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In 1800 the Federalists and their candidate, President John Adams, lost the election to
Thomas Jefferson. Early in 1801 the lame-duck Federalist Congress enacted a
controversial Judiciary Act that created 58 new judgeships, including 42 justiceships of
the peace, for Adams to appoint. Jefferson complained that the Federalists "have
retired into the judiciary as a stronghold." On the night of March 3, 1801, John
Marshall, acting as secretary of state, affixed the official seal to the commissions for
the justices of the peace. He did not, however, deliver the commissions. The next day,
after Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated, he directed the new secretary of state, James
Madison, to withhold delivery of 17 of the 42 commissions, including that of William
Marbury. William Marbury sued for a writ of mandamus to require Madison to hand
over his commission. The decision in Marbury's case, written by Chief Justice John
Marshall (the very same John Marshall who affixed the seal to Marbury's commission)
established and justified the power of judicial review. Marshall strained to reach his
result. The plain words of Section 13 of the Judiciary Act indicate that Marbury went
to the wrong court or invoked the wrong statute (or both), but Marshall proceeded as
if the suit were authorized by Section 13 and then declared the statute unconstitutional
on the grounds that it purported to expand the Court's original jurisdiction in violation
of Article III. Marbury's suit was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. Marshall's decision
allowed the Court to brand Jefferson a violator of civil rights without issuing an order
that the President could have ignored.
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The Preamble to the United States Constitution is a brief
introductory statement of the fundamental purposes and guiding
principles that the Constitution is meant to serve. In general
terms it states, and courts have referred to it as reliable evidence
of, the Founding Fathers' intentions regarding the Constitution's
meaning and what they hoped it would achieve (especially as
compared with the Articles of Confederation).
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The Electoral College consists of the popularly elected
representatives (electors) who formally elect the President and
Vice President of the United States. Since 1964, there have been
538 electors in each presidential election.[1] Article II, Section 1,
Clause 2 of the Constitution specifies how many electors each
state is entitled to have and that each state's legislature decides
how its electors are to be chosen; U.S. territories are not
represented in the Electoral College. The Electoral College is an
example of an indirect election.
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Shays' Rebellion was considered the last battle of the Revolution,
and had some of its opening salvos in Central Massachusetts, in
the town of Uxbridge, in Worcester County on Feb. 3, 1783.
Gov. John Hancock suppressed local riots, after a request by
Colonel Nathan Tyler of Uxbridge. Lieutenant Simeon
Wheelock, of the Town of Uxbridge died at Springfield, in 1784,
when he was killed by a horse while on duty, protecting the
Armory. Shays' Rebellion caused George Washington to emerge
from retirement to advocate a stronger national government.
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The separation of powers, also known as trias politica, is a
model for the governance of democratic states. The model was
first developed in ancient Greece and came into widespread use
by the Roman Republic as part of the uncodified Constitution
of the Roman Republic. Under this model, the state is divided
into branches or estates, each with separate and independent
powers and areas of responsibility. The normal division of
estates is into an executive, a legislature, and a judiciary.
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James Madison (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836) was an American politician
and political philosopher who served as the fourth President of the United
States (1809–1817), and was one of the Founding Fathers of the United
States. Considered to be the "Father of the Constitution," he was the
principal author of the document. In 1788, he wrote over a third of the
Federalist Papers, still the most influential commentary on the Constitution.
The first President to have served in the United States Congress, he was a
leader in the 1st United States Congress, drafted many basic laws and was
responsible for the first ten amendments to the Constitution (said to be based
on the Virginia Declaration of Rights), and thus is also known as the "Father
of the Bill of Rights". As a political theorist, Madison's most distinctive belief
was that the new republic needed checks and balances to protect individual
rights from the tyranny of the majority.
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The United States Cabinet (usually referred to as the President's Cabinet
or simplified as the Cabinet) is composed of the most senior appointed
officers of the executive branch of the federal government of the United
States. Its existence dates back to the first American President, George
Washington, who appointed a Cabinet of four people (Secretary of State
Thomas Jefferson; Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton; Secretary
of War Henry Knox; and Attorney General Edmund Randolph) to advise and
assist him in his duties. Cabinet officers are nominated by the President and
then presented to the United States Senate for confirmation or rejection by a
simple majority. If approved, they are sworn in and begin their duties. Aside
from the Attorney General, and previously, the Postmaster General, they all
receive the title Secretary. Members of the Cabinet serve at the pleasure of the
President.
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A bill of rights is a list of the rights that are considered important and
essential by a nation. The purpose of these bills is to protect those rights
against infringement by the government. The term "bill of rights" originates
from Great Britain, where it referred to a bill that was passed by Parliament in
1689. An entrenched bill of rights exists as a separate instrument
that falls outside of the normal jurisdiction of a country's
legislative body. In many governments, an official legal bill of
rights recognized in principle holds more authority than the
legislative bodies alone. A bill of rights, on the other hand, may
be weakened by subsequent acts passed by government, and they
do not need an approval by vote to alter it.
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To prevent one branch from becoming supreme, and to induce the branches
to cooperate, governance systems that employ a separation of powers need a
way to balance each of the branches. Typically this was accomplished through
a system of "checks and balances", the origin of which, like separation of
powers itself, is specifically credited to Montesquieu. Checks and balances
allows for a system based regulation that allows one branch to limit another,
such as the power of Congress to alter the composition and jurisdiction of
the federal courts.