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Founders and the Constitution: In Their Own Words—Volume 2

John Hancock(1737–1793)

Iglory in publicly avowing my eternal enmityto tyranny.—John Hancock, 1774

IntroductionForever famous for his outsized signature on the Declaration of Independence, John Hancockwas a larger than life figure in other ways as well. Part of the great Boston triumvirate thatincluded Samuel Adams and James Otis, Hancock was a wealthy merchant whose bank accounthelped to finance the radical activities of the Sons of Liberty. Hancock himself became athorn in the side of the British, who seized his ship, the Liberty, in 1768 and put a price onhis head in 1775.

Hancock served as president of the Continental Congress and presided over the signingof the Declaration on August 2, 1776. Disappointed at being passed over for command of theContinental army in 1777, he returned to Massachusetts, where he had a hand in writing thestate constitution of 1780 and served as governor for all but four years between 1780 and1793. Hancock agreed to support ratification of the Constitution despite his reservationsabout centralized government power.

Popular in his day and in the hearts of succeeding generations of Americans because ofhis famous signature, opinion of Hancock remains divided. Some agree with John Adamsthat he was “an essential character” in the Revolution, while others belittle him as no morethan Samuel Adams’s moneyman and tool.

Relevant Thematic Essay for John Hancock• Liberty

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In His Own Words:John Hancock

ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE BOSTON MASSACRE

John Hancock

StandardsCCE (9–12): IIA1, IIC1, IIIA1, IIIA2NCHS (5–12): Era III, Standard IA, ICNCSS: Strands 2, 5, 6, and 10

MaterialsStudent Handouts

• Handout A—John Hancock(1737–1793)

• Handout B—Vocabulary andContext Questions

• Handout C—In His Own Words:John Hancock on the Anniversaryof the Boston Massacre

• Handout D—Analysis: JohnHancock on the Anniversary of theBoston Massacre

Additional Teacher Resource• Answer Key

Recommended TimeOne 45-minute class period.Additional time as needed forhomework.

OverviewIn this lesson, students will learn about John Hancock.They should first read as homework Handout A—JohnHancock (1737–1793) and answer the ReadingComprehension Questions. After discussing the answersin class, the teacher should have students answer theCritical Thinking Questions as a class. Next, the teacher should introduce the primary source activity,Handout C—In His Own Words: John Hancock on theAnniversary of the Boston Massacre in which Hancockaddresses the people of Boston about resisting Britishtyranny. As a preface, there is Handout B—Vocabularyand Context Questions, which will help the studentsunderstand the document. Handout D—Analysis: JohnHancock on the Anniversary of the Boston Massacreasks students to imagine the reactions of variouslisteners to the speech.

There is a Follow-Up Homework Option, whichasks students to respond to Hancock’s assertion aboutthe primary purpose of government. Extensions asksstudents to analyze the symbolic purposes of Hancock’sspeech, and identify and analyze similar modernexamples.

ObjectivesStudents will:

• explain the ways John Hancock worked tosupport the Revolutionary cause.

• understand the reasons for Hancock’s reputationin the American colonies.

• understand the partnership between Hancock andSamuel Adams in resisting British tyranny.

• analyze the various purposes of the “Oration onthe Anniversary of the Boston Massacre.”

• evaluate the effectiveness of Hancock’s rhetoricalstrategies.

• appreciate Hancock’s contributions to his country.


I. Background HomeworkAsk students to read Handout A—John Hancock (1737–1793) and answer the ReadingComprehension Questions.

II. Warm-Up [10 minutes]A. Review answers to homework questions.B. Conduct a whole-class discussion to answer the Critical Thinking Questions.C. Ask a student to summarize the historical significance of John Hancock.

John Hancock financed the Sons of Liberty. A Patriot leader, he served in the ContinentalCongress and presided over the signing of the Declaration of Independence, where heaffixed his outsized signature. He helped draft the state constitution of Massachusettsand served as governor of the state for nine terms.

III. Context [5 minutes]Explain to students that, one year after organizing the Boston Tea Party in 1773, JohnHancock commemorated the anniversary of the Boston Massacre to a large crowd inBoston. Hancock’s speech is representative of growing hostility in New England towardBritain and the use of more violent rhetoric in support of Independence in the yearsleading up to the Revolutionary War.

IV. In His Own Words [20 minutes]A. Distribute Handout C—In His Own Words: John Hancock on the Anniversary

of the Boston Massacre.B. Have students read the speech, taking turns every sentence or so.C. Divide students into pairs, distribute and have students complete Handout B—

Vocabulary and Context Questions.D. Once students have finished, ask students to summarize the main points of

Hancock’s speech.

Suggested answers:• The purpose of government is to provide security for people and property.• Hancock will not support a government that does not provide these securities.• It is immoral to support a government that does not protect its citizens’ rights.• The British Crown has not protected the colonists’ rights.• The British have abused the colonists with taxes and standing armies.• Standing armies are repugnant to a civil society.• The colonies benefit from well-regulated militias composed of brave men dedicated

to freedom.• Do not be swayed by the influence of money and material things. Virtue is more

important than money.

E. Distribute Handout D—Analysis: John Hancock on the Anniversary of theBoston Massacre.

F. Have students, still working in pairs, complete the chart on Handout D, assumingthe identity of the person(s) on the left side of the chart, and writing a reaction toHancock’s speech from the point of view of that person or group.

LESSON PLAN



V. Wrap-Up Discussion [10 minutes]Have each pair share their response for the first section of the chart with the class;continue until all have reported. What are the strongest points of Hancock’s speech?Are there portions that do not work as well?

VI. Follow-Up Homework OptionsA. Ask students to write a one-page speech agreeing or disagreeing with Hancock’s

assertion that “Security to the persons and properties of the governed is . . .obviously the design and end of civil government. . . .”

B. In 1774, Governor Gage pardoned all who had been involved in illegal oppositionto the British—all that is, except Hancock and his close ally Samuel Adams. Havestudents write a dispatch, as Gage, to law enforcement authorities explaining thatthey should be on the lookout for John Hancock. Gage should explain whyHancock did not receive amnesty and why he is such a serious threat to Britishrule. Make sure to explain why the “Oration on the Anniversary of the BostonMassacre” was so subversive.

VII. ExtensionsJohn Hancock was famous for his grand symbolic gestures such as his signature on theDeclaration of Independence and his participation in the Boston Tea Party. Askstudents to write a one-page essay answering the questions: Why did Hancock chooseto deliver this speech on the anniversary of the Boston Massacre? Is this an effectiverhetorical strategy? Identify at least two examples of modern political figures usingsymbolic gestures to strengthen the impact of a speech. Compare these examples to thesymbolism in Hancock’s speech.

ResourcesPrintBailyn, Bernard. The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974.Brandes, Paul D. John Hancock’s Life and Speeches: A Personalized Vision of the American Revolution, 1763–1793.

Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 1996.Fowler, William M. The Baron of Beacon Hill: A Biography of John Hancock. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979.Maier, Pauline. American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence. New York: Vintage Books, 1997.Unger, Harlow G. John Hancock: Merchant King and American Patriot. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2000.Wagner, Frederick. Patriot’s Choice: The Story of John Hancock. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1964.

Internet“The Declaration of Independence.” National Archives and Records Administration. .“John Hancock, 1737–1793.” USHistory.org. .“The Sons of Liberty.” Massachusetts Historical Society. .

Selected Work by John Hancock• Oration on the Anniversary of the Boston Massacre (1774)

John Hancock

LESSON PLAN


I have the most animating confidence that the present noble struggle for liberty will terminate gloriously for America.

—John Hancock, 1774

The two men in the otherwise empty chamber locked eyes for a momentin the late morning light. Two days earlier, the Continental Congresshad approved a resolution supporting independence, and on July 4,1776, had given their official approval to the Declaration ofIndependence. John Hancock, president of the Congress, had stayedbehind. It was now his task to authenticate the Declaration so it couldbe sent to colonial legislatures.

Hancock held the gaze of Secretary of Congress Charles Thomson.The gravity of what they had just resolved weighed upon him. He knew

that the other signers would not affix their names to the Declaration foranother month or so, and even then, their names would be kept secret to

protect them from charges of treason. Hancock would be the only known signerof the Declaration of Independence, that document which accused the English King

of tyranny, and which would mark them as traitors to the crown. Hancock picked up thequill and boldly affixed his name in large, embellished script. With his name, he pledged—as the Declaration proudly affirmed—his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor to hisfellow Patriots in the cause of American independence.

BackgroundJohn Hancock was born on January 23, 1737, in Braintree, Massachusetts. His father wasa clergyman who died when Hancock was a boy. Hancock was then raised by his uncle,a wealthy Boston merchant, who sent him to Harvard College. At age seventeen, after anundistinguished academic career, Hancock graduated and became a clerk in his uncle’sshipping firm.

In 1764, Hancock’s uncle died, leaving his business and substantial fortune—perhaps the largest in all of New England—to the twenty-seven-year-old Hancock. Heinstantly became an influential figure at a time when tensions between America andGreat Britain were beginning to increase. In 1765, the British Parliament passed theStamp Act, which sparked violent protests in Boston. The following year, Hancock waselected to the Massachusetts legislature.

The Sons of LibertyIt was at this time that Samuel Adams befriended Hancock. A fellow Bostonian, Adamswas already known for his opposition to the British attempt to tax the American colonies.He convinced the wealthy Hancock to assist him in organizing the Sons of Liberty, agroup of Americans who took action to resist British tyranny. Hancock’s money largelyfunded the Patriot movement in Boston.

Adams and Hancock were in many ways an odd couple. A member of the elite classand a man of commerce, Hancock did not hesitate to conduct business with Englishmerchants. He was always well groomed and attired in the finest clothes money couldbuy. Adams, on the other hand, was a failed businessman who cared little for fame or for


JOHN HANCOCK (1737–1793)

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his personal appearance. A committed Puritan, he disliked displays of wealth and chidedthose who purchased “baubles” produced by English manufacturers. But the friendshipbetween the pair became one of the most important personal relationships of theRevolutionary era.

The Liberty IncidentIn 1768, British customs officials seized one of Hancock’s merchant vessels, the Liberty.They claimed that the ship’s captain had failed to pay import duties. The captain wasfollowing Hancock’s orders to challenge the legality of the British tax. The incident sparkedviolence when the Sons of Liberty organized a mob to protest the Liberty’s seizure.

The Liberty incident made Hancock a hero among American Patriots and a nuisanceto British authorities. In the same year, he and Adams helped to generate protests againstthe newly enacted Townshend Duties. The British government sent several regiments oftroops to Boston to try to squelch the increasing rabble-rousing of the Sons of Liberty.

The Boston MassacreOn the evening of March 5, 1770, a crowd of Bostonians gathered around a group ofBritish soldiers and began to taunt them and throw snowballs. The soldiers fired on thecitizens, killing five men. The event galvanized opposition among Bostonians to theBritish presence. Hancock and Adams convened a meeting of outraged citizens the nextday. Hancock was chosen to head a committee to demand that Lieutenant-GovernorThomas Hutchinson remove the troops from the city.

The troops were not withdrawn, and the Sons of Liberty continued to organizeopposition to British rule. In 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act, which lowered theprice of British tea, thereby undercutting American merchants and smugglers. In response,Hancock and Adams organized the Boston Tea Party. This was a nighttime raid in whichsome 150 members of the Sons of Liberty, disguised as Native Americans, boarded adocked merchant ship and threw 342 chests of British tea into Boston harbor.

The Declaration of IndependenceBy 1774 Hancock and Adams had been singled out by British authorities as the maintroublemakers in Boston. In a last-ditch attempt to quell the uprising, the new royalgovernor of Massachusetts, General Thomas Gage, issued an amnesty to all who hadbeen involved in illegal opposition to British law. However, he named Hancock andAdams as the only residents who could not obtain pardon. In April 1775,Massachusetts militiamen fired on British troops sent by Gage to arrest Hancock andAdams. The American War of Revolution had begun. Hancock was angry whenCongress in 1775 passed him over for command of the Continental Army and choseGeorge Washington instead.

That year, Hancock was chosen to attend the meeting of the Continental Congressin Philadelphia. He was chosen president of the Congress and presided over the signingof the Declaration of Independence on August 2, 1776. He himself had signed it a month earlier on July 4, 1776. In 1780, Hancock resigned from Congress and returnedhome to Massachusetts.

John Hancock

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Service to MassachusettsHancock served as governor of Massachusetts for nine terms between 1780 and 1793.He served on the committee that created the state constitution of 1780. As governor in1787, he pardoned most of the participants in Shays’s Rebellion, including Daniel Shays himself.

That same year, delegates from twelve of the states assembled in Philadelphia torevise the Articles of Confederation. Hancock had signed the Articles when he served inthe Continental Congress. Fearful of centralized government power, he was at firstcritical of the Constitution. But Hancock eventually agreed to support ratification. Hepresided over the Massachusetts ratifying convention in 1788. Five years later, Hancockdied in his hometown of Quincy, his name to be remembered by later generations ofAmericans for more than two centuries because he wrote it so boldly in 1776.


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Reading Comprehension Questions1. What was the Liberty incident? What effect did it have on Hancock’s reputation?

2. In what ways was the partnership of Samuel Adams and John Hancock anunexpected one?

3. What role did Hancock play in the ratification of the federal Constitution of 1787?

Critical Thinking Questions4. For a month in 1776, Hancock was the only known signer of the Declaration

of Independence. What did this mean for Hancock personally, and what doesthis reveal about his character?

5. John Adams said that Hancock was one of “the essential characters” of theAmerican Revolution. Others said that he was no more than a tool of SamuelAdams. Which opinion is more justified?


Oration on the Anniversary of the Boston Massacre (1774)

1. Vocabulary: Use context clues to determine the meaning or significance of each ofthese words and write their definitions:

a. avowing

b. enmity

c. transactions

d. pretensions

e. laudably

f. tenacious

g. despise

h. esteem

i. animating

2. Context: Answer the following questions.

a. Who wrote this document?

b. When was this document written?

c. Who was the audience of this document?

d. Why was this document written?

John Hancock

VOCABULARY AND CONTEXT QUESTIONS

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Oration on the Anniversary of the Boston Massacre (1774)

Men, Brethren, Fathers, and Fellow-Countrymen:

Security to the persons and properties of the governed is . . . obviously the design andend of civil government. . . . It cannot be virtuous or honorable to support a governmentof which this is not the great and principal basis; and it is to the last degree vicious andinfamous to attempt to support a government which manifestly tends to render thepersons and properties of the governed insecure.

Some boast of being friends to government; I am a friend to righteous government, to agovernment founded upon the principles of reason and justice; but I glory in publiclyavowing my eternal enmity to tyranny. Is the present system, which the Britishadministration has adopted for the government of the Colonies, a righteousgovernment—or is it tyranny? Here suffer me to ask (and would to heaven there couldbe an answer!) what tenderness, what regard, respect, or consideration has Great Britainshown, in their late transactions, for the security of the persons or properties of theinhabitants of the Colonies? Or rather what have they omitted doing to destroy thatsecurity? They have declared that they have ever had, and of right ought ever to have, fullpower to make laws of sufficient validity to bind the Colonies in all cases whatever. Theyhave exercised this pretended right by imposing a tax upon us without our consent; andlest we should show some reluctance at parting with our property, her fleets and armiesare sent to enforce their mad pretensions. . . .

Standing armies are sometimes (I would by no means say generally, much lessuniversally) composed of persons who have rendered themselves unfit to live in civilsociety; who have no other motives of conduct than those which desire of the presentgratification of their passions . . . who have given up their own liberty, and envy thosewho enjoy liberty. . . .

A well-disciplined militia is a safe, an honorable guard to a community like this, whoseinhabitants are by nature brave, and are laudably tenacious of that freedom in whichthey were born. From a well-regulated militia we have nothing to fear; their interest isthe same with that of the State. When a country is invaded, the militia are ready toappear in its defense; they march into the field with that fortitude which a consciousnessof the justice of their cause inspires. . . . No; they fight for their houses, their lands, fortheir wives, their children; for all who claim the tenderest names, and are held dearest intheir hearts. . . .

Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed, by the soft arts of luxury and effeminacy, into thepit digged for your destruction. Despise the glare of wealth. That people who pay greaterrespect to a wealthy villain than to an honest, upright man in poverty, almost deserve tobe enslaved; they plainly show that wealth, however it may be acquired, is, in theiresteem, to be preferred to virtue. . . .

I have the most animating confidence that the present noble struggle for liberty willterminate gloriously for America.

Source: “John Hancock’s Boston Massacre Oration.” University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law..


IN HIS OWN WORDS: JOHN HANCOCK ON THEANNIVERSARY OF THE BOSTON MASSACRE

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Directions: After reading Hancock’s speech, imagine how each individual or group onthe left side of the chart would react to his words. Write a two or three sentence responseon the right that reflects that reaction. Write your response using first-person.

John Hancock

ANALYSIS: JOHN HANCOCK ON THE ANNIVERSARYOF THE BOSTON MASSACRE

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INDIVIDUAL/GROUP REACTION TO HANCOCK’S SPEECH

Family members of American Boston Massacre victims

Massachusetts Royal GovernorGeneral Thomas Gage

Boston Colonial Militiamen

Citizens of Boston loyal to Britain

British Soldiers in Boston

Women of Boston

Citizens of other American Colonies


Liberty was the central political principle of theAmerican Revolution. As Patrick Henry, one of itsstaunchest supporters, famously intoned, “Give meliberty or give me death.” Henry was not alone in his rhetorical fervor. Indeed, no ideal wasproclaimed more often in the eighteenth-centuryAnglo-American world than liberty.

The idea of liberty defendedby the American Founders camefrom several sources. The mostvenerable was English commonlaw. Beginning in the latemedieval period, writers in thecommon law tradition developedan understanding of libertywhich held that English subjectswere free because they livedunder a system of laws whicheven the Crown was bound torespect. Leading English juristsargued that these legal limits onroyal power protected thesubject’s liberty by limiting the arbitrary use ofpolitical power.

Under English common law, liberty alsoconsisted in the subject enjoying certain fundamentalrights to life, liberty and property. William Blackstone(1723–1780), the leading common lawyer of theeighteenth century, argued that these rights allowedan English subject to be the “entire master of hisown conduct, except in those points wherein thepublic good requires some direction or restraint . . .”For Blackstone, these English rights further protectedthe subjects’ liberty by making them secure in theirpersons from arbitrary search and seizure, and byensuring that their property could not be takenfrom them without due process of law.

In order to preserve these fundamental rights,the English common law allowed the subject theright to consent to the laws that bound him byelecting representatives to Parliament whose consentthe monarch had to obtain before acting.

Common lawyers in the seventeenth andeighteenth centuries did not view these rights andthe liberty they protected as the gift or grant of themonarch; rather, they believed that they were anEnglishmen’s “birthright,” something that inheredin each subject and that therefore could not betaken away by royal prerogative.

This common law understanding of libertywas central to the seventeenth-century strugglesagainst the Stuart monarchy. Prominent jurists andParliamentarians such as Edward Coke (1552–1634)took the lead in the attempt to limit what they sawas the illegal and arbitrary nature of the Stuarts’ rule.This struggle culminated in the Glorious Revolution

of 1689 and the triumph ofParliamentary authority over theCrown. For champions of Englishliberty, the result of this century-long struggle was the achievementof political liberty. They furtherargued that, as a result of thisstruggle, Britain in the eighteenthcentury had the freest constitutionin the world. According to theFrench writer Montesquieu(1689–1755), Britain was “theonly nation in the world, wherepolitical and civil liberty” was “thedirect end of the constitution.”

This seventeenth century struggle betweenroyal power and the subject’s liberties made a greatimpression on the American Founders. Theyabsorbed its lessons about the nature and importanceof liberty through their reading of English historyas well as through their instruction in English law.

A second and equally influential understandingof liberty was also forged in the constitutionalbattles of the seventeenth century: the idea thatliberty was a natural right pertaining to all. Theforemost exponent of this understanding of libertyin the English-speaking world was John Locke(1632–1704). Locke’s political ideas were part of awider European political and legal movement whichargued that there were certain rights that all menwere entitled to irrespective of social class or creed.

Like the common lawyers, Locke saw liberty ascentrally about the enjoyment of certain rights.However, he universalized the older Englishunderstanding of liberty, arguing that it applied toall persons, and not just to English subjects. Lockealso expanded the contemporary understanding ofliberty by arguing that it included other rights—in particular a right to religious toleration (orliberty of conscience), as well as a right to resistgovernments that violated liberty. In addition,Locke argued that the traditional English common

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law right to property was also a natural right, andwas an important part of the subject’s liberty.

Locke began his political theory by arguing thatliberty was the natural state of mankind. Accordingto Locke, all men are “naturally” in a “State ofperfect Freedom to order” their “Actions, anddispose of their Possessions, and Persons as theythink fit, within the bounds of the Law of Nature,without asking leave, or depending upon the Willof any other Man.”

However, Locke did not argue that this naturalliberty was a license to do whatever we want.“Freedom is not,” he argued,“A Liberty for every Man todo what he lists (For whocould be free, when everyother Man’s humour mightdomineer over him?).”Rather, Locke held that sinceall men are “equal andindependent, no one oughtto harm another in his Life, health, Liberty, orPossessions.” According to Locke, each of us has“an uncontroulable Liberty to dispose of ourpersons and possession,” but we do not have theright to interfere with the equal liberty of others todo the same.

In Locke’s political theory, men enter intosociety and form governments to better preservethis natural liberty. When they do so, they create apolitical system where the natural law limits onliberty in the state of nature are translated into alegal regime of rights. In such a system, Lockeargued, each person retains his “Liberty to dispose,and order, as he lists, his Person, Actions,Possession, and his whole Property, within theAllowance of those Laws under which he is; andtherein not to be subject to the arbitrary Will ofanother, but freely follow his own.”

For Locke, as for the common lawyers, the ruleof law was necessary for liberty. In Locke’s view,“the end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but topreserve and enlarge Freedom.” According to Locke,“Where there is no Law, there is no Freedom. ForLiberty is to be free from restraint and violence fromothers which cannot be, where there is no law.”

Building on both the English common law andon Locke’s ideas, the eighteenth-century Englishwriter Cato argued “that liberty is the unalienableright of mankind.” It is “the power which everyMan has over his own Actions, and his Right toenjoy the Fruit of his Labour, Art, and Industry, asfar as by it he hurts not the Society, or anymembers of it, by taking from any Member or by

hindering him from enjoying what he himselfenjoys.” Cato was the pseudonym for two Britishwriters, John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon.Their co-authored Cato’s Letters (1720–1723) werewidely read in the American colonies.

On the eve of the American Revolution, then,the received understanding of liberty in the Anglo-American world was a powerful amalgam of boththe English common law and the liberal ideas ofwriters like Locke and Cato. On this view, libertymeant being able to act freely, secure in your basicrights, unhindered by the coercive actions of others,

and subject only to thelimitation of such laws as youhave consented to. Central tothis idea of liberty was theright to hold property and tohave it secure from arbitraryseizure. In addition, under theinfluence of Locke, liberty wasincreasingly being seen on

both sides of the Atlantic as a universal right, onenot limited to English subjects. Equally influentialwas Locke’s argument that if a government violatedits citizens’ liberty the people could resist thegovernment’s edicts and create a new politicalauthority. However, despite the gains that had beenmade since the seventeenth century, manyEnglishmen in the eighteenth century still worriedthat liberty was fragile and would always beendangered by the ambitions of powerful men.

Since the first settlements were established in the early seventeenth century, the Americancolonists shared in this English understanding ofliberty. In particular, they believed that they hadtaken their English rights with them when theycrossed the Atlantic. It was on the basis of theserights that they made a case for their freedom ascolonists under the Crown. In addition, in theeighteenth century, the colonists were increasinglyinfluenced by the Lockean idea that liberty was anatural right. As a result, when they were confrontedwith the policies of the British Crown and Parliamentin the 1760s and 1770s to tax and legislate for themwithout their consent, the colonists viewed them asan attack on their liberty.

In response, the colonists argued that theseBritish taxes and regulations were illegal because theyviolated fundamental rights. They were particularlyresistant to the claims of the British Parliament, asexpressed in the Declaratory Act of 1766, to legislatefor the colonies “in all cases whatsoever.” By 1774,following the Boston Tea Party organized by SamuelAdams and John Hancock, and the subsequent


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No ideal was proclaimed more often in the eighteenth-century

Anglo-American world than liberty.


Coercive Acts, many leading colonists such asThomas Paine and James Otis argued that they hada natural right to govern themselves, and that sucha right was the only protection for their liberty. Inaddition to several essays in defense of rights,including Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania,John Dickinson wrote the first patriotic song, “TheLiberty Song.”

This colonial thinking about liberty and rightsculminated in the Declaration of Independenceissued by the Continental Congress in 1776, whichproclaimed that, because their liberty wasendangered, the colonists had a natural right toresist the English King and Parliament.

Having made a revolution in the name of liberty,the American challenge was to create a form ofgovernment that preserved liberty better than thevaunted British constitution had done. In doing so,the founders turned to the ancient ideal of republicanself-government, arguing that it alone could preservethe people’s liberty. They further argued that themodern understanding of liberty as the possession ofrights needed to be a central part of any properrepublican government. Beginning in 1776, in themidst of the Revolutionary War, all of the formercolonies began to construct republican governmentswhich rested on the people’s consent and whichincluded bills of rights to protect the people’s liberty.

Since there was widespread consensus amongthe Founders that liberty required the protection ofrights and the rule of law, much of the politicaldebate in the crucial decades following the AmericanRevolution revolved around the question of whichinstitutional arrangements best supported liberty.Was liberty best protected by strong stategovernments jealously guarding the people’s libertiesfrom excessive federal authority, as leading Anti-Federalists like George Mason contended; or, wasan extended federal republic best able to preservethe freedom of all, as leading Federalists like JamesMadison and Alexander Hamilton argued?

The era of the American Revolution also gavebirth to a further series of important debates aboutliberty. Was slavery, as some Americans in theeighteenth century were beginning to recognize, anunjust infringement upon the liberty of AfricanAmericans? Were women, long deprived of basiclegal rights, also entitled to have equal liberty withtheir male fellow citizens? By making a Revolutionin its name, the Founders ensured that debatesabout the nature and extent of liberty wouldremain at the center of the American experimentin self-government.

Craig Yirush, Ph.D.University of California, Los Angeles

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Suggestions for Further ReadingBailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967.Kammen, Michael. Spheres of Liberty: Changing Perceptions of Liberty in American Culture. Madison:

University of Wisconsin Press, 1986.Reid, John Phillip. The Concept of Liberty in the Age of the American Revolution. Chicago: University of

Chicago Press, 1988.Skinner, Quentin. Liberty Before Liberalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.Wood, Gordon. The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787. Chapel Hill: University of North

Carolina Press, 1969.


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In 1760, what was to become the United States ofAmerica consisted of a small group of coloniesstrung out along the eastern seaboard of NorthAmerica. Although they had experienced significanteconomic and demographic growth in theeighteenth century and had just helped Britaindefeat France and take control of most of NorthAmerica, they remained politically and economicallydependent upon London. Yet, in the next twenty-five years, they would challenge the political controlof Britain, declare independence, wage a bloody war,and lay the foundations fora trans-continental, federalrepublican state. In thesecrucial years, the colonieswould be led by a newgeneration of politicians,men who combinedpractical political skillswith a firm grasp ofpolitical ideas. In order to better understand theseextraordinary events, the Founders who madethem possible, and the new Constitution that theycreated, it is necessary first to understand thepolitical ideas that influenced colonial Americansin the crucial years before the Revolution.

The Common Law and the Rightsof EnglishmenThe political theory of the American colonists inthe seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was deeplyinfluenced by English common law and its idea ofrights. In a guide for religious dissenters written inthe late seventeenth century, William Penn, thefounder of Pennsylvania, offered one the bestcontemporary summaries of this common-lawview of rights. According to Penn, all Englishmenhad three central rights or privileges by commonlaw: those of life, liberty, and property. For Penn,these English rights meant that every subject was“to be freed in Person & Estate from ArbitraryViolence and Oppression.” In the widely usedlanguage of the day, these rights of “Liberty andProperty” were an Englishman’s “Birthright.”

In Penn’s view, the English system of governmentpreserved liberty and limited arbitrary power byallowing the subjects to express their consent to thelaws that bound them through two institutions:

“Parliaments and Juries.”“By the first,” Penn argued,“the subject has a share by his chosen Representativesin the Legislative (or Law making) Power.” Penn feltthat the granting of consent through Parliamentwas important because it ensured that “no new Lawsbind the People of England, but such as are bycommon consent agreed on in that great Council.”

In Penn’s view, juries were an equally importantmeans of limiting arbitrary power. By serving onjuries, Penn argued, every freeman “has a share in theExecutive part of the Law, no Causes being tried, nor

any man adjudged to loose[sic] Life, member orEstate, but upon the Verdictof his Peers or Equals.” ForPenn, “These two grandPillars of English Liberty”were “the Fundamentalvital Priviledges [sic]” ofEnglishmen.

The other aspect of their government thatseventeenth-century Englishmen celebrated was asystem that was ruled by laws and not by men. AsPenn rather colorfully put it: “In France, and otherNations, the meer [sic] Will of the Prince is Law, hisWord takes off any mans Head, imposeth Taxes, orseizes a mans Estate, when, how and as often as helists; and if one be accussed [sic], or but so much assuspected of any Crime, he may either presentlyExecute him, or banish, or Imprison him atpleasure.” By contrast, “In England,” Penn argued,“the Law is both the measure and the bound ofevery Subject’s Duty and Allegiance, each manhaving a fixed Fundamental-Right born with him,as to Freedom of his Person and Property in hisEstate, which he cannot be deprived of, but eitherby his Consent, or some Crime, for which the Lawhas impos’d such a penalty or forfeiture.”

This common law view of politics understoodpolitical power as fundamentally limited byEnglishmen’s rights and privileges. As a result, itheld that English kings were bound to ruleaccording to known laws and by respecting theinherent rights of their subjects. It also enshrinedthe concept of consent as the major means to theend of protecting these rights. According to Pennand his contemporaries, this system ofgovernment—protecting as it did the “unparallel’d

Explaining the Founding

Introductory Essay:Explaining the Founding

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Priviledge [sic] of Liberty and Property”—hadmade the English nation “more free and happythan any other People in the World.”

The Founders imbibed this view of Englishrights through the legal training that was commonfor elites in the eighteenth-century Anglo-Americanworld. This legal education also made them awareof the history of England in the seventeenth century,a time when the Stuart kings had repeatedlythreatened their subjects’ rights. In response, manyEnglishmen drew on the common law to argue thatall political power, even that of a monarch, should belimited by law. Colonial Americans in the eighteenthcentury viewed the defeat of the Stuarts and thesubsequent triumph of Parliament (which was seen asthe representative ofsubjects’ rights) in theGlorious Revolution of 1688as a key moment in Englishhistory. They believed that ithad enshrined in England’sunwritten constitution therule of law and the sanctityof subjects’ rights. Thisawareness of English history instilled in theFounders a strong fear of arbitrary power and aconsequent desire to create a constitutional formof government that limited the possibility of rulersviolating the fundamental liberties of the people.

The seriousness with which the colonists tookthese ideas can be seen in their strong opposition toParliament’s attempt to tax or legislate for themwithout their consent in the 1760s and 1770s. Afterthe Revolution, when the colonists formed their owngovernments, they wrote constitutions that includedmany of the legal guarantees that Englishmen hadfought for in the seventeenth century as a means oflimiting governmental power. As a consequence,both the state and federal constitutions typicallycontained bills of rights that enshrined coreEnglish legal rights as fundamental law.

Natural RightsThe seventeenth century witnessed a revolution inEuropean political thought, one that was to proveprofoundly influential on the political ideas ofthe American Founders. Beginning with the Dutchwriter Hugo Grotius in the early 1600s, severalimportant European thinkers began to construct anew understanding of political theory that arguedthat all men by nature had equal rights, and thatgovernments were formed for the sole purpose ofprotecting these natural rights.

The leading proponent of this theory in theEnglish-speaking world was John Locke (1632–1704).Deeply involved in the opposition to the Stuartkings in the 1670s and 1680s, Locke wrote a book onpolitical theory to justify armed resistance toCharles II and his brother James. “To understandpolitical power right,” Locke wrote, “and derive itfrom its original, we must consider, what state allmen are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfectfreedom to order their actions, and dispose of theirpossessions and persons, as they think fit, within thebounds of the law of nature, without asking leave, ordepending upon the will of any other man.” ForLocke, the state of nature was “a state also ofequality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is

reciprocal, no one havingmore than another.”

Although thispregovernmental state ofnature was a state of perfectfreedom, Locke contendedthat it also lacked animpartial judge or umpire toregulate disputes among

men. As a result, men in this state of naturegathered together and consented to create agovernment in order that their natural rightswould be better secured. Locke further argued that,because it was the people who had created thegovernment, the people had a right to resist itsauthority if it violated their rights. They could thenjoin together and exercise their collective orpopular sovereignty to create a new government oftheir own devising. This revolutionary politicaltheory meant that ultimate political authoritybelonged to the people and not to the king.

This idea of natural rights became a centralcomponent of political theory in the Americancolonies in the eighteenth century, appearing innumerous political pamphlets, newspapers, andsermons. Its emphasis on individual freedom andgovernment by consent combined powerfully withthe older idea of common law rights to shape thepolitical theory of the Founders. When faced withthe claims of the British Parliament in the 1760sand 1770s to legislate for them without theirconsent, American patriots invoked both thecommon law and Lockean natural rights theory toargue that they had a right to resist Britain.

Thomas Jefferson offers the best example ofthe impact that these political ideas had on thefounding. As he so eloquently argued in theDeclaration of Independence: “We hold these


The political theory of the Americancolonists in the seventeenth andeighteenth centuries was deeplyinfluenced by English common

law and its idea of rights.


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truths to be self-evident, that all men are createdequal, that they are endowed by their Creatorwith certain unalienable Rights, that among theseare Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.That to secure these rights, Governments areinstituted among Men, deriving their just powersfrom the consent of the governed, That wheneverany Form of Government becomes destructive ofthese ends, it is the Right of the People to alter orabolish it, and to institute new Government,laying its foundations on such principles andorganizing its powers in such form, as to themshall seem most likely to effect their Safety andHappiness.”

This idea of natural rights also influenced thecourse of political events inthe crucial years after 1776.All the state governments putthis new political theoryinto practice, basing theirauthority on the people,and establishing writtenconstitutions that protectednatural rights. As GeorgeMason, the principal author of the influentialVirginia Bill of Rights (1776), stated in thedocument’s first section: “All men are by natureequally free and independent, and have certaininherent rights, of which, when they enter into astate of society, they cannot, by any compact, depriveor divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment oflife and liberty, with the means of acquiring andpossessing property, and pursuing and obtaininghappiness and safety.” The radical implications ofthis insistence on equal natural rights would slowlybecome apparent in postrevolutionary Americansociety as previously downtrodden groups began toinvoke these ideals to challenge slavery, argue for awider franchise, end female legal inequality, and fullyseparate church and state.

In 1780, under the influence of John Adams,Massachusetts created a mechanism by which thepeople themselves could exercise their sovereignpower to constitute governments: a specialconvention convened solely for the purpose ofwriting a constitution, followed by a process ofratification. This American innovation allowed theideas of philosophers like Locke to be put intopractice. In particular, it made the people’s naturalrights secure by enshrining them in a constitutionwhich was not changeable by ordinary legislation.This method was to influence the authors of thenew federal Constitution in 1787.

Religious Toleration and theSeparation of Church and State

A related development in seventeenth-centuryEuropean political theory was the emergence ofarguments for religious toleration and theseparation of church and state. As a result of thebloody religious wars between Catholics andProtestants that followed the Reformation, a fewthinkers in both England and Europe argued thatgovernments should not attempt to force individualsto conform to one form of worship. Rather, theyinsisted that such coercion was both unjust anddangerous. It was unjust because true faithrequired voluntary belief; it was dangerous becausethe attempts to enforce religious beliefs in Europe

had led not to religiousuniformity, but to civil war.These thinkers furtherargued that if governmentsceased to enforce religiousbelief, the result would becivil peace and prosperity.

Once again the Englishphilosopher John Locke

played a major role in the development of these newideas. Building on the work of earlier writers, Lockepublished in 1689 A Letter Concerning Toleration, inwhich he contended that there was a natural rightof conscience that no government could infringe.As he put it: “The care of Souls cannot belong to theCivil Magistrate, because his Power consists only inoutward force; but true and saving Religion consistsin the inward perswasion [sic] of the Mind, withoutwhich nothing can be acceptable to God. And suchis the nature of the Understanding, that it cannotbe compell’d to the belief of any thing by outwardforce. Confiscation of Estate, Imprisonment,Torments, nothing of that nature can have anysuch Efficacy as to make Men change the inwardJudgment that they have formed of things.”

These ideas about the rights of conscience andreligious toleration resonated powerfully in theEnglish colonies in America. Although thePuritans in the seventeenth century had originallyattempted to set up an intolerant commonwealthwhere unorthodox religious belief would beprohibited, dissenters like Roger Williamschallenged them and argued that true faith couldnot be the product of coercion. Forced to flee bythe Puritans, Williams established the colony ofRhode Island, which offered religious toleration toall and had no state-supported church. As thePuritan Cotton Mather sarcastically remarked,


Natural rights became a centralcomponent of political theory in theAmerican colonies . . . , appearing in

numerous political pamphlets,newspapers, and sermons.


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Rhode Island contained “everything in the worldbut Roman Catholics and real Christians.” Inaddition, Maryland, founded in the 1630s, andPennsylvania, founded in the 1680s, both providedan extraordinary degree of religious freedom bythe standard of the time.

In the eighteenth century, as these arguments forreligious toleration spread throughout the English-speaking Protestant world, the American colonies,becoming ever more religiously pluralistic, provedparticularly receptive to them.As a result, the idea thatthe government should not enforce religious beliefhad become an important element of Americanpolitical theory by the lateeighteenth century. After theRevolution, it was enshrinedas a formal right in many ofthe state constitutions, aswell as most famously in theFirst Amendment to thefederal Constitution.

Colonial Self-GovernmentThe political thinking of the Founders in the lateeighteenth century was also deeply influenced bythe long experience of colonial self-government.Since their founding in the early seventeenthcentury, most of the English colonies in theAmericas (unlike the French and Spanish colonies)had governed themselves to a large extent in localassemblies that were modeled on the EnglishParliament. In these colonial assemblies theyexercised their English common law right toconsent to all laws that bound them.

The existence of these strong local governmentsin each colony also explains in part the speed withwhich the Founders were able to create viableindependent republican governments in the yearsafter 1776. This long-standing practice of self-government also helped to create an indigenouspolitical class in the American colonies with therequisite experience for the difficult task of nationbuilding.

In addition to the various charters and royalinstructions that governed the English colonies,Americans also wrote their own Foundingdocuments. These settler covenants were an earlytype of written constitution and they provided animportant model for the Founders in the lateeighteenth century as they sought to craft a newconstitutional system based on popular consent.

Classical RepublicanismNot all the intellectual influences on the Foundersoriginated in the seventeenth century. Becausemany of the Founders received a classicaleducation in colonial colleges in the eighteenthcentury, they were heavily influenced by thewritings of the great political thinkers andhistorians of ancient Greece and Rome.

Antiquity shaped the Founders’ politicalthought in several important ways. First, itintroduced them to the idea of republicanism, orgovernment by the people. Ancient political thinkersfrom Aristotle to Cicero had praised republican

self-government as the bestpolitical system. Thisclassical political thoughtwas important for theFounders as it gave themgrounds to dissent from theheavily monarchical politicalculture of eighteenth-centuryEngland, where even thecommon law jurists who

defended subjects’ rights against royal powerbelieved strongly in monarchy. By reading theclassics, the American Founders were introducedto an alternate political vision, one that legitimizedrepublicanism.

The second legacy of this classical idea ofrepublicanism was the emphasis that it put on themoral foundations of liberty. Though ancientwriters believed that a republic was the best formof government, they were intensely aware of itsfragility. In particular, they argued that because thepeople governed themselves, republics required fortheir very survival a high degree of civic virtue intheir citizenry. Citizens had to be able to put thegood of the whole (the res publica) ahead of theirown private interests. If they failed to do this, therepublic would fall prey to men of power andambition, and liberty would ultimately be lost.

As a result of this need for an exceptionallyvirtuous citizenry, ancient writers also taught thatrepublics had to be small. Only in a small andrelatively homogeneous society, they argued,would the necessary degree of civic virtue beforthcoming. In part, it was this classical teachingabout the weakness of large republics thatanimated the contentious debate over theproposed federal Constitution in the 1780s.

In addition to their reading of ancient authors,the Founders also encountered republican ideas in


By reading the classics, the AmericanFounders were introduced to an

alternate political vision, one thatlegitimated republicanism.


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the political theory of a group of eighteenth-century English writers called the “radical Whigs.”These writers kept alive the republican legacy ofthe English Civil War at a time when mostEnglishmen believed that their constitutionalmonarchy was the best form of government in theworld. Crucially for the Founding, these radicalWhigs combined classical republican thought withthe newer Lockean ideas of natural rights andpopular sovereignty. They thus became animportant conduit for a modern type ofrepublicanism to enter American political thought,one that combined the ancient concern with avirtuous citizenry and the modern insistence onthe importance of individual rights.

These radical Whigs also provided theFounders with an important critique of theeighteenth-century British constitution. Instead ofseeing it as the best form of government possible,the radical Whigs argued that it was both corrupt

and tyrannical. In order to reform it, they called fora written constitution and a formal separation ofthe executive branch from the legislature. Thisclassically inspired radical Whig constitutionalismwas an important influence on the development ofAmerican republicanism in the late eighteenthcentury.

ConclusionDrawing on all these intellectual traditions, theFounders were able to create a new kind ofrepublicanism in America based on equal rights,consent, popular sovereignty, and the separation ofchurch and state. Having set this broad context forthe Founding, we now turn to a more detailedexamination of important aspects of the Founders’political theory, followed by detailed biographicalstudies of the Founders themselves.

Craig Yirush, Ph.D.University of California, Los Angeles


Suggestions for Further ReadingBailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University

Press, 1967.Lutz, Donald. Colonial Origins of the American Constitution: A Documentary History. Indianapolis, Ind.:

Liberty Fund, 1998.Reid, John Phillip. The Constitutional History of the American Revolution. Abridged Edition. Madison: The

University of Wisconsin Press, 1995.Rossiter, Clinton. Seedtime of the Republic: The Origins of the American Tradition of Political Liberty. New

York: Harcourt Brace, 1953.Zuckert, Michael. Natural Rights and the New Republicanism. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,

1994.

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Visual Assessment1. Founders Posters—Have students create posters for either an individual Founder,

a group of Founders, or an event. Ask them to include at least one quotation(different from classroom posters that accompany this volume) and one image.

2. Coat of Arms—Draw a coat of arms template and divide into6 quadrants (see example). Photocopy and hand out to theclass. Ask them to create a coat of arms for a particularFounder with a different criterion for each quadrant (e.g.,occupation, key contribution, etc.). Include in the assignmentan explanation sheet in which they describe why they chosecertain colors, images, and symbols.

3. Individual Illustrated Timeline—Ask each student to create a visual timeline ofat least ten key points in the life of a particular Founder. In class, put the studentsin groups and have them discuss the intersections and juxtapositions in each oftheir timelines.

4. Full Class Illustrated Timeline—Along a full classroom wall, tape poster paper inone long line. Draw in a middle line and years (i.e., 1760, 1770, 1780, etc.). Putstudents in pairs and assign each pair one Founder. Ask them to put together tenkey points in the life of the Founder. Have each pair draw in the key points on themaster timeline.

5. Political Cartoon—Provide students with examples of good political cartoons,contemporary or historical. A good resource for finding historical cartoons on theWeb is . Askthem to create a political cartoon based on an event or idea in the Founding period.

Performance Assessments1. Meeting of the Minds—Divide the class into five groups and assign a Founder to

each group. Ask the group to discuss the Founder’s views on a variety of pre-determined topics. Then, have a representative from each group come to the frontof the classroom and role-play as the Founder, dialoguing with Founders fromother groups. The teacher will act as moderator, reading aloud topic questions(based on the pre-determined topics given to the groups) and encouragingdiscussion from the students in character. At the teacher’s discretion, questioningcan be opened up to the class as a whole. For advanced students, do not provide alist of topics—ask them to know their character well enough to present himproperly on all topics.

2. Create a Song or Rap—Individually or in groups, have students create a songor rap about a Founder based on a familiar song, incorporating at least five keyevents or ideas of the Founder in their project. Have students perform their songin class. (Optional: Ask the students to bring in a recording of the song forbackground music.)

Web/Technology Assessments1. Founders PowerPoint Presentation—Divide students into groups. Have each

group create a PowerPoint presentation about a Founder or event. Determine thenumber of slides, and assign a theme to each slide (e.g., basic biographicinformation, major contributions, political philosophy, quotations, repercussionsof the event, participants in the event, etc.). Have them hand out copies of theslides and give the presentation to the class. You may also ask for a copy of the

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presentation to give you the opportunity to combine all the presentations into anend-of-semester review.

2. Evaluate Web sites—Have students search the Web for three sites related to aFounder or the Founding period (you may provide them with a “start list” from theresource list at the end of each lesson). Create a Web site evaluation sheet thatincludes such questions as: Are the facts on this site correct in comparison to othersites? What sources does this site draw on to produce its information? Who are themain contributors to this site? When was the site last updated? Ask students tograde the site according to the evaluation sheet and give it a grade for reliability,accuracy, etc. They should write a 2–3 sentence explanation for their grade.

3. Web Quest—Choose a Web site(s) on the Constitution, Founders, or Foundingperiod. (See suggestions below.) Go to the Web site(s) and create a list of questionstaken from various pages within the site. Provide students with the Web addressand list of questions, and ask them to find answers to the questions on the site,documenting on which page they found their answer. Web site suggestions:

• The Avalon Project • The Founders’ Constitution • Founding.com • National Archives Charters of Freedom

• The Library of Congress American Memory Page • Our Documents • Teaching American History

A good site to help you construct the Web Quest is:

Verbal Assessments1. Contingency in History—In a one-to-two page essay, have students answer the

question, “How would history have been different if [Founder] had not beenborn?” They should consider repercussions for later events in the political world.

2. Letters Between Founders—Ask students to each choose a “CorrespondencePartner” and decide which two Founders they will be representing. Have themread the appropriate Founders essays and primary source activities. Over a periodof time, the pair should then write at least three letters back and forth (with a copybeing given to the teacher for review and feedback). Instruct them to be mindfulof their Founders’ tone and writing style, life experience, and political views inconstructing the letters.

3. Categorize the Founders—Create five categories for the Founders (e.g., slave-holders vs. non-slaveholders, northern vs. southern, opponents of theConstitution vs. proponents of the Constitution, etc.) and a list of Foundersstudied. Ask students to place each Founder in the appropriate category. Foradvanced students, ask them to create the five categories in addition tocategorizing the Founders.

4. Obituaries and Gravestones—Have students write a short obituary or gravestoneengraving that captures the major accomplishments of a Founder (e.g., ThomasJefferson’s gravestone). Ask them to consider for what the Founder wished to beremembered.

5. “I Am” Poem—Instruct students to select a Founder and write a poem that refersto specific historical events in his life (number of lines at the teacher’s discretion).



Each line of the poem must begin with “I” (i.e., “I am…,” “I wonder…,” “I see…,”etc.). Have them present their poem with an illustration of the Founder.

6. Founder’s Journal—Have students construct a journal of a Founder at a certainperiod in time. Ask them to pick out at least five important days. In the journalentry, make sure they include the major events of the day, the Founder’s feelingsabout the events, and any other pertinent facts (e.g., when writing a journal aboutthe winter at Valley Forge, Washington may have included information about thetroops’ morale, supplies, etc.).

7. Résumé for a Founder—Ask students to create a resume for a particular Founder.Make sure they include standard resume information (e.g., work experience,education, skills, accomplishments/honors, etc.). You can also have them researchand bring in a writing sample (primary source) to accompany the resume.

8. Cast of Characters—Choose an event in the Founding Period (e.g., the signing ofthe Declaration of Independence, the debate about the Constitution in a stateratifying convention, etc.) and make a list of individuals related to the incident.Tell students that they are working for a major film studio in Hollywood that hasdecided to make a movie about this event. They have been hired to cast actors foreach part. Have students fill in your list of individuals with actors/actresses (pastor present) with an explanation of why that particular actor/actress was chosen forthe role. (Ask the students to focus on personality traits, previous roles, etc.)

Review Activities1. Founders Jeopardy—Create a Jeopardy board on an overhead sheet or handout

(six columns and five rows). Label the column heads with categories and fill in allother squares with a dollar amount. Make a sheet that corresponds to the Jeopardyboard with the answers that you will be revealing to the class. (Be sure to includeDaily Doubles.)

a. Possible categories may include:• Thomas Jefferson (or the name of any Founder)• Revolutionary Quirks (fun Founders facts)• Potpourri (miscellaneous)• Pen is Mightier (writings of the Founders)

b. Example answers:• This Founder drafted and introduced the first formal proposal for a

permanent union of the thirteen colonies. Question: Who is BenjaminFranklin?

• This Founder was the only Roman Catholic to sign the Declaration ofIndependence. Question: Who is Charles Carroll?

2. Who Am I?—For homework, give each student a different Founder essay. Ask eachstudent to compile a list of five-to-ten facts about his/her Founder. In class, askindividuals to come to the front of the classroom and read off the facts one at atime, prompting the rest of the class to guess the appropriate Founder.

3. Around the World—Develop a list of questions about the Founders and plot a“travel route” around the classroom in preparation for this game. Ask one studentto volunteer to go first. The student will get up from his/her desk and “travel”along the route plotted to an adjacent student’s desk, standing next to it. Read aquestion aloud, and the first student of the two to answer correctly advances to thenext stop on the travel route. Have the students keep track of how many placesthey advance. Whoever advances the furthest wins.

ADDITIONAL CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES



Common Good: General conditions that are equally to everyone’s advantage. In arepublic, held to be superior to the good of the individual, though its attainment oughtnever to violate the natural rights of any individual.

Democracy: From the Greek, demos, meaning “rule of the people.” Had a negativeconnotation among most Founders, who equated the term with mob rule. The Foundersconsidered it to be a form of government into which poorly-governed republicsdegenerated.

English Rights: Considered by Americans to be part of their inheritance as Englishmen;included such rights as property, petition, and trials by jury. Believed to exist from timeimmemorial and recognized by various English charters as the Magna Carta, the Petitionof Right of 1628, and the English Bill of Rights of 1689.

Equality: Believed to be the condition of all people, who possessed an equality of rights.In practical matters, restricted largely to land-owning white men during the FoundingEra, but the principle worked to undermine ideas of deference among classes.

Faction: A small group that seeks to benefit its members at the expense of the commongood. The Founders discouraged the formation of factions, which they equated withpolitical parties.

Federalism: A political system in which power is divided between two levels ofgovernment, each supreme in its own sphere. Intended to avoid the concentration ofpower in the central government and to preserve the power of local government.

Government: Political power fundamentally limited by citizens’ rights and privileges.This limiting was accomplished by written charters or constitutions and bills of rights.

Happiness: The ultimate end of government. Attained by living in liberty and bypracticing virtue.

Inalienable Rights: Rights that can never justly be taken away.

Independence: The condition of living in liberty without being subject to the unjustrule of another.

Liberty: To live in the enjoyment of one’s rights without dependence upon anyone else.Its enjoyment led to happiness.

Natural Rights: Rights individuals possess by virtue of their humanity. Were thought tobe “inalienable.” Protected by written constitutions and bills of rights that restrainedgovernment.

Property: Referred not only to material possessions, but also to the ownership of one’sbody and rights. Jealously guarded by Americans as the foundation of liberty during thecrisis with Britain.


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AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY GLOSSARY

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Reason: Human intellectual capacity and rationality. Believed by the Founders to be thedefining characteristic of humans, and the means by which they could understand theworld and improve their lives.

Religious Toleration: The indulgence shown to one religion while maintaining aprivileged position for another. In pluralistic America, religious uniformity could not beenforced so religious toleration became the norm.

Representation: Believed to be central to republican government and the preservationof liberty. Citizens, entitled to vote, elect officials who are responsible to them, and whogovern according to the law.

Republic: From the Latin, res publica, meaning “the public things.” A government systemin which power resides in the people who elect representatives responsible to them andwho govern according to the law. A form of government dedicated to promoting thecommon good. Based on the people, but distinct from a democracy.

Separation of Church and State: The doctrine that government should not enforcereligious belief. Part of the concept of religious toleration and freedom of conscience.

Separation of Powers/Checks and Balances: A way to restrain the power of governmentby balancing the interests of one section of government against the competing interestsof another section. A key component of the federal Constitution. A means of slowingdown the operation of government, so it did not possess too much energy and thusendanger the rights of the people.

Slavery: Referred both to chattel slavery and political slavery. Politically, the fate that befellthose who did not guard their rights against governments. Socially and economically, aninstitution that challenged the belief of the Founders in natural rights.

Taxes: Considered in English tradition to be the free gift of the people to the government.Americans refused to pay them without their consent, which meant actual representationin Parliament.

Tyranny: The condition in which liberty is lost and one is governed by the arbitrarywill of another. Related to the idea of political slavery.

Virtue: The animating principle of a republic and the quality essential for a republic’ssurvival. From the Latin, vir, meaning “man.” Referred to the display of such “manly”traits as courage and self-sacrifice for the common good.

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An Eighteenth-Century Glossary

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Answer Key

Answer Key

John HancockHandout A—John Hancock(1737–1793)1. In 1768, British customs officials seized

one of Hancock’s merchant vessels, theLiberty. They claimed that the ship’scaptain had failed to pay import duties.The captain was following the orders ofHancock, who wanted to challenge thelegality of the duties. The incidentsparked violence, as the Sons of Libertyorganized a mob to protest the Liberty’sseizure. The Liberty incident made Han-cock a hero among American Patriotsand a nuisance to British authorities.

2. Many thought Hancock was vain andself-important. A member of the eliteclass and a man of commerce, he didnot hesitate to conduct business withEnglish merchants. He was always wellgroomed and attired in fine clothes.Adams was a failed businessman whocared little for fame or for his personalappearance. A Puritan, he disdaineddisplays of wealth and chided thosewho purchased “baubles” produced byEnglish manufacturers.

3. Hancock had signed the Articles whenhe served in the Continental Congress.Fearful of centralized governmentpower, he was at first critical of theConstitution. But Hancock agreed tosupport ratification. He presided overthe Massachusetts ratifying conven-tion in 1788.

4. Hancock put himself at great personalrisk by becoming the first person topublicly sign the Declaration of Inde-pendence. This made him guilty of trea-son. Some students may say he relishedthe bold gesture and the way it addedto his reputation as a maverick; othersmay say it demonstrates his courageand devotion to the cause of Americanindependence.

5. Some will agree with John Adams andargue that Hancock played a key role in

the Patriot movement in Boston, provid-ing not only money but also leadershipof the resistance. He challenged thepower of the British to tax colonialimports in 1768, when his ship, the Lib-erty, was seized. At the national level, hepresided over the Continental Congressand boldly signed the Declaration ofIndependence. Others will say that hesimply wrote checks for Samuel Adamsand took his orders.

Handout B—Vocabulary andContext Questions1. Vocabulary

a. declaringb. hostilityc. actionsd. claimse. admirablyf. persistentg. hateh. judgmenti. spiriting

2. Contexta. John Hancock wrote this

document.b. This document was written in

1774, on the anniversary of theBoston Massacre.

c. The audience for this documentwas the citizens of Boston.

d. The purpose of this documentwas to raise anti-British senti-ment and support for thePatriot cause.

Handout D—Analysis: JohnHancock on the Anniversary ofthe Boston Massacre1. “Thank you for reminding our fellow

colonists how dangerous standingarmies can be. The British troops needto leave.”

2. “I can’t believe this Hancock characterwon’t back down. He’s talking trashabout our troops and encouragingrebellion. He must be stopped!”

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3. “I feel so good and appreciated for therisks I take every day to defend mycommunity. I am so glad Hancock israllying others to support me.”

4. “He needs to take it easy. Why can’t hebe more moderate? We can reconcilewith Britain. We are Englishmen!”

5. “He is so wrong about me. I am notunfit to live in civil society; I am doingmy job. If they’d stop acting like hood-lums, we wouldn’t have to treat themlike hoodlums.”

6. “I wouldn’t have minded if he wouldhave addressed the women, sisters,and mothers of the colonies. I also feelvaguely insulted at his calling it‘effeminate’ to back down.”

7. “Wow, he’s making good points aboutwhat government should be about. Ithink the colonies need to unite againstBritain.” Or “He’s being too radical.Massachusetts is risking alienating theother colonies.”

John JayHandout A—John Jay(1745–1829)1. Congress sent Jay to Spain for finan-

cial aid and recognition of the newnation, and he was sent to Paris tonegotiate a peace treaty with Britain.

2. George Washington appointed Jay to bethe first Chief Justice of the SupremeCourt.

3. Jay’s Treaty accomplished its goal ofavoiding war, but the treaty was unpop-ular because many people thought itwas lopsided, making too many con-cessions to the British.

4. Jay refused to sign the Declaration ofIndependence because he believed inthe colonies’ historical attachment andloyalty to Britain. He favored a moder-ate approach and hoped the coloniescould reconcile their relationship withBritain. Some students may agree withhis decision to hold to his personal

convictions even in the face of publicpressure. Others may believe he shouldhave yielded more quickly to the major-ity’s wishes.

5. Throughout his years of public service,Jay had battled against slavery. In 1785,he created the New York ManumissionSociety that advanced abolition on alocal as well as state level through boy-cotts and lawsuits. As governor, Jayfought for the emancipation of slaves.Asa result of consistent efforts, Jay signedan emancipation bill passed by the NewYork legislature in 1799. His state set anexample for the nation.

Handout B—Vocabulary andContext Questions1. Vocabulary

a. agreeb. entering the countryc. bringingd. ablee. acceptancef. inconsistentg. contradiction

2. Contexta. This document was written in

1819.b. John Jay wrote this document.c. This is a letter.d. The purpose of this document

was to express Jay’s position onslavery in the new states.

Handout D—Analysis:Founding DocumentsJay’s main idea: Slavery should not beallowed in the new states, and should begradually abolished in all the states.A.

1. Congress has the power to regu-late, and it is implicit that Con-gress can make new regulations forNEW states.

2. Congress can make new regulationsfor new and old states after 1808.

3. “Persons” means “Slaves.”

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