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"Hi Dad...", Tim muttered. "What's wrong", asked Dad. 

"Well, since it's the fourth of July, I was wondering, what's 

all the fuss about? What reason do I have to be happy? I 

mean, it's all fine and dandy with the fireworks and great 

food, but why should I be patriotic? I'm like 8 years old, 

why should I care about my country?" "Why little Timmy, 

there are many reasons to be patriotic on the fourth of 

july! Why, I bet you I could write a book about them all!", 

his dad said. "Ha! Good luck with that one dad!" retorted 

Tim, "I have no idea how you would manage to do it!" "All 

right then son, how about you go the the fridge and fetch 

me a couple ingredients for the fourth of july cake, will 

you?" asked his dad. "Ugh, fine." grumbled Tim. 

"Thanks son! Alright, so let's start way back in 1798. This was 

just after the Revolutionary war, when we kick those sorry 

redcoats all the way back to Britain! At this time, America 

started to prosper, and a man named Eli Whitney became 

famous for something he made. Can you remember what that 

was?" asked the Dad. "Of course!" exclaimed the child, "He 

made the cotton gin, which helped make cotton picking a lot 

easier!" "Right you are son! Believe it or not, that helped 

boost America's pride by a lot! People in America at the time 

thought it was great that an American, such as Eli Whitney, 

could make a machine that was only made in America, to 

help out farmers in the south." 

"Fast forward a couple years, british and american tensions 

are on the rise, so what does america do? We deploy the 

trade embargo on Britain, which meant that the United 

States could not trade with the British. Why is this important 

you may ask? Well, this boosted America's patriotic spirit, 

and Independence by deciding that we as Americans decide 

who we wish to trade with." "Cool! So how does that-" "Stop 

interrupting! I'm on a roll now son! Ok, so the embargo, 

while giving Americans some patriotism, kind of angered the 

british. The embargo, and unsolved issues from the 

revolutionary war sparked another war, cleverly named, the 

war of 1812. After this war, american patriotism skyrocketed 

with our final defeat of the british. We did it once, we did it 

twice, and we'll do it as many times as we need to to keep 

our Independence!"

"Yes!" Pipped up Tim, "So what happens next?" "Well don't 

you know?" inquired dad. "Well, yeah but, you tell it so well..." 

"Ah ok. Well, post war, President Thomas Jefferson bought 

about 828,000 square miles of land, at about 50 cents per 

acre. This helped boost Patriotism in the US because it helped 

to expand the US farther into the North American Continent. 

This helped to start the expansion of the US, and the mentality 

of manifest destiny, or, from sea to shining sea. Which actually 

leads to two more events in history that really seal the 

manifest destiny mindset. The first is the Adams Onis Treaty, 

which gave America Florida, and established borders with 

Mexico. The second is the Monroe doctrine, which 

basically says that if anyone else tries to settle in the North 

American Continent via colonization, it will be taken as an act 

of aggression by the US."

"Last but not least, We have the John Marshall Supreme Court 

decisions." quipped the dad. "The what-now?" asked Tim, "The 

John Marshall Supreme Court decisions. Long story short, it 

basically established Judicial Review, creating a unique system 

of the Judiciary branch that allows for them to choose which 

court cases to review." "Well that's interesting, but I honestly 

don't know what you mean." said Tim. "Not a problem my boy, 

I shall explain it to you better. Take these ingredients." He 

gestures towards the ingredients on the table. "Each one of 

these ingredients represents an event in american history that  

I have just described. For example, the invention of the Cotton 

gin, would be the eggs, the war of 1812, would be the flour, 

etc. and mixing all of these ingredients together to form cake 

mix!" "So... america is cake mix now? How is that supposed to 

make me feel patriotic?" sarcasms Tim.

"Nonono my boy! You are missing the point! The powdery cake 

mix is representing what america is with these events, but it 

doesn't make up the whole cake, which is america! The next 

thing you would need to add, is the milk to make the dough 

for the cake. The milk, would be Henry Clay's american 

system, which keeps the other ingredients together. His 

system was to introduce a system of high tariffs, which are 

taxes on certain goods, a bank of the US, and a system of 

roads that is payed for by the tariffs. Almost all of his system 

was used, but congress found the road system to not be worth 

making into law." "Ohhhh, so basically, America is the cake, 

and all the events that made it up are the ingredients?" 

"Precisely my boy!" dad exclaimed, "But now that you have 

your cake, it's just plain white cake. Not bad, but not unique in 

any way shape or form."

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