The Beginnings of American Government
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[ ESSENTIAL QUESTION ] How Much Power Should a Government Have? 2 The Beginnings of American Government World War II 1 14.3 America Enters World War II MAG16_SE12_NA_Topic2.indd 1 4/2/2015 10:30:54 PM Topic 2 The Beginnings of American Government Enduring Understandings • Government in the thirteen colonies was influenced by British ideas, laws, customs, documents, and institutions. • Reaction to British policies and growing colonial unity led to a revolutionary war and ultimately to American independence in the late 1700s. • The government established under the Articles of Confederation had several weaknesses that seriously threatened the future of the new United States. • In 1787, State delegates wrote a new Constitution for the United States that outlined the structure and functions of the government; after vigorous debate and compromises, the new plan of government was ratified. >> Painting of George Washington, the first President of the United States Watch the My Story Video to learn about one of the most important political thinkers in U.S. history, James Madison. Access your digital lessons including: Topic Inquiry • Interactive Reading SavvasRealize.com Notepad • Interactivities • Assessments 39 MAG16_SE_T02.indd 39 27/02/20 4:53 PM 2.1 The American system of government did not suddenly spring into being with the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Nor was it created by the Framers of the Constitution in 1787. Instead, the beginnings of what was to become the United States can be found in the mid-sixteenth century, when explorers, traders, and settlers first >> Ships such as the Mayflower brought made their way to North America. English colonists to North America, where they established governments based on political traditions and ideas from Europe and elsewhere. Flipped Video >> Objectives Explain how constitutional government in Origins of American the United States has been influenced by centuries of political ideas and traditions from England and elsewhere. Political Ideals Analyze the significance of three landmark historical documents to the American system of government. Describe the three types of colonies that Origins of American the English established in North America and explain why they are important to the study of Constitutional Government American government. The French, Dutch, Spanish, Swedes, and others came to explore and settle what would become this nation—and, in the process, >> Key Terms to dominate those Native Americans who were here for centuries limited government George Calvert, before the arrival of the first Europeans. It was the English, however, representative Lord Baltimore who came in the largest numbers. And it was the English who soon government William Penn controlled the 13 colonies that stretched for some 1,300 miles along the Magna Carta Atlantic seaboard. due process Petition of Right The earliest English settlers brought with them knowledge of a Glorious Revolution political system that had been developing in England for centuries. English Bill of Rights That system included customs, practices, and government institutions. charter English common law, for example, which is unwritten, judge-made bicameral proprietary law developed over centuries, was one integral part of that system. unicameral English constitutionalism, the notion that government leaders are Jamestown subject to the limitations of the law, had also been developing for King John hundreds of years in England. These traditions of common law and King Charles I William and Mary of constitutionalism, like many other major intellectual, philosophical, Orange political, and religious traditions, would later influence the founding King George II of America. SavvasRealize.com Access your Digital Lesson 40 MAG16_SE_T02.indd 40 27/02/20 4:54 PM The origins of many of these fundamental ideas limited government, the idea of “government of, by, and stretch back into ancient times and across many lands. for the people” flourished in America. Thus, the concept of the rule of law that influenced English political ideas, for example, has roots in the IDENTIFY CENTRAL ISSUES In what way did the early civilizations of Africa and Asia. local governments established by the English colonists King Hammurabi of Babylonia, for example, reflect major political ideas and traditions in history? developed a system of laws known as Hammurabi’s Code around 1750 B.C. Jewish legal concepts relating to individual worth, fair trial, and the rule of law were detailed in the Hebrew Bible. The English were quite Influential Documents and familiar with and devoutly attracted to the biblical Ideas concept of the rule of law, the idea that government is These basic notions of ordered, limited, and always subject to, never above, the law. representative government can be traced to ideas that Even more directly, the ancient Romans occupied began to emerge hundreds of years before the English much of England from A.D. 43 to 410. They left behind reached North America, as well as to several landmark a legacy of law, religion, and custom. From this rich documents in English history. political history, the English colonists brought to North America three basic notions that were to loom large in The Magna Carta A group of determined barons the shaping of government in the United States. forced King John to sign the Magna Carta—the Great Charter—at Runnymede in 1215. Weary of John’s Ordered Government The English colonists saw military campaigns and heavy taxes, the barons who the need for an orderly regulation of their relationships prompted the Magna Carta were seeking protection with one another—that is, a need for government. They against heavy-handed and arbitrary acts by the king. created local governments, based on those they had The Magna Carta included guarantees of such known in England. Many of the offices and units of fundamental rights as trial by jury and due process government they established are with us yet today: the of law (protection against the arbitrary taking of life, offices of sheriff and justice of the peace, the grand jury, liberty, or property). Those protections against the counties, and several others. Limited Government The colonists also brought with them the idea that government is restricted in what it Basic Concepts of Government may do. This concept is called limited government, and it was deeply rooted in English belief and practice • Government regulates by the time the first English ships set sail for America. affairs among people. The colonists also believed firmly that every Ordered • Government maintains individual has certain rights—unalienable rights— order and predictability. that government cannot take away. These concepts had been planted in England centuries earlier and • Government is restricted had been developing there for nearly 400 years before in what it may do. Jamestown was settled in 1607. Limited • Every individual has certain Representative Government The early English rights government cannot settlers carried another important concept across the take away. Atlantic: representative government. This idea • Government should serve that government should serve the will of the people had the will of the people. also been developing in England for several centuries. Witht i had come a growing insistence that the people Representative • People should have a should have a voice in deciding what government voice in deciding what should and should not do. As with the concept of government can and cannot do. >> The English settlers brought ideas about government with them to North America. Analyze Charts How is representative government practiced in the United States today? The Beginnings of American Government 41 2.1 Origins of American Political Ideals MAG16_SE12_NA_Topic2.indd 4 4/2/2015 10:30:57 PM absolute power of the king were originally intended charge, without common consent by for the privileged classes only. Over time, however, act of parliament. they became the rights of all English people and were incorporated into other documents. The Magna Carta —Petition of Right established the critical idea that the monarchy’s power The Petition challenged the idea of the divine right was not absolute. of kings, declaring that even a monarch must obey the law of the land. The Petition of Right The Magna Carta was respected by some monarchs and ignored by others for 400 years. The English Bill of Rights In 1689, after years of revolt Over that period, England’s Parliament slowly grew in and turmoil, Parliament offered the crown to William influence. In 1628, when Charles I asked Parliament and Mary of Orange. The events surrounding their for more money in taxes, Parliament refused until he ascent to the throne are known as the Glorious agreed to sign the Petition of Right. Revolution. To prevent abuse of power by William and The Petition of Right limited the king’s power in Mary and all future monarchs, Parliament that same several ways. Most importantly, it demanded that the year drew up a list of provisions to which William and king no longer imprison or otherwise punish any person Mary had to agree. but by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law This document, the English Bill of Rights, of the land. The document also insisted that the king prohibited a standing army in peacetime, except may not impose martial law, or military rule, in times with the consent of Parliament, and required that of peace, or require homeowners to shelter the king’s all parliamentary elections be free. In addition, the troops without their consent. The Petition declared that document declared no man should be that the pretended power of compelled to make or yield any gift, suspending the laws, or the execution loan, benevolence, tax, or such like of laws, by regal authority, without consent of Parliament is illegal . that levying money for or to the use of the Crown . without grant of Parliament . is illegal . that it is the right of the subjects to petition the king .