APGOV Foundational Documents

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

3 sections: Preamble, List of Grievances against King George III, Resolution for Independence

Thomas Jefferson wrote it

Preamble

  • justification for why they are breaking apart from Britain

  • The purpose of the document was to rally troops and to secure foreign allies who would help them win the war

  • The rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are given to people by their creator (they do not originate from a government or a king, so cannot be taken away by the government

  • To protect natural rights, people create governments

  • Government gets its power from the consent of the governed (the people) (popular sovereignty and the social contract)

  • Whenever any form of government breaks the social contract, it is the right of the people to overthrow the government or abolish it and institute another government that will protect the natural rights of the people

FEDERALIST 10

Federalist Papers: John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton, who were federalists, published articles on why the Constitution should be ratified to try to convince the population that it was what was right

Written by James Madison

How will the new Constitution protect the liberty of citizens against the tyranny of the majority?

In a pure democracy, the majority will always win, which means there is no protection for minority views

Factions: a threat to society; a group of citizens whose goal is to dominate the government so they can impose their own interests on the whole society

Two solutions to factions

  • Stop factions from forming: terrible option, because it will destroy liberty

    • Liberty is what feeds factions, so you would have to destroy liberty

    • To destroy liberty is worse than having factions in the first place

    • making sure every citizen has the same opinions on everything would be to take away liberty, which isn’t fair and wouldn’t work

  • limiting their effects/power: through a republican-style government instead of a pure democracy

    • As the nation continues to grow, more factions will form, which will lead to diluted power (because there are so many factions, so no one can have too much power), and since they’re all in competition with each other, they will be forced to compromise their interest

BRUTUS 1

Anti-Federalist paper published in NY newspaper, trying to convince the public not to ratify the Constitution

No one really knows who wrote this

Is a confederated government the best for the states or not?

  • The type of government that was used under the Articles

  • States had all the power, but the federal government had very little power

  • or it was like 13 separate governments all loosely tied together by a weak central government

Should the 13 governments be shrunk into one great republic, governed by one legislator, and under the direction of one executive and judicial? Or should the 13 confederated republics, under the control of a supreme federal head, withstand?

A confederacy of state governments or a powerful central government?

Brutus argues for the confederacy because of…

  • necessary and proper clause: Congress can make any law that is necessary or proper to execute the enumerated powers

  • supremacy clause: federal laws have greater power than state laws

  • By creating a central authority that can create any law possible and crush any state law, state governments will shrivel up and die

  • Collection of taxes: Any government that exists can only collect a small amount of taxes; otherwise, the citizens will get tired of taxation and throw the government off. So if the federal government is the one collecting taxes and there is only a small amount that citizens will tolerate, how will the states also collect taxes? If states can’t collect taxes, then they’ll shrivel up and die

  • If federal courts trump state courts, then the federal courts will be rendered elite, and there will be no need for state courts

  • Brutus believes that it is natural for a republic to have only a small territory, otherwise, it wouldn’t sustain itself

    • With a nation as large as the US, both in territory and people, how could representatives possibly represent everyone that they represent? he says it’s not possible

ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION

First “constitution” of the US (people argue whether it was an actual constitution or a treaty)

Once the US gained independence from Britain, it had no government, which is what the Articles sought to fix

Confederation: a form of government in which several powers unite to form a central power

  • The 13 states united and formed a confederacy

Placed most of the power in the hands of the states at the expense of the federal government

The states are supreme, and unless they specifically delegate power to the federal thingy, all the power is to remain in the states

Single branch: legislative branch

  • Each state has one vote

  • Each state is equal in Congress

It cannot raise a national army, and if the nation needs one, the national army is to come from the states

Congress cannot declare war unless 9/13 states agree (super majority)

If the articles were to be amended, 13/13 states have to agree

It established a central government, it avoided a tyrannical central government

CONSTITUTION

Republican government: a government where representatives do the work on behalf of the people

begins with a preamble, which is then followed by 7 articles

Article I: Legislative Branch (form and powers of Congress)

  • all legislative powers

  • bicameral legislature: Senate (2 per state), House (by population)

  • Section 8: enumerated powers of Congress

    • lay and collect taxes

    • borrow money

    • coin money

    • declare war

    • raise support armies

    • maintain the navy

    • necessary and proper clause: Congress has the power to make all laws that it deems necessary and proper to execute the enumerated powers of Congress

      • Anti-Federalists hated this clause

Article II: Executive Branch

  • electoral college

  • powers of the POTUS

    • Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the US, and of the Militia of the states

  • Section 3: in charge of making sure laws are executed

  • final step in the law-making process (signing)

Article III: Judicial Branch

  • Judicial power is vested in ONE Supreme Court, and it can establish federal courts

  • SCOTUS has original (affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and when one of the states is one of the parties) and appellate jurisdiction (all other cases)

Article IV: State Relations

  • the federal government’s relationship to the states, and the relationships of the states with each other

Article V: Amendment Process

  • process for amending the Constitution

  • two-part

    • proposal: 2/3 of both houses of Houses, or 2/3 of state legislatures

    • ratification: ¾ of the states have to agree

Article VI: National Supremacy

  • Supremacy Clause: if the federal and state governments are in a dispute, the federal government always trumps

    • Anti-federalists also hate this clause

Article VII: Ratification Process

It solved the problems from the Articles by giving the central government way more power

What ultimately convinced the anti-federalists to sign the ratification was the guarantee of a Bill of Rights (which they requested) in which the federal government couldn’t go against

FEDERALIST 51

written by James Madison

If people were angels, we wouldn’t need a government, BUT we aren’t angels, so humans need a government

The government is there to protect the liberty of the people

How to create a government that is powerful but not too powerful? Madison says the separation of powers/checks, and balances

Cannot be applied externally, only internally

Each branch needs as much independent power as possible, so they can’t go around messing with each other, but the power needs to be equal

In the Constitution, the Congress (legislative branch) has the most power because it directly represents the people

Divide the power of Congress into two to keep it from gaining too much power (bicameral legislature)

Power is divided between the branches, and then further divided between the state and national governments (federalism)

checks and balances: each branch can check the other branch’s power

  • The executive branch checks the legislative by vetoing

  • legislative checks the executive by impeachment and removal from office

  • The judicial branch checks the legislative and executive branches through judicial review and executive actions

Called double-security of the people

Danger of factions: the more factions there are, the less able any one of them will be to dominate the rest

“Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.”

It’s everyone’s interest against everyone else’s interest, which takes away tyranny

FEDERALIST 70

Written by Hamilton

Justifying the need for a single executive/president

Anti-Federalists wanted several presidents so that there would be no monarchy, and no one person could accumulate all their power and become a tyrant

Energy is the most important characteristic of a good government (energy = quickly and decisively)

Congress does not have energy because they are meant to be slow by debating and discussing things

The more executives you have, the less energy in the office

In history, when there was more than one executive, there was often massive division that disrupted the effectiveness of the office, which would be a giant problem

Division amongst the executive branch would also lead to violent and irreconcilable factions

The legislative branch was built to run slowly to make sure that legislation is passed correctly; however, this is the opposite of the executive, which is supposed to act fast

If the executive branch were to mess up, the people would know who to blame if there is only one dude; if there are many executives, the blame will not be clear, and no one will know who is responsible

If the president becomes corrupt, it will be clear to the people who know how to kick out in the next elections

FEDERALIST 78

Written by Hamilton

All about the judicial branch

Federal judges are appointed by the president, and they are to hold their offices for life during good behavior

People don’t elect these judges or replace them in elections

Lifetime appointments make it possible for judges to rule with impartiality without having to worry about pleasing the people for the sake of reelection

The amount of precedents each justice has to learn is massive, and if they are constantly being switched out, it will make them less qualified and less able to make the best decisions

Judicial review: makes sure that laws passed in Congress are aligned with the Constitution, and if it ain’t, it is considered null and void

Anti-federalists claim that this would make the judicial branch more powerful than the legislative who is supposed to represent the people

Hamilton argues that if Congress passes a law that goes against the Constitution, it is already null and void, because no unconstitutional law can work on a people governed by the Constitution

Courts are designed to act as an in between the people and the legislature, as well as keep Congress within its limits

It doesn't make the judicial branch bigger, just makes the people's power bigger

LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL

Written by MLK

How the Equal protection clause motivated and supported social movements

The civil rights movement for the equality of blacks

MLK led by nonviolent and direct action, which means they had to endure imprisonment and suffering

He did this because many state governments were failing to uphold the rights of blacks under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment

In 1963, King led a campaign to desegregate Birmingham, Alabama

The campaign got him and many others arrested

A group of white clergyman sympathetic to this said that their methods were not working, and they had to be patient and wait for the whites to work through this, and then they would have their rights

Meaningful negotiation will never occur unless a crisis raises the stakes

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; so, to be patient and wait could never work

Wait means never

The only reason why people are asking them to wait is that they have never been on the side of discrimination

King said that he was disappointed with the white clergyman’s moderateness; they were more concerned with order than justice