American History Part 1 Reader · 2019-06-18 · Lecture 2.2—THE OLMEC AND MAYA 9 Lecture 2.3—THE AZTEC 10 Lecture 2.4—THE INCA 11 Lecture 2.5—THE SPANISH CONQUEST 12 Lesson

Dave Raymond’sAmerican History

PART 1 : Meso-America to The Constitution

S T U D E N T R E A D E R

Dave Raymond’sAmerican History

Part I : Lessons 1-13

Meso-America to The Constitution

- STUDENT READER -

MASTER ASSIGNMENT AND EXAM LIST

Lesson 1ORIENTATION

Lecture 1.1—INTRODUCTION AND NOTE-TAKING 6

Lecture 1.2—WHY SCHOOL? WHY THE HUMANITIES? 6

Lecture 1.3—WHY HISTORY? 7

Lecture 1.4—GOOD QUOTES AND OUR ROADMAP 7

Lecture 1.5—READINGS, ASSIGNMENTS, EXAMS, PORTFOLIOS, AND PROJECTS 8

Lesson 2THE BANNER OF THE SUN: MESO-AMERICA

Lecture 2.1—THE PRINCIPLE 9

Lecture 2.2—THE OLMEC AND MAYA 9

Lecture 2.3—THE AZTEC 10

Lecture 2.4—THE INCA 11

Lecture 2.5—THE SPANISH CONQUEST 12

Lesson 3BRAVE NEW WORLD: THE EARLY EXPLORERS


Lecture 3.2—THE MYTHS AND LEGENDS 13

Lecture 3.3—THE EVIDENCES 15

Lecture 3.4—CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, PART I 16

Lecture 3.5—CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, PART II 16

Lesson 4THE COLOSSUS OF EMPIRE: THE COLONIES


Lecture 4.2—NAVIGATIONAL INSTRUMENTS 18

Lecture 4.3—THE PORTUGUESE COLONIES 19

Lecture 4.4—THE SPANISH COLONIES 21

Lecture 4.5—THE FRENCH COLONIES AND THE MISSIONS 23

Lesson 5STABILITY & CHANGE: THE REFORMATIONAL COLONIES


Lecture 5.2—THE HUGUENOT AND DUTCH REFORMED COLONIES 24

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Lecture 5.3—THE FIRST ENGLISH ATTEMPTS: CABOT, DRAKE, AND ROANOKE 25

Lecture 5.4—THE ENGLISH COLONIES OF JAMESTOWN AND PLYMOUTH 26

Lesson 6A CITY UPON A HILL: THE PURITANS


Lecture 6.2—WHAT IS A PURITAN? 33

Lecture 6.3—FIVE PURITAN VALUES 34

Lecture 6.4—PURITAN HEROES: WINTHROP, THE BRADSTREETS, AND ELIOT 40

Lecture 6.5—COTTON MATHER 43

Lesson 7A FOREIGN WAR AT HOME: WARS OF CONTROL


Lecture 7.2—THE BACK STORY 46

Lecture 7.3—WARS 49

Lecture 7.4—AND MORE WARS 51

Lecture 7.5—QUEBEC AND THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE 59

Lesson 8GRACE, THE FOUNDER OF LIBERTY: THE GREAT AWAKENING


Lecture 8.2—SLEEPING DEAD MAN 60

LESSON 8.3—THE AWAKENERS: FREYLINGHUYSEN, TENNENT, AND EDWARDS 60

Lecture 8.4—GEORGE WHITEFIELD, PART I 76

Lecture 8.5—GEORGE WHITEFIELD, PART II 80

Lesson 9FATHERS OF INDEPENDENCE: ADAMS, FRANKLIN, WITHERSPOON, AND HENRY


Lecture 9.2—SAMUEL ADAMS 87

Lecture 9.3—BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 88

Lecture 9.4—JOHN WITHERSPOON 88

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Lecture 9.5—PATRICK HENRY 90

Lesson 10LIBERTY OR DEATH: THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE


Lecture 10.2—NARRATIVE OF DATES I 94

Lecture 10.3—NARRATIVE OF DATES II 98

Lecture 10.4—NARRATIVE OF DATES III 102

Lecture 10.5—THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 106

Lesson 11AWESOME PROVIDENCE: THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE I


Lecture 11.2—THE BLACK REGIMENT 107

Lecture 11.3—A TALE OF TWO ARMIES 108

Lecture 11.4—1776, PART I 109

Lecture 11.5—1776, PART II 112

Lesson 12AWESOME PROVIDENCE: THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE II

Lecture 12.1—AMERICAN HEROES 113

Lecture 12.2—SARATOGA 114

Lecture 12.3—VALLEY FORGE AND BENEDICT ARNOLD 118

Lecture 12.4—NATHANIEL GREENE, GEORGE ROGERS CLARK, AND YORKTOWN 120

Lecture 12.5—FORGOTTEN FOUNDERS 123

Lesson 13A MORE PERFECT UNION: THE CONSTITUTION


Lecture 13.2—PRECEDENTS AND PROBLEMS 133

Lecture 13.3—PARTIES AND ARTICLES 140

Lecture 13.4—CONVENTION AND CONSTITUTION 146

Lecture 13.5—RIGHTS AND RATIFICATION 148

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Lesson 1ORIENTATION

Lecture 1.1—INTRODUCTION AND NOTE-TAKING

ASSIGNMENT: Read through the “Table of Contents” to learn what topics we will be covering this semester. What topics interest you? What topics are unfamiliar to you?

Lecture 1.2—WHY SCHOOL? WHY THE HUMANITIES?

ASSIGNMENT: Read the quote by J.R.R. Tolkien. According to him, what is the purpose of life? How is this connected to education?

SELECTION: J.R.R. Tolkien’s response to a young girl’s question, “What is the purpose of life?”:

“At their highest [our prayers] seem simply to praise [God] for being, as

He is, and for making what He has made, as He has made it. Those who

believe in a personal God, Creator, do not think the Universe is in itself

worshipful, though devoted study of it may be one of the ways to

honoring Him. And while as living creatures we are (in part) within it and

part of it, our ideas of God and ways of expressing them will be largely

derived from contemplating the world about us. (Though there is also

revelation both addressed to all men and to particular persons.) So it

may be said that the chief purpose of life, for any one of us, is to increase

according to our capacity our knowledge of God by all the means we

have, and to be moved to praise and thanks. To do as we say in the

Gloria in Excelsis: Laudamus te, benedicamus te, adoramus te,

glorificamus te, gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam. [We

praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you, we give thanks to

you because of your great glory.]”

- J.R.R. Tolkien

Dave Raymond’s American History | Lesson 1 - Orientation

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Lecture 1.3—WHY HISTORY?

ASSIGNMENT: Read Psalm 78. How significant is history according to this passage?

Lecture 1.4—GOOD QUOTES AND OUR ROADMAP

ASSIGNMENT: Read the following quotes. Write an essay of 150-250 words explaining the value of history and/or the humanities by using the wisdom of one or more quotes. (Note: This essay is Exam #1.)

SELECTION: Quotes on the study of history and the humanities.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.”-Solomon

“Crafty men condemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them.”-Francis Bacon

“Education ought to be little more than a form of intellectual repentance. If it is more than that or less than that, horrors result.” -J.R.R. Tolkien

“Those who have no concern for their ancestors will, by simple application of the same rule, have none for their descendants.”-Richard Weaver

“The recollection of the past is only useful by way of provision for the future.”-Samuel Johnson

“History must be our deliverer not only from the undue influence of other times, but from the undue influence of our own, from the tyranny of the environment and the pressures of the air we breathe.”-Lord Acton

“Time after time mankind is driven against the rocks of the horrid reality of a fallen creation. And time after time mankind must learn the hard lessons of history—the lessons that for some dangerous and awful reason we can’t seem to keep in our collective memory.”-Hilaire Belloc


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“So alongside the ‘harvest’ of creativity and self-sacrifice, of scientific investigation and social conscience, of mission and spirituality, there is the second harvest [evil deeds]. But this is what the Christian faith, centered on the cross, is all about: on the cross, triumph and victory are shot through with rejection, disaster and dereliction. There the true nature of human history stands displayed.

“The Christian faith does not have to contort itself to embrace the hard facts of history. It admits that the tragedy of history cannot be avoided, but claims that there is power that redeems tragedy.”-John Briggs

“They will never love where they ought to love who do not hate where they ought to hate.”-Edmund Burke

Lecture 1.5—READINGS, ASSIGNMENTS, EXAMS, PORTFOLIOS, AND PROJECTS

ASSIGNMENT: Begin your portfolio by creating a title page and an entry on the study of history.


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Lesson 2THE BANNER OF THE SUN: MESO-AMERICA

Lecture 2.1—THE PRINCIPLE

ASSIGNMENT: Read Genesis 4-5 and identify the characters of the “City of Man” and the “City of God.” In addition, note the differences between the two cities.

Lecture 2.2—THE OLMEC AND MAYA

ASSIGNMENT: Read the Mayan creation myth from the Popul Vuh and compare and contrast its events and theology to the creation account of Genesis 1.

SELECTION: Popol Vuh: The Mayan Creation Myth

This is the first account, the first narrative. There was neither man, nor animal, birds, fishes, crabs, trees, stones, caves, ravines, grasses, nor forests; there was only the sky. The surface of the earth had not appeared. There was only the calm sea and the great expanse of the sky. There was nothing brought together, nothing which could make a noise, nor anything which might move, or tremble, or could make noise in the sky. There was nothing standing; only the calm water, the placid sea, alone and tranquil. Nothing existed. There was only immobility and silence in the darkness, in the night. Only the creator, the Maker, Tepeu, Gucumatz, the Forefathers, were in the water surrounded with light. [...] Then Tepeu and Gucumatz came together; then they conferred about life and light, what they would do so that there would be light and dawn, who it would be who would provide food and sustenance. Thus let it be done! Let the emptiness be filled! Let the water recede and make a void, let the earth appear and become solid; let it be done. Thus they spoke. Let there be light, let there be dawn in the sky and on the earth! There shall be neither glory nor grandeur in our creation and formation until the human being is made, man is formed. [...] First the earth was formed, the mountains and the valleys; the currents of water were divided, the rivulets were running freely between the hills, and the water was separated when the high mountains appeared. Thus was the earth created, when it was formed by the Heart of Heaven, the Heart of Earth, as they are called who first made it fruitful, when the sky was in suspense, and the earth was submerged in the water.

This the Forefathers did, Tepeu and Gucumatz, as they were

Dave Raymond’s American History | Lesson 2 - The Banner of the Sun: Meso-America

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called. After that they began to talk about the creation and the making of our first mother and father; of yellow corn and of white corn they made their flesh; of cornmeal dough they made the arms and the legs of man. Only dough of corn meal went into the flesh of our first fathers, the four men, who were created. [...] And as they had the appearance of men, they were men; they talked, conversed, saw and heard, walked, grasped things; they were good and handsome men, and their figure was the figure of a man.

Lecture 2.3—THE AZTEC

ASSIGNMENT: Read the selections from the True History of the Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz del Castillo. What was the glory and what was the tragedy of the Aztec civilization?

SELECTION: True History of the Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz del Castillo

And when we saw all those cities and villages built in the water, and other great towns on dry land, and that straight and level causeway leading to Mexico [i.e. Tenochtitlán], we were astounded. These great towns and cues [i.e., temples] and buildings rising from the water, all made of stone, seemed like an enchanted vision from the tale of Amadis. Indeed, some of our soldiers asked whether it was not all a dream. It is not surprising therefore that I should write in this vein. It was all so wonderful that I do not know how to describe this first glimpse of things never heard of, seen or dreamed of before. . . .

And when we entered the city of Iztapalapa, the sight of the palaces in which they lodged us! They were very spacious and well built, of magnificent stone, cedar wood, and the wood of other sweet-smelling trees, with great rooms and courts, which were a wonderful sight, and all covered with awnings of woven cotton.

When we had taken a good look at all this, we went to the orchard and garden, which was a marvelous place both to see and walk in. I was never tired of noticing the diversity of trees and the various scents given off by each, and the paths choked with roses and other flowers, and the many local fruit-trees and rose-bushes, and the pond of fresh waterþ. Then there were birds of many breeds and varieties which came to the pond. I say again that I stood looking at it, and thought that no land like it would ever be discovered in the whole world.... But today all that I then saw is overthrown and destroyed; nothing is left standing.


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On each altar was a giant figure, very tall and very fat. They said that the one on the right was Huichilobos [i.e. Huitzilopochtli], their war-god. He had a very broad face and huge terrible eyes. And there were so many precious stones, so much gold, so many pearls and seed-pearls stuck to him with a paste which the natives made from a sort of root, that his body and head were covered with them. . . .

There were some smoking braziers of their incense, which they call copal, in which they were burning the hearts of three Indians whom they had sacrificed that day; and all the walls of that shrine were so splashed and caked with blood that they and the floor too were black. Indeed, the whole place stank abominably. We then looked to the left and saw another great image of the same height as Huichilobos, with a face like a bear and eyes that glittered, being made of their mirror-glass, which they call tezcat. Its body, like that of Huichilobos, was encrusted with precious stones, for they said that the two were brothers. This Tezcatlipoca, the god of hell, had charge of the Mexicans’ souls, and his body was surrounded by figures of little devils with snakes’ tails. The walls of this shrine also were so caked with blood and the floor so bathed in it that the stench was worse than that of any slaughter-house in Spain. They had offered that idol five hearts from the day’s sacrifices.

Lecture 2.4—THE INCA

ASSIGNMENT: Read Emperor Pachacuti’s account of the god, Viracocha, as well as the selection from the old Incan myth, The Llama-Herder and the Virgin of the Sun. In what ways are Viracocha and Yahweh similar?

SELECTION: Emperor Pachacuti’s account of Viracocha (Translated by B.C. Brundage, quoted in Eternity in Their Hearts by Don Richardson)

He is ancient, remote, supreme, and uncreated. Nor does he need the gross satisfaction of a consort. He manifests himself as a trinity when he wishes, . . . otherwise only heavenly warriors and archangels surround his loneliness. He created all peoples by his word, as well as all huacas [spirits]. He is man's Fortunus, ordaining his years and nourishing him. He is indeed the very principle of life, for he warms the folk through his created son, Punchao [the sun disk, which was somehow distinct from Inti]. He is a bringer of peace and an orderer. He is in his own being blessed and has pity on men's wretchedness. He alone judges and absolves them and enables them to combat their evil tendencies.


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SELECTION: “Viracocha: The Llama-Herder and the Virgin of the Sun” from Myths of the World by Padraic Colum

[Viracocha] lived amongst men, and he taught them many arts. He it was, as the priests of those who were here before the Incas say, showed men how to bring streams of water to their crops, and taught them how to build terraces upon the mountains where crops would grow. He set up a great cross upon the mountain Caravay. And when the bird that cries out four times at dawn cried out, and the light came upon the cross he had set up, Viracocha went from amongst men. He went down to the sea, and he walked across it towards the west. But he told those whom he had left behind that he would send messengers back who would protect them and give them renewed knowledge of all he had taught them. He left them, but men still remember the chants that those whom he left on the mountain, by the cross, cried out their longing:

Oh, hear me! From the sky above, In which thou mayst be, From the sea beneath, In which thou mayst be, Creator of the world, Maker of all men; Lord of all Lords, My eyes fail me For longing to see thee; For the sole desire to know thee.

Lecture 2.5—THE SPANISH CONQUEST

ASSIGNMENT: Complete Exam #2.

1. What is the difference between the City of God and the City of Man?

2. What attributes did all Meso-American cultures share? List at least 2.

3. What was the Bering Straight Land Bridge and how might it explain the populating of Meso-America?

4. What common event in Genesis would have allowed a common desire for pyramids and tall structures throughout the world including Meso-America?

5. List and define two unique traits of the Olmec culture.

6. List and define two unique traits of the Mayan culture.

7. List and define two unique traits of the Aztec culture.

8. List and define two unique traits of the Incan culture.

9. Who were Quetzalcoatl and Viracocha? Why were they important to the Meso-Americans?

10. Why were the outnumbered Spanish able to conquer the mighty Meso-American nations?


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Lesson 3BRAVE NEW WORLD: THE EARLY EXPLORERS


ASSIGNMENT: Read the “Dedication” from The Log of Christopher Columbus’ First Voyage. What are his motives?

SELECTION: “Dedication” from The Log of Christopher Columbus’ First Voyage

IN THE NAME OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

Whereas, Most Christian, High, Excellent, and Powerful Princes, King and Queen of Spain and of the Islands of the Sea, our Sovereigns, this present year 1492, after your Highnesses had terminated the war with the Moors reigning in Europe, the same having been brought to an end in the great city of Granada, where on the second day of January, this present year, I saw the royal banners of your Highnesses planted by force of arms upon the towers of the Alhambra, which is the fortress of that city, and saw the Moorish king come out at the gate of the city and kiss the hands of your Highnesses, and of the Prince my Sovereign; and in the present month, in consequence of the information which I had given your Highnesses respecting the countries of India and of a Prince, called Great Khan, which in our language signifies King of Kings, how, at many times he, and his predecessors had sent to Rome soliciting instructors who might teach him our holy faith, and the holy Father had never granted his request, whereby great numbers of people were lost, believing in idolatry and doctrines of perdition.

Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians, and princes who love and promote the holy Christian faith, and are enemies of the doctrine of Mahomet, and of all idolatry and heresy, determined to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the above-mentioned countries of India, to see the said princes, people, and territories, and to learn their disposition and the proper method of converting them to our holy faith; and furthermore directed that I should not proceed by land to the East, as is customary, but by a Westerly route, in which direction we have hitherto no certain evidence that any one has gone.

Lecture 3.2—THE MYTHS AND LEGENDS

Dave Raymond’s American History | Lesson 3 - Brave New World: The Early Explorers

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ASSIGNMENT: Read the account given by Richard Hakluyt concerning the legend of Madoc of Wales. What evidences does he provide for Madoc’s possible arrival in the Americas?

SELECTION: From The Principal Navigations, Voyages, and Discoveries of the English Nation by Richard Hakluyt.

After the death of Owen Gwynedd, his sons fell at debate who should inherit after him, for the eldest son born in matrimony, Edward, or Jorwerth Drwyndwn, was counted unmeet to govern because of the maim upon his face, and Howel, that took upon him the Rule, was a bare son, begotten upon an Irish woman. Therefore David, another son, gathered all the power he could, and came against Howel, and fighting with him, slew him, and afterwards enjoyed quietly the whole land of North Wales until his brother, Jorwerth's son, came to age.

Madoc, another of Owen Gwyneth's sons, left the land in contentions betwixt his brethren, and prepared certain ships with men and munition and fought adventures by seas, sailing west and leaving the coast of Ireland so far north, that he came to a land unknown, where he saw many strange things.

This land must needs be some parts of the country of which the Spaniards affirm themselves to be the first finders since Hauno's time: whereupon it is manifest that that country was by Britons discovered long before Columbus led any Spaniards thither.

Of the voyage and return of this Madoc, there be many fables framed, as the common people do use in distance of place and length of time, rather to augment than to diminish, but sure it is, there he was. And after he had returned home, and declared the pleasant and fruitful countries that he had seen, without inhabitants; and upon the contrary, for what barren and wild ground his brethren and nephews did murder one another, he prepared a number of ships, and got with him such men and women as were desirous to live in quietness, and taking leave of his friends, took his journey thitherwards again.

Therefore it is supposed that he and his people inhabited part of those countries; for it appeareth by Francis Lopez de Gomara that in Acuzamil, and other places, the people honored the Cross. Whereby it may be gathered that Christians had been there before the coming of the Spaniards; but because this people were not many, they followed the manner of the land which they came to, and the language they found there.


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This Madoc arriving in that western country, unto the which he came in the year 1170, left most of his people there, and returning back for more of his own nation, acquaintance and friends to inhabit that fair and large country, went thither again with ten sails, as I find noted by Guttun Owen. I am of opinion that the land whereunto he came was some part of the West Indies.”

Lecture 3.3—THE EVIDENCES

ASSIGNMENT: Read the accounts of Vineland (Wineland) from Arguments and Proofs that Support the Claim of Norse Discovery of America by Arthur M. Reeves. What do you notice about the nature of the founding of Vineland?

SELECTION: From Arguments and Proofs that Support the Claim of Norse Discovery of America by Arthur M. Reeves.

ACCOUNT 1: Leif, a son of Eric the Red, passed this same winter, in good repute, with King Olaf, and accepted Christianity. And that summer, when Gizur went to Iceland, King Olaf sent Leif to Greenland to proclaim Christianity there. He sailed that summer to Greenland. He found men upon a wreck at sea and succored them. Then, likewise, he discovered Wineland the Good, and arrived in Greenland in the autumn. He took with him thither a priest and other spiritual teachers, and went to Brattahlid to make his home with his father, Eric. People afterwards called him Leif the Lucky. But his father, Eric, said that one account should balance the other, that Leif had rescued the ship's crew, and that he had brought the trickster to Greenland. This was the priest.

ACCOUNT 2: King Olaf then sent Leif to Greenland to proclaim Christianity there. The king sent a priest and other holy men with him, to baptize the people there, and to instruct them in the true faith. Leif sailed to Greenland that summer, and rescued at sea the men of a ship's crew, who were in great peril and were clinging to [lit. lay upon] the shattered wreckage of a ship; and on this same voyage be found Wineland the Good, and at the end of the summer arrived in Greenland, and betook himself to Brattahlid, to make his home with his father, Eric. People afterwards called him Leif the Lucky, but his father, Eric, said that the one [deed] offset the other, in that Leif had on the one hand rescued and restored the men of the ship's crew to life, while on the other he had brought the trickster to Greenland, for thus he called the priest.


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Lecture 3.4—CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, PART I

ASSIGNMENT: Read the selection from The Book of Prophecies by Christopher Columbus. What was his primary encouragement for his expedition?

SELECTION: From The Book of Prophecies by Christopher Columbus.

I hope to God that when I come back here from Castille, which I intend on doing, that I will find a barrel of gold for which these people I am leaving will have traded, and they will have found a gold mine and spices in such quantities, that within three years the sovereigns will prepare and undertake the reconquest of the Holy Land. I’ve already petitioned your highnesses to see that all the profits of this, my enterprise, should be spent on the conquest of Jerusalem and your highnesses smiled and said that the idea pleased them and that even without the expedition they had an inclination to do it.

The argument I have for the restitution of the Temple Mount to the holy church is simple. I only hold fast to the Holy Scriptures, and to the prophetic citations attributed to certain holy men, who are carried along by divine wisdom. Remember with what cost Spain undertook the reconquest of Granada and with what great reward.

I am motivated by the Scriptures to go on to discover the Indies. I went to the royal court with the intention of entreating our sovereigns to specify revenues, that they might accrue, to be spent on the reconquest of Jerusalem. I must repeat, for the expedition to the Indies, neither reason, nor mathematics, nor cartography were of profit to me in the manner that were the prophecies of scripture. This is what I have to report concerning the liberation of Jerusalem. Be glad, if there be any faith in us, the enterprise is bound for victory.

Lecture 3.5—CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, PART II


1. Explain the title Brave New World.

2. How are most explorers viewed today in our modern world?

3. For what reasons did the explorers typically set sail?

4. What is the value of myths to the study of history?

5. Retell the story of the Carthaginian explorers, St. Brendan, or Madoc of Wales.


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6. Retell the story of Leif Erikson and the settlements of Vinland.

7. List at least 3 hard evidences for the possible truth of Irish, Welsh, and Viking explorers in the Americas.

8. How did Christopher Columbus’ early life and education inspire and prepare him for the discovery of America in 1492?

9. What disappointments and tragedies did Columbus experience and how did he overcome these?

10. Why did Columbus sail west in 1492?


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Lesson 4THE COLOSSUS OF EMPIRE: THE COLONIES


ASSIGNMENT: View the progressive map of European colonies at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Colonisation2.gif). Identify at least 7 modern countries which these colonies became. What similarities and differences exist between these modern nations?

Lecture 4.2—NAVIGATIONAL INSTRUMENTS

ASSIGNMENT: Using a compass, sketch the drawing below of John Harrison’s 1761 marine chronometer used to determine longitude at sea.

Dave Raymond’s American History | Lesson 4 - The Colossus of Empire: The Colonies

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Colonisation2.gif

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Colonisation2.gif

Lecture 4.3—THE PORTUGUESE COLONIES

ASSIGNMENT: Read the account given by Amerigo Vespucci of his first voyage. What differences exist between his motivations and experiences and those of Columbus?

SELECTION: “Letter of Amerigo Vespucci to Pier Soderini, Gonfalonier of the Republic of Florence”

I resolved to abandon trade, and to fix my aim upon something more praiseworthy and stable: whence it was that I made preparation for going to see part of the world and its wonders: and heretofore the time and place presented themselves most opportunely to me: which was that the King Don Ferrando of Castile being about to despatch four ships to discover new lands towards the west, I was chosen by his Highness to go in that fleet to aid in making discovery: and we set out from the port of Cadiz on the 10th day of May 1497, and took our route through the great gulf of the Ocean-sea: in which voyage we were eighteen months (engaged): and discovered much continental land and innumerable islands, and great part of them inhabited: whereas there is no mention made by the ancient writers of them: I believe, because they had no knowledge thereof.

...and so we sailed on till at the end of 37 days we reached a land which we deemed to be a continent: which is distant westwardly from the isles of Canary about a thousand leagues beyond the inhabited region within the torrid zone: for we found the North Pole at an elevation of 16 degrees above its horizon, [16 degrees north latitude.] and (it was) westward, according to the showing of our instruments, 75 degrees from the isles of Canary: whereat we anchored with our ships a league and a half from land; and we put out our boats freighted with men and arms: we made towards the land, and before we reached it, had sight of a great number of people who were going along the shore: by which we were much rejoiced: and we observed that they were a naked race: they showed themselves to stand in fear of us: I believe (it was) because they saw us clothed and of other appearance (than their own): they all withdrew to a hill, and for whatsoever signals we made to them of peace and of friendliness, they would not come to parley with us: so that, as the night was now coming on, and as the ships were anchored in a dangerous place, being on a rough and shelterless coast, we decided to remove from there the next day, and to go in search of some harbor or bay, where we might place our ships in safety: and we sailed with the maestrale wind, thus running along the coast with the land ever in sight, continually in our course observing people along the shore: till after having navigated


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for two days, we found a place sufficiently secure for the ships, and anchored half a league from land, on which we saw a very great number of people: and this same day we put to land with the boats, and sprang on shore full 40 men in good trim: and still the land's people appeared shy of converse with us, and we were unable to encourage them so much as to make them come to speak with us: and this day we labored so greatly in giving them of our wares, such as rattles and mirrors, beads, spalline, and other trifles, that some of them took confidence and came to discourse with us: and after having made good friends with them, the night coming on, we took our leave of them and returned to the ships: and the next day when the dawn appeared we saw that there were infinite numbers of people upon the beach, and they had their women and children with them: we went, ashore, and found that they were all laden with their worldly goods which are suchlike as, in its (proper) place, shall be related: and before we reached the land, many of them jumped into the sea and came swimming to receive us at a bowshot's length (from the shore), for they are very great swimmers, with as much confidence as if they had for a long time been acquainted with us: and we were pleased with this their confidence. For so much as we learned of their manner of life and customs, it was that they go entirely naked, as well the men as the women. . . . They are of medium stature, very well proportioned: their flesh is of a color the verges into red like a lion's mane: and I believe that if they went clothed, they would be as white as we: they have not any hair upon the body, except the hair of the head which is long and black, and especially in the women, whom it renders handsome.

...and when the next day arrived, we beheld coming across the land a great number of people, with signals of battle, continually sounding horns, and various other instruments which they use in their wars: and all (of them) painted and feathered, so that it was a very strange sight to behold them: wherefore all the ships held council, and it was resolved that since this people desired hostility with us, we should proceed to encounter them and try by every means to make them friends: in case they would not have our friendship, that we should treat them as foes, and so many of them as we might be able to capture should all be our slaves: and having armed ourselves as best we could, we advanced towards the shore, and they sought not to hinder us from landing, I believe from fear of the cannons: and we jumped on land, 57 men in four squadrons, each one (consisting of) a captain and his company: and we came to blows with them: and after a long battle (in which) many of them (were) slain, we put them to flight, and pursued them to a village, having made about 250 of them captives, and we burnt the village, and returned to our ships with victory and 250 prisoners, leaving many of them dead


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and wounded, and of ours there were no more than one killed and 22 wounded, who all escaped (i.e., recovered), God be thanked. We arranged our departure, and seven men, of whom five were wounded, took an island-canoe, and with seven prisoners that we gave them, four women and three men, returned to their (own) country full of gladness, wondering at our strength: and we thereon made sail for Spain with 222 captive slaves: and reached the port of Calis (Cadiz) on the 15th day of October, 1498, where we were well received and sold our slaves. Such is what befell me, most noteworthy, in this my first voyage.

Lecture 4.4—THE SPANISH COLONIES

ASSIGNMENT: Read the following “Letter of Hernando de Soto, in Florida, to the Justice and Board of Magistrates in Santiago de Cuba.” What do you notice about his attitude and his object in conquering Florida?

SELECTION: “Letter of Hernando de Soto, in Florida, to the Justice and Board of Magistrates in Santiago de Cuba.”

VERY NOBLE GENTLEMEN:

The being in a new country, not very distant indeed from that where you are, still with some sea between, a thousand years appear to me to have gone by since any thing has been heard from you; and although I left some letters written at Havana [his will], to go off in three ways, it is indeed long since I have received one. However, since opportunity offers by which I may send an account of what it is always my duty to give, I will relate what passes, and I believe will be welcome to persons I know favorably, and are earnest for my success.

I took my departure from Havana with all my armament on Sunday, the 18th of May, although I wrote that I should leave on the 25th of the month. I anticipated the day, not to lose a favorable wind, which changed, nevertheless, for calms, upon our getting into the Gulf; still these were not so continuous as to prevent our casting anchor on this coast, as we did at the end of eight days, which was on [the following] Sunday, the festival of Espiritu Santo [Holy Spirit].

Having fallen four or five leagues below the port, without any one of my pilots being able to tell where we were, it became necessary that I should go in the brigantines and look for it.


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In doing so, and in entering the mouth of the port, we were detained three days; and likewise because we had no knowledge of the passage - a bay that runs up a dozen leagues or more from the sea - we were so long delayed that I was obliged to send my Lieutenant-General, Vasco Porcallo de Figueroa, in the brigantines, to take possession of a town at the end of the bay. I ordered all the men and horses to be landed on a beach, whence, with great difficulty, we went on Trinity Sunday and to join Vasco Porcallo. The Indians of the coast, because of some fears of us, have abandoned all the country, so that for thirty leagues not a man of them has halted.

At my arrival here I received news of there being a Christian in the possession of a chief, and I sent Baltazar de Gallegos, with 40 men of the horse, and as many of the foot, to endeavor to get him. He found the man a day's journey from this place, with eight or ten Indians, whom he brought into my power. We rejoiced no little over him, for he speaks the language; and although he had forgotten his own, it directly returned to him. His name is Juan Ortiz, an hidalgo, native of Sevilla.

In consequence of this occurrence, I went myself for the Cacique, and came back with him in peace. I then sent Baltazar de Gallegos, with eighty lancers, and a hundred foot soldiers, to enter the country. He has found fields of maize, beans, and pumpkins, with other fruits, and provision in such quantity as would suffice to subsist a very large army without its knowing a want. Having been allowed, without interruption, to reach the town of a Cacique named Urripacoxit [others say Paricoxi], master of the one we are in, also of many other towns, some Indians were sent to him to treat for peace. This, he writes, having been accomplished, the Cacique failed to keep certain promises, whereupon he seized about 17 persons, among whom are some of the principal men; for in this way, it appears to him, he can best secure a performance. Among those he detains are some old men of authority, as great as can be among such people, who have information of the country farther on.

They say that three days' journey from where they are, going by some towns and huts, all well inhabited, and having many maize-fields, is a large town called Acuera, where with much convenience we might winter; and that afterwards, farther on, at the distance of two days' journey, there is another town, called Ocale. It is so large, and they so extol it, that I dare not repeat all that is said. There is to be found in it a great plenty of all the things mentioned; and fowls, a multitude of turkeys, kept in pens, and herds of tame deer that are tended. What this


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means I do not understand, unless it be the cattle, of which we brought the knowledge with us.

They say there are many trades among that people, and much intercourse, an abundance of gold and silver, and many pearls. May it please God that this may be so; for of what these Indians say I believe nothing but what I see, and must well see; although they know, and have it for a saying, that if they lie to me it will cost them their lives. This interpreter [Juan Ortiz] puts a new life into us, in affording the means of our understanding these people, for without him I know not what would become of us. Glory be to God, who by His goodness has directed all, so that it appears as if He had taken this enterprise in His especial keeping, that it may be for His service, as I have supplicated, and do dedicate it to Him.

Lecture 4.5—THE FRENCH COLONIES AND THE MISSIONS


1. Why did some colonies succeed more than others?

2. Define a trading post colony.

3. Define a strategic control colony.

4. Define an exploitation colony.

5. Define a parish settlement colony.

6. Describe the technology needed to navigate direction, latitude, and longitude.

7. How did the Portuguese reintroduce slavery into the Christian world?

8. Who was Amerigo Vespucci and for what is he remembered?

9. Who was Samuel de Champlain and for what is he remembered?

10. Who was Ferdinand Magellan and for what is he remembered?

11. Who was Herndando de Soto and for what is he remembered?

12. How were the missions a bright light in the colonies of France and Spain?


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Lesson 5STABILITY & CHANGE: THE REFORMATIONAL

COLONIES


ASSIGNMENT: Read the following quote by Abraham Kuyper and write an essay explaining how this worldview which was derived from the Reformation affects the way people live. Give specific examples.

QUOTE: "Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'"

Lecture 5.2—THE HUGUENOT AND DUTCH REFORMED COLONIES

ASSIGNMENT: Research maps and images of New Amsterdam and read the selection below by Adriaen van der Donck’s Description of the New Netherlands. Create an illustration or map of New Amsterdam.

SELECTION: “Of the Fruit Trees brought over from the Netherlands” from Description of the New Netherlands by Adriaen van der Donck.

! The Netherland settlers, who are lovers of fruit, on observing that the climate was suitable to the production of fruit trees, have brought over and planted various kinds of apple and pear trees, which thrive well. Those also grow from the seeds, of which I have seen many, which, without grafting, bore delicious fruit in the sixth year. The stocks may also be grafted when the same are as large as thorns, which, being cut off near the root and grafted, are then set into the ground, when the graft also strikes root: otherwise the fruit is somewhat hard. But in general, grafting is not as necessary here as in the Netherlands, for most of the fruit is good without it, which there would be harsh and sour, or would not bear. The English have brought over the first quinces, and we have also brought over stocks and seeds which thrive well. Orchard cherries thrive well and produce large fruit. Spanish cherries, forerunners, morellaes, of every kind we have, as in the Netherlands; and the trees bear better, because the blossoms are not injured by the frosts. The peaches, which are sought after in the Netherlands, grow wonderfully well here. If a stone is put into the earth, it will spring in the same season, and grow so rapidly as to bear fruit in the fourth year, and the

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limbs are frequently broken by the weight of the peaches, which usually are very fine. We have also introduced morecotoons (a kind of peach,) apricots, several sorts of the best plums, almonds, persimmons, cornelian cherries, figs, several sorts of currants, gooseberries, calissiens, and thorn apples; and we do not doubt but that the olive would thrive and be profitable, but we have them not. Although the land is full of many kinds of grapes, we still want settings of the best kinds from Germany, for the purpose of enabling our wine planters here to select the best kinds, and to propagate the same. In short, every kind of fruit which grows in the Netherlands is plenty already in the New-Netherlands, which have been introduced by the lovers of agriculture, and the fruits thrive better here, particularly such kinds as require a warmer climate.

Lecture 5.3—THE FIRST ENGLISH ATTEMPTS: CABOT, DRAKE, AND ROANOKE

ASSIGNMENT: Read the Mayflower Compact of 1620. What did the colonists pledge and covenant to do? Why are their names on this document important?

SELECTION: Mayflower Compact, 1620

IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honor of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. IN WITNESS whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini; 1620.

Mr. John Carver, Mr. William Bradford, Mr Edward Winslow, Mr. William Brewster, Isaac Allerton, Myles Standish, John Alden, John Turner, Francis Eaton, James Chilton, John Craxton, John Billington, Joses Fletcher, John Goodman, Mr. Samuel Fuller, Mr. Christopher Martin, Mr.


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William Mullins, Mr. William White, Mr. Richard Warren, John Howland, Mr. Steven Hopkins, Digery Priest, Thomas Williams, Gilbert Winslow,Edmund Margesson, Peter Brown, Richard Britteridge, George Soule, Edward Tilly, John Tilly, Francis Cooke, Thomas Rogers, Thomas Tinker, John Ridgdale, Edward Fuller, Richard Clark, Richard Gardiner, Mr. John Allerton, Thomas English, Edward Doten, Edward Liester.

Lecture 5.4—THE ENGLISH COLONIES OF JAMESTOWN AND PLYMOUTH

ASSIGNMENT: Read the Five Kernels of Corn by Hezekiah Butterworth. Identify the virtues of the Pilgrims during their greatest trial of the first winter in America.

SELECTION: Five Kernels of Corn by Hezekiah Butterworth.

'Twas the year of the famine in Plymouth of old, The ice and the snow from the thatched roofs had rolled;Through the warm purple skies steered the geese o'er the seas, And the woodpeckers tapped in the clocks of the trees;And the boughs on the slopes to the south winds lay bare, And dreaming of summer, the buds swelled in the air.The pale Pilgrims welcomed each reddening morn; There were left but for rations Five Kernels of Corn. Five Kernels of Corn! Five Kernels of Corn!But to Bradford a feast were Five Kernels of Corn!

"Five Kernels of Corn! Five Kernels of Corn! Ye people, be glad for Five Kernels of Corn!"So Bradford cried out on bleak Burial Hill, And the thin women stood in their doors, white and still."Lo, the harbor of Plymouth rolls bright in the Spring, The maples grow red, and the wood robins sing,The west wind is blowing, and fading the snow, And the pleasant pines sing, and arbutuses blow. Five Kernels of Corn! Five Kernels of Corn!To each one be given Five Kernels of Corn!"

O Bradford of Austerfield haste on thy way, The west winds are blowing o'er Provincetown Bay,The white avens bloom, but the pine domes are chill, And new graves have furrowed Precisioners' Hill!


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"Give thanks, all ye people, the warm skies have come, The hilltops are sunny, and green grows the holm,And the trumpets of winds, and the white March is gone, And ye still have left you Five Kernels of Corn. Five Kernels of Corn! Five Kernels of Corn!Ye have for Thanksgiving Five Kernels of Corn!

"The raven's gift eat and be humble and pray, A new light is breaking and Truth leads your way;One taper a thousand shall kindle; rejoice That to you has been given the wilderness voice!"O Bradford of Austerfield, daring the wave, And safe through the sounding blasts leading the brave,Of deeds such as thine was the free nation born, And the festal world sings the "Five Kernels of Corn." Five Kernels of Corn! Five Kernels of Corn!The nation gives thanks for Five Kernels of Corn!To the Thanksgiving Feast bring Five Kernels of Corn!

Lecture 5.5—THE ENGLISH COLONIES OF MARYLAND AND GEORGIA


1. What was unique about the Reformational colonies?

2. How did the Reformational colonies understand and enjoy both stability and change?

3. Who were the Huguenots and what colonies did they found in the Americas?

4. Why did the Huguenot colonies fail?

5. How did the Dutch and Peter Stuyvesant turn New Amsterdam into a thriving colony?

6. Narrate the life and work of one of the following characters: John Cabot, Sir Francis Drake, or Richard Hakluyt/Sir Walter Raleigh.

7. Narrate the story of Jamestown, John Smith, Pocahontas, and the introduction of slavery.

8. Narrate the story of the Puritans from their stay in Holland to their colonization of America. Include the characters of William Bradford and Miles Standish.


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9. What is significant about the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving since it was not the first?

10. How did James Oglethorpe and Lord Baltimore carry on the vision of the Reformation in their colonies of Georgia and Maryland?


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Lesson 6A CITY UPON A HILL: THE PURITANS


ASSIGNMENT: Read A Model of Charity by John Winthrop. What opportunity did the Puritans have in the New World? By what means would they accomplish the “City on a Hill”?

SELECTION: A Model of Charity by John Winthrop.

God Almighty, in his most holy and wise providence, hath so disposed of the condition of mankind, as in all times some must be rich, some poor, some high and eminent in power and dignity, others mean and in subjection.

The reasons hereof: first, to hold conformity with the rest of his works. Being delighted to show forth the glory of his wisdom in the variety and difference of the creatures; and the glory of his power, in ordering all these differences for the preservation and good of the whole; and the glory of his greatness, that as it is the glory of princes to have many officers, so this great king will have many stewards, counting himself more honored in dispensing his gifts to man by man, than if he did it by his own immediate hands.

Secondly, that he might have the more occasion to manifest the work of his Spirit. First, upon the wicked, in moderating and restraining them: so that the rich and mighty should not eat up the poor, nor the poor and despised rise up against their superiors and shake off their yoke. Secondly, in the regenerate, in exercising his graces in them: as in the great ones, their love, mercy, gentleness, temperance etc.; in the poor and inferior sort, their faith, patience, obedience etc.

Thirdly, that every man might have need of other, and from hence they might be all knit more nearly together in the bond of brotherly affection. From hence it appears plainly that no man is made more honorable than another, or more wealthy etc., out of any particular and singular respect to himself, but for the glory of his creator and the common good of the creature, man. Therefore God still reserves the property of these gifts to himself, as Ezekiel, 16.17: he there calls wealth his gold and his silver; Proverbs, 3.9: he claims their service as his due: honor the Lord with thy riches etc. All men being thus (by divine providence) ranked into two sorts, rich and poor, under the first are

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comprehended all such as are able to live comfortably by their own means duly improved; and all others are poor, according to the former distribution....

This law of the Gospel propounds likewise a difference of seasons and occasions. There is a time when a Christian must sell all and give to the poor, as they did in the apostles' times. There is a time also when a Christian (though they give not all yet) must give beyond their ability, as they of Macedonia, II Corinthians, 8.8. Likewise community of perils calls for extraordinary liberality, and so doth community in some special service for the church. Lastly, when there is no other means whereby our Christian brother may be relieved in his distress, we must help him beyond our ability, rather than tempt God in putting him upon help by miraculous or extraordinary means....

The definition which the scripture gives us of lave is this: 'Love is the bond of perfection.' First, it is a bond, or ligament Secondly, it makes the work perfect There is nobody but consists of parts, and that which knits these parts together, gives the body its perfection, is love....

From hence we may frame these conclusions. First, all true Christians are of one body in Christ, I Corinthians, 12.12.27: "Ye are the body of Christ and members of its parts"

Secondly, the ligaments of this body which knit together are love. Thirdly, no body can be perfect which wants it proper ligament. Fourthly, all the parts of this body, being thus united, are made so contiguous in a special relation as they must needs partake of each other's strength and infirmity, joy and sorrow, weal and woe, I Corinthians, 12.26: "If one member suffers, all suffer with it, if one be in honor, all rejoice with it." Fifthly, this sensibleness and sympathy of each other's conditions will necessarily infuse into each part a native desire and endeavor to strengthen, defend, preserve and comfort the other...

It rests now to make some application of this discourse by the present design, which gave the occasion of writing of it. Herein are four things to be propounded: first, the persons; secondly, the work; thirdly, the end; fourthly, the means.

First, for the persons. We are a company professing ourselves fellow members of Christ, in which respect only though were absent from each other many miles, and had our employments as far distant, yet we


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ought to account ourselves knit together by this bond of love, and live in the exercise of it, if we would have comfort of our being in Christ.

Secondly, for the work we have in hand. It is by a mutual consent through a special overvaluing providence and a more than an ordinary approbation of the churches of Christ, to seek out a place of cohabitation and consortship under a due form of government both civil and ecclesiastical. In such cases as this, the care of the public must oversay all private respects, by which not only conscience, but mere civil policy, cloth bind us. For it is a true rule that particular estates cannot subsist in the ruin of the public.

Thirdly, the end is to improve our lives to do more service to the Lord; the comfort and increase of the body of Christ whereof we are members, that ourselves and posterity may be the better preserved from the common corruptions of this evil world, to serve the Lord and work out our salvation under the power and purity of his holy ordinances.

Fourthly, for the means whereby this must be effected. They are twofold, a conformity with the work and end we aim at. These we see are extraordinary, therefore we must not content ourselves with usual ordinary means: whatsoever we did, or ought to have done, when we lived in England, the same must we do, and more also, where we go. That which the most in their churches maintain as a truth in profession only, we must bring into familiar and constant practice, as in this duty of love. We must love brotherly without dissimulation, we must love one another with a pure heart fervently, we must bear one another's burdens, we must not look only on our own things, but also on the things of our brethren. Neither must we think that the Lord will bear with such failings at our hands as he cloth from those among whom we have lived, and that for three reasons.

First, in regard of the more near bond of marriage between him and us, wherein he hath taken us to be his after a most strict and peculiar manner, which will make him the more jealous of our love and obedience. So he tells the people of Israel, you only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore will I punish you for your transgressions. Secondly, because the Lord will be sanctioned in them that come near him. We know that there were many that corrupted the service of the Lord, some setting up altars before his own, others offering both strange fire and strange sacrifices also; yet there came no fire from heaven or other sudden judgment upon them, as did upon Nadab and Abihu, who


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yet we may think did not sin presumptuously. Thirdly, when God gives a special commission he looks to have it strictly observed in every article. When he gave Saul a commission to destroy Amalek, he indented with him upon certain articles, and because he failed in one of the least, and that upon a fair pretense, it lost him the kingdom which should have been his reward if he had observed his commission.

Thus stands the cause between God and us. We are entered into covenant with him for this work, we have taken out a commission, the Lord hath given us leave to draw our own articles, we have professed to enterprise these actions, upon these and those ends, we have hereupon besought him of favor and blessing. Now if the Lord shall please to hear us, and bring us in peace to the place we desire, then hath he ratified this covenant and sealed our commission, [and] will expect a strict performance of the articles contained in it. But if we shall neglect the observation of these articles, which re the ends we have propounded, and, dissembling with our God, shall fall to embrace this present world and prosecute our carnal intentions, seeking great things for ourselves and our posterity, the Lord will surely break out in wrath against us, be revenged of such a perjured people and make us know the price of the breach of such a covenant.

Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck, and to provide for our posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah: to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we must be knit together in this work as one man, we must entertain each other in brotherly affection, we must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of others' necessities, we must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality; we must delight in each other, make others' conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. The Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell among us as his own people, and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways, so that we shall see much more of his wisdom, power, goodness and truth, than formerly we have been acquainted with. We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies: when he shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations: “the Lord make it like that of New England.” For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill: The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help


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from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world: we shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God and all professors for God's sake. We shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us, till we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going.

And to shut up this discourse with that exhortation of Moses, that faithful servant of the Lord, in his last farewell to Israel, Deuteronomy, 30: beloved, there is now set before us life and good, death and evil, in that we are commanded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments and his ordinance and his laws, and the articles of our covenant with him, that we may live and be multiplied, and that the Lord our God may bless us in the land whither we go to possess it. But if our hearts shall turn away, so that we will not obey, but shall be seduced, and worship other God-our pleasures and profits-and serve them , it is propounded unto us this day, we shall surely perish out of the good land whither we pass over this vast sea to possess it: Therefore let us choose life, that we and our seed may live by obeying His voice and cleaving to Him, for He is our life, and our prosperity.

Lecture 6.2—WHAT IS A PURITAN?

ASSIGNMENT: Define a Puritan by the call to godliness found in Richard Baxter’s Signs of Living to Please God.

SELECTION: Signs of Living to Please God by Richard Baxter.

See therefore that you live upon God's approval as that which you chiefly seek, and will suffice you: which you may discover by these signs.

1. You will be most careful to understand the Scripture, to know what doth please and displease God. 2. You will be more careful in the doing of every duty, to fit it to the pleasing of God than men. 3. You will look to your hearts, and not only to your actions; to your ends, and thoughts, and the inward manner and degree. 4. You will look to secret duties as well as public and to that which men see not, as well as unto that which they see. 5. You will reverence your consciences, and have much to do with them, and will not slight them: when they tell you of God's displeasure, it will disquiet you; when they tell you of his approval, it will comfort you. 6. Your pleasing men will be charitable for their good, and pious in order to the pleasing of God, and not proud and ambitious for your honour


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with them, nor impious against the pleasing of God. 7. Whether men be pleased or displeased, or how they judge of you, or what they call you, will seem a small matter to you, as their own interest, in comparison to God's judgment. You live not on them. You can bear their displeasure, censures, and reproaches, if God be but pleased. These will be your evidences.

Lecture 6.3—FIVE PURITAN VALUES

ASSIGNMENT: Read A Father’s Resolutions (or at least part of it!) by Cotton Mather. How do you see the importance of family and faith in these resolutions?

SELECTION: A Father’s Resolutions by Cotton Mather.

PARENTS, Oh! how much ought you to be continually devising for the good of your children! Often device how to make them "wise children"; how to give them a desirable education, an education that may render them desirable; how to render them lovely and polite, and serviceable in their generation. Often devise how to enrich their minds with valuable knowledge; how to instill generous, gracious, and heavenly principles into their minds; how to restrain and rescue them from the paths of the destroyer, and fortify them against their peculiar temptations. There is a world of good that you have to do for them. You are without the natural feelings of humanity if you are not in a continual agony to do for them all the good that ever you can. It was no mistake of an ancient writer to say, "Nature teaches us to love our children as ourselves."

RESOLVED—

1. At the birth of my children, I will resolve to do all I can that they may be the Lord's. I will now actually give them up by faith to God; entreating that each child may be a child of God the Father, a subject of God the Son, a temple of God the Spirit—and be rescued from the condition of a child of wrath, and be possessed and employed by the Lord as an everlasting instrument of His glory.

2. As soon as my children are capable of minding my admonitions, I will often, often admonish them, saying, "Child, God has sent His son to die, to save sinners from death and hell. You must not sin against Him. You must every day cry to God that He would be your Father, and your Saviour, and your Leader. You must renounce the


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service of Satan, you must not follow the vanities of this world, you must lead a life of serious religion.

3. Let me daily pray for my children with constancy, with fervency, with agony. Yea, by name let me mention each one of them every day before the Lord. I will importunately beg for all suitable blessings to be bestowed upon them: that God would give them grace, and give them glory, and withhold no good thing from them; that God would smile on their education, and give His good angels the charge over them, and keep them from evil, that it may not grieve them; that when their father and mother shall forsake them, the Lord may take them up. With importunity I will plead that promise on their behalf: "The Heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit unto them that ask Him." Oh! happy children, if by asking I may obtain the Holy Spirit for them!

4. I will early entertain the children with delightful stories out of the Bible. In the talk of the table, I will go through the Bible, when the olive-plants about my table are capable of being so watered. But I will always conclude the stories with some lessons of piety to be inferred from them.

5. I will single out some Scriptural sentences of the greatest importance; and some also that have special antidotes in them against the common errors and vices of children. They shall quickly get those golden sayings by heart, and be rewarded with silver or gold, or some good thing, when they do it. Such as,◦ Psalm 11:10—"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of

wisdom."◦ Matthew 16:26—"What is a man profited, if he shall gain the

whole world, and lose his own soul?"◦ 1 Timothy 1:15—"Christ Jesus came into the world to save

sinners; of whom I am chief."◦ Matthew 6:6—"When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and

when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret."

◦ Ephesians 4:25—"Putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour."

◦ Romans 12:17, 19—"Recompense to no man evil for evil . . .. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves."

6. Jewish treatise tells us that among the Jews, when a child began to speak, the father was bound to teach him Deuteronomy 33:4—"Moses commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob." Oh! let me early make my children acquainted with the Law which our blessed Jesus has commanded us! 'Tis the best inheritance I can give them.


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7. I will cause my children to learn the Catechism. In catechizing them, I will break the answers into many lesser and proper questions; and by their answer to them, observe and quicken their understandings. I will bring every truth into some duty and practice, and expect them to confess it, and consent unto it, and resolve upon it. As we go on in our catechizing, they shall, when they are able, turn to the proofs and read them, and say to me what they prove and how. Then, I will take my times, to put nicer and harder questions to them; and improve the times of conversation with my family (which every man ordinarily has or may have) for conferences on matters of religion.

8. Restless will I be till I may be able to say of my children, "Behold, they pray!" I will therefore teach them to pray. But after they have learnt a form of prayer, I will press them to proceed unto points that are not in their form. I will charge them with all possible cogency to pray in secret; and often call upon them, "Child, I hope, you don't forget my charge to you, about secret prayer: your crime is very great if you do!"

9. I will do what I can very early to beget a temper of kindness in my children, both toward one another and toward all other people. I will instruct them how ready they should be to share with others a part of what they have; and they shall see my encouragements when they discover a loving, a courteous, an helpful disposition. I will give them now and then a piece of money, so that with their own little hands they may dispense unto the poor. Yea, if any one has hurt them, or vexed them, I will not only forbid them all revenge, but also oblige them to do a kindness as soon as may be to the vexatious person. All coarseness of language or carriage in them, I will discountenance.

10. I will be solicitous to have my children expert, not only at reading handsomely, but also at writing a fair hand. I will then assign them such books to read as I may judge most agreeable and profitable; obliging them to give me some account of what they read; but keep a strict eye upon them, that they don't stumble on the Devil's library, and poison themselves with foolish romances, or novels, or plays, or songs, or jests that are not convenient. I will set them also, to write out such things as may be of the greatest benefit unto them; and they shall have their blank books, neatly kept on purpose, to enter such passages as I advise them to. I will particularly require them now and then to write a prayer of their own composing, and bring it unto me; that so I may discern what sense they have of their own everlasting interests.


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11. I wish that my children may as soon as may be, feel the principles of reason and honor working in them—and that I may carry on their education, very much upon those principles. Therefore, first, I will wholly avoid that harsh, fierce, crabbed usage of the children that would make them tremble and abhor to come into my presence. I will treat them so that they shall fear to offend me, and yet mightily love to see me, and be glad of my coming home if I have been abroad at any time. I will have it looked upon as a severe and awful punishment to be forbidden for awhile to come into my presence. I will raise in them an high opinion of their father's love to them, and of his being better able to judge what is good for them than they are for themselves. I will bring them to believe 'tis best for them to be and do as I will have them. Hereupon I will continually magnify the matter to them, what a brave thing 'tis to know the things that are excellent; and more brave to do the things that are virtuous. I will have them to propose it as a reward of their well-doing at any time, I will now go to my father, and he will teach me something that I was never taught before. I will have them afraid of doing any base thing, from an horror of the baseness in it. My first response to finding a lesser fault in them shall be a surprise, a wonder, vehemently expressed before them, that ever they should be guilty of doing so foolishly; a vehement belief that they will never do the like again; a weeping resolution in them, that they will not. I will never dispense a blow, except it be for an atrocious crime or for a lesser fault obstinately persisted in; either for an enormity, or for an obstinacy. I will always proportion the chastisements to the miscarriages; neither smiting bitterly for a very small piece of childishness nor frowning only a little for some real wickedness. Nor shall my chastisement ever be dispensed in a passion and a fury; but I will first show them the command of God, by transgressing whereof they have displeased me. The slavish, raving, fighting way of discipline is too commonly used. I look upon it as a considerable article in the wrath and curse of God upon a miserable world.

12. As soon as we can, we'll get up to yet higher principles. I will often tell the children what cause they have to love a glorious Christ, who has died for them. And how much He will be well-pleased with their well-doing. And what a noble thing 'tis to follow His example; which example I will describe unto them. I will often tell them that the eye of God is upon them; the great God knows all they do and hears all they speak. I will often tell them that there will be a time when they must appear before the Judgment-Seat of the holy Lord; and they must now do nothing that may then be a grief and shame


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unto them. I will set before them the delights of that Heaven that is prepared for pious children; and the torments of that Hell that is prepared of old for naughty ones. I will inform them of the good things the good angels do for little ones that have the fear of God and are afraid of sin. And how the devils tempt them to do ill things; how they hearken to the devils, and are like them, when they do such things; and what mischiefs the devils may get leave to do them in this world, and what a sad thing 'twill be, to be among the devils in the Place of Dragons. I will cry to God, that He will make them feel the power of these principles.

13. When the children are of a fit age for it, I will sometimes closet them; have them with me alone; talk with them about the state of their souls; their experiences, their proficiencies, their temptations; obtain their declared consent unto every jot nd tittle of the gospel; and then pray with them, and weep unto the Lord for His grace, to be bestowed upon them, and make them witnesses of the agony with which I am travailing to see the image of Christ formed in them. Certainly, they'll never forget such actions!

14. I will be very watchful and cautious about the companions of my children. I will be very inquisitive what company they keep; if they are in hazard of being ensnared by any vicious company, I will earnestly pull them out of it, as brands out of the burning. I will find out, and procure, laudable companions for them.

15. As in catechizing the children, so in the repetition of the public sermons, I will use this method. I will put every truth into a question to be answered with Yes or No. By this method I hope to awaken their attention as well as enlighten their understanding. And thus I shall have an opportunity to ask, "Do you desire such or such a grace of God?" and the like. Yea, I may have opportunity to demand, and perhaps to obtain their early and frequent (and why not sincere?) consent unto the glorious gospel. The Spirit of Grace may fall upon them in this action; and they may be seized by Him, and held as His temples, through eternal ages.

16. When a Day of Humiliation arrives, I will make them know the meaning of the day. And after time given them to consider of it, I will order them to tell me what special afflictions they have met with, and what good they hope to get by those afflictions. On a Day of Thanksgiving, they shall also be made to know the intent of the Day. And after consideration, they shall tell me what mercies of God unto them they take special notice of, and what duties to God they confess and resolve under such obligations. Indeed, for something of this importance, to be pursued in my conversation with the children, I will not confine myself unto the solemn days,


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which may occur too seldom for it. Very particularly, on the birthdays of the children, I will take them aside, and mind them of the age which (by God's grace) they are come unto; how thankful they should be for the mercies of God which they have hitherto lived upon; how fruitful they should be in all goodness, that so they may still enjoy their mercies. And I will inquire of them whether they have ever yet begun to mind the work which God sent them into the world upon; how far they understand the work; and what good strokes they have struck at it; and, how they design to spend the rest of their time, if God still continue them in the world.

17. When the children are in any trouble—if they be sick, or pained—I will take advantage therefrom, to set before them the evil of sin, which brings all our trouble; and how fearful a thing it will be to be cast among the damned, who are in ceaseless and endless trouble. I will set before them the benefit of an interest in a CHRIST, by which their trouble will be sanctified unto them, and they will be prepared for death, and for fullness of joy in a happy eternity after death.

18. Among all the points of education which I will endeavor for my children, I hope to see that each of them—the daughters as well as the sons—may gain insight into some skill that lies in the way of gain (however their own inclination may most carry them), so that they may be able to subsist themselves, and get something of a livelihood, in case the Providence of God should bring them into necessities. Why not they as well as Paul the Tent-Maker! The children of the best fashion, may have occasion to bless the parents that make such a provision for them! The Jews have a saying worth remembering: "Whoever doesn't teach his son some trade or business, teaches him to be a thief."

19. As soon as ever I can, I will make my children apprehensive of the main end for which they are to live; that so they may as soon as may be, begin to live; and their youth not be nothing but vanity. I will show them, that their main end must be, to, acknowledge the great God, and His glorious Christ; and bring others to acknowledge Him: and that they are never wise nor well, but when they are doing so. I will make them able to answer the grand question of why they live; and what is the end of the actions that fill their lives? I will teach them that their Creator and Redeemer is to be obeyed in everything, and everything is to be done in obedience to Him. I will teach them how even their diversions, and their ornaments, and the tasks of their education, must all be to fit them for the further service of Him to whom I have devoted them; and how in these also, His commandments must be the rule of all


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they do. I will sometimes therefore surprise them with an inquiry, "Child, what is this for? Give me a good account of why you do it?" How comfortably shall I see them walking in the light, if I may bring them wisely to answer this inquiry.

20. I will oblige the children to retire sometimes, and ponder on that question: "What shall I wish to have done, if I were now a-dying?"—and report unto me their own answer to the question; of which I will then take advantage, to inculcate the lessons of godliness upon them.

21. If I live to see the children marriageable, I will, before I consult with Heaven and earth for their best accommodation in the married state, endeavor the espousal of their souls unto their only Saviour. I will as plainly, and as fully as I can, propose unto them the terms on which the glorious Redeemer would espouse them to Himself, in righteousness, judgment, and favor and mercies forever; and solicit their consent unto His proposals and overtures. Then would I go on, to do what may be expected from a tender parent for them, in their temporal circumstances."

Lecture 6.4—PURITAN HEROES: WINTHROP, THE BRADSTREETS, AND ELIOT

ASSIGNMENT: Read the following poems by Anne Bradstreet. How are these poems genuine and sincere in their pledge of faithfulness and thankfulness?

SELECTION: By Night When Others Soundly Slept, To My Dear and Loving Husband, and Verse Upon the Burning of Our House by Anne Bradstreet.

By Night When Others Soundly Slept

By night when others soundly sleptAnd hath at once both ease and Rest,My waking eyes were open keptAnd so to lie I found it best.

I sought him whom my Soul did Love,With tears I sought him earnestly.He bow'd his ear down from Above.In vain I did not seek or cry.


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My hungry Soul he fill'd with Good;He in his Bottle put my tears,My smarting wounds washt in his blood,And banisht thence my Doubts and fears.

What to my Saviour shall I giveWho freely hath done this for me?I'll serve him here whilst I shall liveAnd Love him to Eternity.

To My Dear and Loving Husband

If ever two were one, then surely we.If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee;If ever wife was happy in a man,Compare with me ye women if you can.

I prize thy love more than whole Mines of Gold,Or all the riches that the East doth hold.My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,Nor ought but love from thee, give recompence.

Thy love is such I can no way repay,The heavens reward thee manifold I pray.Then while we live, in love lets so persevere,That when we live no more, we may live ever.

Verses Upon the Burning of Our House

In silent night when rest I took,For sorrow near I did not look,I wakened was with thundering noiseAnd piteous shrieks of dreadful voice.That fearful sound of "Fire" and "Fire,"Let no man know, is my desire.I, starting up, the light did spy,And to my God my heart did cryTo strengthen me in my distress,And not to leave me succorless.Then coming out, behold a spaceThe flame consume my dwelling place.


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And when I could no longer look,I blest His name that gave and took,That laid my goods now in the dust;Yea, so it was, and so 'twas just.It was His own; it was not mine.Far be it that I should repine.He might of all justly bereft,But yet sufficient for us left.When by the ruins oft I passedMy sorrowing eyes aside did castAnd here and there the places spyWhere oft I sat and long did lie.Here stood that trunk, and there that chest;There lay that store I counted best,My pleasant things in ashes lie,And them behold no more shall I.Under thy roof no guest shall sit,Nor at thy table eat a bit;No pleasant tale shall e'er be told,Nor things recounted done of old;No candle e'er shall shine in thee,Nor bridegroom's voice e'er heard shall be.In silence ever shall thou lie.Adieu, Adieu, all's vanity.Then straight I 'gin my heart to chide:And did thy wealth on earth abide?Didst fix thy hope on mouldring dust?The arm of flesh didst make thy trust?Raise up thy thoughts above the skyThat dunghill mists away may fly.Thou hast a house on high erect;Framed by that mighty Architect,With glory richly furnishedStands permanent though this be fled.It's purchased, and paid for, too,By him who hath enough to do-A price so vast as is unknown,Yet, by His gift, is made thine own.There's wealth enough; I need no more.Farewell, my pelf; farewell, my store;The world no longer let me love.My hope and treasure lie above.


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Lecture 6.5—COTTON MATHER


1. Define the term City Upon a Hill and explain what it meant to the Puritans in America.

2. How were Gospel Charity and Fruitful Labors important to the Puritans? Give specific examples as a part of your answer.

3. What is a Puritan?

4. List and define the 5 Puritan Values.

5. Who was John Winthrop? Identify him briefly through his life and works in Boston by giving at least 3 specific items about him.

6. Who were Simon and Anne Bradstreet? Identify them briefly through their life and works in Massachusetts by giving at least 3 specific items about them.

7. Who was John Eliot? Identify him briefly through his life and works in the Roxbury area by giving at least 3 specific items about him.

8. Narrate the life of Cotton Mather.

9. How did the life of Cotton Mather illustrate the typical values of the Puritans?

10. Why are the Puritans so important in the history of America?


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Lesson 7A FOREIGN WAR AT HOME: WARS OF

CONTROL


ASSIGNMENT: Read the selection from the beginning of The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper. How does this selection show the foreign war played out in the home of the American colonists?

SELECTION: From Chapter 1 of The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper.

"Mine ear is open, and my heart prepared:The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold: Say, is my kingdom lost?”

Shakespeare

It was a feature peculiar to the colonial wars of North America, that the toils and dangers of the wilderness were to be encountered before the adverse hosts could meet. A wide and apparently an impervious boundary of forests severed the possessions of the hostile provinces of France and England. The hardy colonist, and the trained European who fought at his side, frequently expended months in struggling against the rapids of the streams, or in effecting the rugged passes of the mountains, in quest of an opportunity to exhibit their courage in a more martial conflict. But, emulating the patience and self-denial of the practiced native warriors, they learned to overcome every difficulty; and it would seem that, in time, there was no recess of the woods so dark, nor any secret place so lovely, that it might claim exemption from the inroads of those who had pledged their blood to satiate their vengeance, or to uphold the cold and selfish policy of the distant monarchs of Europe.

Perhaps no district throughout the wide extent of the intermediate frontiers can furnish a livelier picture of the cruelty and fierceness of the savage warfare of those periods than the country which lies between the head waters of the Hudson and the adjacent lakes.

The facilities which nature had there offered to the march of the combatants were too obvious to be neglected. The lengthened sheet of the Champlain stretched from the frontiers of Canada, deep within the borders of the neighboring province of New York, forming a natural passage across half the distance that the French were compelled to master in order to strike their enemies. Near its southern termination, it

Dave Raymond’s American History | Lesson 7 - A Foreign War at Home: Wars of Control

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received the contributions of another lake, whose waters were so limpid as to have been exclusively selected by the Jesuit missionaries to perform the typical purification of baptism, and to obtain for it the title of lake "du Saint Sacrement." The less zealous English thought they conferred a sufficient honor on its unsullied fountains, when they bestowed the name of their reigning prince, the second of the house of Hanover. The two united to rob the untutored possessors of its wooded scenery of their native right to perpetuate its original appellation of "Horican."

Winding its way among countless islands, and imbedded in mountains, the "holy lake" extended a dozen leagues still further to the south. With the high plain that there interposed itself to the further passage of the water, commenced a portage of as many miles, which conducted the adventurer to the banks of the Hudson, at a point where, with the usual obstructions of the rapids, or rifts, as they were then termed in the language of the country, the river became navigable to the tide.

While, in the pursuit of their daring plans of annoyance, the restless enterprise of the French even attempted the distant and difficult gorges of the Alleghany, it may easily be imagined that their proverbial acuteness would not overlook the natural advantages of the district we have just described. It became, emphatically, the bloody arena, in which most of the battles for the mastery of the colonies were contested. Forts were erected at the different points that commanded the facilities of the route, and were taken and retaken, razed and rebuilt, as victory alighted on the hostile banners. While the husbandman shrank back from the dangerous passes, within the safer boundaries of the more ancient settlements, armies larger than those that had often disposed of the scepters of the mother countries, were seen to bury themselves in these forests, whence they rarely returned but in skeleton bands, that were haggard with care or dejected by defeat. Though the arts of peace were unknown to this fatal region, its forests were alive with men; its shades and glens rang with the sounds of martial music, and the echoes of its mountains threw back the laugh, or repeated the wanton cry, of many a gallant and reckless youth, as he hurried by them, in the noontide of his spirits, to slumber in a long night of forgetfulness.

It was in this scene of strife and bloodshed that the incidents we shall attempt to relate occurred, during the third year of the war which England and France last waged for the possession of a country that neither was destined to retain.

The imbecility of her military leaders abroad, and the fatal want of energy in her councils at home, had lowered the character of Great Britain


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from the proud elevation on which it had been placed by the talents and enterprise of her former warriors and statesmen. No longer dreaded by her enemies, her servants were fast losing the confidence of self-respect. In this mortifying abasement, the colonists, though innocent of her imbecility, and too humble to be the agents of her blunders, were but the natural participators. They had recently seen a chosen army from that country, which, reverencing as a mother, they had blindly believed invincible--an army led by a chief who had been selected from a crowd of trained warriors, for his rare military endowments, disgracefully routed by a handful of French and Indians, and only saved from annihilation by the coolness and spirit of a Virginian boy, whose riper fame has since diffused itself, with the steady influence of moral truth, to the uttermost confines of Christendom. A wide frontier had been laid naked by this unexpected disaster, and more substantial evils were preceded by a thousand fanciful and imaginary dangers. The alarmed colonists believed that the yells of the savages mingled with every fitful gust of wind that issued from the interminable forests of the west. The terrific character of their merciless enemies increased immeasurably the natural horrors of warfare. Numberless recent massacres were still vivid in their recollections; nor was there any ear in the provinces so deaf as not to have drunk in with avidity the narrative of some fearful tale of midnight murder, in which the natives of the forests were the principal and barbarous actors. As the credulous and excited traveler related the hazardous chances of the wilderness, the blood of the timid curdled with terror, and mothers cast anxious glances even at those children which slumbered within the security of the largest towns. In short, the magnifying influence of fear began to set at naught the calculations of reason, and to render those who should have remembered their manhood, the slaves of the basest passions. Even the most confident and the stoutest hearts began to think the issue of the contest was becoming doubtful; and that abject class was hourly increasing in numbers, who thought they foresaw all the possessions of the English crown in America subdued by their Christian foes, or laid waste by the inroads of their relentless allies.

Lecture 7.2—THE BACK STORY

ASSIGNMENT: Read the account of the Spanish Armada by William Camden. How did the English defeat this superior force?

SELECTION: From the Annals of the Kingdom of England and Ireland, Ruled by Elizabeth by William Camden.


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The 23rd day of the month, betimes in the morning, the Spaniards taking the benefit of a northerly wind, turned about against the English, who for their advantage soon turned aside towards the west. And after they had strived to get the wind one of another, they prepared themselves on both sides to fight, and fight they did confusedly and with variable fortune, whilst on the one side the English manfully rescued the ships of London that were hemmed in by the Spaniards, and on the other side the Spaniards as stoutly delivered Recalde, being in danger. Never was heard greater thundering of ordnance on both sides, which notwithstanding from the Spaniards flew for the most part over the English without harm. Only Cock, an Englishman, died with honor in the midst of the enemies in a small ship of his. For the English ships, being far the lesser, charged the enemy with marvelous agility, and having discharged their broad sides, flew forth presently into the deep, and leveled their shot directly without missing at those great ships of the Spaniards, which were heavy and altogether unwieldy. And the Lord Admiral thought not good to hazard fight by grappling with them, as some unadvised people persuaded him. For the enemy had a strong army in the fleet, he had none. Their ships were far mo in number, of bigger burthen, stronger, and higher built, so as from those which defended aloft from the hatches nothing but certain death would hang over the heads of those which should charge from beneath. And he foresaw that the overthrow would damage him much more then the victory would avail him. For being vanquished he should have brought England into extreme hazard; and being conqueror, he should only have gained a little glory for overthrowing the fleet and beating the enemy.

The 24th day of the month they ceased on both sides from fighting. The Lord Admiral sent some of the smaller ships to the next coasts of England to fetch powder and other provision for fight; and divided the whole fleet into four squadrons, whereof the first he commanded himself, the second the committed to Drake, the third to Hawkins, and the fourth to Forbisher; and appointed out of every squadron certain small vessels to give the charge from divers parts in the dead of the night; but being becalmed, his design failed of the effect.

The 25th, which was Saint James his day, the Saint Anne a galleon of Portugal, which could not hold course with the rest, was set upon by certain small English ships; to whose rescue cane Lena and Don Diego Telles Enriques with three galleasses; which the Lord Admiral himself, and the Lord Thomas Howard in the Golden Lyon, towing three ships with


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their boats (so great was the calm) charged in such sort with force of their ordinance, that much ado they had, and not without loss, to free the galleon; and from that time no galleasses would undertake to fight. The Spaniards report that the English the same day beat the Spanish Admirall in the utter squadron with their great ordinance nearer then before, and having slain many men, shot down her maine mast, but Mexia and Recalde in good time repulsed the English. That then the Spanish Admirall, assisted by Recalde and others, set upon the English Admiral, and that the English Admiral escaped by means of the wind turning. That the Spaniards from that time gave over the pursuit, and holding on to their course, dispatched a messenger again to Parma to join his fleetewith all speed with the kings Armada, and withal to send great shot. These things were unknown to the English, who write that from one of the Spanish ships they rent the lantern, and from another the beak-head, and did much hurt to the third. That the Non-Pariglia and the Mary-rose fought a while with the Spaniards; and that other ships rescued the Triumph which was in danger. Thus in the manner of the fights they which were present thereat doe not report the same things of the same, whilst every one on both sides mentioned what he himself observed.

The next day the Lord Admiral knighted the Lord Thomas Howard, the Lord Sheffield, Roger Townsend, John Hawkins, and Martin Forbisher, for their valor. And it was resolved, from thence forth to assail the enemy no more till they came to the British forth or Straight of Calais, where the Lord Henry Seimore and Sir William Winter awaited their coming. So with a faire Etesian gale (which in our sky bloweth for the most part from the Southwest and by South clear and fair), the Spanish fleet sailed forward, the English fleet following it close at the heels. But so far was it from terrifying the sea-coast with the name of Invincible, or with the terrible spectacle, that the youth of England with a certain incredible alacrity (leaving their parents, wives, children, cousins, and friends, out of their entire love to their Country) hires ships from all parts at their own private charges, and joined with the fleet in great number; and amongst others the Earls of Oxford, Northumberland, Cumberland, Thomas and Robert Cecil, Henry Brooke, Charles Blunt, Walter Raleigh, William Hatton, Robert Cary, Ambrose Willoughby, Thomas Gerard, Arthur Gorges, and others of good note.

But the Spaniards, now casting away all hope of returning, and seeking to save themselves by no other means by flight, stayed in no place. And thus the Armada, which had been full three years in rigging and preparing with infinite expense, was within one month many times


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assailed, and at the length defeated with the slaughter of many men; not an hundred of the English being lacking, nor one small ship lost, save only that of Cock’s (for all the shot out of the tall Spanish ships flew quite over the English ships), and after it had been driven round about all Britain, by Scotland, the Orkneys, and Ireland, most grievously tossed, and very much distressed and wasted by storms, wrecks, and all kind of miseries, at length returned home with dishonor. Whereupon moneys were stamped, some in memory thereof with a fleet flying with full sails, and this inscription, Venit, Vidit, Fugit, that is, It Came, It Saw, It Fled; others in honor of the Queen, with incendiary ships and a fleet confused, and inscribed Dux Femina Facti, that is, A woman was a leader of the fact. In their flight certain it is that many ships were cast away upon the coasts of Scotland and Ireland, and about 700 soldiers and sailors cast on land in Scotland, which at the intercession of the Prince of Parma to the King of Scotts, and by permission of Queen Elizabeth, were after a year sent over into the Low-Countries. But more unmercifully were those miserable wretches dealt withal, whose happening was to be driven by tempests into Ireland. For they were slain, some of them by the wild Irish, and some put to the sword by commandment of the Lord Deputy. For he, fearing least they would join with the Irish rebels, and seeing that Bingham Governor of Connacht, having been once or twice commanded to show rigor upon them which had yielded themselves, had refused to doe it, sent Fowl Deputy marshall, who drew them out of their lurking holes and beheaded about 200 of them; which the Queen from her heart condemned as a matter full of cruelty. Herewith the rest being terrified, sick and starved as they were, they committed themselves to the sea in their broken vessels, and were many of them swallowed of the waves.

Lecture 7.3—WARS

ASSIGNMENT: Read the poem, he Battle of La Prairie, by William Douw Schuyler-Lighthall. How was honor in the face of overwhelming odds a major factor in why soldiers fought?

SELECTION: The Battle of La Prairie, by William Douw Schuyler-Lighthall.

The Battle of La Prairie

That was a brave old epoch, Our age of chivalry,When the Briton met the French-man At the fight of La Prairie;And the manhood of New England,


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And the Netherlanders trueAnd the Mohawks sworn, gave battle To the Bourbon’s lilied blue.

That was a brave old governor Who gathered his array,And stood to meet, he knew not what, On that alarming day.Eight hundred, amid rumors vast That filled the wild wood’s gloom,With all New England’s flower of youth, Fierce for New France’s doom.

And the brave old half five hundred! Theirs should be truth in fame;Borne down the savage Richelieu, On what emprise they came!Your hearts are great enough, O few: Only your numbers fail-New France asks more for conquerors All glorious though your tale.

It was a brave old battle That surged around the fort,When D’Hosta fell in charging, And’t was deadly strife and short;When in the very quarters They contested face and hand,And many a goodly fellow Crimsoned yon La Prairie sand.

And those were brave old orders The colonel gave to meetThat forest fierce with trees entrenched Opposing the retreat:“DeCalliere’s strength’s behind us, And in front of you Richelieu;We must go straightforth at them; There is nothing else to do.”

And then the brave old story comes, Of Schulyer and Valrennes,When “Fight” the British colonel called,


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Encouraging his men,“For the Protestant religion And the honor of our King!”-“Sir, I am here to answer you!” Valrennes cried, forthstepping.

Were those not brave old races? Well, here they still abide;And yours is one or other, And the second’s at your side;So when you here your brother say, “Some loyal deed I’ll do,”Like old Valrennes, be ready with “I’m here to answer you!”

Lecture 7.4—AND MORE WARS

ASSIGNMENT: Read the poem, Ticonderoga: A Legend of the West Highlands, by Robert Louis Stevenson. What story does this poem tell? How are the themes of doom, death, and the loss of home present in this poem?

SELECTION: Ticonderoga: A Legend of the West Highlands, by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Prologue

This is the tale of the man Who heard a word in the nightIn the land of the heathery hills,In the days of the feud and the fight.By the sides of the rainy sea,Where never a stranger came,On the awful lips of the dead,He heard the outlandish name.It sang in his sleeping ears,It hummed in his waking head:The name-- Ticonderoga,The utterance of the dead.

Part I: The saying of the Name

On the loch-sides of AppinWhen the mist blew from the sea


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A Stewart stood with a Cameron:An angry man was he.The blood beat in his ears,The blood ran hot to his head,The mist blew from the sea,And there was the Cameron dead.

O, what have I done to my friend,O, what have I done to mysel’,That he should be cold and dead,And I in the danger of all?

Nothing but danger about me,Danger behind and before,Death at wait in the heatherIn Appin and Mamore,Hate at all of the ferriesAnd death at each of the fords,Camerons priming gunlocksAnd Camerons sharpening swords.

But this was a man of council,This was a man of a score,There dwelt no pawkier StewartIn Appin or Mamore.He looked on the blowing mist,He looked on the awful dead,And there came a smile on his faceAnd there slipped a thought in his head.

Out over cairn and moss,Out over scraug and scar,He ran as runs the clansmanThat bears the cross of war.His heart beat in his body,His hair clove to his face,When he came at last in the gloamingTo the dead man’s brother’s place.

The east was white with the moon, The west with the sun was red,And there, in the house-doorway,Stood the brother of the dead.


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I have slain a man to my danger,I have slain a man to my death,I put my soul in your hands,The panting Stewart saith:I lay it bare in your hands,For I know your hands are leal;And be you my targe and bulwarkFrom the bullet and the steel.

Then up and spoke the Cameron,And gave him his hand again:There shall never a man in ScotlandSet faith in me in vain;And whatever man you have slaughtered,Of whatever name or line,By my sword and yonder mountain, I make your quarrel mine.I bid you into my fireside,I share with you house and hall;It stands upon my honourTo see you safe from all.

It fell in the time of midnight,When the fox barked in the denAnd the plaids were over the facesIn all the houses of men,That as the living CameronLay sleepless on his bed,Out of the night and the other worldCame in to him the dead.

My blood is on the heather,My bones are on the hill;There is joy in the home of ravensThat the young shall eat their fill.My blood is poured in the dust,My soul is spilled in the air;And the man that has undone meSleeps in my brother’s care.

I'm wae for your death my brother,But if all of my house were dead,


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I couldnae withdraw the plighted handNor break the word once said.

O, what shall I say to our father,In the place to which I fare?O, what shall I say to our mother,Who greets to see me there?And to all the kindly CameronsThat have lived and died lang-syne--Is this the word you send them,Fause-hearted brother mine?.

It¹s neither fear or duty,It¹s neither quick nor deadShall gaur me withdraw the plighted hand,Or break the word once said.

Thrice in the time of midnight,When the fox barked in the den,And the plaids were over the facesIn all the houses of men,Thrice as the living CameronLay sleepless on his bed,Out of the night and the other worldCame into him the dead,And cried to him for vengeanceOn the man that laid him low;And thrice the living CameronTold the dead Cameron, no.

Thrice you have seen me, brother,But now shall see me no more,Till you meet your angry fathersUpon the farther shore.Thrice have I spoken, and now,Before the cock be heard,I take my leave for everWith the naming of a word.It shall sing in your sleeping ears,It shall hum in your waking head,The name- Ticonderoga,And the warning of the dead.


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Now when the night was overAnd the time of people's fears,The Cameron walked abroad,And the word was in his ears.Many a name I know,But never a name like this;O, whaur shall I find a skilly manShall tell me what it is?.With many a man he counseledOf high and low degree,With the herdsmen on the mountainsAnd the fishers of the sea.

And he came and went unweary,And read the books of yore,And the runes that were written of oldOn stones upon the moor.And many a name he was told,But never the name of his fears--Never, in east or west,The name that wrang in his ears:Names of men and of clans;Names for the grass and the tree,For the smallest tarn in the mountains,The smallest reef in the sea:Names for the high and lowThe names of the craig and the flat;But in all the land of Scotland,Never a name like that.

Part II: The Seeking of the Name

And now there was a speech in the south,And a man of the south that wise,A periwig’d lord of London, Called on the clans to rise.

And the riders rode, and the summonsCame to the western shore,To the land of the sea and the heather,To Appin and Mamore.It called on all to gatherFrom every scrog and scaur,


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That loved their father's tartanAnd the ancient game of war.And down the watery valleyAnd up the windy hill,Once more, as in the olden,The pipes were sounding shrill.Again in the highland sunshineThe naked steel was bright;And the lads, once more in tartan,Went forth again to fight.

O, why should I dwell hereWith a weird upon my life,When the clansmen shout for battleAnd the war-swords clash in strife?.I cannae joy at feast,I cannae sleep in bed,For the wonder of the wordAnd the warning of the dead.It sings in my sleeping ears,It hums in my waking head,The name--Ticonderoga,The utterance of the dead.Then up, and with the fighting menTo march away from here,Till the cry of the great war-pipeShall drown it in my ear!

Where flew King George's ensignThe plaided soldiers went:The drew the sword in Germany,In Flanders pitched the tent.The bells of foreign citiesRang far across the plain:They passed the happy Rhine,They drank the rapid Main.Through Asiatic junglesThe Tartans filed their way,And the neighing of the war-pipesStruck terror in Cathay.Many a name have I heard, he thought,In all the tongues of men,Full many a name both here and there,


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Full many both now and then.

When I was at hame in my father’s houseIn the land of the naked knee,Between the eagles that fly in the liftAnd the herrings that swim in the sea,And now that I am a captain-manWith a braw cockade in my hat--Many a name have I heard, he thought,But never a name like that.

Part III: The Place of the Name

There fell a war in a woody place,Lay far across the sea,A war of the march in the mirk midnightAnd the shot from behind the tree,The shaven head and the painted face,The silent foot in the wood,In a land of a strange, outlandish tongueThat was hard to be understood.

It fell about the gloaming The general stood with his staff,He stood and he looked east and westWith little mind to laugh.Far have I been and much have I seen,And kent both gain and loss,But here we have woods on every handAnd a kittle water to cross.Far have I been and much have I seen,But never the beat of this;And there¹s one must go down to that watersideTo see how deep it is.

It fell in the dusk of the nightWhen unco things betide,The skilly captain, the Cameron,Went down to the waterside.Canny and saft the captain went;And a man of the woody land,With the shaven head and the painted face,Went down at his right hand.


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It fell in the quiet night,There was never a sound to ken;But all of the woods to right and leftLay filled with the painted men.

Far have I been and much have I seen,Both as a man and boy,But never have I set forth a footOn so perilous an employ.It fell in the dusk of the nightWhen unco things betide,That he was aware of a captain-manDrew near to the waterside.He was aware of his comingDown in the gloaming alone;And he looked in the face of the manAnd lo! the face was his own.This is my weird, he said,And now I ken the worst;For many shall fall with the morn,But I shall fall with the first.O, you of the outland tongue,You of the painted face,This is the place of my death;Can you tell me the name of the place?

Since the frenchmen have been hereThey have called it Sault-Marie;But that is a name for priests,And not for you and me.It went by another word,Quoth he of the shaven head;It was called TiconderogaIn the days of the great dead.

And it fell on the morrow's morning,In the fiercest of the fight,That the Cameron bit the dustAs he foretold at night;And far from the hills of heatherFar from the isles of the sea,He sleeps in the place of the nameAs it was doomed to be.


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Lecture 7.5—QUEBEC AND THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE


1. Explain why this lesson is titled A Foreign War at Home.

2. What do the words of James Fenimore Cooper teach us about the setting of these wars?

3. How did the history of the United States begin with the “triumph of Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham”?

4. Why did Montcalm declare that whoever won the French and Indian War would lose the continent?

5. How did the wars of control begin?

6. Retell the story of the Spanish Armada.

7. How was warfare practiced during the wars of control? How were civilians treated?

8. Explain how the war of Robert Jenkins began.

9. What role did George Washington play in the French and Indian War?

10. How did the actions of Washington and his Virginians show their motives for fighting?

11. Retell the story of the battle for Quebec (The Battle of the Plains of Abraham).

12. What did the wars of control teach the American colonists?


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Lesson 8GRACE, THE FOUNDER OF LIBERTY: THE

GREAT AWAKENING


ASSIGNMENT: Read all of Revelation 21. Discuss how the view of the coming New Heavens and New Earth should affect a Christian’s work in this world.

Lecture 8.2—SLEEPING DEAD MAN

ASSIGNMENT: Research online the life and work of the English cartoonist, William Hogarth. How do his illustrations demonstrate the culture of England in the era of the Great Awakening?

LESSON 8.3—THE AWAKENERS: FREYLINGHUYSEN, TENNENT, AND EDWARDS

ASSIGNMENT: Read the letter of Jonathan Edwards giving an account of the Great Awakening in Massachusetts. In what ways were people changed?

EXTRA CREDIT: Read Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards.

SELECTION: “Letter from Jonathan Edwards to Rev. Prince of December 12, 1743”.

The revival at first appeared chiefly among professors and those that had entertained the hope that they were in a state of grace, to whom Mr. Whitefield chiefly addressed himself. But in a very short time there appeared an awakening and deep concern among some young persons that looked upon themselves as in a Christless state; and there were some hopeful appearances of conversion; and some professors were greatly revived.

In about a month or six weeks, there was a great alteration in the town, both as to the revivals of professors and awakenings of others. By the middle of December, a very considerable work of God appeared among those that were very young; and the revival of religion continued to increase; so that in the spring an engagedness of spirit about things of religion was become very general among young people and children, and

Dave Raymond’s American History | Lesson 8 - Grace, The Founder of Liberty

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religious subjects almost wholly took up their conversation when they were together.

In the month of May 1741, a sermon was preached to a company at a private house. Near the conclusion of the exercise, one or two persons that were professors were so greatly affected with a sense of the greatness and glory of divine things, and the infinite importance of the things of eternity, that they were not able to conceal it; the affection of their minds overcoming their strength, and having a very visible effect on their bodies. When the exercise was over, the young people that were present removed into the other room for religious conference; and particularly that they might have opportunity to inquire of those that were thus affected what apprehensions they had, and what things they were that thus deeply impressed their minds. And there soon appeared a very great effect of their conversation; the affection was quickly propagated through the room; many of the young people and children that were professors appeared to be overcome with a sense of the greatness and glory of divine things, and with admiration, love, joy and praise, and compassion to others that looked upon themselves as in a state of nature. And many others at the same time were overcome with distress about their sinful and miserable state and condition; so that the whole room was full of nothing but outcries, faintings, and suchlike.

Others soon heard of it, in several parts of the town, and came to them; and what they saw and heard there was greatly affecting to them; so that many of them were overpowered in like manner. And it continued thus for some hours, the time spent in prayer, singing, counseling, and conferring. There seemed to be a consequent happy effect of that meeting to several particular persons, and in the state of religion in the town in general. After this were meetings from time to time attended with like appearances.

EXTRA CREDIT SELECTION: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edward. Preached at Enfield, Connecticut on July 8, 1741.

Their foot shall slide in due time. Deuteronomy 32:35

In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving Israelites, who were God's visible people, and who lived under the means of grace; but who, notwithstanding all God's wonderful works towards them, remained (as verse 28.) void of counsel, having no understanding in them. Under all the cultivations of heaven, they brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit; as in the two verses next preceding the text. -- The expression I have chosen for my text, their foot shall slide in


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http://www.ccel.org/study/Deuteronomy_32:35

http://www.ccel.org/study/Deuteronomy_32:35

due time, seems to imply the following things, relating to the punishment and destruction to which these wicked Israelites were exposed.

1. That they were always exposed to destruction; as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall. This is implied in the manner of their destruction coming upon them, being represented by their foot sliding. The same is expressed, Psalm 73:18. "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction."

2. It implies, that they were always exposed to sudden unexpected destruction. As he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable to fall, he cannot foresee one moment whether he shall stand or fall the next; and when he does fall, he falls at once without warning: Which is also expressed in Psalm 73:18,19. "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction: How are they brought into desolation as in a moment!"

3. Another thing implied is, that they are liable to fall of themselves, without being thrown down by the hand of another; as he that stands or walks on slippery ground needs nothing but his own weight to throw him down.

4. That the reason why they are not fallen already and do not fall now is only that God's appointed time is not come. For it is said, that when that due time, or appointed time comes, their foot shall slide. Then they shall be left to fall, as they are inclined by their own weight. God will not hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will let them go; and then, at that very instant, they shall fall into destruction; as he that stands on such slippery declining ground, on the edge of a pit, he cannot stand alone, when he is let go he immediately falls and is lost.

The observation from the words that I would now insist upon is this. -- "There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God." -- By the mere pleasure of God, I mean his sovereign pleasure, his arbitrary will, restrained by no obligation, hindered by no manner of difficulty, any more than if nothing else but God's mere will had in the least degree, or in any respect whatsoever, any hand in the preservation of wicked men one moment. -- The truth of this observation may appear by the following consideration.

1. There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at any moment. Men's hands cannot be strong when God rises up.


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http://www.ccel.org/study/Psalms_73:18

http://www.ccel.org/study/Psalms_73:18

http://www.ccel.org/study/Psalms_73:18-19

http://www.ccel.org/study/Psalms_73:18-19

The strongest have no power to resist him, nor can any deliver out of his hands. -- He is not only able to cast wicked men into hell, but he can most easily do it. Sometimes an earthly prince meets with a great deal of difficulty to subdue a rebel, who has found means to fortify himself, and has made himself strong by the numbers of his followers. But it is not so with God. There is no fortress that is any defence from the power of God. Though hand join in hand, and vast multitudes of God's enemies combine and associate themselves, they are easily broken in pieces. They are as great heaps of light chaff before the whirlwind; or large quantities of dry stubble before devouring flames. We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth; so it is easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that any thing hangs by: thus easy is it for God, when he pleases, to cast his enemies down to hell. What are we, that we should think to stand before him, at whose rebuke the earth trembles, and before whom the rocks are thrown down?

2. They deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice never stands in the way, it makes no objection against God's using his power at any moment to destroy them. Yea, on the contrary, justice calls aloud for an infinite punishment of their sins. Divine justice says of the tree that brings forth such grapes of Sodom, "Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?" Luke 13:7. The sword of divine justice is every moment brandished over their heads, and it is nothing but the hand of arbitrary mercy, and God's mere will, that holds it back.

3. They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell. They do not only justly deserve to be cast down thither, but the sentence of the law of God, that eternal and immutable rule of righteousness that God has fixed between him and mankind, is gone out against them, and stands against them; so that they are bound over already to hell. John 3:18. "He that believeth not is condemned already." So that every unconverted man properly belongs to hell; that is his place; from thence he is, John 8:23. "Ye are from beneath:" And thither he is bound; it is the place that justice, and God's word, and the sentence of his unchangeable law assign to him.

4. They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God, that is expressed in the torments of hell. And the reason why they do not go down to hell at each moment, is not because God, in whose power they are, is not then very angry with them; as he is with many miserable creatures now tormented in hell,


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http://www.ccel.org/study/Luke_13:7


http://www.ccel.org/study/John_3:18




who there feel and bear the fierceness of his wrath. Yea, God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth: yea, doubtless, with many that are now in this congregation, who it may be are at ease, than he is with many of those who are now in the flames of hell. So that it is not because God is unmindful of their wickedness, and does not resent it, that he does not let loose his hand and cut them off. God is not altogether such an one as themselves, though they may imagine him to be so. The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber; the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whet, and held over them, and the pit hath opened its mouth under them.

5. The devil stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him. They belong to him; he has their souls in his possession, and under his dominion. The scripture represents them as his goods, Luke 11:12. The devils watch them; they are ever by them at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the present kept back. If God should withdraw his hand, by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its mouth wide to receive them; and if God should permit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost.

6. There are in the souls of wicked men those hellish principles reigning, that would presently kindle and flame out into hell fire, if it were not for God's restraints. There is laid in the very nature of carnal men, a foundation for the torments of hell. There are those corrupt principles, in reigning power in them, and in full possession of them, that are seeds of hell fire. These principles are active and powerful, exceeding violent in their nature, and if it were not for the restraining hand of God upon them, they would soon break out, they would flame out after the same manner as the same corruptions, the same enmity does in the hearts of damned souls, and would beget the same torments as they do in them. The souls of the wicked are in scripture compared to the troubled sea, Isa. 57:20. For the present, God restrains their wickedness by his mighty power, as he does the raging waves of the troubled sea, saying, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further;" but if God should withdraw that


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http://www.ccel.org/study/Isaiah_57:20


restraining power, it would soon carry all before it. Sin is the ruin and misery of the soul; it is destructive in its nature; and if God should leave it without restraint, there would need nothing else to make the soul perfectly miserable. The corruption of the heart of man is immoderate and boundless in its fury; and while wicked men live here, it is like fire pent up by God's restraints, whereas if it were let loose, it would set on fire the course of nature; and as the heart is now a sink of sin, so if sin was not restrained, it would immediately turn the soul into fiery oven, or a furnace of fire and brimstone.

7. It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no visible means of death at hand. It is no security to a natural man, that he is now in health, and that he does not see which way he should now immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is no visible danger in any respect in his circumstances. The manifold and continual experience of the world in all ages, shows this is no evidence, that a man is not on the very brink of eternity, and that the next step will not be into another world. The unseen, unthought-of ways and means of persons going suddenly out of the world are innumerable and inconceivable. Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering, and there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that they will not bear their weight, and these places are not seen. The arrows of death fly unseen at noon-day; the sharpest sight cannot discern them. God has so many different unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world and sending them to hell, that there is nothing to make it appear, that God had need to be at the expense of a miracle, or go out of the ordinary course of his providence, to destroy any wicked man, at any moment. All the means that there are of sinners going out of the world, are so in God's hands, and so universally and absolutely subject to his power and determination, that it does not depend at all the less on the mere will of God, whether sinners shall at any moment go to hell, than if means were never made use of, or at all concerned in the case.

8. Natural men's prudence and care to preserve their own lives, or the care of others to preserve them, do not secure them a moment. To this, divine providence and universal experience do also bear testimony. There is this clear evidence that men's own wisdom is no security to them from death; that if it were otherwise we should see some difference between the wise and


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politic men of the world, and others, with regard to their liableness to early and unexpected death: but how is it in fact? Eccles. 2:16. "How dieth the wise man? even as the fool."

9. All wicked men's pains and contrivance which they use to escape hell, while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, do not secure them from hell one moment. Almost every natural man that hears of hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it; he depends upon himself for his own security; he flatters himself in what he has done, in what he is now doing, or what he intends to do. Every one lays out matters in his own mind how he shall avoid damnation, and flatters himself that he contrives well for himself, and that his schemes will not fail. They hear indeed that there are but few saved, and that the greater part of men that have died heretofore are gone to hell; but each one imagines that he lays out matters better for his own escape than others have done. He does not intend to come to that place of torment; he says within himself, that he intends to take effectual care, and to order matters so for himself as not to fail. But the foolish children of men miserably delude themselves in their own schemes, and in confidence in their own strength and wisdom; they trust to nothing but a shadow. The greater part of those who heretofore have lived under the same means of grace, and are now dead, are undoubtedly gone to hell; and it was not because they were not as wise as those who are now alive: it was not because they did not lay out matters as well for themselves to secure their own escape. If we could speak with them, and inquire of them, one by one, whether they expected, when alive, and when they used to hear about hell, ever to be the subjects of misery: we doubtless, should hear one and another reply, "No, I never intended to come here: I had laid out matters otherwise in my mind; I thought I should contrive well for myself -- I thought my scheme good. I intended to take effectual care; but it came upon me unexpected; I did not look for it at that time, and in that manner; it came as a thief -- Death outwitted me: God's wrath was too quick for me. Oh, my cursed foolishness! I was flattering myself, and pleasing myself with vain dreams of what I would do hereafter; and when I was saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction came upon me."

10. God has laid himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any natural man out of hell one moment. God certainly has made no promises either of eternal life, or of any deliverance or


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http://www.ccel.org/study/Ecclesiastes_2:16

http://www.ccel.org/study/Ecclesiastes_2:16

preservation from eternal death, but what are contained in the covenant of grace, the promises that are given in Christ, in whom all the promises are yea and amen. But surely they have no interest in the promises of the covenant of grace who are not the children of the covenant, who do not believe in any of the promises, and have no interest in the Mediator of the covenant.

So that, whatever some have imagined and pretended about promises made to natural men's earnest seeking and knocking, it is plain and manifest, that whatever pains a natural man takes in religion, whatever prayers he makes, till he believes in Christ, God is under no manner of obligation to keep him a moment from eternal destruction.

So that, thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold them up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out: and they have no interest in any Mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of; all that preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.

Application

The use of this awful subject may be for awakening unconverted persons in this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of every one of you that are out of Christ. -- That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell's wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.

You probably are not sensible of this; you find you are kept out of hell, but do not see the hand of God in it; but look at other things, as the good state of your bodily constitution, your care of


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your own life, and the means you use for your own preservation. But indeed these things are nothing; if God should withdraw his hand, they would avail no more to keep you from falling, than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspended in it.

Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock. Were it not for the sovereign pleasure of God, the earth would not bear you one moment; for you are a burden to it; the creation groans with you; the creature is made subject to the bondage of your corruption, not willingly; the sun does not willingly shine upon you to give you light to serve sin and Satan; the earth does not willingly yield her increase to satisfy your lusts; nor is it willingly a stage for your wickedness to be acted upon; the air does not willingly serve you for breath to maintain the flame of life in your vitals, while you spend your life in the service of God's enemies. God's creatures are good, and were made for men to serve God with, and do not willingly subserve to any other purpose, and groan when they are abused to purposes so directly contrary to their nature and end. And the world would spew you out, were it not for the sovereign hand of him who hath subjected it in hope. There are the black clouds of God's wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God, it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign pleasure of God, for the present, stays his rough wind; otherwise it would come with fury, and your destruction would come like a whirlwind, and you would be like the chaff on the summer threshing floor.

The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose. It is true, that judgment against your evil works has not been executed hitherto; the floods of God's vengeance have been withheld; but your guilt in the mean time is constantly increasing, and you are every day treasuring up more wrath; the waters are constantly rising, and waxing more and more mighty; and there is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, that holds the waters back, that are


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unwilling to be stopped, and press hard to go forward. If God should only withdraw his hand from the flood-gate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God, would rush forth with inconceivable fury, and would come upon you with omnipotent power; and if your strength were ten thousand times greater than it is, yea, ten thousand times greater than the strength of the stoutest, sturdiest devil in hell, it would be nothing to withstand or endure it.

The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood. Thus all you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls; all you that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life, are in the hands of an angry God. However you may have reformed your life in many things, and may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of religion in your families and closets, and in the house of God, it is nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction. However unconvinced you may now be of the truth of what you hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it. Those that are gone from being in the like circumstances with you, see that it was so with them; for destruction came suddenly upon most of them; when they expected nothing of it, and while they were saying, Peace and safety: now they see, that those things on which they depended for peace and safety, were nothing but thin air and empty shadows.

The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you was suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep. And there is no


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other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God's hand has held you up. There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell.

O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell. You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment. -- And consider here more particularly,

1. Whose wrath it is: it is the wrath of the infinite God. If it were only the wrath of man, though it were of the most potent prince, it would be comparatively little to be regarded. The wrath of kings is very much dreaded, especially of absolute monarchs, who have the possessions and lives of their subjects wholly in their power, to be disposed of at their mere will. Prov. 20:2. "The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion: Whoso provoketh him to anger, sinneth against his own soul." The subject that very much enrages an arbitrary prince, is liable to suffer the most extreme torments that human art can invent, or human power can inflict. But the greatest earthly potentates in their greatest majesty and strength, and when clothed in their greatest terrors, are but feeble, despicable worms of the dust, in comparison of the great and almighty Creator and King of heaven and earth. It is but little that they can do, when most enraged, and when they have exerted the utmost of their fury. All the kings of the earth, before God, are as grasshoppers; they are nothing, and less than nothing: both their love and their hatred is to be despised. The wrath of the great King of kings, is as much more terrible than theirs, as his majesty is greater. Luke 12:4,5. "And I say unto you, my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that, have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear: fear him, which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell: yea, I say


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http://www.ccel.org/study/Proverbs_20:2

http://www.ccel.org/study/Luke_12:4-5

http://www.ccel.org/study/Luke_12:4-5

unto you, Fear him."

2. It is the fierceness of his wrath that you are exposed to. We often read of the fury of God; as in Isa. 59:18. "According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries." So Isa. 66:15. "For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire." And in many other places. So, Rev. 19:15, we read of "the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." The words are exceeding terrible. If it had only been said, "the wrath of God," the words would have implied that which is infinitely dreadful: but it is "the fierceness and wrath of God." The fury of God! the fierceness of Jehovah! Oh, how dreadful that must be! Who can utter or conceive what such expressions carry in them! But it is also "the fierceness and wrath of almighty God." As though there would be a very great manifestation of his almighty power in what the fierceness of his wrath should inflict, as though omnipotence should be as it were enraged, and exerted, as men are wont to exert their strength in the fierceness of their wrath. Oh! then, what will be the consequence! What will become of the poor worms that shall suffer it! Whose hands can be strong? And whose heart can endure? To what a dreadful, inexpressible, inconceivable depth of misery must the poor creature be sunk who shall be the subject of this! Consider this, you that are here present, that yet remain in an unregenerate state. That God will execute the fierceness of his anger, implies, that he will inflict wrath without any pity. When God beholds the ineffable extremity of your case, and sees your torment to be so vastly disproportioned to your strength, and sees how your poor soul is crushed, and sinks down, as it were, into an infinite gloom; he will have no compassion upon you, he will not forbear the executions of his wrath, or in the least lighten his hand; there shall be no moderation or mercy, nor will God then at all stay his rough wind; he will have no regard to your welfare, nor be at all careful lest you should suffer too much in any other sense, than only that you shall not suffer beyond what strict justice requires. Nothing shall be withheld, because it is so hard for you to bear. Ezek. 8:18. "Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them." Now God stands ready to pity you; this is a day of mercy; you may cry now with some encouragement of obtaining mercy. But when once the day of mercy is past, your


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http://www.ccel.org/study/Revelation_19:15




http://www.ccel.org/study/Ezekiel_8:18

http://www.ccel.org/study/Ezekiel_8:18

most lamentable and dolorous cries and shrieks will be in vain; you will be wholly lost and thrown away of God, as to any regard to your welfare. God will have no other use to put you to, but to suffer misery; you shall be continued in being to no other end; for you will be a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction; and there will be no other use of this vessel, but to be filled full of wrath. God will be so far from pitying you when you cry to him, that it is said he will only "laugh and mock," Prov. 1:25,26, etc. How awful are those words, Isa. 63:3, which are the words of the great God. "I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment." It is perhaps impossible to conceive of words that carry in them greater manifestations of these three things, viz. contempt, and hatred, and fierceness of indignation. If you cry to God to pity you, he will be so far from pitying you in your doleful case, or showing you the least regard or favour, that instead of that, he will only tread you under foot. And though he will know that you cannot bear the weight of omnipotence treading upon you, yet he will not regard that, but he will crush you under his feet without mercy; he will crush out your blood, and make it fly, and it shall be sprinkled on his garments, so as to stain all his raiment. He will not only hate you, but he will have you in the utmost contempt: no place shall be thought fit for you, but under his feet to be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

The misery you are exposed to is that which God will inflict to that end, that he might show what that wrath of Jehovah is. God hath had it on his heart to show to angels and men, both how excellent his love is, and also how terrible his wrath is. Sometimes earthly kings have a mind to show how terrible their wrath is, by the extreme punishments they would execute on those that would provoke them. Nebuchadnezzar, that mighty and haughty monarch of the Chaldean empire, was willing to show his wrath when enraged with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; and accordingly gave orders that the burning fiery furnace should be heated seven times hotter than it was before; doubtless, it was raised to the utmost degree of fierceness that human art could raise it. But the great God is also willing to show his wrath, and magnify his awful majesty and mighty power in the extreme sufferings of his enemies. Rom. 9:22. "What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?" And seeing this is his


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http://www.ccel.org/study/Proverbs_1:25-26



http://www.ccel.org/study/Romans_9:22

http://www.ccel.org/study/Romans_9:22

design, and what he has determined, even to show how terrible the unrestrained wrath, the fury and fierceness of Jehovah is, he will do it to effect. There will be something accomplished and brought to pass that will be dreadful with a witness. When the great and angry God hath risen up and executed his awful vengeance on the poor sinner, and the wretch is actually suffering the infinite weight and power of his indignation, then will God call upon the whole universe to behold that awful majesty and mighty power that is to be seen in it. Isa. 33:12-14. "And the people shall be as the burnings of lime, as thorns cut up shall they be burnt in the fire. Hear ye that are far off, what I have done; and ye that are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites," etc.

Thus it will be with you that are in an unconverted state, if you continue in it; the infinite might, and majesty, and terribleness of the omnipotent God shall be magnified upon you, in the ineffable strength of your torments. You shall be tormented in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and when you shall be in this state of suffering, the glorious inhabitants of heaven shall go forth and look on the awful spectacle, that they may see what the wrath and fierceness of the Almighty is; and when they have seen it, they will fall down and adore that great power and majesty. Isa. 66:23,24. "And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh."

3. It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long for ever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been


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http://www.ccel.org/study/Isaiah_33:12-14




spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say about it, gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it; it is inexpressible and inconceivable: For "who knows the power of God's anger?"

How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in the danger of this great wrath and infinite misery! But this is the dismal case of every soul in this congregation that has not been born again, however moral and strict, sober and religious, they may otherwise be. Oh that you would consider it, whether you be young or old! There is reason to think, that there are many in this congregation now hearing this discourse, that will actually be the subjects of this very misery to all eternity. We know not who they are, or in what seats they sit, or what thoughts they now have. It may be they are now at ease, and hear all these things without much disturbance, and are now flattering themselves that they are not the persons, promising themselves that they shall escape. If we knew that there was one person, and but one, in the whole congregation, that was to be the subject of this misery, what an awful thing would it be to think of! If we knew who it was, what an awful sight would it be to see such a person! How might all the rest of the congregation lift up a lamentable and bitter cry over him! But, alas! instead of one, how many is it likely will remember this discourse in hell? And it would be a wonder, if some that are now present should not be in hell in a very short time, even before this year is out. And it would be no wonder if some persons, that now sit here, in some seats of this meeting-house, in health, quiet and secure, should be there before tomorrow morning. Those of you that finally continue in a natural condition, that shall keep out of hell longest will be there in a little time! your damnation does not slumber; it will come swiftly, and, in all probability, very suddenly upon many of you. You have reason to wonder that you are not already in hell. It is doubtless the case of some whom you have seen and known, that never deserved hell more than you, and that heretofore appeared as likely to have been now alive as you. Their case is past all hope; they are crying in extreme misery and perfect despair; but here you are in the land of the living and in the house of God, and have an opportunity to obtain salvation. What would not those poor damned hopeless souls give for one day's opportunity such as you now enjoy!

And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein


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Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open, and stands in calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are flocking to him, and pressing into the kingdom of God. Many are daily coming from the east, west, north and south; many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in, are now in a happy state, with their hearts filled with love to him who has loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. How awful is it to be left behind at such a day! To see so many others feasting, while you are pining and perishing! To see so many rejoicing and singing for joy of heart, while you have cause to mourn for sorrow of heart, and howl for vexation of spirit! How can you rest one moment in such a condition? Are not your souls as precious as the souls of the people at Suffield, where they are flocking from day to day to Christ?

Are there not many here who have lived long in the world, and are not to this day born again? and so are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and have done nothing ever since they have lived, but treasure up wrath against the day of wrath? Oh, sirs, your case, in an especial manner, is extremely dangerous. Your guilt and hardness of heart is extremely great. Do you not see how generality persons of your years are passed over and left, in the present remarkable and wonderful dispensation of God's mercy? You had need to consider yourselves, and awake thoroughly out of sleep. You cannot bear the fierceness and wrath of the infinite God. -- And you, young men, and young women, will you neglect this precious season which you now enjoy, when so many others of your age are renouncing all youthful vanities, and flocking to Christ? You especially have now an extraordinary opportunity; but if you neglect it, it will soon be with you as with those persons who spent all the precious days of youth in sin, and are now come to such a dreadful pass in blindness and hardness. -- And you, children, who are unconverted, do not you know that you are going down to hell, to bear the dreadful wrath of that God, who is now angry with you every day and every night? Will you be content to be the children of the devil, when so many other children in the land are converted, and are become the holy and happy children of the King of kings?

And let every one that is yet out of Christ, and hanging over the pit of hell, whether they be old men and women, or middle aged, or young people, or little children, now hearken to the loud calls of God's word and providence. This acceptable year of the Lord, a day


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of such great favour to some, will doubtless be a day of as remarkable vengeance to others. Men's hearts harden, and their guilt increases apace at such a day as this, if they neglect their souls; and never was there so great danger of such persons being given up to hardness of heart and blindness of mind. God seems now to be hastily gathering in his elect in all parts of the land; and probably the greater part of adult persons that ever shall be saved, will be brought in now in a little time, and that it will be as it was on the great out-pouring of the Spirit upon the Jews in the apostles' days; the election will obtain, and the rest will be blinded. If this should be the case with you, you will eternally curse this day, and will curse the day that ever you was born, to see such a season of the pouring out of God's Spirit, and will wish that you had died and gone to hell before you had seen it. Now undoubtedly it is, as it was in the days of John the Baptist, the axe is in an extraordinary manner laid at the root of the trees, that every tree which brings not forth good fruit, may be hewn down and cast into the fire.

Therefore, let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let every one fly out of Sodom: "Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed."

Lecture 8.4—GEORGE WHITEFIELD, PART I

ASSIGNMENT: Read the selection from George Whitefield’s sermon, The Method of Grace. How are Whitefield’s words and arguments designed to call people to the Gospel?

SELECTION: From The Method of Grace by George Whitefield.

But what shall I say to you that have got no peace with God? -- and these are, perhaps, the most of this congregation: it makes me weep to think of it. Most of you, if you examine your hearts, must confess that God never yet spoke peace to you; you are children of the devil, if Christ is not in you, if God has not spoken peace to your heart. Poor soul! What a cursed condition are you in. I would not be in your case for ten thousand, thousand worlds. Why? You are just hanging over hell. What peace can you have when God is your enemy, when the wrath of God is abiding upon your poor soul?

Awake, then, you that are sleeping in a false peace, awake, ye carnal professors, ye hypocrites that go to church, receive the


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sacrament, read your Bibles, and never felt the power of God upon your hearts; you that are formal professors, you that are baptized heathens; awake, awake, and do not rest on a false bottom. Blame me not for addressing myself to you; indeed, it is out of love to your souls. I see you are lingering in your Sodom, and wanting to stay there; but I come to you as the angel did to Lot, to take you by the hand. Come away, my dear brethren -- fly, fly, fly for your lives to Jesus Christ, fly to a bleeding God, fly to a throne of grace; and beg of God to break your hearts, beg of God to convince you of your actual sins, beg of God to convince you of your original sin, beg of God to convince you of your self-righteousness -- beg of God to give you faith, and to enable you to close with Jesus Christ.

O you that are secure, I must be a son of thunder to you, and O that God may awaken you, though it be with thunder; it is out of love, indeed, that I speak to you. I know by sad experience what it is to be lulled asleep with a false peace; long was I lulled asleep, long did I think myself a Christian, when I knew nothing of the Lord Jesus Christ. I went perhaps farther than many of you do; I used to fast twice a-week, I used to pray sometimes none times a-day, I used to receive the sacrament constantly every Lord"s-day; and yet I knew nothing of Jesus Christ in my heart, I knew not that I must be a new creature -- I knew nothing of inward religion in my soul.

And perhaps, many of you may be deceived as I, poor creature, was; and, therefore, it is out of love to you indeed, that I speak to you. O if you do not take care, a form of religion will destroy your soul; you will rest in it, and will not come to Jesus Christ at all; whereas, these things are only the means, and not the end of religion; Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to all that believe. O, then, awake, you that are settled on your lees; awake you Church professors; awake you that have got a name to live, that are rich and think you want nothing, not considering that you are poor, and blind, and naked; I counsel you to come and buy of Jesus Christ gold, white raiment, and eye-salve.

But I hope there are some that are a little wounded; I hope God does not intend to let me preach in vain; I hope God will reach some of your precious souls, and awaken some of you out of your carnal security; I hope there are some who are willing to come to Christ, and beginning to think that they have been building upon a false foundation. Perhaps the devil may strike in, and bid you despair of mercy; but fear not, what I have been speaking to you is only out of love to you -- is only to awaken you, and let you see


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your danger.

If any of you are willing to be reconciled to God, God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is willing to be reconciled to you. O then, though you have no peace as yet, come away to Jesus Christ; he is our peace, he is our peace-maker -- he has made peace betwixt God and offending man. Would you have peace with God? Away, then, to God through Jesus Christ, who has purchased peace; the Lord Jesus has shed his heart"s blood for this. He died for this; he rose again for this; he ascended into the highest heaven, and is now interceding at the right hand of God.

Perhaps you think there will be no peace for you. Why so? Because you are sinners? Because you have crucified Christ -- you have put him to open shame -- you have trampled under foot the blood of the Son of God? What of all this? Yet there is peace for you. Pray, what did Jesus Christ say of his disciples, when he came to them the first day of the week? The first word he said was, "Peace be unto you;" he showed them his hands and his side, and said, "Peace be unto you." It is as much as if he had said, Fear not, my disciples; see my hands and my feet how they have been pierced for your sake; therefore fear not.

How did Christ speak to his disciples? "Go tell my brethren, and tell broken-hearted Peter in particular, that Christ is risen, that he is ascended unto his Father and your Father, to his God and your God." And after Christ rose from the dead, he came preaching peace, with an olive branch of peace, like Noah"s dove; "My peace I leave with you." Who were they? They were enemies of Christ as well as we, they were deniers of Christ once as well as we. Perhaps some of you have backslidden and lost your peace, and you think you deserve no peace; and no more you do. But, then, God will heal your backslidings, he will love you freely. As for you that are wounded, if you are made willing to come to Christ, come away. Perhaps some of you want to dress yourselves in your duties, that are but rotten rags. No, you had better come naked as you are, for you must throw aside your rags, and come in your blood. Some of you may say, We would come, but we have got a hard heart. But you will never get it made soft till ye come to Christ; he will take away the heart of stone, and give you an heart of flesh; he will speak peace to your souls; though ye have betrayed him, yet he will be your peace.

Shall I prevail upon any of you this morning to come to Jesus Christ? There is a great multitude of souls here; how shortly must


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you all die, and go to judgment! Even before night, or to-morrow"s night, some of you may be laid out for this kirk-yard. And how will you do if you be not at peace with God -- if the Lord Jesus Christ has not spoken peace to your heart? If God speak not peace to you here, you will be damned for ever. I must not flatter you, my dear friends; I will deal sincerely with your souls. Some of you may think I carry things too far. But, indeed, when you come to judgment, you will find what I say is true, either to your eternal damnation or comfort.

May God influence your hearts to come to him! I am not willing to go away without persuading you. I cannot be persuaded but God may make use of me as a means of persuading some of you to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. O did you but feel the peace which they have that love the Lord Jesus Christ! "Great peace have they," say the psalmist, "that love they law; nothing shall offend them." But there is no peace to the wicked. I know what it is to live a life of sin; I was obliged to sin in order to stifle conviction. And I am sure this is the way many of you take; If you get into company, you drive off conviction. But you had better go to the bottom at once; it must be done -- your wound must be searched, or you must be damned. If it were a matter of indifference, I would not speak one word about it. But you will be damned without Christ. He is the way, he is the truth, and the life. I cannot think you should go to hell without Christ. How can you dwell with everlasting burnings? How can you abide the thought of living with the devil for ever? Is it not better to have some soul-trouble here, than to be sent to hell by Jesus Christ hereafter? What is hell, but to be absent from Christ? If there were no other hell, that would be hell enough. It will be hell to be tormented with the devil for ever. Get acquaintance with God, then, and be at peace.

I beseech you, as a poor worthless ambassador of Jesus Christ, that you would be reconciled to God. My business this morning, the first day of the week, is to tell you that Christ is willing to be reconciled to you. Will any of you be reconciled to Jesus Christ? Then, he will forgive you all your sins, he will blot out all your transgressions. But if you will go on and rebel against Christ, and stab him daily -- if you will go on and abuse Jesus Christ, the wrath of God you must expect will fall upon you. God will not be mocked; that which a man soweth, that shall he also reap. And if you will not be at peace with God, God will not be at peace with you. Who can stand before God when he is angry? It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. When the people came to


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apprehend Christ, they fell to the ground when Jesus said, "I am he." And if they could not bear the sight of Christ when clothed with the rags of mortality, how will they hear the sight of him when he is on his Father"s throne?

Methinks I see the poor wretches dragged out of their graves by the devil; methinks I see them trembling, crying out to the hills and rocks to cover them. But the devil will say, Come, I will take you away; and then they shall stand trembling before the judgment-seat of Christ. They shall appear before him to see him once, and hear him pronounce that irrevocable sentence, "Depart from me, ye cursed." Methinks I hear the poor creatures saying, Lord, if we must be damned, let some angel pronounce the sentence. No, the God of love, Jesus Christ, will pronounce it. Will ye not believe this?

Do not think I am talking at random, but agreeably to the Scriptures of truth. If you do not, then show yourselves men, and this morning go away with full resolution, in the strength of God, to cleave to Christ. And may you have no rest in your souls till you rest in Jesus Christ! I could still go on, for it is sweet to talk of Christ. Do you not long for the time when you shall have new bodies -- when they shall be immortal, and made like Christ"s glorious body? And then they will talk of Jesus Christ for evermore. But it is time, perhaps, for you to go and prepare for your respective worship, and I would not hinder any of you. My design is, to bring poor sinners to Jesus Christ. O that God may bring some of you to himself! May the Lord Jesus now dismiss you with his blessing, and may the dear Redeemer convince you that are unawakened, and turn the wicked from the evil of their way! And may the love of God, that passeth all understanding, fill your hearts. Grant this, O Father, for Christ"s sake; to whom, with thee and the blessed Spirit, be all honor and glory, now and for evermore. Amen.

Lecture 8.5—GEORGE WHITEFIELD, PART II


1. What is the relationship between Liberty, Grace, and Propitiation?

2. Why was the verse, “Behold, I make all things new,” a motto of the Great Awakening?

3. Describe the culture of England prior to the Great Awakening in


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detail.

4. Describe the culture of the American colonies prior to the Great Awakening in detail.

5. Describe the character, life, and work of Theodore Frelinghuysen or William Tennent.

6. Describe the character, life, and work of Jonathan Edwards.

7. What is significant about the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”? What did this sermon achieve?

8. Narrate the early life of George Whitefield and explain how is natural talents were used for his calling as a pastor and preacher.

9. In what ways were George Whitefield’s sermons compelling? Why do you think he had such an effect upon so many?

10.What did the Great Awakening provide for the colonies of America? How did this movement help our later declaration of independence from Great Britain?


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Lesson 9FATHERS OF INDEPENDENCE: ADAMS,

FRANKLIN, WITHERSPOON, AND HENRY


ASSIGNMENT: Read The Rights of the Colonists by Samuel Adams. What principles does Samuel Adams appeal to to defend the colonists? Are these principles found in the Scriptures? If so, where?

SELECTION: The Rights of the Colonists by Samuel Adams. Delivered November 20, 1772.

I. Natural Rights of the Colonists as Men.

Among the natural rights of the Colonists are these: First, a right to life; Secondly, to liberty; Thirdly, to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can. These are evident branches of, rather than deductions from, the duty of self-preservation, commonly called the first law of nature.

All men have a right to remain in a state of nature as long as they please; and in case of intolerable oppression, civil or religious, to leave the society they belong to, and enter into another.

When men enter into society, it is by voluntary consent; and they have a right to demand and insist upon the performance of such conditions and previous limitations as form an equitable original compact.

Every natural right not expressly given up, or, from the nature of a social compact, necessarily ceded, remains.

All positive and civil laws should conform, as far as possible, to the law of natural reason and equity.

As neither reason requires nor religion permits the contrary, every man living in or out of a state of civil society has a right peaceably and quietly to worship God according to the dictates of his conscience.

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"Just and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty," in matters spiritual and temporal, is a thing that all men are clearly entitled to by the eternal and immutable laws of God and nature, as well as by the law of nations and all well-grounded municipal laws, which must have their foundation in the former.

In regard to religion, mutual toleration in the different professions thereof is what all good and candid minds in all ages have ever practiced, and, both by precept and example, inculcated on mankind. And it is now generally agreed among Christians that this spirit of toleration, in the fullest extent consistent with the being of civil society, is the chief characteristical mark of the Church. Insomuch that Mr. Locke has asserted and proved, beyond the possibility of contradiction on any solid ground, that such toleration ought to be extended to all whose doctrines are not subversive of society. The only sects which he thinks ought to be, and which by all wise laws are excluded from such toleration, are those who teach doctrines subversive of the civil government under which they live. The Roman Catholics or Papists are excluded by reason of such doctrines as these, that princes excommunicated may be deposed, and those that they call heretics may be destroyed without mercy; besides their recognizing the Pope in so absolute a manner, in subversion of government, by introducing, as far as possible into the states under whose protection they enjoy life, liberty, and property, that solecism in politics, imperium in imperio, leading directly to the worst anarchy and confusion, civil discord, war, and bloodshed.

The natural liberty of man, by entering into society, is abridged or restrained, so far only as is necessary for the great end of society, the best good of the whole.

In the state of nature every man is, under God, judge and sole judge of his own rights and of the injuries done him. By entering into society he agrees to an arbiter or indifferent judge between him and his neighbors; but he no more renounces his original right than by taking a cause out of the ordinary course of law, and leaving the decision to referees or indifferent arbitrators.

In the last case, he must pay the referees for time and trouble. He should also be willing to pay his just quota for the support of government, the law, and the constitution; the end of which is to furnish indifferent and impartial judges in all cases that may happen, whether civil, ecclesiastical, marine, or military.


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The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the law of nature for his rule.

In the state of nature men may, as the patriarchs did, employ hired servants for the defense of their lives, liberties, and property; and they should pay them reasonable wages. Government was instituted for the purposes of common defense, and those who hold the reins of government have an equitable, natural right to an honorable support from the same principle that "the laborer is worthy of his hire." But then the same community which they serve ought to be the assessors of their pay. Governors have no right to seek and take what they please; by this, instead of being content with the station assigned them, that of honorable servants of the society, they would soon become absolute masters, despots, and tyrants. Hence, as a private man has a right to say what wages he will give in his private affairs, so has a community to determine what they will give and grant of their substance for the administration of public affairs. And, in both cases, more are ready to offer their service at the proposed and stipulated price than are able and willing to perform their duty.

In short, it is the greatest absurdity to suppose it in the power of one, or any number of men, at the entering into society, to renounce their essential natural rights, or the means of preserving those rights; when the grand end of civil government, from the very nature of its institution, is for the support, protection, and defense of those very rights; the principal of which, as is before observed, are Life, Liberty, and Property. If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation. The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.

II. The Rights of the Colonists as Christians.

These may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutes of the great Law Giver and Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament.

By the act of the British Parliament, commonly called the Toleration Act, every subject in England, except Papists, &c., was restored to, and re-


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established in, his natural right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. And, by the charter of this Province, it is granted, ordained, and established (that is, declared as an original right) that there shall be liberty of conscience allowed in the worship of God to all Christians, except Papists, inhabiting, or which shall inhabit or be resident within, such Province or Territory. Magna Charta itself is in substance but a constrained declaration or proclamation and promulgation in the name of the King, Lords, and Commons, of the sense the latter had of their original, inherent, indefeasible natural rights, as also those of free citizens equally perdurable with the other. That great author, that great jurist, and even that court writer, Mr. Justice Blackstone, holds that this recognition was justly obtained of King John, sword in hand. And peradventure it must be one day, sword in hand, again rescued and preserved from total destruction and oblivion.

III. The Rights of the Colonists as Subjects.

A commonwealth or state is a body politic, or civil society of men, united together to promote their mutual safety and prosperity by means of their union.

The absolute rights of Englishmen and all freemen, in or out of civil society, are principally personal security, personal liberty, and private property.

All persons born in the British American Colonies are, by the laws of God and nature and by the common law of England, exclusive of all charters from the Crown, well entitled, and by acts of the British Parliament are declared to be entitled, to all the natural, essential, inherent, and inseparable rights, liberties, and privileges of subjects born in Great Britain or within the realm. Among those rights are the following, which no man, or body of men, consistently with their own rights as men and citizens, or members of society, can for themselves give up or take away from others.

First, "The first fundamental, positive law of all common wealths or states is the establishing the legislative power. As the first fundamental natural law, also, which is to govern even the legislative power itself, is the preservation of the society."

Secondly, The Legislative has no right to absolute, arbitrary power over the lives and fortunes of the people; nor can mortals assume a


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prerogative not only too high for men, but for angels, and therefore reserved for the exercise of the Deity alone.

"The Legislative cannot justly assume to itself a power to rule by extempore arbitrary decrees; but it is bound to see that justice is dispensed, and that the rights of the subjects be decided by promulgated, standing, and known laws, and authorized independent judges"; that is, independent, as far as possible, of Prince and people. "There should be one rule of justice for rich and poor, for the favorite at court, and the countryman at the plough."

Thirdly, The supreme power cannot justly take from any man any part of his property, without his consent in person or by his representative.

These are some of the first principles of natural law and justice, and the great barriers of all free states and of the British Constitution in particular. It is utterly irreconcilable to these principles and to many other fundamental maxims of the common law, common sense, and reason that a British House of Commons should have a right at pleasure to give and grant the property of the Colonists. (That the Colonists are well entitled to all the essential rights, liberties, and privileges of men and freemen born in Britain is manifest not only from the Colony charters in general, but acts of the British Parliament.) The statute of the 13th of Geo. 2, C. 7, naturalizes even foreigners after seven years' residence. The words of the Massachusetts charter are these: "And further, our will and pleasure is, and we do hereby for us, our heirs, and successors, grant, establish, and ordain, that all and every of the subjects of us, our heirs, and successors, which shall go to, and inhabit within our said Province or Territory, and every of their children, which shall happen to be born there or on the seas in going thither or returning from thence, shall have and enjoy all liberties and immunities of free and natural subjects within any of the dominions [422]of us, our heirs, and successors, to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever as if they and every one of them were born within this our realm of England."

Now what liberty can there be where property is taken away without consent? Can it be said with any color of truth and justice, that this continent of three thousand miles in length, and of a breadth as yet unexplored, in which, however, it is supposed there are five millions of people, has the least voice, vote, or influence in the British Parliament? Have they all together any more weight or power to return a single


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member to that House of Commons who have not inadvertently, but deliberately, assumed a power to dispose of their lives, liberties, and properties, than to choose an Emperor of China? Had the Colonists a right to return members to the British Parliament, it would only be hurtful; as, from their local situation and circumstances, it is impossible they should ever be truly and properly represented there. The inhabitants of this country, in all probability, in a few years, will be more numerous than those of Great Britain and Ireland together; yet it is absurdly expected by the promoters of the present measures that these, with their posterity to all generations, should be easy, while their property shall be disposed of by a House of Commons at three thousand miles' distance from them, and who cannot be supposed to have the least care or concern for their real interest; who have not only no natural care for their interest, but must be in effect bribed against it, as every burden they lay on the Colonists is so much saved or gained to themselves. Hitherto, many of the Colonists have been free from quit rents; but if the breath of a British House of Commons can originate an act for taking away all our money, our lands will go next, or be subject to rack rents from haughty and relentless landlords, who will ride at ease, while we are trodden in the dirt. The Colonists have been branded with the odious names of traitors and rebels only for complaining of their grievances. How long such treatment will or ought to be borne, is submitted.

Lecture 9.2—SAMUEL ADAMS

ASSIGNMENT: Read The Divine Source of Liberty by Samuel Adams. How does he define liberty?

SELECTION: The Divine Source of Liberty by Samuel Adams.

All temporal power is of God,And the magistratal, His institution, laud,To but advance creaturely happiness aubaud:

Let us then affirm the Source of Liberty.

Ever agreeable to the nature and will,Of the Supreme and Guardian of all yet stillEmployed for our rights and freedom's thrill:

Thus proves the only Source of Liberty.

Though our civil joy is surely expressed


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Through hearth, and home, and church manifest,Yet this too shall be a nation's true test:

To acknowledge the divine Source of Liberty.

Lecture 9.3—BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

ASSIGNMENT: Research and recreate (or draw) an invention of Benjamin Franklin.

Lecture 9.4—JOHN WITHERSPOON

ASSIGNMENT: Read the selection from The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men by John Witherspoon. Based upon this reading, how did faith influence politics in the days of America’s founding?

SELECTION: From The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men by John Witherspoon, preached May 17, 1775.

In the first place, I would take the opportunity on this occasion, and from this subject, to press every hearer to a sincere concern for his own soul’s salvation. There are times when the mind may be expected to be more awake to divine truth, and the conscience more open to the arrows of conviction than at others. A season of public judgment is of this kind. Can you have a clearer view of the sinfulness of your nature, than when the rod of the oppressor is lifted up, and when you see men putting on the habit of the warrior, and collecting on every hand the weapons of hostility and instruments of death? I do not blame your ardor in preparing for the resolute defense of your temporal rights; but consider, I beseech you, the truly infinite importance of the salvation of your souls. Is it of much moment whether you and your children shall be rich or poor, at liberty or in bonds? Is it of much moment whether this beautiful country shall increase in fruitfulness from year to year, being cultivated by active industry, and possessed by independent freemen, or the scanty produce of the neglected fields shall be eaten up by hungry publicans, while the timid owner trembles at the tax-gatherer’s approach? And is it of less moment, my brethren, whether you shall be the heirs of glory, or the heirs of hell? Is your state on earth for a few fleeting years, of so much moment? And is it of less moment what shall be your state through endless ages? Have you assembled together willingly to hear what shall be said on public affairs, and to join in imploring the blessing of God on the counsels and arms of the United Colonies, and can you be unconcerned what shall become of you for ever, when all the monuments


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of human greatness shall be laid in ashes, for "the earth itself, and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up."

Wherefore, my beloved hearers, as the ministry of reconciliation is committed to me, I beseech you in the most earnest manner, to attend to "the things that belong to your peace, before they are hid from your eyes". How soon, and in what manner a seal shall be set upon the character and state of every person here present, it is impossible to know. But you may rest assured, that there is no time more suitable, and there is none so safe as that which is present, since it is wholly uncertain whether any other shall be yours. Those who shall first fall in battle, have not many more warnings to receive. There are some few daring and hardened sinners, who despise eternity itself, and set their Maker at defiance; but the far greater number, by staving off their convictions to a more convenient season, have been taken unprepared, and thus eternally lost. I would therefore earnestly press the apostle’s exhortation, 2 Corinthians 6: 1-2... "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

Suffer me to beseech you, or rather to give you warning, not to rest satisfied with a form of godliness, denying the power thereof. There can be no true religion, till there be a discovery of your lost state by nature and practice, and an unfeigned acceptance of Christ Jesus, as he is offered in the gospel. Unhappy are they who either despise his mercy, or are ashamed of his cross. Believe it, "There is no salvation in any other." "There is no other name under heaven given amongst men by which we must be saved." Unless you are united to him by a lively faith, not the resentment of a haughty monarch, the sword of divine justice hangs over you, and the fulness of divine vengeance shall speedily overtake you. I do not speak this only to the heaven-daring profligate or groveling sensualist, but to every insensible, secure sinner; to all those, however decent and orderly in their civil deportment, who live to themselves, and have their part and portion in this life; in fine, to all who are yet in a state of nature, for "except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God". The fear of man may make you hide your profanity; prudence and experience may make you abhor intemperance and riot; as you advance in life one vice may supplant another and hold its place; but nothing less than the sovereign grace of God can produce a saving change of heart and temper, or fit you for his immediate presence...

While we give praise to God, the supreme Disposer of all events, for his interposition in our behalf, let us guard against the dangerous error of trusting in, or boasting of an arm of flesh. I could earnestly wish, that


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while our arms are crowned with success, we might content ourselves with a modest ascription of it to the power of the Highest. It has given me great uneasiness to read some ostentatious, vaunting expressions in our newspapers, though happily, I think, much restrained of late. Let us not return to them again. If I am not mistaken, not only the Holy Scriptures in general, and the truths of the glorious gospel in particular, but the whole course of providence, seem intended to abase the pride of man, and lay the vain-glorious in the dust...

From what has been said you may learn what encouragement you have to put your trust in God, and hope for his assistance in the present important conflict. He is the Lord of hosts, great in might, and strong in battle. Whoever hath his countenance and approbation, shall have the best at last. I do not mean to speak prophetically, but agreeably to the analogy of faith, and the principles of God’s moral government. I leave this as a matter rather of conjecture than certainty, but observe, that if your conduct is prudent, you need not fear the multitude of opposing hosts.

If your cause is just, you may look with confidence to the Lord, and intreat him to plead it as his own. You are all my witnesses, that this is the first time of my introducing any political subject into the pulpit. At this season, however, it is not only lawful but necessary, and I willingly embrace the opportunity of declaring my opinion without any hesitation, that the cause in which America is now in arms, is the cause of justice, of liberty, and of human nature. So far as we have hitherto proceeded, I am satisfied that the confederacy of the colonies has not been the effect of pride, resentment, or sedition, but of a deep and general conviction that our civil and religious liberties, and consequently in a great measure the temporal and eternal happiness of us and our posterity, depended on the issue. The knowledge of God and his truths have from the beginning of the world been chiefly, if not entirely confined to those parts of the earth where some degree of liberty and political justice were to be seen, and great were the difficulties with which they had to struggle, from the imperfection of human society, and the unjust decisions of usurped authority. There is not a single instance in history, in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire. If therefore we yield up our temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into bondage.

Lecture 9.5—PATRICK HENRY



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1. What is the difference between Moral Philosophy and Moralisms?

2. How did Moral Philosophy and the love of justice, mercy, and humility influence the Founding Fathers’ decision to declare independence?

3. Narrate the life of Samuel Adams.

4. How did the faith of Samuel Adams affect his leadership?

5. Narrate the life of Benjamin Franklin.

6. Explain Benjamin Franklin’s motto, “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.”

7. Narrate the life of John Witherspoon.

8. How did John Witherspoon influence the Constitution of the United States?

9. Narrate the life of Patrick Henry.

10. Describe the faith of Patrick Henry through his daily habits, his work, and his twilight years as a farmer.


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Lesson 10LIBERTY OR DEATH: THE DECLARATION OF

INDEPENDENCE


ASSIGNMENT: Read Liberty or Death by Patrick Henry. How does Henry convince people that a fight is the just and only option?

SELECTION: Liberty or Death by Patrick Henry, delivered March 23, 1775.

No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.

Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been

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lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies?

No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free—if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending—if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained—we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!

They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of


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effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable—and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, peace, peace—but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

Lecture 10.2—NARRATIVE OF DATES I

ASSIGNMENT: Read the selection from Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One by Benjamin Franklin. How does Franklin use sarcasm to show what the British should not do?

SELECTION: From Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One by Benjamin Franklin.

An ancient Sage valued himself upon this, that tho' he could not fiddle, he knew how to make a great City of a little one. The Science that I, a modern Simpleton, am about to communicate is the very reverse.

I address myself to all Ministers who have the Management of extensive Dominions, which from their very Greatness are become troublesome to govern, because the Multiplicity of their Affairs leaves no Time for fiddling.


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I. In the first Place, Gentlemen, you are to consider, that a great Empire, like a great Cake, is most easily diminished at the Edges. Turn your Attention therefore first to your remotest Provinces; that as you get rid of them, the next may follow in Order.

II. That the Possibility of this Separation may always exist, take special Care the Provinces are never incorporated with the Mother Country, that they do not enjoy the same common Rights, the same Privileges in Commerce, and that they are governed by severer Laws, all of your enacting, without allowing them any Share in the Choice of the Legislators. By carefully making and preserving such Distinctions, you will (to keep to my Simile of the Cake) act like a wise Gingerbread Baker, who, to facilitate a Division, cuts his Dough half through in those Places, where, when bak'd, he would have it broken to Pieces.

III. However peaceably your Colonies have submitted to your Government, shown their Affection to your Interest, and patiently borne their Grievances, you are to suppose them always inclined to revolt, and treat them accordingly. Quarter Troops among them, who by their Insolence may provoke the rising of Mobs, and by their Bullets and Bayonets suppress them. By this Means, like the Husband who uses his Wife ill from Suspicion, you may in Time convert your Suspicions into Realities.

IV. Remote Provinces must have Governors, and Judges, to represent the Royal Person, and execute every where the delegated Parts of his Office and Authority. You Ministers know, that much of the Strength of Government depends on the Opinion of the People; and much of that Opinion on the Choice of Rulers placed immediately over them. If you send them wise and good Men for Governors, who study the Interest of the Colonists, and advance their Prosperity, they will think their King wise and good, and that he wishes the Welfare of his Subjects. If you send them learned and upright Men for Judges, they will think him a Lover of Justice. This may attach your Provinces more to his Government. You are therefore to be careful who you recommend for those Offices. -- If you can find Prodigals who have ruined their Fortunes, broken Gamesters or Stock-Jobbers, these may do well as Governors; for they will probably be rapacious, and provoke the People by their Extortions. Wrangling Proctors and petty-fogging Lawyers too are not amiss, for they will be for ever disputing and quarreling with their little Parliaments. If withal they should be ignorant, wrong-headed and insolent, so much the better. Attorneys Clerks and Newgate Solicitors will do for Chief-Justices, especially if they hold their Places during your Pleasure: -- And all will contribute to


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impress those ideas of your Government that are proper for a People you would wish to renounce it.

V. If when you are engaged in War, your Colonies should vie in liberal Aids of Men and Money against the common Enemy, upon your simple Requisition, and give far beyond their Abilities, reflect, that a Penny taken from them by your Power is more honorable to you than a Pound presented by their Benevolence. Despise therefore their voluntary Grants, and resolve to harass them with novel Taxes. They will probably complain to your Parliaments that they are taxed by a Body in which they have no Representative, and that this is contrary to common Right. They will petition for Redress. Let the Parliaments flout their Claims, reject their Petitions, refuse even to suffer the reading of them, and treat the Petitioners with the utmost Contempt. Nothing can have a better Effect, in producing the Alienation proposed; for though many can forgive Injuries, none ever forgave Contempt.

VI. Possibly indeed some of them might still comfort themselves, and say, `Though we have no Property, we have yet something left that is valuable; we have constitutional Liberty both of Person and of Conscience. This King, these Lords, and these Commons, who it seems are too remote from us to know us and feel for us, cannot take from us our Habeas Corpus Right, or our Right of Trial by a Jury of our Neighbors: They cannot deprive us of the Exercise of our Religion, alter our ecclesiastical Constitutions, and compel us to be Papists if they please, or Mahometans.' To annihilate this Comfort, begin by Laws to perplex their Commerce with infinite Regulations impossible to be remembered and observed; ordain Seizures of their Property for every Failure; take away the Trial of such Property by Jury, and give it to arbitrary Judges of your own appointing, and of the lowest Characters in the Country, whose Salaries and Emoluments are to arise out of the Duties or Condemnations, and whose Appointments are during Pleasure. Then let there be a formal Declaration of both Houses, that Opposition to your Edicts is Treason, and that Persons suspected of Treason in the Provinces may, according to some obsolete Law, be seized and sent to the Metropolis of the Empire for Trial; and pass an Act that those there charged with certain other Offenses shall be sent away in Chains from their Friends and Country to be tried in the same Manner for Felony. Then erect a new Court of Inquisition among them, accompanied by an armed Force, with Instructions to transport all such suspected Persons, to be ruined by the Expense if they bring over Evidences to prove their Innocence, or be found guilty and hanged if they can't afford it.


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And lest the People should think you cannot possibly go any farther, pass another solemn declaratory Act, that `King, Lords, and Commons had, hath, and of Right ought to have, full Power and Authority to make Statutes of sufficient Force and Validity to bind the unrepresented Provinces IN ALL CASES WHATSOEVER.' This will include spiritual with temporal; and taken together, must operate wonderfully to your Purpose, by convincing them, that they are at present under a Power something like that spoken of in the Scriptures, which can not only kill their Bodies, but damn their Souls to all Eternity, by compelling them, if it pleases, to worship the Devil.

VII. To make your Taxes more odious, and more likely to procure Resistance, send from the Capital a Board of Officers to superintend the Collection, composed of the most indiscreet, ill-bred and insolent you can find. Let these have large Salaries out of the extorted Revenue, and live in open grating Luxury upon the Sweat and Blood of the Industrious, whom they are to worry continually with groundless and expensive Prosecutions before the above-mentioned arbitrary Revenue-Judges, all at the Cost of the Party prosecuted tho' acquitted, because the King is to pay no Costs. -- Let these Men by your Order be exempted from all the common Taxes and Burthens of the Province, though they and their Property are protected by its Laws. If any Revenue Officers are suspected of the least Tenderness for the People, discard them. If others are justly complained of, protect and reward them. If any of the Under-officers behave so as to provoke the People to drub them, promote those to better Offices: This will encourage others to procure for themselves such profitable Drubbings, by multiplying and enlarging such Provocations, and all with work towards the End you aim at.

VIII. If the Parliaments of your Provinces should dare to claim Rights or complain of your Administration, order them to be harass'd with repeated Dissolutions. If the same Men are continually return'd by new Elections, adjourn their Meetings to some Country Village where they cannot be accommodated, and there keep them during Pleasure; for this, you know, is your PREROGATIVE; and an excellent one it is, as you may manage it, to promote Discontents among the People, diminish their Respect, and increase their Dis-affection.

IX. If you are told of Discontents in your Colonies, never believe that they are general, or that you have given Occasion for them; therefore do not think of applying any Remedy, or of changing any offensive Measure. Redress no Grievance, lest they should be


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encouraged to demand the Redress of some other Grievance. Grant no Request that is just and reasonable, lest they should make another that is unreasonable. Take all your Informations of the State of the Colonies from your Governors and Officers in Enmity with them. Encourage and reward these Leasing-makers; secrete their lying Accusations lest they should be confuted; but act upon them as the clearest Evidence, and believe nothing you hear from the Friends of the People. Suppose all their Complaints to be invented and promoted by a few factious Demagogues, whom if you could catch and hang, all would be quiet. Catch and hang a few of them accordingly; and the Blood of the Martyrs shall work Miracles in favor of your Purpose.

X. Send Armies into their Country under Pretense of protecting the Inhabitants; but instead of garrisoning the Forts on their Frontiers with those Troops, to prevent Incursions, demolish those Forts, and order the Troops into the Heart of the Country, that the Savages may be encouraged to attack the Frontiers, and that the Troops may be protected by the Inhabitants: This will seem to proceed from your Ill will or your Ignorance, and contribute farther to produce and strengthen an Opinion among them, that you are no longer fit to govern them.

XI. Lastly, Invest the General of your Army in the Provinces with great and unconstitutional Powers, and free him from the Control of even your own Civil Governors. Let him have Troops enow under his Command, with all the Fortresses in his Possession; and who knows but (like some provincial Generals in the Roman Empire, and encouraged by the universal Discontent you have produced) he may take it into his Head to set up for himself. If he should, and you have carefully practiced these few excellent Rules of mine, take my Word for it, all the Provinces will immediately join him, and you will that Day (if you have not done it sooner) get rid of the Trouble of governing them, and all the Plagues attending their Commerce and Connection from thenceforth and for ever.

Lecture 10.3—NARRATIVE OF DATES II

ASSIGNMENT: Read Paul Revere’s Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow aloud. Read this again aloud and enjoy!

SELECTION: Paul Revere’s Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Listen my children and you shall hear:Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;


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Hardly a man is now aliveWho remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, "If the British marchBy land or sea from the town to-night,Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry archOf the North Church tower as a signal light,—One if by land, and two if by sea;And I on the opposite shore will be,Ready to ride and spread the alarmThrough every Middlesex village and farm,For the country folk to be up and to arm."

Then he said "Good-night!" and with muffled oarSilently rowed to the Charlestown shore,Just as the moon rose over the bay,Where swinging wide at her moorings layThe Somerset, British man-of-war;A phantom ship, with each mast and sparAcross the moon like a prison bar,And a huge black hulk, that was magnifiedBy its own reflection in the tide.

Meanwhile, his friend through alley and streetWanders and watches, with eager ears,Till in the silence around him he hearsThe muster of men at the barrack door,The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,And the measured tread of the grenadiers,Marching down to their boats on the shore.

Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,To the belfry chamber overhead,And startled the pigeons from their perchOn the sombre rafters, that round him madeMasses and moving shapes of shade,—By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,To the highest window in the wall,Where he paused to listen and look down


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A moment on the roofs of the townAnd the moonlight flowing over all.

Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,In their night encampment on the hill,Wrapped in silence so deep and stillThat he could hear, like a sentinel's tread,The watchful night-wind, as it wentCreeping along from tent to tent,And seeming to whisper, "All is well!"A moment only he feels the spellOf the place and the hour, and the secret dreadOf the lonely belfry and the dead;For suddenly all his thoughts are bentOn a shadowy something far away,Where the river widens to meet the bay,—A line of black that bends and floatsOn the rising tide like a bridge of boats.

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,Booted and spurred, with a heavy strideOn the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.Now he patted his horse's side,Now he gazed at the landscape far and near,Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,And turned and tightened his saddle girth;But mostly he watched with eager searchThe belfry tower of the Old North Church,As it rose above the graves on the hill,Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's heightA glimmer, and then a gleam of light!He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,But lingers and gazes, till full on his sightA second lamp in the belfry burns.

A hurry of hoofs in a village street,A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a sparkStruck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;


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That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,The fate of a nation was riding that night;And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,Kindled the land into flame with its heat.

He has left the village and mounted the steep,And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;And under the alders that skirt its edge,Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.

It was twelve by the village clockWhen he crossed the bridge into Medford town.He heard the crowing of the cock,And the barking of the farmer's dog,And felt the damp of the river fog,That rises after the sun goes down.

It was one by the village clock,When he galloped into Lexington.He saw the gilded weathercockSwim in the moonlight as he passed,And the meeting-house windows, black and bare,Gaze at him with a spectral glare,As if they already stood aghastAt the bloody work they would look upon.

It was two by the village clock,When he came to the bridge in Concord town.He heard the bleating of the flock,And the twitter of birds among the trees,And felt the breath of the morning breezeBlowing over the meadow brown.And one was safe and asleep in his bedWho at the bridge would be first to fall,Who that day would be lying dead,Pierced by a British musket ball.


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You know the rest. In the books you have readHow the British Regulars fired and fled,—How the farmers gave them ball for ball,From behind each fence and farmyard wall,Chasing the redcoats down the lane,Then crossing the fields to emerge againUnder the trees at the turn of the road,And only pausing to fire and load.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;And so through the night went his cry of alarmTo every Middlesex village and farm,—A cry of defiance, and not of fear,A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,And a word that shall echo for evermore!For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,Through all our history, to the last,In the hour of darkness and peril and need,The people will waken and listen to hearThe hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

Lecture 10.4—NARRATIVE OF DATES III

ASSIGNMENT: Read The Declaration of Independence. For what specific reasons did the American colonies declare independence?

SELECTION: The Declaration of Independence.

In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.A DECLARATION

By the REPRESENTATIVES of theUNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

In GENERAL CONGRESS assembled.

WHEN in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle


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them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness—-That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shown, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the Present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.

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

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People; unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.

He has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.


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He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.

He has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

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

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and Amount and Payment of their Salaries.

He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance.

He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislature.

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

He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:

For imposing taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offenses:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule in these Colonies:


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

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Powers to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.

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

He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic Insurrections among us, and has endeavored to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.

Nor have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly


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Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great-Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of the divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Lecture 10.5—THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE


1. How was the Declaration of Independence a Covenant Lawsuit?

2. How was declaring independence an obedience of the Greatest Commandment?

3. Name at least 3 reasons why the American colonies had a right to rebel.

4. How was the Declaration of Independence a reformational action and not a revolutionary one?

5. What was the Stamp Act and why did the colonists oppose it?

6. What were the Townsend Acts and why did the colonists oppose them?

7. What policies and events led to the Boston Massacre?

8. What was the Boston Tea Party and how was it a peaceful and principled resistance?

9. Name at least 3 ways in which the British Parliament punished Boston for the Tea Party.

10. How did the American colonies and the Continental Congress respond to the unjust and hostile actions of the British Parliament and military?

11. Narrate the tale of one of the following battles: Lexington and Concord, Fort Ticonderoga, or Bunker Hill.

12. Why was the Declaration of Independence the last resort of the American colonies?


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Lesson 11AWESOME PROVIDENCE: THE WAR OF

INDEPENDENCE I


ASSIGNMENT: 1) Read Romans 13:1-6. What duties do believers owe to the civil authority? Why? 2) Read Judges 3. How do the resistances of Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar demonstrate a respect for proper authority? Or, who was the proper authority over Israel? 3) Read Acts 4:1-22 and 5:17-42. For what valid reasons did the apostles resist the local authorities? 4) Read Proverbs 24:10-12. What justice does this verse require? How was this evident in the American War of Independence with the British government’s treatment of Boston, etc.?

Lecture 11.2—THE BLACK REGIMENT

ASSIGNMENT: Read the sermon and prayer of Samuel Doak prior to the battle of Kings Mountain. What causes does Doak provide for rebelling against the British crown? To what or whom does Doak appeal for help?

SELECTION: Sermon and prayer of Samuel Doak. Preached at Sycamore Shoals, Tennessee on September 26, 1780.

My countrymen, you are about to set out on an expedition which is full of hardships and dangers, but one in which the Almighty will attend you. The Mother Country has her hands upon you, these American Colonies, and takes that for which our fathers planted their homes in the wilderness--our liberty. Taxation without representation and the quartering of soldiers in the homes of our people without their consent are evidence that the Crown of England would take from its American Subjects the last vestige of Freedom. Your brethren across the mountains are crying like Macedonia unto your help.

God forbid that you shall refuse to hear and answer their call - but the call of your brethren is not all. The enemy is marching hither to destroy your own homes. Brave men, you are not unacquainted with battle. Your hands have already been taught to war and your fingers to fight. You have wrested these beautiful valleys of the Holston, and Watauga from the savage hand [Native Americans who sided with Great Britain and raided villages of settlers]. Will you tarry now until the other

Dave Raymond’s American History | Lesson 11 - The War of Independence I

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enemy carries fire and sword to your very doors? No, it shall not be. Go forth then in the strength of your manhood to the aid of your brethren, the defense of your liberty and the protection of your homes. And may the God of Justice be with you and give you victory. Let Us Pray.

Almighty and gracious God! Thou hast been the refuge and strength of Thy people in all ages. In time of sorest need we have learned to come to Thee - our Rock and our Fortress. Thou knowest the dangers and snares that surround us on march and in battle. Thou knowest the dangers that constantly threaten the humble, but well beloved homes which Thy servants have left behind them. O, in Thine infinite mercy, save us from the cruel hand of the savage, and of Tyrant. Save the unprotected homes while fathers and husbands and sons are far away fighting for freedom and helping the oppressed. Thou, who promised to protect the Sparrow in its flight, keep ceaseless watch, by day and by night, over our loved ones. The helpless woman and little children, we commit to Thy care. Thou wilt not leave them or forsake them in times of loneliness and anxiety and terror. O, God of Battle, arise in Thy might. Avenge the slaughter of Thy people. Confound those who plot for our destruction. Crown this mighty effort with victory, and smite those who exalt themselves against liberty and justice and truth. Help us as good soldiers to wield the sword of the Lord and Gideon. Amen.

Lecture 11.3—A TALE OF TWO ARMIES

ASSIGNMENT: Read the letter of George Washington at Valley Forge. What challenges did the army and General Washington evidently face?

SELECTION: “Letter of George Washington, Valley Forge. December 23, 1777.”

Sir: Full as I was in my representation of matters in the Commissary Department yesterday, fresh, and more powerful reasons oblige me to add, that I am now convinced, beyond a doubt that unless some great and capital change suddenly takes place in that line, this Army must inevitably be reduced to one or other of these three things. Starve, dissolve, or disperse, in order to obtain subsistence in the best manner they can; rest assured Sir this is not an exaggerated picture, but [and] that I have abundant reason to support what I say.

Yesterday afternoon receiving information that the Enemy, in force, had left the City, and were advancing towards Derby with apparent design to forage, and draw Subsistance from that part of the Country, I order'd the Troops to be in readiness, that I might give every opposition


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in my power; when, behold! to my great mortification, I was not only informed, but convinced, that the Men were unable to stir on Acct. of Provision, and that a dangerous Mutiny begun the Night before, and [which] with difficulty was suppressed by the spirited exertion's of some officers was still much to be apprehended on acct. of their [for] want of this Article.

This brought forth the only Corny. in the purchasing Line, in this Camp; and, with him, this Melancholy and alarming truth; that he had not a single hoof of any kind to Slaughter, and not more than 25 barrels of Flour! From hence form an opinion of our Situation when I add, that, he could not tell when to expect any.

All I could do under these circumstances was, to send out a few light Parties to watch and harass the Enemy, whilst other Parties were instantly detached different ways to collect, if possible, as much Provision as would satisfy the present pressing wants of the Soldiery. But will this answer? No Sir: three or four days bad weather would prove our destruction. What then is to become of the Army this Winter? and if we are as often without Provisions now, as with it [them], what is to become of us in the Spring, when our force will be collected, with the aid perhaps of Militia, to take advantage of an early Campaign before the Enemy can be reinforced ? These are considerations of great magnitude, meriting the closest attention, and will, when my own reputation is so intimately connected, and to be affected by the event, justify my saying that the present Commissaries are by no means equal to the execution [of the Office] or that the disaffection of the People is past all belief. The misfortune however does in my opinion, proceed from both causes, and tho' I have been tender heretofore of giving any opinion, or lodging complaints, as the change in that department took place contrary to my judgment, and the consequences thereof were predicted; yet, finding that the inactivity of the Army, whether for want of provisions, cloths, or other essentials, is charged to my Acct., not only by the common vulgar, but those in power, it is time to speak plain in exculpation of myself; with truth then I can declare that, no Man, in my opinion, ever had his measures more impeded than I have, by every department of the Army.

Lecture 11.4—1776, PART I

ASSIGNMENT: Read the selection from The History of the American Revolution by David Ramsay. Notice that these accounts are concerned little with the action of battle and more with the patient


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decisions of Washington. How did Washington’s decisions preserve the Continental Army?

SELECTION: From The History of the American Revolution by David Ramsay.

In the time of, and subsequent to the engagement, General Washington drew over to Long Island, the greatest part of his army. After he had collected his principal force there, it was his wish and hope, that Sir William Howe, would attempt to storm the works on the island. These though insufficient to stand a regular siege, were strong enough to resist a coup de main. The remembrance of Bunker’s-hill, and a desire to spare his men, restrained the British general from making an assault. On the contrary he made demonstrations of proceeding by siege, and broke ground within three hundred yards to the left at Putnam’s redoubt.

Though general Washington wished for an assault, yet being certain that his works would be untenable, when the British batteries should be fully opened, he called a council of war, to consult on the measures proper to be taken. It was then determined that the objects in view were in no degree proportioned to the dangers to which, by a continuation on the island, they would be exposed. Conformably to this opinion, dispositions were made for an immediate retreat. This commenced soon after it was dark from two points, the upper and lower ferries, on East river. General M‘Dougal, regulated the embarkation at one, and colonel Knox at the other.

The intention of evacuating the island, had been so prudently concealed from the Americans, that they knew not whither they were going, but supposed to attack the enemy. The field artillery, tents, baggage, and about 9000 men were conveyed to the city of New York over East River, more than a mile wide, in less than 13 hours, and without the knowledge of the British, though not six hundred yards distant. Providence, in a remarkable manner favored the retreating army. For some time after the Americans began to cross the state of the tide, and a strong north-east wind made it impossible for them to make use of their sail boats, and their whole number of row boats was insufficient for completing the business, in the course of the night. But about eleven o’clock, the wind died away, and soon after sprung up at south-east, and blew fresh, which rendered the sail boats of use, and at the same time made the passage from the island to the city, direct, easy and expeditious. Towards morning an extreme thick fog came up, which hovered over Long Island, and by concealing the Americans, enabled them to complete their retreat without interruption, though the day had


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begun to dawn some time before it was finished. By a mistake in the transmission of orders, the American lines were evacuated for about three quarters of an hour, before the last embarkation took place, but the British though so near, that their working parties could be distinctly heard, being enveloped in the fog knew nothing of the matter. The lines were repossessed and held till six o’clock in the morning, when every thing except some heavy cannon was removed. General Mifflin, who commanded the rear guard left the lines, and under the cover of the fog got off safe. In about half an hour the fog cleared away, and the British entered the works which had been just relinquished. Had the wind not shifted, the half of the American army could not have crossed, and even as it was, if the fog had not concealed their rear, it must have been discovered, and could hardly have escaped.

…A council of war, recommended to act on the defensive, and not to risk the army for the sake of New York.

To retreat, subjected the commander in chief to reflections painful to bear, and yet impolitic to refute. To stand his ground, and by suffering himself to be surrounded, to hazard the fate of America on one decisive engagement, was contrary to every rational plan of defending the wide extended states committed to his care. A middle line between abandoning and defending was therefore for a short time adopted. The public stores were moved to Dobbs’ ferry, about 26 miles from New York. 12,000 men were ordered to the northern extremity of New-York island, and 4500 to remain for the defense of the city, while the remainder occupied the intermediate space, with orders, either to support the city or Kingsbridge, as exigencies might require. Before the British landed, it was impossible to tell what place would be first attacked. This made it necessary to erect works for the defense of a variety of places, as well as of New York. Though every thing was abandoned when the crisis came that either the city must be relinquished, or the army risked for its defense, yet from the delays, occasioned by the redoubts and other works, which had been erected on the idea of making the defense of the states a war of posts, a whole campaign was lost to the British, and saved to the Americans. The year began with hopes, that Great Britain would recede from her demands, and therefore every plan of defense was on a temporary system. The declaration of independence, which the violence of Great-Britain forced the colonies to adopt in July, though neither foreseen nor intended at the commencement of the year, pointed out the necessity of organizing an army, on new terms, correspondent to the enlarged objects for which they had resolved to contend.


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Congress accordingly determined to raise 88 battalions, to serve during the war. Under these circumstances to wear away the campaign, with as little misfortune as possible, and thereby to gain time for raising a permanent army against the next year, was to the Americans a matter of the last importance.

Though the commander in chief abandoned those works, which had engrossed much time and attention yet the advantage resulting from the delays they occasioned, far overbalanced the expense incurred by their erection.

Lecture 11.5—1776, PART II


1. Why were vision, patience, and personal virtue necessary for the Americans in the War of Independence?

2. What was the key to the Continent?

3. How was this a war of principles?

4. What was the Black Regiment and what role did they serve in the war?

5. Describe the officers and soldiers of the British Army in command structure, training, equipment, and character.

6. Describe the officers and soldiers of the American Army in command structure training, equipment, and character.

7. Describe the character of one of Washington’s officers: Israel Putnam, Henry Knox, or Nathaniel Greene.

8. How was the siege of Boston lifted?

9. Narrate the retreats and small successes of the Americans during the battles for New York.

10. Retell the story of the Battle of Trenton and explain its significance to our history.


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Lesson 12AWESOME PROVIDENCE: THE WAR OF

INDEPENDENCE II

Lecture 12.1—AMERICAN HEROES

ASSIGNMENT: Read Nathan Hale by Francis Miles Finch. Why was Hale, who lived so short a life, remembered as a hero?

SELECTION: Nathan Hale by Francis Miles Finch.

To drum-beat and heart-beat, A soldier marches by: There is color in his cheek, There is courage in his eye, Yet to drum-beat and heart-beat In a moment he must die.

By starlight and moonlight, He seeks the Briton's camp; He hears the rustling flag, And the armed sentry's tramp; And the starlight and moonlight His silent wanderings lamp.

With slow tread and still tread, He scans the tented line; And he counts the battery guns By the gaunt and shadowy pine; And his slow tread and still tread Gives no warning sign.

The dark wave, the plumed wave, It meets his eager glance; And it sparkles 'neath the stars, Like the glimmer of a lance-- A dark wave, a plumed wave, On an emerald expanse.

A sharp clang, a steel clang, And terror in the sound! For the sentry, falcon-eyed,

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In the camp a spy hath found; With a sharp clang, a steel clang, The patriot is bound.

With calm brow, steady brow, He listens to his doom; In his look there is no fear, Nor a shadow-trace of gloom; But with calm brow and steady brow He robes him for the tomb.

In the long night, the still night, He kneels upon the sod; And the brutal guards withhold E'en the solemn Word of God! In the long night, the still night, He walks where Christ hath trod.

'Neath the blue morn, the sunny morn, He dies upon the tree; And he mourns that he can lose But one life for Liberty; And in the blue morn, the sunny morn, His spirit-wings are free.

But his last words, his message-words, They burn, lest friendly eye Should read how proud and calm A patriot could die, With his last words, his dying words, A soldier's battle-cry.

From the Fame-leaf and Angel-leaf, From monument and urn, The sad of earth, the glad of heaven, His tragic fate shall learn; And on Fame-leaf and Angel-leaf The name of HALE shall burn.

Lecture 12.2—SARATOGA


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ASSIGNMENT: Read “Bennington” from Hero Tales by Henry Cabot Lodge and Theodore Roosevelt. How did this battle change the course of the war?

SELECTION: “Bennington” from Hero Tales by Henry Cabot Lodge and Theodore Roosevelt.

The battle of Saratoga is included by Sir Edward Creasy among hisfifteen decisive battles which have, by their result, affectedthe history of the world. It is true that the American Revolutionwas saved by Washington in the remarkable Princeton and Trentoncampaign, but it is equally true that the surrender of Burgoyneat Saratoga, in the following autumn, turned the scale decisivelyin favor of the colonists by the impression which it made inEurope. It was the destruction of Burgoyne's army whichdetermined France to aid the Americans against England. Hencecame the French alliance, the French troops, and, what was of farmore importance, a French fleet by which Washington was finallyable to get control of the sea, and in this way cut offCornwallis at Yorktown and bring the Revolution to a successfulclose. That which led, however, more directly than anything elseto the final surrender at Saratoga was the fight at Bennington,by which Burgoyne's army was severely crippled and weakened, andby which also, the hardy militia of the North eastern States wereled to turn out in large numbers and join the army of Gates.

The English ministry had built great hopes upon Burgoyne'sexpedition, and neither expense nor effort had been spared tomake it successful. He was amply furnished with money andsupplies as well as with English and German troops, the latter ofwhom were bought from their wretched little princes by thepayment of generous subsidies. With an admirably equipped army ofover seven thousand men, and accompanied by a large force ofIndian allies, Burgoyne had started in May, 1777, from Canada.His plan was to make his way by the lakes to the head waters ofthe Hudson, and thence southward along the river to New York,where he was to unite with Sir William Howe and the main army; inthis way cutting the colonies in two, and separating New Englandfrom the rest of the country.

At first all went well. The Americans were pushed back from theirposts on the lakes, and by the end of July Burgoyne was at thehead waters of the Hudson. He had. already sent out a force,under St. Leger, to take possession of the valley of the


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Mohawk--an expedition which finally resulted in the defeat of theBritish by Herkimer, and the capture of Fort Stanwix. To aid St.Leger by a diversion, and also to capture certain magazines whichwere reported to be at Bennington, Burgoyne sent anotherexpedition to the eastward. This force consisted of about fivehundred and fifty white troops, chiefly Hessians, and one hundredand fifty Indians, all under the command of Colonel Baum. Theywere within four miles of Bennington on August 13, 1777, andencamped on a hill just within the boundaries of the State of NewYork. The news of the advance of Burgoyne had already roused thepeople of New York and New Hampshire, and the legislature of thelatter State had ordered General Stark with a brigade of militiato stop the progress of the enemy on the western frontier. Starkraised his standard at Charlestown on the Connecticut River, andthe militia poured into his camp. Disregarding Schuyler's ordersto join the main American army, which was falling back beforeBurgoyne, Stark, as soon as he heard of the expedition againstBennington, marched at once to meet Baum. He was within a mile ofthe British camp on August 14, and vainly endeavored to draw Bauminto action. On the 15th it rained heavily, and the Britishforces occupied the time in intrenching themselves strongly uponthe hill which they held. Baum meantime had already sent toBurgoyne for reinforcements, and Burgoyne had detached ColonelBreymann with over six hundred regular troops to go to Baum'sassistance. On the 16th the weather cleared, and Stark, who hadbeen reinforced by militia from western Massachusetts, determinedto attack.

Early in the day he sent men, under Nichols and Herrick, to getinto the rear of Baum's position. The German officer, ignorant ofthe country and of the nature of the warfare in which he wasengaged, noticed small bodies of men in their shirtsleeves, andcarrying guns without bayonets, making their way to the rear ofhis entrenchments. With singular stupidity he concluded that theywere Tory inhabitants of the country who were coming to hisassistance, and made no attempt to stop them. In this way Starkwas enabled to mass about five hundred men in the rear of theenemy's position. Distracting the attention of the British by afeint, Stark also moved about two hundred men to the right, andhaving thus brought his forces into position he ordered a generalassault, and the Americans proceeded to storm the Britishentrenchments on every side. The fight was a very hot one, andlasted some two hours. The Indians, at the beginning of the


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action, slipped away between the American detachments, but theBritish and German regulars stubbornly stood their ground. It isdifficult to get at the exact numbers of the American troops, butStark seems to have had between fifteen hundred and two thousandmilitia. He thus outnumbered his enemy nearly three to one, buthis men were merely country militia, farmers of the New EnglandStates, very imperfectly disciplined, and armed only with musketsand fowling-pieces, without bayonets or side-arms. On the otherside Baum had the most highly disciplined troops of England andGermany under his command, well armed and equipped, and he wasmoreover strongly intrenched with artillery well placed behindthe breastworks. The advantage in the fight should have beenclearly with Baum and his regulars, who merely had to hold anintrenched hill.

It was not a battle in which either military strategy or ascientific management of troops was displayed. All that Stark didwas to place his men so that they could attack the enemy'sposition on every side, and then the Americans went at it, firingas they pressed on. The British and Germans stood their groundstubbornly, while the New England farmers rushed up to withineight yards of the cannon, and picked off the men who manned theguns. Stark himself was in the midst of the fray, fighting withhis soldiers, and came out of the conflict so blackened withpowder and smoke that he could hardly be recognized. Onedesperate assault succeeded another, while the firing on bothsides was so incessant as to make, in Stark's own words, a"continuous roar." At the end of two hours the Americans finallyswarmed over the entrenchments, beating down the soldiers withtheir clubbed muskets. Baum ordered his infantry with the bayonetand the dragoons with their sabers to force their way through,but the Americans repulsed this final charge, and Baum himselffell mortally wounded. All was then over, and the British forcessurrendered.

It was only just in time, for Breymann, who had taken thirtyhours to march some twenty-four miles, came up just after Baum'smen had laid down their arms. It seemed for a moment as if allthat had been gained might be lost. The Americans, attacked bythis fresh foe, wavered; but Stark rallied his line, and puttingin Warner, with one hundred and fifty Vermont men who had justcome on the field, stopped Breymann's advance, and finally forcedhim to retreat with a loss of nearly one half his men. The


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Americans lost in killed and wounded some seventy men, and theGermans and British about twice as many, but the Americans tookabout seven hundred prisoners, and completely wrecked the forcesof Baum and Breymann.

The blow was a severe one, and Burgoyne's army never recoveredfrom it. Not only had he lost nearly a thousand of his besttroops, besides cannon, arms, and munitions of war, but thedefeat affected the spirits of his army and destroyed his holdover his Indian allies, who began to desert in large numbers.Bennington, in fact, was one of the most important fights of theRevolution, contributing as it did so largely to the finalsurrender of Burgoyne's whole army at Saratoga, and the utterruin of the British invasion from the North. It is alsointeresting as an extremely gallant bit of fighting. As has beensaid, there was no strategy displayed, and there were no militaryoperations of the higher kind. There stood the enemy stronglyintrenched on a hill, and Stark, calling his undisciplined leviesabout him, went at them. He himself was a man of the highestcourage and a reckless fighter. It was Stark who held therailfence at Bunker Hill, and who led the van when Sullivan'sdivision poured into Trenton from the river road. He wasadmirably adapted for the precise work which was necessary atBennington, and he and his men fought well their hand-to-handfight on that hot August day, and carried the entrenchmentsfilled with regular troops and defended by artillery. It was adaring feat of arms, as well as a battle which had an importanteffect upon the course of history and upon the fate of theBritish empire in America.

Lecture 12.3—VALLEY FORGE AND BENEDICT ARNOLD

ASSIGNMENT: Read Valley Forge by Thomas Buchanan Read. What were the challenges of Valley Forge? For what reasons did the patriots retain hope at Valley Forge?

SELECTION: Valley Forge by Thomas Buchanan Read.

O’ER town and cottage, vale and height,Down came the Winter, fierce and white,And shuddering wildly, as distraughtAt horrors his own hand had wrought.

His child, the young Year, newly born,


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Cheerless, cowering, and affrighted,Wailed with a shivering voice forlorn, As on a frozen heath benighted.In vain the hearths were set aglow, In vain the evening lamps were lighted,To cheer the dreary realm of snow:Old Winter’s brow would not be smoothed,Nor the young Year’s wailing soothed.

How sad the wretch at morn or eveCompelled his starving home to leave,Who, plunged breast-deep from drift to drift,Toils slowly on from rift to rift,Still hearing in his aching earThe cry his fancy whispers near,Of little ones who weep for breadWithin an ill-provided shed!

But wilder, fiercer, sadder still, Freezing the tear it caused to start,Was the inevitable chill Which pierced a nation’s agued heart,—A nation with its naked breastAgainst the frozen barriers prest,Heaving its tedious way and slowThrough shifting gulfs and drifts of woe,Where every blast that whistled byWas bitter with its children’s cry.

Such was the winter’s awful sightFor many a dreary day and night,What time our country’s hope forlorn,Of every needed comfort shorn,Lay housed within a hurried tent,Where every keen blast found a rent,And oft the snow was seen to siftAlong the floor its piling drift,Or, mocking the scant blankets’ fold,Across the night-couch frequent rolled;Where every path by a soldier beat, Or every track where a sentinel stood,Still held the print of naked feet, And oft the crimson stains of blood;


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Where Famine held her spectral court, And joined by all her fierce allies:She ever loved a camp or fort Beleaguered by the wintry skies,—But chiefly when Disease is by,To sink the frame and dim the eye,Until, with seeking forehead bent, In martial garments cold and damp,Pale Death patrols from tent to tent, To count the charnels of the camp.

Such was the winter that prevailed Within the crowded, frozen gorge;Such were the horrors that assailed The patriot band at Valley Forge.

It was a midnight storm of woes To clear the sky for Freedom’s morn;And such must ever be the throes The hour when Liberty is born.

The chieftain, by his evening lamp,Whose flame scarce cheered the hazy damp,Sat toiling o’er some giant plan, With maps and charts before him spread,Beholding in his warrior scan The paths which through the future led.

Lecture 12.4—NATHANIEL GREENE, GEORGE ROGERS CLARK, AND YORKTOWN

ASSIGNMENT: Read The Vow of Washington by John Greenleaf Whittier. What was remarkable about Washington’s resignation at the end of the war?

SELECTION:

The sword was sheathed: in April’s sunLay green the fields by Freedom won;And severed sections, weary of debates,Joined hands at last and were United States.

O City sitting by the SeaHow proud the day that dawned on thee,


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When the new era, long desired, began,And, in its need, the hour had found the man!

One thought the cannon salvos spoke,The resonant bell-tower’s vibrant stroke,The voiceful streets, the plaudit-echoing halls,And prayer and hymn borne heavenward from St. Paul’s!

How felt the land in every partThe strong throb of a nation’s heart,As its great leader gave, with reverent awe,His pledge to Union, Liberty, and Law.

That pledge the heavens above him heard,That vow the sleep of centuries stirred;In world-wide wonder listening peoples bentTheir gaze on Freedom’s great experiment.

Could it succeed? Of honor soldAnd hopes deceived all history told.Above the wrecks that strewed the mournful past,Was the long dream of ages true at last?

Thank God! the people’s choice was just,The one man equal to his trust,Wise beyond lore, and without weakness good,Calm in the strength of flawless rectitude.

His rule of justice, order, peace,Made possible the world’s release;Taught prince and serf that power is but a trust,And rule, alone, which serves the ruled, is just;

That Freedom generous is, but strongIn hate of fraud and selfish wrong,Pretence that turns her holy truths to lies,And lawless license masking in her guise.

Land of his love! with one glad voiceLet thy great sisterhood rejoice;A century’s suns o’er thee have risen and set,And, God be praised, we are one nation yet.


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And still we trust the years to beShall prove his hope was destiny,Leaving our flag, with all its added stars,Unrent by faction and unstained by wars.

Lo! where with patient toil he nursedAnd trained the new-set plant at first,The widening branches of a stately treeStretch from the sunrise to the sunset sea.

And in its broad and sheltering shade,Sitting with none to make afraid,Were we now silent, through each mighty limb,The winds of heaven would sing the praise of him.

Our first and best!—his ashes lieBeneath his own Virginian sky.Forgive, forget, O true and just and brave,The storm that swept above thy sacred grave.

For, ever in the awful strifeAnd dark hours of the nation’s life,Through the fierce tumult pierced his warning word,Their father’s voice his erring children heard.

The change for which he prayed and soughtIn that sharp agony was wrought;No partial interest draws its alien line’Twixt North and South, the cypress and the pine!

One people now, all doubt beyond,His name shall be our Union-bond;We lift our hands to Heaven, and here and now.Take on our lips the old Centennial vow.

For rule and trust must needs be ours;Chooser and chosen both are powersEqual in service as in rights; the claimOf Duty rests on each and all the same.

Then let the sovereign millions, whereOur banner floats in sun and air,From the warm palm-lands to Alaska’s cold,


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Repeat with us the pledge a century old?

Lecture 12.5—FORGOTTEN FOUNDERS


1. Retell the story of either John Paul Jones or Nathan Hale.

2. Retell the story of either Ethan Allen or Marquis de Lafayette.

3. What united each of these characters?

4. How did the Americans achieve victory at the Battle of Saratoga and what role did Benedict Arnold play in this event?

5. What positive results came from the Battle of Saratoga for the United States?

6. What means and events preserved the Continental Army at Valley Forge?

7. Retell the story of Benedict Arnold’s treason and his end in England.

8. What role did Nathaniel Green play in the war in the South?

9. What occurred at Kings Mountain?

10. Who was George Rogers Clark and what did he accomplish in the West?

11. What occurred at the Battle of Yorktown?

12. Name 3 Forgotten Founders (early Presidents) and cite their achievements.


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Lesson 13A MORE PERFECT UNION: THE CONSTITUTION


ASSIGNMENT: Read the Articles of Confederation. What powers did the Articles grant to the United States government? How were States individually respected?

SELECTION: The Articles of Confederation of the United States.

To all to whom these Presents shall come, we the undersigned Delegates of the States affixed to our Names, send greeting.

Whereas the Delegates of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, did, on the 15th day of November, in the Year of Our Lord One thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy seven, and in the Second Year of the Independence of America, agree to certain articles of Confederation and perpetual Union between the States of New-hampshire, Massachusetts-bay, Rhode-island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, South-Carolina, and Georgia in the words following, viz.

"Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union between the states of New-hampshire, Massachusetts-bay, Rhode-island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, South-Carolina and Georgia".

Article I. The Style of this confederacy shall be "The United States of America".

Article II. Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every Power, Jurisdiction and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.

Article III. The said states hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defense, the security of their Liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other, against all force offered to, or attacks made upon

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them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense whatever.

Article IV. The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and intercourse among the people of the different states in this union, the free inhabitants of each of these states, paupers, vagabonds and fugitives from justice excepted, shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several states; and the people of each state shall have free ingress and regress to and from any other state, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce, subject to the same duties impositions and restrictions as the inhabitants thereof respectively, provided that such restriction shall not extend so far as to prevent the removal of property imported into any state, to any other state, of which the Owner is an inhabitant; provided also that no imposition, duties or restriction shall be laid by any state, on the property of the united states, or either of them. If any Person guilty of, or charged with treason, felony, - or other high misdemeanor in any state, shall flee from Justice, and be found in any of the united states, he shall, upon demand of the Governor or executive power, of the state from which he fled, be delivered up and removed to the state having jurisdiction of his offense. Full faith and credit shall be given in each of these states to the records, acts and judicial proceedings of the courts and magistrates of every other state.

Article V. For the more convenient management of the general interests of the united states, delegates shall be annually appointed in such manner as the legislature of each state shall direct, to meet in Congress on the first Monday in November, in every year, with a power reserved to each state, to recall its delegates, or any of them, at any time within the year, and to send others in their stead, for the remainder of the Year. No state shall be represented in Congress by less than two, nor by more than seven Members; and no person shall be capable of being a delegate for more than three years in any term of six years; nor shall any person, being a delegate, be capable of holding any office under the united states, for which he, or another for his benefit receives any salary, fees or emolument of any kind. Each state shall maintain its own delegates in a meeting of the states, and while they act as members of the committee of the states. In determining questions in the united states in Congress assembled, each state shall have one vote.

Freedom of speech and debate in Congress shall not be impeached or questioned in any Court, or place out of Congress, and the members of congress shall be protected in their persons from arrests and


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imprisonments, during the time of their going to and from, and attendance on congress, except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace.

Article VI. No state, without the Consent of the united states in congress assembled, shall send any embassy to, or receive any embassy from, or enter into any conference agreement, alliance or treaty with any King prince or state; nor shall any person holding any office of profit or trust under the united states, or any of them, accept of any present, emolument, office or title of any kind whatever from any king, prince or foreign state; nor shall the united states in congress assembled, or any of them, grant any title of nobility.

No two or more states shall enter into any treaty, confederation or alliance whatever between them, without the consent of the united states in congress assembled, specifying accurately the purposes for which the same is to be entered into, and how long it shall continue.

No state shall lay any imposts or duties, which may interfere with any stipulations in treaties, entered into by the united states in congress assembled, with any king, prince or state, in pursuance of any treaties already proposed by congress, to the courts of France and Spain.

No vessels of war shall be kept up in time of peace by any state, except such number only, as shall be deemed necessary by the united states in congress assembled, for the defense of such state, or its trade; nor shall any body of forces be kept up by any state, in time of peace, except such number only, as in the judgment of the united states, in congress assembled, shall be deemed requisite to garrison the forts necessary for the defense of such state; but every state shall always keep up a well regulated and disciplined militia, sufficiently armed and accoutered, and shall provide and constantly have ready for use, in public stores, a due number of field pieces and tents, and a proper quantity of arms, ammunition and camp equipage.

No state shall engage in any war without the consent of the united states in congress assembled, unless such state be actually invaded by enemies, or shall have received certain advice of a resolution being formed by some nation of Indians to invade such state, and the danger is so imminent as not to admit of a delay till the united states in congress assembled can be consulted: nor shall any state grant commissions to any ships or vessels of war, nor letters of marque or reprisal, except it be


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after a declaration of war by the united states in congress assembled, and then only against the kingdom or state and the subjects thereof, against which war has been so declared, and under such regulations as shall be established by the united states in congress assembled, unless such state be infested by pirates, in which case vessels of war may be fitted out for that occasion, and kept so long as the danger shall continue, or until the united states in congress assembled, shall determine otherwise.

Article VII. When land-forces are raised by any state for the common defense, all officers of or under the rank of colonel, shall be appointed by the legislature of each state respectively, by whom such forces shall be raised, or in such manner as such state shall direct, and all vacancies shall be filled up by the State which first made the appointment.

Article VIII. All charges of war, and all other expenses that shall be incurred for the common defense or general welfare, and allowed by the united states in congress assembled, shall be defrayed out of a common treasury, which shall be supplied by the several states in proportion to the value of all land within each state, granted to or surveyed for any Person, as such land and the buildings and improvements thereon shall be estimated according to such mode as the united states in congress assembled, shall from time to time direct and appoint. The taxes for paying that proportion shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures of the several states within the time agreed upon by the united states in congress assembled.

Article IX. The united states in congress assembled, shall have the sole and exclusive right and power of determining on peace and war, except in the cases mentioned in the sixth article--of sending and receiving ambassadors--entering into treaties and alliances, provided that no treaty of commerce shall be made whereby the legislative power of the respective states shall be restrained from imposing such imposts and duties on foreigners as their own people are subjected to, or from prohibiting the exportation or importation of any species of goods or commodities, whatsoever--of establishing rules for deciding in all cases, what captures on land or water shall be legal, and in what manner prizes taken by land or naval forces in the service of the united states shall be divided or appropriated--of granting letters of marque and reprisal in times of peace--appointing courts for the trial of piracies and felonies committed on the high seas and establishing courts for receiving and determining finally appeals in all cases of captures, provided that no member of congress shall be appointed a judge of any of the said courts.


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The united states in congress assembled shall also be the last resort on appeal in all disputes and differences now subsisting or that hereafter may arise between two or more states concerning boundary, jurisdiction or any other cause whatever; which authority shall always be exercised in the manner following. Whenever the legislative or executive authority or lawful agent of any state in controversy with another shall present a petition to congress stating the matter in question and praying for a hearing, notice thereof shall be given by order of congress to the legislative or executive authority of the other state in controversy, and a day assigned for the appearance of the parties by their lawful agents, who shall then be directed to appoint by joint consent, commissioners or judges to constitute a court for hearing and determining the matter in question: but if they cannot agree, congress shall name three persons out of each of the united states, and from the list of such persons each party shall alternately strike out one, the petitioners beginning, until the number shall be reduced to thirteen; and from that number not less than seven, nor more than nine names as congress shall direct, shall in the presence of congress be drawn out by lot, and the persons whose names shall be so drawn or any five of them, shall be commissioners or judges, to hear and finally determine the controversy, so always as a major part of the judges who shall hear the cause shall agree in the determination: and if either party shall neglect to attend at the day appointed, without showing reasons, which congress shall judge sufficient, or being present shall refuse to strike, the congress shall proceed to nominate three persons out of each state, and the secretary of congress shall strike in behalf of such party absent or refusing; and the judgment and sentence of the court to be appointed, in the manner before prescribed, shall be final and conclusive; and if any of the parties shall refuse to submit to the authority of such court, or to appear or defend their claim or cause, the court shall nevertheless proceed to pronounce sentence, or judgment, which shall in like manner be final and decisive, the judgment or sentence and other proceedings being in either case transmitted to congress, and lodged among the acts of congress for the security of the parties concerned: provided that every commissioner, before he sits in judgment, shall take an oath to be administered by one of the judges of the supreme or superior court of the state, where the cause shall be tried, --well and truly to hear and determine the matter in question, according to the best of his judgment, without favor, affection or hope of reward: --provided also, that no state shall be deprived of territory for the benefit of the united states.

All controversies concerning the private right of soil claimed under different grants of two or more states, whose jurisdictions as they may


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respect such lands, and the states which passed such grants are adjusted, the said grants or either of them being at the same time claimed to have originated antecedent to such settlement of jurisdiction, shall on the petition of either party to the congress of the united states, be finally determined as near as may be in the same manner as is before prescribed for deciding disputes respecting territorial jurisdiction between different states. The united states in congress assembled shall also have the sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the alloy and value of coin struck by their own authority, or by that of the respective states--fixing the standard of weights and measures throughout the united states--regulating the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians, not members of any of the states, provided that the legislative right of any state within its own limits be not infringed or violated--establishing or regulating post offices from one state to another, throughout all the united states, and exacting such postage on the papers passing thro' the same as may be requisite to defray the expenses of the said office--appointing all officers of the land forces, in the service of the united states, excepting regimental officers--appointing all the officers of the naval forces, and commissioning all officers whatever in the service of the united states--making rules for the government and regulation of the said land and naval forces, and directing their operations.

The united states in congress assembled shall have authority to appoint a committee, to sit in the recess of congress, to be denominated "A Committee of the States," and to consist of one delegate from each state; and to appoint such other committees and civil officers as may be necessary for managing the general affairs of the united states under their direction--to appoint one of their number to preside, provided that no person be allowed to serve in the office of president more than one year in any term of three years; to ascertain the necessary sums of money to be raised for the service of the united states, and to appropriate and apply the same for defraying the public expenses to borrow money, or emit bills on the credit of the united states, transmitting every half year to the respective states an account of the sums of money so borrowed or emitted,--to build and equip a navy--to agree upon the number of land forces, and to make requisitions from each state for its quota, in proportion to the number of white inhabitants in such state; which requisition shall be binding, and thereupon the legislature of each state shall appoint the regimental officers, raise the men and cloth, arm and equip them in a soldier like manner, at the expense of the united states; and the officers and men so clothed, armed and quipped shall march to the place appointed, and within the time agreed on by the united states in congress assembled: But if the united states in congress assembled shall,


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on consideration of circumstances judge proper that any state should not raise men, or should raise a smaller number than its quota, and that any other state should raise a greater number of men than the quota thereof, such extra number shall be raised, officered, clothed, armed and equipped in the same manner as the quota of such state, unless the legislature of such state shall judge that such extra number cannot be safely spared out of the same, in which case they shall raise officer, cloth, arm and equip as many of such extra number as they judge can be safely spared. And the officers and men so clothed, armed and equipped, shall march to the place appointed, and within the time agreed on by the united states in congress assembled.

The united states in congress assembled shall never engage in a war, nor grant letters of marque and reprisal in time of peace, nor enter into any treaties or alliances, nor coin money, nor regulate the value thereof, nor ascertain the sums and expenses necessary for the defense and welfare of the united states, or any of them, nor emit bills, nor borrow money on the credit of the united states, nor appropriate money, nor agree upon the number of vessels of war, to be built or purchased, or the number of land or sea forces to be raised, nor appoint a commander in chief of the army or navy, unless nine states assent to the same: nor shall a question on any other point, except for adjourning from day to day be determined, unless by the votes of a majority of the united states in congress assembled. The congress of the united states shall have power to adjourn to any time within the year, and to any place within the united states, so that no period of adjournment be for a longer duration than the space of six Months, and shall publish the Journal of their proceedings monthly, except such parts thereof relating to treaties, alliances or military operations, as in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the delegates of each state on any question shall be entered on the Journal, when it is desired by any delegate; and the delegates of a state, or any of them, at his or their request shall be furnished with a transcript of the said Journal, except such parts as are above excepted, to lay before the legislatures of the several states.

Article X. The committee of the states, or any nine of them, shall be authorized to execute, in the recess of congress, such of the powers of congress as the united states in congress assembled, by the consent of nine states, shall from time to time think expedient to vest them with; provided that no power be delegated to the said committee, for the exercise of which, by the articles of confederation, the voice of nine states in the congress of the united states assembled is requisite.


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Article XI. Canada acceding to this confederation, and joining in the measures of the united states, shall be admitted into, and entitled to all the advantages of this union: but no other colony shall be admitted into the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine states.

Article XII. All bills of credit emitted, monies borrowed and debts contracted by, or under the authority of congress, before the assembling of the united states, in pursuance of the present confederation, shall be deemed and considered as a charge against the united states, for payment and satisfaction whereof the said united states, and the public faith are hereby solemnly pledged.

Article XIII. Every state shall abide by the determinations of the united states in congress assembled, on all questions which by this confederation are submitted to them. And the Articles of this confederation shall be inviolably observed by every state, and the union shall be perpetual; nor shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them; unless such alteration be agreed to in a congress of the united states, and be afterwards confirmed by the legislatures of every state.

And Whereas it hath pleased the Great Governor of the World to incline the hearts of the legislatures we respectively represent in congress, to approve of, and to authorize us to ratify the said articles of confederation and perpetual union. Know Ye that we the undersigned delegates, by virtue of the power and authority to us given for that purpose, do by these presents, in the name and in behalf of our respective constituents, fully and entirely ratify and confirm each and every of the said articles of confederation and perpetual union, and all and singular the matters and things therein contained: And we do further solemnly plight and engage the faith of our respective constituents, that they shall abide by the determinations of the united states in congress assembled, on all questions, which by the said confederation are submitted to them. And that the articles thereof shall be inviolably observed by the states we respectively represent, and that the union shall be perpetual. In Witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands in Congress. Done at Philadelphia in the state of Pennsylvania the ninth day of July in the Year of our Lord one Thousand seven Hundred and Seventy-eight, and in the third year of the independence of America.

On the part of & behalf of the State of New Hampshire:Josiah Bartlett, John Wentworth. Junr -August 8th, 1778.


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On the part and behalf of the State of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations: William Ellery, Henry Marchant, John Collins.

On the part and behalf of the State of New York: Jas Duane, Fra: Lewis, Wm Duer, Gouvr Morris.

On the part and behalf of the State of Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Daniel Roberdeau, Jon. Bayard Smith, William Clingar, Joseph Reed -22d July, 1778.

On the part and behalf of the State of Maryland: John Hanson, Daniel Carroll -March 1, 1781

On the part and behalf of the State of North Carolina: John Penn, Corns Harnett, Jno Williams. -July 21st, 1778

On the part and behalf of the State of Georgia: Jno Walton, Edwd Telfair, Edwd Langworthy. -24th July, 1778

On the part of & behalf of the State of Massachusetts Bay: John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Elbridge Gerry, Francis Dana, James Lovell, Samuel Holten.

On the part and behalf of the State of Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, Oliver Wolcott, Titus Hosmer, Andrew Adams

On the Part and in Behalf of the State of New Jersey: Jno Witherspoon, Nathl Scudder. -November 26th, 1778

On the part and behalf of the State of Delaware: Thos McKean, Febr 22d, 1779, John Dickinson, May 5th, 1779, Nicholas Van Dyke.

On the part and behalf of the State of Virginia: Richard Henry Lee, John Banister, Thomas Adams, Jno Harvie, Francis Lightfoot Lee.

On the part and behalf of the State of South Carolina: Henry Laurens, William Henry Drayton, Jno Mathews, Richd Hutson, Thos Heyward, junr.


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Lecture 13.2—PRECEDENTS AND PROBLEMS

ASSIGNMENT: Read Article I of the Constitution. What are the duties, powers and limitations of the legislative branch?

SELECTION: The Constitution of the United States, Preamble and Article I.

PREAMBLE

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

ARTICLE I

SECTION 1.

All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

SECTION 2.

The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states, and the electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislature.

No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen.

Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.


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The actual Enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the state of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.

When vacancies happen in the Representation from any state, the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies.

The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment.

SECTION 3.

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote.

Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year, of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, and the third class at the expiration of the sixth year, so that one third may be chosen every second year; and if vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the legislature of any state, the executive thereof may make temporary appointments until the next meeting of the legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies.

No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state for which he shall be chosen.

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate,


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but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.

The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the office of President of the United States.

The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present.

Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States: but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law.

SECTION 4.

The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators.

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

SECTION 5.

Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner, and under such penalties as each House may provide.

Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two thirds, expel a member.


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Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House on any question shall, at the desire of one fifth of those present, be entered on the journal.

Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.

SECTION 6.

The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury of the United States. They shall in all cases, except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place.

No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time: and no person holding any office under the United States, shall be a member of either House during his continuance in office.

SECTION 7.

All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other Bills.

Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the


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other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each House respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law.

Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill.

SECTION 8.

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;

To establish post offices and post roads;


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To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;

To provide and maintain a navy;

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;--And

To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this


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Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

SECTION 9.

The migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person.

The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.

No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.

No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state.

No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one state over those of another: nor shall vessels bound to, or from, one state, be obliged to enter, clear or pay duties in another.

No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time.

No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.

SECTION 10.

No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make


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anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility.

No state shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection laws: and the net produce of all duties and imposts, laid by any state on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the Congress.

No state shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another state, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay.

Lecture 13.3—PARTIES AND ARTICLES

ASSIGNMENT: Read Articles II-VII of the Constitution. What are the duties, powers and limitations of the executive and judicial branches? How can the Constitution be amended or changed?

SELECTION: The Constitution of the United States, Articles II-VII.

ARTICLE II

SECTION 1.

The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected, as follows:

Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.


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The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each; which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for President; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list the said House shall in like manner choose the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each state having one vote; A quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice President.

The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes; which day shall be the same throughout the United States.

No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States.

In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation or inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.


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The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services, a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any of them.

Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

SECTION 2.

The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.

He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.

The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.

SECTION 3.

He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he


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shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States.

SECTION 4.

The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

ARTICLE III

SECTION 1.

The judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behaviour, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services, a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.

SECTION 2.

The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority;--to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls;--to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction;--to controversies to which the United States shall be a party;--to controversies between two or more states;--between a state and citizens of another state;--between citizens of different states;--between citizens of the same state claiming lands under grants of different states, and between a state, or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens or subjects.

In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a state shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme


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Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make.

The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury; and such trial shall be held in the state where the said crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any state, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed.

SECTION 3.

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.

The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted.

ARTICLE IV

SECTION 1.

Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. And the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.

SECTION 2.

The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states.

A person charged in any state with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another state, shall on demand of the executive authority of the state from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime.

No person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof,


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escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.

SECTION 3.

New states may be admitted by the Congress into this union; but no new states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress.

The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular state.

SECTION 4.

The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence.

ARTICLE V

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.


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ARTICLE VI

All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.

This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

ARTICLE VII

The ratification of the conventions of nine states, shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the states so ratifying the same.

Lecture 13.4—CONVENTION AND CONSTITUTION

ASSIGNMENT: Read The Bill of Rights. What protections are guaranteed by the federal government?

SELECTION: The Bill of Rights, Amendments I-X.

AMENDMENT I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

AMENDMENT II


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A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

AMENDMENT III

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

AMENDMENT IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

AMENDMENT V

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

AMENDMENT VI

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

AMENDMENT VII


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In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

AMENDMENT VIII

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

AMENDMENT IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

AMENDMENT X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Lecture 13.5—RIGHTS AND RATIFICATION


1. What was the potential danger of the Constitution? Why did Patrick Henry speak against it?

2. According to Lord Acton, why did the Constitution succeed? Explain his answer in your own words.

3. Narrate the precedents and problems leading to the call for the Constitutional Convention.

4. Narrate the life and character of Alexander Hamilton.

5. List and define the 5 parties or groups at the time of the Constitution’s creation.

6. Explain the primary strengths and structure of the Articles of Confederation.

7. Explain the primary weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.


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8. Write a short essay explaining the structure, balance, and wisdom of the United States Constitution and why it has lasted longer than any other constitution.


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Documents

American History Part 1 Reader · 2019-06-18 · Lecture 2.2—THE OLMEC AND MAYA 9 Lecture 2.3—THE AZTEC 10 Lecture 2.4—THE INCA 11 Lecture 2.5—THE SPANISH CONQUEST 12 Lesson