Creating the American Government How does one create a government?

Creating the American GovernmentHow does one create a government?

EARLY FOUNDATIONS

Magna Carta: (Great Charter)

Written in 1215,

limited the power of the King

-Sets up foundation for limited government- government must follow the law

Enlightenment Philosophers• John Locke: Natural Rights, Social

Contract• Voltaire: Freedom of Speech, and

Separation of Church and State• Montesquieu: Separation of Powers• Rousseau: Egalitarianism• Egalitarianism - spread of equality

Which parts of society are taken from these philosophers?

Ideas of the enlightenment

• Social contract theory: says that government comes from the consent of the governed.

• People agree to have a government as long as it does not violate their rights and freedoms.

• Originally created by Thomas Hobbes

In return they agreed to follow the law of the contract…

Ideas continued

•Natural rights: Rights that are so basic that they cannot be taken away. (you are born with them)

• -John Locke- Life, LIBERTY ,AND PROPERTY• -OUR VERSION- LIFE LIBERTY AND

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

Types of Social Contracts

• Mayflower Compact• Social contract of the Pilgrims. Created in

1620– Became the foundation of law at the

Plymouth colony in Massachusetts• Fundamental Order of Connecticut (1636)• Contract that stated the power of the

government came from “the free consent of the people.”

House of Burgesses

• Established in Jamestown, VA in the 1600’s

• The first representative governing body in the New World.

• What is significant about Jamestown?

Seeds of Revolution

Navigation Acts• Passed in the 1660• restricted the trade of goods to anyone other

than England• created a FAVORABLE BALANCE OF TRADE for

England.– England is Exporting (sell) more goods than

it is importing (buy)

–Mercantilism – Making money for the mother country.

How would this contribute to the forming of colonies?

Triangle Trade Route

French & Indian War

• War between the British and French over control of the colonies

• Between 1754 & 1763, the British government started taxing the colonists to help pay for the war.

Salutary Neglect

• F & I war: spawned a period of Salutary Neglect between England and the Colonies• England was so concerned with the war that they left

the colonies alone to govern themselves. They did not try to regain control until after the war was over.

Controlling the Colonies

The Proclamation of 1763:

– British passed this statement that

prohibited Colonists from moving

West of the Appalachian Mountains.– The red line is the Proclamation line

Stamp Act: 1765

• Placed a tax on ALL materials printed on paper (newspapers, pamphlets, cards etc.)– All printed goods had to have a special stamp on

it – In response to this tax, many colonists cried for

“no taxation without representation”– Stamp Act seemed to hurt the freedom of

speech

John Peter Zenger Case of 1734

– Won Freedom of the Press: stated you could print whatever you wanted as long as it was true!

Boston Massacre 1770

• By the late 1700’s the British government was very alarmed by colonial protests.

• Britain sent regiments of soldiers to keep order.

• Colonists provoked a British regiment, and they killed five colonists.

• As word spread through the colonies, it became known as the Boston Massacre, a violent confrontation between British soldiers and colonists.

Protest against Britain

• Boston Tea Party in 1773

• Members of Sons of liberty disguised as American Indians boarded British ships in Boston and dumped their tea in the harbor to protest the tea tax.• What is a Protest? What are some different

types of protest?

British response to Boston Tea Party

• Intolerable Acts (Coercive Acts):• Passed to punish the colonists for the Boston

tea party.• Made colonists pay back the lost tea

• Implemented the quartering Act

• Closed the Boston harbour

• Stopped town meetings.

Quartering Act: 1765

Under this act, if asked, colonists were required by law to provide temporary housing and food to British soldiers.

– The colonists considered this an unwanted intrusion of their privacy

Townshend Acts

Declaration of Independence• Signed July 4, 1776 by second continental

congress• Explained why the American Colonies were separating

from Great Britain

– Listed many abuses the colonies suffered under the British king

John Hancock of Massachusetts was the first to put his name down. He did it with a big, bold signature, "so the king doesn't have to put his glasses on," he said.

Fifty-six men signed their names on the Declaration of Independence.

4 parts to the Declaration of Independence1. Preamble (purpose)

IntroductionExplanation of Separation from England

2. Declaration of RightsGeneral theories of GovernmentPeople are born with Natural RightsOrigin of government was a social contract

3. Grievances**Largest SectionCharges against King George III

4. Declaration of IndependenceGoal was to preserve peace, but forced towards independence

Other Causes of the American Revolution

• Common Sense- Written by Thomas Paine arguing for independence.

• Writs of Assistance- Search warrants that allowed soldiers to search whatever, whenever they wanted

• First continental congress- Appealed to the King about the taxation and lack of representation

• Second continental congress- drafted the declaration of independence.

• Thomas Jefferson knew just what to say, and he said it in a way that inspired people all

over the world.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed".

What does this mean?

Background Information…• In 1776, colonies declared their

independence.• The colonists created the Articles of

Confederation to bind the new states together.

• The Articles were the first form of government created in the newly declared Untied States. While it created a National Congress, it also had many issues.

Weakness of the AOC• Congress (legislative branch) could not:

• Regulate trade• Collect taxes• Raise an army• One vote for each state, regardless of size• 9 of the 13 states had to approve most acts/laws• No National Court System• No Executive Officer (President)• No National Currency ($) • National Government only had a unicameral (1

branch) Legislature • Articles only a “firm league of friendship”

• Individual states seemed to have most of the power under the Articles of Confederation, because there was no:

• National Army• National Currency• Executive Officer (President)

Strengths of AOC• Negotiated Treaty of Paris

(1783) which ended the Revolutionary War

• Land Ordinance of 1785

• Northwest Ordinance of 1787

LAND ORDINANCE OF 1785

• The goal of the ordinance was to raise money through the sale of land in the largely unmapped territory west of the original colonies.

• Remember that government could not tax to raise money, so they needed to find ways to make $• Established a method for selling

land• Selling of townships and units to

individuals

NORTHWEST ORDINANCE OF 1787• Created a management policy for

Westward expansion. (creating Midwestern states)

• The U.S. could not legally grow as a Nation.

Calls for transition

from a territory

to a state when

population

grows to

60,000.

Shay’s Rebellion• An armed uprising in Massachusetts from 1786 to

1787. The rebels were mostly small farmers angered by crushing state debt and taxes.

• Failure to repay such debts often resulted in imprisonment or the claiming of property by the state.

• The importance of this rebellion was that it made people realize that without the ability to raise an army, the federal government could not function effectively.

-How does the government pay for the military?

Problems arose between states…

• Trading• states having different currencies($) • No national defense

• As a result of these and other issues, delegates met to revise the Articles of Confederation. Some differences could not be resolved and they ended up drafting a new Constitution.

Arguments for the new Government

A problem arises on how each state is to be represented in the new government. It becomes known as the big vs. little state debate.

New Jersey Plan: Small state plan called for a unicameral legislature and representation based on one vote per state.

Virginia Plan: Large state plan called for a bicameral legislature and representation by population.

Why would big states want representation to be based on population while small states wanted equal representation?

Solutions offered by Constitution

Representation by State & by State’s Population in bicameral (2 houses) legislature

Congress had power to tax

Congress had power to regulate trade

President

National Court System

Amendments ratified by ¾ of States

Laws passed by a simple majority from both houses

Established strong National Government

• Great Compromise (Connecticut Compromise): divided the legislature into two bodies, the Senate and House of Representatives

• States had equal representation in the Senate (2 representatives from each state) and proportional representation in the House (based on population).

• The three-fifths Compromise: states that for purposes of representation, five slaves would be counted as 3 free people. This compromise was used to determine a state’s population. (what states would favor this? Why?)

FEDERALISTSAlexander Hamilton

Loose Interpretation of the Constitution - Constitution changes with

Argued that the new nation needed a strong, effective National Government to handle economy.

– Establish a monetary system

– Promote Justice

Federalism: Theory of government in which power is distributed among the states, but the authority of the Central Government outweighs the authority of the states.

Alexander HamiltonFirst U.S. Secretary of the Treasury

Other Federalists: George Washington, Ben Franklin & James Madison

What are the benefits and weaknesses of a strong central government?

ANTI-FEDERALISTS• Thomas Jefferson • Strict interpretation of the Constitution• Consisted mostly of farmers and small land-owners

who believed nation’s economic future was in agriculture– Opposed strong centralized government– Wanted power for states and individuals

“Believed best government governs the least”

Both parties believed in republicanism: representative government that makes people the source of political authority & respects individual rights.

Thomas Jefferson

What current political party does the Anti-federalist sound MOST like?

FEDERALIST PAPERS

• The Federalist Papers (85 articles) • written to encourage the ratification

of the Constitution• outlining the proposed

ideas of the system of

government

• The Federalists & Anti-Federalist compromised in order to create the

constitution.

Bill of Rights (1st 10 amendments) were added to protect individual rights

(This is what the Anti-Federalists wanted, because they didn’t want the central government to have too much power).