LAD#7: Washington's Farewell Address

George Washington's Farewell Address starts off with Washington telling the American people not to consider him as a candidate for presidency since he had already served two terms and plans to return to his retirement. It then goes on to tell the people that they need to make sure the country remains united, both by having all the states(North and South) work together and by having no political parties, if they are to have the freedom and liberty they want. Washington then goes on to say that the people should all become educated and that the people's opinions and ideals should be what drives the government. After that, Washington states that all Americans should try to get along with one another, despite differentiations concerning religion, ethnicity, social class, or where they live. Next Washington goes on to say that America should remain neutral and not align itself with any certain country for anymore than a short time, plus remain free from foreign influence, but still be defensible in case of an invasion. Washington concludes by bringing up his Proclamation of Neutrality and restating the ideas from it(any questions on that, look at LAD#6).

Washington's Farewell Address(click hyperlink for picture source)





My Source for this:
Washington's Farewell Address

LAD#6: Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality

Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality states that the United States will remain neutral in the war between Austria, Prussia, Great Britain and the United Netherlands against France, but also remain on good terms with all of the countries. It also states that any United States citizen who does something that makes them punishable by international rules, concerning the above stated war, that the United States would not protect them from the other countries.

Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality(click hyperlink for picture source)

 



My Source for this:
Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality

LAD #5: Federalist #10

1. Why are factions so difficult to eliminate?
Factions are difficult to eliminate because in order to eliminate a faction you would have to eliminate liberty(since liberty is what helps factions) or you would have to make it so everyone has the same opinions, beliefs, and interests, which is impossible.

2. If factions cannot be removed, then how can they be controlled?
Factions can be controlled by using things like voting, where the majority is always the winner.

Federation #10(click hyperlink for picture source)

My source for this:
Federalist #10



Republican Motherhood Blog

1. What role did the Revolutionary War play in the transformation of housewifery to Republican Motherhood?

The Revolutionary War changed the role of mothers to be someone who was educated in things like writing, geography, and math to help correct her children. The role of motherhood also changed so that it was her raising her children to have values about liberty.

2. What were the consequences of Republican Motherhood on women?
The consequences were that women now had more respect because everyone saw that it was through women that society and values were passed onto the future generations. Women were seen as the foundation of society from that point on.

3. What is the significance of the ideology of Republican Motherhood?
The significance is that women were there to be homebodies. They were the ones who raised their children, which was an important part of society, so they were respected for it, so their influence was important even though they weren't.

Mary Gibson Tilghman and her sons by Charles Willson Peale(click hyperlink for source)

1. What is the setting?
The setting is in a house on a sofa.

2. Who serves at the center of the portrait and why? How does the woman look? How is she "republican" rather than aristocratic?
The mother serves as the center of the portrait because she is the center of the household. She is the one that raises the children. She looks very elegant, but also caring and calm. She's more "republican" than aristocratic because even though she does seem elegant and is the center of the portrait, she is with the children and it is clear that they are her main concern.

3. What values do her sons exhibit?
The sons exhibit good morals because they are both dressed nicely. The older of the two sons also seems like he's educated because he has the bird held in his hands in a delicate fashion, so he knows how to hold a bird without harming it(if it's not dead, which is always an option...) while still showing its wings.

4. Is there a significance to the position of Mrs. Tilgham's arm?
Yes because Mrs. Tilgham's arm is positioned so that it is protecting her younger son, which is a symbol of love and protection. It also shows that her priorities are towards her children.

Blog #4 - Revolution Article

After reading "Rethinking the Revolution" by John Ferling, these were the five things that I learned:

1. Some of the founding fathers(Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and John Adams, for instance) purposely did things to make them look better historically(such as George Washington rewriting old letters to make himself look more refined and Benjamin Franklin writing an autobiography that omitted some details of his life that made him look bad).
2. None of the five rotundas around Washington DC that depict the Revolutionary War depict a battle scene(no firing guns, no corpses lying on the ground, no bleeding, etc.).
3. Six times as many Americans died in the American Civil war as the Revolutionary War.
4. At times during the Revolutionary War(such as the invasion of Canada) the American army was so low on food sources that they were forced to eat soups made of candle wax and shoes to survive(sometimes even their own shoes).
5. Around one half of one percent of civilians died from war causes in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War(zero-point-five percent).

Revolutionary War rotunda(click hyperlink for source)

My Source for this:
Rethinking the Revolution

LAD #3: Declaration of Independance

The Declaration of Independance summarized in 3 parts:

1. Democratic Principles:
Throughout most of the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, there was a lot about the people's rights, and how the government was to be run. It started off by talking about how everyone has certain rights and how we are all equal. Then it started to talk about the government and how the government is supposed to be for the people(i.e. doing what's best for the people, making sure that they have their rights, created by the people) and how the government, if it goes against these morals, should be destroyed by the people and a new government should be set up in its place that does follow these principles.

2. A Handful of Grievances:
The Declaration of Independence, after the first paragraph, begins to list all the things that England's government(specifically the King) did wrong, according to them. It lists things from his refusal of allowing laws to be passed that were for the public good to even where he called the legislative body together for meetings. The Declaration then goes on to what Great Britain personally has done to the Americans(such as forcing taxes on the Americans and taking away their on legislatures).

3. The Conclusion:
The Declaration of Independence ends with a paragraph about how America deserves to be its own country, separate from Great Britain, and that they were cutting off political connections to Great Britain. Then all the representatives of the colonies that were gathered at the time signed the Declaration.

My source for this:
Declaration of Independence

Declaration of Independence(click hyperlink for source)

LAD #2: John Peter Zenger

1) John Peter Zenger was a man who lived in the 1700s who began a newspaper company in New York.

2) John Peter Zenger was arrested for publishing an article against the Royal Governor at the time, so was arrested under the charge of "seditious libel". After 8 months in jail he had a trial, where he was defended by Alexander Hamilton who, because the judge favored the opposition, had to convince the jury directly instead of the judge. Once Hamilton brought forth the truth in Zenger's articles, it was proved that Zenger was not guilty, so they ended up winning the case.

3) This case was the first ever freedom of press trial America had, so it went against governmental tradition.

4) This case caused the freedom of press to become something real because even though Zenger wrote and published things against the governor, he was shown to be not guilty, and the same holds true today(if anyone publishes an article with facts behind it(ie article isn't made up) it's not against the law).

My source for this:
John Peter Zenger Trial



John Peter Zenger Trial(click hyperlink for source)

LAD #1: Mayflower Compact & Fundamental Orders of Conneticut:

1) In the Mayflower Compact, it talks a bunch about the concepts of religion(they keep bringing up their God and how they are doing this with/for him), their colony's continuance(it's being done to preserve its future), the places the immigrants came from(France, England, and Ireland primarily), and the government that they are planning on setting up.

2) The Mayflower Compact reflects an attachment to both the "New" and "Old" worlds by(for the "Old" world) a consistent reference to King James from England and all the countries the people came from(France, England, Ireland) and(for the "New" world) by planning the new leadership for the continuance of the colony.

3) The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut differ from the Mayflower Compact in the fact that the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut are a list of laws for the people to follow while the Mayflower Compact is simply an agreement between eleven people to create laws and rules for the people to follow.

4) The colonists of Connecticut were prompted to create a written constitution because they believed that they needed rules created and followed that agreed with their church values(what God wanted them to do). Also, since some of the immigrants came from England and Ireland, things such as the Magna Carta, are similar to a written constitution, which may have prompted them to create one.

5) The Fundamental Orders reflect a fear of and safeguard against the usurping of power by one person or a chosen few by creating a limit on the amount of time a person may serve in most offices of government and the number of times they may serve and by limiting the power of each of the government officials.

If you would like to see these two documents(The Mayflower Compact and The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut)click the hyperlinks below:
Mayflower Compact
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut



Mayflower Compact(follow hyperlink for source)

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut creation(follow hyperlink for source)

Welcome post

Hello everyone(who is likely only going to be my teacher and perhaps some of my classmates)! This is my blog, though there's not much on it, but have fun with it anyway!