LAD #15: Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

       One of the most well-known speeches given in America was Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Though Lincoln tried in many ways to prevent the breaking of a unified nation that is a Civil War, it still inevitably broke out. He of course realizes this is a large hurtle America would have to get over but still believes its imperative to do so. In this address he relates to the importance of human equality and that the Civil War was an attempt to obtain freedom and bring equality to all of America. He wants people to never forget the war and the many people that died fighting for what they believed in. He says that they did not fully complete their mission but that it is up to the people who are still living to carry out what they had died for and continue protecting the rights of all American citizens. It is the democratic government’s job to make sure this is carried out and the people’s job to follow the laws that have been made so those who fought did not have to die in vain. This was very important to Lincoln that the soldiers of the union did not die without making an impression on the people of American.

LAD #14: Lincoln's First Inaugural Adress

   Lincoln starts out his inaugural address by assuring the southern states that they do not need to worry about a Republican being voted into office because he would make sure their rights and their property would be protected. He also assures that he does not feel he has any right to get involved with the issue of slavery in certain states. Lincoln is not a president that goes back on what he promises and uses that as another way of assuring the southern states that they don’t need to be worried about him doing anything they will dislike, the rights of the states will be fully enforced under Lincoln.  With the promise for the southern states that their rights would be protected, Lincoln also promises to all states that as long as he is president than everything stated in the constitution about their rights will be followed. He did also say that though he was not going to mess with what states had slavery, he was however not going to allow slavery to spread to other states. The unity of the United States was a very important thing to him that he wanted to maintain by making sure every state’s rights were fully protected. He believed that if any state seceded it would be unconstitutional and tear the country apart which he really wanted to prevent. Keeping the country as unified as he could was very important to Lincoln and he stressed this all throughout his address. He also stresses that it is in the hands of the American people whether there would be a Civil War or not but it is his hope that it would not have to come to that.

LAD #13: Calhoun on The Clay Compromise Measures

    

    In this compromise Calhoun’s biggest concern was the protection and preservation of the Union. He believes that the Union is in danger because most or all of the southern states are not happy with the way America is being run at this time and also that the southern states have not been happy for quite a while. He states that the reason the southern states are unhappy is because the northern elites of America have been only concerned with their own well-being and have not tried to include the South’s needs in any of their actions. The South and the North were also split into different political parties and therefore were not unified because of their political differences. One of the major factors in the South was the issue over the existence of slavery that was so important to the southern way of life but was also so against human rights. With all of the privileges the wealthy northerners had in the government it was shifted more towards the north, giving them dominance over most decisions made. Basically everything the North was doing was hurting the South in some way which caused the major tensions between the two to continue to grow. The government was supposed to be created for all of the people of America but it seemed to Calhoun that the south did not have nearly enough say in what happens in the government. Many aspects caused the disunion in America but the south was almost up to its limit of having to deal with the North constantly getting what only they wanted. Calhoun warned that if this problem continued to happen eventually the South would lose their control and turn against the North to receive the power they believed they deserved. As Calhoun predicted this eventually did happen. He also thought the only way to keep the states unified is by forcing the weaker states to comply with the bigger states demands. Calhoun recognized this as a big problem and wrote to the senators to try and allow them to realize this as well and prevent the future breaking of American unity.

LAD# 12: Polk's War Message

     

     In the beginning of his message Polk goes into the origin or cause of the war between the United States and Mexico. Some of the reasons this war began was because of America’s many issues with the Mexican government such as the Mexican governments treatment if American citizens. America was angered because the Mexicans were attacking them in their own soil. America still wanted to solve the border disputes with Mexico in a peaceful way. Polk tried to send the diplomat, John Slidell from Louisiana down to talk negotiations with the Mexican government but the negotiations never took place because the Mexican government refused to accept him in to talk. Texas wanted to protect themselves from possible attacks which spiked many battles to occur. Even though battles were being held it was not yet recognized as an official war. Although, this message written by Polk was an official statement that a war has finally been started between Mexico and the United States. Polk’s responsibility was to protect private property and respect personal property and that America has been trying their hardest to peacefully negotiate with Mexico and avoid war. Unfortunately the way that Mexico went around the problem caused the American government to declare war. This decision to declare war on Mexico was for the good and the protection of the American people.

LAD#11: The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions

    

Woman were beginning to realize that they were not offered as many rights as the men in America were and began taking actions towards fixing that problem. Woman are promised the same inalienable rights that were created in the constitution and therefore should be given the right to vote to ensure that all their rights are protected and be allowed to vote. In the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, there are many cases listed in which men have hindered women’s privileges to exercise her full rights. Some examples of this are woman were supposed to follow laws that the men created and they were not able to contribute to, when a woman becomes married she loses all of her property to her husband and if the two were ever to separate the man has the power to choose what each person gets to keep in the separation. There are many more of these problems listed and all of them go against the constitution. Also included in this document are several resolutions to the problems that were posed earlier. Such as woman are the equals of men and should be treated as such, it is up to the women of America to stand up for their rights and achieve that and that women should realize that their rights have not been offered to them and fight to obtain them so that America can actually become a country that allows all people to practice their inalienable rights. This document was a big step that woman needed to take towards realizing that they were not given their human rights that they deserved and take actions towards obtaining these rights.