Jordan Conway

6/29/2010

Dabney Notes- Day 2

 For the founding fathers, it was not out of the question to have dictation and definition set by
leaders, free from the people
 What Locke thought was equally important was contracts, consent, consensus basis of the
government, influence of FFs
 Personal freedom and Hobbes’ “State of Nature” view, everyone has personal freedoms, but men
are subject to law if personal freedoms limit those of others. There is a social contract defining civic
engagement
 Montesquieu: democracies become corrupt very quickly without fair and objective judiciary, etc.
Advocated separation of powers.
 Sir William Blackstone: human beings are energetic in pursuit of their own self-interest, how are
lawmakers constrained? They might be creating laws that serve the interest of everyone and not
just themselves. Are they subject to what they decide on?
 Thomas Paine:
 When we think of constitutionalism, we think of it as something old, readily accepted as citizens, but
really it is a living, breathing document, certain changes are necessary as part of an evolving society
so not only is it subject to change, but also to different and new interpretations. They are not
stagnant, even if some people who wish to make them stagnant.
 Current system: Constitutional Government, creates a formal system in which there are checks and
balances in our govt. we rely on the constitution to create policy
 Has enabling and empowering features
 Also has restrictive features

Unalienable Rights- rights that cannot be transferred from the people

 Anti-federalist leader: Robert Yates

 Thought the state government could rule better than a national federalist government,
favored states rights

 Articles of Confederation
 1781-1887(?) a political system in which states retain ultimate authority, except for the power that
they grant to the central government
 American government was weak under this system, feeble union
  Why? States had no taxation power, no national military, had no authority to
regulate government activities, there were no vetoing powers, but certain states
could “free ride” and neglect laws and evade taxes
 The Federalist Papers discuss four main ideas:
 Republicanism: citizens are the source of power the, the power is delegated to a
smaller body of delegates that will pursue their interests
 Popular sovereignty
 Separation of powers
 Federalism: layered system of government, powers are divided between the central
government and the state government, a two-level system, each layer of
government has its own power, checks and balances (written about in detail in the
Federalist Papers)

Virginia Plan- each state represented according to population, not good for smaller populated states,
representation would be undermined.

Tyranny of the majority/ of the elites  was a threat to libertylarge faction

Bicameralism vs. unicameralism

3/5 compromise- slaves have no rights, only counted as if 3/5 a person, had to be reached

Federalists: We don’t need a bill of rights to be spelled out in the constitution

You cannot have ex post facto law, meaning an action that has already taken place is illegal unless there
is a precedent, literature saying it is illegal before the event

There was the concern of the annihilation of the states by the anti-federalists

The Anti-Federalists: had anxiety of central government being so strong, the state governments will
have little power, bill of Fights is necessary

Federalists argue states will be protected, election of the president/ central government, is going to be
dependent on state legislature. There will be restrictions on power in the central government. House
has impeachment power. President has executive power of all laws. #47 and #48, you think America’s
constitution is filled with corrupt leaders, etc. But many states were doing that already. Government
taxation power was limited. The anti-federalists make a rational to persuade federalists to move to
change the constitution

Magna carta (great charter) civil liberties, then granted to King John,

Why should people care…

Hamilton: I
Federalists

No economic discrimination among states