What is the Constitution?
Investigate events leading to the Constitution and analyze the compromises that led to the Constitution
What is the Constitution?
It's a document that our country uses that tells us how the government is to be run.
How did it come to be? I'm glad you asked!
A long time ago... England and its King sent people over to North America to settle. Those people formed colonies, some colonies started as property of other countries (Spain, France) but eventually all of the 13 original colonies 'belonged to England'. To make a long story short, the settlers/colonists got tired of England telling them what to do. So they revolted. Since the plan was to separate from England, they had to come up with their own system of government.
These colonists were bitter because England was trying to control them. So when they were trying to set up their own government they were afraid of their government having too much power and having too much control, like their experience with England. Watch this cheesy Schoolhouse Rock video, it also explains the events leading up to the Revolutionary War in America:
To officially tell the King of England that they weren't going to be controlled anymore, the colonists wrote and signed theDeclaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. After they declared that they were independent and separate from England, they had to fight the English troops off of their continent.
What is the Constitution?
It's a document that our country uses that tells us how the government is to be run.
How did it come to be? I'm glad you asked!
A long time ago... England and its King sent people over to North America to settle. Those people formed colonies, some colonies started as property of other countries (Spain, France) but eventually all of the 13 original colonies 'belonged to England'. To make a long story short, the settlers/colonists got tired of England telling them what to do. So they revolted. Since the plan was to separate from England, they had to come up with their own system of government.
These colonists were bitter because England was trying to control them. So when they were trying to set up their own government they were afraid of their government having too much power and having too much control, like their experience with England. Watch this cheesy Schoolhouse Rock video, it also explains the events leading up to the Revolutionary War in America:
To officially tell the King of England that they weren't going to be controlled anymore, the colonists wrote and signed theDeclaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. After they declared that they were independent and separate from England, they had to fight the English troops off of their continent.
To officially tell the King of England that they weren't going to be controlled anymore, the colonists wrote and signed theDeclaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. After they declared that they were independent and separate from England, they had to fight the English troops off of their continent.
To make decisions like who should write the Declaration of Independence, each colony sent representatives to meet and discuss how dealing with England should be handled. Each of these meetings was called a Continental Congress. At The first Continental Congress the representatives decided to boycott English goods. They wouldn't buy anything if it was 'Made in England'. Then they decided to send formal letters to King George III telling him how unhappy they were with his policies, and then eventually they signed and sent King George their official Declaration of Independence.
The fact that the colonists decided to send representatives from each of their colonies to make decisions, shows that the colonies wanted a government that listened to the people. They chose representatives who were well-educated and who shared opinions with the people from the colonies they represented. These representatives represent the beginnings of the United States' Government.
A Government is a body that is in charge of everyone. So since these representatives were meeting and making decisions, and then telling their colonies what to do- they were a form of government. .
If there would've been no one in charge to make the decision to declare independence... we might still be a under English control. There's another reason why a government is needed- nothing would get done if no one was in charge.
To make decisions like who should write the Declaration of Independence, each colony sent representatives to meet and discuss how dealing with England should be handled. Each of these meetings was called a Continental Congress. At The first Continental Congress the representatives decided to boycott English goods. They wouldn't buy anything if it was 'Made in England'. Then they decided to send formal letters to King George III telling him how unhappy they were with his policies, and then eventually they signed and sent King George their official Declaration of Independence.
The fact that the colonists decided to send representatives from each of their colonies to make decisions, shows that the colonies wanted a government that listened to the people. They chose representatives who were well-educated and who shared opinions with the people from the colonies they represented. These representatives represent the beginnings of the United States' Government.
A Government is a body that is in charge of everyone. So since these representatives were meeting and making decisions, and then telling their colonies what to do- they were a form of government. .
If there would've been no one in charge to make the decision to declare independence... we might still be a under English control. There's another reason why a government is needed- nothing would get done if no one was in charge.
It was the Second Continental Congress that came up with the Declaration of Independence, and it was Thomas Jefferson (future president) who did the writing, but the other members of the Congress voted to send it to King George over in England.
After declaring that they were independent, the colonists needed to come up with a way to govern themselves.
Why was that so important?
If there isn't a system set in place then the people who have the most power can make whatever changes they want. And sometimes the changes they make are unfair. If there's a system of rules in place it prevents a government from having too much power.
After declaring that they were independent, the colonists needed to come up with a way to govern themselves.
Why was that so important?
If there isn't a system set in place then the people who have the most power can make whatever changes they want. And sometimes the changes they make are unfair. If there's a system of rules in place it prevents a government from having too much power.
Denmark Crown
Look at how kings work- A king has as much power as he wants, and he can do whatever he wants. Another type of government where one person has too much power is known as a Dictatorship. We'll talk more about this later. If there is a system in place for how the government should work, then it protects the country from someone gaining too much power.
So each of the 13 colonies are now states because they declared independence. The states start to make their own Constitutions. The Constitutions were similar to each other in a lot of ways. They all promoted popular sovereignty which means that the government can only exist with the consent of the governed. If a people don't want to be ruled then they don't have to be. They also promoted limited government which gave the government as little power as possible. Remember the colonists were just getting over being bullied by England, they were afraid of a governing body having too much power. The State Constitutions stated Civil Rights and Liberties of its citizens. The reason they listed the rights of the people was to make sure it was understood that the government couldn't take someone's life unjustly. This is a principle that was very important when they were deciding how to make the national Constitution. The last thing that these state Constitutions had was aseparation of powers and checks and balances. If there are different governing bodies that have different powers, they can make sure that one branch doesn't get too much power. This is an extremely important concept. Today if the President of the United States gets too powerful and makes unjust laws, Congress has the power to get rid of him. The system is set up so one branch can 'check' another branch.
Look at how kings work- A king has as much power as he wants, and he can do whatever he wants. Another type of government where one person has too much power is known as a Dictatorship. We'll talk more about this later. If there is a system in place for how the government should work, then it protects the country from someone gaining too much power.
So each of the 13 colonies are now states because they declared independence. The states start to make their own Constitutions. The Constitutions were similar to each other in a lot of ways. They all promoted popular sovereignty which means that the government can only exist with the consent of the governed. If a people don't want to be ruled then they don't have to be. They also promoted limited government which gave the government as little power as possible. Remember the colonists were just getting over being bullied by England, they were afraid of a governing body having too much power. The State Constitutions stated Civil Rights and Liberties of its citizens. The reason they listed the rights of the people was to make sure it was understood that the government couldn't take someone's life unjustly. This is a principle that was very important when they were deciding how to make the national Constitution. The last thing that these state Constitutions had was aseparation of powers and checks and balances. If there are different governing bodies that have different powers, they can make sure that one branch doesn't get too much power. This is an extremely important concept. Today if the President of the United States gets too powerful and makes unjust laws, Congress has the power to get rid of him. The system is set up so one branch can 'check' another branch.
The Second Continental Congress
Now that the States had Constitutions, representatives met together to form a resolution for how the states would interact with each other. At this point all the power was with the states. There was no president. So delegates from each state met again and they wrote a document called the Articles of Confederation which was approved in 1777.
This is where we get the concept of FEDERAL government. The federal government is the government that is in charge of all the states. AKA national government. Under the Articles of Confederation the national government didn't have much power at all.
Here's what life (in the government) was like under the Articles of Confederation: The National government was made of 13 people. 1 Representative from each state. Each representative had 1 vote. The national/federal government didn't have the power to tax. This is significant, because taxes are how governments make money. Without money they didn't have much power. They couldn't control the relationships between the states either. The Articles didn't give them that power. Some states started making foreign alliances. Other states fought with each other over territory.
Because the Articles of Confederation weren't really working out, people decided they needed a stronger federal government. One that could have at least some power over the states. The idea was to gather delegates together and revise the Articles of Confederation.
It took a couple of tries to get every state to send delegates to a national convention. And not every state came. But eventually enough support was gathered that a meeting could be schedules. In 1787 a meeting took place in Philadelphia that would be known as the Constitutional Convention.
If you only were able to learn one thing from this government class, The Constitution of the United States of America would be the thing to learn. Of course, you're definitely going to learn more than just one thing.
The Constitution is important because it outlines how our government works.
It divides the government into State and Federal sections
Then it divides the Federal government into 3 branches.
It describes certain powers different branches have.
PLUS it inspired many other countries to write similar documents.
The Constitution doesn't change... the amendments at the end of the Constitution can change, but the way our government is set up (President, Congress, Supreme Court) doesn't change.
Back to 1787.... The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia but more specifically in Independence Hall.
Now that the States had Constitutions, representatives met together to form a resolution for how the states would interact with each other. At this point all the power was with the states. There was no president. So delegates from each state met again and they wrote a document called the Articles of Confederation which was approved in 1777.
This is where we get the concept of FEDERAL government. The federal government is the government that is in charge of all the states. AKA national government. Under the Articles of Confederation the national government didn't have much power at all.
Here's what life (in the government) was like under the Articles of Confederation: The National government was made of 13 people. 1 Representative from each state. Each representative had 1 vote. The national/federal government didn't have the power to tax. This is significant, because taxes are how governments make money. Without money they didn't have much power. They couldn't control the relationships between the states either. The Articles didn't give them that power. Some states started making foreign alliances. Other states fought with each other over territory.
Because the Articles of Confederation weren't really working out, people decided they needed a stronger federal government. One that could have at least some power over the states. The idea was to gather delegates together and revise the Articles of Confederation.
It took a couple of tries to get every state to send delegates to a national convention. And not every state came. But eventually enough support was gathered that a meeting could be schedules. In 1787 a meeting took place in Philadelphia that would be known as the Constitutional Convention.
If you only were able to learn one thing from this government class, The Constitution of the United States of America would be the thing to learn. Of course, you're definitely going to learn more than just one thing.
The Constitution is important because it outlines how our government works.
It divides the government into State and Federal sections
Then it divides the Federal government into 3 branches.
It describes certain powers different branches have.
PLUS it inspired many other countries to write similar documents.
The Constitution doesn't change... the amendments at the end of the Constitution can change, but the way our government is set up (President, Congress, Supreme Court) doesn't change.
Back to 1787.... The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia but more specifically in Independence Hall.
Independence Hall
The plan wasn't to write a Constitution, but to fix the Articles of Confederation. Eventually they realized that it was better for the country to just create a new document. The Convention started in May. And they met through the summer until September. No AC. What's worse, the representatives wanted to keep all their discussions private so they made sure all the doors and windows were shut. Sweaty and gross.
James Madison was one of the representatives at the Convention, and he took really detailed notes on everything that was discussed. That's why we know so much about what happened in the Convention and what was debated. James Madison also became the 'floor leader' (even though George Washington was there and was officially the 'President of the Convention'... there was no federal U.S. president yet).
Madison became known as the 'Father of the Constitution'.
The plan wasn't to write a Constitution, but to fix the Articles of Confederation. Eventually they realized that it was better for the country to just create a new document. The Convention started in May. And they met through the summer until September. No AC. What's worse, the representatives wanted to keep all their discussions private so they made sure all the doors and windows were shut. Sweaty and gross.
James Madison was one of the representatives at the Convention, and he took really detailed notes on everything that was discussed. That's why we know so much about what happened in the Convention and what was debated. James Madison also became the 'floor leader' (even though George Washington was there and was officially the 'President of the Convention'... there was no federal U.S. president yet).
Madison became known as the 'Father of the Constitution'.
James Madison, 'Father of the Constitution' and future U.S. President
The convention started with 29 delegates from 7 states. Officially they were known as 'deputies'. The Convention started in May, but it took a while for the other state representatives to start showing up. Remember the Convention lasted from May until September. Eventually the total number of delegates there was 55. And every state showed up... except for Rhode Island.
The Constitution created an Executive Branch for the President,
A Legislative Branch for Congress,
and a Judicial Branch for the Supreme Court.
We'll talk more specifically about the roles and powers of these branches later.
The Convention lasted so long because it took a long time for everyone to agree. The biggest argument was over representation. At this point Americans were sick of kings and they wanted the people to have a say in big decisions. This is known as DEMOCRACY (demo is Greek for 'people' and 'kratia' is Greek for rule).
The Legislative Branch (Congress) was the problem. Big states that had lots of people, like Virginia, wanted to have more representation than the smaller states. This became known as the Virginia Plan. The smaller states didn't like this idea. They thought all the states should have an equal say no matter what their size. The plan for the smaller states was known as the New Jersey Plan.
The Convention almost ended because they couldn't come to an agreement. Benjamin Franklin famously said "henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven... be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business". Religious beliefs played a big part in how the Convention was handled.
Eventually they came up with a compromise- the Connecticut Compromise! (aka the 'Great Compromise' because of the awesomeness of the idea). It was the delegate from Connecticut who had the idea, so he got to have the compromise named after him. What did they decide????
It was decided that they would take the bicameral model from Virginia, but tweak it a little. Instead of having both of the bicameral parts be based on population, each 'plan' would be put in place. There would be an upper house, known as the SENATE and each state would have the same number of votes. Then there would be a lower house known as the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES that would be based on population.
The next question that came up was, would slaves count towards the number of people in the population? Slaves weren't allowed to vote. The final decision was called the Three-Fifths Compromise (lots of compromises). The compromise said that all 'free persons' count as one person, but slaves count as 3/5 of a person. So if a plantation owner had 100 slaves, only 3/5 would be counted towards the state's population. 100 slaves=60 people/6 votes.
The convention started with 29 delegates from 7 states. Officially they were known as 'deputies'. The Convention started in May, but it took a while for the other state representatives to start showing up. Remember the Convention lasted from May until September. Eventually the total number of delegates there was 55. And every state showed up... except for Rhode Island.
The Constitution created an Executive Branch for the President,
A Legislative Branch for Congress,
and a Judicial Branch for the Supreme Court.
We'll talk more specifically about the roles and powers of these branches later.
The Convention lasted so long because it took a long time for everyone to agree. The biggest argument was over representation. At this point Americans were sick of kings and they wanted the people to have a say in big decisions. This is known as DEMOCRACY (demo is Greek for 'people' and 'kratia' is Greek for rule).
The Legislative Branch (Congress) was the problem. Big states that had lots of people, like Virginia, wanted to have more representation than the smaller states. This became known as the Virginia Plan. The smaller states didn't like this idea. They thought all the states should have an equal say no matter what their size. The plan for the smaller states was known as the New Jersey Plan.
The Convention almost ended because they couldn't come to an agreement. Benjamin Franklin famously said "henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven... be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business". Religious beliefs played a big part in how the Convention was handled.
Eventually they came up with a compromise- the Connecticut Compromise! (aka the 'Great Compromise' because of the awesomeness of the idea). It was the delegate from Connecticut who had the idea, so he got to have the compromise named after him. What did they decide????
It was decided that they would take the bicameral model from Virginia, but tweak it a little. Instead of having both of the bicameral parts be based on population, each 'plan' would be put in place. There would be an upper house, known as the SENATE and each state would have the same number of votes. Then there would be a lower house known as the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES that would be based on population.
The next question that came up was, would slaves count towards the number of people in the population? Slaves weren't allowed to vote. The final decision was called the Three-Fifths Compromise (lots of compromises). The compromise said that all 'free persons' count as one person, but slaves count as 3/5 of a person. So if a plantation owner had 100 slaves, only 3/5 would be counted towards the state's population. 100 slaves=60 people/6 votes.
After a few more compromises the document was finished on September 17th and 39 men signed it.
According to the old Articles of Confederation 9/13 states had to agree if they wanted to change the Articles. Well... instead of changing the articles they wrote a Constitution. So they sent this new Constitution with its 39 signatures out to the states to see if they would agree to ratify this new Constitution.
Two groups formed: The Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. The Federalists supported the Constitution, while the Anti's.... did not. A few important Federalists wrote pamphlets, the Federalist Papers, and published them in New York. The purpose the The Federalist Papers was to get people to see that the Constitution was a good idea. The 3 main writers of the Federalist papers were: John Jay, James Madison ('Father of the Constitution'), and Alexander Hamilton.
To sum this whole lesson up, I'm going to introduce you to something amazing. Buckle up. Have you ever heard of John Green? Have you heard of The Fault in Our Stars? John Green is the author of that book. Anyway, John Green has put together a little something called 'Crash Course'. It's a series of YouTube videos. In this one, Crash Course US History he takes information you need to know for most American History classes and puts it into little 10+ minute videos. There are also 'Crash Course' YouTube videos for World History, Psychology, Literature, and Science. The point is, if you don't understand a concept in your classes, these YouTube videos are a great place to turn.
ASSIGNMENT 2Answer the questions below in a word processing document and submit it in the 'Submission Box'. Answer these questions by writing COMPLETE sentences.
1. Do you think the three fifths compromise was fair? Why?
2. Which man, also the author of the Declaration of Independence, wasn't at the Constitutional Convention?
3. What was the main difference between the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan?
4. What are 5 facts about the Constitutional Convention?
According to the old Articles of Confederation 9/13 states had to agree if they wanted to change the Articles. Well... instead of changing the articles they wrote a Constitution. So they sent this new Constitution with its 39 signatures out to the states to see if they would agree to ratify this new Constitution.
Two groups formed: The Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. The Federalists supported the Constitution, while the Anti's.... did not. A few important Federalists wrote pamphlets, the Federalist Papers, and published them in New York. The purpose the The Federalist Papers was to get people to see that the Constitution was a good idea. The 3 main writers of the Federalist papers were: John Jay, James Madison ('Father of the Constitution'), and Alexander Hamilton.
To sum this whole lesson up, I'm going to introduce you to something amazing. Buckle up. Have you ever heard of John Green? Have you heard of The Fault in Our Stars? John Green is the author of that book. Anyway, John Green has put together a little something called 'Crash Course'. It's a series of YouTube videos. In this one, Crash Course US History he takes information you need to know for most American History classes and puts it into little 10+ minute videos. There are also 'Crash Course' YouTube videos for World History, Psychology, Literature, and Science. The point is, if you don't understand a concept in your classes, these YouTube videos are a great place to turn.
ASSIGNMENT 2Answer the questions below in a word processing document and submit it in the 'Submission Box'. Answer these questions by writing COMPLETE sentences.
1. Do you think the three fifths compromise was fair? Why?
2. Which man, also the author of the Declaration of Independence, wasn't at the Constitutional Convention?
3. What was the main difference between the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan?
4. What are 5 facts about the Constitutional Convention?