Transcript John Cotton, 1584-1652

John Cotton,
1584-1652
English-born American
cleric who was vicar of
Saint Botolph's Church in
England until he was
summoned to court for
his Puritanism. He fled to
Boston, Massachusetts,
where he became a civil
and religious leader.
John Cotton, The Devine Right to Occupy the Land (1630)
1.
“The placing of a people in this or that country is from the appointment of
the Lord.” In other words, God assigns land to a certain people.
2.
God makes room for people in three ways:
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He casts out enemies of a people before them by lawful war.
(Heathens)
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He gives a foreign people favor or rights to a land through purchase
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He makes available places in a country that are vacant, even if the
land it not totally vacant
3.
“…[N]o nation is to drive out another without special commission from
Heaven, such as the Israelites had, unless the natives do unjustly wrong
them, and will not recompense the wrongs done in a peaceful manner.”
4.
“We (the Puritans) must discern how God appoints us this place.”
5. How do a people know if they should emigrate?
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Sake of knowledge
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Gain sake
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Establish a colony
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Talents are better employed elsewhere
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To escape bad authorities and avoid evils
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When some grievous sins overspread a country
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When escaping over-burdensome debts and miseries
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When persecuted
Questions:
Was North America vacant?
Does God really appoint a people land?
John Winthrop
1588-1649
English colonial
administrator who was
the first governor of
Massachusetts Bay
Colony, serving seven
terms between 1629
and 1649.
John Winthrop
A Model of Christian Charity
Main Points:
God has made different classes of men, and, indeed, of all things. All men
are not created equal. The reason hereof:
1.
In conformity to the rest of the world, and demonstrating his wisdom,
God created a great variety and differences in his creatures for the
preservation of the whole.
2.
The differences give humans the opportunity to manifest the work of
the Spirit within them.
3.
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The poor should be loyal and honest in their service to their
betters and to authorities.
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The rich and powerful should honestly and loyally dispense with
justice and mercy to the poor.
God made variety and differences so that all men would have a need
of one another. This mutual need knits mankind “more nearly
together in the Bonds of Brotherly affection.” Thus, by serving his
fellow mankind, man serves “the glory of his creator and the common
good of the creature, man.”
John Winthrop, A Model of Christian Charity
We have made a covenant with God to form a new colony in a new land and
live as God would want us.
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If We Are Good: If we fulfill our covenant (i.e. do justly, love mercy, and
walk humbly with our God) the “Lord will be our God, and delight to
dwell among us, as his own people, and will command a blessing upon
us in all our ways. So that we shall see much more of his wisdom,
power, goodness and truth, than formerly we have been acquainted. We
shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be
able to resist a thousand of our enemies…” We will be considered to be
a city upon a hill, and the eyes of all peoples will be upon us.
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If We are Bad: “…if we shall neglect the observation of these articles
which are the ends we have propounded, and, dissembling, with our
God, shall fall to embrace the present world and prosecute our carnal
intention, seeking great things for ourselves and our posterity, the Lord
will surely break out in wrath against us; be revenged of such a [sinful]
people and make us know the price of the breach of such a covenant.”
Questions:
1.
Did the Puritans live up to their ideals?
2.
Why was it necessary for them to leave England?
3.
Does community negate individualism?
John Winthrop, A Model of Christian Charity
Questions:
1.
In this world, does God always punish the wicked and bless the virtuous?
2.
Are all men created equal or created different? What does God expect us
to do in regard to treating people equally? When should men be considered
equal? When should they be considered unequal?
3.
What were Winthrop’s views of equality?
4.
Winthrop’s views of community?
5.
What was the Puritan covenant?
6.
Were the eyes of the world really on the Puritans? Were they really a city
upon a hill?
The Trial of Anne Hutchinson (1637)
Opening main point of Governor Winthrop:
Anne Hutchinson has troubled the peace of the
commonwealth and the churches here.
“…[Y]ou have maintained a meeting and an assembly in
your house that hath been condemned by the general
assembly as a thing not tolerable nor comely in the sight of
God nor fitting for your sex….”
Anne Hutchinson:
“I hear not things laid to my charge.”
The Trial of Anne Hutchinson (1637)
Governor Winthrop’s accusation toward Hutchinson:
You have meetings in which you express opinions different from
the word of God that “may seduce many simple souls that resort
unto you,…”
Hutchinson in her defense:
“Now if you do condemn me for speaking what in my conscience
I know to be truth I must commit myself unto the Lord.”
Question from Mr. Nowel:
“How do you know that that was the spirit?
Hutchinson’s eventual reply:
“…by an immediate revelation.”
Governor Winthrop’s conclusion:
…[T]he ground work of her revelations is the immediate
revelation of the spirit and not by the ministry of the word and
that is the means by which she hath very much abused the
country….”
The Trial of Anne Hutchinson (1637)
Verdict: Guilty
“Mrs. Hutchinson, the sentence of the court you hear is that
you are banished from out of our jurisdiction as being a
woman not fit for our society, and are to be imprisoned till
the court shall send you away.”
John Winthrop
Little Speech on Liberty
Main Points:
The question addressed: how does the authority of the magistrates stand in
relation to the liberty of the people?
1.
When you see weakness in the leaders (magistrates) you have chosen,
you should reflect upon your own weaknesses since you chose them.
2.
The magistrates try to govern and judge as best as can according to
God’s laws, as well as our own.
3.
If the magistrate’s error is clearly out of wickedness, he must be held
accountable for his transgressions. However, if it is not clear that his
error was due to evil intentions, then the people, who have a covenant
with their leaders, need to bear the consequences of the error.
4. There are two kinds of liberty:
a.
Natural liberty: This is a liberty man shares in common
with beasts. Man, as he stands in relation to man, has the
liberty to do good or evil. The exercise of [natural] liberty
makes men grow more evil, and in time to be worse than
brute beasts…. This is that great enemy of truth and peace,
that wild beast, which all the ordinances [authorities] of God
are bend against, to restrain and subdue it.
b.
Civil or federal liberty: This liberty is in reference to the
covenant between God and man, in the moral law, and the
politic covenants and constitutions, amongst men
themselves. This liberty is the proper end and object of
authority…, it is a liberty to that only which is good, just, and
honest. This liberty is maintained and exercised in a way of
subjection to authority; it is of the same kind of liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free.
Analogy: women’s subjection to her husband’s authority
makes her free.
Conclusion: The best way to preserve our civil liberties is to
uphold and honor the power of authority.
If we quietly and cheerfully subject ourselves to civil liberty,
such as Christ allows us, it will be for our own good. If the
magistrates fail honestly at any time, you should advise
them. Since they are doing their best to follow God’s laws,
the magistrates will hearken good advice. In this way,
upholding and honoring the power of authority will preserve
your liberties.
Remember to study
the questions at the
beginning of each
document.
Samuel Adams -
The Rights of the Colonists (1772)
Historical Context
• Samuel Adams
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Graduate of Harvard University
Known as “The Man of the Town Meeting”
Came from prominent family in Boston, Mass.
He was an opponent to Parliament’s taxation
Argued against colonial compromise with parliament
One of the first to advocate separation from England
This article was penned under a committee of
correspondence, which was led by Adams
Samuel Adams -
The Rights of the Colonists (1772)
Main Points
“…to State the Rights of the Colonists and of this Province
in particular, as Men, as Christians, and as Subjects…”
“A Right to Life, Liberty, and Property”
– To Support and defend them in the best manner
– “Just and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty”
Religious freedom…“every man living in or out of a state of
civil society has a right peaceably and quietly to worship
God according to the dictates of his conscience.”…
Samuel Adams -
The Rights of the Colonists (1772)
Main Points (cont.)
As Subjects… Adams expressed a need for “a body
politic, or civil society of men, united together to
promote their mutual safety and prosperity by means
of their union.”...he goes on to reference “personal
security, personal liberty, and private property.”
“The natural liberty of man is to be free from any
superior power on earth, and not to be under the will
or legislative authority of man; but only to have the
law of nature for his rule.”
Samuel Adams -
The Rights of the Colonists (1772)
Historical Significance
• Justified rebellion
– On the basis of an individual’s natural rights
• Influenced other colonies
– Committees of Correspondence for all
– Increased the dissatisfaction with Britain
• Important in bringing about awareness
– Colonists realized their own discontent
– Eventually brought about the separation
Samuel Adams -
The Rights of the Colonists (1772)
Questions to Consider
• In what ways has the government violated
traditional liberties?
• Are natural law and government
compatible?
Samuel Johnson
Taxation No Tyranny (1775)
Main Points:
1.
Americans are able to bear taxation.
2.
Every adult pays taxes:
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“Of every empire all the subordinate communities are
liable to taxation, because they all share the benefits of
government, and, therefore, ought to all furnish their
proportion of the expense.”
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“As all are born the subjects of some state or other, we
may be said to have been all born contenting to some
system of government.”
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“Humanity is very uniform. The Americans have this
resemblance to Europeans, that they do not always know
when they are well.”
Samuel Johnson
Taxation No Tyranny (1775)
3. Americans have no proof that parliament ever ceded to
them exemption from obedience.
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Now there are only two choices: “to allow their claim
to independence or to reduce them, by force, to
submission and allegiance….
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“If the subject refuses to obey, it is the duty of
authority to use compulsion. Society cannot subsist
but by the power, first of making laws, and then of
enforcing them….”
4. The American rebels are hypocrites.
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“If slavery be thus fatally contagious, how is it that
we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the
drivers of negroes?”
Historical Context
About The Author:
Born on January 29, 1737 in
England to an impoverished
Quaker family.
Had many different jobs
including a corset maker,
merchant seaman, a school
teacher, even a job as tax
collector.
With the advise and help from
Benjamin Franklin, Pain
Immigrated to the American
Colonies in 1774.
Main Points of Common Sense
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The colonies were founded by people from many different
nations, not just Britain.
“Europe, and not England, is the parent country of
America.”
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America will constantly be at war with Britain’s enemies and
will never be at peace.
“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.”
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America is to big to be ruled by an island.
“There is something very absurd, in supposing a continent
to be perpetually governed by an island.”
“For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free
countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be
no other.”
Main Points OF Thomas Paine’s Common Sense
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THERE IS NO GOING BACK AFTER BLOOD HAS BEEN SPILT. Any attempts
to work with Great Britain before the “nineteenth of April, i.e., to the
commencement of hostilities, are…useless now…” “The blood of the slain, the
weeping voice of nature cries, ‘tis time to part.”
 WE CAN SURVIVE ECONOMICALLY WELL WITHOUT THE BRITAIN. “I challenge
the warmest advocate for reconciliation to show, a single advantage that this continent can
reap, by being connected with Great Britain.”
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We should look at the many injuries that the colonies have undergone and will
continue to undergo as long as we are connected with Great Britain. (3rd¶)
BRITAIN IS PROTECTING HER OWN INTEREST, NOT OURS. We don’t need
Britain for protection against her enemies nor do we need her for commerce.
 “…whenever a war breaks out between England and any foreign power, the trade of America
goes to ruin, because of her connection with Britain.”
 WE DO NOT NEED A KING TO GOVERN OURSELVES. Do away with
monarchies because the divine law (of God) should be “King of America” and the
people should form a government of their own (a republican charter).
 “…let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on
the divine law the word of God…law ought to be king”
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England is not run by France even though the king is a descendant from France.
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AMERICA HAS GROWN UP. Children cannot survive on milk alone and never
get any meat....The colonies have grown up and need to be set free to live on their
own just as children do.
Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence
• Independence is declared.
• All men are created equal. “All men are created equal. We hold
these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal….”
• Men have unalienable Rights: Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness.
• Governments derive their authority from the consent of the
people. “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed.”
• When a government acts despotically, the people have a right and
a duty to overthrow it. “But when a long train of abuses and
usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design
to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is
their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new
Guards for their future security.”
• We have tried to compromise, but King George has persistently
been a tyrant.
Jefferson on Slavery (1784)
Facts about Jefferson
Third President1801-1809
Born: April 13, 1743 in Albemarle County, Virginia
Died: July 4, 1826 in Monticello in Virginia
Married to Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson
Author: The Declaration of Independence
Supported by slave labor his entire life
Bought eight or more slaves while president
Slaves Born into Freedom
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Children raised with parents till 21
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Government paid education/trade school
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Colonized together
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Sent to parts of the world for equal number of whites
Separation of the races is needed because deep rooted prejudices between
white and black that will end in extermination of one or the other.)
Differences of Color
Superior beauty (why not in man)
The difference is fixed in nature
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Greater degree of transpiration ….. (Work better in heat)
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Require less sleep
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Seem brave more adventuresome…… (Don’t think about what they
do)
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Love seems to be a desire not a passion.
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Memory is equal but reasoning is inferior to whites…
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Arts…even Indians had traits of design..
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Music...Very gifted…but composition questioned…
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No poets …..Misery
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Romans and Natural History…
Slavery and Laws
Branded as thieves
No property…Can’t take a little from one who has taken all
from him..
Morals….their situation their change their morals..?
Slavery is Familiar
Children learn from their parents.
Why work
They are a firm basis for our nation...
Emancipation (Masters or Revolution)
Slavery is harmful the to slave owners and their
posterity: “The whole commerce between master and
slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous
passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one
part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our
children see this, and learn to imitate it…”
Thomas Jefferson is
believed to have fathered
children with his slave,
Sally Hemings
http://www.cnn.com/US/99
05/17/jefferson.reunion/
http://www.michaelcosm.com/sub_feat/feat_jeff.html
James Madison, Federalist #10 (1787-1788)
Human nature is selfish and passionate, and when combined
with reason, individuals have “liberty.”
Liberty = pursuit of property => classes and factions (everyone
cannot have equal property).
Classes
Factious Majority
Factious Minority
REMOVE CAUSES: People could remove the causes of faction, but this would
destroy liberty. This solution is worse than the problem.
SOLUTION: The Federalists sought to work with human nature. They
advocated letting factions run their course, arguing that in a large
republic they would compete with one another and effectively cancel
each other out.
THREE FACTORS THAT WILL CHECK THE TYRANNY OF A FACTION:
1. LARGE POLITY: Thousands of factions will result in a diffusion of factions
that will tend to cancel each other out.
2. REPRESENTATION: Representative government will act as a filter,
protecting the republic form the passions of the masses.
3. SEPARATION OF POWERS: A federal government and a separation of
powers will result in a system checks and balances in power.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
• Conciliation with America
(1775)
Document Analysis: 3 main
points
1. Use of force is not the best option
– Last resort
– Not the British way
– More destruction than good, alienation
– A temporary measure: subdue, but not govern
2. American colonies are different from Britain and
as such requires their own government
– Liberty
– Geographically remote
– Only its own government can cope with
problems
3. Britain should respect rights of its colony
Edmund Burke
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“the use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not
remove the necessity of subduing again: and a nation is not governed , which is
perpetually to be conquered.”
“ My next objection is its uncertainty. Terror is not always the effect of force; and an
armament is not a victory. If you do not succeed, you are without resource; for,
conciliation failing, force remains; but, force failing, no further hope of reconciliation
is left….”
“A further objection to force is, that you impair the object by your very endeavours to
preserve it. The thing you fought for is not the thing which you recover; but
depreciated, sunk, wasted and consumed in the contest….” (Page 21.)
Founder of Conservatism: “Burke maintained that society was a contract, but ‘the
state ought not to be considered as nothing better than a partnership agreement in a
trade of pepper and coffee, to be taken up for a temporary interest and to be
dissolved by the fancy of the parties.’ The state was a partnership but one ‘not only
between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead
and those who are to be born.’ No one generation therefore has the right to destroy
this partnership; instead, each generation has the duty to preserve and transmit it to
the next. Burke advised against the violent overthrow of a government by revolution,
but he did not reject the possibility of change. Sudden change was unacceptable,
but that did not eliminate gradual or evolutionary improvements.” (Spielvogel, p. 612)
Adam Smith
America and the Wealth of Nations (1776)
1.
Union of the people of Britain and those of her American colonies is important,
and is in both peoples interests.
2.
The uniting of the distant parts of the world has generated wealth and industry.
3.
Native Americans have suffered “every sort of injustice” because of the
Europeans’ superiority of force.
4.
Nothing will better establish equality among nations “than that mutual
communication of knowledge and of all sorts of improvements which an
extensive commerce from all countries to all countries naturally, or rather
necessarily, carries along with it.”
5.
The unjust oppression of industry of other countries falls back…upon the heads
of the oppressors, and crushes their industry more than it does that of those
other countries.
The mercantile system deranges the “natural and most advantageous distribution of
stock…. Monopoly of one kind or another…seems to be the sole engine of the
mercantile system….”
Adam Smith
• To what is Smith reacting?
• The “invisible hand” of the laws of supply and
demand
• Monopolies?
• “Even the regulations by which each nation
endeavours to secure to itself the exclusive
trade of its own colonies, are frequently more
hurtful to the countries in favour of which they
are established than to those against which
they are established.”
Letters from an American Farmer
Written by Michel St. John De Crevecoeur
Main Points
• The metamorphosis of an European into an American
– Crevecoeur likens poor Europeans to useless plants that
are transplanted and have take root and flourished in
America
• The freedom and opportunities in North America
(social, religious, etc.)
– The chance to be a “freeman” and there are “no princes,
for whom we toil, starve, and bleed: we are the most
perfect society now existing In the world. Here man is
free as he ought to be;”
• To describe and define what it meant to be an
American
– “The American is a new man, who acts upon new
principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and
form new opinions.”
Michel St. John de
Crevecoeur
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Are Crevecoeur’s Letters a work of fiction or non-fiction?
Development of the wilderness
No system of vassalage: “It is not composed, as in Europe, of great lords who possess
everything, and of a herd of people who have nothing.”
More equality
People of cultivators
“Here the rewards of his industry follow with equal steps the progress of his labour…”
“As freemen they will be litigious; pride and obstinacy are often the cause of law suits.”
“Here religion demand but little of him; a small voluntary salary to the minister, and gratitude to
God; can he refuse these?”
“…the laws inspect our actions, our thoughts are left to God.”
“…how religious indifference becomes prevalent.”
On the frontier: “they are often in a perfect state of war.”
Who is Crevecoeur’s main intended audience?
The melting pot.
“He does not find, as in Europe, a crowded society, where every place is over-stocked.”
“The rich stay in Europe, it is only the middling and the poor that emigrate.”
“…he now feels himself a man, because he is treated as such.”
“[He] feel an ardour to labour he never felt before.”
George Bancroft
The Office of the People (1835)
* Common judgment is the highest authority.
If it be true, that the gifts of mind and heart are universally diffused, if the
sentiment of truth, justice, love, and beauty exists in every one, then it
follows, as a necessary consequence, that the common judgment in taste,
politics, and religion is the highest authority on earth, and the nearest
possible approach to an infallible decision.
* Truth is one.
Truth is one. It never contradicts itself: One truth cannot contradict another
truth. Hence truth is a bond of union. But error not only contradicts truth,
but may contradict itself; so that there may be many errors, and each at
variance with the rest. Truth is therefore of necessity an element of
harmony; error as necessarily an element of discord. Thus there can be no
continuing universal judgment but a right one. Men cannot agree in an
absurdity; neither can they agree in a falsehood.
* Truth has been passed on by the collective truth of humanity through the
ages, and even today, the public is wiser than the wisest critic.
► …every sect that has ever flourished has benefited Humanity; for the
errors of a sect pass away and are forgotten; its truths are received into the
common inheritance.
► For who are the best judges in matters of taste? Do you think the
cultivated individual? Undoubtedly not; but the collective mind. The public is
wiser than the wisest critic.
George Bancroft, The Office of the People (1835)
* True genius is inspired by reflecting and satisfying the wisdom of humanity,
and not by reflecting or satisfying particular tastes.
[Genius] yearns for larger influences; it feeds on wide sympathies; and its
perfect display can never exist except in an appeal to the general sentiment
for the beautiful….
* The moral intelligence of the community should rule.
• A government of equal rights must…rest upon the mind; not wealth, not
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brute force, the sum of the moral intelligence of the community should rule
the State.
…the common mind [is] the true material for a commonwealth.
The world can advance only through the culture of the moral and
intellectual powers of the people.
The duty of America is to secure the culture and the happiness of the
masses by their reliance on themselves.
…we have made Humanity our lawgiver and our oracle…
The government by the people is in very truth the strongest government in
the world. Discarding the implements of terror, it dares to rule by moral
force, and has its citadel in the heart….
…the measure of the progress of civilization is the progress of the people.
…the opinion which we respect is not the opinion of one or a few, but the
sagacity of the many.