U.S. Government
HS Social Studies
Unit: 01 Lesson: 01
The Founders’ Bookshelf
The Social Contract, Jean Jacque Rousseau, 1762 – Rousseau was an eighteenth-century French
philosopher who believed that government should originate from an agreement among free people
to be ruled.
“Each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will,
and…we receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole. …In place of the individual personality of
each contracting party, this act of association creates a moral and collective body,…receiving from this act
its unity, its common identity…Those who are associated in it take collectively the name of people, and
severally are called citizens as sharing in the sovereign power, and subjects, as being under the laws of the
State.”
Rousseau, J. (1762). The social contract. (p. 24). New York, NY: Cosimo.
Two Treatises on Civil Government, John Locke, 1690 – Locke was an English philosopher whose
writings had a profound influence on the leaders of the American Revolution, especially Thomas
Jefferson. He believed that men formed governments in order to protect their natural rights to life,
liberty and property. When a government ceases to protect these rights, the people can replace it
with another one.
“Whoever has the legislative or supreme power of any commonwealth, is bound to govern by established
standing laws, promulgated and known to the people, and not by extemporary decrees, by indifferent and
upright judges, who are to decide controversies by those laws; and to employ the force of the community at
home only in the execution of such laws, or abroad to prevent or redress foreign injuries and secure the
community from inroads and invasion. And all this to be directed to no other end but the peace, safety, and
public good of the people…”
Locke, J. (2005). Two treatises of government and a letter concerning toleration. (p. 111). Stilwell, KS:
Digireads.com Publishing.
The Spirit of the Laws, Baron de Montesquieu, 1748 – A French nobleman, Montesquieu wrote
several books on government and law. He believed in representative government with people of
local districts choosing legislators who could speak for them in a national body.
“In every government there are three sorts of power: the legislative; the executive in respect to things
dependent on the law of nations; and the executive in regard to matters that depend on civil law…by the
third, he punishes criminals, or determines disputes that arise between individuals. The latter we shall call
the judiciary power, and the other simply the executive power of the state.”
“…When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of
magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate
should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner.”
“Again, there is not liberty, if the judiciary power be not separated from the legislative and executive. Were
it joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary control; for the
judge might behave with violence and oppression.”
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U.S. Government
HS Social Studies
Unit: 01 Lesson: 01
Sargent, L. T. (1997). Political thought in the united states. (p. 22). New York, NY: New York University
Press.
Magna Carta, 1215 – In this Great Charter, King John of England was forced by a group of nobles to
concede that government must be based on the rule of law and must guarantee basic rights to all
freemen.
“…We have also granted to all freemen of our kingdom, for us and our heirs forever, all the underwritten
liberties, to be enjoyed and held by them and by their heirs, from us and from our heirs.”
“No bailiff, for the future, shall put any man to his law upon his own simple affirmation, without credible
witnesses produced for that purpose.”
“No freeman shall be seized, imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed, or exiled, or in any way destroyed; nor
will be proceed against or prosecute him except by the lawful judgment of his peers [equals] or by the law
of the land.”
National archives and records administration.(n.d.).Retrieved
from http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/magna_carta/
The Ten Commandments – According to the Bible, these were given by God to Moses on Mount
Sinai. Moses was referred to as “The Lawgiver” for delivering the Ten Commandments to the
people.
2I
am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3 you shall
have no other gods before me.
4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is
on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship
them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third
and the fourth generation of those who reject me, 6 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation
of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone
who misuses his name.
8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10 But the
seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter,
your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord
made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord
blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.
12 Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is
giving you.
13 You shall not murder.
14 You shall not commit adultery.
15 You shall not steal.
16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female
slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Exodus 20:2-17 (New Revised Standard Version)
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U.S. Government
HS Social Studies
Unit: 01 Lesson: 01
Mayflower Compact, November 11, 1620 – Signed on board the ship Mayflower that brought the
Pilgrims to the New World, the Compact was signed by forty-one men to deal with disputes between
those on the ship. Winter was fast approaching and a colony had to be started. The document was
a statement for majority rule (the Pilgrims) in the interest of the common good.
“We whose names are underwritten,…do by these presents [this document] solemnly and mutually in the
presence of God, and of one another, covenant [promise] and combine ourselves together into a civil body
politic for out better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the end aforesaid; and by virtue hereof, to
enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices from time
to time, as shall be thought to meet [be fitting] and convenient for the general good of the colony unto which
we promise all due submissions and obedience.”
Mayflower compact: 1620. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/mayflower.asp
Thoughts on Government, John Adams, 1776 – Adams, on the committee that drafted the
Declaration of Independence, was an avid letter writer. He was keenly interested in the structure of
government, and in the year of independence, he wrote these thoughts on the power of the new
Continental Congress.
“A representation of the people in one assembly being obtained, a question arises, whether all the powers
of government, legislative, executive, and judicial, shall be left in this body? I think a people cannot be long
free, nor ever happy, whose government is in one assembly.”
The founders' constitution. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch4s5.html
English Bill of Rights, 1689 – In 1688-89 the English people drove James II from his throne, putting
an end to the divine right of kings and establishing the power of Parliament, the English law-making
body. Parliament adopted the English Bill of Rights to insure its victory over the power of the King.
“That the…power of suspending laws or the execution of laws by regal authority without the consent of
parliament is illegal.”
“That election of members of Parliament ought to be free.”
“That excessive bail ought not to be required, not excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual
punishments inflicted.”
“That it is the right of the subjects to petition the kings, and all…prosecutions for such petitioning are
illegal.”
Modern history sourcebook: The bill of rights, 1689. (n.d.). Retrieved
from http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1689billofrights.asp
The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, 1639 – This document represented the first written
constitution in America. The document was designed to protect the rights of the freemen and was
designed to be read and understood by all. It could not be changed by the will of one man or a
small group.
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U.S. Government
HS Social Studies
Unit: 01 Lesson: 01
“It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that there shall be yearly two General Assemblies or Courts…the
first shall be called the Court of Election, wherein…one to be chosen Governor for the year ensuing ...and
no other Magistrate to be chosen for more than one year: provided always there be six chosen besides the
Governor, …which choice shall be made by all that are admitted freemen… It is Ordered…that no person
be chosen Governor above once in two years…”
“The other General Court…shall be for making of laws, and any other public occasion, which concerns the
good of the Commonwealth…[the people] assemble themselves together to elect and choose certain
deputies to be at the General Court then following to agitate the affairs of the Commonwealth.”
“It is Ordered, sentenced, and decreed, that the deputies thus chosen shall have power and liberty to
appoint a time and a place of meeting together before any General Court, to advise and consult of all such
things as may concern the good of the public…”
Bill of rights institute. (n.d.). Retrieved
From: http://billofrightsinstitute.org/resources/educator-resources/americapedia/americapedia-documents/orders-ofconnecticut/
The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, 1786 – Written by Thomas Jefferson, the statute was a
statement of his belief in the principle of separation of church and state and freedom of religious
conscience for, in his words, “the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mohammedan, the
Hindu and infidel of every denomination.”
“Be it enacted by General Assembly that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious
worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burdened in his body
or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but that all men shall be
free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of Religion, and that the same shall
in no wise diminish, enlarge or affect their civil capacities…”
The story of virginia an american experience. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.vahistorical.org/sva2003/vsrf.htm
Commentaries on the Laws of England, William Blackstone, 1766-1770 – Blackstone was an English
judge and professor who wrote the four-volume Commentaries on the Laws of England.
“The public good is in nothing more essentially interested, than in the protection of every individual's private
rights. . . So great moreover is the regard of the law for private property, that it will not authorize the least
violation of it; no, not even for the general good of the whole community.”
“In all tyrannical governments the supreme magistracy, or the right both of making and of enforcing the
laws, is vested in one and the same man, or one and the same body of men; wherever these two powers
are united together, there can be no public liberty. . . Herein indeed consists the excellence of the English
government, that all parts of it form a mutual check upon each other . . . If [the legislature] will positively
enact a thing to be done, the judges are not at liberty to reject it, for that were to set the judicial power
above that of the legislature, which would be subversive of all government.”
Blackstone, W., & Cooley, T. M. (1884). Commentaries on the laws of england. (3rd ed.). Chicago: Callaghan and Company.
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U.S. Government
HS Social Studies
Unit: 01 Lesson: 01
Declaration of Independence, 1776 – Written by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration reflected the
influence John Locke’s writings had on Jefferson: the concept of natural rights.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That
to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent
of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right
of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such
principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety
and happiness.”
Declaration of independence. (n.d.). Retrieved
from http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html
Articles of Confederation, 1781 – Written by the Second Continental Congress in 1777, the Articles
were not ratified by the thirteen states until 1781. This first constitution for the new nation created a
union of the states and set up a central government.
“Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right,
which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.”
“No State shall be represented in Congress by less than two, nor more than seven members; and no
person shall be capable of being a delegate for more than three years in any term of six year.”
“No State shall lay any imposts or duties, which may interfere with any stipulations in treaties, entered into
by the United States in Congress assembled.”
“Every State shall abide by the determination of the United States in Congress assembled, on all questions
which by this confederation are submitted to them. And the Articles of this Confederation shall be inviolably
observed by every State, and the Union shall be perpetual.”
Primary documents in american history. (n.d.). Retrieved
from http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/articles.html
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