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| | Sometimes adults still use that motivation of putting off meals until work is finished. There are also other effective motivational techniques. Take something you enjoy, such as watching a sports game, and deprive yourself of it until you finish your work first. You will enjoy the game better that way. Set goals, and then strive to achieve them. | | Sometimes adults still use that motivation of putting off meals until work is finished. There are also other effective motivational techniques. Take something you enjoy, such as watching a sports game, and deprive yourself of it until you finish your work first. You will enjoy the game better that way. Set goals, and then strive to achieve them. |
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| | + | == Things We Skipped == |
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| | + | Our first through sixth Lectures should have covered all of of the following terms, except the Lectures did overlook the Newburgh Conspiracy (or Address). That was a plot among officers of the Continental Army (the colonial Patriots fighting in the Revolutionary War) to hold a military coup and establish martial law in order to obtain back pay that was owed to them by Congress for their military service. The plot came to a climax when they angrily met on March 15, 1783, and were surprised by an unexpected appearance by George Washington. He gave a short speech, but the officers were still still angry, and lacking in the respect that they usually gave to their esteemed leader. Washington then pulled a letter from his pocket from a member of the Second Continental Congress. But Washington was unable to read the letter without his reading glasses, and in a miraculous moment of powerful emotion, he declared, "Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country." Many of the officers were suddenly moved to tears in the realization that Washington, like themselves, had sacrificed much for the country. Washington then read the letter from Congress, and the officers subsequently abided by Congress's own timetable for paying them. |
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| | + | The Newburgh Conspiracy is a good story. In addition to enjoying a story in history, also recognize its '''historical significance'''. Why is this particular story important in the history in our nation? Because this event confirmed civilian authority over the military. Congress, a civilian authority, decides if and when to pay the soldiers. The soldiers have the guns, but they must submit to the civilian authority of Congress. |
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| | + | It was mostly white men who owned property who elected the first Congress and the Electoral College which chose Washington as the first president. Over the early 1800s the limitation that only those who owned property could vote was gradually eliminated, such that nearly all white men could vote, and after the Civil War all black men could vote, too. Some, but not all, women could vote until the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920 which gave suffrage (the right to vote) to women. |
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| | + | Another historical fact we overlooks is how American Indians survived. In the northeast, they relied more on farming and foraging (searching widely) for food. In the Great Plains of the Midwest (west of the Mississippi) and further west, the American Indians relied more on hunting, particularly bison which almost went extinct before conservation efforts increased their numbers again. |
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| | + | We learned about the Great Awakening around 1730-1740, but there was also a Second Great Awakening nearly a century later, from 1800-1840. It focused on reaching out to people who were not attending church, and to initiate social reforms such as the abolitionist movement to prohibit slavery. An alternative to the abolitionist movement was the American Colonization Society, which was formed in 1817 to send free African Americans to west Africa, where a colony was established in 1822. That colony later became the nation of Liberia, but only about 13,000 African Americans settled there. |
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| | == Key Terms Through Reconstruction == | | == Key Terms Through Reconstruction == |