The idea of what makes someone American comes down to the belief in three rights; life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Americans have rallied behind these inherent rights to form a strong unified nation. In Thomas Bender’s book, A Nation Among Nations, he argues in his chapter, Freedom in the Age of Nation-Making, that 19th century political thinkers believed that an overlapping “space of decision” and “space of culture” was the best way to form national unity and protect the individual liberties of citizens. The “space of decision” is the government established by the people of a nation and the “space of culture” are values and belief systems of the people of a nation. In relation to the Civil War of the United States, the institution
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As a distinct nation, Texas believed to have held a different scope of sovereignty. According to “The Declaration of Causes”, Texas stated that they interpreted their annexation into the United States as one free, sovereign, and independent nation joining a union with other co-equal states. Texas thought of themselves as a central authority with more sovereignty over their nation than the Federal Union. Texas, therefore, regarded themselves as nation that formed a continental partnership among other nations that were free and sovereign within their respected borders. Each state was essentially separate and equal and had no control of the other. This meant to white slave-holding Texans that they were merging with other equal nations while keeping the institution of slavery under their control. In addition, Bender argues in his chapter that sovereignty to 19th century political thinkers was possessed by a given national people. The national people had to agree on the same ideas that unified them as group of citizens. As a …show more content…
More specifically, there was sharper focus and severe scrutiny towards slave-holding southern states on their interpretation of who was politically and socially equal. According to Bender, he states that 19th century political thinkers believed that for a nation to fit the criteria of exhibiting liberal nationalism, it must be constitutional with institutions that best represent the people who are considered the nation. This criterion suggest that the values of a nation must coincide with a nation’s sovereignty. In relation to white slave-holding southerners, they believed that white superiority was connected to their sovereignty over the institution of slavery. In the “Apostles of Disunion”, Stephen Hale, commissioner of Alabama, wrote a letter to the Beriah Magoffin, governor of Kentucky, to secede from the Federal Union of the United States. Fueled by white superiority, Hale expresses his concern for African Americans slaves from becoming a powerful political group. Hale also defined the Federal Union of the United States as a, “…compact…between separate, sovereign, and independent States, called the Constitution of the United States”. While slave-holding states claimed that as an independent nation, they have more sovereignty than the federal government, this argument was more about clinging onto their white superiority as a
As a distinct nation, Texas believed to have held a different scope of sovereignty. According to “The Declaration of Causes”, Texas stated that they interpreted their annexation into the United States as one free, sovereign, and independent nation joining a union with other co-equal states. Texas thought of themselves as a central authority with more sovereignty over their nation than the Federal Union. Texas, therefore, regarded themselves as nation that formed a continental partnership among other nations that were free and sovereign within their respected borders. Each state was essentially separate and equal and had no control of the other. This meant to white slave-holding Texans that they were merging with other equal nations while keeping the institution of slavery under their control. In addition, Bender argues in his chapter that sovereignty to 19th century political thinkers was possessed by a given national people. The national people had to agree on the same ideas that unified them as group of citizens. As a …show more content…
More specifically, there was sharper focus and severe scrutiny towards slave-holding southern states on their interpretation of who was politically and socially equal. According to Bender, he states that 19th century political thinkers believed that for a nation to fit the criteria of exhibiting liberal nationalism, it must be constitutional with institutions that best represent the people who are considered the nation. This criterion suggest that the values of a nation must coincide with a nation’s sovereignty. In relation to white slave-holding southerners, they believed that white superiority was connected to their sovereignty over the institution of slavery. In the “Apostles of Disunion”, Stephen Hale, commissioner of Alabama, wrote a letter to the Beriah Magoffin, governor of Kentucky, to secede from the Federal Union of the United States. Fueled by white superiority, Hale expresses his concern for African Americans slaves from becoming a powerful political group. Hale also defined the Federal Union of the United States as a, “…compact…between separate, sovereign, and independent States, called the Constitution of the United States”. While slave-holding states claimed that as an independent nation, they have more sovereignty than the federal government, this argument was more about clinging onto their white superiority as a