Week 2- Constitutional: The Constitution

Directions: View the video below (rough transcript provided) and then take the 10-question quiz. There is no time limit and you may attempt the quiz up to two times. Your highest score will be recorded.

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The Constitution

Talking Points

• In 1787 in Philly, a bunch of “important” men came together to “fix” the Articles of Confederation. They didn’t do that. Instead, they threw them out and started writing a brand new constitution.

• What was wrong with the Articles? Everything!

• The national government could not force the states to obey its laws.

• It did not have the power to tax

• It did not have the power to enforce laws

• Congress lacked strong and steady leadership

• There was no national army or navy

• There was no system of national courts

• Each state could issue its own paper money

• Each state could put tariffs on trade between states.

• Big debates at the Convention:

• Representation → Great Compromise

• Slavery → Three-Fifths Compromise

• Voting → Left to the states

• Economic Issues → Congress given strong powers

• Individual Rights → habeas corpus, ex post facto laws, bills of attainder, trial by jury. But there was one thing missing...a Bill of Rights!

• James Madison’s Architecture

• Separation of powers

• Checks and balances

• Limits on the majority

• Federalism

• Structure

• Lazy: Legislative

• Elephants: Executive

• Jump: Judicial

• Slowly: States

• And: Amending

• Sleep: Supremacy

• Regularly: Ratification

• Ratification

• The proposed Constitution called for 9 of the 13 states to approve the document at special state ratifying conventions.

• Advocates of the Constitution were called Federalists; the opponents of the Constitution were called Anti-federalists.

• The Anti-federalists argued that

• a strong national government would be too distant from the people and would abuse its powers by absorbing powers of the states;

• Congress would tax too heavily and that the Supreme Court would overrule state courts;

• the president would become the head of a large standing army;

• a strong national government needed to be restrained by much more explicit guarantees of individual liberties.

• Leading Federalists were persuaded by this argument and promised to add amendments to the document after its ratification.

• Later, James Madison at the First Congress in 1789 proposed 12 constitutional amendments that restrained the national government from limiting civil liberties.

• Ten of these were ratified by the states by 1791 and have become known collectively as the Bill of Rights.