Dbq Adams And Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin and John Quincy Adams – these two mortal men laid the foundation for the great American nation. Since his own lifetime, Benjamin Franklin has been an American icon for success. During his life, many deemed Franklin the greatest man of the new world, and perhaps the best known in the entire world. Today, his portrait centers the American $100 dollar bill. Franklin worked hard for his success and earned the rewards of fame and fortune accordingly. While alive, Franklin lobbied for “indefinite expansion” of the United States, a fight that John Q. Adams would take up after Franklin’s death. In his own life, John Q. Adams fought for his “continental vision” in which all of North America would become domain of the United States.

Shortly thereafter, the news of gold spread and people from all around the globe began to swarm California. This rush quickly transformed California into Anglo-American territory where racism and injustice thrived. The new white majority made rules that discriminated against everyone dissimilar from themselves. Contrary to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexican men found themselves disenfranchised with their land quickly slipping away. Persons of color could not testify against whites in court. Rather than offering liberty and opportunity to all, American California quickly became a land of Anglo-American tyranny toward non-Anglos. Even the overland paths that Anglo-Americans used to rush to California proved severely detrimental to the Native Americans who were once “in between.” The paths that connected east and west cut directly through lands crucial to Native American life. In addition, the demand for a connected American East and West disqualified the previous idea of a permanent Native lands – pushing Natives further to the peripheries of both physical and social space in America. The paths that divided Native lands also brought disease and destruction to the land and its Native people of the Great Plains. Over the next decade, 120,000 Native people lost their lives in California, in addition to those devastated by the

jurisdiction faced insurmountable oppression. The United States now had dominion from the Atlantic to the Pacific, thus Native Americans could no longer manipulate the prior competing imperial powers. Natives who once served as integral power brokers in the “in between” society now lost their advantage. The disease of American prejudice spread more quickly than the epidemics that killed many Natives in the first place. Anglo-Americans possessed Native land without notice, raped and enslaved Natives, and even demanded complete extermination of the Native people in many areas. Across the entire continent, the genocide of Native land, culture, and life was in full swing. In 1864, Chief Black Kettle of the Cheyennes called upon the territorial Governor of Colorado and pleaded for relocation to avoid starvation. To conform to the requests of Col. Chivington, Black Kettle agreed to remain under military watch in exchange for peaceful relocation. It appeared that both the Americans and the Cheyenne had come to an agreement, but Chivington and his Commander wanted the Natives to suffer more. In November, the Colorado volunteers slaughtered over 200 men, women, and children – Chivington boasted that his men killed 500. The heinous act caused outrage in the East, but inspired respect and glory in the West. Similar incidents occurred throughout the newly acquired American lands.