Political Science 565: History of American Political Thought

Professor Gomez
agomez4@wisc.edu
Office Hours: MW 1:20-2:20, North Hall 401

SYLLABUS
Essay 1
Essay 2
Essay 3

Readings
John Winthrop – A Model of Christian Charity
Thomas Paine, Common Sense
Diagram of Paine’s proposed method for developing the Charter of the United Colonies
Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence (w/drafts)
Samuel Adams, Speech on American Independence
Articles of Confederation
Federalist Papers
Anti-Federalist papers
Constitution of the United States of America
Bill of Rights
George Washington
Resignation as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army
Letter to Rev. William Gordon on the subject of the nature of the Union
First Inaugural Address
Farewell Address
John Adams
Inaugural Address
Special Message to Congress Regarding the “XYZ Affair”
Alien & Sedition Acts
An Act to Establish a Uniform Rule of Naturalization (“Naturalization Act”)
An Act concerning Aliens (“Alien Friends Act”)
An Act Respecting Alien Enemies (“Alien Enemies Act”)
An Act for the Punishment of Certain Crimes against the United States (“Sedition Act”)
Thomas Jefferson
Kentucky Resolutions of 1798
First Inaugural Address
Optional: Smithsonian magazine article on Jefferson & slavery
James Madison
Virginia Resolutions of 1798
Walt Whitman
The Last of the Sacred Army
John L. O’Sullivan
Introduction to the inaugural issue of the Democratic Review
The Great Nation of Futurity
The True Title (excerpt)
Optional: Territorial Aggrandizement
Optional: Adam Gomez, “Deus Vult: John L. O’Sullivan, Manifest Destiny & American Democratic Messianism”
Abraham Lincoln, The “Spot Resolutions”
Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”
John C. Calhoun, Slavery a Positive Good
James Henry Hammond, Excerpts from Cotton is King (the “Mudsill Speech”)
Recommended: Smithsonian magazine article on Jefferson & slavery
Recommended: The Story of Robert Brown
Recommended: The Story of Eliza Icewalker
Recommended: The Story of Jarm Logue
Recommended: The Story of Henry ‘Box’ Brown [Note: This article begins with a partisan argument, and this link should not be considered an endorsement thereof. This is the most succinct telling of Brown’s narrative I could find.]
Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
Recommended: The Story of Dangerfield & Harriet Newby
John Brown, Address to the Court upon his Conviction, Note to his jailer
William Lloyd Garrison, On the death of John Brown
Alexander Stephens, The Cornerstone Speech
Frederick Douglass, Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Declaration of Sentiments
Address Delivered at Seneca Falls
Solitude of Self
Appeal for a Sixteenth Amendment (w/Matilda Gage & Susan B. Anthony)
Ernestine L. Rose, Speech at National Women’s Rights Convention
Sojourner Truth, Ain’t I a Woman?
Susan B. Anthony, On Women’s Rights to Vote
Recommended: Suzanne Venker, “The War On Men”
W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk
William Jennings Bryan, Cross of Gold Speech, Undelivered Closing Remarks at Scopes Trial
Eugene V. Debs, How I Became a Socialist, The Negro in the Class Struggle, John Brown: America’s Greatest Hero, The Federal Government and the Pullman Strike, Statement to the Court Upon Being Convicted of Violating the Sedition Act
Theodore Roosevelt, Who is a Progressive?, The New Nationalism Speech