describes as a set of new ideas regarding Christian theology and thinking regarding issues related to wealth and poverty

Russell Conwell was a Baptist minister and businessman. In the following speech, he depicts and explains what he describes as a set of new ideas regarding Christian theology and thinking regarding issues related to wealth and poverty.  Your task here is to find ways to relate the things we’ve studied about the Industrial Revolution and in its influence and see how this might be changing American thinking about religion and write a three paragraph essay with a full introduction, a body containing at least two quotes which are properly analyzed, and a concluding paragraph.  In other words compare what we know about this American history to what we see in this primary source document and see how the two match up.

Acres of Diamonds

Follow the procedure presented for how to do analysis inHow to Write an Analytical Essay and the instructions presented in Writing a Complete Analytical Essay:  be sure to compare your finished essay to the specific requirements outlined in the assignment’s grading rubric.

Rubric

Some Rubric (1)Some Rubric (1)CriteriaRatingsPtsThis criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeDoes the essay introduction successfully introduce the document and its author in its proper and relevant historical context?5 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeDoes the essay introduction successfully and clearly state a main point for the essay based around the critical and historical analysis of the document?10 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeDoes the body of the essay contain specific quotes from the document which are critically analyzed in order to support the essay’s main point?10 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeDoes the body of the essay make use of specific and fully explained historical knowledge drawn from class in its analysis of the document and the specific quotes?10 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeDoes the body of the essay contain analysis that is relevant to a deeper understanding of either the historical document or the particular era from which the document originates?10 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeDoes the conclusion of the essay expand successfully on the essays main point by discussing the broader implications of the now proven main point to US history?

Acres of Diamonds

Rev. Russell Conwell, “Acres of Diamonds” (1915)

I say again that the opportunity to get rich, to attain unto great wealth, is here in Philadelphia now, within the reach of… every man and woman who hears me speak tonight…. I have come to tell you what in God’s sight I believe to be the truth… men and women sitting here, who found it difficult perhaps to buy a ticket to this lecture or gathering to-night, have within their reach “acres of diamonds,” opportunities to get largely wealthy…. Never in the history of the world did a poor man without capital have such an opportunity to get rich quickly and honestly….

I say you ought to get rich, and it is your duty to get rich. How many of my pious brethren say to me “Do you, a Christian minister, spend your time going up and down the country advising young people to get rich, to get money?” “Yes, of course I do.” They say, “Isn’t that awful! Why donít you preach the gospel instead of preaching about man’s making money?” “Because to make money honestly is to preach the gospel.”….

“Oh,” but says some young man here to-night, “I have been told all my life that if a person has money he is very dishonest and dishonorable and mean and contemptible.”; My friend, that is the reason you have none, because you have that idea of people….; Ninety-eight out of one hundred of the rich men of America are honest.  That is why they are rich…. That is why they carry on great enterprises and find plenty of people to work with them. It is because they are honest men.

My friend… [if you] introduce me to the people who own their homes around this great city, those beautiful homes with gardens and flowers, those magnificent homes so lovely in their art, and I will introduce you to the very best people in character as well as in enterprise in our city…. A man is not truly a man until he owns his own home, and they that own their own homes are made more honorable and honest and pure, and true and economical and careful, by owning the home….

Money is power, and you ought to be reasonably ambitious to have it. You ought because you can do more good with it that you could without it. Money printed your Bible, money builds your churches… and money pays your preachers, and you would not have many of them, either, if you did not pay them….

I say, then, you ought to have money. If you can honestly attain unto riches… it is your Christian and godly duty to do so. It is an awful mistake of these pious people to think you must be awfully poor in order to be pious….

Some men say, “Don’t you sympathize with the poor people?” Of course I do, or else I would not have been lecturing these years…. But the number of poor who are to be sympathized with is very small…. While we should sympathize with God’s poor and shy; that is those who cannot help themselves; let us remember that there is not a poor person in the United States who was not made poor by his own shortcomings…. It is all wrong to be poor anyhow….