William Golding s Lord Of The Flies - 1578 Words

â€Å"Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes† (Peter Drucker). In the novel Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, a decent sized group of boys are marooned on an island. This island starts as somewhat of an oasis, containing everything that the boys need to survive and thrive, except for one thing: a leader. One of the older boys would need to step up, and it comes down to Ralph, a boy around the age of twelve who finds the conch, which is used as a beacon for civilization, and Jack, a boy of Ralph’s age, but is also the leader of a group of choir boys, who advocate for Jack from the beginning. The decision comes down to a vote, and Ralph is chosen with all the†¦show more content†¦Every child needs a parent, including the boys on the island. Seeing as the oldest boys are only around the age of twelve, the dependency between son and parent is still relatively strong. The two bes t examples of this would be Ralph and Piggy. Ralph bringing up his daddy â€Å"...mirror[s] Piggy’s talk of ‘Auntie’† (Major 2). Piggy constantly brings up his Auntie and how she works in a sweet shop, just like Ralph speaks about his father being in the Navy. While Piggy’s Auntie enables Piggy to become nearly unable to function without adults, making him very weak on the island, Ralph’s father equipts Ralph with the ability to become a better leader. In only the first few pages, Ralph tells Piggy about his background, â€Å"I could swim when I was five. Daddy taught me. He s a commander in the Navy. When he gets leave he ll come and rescue us†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Golding 13). Piggy does not care about the father of Ralph, only why Ralph is so good at swimming, but because the boys are still so closely tied to civilization, he mentions it because he knows that he can brag about it. This is also the first time Ralph thinks of rescue, and he never really loses this connection to rescue and being saved, as well as it â€Å"...foreshadows Ralph’s leadership at the beginning of the novel†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Dad 1). Just as he hears of the beastie, he boasts his father’s position as a Naval commander to secure his spot as leader and lower the tension in the crowd. â€Å"My father s in the Navy. He

Questions On Nursing Health Nursing - 1546 Words

NURS 409 Community Health Nursing Weekly Clinical Journal Each clinical week a journal needs to be submitted evaluating your ability to meet the clinical performance objectives. Examples must be provided detailing how you have achieved the objectives. 1. Plan, provide, and delegate client-centered and coordinated care that promotes safe and high quality outcomes. - During this week I was not in the clinical setting, however I did participate in a case studies in which I was able to plan provide, delegate client centered care and coordinated of care. I was the preceptor and I was able to provide my client options to promote safety like moving the newspaper magazine from the floor to prevent another slip and fall. I was also able to delegate care to my preceptee while I conversed with the wife about options for better client safety. I was able aid with the care of the client by sitting him up so he would breath better and stop coughing. 1.1 Theoretical Knowledge: Relate nursing knowledge in the community setting for safe nursing care. - Using my acquired nursing knowledge, I was able to make clinically sound decision like referring the client to meal on wheel services, because they would no longer adequately make food for themselves. I also use my nursing knowledge to realize that a three-year-old could not properly take care of a baby and the proper choice how be to see if there was anyone from the church that would aid the family with some of these burdens 1.2 ClinicalShow MoreRelatedThe Global Issue Of Mental Health And Shortage Of Nursing Staff1692 Words   |  7 Pagesglobal issue of mental health and shortage of nursing staff. Mental health is not the primary choice of nursing students when they graduate, and there is a shortage of psychiatric nurses as the older generation is coming closer to retirement. 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The Crisis of the Union 1844–1860 Teaching Resources Chapter Instructional Objectives After you have taught this chapter, your students should be able to answer the following questions: 1. How did western expansion become inextricably linked with sectional identity during the 1840s? 2. How and why did southerners change their position on slavery—first claiming it was a â€Å"necessary evil,† then defending it as a â€Å"positive good†? 3. Why did the United States fight the war with Mexico? What was the larger impact of this war? 4. How and why did divisions within American society during the 1850s bring the Second Party System to an end? 5. What choices were available to Americans in the election of 1860, and why was Abraham Lincoln’s victory significant? Chapter Annotated Outline I. Manifest Destiny: South and North A. The Independence of Texas 1. The Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 guaranteed Spanish sovereignty over Texas. 2. After winning independence from Spain in 1821, the Mexican government, short on population and cash for settling the region, encouraged settlement by Mexicans and by migrants from the United States. . As the Mexican government asserted greater political control over Texas in the mid-1830s, the Americans split into two groups: the â€Å"peace party,† led by Stephen Austin, wanted more autonomy for the province, and the â€Å"war party† wanted independence from Mexico. 4. After provoking a rebellion, the war party proclaimed the independence of Texas on March 2, 1826, and adopted a constitution legalizing slavery. 5. Vowing to put down the rebellion, Santa Anna’s army wiped out the war party’s rebel garrison that was defending the Alamo and then captured Goliad. 6. Hundreds of American adventurers influenced by press reports and lured by offers of land grants flocked to Texas to join the rebel army. Led by General Sam Houston, the war party routed the Mexicans in the Battle of San Jacinto. 7. The Mexican government abandoned efforts to reconquer Texas, but refused to accept its status as an independent republic. 8. Texans quickly voted for annexation to the United States, but Presidents Jackson and Van Buren refused to act on the issue, knowing that adding Texas as a slave state would divide the Democratic Party and the nation and almost certainly lead to war with Mexico. B. The Push to the Pacific 1. In 1845 John L. O’Sullivan coined the phrase Manifest Destiny; he felt that Americans had a right to develop the entire continent as they saw fit, which implied a sense of cultural and racial superiority. 2. The Oregon country stretched along the Pacific coast from the border with Mexican California to the border with Russian Alaska and was claimed by both Great Britain and the United States. 3. â€Å"Oregon fever† raged in 1843 as thousands, lured by reports of fine harbors, mild climate, and fertile soil, journeyed for months across the continent to the Willamette Valley. 4. By 1860 about 350,000 Americans had braved the Oregon Trail; many died en 189 190 Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860 route from disease and exposure, although relatively few died from Indian attacks. 5. Some pioneers left the Oregon Trail and traveled south along the California Trail, settling along the Sacramento River in the Mexican province of California. 6. To promote California’s development, the Mexican government took over the California missions and liberated the 20,000 Indians who worked on them, many of whom intermarried with mestizos and worked as laborers and cowboys on large cattle ranches. . The rise of cattle ranching created a new society and economy as agents from New England firms assimilated to Mexican life and married into the families of the Californios. 8. Many American migrants in California had no desire to assimilate into Mexican society and hoped for eventual annexation to the United States; however, at that time American settlers i n California were too few. C. The Fateful Election of 1844 1. The election of 1844 determined the American government’s western policy. 2. To thwart rumored British schemes of North American expansion, southern expansionists demanded the immediate annexation of Texas. 3. â€Å"Oregon fever† and Manifest Destiny were also altering the political and diplomatic landscape in the North. Responding to â€Å"Oregon conventions† that called for an end to joint occupation of the region, in 1843 a bipartisan national convention demanded that the United States seize Oregon all the way to 54 °40 north latitude. 4. Texas and Oregon became the central issues in the election of 1844; Democrats selected James K. Polk, a slave owner and expansionist who favored annexation of both Texas and Oregon. 5. The Whigs nominated Henry Clay, who again championed his American System of internal improvements, high tariffs, and national banking that begrudgingly supported the annexation of Texas. 6. Polk’s strategy of linking the issues of Texas and Oregon was successful; immediately after Polk’s victory, Democrats in Congress approved annexation of Texas by a joint resolution to bring it into the Union. II. War, Expansion, and Slavery, 1846–1850 A. The War with Mexico, 1846–1848 1. President Polk saw Texas as just the beginning; he wanted American control over all Mexican territory between Texas and the Pacific Ocean and was prepared to go to war to get it. 2. Mexico was determined to retain its territories, and when the Texas Republic accepted American statehood in 1845, Mexico broke off diplomatic relations with the United States. 3. To intimidate the Mexican government, Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor to occupy the disputed lands between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande. . Polk also sent John Slidell to Mexico City on a secret diplomatic initiative to secure Mexican acceptance of the Rio Grande boundary and to buy Mexico and California; Mexican officials refused to see him. 5. Polk’s alternative plan was to foment a revolution in California that, as in Texas, would lead to an independent republic and a request for annexation. 6. In October 1845, at Polk’s request, Thomas O. Larkin encouraged the l eading Mexican residents of Monterey, California, to declare independence and support peaceful annexation. 7. Polk also ordered naval commanders to seize California’s coastal towns in case of war, and dispatched Captain John C. Fremont’s heavily armed troops deep into Mexican territory. 8. Hoping to incite an armed Mexican response, Polk ordered General Taylor to the Rio Grande; when a clash occurred, Polk blamed the Mexicans for the bloodshed and called for war. 9. Ignoring Whig pleas for a negotiated settlement, the Democratic majority in Congress voted for war with Mexico. 10. To avoid simultaneous war with Britain, the president accepted a British proposal to divide the Oregon Country at the fortyninth parallel. 1. By the end of 1846, the United States controlled much of northeastern Mexico, and American forces secured control of California in 1847. 12. Santa Anna went on the offensive, attacking Zachary Taylor’s units at Buena Vista in 1847, and only superior artillery enabled a narrow American victory. Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860 191 13. G eneral Winfield Scott’s troops seized Mexico City in September 1847; Santa Anna was overthrown and the new Mexican government agreed to make peace. B. A Divisive Victory 1. Conscience Whigs† viewed the Mexican War as a conspiracy to add new slave states in the West, and Polk’s expansionist policy split the Democrats into sectional factions. 2. The Wilmot Proviso (1846) was intended to prohibit slavery in any new territories acquired from Mexico; the Senate killed the proviso. 3. To reunite Democrats before the election, Polk and Buchanan abandoned their expansionist hopes for Mexico and agreed to take only California and New Mexico. 4. In the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) the United States agreed to pay Mexico $15 million for Texas north of the Rio Grande, New Mexico, and California. . Many northerners joined a new â€Å"freesoil† movement, viewing slavery as a threat to republicanism and the yeoman farmers (and not, as the Liberty Party believed, a s in against the natural rights of African Americans). 6. The Wilmot Proviso’s call for free soil was the first antislavery proposal to attract broad popular support. Frederick Douglass, the foremost black abolitionist, endorsed the free-soil movement, and began to lecture for William Lloyd Garrison’s American Anti-Slavery Society. 7. Democrats nominated Lewis Cass as their presidential candidate for the election of 1848; Cass was an avid expansionist who proposed squatter sovereignty and was deliberately vague on the issue of slavery in the West. 8. The Free-Soilers nominated Martin Van Buren for president; the Whigs nominated General Zachary Taylor, a slave owner who had not taken a position on slavery in the territories. 9. Taylor and his running mate Millard Fillmore won the election, but the electoral margin was thin because of the Free-Soil ticket taking New York’s vote. C. 1850: Crisis and Compromise 1. In 1848 flakes of gold were found in the Sierra Nevada foothills, and by 1849 â€Å"forty-niners† were pouring into California in search of gold. 2. The influx of settlers revived the national debate over free soil; in November 1849 Californians ratified a state constitution that prohibited slavery. 3. The admission of California as a state threatened the carefully maintained balance of slave states versus nonslave states in the Senate. 4. Southern leaders decided to block California’s entry unless the federal government guaranteed the future of slavery. . John C. Calhoun warned of possible secession by slave states and advanced the doctrine that Congress had no constitutional authority to regulate slavery in the territories. 6. Many southerners and some northern Democrats were willing to extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean, guaranteeing slave owners some western territory. 7. A third choice, squatter (popular) sovereignty, placed decisions about sl avery in the hands of local settlers and their territorial governments. 8. Antislavery advocates were unwilling to accept any plan for California that might involve the expansion of slavery in the territories and urged federal authorities to restrict slavery within its existing boundaries and then extinguish it completely. 9. Whigs and Democrats desperately sought a compromise to preserve the Union; Whigs organized the Compromise of 1850. 10. The Compromise included a Fugitive Slave Act to mollify the South, it admitted California as a free state and abolished the slave trade in Washington, D. C. to mollify the North, and it organized the rest of the lands acquired from Mexico into the territories of New Mexico and Utah on the basis of popular sovereignty. 11. The Compromise averted a secession crisis in 1850, but resulted in special conventions in the South; in exchange for support of the Compromise, moderate southern politicians agreed to support secession in the future if Congress abolished slavery anywhere or refused to grant statehood to a territory wi th a proslavery constitution. III. The End of the Second Party System, 1850–1858 A. Resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act 1. Under the terms of the Fugitive Slave Act, federal magistrates in the northern states 192 Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860 determined the status of alleged runaway slaves. The law denied accused blacks a jury trial and even the right to testify and it allowed the reenslavement of about two hundred fugitives (as well as some free northern blacks). 2. The plight of runaway slaves and the appearance of slave catchers aroused popular hostility in the North and Midwest, and free blacks and abolitionists defied the new law. . Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), which evoked sympathy for slaves and outrage against slavery throughout the North, increased northern opposition to the act. 4. Northern legislatures enacted personal liberty laws, and in Ableman v. Booth (1857), the Wisconsin Supreme Court said the act violated the Constitution. 5. The U. S. Supreme Court in 1859 upheld the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Act, but by then the act had become a â€Å"dead letter. † B. The Political System in Decline 1. The conflict over slavery split both major political parties along sectional lines and stymied creative political leadership. 2. The Whig Party chose General Winfield Scott, but many southern Whigs refused to support Scott because northern Whigs refused to support slavery. 3. Democrats were divided at their convention and no candidate could secure the necessary two-thirds majority, so they settled on a compromise nominee, Franklin Pierce. 4. The Democrats swept the election, and their party was reunited; conversely, the Whig Party split into sectional wings and it would never again wage a national campaign. 5. Pierce pursued an expansionist foreign policy to assist northern merchants, secured railroad rights in northern Mexico with the Gadsden Purchase, and tried to seize Cuba, issuing the Ostend Manifesto (1854). 6. Opposition to the manifesto forced Pierce to halt efforts to take Cuba, but it revived the northern fears of a â€Å"Slave Power† conspiracy. C. The Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Rise of New Parties 1. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, constructed by Democrat Stephen Douglas, divided the northern Louisiana Purchase into two territories, Kansas and Nebraska, and voided the Missouri Compromise line by opening the area to slavery through he principle of popular sovereignty. 2. The Kansas-Nebraska Act barely passed in 1854 through the use of patronage and persuasion by President Pierce, and proved to be the end of the Second Party System. 3. Antislavery northern Whigs and AntiNebraska Democrats formed a new party, the Republicans; the party stood for opposition to slavery and a celebr ation of the moral virtues of a society based on â€Å"the middling classes. † 4. The American, or â€Å"Know-Nothing† Party, had its origins in the anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic organizations of the 1840s. It hoped to unite native-born Protestants against the â€Å"alien menace† of Irish and German Catholics, prohibit further immigration, and institute literacy tests for voting. 5. In 1855 the Pierce administration recognized the territorial legislature in Lecompton, Kansas, which had adopted proslavery legislation. 6. Free-Soilers rejected the legitimacy of the territorial government; proslavery and antislavery sides turned to violence, including the â€Å"Pottawatomie massacre,† led by John Brown. D. Buchanan’s Failed Presidency 1. The Republican Party counted on anger over â€Å"Bleeding Kansas† to boost its fortunes and nominated Colonel James C. Fremont, a Free-Soiler, as its presidential candidate. 2. The American Party split into sectional factions, the northern faction endorsed Fremont and the southern faction nominated Millard Fillmore. 3. The Democrats reaffirmed their support for popular sovereignty and the KansasNebraska Act and nominated James Buchanan. 4. James Buchanan won, and the Republicans replaced the Whigs as the second major party. 5. Republicans had no support in the South, however; if they were to win in the next presidential election, it might prompt the southern states to withdraw from the Union. It appeared up to President Buchanan to devise a way of protecting Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860 193 free soil in the West and slavery in the South. 6. In Dred Scott v. Sandford (1856), the U. S. Supreme Court opined that a slave’s residence in a free state did not make him a free man and that African Americans were not citizens and could not sue in a federal court. 7. Chief Justice Taney declared the provisions of the Northwest Ordinance and the Missouri Compromise that prohibited slavery had never been constitutional, and that Congress could not give to territorial governments any powers that Congress itself did not possess. 8. Taney thereby endorsed Calhoun’s interpretation of popular sovereignty: only when settlers wrote a constitution and requested statehood could they prohibit slavery. 9. The Democrat-dominated Supreme Court had declared the Republicans’ antislavery platform to be unconstitutional; Republicans countered by accusing the Supreme Court and President Buchanan of participating in the â€Å"Slave Power† conspiracy. 10. In 1858 Buchanan recommended the admission of Kansas as a slave state; by pursuing a proslavery agenda—first with Dred Scott and then in Kansas—he had helped to split his party and the nation. IV. Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Triumph, 1858–1860 A. Lincoln’s Political Career 1. Abraham Lincoln came from an impoverished yeoman farming family in Illinois; in 1831 he rejected the farmer’s life and became a store clerk. 2. Lincoln was an ambitious man: he was admitted to the bar in 1837, married the more socially prominent Mary Todd in 1842, and served four terms as a Whig in the Illinois assembly. 3. In 1846 Lincoln won election to Congress, where he had to take a stand on the issue of slavery; he felt that slavery was unjust but did not believe that the federal government had the constitutional authority to tamper with it. . Lincoln argued that prohibiting the expansion of slavery, gradual emancipation, and the colonization of freed slaves were the only practical ways to address the issue. 5. Both abolitionists and proslavery activists derided Lincoln’s pragmatic policies, he lost his bid for reelection, and for a while he withdrew from politics in order to devote his time to law. 6. Lincoln returned to politics after the passage of Stephen Douglas’s Kansas-Nebraska Act; he attacked the doctrine of popular sovereignty and said he would leave slavery where it existed but not extend it into the territories. 7. Lincoln abandoned the Whig Party and joined the Republicans; he soon emerged as their leader in Illinois. 8. In Lincoln’s â€Å"House Divided† speech, he predicted a constitutional crisis over slavery. 9. In the 1858 duel for the U. S. Senate, Stephen Douglas declared his support for white supremacy, and Lincoln, put on the defensive by Douglas, advocated economic opportunity for blacks but not equal political rights. 10. Douglas’s â€Å"Freeport Doctrine† asserted that settlers could exclude slavery by not adopting local legislation to protect it; this upset proslavery advocates and abolitionists. 1. Douglas was elected to the Senate, but Lincoln had established a national reputation. B. The Union Under Siege 1. Southern Democrats divided into two groups: the â€Å"Moderates† (Southern Rights Democrats) pursued protection of slavery in the territories, and the â€Å"Radicals† actively promoted secession. 2. In October 1859 John Brown led a r aid that temporarily seized the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia; his purpose was to supply the arms for a slave rebellion and establish a separate African American state in the South. 3. Brown was charged with treason, sentenced to death, and hanged. He was a martyr to abolitionists, which horrified southerners. 4. In 1860 northern Democrats rejected Jefferson Davis’s program to protect slavery in the territories, so the delegates from eight southern states quit the meeting and nominated as their candidate John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. Northern and western delegates nominated Stephen Douglas. 5. The Republicans chose Lincoln as their candidate for his moderate position on slavery, his appealing egalitarian image, and his important Midwest political base. . The fourth candidate was John Bell, a former Tennessee Whig, who was the 194 Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860 nominee of the compromise-seeking Constitutional Union Party. 7. Lincoln received only 40 percent of the popular vote but won a majority in the electoral college by carrying every northern and western state except New Jersey; Douglas won electoral votes only in Missouri and N ew Jersey; Breckinridge captured every state in the Deep South as well as Delaware, Maryland, and North Carolina; John Bell carried the Upper South states. 8. The Republicans had united the Northeast, the Midwest, and the Far West behind free soil and had seized national power; to many southerners it seemed their constitutional order of slavery was an order now under siege. â€Å"free soil, free labor, free men,† which subsequently became the program of the Republican Party. (402) popular sovereignty The republican principle that ultimate power resides in the hands of the electorate. Popular sovereignty dictates that voters directly or indirectly (through their elected representatives) ratify the constitutions of their state and national governments and amendments to those fundamental laws. During the 1850s the U. S. Congress applied the principle to western lands by enacting legislation that gave residents there the authority to determine the status of slavery in their own territories. (406) personal-liberty laws Laws enacted in many northern states to protect free blacks and fugitive slaves from southern slave catchers. Early laws required a formal hearing before a local court. When these kinds of provisions were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842), new laws prohibited state officials from helping slave catchers. (407) Key Terms Manifest Destiny A term coined by John L. O’Sullivan in 1845 to describe the idea that Euro-Americans were fated by God to settle the North American continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Adding geographical and secular dimensions to the Second Great Awakening, Manifest Destiny implied that the spread of American republican institutions and Protestant churches across the continent was part of God’s plan for the world. In the late nineteenth century, the focus of the policy expanded to include overseas expansion. (392) Great American Desert The name given to the drought-stricken Great Plains by Euro-Americans in the early nineteenth century. Believing the region was unfit for cultivation or agriculture, Congress designated the Great Plains as permanent Indian country in 1834. (392) conscience Whigs Whig politicians who opposed the Mexican War (1846–1848) on moral grounds. They maintained that the purpose of the war was to expand and perpetuate slavery. They feared that the addition of more slave states would ensure the South’s control of the national government and undermine a society of yeomen farmers and â€Å"free labor† in the North. (401) free-soil movement A political movement of the 1840s that opposed the expansion of slavery. Motivating its members—mostly white yeomen farmers—was their belief that slavery benefited â€Å"aristocratic men. † They wanted farm families to settle the western territories and install democratic republican values and institutions there. The short-lived Free-Soil Party (1848–1854) stood for Lecture Strategies 1. Write a lecture that explores the life and career of James K. Polk as a representative expansionist. Explain why he was willing to compromise on Oregon but went to war with Mexico. Discuss Polk’s leadership as a wartime president. Was he guilty of unnecessarily provoking war? Consider this action as a precedent for future presidents. Emphasize the initially overwhelming public support for the war. Describe the experiences of U. S. troops during the invasion of Mexico. Explain how changes in public opinion came about, resulting in Polk’s considerable decline in popularity by 1848. 2. Write a lecture that analyzes the historical nature of Manifest Destiny, showing how the areas intended for American expansion changed over time from including all of North America to including all the areas now part of the United States. Ask whether the westward movement was a matter of expansion or conquest. What was the impact of expansion on the environment and the Native American population? You might select California as a suitable case study. 3. Write a lecture that examines the War against Mexico from the perspective of the Mexican people. How did the actions of American citizens in the 1830s and 1840s look from Mexico’s point of view? Discuss the Mexican War from the perspec- Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860 195 tive of the Mexican government. What alternatives did it have? Raise the topic of Pierce’s actions with regard to Cuba, pointing out similarities in the United States’ actions toward Mexico. Discuss whether a style in diplomatic relations with nonindustrial countries had already been set. 4. Historians have long debated the causes of the Civil War. Write a lecture discussing the events of the 1850s, and explore how economics, the political structure and leadership of the time, and slavery caused the war. Explain how the increasingly industrial North competed with the agricultural, plantation South. Explore evidence of poor leadership among politicians ushed by fanatics in both the North and the South. Finally, discuss the debate over slavery as a cause of the war. 5. Write a lecture that focuses on the question of slavery in the national territories. As background, review the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and discuss congressional plans to extend it across the Mexican cession. Explain how territorial acquisition from the Mexican War forced the issue onto the national agenda. Expand on the arguments over the Wilmot Proviso. Explain the Compromise of 1850 and show how the generation of political leaders that included Clay was committed to compromise. Explain why the organization of Kansas and Nebraska into territories was necessary. Explore the effects of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, emphasizing the horror that â€Å"Bleeding Kansas† became for the nation. Conclude with the Dred Scott decision and its answer to the question of slavery in the territories. 6. Write a lecture that discusses American schemes to expand into Latin America in the 1850s. Explore President Pierce’s attempts to distract public attention from slavery by playing up those schemes. Explain southern interest in Latin America for the purpose of expanding plantation agriculture and slavery. Examine the filibuster movement through case studies on Nicaragua and Cuba. 7. Write a lecture that focuses on the Dred Scott case, covering Scott’s personal story and the impact of the case on the nation. Emphasize Buchanan’s connivance with the Supreme Court. Discuss Chief Justice Taney’s arguments that African Americans were not citizens and that neither Congress nor territorial governments could prohibit slavery in the territories. Discuss the constitutional validity of Taney’s points. Review Taney’s statements in light of his background as a Jacksonian Democrat. Explain why Abraham Lincoln believed that this case roved that the southerners’ goal was to make slavery legal throughout the country. 8. While southerners vilified abolitionists, many northerners lionized them. Write a lecture that discusses John Brown’s motives and actions, noting that most of his victims were not slaveholders. Explore evidence that Brown was a fanatic. Was his extremism justifiable in the defense of liberty? Explore the commitment among northern religious leaders to abolitionism. Discuss the practicality of Brown’s goals at Harpers Ferry. Explore Brown’s long-term effects on the North and the South. Reviewing the Text These questions are from the textbook and follow each main section of the narrative. They are provided in the Computerized Test Bank with suggested responses, for your convenience. Manifest Destiny: South and North (pp. 392–398) 1. Both elected officials and private individuals shaped America’s western policy. Which group was more important? Why? †¢ Elected officials, like James K. Polk and Sam Houston, were the most important because they worked in high political circles that controlled the economy, armed forces, and government systems that shaped the larger parameters of western policy. 2. How did western expansion become linked with the sectional conflict between the North and the South? Why, after two decades of hesitation, did politicians support territorial expansion in the 1840s? †¢ Western expansion created an ongoing split between North and South after the War of 1812 over the idea of whether or not new states should allow slavery. Slavery created two distinct economic systems in the United States between North and South. The Missouri Compromise of 1820, the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854 were all failed attempts at resolving the intersection of western expansion and the slavery issue. Politicians supported western expansion in part based on the ideology of Manifest Destiny congealing in the United States during the 1840s. The Texas Independence movement, fears of 196 Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860 European claims of the Pacific Northwest, and the discovery of gold in California combined to motivate politician s to create a continental nation with west coast ports to trade with Asia. Party system was unable to contain the debate, further destabilizing the compromise. 2. What did Stephen Douglas try to accomplish with the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854? Was that act any more successful than the Compromise of 1850? Explain your answer. †¢ Douglas wanted to resolve sectional disputes, politically organize the Louisiana Purchase lands into new territories, earn a fortune and higher political office by facilitating a transcontinental railroad from Chicago to San Francisco, and extinguish Native American land claims. †¢ The act was no more successful than the 1850 Compromise, as the North and South were morally polarized on the issue and now willing to use violence for their causes, and both sides were politically determined to remake the act and avoid any compromises. Its basis in popular sovereignty doomed the act because of the vagueness of the policy. 3. What were the main constitutional arguments advanced during the debate over slavery in the territories? Which of those arguments influenced Chief Justice Taney’s opinion in Dred Scott ? †¢ The main constitutional arguments were as follows: states have the right to secede from the Union; Congress has no right to regulate slavery in the territories; extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean; follow squatter or popular sovereignty; and Congress should restrict slavery within its existing boundaries and then extinguish it completely. Taney argued that Congress and territorial governments had no authority to prohibit slavery in a territory, and that slave owners could take their property into a territory and own it. Taney endorsed the principle of popular sovereignty: settlers could write a constitution, request statehood, and then decide if slavery would be legal. War, Ex pansion, and Slavery, 1846–1850 (pp. 398–406) 1. Why did President Polk go to war with Mexico? Why did the war become so divisive in Congress? Polk went to war with Mexico to obtain Mexican land for capitalist production, to create a continental nation with trading ports near Asia, and to fulfill a Christian and Manifest Destiny ideology. †¢ The war became divisive in Congress initially because of the Wilmot Proviso’s focus on banning slavery from any new territories acquired from Mexico. This act alienated southerners who wanted to extend slavery to new lands as a positive good and to fulfill popular sovereignty. 2. What issues were resolved by the Compromise of 1850? Who benefited more from its terms, the North or the South? Why? †¢ The Compromise of 1850 resolved the issue of whether or not to legally allow slavery in new lands acquired from Mexico. Results included California entering as a free state, a new Fugitive Slave Act, abolishing the slave trade (but not slavery) in the District of Columbia, organizing the remaining lands acquired from Mexico into the territories of New Mexico and Utah, and leaving the decision to allow or prohibit slavery to the local population (popular sovereignty). The South benefited more because slavery remained legal in the nation’s capital, the federal government would increase its use of force to return escaped slaves to their white masters, and the remaining lands taken from Mexico could decide for themselves if they wanted slavery. The North, however, could claim that it had put limitations on slavery, indicating a slow death to the institution over time. Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Triumph , 1858–1860 (pp. 414–419) 1. How did Lincoln’s position on slavery differ from that of Stephen Douglas? Lincoln believed that the Slave Power was dangerous and warned that the proslavery Supreme Court might soon declare that the Constitution does not permit a state to exclude slavery from its borders. Lincoln feared the spread of slavery to new states and territories made possible by the Dred Scott decision of 1857. The End of the Second Party System, 1850–1858 (pp. 406–414) 1. Why did the Compromise of 1850 fail? †¢ The Compromise failed because antislavery northerners refused to accept its provision for returning fugitive slaves and slavery’s erosion of free labor in the west. Proslavery southerners also plotted to extend slavery into the West, the Caribbean, and Central America. The Second Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860 197 †¢ Douglas argued strongly for white supremacy and popular sovereignty and advocated the Freeport Doctrine, which suggested that a territory’s residents could exclude slavery simply by not adopting a law to protect it. He also supported the Dred Scott decision. 2. Did the Republicans win the election of 1860, or did the Democrats lose it? Explain your answer. The Democrats lost the election because of their inability as a party to take a firm stance on the spread of slavery to new states and territories. Southern Democrats divided into two groups: moderates and radicals. Northern Democrats rejected both groups. Southern Democrats held their own party convention in 1860 and nominated the sitting Vice President Breckinridge; northern and Midwestern delegates met separately and nominated Stephen Douglas. both major political parties along sectional lines. The Whigs were unable to absorb these divisions and never again ran a national ticket. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 further divided and ruined the party, sending many antislavery members into the Republican ranks. The Democratic Party barely survived but lost the election of 1860 to a dark-horse candidate from a new third party. 3. Some historians claim that the mistakes of a â€Å"Blundering Generation† of political leaders led, by 1860, to the imminent breakup of the Union. Do you agree with their assessment? Why or why not? †¢ Elected officials exert a strong force in shaping the fate of millions of average citizens through laws and policies passed in Congress. The policies and decisions of James Buchanan and Stephen Douglas are a case in point: Buchanan supported the southern proslavery position and was unwilling to use his office to further compromise between North and South. Convinced that a final proslavery d ecision would end the fighting in Kansas, Buchanan pressured several federal judges to vote in tandem with their southern colleagues in the Dred Scott case of 1856. He then added fuel to the fire by recommending that Kansas be admitted as a slave state under a proslavery Lecompton legislature, despite public and official misgivings over the legitimacy of the Lecompton government. Douglas wanted desperately to become president of the United States and earn wealth from being the spokesmen for a transcontinental railroad, so pushed the idea of popular sovereignty in the Kansas-Nebraska Act, resulting in violent outbreaks known as â€Å"Bleeding Kansas. † Chapter Writing Assignments These questions appear at the end of Chapter 13 in the textbook. They are provided in the Computerized Test Bank with suggested responses, for your convenience. 1. What were the links between the Mexican War of 1846–1848 and Abraham Lincoln’s election as president in 1860? Links included the emergence of Lincoln during the war as an antiwar Whig who championed free labor ideology. He later won election based on the Republican slogan of â€Å"free soil, free labor, freemen. † †¢ Lincoln was elected in 1860 because of an ongoing ideological split between southern slaveholding states and northern free states over the spread of slavery to new territories and states. The War with Mexico in 1848 inflamed this debate, which Lincoln condemned as a young Congressman, establishing himself as a strong voice for free labor. Lincoln’s election was made possible by a political vacuum created by the ideological differences between North and South over the spread of slavery. 2. When and why did the Second Party System of Whigs and Democrats collapse? †¢ The Second Party System collapsed when many southern Whigs refused to support General Winfield Scott as a presidential candidate in 1852 because many northern Whigs refused to support slavery. The conflict o ver slavery split Class Discussion Starters 1. What were the most important causes of the war with Mexico? Possible answers a. Southerners desired to expand slavery. b. Americans wished to gain more land for settlers. c. The majority of Americans believed in Manifest Destiny. d. American arrogance, including scorn for the Mexican government and the Catholic religion, and a belief in American superiority also contributed to the war. 198 Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860 e. Mexico’s weakness made Texas a temptation for opportunists. 2. Was the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo fair or unfair to Mexico? Possible answers a. Fair. After all, Mexico had lost the war, and the United States could have taken even more land. b. Fair. The United States paid Mexico $15 million for land it had conquered and could have just seized. c. Unfair. The treaty was forced on a government installed by the conquering American troops. d. Unfair. The payment did not equal the value of the lands seized, which constituted one-third of the area of Mexico. 3. How do you think the Californios viewed the influx of Americans in the 1840s and 1850s? Possible answers a. Some probably felt foreigners were invading them. b. Ranchers and merchants saw opportunities to sell their products to the newcomers. c. Many old Californios decided to ally themselves with the Americans by marrying their daughters to young American men. These sons-in-law helped the Californios adjust to American control. 4. How do you explain northern attempts to circumvent the Fugitive Slave Act with personal liberty laws and denunciations of states’ rights theory? Possible answers a. Northern abolitionists believed in a law higher than the Constitution. b. Northerners’ denunciations of states’ rights were hypocritical. They believed in what was best for the North at the moment. c. Northerners believed that southerners had used shady means to dominate the government and to get the Fugitive Slave Act passed. 5. How might the events of the 1850s have been different if Congress had extended the Missouri Compromise line instead of passing the KansasNebraska Act? Possible answers a. Slavery would never have been considered for Kansas, and bloodshed would not have occurred there. b. Southerners would have been far more assertive regarding expansion into Mexico and the Caribbean. c. The Republican Party might not have been formed. Even if it had been, it would not have had to focus so strongly on prohibiting slavery in the territories. 6. What could President Buchanan have done to prevent the Civil War? Possible answers a. Buchanan could have worked harder to keep Democratic Party leaders in the North and South together in 1860, in which case the Democrats probably would have won the presidency. b. Buchanan could have extended the Missouri Compromise line. c. The Civil War was inevitable, and there was nothing Buchanan could have done. 7. Which of the following was the most important cause of the Civil War: economic differences, political failures, or slavery? Possible answers a. Southern economic interests included low tariffs, low taxes, expansion into Mexico, and close ties to the British textile industry. Northern interests included high protective tariffs, taxes to build transportation networks, and the growth of the North’s manufacturing base. b. Democratic leaders such as Buchanan were inept, and Republican leaders had decided against making compromises that might have prevented the war. c. The issue of slavery continually forced politicians in the North and South into confrontations. d. Slavery was the economic difference and the ethical difference, and politics broke down trying to protect it. Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860 199 Classroom Activities 1. Reenact the Lincoln-Douglas debates in class by asking for volunteers for Lincoln and Douglas teams. Form two groups and instruct them to create a list of talking points for their respective side. As moderator you will ask a series of important questions related to the themes of the chapter. Go beyond the actual content of the debates and ask questions regarding modern times as well. 2. Bring in an image of Manifest Destiny, such as the painting American Progress by John Gast (1872). Place the image on an overhead and generate a discussion of American westward expansion based on an intensive viewing of the image. As usual, ask students what is not shown in the image, and why that’s important for understanding particular developments of U. S. history. †¢ Northern whites took up arms to halt the spread of slavery to new states and prevent tyranny by the planter class. Southern slaveholders and their supporters wanted to safeguard the civil liberties of the constitution and their own pocketbooks by making sure that slavery was legally allowed in new states. †¢ It was significant that both would fight in the Civil War because the later conflict was based on the same ideological disagreements first played out on the bloody fields of Kansas in 1855. The Civil War was an extension of Bloody Kansas. 3. Like most political or ideological doctrines, popular sovereignty only works well in certain circumstances. What were the conditions in Kansas between 1854 and 1860 that made it virtually unworkable? Can you see any parallels with the experiment of popular sovereignty in Iraq since 2004? Explain your answer. †¢ Popular sovereignty failed to work in Kansas because both sides flooded the state with new residents sternly committed to their cause, resulting in the creation of two state governments. The closeness of Missouri enabled proslavery men to cross the border, vote, and return home. Meanwhile, abolitionists sent rifles to antislavery men in Kansas. The debates between Democrats and Republicans in Congress over the KansasNebraska Act also gave hope to both sides by making the act appear to be doomed. †¢ The following parallels between Kansas in 1854 and Iraq since 2004 could be made: both witnessed civilian deaths, guerilla warfare, strong ideological differences between opposing sides, unsettled government structure, and political debate by Democrats and Republicans over how to resolve the problem. VO I C E S F R O M A B R OA D Oral History Exercise What are the oral stories of Native Americans regarding manifest destiny and American westward expansion between 1820 and 1865? As the instructor you can assign students to locate specific passages on the Internet and from texts in the school library. Students can then answer a series of questions that you prepare. Or you can bring into class a range of examples and use those to generate a discussion. This exercise also works well as a research paper. Working with Documents C O M PA R I N G A M E R I C A N VO I C E S Civil War in Kansas (p. 12) 1. What do these letters suggest about the character of the armed conflict in Kansas? Just how bloody was it? †¢ Based on ideological differences, the conflict was bitter and included standoffs and near-battles, with minimal communication with the opposing side. It was at times bloody, with abolitionists targeting pro-slavery advocates, and pro-slavery advocates targeting abolitionists. Violence between groups hostile to one another claimed about 200 lives in Kansas. 2. Why do you think Axalla Hoole and John Lawrie took up arms? Is it significant that both of them would go on to fight in the Civil War? Salomon de Rothschild: A French Banker Analyzes the Election of 1860 and the Threat of Secession (p. 418) 1. Do you agree with Salomon de Rothschild’s analysis of the motives of antislavery northern whites? †¢ One could agree with Rothschild’s argument that antislavery northern whites asserted humanitarian reasons and beliefs about the need for absolute equality in society. †¢ One could disagree about his assessment that the â€Å"real sentiment† of antislavery northern whites 200 Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860 was their jealousy over the extra labor accessible to the southern slave-owning aristocracy. 2. Is Rothschild correct about the role of tariffs in the secession crisis? What happened to tariffs after the nullification crisis of the 1830s (see Chapter 10)? †¢ Rothschild is correct. Northeastern states generated a significant portion of their economy from the industrial revolution, but needed strong protection from the importation of cheaper European industrial goods. This protection came in the form of high tariffs on imported goods. But the South produced large amounts of wealth from slave-grown cotton, and could easily purchase cheaper European goods directly without having to purchase the same goods at higher prices to assist northeastern states. The secession crisis stemmed in part from southern feelings of economic alienation by the North. †¢ After the nullification crisis of the 1830s, tariffs were reduced by a compromise measure between North and South initiated by President Andrew Jackson and Congress. By 1842 import taxes had reverted to 1816 levels. 3. From what you have read in the text, is Rothschild’s speculation that New York City will secede along with the South a realistic one? What argument does he make? Why was he wrong? †¢ It was not realistic that New York City would leave the union, though strong proslavery sentiment did exist in the Irish and Anglo American working-class community. Although, as Rothschild suggests, the city’s economy was tied closely with cotton exports from the South, it was also a bastion of free territory and free labor sentiment and was not dependent on the South for its economic growth. reedom, and to characterize the westward expansion as a progressive and beneficial exercise in human achievement. †¢ The significance of the â€Å"School Book† lies in its symbolism of the progressive uplift inherent to American values and westward expansion. Lady Liberty will use the book to educate not only inferior and unproductive Indians and Mexicans, but an entire continent in th e proper form of capitalist pursuit. 2. The painting has three horizontal planes—foreground, middle ground, and background—and each tells a separate story. What stages of social evolution are pictured in each plane? What symbols of progress does Gast employ? How is technology depicted? What role does it play in the artist’s depiction of progress? †¢ Foreground: Pioneers and miners come out first to chase away Indians and create trails and infrastructure for settlement, followed by farm families who subdue the land through capitalist production and build houses. †¢ Middle ground: Lady Liberty leads the way with a schoolbook while Indians flee before the face of industrial advancement in the form of trains and steamships. †¢ Background: Steamships and covered wagons and a pony express rider frame a brilliantly lighted sky. Symbols of progress: Farmers plow land and build houses, there is a stagecoach mail system, and the industrial revolution is depicted in the form of trains, steamships, and telegraph. Lady Liberty holds a book symbolizing the enlightenment of formal education. †¢ Technology serves as the selling point or justification for the progressive character of A merican westward expansion: It brings people, democracy, and capitalist production to undeveloped people and lands. 3. Gast also has divided the painting into two vertical planes. What do you think the transition from lightness to darkness symbolizes? Darkness symbolizes the undeveloped and savage nature of the West that is being tamed and brought into capitalist production through the efforts of Lady Liberty and her technology. U. S. western expansion is characterized as progressive in the painting through the use of brilliant sunlight, for an almost spiritual effect. Lady Liberty emerges from the light to bring advancement to the dark West. Reading American Pictures Visualizing â€Å"Manifest Destiny† (p. 396) 1. The painting is an allegory: The artist uses symbols to depict America’s expansion to the Pacific. The central symbol is the goddess Liberty; she floats westward, her forehead emblazoned with the â€Å"Star of Empire. † Why do you think Gast chose Liberty to lead the republic to the West? What is the significance of the â€Å"School Book† in her left hand? †¢ Gast chose Liberty for several reasons: As a symbol of American democracy enlightening Indian savages, as part of an ongoing use of white women as symbols of American democracy and Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860 201 4. In the background on the far right stands New York City, with the great Brooklyn Bridge (which was still being built in 1872) spanning the East River. Far off to the left you can see the Pacific Ocean. Why did Gast include these elements in the painting? †¢ Gast included references to both coasts to emphasize the continental scope of the new United States and the importance of commerce and urban growth to develop the western portion of the nation. †¢ Gold, Greed, and Genocide (2002, Project Underground, 30 minutes) Produced by the nonprofit group Project Underground, this hard-hitting documentary traces the impact of the gold rush on the Indians and the environment of California to the present day. Literature †¢ Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (New York: Signet Classics, 1981) One of the most important books of the nineteenth century, Uncle Tom’s Cabin is essential for helping students to understand the abolitionist viewpoint and the causes of the Civil War. †¢ Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast (New York: Signet Classics, 2000) A first-hand account by a Yankee in Mexican California. Electronic Media Web Sites †¢ â€Å"Uncle Tom’s Cabin and American Culture: A Multi-Media Archive† http://jefferson. illage. virginia. edu/utc/ An extremely rich site that places the novel in its literary and cultural context. See also â€Å"Harriet Beecher Stowe and Uncle Tom’s Cabin† at http://xroads. virginia. edu/~MA97/riedy/hbs . html †¢ The California Gold Rush www. museumca. org/goldrush This site is based on exhibits originating at the Oakland Museum, and is one of the best locations for Gold Rush art and othe r visual documents. †¢ The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 http://www. nps. gov/archive/liho/debates. tm This National Park Service site provides a map of Illinois indicating where the debates occurred, and contains links to the text of the debates. Additional Bedford/St. Martin’s Resources for Chapter 13 FOR INSTRUCTORS Transparencies The following maps and images from Chapter 13 are available as full-color acetates: †¢ War News from Mexico, 1848 †¢ Map 13. 1 American Settlements and the Texas War of Independence †¢ Map 13. 2 Territorial Conflict in Oregon, 1819– 1846 †¢ Map 13. 3 Routes to the West, 1835–1860 †¢ American Progress, John Gast †¢ Map 13. The Mexican War, 1846–1848 †¢ Map 13. 5 The Mexican Cession, 1848 †¢ Map 13. 6 The California Gold Rush, 1849–1857 †¢ Map 13. 7 The Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 †¢ Map 13. 8 Political Realignment, 1848–1860 Films †¢ U. S. -Mexican War: 1846–1848 (2000, PBS documentary, 4 hours) The documentary examines the cause, development, and aftermath of the conflict. A companion Web site (www. pbs. org/kera/ usmexicanwar/index_flash. html) views the war from both American and Mexican perspectives and draws on the expertise of historians from both countries. A section for educators provides lesson plans, a timeline, primary source materials, and other links. †¢ The West (2000, PBS documentary, 6 hours) Directed by Ken Burns and Stephen Ives, the documentary also has an accompanying and useful Web site at www. pbs. org/weta/thewest/. Instructor’s Resource CD-ROM The following maps, figures, and images from Chapter 13, as well as a chapter outline, are available on disc in both PowerPoint and jpeg formats: †¢ Map 13. 1 American Settlements and the Texas War of Independence †¢ Map 13. 2 Territorial Conflict in Oregon, 1819– 1846 02 Chapter 13: The Crisis of the Union, 1844–1860 †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Map 13. 3 Routes to the West, 1835–1860 Map 13. 4 The Mexican War, 1846–1848 Map 13. 5 The Mexican Cession, 1848 Map 13. 6 The California Gold Rush, 1849–1857 Map 13. 7 The Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 Map 13. 8 Political Realignment, 1848–1860 War News from Mexico, 1848 â€Å"The Father of Texas† Assault on the Alamo American Progress, John Gast Using the Bedford Series with America’s History, Sixth Edition Available online at bedfordstmartins. om/usingseries, this guide offers practical suggestions for incorporating volumes from the Bedford Series in History and Culture into the U. S. History Survey. Relevant titles for Chapter 13 include †¢ NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS, AN AMERICAN SLAVE, WRITTEN BY HIMSELF, Second Edition, Edited with an Introduction by David W. Blight, Yale University †¢ The Japanese Discovery of America: A Brief History with Documents, by Peter Duus, Stanford University †¢ THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER and Related Documents, Edited with an Introduction by Kenneth S. Greenburg, Suffolk University †¢ Defending Slavery: Proslavery Thought in the Old South, A Brief History with Documents, by Paul Finkelman, Albany Law School †¢ DRED SCOTT V. SANDFORD: A Brief History with Documents, by Paul Finkelman, Albany Law School FOR STUDENTS 5. Salmon P. Chase, Defining the Constitutional Limits of Slavery (1850) 6. John C. Calhoun, A Discourse on the Constitution (1850) 7. Frederick Grimke, The Right of Secession (1856) 8. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 9. Fulfilling a Constitutional Duty with Alacrity (1850) 10. Opposing Accounts of the Rescue of a Fugitive (1851) 11. Charles Sumner, The Crime Against Kansas (1856) 12. The Dred Scott Decision (1857) 13. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858) 14. The Trial of John Brown (1859) 15. John A. Copeland, Jr. , Letter to His Parents (1859) Online Study Guide at bedfordstmartins. com/henretta The Online Study Guide helps students synthesize the material from the text as well as practice the skills historians use to make sense of the past. The following map, visual, and documents activities are available for Chapter 13: Map Activity Map 13. 7 The Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 Visual Activity †¢ Reading American Pictures: Visualizing â€Å"Manifest Destiny† Reading Historical Documents Activities †¢ Comparing American Voices: Civil Warfare in Kansas †¢ Voices From Abroad: Salomon de Rothschild: A French Baker Analyzes the Implications of the Election of 1860 and the Threat of Secession Documents to Accompany A merica’s History The following documents and illustrations are available in Chapter 13 of the companion reader by Melvin Yazawa, University of New Mexico: 1. John L. O’Sullivan, Texas, California, and Manifest Destiny (1845) 2. Thomas Oliver Larkin, The Importance of California (1845) 3. The Great Prize Fight (1844) 4. Carlos Maria de Bustamante, The American Invasion of Mexico (1847) Critical Thinking Modules at bedfordstmartins. com/historymodules These online modules invite students to interpret maps, audio, visual, and textual sources centered on events covered in the U. S. history survey. Relevant modules for Chapter 13 include †¢ The Rise of Sectional Politics, 1848–1860

Supreme Courts Reactivity To Popular Will In Modern Times Essays

Supreme Court's Reactivity To Popular Will In Modern Times The Supreme Court safeguards much of its power by creating walls to separate its power from public opinion and political pandering. And while impartiality is undoubtedly the preeminent characteristic desirable in a justice, it is impossible to nominate a human being that is not at least partially fallible and swayed by the society around him. The Warren Court of 1953 to 1969 perfectly illustrates the concurrent philosophies of the Court with the prevailing political party of the day. The growing thought of the time was for increased civil rights and an activist government. President Eisenhower integrated the military and was a strong voice for racial reconciliation. John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson were liberals who were both interested in achieving the Great Society, with racial equality a chief goal. In 1954 the Warren Court unanimously followed the trend of the time, and ruled in Brown v. Board of Ed. that separating blacks from whites was inherently unequal, thereby paving the way for the entire civil rights movement. In '64 the court continued to reflect public opinion, when it chose to accept the very loose interpretation of the interstate commerce clause to further it's activist agenda in the Heart of Atlanta Motel Case, by saying blacks could not be barred from staying in private establishments. The Warren Court reflected the prevailing Democrats in criminal rights as well. Between '61 and '66 the Mapp, Gideon, and Miranda cases all dramatically increased rights of the accused, simultaneous to the most rampant popularity of the Democrats. The Warren court championed separation of church and state, in Engel v. Vitale ('62) and Abbington v. Schempp ('63), and freedom of speech, in Tinker v. Des Moines ('69), as did its Democratic counterparts in Congress and the White House. Of course it is important to recognize that the Warren Court was not merely a knee jerk respondent to public opinion. Many of its decisions were close, and very unpopular in large chunks of the country. The Republicans and the splintering conservative South found most of these rulings appalling. As George Wallace's successful 3rd party run in '68 proved, there was quite a large percentage of the country that was vehemently against the Warren Court's decisions. Following the example of the Warren Court, one would expect the ensuing Burger Court to be wholly conservative, reversing many of the Warren decisions, under conservative influence by Presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan. However, such was not wholly true. The Burger Court did take a blow at the liberal affirmative action in Bakke v. California ('78), and affirmed the presidential gay bashing in Bower v. Hardwicke ('86). However, the Burger Court hardly created the rightist haven Nixon and Republicans had been hoping for upon Warren's retirement. The Burger court struck a powerful blow for activism in 1973 when Roe v. Wade when it extended the right to privacy to abortions, making them legal throughout the country. Following that decision the Burger court continued to expand abortion rights. The Burger court also firmly protected encroachment by religion into public schools. Lemon v Kurtzmeyer ('71) finally articulated in no uncertain terms the rules for keeping religion out of schools, and they were strikingly liberal. These decisions were hardly at the behest of the elected government, proving the Supreme Court is hardly willed by what party or what type of people are elected. The perfect example of the Supreme Court's disassociation with the elected government is the unanimous Burger Court ruling in 1974's U.S. v. Nixon, which required Nixon to give over his private tapes. If the Supreme Court is unanimously ruling against the President, a President who appointed justices who would cast votes against him then it becomes quite obvious that the Courts feel little if any overt obligation to protect the interests of those who put them there. Once again, all of these decisions were under much strife, particularly on abortion rights, where the votes were usually as close as possible, 5-4. So to claim that the Court was following anything is outright ludicrous, because had just one justice been inclined differently, this argument would have no legs to stand on. It is the very structure of the

the grand canyon essays

the grand canyon essays We decided, for our Science Project, that we would learn about the Grand Canyon and its layers. It is located in Arizona and is one of the greatest natural wonders of the world that is around eighteen miles wide and nearly 280 miles long. The width and depth of the Canyon vary from place to place. At the South Rim, near Grand Canyon Village, its a vertical mile, which is about 5000 feet from rim to river. The width of the Canyon at Grand Canyon Village is 10 miles from rim to rim; though in places it is as much as 18 miles wide. Another way to look at the enormous size is by the time a trip takes. From the bottom of the Canyon and back on foot is a two-day journey. Rim-to-rim hikers generally take three days one-way to get from the North Rim to the South Rim. A trip through Grand Canyon by raft can take two weeks or longer and experienced backpackers have spent weeks in the more remote areas of the Canyon. In 1975 the park was nearly doubled in size by the inclusion of Grand Canyon National Monument and Marble Canyon National Monument and portions of Glen Canyon and Lake Mead national recreation areas. The effects of tourism and federal water management policies led the government to take steps to protect the canyons environment during the 1990s. In March 1996 a controlled flood through Glen Canyon Dam was generated as a way to re-create natural spring flooding through the canyon. The results of this led to a new water-management plan. This plan incorporates flooding to restore the canyons natural ecosystems, which had been changed by the construction of Glen Canyon Dam in 1963. In 1997 the government restricted small planes and helicopters from flying over the canyon and was considering other ways to limit the effects of tourism on the park. The sites of the park are incredible with its beauty and mystery. One of the main attractions is the Colorado River, which is about 242,000 square miles of land ranging fr...

Profile of the Nazi Low Riders - NLR

Profile of the Nazi Low Riders - NLR The Nazi Low Riders (also known as the NLR) originated during the 1970s inside a California Youth Authority facility and is closely associated with the two gangs - Aryan Brotherhood (AB) and the Public Enemy Number One (PEN1). Founded by John Stinson, a white supremacist inmate, the gang was originally formed to act on behalf of the powerful Aryan Brotherhood. Alliances were made and the NLR acted as errand boys to the AB. In the 1980s, the authorities worked hard to break up the AB by isolating its known members in maximum lockup prisons like Pelican Bay and other Security Housing Units (SHUs) and the NLR was needed to conduct AB business in the medium security prisons. Up to this point, the NLR was viewed by prison officials more as a troublesome group rather than a gang. But with its strong alliance with the AB, which had proven to be the most powerful and ruthless prison gang, the NLR began to grow and prison officials took notice. Unlike the AB with its strict - whites only - policy, the NLR permitted some Hispanics to join. Money, not racial purity, seemed to be their ultimate goal. However, in 1999, the NLR was officially classified by CDC authorities as a prison gang causing its membership to also be housed in SHUs, thus diminishing the NLRs usefulness to the AB. Organizational Structure Unlike their AB mentors, the NLR has a simple structure which is adhered to more inside the prisons than on the streets. There is a three-tier system: Seniors: Requires five years of gang membership and at least three seniors must elect the candidate.Juniors: Act in the  capacity of foot soldiers and may recruit new members, but cannot induct new members into the gang.Kids: Are recruits generally coming from smaller gangs. Symbols - Tattoos SwastikasNLR - Nazi Low RidersSS - Lightning boltsHH - Heil Hitler88 - The numerical equal to HHWP - White PowerWSU - White Student UnionAYM - Aryan Youth Movement There are no strict rules about placement of NLR tattoos. In fact, many NLR members are hiding their tattoos in order to avoid being detected as a member and thus being sent to a maximum security prison. Others tell prison officials that the NLR tattoo stands for No Longer Racist. Enemies/Rivals American MafiaBloodsCripsNorteà ±osBlack Guerrilla FamilyNuestra FamiliaMara SalvatruchaLos Angeles crime familyRussian MafiaFriends Stand UnitedLos ZetasOutlawsIsraeli Mafia Allies Aryan BrotherhoodPublic Enemy No.1 Today the NLR operates on the streets, but primarily inside prisons. They have engaged in a variety of criminal activity including extortion, the production and distribution of illegal narcotics, assault, hate crimes, and murder. There are an estimated 1,000 members spread across California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Oklahoma, Illinois and Florida. Internal Struggles In recent years the gang has had some internal struggles over the race issue. One group wants to adopt the Aryan Brotherhood policy of pure white members only, while others want to remain with a half-white ancestry and no black ancestry policy for membership. The Nazi Low Riders Oath I, as a Nazi Low Rider, hereby swear an unrelenting oath upon the green graves of our sires, upon the children in the wombs of our wives, upon the throne of god almighty, sacred to his name, to join together in the holy union with the brothers in this circle and to declare forthright that from this day moment on that I have no fear of death, no fear of foe, that I have a sacred duty to do whatever is necessary to deliver our people from the Jew and bring total victory to the Nazi Low Riders.I, as a Nazi Low Rider Warrior, swear myself to complete secrecy to the Order and total loyalty to my comrades.Let me bear witness to you, my brothers, that should one of you fall in battle, I will see to the welfare and well-being of your family.Let me bear witness to you, my brothers, that should one of you be taken prisoner, I will do whatever is necessary to regain your freedom.Let me bear witness to you, my brothers, that should an enemy agent hurt you, I will chase him to the ends of the ear th and remove his head from his body. And furthermore, let me bear witness to you, my brothers, that if I break this oath let me be forever cursed upon the lips of our people as a coward and an oath breaker.My brothers, let us be his battle-ax and weapons of war. Let us go forward by ones and twos, by scores and legions and as true Nazi Low Riders with pure hearts and strong minds face the enemies of our brotherhood and families, with courage and determination.We hereby invoke the blood covenant and declare that we are in a full state of war and will not lay down our weapons until we have driven the enemy into the sea and reclaimed that which is rightfully ours. Through our blood and gods will, the land will be that of our children. UNTIL DEATH

The Merits of DSU system in WTO Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Merits of DSU system in WTO - Essay Example Installation of the DSU by WTO has harmonized the manner in which WTO members engage in international trade. Dispute resolution serves as the central pillar upon which WTO functions, thereby allowing member countries to coexist and participate in an efficiently and effectively regulated international trade2. Given the fact that disputes are expected to arise due one reason or another in the process of trade between WTO members, investigations become vital to conduct in order to resolve the underlying dispute. The dispute resolution system is not forceful to any member, as the system is designed to resolve disputes without necessarily damaging state or intergovernmental relations. In the view that the DSU system does not forcefully implement investigations on members upon a dispute, the system minimizes or alleviates altogether the likelihood of being used to instigate dispute proceedings. The DSU system allows either party in the underlying dispute to waiver its claims at any step of the proceedings3. In so doing, it provides a diversified ground upon which conflicts and disputes between trade partners can be resolved. The system does not by any chance curtail the rights and freedoms of any WTO member. DSU is indiscriminately enforced for the benefit of all WTO members. The operations of DSU apply to all members, meaning that WTO provisions are uniformly binding to both developing and developed member countries4. In this respect, the primary interests, activities, and roles of WTO are reflected by the DSU system. WTO serves as an intergovernmental organization across the globe, an aspect that the DSU essentially captures. As a result, the DSU system is tailored towards promoting functional relations and improved international trade all over the world. The DSU system does not observe a common law system, meaning that it is not characterized by binding precedents5. Consequently, this implies that the DSU system exhibits no stare decisis aspects in

Dekalog movie review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Dekalog movie review - Essay Example A melancholic tone is used in all except the final film. The series illustrates a modern equivalent of scenes from the past artwork on the Ten Commandments. The producer was inspired by the philosophical challenge and needed to use this series to represent the hardships that were encountered in the Polish society while deliberately eliminating the issues on politics. Creative and unusual themes like adultery and stealing have been brought forward in various narrative styles ranging from a somber tragedy to pure black comedy. The producer renders a great service to the society by showing the relevance of these ancient procedures or rules and imperatives to the current modern living. In the Decalogue I, the meaning of the first commandment; I am the Lord thy God, thou shall have no other gods before me is well dramatized. Three characters are brought forward. First is the father who thinks that religion is not important and has put his faith in technology and reason. Second is Pawel, who wonders about things in life and third is Irena, a Christian who desires her nephew to know about the spiritual realm. In this case the meaning of this commandment is brought out to show our current identity by identifying with the three characters. Despite being tempted to be faithless, God portrays himself in the midst of our lives and challenges us to trust in him ( Carr, pg. 81). Yes. The story and the first commandment are connected and this is relevant in that they bring out how much people have failed o acknowledge the existence of God but rather chose to worship other Gods in the current modern society. It is relevant today because the true worship has been neglected and people are engaged in material things and have outgrown

Romeo and Juliet Essay Example for Free

Romeo and Juliet Essay Romeo and Juliet has always been known as one of Shakespeares most popular and tragic love story plays. It is known for its dramatic ending love scene and tale of twisted fate. This essay is based upon the pathos of the last scene of Romeo and Juliet. Pathos is a quality that arouses emotions such as pity, sympathy or despair. This is therefore why the essay is based upon the last scene as it is the most tragic and dramatic scene in the play which successfully arouses sympathy in the reader due to the tragic atmosphere created by Shakespeare. The atmosphere is created in Act 5 by Shakespeares gift of writing that effectively arouses emotions and passions in the reader. For example, Romeos death was unnecessary as Juliet was merely sleeping which Romeo was unaware of. Shakespeare increases the feeling of pathos in the audience by the dramatic use of irony as the audience know that Juliet is alive therefore there is an alternative ending possible however Romeo is convinced of her death and with a broken heart takes his own life leaving the audience feeling a sense of despair at this unnecessary tragedy. Another example of dramatic irony is shown in the quote: thou art not conquerd beautys ensign yet Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, And deaths pale flag is not advanced there.. Here Romeo is distraught that she is dead and is saying shes looking beautiful, how can she be dead. Of course she isnt dead, merely sleeping, and the audience painfully know this. This then increases the feeling of pathos with the use of dramatic irony. O my love, my wife, Death, that hath suckd the honey of thy breath.. the language used in this section is beautiful and very dramatic, the deep, in depth language has a great affect on the atmosphere, and the feeling and emotions in the audience. Written plays, unlike most novels perhaps, are composed in the present tense which engages the reader as they know directly what is going on in the characters head, rather than being presented historically in the past tense, which has a less dramatic effect on the reader. It is more gripping when written in the present tense as the story unfolds directly before the reader. Heres to my love! (drinks) oh true apothecary ! thy drugs are quick then thus with a kiss I die this quote from Act 5, Scene 3 is when Romeo drinks the poison and is an example of Shakespeares dramatic language. The pathos and atmosphere builds up as Juliet awakes I do remember well where I should be; and where is my Romeo? as she rises to find Romeos body. This scene is very tragic as fate has struck in such a terrible way. This is mostly due to the heavy, strong tragic language used, it has a dramatic affect on the scene. O churl, drunk all, and left no friendly drop To help me after? I will kiss thy lips.. as you can notice from the quote, the language used is so deep and poetic, especially at this dramatic stage in the play. It is so affective as the audience sympathise with the characters, because the language succeeds in involving them with the plot. The build up to the ending scene has a great affect on the pathos, as the letter does not get to Romeo, and there is a worried, anxious atmosphere in the audience- as nobody knows what shall become of Romeo, and if Friar Lawrence will get to Romeo in time to tell him. There is a great build up which grows through the play, and by the ending scene there is a great anxious atmosphere, which has gradually built up through the play. The above scene and setting (in a tomb) creates a sombre mood and makes the reader empathise with the language more effectively (again increasing the whole pathos and feeling to the scene). The scene is taking place in a gloomy tomb with sleeping bodies, including Juliet who is looking peaceful in her sleep, the setting is therefore dark and gloomy and even more tragic. Shakespeare has therefore created a very tragic and saddening mood by choosing that setting for the most dramatic scene. I am almost afraid to stand alone Here in the churchyard, yet I will adventure. The setting is therefore creating an atmosphere as well as the language-which arouses peoples emotions even more and helps contribute to the pathos. To conclude, what contributes towards the pathos of Shakespeares play is the atmosphere he creates through language, characters, scene, setting and ironic situations through his clever development of the storyline, the other characters also contribute, as it seems as though they are all against Romeo and Juliet- apart from Friar Lawrence and Juliets nurse. Friar Lawrences good intentions precipitate the tragedy- although it wasnt his fault and he was only trying to help the difficult situation. As for Old Capulet and Lady Capulet who do make the situation worse-and could in fact be blamed for the tragedy, this is something the audience think about after the play, which characters could be blamed for the tragedy, this therefore does affect the pathos in a great way. The language, setting, characters and build up all come together at the end to create a great atmosphere and pathos.

21st Century Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Alternatives to animal testing   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Imagine you are walking down the cosmetics isle at your grocery store. While picking up some deodorant or toothpaste, have you ever stopped to think if your favorite product has been tested on animals? You probably haven’t, but the chances are very high that it has been. Two of the main reasons why companies continue to use animals to test their products are to determine possible dangers to human health and to avoid product liability suits, but now there are many reliable tests that can be conducted to determine the safety of products without the use of animals. To better understand this important issue I will discuss how animal testing began, what companies do and do not test products on animals, some alternatives to animal testing, and the awareness and prevention that demands our help.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Experimentation on live animals began as early as the 17th Century. Philosopher Jeremy Bentham rejected Philosopher Rene Descartes’ theory that animals are not able to reason and therefore do not feel pain. Bentham’s philosophy on animals was: â€Å" The question is not can they reason? Nor, can they talk? but, can they suffer? â€Å". The practice of testing cosmetics on...

The Inequality Between the Low and High Class in Brazil

Brazil is the largest country in South America and it has the strongest economy in Latin America. The country has the seventh largest economy in the world by nominal GDP. Brazil is rich in natural resources and it focus on agriculture and industrial power. Despite the improvement on income distribution and bringing the middle class population to 95 million people which is a little bit more than half of the population in the country, poverty in rural areas are still very severe in Brazil. According to Rural Poverty Portal, â€Å"In the country as a whole, about 35 percent of the population lives in poverty, on less than two dollars a day. (1) The population in Brazil is about 197 million and with 35 percent of population living in poverty is equal to two times the population in Canada. Most of the poverties in Brazil are concentrated in the North East region of Brazil and it can be considered the single largest concentration of rural poverty in South America. The North East region in Brazil is the undeveloped part of the country where the population have no access to education, health care, technology and even clean water. Several causes of poverty in Brazil are land tenure, lack of access to a good education and also skill training. Through the literary short stories and Brazilian made films, we can somehow picture how different is the life between the lower and higher class families. The inequality is a very big issue in the country and even though the stories and films are fiction, it still shows us a reality that Brazil has been facing for a long period, which is the big gap between the rich and the poor. One of the films that shows the poverty in the rural areas of Brazil is â€Å"Behind the Sun†, directed by Walter Salles. We can see how the violence is a very big problem in the story because of a land dispute between a family and neighbour. According to Scielo, â€Å"It is customary to state that the poorer strata of the population are more violent and that they cause the social disorder and disturbances that assail the country. † ( Minayo, 1) It is true that the lower class would be more involved in violence since they are tired of working so hard and not getting anywhere, and it affects them emotionally. Furthermore, the film starts with a background of very dark orange which may represent the very hot weather in Brazil and it makes the viewers to somehow feel the tiredness, the hard working people in rural areas in Brazil. The film begins with a very depressing color which almost represents â€Å"hopelessness†. The scene that most caught my attention and I think it was very meaningful to the viewers is when the oxes start to turning in circle over and over again. It brings a significant message of no matter how hard the people work in rural areas; they will always be in the same routine and will never be able to have the chance to succeed in life. Moreover, as we could see, one of the main characters, Pacu, a very simple and humble boy, speaks a Portuguese with several grammatical errors such as â€Å"mais melhor† and â€Å"eles que tava perdido†. Illiteracy is another big problem in Brazil, especially with the lower class population, who live in the rural areas. Lower class people that live in the interior do not value education as much as people from higher classes. Sometimes it is because they are so focused on working to support their family that they do not have time to think about educating their children. Other times, they do not even have money to buy food, so how are they going to support their children to go school? Many children who are born in lower class families do not have the opportunity to be educated, not because they do not want; however, it is because their parents cannot afford and they are incapable of sending them to school. There are approximately 14 million people that are illiterate in Brazil; which means that they cannot read and write. Fortunately, in 2003, Brazil launched the â€Å"Bolsa Familia†, where the government support poor families with 140 Reais which is equivalent to 80 dollars to benefit the family to send their children to school, accessing health care and other social assistances. In addition, the literary story â€Å"The Hour of the Star† by Clarice Lispector also helps the reader to imagine how the lower class women's lives seem like. In recent years, women had played a big role in the contribution to the Brazilian economy. Today, Brazil even has a woman president in charge of the country, Dilma Rousseff. Wealthy women in Brazil seem to always be able to have a free pass to succeed in life, although many lower class women in Brazil do not receive the same opportunity. Higher class women always succeed thorough high society connection or using the power of the money. Macabea, the main character, from â€Å"The Hour of the Star† can represent all the lower class women in Brazil. Since Macabea lost her parents when she was very young, she became an orphan. Therefore, that is probably one of the reasons why she had difficulties succeeding in life due to the absence of parents supporting and guiding her. According to SOS Children’s Village, â€Å"In regions that are marked by high unemployment rates, children often face a substantial risk of growing up in an unstable domestic environment. â€Å"(1) It is possible to imagine how an orphan girl would need to go through without parent’s guidance. Moreover, the story also highlights that due to Macabea status of being poor, her lover, Olimpio, believes that he would not have any chance of advancing in life being with her. Instead, he chooses to date her co-worker, Gloria, who was smarter and prettier than Macabea. In addition, the title of the narrative, â€Å"The Hour of the Star†, is about Macabea who wanted to be a cinema actress. Unfortunately, people would not pay attention on her and the fact of her being poor, there was almost no chance for her to become who she wanted to become, which is a very sad reality that actually exists in Brazil. In Brazil, the poor still suffers inequality, they have almost no chance to succeed in life and they are pretty much ignored by the society. The poor is almost invisible to the society and the poor keeps getting poorer. For Macabea, she only sort of becomes famous after being hit by a Mercedes Benz, which is a â€Å"luxurious and imported item†. She did not become â€Å"famous† because she was hit in an accident, but the fact is because the â€Å"Mercedes Benz† was involved in it. People are always curious about the rich and the famous. They are not interested in the â€Å"insignificant† lower class people that are considered a burden to the Brazilian society. According to a journal article, â€Å"For upper-class women, the result is a life of almost total leisure, in which they have servants to do all the work. For lower-class women, their survival often depends upon their ability to obtain one of these jobs. Approximately one-third of the women employed in Brazil work as household workers, including cooks, housekeepers, and child care workers†. (Brazil, 1987) Most of lower class women in Brazil work as housekeepers and child care workers to middle and high class families. Due to low or no education, they are only able to afford low skilled jobs. Yet, about two years ago, Brazilian television program has launched a reality show named â€Å"Mulheres Ricas†, which means rich women. The reality show is about five very wealthy women who travel by private jet, eat from gold plates and women who would spend many thousands of dollars in clothing and imported bags. The show has been criticized internationally by comparing them to 11. 5 million Brazilian living in slums. The reason of the criticism is because it somehow proves hat the higher class only care about their own comfort by ignoring the real issues that is occurring in the country, which is the severe poverty. In Brazil, there is definitely a very big gap between the poor and the rich. Although the poverty is a big issue in the country, according to a recent report, Brazil has been creating 19 millionaires a day since 2007. Yet, the poverty in Brazil is causing several other problems such as th e drug traffic. Most of the times, the people who are involved in drug traffics, are the lower classes people. We can find people from all ages involved in the traffic. According to SOS Children’s village, â€Å"In the country’s largest cities, particularly in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, children without parental care often end up on the streets where they are vulnerable to gang violence, sexual abuse and drug addiction. â€Å"(1) Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city in Brazil, has a place called â€Å"favela† where the drug traffic has been a problem for several years. The movie, â€Å"Elite Squad: The Enemy Within† by Jose Padilha, illustrates a â€Å"fiction-reality† that occurs in Rio de Janeiro. The movie unquestionably shows to the viewers that â€Å"human rights† do not exist in Brazil, since the higher class people are the ones that hold all the power while the poor are not even recognized by the society. In the film, it mentions that the police would invade the â€Å"favelas† killing all the poor people involved in the drug traffic; however, they would not invade luxury apartments killing or arresting people because they receive some commission from the rich. In other words, the police officers are tipped with the money from the drug traffic from â€Å"higher class† people. Most of the times, if a person from a higher class commit a crime; they would use their money to avoid getting arrested and going jail. According to The Guardian, the Brazilian jail's population has doubled since the year 2000 due to the drug traffic. Of course, the majority of people who are in jail are from the lower class. Additionally, there is a scene in the film that might have caught many viewers attention. It is when the military killed one of the members in jail. The scene somehow send us a message by saying that it was not a big deal killing one of them since they are â€Å"trouble† anyways. I believe that the movie certainly try to send a message by saying that Brazil needs to start listening to the lower class opinion and do not ignore or kill them without any reasons. The lower class and higher class people in Brazil share something similar and that is: both are humans. â€Å"Human rights† should be more clearly addressed in the country and the â€Å"Rich rights† should be banned. Most of Brazilian literary narratives and movies that we have watched in class, it involves children and adolescents working and not receiving any education. According to SOS Children’s Village, â€Å"Quite frequently, young children have to engage in labour activities in order to put food on the table for an entire family. In the state of Piaui, approximately 26 per cent of children between 10 and 15 years of age are working. † (1) Looking at the Brazilian demographic, Brazil is certainly a very young country with 25 percent of the population being under 15 year old. The country depends on these young populations for the economic and social growth in the future. Yet, looking at the national estimates, about 24,000 children and teenagers call the streets their home. The lower class children definitely have the disadvantage of not getting any education and no hope for a better future. While the higher classes children will still be the ones to succeed in life and dominate the country. If the inequality between the rich and the poor in Brazil does not change, the poor will always remain poor and it is possible that the problem can become more severe in the future. Even though many literary stories and movies composed by Brazilian authors are â€Å"just stories† or â€Å"fantasies†, some of them still try to send an indirect message to the public that â€Å"social class† in Brazil is a problem and it needs to be changed. In addition, the movie, â€Å"Four days in September†, directed by Bruno Barreto, is about a reality that happened in Brazil years ago, involving the MR8 group, who was fighting against the military dictatorship and fighting for human rights. The group was formed by some young members, who were very naive, did not have much experience in life and did not think about future consequences that they could face by being involved† in this type of activity. Thankful to this group formation, Brazil has overcome the military dictatorship. Although, the country has overcome the dictatorship, human rights are still a problem. Showing that you have money is a way to receive respect from people. In the movie, there is a scene where one of the young members of MR8 goes to a bakery to buy bread; however, the baker underestimated him by asking if he had enough money to buy. The way you dress, the way you speak and the amount of money that you hold is the way that people are going to treat you. If you dress badly and is considered part of lower class, your opinion will not even be considered and there is almost zero respect towards you. Therefore, I believe that many people in Brazil are confused between â€Å"human rights† and â€Å"class†. According to the federal government in Brazil, â€Å"The following human rights problems have been reported: unlawful killings, excessive force, beatings, abuse, and torture of detainees. †(1) Most of the times, the people who are suffering under those problems are the innocent lower class population, who is sometimes always blamed for any issue that occur in the country. In, it is correct to assume that â€Å"money† can solve anything. On the other hand, since the lower classes do not have enough money, they get severely punished for their actions or even blamed for things that they have not committed. All in all, even the literary stories and movies are fictional, the Brazilian authors or directors seem to always try to incorporate the fiction with the reality that is faced in Brazilian society. As we could see from the short stories and movies, â€Å"class† is a very big issue and it is confused with â€Å"human rights†. The poor still face several consequences while the higher classes ignore the surrounding by using â€Å"money† to solve most of their problems. Inequality between the lower class and higher class is a big issue in Brazil that has to be solved before getting worse. It is also crucial for the country to understand the difference between â€Å"human rights† and â€Å"class†. I believe that if the poor is listened and given more opportunities in the society, they will also be able to succeed in life. It will not only decrease the poverty in the country, but it will prove to the people that the people from the lower classes also have the potential, but the only thing missing is the opportunity given to them.