Due 12/17/2013
Barack Obama: "And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part - through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time."

• This is a speech President Obama presented in 2008 about race. What he is conveying to the public is, slavery has gone pass what was delivered by the Emancipation Proclamation. There still isn't equal rights for men and women of every color today in the United States. What he is suggesting for this to become a true reality is for people of every color to bond together through protests, courts, and struggle to narrow this great  gap.

Due 12.10.13

Wilson: "Who in this great audience knows his employer? I mean among those who go down into the mines or go into the mills and factories...Therefore, whenever bodies of men employ bodies of men, it ceases to be a private relationship" (p.440).

1. Wilson is talking about the workforce not being private anymore, due to the fact that so many are being employed and employees don't get to know their employers directly. With such a large number of employees the enterprise is public, the government can exercise its power in businesses.
2. I chose this quote because this is still going on today. Wilson lived many years ago and his progressive ideology come to past in this day and age.

The Great Depression:

"The failure of so many banks, combined with a general and nationwide loss of confidence in the economy, led to much-reduced levels of spending and demand and hence of production, thus aggravating the downward spiral."

1. Banks crashed leading to people loosing all their money and assets. It really took a toll on the economy in general. People wern't able to get a job and couldn't really provide for themselves and or their families.
2. I chose this quote because it helps to illustrate the effects of that time period. I learned about the great depression in school before but I never fully paid attention to it. This was such a hard time for people, not being able to work and provide for their families, having to sell whatever they can. Its just horrible! 

I chose this picture because it conveys the message of heartache and pain of a citizen during this time. It shows how this person and how many people felt; being down on their luck not being able to survive they wanted to. It relates to today.This economy now is not doing great, and many people look and feel the way this person in the picture looks. Many people are unemployed and not sure about tomorrow. 

Due 12.3.2013

" 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."

Abe Lincoln wrote this around the time of the civil war and what he is stating in this address is how the young lives who fought in this battle were extremely devoted for fighting and dying for their country. They didn't fight and die for nothing, they fought for a cause which was for liberty; they in essence gave a new illustration of freedom.

I chose this quote because I think constantly about how over the many years this country has grown and developed. It came such a long way. Departing from Britain and making way as a new and developing country makes me proud as an American as I sit and reflect on what Iearned. Im not a fan of wars because all the casualties and deaths,but there are deeper meanings behind it once you think about it. Brave men and women are fighting over seas in defense of our country everyday and those who lost their lives, its an unfortunate event, but at the end of the day, in my opinion, did not die in vain.

Frederick Douglass:

Sir, I have been frequently denounced because I have dared to speak against the American nation, against the Church—the Northern churches especially, charging them with being the slaveholders of the country. I desire to say here, as elsewhere, that I am not at all ambitious of the ill opinions of my countrymen, nor do I desire their hatred; but I must say, as I have said, that I want no man’s friendship, no matter how high he may stand in Church or State, I want no man’s sympathies or approbation who is not ready to strike the chains from the limbs of my brethren. . .

• Frederick points out how he doesn't care about those people who owns slaves, regardless of their status. He doesn't want the sympathy from any men who isn't ready to stand against slavery.
• This quote correlates to the lecture by illustrating that the people in lecture fight for a greater cause which is civil rights. I picked this quote for one because I have always been a fan of Frederick Douglass, and always like what he stood for. In this quote especially he stood up for his position of ending slavery despite what others thought and felt.

Susan B. Anthony:
And had your honor submitted my case to the jury, as was clearly your duty, even when I should have had just cause of protest, for not one of those men was my peer; but, native or foreign, white or black, rich or poor, educated or ignorant, awake or asleep, sober or drunk, each and every man of them was my political superior; hence, in no sense, my peer."

• What Susan is expressing is how unfair she is being treated by being prosecuted in front of a group of people who are not her peers. Susan is a WOMAN being charged for breaking the law for voting in front of men who started out with this unalienable right to rights she wish she had. How could she have a fair and just trial when she's loosing before she even begins to fight? Her jury peers would have a group of both men and woman. If some woman were in the jury selection that would cut the level of bias down.
• I understand and agree with Susan's concern that is why I chose this quote. I can relate her concern to what goes on to this day. Jury selection now a days is so hard because everyone wants a fair trial and by having a jury who are open minded and non biased towards the case. I not too long had to do jury duty and the defendant was very worried about who who have his/her fate in their hands.

All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable. But almost all say that such is not the case now. But such was the case, they think, in the Revolution of '75. If one were to tell me that this was a bad government because it taxed certain foreign commodities brought to its ports, it is most probable that I should not make an ado about it, for I can do without them. All machines have their friction; and possibly this does enough good to counterbalance the evil. At any rate, it is a great evil to make a stir about it. But when the friction comes to have its machine, and oppression and robbery are organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer. In other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the more urgent is the fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army. 

1. Thoreau is explaining in this passage that people have a right to get mad and rebel against its unjust government. When  it comes to the government, you have to deal with the good and the bad.During the revolution of '75 the government was bad. Citizens don't have to deal with the wrong doings that the government puts out. People have to rebel and fight for what they believe in...I picked this passage because  I agree with Thoreau. When the majority of the citizens do not agree with an unjust government and its rules, I say people do have the right to fight for what they believe and rebel against it.
2. Anti slavery activists: Slavery was seen as immoral and a sin; thus rose anti-slavery activist. People like Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth were two activist. Anti slavery topic relates to Thoreau's writing because it shows  how Americans who disobey unjust laws.

"The appointment of taxes on the various descriptions prperty is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a predominant party to trample on the rules of justice. Every shilling with which they overburden the inferior number, is a shilling saved to their own pocket (p. 93)."  

I chose to write about is passage from Madison because I can relate this to the current events of today. Just like back in the times of Madison, today taxes are use to the oppurtunity for the rich to save money in their wallet. The issue of taxes is a hot topic of today. Those people of lower income pay more taxes compared to those top 1% of rich people.. Though taxes are suppose to related to one's income, it is though impartial to poorer people to shell out what they really cant afford.

“Government implies the power of making laws. It is essential to the idea of a law, that it be attended with a sanction; or, in other words, a penalty or punishment for disobedience. If there be no penalty annexed to disobedience, the resolutions or commands which pretend to be laws will, in fact, amount to nothing more than advice or recommendation.”    

According to Hamilton, laws are to be obeyed and those who didn't oblige the law should be punished. I agree with Hamilton because to me, whats the point of making laws, if no one will follow it? Without expressing penalty for not following the law, no one would take it serious enough to follow it. The government would be weak, if its constituents didn't enforce the laws that are provided. Like Hamilton, I too feel that using enforcement is necessary to govern the people.

• "All the money you save, or acquire by their labour is stolen from them; and however plausible the excuse may be, that you form to reconcile it to your consciences, yet be assured, that your crime stands registered in the court of Heaven as a breach of the eighth commandment" (p. 45). 

I chose this quote from Benjamin Rush because it stood out to me the most. What Benjamin Rush is saying is, slave owners are reaping the rewards through their slaves hard physical labor. Slave owners try to rationale and easy their minds and conscience finding excuses on how and why slavery is good to the advantage of them and not the slaves. And the ultimate consequence of this crime of slavery will be noticed at the gates of Heaven because it goes against the eighth commandment; Christianity. He saying this because he is against slavery and emphasizing the point that those who claim the Christian religion, that slave ownership is the very subject against Christian value.

• That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness (p. 59).

People have the right to abolish the very government that is not their natural rights. People basically have the right to "rebel" if the government starts to act tyrannical like it was in Europe. It is the right if the people to make a new government that would protect their rights and safety and would make them happy. The founders made sure this was put in the D.o.I. because they want the people's rights to be protected; wanted a government that the people are just as much apart of. They didn't want to be apart of the same type of government like they were apart of before. They are basing this off the learned experience they had.