RATIFICATION of the Constitution [AP Government Review, Unit 1 Topic 5]

Summary

In this educational video, we explore the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, focusing on the critical role of political negotiation and compromise during the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Key compromises like the Great Compromise, the Electoral College system, and those concerning slavery are discussed, highlighting their enduring impact on today's debates over government power, state authority, and individual rights, such as those surrounding government surveillance and education policy.

Takeaways

• 📜 The script discusses the ratification of the U.S. Constitution and the political negotiations and compromises that shaped it.
• 🏛️ The Constitutional Convention, also known as the Philadelphia Convention, aimed to address the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.
• 🗣️ A key debate was over representation in Congress, leading to the Great Compromise, which created a bicameral legislature with the House of Representatives and the Senate.
• 🔢 The Great Compromise included the Virginia Plan (favoring large states) and the New Jersey Plan (favoring small states), resulting in proportional representation in the House and equal representation in the Senate.
• 🤝 The Electoral College system was established as a compromise for presidential elections, with each state's electors determining the president.
• 🔪 The Three-Fifths Compromise addressed the contentious issue of how enslaved individuals would be counted for representation and taxation.
• 🚢 The Compromise of 1787 delayed the abolition of the slave trade for 20 years, which was eventually ended in 1808.
• 📝 The framers of the Constitution recognized the need for an amendment process, leading to Article 5, which outlines the proposal and ratification stages for amendments.
• 🔄 The script highlights that the debates from the Constitutional Convention continue to resonate in contemporary issues such as government surveillance and education policy.
• 🌐 The ongoing debate between central government power, state authority, and individual rights is a theme that connects historical and current political discourse.

Q & A

What was the main purpose of the Constitutional Convention of 1787?

The main purpose of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 was to address the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation by drafting a new Constitution that would strengthen the federal government.

What was the Virginia Plan and how did it propose to apportion representatives in Congress?

The Virginia Plan proposed that representatives in Congress should be apportioned based on population, which would give larger states more representatives and smaller states fewer.

What was the New Jersey Plan and how did it differ from the Virginia Plan?

The New Jersey Plan argued for equal representation in Congress, with each state receiving one vote regardless of size, which would favor smaller states.

What is the Great Compromise and how did it resolve the debate between the Virginia and New Jersey Plans?

The Great Compromise resolved the debate by creating a bicameral legislature with a House of Representatives where representation is based on population and a Senate where each state has equal representation.

How was the method for electing the President of the United States decided upon?

The method for electing the President was decided through a compromise known as the Electoral College system, where each state has a number of electors equal to its total representation in Congress.

What is the Three-Fifths Compromise and how did it affect representation and taxation?

The Three-Fifths Compromise stated that for purposes of representation and taxation, three-fifths of the enslaved population would be counted, which meant that states with more enslaved people would have more representatives and pay more taxes.

What compromise was made regarding the importation of slaves, and when did it take effect?

A compromise was made that the importation of slaves would not be abolished for 20 years after the Constitution was ratified, which eventually occurred in 1808.

Why did the framers of the Constitution establish a method for amending the Constitution?

The framers established a method for amending the Constitution because they recognized the difficulty of amending the Articles of Confederation, which required unanimous agreement from all states.

How many times has the United States Constitution been amended, and what is significant about the first ten amendments?

The United States Constitution has been amended 27 times, with the first ten amendments collectively known as the Bill of Rights.

How does the debate over government surveillance relate to the historical debates during the Constitutional Convention?

The debate over government surveillance relates to historical debates as it involves the balance between central power (in the form of national security measures) and individual rights (such as privacy), similar to the debates during the Constitutional Convention.

What is the No Child Left Behind Act, and how does it connect to the historical debate over federal versus state power?

The No Child Left Behind Act is a federal law that sets criteria for schools to meet in order to receive funding. It connects to the historical debate as it represents an instance of federal overreach into what has traditionally been a state domain, education.

Outlines

00:00

📜 Ratification of the Constitution and Compromises

This paragraph discusses the process of ratifying the U.S. Constitution and the key compromises made during its creation. The Constitutional Convention of 1787, also known as the Philadelphia Convention, aimed to address the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. The debate over representation in Congress led to the Great Compromise, which resulted in a bicameral legislature with the House of Representatives based on population and the Senate with equal representation for each state. Additionally, the Electoral College was established as a compromise for presidential elections. The paragraph also covers the Three-Fifths Compromise and the 20-year delay on the abolition of the slave trade, reflecting the contentious nature of slavery within the constitutional debates. The framers recognized the need for an amendment process, which is outlined in Article 5, requiring proposal by either Congress or state conventions and ratification by three-quarters of the states.

05:01

🗽 Ongoing Debates and Constitutional Amendments

The second paragraph delves into the ongoing debates that stem from the Constitution's creation, focusing on government surveillance and education as contemporary examples. It mentions the USA PATRIOT Act passed in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which aimed to prevent future attacks by expanding surveillance but also raised concerns about privacy rights. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is highlighted as an instance where federal standards for education sparked debates about federal overreach into state authority. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing that the foundational debates about central versus state power and individual rights are still relevant today, and it provides a brief overview of the Constitution's amendment process, noting that it has been amended 27 times, with the first ten amendments being the Bill of Rights.

Keywords

💡Constitutional Convention

The Constitutional Convention, also known as the Philadelphia Convention, was a gathering in 1787 where the delegates aimed to address the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. It eventually led to the drafting of the U.S. Constitution. In the video, the convention is highlighted as a pivotal event where debates and compromises laid the foundation for a stronger federal government.

💡Articles of Confederation

The Articles of Confederation was America's first constitution and is described in the video as having significant weaknesses, which necessitated the call for a Constitutional Convention. It is portrayed as a 'hot mess' of a governing document that failed to effectively unite the states under a strong central government.

💡Great Compromise

The Great Compromise was a critical agreement reached during the Constitutional Convention that addressed how representation would be determined in the new Congress. The video explains that it was a balance between the Virginia Plan, favoring representation based on population, and the New Jersey Plan, advocating for equal representation for all states.

💡Virginia Plan

The Virginia Plan proposed that representatives in the new Congress should be apportioned based on the population of each state. This plan is mentioned in the video as favoring larger states like Virginia, which would have more representatives and thus more influence in the government.

💡New Jersey Plan

The New Jersey Plan suggested that each state should have an equal number of representatives in Congress, regardless of population size. The video points out that this plan would benefit smaller states by giving them equal say in the legislative process.

💡Electoral College

The Electoral College is the system established by compromise for the election of the U.S. President. As explained in the video, it involves each state having a number of electors equal to its total representation in Congress, and these electors cast votes to elect the President. This system was a compromise between direct popular election and election by Congress or state legislatures.

💡Three-Fifths Compromise

The Three-Fifths Compromise was an agreement to count three-fifths of the enslaved population for purposes of taxation and representation. This compromise is highlighted in the video as a contentious point that showed the tension between northern and southern states over how enslaved individuals should be counted.

💡Slave Trade Compromise

The Slave Trade Compromise was an agreement to delay the abolition of the slave trade for 20 years after the Constitution was ratified. The video describes this as a concession made to southern states, which were heavily reliant on slave labor, to ensure their support for the new Constitution.

💡Amendment Process

The Amendment Process outlined in Article 5 of the Constitution is a method for altering or updating the Constitution. The video emphasizes the importance of this process, which was established in response to the difficulty of amending the Articles of Confederation, and notes that it involves proposal and ratification stages.

💡Ratification

Ratification in the context of the Constitution refers to the process by which the states approved the new Constitution. The video mentions that it took until 1790 for all states to ratify the Constitution, with Rhode Island being the last to agree.

💡Debate on Central Power vs. Individual Rights

The ongoing debate between central power and individual rights is a recurring theme in U.S. history, as discussed in the video. It is illustrated through examples such as government surveillance post-9/11 and the No Child Left Behind Act, showing how historical debates from the Constitutional Convention continue to resonate in contemporary policy discussions.

Highlights

Introduction to the ratification of the Constitution and its impact on political negotiation and compromise.

Discussion on the Constitutional Convention and its purpose to address the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.

The shift from amending the Articles of Confederation to drafting a new Constitution at the Philadelphia Convention.

Explanation of the Virginia Plan, which proposed representation based on population.

Counterpoint of the New Jersey Plan, advocating for equal representation for all states.

The Great Compromise resulting in a bicameral legislature with the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The Electoral College system as a compromise for presidential elections.

The Three-Fifths Compromise regarding the counting of enslaved people for representation and taxation.

The compromise on the importation of slaves, delaying its abolition for 20 years.

The necessity for a method of amending the Constitution, leading to Article 5.

Process of proposing and ratifying amendments to the Constitution.

The ratification process of the Constitution, with Rhode Island being the last state to agree.

Ongoing debates about central government power, state governments, and individual rights.

The impact of the USA Patriot Act on government surveillance and individual rights post-9/11.

The No Child Left Behind Act and its implications for federal involvement in state education.

Conclusion on the enduring nature of the constitutional debates in contemporary American politics.

Transcripts

hey there and welcome back to heimlich's

history now we've been going through

unit one of the ap government curriculum

and in this video it's time to talk

about the ratification of the

constitution so if you're ready to get

them brain cows milked with a good deal

of compromise well then let's get to it

okay in this video here's what we're

aiming to do explain the ongoing impact

of political negotiation and compromise

at the constitutional convention on the

development of the constitutional system

okay so here are two things the

constitutional convention and the

compromises necessary to create the

constitution so let's look at each in

turn okay first the constitutional

convention in the last video we talked

about america's first constitution

namely the articles of confederation and

how basically it was kind of a hot mess

of a governing document and had more

weaknesses than you could shake a stick

at so to remedy these problems a

constitutional convention also known as

the philadelphia convention was called

in 1787 and the stated purpose of this

convention was to shore up the

weaknesses of the articles of

confederation but thanks to the work of

folks like alexander hamilton the

convention quickly became an effort in

drafting a new constitution that would

strengthen the federal government and

eliminate the weaknesses of the articles

if you've watched my other videos on

this topic you know that there was a

terrific debate over this new

constitution not only in the

ratification stage but also just to get

the thing written and out for

ratification okay now let's have a look

at some of the main compromises that you

need to know from the constitution and

by the way the us constitution is one of

your required documents for this course

so i have a whole video on it you can

check it out right here here we're only

going to consider the compromises

embedded in it the first compromise you

need to know is the great compromise and

the debate here was over how the people

would be represented in the new congress

remember the constitution would

establish a republican-style government

in which representatives of the people

did the work of government so the main

question was how do we decide how many

representatives each state gets and

there were two opposing solutions to

this problem first was the virginia plan

which argued that representatives ought

to be apportioned by population so in

that case bigger states would have more

representatives and smaller states would

have less and it's not hard to

understand why virginia would want a

plan like that since it was among the

most populous states of the union now on

the surface that sounds pretty fair

right but think about it for a moment if

the big states always had more

representatives then the interests of

the small states would never prevail

like just because of their size the

small states would never win under this

system so the virginia plan favored

large states okay now second was the new

jersey plan which argued that

representatives ought to be apportioned

equally each state gets one vote so in

this case small states have the

advantage it's not hard to understand

why if you have two groups and then the

first group is 10 people and the second

group is 10 000 people and each one has

one vote clearly the group with 10 has

way more power than the one with 10 000

and of course the big states like

virginia would lose in the system so the

great compromise took both of those

plans and brought them together in a

bicameral legislature which is to say a

congress with two houses in the house of

representatives the people's

representatives will be apportioned by

population so big states have more and

small states have less in the senate

representatives would be apportioned

equally with each state no matter the

size granted to senators now that debate

had a lot of heat but so did the

compromise over how the president was

going to be elected in this debate there

were again several options some groups

argue that the president should be

elected by the people others argue that

the president should be elected by state

legislatures then still others argue

that congress should be responsible for

this task and the compromise they

ultimately agreed upon for presidential

elections was the electoral college

system in this system each state is

given the same number of electors as

they have representatives in congress

and it is the electors who put the

president into office now states can

make their own decisions about who those

electors are going to be but regardless

the presidential election is in their

hands and in no one else's now there are

two more compromises you need to know

and they both deal with slavery which as

you can imagine was a topic that got a

little uh tense the first compromise on

slavery was known as the three-fifths

compromise the debate was over how

enslaved people would count for

representation in the house of

representatives northern delegates to

the convention said that representation

ought to be reckoned by the free

population only and that makes sense

right like if the whole institution of

slavery was as southerners claimed built

on the fact that enslaved people were

property not people then northerners

wondered why should you count them for

purposes of representation to which the

southern delegates said well son don't

go pointing out contradictions in our

world view that ain't polite anyway this

argument got so heated the southern

delegates threatened to leave the

convention and if they did that there

would be no constitution so the

compromise they eventually came to was

to count three-fifths of the enslaved

population for purposes of

representation and they would also count

three-fifths of them for the purposes of

taxation as well so if you want more

representatives you're about to get more

taxes too the other compromise on

slavery was about the importation of

slaves people some delegates wanted to

officially abolish the slave trade in

the constitution and those from the

south

you probably already know what they

thought about that so a deal was struck

that the slave trade wouldn't be touched

for another 20 years after which it

would be abolished which it was in 1808

so those are some of the main

compromises you need to know but you

also need to know that in the process of

those debates some of which almost

brought the convention to the breaking

point the framers of the constitution

became convinced that a method of

amending the constitution was needed now

remember how difficult it was to amend

the articles of confederation it

required unanimous agreement from all 13

states and even if 12 states agreed you

know who's about to come in and mess

this whole thing up right

it's always your fault anyway the

framers of the constitution recognized

the impossibility of the amendments

under the articles and so laid out in

article 5 of the constitution a more

attainable means of amending it so there

are two stages to amending the

constitution proposal and ratification

so how is an amendment proposed well

either congress can propose an amendment

or special state conventions can and a

two-thirds vote is required to pass the

amendment on to the next stage once that

happened the proposed amendment must be

ratified or accepted by three quarters

of the states and that can be done

either by state legislatures or state

ratifying conventions if three quarters

of the states vote to approve it becomes

an official amendment to the

constitution and just for poops and

giggles it might be helpful for you to

know that the constitution has been

amended 27 times although the first ten

are the bill of rights and those were

added all at once okay now despite all

the fighting and compromise necessary to

get the constitution in its final form

they finally hammered it out and

presented it to the states for

ratification and it took until 1790 for

all the states to ratify and you're

never gonna guess who was the last state

holding out to the last possible moment

to say yes was it south carolina it

wasn't south carolina no it was rhode

island it was

anyway the debate over the role of the

central government the power of state

governments and individual rights which

essentially summarize the debate of the

convention still goes on to this day and

let me just mention two areas in which

we still see this debate government

surveillance and education and what the

curriculum is trying to get you to see

here is that these debates weren't just

confined to a moment of time when the

ratification of the constitution was at

stake or the writing of the constitution

was at stake these debates have followed

us to this day so with respect to

government surveillance let's talk about

what happened in the wake of the

terrorist attacks of september 11 2001.

on that day terrorists representing the

group known as al qaeda crashed

passenger airliners into both towers of

the world trade center in new york

another into the pentagon and another

crashed into the pennsylvania

countryside now these men had been

living in the united states learning to

fly and coordinating their plans for

upwards of 18 months and after the

attacks were carried out it was shocking

to discover that these men had lived

among americans for so long like how

could we have missed what they were up

to so in order to make sure that didn't

happen again congress passed the usa

patriot act which aimed to find and stop

future terrorist attacks and hey that's

great well how are they going to do that

well by tapping a butt load of phones

and monitoring americans emails but

eventually a public outcry started

growing regarding the patriot act and

its potential to violate fourth

amendment rights to be secure against

unreasonable searches and seizures so

there you have the old debate about

central power versus individual rights

now this debate also rages around the

topic of education now historically

education falls within the domain of

state authority but in 2001 congress

passed the no child left behind act

which stipulated that in order to

receive federal funding schools would

have to meet certain criteria and as it

turns out those benchmarks were very

much out of reach for a lot of teachers

in schools and when they didn't pass

muster the federal government imposed

sanctions on those states and here we

have the same debate again as states

were slapped with federal sanctions

there was an outcry from the states that

this law represented way too much

federal overreach into the dominion of

state power so at the end of the day the

debates which created our nation are the

same debates we're still having today

okay that's what you need to know about

unit 1 topic 5 of the ap government

curriculum if you need help getting an a

in your class and a five on your exam

may then click right over here and grab

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