HST318 Discussion Posts Spring 2016B

Unit 1:
Prompt:

Please read over the Discussion board guidelines before posting.  As a gentle reminder for this
first unit, you are to post two initial responses (to 2 different questions in the prompts) by
Thursday 3/17.  Then you are to post three responses to your groupmates' posts by Sunday 3/20.
1. Choose one passage from Jervis's autobiography that you believe best captures the state of
American engineering from 1815-1825. Explain why you think it is representative.
2. If you were a citizen of New York in 1816, which argument from Atticus would you find most
convincing, and which least convincing? Explain why.
3. Morrison claims that the building of the Middlesex Canal can be seen in one of two ways: 1)
"a continual and almost systematic botching of a very simple process" or 2) "as an exercise
rather more remarkable than [landing a man on the moon]" (p. 29).  Which interpretation do
you consider more accurate, and why?
Be sure on all three questions that you are using specific examples from the requisite text.

Prompt 1 response:
My apologies on the lateness of these initial posts, I did not read the Unit 1 overview entirely in
detail and missed that there was a firm deadline before Sunday for some assignments (like this
board).  Noted for future posts.
Moving on!  I have chosen a passage from Jervis's autobiography to dissect for the first prompt.

“I learned in these conversations that the target man was regarded as occupying the first step in
the science of engineering. On reflection it appeared to me I could do that service if I could have
a little practice…I put it in the modest form of a question to Mr. Roberts: “What will you give
me to go with you next summer and carry one of those targets?” He very promptly replied,
“Twelve dollars per month.” I as promptly assented and said I would go.”

This turn of events for Jarvis from axeman laborer to a surveyor, essentially a mini-engineer at
that time, simply by observing and picking up little bits of new information around him and then
putting forth the very bold question of “Hey will you hire me for this job I’ve only observed and
never actually done before?” is the epitome of how engineering grew while on the Erie Canal
project. These men just saw someone else doing a skill they either had an interest in or just knew
they could do themselves and talked to the right person to move into that position in the next
season. Workers were obviously needed in all areas of the Erie Canal and even with all the
people they had the progress was still slow. This left absolutely no reason for any man who had
an interest in these engineering jobs to be turned down. And as Jarvis states at the beginning of
this chapter “…I regard it a great error to bring up a boy without giving him the training of a
regular vocation.” With engineering on its way to becoming a regular vocation he, along with
many other up-and-coming engineers such as Wright and Geddes, would probably pass this
revolutionized information onto their sons and there you have the progress of this new field.
Prompt 2 Response:
If I were a citizen of New York in 1816 reading Atticus’ pamphlet on the Canal, the most
convincing argument written would be that of trade going to Canada rather than to America. My
country, being still in it’s incredible infancy from England, would be of great value to me and I
would not want to associate so soon with another country in such a great manner as mass trade
that brought much needed American wealth and prosperity to a different country. The second
most-convincing argument, and I state this simply because it was a very close second, would be
that this Canal needs to be of the people and not attached to a political party. Even as young as
we are those political ties are strong and having the Canal attached to one party or another would
create further divide of a people who are already divided by the Appalachian Mountains and who
should really be united in our liberation from England.

The least convincing argument would be the frugality of the nation as it stands without the
Canal; my personal views are always of the end goal and the big picture. The canal was already
proposed to bring great amounts of wealth to the state of New York and the nation, and post-
build it exceeded even those expectations regardless of the initial cost. Atticus does add to the
frugality point “…to desert your fellow-citizens in the western part of this state, and to throw the
state of Ohio and all our western territory into the arms of Great Britain for all commercial and
useful purposes.” which plays on the emotions since Atticus is clearly for this Canal. Great
Britain to me, even having a powerful Navy, is not my neighboring state, or the Canadians just
across the way. Those two items are much more pressing than anyone across the (very large)
pond so while still a compelling piece of the argument, not near as compelling as trade with
Canada or not seeing neighboring states except on rare occasions for the next hundred years as
the founders observe.