Did We Form a Stable Government?

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Did We Form a Stable Government? C3 INQUIRY: GEORGE WASHINGTON STUDY: DID WE FORM A STABLE GOVERNMENT? AP US History Constitutional Convention Inquiry Did We Form A Stable Government? Photo Credit: George Washington’s Mount Vernon Supporting Questions 1. What beliefs did the delegates bring to Philadelphia? 2. What kind of structure is needed to form a government? 3. How did the delegates balance their regional interests with national interests? 4. What was the role of compromise in the Constitutional Convention? 1 C3 INQUIRY: GEORGE WASHINGTON STUDY: DID WE FORM A STABLE GOVERNMENT? Inquiry Blueprint Did we form a stable government? (290-350 minutes) Standards 2015 Virginia Standards of Learning: VUS..5b, VUS.5c Staging the Discuss situations in the present or past where people have moderated or overseen groups in which people Compelling Question disagree in a way that leads to an agreement. Supporting Question 1 Supporting Question 2 Supporting Question 3 Supporting Question 4 What beliefs did the What kind of structure is How did the delegates What was the role of delegates bring to needed to form a balance their regional compromise in the Philadelphia? government? interests with national Constitutional Convention? interests? Formative Formative Formative Formative Performance Task Performance Task Performance Task Performance Task Create a resume of Create a plan for the structure Develop a counter response Participate in a simulation of assigned delegate, of the new government to to each part of the plan and the Constitutional Convention. including biographical present to the convention, prepare counter arguments. information, positions on addressing the issues of pertinent issues and representation, slavery, the potential allies. executive branch, and commerce and taxation. Featured Sources Featured Sources Featured Sources Featured Sources Source 1: Brief Source 1: Montesquieu, The Source 1: Population of the Source 1: Roberts Rules of Biographies of Delegates Spirit of the Law, 1748 United States Map Order (eXcerpts) Source 2: Economic Source 2: 1790 United States Source 2: Roberts Rules of Interests of the Delegates Source 2: Articles of Census Data Order (Cheat Sheet) Confederation Source 3: Day to Day Source 3: Map of Big vs Small Summary of the Source 3: The Virginia Plan States Convention (eXcerpts) Source 4: Map of Slave Source 4: James Source 4: The New Jersey Plan Population Madison’s Notes of the (eXcerpts) Debates Source 5: The Connecticut Compromise Source 6: 1790 United States Census Data Source 7: Population of the United States Map Source 8: Colonial Economies Summative Construct an argument (e.g. detailed outline, poster, or essay) that addresses the compelling question, using Performance Task specific claims and relevant evidence from historic sources while acknowledging competing views. Understand: Identify an unresolved issue or problem facing legislators today. Taking Informed Assess: Determine how legislators have or have not dealt with this issue in an appropriate manner. Action Act: Write a letter to a congressional or state representative about how they might compromise on the selected issue. C3 INQUIRY: GEORGE WASHINGTON STUDY: DID WE FORM A STABLE GOVERNMENT? Staging the Compelling Question – The Hook (Suggested Time 40-60 minutes) Source 1: Articles of Confederation, March 1, 1781 (excerpt) Featured Source(s) Source 2: John Jay to George Washington, March 16, 1786 INSTRUCTIONS/PROCESS FOR THE COMPELLING QUESTION: *Note: Students should have some basic background instruction on the Articles of Confederation and the Convention, whether through watching video clips from George Washington’s Mount Vernon, textbook reading, teacher delivered information, or by reading the first two sections of the introduction on Teaching American History’s Constitutional Convention page (http://teachingamericanhistory.org/convention). See Appendix A for a short “Background Information for Teachers”. 1. Begin with asking students to discuss in small groups the definition of a “stable government” and use their knowledge to come up with some modern examples. 2. Use the discussion and examples to come up with some characteristics of a stable government. 3. Inform students that they should look for those characteristics as they read the Articles of Confederation excerpt. Students should underline or highlight, or make a list of examples. 4. Discuss/debate whether the Articles of Confederation were a stable government or not, based on the characteristics identified in Step 2. Ask students if they need to alter their list of characteristics, or if they believe the Articles are a stable government. 5. Have students read and examine the 16 March 1786 letter from Jay to Washington asking Washington to come to the Convention 6. Watch videos as a class to provide students with background information a. A More Perfect Union Video: http://www.mountvernon.org/site/animated-washington/a- more-perfect-union/ i. Chapter 1: Securing the Peace (6:43’) ii. Chapter 2: The Convention (6:39’) b. What was Washington’s role at the Constitutional Convention? http://www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/constitutional-convention/ (2’) or https://vimeo.com/200002898 7. Begin to examine the set-up of the Convention with a class discussion: a. How did Washington help create the environment for conversation to happen? b. What type of environment is needed in order to create a new government? c. Why would they want Washington to come to the Convention? d. Why would the delegates nominate and choose him to be the President of the Convention? e. How do you think Washington would lead the convention? f. Why was secrecy so important during the duration of the Convention? C3 INQUIRY: GEORGE WASHINGTON STUDY: DID WE FORM A STABLE GOVERNMENT? Featured Sources: FEATURED SOURCE 1 Articles of Confederation: March 1, 1781 (excerpt) Articles of Confederation, March 1, 1781 To all to whom these Presents shall come, we the undersigned Delegates of the States affixed to our Names send greeting. Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union between the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts-bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. I. The Stile of this Confederacy shall be "The United States of America". II. Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled. III. The said States hereby severally [individually] enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other, against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense whatever. IV. The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and intercourse [interactions] among the people of the different States in this Union, the free inhabitants of each of these States, … shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several States; and the people of each State shall free ingress and regress [travel] to and from any other State, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce, subject to the same duties, impositions, and restrictions as the inhabitants thereof respectively, … provided also that no imposition, duties or restriction shall be laid by any State, on the property of the United States, or either of them. If any person guilty of, or charged with, treason, felony, or other high misdemeanor in any State, shall flee from justice, and be found in any of the United States, he shall, upon demand of the Governor or executive power of the State from which he fled, be delivered up and removed to the State having jurisdiction of his offense. Full faith and credit shall be given in each of these States to the records, acts, and judicial proceedings of the courts and magistrates of every other State. V. For the most convenient management of the general interests of the United States, delegates shall be annually appointed in such manner as the legislatures of each State shall direct, to meet in Congress on the first Monday in November, in every year, with a power reserved to each State to recall its delegates, or any of them, at any time within the year, and to send others in their stead for the remainder of the year. No State shall be represented in Congress by less than two, nor more than seven members; …nor shall any person, being a delegate, be capable of holding any office under the United States, for which he, or another for his benefit, receives any salary, fees or emolument [compensation] of any kind. … In determining questions in the United States in Congress assembled, each State shall have one vote. … C3 INQUIRY: GEORGE WASHINGTON STUDY: DID WE FORM A STABLE GOVERNMENT? VI. No State, without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, shall send any embassy to, or receive any embassy from, or enter into any conference, agreement, alliance or treaty with any King, Prince or State; nor shall any person holding any office of profit or trust under the United States, or any of them, accept any present, emolument, office or title of any kind whatever from any King, Prince or foreign State; nor shall the United States in Congress assembled, or any of them, grant any title of nobility. No two or more States shall enter into any treaty, confederation or alliance whatever between them, without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, specifying accurately the purposes for which the same is to be entered into, and how long it shall continue. No State shall lay any imposts or duties, which may interfere with any stipulations in treaties, entered into by the United States in Congress assembled, with any King, Prince or State, in pursuance of any treaties already proposed by Congress, to the courts of France and Spain.
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