Introduction to American Government - Essay Example

 Introduction to American Government Democracy is a principle national interest that helps secure all other interests. Democracy, federalism and respect for human rights are essential components to a prosperous nation. Thus a government of the people, by the people and for the people is the best kind of government. Such is the characteristic of the democratic federal government of the United States. The independence of the United States was declared in 1776 by the thirteen colonies of Britain after the American Revolution. Prior to this, the British Empire ruled America under thirteen colonies. In history they are lumped into groups where they were, why they were founded, and what kinds of industry they had. New England Colonies consisting of Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire were mainly spiritual and worked hard to keep their family units together although economic prosperity was also their goal. They were largely farming and fishing communities who made their own clothes and shoes. Its founders were pilgrims and puritans who were displeased with the ceremonial Church of England according to them neither the teachings of the Catholic nor the Anglican Churches addressed God's will. They desired to revive the society in the manner that God intended it to be designed. The presence of many children combined with puritans stress on the importance of reading the bible led to widespread concern for the education of the youth (Norton et al. 54). Small schools were thus established and boys and girls were taught basic reading by the parents or school. Grandparents were quickly created since people married young with marriages lasting longer and producing more children. Church membership was obligatory for voting in colony elections. All New Englanders were required to attend religious services, whether or not they were church members and people for expressed contempt for ministers could be punished with fines and whippings, the puritan colonies attempted to enforce strict codes of moral conduct. Colonies there could be tried for drunkenness, card playing, dancing or even idleness. Couples who had sex during their engagement were fined and publicly humiliated, men and a handful of women, who engaged in behaviors that today would be called homosexual were seen as especially sinful and reprehensible and some were executed (Norton et al. 55). This and much more, was later to cause fierce rivalries leading to wars for freedom and independence. The Middle Colonies included the colonies of Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. Many of these people didn't bring their families with them from England and were the perfect workers for the hard work required in ironworks and shipyards. Factories in Maryland produced iron, and factories in Pennsylvania produced paper and textiles. Trade with England was plentiful. They were known as the "breadbasket" because of the large amounts barley, rye, and other grains they grew. The Middle Colonies produced more food than the New England or Southern Colonies. They owned large plantations small lands and farms and most of them lived in small villages or on grand plantations. They had many cash crops and their main goal was to make money. Nowhere was the rich diversity of Americans more evident in the history of America than in the middle colonies. European cultural groups consisting of the English, Swedes, Dutch, Germans, Scot-Irish and French lived in propinquity. They introduced an assortment of religions for example the Quakers, Mennonites, Dutch Calvinists and Presbyterian. The Dutch established New Netherland now called New York and it became North America’s first multiethnic society. Barely half of the settlers were Dutch; most of the rest comprised Germans, French, Scandinavians and Africans both free and slave. Religion counted for little and in 1643 the population included Protestants, Catholics, Jews and Muslims speaking eighteen European and African languages (Boyer et al. 58). The Southern Colonies included the colonies of Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. They brought their families and kept them together on plantations. But their main motivation was to make the good money that was available in the new American market. They grew their own food, and their three important crops were tobacco, rice, and indigo grown on plantations typically worked by slaves and indentured servants. English American Southerners suffered outbreaks of malaria and yellow fever kept life expectancies lower than the northern colonies. About eighty percent of slaves arrived from Africa on overcrowded, stinking British-owned vessels. Most of the rest came a few at a time from the West Indies on smaller New England ships. This massive influx created Old South, a society consisting of wealthy slave holding planters, a much larger class of smaller planters and thousands of slaves. By 1720, slaves made up to seventy percent of South Carolina’s population. By 1740, they were forty percent of Virginia’s and thirty percent of Maryland’s slaves. By 1750, the rice planters of South Carolina were richer than any other group in British North America. To make their plantations more self-sufficient, they trained ten percent of their slaves as skilled artisans. The planters also encouraged family life among their workers, who by the 1720’s were achieving a rate of reproduction almost equal to that of the settlers. Slaveholders justified brutal whippings as fatherly corrections of members of their households. Virginia planters urged their slaves to convert to Christianity and by the 1730’s; growing numbers of infants were baptized. With this planters hoped that Christianized slaves would be more dutiful. From the colonies it is clear that there was no particular type of government ruling in America however federalism existed in the thirteen colonies which were all part of the British Empire. In all the colonies emphasis was laid in ensuring prosperity in the boy child, a characteristic of Ancient Sparta kind of a government. However, many practices have been abolished either for reasons of denying freedom to people or infringing in human rights. Following independence a constitution was established defining rules and powers of the democratic federal government, it was adopted in 1789 and the first ten were known as Bill of Rights. Today the constitution has had twenty seven amendments. With the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union in the first constitution of the United States of America, states were proving inadequate to the requirements of sovereignty in a confederation. The current constitution of the new government of the United States of America hopes to be more perfect with the preamble to the Constitution listing six purposes for which the new government of the United States of America was established. These purposes, in general, are to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty. The major differences between the current democratic government and the ancient British empire include; freedom to vote whether a no-believer or believer, single parenthood, accommodation of non-believers, same sex marriages, slavery being a serious crime, same sex marriages and equality for both men and women today. Democracy being a system where citizens of a nation determine together the laws and a policy of their state is a fair system. The majority votes win leading to overall peace and union. Citizens of democracies enjoy greater individual liberty, political stability, freedom from governmental violence, enhanced quality of life, and a much lower risk of suffering a famine. The United States was founded on the principle of securing liberty for its citizens. Founding documents and institutions all emphasize that liberty is a core value. Founding Fathers declared that all were created equal-not just those in Britain's 13 American colonies and that to secure the `unalienable rights'' of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, people had the right to establish governments that derive `their just powers from the consent of the governed. Citizens of liberal democracies are less likely to suffer violent death in civil unrest or at the hands of their governments. Democracies also tend to enjoy greater prosperity over long periods of time (Lynn-Jones "Why the United States Should Spread Democracy"). Works Cited Lynn-Jones, Sean. Why the United States Should Spread Democracy. Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, March1998. Web. 23 February 2012. Kehen, William. United States Government. Part One, 1996. Web. 23 February 2012. Bessette, Joseph and John Pitney. American Government and Politics: Deliberation, Democracy and Citizenship. 2010. Print. Norton et al. A People and a Nation: A History of the United States: To 1877. Volume I, 9th Edition, 2011. Print. Boyer et al. The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People, Concise.  2012. Print. Murrin et al. Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American People: To 1877. Volume, 1  2011. Print Read More