The Origins of the Constitution

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The Origins of the Constitution
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The Road to Revolution

• The Road to Revolution
• By eighteenth-century standards, life was not bad
  for most people in America at the time of the
  revolution. As a result of the French and Indian
  War, Britain passed a series of taxes on the
  colonists. These taxes resulted in colonial
  protests and economic pressure from the British.
• Declaring Independence
• The Continental Congress met through most of 1775
  and 1776, adopting the Declaration of
  Independence on July 4, 1776. The Declaration was
  a polemic, announcing and justifying a
  revolution.

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The Road to Revolution

• The English Heritage The Power of Ideas
• Many of the ideas in the Declaration were
  borrowed from the English philosopher John Locke,
  who argued that human beings have natural rights,
  not dependent on governments. Locke argued that
  government must be built on the consent of the
  governed and should be a limited government, with
  restrictions on what rulers can do. Two important
  limits on government are that governments must
  provide laws so that people know whether their
  acts are acceptable and that the government
  cannot take a mans property without his consent.
• Jeffersons Handiwork The American Creed
• Lockes thought and Jeffersons language in the
  Declaration of Independence is very similar.
  Jefferson also borrowed from the well-established
  English opposition to the Crown. He placed great
  importance on the individual, who was created
  equal and endowed with unalienable rights,
  and the consent of the governed.

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The Road to Revolution

• Winning Independence
• Although outnumbered and outmatched, the
  colonists eventually defeated the British.
• The Conservative Revolution
• The American Revolution did not drastically alter
  the colonists way of life. The colonists did
  not feel the need for great social, economic, or
  political upheavals. The revolution did not
  create class conflicts that would have split
  society.