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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...
All About The Constitution 5743 Views
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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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