William Sumner

There is a beautiful notion afloat in our literature and in the minds of our people that men are born to certain “natural rights” If that were true, there would be something on earth which was got for nothing, and this world would not be the place it is at all.  The fact is, that there is no right whatever inherited by man which has not an equivalent and corresponding duty by the side of it, as the price of it.  The rights, advantages, capital, knowledge, and all other goods which we inherit from pass generations have been won by the struggles and sufferings of pass generations; and the fact that the race lives, though men die, and that the race can by heredity accumulate within some cycle its victories over Nature, is one of the facts which make civilization possible. The struggles of the race as a whole produce the possessions of the race as a whole.  Something for nothing is not to be found on earth.

Whether these natural inheritance was gained by some assistance from pass generations to me speaks that you cannot live an individual life, when what you do counts on pass and future generations for one and what you gain cannot be gained alone, especially in an industrial market, where you need manpower to produce goods or materials. 

Another quote from Mr. Sumner states, “That a drunkard in the gutter is just where he ought to be, according to the fitness and tendency of things.  Nature has set upon him the process of decline and dissolution by which she removes things which have survived their usefulness.”  All I can say to this is this is the idea of man toward another man whom could be your own brother.  I’m glad that the world is not as that black and white as Mr. Sumner thinks.

William Sumner beliefs in laissez-faire and essay “What Social Classes Owe to Each Other” is very interesting, filled with truths that I believe and some irrational ideology, but I’m sure is practice in some form our society today.

Abraham Lincoln

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. work on Abraham Lincoln has brought new insight onto this historical man.  The same journey Mr. Gates experience is the same reaction I’m conceiving right now. Many things are not taught to us in our America schools, the mythologized of Lincoln has led to a kind of tunnel vision for many.  Lincoln was a hero in many black people eyes and savior of humanity in others.

Still there is surprising information that I didn’t know, like the fact that he had two mental collapse or episode of depression.  The cause of one being a woman shows Lincoln passionate side.  Like with a lot of human being there is complexity. The fact that he was compassionate, smart and honest, didn’t not mean that at the same time he was commanding, shred, no nonsense type of person.

After he rose to captain as an enlisted man, he then became a self taught lawyer, gaining a reputation as a person who uses common sense in judgment and for his honesty. Then as his political career grew into an election to the house of representative than he join the republican Party running for senate against Stephen A. Douglas sparking several famous debates were he clearly states his opinion for the black race. Obviously a smart man, running for president, he realize that he needed to allied himself to his enemies who had more political experience than he did.  Then had to prove to those same people that he was capable had to frustrate him, along with the difficulties and challenges in the beginning.  Under President Lincoln, the American civil war erupted, this war has held the most casualties in our history, but was eventually won by the union. 

During the debates, he stated that he didn’t see blacks ever being equal and that the white race was a superior race.  Even though some may have seen this as a political ploy to keep or gain southern voters, the statement is still written and although may have fit that time, reading it now in this time doesn’t sit well with a many, but because he sign the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, freeing 400,000 slaves, many have overlooked his flaws.    

There or millions of opinions of President Lincoln, just like all president some are good, some are bad. Lincoln, being smart enough to see that Emancipation Proclamation was not enough to end slavery, that a constitution amendment (13^th) had to be written to abolish slavery altogether and him being a key figure in presenting this to the house is ok in my eyes.

Re: James Madison's Federilst Essay (1787-1788)

The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man, and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society.  A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to cooperate for their common good.  So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall in to mutual animosities that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their most violent conflicts.

I chose this statement because it reminded me just how long civil conflict has been going on whether in religion, government, education and rights. It seems like time doesn't change much. In that time when we were a young nation and many opinions and idea came to shape our today, we still had strong opposition. It makes me wonder, were the parties that won strong because of lack of communication, property owning and illiteracy and the smaller parties were unable to sustain there faction.
Today, not much has change, we are still over powered in government by those who have, the high rate of illiteracy in our schools; we have plenty of communication but not the right amount of people on the same page.
Having the same problems of the past, as today, details two problems one is obvious, people are always going to have opinion conflicts. Two, and more importantly we must find a way to come to agreed on these conflict for the better of mankind.

Re:; John Winthrop

For the other point concerning liberty, I observe a great mistake in the country about that.  There is a twofold liberty, natural (I mean as our nature is now corrupt) and civil or federal. The first is common to man with beasts and other creatures.  By this, man, as he stands in relation to man simply, hath liberty to do what he lists; it is a liberty to evil as well as to good.  This liberty is incompatible and inconsistent with authority an cannot endure the least restraint of the most just authority,  The exercise and maintaining of this liberty makes men grow ;more evil and in time to be worse than brute beasts: omnes sumus licentia deteriores.  This is that great enemy of truth and peace, that wild beast, which all of the ordinances of God are bent against, to restrain and subdue it.  The other kind of liberty I call civil or federal; it may also be termed moral, in reference to the covenants between God and man, in the moral law, and the politic covenants and constitutions amongst men themselves.  This liberty is the proper end object of authority and cannot subsist without it; and it is a liberty to that only which is good, just and honest. This liberty you are to stand for, with the hazard (not only of your goods, but) of your lives, if need be.Whatsoever crosseth this is not authority but a distemper thereof. 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. 

I choose this paragraph because of his explanation of the liberty, one natural and  the other federal or civil.  At first read, I couldn't believe that he was relating natural liberty with beastly behavior, and that the other liberty was a Godly one, the only one.  The natural liberty was evil, corrupt, savage, unruly and beastly.  Natural liberty was primitive and barbaric.  Now on the other side was civil or Federal liberty which in his words was Godly, full of morals and religious matters. Making people enemy of the truth which was his truth.  But as a read more about puritans I understood his meaning was a religious group and feed up with what he saw in England. I don't thing these were bad people but a little fanatic but not stupid, very intelligent group of individual especially Mr. Winthrop.  The only set back for them were the practice of witchcraft.

I don't relate this to America's culture because we try to practice separation of church and state (secularism). But for other countries like Afghanistan it is the religion that rules the country.

G. K Chesterton

In truth it is inequality that is the illusion. The extreme disproportion between men, that we seem to see in life, is a thing of changing lights and lengthening shadows, twilight full of fancies and distortions. We find a man famous and cannot live long enough to find him forgotten; we see a race dominant and cannot linger to see it decay. It is the experience of men that always returns to the equality of men; it is the average that ultimately justifies the average man, It is when men have seen and suffered much and come at the end of more elaborate experiments, that they see men as men under an equal light of death an daily laughter; and none the less mysterious for being many.

I interpret this passage as the author simply stating that you cannot have equality unless you have had experience inequality. It also suggests that you have to suffer before you can understand equality.

I believe that this passage has been integrated in our society forever. There are hundreds of scenarios where I can use this passage in everyday life. I can simplify it; where a person is told that the water is deep but doesn't believe until he gets in himself. Or more complicated, such as a race fighting for equality because they have suffered an inequality all their lives. In a broader understanding of Mr. Chesterton being ask certain questions upon entering the US, that he couldn't know the answer to until he experience it himself (or was unwilling to admit) was quite sufficient for that time and out of the ordinary in today standard. They have learned since then, hence forth the passage above. Experience!