Popular Sovereignty

“We the People of the United States, in order to

form a more perfect Union, establish justice,

insure domestic tranquility, provide for the

common defense, promote the general welfare,

and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves

and our posterity, do ordain and establish this

Constitution of the United States of America.”

Popular Sovereignty

• Definition: The power to govern

resides in the people.

Thomas Jefferson: “Every government degenerates

when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The

people themselves are it’s only, safest depository.”

HOW DO WE EXERCISE

THIS POWER?

The question then is…

BY VOTING!

Who can vote?

Citizen of the United States, at

least 18 years of age.

That means you!

Amendments

Began with “We the People…”

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White males, property owners (1790s)

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White Males (1850s)

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African Americans and other “colored” men

*15th Amendment* (1870)

Amendments

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Women

*19th Amendment* (1920)

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Native Americans

*Indian Citizenship Act* (1924)

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18 year olds

*26th Amendment* (1971)

Founding Fathers on Voting

“A share in the sovereignty of the state, which is

exercised by the citizens at large, in voting at

elections is one of the MOST IMPORTANT rights

of the subject, and in a republic ought to stand

foremost in the estimation of the law.”

-Alexander Hamilton

Voter Turnout

SO NOW, the question is…

Why do we, as citizens of

the United States, NOT

exercise our power?

Wise Words

“Freedom is lost gradually from an uninterested, uninformed, and uninvolved

people.”-Thomas Jefferson

Limited Government

“When government fears the people – there is

liberty. When the people fear the government

– there is tyranny.”

-Thomas Jefferson

Limited Government

Definition: Government can only do

things that the people have given

it power to do. The government is

subject to the law.

ACTIVITY TIME

DIRECTIONS

• PAIR UP into groups of 2

• One partner will be the scribe:

– Paper

– Something hard to write on

– Something to write with

• We will be going outside to make observations

about the ways in which the government

effects our lives daily.

Big Government or Small?

“IF congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may appoint teachers in every state, county and parish and pay them out of their public treasury, they may take into their own hands the education of children establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume provision of the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads; in short, every thing from the highest object of state legislation to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of congress. Were the power of congress to be established in the latitude conveyed, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of limited government established by the people of America.”

-James Madison

Questions:

1. If the Founding Fathers could be transported to our society today and observe our government and the regulations it has enacted, how would they react? Would they approve? Why or why not?

2. Despite what our Founding Father believed what is your opinion? Is the expansion of the federal government necessary to our society? Or has the federal government taken too much power from the people and the states?

Wise Words

“A government big enough to give you

everything you want, is strong enough to take

everything you have”.

-Thomas Jefferson