U.S. Politics
Political Hot Buttons from the 1790s
When the United States of America was founded, there was no book or instruction manual on how to run a republic. Yes, most of our Founding Fathers schooling had included studying the Greeks and Romans. There was John Locke and 17th and 18th Century philosophers. Back then, our Founding Fathers couldn’t go to the local Barnes & Noble and browse the shelves for books on how to run a republic. Our Founding Fathers were, to use two overworked platitudes “breaking new ground” and “creating it on the fly.”
Read MoreThe Ultimate Civics Course Project
Madison’s proposed amendment was still in legal purgatory until Gregory Watson, a University of Texas undergraduate, wrote a paper in 1982 on the proposed amendment for a political science course. Watson posited that since the Constitution does not apply a statute of limitations on any amendment, any proposed amendment can be voted on at any time.
Read MoreMadison’s 17 Proposed Amendments
Three times in 1789 – August 24th, September 5th, and September 25th – the First Congress voted to ratify Madison’s amendments either as originally written or as modified by the legislative body. By the time the First Congress adjourned, all but three of the 17 worked their way into the 10 amendments that made up the Bill of Rights.
Read MoreThe Mighty Ninth and Tenth
Understand that Madison, who wrote the Bill of Rights, was afraid that a strong central government might run roughshod over the states. Hence the concept that if is if it not a power enumerated in the Constitution, the rights belong to the individual states or the people, i.e. the voters.
Read MoreCompeting Plans for the New U.S. Constitution
The states refused to provide money to the central government. Under the Articles of Confederation, the Continental Congress, now known as the Confederation Congress, could not regulate either interstate or international commerce. There was no executive or judicial branch of government so the Congress had no means to enforce laws.
Read MoreJefferson’s Foreign Policy Mess
Jefferson believed that if the U.S. imposed restrictions its merchants defining with whom they could trade, the warring European powers would accept them. They didn’t. England, through the Royal Navy was hell bent on cutting off supplies going to Europe.
Read MoreThe Essex Case and the Rule of 1756
Jefferson responded to the Essex ruling by getting the Congress to pass the Embargo Act of 1807 which forbade U.S. merchants from trading with countries at war. It backfired and U.S. trade declined dramatically causing Jefferson to push through the Non-Importation Act of 1807 that prohibited U.S. merchants from doing business in either France or Britain or any of their colonies. It too was largely ignored.
Read MoreJefferson and the French Revolution
Jefferson was committed to the republican form of government. If an absolute monarchy could not be abolished, a government needed to be put in place that would severely limit is ruler’s power.
Read MoreThe Twelfth Amendment Changes the Electoral College Votes
Our Founding Fathers feared politically maneuvering by members of the Electoral College (Senators and Representatives) who would “sell” their vote, make alliances to gain a majority, or abstain from voting. These actions would negate the “will of the people.”
Read MoreAmerica’s First Political Party
When John Adams garnered the most votes in the electoral college, the man he beat – Thomas Jefferson – became the VP. As per the Constitution, the candidate with second largest number of electoral votes became the vice president. Jefferson spent much of his tenure as VP attempting to discredit Adams and push legislation through the Congress based on the Democratic-Republican ideals.
Read More