US Gov Unit II Outcomes

POL 2301, United States Government 1
Course Learning Outcomes for Unit II
Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:
1. Summarize the origins of American political thought.
1.1 Discuss the influences of Enlightenment philosophers and
their ideas on the American colonial
movement toward revolution.
1.2 Describe the impact of John Locke’s political philosophy on
the key characteristics of the
Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
1.3 Trace the origins of the colonial experience that led to the
revolution.
2. Identify the distinctive attributes of the U.S. Constitution and
the Bill of Rights.
2.1 Explain how the fundamental weaknesses of the Articles of
Confederation were addressed by
the new U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
2.2 Summarize the major political features of the U.S.
Constitution and the Bill of Rights that help

ensure against the development of tyranny.
2.3 Describe the purpose and process of amending the U.S.
Constitution.
2.4 Define federalism and its purpose in American government.
2.5 Trace the evolution of federalism from the Civil War period
through today, including dual
federalism, cooperative federalism, new federalism, and
competitive federalism.
Course/Unit
Learning Outcomes
Learning Activity
1.1
Unit Lesson
Chapter 2, pp. 37–64
Unit II Assessment
1.2
Unit Lesson
Unit II Assessment
1.3
Unit Lesson
Unit II Assessment
2.1
Unit Lesson
Unit II Assessment

2.2
Unit Lesson
Unit II Assessment
2.3
Unit Lesson
Unit II Assessment
2.4
Unit Lesson
Unit II Assessment
2.5
Unit Lesson
Unit II Assessment
UNIT II STUDY GUIDE
The U.S. Constitution and American Federalism
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Required Unit Resources
In order to access the following resources, click the links
below.
Throughout this course, you will be provided with sections of
text from the online textbook American
Government 2e. You may be tested on your knowledge and
understanding of the material presented in the
textbook as well as the information presented in the unit lesson.
Chapter 2: The Constitution and Its Origins, pp. 37–64
Chapter 3: American Federalism, pp. 71–102
Unit Lesson
Influences on the Founders and the Right to Revolution
Beginning in the late 1600s and throughout the 1700s,
immigrants traveled to the New World in search of new
opportunities. Some fled from religious persecution, political
oppression, and poverty. Others were drawn
toward the open expanses of land and freedom. They came from
England, Ireland, Spain, and Sweden. They
were Pilgrims and Puritans, Catholics and Quakers, and
Lutherans and Anglicans. Some arrived still bound
with an allegiance to their old countries. Others immigrated in
search of a new homeland. These early
immigrants who colonized America brought with them diversity
of religion and culture and an independent

spirit that would help build a new nation.
Americans often celebrate the Declaration of Independence and
the U.S .Constitution as this country’s most
important historical documents. As we learned in Unit I, the
ideas of ancient Greek philosophers such as
Aristotle, and English philosophers, such as Thomas Hobbes
and John Locke, were important influences on
those who founded this country and framed its unique political
system. In this unit, we will learn more about
the founders and the wealth of political experience they brought
first to colonial America and later to the newly
formed United States.
The founders closely followed Locke’s view that the purpose of
government was to protect citizens and their
rights, especially their natural rights to life, liberty, and
property. These ideas broke with the dominant tradition
of the time that political rulers were divinely appointed, were
working as God’s representatives on Earth, and
were permitted to rule as they saw fit. Locke and the American
founders rejected this conception of the origin
of government in favor of the social
contract. The social contract was an
implicit agreement among people that
they would give up some of their rights in
exchange for the government’s
protection. However, unlike a divine
monarchy, the social contract was not
absolute. If a government failed to
protect the rights of citizens or if it
actively deprived citizens of their rights,
citizens were entitled to withdraw their
popular consent (the idea undergirding
democratic government that in order for
government to be legitimate, the people

must give their consent to be governed).
This led to Locke’s right to revolution, but
this idea that citizens have the right to rid
themselves of political leaders who fail to
protect and represent them is rooted in
the political culture of the ancient Greek
city-state. Watch the following National
Geographic video Ostracism in Ancient
Greece to learn about the Greek idea of
President Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a
joint
session of Congress, as required by the U.S. Constitution
(Craighead, 2017)
https://online.columbiasouthern.edu/bbcswebdav/xid-
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greece/
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/media/ostracism-ancient-
greece/
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ostracism, which refers to the removal of ineffective or corrupt

political officials from office (Cartwright, 2016).
The transcript for the video Ostracism in Ancient Greece is also
available for your viewing.
Colonial Discontent and Revolution
The American Revolution was rooted not
only in philosophy but also in economics.
During the early colonial period, British
monarchs allowed the American colonists
significant political and economic
freedom. They enjoyed broad self-
governance with all of the colonies
having their own constitutions by the mid-
1700s (the Mayflower Compact is an
early example), many colonies
established local legislatures (such as the
Virginia House of Burgesses established
in 1619), and the colonial governments
were allowed to send representatives to
the British Parliament. In addition, the
colonists were able to develop thriving
local industries and routinely ignored
many of the British trade policies that
required the colonies to export more than
they imported in order to ensure trade
dollars for the British treasury; however,
by 1754, when the British became
embroiled in a protracted war with France, which is known as
the French and Indian War, colonists became
increasingly concerned with the economic and political
implications. In particular, the British monarchy began
to demand that the colonists provide financial support for the
war. This financial support came in the form of

taxation, including the Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Townshend Act,
Tea Acts, and Coercive Acts (Krutz, 2019). See
the timeline below for more information about these and other
events leading to the American Revolution.
Between 1764 and 1775, the colonists experienced an erosion of
the rights and freedoms they once enjoyed.
It was a period of growing discontent, fear, and suspicion. As
the British government imposed economic
hardships on colonists with tax after tax without the consent of
colonial governments, it also became
increasingly intrusive into the daily lives of colonial families by
requiring them to quarter British troops in their
own homes. In reaction to British-imposed hardships, discontent
turned to action, and opposition groups
began to form. The Sons of Liberty and the Daughters of
Liberty were more actively engaged in dissent. Both
of these groups formed in response to British taxation in the
colonies during the time of the American
Revolution. The Sons of Liberty engaged in protests and riots,
while the Daughters of Liberty organized
boycotts throughout the colonies.
In order to access the following podcast, click the link below.
Listen to the podcast 60-Second Civics: Episode 178, which is
sponsored by the Center for Civic
Education and provides more information on taxation without
representation. The transcript for the
podcast 60-Second Civics: Episode 178 is also available for
your viewing.
The Mayflower Compact (1620) by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris

(Ferris, 1620)
http://files.civiced.org/podcasts/60SecondCivics/60SecondCivic
s-Episode178.mp3
s-Episode178.mp3
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s-Episode178.mp3
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An alternate version of the infographic above is provided using
assistive technologies.

(Boltneva, n.d.; Cooper, 1789; New York Public Library, 1765;
Revere, 1770)
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In order to access the following activity in order to check your
understanding of the timeline above, click the link below to
access a
nongraded quiz.
Interactive Activity 2.1: Milestones to the Revolution
Click here to access the PDF version of Interactive Activity 2.1:
Milestones to the Revolution.
These early revolutionaries began to form throughout the
colonies and engaged in protests and riots. In 1765,
nine of the 13 colonies sent representatives to a meeting in New
York; these individuals became known as

the Stamp Act Congress that drafted the Declaration of Rights
and Grievances, which was a list of ways that
the British Crown had violated the rights of colonists. In 1772,
Samuel Adams led in the creation the
Committees of Correspondence. This organization was a group
of political dissidents throughout the colonies
who shared information about British activities, movements,
and colonial efforts to oppose British rule.
Samuel Adams of Massachusetts was a key leader and cousin of
the second President of the United States,
John Adams. In 1774, the First Continental Congress met and
drafted a resolution known as the Declaration
of Rights and Resolves against the Coercive Acts, which
suspended many colonial rights, including self-rule
and trial by peers.
The British monarch King George III refused to yield to
colonial demands. A month before the Second
Continental Congress was to meet in May 1775, fighting broke
out between British troops and colonists in
Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, on April 1775. The
revolution had begun with the “shot heard ‘round
the world.” In these early skirmishes, eight colonial minutemen
were killed, and 16,000 British troops laid
siege to Boston. When the Second Continental Congress met a
few weeks later in May 1775, they presented
one final appeal to King George III to halt hostilities. The
British monarch refused and responded with an
additional 20,000 troops and a declaration that all opposition to
the king was traitorous, and traitors were
subject to death. Meeting in Philadelphia, the Second
Continental Congress appointed a committee of five to
draft a proclamation of separation from Great Britain. Thomas
Jefferson of Virginia was the primary writer.
Drawing on Enlightenment ideals of natural rights and self-rule,
Jefferson penned the new nation’s first

statement of political rights. You can listen to, read, and view
the original Declaration of Independence below.
In order to access the following resources, please click the links
below.
Audio speech by John F. Kennedy reading the Declaration of
Independence
Declaration of Independence: A Transcription
Image of the Declaration of Independence
The Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of
Independence on July 4, 1776. A few days
later, it was read aloud to a crowd of citizens at Bowling Green
Park in New York City. Following the public
reading, the Sons of Liberty led New Yorkers in toppling a
statue of King George III. The lead from the statue
President John F. Kennedy
(Stoughton, 1963)
(Chernetskaya, n.d.)
https://ia802604.us.archive.org/33/items/TheDeclarationOfInde
pendence/TheDeclarationOfIndependence_64kb.mp3
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was later melted down and recast as ammunition used in the
Revolution (New York City Department of Parks
and Recreation, n.d.).

(Spalding, n.d.; Trumbull, 1819)
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America’s First Experiment with Self-Government: The Articles
of Confederation
Once free from Great Britain, the newly independent states were
faced with establishing a government that
would ensure the sovereignty of the 13 states, protect the rights
of citizens, bolster failing state economies,
and unify a war-torn country. By November 1777, the Second
Continental Congress had drafted the Articles

of Confederation, a loose association of independent states.
However, it took nearly 4 years for the states to
ratify the Articles of Confederation, and during this time, it
became increasingly apparent to statesmen such
as James Madison, George Washington, John Jay, and
Alexander Hamilton that the first attempt at self-
government was flawed. The concern was that a too-strong
national government had created a weak central
authority, which was unable to function effectively or
efficiently.
Economics and Finance
When faced with mounting economic problems, the national
government was unable to establish a truly
national economy in which the states worked together. States
coined their own money, used various
currencies, and imposed trade tariffs on each other, making
commerce between states difficult. In addition,
(Spalding, n.d.; Stone, 1823)
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the central government had no powers to raise revenue through

taxes to provide public goods and pay off
Revolutionary War debts.
Politics
Fearful of a return to monarchial rule, the Articles of
Confederation created a weak executive with supporting
offices to develop and implement policies. Representation in the
unicameral Congress was one legislator per
state, which created discontent among the larger, more
populated states. Additionally, the Articles of
Confederation did not establish a judicial system to help resolve
growing disputes over growing land claims
and conflicts between states. Any changes to the Articles of
Confederation required unanimous consent,
which was often challenging to obtain.
National Defense
The central government was not given the authority to raise and
fund a national army or navy, which left the
states to provide for their own defense against foreign and
internal threats. Shays’ Rebellion illustrated the
need for a stronger central government that could protect all of
the states collectively. See more information
regarding Shays’ Rebellion in the paragraph following the
interactive activity.
In order to access the following nongraded quiz, click the link
below.
Interactive Activity 2.2: Articles of Confederation
Click here to access the PDF version of Interactive Activity 2.2:

Articles of Confederation.
The Second Constitution
Before the states could attempt to address the weaknesses of the
Articles of Confederation, unrest began to
break out in some of the states. In Massachusetts, a newly
adopted state constitution imposed property
ownership as a requirement for voting and office-holding, which
began disenfranchising the lower and middle
classes. Women and slaves were already denied political rights.
By the late 1780s, the economies in many of
the states were on the decline with banks foreclosing on farms,
which was devastating to what was left of the
agrarian economy of the country. In 1786, Revolutionary War
veteran and farmer Daniel Shays led a group of
farmers, many of whom were veterans, to the Massachusetts
capital of Springfield to protest foreclosures.
While the state tried to quell the Shays’ Rebellion, it lacked
funds to raise arms against the uprising.
Massachusetts appealed to the national government for
assistance. While the Congress appropriated funds
for a militia, all but one state refused to pay. While the
rebellion was eventually subdued through privately
raised funds, it solidified the resolve of many political leaders
across the states that the Articles of
Confederation was inadequate to keep the new country safe,
prosperous, and unified.

In order to access the following presentation,
click the link below.
To learn about the Constitutional Convention and
the three plans debated in Philadelphia in 1787,
view the presentation Constitutional Convention.
The PDF version of the Constitutional
Convention presentation is also available.
(Chernetskaya, n.d.)
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Once the Constitution was signed, it still had to be ratified by at
least nine of the 13 states. This proved to be
a far more arduous process than creating the document. It took
almost 3 years to achieve ratification on May
29, 1790. Attempts to ratify the Constitution led to the
development of two factions: the Federalists, who
sought to adopt the Constitution and favored a strong central
government, and the Anti-Federalists, who did
not support the adoption of the 1787 Constitution that created a
strong federal government. The Federalists’
defense of the Constitution was presented in a series of
newspaper articles that are collectively known as The
Federalist Papers.
One of the greatest points of contention between the Federalists
and the Anti-Federalists was the lack of civil
rights and civil liberties in the Constitution. Many states
strongly believed that additional laws were needed to
protect and ensure individual liberties. James Madison’s first
act when Congress met was to present a long
list of amendments aimed at safeguarding individual rights and
ensuring greater protection of those rights.
From this list, the House of Representatives approved 17
amendments and, of those 17, the Senate approved
12. Of those 12 amendments, the states approved 10, with
Virginia serving as the final state to ratify what

would become known as the Bill of Rights on December 15,
1791. There was an agreement, one final
compromise, made by the Founding Fathers that if the
Constitution was passed, then a Bill of Rights would be
accepted and enforced immediately to ensure liberties were
protected by the Constitution.
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(Blyth, 1766; Sneff, 2017; Trumbull, 1793)
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Fundamental Principles of the Constitution
The Founding Fathers created a political system that included
political features and practices aimed
at ensuring powers are limited. These features include
separation of powers, checks and balances,
and federalism.
Separation of Powers
As we learned in Unit I, separation of powers is the division of
political authority between branches of
government. The Founding Fathers adopted this concept and
created three distinct branches of government:
the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Each branch
has its own area of authority. Some powers are
exclusive while others are shared. The purpose of the separation
of powers is to prevent one group of people
from accumulating too much power and risking the rise of
tyranny.
Checks and Balances
In order to ensure that powers remain separate, the framers
created the double protection of checks and
balances. Checks and balances is a system of overlapping
powers in which each branch has some control
over the other branches. Almost every power held by a branch is
shared by one or both of the other branches.
In this way, the political authority of each branch is checked by
the other branches.

In order to access the following video, click the link below.
Watch this short video Lesson 11, Section 6: How
well does the system of separated and shared
powers work?, which is sponsored by the Center for
Civic Education. Note: You will need to scroll down
past the first five videos on the page.
The transcript for the video Lesson 11, Section 6:
How well does the system of separated and shared
powers work? is also available for your viewing.
Federalism
The third constitutional protection against tyranny is
federalism. Federalism is the division of power between
levels of government—national, state, and local levels. While
separation of powers divides authority within
one level of government, federalism separates powers between
levels of government. The concept is a
mixture of a unitary system, where political authority is
concentrated in a central government, and a
confederal system, where political power rests with lower units,
such as states. In a federal system, authority
is divided and shared by states and a central government.
There have been several different forms of federalism
throughout American history. The first era of federalism
ran from 1789, with the inception of the Constitution, until
1865, when the Civil War ended. From 1865 to

1937, dual federalism was the predominant form and was based
on the idea that separation of state and
national power was not only possible but desired. Cooperative
federalism emerged with the Great Depression
and the growing need for federal authority and funding.
Cooperative federalism focuses on national power.
Beginning with the Johnson administration’s creative
federalism, efforts were made to emphasize joint
partnerships between national, state, and local governments.
However, it is the national government that
ultimately decides where federal resources are distributed.
Under new federalism, federalism is decentralized
with the aim of reinvigorating state and local power while
reducing federal spending.
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References
Blyth, B. (1766). Abigail Adams [Painting].
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abigail_Adams.jpg
Cartwright, M. (2016). Ancient history encyclopedia.
https://www.ancient.eu/Ostracism/
Chernetskaya. (n.d.). Time to engage [Image].
https://www.dreamstime.com/composition-phrase-time-to-
engage-written-notebook-composition-phrase-time-to-engage-
written-notebook-wooden-
image107147494
Cooper, W. D. (1789). Boston tea party [Engraving].
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boston_Tea_Party_w.j
pg
Craighead, S. (2017). President Donald Trump delivers the
address to congress on Tuesday, February 28, 2017,
at the U.S. Capitol [Photograph].

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Donald_J._Trump_Sta
te_of_the_Union_2017.jpg
Ferris, J. L. G. (1620). The Mayflower compact [Painting].
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Mayflower_Com
pact_1620_cph.3g07155.jpg
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. (n.d.).
Bowling Green.
https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/bowling-green/history
New York Public Library. (1765). Bostonians reading Stamp
Act, 1765 [Etching].
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1765_BostoniansRead
ingStampAct.png
Revere, P. (1770). The fruits of arbitrary power, or the bloody
massacre [Engraving].
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1770_BostonMassacre
_byRevere_detail_CustomHouse.png
Sneff, E. (2017, March 1). March highlight: Remembering the
ladies. Harvard University.
https://declaration.fas.harvard.edu/blog/march-ladies
Stone, W. (1823). United States Declaration of Independence
[Image].
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:United_States_Declar
ation_of_Independence.jpg

Stoughton, C. (1963). John F. Kennedy, photograph in the oval
office [Photograph].
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_F._Kennedy,_W
hite_House_color_photo_portrait.jpg
Trumbull, J. (1793). John Adams [Painting].
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Trumbull_-
_John_Adams_-
_Google_Art_Project.jpg#/media/File:John_Trumbull_-
_John_Adams_-
_Google_Art_Project.jpg
Trumbull, J. (1819). Declaration of Independence [Painting].
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Declaration_of_Indep
endence_(1819),_by_John_Trumbull.jpg
Suggested Unit Resources
In order to access the following resources, click the links
below.
Appendix B in the online textbook American Government 2e
provides you with an opportunity to review the
U.S. Constitution. You are encouraged to review the following
pages in order to gain a greater understanding.
Appendix B: The Constitution of the United States, pp. 665–679
Appendix C contains two essays written by James Madison, and

they discuss one of the key threats that
faced the newly created American government. In Federalist
Paper #10 on pp. 681–684, Madison warned
against the dangers of the many and diverse interests that
existed within the new country. He argued that
these interests would compete for power and potentially weaken
the government and political society. To
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address this issue, Madison suggested in Federalist Paper #51
on pp. 685–687 that an indirect democracy
would better serve the new country than a pure democracy.
Madison recommended having a form of
insurance against the tyranny of self-interest by separating the
three key powers of government (i.e.,
making laws, implementing laws, and resolving disputes over
law). He argued that separating government
into three branches (i.e., legislative, executive, and judiciary)
would create a double security against the
tyranny of interests.
Appendix C: Federalist Papers #10 and #51, pp. 681–684, 685–
687

Review a transcription of the U.S. Declaration of Independence
by accessing the resource below.
The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. (1776,
July 4). Declaration of Independence: A
transcription. https://www.archives.gov/founding-
docs/declaration-transcript
Learning Activities (Nongraded)
Nongraded Learning Activities are provided to aid students in
their course of study. You do not have to submit
them. If you have questions, contact your instructor for further
guidance and information.
Review
In order to check your understa nding of the materials presented
in this unit, you are encouraged to complete
the following exercises, which can be found at the end of
Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. Once you have completed
the activities, check your answers using the Answer Key.
Chapter 2: Review Questions, pp. 67–68
Chapter 2: Critical Thinking Questions, pp. 68–69
Chapter 3: Review Questions, pp. 105–106
Chapter 3: Critical Thinking Questions, pp. 106–107
Terminology

Engage with the terminology that
plays an integral role in U.S.
politics by reviewing the Unit II
Flash Cards (PDF version of the
Unit II Flash Cards).
Reference
Luckydoor. (n.d.). ID 50718023 [Photograph].
https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-flash-cards-box-
vocabulary-image50718023
(Luckydoor, n.d.)
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