Introduction to American Legal System
Introduction to Legal History of the USA
IALS
Introduction to Legal History
of the United States
The birth of a Nation
The American government is an
institution born of reason and
reflection. At its foundation lie three
historic documents:
• The Declaration of Independence,
• the Constitution,
• the Bill of Rights.
While leaders, movements, ideas have
changed the principles of American
government have remained the same.
Settling the New World
• The story of American government
dates back to the earliest settlement of
North America
• The first settlers were religious
separatists who came to America to
escape the Church of England
Settling the New World
• The earliest En. settlement took place at Roanoke
Island, NC
• Established by Sir Walter Raleigh in the mid to late
1580s, is best known for its mysterious and sudden
disappearance
• Is also known as the "Lost Colony"
• Later attempts of British Government: setting up
a trading outpost at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607.
• The colony survived more than 90 years but
struggled with harsh conditions and hostile Indians
• Left important legacy: the colonists adopted a
representative assembly to govern their affairs
(important precedent)
Settling the New World
• For the 150 years of settlement, the
British showed little interest in the
colonial govt.
• The Crown viewed the colonies as
nothing more than vast market for En.
Goods and provider of and endless
supply of natural sources
Settling the New World
• 1620 the Puritans, in order to search of greater
religious freedom and tolarance, landed at
Plymouth, MA and established a colony in New
England
• Forty-one men on board the Mayflower signed the
Mayflower Compact: a social contact that bound
them to obey the authority of whatever govt was
established on land
• The document was not a constitution but had a
great impact: established the precedent that any
governing authority in the New World requires the
consent of people.
Developement of the Colonies
• By 1732, all of the original states were
established
• They had already developed a strong
tradition of limited govt and local rule:
technically governed by London, the colonies
enjoyed autonomy
• All had elected legislatures that passed laws,
levied taxes, set policy, had a formal
governing document that resembled a
constitiution (e.g. PA passed the Frame of
Government, MA the Body of Liberties)
Prelude to a Revolution
• Relations between
the colonies and
Britain remained
smooth through
the mid 1750s,
until the French
and Indian War
Prelude to a Revolution
• Who fought the French and Indian War?
• Not the French against the Indians!
• At the end of 17th century, North America was an extremely
valuable piece of real esate: all major European powers
claimed the right to the land and wanted to extend their
teritory at the continent
• The conflict started unexpected for the Anglo-Americans when
a young Virginian was dispatched by Virginia’s Governor to the
Pennsylvania’s woods in 1753 to tell French they were
trespassing on Virginia’s teritory.
• However he learned that the French had no intentions of
leaving. With this intelligence, the young Virginians spent a
few difficult weeks returning to Virginia where he delivered the
report. Describing his adventure, he wrote a small book:
„The Journal of Major George Washington”
The French and Indian War
• Soon after this, that inexperienced 22-year-old son
of a planter was made an officer and sent back with
militia to build a fort (near Pittsburg) where
engaged in small battles against the French,
ordered the shoots that began the French and
Indian War – the War that most shaped America’s
destiny.
• It was during those fights that Washington had his
first taste of battle and wrote to his brother:
• „I can assure you. I heard Bullets whistling and believe me
there was sth charming in the sound”.
• The story goes that when King George III heard this tale,
replied:
„He would not say so had he been used to hear many”!
The French and Indian War
• By that time, there were 90,000 French in America
while 1.5 million English colonials.
• Things were bad for the English until the change of
command in 1758 when troops were poured in from
England.
• One of the English tacticts, when negotiating with
some attacking Indians, was to give them blankets
from smallpox hospital.
• A string of victories between 1758 and 1760 gave
the English control over the American colonies.
• In 1763, the Treaty of Paris brought peace and
complete British triumph. The Britain now owned all
of Canada, America east of Mississippi Valley,
Florida and a no. Of Carribean islands. France lost
its Am.clolonies, except for a few islands.
Prelude to Revolution
• How did the colonies go from being loyal subjects
of King George III to becoming rebels capable of
overthrowing the most powerful country?
• No single factor:
• England had an enormous wartime debt
• The King thought that the colonies should chip in for
some costs of defensing America and the early costs of
administering the colonies.
• Begining in 1763, the British Parliament began
imposing a series of taxes and demands on the
colonies (the Sugar Act, the Townshend Act, and
the Stamp Act).
Prelude to Revolution
• The Stamp Act of 1765 established a direct tax on all
printed materials-everything from newspapers and legal
documents to consumer products like playing cards. The
clonies raised the idea of „no taxation without
represenation” and began to boycott British goods
• Things came to a boiling point in 1773 when a group of
patriots called the Sons of Liberty (dresses as Mohawk
Indiands) boarded three British ships and dumped 342
chests of tea in Boston Harbor.
• In response, The Parliament passed a series of bills called
the Coercieve Acts, aimed at closing down Boston until the
dumped tea was paid for.
• In response to those „Intolerable Acts” the colonial
assemblies agreed to an intercolonial meeting: from Sept. 5
to Oct. 26, 1774, the First Continental Congress was
gathered.
Prelude to Revolution
• During the First Continental Congress, John
Adams worried:
• „We have not men fit for the times. We are deficient in
genius, in education, in travel, in fortune-in everything”.
• But they did adopt a resolution to oppose the
Coercive Acts, create an association to boycott
British goods, to pass resolutions enumarating the
rights of the colonists and their assemblies.
• Also decided that a second session to meet if their
grievances had not been corrected by the British.
Prelude to Revolution
• The British wanted to cut off the rebellion before it got
started – wanted to capture hidden stores of patriot guns
and powder.
• The Son of Liberty had been expecting that and across MA
farmers and townspeople had begun to drill with muskets,
ready to pick up their guns on a minute’s notice, giving
them their name „Minutemen”
• For the purpose of an early warning system off British
troops, a set of lanterns signals was prepared by Paul
Revere, silversmith and maker of false teeth.
• Late on night of April 18, 1775 a signal of two lanterns was
set. Paul Revere alerting the Minutemen became American
first work class hero.
• On May 10, 1775 the Second Continental Congress was
gathered.
Prelude to Revolution
• For the purpose of an early
warning system off British
troops, a set of lanterns
signals was prepared by
Paul Revere, silversmith
and maker of false teeth.
• Late on night of April 18,
1775 a signal of two lights
was set. Paul Revere
alerting the Minutemen
became the first American
work class hero.
• On May 10, 1775 the
Second Continental
Congress was gathered.
1775: the Second Continental Congress
• While skirmishes had taken placed, the Congress
appointed George Washington commander in chief
of the colonial militia.
• With colonists divided between British loyalists
and revolutionaries, heated debate erupted.
Virginian Thomas Paine brilliantly articulated the
revolutionary cause in his pamphlet
• „Common Sense” which was a bestseller in the
early 1776 (120,000 copies sold):
• It is infinitely wiser and safer, to form a constitution of
our own in a cool and delibarate manner, while we have
it in our power, than to trust such an interestng event to
time and chance
• The colonists could not have missed that chance.
The Declaration of Independence
•
In June 1776, Virginian Richard Henry Lee brought
in the plan for a three-part resolution:
1. To declare the colonies are independent,
2. To form foreign alliances,
3. To prepare a plan for confederation.
A commitee for 1. tasks consisted of John Adams,
Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston, Roger
Sherman.
For a political balance, a southerner was added to
The panel: Thomas Jefferson.
The Declaration of Independence
•
•
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•
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Distracted by his wife’s health and a work on
the new constitution of Virginia that was being
written during the Congress, Jefferson was a
reluctant author.
However, working quickly, he had designed
a draft of the document and presented to the
committee.
Not without changes, on July 2, a resolution of
declaration of independence was passed by
Congress.
On the evening of July 4, Declaration of
Independence was adopted.
There was no turning back at this point.
DID YOU KNOW?
•
Did you know that many
people think the following
line is part of the
Constitution:
„We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men
are created egual, that they
are endowed by their
Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that
among these are Life,
Liberty and pursuit of
Happiness”
•
Acctually, it appears in
The Declaration of
Independence!
The Declaration of Independence
•
•
Was formally adopted on July 4
but the delegates had not signed it until August 2.
The American Independence Day is celebrated on
July 4.
The Declaration of Independence
The document accomplished 3 things:
•
Laid out a new governing principle: that all men
are created equal with certain unalienable rights,
and that governments have their power from the
consent of the governed.
•
Set forth a specific list of grievances against King
George III
•
Formally declared war against Britain.
The Declaration of Independence
• Question:
How could a man who wrote „all Men
are created equal” and are endowed by
the Creator with the right of liberty,
keep black slaves of which Jefferson
(like Washington and many others)
had many?
Winning the War
• The Declaration of Independence made it clear to
Britain that the colonies were fighting for sovereignty.
• For much of the war, the colonists suffered defeats.
• But with French help and the revolutionary spirit, the
colonists made several victories.
• On October 19, 1781 Washington defeated British
General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, VA, forcing
England to sue for peace.
• After 6 years, the war was over.
Articles of Confederation
• Declaring independence was one thing,
creating a new govt was quite another.
• The colonists had to come up with a
document shaping a structure of a new
state – The Articles of Confederation
drafted from July to Nov. of 1776.
• Ratification process was long: SC was
first to ratify (1778), MD the last one
(1781).
Articles of Confederation
• As a governing document, the
Articles were doomed from the start.
• With the memory of British
oppression still fresh, the colonists
preferred a loose confederation of
states and the govt subject to them.
Articles of Confederation
• What did the Articles establish?
1. the priniciple of uni-cameral (single-body)
legislature with limited authority: the Congress
2. Each state had one vote in the Congress
3. No independent executive or judicial branch
4. The Congress appointed temporary officers
5. Parts of legislation required a unanimous vote
(any state had veto power over the national
govt)
6. When not in session, a conference of delegates
from each states, acted.
Articles of Confederation: Weak points
• The Articles lacked the power to perform
the most basic tasks like:
• regulation of interstate commerce,
• establishing a national currency,
• taxing people directly, enforcing treaties, etc.
• The articles bearly maintained peace
among the states
• Towards the end of war, things went so
bad that the Congress was forced to sell
off western lands just to pay for the
militia.
Articles of Confederation: Weak points
• George Washington described the
Articles of Confederation as
„a half-starved limping government,
that appears to be always moving
upon crutches and tottering at every
step”
Articles of Confederation: Positive Sides
• The Articles of Confederation served as a
„transition” govt between Revolutionary War
and the new Republic
• Did have a few successes (the Land Ordinance
of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787:
two major acts that helped settled the West)
• The Articles represent also a milestone in the
history of Western democracies: for the first
time citizen used reason and logic to create a
new form of govt
• It also gave the name of the country:
„The United States of America”
Drafting a Constitution
• Even with the victory over Britain, the
survival of a young country was tough.
• It was evident that a dramatical
change or amendment of the Articles
was needed.
• On May 25, 1787 fifty-five delegates
from twelve states (RI refused to
attend) arrived in Philadelphia in order
to create a better govt.
Drafting a Constitution
• The Constitutional Convention lasted
the entire summer and was conducted
in a secret, as participants wanted to
have an honest exchange of ideas and
compromise.
• As first point of business, the delegates
unanimously made a decision to make
George Washington the chair of the
Convention – the only UNANIMOUS
decision that summer.
Drafting a Constitution
Did you know?
\
• Did you know that the summer of 1787 was one of
the hottest on record and delegates forced to
deliberate with closed windows at the Pennsylvania
State House, suffered through brutal working
conditions.
• The only relief was an occasional after-hours at the
Indian Queen, a popular local tavern.
Drafting a Constitution: Virginia Plan
• Shortly after the covention started,
Virginians delegates: James Madison and
Edmund Randolph submitted a constitutional
proposal called the Virginia Plan which was a
radical step from The Articles of
Confederation.
• The Virginia Plan:
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•
•
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a bicameral (two-chamber) legislature
with the lower house chosen by the people
and the upper house chosen by the lower house
called for a national executive and judiciary
Drafting a Constitution: states conflict
• While the large states supported the
Virginia Plan, representatives from the
smaller states were affraid of the
larger states domination in the national
legislature.
• There were also fears that a strong
central govt might attempt to limit
states’ rights and restrict individual
liberty.
Drafting a Constitution: the New Jersey Plan
• After weeks of the debate, William
Patterson of New Jersey submitted an
alternative plan, based on modification
of the Articles of Confederation
• The New Jersey Plan:
• called for a unicameral legislature with
equal representation for each state
regardless of population
• included a weak two-person executive
branch with a single judiciary body.
Drafting a Constitution:
the Great Compromise
• The convention was stuck: small states
lobbied for the New Jersey Plan, large
states supported the Virginia Plan.
• In late July, Roger Sherman of
Connecticut broke the impasse with a
compromise known as a Connecticut
Plan: a smart mix of both proposals.
Drafting a Constitution:
the Great Compromise
l
The Connecticut
Plan
Bicameral
Legislature
The House:
the lower chamber
•Population-based
•Supported by the small states
The Senate:
the upper chamber
•Equal representation
•Supported by the large states
Executive:
The President:
•Not elected by the people
•Elected by the Electoral College
•„electors”
selected by states legislatures
Drafting a Constitution:
the Great Compromise
• On Sept. 1787 thirty-nine of the remaining
forty-two delegates signed the Constitution
Opinions regarding the Constitution were
divided in two camps:
• The Federalists:
• Led by James Madison,
Alexander Hamilton and
John Jay
• Wrote „The Federalists
Papers”
• Believed in a strong
central govt
• Govt shares powers with
states
• Supported the
Constitution
• The Antifederalists:
• Led by Patrick Henry,
• John Hancock, George
Mason, James Monroe,
Sam Adams
• Suspisous of this new
strong govt
• Preferred directed
democracy and local rule
• Concerned that the
Constitution does not
include a Bill of Rights
which they considered
essential in protecting
freedoms and liberty
The Process of Ratification
• Ratification of the newly created Constitution
was not a sure thing. There was a concern
that the document granted too much power
to the federal govt and would lead to
tyranny. Sensing the struggle, the Framers
wisely states that the Constitution need only
by approved by NINE of thirteen states and
that states would not vote on ratification
through states legislatures but special
elective conventions.
The Process of Ratification
• Beginning in the winter 1787, state
conventions began the ratification
process.
• First to ratify was the state of
Delaware: Dec. 7, 1787
• The last one to approve the document
was the state of Rhode Island: May 29,
1790.
The United States Constitution
• The US Constitution is
the oldest written
constitution still in use
and one of the shortest
(7,000 words),
• The structure is
straightforward and
simple: it establishes
the three branches of
govt:
• Legislature
• Executive
• Judicial