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The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by GrahamColm 13:52, 29 September 2012 [1].

Joseph Desha

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Joseph Desha (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

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Nominator(s): Acdixon (talk · contribs) 12:29, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This is presently a good article, has undergone a peer review, and recently passed a MILHIST A-class review. After a little buff and polish using my shiny, new Questia account (thanks, Ocaasi (talk · contribs)), I think it is ready for FAC. Born in Pennsylvania, Desha moved to Tennessee and was a soldier in the Northwest Indian War. After relocating to Kentucky, he began a political career. He was elected to Congress and was one of Henry Clay's War Hawks in the lead-up to the War of 1812. He participated in the war as a major general in the state militia. After the war, he returned to Congress with a more conservative viewpoint, opposing large standing armies and spending on internal improvements. He unsuccessfully sought the governorship of Kentucky in 1820, but won it four years later. While in office, he helped set the state's financial and judicial systems back decades by facilitating the Old Court-New Court controversy, probably single-handedly ruined Transylvania University's chances of becoming a world-class university due to his opposition to its president, and pardoned his son for a murder he obviously committed, only to see the son flee to Texas and kill again. At the end of his term, he threatened not to vacate the governor's mansion because he didn't like his successor. Understandably, this was the end of his political career. :) Looking forward to responding to your comments. Acdixon (talk · contribs) 12:29, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

  • Quickly flicking through I saw this: "Returning to Congress after the war, he was the only member of the Kentucky congressional delegation to oppose the unpopular Compensation Act of 1816, a vote which helped him retain his seat when nearly every other member of the delegation was defeated for reelection." A bit long, and "when" is ambiguous. To start with, consider "... of 1816; this opposition helped ...". Tony (talk) 13:39, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Support with comments: This is a fine article. It's well-sourced, well-written and all around well done. I think it meets the FA criteria. I did the peer review, and it was in excellent shape then, too. I'll make a couple comments, which I may expand upon later after a more detailed look. In any event, happy to support:

  • This, I suppose, is optional, but it might be worthwhile to put the references into a templated ref format like Harvard, etc., for more convenient jumping between references and bibliographic entries. A lot of busywork, I know.
  • In the following: "Desha's younger brother, Robert, would later represent Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives" I think the past tense ("later represented") is perhaps better than the conditional ("would later represent"), but I confess I'm not familiar with the guidelines on these constructions for history articles, so I'll leave it to you to consider. --Batard0 (talk) 15:29, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
    • If I may respond to that, I'm happy either way. History articles on Wikipedia often use "would", in the future-in-past tense, if they're quickly mentioning a future event (relative to the narrative). I don't mind if people do that automatically without giving it any thought, but in fact, there are cases where the past tense isn't likely to cause confusion, as here. - Dank (push to talk) 16:25, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support - This article looks well-written and well-sourced to be worthy of a Featured Article. Lord Sjones23 (talk - contributions) 15:42, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Comments

Source review - spotchecks not done

  • Check alphabetization of Bibliography
  • Be consistent in how you cite the Morton source
  • Why include title in short cites for some sources but not others?
  • Risjord or Risjold?
  • No citations to Johnson & Parrish
  • Be consistent in whether you include locations for books, and if so how these are formatted. Nikkimaria (talk) 01:40, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]


The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.
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