Warm-ups
 Answer




the question:
What is government?
Why do we have it?
What are its goals?
Do we need it?
James Madison: President #4, Drafter of The
Constitution, The Bill of Rights, Etc.
 “What
is government but the greatest of all
reflections on human nature?
 If men were angels no government
would be necessary.”

The Federalist Papers #51, 1788
Warm up: Sept. 4, 2008
 Useless
laws weaken the necessary laws.
 government should be set up so that no
man need be afraid of another.


Montesquieu (1689-1755)
Montesquieu was the most widely quoted
author of the writers of the Constitution.
 What
do these short quotes mean?
 What do they say about the types of laws
that the Founders set out to create?
Warm-up: 9/5/2008
 “A
well regulated Militia, being necessary
to the security of a free State, the right of
the people to keep and bear Arms, shall
not be infringed.”

 If
2nd Amendment to the Constitution
one of the goals of government is to
make people not be afraid of each other,
why would the government want to
protect people’s right to carry
weapons?
“They can have my gun when they
pry it from my cold, dead fingers.”
-Charlton Heston
Warm up
 Lying
 First Amendment
 Candidate
 Freedom
of speech
 Political campaign
 Governor
 False claims
Warm up: 9/8/2008

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,
and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.


The First Amendment of the Constitution
Is freedom of speech important? Why?
 Should people be able to say whatever they
want, whenever they want, where ever they
want?
Warm-up: 9/9/2008

Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or
of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the government for a redress
of grievances.
 The First Amendment of the Constitution
 Does
Religion affect government?
Should it?
 What do you want to know about a
candidate’s religious beliefs? Why?
Warm up: 9/10/2008
 Do
not write this down! Think about it.
 What would you do if you were the most
powerful person in the world?
 You wake up in the morning and you
discover that you have all the power in the
world. What is the first thing you do?
Warm-ups
 “Power
corrupts, absolute power corrupts
absolutely”

 Is
Lord Acton, British Philosopher
this true?
 If this is true, what does it say about how
we should structure our government?
 How should we distribute power?
Warm-up: Sept. 11, 2008
 It
is seven years since the attacks on
9/11/2001.
 How has the United States responded to
the attacks?
 Have we done a good job? Are we safer?
Guantanamo Bay
 Do
those accused of terrorism deserve, or
qualify for, Habeas Corpus protection?


“Enemy Combatants,”
“Extraordinary Rendition”
Habeas Corpus
 “Show

me the body”
The government has to justify the
imprisonment of a prisoner.
 “The
privilege of the writ of habeas
corpus shall not be suspended, unless
when in cases of rebellion or invasion, the
public safety may require it.”

Article I, section 9, clause 2
Warm up: 9/12/2008
 Should
the rights given in the Constitution
be Universal?
Warm up: 9/12/2008
 What
are three policies or issues on which
you would like the next president of the
United States to agree with you?
In Groups, In class

Study your assigned system of Government.
(page 38-40)
 Create a poster and presentation with the
following:
•
•
•
•

The name of your system of Government
A description of your system of Government
A slogan for your system of government
An illustration
You will be graded as a group and on your
participation:

Total: __/20
Warm up: 9/15/2008
 Government,
even in its best state, is but a
necessary evil; in its worst state, an
intolerable one.
Thomas Paine
 What does T. Paine think about
government?
 What kind of government would he like to
see?
T. Paine
The
Government
that governs
least, governs
best!
Yeah!
Common Sense: 1776





120,000 books sold (out of two million
residents) best selling book of the
century in the Western Hemisphere.
King George III: a “Royal Brute.”
“…in America the law is king”
“there is something very absurd in
supposing a continent to be
perpetually governed by an island.”
John Adams: this book is a
“Crapulous Mass.”
Warm up: 9/16/2008
 “The
great and chief end of men uniting
into commonwealths, and putting
themselves under government, is the
preservation of property.”

John Locke, Enlightenment Thinker
• 1632-1704
Warm up: 9/16/2008

People join governments only “for the mutual
preservation of their lives, liberties, and estates,
which I call by the general name-property.”

John Locke, Enlightenment thinker
• 1632-1704

What does this mean? Put it in your own words.
 If this is true, what implications does it have for
government? Who has the power to change
government?
Warm up: 9/17/2008
 How
do you think the first government
began? What makes you think that?
 What are the four theories of the origins of
government?
Warm up: 9/18/2008

Name 3 principles by which you lead your life, or
would like to lead your life.



How do these affect your life?
Where do you get them?
the ethics of someone may be seen as a set of
principles that the individual obeys in the form of
rules, as guidance or law.
• Treat every child as a unique genius.
• Teach people as you would like to be taught.
• Teach like there is no tomorrow.
Warm up: 9/22/2008
 Why
do people use violence?
 What would it take for you to use violence
against your government?

Name three actions your government would
have to take.
John Locke
 Natural
Rights: given by God, not by
Government.



Life
Liberty
Property
Warm up: 9/24/2008
 “Greed,




for lack of a better word, is good.”
Gordon Gecko (played by Michael Douglas)
based on Ivan Boesky
What is greed?
Is it good? Why?
Is it greed that has made America powerful?
America: Path to Independence
 First

English Colonies on the New World:
Jamestown, 1607
• Tobacco, Sugar, Rice, eventually Cotton

New England, 1621
• Fish, Tar, Gold, Timber, Furs

The Settlers went seeking Economic,
Religious, and Legal freedoms.
• The Reasons for independence would be
Economic and Ideological.
Taxation without Representation

The Seven Years War, AKA the French and
Indian War (1756-1763)




The Sugar Act, 1764
The Quartering Act, 1765
The Stamp Act, 1765
The Boston Tea Party (1773)

The “Intolerable” Coercive Acts, 1774
•
•
•
•
The Boston Port Act
The Administration of Justice Act
The Quartering Act
The Quebec Act
The Revolutionary War
1776-1783
General George Washington led a successful Guerilla war
against a stronger, but less determined adversary.
The Articles of Confederation
 1781-1787
 No
Balance between large and small
states.
 No Supremacy Clause, central
government could not force the states to
obey it.
 No power to raise taxes.
 No money=no army
 No army=little power
Shays’ Rebellion
1786-1787

"I have been greatly abused, have been obliged
to do more than my part in the war; been loaded
with class rates, town rates, province rates,
Continental rates and all rates...been pulled and
hauled by sheriffs, constables and collectors,
and had my cattle sold for less than they were
worth...The great men are going to get all we
have and I think it is time for us to rise and
put a stop to it, and have no more courts, nor
sheriffs, nor collectors nor lawyers."
George Washington
 “There
are combustibles in every state
which a spark might set fire to…If
government cannot check these disorders,
what security has a man for Life,
Liberty, and Property?”

1787
In Groups of 2-3
 In
your opinion, was the Articles of
Confederation adequate to govern the
United States?


Three (3) reasons (facts, arguments) to
support your thesis.
Three (3) specific changes that should be
made to the Articles to help secure Life,
Liberty, and Property.
• Answer in complete sentences.
• One paper per group
Constitutional Convention, 1787
Compromises all around
 Virginia
Plan
 New Jersey Plan
 The Great Compromise
 The 3/5th Compromise
 The Sectional Compromise
Warm up: 9/23/2008
 When
the Colonists rebelled against
Britain, they faced a stronger, richer, better
organized military force. They lost most of
the battles that they engaged in.
 Why do you think they ended up winning
the War for Independence?
Warm Up: 9/25/2008
 A little
rebellion now and then is a good
thing.
 The
tree of liberty must be refreshed from
time to time with the blood of patriots and
tyrants.
Thomas Jefferson
 What
do these quotes mean?
The First Political Parties
 Federalists:
Hamilton, Madison, Jay,
Adams


Wanted a stronger Federal (central)
government to protect Life, Liberty, and
(especially) Property.
Loved the new Constitution
 Anti-Federalists:

Jefferson, Patrick Henry
Wanted to keep the Federal Government
weak.
Anti-Federalists

The Anti-Federalists did not want to ratify the
Constitution. Basically, they argue that:





It gave too much power to the national government at
the expense of the state governments.
There was no bill of rights.
The national government could maintain an army in
peacetime.
Congress, because of the `necessary and proper
clause,' wielded too much power.
The executive branch held too much power.
The Federalists

The Federalists, on the other hand, had answers
to all of the Anti-Federalist complaints. Among
them:


The separation of powers into three independent
branches protected the rights of the people. Each
branch represents a different aspect of the people,
and because all three branches are equal, no one
group can assume control over another.
A listing of rights can be a dangerous thing. If the
national government were to protect specific listed
rights, what would stop it from violating rights other
than the listed ones? Since we can't list all the rights,
the Federalists argued that it's better to list none at
all.
Ratification: 1789
 The
Federalists had promised a Bill of
Rights.
 It was delivered and the first 10
Amendments to the Constitution were
passed in 1791.
Rank the Amendments
 Put
the Bill of Rights into your own words,
listing out the specific rights in each
Amendment.
 Rank them according to their importance.
 Explain why you chose your top two and
bottom two Amendments.
Warm up: 9/26/2008
 Which
of the Rights included in the Bill of
Rights do you think are the most
important? Why?
 How do people use these rights?
The Bailout
McCain on Greed
 McCain,
campaigning in Florida,
promised reforms, too, to expose and
end the "reckless conduct, corruption
and unbridled greed" that he said had
caused the financial crisis on Wall
Street."
Warm up:
"What kind of society isn't structured on
greed? The problem of social organization
is how to set up an arrangement under
which greed will do the least harm;
capitalism is that kind of a system."
-- Milton Friedman

How does the United States try to make sure
that greed does as little harm as possible?
Warm up
 A democracy
is nothing more than mob
rule, where fifty-one percent of the people
may take away the rights of the other fortynine.
Thomas Jefferson
 What
are some problems with democracy?
 What are some solutions to those
problems?
Warm up: 9/30/2008
 How
has the United States tried to make
sure that your rights are respected?

List the ways
The Supreme Court

Pick two cases
 For each case:





Summarize the case: who, what, where, why
Three arguments for each side (1 sentence each)
Cite the Constitution (including Amendments) at least
twice for each case, in your arguments.
Vote. Record the vote.
Write a majority opinion. Why did you choose the
verdict that you did? (3-4 sentences)
Warm up: 10/1/2008
 Why
do Supreme Court cases matter?
Precedent
 A legal
rule established by a judicial
decision that guides subsequent judicial
decisions.
 Judges
will follow the legal principles
established by prior cases.
Dred Scott V Sandford, 1857

Scott, owned by a surgeon had lived for two
years in the free territories of Illinois and
Wisconsin.
 Sued in Missouri Circuit court for his freedom.
The Circuit Court declared him free.
 His owner took the case to the State Supreme
Court, which ruled that he was not free.
 The Case went to the Supreme Court of the
United States
The Ruling
 The
Court ruled: 6-3
 Dred Scott did not have the right to sue for
his freedom:
African Americans were "beings of an inferior
order, and altogether unfit to associate with the
white race, either in social or political relations, and
so far inferior that they had no rights which the
white man was bound to respect."
• Majority Opinion written by Chief Justice Roger B.
Taney

The Ruling

“the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced
to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and
sold and treated as an ordinary article of
merchandise and traffic, whenever profit could
be made by it."

African-Americans were Private Property, and
the Fourth and Fifth Amendments prohibit taking
private property from citizens without just cause
and due process.
The Reaction
 Frederick
Douglass: "my hopes were
never brighter than now!“
 What?!
 Change


the Constitution!
2/3 of both houses of Congress
3/4 of state legislators
The 13th Amendment, 1865
 Section
1. Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as a punishment for
crime whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within the United
States, or any place subject to their
jurisdiction.
 Section 2. Congress shall have power to
enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
The 14th Amendment, 1868

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the
United States, and subject to the jurisdiction
thereof, are citizens of the United States and of
the state wherein they reside. No state shall
make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United
States; nor shall any state deprive any person of
life, liberty, or property, without due process of
law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction
the equal protection of the laws.
Warm up: 10/2/2008
 WHAT
IS SUFFRAGE?
 Why is it so important?
The Black Codes
13th Amendment had made slavery
illegal, and involuntary servitude illegal,
unless you had committed a crime.
 The

So many Southern states made it a crime to
be black.
The South Carolina Black Code

"Negroes must make annual contracts for their labor in writing; if they
should run away from their tasks, they forfeited their wages for the year.
Whenever it was required of them they must present licenses (in a town
from the mayor; elsewhere from a member of the board of police of the
beat) citing their places of residence and authorizing them to work.
Fugitives from labor were to be arrested and carried back to their
employers. Five dollars a head and mileage would be allowed such
negro catchers. It was made a misdemeanor, punishable with fine or
imprisonment, to persuade a freedman to leave his employer, or to feed
the runaway. Minors were to be apprenticed, if males until they were
twenty-one, if females until eighteen years of age. Such corporal
punishment as a father would administer to a child might be inflicted
upon apprentices by their masters. Vagrants were to be fined heavily,
and if they could not pay the sum, they were to be hired out to service
until the claim was satisfied. Negroes might not carry knives or firearms
unless they were licensed so to do. It was an offence, to be punished by
a fine of $50 and imprisonment for thirty days, to give or sell intoxicating
liquors to a negro. When negroes could not pay the fines and costs after
legal proceedings, they were to be hired at public outcry by the sheriff to
the lowest bidder...."
Amendments fix problems
 Outcry
over the Black Codes led to the
14th and 15th Amendments.
The 15th Amendment, 1870
 Section
1. The right of citizens of the
United States to vote shall not be denied
or abridged by the United States or by any
state on account of race, color, or previous
condition of servitude.
 Section 2. The Congress shall have power
to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
Who is left out?
 The
Women.
 Seneca

1848
Falls Convention
The Seneca Falls Declaration

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and
women are created equal; that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that
to secure these rights governments are instituted,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed. Whenever any form of government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who
suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon
the institution of a 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.
Wyoming
 First
state to give women the right to vote
 1869
The 19th Amendment, 1920
 The
right of citizens of the United
States to vote shall not be denied or
abridged by the United States or by any
State on account of sex.
The Amendments
 Summarize


each of the Amendments,
Amendment 11-27
Explain the problem that they were written to
fix and how it would fix that problem. (2
sentences)
Warm up: 10/3/2008
problem did the 18th Amendment try
to solve?
 What problems did it create?
 What
Warm up: 10/6/2008

For people to be free, government should be
designed in this way:
 “Ambition must be made to counteract
ambition.”


James Madison, Federalist #51, 1788
What do we call this system of government?
 How is this system supposed to work?
Checks and Balances Poster
 Design
an original poster which shows the
following:



Each branch of government
The powers that each branch has
The powers that each branch exercises over
the other branches.