2012-09-17-Constitution Day
Seminars@Hadley
Hadley Celebrates Constitution Day!
Presented by
Julie Lee Kay
Moderated by
Douglas Anzlovar
September 17, 2012
Douglas Anzlovar
Welcome to today’s seminar on Constitution Day.
Your presenter is Julie Lee Kay. She is our Hadley
instructor. Julie was born in Heidelberg, Germany,
and raised as a “army brat.” Julie Lee Kay is currently
an instructor at the Hadley School for the Blind. She
earned her Master’s Degree in Human Services
Administration from St. Edwards University, and her
Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education with a
certification for teaching the visually impaired from the
University of Texas.
Julie has made numerous presentations nationally,
has been published in professional journals and was
a contributing author for “Skills for Success,” a
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textbook on career education for blind children. Julie
is also the former Dean of Education Programs and
Instructions here at the Hadley School.
So, without further ado, I would like to turn today’s
presentation over to Julie.
Julie Lee Kay
Thank you, Doug, I appreciate that. As Doug was
saying, I’m an instructor for Hadley, and I teach
American Government. I love American Government.
My father and mother always took us on field trips on
Sundays, and almost always it had to do with either
U.S. History or government, or whatever, but I was
also raised, when we went to the movies on base,
they would play the National Anthem and everyone
would stand. We always had “Taps” at five o’clock
when was done, the workday. I really was raised in a
very patriotic atmosphere. I continue to be very
patriotic. If I see a really sad looking flag, I go up to
the person’s house and suggest that they replace it. I
can probably be a little obnoxious as well.
As Vali noticed, we posted a little quiz for you, and
really, this is a fun thing to do. It’s not for CEUs or
anything like that, it was just something that we
thought you would enjoy. My brother, whose name is
Carl, he is always sending me these little quizzes that
he makes up on movies or books or names and
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different things. So, I challenged him. I said, “Well,
can you come up with a little quiz on the
Constitution?” And, so, he had fun doing that, and
then I tweaked it. Being the teacher that I am, I
couldn’t leave it alone.
What I thought I’d first do is go over it with you, so
while you’re listening to the presentation and asking
questions, you will kind of know where to focus your
attention. The first question asked, “In May of what
year was the Constitutional Convention convened?
Was it 1786, 1787, 1788 or 1789?”
The second questions is, “In what city was the
Convention held? Was it Boston, New York,
Philadelphia or Washington DC?”
The third question, “What was the Convention called
when it was convened? A convention in Philadelphia,
the Constitutional Convention, the Magna Carta or the
House of Burgesses?”
Number four. “The Convention was to address the
weakness of a 1781 document that established the
League of Friendship between the thirteen
independent sovereign states. What was this
document called? Was it the Federalist Papers, the
Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights or the Articles of
Confederation?”
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The fifth, “In 1786 an insurrection of farmers in central
and western Massachusetts is considered to have
been the catalyst for reform and spurred the calling of
the convention. The uprising was named for one of
its leaders, a revolutionary war veteran. What is this
tax revolt called? Was it the American Rebellion,
Shays’ Rebellion, the Great Awakening Rebellion or
the Whiskey Rebellion?”
Number six, “George Washington was a delegate and
chaired the Convention, but did not sign the
Constitution. Is that true or false?”
Number seven, “Who was the first President of the
United States and Congress Assembled. What it
John Hanson, John Adams, Patrick Henry or George
Washington?”
Number eight, “A group of delegates in an effort to
convince the citizens of New York to ratify the
Constitution created essays now called the Federalist
Papers. True or false?”
Number nine, “Although it was a collaborative effort,
who is considered the ‘Father of the Constitution’?”
Was it Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, George
Mason or John Jay?”
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Number ten, “It was the Declaration of Independence
that created a national government, not the
Constitution. True or false?”
Number eleven, “The framers created a system to
prevent anyone from being too powerful. What was
this system called? Checks and balances, Bill of
Rights, Pluribus Unum or Federalism?”
Number twelve, “The Connecticut, or Great,
Compromise regarding fair representation between
large and small states was approved. This resulted in
each state being allowed to elect two representatives
to the Senate with the number of Representatives to
be elected to the House determined proportionally.
True or false?”
Number thirteen, “How many Articles are in the
Constitution? Is it five, seven, nine or eleven?”
Number fourteen, “The first three Articles of the
Constitution establish the powers of the three
branches of government. Which branch is addressed
in Article One? Was it the legislative branch,
Congress, the executive branch, or the judiciary
branch?”
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Number fifteen, “What is the maximum rounded
number of years that a person can serve as
President? Is it four, six, eight or ten?”
Number sixteen, “How many of the thirteen states
were required under the new Constitution to ratify it?
Was it seven, nine, eleven or thirteen?”
Number seventeen, “On September 17th of what year
was the Constitution signed? Was it 1786, 1787,
1788 or 1789?”
Number eighteen, “When was the Bill of Rights, the
first amendment to the Constitution, ratified? Was it
1788, 1789, 1790 or 1791?”
Number nineteen, “How many amendments to the
Constitution make up the Bill of Rights? Is it six,
eight, ten or twelve?”
And the last question, “Although Thomas Jefferson
was very influential in having our nation institute a bill
of rights, who is considered the father of the Bill of
Rights? Was it Benjamin Franklin, George Mason,
James Madison or John Locke?”
One of the sources of this quiz was an online course
from Montpellier, which is the home of James
Madison, who is considered the Father of the
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Constitution. It was fabulous — it’s a really great
online course because not only does it have the basic
information, then it has tabs where you can look up
resources, or further background information. That’s
open to teachers and it’s free.
So, let’s go ahead and celebrate, because today is
the 225th anniversary of the U. S. Constitution, which
is the world’s oldest — and also the shortest —
founding document.
Most people know that the anniversary of the signing
of the Declaration of Independence is July 4th, but
they don’t know the date of the signing of the
Constitution. But now you guys do. It was in 1787
that established the new government, but Lincoln
suggested that it was the Declaration of
Independence in 1776 is what constituted American
national identity. It’s more the emotional aspect that
appeals to people as far as the Declaration of
Independence.
In fact, this morning I was walking with my neighbor
Emily and she said, “Tell me more about the
Constitution,” because I told her I was doing this. She
said, “It’s such a shame that people don’t know more
about the Constitution.” And that’s why our Vice
President, Dawn Turco, suggested that I do this
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presentation. We have such a gift and we need to
know more about it.
When the Constitutional Congress met in 1776, and
that was regarding the Declaration of Independence,
there were three committees appointed at the time.
One was for the Declaration of Independence.
Another was preparing a treaty to be proposed to
France. The third was preparing Articles of
Confederation. These Articles were in place during
the Revolutionary War, but the document itself wasn’t
ratified by the final state until 1781.
The Articles of Confederation was our first “real”
Constitution. But it really was the confederation of
independent states. We have to remember that each
state was really almost working as its own country
when this all started. They did not want to be ruled.
They had just fought against the King and did not
want much government involvement. You have to
remember that framework when you’re talking about
all that was going on.
There were several strong points with these Articles
of Confederation, so it was kind of like a trial run at
government. The Articles of Confederation ended the
Revolutionary War. It implemented a plan for
governing the northwestern lands. It could declare
war and even established the Army and the Navy. It
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could borrow money, and what to me is very
interesting, is that it prohibited slavery in new territory,
and that was not done when they wrote the
Constitution.
Weakness included too few national powers. They
didn’t have a Supreme Court. In fact, they said that
Congress could do the work, which I think is amazing.
Laws were voted on only by the state legislators, not
the people. It was difficult to pass important
legislation or to make amendments, as it required all
of the states to ratify them. It couldn’t levy or collect
taxes and it had limited power regulating trade. It also
lacked a chief executive, because really a committee
ran the country. A man named John Hanson was
elected the first President of the United States, but it
was a somewhat different title. So, when people say,
“Who was the first President of the United States?”
you can say, “John Hanson,” and you would be right.
Under the Articles of Confederation, they worked
somewhat well, but again, the states continued to run
totally independently. In fact, some states would
charge other states if they traded with them. So a lot
of bad feelings were happening. It was also not fair to
the poor.
There was a rebellion called Shays’ Rebellion that
proved the need to strengthen our government. At
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the end of the Revolutionary War the country was in
economic chaos. Of course, during war, as usual the
economy is good. After war, you usually have some
chaos going on. Each state had its own currency. In
Massachusetts most men who had fought in the war
were barred from voting and holding office. Debt
grew and many farms were seized. When the militia
was asked to seize the farms from farmers who had
enormous debt the militia sided with the farmers.
There again, you’re not having a very effective
government.
In 1786, an army veteran named Daniel Shays led a
march on Boston. An army paid for by Boston
merchants fired upon them. They fled, but many were
caught and many were hung. Some were pardoned,
though. A major thing that resulted from this is that it
shook people up. They realized the Articles of
Confederation aren’t working. We have a lot of
uprisings that will continue unless we get this under
control. Kenneth Davis, a great author about U. S.
History, called the people who were really kind of in
control of the country then the “ruling class.”
The nation needed to function as one united country
and not thirteen small unorganized nations. By 1787
the Articles were considered a disaster because of
the far too week government and a new constitution
was called on to rectify the issues.
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A convention in Philadelphia was called on May 25,
1787. George Washington was called upon to
preside over the convention and was not a delegate.
Rhode Island didn’t even bother to send delegates.
There were fifty-five delegates in all, representing the
wealthy classes. They met for almost four months.
They did realize that each state had different cultures,
and needed rules that would bind us together. While
it was first called just a “Convention in Philadelphia,”
now we call this meeting the “Constitutional
Convention.”
Two key issues that people had a hard time agreeing
on were representation and slavery. How would
representation be based? Population? Equal
representation? The south wouldn’t grant free blacks
the vote, nor address slavery, but they wanted the
slaves counted for representation in Congress. Roger
Sherman from Connecticut, recommended that there
be two houses — the Senate with equal
representation (so now we have two representatives
from each state) and the House of Representatives
based on proportional means — by population. The
issue of slavery resulted in two compromises:
Congress could not take any action to control slavery
for twenty years, but the slave trade could be taxed
(so, a good way of making money) and would be
under laws passed by Congress. Each slave would
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be counted as three-fifths of a person for
representation. The southern states agreed that three
future states could ban slavery. That’s a fact that a lot
of people don’t know. As Kenneth Davis noted, “Well,
at least three-fifths of a person was better than not
being recognized at all.” He was being sarcastic, of
course.
I don’t know if all of you have worked on writing a
document that was going to be prepared to a group. I
know that if you belong to NFD or ACB you have
different proposals made at conferences, and know
how that process can be very difficult. During the
Constitutional Convention, six hundred different votes
were taken before the final Constitution was drafted.
New York governor Morris is the one who wrote it up.
He was also the delegate who suggested that the
people elect a President instead of doing it through
the legislators.
It was put to a vote on September 17, 1787. Not all
people were there, not all the delegates, but thirtynine voted in favor and three opposed. So, then I
thought, “What does everybody need to know about
the Constitution?” It’s sometimes call our “super law.”
Now we know it was drafted in 1787 and it was
approved, or ratified, the next year in 1788. It was in
operation in eleven states the next year in 1789. Both
North Carolina and Rhode Island had not written their
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state constitutions until after 1789, so they couldn’t
vote to ratify the Constitution. Since that time, twentyseven amendments have been added. It is
interesting to note that it was ratified by state
conventions and not by popular vote.
There are seven Articles in the Constitution. The first
Article set up Congress with the House of
Representatives, the house that was to be closer to
the people, and then the Senate with its equal
representation. What I think is kind of fun to look at is
that the census of 1790 showed 4 million people living
in the United States. Our last census in 2010, we had
308 million. We’ve had quite a difference in
population growth in that time. I do think that it’s
important to note that out of these seven Articles, they
had the first one talking about Congress. That to me
says that even though there’s a balance between the
three branches, they just feel like it is the most
important branch that we have.
The second Article set up the Executive Branch with
the President as the head of it. His main role is to
defend the Constitution. Abraham Lincoln said,
“Every citizen must understand the Constitution and
make decisions based on it. Anything less, you have
abdicated the right to rule yourself.” I think that is just
kind of the basis of today’s conversation.
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The President, as most of you know, heads the
civilian government and the military. He is the foreign
affair officer. His powers, although vague, are broad.
He can give pardons. He can appoint Supreme Court
Justices, even though the Senate approves the
selections. He has the power to veto laws and he is
our Commander in Chief.
This was such an interesting, novel concept. The
citizens had just finished fighting against a king and
they didn’t want one person to have that power. I
really think that having George Washington be such a
strong force and, he was supposed to be very modest
and have a lot of humility. Yet, he was really able to
lead and get people to make compromises and move
forward and look at what was going to be best for the
country. We had the perfect man to be the first
President. I think that was what allowed, after a lot of
discussion, people to decide, yes, we could handle
having one person lead our country.
The committee ironed out the duties of the President
so that a President would serve four year terms. It
wasn’t until the twenty-second amendment which
restricted a President’s term to two years. What’s
also interesting is that if a President dies or is not able
to complete his term and the Vice President takes
over and it is two years or less, that person could also
run for President on their own for two terms. So, for
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example, when John F. Kennedy was killed, Lyndon
Baines Johnson took over for a little less than two
years. He ran for President and he became
President. Because of the Viet Nam War, he wasn’t
very popular, so he decided not to run again.
Because he had only served less than two years of
John F. Kennedy’s remaining term, he was eligible to
do that. To me, that’s really interesting. There was a
lot of politics between that twenty-second
amendment, because a lot of people did not want
Truman to run for three terms.
Article Three set up the Supreme Court. The
Supreme Court was kind of an afterthought. As I said
before, the Articles of Confederation said that
Congress could also serve as the Supreme Court. So
they really didn’t put much emphasis on the judiciary
system. Once again, they had a really strong person
in John Marshall who ended up really making it a very
strong branch of government. If you tour the United
States Capitol, you’ll find out that the first Supreme
Court was down in the basement in a small room. It
continued to have not too much power for quite a
while. John Marshall really pulled it together and
made it a strong branch of government.
As you know, these judges are given a life-long
appointment as long as they exhibit good behavior.
James Madison said, “An effective judiciary
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establishment was essential. A government without a
proper executive and a judiciary would merely be the
trunk of a body without arms or legs to move.” He
said that in 1787.
There is a woman who wrote a book called “The
Words We Live,” her name is Linda Monk. She really
takes the following Articles — well, she took all of
them — but I took from her the following Articles
which she explains a little more carefully.
Article Four governs the relationships among the
states. Under the Articles of Confederation, the
states treated one another like independent sovereign
nations. But under the Constitution, states had to
respect one another’s court decisions and laws. From
marriages and divorce to criminal prosecutions, to the
status of slaves, the states were bound to
acknowledge the validity of another state’s laws even
if they disagreed with the outcome.
Article Five basically outlines how an amendment
may be passed. Article Six says the Constitutional
laws of the United States are the supreme law of the
land. Both state and federal officials, including
judges, must take an oath to support the Constitution,
even if state law contradicts it. Unlike the Articles of
Confederation, the Constitution trumps state power.
However, the Constitution also protects the powers of
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the state in many ways. This system of federalism in
which the national and state governments share
power is a key feature of American government.
Article Six also guarantees a measure of religious
freedom by banning religious tests for public office.
Article Seven. When the framers signed the
Constitution on September 17, 1787, they still faced
the task of persuading the American people to agree
with them. The framers didn’t even agree among
themselves. Only thirty-nine of the fifty-five delegates
who attended the Constitutional Convention signed
the final version of the Constitution. The nation, even
though they supposedly had a compromise, they
quickly divided into two factions. The Federalists, the
people who supported ratification of the Constitution,
wrote, with Thomas Paine, the Federalist Papers to
get support — especially in New York. Then, the
Anti-Federalists, who opposed it. Eventually, the
Federalists did prevail once they promised Americans
that a Bill of Rights would be added to the
Constitution as soon as the new Congress convened.
In a recent article I read, an author named Levinson
stated, “The most important Article in the new
Constitution was Article Seven, which stated that the
new Constitution would come into effect upon
ratification by nine states, not thirteen.” Remember,
the Articles of Confederation said “all thirteen states”
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had to agree for anything to happen. Well, we’d
probably still be working on it...
If it hadn’t been passed, it would have meant the
death of the Constitution because few, if any,
changes would occur. They kind of mention the
checks and balances that were written in the
Constitution, so for almost every power given to one
branch, the Constitution framers created an equal
power of control for the other two branches.
I have more to talk about, but I wondered if anyone
had any questions at this point?
Vali
When did Georgia become the third state to ratify the
Constitution?
Julie Lee Kay
Oh, I have to look that up…so, Georgia…ratification.
I might be able to find that while you’re here. “I Don’t
Know Much About History” by Kenneth Davis. If you
don’t have any other book, I would highly recommend
that you get that book because it’s just fun. It has
really short stories, and many of you have been my
students, especially if you’ve done it on cassette, I
read articles to you and many of them I do from this.
Let me see if it talks about, I’m on 112, (put it here
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hoping it would come in handy), and it might tell me.
If not, I’ll have to get back to you. No, it doesn’t have
the listing of states. Was it Vali who asked that?
Vali
Yes, Julie, it was Vali. And, if you could give us the
title and author of the book again you’re referring to,
I’ll go ahead and type it into the text chat so that folks
can see it and write it down again.
Julie Lee Kay
Ok, it’s “Don’t Know Much About History” and the
extended part of that title is “Everything You Need to
Know About American History But Never Learned” by
Kenneth C. Davis. Again, all the articles are short,
but so interesting. He’s a great story teller. Any other
questions?
John
Yes, you mentioned Thomas Paine headed up the
Federalists? What about Alexander Hamilton?
Because he did a lot to write the Federalist Papers,
didn’t he?
Julie Lee Kay
Yes. Hamilton and Paine, but it was Paine who
actually wrote the final document. But as all these
documents and papers and so forth, almost all of
them were a combined effort. But, yes, and
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Alexander Hamilton had some very interesting ideas.
He did not want a President at all. He fought against
that.
Again, the book by Kenneth Davis has a lot on
Alexander Hamilton. I think you would enjoy that.
Another great book is by Thomas Fleming, but it
might be just Feming. He wrote “1776” and it’s a
great book, too. It’s a lot of fun.
Lynn
Do you have any idea if this book is available on the
Bard site?
Julie Lee Kay
I know it’s available from the National Library Service.
Many of my students have gotten it because they’ve
found out how fun it is. It’s just fun. And he also
gives recommendations as far as other books to read
if you’re interested in a topic, which I think is always a
great thing.
What’s real fun is the other day I pulled an article out
of the Washington Post. In it, I think I still have it,
“Why Do We Even Have a President?” and Kenneth
Davis wrote about how the founders struggled with
executive power. Let me read to you just a little bit of
it because it talks about Hamilton.
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Hamilton asserted in the Federalist Papers
that this experimental executive must have
‘energy.’ A quality characterized by
decision, activity, secrecy and dispatch. He
knew that the times demanded bold action.
Hamilton is always mentioned when you’re talking
about the Constitutional Convention and what
happened afterward, so I appreciate your bringing up
his name.
Again, some people, like George Mason, did not
agree to ratify the Constitution, and he was the one
who had written the Virginia Bill of Rights. He really
felt strongly that just having a national government
was the wrong thing to do. He wanted a federal
government with the national government having its
powers, but the states having the majority of powers.
Whenever I think of George Mason, his home is
Gunston Hall, and it’s in northern Virginia. It’s very
close to Mt. Vernon, George Washington’s home. My
daughter, when she was in middle school, went on a
field trip to Gunston Hall, and you know me, being a
U. S. History teacher and a teacher of American
government, I was all excited that she was going to
learn all this fun stuff. When she came home I asked
her, “How was your day?” She said, “I was chased by
peacocks. I just hate George Mason!” That’s kind of
always in the back of my mind.
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George Mason thought that the new Constitution gave
the national government way too many rights, and not
enough were given to the states and the people. But
James Madison, who lived in Orange, Virginia, which
is about an hour and a half, almost two hours from Mt.
Vernon by car, he took the lead and he prepared
twelve amendments. Ten amendments out of the
twelve were ratified by the states and they were in
force by December 15, 1791. We know those as the
Bill of Rights.
I took things that I’ve been reading and almost every
day there’s an article that has something to do about
the Constitution, so I’m always tearing them out by
taking the quiz and the course through Montpelier
which was James Madison’s home, they basically
have a Constitutional College I believe is what they
call it. They really focus on people learning about the
Constitution. In fact, besides the online free course,
they have sessions where teachers actually come for
a week and learn different aspects of the Constitution.
So, Doug knows that someday I want to do that. But,
for now, the online course was great.
I’ve taken my top ten interesting facts that by
researching and trying to make this as interesting a
topic as possible for you, and I can’t remember which
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talk show host had their “Top Ten,” but I’m going
down as far as the ones that I think are interesting.
Number Ten: The word “God” is not in the
Constitution. The delegates all believed in the
freedom to practice religion or no to practice at all. I
think that was fascinating.
Number Nine: The two amendments that were
dropped from the Bill of Rights discussion were about
apportionment of representatives and the second was
about the pay for Congress. The pay of Congress
was finally ratified in 1992, and is our last
amendment. So, almost two hundred years later,
they finally addressed an amendment that was
discussed in 1791.
Number Eight: George Washington warned of leaks
to the papers saying, “Gentlemen, be more careful
lest our transactions get into the newspapers and
disturb the public repose by premature speculation.”
He really was a wise guy.
Number Seven: More verbiage is spent on selecting
the President than any other topic in the Constitution.
That goes back to people were really worried about
this position.
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Number Six: Our Constitution is based on Britain’s
Common Laws.
Number Five: Thomas Jefferson did not sign the
Constitution. He was in France during the Convention
where he served as the U. S. Minister. John Adams
was serving as the U. S. Minister to Great Britain
during the Constitutional Convention and he didn’t
attend, either.
Number Four: The Constitution does not set forth
requirements for the right to vote. As a result, at the
outset of the Union, only male property owners could
vote. African Americans were not considered citizens
and women were excluded from the electoral process.
Native Americans weren’t given the right to vote until
1924, which is after women.
Number Three: More than 11,000 amendments have
been introduced to Congress. Thirty-three have gone
to the states to be ratified, and twenty-seven have
received the necessary approval from the states to
actually become amendments to the Constitution. Of
course, ten of those — the Bill of Rights — were done
at once in 1791. So, really, we’re talking about
seventeen amendments in 225 years.
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Number Two: George Washington and James
Madison were the only Presidents who signed the
Constitution.
And the last one, that got me choked up was,
because of his poor health, I think he was eighty-one,
Benjamin Franklin needed help to sign the
Constitution. As he did so, tears streamed down his
face.
Those are my top ten, and I’m sure you guys have
your top ten, as well. As I said, when I read the
papers every day, I usually find an article or two about
the Constitution, and knowing that I was doing this
presentation, I’ve been pulling different articles.
One hot topic that’s very recent and still in discussion
I see may affect blind people. It is the issue of
requiring an ID to vote. Rev. Al Sharpton, from New
York, called it a “Jim Crow attempt.” He says, “The
idea of requiring an ID to vote will threaten the
sacrifices that resulted in the Voting Rights Act of
1965, which brought about the end of discriminatory
practices of voter disenfranchisement.” Sharpton
thinks that requiring ID is a modern-day poll tax and
literacy test. On the other side, a professor Steven
Thurmstron from Harvard says that the compulsory ID
will prevent voter fraud. He suggested that states
could follow Texas’ free election identity card system.
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That’s funny, because I’m from Texas so I had
assumed that all states had that system, because
working for the Texas Commission for the Blind, if
people didn’t have a driver ID, they were given
another ID they could use for getting on the plane.
That’s a really hot topic now, that’s involving the
Constitution.
This past week, as all of you know, a video on
YouTube was very anti-Muslim in nature, and a lot of
people have asked that it be banned from being
played. However, it is covered under the First
Amendment right to freedom of speech. You have to
keep this in mind with anything that comes up.
Another recent article was that graphic cigarette
warnings that the federal government wanted to
require tobacco companies put on cigarette packages
to show that smoking can disfigure or kill people was
knocked down by the Court. They said the federal
government cannot require that. The manufacturers
have the right for freedom of speech as well.
Others topics that are listed as far as what does the
“right to bear arms” mean in the Second amendment,
and what type of weapons are included and not
included. Another one is “Are All People Arrested by
the U. S. Government Entitled to Due Process? How
Far Does a Government’s Right to Search or Seize
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Without a Warrant and Listen In to Peoples’
Conversations Go?” And that affects the Fourth and
Fifth Amendments.
“Is the Death Penalty Cruel and Unusual
Punishment?” that’s regarding the Eighth
Amendment. And, of course, the abortion rights issue
is there, and people consider that equal protection
under the law which is the Fourteenth Amendment.
Just yesterday, the editor of my local paper wrote,
“The genius of the founders’ achievement is in the
Constitution’s attempt to balance power between the
states and the federal government, between the
branches of the federal government and between the
people and the government. Although it took a bloody
civil war and twenty-seven amendments to sculpt the
document, the general thrust remains essentially the
same as the originators’ envisioned.”
The author quoted from the Washington Post,
Levinson, argued that “The Constitution makes it
difficult for government to respond effectively to the
great issues of the day.” The example that he noted
is the long and complicated process for a bill to
become a law as well as the fact that the President
must sign it, even he has differences with the United
Congress. Vetoes have been overridden in the past,
but it requires a two-thirds vote in each house of
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Congress. It is very difficult to amend. Levinson was
saying that it’s too cumbersome of a form of
government to be effective.
My last comment is going to be a quote from Thomas
Jefferson. He said, “The perfect government is one
that is wise and frugal, but shall restrain men from
injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free
to regulate their own pursuits of industry and
improvement and shall not take from the mouth of
labor the bread it has earned.” So, it’s always about
taxes. The editor wrote, that I quoted earlier, that
“Though some adjustments will invariably be required
by time and circumstances, adherence to the
founding principles will continue to provide the best
chance for freedom and prosperity that the world has
ever known.”
That’s the end of my presentation, except for going
over the test to see how well you do, or if you’ve
learned anything. But, before that, does anyone have
any questions?
Caller
Did I read correctly that at the time, or within the
Constitution it says that after an election, the
candidate that has the most votes beyond after the
one that won the presidential election, that that
candidate would then become the Vice President? If I
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read that correctly, what happened there? Why did
we change that? That might have been an interesting
thing, and before I key off, I just want to make the
point: Can you imagine what it would be like today if
we were trying to ratify the Constitution and the
commercials that would come on your television and
radio from certain states or people who were opposed
to it that would go something like, “If they do this, then
your freedom will be taken away!” That would be all
over the place.
Julie Lee Kay
Yes, now that we have 308 million instead of 4 million,
it would be a nightmare. But, you’re right, and I’m
sorry I don’t know the exact dates as far as when it
changed to where the President chooses their Vice
President as their running mate. But what was
happening is that a lot of times these were really
strong-willed men, and continue to be, of course, that
run for President, and some of them hated each other
— just hated each other. So, it did not work out well
at all to have the person who had been running
against you to then be under you as far as power.
So, that was changed and I’m sorry I can’t give you
the exact date, but it happened fairly early in our
history.
If there aren’t any more questions, let’s go ahead and
go over this and see how well you did. Before I do
that, the Montpelier, the online course that I took, they
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had I think it was eighteen questions and I got sixteen
of them right and one of them that I missed - Oh! it
was so close - it was one I argued over between me
and myself.
Number one: “In May of what year was the
Constitutional Convention convened?” The answer is
1787
Number two: “In what city was the Convention held?”
The answer is Philadelphia.
Number three: “What was the Convention called
when it was convened?” It was simply called a
Convention in Philadelphia. Later on it was called the
Constitutional Convention, when they were talking
about it.
Number four: “The Convention was to address the
weakness of the 1781 document that established a
League of Friendship between the thirteen
independent sovereign states. What was this
document called?” It is called the Articles of
Confederation.
Number five: “In 1786 an insurrection of farmers in
central western Massachusetts is considered to have
been the catalyst for reform and spurred the calling of
the Convention. The uprising was named for one of
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its leaders, a Revolutionary War veteran. What is this
tax revolt called?” It is called Shays’ Rebellion. As an
aside, Shays’ daughter is the first woman on record to
say that she would not in her wedding vows say that
she would obey her husband. I think that’s
interesting. Obviously a feisty family.
Number six: “George Washington was a delegate
and chaired the Convention, but didn’t sign the
Constitution.” This was false. He wasn’t a delegate
because he chaired it, but he did sign the
Constitution. In fact, he was the first person to sign
the Constitution.
Number seven: “Who was the first President of the
United States and Congress Assembled?” It was
John Hanson. In fact, there were six Presidents of
the United States and Congress Assembled.
Number eight: “A group of delegates, in an effort to
convince the citizens of New York to ratify the
Constitution, created essays that we now call the
Federalist Papers. Is this true or false?” And, as was
brought up, it is true. Hamilton and Thomas Paine
are the ones mostly credited for that.
Number nine: “Although it was a collaborative effort,
who is considered the ‘Father of the Constitution’?”
And, because we know that Montpelier is the home of
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James Madison, we know that James Madison is
known as the “Father of the Constitution.” He worked
for months and months before the Convention to get
everything organized so that people could get there
and get the job done.
Number ten: “It was the Declaration of Independence
that created national government, not the
Constitution.” That’s false. The Declaration of
Independence just provided arguments to defend a
revolution, but it didn’t create the national
government.
Number eleven: “The framers created a system to
prevent anyone from being too powerful. What was
this system called?” It’s checks and balances.
Number twelve: “The Connecticut, or Great,
Compromise regarding fair representation between
large and small states was approved. This resulted in
each state being allowed to elect two representatives
to the Senate with the number of Representatives to
be elected to the House determined proportionally.”
That is true, and it was Governor Morris of New York
who had recommended that.
Number thirteen: “How many Articles are in the
Constitution?” There are seven.
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Number fourteen: “The first three Articles of the
Constitution establish the powers of the three
branches of government. Which branch is addressed
in Article One?” It was Congress, the legislative
branch.
Number fifteen: “What is the maximum rounded
number of years that a person can serve as
President?” As we discussed, it is ten. The President
can serve up to two terms, but may also serve up to
two years of an unexpired term of the previous
President.
Number sixteen: “How many of the thirteen states
were required under the new Constitution to ratify it?”
It was nine.
Number seventeen: On September 17th of what year
was the Constitution signed?” It was 225 years ago
today — 1787.
Number eighteen: “When was the Bill of Rights, the
first amendment to the Constitution, ratified?” It was
1791, so it was four years later. People sometimes
ask why do people get into dates and timelines, but
it’s just interesting to realize how long things took.
Number nineteen: “How many amendments to the
Constitution make up the Bill of Rights?” It is ten.
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Number twenty: “Although Thomas Jefferson was
very influential in having our nation institute a bill of
rights, who is considered the Father of the Bill of
Rights?” It’s good George Mason with his peacocks.
So, my sources again were
http://learn.montpelier.org, the book, “Don’t Know
Much About History: Everything You Need to Know
About American History But Never Learned” by
Kenneth Davis, and my brother’s input was from the
website http://billofrightsinstitute.org.
So, I hope you enjoyed that and I hope you did well
on that, and maybe learned a few facts during this last
forty-five minutes.
Vali commented that another book that’s good is
called “The Constitution,” and he says it’s in Braille
from the National Braille Press and it’s free.
Douglas Anzlovar
Thank you, Julie, for presenting. I want to open up
the floor for any questions from the audience before
we conclude today. Any other questions for Julie?
Luis Carlos
Hi everybody — my name is Luis Carlos. I am
speaking to you from Brazil. I would like to listen to
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your comments about a subject that I would like to
know. American Constitution gives for all the
American citizens the opportunity to talk about every
subject; we have liberty to speak or publish about
different things, and I would like to know if it is true for
blind citizens? For example, if I am American citizen
and if I am blind, if I publish an article speaking, and
finally, what about the situation of American blind
citizens in front of the American Constitution?
Julie Lee Kay
All citizens are covered under the Constitution
regardless of race, nationality, disability, so I’m not
sure what you’re asking as far as are there any
restrictions on blind people — is that what you’re
asking?
Luis Carlos
In Brazil, unfortunately, we’ve had no comfortable
situation about blind persons and other. Because of
this I ask this question and thank you for your
attention.
Julie Lee Kay
Oh, definitely. There are some, of course, restrictions
that have developed. You can’t do anything that will
put our national security — like our newspapers,
they’re not supposed to write anything that would
make it where there would be a leak of information
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that would make another country have power over us,
that type of thing. Even that is very watered down
now. After 911, there were many people who were
arrested and put into jail without being read their
rights and without being given lawyers and it wasn’t
until way over a year later these people had been in
jail that the Supreme Court overruled, saying the
President could not do that, that people could not be
held after 911. When national security comes into
play, things get a little strange. There was the
Sedition Acts during the Civil War where you could
not talk poorly against the United States. Times
changes and Presidents do have a lot of power.
Is there a place online where you can look up the U.
S. Constitution?
Julie Lee Kay
Yes, there are several resources. I sent them to
Doug, and Doug are those going to be posted when
the archive version of this is put onto our website.
Douglas Anzlovar
Yes, we’re going to post the quiz with the answers as
well as any resource documents with the recording.
Julie Lee Kay
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So there’s quite a few. Just look for that resource list
that I sent to Doug and you’ll find it. You really could
do it with Google or Dogpile.com or Ask.com. Just
put in “U. S. Constitution” and several documents will
come up as well as in our course, American
Government, we discuss the Constitution as well.
Douglas Anzlovar
Julie, thank you. I’m going to bring our seminar for
today to a close and I just want to invite all
participants — this seminar, like all of our seminars at
Hadley will be archived on our website and available
24/7. Our website is www.hadley.edu and you will be
able to locate this seminar by launching our “Past
Seminars” link.
Julie has already mentioned our American
Government course as a resource for you or as a
course at Hadley, and there are several other History
courses that we do offer, so you’re welcome to check
with Student Services or our website for more details.
Thank you for participating today, and we do value
your feedback. You are welcome to send an email to
feedback@hadley.edu if you have some immediate
feedback for us.
Julie, I’m going to pass the microphone back over to
you for some final thoughts.
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Julie Lee Kay
Thank you so much, Doug. Thank you all for coming,
number one, I really appreciate it. I think that you’re
going to feel even more proud as Americans today.
As John said, that he was most touched by Lincoln’s
statement that we must make the Constitution central
to our lives. Brian has commented that there is so
much about the history of the Constitution and to think
about how the men got together and formed a
document that 225 years later is still really working,
and all the countries that because of us, they have
similar constitutions. It’s really exciting and it’s
something to cherish.
Again, if you haven’t taken the course with me, please
feel free to do so. If you think of questions about the
Constitution, you may contact me. Vali, I’ll look up
when Georgia ratified the Constitution, but just
contact me at kay@hadley.edu and I’ll be happy to
get back to you. Thank you again for coming.
[End of Audio – 0:57:26]
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