Last Best Hope of Earth

Tag: Western Civilization

  • The Monroe Doctrine

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    James Monroe.

    President James Monroe has been known for centuries as the architect of a fundamental foreign policy doctrine: the Monroe Doctrine.

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  • America in 1815: The Native Americans

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    The Last of the Mohicans. By: Thomas Cole.

    By 1815, the Native Americans had been pushed mostly out of the New England area and into territories just east of the Mississippi River and the entirety of the territory west of the Mississippi River. The Native Americans were a significant obstacle to expanding American territory.

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  • Virtue as a Principle and Foundation

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    John Adams. By: Gilbert Stuart.

    At the time of the Revolution, republicanism was permeating political discourse and political theory. John Adams asked in 1776 that “[i]f there is a form of government, then, whose principle and foundation is virtue, will not every sober man acknowledge it better calculated to promote the general happiness than any other form?” He continued by explaining that a republican constitution “introduces knowledge among the people, and inspires them with a conscious dignity becoming freemen; a general emulation takes place, which causes good humor, sociability, good manners, and good morals to be general. That elevation of sentiment inspired by such a government, makes the common people brave and enterprising. That ambition which is inspired by it makes them sober, industrious, and frugal.” John Adams, Thoughts on Government, Adams, ed., Works of John Adams, IV, 194, 199.

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