The Constitution

A Week:
On Tuesday we had a scavenger hunt--you had to find things in the Constitution.

You were given a list of events from the period of our nation's founding, which you had to put in order and include the dates.
If you were absent, please read pages 73-83 and put the events you find in order.

Today (Wednesday) we corrected your timelines as a class, and we discussed the founding of our nation.

Notes:
Remember that the first governing document of the United States was the Articles of Confederation. It did not work.

Founders such as George Washington felt that it was necessary to form a government with a stronger central power. George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and friends did not become Federalists by accident. Remember, they were centrally involved in the winter at Valley Forge--a winter when the Continental troops were starving to death and freezing in the middle of America's best farmland. Farmers were selling their goods to the British soldiers because the British paid in pounds sterling (solid currency) while the American's paid in currency that was not trusted.

In order to save the army and the war effort, Washington had to take hard measures.
-he sent Gen. Nathaniel Greene to "buy" what little food was left from American farmers (the "selling" was forced).
-he strengthened up discipline in the army and gave lifetime half-pay pensions to officers who promised to stay for the rest of the war rather than going home at the end of their term.
-he restricted other liberties in order to gain control of the army and countryside.

Washington didn't like curtailing liberties, but he felt that short-term suffering would be better than tyranny under the British if they won the war. [Big hint: we will connect this issue to an opinion question about politics and the situation today--is it necessary to lose liberties during national emergencies?]

Washington developed the mindset that a strong national government was necessary--he saw what happened when the army was disorganized and supply lines didn't work.

The key question in forming this new government would be how to balance the powers to create an effective government. The founders were not thinking about "democracy" and "freedom" in the purest sense--they were too busy trying to create a government that would last. [Remember--the Europeans were STILL waiting for the whole darned thing to fall apart].