American History Timeline 1783-1800

The first two decades after the establishment of the independence of the United States from England were times of great turmoil, with American leaders struggling to form a working constitution that would accommodate the multiple viewpoints of its people. Slavery, taxation and states rights were hot-button issues that needed to be addressed. At the same time, the new United States, as well as its allied and competitor nations around the world, struggled with finding a way to fit into the established trade and diplomatic circles. 1783 February 4: Great Britain officially states that hostilities have ended in America on February 4th. Congress agrees on April 11, 1783.   March 10–15: Major John Armstrong (1717–1795) writes a fiery petition from the Continental Army, calling for Congress to honor their agreements to pay them and warning that the soldiers might mutiny. Washington responds with the Newburgh Address, sympathizing with the men but denouncing the plans for mutiny. The men are moved, and Washington sends several letters to Congress on their behalf. Eventually, Congress agrees to pay the officers a lump sum for five years worth of pay.   April: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and Henry Laurens travel to Paris to negotiate a preliminary peace treaty with the British which Congress then ratifies. May 13: The Society of the Cincinnati is founded with George Washington as its first president. This is a fraternal order of Continental Army officers.   April 20: In Massachusetts, the third court case over Quock Walker, a man treated as a slave and beaten by his owner, is resolved finding the owner guilty of slavery, effectively abolishing slavery in the state. September 3: The Treaty of Paris is signed, and Spain recognizes American Independence, followed quickly by Sweden and Denmark. Russia will also recognize Americas independence before the year is out.   November 23: George Washington officially issues a Farewell Address to the Army in November and formally discharges the Army. He later resigns as Commander in Chief.   Before the year ends, the importation of African slaves is banned in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.   1784 January 14th: The Treaty of Paris is officially ratified after being signed the previous year.   Spring: Congress creates a Treasury Board to be governed by three commissioners: Samuel Osgood, Walter Livingston, and Arthur Lee.   June: Spain closes the lower half of the Mississippi River to America.   Summer and Fall: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin are stationed in Paris and authorized to negotiate commercial treaties.   August: The Empress of China, the first American merchant ship, reaches Canton, China and will return in May 1785 with goods including tea and silks. Many American merchants would soon follow.   October 22: In the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, the Six Nations of the Iroquois give up all claims to territory west of the Niagara River. The Creek Indians also sign a treaty expanding Georgias territory.   1785 20 June: James Madison (1751–1836) publishes Remonstrances Against Religious Assessments advocating the separation of church and state.   January 21: In the Treaty of Fort McIntosh, the Chippewa, Delaware, Ottawa, and Wyandot Indians sign a treaty where they give America all their land in present-day Ohio.   February 24: John Adams (1735–1826) is appointed as the ambassador to England. He fails at negotiating commerce treaties and ensuring that the terms of the Treaty of Paris are enforced including the abandoning of their military posts along the Great Lakes. He returns back from England in 1788.   March 8: Former military officer Henry Knox (1750–1806) is appointed as the first Secretary of War.   March 10: Thomas Jefferson is made the minister to France.   March 28: George Washington hosts a conference at Mount Vernon where Virginia and Maryland create a commercial pact on how to deal with navigation on the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River. They show the willingness of states to cooperate.   May 25: The Constitutional Convention opens in Philadelphia and Massachusetts is the first to call for a revision of the Articles of Confederation. However, this will actually not be considered until 1787. July 13: The Land Ordinance of 1785 is passed providing for the division of the northwestern territories into townships with lots to be sold for $640 each.   November 28: According to the first Treaty of Hopewell, the Cherokee Indians are ensured of the right to their land in the Tennessee area.   1786 January 16: Virginia adopts Thomas Jeffersons Ordinance of Religious Freedom which guarantees freedom of religion.   June 15: New Jersey refuses to pay their share of money requisitioned for the national government and offers the New Jersey Plan identifying weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation.   August 8: Congress establishes a standard coinage system as proposed by Thomas Jefferson, the adopted Spanish dollar, with a silver weight of 375 64/100s grains of fine silver. August: Small incidences of violence erupt in Massachusetts and New Hampshire because of the economic debt crisis being experienced in the individual states. States begin issuing unstable paper currency.   September: Shays Rebellion occurs in Massachusetts. Daniel Shays is a former Revolutionary War captain who went bankrupt and led a group of armed individuals in protest. His Army will continue to grow and make attacks in the state, which are not stopped until February 4, 1787. However, this rebellion reveals the weakness of the articles to provide military protection across state lines.   1787 May 14: Congress agrees to hold a constitutional convention in Philadelphia to deal with the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.   May 25–September 17: The Constitutional Convention meets and results in the creation of the US Constitution. It needs to be ratified by nine states before it comes into effect.   July 13: The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 was enacted by Congress, including policies for creating new states, accelerated westward expansion, and fundamental rights of citizens. Arthur St. Clair (1737–1818) is made the first governor of the Northwest Territory.   October 27: The first of 77 essays called collectively The Federalist Papers is published in New Yorks The Independent Journal. These articles are written to persuade individuals in the state to ratify the new Constitution.   Before the end of the year, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey ratify the Constitution.   1788 November 1: The Congress officially adjourned. The United States would have no official government until April 1789.   December 23: The Maryland General Assembly passes an act proposing ceding to the national government the area of land that would become the District of Columbia.   December 28: Losantiville is established on the Ohio and Licking Rivers in the Ohio Territory. It will be renamed Cincinnati in 1790.   Before the end of 1788, eight more of the 13 states will have ratified the Constitution: Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, and New York. The fight has been hard fought with opposing Federalist and Anti-Federalist forces. Many states will not agree until a bill of rights is added protecting civil liberties and ensuring that the states powers have been preserved.  Once nine states have ratified, the Constitution is formally adopted.   1789 January 23: Georgetown University becomes the first Catholic university founded in the United States.   April 30: George Washington is inaugurated in New York as the first President. He is sworn in by Robert Livingston and then delivers his inaugural address to Congress. A week later, the first inaugural ball is held.   July 14: The French Revolution begins when revolutionaries stormed the Bastille Prison, events witnessed by the American minister Thomas Jefferson.   July 27: The Department of State (called the Department of Foreign Affairs at first) is established with Thomas Jefferson as his head. August 7: The War Department is also established with Henry Knox as its head. September 2: The new Treasury Department is headed by Alexander Hamilton. Samuel Osgood is named the first Postmaster General under the new constitution. September 24: The Federal Judiciary Act creates a six-man Supreme Court. John Jay is named the Chief Justice. September 29: Congress establishes the US Army before adjourning.   November 26: The first national Thanksgiving Day is proclaimed by George Washington at the request of Congress.   1790 February 12–15: Benjamin Franklin sends an anti-slavery petition to Congress on behalf of the Quakers asking for the abolition of slavery.   March 26: The Naturalization Act passes and requires a two-year residency for new citizens and their children, but limiting it to free white people. April 17: Benjamin Franklin dies at the age of 84.   May 29: Rhode Island is the last state to ratify the Constitution but only after being threatened to tax its exports by other New England states.   June 20: Congress agrees to assume the states Revolutionary War debts. However, this is opposed by Patrick Henry (1736–1799) as detailed in the Virginia Resolutions.   July 16: Washington signs into law the Permanent Seat of Government Act, or Residence Act, establishing the location of the permanent federal capital.   August 2: The first census is completed. The total population of the United States is 3,929,625.   August 4: The Coast Guard is created.   1791 January 27: The Whiskey Act is signed putting a tax on whiskey. This is opposed by farmers and many states pass laws protesting the tax, eventually leading to the Whiskey Rebellion. February 25: The First Bank of the United States is officially chartered after President Washington signs it into law. ​ March 4: Vermont becomes the 14th state, the first to enter the United States after the 13 original colonies. March: President Washington chooses the site for the District of Columbia on the Potomac River. Benjamin Banneker (1731–1806), a black mathematician and scientist, is named one of three individuals appointed to survey the site for the federal capital.   Summer: Thomas Jefferson and James Madison join forces to oppose Washingtons federalist programs.   Fall: Violence repeatedly breaks in the Northwest Territory with repeated attacks by Ohio Indians on settlements along the frontier, culminating in the Battle of the Wabash in November.   December 15: The first 10 amendments are added to the US Constitution as the Bill of Rights.   1792 February 20: The Presidential Succession Act is passed detailing the line of succession in the case of the death of the president and vice president.   Spring: Thomas Pinckney (1750–1828) is named as the first diplomat to be sent from the United States to Great Britain.   April 2: The national mint is established in Philadelphia.   May 17: The New York Stock Exchange is organized when a group of stockbrokers sign the Buttonwood Agreement.   June 1: Kentucky enters the Union as the 15th state.     December 5: George Washington is reelected as president in the second presidential election.   1793 Over the year, Frances revolutionary movement loses a lot of American support upon the execution of Louis XVI (January 21) and Marie Antoinette (October 16) along with the declaration of war against Great Britain, Spain, and the Netherlands.   February 12: A Fugitive Slave Act is passed allowing slave owners to recapture runaway slaves.   April: The Citizen Genà ªt scandal occurs, after the French minister Edmond Charles Genà ªt (1763–1834) arrived in the U.S. and passed out letters authorizing the attack on British commercial vessels and the city of Spanish New Orleans, what Washington saw as a clear violation of American neutrality. As a result, Washington proclaims Americas neutrality in the wars that are occurring in Europe. Despite this, Great Britain orders all neutral vessels to be seized if they are traveling to French ports. In addition, the British begin to seize neutral vessels that are traveling to the French West Indies which means that British begin to capture, imprison, and impress American sailors.   December 31: Thomas Jefferson resigns as Secretary of State. Edmund Randolph (1753–1813) will become secretary of State in his stead.   1794 March 22: The Slave Trade Act is passed that bans the slave trade with foreign nations.   March 27: The Act  to Provide a  Naval  Armament (or Naval Act) is passed, authorizing construction of what would become the first ships in the US Navy.   Summer: John Jay (1745–1829) is sent to Great Britain to negotiate a trade treaty which he does (signed November 19). James Monroe (1758–1831) is sent to France as the American minister, and John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) is sent to the Netherlands.   Summer: Congress passes an act denying American citizens the right to join foreign military service or help foreign armed vessels.   August 7: The Whiskey Rebellion is ended in Pennsylvania when Washington sends a huge militia force to put down the insurrection. The rebels return home quietly.   August 20: The Battle of Fallen Timbers occurs in northwest Ohio where General Anthony Wayne (745–1796) defeated Indian insurgents ending hostilities in the region.   1795 January 31: Washington resigned as Secretary of the Treasury and was replaced by Oliver Wolcott, Jr. (1760–1833). June 24: The Senate ratifies the Treaty  of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, commonly known as Jays Treaty, between the United States and Great Britain. Washington later signs it into law.  The acceptance of Jays Treaty means that America and France will come close to war.   August 3: The Treaty of Greenville is signed with the 12 Ohio Indian tribes who had been defeated at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. They give large amounts of land to America.   September 5: America signs the Treaty of Tripoli with Algiers agreeing to pay money to the Barbary pirates in exchange for the release of prisoners along with a yearly tribute to protect their shipping interests in the Mediterranean Sea.   October 27: Thomas Pinckney signs the Treaty of San Lorenzo with Spain that sets the Spanish-American border and allows free travel along the length of the Mississippi River. He later gets appointed as Secretary of State.   1796 March 3: Oliver Ellsworth (1745–1807) is nominated by George Washington to replace John Jay as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.   June 1: Tennessee is admitted to the Union as the 16th state. Andrew Jackson (1767–1845) will be sent to Congress as its first Representative.   November: After having rejected Americas new foreign minister Thomas Pinckney because of Jays Treaty., France announces it is suspending all diplomatic ties with America.   December 7: John Adams wins the presidential election with 71 electoral votes. His opponent, Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson, comes in second with 68 votes and wins the vice presidency. 1797 March 27: The United States, the first US naval ship, is launched. The French-American crisis increases throughout this year. In June, it is announced that 300 U.S. ships have been captured by France. President Adams sends three men to negotiate with France, but instead they are approached by three agents (known as X, Y, and Z) of the French Foreign Minister Charles Maurice de Tallyrand (1754–1838). The agents tell the Americans that in order to agree to a treaty, the U.S. will have to pay money to France and a huge bribe to Talleyrand; which the three ministers refuse to do. The so-called XYZ Affair leads to an unofficial naval war with France that lasts from 1798–1800.   August 19: The U.S.S. Constitution (Old Ironsides) is launched.   August 28: The U.S. signs the Treaty of Peace and Friendship with Tunis to pay tribute in order to stop the Barbary pirate attacks.   1798 March 4: The 11th Amendment to the Constitution, which restricts the rights of citizens to bring suit against states in federal court, is ratified.   April 7: The Mississippi Territory is created by Congress.   May 1: The Department of the Navy is created with Benjamin Stoddert (1744–1813) as its Secretary.   July: Congress suspends all commerce with France, and treaties are also repealed.   Summer: The Alien and Sedition Acts are passed to silence political opposition and signed into law by President Adams. In response, the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions are passed at Thomas Jeffersons and James Madisons behest.   July 13: George Washington is named Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Army.   1799 Spring: Tensions between France and the U.S. ease to the point where ministers are allowed back into France.   June 6: Patrick Henry dies.   November 11: Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) becomes the first consul of France.   December 14: George Washington dies suddenly of a throat infection. He is mourned in the United States, given honors in England, and a week of mourning begins in France.   1800 April 24: The Library of Congress is created, with a beginning budget of $5,000 for books for the use of Congress.   September 30: The Convention of 1800, the Treaty of Morfontaine, is signed by the French and American diplomats ending the undeclared war.   October 1: In the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso, Spain cedes Louisiana back to France.   Fall: Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman, 1774–1845) begins distributing apple trees and seeds to new settlers in Ohio.     Sources: Schlesinger, Jr., Arthur M., ed. The Almanac of American History. Barnes Nobles Books: Greenwich, CT, 1993.

Madness Of Creation And Revenge Act - 1557 Words

Madness of Creation and Revenge The intriguing stories emphases the relationship of how madness can consume someone’s life without them understanding the consequences. Creation and revenge act as important aspects throughout the stories driving the main characters to unforeseen and unimaginable means. This leads to the destructive power of revenge which drives individuals to make very rash decisions that end up ultimately leaving them with a guilty conscience or the inability to find true happiness, which we see in the case of the monster and Montresor. The main theme throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Edgar Allan Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado is revenge and justification of wrongful actions. It starts clearly from Montresor when he states â€Å"It is equally unredressed[sic] when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong† shows that he feels he needs to make the punishment equal to the insult he felt which would make the punishment justified (Poe, 360). We see the same justification from the monster when he kills Victor’s family members displaying that he just wanted revenge. We see that the monster did not intend to first kill William until he discovered that William was related to Victor, â€Å"Frankenstein! you belong then to my enemy—to him towards whom I have sworn eternal revenge; you shall be my first victim† shows that solely for revenge on Victor does he kill William (Shelley, 125). The monster feels this murder is justified forShow MoreR elatedThe Scarlet Letter : Essay1004 Words   |  5 Pagesquite different story lines, the two characters possess traits that exibit parallels between them. 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Russell-Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge Free Essays

Pg1Pg1 KNOWLEDGE BY ACQUAINTANCE I53 Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description Bertrand Russell Russell, Bertrand (1917). Knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 1910-1911. We will write a custom essay sample on Russell-Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge or any similar topic only for you Order Now Reprinted in his his Mysticism and Logic (London: George Allen Unwin Ltd. : 1917). Reprinted Totowa, New Jersey: Barnes Noble Books, 1951, pp. 152-167. Pagination here matches the latter. ) THE object of the following paper is to consider what it is that we know in cases where we know propositions about ‘the so-and-so’ without knowing who or what the so-and-so is. For example, I know that the candidate who gets most votes will be elected, though I do not know who is the candidate who will get most votes. The problem I wish to consider is: What do we know in these cases, where the subject is merely described ? I have considered this problem elsewhere1 from a purely logical point of view; but in what follows I wish to consider the question in relation to theory of knowledge as well as in relation to logic, and in view of the above-mentioned logical discussions, I shall in this paper make the logical portion as brief as possible. In order to make clear the antithesis between ‘acquaintance’ and ‘description’, I shall first of all try to explain what I mean by ‘acquain- tance’. I say that I am acquainted with an object when I have a direct cognitive relation to that object, i. e. when I am directly aware of the object itself. When I speak of a cognitive relation here, I do not mean the sort of relation which constitutes judgment, but the sort which constitutes presentation. In fact, I think the relation of subject and object which I call acquaintance is simply the converse of the relation of object and subject which constitutes presentation. That is, to say that S has acquaintance with O is essentially the same thing as to say that O is presented to S. But the associations and natural extensions of the word acquaintance are different from those of the word presentation. To begin with, as in most cognitive words, it is natural to say that I am acquainted with an object even at moments when it is not actually before my mind, provided it has been before my mind, and will be again whenever occasion arises. This is the same sense in which I am said to know that 2+2=4 even when I am thinking of something else. In the second place, the word See references later. acquaintance is designed to emphasize, more than the word presen- tation, the relational character of the fact with which we are concerned. There is, to my mind, a danger that, in speaking of presentation, we may so emphasize the object as to lose sight of the subject. The result of this is either to lead to the view that there is no subject, whence we arrive at materia lism; or to lead to the view that what is presented is part of the subject, whence we arrive at idealism, and should arrive at solipsism but for the most desperate contortions. Now I wish to preserve the dualism of subject and object in my terminology, because this dualism seems to me a fundamental fact concerning cognition. Hence I prefer the word acquaintance, because it emphasizes the need of a subject which is acquainted. When we ask what are the kinds of objects with which we are acquainted, the first and most obvious example is sense-data. When I see a colour or hear a noise, I have direct acquaintance with the colour or the noise. The sense-datum with which I am acquainted in these cases is generally, if not always, complex. This is particularly obvious in the case of sight. I do not mean, of course, merely that the supposed physical object is complex, but that the direct sensible object is complex and contains parts with spatial relations. Whether it is possible to be aware of a complex without being aware of its constituents is not an easy question, but on the whole it would seem that there is no reason why it should not be possible. This question arises in an acute form in connection with self-consciousness, which we must now briefly consider. In introspection, we seem to be immediately aware of varying complexes, consisting of objects in various cognitive and conative relations to ourselves. When I see the sun, it often happens that I am aware of my seeing the sun, in addition to being aware of the sun; and when I desire food, it often happens that I am aware of my desire for food. But it is hard to discover any state of mind in which I am aware of myself alone, as opposed to a complex of which I am a constituent. The question of the nature of self-consciousness is too large, and too slightly connected with our subject, to be argued at length here. It is difficult, but probably not impossible, to account for plain facts if we assume that we do not have acquaintance with ourselves. It is plain that we are not only acquainted with the complex ‘Self-acquainted-with-A’, but we also know the proposition ‘I am acquainted with A’. Now here the complex has been analysed, and if ‘I’ does not stand for something which is a direct object of acquaintance, we shall have to suppose that ‘I’ is something known by description. If we wished to maintain the view that there is no Pg2Pg2 154 MYSTICISM AND LOGIC acquaintance with Self, we might argue as follows: We are acquainted with acquaintance, and we know that it is a relation. Also we are acquainted with a complex in which we perceive that acquaintance is the relating relation. Hence we know that this complex must have a constituent which is that which is acquainted, i. e. must have a subject- term as well as an object-term. This subject-term we define as ‘I’. Thus ‘I’ means ‘the subject-term in awarenesses of which / am aware’. But as a definition this cannot be regarded as a happy effort. It would seem necessary, therefore, either to suppose that I am acquainted with myself, and that ‘I’, therefore, requires no definition, being merely the proper name of a certain object, or to find some other analysis of self- consciousness. Thus self-consciousness cannot be regarded as throwing light on the question whether we can know a complex without knowing its constituents. This question, however, is not important for our present purposes, and I hall therefore not discuss it further. The awarenesses we have considered so far have all been aware- nesses of particular existents, and might all in a large sense be called sense-data. For, from the point of view of theory of knowledge, introspective knowledge is exactly on a level with knowledge derived from sight or hearing. But, in addition to awareness of the above kind of objects, which may be called awareness of particulars, we have also (though not quit e in the same sense) what may be called awareness of universals. Awareness of universals is called conceiving, and a uni- versal of which we are aware is called a concept. Not only are we aware of particular yellows, but if we have seen a sufficient number of yellows and have sufficient intelligence, we are aware of the universal yellow; this universal is the subject in such judgments as ‘yellow differs from blue’ or ‘yellow resembles blue less than green does’. And the universal yellow is the predicate in such judgments as ‘this is yellow’, where ‘this’ is a particular sense-datum. And universal relations, too, are objects of awarenesses; up and down, before and after, resemblance, desire, awareness itself, and so on, would seem to be all of them objects of which we can be aware. In regard to relations, it might be urged that we are never aware of the universal relation itself, but only of complexes in which it is a constituent. For example, it may be said that we do not know directly such a relation as before, though we understand such a proposition as ‘this is before that’, and may be directly aware of such a complex as ‘this being before that’. This view, however, is difficult to reconcile with the fact that we often know propositions in which KNOWLEDGE BY ACQUAINTANCE I55 the relation is the subject, or in which the relata are not definite given objects, but ‘anything’. For example, we know that if one thing is before another, and the other before a third, then the first is before the third; and here the things concerned are not definite things, but ‘anything’. It is hard to see how we could know such a fact about ‘before’ unless we were acquainted with ‘before’, and not merely with actual particular cases of ne given object being before another given object. And more directly: A judgment such as ‘this is before that’, where this judgment is derived from awareness of a complex, constitutes an analysis, and we should not understand the analysis if we were not acquainted with the meaning of the terms employed. Thus we must suppose that we are acquainted with th e meaning of ‘before’, and not merely with instances of it. There are thus at least two sorts of objects of which we are aware, namely, particulars and universals. Among particulars I include all existents, and all complexes of which one or more constituents are existents, such as this-before-that, this-above-that, the-yellowness-of- this. Among universals I include all objects of which no particular is a constituent. Thus the disjunction ‘universal-particular’ includes all objects. We might also call it the disjunction ‘abstract concrete’. It is not quite parallel with the opposition ‘concept-percept’, because things remembered or imagined belong with particulars, but can hardly be called percepts. On the other hand, universals with which we are acquainted may be identified with concepts. ) It will be seen that among the objects with which we are acquainted are not included physical objects (as opposed to sense-data), nor other people’s minds. These things are known to us by what I call ‘knowledge by description’, which we must now consider. By a ‘description’ I mean any p hrase of the form ‘a so-and-so’ or ‘the so-and-do’. A phrase of the form ‘a so-and-so’ I shall call an ‘ambiguous’ description; a phrase of the form ‘the so-and-do’ (in the singular) I shall call a ‘definite’ description. Thus ‘a man’ is an ambiguous description, and ‘the man with the iron mask’ is a definite description. There are various problems connected with ambiguous descriptions, but I pass them by, since they do not directly concern the matter I wish to discuss. What I wish to discuss is the nature of our knowledge concerning objects in cases where we know that there is an object answering to a definite description, though we are not acquainted with any such object. This is a matter which is concerned exclusively with definite descriptions. I shall, therefore, in the sequel, speak simply of ‘descriptions’ when I mean Pg3Pg3 I56MYSTICISM AND LOGIC ‘definite descriptions’. Thus a description will mean any phrase of the form ‘the so-and-so’ in the singular. I shall say that an object is ‘known by description’ when we know that it is ‘the so-and-so’, i. e. when we know that there is one object, and no more, having a certain property; and it will generally be implied that we do not have knowledge of the same object by acquaintance. We know that the man with the iron mask existed, and many propositions are known about him; but we do not know who he was. We know that the candidate who gets most votes will be elected, and in this case we are very likely also acquainted (in the only sense in which one can be acquainted with someone else) with the man who is, in fact, the candidate who will get most votes, but we do not know which of the candidates he is, i. e. we do not know any proposition of the form ‘A is the candidate who will get most votes’ where A is one of the candidates by name. We shall say that we have â€Å"merely descriptive knowledge’ of the so-and-so when, although we know that the so-and-so exists, and although we may possibly be acquainted with the object which is, in fact, the so-and-so, yet we do not know any proposition ‘a is the so- and-so’, where a is something with which we are acquainted. When we say ‘the so-and-so exists’, we mean that there is just one object which is the so-and-so. The proposition ‘a is the so-and-so’ means that a has the property so-and-so, and nothing else has. Sir Joseph Larmor is the Unionist candidate’ means ‘Sir Joseph Larmor is a Unionist candidate, and no one else is. ‘ ‘The Unionist candidate exists’ means ‘someone is a Unionist candidate, and no one else is. ‘ Thus, when we are acquainted with an object which we know to be the so- and-so, we know that the so-and-so exists, but we may know that the so-and-so exists when we ar e not acquainted with any object which we know to be the so-and-so, and even when we are not acquainted with any object which, in fact, is the so-and-so. Common words, even proper names, are usually really descriptions. That is to say, the thought in the mind of a person using a proper name correctly can generally only be expressed explicitly if we replace the proper name by a description. Moreover, the description required to express the thought will vary for different people, or for the same person at different times. The only thing constant (so long as the name is rightly used) is the object to which the name applies. But so long as this remains constant, the particular description involved usually makes no difference to the truth or falsehood of the proposition in which the name appears. Let us take some illustrations. Suppose some statement made KNOWLEDGE BY ACQUAINTANCE I57 about Bismarck. Assuming that there is such a thing as direct acquaintance with oneself, Bismarck himself might have used his name directly to designate the particular person with whom he was acquainted. In this case, if he made a judgment about himself, he himself might be a constituent of the judgment. Here the proper name has the direct use which it always wishes to have, as simply standing for a certain object, and not for a description of the object. But if a person who knew Bismarck made a judgment about him, the case is different. What this person was acquainted with were certain sense-data which he connected (rightly, we will suppose) with Bismarck’s body. His body as a physical object, and still more his mind, were only known as the body and the mind connected with these sense-data. That is, they were known by description. It is, of course, very much a matter of chance which characteristics of a man’s appearance will come into a friend’s mind when he thinks of him; thus the description actually in the friend’s mind is accidental. The essential point is that he knows that the various descriptions all apply to the same entity, in spite of not being acquainted with the entity in question. When we, who did not know Bismarck, make a judgment about him, the description in our minds will probably be some more or less vague mass of historical knowledge—? far more, in most cases, than is required to identify him. But, for the sake of illustration, let us assume that we think of him as ‘the first Chancellor of the German Empire’. Here all the words are abstract except ‘German’. The word ‘German’ will again have different meanings for different people. To some it will recall travels in Germany, to some the look of Germany on the map, and so on. But if we are to obtain a description which we know to be applicable, we shall be compelled, at some point, to bring in a reference to a particular with which we are acquainted. Such reference is involved in any mention of past, present, and future (as opposed to definite dates), or of here and there, or of what others have told us. Thus it would seem that, in some way or other, a description known to be applicable to a particular must involve some reference to a particular with which we are acquainted, if our knowledge about the thing described is not to be merely what follows logically from the description. For example, ‘the most long-lived of men’ is a description which must apply to some man, but we can make no judgments concerning this man which involve knowledge about him beyond what the description gives. If, however, we say, ‘the first Chancellor of the German Empire was an astute diplomatist’, we can only be assured Pg4Pg4 158MYSTICISM AND LOGIC of the truth of our judgment in virtue of something with which we are acquainted—? usually a testimony heard or read. Considered psychologically, apart from the information we convey to others, apart from the fact about the actual Bismarck, which gives importance to our judgment, the thought we really have contains the one or more particulars involved, and otherwise consists wholly of concepts. All names of places—? London, England, Europe, the earth, the Solar System—? similarly involve, when used, descriptions which start from some one or more particulars with which we are acquainted. I suspect that even the Universe, as considered by metaphysics, involves such a connection with particulars. In logic, on the contrary, where we are concerned not merely with what does exist, but with whatever might or could exist or be, no reference to actual particulars is involved. It would seem that, when we make a statement about something only known by description, we often intend to make our statement, not in the form involving the description, but about the actual thing described. That is to say, when we say anything about Bismarck, we should like, if we could, to make the judgment which Bismarck alone can make, namely, the judgment of which he himself is a constituent. In this we are necessarily defeated, since the actual Bismarck is unknown to us. But we know that there is an object B called Bismarck, and that B was an astute diplomatist. We can thus describe the proposition we should like to affirm, namely, ‘B was an astute diplomatist’, where B is the object which was Bismarck. What enables us to communicate in spite of the varying descriptions we employ is that we know there is a true proposition concerning the actual Bismarck, and that, however we may vary the description (so long as the description is correct), the proposition described is still the same. This proposition, which is described and is known to be true, is what interests us; but we are not acquainted with the proposition itself, and do not know it, though we know it is true. It will be seen that there are various stages in the removal from acquaintance with particulars: there is Bismarck to people who knew him, Bismarck to those who only know of him through history, the man with the iron mask, the longest-lived of men. These are progressively further removed from acquaintance with particulars, and there is a similar hierarchy in the region of universals. Many universals, like many particulars, are only known to us by description. But here, as in the case of particulars, knowledge concerning what is known by description is ultimately reducible to knowledge concerning what is known by acquaintance. KNOWLEDGE BY ACQUAINTANCE 159 The fundamental epistemological principle in the analysis of propositions containing descriptions is this: Every proposition which we can understand must be composed wholly of constituents with which we are acquainted. From what has been said already, it will be plain why I advocate this principle, and how I propose to meet the case of propositions which at first sight contravene it. Let us begin with the reasons for supposing the principle true. The chief reason for supposing the principle true is that it seems scarcely possible to believe that we can make a judgment or entertain a supposition without knowing what it is that we are judging or supposing about. If we make a judgment about (say) Julius Caesar, it is plain that the actual person who was Julius Caesar is not a constituent of the judgment. But before going further, it may be well to explain what I mean when I say that this or that is a constituent of a judgment, or of a proposition which we understand. To begin with judgments: a judgment, as an occurrence, I take to be a relation of a mind to several entities, namely, the entities which compose what is judged. If, e. g. I judge that A loves B, the judgment as an event consists in the existence, at a certain moment, of a specific four-term relation, called judging, between me and A and love and B. That is to say, at the time when I judge, there is a certain complex whose terms are myself and A and love and B, and whose relating relation is judging. My reasons for this view have been set forth elsewhere,1 and I shall not repeat them here. Assuming this view of judgment, the constituents of the judgment are simply the constituents of the complex which is the judgment- Thus, in the above case, the constituents are myself and A and love and B and judging. But myself and judging are constituents shared by all my judgments; thus the distinctive constituents of the particular judgment in question are A and love and B. Coming now to what is meant by ‘understanding a proposition’, I should say that there is another relation possible between me and A and love and B, which is called my supposing that A loves B. 2 When we can suppose that A loves B, we ‘understand the proposition’ A loves B. Thus we often understand a proposition in cases where we have not enough knowledge to make a judgment. 1 Philosophical Essays, ‘The Nature of Truth. ‘ I have been persuaded by Mr Wittgenstein that this theory is somewhat unduly simple, but the modification which I believe it to require does not affect the above argument [1917]. Cf. Meinong, Ueber Annahmen, passim. I formerly supposed, contrary to Meinong’s view, that the relationship of supposing might be merely that of presentation. In this view I now think I was mistaken, and Meinong is right. But my present view depends upon the theory that both in judgment and in assumption there is no single Objective, but the sever al constituents of the judgment or asaumption are in a many-term relation to the mind. Pg5Pg5 160MYSTICISM AND LOGIC Supposing, like judging, is a many-term relation, of which a mind is one term. The other terms of the relation are called the constituents of the proposition supposed. Thus the principle which I enunciated may be re-stated as follows: Whenever a relation of supposing or judging occurs, the terms to which the supposing or judging mind is related by the relation of supposing or judging must be terms with which the mind in question is acquainted. This is merely to say that we cannot make a judgment or a supposition without knowing what it is that we are making our judgment or supposition about. It seems to me that the truth of this principle is evident as soon as the principle is understood; I shall, therefore, in what follows, assume the principle, and use it as a guide in analysing judgments that contain descriptions. Returning now to Julius Caesar, I assume that it will be admitted that he himself is not a constituent of any judgment which I can make. But at this point it is necessary to examine the view that judgments are composed of something called ‘ideas’, and that it is the ‘idea’ of Julius Caesar that is a constituent of my judgment. I believe the plausibility of this view rests upon a failure to form a right theory of descriptions. We may mean by my ‘idea’ of Julius Caesar the things that I know about him, e. g. that he conquered Gaul, was assassinated on the Ides of March, and is a plague to schoolboys. Now I am admitting, and indeed contending, that in order to discover what is actually in my mind when I judge about Julius Caesar, we must substitute for the proper name a description made up of some of the things I know about him. (A description which will often serve to express my thought is ‘the man whose name was Julius Caesar. ‘ For whatever else I may have forgotten about him, it is plain that when I mention him I have not forgotten that that was his name. ) But although I think the theory that judgments consist of ideas may have been suggested in some such way, yet I think the theory itself is fundamentally mistaken. The view seems to be that there is some mental existent which may be called the ‘idea’ of something outside the mind of the person who has the idea, and that, since judgment is a mental event, its constituents must be constituents of the mind of the person judging. But in this view ideas become a veil between us and outside things—? we never really, in knowledge, attain to the things we are supposed to be knowing about, but only to the ideas of those things. The relation of mind, idea, and object, on this view, is utterly obscure, and, so far as I can see, nothing discoverable by inspection warrants the intrusion of the idea between the mind and the object. I suspect that the view ii fostered by the dislike of relations, and that it is felt the mind KNOWLEDGE BY ACQUAINTANCEl6l could not know objects unless there were something ‘in’ the mind which could be called the state of knowing the object. Such a view, however, leads at once to a vicious endless regress, since the relation of idea to object will have to be explained by supposing that the idea itself has an idea of the object, and so on ad infinitum. I therefore see no reason to believe that, when we are acquainted with an object, there is in us something which can be called the ‘idea’ of the object. On the contrary, I hold that acquaintance is wholly a relation, not demanding any such constituent of the mind as is supposed by advocates of ‘ideas’. This is, of course, a large question, and one which would take us far from our subject if it were adequately discussed. I therefore content myself with the above indications, and with the corollary that, in judging, the actual objects concerning which we judge, rather than any supposed purely mental entities, are constituents of the complex which is the judgment. When, therefore, I say that we must substitute for ‘Julius Caesar’ some description of Julius Caesar, in order to discover the meaning of a judgment nominally about him, I am not saying that we must substitute an idea. Suppose our description is ‘the man whose name was Julius Caesar’. Let our judgment be ‘Julius Caesar was assassinated’. Then it becomes ‘the man whose name was Julius Caesar was assassinated’. Here Julius Caesar is a noise or shape with which we are acquainted, and all the other constituents of the judgment (neglecting the tense in ‘was’) are concepts with which we are acquainted. Thus our judgment is wholly reduced to constituents with which we are acquainted, but Julius Caesar himself has ceased to be a constituent of our judgment. This, however, requires a proviso, to be further explained shortly, namely, that ‘the man whose name was Julius Caesar’ must not, as a whole, be a constituent of our judgment, that is to say, this phrase must not, as a whole, have a meaning which enters into the judgment. Any right analysis of the judgment, therefore, must break up this phrase, and not treat it as a subordinate complex which is part of the judgment. The judgment ‘the man whose name was Julius Caesar was assassinated’ may be interpreted as meaning ‘one and only one man was called Julius Caesar, and that one was assassinated’. Here it is plain that there is no constituent corresponding to the phrase, ‘the man whose name was Julius Caesar’. Thus there is no reason to regard this phrase as expressing a constituent of the judgment, and we have seen that this phrase must be broken up if we are to be acquainted with all the constituents of the judgment. This conclusion, which we have reached from considerations concerned with the theory of knowledge, is also forced upon Pg6Pg6 162MYSTICISM AND LOGIC us by logical considerations, which must now be briefly reviewed. It is common to distinguish two aspects, meaning and denotation, in such phrases as ‘the author of Waverley’. The meaning will be a certain complex} consisting (at least) of authorship and Waverley with some relation] the denotation will be Scott. Similarly ‘feather-less bipeds’ will have a complex meaning, containing as constituents the presence of two feet and the absence of feathers, while its denotation will be the class of men. Thus when we say ‘Scott is the author of Waverley’ or ‘men are the same as featherless bipeds’, we are asserting an identity of denotation, and this assertion is worth making because of the diversity of meaning. 1 I believe that the duality of meaning and denotation, though capable of a true interpretation, is misleading if taken as fundamental. The denotation, I believe, is not a constituent of the proposition, except in the case of proper names, i. e. of words which do not assign a property to an object, but merely and solely name it. And I should hold further that, in this sense, there are only two words which are strictly proper names of particulars, namely, T and ‘this. ‘2 One reason for not believing the denotation to be a constituent of the proposition is that we may know the proposition even when we are not acquainted with the denotation. The proposition ‘the author of Waverley is a novelist’ was known to people who did not know that ‘the author of Waverley’ denoted Scott. This reason has been already sufficiently emphasized. A second reason is that propositions concerning ‘the so-and-so’ are possible even when ‘the so-and-so’ has no denotation. Take, e. g. ‘the golden mountain does not exist’ or ‘the round square is self- contradictory’. If we are to preserve the duality of meaning and denotation, we have to say, with Meinong, that there are such objects as the golden mountain and the round square, although these objects do not have being. We even have to admit that the existent round square is existent, but does not exist. 3 Meinong does not regard this as a contradition, but I fail to see that it is not one. Indeed, it seems to me evident that the judgment ‘there is no such object as the round square’ does not presuppose that there is such an object. If this is admitted, however, we are led to the conclusion that, by parity of form, no judgment concerning ‘the so-and-so’ actually involves the so-and-so as a constituent. 1 This view has been recently advocated by Miss E. E. C. Jones. ‘A New Law of Thought and its Implications,’ Mind, January, 1911. * I should now exclude ‘I’ from proper names in the strict sense, and retain only ‘this’ [1917]. †¢? Meinongj Ueber Annahmen, 2nd ed. , Leipzig, 1910, p. 141. KNOWLEDGE BY ACQUAINTANCE 163 Miss Jones1 contends that there is no difficulty in admitting contradictory predicates concerning such an object as ‘the present King of France’, on the ground that this object is in itself contradictory. Now it might, of course, be argued that this object, unlike the round square, is not self-contradictory, but merely non-existent. This, however, would not go to the root of the matter. The real objection to such an argument is that the law of contradiction ought not to be stated in the traditional form ‘A is not both B and not B’, but in the form ‘no proposition is both true and false*. The traditional form only applies to certain propositions, namely, to those which attribute a predicate to a subject. When the law is stated of propositions, instead of being stated concerning subjects and predicates it is at once evident that propositions about the present King of France or the round square can form no exception, but are just as incapable of being both true and false as other propositions. Miss Jones2 argues that ‘Scott is the author of Waverley’ asserts identity of denotation between Scott and the author of Waverley. But there is some difficulty in choosing among alternative meanings of this contention. In the first place, it should be observed that the author of Waverley is not a mere name, like Scott. Scott is merely a noise or shape conventionally used to designate a certain person; it gives us no information about that person, and has nothing that can be called meaning as opposed to denotation. (I neglect the fact, considered above, that even proper names, as a rule, really stand for descriptions. But the author of Waverley is not merely conventionally a name for Scott; the element of mere convention belongs here to the separate words, the and author and of and Waverley. Given what these words stand for, the author of Waverley is no longer arbitrary. When it is said that Scott is the author of Waverley, we are not stating that these are two names for one man, as we should be if we said ‘Scott is Sir Walter’. A man’s name is what he is called, but however much Scott had bee n called the author of Waverley, that would not have made im be the author; it was necessary for him actually to write Waverley, which was a fact having nothing to do with names. If, then, we are asserting identity of denotation, we must not mean by denotation the mere relation of a name to the thing named. In fact, it would be nearer to the truth to say that the meaning of ‘Scott’ is the denotation of ‘the author of Waverley’. The relation of ‘Scott* to Scott is that ‘Scott’ means Scott, just as the relation of ‘author’ to the concept which is so called is that ‘author’ means this concept. 1 Mind, July, 1910, p. 80. ‘ Mind, July, 1910. p. 379. Pg7Pg7 164MYSTICISM AND LOGIC Thus if we distinguish meaning and denotation in ‘the author of Waverley’, we shall have to say that ‘Scott’ has meaning but not denotation. Also when we say ‘Scott is the author of Waverley’, the m eaning of ‘the author of Waverley’ is relevant to our assertion. For if the denotation alone were relevant, any other phrase with the same denotation would give the same proposition. Thus ‘Scott is the author of Marmion’ would be the same proposition as ‘Scott is the author of Waverley’. But this is plainly not the case, since from the first we learn that Scott wrote Marmion and from the second we learn that he wrote Waverley, but the first tells us nothing about Waverley and the second nothing about Marmion. Hence the meaning of ‘the author of Waverley’ as opposed to the denotation, is certainly relevant to ‘Scott is the author of Waverley’. We have thus agreed that ‘the author of Waverley’ is not a mere name, and that its meaning is relevant in propositions in which it occurs. Thus if we are to say, as Miss Jones does, that ‘Scott is the author of Waverley’ asserts an identity of denotation, we must regard the denotation of ‘the author of Waverley’ as the denotation of what is meant by ‘the author of Waverley’. Let us call the meaning of ‘the author of Waverley’ M. Thus M is what ‘the author of Waverley’ means. Then we are to suppose that ‘Scott is the author of Waverley’ means ‘Scott is the denotation of M But here we are explaining our proposition by another of the same form, and thus we have made no progress towards a real explanation. The denotation of M,’ like ‘the author of Waverley’, has both meaning and denotation, on the theory we are examining. If we call its meaning M’, our proposition becomes ‘Scott is the denotation of M†. But this leads at once to an endless regress. Thus the attempt to regard our proposition as asserting identity of denotation breaks down, and it becomes imperative to find some other analysis. When this analysis has been completed, we shall be able to reinterpret the phrase ‘identity of denotation’, which remains obscure so long as it is taken as fundamental. The first point to observe is that, in any proposition about ‘the author of Waverley’, provided Scott is not explicitly mentioned, the denotation itself, i. e. Scott, does not occur, but only the concept of denotation, which will be represented by a variable. Suppose we say ‘the author of Waverley was the author of Marmion’, we are certainly not saying that both were Scott—? we may have forgotten that there was such a person as Scott. We are saying that there is some man who was the author of Waverley and the author of Marmion. That Is to say, there is someone who wrote Waverley and Marmion, and no one else wrote them. Thus the identity is that of a variable, i. e. of KNOWLEDGE BY ACQUAINTANCE 165 an identifiable subject, ‘someone’. This is why we can understand propositions about ‘the author of Waverley’, without knowing who he was. When we say ‘the author of Waverley was a poet’, we mean ‘one and only one man wrote Waverley, and he was a poet’; when we say ‘the author of Waverley was Scott’ we mean ‘one and only one man wrote Waverley, and he was Scott’. Here the identity is between a variable, i. . an indeterminate subject (‘he’), and Scott; ‘the author of Waverley’ has been analysed away, and no longer appears as a constituent of the proposition. 1 The reason why it is imperative to analyse away the phrase, ‘the author of Waverley’ may be stated as follows. It is plain that when we say â €˜the author of Waverley is the author of Marmion’, the is expresses identity. We have seen also that the common denotation, namely Scott, is not a constituent of this proposition, while the meanings (if any) of ‘the author of Waverley’ and ‘the author of Marmion’ are not identical. We have seen also that, in any sense in which the meaning of a word is a constituent of a proposition in whose verbal expression the word occurs, ‘Scott’ means the actual man Scott, in the same sense (so far as concerns our present discussion) in which ‘author’ means a certain universal. Thus, if ‘the author of Waverley’ were a subordinate complex in the above proposition, its meaning would have to be what was said to be identical with the meaning of ‘the author of Marmion’. This is plainly not the case; and the only escape is to say that ‘the author of Waverley’ does not, by itself, have a meaning, though phrases of which it is part do have a meaning. That is, in a right analysis of the above proposition, ‘the author of Waverley’ must disappear. This is effected when the above proposition is analysed as meaning: ‘Some one wrote Waverley and no one else did, and that someone also wrote Marmion and no one else did. ‘ This may be more simply expressed by saying that the propositional function ‘x wrote Waverley and Marmion, and no one else did’ is capable of truth, i. e. ome value of x makes it true, but no other value does. Thus the true subject of our judgment is a propositional function, i. e. a complex containing an undetermined constituent, and becoming a proposition as soon as this constituent is determined. We may now define the denotation of a phrase. If we know that the proposition ‘a is the so-and-so’ is true, i. e. that a is so-and-so and nothing else is, we call a the denotation of the phrase ‘the so- 1 The theory which I am advocating is set forth fully, with the logical grounds in its favour, in Principia Mathematica, Vol. I, Introduction, Chap. Ill; also, less fully, in Mind, October, 1905. Pg8Pg8 166 MYSTICISM AND LOGIC and-so’. A very great many of the propositions we naturally make about ‘the so-and-so’ will remain true or remain false if we substitute a for ‘the so-and-so’, where a is the denotation of ‘the so-and-so’. Such propositions will also remain true or remain false if we substitute for ‘the so-and-so’ any other phrase having the same denotation. Hence, as practical men, we become interested in the denotation more than in the description, since the denotation decides as to the truth or falsehood of so many statements in which the description occurs. Moreover, as we saw earlier in considering the relations of description and acquaintance, we often wish to reach the denotation, and are only hindered by lack of acquaintance: in such cases the description is merely the means we employ to get as near as possible to the denotation. Hence it naturally comes to be supposed that the denotation is part of the proposition in which the description occurs. But we have seen, both on logical and on epistemological grounds, that this is an error. The actual object (if any) which is the denotation is not (unless it is explicitly mentioned) a constituent of propositions in which descriptions occur; and this is the reason why, in order to understand such propositions, we need acquaintance with the constituents of the description, but do not need acquaintance with its denotation. The first result of analysis, when applied to propositions whose grammatical subject is ‘the so-and-so’, is to substitute a variable as subject; i. e. we obtain a proposition of the form: ‘There is something which alone is so-and-so, and that something is such-and-such. The further analysis of propositions concerning ‘the so-and-so’ is thus merged in the problem of the nature of the variable, i. e. of the meanings of some, any, and all. This is a difficult problem, concerning which I do not intend to say anything at present. To sum up our whole discussion: We began by distinguishing two sorts of knowledge of objects, namel y, knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description. Of these it is only the former that brings the object itself before the mind. We have acquaintance with sense-data, with many universals, and possibly with ourselves, but not with physical objects or other minds. We have descriptive knowledge of an object when we know that it is the object having some property or properties with which we are acquainted; that is so say, when we know that the property or properties in question belong to one object and no more, we are said to have knowledge of that one object by description, whether or not we are acquainted with the object. Our knowledge of physical objects and of other minds is only knowledge by description, the descriptions involved being usually KNOWLEDGE BY ACQUAINTANCE167 such as involve sense-data. All propositions intelligible to us, whether or not they primarily concern things only known to us by description, are composed wholly of constituents with which we are acquainted, for a constituent with which we are not acquainted is unintelligible to us. A judgment, we found, is not composed of mental constituents called ‘ideas’, but consists of an occurrence whose constituents are a mind1 and certain objects, particulars or universals. (One at least must be a universal. ) When a judgment is rightly analysed, the objects which are constituents of it must all be objects with which the mind which is a constituent of it is acquainted. This conclusion forces us to analyse descriptive phrases occurring in propositions, and to say that the objects denoted by such phrases are not constituents of judgments in which such phrases occur (unless these objects are explicitly mentioned). This leads us to the view (recommended also on purely logical grounds) that when we say ‘the author of Marmion was the author of Waverley’, Scott himself is not a constituent of our judgement, and that the judgment cannot be explained by saying that it affirms identity of denotation with diversity of meaning. It also, plainly, does not assert identity of meaning. Such judgments, therefore, can only be analysed by breaking up the descriptive phrases, introducing a variable, and making prepositional functions the ultimate subjects. In fact, ‘the so-and-so is such-and-such’ will mean that fx is so-and-so and nothing else is, and x is such-and-such’ is capable of truth. The analysis of such judgments involves many fresh problems, but the discussion of these problems is not undertaken in the present paper. 11 use this phrase merely to denote the something psychological which enters into judgment, without intending to prejudge the question as to what this How to cite Russell-Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge, Essay examples

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Question: Write an advocacy letter. Answer: To The State Representative, Teresa Fedor (D., Toledo) 77 South High St., 10th Floor, Columbus, Oh 43215-611 Dear State Representative Fedor, As a member of the student community at the university of Toledo I would like to bring to your notice that the publicity and awareness campaign against the use of heroin has abruptly come to an end. Has the funding allocated for the purpose been frozen? As a resident at the campus, There are several telltale signs that the student community at the campus has heroin addiction problems. This has made it difficult to live and learn at the campus. Earlier there was a constant barrage of information about the consequences of substance abuse in the form of banners, pamphlets, television commercials and internet advertisements. Back then the constant reminders to remain away from substance abuse fell on our ears all the while and I can assure you Ms State Representative, that they were not falling on deaf ears. I make this request as you and your colleagues finalize the 2016 legislation for spending on prevention programs in healthcare. Allocation of funding for this prevention program is urgently felt by the students of university of Toledo. Provision of the above funds will be useful in resuming the publicity campaigns at all universities in Ohio state. Heroin is an opioid drug that causes severe addiction among its users. Its effects however, reach way beyond the actual users. There are medical reasons that warrant the fact that every addict should be able to get help to get rid of the habit, these include- HIV, hepatitis, and detrimental effects on the growing fetus if the addict is a pregnant mother. The social consequences of heroin addiction are severe and affect the people around the addict. The addicted person could take to crime, become violent and cause disruptions in the family. The strain on the family's finances causes further damage (drugabuse, 2014). Part of the grant for the Substance Abuse Prevention Block Treatment Grant will be used to fund States and Territories for their heroin abuse prevention programs. Community based prevention is promoted by The Center of Substance Abuse Treatment and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. The fact that heroin use is on the rise shall make this expenditure by the federal government a highly recommended budget allocation. The reports of young people and adolescents wasting their productive lives in substance abuse is a waste of talent and human resource which the USA could use for development. Their personal lives and lives of their families would be on a smooth track if they could be cured of heroin addiction. prevention of substance abuse and treatment of affected individuals can strengthen our society, community and the country. Long term treatment and management of withdrawal symptoms is expensive and state funding of prevention programs will help us find better ways and treatment modalities for treatment of this serious and damaging addiction that can take away young, vibrant lives if not treated in time. Yours sincerely, Reference (https://www.drugabuse.gov, 2014)