Palaces Out Of Paragraphs

By: Emily Moseley

For my historical annotation project, I chose to delve deeper into the exchange of letters between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr during the Summer of 1804.  My goal by the end of this project is to be able to break down each argument/statement that Hamilton and Burr present to see why they’re feeling that way, what would have brought up that topic, and the nature of the country at that point in time. Even though these letters are few and quick, you can see the quick escalation of feelings and rash decisions being made within this short series of communication.

The reason I chose this series of documents, is because they were a more private matter: not something where Hamilton had to be showy or convincing to the public. This is probably the most raw form of communication that we will see from Hamilton since he took writing more seriously than anyone else at the time. It has his way of communicating his thoughts and bringing people together. This was his way of making a change and forming the United States; however, in his letters we get to see a different side of him: a more direct and almost snarky Hamilton comes out in these letters to Burr. I thought this would make for a more interesting annotation because I can try to look into the minds of two of this nation’s most influential founders.

The research that comes along with letters like this is difficult, because they’re not published pieces of writing like the Federalist Papers or the Reynolds Pamphlet. The letters exchanged between Hamilton and Burr are, at the time, a private matter unknown to the public. Therefore, we lack the reaction of the general population to give us an idea of the impact of these letters at the time. Since language has since evolved from 1804, I cannot experience the full impact of Hamilton’s and Burr’s words since I do not know the meaning in which they were intended to have. This takes even more research to simply understand what they are trying to reference or even what tone they are using when talking about something.

My biggest challenge right now is really just learning how to google. I know it sounds simple, but “googling” is a true skill and a good one to have when doing research like this. I’m learning to string together key words to find documents that tie Hamilton or Burr to different events in history. This lets me look at just their connection rather than an overview or document that is referencing the historical event as a whole. By getting better at this, I can cut my research time significantly and work smarter, not harder.

By: Zac Frederick

For my historical analysis project, I have chosen to analyze Washington’s Farewell Address given following his departure as America’s first president. The piece was written and published in 1796 by George Washington, and from my preliminary research he was also assisted by Alexander Hamilton in the creation of the piece. Though the nature of the content is an address to the American people, it was not given as a speech, but rather it was published in the newspapers as publication.

One thing that drew me to the document is the nature of the piece as a political strategy recommendation. Though it is somewhat lengthy at a glance, the ideas Washington describes are very well summarized. I’m sure many of these recommendations could be discussed by a man of Washington’s intellect for literal days, however I was intrigued to see that this address offers a “short and sweet” version of what Washington believes will be very relevant advice over the coming decades of American history.

Within the document Washington offers about four main warnings to the American people, and a good understanding of each warming requires individual research regarding both the context and the rationale of each. This will involve a simultaneous approach to each facet, and each component will come together in the actual annotations. The first steps of research (including figuring out what the four warnings actually are) are in process, and once a general idea of the document is obtained I will be able to dig deeper in the more of the specifics.

One challenge I have found so far is being able to identify credible and varying sources. Whereas a simple Google search is often the first step to research, this does not give you every source you will end up using for your project. While it might yield a good bit of knowledge, a good majority of these sources have questionable credibility! Of course, the first step is realizing all of this, and now that I know this I am more willing to dig deeper – all in the name of Hamilton!

 

by Noah Hammond

I chose the letters of correspondence between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr before their duel. Specifically I chose Hamilton’s first response to Burr’s initial letter since I was interested in the events leading up to their duel. They started out seeing each other as a sort of respected rival, but gradually went in different directions in their political careers. Hearing that Hamilton died in a duel with Burr piqued my interest. To me it felt like a story line from a movie, so the fact that it actually happened to Alexander Hamilton drew me to their letters.

This letter is important because it shows what was going through Hamilton’s head right before his death. It gives a unique look at history that you wouldn’t get normally through a secondary source. Without documents like this we would have only a one dimensional knowledge of history.

To research deeper into Hamilton’s letter, I’ve been reading up on historical documents from 1800-1804 and attaching them to what Hamilton talks about or references in  his letter. Since I already have the letter itself, and therefore Hamilton’s insight, pairing that with articles and other documents from that time period will give me a idea of the history behind Hamilton’s eventual death.

The biggest challenge so far with my research is finding documents that were extremely close to the dates on the letter. I’ve been able to find documents around the turn of the century, but I can’t find them with specific enough dates. My plan for getting over this challenge is to ask questions to the Librarian comes to talk on Thursday. With the resources that Georgia Tech provides, I should be able to find more relevant documents.

By: Ian Byers

For the historical document that I am going to annotate, I chose George Washington’s Farewell Address, which was initially published in a newspaper in 1796. This was only about 10 weeks before the 1796 election, so many people who expected Washington to run again were surprised. This document went through multiple phases of writing, as Washington had originally intended to retire at the end of his first term in 1792. The 1792 draft was written by George Washington and James Madison, but Alexander Hamilton also help to write the final version.

I have read this document before this class, and I chose it for this assignment because I have always found Washington’s advice and predictions to be uncannily accurate. I am only annotating the first section of the document, but later sections go into detail about the danger of alliances and advocates for isolationism from European countries, which was a common American policy all the way until World War Two. Additionally, Washington set the informal precedent of a President serving for a maximum of two terms, which would last for a similar period of time. Although not all of Washington’s warnings were heeded, we can see that he was largely correct about the trouble these things would cause. For one, he warned against political parties, or factions. While parties have played a huge role in American politics since then, Washington was right in assessing that parties would lead to a large divide in the American populace.

The largest volume of research that I will need to do for this document is about the policies of the Washington administration, as well as other writings about politics by Washington. As he was involved in military service for a large part of his life, and often expressed dislike for serving as president, these may be hard to find.

So far, most of the major events of Washington’s presidency are well documented. However, it has been somewhat difficult to find some of Washington’s personal opinions on why he chose these policies. Often it seems that he simply chose the policies of his cabinet, which makes it hard to decipher Washington’s own intentions.

By Grace Griggs

The document I chose to annotate is an excerpt from “Circular Letter to the States” which was written by George Washington in June of 1783. It was written as he was stepping down as a military leader. The letter was sent to the executives of each state and was also published in newspapers throughout the country so that the populace could read it as well.

 

Washington’s Circular to the States as published in newspapers all across the states.

 

I was initially drawn to this document because it so closely parallels Washington’s farewell address. Just like Washington gave his advice for the success of the nation as he stepped down from the presidency, he also wrote out his advice to the nation as he stepped down from command of the Continental Army. I thought it would be interesting to see how his advice was followed or not followed during the next few years.

The most important research for this document is figuring out in what ways Washington’s suggestions were implemented throughout his presidency and, in some cases, his reasons behind those choices. I’ve been approaching this by searching “George Washington” and whatever general issue each of his points pertains to. For instance, his first advice is on the importance of uniting the states under a federal head. So I started my search by looking into Washington’s relation to federalism and the federalists.

My main challenge thus far has been trying to interpret Washington’s language. While it’s not impossible to understand, it does take some time to work out the exact meaning of what he is saying. Similarly, it is not always obvious which parts warrant an annotation. Some sentences are essentially nice-sounding filler with no clear reference that needs to be explained or expanded on. And additional problem I’ve been having is finding peer-reviewed sources. Hopefully the visit from a GT librarian will help me figure that out.

By: Clarisa Colton

For my historical annotation project, I have chosen an excerpt from “The Reynold’s Pamphlet”. It was written by Hamilton himself for the press and published to the public. He wrote the document to clear himself of a false charge of “improper pecuniary speculation”(Hamilton). This charge came from a Mr. James Reynolds after he had been imprisoned and the man he had been imprisoned with, Jacob Clingman, told his lawyer that Reynolds and Hamilton had been involved together in some illegal dealings having to do with government funds. When Hamilton was confronted with these claims, he came clean, but not about anything to do with government funds, just that he had had an affair with Mr. James Reynolds wife, Maria Reynolds. This all went down in 1792, however it wasn’t until 5 years later in 1797 that Hamilton wrote and published “The Reynold’s Pamphlet”, which explained all that had happened in great detail in order to clear himself of these charges.   What initially drew me to the document, I admit, was the fact that this is considered one of the first sex scandal’s in United States history, but as I’ve spent time reading it and researching it I have realized there is much more to it than that.

As far as research I’ve done so far, I have basically been looking through the library databases and google to try and find what will be useful to me. It has been pretty overwhelming and difficult for me though because there is SO much information out there and it’s hard for me to tell what is relevant and useful. I feel like something that happens to me a lot in assignments like this is a feeling of being stuck/blocked, but once I actually start writing things down and getting the hang of it, I feel like this project will go much more smoothly. I am going to try and go through the document I am annotating and make notes indicating what information I think would be helpful, which will hopefully help me narrow down sources to actual use in my annotations.

By: Arfa Ul-Haque

The historical document I chose to examine is “Observations on Certain Documents Contained in No. V & VI of “The History of the United States for the Year 1796,” In which the Charge of Speculation Against Alexander Hamilton, Late Secretary of the Treasury, is Fully Refuted” or more commonly known as “The Reynolds Pamphlet”. It was written by Alexander Hamilton in 1797 and it was publicly published as a pamphlet. The title of the document demonstrates Hamilton’s flair for excessive writing. The “Reynolds Pamphlet” embodies his tendency to write more than is needed and illustrates the fact that while his writing propelled his success, it also brought about his downfall.

The Reynolds Pamphlet is important because it represents the catalyst that radically changed Hamilton’s career. It tarnished his reputation and changed many of his relationships.

It also represents the idea that history is told by those with the power to tell it. As a woman, Maria Reynolds could not tell her side of the story. Since Hamilton was the only one with power, he may have changed the narrative to get the support of people.

Before I had picked a document, I researched a few of the other options, but what drew me to the Reynolds Pamphlet is the fact that so much of the story is untold and the story changes completely based on which perspective you look at. Hamilton: An American Musical presents the affair as the fault of both parties almost equally. While it does present Maria Reynolds as the one who initiated the relationship, it also shows Alexander Hamilton as much at fault. It was interesting to learn that most historians view the affair as a setup to extort money from Hamilton through blackmail, while in the musical it is portrayed as an affair driven by lust rather than money.

The research this document entails includes historical backgrounds on Hamilton and Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds. It also includes the letters sent between all three parties in order to understand the full picture. I started my research by obtaining as many books as I could on Hamilton and seeing if there were mentions of “The Reynolds Pamphlet” in them. One of the challenges I faced was that most of the information on Hamilton focuses on the success of his political career rather than his domestic affairs, and the books that I found that do focus on his domestic affairs have all been fiction. Since most of the books only skimmed over the affair, they all provided about the same information. I will try to find resources that focused completely on the pamphlet as they would provide more insight.

Another challenge that I faced is that all the historians in the books I’ve read have chosen a stance on the affair rather than presenting the facts, which makes it difficult to distinguish between what is true and what isn’t. By learning as much as I can on the document, I hope to overcome these challenges.

By: Kristen English

Blog Post #2

For my Historical Annotation Project, I choose Washington’s Farewell Address to annotate and analyze. George Washington wrote this letter, with the help of James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, to “friends and fellow-citizens” as a farewell to his reign as President before retiring to Mount Vernon. His address was originally published in the American Daily Advertiser, September 19, 1796. His address was published under the name “The Address of General Washington To The People of The United States on his declining of the Presidency of the United States” (whew! What a title). As popularity of the address continued growing it was reprinted in several newspapers and was even made into pamphlet form.

I think what drew me to this document was the historical significance that the document once held. The document, in it’s time, was celebrated as one of the greatest written works of all time. It was reprinted more than even the Declaration of Independence, and yet in modern history it is barely studied with emphasis being placed on understanding the meaning of the documents of the revolution. I remember briefly talking about the Farewell Address in my high school history class but we never really dove in to the document to interpret meaning and understanding to the tone and language Washington uses. I feel like it is important to bring light to the meaning of this document as Washington tried to directly set a path for the nation to follow after his presidency while also warning against several factors that could tear the new and fragile nation apart.

To fully understand this document, I feel like extensive research must be done on the language and meaning of different words used then vs. how they’re used now, the time period in general, and Washington’s view points on society and how he believed the government should be run to ensure the nation’s survival. A few of the challenges I have encountered while trying to research the document is that a great deal of sources don’t go too in depth with each and every word of the address, rather they take the address as a whole and analyze meaning from the summary of the document. With the annotation project I feel like it is important to be able to gather meaning from almost every sentence in the document and really break down what Washington was trying to convey with every word. I’m confident though that with harder and more extensive research than what I’ve done to date I will be able to properly understand and annotate the Farewell Address!

 

(side note: please enjoy this gif I found of Washington riding into battle on a puppy :) )

By: Ahad Khatri

I decided to research the Articles of Capitulation by George Washington, published in Yorktown, Virginia during October 1781. The surrendering of General Charles Cornwallis during the Siege of Yorktown by the combined forces of George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau preceded this treaty and was one of the key factors that led to the end of the American Revolutionary War.

 

The articles were pivotal because they boosted the American morale, and undermined political support for Great Britain. The articles are interesting because I wish to know how leaders such as George Washington empowered their people during this war and showed their willingness to fight.

One of the effects of this capitulation was the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a document which has outlived Americans today; I wish to delve into the minds of the strong-minded people who made the success of the Articles of Capitulation, the Revolutionary War, and the Declaration, a reality.

As I was skimming the article, I immediately noticed that a lot of confusing terminology, such as “accoutrements”, “redoubts”, “Anspach”, was present! Trying to understand the definition and usage of these words has been challenging. For example, a question I have asked myself is whether the word “Anspach” is a surname or a city, and how it fits into the phrase “A field-officer from each nation, to wit, British, Anspach, and Hessian” in the Articles of Capitulation.

Furthermore, research regarding these articles has led me to find other information regarding articles of Dutch and Canadian origin. To overcome the challenges of making sure I do not confuse any of the time periods present in my research, and my sources, I should be very consistent and organized moving forward. I should create a Word Document with one source, and its description underneath, for example, to make it easy for myself to process every bit of information thrown at me.

 

 

Being detail-oriented will increase the areas where I can research and connect my sources. The Articles of Capitulation are so rich with text and detail that the British, Americans, and French  must have adhered to very comprehensive guidelines. Thus, a skill I need to work on is being as specific as possible with my annotations and my sources. I feel a good place to begin my analysis will be moving from more generalized information through sources like Wikipedia, where I can acquire an overview of the descriptions of each article, to analyzing specific information through, for example,  Washington’s diary entries during the premise of the signed treaty, a primary source.

Finally, I should also be as open-minded as I can with my sources, because there is no telling what kinds of information I will find. The pursuit to and effectively annotate my document continues!