1. QUICK WRITE over Reading…Choose one of the prompts below and answer with specific, accurate and relevant information. You may use your reading notes.
In what way did the key issues of Representation, Slavery, Trade and the Presidency shape the opposing views of Federalists and Anti- Federalists?
To what extent, if any, did arguments for and against the Bill of Rights emphasize the fears of the Revolution Era?
To what extent, if any, did Hamilton’s Financial Program create a stronger economy for America to build on?
In what way were America’s early treaties favorable and/or detrimental to the new nation?
To what extent, if any, did John Adams’ Presidency embody Anti- Federalist fears of a too-powerful Leader?

2. The Constitution

3. Thematic Learning Objectives
American and National Identity:
Explain how ideas about democracy, freedom, and individualism found expression in the development of cultural values, political institutions, and American identity.
Explain how interpretations of the Constitution and debates over rights, liberties, and definitions of citizenship have affected American values, politics, and society.
Politics and Power: Explain how and why political ideas, beliefs, institutions, party systems, and alignments have developed and changed.

4. Essential Question
How do you account for the U.S. Constitution surviving over 200 hundred years and becoming the oldest written, continuously used constitution in the world?

5. The Constitutional Convention
May 25 – September 17, 1787
Fifty-five delegates
Four theoretical options for creating a new government.
Independent states with no centralized authority.
Independent states held together by a central government that would advise the states but have no power over the states.
Independent states held together by a central government that would have power over the states in some delegated areas.
A strong central government that had power over the states in all cases.

6. Two important political considerations.
Create a constitution on which they could agree.
Create a constitution that the states would ratify.
Disagreements
The status of new states was left vague.
The decision about who would vote was left to the states.
The election of the president was put in the hands of an electoral college.
Discussion of the slave trade was postponed for twenty years.
Counting slaves for taxation and representation was settled in the Three- Fifths Compromise.
The extent to which the national government had authority over the states was left vague.
The “Great” Compromise created a House of Representatives based on population and a Senate based on equal representation.

7. Ratification of the Constitution
Even though nine of thirteen states were needed for ratification, a vote against the Constitution in any one of four key states—Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, or New York—would have raised serious doubts about whether the Constitution was workable.
Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists
The Federalists (supporters of the Constitution) and Anti-Federalists (opponents of the Constitution) agreed on two main issues.
Both supported the creation of a republican form of government.
Both believed in protecting liberty and individual rights.

8. The Federalists and Anti-Federalists disagreed on three main issues.
Disagreed on the necessity of adding a Bill of Rights to the Constitution. (In the Massachusetts Compromise, Federalists agreed to add a Bill of Rights as a condition of ratification.)
Disagreed on the question of whether republican government was possible at the national level.
Disagreed on the extent, if any, to which the national government should have authority over the states.
The Federalist Papers
Series of eighty-five essays published in New York supporting ratification of the Constitution.
Written under the name “Publius.” (Alexander Hamilton wrote fifty-one of the essays; James Madison wrote twenty-nine of the essays; John Jay wrote five of the essays)
The Federalist Papers identified three main reasons for strengthening the national government.
Increased economic power.
Increased power in foreign affairs.
The protection of liberty. (An extended republic would make the consolidation of power more difficult.)

9. The Common Philosophy of the Framers of the Constitution
A virtuous person is one who uses reason to control passion and self-interest.
The Constitution should:
Create a means of regulating the passions of the people without becoming tyrannical and taking away liberty.
Create a political machine that operates on its own, allowing liberty even when the people or their leaders are not virtuous.
Government should provide an automatic system of checks and balances that regulates the passions of the people, as well as the self-interest of the individuals in government.
Automatically filter the will of the people through debating politicians.
A separation of powers between three branches of government will make consolidation of power difficult within the government.
A separation of powers between the national government and state governments will make consolidation of power difficult within the nation.
The interests of big states and little states will be balanced in the House and Senate.
The forces of “change” and “stability” will be balanced in the House and Senate.

10. Three Main Features of the 1787 Constitution
It created a republican form of government.
It established a separation of powers among three branches of government.
It created a federal system of government that divided power between the national and state governments.
Powers delegated to the national government:
Foreign affairs (including issues of war and peace)
Trade
Finances
All other powers were reserved to the states.

11. Odds and Ends
The Constitution of 1787 did what the Declaration of Independence (1776) did not do — it established a functioning government.
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were not present at the constitutional convention.
Several prominent leaders of the American Revolution did not support the Constitution, including Patrick Henry, Sam Adams, and John Hancock.
A Bill of Rights was not included in the original Constitution.
The word “democracy” does not appear in the Constitution.
The idea of equal rights was not included in the original Constitution. (The phrase “all men are created equal” is found in the Declaration of Independence.)
The phrase “of the people, by the people, for the people” does not appear in the Constitution.
The words “God,” “Creator,” and “Jesus” are not in the Constitution.

12. Significant Constitutional Developments Since 1787
1791 — A Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution.
(In Barron v. Baltimore of 1833, the Marshall Court ruled that the Bill of Rights only restricted the actions of the national government.)
1803 — Marbury v. Madison established the principle of judicial review.
1868 — The 14th Amendment put the ideas of equality and national supremacy into the Constitution.
— The Earl Warren Court made the Bill of Rights apply to the states.

13. Four Reasons the U.S. Constitution is an Important Document For All Americans
It created the framework for a government that works.
It has given the United States relative political stability for over two centuries of tremendous historical change.
It provides the American people with a binding code of supreme law.
It serves as a symbol of national unity.