hello everyone this is lecture two uh based on chapter two of Greenberg and Paige struggle for democracy this week we're talking about the constitution so I'm going to jump right in so initially the framers and um what would become American revolutionaries were proud to be affiliated with Great Britain and the British Empire um they initially wanted to just preserve their rights as British subjects when the American Revolution began and did not quite foresee a full-on revolution so what early revolutionaries were concerned about were the traditional rights of life liberty and property that they felt were threatened under British rule so um these they felt were threatened under trade and taxation policies um Britain had imposed taxes on sugar tea and stamps and the imposition of these taxes without the consent of colonists was read as tyranny so um under these circumstances American colonists could not trade freely with whomever they wished or produce the goods that they wanted and as England had restricted their freedom to do so in order to protect their own manufacturers early colonists were seeing the British government as becoming more tyrannical so to provide a bit of a timeline uh the first continental congress happens in 1774 and the second continental congress follows the following year um the second continental congress did not have independence in mind through armed conflict though armed conflict had already begun um and the first Continental Congress was really just um gathering to uh prepare a set of grievances against the British Empire but um Thomas Payne's publishing of Common Sense and uh just the overall climate and the continued arm conflict led to the conclusion that full separation was inescapable so by July 4th 1776 we have the Declaration of Independence now the Declaration of Independence was largely the work of Thomas Jefferson and he presents um some key arguments for separation from the British Empire and the creation of a new nation so the first of these is unalienable rights and this closely follows um well Jefferson's entire argument closely follows John Lock's ideas of legitimate government which are presented in the second treaties on government so unalienable unalienable rights means that people possess rights that are neither given or that can be taken away by government or any one individual um he also presents the idea of consent of the governed so people create government in order to protect their unalienable rights if you recall our discussion of lock in the previous lecture and the idea of the social contract that people enter the social contract and create government to ensure that their individual rights are protected and then finally Jefferson presents the idea that people have a right to alter abolish and institute a new government when um the government that they are under is tyrannical does not and does not ensure those two conditions above that does not en ensure their individual rights and um it is no longer acting in court in accordance with the wishes of the people now there are a few glaring omissions within the declaration of independence um the stat the political status of women and indigenous and native Americans is not considered at all but what is a more strategic omission is slavery so in the previous document Thomas Jefferson actually critiques the British government on the trade of enslaved Africans and um the practice of slavery but this is seen as a bit too radical or um controversial and it's scrapped from the final document and we're going to talk a little bit more about this later um some of the potential um omissions in the founding documents for the country so after the declaration of independence and um while the American Revolution continues the Articles of Confederation is created in 1777 by Congress and a confederation um is like a loose group of states um one of the key features of the Articles of Confederation is that the central federal government is fairly weak and most of the power is vested within individual state legislatures and this restriction of central government authority becomes quite an issue with the articles of confederation so central government can make war or peace but in order to pass laws it requires nine of the 13 states majority so a super majority to pass laws um also it has if it's altered um the requirement was for all 13 states to agree to change the document which as you can imagine meant very little progress in governing the central government also could not levy taxes it could not regulate interstate commerce so there was difference there was differences in economics with some states printing um very cheap paper money there was not an ability to promote American interests abroad because this form of government lacked a strong executive and finally central government could not prevent commercial warfare between states so states would compete with one another economically which caused tensions and high tariffs to be exchanged between one another so a constitutional convention is called in 1787 and it recognizes that governance cannot continue in its existing form and the framers were supporter were supporters of republicanism which does not speak to the Republican party as we know it but it is a form of government based on consent of the govern support of limited government and it is believed to safeguard against tyranny uh one of the reasons why the framers instituted a republican form of government rather than a democratic uh a more democratic form of government is because there was a growing concern about um the so-called passions for democracy and equality following the American Revolution so um the interest of the common people um being a potential problem when the framers were largely a privileged propertyowning wealthy class of men they also believe that the solution to t to tyranny was to elect government leaders limit government power and to limit the actions of the majority and we'll talk in the next slide about a comparison between 18th century republicanism and the democratic ideal so here is a comparison on 18th century republicanism um and what we would know now as the democratic ideal so both are based on popular consent but republicanism has a limited mandate whereas the democratic ideal has an unlimited mandate meaning that government acts in accordance with the wishes of the people um under republicanism there are safeguards for rights and liberties especially property rights so one of the key focuses for the framers was really on property property being a right and while the democratic ideal safeguards for rights and liberties there is no particular emphasis on property the next is that people rule indirectly through layers of representation and we'll talk about this when we discuss um Federalist 51 this week um it it the representatives act as sort of a filter for the preferences of the majority and under the democratic ideal people rule directly or indirectly uh through representatives but they don't act as filters for the wishes of the people under republicanism the people is largely defined as those with social standing and under democratic ideal that is more broadly defined the people is whoever we covered this in the last lecture that the people is meant to be all under the democratic ideal um under republicanism the privileged class is eligible for office uh so the framers um were eligible for office who had um government experience they had um a pretty solid degree of privilege and wealth um so they limited who was actually eligible for office for under the democratic ideal there's a broad eligibility for who may run for office under republicanism representatives act as trustees so again the filtering of the preferences of um the citizenry whereas representatives under the democratic ideal act as delegates so a trustee um being trusted to act on behalf of and not necessarily reflect the full interest of um whereas a delegate is a representative of the people and finally um under republicanism there are barriers for majority rule but in the democratic ideal majority does rule so there were clearly some concerns about an excess of democracy and we see this in Federalist 10 which we will discuss next week and uh Madison discusses um democracies as being spectacles of turbulence and contention incompatible with personal security or the rights of property um and this is pre-evident with Shea's rebellion uh that happens and uh in which armed men overtake Massachusetts state courouses to prevent federal judges from seizing farms and imprisoning debt tours for non-payment of state taxes and also Pennsylvania's state constitution while it's lauded by Payne and other radical Democrats others view Pennsylvania's state constitution which really opens up the voting franchise um as being too much upon the democratic order so in order to circumvent these concerns um the constitutional convention is really looking at ways to rein um the wishes of the majority and and specifically the wishes of the common people so there are a series of compromises that happen at the con at the constitutional convention and one of the most notable of these is the Connecticut compromise so in the Virginia plan which is proposed initially by James Madison there is a biccameal legislature which is a portion to the states based on population under the New Jersey plan um drafted by William Patterson there is a unicameal legislature which seats equally aortion two states so the Virginia plan largely following the um interests of larger states and not just larger states but states with more population so states with more population um get more representation whereas the New Jersey plan smaller states have equal representation and we can talk later on about um which one is closer um in truth to the democratic ideal um but the Connecticut compromise is a compromise of both plans and it calls for a lower legislative house based on population this is what we know as the House of Representation House of Representatives I'm sorry in which um representatives are selected every two years that it's based on a state's population and a an upper house based on equal representation is what we know as the US Senate when in which states regardless of population size have two representatives in the upper chamber and the framers because they largely belong to a privileged wealthy class they had broad experience in American politics with many serving in the revolution and in state legislatures of their respective states so they recognized a need for central government but they really wished to avoid any chance of tyranny from leaders or from the majority uh which would again be the more common um non-educated farming working class so one of the important omissions again um as we saw with the declaration of independence is that slavery is not mentioned at all within the constitution however the legal status of enslaved people is discussed in three places the first is with the three-fifths compromise which says that um three enslaved people are in counted as three fifths of a person for the purpose of allotting representatives which is a bit of a contradiction given that enslaved people have no legal status but nevertheless that is the three-fifths compromise which actually um extends more power to slave owning states the second of um these discussions these discussions around legal status is um that the constitution forbade enactments against the slave trade until 1808 so there is no um discussion of abolishing the slave trade or will be no discussions on abolishing the slave trade for another 30 years and finally um the return of runaway slaves so in the event that a slave runs away to a um state in which slavery is illegal they must be returned and to to that state where slavery is practiced so there are several important points um that come out of the constitutional convention and become features of American government so the first is the presidency the presidency um becomes a single executive rather than a multi-person executive um and the electoral college is used to select the president um in both the Virginia and the New Jersey plan um there was an opposition of selection of the president through a direct election and the Virginia plan actually suggested a vote by state legislators so um the compromise from that becomes the electoral college and um it means that each state would have votes equal in number to representatives and senators in Congress and the selection of electors would be left to the state legislature um the electors would then cast their vote for president and in the event that no candidate received a majority this is with the idea that there would be more than there would be three or more candidates um for president then the House of Representatives would serve as a backup if a candidate would fail to reach a majority the next is federalism so a division of governmental powers between the central federal government and state government and this is enshrined through the supremacy clause which states that the constitution is the law of the land in article six and then article 1 section 8 which states that congress has the authority to make whatever laws are necessary and proper is also called the necessary and proper clause for its enumerated responsibilities the next of these features is limited government so there are checks on what a government what the government can do and government power is limited through the bill of rights uh one of the main reasons to create a constitution is to outline what the specific permissions of government is so one of the um intentions there is to rein or curtail the power of federal government the next is checks on majority rule again coming from um this 18th century republican ideal to curtail democracy the um we see how this is limited through um both the selection of president and that the most democratic um chamber of Congress the House of Representatives is also the weakest um that members only serve for two years um and uh as opposed to the Senate in which members serve for six uh we also see uh the separation of powers and this is really to safeguard against tyranny and it divides government power to prevent overreach by either the executive or the judicial branches we also see checks and balances so this is meant to counteract ambition so um one of the quotes that is used is that ambition will check ambition so neither branch will neither of the three branches of government can um grow more powerful than the other um we see this through um the fact that the executive branch can veto congressional legislation that the legislative branch can then override a veto by um a twothirds vote um Congress can impeach federal judges and the Supreme Court can declare congressional actions as unconstitutional um it can also declare uh executive action as unconstitutional and then um that the executive branch nominates and the legislative branch approves um appointments to um the judicial branch so this series of checks and balances is meant to prevent any one branch from becoming more powerful and possibly more um tyrannical from too much power and finally uh one of the features is the free enterprise economy so with the framers being concerned about economics and uh property rights in particular um the foundation that they lay is to ensure property rights and it gives the power of regulating interstate commerce to Congress and um of establishing a federal treasury and a um system of commerce to ensure a free successful economy for this new nation so even with these changes um there is still some hesitation about um approving or ratifying the constitution so the federalists were those who were supporters of the newly modified constitution there are 85 articles uh posted in the New York newspaper authored by James Madison primarily um Alexander Hamilton and John J which argue in support of the constitution we'll only read two of these but there are 85 in total and this really is meant to gain the support of those in the colonies for uh well no longer the colonies but um those in the 13 states for um approving the in and ratifying the constitution the anti-federalists however opposed the constitution based on the fear of central government again coming from um a monarchy that they believed was tyrannical there's a lot of hesitation on approving especially an executive branch or any central authority um there's also concerns about the absence of a bill of rights of a of the absence of the bill of rights so um federalists although they believe this action is unnecessary that the constitution that they produce safeguards against tyranny they concede and they promise to add a bill of rights during the first session of congress which they do they passed the Bill of Rights and this is ratified by states in 1791 however ratification is still a very close call um although most small states quickly approve it um based on the power that they get in Cong that they get in Congress through the Senate other states are a little bit more skeptical um Rhode Island outright rejects it north Carolina abstains there are very narrow victories in the larger states of Massachusetts Virginia and New York which supporters and federalists really believe that they need uh in order for this new constitution to be successful and finally um the constitution on once it's implemented um it's fairly do it's fairly difficult to modify um even though we see this as a um as a living constitution or as a living document that can be modified the process itself is um quite difficult which we see in figure 2.4 in this chapter um the first way to modify the constitution is through a formal amendment um and that process involves a amendment is proposed by a vote at le of at least twothirds of both houses of congress and then the then that amendment is ratified by the legislatures of at least three4s of the states and that is a that is what becomes a successful amendment however um there have been 27 amendments since the founding of America and 10 of those were the Bill of Rights so only 17 have happened um since the Bill of Rights the um next way to modify the constitution or amend the constitution is through a supreme court decision um the court has the power of judicial review which is granted to itself um through Marberry versus Madison and it it has the power to deem any um legislation or um any um congressional act or executive act as being uncon unconstitutional um we've seen the Supreme Court um modify the Constitution several ways uh one of those would be through Ro v wade then um the appeal of Ro v wade we've seen um the court affirm same-sex marriage um through through um Aborll versus Hajes um the final way that we see the constitution changing is through political practices so um think of executive action by the executive branch which of course the framers could not have conceived during their time a a strong executive that we have now so we'll talk about these actions throughout the semester um and the process of changing the constitution as well as the extension of power through other branches so please read in full chapter 2 and chapter 1 um please review the readings that are required for discussion this week and um both Roshan and myself look forward to seeing you in discussion thank you