U.S. Political Heritage and how the American Revolution started.

1. Origins of American
Government
Colonial Period

2. English Political Heritage
 Limited government:
 1. Magna Charta-1215.
Limited the power of King
John.
 2. Petition of Rights-1625.
Gave power to Parliament.
 3. English Bill of Rights-
1688. This bill combined
elements of the Magna Carta
and Petition of Rights.
 Representative Government:
 1. House of Lords/Commons.
 New Political Ideas-
Enlightenment:
 1. Thomas Hobbs.
 2. John Locke
 3. Voltaire.
 4. Rousseau.
 5. Montesquieu.

3. Enlightenment-Social
Contract
Hobbs
 1. People are only “Free” in
nature.
 2. Stronger/Smarter people are
free to take advantage of the
weaker.
 3. A King must protect all his
subjects from foreign/domestic
threats.
 4. Some freedom must be given
up to the King.
 5. King must be OBYED no matter
what.
Locke
 1. Agreed with
Hobbs, EXCEPT, people
must overthrow a bad King.
 2. Locke had to flee England.

4. Enlightenment Continued
1. Montesquieu: Separation of
powers.
2. Voltaire: Free speech.
3. Rousseau: Democracy.

5. Governments in the Colonies
 Shared government practices in all the Colonies:
 1. Written constitutions.
 2. Elected legislatures.
 3. Separation of powers.

6. Written Constitutions-Colonies
 1. Mayflower Compact-1620.
 2. Great Fundamentals-1629. System of laws. Puritans
Mass. Bay.
 3. Fundamentals Orders of Connecticut-1639. Plan for
government.

7. Colonial Legislatures
 1. Virginia House of Burgesses-1619. First elected
representative body in New World.
 2. What other infamous institution was also started in
1619 in Virginia?
 3. Slavery.

8. Uniting for Independence
Benign/Salutary Neglect
 North America was a place to
“dump” unwanted English
peoples:
 1.
Debtors, unemployed, social
outcasts, and political
malcontents encouraged to
move to N.A.
 2. England did not collect
taxes from colonies.
 3. For the most part, England
ignored colonies.
Isolation encourages
independence
 Colonies develop their own
independent governments:
 1. Elected legislators.
 2. Court systems.
 3. Financed their own
colonial projects.
 4. Self protection.
 5. Economy.

9. Neglect Continued
Mercantilism not enforced by England:
 1. The colonists developed a world-wide trading
system.
 2. This trade makes the colonists wealthy.
 3. The colonists have become socially, politically, and
economically independent of England.
 4. Colonists still pay NO taxes.

10. Britain Tightens Control
French-Indian War. 1754-
1763
 1. F&I War was part of the
Seven Year War.
 2. First world-wide conflict.
 3. Major powers involved
were: England, France, and
Spain.
 4. Albany Plan of Union.
1763.
 5. England sends troops to
N.A.
 6. England wins war. France
kicked out of N.A.
Consequences of F&I
War?
 1. England in heavy debt.
 2. New taxes created and
enforced on colonies.
 3. Colonies never paid taxes.
 4. Proclamation Act of 1763.
 5. Colonies outraged!

12. Acts &Taxes-NO NOTES!
 1. Proclamation Act 1763.
 2. Sugar Act 1764.
 3. Currency Act 1764.
 4. Quartering Act 1765.
 5. Townsend Act 1767.
 6. Tea Act 1773.
 7. Boston Tea Party 1773.
 8. Intolerable Acts 1774.

13. Road to Revolt
 1. Proclamation Act 1763-Colonist felt betrayed.
 2. Stamp Act taxed all paper products.
 3. Like the Albany Congress the colonist meet about
the S.A.
 4. Stamp Act Congress:
 A. Declared their loyalty to King.
 B. Embargoed all British trade.
 C. Brits repeal Stamp Act!

14. Road to Revolt Continued…
 1. Parliament places a Monopoly on tea.
 2. Puts colonial tea merchants out of business.
 3. Boston Tea Party results.
 4. Dumped tea is worth millions.
 5. Parliament passes the “Intolerable” Acts.

15. Intolerable Acts
 1. Colonist must
pay for tea.
 2. Boston Harbor
closed to
commerce.
 3. British soldiers
housed in private
Boston homes.
 4. Charter of
Mass. Revoked!

16. First Continental Congress
1774
 What did it do?
 1. Pledged their
loyalty to the
King…Again!
 2. Stated their
grievances.
 3. Embargoed all
British goods.
 4. Same game
plan as the Stamp
Act Congress.

17. Lexington and Concord: Shot
Heard Around the World.”
 While waiting for the
embargo to work…
 1. Redcoats sent to
Concord to
confiscate powder
and arms.
 2. Colonists open
fire at Lexington.
 3. Colonists kill
about 250 Redcoats.
 4. Blood has been
spilled.
 5. Colonist now in
open and violent
rebellion.

18. Second Continental
Congress-1775
 1. S.C.C. met after
the
Concord/Lexington
Battle.
 2. S.C.C. realizes
that talks with
England is over.
 3. S.C.C. quickly
becomes the acting
rebel government.
 4. John Hancock
selected president.
 5. Thomas
Jefferson writes
Declaration of
Independence.
 6. Independence
declared July
4th, 1776.

19. Social Contract-Locke-
Jefferson
 1. Jefferson paraphrased a lot of Locke’s
work for the D.O.I.
 2. Most of rebels were students of the
Enlightenment.
 3. Locke said that people had an
obligation to over throw a bad King.
 Locke’s Fingerprints:

20. Declaration of Independence
 Three key parts:
 1. What is an ideal government?
 2. List of grievances.
 3. Declared freedom.

21. D.O.I. is Like a Divorce
 1. What is an ideal marriage?
 2. List of complaints against spouse.
 3. Marriage is over.

22. Articles of Confederation
1. Fighting a
war is a lot
easier than
running a
government.
2. Those who
created the
A.O.C.
designed it to
be weaker that
the states.
Why?

23. What did the A.O.C. Look
Like?
 1. No executive
branch.
 2. No national
court system.
 3. No power to
tax.
 4. Could not
regulate trade.
 5. No one had to
obey its laws.
 6. Unicameral
House.

24. Achievements of A.O.C.
Land Ordinance Act-1787
 1. Provided free
western land to
help finance the
public school
system.
Northwest Ordinance Act-
1787
 2. Created a
pathway to equal
statehood for all
territories.

25. Reasons the A.O.C. Failed
Economic Turmoil
 1. America suffered
a severe depression
after the war.
 2. Many Americans
lost their farms and
businesses.
 3. The A.O.C. had
no power to help.
Shay’s Rebellion
 1. A.O.C. became
very unpopular.
 2. Capt. Daniel Shay
organized farmers to
resist foreclosure with
arms.
 3. A.O.C. had no
power to stop the
armed farmers.

26. Shay Almost Topples
Government!
 1. Mass. had to call in local militia to put down
rebellion.
 2. National leaders had to cross their fingers
and hope for the best.
 3. Why is this bad?
 4. Everyone realizes now that the A.O.C. is a
failure.

27. Constitutional Convention
Begins-1787
 1. All states, except R.I., sent reps to
Philadelphia to fix the A.O.C.
 2. The reps soon realized that the A.O.C.
was fatally flawed.
 3. In SECRET the reps decided to create
a totally new government.

28. Key Agreements From the
Start
 1. Limited Government.
 2. Representative Government.
 3. Three branches of government or
checks & balances.
 4. Stronger national government.
 5. Popular Sovereignty.

29. Decisions and Compromise
 1. The three most important developments of the
convention?
2. Compromise, compromise, and
more compromise.

30. Virginia Plan
 1. Virginia showed up with a plan.
 2. The three principles were:
 National legislature-Bicameral.
 Strong president-Chosen by legislature.
 National judiciary-Chosen by the legislature.

31. Virginia Plan
Which branch of government would
have the most power?

32. New Jersey Plan
 1. Unicameral Legislature.
 2. One vote per state.
 3. Congress would have power to tax and
regulate trade.
 4. Weak executive branch with more than
one president.
 5. Limited national judiciary.

33. Connecticut Compromise
1. Bi cameral House.
2. House of Reps based on
population.
3. Senate has two reps, regardless
of population.
How does this solve the big state v
small state conflict?

34. Three-Fifth Compromise
 1. Southern states wanted to count their
slaves for representation in the House of
Reps.
 2. North Carolina had a bigger slave
population than free.
 3. Why did the North oppose this idea?

35. Commerce Compromise
 1. The South wanted no tax on exported
goods.
 2. Why was this so important to the
South?

36. Compromise on Slave Trade
 1. South wanted a ban on any discussion
of the slave trade until 1808.
 2. Congress gained the power to regulate
interstate and all foreign trade.

37. Slavery Issue
 The question of slavery was left out of the
constitution EXCEPT for a clause that
stated runaway slaves had to be returned
by Northern States.
 “Fire bell in the night.” Thomas Jefferson.

38. Other Compromises
 1. Electoral College.
 2. Four year term for the President.

39. Ratification Difficulties
 1. It took nine of the thirteen states to ratify the new
Constitution.
 2. Rejection by any of the four biggest states would
doom ratification process. Mass., New
York, Pennsylvania, or Virginia.
 3. Anti Federalists were afraid of a strong central
government and suspicious of the Federalists.

40. Federalist v. Anti-Federalists
Federalists-Hamilton
 1. They wanted a
strong. Central
government.
 2. They wanted the
Federal government
to be stronger than
the states.
 3. Federal laws to be
supreme.
Anti Federalists-Jefferson
 1. They felt that this
new Federal
government was too
strong.
 2. Suspicious of the
“secret” convention.
 3. Jefferson called the
convention
“extralegal.”

41. Federalist Papers
 1. Essays published to explain the
Constitution and answer criticisms by
Anti-Federalists.
 2. It promoted the idea that a stronger
government was a must.
 3. They also promised that it would not
trample on civil liberties.

42. The Last BIG Compromise!
 1. Anti-Federalists wanted a list of iron clad
guarantees to protect civil rights.
 2. Federalists felt it was unnecessary, BUT
agreed.
 3. What is the list called today?
 4. Who was right about the need for a B.O.R?