Unit 2: Creating a New Government

Historical Overview

The period from the adoption of the Articles of Confederation to the ratification of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights is critical for understanding our nation’s history. The Articles of Confederation was the nation’s first written constitution, which was adopted during the Revolutionary War. The colonies set up this confederate form of government for their collective security, but the individual states retained significant independence from the central government. This resulted in the inability of the new government to effectively address trade among the states, raise money for its operation, or pay off its debts accrued during the revolution. Despite these problems, many historians see a few successes under the Articles, notably the method of adding new states through the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.

The weakness of the confederation government was evident in political, social, and economic unrest that ensued. Some state governments sought to pay off their Revolutionary War debts by increasing taxes on their citizens. Poor farmers, who had fought against taxation in the Revolution, now faced jail time, loss of property, and the loss of their voting rights for not paying taxes. This resulted in Shays’ Rebellion in western Massachusetts in 1786, challenging the nation’s political stability and serving as a catalyst for a Constitutional Convention in 1787.

Although charged with revising the Articles of Confederation, the delegates soon determined that a new constitution would be needed to address the country’s problems. The new constitution required a number of compromises between large and small states, as well as between northern and southern states. The new constitution emerged from two major compromises: the Great Compromise and the so-called Three-Fifths Compromise. The Great Compromise created a bicameral legislature to balance legislative power between small and large states. The Three-Fifths Compromise accounted for enslaved persons as 3/5^th of a person for the purposes of both taxation and representation. This appeased southern interests in terms of legislative power and northern interests in terms of funding for the central government. Nobody was satisfied with the compromises concerning slavery, which would be an ongoing dilemma and, ultimately, a catastrophe for the nation.

Through the Constitution, the Framers sought to create a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure liberty. In the Constitution, they implemented principles of government such as limited government, rule of law, popular sovereignty, inalienable rights/social compact, and equality (although ideas of what constituted equality differed from those we hold today). The Framers sought to manage conflict through political means by employing mechanisms such as a written document delegating powers to the central government, separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism, an amendment process, and representative government.

In order for the new government to take effect, three quarters of the states had to ratify the Constitution. A fierce debate ensued between those who favored adopting the new government, calling themselves Federalists, and those who opposed its adoption, referred to as Antifederalists. The Federalists published a series of essays, called “The Federalist Papers,” urging ratification. The Constitution was ratified only after the Federalists promised to adopt a bill of rights. In 1791, the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, was adopted in order to satisfy the demands of the Antifederalists. These amendments protected individual liberties from the power of the central government, guaranteed freedom of speech, the press, religion, petition, and assembly; and specified the rights of the accused in criminal and civil cases.

The ratification of the Constitution did not end debate about governmental power. Disputes were inevitable because there are inherent tensions among the competing goals listed in the Preamble. For example, there is an inherent tension between liberty and security and between liberty and the general welfare. Moreover, as each generation reconsiders the purposes of government in the United States, they do so in light of their experiences and the circumstances of the time. For example, how people define justice and their ideas about what constitutes a more perfect union have changed over time. It is important to recognize that the difficult decisions we make as a nation are not between good and evil. Rather, our challenge is to determine the relationship between worthy but conflicting ideals through political means. The Constitution provides a structure through which these disagreements can be peacefully resolved.

Unit Abstract

This unit focuses on the period from the adoption of the Articles of Confederation to the ratification of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Students begin their exploration with a focus on how the colonists governed themselves after declaring independence. Considering the political and economic challenges that faced the nation under the Articles of Confederation, students analyze the reasons for its adoption and subsequent failure. In doing so, students examine the question “Were Shays and his followers justified in their actions?” Students analyze evidence, construct a claim, and develop reasoning that ties the evidence to the claim. After investigating the role of perspective in analyzing evidence and constructing arguments, students consider how Shays’ Rebellion contributed to the movement to revise the Articles of Confederation. They then use primary and secondary sources, as well as a simulation, to examine the issues debated at the Constitutional Convention and analyze how and why the Framers resolved, compromised, or ignored major concerns.

Students then explore the Constitution in detail. They trace the principles of the United States Constitution to early English history, including the influences of the Enlightenment period thinkers and colonial experiences with the British government. Students then distinguish constitutional principles from constitutional mechanisms (structures in the constitutional design that promote or protect our inherited constitutional principles). In doing so, students consider how the seven distinct constitutional mechanisms or structures (a written constitution with delegated powers, federalism, representative government, separation of powers, checks and balances, an amendment process and a Bill of Rights) promote or protect our constitutional principles. They also analyze scenarios to identify specific constitutional mechanisms in action. Students reflect on their own interpretation of “We the People” as they explore the Preamble. By connecting the purposes of government to historical influences, they consider how people can agree on the purposes in the abstract, but disagree on how to apply them to specific public issues. Students analyze the inherent tension among the purposes of government and examine how one’s perspective may influence how strongly an individual may value one purpose over another. They then investigate the question: “How does government under the Constitution work to protect ‘We the People’ from tyranny?” Students engage in a jigsaw and fishbowl discussion using their knowledge of the constitutional mechanisms.

Working in partnership, students then analyze images and read informational text about the debates between Federalists and Antifederalists over the adoption of the Constitution. In exploring primary sources, students gain an understanding of the debates over the ratification of the U.S. Constitution and why a Bill of Rights was adopted. They also analyze primary source arguments for and against adoption of the Constitution, identifying the arguments, evidence used, and the perspectives of the authors. Through an interactive PowerPoint, students explore the individual rights and freedoms provided for in the Bill of Rights. They consider both historical and contemporary contexts, with an emphasis on the First Amendment, and analyze different scenarios that relate to the rights. In doing so, students learn that all rights have limits and that the judicial branch determines the scope and limits of the rights embodied in the Bill of Rights.

The unit concludes with a focus on a contemporary public issue related to the Constitution. Using the issue of gerrymandering, students consider constitutional principles and mechanisms, as well as the purposes of government to determine whether the practice of gerrymandering is a threat to our system of government. They then use evidence to construct an argument about the issue of gerrymandering. Teachers should feel free to substitute a contemporary public issue of their choice.

This unit addresses the role of political and social leaders in meeting the challenges of the new government. Students explore the development of foreign policy, economic policy, politics, and early expansion that transformed the United States as a nation from the time of George Washington’s inauguration to the Monroe Doctrine. Beginning with the economic problems faced by the new government, students examine and evaluate the economic policies proposed by Jefferson and Hamilton and explore how these disagreements and others led to the rise of political parties. Using primary sources, they assess the impact of the Marshall Court on the power of federal and state governments. Students also evaluate America’s changing relationship with other nations, and use evidence of treaties, wars, and policy decisions to support their positions. Throughout the unit, students explore the tensions caused by the separating and balancing of power within and among central and state governments and the people, as well as those derived from the competing interests of liberty and security in both historical and contemporary times.

How successful were political and social leaders in solving domestic and international problems faced by the new nation?