American Merchant and Patriot Letter
Instructions: Seven Years In the late 1760s and early 1770s (between the end of the War and the beginning of the Revolution) you were upset with the imperial/colonial government. It is now a quarter-century down the road from your youth, you are well into your middle-aged years, with idealistic children, and a grandchild or two, of your own. You and your generation have sacrificed much to bring about the United States and its new government under the Constitution. President George Washington’s Administration is in place, Congress has been elected, and the form of the new government is taking shape. Are you satisfied with the new government under the recently ratified Constitution? Do you think your 20-something year old self (the protester from the 1760s) would be happy with the way things turned out? You have decided to write a treatise (a fancy word for an essay) upon this subject as a gift to your grandchildren. In it you will think about your main social, political, and economic grievances from the 1760s in relation to your current beliefs. Have things turned out well for you and other elite merchants? Have your grievances from the 1760s been redressed (or are no longer relevant)? Have new political, economic, or social issues replaced them for your socioeconomic group in the 1780s? Has your group met their social responsibilities to the new nation; have they compromised where needed for the greater good or selfishly looked after their own interests? What, if anything, is left to be done for your group? Most importantly, would your 1760s self believe that you held onto your ethics even as war raged around you; have you remained true to the ethical stands you took in the 1760s or have you grown more pragmatic with age and experience
Solution.
American Merchant and Patriot Letter
I am writing to you my children and grandchildren that this is our nation, and we have fought for it. You are expected to take good care of the generation to come and let not bad governance eat you up. As a patriot to the US, we have fought for resolution of our grievances. As an elite merchant in 1760’s, we experienced social, political and economic problems, with the new patriotism that we as Americans have shown after the revolution. I can see a bright future for this nation. As a wealthy merchant, we experienced monopoly overhaul of the East Indies Company. We were only able to trade with the British at that time because of the trade bans they imposed. With the American revolution in place, de jure lifted the bans, and now we can trade with other colonies (Scott Corbett, et al., 2014).
After the war American leaders are now ready to create socio-economic nationalism and national unity through creating national banks, protecting merchants from outside competition and building canals and roads to foster transportation and linking our country together (Scott Corbett, et al., 2014). I can now sit down and say that our grievances were solved. Politically, as the new convention postulated the constitution, most of the delegates found themselves separated geographically that led to compromises in Connecticut and a compromise over slavery.
George Washington government was able to create a balance of power within the three branches of government. With the amendment in the summer of 1787 being one of the greatest efforts, the world has never seen in the process of national deliberation (Scott Corbett, et al., 2014). Indeed, the new constitution was better in governance compared with the Articles of Confederations. With the new president under the new constitution, we as merchants can now trade freely with any colony. Also, recovery from an economic recession has significantly freed trade between colonies. There is hope for a better tomorrow.
References
Scott Corbett, P., Janssen, V., Lund, J. M., Pfannestiel, T. J., Vickery, P. S., & College, O. (2014). U. S. History. (S. Waskiewicz, Ed.) OpenStax College.
