revolution a decent respect to the opinions of mankind (humanities 4)

Revolution

“A decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind”

(Humanities 4)

Declaration of Independence

• Should the 13 Colonies declare independence from Britain?

• July 1, 1776: vote 9 yes (New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, Rhode Island) 3 no (Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Delaware) 1 abstaining (NY lacked permission)

• July 2: Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Delaware change votes. “Unanimous”

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Declaration of Independence

• A Declaration by the Representatives of United States of America, in General Congress Assembled– Vs.

• The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

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Declaration of Independence• “When in the Course of human Events, it becomes

necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.”– State of Nature– Laws of Nature (Locke, Rousseau) and Nature’s God (Deism?)– Legitimacy of Rebellion– Keen awareness that the attention of the world is on the United

States– First democratic government since classical times

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Declaration of Independence• “WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men

are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”– Who are “we”?– If the truths are self-evident, why bother saying them?– Why then do they need to be “held”?– How does this influence the nature of the American state?

• Written in the voice of a single, national people• The US is not a community of shared blood or culture, but of

shared belief.– The Sovereign People

• The Popular Sovereign is a transtemporal entity

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Declaration of Independence• The role of God, “the Creator”:• Who is he?

– Deism vs. Revealed Religion• What is his political function?

– The source of political rights• Political rights are an intrinsic part of being human.• What does it mean for all men to be created equal? Equal

how?• Is God (of some kind) necessary for this to be true?• In the first utterance of the united American nation,

equality is the foundational political good, and the basis for political liberty

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Declaration of Independence• “That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among

Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”– The purpose of government is the preservation of rights

• Stemming from equality– An inherent right to revolution– Organization of power to be determined by “the people.”

• Again, the people are prior, as are their security and happiness, to the government.

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Declaration of Independence

• “when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.”– Right & Duty

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Declaration of Independence• Slavery in the draft

– he has incited treasonable insurrections of our fellow citizens with the allurements of forfeiture and confiscation of our property:

– he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemispere, or to incure miserable death in their transportation hither. this piratical warfare, the opprobium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain.

– [determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold,] he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce [determining to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold]: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he had deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.

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Federalist & Anti-Federalist

• Points of conflict– What is America? Who is an American?– One people or many?– Both agree that ultimate source of political

authority lies in the people, but is that authority expressed in their laws or in their voices?

– To what extent a democracy, to what a republic?– Which is better, a small or a large republic?– How should the will of the people be mediated?

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Federalist Papers• 1787-88• Authorship:

– Usually credited as follows:• Alexander Hamilton: #1, 6–9, 11–13, 15–17, 21–36, 59–61, and 65–85• James Madison: #10, 14, 37–58 and 62–63• John Jay: #2–5 and 64

• Why kept secret? Why attributed to a single pseudonym?• Publius Valerius Publicola

– A leader of the Roman revolt, which ended the line of the kings of Rome

– Wrote popular series of laws, helped to structure Roman Republic

– Called “the friend of the people”

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A Revolution Divided

• Classical pseudonyms reveal the extent to which Federalists & Anti-Federalists differ in their points of view– Is the republic being born, or threatened with

destruction?• Many revolutions, lacking established

authority by definition, suffer internal conflict– American political institutions may have helped to

prevent American divisions from causing major political violence

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Federalist and Anti-Federalist

• Basic points of disagreement:– Are people fundamentally good or fundamentally bad?

• What makes them good or bad?– Which is the greater and more immediate threat, anarchy

or despotism?– Is the United States one people or many?

• Though they take strongly opposed positions, each side of the Constitution debate speaks the same political language.

• Thus, this is not an issue of what ideals and principles apply, but of their interpretation.

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Federalist• People are fundamentally bad. – #10: “The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the

nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society.”

• Anti-Federalist: People are basically good, bad gov’t makes them bad

• Fed.: Anarchy and civil war are the most pressing threats– Fed. #10: Due to the increased freedom found in republics,

they are particularly prone to faction.• Anti-Federalist: Tyranny is the most pressing threat

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Federalist

• The United States is one, national people– Fed. #14: "Shut your hearts against the poison which

it conveys; the kindred blood which flows in the veins of American citizens, the mingled blood which they have shed in defense of their sacred rights, consecrate their Union, and excite horror at the idea of their becoming aliens, rivals, enemies.”

– Fed. #78: The Constitution will be the expression of the will of “the people”.

• Anti-Federalist: The United States is an alliance of many peoples

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Federalist Papers

• The problem with factions• Fed. #10– Republics are prone to factionalization– Factions: groups within the republic united by

interest or passion– "There are two methods of curing the mischiefs of

faction: the one, by removing its causes; the other, by controlling its effects”• But: “The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the

nature of man”

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Federalist Papers• Fed #10: “The inference to which we are brought is, that

the causes of faction cannot be removed, and that relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its effects.”– “If a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is supplied by

the republican principle, which enables the majority to defeat its sinister views by regular vote. It may clog the administration, it may convulse the society; but it will be unable to execute and mask its violence under the forms of the Constitution.”

• “When a majority is included in a faction, the form of popular government, on the other hand, enables it to sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest both the public good and the rights of other citizens.”

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Federalist Papers

• Solution:• Separation of powers– Legislature– Executive– Judiciary

• Checks & balances– By setting factions & branches of gov’t against

each other, none will be able to dominate• Protection of minority groups

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Federalist Papers

• Fed #51: Division of power "where the constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that each may be a check on the other that the private interest of every individual may be a sentinel over the public rights.”– “Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The

interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

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Anti-Federalist Response

• Plans of Publius are:• Impractical: local identity > national identity,

central government can’t control periphery• Aristocratic/oligarchic: designed to take

power for the few & exclude the many• Imperial: Central gov’t will use standing

armies primarily for internal suppression of local rebellion

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Federalist• The Executive (Fed. #70):– Limited terms– No legislative power but veto – Under the law– Strong executive makes for strong gov’t– Single executive makes it easier to affix responsibility

• Notice how concerned Hamilton is with demonstrating that the Executive is not a king

• Anti-Federalist response:– You’re just electing a king!

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Federalist• Legislature (Fed. 39)• “the sources from which the ordinary powers of

government are to be derived:”– “The House of Representatives will derive its powers from

the people of America; and the people will be represented in the same proportion, and on the same principle, as they are in the legislature of a particular State. So far the government is national, not federal.”

• “The Senate, on the other hand, will derive its powers from the States, as political and coequal societies; and these will be represented on the principle of equality in the Senate, as they now are in the existing Congress. So far the government is FEDERAL, not NATIONAL”

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Federalist

• Legislature (Fed. #39)• “The difference between a federal and national

government, as it relates to the OPERATION OF THE GOVERNMENT, is supposed to consist in this, that in the former the powers operate on the political bodies composing the Confederacy, in their political capacities; in the latter, on the individual citizens composing the nation, in their individual capacities. On trying the Constitution by this criterion, it falls under the NATIONAL”

• Anti-Federalist Response: Senate aristocratic, excludes the voice of the people. Expect power of House of Representatives to be undermined

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Federalist• Judiciary (Fed. #78)

– Lifetime appointment to retain independence– Power of judicial review– “A constitution is, in fact, and must be regarded by the judges, as a

fundamental law. It therefore belongs to them to ascertain its meaning, as well as the meaning of any particular act proceeding from the legislative body. If there should happen to be an irreconcilable variance between the two, that which has the superior obligation and validity ought, of course, to be preferred; or, in other words, the Constitution ought to be preferred to the statute, the intention of the people to the intention of their agents.”

• Anti-Federalist: the constitutional position of judges is anti-democratic– there is no power above them that can control their decisions, or correct their

errors. – There is no authority that can remove them from office for any errors or want

of capacity, or lower their salaries – in many cases their power is superior to that of the legislature.

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Constitution of the United States of America

• 1787– Congress of the Confederation votes to begin plan

to revise/replace Articles of Confederation– Invite states to send delegates to Philadelphia

Convention (only RI refuses)– Contrary to Articles of Confederation, Art. VII says

that only 9 participating states need ratify the new Constitution for it to go into effect

– Adopted September 17, 1787

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Constitution of the United States of America

• What does it mean to “constitute”?• “We the People of the United States, in Order

to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

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Legislature• Article I– Broad powers over declaration of war, commerce (foreign

& interstate), law, currency, punishment, etc.• House of Representatives• “Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned

among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.”– Changed by 13th & 14th amendment

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Legislature• House of Representatives

• “Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.”• Changed by 13th & 14th amendment

• Senate– The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two

Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote• changed by 17th amendment to direct election

• Compromise between small and large states

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Legislature

• Commerce Clause– To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and

among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.• Article I, section 8, clause 3

• Necessary and Proper Clause– The Congress shall have Power - To make all Laws

which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.• Article I, section 8, clause 18

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Executive

• Executive– Commander-in-chief of armed forces– Appoint to offices– Grant pardons– Sees that laws are faithfully executed– Veto• Can be overridden by 2/3 majority of legislature

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Judiciary

• Judiciary• Congress creates lower courts, but there must be

a Supreme Court• Lifetime appointment• Constitutional review– Constitution is “the supreme Law of the Land; and the

Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding” (Art. 6)

– Marbury v. Madison (1803)

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Constitution of the United States of America

• No amendment may affect slavery until 1808– Compromise to maintain unity

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Bill of Rights

• Hamilton against, Jefferson in favor• Madison proposes Bill of Rights during

ratification process for Constitution 1789, ratified 1791– A compromise to keep the Constitution from

being derailed

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Bill of Rights

• The case against: Hamilton in Fed. #84• “in strictness, the people surrender nothing; and

as they retain every thing they have no need of particular reservations.”

• “bills of rights… are not only unnecessary in the proposed Constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would contain various exceptions to powers not granted; and, on this very account, would afford a colorable pretext to claim more than were granted.”

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Bill of Rights

• The case for: Anti-Federalist (“Brutus”)• “Ought not a government, vested with such extensive

and indefinite authority, to have been restricted by a declaration of rights? It certainly ought.”

• “So clear a point is this, that I cannot help suspecting that persons who attempt to persuade people that such reservations were less necessary under this Constitution than under those of the States, are wilfully endeavoring to deceive, and to lead you into an absolute state of vassalage.”

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Bill of Rights• Individualistic• Restrictive of the powers of government• Negative liberty• 1. Congress shall make no law respecting an

establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

• 2. A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

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Bill of Rights

• 3 & 4: Security of property from the state– Protection from the quartering soldiers– Protection from unreasonable search & seizure

• 9: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

• 10: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

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Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

• Article I - Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions can be founded only on the common utility.

• Article II - The goal of any political association is the conservation of the natural and imprescriptible [i.e., inviolable] rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, safety and resistance against oppression.

• Article III - The principle of any sovereignty resides essentially in the Nation. No body, no individual can exert authority which does not emanate expressly from it.

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Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

• Article IV - Liberty consists of doing anything which does not harm others: thus, the exercise of the natural rights of each man has only those borders which assure other members of the society the enjoyment of these same rights. These borders can be determined only by the law.

• Article V - The law has the right to ward [i.e., forbid] only actions [which are] harmful to the society. Any thing which is not warded [i.e., forbidden] by the law cannot be impeded, and no one can be constrained to do what it [i.e., the law] does not order.

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Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

• Article VI - The law is the expression of the general will. All the citizens have the right of contributing personally or through their representatives to its formation. It must be the same for all, either that it protects, or that it punishes. All the citizens, being equal in its eyes, are equally admissible to all public dignities, places and employments, according to their capacity and without distinction other than that of their virtues and of their talents.

• Article XIII - For the maintenance of the public force and for the expenditures of administration, a common contribution is indispensable; it must be equally distributed between all the citizens, by reason of their faculties [i.e., ability to pay]

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