Assignment #12

"The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world." John F. Kennedy    JFK meant that the world has been come a very differnet place than what it once was. In nations hands they held the power of the atom. The atomic bomb which could wipe out all of humanity if not carefully handled.  He also states that Americans must never forget how far they have come. From being a small colony under rule by a tyrant to a super power with an army that helps other nations break free of the chains of tyranny. Since the inception of the United States it has been against tyranny and focused on the rights of all men. So he is using this as a way to say that the threat of communism must be met and stopped in order to preserve the rights not only for Americans but for all of mankind.

Assignment #11
"During those years of false prosperity and during the more recent years of exhausting depression, one business after another, one small corporations after another, their resources depleted, had failed or had fallen into the lap of a bigger competitor. A dangerous thing was happening. Half of the industrial corporate wealth of the country had come under the control of less than two hundred corporations. That is not all. These huge corporations in some cases did not even try to compete with each other. They themselves were tied together by interlocking directors, interlocking bankers, interlocking lawyers..."
 Franklin D. Roosevelt

 What Roosevelt is implying with this statement is that the great depression was caused by a lack of distribution. Only a handful of companies had wealth and these companies would not compete with each other. So prices would not flucuat, they would remain high causing greater returns for the company but fewer dollars to spend for the consumer. Competition in the market in his eyes could have possibly stoveoff the depression, but since companies were working together and competition was virtually non-existent, the depression was inevitable. Everyone was working together to maximize their own profits and to hell with everyone else. He uses the word interlocked, as if they were all chained or connected together and if one fell the rest would follow. Which is what happened, greed lead to slef interest, which lead shady deals, which lead to a collapse
.
Great Depression Artictle
 "Democracy has disappeared in several other great nations, not because the people of those nations disliked democracy, but because they had grown tired of unemployment and insecurity, of seeing their children hungry while they sat helpless in the face of government confusion and government weakness through lack of leadership....Finally, in desperation, they chose to sacrifice liberty in the hope of getting something to eat. We in America know that our democratic institutions can be preserved and made to work. But in order to preserve them we need...to prove that the practical operation of democratic government is equal to the task of protecting the security of the people....The people of America are in agreement in defending their liberties at any cost, and the first line of the defense lies in the protection of economic security."
 Franklin D. Roosevelt

 This passage about the Great Depression highlights how foreign nations have abandoned the use of Democracy. He states that this was done out of fear because a country gets afraid when its people are going hungry, unemployment is at a high and money and resources are scarce. He believes that these countries are weak and lacked the necessary leadership to help uplift them and remain a democratic nation. He places people's libery above all and they should not be squandered no matter what the nation is facing. The security of the people is important, because in all actuality it is the people who make up the nation so you should be abandoned their rights in favor of a stronger healthier country. He feels the in America they people will not abandon their rights and liberties in place of a meal. He knows that they will try to make things work and they will also preserve the democratic state for aslong as they can.

Assignment #10
 "But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863


This part of the Gettysburg Address pertains to the sacrifices being made in battle. Lincoln did not care if anyone remember what was said about the civil war and neither did he about the people who fought in it. He knew that their names would be lost in the pages of history just like what happens in every great war. What he wanted to be remember was their sacrificed, their unrelenting determination and their resolve. It was them, whon fought and died on the many battle fields who ensured that the United States remained a free country governed for the people, by the people and with the people's best interest at heart. He wanted their sacrifices to be etched into the pages of United States history for eternity since they were fighting to keep the land of the free, free forever.

Assignment #9
"Judicial decisions are of greater or less authority as precedents, according to circumstances. That this should be so, accords both with common sense, and the customary understanding of the legal profession."

What this statement means is that judgements to cases are very important. That is because what they do is set precedents in place, which allows future cases to be compared with prior cases and verdicts can be placed accordingly. It can also be said that they may prove precedents wrong and allow new laws to be written based upon the new discoveries found. In all, judgements are proven to hold a lot of clout in that what is determined in a case in the future.

Assignment #8
"The wife who inherits no property holds about the same legal position that does the slave on the southern plantation. She can own nothing, sell nothing. She has no right even to the wages she earns; her person, her time, her services are the property of another. She cannot testify, in many cases, against her husband. She can get no redress for wrongs in her own name in any court of justice. She can neither sue nor be sued. She is not held morally responsible for any crime committed in the presence of her husband, so completely is her very existence supposed by the law to be merged in that of another.”
 Elizabeth Cady Stanton

 What is meant by this quote is that women were virtually slaves. Since they did not have any rights such as to own land, sell anything or even work they were reduced to servants. They had to rely solely on men to provide everything for them. Which meant that they had to do what ever they were told to do. Women of this era had to obey men because they themselves were not people and their entire existence was merged with that of another.

 “It was a long, lean, gaunt, shivelled looking creature, stretched out on two chairs, and his legs resting on the prostrate bust of Washington; projecting from behind was a cat o’ nine tails knotted at the ends; around his person he wore a belt in which were stuck those truly American implements, a bowie knife, dirk, and revolving pistol; behind him was a whipping post, with a naked woman tied to it, and a strong- armed American citizen in the act of scourging her livid flesh with a cow skin. At his feet was another group;—a sale going on, of human cattle, and around the auctioneer’s table were gathered therespectability,…” Fredrick Douglas

 What Douglass does with this quote is he tries to show the brutality of slavery. He does this by showing the slavers as creatures who tormented and sold slaves as if they were cattle. What he also does is with this short quote is show the resolve of the slaves. He shows how they have grown accustom to these unbearable conditions and how they no longer resist. They gather around the table not forced but by choice because they know there is no hope in resistance. Their spirit has been destroyed.

Assignment #7
"The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army; and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgement of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens" 

 What this passage is stating is that the men who are serving the state are being used as tools. They are not desired for their brains, only for their body because their body can be shaped and molded into what ever weapon the state needs for that time. The author goes as far as to compare them to materials for building such as wood or stones this is because these materials are easily manipulated. So men who serve the state basically serve the same purpose. They are what ever they are needed to be for the time and the basically are the backbone of the state. They do these things not for any sort of glory or acknowledgement its actually the opposite. They are regarded as lesser men for being nothing but tools, dogs of the state.


Part I







Benjamin Lay, a Quaker strongly opposed slavery. He saw it as a crime unforgivable by god. This is because he believes that god created all men to be equal so if they are equal why are some men slaves while others are free. This can be related to what Thoreau believes because he believes in civil disobedience so he would support the claims of the Quaker and goes so far as to tell them to challenge the in-just system, in a nonviolent peaceful way.






Harriet Tubman could be considered a patriot by many. This is because she risked her life innumerable amounts of times and face immeasurable odds to help save her fellow slave. She escaped slavery and she could have thought of only her self and sought refuge somewhere safe but no. She thought of those who were still in bondage and she wanted to save as many people as she could. This takes Thoreau's idea and expands it because not only was she disobeying the government but she was basically stealing the property of slave owners and cutting them loose. She embodied civil disobedience and was a hero and the Moses of the slaves.

 Part II


John Brown was a man who held 21 men, 6 slaves and 15 white men on raid of a federal armory. he did this in order to lead an armed insurrection throughout the south in order to free slaves. Thoreau's idea's were blown greatly out of proportion here. He would not have been okay with leading an armed insurrection even though its end results could prove to be fruitful. He would have wanted a less violent aprroach, bloodshed should be a last option if one at all.

Assignment #6

". . . . . Great complaint has been made, that Congress [under the Articles] has been too liberal in their grants of salaries to individuals, and I think not without just cause. For if I am rightly informed, there have been men whose salaries have been fifteen hundred dollars per year, and some of them did not do business at any rate, that the sum they negotiated would amount to their yearly salary. And some men [are] now in office, at twenty five hundred dollars per year, who I think would have been glad to have set down at one hundred pounds a year before the war, and would have done as much or more business. The truth is, when you carry a man’s salary beyond what decency requires, he immediately becomes a man of consequence, and does little or no business at all. Let us cast our eyes around us, in the other departments-the judges of the superior court have but about one hundred pounds salary a year. The judges of the courts of common pleas, on an average, not more than sixty dollars per year. The ministers of the gospel-a very valuable set of men, who have done honor to themselves, and rendered great service to their country, in completing the revolution-have salaries but from sixty to an hundred pounds a year in general. The contrast is striking. I heartily wish that all ranks of men among us, ministers of the gospel as well as others, would turn their attention toward the Constitution they may be more concerned in the event than they at present think of"".

This particular piece of writing is trying to say that Congress has been giving way too much money out. The author feels that congress is paying some people way more than they are actually worth. This is because the author says that certain people who are getting an inflated salary annually are people who do no business at all and subsequently do not deserve it. While on the other hand there are those who's salary is small and contribute greatly to society. So this person thinks that the constitution in this aspect needs to fixed or light needs to be shed on it. I picked this article because I understand the authors concerns in regards to salaries. An issue like this could cause major problems because money is unfairly being paid to people who rightfully did not earn it. If They would have worked hard for the huge salary that would have been okay, but to pay someone less who is actually of value to society while you are paying a who is of less value is morally wrong.