The American and His Enlightened Riches

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how since declaring its independence after the American Revolution on July 4, 1776, America has been built upon the rights and privileges of security, personal independence, and equality. It contends that, through Enlightenment's beliefs in reason, idealism, and freedom, America, became the most perfect place to reside in the world and how, inspired by the era of concrete truth, emphasized through science's empirical approach, the authors of the U.S. Constitution have made America the wonderfully free-willed, successfully tolerant nation it is today.

From the Paper:

"Sustained from obtaining security in monarchial England, the immigrant in America could enjoy personal independence like the native-born in the nation. Rooted in English soil, deprivation by the weeds of dignitaries and the upper-class was routine to the common man just trying to make a living for himself or his family. In the wonderful nation of America, though, according to Crevecoeur, "[people] have no princes, for whom [they] toil, starve, and bleed; [making us] the most perfect society now existing in the world" (597). As a US citizen, all were, whether foreign or native, rich or poor, entitled to work where they chose, when they chose, and above all for prosperity. Gain was not selective, reserved only for a select few. Along with this, the American's independence extends well beyond occupation, into all other aspects of his or her life, including religion. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Crevecoeur, J. Hector St. John De. "What is an American?" The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Brief ed. 7th ed. Nina Baym, Wayne Franklin, Phillip F. Gura, and Arnold Krupat. New York: Norton and Company, 2007. 596- 605.

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