Tag: news

1787: A More Perfect Union

ESSENTIAL QUESTION:

Analyze the preamble to the US Constitution.

CONTEXT:

As the American Revolution progressed, the Second Continental Congress ran the government; but they needed a plan. In November, 1777, after 16 months of debate, they adopted the Articles of Confederation. It was not ratified until 1781 (all states had to approve it before it became official), but it served as the constitution of the states until 1787. At that time a convention was called to revise the Articles; but there were so many problems with the document that it was decided to discard the Articles and redesign the government. The result was the current US Constitution, signed in September, 1787.

The opening words of the US Constitution are called the Preamble. Attaching a preamble to a document was fairly common in the time of the Founders, but this preamble was not written first; for at least two months in the Constitutional Convention no one mentioned including a preamble. Edmund Randolph of Virginia suggested a preamble, one that would explain why the Articles of Confederation were inadequate for America and why establishing a new government was necessary. The Preamble was mainly written by Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816), a delegate from Pennsylvania to the Constitutional Convention.

TEXT:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

INQUIRY:

  1. The Preamble lists the purposes of the Constitution, but it does not give any part of the government power to enforce these purposes. What is the purpose of the Preamble?
  2. In the discussion of the Constitution, some said that “We the People” should instead read, “We the States.” What would have been the difference if that word had been changed?
  3. An original draft of the Preamble listed each individual state rather than “the United States.” Morris made this change; how did that change alter the meaning of the document?
  4. List the six purposes of the US Constitution.
  5. For each of the six purposes, describe an experience under the Articles of Confederation that necessitated that purpose.
  6. Are the purposes of the Constitution philosophical or pragmatic? Justify your response.
  7. Compare the purposes of the US Constitution to the purposes of the Declaration of Independence.
  8. What is the source of the federal government’s power?
  9. What evidence is in the preamble that the Founders expected this document to be permanent?
  10. In what ways is the Constitution continuing to fulfill its purpose? Give specific examples.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/gouverneur-morris-unforgettable-yet-forgotten

https://youtu.be/0EfnNUt_nwY?t=4

1796: Washington and Parties

ESSENTIAL QUESTION:

Analyze the dangers of parties that George Washington foresaw for the young American Republic as he left public life.

CONTEXT:

George Washington (1732-1799) was born in Virginia to a prosperous planter family. He learned the culture of a colonial gentleman, and early on had two special interests: the military and westward expansion. At age 16 he helped survey the Shenandoah Valley; in 1754 he was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the British Army and he served during the French and Indian War. He later managed his lands around Mount Vernon, Virginia, (his home), served in the Virginia House of Burgesses, and married Martha Custis, a wealthy widow. In 1775 the Second Continental Congress appointed him Commander in Chief of the Continental Army.

After the American Revolution Washington wished to retire to Mount Vernon, but realizing that the new nation needed stronger form of government, he encouraged a Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. After the new Constitution was adopted, Washington was unanimously elected by the electoral college to be the first president of the United States. He set many precedents. By the end of his second term political parties had developed and there was much contention even within his cabinet; Washington was pressured to continue as president but he refused, setting another precedent of a maximum of two presidential terms which would last until Franklin Roosevelt began his third term in 1941. Another precedent he established was delivering a farewell address, from which this text is taken. He wrote it with the help of Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. Washington did not deliver his address in person to the Congress but instead published it in a Philadelphia newspaper, the American Daily Advertiser, on September 19, 1796. After leaving office Washington returned to Mount Vernon to continue farming. He died there in 1799 from quinsy, a serious throat infection.

TEXT:

…I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy….

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.

It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.

There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.…

INQUIRY:

  1. Did Washington encourage or discourage the development of political parties? Quote from the text to support your response.
  2. List five dangers from the development of parties.
  3. How might parties affect US foreign policy?
  4. Why did Washington discourage parties in governments “purely elective”?
  5. What force should “mitigate and assuage” the dangers of parties?
  6. In Washington’s time many Americans chiefly identified with their state. Rather than saying “I am an American” they might say “I am a Virginian” and then say “I am an American.” Washington warned against this earlier in his speech. What dangers might exist with this frame of mind?
  7. During Washington’s administration the first political parties developed–the Federalists, chiefly from New England, and the Democratic-Republicans, chiefly from the South. People were encouraged to vote based on party loyalty rather than choosing the best qualified candidate. Investigate the toxic relationship between Alexander Hamilton (leader of the Federalists) and Thomas Jefferson (leader of the Democratic-Republicans) that developed while the two men served in Washington’s Cabinet.
  8. In 1796 when this address was delivered the US Constitution was only eight years old. How might that fact have influenced Washington’s words?
  9. To commemorate Washington’s birthday his Farewell Address is still read aloud in the US Senate. How well do you believe we are listening to his advice? Give evidence to support your answer.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

https://millercenter.org/president/washington/life-in-brief

https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/Washingtons_Farewell_Address.pdf?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Chernow, Ron. Washington: A Life. Penguin Press, 2010.

1976: Barbara Jordan & Community

ESSENTIAL QUESTION

How did Barbara Jordan call for a national community?

CONTEXT

In 1966 Barbara Charline Jordan (1936-1996) became the first African American elected to the Texas Senate since 1883, and six years later she was the first African American woman elected to the US House of Representatives. A lawyer, educator, politician, and gifted orator, she gave remarks during the impeachment hearings of President Richard Nixon (1974). She was the first woman and the first African American to give a keynote address to the Democratic National Convention, and it is from that address that this text is drawn. She retired from politics in 1979 and taught at the University of Texas at Austin. She received many awards, including election into the National Women’s Hall of Fame (1990) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1994). She died in 1996 from complications from pneumonia and became the first African American to be interred in the Texas State Cemetery.

In 1976 Jordan was chosen to give the Keynote Address to the National Democratic Convention in Madison Square Garden, New York. Only two years after the Watergate Scandal involving President Nixon and others, 1976 was a time of deep national divisions and distrust of government. The Convention nominated Jimmy Carter, who defeated incumbent Republican Gerald Ford in the 1976 election.

TEXT

…We are a people in a quandry about the present. We are a people in search of our future. We are a people in search of a national community…

We must restore our belief in ourselves. We are a generous people so why can’t we be generous with each other? We need to take to heart the words spoken by Thomas Jefferson: Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and that affection without which liberty and even life are but dreary things.

A nation is formed by the willingness of each of us to share in the responsibility for upholding the common good.

A government is invigorated when each of us is willing to participate in shaping the future of this nation…

If we promise as public officials, we must deliver. If we as public officials propose, we must produce. If we say to the American people it is time for you to be sacrificial; sacrifice. If the public official says that, we (public officials) must be the first to give. We must be. And again, if we make mistakes, we must be willing to admit them. We have to do that. What we have to do is strike a balance between the idea that government should do everything and the idea, the belief, that government ought to do nothing. Strike a balance.

…But a spirit of harmony will survive in America only if each of us remembers that we share a common destiny. If each of us remembers when self-interest and bitterness seem to prevail, that we share a common destiny…

INQUIRY

  1. What is a quandry?
  2. According to the text, how is a nation formed?
  3. Why does Jordan quote Thomas Jefferson? According to Jefferson, what are the consequences of not seeking “that harmony and that affection”?
  4. What are the responsibilities of public officials?
  5. How is a government invigorated?
  6. Jordan speaks of a balance. Describe the balance and how that balance might be achieved.
  7. What is the “common destiny” that Jordan references? Why is it important to remember that “common destiny”?
  8. In what ways can we encourage harmony in our lives?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/16031