Chapter 2-4 Notes

  1. Why do we need government? We need government to make the rules and the laws that protect the citizens.

A.Four Qualities of all good governments

  1. To provide services, these services are paid for and financed by taxes. Some of these services are: education, roads, sanitation, the postal service, recreation, hospitals, and welfare.
  2. To protect its citizens- Examples at the state level are: police, sheriff, fire department, highway patrol, and the State Bureau of Investigation. At the federal level some examples are: FBI, CIA, ATF, the military, and theFDA.
  3. To pass on values- such as, obeying laws, to be patriotic, equality, freedom, volunteering, tolerance, and a good work ethic.
  4. To encourage citizens to fill needed roles- in politics, jury duty, voting, military service, and public service.

B.Types of Governments

  1. Monarchy- A king or a queen is in power
  2. Dictatorship-Rule by one or a few (Cuba).
  3. Communism-The government owns, and controls all factors of production, like a dictatorship. (China)
  4. Democracy- Rule by the people, for the people (USA).

C.Types of Democracies

  1. Direct Democracy- the people make all of the decisions, and they vote for themselves.
  2. Representative Democracy- also called a republic. The citizens elect officials to make decisions for them.

II.Governing the Colonies

A.Early Influences

  1. Ideas brought from England
  2. A king or a leaders power should be limited. This was accomplished in England by the Magna Carta, which was singed by King John in 1215.
  3. The government should represent the will of the people.
  4. People are born with certain rights and freedoms.
  1. The House Of Burgesses- Founded in the Virginia colony at Jamestown in 1619. This was the first representative government in the colonies.
  2. The Mayflower Compact- This was a plan of government set forth by the Pilgrims. They settled at Plymouth Rock in Mass. It was based on equal law for the good of the community. This was a direct democracy.

III.The Independence Movement

A.Movements in North Carolina

  1. The Mecklenburg Declaration- On May 20, 1775, a group of citizens from Mecklenburg County met and declared independence from all of the laws of England. This was probably the first declaration in all of the 13 Colonies. The original declaration was destroyed in a house fire. May 20, 1775 is one of the two dates that appear on the NC State flag.
  2. The Halifax Resolves- Each County in NC sent representatives to Halifax, NC to meet and discuss independence from England. On April 12, 1776, North Carolina became the first colony to declare its independence from England. This is the other date that is on the NC State flag.

B.National Independence

  1. The Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776 by the second Continental Congress. Thomas Jefferson wrote the document. It stated that all 13 Colonies were free from England.
  2. The Basic Ideals of The Declaration of Independence
  1. All men are created equal. Today this is meant to include men and women. Jefferson borrowed this idea from the French philosopher Rousseau.
  2. We are born with certain unalienable rights that the government cannot take away. Jefferson borrowed this from John Locke, an English philosopher.
  3. The government gets its power from the people, for the people.
  4. The 3 men who represented NC at the 2nd Continental Congress, and signed the Declaration were: Joseph Hewes, William Hooper, and John Penn.
IV.Choosing Our National Government

A.The first plan of government in the US was the Articles ofConfederation.

  1. John Dickenson of Delaware wrote the Articles.
  2. They were approved by all 13 states in 1781.
  3. They were modeled after the Albany plan written by Ben Franklin.
  4. There was a unicameral legislature, or a congress of one house.

B.Achievements under the Articles of Confederation

  1. They unified the 13 Colonies under one government
  2. The Treaty of Paris (1783)- a defense treaty with France was signed.
  3. The Land Ordinance of 1785- provided a way to survey land in the west. This helped to push westward expansion. Land was sold for a dollar an acre.
  4. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787- this provided a procedure on how a territory can become a state. You need at least 60,000 people who want to become a state.

C.Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation

  1. There was a weak national government. The federal government did not have the power to tax, raise an army, or enforce national laws.
  2. The states had more power than the national government.
  3. There was not a president, or a national court system.

D.Problem That Developed Under The Articles of Confederation (1781-1788)

  1. There was a depression because we lost England as a trading partner.
  2. States would not cooperate with each other and placed tariffs on interstate trade.
  3. We did not have a president; so foreign nations viewed us as powerless and gave us a lack of respect. Some nations even refused to recognize our independence.
  4. In 1786 a group of farmers in Mass. started a rebellion over high state taxes. Daniel Shays started this rebellion, it is known as Shays’ Rebellion. This was a signal to our founding fathers that a change needed to be made.

E.Dissatisfaction With The Articles of Confederation

  1. The Annapolis Convention- was a meeting called by the states to discuss problems with the Articles. Only 6 states attended. But they all agreed that something needed to be done. They scheduled another meeting in Philadelphia in May of 1787.
V.Changing our National Government

A.The Constitutional Convention

  1. It began on May 24, 1787 at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, PA.
  2. A total of 55 delegates attended from every state except Rhode Island.
  3. The Chairman of the Constitutional Convention was George Washington of Virginia.
  4. James Madison of Virginia took detailed notes of the convention.

B.There Was Group Agreement on Four Basic Principles

  1. The revised or new government should have a written constitution.
  2. State governments should continue to exist.
  3. A republic needed to be formed.
  4. We needed a separation of powers, or 3 separate branches of government.

C.Compromise at the Convention

  1. The major disagreement was over representation.
  2. The Virginia Plan- was proposed by Edmund Randolph of Virginia. This plan favored a congress with 2 houses. Representation would be based on population. This plan was favored by the larger states.
  3. The New Jersey Plan- was proposed by William Patterson of NJ. This plan called for a congress of 1 house with representation being based on equality. Each state would get one vote in congress. This plan was favored by the smaller states.
  4. The Great Compromise- also called the Connecticut Plan. This plan proposed a plan of 2 houses. The lower house, or The House of Representatives would be based on population, the bigger the state, the more seats you would get in the House. The upper house, or the Senate would give each state 2 representatives. This plan made both sides happy.
  1. Choosing the President- some states wanted a direct election, and some wanted the president to be selected by a committee. They compromised and came up with the Electoral College system that we still use today.
  2. 3. 3/5 compromise- this satisfied the slave states that wanted to count all slaves towards their population. This would allow the slave states to get more representatives. The non-slave states did not want slaves to count. So the compromise said that for every 5 slaves, 3 would count to the population. It also called for the ending of all slave trade in 1800.

D.Approval of The Constitution- on September 17, 1787, the Constitution was signed by the delegates. It would go into effect when3/4 of the states ratified, or passed it (9/13). James Madison became known as the father of the Constitution.

VI.The Fight For Ratification
  1. There were a series of articles published in New York urging ratification. These are known as the Federalist Papers, and they were written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay.
  2. Samuel Adams, and Patrick Henry led the Anti-federalists. They did not want to ratify because there was not a bill of rights in the Constitution.
  3. Ratification in NC- North Carolina became the 12th State to ratify on November 21, 1789. We did not want a Constitution without a Bill of Rights.
  4. The first state to ratify was Delaware
  5. The 9th state to ratify was New Hampshire
  6. The last state to ratify was Rhode Island