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The following is the last unit of John De Gree’s book, American History, the Story of Liberty from America’s Heritage through the Reagan Revolution and De Gree's last unit of Modern American History, Reconstruction through the Reagan Revolution.
The Reagan Revolution, 1981-1989 Introduction At the end of the 1970s, America was at its lowest point since the Great Depression. One and half decades of economic downturn burdened Americans. Morale greatly suffered. Since 1963, the nation had experienced the assassination of John F. Kennedy (JFK), Lyndon B. Johnson’s (LBJ’s) lies about the failures of Vietnam, the Watergate Scandal, humiliation and loss in Vietnam, and the economic stagnation and foreign policy weaknesses under Carter. The hope and confidence of post-World War II America had collapsed into despondency. The Soviet Union, America’s rival superpower, was on the march around the world. For nearly fifty years since FDR’s New Deal, America had marched towards a massive growth of government, more regulation, price controls, and higher taxes. Democrats had dominated Congress from 1932 through 1980. When Republicans did capture the White House, they governed as liberals or moderates, expanding the power of the state. This 50-year slide towards leftism had produced not a better society with more opportunity and less poverty, but instead higher crime, the collapse of the American family, economic anemia, and weakness abroad. In addition, the great hope of the Civil Rights Movements of the 1950s and early 1960s was dashed by persistent inequalities in education, the workforce, and by race riots. In 1980, Americans made a drastic change away from a more powerful state and great social welfare programs and chose a conservative as president for the first time since Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929). Ronald Reagan saw a brighter future for America, not based on the policies of the last fifty years, but on the historic ideas and principles that had made America a strong country. Individual freedom, peace through strength, tax cuts, and the deregulation of business, family, and faith were cornerstones of Reagan’s philosophy. He wanted to unleash the American free market and then use it to defeat Soviet Communism. This “happy warrior” used humor, a smile, Christian humility, and grace to get his message across. This era is named the “Reagan Revolution” because President Reagan completely changed the trajectory of America. He created the longest economic boom in American history, lasting through the 1990s. Reagan showed Americans what their founders believed in and he changed how people saw their government for generations to come. Using American economic might and moral clarity, he brought the Communist Soviet Union to its knees. One year after Reagan left office in 1989, Eastern Europeans broke away from their Soviet overlords. In 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved into 15 republics, each denouncing communism. The Reagan Revolution was a seismic shift for the good both in America and in the rest of the world. Chapter 131. The Education of Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan’s ascension to national power was due, in part, to the great demographic and economic changes occurring in the country. After World War II, the center of America’s demographics and economy moved from the Northeast and upper Midwest to the South and to the West. This migration from the “frost-belt” states to the “sun-belt” states had major economic and political ramifications in the second half of the twentieth century. Voters in the frost-belt states tended to be “New Deal Democrats,” beholden to labor unions, government support and regulation of industry; they distrusted innovation and were risk-averse. Voters in the sun-belt states tended to be more free-market oriented, open to risk-taking, and more distrustful of big government. The Rise of the South and West In the 1940s, the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Great Lakes states had 68 percent of the country’s manufacturing employment. By 1977, manufacturing jobs in these states had decreased by over 50 percent. In the two decades of the 1960s and 1970s, states in the North lost 2.4 million by migration to the South and the West. In 1960, the frost-belt states had 41 more electoral votes than the sun-belt states. By 1980, the sun-belt had 26 more electoral votes. Since the mid-1960s through 2008, all elected Presidents have come from the South and the West: Johnson, H.W. Bush and W. Bush were from Texas, Nixon and Reagan were from California, and Clinton was from Arkansas. Ford, a Midwesterner, was appointed, not elected. In 1980, for the first time in history, the election was between a man from the West, Ronald Reagan, and a man from the South, Jimmy Carter (1924-2024). Midwestern Upbringing It is fitting that America’s most consequential President from California was born and raised in the Midwest. In many ways, Ronald Reagan’s childhood resembled that of a traditional American of the early twentieth century. He was born on February 6, 2011, in the small Midwestern town of Tampico, Illinois. His mother was an optimist and a strong Protestant Christian. He worked as a lifeguard on the Rock River and is credited for saving 77 people. Reagan played sports in high school, was active in school plays, was president of the drama club, and art director of the yearbook. He was known for being friendly, sincere, and handsome. At a young age, Reagan overcame challenges that could have been emotionally crushing. His father Jack was a shoe salesman and struggled to pay the family’s bills. Though Jack was friendly and good at telling stories and jokes, he was an alcoholic. Because of his business failures, Jack moved the family a number of times during Ronald’s childhood and youth. As an 11-year-old, Ronald came home one evening and found his dad drunk, passed out in the snow in front of his home. Left there overnight, he would have died. Ronald dragged his father in the house. Somehow, Ronald Reagan overcame the challenges of frequent moves as a child, growing up in a poor family, and having an alcoholic for a dad. At a young age he decided to be baptized into his mom’s church and dedicated himself to his faith, memorizing the Bible and turning to God in times of trouble. After high school, he attended Eureka College in Illinois and majored in economics. He was the first President to have majored in economics. (Donald Trump was the second.) In college, he played football, was the student body president, and led a student strike which caused the college president to step down. When a hotel refused service to two black teammates, he brought them to his home where his parents welcomed them. Early Career After graduating, he worked as a Midwestern sports broadcaster, first announcing college football games and then Chicago Cubs games. During a California trip with the Cubs, he took a screen test with Warner Brothers Movie Studio and they offered him a 7-year contract as an actor. He starred in 30 “B-movies” before hitting it big in Knute Rockne, All American (1940). He portrayed Notre Dame football legend George Gipp who died young and uttered the words, “Win just one for the Gipper.” After this movie he starred in other top films and became nationally recognized as a movie star. In 1937, Reagan joined the Army Reserve, and during World War II, he was transferred to the Army Air Force. Due to bad eyesight and because of his celebrity status, he was kept out of combat duty and worked with other actors and directors, such as Clark Gable and William Holden, to make movies and films supporting the war effort. Captain Ronald Reagan’s unit created more than 200 productions. In a span of 12 years, Reagan married, divorced, and remarried. In 1940, he married movie actress Jane Wyman, had two girls (one died right after birth) and adopted one boy. In 1948, Wyman filed for a divorce (her third), though Reagan did not want one. Wyman had to accuse Reagan of “mental cruelty” in order for the state to grant the divorce. (Later, in 1969, as governor, Reagan signed into law “no-fault divorce” which took the state government out of a couple’s decision to divorce.) In 1949, he met Nancy Davis, another actress. Davis had erroneously been placed on a Hollywood blacklist, and was believed to be a spy. As the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) President, Reagan worked to get her off the blacklist. In 1952, they married and had a long and happy marriage, having two children and remaining together until death. From 1947-1952, and then again from 1959-1960, Reagan served as President of the SAG. He is the only President who led a labor union. During this time, the Soviet Union placed Communist spies throughout American media. Reagan fought hard to keep Communists from controlling Hollywood and the SAG, and experienced first-hand the effects of leftist radicals on American society. Reagan spent time at the U.S. Capitol testifying against Communist actors and defending those who weren’t Communists. General Electric Spokesman From 1954-1962, Reagan was a spokesperson for General Electric (GE), hosting a television and radio show and giving motivational speeches to employees. Over this period, he traveled to 40 states and 139 factories, addressing over 250,000 people. It was fortuitous that just as Reagan’s movie opportunities dwindled, television was becoming ubiquitous. Reagan was one of the most well-known actors in the country. When he began his GE role, Reagan was a New Deal Democrat, but during those 8 years, he became a conservative Republican. GE Vice President Lemuel Boulware published books and pamphlets teaching about the free market, communism, and democracy, and he established book clubs to discuss them. Reagan read the works and summaries of conservative economists Ludwig von Mises, Henry Hazlitt, and Friedrich Hayek. Reagan also studied Communism, focusing on its persecution of religion, Vladimir Lenin, and Joseph Stalin. Reagan’s studies and experiences convinced him that the best path to prosperity and liberty was a limited government and that for a person to be truly fulfilled, he must be allowed to express his faith in God. After his experiences in Hollywood and with GE, Reagan was prepared to enter political life. In 1964, Reagan acted in his last Hollywood role and began his political life. He made a speech on national television in support of Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater titled “A Time for Choosing” that mesmerized conservatives. Reagan’s speech was a 30-minute paid political TV broadcast that aired on the evening of October 27, 1964, one week before the presidential election. He spoke convincingly against the social welfare system established by the New Deal and expanded under LBJ’s Great Society. He spoke against Big Government, wasteful spending, taxes, fraud, government subsidies, totalitarianism, and Soviet Communism. He inspired Americans by promoting individual freedom, the Constitution, the free market, and low taxes. Throughout his political career, these were his themes. Though Goldwater lost, Reagan became the national leader of conservatism. Governor of California Reagan ran for California governor in 1966 and defeated Edmund (Pat) Brown, the Democrat incumbent. He governed for two terms from 1967-1975. As governor, he reformed welfare by reducing the number of eligible recipients and increasing aid to the impoverished needy. Interestingly, he agreed with the Democrat legislature to raise taxes, but he froze new government hiring, lowered business regulations, cut wasteful spending, quelled widespread student campus protests, and achieved a balanced budget. Reagan spoke very conservatively on many issues but compromised with liberals and was a very popular leader. The education of Ronald Reagan, transforming him from a New Deal Democrat to the leader of the conservatives, was complete when he left General Electric (GE) in 1962. He would say, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, it left me,” and it is clear that he saw how the failures of the social welfare system implemented by FDR and expanded by LBJ were destroying the country. Reagan was also driven to defeat Soviet Communism and expand liberty throughout the world. After his two terms as California governor, he set his sights on the U.S. Presidency. Chapter 132. 1980 Election and Reagan’s Domestic Policy Ronald Reagan was the first president since Calvin Coolidge to call himself a conservative. Since FDR and the birth of the welfare state, every presidential candidate ran with promises to increase social programs, grow the power of government, and to direct the experts to solve America’s problems. Reagan did the opposite. He promised to cut taxes, deregulate businesses, cut the size of government, use market solutions to solve the country’s energy problems, and energize the Cold War against the Soviet Union. Because of Reagan’s successes during his two terms, he changed the relationship of the government to the citizen and he created a multi-generational shift in the electorate. The media had leaned left ever since LBJ and the Vietnam War, but with Reagan’s rise the media engaged in all-out hatred against conservatives. Journalists tried to present Reagan as a buffoon, a Hollywood actor lacking in education and intelligence, and a dangerous war-monger. At the beginning of the 1980 Presidential campaign, even with America’s problems, Carter was favored to win. Reagan countered the media’s false portrayals of him with wit, laughter, facts, common sense, and smiles. Reagan masterfully pointed out President Carter’s failures in a witty way. He used Carter’s own 1976 campaign slogan against him by asking Americans, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” In discussing how Americans felt about the future of their country, he stated, “Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.” And, in a presidential debate, Reagan amiably responded to Carter’s many criticisms, “There you go again.” Americans were tired of Carter’s condescending preaching, acting as though Americans themselves were to blame for their problems and not Carter. Reagan promised to drastically change course, and Americans wanted a drastic change from a decade of lethargy. Reagan won the 1980 election by a margin of 489 to 49 in the electoral college and 43.9 million to 35.5 million in the popular vote. Republicans gained an astounding 13 Senate seats, capturing the Senate for the first time in over 30 years. In the House of Representatives, Republicans won 34 seats but Democrats maintained control. Although Democrats retained control of the House, 30 to 40 representatives were considered conservatives who supported many or most of Reagan’s proposals. They were derisively called “boll weevils.” Two months after the inauguration, mentally deranged John Hinckley attempted to assassinate the new President. A bullet pierced Reagan’s chest, landing inches away from his heart. Rushed to the hospital, laying on the operating bed, Reagan looked at the doctors and nurses and quipped, “I hope you’re all Republicans.” One doctor replied, “Mr. Reagan, today we are all Republicans.” After surgery, when asked if he felt much pain, Reagan responded, “Only when I laugh.” Reagan recovered and was more adamant about achieving his goals. He believed God had spared him for something important. Reaganomics: Tax Cuts and Deregulation Reagan knew that before he could lead America on the world stage, especially against Soviet Communism, he had to repair and invigorate the American economy. He moved to cut taxes and deregulate the economy. He was inspired by the economists he’d studied while at GE — Mises and Hazlitt — as well as his own conservative advisors. George Gilder’s 1981 book Wealth and Poverty promoted supply-side economics, which is the policy of increasing production by removing regulations and business taxes — and lowering taxes overall — so businesses invest and produce more goods. When more products hit the markets and supply increases, prices will fall, argued Gilder. Arthur Laffer, a member of Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board, argued that there is a point where government revenues will actually fall if taxes are too high. Because he drew a diagram on a napkin over a meal to explain his theory, it is now known as the “Laffer Curve.” Reagan was convinced that cutting taxes and deregulating businesses would stimulate the economy, improve Americans’ lives, and allow the country to aggressively confront Communism. The first major tax legislation under Reagan was the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981. Because the Democrats controlled the House, it was phased in over three years, which meant it took a few years for Americans to benefit. Along with the tax cuts, Reagan lowered regulations on businesses and cut the federal budget by $40 million. The main points of the tax cuts were as follows:
The years of 1981 and 1982 were challenging for Reagan. In January of 1981, Reagan removed the remaining oil and natural gas price controls that had existed since Nixon. The initial release of the price controls and the delayed implementation of the tax cuts, coupled with all of the other residue from 1970s policies, caused the Recession of 1981-1982. There were calls to ditch the new tax cuts, raise taxes, restore oil and gas price controls, and change course. These calls came from Democrats, the media, and even from some Republicans — even from within Reagan’s own Cabinet. In addition, the nation’s Professional Air Traffic Controller’s Organization went on strike despite the fact this federal organization, vital for the country’s transportation, was forbidden by law to strike. In response, Reagan fired all 11,500 controllers and used the military to control air traffic until a new civilian workforce could be hired. By the end of 1983 and into 1984 the economy was roaring. Just as the other two major twentieth century tax cuts had worked under Coolidge and JFK, the Reagan tax cuts propelled the American economy forward. Inflation plummeted from 14.5 percent under Carter to 4.2 percent in 1984. Unemployment only decreased from 7.2 percent under Carter to 7.1 percent in 1984, but Americans could see there would be more jobs in the future. Gross national product (GNP) growth initially fell from 2.4 percent in 1981 to -1.7 percent in 1982, but rose by 4.5 percent in 1983 and by an impressive 7.1 percent in 1984. Americans had more income and more purchasing power. For the first time since the mid-1960s, Americans were optimistic about the economy and about the future. 133. 1984 Election and Morning in America In the 1984 Presidential campaign, Reagan ran against Democrat Walter Mondale of Minnesota. Mondale had served as Vice President under Jimmy Carter and as U.S. Senator from 1964 to 1976. In early 1983, Reagan’s approval ratings were at 35 percent. Americans were still suffering from the recession. However, over the next two years, the economy improved and Reagan achieved some successes in foreign policy. One of the greatest talking points against Reagan was his age, 79 in 1980, which would make him the oldest president to date. In a debate, Mondale challenged Reagan about his age, and Reagan responded, joking, “I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience.” Even Mondale laughed, and the issue disappeared. Most remember Reagan’s campaign for his slogan “Morning in America” which meant that America’s best moments were ahead of it if the country stayed with him. Reagan won the 1984 election in a landslide, capturing 49 states to 1, winning 525 electoral votes to Mondale’s 13, and taking the popular vote by over 18 percent. This is the last time that a candidate has won the popular vote by double digits. Paradoxically, the Democrats still controlled the House, and in 1987, they took back the Senate. Tax Reforms and Economic Boom In Reagan’s second term, he pushed the Tax Reform Act of 1986 through a Democrat Congress. Congress slowly implemented the law over two years, so its results were delayed. This legislation lowered the top income tax rate from 50 percent to 28 percent, lowered taxes for all, expanded the earned income tax credit, removed 6 million lower-income Americans from paying any taxes, simplified tax filing, removed 7 million falsely declared dependents by compelling parents to report Social Security numbers for their children, and increased the home mortgage interest deduction. Reagan’s tax cuts were undeniably an astounding success. There were both immediate and long-term effects. From the beginning of the full implementation of the first tax cut through 1988, GNP rose at an average rate of 4.4 percent. Patent filing increased from about 50,000 in 1980 to almost 150,000 in 1988. Unemployment fell from 7.2 percent in 1980 to 5.3 percent in 1988. In the long term, the U.S. economy experienced the longest continuous period of growth in history, with GNP increasing every year from 1983 through 1991, and then again from 1992 to 2009! During the era of Reagan, some of America’s great industries suffered while a new one emerged. Job losses in steel, textile, and automobile industries continued. The term “Rust Belt” was coined to signify the decay of the upper Midwestern cities of Detroit, Akron, Toledo, and others. However, at this same time there was the massive explosion of a new economic powerhouse, the computer industry. Entrepreneurs created the personal computer industry with no direct government subsidies and no mandates. However, government did play a role in the technology boom. In 1969, the Pentagon hired four universities to connect their computers. In 1972, email was created. In 1975, Bill Gates, a college dropout, founded Microsoft. He purchased and promoted the operating system MS-DOS and then created Windows 1.0, using the new “mouse” technology to make human-computer interface easy. In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, both also college dropouts, founded Apple Computers, Inc. It joined the Fortune 500 in the quickest time ever. By 1980, American companies controlled 70 percent of the world software market and 80 percent of the world hard drive business. By 1990, there was one PC for every 2.6 people. By 1991, the World Wide Web was inaugurated. Reagan’s economic policy benefitted all of society, including minorities and women. Throughout the 1980s, the median family income rose for all, including black families. Black Americans’ poverty rate fell from 32.5 percent in 1980 to 31.3 percent in 1988. In 1980, black unemployment stood at 14.6 percent, but in 1988, it had dropped to 11.8 percent. In 1980, the Hispanic unemployment rate was over 10 percent, but by 1988 it had dropped to under 8 percent. Overall, the unemployment rate dropped from 7.2 percent in 1980 to 5.3 percent in 1988. National Deficit Grows One criticism of the Reagan Economy is the explosion of the national debt. It is true the national debt grew under Reagan. Reagan’s primary focuses were to jumpstart the economy, rebuild the economy, and rebuild the military. He calculated that the military spending would cause a crisis in the Soviet Union. Reagan achieved his goals and he was correct in his goals regarding the Soviet Union. However, to accomplish his goals, he had to compromise with a Democratic Congress, who wanted to massively increase domestic spending. Both got what they wanted. In 1989 when Reagan left the Presidency, real federal revenue was more than 19 percent higher than it was the day he took office in 1981. The Reagan tax cuts and deregulation spurred economic growth and as a result, the federal government had more revenue. From 1981 to 1988, though the federal government received 19 percent more income and the economy was strong, Congress continued to spend more than it took in, and at a faster rate each year. In 1988, public debt was $2.7 trillion, compared to $908 billion in 1981. Supreme Court During his presidency, Republican control of the Senate enabled Reagan to place two conservative justices on the Supreme Court, Sandra Day O’Connor and Antonin Scalia, and elevate Justice William Rehnquist to be chief justice of the Supreme Court. O’Connor was the first female on the Supreme Court. Scalia went on to serve for thirty years as one of the strongest proponents for an originalist and textualist interpretation of the Constitution. He ruled on cases based on what the Constitution stated and what the Founders meant when they wrote it. At the time of his appointment, this conservative view was in the minority on the court. After four decades of complete liberal dominance, the Supreme Court began to slowly move to the right. The Reagan tax cuts, business deregulation, and removal of price controls on oil and natural gas spurred an economic recovery for America that propelled it for over two decades. Reagan’s economic successes made possible his other great goal: defeating Soviet Communism. Chapter 134. Reagan Foreign Policy and Victory in the Cold War There was one primary foreign policy issue for America in the Reagan Presidency: Soviet Communism. Islamic terrorism was the second issue. The first had existed since 1917. The second was not as well-known. Reagan’s unique response to Soviet Communism — his decisive, consistent, and ingenious stance against this totalitarian regime — was one of the main reasons for Soviet collapse in 1989, one year after he left office. Reagan changed the world by confronting Soviet Communism. The threat of Islamic terrorism, punctuated by the Islamic revolution in Iran under Carter in 1979, declined under the Reagan presidency, but it was not defeated. In hindsight, it appears Islamism was just beginning. Even though terrorist activities decreased under President Reagan, he did not adequately address this problem. Soviet Communism: We Win, They Lose Unfortunately, many Americans today do not know enough about Soviet Communism. Communists took over Russia in 1917 and quickly established the Soviet Union, also known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.). As we have seen in this book, Communists believe all citizens exist to serve the state and all property, including every business, is owned by the government. Communists oppose religious belief. They also believe there is no morality and government can use all means to control society. In the Soviet Union (1917-1991) and the countries it controlled, Communists systematically persecuted, tortured, starved, and murdered to build what they believed was a utopia. Atrocities were state policy. In countries Communists supported or controlled in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, and Cambodia, Communists murdered about 100 million from 1917 through 1991. Reagan strongly opposed past presidents’ policies towards Communism. Beginning with President Truman in 1947, America followed a policy of containment. Known as the Truman Doctrine, America promised to assist "free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures." The idea was to contain Communism and let it destroy itself, or at least hold it in place. From the late 1940s through 1968, America’s policy of containment sometimes resulted in military action, such as in Korea and Vietnam. However, there was not a coordinated effort to hasten the destruction of Communist regimes from within. In fact, in areas already under Communist control, America did not offer any assistance to anti-Communists. In the 1953 East Berlin Uprising, in Hungary in 1956, and the Prague Spring of Czechoslovakia in 1968, the United States sat idly by and watched Communists crush resistance. Beginning with Nixon, American Presidents moved from a policy of containment to offers of friendly relationship with the Soviets to engage them in dialogue and even give legitimacy to totalitarian Communism. This policy was called “detente.” The results of containment and detente were continued Soviet global expansion in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe, which weakened America. In 1977, Reagan was asked by advisor Richard Allen about his theory of U.S.-Soviet relations. He firmly and clearly stated, “Here’s my strategy on the Cold War. We win, they lose.” Reagan sought all avenues and all methods short of direct military conflict, to defeat Soviet Communism. He explicitly spoke against the evils of Communism and challenged the Soviet Union’s moral legitimacy. Throughout the world, on the airwaves, in the military, in the press, and in the economy, Reagan confronted Soviet Communism and worked to roll back the tyrannical government. Reagan teamed up with other world leaders, like Pope John Paul II, to defeat Soviet Communism. Because of his work, Reagan’s foreign policy literally transformed the world. As with Reagan in 1981, an assassin tried to kill Pope John Paul II and came within an inch of succeeding. Pope John Paul II was the first Polish pope in history and a fervent enemy of Communism. Soon after, Reagan and the Pope met in person and then set up secret communication lines to plan and implement anti-Communist activities in the world, especially in Poland. As author Paul Kengor notes in A Pope and President, although the Western Press has downplayed their relationship and work, the two were key to the success of defeating Communism. In his first speech after being shot, Reagan’s commencement address at the University of Notre Dame on May 17, 1981, he declared, “The years ahead are great ones for this country, for the cause of freedom and the spread of civilization...The West won’t contain communism, it will transcend communism… It will dismiss it as some bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are even now being written....It is time for the world to know our intellectual and spiritual values are rooted in the source of all strength, a belief in a Supreme Being, and a law higher than our own.” Western media was shocked at what Reagan said and claimed he was stoking war. In fact, he was destroying any legitimacy the totalitarian Soviet Communist government held. The Pope and President provided each other with intelligence: The President provided Catholics in Poland and elsewhere with copy machines, printing presses, photocopiers, computers, fax machines. It is no coincidence that Poland was the first Communist country to hold free elections in June 1989. After that, Soviet Communism crumbled. Peace Through Strength Reagan correctly believed that once the American economy got back to free market principles, it would thrive, and then he could invest so much in defense it would completely bankrupt the Soviet Union. In what Reagan termed “Peace through strength,” he believed peach would come when the United States was militarily stronger. In 1980, the United States spent about 5.2 percent of GDP on defense, while the Soviet Union spent somewhere between 15 to 17 percent. However, although the American economy was at the end of a decades-long slump, Americans were still in a much better economic position than the Soviets. Soviet citizens had to wait in lines to buy everyday items like toilet paper because their government-owned industries could not produce enough. Soviets also lacked basic food supplies like grain. Reagan wanted to build America’s defenses, not to attack the Soviet Union; he sought to force the U.S.S.R. to try to keep up, and thus cripple itself. Reagan increased defense spending from $143.7 billion in 1980 to $309.7 billion in 1988. Because of America’s expanding economy, this increase in defense spending did not represent a significantly larger share of GDP. In fact, defense spending only grew from 5.2 percent of GDP in 1980 to 6.1 percent of GDP in 1988. With the new funds, Reagan built new ships and advanced military weapons, and began research on a new missile defense program. Reagan challenged the Soviet buildup of nuclear weapons in Europe, and he won. In the 1970s, the Soviet Union deployed hundreds of intermediate-range nuclear missiles to threaten Western Europe. In 1979, NATO planned to deploy its own such weapons aimed at Eastern Europe. Reagan offered to cancel NATO’s plan to deploy these missiles if the Soviets agreed to pull out their weapons. The Soviets refused and Reagan went ahead with the plan, deploying hundreds of intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Western Europe aimed at the East. Protests erupted across Western Europe, claiming Reagan was a warmonger. Soviets funded many of these protests, yet in 1987, they backed down and accepted Reagan’s offer, signing the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) and removing their missiles. One key component of Reagan’s plan to defeat the Soviets was the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). Since the Soviet Union had developed its nuclear capabilities and amassed a large array of missiles by the 1970s, the two superpowers functioned on the policy of mutually assured destruction (MAD). The philosophy was that neither side would launch a nuclear missile because the other side could then obliterate the attacker. In 1980, the Soviets held a distinct advantage in the number of long-range and short-range nuclear missiles, while the Americans held the advantage in technologically advanced anti-missile weapons systems. Instead of adding to the American arsenal, Reagan wanted to develop technology to make the missiles obsolete. He thought the idea of MAD was a “suicide pact.” The idea behind SDI was to develop a defense system using lasers, satellites, and ground and space-based missile systems that could shoot down nuclear missiles before they landed and detonated. In 1983, Reagan announced the launch of the SDI and organized it within the US Department of Defense. Immediately, the Western media denounced the program as ludicrous. Deriding Reagan’s plan as a fantasy, journalists termed it “Star Wars.” Unfortunately for the media and the Soviet Union, the American public quickly embraced the metaphor and backed Reagan and his plan fully. Star Wars was a very popular 1977 science fiction movie, where the good guys (the Republic) fought Darth Vader and the Evil Empire. Reagan and his supporters loved the term and used it. The Evil Empire Reagan explicitly stated his position on the Communist Soviet Union and put the Communist dictators on defense. On March 8, 1983, in a speech at the National Association of Evangelicals, Reagan stated that the Soviet Union was an “evil empire” and “the focus of evil in the modern world.” Reagan used these strong terms even though White House staffers and State Department officials deleted these words from the speech. It was originally written by his speechwriter Anthony R. Dolan, and Reagan put the words back in. The Western Press attacked Reagan as a warmonger, but the Soviet leadership knew this threatened their legitimacy in the eyes of their own citizens. Reagan’s words and actions increased protests inside of the Soviet Union and its satellite countries. Meanwhile, America was involved indirectly in Great Britain’s 1982 Falklands War against Argentina, and in 1983 America overthrew a Communist takeover of Grenada, a tiny island country of the Bahamas and British Commonwealth. Over 600 Americans were studying medicine on Grenada. Reagan wanted to protect the students and keep the island from becoming Communist, so ordered an invasion. With the Communists removed from power, Grenada returned to its democratic form of government in the Commonwealth. Reagan promised to roll back Soviet Communism throughout the world. In his 1985 State of the Union address, he stated, “We must not break faith with those who are risking their lives — on every continent from Afghanistan to Nicaragua — to defy Soviet-supported aggression and secure rights which have been ours from birth.” In Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Honduras, Suriname, Uruguay, and elsewhere, America provided support to those fighting the Communists. Unfortunately, some of the fighters and governments America supported had terrible human rights records against their own people. Reagan chose to support evil leaders at times, but only if they fought Communists. In Afghanistan, Reagan helped finance those fighting against the Soviet invasion, the Afghan mujahedeen forces. American funding of Islamic militant groups began under Carter, but Reagan increased the funding dramatically, from $695,000 in 1979 to $630 million in 1987. One of the mujahedeen fighters was Osama bin Laden, later the leader of Al-Qaeda, the group that attacked the United States on September 11, 2001 (9/11). In April 1988, the Soviet Union began its withdrawal from Afghanistan and completed it on February 15, 1989. It was the first withdrawal of troops in Soviet history. Reagan was a masterful negotiator. He used his charm, wit, and unwavering moral courage to challenge the Communist leaders. One problem plagued Reagan during his first five years: Soviet leaders kept dying. Leonid Brezhnev died in 1982; Yuri Andropov died in 1984; and Konstantin Chernenko died in 1985. From 1985 to 1988, Reagan met in person four times with Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, in Switzerland, Iceland, the United States, and the Soviet Union. After the third meeting, both countries agreed to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which limited short-range and intermediate-range missiles. Gorbachev also started to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, ended his support of Communists in Nicaragua and reduced Soviet commitments in Cuba and Vietnam. He told the Eastern European countries they needed to “find their own solutions to their own problems.” This signaled to these countries that they could potentially break away from Moscow’s control. At the end of Reagan’s two terms, the resurgent American economy and the relentless pressure on the Communist Soviet Union began to pay off. As noted, the Soviet Union withdrew completely from Afghanistan. Uprisings against Communist rule were rampant in Eastern Europe and in Asia. Soviet aid to Latin America began to dry up. On June 12, 1987, at the Brandenburg Gate, Germany, in front of the Berlin Wall, Reagan gave a stirring speech, daring the Soviet Communist leader with these words, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Two years later, on November 9, 1989, Germans tore it down. Poland held free elections in 1989 and for the first time since the end of World War II, a non-Communist party governed. In less than 12 months, each Communist country in Central and Eastern Europe fell, and in 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved into the country of Russia and 14 other independent nations. Fall of Soviet Communism After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989 right after Reagan left office, many Russians credited the work of President Reagan in tearing down Communist Soviet Union. Gennady Gerasimov, top Spokesman for the Soviet Foreign Ministry during the 1980s, said, “Reagan bolstered the U.S. military might to ruin the Soviet economy, and he achieved his goal....The Soviet Union tried to keep up pace with the U.S. military buildup, but the Soviet economy couldn’t endure such competition.” Former dissident Vladimir Bukovsky, said of Reagan, “His phrase, ‘evil empire,’ became a household word in Russia.” Soviet foreign policy expert and later ambassador to the United States Vladimir Lukhim stated, “It is clear that SDI accelerated our catastrophe by at least five years.” Radical Islamic Terrorism One unsuccessful area of Reagan’s foreign policy was in combating radical Islam. Reagan sent Marines to Lebanon to keep peace between Israel and radical Islamic terrorists. On October 23, 1983, Iran ordered and paid Hezbollah, a radical Islamic terrorist organization, to bomb the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon. In all, 241 U.S. military personnel, including 220 Marines, 18 sailors, and three soldiers were killed. In addition, 100 Marines were injured. Minutes later, another bomb detonated, killing French soldiers. In December 1983, Syria shot down two U.S. fighters and held one pilot hostage, releasing him to Democrat presidential candidate Jesse Jackson. Within a few months, Reagan withdrew all forces from the Middle East. Later, Osama bin Laden, leader of Al-Qaeda that attacked America on 9/11/2001, called the Lebanon carnage the “Twin Bombings” and said it was a sign to him that America had little staying power in a fight. In 1986, Islamic terrorists supported by Libyan dictator Muammar al Gaddafi bombed a West German disco frequented by American GIs. Reagan ordered a bombing of terrorist camps in Libya in response. By 1987, world terrorism had declined to about half of what it was in 1970. The Soviet Union, a major sponsor of terror, was in decline. However, Iran, a radical Islamic theocracy since 1979, was replacing the U.S.S.R. as the world’s greatest sponsor of terror. Moreover, the radical groups that America had sponsored during the war against the Soviet Union were now on the rise to power in Afghanistan. Reagan did not confront the rise of Islamic terrorism. In fact, he negotiated with and sold weapons to Iran so they would pressure Hezbollah to release terrorists. As noted, thirteen years after Reagan, on 9/11/2001, Islamic terrorists attacked the United States. While Reagan, of course, was not responsible for this attack, we can see in retrospect that he failed to comprehend the danger of this movement to the United States. Conclusion The 1980s were a seminal decade in American history, primarily because of Ronald Reagan. In this decade, Reagan restored the American economy, igniting the longest running span of economic growth in American history. Congress, which had been controlled by Democrats since the Great Depression, became competitive between Republicans and Democrats over the following decades. Democrat leaders of the 1990s, such as President Bill Clinton, sounded more like Reagan than Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), stating, “The era of big government is over.” Americans embraced the optimism of Ronald Reagan and began to see government as the problem, not the solution, to every challenge. Reagan’s words became the thoughts of many, after he stated in 1986, “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help!” After Reagan, many Americans did not want the government to solve their problems. They wanted individual freedom. Beyond the shores of America, the Reagan Presidency had a monumental effect. In great part because of Reagan, Soviet Communism fell and its domination over Eastern Europe, parts of Latin America, Asia, and Africa ended. Some 265 million former Soviet citizens, 300 million Eastern Europeans, and tens of millions of others experienced freedom as a result of the fall of Soviet Communism. The Soviet Union was clearly the loser in the Cold War, and the United States of America was the victor. Socialist totalitarianism and centralized planning were shown to be inferior to free market capitalism. This was not a one-time event, but a change in trajectory for nearly three-quarters of a billion people living under communism. While communism in Europe and in much of the world died as a result of the defeat and dissolution of the Soviet Union, totalitarianism reared its ugly head in Russia, and also in Belarus, in the twenty-first century. President Reagan has never been called a saint, and there were strong critics of his tenure. The Iran/Contra Scandal involved Reagan’s senior officials selling arms to Iran during an American embargo to gain the release of American hostages. These officials then used the proceeds to fund the Contras, an anti-Communist rebel group in Nicaragua. Both of these actions violated American policy. Moreover, Iran, which became the world’s largest sponsor of terror, was aided by America. Reagan was never implicated in the affair, but it appears he approved of the actions. While Reagan was one of the most successful presidents of the twentieth century, he was one of the most reviled by the Western media. As American media turned more leftist from the 1960s on, any President who praised the free market and American power became an enemy. Journalists created urban myths about Reagan, falsely claiming he started the AIDS epidemic, that he thought ketchup was a vegetable, and that he shut down all mental health facilities. Reagan, however, was known as a “happy warrior,” consistently beating the media and speaking directly to the American people, using humor, exhibiting dignity, and bringing results. He was loved by Americans, as evidenced by his landslide victories, and by the outpouring of grief after his death in 2004. The Reagan Revolution changed the world in many ways. Following his presidency, Americans desired individual freedom more than welfare, sought their own solutions to their problems instead of answers from experts, and desired less government than more. Abroad, Soviet Communism was conquered, and nearly three-quarters of a billion people experienced freedom for the first time. Most of those peoples’ children grew up in freedom, and a totalitarian system that held dominance since 1917 was swept away into the “dustbin of history.”
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for High School American History, go HERE. for Elementary, go HERE. The Beginning of the American Revolution – April 19, 1775 James Monroe was the country’s fifth president and the last of the American Founding Fathers. A man of great integrity, he had very little party feeling and was extremely popular. He called himself a Republican. He dressed traditionally and was the last president to wear his hair in a ponytail. (When was the last time you thought a man in a ponytail was sporting a traditional, conservative style?!) Monroe favored a weak presidency and was a strict constructionist. This meant he thought the federal government had power to do only what was explicitly written in the Constitution. One of the last men who had fought against Great Britain in the American Revolution, Monroe worked to keep government small. In 1820, he was reelected without any opposing candidate. James Monroe was born on April 28, 1758 and lived until the age of 73, passing in 1831. Monroe was home schooled by his mother until the age of 11. After this he attended college for four years. A Virginian, just like four of the first five presidents, Monroe dropped out of college to fight the British in the American Revolution as an officer. He was severely wounded at the Battle of Trenton (Washington’s crossing of the Delaware), later trained soldiers at Valley Forge, and fought at the Battle of Monmouth. During and after the war, Monroe trained to be an attorney under Thomas Jefferson. Monroe married Elizabeth Kortright when he was 28 and they lived 44 years together as husband and wife. They had three children, though one died at the age of sixteen months. Their daughter Maria was the first child of a President to be married in the White House. Like other founding fathers, James Monroe’s relationship with slavery was complicated. He owned slaves and a plantation and slaves served him in Virginia and later in the White House. But he was morally opposed to slavery, tried making the international slave trade illegal, and worked to establish a country in Africa, later called Liberia with Monrovia as its capital, to resettle all African-Americans. As Governor of Virginia in 1800, he helped crush a slave rebellion and participated in the arrest of over 70 and execution of 10. As President, he resided over the Compromise of 1820, which added new states to the Union and maintained an equal number of slave states to free states. Monroe and the Founding Fathers feared that slavery would one day end the American republic, but they never resolved this issue and left it as a cancerous sore. James Monroe served as a representative, a senator, the governor of Virginia, a minister to France where he negotiated the Louisiana Purchase under President Jefferson, and was Secretary of State and then Secretary of War under James Madison during the War of 1812. His long political history and major accomplishments earned him the trust of the Presidential electors who voted him in two terms as President, from 1817-1825. Throughout his tenure, there was no opposing political party, and historians have called this time the “Era of Good Feelings.” Monroe’s actions as President exemplify the founder’s ideal of a republic with a limited government. Monroe favored public works, but only if they were related to national defense. The federal government created and improved coastal forts. However, Monroe opposed the government spending money on roads, canals or other projects if they were not strictly related to defense, because the Constitution does not give the federal government this power. In 1822, Monroe vetoed a bill that would have authorized federal funds to improve the Cumberland Road. Monroe claimed, “it is with deep regret, approving as I do the policy, that I am compelled to object to its passage and to return the bill to the House of Representatives, in which it originated, under a conviction that Congress does not possess the power under the Constitution to pass such a law.” James Monroe achieved great success in the area of foreign policy. He settled the U.S.-Canadian border dispute through a treaty with Great Britain. In Georgia, his administration ordered General Andrew Jackson to defeat the Seminole Indians, who had been raiding settlers and then escaping into Spanish Florida. Jackson illegally invaded Florida, conquered the Indians, and found two British agents, then tried, convicted, and hung them as spies. Spain was thus forced to sell Florida to the U.S. for $5 million in the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819. However, Monroe is best known for the Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine of 1820 forbids any European power from meddling in the affairs of North and South American countries in return for America staying out of European affairs. In the early 1800s, Spanish colonial power in the Americas was weakening, and France appeared to want to take Spain’s possessions. The United States wanted to make sure no European power would ever again colonize the Americas, and Great Britain was eager to create a “special relationship” with their former colonies. Great Britain secretly assured America it would use its navy to defend the Americas. James Monroe was the last American Founding Father to serve as President, and as such he continued the great fortune and blessings that were bestowed on the first republic of modern times. Though imperfect and unable to resolve slavery, Monroe helped establish the United States of America as one of the strongest and freest countries on earth. His sacrifice in the American Revolution, his service in various offices in Virginia, and his Presidency were all in the aim of building a country founded in individual liberty and constitutionalism.  For all products and services on American History for Middle School, go HERE.
for High School American History, go HERE. for Elementary, go HERE. American Founding Father Thomas Jefferson was an American Founding Father who established political and cultural traditions that Americans still enjoy today. He was born on April 13, 1743, in the English colony of Virginia, in a prominent family. His father was a surveyor and cartographer and created the first accurate map of Virginia. From what we would call a large family, Jefferson had 9 siblings: six sisters, one brother, and two who died before the age of two. Like George Washington, Thomas experienced tragedy at a young age when he lost his father. Most likely, Jefferson learned how to read from his mom, Jane Jefferson, and his education was geared towards training him to strive for goodness and beauty and to become a leader. Before his formal education began at the age of 9, he spent his time reading, learning to play the violin, and playing in the woods. For five years thereafter, the Reverend William Douglas taught him Latin and Greek at a private school. When his father died, Jefferson continued his studies under the Reverend James Maury, who Jefferson describes as “a correct classical scholar.” This meant that Thomas Jefferson studied the great thinkers of Classical Greece and Rome, and strove for self-improvement by learning about the great ideas and lives of those in history. At the college of William and Mary in Virginia, Thomas Jefferson initially chose not to be a man of character. He spent his first months at parties, playing cards, and betting. After coming home for a visit, a friend was disappointed that Thomas wasn’t applying himself. Thomas chose from then on to take his studies seriously. Professor William Small, Lieutenant Governor Francis Fauquier and lawyer George Wythe led a small group of scholars, recommending books to read and leading discussion sessions. Under this personal care, Thomas Jefferson developed into a deep thinker and leader. After college, Jefferson studied law under the private guidance of Wythe, studying five years instead of the normal two and a half. He became one of the country’s most educated lawyers. Thomas Jefferson’s personal life was filled with much sorrow. Jefferson married Martha Wayles Skelton, and together they had six children. Four died before adulthood, and only one outlived Thomas. Martha died after ten years of marriage of diabetes. Thomas Jefferson shut himself in his room and paced for three weeks. He had promised his wife he would not remarry, and he did not. Whereas George Washington was a great military man, Jefferson’s genius lay in the power of his pen, his legislative work, and his Presidential leadership. He served in the Virginia House of Burgesses, which was the Virginia colony’s legislative body. Jefferson authored the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which was used as a guide for our country’s First Amendment. He wrote to A Summary View of the Rights of British America, which declared that the colonies had the right to self-govern. Jefferson was a participant in the First Continental Congress and the Second Continental Congress, and pushed for independence from Great Britain. Jefferson served as governor of Virginia and was the Washington’s Secretary of State. He is the principal author of The Declaration of Independence, one of the most powerful and beautiful political documents of all time. Perhaps the most memorable sentence he wrote is, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” As the young nation’s third President, Jefferson doubled the size of the United States, kept the country out of war with France and Britain, and kept American shipping safe in the Mediterranean by destroying pirates. Historians call time from 1800 to about 1820 “The Age of Jefferson” because of America’s accomplishments that Jefferson started. France’s Napoleon Bonaparte eagerly sold the Louisiana Territory to Jefferson to help pay for his war against Great Britain. Curious to learn of this new land, Jefferson sent 40 men and one woman on an incredible journey. The Lewis and Clark Expedition explored and mapped this new land. Jefferson’s foreign policy towards belligerent countries is mixed. Some have criticized Jefferson for keeping a small military and allowing Great Britain and France to harass and imprison our sailors, but Jefferson thought we would lose a war against one of these great powers and it was best to appease than to confront them. When Barbary pirates were seizing American ships and killing American sailors, Jefferson ordered an invasion of Tripoli and our military forced the pirates to stop harming Americans. Although Jefferson was a Democratic-Republican and favored states’ rights, he ordered the purchase of Louisiana without Congressional approval, a violation of the Constitution. In recent years, from about the 2000s, some have argued that because Jefferson owned slaves, he was not a great man and was a hypocrite. They say that it is a paradox that Jefferson wanted individual rights for Americans but he kept many in bondage. There are many points to bring up to explain this paradox. In the 1700s, slavery was common in the world and was not seen by most as an evil. Slavery had existed throughout all of human history and was in every continent. It was not abnormal for someone of wealth to own slaves. Secondly, in Jefferson's original Declaration of Independence, he outlawed slavery. However, the southern state delegates to the Continental Congress would not agree with this, and Jefferson had to edit the document. Thirdly, in order to maintain his plantation and his work as a delegate and later Secretary of State, Jefferson's source of income was his plantation. He could not destroy it by releasing all of his slaves and believe he could continue as a leader of the country. In the end, Jefferson, in writing the Declaration of Independence that declared "all men are created equal" and in his lifetime of work for liberty, paved the way for America to end slavery in 1865. Jefferson was a force for good in the world and is one of America's top three presidents. On July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson died, a few hours before his friend and the second President John Adams. Of all his accomplishments, Jefferson was most proud of a few. He wrote his own epitaph, which reads: HERE WAS BURIED THOMAS JEFFERSON AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE OF THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. Questions
 James Monroe was the country’s fifth president and the last of the American Founding Fathers. A man of great integrity, he had very little party feeling and was extremely popular. He called himself a Republican. He dressed traditionally and was the last president to wear his hair in a ponytail. (When was the last time you thought a man in a ponytail was sporting a traditional, conservative style?!) Monroe favored a weak presidency and was a strict constructionist. This meant he thought the federal government had power to do only what was explicitly written in the Constitution. One of the last men who had fought against Great Britain in the American Revolution, Monroe worked to keep government small. In 1820, he was reelected without any opposing candidate.
James Monroe was born on April 28, 1758 and lived until the age of 73, passing in 1831. Monroe was home schooled by his mother until the age of 11. After this he attended college for four years. A Virginian, just like four of the first five presidents, Monroe dropped out of college to fight the British in the American Revolution as an officer. He was severely wounded at the Battle of Trenton (Washington’s crossing of the Delaware), later trained soldiers at Valley Forge, and fought at the Battle of Monmouth. During and after the war, Monroe trained to be an attorney under Thomas Jefferson. Monroe married Elizabeth Kortright when he was 28 and they lived 44 years together as husband and wife. They had three children, though one died at the age of sixteen months. Their daughter Maria was the first child of a President to be married in the White House. Like other founding fathers, James Monroe’s relationship with slavery was complicated. He owned slaves and a plantation and slaves served him in Virginia and later in the White House. But he was morally opposed to slavery, tried making the international slave trade illegal, and worked to establish a country in Africa, later called Liberia with Monrovia as its capital, to resettle all African-Americans. As Governor of Virginia in 1800, he helped crush a slave rebellion and participated in the arrest of over 70 and execution of 10. As President, he resided over the Compromise of 1820, which added new states to the Union and maintained an equal number of slave states to free states. Monroe and the Founding Fathers feared that slavery would one day end the American republic, but they never resolved this issue and left it as a cancerous sore. James Monroe served as a representative, a senator, the governor of Virginia, a minister to France where he negotiated the Louisiana Purchase under President Jefferson, and was Secretary of State and then Secretary of War under James Madison during the War of 1812. His long political history and major accomplishments earned him the trust of the Presidential electors who voted him in two terms as President, from 1817-1825. Throughout his tenure, there was no opposing political party, and historians have called this time the “Era of Good Feelings.” Monroe’s actions as President exemplify the founder’s ideal of a republic with a limited government. Monroe favored public works, but only if they were related to national defense. The federal government created and improved coastal forts. However, Monroe opposed the government spending money on roads, canals or other projects if they were not strictly related to defense, because the Constitution does not give the federal government this power. In 1822, Monroe vetoed a bill that would have authorized federal funds to improve the Cumberland Road. Monroe claimed, “it is with deep regret, approving as I do the policy, that I am compelled to object to its passage and to return the bill to the House of Representatives, in which it originated, under a conviction that Congress does not possess the power under the Constitution to pass such a law.” James Monroe achieved great success in the area of foreign policy. He settled the U.S.-Canadian border dispute through a treaty with Great Britain. In Georgia, his administration ordered General Andrew Jackson to defeat the Seminole Indians, who had been raiding settlers and then escaping into Spanish Florida. Jackson illegally invaded Florida, conquered the Indians, and found two British agents, then tried, convicted, and hung them as spies. Spain was thus forced to sell Florida to the U.S. for $5 million in the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819. However, Monroe is best known for the Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine of 1820 forbids any European power from meddling in the affairs of North and South American countries in return for America staying out of European affairs. In the early 1800s, Spanish colonial power in the Americas was weakening, and France appeared to want to take Spain’s possessions. The United States wanted to make sure no European power would ever again colonize the Americas, and Great Britain was eager to create a “special relationship” with their former colonies. Great Britain secretly assured America it would use its navy to defend the Americas. James Monroe was the last American Founding Father to serve as President, and as such he continued the great fortune and blessings that were bestowed on the first republic of modern times. Though imperfect and unable to resolve slavery, Monroe helped establish the United States of America as one of the strongest and freest countries on earth. His sacrifice in the American Revolution, his service in various offices in Virginia, and his Presidency were all in the aim of building a country founded in individual liberty and constitutionalism.  Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680) is the first Native American to be canonized a Catholic saint. She was born in 1656 in what is today the state of New York. Her tribe was the mighty Mohawk, her father was Chief Kenneronka, and her mother was an Algonquian who had been assimilated into the Mohawks. Her Mohawks name “Tekakwitha” means “one who bumps into things.” Kateri had a tough childhood and was faced with many moral challenges throughout her life. Immediately after her death at the age of 24, witnesses claim a miracle occurred. As a young girl of four, she survived smallpox but for the rest of her life bore ugly facial scars. Witnesses claim that after her death all of her scars completely disappeared. A church was built in her honor, and numerous miracles have been attributed to her.
From a young age, Kateri suffered hardship. At the age of four, her parents and her younger brother died of smallpox. She survived but her face was badly scarred, she suffered poor eyesight and poor health the rest of her life. Her aunt adopted her. At the age of 10, Kateri’s village was attacked by the French, and to end the fighting her Mohawk tribe agreed to live in French territory with the Jesuit missionaries, who wanted to convert the Indians. Kateri’s uncle forbade her to speak to the missionaries, but she disobeyed him. A Mohawk girl in the 1600s was supposed to grow up within the tribe, marry one of the Mohawk men, have babies, cook, weave mats and baskets, and work on the farm. Kateri chose at an early age to do something completely opposite. While with the Jesuits, her tribe was attacked by the Mahican, and she helped the missionaries care for the sick and wounded. After this experience, she told her aunt she never wanted to marry. In 1674, at the age of 18, Kateri decided to become a Catholic Christian and receive training form the French priests. Most in her tribe were disappointed and angry. She was ridiculed, called a witch, and ostracized. Two years later, she was baptized and moved to the Jesuit settlement of Kahnawake. It was then she took the Christian name of Kateri, after Saint Catherine of Sienna. At Kahnawake were other Indian converts to Christianity. Kateri was no longer bullied but instead was encouraged to follow her heart’s wishes. There, she met her mother’s best friend who had also converted and other Christian women. Kateri attempted to strive to live a Christian life in how she treated others, in fasting, and even in acts of self-mortification. Throughout the medieval Christian world, many believed that if you harmed yourself physically in honor of God you gained blessings for yourself and others. Kateri wanted to tie her physical pain to the sufferings of Christ. In 1680, Kateri Tekakwitha died at the Jesuit community of Kahnawake. Witnesses swore that within minutes of her death her facial scars healed and she became radiantly beautiful. Christians built a church in her honor, and pilgrims arrived to pray at her burial site. Some reported miracles that occurred because of Kateri’s intercessions. The Catholic Church proclaimed her a saint in 2012, the first Native American saint. Some believe Kateri’s story is joyful while others see it as a terrible tale of colonization. Catholics and other Christians point to her to show that Christianity gave Indian women the freedom to do what they want to do and to live in a loving community. Others say that her story shows how European colonization destroyed the Native American way of life and that the missionaries were wrong to convert her. Questions
 Geronimo (1829-1909) is one of the most-recognizable of American Indians who resisted the American government in the 1800s and 1900s. A leader of the Chiricahua tribe of the Apache, Geronimo fought Mexico, the United States of America, and other Native American Indians until he surrendered to the United States in 1886 and died a prisoner of war. Married nine times and father to many children, Geronimo brought fear into the hearts and minds of Mexicans and Americans.
Geronimo was born in Mexico in 1829, in present-day Arizona, and he was raised in the Apache war culture. The Apaches raided Mexican and other Indian villages as a way of life. During these raids, Apache would steal cattle and horses, kill men, and steal women as slaves. In response, Mexico tried to kill all Apache, offering $25 for every Apache scalp. As a young man, Geronimo married and had three children with his wife, Alope. On one outing while he was away on a trading trip, Mexican soldiers came into his camp and murdered women and children, including his mom, his young wife, and his three boys. He vowed to seek revenge the rest of his life against the Mexicans. In 1848, the land Geronimo’s Apaches lived on changed hands from the Mexicans to the Americans, and the Apaches were now enemies of not only the Mexicans but the Americans, as well. For the next 38 years, Geronimo and the Apaches successfully waged war against Mexico and the United States of America. His band of soldiers, and women and children, would travel as far as 70 miles a day to avert capture. At the same time, they waged guerilla war against settlers. 5,000 United States soldiers, 3,000 Mexicans, and hundreds of Indian scouts hounded Geronimo’s Apaches throughout the Southwest. Finally, Geronimo surrendered and he and his Apache tribe were taken prisoner to Oklahoma. Three years before Geronimo died, he converted to Christianity. In his autobiography, he said, “Since my life as a prisoner has begun I have heard the teachings of the white man's religion, and in many respects believe it to be better than the religion of my fathers. However, I have always prayed, and I believe that the Almighty has always protected me. Believing that in a wise way it is good to go to church, and that associating with Christians would improve my character, I have adopted the Christian religion. I believe that the church has helped me much during the short time I have been a member.” However, on his deathbed, it has been reported that he said he was no longer a Christian. This truth of this incident is uncertain, though, and he was buried in a Christian cemetery. Many Americans did not believe his conversion was real. Stories of his brutal tactics and successes would not allow them to think this Indian leader had accepted Christ. The New York Times noted when he died that Geronimo “was the worst type of aboriginal American savage. Even his so-called religious conversion was not without cunning.” The Times journalists believed he had converted in order to persuade President Roosevelt to give the Apaches back their land in Arizona. Geronimo was very fond of marriage. He married nine times and it appears he had many children. Some of his wives, like his first one, Alope, were murdered by soldiers. One witness claims he killed one of his wives when she would not escape from soldiers with him. He did have multiple wives at the same time, which was keeping in tradition with the Apache custom. Toward the end of his life, Geronimo appeared in Wild West shows, at world’s fairs, and rode in President Roosevelt’s Inaugural Parade. On the reservation, he sold bows and arrows and posed for pictures. As there was little work available for Indians, it is a sign of resourcefulness that Geronimo stayed active through the age of 80 (some records state 79). The night before he died, he went into town and got drunk. Riding home, he fell off his horse. Injured and unable to get back on, he stayed out all night long. He caught pneumonia and eventually died.
The following is from John De Gree’s book, American History, the Story of Liberty from America’s Heritage through the Reagan Revolution and also in this book: De Gree's Modern American History, Reconstruction through the Reagan Revolution.
Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) was one of the most influential American women of the 20th century. As a progressive and eugenicist, she believed that some humans were, by nature, inferior to others. Sanger was primarily driven to provide women complete control over their reproductive life and to make it impossible for the “unfit” to have children. Sanger wanted to create a master race. To achieve her ends, she sought to legalize and spread contraception and sterilization. Sanger was not a fan of abortion, but she wanted it legal and her work paved the way for the modern abortion industry. In 1921, she established The American Birth Control League, later to be named Planned Parenthood. If Sanger professed today what she believed during her lifetime, she would be completely discredited as eugenics and racism are both viewed by Americans as false and dangerous ideologies. However, because of her work, abortion and artificial contraception have became normal in American society. Eugenics, according to the online Merriam Webster Dictionary, is “the practice or advocacy of controlled selective breeding of human populations (as by sterilization) to improve the population's genetic composition.” Margaret Sanger believed in eugenics. Sanger wrote at the top of her birth control magazine publications, “More children from the fit and less from the unfit. That is the chief aim of birth control.” In a New York Times interview in 1922, she stated, “Superman is the aim of birth control.” In her book, The Pivot of Civilization, Sanger wrote, “Every feeble-minded girl or woman of the hereditary type, especially of the moron class should be segregated during the reproductive period.” Sanger supported infanticide of disabled babies and wanted the legalization of abortion to achieve her eugenic goals. Was Sanger a racist and did she want the elimination of ethnic minorities in America because of their race? That is hard to answer. But there is no doubt she believed she was able to decide who should live and who should not. Writing in 1931 “My Way to Peace, Sanger states she wants the government to : . . . keep the doors of Immigration closed to the entrance of certain aliens whose condition is known to be detrimental to the stamina of the race, such as feeble-minded, idiots, morons, insane, syphiletic, epileptic, criminal, professional prostitutes, and others in this class . . . apply a stern and rigid policy of sterilization, and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is already tainted or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring. For Sanger, birth control was the primary method to promote a superior race, although she also wrote in favor of legalizing abortion. During the first half of her lifetime, birth control was illegal in the United States of America. Sanger worked to change society about contraception. In 1921, she formed the American Birth Control League to promote contraception. In 1929, she formed lobby group to push legislators to make contraception legal. In a 1936 court case, Sanger challenged and won the right for physicians to obtain contraceptives. That next year, the American Medical Association adopted contraception as a normal medical service. The majority of Americans in the early 1900s believed that God should be in charge of determining when life begins, and that people should not use artificial means to influence pregnancy. Every major Christian religion opposed artificial contraception until 1930, when the Anglican Church approved it for married couples. Shortly after, other Protestant Christian Churches approved it. The Roman Catholic Church still teaches that artificial contraception is inherently evil. Margaret Sanger sought to control the population, especially in low income, immigrant, and African-American communities. She wrote, “A License for Mothers to Have Babies” with the subtitle, “A code to stop the overproduction of children.” In this publication, she asserted that parenthood was not a right but a privilege that only the state could give. She championed the 1939 initiative “The Negro Project,” which sought to get rid of too many births among African Americans. She declared, “The mass of Negroes, particularly in the South, still breed carelessly and disastrously, with the result that the increase among Negroes, even more than among whites, is from that portion of the population least intelligent and fit, and least able to rear children properly.” Sanger visited the totalitarian countries of Nazi Germany and Communist Soviet Union in the 1930s. Her main reason was to investigate how these two totalitarian governments handled women’s rights, eugenics, and human reproductive matters. While not a NAZI, Sanger shared the stage with other NAZI eugenicists and did not denounce them. Sanger did not approve of Hitler’s barbarism, but she also did not change her views on forced sterilizations of the unfit or legalizing abortion. After visiting the Soviet Union in 1935, she wrote for the Birth Control Review, "Russia today is the country of the liberated woman. The attitude of Soviet Russia toward its women...would delight the heart of the staunchest feminist." She liked that the Soviets gave out free contraceptive devices to women, but she disliked the Soviet use of abortion as a means of mass population control. She didn’t object to legalizing abortion, but thought that Russians used abortion too frequently and women needed more access to contraceptives. Margaret Sanger died in 1966. Her work changed American society and perhaps the world. For Progressive who think the government and certain “fit” women should decide who should live and who has the right to procreate, she is their hero. When Sanger was born, in 1879, birth control and abortion were illegal throughout the United States of America, and both were viewed as sinful by the great majority of Americans who were Christian. She worked to make every means of birth control and eugenics a reality in America. At her death, birth control was legal in most states, and, seven years after her death, abortion became legal, as well. The organization that she founded, Planned Parenthood, became the nation’s largest provider of abortion and today, promotes abortion and sterilization around the world. In 2020, Planned Parenthood accounted for 345,672 abortions and 2.6 million contraceptive services in the United States. Annually, there are over 1 million abortions in America, averaging 3,000 a day. Sanger’s views on population control, eugenics, and birth control and abortion have had a major influence in the country and in the world. Questions
 One of America’s greatest doctors and activists for the least protected in society was Mildred Fay Jefferson (1927-2010). Jefferson was the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School, the first woman to graduate in surgery from Harvard, and the first woman to become a member of the Boston Surgical Society. She influenced a President of the United States of America to change his mind on abortion, and throughout her life, she was a voice for powerless in American society.
Mildred Jefferson was born in raised in segregated Texas and experienced first-hand racism and sexism. She grew up in a time where legally, black Americans experienced injustices because of their color. Her father was a Methodist minister and her mother a school teacher. Even though blacks had less opportunities than whites in the 1930s and 1940s, Jefferson never let her circumstances hold her back. As a young girl, she accompanied the town doctor on his house calls and told him that she would one day become a doctor. This was during a time that nearly all doctors were men and white. She succeeded in her dream. Jefferson was an outstanding student and throughout her career she broke new ground for black Americans and for women. At the age of 15, she entered Texas College and earned her bachelor’s degree in three years. Normally it takes four years. She went on to earn a master’s degree in biology and then to Harvard and became a medical doctor in 1951. She was Harvard’s first black woman ever to graduate from medical school. She was the first female doctor at the Boston University Medical Center and the first woman to become a member of the Boston Surgical Society. Jefferson worked all her life to defend the innocent and society’s most vulnerable. She strongly believed in the preservation of life, and fought tirelessly to protect the unborn. Around 1970, she was one of the founders of Massachusetts Citizens for Life. She later was one of the founders of the National Right to Life Committee. She was President of this committee from 1975-1978. “Millie” was a persuasive speaker, and after one time listening to her speech, the future President Ronald Reagan became pro-life. He wrote to her, "You have made it irrefutably clear that an abortion is the taking of a human life, I am grateful to you. " In a 1978 video, Jefferson explained: “I became a physician in order to help save lives. I am at once a physician, a citizen, and a woman, and I am not willing to stand aside and allow the concept of expendable human lives to turn this great land of ours into just another exclusive reservation where only the perfect, the privileged, and the planned have the right to live.” And, in another interview that same year, ““I would guess that the abortionists have done more to get rid of generations and cripple others than all of the years of slavery and lynchings.” On October 15, 2020, at the age of 84, Mildred Fay Jefferson passed away in her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was a pioneer in medicine for American women and for black Americans and she tirelessly fought for the lives of those who could not speak for themselves. Questions
 One of America’s greatest authors of all time was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by his pen name Mark Twain (1835-1910). He was born in Missouri when it was considered the west, and continued moving west until he decided it was time to jump continents and live in Europe. Known for his wit, his analysis of human behavior, and at the end of his life his love for young people, Twain’s writings exemplify what it meant to be an American living in the 1800s. Change, moving west, honesty, independent-minded, funny, self-critical and struggle was the story of Mark Twain.
Twain is famous for his literature. His one-liners tell us a great deal about him. “Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often” “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” “I once fell into a California river and got all dusty.” “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” “Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.” “The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.” “Part of the secret of a success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.” “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” Throughout Twain’s writing life, he made Americans, and others around the world, laugh at themselves, laugh at others, and question if what they were doing was the right thing. Called the greatest American author that ever lived, Mark Twain’s life was all about moving, change, honesty and integrity. Samuel Clemens was born in Missouri and raised in Hannibal, right next to the Mississippi River. He became Mark Twain when his writing career took off. That river became the focus point of two of his most famous novels about a boy growing up in 1800s America, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. At various times throughout America’s history, these books have been forbidden by libraries because of their use of the “N Word,” even though Twain wrote in the vernacular and even though these books do not support racism. Three of Twain’s siblings died young, and his dad died when the boy was only 11. After his father’s death, Twain left school and became a printer’s apprentice, then a typesetter, then a printer, writing various humorous stories while working in New York City, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. He came back to the Mississippi River and trained for two years for his dream job, a steamboat pilot. He worked as a pilot until 1861, when the Civil War broke out. He joined the war as a Confederate soldier, and after two weeks, he quit and “lit out for the West.” In the west, Clemens tried and failed as a miner and went back to writing. While writing articles for various newspapers, in Nevada and then in California, he also wrote short stories, such as “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” He was hired to travel to Europe and the Middle East and write about it. On this trip, fellow passenger Charles Langdon showed him a picture of his sister. Mark Twain described the moment as falling in love with the woman at first sight. This girl in the picture later became his wife! She wasn’t even on the boat. Samuel Clemens married Olivia Langdon in 1870 in New York and had three daughters and one son (who passed away at 19 months). Samuel and his wife were married for 34 years until Olivia’s death in 1904. Through his wife’s family, Samuel Clemens met Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, and other important figures of the day. In the 1870s and 1880s the Clemens family lived in Connecticut, where Mark Twain wrote many of his famous novels. While Mark Twain was a famous author, he made poor investments that caused his bankruptcy. Trying his hand with inventions and technology, Twain lost nearly all his financial worth. For much of the 1890s, the Clemens family lived in various countries of Europe, seeking help from their poor health, searching for less expensive places to live, and in between, Twain would come back to the states to try to resolve his financial problems. Even though Twain had declared bankruptcy and did not need to pay back his debtors, he went on a year-long arduous world lecture tour to make enough money to pay back all those who had ever loaned him money. Mark Twain was a sought-after speaker, performing humorous solo talks, similar to modern stand-up-comedy. Mark Twain had believed America should spread the American way of life around the world. However, after supporting the Spanish-American War of 1898, he had a change of heart and became an anti-Imperialist. He saw how the USA fought the Philippines instead of allowing this people their independence immediately. Twain said, “I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land.” In the later years of Twain’s life, he lived in Manhattan. After his daughter died in 1896, his wife in 1904, and then another daughter in 1909, he understandably was depressed, at times. He still wrote, however, and, he even formed a club for girls who were interested in writing. Called the “Angel Fish and Aquarium Club” for a dozen girls between the ages of 10 and 16, Twain exchanged letters, took them to concerts and the theatre and played games with the kids. In 1908, Twain wrote that the club was his “life’s chief delight.” Mark Twain predicted that he would die when Halley’s Comet came closest to Earth in 1910. He believed this because he was born two weeks after the Comet was closest to Earth in 1835. Twain said, “I came with Hally’s Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don’t go out with Halley’s Comet. The Almight has said, no doubt: Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.” Mark Twain died on April 21, 1910, one day after Halley’s Comet was closest to Earth. He lived a life of integrity, humor, and devotion, as well as being one of America’s greatest authors of all time. His writings continue to cause laughter and controversy today. He could have chosen to not pay back his debts, but he left his family for one year to pay his creditors. Towards the end of his life, when those closest to him had died, he supported and encouraged young girls in their writing and enjoyment of life. Ernest Hemingway wrote of Mark Twain, “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.” Questions
 (For the video, scroll down). Abraham Lincoln was the most hated and despised president of all time, yet he is one of America’s greatest presidents. During the years before the presidential election of 1860, Lincoln clearly stated that slavery was a morally evil and corrupt institution, and that one day, the country would be either all free or all slave. His clarity on this issue led the South to believe that Lincoln would try to abolish slavery, even though he never stated he would. His election to the presidency in 1860 pushed the first Southern states to secede and form the Confederate States of America. Over the next four years, 1861-1865, Lincoln led the effort to crush the rebellion in the South. Lincoln’s circumstances of youth were common to many Americans. He was born on February 12, 1809, in Kentucky, in a log cabin. His family was part of the Separate Baptist Church, which forbade alcohol, dancing, and slavery. Abraham’s dad, Thomas, saw Indians kill his own father. When Abraham was 9, his family moved north to Indiana. Then, Abraham’s mom died. About a year later, Thomas remarried to Sarah, called “Sally.” Abraham came to love Sally and called her “mother.” As a young person, Abraham learned to read and write at an “ABC School” a few weeks per year. In ABC Schools, children in a larger community met at a log cabin and were taught by a private tutor. Lincoln read the Bible, Robinson Crusoe, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Franklin’s Autobiography, and law books, whenever he had extra time. At the age of 21, Lincoln moved west to Illinois. As a boy and young man, Lincoln was known as physically strong and a person of wit. He was 6 feet, 4 inches tall, lanky and wiry. For fun, he would tell stories and wrestle. Lincoln is enshrined in the Wrestling Hall of Fame, and had a 300-1 record. Once, after beating his opponent, Lincoln looked at the crowd and declared, “I’m the big buck of this lick. If any of you want to try it, come on and whet your horns.” Nobody took him up on the offer. Lincoln was a reader, a hard worker, and a person of character whom others respected. He read the few books he had many times, and when possible, he borrowed books from other frontier settlers. While living with his parents, he worked on the family farm all day. Lincoln traveled by flatboat down the Mississippi River in 1828 and 1831, and he later received a patent pertaining to flatboats. In the Black Hawk War, Lincoln was voted militia corporal. When he lived on his own, Lincoln opened a store with his partner, who then embezzled all the money. Lincoln worked to pay off the resulting debt of $1,000 (equal to about $26,000 in 2017). Later he decided to be a lawyer. Lincoln’s understanding of religion changed over time. As a young man, he was skeptical that God and Jesus Christ existed. Later, he believed in Christ, but he still rejected joining a religious denomination. Toward the end of his life, Lincoln was convinced of the truth of the New Testament and was led by his faith. In the election of 1846, he campaigned, “I am not a member of any Christian Church…but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures.” During the Civil War, Lincoln professed a conversion experience to Christianity. Immediately after the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln visited the battle scene. He wrote this of what happened: "When I left Springfield I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ. Yes, I love Jesus." After this, Lincoln prayed every day and read the Bible. To a friend he wrote, “Take all of this book [the Bible] upon reason you can, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier and better man.” Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd in 1842 and had four boys. Though Lincoln left Mary Todd at the altar during their first wedding attempt, Lincoln called marriage a “profound wonder.” His son Edward died at the age of four of thyroid cancer. William died at the age of 12 of typhoid fever. Tad died of pneumonia at the age of 18. Only Robert lived into adulthood, dying in 1926. The boys’ deaths were a source of great sadness for the Lincolns. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Lincoln was known for physical beauty, but they were known for their character, ideas, and determination. Mary once said of her husband, “Mr. Lincoln is to be president of the United States some day. If I had not thought so, I would not have married him, for you can see he is not pretty.” In 1858, Americans learned a great deal about the thoughts of Abraham Lincoln through the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. Republican Abraham Lincoln was running for an Illinois U.S. Senate seat against the incumbent Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas. Lincoln was relatively unknown in the country, and many believed Douglas would one day be president. Lincoln and Douglas debated seven times, with each debate lasting around three hours. The debates were big events, with bands, food, and whiskey. At the end of each debate, the candidates shook hands, and maintained a cordial, friendly attitude toward each other. There was no questioner or moderator, only the two men on stage, speaking at great length. At the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, the two candidates expressed greatly different views, especially on slavery. Lincoln spoke strongly against slavery, calling it a moral evil. Lincoln’s clear and unequivocal talk on slavery angered Southern Democrats who wanted slavery to expand. Douglas stated that he was personally against slavery, but he favored popular sovereignty, that the decision should be left to the people in the individual states. At the last debate, Lincoln stated, "The real issue is the sentiment on the part of one class that looks upon the institution of slavery as a wrong…The Republican Party look(s) upon it as being a moral, social and political wrong…and one of the methods of treating it as a wrong is to make provision that it shall grow no larger…That is the real issue.” [The black man is] “entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…In the right to eat the bread, without leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man.” In the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Lincoln argued that the new Republican Party believed the Southern states opposed the ideals found in the Declaration of Independence. Lincoln saw slavery as a sin, as evil, and as a threat to liberty and equality for all. How Lincoln foresaw ending slavery, however, was through legal means, either by voting or appointing Northern judges who would chip away at slavery in the courts. He wanted to peacefully abolish slavery through law, over time. Stephen Douglas won the 1858 Senate election against Abraham Lincoln, but Lincoln became a national political figure. All Americans understood that Lincoln and the Republicans saw slavery as morally corrupt, and that over time, they would work to end it. When Lincoln was elected president in 1860, the Southern states believed they had to secede from the Union in order to preserve the Southern culture, which included slavery. The Civil War Nearly the entire Presidency of Abraham Lincoln consisted of the Civil War. Over 600,000 Americans gave their lives, and over that number suffered injuries. The North defeated the South and the United States remained as one country. Immediately after the war, the northern states passed the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln Five days after Lee’s surrender and just over one month after Lincoln’s second inauguration, a Southern actor conspired with others and then shot Abraham Lincoln on Good Friday, April 14, 1865. Lincoln was attending a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., when his bodyguard John Parker left his post to get a drink at a nearby tavern. John Wilkes Booth snuck behind the president, aimed his .44–caliber gun inches from the back of Lincoln’s head, and fired. President Lincoln was carried across the street to a nearby inn and died nine hours later. After the assassination, Booth jumped to the stage below, shouted, “Sic semper tyrannis” (“Thus be it ever to tyrants”), and escaped on his waiting horse. Soon after, Federal soldiers trapped him in a barn, set it on fire, and a cavalryman shot Booth as he tried to escape. Lincoln’s conspirators had planned to murder a number of Republicans, but failed in their attempts. Four of Booth’s conspirators, three men and one woman, were hanged. Three others received life sentences, and one went to jail for six years. Lincoln’s assassination immortalized the 16th President, alongside Washington and Jefferson, as one of America’s greatest heroes, and it led Congress to punish the South for its rebellion. The morning after Lincoln’s murder, Walt Whitman wrote the poem “O Captain, My Captain.” This poem expressed the grief many people in the North felt after Lincoln’s death. In Lincoln’s second inaugural address, given a little over a month before his assassination, he stated: With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations. Lincoln had planned generous peace terms for Southerners who had joined the Confederate States of America, but his assassination gave control of the government to the Radical Republicans, who wanted to completely change the South. Questions 1. Did Abraham Lincoln experience tragedy as a young boy? 2. What did Lincoln do for work before he left home? 3. Did Lincoln read many books or a few books many times as a young person? 4. Before becoming President, what did Lincoln do for work? 5. What did Mary Todd think about Abraham's physical appearance? 6. What was Lincoln's stance on slavery before the Civil War? 7. Describe Lincoln's conversion experience regarding Christianity. 8. Why did Southern Democrats secede from the United States of America? 9. How did Lincoln die? 10. Why do Americans celebrate the life of Abraham Lincoln? For a more detailed version of Abraham Lincoln, slavery in America, and the Civil War, read The Story of Liberty, America's Heritage Through the Civil War, by John De Gree. For a Video Lesson on Lincoln, Go Here and scroll down. |
John De GreeJohn De Gree writes the current events with a look at the history of each topic. Articles are written for the young person, aged 10-18, and Mr. De Gree carefully writes so that all readers can understand the event. The perspective the current events are written in is Judeo-Christian. Receive Articles and Coupons in Your EmailArchives
February 2026
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