Outline Of U.S. GOVERNMENT - USEmbassy.gov
Outline ofU.S. GOVERNMENT
Outline ofU.S. GOVERNMENTOffice of International Information ProgramsUNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Editor: Rosalie TargonskiDesigner: Chloe D. EllisPhoto Editor: Maggie Johnson SlikerContributing Editors: Kathleen E. HugCarol NortonOriginal edition by Richard C.Schroeder. Revised and updated in 1989by Nathan Glick, who also wroteChapter 2, Explaining the Constitution:The Federalist Papers. Revised andupdated in 2000 by Rosalie Targonski,who also wrote Chapter 6, LandmarkDecisions of the Supreme Court;Chapter 8, Government of the People:The Role of the Citizen, written for thisedition by Robert L. Taylor.ISBN (paper)ISBN (ePub)ISBN -92040-9Picture Credits: Credits from left to right areseparated by semicolons, from top to bottomby dashes.Front Cover: Brian Lawrence/Pictor. 4-5: Bettmann/CORBIS. 6,11,13,14: North WindPicture Archives. 16: File Photo. 26: AP/WideWorld Photos. 32-33,35: North Wind PictureArchives. 40-41: Robert Trippett/Sipa Press.45: Martin Simon/SABA. 46: AP/Wide WorldPhotos. 47: Mark Reinstein/IPOL—MaryAnne Fackelman/The White House. 52: U.S.Department of Agriculture. 53,54: AP/WideWorld Photos. 55: Jonathan Elderfield/LiaisonAgency. 56: David Butow/SABA. 58: AP/WideWorld Photos. 59: Matthew McVay/SABA.60: Nina Bermann/Sipa Press. 62-63: AP/WideWorld Photos (3). 65: Kim Kulish/SABA—AP/Wide World Photos. 68-69: JamesColburn/IPOL. 71: Christy Bowe/IPOL. 74:AP/Wide World Photos. 82-83: RobertTrippett/Sipa Press. 86-87,88: AP/Wide WorldPhotos. 90-91: Lisa Biganzoli, NationalGeographic Society. 93,94: North Wind PictureArchives. 95,96: Bettmann/CORBIS. 97: FilePhoto. 98: AP/Wide World Photos. 100-101: Robert Daemmrich/Tony Stone Images. 103:AP/Wide World Photos. 105: CathlynMelloan/Tony Stone Images. 106: GeorgeBellerose/Stock Boston, Inc. 107: AP/WideWorld Photos. 108-109: David Butow/SABA.111: Hulton Getty Picture Library/LiaisonAgency. 114: North Wind Picture Archives. 117: Greg Smith/SABA. 118: 1991-1999 TheEnviroLink Network—Courtesy libertynet.org.120: Archive Photos.
Outline of U.S.GOVERNMENTTABLE OF CONTENTSChapter 1The Constitution: An Enduring Document 4Chapter 2Explaining the Constitution: The Federalist Papers 32Chapter 3The Executive Branch: Powers of the Presidency 40Chapter 4The Legislative Branch: The Reach of Congress 68Chapter 5The Judicial Branch: Interpreting the Constitution 82Chapter 6Landmark Decisions of the Supreme Court 90Chapter 7A Country of Many Governments 100Chapter 8Government of the People: The Role of the Citizen 108Additional Readings on U.S. Government 1243
In this painting called The Foundation of American Government, George Washington leansacross his desk to watch a delegate sign the U.S. Constitution while other delegates to theConstitutional Convention look on.4
CHAPTER1THECONSTITUTIONAN ENDURINGDOCUMENT“. This provision is made in aConstitution, intended to endurefor ages to come and, conse quently, to be adapted to thevarious crises of humanaffairs.” — John Marshall,Chief Justice of the SupremeCourt, McCulloch v.Maryland, 18195
An 18th-century engraving shows citizens of Philadelphia outside Independence Hall,where the U.S. Constitution was drafted in 1787.TheConstitution of the UnitedStates is the central instrument ofAmerican government and thesupreme law of the land. For 200years it has guided the evolution ofgovernmental institutions and hasprovided the basis for political stability, individual freedom, economicgrowth, and social progress.The American Constitution is theworld’s oldest written constitution inforce, one that has served as themodel for a number of other constitutions around the world. TheConstitution owes its staying power6to its simplicity and flexibility.Originally designed in the late 18thcentury to provide a framework forgoverning 4 million people in 13very different states along America’sAtlantic coast, its basic provisionswere so soundly conceived that, withonly 27 amendments, it now servesthe needs of more than 260 millionAmericans in 50 even more diversestates that stretch from the AtlanticOcean to the Pacific.The path to the Constitution wasneither straight nor easy. A draftdocument emerged in 1787, but only
after intense debate and six years ofexperience with an earlier federalunion. The 13 British colonies inAmerica declared their independence from their motherland in1776. A year before, war had brokenout between the colonies and Britain,a war for independence that lastedfor six bitter years. While stillat war, the colonies—now callingthemselves the United States ofAmerica—drafted a compact thatbound them together as a nation.The compact, designated the“Articles of Confederation andPerpetual Union,” was adopted by acongress of the states in 1777 andformally signed in July 1778. TheArticles became binding when theywere ratified by the 13th state,Maryland, in March 1781.The Articles of Confederationdevised a loose association amongthe states and set up a federal government with very limited powers. Insuch critical matters as defense, pub lic finance, and trade, the federalgovernment was at the mercy of thestate legislatures. It was not anarrangement conducive to stabilityor strength. Within a short time theweakness of the confederation wasapparent to all. Politically and economically, the new nation was closeto chaos. In the words of GeorgeWashington, who would become thefirst president of the United States in1789, the 13 states were united only“by a rope of sand.”It was under these inauspicious circumstances that the Constitution ofthe United States was drawn up. InFebruary 1787 the Continental Congress, the legislative body of therepublic, issued a call for the states tosend delegates to Philadelphia, in thestate of Pennsylvania, to revise theArticles. The Constitutional Convention convened on May 25, 1787, inIndependence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence had beenadopted 11 years earlier, on July 4,1776. Although the delegates hadbeen authorized only to amendthe Articles of Confederation, theypushed aside the Art icles and proceeded to construct a charter for awholly new, more centralized formof government. The new document,the Constitution, was completedSeptember 17, 1787, and was official ly adopted March 4, 1789.The 55 delegates who drafted theConstitution included most of theoutstanding leaders, or FoundingFathers, of the new nation. Theyrepresented a wide range of interests,backgrounds, and stations in life.All agreed, however, on the centralobjectives expressed in the preambleto the Constitution: “We the peopleof the United States, in order toform a more perfect union, establish7
justice, insure domestic tranquility,provide for the common defense,promote the general welfare, andsecure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordainand establish this Constitution forthe United States of America.”The Articles of Confederation hadtried to unite these self-governingstates. The Constitution, by contrast,established a strong central, or federal, government with broad powers toregulate relations between the statesand with sole responsibility in suchareas as foreign affairs and defense.UNITING A DIVERSE PEOPLEThe primary aim of the Constitutionwas to create a strong elected government, directly responsive to thewill of the people. The concept ofself-government did not originatewith the Americans; indeed, a measure of self-government existed inEngland at the time. But the degreeto which the Constitution committed the United States to rule by thepeople was unique, even revolutionary, in comparison with other governments around the world. By thetime the Constitution was adopted,Americans had considerable exper tise in the art of self-government.Long before independence wasdeclared, the colonies were functioning governmental units, controlledby the people. And after theRevolution had begun—betweenJanuary 1, 1776, and April 20,1777—10 of the 13 states hadadopted their own constitutions.Most states had a governor electedby the state legislature. The legisla ture itself was elected by popularvote.8Centralization proved difficult formany people to accept. America hadbeen settled in large part byEuropeans who had left their homelands to escape religious or politicaloppression, as well as the rigid economic patterns of the Old Worldthat locked individuals into a particular station in life regardless of theirskill or energy. These settlers highlyprized personal freedom, and theywere wary of any power—especiallythat of government—that might curtail individual liberties.The diversity of the new nation wasalso a formidable obstacle to unity.The people who were empoweredby the Constitution in the 18th cen tury to elect and control their centralgovernment represented differentorigins, beliefs, and interests. Mosthad come from England, butSweden, Norway, France, Holland,Prussia, Poland, and many othercountries also sent immigrants to theNew World. Their religious beliefswere varied and, in most cases,strongly held. There were Anglicans,
Roman Catholics, Calvinists, Huguenots, Lutherans, Quakers, Jews.Economically and socially, Americansranged from the landed aristocracyto slaves from Africa and indenturedservants working off debts. But thebackbone of the country was themiddle class—farmers, tradespeople,mechanics, sailors, shipwrights,weavers, carpenters, and a host ofothers.Americans then, as now, had widelydiffering opinions on virtually allissues, including the wisdom ofbreaking free of the British Crown.During the American Revolution alarge number of British loyalists—known as Tories—had fled thecoun try, settling mostly in easternCanada. Those who stayed behindformed a substantial opposition bloc,although they differed among themselves on the reasons for opposingthe Revolution and on what accommodation should be made with thenew American republic.In the past two centuries, the diver sity of the American people hasincreased, and yet the essential unityof the nation has grown stronger.Throughout the 19th century andon into the 20th, an endless streamof immigrants contributed their skillsand their cultural heritages to thegrowing nation. Pioneers crossed theAppalachian Mountains in the east,settled the Mississippi Valley andthe Great Plains in the center of thecontinent, then crossed the RockyMountains and reached the shores ofthe Pacific Ocean—4,500 kilometerswest of the Atlantic coastal areas settled by the first colonists. And as thenation expanded, its vast storehouseof natural resources became apparentto all: great stands of virgin timber;huge deposits of coal, copper, iron,and oil; abundant water power; andfertile soil.The wealth of the new nation gener ated its own kind of diversity.Special regional and commercialinterest groups sprang up. East Coastshipowners advocated free trade.Midwest manufacturers argued forimport duties to protect their positions in the growing U.S. market.Farmers wanted low freight rates andhigh commodity prices; millers andbakers sought low grain prices; railroad operators wanted the highestfreight rates they could get. NewYork bankers, southern cotton grow ers, Texas cattle ranchers, andOregon lumbermen all had differentviews on the economy and the government’s role in regulating it.It was the continuing job of theConstitution and the government ithad created to draw these disparateinterests together, to create a common ground and, at the same time,9
to protect the fundamental rights ofall the people.Compared with the complexitiesof contemporary government, theproblems of governing 4 millionpeople in much less developed economic conditions seem small indeed.But the authors of the Constitutionwere building for the future as wellas the present. They were keenlyaware of the need for a structure ofgovernment that would work notonly in their lifetime but for generations to come. Hence, they includedin the Constitution a provision foramending the document whensocial, economic, or political conditions demanded it. Twenty-sevenamendments have been passed sinceratification, and the flexibility of theConstitution has proven to be one ofits greatest strengths. Without suchflexibility, it is inconceivable that adocument drafted more than 200years ago could effectively serve theneeds of 260 million people andthousands of governmental units atall levels in the United States today.Nor could it have applied with equalforce and precision to the problemsof small towns and big cities.The Constitution and the federalgovernment stand at the peak of agovernmental pyramid that includeslocal and state jurisdictions. In theU.S. system each level of govern10ment has a large degree of autonomywith certain powers reserved particularly to itself. Disputes between different jurisdictions are resolved bythe courts. However, there are questions involving the national interestthat require the cooperation of alllevels of government simultaneously,and the Constitution makes provision for this as well. American publicschools, for example, are largelyadministered by local jurisdictions,adhering to statewide standards. Butthe federal government also aids theschools, since literacy and educational attainment are matters of vitalnational interest, and it enforces uniform standards designed to furtherequal educational opportunity. Inother areas, such as housing, health,and welfare, there is a similar partnership between the various levels ofgovernment.No product of human society is per fect. Despite its amendments, theConstitution of the United Statesprobably still contains flaws that willbecome evident in future periods ofstress. But two centuries of growthand unrivaled prosperity haveproven the foresight of the 55 menwho worked through the summerof 1787 to lay the foundation ofAmerican government. In the wordsof Archibald Cox, former solicitorgeneral of the United States, “Theoriginal Constitution still serves us
An artist’s interpretation of Shays’Rebellion depictsmilitiamen attacking the insurgents.This uprising in ruralMassachusetts calledattention to the central government’sweakness underthe Articles ofConfederation andcontributed to themovement to draft anew Constitution.well despite the tremendous changesin every aspect of American lifebecause the framers had the ge nius to say enough but not toomuch. As the plan outlined in theConstitutional Convention succeed ed, as the country grew andprospered both materially and inthe realization of its ideals, theConstitution gained majesty andauthority far greater than that of anyindividual or body of men.”11
DRAFTING THE CONSTITUTIONThe period between the adoption ofthe Articles of Confederation in 1781and the drafting of the Constitutionin 1787 was one of weakness, dissension, and turmoil. Under the Articlesof Confederation, no provisions weremade for an executive branch toenforce the laws or for a nationalcourt system to interpret them. Alegislative congress was the soleorgan of the national government,but it had no power to force thestates to do anything against theirwill. It could—theoretically—de clare war and raise an army, but itcould not force any state to meet itsassigned quota for troops or for thearms and equipment needed to support them. It looked to the states forthe income needed to finance itsactivities, but it could not punish astate for not contributing its share ofthe federal budget. Control of taxation and tariffs was left to the states,and each state could issue its owncurrency. In disputes betweenstates—and there were many unsettled quarrels over state boundaries—Congress played the role of mediatorand judge but could not require statesto accept its decisions.The result was virtual chaos. Without the power to collect taxes,the federal government plunged intodebt. Seven of the 13 states printed12large quantities of paper money—high in face value but low in real pur chasing power—in order to payRevolutionary War veterans and avariety of creditors and to settle debtsbetween small farmers and large plantation owners.By contrast, the Massachusettslegislature imposed a tightly limitedcurrency and high taxes, triggeringformation of a small army of farmersled by Daniel Shays, a former Revolutionary War army captain. In a bidto take over the Massachusetts statehouse, Shays and others demandedthat foreclosures and unfair mort gages be dropped. Troops werecalled out to suppress the rebellion,but the federal government tooknotice.Absence of a uniform, stable curren cy also disrupted trade among thestates and with other countries. Notonly did the value of paper currencyvary from state to state, but somestates (like New York and Virginia)levied duties on products enteringtheir ports from other states, therebyprovoking retaliatory actions. Thestates could say, as had the federalsuperintendent of finance, that “ourpublic credit is gone.” To compoundtheir problems, these newly inde pendent states, having separated vio lently from England, no longerreceived favored treatment at British
In this scene from a painting by American artist Henry Bacon, Benjamin Franklin (seated,facing viewer) discusses the drafting of the U.S. Constitution with Alexander Hamilton andothers at Franklin’s Philadelphia home.ports. When U.S. Ambassador JohnAdams tried to negotiate a commercial treaty in 1785, the British refusedon the grounds that the individualstates would not be bound by it.A weak central government, withoutthe power to back its policies withmilitary strength, was inevitablyhandicapped in foreign affairs aswell. The British refused to withdrawtheir troops from the forts and trad ing posts in the new nation’sNorthwest Territory, as they hadagreed to do in the peace treaty of1783 that marked the end of theRevolutionary War. To make mattersworse, British officers on the northern boundaries and Spanish officersto the south supplied arms to variousIndian tribes and encouraged themto attack American settlers. TheSpanish, who controlled Florida andLouisiana as well as all territory westof the Mississippi River, also refusedto allow western farmers to use theport of New Orleans to ship theirproduce.Although there were signs of returning prosperity in some areas of thefledgling nation, domestic and for13
in mind, George Washington warned: “Thereare combustibles inevery state which aspark might set fire to.”This sense of politicaldisaster and the needfor drastic change pervaded the Constitu tional Convention thatbegan its deliberationson May 25, 1787. Allof the delegates wereconvinced that an effective central governmentwith a wide range of en forceable powers mustreplace the impotentcongress established bythe Articles of Con federation. Early in theGouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania headed the committeeproceedings the delthat drafted the final version of the Constitution.egates agreed that thenew government wouldeign problems continued to grow. It be composed of three separatebecame increasingly clear that the branches—legislative, judicial, andconfederation’s central government executive—each with distinct powwas not strong enough to establish a ers to balance those of the other twosound financial system, to regulate branches. It was also agreed that thetrade, to enforce treaties, or to exert legislative branch—like the Britishmilitary force against foreign antago- Parliament—should consist of twonists when needed. Internal divisions houses.between farmers and merchants,debtors and creditors, and among Beyond this po
of contemporary government, the problems of governing 4 million people in much less developed eco-nomic conditions seem small indeed. But the authors of the Constitution were building for the future as well as the present. They were keenly aware of the need for a structure of government that would work not government.
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Independent Personal Pronouns Personal Pronouns in Hebrew Person, Gender, Number Singular Person, Gender, Number Plural 3ms (he, it) א ִוה 3mp (they) Sֵה ,הַָּ֫ ֵה 3fs (she, it) א O ה 3fp (they) Uֵה , הַָּ֫ ֵה 2ms (you) הָּ תַא2mp (you all) Sֶּ תַא 2fs (you) ְ תַא 2fp (you
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