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18th-Century American Literature Videos 6 videos
The Constitution of the United States is the highest law in the land: it's a written statement of the core principles of the American government. I...
Ever heard of a "living document"? They eat and breathe just like the rest of us! They even walk around on their own two legs. Okay, fine—maybe t...
The Bill of Rights was made to protect Americans from too many restrictions and regulations in addition to ensuring our well-being under our govern...
All About The Constitution 5743 Views
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Description:
The Constitution of the United States is the highest law in the land: it's a written statement of the core principles of the American government. It might not have a map on the back that directs us to the national treasure, but we can't have everything.
- Social Studies / Policy
- History / Celebrate Freedom Week
- U.S. History EOC Assessment / History
- Texas EOC / U.S. History EOC Assessment
- Reading Informational Text / Analyze seminal U.S. documents of historical and literary significance
- Reading Informational Text / Analyze seminal U.S. documents of historical and literary significance
- Reading Informational Text / Reasoning in seminal U.S. texts for both legal purposes and public advocacy
- Reading Informational Text / Analyze seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth century foundational U.S. documents of historical and literary significance
Transcript
- 00:00
Thank you We sneak The constitution We're going to party
- 00:09
like it's seventeen seventy six As much as we may
- 00:15
hate them rules come in handy once in a while
- 00:21
Help us regulate our behavior our safety and even the
- 00:25
stuff we do for fun that's illegal you're out So
Full Transcript
- 00:29
it's really no shocker that our founding fathers would want
- 00:32
to come up with a set of rules for america
- 00:34
Should they get two hundred dollars when they pascoe What
- 00:38
is surprising is how well the constitution has hung in
- 00:40
there for over two hundred twenty years I don't look
- 00:43
a day over two hundred so let's take a good
- 00:46
look at this resilient blueprint for democracy constitution of the
- 00:51
united states of america After america won its independence from
- 00:57
britain it's leaders had to put together a central government
- 01:01
Toronto what do we do now The first attempt at
- 01:06
a constitution the articles of confederation was a nice try
- 01:11
but inadequate How dare you So the constitutional convention was
- 01:17
convened to reform it in philadelphia in may of seventeen
- 01:20
eighty seven Thank you The convention was attended by fifty
- 01:25
five leaders from twelve states Needless to say when you
- 01:32
get that many people in the same room disagreements are
- 01:34
bound to happen Okay but the delegates plowed ahead In
- 01:42
the end they created a federal government that was more
- 01:45
structured and more powerful but still respectful of the rights
- 01:48
and freedoms of individuals Oh yeah James madison often called
- 01:56
the father of our constitution was a key player in
- 02:00
keeping the rest of the delegates on task He knew
- 02:03
that they would never agree on everything And we're going
- 02:06
to make money but needed to agree on the important
- 02:09
stuff The country would be a federal system of government
- 02:15
with three distinct branches Legislative executive and judicial It would
- 02:24
have a serious of checks and balances to keep everyone
- 02:26
honest And states and individuals were to retain some exclusive
- 02:31
powers a year You probably think it was all downhill
- 02:36
from there yet But there was a lot of dispute
- 02:41
about whether or not there should be a single president
- 02:45
and how long he should stay in the office as
- 02:48
long as i want it would be quite a while
- 02:52
before this guy would come along to resolve the issue
- 02:54
of slaves right Yeah Or before this gal came along
- 03:00
to fight for the rights of women Bring it on
- 03:05
But the new constitution did cover a lot of ground
- 03:09
It established two bodies of legislation in the house and
- 03:12
the senate a supreme court and the ability to add
- 03:18
amendments in the future It also made it pretty clear
- 03:23
who was in charge Oh yeah brother Since most colonists
- 03:28
were fed up with the monarchy our founding fathers insured
- 03:32
from the first words that this was a popular sovereignty
- 03:35
whose power came on lee through the consent of the
- 03:38
people being governed Yeah After four months of debates and
- 03:44
compromise the delegates were more than ready to head for
- 03:48
home I know i am But there was one thing
- 03:53
missing from this first constitution Am i missing something A
- 03:57
bill of rights at it His amendments one through ten
- 04:01
The bill of rights was ratified in seventeen ninety one
- 04:04
Restricting government's ability to infringe upon individual rights and guaranteeing
- 04:10
personal freedoms were twice in a row Since its ratification
- 04:16
and seventeen eighty nine the u s constitution has been
- 04:19
amended twenty seven times with twenty six still standing His
- 04:22
law Yeah it's been an inspiration for countless other countries
- 04:28
and is the oldest written constitution in the world Oh
- 04:31
what's your secret Not bad for a bunch of old
- 04:35
guys stuck in a room without the internet huh What 00:04:38.562 --> [endTime] is that Oh yeah Stop twisting jim
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