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Notes on video lecture:
The Articles of Confederation
Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
Revolutionary, taxes, Hanson, 1787, margin, trade, Federalists, national, Senate, Justice, 20, countries, judiciary, amend, Southern, judicial, strong, Slave, states, unanimous, free, amendments, ratification, government, compromise, Madison, opposed
historical background
after the                            War, it was necessary to create a new government
the Articles of Confederation were drafted among the             
were deeply distrustful of having a              national government
they didn't want to give the                  government any more power than necessary
these were the states deciding what to do
they wanted to be the unit of primary government in the United States
there was a president
John             
the first president of the Article of Confederation
granted limited power to Congress
no authority to impose           
no authority to govern commerce between the states
no federal                    or federal courts
quite predictably in hindsight, they were a failure
states began to develop            wars, e.g. with taxes
1787 The Constitutional Convention
goal was the            the Articles of Confederation
gathered in Philadelphia
decided not to pose                      to the Articles of Confederation
but to scrap them
nothing was easily agreed upon
United States Constitution
size of states
it is crucial to regard it as a                     
in fact, almost everything in it was a compromise
the large states wanted to have representation in congress allocated based on population
smaller states wanted to make sure every state had equal representation in congress
this was resolved with the House and the             
issue of slavery
it was clear that the                  states would not ratify a Constitution what did not protect the institution of slavery
many Northerners viewed slavery as abhorrent, repugnant, immoral and unacceptable
question: if you had been in Philadelphia in         , and they were a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, would they have ratified a document, would they have agreed to a document, that protected the institution of slavery?
or would it have been more ethical for Northerners to have held their ground and agreed to have the colonies split into two or three separate                   ?
in any case, a compromise was reached
the constitution protected the institution of slavery
but the word slavery does not appear in the United States Constitution
Article 1 Section 9 limits the powers of Congress
could not ban the importation of individuals for      years
Article V
The Constitution cannot be amended to allow Congress to ban the importation of slaves for 20 years
Article IV: The Fugitive            Clause
if a slave escaped from a slave state into a free state, the person would have to be returned to its owner
Article I of the Constitution
representation and allocation of representatives
based on the number of          persons and 3/5 of all others
slaves were counted as 3/5 of a person
from 1787 to 1865, slavery was a part of the United States society
Constitution was approved by those who drafted it on September 17th, 1787
they applied their signatures, then went home to argue for its                         
ratification of the Constitution
anti-                      
strongly               
the Constitution was more about the structure of the                      only, not human rights
so many were concerned about the lack of a Bill of Rights
passed by a very small              e.g. in New York
North Carolina and Rhode Island ratified it later
the Articles of Confederation stated it could be changed only by                    consent of the States
presidential election was held
Congress was election
John Jay was the first Chief               
1789 Congress passed a judiciary act which created the lower federal courts
the basis for the first major Supreme Court decision, Marbury vs.               
helped define the boundary between the constitutionally separate executive and                  branches

Ideas and Concepts:

On slavery and the U.S. Constitution via tonight's Constitutional Law class:

"When you think of the United States Constitution, it is crucial to regard it as a compromise. In fact, most everything in it was a compromise, and nothing in the Constitution is more evident of this than the compromises made on the issue of slavery.

Throughout the summer of 1787, it became clear that the Southern states were not going to ratify a Constitution that did not protect the institution of slavery. But many Northerners viewed slavery as abhorrent, repugnant, immoral and unacceptable.

One ethical question I pose to my beginning law students is that if they had been in Philadelphia in 1787, and they were a Northern delegate to the Constitutional Convention, would they have ratified a document, would they have agreed to make a document become the highest law of their country, that protected the institution of slavery or would they have held their ethical ground and allowed the colonies to split into two countries? And why?"
The Articles of Confederation