Daily Dilemma
#6:
What
Constitutional
Amendment
do you think
our country
needs to
promote a
specific public
policy,
improve
government
structure or
advance
equality?
Chapter 3: The
Constitution
Students will be able to:
 Summarize the revolutionary roots of the
Constitution
 Understand the functions of the electoral college
 Account for the failures in the Articles of
Confederation
 Outline main features of the New Jersey and
Virginia Plans and explain the Great Compromise
 Explain the four basic principles underlying the
Constitution and show how they reflected
America’s revolutionary values
 Summarize the 7 articles of the Constitution
SWBAT (continued):
 Summarize the key distinctions between
Federalists and Antifederalists
 Summarize the key components of Federalism
 Argue whether or not the new U.S. Constitution
established a majoritarian or pluralist democracy
 Explain why and how the promise of the Bill of
Rights was used to ensure the ratification of the
Constitution
 Describe the formal and informal processes of
Constitutional change.
I. The Revolutionary Roots of
the Constitution
 The Constitution divides the national government
into 3 branches, describes the powers of those
branches and their connections, outlines the
interaction between the government and the
governed and describes the relationship
between the national government and the states
 “The U.S. Constitution, written in 1787 for an
agricultural society huddled along the coast of a
wild new land, now guides the political life of a
massive urban society in the postnuclear age.”
A. Freedom in Colonial America
Americas
 Landowners could control
and transfer property at will
 No compulsory payments to
churches
 No ceiling on wages, no
guild of exclusive
professional associations
Europe
 Restricted private property
 Compelled support for
established religions
 Limited access to trades
and professions
B. The Road to Revolution
 The British believed that taxing the colonies was
the obvious was to meet the cost of
administering the colonies
1773: Boston Tea Party
“The die is now cast. The
colonies must either submit
or triumph.” GEORGE III
1774: The Intolerable Acts
British wanted order,
Americans wanted liberty
C. Revolutionary Action
America: The Story of Us
“No one knows
who fired the first
shot at
Lexington, but it
was the shot
heard round the
world.”
D. The Declaration of
Independence
 The idea of consent is derived from social contract theory which
states that the people agree to establish rulers for certain purposes
but they have the right to resist or remove rulers who violate the
purposes
Thomas Jefferson: the pen
John Adams: The voice
D. The Declaration of
Independence
 We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.-That to secure these rights, Governments are
instituted among Men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed, --That whenever
any Form of Government becomes destructive of
these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to
abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying
its foundation on such principles and organizing its
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most
likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
The fate of the revolutionaries who
signed the Declaration would have
been hanging, drawing and
quartering…
The War of Independence
The British lost the war because
America was…
 Too big
 Too far away
 Successful at courting British rivals
 Fighting for its own freedom
II. From Revolution to
Confederation
In a confederation, the states
retain their sovereignty which
means that each have supreme
power
Under the Articles of
Confederation, each state had
one vote in the Congress and
the national government was
largely powerless
A. The Articles of
Confederation (failed
because…)
1. They did not give the national government the power
to tax
2. The Articles made no plan for a president-like position
because they feared creating a monarchy
3. The Articles did not allow the national government to
regulate interstate and foreign commerce
4. The Articles could not be amended without the
unanimous agreement of the Congress– each state
had the power to veto any changes to the
confederation
B. Disorder Under the
Confederation
 After the Revolution, the national government
had neither the economic nor the military power
to function effectively
 Debt mounted, bankruptcy followed…
 Daniel Shays marched to a Massachusetts
courthouse with 1500 supporters protesting high
taxes. They later attacked an arsenal. After the
congress failed to gain approval for a national army,
the governor of Massachusetts called the militia to
restore order.
III. From Confederation to
Constitution
 Order, the original purpose of government, broke
down under the Articles of Confederation
 Twelve of the thirteen states (all but Rhode
Island) named 74 delegates to convene in
Philadelphia, the most important city in America,
in May 1787
Virginia Plan
New Jersey Plan
 Benefitted big states by
making membership in
legislature dependent on
population through taxes
 Benefitted small states by
making membership in the
legislature equal for all
states
 Unspecified size of
executive
 Multi-person executive with
no right to veto
 Three branches: legislative,
executive and judicial
 Single chamber/ house
legislature
 Two chamber/ house
legislature
D. The Great Compromise
 Committee was created to resolve the deadlock
between the Virginia and New Jersey Plans. 1
delegate was chosen from each state by secret
ballot.
 Great Compromise– submitted by the
Connecticut delegation to the Constitutional
Convention in 1787. Called for bicameral
legislature in which the House of Representatives
would be apportioned according to population
and the states would be represented equally in
the Senate
E. Compromise on the
Presidency
 The delegate’s distrusted the people’s judgment;
some feared that popular election of the
president would arouse public passions. So they
formed the electoral college– a body of electors
chosen by voters to cast ballots for president and
vice president.
 Each elector voted for 2 people. The person with
the most votes became president, second most
votes, vice president (changed by the 12th
Amendment)
Daily Dilemma #7
Is the United States a
democracy? Base your response
on EITHER the majoritarian or
pluralist views.
IV. The Final Product
 We the People of the United States, in Order to
form a more perfect Union, establish Justice,
insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the
common defense, promote the general Welfare,
and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves
and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America.




Creates a people
Explains the reason for a Constitution
Articulates goals
Fashions a government
A. The Basic Principles
 Republicanism– People’s powers to choose their
own representatives
 Federalism– division of power between central,
national and local governments
 Separation of Powers– Creates the judicial,
legislative and executive branches
 Checks and Balances– Different branches can
limit other branches
B. The Articles of the
Constitution
 Article I: The Legislative Article
 Article II: The Executive Article
 Article III: The Judicial Article
 Article IV: allows the addition of new states and gives a plan for
protecting states from foreign and domestic threats
 Article V: explains how to change the Constitution
 Article VI: Supremacy clause to assert that the Constitution,
national laws and treaties takes precedence over state and
local laws
C. The Framer’s Motives &
D. The Slavery Issue
 Were the Framer’s just a bunch of rich, white
men?
 The Framer’s wanted to create order and economic
stability so badly that they allowed slavery to be
written into the Constitution
 18% of the population in 1790 was enslaved
 The Constitution allowed slavery to continue and
made slaves count 3/5 of a free person because
of the difference in their ability to produce
wealth
VI. Selling the Constitution
 The Federalist papers remain the single best
commentary on the meaning the Constitution
and the political theory it embodies
 Federalist 10: The Constitution was designed “to
break and control the violence of faction” (political
parties and interest groups)
 Federalist 51 Argued the importance of checks and
balances and separation of powers
 The Antifederalists published under the
pseudonyms of Brutus and Federal Farmer
 Attacked the centralization of power in a strong
national government & worried the situation would
destroy liberty
A. A Concession: The Bill of
Rights
 Many important citizens, including Thomas
Jefferson, were unhappy that the Constitution
did not list basic civil liberties– the individual
freedoms guaranteed citizens
 Hamilton worried that if you listed SOME powers
people had that powers that people deserved
might be limited because they were not expressly
listed
B. Ratification
 The Constitution officially took effect upon its
ratification by the 9th state, New Hampshire, on
June 21, 1788
VII. Constitutional Change
A. The Formal Amendment
Process
 The amendment process includes two stages,
proposal and ratification.
 An amendment has never been proposed by
national convention
 Most of the nations 27 Amendments reflect
changes in political thinking and they…
 Make public policy
 Correct deficiencies in the government structure
 Promote equality
Amendments not approved
by Congress…
 20th Century
 Anti-Miscegenation– forbid interracial marriage
 Death Penalty Abolition Amendment
 Human Life Amendment– overturn Roe v. Wade and
make abortion illegal
• 21st Century
• School Prayer Amendment– Allow prayer in schools
• Every Vote Counts Amendment– Abolish the electoral college
• Equal Opportunity to Govern– would allow naturalized citizens who
have lived in the U.S. for 20 years to be able to become president
• Marriage Amendment– Defining marriage between one man and
one woman only
B. Interpretation by the
Courts
 Marbury v. Madison (1803) declared that the
couts have the power to nullify government acts
that conflct with the Constitution. JUDICIAL
REVIEW
 Unelected judges can now change policies
enacted by the framers of the Constitution
C. Political Practice
 The Constitution is silent on many issues.
 It says nothing about political parties or the
president’s cabinet.
 The electoral college has changed in scope and
purpose and has become a rubber stamp for what
states already think
 The framers intended Congress to be the strongest
branch of government but the Presidency has risen
in power
 Lincoln, FDR, George W. Bush
VIII. An Evaluation of the
Constitution
 The Articles of Confederation created a weak
national government that leaned too much
toward freedom at the expense of order.