Literature during the Civil War

          It seems as though whenever there are complications within a nation, whether its going to war or experiencing a depression, there is a blooming of the arts. Whether its music, painting or literature there has been a pattern within history that people turn to the arts as an outlet of either comfort or creativity when hard times are present. Yet, during the 1860's when the Civil War began there seemed to be no sign of innovation. It is perceived that when a country has no cultural identity, when it fails to revolutionize its culture to stand out from other countries, it begins to feel a sort of "cultural inferiority", and during the civil war this is exactly what Americans began to feel.
            The American people read a great deal of the war while it was happening, but writing had seemed to completely halt. It wasn't until about 2 years into the war that Sir Walter Scott said "the poet in America is not going to be a European poet who’s bound by metrical regularity. The poet in the U.S. doesn't have to write in iambic pentameter. The poet in America doesn't have to rhyme. Why should we be hung up with those European conventions that are really kind of imprisoning and constricting? The American poet will". Through this quote the author was saying that just by describing what is merely around them, the Americans will begin to write something completely different from the rest of the world. After this was written in Scott's essay and mass published, there began to be a shift in writing. American writers seemed to be doing exactly what Scott had suggested, to the point where they almost copied his writings. But this is the push that Americans needed. Slowly popular authors began to re-read influential books such as Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe to regain inspiration for this realistic writing. This realistic type for writing would set the writing tone for century's to come.                                                                                                                                       Sources:                                                                                                                                                     http://www.humanitiestexas.org/news/articles/how-civil-war-transformed-american-literature-talk-randall-fuller

http://dcc.newberry.org/collections/literature-of-the-american-civil-war

Why does the American Form of Government Work?

In the Federalist Essay No.10 James Madison analyzes the the danger in a society without checks and balances. "With equal, nay with greater reason, a body of men are unfit to be both judges and parties at the same time; yet what are many of the most important acts of legislation, but so many judicial determinations, not indeed concerning the rights of single persons, but concerning the rights of large bodies of citizens? And what are the different classes of legislators but advocates and parties to the causes which they determine? Is a law proposed concerning private debts? It is a question to which the creditors are parties on one side and the debtors on the other. Justice ought to hold the balance between them." He argues that in a society there has to be a balance in government itself and between the government and the people. He says that we must keep the government in check because if we do not, the country can be left in ruins with absolute injustice at every corner.

In the Federalist Essay No.51 Madison reiterates separation, more in government. "In order to lay a due foundation for that separate and distinct exercise of the different powers of government, which to a certain extent is admitted on all hands to be essential to the preservation of liberty, it is evident that each department should have a will of its own; and consequently should be so constituted that the members of each should have as little agency as possible in the appointment of the members of the others." Madison also states that there will always be factions in government (a state of disorganization or chaos). The only way to fix these disorganization is to have more factions. By this he means that no one problem will ever get big enough to make the people want to overthrow or "fix" the government.