1. (AP GOV NOTES) ○
(1777) Articles of Confederation •
Prior to this, there were the two Constitutional Conferences. •
Historian, Meryl Jensen, believed that the Articles were not as bad as the federalists made them
out to be.
•
WHAT WAS THE CASE IN TERMS OF GOVERNANCE BEFORE THE CONSTITUTION OF 1787?
Succession: leaving behind the forming rule of power ○
In a Revolution, the previous form of government loses their power. ○
ARTICLE I: •
As long as a specific right is not given to the Federal government, it remains with the states.○
ARTICLE 2: •
Each of the states pledges to assist their nearby states if attacked. ○
These troops can not be forcible. ○
ARTIFLE 3:•
Everyone in the states enjoys the same rights as the other states.○
ARTICLE 4: •
Individual states decide how they will provide for representation in terms of the Federal
congress
○
Limit of representatives (2‐7), but there is one vote per state. ○
These representatives have freedom of speech. ○
ARTICLE 5: •
The states cannot appoint delegates to foreign countries. ○
States cannot declare war on their own. ○
However, they may defend themselves in an emergency situation. ○
ARTICLE 6: •
Skip○
ARTICLE 7: •
The collective expense for warfare will be proportionally allocated to the states, in
accordance with the richness of their lands.
○
ARTICLE 8: •
Gives the power of determining on war and peace to the federal government, unless there
is an emergency.
○
Can adjudicate claims in respect to states. ○
There is no Supreme Court. ○
They can regulate the uniform monetary system. ○
Federal government can decide whether money has the same value in different states. ○
ARTICLE 9: •
The Congress will not be meeting all the time, because they have other commitments in their
hometowns.
•
John Locke thinks that the Congress is continually in power, they have too much freedom to
establish policy.
•
When they are not meeting, the Congress can be replaced by the Government of Confederation. •
There is an executive committee of the Congress. ○
Committee of States, with one representative from each state. ○
WHAT, WHEN CONGRESS ISN'T MEETING, CONSTITUTES THE GOVERNMENT OF CONFEDERATION?•
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION
10.22.15 (The Federalist Papers)
Thursday, October 22, 2015
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2. They can appoint ambassadors at a domestic level. ○
Can borrow money on the name of the United States. ○
Can organize a collective American Navy. ○
If the committee of the states can be delegated powers by Congress to oversee certain
states.
○
They are trying to convince people to vote on the new Constitution. •
People are going to vote on this Constitution. •
These essays were published through media, the newspapers. •
They are coming up with arguments in favor of a more superior government.•
WHAT ARE THE FEDERALIST PAPERS ALL ABOUT?
Publius: They signed these papers under the same name. •
There are three authors: Hamilton, Madison, and Jay •
Jay wrote the fewest amount. •
Hamilton was in favor of strong separate power. ○
Madison was more dedicated to decentralized power, not so much on the ○
Jay's known for his involvement in foreign relations. ○
We know they had different views from each other. •
They all agreed that the new constitution is better than the current government. •
They are questioning what the best type of government is. •
Considering that we are still under the Constitution of 1787, they were right in their defenses. •
AUTHORS
Relations between necessity and freedom. •
There is a freedom aspect to whether they want to go back to a British monarchy, or a new
Republic.
•
"It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been
reserved the people of this country, by their conduct and example,
to decide the important question, whether societies of men are
really capable or not of establishing good government from
reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to
depend for their political constitutions on accident and force."
We have to decide how we
want to be ruled.
•
Practice necessity=
they need a
government
•
This must be done under a
practical necessity.
•
"If there be any truth in the remark, the crisis at which we are
arrived may with propriety be regarded as the era in which that
decision is to be made; and a wrong lection of the part we shall act
may, in this view, deserve to be considered as the general
misfortune of mankind."
WHY WOULD ANYONE CHALLENGE THE IDEAS WE WOULD PUT
FORWARD?
"The plan offered to our deliberations affects too many particular
interests, innovates upon too many local institutions, not to
involve in its discussion a variety of objects foreign to its merits,
and of views, passions, and prejudices little favorable to the
discovery of truth. "
Some people will not like
the new Constitution.
•
Individuals in high positions
of the states might be in
contrast because their
private interests are
threatened in a negative
way, so they will react in a
•
NO. 1: GENERAL INTRODUCTIONS (Hamilton)
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3. negative way.
The local actors •
He expects all sorts of
indifferent, but specifically
opposition.
•
He attempts to identify this
group in opposition, and
what their motives are.
•
Masks of a political kind,
that are based of truth, but
advantage in a
Machiavellian way.
•
"Among the most formidable of the obstacles which the new
Constitution wil have to encounter may readily be distinguished
the obvious interest of a certain class of men in every State to
resist all changes which may hazard a diminution of the power,
emolument, and consequence of the offices they hold under the
State establishments; and the perverted ambition of another class
of men, who will either hope to aggrandize themselves by the
confusions of their country, or will flatter themselves with fairer
prospects of elevation from the subdivision of the empire into
several partial confederacies than from its union under one
government."
"It is not, however, my design to swell upon observations of this
nature."
Relation to Crick, Chapter
2.
•
These would be the
Anti‐Federalists.
•
People in opposition are
concealing their true
motives behind their
opposition.
•
" I am well aware that it would be disingenuous to resolve
indiscriminately the opposition of any set of men (merely because
their situations might subject them to suspicion) into interested or
ambitious views. Candor will oblige us to admit that even such
men may be actuated by upright intentions."
Be cautious. There could be
more happening than
Candor.
•
People could in in favor of a
weaker government.
•
You really want to become
a tyrant or a dictator.
•
""History will teach us that the former has been found a much
more certain road to the introduction of despotism than the latter,
and that of those men who have overturned the liberties of
republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying
an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and
ending tyrants."
Those who start the new
form of Republic, end up
being the tyrant in return.
•
"I am convinced that this is the safest course for your liberty, your
dignity, and your happiness. I affect not your reserves which I do
not feel. I will not amuse you with an appearance of deliberation
when I have decided.
His opponents. •
He wants to lay down he
pluses and minuses.
•
"I frankly acknowledge to you my convictions, and I will freely lay
before you the reasons on which they are founded. The
consciousness of good intentions disclaim ambiguity. I shall not,
•
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4. however, multiply professions on this head."
"My motives must remain in the depository of my own breast." Look at his motives, not his
arguments.
•
"My arguments will be open to all and may be judged of by all.
They shall at least be offered in a spirit which will not disgrace the
cause of truth."
There is always personal
motivation, but he wants to
give his honest argument
up for judgement.
•
Says that the new Constitution is the frosting on the cake. •
We are Americans. •
He is convinced that what we are doing, is simply ratifying what we already informally understand.•
Considered to be propaganda?•
Nothing is more certain than the indispensable necessity of government;
and it is equally undeniable that whenever and however it is instituted,
the people must cede to it some of their natural rights, in order to best it
with requisite powers. It is well worthy of consideration, therefore,
whether it would conduce more to the interests of the people in
American that they should, to all general purposes, be on nation, under
one federal government, than that they should divide themselves into
separate confederacies and give to the head of each the same kind of
powers which they are advised to place in one national government"
Dissolution of the
American colonies
into separate
regional groupings.
•
•This is the indication
of Jay's thinking in
comparison to
Hamilton's.
WHAT MAKES THE AMERICANS ONE PEOPLE? Geography •
"It has often given me pleasure to observe that independent America
was not composed of detached and distant territories, but that one
connected, fertile, wide‐spreading country was the portion of out
western sons of liberty."
"Providence has in a particular manner blessed with innumerable
streams for the delight and accommodation of its inhabitants."
"A succession of navigable waters forms a kind of chain round its
borders, as if to bind it together; which the most noble rivers in the
world, running at convenient distances, present them with highways for
the easy communication of friendly aids and the mutual transportation
and exchange of their various commodities."
"With equal pressure I have as often taken notice that Providence has
been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people= a
people descended form the same ancestors, speaking the same
language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles
of government, very similar in their manners and customs, and who, by
their joint counsels, arms, and efforts, fighting side by side throughout a
long and bloody war have nobly established their general liberty and
independence."
Country •
One unified people.•
We fought the War
of Succession as
Americans, not New
Yorkers, etc.
•
A people descended
of the same
ancestors. People are
from everywhere
•
Predominantly
English, but not
exclusively so.
•
NO. 2 : CONCERNING DANGERS FROM GOREIGN FORECE AND INFLUENCE (Jay)
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5. Speaking the same
language… more or
less
•
Professing the same
religion…
Maryland/Catholics,
Massachusetts/Quak
ers, etc.
•
Attached to the same
principles of
government…
•
In their manners and
customs… if there's
differences in
languages and
customs and
religions?
•
HE IS
EXAGERRATING.
There is a truth, but
is more projecting
ahead as to what we
can become with the
new constitution,
than what America
was back then.
•
The fact that we
were all under the
same form of
governance was
what kept people
together.
•
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