Notes:BC1.L&C.Constitution Introduction

2014/07/02 User:Jeff

Timeline

• 1763 British won war with France

• taxed and regulated colonies more than before.

Principles were articulated in the colonies in a way that created differences and ultimately confrontation with the British.

• Declared independence in 1776
• War of Independence resulted in England recognizing American independence with the Treaty of Paris in 1783
• 1787 wrote a new constitution
• March 1789 the constitution went into effect

election in 1780 demonstrated that the constitution worked - peaceful transition from Federalists (Washington, Adams) to Democratic Republicans (Jefferson, James Madison)

2nd Crisis was Civil War

At time of American Revolution, all the leaders and public opinion saw slavery as an abomination.

30 years later, it became fashionable to

A new view of human being.

Not a product of nature and God's providence - a product of time and circumstance - some inferior and we get to own them

Land to west was being opened up. Would need laws - which would allow slavery or not. Slavery required a lot of laws to support it to enforce it on an unwilling race.

So would have to decide if the new land would have slavery or not. Created a crisis that culminated in the Civil War.

Third Crisis:

The idea that humans are evolving as is society and everything is changing.

We have science that has given us understanding of historical process of progress and that we can administer scientifically to get control of progress.

This is a major claim of the current day.

The causes of America

The material cause: The enormous blessing of a great expanse of new land and the people that built a civilization in the wilderness and all the rest.

The efficient cause: the founders

The formal cause of the United States (the form): The Constitution

The final cause: The principles in the Declaration of Independence

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