Constitution Notes

U. S. CONSTITUTION
Preamble – Tells why the Constitution was written

Articles (7) – Set up the structure of the government

Amendments (27) – Address issues that have come up as people have lived under the Constitution

PREAMBLE
Solve problems with the Articles of Confederation:

“Every state for itself.”

Different “inalienable rights” in different places

Basic foreign policy functions

ARTICLE 1 -- LEGISTLATURE

House of Representatives – One man, one vote

Senate – Equal representation for each state

Job: Write and pass laws.

Generally, majority rules with Presidential approval, 2/3 to override veto.

Powers of Congress:

Tax
Borrow Money
Spend Money
Declare war
Remove criminals from office
Regulate commerce between states (money, post offices, patents, courts, etc.)
Running the capital
Whatever else they decide they need to do.

Congress can't:

Change laws after the fact
Make something illegal only for certain people
Tax exports
Suspend the right to be seen in court
Spend money without accounting for it
Grant titles of nobility

Because there is now a Congress, states can't:

Declare war
Enter into separate treaties with foreign countries
Print their own currency
Tax imports separately
Tax imports from other states
Do anything Congress can't do either

Questions From John Adams Movie

1. If you were John Adams, would you have taken the case?

2. If you were on the jury, would you have convicted the soldiers?

3. Adams argued that America was a country ruled by laws instead of by people. Is he right? Who is in charge, the people who make and enforce the laws, or the laws themselves?

Hobbes vs. Locke

Thomas Hobbes:

• People are basically evil.
• Because of that, God puts kings in power to keep order.
• We need someone in authority to settle religious disagreements for us.
• In order to function properly, a society needs a religious framework everybody can agree on.

John Locke:

• People are basically good.
• Because of that, governments only have the right to exist when good people allow them to.
  
• When a Christian is in power, he should tolerate those who disagree with him, because some day someone else will be in power.
• In order to function properly, society needs to trust its members to be good and do good and only put as many limits on freedom as are necessary to protect the freedom of others.

Thomas Jefferson:

• "The Laws of Nature and Nature's God entitle [people] to separate and equal station . . . among the powers of the Earth." -- People are basically good, but have a Creator they are accountable to for that goodness.
• "We hold these truths to be self-evident" -- There are truths that are beyond dispute.
• "All men are Created" -- Whether through the people or through kings, ultimately all government derives from God.
• "Equal" -- Either we're as good as the king, or the king is as bad as the rest of us.
• "They are endowed by their Creator" -- See above
• "Unalienable rights" -- The rights of the people to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness supersede the right of the king to be in power, even if that right also came from God.
• If the evils of the king can be tolerated, they should be. Don't change a government just because you disagree on a point of opinion that doesn't measurably impact your life.
• If the evils of a king actually hurt people, the people have both the right and the duty to throw him out.
• "We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity" -- We want to trust that the British government is made of good people, but the evidence is to the contrary.

There are hints of both Hobbes and Locke in the Declaration of Independence. Here are some discussion questions:

1. Since Locke and Hobbes are virtual opposites, do you have to take one side or the other, or can you blend them together?
2. Can you have an orderly society if agents of the state inject their religious opinions into their duties? Can you have an orderly society if they don't?
3. Does government exist to create an environment to let good people do as much good as they can, or is its primary purpose to stop people from being evil? And can a government ever fight evil if it is made of evil people?
   

Battles You Should Know

YORKTOWN – October, 1781

Last major battle of the Revolutionary War

France cut off Cornwallis' escape route

Washington led American and French troops in a siege operation

After the surrender, the British parliament switched parties and voted to end military operations in America, even though they still controlled several major cities.

ALAMO – March, 1836

Mexican army destroys a garrison of Texans and their American allies.

After the defeat, American volunteers rallied to the Texan cause, eventually winning Texas independence from Mexico.

GETTYSBURG – July, 1863

Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania, designed to force Union troops to defend home territory and ease the siege of Vicksburg, MS.

Union victory convinced Britain and France not to enter the war on the Confederate side.

Confederacy “plays defense” the rest of the war.

PEARL HARBOR – December, 1941

Japan simultaneously declares war and bombs the US Pacific fleet.

Brought the US into World War II by virtue of Japan's alliance with Germany and Italy.

D-DAY – June, 1944

US and Allied forces invade France from the sea.

Failure to repel thee? invasion was the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany.

9/11 – September, 2001

19 terrorists hijack 4 American commercial planes and crash them, destroying the World Trade Center and damaging the Pentagon.

Attacks trigger first major US military response to Al-Qaeda terror network.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Of the 6 battles on this list, which one was the most important for the US to win?
2. Is there a battle that isn't on the list that made a bigger impact on American History?
3. What was the biggest mistake made by the losing side in a battle that they should have seen ahead of time?

War Notes

Here we go.

Remember: Your posts on this blog's comments section are worth TWICE AS MUCH to your grade as the quizzes.

Also, your grade on the Presidents quiz (and subsequent quizzes) are based not on how many you get right, but how long it takes for you to get all of them.

Below are the notes and discussion questions for last week, this week, and next week.

Go get 'em.

AMERICAN WARS

1756-2010

FRENCH & INDIAN WAR
1756-1763

Cost of war led to colonies being taxed

George Washington becomes field commander

Native Americans cast their lot with the French against the English.

AMERICAN REVOLUTION
1776-1783

Established America as its own country

Showed the vulnerability of the British army

America and France become allies

WAR OF 1812
1812-1815

British force American sailors into their Navy

America fights England to a draw

England pulls out of US territory

MEXICAN WAR
1846-1848

Monroe Doctrine

Missouri Compromise Line

Combat experience for future Civil War generals

CIVIL WAR
1861-1865

“Becoming a Singular” – Ken Burns

Racial integration

600,000+ casualties

SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
1898

Expansive foreign policy

First major victory against a European power

First war waged entirely on foreign soil

WORLD WAR I
1914(7)-1918

U. S. is the decisive factor in a stalemate war

U. S. becomes a dominant player in the world

Woodrow Wilson's idealism (International law, world government)

WORLD WAR II
1939(41)-1945

U. S. and U. S. S. R. the last two standing

European rivalries dead

Advent of the nuclear age

KOREAN WAR
1951-1954

First test of united western world vs. communism

Hindered China's desire to dominate global communism

Never resolved – just stopped

VIETNAM WAR
1950(6)-1975

Signaled the end of European colonialism

“The war that would not die”

Last war fought with drafted soldiers

GULF WAR
1990-1991

First major military conflict after the fall of the Berlin Wall

Central role of oil in American foreign policy

Advent of “New World Order”

AFGHANISTAN
2001-present

Response to 9/11 attacks

New kind of war: Nations vs. non-nations

Perpetual skirmishing vs. pitched battles

IRAQ
2003-present (kind of)

Pre-emptive war (Bush Doctrine)

Legitimacy of the UN

Nation building

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:

Agree or disagree with one of the following statements, telling why:

1. America became a powerful nation in the 20th Century primarily because the wars were fought everywhere but here.

2. The most significant wars and battles are those that involve the most people in combat.

3. Of the five “big stories” we talked about earlier, the one with the biggest impact on the outcomes of wars has been technology.

Notes from Tuesday

The Weirdest Presidential Elections in US History

Things to know about Presidential Elections going in:

• The outcome is decided no by the popular vote, but by the Electoral College.
• Who gets to vote is determined state-by-state, with four exceptions in the Constitution.

1800 – JOHN ADAMS VS. THOMAS JEFFERSON

Pre-12th Amendment, President was the winner in the Electoral College and VP was the one who finished second. Jefferson and Aaron Burr end up tied (since each elector gets two votes. The election is then thrown to the House of Representatives, where each state gets one vote. In 1800, there were 16 states.). As long as the Adams people in the House of Representatives could keep the election tied between Jefferson and Burr (8 states each), Adams stays President.

1824 – JOHN QUINCY ADAMS VS. ANDREW JACKSON VS. HENRY CLAY

Jackson won the popular vote and the Electoral College, but did not get a majority of electoral votes. So since the election was thrown into the House, the 2nd and 3rd place candidates pooled their support. 2nd place (Adams) is President, 3rd place (Clay) is Secretary of State with a promise of Presidential campaign support in eight years, and Jackson is just out. It works, but only for one term, as Jackson blows out Adams in 1828.

1860 – ABRAHAM LINCOLN VS. STEVEN DOUGLAS VS. JOHN BELL

A popular vote split three ways, but Lincoln got enough of a plurality in enough states to win the Electoral College.

1876 – RUTHERFORD B. HAYES VS. SAMUEL TILDEN

The Crown Prince of weird elections. Three states submitted two slates of electors -- one with black votes counted and one with only white votes. If the white votes are the only ones that count, Tilden wins easily. But if the black votes count, Hayes wins 185-184. The result is the Compromise of 1877. In return for letting black votes count, the South gets to have all of the Northern occupying troops removed, and Hayes doesn't run for re-election in 1880.

1912 – WOODROW WILSON VS. WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT VS. THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Taft runs for re-election, but his supporters are split between him and former two-term President Teddy Roosevelt.

1948 – HARRY S TRUMAN VS. THOMAS DEWEY

The first time computers try to predict a major national election. The computers vastly overstate the impact of Strom Thurmond, who gets a handful of electoral votes, but not nearly enough to allow Dewey to defeat Truman.

1960 – JOHN F. KENNEDY VS. RICHARD NIXON

Close election. Both sides agreed later that nobody cold ever know who would have won if both sides had played fair.

1968 – RICHARD NIXON VS. HUBERT HUMPHREY

Sitting President Lyndon Johnson chooses not to run for re-election. First time since Chester Arthur.

1992 – BILL CLINTON VS. GEORGE BUSH VS. ROSS PEROT

Another split-vote where Bush supporters defect to Perot, opening the door for Clinton.

2000 – GEORGE W. BUSH VS. AL GORE

The king of the weird elections. Several close states -- New Mexico, Oregon, Iowa, and Florida. Final tally 271-267, and that only after a month of legal wrangling about who really won Florida. Lots of fun to watch, unless you had an emotional investment in the outcome. Then it was pure torture.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Is there a good way to settle a close election, especially when the outcome is statistically too close to call?
Did the Supreme Court get Bush v. Gore right?
Who lost a Presidential election he should have won?
Who was the most qualified Presidential candidate never to win an election?

Big American Story #5 -- Prosperity

Remember that I need postings every week, so if you need to go back and pick up last week's discussion go ahead.

Prosperity was instrumental in:

Providing a motive for exploration -- Columbus was followed back to the New World because there was gold. Puritans came from England with the promise of being land owners.

Sparking the revolution -- Many of the complaints raised in the Declaration of Independence were economic. The Tea Party was in response to a corporate bailout, after all.

Bringing people out of the east and across the plains to the west coast. -- Sure they believed in Manifest Destiny, but it took the promise of wealth to get people to act on it.

Launching the gilded age. -- Robber barons, tycoons, and the advance of technology led to decades of prosperity.

The Great Depression became the formative experience for multiple generations. (What ended the Depression -- FDR, World War II, or just better weather -- became an interesting discussion.)

The American message in the Cold War was western-style prosperity for all.

After the Cold War, we entered the era of bubbles. Beanie Babies, Internet stocks, Real-estate flipping, sub-prime mortgages. American economic theory since 1989 has been that people can consume as much as they want and not have to worry about paying off the debt. (A significant number of home foreclosures have been on people who put their credit card bills on their home mortgages.)

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. When has America acted against its political interests in the quest for prosperity?

2. Can an American politician get elected if he tells people not to consume so much?

3. Which is more important to Americans – personal prosperity or collective opportunity?