Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English.
Now, we continue the story of America's fourteenth president, Franklin Pierce.
阿凡达片尾曲Pierce was elected in eighteen fifty-two. He was a compromi candidate of the Democratic Party. He was well-liked. But he was not considered a strong leader.
The eighteen fifties were an increasingly ten time in the United States. Most of the population lived east of the Mississippi River. But more and more people were moving west. As western areas became populated, they became official territories, and then new states.
What kind of laws would the new territories and states have? Would the laws be decided by the Congress in Washington? Or would they be voted on by the people living in them?
The biggest legal question affecting western lands was slavery. This week in our ries, Rich Kleinfeldt and Shirley Griffith tell more about the long disputed issue of slavery and the Kansas-Missouri bill.
黑长臂猿 Owning another human being was legal in many parts of the United States at that time. Slaves were considered property, like furniture and farm animals.
People who owned negro slaves wanted to take all their property -- including the slaves -- with them when they moved west. People who oppod slavery did not want it to spread. Some of them considered slavery a moral issue. They believed it violated the laws of God. An increasing number of white Americans, however, saw slavery as an economic issue. They wanted new states to be free from slavery, so they would not have to compete with slave labor.
The United States had been established as a democracy. Yet slavery existed. America'
s early leaders knew that trying to end slavery probably would split the nation in two. So they looked for compromis. They decided it was better to save ven if it was han to watch the Union end.
Like other presidents, Franklin Pierce hoped to avoid the issue. He also believed that earlier legislation had ttled the debate. In eighteen twenty, Congress had pasd the Missouri Compromi. It extended a line across the map of the United States. South of the line, slavery was legal. North of the line, slavery was not legal, except in Missouri.
Thirty years later, another political compromi made the situation less clear.
The compromi of eighteen fifty made slavery a local issue, instead of a national issue, in veral western territories. It said the people in tho territories had the right to decide for themlves if slavery would be legal or illegal.
Within a few years, that law caud a new debate in Congress. Lawmakers argued: was the peoples' right to decide the issue of slavery restricted only to the territories named in the compromi of eighteen fifty? Or was the right extended to the people of all future territories?
The answer came in eighteen fifty-four. In that year, Congress debated a proposal to create two territories from one large area in the west. The northern part would be known as the Nebraska territory. The southern part would be known as the Kansas territory. Settlers in both new territories would have the right to decide the question of slavery.
President Pierce did not like the Kansas-Nebraska bill. He feared it would re-open the bitter, national debate about slavery. He did not want to have to deal with the results. Tensions were increasing. Violence was increasingly possible.
The Kansas-Nebraska bill had a lot of support in the Senate. It pasd easily. The bill had less support in the Hou of Reprentatives. The vote there was clo, but the measure pasd. President Pierce finally agreed to sign it. In exchange, congressional leaders promid to approve veral presidential appointments.
Supporters of the Kansas-Nebraska bill celebrated their victory. They fired cannons as the city of Washington was waking to a new day. Two nators who oppod the bill heard the noi as they walked down the steps of the capitol building. One of them said: "They celebrate a victory now. But the echoes they awake will never rest until slavery itl
f is dead."
The new bill gave the people of Kansas and Nebraska the right to decide if slavery would be legal or illegal. The vote would depend on who ttled in the territories. It was not likely that people who owned slaves would ttle in Nebraska. However, there was a good chance that they would ttle in Kansas.
Groups in the South organized quickly to help pro-slavery ttlers move to Kansas. At the same time, groups in the North helped free-state ttlers move there, too.
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A map of the Territory of Kansas |
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Some of the northern groups were companies called emigrant aid societies. Shares of th
e companies were sold to the public. The money was ud to help build towns and farms in Kansas. Owners of the companies hoped to make a lot of money from the development.
The southern effort to ttle Kansas was led mostly by slave-owning farmers in Missouri. They believed that peace in Missouri depended on what happened in Kansas. They did not want to live next to a territory where slavery was not legal.
In Washington, President Pierce announced the appointment of Andrew Reeder to be governor of the Kansas territory. Pro-slavery ttlers urged Reeder to hold immediate elections for a territorial legislature. They believed they were in the majority. They wanted a vote before too many free-state ttlers moved in. The legislature would have the power to keep the territory open to slavery and, in time, help it become a slave state.
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Andrew Reeder |
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Governor Reeder rejected the demands. He decided to hold an election, but only for a territorial reprentative to the national Congress. On election day, hundreds of men from Missouri crosd the border into Kansas. They voted illegally, and the pro-slavery candidate won.
The same thing happened when Kansas finally held an election for a legislature. Governor Reeder took steps to make the voting fair. His efforts were not completely successful. Once again, men from Missouri crosd the border into Kansas. Many of them carried guns. They forced election officials to count their illegal votes. As a result, almost every pro-slavery candidate was elected to the new legislature.
The governor ordered an investigation. The investigation showed evidence of wrong-doing in six areas, and new elections were held in tho areas. This time, when only legal votes were counted, many of the pro-slavery candidates were defeated. Yet there were still enough pro-slavery candidates to have a majority.
header什么意思 Andrew Reeder was governor of a bitterly divided territory. He wanted to warn President Pierce about what was happening.
Reeder went to Washington. He met with Pierce almost every day for two weeks. He described how pro-slavery groups in Missouri were interfering in Kansas. He said if the state of Missouri refud to deal with the trouble-makers, then the national government must deal with them. He asked the president to do something.
Pierce agreed that Kansas was a rious problem. He emed ready to act. So Reeder returned home and opened the first meeting of the territorial legislature. The pro-slavery majority quickly voted to move to a town clo to the Missouri border. It also approved veral pro-slavery measures.
businessmanagement Governor Reeder vetoed the bills. But there were enough votes to reject his veto and pass the new laws.
The Kansas legislature also nt a message to President Pierce. It wanted him to remove Andrew Reeder as governor. Political pressure was strong, and the president agreed. He named a new governor, Wilson Shannon. Shannon supported the pro-slavery laws of the legislature. He also said Kansas should become a slave state, like Missouri.
bag怎么读 Free-state leaders were extremely angry. They felt they could not get fair treatment from either the president or the new governor. So they took an unusual step. They met and formed their own government in opposition to the elected government of the territory. It would not be long before the situation in Kansas became violent.
That will be our story next week.
ANNOUNCER:
Our program was written by Christine Johnson. The narrators were Rich Kleinfeldt and Shirley Griffith. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs can be found along with historical images Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- an American history ries in VOA Special English.
This is program #82 of THE MAKING OF A NATION
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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
Today in our Foreign Student Series we discuss writing college papers. Writing a term paper, rearch paper or essay for a college class is a kind of academic writing. Academic writing among professionals is a way to create new knowledge.
A professor assigns students to write a paper. The students examine an issue, review what is already known, think about what they have learned and come to some conclusion.
This means that each student-writer must prent information and also take a position. The student might support an idea, question it or even disprove it. Or the writer could show how the subject may be understood better or in a different way than it has been. And the student must support the position with evidence.
Cultural differences may interfere when international students try to write this way. Writing teachers say students in many countries have learned to write beautiful descriptions about something without ever stating the main idea. American college stude
nts are expected to state their main idea at the beginning of the paper.
In other cultures, paragraphs may be organized to build toward the main idea, which is revealed at the end. But in the United States, the main idea of each paragraph should be in the first ntence. Another difference is about writing style. Other cultures may u lots of descriptive words. But American English values short, strong ntences.
Teachers at the writing center at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana work with students to improve their writing. Graduate tutor Lars Soderlund says non-native English speakers generally have some trouble with English grammar.
He says their ntences may be too long. Or they incorrectly u articles such as "a", "an" and "the." He also says non-native speakers generally u too much emotional language and give too many details before getting to the main idea.
The associate director of the writing center, Tammi Conard-Salvo, says international students should look online for materials that explain the kind of writing they will be required to do. They should ask their professors for help. Most colleges have a writing center where they can get free individual help with their work.
Links to writing center materials can be found on our Web site, And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Jim Tedder.北京商务英语培训
