Identify : Explain : Describe :

1. Chapter2“Origins of American Government”(pp. 26)Section1“Our Political Beginnings” (pp. 28-33).SECTIONPREVIEW (pp. 28)OBJECTIVES: Identify: Explain: Describe: WHY IT MATTERSOur system of government has its origins in the concepts and political ideas that English colonists brought with the when they settled North America. The colonies served as a school for learning about government.

2. POLITICAL DICTIONARY Basic Concepts of Government • Ordered government: • Limited government: • Representative government: Landmark English Documents: • The Magna Carta(pp. 33). Signed by England’s King John in 1215, the Magna Carta (Great Charter) was the first document to limit the power of England’s monarchs. The result of tough negotiations between the king and rebellious nobles, the Magna Carta established the principle that the principle that rulers are subject to law- a major step towardconstitutional government.

3. Magna Carta Questions • What basic American right has its origins in Article 39 of the Magna Carta? The right to a trial by jury. • Which article provides the basis for the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, which states that no person can be “deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”?Article 52 provides the basis for the 5th Amendment. • Which limits does Article 12 place on the king’s power to tax?The king may not impose taxes without the general consent of the people.

4. Landmark English Documents: (Continued) • Petition of Right:Demanded that the king no longer imprison or otherwise punish any person but by the lawful judgement of his peers, or by the law of the land. • English Bill of Rights: The English Colonies Charter: • Royal Colonies: Bicameral: • Proprietary Colonies: Unicameral: • Charter Colonies:

5. Section2 “The Coming of Independence”(pp. 34-39)PREVIEW OBJECTIVES: • Explain: • Identify: • Compare: • Analyze : • Describe: WHY IT MATTERS Changes in British colonial policies led to resentment in the colonies and eventually to the American Revolution. Ideas expressed in the early State constitutions influenced the development of the governmental system under which we live today.

6. Political Dictionary • Confederation: • Albany Plan of Union: • Delegate: • Boycott: • Repeal: • Popular sovereignty:

7. COPY “Common Features of State Constitutions” (pg. 39) POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY – The principle sovereignty was the basis for every new State constitution. That principle says that government can exist and function only with the consent of the governed. The people hold power and the people are sovereign. LIMITED GOVERNMENT – The concept of limited government was a major feature of each State constitution. The powers delegated to government were granted reluctantly and hedged with many restrictions. CIVIL RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES – In every State it was clear that the sovereign people held certain rights that the government must respect at all times. Seven of the new constitutions contained a bill of rights, setting out the “unalienable rights” held by the people.

8. “Common Features of State Constitutions”(Continued) SEPARATION OF POWER AND CHECKS AND BALANCES– The powers granted to the new State governments were purposely divided among three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. Each branch was given powers with which to check (restrain the actions of) the other branches of the government.

9. [Jefferson begins the Declaration by attempting to legally and philosophically justify the revolution that was already underway. Here Jefferson is saying that, now that the colonists have begun to separate themselves from British rule, it is time to explain why the colonists have taken this course of action.] When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

10. We hold these truths to be 1. self-evidentthat all 2. menare created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain 3. unalienable Rights,That among these are 4.Life,Liberty, and the pursuitof Happiness; that, to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the 5. consent of the governed; that, whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the 6. Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundations on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

11. 7. Prudence, [exercise of restraint- based on sound practical wisdom and discretion] indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for 8. Light and transient causes [trivial matters] and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But [when a long train of abuses and 9. usurpations, [to seize or exercise authority or possession wrongfully] pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under 10. absolute Despotism , [unquestioned unlimited power] it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

12. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, 11. let the facts be submitted to a candid world. [everyone will be aware of the details]

13. [Here begins the section in which Jefferson condemns the behavior of King George, listing the king’s many tyrannical actions that have forced his American subjects to rebel.] He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. [The King had rejected laws passed by colonial assemblies.] He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

14. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, [The Crown had failed to redraw the boundaries of legislative districts to ensure that newly settled areas were fairly represented in colonial assemblies.] unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right 12. inestimable[most important, not limited] to them, and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

15. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasions from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for 13. Naturalization [to admit to citizenship] of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. [The King had impeded the development of the colonies by prohibiting the naturalization of foreigners (in 1773) and raising the purchase price of western lands (in 1774)].

16. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. [The King had rejected a North Carolina law setting up a court system]. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and 14. eat out their substance. [use all the colonists resources]

17. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies, without the Consent of our legislatures. [The Crown had kept an army in the colonies after the He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a judicial foreign to our constitution [The royal government had claimed the power (in the Declaratory Act of 1766) to make all laws for the colonies] and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us [The Crown had required the colonies to house British troops stationed in America]. For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States; [Parliament had passed a 1774 law permitting British soldiers and officials accused of murder while in Massachusetts to be tried in Britain].

18. For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world; [Parliament had enacted laws restricting the colonies’ right to trade with foreign nations]. For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent; [Parliament had imposed taxes (such as the Sugar Act of 1764) without the colonists consent]. For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury; For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses; [A 1769 Parliamentary resolution declared that the colonists accused of treason could be tried in Britain].

19. For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument fir introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: [The 1774 Quebec Act extended Quebec’s boundaries to the Ohio River and applied French law to the region]. For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments; [Parliament in 1774) had restricted town meetings in Massachusetts, had decided that the colony’s councilors would no longer be elected but would be appointed by the king, and had given the royal governor control of lower court judges].

20. For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. [Parliament (in 1767) had suspended the New York Assembly for failing to obey the Quartering Act of 1765]. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging war against us. [The crown had authorized General Thomas Gage to use force to make the colonists obey the laws of Parliament].

21. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. [The British government had seized American ships that violated restrictions on foreign trade and had bombarded Falmouth (now Portland), Me.; Bristol, R.I.; and Norfolk, Va.].He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenariesto complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of 15. Cruelty and perfidy [betrayal, disloyal] scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. [The British army hired German mercenaries to fight the colonists].

22. He has constrained our fellow Citizens, taken Captive on the high Seas, to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. [The Crown had forced American sailors (under the Restraining Act of 1775) to serve in the British navy]. He has excited 16.domestic insurrections [caused colonial riots] amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. [In November 1775, Virginia’s royal governor promised freedom to slaves who joined British forces. The royal government also instigated Indian attacks on frontier settlements].

23. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redressin the most humble terms; Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. In the eyes of the American patriots, what rights or liberties had the British Parliament violated?

24. Answer: Parliament seemed intent on slowing the colonies’ growth and protecting British economic interests at the colonists’ expense. Royal officials had restricted westward expansion, levied taxes without the colonists consent, and stationed a standing army in the colonies in peacetime. In addition, the Crown had expanded the imperial bureaucracy, made the West a preserve for French Catholics and Indians, and infringed on traditional English liberties, including the right to trial by jury, freedom from arbitrary arrest and trial, freedom of speech and conscience, and the right to freely trade and travel. Parliament had also restricted meetings of legislative assemblies, vetoed laws passed by assemblies, billeted soldiers in private homes, and made royal officials independent of colonial legislatures.

25. [Here Jefferson turns his attention away from the king and toward the British people. Calling the British the “common kindred” of the colonists, Jefferson reminds them how often the Americans have appealed to their sense of justice. Reluctantly the colonists are now forced to break their political connections with their British kin].

26. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to theirnativejustice and17. magnanimity, [courage, generosity] and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.They too have been deaf to our voice of justice and of 18. consanguinity. [close relation or connection] We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

27. [In this passage, the delegates declare independence]. We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good People of these Colonies solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, ought to be, totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce,and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.

28. [The Declaration ends with the delegates’ pledge, or pact. The delegates at the Second Continental Congress knew that, in declaring their independence from Great Britain, they were committing treason-a crime punishable by death. “We must all hang together,” Benjamin Franklin reportedly said, as the delegates prepared to sign the Declaration, “or most assuredly we shall all hand separately.”] And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

29. Reviewing the Declaration of Independence1. Which truths in the second paragraph are “self-evident”? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________2. From what source do governments derive their “just powers”? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________3. According to the Declaration, what powers belong to the United States “as Free and Independent States”? __________________________________________________4. Do you think that the words “all men are created equal” were intended to apply to all human beings? Explain your reasoning. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________