American Founders Analysis Paper

Founders Analysis Paper Instructions

Module/Week 1 provided an overview of biblical principles related to leadership, statesmanship, and government. In this module/week, you evaluate the lives, actions and decisions of key leaders in the American founding. In turn, this paper will require you to analyze those founders in light of the biblical principles discussed in Module/Week 1. It consists of 3 parts (below). These sections must be discussed in the order presented above and with appropriate headings

·         Part 1:  A summarization of biblical principles of government, leadership, and statesmanship relevant to founding a nation (1–1.5 pages);

·         Part 2:  An application of those principles to the decisions and actions of George Washington and Patrick Henry (1-1.5 pages) and

·         Part 3:  Application of the statesmanship principles discussed in parts 1 and 2 to one germane issue in a contemporary context (1-2 pages).  (The application is not a full blown case study as you read in Newell.  The application links the principles and in Part 2 to a similar situation today.

In Part 2, remember to provide specific evidence (i.e., actions taken and decisions made) to explain how these leaders demonstrated the various attributes and principles discussed in Part 1.  In doing all of this, keep in mind the following:

1)      While statesmanship is certainly about personal leadership skills, moral attributes, and vision, it must also include an understanding of how government actually works and should be structured.  There are plenty of nice, honorable people who care for others but who do not possess an understanding of the inter-workings of government and the required structure needed for a government designed to figh injustice, prevent exploitation, and limit tyranny, particularly in founding a nation.

2)      Thus, your discussion must include a conversation about the type of understanding needed by a statesman as it relates to government structure.  The class readings and in particular, the class presentations for this week will be really helpful to that end.

3)      Your discussion must also focus on those statesmanship principles needed specifically for founding a nation.  As you will notice from the course, we discuss statesmanship in a variety of contexts.  It could be that different statesmanship principles are needed for these different contexts.  Therefore, make sure you are thinking specifically about the challenges of creating a nation based upon justice and liberty for this assignment.

General requirements:

·         3-5 pages, not counting the title page or references page

·         Citations from:

o   3–5 outside scholarly sources

o   the “Leadership and Statesmanship” article

o  

from Newell, Terry. Statesmanship, Character, and Leadership in America. New York: Palgrave MacMillian, 2012. ISBN: 9781137330925.

Vaughan, David. J. Give Me Liberty: The Uncompromising Statesmanship of Patrick Henry. Leaders in Action. Nashville: Cumberland House Publishing, 1997. ISBN: 9781888952223.