Welcome to Presentation Plus!

1. Welcome to Presentation Plus!

2. Chapter Focus Section 1The Colonial Period Section 2Uniting for Independence Section 3The Articles of Confederation Section 4The Constitutional Convention Click on a hyperlink to go to the corresponding content area. Press the ESC (escape) key at any time to exit the presentation. Contents

3. Chapter Objectives • The Colonial PeriodExplain why colonists expected representative government. (Section 1)  • Uniting for Independence Relate how colonists united against British laws, leading to the Declaration of Independence. (Section 2) • The Articles of Confederation Explain the weaknesses and achievements of the Articles of Confederation. (Section 3) • The Constitutional Convention Describe the creation and ratification of the Constitution. (Section 4) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Chapter Focus (1)

4. An English Political Heritage • English established and governed the original thirteen colonies along the Atlantic coast. • English principles of limited government and representative government greatly influenced the development of the United States. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-3

5. Limited Government • The idea that government was not all-powerful was an accepted part of the English system, beginning with the Magna Carta, or Great Charter, of 1215. • The Magna Carta established the principle of limited government, in which the power of the monarch, or government, was limited, not absolute. • The Magna Carta provided for protection against unjust punishment and the loss of life, liberty, and property except according to law. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-4

6. Petition of Right • Although the Magna Carta limited the power of government, strong monarchs still dominated England for centuries. • When Charles I took the throne in 1625, he dissolved Parliament, lodged troops in private homes, and placed some areas under martial law.  • In 1628 the Parliament forced him to sign the Petition of Right, severely limiting the king’s power. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-5

7. Petition of Right (cont.) • Under the Petition of Right, English monarchs could not… • collect taxes without Parliament’s consent.  • imprison people without just cause.  • house troops in private homes without the permission of the owner.  • declare martial law unless the country was at war. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-6

8. English Bill of Rights • In 1688 Parliament removed James II from the throne and crowned William III and Mary II in a move that became known as the Glorious Revolution. • Parliament also passed the English Bill of Rights, which set clear limits on what a ruler could and could not do. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-7

9. English Bill of Rights (cont.) • The key ideas of the English Bill of Rights are:  • Monarchs rule with the consent of the people’s representatives in Parliament–not by divine right.  • The monarch must have Parliament’s consent to suspend laws, levy taxes, or maintain an army.  • The monarch cannot interfere with parliamentary elections and debates.  • The people have a right to petition the government and to have a fair and speedy trial by a jury of their peers. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-8

10. English Bill of Rights (cont.) • The people should not be subject to cruel and unusual punishments or to excessive fines and bail.  • The English colonists in North America shared a belief in these rights with the people of England. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-9

11. Representative Government • The colonists had a firm belief in representative government, a government in which people elect delegates to make laws and conduct government.  • The English Parliament was a representative assembly with the power to enact laws. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-10

12. Representative Government (cont.) • Parliament consisted of an upper chamber, called the House of Lords, and a lower chamber, called the House of Commons. • American legislatures grew out of the English practice of representation. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-11

13. The Ideas of John Locke • The ideas of John Locke, a seventeenth-century English philosopher, have been called the “textbook of the American Revolution.”  • Locke’s Two Treatises on Government, first published in 1690, spelled out his belief that all people were born free, equal, and independent. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-12

14. The Ideas of John Locke (cont.) • Locke believed that people possessed natural rights to life, liberty, and property and that they contracted among themselves to form governments to protect these natural rights. • Locke argued that if a government failed to protect these natural rights, the people could change that government. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-13

15. The Ideas of John Locke (cont.) • In his Second Treatise on Civil Government, Locke said that government was legitimate only as long as people continued to consent to it. • Both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution reflected Locke’s revolutionary ideas. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-14

16. Government in the Colonies • The present system of American government evolved from the thirteen English colonies. • Democracy existed in the colonies, but not in its present form. Women and enslaved persons could not vote, and every colony had some type of property qualification for voting. • Many colonists remained intolerant of religious dissent. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-15

17. Government in the Colonies(cont.) • Despite such shortcomings, the colonists established the following practices: • a written constitution that guaranteed basic liberties and limited the power of government  • a legislature of elected representatives  • the separation of powers between the governor (the chief executive) and the legislature  • Today the United States government embodies each of these practices. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-16

18. CQ02-01.1

19. Written Constitutions • The colonial period featured government according to a written plan.  • The first such plan was the Mayflower Compact, written by the Pilgrims on the Mayflower anchored off the New England coast. It was signed in 1620.  • In 1636 Puritans who settled the Massachusetts Bay Colony adopted the Great Fundamentals, the first basic system of laws in the English colonies. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-17

20. Written Constitutions (cont.) • In 1639 Puritans who had left the Massachusetts Bay Colony to colonize Connecticut drew up America’s first formal constitution, or charter, called the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. • This document laid out a plan for government that gave the people the right to elect the governor, judges, and representatives to make laws.  • Soon after, other English colonies began drawing up their own charters. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-18

21. Colonial Legislatures • With the Virginia House of Burgesses, established in 1619, representative government became an established tradition well before the colonists declared their independence in 1776.  • These legislatures dominated colonial government because the growing colonies constantly needed new laws to cope with new circumstances.  • Colonial legislatures were examples of the consent of the governed because a large number of qualified men voted. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-19

22. Separation of Powers • Colonial charters divided the power of government into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. This principle of separation of powers was later incorporated into the Constitution.  • The governor, the king’s agent in the colonies, had executive power. Colonial legislatures had the power to pass laws, and colonial courts heard cases.  • Colonial legislatures became the political training grounds for the leaders who later would write the Constitution. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 1-20

23. Introduction • Until the mid-1700s Great Britain had allowed its colonies across the Atlantic to develop politically on their own.  • By the 1760s, however, the British government felt a need to tighten its control over the colonies. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-2

24. The Colonies on Their Own • As with other parts of the British empire, in the eyes of the British crown, the American colonies existed for the economic benefit of Great Britain.  • In practice, the colonists–more than 3,000 miles away from Britain–did pretty much as they pleased during the 150 years following the settling of Jamestown.  • Until the mid-1700s the British government was generally satisfied with this arrangement. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-3

25. Britain Tightens Control • The French and Indian War and the crowning of George III drastically changed the easy relationship between the colonies and Britain. • The French and Indian War, fought between 1754 and 1763 over lands in western Pennsylvania and Ohio, resulted in Great Britain’s complete control over what later became the eastern United States. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-4

26. Britain Tightens Control (cont.) • The defeat of France in America had two results:  • The colonists no longer needed the British to protect them from the French.  • The British government had a large war debt that the British expected the colonies to help repay. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-5

27. Taxing the Colonies • To help pay for the war, George III and the Parliament passed the Stamp Act of 1765, which required the colonists to pay tax on legal documents, pamphlets, newspapers, and even dice and playing cards.  • The Stamp Act was the first direct tax on the colonists.  • Parliament also passed laws to control colonial trade in ways that benefited Great Britain but not the colonies. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-6

28. Taxing the Colonies (cont.) • Britain’s revenue–the money a government collects from taxes or other sources–from the colonies increased, but so did colonial resentment.  • Political protests in the colonies led to the repeal of the Stamp Act, but other tax laws replaced it.  • In 1773 a group of colonists, dressed as Mohawk, dumped 342 chests of British tea into Boston Harbor. This protest against further taxes on tea became known as the Boston Tea Party. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-7

29. Taxing the Colonies (cont.) • In retaliation Parliament passed the Coercive Acts, which the colonists called the Intolerable Acts.  • One of these acts closed Boston Harbor. Another withdrew the right of the Massachusetts colony to govern itself.  • By the early 1770s, events clearly showed that revolution was imminent. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-8

30. Colonial Unity • Before the mid-1770s most colonists thought of themselves as British subjects and as members of their respective colonies.  • Thus, they were Virginians or New Yorkers or Georgians, but not Americans.  • Responding to French attacks on the frontier, in 1754 Benjamin Franklin proposed an innovative plan for uniting the colonies–the Albany Plan of Union. The colonies rejected the plan. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-9

31. Colonial Unity (cont.) • By the 1760s harsh new British policies spurred American unity. • Colonists began thinking of themselves as Americans, and colonial leaders began to take political action against what they felt was British oppression. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-10

32. Taking Action • In 1765 nine colonies sent delegates to the Stamp Act Congress. Delegates to the Congress sent a petition to King George, arguing that only colonial legislatures could impose direct taxes. • By 1773 organizations called committees of correspondence were urging resistance to the British.  • This communication network consisted of colonists who wanted to keep in touch with one another as events unfolded. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-11

33. The First Continental Congress • The Intolerable Acts prompted the First Continental Congress, a general meeting of the colonies (except Georgia), on September 5, 1774. • The delegates imposed an embargo, an agreement prohibiting trade, on Britain, and agreed not to use British goods.  • George III adopted stronger measures against the rebelling colonists. He said, “Blows must decide whether they are to be subject to this country or independent.” Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-12

34. The First Continental Congress (cont.) • On April 19, 1775, the British Redcoats clashed with the colonial minutemen at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. • This clash, later called the “shot heard ’round the world,” was the first battle of the Revolutionary War. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-13

35. The Second Continental Congress • Within three weeks, delegates from the thirteen colonies gathered in Philadelphia for the Second Continental Congress. • This Congress assumed the powers of a central government, chose John Hancock as their president, and made George Washington commander of a newly organizing Continental Army.  • Although it had no constitutional authority, the Second Continental Congress served as the acting government of the colonies throughout the war. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-14

36. Independence • Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense and the patriotic words of Samuel Adams helped the American independence movement grow. • In June 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced a resolution in the Continental Congress “That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.” Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-15

37. The Declaration of Independence • Congress promptly named a committee to prepare a written declaration of independence. The committee asked Thomas Jefferson to write the draft.  • On July 4, 1776, the Congress approved the final draft of the Declaration of Independence.  • A statement of the reasons for independence, the document actually was entitled The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-16

38. Key Parts of the Declaration • The Declaration of Independence stirred the hearts of the American people. • The purpose of the Declaration was to justify the Revolution and put forth the founding principles, such as human liberty and consent of the governed, of the new nation.  • The Declaration has three parts. It begins with a statement of purpose and basic human rights. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-17

39. Key Parts of the Declaration (cont.) • The middle section of the Declaration lists specific complaints against George III. These were designed to justify the break with Great Britain. • The conclusion states the colonists’ determination to separate from Great Britain. Their efforts to reach a peaceful solution had failed, leaving them no choice but to declare their freedom. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-18

40. The First State Constitutions • One of the most important changes taking place in the colonies was their transformation from colonies into states subject to no higher authority. • Within a few years after the Declaration of Independence, every former colony had a new constitution or had converted the old colonial charters into state constitutions.  • Seven of the new constitutions contained a bill of rights defining the personal liberties of citizens. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 2-19

41. Introduction • When Richard Henry Lee proposed his resolution for independence in June 1776, he also proposed that a “plan for confederation” be prepared for the colonies. • In 1777 a committee appointed by Congress presented a plan called the Articles of Confederation.  • By March 1781, all 13 states had ratified, or approved, the Articles of Confederation. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-2

42. Government Under the Articles • Under the Articles, the plan for government was simple. It included: • a unicameral, or single-chamber, Congress in which each state had one vote  • no executive branch or federal court system  • a Committee of the States made up of one delegate from each state to manage the government when Congress was not assembled  • Every state legislature selected its own representatives to Congress. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-3

43. Government Under the Articles (cont.) • Congressional powers included the powers to…  • make war and peace.  • send and receive ambassadors.  • enter into treaties.  • raise and equip a navy.  • maintain an army by requesting troops from the states.  • appoint senior military officers.  • fix standards of weights and measures.  • regulate Indian affairs.  • establish post offices.  • decide certain disputes among the states. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-4

44. CQ02-03.1

45. Weaknesses of the Articles • Because each state had no intention of giving up its sovereignty to a central government, the Articles had weaknesses. 1. Congress did not have the power to levy or collect taxes. It could raise money only by borrowing or requesting money from the states, and could do little if a state refused to provide the money.  2. Congress did not have the power to regulate domestic or international trade. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-5

46. Weaknesses of the Articles (cont.) 3. Congress could not force anyone to obey the laws it passed or to abide by the Articles of Confederation.  4. Laws needed the approval of 9 of the 13 states, which was very difficult to obtain. Usually, delegates from only 9 or 10 states were in Congress at any time.  5. Amending, or changing, the Articles required the consent of all states, which was nearly impossible. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-6

47. Weaknesses of the Articles (cont.) 6. The central government did not have an executive branch, which made unity and coordination among the many congressional committees difficult. 7. The government had no national court system, which made it difficult for the central government to settle disputes among the states. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-7

48. Achievements • Despite its weaknesses, the Confederation accomplished much. • The greatest achievement was the establishment of a fair policy for the development of the lands west of the Appalachians. The individual states ceded, or yielded, their claims to these territories.  • To organize these territories, the Confederation enacted two land ordinances, or laws. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-8

49. Achievements (cont.) • The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 established the principle that the territories owned by the government were to be developed for statehood on an equal basis with the older states. • Another accomplishment was the peace treaty with Great Britain wherein Britain recognized American independence. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-9

50. Achievements (cont.) • Congress also set up various national departments, setting a precedent for the creation of cabinet departments under the Constitution. • To encourage cooperation among the states, the Articles provided that each state give “full faith and credit” to the legal acts of the other states and treat one another’s citizens without discrimination. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Section 3-10