Download
1 / 18
E N D
Popular Sovereignty “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America.”
Popular Sovereignty • Definition: The power to govern resides in the people. Thomas Jefferson: “Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are it’s only, safest depository.”
The question then is… HOW DO WE EXERCISE THIS POWER?
Who can vote? Citizen of the United States, at least 18 years of age. That means you!
Amendments Began with “We the People…” White males, property owners (1790s) White Males (1850s) African Americans and other “colored” men *15th Amendment* (1870)
Amendments Women *19th Amendment* (1920) Native Americans *Indian Citizenship Act* (1924) 18 year olds *26th Amendment* (1971)
SO NOW, the question is… Why do we, as citizens of the United States, NOT exercise our power?
Answer in a paragraph What is your opinion? Should the United States government give out incentives to vote? Or should the intrinsic value that comes with the right to vote be enough for the American people? Explain you answer.
Wise Words “Freedom is lost gradually from an uninterested, uninformed, and uninvolved people.” -Thomas Jefferson
Limited Government “When government fears the people – there is liberty. When the people fear the government – there is tyranny.” -Thomas Jefferson
Limited Government Definition: Government can only do things that the people have given it power to do. The government is subject to the law.
DIRECTIONS • PAIR UP into groups of 2 • One partner will be the scribe: • Paper • Something hard to write on • Something to write with • We will be going outside to make observations about the ways in which the government effects our lives daily.
Big Government or Small? “IF congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may appoint teachers in every state, county and parish and pay them out of their public treasury, they may take into their own hands the education of children establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume provision of the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads; in short, every thing from the highest object of state legislation to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of congress. Were the power of congress to be established in the latitude conveyed, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of limited government established by the people of America.” -James Madison
Questions: • Is the expansion of the government necessary to our society? Or has the government taken too much power from the people? Is it still truly limited?
Wise Words “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have”. -Thomas Jefferson
