The US history and Reconstruction Era Essay Example

invading, the colonists and their rights as Englishmen, the Continental Congress made the colonies free and independent states. The patriot managementand professed the political philosophies of republicanism and liberalism to go against aristocracy and monarchy and declared all men were created equal. The Congress refused the British proposal demanding allegiance to the monarchy and abandonment of freedom.

The British was compelled out of Boston but then seized and held New York for the duration of the war. The British blocked the ports and captured other cities but failed to defeat Washington’s forces. footnoteRef:4In the beginning of 1778, following a failed patriot attack of Canada, British militia was captured at the Battle of Saratoga following which the French amenably entered the war as allies of U.S. The war later turned to the American where the British took an army at South Carolina but failed to recruit enough volunteers from Loyalist citizens to take effective control. A joint American French force seized a second British army at Yorktown in 1781 but effectively the war in the United States ended.The Treaty of Paris in 1783 officially ended the battleapproving the new nation's total separation from the British Empire.

Therefore,there was yet a change of being confronted by other states. No individual state had the power to protect itself against attacks. Due to this, the Framers were familiar with that as it was essential for the states to defend the nation together.
A constitution is a set of established precedents or fundamental principles according to which a state or other organization is governed.footnoteRef:5The Preamble to the United States Constitution is a short-lived introductory statement of the Constitution's central purposes and guiding values.

It states in overall terms and courts have termed it as reliable proof of the FoundingFathers'  purposes concerning the Constitution's meaning and what they expected the Constitution would accomplish. Below I will show how the U.S constitution established justice and secured liberty for its people.

footnoteRef:6The Preamble was placed in the Constitution during the days of the Constitutional Convention by the Committee on Style which wrote its final draft.  It was not discussed or proposed on the floor of the convention earlier. The original wording of the preface failed to the citizen of the United States; slightly it referred to people of the numerous states which were the standard. The change was made out of need as the Constitution provided that every time the popularly elected sanction conventions of nine states gave their approval, it would go into effect for those nine, regardless of whether any of the remaining states approved.

The Founders intended the Constitution to establish justice or liberty meaning equal justice for all. This norm assumes the right for every citizen of the United States to be protected as to life, liberty, and property and to be alleged innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.We regard these truths to be self-evident that peoplewere created equal, that they are gifted by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that amongst these are liberty, the pursuit of happiness and life. That to protect these rights, Governments are made from Men. footnoteRef:7This statement from the Declaration of Independence tells us that Thomas Jefferson and the other men who signed up this document thought that God created all men equal and that governments were founded to ensure

equal fairness for everyone.

Also W. Cleon clarified how government creates and protects justice: “When a government protects the rights of its civilians and provides an sufficient remedy for those whose rights have been violated, then that government is giving equal fairness for all”
Justice needs a chance and a place to complain of an injury as well as the machinery to deliver a remedy. For the suspects, justice requires the chance to hear and understand the charge, cross-examine those who are making the charge, have a fair and immediate trial and have an opportunity to rehabilitate the wrong if found honesty.footnoteRef:8Thomas Jefferson also recapped that, when one undertakes to administer justice, it must be by rule and with an even hand; what is done for one must be also done to everyone in equal degree. For verdict to be true justice, it must be just. It must be administered equally and precisely to all. 8: Kyvig, David E. Explicit and authentic acts: Amending the US Constitution, 1776-1995. University Press of Kansas, 1996.

Therefore the reasons why there was Revolution against England were still significant to the American civilians so they sought to make sure that they would have justice under the Constitution.
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same state or country, or less usually between two states created from an earlier united states. The purpose of one side may be to take control of the country or to transform government policies, or to attain independence for a region. Below I will discuss how the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments have secured liberty and insured domestic tranquility of the U.S people.

The Thirteenth Amendment states

that neither involuntary servitude nor slavery, except as a penalty for crime whereof the party shall be duly sentenced, shall also exist within the United States or any place concern to their jurisdiction.footnoteRef:9 First, the amendments forbids not only slavery, the instant concern of a civil war but also involuntary bondage, a term of larger meaning than slavery. Secondly, the prohibition is uttered as a direct ban against instinctive servitude and slavery, it is not restricted to state action. Third, the prohibition works not only within the United States but also in any place subject to their authority including U.S territories. 9: Torok, John Hayakawa. "Reconstruction and Racial Nativism: Chinese Immigrants and the Debates on the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments and Civil Rights Laws." Asian LJ 3 (1996)

footnoteRef:10Further, the Thirteenth Amendment comprises a second statement that the legislature shall have power to implement this article by suitable legislation.Up to this point, no provision in the constitution had specifically assigned to congress the mandate to implement a constitutional guarantee and the first twelve amendments were embraced largely to limit the possibility offederal authority. Now, instead of restraining federal power in order to safeguard individual rights, the Framers wanted to protect individual rights by intensifying federal power. 10: Newman, Nathan, and J. J. Gass. A new birth of freedom: The forgotten history of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. Vol. 5. Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, 2004.

footnoteRef:11The first statement of the Fourteenth Amendment affirms that all persons naturalized or born in the United States and of the State wherein they exist in have equal rights. The Fourteen Amendment inverted the Dred Scott choice

and significantly extended the political community including the new post war nation. Significantly, the definition of citizenship ordered a philosophical nationalization of American identity. The Fourteenth Amendment municipalizes our political personality as citizens of the United States and makes the federal government the definitive guarantor of our most central rights 11: Newman, Nathan, and J. J. Gass. A new birth of freedom: The forgotten history of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. Vol. 5. Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, 2004.

The Amendment goes on to say that no state shall enforce or make any law which reduce the immunities or privileges of citizens of the United States. Whereas the Bill of Rights protects individual liberty in contrast tonational power, the Privilege Clause protects the fundamental rights of American civilians against state power.footnoteRef:12As with the Thirteenth Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment provides Congress with the power to implement by suitable legislation, the provisions of this article. Through this implementation clause, the draftsmen pursuedto give to Congress by anexact provision appropriate to the FourteenthAmendment, the same comprehensive powers. 12: Torok, John Hayakawa. "Reconstruction and Racial Nativism: Chinese Immigrants and the Debates on the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments and Civil Rights Laws." Asian LJ 3 (1996): 55.

footnoteRef:13In the Fifteen Amendment provides the civilians of the United States to vote and shall not be denied or abridged by the U.Sor by any other State on basis of color, race or previous condition of servitude. The amendment also allows Congress to implement this article by suitable legislation. The Fourteenth Amendment had indirectly supported black suffrage by comprising a federal allotment penalty for a state renunciation of the permit to any adult

male citizen. But the Fourteenth Amendment’s core give assurance of equal citizenship which was thought at the time to use only to civil rights as differentiatedfrom the political right of voting. To safe black suffrage and thereby assimilating the national political community, the Reconstruction Congress together with President Grant’s dynamic support which is contained in the Fifteenth Amendment. And also by prohibiting voting discrimination on the basis of previous condition servitude, color or race, the Farmers again chose wide language exceeding the specific context of depiction. 13: Newman, Nathan, and J. J. Gass. A new birth of freedom: The forgotten history of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. Vol. 5. Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, 2004.

From above we can conclude that one of the key reasons why the Constitutional Convention was held was because of Shays’ Rebellion. This was a rebellion of farmers in Massachusetts against the state for having to refund war debts. Citizens were anxious with the keeping peace within the country’s borders.

The progressive Era refers to a period of varied reforms that occurred throughout the U.S over the first two spans of the twentieth century.
footnote. While much of that was altered,it was legislated by the United States Congress under the governance of the three consecutive presidents Woodrow Wilson, William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt and it was also a program that generated a variety of changes at the local and state levels as well. Below I will discuss how the progressive era promoted the general welfare of the U.S people. 14: Hays, Samuel P. "The politics of reform in municipal government in the progressive era." The Pacific Northwest Quarterly

55, no. 4 (1964): 157-169.

footnoteRef:15Most state régimes as well as Georgia’s, generated Progressive reforms that sometimes concurred with different from those legislated at the federal level. Major areas of moral, social and economic reforms among states comprisedof women suffrage, the regulation of child labor, prohibition reforms the penal system and campaigns to eradicate the criminal lease system. Absurdly, the disfranchisement of black voters was considered a reorganization by white in southern states who felt that it eliminateda main source of electoral dishonesty; segregation laws enacted at the same time were also regarded as progressive by those who saw them only means by which ethnic peace could be attained. 15: Hays, Samuel P. "The politics of reform in municipal government in the progressive era." The Pacific Northwest Quarterly 55, no. 4 (1964): 157-169

Progressives involved not only political leaders like legislators, mayors and governors but also educators, large farmers, businessmen, both black activists and women and academics. footnoteRef:16All of these groups shared anelementary belief in energetic government; they acknowledged both the ability and responsibility of government at local levels, state and federal, to solve the various economic, political and social problems that cfaced the speedily developing nation at the turn of the century. 16: Hays, Samuel P. "The politics of reform in municipal government in the progressive era." The Pacific Northwest Quarterly 55, no. 4 (1964): 157-169

Therefore we can conclude that this phrase meant that the well-being of the citizens would be considered as well as the Federal government.
During the World War I and World War 11, propaganda was used to upsurge support for the war and commitment to an Allied conquest. Using a vast collection of media, propagandists

prompted hatred for the opponent and support for America's allies, insisted greater public effort for victory gardens and war production, influenced people to save some of their material so that more material could be used to sold war bonds and the war efforts. Patriotism became the essential theme of publicity throughout the war as large scale campaigns were hurled to promote efficiency in factories, sell war bonds, reduce ugly rumors and maintain civilian moral. Below I will discuss how U.S promoted common defense during World War 1 and World War 11.

The historic of the U.S is stabbed with armed warfare and engagements. footnoteRef:17From the beginning of this country to the present day, the world recognizes the United States as a militaristic power. The use of propaganda worked as a common strand that link all military actions together. Countries depend on publicity during time of war for a variety of explanations. Among other things propaganda can impart a strong animosity for the enemy, inspires soldiers to fight or gather support on front for the war determination. Publicity is a main tool used by fighting nations and it can frequently be the difference between losing and winning a war. The United States is no exclusion to the rule of publicity in order to win wars. The collocation of the Vietnam War and World War 11 brings to light an unambiguous contrast in American conflict. These two wars still remain fresh in the memory of Americans, commonly times for very different reasons. By examining the types of propaganda used, the procedure for execution and the reception by the people which is a clear picture that can be drawn

concerning how publicity shaped each war as well as how the propaganda replicated the aims of leaders of the state during the war.

The American publicity in World War 11 was more successfully used throughout the war to address the desires of the state than the propaganda used during the Vietnam War. While the propaganda employed in these fights may share some likenesses, their differences are so significant that one may claim that the publicity acted as one of the main decisive factors through the war. The American publicity during World War II and the Vietnam War was exclusively made to fit the requirements of the state during each particular war. The morals of society as well as the aims of the American leaders played a vital role in determining how to apply the propaganda and these distinctive characteristics make this topic well-intentioned to further an in-depth analysis. 17: Blum, William. Killing hope: US military and CIA interventions since World War II.

So we can actually conclude that during World War 1 and World War 11, propaganda was main method the U.S used to fight their enemies hence was used as a common defense to their civilians as it mobilized the people together. The Cold War was a state of military and political tension after World War II between powers in in the Eastern bloc ( Russia and its allies in the Warsaw Pact) and the Western bloc(U.S and its allies NATO among others) I will discuss how U.S promoted common defense to its people during Cold War.

The new proportions of the nuclear war frightened the American people and world. The sheer power of nuclear weapons and the alleged possibility of such

an attack on the U.S accelerated a greater response than had yet been required of civil service. Civil service was taken as a significant and common sense step and also became contentious and divisive in the charged atmosphere of the cold war. footnoteRef:19The National Security Resource Board outline a model civil defense structure for the U.S. In spite of a general treaty on the significant of civil defense, Congress did not come close over to meeting the budget needs of centralized civil defense agencies.

From the above evidence we conclude that United States used the National security which structured the civil defense to provide common defense to the civilians. American civil rights movement was a mass demonstration movement against discrimination and racial segregation in the southern United States. This actions had its roots in the century’s long exertion of their descendant and African slaves to rebel abolish the institution of slavery and racial oppression. Below I will discuss how The Civil Rights Movement promoted general welfare, domestic tranquility as well as securing liberty of the Americans.

Through nonaggressive protest, the civil rights separated by race in the South and achieved the most significant breakthrough in equivalent rights legislation for African American since the Reconstruction era. The major civil rights legislation was triumphant for the movement and by that time the militant black activists had started to see their fight as a liberation movement or freedom not just looking for civil rights restructurings but instead confronting the continuing cultural, political and economic consequences of past racial oppression. 20: Newman, Mark, and Mark Newman. The civil rights movement. Edinburgh University Press, 2004.

Therefore, we can conclude that the Civil Rights

Movement promoted general welfare, domestic tranquility and secure liberty by abolishing racial oppression and slavery.

Bibliography

1. Davidson, Philip Grant. propaganda and the American Revolution, 1763-1783. University of North Carolina Press, 1941.
2. Bailyn, Bernard, ed. Pamphlets of the American Revolution, 1750-1776: 1750-1765. Vol. 1. Belknap Pr, 1965.
3. Kyvig, David E. Explicit and authentic acts: Amending the US Constitution, 1776-1995. University Press of Kansas, 1996.
4. Torok, John Hayakawa. "Reconstruction and Racial Nativism: Chinese Immigrants and the Debates on the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and
5. Fifteenth Amendments and Civil Rights Laws." Asian LJ 3 (1996): 55.
6. Newman, Nathan, and J. J. Gass. A new birth of freedom: The forgotten history of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. Vol. 5. Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, 2004.
7. Hays, Samuel P. "The politics of reform in municipal government in the progressive era." The Pacific Northwest Quarterly 55, no. 4 (1964): 157-169.
8. Blum, William. Killing hope: US military and CIA interventions since World War II. Zed Books, 2003.
9. Sabin, Albert B. "Research on dengue during World War II." American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene 1, no. 1 (1952): 30-50.
10. Lippmann, Walter. The cold war: a study in US foreign policy. Harper, 1947.
11. Newman, Mark, and Mark Newman. The civil rights movement. Edinburgh University Press, 2004.