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Notes for Test 1: Part B
Government 12
A Nation Emerges
I.
The European Origins of Our Governmental System
A. Limited Government
1. In 1215, King John of England signed the Magna Carta, which
limited the king’s powers.
2. Provided for trial by jury of peers
3. Prohibited taking of a person’s life, liberty, or property except by
the lawful judgment of that person’s peers.
4. Forced the king to obtain the nobles’ approval of any taxes he
imposed on his royal subjects
5. In 1628, King Charles I was forced to sign the Petition of Rights
which further limited government power.
6. This prohibited the king from imprisoning political critics
without a jury trial.
7. Also stated that the monarch had to obey the law of the land.
8. In 1689, the English government passed the English Bill of
Rights, which further limited government power
a. Monarch could not interfere with parliamentary elections
b. Monarch had to have Parliament’s approval to collect taxes or
to maintain an army
c. Monarch ruled with the consent of the people’s representatives
in Parliament
d. People could not be subject to cruel and unusual punishment or
to excessive fines
B. Representative Government
1. A representative government is one in which the people choose
a limited number of individuals to make governmental decisions
for all citizens.
2. Those chosen by the citizens are called representatives.
3. In England, this group is called Parliament.
a. Upper house: House of Lords
b. Lower house: House of Commons
C. Early Philosophical Influences
1. Political philosophy, which involves ideas about how people
should be governed, was changing in Europe in the 1600s and
1700s.
2. Philosophers questioned such traditional doctrines as the divine
right theory of government.
3. Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau, and the Social Contract
II.
a. Locke said in Two Treatises of Government in 1689, “no
one could be subjected to the political power of another,
without his own consent.”
b. Primary purpose of government was to protect natural
rights.
c. Government social contract between people and
government.
d. Locke theorized that before governments existed, people
lived in a “state of nature” in which they had unlimited
freedom and the right to do as they wished.
e. This was in agreement with Thomas Hobbes who also
discussed a “state of nature.” In contrast to Locke, Hobbes
argued that this situation led to chaos and violence because
the weak could not protect themselves against the strong.
There were no natural rights. Rights could only be won by
force.
f. Life was “nasty, brutish, and short.”
g. Published Leviathan in 1651 which stated that people had
voluntarily agreed to create powerful government in order
to gain security and safety. In exchange, they gave up the
freedom to do as they chose in the state of nature.
h. He believe in a government with a single ruler.
i. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a French political philosopher,
believed that people once lived in a state of nature and
freedom.
j. In The Social Contract, published in 1762, he wrote, “Man
is born free, yet everywhere he is found in chains.”
4. Montesquieu and the Separation of Powers
a. French political philosopher Charles de Secondat, the
Baron of Montesquieu was the first political writer to
discuss dividing government into three separate branches
with different duties and the ability to act as a check on
each other’s power.
b. In his book The Spirit of the Laws (1748) he pointed out
that no one person in the English government was allowed
to make the laws, enforce the laws, and interpret the laws.
The Beginnings of Self-Government
A. The First Settlements
1. In the 1580’s, Sir Walter Raleigh convinced Queen Elizabeth I
to allow him to establish the first British outpost in North
America
2. Sent a ship of settlers to Roanoke Island off coast of North
Carolina but it failed
3. In 1607, the Virginia Company established Jamestown
(Virginia), the first major settlement in North America
4. The king gave the Virginia Company a charter, a written grant
of authority, to make laws “for the good and welfare” of the
Jamestown settlement.
5. Jamestown chose a representative assembly.
6. The Plymouth Company established the first New England
colony in 1620.
7. A group of English Protestants, the Pilgrims, sailed to North
America on the Mayflower, landing in what is now Provincetown
Harbor, at the tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
8. Before going ashore, the adult males drew up the Mayflower
Compact, an agreement in which they set up a government and
promised to obey its laws.
9. It was a social contract of the type Locke had described.
10. "In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal
Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, by the Grace of God, of
England, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, e&. Having
undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith,
and the Honour of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in
the northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and mutually in
the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves
together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation,
and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof to enact,
constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts,
Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet
and convenient for the General good of the Colony; unto which we promise
all due submission and obedience. In Witness whereof we have hereunto
subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of
our Sovereign Lord, King James of England, France and Ireland, the
eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620."
III.
B. More Colonies Are Formed
1. By 1639, a number of Pilgrims who were being persecuted for
their religious beliefs decided to leave the Massachusetts Bay
Colony.
2. They colonized what is now Connecticut and they developed
America’s first written constitution—the Fundamental Orders
of Connecticut.
3. By 1732, all 13 colonies had been established.
The Colonies Rebel
A. The British first placed general restrictions on the colonists in 1651 when
the Navigation Acts were passed by Parliament.
1. These acts required that only English ships be used for trade
within the British empire.
B. Taxation without Representation
1. In 1760, King George III was crowned king of England
2. In 1764, the British passed the Sugar Act—tax on sugar imports.
3. In 1765, the Stamp Act was passed—this was the first direct tax
on the colonies.
4. In October 1765, 9 out of 13 colonies sent delegates were sent to
the Stamp Act Congress held in New York City.
5. The delegates prepared a declaration of rights and grievances
(complaints) against the new British actions and sent this to King
George III.
6. More taxes were placed on glass, pain, and lead.
7. The colonists responded with a boycott, a refusal to purchase all
English goods.
8. In 1773, the anger reached its peak at the Boston Tea Party.
9. The Parliament responded with the Coercive Acts (Intolerable
Acts) in 1774. The acts closed Boston harbor and placed the
government of Boston under direct British control.
C. The First Continental Congress
1. All colonies (except Georgia) sent delegates to Philadelphia on
September 5, 1774.
2. They sent a petition to the king to explain their grievances
3. The Parliament condemned this as rebellion.
D. The Second Continental Congress
1. On April 19, 1775, British soldiers (Redcoats) fought with
colonial citizen-soldiers, called Minutemen, in the towns of
Lexington and Concord (Massachusetts).
2. The Battle of Concord was later described by poet Ralph Waldo
Emerson as the “shot heard round the world.”
3. Less than a month later, the Second Continental Congress met.
4. It named George Washington as army commander-in-chief.
5. Paul Revere (read The Midnight Ride and Myths and Legends)
and Samuel Adams
E. Independence
1. One of the most famous arguments for independence came from
Thomas Paine who wrote Common Sense.
2. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced the Resolution of
Independence to the Second Continental Congress. On July 2, the
congress adopted the resolution:
RESOLVED, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be
free and independent States, that they are absolved from allegiance to
the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and
the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.
3. Thomas Jefferson began writing a draft of the Declaration of
Independence.
4. He asked John Adams and Benjamin Franklin to look over his
work.
5. After some changes, on July 4, 1776 the Declaration of
Independence was adopted.
6. On July 19, the modified draft became the “unanimous
declaration of the thirteen United States of America.”
7. The unalienable—or natural—rights referred to in the
Declaration of Independence are the same rights that Locke
discussed in his political philosophy.
IV.
8. Natural rights were inherent rights—they cannot be taken away
and they are beyond the power of government to grant or deny.
9. According to the Declaration, government exists to protect
individuals’ natural rights.
10. In a democratic society, government derives its power from the
consent of the governed—in other words, people give
government the power to rule.
F. From Colonies to States
1. In May 1776, the Second Continental Congress directed the
colonies to form new governments.
2. All 13 adopted new constitutions which limited government
3. Most citizens feared a strong central government or having
anything close to a monarchy, like a strong executive.
The Articles of Confederation
A. A confederation is a voluntary association of independent states.
B. The Articles were signed March 1, 1781 and served as the nation’s first
national constitution.
C. The Government Under the Confederation
1. The Congress was the central governing body
2. Each state could only send 2 to 7 ambassadors to the congress
but each state would only have one vote.
3. Sovereignty was an important issue. Each state was sovereign.
D. The Powers of Congress under the Articles
1. Enter into treaties and alliances
2. Establish and control armed forces
3. Declare war and make peace
4. Regulate coinage
5. Borrow money
6. Create postal system
7. Regulate Indian affairs
8. Set standards of weights and measures
9. Guarantee that citizens had same rights no matte where they
went
E. The United States under the Articles won the Revolutionary War. The
Treaty of Paris signed in 1783 ended the war.
F. Weaknesses of the Articles
1. The confederation was just a “league of friendship” and there
was permanent stability.
2. When General Charles Cornwallis surrendered in Yorktown on
October 18, 1781 the war basically ended. But there were
disputes among the states regarding the new government.
3. Shay’s Rebellion
a. Daniel Shays along with two thousand farmers seized
country courthouses and disrupted debtors’ trials.
b. Shays attacked an arsenal in Springfield, MA.
c. This was given as a reason to form a central government
V.
4. Annapolis Convention
a. The Virginia legislature called for a meeting or convention
of all the states at Annapolis, Maryland on September 11,
1786.
b. Five of thirteen states sent delegates, two of whom were
Alexander Hamilton of New York and James Madison of
Virginia.
c. Both wanted a strong central government—they were
called nationalists.
d. They persuaded the other delegates to issue a report calling
on the states to hold a convention in Philadelphia in May
of the following year.
e. The reason was for “the sole and expressed purpose of
revising the Articles of Confederation.”
f. This meeting became the Constitutional Convention.
Creating the Constitution
A. The convention formally opened in the East Room of the Pennsylvania
State House (later named Independence Hall) on May 25, 1787.
B. Only Rhode Island did not send delegates.
C. Who Were the Delegates?
1. The 55 were relatively young James Madison, 36; Alexander
Hamilton, 32; Benjamin Franklin was the oldest at 81.
2. George Washington stood out as a leader from the beginning.
He served as president of the convention.
3. Madison’s notes are our primary source of information; he is
known as the Father of the Constitution.
4. 33 were lawyers and half were college graduates.
D. Facts
1. Each state had one vote
2. At least 7 states had to be present for business to be done
(quorum).
E. Revolutionary Plans and Compromises
1. Edmund Randolph of Virginia presented the Virginia Plan
a. Bicameral legislature: the lower house was to be chosen by
the people and the upper house members would be chosen
by the elected members of the lower house.
b. The number of representatives would be based on
population.
c. National legislature could void any state laws.
d. An executive branch elected by the legislature
e. A national court system created by the legislature.
2. William Paterson of New Jersey offered the New Jersey Plan
a. Each state only had one vote
3. The Great Compromise
a. Roger Sherman of Connecticut created the Great
Compromise (Connecticut Compromise)
VI.
b. One house would be based on population (House of
Representatives) and the other would consist of two
members from each state elected by the state legislatures
(Senate)
4. The Slavery Question
a. Slavery was legal in every state except Massachusetts
b. The southern states wanted slaves to be counted equally in
determining representation while the northern states
opposed that.
c. The Three-Fifths Compromise stated the 3/5 of the slaves
were to be counted for purposes of representation.
5. Other Issues
a. The South’s economic health depended on its exports of
agricultural products.
b. The South feared that Congress might pass taxes on these
exports.
c. The South agreed to let Congress have the power to
regulate interstate commerce as well as international
commerce but only if the Congress would guarantee no
export taxes would ever be imposed (this is in the
Constitution)
F. The Final Document
1. Approved on September 17, 1787
Ratifying the Constitution
A. Nine states had to approve the Constitution
B. Federalists versus Anti-Federalists
1. Federalists: wanted a strong central government (James Madison,
Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay)
2. Anti-Federalists: wanted a weak central government (Patrick
Henry, George Mason, Samuel Adams)
3. Federalist Papers: Madison, Jay, and Hamilton wrote a series of
85 essays defending the Constitution (#10 is a classic)
4. The Anti-Federalists argued that the Constitution would create an
overly powerful central government that would limit personal
freedom. They also argued that it lacked a Bill of Rights.
C. The Constitution is Ratified
1. To gain support, a Bill of Rights was added.
2. Rhode Island was the last state to ratify
D. The New Government Begins
1. New York City was the temporary capital.
2. On March 4, 1789, the new Congress met at Federal Hall on
Wall Street.
3. April 6, George Washington was elected the first President and
John Adams Vice President.