LAD #10 Monroe Doctrine

In the Monroe Doctrine, James Monroe made a statement on behalf of the American country that was aimed towards the European foreign powers. This statement warned the European nations of colonizing anymore of the New World. The United States believed that the European powers should keep to their domestic affairs and focus on domestic issues rather than be worried about colonies in foreign nations. The country believed that colonial ventures in the New World should end. The United States warned that an attempt to colonize new nations in the New World would be a threat to American national security. This would mean that the United States would take appropriate actions against the invading foreign power, which would include war. Mexico and Chile were recognized as countries by the United States. This helped with a new era of independence in the New World, since former Spanish colonies were freed and the United States was freed from British rule.

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LAD #9: Jefferson Inaugural Address

Jefferson talks of how America is a developing country that will become strong and he is proud to become the President of. Jefferson humbly tells the listeners that the power is in the hands of the people. He refers to the Constitution and says that with the authorities provided by the Constitution he will "find resources of wisdom, or virtue and zeal on which to rely under all difficulties". This basically means that he will try his best and use all his wisdom when he comes across a difficulty. He mentions the Constitution many times, but this is most likely due to the fact that he was a "strict constitutionist" which means that he strictly abided by the Consitution. He also says that the people must arrage themselves under the will of the law. He believes that although the will of the majority may prevail in all cases, the will most be reasonable. He says that all possess equal rights which equal law must protect. He says that he will do whatever is in his power to keep the people equal and to maintain equal justice for everybody. He ends with saying that he will do to the best of his abilities the best for the new nation.

Columbus Blog #8

In my opinion Christopher Columbus would be considered as a villian. I believe this because once he landed in what he thought were the West Indies, in which he was VERY mistaken since he actually landed in the Caribbean, he basically demolished the Arawk, or mistakenly called Indians, population. These people did not know his intentions, mainly gold, glory, and God, and ran out to greet him with many gifts, mostly their possessions. These were very peaceful people and because of his thirst for gold he tortured and pretty much decimated their tribe when questioning about where the gold was. How could they have known that Columbus only wanted gold? Bits of gold were worn in the Arawaks ears, but there were no true "gold fields" that Columbus had fanatasized about (Zinn 3). Once the Arawak population was close to not being a population and Columbus could find no "gold field", instead of admitting defeat he relentlessly captured and tortured the rest of the Arawaks continuously looking for gold when there was none. He basically fasified his reports, some were true and some were not so true, because they were overly exaggerated. Since no gold was to be found and of course Columbus promised gold, there had to be some compensation. That compensation ended up being slaves. These slaves, Arawaks, were forcefully taken from their families and many died in captivity (Zinn 4). In a province in Haiti, Columbus had his men ordered all natives to collect gold if they were over the age of 14. They were responsible for collecting a certain amount of gold. However, Columbus' desperateness clouded the realization that there was NO gold. The natives who did not collect enough gold had their hands cut off and since there were no doctors proficient in sewing a hand back on or cauterizing a wound the natives would bleed to death. If they brought enough gold back they were given a copper token to wear around their necks (Zinn 4). Despite Columbus "finding the new world", even though Vikings actually discovered it first although there is no written record, he decimated a population of civil, more so than he was, and unselfish Arawak natives. He cut off their hands because they didn't give him gold, he left them to die because of his greed and selfishness. Columbus was not even right about the fact that he found the "West Indies". He found the Caribbean Islands and it seems odd that Columbus did not deduct that he was not in Asia considering there was no spices, silk, or people of Oriental descent living there, but then again he was probably in denial just like he was about the gold. For these reasons I think that Columbus should be considered a villian, despite his discovering America.