INFLUENCES ON THE US GOVERNMENT

1. INFLUENCES ON THE US GOVERNMENT Chapter 2

2. Chapter 2 Objectives • Discuss the concepts of limited government, representative government, and separation of powers. • Identify similarities in the writings and beliefs of John Locke and the Declaration of Independence.

3. AN ENGLISH POLITICAL HERITAGE • The English colonists who came to the Americas brought ideas about government that had been developing in England for centuries. • LIMITED GOVERNMENT- The ideas of limited government first appeared in the Magna Carta in 1215. • Magna Carta- The English nobles were upset with the rule of King John and forced him to sign a document recognizing their rights. • As the years passed, the Magna Carta became regarded as an idea of limited government, the concept that the government’s power (monarch’s) was limited or not absolute.

4. Petition of Right- Charles I took the throne and he wanted to be an absolute monarch. Parliament made him sign the Petition of Right which limited his powers. After a revolution, Charles I was beheaded. • English Bill of Rights- The same conflicts between the English King and Parliament continued. King James was removed from the throne and Parliament invited William and Mary of Orange to rule. This peaceful transfer of power was known as the Glorious Revolution. • In 1689, Parliament passes the English Bill of Rights which set clear limits on the monarch.

5. Major principles of the English Bill of Rights: • Monarchs do not have absolute authority, but rule with the consent of the peoples representatives in Parliament. • The monarch must have Parliament’s consent to suspend laws, levy taxes, or maintain an army. • The monarch cannot interfere with parliamentary elections and debates. • The people have a right to petition the government and to have a fair and speedy trial by a jury of their peers. • The people should not be subject to cruel and unusual punishments or to excessive fines and bail. • The king of England did not believe the English Bill of Rights applies to the American colonies because they were subjects to the rule of the throne. This was a major cause for rebellion in America.

6. REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT- The colonists firmly believed in a representative government in which people elect delegates to make laws and conduct government (similar to GB’s Parliament). • NEW POLITICAL IDEAS- came about during the Enlightenment (an intellectual movement that occurred during the late 1600’s and 1700’s). Educated Americans were familiar with this.

7. John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau both wrote about the social contract theory of government- Locke in his Two Treatises of Government (1690). • Locke believed that a state of nature existed before governments. In this state of nature, people were free, equal, and independent and had certain natural rights of life, liberty, and property. • Locke theorized that people made a social contract among themselves to create a government to protect their natural rights. However, if government failed to protect these rights, the people were just in rebelling against the government and changing it. • For Locke, government was legitimate only as long as the people continued to consent to it.

8. COLONIAL GOVERNMENTS: • WRITTEN CONSTITUTIONS-Most colonial governments shared the following features: written constitutions; representative legislatures; & separation of powers. • The Mayflower Compact that the Pilgrims signed in 1620 was the first of many colonial plans for self government. The Pilgrims realized that they needed rules to govern themselves and to survive in the new land. • General Fundamentals- The first system of laws in the English colonies. • Fundamental Orders of Connecticut- America’s first formal constitution- included rep. government.

9. SEPARATION OF POWERS: Colonial charters divided the power of government. The governor (king’s agent) had executive power, while the legislative body had the power to pass laws. Colonial courts heard cases. • This separation of powers had been written about by Charles-Louis Montesquieu, an Enlightenment thinker in his The Spirit of Laws. • The Founding Fathers English heritage and experience in colonial self government made them leaders in the American Experiment.

10. BRITAIN’S TREATMENT OF THE COLONIES • GB won the French and Indian War, which gave them an enormous war debt. King George III wanted the colonists to pay. (about 1760) • The king put taxes on tea, sugar, molasses, paper, other products and also levied the stamp tax, which was the first direct tax on the colonists. • The colonists staged the Boston Tea Party to protest the tea tax. • GB passed the Coercive (intolerable) acts which basically said that GB could do what they wanted in the colonies.

11. The colonies were growing themselves, separate from one another. However, they were united in their despise of British rule. • The Declaration of Independence- Drafted by Tommy J and signed on July 4, 1776. It declared our independence from GB. • Jefferson strongly based the Declaration on the ideas of Locke and other philosophers. • Three parts to the Declaration: 1) statement of purpose and basic human rights; 2) specific complaints against GB; 3) declaration of independence.

12. THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION • The Articles were our first form of government. They established a “firm league of friendship” between the colonies without a strong central government. • Congress could only do those things which were specifically mentioned in the Articles such as: make war and peace, send and receive ambassadors, make treaties, maintain a navy, maintain an army by asking the states for troops, appoint top military officers, etc.