Task #5 SHORT ANSWER QUESTION  - Debates  over the Constitution  

REQUIRED READING:  Chapter #9: The Confederation and the Constitution  

CLASS NOTES: Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution [1787-1788]

“The struggle over the Constitution…can best be understood as a social one. Whatever the particular constituency of the antagonists may have been, men in 1787–1788 talked as if they were representing distinct and opposing social elements. Both the proponents and opponents of the Constitution focused throughout the debates on an essential point of political sociology that ultimately must be used to distinguish a Federalist from an Anti-federalist. The quarrel was fundamentally one between aristocracy and democracy.”

Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of an American Republic, 1776–1787, 1969

“The supporters of the United States Constitution touted it as, among many other things, the only solution to a terrible economic slump. Nearly all free Americans believed much of the responsibility for the recession of the 1780s lay with the thirteen state legislatures.…The Constitution was also rooted in a struggle between taxpayers and investors in government bonds.…Debate over state-level fiscal and monetary policies…divided Americans on the eve of the Constitutional Convention.…The debate…hinged upon which segment of society should bear the burden of reviving the economy.”

Woody Holton, “Did Democracy Cause the Recession That Led to the Constitution?” 2005

a. Briefly explain ONE major difference between Wood’s and Holton’s historical interpretations of the debates over the Constitution in the late 1780s.

b. Briefly explain how ONE development in the 1780s not directly mentioned in the excerpts supports Wood’s argument.

c. Briefly explain how ONE development in the 1780s not directly mentioned in the excerpts supports Holton’s argument.

Task #6  Please read Chapter #10 Launching the New Ship of State and answer the questions below.

REQUIRED READING: Chapter #10 Launching the New Ship of State (pp. 190-197)

CLASS NOTES:  Launching the New Ship of State – The Washington Presidency [1789] 

Hamilton Revives the Corpse of Public Credit

 1. How did Alexander Hamilton's economic plans lead to the District of Columbia?

Customs Duties and Excise Taxes

2. Explain Hamilton's overall economic plan for America.

Hamilton Battles Jefferson for a Bank

 3. How did the issue of the Bank of the United States reveal a difference in understanding about the Constitution between Jefferson and Hamilton?

The Emergence of Political Parties

 4. Why did political parties develop during George Washington's presidency?  Were they good or bad?