Transcript Who Wrote the Constitution?

Back in 1991, as the Bill of
Rights turned 200 years old…
Students imagine what life might be like without it?
• “The government would control what is seen on TV and
read in the news.”
• “Police would be able to come into your house without a
warrant and start tearing everything apart.”
• “People would no longer be considered innocent before
being proven guilty.”
• “People who couldn’t afford attorney would not be able to
get one.”
• “Someone could be tortured if suspected of a crime.”
• “Segregation could again be the law of the land.”
What would a school day be like
without the Bill of Rights?
Students imagine a dreary routine of….
• drug testing, dog sniffs, increasingly strict dress
codes, censored newspapers, and snap suspensions
which could not be challenged.
• The basic principles and grievances of the
Declaration of Independence.
• The conception of the Constitution of the United
States
In May 1775, representatives from the thirteen American
colonies began meeting as the Second Continental Congress
to address the growing crisis with Great Britain.
•The British army had recently
engaged the colonial militias in
Lexington, Concord and Boston. Still,
many Americans remained loyal to
Great Britain, and thought a wider
war was not inevitable.
• The taxes and regulations imposed on them by a
legislature thousands of miles away.
• Could not vote for members of Parliament, which meant
they were not represented in it. “No taxation without
representation!”
o The fifty-six members of the Continental Congress who
osigned their names to Thomas Jefferson’s defiant words in
the Declaration of Independence were taking a giant risk.
o Executed for treason
o People who refused to sign… recognized it was subversive.
o call to arms against existing authority.
o denounced the British king for “repeated injuries” inflicted
on the American colonists.
o declared that the king wanted to establish “an absolute
tyranny over these states” and invade the rights of “free
people”.
Video Clip
2:45 Sec
• What do you think?
Radical idea– going against British rule.
• They put the notion of rights and the freedom to enjoy those
rights – what they called “liberty” – at the very heart of their
revolution.
• They declared these rights to be a permanent, “unalienable”
part of human nature that could not be taken away from the
individual, either by the government or by a majority of the
people.
• The fifty-six signers of the Declaration of
Independence won their big gamble. They
and their fellow revolutionaries fought the
power, and were victorious.
• Work in pairs
• Analyze the document
• Cut and Paste the ‘translations’
into the correct ‘Excerpt’ space
• Timer
• Set up new governments, and defined exactly
what they meant by rights in state constitutions,
the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
• If you have ever been part of a group drawing up
rules for a new club or organization, you know
that it isn’t easy.
 Difficulty in balancing views
 Who gets to join?
• The Continental Congress adopted the Articles of
Confederation, the first constitution of the United
States, on November 15, 1777.
• 13 states- agreed to certain rules.
The Articles created a loose
confederation of sovereign states
and a weak central government,
leaving most of the power with the
state governments.
2:49 sec
• Elected delegates to Congress– limited powers
• No control over trade between states/countries
• Could not raise taxes directly
• No president
• An army of 750 men
defend the whole country
• Any one state could
VETO any attempt to
change the articles.
• Uprising of poor farmers
• Daniel Shays: defied efforts by the
state to seize property from people who
were unable to pay their taxes
6:16 sec
• Most leaders who had once urged the crowds to
rise against the tyranny of the British no longer
agreed with Jefferson.
• Now that the country had to govern itself, an
uprising by the “rabble” was not tolerated.
• Find a balance between liberty and government
power.
• Ratification of the Articles of Confederation by
all thirteen states did not occur until March 1,
1781.
• The need for a stronger Federal government
soon became apparent and eventually led to the
Constitutional Convention in 1787.
• The present United States Constitution replaced
the Articles of Confederation on March 4, 1789.
The following people attended the
Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.
• In your opinion, were these individuals
broadly representative of the entirety of U.S.
society at the time?
1. Abraham Baldwin. He was a lawyer who had gone to Yale, and lived in Georgia at the
time of writing. He was wealthy and owned about $2,500 in bonds he'd bought for
about $300.
2. Richard Bassett. He was a lawyer and had inherited a plantation of 6,000 acres. He was
one of the wealthiest men in Delaware and owned three homes.
3. Gunning Bedford. Lawyer, state attorney general of Delaware. Owned $2,874 in bonds
for which he had paid $360.
4. William Blount. Very wealthy. By the 1790s he owned almost a million acres in holdings
in North Carolina and Tennessee. On his plantation in North Carolina he owned 30
slaves.
5. Pierce Butler. He was a South Carolina lawyer and plantation owner and owned 143
slaves on two plantations in 1790. At the time of the Convention he owed money.
6. Daniel Carroll. Maryland. Owned a large amount of land, much of which became
Washington, D.C. Owned 53 slaves, and made most of his money from tobacco.
7. George Clymer. A well-to-do Philadelphia merchant. Owned a "thriving import-export
business" and ventured occasionally into shipbuilding. Became a substantial banker.
8. William R. Davie. A North Carolina lawyer and plantation owner. In 1790 he owned 36
slaves.
9. John Dickinson. Delaware. A very wealthy lawyer and "gentleman" farmer.
10. Oliver Ellsworth. Connecticut. Acquired a large estate. Landlord, lawyer. Speculated in
bonds and made about a 100% profit.
11. William Few. Georgia. A lawyer who became "moderately wealthy," though originally he
was a small farmer. He came to own about 2,300 acres (slaveholdings unknown).
12. Benjamin Franklin. Pennsylvania. Printer, inventor, diplomat. An old man at the time of
the Convention, Franklin had become a wealthy man and was worth about $150,000 — a
lot of money back then
• 55 men
Unrepresented at this convention
was the majority of Americans
 4 million people
• Successful/wealthy
• Nearly all owned slaves
• Top 1% of Philadelphia’s
tax payers owned more
than the bottom 75%
• 1 out of every 5 people were enslaved
(700, 000)
• 200, 000 indentured servants
• “Indian” population
• Free Blacks– 60 000
• Not intended to apply to all people.
Women
Men
• Weaker sex- like children
• Could not own property
• Many were restricted from
certain professions
700, 000 enslaved
African
Other
• 5 of the original 13 states gave
Black freemen the vote
Not enslaved 600,000 people
• Slavery
• Only 2 delegates spoke out against slavery
• Crafted a document that protected slavery without
mentioning the word ‘slave’
once
• The language of the Constitution avoided using
the term "slaves," with the relevant text
reading:
"...shall be determined by adding to the whole
Number of free Persons, including those bound
to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding
Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other
persons."
• Some people have suggested that the "all other
persons" language indicated that the framers of
the Constitution opposed slavery, and that they
wished to establish a document which would be
flexible in the event that slavery was abolished.
• Defined slave as three-fifths of a person for purpose of
representation
• Slave trade would not be interfered with for a further 20 years
• Permitted the use of federal troops to suppress insurrections
• Allowed slave owners to track fugitives
• Without using the word “slavery”… enshrined human beings as
property.
Discussion Questions:
• Share your answers as a class in regards to the laws
that you determined as being ‘just’ and fair’? ‘Unjust’
& ‘Unfair’?
• Did every student agree with each other?
• If not, why?
• What disagreements or conflicts do you suppose the
framers of the U.S. Constitution experienced?