Who? What? When? Where? And Why?

The Constitution

Our Country’s FoundationIn this presentation you will see the Who’s What’s

When’s Where’s and Why’s of the Constitution. You will also see my thoughts and more.

By: Monique Cooper

Monique Cooper

What is The Constitution?The Constitution is defined as a plan that set forth the structure and power

of a government but how does this break down in a way we can understand?

Popular Sovereignty-people establish the government and are the source of it’s power

Limited Government-the government’s powers are restricted to protect the people’s individual rights

Checks and Balances- governing power is separated into the Executive, Judicial, and Legislative branches to prevent the focus and abuse of governing power by one branch

Judicial Review- this gives the judicial branch the power to strike down laws and other government actions as unconstitutional

Federalism- this is giving the right of protection by way of dividing powers between the national government and the state government to the state government

Monique Cooper

Who Wrote The Constitution?The Constitute was written by men that we

know and refer to as the Framers.

The Framers were the 55 delegates of the Constitutional Convention who wrote and developed the “framework” for the government and wrote the Constitution.

Monique Cooper

What Led to Its Creation? The Continental Congress had written the

Articles of Confederation but they had left a lot of things out for fear of ending up with another leader who had too much power. So they left out the law saying that the government could tax without their consent. This led to a national economic depression. Land was taken from farmers and they revolted.

All these things led to Congress deciding it was necessary to make a change so they met and wrote the Constitution.

Monique Cooper

What Limits Does Our Constitution Have?

The Bill of Rights~The Bill Of Rights was

accumulatively asked by multiple states during various conventions as they adopted the constitution one by one. They expressed a desire to prevent abuse of it’s powers and therefore they added the Bill of Rights as a result.

Monique Cooper

When/Where Was It Written? The constitution was written in the year 1787 right after

the Revolutionary War.

It was written at the Constitutional Convention that was held at the State House in Philadelphia which also happened to be the same place that the Declaration of Independence.

Monique Cooper

Goals of The Constitution… Form a More Perfect Union- strengthen all the

different relationships between states and government and between states and states

Establish Justice- provide reasonable laws that are fair, unbiased (impartial) and also make the administration or the people facilitating on behalf of the law are also fair, unbiased, and reasonable

Ensure Domestic Tranquility- this is to keep peace and order within the country

Monique Cooper

Goals Continued… Provide For The Common Defense- this is the

goal that states that we are to defend the nation and its inhabitants against foreign enemies

Promote The General Welfare- this is to allow states and their people to benefit from the protection of a strong national government militarily and economically

Secure The Blessings of Liberty- and this last one is to protect the liberties recently won in the American revolution and to preserve these liberties for those generations that come

Monique Cooper

What Social Problems Did It Solve? The government no

longer had only one branch of government

Our government got Checks and Balances

And the Electoral College was created which was created to represent each state in presidential elections

Monique Cooper

What Historically Significant Documents Was The Constitution Modeled After?

The Mayflower Compact- a document from 1620 that was signed by the men of the Mayflower and was their document claiming their colony in the name of God and their King of England

The Magna Carta- a 1215 document that is considered the beginning of constitutional England

Early state documents- including those of Connecticut and Massachusetts

The English Bill of Rights- a 1689 document written after King James II abused his power and abdicated the government

The Articles of Confederation- a 1777 document written to show the union of the first 13 states of our nation

•

Read more:

Monique Cooper

Improvements I’d Make Are… There really are no changes I would make. I think the

Constitution itself is fine as is, it is the people who interpret it that cause the controversy. There are too many different opinions on what is and what isn’t constitutional. So therefore, I believe the Constitution should stay as is and the people trying to control it should change.

I Feel That The Constitution’s Relevance… I feel as though the Constitution is every bit as relevant

now as it was back then because we still do not want any one to have too much power. We still need to have governmental guidelines and limitations for the sake of democracy and the citizens’ rights that the Constitution protects. We as a nation still need the foundation that the Constitute creates.

Monique Cooper

Bibliography http://www.middle-ages.org

http://www.allabouthistory.org

http://www.usconstitution.net

The textbook

http://www.google.com