American National
Government
Revised Edition
Edited by Leah Murray
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• Table of Contents
• Introduction
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American National
Government
Revised Edition
Edited by Leah Murray
Weber State University
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Printed in the United States of America
ISBN: 978-1-62131-013-6
Contents
Editor’s Introduction
Section I: American Citizenship
Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense”
ix
1
5
Abraham Lincoln’s “Address to the Young Men’s Lyceum”
33
John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address 41
Section I: Discussion Questions
45
Section II: American Founding
47
Magna Carta 51
The Mayflower Compact 59
Albany Plan of Union 61
Anti-Federalist Paper Centinel I 65
Section II: Discussion Questions
73
Section III: Federalism
75
Thomas Jefferson’s “The Kentucky Resolutions” 79
South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification 1832 85
John C. Calhoun’s “Fort Hill Address” Section III: Discussion Questions
Section IV: Freedom 89
101
103
The English Bill of Rights
107
Anti-Federalist Paper Address of the Pennsylvania Minority 113
James Madison’s “Speech Introducing Proposed
Constitutional Amendments” 117
Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” 129
Section IV: Discussion Questions
145
Section V: Equality
147
Declaration of Sentiments 151
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s
“A Letter From a Birmingham Jail” 155
Section V: Discussion Questions
167
Section VI: Congress 169
Federalist 52, 54, 62, 63 173
Speeches of Melancton Smith 191
Section VI: Discussion Questions
213
Section VII: Presidency
215
Federalist 70 219
Anti-Federalist Paper Cato V 227
Theodore Roosevelt’s excerpts from
231
Theodore Roosevelt, an Autobiography
William Howard Taft’s excerpt from Our Chief Magistrate 235
Section VII: Discussion Questions
Section VIII: Bureaucracy
237
239
Max Weber’s “Politics as Vocation” 243
Ronald Reagan’s First Inaugural Address 283
Section VIII: Discussion Questions
289
Section IX: Judiciary
291
Federalist 78 295
Anti-Federalist Papers Brutus XI, XII, XV 301
William Brennan’s “Living Constitution” Speech
to Georgetown University, 1985 315
Antonin Scalia’s “Common-Law Courts in a Civil-Law System:
The Role of United States Federal Courts in Interpreting
the Constitution and Laws” in A Matter of Interpretation:
325
Federal Courts and the Law Section IX: Discussion Questions
Section X: Public Opinion
353
355
Alexis DeTocqueville’s Democracy in America
Volume 1 Chapter XV 359
Section X: Discussion Questions
373
Section XI: Political Parties
375
Thomas Jefferson’s “Opinion on the Constitutionality
of a National Bank” 379
Alexander Hamilton’s “Opinion on the Constitutionality
of a National Bank” 383
George Washington’s “Farewell Address” 407
Section XI: Discussion Questions
419
Section XII: Elections
421
The Federalist No. 58 425
The Federalist No. 68 431
Amendments 15, 19, 23, 24, 26 435
Section XII: Discussion Questions
437
Section XIII: Media
439
David Hume’s “Of the Liberty of the Press” 443
Anti-Federalist Paper Federal Farmer
Number 16 (20 Jan 1788) 447
Communications Act of 1934 455
Section XIII: Discussion Questions
467
Section XIV: Policy
469
The Proclamation of Neutrality 1793 473
James Monroe: 1823 State of the Nation
475
Franklin Delano Roosevelt: 1944 State of the Union
487
Section XIV: Discussion Questions
495
Editor’s Introduction
Leah Murray
F
or more than ten years, I have taught Introduction to National American Government
courses in some capacity to more than a thousand students. Most of the students
in these courses are taking a general education requirement—the state government or
the university general education committee believes that students should understand
American institutions—or what it is to be an American. There are a plethora of textbooks
in this area written by excellent political scientists, and for the most part they are good.
But they tend to be political science textbooks—descriptive in nature and based on political science theories. American government courses, however, should not exclusively teach
political science theories—they should also teach what being an American means. The
reason that the Discovery Channel’s Top 100 Americans includes Brett Favre and Lance
Armstrong, and not Henry David Thoreau, is because we are failing at this. Students see
“Civil Disobedience” as a literary exercise—something to read in composition courses
and never to think of again. They do not see how it informs the American experience.
They do not learn how Abraham Lincoln’s “Address to the Young Men’s Lyceum” lays out
what it is to be an American citizen—what we are supposed to revere.
The more I have taught these students, the more I realize that the work we are engaged
in is to educate the next generation of citizens. While most of our students will go off into
the world to be doctors or lawyers or mechanics and not political scientists, they will all
be American citizens. Our political science–oriented textbooks do not do a complete job
preparing them for that role. This anthology is designed to correspond with any American
National Government textbook and to flesh out the learning of students. Every chapter
has between three and six artifacts that take a student to the heart of a particular topic.
Some of the pieces are historical documents, and some are primary documents; all are
chosen intentionally to increase the citizenship potential of our students.
First, we look at American citizenship through the lens of great American authors:
Thomas Paine, Abraham Lincoln, and John F. Kennedy. Students will understand the
American Revolution much better when they read Paine in his own words, rather than just
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having them referenced in a textbook or explained by a professor. Then we move into the
American founding with documents that informed the Constitution. Our textbooks have
Federalist 10 and 51 and the Constitution in their appendices. This section allows students
to see the Magna Carta, whence the American experience launched. We also read the
Mayflower Compact, the Albany Plan of Union, and a response to the Federalist Papers,
by Centinel. Each of these documents will put the founding in perspective—original
constitutional tracts as well as contemporary response to the founding document. Third,
we look at federalism by examining the states’ response to national encroachment, as laid
out by Thomas Jefferson, South Carolina and John Calhoun in the early 19th century.
This will increase the understanding of the dynamic relationship that led to the Civil War
and continues to vex political actors and citizens today.
We then move into the two major areas of our national history, freedom and equality,
which are important concepts addressed in the Declaration of Independence. Again, our
textbooks have the Declaration and Bill of Rights as an appendix generally, but nothing that informs the understanding of these documents. In the freedom section, we will
examine the English Bill of Rights—an original bill enumerating freedoms of citizens.
We will also see the Anti-Federalist Paper response to the Constitution calling for a Bill
of Rights as well as James Madison’s argument for putting a document forward in the
initial Congress. Finally, students will read Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience,”
which explains what protest means to the American experience and why the freedom to
protest is so important. Equality is an interesting concept that the nation has grappled
with time and again. This section takes us through the experiences of legislating equality
in our history. First we see the early efforts of women to declare equality in “Declaration
of Sentiments.” Who speaks better for the civil rights than Martin Luther King, Jr., in “A
Letter From a Birmingham Jail”?
Our next section takes us into the national institutions. We read in more detail the plan
for the legislative branch when we examine Federalist 52, 54, 62, and 63. Then, again,
we see a counterargument in Melancton Smith’s speeches. We examine the presidency by
looking first at Federalist 70 and its counter, Anti-Federalist Paper Cato V. We then read
a debate between presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft on the role
of the presidency. Third, we look at bureaucracy in a way that should engage students
in understanding what bureaucrats do—rather than just presenting a list of the various
agencies. First, we examine Max Weber’s “Politics as Vocation”—as Weber is the father of
bureaucratic theory.Then we read Ronald Reagan’s First Inaugural Address to demonstrate
the contemporary struggle about the nation’s relationship with the bureaucracy. Finally,
we look at the judiciary by first examining Federalist 78 and the counterarguments of
Anti-Federalist Brutus. We end this section with the current debate on the judicial role
in American politics with William Brennan’s theory of a living Constitution and Antonin
Scalia’s response.
Finally, our anthology takes us through extra-institutional actors and the output of
American politics: policy. To fully understand public opinion, students read Alexis de
 xi
Tocqueville, which is academic and historical—laying out the weaknesses and strengths
of governing by public opinion in the American system. Then we move into an examination of political parties beginning with where American parties started—Jefferson and
Alexander Hamilton. Their partisan divide is clearly laid out in their opinions on the
constitutionality of a National Bank. From here, students can fully understand why the
first administration and Congress so quickly devolved into partisan rancor. Finally, we
have Washington’s Farewell Address, which lays out the American sentiment about parties—that we do not like them even as they do political work for us. Our next section covers elections using primary documents. First, we examine Federalist 58 and 68, which lay
out the importance of elections to our national system. Federalist 68 explains the Electoral
College, which can never have too little explanation as it is so unique and complex to
understand. Then we move to the Amendments that increased suffrage and representation:
15, 19, 23, 24, and 26. Then we examine artifacts on the media, including two historical documents, David Hume’s “Of the Liberty of the Press” and “Anti-Federalist Paper
Federal Farmer Number 16”—which lay out the importance of a free press in a democratic
society. Next is an excerpt of the Communications Act of 1934, which was the statute that
established government regulation of the media through the FCC. Our final section, in
an effort to expose students to policy, we have three policy statements by presidents: two
specifically on foreign policy, and one on domestic. First, Washington’s Proclamation of
Neutrality and Monroe’s 1823 State of the Nation lay out early foreign policy doctrines.
Students will see how far removed we are from the beginnings of our country when they
read these documents. Then we turn to FDR’s 1944 State of the Union, in which he lays
out the Economic Bill of Rights.
This anthology is intentionally created to flesh out the learning of American Government
students—to allow them to see the shoulders on which they stand as they move forward
as citizens into the world. Hopefully, exposure to these documents will enlighten them to
America’s history as well as its possible future, with them at the helm.