Review of The Battle of Trenton, Passing the Bill of Rights, Cholera Epidemic of 1832 - Research Paper Example

 The Battle of Trenton The year 1776 had proven to be really brutal for the American army with the exception of the declaration of Independence. The army under General George Washington had been coerced out of New York by British troops and forced to move back to the West bank of Delaware River, thus lowering the spirits of the patriot army. On the other side of Delaware River, three regiments of the Hessian soldiers were posted. Washington made a plan to cross River Delaware and attack the Hessians at three different points on December 26, 1776 with Assistant Generals Nathaniel Greene and John Sullivan. The hazardous crossing of River Delaware in adverse weather with snow and sleet falling, delayed the crossing of the American army. However, the crossing was completed after a great deal of endeavor and struggle, and the army began its nine mile march to Trenton. Many of the soldiers were barefoot or were bleeding from the feet but Washington continuously inspired them to move ahead (“The Battle of Trenton”). The first surprise came to the Hessians posted about a mile north of Trenton, where the Americans opened gunfire and forced them to retreat frantically. On the main streets of Trenton – the King and the Queen streets – the American army set up cannons and artilleries causing extensive damage to the Hessian troops. With the aim to reassemble, the Hessian troops tried moving towards the town but were soon over powered and repelled by Washington’s army. Moreover, the General had instructed his army to cut off all escape routes, ultimately forcing the Hessians to surrender. In the war, Americans suffered two deaths and five casualties although many deaths occurred due to hypothermia. However, the Hessians suffered around 83 casualties, 896 of them were captured, though a thousand of them escaped. This battle provided the much needed boost to the morale of the American army and overturned the dominance achieved by the British in the preceding year (“The Battle of Trenton”). The Bill of Rights One of the significant moments in the history of America was the declaration of the Constitution of the United States which was convened on 25 September 1787 by delegates from 13 states in Philadelphia. Its first draft stated the setting up of a strong executive branch, a representative legislation and a federal judiciary. Though, the Constitution was incredible but had many drawbacks. Firstly and most importantly, it didn’t specify the individual rights of the people. The draft did mention what the government could do but didn’t specify what it could not do. Secondly, it didn’t apply to all; only the propertied whites were given the rights in the Constitution. The States refused to authorize the Constitution because of the absence of the ‘Bills of Rights’ in the draft. The Federalists defended the government by deeming the bills of rights as unnecessary, although the non federalists refused to accept the constitution without the bill (“The Bill of rights”). The American people who had recently gained freedom from colonial rule wanted complete assurance from the government of their rights. They sought for complete freedom to speech, press and religion, and the right to be free from warrantless searches and seizures. Thomas Jefferson, a supporter of the rights bill argued, ‘A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general, or particular and what no just government should refuse or rest on inference.’ The government at last had to pay heed to the people’s demand to ensure its tenure. Therefore, in 1971, the American Bill of rights which was motivated by Thomas Jefferson and drafted by James Madison was accepted, making the first ten Amendments of the Constitution lawful. Thus, the development of the Bill of Rights was a pivotal event in the long history of Americans’ struggle for freedom, but certain stories are still unfolding (qtd. in “The Bill of rights”). The Epidemic of 1832 The stupendous outbreak named cholera had wreaked havoc on every continent and every country in the first half of the 19th century. It first appeared in Europe and North America around 1831-1832 and spread like wildfire claiming millions of life as its victims. The cholera victims suffered prolific and severe cramps, vomiting and diarrhea, with dehydration so rapid and acute that it thickened the blood and turned the skin blue, causing the victim’s death in a matter of hours. The cholera outbreak spread with lightning speed from Montreal to the streets of Upper Canada. It hastily spread to the residing areas of the urban poor which were the breeding ground for the contagion. Thinking that the disease was transmitted by fumes carried in the atmosphere, the English tried to purify the air by firing cannons and the sanitary officers’ burnt tar for the same purpose. The cholera plague had claimed 9,000 lives by the end of 1832, more than half of them being from Lower Canada. This environment of fear, death and hatred provoked a political conflagration in Lower Canada (“The Cholera Epidemic of 1832”). In New York where the epidemic had spread like wildfire by July 1832, people had started deserting cities and towns out of fear. Out of the population of 2, 50,000, the epidemic took 3,515 lives. Kenneth T. Jackson stated that the plague revealed the city’s division of race and ethnicity through the initial response to the disease. The epidemic had hit the poorest section of the society including slums where Irish immigrants and African-Americans lived, because of which the upper class looked down upon them and wanted them to die or leave the city. The contagious nature of the disease was still not fully known to the medical profession who were speculating on its origin, causes and its propagation (qtd. in Wildford). It was in 1854 when a London physician established that the cholera disease was directly related to contaminated water. In 1883, the bacterium named Virio Cholerae was discovered to be the main cause of this gastrointestinal disease. By the end of the 19th century, the epidemic disappeared from Europe and North America due to rise in the standards of living, major changes made in the sanitation practices of many communities and establishment of permanent boards of health (Wildford). Work cited “The Battle of Trenton”. BritishBattles.com. BritishBattles.com, n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2011. “The Bill of Rights: A Brief History”. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). ACLU, 04 Mar. 2002. Web. 08 Dec. 2011. < http://www.aclu.org/racial-justice_prisoners- rights_drug-law-reform_immigrants-rights/bill-rights-brief-history> “The Cholera Epidemic of 1832”. CBC Learning. CBC, n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2011. Wildford, John N. “How Epidemics helped shape the Modern Metropolis?” The New York Times. New York Times, 15 Apr. 2008. Web. 08 Dec. 2011. Read More