AP Government Required Foundational Documents Review

Federalist 10

• A strong, united republic is argued to be more effective than individual states at controlling the influence of ‘factions.’ • A large republic serves as a mechanism to help control factions through the election of more representatives. • The increase in the number of representatives results in a greater number of opinions within the government. • Due to this diversity of opinions, it becomes far less likely that a single majority will be able to form and oppress the rest of the people.

Brutus I

• This document consists of a series of Antifederalist essays designed to encourage citizens of New York to reject the proposed Constitution. • The author argues that the immense power of the federal government requires the people to sacrifice their liberties. • A central claim is that a bill of rights is absolutely necessary to protect the people from the government. • The author asserts that Congress possesses far too much power, specifically citing authority over:     • Taxation     • Maintaining a standing army     • General taxes     • The Elastic Clause • The essay argues that a free republic cannot exist in a territory as large as the United States. • It is claimed that judicial authority will broaden the power of the federal government, eventually leading to tyranny.

Declaration of Independence

• All people are created equal and possess Natural Rights, which include Life, Liberty, and Property. • Governments are established for the specific purpose of protecting these Natural Rights. • If a government fails to protect these rights, the people have a duty to change or destroy that government. • However, imperfect governments should not be destroyed; destruction is only reserved for those that seek to subject the people to Tyranny, defined as the destruction of Natural Rights. • BIG IDEA: A balance between governmental power and individual rights has been a hallmark of American political development.

Articles of Confederation

• This document established a confederation of states with an extremely limited central government. • The limitations placed upon the central government rendered it ineffective at governing the continually growing American states. • Key features/limitations included:     • Each state remains sovereign.     • The legislature was unicameral, with each state receiving exactly $1$ vote.     • There was no executive branch (no President).     • There was no national judiciary.     • The government could not force taxation.     • There was no standing army.

Constitution (+ Bill of Rights & Other Amendments)

• The Constitution serves as an outline of the federal government’s structure, powers, and the specific limits to those powers. • It establishes three branches: Legislative (L), Executive (E), and Judicial (J). This facilitates the Separation of Powers. • These branches use Checks and Balances to limit each other’s power. • The document creates a federal system of government and establishes the Constitution as the Supreme Law of the land. • The Bill of Rights:     • Amendments $1$ through $8$ address individual rights.     • Amendment $9$ states that rights not explicitly listed are NOT denied to the People.     • Amendment $10$ specifies that powers not given to the federal government, nor denied to the states, are reserved as State Powers. • Other Amendments (Generally seen as expansions of peoples' rights):     • Includes Amendments $13$, $14$, $15$, $17$, $19$, $22$, $24$, and $26$. • BIG IDEA: The Constitution emerged from the debate about the weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation as a blueprint for limited government.

Federalist 51

• This document proposes a government broken into three distinct branches: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. • Each branch is designed to be self-sufficient, but each must have some kind of power over the other branches so they can keep each other from taking over the government. • The Legislative branch, considered the most powerful branch, needs to be split further into the House of Representatives and the Senate. • Members of the Judicial branch need to be chosen by the President with the Senate's approval to ensure qualified candidates for a position that lasts for life. • This style of government helps suppress the power of factions, echoing the theme from Federalist 10. • BIG IDEA: The Constitution created a competitive policy-making process to ensure the people’s will is accurately represented and that freedom is preserved.

Federalist 70

• The essay argues that unity in the executive branch is a main ingredient for both ‘energy’ and ‘safety.’ • Energy arises from the proceedings of a single person, characterized by ‘decision, activity, secrecy, and dispatch.’ • Safety arises from the unitary executive's unconcealed accountability to the people. • It justifies executive strength by claiming that the slow-moving Congress—a body designed for deliberation—is best-balanced by a quick and decisive executive. • Governmental balance can only be achieved if each branch (including the executive) has enough autonomous power to prevent the tyranny of one branch over the others. • The author makes the case for ‘duration,’ which refers to a presidential term long enough to promote stability in the government. • ‘Support’ is defined as a presidential salary, which is intended to insulate government officials from corruption by attracting capable and honest men to the office. • BIG IDEA: The presidency has been enhanced beyond its expressed constitutional powers.

Federalist 78

• The Judiciary is described as the ‘weakest of the three departments of power’ and thus needs strengthening. • Without an independent judiciary, rights reserved to the people by the Constitution would ‘amount to nothing’ because the legislature cannot be relied upon to police itself. • The author advocates for lifetime appointments, guaranteed ‘during good behavior,’ to ensure judges can resist encroachments from the legislature (to which they might otherwise be vulnerable via bribes or threats). • BIG IDEA: The design of the judicial branch protects the Supreme Court’s independence as a branch of government; the emergence and use of judicial review remains a powerful judicial practice.

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

• Martin Luther King Jr. argues that he and his fellow demonstrators have a moral duty to fight for justice. • He asserts that it is up to the oppressed to take charge and demand equality. • Segregation is identified as immoral in the eyes of God because it is used to debase one population (Blacks) while uplifting another (Whites). • King argues that immoral laws are laws that are neither just nor fair. • Referencing St. Augustine's logic, King posits that unjust laws are not actually laws at all and therefore do not have to be followed. • People are under a moral obligation to oppose segregation by refusing to abide by the laws that govern the practice. • White Americans who agree with desegregation but criticize the methods of civil rights activists are described as the biggest obstacle to racial equality. • The ‘paternalistic’ attitude of white moderates demonstrates a lack of true understanding of the realities of segregation. • This group perpetuates the notion that time, rather than human intervention, is the great equalizer, which discourages others from joining the civil rights campaign. • King concludes that the movement will succeed because ‘the goal of America is freedom.’ • BIG IDEA: The Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause as well as other constitutional provisions have often been used to support the advancement of equality.