Lesson 8: The Articles of Confederation

     The Articles of Confederation were a model for the future government of the United States.
These Articles were meant to bring all thirteen states together to solve common problems. Although, the individual states retained their rights and independence.
 Unfortunately, the Articles did not do much for the states other than establish the legal basis that the Continental Congress already had.
 The document did function well during war time, as it helped the states win the Revolutionary War and helped spark other documents, such as Northwest Ordinance of 1787, that aided in the growth and development of the United States of America.

Lesson 7: Declaration of Independence

     The Declaration of Independence reflects Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "Social Contract" in saying that governments are created among people, and the ran by the governed people.  The Contract says that the government acts for the good of the people.

Also, governed people have a "responsibility to be involved in their governance" and "people must participate in society to benefit from it."  The Declaration reflects this by saying "it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such a Government, and provide new Guards for their future security."  If ever a government were to abuse their "natural rights." 

 Two more things covered in the Contract are freedom of religion and separation of church and state.  These freedoms are implied in the Declaration of Independence where it says that "all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Lesson 6: Thomas Paine's "Common Sense"

     In 1776, During a time of tension between England and the American Colonies, Thomas Paine wrote the pamphlet called "Common Sense".  In this pamphlet he directly attacked King George III, by stating that he was the cause of hostility between England and the Colonies, going so far as to say that he was "unworthy of the Americans' respect."  Paine also believed that an island ruling a continent was unnatural.  He encouraged America, through his writing, to become its own independent country and after only a few months, the pamphlet had 150,000 copies throughout the colonies.