Articles of ConfederationThe Limits of Limited Government:1. No common currency or banking laws2. Unable to settle disputes over commerce

between states3. Unable to have stable govt. funding or to

collect taxes4. Unanimity necessary to amend5. Unable to deal with foreign powers, i.e. N.

African Pirates6. Weak army and navy7. Unable to respond to Shay’s rebellion

Constitutional ConventionNew Generation of Leaders:Madison and Jefferson, et al.Absent: John and Sam Adams, Patrick Henry,

and Thomas Henry, other revolutionariesGoal – Strengthen the Republic(Against enemies foreign and domestic)

Unicameral vs. Bicameral

CONSTITUTION =COMPROMISE“Great Compromise”

House of Reps for Populous StatesSenate for Small States

Power of govt. divided into 3 branches

“3/5ths Compromise” Compromise on counting slaves as part of population

Democratic power limited by powerful federal judges and the Electoral College, only Representatives directly elected

Limited Government achieved through Checks and BalancesRule based on consent of the governed, but my means of

representative, not direct, democracy

LIBERTY WAS BALANCED WITH ORDER

THE STRUGGLE FOR RATIFICATION:

Problem: Rhode Island – boycotted Constitutional Convention

Solution: After 9 states ratify, Const. in effect in those states

Effect: Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island are last states to ratify

DEBATE RAGES!!! TO RATIFY OR NOT!!!

FEDALISTS (MADISONIANS)

ANTI-FEDERALISTS (JEFFERSONIANS)Anti-federalists:

AGAINST RATIFICATION

WHY: Suspect the elite, suspicious of tyranny

WHO: Poor farmers, frontiersmen, states’ rights advocates

Federalists:FOR RATIFICATION

WHY: Stability and Strength needed to secure economy and the high seas

WHO: Propertied classes, merchants, bankers

FEDERALIST PAPERSA series of essays written by Madison, Hamilton, et al. to create support for ratification in New York, most famous was Federalist #10AMONG the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed Union, none

deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction. …By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community. …The inference to which we are brought is, that the CAUSES of faction cannot be removed, and that relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its EFFECTS. …From this view of the subject it may be concluded that a pure democracy, by which I mean a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person, can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect, and promises the cure for which we are seeking. …The two great points of difference between a democracy and a republic are: first, the delegation of the government, in the latter, to a small number of citizens elected by the rest; secondly, the greater number of citizens, and greater sphere of country, over which the latter may be extended. …A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project, will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union than a particular member of it; in the same proportion as such a malady is more likely to taint a particular county or district, than an entire State.

Bill of RightsThe Bill of Rights is a compromise

between the Federalists/Madison and the AntiFederalists/Jefferson.

Why?

Which amendments are the most important, from an Anti-federalist perspective?