Blog 12 - Amazing Grace

The main reason I feel that it is so hard to stop the international trade of slaves is simple; the reason is money. The English empire became powerful because of the Slave trade. The logic is fairly simple; slaves work on crop plantations, then plantations grow crops, crops sell for money and are traded for other crops, which then supply the English empire and earn it capital. Another reason that I can think of that was an obstacle to William Wilberforce was that many of the noblemen that were in the House of Congress had at least some money in the slave trade. Because of this William Wilberforce has such a hard time trying to convince the House of Commons to ban slavery. The English empire rose to prominence after they found a cash crop in the Americas. This cash crop was tobacco and was discovered by John Rolfe in Virginia. After Bacon’s rebellion indentured servants went into decline and the need for slaves increased. These events made the English think that slavery was the cheapest and most effective way to gain capital. I think the English believed in the phrase if it isn’t broken don’t fix it. Production wise slavery worked for the English, it made them lots of money, however, ethically slavery is horribly wrong. This year I have taken a personal finance class, in this class one of the points that was stressed was that money brings the worse out of anyone and everyone. I believe that this happened to the English. The English were only thinking economically and let money control them. They didn’t really think of slaves as people. I do not know if this was because of propaganda or because people just didn’t ever think beyond economics. At the time this movie is set in which I believe the movie said it was about 1782, the English empire held a lot of territory. Even though the English empire had lost the colonies in America they still had a great amount of land. European countries held the Caribbean and other places. These islands had slaves and plantations. They grew sugar cane and many other cash crops that made the English a great deal of money. The only thing they need for the plantations are more slaves. Because of this the international slave trade thrived. When the English can get the Africans to turn on themselves and fight each other it is easy to get slaves. England and the other European countries had England set up perfectly for them. They can get as many slaves as they want for cheap. The English and the Europeans had Africa in the perfect situation for them and because of this international slave trade thrived and there was no real end in sight until the abolition movement started and eventually they got followers. My second point of why it took so long to change the international slave trade was because many of the politicians had money in the salve trade. This point is mainly based off of this movie, but it makes a great deal of sense to me. I thought about this point logically and I mirrored the situation to America. Many of the politicians in the South had plantations. This was why America had as many problems as it did getting rid of slavery in the United States. In England I imagine it is mainly the same. Even though there were definitely less plantations in England then in America, their was still merchants and slave traders in England. Merchants relied on the plantations to make money and sense slaves worked on the plantations it is simple logic why they wouldn’t want to get rid of international slave trade. Economically it makes sense, but like I have mentioned earlier ethically it is not. This is one thing I can’t understand is how most of the English did not think about the issue of slavery ethically. The beginning of the movie stated that there were few abolitionists at this time, and historically there weren’t that many abolitionists till later. So eventually the ethical part of it caught on but it wasn’t for a while. Because the majority people did not think of the issue slavery ethically, of course they couldn’t stop international slave trade. In conclusion, the international trade thrived in this environment. The abolitionists had to work extremely hard to change the reasoning of the English majority. The abolitionist movement had to soften the hearts of the English people to start getting an antislavery fervor in England. I feel that the international slave trade would have probably gone on forever if it wasn’t for the abolitionists and I am glad that the abolitionist eventually won the battle over slavery. I am glad that there is slavery in America, however, as one of our TA’s reminded us with the picture from New York, slavery is still going on and we need to work hard to stop it.

Blog 12 - Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address

Lincoln’s second inaugural address was probably one of the only readings I was excited about reading. I have of course read and heard this address before, however, I have not read or heard the second inaugural address for a long time. Because of this I was happy to refresh my mind on this very important speech. When I read this speech I realized how religious this speech is. I really have never thought of Abraham Lincoln as a religious president, but after reading the speech and going to the lecture I have learned that he was very religious. One of the most interesting things that Dr. H told us was that Abraham Lincoln owned a Book of Mormon. Dr. H said that they don’t know how much of it he actually read, but they know that he owned one. This was very interesting to me, mainly because the Mormons were not very liked at this time period for being polygamists. One of my favorite parts of the speech was how Abraham Lincoln unified the north and the south when he talked about the Bible. He states, “Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God.” This statement in the text really stood out to me. Mainly because it is very true, the North and the South are both reading the same text they are just interpreting it differently. This is not uncommon. In class Dr. H told us that there are over 1,500 denominations of Christian religions. From this I believe that most people interpret the Bible (and most religious books) differently. It is not clearly defined so because of this I am not surprised that there are so many Christian denominations. Another interesting thing that we talked about in the lecture was the length of the inaugural address. From the inaugural addresses that I have read from the past and the ones I have heard in my lifetime, I do think that Lincoln’s inaugural address was rather short. However, I think that it is to the point and is more effective due to the fact that it is not too over winded. It doesn’t have words just for length; it is just to the point. Definitely my favorite part was that Abraham Lincoln wrote the speech himself. In today’s world all political leaders have speechwriters and do not really write anything themselves. This speech is fantastic and I think that it definitely had to be influenced at least a little bit by God. This speech is considered to be one of the best speeches of all time and the fact that Abraham Lincoln wrote it himself and did not make that many changes to the draft shows that he was inspired and that he truly was trying to bring the United States back together. I stand by the people that believe this is one of the best inaugural addresses of all time.

Blog 11 - The Second Great Awakening and Joseph Smith and the 1st vision

The Second Great Awakening a lecture was quite intriguing. The lecture did really make me think about Joseph Smith and his first vision. I found the most interesting part was when we talked about Joseph Smiths family and what religious denominations they all belonged too. As I recall, Joseph Smiths mother was Presbyterian, his father was a Universalist, and Joseph himself was leaning Methodist. I personally believe that if it wasn’t for all of the sermons and religion in the public sphere that Joseph Smith would have never prayed in the sacred grove and thus would have never had the first vision. I also believe that all of this religion in the public sphere helped spread the words of Joseph Smith. The other thing that I find so amazing is that Mormonism attracted so many members. During the Second Great Awakening there were many new religions getting spread around all over America especially in the burned over district. The burned over district is part of New York where there were lots of the Second Great Awakening was occurring. Joseph Smith jr. and his family lived in the burned over district and took part in many of the sermons that were part of the Second Great Awakening. One thing that I wonder about was how the crowd reactions were during the Mormon sermons. During usual sermons the crowds would do many different reactions. They would fall down, roll on the ground, bark, and dance. However, many historians believe that many of these reactions are exaggerated. These historians believe that for the most part people just fell down and shouting. In class we didn’t really learn about any of the reactions to the Mormon sermons and sense as far as my knowledge goes I think that Mormonism was towards the end of the Second Great Awakening that it wasn’t too extreme. However, I really don’t know and am not sure if anyone knows. With all of these crazy religious happenings in New York I am glad that so many people listened to the words of Joseph Smith and converted to Mormonism. I am also very glad that my ancestors listened to the words of Joseph Smith and other Mormon leaders and converted to Mormonism so that I could eventually hear the words of the Mormon religion.

Blog 10 - The Crandall Printing Museum

I thought the Crandall Printing museum was pretty interesting. Even though the tour was rather long I learned a lot about the printing press and got a lot of new insights that I had never really taken into consideration before. Probably the most interesting part for me was the early history of the printing press. Its creator Johannes Gutenberg was very strange to me. Mainly because he hired six crews when he knew he didn’t have the money. This was very peculiar to me and made me agree with the tour guides that he must have been inspired to do that so he could spread the printing press around the globe. The other thing that interested me about the early history of the printing press was that it was such a long process. I couldn’t even imagine myself working on a printing press because it just seems so frustrating because there are so many little things that can go wrong. However, I think that I feel that way because I am from a different generation and am use to such technological gadgets as the Internet. I am use to printing a piece of paper in a minute and not spending an hour putting in every piece of type and such. The process was just very interesting to me and made me think a lot about the printing press. The other part of the tour that was interesting was when we all learned about the printing of the Book of Mormon. I liked this part of the tour because it seems somewhat unrealistic that they pumped out the Book of Mormon as fast as they did. They printed five thousand Book of Mormons faster than anyone thought was possible. Crandall one of the tour guides and the creator of the museum told us that he believed that there wasn’t any divine intervention in the creating of the Book of Mormon. He just believed that God gave them strength that they didn’t know they had. That is how they finished the Book of Mormon as fast as they did. I don’t know if I agree with his theory. I know that God had to give some kind of divine help but I don’t know how he did it. I think personally I will give all logical possibilities open on how I think he helped the printers print the five thousand copies of the Book of Mormon. I thought that the Crandall Printing museum was very interesting and I though it was a very good educational experience. I learned a great deal about the printing press from the museum and I feel that I would have never learned that much about the printing press if I didn’t go to the museum for class. Overall, I was very grateful for the experience of going to the Crandall Printing museum.

Blog 9 - Women's rights - why not sooner?

I believe that there are many reasons that women did not organize themselves earlier. These reasons include: the cult of domesticity, men running politics. The main reason I believe women started working together is because of the abolition movement. The abolition movement was the first time that women had the chance to be active in a form of politics. The abolition movement gave women the chance to get out of the cult of domesticity and fight for something. Women had the chance to be somewhat active in politics during the American Revolution but after that they lost their political power. During the American Revolution women would organize boycotts, help soldiers and there were a few women that actually fought. However, after the American Revolution the idea known as the cult of domesticity rose into power. The cult of domesticity told women that they had to stay at home and provide for their families. They were suppose to support their husband in any way possible and politics was seen as man work that wasn’t fit for women. The second great awakening helped end the cult of domesticity. The second great awakening helped get women out of the house and into the public sphere. Women would leave the house and attend the church meetings. This led to women later getting active I the abolition movement. Sense many felt that it was a Christian duty to be an abolitionist; women were not excluded from helping. The abolitionist movement gave women black and white a chance to work in politics and fight to end slavery. When many think of the women in the abolitionist movement they think of Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, however, there were more white women than black women that were prominent in the abolition movement. This was for many reasons; white women had more freedom, had better income, had a better education, etc. The abolition movement gave women the chance they needed to work in politics and eventually this leaded them to work on getting equal rights for themselves. I do not know if what I am going to sat is true, this is just a hypothesis of why I think women did not get rights sooner. I think that women maybe did not get rights sooner because they just were trying to support there men in the revolution and felt that the would eventually get rights. I believe that women thought that if they helped in the revolution that they would soon enough get equal rights when a government was set up. I think this was there plan before the cult of domesticity took control of women. I believe the most interesting part of the cult of domesticity is that it formed in Great Britain then moved to the United States of America. I thought that women in the United States wouldn’t let Great Britain hold them back, however, they did especially among the upper class. The upper class would also be the most educated women which is why this is a shame that they bought into the cult of domesticity. The upper class women have then best chance to make a change and when they are following popular trends and not trying to learn, women aren’t going to have equal rights. The cult of domesticity was a lot about being a good Christian. When abolitionists started stemming from churches women had their chance to enter the political sphere and be seen as good Christians. This eventually stemmed into women realizing that they needed to get there right to vote and acting upon it. If it wasn’t for the abolitionist movement I believe that it would have been a while until women got equal rights.

Blog 8 Amistad

I really liked the movie Amistad and found it really informatice. As of right now I think I’m going to do a film minor here at BYU and so I am quite interested in film. I also believe that Morgan Freeman and Anthony Hopkins are both very talented actors. Even though I believe this I think that the best actor in Amistad was Djimon Hounsou who played Cinque. His portrayal of what it was like to be sold into slavery was quite moving. The scene where Cinque explains how he became a slave was very shocking and I imagine it is not even close to the other horrors that happened to slaves. The reason that I believe slaves were so easy to buy was because the slave traders had Africans hunting there own kind. The white slave traders did not know the lay of the land in Africa but the Africans that worked for them did. The white slave traders did not have to do the dirty work of capturing the slaves they just had to bring firearms and other goods that they could trade for slaves. The movie really illustrated this point when it showed Cinque getting hit in the head and taken away from his tribe and family. However, even though this scene illustrated slavery, I believe that the images of being on the slave ship were the most shocking and they helped me visualize the horrors of slavery the best. The slave ship was of course horrible conditions. All of the African slaves were chained up with no room to really even lie down. There are two scenes of this movie that I believe will stay in my head for a long time. These two being when the African slaves were being fed in the bottom of the ship and the scene where they throw the slaves off of the boat, because they do not have enough food for them. The scene where they are being passed out food is just pure cruelty. All of the African slaves are all underfed, and because of this they are all desperately reaching out for food. The food that they the slave ship crew is feeding them looks pretty gross but sense the slaves are so underfed they are gobbling it up. The slave crew is also very selective of who they actually feed. The African slaves to not have bowls or plates, they are being fed directly into there hands. The slaves who are not being fed are just trying to get any scrapes they can get. Watching this process brought a chill that went up and down my spine. I tried to think of what it would be like, but for the most part I could not even fathom what being in those conditions would be like. I can’t imagine how someone can treat another human being like that. These images reminded me of the Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War. I have a very hard time understanding how the Nazis can use propaganda so effectively to de-humanize a whole race and treat them as horrible as they did. I believe that the concentration camps and the slave trade were very similar as they both dehumanized large groups of people. The second scene that really affected me was when the crewmembers of the slave ship threw about fifty slaves off the ship. I feel that it was so disturbing to me because many of the slaves were women and children and so they were screaming. From a business stand point it also amazes me how profitable the slave trade was. The slave ship could just kill off many of their slaves and still have a profitable journey. This fact astounds me. In the trial scene they bring up this question again and the British general (I do not know exactly what rank he was) talks about how lucrative a business the slave trade was. This movie really helped me see the terrors of slave trade better then I could before. Some members of our class talked about how they did not like watching movies in class. I remember one girl even went as far as saying something like “I’m not in high school anymore so I don’t want to watch dumb movies.” I have to completely disagree with her. Even though I did not really enjoy the movie A More Perfect Union, I found both Amistad and the John Adams mini series very informative. I was very happy that I had the opportunity to watch this movie, I know that I probably would not have watched it if it wasn’t in this class. Amistad really helped me visualize better then I ever could before.

Blog 7 - Federalist Paper #10

The federalist papers are actually quite interesting. My favorite federalist paper (out of the ones we read) was the tenth federalist paper. The question of how to dissolve factions has always intrigued me, as well as it has interested elementary school teachers. Factions have always caused problems in governments over history. What I find is the best about these papers is that the Alexander Hamilton realizes that a government cannot do away with factions without doing away with the liberties that the people of the United States of America are promised. The governments that have gotten away with most factions are dictatorships and even then they still face opposition. It is impossible to make everyone have the same beliefs. Even in our own Mormon religion we know that everyone will not share the same beliefs in the end. Even though many people will be converted to Mormonism in the end there is still Satan and the sons of perdition that will be of a different fraction. Because of this and some historical examples of factions not succeeding (such as factions fighting internally against the Nazis, Mussolini, Communists, etc) I think that it is impossible to not factions in a society. All of the governments I wrote above tried to make a utopian society and all of them failed. Alexander Hamilton and all of the founding fathers knew that utopian societies wouldn’t work. They didn’t even try to make a utopian society because they knew it was impossible. That is what I find is so magnificent about the founding fathers is that they did were realistic and did not try to reach the unimaginable, however, they knew they were going to do something that had never been done before. Besides removing liberty and making everyone the same Alexander Hamilton though of another extremist measures to remove factions; these being making an enlightened statesmen aka a dictator. I mentioned some dictators in the governments before. Dictators cant be trusted to make decisions when they are given so much power and when they wield so much influence over the people. Alexander Hamilton also knows that it is hard to find an enlightened statesman that is smart enough to lead a new nation like the United States of America. It is hard to find someone with all of the necessary skills that will not eventually corrupt and cease to be a democratic republic. Another big part of the tenth federalist paper is the when Alexander Hamilton challenges the idea that smaller republics are better then larger republic. This belief came to pass because older republics thought that to have a successful government that there needed to a majority that supported all of the same ideals and the citizens all needed to somewhat know each other. The founding fathers knew that a bigger government is better if it is not a true democracy. The founding fathers knew that tyranny of the majority was a big issue and that in a true democracy it would rule over the government. That is why the founding fathers did not do a true democracy and did a republic like they did and that which stands today, an enlarged democratic republic. In an enlarged democratic republic there can be tyranny of the majority, however, there can also be tyranny of the minority. That is what is so great about the United States of America. Alexander Hamilton and the other writers of the federalist papers (John Jay and James Madison) knew that factions were going to stay in the government and that America was a big republic and was just going to get bigger and bigger. That is why they decided to make a democratic republic and let the factions remain in the United States of America.

Blog 6 - A More Perfect Union

I found the film A More Perfect Union to be very interesting but I also thought it was a pretty cheesy movie. The information was useful but many of the other aspects of it I found typical to a BYU produced movie. Probably the most interesting information I saw was the portrayal of the founding fathers. All of the founding fathers acted differently then I thought they would. However, I do not personally know the founding fathers so I cant really judge this. How the founding fathers were portrayed in the John Adams film also surprised me, however, both of the reasons I was surprised are completely different. In John Adams all of the founding fathers were kind of rough around the edges. They weren’t always polite and always spoke their mind. In this film I felt they were all overly polite. James Madison always was very polite to everyone and never got in any arguments or seemed very frustrated. One reason I think that I was surprised is the skill level of acting in each of these productions. Paul Giamatti is a very gifted and talented actor while I have no idea who played James Madison. The actor who played James Madison did not show much facial expression to my memory. He was rather plain and did not show much emotion. In contrast in John Adams all of the actors showed a great deal of emotion as they represented there colonies / states. The actor in it who showed the most emotion in A More Perfect Union was Alexander Hamilton. The portrayal of Alexander Hamilton was to me one of the most intriguing parts of the movie. I do not know too much about Alexander Hamilton besides the fact that he set up the treasury and was shot by Aaron Burr. Seeing him try to fight to help the Virginia Plan out and how frustrated he was with the other delegates from New York was quite interesting. Constantly, I see his face on the ten-dollar bill and am excited to learn more about him in this class. Overall, I felt that the movie was quite interesting. I definitely liked the John Adams film better but I was glad to watch this one.

Blog 5 questions and the constitution

When writing up the constitution of the United States of America the founding fathers had many questions to answer. The founding fathers were not trying to make a temporary government; they were making a government that would last forever. However, they were not trying to make a perfect utopian society. What the founding fathers were trying to do was unheard of, it had never been done before and because of this they had many questions they had to ask and answer to be able to write such a magnificent document like the declaration of independence.
What I see as the biggest debate in the constitution is slavery. All of the delegates had different views on slavery and it divided all of the delegates. Because of this debate the worlds slave or slavery are never mentioned in the constitution. I believe this is happened because God inspired the United States of Americas constitution. Because it is a divinely inspired document it of course it would not mention slavery. The topic of slavery separated America in the north and south. Because the congress was in Philadelphia the southern delegates had to come up to defend slavery. The congress did have to find a middle ground to make both the north and the south happy. The middle ground decided was that a slave counted as 3/5 of a person, that other states were required to return fugitive slaves and that the continental slave trade would be ended for twenty years. Most of these were a good middle ground for the north and the south. But I do feel that some of the clauses did give the south more power, for example the slaves having 3/5 of a vote gave the south many more votes then it would have had without it. This gave the south a lot more power in the house and congress. Another thing that I felt that the north lost on was that fugitive slaves had to be returned. However, I feel that the big loss on this decision to put that in the constitution came many years later in the Dred Scott decision. This decision made slavery legal property and could never be citizens in the United States. This decision greatly changed slave life in America until the American Civil War. Slavery was not fully tackled while making the constitution. It was just put off for 20 years to be solved later.
Another question that the founding fathers had to talk about was the Virginia plan. At this time Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were in Europe as ambassadors at the time so James Madison and other delegates had to take lead in the constitution. James Madison is known as the father of the constitution mainly for his writing of the Virginia plan. Even though the Virginia plan ultimately won there was also the New Jersey plan that was proposed by William Patterson. The New Jersey plan was similar today’s United Nation with equal representation. However, It did not get adopted and James Madison two house Virginia plan won and was voted to be part of the constitution and be Americas government.
In this blog I have only briefly covered the questions that the founding fathers ask. I feel that the most important question that slavery was the most important part of drafting the constitution and because of this I felt that I had to talk about slavery the most. Slavery was a big issue as it was in the past and once again was just put aside for the time being to be picked up again later. Besides this I know that that the constitutional congress did do everything right. A two house is the best way to have a government because it solves the needs of the people and the needs of the states.

Blog 4 - John Adams

Tom Hank’s adaptation of David McCullough’s book John Adams was very intriguing. Besides the section that we read for class I have never read the book John Adams before, however, I have read David Mculloughs book 1776 and quite liked it. Because of this I was quite thrilled to watch the HBO mini series with Paul Giamatti. I have heard good things about the mini series and remember when I watched John Adams win award after award at the Golden Globes. Watching it, I thought that for the most part that it was historically accurate. I felt that Paul Giamatti did a great job portraying John Adams. As Dr. H mentioned in class Tom Hanks did not want a handsome actor like Brad Pitt, he wanted a plain man, because that’s what John Adams was. Usually, when making a book into a movie it is very hard to keep the movie historically accurate. I think that making a mini series makes it a lot easier to keep the movie historically accurate. A regular movie is about two hours and the John Adams mini series is nine hours. Because of the extra seven hours the mini series is far more accurate then a normal movie adaptation of John Adams could be. I have heard several times that John Adams was obnoxious and a little annoying. I have heard that he used to wake up at four in the morning and plan his whole day out and then follow that plan to great detail. Another thing I have heard that is on thanksgiving he said that the American people should fast and not eat plentiful amounts of food. Paul Giamatti portrays John Adams in a similar fashion. Paul Giamatti’s portrayal of John Adams is obnoxious, however, when the viewer watches it he roots for him. Everyone who watches it is a little biased because they want American independence so of course they take John Adams side. But when I think back on the circumstances of the American Revolution it was quite the gamble. That is why I feel that it is truly amazing that John Adams and the other delegates were able to persuade the other colonies (or states) to go for independence. I know that had to have interfered for them to get a victory in the revolutionary war and become an independent nation. Their were only two things about the min series that I was surprised about was the portrayals of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. However, I feel that I was surprised was because I have never really learned too much about the personalities of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson was a little shyer then I thought he would be but I really liked the scene with John Adams editing the Declaration of Independence. This scene is what we read in the book for class and I really enjoyed how the film crew directed this scene. With Ben Franklin what surprised me was how he didn’t vocally back up the idea of independence at first. I have just always assumed that he had been public about his support of independence. It was surprising to me that he was more secretive of his support, however, it definitely was a learning experience. From the John Adams movie I learned a great deal about the personalities of the founding fathers. I found the mini series very interesting and I enjoyed it a great deal. I am glad that I had the opportunity to watch it because I am not sure if I would have watched it by myself.

Blog 3 MOA visit

Going through the types and shadows exhibit at the MOA was a very interesting experience. I have never really seen religious art as unique and cool as the art they had there. I haven’t really seen that much religious in my life and it was a good experience to see some good religious art that aren’t just the pictures that are on the pages in a Book of Mormon. Before going to the exhibit I had always thought of religious art as being just depictions of the people and story from the scriptures. The exhibit showed me that religious art was more then just depictions, it can be three dimensional or even representative (like the three panel piece on the prodigal son). I had two pieces that were my favorite in the exhibit. Those two pieces were the iron rod veil piece and also the piece of Jesus holding the cross. I like the iron rod veil piece for the artistic qualities. I really like metal art and liked the way the metal sheet was placed over the arm. I especially liked that his fingers were reaching out from under the metal sheet veil to show how much he was trying to do to help the person who had let go or was trying to grab the rod. Another element I liked about it was that the rod wasn’t very big and that it seemed hard to grip. I liked this because it is not always easy to live a strait and narrow life, however, it is possible. The way that God is reaching out to the person in distress really gives the viewer hope and personally reminded me of times when God was there for me. The other piece that was my favorite was the picture of Jesus holding the cross. I liked this because it was so realistic that it could be mistaken for a photograph. The wood that made up the cross was my favorite part because it looked like real wood that I could touch and feel the wood grain. This piece was also good because it reminded me of everything that Jesus has done for the world. He went through a lot of pain and suffering so that I can repent and live with him again someday. The atonement of course is very important in my life, my brother has autism and I want to be with him and the rest of my family forever. Besides my two favorite pieces I liked all of the other pieces a great amount too. I found that overall the MOA exhibit was a good experience and I was glad that I had the opportunity to visit it because I don’t think I would have seen it if we wouldn’t have gone as a class.

Sober Expectations

I feel that Martin Diamond’s title of “Sober Expectations” means a few different things. When Martin Diamond says sober expectations I think he means like the term “sober up” which means to be more realistic, or sober as in plain. I believe this because the founding fathers did have very realistic expectations for their new government. The founding fathers knew that for there new country to survive they needed to create a government that would tend to the needs of the colonists. One thing that I have really thought about that Dr. H mentioned in class was that the founding fathers were not trying to make a utopia. They knew that they couldn’t make a utopia and had very realistic expectations on the government they were setting up. That is why I think that the founding fathers were able to compromise on such issues as slavery. The founding fathers knew slavery was a big flaw but knew that they would have to leave it alone for the time being to know for the revolution to take place. They knew that later when the United States of America was more established they could correct some of the flaws and eventually they did correct some of the flaws. That is what is great about the government that was set up was that it could correct itself and restore order. An example of this that Dr. H talked about in class is President Richard Nixon leaving office after the Watergate controversy. In many other governments if an event that bad happened the whole country would be in utter confusion and peril. The United States of Government has been set up in such a beautifully structured way that problems such as the Watergate scandal can be solved peacefully. I also think when Martin Diamond said “Sober Expectations” he meant sober as in plain. The American Revolution was not like other revolutions in the past. The American Revolution did not kill the government officials above them or overthrow them. There were many loyalists that were disgraced but I have read that the favorite tactic of the patriots to intimidate the loyalists was to tar and feather them. Being tarred and feathered is very painful but it will not kill you. All of the revolutions before the American Revolution had been very violent, lots of blood was shed, and heads of the leaders were usually chopped off with guillotines. Which makes it so amazing that the founding fathers could create a revolution that ended up working without much fighting within the colonies. Martin Diamonds “Sober Expectations” eloquently praises the founding fathers for being realistic and explains how they were not trying to make a utopia. I found the article quite interesting as it explained how the American Revolution was the first of its kind. From reading the Book "Just and Holy Principles" I give credit to the founding fathers but I also believe that most of the credit should go to God. The American Revolution only happened because of divine intervention. Many founding fathers actually believed that the revolution only happened because of the helping hand of God. I believe that God did play a major role in the creation of the United States of America and am very thankful for it.

Blog #1 - My Thoughts on the Declaration of Independence

When I think about the Declaration of Independence I think back to many years ago when I saw the musical 1776 in Cedar City, Utah. This play shows the founding fathers in the second continental congress where they write and eventually sign the Declaration of Independence. However, even though I had this great experience of seeing 1776 I did not learn too much of the Declaration of Independence but I did get to hear some catchy show tunes. Luckily, my education on the declaration of independence doesn’t just come from the musical 1776.
A little background information on the Declaration of Independence that I did not learn in class is that it was approved on July 4, 1776, hence why America celebrates the fourth of July. Many believe that it was signed that day but it actually was not signed until a little while later. Many important people in history point to the declaration of independence as there personal philosophy.
When reading the Declaration of Independence, I cant help but think what beautiful of a document it is and how it has to be truly inspired by God. The best example of Gods hand in the Declaration of Independence is when Thomas Jefferson wrote, “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.” Slavery was a big part of the economics of America at the time, however, the founding fathers still knew that all men are created by God and should be treated fairly. They could not fix it at the time, because they needed all of the help they could get. But even though they could fix it they put all men are created equal hoping that one day they would be.
One of my favorite parts of going of BYU is that we can discuss Gods hand in our world. When talking about something like the Declaration of Independence it is hard not to mention Gods hand in that document and in the revolutionary war. America’s chance defeating the British was so slim that it had to be God that helped the soldiers fight and helped the founding fathers make the very difficult decisions that they had to make to rule over the new country.
The founding fathers knew they what was at stake when they signed the Declaration of Independence but they still signed it because they knew what they were doing was right. In class we talked about the last paragraph of the Declaration of independence where they write, “We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” This line really sums up the entire document and shows the world that America was ready to fight until death, leave there children fatherless, and ruin their reputation for generations to come, for the independence of the United States of America.