Shays

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Shays Rebellion

• Massachusetts farmers endured tremendous economic
  hardship when debt pyramid crumbled in
  mid-1780s
• farmers petitioned the state legislature for
• More paper money
• Stay laws (forbidding collection of debts)
• legislature instead raised already-high taxes
• led by Daniel Shays, farmers rebelled

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Shays Rebellion

• Shays was a former Revolutionary War militia
  captain who had not been paid for his service by
  the deeply-indebted govt.
• Shaysites shut down courthouses across Western
  and Central Massachusetts
• Gov. Bowdoin called out 4400 militiamen
• Congress dispatched 1300 soldiers to defend the
  Springfield Armory
• The rebellion had died out by March 1787.
• all involved were pardoned

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A Philosophical Question

• What was the greater threat to liberty the
  government or the people?

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Reactions to Shays Rebellion
Samuel Adams
Rebellion against a king may be pardoned, or
lightly punished, but the man who dares to rebel
against the laws of a republic ought to suffer
death."
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Reactions to Shays Rebellion
"A little rebellion now and then is a good thing.
It is a medicine necessary for the sound health
of government. God forbid that we should ever be
twenty years without such a rebellion."
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Reactions to Shays Rebellion
"I am mortified beyond expression when I view the
clouds that have spread over the brightest morn
that ever dawned in any country... What a triumph
for the advocates of despotism, to find that we
are incapable of governing ourselves and that
systems founded on the basis of equal liberty are
merely ideal and fallacious."
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United States Constitution

• Constitutional Convention of 1787 Major
  Controversies
• Constitutional Convention of 1787 Compromises
• Ratification of the Constitution Federalist
  Papers
• Structure of US Government Separation of Powers
• Checks and Balances System

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Philadelphia Convention (1787)
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Proposals

• New Jersey Plan (William Paterson)
• kept A of C but amended them to national govt. to
  tax and regulate commerce
• favored by small states
• Each state equally represented in Congress
• Virginia Plan (James Madison)
• bicameral Congress
• independent executive (president)
• national judiciary
• States proportionally represented

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Major Controversies at Constitutional Convention
of 1787

• Representation in Congress
• Proportional (big states) v. Equal (small states)
• Slavery
• North v. South
• Federal v. State Power

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Compromises

• Representation (CT Compromise)
• Proportional rep. in House
• Equal in Senate
• Slavery
• 3/5 Compromise
• Fugitive Slave Clause
• Slave Trade Clause

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Ratification of the ConstitutionFederalists v.
Anti-Federalists
1. Bill of Rights (Amendments 1-10) helped
ensure ratification by allaying fears that the
new, stronger national government would infringe
upon individual rights

• Federalist Papers a series of arguments for the
  new Constitution, written by Hamilton, Madison,
  and Jay
• Federalist 10 (Madison) dealt with the
  perceived problem of faction (widely believed to
  be the enemy of large republics)

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Why did Anti-Federalists oppose the Constitution?

• It is the opinion of the ablest writers on the
  subject that no extensive empire can be governed
  upon republican principles.
• It is impossible for one code of laws to suit
  Georgia and Massachusetts.

James Winthrop wrote a series of Anti-Federalist
articles under the pen name Agrippa.
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Madisons Federalist 10

• There are two methods of curing the mischiefs of
  faction the one, by destroying liberty which is
  essential to its existence the other, by giving
  to every citizen the same opinions, the same
  passions, and the same interests.
• Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an
  ailment, without which it instantly expires. But
  it could be no less a folly to abolish liberty .
  . . than it would be to wish the annihilation of
  air.
• Madison argued the faction was inevitable and
  should be embraced.
• In a large republic like the US, no one faction
  would dominate, and the best approximation of
  what was good for the country would come out of
  the competition between different
  interests/factions.
• The problem of faction, in other words, would
  control itself.

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Madisons Federalist 51

• If men were angels, no government would be
  necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither
  external nor internal controls on government
  would be necessary. In framing a government
  which is to be administered by men over men, the
  great difficulty lies in this you must first
  enable the government to control the governed
  and in the next place oblige it to control
  itself.

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Federalist 51
A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the
primary control on the government but experience
has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary
precautions.

• Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.

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The Constitution of the United States
ARTICLE I Legislative Branch ARTICLE II
Executive Branch ARTICLE III Judicial
Branch Separation of Powers
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Checks and Balances
each branch checks the power of the other
branches in order to prevent any one branch from
gaining too much power LEGISLATIVE EXECUTIVE JU
DICIAL impeachment veto power judicial
review advice consent veto override
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Article I, Section 8 Powers of Congress

• Spells out numerous specific powers of Congress
  (and, therefore, the federal govt.)
• Necessary and Proper Clause (Clause 3)
• a.k.a. elastic clause
• Gives federal govt. power to do anything
  necessary to carry out its rightful powers, even
  if not specifically provided for in the
  Constitution
• Greatly expands federal govt. power

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Article II, Section 2 Powers and Duties of the
President

• Section 1 Commander in Chief of the military
• Section 2 power to make treaties, appoint
  judges and other federal officials by and with
  the advice and consent of the Senate
• Section 4 Congress power of impeachment

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Article III Federal Courts

• Brief, vague article left the role of the federal
  courts open to interpretation
• Did the courts have the power to declare acts of
  Congress and the states unconstitutional and,
  therefore, invalid?

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States Rights v. Federal PowerAn Ongoing
Controversy

• Supremacy Clause/Article (Article VI)
• The Constitution and the laws of the United
  States . . . shall be the supreme Law of the
  Land.
• 10th Amendment (States Rights Am.)
• The powers not delegated to the United States by
  the Constitution . . . are reserved to the
  states, or to the people.

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Ratification of the Constitution by the States

• 9 of 13 states needed to ratify (approve) the
  Constitution for it to take effect
• Conventions were called in the states for that
  purpose.
• Federalists supporters
• Anti-Federalists opponents

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Who were the Federalists and Anti-Federalists?

• Federalists
• dominant in urban and coastal regions
• Most merchants, major property owners
• Anti-Federalists
• Small farmers from the backcountry
• Those who feared the new federal (national)
  government would be too powerful.
• Those who believe local government power was best
  in a republican system.
• Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, etc.

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The Bill of Rights

• Amendments 1-10
• Added to secure approval of all states (New York
  and Massachusetts, most notably were holding
  out.)
• Fundamental Rights of citizens spelled out so as
  to protect them from government
• Madison was reluctant to include it. Why?