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During the semester, I shall post course material and students will comment on it. Students are also free to comment on any aspect of American politics, either current or historical. There are only two major limitations: no coarse language, and no derogatory comments about people at the Claremont Colleges. This blog is on the open Internet, so post nothing that you would not want a potential employer to see. Syllabus: http://gov20h.blogspot.com/2023/08/draft-introduction-to-american-politics.html

Thursday, September 7, 2023

Starting the Declaration


For next  Tuesday:Allen, ch. 19-43.

For next Thursday,: Allen 44-45,  Douglass, Stevens

(Frederick Douglass and Stephen A. Douglas were not the same guy.)

REVIEW: Functions of writing


"The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America"
  • Why states instead of colonies.
  • Other examples of name changes: countries, historical figures, fictional characters.
 `When in the course of human events Latin cursus, meaning "flow" --a tide e-ventus "outcome"it becomes necessary .."
  • Why course?
  • “The course can be altered – with strenuous effort” (Allen, p. 111)
" 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"
  • What is a “nation”? Shared cultural life, having or wanting their own government.
  • What holds us together?
  • What is a “station”? (Allen, p. 119) -- Latin for “stand.”

CONJUNCTION JUNCTION!

Compare "separate and equal" with "separate but equal."

  • Keep in mind for our discussion of Lincoln's Second Inaugural:  "And the war came" means something radically different from "But the war came."

What does it mean to be equal? "But `equal' and `same" are not synonyms" (107).

"to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them"


Spinoza -- TJ himself was a Deist. Locke: "The state of Nature has a law of Nature to govern it, which obliges everyone, and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life,health, liberty or possessions."
 a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

  • Address to the whole world (France, in particular)
  • Impel (Allen, pp. 115-116) – to be pushed

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