AMERICAN FEDERALISM

1. AMERICAN FEDERALISM UNIT 11

2. Preview • Typesofgovernment: unitary, federal, confederal • Federalism: definition • American History: • Colonial period • Pre-revolutionaryevents (1770-1774) • American WarofIndependence (1775-1783) • DeclarationofIndependence (1776) • Confederation (1781-1789), • Constitutionofthe United States (1787) • Federation (1789-)

3. Unitary (blue) vs. Federalstates (green)

4. Unitarystate • Astate governed as a single power in which thecentralgovernment is ultimately supreme and any administrativedivisions(sub-national units) exercise only the powers that the central government chooses to delegate. • Most states in the world have a unitary system of government. Of the 193 UN memberstates, 165 are governed as unitary states.

5. FEDERATION • A unionofstateswhich delegate specificpowers to centralgovernment • Citizens - subject to twojurisdictions: federalgovernmentandstates. • Federalpowers: war, monetary system, foreignrelations

6. CONFEDERATION • A union of sovereign states, united for purposes of common action often in relation to other states. • Usually created by atreaty, confederations tend to be established for dealing with issuessuch as defence, foreign relations, internal trade or currency, with the general government being required to provide support for all its members. • Confederalism- a main form of inter-governmentalism, defined as ‘any form of interaction between states which takes place on the basis of sovereign independence’

7. Confederal – federal – unitarysystems • In a confederal system, power is extremely diffuse -there is little central political control • In a federal system, the central (or federal) government has much more authority than in a confederal system. • In a unitary government, power is almost entirely centralized in a national government.

8. US history: thecolonial period - A hundred years after Columbus’s first voyage, Sir Walter Raleigh claimed the whole of North America for England, calling it Virginia - Jamestown: 1st settlement (1607)

9. The Pilgrim Fathers • ThePilgrimFatherssailedinMayflowerin 1620; • foundedPlymouth; • theirsocietywas to make realtheidealswhich had inspiredthem, as puritans, at home.

11. THE THIRTEEN COLONIES • Virginia (1607) • Massachusetts (1620) • New Hampshire (1623) • Maryland (1634) • Conneticut (c. 1635) • Rhode Island (1636) • Delaware (1638) • North Carolina (1653) • South Carolina (1663) • New Jersey (1664) • New York (1664) • Pennsylvania (1682) • Georgia (1732)

12. THE COLONIAL GOVERNMENT • 1750’s eachcolony - a separate entity, withits own governorand legislative assembly • Thelowerhouseofeachlegislatureelectedbyadult white men who werepropertyowners • Theupperhouses, or councils, andthegovernors: chosendepending on thetypeofcolony

13. COLONIES: SELF GOVERNMENT • Eachcolony had a representativeassemblywithauthority to make lawscovering most aspectsoflocallife • Theright to tax, to appropriatemoney for publicworksand to regulateinternaltrade, religionandsocialbehavior • The British governmentresponsible for externalmatters, e.g. foreignaffairsandtrade

14. PRE-REVOLUTIONARY EVENTS • 1770 BOSTON MASSACRE: five members of rioting crowd killed by British soldiers sent to Boston to maintain order • 1773 BOSTON TEA PARTY: caused by tea tax. Group of colonists threw tea from three British ships into Boston harbour • 1774 INTOLERABLE ACTS: five laws adopted by Parliament limiting political freedom of colonists

15. Boston Massacre(March 5, 1770)

16. The Boston Massacre • Presence of British troops in Boston - increasingly unwelcome • Riot began when about 50 citizens attacked a British guard • British officer, Captain Thomas Preston, called in additional soldiers, who were attacked;the soldiers fired into the mob, killing 3 on the spot and wounding 8 others, two of whom died later

17. TheBoston Tea Party (Dec. 16, 1773)

18. TheBoston Tea Party (Dec. 16, 1773) • A group of Massachusetts patriots, protesting the monopoly on American tea importation recently granted by Parliament to the East India Company, seized 342 chests of tea in a midnight raid on three tea ships and threw them into the harbor

19. TheBoston Tea Party (Dec. 16, 1773) • About midnight, watched by a large crowd, a group disguised as Mohawk Indians boarded the ships and threwaway the tea • It took nearly 3hours for more than 100 colonists to empty the tea into Boston Harbor. • more than 45 tons of tea, which would cost nearly $1,000,000 dollars today

20. The Coercive (orIntollerable) Acts (1774) • To Parliament, the Boston Tea Party confirmed Massachusetts's role as the core of resistance to British rule. • The Coercive Acts (1774) -intended to punish the colony in general and Boston in particular, both for the Tea Party and for the pattern of resistance it exemplified.

21. IntollerableActs (1774) • The Boston Port Act • Massachusetts Government Act • TheAdministration of Justice Act

22. The Boston Port Act (March 30, 1774) • A direct action against the city for the Boston tea party • The port of Boston - closed to all shipping until full restitution was made to the East India Company and the King for the lost tea and taxes • Bostonians argued that the act punished the entire city rather than the few who were responsible • As supplies in the city dwindled, other colonies began sending relief to the blockaded city

23. Massachusetts Government Act (May 20, 1774) • Designed to increase royal control over the colony's administration • Abrogating the colony's charter, the act stipulated that its executive council would no longer be democratically elected and its members would instead be appointed by the king

24. TheAdministration of Justice Act (May 20, 1774) • stated that royal officials could request a change of venue to another colony or Great Britain if charged with criminal acts in fulfilling their duties. • allowed travel expenses to be paid to witnesses, but few colonists could afford to leave work to testify at a trial.

25. TheAdministration of Justice Act (May 20, 1774) • Many in the colonies felt thiswas unnecessary as British soldiers had received a fair trial after the Boston Massacre • Dubbed the "Murder Act", it was felt that it allowed royal officials to act with impunity and then escape justice.

26. Reaction to IntollerableActs • Purposeofthe acts - to detach and isolate the radical element in Massachusetts from the rest of the colonies while asserting the power of Parliament over the colonial assemblies. • The harshness of the acts prevented this outcome as many colonies rallied to Massachusetts’s aid

27. Reaction to IntollerableActs • Seeing their charters and rights under threat, colonial leaders formed committees to discuss the repercussions of the Intolerable Acts

28. Reaction to IntollerableActs • Result:conveningthe First Continental Congress at Philadelphia on Sept. 5,1774 • Creating the Continental Association, the congress called for a boycott of all British goods. • If the Intolerable Acts were not repealed within a year, the colonies agreed to halt exports to Britain as well as support Massachusetts if it was attacked.

29. Reaction to IntollerableActs • Rather than exact punishment, the legislation worked to pull the colonies together and pushed them down the road towards war.

30. AMERICAN REVOLUTION (1775-1783) • Strugglebywhich 13 colonieswonindependencefrom Great Britain • In 1776 a ContinentalCongressappointedtwocommittees: one to drafttheDeclarationofIndependenceandtheothertoprepare a “formof confederation” amongthecolonies

31. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (July 4, 1776) • “Weholdthesetruths to beself-evident, thatallmen are createdequal, thatthey are endowedbytheirCreatorwithcertaininalienable Rights, thatamongthese are Life, Liberty, andthePursuitofHappiness.- That to securetheserights, Governments are institutedamongmen, derivingtheirjustpowersfromtheconsentofthegoverned”

32. Natural vs. Legal rights • Legal rights- bestowed by a given legal system (i.e., rights that can be modified, repealed, and restrained by laws). • Natural rights- not dependent on the laws or customs of any particular culture or government, and therefore universal andinalienable (i.e., rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by laws).

33. GRIEVANCES AGAINST THE KING • He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures • He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws

34. GRIEVANCES AGAINST THE KING • For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world • For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent • For depriving us (...) of the benefits of Trial by Jury • For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

35. Grievances against the King (cont.) • For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments • For suspending our own Legislatures and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever • He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging war against us (...)

36. CONCLUSION • “We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good people of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved...”

37. Theoryofsocialcontract • Individuals have consented, either explicitly orimplicitly, to surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the ruler or(or to the decision of a majority), in exchange for protection of their remaining rights • The relation betweennaturalandlegalrights - an aspect of social contract theory. • The term takes its name from The Social Contract (1762) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

38. Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679) • in the „stateof nature", human life would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short". • In the absence of political order and law, everyone would have unlimited natural freedoms, including the freedom to plunder, rape, and murder; an endless "war of all against all„ • To avoid this, free men contract with each other to establish politicalcommunity i.e. civil societythrough a social contract in which they all gain security in return for subjecting themselves to an absolute Sovereign, one man or an assembly of men. • Though the Sovereign's edicts may be arbitrary and tyrannical, Hobbes saw absolute government as the only alternative to the terrifying anarchy of a state of nature. Hobbes asserted that humans consent to abdicate their rights in favor of the absolute authority of government (whether monarchial or parliamentary).

39. John Locke (1632-1704), Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) • argued that wegaincertain civil rights in return for accepting the obligation to respect and defend the rights of others, giving up some freedoms to do so. • The central assertion: that law and political order are not natural, but are instead human creations. • The social contract and the political order it creates are simply the means towards an end—the benefit of the individuals involved—and legitimate only to the extent that they fulfill their part of the agreement. • when the government fails to secure their natural rights (Locke) or satisfy the best interests of society (called the "general will" in Rousseau), citizens can withdraw their obligation to obey or change the leadership, through elections or other means including, when necessary, violence

40. THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS • FollowingtheDeclarationofIndependence, thestatesjoinedtogetherin a legislative assembly, the Continental Congress, inwhicheach state had one vote • Mediateddisputesamongthestates, raisedandmaintainedthearmy, securedloansfromEuropeanbankers, mademilitaryandcommercialalliances • A temporarygovernmentwithoutclearlydefinedpowers • To establishitsauthority, theCongressenactedtheArticlesof Confederation in 1777

41. ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATIONPassed Nov. 15, 1777. Ratified, March 1, 1781 • Article I. The Style of this confederacy shall be “The United States of America” • Article II. Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.

42. Article III. • The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defence, the securtiy of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other, against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence whatever.

43. CONFEDERATION • The Articles proposed a loose confederation in which each state kept its sovereign independence and control over all its internal affairs. • Certain powers, primarily relating to diplomacy and defense, were delegated to the Confederation Congress.

44. CONFEDERATION CONGRESS • One-house Congress in which each state had one vote, regardless of population or wealth • The Congress had military and diplomatic powers, but no authority to regulate commerce or to levy taxes • There was no governor or chief executive and no system of courts

45. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONPhiladelphia, May-Sept. 1787 • 55 delegates, including George Washington, James Madison and Benjamin Franklin • Conflicts over how the people were to be represented in Congress, what to do about slavery, the powers of the president and the powers and functions of federal courts

46. VIRGINIA PLAN • Edmund Randolph proposed that members of both houses of Congress be apportioned according to the population of each state; since the population in three states alone - Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachussetts - made up nearly half the country, the plan would have given these states control of the nation • In favor of a strong central government

47. NEW JERSEY PLAN • William Patterson’s plan favored small states, giving all states equal representation in a one-chamber Congress regardless of population. • The more numerous small states could unify against the larger ones

48. THE GREAT COMPROMISE(OR THE CONNETICUT COMPROMISE • Roger Sherman: “Let the states have it both ways. Give the states an equal voice in the upper house, the Senate, and representation apportioned by population in the lower house, the House of Representatives

49. SLAVERY • The dispute over how to assign House seats to Southern states • If seats were apportioned according to state populations that included slaves, Southern states would gain an advantage • Northern states pushed to exclude slaves from the population calculations • Southern states resisted, thereatening to scuttle the Constitution

50. Slavery • Northern abolitionists agreed to the infamous clause in Article I that counted slaves as only three-fifths of a person and that barred Congress from ending the slave trade before 1808 • The settlement over slavery led the convention to accept the Great Compromise