Required Documents for Argumentative Essay

Declaration of Independence

  • Three main ideas:
    • Natural Rights: Rights that cannot be taken away, inherent to being human.
      • Examples: Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
    • Popular Sovereignty: The people are the source of governmental power.
    • Social Contract: The purpose of government is to protect natural rights; governments are established by the consent of the governed.

Articles of Confederation

  • States maintained sovereignty, resulting in a weak national government.
  • National government structure:
    • One branch: Congress.
    • No executive or judicial branches.
  • Weaknesses:
    • Lacked the power to tax, making it subservient to the states.
    • States could issue their own currency, impose tariffs, and ignore federal treaties.
  • Powers of Congress:
    • Raise an army.
    • Declare war.
    • Coin and borrow money.
    • These powers were limited due to the lack of taxing authority.

The U.S. Constitution: Federalist vs. Anti-Federalist Papers

Brutus No. 1 (Anti-Federalist)

  • Argument against ratifying the Constitution.
  • Favored local power over centralized national government.
  • Concerns about the Constitution:
    • Necessary and Proper Clause: Feared it would grant unlimited power to Congress.
    • Supremacy Clause: Worried federal law would always override state law, diminishing state power.
    • Taxing Power: Believed it would lead to tyranny and oppression, potentially eliminating state governments.
    • Standing Armies: Concerned about the president's control of a standing army leading to loss of liberty.
  • Prediction: Federal government would eventually destroy state governments through the supremacy clause, taxing power, and standing armies.
  • Solution: Small republic at the state and local level where people have control and can check the power of representatives.

Federalist No. 10

  • Addresses the issue of factions, defining them as groups of citizens with interests adverse to the rights of other citizens.
  • Argues that democracies cannot effectively control factions because a majority faction can easily outvote and oppress minorities.
  • Cannot eliminate factions because they are natural.
  • Solution: Control the effects of factions through a large republic.
  • Larger republics are better because they have more factions, making it less likely for any single faction to form a majority and thus preventing the oppression of minority groups.

The U.S. Constitution

  • Article 1: Congress
  • Article 2: President
  • Article 3: Courts
  • Article 4: States (federalism)
  • Article 5: Amendments (requires national and state cooperation: two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths of the states)
  • Article 6: Supremacy Clause (national government wins over the states)
  • Article 7: Ratification process
  • 27 Amendments: The first ten are the Bill of Rights.

Federalist No. 51

  • Advocates for separation of powers and checks and balances.
  • Humans aren't perfect, need government, and must control the power of people in government.
  • Separation of powers: Dividing the jobs of the federal government into three branches, giving each branch their own job, their own power.
  • Checks and balances: Giving each branch some influence over the other branches.
  • Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. Prevent a branch from getting too powerful as each branch will want to increase and guard their power.

Federalist No. 70

  • Argues for a unitary executive (single president) for efficiency and effectiveness, allowing for quick responses in crises.
  • Though Congress should be slow in lawmaking, the executive must enforce laws and act quickly, especially in emergencies.
  • Public opinion has more power over a single president because individuals know whom to blame or credit, increasing accountability.

Federalist No. 78

  • Supports an independent judiciary that can use judicial review to assess the constitutionality of laws and presidential actions.
  • Judges with lifetime tenure and protected pay can focus on protecting the Constitution and citizens' rights without fear of reprisal.
  • The judicial branch is the weakest because it has neither force (like the president) nor will (like Congress), but merely judgment.
  • The judicial branch relies on others to enforce their rulings.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

  • Demands the fulfillment of founding documents' promises of equality.
  • References the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Fourteenth Amendment.
  • Advocates for civil disobedience against unjust laws, stating that an unjust law is no law at all.
  • Citizens have a duty to not follow immoral laws that violate natural rights.