The Goals fo the Constitution: What it does and why it does it...

The Constitution sets itself up from he very beginning to do six specific things. It gives itself a checklist at the very opening and says "Hey! This is what I am going to do." These six things are somewhat confusing but when you look at the words it is really simple to get.

1. "To Form a More Perfect Union": Lets face it, the Articles of Confederation were a complete failure. No one got along, no one agreed, and some people even tried to re-rebel because of crappy conditions (Shays). This one is pretty easy. The Framers (the guys who wrote the Constitution) wanted to make things better. In short they wanted a government that worked.

2. "Establish Justice": If the county is going to work everyone needs equality under the law. The old system (under the Brits) wasn't to keen on justice and fairness and all that junk. The Framers (writers) wanted to make sure everyone (read: white males) got a fair shake.

3. "Ensure Domestic Tranquility": You can't have a country and make it run well if you have people running around capturing federal armories. The Framers understood the need for calm and peaceful relations at home and among all of the citizens.

4. "Provide a Common Defense": Everybody needs to chip in and protect this place. A single state cannot protect itself from an assault by another nation. The Framers knew this and wanted to make sure no one would leave Vermont, Rhode Island or some other state out on their own in the event of an attack.

5. " Promote the General Welfare": Contrary to the popular belief among 8th graders this is not saying everyone gets Food Stamps. All this is really saying is that everyone has access to the whole "Life, Liberty, and Happiness" shebang that we all think is so dang awesome. In short if people are happy and content they will not flip out and rebel.

6. "Secure the Blessing of Liberty": The framers went to all of this trouble to make sure everyone is free and equal and all that stuff. They wanted to make sure that it stuck around for a while. The phrase after this in the preamble is "for ourselves and our posterity." That covers them and every other American that comes along anytime in the next bajillion years.

Goals are important. They well us what we need to accomplish and where we are heading. The Constitution's goals do they same thing. They well us what the framers intended for the United States to go and what they thought as of the utmost importance.

NEXT POST: CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES!!!!! (can you FEEL the excitement)

Compromise and the Constitution

Hey look! It's a PowerPoint. I bet this would be useful to go through...

The PowerPoint goes over the two major compromises we discussed in class.

Feel like commenting?

Why is important that the framers of the Constitution worked and came up with a compromise?

 

The Articles of Confederation & Shay's Rebellion or Hey this country isn't working what else can we do???

History teacher confession time: I did not know what the Articles of Confederation were until college. I am sure that some teacher made a misguided attempt to make sure that I "understood the importance and historical significance" or something like that. But, for the life of me I just can't remember hearing about it before I had a "what the heck are they talking about" moment in my sophomore US History course at WKU.

So, for your reading pleasure, I submit to you the important stuff you need to know about the Articles!

The Articles of Confederation are the first stab at forming a national government. In July of 1776 the Continental Congress up and decided to let their boy Thomas Jefferson write a nice little note to the leadership of Great Britain. In no uncertain terms the note said "Sorry, It's not us it's you. I think we should see other people..." So they write up The Articles of Confederation. The states all ratify it and in 1781 they go into effect.

From the get go the Articles are doomed to failure. While it does give congress the power to sign treaties, declare war, settle peace, and some other important things, it doesn't give them the ability to raise taxes to pay for it. With no money the government is powerless to really make any meaningful change.

The articles really showed how useless they were when a man named Daniel Shays led a rebellion near the town of Springfield Massachusetts. Long story short, Shays owed money and the terrible economy of the states he was unable to pay it. He and others with debt problems closed courthouses and generally caused a ruckus in their corner of Massachusetts. Things were going "okay" for Mr. Shays until he had the bright Idea to attack a National Armory and take some of the weapons.

The congress, who had no money or army, had nothing they could do about it. Massachusetts decided they should probably stop someone from taking all of their guns and ammo and ordered a militia raised. The milita got to the armory as fast as possible and arrived before Shay's troops. After the militia fired 2 of the cannons on the rebels, the rebels fled. Shay's Rebellion showed a lot of people that the government had no power and was unable to cope with crisis. Many of the important people in many of the states decide that something needed to change...

So! What options do the leaders of the United States in 1787 have? 

A history blog...

Ultimately this is here to help you, the student. Tell me what you want to see, what you think is helpful. I will be putting a weekly post about the topic we are studying. You may respond to it (there will be criteria) for extra credit. Please don't put your last name, just your first and what period you are in.