Slotted Notes / Name: ______Period: ______
Georgia Studies / Topic: Unit 4/Part 3 ~ Georgia and the Birth of the United States
SS8H4 – The student will describe the impact of events that led to the ratification of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Essential Question / What were the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and how did these weaknesses lead to the creation of the U.S. Constitution?
How was Georgia’s first state constitution structured and how did the U.S. Constitution influence its changes?
The Georgia Constitution of 1777
When Georgia declared their independence from England…they had to replace ______government with a government of their own.
In creating a government, several important things must be remembered in order to protect a nation from ______!!!
  1. All governments must have ______basic functions (responsibilities):
  2. The Legislative function - ______
  3. The Executive function - ______
  4. The Judicial function - ______
  1. The three basic functions must be present and must be kept ______powerful.
  2. Without the ______function, there would be no laws to interpret or to enforce.
  3. Without the ______function, laws could be written and understood, but could not be enforced. A LAW IS NOT A LAW UNLESS THEY HURT WHEN BROKEN!!!
  4. Without the ______function, laws could be created but could not be explained in order to be enforced.
  1. The basic functions must be kept ______in order to keep one group or person from becoming too ______.
  1. The fundamental laws of the government must be written down as a ______in order to create a written record of the rights of the ______and the______of the government’s power.
  1. The people must have a ______or Power to appeal to in case the government is ineffective or begins to ______its power.
In creating its new government, the leaders of Georgia did not want the ______function to be too powerful. After all, they did not want to remove one powerful executive, ______, only to replace him with another.
Georgia’s first permanent constitution was adopted in ______. Among its features were:
  1. Separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
  2. Most power was given to a ______(one house) legislature called the ______.
  3. The General Assembly elected the ______(the head of the executive branch) and the Governor’s Executive Council.
  4. The Governor served a ______term.
  5. A superior court (______) was created for each county.
  6. Basic rights (______, ______, trial by jury) were recognized.
STRENGTHS
  1. The Constitution of ______was written down.
  2. The Constitution of 1777 separated the ______basic functions.
  3. The Constitution of 1777 protected ______rights.
WEAKNESSES
  1. The three functions were not equally powerful. Instead, the ______branch was most powerful.
  2. The ______was dependent entirely upon the legislature (who elected and chose his council) and was in office for too short a period to be effective.
  3. Since most Georgians had been ______, the Constitution of 1777, written by Whigs, was never sent to the people for ______(approval).

The Articles of Confederation
Just as Georgia began to create its own ______government, the ______Continental Congress drafted the Articles of Confederation as the ______Constitution of a new ______government.
Just like the Georgians who wrote the Constitution of 1777, the members of the Second Continental Congress wanted to avoid creating a ______central government with a powerful executive like they experienced under British rule.
  • The Articles of Confederation, the first national constitution, went into effect on ______.
  • It created a very weak ______government. Each of the 13 ______were considered separate, independent ______.
  • The national government was, essential, a loose ______, alliance, or friendship (similar to the United Nations).
STRENGTHS
  1. The Articles of Confederation were ______down.
  2. The Articles of Confederation set up a ______form of government in which the representatives were ______by the citizens.
WEAKNESSES
  1. The Articles of Confederation only created a ______branch!!!
  2. ______could not levy ______, leaving the country unable to pay debts or soldiers.
  3. Congress could not regulate ______between the states, allowing trade wars to arise between the various states.
  1. Congress could make laws, but had no executive ability to ______them.
  2. Under the Articles of Confederation, all decisions required the approval of ______of the states.
  3. Under the Articles of Confederation, all states received only ______vote in Congress, regardless of the state’s ______(ex., Rhode Island had as much as as New York!!!).
  1. Congress could not raise an ______without the states’ permission, leaving the nation ______.
SOMETHING HAD TO BE DONE!!!
*Even ______, who normally kept his political opinions private, argued that the nation could not long survive under the ______.
Pop Quiz / What do you remember about…
theConstitution of 1777 and the Articles of Confederation???
The Constitutional Convention
Despite its many weaknesses, many states (especially small states like ______) did not want to change, fearing a powerful ______government like Great Britain’s.
It took two years for George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and James ______to convince the states to send delegations to a convention to discuss “______” the Articles of Confederation.
Delegates from all of the states (except Rhode Island) met in ______, PA in May 1787 to discuss “revising the Articles of Confederation.”
Some, like ______, suspected that the delegates did not really plan to “______” the Articles, but actually wanted to write a new ______. “I SMELL A ______IN PHILADELPHIA!
  • Georgia appointed ______delegates to attend the Convention.
  • Only ______of the appointed delegates came.
  • Only ______of the appointed delegates stayed until the end…
What were their names? ______and ______
  • The Constitutional Convention lasted the entire ______of ______.
  • Much of the time was spent in bitter ______and disagreement.
The most important and controversial debate concerned the issue of ______:
  • ______states (New York, Virginia, Massachusetts) believed that the greater the ______, the more votes the state should receive.
  • Small states (______, New Hampshire) believed that each state was an independent ______and should be treated equally and given an ______number of votes.
  • Abraham ______helped draft a ______creating a ______(2-house) legislature. This agreement is called the ______.
House of Representatives is based on ______.
The Senate is based on ______representation.
  • On September 17, ______, the delegates signed the final draft of the new ______.
  • On January 2, 1788, Georgia became the ______state to ratify (this means to approve) the U.S. Constitution.
  • The new national government officially went into effect on March 4, ______.

The United States Constitution
  1. The U.S. Constitution established a ______system in which the national government ______power with the ______governments.


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  1. The U.S. Constitution established a national government with three ______, ______.
**Using the graphic below…add details about each of the three branches of government from the presentation and class discussion:

The United States Constitution
  1. The U.S. Constitution established a system of ______to ensure that ______.

The United States Constitution
  1. To protect the freedoms of the people, the ______were added to guarantee basic ______.

Pop Quiz
Summary:
______
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