CHAPTER 4: THE U.S. CONSTITUTION: ORIGINS, PRINCIPLES, AND DEVELOPMENT

Question 1

What does the Declaration claim about human equality?

Answer 1

All men are created equal

Question 2

What does the Declaration claim about natural rights?

Answer 2

Endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

Question 3

What does the Declaration say about the legitimate ends (i.e., purpose) of government?

Answer 3

Secure Rights

Question 4

According to the Declaration, what is the source of the government’s legitimate authority?

Answer 4

Instituted among men, delivering their just powers from the consent of the governed

Question 5

According to the Declaration, what do the people have the right to do when confronted with a government that is destructive of the ends which governments should serve?

Answer 5

Right of the government to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government

Question 6

Make sure to know and understand the first five design principles of the Articles of Confederation discussed in the textbook and how these contributed to the weakness of the central government. Make sure to also know and understand the sixth design principle of the Articles of Confederation discussed in the textbook. (See all below with additional guiding questions)

Answer 6

o Confederal Structure (i.e., the “great and radical vice in the construction of the … Confederation”)

o No Distinct Branches of Government (Simply a Unicameral legislature)

o Lack of Clear Supremacy of Treaties and Other National Laws

o Tight Control of Congressional Delegates by State Legislatures

o Supermajority Voting in Congress

o No Direct Control by the People over Congress

Question 7

What does the term “requisition” mean? How did it function under the Articles of Confederation? Why did the central government’s reliance on requisitions for raising revenue contribution to the weakness of the government?

Answer 7

o Requisitions were orders to contribute to the central government issued by congress to the state’s government

o States routinely ignored them – treating them as requests instead of requirements

Question 8

What was “the great and radical vice” in the design of the Articles of Confederation according to Alexander Hamilton? Why did this “vice” contribute so greatly to the weakness of the Articles of Confederation?

Answer 8

The problem was that the central government was unable to effectively exercise power over the state governments.

Question 9

According to the textbook, what was the primary obstacle to amending the Articles of Confederation?

Answer 9

o The only lawful way to amend the Articles was by unanimous consent of the state legislatures.

Question 10

And how did the Founders get around this obstacle in order to establish the U.S. Constitution in 1787-88? (hint: the idea of “popular sovereignty” was important here)

Answer 10

The Founders decided to submit the Constitution to special popularly elected ratifying conventions in each state. And to make things easier, instead of requiring all thirteen states to ratify, they only required that nine out of thirteen state conventions ratify

Question 11

What was “the Great Compromise”?

Answer 11

Sought to solve disagreement between large and small states at the constitutional convention over how to apportion seats in congress

Question 12

Why was the Constitutional Convention in a stalemate before it? What were the names of the two main plans that were being debated before the Great Compromise broke the stalemate?

Answer 12

Disagreement over the Virginia plan (Large State Plan) and the New Jersey Plan (Small State Plan). For the delegates, the question of how representation in Congress was apportioned was the most important issue.

Question 13

What was the scheme of representation in each of those two main plans?

Answer 13

o Virginia Plan proposed having the number of representatives allocated to each state in congress be based on the size of each state’s population (Proportional Representation)

o New Jersey Plan proposed having the Articles of Confederation’s scheme of representation wherein each state had an equal number of votes – Equal state of representation

Question 14

Why did anti-slavery delegates want slaves to NOT be counted at all for purposes of calculating each state’s number of representatives?

Answer 14

Anti-slavery delegates said it was unjust to make special accommodations for slaveowners’ “property.”

Question 15

Why did slave-state delegates want each slave to be counted for the purposes of representation?

Answer 15

Gives more power to the slave states by increasing their representation

Question 16

What’s the name of the compromise that was reached over how to count slaves?

Answer 16

The three-fifths compromise

Question 17

What is the Electoral College? And how did it give slave states extra voice in the selection of the President?

Answer 17

System established by the U.S. constitution for selecting presidents. By this system, each state is allocated a number of individuals called electors equal to the number of members each state is allocated in the house of representatives and senate. The person who becomes the president is the person who wins the most votes from these electors.

Question 18

What did the Original Constitution establish about the Atlantic Slave Trade?

Answer 18

Could not be abolished before 1808, twenty years after the year (1788) they expected the Constitution to be ratified.

Question 19

What did the Fugitive Slave Clause do?

Answer 19

Granted slave owners a right to recapture runaway slaves who had fled to other states where slavery was illegal. And it took away the right of states to pass laws to protect or free runaway slaves.

Question 20

Make sure to know and understand the six design principles of the original U.S. Constitution

Answer 20

These principles are popular sovereignty, limited government, separation of powers, checks and balances, judicial review, and federalism.

Question 21

What is federalism?

Answer 21

Principle of government that means authority is partly divided and partly shared between federal (national government) and state government

Question 22

Did the federal system created by the U.S. Constitution give state governments more or less power and independence compared to what they had under the Articles of Confederation?

Answer 22

The federal system lessened the power of state governments and increased the power of the federal government

Question 23

What is the name of the clause in the Constitution that grants federal laws superior authority over state laws?

Answer 23

Supremacy Clause

Question 24

How does the Constitution’s Preamble reflect the principle of “popular sovereignty.”

Answer 24

o The constitution’s preamble begins and ends with the words “We the people…do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America.”

o The U.S. constitution was enacted under the authority of the sovereign people, whereas the articles were enacted under the authority of the sovereign states.

Question 25

What is the difference between direct democracy and representative democracy?

Answer 25

o Direct Democracy – a form of democratic government in which all of the citizens directly participate in making and enforcing the laws

o Representative democracy – relatively small number of public officials in government make and enforce laws on behalf of the majority of citizens who are outside the government

Question 26

Which of those two kinds of democracy did the Founders create with the U.S. Constitution?

Answer 26

The founders created a representative democracy.

Question 27

Why did the Founders choose a bicameral legislature instead of a unicameral one?

Answer 27

o Bicameral: Creates an upper house (Senate) that would counterbalance the more democratic lower house (House of Representatives). Senate was meant to bring in aristocratic virtues - knowledge, wisdom, experience, and patience. Senators had to be older (at least 30) and have been citizens longer (at least nine years).

o Unicameral: One chamber or house, essentially the U.S. would either have Senate or House of Rep., but not both.

Question 28

What purposes were the system of checks and balances intended to serve?

Answer 28

To keep branches truly separate from one another by giving them a bit of power over one another.

Question 29

Which group—the Federalists or the Antifederalists—supported ratification of the U.S. Constitution? Which opposed ratification?

Answer 29

Federalists supported ratification; Anti-Federalists opposed.

Question 30

What were the Federalist Papers and why were they written?

Answer 30

The Federalist Papers is a world-renowned collection of letters that was created by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay. These papers are the philosophical basis for the Constitution. The Federalist Papers were in support of the constitution being ratified and were meant to establish a federal government.

Question 31

What are the first ten amendments to the Constitution called?

Answer 31

Bill of Rights.

Question 32

What did the Antifederalists have to do with the origin of those amendments?

Answer 32

They objected that the Constitution lacked a list of civil liberties.

Question 33

What is the general subject matter of Article I of the Constitution?

Answer 33

Legislative Power. Limits authority of federal government and state government

Question 34

What is the subject matter of Article II?

Answer 34

Presidency. Focuses on the executive branch

Question 35

How about Article III?

Answer 35

Establishes that there is to be a federal court system composed of the “One Supreme Court” and also “inferior courts” that can be created by congress

Question 36

What methods are available for amending the Constitution?

Answer 36

Article V of the Constitution provides two ways to propose amendments to the document. Amendments may be proposed either by Congress, through a joint resolution passed by a two-thirds vote, or by a convention called by Congress in response to applications from two-thirds of the state legislatures.

Question 37

What did each side stand of the Civil War stand for according to the textbook with respect to slavery and white supremacy?

Answer 37

The south secessionists stood for slavery and white supremacy. Lincoln’s republicans stood against slavery and for literal acceptance of the principle that all men are created equal regardless of race

Question 38

Which three amendments are referred to as the Reconstruction Amendments?

Answer 38

o 13TH Amendment (ratified in 1865) abolishes slavery (except as a punishment for a crime) everywhere in the United States

o 14th Amendment affirms the principle of birthright citizenship, i.e., a rule that every person (regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, etc.) born in the United States is, by right of birth, a citizen of the United States

o 15th Amendment declared that it is unconstitutional for anyone to be deprived other the right to vote on account of “race or previous condition of servitude.”

Question 39

In what ways did these transform the Founders’ Constitution—particularly with respect to slavery and white supremacist views of American citizenship?

Answer 39

Broke up the slavery and established a new and just country