Written by Robert W. Cherny, A Righteous Cause discusses the life of William Jennings Bryan. It examines the many goals and proposals in which Bryan had became a public figure for. He wanted to reform the United States in a way that would “give equal rights to all and special privileges to none”. A few of his proposals included: government owned railroads, monetary policy, and a direct election of senators. Throughout Bryan’s career of activism he had a great impact on American history by conveying his proposals to the American public, which directly effected the United States government.
After being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, Bryan decided to run for President in 1896. This would be one of the three times he ran for president, but failed to be elected every campaign. However, during his first campaign for president, he gave his “Cross of Gold” speech which made him a mainstream figure in the Democratic Party. Bryan’s goal was to reinstate the coinage of silver because he believed that freeing silver would reinstate prosperity in the nation, and that gold could not be the only standard. Now gaining the attention of the nation, Bryan began to campaign on many other topics that he believed would better the U.S.
One of his next topics for the U.S. was about the monopolies between existing companies. Bryans found that the power of these companies traced back to the favoritism of the government. He wanted to get rid of these monopolies, but he also wanted minimal government activity because he believed that the nation was capable of governing itself. However, without the government these companies had free reign. Therefore Bryan proposed that the government should have control of a big share of the market; encourag...
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... his greatest achievement overall?
Bryan worked his way from a House Representative to one of the greatest public figures in history. One of the reasons he became so renown was because his speeches put words in simple terms that the common man could understand. He believed in the equality of all races and gender, and that the people were capable of governing themselves. Therefore, Bryan’s greatest impact on American history was his ability to deliver the ideas and proposals of government to the common man. Many of these ideas ended up having a direct influence on the way the government would be run. He accomplished this by using his talent of public speaking to get these messages out to the people. Without William Jennings Bryan, many of these topics would never have been passed on to thousands of people, which had a direct effect in becoming a policy for America.
Many speeches have shaped the nation we live in today. Patrick Henry’s “Speech in the Virginia Convention” and Benjamin Franklin’s “Speech in the Convention” are two of the most prominent speeches that have assisted in the forging of our new nation. The “Speech in the Virginia Convention” serves to encourage those that listened to take arms against the British and fight the injustice being done to them. The “Speech in the Convention” admits to the imperfections of the Constitution but supports its ultimate purpose. Both Patrick Henry and Benjamin Franklin believe leaders must do away with compromise and lead when it’s best for the people as a whole. However, Patrick discourages any future compromise, while Benjamin Franklin feels that future
The reasoning behind the Constitution of the United States is presented as 'based upon the philosophy of Hobbes and the religion of Calvin. It assumes the natural state of mankind in a state of war, and that the carnal mind is at enmity with God.' Throughout, the struggle between democracy and tyranny is discussed as the Founding Fathers who envisioned the Constitution in Philadelphia in 1787 believed not in total democracy, but instead saw common man as selfish and contemptuous, and therefore in need of a 'a good political constitution to control him.' Being a largely propertied body, with the exception of William Few, who was the only one who could honestly be said to represent the majority yeoman farmer class, the highly privileged classes were fearful of granting man his due rights, as the belief that 'man was an unregenerate rebel who has to be controlled' reverberated.
Brown had his mind made up to travel on the pathway to Harpers Ferry right when he was born and believed he is the only one that has to lead this battle. His parents were passionate Calvinists who taught their children to view life as an endless fight contrary to evil. The battle of John Brown was on a more personal level where he remembered a memory when he was five years old and his mother whipped him for stealing a vast amount of brass pins. In addition, the battle was somewhat on a political point as well because Brown and his family considered that the sincere had to be spectators against the bad people in America. They assumed that the biggest evil during their time has to be none other than the establishment of slavery. Therefore, the father of John Brown replaced their family residence in northeast Ohio into a stop on the Underground Railroad and made his son into a dedicated abolitionist. Brown’s developing participation in the movement in the 1830s and ’40s made him set his commitment as well as the rising nationwide fight over slavery’s position in a country supposedly devoted to equal opportunity. During this era, abolition...
John Brown could be many things: a heroic leader, a violent troublemaker, a deranged madman. We would not know which or why if historians did not know to look into Brown’s past in order to find the motives behind his radical actions. By divulging into the history of John Brown, historians are able to better understand how Brown forced the entire country to make the decision to support or go against slavery in the United States. Brown made America take a good, hard look at itself in order to both confront Brown’s own views and the internal cultural problems that have been building up throughout the decades.
So, his role in the 1896 presidential campaign came down to this. However credible or not, he arouse the senses and got the blood boiling of the people, first of Emporia, then of the nation. The affect that this had was important, it is only when someone speaks frankly and possibly even out of context that people will listen to what it is that you have to say, especially if it is against the common thread of beliefs.
The American fight for freedom is a critical part of the American history. Following the foundation of a nation, the individuals who enabled the fight for freedom and were central in the fight called the founding fathers. In the book ‘Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different’, the author provides a vivid investigation of the founding fathers. The book offers a unique point of view that looks on to the founding fathers’ live in detail. The book offers knowledge that extends beyond what is availed into the history books into an analysis of character to present their individual values as a system in which they founded guiding principles for the country. The paper offer an analysis of ‘Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different’. Gordon Wood brings to light the ethical principles of the founding fathers to bring to light the basis of moral statures propagated and applied in the democratic system today despite the difference in time.
In early America, between the years of 1825-1850, America was rapidly changing and reforming the way people lived. Societal problems and major discrepancies that had previously been overlooked began to rapidly gain awareness. The main idea of the reforms in the United States at this time was the relatively new sense of democracy. Reform sought to maximize these benefits in light of Democracy and for this reason came up with many changes in which greater good can be found through freedom, justice, and equality of all people. In addition to extending social and political equality for women and the means to economic affluence for the poor (through education), a number of reforms also extended to various oppressed groups of freedom and justice. Abolitionists in the North sought to emancipate slaves in the cotton-cultivating South through the use of moral suasion as revealed by Patrick Reason’s engraving showing the deprivation of the Negro race in regards to their rights as humans, and later, political freedoms.
...tually break up monopolies when they formed, by specific legislation” (600). They see that the government is letting the business tycoons to own whatever land they want and extend their fortunes. Unlike the first two books, Johnson’s book discussed the history of the book without bias and from a different perception; one that was not came from an American view.
While some citizens of the United States, between 1825 and 1850, believed that reform was foolish and that the nation should stick to its old conduct, reformists in this time period still sought to make the United States a more ideally democratic nation. This was an age of nationalism and pride, and where there was pride in one’s country, there was the aspiration to improve one’s country even further. Many new reformist and abolitionist groups began to form, all attempting to change aspects of the United States that the respective groups thought to be unfair or unjust. Some groups, such as lower and middle class women and immigrants, sought to improve rights within the county, while other reformers aspired to change the American education system into a more efficient way of teaching the county’s youth. Still other reform groups, particularly involved in the church and the second great awakening, wanted to change society as a whole. This was a time and age of change, and all these reforms were intended to contribute to the democratic way our country operated.
By researching and explaining John Brown’s deontological ethical perspective for the abolishment of slavery I now understand that something that at first seemed like terrorism against his own country was just a man standing up for what he believed in. He stood up for the rights of his fellow people! No one would like their rights, belongings, and families ripped from them to become owned by another human that has no proof of being superior to them and John Brown understood that. He did what he had to do as a follower of Christ and a strong willed American to find a resolution to the corrupt system of
Jackson remained in the military after the war. Late in 1817,he received orders to subdue the Seminole Native Americans, who were raiding across the border from Spanish Florida itself. He captured its bastions at St. Marks Pensacola and arrested, tried, and executed two British nationalists whom he charged with abetting the Native Americans.
By the time Jackson came to power, the nation had been drastically changed by the Industrial Revolution. The simple, pastoral, agricultural lifestyle was being replaced by the manufacturing world, of cities and factories. Politically, the nation was in great turmoil. There was still an everlasting debate among men in power, over what should prevail, the rights of the states, or the rights of the Federal Government. If not for several personal reasons, Jackson would have been a staunch advocator of states rights. The right to vote was still a major issue, the middle class feeling robbed of power in governmental decisions, the upperclass feeling threatened by the growth of the middleclass. However, Jackson brought with him many new ideas and principles. Since he himself had very modest roots, he sympathized with the middle and lower classes. He had worked for everything he had of value in life, and he acknow...
Ambition is beautiful. Ambition drives people to do things they have a strong sense of desire to do, believing they are capable of achieving a certain goal. We find this trait among many of our nations remarkable leaders who were willing to make a stand, take risks, and speak their minds, sharing their greatest triumphs as well as their painful loses. These leaders were distinctive individuals who changed our nation solely through their unyielding ways. During times of racial injustice, post emancipation proclamation, and women’s suffrage, seeking the right to express individualism was a burden upon many. However, in the late 19th century, the nation’s post-war South remained a precarious place, and significant challenges lay ahead after
When George Henry Evans cited the unalienable rights of the Declaration of Independence and that, “’to secure these rights’ against the undue influence of other classes of society, prudence… dictates the necessity of the organization of a party, who shall…prevent dangerous combinations to subvert these indefeasible and fundamental privileges”, he called for a party to become the sentinel of the original American democracy. And for many, the Jacksonian Democratic Party filled that role. The Democrats, who pursued a democracy that entailed economic and social independence for the common citizen, faced harsh opposition from the Whig Party in the Second American Party System. But apart from the political tensions of the era, the mid-1800’s were host to numerous movements and events that embodied, and didn’t embody, the Democratic ideals. Thus, it would be foolish to claim that the Democratic period merely represented a raising of the American democratic banner and even more foolish to ascribe any other black-and-white evaluation to this period. Rather, during a time of national and individual transformation, of economic missions, and of social revision, the Jacksonian Democrats succeeded in expanding their reality of individual liberty, in creating the circumstances for further change, and in falling short of some of their grandiose ideals for the “common citizen”.
William Jennings Bryan was an American politician from Nebraska that supported the Democratic Party (William Jenning 's Bryan Cross of Gold). William Jennings Bryan supported the free silver movement during the 1800’s (William Jenning 's Bryan Cross of Gold). It was thought to be that William Jennings Bryan was much like the cowardly lion; he was fierce in nature but cowardly in his public power (William Jenning 's Bryan Cross of Gold). William Jennings Bryan spoke a great argument but had little effect to making significant