OUR CREATED GOVERNMENT-KEY

Instructions: After having discussed what YOU would have done, let’s talk about what actually happened. Answer the following questions as we go through them.

A. Did we keep the Articles of Confederation? Why or why not?

No, because they were not properly governing our country, they made the central government too weak

B. Did we create a strong central government? Why? What powers does centralgovernment have?

Yes, because the government under the Articles was too weak. The national government would have the power to: tax, regulate foreign/interstate trade, coin & issue money, establish naturalization (citizenship), protect copyrights, raise a national military, etc…& make any laws necessary and proper (elastic clause)

C. Did we establish a leader? Did we call him a king? Why or why not? What did we call

him if it’s not a king? What if he gets too powerful? What can the leader do? How dowe make sure he doesn’t get tyrannical?

Yes, we will not call him a king because we do want a leader like a king. We will call him a president. He will be responsible for enforcing national laws since we had no one to do that before. We will be able check his power to make sure he is not too powerful & can impeach (bring charges) & vote to remove him.

D. What about a group to make laws? Is it the leader? A Congress–a group of

representatives from each state? How many people make up Congress? How is that

number determined? By size of state? Or same representatives for each state, no matterthe size?

Create a legislature, called a Congress.

  • Virginia Plan – 2 houses, both houses’ # of representatives will be based on the states population or wealth (favored by large states)
  • New Jersey Plan – 1 house, all states have one vote in Congress (small states)
  • Great Compromise – 2 houses, Senate: equal representation (2 per state); House of Reps: based on states population, larger states have more reps

E. Were children and women counted as population even though they probably won’t be

allowed to vote? What about slaves? Were slaves considered population?

Women & children would count as population but would not be allowed to vote.

Northerners did not want to count slaves because they would have less reps, southerners did because it would give them more reps = more power

  • 3/5 Compromise – Every 5 slaves will count as 3 people for population & taxes

F. Who chooses Congress? Who was allowed to vote? Everyone? Even people who cannotread or write and may know nothing of politics? What if the people voted for an evilleader?

  • House of Representatives chosen by the people
  • Senate chosen by the state legislatures
  • President voted on by people but chosen by the Electoral College: # of electors is equal to # of congressman & are members of the state legislatures
  • States decide who is allowed to vote…most states decide white adult males