Question/Problem 3: How did the Revolutionaries design the first American system of government?

Objectives

Description of lesson/activity

Resources

1. explain the importance of state constitutions as testing grounds for constitutional design.

2. describe the government set up by the Articles of Confederation.

3. evaluate the successes and failures of the system of government under the Articles of Confederation.

4. interpret primary resources.

5. gather and organize information.

1. It is important for students to understand that governance in the American system has always been a partnership between state and federal governments. The balance of power between state and federal government is a continual theme in American history and is stressed in this curriculum. Unfortunately, the importance of state constitutions is all but ignored in resources available for teacher and student use. The American Revolution was not only a period of war-making but as importantly of constitution-making. As pointed out by Donald Lutz in Roots of the Republic (Schechter, 153), "Because every United States citizen has a double citizenship, state constitutions define one-half of every American's citizenship." They were the testing grounds for constitutional design and reflect the full range of republican thinking from the most radical (Pennsylvania's Constitution of 1776) to the most conservative (Massachusetts Constitution of 1780). It is highly recommended that the teacher provide students additional resources and activities on state constitution-making. A list of resources to jumpstart that effort includes:

We the people... published by the Center for Civic Education, Calabasas, CA, is a student text available on both middle school and high school levels.

Richard B. Bernstein, Are We To Be A Nation?: The Making of the Constitution (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press) offers excellent background information for the teacher. This book was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1988.

A user-friendly resource for teacher and student is Roots of the Republic , which has been cited in Units III and IV. This publication offers a series of the texts of early state constitutions preceded by brief commentaries written in a style that is easy to understand even by students.

2. Supplemental information found above will aid students in the completion of the accompanying "State Constitutions" Worksheet . Students may work in groups and will need help in locating the answer to question #2. This answer should include the idea that the colonial legislatures, elected by the people, were at odds with the governor, who was appointed by the king. To avoid conflict, weak executives (with limited power and controlled by the legislatures) were created.

3. The teacher should then introduce the Articles of Confederation to students. It would be beneficial for students to have complete copies of the Articles available as a resource.

4. Students should work in groups on the accompanying "Articles of Confederation" Worksheet . They will need the accompanying "Articles of Confederation Resource" to answer #1-3 if they do not have a copy of the full document.

5. Key points for teachers to stress with students about the Articles of Confederation are:

• The Articles of Confederation was America's first federal constitution. In the eighteenth century, federal and confederal were synonyms.

• The Articles created a loose league of the states which preserved the sovereignty of the states. It was a compact among the states.

• Although flawed, the Articles had several positive and lasting provisions (see Richard B. Bernstein's essay IV ). The Constitution of 1787 replaced a federal government with a national government, but the outline of the two documents are quite similar.

• The invention of dual citizenship in the Articles is a fundamental expression of federalism because every American is simultaneously a citizen of the United States and of the state in which she or he resides. This concept will surface in future units.

6. Students should answer questions #4-6 in their groups. When they have finished, they can answer #7 as a group or an individual assignment. Evaluation is left up to the teacher.

Resource 1: State Constitutions: Worksheet

Resource 2: Articles of Confederation: Worksheet

Resource 3: Articles of Confederation: Resource