the state of virginia secedes from the united states on this day in april of 1862

The Commonwealth of Virginia was a prominent part of the Confederate States during the American Civil War. As a slave-holding state, it held a state convention to deal with the secession crisis, and voted against secession on 4 April 1861. Opinion shifted after 15 April, when U.S. President Abraham Lincoln called for troops from all states still in the Union to put down the rebellion, following the capture of Fort Sumter, and the Virginia convention voted to declare secession from the Union. (In the Western counties, where there was little slavery, pro-Union sentiment remained strong, and they presently seceded from Virginia as a separate Union state, West Virginia.)

Virginia in the American Civil War

In May, it was decided to move the Confederate capital from Montgomery, Alabama, to Richmond, in part because the defense of Virginia's capital was deemed vital to the Confederacy's survival. On 24 May, the U.S. Army moved into northern Virginia and captured Alexandria without a fight.

Most of the battles in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War took place in Virginia because the Confederacy had to defend its national capital at Richmond, and public opinion in the North demanded that the Union move "On to Richmond!" The successes of Robert E. Lee in defending Richmond are a central theme of the military history of the war. The White House of the Confederacy, located a few blocks north of the State Capitol, was home to the family of Confederate leader Jefferson Davis.

On October 16, 1859, the radical abolitionist John Brown led a group of 22 men in a raid on the Federal Arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. U.S. troops, led by Robert E. Lee, responded and quelled the raid. Subsequently, John Brown was tried and executed by hanging in Charles Town on December 2, 1859.

In 1860 the Democratic Party split into northern and southern factions over the issue of slavery in the territories and Stephen Douglas' support for popular sovereignty: after failing in both Charleston and Baltimore to nominate a single candidate acceptable to the South, Southern Democrats held their convention in Richmond, Virginia on June 26, 1860 and nominated John C. Breckinridge as their party candidate for President.[1]

When Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected as U.S. president, Virginians were concerned about the implications for their state. While a majority of the state would look for compromises to the sectional differences, most people also opposed any restrictions on slaveholders' rights.[2] As the state watched to see what South Carolina would do, many Unionists felt that the greatest danger to the state came not from the North but from "rash secession" by the lower South.[3]

On November 15, 1860 Virginia Governor John Letcher called for a special session of the Virginia General Assembly to consider, among other issues, the creation of a secession convention. The legislature convened on January 7 and approved the convention on January 14. On January 19 the General Assembly called for a national Peace Conference, led by Virginia's former President of the United States, John Tyler, to be held in Washington on February 4, the same date that elections were scheduled for delegates to the secession convention.[4]

The election of convention delegates drew 145,700 voters who elected, by county, 152 representatives. Thirty of these delegates were secessionists, thirty were unionists, and ninety-two were moderates who were not clearly identified with either of the first two groups. Nevertheless, advocates of immediate secession were clearly outnumbered.[5] Simultaneous to this election, six southern slave states formed the Confederate States on February 4.

According to one Virginian teacher, William M. Thompson, who would later become a Confederate cavalryman, the declaring of secession by the slave states was necessary to preserve slavery as well as prevent marriages between freedmen and the white "daughters of the South", saying that civil war would be more preferable:

Better, far better! Endure all the horrors of civil war than to see the dusky sons of Ham leading the fair daughters of the South to the altar.

The Virginia Secession Convention of 1861 met on February 13 at the Richmond Mechanics Institute located at Ninth and Main Street in Richmond. One of the convention's first actions was to create a 21-member Federal Relations Committee charged with reaching a compromise to the sectional differences as they affected Virginia.[8] The committee was made up of 4 secessionists, 10 moderates and 7 unionists.[9] At first there was no urgency to the convention's deliberations as all sides felt that time only aided their cause. In addition, there were hopes that the Peace Conference of 1861 on January 19, led by Virginia's former President of the United States, John Tyler, might resolve the crisis by, in historian Edward L. Ayers's words, "guaranteeing the safety of slavery forever and the right to expand slavery in the territories below the Missouri Compromise line."[10] With the failure of the Peace Conference at the end of February,[11] moderates in the convention began to waver in their support for unionism.[12] Unionist support by many was further eroded for many Virginians by Lincoln's March 4 First Inaugural address which they felt was "argumentative, if not defiant."[13] Throughout the state there was evidence that support for secession was growing.[14]

At the Virginian secession convention in February 1861, Georgian Henry Lewis Benning, who would later go on to join the Confederate army as an officer, delivered a speech in which gave his reasoning for the urging of secession from the Union, appealing to ethnic prejudices and pro-slavery sentiments to present his case, saying that were the slave states to remain in the Union, their slaves would ultimately end up being freed by the anti-slavery Republican Party. He stated that he would rather be stricken with illness and starvation than to see African Americans liberated from slavery and be given equality as citizens:

What was the reason that induced Georgia to take the step of secession? This reason may be summed up in one single proposition. It was a conviction, a deep conviction on the part of Georgia, that a separation from the North-was the only thing that could prevent the abolition of her slavery.... If things are allowed to go on as they are, it is certain that slavery is to be abolished. By the time the north shall have attained the power, the black race will be in a large majority, and then we will have black governors, black legislatures, black juries, black everything. Is it to be supposed that the white race will stand for that? It is not a supposable case... war will break out everywhere like hidden fire from the earth, and it is probable that the white race, being superior in every respect, may push the other back.... we will be overpowered and our men will be compelled to wander like vagabonds all over the earth; and as for our women, the horrors of their state we cannot contemplate in imagination. That is the fate which abolition will bring upon the white race.... We will be completely exterminated, and the land will be left in the possession of the blacks, and then it will go back to a wilderness and become another Africa... Suppose they elevated Charles Sumner to the presidency? Suppose they elevated Fred Douglass, your escaped slave, to the presidency? What would be your position in such an event? I say give me pestilence and famine sooner than that.

The Federal Relations Committee made its report to the convention on March 9. The fourteen proposals defended both slavery and states' rights while calling for a meeting of the eight slave states still in the Union to present a united front for compromise. From March 15 through April 14 the convention debated these proposals one by one.[17] During the debate on the resolutions, the sixth resolution calling for a peaceful solution and maintenance of the Union came up for discussion on April 4. Lewis Edwin Harvie of Amelia County offered a substitute resolution calling for immediate secession. This was voted down by 88 to 45 and the next day the convention continued its debate.[18] Approval of the last proposal came on April 12.[19] The goal of the unionist faction after this approval was to adjourn the convention until October, allowing time for both the convention of the slave states and Virginia's congressional elections in May which, they hoped, would produce a stronger mandate for compromise.[20]

One delegate reiterated the state's cause of secession and the purpose of the convention:

Sir, the great question which is now uprooting this Government to its foundation â€“ the great question which underlies all our deliberations here, is the question of African slavery.

Mississippian Fulton Anderson told the convention that the Republicans were hostile to the slave states, accusing the Republican Party of having an "unrelenting and eternal hostility to the institution of slavery."[22]

Ultimately, the convention declared that slavery should continue, and that it should be extended into U.S. territories:

Proposals Adopted by the Virginia Convention of 1861

The first resolution asserted states' rights per se; the second was for retention of slavery; the third opposed sectional parties; the fourth called for equal recognition of slavery in both territories and non-slave states; the fifth demanded the removal of federal forts and troops from seceded states; the sixth hoped for a peaceable adjustment of grievances and maintaining the Union; the seventh called for Constitutional amendments to remedy federal and state disputes; the eighth recognized the right of secession; the ninth said the federal government had no authority over seceded states since it refused to recognize their withdrawal; the tenth said the federal government was empowered to recognize the Confederate States; the eleventh was an appeal to Virginia's sister states; the twelfth asserted Virginia's willingness to wait a reasonable period of time for an answer to its propositions, providing no one resorted to force against the seceded states; the thirteenth asked United States and Confederate States governments to remain peaceful; and the fourteenth asked the border slave states to meet in conference to consider Virginia's resolutions and to join in Virginia's appeal to the North.[23]

At the same time, Unionists were concerned about the continued presence of U.S. forces at Fort Sumter despite assurances communicated informally to them by U.S. Secretary of State William Seward that it would be abandoned.[24] Lincoln and Seward were also concerned that the Virginia convention was still in session as of the first of April while secession sentiment was growing. At Lincoln's invitation, unionist John B. Baldwin of Augusta County, met with Lincoln on April 4. Baldwin explained that the unionists needed the evacuation of Fort Sumter, a national convention to debate the sectional differences, and a commitment by Lincoln to support constitutional protections for southern rights.[25] Over Lincoln's skepticism, Baldwin argued that Virginia would be out of the Union within forty-eight hours if either side fired a shot at the fort. By some accounts, Lincoln offered to evacuate Fort Sumter if the Virginia convention would adjourn.[26]

On April 6, amid rumors that the North was preparing for war, the convention voted by a narrow 63-57 to send a three-man delegation to Washington to determine from Lincoln what his intentions were. However, due to bad weather the delegation did not arrive in Washington until April 12. They learned of the attack on Fort Sumter from Lincoln, and the President advised them of his intent to hold the fort and respond to force with force. Reading from a prepared text to prevent any misinterpretations of his intent, Lincoln told them that he had made it clear in his inaugural address that the forts and arsenals in the South were government property and "if... an unprovoked assault has been made upon Fort Sumter, I shall hold myself at liberty to re-possess, if I can, like places which have been seized before the Government was devolved upon me."[27]

The pro-Union sentiment in Virginia was further weakened after the April 12 Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter. Richmond reacted with large public demonstrations in support of the Confederacy on April 13 when it first received the news of the attack.[28][29] A Richmond newspaper described the scene in Richmond on the 13th:

War Department, Washington, April 15, 1861. To His Excellency the Governor of Virginia: Sir: Under the act of Congress for calling forth "militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, repel invasions, etc.," approved February 28, 1795, I have the honor to request your Excellency to cause to be immediately detached from the militia of your State the quota designated in the table below, to serve as infantry or rifleman for the period of three months, unless sooner discharged. Your Excellency will please communicate to me the time, at or about, which your quota will be expected at its rendezvous, as it will be met as soon as practicable by an officer to muster it into the service and pay of the United States.

The quota for Virginia attached called for three regiments of 2,340 men to rendezvous at Staunton, Wheeling and Gordonsville. Governor Letcher and the recently reconvened Virginia Secession Convention considered this request from Lincoln "for troops to invade and coerce"[33] lacking in constitutional authority, and out of scope of the Act of 1795. Governor Letcher's "reply to that call wrought an immediate change in the current of public opinion in Virginia".,[33] whereupon he issued the following reply:

Executive Department, Richmond, Va., April 15, 1861. Hon. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War: Sir: I have received your telegram of the 15th, the genuineness of which I doubted. Since that time I have received your communications mailed the same day, in which I am requested to detach from the militia of the State of Virginia "the quota assigned in a table," which you append, "to serve as infantry or rifleman for the period of three months, unless sooner discharged." In reply to this communication, I have only to say that the militia of Virginia will not be furnished to the powers at Washington for any such use or purpose as they have in view. Your object is to subjugate the Southern States, and a requisition made upon me for such an object - an object, in my judgment, not within the purview of the Constitution or the act of 1795 - will not be complied with. You have chosen to inaugurate civil war, and, having done so, we will meet it in a spirit as determined as the administration has exhibited toward the South.

Thereafter, the secession convention voted on April 17, provisionally, to secede, on the condition of ratification by a statewide referendum. That same day, the convention adopted an ordinance of secession, in which it stated the immediate cause of Virginia's declaring of secession, "the oppression of the Southern slave-holding States".[34]

E.L. Ayers, who felt that "even Fort Sumter might have passed, however, had Lincoln not called for the arming of volunteers",[35] wrote of the convention's final decision:

The decision came from what seemed to many white Virginians the unavoidable logic of the situation: Virginia was a slave state; the Republicans had announced their intention of limiting slavery; slavery was protected by the sovereignty of the state; an attack on that sovereignty by military force was an assault on the freedom of property and political representation that sovereignty embodied. When the federal government protected the freedom and future of slavery by recognizing the sovereignty of the states, Virginia's Unionists could tolerate the insult the Republicans represented; when the federal government rejected that sovereignty, the threat could no longer be denied even by those who loved the Union.[36]

The Governor of Virginia immediately began mobilizing the Virginia State Militia to strategic points around the state. Former Governor Henry Wise had arranged with militia officers on April 16, before the final vote, to seize the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry and the Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk. On April 17 in the debate over secession Wise announced to the convention that these events were already in motion. On April 18 the arsenal was captured and most of the machinery was moved to Richmond. At Gosport, the Union Navy, believing that several thousand militia were headed their way, evacuated and abandoned Norfolk, Virginia and the navy yard, burning and torching as many of the ships and facilities as possible.[37]

Colonel Robert E. Lee resigned his U.S. Army commission, turning down an offer of command of the Union army. He would ultimately join the Confederate army instead.

Virginia's ordinance of secession was ratified in a referendum held on May 23, 1861, by a vote of 132,201 to 37,451.[34][38]

The Confederate Congress proclaimed Richmond to be new capital of the Confederacy and Confederate troops moved into northern Virginia before the referendum was held. The actual number of votes for or against secession are unknown since votes in many counties in northwestern and eastern Virginia (where most of Virginia's unionists lived) were "discarded or lost." Governor Letcher "estimated" the vote for these areas.[39][40] [41]

The reaction to the referendum was swift on both sides. Confederate troops shut down the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, one of Washington City's two rail links to Ohio and points west. The next day, the U.S. Army moved into northern Virginia. With both armies now in northern Virginia, the stage was set for war. In June, Virginian unionists met at the Wheeling Convention to set up the Restored Government of Virginia. Francis Pierpont was elected governor. The restored government raised troops to defend the Union and appointed two Senators to the United States Senate. It resided in Wheeling until August 1863 when it moved to Alexandria with West Virginia's admittance to the Union. During the summer of 1861, parts of the northern, western and eastern Virginia, including the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, were returned to Union control. Norfolk returned to union control in May 1862. These areas would be administered by the Restored Government of Virginia, with the northwestern counties later becoming the new state of West Virginia. In April 1865, Francis Pierpont and the Restored Government of Virginia moved to Richmond.

In 1894, Virginian and former Confederate soldier John S. Mosby, reflecting back on his role in the war, stated in a letter to friend that "I've always understood that we went to war on account of the thing we quarreled with the North about. I've never heard of any other cause of quarrel than slavery."[42][43]

Virginia's strategic resources played a key role in dictating the objectives of the war there. Its agricultural and industrial capacity, and the means of transporting this production, were major strategic targets for attack by Union forces and defense by Confederate forces throughout the war.

The Confederate need for war materiel played a very significant role in its decision to move its capital from Montgomery, Alabama to Richmond in May 1861, despite its dangerous northern location 100 miles south of the United States capital in Washington, DC. It was mainly for this industrial reason that the Confederates fought so hard to defend the city. The capital of the Confederacy could easily be moved again if necessary, but Richmond's industry and factories could not be moved.

Richmond was the only large-scale industrial city controlled by the Confederacy during most of the Civil War. The city's warehouses were the supply and logistical center for Confederate forces. The city's Tredegar Iron Works, the 3rd largest foundry in the United States at the start of the war, produced most of the Confederate artillery, including a number of giant rail-mounted siege cannons. The company also manufactured railroad locomotives, boxcars and rails, as well as steam propulsion plants and iron plating for warships. Richmond's factories also produced guns, bullets, tents, uniforms, harnesses, leather goods, swords, bayonets, and other war materiel. A number of textile plants, flour mills, brick factories, newspapers and book publishers were located in Richmond. Richmond had shipyards too, although they were smaller than the shipyards controlled by the Union in Norfolk, Virginia.

The city's loss to the Union army in April 1865 made a Union victory in the Civil War inevitable. With Virginia firmly under Union control, including the industrial centers of Richmond, Petersburg and Norfolk, the mostly rural and agricultural deep south lacked the industry needed to supply the Confederate war effort.

At the outbreak of the war Petersburg, Virginia was second only to Richmond among Virginia cities in terms of population and industrialization. The juncture of five railroads, it provided the only continuous rail link to the Deep South. Located 20 miles (32Â km) south of Richmond, its defense was a top priority; the day that Petersburg fell, Richmond fell with it.

In the western portion of the state (as defined today), the Shenandoah Valley was considered the "Breadbasket of the Confederacy". The valley was connected to Richmond via the Virginia Central Railroad and the James River and Kanawha Canal.

The Blue Ridge mountains and similar sites had long been mined for iron, and (though as the war progressed, shortages in manpower limited their production). In southwest Virginia, the large salt works at Saltville provided a key source of salt to the Confederacy, essential in preserving food for use by the army. It was the target of two battles.

The first and last significant battles of the war were held in Virginia, the first being the First Battle of Bull Run and the last being the Battle of Appomattox Courthouse. From May 1861 to April 1865, Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy. The White House of the Confederacy, located a few blocks north of the State Capital, was home to the family of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

The first major battle of the Civil War occurred on July 21, 1861. Union forces attempted to take control of the railroad junction at Manassas for use as a supply line, but the Confederate Army had moved its forces by train to meet the Union. The Confederates won the First Battle of Bull Run (known as "First Battle of Manassas" in southern naming convention) and the year went on without a major fight.

Union general George B. McClellan was forced to retreat from Richmond by Robert E. Lee's army. Union general Pope was defeated at the Second Battle of Manassas. Following the one-sided Confederate victory Battle of Fredericksburg.

When fighting resumed in the spring of 1863, Union general Hooker was defeated at Chancellorsville by Lee's army.

Ulysses Grant's Overland Campaign was fought in Virginia. The campaign included battles of attrition at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor and ended with the Siege of Petersburg and Confederate defeat.

In September 1864, the Southern Punch, a newspaper based in Richmond, reiterated the Confederacy's cause:

... WE ARE FIGHTING FOR INDEPENDENCE THAT OUR GREAT AND NECESSARY DOMESTIC INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY SHALL BE PRESERVED, and for the preservation of other institutions of which slavery is the ground work...

In April 1865, the Confederate regime fled Richmond as U.S. forces approached the city. As the Confederates fled, they set fire to Richmond's public works to prevent them from being used by U.S. forces.[46] A fire set in Richmond by the retreating Confederate army burned 25 percent of the city before being put out by the Union Army. It was the Union Army that saved the city from widespread conflagration and ruin.[47] As a result, Richmond emerged from the Civil War as an economic powerhouse, with most of its buildings and factories undamaged.

The western counties could not tolerate the Confederacy; they formed a pro Union state government of Virginia in 1861 (recognized by Washington), then with its permission formed the new state of West Virginia in 1863.

At the Richmond secession convention on April 17, 1861, the delegates from western counties were 17 in favor and 30 against secession.[48] From May to August 1861, a series of Unionist conventions met in Wheeling; the Second Wheeling Convention constituted itself as a legislative body called the Restored Government of Virginia. It declared Virginia was still in the Union but that the state offices were vacant without the office holders' oath required in Article VI of the U.S. Constitution, and it elected Francis H. Pierpont as the new governor. This body gained formal recognition by the Lincoln administration on July 4.[49] Congress seated the Restored Government's U.S. Senators and Representatives in the 37th Congress.[50]

On August 20 the Wheeling body passed an ordinance for the creation of a separate state; it was put to public vote on Oct. 24. The vote was in favor of the new state of West Virginia, distinct from the Pierpont government, which persisted at Alexandria as the civil government for Virginia until the end of the war.[51] Congress and Lincoln approved, then after providing for gradual emancipation of slaves in the new state constitution, West Virginia became the 35th state on June 20, 1863. After statehood was achieved, the counties of Jefferson and Berkeley were annexed to the new state late in 1863.[52] Congress continued to seat the Restored Government's U.S. Senators, but it did not seat the three representatives presenting credentials from the truncated Union occupied Virginia for the 38th Congress. The entire Virginia state delegation went vacant at the end of the war.[53]

Throughout the conflict, Confederate Representatives supporting the Jefferson Davis administration retained their seats in the Confederate Congress throughout Virginia, regardless of Union disruption or occupation.[54] Richmond did not recognize the new state of West Virginia, even though Confederates did not vote there. West Virginia contributed about 32,000 soldiers to the Union Army and about 10,000 to the Confederate cause. But as in Kentucky and Missouri, the ultimate decision would be made on the battlefield, and early on Richmond sent in Robert E. Lee to secure Virginia's northwest frontier. Lee found little local support and his Confederates were defeated by Union forces from Ohio. Union victories in 1861 drove the Confederate forces out of the Monongahela and Kanawha valleys, and throughout the remainder of the war the Union held the region west of the Alleghenies and controlled the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the north.[55]

Virginia's Confederate government fielded about 150,000 troops in the American Civil War. They came from all economic and social levels, including some Unionists and former Unionists. However, at least 30,000 of these men were actually from other states. Most of these non-Virginians were from Maryland, whose government was controlled by Unionists during the war. Another 20,000 of these troops were from what would become the State of West Virginia in August 1863. Important Confederates from Virginia included General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, General Stonewall Jackson (born in what became West Virginia), General J.E.B. Stuart, General A.P. Hill, and General Jubal Early.

Roughly 50,000 Virginians served in the Union military, including West Virginians and roughly 6,000 Virginians of African ancestry. Some of these men served in Maryland units. Some African Americans, both freedmen and runaway slaves, enlisted in states as far away as Massachusetts. Areas of Virginia that supplied Union soldiers and sent few or no men to fight for the Confederacy had few slaves, a high percentage of poor families, and a history of opposition to secession. These areas were located near northern states and were often under Union control.[56] 40% of Virginia's officers in the United States military when the war started stayed and fought for the Union.[57] These men included Winfield Scott, General-in-Chief of the Union Army, David G. Farragut, First Admiral of the Union Navy, and General George Henry Thomas.

At least one Virginian actually served in both the Confederate and Union armies. At the beginning of the war, a Confederate soldier from Fairfax County approached the Union soldiers guarding Chain Bridge in his Confederate uniform. Asked what he was doing trying to cross the bridge, he responded that he was travelling to Washington, D.C. to see his uncle. The perplexed Union soldiers asked who his uncle was and the soldier replied his name is Uncle Sam. He was quickly enlisted as a Union scout due to his knowledge of the local terrain.[58]

Numerous battlefields and sites have been partially or fully preserved in Virginia. Those managed by the Federal government include Manassas National Battlefield Park, Richmond National Battlefield Park, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park, Petersburg National Battlefield, Appomattox Court House National Historical Park.


address for department of justice in washington dc

The building is located at 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, on a trapezoidal lot on the block bounded by Pennsylvania Avenue to the north, Constitution Avenue to the south, 9th Street to the east, and 10th Street NW to the west, in the Federal Triangle.[2] It is located west of the National Archives Building, east of the Internal Revenue Service Building, north of the National Mall, and south of the J. Edgar Hoover Building. The building is owned by the General Services Administration.[3] It comprises seven floors[4] and 1,200,000 sq ft (110,000 m2).[2][3] It houses Department of Justice offices, including the office of the United States Attorney General. Completed in 1935, it was renamed after the 64th Attorney General of the United States, Robert F. Kennedy, in 2001.

Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building is the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the United States Department of Justice.

The Office of the Attorney General was created by the 1st United States Congress by the Judiciary Act of 1789.[2] In 1792, the Congress made the Attorney General a Cabinet-level post.[2] In 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill creating the Department of Justice.[2] Still, there was not yet a permanent home for either the Attorney General or the Justice Department, and each had occupied a succession of temporary spaces in federal government buildings and privately owned office buildings.[2] While plans to provide the Department with its own building were developed as early as 1910, it was not until the late 1920s that significant progress was made toward this goal.[2]

In 1908 and in 1928, Congress authorized the purchase of land in what is now known as the Federal Triangle for departmental offices.[2] The authorization was part of a wave of government construction; the 1926 Public Buildings Act permitted the government to hire private architects for the design of federal buildings, which led to large-scale construction of public buildings, including the development of the 70-acre (280,000Â m2) Federal Triangle site between the Capitol and the White House.[2] Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon and the Board of Architectural Consultants, composed of leading architects and headed by Edward H. Bennett of the Chicago architectural firm of Bennett, Parsons & Frost, developed design guidelines for the site.[2] Under Bennett's direction, each member of the board designed one of the buildings in the Federal Triangle complex to "provide each government agency or bureau with a building that would address its functional needs, while combining the individual buildings into a harmonious, monumental overall design expressive of the dignity and authority of the federal government."[2]

Milton Bennett Medary of the Philadelphia firm Zantzinger, Borie & Medary was selected as the architect for the Department of Justice Building; upon Medary's death in 1929, the project was taken over by his two partners Charles L. Borie, Jr. and Clarence C. Zantzinger.[2]

In 1930, Congress appropriated $10 million for the construction of a permanent Department of Justice headquarters in the Federal Triangle.[2] The building was constructed from 1931 to 1934.[2] Upon completion in 1935, the building finally provided a headquarters for the Attorney General and Department of Justice.[2] From 1935 to 1941 68 murals were painted in the building (an example of New Deal art).[2]

In 1966, the Department of Justice building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site.[2]

In 1974, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which had been headquartered in the same building, moved into its own headquarters at the J. Edgar Hoover Building across the street on Pennsylvania Avenue.

In 1978, the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) was established after the passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The court of 11 judges appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States (increased from seven by the USA PATRIOT Act) meets in secret "behind a cipher-locked door in a windowless, bug-proof, vault-like room guarded 24 hours a day on the top floor of the Justice Department building," which columnist James Bamford likened to "a modern Star Chamber."[5]

From March 1998 to January 2006,[3] major renovations to the building took place, including work on plumbing, electrical wiring, heating and cooling, and elevators. The project included replication of original lighting for the building's corridors and other ornamental spaces.[2] A new $3.1 million conference center and "data room" were built, the main library and executive suites were restored, and a new mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) system was installed.[3]

The project's submitting firm and construction manager was the Gilbane Building Company, the architectural firm was Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates, the structural engineering firm was Delon Hampton Associates, and the mechanical/electrical engineer was H.F. Lenz Company.[3]

Several difficulties were present: The building had to remain operational during renovations, and hazardous materials were involved, with a large-scale asbestos abatement effort, lead paint removal, and the handling of mercury-vapor lamps with PCBs. The Gilbane Building Company established a "stop-work" rule to halt construction when hazardous material was discovered.[3] An additional complication was security concerns, because of sensitive and classified information in the building. According to Building Design & Construction, construction personnel were "classified into three tiers and were permitted access to specific building areas based on these three levels of security clearance."[3] The extensive murals, sculptures, and plaster reliefs in the building were protected with shields during the construction, and temperature, humidity, and dust controls were installed.[3]

The cost of the renovations was $142 million, but the project came in $4.2 million under budget, in part due to significant conservation efforts.[3] Design consultants decided to renovate courtyard plaza and garage structures instead of demolishing them, using 95 percent of existing materials.[3] Cobblestone blocks in the courtyard were "removed, cleaned, refurbished, and reinstalled," with "the foundation of the courtyard's original fountain" being preserved and its pipes and pumps replaced.[3] Further, only the concrete of "questionable integrity around the facility's garage beams" was repaired, instead of having all the concrete replaced.[3] For the plaza deck, the integrity of the concrete structure was tested. Some sections were found to be repairable, preventing them from being rebuilt and diverting 14,520 tons of waste from landfill.[3] Finally, the original foundation and structure building was preserved, which saved 110 tons of waste material and decreased "the risk of penetrating a sensitive waterproofing membrane system."[3] Additional costs were saved through "early buyout": "taking advantage of the purchasing power of the entire four-phase construction job," the construction management firm "was able to secure prices early on in the project that otherwise would have been spent covering the escalating costs of building materials."[3]

These measures allowed the GSA to carry out additional work: "restoration and repointing of the limestone exterior," repair and replacement of the roof, restoration of "ornate painting and plaster," further hazardous materials abatement, and fire code upgrades.[3] Ultimately close to $1 million was returned to the GSA.

In 2001, the Department of Justice Main Building was renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in honor of Robert F. Kennedy, who was Attorney General (1961â€“1964) under his brother, President John F. Kennedy, and his successor, President Lyndon Johnson. Kennedy was later a U.S. Senator from New York and presidential candidate until his assassination in 1968.[2] President George W. Bush directed the General Services Administrator to designate the building as the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in a presidential memorandum,[6][7] and gave the rededication address on November 20, 2001.[8][9] Attorney General John Ashcroft also rededicated it in a speech at the Justice Department.

Today the building retains exceptional historic integrity. The original facades, lobbies, corridors, library, Great Hall, executive suites and private offices retain their original materials and design, including the extensive use of ornamental aluminum.[2]

The building has been the site of demonstrations on the streets outside. On November 16, 2007, African American leaders led by Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III, and Charles Kenzie Steele, Jr. protested in a march on Pennsylvania Avenue to the Justice Department against perceived racial inequality in the justice system. The protest was precipitated by the case of the Jena Six.[10][11]

The design by Zantzinger, Borie, and Medary blends influences from neoclassical (Greek Revival) and Art Deco architectural styles.[2] The design is similar to other Federal Triangle buildings, with an Indiana limestone facade over a steel frame, red-tile hip roof, and colonnades, as well as interior courtyards to provide natural light and ventilation.[2]

The inscription on one of the sides of the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building is, "Justice is founded in the rights bestowed by nature upon man. Liberty is maintained in security of justice."

It is distinguished from other Federal Triangle buildings by Art Deco elements and the innovative use of aluminum for details that were traditionally cast in bronze.[2] All entrances to the building feature 20-foot (6.1Â m)-high aluminum doors that slide into recessed pockets. Interior stair railings, grillwork, and door trim are aluminum, as are Art Deco torchieres, doors for the building's 25 elevators, and more than 10,000 light fixtures.[2]

The building has many distinctive interior spaces, including the Great Hall entry foyer and the Law Library.[2] The two-story Great Hall features Art Deco light fixtures and a terra-cotta tile floor with gray marble borders.[2] The Law Library, located on the fifth floor, is a two-story room distinguished by a pair of tall Art Deco lights and a 20-panel mural by Maurice Sterne.[2]

The building contains the largest historic art collection of any General Services Administrationâ€“built facility.[3] Sculpture is integrated into the fabric of the building.[2] Sculptors C. Paul Jennewein and Warren Straton were selected to create a unified design concept for the building's exterior and interior spaces, designing 57 sculptural elements for the building. Their work ranged from the carved limestone figures for the pediments on the Constitution Avenue facade, to the aluminum Art Deco torchieres and light fixtures throughout the interior.[2]

The interior of the U.S. Department of Justice building contains many decorative wall paintings.[2] The building's extensive murals depict scenes of daily life from throughout American history and symbolic interpretations or allegories relating to the role of justice in American society.[2] In all, 68 murals were completed between 1935 and 1941, at a cost of $68,000, one percent of the cost of the building.[2] Mural artists include George Biddle, Henry Varnum Poor, John Steuart Curry, Boardman Robinson, and Leon Kroll.

The striking, colorful concrete mosaics on the ceilings of the vehicular and pedestrian entryways from 9th and 10th Streets were created by the Washington, D.C. master craftsman John Joseph Earley, an innovator in the aesthetic applications of the material.[2] Visible from the street, these mosaics retain much of the brilliance of their original colors.[2]

A sculpture of the Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale by Bela Pratt stands on the southern side of the building.

Spirit of Justice is a cast aluminum Art Deco statue designed by Jennewein. It depicts Lady Justice (a woman wearing a toga-like dress with one breast revealed and arms raised) and stands on display along with its male counterpart Majesty of Law in the Great Hall. Unlike many representations of Lady Justice, Spirit of Justice wears no blindfold to symbolize blind justice. The statue measures 12.5 feet (150Â inches) and was commissioned in 1933 at a cost of $7000, and has stood with Majesty of Law in the Great Hall since 1936.[12]

In 1986, the statue was seen behind thenâ€“Attorney General Edwin Meese during a press conference as he discussed the final report of the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography (Meese Report). According to the Associated Press, "photographers dived to the floor to capture the image of him raising the report in the air, with the partially nude female statue behind him".[13]

In 2002, under Attorney General John Ashcroft, curtains were famously put up blocking the bare-breasted statue from view during speeches.[13] According to Justice Department spokesman Shane Hix, the department spent $8,000 to purchase blue drapes to hide them. Under Ashcroft the department had previously rented blue drapes at a cost of $2,000 every time the agency had a formal event.[13] ABC News reported that Attorney General John Ashcroft had ordered the statues covered because he did not like being photographed in front of them, but Hix insisted that the Attorney General was not aware of the change and that the nudity on the statue was not the reason for the purchase, citing instead "aesthetic" reasons, such as the background for television cameras.[13][14] Later, however, internal e-mails surface referred to "hiding the statues" and "the episode was quickly seized upon by pundits and satirists as a symbol of Ashcroft's allegedly puritanical and censorious bearing."[12] Journalist and writer Claire Braz-Valentine wrote an open lyrical letter to Ashcroft, which included the lines "John, John, John,/you've got your priorities all wrong."[15]

Ashcroft joked about the incident on the Late Show with David Letterman in April 2002.[12] In May 2007, the "Inside Washington" column in National Journal reported that Monica Goodling, a former aide to Ashcroft, was responsible for the covering of the statue.[16]

The curtains were removed on June 24, 2005, under Ashcroft's successor Alberto Gonzales. Justice Department spokesman Kevin Madden was quoted as saying that "the decision to remove the drapes was made by Paul Corts, assistant attorney general for administration, and that Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales 'agreed with the recommendation.'"[12]


who has the lowest attendance in major league baseball

Zero spectators attended a game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago White Sox on April 29, 2015, at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The game was closed to spectators for safety concerns surrounding the 2015 Baltimore protests.[2] The record was previously held by an 1882 game between the Troy Trojans and the Worcester Ruby Legs in Worcester, Massachusetts, which six spectators attended.[3]

Major League Baseball attendance records

115,301 is the all-time record. It was a preseason game between the defending champions Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday March 29, 2008 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.[1]

The highest per game attendance average is held by the Colorado Rockies in 1994 with 57,570 for 57 home games at Mile High Stadium during the strike shortened season.

Toronto Blue Jays became the first team in baseball history to draw 4 million mark in attendance in 1991 season.[38]


who is the first malayali governor of kerala

Viswanathan hailed from Thrikkaderi in Palakkad district of Kerala[8] and became the first Malayali to be appointed the Governor of Kerala[9] which was unusual given the convention of not appointing a native as the Governor of his home state in India. He studied at the Central College, Bangalore, University College, London and at the Balliol College, Oxford before joining the Indian Civil Service in 1930.[1]

V. Viswanathan

Venkata Viswanathan (25 January 1909[1] â€“ 16 January 1987[2][3]) was an ICS officer[4] who served several gubernatorial tenures across several provinces of India. He was the Chief Commissioner of Bhopal from 1950 to 1952 and of Delhi from 1964 to 1966,[5] the Lieutenant Governor of Himachal Pradesh from February 26, 1966 to May 6, 1967[6] and Governor of Kerala from May 15, 1967 to March 31, 1973.[7]

Viswanathan had a reputation of being the ‘eyes and ears of Delhi’ and often took an anti-Communist line. He sparred with the then Chief Minister EMS Namboodiripad and once almost precipitated a constitutional crisis, when he prepared his own address to the Kerala Legislature. The then government rejected his draft and insisted that he read the address which the government had prepared. The Governor complied with this demand.[10] In September 1968, Viswanathan made attempts to persuade EMS to resign.[11]

During his tenure, EMS Namboodiripad and C Achutha Menon served as Chief Ministers.[12]
He was also a part of the five member Committee of Governors constituted by President V V Giri to look into norms, functions and powers of the Governors of States.[13]


where is christopher kimball from cook's country

Kimball was born and raised in Westchester County, New York, the son of Mary Alice White and Edward Norris Kimball.[6] The family had a cabin in southwestern Vermont.[1]

Christopher Kimball

Christopher Kimball (born June 5, 1951) is an American chef, editor, publisher, and radio/TV personality.

He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy and then Columbia University (1973) with a degree in Primitive Art.[1][2]

After graduating from Columbia, he went to work with his stepbrother in a publishing company. Soon after, he worked for The Center for Direct Marketing in Westport, Connecticut and also started taking cooking courses.[1] After securing $100,000 in angel investments from friends and family, he started Cookâ€™s Magazine from a tiny office in Weston, Connecticut in 1980 when he was 29 years old.[1] He sold the magazine to the Bonnier Group in 1989 and moved on to other publishing ventures.[1]

Kimball was a co-founder and has been editor and publisher of America's Test Kitchen, which produces television and radio shows, and publishes magazines, including Cook's Illustrated,[6] which Kimball launched in 1993. It also publishes Cook's Country magazine, which was launched in 2004,[1] and former publisher of the now-defunct Cook's Magazine.[citation needed] The company's revenue comes from its readers, rather than advertisers, which differentiates them from the competitors.[1]

Its cookbook publisher division is Two Pigs Farm. Boston Common Press, a private partnership between Kimball, Eliot Wadsworth II, and George P. Denny III, owns Kimballâ€™s publishing activities.[1] Kimball also hosted the syndicated Public Television cooking shows America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Country from America's Test Kitchen.

On November 16, 2015, a news release from Boston Common Press, parent company of Cooks Country/Cooks Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen, announced the departure of Christopher Kimball. The 2016 TV programs had already been filmed and Kimball appeared as host, but his direct participation in the company ended immediately.[7] He remains a minority stockholder in the closely held company.

In 2016, he embarked on a new venture, Christopher Kimball's Milk Street, located on Milk Street in Boston, Massachusetts.[8]

On October 31, 2016, the company behind America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Illustrated Magazine filed a lawsuit against Kimball in Suffolk Superior Court, claiming that Kimball "literally and conceptually ripped off" his former employer.[9] In the lawsuit, America's Test Kitchen claims that Kimball built his new venture while still on their payroll, using company resources in the form of recipes and databases to help shape Milk Street Kitchen into a direct competitor[10][11].

He is the author of The Cook's Bible, The Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook, Dear Charlie, The Dessert Bible and Fannie's Last Supper, and is a columnist for the New York Daily News and the Boston-based Tab Communications.

Other television appearances include This Old House and the morning shows Weekend Today and The Early Show. He is a regular contributor on National Public Radio. On January 8, 2011, Kimball began hosting WGBH-FM's America's Test Kitchen Radio distributed by PRX.

He has been married three times. He had a son and three daughters with his second wife, Adrienne. They divorced in December 2012.[3][4][5] On June 30, 2013, Kimball married Melissa Lee Baldino, executive producer of the America's Test Kitchen television show.[6] She is now co-founder of Christopher Kimball's Milk Street.[12]

Their son, Oliver Kimball, was born on May 4, 2017.


is target australia the same as target usa

In 1968, Myer Emporium Ltd purchased the chain of 16 stores and renamed the company Lindsay's Target Pty Ltd,[4] with an aim to expand the business.[6] With the stores rebranded as Target, it quickly established itself throughout Australia, and within 3 years had stores in Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and NSW.[5] Despite the similar logo, name and type of outlets, Target carried no corporate connection to US department store Target.[7] In March 1973, "Lindsay's" was dropped from the company name when the business was renamed Target Australia Pty Ltd.[4]

Target Australia

Target Australia Pty Ltd (formerly Lindsay's and later Lindsay's Target) is a mid-price department store chain owned by Wesfarmers. It is Australia's largest department store chain by store number, operating 303 stores throughout the country (178 Target stores and 125 Target Country).[3] Products it sells include branded clothing, cosmetics, homewares, electrical, fitness and consumer electronics.[citation needed] The company's national support office is currently located in North Geelong, Victoria but will move its headquarters to Williams Landing at the end of 2018.

In 1926, George Lindsay and Alex McKenzie opened their first store in Geelong selling dress fabrics, manchester and furnishings.[4] Lindsay had begun his retail empire five years earlier, running a store in Ouyen, Victoria, but moved to Geelong to increase the opportunity for growth.[5] The company progressively established stores throughout Victoria, running with a policy of selling quality goods at half the normal rate of profit.[5]

By 1982, Myer was operating 27 stores under the Target brand, but sold 22 of these with 14 going to GJ Coles & Coy Ltd.[8]

In August 1985, Myer Emporium Ltd and GJ Coles & Coy Ltd merged to become Coles Myer Limited. In 1996, Coles Myer merged the Target and Fosseys brands,[4] and their first speciality store Baby Target was established.[citation needed] Then in 1998, their second speciality store, Target Home opened.[citation needed] Fosseys stores were later renamed Target Country,[4] becoming the third speciality store under the Target name.

In 2001, Target announced its first ever loss, to the sum of $43m.[citation needed] New senior management was soon put in place, with Target repositioning itself from a store directly competing with Coles Myer stablemate Kmart and Woolworths Limited's Big W, to a more stylish, up-market, but still value-for-money, alternative to speciality stores.[citation needed] Store fittings and layouts were altered to reflect this change. In 2006 Target appointed Launa Inman as managing director, named Telstra Business Women of the Year in 2003, a result of her achievements as an apparel retail buyer for the company. Her position saw Target's $32 million loss at the end of 2000 turn into a $68 million profit 18 months later.[9]

Prior to its November 2007 takeover of Coles Group, Wesfarmers stated in August 2007 that it would consider converting some Kmart stores to the Target brand.[10]

In May 2009, Target stopped providing free plastic bags for its customers, but in 2013 reversed this decision.[11] In November 2011, Dene Rogers, the former chief executive of North American retailer Sears Canada, replaced Inman as Target's managing director,[12] but by April 2013 Rogers had been replaced by former chief operations director at Coles Stuart Machin.[13]

In February 2016, Wesfarmers restructured Target and Kmart under a single 'Department Stores' division,[2] headed by Kmart managing director Guy Russo. An accounting scandal that created $21 million in fraudulent profits was reported on 11 April 2016.[14] Although it is not believed CEO Stuart Machin orchestrated or ordered the accounting irregularities, he took the blame for the scandal and departed Target.[15]

In June 2016 at a Wesfarmers annual strategy briefing Guy Russo announced that Target would be exiting toy sales, pet care and luggage.[16]

Target announced in April 2016 it would relocate its Geelong head office to Melbourne, resulting in an unspecified number of redundancies.[17] Following the April 2016 announcement, Wesfarmers confirmed in December that Target would relocate to Williams Landing, Melbourne in late 2018.[18]

In June 2017, Wesfarmers announced that Target and Kmart would be merging some of their back office operations including procurement. Some Target stores would be converted to Kmart stores while others would be closed.[19][20]

In 1996, Target introduced Baby Target as a standalone store format specifically for baby products.[citation needed] The concept had limited success. Another format tried by Target was the homewares-themed store Target Home, but was later discontinued. Target Home stores have since been phased out to become larger Target stores, and still stock a larger range of homewares in a number of locations in Australia and New Zealand including Joondalup and Carousel in WA, Edwardstown in SA, Highpoint and Greensborough in VIC, and Warringah Mall in NSW and Tauranga, North Island.

Fosseys was established in 1926 at George Street, Sydney by Alfred Bristow Fossey and grew to 148 stores throughout Australia, with an annual turnover of $300 million.[citation needed] As part of the acquisition of Grace Bros., which had purchased J.B. Young of Queanbeyan who owned Fossey's, Myer and later Coles Myer came to own Fossey's. Coles Myer used the Fosseys brand to unify a range of smaller variety stores trading under a range of other names, including Coles Variety stores, which had been the foundation of GJ Coles & Coy Ltd.

Coles Myer merged the operations of Fosseys with Target in 1996, redesigning Fosseys stores to focus on family apparel retailing in rural Australia. It also introduced Fosseys-branded merchandise with attributes of value, convenience and confidence. By 2001, all Fosseys stores located close to Target stores were closed; the remaining Fosseys stores, rebranded Target Country, continue to focus on apparel sales in smaller towns without full-merchandise Target stores. From the mid 1990s onwards there was a rebranding of some Grace Bros stores in regional NSW to Target. This included a large number of stores which had previously been part of the Dubbo-based Western Stores. Locations which converted from Grace Bros. to Target and then Target Country include Bathurst, Cowra, West Wyalong, Forbes, and Young.

As of 1 July 2007, employees of Fosseys (Australia) Pty Ltd were transferred to Target Australia Pty Ltd, and Fosseys as a legal entity was dissolved. As at June 2008, there were 118 Target Country stores throughout Australia.[21]

In Charters Towers, Queensland the long established Pollard's Store became a Fosseys and is now, most likely the only Target or Target Country store which features leadlight windows.[citation needed]

In March 2007, Target launched a 42-piece winter collection designed by Stella McCartney. This exclusive Australian launch was heralded as one of the biggest retail coups of the year, and Australian media noted frenzied activity in Target stores on the morning of the launch.[22] A number of metropolitan stores sold out of the range as soon as 10 minutes after opening, and items from the collection soon began appearing for sale on eBay at inflated prices. Another Stella McCartney collection was released in October 2010, to lesser fanfare.

In May 2007, Target announced its next designer range from Joshua Goot to a mixed reaction,[23] and subsequently produced a collaboration with American designer Zac Posen in April 2008. In the same month, Australian fashion designer Collette Dinnigan released a range of lingerie labelled the 'Wild Hearts' collection.[24]

In February 2012, Target launched a line of women's lingerie designed by American burlesque dancer and model Dita Von Teese. Throughout 2012, Target also announced designer collaborations for children with Collette Dinnigan[25] and Ksubi[26] and Roberto Cavalli[27] for women.

In March 2016, Target launched a collection of women's, men's, children's and home wares by Jean-Paul Gaultier.[28]


when does andrew come out on desperate housewives

Some time later, Bree and Rex visit Andrew at the camp. Andrew asks to see his father alone; Bree thinks this is because he blames her for sending him to the camp and storms into the meeting room to tell him she did the right thing.[21] There, Rex reveals that Andrew wanted to see him alone because he fears he is gay. Bree is horrified, and despite Rex's misgivings, insists Andrew come home with them immediately, saying "Our son just told us that he might be gay. There are two hundred other boys in this camp. Now, I could explain to you what might happen if we left him here, but I'm a lady and I don't use that kind of language."[22] Rex reminds her that he is still her son and Bree tries to comfort Andrew by telling him "I would love you even if you were a murderer".[23]

Andrew Van de Kamp

Andrew Van de Kamp is a fictional character in the ABC television series Desperate Housewives played by Shawn Pyfrom, and is the son of one of the title characters, Bree Van de Kamp, and her first husband Rex Van de Kamp.

As one of the few LGBT characters on prime time television secure with his sexuality, Andrew's storylines have been well received by gay groups. However, his early attitude toward his mother and various crimes have also garnered criticism.

Andrew first appears in the "Pilot" of season one.[5] His first speaking role is arguing with his mother, Bree, over her desire for perfection.[6] He is attached to his father, Rex, and is upset when Bree tries to cover up their impending divorce.[7] When he confronts her about her lies after she discovers he lied to her, she says, "Just because I chose not to share my marital problems with you does not give you the right to be rude!": and Andrew replies, "How about driving my father away? Do I get to be rude then?", and shuts the door in her face.[8] Andrew repeatedly breaks the rules during Season 1, infuriating Bree, who eventually humiliates him by turning up at the strip club he is visiting with his friends while grounded.[9] Bree does later apologize to Andrew (who also admits how much he misses his father) for lying to him, but removes the door to his room in punishment for him smoking marijuana.[10]

His parents' acrimonious divorce results in Rex buying Andrew a car. Bree tries to get him to give it back but Andrew refuses. Later that episode, in his most serious crime, he knocked down Juanita "Mama" Solis with his car while drunk. Mama survived this but was in a coma in hospital and died later after waking up from the coma and falling down stairs.[11] His parents help him cover it up but Andrew doesn't feel any remorse for his crime.[12] He continues to misbehave and Bree gets him dropped from the school swim team for smoking marijuana in an attempt to make him regret his actions.[13] Further angered by her refusal to allow Rex to convalesce from heart surgery at home, Andrew threatens, "You wanna see how long I can hold a grudge? Go ahead and abandon my father because I promise you will be sorry."[14] When he finds out about his father's adultery, however, he apologizes to Bree and is angry with Rex.[15]

When Bree tells Andrew that if he gets his friend Lisa pregnant, he will marry her. Andrew merely laughs[16] as he is actually developing a relationship with Justin, who confesses to Gabrielle Solis that he and Andrew have been "fooling around" for some time.[17] Andrew later crashes Zach's pool party with Justin and some friends and creates mayhem.[18] However, after everyone else has gone home, Susan Mayer catches them naked in the swimming pool kissing; Andrew anxiously shouts, "I'm not, I'm not gay!" Susan then walks away, shocked by what she had just seen.[19] After getting expelled from school for drug abuse and vehicular assault on a school parking attendant, as well as continuing his rudeness towards Bree, Andrew is sent to a juvenile delinquent boot camp.[20]

Bree then invites Reverend Sykes to dinner, who tries to convince Andrew to enroll in Christian counselling. He refuses, saying "I'm not confused. I know exactly who I am."[24] This deeply upsets Bree, who tells him he has to change or he will not be with her in heaven; Andrew is shocked and agrees to meet the reverend.[25] In his final scene of the season, after swearing the reverend to secrecy, Andrew states that, not only that he does not believe in God and lied to his parents about being gay to get out of the camp.[26] This confuses the reverend, who asks him whether he is heterosexual or not: Andrew replies, "Look, I love vanilla ice cream, okay? But every now and then Iâ€™m probably gonna be in the mood for chocolate."[27] He then says he will get revenge on Bree for rejecting him by pretending to be a model son and then doing something so awful it is "going to really destroy her".[28]

Set just weeks after Rex's death, Andrew's first opening shot in Season 2 is to claim Bree is incapable of having murdered his father because "it takes guts to kill somebody".[29] He resents George Williams for dating Bree while Rex was still alive, and is very rude to him when he sees him with Bree. Andrew shaved his head after the 1st season.[30] Bree blackmails Andrew with swim club subs into attending dinner with George.[31] In response, Andrew imitates Bree's pleasure moan to provoke George, who tries to send him to his room but will not tell Bree why, and she refuses to punish Andrew without a reason.[32] George decides to get rid of Andrew by kissing his mother during his swim meet, which angers him so much that he jumps out of the pool and attacks George.[33] That evening, Andrew packs his bags for Camp Hennessey a second time.

After George dies, Bree brings Andrew back from the camp, telling him that George killed Rex in order to marry her; Andrew is disgusted that his father is dead because of her.[34] As a result, Andrew invites Justin to sleep over. He confides to him his reasons for hating Bree, saying:

He also confides his wish for his mother to slip up so that he can "take her down".[36] Later, Bree confesses to Andrew that George didn't commit suicide; he overdosed and asked her to call an ambulance, but she sat and watched him die. Andrew now has the "slip up" that he was waiting for.[37]

When Bree sees Andrew kissing Justin outside her window, she forbids him to bring his boyfriend round again.[38] Andrew mocks her and ensures Bree later walks in them in bed together.[39] Bree threatens to call the police and have Justin forcibly removed, but Andrew replies that he will tell them about what happened to George.[40] This backfires, however, when Bree hires Karl Mayer, a lawyer/friend of the family, who not only explains that Bree has not committed a crime but slams Andrew against a wall and orders him to leave her alone.[41]

Along with his sister, Andrew notices Bree's increasing alcohol consumption, and uses it against her.[42] When Bree refuses to let Andrew access his trust fund to buy a car, he calls her a "mean old drunk", and she slaps him.[43] Andrew emotionally blackmails Justin into punching him in the same place Bree slapped him.[44] He then hires a lawyer to file for emancipation from his mother, whom he accuses of hitting him while drunk.[45] Andrew tries to persuade her in "There Is No Other Way" to just let him go, but she refuses saying she hasn't "set him right" yet. Andrew, after consultation with his lawyer, tells Bree in "Could I Leave You?" that he will accuse her of molesting him if he does not get his way.

Bree's father and stepmother arrive, and convince the judge to drop the case.[46] [1] They try to reconcile the two, but Andrew persuades them to let him live with them.[47] Justin is heartbroken when he finds out, and when Bree asks him why, replies:

Bree persuades Justin to supply her with gay magazines and videos, which she plants among Andrew's things for his grandparents to find; they then leave Andrew behind, and revoke his trust fund.[49] In an attempt to make peace, Bree invites Justin to dinner.[50] [2] Andrew, at this point in time, has attempted to cause pain to his mother multiple times for sinister and unjust causes.

Andrew, however, doesn't give up hating his mother or trying to hurt her. He discovers that Peter McMillian, Bree's boyfriend, is a sex addict, and tries to persuade his sister Danielle Van de Kamp to seduce him.[51] After she refuses, he lures Peter into bed himself, where Bree finds them.[52] Bree finally gives up and leaves him with a bag of clothes and some money by an abandoned gas station because she can no longer love him unconditionally.[53] In his final scene for the season, Andrew, realizing he really is about to lose his mom, tells her that the only good thing is that he has won,[54] Bree - who had already been hurt and betrayed by Andrew multiple times - decides not to argue with him and simply slips him a "good for you."

Eight months after the end of Season 2, Bree is about to leave for her honeymoon with Orson when she sees a news report on television about homeless teenagers, in which Andrew is interviewed.[55] Horrified at what has happened to him, she cancels her honeymoon and sets out to retrieve Andrew, eventually finding him in a soup kitchen; she asks him to come back but he refuses. When she shouts "I'm your mother, for God's sakes, you're my son!", Andrew replies "No, you dumped your son at a gas station seven months ago. I'm somebody else now", and runs.[56] When Orson sees how guilty Bree feels, he finds Andrew himself and buys him lunch.[57] During their conversation, Andrew admits he worked the streets as a rent boy whenever he was desperate for money, and asks Orson not to tell his mother, before realizing what he's said and correcting himself.[58] Orson does not try to force Andrew to come home but instead points out that the reason he is living on the streets is to punish his mother, and ultimately he will only destroy himself.[59] Andrew does not initially appear to heed this, but returns home the next day at the end of "A Weekend In the Country". [3]

Bree is delighted, but insists on concocting a reason for Andrew's long absence.[60] Returning to normal social activities, he is disconcerted to see one of his former clients at a school science fair.[61] Orson is worried for Andrew, which Bree notices and asks him about later that night.[62] Wanting no secrets, Orson confesses that Andrew sold himself for money, and that the man he had been talking to was a previous client. Bree, shocked, and a friend of the man's wife, confesses all to her.[63] She takes it badly, and tells Bree in return that Danielle is sleeping with her history teacher.[64] Later, Andrew watches the tail end of her argument with Danielle and, concerned, he tries to comfort Bree, explaining that she did instill moral values, "I mean, we know the difference between right and wrong, we just chose wrong", but also that she pushed them so hard they had to rebel.[65] Bree tries to subtly get him to talk about his prostitution, but he gently brushes her off.[66] Andrew has since got a job working at Tom's pizzeria, though he takes a fairly lax attitude to his work.[67]

When Andrew overhears the conversation between Bree and Orson about the death of Monique Polier, he believes that it is Orson's fault when his mother suffers a fall from a rigged ladder. Warning Orson that he has never met "bad Andrew", but he will if he harms Bree further, Andrew then tells the nurse that Orson is dangerous and should not be left alone with Bree. Later, Andrew leaves Bree under the care of Danielle who is upset she cannot go to the Scavo's pizzeria. Danielle then decides to leave Bree with Gloria, who unexpectedly shows up with soup. At the pizzeria, Andrew sees Danielle, and she confesses she left Bree with Gloria and he then rushes home.  However, in "The Little Things You Do Together", he is knocked out by Gloria Hodge, who actually harmed Bree and intends to kill her. When Andrew comes round, he discovers that Orson has actually been trying to protect Bree, and their relationship returns to normal.

Andrew had no romance this season, though he reveals to Julie Mayer and Danielle that he has tried to seduce Austin McCann, Edie's nephew by telling them that Austin is not even gay after three beers in episode 11 'No Fits, No Fights, No Feuds'. It is Andrew who convinces Austin to leave Fairview after he impregnates Danielle.[68] In the episode "Liaisons" Andrew reveals he is only working at the Scavo's Pizzeria for $8.50 an hour because he is "doing the beer delivery guy."

In this season Andrew seemed to be quite protective of his mother, it looked like they had mended their rocky relationship.

Andrew accidentally leads his grandmother to discover that Bree is not really pregnant. He is there when his sister, Danielle, gives birth to her son.

After Andrew hears his mother talking about how she looks forward to this new chance to finally raise a child correctly, he becomes upset. He decides to move out of his mother's house and get his own apartment. Bree feels guilty and brings food to his house. Andrew tells his mother that he is not angry anymore and has forgiven her, he's moved out to try to turn his life around and stand on his own. Bree and Andrew are finally able to reach a full reconciliation. Andrew then makes Bree use a coaster for her drink, providing a humorous moment between the two as she thinks he is becoming more like her. In the season finale, in a scene set five years in the future, Andrew is in business with Bree, who is now a successful author.

Andrew becomes Bree's personal assistant for her catering company and is engaged to a man named Alex Cominis.

This season Shawn Pyfrom is promoted from "also-starring" to "starring".

Five years later, Andrew is now the personal assistant of his mother, Bree, who, with her new cookbook, is a rising public figure similar to Martha Stewart. He has appeared to have matured and is usually seen alongside his mother wearing a suit. He apparently makes a decent living as he owns a sports car.

Orson Hodge's plastic surgeon, Alex Cominis, is Andrew's fiancÃ©. When Bree discovers that Alex was once in gay porn, she tells Andrew and is surprised to learn that Andrew already knew and did not judge Alex for his past mistakes as he himself has a "sordid past" (referring to the feud between himself and his mother following the death of his father, and his work as a rent boy seven years earlier).

Andrew accuses Bree of being too protective by investigating Alex. She admits to this, and Andrew — to her surprise — is glad. It is then insinuated that Bree has come to accept her son's sexuality and plans on handling the wedding. When Andrew's soon-to-be mother in-law comes to town, in order to out-do her Bree decides to buy Andrew and Alex the former home of Martha Huber and Felicia Tilman, which is only two houses down and on Wisteria Lane.

Shawn Pyfrom quit Desperate Housewives and did not return as a series regular.[69][70] He did, however, continue to make occasional guest appearances.

He first returns in "The God-Why-Don't-You-Love-Me Blues" to visit Julie while she is in the hospital. There he reveals to her mother, Susan Delfino, that she dropped out of Medical School and has been a waitress while figuring out what to do with her life. He also reveals that she has been involved with a married man who turns out to be Angie's husband, Nick.

Andrew appears in a non-speaking cameo, gardening with Bree in "You Gotta Get a Gimmick".

In "The Chase", Bree's new employee Sam Allen (Samuel Page) suggests that Andrew has been sleeping with incompetent employee Tad (Eric Ian Colton). Andrew admits to Sam and his mother that he had a one-time affair with Tad, and defends his actions by stating he had been drinking when Tad came on to him. Bree mentions that Andrew still lives together with Alex, insinuating he is practically committing adultery. Andrew takes this as an opportunity to throw his knowledge of Bree's own affair with Karl Mayer in her face. It becomes clear that Andrew and Sam do not like each other, and that Sam's place with the company will be a source of conflict between Andrew and Bree. Sam soon reveals that he is Rex's son and Bree welcomes him into the family. Andrew isn't happy with his presence and he and Orson are both suspicious of Sam's true intentions and decide to investigate. Bree soon realizes Sam is emotionally unstable and tries to fire him. However, Sam has discovered (via a drunken Danielle) how Andrew killed Carlos' mother and blackmails her into signing over the company to him. Orson, who had been unaware of Andrew's crime, is upset at Bree covering for her son while demanding Orson turn himself in for his hit-and-run of Mike and leaves Bree. Realizing Orson is right, Bree tells Andrew she has to tell Gabrielle the truth.

Bree reveals the truth about Mama's death to Gabrielle in "Remember Paul?", and they agree not to tell Carlos for the sake of Andrew's safety and the Solis marriage (Andrew does not appear in this episode). In "You Must Meet My Wife" Bree accidentally hits Juanita Solis with her car, Bree and Andrew go to the hospital to make sure Juanita is fine. There, Andrew thanks Gaby for not telling Carlos, but she yells at both him and Bree for trying to run down her whole family. Later on, she forgives them both.

Andrew next appears in "Down the Block There's a Riot". Lynette knocks on Andrew's door to make sure Andrew has no intention of selling his house to Paul Young. Andrew acts insulted and asks "do you really think I would do that to my mother?" and Lynette replies "I don't know, you were pretty nasty as a teenager". Andrew is also seen at the homeowners meeting, and during the riot.

In "Everything's Different, Nothing's Changed", Bree fears Andrew is showing signs of alcoholism and it is revealed by Alex that he has indeed been drinking everyday. Bree later confronts Andrew about his addiction and learns that Alex has left him over it. Bree convinces Andrew to attend AA and allow her to help him, by talking to each other.

In "Moments in the Woods", Andrew is seeking to make amends, and decides to tell Carlos about running over his mother, over Bree's objections. When Carlos invites Andrew on a camping trip, Bree and Gabrielle fear the worst and follow them. Finding Carlos with a bloody towel and a dirty shovel, Bree jumps to conclusions and blurts out what Andrew did, just as her son enters the cabin. Carlos is outraged at Andrew and Bree for hiding this, trying to force Andrew to drink in his mother's memory. Carlos leaves the cabin and the trio track him down to his mother's grave. When Bree tries to take responsibility for Andrew's condition, he tells her it's time he finally stood up for his own mistakes. He and Carlos talk and Carlos is able to forgive him for a teenage mistake (although he does blame Bree for hiding it all this time).

Andrew returns home and surprises Bree by revealing he's engaged to a woman named Mary Beth. When she learns the woman is an heiress, Bree believes Andrew is just marrying her for her money. She arranges an "engagement party" with several of Andrew's gay friends. Mary Beth reveals that she knows Andrew is gay but has been unlucky in love so is willing to be with him. Bree encourages her to find a man to truly love her, however, and she breaks up with Andrew. He's upset as he had lost his job and has massive debt but Bree convinces him to stay with her and let her help him get back on his feet.

Andrew is partially based on writer Marc Cherry himself, who copied much of Bree's dialogue from his own mother's reaction when he came out to her.[71] Andrew can be selfish and manipulative, and regularly uses other people to get what he wants, for example, persuading his boyfriend Justin to hit him so he can claim Bree is abusing him. He has also committed a range of crimes, from being expelled from school for smoking marijuana, to running over MamÃ¡ Solis while drunk.[72] After Bree hushed up the accident for him, he then refused to feel bad, reasoning "She's an old lady! I have my whole life ahead of me!"[73] Marc Cherry has referred to him as being sociopathic.[74] In Season 3, however, Andrew seems to have matured after spending eight months living on the streets.

While fans have heatedly debated his sexual orientation, Shawn Pyfrom has denied that Andrew is totally homosexual, implying he is bisexual.[75] When asked whether Andrew was specifically gay or bisexual, Pyfrom stated "I really don’t even know at this point. I mean, he did make that statement [that’s he’s bisexual]. I think he’s a little more gay than he is straight, though."[76]  In "My Husband, the Pig", he refers to Austin as a "dog" and himself as a "dog-lover". Whatever Andrew is, he is one of a few LGBT teens on television secure with his sexuality.[77] Marc Cherry has commented, "Andrew Van de Kamp is perhaps the most empowered gay teen in the history of television. He's gay and he doesn't care."[78]

From Andrew's hurt reaction to his mother's rejection of him, it appears that he deeply loves his mother, as his determination to hurt her in Season 2 is so he can "stop loving her first". He also loves and respects his father, and only Rex who can get him to stop tormenting Bree in Season 1, albeit briefly. Later on in Season 2, Karl, another strong male figure, has some similar success in forcing Andrew to stop harassing Bree temporarily. In Season 3, it is Orson, and not Bree, who persuades Andrew to return home and whom he continues to respect throughout the season.

Andrew is very protective of his mother, as is shown in Season 2 when he attacks George after George tries to kiss Bree against her will, and then in Season 3 where he threatens Orson under the belief that Orson may hurt Bree. By the fifth season, a more mature Andrew has inherited traits that he once ridiculed his mother for having, such as blunt sarcasm. His relationship with his mother has also changed dramatically for the better.

As Andrew is a minor character in Desperate Housewives, he is rarely mentioned by critics. However, his storylines have occasionally attracted press coverage. In 2005, when Andrew kissed character Justin while engaging in late night foreplay in a pool in the episode "Impossible", gay groups applauded a primetime television show willing to show a romantic gay kiss; only six network television shows had done so in the past twenty years, as opposed to thirty for lesbian kisses.[79] Despite the fact that Christian and conservative groups had protested Desperate Housewives before it had even aired, few prominent leaders said anything about the kiss.[80]

Shawn Pyfrom has stated that he has received many letters from gay teens who have been encouraged by Andrew's ease with his sexuality as one of the few secure and confident LGBT teenage characters on television.[77] Marc Cherry has expressed bemusement at this, saying, "to young people, Andrew is something of a role model which is a little appalling to me because he's something of a sociopath!"[74] However, Pyfrom commented that he saw this as a good thing:

Andrew's relentless torment of his mother and other devious exploits have been negatively received by critics, with one declaring him a "Class-A jerk".[82] The Parent's Television Council named "I Know Things Now" as their "Worst Episode of the Week", in part due to Andrew's seduction of Bree's boyfriend.[83] However, his improved behavior and deep love for his mother in Season 3 has also disappointed some critics, with one saying "if he has any lines at all, he's a little angel...as if he's become something of a Stepford son!"[84]