hi I'm John Green this is crash-course
US history and today we're gonna talk
about the United States Constitution and
in doing so we're gonna explore how the
American style of government became the
envy of the entire world so much so that
everyone else copied us what's that's
then we're not gonna talk about other
countries stealing our form of
government because no other countries
stole our form of government that that
doesn't seem possible Stan
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no say another libertagia cue the intro
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so today we're gonna learn why the green
areas of not-america didn't copy us all
right so as Americans made dimly
remember from history classes the
constitutional system we've been living
under since 1788 the year of the first
presidential election was not the
original American government the first
government set up by the Continental
Congress was called the Articles of
Confederation and it was in a word bad
in two words it was not good which is
why it only lasted ten years the problem
with the Confederation is that it wasn't
so much a framework for a national
government as it was a firm League of
friendship which unfortunately only
sounds like a team of Care Bear
superheroes the Articles set up a
government that consisted of a one-house
body of delegates with each state having
a single vote who acting collectively
could make decisions on certain issues
that affected all the states there was
no president and no judiciary you can
try to tell me that john hanson the
president of the congress was the first
american president but it's just not
true any decision required 9 of the 13
congressional votes which pretty much
guaranteed that no decisions would ever
be made ah super majorities always so
efficient but besides the two-thirds
requirement the Congress was very
limited in what it could actually do the
government could declare war conduct
Foreign Affairs and make treaties
basically the stuff you need to do to go
to war with England
it could coin money but it couldn't
collect taxes that was left to the
states so if you needed money to say go
to war with Britain you had to ask the
states politely the Articles could be
amended but that required a unanimous
vote so 0 amendments were ever passed
the government was deliberately weak
which followed logically from Americans
fear of tyrannical governments taxing
them and quartering soldiers in their
houses and so on but here's the thing
weak government is like non-alcoholic
beer it's useless
that said the Articles government did
accomplish a couple things first it won
the war so yay unless you were a slave
or a Native American in which case you
know probable boo second the government
developed rules for dealing with one of
the most persistent problems facing the
new nation Ohio which was called the
Northwest presumably because it is north
and west of Virginia getting control of
the land meant taking it from the
Indians who were living there and the
articles government was empowered to
make treaties which it did crash course
world history fans will remember the
Athenians telling the millions that the
strong do as they can and the weak
suffer what they must and the Americans
definitely went to the Athenian school
of treaty making through treaty signed
at four
Stanwix and fort Mackintosh the Indian
surrendered land north of the Ohio River
the biggest accomplishment of the
articles government was the Northwest
Ordinance of 1787 which set up a process
to create five new States between the
Ohio and Mississippi River two things to
know about this first it acknowledged
that American Indians had a claim to the
land and that they had to be treated
better if settlers wanted to avoid
violence and second Stan can I get the
foreshadowing filter yes perfect
the ordinance outlawed slavery in all
five of the new states still the
articles government was a complete
disaster for exactly one reason it could
not collect taxes both the national
government and the individual states had
racked up massive debt to pay for the
war and their main source of revenue
became tariffs but because Congress
couldn't impose them States had to do it
individually and this made international
trade a total nightmare a fact worsened
by the British being kind of cranky
about us winning the war and therefore
unwilling to trade with us in 1786 and
1787 the problem got so bad in
Massachusetts that farmers rose up and
closed the courts to prevent them from
foreclosing upon their debt encumbered
farm this is called Shay's rebellion
after Revolutionary War veteran and
indebted farmer Daniel Shan the uprising
was quelled by the state militia but for
many this was the sign that the Articles
government which couldn't deal with the
crisis at all had to go but not for
everyone
Thomas Jefferson for instance was a fan
of Shay's rebellion a little rebellion
now and then is a good thing
the tree of liberty must be refreshed
from time to time with the blood of
patriots and tyrants which is all fine
and good I mean unless you're the
bleeding Patriots or tyrants but to most
elite Shay's rebellion showed that too
much Democratic Liberty among the lower
classes could threaten private property
also people who held government bonds
were nervous because without tax revenue
they were unlikely to get paid back and
when rich people feel like something has
to be done something is usually done
let's go to the thought-bubble the first
attempt to do something was a meeting in
Annapolis in 1786 aimed at better
regulating international trade only six
states sent delegates but they agreed to
meet the next year in Philadelphia to
revise the Articles of Confederation the
delegates who met in Philly the next
year had a funny definition of revision
though rather than make tweaks to the
Articles they wrote a new charter of
government the Constitution which is
with some significant alterations the
same one that Americans live under and
argue about today despite what some
seemed to believe the 55 men who met in
Philadelphia and hammered out a new form
of government were not gods but they
were
ordinary especially for the time most
were wealthy some very much so
more than half had college education 'z
which was super rare since point zero
zero one percent of Americans attended
college at the time about forty percent
had served in the Army during the war
but one thing they all shared was a
desire for a stronger national
government the delegates agreed on many
things the government should have
executive legislative and judicial
branches and should be Republican with
representatives rather than direct
democracy but the devil appeared in the
details Alexander Hamilton probably the
biggest proponent of very strong
government wanted the President and
Senate to serve life terms for example
that idea went nowhere because the
overarching concern of almost all the
delegates was to create a government
that would protect against both tyranny
by the government itself and tyranny by
the people they didn't want too much
government but they also didn't want too
much democracy which is why our
presidents are still technically elected
not directly by regular people but by
538 members of the electoral college
this system is so Byzantine and strange
that when American politicians speak of
spreading democracy through the world
they never actually advocate for
american-style elections thanks
thought-bubble
yes I know you have fantastic elections
in Canada yep right okay all that to I
get I get it okay it's US history
thought bubble so conflicts between
competing interests arose quickly at the
Constitutional Convention in
Philadelphia the first being between
states with big populations and those
with small populations large states
supported James Madison's Virginia plan
which called for a two-house legislature
with representation in both proportional
to a state's population and smaller
states fearing that the big boys would
dominate rallied behind the New Jersey
plan New Jersey this called for a single
legislative house with equal
representation for each state as with
the Articles of Confederation
but of course coming from New Jersey it
had no chance of succeeding and sure
enough it didn't instead we got the
great compromise brokered by
Connecticut's Roger Sherman which gave
us to house a House of Representatives
with representation proportional to each
state's population and a Senate with two
members from each state House members
also called congressmen served two-year
terms while senators served six-year
terms with one third of them being up
for election in every two-year cycle the
house was designed to be responsive to
the people while the Senate was created
to never pass anything and it was so
masterfully designed that it still works
to this day however this solution
created
another problem who should be counted in
terms of representation slaveholding
states wanted slaves to count toward
their population even though of course
they could not vote because they were
property states with few slaves argued
that slaves shouldn't be counted as
people because just to be clear none of
these dudes were not racist
this issue was solved with the notorious
three-fifths compromise for the purpose
of determining the population the total
number of white people plus three-fifths
the population of other persons the word
slave was never used would be the basis
for the calculation so yeah that's still
in the Constitution the Constitution
also contains a Fugitive Slave clause
requiring any escaped slave to be
returned to their master and this meant
that a slave couldn't escape slavery by
moving to a state where slavery was
outlawed which meant that on some level
some states couldn't enforce their own
laws boiler alert this becomes
problematic but except for the tyranny
of slavery the framers really hated
tyranny to avoid tyranny of the
government the Constitution embraced two
principles separation of powers and
federalism the government was divided
into three branches legislative
executive and judiciary and the
Constitution incorporated checks and
balances each branch can check the power
of the others the legislature can make
laws but the president can veto those
laws the judiciary can declare laws void
- but that's a power they had to grant
themselves you won't find it in the
Constitution I promise you can look for
it and federalism is the idea that
governmental authority rests both in the
national and the state government as an
American I am a citizen both of the
United States and of the state of
Indiana and the national government the
one set up by the Constitution is
supposed to be limited in scope to
certain enumerated powers most other
powers especially the protection of
health safety and morals are left to the
States but the Constitution also seeks
to protect against the radicalism that
too much democracy can bring the mostly
rich framers worried that the people
many of whom were poor and indebted
might vote in Congress people or god
forbid a president in favor of like
redistribution of property to hedge
against this senators were elected by
the states usually by state legislatures
and they were supposed to be like
leading citizen types you know the kind
of good Americans who take bribes and
have adulterous affairs in Airport
bathrooms and patronized prostitutes and
shoot Alexander Hamilton anyway the
other hedge against too much democracy
is the affer mentioned electoral college
which many Americans hate because it has
the potential to elect a president who
did not win the popular vote but that's
kind of the point the electors were
supposed to be prominent and
educated men of property who were better
able to elect a president than like the
rabble but the Constitution of the
United States is a really impressive
document especially when you consider
its longevity I mean as crash course
world history fans will remember the
nation-state is pretty new on the
historical scene and the United States
established by the Constitution is
actually one of the oldest one but the
Constitution would be meaningless if it
hadn't been ratified which it was but
not without a fight that helped clarify
America's political ideology nine out of
the thirteen states were required to
ratify the Constitution in special
conventions called for the purpose in
order to convince the delegates to vote
for it three of the framers Alexander
Hamilton James Madison and John J wrote
a series of 85 essays that together are
known as the Federalist Papers taken
together they're a powerful and
ultimately persuasive argument for why a
strong national government is necessary
and ultimately not a threat to people's
Liberty oh it's time for the mystery
document the rules here are simple if I
name the author of the mystery document
Jacques in surprise if I don't chock as
a little weird thing let's who we got
here
if circumstances should at any time
oblige the government to form an army of
any magnitude that army can never be
formidable to the liberties of the
people while there is a large body of
citizens little if at all inferior to
them in discipline and the use of arms
who stand ready to defend their own
rights and those of their fellow
citizens this appears to me the only
substitute that can be devised for a
standing army and the best possible
security against it if it should exist
Federalist Papers Alexander Hamilton yes
too easy Stan although I appreciate the
opportunity for a rant the whole idea of
the Second Amendment was that the people
could protect themselves from a standing
army by being equally well armed which
of these days would mean not that
citizens should have the right to buy
assault rifles but that they should have
the right to buy like unmanned drone and
arguably suitcase nukes and by the way
in the Constitution this is not listed
as a privilege it is listed as a right
and as a right if I can't afford my own
Predator drone I guess the government
should buy one for me it's almost as if
Alexander Hamilton had no way of knowing
that weaponry would one day advance past
the musket yes you know how Alexander
Hamilton died gunshot sorry I just I had
to I am on a roll so it would be easy to
ignore the people who oppose the
Constitution because you know they lost
but some of the ideas of these so-called
anti-federalists were particularly
powerful and they deserve a bit of it
anti-federalists unlike the mostly
wealthy Federalists were usually
supported by common people small farmers
who weren't as involved in commercial
activity they saw less need for a strong
national government that would foster
trade and protect creditors and the
anti-federalists were very afraid of a
strong government especially one
dominated by the wealthy writers like
James Winthrop held that a large group
of united states would be like an empire
and that no extensive Empire can be
governed upon republican principles as
evidence he could point to Britain or
all the way back to Rome smaller more
local governments are more responsive to
the people and better able to protect
their rights to the anti-federalists
that meant state government and while
ultimately the Federalists one out and
the Constitution was ratified the issue
of how large government should be did
not go away so the Constitution was
really only a starting point it's a
vague document and the details would be
worked out in the political process and
then on the battlefield
thanks for watching I'll see you next
week crash course is produced and
directed by Stan Muller our script
supervisor is Meredith Danko the show is
written by my high school history
teacher Raoul Meyer and myself edited by
Stan and mark Olson the Associate
Producer is Danica Johnson and our
graphics team is thought bubble
if you have questions about today's
video or anything about American history
good news there are historians and
comments so ask away thanks for watching
crash course and as we say in my
hometown don't forget to be awesome
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you