US Constitution

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US Constitution

• The document that organizes our government

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Create Your Dream Government

• If you were starting a brand new country from
  scratch, what kind of government would you have
• one in which you are the ruler and make all the
  decisions for the citizens?
• or one in which the citizens elect leaders and
  the leaders have to listen to what the citizens
  want?
• What are the PROS and CONS of each?

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Outcome of the Constitutional Convention

• Government organized into 3 branches

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Outcome of the Constitutional Convention
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Outcome of the Constitutional Convention
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Look at the Constitution

• Notice the Preamble
• We the People
• States the purpose of the US government

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Look at the Constitution

• Notice the ARTICLES
• Article 1 Legislative Branch
• Article 2 Executive Branch
• Article 3 Judicial Branch

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Review

• How is the United States government organized?
• What does each branch do?
• Do you think this is a good way for a government
  to be organized? Why or why not?

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What Type of Government?

• Democracy
• People vote on leaders
• President, Congress, local leaders
• Elected leaders have limited powers
• Even president
• Dictatorship
• Leader has all power over people
• People have no vote, no protections from the
  government

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Whats Good About That?

• Benefits of a democracy
• Citizens are happy because their voices are heard
• Citizens hold the power because they can vote out
  leaders
• Benefits of a dictatorship
• Citizens do what you say
• One person or small group makes all the decisions

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What is a constitution?

• It is a document that every country has
• It organizes the government
• Example some countries have presidents, some
  have dictators
• It limits the powers of the government
• Most of the time
• Most constitutions are written documents

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Articles of Confederation

• The first attempt at a US constitution
• It failed
• The Founders feared a strong federal government
• King George III had too much power, so they made
  the US not have one person with too much power
• Federal country
• No president or courts
• States acted like individual countries

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The U.S. Constitution

• Continental Congress attempted to revise the
  Articles of Confederation
• Decided to rewrite completely, creating the
  current U.S. Constitution

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Disputes during the Convention

• Virginia Plan
• Written by James Madison
• 2 part legislature (group that writes laws)
• Number of representatives determined by states
  population
• Favored the states with larger populations
  because it would make them have more votes, and
  therefore stronger

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Disputes Continued

• New Jersey Plan
• Written by William Patterson
• 1 part legislature
• Each state would get one vote, no matter the
  population
• Favored the smaller states, because their power
  would be equal to larger states even though they
  represented much fewer people

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• New Hampshire 102,000
• Massachusetts 360,000
• Rhode Island 58,000
• Connecticut 202,000
• New York 233,000
• New Jersey 138,000
• Pennsylvania 360,000
• Delaware 37,000
• Maryland 218,000
• Virginia 420,000
• North Carolina 200,000
• South Carolina 150,000
• Georgia 90 ,000

NJ Plan Virginia Plan
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Dispute Settled!

• Great Compromise
• Written by Roger Sherman
• Gave us what we still use today
• 2 part legislature, called Congress
• One house based on population
• Called the House of Representatives
• One house based on equality all states get 2
  votes
• Called the Senate

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One Other Dispute

• 3/5 Compromise
• Arguments over how to count slaves when counting
  up the population of each state
• Slaves, who were not citizens and could not vote,
  would give southern states more votes in Congress
• In the end, all agreed to the 3/5 Compromise
• Each slave was counted as 3/5 of a person

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Review

• What was an argument the Continental Congress had
  while writing the Constitution?
• How was the argument resolved?

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Levels of Government
No state and local laws can violate federal laws
federal laws protect all U.S. citizens no
matter where they live No local laws can violate
state laws no matter where you live in a state,
state laws protect you Local laws must not
violate state or federal laws