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Elbridge Gerry (1744–1814)
omething must be done or we shall disappoint not only America but the Swhole world. —Elbridge Gerry, at the Constitutional Convention, 1787
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Introduction Elbridge Gerry is remembered today for his controversial attempt as governor to draw congressional districts in Massachusetts to the advantage of his party. Indeed, “gerrymandering” is a common political tactic today and undeniably part of Gerry’s legacy. But Gerry was more than a cunning politician. He was also a leader of the American independence movement, an important critic of the Constitution, and a wartime vice president of the United States. Cantankerous and obstinate, Gerry seemed to shift his political views according to circumstances. His unpredictable nature often frustrated even his allies. At the Constitutional Convention, he first played the role of moderate and mediator but ended up a critic of the final document. Gerry feared that the central government set up by the Constitution would become dangerously powerful. He was one of three delegates who stayed until the end of the convention but who refused to sign the Constitution. Once the document was ratified, however, Gerry accepted a seat in the new Congress and even began to sympathize with the Federalist Party, which favored a strong central government. But after being criticized by the Federalists for his role in the “X, Y, Z Affair” that strained the relationship between France and the United States during the administration of John Adams, Gerry embraced the rival Democratic-Republicans. As a member of this party, Gerry served as governor of Massachusetts and as vice president under James Madison during the War of 1812. He died while serving in the latter office, a public servant until the end of his life.
Relevant Thematic Essays for Elbridge Gerry • Federalism • Limited Government (Volume 2)
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By His Own Hand: Elbridge Gerry
AND GERRYMANDERING
Overview In this lesson, students will learn about Elbridge Gerry. They should first read as background homework Standards Handout A—Elbridge Gerry (1744–1814) and answer CCE (9–12): IIA1, IIC1, IIIA1, IIIA2 the Reading Comprehension Questions. After discussing NCHS (5–12): Era III, Standards 3A, 3B these questions in class, the teacher should have the NCSS: Strands 2, 5, 6, and 10 students answer the Critical Thinking Questions as a Materials class. Next, the teacher should introduce the students to Student Handouts the primary source activity, Handout B—By His Own • Handout A—Elbridge Gerry Hand: Elbridge Gerry and Gerrymandering, in which (1744–1814) the students will draw congressional districts to one • Handout B—By His Own Hand: political party’s advantage. Elbridge Gerry and Gerrymandering There are Follow-Up Homework Options that ask Additional Teacher Resource the students to consider how gerrymandering can be • Answer Key used to discriminate against certain ethnic and religious Recommended Time groups. Extensions provides opportunities for reflection One 45-minute class period. on historical and contemporary controversies; students Additional time as needed for are asked to research Supreme Court cases that deal with homework. gerrymandering as well as their state’s most recent experience with reapportionment.
Objectives Students will: • appreciate Gerry’s role as a leader of the American opposition to British tyranny • analyze the reasons for Gerry’s opposition to the Constitution • understand how Gerry drew congressional districts in Massachusetts to favor the Federalist Party • apply Gerry’s redistricting tactics (gerrymandering) in a hypothetical scenario
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LESSON PLAN
I. Background Homework Ask students to read Handout A—Elbridge Gerry (1744–1814) and answer the Reading Comprehension Questions.
II. Warm-Up [10 minutes] A. Review answers to homework questions. B. Conduct a whole-class discussion to answer the Critical Thinking Questions. C. Ask a student to summarize the historical significance of Elbridge Gerry. Elbridge Gerry was a Massachusetts merchant who became a leader of the American independence movement. As a member of the Continental Congress he signed the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation. He represented Massachusetts at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, where he chaired the committee that forged the Great Compromise that resolved the dispute about representation in the Senate and House of Representatives. He was one of three delegates who stayed until the end of the convention but who refused to sign the final document. Gerry feared that the national government as designed by the Constitution was too powerful. In 1797, John Adams chose Gerry as one of a three-member delegation to negotiate with the French government. In France he became involved in the divisive “X, Y, Z Affair.” In 1810, Gerry became governor of Massachusetts and approved a controversial redistricting plan. The plan created new, irregularly shaped congressional voting districts designed to give his party an advantage in the elections for state senate, a tactic called “gerrymandering.”
III. Context [5 minutes] Briefly review Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution (as amended by Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment), which explains how representatives are to be apportioned among the states every ten years according to the national census. Point out to the students that the Constitution leaves the method of electing representatives to each individual state. The states were left to decide whether their allotted number of representatives would be chosen at large (by a state-wide election) or by districts. Today, after reapportionment, states usually undertake redistricting, the process of redrawing district lines for each office so that all districts have nearly identical voter population. This process is often influenced by political considerations, as the party in power in the state legislature and in the governor’s office ordinarily attempts to draw district boundary lines to its advantage. Be sure to show the students the original political cartoon of 1812 that depicts Gerry’s salamander-shaped district:
IV. By His Own Hand [25 minutes] A. Divide the class into an even number of groups. Each group should be composed of three to five students. B. Tell the class that each group will have the task of drawing Massachusetts’ congressional districts so as to favor a particular political party. Assign half the groups the task of favoring the Federalist Party and the other half the job of favoring the Republican Party.
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LESSON PLAN
C. Distribute Handout B—By His Own Hand: Elbridge Gerry and Gerrymandering. Tell the students that this map depicts the political affiliation of the population of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts around 1810. (This is a fictional map, not based on actual statistics.) Each F represents a group of voters likely to vote for Federalists; each R represents a group of voters who are inclined to vote for Republicans. Each letter represents an equal number of people. D. There are fifty letters on the map—twenty-five representing Federalist voters and twenty-five representing Republican voters. Students must create ten congressional districts of five letters each. For the purposes of this activity, districts must be contiguous (that is, there cannot be separate “islands” that comprise one district). E. Each district will favor one party. The job of each group is to make as many districts as possible favor its assigned party. They must make at least six districts favor their party. HINT: Tell the students that they might want to concentrate the opposition in a small number of districts. F. Have each group present its map to the class and discuss the tactics it used to draw district boundary lines so as to favor one party. (It may be easier to make an overhead of the Massachusetts map and let each group draw its finished map on the surface on which the map is projected.)
V. Wrap-Up Discussion [5 minutes] After the presentations and discussion, ask the students these questions: Is it realistic to think that a state legislature could put aside political considerations when drawing congressional districts? If not, can you think of a fair and impartial way for a state to draw district boundaries? Should independent commissions be created to oversee redistricting? Answers will vary.
VI. Follow-Up Homework Options Have the students answer this question in one to two paragraphs: • How could gerrymandering be used to discriminate against certain ethnic and religious groups?
VII. Extensions A. Ask the students to research one or more of the following Supreme Court cases that deal with redistricting, and then write a one-paragraph summary of the Court’s decision: • Baker v. Carr (1962) • Reynolds v. Sims (1964) • Lucas v. Colorado (1964) • Davis v. Bandemer (1986) • Shaw v. Reno (1993) • Abrams v. Johnson (1997) • Easley v. Cromartie (2001) B. Ask the students to research your state’s most recent experience with reapportionment. They should be ready to tell the class whether your state gained or lost representatives after the 2000 census (reapportionment) and whether there was any controversy about redistricting.
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LESSON PLAN
Resources Print Allen, William B., and Gordon Lloyd. The Essential Anti-Federalist. Lanham, MD.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2002. Austin, James T. The Life of Elbridge Gerry. 2 vols. New York: Da Capo Press, 1970. Billias, George Athan. Elbridge Gerry: Founding Father and Republican Statesman. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976. Gardiner, C. Harvey. A Study in Dissent: The Warren-Gerry Correspondence, 1776–1792. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1968. Storing, Herbert J. What the Anti-Federalists Were For. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1981.
Internet “The Constitutional Convention.”TeachingAmericanHistory.org.
Selected Works by Elbridge Gerry • Objections to Signing the National Constitution (1787)
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Handout A
ELBRIDGE GERRY (1744–1814)
It must be admitted that a free people are the proper guardians of their rights and liberties; that the greatest men may err, and that their errors are sometimes of the greatest magnitude. —Elbridge Gerry, 1787
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The delegates were exhausted. For four long, hot months in Philadelphia, representatives of twelve of the American states had discussed, debated, and negotiated as they hammered out a new constitution for the country. It was now the 15th day of September 1787, and the delegates were putting the finishing touches on the document. As the day’s proceedings came to a close, Virginia delegates Edmund Randolph and George Mason voiced their objections to the Constitution. Then Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts stood to speak. There was a murmur among the delegates. Gerry was a difficult man who had seemingly objected during the proceedings to every proposal that he did not put forth. What would he say now? Gerry announced that he would withhold his signature from the document. He listed several flaws in the Constitution, which he said that he could overlook if the rights of the citizens were made secure under this proposed government. But these rights were not guaranteed, Gerry warned. He argued that the Congress as designed was too powerful, and he called for a second convention to revise the document. Several delegates groaned and muttered in frustration as Gerry returned to his seat. Background The son of a wealthy shipping magnate, Elbridge Gerry was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, in 1744. After graduating from Harvard in 1762, he joined the family business. He soon came to see firsthand how British economic policy hurt American merchants. Gerry began to sympathize with the American patriot movement, which openly opposed British policy toward the colonies. In 1770, he supported a successful boycott of British tea. Gerry soon became well known among Marblehead’s citizens, who sent him to the colonial legislature two years later. There Gerry met Samuel Adams, the well-respected patriot leader from Boston, Massachusetts. Revolution and Declaration Adams recruited Gerry for the patriot movement. In 1774, Gerry became convinced that the colonies needed to declare independence. Marblehead’s citizens appointed Gerry to Massachusetts’ Committee of Correspondence. This committee mustered support and spread information for the patriot cause. The colonists soon realized that war with the mother country was likely. In the Massachusetts legislature, Gerry helped Adams and John Hancock oversee military preparations. He used his shipping connections to import gunpowder and other military supplies. He also loaned money—interest free—to the cause. Gerry was selected to attend the Continental Congress in 1775. There he worked tirelessly to convince delegates to declare independence. In the process, he won the respect of fellow delegates like John Adams, cousin of Samuel Adams. The future © The Bill of Rights Institute president declared, “If every Man here was a Gerry, the Liberties of America would be safe against the Gates of Earth and Hell.”
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Handout A
But Gerry was also a stubborn and difficult man. He lacked a sense of humor and seemed to enjoy arguing. He often irritated even his allies, including John Adams, who complained that Gerry’s “obstinacy ...will risk great things to secure small ones.” In 1779, Gerry stormed out of the Continental Congress in a rage after a dispute about payments for suppliers of the Continental Army. He would not return for three years. Constitutional Convention During his service in the Continental Congress, Gerry had signed the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. After the Revolutionary War, Gerry served from 1783–1785 in the new Congress created by the Articles. In 1786, he left Congress and served in the Massachusetts legislature. The following year, the citizens of Massachusetts chose Gerry as a delegate to the national convention in Philadelphia that had been called to revise the Articles of Confederation. At the convention, Gerry at first adopted a moderate stance between nationalists, who favored a strong central government, and states’ rights advocates. He chaired the committee that forged the Great Compromise. This agreement provided for equal representation of the states in the Senate and proportional representation in the House of Representatives. But Gerry again was combative and, in the words of a fellow delegate, “objected to everything he did not propose.” Soon, Gerry began to fear that the national government was being given too much power. He worried that Congress in particular would be able to trample on the rights of the people and of the states. Gerry suggested that provisions be added to the Constitution limiting Congress’ authority. Two of these passed—namely, the prohibitions against ex post facto laws and bills of attainder. Gerry also insisted, along with George Mason, that a bill of rights be added to the document. The convention voted down this idea. On September 15, 1787, as the Philadelphia Convention drew to a close, Gerry announced that he could not sign the Constitution. He believed it would create an all-powerful central government. He sent the Massachusetts legislature a letter outlining his reasons for this decision. Gerry and the Virginians George Mason and Edmund Randolph were the only delegates who stayed until the end of the convention but did not sign the Constitution. Despite his refusal to approve the document, Gerry did not speak against it. He believed the Constitution was necessary to prevent the union of the states from falling apart. During the ratification debates in Massachusetts, he argued that the state should approve the Constitution only on the condition that amendments would be added as soon as possible. Massachusetts ratified the Constitution but also attached a list of recommended amendments. Congressman, Peace Commissioner, Governor, and Vice President Once the Constitution was approved in 1788, Gerry supported the new government. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives the following year. To the surprise of many, he supported Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton’s plan to create a national bank. This measure strengthened the federal government. Gerry left Congress and returned home in 1793 to care for his sick wife and children. In 1797, John Adams chose Gerry as one of a three-member delegation to negotiate with the French government. Tensions between the United States and Napoleonic France were high. France was at war with much of Europe at the time. Napoleon refused to allow American ships to travel to European ports. Private ships licensed by the French © The Bill of Rights Institute government attacked and sank many American merchant ships. Adams hoped that Gerry, along with Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and John Marshall, could resolve the situation.
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Handout A
Tensions increased when three French officials—who became known as “X, Y, and Z” among American officials in order to guard their identity—demanded a bribe from the Americans before they would open negotiations. The American delegation was outraged. Pinckney and Marshall immediately left for the United States. But Gerry, hoping to continue the negotiations and avert a war between the two countries, stayed behind. Members of the Federalist Party in Congress criticized Gerry for his action, especially his alleged partiality to France. Finally, President Adams ordered Gerry to return to the United States. The event became known as the “X, Y, Z Affair,”and it tarnished Gerry’s reputation. Spurned by the anti-French Federalists, Gerry turned to the Democratic-Republican (or simply, Republican) Party. He was elected governor of Massachusetts in 1810 and 1811 under the banner of this party. At the end of his second term in office, Gerry approved a controversial redistricting plan. The plan created new, irregularly shaped congressional voting districts designed to give Republicans an advantage in the elections for state senate. Angry Federalists dubbed the tactic “gerrymandering,”for the awkward, salamander-like shape of one of the districts. The term is still used today to describe the drawing of districts to favor one party. Many Massachusetts voters resented the governor’s attempt to gerrymander the state’s districts. Gerry may have lost the 1812 gubernatorial race because of his political gamesmanship. His political career, however, was not over. That same year, President James Madison selected him to run as his vice president. Gerry accepted the offer. Madison and Gerry were victorious in the election of 1812. By the time Gerry assumed his new post, the United States was at war with Great Britain. One of Gerry’s duties as vice president was to preside over the Senate. That body, like the American public, was sharply divided between pro-war Republicans and anti-war Federalists. Gerry was already in poor health—one observer described him as an “old skeleton”—and the political battles took their toll on him. In November 1814, Gerry collapsed and died on his way to the Senate.
Reading Comprehension Questions 1. Which historical documents did Gerry sign? 2. What did Gerry think about the Constitution when the delegates at Philadelphia completed the final version of the document? What stance did he take during the ratification debates in Massachusetts? 3. How did the term “gerrymandering” evolve? Critical Thinking Questions 4. Gerry sometimes failed to consider carefully the consequences of his actions. Give an example of an instance in which Gerry could have chosen to act differently and thereby avoid the negative consequences of his action.
Rights Institute 5. Imagine that you are a boyhood friend of Elbridge Gerry and that you are about to introduce him to John Adams at the Continental Congress. What can you tell Adams privately about Gerry in regard to his politics and personality before the two meet? © The Bill of
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Handout B
BY HIS OWN HAND: ELBRIDGE GERRY AND GERRYMANDERING
Fictional Map of Political Affiliations in Massachusetts around 1810 F F F R F F F F R F F F F R F R F R F F F F F R R F R R R R R F F R R R R FF F R F R R R R R F R © The Bill of Rights Institute R Legend F = of Group voters Federalist R = of Group voters Republican
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Federalism
By the time the delegates to the Constitutional commercial use of the Potomac River, along with Convention had gathered in Philadelphia in 1787, his study of history, convinced him that a system the American people had been accustomed for based on state sovereignty was destined to fail. more than one hundred and fifty years to having Madison worked with other members of the most of their affairs managed first within the Virginia delegation on a plan for a basically colonies and then in independent states. It was not national, rather than confederal, system of surprising that the Articles of Confederation, the government. In addition to provisions for separate initial constitutional system for legislative, executive, and judicial “The United States of America,” branches, the “Virginia Plan” affirmed in its first article the would have empowered general “sovereignty, freedom Congress “to negative all laws and independence” of the states. passed by the several States, Beyond historical precedence, contravening in the opinion of the commitment to state the National Legislature the sovereignty drew support from articles of Union; and to call sixteenth- and seventeenth- forth the force of the Union century theorists such as Jean against any member of the Jacques Rousseau who argued Union failing to fulfill its duty that the habits and virtues under the articles thereof.” The needed by a self-governing Virginia Plan proposed a people can be cultivated only in national government that would small republics. In short, history be legally and functionally and theory seemed to be on the supreme over the states. side of a confederation of small According to Madison, only American republics or states. a national system would be capable of protecting If the American people were inclined to favor the fundamental interests and rights of the state sovereignty, they also were interested in American people. Other delegates at the comfortable preservation—that is, in the enjoyment convention disagreed. Roger Sherman of of both “safety and happiness,”to borrow from the Connecticut, for example, argued that “the objects Declaration of Independence. By the mid-1780s, it ofUnion ...were few”and that “the people are was clear to many Americans that state sovereignty more happy [sic] in small than in large States.” created obstacles to comfortable preservation, not Sherman was not alone in preferring a the least being the impediments to a smooth- confederation of small republics to a national or functioning commercial system. Concerns about unitary political system. Madison understood that the effects on the country of competing fiscal and he had to expose the weaknesses of the confederal commercial policies in the different states led to model to save the Virginia Plan. Sherman helped the Annapolis Convention of 1786. While the him out on June 6 by conceding that some states delegates to this convention did not come up with were too small and, hence, subject to factious a specific plan for fixing the commercial system, violence. Madison seized upon this argument. He they petitioned the confederation congress to responded that “faction & oppression” had arrange for a constitutional convention that would “prevailed in the largest as well as the smallest” reconsider the Articles of Confederation with the states, although less in the former than the latter. aim of improving interstate commerce. The teaching for Madison was clear: large James Madison, one of seven delegates chosen republics are more likely to provide “security for to represent Virginia at the Constitutional private rights, and the steady dispensation of Convention of 1787, prepared a document on the Justice,” than small republics. This argument hit
history of confederacies during the months home with the delegates. Madison convinced them © The Bill of Rights Institute preceding the meeting. Events such as Shays’s that what they wanted most from government, that Rebellion in Massachusetts and disputes over the is, protection for rights or republican liberty, could
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best be achieved in a national system. Small proposing to establish a “consolidated” government republics, he argued, were actually bad for based on the consent of the people, rather than the republican liberty, being hotbeds of factious states. For Henry, the new constitutional system division and violence. He summed up his position would endanger the rights and privileges of the bluntly: “The only remedy is to enlarge the sphere, people along with the “sovereignty” of the states. & thereby divide the community into so great a Richard Henry Lee, one of the Anti-Federalists, number of interests & parties, that in the 1st. place shared Henry’s fear that a large republic would not a majority will not be likely at the same moment to be hospitable to liberty and natural rights. Like have a common interest separate from that of the many other opponents of the Constitution, Lee whole or of the minority; and in the 2d. place, that also argued that republican liberty can be in case they shd. have such an interest, they may preserved only by a virtuous citizenry and that not be apt to unite in the pursuit of it.” Here was only small republics are capable of nurturing civic the outline of the famous and moral virtues. defense of the large republic The fact that the that appears in Madison’s Madison convinced them that what document that issued from Federalist Paper No. 10. they wanted most from government, the Federal Convention did In the end, the delegates that is, protection for rights or not include a bill of rights at the Constitutional republican liberty, could best be seemed to lend support to Convention settled on a plan the charge by Patrick Henry that combined national and achieved in a national system. and others that the confederal elements. To proposed governmental quote Federalist Paper No. 39: the proposed system system would promote neither the happiness nor “in strictness” was “neither national nor a federal the liberty of the people. In fact, several delegates Constitution, but a composition of both.” to the convention, including George Mason of Madison’s June 6 speech, however, insured that the Virginia and Eldridge Gerry of Massachusetts, new “compound” republic would have a national were sufficiently troubled by the absence of a bill as opposed to a confederal tilt. This innovative of rights that they departed without adding their governmental model, what came to be called the signatures to the document. Gerry also worried “federal” model, represented one of America’s that the new government would not adequately great contributions to the science of politics represent the people and that its powers were not according to Madison. The model’s national well defined. When it was clear that the opponents elements were evident not only in the creation of of the plan would not accept the argument that the separate executive and judicial departments as well framework set out by the delegates provided for a as proportional representation in the House of limited government of enumerated powers that Representatives, but in the supremacy clause that would be incapable of emasculating natural rights affirmed that the Constitution as well as national and liberties, an agreement was reached during the laws enacted under its authority would constitute ratification period to add amendments that would the supreme law of the land. The confederal guarantee, among other things, freedom of speech elements appeared in the provision for equal state and religion, trial by one’s peers, and protection representation in the United States Senate (a against unreasonable searches and seizures. feature especially desired by the small states) and The federal system or compound republic state participation in the ratification of crafted by the Framers was an ingenious response amendments. The addition of the 10th to the demand for both effective or competent Amendment in 1791 provided added protection government on the one side, and rights-sensitive for state interests (“The powers not delegated to government on the other. The decision to divide the United States by the Constitution, nor power among (federalism) and within (checks and prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the balances) several governments positioned the States respectively, or to the people”). American people to enjoy the benefits of a large The defenders of the confederal model republic (e.g., strong defense against foreign continued their attacks on the new system during encroachments, national system of commerce, the ratification debates that followed the etc.) while still retaining significant control over
© The Bill of Rights Institute convention. Patrick Henry of Virginia, for their day-to-day affairs within the states. The example, accused the delegates to the Federal states, and not the national government, were Convention of violating their authorization by entrusted with the “police powers,” that is, the
Federalism 4014- 04 1 onesFdrls 7/17/04 Federalism Founders 016 on thestates undertheConstitution’s commerce government thefederal to imposeregulations of debates aboutthepower contemporary surface of are never farfrom the forexample, Patrick Henry, James Madison and Theconcerns of republic. nationalsovereignty andthelarge proponents of state sovereignty republicanism orsmall andthe put anendto thedebate between theadvocates of government. United States have system of aunitary powers to thestates—he never desired thatthe Madison wasquite content thepolice to entrust It notingthat isworth thepeople. welfare of and safety morals, to protectauthority the health, Storing, Herbert J. Herbert Storing, coad Forrest. McDonald, andRalphLerner (eds.). PhilipB. Kurland, Bruce (ed.). Frohnen, Martin. Diamond, Suggestions Reading for Further aiiaino theConstitution in1791hardly Ratification of Founders andtheConstitution: InTheirOwnWords—VolumeFounders 1 The Founding of the Democratic Republic. theDemocratic The Founding of What the Anti-Federalists Were For. E Pluribus Unum.E Pluribus The American Republic: Primary Sources.The American Republic: Primary 9: 8A ae16 Page AM 48 ninpls iet ud 1979. Fund, Liberty Indianapolis: h ones Constitution. The Founders’ hcg:TeUiest fCiaoPes 1981. ChicagoPress, TheUniversity of Chicago: tsa L ..Paok 1981. Peacock, F.E. IL: Itasca, ninpls iet ud 2002. Fund, Liberty Indianapolis: soeo h rnia oeso amodern government. modelsof system of democratic theprincipal oneof as 1787haslongbeenrecognized Convention of was crafted by the delegates attheFederal that arrangement Thefederal fundamental rights. intheenjoyment of andequality security bothnational to theadvancementimportant of but hasbeencritically the constitutional system, to between thesepositionsnotonlyaddsvitality thatthetension however, considerable evidence, There is clause ortheFourteenth Amendment. ninpls iet ud 1987. Fund, Liberty Indianapolis: Hampden-Sydney CollegeHampden-Sydney ai .Mro,Ph.D. Marion, E. David
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LIMITED GOVERNMENT
Thomas Jefferson accurately represented the executing them in a tyrannical manner as well. In his convictions of his fellow colonists when he famous draft of a constitution for the commonwealth observed in the Declaration of Independence that of Massachusetts, Adams declared that the a government, to be considered legitimate, must be “legislative, executive and judicial power shall be based on the consent of the people and respect their placed in separate departments, to the end that it natural rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of might be a government of laws, and not of men.” happiness.”Along with other leading members of the This document, along with his Defence of the founding generation, Jefferson Constitutions of Government of understood that these principles the United States of America, dictated that the government be containing a strong case for checks given only limited powers that, and balances in government, ideally, are carefully described in were well known to the delegates written charters or constitutions. who attended the Constitutional Modern theorists like John Convention of 1787. Locke and the Baron de James Wilson, one of the Montesquieu had been making foremost legal scholars of the the case for limited government founding period and a delegate and separation of powers during from Pennsylvania at the the century prior to the American Constitutional Convention, agreed Revolution. Colonial Americans with Adams’ insistence that the were quite familiar with Locke’s power of government should be argument from his Two Treatises divided to the end of advancing of Government that “Absolute the peace and happiness of the Arbitrary Power, or Governing without settled people. In the words of Wilson, “In government, standing Laws, can neither of them consist with the the perfection of the whole depends on the balance ends of Society and Government....”Locke added of the parts, and the balance of the parts consists in that the reason people “quit the freedom of the the independent exercise of their separate powers, state of Nature [is] to preserve their Lives, Liberties and, when their powers are separately exercised, and Fortunes.”Civil society has no higher end than then in their mutual influence and operation on to provide for the safety and happiness of the one another. Each part acts and is acted upon, people, and this is best done under a system of supports and is supported, regulates and is known rules or laws that apply equally to “the regulated by the rest.” Rich and Poor,...the Favorite at Court, and the Both the Articles of Confederation and the Country Man at plough.”For his part, Montesquieu Constitution of the United States provided for argued that only where governmental power is governments with limited powers. As John Jay had limited in scope, and then parceled out among discovered as America’s secretary of foreign affairs, different departments, will people be free from the power of the central government was severely oppression. Constitutional government, for limited under the Articles and, hence, could be modern natural rights theorists, should be limited trusted to a unitary legislative department. Fear of government dedicated to the comfortable governmental tyranny and a desire to preserve the preservation of the people—that is, to their power enjoyed by the new states resulted in the security, freedom, and prosperity. creation of a central government that could not John Adams echoed the beliefs of many effectively oversee interstate commerce or do other Americans when he argued that only by creating a things that were critical to ensuring the safety and balance of forces within the government could the happiness of the people. In a letter to Edmund people hope to escape despotism and misery. An Randolph at the end of 1786, George Washington
unchecked legislature, he observed, would be bemoaned the “awful situation of our affairs” © The Bill of Rights Institute capable not only of making tyrannical laws, but of which he attributed to “the want of sufficient power
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in the foederal head.”Washington quickly joined the this chamber are tied so closely to the people by movement to create a new governmental system short terms and small districts. that was equal to “the exigencies of Union,” to In addition to matching powers and quote from the instructions given the delegates to governmental responsibilities, the delegates were the Constitutional Convention of 1787. careful to position each department to “check and The Constitution of 1787 grew out of a plan balance” the other departments. Examples are drafted largely by James Madison during the winter the executive’s veto power, the congressional and spring before the Convention. The “Virginia impeachment power, and the judicial review power Plan” proposed a central government that was entrusted to the Supreme Court, the only national supreme over the states. Evidence that the national court formally established by the Constitution. government was to be entrusted with considerable Although in good Lockean fashion the legislative power could be found in the provisions for a department was designed to be the preeminent bicameral legislature and department, it was still independent executive and subjected to checks by the judicial departments. There was never any doubt in their other branches of the The delegates who minds that they should create a government. Separation of attended the Constitutional powers as well as the system Convention were sufficiently government of “delegated and of checks and balances were versed in modern political enumerated” powers . . . devices for reducing the threat theory to understand that of governmental tyranny, not they would have to divide excluding legislative tyranny. the power of the national government if they However, the constitutional arrangement, put intended to entrust it with real authority over the into its final wording by Gouverneur Morris, was lives of the people and the states. They understood not driven entirely by a desire to eliminate the the dangers of imparting considerable political threat of tyrannical government. The system of power to a unitary sovereign. In this connection, separated and divided powers also was intended to there was never any doubt in their minds that they promote competence in government. The should create a government of “delegated and president can employ his veto not only to check enumerated” powers, that is, that the government legislative action that he considers irresponsible, should only be entrusted with specified but to provoke Congress to improve a legislative (enumerated) powers that derived directly from enactment. The Senate can use its authority to the people. While they worried about the ratify presidential nominations of cabinet officers “turbulence and follies” of democracy, they or judges to ensure that qualified candidates are recognized that government had to be based on the named to fill these positions. consent of the people to be legitimate. Writing in Federalist No. 9, Alexander Hamilton The Virginia Plan anticipated the bicameral identified the principle of separated and divided legislature and independent executive and judicial powers, along with checks and balances, as among departments found in the United States Constitution the inventions of the new science of politics that today. Building on Madison’s model, the delegates had made republican government defensible. assigned responsibilities to the departments based Madison described in Federalist No. 51 the benefits on their peculiar characteristics. The six-year term of the governmental arrangement represented in of senators, for example, seemed to make this a the new Constitution: “In the compound republic proper institution to involve in foreign policy (e.g., of America, the power surrendered by the people is ratification of treaties) since senators would have first divided between two distinct governments, more time than members of the House of and then the portion allotted to each subdivided Representatives to acquaint themselves with among distinct and separate departments. Hence a international affairs and their longer terms and double security arises to the rights of the people. larger constituencies (entire states) also would give The different governments will control each other, them more freedom to attend to matters other at the same time that each will be controlled by than the immediate interests of constituents back itself.” Significantly, Anti-Federalists as well as home. The House of Representatives was entrusted Federalists agreed that governmental powers
© The Bill of Rights Institute with the important power to initiate revenue should be limited and that these powers should be (taxation) bills precisely because the members of subject to internal as well as external checks.
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It is important to emphasize that the Framers desires of the people are held in check by the settled on an arrangement that divided yet blended Constitution. The political system still meets the the legislative, executive, and judicial powers. This criteria of democratic government, however, since facilitates interdepartmental checking while the people hold the power, through their promoting mature deliberation. Their aim was to representatives, to amend the Constitution. create a decent and competent democracy, something The paradigm of constitutional government beyond mere non-tyrannical government. They embraced by the American people in 1787, that is, placed the whole of the government, and even the limited government based on the consent of the people, under constitutional limitations. The people and committed to the protection of Constitution is the supreme law of the land, not fundamental rights, has become the dominant model the enactments of Congress or the order of the throughout the world. The rhetoric of rights, whether president or the momentary will of the people. As couched in the language of natural rights or human Chief Justice Marshall declared in Marbury v. rights, is universally appealing. Also universally Madison (1803), “The distinction between a accepted is the argument that rights are most secure government with limited and unlimited powers is when governmental powers are limited in scope abolished, if those limits do not confine the persons and subject to internal and external checks. on whom they are imposed, and if acts prohibited David E. Marion, Ph.D. and acts allowed, are of equal obligation.” Even the Hampden-Sydney College
Suggestions for Further Reading Frohnen, Bruce (ed.). The American Republic: Primary Sources. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2002. Kurland, Philip B. and Ralph Lerner (eds.) The Founders’ Constitution. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1987. Mansfield, Harvey C., Jr. Taming the Prince. New York: The Free Press, 1989. McDonald, Forrest. A Constitutional History of the United States. New York: Franklin Watts, 1982. Storing, Herbert J. What the Anti-Federalists Were For. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981. Wood, Gordon. The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787. New York: W.W. Norton, 1969. © The Bill of Rights Institute
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© The Bill of Rights Institute laws thatboundthemthrough two institutions: thesubjects toallowing express their power by and limited arbitrary preserved liberty were anEnglishman’s “Birthright.”Property” and “Liberty of theserights theday, language of used In thewidely Violence andOppression.” “to befreed inPerson &Estate from Arbitrary For Penn, andproperty. subjectwas meantthatevery rights these English liberty, life, thoseof law: by common orprivileges had three rights central Englishmen all According to Penn, rights. of view thiscommon-law of summaries contemporary offered onethebest Pennsylvania, founder of the William Penn, the late seventeenth century, in In dissenters aguideforreligious written rights. influenced common by English law anditsideaof the seventeenth centuries wasdeeply andeighteenth the colonistsAmerican in of The politicaltheory of Englishmen The CommonLawandtheRights yearsin thecrucial before theRevolution. political ideasthatinfluenced colonial Americans firstto understandthe itisnecessary created, andthenewConstitution thatthey them possible, theFounders made who events, extraordinary In order to better understandthese political ideas. of grasp afirm with politicalskills practical men whocombined politicians, of generation new would beledby a thecolonies years, crucial In these republican state. federal a trans-continental, and lay thefoundationsfor wageabloody war, declare independence, Britain, of would they challenge thepoliticalcontrol five years, inthenext twenty- Yet, dependent uponLondon. remained they politicallyandeconomically America, North mostof defeat France andtake control of Britain andhadjusthelped century eighteenth inthe growth economic anddemographic hadexperienced significant they Although America. North outalongtheeastern seaboard of strung colonies group of asmall consistedAmerica of whatwasto become theUnited States of In 1760, nPn’ iw h nls ytmo government In system Penn’s of theEnglish view, Explaining theFounding 9: 7A Page AM 37 Introductory Essay: 1 consent to the Executive freeman every ashare“has inthe Penn argued, juries, on By serving power. limitingarbitrary means of common consent agreed oninthatgreat Council.” butsuch asare by England, bind thePeople of becauseitensured that was important “no newLaws consent through Parliament of that thegranting in theLegislative (orLaw making)Power.” Penn felt “the subjecthasashare by hischosen Representatives “Parliaments andJuries.”“By Penn thefirst,” argued, government—protecting asitdidthe “unparallel’d thissystem of and hiscontemporaries, According to Penn protecting these rights. end of consent asthemajormeansto the the concept of It alsoenshrined theirsubjects. of inherent rights according to laws known and by respecting the were kings held thatEnglish boundto rule it As aresult, Englishmen’s andprivileges. rights political power asfundamentally has impos’d or forfeiture.” such apenalty forwhich theLaw orsomeCrime, by hisConsent, but either which hecannotbedeprived of, Estate, hisPerson inhis andProperty as to Freedom of having afixed him, with Fundamental-Right born each man Subject’severy and Duty Allegiance, “the Law isboth themeasure andtheboundof Penn argued, “In England,” By contrast, pleasure.” himat orImprison orbanish, Execute him, hemay eitherpresently any Crime, suspected of onebeaccussed [ andif lists; how andasoften ashe when, seizes amans Estate, or imposethTaxes, any mansHead, Word takes off themeer[ Nations, andother “In France, Penn colorfully putit: rather As system by thatwasruled laws andnotby men. celebrated wasa seventeenth-century Englishmen In Penn’s view, juries were juries In Penn’s anequallyimportant view, h te seto theirgovernment that The otheraspectof hscmo a iwo politicsunderstood This common law of view Explaining theFounding ato h a,n assbigtid nor noCausesbeingtried, theLaw, of part ilo h rnei a,his thePrince isLaw, sic] Will of Englishmen. Priviledges vital were “the Liberty” English Pillars of two grand “These Penn, hisPeers of butuponthe Estate, [ any manadjudgedto loose ie memberor sic] Life, ,orbutsomuch as sic], rEul. For or Equals.” Fundamental limited ”of [sic]” Verdict by 1001- 01 0 onesIto7/17/04 Intro Founders 005 protecting rights. thesenatural governments of were forthesolepurpose formed that allmenby nature thatargued politicaltheory new understandingof Europeanimportant thinkers beganto construct a several Hugowriter Grotius intheearly1600s, theDutch with Beginning Founders. American the profoundly influentialonthepoliticalideas of onethatwasto prove European politicalthought, arevolutionThe seventeenth in witnessed century Natural Rights asfundamentallaw. legalrights English core thatenshrined rights contained billsof both thestate constitutions andfederal typically As aconsequence, limiting governmental power. forintheseventeenth asameansof fought century had thelegal guarantees thatEnglishmen many of wrote constitutions they thatincluded governments, thecolonists theirown when formed the Revolution, After theirconsent inthe1760sand1770s. without Parliament’s attempt to forthem taxorlegislate these ideascanbeseenintheirstrong oppositionto thepeople. of thefundamentalliberties violating rulers government of thatlimited thepossibility of consequent desire to create aconstitutional form power anda arbitrary This Founders astrong fear of instilledinthe history English rights. awareness of subjects’ of law andthesanctity of rule unwritten constitution the inEngland’shad enshrined believed thatit They history. as akey momentinEnglish 1688 RevolutionGlorious of inthe rights) subjects’ the representative of Parliament (which subsequent of triumph thedefeatof viewed century Colonial intheeighteenth Americans limited by law. shouldbe amonarch, even thatof all politicalpower, drew onthecommonEnglishmen law to arguethat many In response, rights. threatened theirsubjects’ hadrepeatedly kings a timewhentheStuart intheseventeenth England century, of thehistory of Thislegaleducationalsomadethemaware world. for elitesAnglo-American intheeighteenth-century thatwascommon through thelegaltraining rights than any otherPeople inthe World.” nation made theEnglish “more free andhappy andProperty”—had Liberty [sic]of Priviledge The seriousness with which thecolonists with took The seriousness English The Founders of imbibedthisview Founders andtheConstitution: InTheirOwnWords—VolumeFounders 1 a qa ihs andthat had equalrights, 9: 7A Page AM 37 the Stuarts andthe the Stuarts The politicaltheoryofthe American colonists intheseventeenth and eighteenth centuries was deeplyeighteenth centuries influenced by Englishcommon was seenas a n itsideaofrights. and law 2 elrto fIdpnec:“We holdthese Independence: of Declaration As hesoeloquentlyarguedinthe founding. thatthesepoliticalideashadonthe the impact to resist Britain. hadaright argue thatthey tocommon law theory andLockean rights natural invoked patriots American boththe consent, their and 1770sto forthem without legislate Parliament theBritish inthe1760s the claimsof When faced with theFounders. of political theory common to law shapethe rights the olderideaof government by consent combined powerfully with Its freedom emphasisonindividual and sermons. and newspapers, numerous politicalpamphlets, in appearing colonies century, intheeighteenth inthe American politicaltheory component of belonged to thepeopleandnotto theking. meant thatultimate politicalauthority theory political revolutionary This devising. their own popular sovereignty to create anew government of join together andexercise theircollective or could They then theirrights. itviolated if authority to resist its thepeoplehadaright government, because itwasthepeoplewhohadcreated the Locke arguedthat, further would bebetter secured. government inorder rights thattheirnatural nature gathered together andconsented to create a meninthisstate of As aresult, men. wherein allthepower is andjurisdiction equality, nature was “a state alsoof thestate of Locke, For any otherman.” of depending uponthewill or askingleave, without nature, thelaw of bounds of the within thinkfit, asthey possessions andpersons, their anddisposeof freedom to order theiractions, perfect astate of andthatis, men are in, naturally state what all we must consider, from itsoriginal, “and derive it Locke wrote, political power right,” “To understand IIandhisbrother James. Charles to resistance justifyarmed topolitical theory Locke wrote abookon inthe1670sand1680s, kings Deeply involved intheoppositionto theStuart world wasJohnEnglish-speaking Locke (1632–1704). Thomas Jefferson offersthe best example of becameacentral rights natural This ideaof inthe thistheory The leadingproponent of regulate disputes among judgeorumpire toimpartial that italsolacked an Locke contended freedom, perfect nature wasastate of pregovernmental state of more thananother.” noonehaving reciprocal, Although this Although
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© The Bill of Rights Institute new federal Constitutionnew federal in1787. the This methodwasto influence theauthorsof which wasnotchangeable legislation. by ordinary secure theminaconstitution by enshrining rights itmade thepeople’s natural In particular, practice. philosopherslike Locke to beputinto ideas of This innovationAmerican allowed the ratification. followed by aprocess of aconstitution, writing convention convened of solelyforthe purpose aspecial power to constitute governments: people themselves could exercise theirsovereign Massachusetts created amechanism by which the separate church andstate. andfully endfemalelegalinequality, franchise, wider arguefora invoke theseidealsto challenge slavery, downtrodden groups beganto aspreviously society become apparent inpostrevolutionary American would slowlythis insistence rights onequalnatural implicationsof radical The happiness andsafety.” andpursuingobtaining possessing property, and acquiring themeansof with life andliberty, theenjoyment of namely, or divest theirposterity; deprive by any compact, cannot, they society, enter whenthey into a state of which, of inherent rights, andhave certain equally free andindependent, “All menare by nature stated inthe document’s firstsection: (1776), Rights Virginia Bill of theinfluential authorof theprincipal Mason, As George rights. natural constitutions thatprotected establishingwritten and onthepeople, authority basing their practice, into this newpoliticaltheory All thestate governments put yearsthe crucial after 1776. politicalevents in course of Happiness.” shall seemmostlikely and to effecttheirSafety asto them organizing itspowers insuch form, and laying itsfoundationson such principles andto institute newGovernment, abolish it, thePeople to alter or of itistheRight these ends, Government becomes destructive of any Form of whenever That thegoverned, from theconsent of theirjustpowers deriving instituted amongMen, Governments are That to secure theserights, Happiness. andthepursuitof Liberty are Life, thatamongthese unalienableRights, certain with are thatthey endowed by theirCreator equal, menare all created that to beself-evident, truths n18,udrteifuneo John Adams, undertheinfluence of In 1780, alsoinfluenced the rights natural This ideaof 9: 7A Page AM 37 3 American colonies American component ofpoliticaltheoryinthe Natural becameacentral rights numerous politicalpamphlets, esaes andsermons. newspapers, appearing in ...,appearing Puritan Cotton Mather sarcastically remarked, As the all andhadnostate-supported church. which offered toleration religious to Rhode Island, Williams establishedthecolony of the Puritans, Forced to flee by coercion. not betheproduct of faithcouldchallenged themandarguedthattrue dissenters like Roger Williams prohibited, would be where unorthodox belief religious attempted to setupanintolerant commonwealth Puritans intheseventeenth hadoriginally century the Although colonies in English America. tolerationreligious resonated powerfully inthe things.” Judgment have thatthey of formed such Efficacyasto make Men change theinward thatnature canhave any Imprisonment, nothingof Estate, Torments, Confiscation of force. any thingby outward of be compell’d to thebelief thatitcannot theUnderstanding, is thenature of And such which nothingcanbeacceptable to God. in theinward perswasion[ andsaving Religion consists buttrue outward force; hisPower because consists onlyin Civil Magistrate, Soulscannotbelongto the care of As heputit:“The conscience thatnogovernment could infringe. of which hecontended thatthere right was anatural Concerningpublished in1689ALetter Toleration, Locke earlierwriters, Building onthework of ideas. thesenew played amajorrole inthedevelopment of the attempts to enforce beliefsinEurope religious itwasdangerous because required belief; voluntary faith It wasunjustbecausetrue dangerous. insisted thatsuch coercion wasbothunjustand they Rather, worship. to conform of to oneform governments shouldnotattempt to force individuals thinkers andEurope inbothEngland arguedthat afew Protestants thatfollowed theReformation, bloody warsbetween religious Catholicsand the As aresult of church andstate. of separation toleration andthe arguments forreligious European wastheemergence of politicaltheory A related development inseventeenth-century Separation ofChurchandState Religious Toleration andthe hs da bu h ihso conscience and of These ideasabouttherights Explaining theFounding philosopher John Locke peacecivil andprosperity. theresult would be belief, ceased to enforce religious governments argued thatif These thinkers further butto war. civil uniformity, had lednotto religious fteMn,without theMind, sic] of Once againtheEnglish in 1001- 01 0 onesIto7/17/04 Intro Founders 005 constitutional system basedonpopularconsent. to anew craft sought asthey century eighteenth modelforthe Foundersimportant inthelate constitution provided andthey an written of type These settlercovenants were anearly documents. alsowroteAmericans Founding theirown thatgoverned colonies,instructions theEnglish building. nation requisite experience forthedifficulttaskof political classinthe the coloniesAmerican with government to alsohelped create anindigenous self- Thislong-standingpractice of after 1776. independent republican governments intheyears which theFounders were ableto create viable in each colony thespeedwith alsoexplains inpart consent to alllaws thatbound them. exercised common to theirEnglish law right In thesecolonial assembliesthey Parliament. assemblies thatwere modeledontheEnglish had governed themselves to alargeextent inlocal (unlikeAmericas theFrench andSpanish colonies) colonies inthe theEnglish mostof century, Since theirfoundingintheearlyseventeenth colonial self-government. the longexperience of wasalsodeeplyinfluenced by century eighteenth theFounders inthelate The politicalthinkingof Colonial Self-Government Constitution.federal the to First Amendment well asmostfamouslyin the as the state constitutions, inmany of right as aformal itwasenshrined Revolution, After the century. eighteenth by thelate political theory American element of had become animportant the government shouldnotenforce belief religious theideathat As aresult, receptiveparticularly to them. proved becoming ever more pluralistic, religiously the colonies,American speaking Protestant world, toleration spreadreligious throughout theEnglish- thetime. the standard of freedom religious by degree of an extraordinary bothprovided and foundedinthe1680s, Pennsylvania, foundedinthe1630s, Maryland, addition, In but Roman Catholicsandreal Christians.” Rhode Island contained “everything intheworld In charters additionto androyal thevarious thesestrong localgovernments The existence of astheseargumentsfor In century, theeighteenth Founders andtheConstitution: InTheirOwnWords—VolumeFounders 1 9: 7A Page AM 37 yraigtecasc,the American By reading theclassics, lent oiia iin onethat politicalvision, alternate Founders were introducedtoan legitimated republicanism.legitimated 4 odo thewhole(the good of Citizens hadto beableto putthe their citizenry. in virtue civic degree of ahigh survival their very republics required for people governed themselves, arguedthatbecausethe they In particular, its fragility. were they intensely aware of government, of believed thatarepublicwriters wasthebestform ancient Though liberty. foundationsof moral republicanism wastheemphasisthatitputon republicanism. onethatlegitimized to analternate politicalvision, the FoundersAmerican were introduced classics, By reading the believed inmonarchy. strongly againstroyal rights power defended subjects’ from Aristotle to Cicero republican hadpraised Ancient politicalthinkers government by thepeople. or republicanism, it introduced themto theideaof First, ways. inseveral important thought ancientGreece andRome. of historians thegreat politicalthinkers and of writings were they heavily influenced by the century, education incolonial colleges intheeighteenth theFounders received aclassical many of Because intheseventeenthoriginated century. Not theintellectual influences all ontheFounders Classical Republicanism the Founders alsoencountered republican ideasin proposed Constitution federal inthe1780s. animated thecontentious debate over the largerepublics that about theweakness of itwasthisclassicalteaching In part, forthcoming. be virtue civic degree of would thenecessary argued, they relatively homogeneoussociety, Onlyinasmalland republics hadto besmall. that alsotaught ancientwriters citizenry, virtuous would ultimately belost. andliberty ambition, power and republic would fallprey to menof the failedto they do this, If privateown interests. h eodlgc fthisclassicalideaof The second legacyof political theFounders’ shaped Antiquity nadto oterraigo ancientauthors, In additionto theirreading of thisneedforanexceptionally As aresult of common law who jurists where even the England, eighteenth-century culture of heavily monarchical political grounds to dissentfrom the Founders asitgave them forthe was important This classical politicalthought political system. self-government asthebest ha ftheir res publica)aheadof
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© The Bill of Rights Institute the radical the radical Whigs arguedthatitwasbothcorrupt government possible, of seeing itasthebestform Instead of constitution. British eighteenth-century the of critique Founders animportant with rights. individual of the importance insistence andthemodern on citizenry virtuous one thatcombined theancientconcern a with republicanism to enter politicalthought, American of conduit type foramodern important thus becamean They popular sovereignty. and rights natural the newer Lockean ideasof Whigs combined classicalrepublican with thought theseradical fortheFounding, Crucially world. government inthe monarchy of wasthebestform believed thattheirconstitutionalEnglishmen Civil the English War atatimewhenmost keptThese writers alive therepublican legacyof calledthe eighteenth- writers English century “radical Whigs.” agroup of of the politicaltheory ukr,Michael. Zuckert, ostr Clinton. Rossiter, ed John Phillip. Reid, uz Donald. Lutz, Bernard. Bailyn, Suggestions Reading for Further These radical These radical Whigs alsoprovided the ok acutBae 1953. Harcourt Brace, York: 1994. 1995. Wisconsin Press, University of iet ud 1998. Fund, Liberty rs,1967. Press, 2: 8P Page PM 28 Colonial Origins of the American Constitution: A Documentary History. the American Constitution: A Documentary of Colonial Origins h dooia rgn fthe American Revolution. of Origins The Ideological edieo h eulc h rgn fteAeia rdto fPolitical Liberty. the American Tradition of of theRepublic: The Origins of Seedtime Natural Rights andtheNew Republicanism. h osiuinlHsoyo the American Revolution. of History The Constitutional 5 rneo,NJ:Princeton University Press, N.J.: Princeton, tde ftheFounders themselves. studies of followed by detailedbiographical political theory, theFounders’ of aspects important examination of we now to turn amore detailed the Founding, Having setthisbroad context for church andstate. of andtheseparation popularsovereignty, consent, republicanism in basedonequalrights, America Founders were ableto create anewkindof the theseintellectual onall traditions, Drawing Conclusion century. republicanismAmerican inthelate eighteenth influence onthedevelopment of was animportant classically inspired radical Whig constitutionalism This the executive from branch thelegislature. of constitution separation andaformal a written for called they order to reform it, In and tyrannical. abig,Ms. Harvard University Mass.: Cambridge, Explaining theFounding bigdEiin aio:The Madison: Abridged Edition. nvriyo aiona Los Angeles California, University of ninpls Ind.: Indianapolis, New ri iuh Ph.D. Craig Yirush, 19 180-186 Founders EM 7/17/04 11:03 AM Page 180
ADDITIONAL CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
Visual Assessment 1. Founders Posters—Have students create posters for either an individual Founder, a group of Founders, or an event. Ask them to include at least one quotation (different from classroom posters that accompany this volume) and one image. 2. Coat of Arms—Draw a coat of arms template and divide into 6 quadrants (see example). Photocopy and hand out to the class. Ask them to create a coat of arms for a particular Founder with a different criterion for each quadrant (e.g., occupation, key contribution, etc.). Include in the assignment an explanation sheet in which they describe why they chose certain colors, images, and symbols. 3. Individual Illustrated Timeline—Ask each student to create a visual timeline of at least ten key points in the life of a particular Founder. In class, put the students in groups and have them discuss the intersections and juxtapositions in each of their timelines. 4. Full Class Illustrated Timeline—Along a full classroom wall, tape poster paper in one long line. Draw in a middle line and years (i.e., 1760, 1770, 1780, etc.). Put students in pairs and assign each pair one Founder. Ask them to put together ten key points in the life of the Founder. Have each pair draw in the key points on the master timeline. 5. Political Cartoon—Provide students with examples of good political cartoons, contemporary or historical. A good resource for finding historical cartoons on the Web is
Performance Assessments 1. Meeting of the Minds—Divide the class into five groups and assign a Founder to each group. Ask the group to discuss the Founder’s views on a variety of pre- determined topics. Then, have a representative from each group come to the front of the classroom and role-play as the Founder, dialoguing with Founders from other groups. The teacher will act as moderator, reading aloud topic questions (based on the pre-determined topics given to the groups) and encouraging discussion from the students in character. At the teacher’s discretion, questioning can be opened up to the class as a whole. For advanced students, do not provide a list of topics—ask them to know their character well enough to present him properly on all topics. 2. Create a Song or Rap—Individually or in groups, have students create a song or rap about a Founder based on a familiar song, incorporating at least five key events or ideas of the Founder in their project. Have students perform their song in class. (Optional: Ask the students to bring in a recording of the song for background music.)
Web/Technology Assessments 1. Founders PowerPoint Presentation—Divide students into groups. Have each group create a PowerPoint presentation about a Founder or event. Determine the number of slides, and assign a theme to each slide (e.g., basic biographic information, major contributions, political philosophy, quotations, repercussions of the event, participants in the event, etc.). Have them hand out copies of the slides and give the presentation to the class. You may also ask for a copy of the
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presentation to give you the opportunity to combine all the presentations into an end-of-semester review. 2. Evaluate Web sites—Have students search the Web for three sites related to a Founder or the Founding period (you may provide them with a “start list” from the resource list at the end of each lesson). Create a Web site evaluation sheet that includes such questions as: Are the facts on this site correct in comparison to other sites? What sources does this site draw on to produce its information? Who are the main contributors to this site? When was the site last updated? Ask students to grade the site according to the evaluation sheet and give it a grade for reliability, accuracy, etc. They should write a 2–3 sentence explanation for their grade. 3. Web Quest—Choose a Web site(s) on the Constitution, Founders, or Founding period. (See suggestions below.) Go to the Web site(s) and create a list of questions taken from various pages within the site. Provide students with the Web address and list of questions, and ask them to find answers to the questions on the site, documenting on which page they found their answer. Web site suggestions: • The Avalon Project
Verbal Assessments 1. Contingency in History—In a one-to-two page essay, have students answer the question, “How would history have been different if [Founder] had not been born?” They should consider repercussions for later events in the political world. 2. Letters Between Founders—Ask students to each choose a “Correspondence Partner” and decide which two Founders they will be representing. Have them read the appropriate Founders essays and primary source activities. Over a period of time, the pair should then write at least three letters back and forth (with a copy being given to the teacher for review and feedback). Instruct them to be mindful of their Founders’ tone and writing style, life experience, and political views in constructing the letters. 3. Categorize the Founders—Create five categories for the Founders (e.g., slave- holders vs. non-slaveholders, northern vs. southern, opponents of the Constitution vs. proponents of the Constitution, etc.) and a list of Founders studied. Ask students to place each Founder in the appropriate category. For advanced students, ask them to create the five categories in addition to categorizing the Founders. 4. Obituaries and Gravestones—Have students write a short obituary or gravestone engraving that captures the major accomplishments of a Founder (e.g., Thomas Jefferson’s gravestone). Ask them to consider for what the Founder wished to be remembered. 5. “I Am” Poem—Instruct students to select a Founder and write a poem that refers to specific historical events in his life (number of lines at the teacher’s discretion).
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ADDITIONAL CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
Each line of the poem must begin with “I” (i.e., “I am…,”“I wonder…,”“I see…,” etc.). Have them present their poem with an illustration of the Founder. 6. Founder’s Journal—Have students construct a journal of a Founder at a certain period in time. Ask them to pick out at least five important days. In the journal entry, make sure they include the major events of the day, the Founder’s feelings about the events, and any other pertinent facts (e.g., when writing a journal about the winter at Valley Forge, Washington may have included information about the troops’ morale, supplies, etc.). 7. Résumé for a Founder—Ask students to create a resume for a particular Founder. Make sure they include standard resume information (e.g., work experience, education, skills, accomplishments/honors, etc.). You can also have them research and bring in a writing sample (primary source) to accompany the resume. 8. Cast of Characters—Choose an event in the Founding Period (e.g., the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the debate about the Constitution in a state ratifying convention, etc.) and make a list of individuals related to the incident. Tell students that they are working for a major film studio in Hollywood that has decided to make a movie about this event. They have been hired to cast actors for each part. Have students fill in your list of individuals with actors/actresses (past or present) with an explanation of why that particular actor/actress was chosen for the role. (Ask the students to focus on personality traits, previous roles, etc.)
Review Activities 1. Founders Jeopardy—Create a Jeopardy board on an overhead sheet or handout (six columns and five rows). Label the column heads with categories and fill in all other squares with a dollar amount. Make a sheet that corresponds to the Jeopardy board with the answers that you will be revealing to the class. (Be sure to include Daily Doubles.) a. Possible categories may include: • Thomas Jefferson (or the name of any Founder) • Revolutionary Quirks (fun Founders facts) • Potpourri (miscellaneous) • Pen is Mightier (writings of the Founders) b. Example answers: • This Founder drafted and introduced the first formal proposal for a permanent union of the thirteen colonies. Question: Who is Benjamin Franklin? • This Founder was the only Roman Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence. Question: Who is Charles Carroll? 2. Who Am I?—For homework, give each student a different Founder essay. Ask each student to compile a list of five-to-ten facts about his/her Founder. In class, ask individuals to come to the front of the classroom and read off the facts one at a time, prompting the rest of the class to guess the appropriate Founder. 3. Around the World—Develop a list of questions about the Founders and plot a “travel route” around the classroom in preparation for this game. Ask one student to volunteer to go first. The student will get up from his/her desk and “travel” along the route plotted to an adjacent student’s desk, standing next to it. Read a question aloud, and the first student of the two to answer correctly advances to the next stop on the travel route. Have the students keep track of how many places they advance. Whoever advances the furthest wins.
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AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY GLOSSARY
Common Good: General conditions that are equally to everyone’s advantage. In a republic, held to be superior to the good of the individual, though its attainment ought never to violate the natural rights of any individual.
Democracy: From the Greek, demos, meaning “rule of the people.” Had a negative connotation among most Founders, who equated the term with mob rule. The Founders considered it to be a form of government into which poorly-governed republics degenerated.
English Rights: Considered by Americans to be part of their inheritance as Englishmen; included such rights as property, petition, and trials by jury. Believed to exist from time immemorial and recognized by various English charters as the Magna Carta, the Petition of Right of 1628, and the English Bill of Rights of 1689.
Equality: Believed to be the condition of all people, who possessed an equality of rights. In practical matters, restricted largely to land-owning white men during the Founding Era, but the principle worked to undermine ideas of deference among classes.
Faction: A small group that seeks to benefit its members at the expense of the common good. The Founders discouraged the formation of factions, which they equated with political parties.
Federalism: A political system in which power is divided between two levels of government, each supreme in its own sphere. Intended to avoid the concentration of power in the central government and to preserve the power of local government.
Government: Political power fundamentally limited by citizens’ rights and privileges. This limiting was accomplished by written charters or constitutions and bills of rights.
Happiness: The ultimate end of government. Attained by living in liberty and by practicing virtue.
Inalienable Rights: Rights that can never justly be taken away.
Independence: The condition of living in liberty without being subject to the unjust rule of another.
Liberty: To live in the enjoyment of one’s rights without dependence upon anyone else. Its enjoyment led to happiness.
Natural Rights: Rights individuals possess by virtue of their humanity. Were thought to be “inalienable.” Protected by written constitutions and bills of rights that restrained government.
Property: Referred not only to material possessions, but also to the ownership of one’s body and rights. Jealously guarded by Americans as the foundation of liberty during the
crisis with Britain. © The Bill of Rights Institute
Founders and the Constitution: In Their Own Words—Volume 2 18 164-165 Found2 Glos 9/13/07 11:28 AM Page 165
Reason: Human intellectual capacity and rationality. Believed by the Founders to be the defining characteristic of humans, and the means by which they could understand the world and improve their lives.
Religious Toleration: The indulgence shown to one religion while maintaining a privileged position for another. In pluralistic America, religious uniformity could not be enforced so religious toleration became the norm.
Representation: Believed to be central to republican government and the preservation of liberty. Citizens, entitled to vote, elect officials who are responsible to them, and who govern according to the law.
Republic: From the Latin, res publica, meaning “the public things.”A government system in which power resides in the people who elect representatives responsible to them and who govern according to the law. A form of government dedicated to promoting the common good. Based on the people, but distinct from a democracy.
Separation of Church and State: The doctrine that government should not enforce religious belief. Part of the concept of religious toleration and freedom of conscience.
Separation of Powers/Checks and Balances: A way to restrain the power of government by balancing the interests of one section of government against the competing interests of another section. A key component of the federal Constitution. A means of slowing down the operation of government, so it did not possess too much energy and thus endanger the rights of the people.
Slavery: Referred both to chattel slavery and political slavery. Politically, the fate that befell those who did not guard their rights against governments. Socially and economically, an institution that challenged the belief of the Founders in natural rights.
Taxes: Considered in English tradition to be the free gift of the people to the government. Americans refused to pay them without their consent, which meant actual representation in Parliament.
Tyranny: The condition in which liberty is lost and one is governed by the arbitrary will of another. Related to the idea of political slavery.
Virtue: The animating principle of a republic and the quality essential for a republic’s survival. From the Latin, vir, meaning “man.” Referred to the display of such “manly” traits as courage and self-sacrifice for the common good. © The Bill of Rights Institute
An Eighteenth-Century Glossary 18 162-179 Founders AK 7/20/04 7:24 AM Page 164
ANSWER KEY
2. Context president (or president-general) must a. The document was written in execute the laws. 1754. Differences: Under the Albany Plan, the b. It was written in Albany, New president-general has an absolute veto York. (i.e., acts of the Grand Council cannot c. Benjamin Franklin wrote the become law without his approval). document. Under the Constitution, the president d. The document is a primary has a limited veto (i.e., even if the presi- source—a plan of government. dent disapproves of the measure, the e. Franklin wrote the plan to propose Congress can still enact a bill into law a design of union of the colonies. by a two-thirds vote of each house). f. The American colonists and the 4. Similarities: Both the president and the British government were the president-general make treaties with audience for the plan. the advice of the legislature. They also appoint military officers with the Handout C—Benjamin Franklin consent of the legislature. Differences: Under the Albany Plan, and the Albany Plan of Union the president-general does not need the 1: Similarities: Both documents propose approval of the Grand Council to make a stronger union of the colonies in a war and treaties. Under the Constitu- federal system. The colonies/states tion, the president needs two thirds of retain certain powers in each system. the senators to approve a treaty he has Differences: The Albany Plan creates a made. The Congress is given the power central government among the colonies to declare war, though the President is for the first time, whereas the Consti- commander-in-chief of the armed tution aims to strengthen the existing forces of the United States. general government (“to form a more 5. Similarities: Both central governments perfect Union”). are given the power to tax. Taxes should 2. Similarities: Both documents create an be just. executive and a legislative branch. Under Differences: There are no significant the Albany Plan, the members of the differences here. Grand Council, like the members of the Senate created by the Constitution, are chosen by the colonial/state legislatures. Elbridge Gerry Differences: The Albany Plan creates a unicameral (one-house) legislature, Handout A—Elbridge Gerry elected every three years. The Consti- (1744–1814) tution creates a bicameral (two-house) 1. Gerry signed the Declaration of legislature, the House members being Independence and the Articles of chosen every two years and the senators Confederation. every six. House members are elected 2. Gerry announced that he could not sign directly by the people, unlike the the Constitution. He believed it would members of the Grand Council, who create a too-powerful central govern- are chosen by the colonial assemblies. ment. Despite his refusal to approve the 3. Similarities: Both legislatures meet at document, Gerry did not speak against least once a year. Under both plans, it. He believed the Constitution was nec- the executive and legislature have a essary to prevent the union of the states role in the lawmaking process. The from falling apart. During the ratifica- tion debates in Massachusetts, he argued
Founders and the Constitution: In Their Own Words—Volume 1 18 162-179 Founders AK 7/20/04 7:37 AM Page 165
Answer Key
that the state should approve the Example B: Federalists are favored in 8 Constitution only on the condition out of 10 districts. that amendments would be added as • Federalist Districts = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 soon as possible. • Republican Districts = 8, 10
3. During his second term as governor of R 5 Massachusetts, Gerry approved a redis- F R F R F F F 9 F R R R 6 tricting plan that gave an electoral R R R F R R advantage to Republicans. One of the 10 F R F R 8 R RF R R R R 7 R R F F F districts resembled a salamander, so F F F F 4 F F Federalists termed the practice 3 F R 2 F F R F 1 R “gerrymandering.” F F F 4. Answers will vary. Students could men- tion the X, Y, Z Affair and Gerry’s decision to stay behind in France after Patrick Henry he and his fellow delegates were asked to bribe French officials. This led to criti- Handout A—Patrick Henry cism of him by Federalists. Students (1736–1799) could also mention Governor Gerry’s 1. Saying he “smelled a rat,” Henry attempt to ensure the election of Repub- feared that the meeting was a plot by licans to the state senate through the tactic the powerful to construct a strong of “gerrymandering.”The unpopular- central government of which they ity of this tactic contributed to Gerry’s would be the masters. defeat in the next election for governor. 2. Henry warned that the new Constitution 5. Answers will vary. In regard to politics, would create a “consolidated” govern- students should mention that Gerry ment in which power would be con- was active in the patriot movement and centrated in the hands of a few. The sympathetic to the idea of independence. document did not provide for adequate In regard to personality, students should checks and balances and therefore did mention that Gerry was a stubborn and not protect the people against evil rulers. difficult man who lacked a sense of It gave the central government the humor and seemed to enjoy arguing. dangerous power of direct taxation. It Handout B—By His Own Hand: created a standing army, which a power-hungry president could use to Elbridge Gerry and Gerrymandering awe the people into submission. It Below are two examples of how students also lacked a bill of rights. could draw district boundaries so as to 3. He disliked Thomas Jefferson and James favor one party. Madison, the founders of the party. Example A: Republicans are favored in 7 Also, as a devout Christian, Henry was out of 10 districts. disgusted by the party’s approval of the • Federalist Districts = 1, 2, 3 atheistic French Revolution. • Republican Districts = 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 4. In both cases, Henry questioned the right
R of the British government to interfere in 6 R F F F R F R F F Virginia’s affairs. In the Parson’s Cause, R 9 8 R R R F Henry denounced the king’s repeal of R 5 R R F R F R 7 R F the Two-Penny Act as “an instance of R R R 4 R R R 10 R F F F FF F misrule” and perhaps tyranny. During F 2 F F F R the Stamp Act Crisis, Henry asserted 3 F F R F 1 R F that “the General Assembly of this F F
Answer Key