Chapter 2
Roots of Government
pp. 26-60
terms:
• Limited government
– 29 government is restricted and not all-powerful.
– Each individual has rights that government cannot
take away.
• Representative government
– 29 people have a voice in what the government
should and should not do.
– Government of, by, for the people.
Roots of Government
• Magna Carta
– 29 England’s King John forced by nobles and
Church to sign in 1215
– Protect them from arbritrary acts of the monarch
– Includes
• Trial by jury
• Due process of law
• The monarch does not have absolute power
Roots of Government
• Petition of Right, 1628
• 30 English Parliament requires that Charles I confer
with it and get approval or he could not have funds.
• Limits included
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King had to follow the law of the land
No arbitary arrest or imprisonment
Jury trial
No martial law in time of peace
No quartering of troops without consent
No taxation w/o Parliamentary consent
Roots of Government
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English Bill of Rights
30 1689, new monarch, William had to agree to:
give up a standing army in peacetime
Allow free elections
Monarch may make no laws w/o consent of Parliament
No taxation w/o consent of Parliament
Allow petitions w/o fear of arrest
Allow fair trials
Allow freedom from excessive bail
Allow no cruel or unusual punishment
Roots of Government
• Charter colonies
– 31 Connecticut and Rhode Island were allowed by
the monarch to be self-governing.
• Bicameral
– 31 The legislature had two lawmaking groups in
Royal colonies:
• Upper house: selected by the monarch
• lower house: selected by voting males
Roots of Government
• Proprietary colonies
• 32 run by a private owner: Maryland,
Pennsylvania, and Delaware.
– The owner appointed the governor, not the
monarch
Toward Independence
• Boycott
• 37 refusal to buy or sell certain products or services
(often for political or social reasons).
– American rebels told the people not to buy English goods
and make their own. This was illegal.
• Popular sovereignty
• 39 government has power only because the people
allow it to
Brief Review
• What do the Magna Carta, Petition of Right, and the
English Bill of Rights all have in Common? (2)
– They control the power of the king
– They strengthen the power of the popular legislature.
• What is the idea called where the government is
given its power by the citizens?
– Popular sovereignty
The Critical Period
• Articles of Confederation
• 44 1777 The plan that allowed the United States an organized
government to fight Britain during the revolution.
– States cooperated to fight the British, they allowed the central
government to
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Borrow money
Post office
Navy
Army from the colonies
Standards of weights and measures
Settle interstate disputes
Make war
Make treaties
Set up a money system
EC: The Critical Period
– States refused to give up many of their own powers during
and after the revolution.
– Any changes to the Articles of Confederation needed
unanimous agreement by all 13 states.
– New national laws required 9 out of 13 states approving
– EC: Congress could not (3)
• tax
• Regulate commerce
• Make the states obey any of its laws
The Constitution
• Virginia Plan
– 51 the US government would have three
branches
• The legislature—Congress—would be bicameral
– Lower house would be elected
– Upper house would be chosen by the Lower House.
• the executive and judiciary chosen by Congress
• Congress could force uncooperative states to obey
Small states opposed it because they got fewer votes in
the legislature.
The Constitution’s Keepers
• Connecticut Compromise
• (The Great Compromise)
– 52 Bicameral Congress
• Senate = states equal in votes
• House of Representatives = states’ votes depend on
free population
The Constitution’s Keepers
• Three-Fifths Compromise
• 52 Way to count non-free persons, in states
with few free persons
EC: Review
• Why were Americans so used to expecting
democracy?
• Ran their many own colonies
• Why weren’t the Articles of Confederation
effective to run the United States?
• The states were not required to obey the
national government.
The Constitution’s Keepers
• Commerce and Slave Trade Compromise
• 53 Congress could not
– Tax exports
– Regulate the slave trade for 20 years
– Interfere with migration or importation of slaves
• Could impose a small tax
Ratification
• Federalists
– 56 favored ratification of the Constitution
• Strong central government
• Anti-Federalists
– 56 against ratification of the Constitution
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Strong state governments
Weak central government
Wanted more religion
Wanted more individual rights
Ratification
• Quorum
• 58 number of delegates required at a vote to
make it legal.
– George Washington’s election as president, in
1789, was postponed until enough were present
to count the electoral votes.
• John Adams won the second most votes and became
vice president
Classwork
Chapter 2 pp. 26-60
concepts
• England’s American Colonies: types of
government…..
• 31 though different in type, they all were
based on basic ideas of English law and
governance.
Toward Independence
• Describe the evolution of the first American
government before our actual independence.
• 34-7 since 1607, being so far from England,
colonial legislatures ran most of the affairs of
their people.
• After the French and Indian War, (1763),
Parliament tried to take control away from
them.
Toward Independence
• EC: Colonies work together for the first time
– The Albany Plan of Union was a first effort to get the
colonies to work together on trade and security, 1754
• EC: The Stamp Act Congress of 1765 brought
united effort to deal with
– the unfair British taxes.
• EC: The First Continental Congress, 1774, united
delegates to petition the King and Parliament for
– fairness and representation.
Toward Independence
• After shooting had started with the British, in
1775, the Second Continental Congress united
the colonial delegates to declare their
independence and make plans to fight the British
military.
• The Second Continental Congress is therefore the
first national government of what will be called
the United States of America.
• EC: The Continental Congress was a federation or
a confederation?
• Confederation.
Ideals listed in the Declaration of
Independence
• 38 all men are created equal
• EC: Born with unalienable rights (3)
– Life
– Liberty
– Pursuit of happiness
• Governments serve men to protect those
rights
• A government that fails the people may be
changed or abolished.
The Constitution
• EC: What were two big issues at the US
Constitutional Convention in 1787?
• State representation
– Big states v. small states
• Counting slaves for representation
• Limited Government
– Separation of powers
What were the reasons for the writing and signing of
the Declaration of Independence?
• EC 38 first they wanted to
– describe the ideal principles of free people anywhere.
• EC Next, they wanted to
– list complaints against the monarchy of Britain showing
how the king had acted against the free people and tried
to enslave them
• EC Finally, they wanted to declare before the world
that
– they had tried to work with their government fairly, and
had no other choice but to leave it.
Toward Independence
• EC: What is the most common feature of state
constitutions?
– 39 the most common feature is limited
government,
• EC: Other commonalities include (3)
– Popular sovereignty.
– Civil rights and liberties
– Separation of powers/checks and balances
Mount Vernon and Annapolis Meetings
(1785, 1786)
• 46 The meetings brought up issues with the
national government that made leaders feel
the need to do what?:
– This would lead to the Constitutional Convention
in 1787.
What influenced the framers of the
Constitution?
• EC 48 Writings by European Enlightenment
thinkers (4)
– John Locke
– Voltaire
– Baron de Montesquieu
– Jean Jacques Rousseau
• Ideas from the Articles of Confederation
• State constitutions
Ben Franklin’s opinion of the US
Constitution
49 Though 81, and very ill, he managed to
attend a few meetings.
p. 35 he spoke of the need to be strongly
united and in agreement against an enemy
like Britain.
E/W, p. 29
• How might the right to petition, first granted
in the English Bill of Rights, prevent abuse of
power by a monarch?
• Without the basic rights established by the
Magna Carta and later English bills, the idea of
restricted government might not evolve.
6, p. 39
• Why did the first state constitutions share several
common features?
• They were all based on the ideals that had united the
states in their fight for independence.
– Limited government
– What was the colonial slogan about limited government?
EC
– “No taxation without representation!”
• All the colonies were English to begin with.
6, p. 45
• “The thirst for independence made the new states
wary of strong central government” -- text
• How is this caution reflected in the weaknesses built
into the US Articles of Confederation?
• The Articles do not provide for any elements of a
strong central government, including….
– An executive
– The power to tax
– Regulating commerce
12 p. 49
• EC: The Framers (not their names)
• The delegates sent by the states to create a
Constitution.
• What backgrounds did the selected framers
share?
– Law
– Agriculture
– Business
– politics
The Constitution 1/23
• The New Jersey Plan, like the Virginia Plan,
pointed out one major worry:
– how will states be represented?
• Population?
• Financial power?
• Equality?
R, p. 52
• US Slavery, 1790,
• Why did the southern states want slaves
counted in their states’ total population?
– Slave-owning states could have a higher number
of representatives.
• A tax was imposed for every “other person” so counted.
The Federalist (Papers)
• Powerful arguments about the Constitution
written in New York by
– Alexander Hamilton,
– James Madison,
– and John Jay.