1. Origins of the American Republic
Sources of the Constitution
European Philosophers of the Enlightenment
Colonial Experience
Early Documents
Declaration of Independence

2. Our Political Beginnings
Basic Concepts of Government
Ordered Government
-Needed orderly regulation
Limited Government
-Restricted in what it can do
-Certain rights that cannot be taken away
Representative Government
-Should serve the will of the people
Thomas Paine, Common Sense

3. Our Political Beginnings
Landmark English Documents
The Magna Carta (1215)
The Petition of Rights (1628)
The English Bill of Rights (1688)
King John signing the Magna Carta

4. Early Political Theorists
Natural Rights:
Locke's idea of a “government with the consent of the governed” and people's natural rights of life, liberty and property had an enormous influence on the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
John Locke

5. Locke
Believed that individuals decided to leave the state of nature and live under government because government offered greater protection of their rights including the right to life, liberty, and property.
Some of the most important words and ideas in the Declaration of Independence can be traced to the writings of Locke.

6. Early Political Theorists
Social Contract:
Thomas Hobbes: People in a state of nature give up their individual rights to a strong power in return for his protection, so social contract evolved out of self-interest.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: In order to live in society, human beings agree to an implicit social contract, which gives them certain rights in return for giving up certain freedoms.
Thomas Hobbes
Jean-Jacques
Rousseau

7. Political Philosophers
Hobbes, Rousseau, and Locke were political philosophers
They advocated social contract theory that provided a justification for creating government and operating it as acts of limited-government.
According to social contract theory, people create governments by entering into written or unwritten agreements to live together under a particular form of government.

8. Early Political Theorists
Separation of Power
Montesquieu saw governing powers broken up into executive, legislative and judicial powers with each having power over the other.
Baron de Montesquieu

9. The Colonial Experience
The English Colonies
Royal Colonies (NH, MA, NY, NJ, VA, NC, SC, GA) subject to the direct control of the Crown
Proprietary Colonies (MD, PA, DE) Organized by someone who had been given a grant of land by the King
Charter/Social Contract Colonies (CT, RI) Based on charters granted to the colonists themselves (self-governing)
1st successful British colony  Jamestown (1608)
Christianity’s Influence

11. The Coming of Independence
Britain’s Colonial Policies
Colonial government evolved from unitary (the king) to federal (central govt in England, local govt in America)
Growing Colonial Unity
New England Confederation (1643)
Albany Plan of Union, proposed by Benjamin Franklin (1754)
Declaration of Rights and Grievances (1765)Boycott -> Boston Massacre -> Committees of correspondence -> Boston Tea Party

12. The Coming of Independence
The First Continental Congress
The Intolerable Acts -> Meeting of all colonies
Declaration of Rights written & submitted, is rejected by King-> bigger boycotts
The Second Continental Congress
First government of the US for 5 years
Declaration of Independence (1776) -> Articles of Confederation (1781)
Congress was unicameral, each colony had 1 vote
exercised legislative and executive powers

13. The Coming of Independence
The Declaration of Independence
Written primarily by Thomas Jefferson
Adopted officially on July 4, 1776
Announces the independence of US & discusses the problems the colonists had with the king
The First State Constitutions
Drafted in conventions, submitted to voters for ratification
Common features: popular sovereignty, limited government, civil rights and liberties, separation of powers, checks & balances

14. The Critical Period Articles of Confederation
After the Revolutionary war the American colonies were no longer under British rule. They needed to establish their own government.
The first set of laws created
to govern the 13 new states
was called the Articles of
Confederation.
Under the Articles of
Confederation the new
country had a weak
national government
and 13 strong state
governments.

15. The Critical Period Articles of Confederation
Unicameral Congress, delegates chosen by the States (no uniform method)
No executive or judicial branch
Each state has one vote (regardless of population)
“Presiding chair” chosen each year by Congress (one of their members)
Civil officers appointed by Congress
Powers of Congress:
Make war/peace, send/receive ambassadors, coin money, establish post offices, build a navy, raise an army (from the states), fix uniform weights and measures, settle disputes among the states

16. The Critical Period Articles of Confederation State Obligations
Provide funds/troops requested by Congress
Treat citizens of other states fairly within their borders
Full faith and credit acts/records of other states
Submit disputes to Congress for settlement
Allow open travel & trade between/among states
Weaknesses
No Congressional power to tax
- could raise money only by asking the states for it
Amendment only with consent of ALL states
9/13 majority required to pass laws
Powerless to regulate foreign/interstate commerce
“Firm league of friendship”
Meeting was held to change the Articles of Confederation after Shays’s Rebellion, which was the Constitutional Convention – Philadelphia, PA (1787)

17. Constitutional Convention
The
Constitutional Convention
to be continued…