Tyler's AP American Blog

LAD #36 FDR's Executive Order 9066

2010-04-12T20:47:00.002-04:00

Franklin D. Roosevelt starts right off the bat, stating and citing where he has the right to do everything in his power to protect the United States " against espionage and against sabotage to national-defense material, national-defense premises, and national-defense utilities". In the paragraph, he says that he hereby authorizes the building of military areas at any location, which can house any one that may be helping the enemy's government. However, it also states that the military officers must respect the rights of the detainees and must provide adequate transportation, food, shelter, and other accommodations. Roosevelt then puts the Attorney General in charge of all of these camps. He also gives power to the commanders of the camps such as the use of federal troops and the assistance of state and local agencies. Roosevelt authorizes departments in charge of "hospitalization, food, clothing, transportation, use of land, shelter, and other supplies". The president then closes the letter, stating that this order can not be modified unless prescribed by him.

LAD #36 FDR Declaraction of War

2010-04-12T20:10:00.009-04:00

Franklin D. Roosevelt, president during the year 1941, was shocked to hear that on December 7, Japanese fighter planes swooped down from the skies at Pearl Harbor. The planes killed 2,335 military soldiers, but they failed to destroy major targets such as the U.S. Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers. Roosevelt the next day assembled Congress and gave one of the greatest speeches of American history, one that rivaled Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Martian Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech. He starts of the speech with its famous line, "Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." He explains that the United States was at peace with Japan and Japan also looked "toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific." Roosevelt also stated that the attack came one hour before the Japanese Ambassador delivered a message that revealed not threat of an attack. It was obvious, according to Roosevelt, that this attack was premeditated for many months or weeks. Ironically, during this time, the Japanese government was deceiving the United States by making it look like they were hoping for continued peace. Many Americans lost their lives at Pearl Harbor, however, Japanese forces also attacked many other islands such as Wake Island, Guam, and the Philippine Islands. Roosevelt then proclaims that we will defend this nation and "No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people, in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory." He does not hesitate that say that, despite the danger, "we will gain the inevitable triumph. So help us God." War then is declared on December 8, 1941 on Japan and three days later, the United States is in war with Italy and Germany.

LAD #35 Brown vs. Board of Education

2010-04-04T10:20:00.003-04:00

Little Linda Brown, an African American, had to walk a mile in order to get to her bus stop for school. Linda could have easily walked to the white elementary school seven blocks away, but was denied enrollment into the school because of her race. Oliver Brown, her father, and thirteen other parents then decided to bring this issue to the courts. Brown argued that black schools were only getting a third of the money that the white schools were receiving. "They did not have the most current textbooks, not enough school supplies, and overcrowded classrooms". Yet, the white dominated court room referred to Plessy vs. Ferguson and stated that the schools were separate, but equal. The NAACP would not face defeat that easily, and decided to bring the case to the Supreme Court. On October first, 1951, similar cases regarding separate schools for blacks and whites were combined into one case and the trial would begin on December 9, 1952. The Browns argued in court that Black people were in different schools because they were different than everyone else. The case went on for several months. However, one of the justices died and the case had to be presented again. Finally, after two years, the court turned in favor of the Browns and segregating schools became against the law. Although, it took many states years to put blacks in the same schools as whites because of the tensions between the two races.

LAD #34 Truman Doctrine

2010-03-23T19:04:00.002-04:00

The Truman Doctrine was an address of the foreign policy and the national security of the United States, and also Turkey and Greece. The United States received an urgent appeal from Greece for economic and financial assistance, if they did not receive aid it seemed as though they would not survive as an independent nation. Greece was never a wealthy country and it lacked many natural resources, and it has “suffered invasion, four years of cruel enemy occupation, and bitter internal strife”; it was reported that the “Germans had destroyed virtually all the railways, roads, port facilities, communications, and merchant marine. More than a thousand villages had been burned. Eighty-five per cent of the children were tubercular. Livestock, poultry, and draft animals had almost disappeared. Inflation had wiped out practically all savings.” Tragic conditions, a militant minority and human exploitation have made economic recovery seem impossible. The Greeks were asking for help to resume purchases of the bare essentials that were unavailable at the time. The Greeks also asked the United States for political aid “the assistance of experienced American administrators, economists and technicians to insure that the financial and other aid given to Greece shall be used effectively in creating a stable and self-sustaining economy and in improving its public administration”. Truman tells the joint session of Congress that the aid the United States has already provided for Greece is inadequate and that the United States, as a self governing democracy, must do more for Greece. The British had been helping them previously but they can no longer offer economic support after March 31st.
Turkey is another nation that Truman mentions “as an independent and economically sound state is clearly no less important to the freedom-loving peoples of the world than the future of Greece.” Turkey was better off than Greece but Truman still urged that Turkey is also in dire need of American support. Turkey is seeking aid for the purpose of effecting that modernization necessary for the maintenance of its national integrity to preserve the order in the Middle East. Truman says: “We are the only country able to provide that help.” “The disappearance of Greece [and Turkey] as...independent state[s] would have a profound effect upon those countries in Europe whose peoples are struggling against great difficulties to maintain their freedoms and their independence while they repair the damages of war.” Truman then asks Congress for “assistance to Greece and Turkey in the amount of $400,000,000 for the period ending June 30, 1948”and “$350,000,000 for the prevention of starvation and suffering in countries devastated by the war.” He also asks Congress for commodities, supplies, and equipment for the two nations, and to authorize the detail of American civilian and military personnel to Greece and Turkey.

LAD # 33 FDR's FIrst Inaugral Address

2010-03-01T19:23:00.003-05:00

Before Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933, the economy was spiraling downwards at a freakish pace. Banks were failing, businesses were going under, and Americans who were once living comfortable were then living on the streets. Hoovervilles were constructed outside major cities and the poor wandered the dirty cities looking for work. Wilson could do nothing but sit in horror. Although once FDR was elected, he boosted the spirits of the American people by his first inaugural address. He begins his speech stating that "our distress comes from no failure of substances." He says this to show the people this is not something they can not control. "We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply." He continues to say that the money changers that had caused the failure of the banks had " fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit." This means that FDR has faith in the country that they work together and overcome the greedy in order to become a economically stable nation again. FDR also calls for action at that very moment to help the struggling economy. He says that we must "recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms." Instead of Wilson's ideas of letting the people solve the problems of the nation, he decides to take charge and tell people what to do so the nation can be fixed.

LAD # 32 Kellogg Briand Peace Pact

2010-03-01T19:16:00.001-05:00

The act declared a “renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy” to promote the welfare of mankind. With the renunciation war as an instrument of national policy, peaceful and friendly relations between nations may be perpetuated and it will instate union between the civilized nations of the world in a common renunciation of war as an instrument of their national policy”. Any nation that resorts to war to promote its national interests shall not receive the benefits of the treaty. The treaty declared condemnation of “recourse to war for the solution of international controversies” and it was to be implemented as soon as possible. Afghanistan, Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, China, Cuba, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Kingdom of the Serbs, Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Siam, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Panama were all signers of the Act. “Convinced that all changes in their relations with one another should be sought only by pacific means and be the result of a peaceful and orderly process, and that any signatory Power which shall hereafter seek to promote its national interests by resort to war a should be denied the benefits furnished by this Treaty”.

LAD # 31 Wilson's Fourteen Points

2010-02-22T19:38:00.001-05:00

Wilson’s Fourteen Points calls for peace and an international policy of openness. “The day of conquest and aggrandizement is gone by; so is also the day of secret covenants entered into in the interest of particular governments and likely at some unlooked-for moment to upset the peace of the world.” He also calls for a sense of national unity when he says that “all the peoples of the world are in effect partners in this interest”.
1. calls for public diplomacy
2. freedom of navigation of the seas – in both times of war and peace
3. equality of trade conditions
4. reduction of national armaments
5. impartial adjustment of all colonial claims – allowing the populations to have a voice in colonial decisions
6. “evacuation of all Russian territory” and assistance for the Russian government
7. sovereignty for Belgium
8. a correction of the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine and sovereignty for all French territories
9. “readjustment of the frontiers of Italy”
10. free opportunity to autonomous development for the peoples of Austria-Hungary
11. evacuation of Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro
12. Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations under international guarantees and sovereignty for the Turkish portion of the ottoman empire
13. erection of a sovereign polish state guaranteed by international covenant
14. “ a general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike”
Wilson asks for peace and mutual understand with Germany and international unity.

LAD # 30 Schenck vs. U.S. Cases

2010-02-22T19:17:00.004-05:00

On March 3rd, 1919, Schenk was declared guilty with the “mailing of printed circulars in pursuance of a conspiracy to obstruct the recruiting and enlistment service”, “an unlawful use of the mails for the transmission”, and for an “offence against the United States...to use the mails for the transmission of matter declared to be non-mailable”. Despite the protection of freedom of speech by the first amendment, Schenck’s distribution of printed documents posed a serious threat and danger so therefore Congress had the right to halt his activities. According to the testimony, Schenck was general secretary for the socialist party and he was in charge of the socialist headquarters from where the documents were sent. “The document in question upon its first printed side recited the first section of the Thirteenth Amendment, said that the idea embodied in it was violated by the Conscription Act and that a conscript is little better than a convict.” Schenck’s messages were: “"Do not submit to intimidation” and to “Assert your rights”. His impassioned document was to prevent the draft. “It denied the power to send our citizens away to foreign shores to shoot up the people of other lands, and added that words could not express the condemnation such cold-blooded ruthlessness deserves”. During times of peace, Schenck’s document may have been completely within the realm of the rights of a citizen, but his words were a threat to the smooth operation of the military as it was a time of war. It is similar to yelling fire in a crowded movie theatre when there is no fire: “The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic. It does not even protect a man from an injunction against uttering words that may have all the effect of force.” Schenck simply commited a crime that was an obstruction of the recruiting services.

LAD # 28 Clayton Anti-Trust Act

2010-02-04T20:25:00.000-05:00

The Clayton Anti-Trust Act was set in place in order for the government to get a grip on regulating business. It was passed by Woodrow Wilson's administration after introduced by Alabama Democrat Henry De Lamar Clayton, Jr. This act helped set the base of the regulation of business done by the government today. Earlier in the past, the Sherman anti-Trust act was the only way the government could control big businesses.Theodore Roosevelt used the act to become America's first trust buster. The Clayton Anti-trust Act, passed alongside the Federal Trade Commission Act, was used to control the behaviors of large corporations that are not enforced under law. The major difference between the Clayton Anti-Trust Act and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act is that the Clayton Act can not be used against labor unions. The Sherman Anti-trust act was used to threaten labor unions such as the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor. One of very few companies exempt from the Clayton Anti-Trust Act was Major League Baseball due to its national heritage. With the new anti-trust act in place, labor unions could be formed and boycotts, picketing, and strikes were permitted without the threat of interference with the government.

LAD # 27 The Keating-Owen Child, Labor Act

2010-02-04T19:53:00.000-05:00

The Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916 "limited the working hours of children and forbade the interstate sale of goods produced by child labor." The 1900 census showed that two million children were working all across America, all ranging from small child to teen. This census caused a movement that fought for the end of child labor. Lewis Hines and other muckrakers took pictures of children laboring in factories where they were forced to fix dangerous machinery and do back-breaking work in coal mines for long hours. Many influential men joined the fight against child labor, including Carl Marx and Charles Dickens. Dickens wrote many books, including Oliver Twist, that portrayed young orphans working in factories and living in poorhouses in London. Albert Leveridge first proposed the bill in 1906 and "used the government's ability to regulate interstate commerce to regulate child labor. The act banned the sale of products from any factory, shop, or cannery that employed children under the age of 14, from any mine that employed children under the age of 16, and from any facility that had children under the age of 16 work at night or for more than 8 hours during the day." This law was eventually passed by Congress and signed by Woodrow Wilson, however, was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the Hammer vs. Dagenhart Case. This was because "it overstepped the purpose of the government's power to regulate production and commerce." Another law, the Child Labor Tax Law of 1919 was proposed, but soon ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Not until the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was there a successful law enforcing child labor regulations, which is still upheld today.

LAD # 29 Wilson's First Inaugural

2010-02-04T19:33:00.000-05:00

Wilson begins his inaugural address by praising the political system and the industrial success of the country. "But the evil has come with the good, and much fine gold has been corroded. But the evil has come with the good, and much fine gold has been corroded." He says that Americans are wasteful. The physical and spiritual cost cost of human life and natural energy has not been reviewed. "With the great Government went many deep secret things which we too long delayed to look into and scrutinize with the candid, fearless eye. The great government we loved has too often been made use of for private and selfish proposes, and those who used it had forgotten the people." Essentially, the government is not doing its proper duty of protecting the citizens of the United States. In turn, Wilson says that "our duty is to cleanse, to reconsider, to restore, (and) to correct the evil without impairing the good, to purify and humanize every process of our common life without weakening or sentimentalizing it." He reminds his audience that the original intention of the American democracy was policy " (that) was meant to serve the humblest as well as the most powerful, with an eye single to the standards of justice and fair play." He directly addressed an unjust tariff, a corrupted banking and currency system, a restricting industrial system, an inefficient agricultural body, and misuse of the natural environment. The security of society is the most important service that the government can offer. Finally, he concludes his speech with a call for patriotism.

LAD #26 I have a Dream Speech

2010-01-16T12:34:00.000-05:00

Martian Luther King starts off his speech similarly how Abraham Lincoln starts off his Gettysburg Address. Instead of four score and seven years ago, King starts off his with five score years ago. He says five score years ago, the Emancipation Proclamation was signed and it gave a beacon of hope from blacks throughout the country. But a hundred years later, the blacks are still not free and is still treated horribly. King explains the blacks have conjugated at the capital to cash in a check, 'a promissory note that the writers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution signed that every American would fall heir.' "The note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the 'unalienable Rights' of 'Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.'" King continues to use this analogy of a check and a bank by saying that the whites have marked "insufficient funds" on their check of freedom. But King "refuse(s) to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. (He) refuse(s) to believe that there is insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation." So he wants to cash the overdue check in order to recieve "the riches of freedom and the security of justice." King moves on from the analogy and says this is a time for action so that they get the freedoms they deserve. Blacks can not wait wait any longer or use gradualism to get these desired freedoms. He says the revolt will continue "until the bright day of justice emerges." King goes on to say that blacks must fight for their freedom, but do so with dignity and pride. "We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence." He says we can not turn back and that do not "...wallow in the valley of dsespair..." King procliams that he has a dream that is "deeply rooted in the American dream." His dream is that blacks can live peacefully side by side with whites and that his four children can "one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." He concludes the speech repeating the words of an old African spiritual; "'Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"'

LAD #25 Dawes Act

2010-01-11T20:24:00.000-05:00

The Dawes Act called for the provision of land to indians on various reservations and extentsion of "the protection of the laws of the United States and the Territories over the Indians." the Act gave the president the power to call the assessment of and land for "agricultural and grazing purposes". The concept of the Dawes Act was to replace communal tribe land holdings with individually owned and maintained properties. It was an attempt basically to assimilate the Indians into the larger American society. It gave the Indians an opportunity to become American citizens, even though many did not want this; if "his residence (is) seperate and apart from any tribe of Indians therin, and has adopted the habits of civilized life, (he) is herby declared to be a citizen of the United States, and he is entitled to all rights, privleges, and immunities of such citizens. The Secretary of the Interior was given the power to "prescribe such rules and regulations as he may deem necessary to secure a just and equal distrubution thereof among the Indians residing upon any such reseervation". The provisions of the Dawes Act, however, was not to be extended "to the territory occupied by the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, and Osage, Miamies and Peorias, and Sacs and Foxes, in the Indian territory, nor any of the reservations of the Senecac Nation of the New York Indians in the state of New York, nor to that strip of territory in the state of Nebraska adjoining the Sioux Nation on the south added by executive order." Which is basically almost all the indians I know of.

LAD #24 Bryan’s “Cross of Gold”

2010-01-07T21:42:00.000-05:00

In his speech, William Jennings Bryan spoke on behalf of the Democratic Party to endorse the free coinage of silver at a ratio of silver to gold of 16:1; "we believe that the right to coin money and issue money is a function of government". The gold standard favors the wealthy minority and it does not benefit the common man, Bryan directs the speech towards the common man and he puts down McKinley's Republican platform. "This struggle between the idle holders of idle capital and the struggling masses who produce the wealth and pay the taxes of the country". The Democratic idea has been that if you legislate to make masses prosperous, their prosperity will find its way up and through every class that rests upon it". He also emphasizes the Democratic belief that the most important contributors to the American society are the common people. He champions "the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses".

LAD #23 The Populist Party Platform

2010-01-07T20:43:00.000-05:00

The Populist Party emerged as a "response to the growth of industrialism". The Populists opposed the concentrated capital of banks and big businesses and they criticized the negative effects that industrialization had on American society. In their eyes, industrialization had "to the verge of moral, political and material ruin"; the "fruits of the toils" of the "plain people" are stolen "to build up the colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind", causing the gap between the social classes to further widen. The value of silver has been "demonetized to add to the purchasing power of gold" yet what resulted was "falling prices, the formation of combines and rings, (and) the impoverishment of the producing class". As a progressive party, the Populist Party worked towards an end of "oppression, injustice, and poverty", and "equal rights and equal privileges securely established for all the men and women of" America.

LAD #22 McKinley's War Message

2010-01-05T19:37:00.000-05:00

McKinley's message addresses the "crisis that has arisen in the relations" between the United States and Spain regarding the warfare that has raged in the neighboring island of Cuba for more than three years. The revolution in Cuba "has subjected the United States to great effort and expended in enforcing its neutrality laws, caused enormous losses to American trade and commerce, caused irritation, annoyance and disturbance among our citizens, and, by the exercise of cruel, barbarous, and uncivilized practices of warfare, shocked the sensibilities and offended the humane sympathies of our people." He is speaking on behalf of the safety, the staggering economy of the American people which has been hurt by the tensions with Cuba. McKinley's goal was armistice and "to bring about animmediate termination of the war" as peacefully as possible. He states the grounds of intervention being "in the cause of humanity and to put an end to the barbarities, bloodshed, starvation, and horrible miseries now existing there", to protect the citizens of Cuba and "to terminate the conditions that deprive them of legal protection", in interest of American commerce. The destruction the USS Maine, no matter how it was sunk, is impressive proof of a state of things in Cuba that is intolerable. For the time being, McKinley, "in the interest of humanity and to aid in preserving the lives of the starving people of the island, saw it necessary to "recommend that distribution of food and supplies be continues, and that an appropriation be made out to the public treasury to supplement the charity of the citizens."

LAD #21 Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth

2009-12-10T22:13:00.000-05:00

Carnegie starts off by saying that the problem of his age was the administration of wealth in society. He states that in earlier times, the distribution of wealth was more even compared to now. He says this change came with the evolving of civilization. This change, he says, is not a bad thing though because there needs to be homes full of art, literature, and other "refinements of civilization". If we went back to our old ways without those refinements of civilization, then it would sweep away civilization with it. Carnegie goes on to say that his wealth will not sit in a bank for hundreds of years, but will be spent on the community. This money in the community would be "required for the comfortable maintenance and education of families". He says the money of rich folks can be saved away for years to come, or it can be spent on the public, for the public. Carnegie wanted his money not only to be left to his family, but the whole city of Pittsburgh. He says that a man who leaves his money to the public after his death is just trying to dispose of it. Carnegie thinks a man should not wait till his death to bring some good in the world. He states that the country will benefit for having only a few men holding a majority of the countries money because they will spend it on public purposes. It is the duty of the wealthy, he states, "to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him".

LAD #20 Sojourner Truth Aint I a Woman Speech

2009-11-29T14:18:00.000-05:00

Sojourner Truth, an African American women, delievered her "Ain't I a Woman?" speech at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio. She starts off by saying that men think women "need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and have the best place everywhere." She basically says that no one ever did any of those things for her and yet she is a woman. She has done man's work on farms, yet she is still a woman. She could eat as much as a man and seen almost all of her thirteen children sold away off into slavery, yet she is a woman. She then asks why women and negro's rights have to do with intellect. She thinks that men do not give women rights because Christ was a man, not a woman. Truth closes her speech with the remark that man was created by God and a women, so women should be respected.

LAD #19 5th of July Speech

2009-11-29T13:50:00.000-05:00

On July 5th, 1852, Frederick Douglas spoke to a crowd in Rochester, New York explaining what the fourth of July meant to a slave. At first, Douglas asked the crowd why "the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to (the blacks)?" Douglas then goes on to say that there was an "immeasurable distance" between him and the whites. This difference was the fact that white people had inherited justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence from their fore founders. Douglas, however, did not inherit any of these virtues from the War of Independence. That is why, he says, "This fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn." He later goes on to say that he represents the black slaves and will not "hesitate to declare with all (his) soul that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to (him) than on (that) Fourth of July". Douglas says the nation "is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future." He proves that the black man is the same as a white man and they very similar. At the end of his speech, he answers his own question of what is the fourth of July to the American slave by saying that it is a day of "gross injustice" and "hollow mockery" to black slaves.

LAD #18 Emancipation Proclamation

2009-11-22T13:36:00.000-05:00

As of January 1st, 1863, "all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State" were to be free. The slaves that were to be freed were guaranteed their independence and safety by "the Executive Government of the United States, including military and naval authority". Abe Lincoln even lists the states where they may rebel against the release of their slaves, such as Arkanas, Texas Louisana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, and Virginia. The slaves in these states were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation and the United States government would protect their rights. Although Lincoln warns the people to "abstain from all violence, unless in the necessary self-defense" and to "labor faithfully for reasonable wages". He also adds that now the slaves are free, they have a duty to perform as citizens of the nation. Lincoln concludes that the Proclamation will need the cooperation of everyone so it will follow through.

LAD #16 Lincoln's Second Inaugural

2009-11-22T13:19:00.000-05:00

The opening to Lincoln's Address states that he does not have much to present to the American people. He says that the issues of the nation are already widely known so it would make little difference if he were to reiterate all his views that he has already during his first term. In his speech he reminds the people that only four years ago, the attention of the nation was "anxiously directed to an impending civil war". "Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war became." He said that one eighth of the American population was composed of slaves and their desire for freedom tore the nation in two. He illustrates the horrors of civil war, but he ends his speech with a unifying burst of patriotism. " With malice toward none, with charity for all, with the firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." The time has come for unity for the United States.

LAD# 16 Dred Scott Desicion

2009-11-22T12:59:00.000-05:00

The Dred Scott Case decision deals with the issues of "Negro citizenship and the constitutionality of the Missouri Compromise". Chief Justice Taney believe that blacks were not eligible to sue in the court of the United States in "the cases specified by the Constitution". Taney believed that "even free Negroes, were not citizens of the United States, and that therefore, Scott, as a Negro, did not even have the privilege of being able to sue in a federal court". In regards to the constitutionality of the Missouri Compromise, he stated that all citizens within certain territories could not be denied the rights and protection of the Constitution. Meaning there was "no distinction between the slaves and other types of property". That means that slaves were the property of there masters. "The Missouri Compromise deprived slaveholding citizens of their property of their slaves and that therefore was unconstitutional" because "Scott had brought suit in Missouri and hence he was still a slave because Missouri was a slave state." The case was later dismissed for lack of jurisdiction and Scott remained a slave.

LAD #15 Lincoln's First Inaugural

2009-11-19T19:52:00.000-05:00

From the very beginning of Lincoln’s inaugural speech, he states that he has no intentions “to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States”. He means he respects the rights of the states to regulate slavery within their own borders. He strongly believes that it is the most important thing is to keep the union in one piece. Lincoln also promises the American citizens that their “property, peace, and security of no section are to be in any wise endangered by” his election and “the now incoming Administration”. Going back to his ultimate goal of preserving the union, Lincoln states that he “holds that in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual”. Lincoln also promises the citizens that the use of unnecessary violence and force will be prohibited. “In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall be none unless it is forced upon the national authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere.” Lincoln guarantees security and protection under his administration. In regards to the issue of slavery, Lincoln keeps his opinions neutral in his first inaugural speech. He simply claims that the American constitution neither allows nor prohibits it. He also warns the territories and states about secession saying “Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy”. The very end of Lincoln’s speech tries to inspire American patriotism: “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

LAD #14 Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

2009-11-19T19:24:00.000-05:00

At the beginning of the speech, Abe Lincoln reminds the crowd that not long ago our founding fathers developed a new nation based on liberty and freedom. He then states that the Civil War is a test to see if this nation can endure a war or not. Lincoln then says that he is dedicating a piece of the Gettysburg battlefield to act as a graveyard for those men who fought to preserve that nation. He next goes into detail, saying, "The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract". This means that the men who died serving their country have made the battlefield their own memorial by making the ultimate sacrifice. Lincoln closes the short speech by saying that the men who died will not have died in vain. That they died for a "nation, under God, (that) 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."

LAD # 13 John C. Calhoun

2009-11-13T21:24:00.000-05:00

Calhoun address the issue of slavery that divided the nation to the point were it was no longer an issue that could be ignored, or solved with several compromises. He believed “that the agitation of the subject of slavery would”, could potentially, “end in disunion.” Whether a state would be free or slave when entered into the union was also an issue of conflict between the North and the South. Neither wanted the other to have the majority in the Senate, the House of Representatives and the Electoral College. Calhoun argued that as a result of the unequal balance of government “the South has been excluded from the common territory belonging to all the States as members of the federal Union” and they have been burdened by “a system of revenue and disbursements by which an undue proportion of the burden of taxation has been imposed upon the South, and an undue proportion of its proceeds appropriated to the North”. He also talks about the “unequal system of revenue and disbursements” only contributes to the economic prosperity of manufacturers in the North. Because so much wealth was concentrated in the North, the population of the region increased by attracting citizens and immigrants; this gives the North an unfair advantages and benefits that the South in unable to acquire.