1. Pearson Education, Inc., Longman © 2008
Chapter 2
The Constitution
Pearson Education, Inc., Longman © 2008

2. The Road to Revolution 2.1 Life was good in the colonies Irritants
(Slaves excepted, of course)
Self-governing
Irritants
New taxes to finance French and Indian War
Enforcement of trade regulations
No representation in Parliament
Life was good for the British colonists before the Revolution. The colonies were prosperous and the British government generally let them govern themselves as they saw fit. They enjoyed an unusual degree of freedom, equality and autonomy for that era – assuming, of course, that you were white, male, and reasonably well-off.
But things changed after the French and Indian War, when the Crown decided to recoup costs by imposing a series of taxes on the colonists. Britain also began tightening enforcement of its trade regulations, which were designed to benefit the mother country, not the colonists.

3. Declaring Independence
2.1
Declaring Independence
Reconciliation or revolution?
Thomas Paine's Common Sense
Fanned revolutionary sentiments
The delegates at the Second Continental Congress gradually shifted their mindset from reconciliation to revolution. Thomas Paine's fiery tract, Common Sense, had an incendiary effect.

4. Declaring Independence
2.1
Declaring Independence
Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson
Justified revolution
Revolutionaries needed foreign assistance
The delegates at the Second Continental Congress formed a committee to compose a declaration of independence. Thomas Jefferson became the primary author. The Declaration listed the ways that the king had abused the colonists.
Their audience was not just their fellow colonists or British citizens back home; they would need foreign assistance to mount a successful revolution against the most powerful country in the world, particularly from Britain's historic enemy, France.

5. Political Philosophy
John Locke’s Natural Rights philosophy states that the government’s role is to protect life, liberty and property
Consent of the governed
Limited government protects natural rights.

6. Table 2.1 Locke and the Declaration of Independence: Some parallels
Let's look at the wording of the Declaration and see how it reflects the ideas of Locke.
Some of the text of the Declaration would be considered plagiarism if Jefferson had been writing a paper for school.

7. Revolution
The American revolution represents an overthrow of a system of government based on widespread popular support.
It did not cause widespread societal change like the Russian, Chinese, or Iranian revolutions.

8. The Government That Failed
The Articles of Confederation
The first document to govern the United States.
Established a confederation among 13 states.
Congress had few powers; no president or national court system.
Most government power rested in the states.

9. The Articles of Confederation
2.2
The Articles of Confederation
State-dominated government
League of friendship amongst states
Unicameral legislature
No judiciary
No executive
No power to tax
No power to regulate commerce
Feared strong central government
The Articles established a government dominated by the states. The United States, according to the Articles, was a confederation, a "league of friendship and perpetual union" among 13 states. The Articles established a national legislature with one house in which each state had one vote, regardless of size. There was no president and no national court. Most authority rested with the state legislatures because the new nation's leaders feared that a strong central government would become as tyrannical as British rule.

10. Table 2.2 Key provisions of the Articles of Confederation
As we can see in this chart, the national government was weak and devoid of almost all power.
The Congress had no power to tax and could not pay for an army to defend the states, nor could it regulate interstate commerce, which prevented economic growth.

11. The Government That Failed
Economic Turmoil
Postwar depression left farmers unable to pay debts
Shays’ Rebellion
Series of attacks on courthouses by a small band of farmers led by Revolutionary War Captain Daniel Shays to block foreclosure proceedings.
Economic elite concerned about Articles’ inability to limit these violations of individual’s property rights

12. Making a Constitution: The Philadelphia Convention
Gentlemen in Philadelphia
55 men from 12 of the 13 states
Mostly wealthy planters & merchants
Most were college graduates with some political experience
Many were coastal residents from the larger cities, not the rural areas

13. The Philadelphia Convention, continued
Assumptions
Human Nature is self- interested
Political Conflict leads to factions
Objects of Government include the preservation of property
Nature of Government sets power against power so that no one faction rises above and overwhelms another

14. Representation

15. Compromises Slavery Voting Requirements were left to the states.
Three-fifths compromise
Slaves are not specifically mentioned in the Constitution, but there is a reference to persons “not free.”
Count as 3/5 of a person for purposes of taxation and representation.
Voting Requirements were left to the states.

16. Economic Issues States had tariffs on products from other states
Paper money was basically worthless (14 currencies)
Congress couldn’t raise money

17. The Agenda in Philadelphia

18. The Agenda in Philadelphia
The Individual Rights Issues
Some were written into the Constitution:
Prohibits suspension of writ of habeas corpus
No bills of attainder
No ex post facto laws
Religious qualifications for holding office prohibited
Strict rules of evidence for conviction of treason
Right to trial by jury in criminal cases
Some rights were not specified
Freedom of speech and expression
Rights of the accused

19. The Madisonian Model
To prevent a tyranny of the majority, Madison proposed a government of:
Limiting Majority Control
Separating Powers
Creating Checks and Balances
Establishing a Federal System

20. The Madisonian Model
The Constitution and the Electoral Process

21. The Madisonian Model

22. Ratification

23. Ratifying the Constitution
Federalist Papers
A collection of 85 articles written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison under the name “Publius” to defend the Constitution
Bill of Rights
The first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, drafted in response to some of the Anti- Federalist concerns about the lack of basic liberties

24. Federalist No. 10
Madison says factions are self interested groups, adverse to the interests of the community.
Factions are sown in the seeds of human nature.
Balances government prevents the “mischiefs of faction.”

25. 2002 QUESTION
In Federalist No. 10, James Madison argued that factions in a republic are
A more serious threat if the republic is large
Natural but controllable by institutions
Not likely to occur if people are honest
Prevented by majority rule
Prevented by free elections

26. Ratifying the Constitution
Ratification
9/13 states were needed to ratify.
Lacking majority support, the Federalists specified that the Constitution be ratified by state conventions, not state legislatures.
New Hampshire’s approval (the ninth state to ratify) made the Constitution official six months later.

27. Constitutional Change

28. 2.6 Table 2.6 The Bill of Rights (arranged by function)
The protections in the Bill of Rights fall into several categories of civil liberties.
continued on next slide

29. 2.6 Table 2.6 The Bill of Rights (arranged by function)
The protections in the Bill of Rights fall into several categories of civil liberties.

30. Constitutional Change
The Informal Process of Constitutional Change
Judicial Interpretation
Marbury v. Madison (1803): judicial review
Changing Political Practice
Technology
Increasing Demands on Policymakers

31. Summary
The Constitution was ratified to strengthen the powers of the national government.
Protection of individual rights guaranteed through the Bill of Rights.
Formal and informal changes continue to shape our Madisonian system of government.