Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Taylor Smith
During the era surrounding WWII, America paraded the idea of freedom as a
means of trumping aspiring fascist empires. This included the creation of the Freedom
World Association. With his leadership, President Franklin D. Roosevelt defined freedom
in a simplistic mannerfreedom from want, freedom from fear, freedom of speech, and
paintings The Four Freedoms. Of the four paintings, Freedom of Speech is characterized
with a specific ambiguity that presumably shows a man standing and speaking amongst
the crowd in a town hall meeting. Regardless of the equivocal nature of the painting, the
ideas illustrated through Rockwells work captures a familiar theme present throughout
United States historythe spirit of 1776(Foner, 1998, pp. 221-227). Despite being
characterized by the contextual events of the 1940s, in order to understand this spirit and
how it persists throughout American history, students must examine the issues facing the
nation during the late 1800s, as well as the fear presented in Thomas Jeffersons qualms
with the Federalist administration of John Adams, including the rejection of the national
bank, disapproval of the Alien and Sedition Acts, and his plea to George Washington to
When examining the Kansas state history standards, students are presented with
revolutionary ideas and events in the 5th, 8th, and 12th grades. However, many of the
complex ideas of the time are conveyed in distinct manners. In the twelfth and fifth
grades, the Bill of Rights are portrayed as historical events, whereas eighth grade students
examine these rights as an idea that is rooted in the republican ideals of the pre-
Constitutional era. Continuing with the eighth grade standards, the state expects students
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to further examine individual freedom and the growth of judicial power in concurrence
with the Alien and Sedition Acts as an event (KSDE, 2013). However, as in Peter Onufs
Jefferons Empire, the concern of Thomas Jefferson in the latter years of the 1700s was
the legislative efforts of the Federalist administration of John Adams. Thus, when
defining the Spirit of 1776, Onuf presents the question of whether or not this spirit
becomes apparent that Jefferson fears that the nation faces a bleak future if some sort of
revolution fails to occur. Having students examine the events surrounding Thomas
Jeffersons rhetoric would prove beneficial for their complete understanding the Spirit of
1776 a spirit embodied in ideas like the Bill of Rights, as well as the growth of
Understanding Jeffersons view of the Spirit of 1776, begins with his contention
against the National Bank of the United States. As presented in his Opinion on the
Alexander Hamiltons efforts of charter because he views the bank as a usurpation of the
powers delegated to the United States; thus, incorporation falls within the 10th
Amendment, and that the commerce clause is a fallacious means of establishing a bank
power (T. Jefferson, 1791). That being said, Jeffersons objections of the National Bank
serves as a contextual factor in his letter to George Washington where he discusses the
conditions that require a resurrection of the spirit of 1776, as well as the postulation for
Washington to remain in office. For example, Jefferson states that there is and eminence
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of character on which society have such peculiar claims, and these claims include a bias
towards happiness, and restrain him to that alone arising from the present and future
presidential offices as a means of holding the nation together, as he, the great general, is
Prior to and after the election of John Adams in 1797, Thomas Jefferson wrote a
series of letters where he consistently mentions the spirit of 1776, and the despotic
actions of the Federalist legislature, as well as the Adams administration. In his letter to
Philip Mazzei in 1796, Jefferson describes the conditions of the nation that changed after
monarchical and aristocratical party whose main objective was to draw over us the
substance as they have already done the forms of the British government. That being
Alexander Hamilton and the Judicial Branchhave created a system that squandered the
publics republican principles. Thus this creation of a British model, calls for the need
of a boisterous sea of liberty, revering that of the Revolutionary era (T. Jefferson,
1796). Furthermore, Jefferson proclaims that the spirit of 1776 was not dead, and takes
on the tone that a revolution is near. This, as he explains, is due to the despotic actions of
the Adams administration with the Alien and Sedition Acts. Ultimately, Jeffersons fear
of the Anglomen and monocrats, fuels his passion for evoking the constituent power to
That being said, when looking back at Norman Rockwells Freedom of Speech in
the Four Freedoms images for the war bonds during World War Two, the man standing in
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the town hall meeting embodies Jeffersons spirit of 1776, as he seemingly speaks to
his local body politic. This spirit, with the rise of fascism in the early 20th century, was an
effective form of rhetoric that Thomas Jefferson worked to describe through the years
where he believed that America was losing its republican vision through the actions of the
Federalist government. Thus, the establishment of the National Bank, as well as the Alien
and Sedition Acts usurped the powers of the American public through the accumulation
of debt and the elimination of the freedom of expression. Defining the spirit of 1776,
and understanding the conditions that called for its revival in the latter half of the 18th
century is essential for students to fully understand the Bill of Rights, individual freedom
Works Cited