Lecture 3: The Ideals and The Politics

The Declaration of Independence

-The founding fathers most concern was protection against the tyranny of a King not serving the
peoples interest
-It is about the passive concept of the Government where the common have unalienable rights=it was a
polemic, a political argument, announcing and justifying a revolution to the citizens of the colonies
(E.W.L chapter 2)
Two points of the Declaration
-1. King G III is Bad; the delegates accuse King George III of all sorts of misdeeds, including citing
the merciless Indian savages and having authority of the colonists= this led to the passive role of the
fed govt. (E.W.L. chapter 2)
-2. Passive Role for Federal Govt=limited govt that should protect the natural rights of people and it
is needs to be built on the consent of the governed
Lockes argument of natural rights is that the people have the right to revolt if the government no
longer have their consent and government must provide standing laws so that the people understand
that their action is acceptable or not.
Declaration of Independence and Locke
-Natural Rights
-Purpose of Government
-Equality
-Consent of the Governed
-Limited Government
-Right to Revolt
Articles of Confederation
-established a government dominated by the states
-Central government was weak and did not have the power to establish laws onto the states
-There was no regulation of commerce and courts in the central government
-Requires unanimous votes from the states and without unanimous votes nothing could be passed by
the central government
-Good thing about Articles: it was a guideline to the nations leader to write a new constitution to avoid
or advise things that will not be shown in the constitution.
-Based on states choice or decision to contribute to the government except for war, mail and
money=meshes with the ideas of the declaration-decentralized and passive govt.
-CAPS such as tragedy of the Commons is mostly likely the problem with the Articles because the
states had too much power and they could claim new places and have trade wards where they place tax
on those areas or product that made the state rich because tragedy of the common problems is when
one individuals of the group overuses the product or the collective good for their own benefit and not
for the group.
-There were economic issues that was the main issue because each state were printing their own money
and did not use contracts; this led to the shays rebellion because Shays rebellion showed the flaws of
a weak governments where they were inaction, infighting and ineffectiveness to stop a nation wide
issue where there was issue of high rise of debt of farmers who could not pay off their debt and losing
their land to creditors led to the rebellion.
-Economic Issues: the states had erected tariffs against products from other states, paper money was
virtually worthless in some states, congress was having trouble raising money because the economy
was in a recession
When they were revising another document of making U.S. government
-include the human nature, the causes of political conflict, the objects of government and the nature of
a republican government; the federalists wanted to create a stronger government that could help ensure

these ideas and the antifederalists were concerned about the power not being shared by the people and
will only ensure the elite
-Human nature: people were naturally self-interested and that government should play a key role in
containing these impulses, but they agreed on Hobbess idea of mans natural state. They did not agree
on Hobbes idea of powerful monarchy but Lockes idea of limited government that is governed by the
people (E.W.L 2)
-Political Conflict: factions were parties or interest groups, which according to James Madison arose
from unequal distribution of property or wealth and had the [potential to cause instability in
government; In Federalist 10 by James Madison states, the distribution of wealth is the source of
political conflict. This quote shows that to those that hold or without property will form into distinct
interests in society that creates factions. Factions are prone to instability, tyranny and even violence.
-Purpose of Government: the preservation of property is the purpose of Government, including
security from invasion, domestic peace and promotion of the publics health and welfare.
-Nature of Government: separate the branches of government to have a balance between each other so
one branch does not over power the other and tyranny can be avoided. Balance can be found through
checks, balances and separation of powers.
Federalists:
-wanted strong national government, emphasized importance of government action, emphasized that
the constitutions protections avoided tyranny
Antifederalists:
-wanted strong state government, emphasized dangers of government action, emphasized that the
constitutions protections did not include any specific limits on government power (thus leading to the
Bill of Rights)
Constitutional Liberalism
-separation of powers: the executive, legislative and judicial would relatively independent of one
another so that no single branch could control the others.
-checks and balances: Madisons goal of setting power against power to constrain government actions,
even if a faction controls one institution it could not damage the whole system because the each branch
must have each sign or veto a power that can restrain the other powers of the branches.
-A. Congress: Pres Veto, Judicial Review (the power of the courts to determine whether acts of
Congress and , by implication, the executive are in the accord with the U.S. Constitution; established
by Marbury vs. Madison)
-B. President: Cong override, Impeach,
-C. Judicial: Cong changes jurisdiction, impeach, etc
Federalism
A. Supremacy Clause
B. B. Commerce Clause
C. C. 10th Amendment
Ellis Chapter 1: The Duel
-The duel was between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr who were being gentlemen by resolving
their conflicts with each other. It was told that Alexander Hamilton has shot his pistol, but Burr is
uninjured and Hamilton is injured and later dies. This causes Burr to be ostracized and forces him to
leave since his reputation is damaged. Ellis writes that the founding fathers feared that the breakdown
of the central government would lead a civil war and Hamilton and Burrs confrontation is about the
fear of the breakdown of the central government. The themes of the chapter were about compromising
and expectations for one another because during the crisis that were occurring they need to hold
together or else the government could not hold and lead to civil war.