustín Cosme Damián de Iturbide y Arámburu and also known as Agustín of Mexico, was a Mexican army general and politician. During the Mexican War of Independence, he built a successful political and military coalition that took control in Mexico City on 27 September 1821, decisively gaining independence for Mexico. After securing the secession of Mexico from Spain, Iturbide was proclaimed president of the Regency in 1821; a year later, he was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico, reigning briefly from 19 May 1822 to 19 March 1823. In May 1823 he went into exile in Europe. When he returned to Mexico in July 1824, he was arrested and executed. He designed the Mexican flag.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Agustín Cosme Damián de Iturbide y Arámburu was born in what was called Valladolid, now Morelia, the state capital of Michoacán, on 27 September 1783. He was baptized with the names of Saints Cosmas and Damian at the cathedral. The fifth child born to his parents, he was the only male to survive and eventually became head of the family.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Iturbide's parents were part of the privileged class of Valladolid, owning farmland including the haciendas of Apeo and Guaracha as well as lands in nearby Quirio. Iturbide's father, Joaquín de Iturbide, came from a family of the Basque gentry who were confirmed in nobility by King Juan II of Aragon. One of his ancestors, Martín de Iturbide, was designated as Royal "Merino" in the High Valley of Baztan in the 1430s, and thereafter many in the family held political or administrative positions in the Basque Country from the 15th century. As a younger son, Joaquín was not in line to inherit the family lands, so he migrated to New Spain to make his fortune there. While the aristocratic and Spanish lineage of Agustín's father was not in doubt, his mother's ancestry was less clear.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: His mother was of pure Spanish blood born in Mexico, and therefore, a criolla. Some sources state she came from a high-ranking family in Michoacán. In the Spanish colonial era, racial caste was important to advancement, including military rank, and having some indigenous ancestry was often a disadvantage. Iturbide insisted throughout his life that he was criollo (native born of Spanish descent).


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Agustín studied at the Catholic seminary called Colegio de San Nicolás in Valladolid, enrolled in the program for secular officials, though he was not a distinguished student. After that, he worked as an overseer at one of his family's haciendas for a short time, discovering he was a very good horseman.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: In his teens, Iturbide entered the royalist army, having been accepted as a criollo. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the provincial regiment. In 1806, he was promoted to full lieutenant.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: In 1805, when he was twenty-two, Iturbide married Ana María Josefa Ramona de Huarte y Muñiz, member of the House of Tagle of the family of the Marquises of Altamira. She came from Valladolid, from a prosperous family of businessmen and landowners. She was the daughter of wealthy and powerful noble Isidro de Huarte, governor of the district, and the granddaughter of the Marquis of Altamira. With her dowry of 100,000 pesos, the couple bought the Hacienda of Apeo in the small town of Maravatío.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: In the early 19th century, there was political unrest in New Spain. One of Iturbide's first military campaigns was to help put down a mutiny, headed by


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: He quickly grew in popularity amongst the royalists, whilst becoming a feared foe for the Insurgents. A peerless horseman and a valiant dragoon who acquired a reputation for achieving victory against numerical odds, his prowess in the field gained him the "nom de guerre" of "El Dragón de Hierro" or "The Iron Dragon", in reference to his skill and position in the army. He was given an important charge in the army. However, he was accused by locals of using his authority for financial gain although he was recognized as valiant in combat. Those accusations could not be proved but cost him his post. He turned down the offer to reclaim his post since he felt that his honor had been damaged. He may have been involved in the initial conspiracy to declare independence in 1809 that was headed by José Mariano Michelena in Valladolid. It is known by his and Hidalgo's documents that he was a distant relative of Miguel Hidalgo, the initial leader of the Insurgent Army. Hidalgo wrote to Iturbide, offering him a higher rank in his army. Iturbide writes in his memoirs that he considered the offer, but that ultimately turned it down because he considered Hidalgo's uprising ill-executed and his methods barbaric.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: After the outbreak of the War of Independence in 1810, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla offered Agustín de Iturbide the rank of general in the insurgent forces. Agustín rejected the offer, as he repudiated the atrocities that the mostly-untrained insurgent army committed against Spanish civilians, choosing instead to fight for the royalist forces. Over the course of the war, Agustín fought against generals José María Morelos from 1810 to 1816 and Vicente Guerrero in 1820.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: One of Agustín's first encounters with the rebel army was in the Toluca Valley in 1810 as it advanced toward Mexico City from Valladolid. Royalist and rebel forces engaged on the east bank of the Lerma River at the end of October in what is now known as the Battle of Monte de las Cruces. Royalist forces, under the command of Colonel Torcuato Trujillo, withdrew from the area, allowing rebels to take Toluca. Despite the loss by his side, Iturbide distinguished himself in this battle for valor and tenacity. He would later maintain in his memoirs that it was the only battle he considered to have lost (in which he was directly involved).


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Iturbide's next major encounter with the rebels would be against Morelos himself and in his native city of Valladolid. Iturbide led the defenders. He demonstrated his tactical skill and horsemanship by breaking Morelos's siege of the town with a well-executed cavalry charge that caused the insurgent forces to withdraw into the forest. For that action, Iturbide was promoted to captain.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: As a captain, he pursued rebel forces in the area, managing to capture Albino Licéaga y Rayón, leading to another promotion. In 1813, Viceroy Félix María Calleja promoted Iturbide to colonel and put him in charge of the regiment in Celaya. Then, in 1814, he was named the commander of forces in the Bajío area of Guanajuato, where he continued to pursue the rebels with vigor in a strongly contested area, and was Morelos's principal military opponent from 1813 to 1815.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: The next major encounter between Morelos and Iturbide occurred in a town called Puruarán, Michoacán, on 5 January 1814. In the battle, rebel forces were soundly defeated by forces led by Iturbide, forcing Morelos to retreat to the Hacienda of Santa Lucía and to leave Mariano Matamoros and Ignacio López Rayón in command of the rebel army, with over 600 insurgents killed and 700 captured. That marked a turn in the war as Morelos would never again achieve the same level of competency as he had before this defeat. Iturbide and other Spanish commanders relentlessly pursued Morelos, capturing and executing him in late 1815.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Iturbide's fortunes reversed after his victory when a number of accusations of cruelty and corruption surfaced. The accusations could not be proved, but Iturbide considered his honor to be tarnished by them and expressed so in his memoirs, written in exile.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Iturbide's persistence against the rebels was widely known as well as his views against their liberal, anti-monarchical politics. In his diary, he refers to the insurgents as "perverse," "bandits," and "sacrilegious." In a letter to the viceroy in 1814, he wrote of how he had 300 rebels, to whom he referred as excommunicates, executed to celebrate Good Friday. Iturbide was also criticized for his arbitrariness and his treatment of civilians, in particular his jailing of the mothers, wives, and children of known insurgents. In 1814, he had captured 100 women and incarcerated them into different houses in order to be "re-educated. As for corruption, the Count of Pérez Galvez extensively testified that profiteering by many royalist officers, of whom Iturbide was the most visible, was draining the effectiveness of the royal army. Iturbide acquired a large personal fortune before 1816 by questionable dealings. Some of those shady practices included creating commercial monopolies in areas that he controlled militarily. Other accusations against Iturbide included sacking private property and embezzling military funds. In 1816, the viceroy relieved Iturbide of his command for corruption and cruelty.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: However, one year later, with the support of an auditor, named Bataller, and staunch monarchists in the viceregal government, the charges were withdrawn. Iturbide's supporters further convinced the viceroy that he was needed to vanquish the last remaining rebel leader. However, Iturbide never forgot the humiliation of his dismissal.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Iturbide was fully reinstated to military command in November 1820 by viceroy Juan Ruiz de Apodaca. He was reinstated as colonel of the royalist army and general of the south of New Spain. For a couple of years after the defeat of Morelos at Puruarán, the independence movement had diminished significantly. However, Iturbide was given the task of putting down the remaining insurrectionist movement southwest of Mexico City led by Guerrero. Iturbide installed his headquarters at Teloloapan. For more than a century, historians believed that Iturbide had first attempted to carry out his duty in destroying Guerrero but that he met with failure and so decided to strike an alliance with the rebel. However, in 2006, new evidence was discovered by Mexican historian Jaime del Arenal Fenochio: a letter between the two military leaders dated 20 November 1820, which also referenced a previous letter. Since communications had been proven to have existed between the two leaders before Iturbide ever set out to seek out Guerrero, it is now believed that both were then carrying out negotiations. Regardless, some encounters between the two military forces were unavoidable, as the troops of Guerrero and Pedro Ascencio (another insurgent leader) managed to force Iturbide's rear guard to withdraw from an ambush. In their further correspondence, Iturbide and Guerrero lament the clashes, and Iturbide further attempts to convince Guerrero of his intentions of liberating Mexico.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: From 1810 to 1820, Iturbide had fought against those who sought to overturn the Spanish monarchy and Bourbon dynasty's right to rule New Spain and replace that regime with an independent government. He was solidly aligned with the Criollos. However, events in Spain caused problems, as the very monarchy for which that class was fighting was in serious trouble. The 1812 Cadiz Constitution, which was reinstated in Spain in 1820 after the successful Riego Revolt, established a constitutional monarchy, which greatly limited Ferdinand VII's powers. There was serious concern in Mexico that the Bourbons would be forced to abandon Spain altogether. That led to the disintegration of viceregal authority in Mexico City, and a political vacuum developed that the Mexican nobility sought to fill, seeking limited representation and autonomy for themselves within the empire. An idea arose in the class that if Mexico became independent or autonomous, and Ferdinand were deposed, he could become king of Mexico.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Iturbide was convinced that independence for Mexico was the only way to protect the country from a republican tide. He decided to become the leader of the Criollo independence movement. However, to succeed, he would need to put together a very-unlikely coalition of Mexican liberal insurgents, landed nobility, and the Church. Therefore, he penned The Plan of Iguala, which held itself up on Three Guarantees: Freedom (from Spain), Religion (with Catholicism being the only accepted religion in the new country) and Union (with all inhabitants of México to be regarded as equals). In that manner, he was paving the road to gaining the support of the most powerful factions: the insurgents, the clergy and the Spaniards. The plan envisioned a monarchy, thus assuring the support of the royalists as well. Iturbide held a series of negotiations with Guerrero and made a number of demonstrations of his intentions to form an independent Mexico. Iturbide offered Guerrero a full pardon if he surrendered. Guerrero rejected the pardon but agreed to meet with Iturbide to discuss the independence of Mexico. In the "Embrace of Acatempán", named after the locale, they agreed to implement the plan, which was made public on 24 February 1821 by Iturbide, Guerrero, and another insurgent leader, Guadalupe Victoria. On 1 March 1821, Iturbide was proclaimed head of the Army of the Three Guarantees, with Guerrero fully supporting him and recognizing him as his leader.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: The plan was a rather vague document that sought the transition of the center of power in New Spain from Madrid to Mexico City. Essentially, the idea was to bring Ferdinand VII to Mexico City to rule. If he did not come to Mexico, another member of the Bourbon royal family would be chosen to rule there. If no European ruler would come to rule México, the nation would have the right to elect a ruler by its own people. To attract the disparate parties involved in the scheme, the plan offered three guarantees: Mexico would be independent from Madrid, Roman Catholicism would be the official religion, and all inhabitants of the new nation, later México, would be considered equals, with no distinction being made between Spaniards, Creoles, Mestizos, etc., thus eliminating the complicated caste system that had been used until then and abolishing the use of slaves in the territory of the new nation as well.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: The promise of independence convinced the insurgents to accept the proposal. The promise of the supremacy of the Roman Catholic Church was offered to the clergy, who were frightened by anticlerical policies of Spanish Liberalism. The offer of equality between Criollos and the Spanish-born "Peninsulares" assured the latter that they and their property would be safe in the new state. That was important because the Peninsulares owned a significant part of the valuable real estate and many of the businesses in Mexico. If the Spaniards had left, that would have been disastrous for the Mexican economy.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: The plan gained wide support because it demanded independence without attacking the landed classes and did not threaten social dissolution. Therefore, Iturbide succeeded in bringing together old insurgents and royalist forces to fight against the new Spanish government and what was left of the viceregal government. Military leaders, soldiers, families, villages, and towns that had been fighting against one another for almost ten years found themselves joining forces to gain Mexican independence. However, their reasons for joining together were very different, and those differences would later foment the turmoil that occurred after independence.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Both the sitting viceroy and Fernando VII rejected the Plan of Iguala. The Spanish parliament sent a new "viceroy," Juan O'Donojú, to Mexico. (Technically, the office of viceroy had been replaced by a "superior political chief" under the 1812 Spanish Constitution.) O'Donojú, however, arrived to witness a nation on the brink of achieving independence and knew that its consummation could not be stopped.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Iturbide met with O’Donoju and hastily negotiated a treaty, called the Treaty of Córdoba. Similar to the Plan de Iguala, the document tried to guarantee an independent monarchy for New Spain under the Bourbon dynasty. The successor state would invite Ferdinand VII to rule as emperor or, in default, his brother Don Carlos. If both refused, a suitable monarch would be sought among the various European royal houses. In the meantime, a regency would replace the viceroy. All existing laws, including the 1812 Constitution, would remain in force until a new constitution for Mexico was written. A key element was added at O'Donojú's suggestion: if Spain refused its right to appoint a regent for the Mexican Empire, the Mexican congress would have freedom to elect whomever it deemed worthy as emperor. That crucial clause was not in Iturbide's Plan de Iguala, a point against the argument that Iturbide entertained the notion of becoming the ruler when he started his campaign for Mexico's independence.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: To show the military might of the alliance, Iturbide co-ordinated with associated royalist and insurgent commanders in the provinces, opting for a replay of the strategy of closing in on Mexico City from the periphery, which Morelos had attempted in 1811–14. However, Iturbide had the advantage of having most of the former royalist army on his side. Iturbide marched into Mexico City on 27 September 1821, his own birthday, with the Army of the Three Guarantees. The army was received by a jubilant populace who had erected arches of triumph and decorated houses and themselves with the tricolor (red, white, and green) of the army. Cries of "¡Viva Iturbide I!" were heard first on that day. The next day, Mexico was declared an independent empire.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: What remained of the royalist army retreated to Veracruz and was cornered in the fortress of San Juan de Ulúa, and O'Donoju, who had been assured an important position in the government of the new empire, died shortly afterwards, dishonored by his Spaniard compatriots.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Iturbide was named President of the Provisional Governing Junta, which selected the five-person regency that would temporarily govern the newly independent Mexico. The junta had 36 members who would have legislative power until the convocation of a congress. Iturbide controlled both the membership of the junta and the matters that it considered. The junta would be responsible for negotiating the offer of the throne of Mexico to a suitable royal. Members of the former insurgent movement were left out of the government.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: The new government was overwhelmingly people loyal to Iturbide himself. Opposition groups included the old insurgents as well as a number of progressives and those loyal to Ferdinand VII. Many liberals and progressives also belonged to Masonic lodges of the Scottish rite, leading these branches of the opposition to be called "escoceses" (Scots). The plan of Iguala was a compromise of the differing factions, but after independence, it became clear that some of the promises it had made would prove very difficult, if not impossible, to accomplish. That state of affairs began to instill turmoil even among those in power.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Iturbide moved to Mexico City and settled himself in a large palatial home that now bears the name Palace of Iturbide. The mansion was lent to him by the family that owned it but was not living in it.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Iturbide began to live extravagantly. He demanded preference for his army and also personally chose ministers. In the meantime, Ferdinand VII rejected the offer of the Mexican throne and forbade any of his family from accepting the position, and the Spanish Cortes rejected the Treaty of Córdoba.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Shortly after signing the Treaty of Córdoba, the Spanish government reneged. Ferdinand VII had regained the upper hand against the liberals in Spain and increased his influence outside the country. He even had credible plans for the reconquest of the old colony. For those reasons, no European noble would accept the offer of a Mexican crown. In Mexico itself, there was no Mexican noble family that the populace would accept as royalty.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: In the meantime, the governing junta that Iturbide headed convened a constituent congress to set up the new government. The new government had indirect representation, based on the Cadiz model, but the Plan of Iguala and the Treaty of Córdoba were clear that the order of things would be kept as it had been before the Cadiz Constitution. Thus, Iturbide and the junta declared that they would not be bound by the Cadiz Constitution but kept the Congress that was convened. That led to division, which came to a head in February 1822. In its inauguration, Congress swore that it would never abide for all of the powers of the state to fall into the hands of a single person or entity. It, however, proceeded to assign sovereignty to itself, rather than to the people, and proclaimed that it held all three powers of the State. It also considered lowering military pay and decreasing the size of the army. Those moves threatened to reduce Iturbide's influence in current and future governments.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: That led to political destabilization, which was resolved temporarily when Iturbide was elected Emperor of the Mexican nation. However, it is not clear whether he took the crown at the insistence of the people or simply took advantage of the political situation.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Some call Iturbide's decision a coup and state that the public support for him was orchestrated by him and his followers. Others insist that the people's offer of the throne was sincere, as there was no other candidate and the people were grateful to him for the liberation of Mexico. The latter accounts stress that Iturbide initially rejected the offer, in favor of persuading Ferdinand VII to change his mind about ruling Mexico, but then reluctantly accepted. When the liberating army entered Mexico on 27 September 1821, the army sought to proclaim Iturbide as Emperor, which he himself stopped. A month later, on 28 October, he was publicly proclaimed Emperor by the people but again refused any such attempt.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: The US government appointed Joel Roberts Poinsett as a special envoy to independent Mexico when Iturbide was declared emperor since James Monroe was concerned about how popular and long-lasting the regime might be. Poinsett indicated the empire was not likely to be enduring, but the US still recognized Mexico as an independent country. Poinsett's "Notes on Mexico" are an important source as a foreign view of Iturbide's regime. Poinsett also took advantage of the opportunity to proposition Iturbide's government on the issue of the US wish of acquiring Mexico's northern territories but was soundly refused.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Famed Mexican author José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi, "El Pensador" ("the Mexican Thinker"), the author of "El Periquillo Sarniento", wrote about the subject at the time: "If your excellency be not the Emperor, then our Independence be damned. We do not wish to be free if your excellency will not be at the lead of his countrymen." Timothy E. Anna points out that in the months between the achievement of Independence and his crowning as Emperor, Iturbide already practically ruled the nation, as he was president of the Regency, and the junta had granted him command over all land and sea forces. He was appointed protector of commerce, navigation, local order and ports and was given the right to expedite passports and navigation licenses even after the Emperor had been instated (and according to the Emperor's wishes). Iturbide had what he could have possibly wanted before becoming Emperor, Anna notes, and so it is not probable that Iturbide conspired to appoint himself Emperor. Iturbide himself notes in his memoirs written in exile: "I had the condescension–or, call it weakness—of allowing myself to be seated in a throne I had created for others."


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Historians point out that Iturbide had quite possibly all the power, influence, and support he needed before redacting the Plan of Iguala, to crown himself Emperor, and he still wrote the Plan with the clear intention of creating a throne meant for a European noble.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Most historical accounts mention the crowd that gathered outside what is now the Palace of Iturbide in Mexico City shouting "Viva Iturbide!" and insist for him to take the throne of Mexico in May 1822. The crowd included Iturbide's old regiment from Celaya. Some detractors of Iturbide insist that this demonstration was staged by Iturbide himself or his loyalists. From a balcony of the palace, Iturbide repeatedly denied his desire for the throne. One interesting twist to the story is reported by Mexico City daily "La Jornada", which states that Iturbide held the first popular referendum in Mexico. According to the article, Iturbide sent out a questionnaire to military and civilian leaders as to whether the people preferred a republic or a monarchy. The answer came back in favor of a monarchy. Iturbide asked the demonstrators that night to give him the night to think it over, and to respect the wishes of the government. The Congress convened the next day to discuss the matter of Iturbide's election as Emperor. Iturbide's supporters filled the balconies overlooking the chamber. The Congress confirmed him and his title of Agustín I, Constitutional Emperor of Mexico, by a vast majority. After Iturbide's abdication, members would state that it had elected Iturbide out of fear for their lives, as the common folk were present during the vote and loudly proclaimed Iturbide, and no member voted against his crowning as Emperor. However, three days after Iturbide had been elected Emperor, Congress held a private session in which only it was present. It ratified the decision, created titles for the royal family, and declared Iturbide's title to be lifelong and hereditary.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Iturbide's coronation was held at the Mexico City Cathedral on 21 July 1822, and his wife, Ana María, was crowned empress, in an elaborate ceremony. It was attended by the bishops of Puebla, Guadalajara, Durango, and Oaxaca. According to the author Pérez Memen, Archbishop of Mexico Pedro José de Fonte y Hernández Miravete objected and did not attend. Iturbide was crowned by Rafael Mangino y Mendivil, the head of the Congress, in itself a statement by Congress: the state, not the church or any other power, would be sovereign. The Congress decreed the crown to be hereditary with the title of "Prince of the Union." As emperor, Iturbide had sovereignty over lands bordered by Panama in the south and the Oregon Country in the north, including the current countries of Central America and the US states of California, Texas, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico. Central America only briefly was part of the Mexican Empire of Iturbide (from 1821 to 1823), because by 1823 the local patriots, both liberal and conservative, made a move for total and absolute independence from Mexico and Spain.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: The republicans were not happy with Iturbide as emperor. While the Catholic clergy supported him, the coronation dashed republican hopes, and while the Plan of Iguala and the Treaty of Córdoba directed that in the event of it being impossible to install a European on the Mexican throne, a national sovereign could be chosen, some of the royalists who had supported Iturbide had hoped for a European ruler. Many of the landed classes supported Iturbide and those documents because they offered a sense of continuity with the past. Iturbide's election to the throne was against their wishes, and many of them withdrew their support for him and conspired against the new empire.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: The strongest opposition to Iturbide's reign came from the Congress, where a significant number of its members supported republican ideas. Many of these members also belonged to Masonic lodges, which provided an easy forum for communication. Those ideas found a voice when Manuel Codorniu founded the newspaper "El Sol", essentially becoming the in-house publication for the Scottish Rite lodge in its struggle against Iturbide. Iturbide's government was notoriously harsh in turning down territorial negotiations with agents of the US government, as attested by Poinsett. The United States was itself a republic as well, meaning Iturbide's relations with the US were on shaky ground. The Congress, believing itself to be sovereign over the Emperor and the people and the recipient of the executive, legislative, and judicial powers, antagonized Iturbide. The Congress refused to draw up a new monarchical Mexican Constitution with a role for the Emperor. Furthermore, people loyal to the Emperor became aware of a conspiracy that involved several members of the Congress who planned to kidnap the Emperor and his family and overthrow the Empire. As a response to this claimed threat to his life and to combat the resistance, Iturbide dismissed the Congress on 31 October 1822 and two days later created a new junta, the National Institutional Junta, to legislate in its place, answering only to himself.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: The National Institutional Junta was directed to create much-needed legislation in economic matters, create a provisional set of laws for the Empire, and then issue a call for a new Constituent Congress. The formulation of the new Congress was changed in how many representatives each Mexican province was granted. The new Congress would also be in charge of issuing a new Mexican Constitution. Iturbide persecuted his enemies, arresting and jailing a score of former members of the Congress, but that did not bring peace.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: A number of prominent politicians and military leaders, many of whom had supported Agustín as emperor, turned against him for having "made a mockery of national representation" in the new Congress's composition. Among those were prominent Insurgent leaders Vicente Guerrero, Nicolás Bravo and Guadalupe Victoria.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Meanwhile, Mexico suffered as an independent country. Ferdinand's resurgence as a ruler in Spain and his clear intentions to reconquer Mexico meant that no European nation was willing to recognize Mexico's independence, and most broke off economic ties with the new state. Iturbide's economic policies were draining resources as well. To increase his popularity, he abolished a number of colonial-era taxes. However, he still insisted on a large and very well-paid army and lived extravagantly himself. The elite turned against him when he imposed a 40% property tax.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: The situation did not last long. Soon, Iturbide was unable to pay his army, creating discontent in a significant portion of his power base. When criticism of the government grew strong, Iturbide censored the press, an act that backfired against him. Opposition groups began to band together against him. Leaders such as Valentín Gómez Farías and Antonio López de Santa Anna began to conspire against the imperial concept altogether and became convinced that a republican model was needed to combat despotism.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Santa Anna publicly opposed Iturbide in December 1822 in the Plan of Veracruz, supported by the old Insurgent hero, Guadalupe Victoria. Santa Anna would later admit in his recollections that at the time, he did not know what a republic was. Iturbide had tried to stop Santa Anna by inviting him to Mexico City. Recognizing the danger of such an invitation, Santa Anna responded with his Plan de Veracruz, which called for the reinstatement of the old Constituent Congress, which would then have the right to decide the form of government of the new nation. Curiously, it did not specifically call for a republic or for the abdication of Iturbide. Santa Anna wrote to Iturbide, explaining his reasons and swearing to sacrifice his own life if it was necessary to ensure the safety of the Emperor. Iturbide's enemy-turned-ally, Vicente Guerrero, turned back to enemy when he and General Nicolás Bravo escaped México City and allied themselves with the rebels. In a proclamation that explained their reasons, they also called for the reinstatement of the disintegrated Congress, which would then decide the fate of the nation. Bravo and Guerrero wrote that they swore to abide by the Congress's decision, even if it decided to stay as a Constitutional Empire and it elected Iturbide again to lead them.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Iturbide sent his most trusted man, his protégé of sorts, General Echávarri, to combat the rebels. Santa Anna considered escaping to the United States but was stopped by Victoria. Santa Anna retreated and fortified himself in the city of Veracruz with his superior artillery. Victoria was separated from Veracruz, fighting behind Imperial lines. Bravo and Guerrero were defeated, with Guerrero suffering such a grievous injury in battle that the nation believed him dead until he resurfaced months later. However, Echávarri and several other imperial officers turned on the empire; away from Mexico City, the loyalty of the imperial armies proved patchy. Santa Anna, joined by republicans Guerrero, and Bravo, and imperial generals Echávarri, Cortázar y Rábago, and Lobato, proclaimed the Plan of Casa Mata, which called for the installation of a new Congress and declared the election of the emperor null and void. Casa Mata also called for giving provinces the right to govern themselves in the interim until the new Congress was formed, an attractive prospect for the provincial governments. They accepted the plan, with the exception of the province of Chiapas. Much of the area now known as Central America declared its opposition to Mexico City and Iturbide's rule. In 1823, authorities in what are now Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Honduras convened a Congress to declare themselves independent from Mexico and Spain as the United Provinces of Central America.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Santa Anna's army marched toward Mexico City, winning small victories along the way. Iturbide gathered and sent troops to combat Santa Anna who did not put up a strong resistance. Many military leaders who Iturbide appointed turned on him upon contacting Santa Anna's forces. Iturbide later admitted he had made a mistake by not leading his armies himself. Iturbide recognized that although his provisional junta was working to call a new Congress, most of the nation had already accepted the Plan of Casa Mata. Recognizing the wishes of the country, Iturbide personally reopened the same Congress that he had closed in March 1823 and presented his abdication to them. He later wrote that he was choosing abdication over bloody civil war. However, Congress refused to accept his abdication, arguing that acceptance of abdication would imply that the existence of the throne was legitimate. Instead, they nullified their own election of Iturbide as emperor and refused to acknowledge the Plan of Iguala or the Treaty of Córdoba.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: Executive leadership of the country was passed to the "triumvirate," made up of the generals Guadalupe Victoria, Nicolás Bravo, and Pedro Celestino Negrete.


title: Agustín de Iturbide

text: On his way to exile, Iturbide and his family were escorted by former insurgent leader Nicolás Bravo, who treated Iturbide harshly. Though the republican movement had triumphed, the people still held Iturbide in high regard and greatly admired him. On his way out of the city, his carriage was surrounded by the people, the horses dismissed and the people sought to drag the carriage themselves out of the city. That treatment was customary in the entrances or exits of great figures in or out of a city. The soldiers escorting Iturbide prevented that from happening and would henceforth lead the former emperor on hidden roads, as the government feared a popular rising in favor of Iturbide.