Welcome to the Hillsdale College Online Courses podcast.

I'm Jeremiah Regan.

And I'm Juan Davalos.

We're back with The Great American Story, A Land of Hope.

We're going to cover lectures seven and eight today, the culture of democracy and its shadow.

So we see America reaching a point of maturity. We've gotten past the war of 1812, so that

means we've fought Britain twice and at least kept them out of our business twice, which is

quite an accomplishment. And we're working on the establishment

and the maturation of our polity. And questions arise should we become more aristocratic,

and this is prominent in some of the southern states, or should we continue with our

Republican roots in which citizens participate in their government through their elected representatives.

And these are the types of questions that Dr. McClay is going to address in these two lectures.

Yeah, you start seeing that separation, again, like you mentioned, between the North and the South, but

again, also we see that a lot in the institution of slavery. The South is much more aristocratic and they have

much bigger division, a much different understanding of human nature and of the equality of all people,

and therefore they're much more prone to be favorable towards an aristocratic society. And that

starts causing tensions in the nation and leading up

eventually to a war. That's right. While some questions such as tariffs or internal improvements were

matters of prudence, is this a thing that is right? Will it better affect the safety and happiness

of the people? The question of slavery is a question of justice and arguments developed

and were eventually determined, as we'll see in later lectures, through war, as Juan said.

I do encourage everybody to think about that point that you just made your mind about. The question

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