# Chapter 2 - The Constitution

[!DANGER] Please read the constitution and the declaration of independence located in the back of your book - be familiar with the content of the articles and the amendments to the constitution - especially the first 10 amendments.

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• Creates a new form of government
• The US Constitution is the oldest iliving Constitution in the world
• Much copied by other countries
• Slavery was not abolished at the time the constitution was written.
• Truly is the law of the land - no government officials are "above" the Cosntitution - all must obey the Constitution and the laws of The United States.
• The passage of the Patriot Act in the last vew months of 2001, violates some of the guarantees of the Constitution and the first ten amendments of the Constittion (notably prohibition from unreasonable searches and seizures - 4th amendment)

# Timeline of Revolutionary America and the Buildup to the Creation of the Constitution

# 1776 - Declaration of Independence

# Some of the beliefs expressed in the declaration of independences justifying independence:

• British politicians were corrupt
• Specific complaints against King George III - no taxation without representation
• A government is a government by consent NOT a government by prerogative
  • Government by Consent: The people must have the consent of the people - be elected by the people in order to rule
  • Government by Prerogative: Rulers are the rulers simply because they have royal blood - they inherited the position
• All governments should have a written constitution which specifically grants powers to the government and spells out what the government may legitimately do.

# John Locke's philosophy

• "A government must have a constitution that grants its citizens natural and inaliable rights that the government cannot infring upon."

• "Legislative power should be superior to executive power."

# 1776-1781 - Revolutionary War

Revolutionary War, The Battle at Yorktown final battle

# Major reasons for Patriots' victor

• Guerilla warfare
• Cold winters
• Help of France
• Shipbuilding
  • Majority of the timber the British used came from the colonies.

# 1777 - Articles of Confederation

Articles of Confederation written

# 1781 - Articles of Confederation

Articles of Confederation ratified and adopted as the government of the US.

# 1783 - Treaty of Paris

Treaty of Paris (negotiated primarily by Ben Franklin and John Jay) England surrenders the thirteen colonies to the US.

# 1787 - Philadelphia Constitutional Convention

Philadelphia Constitutional Convention meets to try to re-write the Articles of Confederation

# 1791 - Bill of Rights

Bill of Rights - the first ten amendments to the Constitution are added which guarantee basic liberties (freedom of speech, press, relition)

# Who wrote the constitution?

55 delegates coming from all thirteen states except for Rhode Island.

# Delegates at the convention

• Benjamin Franklin
• Alexander Hamilton
• James Madison
• George Washington

Some of the delegates who were not at the Constitutional Convention (and their absence would cause problems later).

# Delegates not at the convention

• Thomas Jefferson (in Paris)
• Patrick Henry (refused to attend)
• John Adams
• Samuel Adams

Most of the delegates had former government experiene and were fairly "well-off" and not the typical American citizen.

# Midterm Essay Question

[!DANGER] As discussed in the leture and in the textbook, what were all the problems with the Articles of Confederation? How would the Constitution address these problems?

# Reasons why the Constitution had to be written

The Articles of Confederation were viewed to be too weak.

[!WARNING] This is definitely going to be on the exam!

# Congress could not raise taxes

Government has no money to spend on an army or infrastructure.

Solution - "ok nvm we can actually raise taxes now."

# Congress couldn't regulate commerce.

No unified trade policy.

Solution - "ok nvm we can actually regluate trade now."

# Sovereignty retained by the states.

Unable to pass nation-wide legislation.

Solution - "ok nvm we have more power than the states now."

# One vote in Congress for each state.

Lower population states got the same votes as higher populations.

Solution - More population = more representation. House of Representatives is now based on population.

# 9 out of 13 states needed to vote for a national

Very few national laws passed.

Solution - Congress passes laws with a simple majority (50.1%) instead of 3/4 system.

[!TIP] Failed bills cannot be re-voted on until the next congressional term.

Executive orders are not given to the president by the constitution but it's something they have been doing since George Washington.

# National army was very small

The national army was made up of volunteers who probably would be expected to fight without compensation and with their own weapons.

The government didn't have the money to pay for the troops.

Solution - Congress was given the ability to tax so the federal government had the ability to train and hire soldiers.

# No national judicial system

Solution - Establishment of the supreme court

# Territorial disputes between states

Solution - (Again) Establishment of the supreme court

# All 13 states must approve of amendments

Almost no amendments were made to the Articles of Confederation.

Solution - Amending process became easier with the constitution.

# No common currency

All the states decided what the exchange rates between the currencies of the states were.

Solution - Constitution introduced a common currency and gave the national government the only right to regulate US dollars.

# No sense of unity or idea of nationality

During the Articles of Federation, people felt closer to their state and not their country. There was no sense of nationalism.

# Supermacy Clause

No state can pass a law that violates national laws.

# Why a new form of government was needed

1. To adress all of the problems caused by the artiles of confederation
2. To protect creditors form large debtor class (Shat's rebellion fightened a lot of the privileged class)
3. To create a national army who is answerable to central government - national army would help protect the US from future British and Native American attacks.
4. To establish a uniform tariff policy - all incoming goods would pay an import tariff that would be determined by the national goovernment rather than by each state government and there would be free trade between states - no more state protectionism.
5. To develop a strong sense of nationalism.

# Philadelphia Convention in 1787

Most states (except Rhode Island) sent delegates.

Convention was presided over by George Washington and he was able t osuccessfully maintain decorum in what turned out to be a very contentious covention.

Most of the attendees were of "privileged class".

By the 2nd day of the convention it became clear that the Articles of Confederation could not be re-written an entire new form of government must be established.

Since the delegates were not charge with etablishing an entirely new form of government, they had to write the Constitution in secret. They were afraid that if word got out what they were doing, then there would be great protest. Everyone at the convention was sworn to silence and would not answer any report's questions. All windows had to be kept closed to keep new from being overheard (and it was Philadelphia in the summer without air conditioners - bleh!) A guard was posted at the door to keep over eager reporters out. Ben Franklin had to be chaperoned at all times for fear that he would get drunk adn start talking.

James Madison tookmost of the notes during the convention, and hence was called the "Father of the Constitution".

# Actual writers of the Constitution

• William Johnson
• Alexander Hamilton
• James Madison
• Rufus King
• Governor Morris

# Characteristics of the New Constitution

• Written in secret.
• Established a limited government.
• Rulers rule with the consent of the people - which means leaders are elected to most positions of power.
• Establishes a republic.

Implied Powers -definition-

Congress can do anything it wants to do to carry out the four powers that it has.

# Powers of central government

1. Internal stability
2. Economy
3. Foreign policy
4. Defense

[!NOTE] When Puerto Rico was in need of help, individual states were not able to send any help because the Constitution says only the national goverment has the ability to send aid.

# 3 branches of government

# Executive

The Presidency, Article II of the Constitution.

• Natural born citizen.
• Must have lived in the US for 14 continuous years.
• 35+ years old.
• Electoral college "elects" the president - no direct election
  • Each state has the same number of electoral college delegates from each poart as it has House Members and Senators (CA has 55 electoral college delegates - 55 Republican electoral college)
  • On election day, whichever presidential candidate wins the simple majority of the popular votes has their party's electoral college delegates caste in their vote at the state's capitol in December.
  • 270 electoral college votes wins the presidency

# Legislative

Congress - Article I of the Constitution.

• Two Equal "houses" of Congress.
• Initially, Senatorsr were appointed, House of Representatives were elected.
• Senators - 6 years, 2 from each states
• House of Representatives 2 years, number of representatives is based state's population.

# Judiciary

Supreme Court - Article III of the Constitution

• Number of justices not fixed in the Constitution (currently 9)
• Appointed by the president if there is a vaation and approved by the Senate.
• Term is for life or until justice resigns, dies or is impeached.

# Checks and Balances

No each branch is equal to one and another. The branches are prevented from becoming too powerful.

The laws start in congress, the president can choose to veto it. The two houses can then choose to override the veto if they can both get a 2/3rs majority vote.

The president writes the budget, but it doesn't pass unless the 2 houses approve it.

[!NOTE] The longest government shutdown was because of the republican congress not wanting to approve his budget that included the building of his wall.

# Federalism

Invented by the US, central government has the majority of the power and the states have the minority as opposed to a unitary system.

Unitary System -definition-

A system where the central government has 100% of the power.

Cities, counties and states have the right to pass laws as long as it doesn't violate the laws of superior governing systems.

# Bill of Rights

Bill of Rights is the first 10 amendments to the constitution.

The Bill of Rights and the Constitution guarantee civil liberties to Americans. Civil Liberties are rights given to the people (like freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to vote) which the government may not infringe upon. The Federal Courts define to what extent these civil liberties exist are whenever they hear a case about the civil liberties.

# Examples

Free speech and Fre Press cases the Supreme Court has heard which further defined the 1st amendment freedom of speech.

# (1919) Schneck v United States

Speech may be punished if it creates a clear-and-present danger of illegal.

# (1989) Texas v Johnson

There may not be a law to ban flag-burning

# Compromises

Representation in Congress (densely populated states vs. sparsely populated states)

# Connecticut Comprimise

# Lower house

House of Representatives based on population (CA has the largest state population, hence the most House of Representatives - 53 in all).

# Upper house

The Senate based on equality - every state gets two senators regardless of state's population.

# Slavery

Slavey not outlawed - Most northern states were already moving toward abolition (and some had already abolished it) and many of the delegates at the Philadelphia Convention personally were opposed to slavery.

Slavery could not be outlawed through because then the Southen states (which were all slave states) would never ratify the Constitution.

Agreement was reached that after 20 years, Congress could pass laws about slavery.

A slave counted 3/5th a person for representation purposes. Southern states feared that the northern states would still overwhelm them in Congress since Northern States were densely populated whereas Southern States were not. South insisted that male slaves count in the state's population as 3/5ths a person - this way the Southern States would get some more representatives in the House of Representatives.

Uniform import tax determined by the federal government.

Voter qualifications left to the state and most states required the following:

• Must be a white male
• Must be over 21
• Must own property

# Ratification of the Constitution

9 out of the 13 states had to ratify the Constitution before it could be consiidered the law of the land.

# Problems

The Anti Federalists headed by Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry opposed the Constitution because they felt too much power was concentrated in the hands of the central government (states may not be permitted rights - like the right to slavery and individual rights weren't adequately protected).

[!NOTE] Thomas Jefferson was one of the biggest slave owner and did not want to give up his slaves and the profits that come with them.

Federalist papers written by Jay Madison, and Hamilton were letters to the editor sent to the papers in New York, justifying to New Yorkers why they should vote to ratify the Constitution. It was believed that if New York didn't ratify the Constitution (New York was one of the most wealthy and influential states as the time), the Constitution would be meaningless.

New York did end up ratifying at the end along with the other 13 states.

# Amending the Constitution

Page 44 in the book (or somewhere there).

# Proposal

• 2/3rds of each house of Congress. much more common
• 2/3rds of state legislatures ask Congress to call a national convention to propose amendments.

# Ratification

• 3/4ths of state legislature approve it.
• Ratifying conventions in 3/4ths of the states approve of the amendment.

The Constitution is difficult to amend. Over 10k amendments have been proposed, only 27 have actually been ratified.

Framers of the Constitution made it purposefully difficult to ratify the constitution.

Why? - The law shouldn't be too easy to change.

Prohibition was one of the amendments that were removed from the original amendments.

Sometimes the amendments are added to the Constitution and are later rescinded with the passage of another amedment

• 18th amendment passed 1919 - Prohibition - prohibits the making and sale of alcohol.
• 21st amendment passed 1933 - repeals Prohibition and alcohol can be legally made and sold once more.

# Different Opinions

# William Lloyd Garrison

A while, Northern abolitionist who in the 1830's criticized the Constitution and urged all Northerners to disavow all allegiance to the Union because the Constitution protected slavery. He said the Constitution was "Pact with Hell." Lloyd helped to galvanize the abolition movement but turned away some people because of his anti-Constitution sentiment.

# Charles Beard

in 1913 Beard published An Economic Interpretation of the Consitution of the United States in which he stated the following:

The driving force behind the Framers of the Constitution was to create a government that would protect their economic interests, not the interests of the masses. The Framers were more interested in creating a strong government that would protect their property rights and pay back government issued IOUs to private wealthy citizens, than with any grand abstract democratic principles.

- Charles Beard

Notes that the majority of the 55 delegates to the Philadelphia convention were much better off than the average American.

Notes that only a small percentage of people who were eligible to vote for the ratification of the Constitution bothered to do so, which means that the Conistution was ratified by a very small minority in each state.

# Criticisms

Delegates may have been from the privileged classes but that doesn't mean that they all sought the same things. There were wild disagreements at the Philadelphia Convention over representation in Congress, slavery, tariffs. Delegates represented their state interests more than their own interest.

Also it could be that a vast majority of those eligible to vote bothered to do so, but that it is because in the majority of the states (except for Virginia and New York), it was very obvious that the Constitution would be ratified. It people felt strongly against the Conistution, they would have turned out to vote in opposition to it.

The delegates to the convention may have been from "the privileged classes" but they were American and sought to established a radical new type of government and even though there may have been some economic benefit for the Framers, the fact is, is that the Consitution now guarantees rights and freedoms to all American citizens - more rights and freedoms than does the Consitution in any other country.