{"product_id":"a-documentary-history-of-the-united-states-11th-edition-isbn-9780593439340","title":"A Documentary History of the United States (11th Edition)","description":"\u003cb\u003e“An indispensable contribution to the understanding of our heritage.” – Robert A. Caro\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “This insightful collection will fascinate, delight, and challenge all who are interested in the progress of the American nation.”—Annette Gordon-Reed\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Here, in a single volume, are the documents (speeches, letters, tweets, Supreme Court decisions, and more) that have forged American history. This 11th edition is now updated with a new chapter on the COVID-19 pandemic, the January 6, 2021 insurrection, and the Biden presidency.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Accompanied by interpretations of their significance by noted historian Richard D. Heffner and journalist Alexander B. Heffner, the important documents in this book include:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   • The      Declaration of Independence \u003cbr\u003e   • The Constitution of the      United States \u003cbr\u003e   • Frederick      Douglass’ “What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July?” \u003cbr\u003e   • The      Monroe Doctrine \u003cbr\u003e   • The      Emancipation Proclamation \u003cbr\u003e   • Woodrow      Wilson’s War Message to Congress \u003cbr\u003e   • Franklin      D. Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” speech \u003cbr\u003e   • John      F. Kennedy’s inaugural address \u003cbr\u003e   • Martin Luther King,      Jr.’s letter from the Birmingham City Jail \u003cbr\u003e   • The National      Organization for Women (NOW) Statement of Purpose \u003cbr\u003e   • \u003ci\u003eRoe v. Wade\u003c\/i\u003e Supreme Court Decision \u003cbr\u003e   • Documents related to      September 11 and the Iraq War \u003cbr\u003e   • Barack Obama’s “A More      Perfect Union” speech \u003cbr\u003e   • Articles of Impeachment      against Donald J. Trump \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMore Than One Million Copies Sold!\u003cb\u003eForeword\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e1. A New Nation\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Common Sense,” Tom Paine\u003cbr\u003e The Declaration of Independence\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e2. The Law of the Land\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Constitution of the United States\u003cbr\u003e The Federalist Number Ten, James Madison\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e3. Federalists v. Republicans\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e On the Constitutionality of the Bank of the United States\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e Letter from Thomas Jefferson to George Washington\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e Letter from Alexander Hamilton to George Washington\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e4. Neutrality and National Growth\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e George Washington’s Farewell Address\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e5. The Jeffersonian Revolution\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Alien and Sedition Acts\u003cbr\u003e Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions\u003cbr\u003e Thomas Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e6. The Power of the Court\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e Marbury v. Madison\u003c\/i\u003e, Chief Justice John Marshall for the Supreme Court\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e7. A Bold Foreign Policy\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Monroe Doctrine, James Monroe\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e8. Jacksonian Democracy\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e On Aristocracy, Letters of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson\u003cbr\u003e Veto of the Bank Renewal Bill, Andrew Jackson\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e9. Liberty or Union\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Daniel Webster’s Second Reply to Hayne\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e10. The Abolitionist Crusade\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The First Issue of \u003ci\u003eThe Liberator\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e11. The Sectional Conflict\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e John C. Calhoun on the Slavery Question\u003cbr\u003e “The Hireling and the Slave,” William J. Grayson\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e12. The Fateful Decade\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions\u003cbr\u003e “What, to the Slave, Is the Fourth of July?” Speech, Frederick Douglass\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e Dred Scott v. Sanford\u003c\/i\u003e, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney for the Supreme Court\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e13. War!\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e14. The Prophet of Democracy\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln\u003cbr\u003e The Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e15. The Conflict over Reconstruction\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Our Domestic Relations: The Power of Congress over the Rebel States,” Senator Charles Sumner\u003cbr\u003e Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e 16. The Gilded Age\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e Democratic Vistas\u003c\/i\u003e, Walt Whitman\u003cbr\u003e Chinese Exclusion Act\u003cbr\u003e “Wealth,” Andrew Carnegie\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e 17. From Frontier to Factory\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” Frederick Jackson Turner\u003cbr\u003e Letter on Labor in Industrial Society, Samuel Gompers\u003cbr\u003e Atlanta Exposition Address, Booker T. Washington\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e 18. Grassroots Rebellion\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Populist Party Platform\u003cbr\u003e “Cross of Gold” Speech, William Jennings Bryan\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e 19. Imperial America\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “The United States Looking Outward,” Alfred T. Mahan\u003cbr\u003e Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, Theodore Roosevelt\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e 20. The Progressive Ferment\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The New Nationalism, Theodore Roosevelt\u003cbr\u003e The Old Order Changeth, Woodrow Wilson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e 21. The Great Crusade and After\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e War Message to Congress, Woodrow Wilson\u003cbr\u003e Fourteen Points, Woodrow Wilson\u003cbr\u003e The Pueblo Speech on the League of Nations, Woodrow Wilson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e 22. Boom and Bust\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Rugged Individualism,” Herbert C. Hoover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e 23. The Roosevelt Revolution\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address\u003cbr\u003e “A Rendezvous with Destiny” Speech, Franklin D. Roosevelt\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e N.L.R.B. v. Jones \u0026amp; Laughlin Steel Corporation\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e Helvering et al. v. Davis\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e 24. The End of Isolation\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Quarantine” Speech, Franklin D. Roosevelt\u003cbr\u003e “Four Freedoms” Speech, Franklin D. Roosevelt\u003cbr\u003e The Atlantic Charter\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e25. The Cold War\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Marshall Plan, George C. Marshall\u003cbr\u003e “Sources of Soviet Conduct,” George F. Kennan (“X”)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e 26. America at Midcentury\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e Brown v. Board of Education\u003c\/i\u003e, Chief Justice Earl Warren for the Supreme Court\u003cbr\u003e Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Farewell Address\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e 27. From the New Frontier to the Great Society\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address\u003cbr\u003e The American University “Strategy of Peace” Speech, John F. Kennedy\u003cbr\u003e Civil Rights Speech, John F. Kennedy\u003cbr\u003e The Birmingham City Jail “Unwise and Untimely” Letter, Martin Luther King, Jr.\u003cbr\u003e “I’m Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired” Speech, Fannie Lou Hamer\u003cbr\u003e “Great Society” Speech, Lyndon B. Johnson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e 28. Decade of Turmoil\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The National Organization for Women (NOW)\u003cbr\u003e Statement of Purpose\u003cbr\u003e “Power of the Media” Speech, Lyndon B. Johnson\u003cbr\u003e Guildhall Speech on “Television and Politics,” Edward R. Murrow\u003cbr\u003e “The Importance of Television News” Speech, Spiro T. Agnew\u003cbr\u003e Statement to the House Judiciary Committee Regarding the Impeachment of President Richard Nixon, Representative Barbara Jordan\u003cbr\u003e House Judiciary Committee Watergate Articles of Impeachment v. Richard M. Nixon\u003cbr\u003e Gerald R. Ford’s Inaugural Address\u003cbr\u003e Potter Stewart, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, on Freedom of the Press, Yale Law School\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e 29. Conservatism Revisited\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e Roe v. Wade\u003c\/i\u003e, Abortion Decision, Associate Justice Harry A. Blackmun for the Supreme Court\u003cbr\u003e Senator Barry Goldwater on Conservatism, Religion, and Politics\u003cbr\u003e Ronald Reagan’s Inaugural Addresses\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e 30. The End of the American Century\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Republican Contract with America\u003cbr\u003e William Jefferson Clinton, State of the Union Address\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e 31. America at the Millennium\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e George W. Bush, Washington National Cathedral Prayer Service\u003cbr\u003e George W. Bush, Joint Session of Congress\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e 32. The Politics of Hope\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Vice-President Cheney on PBS’ \u003ci\u003eNewsHour\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Vice-President Cheney on CBS’ \u003ci\u003eFace the Nation\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “A More Perfect Union” Speech on Race, Senator Barack Obama\u003cbr\u003e Election Night Address, Chicago’s Grant Park, President-Elect Barack Obama\u003cbr\u003e Barack Obama’s First Inaugural Address\u003cbr\u003e Barack Obama’s Second Inaugural Address\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e 33. Populists Revolt . . . Democracy Under Duress\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e @realDonaldTrump Tweets\u003cbr\u003e Senator Bernie Sanders, New Hampshire Primary Victory Speech\u003cbr\u003e Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Posts\u003cbr\u003e Donald J. Trump’s Inaugural Address\u003cbr\u003e “My Dad Predicted the Rise of Trump—in 1985,” Andrew Postman\u003cbr\u003e Excerpts from the Senate Select Intelligence Hearing on Social Media Influence in the 2016 Election\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e34. Pandemic and Insurrection in the USA\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e HR 755, Articles of Impeachment Against Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for High Crimes and Misdemeanors, 116th Congress of the United States\u003cbr\u003e “Vision for Black Lives,” Movement for Black Lives, Policy Platform 2020\u003cbr\u003e “Dying in a Leadership Vacuum,” \u003ci\u003eThe New England Journal of Medicine\u003c\/i\u003e Editorial\u003cbr\u003e HR 24, Articles of Impeachment Against Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for High Crimes and Misdemeanors, 117th Congress of the United States\u003cbr\u003e Inaugural Address by Joseph R. Biden, Jr., 46th President of the United States\u003cbr\u003e “How the U.S. Pandemic Response Went Wrong During a Year of COVID,” \u003ci\u003eScientific American\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “I Will Vote to Impeach the President,” Representative Liz Cheney\u003cbr\u003e “Our Freedom Only Survives If We Protect It,” U.S. Capitol, Representative Liz Cheney\u003cbr\u003e The Supreme Court Doesn’t Just Abuse Its Shadow Docket. It Does So Inconsistently,” \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eA Documentary History of the United States\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This insightful collection will fascinate, delight, and challenge all who are interested in the progress of the American nation over the years. The broad sweep of U.S. history comes alive in this display and analysis of documents that have helped to create American society as we know it.”—Annette Gordon-Reed, author of Pulitzer Prize–winning of \u003ci\u003eThe Hemingses of Monticello\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A portable canon of American documents that take us across the depth and breadth of our national experience. Here is fertile soil for exploring our past and imagining our future. Present crises notwithstanding, you cannot spend time within these pages and be skeptical of our capacity to overcome, survive, and thrive in the endless, vexing, and robust pursuit of a more perfect union.”—Bill Moyers, broadcaster and former White House Press Secretary\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“For those who want the raw materials of American history, here is the invaluable source. An indispensable contribution to the understanding of our heritage.”—Robert A. Caro, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning \u003ci\u003eThe Power Broker\u003c\/i\u003e and the #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller \u003ci\u003eMaster of the Senate\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Imaginatively selected and judiciously annotated, the documents in this collection capture the full range of the nation’s colorful, consequential, and often contentious history. Simply the best such anthology available.”—David M. Kennedy, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning \u003ci\u003eFreedom from Fear\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eA Documentary History of the United States\u003c\/i\u003e presents the vital documents of American history with incisive and informed commentary—an invaluable resource for the student, the teacher, and the history buff.”—Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award–winning author of \u003ci\u003eA Thousand Days\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eA Life in the 20th Century\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eRichard D. Heffner\u003c\/b\u003e taught history and political science at the University of California, Sarah Lawrence College, the New School for Social Research, and NYU. University Professor of Communications and Public Policy at Rutgers, he also produced and moderated his prizewinning public television series, Richard Heffner's \u003ci\u003eOpen Mind\u003c\/i\u003e, for fifty years. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlexander B. Heffner\u003c\/b\u003e is a journalist whose writing has appeared in \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal,The Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Philadelphia Inquirer\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eUSA Today\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eand Newsday\u003c\/i\u003e among other leading publications. He has been interviewed about politics, education and stories in the news by PBS, C-SPAN, CNN and the BBC, among other national and local broadcast venues. He is the current host of \u003ci\u003eOpen Mind\u003c\/i\u003e, the weekly PBS talk show.1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e A NEW NATION\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e What then is the American, this new man? . . . He is an American, who leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He becomes an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. . . . The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions. From involuntary idleness, servile dependence, penury, and useless labour, he has passed to toils of a very different nature, rewarded by ample subsistence.-This is an American. . . . \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Hector St. John de Crvecoeur, 1782.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Freed from the tyrannical economic, political, and ecclesiastical restraints of the Old World, and blessed with a bountiful environment whose rich and abundant resources, varied climate, and vast domain imbued in him an unquestioned faith in his own future, the American was in truth a \"new man.\" Yet the roots of American society were firmly implanted in the great traditions of Western civilization, and ultimately American nationality was as heavily indebted to its European heritage of ideas and mode of life as it was to the new environment. Indeed, in its inception and its development, American colonial history was clearly a reflection of European experiences. The discovery of America resulted from the breakup of the feudal system, the rise of the nation-state, the revival of commerce, and the search for trade routes to the fabulous riches of the East. Later, the long process of English colonization of the New World was motivated both by the quest for free religious expression stemming largely from the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, and by that desire for economic opportunity which had its origins in the middle-class business ethic peculiar to the modern Western world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The final chapter of American colonial history was also written abroad, for the restrictive policies of British mercantilism provided an economic impetus to the American Revolution, just as the natural rights philosophy of the European Enlightenment set its ideological framework. Mercantilism, an economic arm of the rising nationalism of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, had as its major objectives national self-sufficiency and prosperity for the dominant merchant and banking class. A favorable balance of trade was particularly important to the mercantilist doctrine, for if more goods and services were sold abroad than were imported, gold and silver would come into the country, and the nation's total economic strength would be augmented rather than depleted. Each nation desired a favorable balance of trade, however, and so the great mercantilist powers of Europe soon turned to overseas possessions as a source of economic strength. For these colonies existed solely to be exploited by the mother country-to produce essential raw materials cheaply, to provide an unlimited market for surplus manufactured goods, and to offer a minimum of economic competition.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e British colonial policy amply demonstrated the mother country's intention of molding her American possessions into this mercantilist pattern. To free her from dependence upon foreign nations for needed raw materials, the Navigation Acts of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries listed various \"enumerated commodities\" (such as sugar, tobacco, indigo, and naval stores) which the colonials had to export to England alone. And in an effort to retain exclusive control of the rapidly growing American markets for British manufactured goods, all foreign commodities bound for the colonies were required to pass through England, where prohibitive export duties and freight and handling charges made transshipment intolerably expensive. Competition by the industrious colonists themselves was nearly eliminated through laws such as the Woolens Act (1699), the Hat Act (1732), and the Iron Act (1750), which prohibited or discouraged local efforts at manufacturing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Though mercantilism benefited the colonists in certain respects-generous bounties, for instance, were paid for indigo and badly needed naval stores, and a monopoly of the English tobacco market was insured to the American producer-the economic well-being of the colonies was for the most part harshly subordinated to the needs of the mother country. Even the Southern settlements, whose staple crops-such as tobacco-well suited them for the colonial role, were hard pressed by the one-sided mercantilist system. And by the eve of the American Revolution, Thomas Jefferson estimated that a persistently unfavorable colonial balance of trade had placed at least half of the tobacco planters of Maryland and Virginia hopelessly in debt to British creditors. At the same time the various Navigation and Trade Acts attempted to restrict severely the trading, shipping, manufacturing, and other economic activities of the settlements in the North, where climate and soil were not capable of supporting the large-scale cultivation of staple crops for the home market. Yet the colonies prospered, at least in the New England and Middle Atlantic regions. Smuggling and other evasions of mercantilist measures were prevalent, and for long decades before the conclusion of the French and Indian War in 1763, the British were too thoroughly immersed in a bitter imperial rivalry with France to enforce their restrictive legislation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e With the defeat of France, however, the British were able to bring to an end the era of \"salutary neglect\" and to turn their full attention once again to strict enforcement of colonial policy. Besides, Parliament now strongly reasserted its right to legislate for colonials who had long known virtual independence and self-rule and who were well versed in the liberal philosophy of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. Political discontent was thus added to economic dislocation, and economic grievances soon found expression in the loftiest principles of political liberty. Royal (and even Parliamentary) efforts to enforce mercantilist policies were damned as contrary not only to the rights of Englishmen, but to the \"natural rights of man\" as well, while the colonists' fundamental antipathy to taxation of any kind achieved immortality in the idealistic slogan \"no taxation without representation.\" The British were unmoved by these protests and in rapid succession the Sugar Act (1764), the Currency Act (1764), the Stamp Act (1765), the Townshend Duties (1767), the Tea Act (1773), and the Intolerable Acts (1774) taxed and regulated the colonial economy and imposed the severest restrictions upon colonial self-government.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The colonists were quick to reply. A Stamp Act Congress met in October 1765 to denounce the hated tax on newspapers, magazines, commercial papers, and other documents, and an organization of patriots known as the Sons of Liberty directly forced the resignation of nearly all of the imperial stamp agents. American merchants agreed not to import British merchandise until the tax was repealed, and many persons stoutly refused to buy any stamps at all. Even though colonial pressures finally effected the repeal of the Stamp Tax, the tide of unrest continued to rise. Americans more and more frequently joined together to oppose imperial measures; and after British soldiers had fired into a jeering Boston mob (the \"Boston Massacre\" of March 1770), popular resentment increased tremendously. Nonimportation agreements, \"Committees of Correspondence\" (which Samuel Adams of Massachusetts organized to inform patriots throughout the colonies of current affairs), the \"Boston Tea Party\" of December 1773, and finally the First Continental Congress that met in Philadelphia in September 1774-all of these actions marked a growing sentiment for independence and separation from the mother country. And though there were many who still opposed the final break with England, the Revolution began in earnest in April 1775, at Lexington and at Concord Bridge, where \"embattled farmers stood and fired the shot heard round the world.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Tom Paine's enormously popular and influential pamphlet \"Common Sense,\" published anonymously in January 1776, quickly helped solidify Americans' rebellious spirit. And in June 1776, a resolution that \"these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states\" was offered before the Second Continental Congress by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia. Then on July 4 the Congress formally adopted (with modifications) Thomas Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration expressed certain fundamental precepts: that all men are equally endowed with the self-evident natural rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that civil government is merely an instrument to guarantee these rights within the framework of social order, that when government becomes tyrannical, the social compact is broken, and it is the \"right of the people to alter or to abolish it.\" These were precepts which clearly embodied the political tenets of the European Enlightenment. Thus for Americans whose intellectual heritage was largely European, and whose free environment as well was conducive to libertarian ideas, the Declaration (as Jefferson himself later wrote) expressed not \"new ideas altogether,\" but rather the \"common sense of the matter . . . the harmonizing sentiment of the day.\" Preeminently it was an eloquent \"expression of the American mind,\" and to those who cherished the democratic faith of their fathers, it was to remain for all times the fountainhead of American ideology.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Common Sense,\" Tom Paine, 1776\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e . . . In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense: and have no other preliminaries to settle with the reader, than that he will divest himself of prejudice and prepossession, and suffer his reason and his feelings to determine for themselves: that he will put on, or rather that he will not put off, the true character of a man, and generously enlarge his views beyond the present day.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Volumes have been written on the subject of the struggle between England and America. Men of all ranks have embarked in the controversy, from different motives, and with various designs; but all have been ineffectual, and the period of debate is closed. Arms as the last resource decide the contest; the appeal was the choice of the King, and the Continent has accepted the challenge. . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. 'Tis not the affair of a City, a County, a Province, or a Kingdom; but of a Continent-of at least one-eighth part of the habitable Globe. 'Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected even to the end of time, by the proceedings now. Now is the seedtime of Continental union, faith and honour. The least fracture now will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young oak; the wound would enlarge with the tree, and posterity read in it full grown characters. . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I have heard it asserted by some, that as America has flourished under her former connection with Great Britain, the same connection is necessary towards her future happiness, and will always have the same effect. Nothing can be more fallacious than this kind of argument. We may as well assert that because a child has thrived upon milk, that it is never to have meat, or that the first twenty years of our lives is to become a precedent for the next twenty. But even this is admitting more than is true; for I answer roundly that America would have flourished as much, and probably much more, had no European power taken any notice of her. The commerce by which she hath enriched herself are the necessaries of life, and will always have a market while eating is the custom of Europe.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But she has protected us, say some. That she hath engrossed us is true, and defended the Continent at our expense as well as her own, is admitted; and she would have defended Turkey from the same motive, viz. for the sake of trade and dominion.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Alas! we have been long led away by ancient prejudices and made large sacrifices to superstition. We have boasted the protection of Great Britain, without considering, that her motive was interest not attachment; and that she did not protect us from our enemies on our account; but from her enemies on her own account, from those who had no quarrel with us on any other account, and who will always be our enemies on the same account. Let Britain waive her pretentions to the Continent, or the Continent throw off the dependence, and we should be at peace with France and Spain, were they at war with Britain. . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But Britain is the parent country, say some. Then the more shame upon her conduct. Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families. . . . Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I challenge the warmest advocate for reconciliation to show a single advantage that this Continent can reap by being connected with Great Britain. I repeat the challenge; not a single advantage is derived. Our corn will fetch its price in any market in Europe, and our imported goods must be paid for, buy them where we will.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But the injuries and disadvantages which we sustain by that connection, are without number; and our duty to mankind at large, as well as to ourselves, instructs us to renounce the alliance: because, any submission to, or dependence on, Great Britain, tends directly to involve this Continent in European wars and quarrels, and set us at variance with nations who would otherwise seek our friendship, and against whom we have neither anger nor complaint. As Europe is our market for trade, we ought to form no partial connection with any part of it. It is the true interest of America to steer clear of European contentions, which she never can do, while, by her dependence on Britain, she is made the makeweight in the scale of British politics. . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 'Tis repugnant to reason, to the universal order of things, to all examples from former ages, to suppose that this Continent can long remain subject to any external power. The most sanguine in Britain doth not think so. The utmost stretch of human wisdom cannot, at this time, compass a plan, short of separation, which can promise the Continent even a year's security. Reconciliation is now a fallacious dream. Nature hath deserted the connection, and art cannot supply her place. For, as Milton wisely expresses, \"never can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep.\" . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e To talk of friendship with those in whom our reason forbids us to have faith, and our affections wounded thro' a thousand pores instruct us to detest, is madness and folly. Every day wears out the little remains of kindred between us and them; and can there be any reason to hope, that as the relationship expires, the affection will encrease, or that we shall agree better when we have ten times more and greater concerns to quarrel over than ever?","brand":"Signet Classics (TR)","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302167761125,"sku":"NP9780593439340","price":21.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780593439340.jpg?v=1767720434","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/a-documentary-history-of-the-united-states-11th-edition-isbn-9780593439340","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}