LAD #7: Washington's Farewell Address

A Summary of Washington's Farewell Address

Washington starts his address by formally withdrawing from the Presidential race and thanks the American populace for their support and the experiences they have given him. He could not have succeed in his policies without their support. Then Washington states that he has a few notes for the Americans to consider that are the enemy of the government and if not addressed or followed, will result in the undoing of the American government. He stresses that the Americans are all bound the same love of liberty and that the union of the nation far surpasses any other alliance or community in importance and strength. All components of America (North, South, East, and West) are bound by stronger ties than any alliance possible. He warns against foreign influence that could create factions that may drive a wedge into this American unity. He stands very strongly against the division of the American government into parties or factions which is the death of American unity, what binds them into the strong nation that they are. These influences can be checked by American leaders who are attached to the notion of nation before self and how important unity really is. He also stresses religious piety in order to promote national morality which is the driving force behind the republican United States government.

LAD #6: Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality

Summary of Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality

In this proclamation Washington states that in regard to the war between numerous powers of Europe the United States will take a neutral and impartial stance. Washington says that the United States will not take any action either with or against the "belligerant" powers of Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, and the Netherlands in regard to revolutionary France. Washington also declares that any American that decides to become involved in any of the foreign hostilities will be unprotected by the United States and subject to foreign prosecution as well as most likely prosecuted domestically.

Republican Motherhood Blog

1. The Revolutionary War completely changed the role of women from just being housewives, to actually being cultivators of the next generation through Republican Motherhood.  Following the war many men saw the highest calling of the woman to be educating the future leaders of the country at home, "Is she a patriot? It is here she can best serve her country, by training up good citizens, just, human, and enlightened legislators." as described in Document A. Women were no longer asked to menially make sure the household operated smoothly, but were actually called upon to be thoroughly educated to ensure they can teach their children to be sound American citizens (Document B). Now people saw the household as less of a physical thing, and more of a symbolic representation of the nurture of the future generations that would lead the nation and it would be the woman's job to ensure that her household instilled the correct values within its inhabitants (Document D).

2. Some consequences, in regard to women, did exist as a result of Republican Motherhood. One main one was that this ideology constricted the social mobility of women and forced them to focus on their singular domain, the household. "... whenever she neglects these duties, or goes out of this sphere of action to mingle in any great public movements of the day, she is deserting the station which God and nature have assigned to her." (Document A). Now women were expected to focus even harder on their station at home and avoid become a more pivotal figure in the social workings of the nation. Still though, women were now expected to be educated as a result of Republican Motherhood to ensure the correct nurture of their children (Document B). Women were eventually even called upon to become the caretakers of American society because "She is fitted by nature to cheer the afflicted, elevate the depressed, minister to the wants of the feeble and diseased..." (Document D).

3. The ideology of Republican Motherhood was a significant step in the socialization of American women. Mainly because women took that first, and very important, step from just housewives, to actual educators, caretakers, and cultivators of the American population. "The first remark that I shall make upon this subject is that female education should be accommodated to the state of society, manners, and government of the country in which it is conducted." (Document B). Suddenly women were now getting calls for education to further their ability to nurture, which would eventually set the stage for further social and educational progress for women. Looking even by 1780 women were then capable to voice their opinions within writing, and very strong writing at that (Document C). A woman's role in society  even further escalated as Republican Motherhood set the stage for even people calling for women to be let into the social process and serve as the mediators and the caretakers not just domestically, but also in society (Document D).

1. A mother and her two sons are seated on a couch in a fairly dull room. The sons seem to be drawn to the stately portrayed mother in the portrait and are strangely dressed in women's attire.

2. At the center of the portrait is the mother. She is drawn quite distinctly with strong posture and an aura of a peaceful and nurturing spirit. She is more republican as opposed to the Old War aristocracy in the sense that she is dressed more humbly and muted while she also emanates the caring, but still strong nature of the republican principle in contrast to the pompous and haughty gloating of the aristocracy.

3. Her sons seem to be drawn to the mother and portray the values that associate the role of the nurturing mother with Republicanism. The boys seem to be under control which can be connected to moral stability, most likely stemming from the ideals and representing Republican Motherhood.

4. The significance of Mrs. Tilgham's arm being positioned around one of her sons is to show how women are supposed to guide and protect their children to instill the values associated with the American ideals. By showing how the mother guides her children with gentle control it shows how the caring nature of the notion behind Republican Motherhood is portrayed within this portrait.

LAD #5: Federalist #10

1. Factions are so difficult to eliminate because of their connection to the inevitability of human animosity and liberty. Factions are tied to how each human has his or her own bias, opinion, or stance based on an issue and each holds the right or liberty to that notion. The only way these factions could be removed if people removed people's liberty and took away their freedom to determine their own opinion, which goes against the idea of what government should represent. Also, the only other way would be to make everyone join the same faction or believe in the same idea, which is also impossible as human nature is to give each human his or her unique opinion on a topic which will make inevitably different factions within government. So therefore factions are so impossible to rid off because they are tied to an idea which government is based on and can not rid of either.

2. Factions can only be controlled by one of two ways, either making everyone believe the faction's ideas or vice verse, which is implausible by human nature, or by checking the faction's power through democracy. Through the vote a minority faction can be suppress by the majority, making sure it doesn't oppress the government. In the case of the majority faction a pure democracy is ineffective, whereas a well-structured republic is able to control the faction. Through a republic built on happy mediums, which make sure those representing the governed have the best state of mind for governing as well as the best correlation between national and local objections the faction can be controlled. By opening government away from smaller and more distinct sections, the possibility of a smaller, but still a majority, faction becomes more real as it can institute its oppressive ideas without much resistance. Within a republican government these smaller and more effective majority factions are able to be controlled by the broad representation of a voting people. All together, republicanism provides the most effective means to control the inevitable faction which may challenge the rights of the governed.

LAD #4: Revolution Article

1. The Civil War is considered more horrific than the War of Independence for various reasons that are common misconceptions about the War. These misconceptions revolved around the fact that the War of Independence was overshadowed by the larger number of causalities in the Civil War and the politics behind the American Revolution and the founding of the United States.

2. Civilians were actually more effected by the war than most people think. .5% of the civilian population was killed during the Revolutionary War and Loyalists were highly persecuted. Loyalists lost almost all their land to confiscation and upwards of 100,000 Loyalists went into exile following the war.

3. The South played a much larger role in the Revolutionary War and was the sight of more bloodshed than most believe to have occurred there. The British Colonel Tarleton massacred 75 percent of a surrendered American legion in Virginia in what is known as the Waxhaws Massacre. Even more blatant killing took place in the South following the rebel victory at King's Mountain and Colonel Henry Lees assault on Loyalist Cavalry in Hillsborough N.C.

4. Revolutionary War battlefields were just as bloody and littered with corpses as the Civil War although not perceived that way. Countless accounts of the War of Independence describe how severe the devastation was on the battlefields and just how many causalities lie dead or dying on the battlefield. Some accounts described the crushing of corpses beneath retreating wagons of the revolutionaries and others say the bodies "lay as thick as the stones on a stony plowfield".

5. The immortal figures of George Washington, Ben Franklin, and others were substantially aided by biographies and history's interpretation of the Revolutionary War. The people history remembers from the Revolution are political figures like John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry, as opposed to war figures that are honored by the Civil War. Washington, shortly after his death, had his famous biography published by Parson Weems that made his persona seem to be the epitome of honor and valor, making him seem all the more great than he actually was.

This represents how Washington is immortalized as a figure more than the actual battles of the Revolutionary War. This makes the War of Independence seem less deadly than the Civil War as it is conceived as more of a struggle of honor and famous figures, than bloody battles that left countless dead.

LAD #3: Declaration of Independence

1. The first portion of the Declaration of Independence basically says that over time it happens that a group of people feel the need to break off from their former nation and these are the reasons why. It says that all men are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and government is instituted, by the people, to preserve these rights. When these rights are violated by the government it is the right of the people to abolish the government and set up a new one tailored to their rights. It also says that men are more inclined to suffer under a bad government than to overthrow it, but in the case of the colonies so many abuses have taken place that it is their duty to overthrow the tyrannical regime that controls them. Then it proceeds to list these abuses that justify their "abolition" of the government.

2. The Declaration in its second third is a list of all the grievances they have against the King. First it says that the King has failed to institute good and just laws and has prevented the colonies from making, for themselves, such laws. Then it says that in several instances the King either doesn't allow legislative bodies in the colonies, makes them inoperable,  or even dissolves them. Next it states that he controls immigration to the colonies and won't allow them to set up their own courts, while making the judges loyal to him through a royal salary. The King made many new offices in the colonies that harass the people and has kept an army, out of civil control, in the colonies in times of peace. Then it says he has instituted a series of laws that were not agreed upon by the colonial peoples in a legislature that they are not represented in.  These laws include, having to quarter British troops in private homes, allowing British troops trials in Britain for their crimes, as well as trials for Americans in Britain, not allowing colonists a trial by jury, cutting off their foreign trade, and taxing the colonies without their consent. Next it lists more of these laws, such as making a neighboring colony an absolute government that tries to impose this on the American colonies, editing American laws and governments, and controlling American legislatures. Then it states how George has started a war on the Americans, hiring mercenaries and destroying American lives.

3. In conclusion, the Declaration states that the colonies have humbly tried to address these oppressions and gain their rights, which George has denied and has been deemed a tyrant. It says they even appealed to their British brethren who have not heeded the calls of the American populace. So as a result, the Declaration ends by saying by these wrongs the American people have decided to dissolve all ties to Britain and become free and independent states capable of governing the American people.

LAD #2 John Peter Zenger

1. John Peter Zenger was a German immigrant to New York that had been trained in printing. Following Governor William Cosby's prosecution of the prior interim governor and removal of a popular court justice he was selected by a rich opposition party to run a news circulation against the governor called The New York Weekly Journal. He published many vicious works towards the governor until he was arrested, jailed for 10 months and brought before the court under charges of seditious libel. He was found not guilty and set an early American standard for freedom of the press.

2. The controversy was that the governor claimed that the fact that he was publishing seditious works in his paper was enough grounds to convict him while many were against the governor in his claims and thought that Zenger had the right to speak out. Alexander Hamilton was the defense attorney in the trial and argued that although Zenger had written seditious works he had the right to because it was truthful. However seditious or rebellious one's speech could be if it could be proved a fact one had the right to speak it because it was the truth. That was the grounds Hamilton argued on and won the case because Zenger was in fact speaking the truth, however seditious it may sound.

3. The case had a profound impact on latter American government and its traditions. It set the precedent  for freedom of the speech and not allowing the government to limit anyone from speaking the truth however viciously it might attack the government. This idea was later included in the Bill of Rights while our founding fathers molded the Constitution. It also made sure that the judiciary system did not have too much power over the courts, that the power still rested in the hands of the jury as the judge had continually shot down the defense, but in the end the jury issued the verdict after an appeal by Hamilton.

4.The lasting significance of the trial is that it allowed for all future Americans to speak freely what they chose, on the grounds that it had a factual basis, whether or not it was in open criticism of the government. This is now an integral part of what makes America the country it is today and the freedom it gives its citizens. It also set the precedent for during the revolution that allowed for pro-Revolutionary papers and propaganda that might have given the revolutionary cause that extra push toward actual victory.

LAD #1 Mayflower Compact and Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

1. Included in the Mayflower Compact are several concepts that actually mirror many in the Declaration of Independence. First off, the writers acknowledge that they are creating this colony in the name of and for the glory of God as loyal subjects of the King. The main purpose of the the compact though was to create a binding document ensuring that the people of this new colony considered themselves and acted as a "civil Body Politick". This newly created state would be composed for the good of the people and would call assembly and pass laws and acts for the good of the colony. This is the concept that the Mayflower Compact was all about.

2. The Mayflower Compact shows a true connection between the Old and New worlds. Namely, to start of the writers state that they are still loyal subjects to their king. Also, to culminate the speech to make sure to mention this was written during the reign of King James. This shows how although across the ocean, they still were held by traditions and the ruling bodies of the motherland.  Still though they are still eager to mention that they are setting off on a voyage to found the first colony in northern Virginia and obviously show a level of pride in their expedition to the New World.

3. The Fundamental Orders were much different from the Mayflower Compact mainly in the sense that the Orders were a set of actually decreed laws while the Compact was more or less a declaration of how their colony would be more or less setup, without the specific laws and acts being stated. The Orders were specific laws instituted that were the exact rules to be followed in the governing of the colony, such as election procedures and abilities of those elected, while the Compact simply stated that some form of government with the power to enforce law would be set up in the new colony.

4. The citizens of Connecticut were obviously inclined to instituting this form of government because they had come from a more conservative government in Britain and were a more liberal society themselves. They opted to write a constitution because it obviously put in place "fundamental" laws and set in stone how the government should be operated. The writing of a constitution left little doubt as to how the colony should be governed.

5. The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut show a blatant fear and protection against the rise of power of one part of the government, basically the basis behind the checks and balances of our government today. They make sure to make provisions for the inability to hold the position of governor for consecutive years and make sure that all magistrates are elected fairly and properly in annual elections. Also, the local townships have the ability to call their own General Councils and send delegates to the main councils for the good of each town respectively. If a local government sees the need to amend the law to the towns liking, it has the ability to, therefore preventing a tyrannical or all powerful state which they feared would be to similar to that in Britain.

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