Review of chapters on the late colonial period

The competition with the French, the drive for settlement beyond the Appalachians, and struggles with the British.

The Bill of Rights– Complete with their own preamble…

Here is the background to the Bill of Rights: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/billofrightsintro.html
Read the whole thing, including the rights that Madison included which were rejected!

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html

Here is an interesting site– the Bill of Rights Institution: http://billofrightsinstitute.org

Video: America Gets a Constitution

From the History Channel:

http://www.history.com/videos/america-gets-a-constitution#america-gets-a-constitution

america-gets-a-constitution#america-gets-a-constitution

Reminders and assignment for Sept 27

While I am at the funeral, you will have a sub. She is a dear friend of mine, and I know you will treat her like a princess. Make sure you prepare for these two quizzes!

1. You will take a combined 9-10 terms check first, and then grade it. Turn those in.

2. You will then take your MC check over your homework. You will grade that and turn it in.

You will then do this assignment, which can all be done online. Click here to download the assignment: Federalist 51 Document Analysis– Hyperlinks are provided within the document.

If you need to, search for the APPARTS form you will need on the blog, and download a copy. I COULD put it here, but you need to learn how to do this. Keep that copy on your hard drive.

You may write in it in word, but SAVE AS Federalist #51, so that you keep the original. This is due Monday!!!

Excerpt from Bailyn on Power

By historian Bernard Bailyn.

Excerpt: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, Chapter 3, from pp 55-69

The theory of politics that emerges from the political literature of the pre-Revolutionary years rests on the belief that what lay behind every political scene, the ultimate explanation of every political controversy, was the disposition of power. The acuteness of the colonists’ sense of this problem is, for the twentieth century reader, one of the most striking things to be found in the eighteenth century literature: it serves to link the Revolutionary generation to our own.

The colonists had no doubt about what power was and about its central, dynamic role in any political system. Power was not to be confused, James Otis pointed out, with unspecified physical capacity—with the “mere physical quality” described in physics. The essence of what they mean by power was perhaps best revealed inadvertently by John Adams as he groped for words in drafting his Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law.  Twice choosing and then rejecting the word “power,” he finally selected as the specification of thought he had in mind “dominion,” and in this association of words the whole generation concurred. “Power” to them meant the dominion of some men over others, the human control of life: ultimately force, compulsion….

Most commonly the discussion of power centered on its essential characteristic of aggressiveness: its endlessly propulsive tendency to expand itself beyond its legitimate boundaries. In expressing this central thought, which explained more of politics, past and present, to them than any other single consideration, the writers of the time outdid themselves in verbal ingenuity. All sorts of metaphors, similes, and analogies were used to express this view of power.  Power, it was said over and over again, has “an encroaching nature”; “… if at first it meets with no control [it] creeps by degrees and quick subdues the whole.” Sometimes the image is of the human hand, “the hand of power,” reaching out to clutch and to seize: power is “grasping” and “tenacious” in its nature; “what it seizes it will retain.” Sometimes power “is like the ocean, not easily admitting limits to be fixed in it.” Sometimes it is “like a cancer, it eats faster and faster every hour.”….

What gave transcendent importance to the aggressiveness of power was the fact that its natural prey, its necessary victim, was liberty, or law, or right. The public world these writers saw was divided into distinct, contrasting, and innately antagonistic spheres: the sphere of power and the sphere of liberty or right. The one was brutal, ceaselessly active, and heedless; the other was delicate, passive, and sensitive. The one must be resisted, the other defended, and the two must never be confused….

Not that power was in itself—in some metaphysical sense—evil. It was natural in its origins, and necessary. It had legitimate foundations “in compact and mutual consent”—in those covenants among men by which, as a result of restrictions voluntarily accepted by all for the good of all, society emerges from a state of nature and creates government to serve as trustee and custodian….

Belief that  a proper system of laws and institutions should be should be suffused with, should express , essences and fundamentals– moral rights, reason, justice– had never been absent from English notions of the constitution….[I]f the ostensible purpose of all government was the good of the people, the particular goal of the English constitution–“its end, its use, its designation, drift, and scope”– was known by all and declared by all to be the attainment of liberty. This was its particular grandeur and excellence; it was for this that it should be prized….

The Articles of Confederation

A little background: http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/articles.html

The actual Articles, from the Avalon Project at Yale: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/artconf.asp

Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation

This video can also be accessed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pgc0Da5Q9M

A short history of the articles of Confederation

This video can also be accessed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h10eSXRFs

This is a student presentation. She did a pretty good job, and found some great pictures.

This video also discusses the role of Shays’ Rebellion on support for the Articles:

This video can also be located at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbP0JWQeXag

Questions chapter 9

Questions- Chapter 9: The Confederation and the Constitution
Make sure you still know the definitions and significance of the terms. You can include them in your answers if you need to, however.

By the way, notice the boldfaced words in the questions below. They will be relevant to a DBQ handed out later.

1. What was the effect of the exodus of the Loyalists on American society after the war?
2. How exactly did Revolutionary rhetoric cause social upheaval?
3. What were the limits of Republican idealism when it came to disadvantaged social and demographic groups in American society?
4. What concept provided a counterweight or balance for the excesses of individualism in early American political thought?
5. How did the theory of “republican motherhood” affect women’s lives and expectations regarding their role in society?
6. What were the similar features of the many state constitutions? How did these influence the US Constitution as well as the debate over it?
7. How was “economic democracy” encouraged by specific actions of state governments in the early post-war years?
8. What economic benefits did America gain from independence?
9. Explain the economic disadvantages and dangers facing the new republic.
10. How did the economic situation (look at your answers to 7, 8, and 9) in 1786 influence the political situation as we attempted to establish a new government?
11. What was ironic about the use of the term “Union” (as on p. 180) to describe the American political system? (Look back on pages 179-180 and scan for mentions of unity or related concepts such as unanimity as well as the opposite concept of disunity as you consider your answer.) Consider HISTORICALLY the ability of the colonies to be unified.
12. Why were the executive and legislative branches so weak under the Articles of Confederation? Give specific reasons.
13. Explain the major weaknesses of the Articles, and what impact these weaknesses had. What is meant by calling the Articles “anemic” on p. 182?
14. What were the major achievements of the Confederation government?
15. What four foreign powers challenged American sovereignty the most in the post-war years? Why, and HOW?
16. What were the specific causes of Shays’ Rebellion? What effects did this uprising have politically? What was the significance?
17. What did Jefferson mean by the term “democratic despotism” on p. 185? What is the relation of this term to the term “mobocracy?”
18. Summarize the economic arguments of “paper moneyites” versus “sound money” proponents? What is the danger of paper currency? (You may need to research this)
19. Explain how economic instability and “unbridled republicanism” led to fears of “anarchy.” How did this influence the writing of the Constitution?
20. What were the common characteristics of those “demigods” who gathered eventually to “revise” the Articles? What were their three main goals?
21. How did enemies of America as an independent nation also ironically serve as “Founding Fathers,” according to p 187?
22. Explain each of the important political compromises that made up the Constitution.
23. What was the role of direct versus indirect voting in choosing government officials at the federal level?
24. What were the two great principles of the political theory of republicanism mentioned on p. 190?
25. Describe the differing political views between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. What kinds of people tended to either camp?
26. In general, how did the most radical of the Revolutionary generation respond to the Constitution, and why?
27. Why, specifically, did four states in particular resist approving the new Constitution?
28. What was the purpose of the essays known as The Federalist?
29. Explain the statement on p. 195 that “[t]he minority had triumphed- twice.” In particular consider the statement elsewhere on that page that “[t]he majority had not spoken.”
30. Explain, specifically, how the Constitution attempted to balance the needs for liberty (personal freedom) and order (security and protection).

MC practice chapters 8-10

MC Practice
Chapters 08-10

1. The terms of the Peace of Paris were incredibly generous to the Americans because
A. the Americans had soundly defeated the British and driven out all of its troops after Yorktown.
B. the British feared losing their Latin American colonies to Spain.
C. the British were trying to persuade the Americans not to punish Loyalists who remained in America.
D. the British were trying to anger the French Canadians, who still felt loyalty to France.
E. England was trying to convince the Americans to abandon their alliance with France.

2. During our first 25 years as a nation, one of the major problems facing America was
A. the rivalry between France and Great Britain.
B. the lack of good political leadership.
C. the continued fighting between the US and the Armed Neutrality League.
D. Indian affairs.
E. separation of church and state

3. Opposition by Jefferson and Madison to Hamilton’s financial plan resulted in
A. the formation of permanent political parties.
B. Hamilton’s dismissal from the cabinet.
C. political issues becoming out of touch with the wishes of the people.
D. the rejection of Hamilton’s plan by Washington.
E. their dismissal from the cabinet by Washington.

4. Which of the following is NOT TRUE about when the 2nd Continental Congress convened?
A. delegates attended from all thirteen colonies.
B. the strongest sentiment was for declaring independence from England.
C. it adopted measures to raise money and create an army and navy.
D. it drafted new written appeals to the king.
E. the conservatives remained a strong force.

5. The purpose of the Bill of Rights was
A. to limit the power of the states against individuals.
B. to protect the rights of the states against the federal government.
C. to weaken the central government.
D. to persuade Federalists to support the Constitution.
E. to protect the rights of individuals against the federal government.

6. A major strength of the Articles of Confederation was its
A. control over interstate commerce. D. ability to coin money.
B. strong judicial branch. E. strong executive branch.
C. presentation of the ideal of a unified nation.

7. Congress’ most successful and effective method of financing the War for Independence was
A. printing large amounts of paper money.
B. obtaining grants and loans from France and the Netherlands.
C. levying heavy direct taxes.
D. issuing paper securities backed by the promise of western land grants.
E. appealing to the states for voluntary contributions.

8. One of George Washington’s major accomplishments as president was
A. keeping the nation out of foreign wars.
B. the signing of Jay’s Treaty.
C. his advice against forming permanent alliances with other nations.
D. persuading the British to stop encourage Indian attacks on the frontier.
E. setting the precedent of serving only two terms.

9. The main purpose of the Alien and Sedition Acts was to
A. capture British and French spies.
B. control the Federalists.
C. silence and punish critics of the Federalists.
D. keep Thomas Jefferson from becoming president.
E. keep the High Federalists from impeaching Adams.

10. Thomas Jefferson favored a political system in which
A. the central government possessed a bulk of the power.
B. cities were the primary focus of political activity.
C. a large standing army ensured the peace.
D. the states retained the majority of the political power.
E. manufacturing interests dominated.