Topic 4 (Part 1) 4.1-4

How many states had to ratify a law before it could be passed?

9

Washington's private secretary during the war, New York, despised the Articles of Confederation, called for strong central government, secretary of treasury of the United States

Alexander Hamilton

List some Federalists.

Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin (Add more if you have any. Password: password)

Change

Amend

People who opposed the Constitution

Antifederalists

First American constitution in 1777 which created a loose alliance of 13 independent states

Articles of Confederation

Describe three federalist views.

Articles of Confederation left too much power with the states and created a weak central government, Constitution gave the national government more authority and still protected states' rights

What was a major benefit of joining the Articles of Confederation?

Basic rights, start making money

List of freedoms the government promises to protect

Bill of Rights

To give up power or land to an authority

Cede

In what ways were the Romans admired?

Civic virtues

Noah Webster used the word cobweb to describe the Confederation. Explain why the word cobweb is a good description of the Confederation.

Cobwebs are lacking, not very strong, delicate, not united, and just sort of hanging there not doing anything for anyone, like the Confederation at the time

A settlement, or peaceful solution, in which each side gives up some of its demands in order to reach an agreement

Compromise

A document that sets out basic principles, laws, organization, and processes of a government

Constitution

Describe the Antifederalist views.

Constitution made the central government too strong, left states too weak, and gave the President too much power; thought the President could just as easily become a monarch if they ever so wished; didn't want office to grow too powerful; wanted a list of rights to be included

Opened on May 25, 1787; revised the Articles of Confederation

Constitutional Convention

Money

Currency

What functions was Congress able to perform under the Articles of Confederation?

Declare war, appoint military officers, pass laws (approved by states), coin money (too much, no value), operate post offices, sign treaties

A period when business activity slows, prices and wages fall, and unemployment rises

Depression

A government in which one person or a small group holds complete authority

Dictatorship

Identify one way that state constitutions were similar to colonial government in structure.

Divided power into an executive and a legislature

Parliamentary elections should be held regularly, states that citizens had the right to bear arms and habeas corpus

English Bill of Rights

Carried out laws

Executive branch

A series of essays written to explain and defend the Constitution, written by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton under pseudonyms

Federalist Papers

Did the position of the federalists or the antifederalists make more sense? Why or why not?

Federalist: people could prevent a bad President through voting, President only had 1/3 of the power, a strong central government is necessary to keep a nation together Antifederalist: if rights aren't written down the government could ignore or deny them, a too powerful office could easily become a dictatorship (Feel free to add things. Password: password)

Supporters of the Constitution; favored a strong federal, or national, government

Federalists

Virginia, elected president of the Convention, calming presence, well respected

George Washington

Why was it extremely important that a bill of rights be added to the Constitution as soon as it was ratified? What might've happened if a bill of rights wasn't added immediately?

Government could have taken away the rights, they would lose the states' trust, several states only ratified because they had been promised a bill of rights would be added, there could have been another war

What would have happened if a state government did not write a constitution? Identify two issues that would have resulted.

Government would not be limited, rights would not be protected

Two houses in legislature, in the House of Representatives the number of representatives were decided by population, in the Senate each state had only two senators

Great Compromise

Why was James Madison considered the best prepared delegate at the Convention?

He had been reading books of history, politics, and commerce for months; he set a model of civic virtue

What was Benjamin Franklin asking in his statement at the end of the Constitutional Convention? "I cannot help expressing a wish, that every member of the Convention who may still have objections to [this Constitution], would with me, on this occasion, doubt a little of his own infallibility, and... put his name to this instrument."

He was asking people if they would shove away the idea that everything they did was and had to be perfect and to sign the Constitution which might not be perfect but it was what they had

Explain Madison's position on the Bill of Rights. Why did he say it did not give Americans rights? According to Madison, what was its purpose?

He wrote out twelve amendments, of which only ten were ratified, which were proposed by Congress; it listed natural rights that belong to all human beings; it "simply prevents the government from taking these rights away"

Why is habeas corpus important?

If people did not have the right to habeas corpus, then freedom could be taken away from anyone at any time for no reason at all

How did the Articles of Confederation (AoC) influence the Constitution?

In the AoC, 3/5 of the slave population were citizens

What is so significant about the Preamble's opening words? "We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union..."

It expressed the goals of the framers, it said the Articles of Confederation weren't good and they could do better

How did the Great Compromise resolve the conflicts caused by the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan?

It included two houses: House of Representatives in which seats were awarded to a state according to its population (Virginia Plan); Senate in which each state got two senators each (New Jersey Plan)

How did the principles embodied in the English Bill of Rights further develop the ideas in the Magna Carta?

It upheld the right to trial by jury, it said that Parliamentary elections should be held regularly, protected citizens' rights

Why was New Hampshire's ratification of the Constitution particularly important?

It was the ninth state to ratify

Virginia, best-prepared delegate, "Father of the Constitution", brilliant, framed the Constitution

James Madison

List some people who were in between being a Federalist or an Antifederalist.

John Adams (Add more if you have any. Password: password)

Decided whether laws or the Constitution were violated

Judicial branch

Set up a system for settling the Northwest Territory

Land Ordinance of 1785

Passed laws

Legislative branch

What concepts expressed by John Locke also are expressed in the Constitution? How are they included in the Constitution?

Locke declared that all people had the natural right to life, liberty, and property, the Constitution included those rights; Locke suggested that government is an agreement between the ruler and the ruled, the Constitution enables citizens to vote for and elect representatives

British document signed by King John 1215; said monarchs had to obey the law, everyone had the right to trial by jury and private property; it gave citizens rights

Magna Carta

Give some examples of civic virtue.

Making a donation, volunteering, voting, being on a community committee

What ideas in the Magna Carta were particularly important to the Founding Fathers?

Monarchs were not above the law, rights to trial by jury and private property

What concepts expressed by Montesquieu are expressed in the Constitution? How are they included in the Constitution?

Montesquieu said that powers of government should be clearly defined and divided up and he introduced the idea of separation of powers, the Constitution divides government up into three branches: judicial, legislative, and executive

What does it mean to have civic virtue?

Moral citizen, virtuous person, high morals, dedicated to a community, give service even if it might mean a sacrifice

3 branches of government, one house in legislature, each state had one vote

New Jersey Plan

What were some weaknesses of the central government of the Articles of Confederation?

No power to resolve conflicts, no power to tax, difficult to trade, couldn't enforce laws, couldn't maintain a standing army, weak central government, trade dropped off, disagreement between states

Set up a government for the Northwest Territory

Northwest Ordinance

What did the Great Compromise do?

Organize the legislative branch

List some Antifederalists.

Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, Ed Randolph, George Mason, THOMAS JEFFERSON (Add more if you have any. Password: password)

What determines whether a state is big or not?

Population

What did the founders want to encourage the Roman ideal of?

Public service

To approve

Ratify

Power held by the people, a government in which citizens rule themselves through elected representatives

Republic

What sort of freedoms did the government promise to protect?

Right to vote if you were at least 21-years-old and a white male, trial by jury, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness

How was the new system of government created by the founders unlike anything that came before it?

Senate and House of Representatives, no king, elections, written guarantees about what's right and what's wrong

Government divided into three branches: judicial, executive, legislative

Separation of powers

How was the new system of government created by the founders heavily influenced by the past?

Separation of powers, of, for, and by the people, rights to life, liberty, and property, right to trial by jury, leader follows laws, civic virtues

What was the purpose of the Northwest Ordinance?

Set up a government for the Northwest Territory

"We the people... " Why are these words important?

Sets the idea that government is by the people, for the people, and of the people, that people control the government, the government doesn't control people.

1789 when farmers rebelled against the government for taking their land away when the farmers couldn't repay their debts

Shays' Rebellion

What was the North's argument for why slaves should not be counted in population?

Slaves were not citizens

Why was it important to the government be able to operate post offices?

So states could communicate with each other more efficiently

In addition to the Three-Fifths Compromise, the delegates at the Constitutional Convention made other compromises regarding slavery. How did these agreements satisfy both Southerners and Northerners?

South: got to keep their slaves North: could outlaw slavery after twenty years

Who benefitted more from the Three-Fifths Compromise- southerners or northerners? Why?

South; instead of 31% representation in the house they obtained 43%, so in short they got to have more representatives because they had more slaves (If you have any reasons for why the north benefitted you can add them here. Password: password)

Identify one way that state constitutions were different from colonial government in structure.

State constitutions opened up voting to more people

Provide evidence that shows the Articles of Confederation had some strengths, and explain why these were strengths.

States had power because they each sent one delegate to Congress so they each had one vote, this was a strength because it prevented the government from gaining too much power

Summarize the process by which a new state would be admitted to the nation under the Articles of Confederation.

Territory is surveyed, territory is divided into townships, further divided into 36 sections, sold for $640 a piece, after getting 60,000 settlers they could become a state

What was the Antifederalists' biggest objection to the Constitution? Was this a legitimate concern?

That the Constitution had no bill, or list, of rights; it was a good concern because if these rights weren't written down, they could too easily be denied or ignored by the government That the states were left too weak; it was a good concern because the states could also be denied their rights

What was the main belief of Enlightenment thinkers?

That the use of reason was vital to improving society

What did Shays' Rebellion show to many people?

The Articles of Confederation didn't work

Give examples that support the idea that Americans had a long tradition of representative government as well as written documents that identified the powers and limits of government.

The House of Burgesses and the Mayflower Compact

How did the weakness of the central government under the Articles Confederation contribute to nation's problems after independence?

The government had no power to tax and so they fell into a lot of debt and started printing paper money which eventually lost value because they printed so much and other states started printing their own currencies which made trade very difficult

What factor encouraged many states to vote for ratification of the Constitution?

The promise of a bill of rights

What does the right to habeas corpus guarantee?

The right to remain free unless charged with a crime

Describe the system of checks and balances.

There are three branches of government and each branch checks each other's work to prevent corruption

The Constitution may have been approved if the Federalist Papers were never written, but the text indicates these documents have special value. What details support this assertion?

They are referred to in our government today, they help to explain our government

Some Antifederalists worried that under theConstitution the President would have too much power. What does this suggest about Americans' concerns at this time in the nation's history?

They didn't want a repeat of the colonial grievances and were afraid their government would become too strong and turn into a monarchy

How did the ideas embodied in the Constitution reflect ideas that were expressed in the Declaration of Independence? How are they included in the Constitution?

They set out writing the Constitution with the grievances in mind and how they didn't want them to happen again, so they elected the President commander in chief of the Army, Navy, and militia and they made the legislature and President be separate from the court

How were the Romans disappointing?

They stumbled once they allowed corruption to take over

Why didn't the three delegates who didn't sign the Constitution not sign?

They thought it was too strong of a government

Why did farmers participate in Shays' Rebellion?

They took loans to keep their farms running while they were fighting in the war, when they returned they couldn't pay back their debts and the government foreclosed their farms, they participated to either get their lands back or keep them

Why were the ideas of independence and public service so important to the founders?

They wanted their citizens to be devoted to their republic and to be willing to make sacrifices for it

Some American leaders feared a strong government would simply replace the tyranny of the British government. Did this make sense given their circumstances?

They wanted things to be different and Parliament was really powerful

Why was it crucial that New York and Virginia ratify the Constitution?

They were two of the largest states, they were states whose support was important to national unity, they had a lot of people and a good mix of Federalists and Antifederalists

What does the Bill of Rights suggest about the concerns of the nation's leaders at this time, and the kind of government they wanted to establish?

Thought there was still going to be corruption, wanted a fair government, suggests they thought the tyranny of English rule might return one day

3/5 of enslaved residents would be counted in the state's population

Three-Fifths Compromise

How did James Madison's political philosophy contribute to the development of the United States government?

Tried to convince people they needed a strong central government, proposed a government with three branches, wrote essays for the Federalist papers suggesting a system of checks and balances

If a government is bicameral, what does it have?

Two houses in legislature

How successful was Franklin's plea to the delegates? "I cannot help expressing a wish, that every member of the Convention who may still have objections to [this Constitution], would with me, on this occasion, doubt a little of his own infallibility, and... put his name to this instrument."

Very successful, all but three delegates signed after he said it

Called for a strong national government with 3 branches, two houses in legislature, the larger the state the more representatives they get, each state had one vote

Virginia Plan

Why do you think slavery was outlawed in the Northwest Territory?

Wasn't economically feasible

Was anything positive accomplished by Shays' Rebellion?

Yes, it lead to the creation of the Constitution

Were the plans fair? Why or why not?

Yes, they were about as fair as they could be. They included two houses in legislature: the Senate benefitted the smaller states, the House of Representatives benefitted the larger states

The idea that no person could held in prison without first being charged with specific crime

habeas corpus