a swordless conflict,Yet more than all Rome's wars of old, or modern Napoleon's
Walt Whitman addresses how the American Election Day is a harsh and painstaking conflict even though there is no physical fighting taking place. While this refers to all Elections in general, this line directly alludes to the Election of 1884. In the context of history, the Election of 1884 is remembered due to the large amount of mudslinging done by Grover Cleveland and James G. Blaine
all our people our people people.
I found this section of the poem to be particularly powerful to me. to me this section of the poem lady liberty begs for us for freedom to touch all "all our people". The dissension in these lines is powerful because lady liberty designates that these are not only our people but the fact that they are people at all means that they deserve liberty
touch us ALL with liberty,touch us ALL with liberty.
The poet uses repetition and capitalization to stress the importance that ALL current and future Americans be granted the principle of liberty.
but let's celebrate not our wealth,not our sophisticated defense,not our scientific advancements,not our intellectual adventures.let us concentrate on our weaknesses,on our societal needs,
These six lines of the poem are in conversation with Frederick Douglass' What to the Slave is the 4th of July. Douglass discusses in his speech the hypocrisy of the American holiday as it celebrates the nation's freedom and equality while African Americans are subjected to slavery. In this poem, Lady Liberty calls upon the nation to work on its problems and help those who suffer instead of harping on its power.
This seething hemisphere's humanity, as now, I'd name—the still small voice vibrating—America's choosing day,
Walt Whitman describes how the most powerful aspect of the young United States of America is Election Day. He portrays the nation as a young country with intense anger as he uses the phrase "seething hemisphere's"
White Americans which manifests as symbolic and unspoken agreements between political actors and the general white American population to amend their differences through compromises,which has always sacrificed the rights and interest of Black Americans.20
And they do this without the consent of the African American population within the United States. This happens again and again throughout history.
whereby whiteness itself becomes both an identity and a form of capital to be exchanged for societal privilege
The author explains here how race can grant a certain group of people privileges while excluded another. Whiteness vs. darkness
particularlyin thepost Reconstruction Era, duringwhich a majority of politically active whites sawthemselves as maintaining the control of Blacks and Black interestsin order to defend White interestsat all cost.
In order to maintain their superiority over the newly freed African Americans, white supremist used to Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction Era to implement laws that denied them access to the various privileges of citizenship.
Rather, this essay explores the formulaic structure of counter-revolutioninsistent on the logic of the Southern slave system, which ultimately necessitated themost recent national issue-the repeal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
It is unfortunate and saddening to see that American Americans have to continue to face discrimination and racism in the political system. When will this ever end?
You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations.
Dr. King exposes the clergymen of Birmingham by explaining how these peaceful demonstrations who have not occurred if they were given their rights as American citizens.
Congress passed statutes outlawing some of these practices and facilitating litigation against them, but litigation remained slow and expensive, and the States came up with new ways to discriminate as soon as existing ones were struck down.
I find this very disturbing because the government could not find a way to enforce the 15th Amendment even though they tried to. I am also surprised that expresses were that high to keep Congress from addressing the unconstitutional actions by the states.
The first century of congressional enforcement of theAmendment, however, can only be regarded as a failure.”
I also believe it was a failure because Native Americans were not allowed to vote despite the Constitution saying race and color cannot prevent voting. Furthermore, I find it interesting at how quickly states created ways to make the. ability to vote even more difficult to obtain.
Native Americans who re-mained under the authority of tribal governments were citizens of those tribes, rather than of the United States as a whole, and thus were not even appropriately considered part of the people of the United States, let alone citizens.
Native Americans who chose to remain with their families, their culture, and their traditions, were outcast from ours because of ideas like Manifest Destiny that American culture and religion are superior and should be spread across the land.
other commentators have also suggested that the distinction between citizens and noncitizens was of little im-portance in the framers' worldview.76 Even a passing review of the discussions of the status of Na-tive Americans belies any such assertion
This passage Maltz makes a very important claim regarding the founders perspective on citizenship. Maltz believes it was important to the founders to exclude natives that retained their cultural identity and only accepted "tax-paying natives" that chose to abandon their ways and live in white society. In doing this we can see the way exclusion was used to found the early identity of the nation by othering those in the tribes the settlers felt more connected and united.
of the distinction between citizens and persons
The biggest conflict between politicians during this era was the definition of "persons." While this generalization should be inclusive of people of all different races, we see in the case of Native Americans that the term did not necessarily apply to them thus separating them from the clauses of the 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
States." Nonetheless, he indicated a willingness to include a provision dealing specifically with Native American citizenship.
We see here how hypocritical Senator Trumbull of his statement on citizenship in the United States. On the one hand he proclaims that all people born in America are citizens of the nation. But he articulates that this doesn't necessarily apply to Native Americans.
"all persons of African descent born in the United States are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States." Soon thereafter, the language was altered to provide that "all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power" were deemed to be citizens.
We see here the power of language/ rhetoric. By taking out the term "African descent" and adding "not subject to any foreign power", Senator Lyman Trumbull changes the entire dynamic of this clause articulated in the Civil Rights Act of 1866. I wonder what caused him to change the wording of this clause?
determining the number of representatives to which a state was entitled.9 By contrast, those who joined white society were counted fully in the basis of representation.
We see in this line how discriminatory the creators of the Constitution were toward Native Americans when creating the structure of the House of Representatives. The only way Native Americans were considered to be part of the state's population was by abandoning there tribal ties and assimilating into white society. However, these assimilated Indians were used as pawns to help states gain more representation in the House, and some were not even granted citizenship.
\ ere the nation older, the p triut ' heart might be atlder, nnd the reformer. ln·o,,· h a vier.
Considering the age of our nation and the conditions and issues we still fight with should our brow as reformers be heavy? should we be skeptical that we will ever achieve equality through legal civil means?
39 light. The iron shoe, nncl crippled£ t of hinu m1d be e n> in eontrru t with nature.
I think it's crucial that Douglass takes the time to remember the struggle of Chinese Americans who at this time where working in close to slave conditions to construct the railroads that would connect our nation. Doing this adds greats ethos to his argument by giving him a nice empathy.
hear the doleful wuil offettereJ huu1anity1on tb way to the fo."'E:•nrnrket~, where the Yictim nrc to be ~old like l1or.se8, slieep, an<l < wine, knuckecl off to the high-e:t lJiduer.
To Douglass, the slave auction is an important point of tragedy. This passage he expresses how these people have been pressed into chattel slavery and just how dehumanizing and horrifying that is.
ro I '.nll not. I liav-e l,etter employment for my time ancl .. trength, than 1:mclt :i.rgumcnts would imply.
Sometimes in modern day rhetoric about race we forget just how brutal and awful the history of slavery and it should not be on people of color to constantly educate others.
mericans are remarkably familiar with nll fact<, which make in in their own favor.
This is Douglass appealing to American pride that people want to believe that we can be a nation of equality. Flattery is Douglass safest rhetorical tactic considering his position at the beginning of the speech
That I am here to-day, is, to me, a matter of ru:;tonishment as well as of gratitude. Yon will not, therefore, be surprised, if m what I have to say, I eviuce no efo.bornte prep11rstion,
I think the crux of this paragraph is Douglass being extremely polite to his audience considering the era of the id 1800's and expressing his own humility
to a. spar at mitfojght.
This paragraph is a conceit used by Douglass as the "ship" being our state tussling against the crisis of slavery and that we should clean to the Declaration for our identity and to guide us to Freedom AND equality in the ways that we've read about from Canton and Allen.
ancl the anti-slavery moYement in thi country will cease to be an anti-church movement, when the chm·ch of this conn try h~ 11 ns ume a fa.vorable, instead of a ho tile po ition toward that movcmcu
The movement will never been followed by the church since many find this movement to be unnecessary. They do not see the harm that slavery does to the community created by independence. Until the church specifically recognizes that slavery is an issue, there will not be a religion tied to the movement
n glariuu nollltion of justice, in shamcle.'!!J. disrc-g:ml of the forms of adrnini. teriug law, iu cunning fil'r,mgement to entrap the ll fcncele~"-, ancl in diabol-icnl intent, thi,:; Ft1gitive la.ve La,r stands alone -in 1 tl1e annals of t_-rtmnicu] legi ·lation
The Figurative Slave Law is so clearly present, but there is nothing being done about it. The nation is simply accepting it.
For it is not light thnt is needed, lmt fu·e; it is not the gentle shower, but thnnder.
There must be turbulence for there to be change. There will be no differences in anything if there is not a strong enough force.
You live and must <.lie, and you must do your work. You have no right to enjoy a child's share in the bbor of your fathers, unless your childt·en are to be blOl:it by yow· labors.
It is critical to focus on the present and to live and work in the present. Many people look at the past and how much has been done, but they do not look at how they can continue that work.
yom-father declnrcl for liberty nncl indcpen<lence nuJ. triumphed.
Despite having such little, the colonists still decided to fight against the English rule. The colonists understood that having independence from the British government was the utmost important goal to reach.
litl, in the exerci e of it<J parental prero-gatives, impose upon it colonial children, such re-traints1 lrnrclens antl limitations, a;i1 in its mature judgment it deemed wise1 right and proper
The English rule did not allow for the Americans colonies to govern itself, but instead restricted its ability to grow as a separate unit. This is similar to men putting limitations on women, and whites putting limitations on blacks.
ShoulJ I seem nt ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me.
While he is happy to speak today, Douglas is nervous but willing to endure this to get his message across. This to me also shows some humility in that he feels that he may not be that good of a speaker then others. However, is audience knows better.
Ou the 2J of' July, 1 'l1TG, the old. Continental Congress, to the dismay of the lovers of case, nnd the worsbippers of property, clothed that dl'eatlful ic1en. with all the cuthority of national. sanction. They did so in the form of n resolution ; ::1ml as we seldom hit upon resolutions, drawn up in om <.lay, whose transparency is at all equal to this, it may refresh your minds antl help my story if I rend it.
This was an idea from the DOI that they colonists didn't want to be oppressed and under British rule. speaking to the previous comment, Douglas is saying that slaves and black Americans are no different then the colonists from 76 years ago. Americans talk about oppression as if they lived hard lives but the slave has endured more then the colonist.
Th re i;i on-ob tion in the thought, that merica ii yonng.-Great streams nre not easily tw-neu from clrnunel-i, wom deep in the cour e of ag .
America is still young. It will take time to be great and we will have bumps and buses along the way. In time we may all be one and show an appreciation for the times and tribulations that America has gone through. good or bad it is our history and we must learn from that.
have been able to throw my thoughts hastily an<l im11er-fcct1y together ; and trusting to your patient a.ncl gen-erous indulgence, I 11,,fil proceed to lay them lJefore you.
He says that he is going to say something quick and lay out a plan for is topic. However, It is in eloquence that he says this that he will be concise and detailed. At this time it may have been fast but we have lost this eloquent oration in how we address our fellow man. He ask for patients. this is to say that he is going to extend and olive branch and start speech of "A meaning of the 4th of July"
, therefore, leave off where I began, with lwpe.
Douglass describes in this concluding paragraph that he is hopeful for the future because the nation is involved in a world community, and the injustices experienced by the slaves will not go unnoticed by the rest of the world.
gain:t laYel'),
Douglass calls the church to defend blacks against the nation's institutions of slavery and advocate against slavery laws.
Ia th • deep till dnrkne of midnight, I h:.w=-heen often aroused hy the de::ul heavy foot tep , aml the pitiou~ cries of the clrniucd gnna~ that p1 ..;eel our cloor
Douglass describes the horrifying sound of the rattling chains as slaves were transported to the ship.
we m·e culled upon to pro,~e thnt we ure men
In this paragraph, Douglass articulates that members of the African American race can function and do the same tasks as any other person in the country. He states that because they can do all the things whites can do, it is there duty to show the world that they too are human beings.
They form the staple of your national poetry and eloquence.
In this paragraph, Fredrick Douglass explains to his audience that the history surrounding American Independence Day establishes a common national rhetoric that everyone in the audience is familiar with
The prin-cipl' · c·1.mtai1wu in that iu,trumcnt nrc aduO' 1,rinci-ple . tnml by tho:,;o principles, 1c tru to them on all o •ctt-.iou. , in nil plnc~ 1 ngain t all foe , and nt "hnt Yer co t.
In this statement, Fredrick Douglass is explaining why the Declaration of Independence is important to his audience and himself. It is the document's principles, established by the Founding Fathers 76 years ago, that freed Americans from tyrannical rule. He also calls the audience to stay true to these principles in all circumstances.
But neither their familiru· faces, nor. the perfect gage I think I bave of Corinthian IInll, seems to free me from embarrassment.
In this paragraph, Fredrick Douglass feels a sense of embarrassment and pressure about delivering this speech because he feels unprepared.
INSTRUCTIONS for our Collaborative Roadmap of Douglass's "What To The Slave": write a Roadmap Entry for each of your assigned paragraphs. Follow the directions in the Roadmap handout.
Questions we collaboratively brainstormed to analyze Douglass's oration:
What is Douglass’s motive? Call to action? Purpose?
What is Douglass’s thesis?
What is Douglass’s stance and positionality?
What evidence (kinds/types of evidence) does Douglass cite?
What are Douglass’s Keyterms?
Who is Douglass’s audience?
What is the context of the speech?
What rhetorical strategy/ies does Douglass use? What is his rhetorical strategy?
This seems deeply unfair
I like this point is Bee's argument as well and this reminds me of the argument of the DOI that it becomes necessary for citizens to question the government and the mechanisms of democracy as a whole. In this case Bee exposes a double standard that voters have too little responsibility to complain about it and the voters have too much responsibility that they feel they are responsible for the actions of the government itself
recognize that many people who boo are people who have noright, or no e"ective ability,
I think this is the essential part of Bee's argument that many people today are still disenfranchised today. I think President Obama's argument is fair that we need to encourage more people to be active about voting but we need to make structural changes to help more people vote.
I strongly believe that the right towhine is key to achieving a fairer society; that our society will serveeveryone better if more people—and not fewer—have a say in thedecision-making processes that shape their communities and thelives of the people around them.
Vanessa Bee's claim goes hand-in-hand with Danielle Allen's stance on equality in her book, Our Declaration. Through our ability to complain and argue about political issues, we all have a stake in the remodeling process of our great nation.
Presenting “booing” and “voting” as mutually exclusive also seemsto imply that political dissatisfaction should only be expressedthrough voting, not through other, informal modes of complaint.
I agree with this claim the author makes. Our foundational principle of freedom allows all citizens to speak their mind about the nation's issues. After all, if the colonists didn't complain to King George about their lack of representation in Parliament, we would not be here right now. While I think we have an obligation to vote, I believe that we have the ability to "boo" in other ways as well.
He has
This section where the phrasing "he has" is repeated several times almost like a list of grievances levied against men and how they are treated. In these grievances the main connecting theme is that women have been denied access to participate in the community and the discussions that have gone into forming our nation.
necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied
This opening caught my attention because it defines women as being part of the "family of man" connecting directly to the language of the Declaration of Independence that Stanton believes they clearly are included in. This passage also clearly states their desire to rise in social location
that all men and women are created equal;
Although the Declaration is intended for all of us as Americans as we saw in Danielle Allen's book Our Declaration, women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton felt that they needed to deliberately state the word "women" in their declaration due to their current conditions. Women were not being granted rights in either the public and private sectors, so they felt they needed to add "women" to the famous words of the Declaration to show that they deserve these rights.
In entering upon the great work before us, we anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule; but we shall use every instrumentality within our power to effect our object.
This section is the greatest difference I noticed from the actual Declaration of Independence. Stanton and the writers of the Declaration of Sentiments deliberately state that they will be judged and ridiculed for making this document. However, they will continue to protest and fight for their rights anyway. This is their "all in" moment.
Since “course” is another word for “river,” an image of a waterway lies behind this sentence. Although Jefferson may not have been thinking explicitly about rivers when he wrote the first draft, the language itself, the word “course,” has this useful image built into it. We can use this image of a river to work our way into the sentence. A river has a definite shape. An infinity of droplets combine into a single flow, all moving together in the current’s one direction. And all that water is rolling toward some knowable destination. The muddy Mississippi, for instance, may meander, but it descends inevitably into the Gulf of Mexico.
This extended metaphor is a really interesting way to look at how the Declaration was formed. The different conversations and states that contributed to the document are tributaries that all nicely come together in one central document.
Then Jefferson talks about markets where “MEN,” which he capitalizes, are bought and sold. In other words, he is calling the slaves “men.” And when he does this, he can’t mean males only, because those markets were for men, women, and children. So when, in the second sentence, he writes that all men are created equal, he must mean all people—whatever their color, sex, age, or status
Allen uses Thomas Jefferson's capitalization of the word "MEN" in the rough draft of the Declaration to prove that it is a living document that represents and is applicable to all of us. This initial capitalization of the word reveals to us that Jefferson was speaking on behalf of all the men, women and children of the colonies when writing that "all men are created equal"
It’s not just half-full glasses of water that a speaker will describe one way or another; everything she describes, every situation she recounts, every explanation she gives for her action will reveal her worldview to some degree. Even dissemblers, who positively wish to deceive, are often given away by the fact that their words say more than they can reasonably control.
Allen describes how a speaker's personal perspective can be seen through the use of their language. We must be aware of our officials use of language so that we can understand a situation or issue from their viewpoint.
If we abandon equality, we lose the single bond that makes us a community, that makes us a people with the capacity to be free collectively and individually in the first place. I
If we opt for freedom rather than equality we create a imbalance in our society or you could say that we have one now. How can we as a people truly be "free" if there isn't equal opportunities? How can there be freedom if their are constraints on some but not others?
He was still a servant
The story Allen uses clearly displays a place without equality. No matter what one does or has done in a society (that doesn't have equality) that person is still "this" or "that." Having someone(s) "higher" than others could lead to a hierarchy rather then a democracy.
The purpose of democracy is to empower individual citizens and give them sufficient control over their lives to protect themselves from domination. In their ideal form, democracies empower each and all such that none can dominate any of the others, nor any one group, another group of citizens
Democracy is made to unite citizens as an entire community. A hierarchy in a society would cause inequality to rise, which is why democracy is built to prevent it. Allen causes us to recognize how democracy is supposed to help and not hurt us, and also later introduces the idea that it creates the composition of the world to promote equality in the community.
autonomous
Allen is causing her reader to think about cases of autonomy in our history . This word also stood out to me because it made me realize that the Thirteen Colonies wanted to be autonomous, which caused them to leave the King of England's rule. Autonomy has caused many changes in society throughout history, such as the Civil Rights Movement. Men and women of color refused to stand by and listen to an unjust law, and fought for their right to vote. They made the laws themselves.
Equality and liberty—these are the summits of human empowerment; they are the twinned foundations of democracy.
Should either equality or liberty fall, democracy will also struggle to succeed. Our government and us as citizens need to give equal attention to keeping both values alive in society. I believe we all need to focus on keeping both equality and liberty as a priority in our society, rather than putting more weight on one over the other.
Political philosophers have taught us to think that there is an inherent tension between liberty and equality, that we can pursue egalitarian commitments only at the expense of governmental intrusions that reduce liberty.
Allen's argument about liberty and equality has entered a conversation in which the prevailing views has been that these two rights are in tension, or oppositional, to each other, rather than interdependent. According to Allen, this view reflects an inaccurate view suggested by the culmination of primary source documents that preceded and contributed to the writing of the declaration, and by the Declaration itself. Her argument--and what she does the close reading of the Declaration and other primary source documents to show, is that not only are freedom and inequality interdependent, but also we can't have liberty if we don't have equality. In other words: equality creates the conditions under which we can experience freedom.
MATTERS BECAUSE
In the very first sentence we have Danielle Allen's motive for writing Our Declaration...