Welcome to the Constitutional Literacy
curriculum modules, courtesy of BasicsProject.org. The curriculum is broken
into sections, The Declaration of Independence; Articles of Confederation;
Constitutional Convention; The Ratification Debate; US Constitution; Bill of Rights; and Amendments
to the US Constitution. In addition to these initial modules, there are
plans to develop modules on Economic Literacy and Our British Origins.
You Have Navigated to The
US Constitution Curriculum
The delegates at Philadelphia in 1787 needed to reconcile the need for a
strong federal government with the demand for State sovereignty, local
autonomy, and personal liberty. They could not find in the history of the
ancient world any model constitution that might achieve this purpose.
Drawing on their existing knowledge, they created a new system of
government.
Roman Influence
Three important political concepts drawn by the Americans from the Roman
experience were the doctrines of republicanism, political virtue, and checks
and balances. The English word constitution is derived from the Latin
constitution, meaning a collection of laws or ordinances made by a Roman
emperor.
President and federalism have roots in Roman history; and the Roman term
Senate was applied by the Framers of the American Constitution to the more
select house of the legislative branch of their federal government, although
the method of selecting senators in America was to be very different from
what it had been in Rome.
Washington patterned his conduct in war and politics on that of Cincinnatus,
the great Roman patriot and statesman who never sought power for himself,
who answered Rome's call when he was needed and returned to the plow when
the crisis had passed.
State Constitutions
The actual forms of checks and balances that the Americans incorporated into
their Constitution in 1787, were derived from English precedent and from
American colonial experience, rather than directly from the Roman model.
Our first state constitutions contained three major weaknesses, all of which
were known and avoided in the Philadelphia Convention of 1787.
First, they all failed to provide for an adequate system of separation of
powers. Most of them established three separate and distinct branches of
government, with no overlapping personnel; but the men who drafted them
thought in terms of a "pure" separation and did not understand the need for
checks and balances. As a result, political power tended to concentrate in
the legislatures, which in turn often ruled in an arbitrary manner,
tyrannizing over the other branches and oppressing the people, particularly
disfavored minority groups.
Second, all of these first constitutions, with the exception of New York's,
failed to establish an independent executive. In most cases, governors were
appointed by and answerable to the legislatures, and their powers were
severely restricted. Even those governors who enjoyed a semblance of
authority found it difficult to protect their office because they lacked
sufficient means by which to check legislative encroachments.
Third, all of these first constitutions lacked a provision establishing the
constitution as the supreme law. One factor contributing greatly to the
problem of legislative supremacy in the period between 1776 and 1787 was the
common assumption that legislators were the sole judges of their own
constitutional powers. Too few lawyers of the day believed that a State
court had the right to declare a statute invalid on the ground that it
violated the State constitution.
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Welcome to BasicsProject.org's Constitutional Literacy
Curriculum Initiative: The US Constitution Module.
Part
1: Preamble
Part 2: Article I, Section 1
Part 3: Article I, Section 2
Part 4: Article I, Section 3
Part 5: Article I, Section 4
Part 6: Article I, Section 5
Part 7: Article I, Section 6
Part 8: Article I, Section 7
Part 9: Article I, Section 8
Part 10: Article I, Section 9
Part 11: Article I, Section 10 |
Article II
Article III
Article IV
Article V
Article VI
Article VII |
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