American Revolution & Constitution
French and Indian War
French and Indian War
•The rivalry in North America between France andEngland led to the French and Indian War, inwhich the French were driven out of Canada andtheir territories west of the AppalachianMountains.
•The “Indians” joined sides with the French to fightoff the British Colonists.
French and Indian War
•As a result of the war,England took severalactions that angered theAmerican colonies. Theseincluded:
–The Proclamation of1763, which prohibitedsettlement west of theAppalachian Mountains.
French and Indian War
–New taxes on legal documents (the “Stamp Act”),tea and sugar, to pay costs incurred during theFrench and Indian War and for British troops toprotect the colonists.
–It started the chant in the colonies of “Taxationwithout Representation” will not be tolerated
CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING
The American Revolution“The Beginning”
The Beginning of theAmerican Revolution
•Resistance to British rule in the coloniesmounted leading to war
–The Boston Tea Party was staged
–The First Continental Congress was called to whichall thirteen colonies sent representatives, the firsttime the colonies had all acted together
–The Boston Massacre took place when Britishtroops fired on anti-British demonstrators
Differences Among the Colonists
•The Colonists were divided into three maincamps during the Revolution:
•Patriots
•Neutrals
•Loyalists (Tories)
•Patriots
–Believed in completeindependence fromEngland
–Inspired by the ideas ofJohn Locke, ThomasPaine and the words ofVirginian Patrick Henry(Give me Liberty or GiveMe Death!)
–Provided the troops forthe American Army, ledby George Washington,also of Virginia.
•The Loyalists (Tories)
–Remained loyal toGreat Britain, basedon cultural andeconomic ties
–Believed that taxationof the colonies wasjustified to pay forBritish troops toprotect Americansettlers from Indianattacks
•Neutrals
–The many colonists who tried to stay asuninvolved in the war as possible.
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CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING
The Ideas of John Locke
•The period known as the“Enlightenment” in Europe during the17th and 18th centuries saw thedevelopment of new ideas about therights of people and their relationship totheir rulers.
•John Locke was an Enlightenmentphilosopher whose ideas, more than anyother’s, influenced the American belief inself-government.
The Ideas of John Locke
•Locke wrote that:
–All people are free, equal, and have “naturalrights” of life, liberty, and property that rulerscannot take away.
–All original power resides in the people, andthey consent to enter into a “social contract”among themselves to form a government toprotect their rights. In return, the peoplepromise to obey the laws and rules establishedby their government, establishing a system of“ordered liberty”
The Ideas of John Locke
•Government’s powers are limited to thosethe people have consented to give it.Whenever government becomes a threat tothe people’s natural rights, it breaks thesocial contract and the people have theright to alter or overthrow it.
The Ideas of John Locke
•Locke’s ideas about the sovereignty and rightsof the people were radical and challenged thecenturies-old practice throughout the world ofdictatorial rule by kings, emperors, and tribalchieftains.
Thomas Paine andCommon Sense
•Thomas Paine was an Englishimmigrant to America whoproduced a pamphlet known asCommon Sense that challenged therule of the American colonies bythe King of England
•Common Sense was read andacclaimed by many Americancolonists during the mid-1700s andcontributed to a growing sentimentfor independence from England.
The Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence
•The eventual draft of the Declaration ofIndependence, authored by Thomas Jeffersonof Virginia reflected the ideas of John Lockeand Thomas Paine.
The Declaration of Independence
•“We hold these truths to be self-evident, thatall men are created equal, that they areendowed by their Creator with certainunalienable rights, that among these are life,liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
The Declaration of Independence
•“That to secure these rights, governments areinstituted among men, deriving their justpowers from the consent of the governed. .”
•“That whenever any form of governmentbecomes destructive to these ends, it is theright of the people to alter or abolish it, and toinstitute new government. . .”
The Declaration of Independence
•Jefferson then went on to detail many of thegrievances against the king that Paine hadearlier described in Common Sense.
•The Key principles of the Declaration ofIndependence increased political, social, andeconomic participation in the Americanexperience over a period of time.
–Political participation (equality)
•Extending the franchise
•Upholding due process of law
•Providing free public education
–Social Participation (liberty)
•Abolishing slavery
•Extending civil rights to women and other groups
–Economic participation (pursuit of happiness)
•Regulating free enterprise system
•Promoting economic opportunity
•Protecting property rights
The Revolutionary War“Factors Leading toColonial Victory”
–War began whenthe “Minutemen”in Massachusettsfought a briefskirmish withBritish troops atLexington andConcord
•Diplomatic
–Benjamin Franklin negotiated a Treaty of Alliancewith France
–The war did not have popular support in GreatBritain.
•Military
–George Washington, Generalof the Army, avoided anysituation that threatened thedestruction of his army, andhis leadership kept the armytogether when defeatseemed inevitable.
–Americans benefited fromthe presence of the FrenchArmy and Navy at the Battleof Yorktown, which endedthe war with an Americanvictory
The Creation of the Constitution
The Articles of Confederation
•American political leaders, fearful of apowerful central government like England’s,created the Articles of Confederation, adoptedat the end of the war.
Articles of Confederation
•Provided for a weak national government
•Gave Congress no power to tax or regulatecommerce among the states
•Provided for no national currency
•Gave each state one vote regardless of size
•Provided for no executive or judicial branch
Key Issues of the Constitution
•Made federal law the supreme law of theland, but otherwise gave the statesconsiderable leeway to govern themselves.
•Balanced power between large and smallstates by creating a Senate (where each stategets two senators) and a House ofRepresentatives (with membership based onpopulation).
Key Issues of the Constitution
•Placated the Southern states by counting theslaves as three-fifths of the population whendetermining representation in the House ofRepresentatives.
•Avoided a too-powerful central governmentby establishing three co-equal branches—legislative, executive, and judicial—withnumerous checks and balances among them.
Key Issues of the Constitution
•Limited the powers of the federal governmentto those identified in the Constitution.
Key leaders of the Convention
•George Washington, Chairman of theConvention
–Washington presided at the Convention and,although seldom participating in the debates, lenthis enormous prestige to the proceedings.
Key leaders of the Convention
•James Madison,Father of theConstitution
–Madison, a Virginianand a brilliant politicalphilosopher, often ledthe debate and keptcopious notes of theproceedings—the bestrecord historians haveof what transpired atthe ConstitutionalConvention.
Key leaders of the Convention
–At the Convention, Madison authored the“Virginia Plan,” which proposed a federalgovernment of three separate branches(legislative, executive, and judicial) and becamethe foundation for the structure of the newgovernment.
–He later authored much of the Bill of Rights.
Ratification of the Constitution
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Federalist Position
•Federalist advocated the importance of astrong central government, especially topromote economic development and publicimprovements.
•Today, those who see a primary role for thefederal government in solving nationalproblems are heirs to this tradition.
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Anti-Federalist Position
•Anti-Federalist feared an overly powerfulcentral government destructive of the rightsof individuals and the prerogatives of thestates.
•Today, the more conservative thinkers echothese concerns and champion liberty,individual initiative and free markets.
•The leading Virginia opponents of ratificationwere Patrick Henry and George Mason; theleading Virginia proponents of ratificationwere George Washington and James Madison.
VS
Virginia Declaration of Rights
•Created by GeorgeMason
•Reiterated thenation that basichuman rights shouldnot be violated bygovernments.
Virginia Statutefor Religious freedom
•Written by Thomas Jefferson
•Outlawed the established Church – that is thepractice of government support for onefavored church.
Bill of Rights
•James Madison, aVirginian, consultedthe VirginiaDeclaration of Rightsand the VirginiaStatute for ReligiousFreedom whendrafting theAmendments thateventually became theUnited States Bill ofRights.
