Tuesday's notes (sorry the internet didn't work)

Chapter 3

-The Constitution defines the basic structure of government (regimes).
-Creates national government while recognizing the authority of the state governments.
-Divides the national government into 3 branches, describes each part, relationship with parts and relationships among national governments
-made by the second continental congress who voted for independence and prepared the Declaration of Independence
-John Locke's Principles of the idea that everyone has national rights that cannot be taken away were plagerized by Thomas Jefferson.
-Locke argued that people had the right to revolt when it was thought of by the people that the government wasn't taking care of them properly


-The first attemt at the written national government was the Articles of Confederation.
-Confederation- a loose association on independent states cooperating on specifed matters
-Government says that the states have sovereighty within its own borders, equal power to sister states, and that a revolution is in the republic of monarchy
-Government picks the elected representatives to help the governed
-the document gave no tax to the national government,no presiding officer of congress, no piwer to regulate interstate and foreighn commerce, amendments had to have every states's approval for change, and they couldn't quell Shay's Rebellion- a farmers riot in MA, they were loosing their farms because they couldn't pay the banks back in silver and gold like it wanted. Finally the MA militia had to take the farmers down

-Constitutional convention in Philidelphia summer of 1787 had 12/13 states send representatives. they were directed by congress to confirm it's task of revising Articles of Confederation
-the virginia plan was propsed, effect a whole new charter for government (larger states liked this) power to 3 branches- legislative-lawamaking-executive-law enforcing-judicial-law interpreting
- house of representatives will be chosen by the people; senete are from canidates the legislative nominates
-states representative in legislature is that they pay taxes to the nat govt
-legislature empowered to override the state laws
-executive consists of unspecified number of people into legislature, they serve one term, the nat judicials one or more supreme courts

-Small states disagreed and like the New Jersey Plan for amanding the document
-single chamber of legislature, the power to raise revenue and regulate commerce was established
-multiperson executive the would be elected by legislature without veto options
-no plan for provision of judicial
-acts of the nat leg. would be blinding the states, the supreme law of representaives are the states

-Connecticut plan a.k.a the"Great Compromise" proposed the house be representative of population and the senete be a representative of the states, having one vote per state
-delegates agree that there should be only a one person executive, no method of slesction of term, the ellectoral college onsists of electors chosen for the sole purpose of selecting president and vice president-each state has as many electors as the representatives and senete combined
-electores vote for 2 ppl, a president and vice ( the one with the most votes is pres and the second is vice)
-Ellectoral college eliminated the fear of the peoples' votes, and satified the small states' desire to vote in the selection process
-agreed that the pres should be allowed a second term and could only serve 4 years as a term
removing them from office, the house proposes the charges, senete holds the trial and the chief of justice precides of the trial

-Constitution gets a preamble, which is describing the 4 basic principles of the US political document
-it says " A people" and a federation form of a confederation of states
-states the reason for the constitution
-the constitution articulates a set of goals; promotion of order and freedom
-fashions a government