History disc (3) due in 24 hours

historydisc3.docx

Declaration of Independence--Discussion

Read the Declaration of Independence. Among its listing of self-evident truths, the Declaration holds that “all men are created equal.” What role did equality play in the Revolutionary Period? What role does equality play today in the U. S.?

Your response MUST be 150-200 words minimum, and you must respond to another post in this forum to receive full credit for this discussion. Review your responses for appropriate spelling, grammar, and mechanics before posting.

from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin-Discussion

Read the excerpt from Franklin's The Autobiography. Which three virtues from Franklin's list do you think are most important in today's society? Which three do you think are least important in today's society? Why?

To receive full credit, your response MUST be 150-200 words minimum and you must respond to other post in this forum. Review your responses for appropriate spelling, grammar, and mechanics before posting.

Jane Addams Discussion

All primary discussion posts must be 100 words or more and at least 75 words when you are replying to another student and you must reply to at least one student.

What is it that settlement houses do? Why did we need them in the 1890s and early 1900s according to Addams? Where would we get these services today?

JaneAddamsDiscussion.docx

Jane Addams Discussion

All primary discussion posts must be 100 words or more and at least 75 words when you are replying to another student and you must reply to at least one student.

What is it that settlement houses do? Why did we need them in the 1890s and early 1900s according to Addams? Where would we get these services today?

https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/20-the-progressive-era/jane-addams-the-subjective-necessity-for-social-settlements-1892/

The American Yawp Reader

Jane Addams, “The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements” (1892)

Hull House, Chicago’s famed “settlement house,” was designed to uplift urban populations. Here, Addams explains why she believes reformers must “add the social function to democracy.” As Addams explained, Hull House “was opened on the theory that the dependence of classes on each other is reciprocal.”

It is not difficult to see that although America is pledged to the democratic ideal, the view of democracy has been partial, and that its best achievement thus far has been pushed along the line of the franchise. Democracy has made little attempt to assert itself in social affairs. We have refused to move beyond the position of its eighteenth-century leaders, who believed that political equality alone would secure all good to all men. We conscientiously followed the gift of the ballot hard upon the gift of freedom to the negro, but we are quite unmoved by the fact that he lives among us in a practical social ostracism. We hasten to give the franchise to the immigrant from a sense of justice, from a tradition that he ought to have it, while we dub him with epithets deriding his past life or present occupation ….

… Our consciences are becoming tender in regard to the lack of democracy in social affairs. We are perhaps entering upon the second phase of democracy …. The social organism has broken down through large districts of our great cities. Many of the people living there are very poor, the majority of them without leisure or energy for anything but the gain of subsistence. … Practically nothing is done to remedy this. … Their ideas and resources are cramped. The desire for higher social pleasure is extinct. They have no share in the traditions and social energy which make for progress. Too often their only place of meeting is a saloon, their only host a bartender; a local demagogue forms their public opinion. Men of ability and refinement, of social power and university cultivation, stay away from them. Personally, I believe the men who lose most are those who thus stay away. But the paradox is here: when cultivated people do stay away from a certain portion of the population, when all social advantages are persistently withheld, it may be for years, the result itself is pointed at as a reason, is used as an argument, for the continued withholding.

…

It is inevitable that those who feel most keenly this insincerity and partial living should be our young people, our so-called educated young people who accomplish little toward the solution of this social problem, and who bear the brunt of being cultivated into unnourished, oversensitive lives. They have been shut off from the common labor by which they live and which is a great source of moral and physical health. They feel a fatal want of harmony between their theory and their lives, a lack of co-ordination between thought and action. I think it is hard for us to realize how seriously many of them are taking to the notion of human brotherhood, how eagerly they long to give tangible expression to the democratic ideal. These young men and women, longing to socialize their democracy, are animated by certain hopes.

These hopes may be loosely formulated thus: that if in a democratic country nothing can he permanently achieved save through the masses of the people, it will be impossible to establish a higher political life than the people themselves crave; that it is difficult to see how the notion of a higher civic life can be fostered save through common intercourse; that the blessings which we associate with a life of refinement and cultivation can be made universal and must be made universal if they are to be permanent; that the good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain, is floating in mid-air, until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.

…

… I have seen young girls suffer and grow sensibly lowered in vitality in the first years after they leave school. In our attempt then to give a girl pleasure and freedom from care we succeed, for the most part, in making her pitifully miserable. She finds “life” so different from what she expected it to be. She is besotted with innocent little ambitions, and does not understand this apparent waste of herself, this elaborate preparation, if no work is provided for her. There is a heritage of noble obligation which young people accept and long to perpetuate. The desire for action, the wish to right wrong and alleviate suffering, haunts them daily. …

We have in America a fast-growing number of cultivated young people who have no recognized outlet for their active faculties. They bear constantly of the great social maladjustment, but no way is provided for them to change it, and their uselessness bangs about them heavily. … We are fast feeling the pressure of the need and meeting the necessity for Settlements in America. Our young people feel nervously the need of putting theory into action, and respond quickly to the Settlement form of activity. …

The Settlement then, is an experimental effort to aid in the solution of the social and industrial problems which are engendered by the modern conditions of life in a great city. …

[Source: Jane Addams, “The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements,” in Twenty Years at Hull House.]

TheAmericanYawpReader19.docx

The American Yawp Reader

19. American Empire

“School Begins,” Puck, January 25, 1899.

Introduction

In the decades after the American Civil War, the United States exerted itself in the service of American interests around the world. In the Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East, and most explicitly in the Spanish-American War and under the foreign policy of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, the United States expanded upon a long history of exploration, trade, and cultural exchange to practice something that looked remarkably like empire. Meanwhile, as the United States asserted itself abroad, it received ever more numbers of foreign peoples at home. European and Asian immigrants poured into the United States. In a sense, imperialism and immigration raised similar questions about American identity: who was an “American,” and who wasn’t? What were the nation’s obligations to foreign powers and foreign peoples? And how accessible—and how fluid—should American identity be for newcomers? Such questions confronted late-nineteenth-century Americans with unprecedented urgency, and the following sources attempt to shed light on how they were approached by contemporary Americans.

Documents

1. William McKinley on American Expanionism (1903)

After the surrender of the Spanish in the Spanish-American War, the United States assumed control of the Philippines and struggled to contain an anti-American insurgency.

2. Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden” (1899)

As the United States waged war against Filipino insurgents, the British writer and poet Rudyard Kipling urged the Americans to take up “the white man’s burden.”

3. James D. Phelan, “Why the Chinese Should Be Excluded” (1901)

James D. Phelan, the mayor of San Francisco, penned the following article to drum up support for the extension of laws prohibiting Chinese immigration.

4. William James on “The Philippine Question” (1903)

Many Americans opposed imperialist actions. Here, the philosopher William James explains his opposition in the light of history.

5. Mark Twain, “The War Prayer” (ca.1904-5)

The American writer Mark Twain wrote the following satire in the glow of America’s imperial interventions.

6. Chinese Immigrants Confront Anti-Chinese Prejudice (1885, 1903)

Mary Tape, a Chinese immigrant mother, fought for her daughter, Mamie Tape, to integrate public schools in California. The case, Tape v. Hurley (1885), reached the California Supreme Court in 1885 and, despite a favorable ruling for Tape, the San Francisco Board of Education built a segregated Chinese school which Mamie Tape was forced to attend. In the following letter, Mary Tape protested the denial of her daughter’s entry to Spring Valley School; Lee Chew immigrated from China at the age of 16. He worked as a domestic servant for an American family in San Francisco, started a laundry business, and later ran an importing business in New York City. In the following passage, he attacked anti-Chinese prejudice in the United States.

7. African Americans Debate Enlistment (1898)

Thousands of African-American troops served in in the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars. Confronted with racial violence and discrimination at home, they did so with a mix of hope, skepticism, satisfaction, and disappointment. Here, the Indianapolis Freeman reports on recruiting efforts in Hartfod, Connecticut.

Media

School Begins (1899)

“School Begins,” Puck, January 25, 1899.

In this 1899 cartoon published, Uncle Sam lectures his new students: The Philippines, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and, Cuba. Past and potentially future U.S. acquisitions fill the rest of the classroom.

“Declined With Thanks” (1900)

John S. Pughe, “Declined With Thanks,” in Puck (September 5, 1900). Wikimedia .

In this political cartoon, tailor President McKinley measures an obese Uncle Sam for larger clothing, while Anti-Expansionists like Joseph Pulitzer unsuccessfully offer Sam a weight-loss elixir. As the nation increased its imperialistic presence and mission, many like Pulitzer worried that America would grow too big for its own good.

https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/19-american-empire/

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DeclarationofIndependence_Text1.pdf

The Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands

which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and

equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the

opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their

Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the

consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it

is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation

on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their

Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be

changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more

disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which

they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same

Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw

off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient

sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former

Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries

and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To

prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in

their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to

attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people

would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable

to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository

of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on

the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the

Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the

State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions

within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for

Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the

conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary

powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and

payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and

eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and

unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the

Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an

Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit

instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms

of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in

all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death,

desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the

most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country,

to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our

frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of

all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our

repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked

by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time

of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them

of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and

magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these

usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been

deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which

denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace

Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled,

appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by

Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies

are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to

the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and

ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War,

conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which

Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the

protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred

Honor.

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:

Column 1

Georgia: Button Gwinnett

Lyman Hall George Walton

Column 2

North Carolina: William Hooper

Joseph Hewes John Penn

South Carolina: Edward Rutledge

Thomas Heyward, Jr.

Thomas Lynch, Jr. Arthur Middleton

Column 3

Massachusetts: John Hancock

Maryland: Samuel Chase

William Paca Thomas Stone

Charles Carroll of

Carrollton

Virginia: George Wythe

Richard Henry Lee Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Harrison

Thomas Nelson, Jr. Francis Lightfoot Lee

Carter Braxton

Column 4

Pennsylvania: Robert Morris

Benjamin Rush Benjamin Franklin

John Morton George Clymer

James Smith

George Taylor James Wilson

George Ross

Delaware: Caesar Rodney

George Read

Thomas McKean

Column 5

New York: William Floyd

Philip Livingston Francis Lewis

Lewis Morris

New Jersey: Richard Stockton

John Witherspoon Francis Hopkinson

John Hart

Abraham Clark

Column 6

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett

William Whipple

Massachusetts: Samuel Adams John Adams

Robert Treat Paine

Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins

William Ellery

Connecticut: Roger Sherman

Samuel Huntington William Williams

Oliver Wolcott

New Hampshire: Matthew Thornton