Lesson 11: Constitutional Principles

     The principles that are covered in the Constitution are these:

• Popular sovereignty-  The people have the power, the government has its power because the people give it through the Constitution, and the government can only function if the people say so.

• Limited government-  The government must obye the laws the people make.  The people give the government its authority. 

• Separation of powers-  The powers of the government are separated into three branches.  These are the Congress (legislative), the president (executive), and the courts (judicial). 

• Checks and balances-  The three branches of government are bound together by this system.  It allows one branch to restrain another so that there can be no one branch that makes all the decisions.

• Judicial review-  Most courts possess this power which allows them to declare an action unconstitutional and then, illegal.

• Federalism-  This is a system of division of power between regional and national government.  This allows for a government strong enough to meet the needs of a nation while the individual states retain their authority over local matters.

Lesson 10: The U.S. Constitution

     Due to failure to respond to regional conflicts and a national depression, the states were called to send delegates to meet in Annapolis, Maryland, in an attempt to strengthen the government. Although, only five of the thirteen state representatives showed up at the Annapolis Convention.  Those who attended realized that they needed the participation of all the states, so Alexander Hamilton called for another meeting of the state representatives in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation.  Fifty-five delegates from twelve states showed up to this convention, the only absent member was Rhode Island.  This was a problem since a unanimous vote from all states was required to make any changes to the Articles of Confederation.  So the Philadelphia Convention sought to create a new document that would later become the U.S. Constitution.
 Although all the delegates held different opinions on many matters, they found enough common ground to create the document that helped form the American government.  

Lesson 9: The State Constitutions

     Even though the Articiles of Confederation left the central government weak, it further empowered the states and the people's participation in the politics of the country.
 Congress asked the states to create new constitutions for themselves, each one combined the best of the British government and other American specialized ideas.
 Although the state constitutions did allow more freedoms in voting, it didn't extend those freedoms to women or slaves.  The states continued to maintain that an elected official (Or officials) would represent the people's opinions regardless of the freedom to vote on their own.