The First Founding
• There was a variety of interests in colonial
America.
• They included:
– New England merchants
– Southern planters
– Royalists
– Shopkeepers, artisans, and laborers
– Small farmers
The Road to Independence
• Geography
– Distance limited Britain’s capacity to govern
the colonies. It also made it expensive!
• Home Rule
– The British had given the Americans
responsibility for managing domestic affairs,
including taxation. The colonies had been
electing their own leaders for over a century.
Self-Governance
• By 1650, the colonies had established
elective assemblies
– Had the authority to initiate laws and levy
taxes.
• The Crown appointed governors, judges
and colonial councils
– They usually went along with popular opinion
Home Rule Limitations
• No experience regulating commerce
• No independent military
• Limited experience in foreign relations
• Little experience working together
British Taxes and Colonial
Interests
• Beginning in the 1750s, the British Crown
began imposing a series of modest taxes
on the colonists, in part to pay some of the
costs of imperial defense.
• The particular types of taxes—levies on
stamps and commercial goods, like sugar
and molasses—caused several of the
colonial interests to begin to organize
against the Crown.
Political Strife and the
Radicalizing of the Colonists
• A series of provocative acts and counteracts radicalized the colonists and led to
the Declaration of Independence.
– Boston Tea Party (1773)
– First Continental Congress (1774)
– Lexington and Concord (1775)
– Second Continental Congress (1776)
• This is the Collective Action Principle in
action.
The Continental Congress
• Britain responded to the Boston Tea Party with
the Restraining Acts and Coercive Acts.
– Closed the port of Boston
– Dissolved the Massachusetts assembly
– Decreed British troops could be quartered in colonial
homes.
– Americans could be tried in England
• Continental Congress passed resolutions condemning
taxes and decrees
–
Appointed delegates to the 2nd Continental Congress.
The Declaration of Independence
Thomas Paine and “Common Sense”
- First piece to openly ask for independence
- ”An island cannot rule a continent”
The Declaration of Independence
• “All men are created equal.”
• Governments derive their legitimacy from
the consent of the governed.
• Declares that when a government no
longer serves the needs of the people, the
people have a right to revolt.
• Does not create a government.
The Revolutionary War
• The War of Independence was long and
bloody, with tens of thousands of
casualties among colonists, British
soldiers, and native Americans who fought
on both sides.
• The colonists ultimately prevailed because
it was so long, so bloody, and so
expensive and, for the British, there was
no end in sight.
The Articles of Confederation
• Confederation: a decentralized governmental system in
which the national gov’t derives authority from the states
rather than the citizens.
• The first American Constitution
• America is really 13 sovereign states with a weak central
government
– No standing army
– Weak executive
– No ability to tax and spend
– Problems of international standing
– Shays’s Rebellion
The Confederation at War
• States responsible for recruiting troops
and outfitting them for battle
• Congress attempted to coordinate state
regiments into a single force
• Could borrow money but NOT tax
• No administrative branch—so Congress
had to do everything.
The Confederation at War
• NE States met and passed a resolution to
give Congress “powers competent for the
gov’t”
• Hartford Convention
– Called on Congress to grant itself the power
to tax.
• Rhode Island vetoed the bill
• France enters the war!
• The British give up.
The Confederation During Peace
• A war-torn economy
• Trade barriers at home and abroad
• Popular discontent (Shays)
– Despite the efforts of Hamilton, Washington,
etc, Daniel Shays (and other uprisings)
compelled the states to form a stronger union.
Founders’ Philosophical
Influence
• Locke(1632-1704): popular sovereignty.
Citizens’ delegation of authority to their
agents in gov’t with the ability to rescind that
authority.
• Newton(1642-1727): force and balance
• Montesquieu(1689-1755): separation of
powers, superiority of small republics
• Hume(1711-1776): competition of contending
interests.
Constitutional Convention
(1787): Key Issues
• Key Issues:
– Revise or scrap the Articles of Confederation
– National Power vs. State Power
– How much democracy?
– Slavery
• Some answers:
– The Great Compromise
– The Three-Fifths Compromise
•
http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/9zm7cy/national-constitution-center
Virginia Plan
• National vs States’ rights.
• Madison favored a stronger executive—
more like a parliamentary system.
• Proposed the Virginia Plan
– Bicameral legislature with lower house
apportioned among the states based on
population.
– Upper house elected by lower house.
New Jersey Plan
• States’ rights activists displeased with
Virginia Plan.
– Called for one legislative chamber
– Equal representation for each state.
– Gave power to tax to the national gov’t
– Established simple majority rather than
unanimity.
– Did not establish courts or organize executive
The Great Compromise
• Now the unanimous agreement rule was
gone, replaced by a rule allowing a
majority of the membership of Congress to
pass laws.
• Article 1, Section 8 extended the authority
of Congress
– Commerce Clause; Necessary and Proper
Clause.
The Separation of Powers
Article I: Legislative Branch
• Bicameralism – Division of a legislative
assembly into two chambers or houses
• Expressed Powers of Government
• Necessary and Proper Clause – Also
referred to as the “elastic clause”
Article II: Executive Branch
• Provides for an independent, stronger, and
more “energetic” executive than in the
Articles of Confederation.
• The president is commander in chief, chief
executive, and chief diplomat.
• Other powers include the veto, the
nomination of executive and judicial
officials and the power to grant reprieves
and pardons.
The Take-Care Clause
• Just as the necessary and proper clause
enabled Congress to enlarge its powers, Article
II has done the same though the ‘take-care’
clause
– The president “shall take Care that the Laws
be faithfully executed”
• Modern presidents have used this to undertake
whatever actions national policy may require
that are not expressly forbidden in the
Constitution
The Electoral College
• Each state is awarded as many electors as it
has members of the House and Senate
• The Constitution left it to the states to decide
how electors are chosen, but the Framers
generally expected that the states would rely
on statewide elections
• Today, a candidate needs a majority (270) of
the 538 EC votes, otherwise election is
decided by the House of Reps.
Article III: Judicial Branch
• Provides for a Supreme Court and other
federal courts Congress can establish.
• Justices and judges have lifetime terms
and are nominated by the president and
confirmed by the Senate.
• Does not explicitly provide for judicial
review—the power of the courts to declare
actions of the legislative and executive
branches invalid or unconstitutional.
Clicker Question: Articles I, II,
and III
Which of the first three articles is longest
and most specific in its grant of
governmental power?
A. Article I – Legislative Branch
B. Article II – Executive Branch
C. Article III – Judicial Branch
Articles IV and VI:
National Unity and Power
• Article IV provides reciprocity among the
states through the “full faith and credit”
clause and the “privileges and
immunities” clause.
• Article VI promotes national power through
the national supremacy clause.
Article V: Amending the
Constitution
• Sets forth the procedures for amending the
Constitution
Article VII: Ratification
• Calls for ratifying conventions in each of
the 13 states
• The Constitution is deemed ratified when 9
of the 13 states vote to ratify.
The Fight for Ratification:
Federalists vs. Antifederalists
• Federalists favored ratification and a
stronger national government.
• Antifederalists opposed ratification but
disagreed among themselves about what
the alternative should be.
• At issue:
– Nature of representation
– Danger posed by tyranny of the majority
– Scope and location of governmental power
The Fight for Ratification
Discussion/Clicker Question
Which contemporary group’s ideas do the
Antifederalists’ ideas resemble?
A. Occupy Wall Street
B. Tea Party
C. Green Party
D. Libertarian Party
The Fight for Ratification:
The Bill of Rights
• The Bill of Rights is one key result of the
fight for ratification
Beyond the Constitution:
Limiting Governmental Power
• The Federalists and Antifederalists agreed
that governmental power had to be
checked; they also agreed that “mere
parchment barriers” would not be enough.
• In Federalist 10, James Madison outlines
the strongest argument from the Federalist
camp for why popular government will
succeed in the new United States.
Beyond the Constitution:
Limiting Governmental Power
• In Federalist 10, James Madison argues:
– The key problem of democracy is instability
and factionalism.
– Factions are sown into the nature of man.
– So we must control the effects of faction:
• Representation and “filtering” of public opinion
• “Extend the Sphere” – Take in a greater variety of
interests
• The American “solution” is that we’ll agree
to disagree!
Federalist 51
• “If men were angels, no government would be
necessary. If angels were to govern men,
neither external nor internal controls on
government would be necessary. In framing a
government which is to be administered by men
over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you
must first enable the government to control the
governed; and in the next place oblige it to
control itself.”
Federalist 51
• How does a gov’t control itself?
– By dispersing power among several brances
– Being subjected to majority rule
• This serves to guard against tyranny,
expands the sphere of influence and
solidifies the Republic.
Amending the Constitution
• There have been just 17 amendments to
the Constitution since 1791.
• Two of these cancel each other out
(Prohibition).
• The remaining 15 amendments can be
broken down into 3 categories.
Expansion of the Electorate
Changing Elections
Expanding and Limiting the
Power of Government
The Constitution
• Irony: national pluralism that Madison was
striving to install was already at work at
the federal convention, frustrating their
success
• Many of the Constitution’s provisions have
no theoretical rationale; they are simply
the hammered-out products of
compromise.