1. Warm Up
All governments must have legitimacy to rule. In other words, the people must believe that their government has the right to make public policy. Answer the following questions to begin to think about other approaches rulers and leaders use to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the people.
In your school, how does a candidate for student council or a team captain gain legitimacy?
How does the President gain legitimacy in our political system?
How do you think a ruler would gain legitimacy in a dictatorial form of government?

9. Monday, January 14, 2019
Objective: Students will be able to examine debates and compromises that impacted the creation of the founding documents.
Importance: The key ideas that we go over today have all had a major impact on the formation and operation of our government.

11. Magna Carta
King John of England was waging wars and levying high taxes on the people and the nobility
1215: the king was forced by nobles to sign the document
Contents: guaranteed the right to trial by jury and due process
Significance: the king’s power was not absolute

12. English Influences Petition of Right
demanded that the king no longer imprison or otherwise punish any person but by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land
challenged the idea of the divine right of kings and declared that even the monarch was subject to the laws of the land

13. The Glorious Revolution
James’ wife, Mary of Modena, who was a devout Catholic, was rumored to be pregnant with a male son in 1688
Many members of Parliament feared this because it would continue Catholic rule under the Stuarts
In 1689, alarmed parliamentary leaders invited James’s Protestant daughter, Mary, and her Dutch Protestant husband, William III of Orange, to become rulers of England
When William and Mary landed with their army, James II fled to France

14. English Influences: English Bill of Rights
Prohibited a standing army during peacetime
Monarch must exercise their power with the consent of Parliament
Legal Rights
Right to a fair trial
Freedom from cruel and unusual punishment

15. Which event from English history between and 1690 most directly influenced later American political ideas and traditions?

16. Enlightenment Philosophers
John Locke
Claimed that all people were born with natural rights
Governments were legitimate when they had the approval of the people
If the people lost trust in their government, they had the right to change their government

17. Enlightenment Philosophers
Montesquieu
Separation of powers/checks and balances
Voltaire
Freedom of religion and human progress
William Blackstone
Common Law: legal decisions should be made based on similar decisions in the past

18. James Madison’s Virginia Plan
Bicameral legislature
Representation based on a state’s population
Lower house members would be elected by the people
Upper house members would be nominated by the states and elected by the lower house

19. James Madison’s Virginia Plan
Congress would select the President and judges
Congress would have the authority to veto any state law that conflicted with national law
National government would have a lot more power, especially to enforce national laws

20. William Paterson’s New Jersey Plan
Unicameral legislature with equal representation for all states
Executive Branch would have several leaders with equal power
One national court, with members appointed by the executive

21. Roger Sherman’s Connecticut Compromise
Bicameral legislature
Lower house: House of Representatives, representation decided based on a state’s population
Upper House: Senate, 2 members per state
Plan convinced smaller states to support a stronger national government

22. “Sir, I agree with this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us…I doubt…whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does…” Benjamin Franklin
Do you agree with Franklin? Explain your choice. How was the process of writing the Constitution a model for our government’s operation? (Write both answers in a paragraph that is at least 1/2 page in length)

24. Criticisms of the New Constitution
George Mason and Thomas Jefferson
Not enough protections for the rights of citizens
What powers should the federal government not have?
What powers should the states be guaranteed?
No one was completely satisfied

25. Discussion
How was the new government of the United States unique when it was created?
In what ways do we see the idea of limited government in today’s America?
Who do you think was the most influential philosopher from the Enlightenment? Why?