Chapter 2
Origins of American Government
• American system of government did not begin with
Declaration of Independence or the US
Constitution…
• Goals of section:
• Examine early English concepts of government
that influenced American colonies (Ordered,
Limited, Representative)
• Analyze influence of Magna Carta, Petition of
Right, and English Bill of Rights
• Compare the structure of royal colony
governments and our National Government
• Ordered Government
• Orderly regulation
• English colonists created local governments based on what they
had known in England
• Many of the governmental offices/units are still around today:
offices of sheriff, justice of peace, grand jury, counties, etc.
• Limited Government
• Idea that government is restricted in what it may do
• Individuals have certain rights government cannot take away
• Representative Government
• Idea that government should serve the will of the people
• “government of, by, and for the people” (Abraham Lincoln)
• The Magna Carta (1215)
• Group of barons were seeking protection against the heavy handed and
arbitrary acts of King John
• Included guarantees of rights such as trial by jury and due process of law
(protection against arbitrariness)
• Originally intended only for privileged classes
• The Petition of Right (1628)
• Limited the King’s power in several important ways
• Demanded that king could not arbitrarily imprison an individual—trial
or law was needed
• Challenged divine right of kings—even monarchs had to obey law
• The Bill of Rights (1688)
• Further prevented abuse by kings and gave more power to parliament
• Royal
Colonies
• Proprietary
Colonies
• Charter
Colonies
• Often described as “13 schools of government”
• Why?
• Established separately over about 125 years
• First colony: Virginia
• Last colony: Georgia
• Each colony came out of a particular set of
circumstances
• Similarity: each colony established by a charter
• Gave colonists or companies a grant of land and
some governing rights
• Subjected to the direct control of the Crown
• New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey,
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia
• These colonies were ones that had their charter revoked by
King of England
• King then appointed a governor to serve in each colony as
well as a council (which later became the upper house of
legislature and the colony’s highest court”
• Lower house were elected property owners
• Ruling with “stern hand”
• Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania
• Organized by a proprietor—person whom the
king had made a grant of land to
• Governor appointed by proprietor
• Maryland and Delaware had bicameral
legislatures
•Pennsylvania was a unicameral body
• King still held significant power in these colonies
• Massachusetts Bay Colony was first charter colony in 1629
• Connecticut and Rhode Island were other charter colonies—
founded by religious dissidents from Massachusetts
• Were largely self governing
• Governors elected each year and largely operated out of King’s control
and approval
• Connecticut and Rhode Island charters were so “liberal” that
they were kept unchanged even after independence, finally
changed in 1818 and 1843, respectively
• Class discussion: Some historians believe that if Britain had
allowed other colonies the same freedoms, the Revolution
wouldn’t have occurred. Do you agree?
“We must all hang together, or
assuredly we shall all hang
separately” (Ben Franklin;
spoken to other members of
Second Continental Congress
on July 4, 1776)
• British Colonial Policies
• Controlled by King through the Board of Trade and the Privy
Council
• Parliament minimal involvement in management of colonies
• Colonists became use to self rule
• “Let us keep the dogges poore, and we’ll make them do as we
please”
• Taxes largely unenforced
• Effectively operated like a federal system of government
• King George III: 1760
• Stern hand—taxes enforced, more restrictive trade acts
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•
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The Albany Plan
The Stamp Act
New Restrictive Laws
First Continental
Congress
• Second Continental
Congress
• Declaration of
Independence
• Early Attempts
• New England Confederation (1643)
• “League of friendship”
• The Albany Plan
• Albany Plan of Union (1754)
• Benjamin Franklin
• Delegates from each colony
• Form a military, regulate trade, war/peace
with Native Americans, and collect taxes
• Britain’s tax and trade policies increased resentment among
colonists, among them the Stamp Act of 1765
• Colonists viewed the taxes as both severe but more importantly,
“taxation without representation”
• Stamp Act Congress of 1765
• Declaration of Rights and Grievances
• Eventually British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act—but
other laws followed that restricted freedom of colonies
further
• Organized resistance began to grow in colonies
• Boston Tea Party
• In response to “Intolerable
Acts”
• September 5, 1774 (no
Georgia)
• Philadelphia
• Declaration of Rights
• Results
• Boycott trade
• Local Committees
• Philadelphia 1775 (three
weeks after Lexington and
Concord)
• First form of national government for the United States (July 1776
– March 1781)
• Unicameral congress exercised both legislative and executive
powers
• John Hancock made President of the Congress
• Named Washington the Commander and Chief of the Army
• Congress named a committee of five to prepare
document: Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger
Sherman, Robert Livingston, Thomas Jefferson
• Groundbreaking in several ways
• Idea that every person is “created equal”
• Conception of “certain unalienable rights”
• Principle that government should be based on
“consent of the governed” as opposed to divine right
or tradition
• Common Features
• Popular Sovereignty
• People recognized as only source of governmental
authority
• Limited Government
• State governments could only exercise powers granted to
them by people in constitutions
• Civil Rights and Liberties
• Many began with a Bill of Rights
• Separation of Powers/Checks and Balances
• Divided among three branches: executive, legislative, and
judicial
• A. What weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation made a
lasting government impossible?
• B. What were the effects of these weaknesses?
• Separate into groups, have at least three points for each
question
• Group 1: Kotarski, Moore, Le, Viancos
• Group 2: Henning, Contreras, Nasr, Mills
• Group 3: Darouiche, Leach, Jarlsjo, McStravick
• Group 4: Swanson, Connell, Cano, Whaley
• Group 5: Lucas, Hondros, Johnson, Dotson
• Approved on November 15, 1777
• Established a “firm league of friendship” among the States
• Essentially an alliance of independent states instead of truly a
government “of the people”
• Took over three years for all the states to ratify the document
• Maryland last to ratify in 1781
• Governmental Structure
• Congress sole body created—unicameral, one vote per state
• Executive and judicial powers handled by committees of Congress
• Powers of Congress
• War and peace, make treaties, borrow money, build navy, raise army by
asking for troops, settle disputes among states, etc.
• State Obligations
• One vote for each state
• Congress powerless to collect
taxes
• Congress powerless to regulate
foreign affairs/interstate
commerce
• No executive power
• No national court system
• Amendment only with consent of
all the states
• 9/13 majority to pass laws
• Class discussion: Why were the
Articles adopted, given their
many flaws? Were the Articles
appropriate for their time?
• States often refused to support
central government, both financially
and otherwise
• Several made agreements with
foreign governments without
approval of Congress
• Most organized own militaries
• States taxed one another’s goods
and even banned some trade
• Printed own money with little
backing—economic chaos ensued
• Shays’ Rebellion sharply divided American opinions on
government
• 1) Which group supported the rebels?
• 2) Did this group embrace or fear a strong national
government?
• 3) What were the long-term effects of the rebellion?
• 4) How did it shape the Framers’ debate on revising the
Articles?
• 5) Draw some connections to present day debates/current
events.
• Shays’ Rebellion
• Mount Vernon
• Maryland & Virginia
• Dispute over Potomac River &
Chesapeake Bay
• Annapolis
• Sept. 11, 1786
• Poor turnout
• Philadelphia
• Feb. 21 1787
• Constitutional Convention
• “the most wonderful work ever struck off at a
given time by the brain and purpose of man”
(English statesman, William E. Gladstone)
• Framers
• Mostly composed of a new generation of American
political figures
• Organization and Procedure
• Unanimously elected Washington as president of
Convention
• Each state had one vote, majority needed to pass
• James Madison
• Notes
• “Father of the Constitution”
• James Madison
• Three Branches
• legislative, executive, judicial
• Bicameral Congress
• Representation based on population or
upon amount of money it gave for support
of central government
• Lower house popularly elected, upper
house chosen by House
• US Congress would have additional
powers—granting central government
power to enforce its decisions
• Smaller states found the plan “too
radical”
• Unicameral Congress
• Each state equally represented
• US Congress
• Add closely limited powers to tax
and regulate trade between states
• Plural executive
• Chosen by Congress and could be
removed at request of majority of
States’ governors
• Single “supreme Tribunal”
appointed by executive to head
federal judiciary
• Main difference?
• Connecticut Compromise
• Bicameral Congress
• Senate: states represented equally
• House: representation based on population
• “Great Compromise”
• Three-Fifths Compromise
• Southern states vs. Northern States
• Compromise to allow slaves to count for 3/5 of a
person; but southerners had to pay taxes on their
slaves
• Commerce and Slave Trade Compromise
• Convention agreed that Congress had to have
power to regulate foreign + interstate trade
• Southern worries (tobacco + slave trade)
• Convention spent much of its time “sawing boards to make them
fit” (Franklin)
• Wide variety of opinions that required compromises
• Issues that required compromise: selection of President, treatymaking process, structure of national court system, amendment
process
• However, many Framers agreed on basic issues: need for a new
national government, a federal government, dedication to
principles of popular sovereignty and limited government,
separation of powers, checks and balances
• Sources
• Ancient Greece and Rome
• Contemporary European political philosophy
• Rousseau
• Locke
• Own experiences
• Articles of Confederation
• State constitutions
• “Sir, I agree with this Constitution to all its faults, if they are such;
because I think a general Government necessary for us…” (Ben
Franklin)
• 2) What momentous decision did the Framers make at the
beginning of the Philadelphia Convention?
• 4) What was agreed to under the Connecticut Compromise?
• 6) Compare and contrast the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey
Plan.
• 8) The Constitution has been called a “bundle of compromises.”
Is this an accurate description of the document? Explain your
answer.
• Originally, Articles of Confederation
could only be amended if all the
states agreed to it
• Framers determined it did not
have to be amended, but replaced
• Article VII: The ratification of the
conventions of nine States shall be
sufficient for the establishment of
the Constitution between he States
so ratifying the same.
• Changing the rules of the
game?
• Federalists & Anti-Federalists
• Federalists: Madison, Hamilton
• Stressed weaknesses of the Articles
• Argued that new central government was required
• Anti-Federalists: Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, John
Hancock, Samuel Adams
• Many objected to ratification process and disliked that
there was no mention of God
• Feared government would become too powerful
• Two major points of contention:
• 1) the greatly increased powers of the central government
• 2) lack of bill of rights
• “These lawyers, and men of learning, and monied
men, that talk so finely and glass over matters so
smoothly, to make us poor illiterate people,
swallow down the pill, expect to get into
Congress themselves; they expect to…get all the
power and all the money into their own hands,
and then they will swallow up all us little
folks…just as the whale swallowed up Jonah”
(Amos Singletary)
• Nine States Ratify
• Initially, nine states ratify the Constitution
• Two important holdouts: Virginia + New York
• Virginia’s Ratification
• Intense debate between Federalists and Anti-Federalists
• George Washington intervention
• New York’s Ratification
• The Federalist (Hamilton, Madison, Jay)
• Inaugurating the State
• New York chosen as temporary capital
• George Washington elected President by unanimous vote in 1789
• 1) Research the assigned revolution.
• Determine the:
• A) causes
• B) ideals
• C) outcomes of the assigned revolution
• 2) Compare the American Revolution to this other revolution.
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Group 1 (Haitian Revolution): Kotarski, Moore, Le, Viancos
Group 2 (Mexican War of Independence): Henning, Contreras, Nasr, Mills
Group 3 (French Revolution): Darouiche, Leach, Jarlsjo, McStravick
Group 4 (Haitian Revolution): Swanson, Connell, Cano, Whaley
Group 5 (French Revolution): Lucas, Hondros, Johnson, Dotson