Key Idea 11.2: Constitutional Foundations (1763 to 1824)

Name the problem each document answers, then the principle it uses: consent of the governed, separation of powers, federalism or the protection of rights.

A lesson for this Key Idea

Quick checks: multiple choice

A historian's summary of African Americans and the Revolution

In November 1775, Virginia's royal governor, Lord Dunmore, promised freedom to enslaved people held by rebels who escaped and served the British. Thousands of enslaved people fled to British lines during the war, and several thousand Black soldiers served in American forces. Between 1777 and 1804, every Northern state took steps to end slavery, many of them gradually. In the Southern states, slavery continued.

Question 1

Which statement best describes the impact of the Revolutionary War on African Americans?

A historian's summary of Barron v. Baltimore (1833)

John Barron owned a wharf in Baltimore harbor. Street work by the city sent sand and earth into the water near his wharf until ships could no longer reach it. Barron sued, arguing that the Fifth Amendment forbids taking private property for public use without just compensation. The Supreme Court ruled against him.

Question 2

The ruling described in this summary shows that the Bill of Rights originally

A historian's summary of the laws Parliament passed in 1774

After the destruction of East India Company tea in Boston harbor in December 1773, Parliament passed a series of laws in 1774. One closed the port of Boston until the tea was paid for. Another reduced the powers of the Massachusetts assembly and limited town meetings. A third allowed royal officials accused of crimes to be tried in another colony or in Britain. A new Quartering Act made it easier to house troops in the colonies.

Question 3

Which colonial action was a direct response to the laws described in this summary?

A historian's summary of a pamphlet published in January 1776

Fighting had begun at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, but many colonists still hoped to make peace with the king. In January 1776 Thomas Paine published Common Sense. In plain language he attacked the idea of rule by kings, called it absurd for a small island to rule a continent, and urged Americans to declare independence. The pamphlet was reprinted many times and read aloud in taverns and army camps.

Question 4

What was the most important effect of the pamphlet described in this summary?

A historian's summary of Washington's Farewell Address, 1796

Washington announced that he would not seek a third term in an address printed in newspapers. He warned Americans against the spirit of party and against divisions between the North, the South and the West. He advised the nation to trade with all countries but to avoid permanent alliances with any foreign power.

Question 5

Which earlier action of Washington's presidency matches the foreign policy advice in this address?

Excerpt from the Supreme Court's opinion in Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824

This court is of opinion that so much of the several laws of the state of New York as prohibits vessels, licensed according to the laws of the United States, from navigating the waters of the state of New York, by means of fire or steam, is repugnant to the said Constitution and void.

Question 6

How did the decision in this excerpt strengthen the federal government?

A historian's summary of a debate in Washington's first term

Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton proposed that the national government pay off the states' war debts, create a national bank, and raise money through tariffs and a tax on whiskey. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Representative James Madison objected that the plan favored Northern merchants and bankers, and that the Constitution gave Congress no power to create a bank. Congress chartered the Bank of the United States in 1791.

Question 7

The debate described in this summary contributed most directly to which development?

Excerpts from the Supreme Court's opinion in Marbury v. Madison, 1803

Certainly all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and consequently, the theory of every such government must be, that an act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution, is void. ... It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.

Question 8

Which power of the federal courts is established by the reasoning in these excerpts?

Excerpts from the Northwest Ordinance, 1787

to provide also for the establishment of States, and permanent government therein, and for their admission to a share in the federal councils on an equal footing with the original States ... Art. 6. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted

Question 9

How did Article 6 of this ordinance shape later national debates over slavery?

A description of a map of British North America, 1763

The map shows the thirteen colonies along the Atlantic coast and a line drawn along the crest of the Appalachian Mountains. A label on the land between the line and the Mississippi River reads: Reserved for Native American nations; colonial settlement forbidden. A note gives the date of the royal proclamation, October 1763, a few months after Britain's victory over France.

Question 10

Why did many colonists resent the policy shown on this map?

A historian's summary of events in Massachusetts, 1786 to 1787

Farmers in western Massachusetts, many of them veterans of the Revolutionary War, faced high state taxes and debts they could not pay, and courts were taking their farms. Led by Daniel Shays and others, armed farmers closed several courts in 1786. Congress under the Articles of Confederation had no means to raise an army to restore order. In early 1787, a militia paid for by Boston merchants broke up the uprising.

Question 11

How did the events described in this summary affect the nation's political development?

A timeline of the Stamp Act crisis

March 1765: Parliament passes the Stamp Act, a tax on newspapers, legal documents, pamphlets and playing cards in the colonies. October 1765: Delegates from nine colonies meet in New York City at the Stamp Act Congress and protest taxation without representation. Late 1765: Merchants in several port cities agree to stop importing British goods. March 1766: Parliament repeals the Stamp Act and, on the same day, passes the Declaratory Act, stating that it has full power to make laws binding the colonies in all matters.

Question 12

Why did the events of March 1766 fail to end the conflict between Parliament and the colonists?

A historian's summary of a clause in the Constitution

Article I of the Constitution divides seats in the House of Representatives, and any direct taxes, among the states by population. In counting each state's population, it counts all free persons and three fifths of all other persons, meaning enslaved people. The word slavery does not appear in the clause.

Question 13

Which group gained the most political power from the clause described in this summary?

A timeline of the Revolutionary War

April 1775: Fighting begins at Lexington and Concord. July 1776: The Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence. October 1777: A British army surrenders to American forces at Saratoga, New York. February 1778: France signs a treaty of alliance with the United States. October 1781: With a French fleet blocking escape by sea, a British army surrenders at Yorktown, Virginia. 1783: The Treaty of Paris recognizes the independence of the United States.

Question 14

Based on the timeline, why do historians call the battle at Saratoga a turning point in the war?

A historian's summary of events in western Pennsylvania, 1794

Farmers in western Pennsylvania who turned their grain into whiskey refused to pay a federal tax on it. Some attacked tax collectors and burned the house of a federal tax inspector. President Washington called up about 13,000 militia troops from several states and rode out with them for part of the march. The uprising collapsed before the troops arrived.

Question 15

How did the government's response to these events differ from the response to Shays' Rebellion in 1786 and 1787?

A historian's summary of women and the Revolution

During the war, many women ran farms and shops while men were away, made homespun cloth to replace boycotted British goods, and followed the armies as cooks and nurses. A few, such as Deborah Sampson, disguised themselves as men and served as soldiers. After the war, writers praised women's role in raising virtuous citizens for the new republic. New Jersey let some property-owning women vote until 1807; no other state did.

Question 16

Which conclusion about the impact of the Revolution on women is best supported by the summary?

Excerpt from Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution, 1787

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Question 17

In 1791 Thomas Jefferson argued that this clause did not allow Congress to charter a national bank. On which reading of the clause did his argument rest?

Excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, 1776

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. ... To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Question 18

These passages suggest that the Declaration was written partly for which audience beyond the American colonists?

Excerpts from George Washington's Farewell Address, September 1796

The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. ... Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none or a very remote relation.

Question 19

Which development of the mid-1790s does this advice most directly answer?

Excerpt from the Northwest Ordinance, 1787

The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians; their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and, in their property, rights, and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress

Question 20

Which development of the 1790s best shows the gap between this promise and events in the Northwest Territory?

A timeline of ratification, 1787 to 1791

September 1787: The Constitutional Convention signs the Constitution, which contains no bill of rights. February 1788: Massachusetts ratifies by a close vote and recommends amendments to protect rights. June 1788: New Hampshire becomes the ninth state to ratify, enough to put the Constitution into effect. June and July 1788: Virginia and New York ratify, each recommending amendments. June 1789: Representative James Madison proposes amendments in the First Congress. December 1791: Ten amendments are ratified.

Question 21

Which conclusion about the Antifederalists is best supported by the timeline?

Short essays and civic literacy essays

From the Articles to the ConstitutionPart II, Set 1 short essay

Read and analyze the following two documents, then answer both parts. Document 1: Excerpts from the Articles of Confederation, 1777 (ratified 1781) In determining questions in the united states, in Congress assembled, each state shall have one vote. ... The taxes for paying that proportion shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures of the several states within the time agreed upon by the united states in congress assembled. Document 2: Excerpts from Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution, 1787 The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States ... To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes

(a) Describe the historical context surrounding these two documents. [2]

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(b) Identify and explain a cause-and-effect relationship between the events or ideas in these documents. [3]

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Freedom of speech and of the pressPart III civic literacy essay

Since 1791 the First Amendment has protected freedom of speech and of the press. Ever since, Americans and their governments have disagreed about how far that freedom reaches, above all in wartime or when leaders say the nation's security is at risk. Read and analyze the six documents, answer the six short questions, then write the three parts of the essay. Document 1: The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified 1791 Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Document 2: Excerpts from the Sedition Act, passed by Congress in 1798 during an undeclared naval war with France if any person shall write, print, utter or publish ... any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States, or either house of the Congress of the United States, or the President of the United States, with intent to defame the said government ... shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding two years. Document 3: A historian's summary of opposition to the Sedition Act, 1798 to 1801 Federalist officials charged about two dozen people under the Sedition Act, most of them Democratic-Republican editors and printers, and about ten were convicted. Representative Matthew Lyon of Vermont was reelected to Congress while serving his sentence in jail. The legislatures of Kentucky and Virginia passed resolutions, written in secret by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, calling the act unconstitutional. After Jefferson won the election of 1800, the act expired in 1801, and he pardoned those convicted under it. Document 4: Excerpts from the Supreme Court's opinion in Schenck v. United States, 1919, upholding the conviction of a man who mailed leaflets urging resistance to the World War I draft The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic. ... The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent. It is a question of proximity and degree. When a nation is at war many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its effort that their utterance will not be endured so long as men fight Document 5: Excerpts from the Supreme Court's opinion in Tinker v. Des Moines, 1969, a case about students suspended for wearing black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate. ... But, in our system, undifferentiated fear or apprehension of disturbance is not enough to overcome the right to freedom of expression. Document 6: Excerpts from the Supreme Court's opinion in New York Times Co. v. United States, 1971, the Pentagon Papers case We granted certiorari in these cases in which the United States seeks to enjoin the New York Times and the Washington Post from publishing the contents of a classified study entitled "History of U. S. Decision-Making Process on Viet Nam Policy." ... "Any system of prior restraints of expression comes to this Court bearing a heavy presumption against its constitutional validity."

(a) Based on Document 1, state one freedom that Congress may not abridge. [1]

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(b) Based on Document 2, state one kind of writing that the Sedition Act made a crime. [1]

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(d) Based on Document 4, state when the Court said that speech may be limited. [1]

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(e) Based on Document 5, state one reason the Court gave for protecting the students' expression. [1]

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(f) Based on Document 6, state one reason the Court ruled against the government's attempt to stop publication. [1]

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(g) Describe the historical circumstances surrounding the issue of freedom of speech and of the press. [2]

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(h) Explain efforts by individuals, groups and/or governments to address this issue. [2]

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(i) Discuss the extent to which these efforts were successful, OR discuss the impact of these efforts on the United States and/or American society. [2]

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