Study Guide for the “US Constitution” and the “Articles of ...



Study Guide for Organizing Principle 3

In 1777, shortly after the Declaration of Independence was signed, the Articles of Confederation were passed by the original 13 states and laid out our first system of government. They were a set of weak laws that gave most of the power to the states. Remember, the colonists thought King George III had too much power and they were afraid of government with too much power.

Although the states were happy with the Articles of Confederation, it had a lot of weaknesses:

• Congress could not collect taxes

• Congress could not regulate trade

• Congress had no way to enforce the new laws they made

• Congress needed states’ permission to start an army

• Each state had one vote in congress…the states with more people didn’t think that was fair

Even though the states were happy, the Articles of Confederation were not the best thing for the new country. The Articles of Confederation failed because it did not give enough power to the national government and some really smart Americans knew this. Shay’s Rebellion added further proof to the fact that under the Articles of Confederation the government was in danger when it did not have the power to raise a national army. Shay’s Rebellion showed everyone that it was time to reform the Articles of Confederation, because the government under the Articles was too weak.

One of these people was James Madison. In 1787 he sent word to all the states that there was going to be a meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to revise (change) the Articles of Confederation. This meeting would later be known as the Constitutional Convention – because the delegates set about writing a constitution - a detailed, written plan of government. Because James Madison worked so hard at this meeting he is now known as the “Father of the Constitution.” Another person at the meeting was Benjamin Franklin. At the age of 81 he was the oldest delegate. George Washington was also there as a delegate from the state of Virginia. He was elected President of the convention (not of the country...at least not yet).

During a scalding hot summer, the delegates sat locked in the secret meetings in stuffy, hot, wool clothing and argued back and forth over what to do about creating a new government. All discussions were to be kept secret from the public, in order to encourage a freer exchange of ideas. Remember, an exclusively democratic government was a whole new idea. No country had ever before tried to create a new government that was run by the people. The states were divided on the issue of representation in Congress - two opposing plans were proposed that pitted large states against small. The New Jersey Plan thought that each state should have an equal number of representatives in both houses. The Virginia Plan proposed that the number of each state’s representatives should be based on the size of its population, and the government would be split into three branches:

Legislative: makes/writes the laws

Executive: enforces the laws

Judicial: interprets or decide if the laws are fair

Most of the delegates liked this plan and there were few arguments about the executive and judicial branch. However, heated arguments broke out when decisions were to be made about how many representatives each state would have in Congress (the legislative branch). The larger states with more people wanted proportionate representation. That means each state would get representatives based on the number of people in that state. The more people the more representatives. Well, the small states didn’t like that at all. They were afraid the larger states would push them around. The smaller states wanted equal representation. That means each state would have the same number of representatives. As you may guess, the larger states didn’t like that at all. The convention almost ended until someone came up with a great idea. They decided to have both. This idea was known as the Great Compromise and it saved the Constitution. The legislative branch (Congress) was split into two houses the Senate and the House of Representatives. In the Senate each state would have 2 representatives which means 2 votes (equal representation). In the House of Representatives, each state would have one representative for every 40,000 people living in that state (proportionate representation).

Whew, that was close. At least the Constitution was saved and now it is easy sailing from here….WRONG! Remember there were many slaves on plantations in the southern states and those states wanted the slaves counted when deciding the number of delegates in the House of Representatives. “But they are not citizens!!!” argued the delegates from northern states. Well, the southern states weren’t having any chance of slavery being made illegal and they almost walked out of the convention. It was time for another compromise to save the day. It was agreed that each slave would be counted as 3/5 (three-fifths) of a person. That means every 5 slaves would be counted as 3 freed people.

Now that we are done with compromises, let’s review exactly what the Constitution set up:

• There were 3 branches of government that all had different powers. This idea is called “separation of powers.”

• Each branch of government had powers that would “check” the powers of the other branches. This is called “checks and balances.” Examples of checks and balances are:

- The President (executive) can veto, or reject a law passed by Congress.

- Congress (legislative) can override the president’s veto if 2/3 of the members vote “yes” to the new law.

- The President appoints judges to the Supreme Court for life. But, Congress needs to approve those appointments.

- Congress can “impeach” the President (kick him out) if he breaks the law.

- If Congress and the President pass a law that does not follow the Constitution the Supreme Court can declare it unconstitutional.

Now that this was all ironed out it was time to write that final copy to send to the states for “ratification.” Ratification means to approve. The Preamble (introduction) starts with “We the People.” This was important because now the governed (the people) were giving permission to the government and the government was agreeing to serve the needs of the people. The people were the new bosses of the government. There were six goals in the Preamble:

1. To “form a more perfect union”

2. To “establish justice”

3. To “insure domestic tranquility”

4. To “provide for the common defense”

5. To “promote the general welfare”

6. To “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity (future generations)”

The Constitution included seven articles which established the framework for the American Federal government:

I. Established the Legislative Branch Lazy – Legislative

II. Established the Executive Branch Elephants – Executive

III. Established the Judicial Branch Jump – Judicial

IV. Federalism Slowly – States/Federal

V. Amending Process And – Amending Process

VI. Federal and State laws cannot

Conflict with the Constitution Sleep – Supremacy Clause

VII. Process for ratification of the

Constitution Regularly - Ratification

If a Representative, President or Justice, wasn’t doing a good job they could be voted out. It was agreed that 2/3 of the states needed to ratify the Constitution to make it the new law of the new country. This means 9 of the 13 states needed to vote yes. But guess what? Yep, another problem. There was no mention of what basic rights the people would have. It was promised that if the states ratified the Constitution the first job of the new Congress would be to amend (add to) the Constitution to include a list of basic rights. These first ten amendments are known as the “Bill of Rights.”

After this was agreed the Constitution was sent to the states to be ratified. People who supported the Constitution were called Federalists. The Federalists got their name from the term federalism – which is a form of government where states and the federal government share power. The people against the Constitution were called Anti-Federalists; they did not like that the Constitution did not yet include a Bill of Rights, and felt that the strong national government would ignore the states and cater to the wealthy. Three Federalists, James Madison, John Jay and Alexander Hamilton, wrote a series of newspaper articles explaining why the Constitution was a good idea for the U.S. Those articles are now known as the Federalist Papers. Apparently they were written very well. In 1789 the ninth state ratified the Constitution and it officially became the new national law, and remains 250+ years later.

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