History 1700 MacKay
Creating the Nation -- the American Revolution is about Governance

       

Declaration of Independence in Congress, at the Independence Hall, Philadelphia, July 4th, 1776, by John Trumbull, 1817.      

We will be concerned with: What is a Republic? What is Democracy? What is the theory of Inalienable Rights?

A republic is a form of government (and a state so governed) in which power is derived from the consent of the governed. There are no vested offices. The word is derived from the Latin res publica, or "public affair," and suggests an ownership and control of the state by the population at large. The concept of democracy, however, is not implicit to that of a republic. The republican form of government may involve a limited democracy, where civil rights are available only to a limited group of people.

representative democracies.

 

The word democracy originates from the Greek ηδμοκρατíα from δημος meaning "the people," plus κρατειν meaning "to rule", and the suffix íα; the term therefore means "Rule by the People." The term is also sometimes used as a measurement of how much influence people have over their government, as in how much democracy exists.

Human rights (natural rights) are rights which some hold to be "inalienable" and belonging to all humans, according to natural law. Such rights are believed, by proponents, to be necessary for and the maintenance of a "reasonable" quality of life.

If a right is inalienable, that means it cannot be bestowed, granted, limited, bartered away, or sold away (e.g., one cannot sell oneself into slavery). The issue of which rights are inalienable and which are not (or whether any rights are inalienable rather than granted or bestowed) is an ancient and ongoing controversy. Rights may also be non-derogable (not limited in times of National Emergency) - these include the right to life, the right to be prosecuted only according to the laws that are in existence at the time of the offence, the right to be free from slavery, and the right to be free from torture.

"Inalienable," etymologically, comes from the French word inaliénable, and is more usually used in legal documents than "unalienable." The idea of inalienable rights, in almost the exact phrasing used in the Declaration of Independence, came from the political philosopher John Locke. The Declaration of Independence was to a large degree inspired by his work "The Second Treatise of Government." In this treatise, Locke developed the important idea of government by consent. Locke wrote that human beings had certain inalienable rights.  (Source:  WordIQ)

Readings:

• Emergence of colonial governments
• Oates: Vol. I: # 7, 9   
• Slave Petition to Governor of Massachusetts, 1774 
• Events leading to the American Revolution  
• Declaration of Independence   
• Pennsylvania 1776 Constitution Declaration of Rights               
• The Constitution
• The Address and Reasons of Dissent of the Minority of the Convention of Pennsylvania
  to Their Constituents
• Letter from E. Gerry to S. Adams opposing the Constitution

You might find helpful: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/convention1787.html

The signers of the Declaration of Independence are not the same as the members of the Constitutional Convention: http://www.usconstitution.net/declarsigndata.html

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May 25, 1787 - With 29 delegates from nine states present, the constitutional convention begins in the state house (Independence Hall) in Philadelphia. A total of 73 delegates have been chosen by the states (excluding Rhode Island) although only 55 will actually attend. There are 21 veterans of the Revolutionary War and 8 signers of the Declaration of Independence. The delegates are farmers, merchants, lawyers and bankers, with an average age of 42, and include the brilliant 36 year old James Madison, the central figure at the convention, and 81 year old Ben Franklin. Thomas Jefferson, serving abroad as ambassador to France, does not attend.

The delegates first vote is to keep the proceedings absolutely secret. George Washington is then nominated as president of the constitutional convention.

June 19, 1787 - Rather than revise the Articles of Confederation, delegates at the constitutional convention vote to create an entirely new form of national government  A four-month process of argument, debate, compromise leads to the development of the Constitution of the United States.