Analyzing the Documents

Analyzing the Documents

Question: 1. According to John Randolph, in Document B, what was the real reason the war hawks wanted war with Britain?

According to John Randolph in Document B, the war hawks wanted war with Britain because they want more power to the North or the federalists in the North. Since Britain owns land in Canada, the war hawks want to take control of the land in Canada from Britain that’s why they want to take it. Specifically, John Randolph names that there is a rich vein of Genesee land which is to have better soil than that of any lakeside. Randolph believes that the front of protecting maritime rights is just a façade for the underlying true meaning of the urge for war and that urge is Agrarian cupidity. Agrarian cupidity was the idea of the love or support of a society that was based around producing and maintaining crops and farmland. Randolph believes that ever since a committee based on the control of foreign relations came, all they have heard was an everlasting monotone word being said, the word said was Canada! From this he concluded that the war hawks did not really want to protect their rights but try to acquire prepondering northern influence. So altogether Randolph believed that the spark that was lighting the fuse for war within the war hawks was not truly about maritime rights, but the idea of supporting an agrarian society. The war hawks would want that rich land in Canada from the British so that the Agrarian society they are living in would strive more and from this, they themselves would be the ones getting wealthy.

Question 2: In your opinion, did Senator German, in Document D, have a valid point that the United States was unprepared for war? Should the degree of preparedness be a major consideration when debating whether a nation should go to war?

In my opinion I believe that Senator Obaiah German’s point that the United States was unprepared for war is valid. German believed that just because we have been...