America ~ Love it or Leave it

America

Love it or Leave it

J H Ellison

Copyright © 2014 J H Ellison

All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Birth of America

Chapter 2 Original Colonial Trades

Chapter 3 Northern Colonies

Chapter 4 Westward Movement

Chapter 5 Path to Independence

Chapter 6 Pre-Revolutionary War

Chapter 7 Revolutionary War

Chapter 8 Youthful America

Chapter 9 America Doubles in Size

Chapter 10 Old Hickory President Andrew Jackson

Chapter 11 Abraham Lincoln

Chapter 12 A Nation Rebuilds President Andrew Johnson

Chapter 13 Dawning New Century President William McKinley

Chapter 14 President Woodrow Wilson A world goes to War

Chapter 15 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt Prelude to WWII

Chapter 16 President Dwight D. Eisenhower America's bright future

Chapter 17 President Richard M. Nixon Vietnam War Ends

Chapter 18 President Ronald Wilson Reagan America Leadership

Chapter 19 Middle East Ignites

Chapter 20 Conclusions

References

About the Author

Published Books

Chapter 1

Birth of America

America is like an old friend that’s seriously ill and may pass away. She has seen good and bad times, as have those who call America home. She is still America the beautiful who has helped people of all nations, in their time of need. America has proven that when people are free to pursue their dreams and ideas they are productive and creative, achieving a higher standard of living. Those that knew her greatness miss her and wish she’d return.

America had her beginning centuries ago by Native Americans. Some believe they came over the Bering land bridge from Asia. Others believe they came from the vast population established in Central America.

By all accounts there were a vast number of Native American tribes that called this their country. Long before white Europeans arrived. Their religion was primarily based on an omnipresent invisible force and dealt with the three major crises in life---birth, puberty and death. They worshiped the Great Spirit.

Columbus’ discovery in 1492 of the Caribbean Islands, and the finding of gold, triggered an interest in Spain in the southern part of America and Mexico. Their interest was in treasure and converting the existing native population to the Catholic faith, a state religion in Spain. It also brought the Spanish Inquisition, and its horrors. It brought cruelty and forced labor, in mines, to Native Americans.

Spain brought to America two types of Catholic religion, Jesuits and Franciscans. The Jesuits were scholars and helped Native Americans in farming, cattle and sheep raising, and irrigation methods.

This helped the Indians become self-sufficient---no need to continue to forage for their food, starving in bad years. The most famous and well-liked by Indians was the Jesuit priest Father Kino. He brought the Indians herds of cattle and sheep, and seeds to plant in irrigated fields.

Although American waters and its abundance of off-shore fish interested the French, it was the English that was interested in colonization. This desire by people in England stemmed from wanting to practice their religious faith without persecution, and get a new start without Kings or nobles.

Many in England were serfs, tenant farmers and craftsmen, under the rule of large estates owned by Lords and nobles, who in turn were subject to the whims and wishes of a King. Europeans, over the years, had both good and bad monarchs.

Catholicism was predominantly a state religion in many nations in the sixteenth century. The bible was written in Latin, a language not well understood by most people. The Roman Catholic Church leaders told the people what the bible stated, and they believed. When the bible was translated into English and languages of other nations, people learned of deceptions that had been put forth by the Roman Catholic Church. This was the beginning of the Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was an effort by such men as Martin Luther, John Calvin and John Wycliffe, all well-read scholars, to reform the Catholic Church, eliminating such none biblical items as buying indulgences.

In 1517, Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five Theses to the door of the Catholic Church in Germany. These objected to doctrines, rituals, leadership and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, brought to England by Roman conquest.

When Catherine of Aragon married King Henry the VIII, she bore only a daughter, Mary. King Henry, a Catholic, petitioned the Pope to give an annulment on grounds that Catherine had consummated her marriage to his brother Arthur. Arthur had died and Catherine stated that their marriage had never been consummated.

Pope Clement VII denied King Henry’s request. This was not a matter of principle but due to his fear of Emperor Charles V, Catherine’s nephew and Emperor of the Roman Empire. Rome had conquered England. The Church of England was established in the later part of the sixth century. It reported to the Pope in Rome.

In 1532, King Henry VIII [1509-1547] got the Church of England, predominately Catholic, to agree to surrender its legislative independence and cannon law to the authority of the monarch, no longer reporting to the Pope in Rome.

It was a time of great awakening and the Protestant movement. With Henry VIII now head of the Church of England, Protector of the faith, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, issued a marriage annulment to King Henry VIII, allowing him to marry Anne Boleyn. Anne gave birth to Elizabeth I.

Much turmoil was going on in sixteenth century Europe. The Roman Catholic Church, in the beginning, severely punished those that were for translating the bible from Latin to English----some were burned at the stake as heretics.

The first bible printed in English was the Geneva bible. It preceded the King James Bible by fifty-one years. It was one of the bibles brought to America aboard the Mayflower. It was the bible used by William Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell and John Knox.

The Geneva bible was the first mechanically printed bible, an invention of Johannes Gutenberg. It printed pages at an alarming speed. The bible could now be read by the English common people. It had much of what was later shown in the King James Version, a scholarly translation.

King James I of England [1603-1625] commissioned forty-seven scholars, members of the Church of England, to translate the Christian bible into English for the Church of England. His instructions were intended to guarantee that this new version conformed to ecclesiology and reflect the Episcopal structure of the Church of England, and its belief in an ordained ministry.

This translated version was in response to perceived problems detected by the Puritans, of earlier translations. The Old Testament translation was from Hebrew text and the New Testament from Greek. This bible was printed in 1611. It’s recognized and accepted by most major protestant religions.

The Church of England became a national religion in England. Its footings were still basically Roman Catholic, but with monarchy ruling instead of a Pope.

When King Henry VIII died, King Henry’s son Edward VI was crowned King [1547-1553]. He ruled a short time before his death. Henry’s daughter, Mary, was next in line for the throne. She became Queen Mary [1553-1558].

Queen Mary, also known as Bloody Mary, was a devout Catholic. She brought back to England Catholicism. She considered Protestants as heretics. She had burned at the stake 274, one of which was Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury, the one who issued King Henry the annulment from her mother Catherine of Aragon.

When Queen Mary died, Elizabeth I became Queen. Queen Elizabeth I [1558-1603] brought back to England the Protestant faith.

With all the back and forth persecutions in England and its suffering economy, many chose to come to America for the religious freedoms it offered, to worship as they pleased, land ownership and to have a new beginning. They believed that religion was the cement of society and family.

The roots to the various denominations of religious faiths in America can be traced back to the Church of England and the Protestant Reformation. They were brought about by members of a faith disagreeing on biblical meanings and forming a new church, taking those that believe likewise with them.

Religious dissenters, influenced by John Calvin and others, who rejected the traditional teaching of the Catholics and Church of

England, became known as Puritans. Puritans were English Protestants who wished to purify and reform the Church of England. They believed the Church of England taught God’s word, except for those impurities in Catholicism.

The first attempt at English colonization in America was Jamestown on the coast of what is now Virginia. It was a disaster, due to violence, death, discord and misery. Many died in a short period of time, yet the community survived and became Virginia, an exporter of tobacco.

The second attempt was made by a group of Puritans at Plymouth, in what is now Massachusetts. They were originally headed for Virginia, but the Mayflower was blown off-course. After a stormy crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, and being low on beer, they were put ashore December 1620. The cold weather hampered their ability to hunt and fish. While exploring the area and covering an Indian's grave, they came upon a cache of Indian corn. It helped the group to survive.

The major event that helped the colony survive was the arrival of an English speaking Indian, who they called Squanto---his real name is Tisquantum. In 1605 he had accompanied Weymouth to England where he had learned English and British Customs.

On Squanto’s return trip with John Smith’s mapping expedition in 1614, he was captured and sold as a slave to Spain. He managed to return home in 1619. A year later, he taught the Puritans, that had landed at Plymouth, how to raise their own food, hunt and fish. Was this divine intervention?

The harvest that fall was bountiful. Native corn, squash and beans was in abundance, making the loss of planted wheat from England less critical. They gave thanks to God for the harvest. They invited the Indians, who had helped them, to a feast.

Governor Bradford, of the Plymouth colony, sent out four men to get fowl to provide for a week. Chief Massasoit and ninety-nine of his braves were honored guests. They brought five deer and a novelty called Popped corn. It was a feast of bounty of the region and included oysters, eel, cornbread, geese, venison, watercress, leeks, plumbs, berries, and probably turkey.

In June 1628, Governor Bradford does not like celebrations and stops any he sees. He viewed them as sinful. He opposed May Day drinking, dancing and frisking together. He sent Miles Standish to stop the revelers.

June 12, 1630 the Massachusetts Bay Colony is founded. It is a large well planned settlement by Puritans, 700 passengers on eleven ships. They bring 40 cows and 60 horses. They are led by Governor John Winthrop.

According to Governor Winthrop, the Lord is telling the Puritans, "Just as He told the people of Israel, ‘you only have I known of all the families of the Earth; therefore will I punish you for your transgressions’". The Puritan’s religion became the Congregational Church in America and spread to what is now Connecticut.

Thomas Hooker, a Congregationalist minister, rejected the autocratic rule of the Puritans in Boston and on May 31, 1638 led 100 in migration to Connecticut, to what is now New Haven.

In the autumn of 1638 Roger Williams, a Puritan pastor declared that Forced worship stinks in God’s nostrils. Puritanism in Massachusetts did not allow other faiths. Roger Williams believed in the separation of church and state. He formed the Baptist church that fall in Providence, Rhode Island.

The Baptist faith was a more democratic religion. Baptist services were highly emotional. They believed in total immersion for baptism, not sprinkling like the Anglicans and Catholicism. They strictly enforced their own high standards, with special concern for sexual misconduct, heavy drinking, frivolous spending, missing services, cursing and revelry.

In July 1651, Dr. John Clarke and Obediah Holmes, Baptist, were caught holding a religious meeting in a private home in Boston. The two Baptist rejected infant baptism, established by the Anglicans. Clarke was let go but Holmes was given a public whipping.

Puritans who fled England due to persecution from Catholicism, and formed a large colony in Massachusetts, now persecuted those who broke away from them over religious interpretations in the bible.

In March 1692 some young girls in Salem, ranging from 12-20, proclaimed twenty people to be witches, after a convincing act displayed by the girls. They accused both men and women, one was a minister. They were executed on Gallows Hill. Later Salem residents became uneasy and suspicious that there exists less supernatural evil in Salem than simple mortal cruelty. The Puritan religion became a state religion.

On October 17, 1659, in Boston, they hanged William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson, Quakers, for preaching their faith. The Puritans considered the Quaker belief that the indwelling of the spirit, or Light of Christ, dwells in every person was heresy.

Were they referring to a person’s conscience? If it wasn’t the Light of Christ, letting an individual know what is right and what is wrong, what is it?

These Quakers went to their death believing that the light of Christ dwells in every person, and on June 1, 1660 they hanged Mary Dyer, a Quaker, for similar preaching in Boston.

Although Puritans were persecuted in Europe, escaping to what would become America, they were for old world uniformity of religion in the state. Once in control in New England they sought to break, the very neck of schism and vile opinions. Toleration wasn’t permitted. Those who defied the Puritans persistently risked capital punishment.

Reflecting on seventeenth century intolerance, Thomas Jefferson was unwilling to concede to Virginians any moral superiority to the Puritans. However, In 1659 Virginia enacted anti-Quaker laws which included the death penalty.

Quakers were considered radical Puritans, carrying to extremes Puritan convictions. Their religion was founded by George Fox in England in 1652. Quakers were severely punished in England for deviating from accepted orthodox Christianity.

In 1681 William Penn, a Quaker, was given a charter for what is now Pennsylvania. It was given by King Charles II of England [1660-1685] for payment of a debt owed to William Penn’s father.

Pennsylvania became a refuge for persecuted Quakers from England, Wales and Ireland. In 1685 about 8,000 had migrated to Pennsylvania. Although the Quakers resemble Puritans in some religious beliefs and practices, they differ over the necessity of compelling religious uniformity in society.

William Penn’s agents promoted Pennsylvania as a haven for religious freedom. Most of those migrating to Pennsylvania were Lutherans, Reformers or members of small sects---Mennonites, Dunkers and some German Baptist. Most became farmers---Pennsylvania Dutch and Amish farms still dot Pennsylvania. The economical values and religious liberties offered in Pennsylvania drew many from Europe.

Due to persecutions of Roman Catholics in England during Elizabethan period, George Calvert sought from King Charles I of England [1625-1649] a place of refuge for Roman Catholics. In 1632 he was granted land between Pennsylvania and Virginia--Maryland.

The Maryland charter didn’t offer guidelines on religion. It assumed that Catholics would not be molested in the new colony. George Calvert’s son Lord Baltimore inherited the grant from his father.

In 1634, now being in charge, Lord Baltimore’s two ships the Ark and the Dove brought 200 settlers to Maryland, two of which were Priests.

Lord Baltimore believed that religion was a private matter. He rejected the need of an established church and guaranteed liberty of conscience to all Christians. Lord Baltimore believed in religious pluralism, the co-existing of diversity of religious beliefs in society.

Virginia was the most populated of the early colonies. The Church of England was legally established and Bishops in London sent in twenty-two clergymen by 1624.

Taxes were funneled through the local parishes to handle the needs of local government, such as roads and poor relief, in addition to the salary of ministers. There never was a Bishop in colonial Virginia. The local vestry consisted of laymen who handled taxes, roads and relief of the poor.

In 1619 the House of Burgess was elected. The assembly enacted religious laws that made Virginia a bastion of Anglicanism. It passed a law in 1632 requiring Uniformity throughout this colony both in substance and circumstance to the cannons and constitution of the Church of England. The colonists were typically bored, inattentive and uninterested in church services. The lack of towns meant scattered services. Many colonists held services in their homes.

In the back country most families had no religious affiliations. Their low moral standards were shocking to most Englishmen. The Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians and other evangelicals refused to tolerate them in their ranks.

The evangelicals identified as sinful the traditional standards of masculinity which revolved around gambling, drinking and brawling, and arbitrary control over women, children and slaves. The religious communities enforced new standards, creating new male leadership roles that followed Christian principals.

Baptist, German Lutherans and Presbyterians funded their own ministers and favored disestablishment of the Anglican Church. Led by Thomas Jefferson the Anglican Church was disestablished in 1786.

The Presbyterians originated in France and Switzerland, and migrated to Scotland. It holds to the theology of John Calvin and his followers. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the scriptures and the necessity of grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Between the years of 1700-1740, it was estimated that church attendance ranged between 75-80 percent. By 1780 the number of adult colonists who adhered to a church was between 10-30 percent. North Carolina had the lowest percentage; New Hampshire and South Carolina tied for the highest.

January 13, 1733 James Edward Oglethorpe, a Member of Parliament, arrived in Charleston harbor with 130 settlers. His settlers were industrious yet unfortunate poor. Besides the English there are German and Swiss Protestants, fleeing persecution.

Oglethorpe’s colony selected a site along the Savannah River, south of Charleston. He named it Georgia, in honor of King George II of England [1727].

Oglethorpe promised the settlers they would be given land, seeds and tools. They would plant Mulberry trees whose leaves would feed silk worms. Oglethorpe planned to ship silk to Europe. His colony also acted as a buffer against the Spanish in Florida.

On April 6, 1735, a group of Moravians arrived in Savannah, Georgian. Catholics in their native land of Moravia and Bohemians persecuted this religious group, heavily, almost wiping them out. Their origin dates back to the 15th century and Jan Hus.

Jan Hus was a Czech priest, philosopher, and reformer, and master at Charles University in Prague. After John Wycliffe, the theorist of ecclesiastical Reformation, Hus is considered the first church reformer, before Luther and Calvin. He was burned at the stake for heresy against the doctrines of the Catholic Church, including those on ecclesiology, the Eucharist and other theological topics.

In February 1737, John Wesley arrived in Georgia to take over as chaplain. His brother Charles accompanied him. Charles was the more active in Oxford’s Holy Club; the purpose was to improve the Church of England through a more rigid attention to the sacrament. Wesley is well known for his punctilious approach to religion. It became known as Methodism.

Pentecostalism: "A renewal movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience with God through baptism with the Holy Spirit.

Pentecost is the Greek name for the Jewish Feast of Weeks. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon followers of Jesus Christ, as described in the second chapter of the Book of Acts.

It believes in speaking in tongues and divine healing. Pentecostalism adheres to the inerrancy of scripture and the necessity of accepting Christ as personal Lord and savior.

The evidence all points to America being a Christian nation. There are over 300,000 churches in America, according to Grounds for Giving. The average household has four bibles. To say that America isn’t a Christian nation is a gross understatement of facts—a lie.

Chapter 2

Original Colonial Trades

The original thirteen colonies were founded by: Thomas Hooker—Connecticut; Peter Minuit and New Sweden Company---Delaware; James Edward Oglethorpe---Georgia; Lord Baltimore---Maryland; John Winthrop and others---Massachusetts; John Wheelwright---New Hampshire; Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret---New Jersey; Peter Minuit and other---New York, named after the Duke of York; Lords Proprietors North Carolina; William Penn---Pennsylvania; Roger Williams---Rhode Island; Eight nobles with a Royal Charter from King Charles II of England [1660-1685]---South Carolina, and John Smith and others---Virginia.

Freedom to be creative with inventive ideas, and a belief that God was guiding them, the colonist went to work.

In the northern colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, good soil was shallow and rocky. The area had huge stands of timber. The colonist built their homes and planted a family size garden. The growing season was short. Colonist turned to the abundance of natural resources to earn an income.

In Massachusetts, with its good harbor, colonist began building ships. They harnessed water power to run their grain and sawmills. Large stands of oak were used to build study hulls, and pine forests used to make spars and masts. Fishing ships were built and Cod in huge quantities were caught off their coastal waters, much of which was used as trade with England. By the end of the colonial period a third of the ships flying the British flag were made in New England.

With relatively little level land, farming was on a small scale, unlike that in the southern colonies. This contributed to the bulk of settlers living in villages and towns around harbors.

Schools, churches, stores and taverns were built. Taverns were where people socialized, had meals and gave places for weary travelers to rest for the night. Town Halls were a place to gather and discuss public issues and government.

Towns and villages carried on some kind of trade or business, furnishing labor pools to those in need of work. That most needed in all the colonies were the following:

Apothecary shops treated those that were ill. They supplied herbal