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AMERICAN CIVILISATION
Constantin - Sorin PÎRVU
Specializarea ENGLEZĂ
Forma de învăţământ ID - semestrul III
2011
American Civilisation
Constantin-Sorin PÎRVU
2011
© 2011 Acest manual a fost elaborat în cadrul "Proiectului pentru
Învăţământul Rural", proiect co-finanţat de către Banca Mondială,
Guvernul României şi comunităţile locale.
ISBN 973-0-04103-2
Contents
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 1
UNIT 1
UNIT 2
UNIT 3
UNIT 4
UNIT 5
5 American History..................................................................................... 77
Unit Objectives ........................................................................................ 78
5.1 Settling Down .......................................................................................... 78
5.1.1 Jamestown Settlement .............................................................................. 78
5.1.2 Mayflower Compact................................................................................... 79
5.1.3 Boston ....................................................................................................... 80
5.2 The American Revolution ....................................................................... 81
5.2.1 Towards the Declaration of Independence ................................................ 81
5.2.2 Towards the American Constitution........................................................... 87
5.3 Falling Apart ............................................................................................ 90
5.3.1 The War of 1812 ....................................................................................... 90
5.3.2 The Monroe Doctrine ................................................................................ 92
5.3.3 The Mexican War ..................................................................................... 93
5.3.4 The Election of 1860 ................................................................................ 94
5.4 The American Civil War ......................................................................... 96
5.4.1 Gettysburg and Vicksburg ........................................................................ 97
5.4.2 The Election of 1864 ............................................................................... 99
5.4.3 The Compromise of 1877 ....................................................................... 101
5.5 The Twentieth Century ......................................................................... 103
5.5.1 The World Wars ..................................................................................... 103
5.5.2 The Nuclear Arms Race ......................................................................... 107
5.5.3 The Vietnam War ................................................................................... 108
5.5.4 The Civil Rights Race Riots .................................................................... 111
5.5.5 The New Left and the Counterculture ..................................................... 115
5.5.6 The End of the Cold War ........................................................................ 117
Summary ............................................................................................... 118
Key Terms ............................................................................................. 118
Glossary of Terms and Comments ..................................................... 119
Gallery of Personalities ...................................................................... 124
ii
Contents
SAA No. 4 .............................................................................................. 130
Answers to SAQs .................................................................................. 131
Further Readings .................................................................................. 133
Appendix ............................................................................................... 135
Bibliography .......................................................................................... 162
iii
Contents
iv
Introduction
INTRODUCTION
Learning tasks
1
Introduction
blank space to be filled out. Where there is no clue leading to an
answer, the Stop and Think tasks ask students to devise a
portfolio to be discussed in the tutorials.
The Self-Assessed Questions (SAQs) anticipate the
students’ need to build on the ideas presented. They pose
questions which refer the students back to the essential aspects
treated in the respective unit. The students’ answers, written in the
blank spaces of the SAQ boxes, should be confronted to those
given in the Answers to SAQs section at the end of the unit.
The Send Away Assignments (SAAs) elicit the students’
global understanding and acquisition of the essential aspects
treated in each of the units. The completed SAAs will be sent to
the tutor, at times set in agreement with him/her, by regular mail or
e-mail.
Assessment
Students are required to write essay-projects for four
sections of the module (Units 1, 3, 4 and 5) which is the equivalent
in the distance learning system of continuous assessment (four
projects for 40% of the final grade). The final test will be an oral
exam counting for 60% of the final grade. On a 0 to 10 points
yardstick, the evaluation criteria will be the following: 1 base point,
theoretical approach of the topic – 4 points, richness and
relevance of the examples given – 3 points, focused argument of
the specificity of each of the five topic studied – 2 points.
2
Introduction
3
Consumer Society
UNIT 1
CONSUMER SOCIETY
Unit Outline
4
Consumer Society
1.1.1 Coca-Cola
5
Consumer Society
troops stationed across the world during the Second World War
and its aftermath. It came to be associated with the material values
and desires of American consumer society, a symbol of material
affluence, of the All-Mighty Dollar itself.
From the early years of the century the publicity campaigns
were mounted on a sophisticated level, with all kinds of associated
promotional material, as well as an annual budget exceeding
$1 million by 1914. The company’s association with modern
transportation systems (advertisements used to read: “through
skyways, as on highways, railways and busy streets”) points to its
growing international presence.
6
Consumer Society
7
Consumer Society
SAQ 1
Given the fast-food restaurant / classical restaurant choice, where
would you go if you’d like to do it:
Write your answers in the space provided above (in no more than
60 words) and compare them to those in the “Answers to SAQs”
section at the end of the unit.
8
Consumer Society
SAQ 2
Write your answers in the space provided above (in no more than
180 words) and compare them to those in the “Answers to SAQs”
section at the end of the unit.
9
Consumer Society
1.1.4 Jeans
Although jeans originated in the mid-nineteenth century as
Californian workers’ clothing made by Levi Strauss (a classical
Jeans = freedom advertisement used to read: “Since 1850 jeans have been called
Levi’s in the USA!”), they have since become potent and expressive
emblems of wide-differing values throughout the 20th century.
Associated with teenage rebellion in the 1950s on the one hand, or
expensive ‘designer’ brand names in the late 1970s and early 1980s
on the other, their changing meanings paralleled those of the T-shirt
which successfully made the transition from working vest to
emblematic carrier of slogans and images.
But, whatever the differences in generic and designer names,
jeans are universally seen as informal, classless, unisex, and
appropriate to city or country; wearing them is a sign of freedom
from the constraints on behavior and identity that social categories
impose. By the way, free was the single most common adjective
used frequently with the meaning of “free to be myself.”
Free as they certainly are in connotations, jeans are not entirely
free of criticism. They are often blamed for their implicit impersonality, or
rather for having no human physical warmth and consequently no
spiritual dimension – unlike, perhaps, the cowboy boots and cowboy
hats.
To sum it up, celebrities wear jeans to get mixed up with the
crowd and fans wear jeans to be the spitting image of their idols.
Jeans, along with a few other “American” clothing items: sneakers,
T-shirts and cowboy boots and hats are supremely functional
garments, comfortable, tough, sometimes cheap and requiring “low
maintenance.” Their popularity is also explained by their unique
ability to transect almost every social category one could think of:
one cannot define a jeans-wearer by any of the major social
category systems – gender, class, race, age, nation, religion, and
education.
10
Consumer Society
SAQ 3
Write your answers in the space provided above (in no more than
50 words) and compare them to those in the “Answers to SAQs”
section at the end of the unit.
11
Consumer Society
1.2.1 Hollywood
If ancient myths represent collective memories, modern
myths, created by the so-called “Dream Factory,” are collective
Hollywood = fabrications of an individual character. And Hollywood has been a
Dream Factory masterhand at making up such myths around manufactured
commodities, automobiles, ships (e. g. the Titanic), railways (e. g.
the Orient Express), even places or regions: it has also made it its
business to help film stars take on virtually mythical proportions.
One such myth, the westerner, proved to be a big hit.
The Westerner’s loneliness is organic, not imposed on him by
the situation, but belonging to him intimately. He is prepared to
accept life, perhaps, but he never asks of it more than it can give;
and we see him constantly in situations where love is at best
irrelevant. If there is a woman he loves, she is usually unable to
understand his motives; she is against killing and being killed, and
he finds it impossible to explain to her that there is no point in
being against these things: they belong to his world.
The Westerner is also a man of leisure. Even when he wears
the badge of a marshal he appears to be unemployed. We see him
standing at a bar or playing poker – a game which expresses
perfectly his talent for remaining relaxed in the midst of tension. If
he does own a ranch, it is in the background; we are not actually
aware that he owns anything except his horse, his guns, and the
one worn suit of clothing which is likely to remain unchanged all
through the movie. As a rule we do not even know were he sleeps
at night. Yet it never seems that he is a poor man – there is no
poverty in Western movies. When he accepts employment of some
kind, it is not because he needs to make a living, he simply wants
to “get ahead.” What does he fight for? We know he is on the side
of justice and order, and of course, it can be said he fights for
these things. When an explanation is asked of him he is likely to
say that he does what he ”has to do.” If justice and order did not
continually demand his protection, he would be without a calling.
But what he defends, at bottom, is the purity of his own image – in
fact, his honor.
12
Consumer Society
SAQ 4
Given your age and education, what kind of movie would you like
to see:
Write your answers in the space provided above (in no more than
70 words) and compare them to those in the “Answers to SAQs”
section at the end of the unit.
13
Consumer Society
14
Consumer Society
SAQ 5
Write your answers in the space provided above (in no more than
60 words) and compare them to those in the “Answers to SAQs”
section at the end of the unit.
15
Consumer Society
Summary
16
Consumer Society
Key Terms
• Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola
• Burgers and hot-dogs
• Cadillac and Ford
• Jeans and T-shirts
17
Consumer Society
SAA No. 1
Intended to process consumer-imagery as he is, pop artist Richard
Hamilton associates Americanism with a number of products in the
collage below, entitled Just what is it that makes today’s homes so
different, so appealing?
Please note that the quality of your ideas and the coherence of the
essay will be 70% of your grade, while the accuracy of your
language will count for 30%.
18
Consumer Society
Answers to SAQs
Should your answer to SAQ 1 not be comparable to that
given below, please revise section 1.1.2 of the unit.
SAQ 2 Motorcycles are certainly for boys rather than girls, for youth rather
than the elders – adventure and “rebellion without cause” are both
part of the myth. As for the other categories, it all depends upon
these two dimensions, adventure and rebellion being constituents
of their semantic field. For example, one could expect a BA to be
more responsible and see the risks he takes if he drives a
motorcycle on a busy street. Or, you expect misfits to be more
rebellious than aristocracy because they do not have much to lose.
Or, you expect the minority race / nation / religion to be more
dynamic (i. e. adventurous) than the majority, simply because they
are not happy about their racial / national / religious status and they
would like to have it changed.
SAQ 3 The oppositions between generic jeans and designer jeans can be
summarized like this: (generic / designer) classless / upscale;
country / city; communal / socially distinctive; unisex / feminine (or,
more rarely, masculine); work / leisure; traditional / contemporary;
unchanging / transient.
SAQ 4 If you are relatively young, you will arguably like adventure,
science-fiction, horror; if very young, you are expected to love
cartoons; if less than “young and restless,” you will be more willing
to take time and follow the more complicated plots in thrillers and
dramas. Comedy goes for all ages, with a plus for the middle-aged,
who might feel comfortable to see that the bright side of life, even if
only in fantasies, has not disappeared altogether. This same
reasoning stands when the reference point is education.
19
Consumer Society
paper (pulpwood) is necessarily cheap, but the covers tend to
provide some sort of compensation, and are consequently
imaginative and even luxurious. As for the literary genre at issue,
popular fiction seems to be born for it; next comes best-selling
mainstream fiction; poetry and drama are hardly ever in place.
Further Readings
1. Bogdan S. Pîrvu, Dicţionar de Genetică literară, Institutul
European, Iaşi, 2005, pp. 52-62.
2. Gheorghe Stan, OK pentru America, Institutul European, Iaşi,
2006, pp. 136-150.
3. Ştefan Avădanei, Acolada atlantică, Institutul European, Iaşi,
2001, pp. 196-204.
4. Sorin Pârvu (coord.), Dicţionar de Postmodernism, vol. II,
Institutul European, Iaşi, 2006, pp. 7-20.
20
Education and Recreation
UNIT 2
Unit Outline
Unit Objectives ................................................................................ 22
2.1 Education ......................................................................................... 22
2.1.1 Harvard.............................................................................................. 24
2.2 Holidays ........................................................................................... 25
2.2.1 Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas........................................... 25
2.3 Sports ............................................................................................... 27
2.3.1 Baseball............................................................................................. 27
2.3.2 Football.............................................................................................. 29
Summary .......................................................................................... 31
Key Terms ........................................................................................ 32
Glossary of Terms and Comments ................................................ 32
Further Readings ............................................................................. 32
21
Education and Recreation
2.1 Education
Part of the program of reform in the United States was the
argument that increased education was necessary for intelligent
participation in political democracy. Congress created the first
Department of Education in 1867 to disseminate the gospel of the
The system of free-school. Nineteen states had adopted compulsory education
education is a laws by 1881, and by the time of the First World War, nearly 19
matter of each percent of American children between seven and thirteen were
individual state. attending school.
Adult education was booming as well. $31 million was given
in support of public libraries at the end of the nineteenth century;
and by 1900 the Commissioner of Education reported over 9000
free circulating libraries in the country. Similarly, the Chautauqua*
movement evoked an astounding response from the adult
population.
The United States does not have a national system of
education. Education is considered to be a matter for the people
of each state who have the real control at the public school level.
Although there is a federal Department of Education, its function is
merely to gather information, to advise, and to help finance certain
educational programs. Education, Americans say, is “a national
concern, a state responsibility, and a local function.” Since the
Constitution does not state that education is a responsibility of the
federal government, all educational matters are left to the
individual states. As a result, each of the 50 state legislatures is
free to determine its own system for its own public schools. Each
sets whatever basic, minimal requirements for teaching and
teachers it judges to be appropriate.
In turn, however, state constitutions give the actual
administrative control of the public schools to the local
communities. There are some 16,000 school districts within 50
states. School boards made up of individual citizens elected from
each community oversee the schools in each district. They, not
the state, set school policy and actually decide what is to be
taught.
22
Education and Recreation
SAQ 1
Princeton University
2.1.1
Harvard
Found in 1636 (by vote of the Great and General Court of
the Massachusetts Bay Colony) and named for its first
benefactor, John Harvard of Charlestown (a young minister
who, upon his death in 1638, left his library and half his estate
to the new institution), Harvard University has grown from nine
students with a single master to an enrollment of more than
18,000 degree candidates, including undergraduates and
students in 10 principal academic units. An additional 13,000
students are enrolled in one or more courses in the Harvard
Extension School. Over 14,000 people work at Harvard,
including more than 2,000 faculties. There are also 7,000
faculties’ appointments in affiliated teaching hospitals.
Even if the College was consistent with the prevailing
Puritan philosophy of the first colonists, it offered from the
beginning a classic academic course based on the English
university model. An early brochure, published in 1643,
justified the College’s existence: “To advance Learning and
perpetuate it to Posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate
Ministry to the Churches.” Around 1644, “Old College,”
Harvard’s first new academic building, was completed.
Unequal to the harsh New England weather, the wooden
structure had a useful life of only 34 years. The College never
again built on the site.
24
Education and Recreation
2.2 Holidays
25
Education and Recreation
26
Education and Recreation
2.3 Sports
2.3.1 Baseball
Baseball is played with long wooden bats and a small, hard
ball, by two teams of nine players each. The infield has three
Baseball, played at bases
a slow pace, might (= bags filled with sand) and a home plate, also called home,
just as well be arranged in a diamond. The distance between each base is 90 feet
about socializing. (27.4 meters). The pitcher, who throws the ball to the batter at the
home plate, stands in the center of the diamond. The distance from
the pitcher’s mound to the home plate is 60.5 feet (18.4 meters).
The team that scores the most runs as its players move round the
bases is the winner.
Each game lasts nine innings. In each inning the visiting
team is first to bat (= hit the ball), while the home team plays
defense. Players bat in turn but when a team has three outs, it
must let the other side bat. If a batter hits the ball and it is not
caught in the air for an out, he runs to first base. If the ball is
thrown to first base before the batter gets there, he is out. If not,
then he tries to advance to second base, third base, and back to
home for a run while other players bat. A base runner is out if
another player in his team hits the ball and it is thrown to second or
third base before he gets there. The most exciting play is when the
batter hits a ball very far and can go round all the bases for a home
run, also called a homer.
An umpire judges the throws. If a pitch (= ball that is thrown)
is not hit, the ball is caught by the catcher behind the batter and
returned to the pitcher. A batter strikes out (= is out) if the pitcher
throws three balls within the strike zone (= the area between the
batter’s shoulders and knees) and he misses then or does not try
to hit them. A batter can go to first base on a walk if the pitcher
throws four balls outside the strike zone. As well as the pitcher and
the catcher, the defense has four other players in the infield and
three in the outfield.
The professional season lasts from April to October. Major
league baseball is organized into the American League and the
National League. At the end of the season the four best teams in
each league play to decide which two will go forward to the World
Series. The team that wins four games in this competition are the
World Champions.
27
Education and Recreation
SAQ 2
28
Education and Recreation
2.3.2. Football
Football is one of the major sports in the US. In Britain and
elsewhere the game is often called “American football” to
distinguish it from soccer. American football developed from the
games of football and rugby. There is a lot of dangerous play, so
helmets and thick pads must be worn. Each game has
cheerleaders and bands of musicians who march on the field
between the halves of the game. Whole families go to watch
games, and there is almost no violence from supporters. Many
games are shown live on US television. British television now also
Football is not
shows some games each week. In US high schools, colleges and
soccer.
universities, football games are the centre of many social events,
such as homecoming.
The game is played by two teams of 11 players each, with
different players used for defense, offense and kicks. The field is
100 yards (91.5 meters) long and 53 yards 1 foot (49 meters) wide.
It is sometimes called a gridiron because the lines across it that
mark every 10 yards (9 meters) make it look like the metal tray on
which meat is grilled or broiled. At each end of the field there is an
extra
10 yards (9 meters) called the end zone, with a goal post in the
shape of an ‘H'. The ball is oval-shaped and sometimes called a
pigskin because the balls were formerly made from pig’s skin.
A team scores when its players send the ball down the field
and across the opponent’s goal line for a touchdown of seven
points. They can then add a point after touchdown (PAT) if they
kick the ball through the goal posts. A team can get three points if
the ball is kicked between the goal posts without a touchdown and
two points if their defense stops the opponents in their own end
zone.
The team with the ball must move it 10 yards (9 meters) in
four downs (= separate actions). This is done from behind linemen
who face the defense’s linemen. An action begins when the
quarterback takes the ball from between the legs of the center and
runs with it, hands it to another runner or passes (= throws) it to
another player. Between actions, the team with the ball has a
huddle, so the quarterback can tell them what to do next. If 10
yards (9 meters) are not made in four downs, the team must punt
(= kick the ball to the other team). The defense can also get the
ball by an interception (= a catch of the opponent’s pass) or a
fumble (= a ball accidentally dropped).
The National Football League (NFL) has 30 professional
teams. Six teams in the American Football Conference, and six in
the National Football Conference play against each other to decide
the two that will meet in the Super Bowl.
29
Education and Recreation
SAQ 3
30
Education and Recreation
Summary
American education is a continuous process; e. g. it is never
too late to go to college (90 year-old students are often reported to
have done well in the finals). It is also a flexible process; e. g. one
particularly gifted student could have his / her classes compressed
and thus go to college when he / she is hardly 10 years old.
Holidays (because of the mingling of peoples, races and
religions) tend to lose their religious impact and now they have a
primarily economic character. Preceded and followed by big sales,
they are a good opportunity for everyone to be both on the giving
end and the receiving end – they are all about getting and giving.
Sports have, like education and holidays, a universal
character, getting everyone involved as a practitioner (jogging,
bowling) or at least as a fan (baseball, football) – in this latter
capacity, the American mostly means to socialize.
31
Education and Recreation
Key Terms
• Public school
• Adult education
• Thanksgiving and Halloween
• Baseball and football
Answers to SAQs
Should your answers to SAQ 1 not be comparable to those given
below, please revise section 2.1 of the unit.
SAQ 1 a) F; b) F; c) F.
SAQ 2 (1) – nine; (2) – three; (3) – 90; (4) – 60.5; (5) – the most runs; (6) –
nine; (7) – the visiting team; (8) – the home team.
SAQ 3 (1) – eleven; (2) – 100; (3) – 53 yards and 1 foot; (4) – 10; (5) – 10; (6)
– pigskin; (7) – touchdown.
Further Readings
1. Sorin Pârvu, Dicţionar de Scriitori americani, Editura
Universităţii „Al. I. Cuza”, Iaşi, 1990, pp. 45-51.
2. Gheorghe Stan, OK pentru America, Institutul European,
Iaşi, 2006, pp. 115-130.
32
The Melting Pot
UNIT 3
Unit Outline
Unit Objectives .................................................................................34
33
The Melting Pot
SAQ 1
36
The Melting Pot
The settling of North America did not truly begin till the early
1600s, over a century after its discovery, by which time Spain
already had thriving colonies in Mexico, the West Indies and South
America. It was the Spanish empire that had also founded the first
enduring colony on the territory of North America (1565): Saint
Augustine, located in present-day Florida.
Jamestown (1607): Another notable attempt in this direction belonged to the British
the first permanent Empire, when organizing Roanoke Colony in 1585. The colony,
however, disappeared by 1591. Britain’s next attempt, over twenty
colony
years later, would be more successful, with its first permanent
colony in the Americas founded in 1607 – Jamestown.
In order to understand how the next successful English
Mayflower colonies, that were entirely different, came to exist, it is important
Compact (1620): to note the religious happenings in England. The established
the first document church there was the Anglican Church, which had broken away
of American from the Roman-Catholic Church during the reign of Henry VIII
democracy (1509 – 1547). Relatively soon after that, however, a group of
religious dissenters appeared. They were called Puritans, as they
wanted to ‘purify’ the church by eliminating the remaining Catholic
Plymouth colony elements. Some of them, who would become known as Pilgrims,
held the first were more radical in their beliefs, considering that the Anglican
Thanksgiving feast Church could not be reformed. They originated in a small
in 1621. Protestant congregation in Scrooby Manor, England and had sailed
in 1605 for the Netherlands, which was establishing itself as a
haven for the persecuted. Dissatisfied with the heavy Dutch
influence on their children and with their poor economic conditions,
some of these emigrants joined a larger group of Separatists who
had remained in England, and sailed for the New World on board
the Mayflower; they came instead to what is now called
Massachusetts, and landed on the west side of Lower Cape Cod;
believing themselves outside the jurisdiction of any organized
government, the men drew up a formal agreement to abide by “just
and equal laws” drafted by leaders of their choosing. This was the
Mayflower Compact. The document, which was to be the official
Constitution of Plymouth Colony for over 70 years, is the first
document of American Democracy. The Pilgrims later relocated to
Plymouth Colony on the mainland, establishing that settlement on
December 21, 1620. Like the settlers at Jamestown, the Pilgrims
had a difficult first winter, having had no time to plant crops.
However, in 1621 they enlisted the aid of Squanto and Samoset,
two American Indians who had learned to speak some English.
That fall brought a bountiful harvest, and the first Thanksgiving
feast was held.
A second group of colonists established the Massachusetts
Bay Colony in 1629. This expedition consisted of 400 Puritans, but
in the next two years 2,000 other people arrived in America in
waves of emigration known as the “Great Migration.” In the New
World the Puritans created a deeply religious, socially tight-knit and
politically innovative culture that still lingers on in the modern
United States.
37
The Melting Pot
38
The Melting Pot
Although it is a circulated idea that the Puritans came to
America seeking religious freedom, perhaps a more accurate term
would be “religious domination.” Despite the fact that they had fled
from religious repression in England, the Puritans did not seek to
establish toleration in America. Their social ideal was that of the
“nation of saints” or the “City upon a Hill”, an intensely religious,
thoroughly righteous community that would serve as an example
for all of Europe and stimulate mass conversion to Puritanism.
The political structure of the Puritan colonies is often
misunderstood, as well. Officials were elected by the community,
but only white males who were members of a Congregationalist
church could vote. From a modern American standpoint, Puritan
society was by no means a democracy. Officials had no
responsibility to “the people” – their function was to serve God by
best overseeing the moral and physical improvement of the
community. However, it was not a theocracy either –
Congregationalist ministers had no special powers in the
government. On the other hand, by contemporary European
“The City upon the standards, it was quite politically liberal – arguably more so than
Hill’: the ideal any European power of the day.
Puritan community Socially, the Puritan society was tightly knit. No one was
allowed to live alone for fear that their temptation would lead to the
moral corruption of all of Puritan society. Because marriage
generally took place within the geographic location of the family,
within several generations many “towns” were more like clans,
composed of several large, intermarried families. The strength of
Puritan society was reflected through its institutions – specifically,
its churches, town halls, and militias. All members of the Puritan
community were expected to be active in all three of these
organizations, ensuring the moral, political, and military safety of
their community. Although some characterize the strength of
Puritan society as repressively communal, others point to it as the
basis of the later American value on civic virtue, which proved to
be essential for the development of democracy.
Economically, Puritan New England fulfilled the expectations of
its founders. The Puritan economy was based on the efforts of
individual farmers, who harvested enough crops to feed
themselves and their families and to trade for goods they could not
produce themselves. There was a generally high economic
standing and standard of living in New England. On the other hand,
town leaders in New England could literally rent out the town’s
impoverished families for a year to anyone who could afford to
board them, as a form of alms and as a form of cheap labor. Along
with farming growth, New England became an important mercantile
and shipbuilding center, often serving as the connection between
the South and Europe.
Most settlers who came to America in the 17th century were
English, but there were also Dutch, Swedes and Germans in the
middle region, a few French Huguenots in South Carolina and
elsewhere, slaves from Africa, primarily in the South, and isolated
groups of Spaniards, Italians and Portuguese throughout the
colonies. After 1680, however, England ceased to be the chief
source of immigration.
(Source: Ştefan Avădanei, North American Literary History, 2001)
39
The Melting Pot
SAQ 2
a) b)
c) d)
40
The Melting Pot
41
The Melting Pot
SAQ 3
fish Plains
corn Southwest
buffalo Eastern Woodland
deer Northwest, California-
Intermountain
42
The Melting Pot
43
The Melting Pot
SAQ 4
Match the two columns to recall what home a certain Indian culture
has:
wickiup Southwest
adobe apartment building California-Intermountain
tepee Eastern Woodland
wigwam plains
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The Melting Pot
SAQ 5
When the buffalo herd was spotted by .............. (1), the women set
up .............. (2), while the warriors began the hunt. They mounted
their horses, rode right into the herd and used .............. (3) to kill
the buffalo. Or, again on horseback they chased the buffalo off a
cliff. Or, strange enough this time, they sneaked up on the buffalo
with .............. (4) covering their bodies, then .............. (5) them with
bows and arrows.
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The Melting Pot
46
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47
The Melting Pot
cultivation culminating in ginning and pressing the crop in January
and February. The slave population almost triples in size between
1790 and 1830. Since children are most likely to be sold, this
tragedy touches nearly every black family. The cotton boom and
the resulting demand for slaves bring increased danger for
northern free blacks: the possibility of being kidnapped and sold
into slavery in the South. The practice of kidnapping is actually
widespread, many southern slave owners taking a ”no question
asked” approach to purchasing slaves. The 1793 Fugitive Slave
Act enables any white person to claim a black person as a fugitive,
unless another white person testifies otherwise. Blacks are not
Philadelphia: allowed to testify against whites in court according to southern law.
a way to solve the
contradiction of a The Black Community in Philadelphia (1810-1831)
country founded
on independence, In cities like Philadelphia, free blacks in their ’’pursuit of life, liberty
but built on slavery and happiness” build churches and schools, forming beneficial
societies. Philadelphia seems to be showing the way for the rest of
the country to resolve the contradiction of a country founded on
ndependence but built on slavery. People come from rural areas in
a hundred-mile radius around Philadelphia, as well as from the
South, attracted by job prospects and the promise of living among
other free black people. A small but growing number of black
professionals include doctors, teachers, clergymen, hairdressers,
shoemakers, bakers, tailors, sailmakers, food caterers, carpenters,
musicians, and many other professions. In 1811, the city directory
ists 81 black men who own their own businesses; by 1816, the
number is 180. Most women work as domestic laborers, but some
are teachers, or own their own businesses. Together these people
create a black middle class. Philadelphia now has the largest, most
aggressive, and wealthiest free black population in the western
world. Philadelphians know it. Americans know it. Everybody sees
a Philadelphian as the prototype of what a free African American
would look like, and what a free African American would do. That is
to say, they would buy property; they would take over the public
space; they would see themselves as gentlemen and ladies.
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The Melting Pot
SAQ 6
49
The Melting Pot
Summary
American civilisation, a “melting pot” of peoples and races is
one of crossing barriers. Everyone (group or individual) means to
make a difference, now they are on the wining side, and now on
the losing side. A formidable sense of competition was activated
from the start — philosophers and economists call it “capitalist
spirit.”
The settlers, mostly English and protestants created a
deeply religious, socially tight-knit and politically innovative culture
that is still alive, 400 years since its inception. Of course, the
system as such has suffered many changes, mostly through
contacts with the Native Americans (all through the seventeenth
century and in the first half of the eighteen century) and the African
Americans (from mid-eighteenth century to this day).
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The Melting Pot
Key Terms
• Puritan society
• Wigwam
• Tepee
• Buffalo
• Slavery
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The Melting Pot
SAA No. 2
Have a good look at the pictures below and describe the work that
the settler, the Native American and the African American does in
the woods, in the camp and, respectively, in the field.
Please note that the quality of your ideas and the coherence of the
essay will be 70% of your grade, while the accuracy of your
language will count for 30%.
Answers to SAQs
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The Melting Pot
Should your answers to SAQ 5 not be comparable to those
given below, please revise section 3.2.2 of the unit.
SAQ 5 (1) – the scouts; (2) – tepees; (3) – bows and arrows; (4) –
wolfskins; (5) – killed.
Further Readings
1. Dumitru Dorobăţ, Din Ţara Făgăduinţei, Institutul European,
Iaşi, 2000, pp. 65-71
2. Ştefan Avădanei, North American Literary History, Institutul
European, Iaşi, 2004, pp. 18-19, pp. 20-21, pp. 30-31, pp. 24-32.
3. Ştefan Avădanei, Acolada Atlantică, Institutul European, Iaşi,
2001, pp. 57-60, pp. 196-204.
4. Gheorghe Stan, Unchiul Sam la el acasă, Panfilius, Iaşi, 2002,
pp. 7-10.
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UNIT 4
Unit Outline
Unit Objectives ................................................................................. 56
4.1 Transport ........................................................................................... 56
4.2 Rivers and Lakes .............................................................................. 59
4.3 Land and People ............................................................................... 61
4.4 Farming ............................................................................................. 63
4.5 Precipitation ...................................................................................... 65
4.6 Manufacturing ................................................................................... 67
4.7 The Skyscraper ................................................................................. 69
Summary ........................................................................................... 71
Key Terms ......................................................................................... 72
Glossary of Terms of Comments .................................................... 72
SAA no. 3 .......................................................................................... 74
Answers to SAQs ............................................................................. 75
Further Readings .............................................................................. 76
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SAQ 1
1. The first routes used on the American continent were the rough
trails.
2. The surfaced roads appeared at the end of the 18th century.
3. The first man-made canals were built at the end of the 18th
century.
4. The two companies which built the first transcontinental railway
(Union Pacific and Central Pacific) got no money from the Federal
Government.
5. Transcontinental railways made an important contribution to the
colonization of the West.
6. At the beginning of the 20th century trucks and vans started to
replace trains.
7. Air transport became a serious competition after WWII.
8. Today the most important means of freight transport is the road.
9. Passenger traffic is handled mainly by cars.
10. American airlines carry more than 500 million passengers every
year.
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SAQ 2
4. Besides Lake Superior, the other four of the five Great Lakes are:
a) Ontario, Hudson, Michigan and Champlain;
b) Huron, Erie, Michigan and Red;
c) Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Huron;
d) Winnebago, Erie, Ontario and Red.
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SAQ 3
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4.4 Farming
Farming accounts for less than 2 per cent of annual income
The number of farms and employs less than 3 per cent of US workers, yet the
is on the decrease. Americans lead the world in many aspects of agricultural
production. Farmers not only produce enough to meet domestic
needs, they also enable the United States to export more farm
products per year than any other nation in the world. The total
annual value of farm output increased from about $55 billion in
1970 to about $202 billion in 1994. Excluding inflation, the increase
in the farm output was 2 per cent annually.
The small subsistence farm run by a farmer primarily to meet
personal needs has virtually disappeared from the American
scene; most agricultural products are grown on large commercial
farms for shipment to urban and industrial markets. The number of
farms in the United States decreased from more than 5.6 million in
1950 to about 2.1 million in 1995. At the same time, average farm
size increased from 86 hectares to 190 hectares. In the mid-1990s
livestock and livestock products accounted for 49 per cent of the
value of all farm marketings, and crops for the remainder.
California led all states in the yearly value of farm receipts; it was
followed by Texas, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Kansas, and
Minnesota.
Beef cattle rank as the most valuable product of the nation’s
farms, accounting for almost one fifth of total annual farm receipts.
Many are raised on large ranches in south-western states, rich in
grass. Dairy products represent about 11 per cent of the yearly
value of farm marketings and are the second most valuable item
coming from American farms. Other major livestock and livestock
products include pigs, chickens, eggs, turkeys, sheep and lambs.
Leading agricultural crops are corn, vegetables, soya beans,
California, closely
fruits and nuts, wheat, cotton, and tobacco. Illinois, Iowa,
followed by Texas
Nebraska, Minnesota, and Indiana together produce about two
with its beef cattle, thirds of the annual corn crop, while Kansas usually leads all states
comes first in the in yearly wheat production. For more than a century and a half,
yearly value of farm cotton was the predominant cash crop in the South. Today,
receipts. however, it is no longer important in some of the traditional cotton-
growing areas east of the Mississippi River and is now
concentrated in relatively flat areas amenable to large-scale
mechanization, such as the lower Mississippi Valley, the plains of
Texas, and the valleys of California and Arizona. Tobacco remains
an important cash crop. The leading tobacco-producing states are
North Carolina and Kentucky.
Other leading crops include peanuts, peaches, tomatoes, and
apples. More than 75 per cent of the oranges and about 50 per
cent of the tomatoes are produced in Florida; some 84 per cent of
the grapes are raised in California; and about 50 per cent of the
commercial apples come from orchards in Washington state.
Additional major vegetable crops are sugar cane, rice, sorghum
grain, dry beans, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, celery, cucumbers,
lettuce, onions, green peppers, and mushrooms; valuable fruit
crops include cantaloupe melons and watermelons, cherries,
pears, plums and strawberries. Major nut crops include almonds,
pecans, and walnuts.
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SAQ 4
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4.5 Precipitation
The pattern of precipitation is largely a consequence of the
interaction of wind and topography. The wind system of the Earth
Precipitation = balances temperatures by taking heat from the equator and
interaction of wind carrying it towards the poles. Two features of this global
and topography atmospheric circulation are particularly significant for the United
States. One is a current of sinking air, a gentle but persistent
downward movement of air from the upper atmosphere; the air
loses moisture as it rises to the upper atmosphere and begins to
move polewards. At about latitude 30° north the air begins to sink,
bringing hot and dry conditions to the south-western United States,
especially in summer.
The other significant part of atmospheric circulation is the jet
stream, a shifting zone of fast winds blowing high above the
ground, generally from west to east. The path of the jet stream on
any given day is a key to surface weather. In summer, the jet
stream is usually near the Canadian border, though it may loop as
far north as Alaska or as far south as Louisiana. It brings wet
Pacific air onshore in Washington and Alaska, but in other western
states dry air masses from Mexico and Canada dominate. In the
east, by contrast, the jet can pull moist air masses northward from
the Gulf of Mexico all the way to Canada.
In winter, the entire wind system follows the sun southward.
Pacific air masses now bring clouds and rain to the coastal
mountains from California to southern Alaska. The jet usually
crosses the country at the latitude of Oklahoma, and cold, dry
Canadian air covers the northern half of the country; however, day-
to-day shifts of the jet may pull warm, moist Gulf air as far north as
Illinois or bring Canadian air to Florida.
Regional weather hazards are closely associated with the
seasonal position of the jet stream and associated fronts. Torrential
rains are most common near the Gulf of Mexico, which is the major
source of moisture for the country. Tornadoes occur in the centre
of the United States, where Canadian and Gulf air masses often
collide violently; hurricanes arise out of the late-summer warmth of
the Atlantic Ocean and drift towards the south-eastern states in the
autumn. Southern California experiences smog and forest fires in
late summer.
Heavy winter snows in the eastern United States are caused
by the rapid cooling of Gulf air, amplified in the Great Lakes region
by local lake breezes. December and March are the major months
for snow in Minnesota and the Dakotas; in January there is a time
of intense cold and little snowfall, because Gulf air cannot
penetrate that far north. Finally, the occasional west coast storms
of Hawaii are wintertime incursions of North Pacific air that occur
when the jet stream curves far to the south. Normal weather
consists of trade winds that cause rain only on the north-eastern
slopes of each island.
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SAQ 5
Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word or phrase:
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4.6 Manufacturing
The United States has been the world’s leading industrial
nation since early in the 20th century. Until the second half of the
Manufacturing is 19th century, agriculture remained the dominant economic activity.
traditionally After the American Civil War, great advances were made in the
located in the production of basic industrial goods. By World War I, exports of
North. manufactured goods had become more important than the export
of raw materials; as manufacturing grew, agriculture became
increasingly mechanized and efficient, employing fewer and fewer
workers.
Perhaps the most important change in recent decades has
been the growth of manufacturing outside the north-eastern and
north-central regions. The nation’s industrial core developed in the
north-east and this is still the location of the greatest concentration
of industry, but it has become relatively less significant than in the
past.
In the early 1990s about half of the nation’s manufacturing
employees were found in the 21 north-eastern and north-central
states that extend from New England to Kansas; in 1947 about 75
per cent of the manufacturing employees lived in the same region.
Since 1947 the South’s share of the nation’s manufacturing
workers has increased from 19 to 32 per cent, and that in the West
has grown from 7 to 18 per cent.
Within the North, manufacturing is centered in the Middle
Atlantic and eastern north-central states, which account for about
37 per cent of the annual value added by all manufacturing in the
United States. Located in this area are five of the top seven
manufacturing states—New York, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and
Michigan—which together are responsible for approximately 27 per
cent of the value added by manufacturing in all states each year.
The greatest gains in manufacturing in the South have been
in Texas, and the most phenomenal growth in the West has been
in California, which in the early 1990s was the leading
manufacturing state, accounting for more than 10 per cent of the
annual value added by manufacturing.
Ranked by value of manufacturers’ shipments, the leading
categories of US manufactured goods are processed foods,
transport equipment, chemicals, industrial machinery, and
electronic equipment.
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American Geography and Economy
SAQ 6
True (T) or False (F) ?
1. The United States has been the world's leading industrial nation
since mid-20th century.
2. Until the first half of the 20th century, agriculture remained the
dominant economic activity.
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69
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SAQ 9
Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word:
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Summary
The United States of America, popularly referred to as the
United States or as America, is a federal republic on the continent of
North America, consisting of 48 adjacent states and the non-adjacent
states of Alaska and Hawaii. Outlying areas include Puerto Rico,
American Samoa, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands.
In general, sun intensity and, consequently, temperatures
decrease from south to north; in summer, however, the decrease in
intensity is partly offset by longer days in the north. Montana, North
Dakota, and Minnesota actually have higher record temperatures
than New Mexico and Alabama. In winter, on the other hand, the
short days in the north exaggerate the effect of low sun angles,
creating wide temperature differences from south to north. Forests
use up much solar energy to evaporate water, and therefore the
humid states of the eastern United States do not get as warm as the
dry western deserts. Oceans and lakes moderate temperatures, and
mountains are somewhat cooler by day and much colder at night than
surrounding lowlands.
Farming accounts for less than 2 per cent of annual income and
employs less than 3 per cent of US workers, yet the Americans lead
the world in many aspects of agricultural production. Farmers not only
produce enough to meet domestic needs, they also enable the United
States to export more farm products per year than any other nation in
the world.
The United States has been the world’s leading industrial nation since
early in the 20th century. Until the second half of the 19th century,
agriculture remained the dominant economic activity. After the
American Civil War, great advances were made in the production of
basic industrial goods. By World War I, exports of manufactured
goods had become more important than the export of raw materials;
as manufacturing grew, agriculture became increasingly mechanized
and efficient, employing fewer and fewer workers.
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Key Terms
• The railway
• The Mississippi
• The Great Lakes
• The skyscraper
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SAA No. 3
How would you describe the ''Promised Land'' (the dream of all
settlers and pioneers), which you can see in the picture below?
Please note that the quality of your ideas and the coherence of the
essay will be 70% of your grade, while the accuracy of your
language will count for 30%.
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American Geography and Economy
Answers to SAQs
Should your answers to SAQ 1 not be comparable to those
given below, please revise section 4.1 of the unit.
SAQ 5 (1) – seasonal position; (2) – jet stream; (3) – Gulf of Mexico; (4) –
in the center; (5) – hurricanes; (6) – Atlantic Ocean; (7) – the
south-eastern states; (8) – smog; (9) – forest fires.
SAQ 6 1. F (early 20th century); 2. F (the second half of the 19th century);
3. F (by World War I); 4. T; 5. T.
SAQ 7 (1) – g; (2) – c; (3) – f; (4) – j; (5) – a; (6) – i; (7) – d; (8) – b; (9) – h;
(10) – e.
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Further Readings
76
American History
UNIT 5
AMERICAN HISTORY
Unit Outline
Unit Objectives ................................................................................. 78
5.1 Settling Down ................................................................................... 78
5.1.1 Jamestown Settlement ....................................................................... 78
5.1.2 Mayflower Compact ............................................................................ 79
5.1.3 Boston ................................................................................................ 80
5.2 The American Revolution ................................................................ 81
5.2.1 Towards the Declaration of Independence ......................................... 81
5.2.2 Towards the American Constitution .................................................... 87
5.3 Falling Apart ..................................................................................... 90
5.3.1 The War of 1812 ................................................................................ 90
5.3.2 The Monroe Doctrine ......................................................................... 92
5.3.3 The Mexican War .............................................................................. 93
5.3.4 The Election of 1860 .......................................................................... 94
5.4 The American Civil War .................................................................. 96
5.4.1 Gettysburg and Vicksburg ................................................................. 97
5.4.2 The Election of 1864 ......................................................................... 99
5.4.3 The Compromise of 1877 ................................................................ 101
5.5 The Twentieth Century .................................................................. 103
5.5.1 The World Wars .............................................................................. 103
5.5.2 The Nuclear Arms Race .................................................................. 107
5.5.3 The Vietnam War ............................................................................. 109
5.5.4 The Civil Rights Race Riots ............................................................. 111
5.5.5 The New Left and the Counterculture .............................................. 115
5.5.6 The End of the Cold War ................................................................. 117
Summary ........................................................................................ 118
Key Terms ...................................................................................... 118
Glossary of Terms and Comments .............................................. 118
Gallery of Personalities ................................................................ 124
SAA No. 4 ....................................................................................... 130
Answers to SAQs .......................................................................... 131
Further Readings ........................................................................... 133
Appendix ........................................................................................ 135
Bibliography .................................................................................. 162
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5.1.3 Boston
Established by the elder John Winthrop in 1630 as the main
settlement of the Massachusetts Bay Company, Boston’s deep
Boston: harbor and advantageous geographic position helped it to become
America’s largest, the busiest port in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, surpassing
wealthiest and Plymouth, and Salem. From its founding until the 1760s, Boston was
most influential city America’s largest, wealthiest, and most influential city. Early
until the 1760s colonists believed that Boston was a community with a special
covenant with God. Winthrop’s sermon, “a City upon a Hill“, captured
this idea, which influenced every facet of Boston life, and made it
imperative that colonists legislate morality, enforce marriage,
enforce church attendance, enforce education in the Word of God,
and enforce the persecution of sinners. These values molded an
extremely stable and well-structured society in Boston, which
became an early center of American Puritanism, with a vigorous
intellectual life. The nation’s oldest public school, Boston Latin, was
opened in 1635; Harvard, the nation’s oldest college, was founded
at Cambridge in 1636; a public library was started in 1653; and the
first newspaper in the colonies, the Newsletter, appeared in 1704.
Puritan values of hard work, moral uprightness, and education
remain a part of Boston’s culture.
SAQ 1
Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word or phrase
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American History
In 1766 the Stamp Act was repealed and the Sugar Act was
modified as well, but these actions were soon followed by the
Declaratory Act (March 1766), which stated in part that Parliament
“had, hath, and of right ought to have, full power and authority to
make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the
colonies and people of America, subjects of the crown of Great
Britain, in all cases whatsoever.”
The next year, 1767, brought another series of measures
known as the Townshend Acts. These were based on the premise
that taxes imposed on goods imported by the colonies were legal
while internal taxes (like the Stamp Act) were not. The new
measures were also resisted, although with less violence, as
merchants resorted once again to non-importation agreements.
However, on March 5, 1770, two British regiments, dispatched to
collect duties, stirred up the Boston population, and an altercation
evolved into shooting, five Bostonians being killed. The incident was
dubbed the “Boston Massacre” and was used for propaganda
purposes. Consequently, the Townshend duties – except for the one
on tea – were repealed in 1770 and three years of calm followed.
In 1773, however, the East India Company was granted a
monopoly on exported tea (the Tea Act), which inflamed the colonial
traders, and ultimately culminated with the Boston Tea Party, when
colonists disguised as Indians threw the tea overboard. The “Tea
The Restraining Party” was quickly restaged in other port cities in America and
Acts: the American tended to polarize the sides in the widening dispute, as the Patriots
response to the (the ones who wanted to break away from the British Empire) and
British acts the Loyalists (who remained loyal to the Crown) became more
ardent about their views. Official opinion in Britain almost
unanimously condemned the Boston Tea Party as an act of
vandalism and to restore order, new laws were passed by the
Parliament, the so-called Restraining Acts*, or Coercive Acts.
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SAQ 2
True (T) or false (F)?
1. After the French and Indian war, France got Canada, the Great
Lakes and the upper Mississippi Valley.
2. It was easy for the British to administer the new territories in
North America.
3. The measures adopted by the British Parliament did not satisfy
the colonies in America.
4. The Royal Proclamation of 1763, which was meant to stop the
westward expansion of the colonists, did not prevent them to
settle on new lands.
5. New taxes were imposed on the colonists (the Sugar Act, the
Stamp Act).
6. The colonists obeyed all the new acts imposed on them by the
British Crown and Parliament.
7. During the Boston Tea Party the colonists disguised as British
not to be recognized by the British soldiers.
8. The First Continental Congress in Philadelphia adopted a
Declaration that opposed the Coercive Acts taken by the
British.
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American History
The battles of Lexington and Concord were the opening
engagements of the American Revolution, on April 19, 1775. The
British commander at Boston sought to avoid armed rebellion by
sending a column of royal infantry from Boston to capture colonial
military stores at Concord. News of his plan was dispatched to the
countryside by Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Samuel Prescott.
As the British advance column reached Lexington, they came upon
a group of militia (the minutemen). After a brief exchange of shots in
which several Americans were killed, the colonials withdrew, and the
British continued to Concord. Here they destroyed some military
supplies, fought another engagement, and began a hurried
withdrawal to Boston, which cost them over 200 casualties.
While the alarms of Lexington and Concord were still
resounding, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, on May 10, 1775. By May 15, the Congress voted to
go to war, inducting the colonial militias into continental service and
appointing Colonel George Washington of Virginia as commander-
The opening in-chief of the American forces. In the meantime, the Americans
engagements of would suffer high casualties at Bunker Hill just outside Boston. This
the Revolution was the first great battle of the Revolutionary War and it was an
occurred in late encouragement to the colonies, as it proved that American forces,
April 1777. The with sufficient supplies, could inflict heavy losses on the British.
Congress voted to Congress also ordered American expeditions to march northward
go to war in mid- into Canada by fall. Although the Americans later captured Montreal,
May 1775. they failed in a winter assault on Quebec, and eventually retreated to
New York.
Despite the outbreak of armed conflict, the idea of complete
separation from England was still repugnant to some members of
the Continental Congress. In July, the Continental Congress
adopted the Olive Branch Petition, which expressed hope for
reconciliation with Britain and appealed directly to the King for help
in achieving this. The petition fell on deaf ears, however, and King
George III issued a proclamation on August 23, 1775, declaring the
colonies to be in a state of rebellion.
There still remained the task, however, of gaining each colony’s
approval of a formal declaration. Thomas Paine's Common Sense
helped persuade the majority of colonists to take the path of
revolution. On May 10, 1776 a resolution was adopted calling for
separation. Now only a formal declaration was needed. On June 7,
Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced a resolution declaring “That
these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and
independent states...” Immediately, a committee of five, headed by
Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, was appointed to prepare a formal
declaration. Largely Jefferson’s work, the Declaration of
The Declaration of Independence, adopted July 4, 1776, not only announced the birth
Independence was of a new nation, but also set forth a philosophy of human freedom
adopted on July 4, that would become a dynamic force throughout the entire world. The
1776. Declaration drew upon French and English Enlightenment political
philosophy, but one influence in particular stood out: John Locke’s
Second Treatise on Government, which took conceptions of the
traditional rights of Englishmen and universalized them into the
natural rights of all humankind. The Declaration’s opening passage
echoed Locke’s social-contract theory of government. It further
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American History
linked Locke’s principles directly to the situation in the colonies. To
fight for American independence was to fight for a government
based on popular consent, rather than a government by a king,
because the former could secure natural rights to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness. Thus, to fight for American independence was
to fight on behalf of one’s own natural rights.
In short, the Declaration of Independence was made up of five
distinct parts: the introduction; the preamble; the body, which could
be divided into two sections; and a conclusion. The introduction
stated that this document would “declare the causes” that had made
it necessary for the American colonies to leave the British Empire.
Having stated in the introduction that independence was
unavoidable, even necessary, the preamble set out principles that
were already recognized to be “self-evident” by most 18th century
Englishmen, closing with the statement that if “a long train of abuses
and usurpations . . . evinces a design to reduce [a people] 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.”
The first section of the body of the Declaration gave evidence of the
“long train of abuses and usurpations” heaped upon the colonists by
King George III. The second section of the body stated that the
colonists had appealed in vain to their “British brethren” for a redress
of their grievances. Having stated the conditions that made
independence necessary and having shown that those conditions
existed in British North America, the Declaration concluded 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.”
The victory of After the early military engagements occurred at Bunker Hill
Saratoga in 1777 (June 1775), in the Canadian campaign (1775-1776) and in the
was the turning South, the action shifted to the New York campaign (1776).
point in the Washington temporarily reversed a series of defeats at Trenton and
development of Princeton (late 1776 and early 1777), but British forces succeeded in
hostilities. The taking Philadelphia in late 1777.
main British force The turning point of the War came at Saratoga (1777), a victory
surrendered in that enabled American diplomats to negotiate a French Alliance
October 1781. (1778). Hostilities continued in the Western Theater and the
Southern Theater. The main British force surrendered at Yorktown in
October 1781.
Peace was achieved in the Treaty of Paris* (1783), with
Benjamin Franklin* playing a prominent role.
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SAQ 3
True (T) or false (F)?
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executive; and for solving problems involving the tenure of judges
and the kind of courts to be established.
On September 17, 1787, after sixteen weeks of deliberation,
the finished Constitution was signed by 39 of the 42 delegates
present. The new government it prescribed came into existence on
March 4, 1789, after fierce fights over ratification in many of the
states.
In summary, the basic principles of the American Constitution
are:
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SAQ 4
Put the words in the margin into their correct
places:
“In addition to passing laws needed to get the a) rights
government started, Congress had another very b) believed
important job to do. It had to make some c) guaranteed
additions to the Constitution. Although the d) important
Founding Fathers had drawn up a fine plan for e) supreme
government, they had left out ................ (1) that f) something
the liberty-loving people of America considered g) wanted
most ................ (2). When the Constitution was h) people
given to the States for ................ (3), people i) amending
said: ”Our Declaration Of Independence states j) approval
that we, the people, have certain unalienable
................ (4). But nowhere in the Constitution is
there any guaranteed free speech, freedom of
religion, and other rights that belong to a free
................ (5). We want these rights written into
our Constitution!”. Many thoughtful men such as
Thomas Jefferson and Samuel Adams
................ (6) that the Constitution should
include a „Bill of Rights.”
The men who wrote the Constitution wisely
included rules for ................ (7) it. James
Madison worked out a list of amendments which
................ (8) the rights that the people................
(9). [...] These rights cannot be taken away by a
law of Congress nor by the President nor by
the................ (10) Court.”
(from America is My Country, by Harriett Brown)
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SAQ 5
Choose the correct answer:
SAQ 6
True (T) or False (F)?
1. According to the Monroe Doctrine, the United States did not tolerate
any extension of European domination in North America.
2. It sympathized with the newly independent republics of Latin
America.
3. According to the Doctrine, the Americans should consider any
attempt of the European powers to extend their system to any
portion of this hemisphere a dangerous thing to America.
4. The Monroe Doctrine stipulates that the Americans will have the
right to interfere with the colonies of the European countries on the
American continents.
5. The Americans will not interfere with the wars waged by the
European countries.
SAQ 7
Choose the correct answer:
1. President James K. Polk wanted to
a) buy California from Mexico
b) buy Texas from New Mexico
c) conquer Mexico
d) conquer New Mexico
2. President Polk proposed to ask the American Congress
a) to buy California
b) to declare war to Mexico
c) to order General Zachary Taylor to retreat from the Mexican border
d) to wait until the Mexicans open the fire
3. On April 25, 1846 Mexican troops
a) retreated from the border
b) accepted the money offered by the Americans
c) attacked the American troops
d) replaced their commander, Santa Ana
4. After the war it was signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on
February 2, 1848. The terms of the Treaty were __________
a) breathtaking
b) humiliating
c) what the President expected to be
d) what the Mexicans wished
5. The United Stated agreed to pay __________ for the land
stretching westward to Oregon and the ocean.
a) 13 million
b) 15 million
c) 25 million
d) 75 million
SAQ 8
Choose the correct answer:
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5.4.1 Gettysburg and Vicksburg
None of the Confederate victories was decisive. The federal
government simply mustered new armies and tried again. Believing that
The northern the North’s crushing defeat at Chancellorsville gave him his chance, Lee
victories of July struck northward into Pennsylvania, in July 1863, almost reaching the
1863 marked the state capital at Harrisburg. A strong Union force intercepted Lee’s march
turning point of the at Gettysburg, where, in a titanic three-day battle – the largest of the Civil
war. War – the Confederates made a valiant effort to break the Union lines.
They failed, and Lee’s veterans, after crippling losses, fell back to the
Potomac.
More than 3,000 Union soldiers and almost 4,000 Confederates
died at Gettysburg; wounded and missing totaled more than 20,000 on
each side. On November 19, 1863, Lincoln dedicated a new national
cemetery at Gettysburg with perhaps the most famous address in U.S.
history, the so-called Gettysburg Address*.
On the Mississippi, Union control was blocked at Vicksburg,
where the Confederates had strongly fortified themselves on bluffs too
high for naval attack. By early 1863 Grant began to move below and
around Vicksburg, subjecting the position to a six-week siege. On July
4, he captured the town, together with the strongest Confederate Army
in the West. The river was now entirely in Union hands. The
Confederacy was broken in two, and it became almost impossible to
bring supplies from Texas and Arkansas.
The Northern victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg in July 1863
marked the turning point of the war, although the bloodshed continued
for more than a year-and-a-half.
Lincoln brought Grant east and made him commander-in-chief of
all Union forces. In May 1864 Grant advanced deep into Virginia and
met Lee’s Confederate Army in the three-day Battle of the Wilderness.
Losses on both sides were heavy, but unlike other Union commanders,
Grant refused to retreat. Instead, he attempted to outflank Lee,
stretching the Confederate lines and pounding away with artillery and
infantry attacks.
In the West, Union forces gained control of Tennessee in the fall
of 1863 with victories at Chattanooga and nearby Lookout Mountain,
opening the way for General William T. Sherman to invade Georgia.
Sherman outmaneuvered several smaller Confederate armies,
occupied the state capital of Atlanta, then marched to the Atlantic
coast, systematically destroying railroads, factories, warehouses and
other facilities in his path. His men, cut off from their normal supply
lines, ravaged the countryside for food. From the coast, Sherman
marched northward, and by February 1865, he had taken Charleston,
South Carolina, where the first shots of the Civil War had been fired.
Sherman, more than any other Union general, understood that
destroying the will and morale of the South was as important as
defeating its armies.
Grant, meanwhile, lay siege to Petersburg, Virginia, for nine
months, before Lee, in March 1865, abandoned both Petersburg and
the Confederate capital of Richmond in an attempt to retreat south. But
it was too late, and on April 9, 1865, surrounded by huge Union armies,
Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. Although
scattered fighting continued elsewhere for several months, the Civil
War was over.
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SAQ 9
Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word or phrase:
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• a state needed to abolish slavery before being readmitted;
• a state was required to repeal its secession ordinance before
being readmitted.
Most of the seceded states began compliance with the
president’s program. Congress was not in session, so there was no
immediate objection from that quarter. However, Congress
reconvened in December and refused to seat the Southern
representatives.
The postwar Congress pushed through a number of measures
designed to assist the freed men, but also demonstrate the
supremacy of Congress over the president. These measures
included the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Fourteenth Amendment,
the Tenure of Office Act and the Army Appropriations Act.
The culmination of this process occurred in 1867 and 1868 when
Congress passed a series of Reconstruction Acts; these measures
were implemented and constituted the final restoration program for the
South.
SAQ 10
1. For the 1864 election, one of the candidates was Abraham Lincoln,
nominated by the Democratic Party.
2. Lincoln's guiding principle was to punsish the South.
3. Lincoln's reconstruction plan stipulated that all who would take an
oath of loyalty to the United States should be granted a general
amnesty.
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SAQ 11
Fill in the blanks with the correct words in the
margin:
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SAQ 12
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Japanese surrender, announced August 14, 1945, and signed
September 2, brought the war to a close.
SAQ 13
Choose the right answer:
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5.5.2 The Nuclear Arms Race
Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had assumed the presidency in
1953, was a war hero, with a natural, homey manner that made him
The Nuclear Arms widely popular. In the postwar years, he served as army chief of
Race: America’s staff, the president of Columbia University and finally head of NATO.
commitment to Although he was skillful at getting people to work together, he
contain sought to play a restrained public role. Still, he shared with Truman a
communism basic view of American foreign policy. Eisenhower, too, perceived
communism as a monolithic force struggling for world supremacy.
He believed that Moscow, under leaders such as Stalin, was trying
to orchestrate worldwide revolution.
In office, Eisenhower and his secretary of state, John Foster
Dulles, argued that containment did not go far enough to stop Soviet
expansion. Rather, a more aggressive policy of liberation was
necessary, to free those subjugated by communism. But for all of the
rhetoric, when democratic rebellions broke out in areas under Soviet
domination – such as in Hungary in 1956 – the United States stood
back as Soviet forces suppressed them.
Eisenhower’s basic commitment to contain communism
remained, and to that end he increased American reliance on a
nuclear shield. The Manhattan Project during World War II had
created the first atomic bombs. In 1950 Truman had authorized the
development of a new and more powerful hydrogen weapon. Now
Eisenhower proposed a policy of “massive retaliation.” The United
States, under this doctrine, was prepared to use atomic weapons if
the nation or its vital interests were attacked.
In practice, however, Eisenhower deployed U.S. military forces
with great caution, resisting all suggestions to consider the use of
nuclear weapons in Indochina, where the French were ousted by
Vietnamese communist forces in 1954, or in Taiwan, where the United
States pledged to defend the Nationalist Chinese regime against attack
by the People’s Republic of China. In the Middle East, Eisenhower
resisted the use of force when British and French forces occupied the
Suez Canal and Israel invaded the Sinai in 1956, following Egypt’s
nationalization of the canal. Under heavy U.S. pressure, British, French
and Israeli forces withdrew from Egypt, which retained control of the
canal.
SAQ 14
True (T) or False (F)?
1. Dwight D. Eisenhower was a famous person before he became
the President of the United States (President of Columbia
University, Head of NATO, Chief of Staff of the American Army).
2. He was a friend to Stalin, the Soviet Union leader.
3. Eisenhower’ s foreign policy was to free the states subjugated by
communism and to stop the Soviet expansion.
4. The first hydrogen bomb was created during his presidency.
5. Eisenhower proposed a policy of using the atomic weapons if the
nation was attacked.
6. He resisted all suggestions to consider the use of nuclear bombs
in Indochina, in Taiwan, in the Suez War, etc.
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SAQ 15
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students away. When a federal court ordered the troops to leave, the
students came to school, only to encounter belligerent taunts. As
mobs became hostile, the black students left. Eisenhower
responded by placing the National Guardsmen under federal
command and calling them back to Little Rock. He was reluctant to
do so because federal troops had not been used to protect black
rights since the end of Reconstruction, but he knew he had no
choice. And so desegregation began with soldiers standing in
classrooms to ensure the rule of law.
Another milestone in the civil rights movement occurred in 1955
in Montgomery, Alabama. Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old black
seamstress who was also secretary of the state chapter of the
NAACP, sat down in the front of a bus in a section reserved by law
and custom for whites. Ordered to move to the back, she refused.
Police came and arrested her for violating the segregation statutes.
Black leaders, who had been waiting for just such a case, organized
a boycott of the bus system. Martin Luther King Jr., a young minister
of the Baptist church where the blacks met, became a spokesman
for the protest. “There comes a time,” he said, “when people get
tired... of being kicked about by the brutal feet of oppression.” King
was arrested, as he would be again and again. About a year later,
the Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation, like school
segregation, was unconstitutional. The boycott ended. The civil
rights movement had won an important victory – and discovered its
most powerful, thoughtful and eloquent leader in Martin Luther King
Jr.
SAQ 16
Which is correct ?
2. Harry S Truman...
a) supported the movements of the African Americans
b) was against any civil and political rights for the blacks
4. Dwight Eisenhower...
a) faced a serious problem in Little Rock, Arkansas
b) ordered the desegregation of Washington DC schools to serve
as a model for the rest of the country
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black elected officials increased substantially. Finally, in 1968, the
Congress passed legislation banning discrimination in housing.
Violence accompanied militant calls for reform. Riots broke out
in several big cities in 1966 and 1967. In the spring of 1968, Martin
Luther King fell before an assassin’s bullet. Several months later,
Senator Robert Kennedy, a spokesman for the disadvantaged, an
opponent of the Vietnam War and the brother of the slain president,
met the same fate. To many these two assassinations marked the
end of an era of innocence and idealism in both civil rights and the
anti-war movements.
The backlash against preferential treatment for minorities
became even more public in a Supreme Court case in 1978. Allan
Bakke, a white man, claimed that a quota reserving places for
minority applicants was responsible for the rejection of his
application to medical school in California. The court ordered his
admission, arguing that quotas could no longer be imposed, but then
upheld the consideration of race as one of the relevant factors in
selection procedures.
Nevertheless, the controversy over busing and affirmative
action sometimes obscured the steady march of many African
Americans into the ranks of the middle class and suburbia
throughout these tumultuous years.
SAQ 17
Which is correct ?
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5.5.5 The New Left and the Counterculture
The term ‘New Left’ generally applied to a generation of
Americans who came of age in the 1960s and were radicalized by
The new
social injustices, the civil rights movement, and the war in Vietnam.
generation of
The New Left was made up largely of college students. The first
Americans (mostly
major group to embody its principles was Students for a Democratic
college students)
Society (SDS), which was formed in Michigan in 1962. Its Port
was radicalized by
Huron Statement attacked social injustice and the values of the so-
social injustices,
called Affluent Society. The New Left grew in 1964 with the onset of
the Civil Rights
the free-speech movement at the University of California at
Movement and the
Berkeley, which was a protest against restrictions on student
war in Vietnam.
involvement in political demonstrations on campus. It also won
followers by denouncing American involvement in Vietnam and
deploring the failure of Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society programs
to eradicate poverty.
The New Left was prominent in countless university
demonstrations, the best known of which took place at Columbia
University in 1968, Harvard University in 1969, and Kent State
University in 1970, when the National Guard killed four students after
being called out to stop antiwar protests. The New Left was also active
in the counterculture of the 1960s.
The 1960s counterculture was a reaction against the
The 1960s conservative social mores of the 1950s, the political conservatism
counterculture was (and the social repression) of the Cold War period, and the US
a reaction against government’s extensive military intervention in Vietnam. Opposition
the conservative, to the war was exacerbated in the US by the compulsory military
social mores of the draft.
1950s, the political Young people in particular rejected the stable patterns of
conservatism of the middle-class life their parents had created in the decades after
Cold War period, World War II. Some plunged into radical political activity; many more
and the military embraced new standards of dress and sexual behavior.
intervention in The visible signs of the counterculture permeated American
Vietnam. society in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Hair grew longer and
beards became common. Blue jeans and tee shirts took the place of
slacks, jackets and ties. The use of illegal drugs increased in an
effort to free the mind from past constraints. Rock and roll grew,
proliferated and transformed into many musical variations. The
Beatles, the Rolling Stones and other British groups took the country
by storm. “Hard rock” grew popular, and songs with a political or
social commentary, such as those by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan,
became common. The youth counterculture reached its apogee in
August 1969 at Woodstock, a three-day music festival in rural New
York State attended by almost half-a-million persons. The festival,
mythologized in films and record albums, gave its name to the era –
The Woodstock Generation.
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SAQ 18
Choose the correct answer:
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5.5.6 The End of the Cold War
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) was the 40th President of the
United States (1981–1989). He went into politics after a career as a
The Cold War: A
film actor. He served as governor of California from 1967 to 1975
hard-line stance
and became a leading spokesman for conservatism in the United
against the Soviet
States. As the nominee of the Republican party, promising to work
Union and other
toward a balanced federal budget, he won a large victory over
communist
President James Earl Carter in 1980 and an even larger one over
countries
Walter Mondale in 1984. Advocating a balanced budget to combat
inflation, he reversed long-standing political trends by successfully
pursuing his supply-side economic program of tax and non-defense
budget cuts through Congress. Adopting a hard-line stance against
the Soviet Union (the ''evil empire') and other Communist countries,
Reagan advocated and oversaw the largest peacetime escalation of
military spending in American history; in 1983 he proposed the
controversial and expensive space-based defense system known as
the Strategic Defense Initiative – some have argued this stance was
responsible for the eventual collapse of Soviet Communism while
others attribute it to the inherent weakness of the Soviet state.
Beginning in 1985, Reagan began to soften his stance toward
the Soviet Union in response to signals of a new openness in foreign
relations under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The two leaders
met four times between 1985 and 1988, when they concluded the
Intermediate-Range Nuclear-Force Missile Treaty (INF treaty) which
sharply reduced intermediate nuclear forces.
From 1989 to 1991 the cold war came to an end with the
opening of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of Communist party
dictatorship in Eastern Europe, the reunification of Germany, and the
disintegration of the Soviet Union.
SAQ 19
Summary
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Key Terms
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extended the boundaries of the province of Quebec and guaranteed
the right of the French inhabitants to enjoy religious freedom and
their own legal customs. Although not intended as a punitive
measure, it was classed by the Americans with the Coercive Acts,
and all became known as the “Five Intolerable Acts.”
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Checks and balances. This fundamental principle makes
compromise in politics a matter of necessity, not choice. For
example, the House of Representatives controls spending and
finance, so the President must have its agreement for his proposals
and programs. He cannot declare war, either, without the approval
of Congress. In foreign affairs, he is also strongly limited. Any treaty
must first be approved by the Senate. If there is no approval, there’s
no treaty. The rule is: ”the President proposes, but Congress
disposes.” What a President wants to do, therefore, is often a
different thing from what a President is able to do.
Congress, the legislative branch of the federal government, is
made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are
100 Senators, two from each state. One third of the Senators are
elected every two years for six-year terms of office. The Senators
represent all of the people in a state and their interests.
The House has 435 members. They are elected every two
years for two-year terms. They represent the population of
”congressional districts” into which each state is divided. The
number of Representatives from each state is based upon its
population. For instance, California, the state with the largest
population, has 45 Representatives, while Delaware has only one.
There is no limit to the number of terms a Senator or a
Representative may serve.
Almost all elections in the United States follow the “winner-
take-all” principle: the candidate who wins the largest number of
votes in a Congressional district is the winner.
The President of the United States is elected every four years
to a four-year term of office, with no more than two full terms
allowed. As is true with Senators and Representatives, the President
is elected directly by the voters (through state electors). In other
words, the political party with the most Senators and
Representatives does not choose the President. This means that the
President can be from one party and the majority of those in the
House of Representatives or Senate (or both) from another.
The Federal Judiciary is the third branch of government, in
addition to the legislative (Congress) and executive (President)
branches. Its main instrument is the Supreme Court, which watches
over the other two branches. It determines whether or not their laws
and acts are in accordance with the Constitution. The Supreme
Court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices. They
are nominated by the President but must be approved by the
Senate. Once approved, they hold office as Supreme Court Justices
for life. A decision of the Supreme Court cannot be appealed to any
other court. Neither the President nor the Congress can change their
decisions. In addition to the Supreme Court, Congress has
established 11 federal courts of appeal and, below them, 91 federal
district courts.
The Constitution provides for three main branches of
government which are separate and distinct from one another. The
powers given to each are carefully balanced by the powers of the
other two. Each branch serves as a check on the others, so as to
keep any branch from gaining too much power or from misusing its
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powers. The Constitution also provides for federalism, i.e. State and
Local Governments.
The individual states all have republican forms of government
with a senate and a house. (There is one exception, Nebraska,
which has only one legislative body of 49 “senators.”) All have
executive branches headed by state governors and independent
court system. Each state also has its own constitution. But all must
respect the federal laws and not make laws that interfere with those
of the other states (e.g., someone who is divorced under the laws of
one state is legally divorced in all). Likewise, cities and local
authorities must make their laws and regulations so that they fit their
own state’s constitution.
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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.”
This speech, regarded as one of Abraham Lincoln’s finest
works, was delivered at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 19,
1863. Ceremonies were held to dedicate a cemetery for those killed
in the battle of July 1-3 between George Gordon Meade’s Army of
the Potomac and Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. The
main speaker was Edward Everett, a renowned orator.
When the board in charge of the event extended invitations to
various national figures, it was expected that Lincoln would not be
present, but he made his attendance a priority. After Everett’s two-
hour oration, Lincoln spoke for only a few minutes. The ten
sentences composing the speech received little attention at the time.
Everett himself, however, appreciated Lincoln’s eloquence, writing
him, “I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to
the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two
minutes.” Most newspapers also reported positively on the
president’s brief remarks. Through the years, the address,
considered a model of its kind, has been much studied. It is often
pointed out that Lincoln used the word ‘nation’ five times, never
‘union’. He did not use the words ‘slavery’, ‘nullification’, or ‘state’s
rights’, but went back to the Declaration of Independence, and the
powerful statement that “all men are created equal,” and not the
Constitution of 1789 with its implied recognition of slavery. At the
time, the U.S. was split asunder and hardly a union and that is why
restoring the nation - not a collection of sovereign states - was
paramount.
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modern times: banks, stores, and factories were closed and left
millions of Americans jobless, homeless, and penniless; many
people came to depend on the government or charity to provide
them with food.
The Depression became a worldwide business slump of the
1930s that affected almost all nations. It led to a sharp decrease in
world trade as each country tried to protect their own industries and
products by raising tariffs on imported goods. Some nations
changed their leader and their type of government. In Germany,
poor economic conditions led to the rise to power of the dictator
Adolf Hitler. The Japanese invaded China, developing industries and
mines in Manchuria. Japan claimed this economic growth would
relieve the depression. This militarism of the Germans and
Japanese eventually led to World War II (1939-1945).
In 1931, President Herbert Hoover proposed a moratorium on
foreign debts, but this and other measures failed to prevent
economic collapse. In the 1932 election Hoover was overwhelmingly
defeated by the Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt. The new President
immediately instituted his New Deal with vigorous measures. To
meet the critical financial emergency he instituted a “bank holiday.”
Congress, called into special session, enacted a succession of laws,
some of them to meet the economic crisis with relief measures,
others to put into operation long-range social and economic reforms.
Some of the most important agencies created were the National
Recovery Administration, the Agricultural Adjustment Administration,
the Public Works Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps,
and the Tennessee Valley Authority. This program was further
broadened in later sessions with other agencies, notably the
Securities and Exchange Commission and the Works Progress
Administration (later the Work Projects Administration).
Laws also created a social security program. The program was
dynamic and, in many areas, unprecedented. It created a vast
machinery by which the state could promote economic recovery and
social welfare. Opponents of these measures argued that they
violated individual rights, besides being extravagant and wasteful.
Adverse decisions on several of the measures by the U.S. Supreme
Court tended to slow the pace of reform and caused Roosevelt to
attempt unsuccessfully to revise the court. Although interest
centered chiefly on domestic affairs during the 1930s, Roosevelt
continued and expanded the policy of friendship toward the Latin
American nations which Herbert Hoover had initiated; this full-blown
“good-neighbor” policy proved fruitful for the United States in the
long run. Roosevelt was reelected by an overwhelming majority in
1936 and won easily in 1940 even though he was breaking the no-
third-term tradition.
In brief, Roosevelt’s ‘new deal’ reforms gave the government
more power and helped ease the depression; the Great Depression
ended as nations increased their production of war materials at the
start of World War II, which provided jobs and put large amounts of
money back into circulation.
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Gallery of Personalities
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being. Though not completely satisfied with the
finished product, he worked earnestly for its
ratification.
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candidate. Indeed, Lincoln won the nomination by being the second
choice of the majority, and went on to win the presidential election.
By the time of Lincoln’s inauguration in March 1861, seven
states had seceded from the Union. His conciliatory inaugural
address had no effect on the South, and, against the advice of a
majority of his cabinet, Lincoln decided to send provisions to Fort
Sumter in Charleston harbor. The fort was a symbol of federal
authority, but on April 12, 1861, South Carolina fired on the fort. The
Civil War began and it was now Lincoln’s assignment to find the best
general there was - he found Ulysses S. Grant, to whom he gave
overall command in 1864. Thereafter, Lincoln took a less direct role
in military planning, but his interest never wavered.
Lincoln tried throughout the war to keep the Republican party
together and never consistently favored one faction in the party over
another. Military appointments, on the other hand, were divided
between Republicans and Democrats. The Constitution protected
slavery in peace, but in war, Lincoln came to believe, the
commander-in-chief could abolish slavery as a military necessity.
The preliminary Emancipation Proclamation of September 22, 1862,
had this military justification, as did all of Lincoln’s racial measures,
including especially his decision in the final proclamation of January
1, 1863, to accept blacks in the army. By 1864, Democrats and
Republicans differed clearly in their platforms on the race issue:
Lincoln’s endorsed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution
abolishing slavery, whereas McClellan’s pledged to return to the
South the rights it had had in 1860.
Lincoln’s victory in that election thus changed the racial future
of the United States. It also agitated a Southern-sympathizer and
Negrophobe, who entered the presidential box at Ford’s Theatre in
Washington and shot Lincoln.
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Action, or put anything to risk, unless compelled by a necessity, into
which we ought never to be drawn.” Ensuing battles saw him fall
back slowly, then strike unexpectedly. Finally in 1781, with the aid of
French allies, he forced the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. He
then retired to his fields at Mount Vernon.
But Washington soon realized that the Nation under its Articles
of Confederation was not functioning well, so he contributed to
organizing the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia in 1787.
When the new Constitution was ratified, the Electoral College
unanimously elected him President.
The two-term Washington Administration (1789-1797) was
marked by the establishment of key American institutions that
continue to operate. The determination of foreign policy, for
example, became a Presidential concern. When the French
Revolution led to a major war between France and England,
Washington refused to accept entirely the recommendations of
either his Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who was pro-
French, or his Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, who
was pro-British. Rather, he insisted upon a neutral course until the
United States could grow stronger.
To Washington’s disappointment, two parties were developing
by the end of his first term. Wearied of politics, feeling old, he retired
to Mount Vernon at the end of his second. In his Farewell Address,
he urged his countrymen to go beyond excessive party spirit and
geographical distinctions. In foreign affairs, he warned against long-
term alliances.
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drafted the Declaration of Independence, based upon the natural
rights theory. He, then, labored to make its words a reality in
Virginia, while serving from 1776 to 1779, in the House of Delegates.
For example, he wrote a bill establishing religious freedom, enacted
in 1786. The bill stated ‘’that all men shall be free to profess, and by
argument to maintain, their opinions on matters of religion, and that
the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil
capacities.” His bill to create a free system of tax-supported
elementary education for all except slaves was defeated as were his
bills to create a public library and to modernize the curriculum of the
College of William and Mary.
In June 1779, Jefferson was elected governor of Virginia, but
retired in June 1781.
Jefferson succeeded Benjamin Franklin as minister to France
in 1785, but left Paris in 1789, when Congress confirmed his
appointment as secretary of state in the first administration of
George Washington. He accepted the position largely because of
Washington’s insistence, but immediately expressed his alarm at the
elaborate forms and ceremonies that marked the executive office.
He went on for a while, but resigned in 1793.
At home for the next three years, Jefferson devoted himself to
farm and family. He experimented with a new plow and other
ingenious inventions, built a nail factory, rebuild Monticello, set out a
thousand peach trees and received distinguished guests from
abroad.
Sharp political conflict had been developing by now, and two
separate parties, the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans,
began to form. Jefferson gradually assumed leadership of the
Republicans, who sympathized with the revolutionary cause in
France. Attacking Federalist policies, he opposed a strong
centralized Government and championed the rights of states.
When Jefferson assumed the Presidency, in 1800, the crisis in
France had passed. He slashed Army and Navy expenditures, cut
the budget, eliminated the tax on whiskey, yet reduced the national
debt by a third. Further, although the Constitution made no provision
for the acquisition of new land, Jefferson suppressed his qualms
over constitutionality when he had the opportunity to acquire the
Louisiana Territory from Napoleon in 1803.
Jefferson’s main concern in his second administration was
foreign affairs. In the course of the Napoleonic Wars he attempted to
avoid a policy of war by the use of economic pressure.
Jefferson finally retired to Monticello to focus on such projects
as his grand designs for the University of Virginia. He conceived it,
planned it, designed it, and supervised both its construction and the
hiring of faculty. The university was the last of three contributions by
which Jefferson wished to be remembered; they constituted a trilogy
of interrelated causes: freedom from Britain, freedom of conscience,
and freedom maintained through education.
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SAA No. 4
Describe in your own words the stages of the Revolution, with special
emphasis on the War as such. Before describing them, have a close
look at the picture below and have another look at the pictures in the
''The American Revolution'' section (5.2).
Please note that the quality of your ideas and the coherence of the
essay will be 70% of your grade, while the accuracy of your language
will count for 30%.
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Answers to SAQs
SAQ 2 1 – F; 2 – F; 3 – T; 4 – T; 5 – T; 6 – F; 7 – F; 8 – T.
SAQ 3 1 – T; 2 – F; 3– F; 4 – F; 5 – T; 6 – T; 7 – F.
SAQ 4 (1) – f); (2) – d); (3) – j); (4) – a); (5) – h); (6) – b); (7) – i); (8) – c);
(9) – g); (10) – e).
SAQ 6 1 – F; 2 – T; 3 – T; 4 – F; 5 – T.
SAQ 8 1 – b); 2 – b); 3 – a); 4 – c); 5 – c); 6 – b); 7 – c); 8 – b); 9 – a); 10 –
a).
Should your answers to SAQ 9 not be comparable to those
given below, please revise section 5.4.1 of the unit.
SAQ 9 (1) – Mississippi; (2) – Florida; (3) – Alabama; (4) – Georgia; (5) –
Louisiana; (6) – Texas; (7) – 3,000 Union Soldiers; (8) – new national
cemetery; (9) – Gettysburg Address.
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Should your answers to SAQ 10 not be comparable to
those given below, please revise section 5.4.2 of the unit.
SAQ 11 (1) – h); (2) – c); (3) – a); (4) – g); (5) – e); (6) – d); (7) – f); (8) – b);
(9) – i); (10) – j).
SAQ 12 1 – F (The United States kept neutral until April 6, 1917 when they
entered the war on the side of the Allies.); 2 – T; 3 – F (The League
of Nations was pledged to afford guarantees of territorial integrity and
political independence to great and small states alike.); 4 – F (The
concept of self/determination proved impossible to implement unless
the United States made concessions to the Allies.)
SAQ 14 1 – T; 2 – F; 3 – T; 4 – F; 5 – T; 6 – T.
SAQ 19 (1) – e); (2) – b); (3) – d); (4) – a); (5) – c.
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American History
Further Readings
1. Manfred Pütz, Essays on American Literature and Ideas, Institutul
European, Iaşi,
2. Tzvetan Todorov, Noi si ceilalti, trad. Alex. Vlad, Institutul
European, Iaşi, 1999, pp. 267-288.
3. Gh. Stan, Triunghiul puterii, Panfilius, Iaşi, 2003, pp. 9-34.
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Appendix
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• 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 harass 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.
o 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.
o 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.
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o 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.
o 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 British 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.”
(Signatures follow.)
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Article. I.
Section. 1.
All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress
of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of
Representatives.
Section. 2.
The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members
chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and
the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for
Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.
No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to
the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the
United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of
that State in which he shall be chosen.
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the
several States which may be included within this Union, according to
their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to
the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service
for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of
all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within
three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United
States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such
Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives
shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall
have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall
be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse
three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence
Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four,
Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North
Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.
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by Law appoint a different Day.
Section. 5.
Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and
Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall
constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller Number may
adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the
Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such
Penalties as each House may provide.
Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its
Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two
thirds, expel a Member.
Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time
to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their
Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members
of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of
those Present, be entered on the Journal.
Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the
Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any
other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.
Section. 6.
The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for
their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the
Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except
Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest
during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses,
and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or
Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other
Place.
No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he
was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of
the United States, which shall have been created, or the
Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time;
and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be
a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.
Section. 7.
All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of
Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with
Amendments as on other Bills.
Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives
and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the
President of the United States: If he approve he shall sign it, but if
not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it
shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their
Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration
two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent,
together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall
likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that
House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of
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both Houses shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the Names
of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the
Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned
by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall
have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like
Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their
Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.
Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the
Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on
a question of Adjournment) shall be presented to the President of
the United States; and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be
approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by
two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to
the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill.
Section. 8.
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties,
Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common
Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties,
Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several
States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on
the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and
fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and
current Coin of the United States;
To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for
limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their
respective Writings and Discoveries;
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high
Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make
Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that
Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and
naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the
Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
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To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and
for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service
of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the
Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia
according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such
District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of
particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat
of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like
Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the
Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection
of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful
Buildings;--And
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying
into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by
this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any
Department or Officer thereof.
Section. 9.
The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States
now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by
the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and
eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not
exceeding ten dollars for each Person.
The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended,
unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may
require it.
No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.
No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion
to the Census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.
No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.
No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or
Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another; nor shall
Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or
pay Duties in another.
No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of
Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account
of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be
published from time to time.
No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no
Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall,
without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present,
Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King,
Prince, or foreign State.
Section. 10.
No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation;
grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of
Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in
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Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or
Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of
Nobility.
No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any
Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be
absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection Laws: and the net
Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or
Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States;
and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of
the Congress.
No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of
Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into
any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign
Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such
imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.
Article. II.
Section. 1.
The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United
States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four
Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same
Term, be elected, as follows:
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof
may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of
Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in
the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding
an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be
appointed an Elector.
The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot
for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of
the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the
Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List
they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the
Government of the United States, directed to the President of the
Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the
Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and
the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest
Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a
Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be
more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number
of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately
chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a
Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall
in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the
Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State
having one Vote; A quorum for this purpose shall consist of a
Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of
all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after
the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number
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of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there
should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall
chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President.
The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and
the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the
same throughout the United States.
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United
States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be
eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be
eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty
five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United
States.
In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death,
Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the
said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the
Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death,
Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President,
declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer
shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President
shall be elected.
The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a
Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished
during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall
not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United
States, or any of them.
Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the
following Oath or Affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I
will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States,
and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the
Constitution of the United States."
Section. 2.
The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of
the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when
called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require
the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the
executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of
their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves
and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in
Cases of Impeachment.
He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the
Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators
present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice
and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public
Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other
Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein
otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but
the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior
Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of
Law, or in the Heads of Departments.
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The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may
happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions
which shall expire at the End of their next Session.
Section. 3.
He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the
State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such
Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on
extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them,
and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the
Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall
think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public
Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,
and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.
Section. 4.
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United
States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and
Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and
Misdemeanors.
Article III.
Section. 1.
The judicial Power of the United States shall be vested in one
supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may
from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the
supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good
Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services a
Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their
Continuance in Office.
Section. 2.
The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity,
arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and
Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;--to all
Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;--
to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;--to Controversies
to which the United States shall be a Party;--to Controversies
between two or more States;-- between a State and Citizens of
another State;--between Citizens of different States;--between
Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different
States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign
States, Citizens or Subjects.
In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and
Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme
Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before
mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both
as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such
Regulations as the Congress shall make.
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The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by
Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes
shall have been committed; but when not committed within any
State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress
may by Law have directed.
Section. 3.
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War
against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and
Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the
Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession
in open Court.
The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of
Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood,
or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.
Article. IV.
Section. 1.
Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts,
Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the
Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such
Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect
thereof.
Section. 2.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and
Immunities of Citizens in the several States.
A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime,
who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on
Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled,
be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of
the Crime.
No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws
thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or
Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but
shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or
Labour may be due.
Section. 3.
New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no
new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any
other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more
States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of
the States concerned as well as of the Congress.
The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful
Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property
belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall
be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or
of any particular State.
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Section. 4.
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a
Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them
against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the
Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against
domestic Violence.
Article. V.
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it
necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on
the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States,
shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either
Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this
Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the
several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the
one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the
Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to
the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner
affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first
Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of
its equal Suffrage in the Senate.
Article. VI.
All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the
Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United
States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be
made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be
made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme
Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound
thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the
Contrary notwithstanding.
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the
Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and
judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States,
shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution;
but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any
Office or public Trust under the United States.
Article. VII.
The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient
for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so
ratifying the Same.
The Word, "the," being interlined between the seventh and eighth
Lines of the first Page, the Word "Thirty" being partly written on an
Erazure in the fifteenth Line of the first Page, The Words "is tried"
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being interlined between the thirty second and thirty third Lines of
the first Page and the Word "the" being interlined between the forty
third and forty fourth Lines of the second Page.
Attest William Jackson Secretary
Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States
present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord
one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the
Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth In witness
whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names,
G. Washington
Presidt and deputy from Virginia
signed by (54 other signatures follow)
• Amendments
Amendment I
Amendment II
Amendment III
Amendment IV
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Amendment V
Amendment VI
Amendment VII
Amendment VIII
Amendment IX
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Amendment X
Amendments 11-27
AMENDMENT XI
AMENDMENT XII
The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot
for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be
an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in
their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots
the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct
lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted
for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which
lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the
government of the United States, directed to the President of the
Senate; -- the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the
Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and
the votes shall then be counted; -- The person having the greatest
number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number
be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no
person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest
numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as
President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately,
by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes
shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having
one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or
members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the
states shall be necessary to a choice. [And if the House of
Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of
choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next
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following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in case
of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. --]* The
person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall
be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole
number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then
from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose
the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-
thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole
number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person
constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to
that of Vice-President of the United States.
AMENDMENT XIII
AMENDMENT XIV
AMENDMENT XV
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not
be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on
account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article
by appropriate legislation.
AMENDMENT XVI
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes,
from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the
several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
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AMENDMENT XVII
AMENDMENT XVIII
Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this article the
manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the
importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United
States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage
purposes is hereby prohibited.
AMENDMENT XIX
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied
or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
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Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
AMENDMENT XX
Section 1. The terms of the President and the Vice President shall
end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators
and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years
in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been
ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.
Section 3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the
President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President
elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been
chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the
President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President
elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and
the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a
President elect nor a Vice President shall have qualified, declaring
who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is
to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a
President or Vice President shall have qualified.
Section 4. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the
death of any of the persons from whom the House of
Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of
choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death
of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice
President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon
them.
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AMENDMENT XXI
AMENDMENT XXII
AMENDMENT XXIII
155
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electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and
perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.
AMENDMENT XXIV
AMENDMENT XXV
156
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Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he
shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice
President and a majority of either the principal officers of the
executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law
provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the
Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their
written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the
powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide
the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not
in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of
the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within
twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines
by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to
discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President
shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise,
the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.
AMENDMENT XXVI
AMENDMENT XXVII
157
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desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now
is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to
the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a
reality for all of God’s children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the
moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent
will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and
equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end but a beginning. Those who
hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content
will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.
There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is
granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to
shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice
emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand
on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the
process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of
wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by
drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must ever
conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We
must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical
violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of
meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy
which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a
distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as
evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that
their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize
that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot
walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always
march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking
the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can
never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the
unspeakable horrors of police brutality.
We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with
the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the
highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long
as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York
believes he has nothing for which to vote.
No, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until
justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty
stream. I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of
great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from
narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your
quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecutions
and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the
veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that
unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to
Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to
Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities,
knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us
not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends,
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that even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow. I still
have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out
the true meaning of its creed--we hold these truths to be self-evident
that all men are created equal.
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the
sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be
able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a
state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of
oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will 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.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious
racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of
interposition and nullification; one day right down in Alabama little
black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white
boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted and
every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be
made plain and the crooked places will be made straight and the
glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with.
With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a
stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling
discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to
struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom
together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God’s
children will be able to sing with new meaning, "My country ‘tis of
thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers
died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let
freedom ring!" And if America is to be a great nation, this must
become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New
Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that.
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from
every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when
we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every
state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of
God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles,
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Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the
words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘’Free at last, free at last. Thank
God Almighty, we are free at last.”
161
Appendix
Bibliography
xxx
1. An Outline of American History, United States Information
Agency, 1994
xxx
2. An Outline of American Economy, United States Information
Agency, 1991
xxx
3. An Outline of American Government, United States
Information Agency, 1990
4. Bailey, Thomas A., David M. Kennedy, The American Pageant:
A History of the Republic, D.C. Heath and Company,
Lexington, Massachusetts, Toronto, 1987
5. Berkin, Carol, Leonard Wood, Land of Promise: A History of the
United Sates, Scott-Foresman, Co., Illinois, 1983
6. Boorstin, Daniel J., The Americans: The Colonial Experience,
Vintage Books, New York, 1954
7. Catton, Bruce, Short History of the Civil War, Dell, New York,
1971
8. Graff, Herny F., ed., The Life History of the United States,
Time-Life Books, New York, vols. 1-9, 1963-1964
9. Heffner, Richard D., A Documentary History of the United
Sates, New American Library, New York and London, 1965
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162
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